Singapore

Singapore
Singapore

Thursday, July 27, 2017

SINGAPOOOOORE!



Hey everyone!

Ok, super quick--the missionary department is no longer calling missionaries here English speaking; only Malay and Mandarin.  Everyone that was called as an English speaker is now switching to one of the two, which MEANS, I'm not special anymore. Hahaha! So that's cool! Now everyone will be able to speak a different language!  We'll see if the English speakers actually learn a language, but they'll be assigned to! Other than that, it was a fairly calm week. Elder Asah is going to get some wisdom teeth out this next week, so we might be camping inside a few days. So that kinda stinks. I hope that it doesn't take too long to get back out. We'll see I guess!

Monday Elder Asah and I set up a treasure hunt over at a market for all the missionaries in Miri.  It was pretty fun. After that, we went and played futbal at an indoor soccer field. We met with Pana and Lina at 7, and Sayu at 8, and Satam at 9.  It was an awesome night!  AND. They told us that they were gonna be cooking some dog on Tuesday, and invited us over for dinner. SO. That was awesome.

Tuesday, we went and visited a ton of less actives, and met with Suri. Suri was a potential investigator we got.  She lives in a way cool house built on a river.  We met with her, and taught the restoration. She really liked it, and her mother-in-law (she's a little crazy. She doesn't have teeth and is super old) was fully supporting everything we were saying. So that's awesome. I think she didn't really realize that her church doesn't believe what we were teaching, but Suri thinks that it does!   We'll have to clarify that later.    It went really well!  We met with Sait and his family after that. Their little boy won't shake anyone's hand except Elder Asah's, so I'm gonna have to work on that.  We had extra time that night so we ran by Sister Satam's, and ate some dog. Earlier in the day, we stopped by to say hi and get a drink, and we saw the dead dog and took a picture with it. I'll send it. It's named Dog Burning.  If you don't want to see a dead dog getting cooked, don't look at the picture. BUT. Dog actually doesn't taste too bad. It's just mega chewy. I'd eat it again for sure though. They literally just found a stray dog, and killed it, and cooked it. Pretty epic.

Wednesday, I made a list of 15 former investigators or inactives that lived in a certain area, and we visited all of them. One that was particularly good was a former investigator named Chelsea. Her teaching record said that her family figured out she was meeting with us.  The missionaries got kicked out of the house and were told to never go back. SO. We left our bikes at the foot of the stairs.  I asked Elder Asah if I should lock them up.  He told me we shouldn't just in case they chased us away.  We knocked, and they were actually way cool--super happy, energetic, and excited to see us again!  We have an appointment with them for later this week! Later, we met with Samsul. He's 8, and a referral from a really cool recent convert named Tingi.  Samsul is super shy, but he's starting to open up. His mom doesn't really like us some reason. Not sure why. BUT. She's fine with him learning. So that's awesome.  After that, we went to a meeting to help translate for a senior couple.

Thursday was fun.   We advertised for English class, which was a ton of fun. Then we filled the baptismal font.  It was insane. You have to pull about 10 levers in a certain order to fill the font so that the water isn't super dirty.  That was difficult to figure out, but we did it! We stayed for the baptism, and after, went over to teach Sister Annie how to read. Sister Annie is uneducated, but she's WAY good at making beaded ties and stuff. A week ago, we taught her all the letters and the sounds of the letters.  This week, we were teaching her how to read.  We helped her read satu (one), dua (two), and tiga (three). After that, we skipped to lima (five), and had her read it by herself. She sounded it out, and realized it said lima, and she was SO excited! It was her first word she ever read by herself, and she's 30+. It's crazy to me that you can go so long without being able to read.  She was so excited, so that was super fun.

Friday, we met with Suri and taught the Plan of Salvation. She really liked it, and she did a really good job reading the pamphlet we left with her. So that's good. She has a lot of potential to be super solid. We also tried meeting with a former, but they ended up not showing up. Bummer. It's ok though. We had English class later that night, and grabbed some really good burgers before we went home. The burgers weren't good by American standards, but for Malaysia, it was super good.

Saturday, we met with Jasmine, a recent convert from Indonesia. She's way funny, and made some super good noodles for us. I drank a million cups of orange juice, so that was good.   we also met with Sayu at her house.  Her house is literally just a box, and it's built on top of a river.  It's super epic, but there's literally only one room. Just a small box for her and her husband and two kids. Pretty crazy. After that, we had sport night.

I'm running out of time, so I'll be quick.  Sunday I made some way good crock pot dinner stuff, we did weekly planning because we didn't have time throughout the rest of the week, and we had a way cool barbecue with all our recent converts.

That was my week! I gotta go! I love you all! Have a good week! I'm in Singapore right now, so that's why I'm emailing so late!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins

Rungai's family




Beaded ties Satam makes




Elder Asah









Bintulu/Sibu sign in Miri





Baby dogs





If you don't want to see a dead dog on the fire don't scroll down























Dog Burning



















Wednesday, July 26, 2017

One Year



Hey Everyone!

I can't believe it, but it's ALREADY been ONE ENTIRE YEAR since I left to the MTC! I can't believe it! I also figured out Christian Kamalu and I should be getting back the same day from our missions! He left 3 weeks after me... That's what happens when you're in the MTC for 3 weeks as opposed to 6 weeks. Anyway, the time is flying, and I love being a missionary! I figured out that Elder Schwemmer (Chinese Elder in Miri) went to Davis High too! So that's cool! He had a lady make a bunch of beaded ties for him, and one has a Davis D on it! I'll send a picture. Also, I forgot my planner this week, so I don't know if I'll be able to remember everything that happened.

I know that on Monday, we picked up Elder Johnson since his companion was in Singapore, and he hung out with us until Wednesday night. But we had nothing to do all day, because our plans to go to the crocodile farm fell through.  We just learned how to do magic tricks and stuff all day, then had an appointment with brother Sait and his family that night. Brother Sait is way cool. I like him a lot.  His two little boys are the calmest Malaysian little boys I've ever met.

Tuesday, Elder Asah was way sick. He was constipated for a week, and then told us half way through Tuesday. SO. We called the senior couple and got him some laxatives. Pretty awesome. Elder Johnson and I just studied, talked, and he taught me a bunch of magic tricks. So that's cool. I can only remember how to do one though. That night, Elder Asah was feeling better, so we went to our dinner appointment, where we ate PYTHON AND BIAWAK! It was actually pretty good! The python was a bit chewy, but it tasted good. And the biawak was really good except for all the bones. Other than that, not a ton happened.

Before I forget, let me tell you about Elder Asah! He's 19, from a small place near a small village called Mukah, and he's way funny. He speaks English, but sometimes he doesn't know how to say something or doesn't understand something, so we switch to Malay. He's super awesome. I really enjoy being with him. He likes cold hot chocolate.  It's cold chocolate, not hot.

Wednesday... I can't even remember. Sorry. I should've brought my planner. WAIT! I just remembered! We woke up, did personal study, and then went to this kampung (kampung means village) that was built on a river. It was WAY cool.  We got a really cool potential investigator too. The grandma loves us. The rest of the family is ok with us too. Our appointment on Sunday cancelled, but we should be able to get in with them later. They were eating up that a white person spoke Malay. Haha, it was hilarious.

Thursday was Elder Asah and my year mark! So that was awesome! We burned our worst shirts! I hadn't worn that shirt in 2 or 3 months, so it was whiter than the rest of my shirts, but it had a bunch of stains from food.  I didn't wear it because it looked terrible. I can't remember who we met. I think we might've met with our new investigator, Samsul.   Elder Mickelson baptized someone 6 months ago named Tingi.  He recently moved to Miri, and now we're teaching his nephew, Samsul. He's 10 years old.  He's a super cool little kid. He came to church, and I think he enjoyed it! Other than that, I have no idea what we did.

Friday... Wow, I really need to bring my planner next week. This entire week was a blur. I know we met with Cika, but didn't have enough time to teach her, so we just dropped off a letter for her to give to her boss to help get her Sundays off.

Saturday. Hmmmmmmmm. We got some good Indian food for lunch! Oh! I remember! I can't remember if this was Friday or Saturday, but Elder Asah has some CRAZY wisdom teeth. They're in the front of his mouth. Like a vampire. If he let them grow out, he'd totally be a vampire.  They were bothering him, so we went to the dentist, and they said he couldn't get them out for another 3ish weeks. Soooo we'll see what happens!  There's this place in Indonesia (it might be in Malaysia, but I think it's Indonesia), and it's named vampire in Indonesian.  The people there are super pale, and have those wisdom teeth, so they all look like vampires. Pretty awesome, right? I really wanna go there. I don’t see how though, because it's probably a pretty far drive. I definitely won't be able to go during my mission, but maybe after when I come back to Malaysia. We'll see.

Sunday, church was awesome. I love meeting everyone at church. It's just a great time to get to know all the members. So that was good. There's this member from Sabah that always tries to talk to me (she has a little baby named Benjamin. What a cool name, right?), but her accent is way different than all the Ibans, and I can't understand a word she says in Malay. She always has to switch to English.   I've gotten to the point where I just smile and nod. Maybe that's not good, but it's what I do. Hahaha, she's really nice though. Her husband is Chinese, so it's kind of weird to see a Chinese guy in the Malay branch, but whatever. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but we cover 2 branches right now, because our mission is lacking Malay speaking Elders.  Our area is massive, and we go to 2 sacrament meetings. One branch starts classes first, and one starts sacrament first, then they swap places!  It's pretty easy to go to both branches.

That was my week! Sorry I didn't bring my planner!  I took a few extra pictures this week!   I found Doritos too, so we're good. They were way expensive, but super good. Thanks for all the emails you send! I hope you all have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins

Selfie




This is what the old bike looked like




New Bike look  We have to make our bikes look old so no one steals them




Lighting up our bike




One year burning a shirt




Beaded ties  See the D for Davis on the first one?




I found them!  Doritos!





Kampung





A broken down Kampung