9 More Days!

July 8, 2018

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty good! Elder Crowell and I found quite a few really cool people.  We've been working hard, having fun, and overcame some sickness this week.

I got sick at the end of last week with a really bad cold, and it sapped all of my energy. Luckily, I'm over it now! It made it really hard to talk with people, especially since I couldn't hear anything. I would just guess what they were saying or look at Elder Crowell so that he would say something loud so I could hear.  I think I understand what it's like for old people with bad hearing now. Hahaha! My voice was gone for a couple days too, so I would just stop the people and then Elder Crowell would talk with them. I think I've lost my voice more times in the past 2 years than I had in the 18 years before.  We're all healthy and ready to go now!

On Monday, we checked out the Singapore Zoo. It's a really nice zoo! The cages were awesome because there was just a trench between us and the animals instead of a fence, so you could see really well! If you're in Singapore, you should definitely check out the zoo.

The Singapore Zoo

Some awesome people we met this week:

The first one was Syron.  He’s a suuuuuper funny 24-year-old Chinese Singaporean male. He’s a super nice guy, always smiling, good taste in food, wants to come to church with his friend but had a meeting this last Sunday. Hopefully we'll get him this next week!

Number two and three were Ethan and Washin. We had just talked to some Filipinos and were walking away when these two Chinese guys came up to us and just started talking to us like we were friends. We figured out that they saw us shooting some hoops while we were contacting some people a couple weeks ago, and we invited them to come shoot with us!  They were busy at the time, but they were interested to learn, so we taught them! They ate it up! Ethan told us his name, but with his accent, it sounded like he said Eden was his name, so we said, "wait, like the garden of Eden?" and he just kinda smiled and nodded. Later we asked how to spell it. Haha!  They should be at church next week!

Last cool one!  We had just finished working hard talking with toooons of people, and we were on the train.  It was pretty empty, so we just stood on the edge because we didn't want to talk with the old people sitting down.  Every missionary in this mission knows that I don't ever contact females under 30 years old, because it's too awkward. They just think we're trying to flirt.  It's kind of funny, because whenever my companions ask me why I never stop and talk to women, I just tell them that.  Then they say they deserve a chance too, and I say "yeah they do, that's what sister missionaries are for." then they tell me that I should start talking with them.  Later in the day, I stood next to a girl.  I didn't want to talk to her, but then God brings to remembrance the conversation about giving everyone a chance to hear the gospel and I ended up talking with her. It happened once when I was in KK with Elder Mickelson.  I ended up talking with the girl, and she's getting baptized this week.   The same kind of thing happened this week. While we were on the train back home, I was super tired, there was hardly anyone on the train, nobody in the finding vision, just old people and this girl that was standing next to us. The conversation Elder Crowell and I came back to memory, so I decided I had to talk with her.  I started talking with her about the church, and she wasn't interested until I told her about how I'm only 20 years old, haven't even gone to a year of college, don't have a job, and am going back to the USA in 2 weeks.  I don't have anything set up, but I still feel very confident in what I'm doing, because I know God directed me and helped me know what to do. Then she stopped me and said something like, "wow, that really hit me, because I kind of feel the same. I'm going to school, but I have no idea what to do with my life.  My mom really wants to become Christian too. Is there a way that I could learn more and bring my mom?" I was pretty surprised at how interested she was in learning, because she wasn't interested 15 seconds before that.   I said," I GUESS if you're interested we could squeeze you into our schedule." so we'll be meeting with her and her mom this week!  That's gonna be a good lesson I think!

I can't believe I have 9 days!  Craaaaazy! I felt like I had my whole mission ahead of me until they started announcing church events that would happen after I leave in sacrament meeting. A brother in church that was visiting said, "I'm just gonna be here super quick. I go back to the USA on the 18th" and I thought, "that's the day I go back to the USA!"  Haha, so super quick, and I'll be back! I'll write a nice long letter next week! Thanks for all of the support and letters and packages and emails you've all sent me over the past 2 years! I hit my 2-year mark this Friday! So that'll be cool!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins

Elder Crowell and I found some rocky mountain marshmallows!

Malay women helping us with language study

Indonesian Visa Run

July 1, 2018

Hey Everyone!

This week went by so fast! I don't know what to talk about. I got sick on Saturday, but it's not too bad. I just lost my voice.  Other than that, I'm good! Elder Crowell went to Indonesia on a visa run for 3 days with 2 other elders, so I was companions with Elder Mickelson and Elder Child for a day, and Elder Housley and Elder Mickelson for a day.

Elder Mickelson and Housley

Elder Mickelson finished his mission on Friday, so that was pretty crazy. We were in the same house for almost a year of our missions.  Luckily, I'll see him in a couple weeks! We taught a ton of people on the spot, but not all of them were interested, just a few. One of them went home and told their parents how awesome our teachings were (he was 19), and then his parents said to tell us he couldn't meet again, so that was too bad. He loved it!  We planted a nice seed with him. He'll come again someday.

I literally don't know what to talk about. The week just went by so fast, and for 3 days, we just wandered around finding stuff, because none of us had ever served in the Woodlands area (my area), and we didn't have a branch list. We found and found and found, but it went by quick. We had lots of fun and talked a lot about how the mission is different from when we first came in. It's pretty different now! I didn't realize how different the culture of the mission was until we sat down and talked about it.  It's been good!

President Simmons finished his mission this Friday, and President Rowley is the new president! I've met him a few times. He's really cool, and I think he'll help out a lot with the mission. He's got a good skill set for this mission.  He speaks Indonesian, which is close enough to Malay that everyone understands it. It'll be a big help in east Malaysia for sure. He's a really nice person too. It'll be fun to test out how good his Indonesian really is. It sounds really good when he speaks, so I think it's really good!

Have a great week! I tried taking pictures this week but didn't take a ton. I took a picture of the view from our apartment. It's really nice, especially at night.

The view from our apartment in Singapore

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins

Elder Crowell

Shopping district

Cool place in Singapore

Chopped Out!

June 24, 2018

Hey Everyone!

This week was craaaaazy. Probably the most out of the ordinary week I've ever had. Things lead us to end up getting kicked out of Malaysia until we go back to the USA. So. That was pretty epic.

It allllllll started Monday morning when we packed up a short and pair of pants and flew to Singapore for zone Conference. We had a good time flying over, walked around, and went to conference at night. Nice message. Tuesday morning, woke up, went to zone Conference all day, nice message, I gave my dying testimony, and then went home again. Wednesday morning, wake up, and head to the airport in the afternoon. We got on a plane to go back to Malaysia, and we were excited because we were going to get dinner with Kristoforus for his birthday. So we get off the plane, and split up in immigrations. I watched elder Housley go through, and he got sent to the back room. So I was kind of laughing that he might get chopped out since we had had the conversation a lot about it happening, but I was really confident I'd be ok since I had my return to the USA ticket. So I slap my passport on the counter, then the lady says something along the lines of I need a special visa or permit or something to be a volunteer for my church here, then tells me to go to the back room. Elder Housley was gone already when I got to the back room. So I wait in like with a bunch of Indonesians, Filipinos, Saudi Arabians, Nigerians, and Indians. I'm the only white guy. But it's my turn, I slap my passport down let her give me the lecture on how I'm not allowed to do what I've been doing, then I say I just need a month and give her my flight plans home. She said it didn't matter and that I wasn't allowed in the country anymore. Then sent me sit on a chair for a while. So I sat and sat and sat, wondering where elder Housley went. Then I got an email from him (only form of communication) saying that he was just wandering around the airport trying to buy a ticket back to Singapore because they just told him to leave the country. After forever, a guy came and got me, and brought me to a holding area. Down the hall I could see all these guys in turbans and stuff. Somehow they all knew I spoke Malay, but I just pretended I didn't. And then we just talked and stuff for a while, and they said I should get a plane ticket really soon otherwise I'd have to stay the night. So they got me a ticket in the mission office, then I just sat there for a few hours before getting on my plane to leave. They were supposed to keep my passport away from me, but they ended up giving me my passport on the plane. So I checked out the super epic not allowed back in stamp in the back of my passport, and some fancy paperwork. But they took it back when they realized I wasn't supposed to have it yet. But we landed in Singapore (all this time, elder Housley goes into the holding cell with 60 other men that weren't allowed in for the night) and I was escorted by 2 people to the immigration place in Singapore. So everyone that works in the airport in singapore speaks Malay. I don't know if they do it so that white people don't understand or what, but it was really funny listening to what they were saying. Anyway, they quizzed me a bit, called president Simmons, and then I talked with my escorts forever. They spoke Malay, so I spoke Malay, and they loved it. We had a great time talking together. But they let me in for the rest of my mission! So I got transferred to Singapore! Thursday, we just followed to the next zone conference since President didn't have time to think of what to do with us, but Friday, we got our new areas and companions!

My new companion is Elder Crowell from North Ogden! Funny guy, lots of fun. We've had a blast so far. We're in the woodlands ward, but it's combined with the bedok ward, because all of the American families (3/4 of the ward) went to America for the summer! So my entire time here, it'll be combined! But this is the first branch I've served in that has white people. Our bishop is super cool, and tons of cool members. Everyone is loaded. Super different than Malaysia. But it's gonna be awesome! People here are suuuper friendly. It's way weird. So it's really easy to find really well off people that want to learn! We found 4 really good new people between Friday and Sunday!

Elder Fogth

So Friday, I figured out our area had no investigators. So we went out and worked! We met Zion, who was really interested in how he could know if God was real, we met Yan Wei, who wanted to know what his purpose in life is, and we met Keith and his girlfriend, that wanted to know if God was really there and what His expectations for them were. I feel like in Singapore, I can really apply what Preach my gospel says. In Malaysia, it's pretty different, but here, everything directly applies in it. So. Preach my gospel is mega useful in Singapore. We've been lighting up the world here with the gospel. People love it and are super willing to commit it seems like. I guess we'll see how willing they are to commit in the next 3 weeks, but they gave super solid commitments for our first lesson, so that was good.

Saturday and Sunday were good. Mainly just getting to know the area and members. Not tons happened, but we taught lots of people. It was good. It was an eventful week, but I can't really remember what else happened.

Serving in Singapore is super weird. I feel like I'm on vacation whenever I walk outside. Everything here is just so nice. It's hard to believe that I'm serving in such an awesome place! Haha! I love it here! I'm definitely missing Puchong, but I'm gonna love Singapore! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins

Parakeet in Singapore

Jumping photo

A zone conference play

Buddhist temple