Church in Penang, Four legged snake

Hello!

Last week, we went to this place called monkey beach (we went there last week if you noticed) and we saw lots of monkeys. and we also saw a "'si jiao se" - the chinese translation for the big lizard we saw: literally translated as "four- legged lizard" 

This week we were in Penang again (the tropical island that we look at every night from our apartment, trying not to be too jealous...jk) and we had two investigators come to church! It was a really good experience for them...I think, as a result of the big branch that they have in Penang. We had our investigator Xavier come, and he took his moto all the way there: a pretty big commitment since it takes about 40 minutes to get there! We also had our investigator Denny come. He is really cool, and he is opening a cake shop just down the street from our new church, and he gave some to us yesterday. 

Church was pretty draining because for the first hour, Sacrament, I translated (I did my best at least) for my investigator during all of the talks. Next, we had Gospel Principles class, and we were asked to teach on the spirit world. There were four other missionaries there, and yet we were asked to give the lesson even though it was their class... hmm. Finally, we finished off with an hour completely in Chinese, which was pretty draining as I tried to listen to it. 

Well, I am out of time. Sorry! 

see you next week! 

Pictures: Monkey Beach: a view from the boat, Elder DJ holding a baby monkey before we started our hike, Monkeys in trees, me on a rope swing, a horse on the beach, a "Bee - a - wock" (not sure how to spell it): it is the big lizard... probably about 3.5 feet long. 

Selfie: Elder DJ and I after biking through a crazy rainstorm without a jacket while on exchanges.

Church Demolition

Sorry I didn't write last week. 

I was a little bit busier than usual but I still feel really bad. We had some really good meetings with a new investigator. Our church was also demolished because we are moving churches in just two weeks. We went to church last week and the copper pipes to our air conditioners had been stolen (I will send a picture) and so we had a really sweaty sacrament meeting. I gave a talk and I was sweating buckets. Our investigator survived through the just one hour of church and then had a really good lesson on the plan of salvation. Our church is being moved in two weeks to a more convenient location, so now we just go to Penang (the island across from us) for church. We packaged up a lot of books in preparation for our move to penang, and during our efforts, we found an old copy of the book of mormon ( I took a picture of it next to the current version). The old translation sounds very similar to the words "devil's doors" for the word Mormon :)

Anyway, we had a good exchange in Ipoh, and we will be going there next week.

I miss you all and I hope you have a good week!

sincerely,

Elder Allen

5-6 monkeys

Update: Short and Sweet

Nathan didn't write a general email this week.  We distracted him with some other business and I think he spent his computer time emailing some friends.  So, here's a bit of a short email he wrote to his dad and a few pictures.  His companion's name is Elder Johnson.  And that floral tie...  I saw it on another missionary a few weeks ago.  I don't know any details about the pictures but they look interesting.

"Things have been pretty good here. We saw an awesome miracle with someone whom we found last week. We had a good meeting with him on Tuesday, and then he came to church on Sunday. I am having a lot of fun these days. The investigator we found seems really solid and really prepared."

The Best View in the Mission

Hello everyone! This week was a great week, and the subject line for this email comes from my companion Elder Johnson. Penang is like a paradise, vacation Island that is a lot more pretty, and clean than Butterworth, and since we live in Butterworth, and look out on Penang, we have the best view in the mission :)

This week was pretty fun, and there were some notable things that happened this week. One was that I road on a boat for the first time on my mission. It was pretty cool to get on the ferry to go to Penang for District meeting. We ride on with our bicycles and then get off together with all of the motorcyclists at the same time. I feel like I am in a motorcycle gang when I ride out. So we got to spend a little bit of time in Penang this week, and we are going there today. It seems basically like Singapore (in some places) just a lot more spread out, and just not quite as extravagant. 

We met with a lot of cool people during the week, and we had a lot of good experiences talking with people about the gospel. We have also had to "drop" a few of the investigators that have been meeting with the missionaries in the past, just due to some hard circumstances. There was a 16 year-old kid who they were meeting with before I got here, that has parents who do not want him to learn about the gospel because they are strong Buddhists. We have been working on getting in contact with him, and sorting our the situation. 

Some people have asked about if I speak a lot of Chinese in this area. While I definitely speak some, I don't speak as much as I did before. The area in which I am serving is an English area, and so we have lots of people who we teach in English, this is coupled with the fact that our branch is completely in English, so if we want to find people who can understand church, we need to find people who can speak English. 

Thanks everyone for your love and support! 

Elder Allen