Zone Conference and Exchanges

Hey Everyone!

This week went by super-fast! I don't even know where the time went! At first, it seemed like it was going a little slow, but all of a sudden it was over!  It was definitely a good week, but we were out of our area for half the week as well... so that wasn't the best. But other than that, it was great!

Monday, we just napped all day. Bintulu/Sungai Plan is famous for not having anything to do on P Days, so a lot of the time, missionaries just nap. We'll see what we do today... We might go to the beach or something.  After P Day, we went over to Listie's house. She's been a member for a long time. She was one of the first to be baptized in Sungai Plan. She hasn't been coming to church for a while, so we've been working with her to see if we can get her to come back. She came this Sunday with her family, so that was good! Now we just have to get her to stay for all 3 hours! After Listie fed us a really good dinner (She's really good at cooking chicken), we went over to Sylvester's. He hasn't smoked for 6 days!  That's way cool! We gave him a little notebook and taught about keeping a study journal, so that was good.

Tuesday was a little slow. We had all of our plans, backup plans, and backup backup plans fall through by 3:30. SO. We did the best we could in staying effective. Everyone was going out for one last break before Gawai ended (it ended today), so everyone was doing something. We met with Brother Wong and his family though, and had a really good lesson on the Atonement of Christ! We talked about how it was His gift to us, and we need to give back to him. Then they all made their own commitments, and they all followed through with their commitments. So that was good!

Wednesday was our last day in the area until Sunday. We taught Elyzza! She's so funny. I really like teaching her, because I can make as many mistakes as I want, and she just tries helping me learn. That's what kids are really good at. They teach you a lot of Malay. Haha!  They're learning it too, so they like to teach you since they're better at speaking it than someone else! They all speak Iban, and learn Malay in school. Anyway, it was a ton of fun. We also taught Ellaine and Cecilia, then went over to Sylvester's house and did a family night thing that we had talked about doing. He made some really good kuay (basically snacks that are homemade) that we ate while we did that. We played Uno too. He and his wife Suriah get super into it.

Thursday, we woke up, exercised, did personal study, and then called Brother Henry to drive us to Bintulu city! We loaded up our bikes in his car, and drove down to the bus terminal. We totally passed Sylvester driving back to his hometown on the way to the terminal. We were going to Miri for Zone Conference! And exchanges too!   We had a 4 hour bus ride. So that was pretty uneventful. Our bus driver sprayed deodorant for air freshener. That was funny. OH! In the morning, when we exercised, I had found a MASSIVE hill that I wanted to ride my bike down, so Elder Mickelson and I biked to the foot of this hill.  Two little kittens popped out of some bushes and followed us around. It was really cool.   They were our Pokemon.  We went to the top of the hill, but it was WAY too steep to ride bikes down. My wheels were locking, and I was still sliding down the hill. It was insane. Super intense.  I ended up walking my bike down. Elder Mickelson didn't even try to ride his bike down. He walked up the hill, then right back down.

When we arrived in Miri later that night, we ate, then went to the house. They had just moved, and the house was the nicest house in the mission. It was HUGE and brand new. Everything about it was super nice.   I'm just saying that I wouldn't be mad if I got transferred to Miri. The house was insane. They have a whole room dedicated to just about everything. They have a whole room with nothing in it but an ironing board. Pretty epic. Elder Boud was there, and it was good to catch up with him, because he had just left Puchong.  He filled me in on everything there.

Friday, we had zone conference from the morning until 5:00! It was pretty good. Not the best zone conference, but it was alright. I just didn't feel like there were any doctrinal points on what the zone leaders trained on, but that's ok, because President and Sister Simmons did a great job at inspiring us. After 5 pm, exchanges started, and we went to work. I went with Elder Loutzenheiser (Elder Loutz). He's been out a transfer longer than me, but he was switched over to Malay speaking from English like 4 weeks after I was!  I was better at speaking Malay than he was! Pretty crazy! We mostly rode our bikes around and talked with people we passed by since he didn't know anyone in their area, and didn't have any appointments. BUT something crazy DID happen.  It was about 8:30, so we had an extra hour before we had to be home, and we didn't have anything to do.  We found this dirt road that went into the jungle and had houses in it. Well... more like shacks in it. We went down, and saw this kid, but he didn't want to talk to us.  We just rode past him and stopped at the end of the dirt road. The kid that we had passed sprinted by us, and over a little bridge that led to a group of houses. Elder Loutz and I were talking trying to decide what to do since we didn't find anything on the road, when a group of about 10 guys came out and started walking over the bridge with flashlights shining in our faces, and they were all silent.  We could hardly see them, and they kind of surrounded us.  We were in the middle of this jungle, with NO lights besides their flashlights shining in our faces. Straight up, I thought we were going to get robbed. I seriously thought that kid ran and got his friends to go get some money from us. It turned out they just wanted to talk to the white people, and everything was ok. Haha!  Elder Loutz and I were a little bit terrified for a second.

Saturday, we continued the exchanges. We basically did the same thing that we did the day before. So not a ton happened, but the day went by fast!  I got to practice my Malay a ton since Elder Loutz hardly spoke any Malay.  At 5:00, we got on a bus and headed back to Bintulu! 4 hours later, we arrived, and looked for a taxi for 30 minutes before finding one that could fit our bikes. We got home at about 10 pm.

Sunday, President Simmons came to Sungai Plan for temple recommend interviews for the members, and we had interviews with him too.  That was fun! After that, we went over to Elyzza's house, and Jatasia was back! I was super excited to see her little girl again! Anna! She's adorable. But she forgot us! She was gone for two and a half weeks, and she forgot us.  We'll have to get her to warm back up to us. It shouldn't be too hard. All the other kids in the house love us. After them, we went over to Lydia and Telajan's and taught them and their kids about prophets, and then we taught them the song Follow the Prophet! But in Malay. So that was fun! They really liked singing. It was a good idea. After that, we went over to Alyster's family and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a really good lesson. I can't believe their family is less active! They're all so close and love being with each other! But Only Alyster and his mom come to church! Soooo we're gonna change that soon!

That was my week! Sunday night, we got home, and made a killer Asian stir fry that was WAY good, and then talked and went to bed! Sungai Plan is an awesome area, and President Simmons said I should be training by August! So that'll be cool! I'm excited for that! It'll be a lot of fun. Every single companion I've had on my mission so far has been further out on their mission than me.   My trainee might be my first companion that's younger in the mission than me. I love it here, and I'm enjoying every single day! Thanks for all the emails!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins

Elder Loutz

Elder Mickelson

Miri

The MTC in Malaysia!