Elder Ben Mullins: Two Dunked After Singapore

Hey Everyone!!!

This week was CRAZY. It went by super-fast! I can't believe it's already Monday again! Lots of stuff is changing! Elder Marsh ended up going to KL to be companions with Elder Orgill, because the other KL missionary left to Singapore. So now I'm in a TRIPANIONSHIP with Elder Boud and Tennant! It's been a ton of fun!

Monday, our P Day ended two hours early, but we got to go see Sister Burton, the General Relief Society President! She was really cool, and shared some nice remarks on missionary work. Her husband was a super funny guy. He talked about growing as a missionary into the missionary that everyone sees get home! That was fun.

Tuesday, we pretty much went contacting all day, but it was really good! I got to teach Elder Marsh how to contact more effectively, and we kicked it off! He's starting to drop off the awkwardness of contacting, so that's awesome! Now he's not my companion... Anyway, he was improving really fast! I think he was just used to Singapore, so it made him a little awkward.

Wednesday was exchanges with Elder Tennant! It was a lot of fun! We taught a lot of people, and pretty much just had a ton of fun talking with everyone! There was this super big Chinese dude that reminded me of Po on Kung Fu Panda. Whenever we started trying to bring up Jesus Christ, he'd just kind of give us a bow, and hold his hand up like the Buddhist monks do. It was pretty awesome.

Thursday, we woke up at FIVE IN THE MORNING so that we could make it to the airport! Why were we going to the airport? VISA RUNNNNNN. It was awesome. Visa runs are super great, because it's like taking a mini vacation. We left for Singapore, and had a full day of running around the city going to places like China Town, Little India, Marina Bay, and a bunch of other super awesome places. There was this one place with a bunch of statues of things that Buddhists believe in. One of the exhibits was the '10 Hells' exhibit. It was actually really interesting. Apparently, Buddhists believe that when we die, we go through 10 punishments, based on what we did. If we didn't commit the sin, we don't receive the punishment, but if you did, you get the punishment. Then depending on how destroyed your body is by the end, you're reincarnated as something higher or lower. Pretty interesting. I wouldn't suggest going to anyone, because it was extremely violent. I'm not going to go again. BUT. It was interesting knowledge.

Friday, we had a full day of meetings. It was pretty good though! We watched some trainings, some videos on missionary work, and President Simmons and the AP's gave us trainings! I liked being able to catch up with all the missionaries that I've become good friends with! It was lots of fun.

Saturday, we hung out in Singapore for a while waiting for our flight, then hopped on, landed back in Malaysia, and taxied home. We had a baptism at 5:00, and got home at 4:00, so we frantically got ready, printed off programs, and got over to the church just in time! When we were singing the opening hymn, I looked down at the program to see who was giving a talk on baptism, and guess who it was? Elder Mullins (me). SO. I hurried and thought of a few things, then went up two minutes later, and gave a super quick, short, to the point talk about baptism and why we need it, then we BAPTIZED YUEN AND KOK CIN!!! WOOOHOOO!!!! I can't believe it. After finding Kok Cin, and teaching him, he actually got baptized. I found 400 people that were interested enough to give me their number in 4 months, and ONE of them ended up actually getting baptized. He's the only person I've ever found by myself that's gotten baptized while I was in the area. Elliott got baptized on Saturday as well, and he was another one I found. It was an awesome day. After the baptism, Yuen and Kok Cin bore their testimonies. They have awesome testimonies! They'll make great members! The rest of my baptisms were referrals! That's great that all of this could happen so quickly together!

After baptizing them, we ate, then had a great fireside that we called the member MTC. We taught people how to do missionary work for an hour. It was really fun, and everyone loved it, AND we got a new investigator out of it. Totally worth it. The new investigator is actually an inactive member's friend. The inactive member came to the fireside, and brought her friend, Kyle. I'm not sure how much potential Kyle has, but if he keeps the commitments, he'll get baptized! We'll see where that goes! After the baptism, Elder Marsh left with Elder Orgill to KL, and I joined up with Elder Tennant and Boud! So now it's just us 3!

Sunday was great! Church was awesome, I taught young men, and afterwards, we had some really good food. Then we went contacting for the rest of the day while we stopped by some members' houses and said hi! Other than that, it was a pretty chill day!

This morning, after studies, we went over to the ostrich farm with Elder and Sister Patterson! It was a TON of fun, and the Klang Elders came along. Elder Rogers (one of the Klang elders) lives in Bountiful, so right next to Kaysville. After the mission, we're definitely going to hang out. It was fun to hang out with him this morning!

Thanks for the support you all give me! It was an awesome week, and I can't wait to see what happens this next week! God is giving us blessings here every day, and things are starting to pick back up! We have a dinner appointment literally every single night this week, so Puchong is really getting excited to do missionary work! It must be because we've had 5 baptisms in two months or something. Puchong is on FIRE, and it's not cooling down! The English area is getting a little slower since we weren't able to work in it for pretty much the entire week, but the Chinese area is doing great, and the English area will pick up once we get a fourth Elder here! I hope you all have an awesome week! I hope you like lots of pictures too!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins