Elder Ben Mullins: PIG INTESTINES!

Hi everyone!

Time is super weird on a mission. I can't tell if it's gone super fast or super slow! I love it though! Penang is full of so many awesome people! So many things happened. Last Monday after emailing, Elder Crider, an elder in my district, came in to email right after he had gotten a haircut. It was THE WORST haircut I've ever seen in my entire life. I was crying I was laughing so hard. I felt so bad for him. I wish I had gotten a picture. Speaking of Elder Crider, I'm gonna stay with him in Butterworth sometime this week on exchanges. So that'll be cool. He's an awesome guy. Oh, and the Butterworth chapel is on the 13th floor, but it's actually floor 12A. Not floor 13. Chinese people are weird...

Lately I've been trying to copy Elder Ng's accent so I can sound Asian like him. It's super fun to copy it, and he thinks it's hilarious. Well, he thought it was hilarious until I told him to try and say true through three trees. If you've ever heard an Asian accent, they don't make the th sound. Just a t sound. So it just sounds like they're saying true true tree trees. He didn't think it was that funny. So I asked Brother Po (one of my favorite members in the Penang branch) to say it. He's 25, and super weird, and thinks he's super good a speaking English. He's super weird. But awesome and such a great guy. Brother Po didn't even realize what was so funny about him saying true through three trees. And then all the Americans in the car (4 missionaries) are crying we're laughing so hard. It was awesome.

Speaking of Brother Po, we were going to lunch between appointments, and he was parking, and TOTALLY crashed into the car next to him. The worst part about it is that the car next to him was parked. And there was a security guard 10 feet away watching us park. So. That was a little awkward. He was just shocked that he hit the car. Then we ate, and I had some awesome apple/orange juice. The fruits here are awesome. Well, most of them.

Tuesday for breakfast these rich people that come to our English class took us out to breakfast. It was super expensive... Like probably 200 ringgit. Just to show how much that is, Mcdonald’s here pays 3 ringgit an hour. Which is like 75 US cents. Unbelievable. So that was a super expensive meal for here. In the US, that's like 50 dollars total; so not super expensive. One of the things they ordered... PIG INTESTINES. The Chinese culture is really weird. It's very important to eat everything they put on your plate. So first thing, they stick some pig intestine on the American's plate. Of course! So I ate it. It was really chewy and didn't taste that good. Actually, I'd go as far to say it tasted horrible. But I still swallowed it! It almost came up, but I kept it down.

A little information about everything that's happened just between days. Elder Ng served in Singapore's army for two years before coming out on a mission. So that's cool. But he's super scrawny. Also, I was going to iron my pants because the crease fell out, and I didn't check the temperature of the iron. So I bet you can guess what happened. I touched the pants for like half a second, then lifted it, and BOOM. There was a hole right through the leg. So that was awesome. Luckily Sister Chong is really good at sewing, so she's fixing that for me. Also, I've been learning lots of Chinese, and I can actually say a really simple prayer in Chinese! I can only thank and ask for a few things, but it's cool! Elder Clark says he's gonna talk me up a ton to President Simmons and try to get him to switch me to be a Chinese elder. So that's super funny. I don't know if I really want to be a Chinese elder, but I guess whatever happens will happen! I've had about 6 people (Elders, members, and random Chinese people) tell me that my pronunciation is good. Whatever that means. I dunno. Elder Clark sees a lot of potential in my Chinese. So that's exciting!

I have a few favorite investigators and less actives. My favorite investigator is Jess. She's a mom of two kids, and used to be Catholic, but doesn't like what they teach. Her husband has never been religious, and never went to church. Elder Clark invited him to church, and he came. Jess was completely shocked, because she's tried getting him to come to any church (any religion) for years, and he never wanted to until after that first lesson with Elder Clark. He felt the Spirit I guess. We taught Jess Thursday. She asked a bunch of questions that totally led into the restoration. She asked stuff like what happened when Jesus gave Peter the keys to heaven, and what happened to the keys. So that was awesome. Then after we talked about the restoration, she was asking about where we go when we die, and if we have the ability to choose in our church or if everyone has to do stuff (agency or not). So she TOTALLY set up the Plan of Salvation. I'm so excited to teach her the Plan of Salvation now. Another favorite is Jason. I can't understand much of what he says (he only speaks Mandarin), but he's a super cool guy. He's like 20 or something, and he's just the nicest guy ever. He's awesome. My favorite less active, I met yesterday is Chiang. He makes these things called Baos that are WAYYYYYY GOOD. I had about 10 of them. They're like a ball of bread, but with meat and soup in them. Super good. I don't know how they make them taste so good. He's a super nice guy. He gave us a super weird Chinese delicacy. FAT. Literally, he cut the meat off of beef, and smoked the fat, then gave it to us... I had a slice of fat. It was disgusting. He tried giving me more, but I said I was full. It was awesome. My other favorite less active is Brother Diong. He has no teeth, and he's super weird. His belly is huuuuge. It's like he's about to have a baby. He's a small guy with a big belly. But he's hilarious. He got Elder Clark a present, and he put it in a men's underwear box, so when he gave it to Elder Clark, we all thought he was giving him some underwear. It turned out to be a pair of funny glasses. And he got 2 pairs so they could both wear them.

My pen still hasn't run out of ink...

Elder Clark is leaving tomorrow! I'm gonna miss him! He's such a funny guy. It'll be quiet around our apartment without him. Oh well. Yesterday, we ate durian fruit. If you haven't heard of durian fruit, look it up. It has a super strong smell, but it doesn't smell that bad until you're right next to it. It smells a little like rotten chicken. Well, what I would imagine rotten chicken smells like. And it looks like chicken. The actual fruit meat. And so I tasted it AAANNNND... I nearly threw up. It's the worst thing I've eaten on my mission. They say it doesn't taste like what it smells like, but it really does. I will never try it again. Oh, and I need American ketchup sometime when you send a package. The ketchup here is gross. But no rush.

So much happened this week, and I don't know what I should write about. So I guess if I forgot anything, I'll send it next week. Biking makes your bottom sore, and getting squished between a car and a guard rail isn't that great of a thing to do (when your handlebars scrape the metal, it's really loud. Elder Ng can back me up on that). Other than that, our week was full of mostly safe biking! Have an awesome week! I can't wait to tell you more!

Love you all!

Elder Ben Mullins