Elder Ben Mullins: Hello From the Land Where Hot Wheel Cars Are Made

Hey Everyone!

This week was craaaaazy! Elder Johnson reminded me that Hot Wheels cars are made in Malaysia, so that's pretty cool. I wasn't in my area from Monday to Thursday night, so I felt like the week just disappeared. Elder Johnson was with the other trainee and a missionary named Elder Loutzenheiser. None of them can really speak Malay, so it was a struggle I was told. But that's ok! Because none of them died!

Monday, we pretty much spent the entire day in the plane. Two-and-a-half hour flight over to Singapore, but we made it, and it was rush hour. We were 45 minutes late to our meeting that night. We walked in, and it was starting to end. So not a ton happened.

Tuesday, Elder Christofferson came to Singapore and talked to all of us missionaries! It was mega awesome. He said a ton of super good stuff, and I took a bunch of notes. He basically just told us to start firing questions at him, and he'd do his best to answer the questions. One thing he talked about was that not only our actions are judged, but our desires are too. Then he said something along the lines of what you really want, you will receive. So be careful what you want. It kind of hit me. It brought to remembrance the scripture that says blessed is he who is compelled to be humble, but even more blessed is he who chooses to be humble. If our desire is to be humble, we'll receive it as long as we work. If our desire is to do good, we'll receive our reward. If it's evil, we'll receive a different reward. So be careful what you want! Another thing he talked about a lot was our relationship with God. He talked about it in the fire side he did for the entire Singapore stake. He said a lot of really profound things, and then pretty much said that if we saw God, he'd look really familiar to us, because we spent a long time with him. So the song “I lived in heaven a long time ago it is true” (don't know the title. Probably” I lived in Heaven a long time ago”) has been stuck in my head because he was talking about that. On top of those, he said a lot of super awesome things, and I didn't bring my notes with me. We were in meetings with him all day, so it was pretty awesome. We ate Subway too, and it was mega good.

Wednesday, we had meetings all day. Literally. We did studies outside before the meetings. Elder Boud and Mickelson took Elder Howell and me over to some durian shaped buildings that surround Marina Bay, and we went to the top of the buildings. It was pretty cool. I got some pictures with Elder Howell. In MLC, I got to check out the mission's stats and stuff, so that was cool. President Simmons analyzes tons of stats, because he did it for a living. He's got some crazy graphs. Super interesting. They basically just taught us how to inspire all the missionaries, and made plans for our zone conferences.

Thursday, we went back to KK! In the Singapore airport, we went to the butterfly garden, so that was pretty awesome. Butterflies are super cool. Not a ton happened though, because we got back late at night. I got to watch the sun set from the plane though. So that was cool.

Friday was a little crazy. We found 152 potential investigators that hadn't been called. We called about 50 of them, did weekly planning, and taught Binus. Binus is still progressing, but he wasn't able to make it to church this week. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and he had some questions about the Atonement. So that was good! In Malay, there's no word for atonement, so you just have to say the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Super long name, and it's hard for people to understand. We taught a lot more about that than I was planning, but it was really good! That's a great thing to talk about! We also went to English class. We thought it started at 7:00, buuuut it actually started at 6:00. So instead of being 30 minutes early, we were 30 minutes late. Oh well. It ended up being ok.

Saturday, we met with Johnny and Lodeline. Lodeline is pumped to get baptized in 2 weeks! She's a way good investigator! She really is converted. It's awesome. She and Johnny are mega pumped to get sealed in the temple in a year. It's way fun to go over there and teach her. AND they make super good Filipino food for us. Every time. I don't eat breakfast before we go over there. Other than Lodeline, we had some appointments fall through since they weren't confirmed all week, and we called a TON of PI's and got some appointments set up.

Sunday... Let's see. I remembered a ton of the members' names! So that was super good. They love it when new missionaries remember their names. I got to talk with a ton of them, we got lots of appointments scheduled, and we got to know them all a lot better! We had branch council after church, and this branch is so organized! I could hardly believe it! Everything here is moving great, everyone has responsibilities, and they all fulfill their callings.

After all that, we had choir practice (for district conference. I was forced to do it), did half an hour of personal study, and then went to find an inactive member named Ivy. We found it. Her house was on the top of this HUGE hill. Mega steep, but we made it up, and her house looked over all of Penampang. So that was super cool. There was this Chinese temple/tower thing that looked super cool, and a bunch of other stuff. It was pretty awesome. She was cool too. We shared a scripture and got to know her a bit!

Not a ton happened this week since I was gone for most of it, but KK is picking up! My Malay is great, and Elder Johnson's is coming! He's getting there. Haha! I think he'll be able to teach all the lessons by the end of this transfer! He just needs to get a little faster when he speaks so that people don't get lost when he talks. I remember when I spoke like that... But now I'm up to speed! It's super crazy to walk away from a lesson and realize that it was all in Malay. And it's even crazier that I understood it all! Haha! It's mega crazy to be able to speak another language! I didn't think I would ever learn a language! I didn't even think it'd be possible! But it is! Pretty crazy! People will mix Malay and English a ton in sacrament meeting, because there are people who don't speak Malay. It's super funny when every other word is Malay. It just makes me laugh. The craziest thing is that it's still understandable. I dunno. I love KK. The people here are mega cool, the food is way good, the Malay is super to understand. The land is beautiful, and biking here is AWESOME. I love biking here. There's so much to look at while you bike, it's not mega crowded, but there are still people, and lots of hills to ride down (I control the pace, so we ride up the hills nice and slow), and it's amazing. I love it. I really hope I stay here a while.

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins