Going to Singapore

Hey Everyone!

This week was crazy! I don't even know where to begin. Right now I'm on a plane going to Singapore, and emailing from A NEW PHONE.  Super crazy. Everyone in the mission should be getting a phone in a few weeks.  I picked up my phone and set it up on Tuesday, and that took forever. We literally stood at the Samsung store for about an hour and a half, then set up our phones and got all the church software stuff for another hour.  That night we went to some flats that our branch president moved to a month ago. Missionaries hadn't ever been there, so we were excited. We called an Uber, and we got into tons of traffic.  It ended up taking an hour to get there, but the drive was beautiful. The rural areas of Malaysia are something else. I'm going to get pictures next time. When we got there, we started going ham knocking doors. Right across the hall from the branch president, we found an Iban family who was super interested. I think that's the first Iban family I've met in Sabah.   We also met a lot of other people, and Elder Johnson and Loutzenhiser are going back today to teach 4 people we found.

Before I continue, I wrote a list of things I always forget to email about, so I’ll cover those right now before I forget.

• I always tell Chinese people that Elder Johnson speaks Chinese. I know juuuuuust enough Chinese to say that in Chinese.   We get Chinese people all the time that just go off in Chinese to Elder Johnson. This week, he was sick of it, because I did it  4 times in one day. It was super funny, but I think I'm done. Wait until my next companion.

• We found mega good pizza!  Over in the mall next to our apartment, there's this super small pizza shop, but literally the best pizza I've eaten in Malaysia. So that's good. It still doesn't compare with pizza in the USA.  A big problem is the pepperoni is made out of chicken...

• Paredick and secret service. Paredick is a member here, and he's way funny. He was inactive when I got to KK, but we met him once, and then he's been fully active ever since. He’s a 50 year old single guy, super wants a wife but denies it, likes rings with massive jewels, and most importantly, he's obsessed with the Israeli secret service. He's always telling us stories about what the Israeli secret service did and how impressive they are, and it's his dream to join it. He went off about it in priesthood this week, and everyone was trying not to laugh. I think the best part about it is that Malaysians (including Paredick) aren't even allowed to enter Israel. #MuslimCountryProblems

Ok. Wednesday. No idea. I can't remember. I don't even have my planner with me. Same with Thursday. I just remember we were going ham trying to get people to commit to church. We met with a guy named Maxter, and he seemed a little interested, but we'll see what happens there. 

Friday, we went around making sure people knew about the baptism and activity and church. So lots of follow up.

Saturday-I'm going to skip to the end first.  A while ago,Ii baptized a Chinese kid here named Johnny. Friday, his little brother was baptized, and Elder Johnson baptized him. The water was off until about 4:00, they filled it up at 4ish, and the water was super muddy, so they drained it, filled it again,  muddy again, drained it, filled again, muddy, drained, filled again, muddy, and decided to do the baptism anyway.   This was the first person Elder Johnson had ever baptized. He gets in the water, and starts saying the baptismal prayer in Malay. I'd say the best way to put it is, everything about Malay he has learned in the last 5 months exited his mind.  He literally read it like it was English, baptized him, got out, then just started laughing. I asked what was so funny. He said that his mind went blank and he couldn't remember anything right when he entered the water. Haha! So. Pretty awesome. He's hilarious. Other than that, on Friday, we met with some people, had a really great activity with the young men and Elders quorum combined, and really enjoyed the day.

Sunday, Mamak, the lady that looks like Edna on the Incrediblea, came to church, as well as brother Yu. After church, Andrew followed us over to Brother Yu's house, and we taught him. I'm really excited for brother Yu. He's the father of a less active member, but he's come to church twice in a row now.  We're hoping that it goes really well. His daughter used to be super active, so we're planning on getting her back too!

Overall, it was a super good week! I had tons of fun, we met with a lot of people, and found a ton of new people to meet with this week!  We're pumped! Thanks for all the emails! You're all awesome! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins

Lots of bananas

Keeping dry?

Translation is close--ha ha!

There's always advertising English to get new investigators

Elder Johnson and me on a bus

Elder Mickelsen's and my twinner shirts

Elder Mickelsen, Johnson, and Loutz

KK is Slayin'

Hey Everyone!

This week flew by... It's already Monday again. We had a lot of appointments fall through this week, so that was pretty lame sauce.  We still had a lot of fun, and found a ton of people that we're really excited to meet with! So that's cool! One of the people we found that lived in the other area is going to get baptized in not much longer! So that's super great! Too bad we weren't the ones that got to teach them! That's ok though, same team!

Monday... I can't remember. P Day... Hmmm. We cleaned. OH! We went to the church and played card games. It was a lot of fun actually.   That night, we visited some people that were referrals, but none of them were super interested, so that was a bummer.  We came home, and decided to call people and tell them to invite people to church for Christmas Eve and to the Christmas party the day before, and the first person we called said that he was actually going to invite his friend to church this week! He did, but they ended up not coming.  He said he's going to pick his friend up this next week and bring him to church himself. So that was awesome. We got another member to bring a friend as well! Brother Lo was the friend! He's the dad of an inactive member. We didn't get to teach him after church, but we'll get him next week for sure!

Tuesday, we tried to change things up a bit, and go to a different part of KK and try to find some inactives. We found the houses, but they all moved. We didn't pass many people along the way all day, so that was kind of a bummer.  We did get to meet with Marianah! She's got something on her mind that she's not telling us, so I hope that we can get it out of her next time we meet. We got home at night there were no clean dishes, and the sink was overflowing.  Plates were on the counters all over. That's what happened after we cooked dinner two nights before and never cleaned up.  Then the other elders cooked two dinners and didn't clean up. SO. I spent the next forever washing dishes, but we got it clean. So that was good! Too bad my least favorite chore is everyone's least favorite.

Wednesday, we taught Andrew. We had a great lesson on the 10 commandments and keeping the Sabbath day holy. We also got an epic picture by the ocean after the lesson. He's looking pretty fierce in it. After that, we went over to Beverly Hills, and there were tons of people out and about!  We talked with tons of people, and found some really cool people! We also visited a bunch of inactive people there, and we found a person that we're excited to meet with. Her brother is inactive, but he moved somewhere else.  We gave her a Book of Mormon, and should be meeting with her soon!

Thursday, we went over to Kepayan Ridge, and visited with some less actives and their families, former investigators, and part member families! It was actually a pretty good day for how little we traveled around. We found a few people that we might end up meeting with!

Friday, we met with Lodelin and Johnny, and had some MEGA good Filipino food. It was uper good. After that, we advertised for English Class, and tons of people took a million pictures of us.  Then we taught English, visited some people, and weekly planned.   It was a pretty quick day.

Saturday, we went over to Mamak's house and invited her to church, knocked some doors, visited members, found some members that aren't even on the branch list (moved here from another branch a long time ago), and had a baptism! One of the members in the other branch referred his girlfriend a while back, and she got baptized, and it was way good. She invited her family, and roasted all of them for being anti against the church, and gave a mega good testimony.  She's way pumped to serve a mission. Her boyfriend should be leaving on his mission in May or so.  I think she'll leave next December or January! That'll be cool! They're super awesome.

OH! I ALMOST FORGOT! Saturday, Elder Johnson and I were walking, and we saw a guy.  II went over to him, and said hi, but he ignored me.    I said it again, then he realized I was saying hi to him, so he said hi back.  Then we stopped him and talked to him, and asked him his name. He said his name was Alexis.  I said, "Wow. I really like that name a lot!" Then Elder Johnson looked at me, then back to him, and said, "Yeah, he really does like that name a lot." Hahaha! Then he ended up being MEGA interested.  We met with him on the spot, figured out his name is actually Alexius, not Alexis, and we shared an EPIC Restoration lesson. We asked money questions (the Spirit lead us a ton), and he ended up telling us that he has a Muslim girlfriend, and he really wanted to marry her.  He didn't see a problem with that (he has to convert to Islam to do that), until we shared with him, then he said he didn't know if Christianity was true or if Islam was true.  He was super torn, because his parents were Christian, and raised him Christian, but he really wanted to marry this girl.  We gave him a FIRE invitation to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it was true, and as well to come to church. He came to church on Sunday, but he didn't fully understand that we meant OUR church. So. Wrong church. Next week though! Turns out, he's here for university, and he TOTALLY lives a stone throw away from Sister Satam's house in Miri! I've totally ridden my bike past his house a billion times! I'm way excited for him though.

Sunday, Linda didn't come to church, and I was super disappointed about that.  Elder Johnson and I talked a bit, and decided we might drop her.  We called her, she answered, and we asked why she didn't come to church.  She said that our call woke her up, and she had slept through church.  SO.  I was understandably a little disappointed, and let her know that she promised God she would come when she promised us she would come.  After a lot of sorrys and us telling her she needs to tell God sorry, not us, we naturally did a little following up on the Book of Mormon reading. Guess where she is? She's had the Book of Mormon for a week. Already read well over 200 pages. CRAZY! She's BLAZING through the Book of Mormon, and just eating it up! So. We didn't drop her. We'll give her another chance. Haha!  I'm super excited for that! She said she has a million questions she wants us to answer. So that's great! After church, we visited some people that didn't come to church and followed up.  There was lots of sleeping in this week... No idea why. 3-day weekend I guess. Mohammad's birthday destroyed church attendance.

ALSO. Sunday night, I called a potential investigator to see if we could set an appointment with them. I called, and said hi and asked how she was.  Then asked when we could meet this next week. She said she didn't think we could meet this week.  I asked why, expecting all the typical excuses like, "I'm busy" or "I have to finish my assignment" or something lame like that, but then she said, "I actually got hit by a car earlier this week, so I can't really move that much right now." Soooo after a split second of shock and silence, I asked her if she was ok and all the stuff.  Apparently she had just gotten released from the hospital earlier that day. SO. Legit excuse. I’m not gonna lie, I think that was one of the first times I've actually been satisfied with an excuse of someone not meeting with us. One of the very few. Hopefully she gets better quick so we can teach and baptize her!

Anyway, this week was awesome! We met some super awesome people, and we should be meeting with lots of new people next week too! Sorry I made the mega abridged version of the week! I don't have tons of time to type this week. Maybe next week I'll have more! Thanks for everything you all do for me though! Thanks for the emails too! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins

Me, Elder Johnson, and cute kids

Elders Johnson, Mickelsen and me with Sister Olga

Ups and Downs

Hey Everyone!

This week was super full of ups and downs, I guess I can explain a bit.

Monday, we went over to see a new family we're teaching. Minah, Marajin, Marianah, Venerah, Yohannes, Brandon, and Camilia. They are a super awesome family, and we had a super awesome lesson. The dad got home right as we were closing the lesson.  He saw the Book of Mormon, and was super curious about it.  I gave the watered-down version of the Book of Mormon to him, he was pumped to read it, and we got a return appointment with the entire family for Thursday. I guess I'll just skip all the way to Thursday.  We went back Thursday night, and Marianah was acting kind of weird when we walk up to the door.  She says her parents went back to kampung, and we couldn't meet that night, and all of her siblings were hiding in the back room. Sooooo we kinda thought for a moment.  We decided maybe her dad had gotten some anti information or something, so we visited a member that lives really close to them, and told her to invite Marianah over to read the Book of Mormon with her Friday.  Fast forward again…we went back Saturday, and the member tells us that Marianah gave back 3 of the 4 Book of Mormons we gave her family.  She kept one for herself, and said her parents don't want to learn anymore, and then they just talked about life. Fast forward to that night, the member brought Marianah to our Thanksgiving party, and they had tons of fun.  It was way good. SO. I thiiiiink Marianah will get baptized, buuuuuuut her family might take a while longer. So. Up and down for sure there!

Tuesday... Let's see. We met with a lot of people, had a good district meeting, ate some American food that was super good at an American restaurant. The only problem was that there were all these American things like baseball and football and Elvis and saxophones and trumpets and stuff, and all these things that just SCREAMED America, and then... There was a picture of the Beatles right in the middle of everything. Just one. I don’t know... Maybe everyone else thinks the Beatles are an American thing, buuuuut I kind of got the British idea from it instead of America. SO. That was weird.  The burgers were really good! Best burger I've had in East Malaysia for sure! I can't really remember much from Tuesday.

Wednesday, we met a lady named Linda! She seemed waaayyyy down to go to church, and she was really cool.  Sunday came, and she didn't answer her phone when a member called to make sure she was still coming to church. Sooooo we'll have to try to get her next week.  She seems pretty solid! She's been reading the Book of Mormon every day! We found a lot of people that we're excited to meet with too!

Thursday, Ryan called and made an appointment, then cancelled for the millionth time.  I told him that if he set appointments with us and cancelled, he was wasting God's time.  I asked him if he was actually interested to learn, and gave him every possible way of saying he didn't want to learn.  He thought for a second, then said that he and his family really wanted to learn and it was important to them.  I told him to talk with his wife and find 30 minutes in their week that they for sure 100% without a doubt could meet with us, then give us a call.   Hopefully they give us a call with a real appointment this time! We met with Andrew, so that was fun.  Our appointment at night time with Marianah and her family didn't go through. Haha! OH! AND. The power went out, so our Thanksgiving consisted of hanging a bike light on the ceiling, and playing cards while drinking Malaysian hot chocolate and eating Tim Tams. At night time, no air conditioning was killer.  It was the hottest night of my mission. No fan, no air conditioning, no nothing. BLAZING HOT. But we all made it. It’s probably the worst I've ever slept on the mission. Even the tile in the house was hot.

Friday... Let's see. We went over and met with Inday and Lodelin, had some super good lunch there, advertised for English Class, and then ran around trying to group up people for our Thanksgiving party on Saturday.  After that, we ran over to English Class, and there were tons of people, and we had a ton of fun in class.  The English Class this last week was about 10x larger than it has been since I've gotten to KK! So that was tons of fun! We're starting to gain some momentum with it, and the sisters are getting tons of investigators out of it! So that's cool. Mostly women come, and sisters teach sisters, and elders teach brothers. SOOOOO that's kind of a bummer, but we'll get someone eventually.

Saturday, everything built up to our Thanksgiving party. We played basketball while some members barbecued the food, then it started dumping rain.  It put out their fire, and everyone was just sitting inside.   Elder Johnson and I rounded up the kids and played some games with them for a while, helped set everything up in doors, and had some SUPER GOOD FOOD. All the women in the church brought their friends. So that was cool, except all their friends were girls. So the sisters loved all the new investigators they got! Hahaha! We're super excited for the sisters if you couldn't tell! They're going to get tons of baptisms, so everyone is pumped. Now we’ve just got to get a ton of referrals from the men and see if we can get them to match all the sisters. The party was a success for sure though.

Church was great on Sunday, and Andrew followed us the entire day after church. We got hit by a ton of rain, but he took it and kept following. So that was awesome! He really wants to be a missionary, and says he has to start following us more so he can learn how we do missionary work! Haha! He also talked to us about how he never had friends in his other church, but he has lots in this church, and he thinks that's super awesome. So that was great! We mainly visited people that weren't at church, and asked why, and committed them to church this week!

That was my week! I really enjoyed it! I love KK! It's tons of fun, and every week is better and better! Sorry I didn't include everyone we taught! I'm running out of time! Haha! So next week I'll try to include more! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins

Playing games

The Force

Biking by the beach

Weird tree

Marianah

Burned out car

The playground!

What????

Elders and Sisters

The big family we taught