I served in that mission almost 20 years ago and can say it was the same back then. At that time there were ~20-30 young elders in Malaysia and we played the tourist visa 'game' really well. We would head up to Thailand or down to Singapore by plane, train, mission van or bus, spend an afternoon across the border and then try to get back in to Malaysia. When asked why we wanted back in the country we ALWAYS said that we were there visiting friends and seeing the sites (that's what we had been instructed to say by our leaders). Eventually, some border agent would say "you've been here too long...you only get one week this time". That was the sign to our mission president that it was time for transfers. If a missionary had "worn out his welcome" in Malaysia they would then be transferred to Singapore or Sri Lanka and the game would be begin again. We even had one elder that was having so much trouble getting tourist visa extensions that the church legal council in the mission office actually instructed him to "accidentally" leave his passport in his pants when they went through the washing machine. That way, he would have to go to the U.S. Embassy and get a new (clean) passport. I didn't complain about any of this at the time because, well, it was exciting...like we were "secret agent" missionaries. But in hindsight...it's pretty messed up.