Hey Everyone!
Wow, where have the two years gone? I would talk about my final week, but it's probably more interesting to just hear my thoughts and feelings at this point. We met a ton of people and had a great week.
I remember sitting at my desk in Penang, talking with Elder Allred, holding the Nokia indestructable phones we had, holding the down button scrolling through the calendar from August 2016 until July 2018, and the only thing that was going through my mind at the time was, "Wow. This is never going to end." Oh, how wrong I was. It all went by so fast. It's been an amazing experience, learning all of these new cultures, learning languages, from biking through the jungles of Borneo, and riding trains through one of the most wealthy cities on earth, serving on islands and in the middle of nowhere, learning how to teach, and most importantly, having time to be taught by God how to learn, have faith, repent, and help others do the same.
I've been reflecting on all of the people I've taught, the lives I've seen change, the people I've come to love so much. When I started my mission, I missed seeing white people so much, and every time I saw one, I would just want to talk with them and get a small taste of the culture I already knew and the English I could already understand. But coming back from Malaysia to Singapore for the last month of my mission, it's the first time I've had a white person in my branch / ward on my mission, and I'll just say that I'm a lot more comfortable talking with Asians than I am with white people. I miss Malaysia, the people there, the culture, the adventures we had every day, and the weather. Singapore still has a small part of that, which I love to see every day here. I've been so blessed to have an unusually large amount of success on my mission. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I really am so grateful that God was so nice to me and gave me all of the help I needed.
As I thought about the people that I've met and had the privilege of teaching, I came up with some lessons I learned. It took me two years to learn these, so I just wanted to list a few things I learned.
• Teaching by the spirit means teach from the scriptures.
When I was in Puchong, there was a member named Brother Chin, and he sat us down to teach us. He read to us D&C 50:13-14, and said something along the lines of, "Do you want to be successful as a missionary? Do you want to fulfill your call? You need to teach by the spirit. What does it mean to teach by the spirit?" Then he quoted 1 Nephi 4:6 about Nephi being led by the spirit and said, "The spirit tells you what you need to do." Then flipped to 2 Nephi 32:3, the words of Christ will tell you all things you need to do. So he said, "If you are being led to what you need to do, it's the spirit, and what tells you all things you need to do? The words of Christ! And where are the words of Christ found?" then a pause waiting for everything to sink in. "The scriptures! Teaching by the spirit means to teach from the scriptures! If you want to have success, use the scriptures. It's that easy." How right he was. The scriptures are how we teach by the spirit, and if you want to teach with power and authority, it needs to be by the spirit. I'm really glad I had the chance to learn that early on in my mission so that I could apply it throughout my mission.
• A goal without a plan is just a wish.
A lot of missionaries are really good at coming up with ideas and making it sound like they really know what's up. But ideas are just ideas unless there's a way to achieve the idea. As missionaries, you set weekly and daily goals through your entire mission, but a lot of people forget to make plans along with their goals. Unless you have a genie, your wish won't be granted unless you go and get it. I learned really quickly that I wouldn't achieve my goals without a plan and relying on the Savior. So if you ever make a goal, you need to make a specific plan to accomplish it.
• If you change nothing, nothing will change.
I have a lot of stories about this one, but I'll just share one or two examples. First, when I was in KK, it was very hard to find and retain people. The people there just aren't quite as open to the gospel as in the rest of East Malaysia. Every single week, our numbers were below where we wanted them, and we weren't having the success we were working for. We were being more obedient than ever, and working harder than ever, and weren't getting results. But every week, we changed something, and by the end, we really had things going, and lots more success. Second one, when I first transferred to Sungai Plan, we taught a man named Sylvester. His wife and daughter had been baptized a month before, and he had just opened his heart to the church. We taught him the Word of Wisdom pretty early on in his teaching, because he had a smoking problem. The first week, he just committed to stopping, and we made a plan. He didn't follow the plan, and didn't change anything. Guess what happened? He didn't lessen the number of cigarettes he had a day. Second week, he recommitted, we replanned, plus followed up every afternoon, and he cut it down from a box a day to 5 or 6 a day. Next week, he was still stuck at 5 or 6. So we asked when he's most tempted to smoke. He said he was most tempted in the morning when he woke up, so we asked him what time he woke up. 4 am. So guess what we did? We started calling him at 4 am as well as in the afternoon, and guess who stopped smoking that week? Sylvester! So if you aren't getting the results you hope for, you need to change what you do, or else nothing will change. The same goes for repentance. If you keep sinning the same way, change something, and see if it helps you stop!
• The pain of regret is worse than the pain of hard work.
I once lived in the same house as an elder that was nearing the end of his mission, and was getting lazy. He was very unclean, unkempt, and had little work ethic. He and his companion would go out every day, walk around, talk with a few people, then go find cool parks and ride their bikes down the stairs and paths and trails. When his mission was ending, I asked him why he did all of it. He said that he thought it would be easier in the moment, because working hard and talking with a lot of people every day gets really tiring. Then he told me that he really regretted how he had wasted so much time when he could've been helping people have faith, repent, and be baptized, then told me, "The pain of regret is worse than the pain of hard work."
• Today is the first day of the rest of your life, so make it special.
Every day is a brand new day, especially in missionary work. In missionary work, you don't see the same people very often, and you don't do the same thing every day. The next person you talk to could be your next baptism. So I kinda trained myself to see life in the perspective of how lots of people view the first day of the new year or first day of the school year or first day on a new job. You make new years resolutions, decide to make this school year one full of good grades, or to really impress your new employer. Every day is a first day, so make sure you're always looking to make it the best.
• You get what you go for.
We achieve what we think we can achieve. A lot of missionaries I've talked with like to say, "whether you think you can do it or not, you're right." In missionary work, if you're going to try to find "anybody that wants to learn", you're gonna be teaching a bunch of old people that just want someone to talk with. If you're going for "Easy baptisms", you'll probably be teaching a lot of young women and children. If you're shooting for "20 year old Chinese males", you'll most likely be teaching 20-23 year old Chinese males. Tying it into real life, if you're shooting to be "a good father", you'll be an alright father. If you're shooting to be "The best brother in the whole wide world", guess what you'll become? How about if I want to be "a good businessman that spends time with his family and loves playing badminton on weekends"? Whatever you think you can achieve, you can. If you don't make it, you'll at least get close to it.
• If you're on the fence, you get splinters.
Every day, we make so many decisions, some important, some not important. As a missionary, the decision to talk with someone or not affects whether they have an opportunity for salvation and exaltation. But we make the decision to pass someone by or talk with them a million times a day (maybe not that many). I've been told that Singaporeans are the fastest walkers in the world. I don't know if they were joking or not, buuuuut you DO need to make the decision fast. But every time I feel like I need to do something, like visit a member or talk with a person and I delay my decision until it's too late, I definitely feel splinters of regret that I should've just followed the prompting. So as far as spiritual promptings go, make sure you never delay your decision to follow it, otherwise you'll get splinters.
• The gospel changes lives
I think the biggest thing that missionaries see, is how the gospel changes lives. Just the other day, I walked into the house of a member, and their kids were pumped to see the missionaries, and were trying to get our attention while we talked with their parents, and their parents are telling them to go play to the side and we'd be there in a second, and their little baby was running around laughing about to tip over, and I realized the feeling of a family built and centered on Christ really is different. For the first time in my life, I really, truly realized how different and special and blessed families that follow the teachings of the gospel are. The spirit is really strong in homes like that. But that was post-change of the gospel. My favorite example is from my favorite person I ever met on my mission, Brother Kok Cin. When we first met him, he was a really quiet guy. He didn't talk much, and when he did, we'd have to lean forward in our seats to be able to hear him. He was kinda skeptical about Christianity because his father and siblings were all Taoist, but unlike most people like that, he did three things. He read the scriptures every day, prayed, and eventually came to church. He progressed really well, and was baptized about 3 months after we met him. I was transferred a month or so after that, and kept in contact. On my last transfer, I had the privilege of serving in the branch he was in again, and got to see the 1 Year + member Brother Kok Cin. I was genuinely impressed. He was a different man; still quiet and spoke softly, but there was a confidence in him that wasn't there before. The confidence of knowing who he was, why he was here, and knowing exactly what he needs to do to go live with God again one day. It really inspired me to know that it was possible to go through such a huge change by living the gospel.
Also, since I've been on my mission, I've changed a lot. Physical appearance has changed a lot, but I think that just came from living in Asia for 2 years and getting a little older. I look at the new missionaries that just got here, and wonder if I was like them when I got out. I think I was. Haha, lots of change happens in 2 years, and even though I'm still the same person with the same personality, I have a lot more hobbies, a new perspective on life, and new priorities on what's most important and least important. I know what the church is for, I know how to talk with people better, and how to teach, and how to find people that want to learn about the gospel, and most importantly, I've widened and strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It really is a miracle that we can repent. We have such a merciful God. He sent His Son to pay the debt that we couldn't, so that we could be redeemed as long as we did the work that He prepared for us. I've gained an appreciation for how simple God makes it. If you obey, you're blessed, and if you don't obey, you're not blessed. There's no in between, no gray area, just black and white. If I could let every single person on earth know one thing, it would be that today is the easiest day to start repenting, and if you put it off, it will only be harder.
I've been so blessed to have a family that is built upon the principles of the gospel and Jesus Christ, and to have all the support from everyone back home that I could ever hope for. I hope that in some way, I've affected someone else, so they can have the same type of family that I have. I don't really have any way that I can describe how important these last two years have been for me. It was worth it. Every day. So thanks for all the support and love, and I'll see you in two (days)!
Love,
Elder Ben Mullins
Wow, where have the two years gone? I would talk about my final week, but it's probably more interesting to just hear my thoughts and feelings at this point. We met a ton of people and had a great week.
I remember sitting at my desk in Penang, talking with Elder Allred, holding the Nokia indestructable phones we had, holding the down button scrolling through the calendar from August 2016 until July 2018, and the only thing that was going through my mind at the time was, "Wow. This is never going to end." Oh, how wrong I was. It all went by so fast. It's been an amazing experience, learning all of these new cultures, learning languages, from biking through the jungles of Borneo, and riding trains through one of the most wealthy cities on earth, serving on islands and in the middle of nowhere, learning how to teach, and most importantly, having time to be taught by God how to learn, have faith, repent, and help others do the same.
I've been reflecting on all of the people I've taught, the lives I've seen change, the people I've come to love so much. When I started my mission, I missed seeing white people so much, and every time I saw one, I would just want to talk with them and get a small taste of the culture I already knew and the English I could already understand. But coming back from Malaysia to Singapore for the last month of my mission, it's the first time I've had a white person in my branch / ward on my mission, and I'll just say that I'm a lot more comfortable talking with Asians than I am with white people. I miss Malaysia, the people there, the culture, the adventures we had every day, and the weather. Singapore still has a small part of that, which I love to see every day here. I've been so blessed to have an unusually large amount of success on my mission. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I really am so grateful that God was so nice to me and gave me all of the help I needed.
As I thought about the people that I've met and had the privilege of teaching, I came up with some lessons I learned. It took me two years to learn these, so I just wanted to list a few things I learned.
• Teaching by the spirit means teach from the scriptures.
When I was in Puchong, there was a member named Brother Chin, and he sat us down to teach us. He read to us D&C 50:13-14, and said something along the lines of, "Do you want to be successful as a missionary? Do you want to fulfill your call? You need to teach by the spirit. What does it mean to teach by the spirit?" Then he quoted 1 Nephi 4:6 about Nephi being led by the spirit and said, "The spirit tells you what you need to do." Then flipped to 2 Nephi 32:3, the words of Christ will tell you all things you need to do. So he said, "If you are being led to what you need to do, it's the spirit, and what tells you all things you need to do? The words of Christ! And where are the words of Christ found?" then a pause waiting for everything to sink in. "The scriptures! Teaching by the spirit means to teach from the scriptures! If you want to have success, use the scriptures. It's that easy." How right he was. The scriptures are how we teach by the spirit, and if you want to teach with power and authority, it needs to be by the spirit. I'm really glad I had the chance to learn that early on in my mission so that I could apply it throughout my mission.
• A goal without a plan is just a wish.
A lot of missionaries are really good at coming up with ideas and making it sound like they really know what's up. But ideas are just ideas unless there's a way to achieve the idea. As missionaries, you set weekly and daily goals through your entire mission, but a lot of people forget to make plans along with their goals. Unless you have a genie, your wish won't be granted unless you go and get it. I learned really quickly that I wouldn't achieve my goals without a plan and relying on the Savior. So if you ever make a goal, you need to make a specific plan to accomplish it.
• If you change nothing, nothing will change.
I have a lot of stories about this one, but I'll just share one or two examples. First, when I was in KK, it was very hard to find and retain people. The people there just aren't quite as open to the gospel as in the rest of East Malaysia. Every single week, our numbers were below where we wanted them, and we weren't having the success we were working for. We were being more obedient than ever, and working harder than ever, and weren't getting results. But every week, we changed something, and by the end, we really had things going, and lots more success. Second one, when I first transferred to Sungai Plan, we taught a man named Sylvester. His wife and daughter had been baptized a month before, and he had just opened his heart to the church. We taught him the Word of Wisdom pretty early on in his teaching, because he had a smoking problem. The first week, he just committed to stopping, and we made a plan. He didn't follow the plan, and didn't change anything. Guess what happened? He didn't lessen the number of cigarettes he had a day. Second week, he recommitted, we replanned, plus followed up every afternoon, and he cut it down from a box a day to 5 or 6 a day. Next week, he was still stuck at 5 or 6. So we asked when he's most tempted to smoke. He said he was most tempted in the morning when he woke up, so we asked him what time he woke up. 4 am. So guess what we did? We started calling him at 4 am as well as in the afternoon, and guess who stopped smoking that week? Sylvester! So if you aren't getting the results you hope for, you need to change what you do, or else nothing will change. The same goes for repentance. If you keep sinning the same way, change something, and see if it helps you stop!
• The pain of regret is worse than the pain of hard work.
I once lived in the same house as an elder that was nearing the end of his mission, and was getting lazy. He was very unclean, unkempt, and had little work ethic. He and his companion would go out every day, walk around, talk with a few people, then go find cool parks and ride their bikes down the stairs and paths and trails. When his mission was ending, I asked him why he did all of it. He said that he thought it would be easier in the moment, because working hard and talking with a lot of people every day gets really tiring. Then he told me that he really regretted how he had wasted so much time when he could've been helping people have faith, repent, and be baptized, then told me, "The pain of regret is worse than the pain of hard work."
• Today is the first day of the rest of your life, so make it special.
Every day is a brand new day, especially in missionary work. In missionary work, you don't see the same people very often, and you don't do the same thing every day. The next person you talk to could be your next baptism. So I kinda trained myself to see life in the perspective of how lots of people view the first day of the new year or first day of the school year or first day on a new job. You make new years resolutions, decide to make this school year one full of good grades, or to really impress your new employer. Every day is a first day, so make sure you're always looking to make it the best.
• You get what you go for.
We achieve what we think we can achieve. A lot of missionaries I've talked with like to say, "whether you think you can do it or not, you're right." In missionary work, if you're going to try to find "anybody that wants to learn", you're gonna be teaching a bunch of old people that just want someone to talk with. If you're going for "Easy baptisms", you'll probably be teaching a lot of young women and children. If you're shooting for "20 year old Chinese males", you'll most likely be teaching 20-23 year old Chinese males. Tying it into real life, if you're shooting to be "a good father", you'll be an alright father. If you're shooting to be "The best brother in the whole wide world", guess what you'll become? How about if I want to be "a good businessman that spends time with his family and loves playing badminton on weekends"? Whatever you think you can achieve, you can. If you don't make it, you'll at least get close to it.
• If you're on the fence, you get splinters.
Every day, we make so many decisions, some important, some not important. As a missionary, the decision to talk with someone or not affects whether they have an opportunity for salvation and exaltation. But we make the decision to pass someone by or talk with them a million times a day (maybe not that many). I've been told that Singaporeans are the fastest walkers in the world. I don't know if they were joking or not, buuuuut you DO need to make the decision fast. But every time I feel like I need to do something, like visit a member or talk with a person and I delay my decision until it's too late, I definitely feel splinters of regret that I should've just followed the prompting. So as far as spiritual promptings go, make sure you never delay your decision to follow it, otherwise you'll get splinters.
• The gospel changes lives
I think the biggest thing that missionaries see, is how the gospel changes lives. Just the other day, I walked into the house of a member, and their kids were pumped to see the missionaries, and were trying to get our attention while we talked with their parents, and their parents are telling them to go play to the side and we'd be there in a second, and their little baby was running around laughing about to tip over, and I realized the feeling of a family built and centered on Christ really is different. For the first time in my life, I really, truly realized how different and special and blessed families that follow the teachings of the gospel are. The spirit is really strong in homes like that. But that was post-change of the gospel. My favorite example is from my favorite person I ever met on my mission, Brother Kok Cin. When we first met him, he was a really quiet guy. He didn't talk much, and when he did, we'd have to lean forward in our seats to be able to hear him. He was kinda skeptical about Christianity because his father and siblings were all Taoist, but unlike most people like that, he did three things. He read the scriptures every day, prayed, and eventually came to church. He progressed really well, and was baptized about 3 months after we met him. I was transferred a month or so after that, and kept in contact. On my last transfer, I had the privilege of serving in the branch he was in again, and got to see the 1 Year + member Brother Kok Cin. I was genuinely impressed. He was a different man; still quiet and spoke softly, but there was a confidence in him that wasn't there before. The confidence of knowing who he was, why he was here, and knowing exactly what he needs to do to go live with God again one day. It really inspired me to know that it was possible to go through such a huge change by living the gospel.
Also, since I've been on my mission, I've changed a lot. Physical appearance has changed a lot, but I think that just came from living in Asia for 2 years and getting a little older. I look at the new missionaries that just got here, and wonder if I was like them when I got out. I think I was. Haha, lots of change happens in 2 years, and even though I'm still the same person with the same personality, I have a lot more hobbies, a new perspective on life, and new priorities on what's most important and least important. I know what the church is for, I know how to talk with people better, and how to teach, and how to find people that want to learn about the gospel, and most importantly, I've widened and strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It really is a miracle that we can repent. We have such a merciful God. He sent His Son to pay the debt that we couldn't, so that we could be redeemed as long as we did the work that He prepared for us. I've gained an appreciation for how simple God makes it. If you obey, you're blessed, and if you don't obey, you're not blessed. There's no in between, no gray area, just black and white. If I could let every single person on earth know one thing, it would be that today is the easiest day to start repenting, and if you put it off, it will only be harder.
I've been so blessed to have a family that is built upon the principles of the gospel and Jesus Christ, and to have all the support from everyone back home that I could ever hope for. I hope that in some way, I've affected someone else, so they can have the same type of family that I have. I don't really have any way that I can describe how important these last two years have been for me. It was worth it. Every day. So thanks for all the support and love, and I'll see you in two (days)!
Love,
Elder Ben Mullins
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| Chinese drama being filmed |
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| Southern most tip of continental Asia |
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| Malaysia from Singapore |
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| Universal Studios Sentosa |
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