Hey everyone!

This week was AWESOME! So many great things happened. We got really good at getting potential investigators. We got 4 new investigators, and lots of stuff is just falling into place. Lots of miracles happen. When we set our goals high, we always achieve. It's amazing. We sometimes set goals for member present lessons, and don't have a member to come, but then somehow, one ends up coming. I'll talk more about that later!

First off, I've been in Penang over one month! I can't believe it! It goes so fast. So I'm about 1/12 done with my mission. I just have to do that 11 more times, and BOOM. I'm done! I can't believe how fast it goes! It's unreal. Over this month, I've tried foods that have nearly made me throw up, tried foods that I can't believe anyone would even think about eating, found out that Muslims are some of the nicest people you can meet (most of the time), and learned that there are cultures out there that you would not BELIEVE existed if you didn't see it for yourself. The elevators here really don't have a 4 or 13. The floors are 3A and 12A. The Chinese culture is kinda ridiculous sometimes. But that's ok! Whatever they want I guess!

Tuesday, we were buying water in a store called Cold Storage, because I ran out. When we were going to check out, there was this kid (18 years old) that was telling me to come stand in line with him. I’d never seen him before. I went into his line, asked him how he's doing, and he says he's 18. English isn't his strong language. That's ok. He gets through line, and starts talking with Elder Ng. I finish checking out, and we have an appointment for Thursday (I think) with him. He's Thai, and speaks some pu tong hua (normal Chinese). There are lots of dialects, and he can speak with Elder Ng a little bit. We tried super hard to get a member for this lesson, but couldn't find one. They were all busy. We went to his lesson Thursday, and had to wait 15ish minutes because he's late. As we were waiting Brother Poh walked by and asked if we needed anything! That morning, we decided we'd take a leap of faith and make a goal to have a member present lesson. We had no idea how it would happen, but we did it! Brother Poh came to the lesson and helped us reach our goal! The Thai guy (I can't ever remember his name. It's a really long Chinese one.) said he felt like he should talk with us, and that's why he waved me over to him in line. He's never even heard the name Jesus Christ before. He had ZERO knowledge of a God or anything. It's incredible to see how Heavenly Father works. The Thai guy will go back to Thailand in two weeks, but we'll teach him until he leaves! So that's super awesome that we met our goal, AND how he met us.

Tuesday night, we were contacting. Just a little preface; we always set a goal to have at least 1 new investigator that we aren't planning on getting just to exercise faith. Most of the time we don't get one, but that night, we walked past a guy. Elder Ng actually turned back and talked to this guy we had already walked past. We talked to him and told him what we share. He asked if we could teach him right then. So we taught a lesson! Right then! And set up a return appointment! So we got that extra new investigator! It was a miracle.

Wednesday, Elder Marsh left to Melaka, and Elder Massie came to be Elder Allred's companion! He's a great guy. He's Australian, and has a super thick accent. The members have a hard time understanding him. It's way funny. We just did a lot of finding on Wednesday. That morning, Sister Chrissy, the nicest member ever, brought all the elders a jar of peanut butter, and a TON of fruit. Peanut butter is SO GOOD here. I don't know why, but it goes with just about everything. It's WAY expensive. Like 12 ringgit, which isn't a lot in USD, but on our allowance, it's quite a bit for something we eat so much of. To a Malaysian, that's a lot of money. So that was awesome. Thursday was kinda the same; lots of finding. We visited less actives, so that was nice. They're always so nice.

Friday was great! Elder Ng and I contacted a lot and had tons of success. That night, we went to Sister Isuari's to teach. We were hoping for a dinner too. but we never ask, because we don't want to force people to feed us. She DID feed us. She fed us my second or third day in Penang, and I didn't really like the food much. She fed us again Friday night, and it was pretty much the same thing, and I liked it! A lot! I can't believe it. I guess eating so much different food that tastes terrible really destroys your taste buds, so now something that's just ok tastes a lot better than it did. The juice here was really bland to me at first, but I'm finally used to the taste of it. It's not nearly as strong as it is in the US. I really like Indian food, and she got us a lot of Indian food, so that was great. Indian food is number one. I'll miss it. I think I like it so much, because they actually have bread. Well, roti, naan, and then some super good thing that's like half egg half bread. It's super good.

Saturday, Elder Crider came with Elder Ng and me, because his companion is over in Singapore because of visa problems. We hung out and taught some lessons. We taught this super weird dude we found last week named Koay. He's super into his Adventist church, and apparently their Sabbath Day is Saturday. So that was kinda interesting to learn! I don't know if we can teach him anything, because he's pretty set on his church, but it's worth a shot. I think he's got some mental problems, because he's not quite all the way normal. But he's pretty funny! Later that day, we taught an Indian lady named Shani. It was one of the best, but also one of the most awkward lessons of my life. We taught her, and it went super awesome. The Spirit was there, she received the message really well and wanted to know more; then it came to the closing prayer. We asked her if she could say it, and she said she could, so we all bowed our heads and waited like 30 seconds. It's just silent. Elder Crider says, "Could you pray out loud so we can hear? We like to be able to hear you pray and say amen with you." She said she could, and so we all bowed our heads again, and wait another 30 seconds, and nothing. She's silent. So Elder Crider says the same thing. We all bow our heads AGAIN. Silence. We wait for about a minute. Then Elder Ng starts talking about how we pray, and teaches her a second time how to, and she listens and knows how to pray, so we're all super confident she'll do it this time. We bow our heads, and guess what happens? Silence. So after ANOTHER 30 seconds, I say, "Do you think I can say a prayer, then you can after me? Then I can show you how to?" So she said we could do that. I said a short, simple prayer, and then we said it was her turn. Once again, we all bow our heads, close our eyes, fold our arms, and wait…and wait some more. Elder Crider, once again, starts talking to her, and asks why she won't pray. She just said that she wanted us to pray for her. Even when we told her she could pray for herself, she didn't want to this time. So Elder Crider ended up saying the prayer. Hahaha! It was pretty awkward. Those moments of silence weren't too bad, but once we had to ask her to say the prayer, it was awkward. I felt like we were interrupting her prayer. So that was a pretty funny experience.

After that lesson, Elder Crider showed us the new and improved way to contact. Instead of being quick (because in Penang, everyone is super busy, so you have about 60 seconds to get the message across and get their number), you have to slow down and have a 5-minute conversation. Nobody thought it'd work. But Elder Crider had faith, ae got 4 SOLID potentials, because we had faith that we could have a 5-minute conversation. It was amazing. And having these conversations really makes contacting so much fun. I love contacting now. Everyone has a story, and it's awesome to learn what they are. There are so many interesting people here. It's super cool to just see how the whole world kinda wraps around and how people get to new places. I love contacting now. I look forward to it. I never thought I would. I used to just be neutral about it. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't bad.

Sunday I was in Butterworth, just across the ocean, to the mainland of ASIA. Butterworth is pretty rundown. Penang is super nice, but just across the channel, Butterworth isn't that clean. It's not even close to as busy though, so that was nice. We went to church, and most their branch are Indians! It was super weird, because Penang's branch is 99% Chinese. They were all so nice though, and they all smiled! It was weird! I bore my testimony, and they were all just smiling at me. They're awesome people! The branch only has like about 20 active members, so church had 19 people, not including the missionaries, but an investigator came. His name was Raymond. He's awesome. After church, I was talking with him, and asked him why he wanted to meet with the missionaries (we had just had a long conversation about the priesthood while we waited for Elder Crider to set up everything for our lesson and get a member to come). He said the missionaries are so energetic and happy and just have this aura around them that's incredible. He wanted to know why. So that was awesome. Then we taught the law of chastity. Lucky us. I thought it might be a little awkward, but it really wasn't! It was a great lesson, and the Spirit was there. He accepted it so well, and he's super excited to keep the law. It was awesome.

After we taught Raymond, we contacted a bit and found a family that's gonna totally be baptized in a transfer. Then we headed back to the church to teach a lesson. Elder Crider's recent baptism, Gloria, came to help teach us the lesson. She's a nice person, and Elder Crider is trying to set her up with the only other young single adult in the branch, Brother Ned. She's not interested though. It was super funny talking about it while we were waiting. ANYWAY. We taught this guy named Bowe. He's a short Chinese dude that's super nice, and really willing to learn and honestly seeking the truth. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and about half way through the lesson, when we taught about repentance and how it can help us and give us peace, we asked if he had ever repented and if it made him feel happy. And he said he always felt pain, because he has so many family problems, financial problems and some other things. It was probably the saddest I've ever been on my mission. I felt so bad for him, because he was trying so hard, and working so hard, and so diligently trying to follow Jesus Christ. We were talking about the Spirit too and how it can make us feel peace. We were also talking about baptism and the Holy Ghost We asked him if he had ever felt the Spirit, and again, he said all he felt was pain. We told him about how Jesus atoned for us specifically, and how he has a plan for all of us. It's a plan specific for us, not a generic plan, but a hand made by God for him. Then we talked about how the Atonement can bring us peace, even if we may not be able to solve every problem, Heavenly Father will make everything work out. Then, the best thing of my entire mission happened. Bowe had a hard time speaking, but he was smiling, and about to cry. All he could say was, "I feel it. I feel it." And he just kept saying it over and over. He could feel the Spirit, and it was AWESOME. I think just that experience of seeing him feel the Spirit so strongly, and recognizing it for the first time, and having it take away all the pain he felt made my entire mission worth it. I seriously can't even explain how happy it was and how strong the Spirit was in the room. I'm pretty sure that he'll be baptized, but he's not in my area, so I may never know! But that was so powerful! He was so happy and excited that he could feel the Spirit, it reminded me why I came out on my mission. I can help others feel the happiness that I feel from the gospel! It was the best.

After that, it was late, so we went to our apartment in Butterworth. I just relaxed while Elder Crider did reporting. He's a Zone Leader, so he has a lot of reporting to do. He took a break, and he opened the balcony door. A bee thing flew in. It was pretty big, and it would sting us if we didn't kill it, so we came up with a plan. Elder Crider grabbed the surface cleaner, I grabbed my shoe, and he started spraying this bee thing a ton, trying to kill it with the chemicals. Then it fell to the floor, and I smashed it. The whole time, Elder Criders was screaming and yelling. It was epic. Then it happened a second time with a different bee right before we went to bed. So that was awesome! Then we slept, and biked back to Penang this morning! We're going to do an escape room right after Elder Ng and I teach a lesson, we'll relax until 6, and then go contacting!

I forgot to put this in. Elder Ng and I were biking down this overpass bridge sometime this week. We were going super fast, when Elder Ng's chain slipped, got caught in his spokes, and completely locked the tire, ripped the derailleur right off, and bent the chain in half. It really messed up his tire. He skidded for about30 feet before he stopped. LUCKILY, there weren't any cars, and he didn't crash. His bike is in the shop, so we're borrowing Elder Leavitt's while he's in Singapore, but we'll have to use taxis for the rest of the week after today!

The only weird thing I tried this week was squid! It was disgusting. But that's ok. I only had to try a little bit of it, so it wasn't too bad. I've had worse for sure! Elder Massie had some disgusting chicken rice the other day, but I didn't buy any, so it was ok. The chicken rice had tons of uncooked parts and bones everywhere. Gross.

Have an awesome week! I love it here in Malaysia, and I wouldn't rather be anywhere else right now! Time flies, and I have lots of fun doing The Lord's work here!

Love you all!

Elder Ben Mullins