Elder Ben Mullins

Hey Everyone!

I can't believe it, but it's ALREADY been ONE ENTIRE YEAR since I left to the MTC! I can't believe it! I also figured out Christian Kamalu and I should be getting back the same day from our missions! He left 3 weeks after me... That's what happens when you're in the MTC for 3 weeks as opposed to 6 weeks. Anyway, the time is flying, and I love being a missionary! I figured out that Elder Schwemmer (Chinese Elder in Miri) went to Davis High too! So that's cool! He had a lady make a bunch of beaded ties for him, and one has a Davis D on it! I'll send a picture. Also, I forgot my planner this week, so I don't know if I'll be able to remember everything that happened.

I know that on Monday, we picked up Elder Johnson since his companion was in Singapore, and he hung out with us until Wednesday night. But we had nothing to do all day, because our plans to go to the crocodile farm fell through. We just learned how to do magic tricks and stuff all day, then had an appointment with brother Sait and his family that night. Brother Sait is way cool. I like him a lot. His two little boys are the calmest Malaysian little boys I've ever met.

Tuesday, Elder Asah was way sick. He was constipated for a week, and then told us half way through Tuesday. SO. We called the senior couple and got him some laxatives. Pretty awesome. Elder Johnson and I just studied, talked, and he taught me a bunch of magic tricks. So that's cool. I can only remember how to do one though. That night, Elder Asah was feeling better, so we went to our dinner appointment, where we ate PYTHON AND BIAWAK! It was actually pretty good! The python was a bit chewy, but it tasted good. And the biawak was really good except for all the bones. Other than that, not a ton happened.

Before I forget, let me tell you about Elder Asah! He's 19, from a small place near a small village called Mukah, and he's way funny. He speaks English, but sometimes he doesn't know how to say something or doesn't understand something, so we switch to Malay. He's super awesome. I really enjoy being with him. He likes cold hot chocolate. It's cold chocolate, not hot.

Wednesday... I can't even remember. Sorry. I should've brought my planner. WAIT! I just remembered! We woke up, did personal study, and then went to this kampung (kampung means village) that was built on a river. It was WAY cool. We got a really cool potential investigator too. The grandma loves us. The rest of the family is ok with us too. Our appointment on Sunday cancelled, but we should be able to get in with them later. They were eating up that a white person spoke Malay. Haha, it was hilarious.

Thursday was Elder Asah and my year mark! So that was awesome! We burned our worst shirts! I hadn't worn that shirt in 2 or 3 months, so it was whiter than the rest of my shirts, but it had a bunch of stains from food. I didn't wear it because it looked terrible. I can't remember who we met. I think we might've met with our new investigator, Samsul. Elder Mickelson baptized someone 6 months ago named Tingi. He recently moved to Miri, and now we're teaching his nephew, Samsul. He's 10 years old. He's a super cool little kid. He came to church, and I think he enjoyed it! Other than that, I have no idea what we did.

Friday... Wow, I really need to bring my planner next week. This entire week was a blur. I know we met with Cika, but didn't have enough time to teach her, so we just dropped off a letter for her to give to her boss to help get her Sundays off.

Saturday. Hmmmmmmmm. We got some good Indian food for lunch! Oh! I remember! I can't remember if this was Friday or Saturday, but Elder Asah has some CRAZY wisdom teeth. They're in the front of his mouth. Like a vampire. If he let them grow out, he'd totally be a vampire. They were bothering him, so we went to the dentist, and they said he couldn't get them out for another 3ish weeks. Soooo we'll see what happens! There's this place in Indonesia (it might be in Malaysia, but I think it's Indonesia), and it's named vampire in Indonesian. The people there are super pale, and have those wisdom teeth, so they all look like vampires. Pretty awesome, right? I really wanna go there. I don’t see how though, because it's probably a pretty far drive. I definitely won't be able to go during my mission, but maybe after when I come back to Malaysia. We'll see.

Sunday, church was awesome. I love meeting everyone at church. It's just a great time to get to know all the members. So that was good. There's this member from Sabah that always tries to talk to me (she has a little baby named Benjamin. What a cool name, right?), but her accent is way different than all the Ibans, and I can't understand a word she says in Malay. She always has to switch to English. I've gotten to the point where I just smile and nod. Maybe that's not good, but it's what I do. Hahaha, she's really nice though. Her husband is Chinese, so it's kind of weird to see a Chinese guy in the Malay branch, but whatever. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but we cover 2 branches right now, because our mission is lacking Malay speaking Elders. Our area is massive, and we go to 2 sacrament meetings. One branch starts classes first, and one starts sacrament first, then they swap places! It's pretty easy to go to both branches.

That was my week! Sorry I didn't bring my planner! I took a few extra pictures this week! I found Doritos too, so we're good. They were way expensive, but super good. Thanks for all the emails you send! I hope you all have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins

Selfie

This is what the old bike looked like

New Bike look We have to make our bikes look old so no one steals them

Lighting up our bike

One year burning a shirt

Beaded ties See the D for Davis on the first one?

I found them! Doritos!

Kampung

A broken down Kampung

Hey Everyone!

This week was CRAZY! Tons happened, and I'm definitely not gonna be able to remember everything. Luckily, it's all in the journal. But it was tons of fun, and flew by. It's transfer news day, so I might forget to say what's happening for transfers, BUT I do know that President Simmons changed the Zone Leader area over to Sungai Plan because we were doing a billion times better than every other area in the zone. Haha! I'm not a zone leader, but Elder Mickelson is! The other one is a Chinese elder. That's pretty cool that I'm in a zone leader area now! That means my area is supposed to be one of the easy areas that's super easy to make look good. It's totally true. The area is one of the best in the mission for sure! The members are GREAT, and the work here is really easy if you do it right.

Monday, we figured out that would be Elder Thompson's last Monday, because his plane to Singapore was leaving today early in the morning. We went on a shopping spree for him to find all of his last minute souvenirs. It was a ton of fun. We went to the huge store down in the city and got some way good barbecue sauce and steak seasoning. Now we just need to find some beef... After P Day was over, we went to Brother Gelanie's house. I took an awesome selfie with Heaven Lee. Well... I think that was Monday. If I took it last week and already sent it, I'm sorry. The days all kind of blur together. We talked with Cecilia too, and she's doing great. She's progressing a little slower, BUT she's definitely going to get dunked! We also met with Hallory. He understood a lot more this week than he did last week, so that was good. I was thinking he might be unteachable last week, but he understood really well about prophets and priesthood. He'll take a while too.

Tuesday morning, the TJK branch had a closing Gawai party. Elder Mickelson and I went, because at least one of us is going be serving in that branch this next transfer. They're combining the missionaries here. I think that Elder Mickelson and I will stay and serve in Sungai Plan and TJK. We’ll see what happens there... but it was a ton of fun. That branch has a lot of super awesome members, and a ton of super fun little kids to play with. We had a blast, and Elder Mickelson and I got to know the members. After that, we met with Valentino. We got him as a potential investigator 1 or 2 months ago, set up 6 or 7 appointments with him, and he would never show up, so we just gave up. BUT. He came to church last week, and we met with him. He's solid. He was taught all the lessons twice, but some stuff happened, and he ended up not getting baptized. He'll get baptized this time. I'm sure of it.

Wednesday was exchanges! I went with Elder Read. We met with Alyster, and it was a ton of fun to meet with him. It felt like it had been a long time since we had met with him, so I was glad to finally see him again. He's hilarious. The way his voice sounds is awesome. It's the perfect little kid voice. After him, we met with Lydia, Telajan, and Stacy. Telajan is moving to JB (West Malaysia) really soon, so we had a 'final lesson' type thing with him. He'll probably keep going to church in JB.

Thursday, tons happened, but the funniest thing that happened was when we picked up Elyzza to teach at night time. We had to walk to the church so that we could have a male with us while we taught her. While we were walking, she looked up at the sky, and saw some stars. She said, "Hey, why do the stars always follow just me? Watch this. If I stop, and you keep walking, the stars stop with me. Then I start moving, and they follow me again." It's pretty good in English, but in Malay, it was hilarious. Elder Mickelson and I were dying. It just sounded so funny in Malay. We told her it was because she was a princess. She said, "manada" which basically means in what universe does that exist. It doesn't have a super good translation, but that's a thing they say a lot. Then we told her that she was God's princess, and she said, "Oh. Well that doesn't explain why the stars follow me." We finally just dropped it and walked the rest of the way to the church.

Friday, Jatasia's husband, Moses, got back from working offshore! "Working offshore" is something that a lot of people do here. They basically go away from home for 2 or 3 months and work every day, then come back for about a month, then do it again. It's unbelievable. It pays well, so people do it. It was fun to surprise him that I could actually speak Malay now. When he left, I was still barely understanding people. It was fun to see him again. After that, we met with Sylvester. He's doing great. He hasn't smoked for a month, and he's just got to come to church one more week, and he can get interviewed for baptism. He's awesome. He'll be one of those super strong members that comes to church every week and helps out the missionaries all the time. So that'll be good!

Saturday, we had a really good lunch with Moses. Jatasia made some WAY good curry, and we got to teach all the little kids while they made all the stuff. That was tons of fun. After meeting with lots of people, we had Elyzza's baptism! It was so funny. Elyzza changed into her jumpsuit, and she was still wearing her pants under it. I, at the time, didn't know the work for "take off" (really I did, I just didn't know that it was used like that). Elder Mickelson was way too scared to tell her to take off her pants, so after I convinced him he was the one that had to do it for 5 minutes, he finally told her. She just stared at him for a second, then said no, and walked away. Haha! We had to get Jatasia and her mom to coax her into only wearing the jumpsuit. Haha! The baptism was great! Elder Mickelson baptized her! She came out of the water smiling and laughing! She was super excited.

After her, the other branch had a baptism! It was really good. After the baptism, we had a farewell dinner for Elder Thompson, and it was pretty good. While we were eating, I was talking with their recent convert, Henry. He wants to learn English, so I was teaching him English, and he was teaching me Malay. It was fun, and I got a lot of words I need to memorize now! Haha! I already have a ton. But I have even more now.

Sunday, we picked up Elyzza to go to church, because we were trying to pick up her uncle, Hallory, but he decided he wanted to sleep. We went to her house and grabbed her. On the way to the church, she said something hilarious. She told Elder Mickelson he had a good heart, and was really wise. Then she said, "And super handsommmmmme!" It was hilarious. She even said handsome in English. It was sooooo funny. We were dying. Then she said, "You're going to marry a girl and she's going be like 'WOOOOOO' because she married you". It was SOOO funny. I haven't let him live that down. Elyzza is the best…a great recent convert.

Sunday night, we got home and burned all of Elder Thompson's clothes. ALL of them. It was epic. The fire was MASSIVE. When we finished burning everything, we got a call from a member. His daughter had just gotten in a really bad car accident, and he wanted us all to go to the hospital so we could give her blessing. It was 10:50, and curfew is 11:00. We called the Zone Leaders and asked them if we could stay out late. They said we could, so we went out and gave her a blessing, and got home at 1:00. It was super late,so we just went to sleep.

Transfer news is out! I'm transferring! I'm going to Miri! There's a 4 hour bus ride by myself! That'll be a bummer, but that's fine! I'm excited to get to know everyone! I've been told that in the Miri area is doing really well, so that'll be fun! I'll have lots to do! My area is going to be massive. So that's bad. Haha! My companion will be Elder Asah. He came in with me! He's a native! It'll be fun to be with him, AND it will probably make my Malay really good really fast! So that's exciting! I'm excited to go! Thanks for all the emails! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins