Message from Mom: This is one more translated audio file Elder Mullins sent to us. Hopefully he will send written emails from now on. If not, I will listen and give a brief synopsis. I will make an abridged record like the prophet Mormon. Ha Ha!
Elder Mullins--Ain't no mountain high, ain't no
valley low.
Elder Mickelson--All right this is Elder
Mickelson.
Elder Mullins--and Elder Mullins
Elder Mickelson --and we're ready to report on
another week.
Elder Mullins—Monday, we hopped on a plane and
went over to Singapore.
Elder Mickelson—Yep, Singapore, that was a
pretty interesting trip. We were flying over there and they're like. okay do
you want some like chicken and rice? okay I will take some chicken with rice.
And then…
Elder Mullins--We open it up and on top of the
chicken and the rice there's this green bean paste.
Elder Mickelson-- It was literally like
this radioactive green color chicken sitting right there over some rice. We were sitting there going hmm... Then
it ended up being some of the most sedap plane meals I've ever had
Elder Mullins--It wasn't too bad. I was expecting it to be a lot worse because
it smelled kind of weird, but once the smell went away it was pretty good.
Elder Mickelson--So that was that, and we flew,
and landed. We ran over and had Zone conference.
Elder Mullins –Yep. We weren't told we're going to give a training
or anything because it was all supposed to be focused on smartphones, but it
turns out we were actually supposed to give a training on how you do
smartphones.
Elder Mickelson--Yep so Monday night we are
giving a training the next day on how to use the new area book planner app. We
were like, “oh sweet!” On the way to the
church the next day. we started going over our lesson on the MRT (public transit).
Elder Mullins-- We just read a page or two then
went to Zone conference. to give our training.
Elder Mickelson--And it was pretty good. Honestly like when we were given it I've seen
okay that's not bad for the last second run through it, but everybody started
freaking out about the training. I wasn't even some spiritual super power boost
or anything. I mean it was like how to use an app.
Elder Mullins—We just taught them how to use an
app.
Elder Mickelson--I guess there was enough
testimony and promise at the end with cool, funny remarks, that they were
eating it up; especially president Simmons. We actually got a shout-out
in the zone conference after ours.
Elder Mullins--Okay so after that, we were up in
the mission office--this might have been the next day
Elder Mickelson—Yeah, I think this was the next
day. I guess we'll go for MLC.
Elder Mullin--So we went to MLC the next day. It
took forever and it was way intense.
Elder Mickelson--There were all these things
everyone had some strong opinions about the use of these new technological
devices flying around. Stuff like, all
these things like emailing what's allowed what isn't and how you use the videos,
how the safeguards apply. Eventually we
got to an even more heated topic
Elder Mullins--Should we talk about the heated
topic?
Elder Mickelson--Which we will not be discussing
at this time.
Elder Mullins and Elder Mickelson—(Lots of
laughing) But it was way good, super
intense, lots of back and forth. It was
intense crazy. It was a good MLC.
Elder Mickelson--So after that we are back to
the mission office. We have told Sister
Walker we were going to help her out cooking
Elder Mullins--Sister Walker's a senior
missionary.
Elder Mickelson—Right, so she's a senior couple missionary.
She was cooking for the Zone conference after us. We told her that
we would help her out, and so we finished MLC. We went over to the mission office and
we're about to head back to go help Sister Walker cook.
Elder Mullins--There is a sister at the mission
office. She was having back pain problems or something. I don't
really know. Anyway, she had talked to
the mission nurse and they got everything figured out. Tey left and we were leaving at the same time
as this sister and her companion
Elder Mickelson--And so we get to the elevator and
we're asking them where they're going what they're going to do with their free
time, and then one of them, her eyes were super red and she just looked kind of
exhausted to me. I was like, “hey are you
okay? You look kind of tired.” and she
was like, “yeah I'm fine.” and then she just stopped and she was like, “no, I'm
not fine.” and she burst into tears all over her companion
Elder Mullin--Super awkward…okay we're out of
here. Peace out. Then we booked it through the door.
Elder Mickelson--We literally ran as fast as we
could and like 10 seconds later the APs come walking out from the elevator
entry area. They're like, “what happened?
what's going on? I'm like, “I don't know anything!”
Elder Mullins--So we waited like 5 minutes and
then went down and we heard some crying on the second floor so that was pretty
awkward.
Elder Mickelson-Yep moral of the story is we are
afraid of emotion.
Elder Mullins--But it turns out there was some PH
level brain craziness. There was a lot
of stuff going on, but it ended up being okay. There wasn't a problem.
Elder Mickelson--Yeah there were just some
medical things that needed a little bit of checking out. I guess it's been a
stressful couple of days and she had this crazy stomach bacterial infection. Lots
of stuff
Elder Mullins--Pretty cool, but it was way
awkward and way funny.
Elder Mickelson-Sweet!
Elder Mullins--Sister Walker back to her: we
told her we were going to help her cook this massive dinner for the next Zone
conference because we had an extra day.
Elder Mickelson--We got there and we were
cooking. She was telling us how grateful
she was, and then we were like, “hey what time do you have to get up tomorrow
morning to go set up for the next zone conference?” and she was like, “oh I can handle that.” “Oh no, Sister Walker we will help you out
with that.” “Are you serious? I'm about
to cry.” In her southern accent.
Elder Mullins--She's from Louisiana.
Elder Mickelson--It was very good and we ended
up waking up way early the next morning.
After cooking some lasagna the night before and to help go set up a
bunch of stuff she was so happy. I don't know, it was just one of those good
moments for us. It felt like we did a
good deed and it was way worth it.
Elder Mullins—Yep, so we helped her cook the
dinner. It was actually way good. Yeah, made lasagna all day.
Elder Mickelson--Yeah it was pretty good. We were those weird missionaries who are going
to Singapore and instead of hanging out with all the other young missionaries
we just hung out with the senior couples the whole time.
Elder Mullins--Yeah everyone else, but there's
only so much you can see in Singapore… so…
Elder Mickelson--Senior couples…
Elder Mullins—Yep, so there's this the other senior
couple, the Crosses. Elder Cross loves us and we love them. So on the way to Singapore he totally hooked
us up with window seats he literally separated us so we each had our own window
seat.
Elder Mickelson--It wasn't even because the plane
was totally packed.
Elder Mullins--Yep and also he hooked up with
these way sweet phone cases.
Elder Mickelson--Now we have matching gun
holster phone cases.
Elder Mullins--Oh and when we went to Zone
conference we had matching phone cases, matching phone holders, matching
literally the exact same belts, same pants, same shirt, same ring.
Elder Mickelson-- I don't know, we were pretty
matched and it was pretty good. We were
just proving again that we have the most unified companionship
Elder Mullins—Yeah, it was pretty cool all right.
When we came back from Singapore we like
to teach someone on that plane so you can get a new investigator. We were like “okay we will do it.” We sat
down on our seats on the plane and this Chinese dude sat next to us, but then
he was like “wait,” because he was on the plane with his wife, but his wife was
not next to him. We talked with a bunch of people and finally swapped out seats
with someone, and then this other Chinese dude who was a lot younger sat next
to me.
Elder Mickelson—Right, and so Elder Mullins,
then me, and we ended up trying to teach him. He actually knew a lot about Mormons because
he used to live in Arizona. He used to
live in Phoenix
Elder Mullins--So I told him, “that's cool I used
to live really close to Phoenix too”, but he had a lot of really good questions. We just wrecked him with the spirit. I was like, that's pretty good, but I wasn't super
confident he would come to church.
Elder Mickelson--He wasn't really willing to commit
on the plane ride, but then on WhatsApp after church today he said, “I'm sorry.
I was planning on coming, and then last
second this thing came up.” We were like, ‘wait what? You were totally
planning on coming?” so that was way cool. We left more of an impression on him than we had
originally thought.
Elder Mullins—We got him! Okay, also while we were in Singapore I met
this new person named Miles last week, right?
Elder Michaelson--and so we met him at the
church. I think we talked about him last
week. A senior couple here ended up meeting with him on Tuesday while we were
in Singapore.
Elder
Mullins--Along with along with President Simmons’ two sons.
Elder Mickelson--Brownie points! I guess that lesson went really well and he
was just eating it up. He's just one of
those people who is prepared from the foundation of the earth and now I know
why.
Elder Mullins—He lives in China and is from Hong
Kong. He's got this school in China with
500 + students that are all about missionary age.
Elder Mickelson--He is not allowed to
spread the gospel in China because it's China but there are some things he is
able to do, such as teach them how to pray, and begin and end with prayer, and
to sing hymns, and to share Bible stories, and to teach them all the Word of Wisdom,
just like a healthy lifestyle that they all need to follow. Literally, his goal is to prepare those 500
students he has so that when he has a month to take them out on vacation later he
can take them somewhere where there are missionaries and they can all be
baptized.
Elder Mullins—Yeah, so he is converted. He's very solid. Like one and a half times
super cool! He will be in Hong Kong will
be able to video call him and teach him through that.
Elder Mickelson--So Miles miracle: he's going to
help us and open up China.
Elder Mullins --Yep a few weeks ago we were
walking home from a place called Kurama and a random guy pulls over his truck
and he says get in my car. We were like “no.” He says, “no,
no, no, it's okay. You can trust me. He shows us his phone and I looked at Elder
Mickelson, and he was like, “what do you think? Yeah let's do it. Let's give it a shot… whatever.”
Elder Mickelson--So we jump into this car and it
turns out the guy is way cool. He's from
the motherland, Taiwan. I guess that's
not Elder Mullins motherland, it's not really my motherland either, but it's
the second land. He's way cool. He says his name is Jackie and I asked him, “like
Jackie Chan?” “no, not like Jackie Chan.
Like Jackie with an unpronounceable
Chinese name.”
Elder Mullins-- Jackie seemed really cool. He gave us a free ride to the city so I
called him up when we got back from Singapore and asked if we can meet. He says, “yeah I've got time tonight. Let's do it”. We ended up meeting him. It was way cool. He was way more prepared than we had
originally thought. He asked a lot of
good questions and he responded very well to the restoration. He ate it up. I showed him a picture of the
Apostles and he jumped out of his seat.
He got close to the phone and he tried zooming in. He loved it!
Elder Mickelson—That was the restoration lesson
that every missionary dreams of having.
The spirit was felt. He was
asking questions about what he was committing to and it went really well.
Elder Mullins--He didn't come to church today,
but he felt really bad about it. He felt
bad; that's the first step.
Elder Mickelson—Yep, so we're pretty confident
that he will come to church this next week, and we will be able to meet with
him a couple more times this week. That
really solidifies things.
Elder Mullins-- On Friday when we were in
Singapore President Simmons gave us these two get free McMuffin McDonald's
breakfast thing. We were out eating our
free McMuffins when all the sudden…the phone rings. We will tell you why that
is significant later. There's this guy who’s
asking a bunch of questions. He’s talking
really fast and really soft and Elder Mullins can't really hear him. He hears something about English class. He asks, “do you want me to send you some
English class information?” “Yeah, we’ll
send that out to you really quick,” and hangs up.
Elder Mullins—I said, “Elder Mickelson, send
this number all the English class information.
He’s setting up all the English class information and then he gets a
text from this number and it says this is the Saba City super-secret police.
Elder Mickelson--It was the Department Office of
Special Forces Saba Police… something. So
this place was definitely on to us. They
needed to know of all the elders and how long you been here, what's going on,
we need pictures of your passports, we need a lot of this information, we need
it now. Elder Mullins said, “call the
president.” We called President Simmons…nothing.
We called again… nothing. We call the AP's…
nothing. We called the AP’s again…
finally got something. They're like, “Okay
we'll talk to president.” Sweet! We waited for president and we started
getting bombarded by these texts and all these calls from multiple different
numbers all trying to get information out of us.
Elder Mullins--The reason it was important that
he called me first is that when we advertise English classes Elders Mickelson's
number is on the sign and mine is nowhere.
They shouldn't have had my number, but they called my number first.
Elder Mickelson--They totally had his number. We're just kind of freaking out. For some reason the police are way mad and
making a big deal out of everything I'm talking about; how serious it is. I was
like “We're going to have to talk to our supervisor first” and things for
getting way intense.
Elder Mullins--Then they had fake people call us
and pretend like they were interested in English class.
Elder Mickelson--We get this call, “Hello I'm
interested in English class. Can you tell me everything about it? I say, “I'm sorry we're going to have to wait
until a later day,” and instantly she hung up on us.
Elder Mullins—Yeah, we said we have to talk to
someone first, and then she hung up totally with the cops.
Elder Michaelson Totally with the cops.
Elder Mullins--Right before that another guy
calls. The dude’s like, “Where's the English class?” Elder Mickelson gave him
the church name. The guy writes down the church name and then obviously he
found the address to that. These were
the police so we didn't know that guy was fake until later when we realized
they were calling us with a bunch of people to get all this information.
Elder Mickelson--They were definitely on to us. We were freaking out and setting up appointments. President Simmons said, “You've got to make
sure you record the whole thing.”
Elder Mullins—Wait… did he say we weren't even
supposed to respond to them?
Elder Mickelson--Oh yeah.
Elder Mullins--Oh awkward… Okay so before back
up we're freaking out. We got ahold of
the AP’s. They say “okay we’ll tell
president.” He doesn't respond for a
long time, and while we're waiting they are just hitting us up with calls,
angry texting, angry calls, all that good stuff. We've got to respond. I'm like Elder Mickelson, “Don't do it,” but he's like, “we have to”. “No don't!” He's like, “We have to.” Then I was like, “okay, you're right. We have
to.” We got a million calls.
Elder Mickelson--I was just like, “If this is
actually the police, we don't want to look super guilty by dodging them and
make them think we're about to catch the nearest plane out of the country. I
finally responded and then President finally calls right after I responded to
them. He's like, “whatever you do don't
respond.” I'm like, “no.”
Elder Mullins--So that was awkward
Elder Mickelson--Yeah that was awkward, but it's
okay. I guess we'll go on later to the story. We made an appointment with them. It was kind of like a showdown at noon except
for it was 5:00. President Simmons is like, “Make sure no one else is there. Record
the whole meeting. This is what you need to say. It was me and Elder Mullins. He also called the District president to come
help us out, because the district president knows what he's about.
Elder Mullins—"President Simmons says, “If
you want you can just text me or just give me a call and I'll listen.” I'm like, ”It's all going to be in Malay.” “Oh okay. Nevermind.” I said, “Okay thanks.” He
just has recorded it all.
Elder Mickelson--We actually have it on recording. Finally, the police show up and they come
walking in. It's us and President Ling. I come back into the office and they come out
guns blazing, asking all these questions trying to be in control and then…
Elder Mullins--They got nothing. We're sitting in President Ling's office and President
Ling just goes ham. They were just like, “How long have they been here? How long are they going to be here? When are they going to leave?... all this kind
of stuff. Can we have their passports? President
was just like, “Calm down. We got it. Everything's okay. We've been doing this for ever. You came here before and asked all these
questions.”
Elder Mickelson—Yep. He just shut down every
single claim they were trying to make. Because
President Ling shut it down, they did not believe for a second that we were
volunteers or the church works the way that it does. I was sharing with him about the church and
the way we work, and what we believe. They
ended up being potential investigators by the end of the interrogation.
Elder Mullins—Yep. They want to bring their
families and play volleyball at the church someday.
Elder Mickelson--Yep it was way cool. President
was inviting them. “Hey if you want to see what they're all about, come to
church on Sunday, and you'll see what they're all about.”
Elder Mullins--It was pretty awesome…that was
the police… really intense. Moving on to
Sunday. We talked to a member named Mixture.
He is way cool and his sister's inactive so we met with his sister today. She's got some potential to come back to
church.
Elder Mickelson—Yeah, she's way cool. It was way solid. The coolest part about that is just the fact
that we were working so close with Mixture.
Elder Mullins--Yeah Mixture’s way cool. Also this guy named Teddy, we'll see with him,
but he's like a super cool guy, just less active.
Elder Mickelson--He's just really committed to
his work, but he has a testimony and he really wants to do the right thing. He knows what is right so we will see what we
can do to work with him.
Elder Mullins—Also, I did get the package sent
from the family and I also really, really like the notes. The notes are my
favorite part of the package I think. Thank you for all the candy, and the
treats, and the notes. It was awesome!
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| Ridley and Asmira |
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| District volleyball on P-day |
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| Elder Mickelson and me |
