Elder Ben Mullins: Going to Singapore

Hey Everyone!

This week was crazy! I don't even know where to begin. Right now I'm on a plane going to Singapore, and emailing from A NEW PHONE. Super crazy. Everyone in the mission should be getting a phone in a few weeks. I picked up my phone and set it up on Tuesday, and that took forever. We literally stood at the Samsung store for about an hour and a half, then set up our phones and got all the church software stuff for another hour. That night we went to some flats that our branch president moved to a month ago. Missionaries hadn't ever been there, so we were excited. We called an Uber, and we got into tons of traffic. It ended up taking an hour to get there, but the drive was beautiful. The rural areas of Malaysia are something else. I'm going to get pictures next time. When we got there, we started going ham knocking doors. Right across the hall from the branch president, we found an Iban family who was super interested. I think that's the first Iban family I've met in Sabah. We also met a lot of other people, and Elder Johnson and Loutzenhiser are going back today to teach 4 people we found.

Before I continue, I wrote a list of things I always forget to email about, so I’ll cover those right now before I forget.

• I always tell Chinese people that Elder Johnson speaks Chinese. I know juuuuuust enough Chinese to say that in Chinese. We get Chinese people all the time that just go off in Chinese to Elder Johnson. This week, he was sick of it, because I did it 4 times in one day. It was super funny, but I think I'm done. Wait until my next companion.

• We found mega good pizza! Over in the mall next to our apartment, there's this super small pizza shop, but literally the best pizza I've eaten in Malaysia. So that's good. It still doesn't compare with pizza in the USA. A big problem is the pepperoni is made out of chicken...

• Paredick and secret service. Paredick is a member here, and he's way funny. He was inactive when I got to KK, but we met him once, and then he's been fully active ever since. He’s a 50 year old single guy, super wants a wife but denies it, likes rings with massive jewels, and most importantly, he's obsessed with the Israeli secret service. He's always telling us stories about what the Israeli secret service did and how impressive they are, and it's his dream to join it. He went off about it in priesthood this week, and everyone was trying not to laugh. I think the best part about it is that Malaysians (including Paredick) aren't even allowed to enter Israel. #MuslimCountryProblems

Ok. Wednesday. No idea. I can't remember. I don't even have my planner with me. Same with Thursday. I just remember we were going ham trying to get people to commit to church. We met with a guy named Maxter, and he seemed a little interested, but we'll see what happens there.

Friday, we went around making sure people knew about the baptism and activity and church. So lots of follow up.

Saturday-I'm going to skip to the end first. A while ago,Ii baptized a Chinese kid here named Johnny. Friday, his little brother was baptized, and Elder Johnson baptized him. The water was off until about 4:00, they filled it up at 4ish, and the water was super muddy, so they drained it, filled it again, muddy again, drained it, filled again, muddy, drained, filled again, muddy, and decided to do the baptism anyway. This was the first person Elder Johnson had ever baptized. He gets in the water, and starts saying the baptismal prayer in Malay. I'd say the best way to put it is, everything about Malay he has learned in the last 5 months exited his mind. He literally read it like it was English, baptized him, got out, then just started laughing. I asked what was so funny. He said that his mind went blank and he couldn't remember anything right when he entered the water. Haha! So. Pretty awesome. He's hilarious. Other than that, on Friday, we met with some people, had a really great activity with the young men and Elders quorum combined, and really enjoyed the day.

Sunday, Mamak, the lady that looks like Edna on the Incrediblea, came to church, as well as brother Yu. After church, Andrew followed us over to Brother Yu's house, and we taught him. I'm really excited for brother Yu. He's the father of a less active member, but he's come to church twice in a row now. We're hoping that it goes really well. His daughter used to be super active, so we're planning on getting her back too!

Overall, it was a super good week! I had tons of fun, we met with a lot of people, and found a ton of new people to meet with this week! We're pumped! Thanks for all the emails! You're all awesome! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins