Elder Ben Mullins: Ngajat and Gawai (Dancing and Gawai)

May 27, 2018

Hey Everyone!

This week shows a lot of the fruits of our efforts over the past 11 months, and it was really exciting and satisfying to see it all working smoothly and well. Our recent convert group is doing a great job at fellowshipping each other, as well as other people who go to church. We're breaking the sacrament meeting attendance record for our branch every other week too. The branch members are getting really excited and asking us to give them callings (haha, we redirect them to the branch president), and President Sator is pumped up. It was an exciting week.

Monday, we went to Bako National Park! There were Toooooons of white people. It was a really pretty national park. There were tons of jelly fish washing up on the beach, and we got lots of good pictures and a solid sunburn that peeled later in the week. We had lots of fun, Elder Wang got a video of his sister opening her mission call while we were there, so we all freaked out together, and we had fun talking to an old elder that came back on vacation to Malaysia.

Elder Sorenson and me at the National Park

Then we went over to Sister Angelina's house with Raymond and Tracy to teach them their second to last lesson before their baptism, and it was tons of fun. We had super good curry. Right after we were done teaching, we got a call from Mike, a recent convert, saying that his motorcycle tire popped and he needed someone to help him out. Raymond and Tracy drove us over to where Mike was. We had to go because it was late, but Raymond helped Mike out and got the tire all fixed up. It was way good. A perfect example of what the church is supposed to look like; just serving each other. They're way good.

Tuesday was tons of fun too. We taught Jordie, who we were debating on dropping, just because he didn't really seem like he was progressing. From Tuesday until now, he's just been super excited about the gospel and always texts us and calls us and asks questions and stuff. We read 1 Nephi 3 and 4 to try to spark his interest in the Book of Mormon, and I think it worked! We asked him if he remembered the story of Joseph Smith too, and then he started telling it just like a missionary would. Then he quoted the first vision almost word for word to us. Haha, we were freaking out. It was way good. He's almost done smoking too! He hasn't smoked for 2 or 3 days already! So that's awesome! We also met with a cool family that's huge. Tons of people, lots of little kids. It was so fun to teach a big family. We got a picture with them. Then we went over to a member's house, and taught his non-member brother. The non-member (Harrison) is very into the "all churches are the same." but he doesn't like the Book of Mormon. So we read the Book of Mormon with him and asked him if it helped his faith, and if he could feel the spirit. He didn't want to admit it, but he totally felt the spirit, and in the end, he admitted that he felt the spirit and it helped strengthen his faith in Jesus Christ. Got em.

Wednesday was full of finding. We found some nice people, but nobody that really sticks out. At night, we ate at a member's burger stand they run every night with Raymond and Tracy! It was lots of fun.

Thursday, we met with Natasha and Vincent. They're way funny. We just talked about goal setting and stuff. Ibans are really bad at goal setting most of the time, so we helped them make some good goals. We also met with Raymond and Tracy and taught them how to be baptized! That was fun. After that, we ran over and taught that huge family. They're OK, not super solid yet, but the oldest son is really good. He made it to church. His name is Danny. I'll talk about him a little bit later.

Friday, not a ton happened, but one thing that was funny was we brought Elder Magleby, senior missionary, with us to an appointment with a newly returning member. On the way walking to the house, we saw a family in their house, and we stopped and talked with them, and ended up teaching that family and didn't have time to teach the less active. It was really funny to see Elder Magleby sitting in this house that was literally about to tip over into the river it was built over, cross legged, shifting around and listening to some crazy language he had no idea how to speak. Haha, it was good. The people we taught followed the Iban religion too, so they knew nothing about God. It was an interesting lesson. Also. At night time, a member asked us to help them prepare food for the Gawai party for the next day, so we helped out.

Before I go on, Gawai is a holiday celebrated by Dayak people (Iban, Bedayu, a bunch of other tribes). It's celebrating the harvest, and generally everyone gets wasted for 2 weeks straight and dances and hangs out at their longhouses...except church members. SO. We had an alcohol free Gawai party on Saturday.

