Elder Ben Mullins: Kampungs EVERYWHERE in Miri

Hey Everyone!

This week absolutely FLEW by. I can't believe it. Already Monday. Fastest week of my mission. Anyway, I was told I didn't say enough about my companion, so here's the ONE PARAGRAPH SPOTLIGHT ON ELDER MICKELSON! Elder Mickelson is from Highland, Utah, and has a twin on a mission up in Thailand (the mission connecting to the opposite side of the mission we're on). He's boss at ultimate, and super funny. Super pandai (skilled) at Malay, and came into the mission at the same time as me. He's super funny, and is a really likable guy. He's pretty tall, so everyone tells me I'm short, even though I'm at least a foot taller than everyone that we talk with. That's Elder Mickelson! He's awesome.

Tuesday... We got on a bus in the afternoon, and rode FOUR HOURS to a city named Miri (means headhunter in Malay) to do exchanges. It was actually a pretty fun bus ride. We drove through the jungle, and got to take naps. We got there, put our bikes back together, and then met the zone leaders, Elder Van Gils and Elder Meacham. I went with Elder Meacham on exchanges the next day, and Elder Mickelson went with Elder Van Gils. Elder Meacham is from Layton! He's MASSIVE. 6 foot 6, and used to be 300 pounds. Malaysia made him lose 50+ pounds. He's HUGE. He was the first missionary I ever saw a picture of that was in the mission. Right when I opened my call, I found a Singapore mission Facebook page, and his picture was on it. He had crashed his bike, and skidded across the road on his FACE. It was wrecked, but didn't even scar! I can't believe it. Pretty epic. ANYWAY. I got to know him a little bit more.

Wednesday was exchange day! We went and found some CRAZY Kampungs. A Kampung is basically a "hometown", except for it's just a shack. One person builds a shack, has a family in it, then when all their kids grow up, they add onto the shack, then their kids grow up and add onto the shack, or they make a new shack right next to it. It looks insane. They build all their houses on stilts, because they don't have any pipes to drain stuff, so they just drop it out the bottom of the house. It smells awful, looks terrible, and is super sketchy to walk through. There are bridges and boards everywhere. I thought Elder Meacham was going to break through some. We had an awesome exchange, and I felt like I improved my Malay a lot, because I tried really hard to only speak Malay the entire day. It was fun though! We went through a lot of sketchy Kampungs, and it was fun to see a different part of East!

Thursday, we traveled alllllll the way back to Sungai Plan. It was a long ride. But it was fun too! There's this crazy phenomena that happens in Malaysia. Everyone thinks I look like Harry Potter. The first time Keke called me Harry Potter, I kind of brushed it off and said it's only her that thinks that. This week, I think I was told by about 8 different groups of people that I looked like Harry Potter. What impresses me about it is they all choose the same person! I would think there would at least be some variation in the guesses, but 9/10 times, it's Harry Potter! I always attributed it to my glasses, but Thursday night, we visited an inactive member and her family. She kept looking at me funny, and finally, it hit her. She said I looked like Harry Potter, and her whole family agreed. Then she said that if I had different glasses, I'd look exactly like him. So that shatters my "It's the glasses" theory. We got some pretty good food though.

Friday... Let's see. We visited Alyster one last time before his baptism, and just prepared things. Then we ate a super early dinner, before meeting with the branch president to talk about our Gawai party. Gawai is what ENDS missionary work for an entire transfer in East. It's a holiday where literally 100% EVERYONE in East Malaysia goes back to their Kampung for a MONTH. My area has 1 small Kampung in it, and that's it. It's a ghost town for a month straight. President Simmons gives missionaries permission to leave their area and go to different Kampungs though, so that could be good IF we could get out to the Kampungs. We'll see what happens. The branch is having a party right before Gawai, and we helped plan it out with President Jalil. After that, we had English class, then taught a SUPER awesome investigator named Sylvester. We had a fast the next day for him to quit smoking. I hope it worked! He's mega solid. He'll eventually get dunked; as soon as he quits smoking.

Saturday, right after personal study, we taught Serrina. She's solid, and her dad is a mega solid member. I don't know why she wasn't ever baptized--something about her living with her mom at a kampung in the middle of nowhere for a few years. She'll get baptized in about 2 more weeks. She's a really funny girl. After that, we finished studies, cleaned the church, ate lunch, and made a baptismal program! Then we ran over to Magdaline's place and said hi, then picked up Alyster early to find a baptismal suit for him! The baptism was awesome, and I even baptized him in Malay. First baptism in Malay! It went really smoothly, and Alyster was SUPER happy to be baptized. He bore his testimony, and it was solid. Once he grows up, he's going be a TITHE PAYING MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD HOLDER--The best kind of priesthood holder. After the baptism, we had our traditional KFC dinner. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but the favorite meat in Malaysia is CHICKEN. Not pork, not beef, not fish... Chicken. They literally would eat chicken for every single meal. In fact, they DO eat it for every meal. There are a lot of KFC's out here. It's really funny.

Sunday was good! We had church, and after, we did studies, then ran over to Serrina's to teach her again (we have to teach her a lot since she's getting baptized so fast), then Ellaine, who will be baptized in probably two weeks from last Saturday. Then we had a ton of appointments fall through, so we just walked to a bunch of members' houses and said hi! It was lots of fun though!

Thanks for everything you do for me! I'm going to Singapore this week, so I'll be able to snag the mail! Woohoo!!! It's been a great week, and next week is going to be great too! I love you all! Have an awesome week, and hati hati jangan mati!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins