Hey Everyone!!!
This week was GREAT! I had a ton of fun! Lots happened, but
I can't remember it all. It was a great
last week of the transfer!
Monday, Elder Asah and I went to a crocodile farm, and it was
AWESOME. It was more like a little zoo. We had tons of fun. Elder Childs, a
senior couple missionary, brought us. We
saw a bunch of small crocodiles, and I was a little bit disappointed, because
they were all so small. BUT. Then we saw some monkeys, and they were wayyyy
funny. They would lean up against the cage.
Elder Childs and Asah kept poking them, and they'd turn around, and make
this suuuuper funny face. I was dying laughing, and I took a picture. Then Elder Asah had this little mirror that
he showed them, and they LOVED the mirror. They were so interested. It was
wayyyy funny. I was literally crying I was laughing so hard. Pretty epic. I
loved it. Eventually, we went over to the other crocodile pits, and there were
HUUUGE crocodiles…like 31 feet long---huge.
They told us it was their biggest one.
I totally believe it. They were MASSIVE. I had no idea crocodiles were
that big! They gave us a pole with a
wire attached to the end, and stuck chicken on the end. We dangled it over the crocodiles. They literally sit there and do nothing for
HOURS at a time, but once they saw the chicken, they would wait until it got
super close, and then they would all lunge for it at the same time. The first
time it happened, we all jumped a mile. It was awesome. We would yank it away from their reach, so
they would miss it. It was WAYYY FUN just
playing with the crocodiles. When they
got the chicken, it was super cool, because they'd swallow it whole. It was
seriously the best P day I've had in a long time. Super epic. Oh yeah, and we
saw some crazy birds. They had large talons. It was "the most dangerous
bird in the world". But this IS Malaysia, so they could've just been
making it up; I’m not really sure. It
was freaky looking. Pretty awesome. Oh
yeah, and we went to the pit with the HUUUUGE crocodiles right as they were
feeding them. It was way intense. They'd throw a bunch of chickens in, and the
crocodiles would go CRAZY getting them. They'd be hitting each other and
snapping their teeth. When they snap their jaw shut and don't bite anything, it
makes a super weird sound. It was tons
of fun to watch. If they're hiding under
the water, you can't see them… at all. They threw a chicken into the middle of
the water, and about 6 crocodiles shot out of the water and fought for the
chicken. I thought the water only had crocodiles at the banks, because those were
the only ones I could see, but they were all over in the water!
On Monday night, we went over to Brother Sait's and had an
awesome Family Home Evening. After that, we went outside, and OUR BIKE SEATS
HAD BEEN STOLEN. I couldn't believe it. They literally stole our seats just to
harass us. We even know who did it. There's always this group of kids outside
their house. SO. That was annoying. We
biked home standing up.
Tuesday, we biked to district meeting standing up, and it was
exhausting. It changed the 15-minute bike ride to a 30 minute bike ride, and we
were dripping sweat by the end. We had a good district meeting. Two missionaries here finished their missions
today, so they bore their dying testimonies at that meeting. Then we got some
okay food. We literally ate at a restaurant in a bank. So. Just ok. After that, we biked to the Chinese speaking elders’
house, and stole one bike seat from an old bike that didn't work, then biked to
the sisters' house and stole 2 more seats from broken bikes, then biked back to
the Chinese house to return the one seat. It was a lot of biking. BUT we got
bike seats for free. Totally worth it. Bike seats are way expensive
here... After that, we went and followed
up with all our investigators. Some of them went back to Kampung, sooooo we
dropped them for now. We also biked down
to the hospital, because an inactive member's grandpa is super sick, and
requested a blessing. We went down there
(an hour straight biking in the BLAZING sun. I got a sweet helmet tan line),
and gave the blessing after searching for like 30 minutes for him (he wasn't in
the bed they said he was. It was some random Muslim dude), and then biked 45
minutes back to the church in the BLAZING sun. We were exhausted. Buuuuut we
kept going on. We got some super good drinks from a night market, and then
visited members until the day was over.
Wednesday, we had exchanges. I went with Elder Johnson. He's
a Chinese speaking elder, sooooo I just taught everyone while he listened.
Haha, he's hilarious! And he's a
magician, so he did magic for everyone, and they ATE IT UP. It was hilarious.
Ibans love magic tricks. They even understand the word magic in English. That's
how much they like it. We also talked with some inactives and set appointments
with them, got lost a few times, because I don't know the area too well (just
ok), and had a lot of fun. It rained a lot too, so we had fun getting soaked.
Thursday, we met with a new guy named Diro. He was a referral from a recent convert from
the English/Chinese branch here. He's Indonesian, so the Chinese Elders
couldn't teach him, but we got to! Oh, by the way. I'm trilingual now. Haha!
Indonesian and Malay are basically the same language, so I can speak both! He's kind of a funny guy. I don't really know
what will happen with him. Indonesians are just super funny people. After him, we met with Brother Lerang,
because he was going to baptize his daughter on Friday! We had a nice quick
lesson, and then headed over to Sayu to finish off the day! It was a good
day...
Friday... We visited a million inactives again. At one of
the houses, there were about 6 people passed out drunk, and 2 that were still
drinking. The worst thing was, 4 members lived in that house. I'm
not sure which 4 were members. They've been inactive for a long time. Haha! SO.
We'll work with them for sure! We met with Lila and her husband and sister too.
Her husband is way cool. He's got mega long hair, and is super funny. We taught the restoration, and they loved
it. Hopefully they'll start coming back
to church. Lila just had a baby about 2
weeks ago, and it's a super cute baby. It had a ton of hair too. After them, we
ran over to the church and filled up the font super quick, then had the baptism.
Brother Lerang baptized his 8-year-old girl, and it was WAYYYY funny how he did
it. He slammed her into the water, and yanked her right out. She was probably
actually under the water for like .1 seconds. It was wayyyy funny. I literally
laughed for a split second before stopping. His daughter was scared to go under
water, so he promised her that it would be super quick, and it was definitely
quick. Hahaha!
Saturday... Let's see. OH! We went to Satam's and built
stairs up to her house! It was lots of fun, and after, we had a mega good
barbecue, and played with their monkey. Tons of fun. Oh yeah, and she finished
my beaded tie! I took a picture with her
while I was wearing it! I can't remember
what else we did... That night, we helped Sidar write his talk for church. So
that was good.
Sunday, I gave a talk in church. Sidar did too, and also a few more
people. It was really good! The Miri Branch
has this problem where all the people when they give a talk read the gospel
principles book. I took it upon myself
to fix that, because literally nobody was listening in sacrament meeting. They
literally read the book. That's it; none of their own thoughts or anything.
Apparently Elder Asah and Elder Gara talked with the branch president about it
before. When I talked with the branch
president he said that it was the speaker’s choice to read the book, and he
didn't want me to talk to him again about it.
Last week, I talked about it with him, and told him why that wasn't ok,
and came up with a plan to help. It
worked! They didn't just read the book! Everyone who gave a talk actually
shared from their heart and didn't read a word out of the gospel principles
book! So that was awesome! I was super happy about that. We met with a bunch of members after church,
and had a good time searching for those referrals.
That night, I texted President Simmons and told him to give
me a call when he had time. He called me
eventually, and I talked to him about housing arrangements in Miri next
transfer because a bunch of things that were happening. I was assuming we were all staying. After we figured it all out, he said,
"It doesn't even matter for you anyway, because you're going to KK next
transfer." ,so I got transfer news last night instead of this morning!
Everyone else is waiting for it! I don't know if I'm training or what (I think
I will be), but I'm not staying in Miri! Kota Kinabalu is probably the most touristy
spot in East Malaysia. I'm way excited to go over there and check it out and
get some work done! I love Miri, but I'm also excited to go to a new area! New
is always good, because new is fun! Haha! I'll be going there, but I don't know
anything else besides that! I'll try to
update you on who my companion is before I stop emailing!
I've loved Miri, and I'm excited to check out Kota Kinabalu
(KK)! I'm going to miss the members, the Ibans, the culture, the no hills, and
a lot of other stuff, but I'm way excited to see all the new cultures over in
Sabah! Elder Ng (my trainer) told me last week that when people in KK talk, it
sounds like they're singing! Haha! So
we'll see on that one! I'll let you know next week! Thanks for all the emails!
Have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Ben Mullins
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| Angry Monkey |
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| Kittens |
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| Baby Crocodile |
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| Crocodile Farm |
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| I always love the kids |
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| Elder Asah |
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| Satam |
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| Doing Service |
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| Smaller Crocodiles |
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| A Wrecked House |
