Elder Ben Mullins: Bolehbah Kalau Kau (if you can)

Hey Everyone!

This week was craaaaazy good! I had tons of fun! The Sabahan Malay they speak here in KK (Kota Kinabalu) is SUPER easy to understand, because they speak really clearly, BUT they have a lot of slang. Like Bolehbah Kalau Kau. Haha! it just means ‘can if you’. They say it quite a bit. I'm sure they have other phrases, and I just haven't heard them yet. It's really fun here. I love it. I got a trainee too. His name is Elder Johnson. He’s the 4th Elder Johnson in the mission. He might have to change his last name so that people don't get the 4 elder Johnson's confused. Pretty awesome. It's happened already with a few missionaries here. He's from South Jordan or West Jordon (not sure which one), and likes Ultimate Frisbee. He's tall, mega white, and blonde. People here are gonna love him. Haha! He's a super funny guy. He's definitely got MTC Malay.--Terrible white person accent and a lot of wrong pronunciation, but nothing we can't fix! I've been working on switching over from the Sarawak pronunciation of some words to the Sabah way of saying them, but I'm pretty much adjusted already!

Monday and Tuesday were kind of a blur. I think I just said bye to members. Not really sure. I don't have my planner with me. I remember it was a ton of fun, and Satam made me a super good goodbye dinner. Also, her daughter is in KK right now too as a missionary! I know her family better than I know her! It was good to finally meet the rest of their family. Haha! I was sad to leave Miri, but super excited to be getting to KK!

Wednesday, my flight for KK was going to leave at 11 AM, so I woke up, went over to the airport with the senior couple and two sisters who were transferring, one to KL and one to KK with me, and they dropped us off. We got our tickets, checked our bags, and then the lady that helped us check our bags said, "OK, your flight leaves at 11 tonight!" and then gave us our tickets back. I asked her if she meant 11 as in an hour and a half. But she said, "Nope, 11 tonight! The ticket says 23:00, not 11:00." I just turned around and looked at the sister that was going to KK on the same flight as me, and said, "Well. We get an extra day in Miri!" SO. We camped out in the airport 4 hours since we didn't have the senior couple's phone number to tell them to come pick us up. We used someone's phone to call the elders in Miri so that they could tell the missionaries in KK that we wouldn't be there until midnight, and then just sat and waited. The senior couple came back at 1 to pick up a missionary that was coming into Miri, so we caught a ride with them, and I hung out with the Miri Elders one last day! We mainly cleaned the house that I didn't live in, because it had trash everywhere, but it was really fun! Haha! We went back that night to the airport, got through security, and got to the terminal. It was dumping rain, and the screens said our flight was delayed an hour, so we were going to get to KK at 1 AM. BUT it ended up only being 15 minutes delayed, and we got into KK at like 12:15, had to go through immigrations, and then grab our bags. I met Elder Howell at about 12:45. The member we came with drove the sister to the house, then we got to our house at about 1:30, and I got into the house, got settled in a bit, and we were in bed by 2:00! We got permission to sleep in. Haha! We only slept until 8:00, but it was good enough!

Thursday, we visited some PI's (potential investigators) after doing weekly planning and studies, and I got to know KK a little bit. The city has tons of people, but lots of them are Muslim. Super pretty place though, and tons of potential! We picked up our trainees that night! Elder Johnson is with me! He's way funny. I really think we'll have a ton of fun!

Friday, we went and visited a member named Jonny. He was just barely reactivated, but he was the first missionary from KK! He's way cool, and we're teaching his wife Lodeline, and another lady there they call Inday. That's Tagalog for something, but I can't remember. Anyway, they're all Filipino. Super awesome people. After that, we also visited a member named Roslina, who had just referred her neighbor who moved in. His name is Binus, and he's wayyyy cool! Super cool guy! I got a picture with him! He's gonna get baptized. I'm pretty confident.

Saturday was super good too. Elder Johnson and I made sure we knew where some places were, and went around talking with people. We got my bike that had just been shipped here, and put it together too. We got some way good food (the food in Sabah is better than in Sarawak), and we got to help him try out some Malaysian stuff. He likes it all. So that'll be good for him when members feed him gross stuff!

Sunday, we met all the members, and it was tons of fun! The members here are super nice. I got a bunch of appointments set up, and I'm super excited to get to know everyone here! There are tons of different cultures here, so that'll be fun to get to know them all! Someone told me that I sounded like a Malaysian when I spoke Malay (my accent), so that was way cool! Most missionaries don't even try to fake the accent, and they just sound like a bunch of white people speaking Malay, so I'm glad I faked it until I made it! Haha! They said I have a .5% accent. Exact words. Haha! I definitely sound less like a white person than most missionaries, but I think they might've just been being nice. It still made me happy! People here are just mega nice.

It's super weird to be able to speak Malay better than my companion, because that's so different from how it has been! Luckily, the people here are super easy to understand. I don't know what everyone was talking about when they said it was hard to understand people here. They speak so clearly, so it's super easy to understand. BUT. The Malay they use is a little more complex. I can still understand, but I have a lot I still need to improve on before I can speak it like them! I love it here in Sabah! Next week, I'll send more pictures! The internet here is mega slow, and I don't have most of the pictures that I took this week, because I took them with Elder Johnson's camera. His camera was already out when I wanted to take the pictures. SO. I'll make sure to start uploading them early next week. ALSO. No hoses in the bathroom here. Toilet paper. Not gonna lie, the hose is definitely better.

Thanks!

Elder Ben Mullins