Gawai vests

Saturday, we left the house right after studies to help stick a bunch of pig into bamboo stocks to cook over the fire, fried tonnnnnns of chicken, ate some really good food for lunch, filled up the Baptismal font, went back and helped cook more, blazed back to the church to help set up all of the decorations and stuff, and then got Baptismal clothes for Raymond, Tracy, Aaron, and Kelly. CRAZY. Four people Baptized. The members were freaking out. Everyone was super excited. So the baptism happened, it was tons of fun, and then everyone bore their testimonies. Well. At least tried. Tracy went up to start bearing her testimony, and then the spirit just hit her like a cannon, and then she couldn't even speak, then she was so embarrassed, and it was over. So. She was destroyed by the spirit for like 15 minutes. But it was really good! Then. The Gawai party. I learned how to Ngajat with Elder Sorensen (a type of dance), and we did it at the party. It was a lot of fun, we snagged some Gawai vests from some other missionaries, Jeff brought us our awesome Iban ties, and we had tons of good food. Jordie came to the Gawai party, and they were having karaoke. Side note. Jordie LOVES entertainment. Singing, dancing, all that good stuff. He's a kampung boy for sure. He was up there in a split second singing along with Goria, the young men president. It was so good. Everyone loved it. We were all doing the Poco Poco dance, and it was just a ton of fun. Haha, Gawai is craaaazy. Now we'll have to suffer through the week of everyone being back at kampung. It'll be OK though.

Raymond, Tracy, Aaron, and Kelly's baptisms

Branch President Sator and Brother Palima

Gawai Party

Sunday. We book it from the house after 30 minutes of personal study to meet Danny, the oldest boy from the huge family, to introduce him to Jordie, who was going to bring him to church. We get to his house, walk out of the kampung and to the gas station just next to the road, and we see Jordie along with Mike and Milani on their moto. We introduced Jordie to Danny, then Danny points to Milani and says, "HEY I KNOW YOU!" Apparently they go to the same school. He followed Milani around the entire time at church and loved it. He's super good. We're excited for him. Mike and Milani received callings at church, as well as helped prepare the sacrament. So that was really good. They're ushers for their calling.

Gospel principles was packed with recent converts and investigators. It was literally just as full as the normal class. It was awesome. Lots of people left after first hour to go back to their villages for Gawai, so that's why there weren't as many as normal in the other class. And third hour, President Sator gave Elder Sorensen and I the nicest compliment I've ever gotten on my mission. He told us thanks for being so awesome, and told us how we really did change the branch and him so much, and we put so much energy in the branch. It was really sincere. I didn't think that he realized how much changed, but I guess he did. Then he said to everyone, "These two elders aren't like all the other elders. They're something special." then Raymond, was like, "They're the COOLEST elders!" Hahaha, anyway, that was the first time a brother has told us that we were doing a really good job in the branch. The sisters in the branch will always thank us every week for all of the work that's getting done, but the brothers normally are a little more reserved in their compliments. Haha, we were really happy that he felt like we did a lot. He's changed a lot too. President Sator is doing really well as a branch president now. 180 degrees from where he was when I got here. The members just really trust us.

Speaking of trust, I think the biggest thing I've learned on my mission so far is trust in the Lord. I just have such a huge testimony that if you do what you're supposed to do, like follow the commandments, and serve each other, everything will turn out for your good. I guess I knew that before my mission too, but really, in every single area I've been in, I've seen that principle so clearly. It just stands out so obviously and clearly now. Like in Alma 32:33-34. I've tried it out, I've seen it grow, and my faith has become a knowledge. I know that it works. 100% of the time, every time. And now my mind is expanding and my understanding is being enlightened. So. Trust in the Lord, doubt not, fear not. Do what you're supposed to do, and you can believe everything in the scriptures without a doubt.

After church, we went over to an inactive member's house, and met her kids. Kent, 18, and Kelly, 23. We just were talking, and then out of nowhere, Elder Sorensen just told Kent he needed to serve a mission. When he said it, the spirit came really strong, and then the discussion was led so we'll by the spirit. It was awesome. We ended up committing him to read the Book of Mormon front to back by the end of the year. We had him write on the front page of the Book of Mormon, "Should I serve a mission?" and then told him to think about that one question every single time he read the book, and promised him that if he read the Book of Mormon every day, and finished before the end of the year, he would have a desire to go on a mission. It was a really really good lesson, and he was pumped. We did the same thing for the sister, but instead of the mission question, we had her write, "Who should I marry?" on the front page. It ended up being a super effective visit.

We also filled out some Baptismal records with people. That took a while. Then we went over to a member's house to teach a referral! Igat! He's actually really solid! He lives in KL, but he'll be here for a couple weeks. So we'll solidify him before he goes back to KL, then get him baptized. He's really good.

That was my week! It was tons of fun, really eventful, and everyone here is just mega excited. It's been amazing seeing the branch transform so fast! I don't think I've seen a branch turn around like that in my entire mission. It's been great to be a part of it. This next week is the last week of the transfer, and from what President Simmons said, it looks like I have a pretty high chance of being transferred. So I hope the missionary that replaces me does a good job, because we did a lot of work the past 3 months to just get it all thrown away. Haha, I'm sure he'll do great. I think I can guess who it will be too. Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins