Elder Ben Mullins: Gettin' Those Melchizedek Priesthood Holders

Hey Everyone!

This week was AWESOME. Tons of super awesome things happened, and the banshee beetles are coming back out. I saw like 6 or 7 dead ones this week, so I took a picture of one! It was a busy week now that Gawai is over, and we've been working hard to keep up with all the stuff that's been happening!

Tuesday, for some reason, nobody was home. All of our appointments cancelled, and everyone was gone except for our branch president. We stopped by and talked with President Jalil, and got some super delicious crocodile tongues. Oh yeah, that's a thing there. We eat crocodile tongues. They taste WAY good, especially if they put on enough powdered sugar. After that, we went around and visited some less actives. We cleared two blocks of inactives/less actives. We met a ton of the youth's friends that weren't members! Apparently, a lot of the inactive people moved. Soooooo we have a whole new set of PI's to go through now! One super funny thing happened. We stopped to check a text we got, and Elder Mickelson was looking at a door. There was a sticker on the door that said "Seventh Day Adventist Church Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holly." They spelled holy wrong. SO I just HAD to take a picture. Right as I went to take the picture, they opened their door and saw me taking a picture with their door. I just walked away super-fast with Elder Mickelson. I got a picture of the door later though! Pretty awesome. I'll send it!

Wednesday, we had something awesome happen. Several weeks ago, we had a guy named Matthew John call us. He told us he wants to be baptized. Over the next few weeks, he started giving us referrals and saying that they wanted to be baptized too. We finally got one of those referral's phone numbers. His name is Christopher. We set an appointment with him, and taught him. He's mega prepared! He's gonna get dunked for sure. He was super awesome. We're going to try to get his wife to start learning too. He has two super cute little girls that are 6 and 4, and SUPER wild. It was a ton of fun to get to know them. We also taught Elyzza about tithing, and she really liked it. She was counting all of her money the other day because we taught her about it. Haha!

Thursday, we taught Christopher the entire restoration since we talked about the Godhead the day before. He ate up the restoration, and was pumped to read the Book of Mormon. I think he really likes reading. He had read an entire Jehovah's Witness pamphlet before, so he's really interested in religion. I don't think I could make it through one of those things. They're like 100 pages long. ANYWAY. Had a solid lesson, and got a return appointment with his wife. After him, we went to Elyzza's to follow up on her reading really quick. She had just been studying the Law of Chastity pamphlet we had given her. She's 9 years old. When we asked her if she had any questions for us, she said she had one. We told her to fire away! Her question was "What does committing adultery mean?" Elder Mickelson and I looked at each other and looked back to her. We had tried to explain it in really simple terms like 4 or 5 times before, but she'd always just ask it again. We finally gave her a final answer. “Don't sleep with boys.” She got a worried look on her face, and said that she slept with her little brother and her uncle Roslan (basically her older brother. He's one of the youth in the branch. I think he's like 15) every night. Hahaha! We told her it's ok as long as they're family. Pretty funny girl.

Friday, we FINALLY met with Matthew John. We had some time after our last lesson of the night, and decided to drop by. He finally wasn't drunk. It had been WEEKS since he had called and said he wanted to be baptized. I think he swore off of drinking. We had a solid lesson, and I'm not gonna lie, Matthew John is the most prepared person I have ever met in my entire life. Well... maybe it's a tie between him and Elliott. Literally asking us if they can be baptized... Haha! We put him on date, and I'm fairly confident he'll make it! As long as he stops drinking for good! We can help him as long as we can meet with him while he's not drunk. Other than that, Sylvester got back from Kampung, and he hasn't smoked in about two and a half weeks!!! Once he comes to church 2 more times, he can get baptized! He's way solid. He'll be an awesome member. I can't wait for that. I hope that Elder Mickelson stays here so that he can be here when Sylvester is baptized!

Saturday, we were going to visit a member, and we looked across the flats. Matthew John and Christopher were right in front of Christopher's house. We went over there, and only had 10 minutes. , but we went in, and followed up on all the commitments we gave them! They had just been hanging out, and Matthew needed a haircut, so Christopher and him went and bought a haircutting kit for 10 ringgit (2 US Dollars) and gave Matthew a haircut! So now I think I know where we're going for our haircuts! After that, we visited Sylvester's friend, Nathaniel. We knocked on the door, took our shoes off, and went in the house. They are Roman Catholic. VERY Roman Catholic. They had pictures of Jesus and Mary all over the walls--literally not an empty space. On top of all of that, they had a picture of 3 men in catholic robes. We asked if his dad was a priest or something. He said it was his pastor. He literally has a picture of his preacher in his house hanging up. Nobody in his family is even in the picture. Haha! We were a little worried about how he would accept our message. His family wasn't home. It was just him. We started teaching the restoration, and I felt the most comfortable I've ever felt while teaching in Malay. Instead of thinking of what I was going to say in English, and translating it to Malay, I just spoke Malay! It was awesome! And the lesson was SOLID. Nathaniel is a super smart guy, and figured it out, and it really hit home that he had to ask God which church was the true church! Nathaniel turned out to be MEGA solid. Now we’ve just got to make sure he doesn't get antied! We made sure he knew that people would tell him it wasn't true, but he had to ask God if he wanted to know. I think he has a ton of potential. Especially since he's Sylvester's really good friend. We finished the lesson, and I walked outside, put on my one shoe, and started looking for the other. Literally gone. Someone (probably a dog) stole one of my shoes... Straight up GONE. We searched for a while, but didn't find anything. SO. I was short a shoe. Nathaniel loaned me a pair of sandals, and I wore those for a while until we could get home and pick up my second pair of shoes! My shoes were already destroyed, and I was going to buy another pair in a month, but I guess I'll just have to find a new pair sooner!

Sunday, we went to church, and had a lot of investigators there! Before that, Jatasia asked us if we could help her bring all the kids to church so that Elyzza could come to church! Normally, Elyzza has to watch all the kids while her mom and grandparents work, so she can't come. We brought all the kids she has to watch with us! Jatasia was carrying her little girl Anna, Elyzza was carrying her little sister, and I held her little brother's hand, and we all walked to church together! It was lots of fun! Half way though, Elyzza's little sister was slipping out of her arms, so she hoisted her up so she could carry her again, and then after a few seconds, said "barak..." which means poop. Her little sister had diarrhea, and when she hoisted her up, it alllllll came out, and then squeezed out of her diaper, and all over Elyzza. Hahaha! So Elyzza set down the little girl, and ran home to change and to get her little sister a change of clothes too! Hahaha! Her little sister just stood there. Straight up, for 5 minutes, didn't move a muscle. It was hilarious. She didn't want to move around with a poopy diaper I guess. So I took a picture with her and Anna! Once Elyzza got back, we continued walking to church, but Elyzza didn't want to get the poop on her again. Jatasia was already carrying Anna, and Elder Mickelson and I aren't allowed to carry kids. Elder Mickelson and I each grabbed one hand of the little girl, and lifted her up and carried her by her hands to church! Haha! She started not liking it, so we set her down and she walked the rest of the way! It was raining, and that little girl LOVED splashing through all the puddles of water on the way to church! We would go into the middle of the road to avoid the puddles, but the little girl just splashed right through them and had a huge smile on her face. It was adorable.

In the middle of Sacrament Meeting, Valentino, an 18-year-old that we talked to a week or so ago, came to church! It was crazy! I couldn't believe it! He just walked in and sat down with all the youth! I guess the youth invited him to come, and he remembered meeting us, and came! We'll be teaching him really soon I hope! That night, we met with Jatasia's brother-in-law, Hallory. He's pretty funny. He and his wife just barely had their fourth kid, and we decided now was the time to strike. Haha! He's awesome. I think he'll get baptized eventually. He just learns pretty slow, and we can only meet once a week, but he's got potential for sure!

Thanks for all the emails! I love you all! I hope you have an awesome week! Today we're going to go to the beach, then pick up our mail down in the city after! So that'll be fun!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins