Trick or Treat

Some of the boys costumes from past...those were the days!

Have fun TRICK OR TREATING Everyone!!!

It was ridiculously spicy!!!

Hey everyone!

Things here are going great. We still have the same amount of really good investigators but we went finding to some new areas and found a lot of new people to try and start teaching. Two are probably going to meet with us because they have white fever which means there are two white people at the door and they want you to come back and they think we are hot to put it all on the table ha-ha.... On the way home from contacting the flat we were flagged down by some Tamil people who said they had seen us before then asked what we were doing here and immediately invited us over for dinner yesterday ha-ha. We didn't teach them last night but we set up another appointment to teach them. We didn't teach them because they were feeding us... and oh yeah this was the spiciest thing I have probably eaten and it destroyed my mouth! Each bite was like death... Tamil people truly love spicy food. There was so much chili pepper in it that it made me sweat and shed a tear out of my right eye... IT was ridiculously spicy. And to top it all off I finish my plate and then she walks over and says Jangan Malu Elder Makan Makan Makan... which means don’t be shy Elder eat eat eat. Then loads up my plate again with spicy food Ayo (Ayo means “come on” or “let’s go” in Indonesian). Which I ate and then they laughed because I was sweating. But one thing that is weird that they do is the guests will eat at the table by themselves while they all watch. Then when we finish they will all eat afterwards. So it’s kind of weird but it’s the culture here. We are still working on Ericka and her mom Ooi Sok Choo they should be our first baptism so it’s exciting. We had the first baptism in the area last Saturday Elder Thomas and Barlow baptized Arun so it was way cool and made me more excited. But Ericka and her mom are on the 14 of November and it’s exciting. We are still working with John but he is a work in progress. Today we had Steamboat which is where there is a grill in the middle of your table and a bowl of boiling soup and you go to like a bar and choose all these different meats and veggies etc and then come back to your table and grill it up and or boil it in this soup and it’s way good. It’s expensive but cheaper than Chili’s and its way delicious and worth the money. You can get shrimp, chicken, beef etc and with all different kinds of marinades. And they do have Halloween here but it’s only really celebrated in Pulau Penang because there are more whites there etc. We have a Halloween party this Saturday but it’s just called a party so we’ve been inviting lots of people and investigators. The Malay is coming along better I can understand basic things that I hear every day but it’s almost so subtle that I don't even notice that I understand what they are saying to me and I don’t even realize it . Umm... that’s all for the week. Thanks for the package to I received it and everything was in it :) But the Mike and Ikes were delicious but they were all stuck together from the humidity ha-ha so it was like a big cube of Mike and Ikes ha-ha.

Here is something from our email that I thought I should add...

And this week I tried Hong Kong Mee which is a noodle thing with some good sauce. And Ramly Burger which I can’t remember if I told you about already but it’s delicious. Also had a thing called yam rice.... yick its nasty stuff! Bro Titus took us there they give you rice and it has a little yam in it but that’s not what is disgusting the nasty part is the soup that has pig intestine, pig liver, pig blood, pig fat and pig skin.... so nasty but we ate it anyways.... now I know not what to get ha-ha.

The picuture is of the Ramly Burgers I got off Google...they looked much more appetizing than the soup he was brave enough to eat...yuck!

A great and humble people

Me and my companion Elder Leavitt with Sebastian and his family

Us chillin' with a cool snake!

Crazy bird that is only found in Malaysia

Giant unknown bird

Me at the top of Penang Hill

Penang Bridge (longest bridge in the world) from the top of Penang Hill

This week was good but nothing out of the ordinary besides that it was Deepavali here which is like Indian Christmas here where some evil Indian god was killed by a good Indian god. So their families all get together eat and get drunk for like 5 days. We went to a Deepavali party with some members and it was way fun and curry is way good btw :)Everyone of our investigators are going good except John is smoking 6 huge cigars a day and drinks three huge bottles of whiskey a week :/ but we are working on that he’s down to 1 cigar and less whiskey ha-ha. I am not sure if I said this before but the longest bridge in the world is from our area to Pulau Penang the island its way cool and they have in the works a new bridge to the same island that’s bigger. Today we are going out to BM with Sister Ina to get some Indonesian music and some batik ties and hopefully a blow dart gun. But we don't know yet and what’s really here. Malaysians are terrible at giving directions and telling you about things. They make things seem like they’re easy to find and don't really tell you where they are and make everything seem really awesome ha-ha. But these people here are so great and so humble. It’s ridiculous how little they have and it’s just so humbling. Many of them haven’t even been to Penang Hill or on the ferry because it’s too expensive but they are just happy with what they have. We started teaching Jessie and Sebastian’s family recently. They have been taught before and are ready for baptism as soon as Sebastian gets a divorce since they usually don’t get them here because they are way expensive to get and you have to use a lawyer etc. So after that baptism :) their daughters and son are baptized though. But Sebastian loves to fish and brings home fish in a bucket thing that he’s caught, they are pretty big and he just gets the biggest grin when he shows us them. Jessie is a way good cook and she’s the one who wanted the cheesecake recipe. They are a very humble family and they are so great. Umm we’ve been rearranging our home to make it more efficient and hopefully it works ha-ha. But things here are going good and I can't really think of anything else but I’ll get you guys some pictures out.

Elder Watkins

Two more baptism dates set, delicous fruit, and Penang Hill

This week he tried Mangosteen Fruit

and Rambutan Fruit.

The ride up to Penang Hill

The view from on top of Penang Hill overlooking Penang Island

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Hey Everybody,

SO this week’s was pretty freaking awesome. First we set 2 more baptism dates. One is with Ericka's Mother Ooi Sok Choo set for November 14th and she is progressing fast she reads all that she is assigned and comes to all activities at church and to church. So its way exciting to see how happy she is to see us and how happy she is at church. Next is the Myanmar guy named John we set a date for him November 7th and he’s is doing great. He loves to come to church and is way happy there. We always go see him and he’s glad to see us as well. We did some BRT (Build a relationship of Trust) with him and he taught us how to tie a sarong Myanmar style which was way cool then he told us where to get one so we went and got the Myanmar style sarongs. Apparently everywhere has a different style to wear it and a different style of fabric and patterns so I may try to collect them all. We did way good after Wednesday we found some good people and then had 4 people show up to church. And those are the spiritual highlights of the week.

This week we tried Mangosteen and Rambutan both really delicious fruit. Mangosteen is so good. Then we went to Penang Hill which is a huge mountain on Penang Island and you ride a train up the top or a train like thing. Was way fun that’s why we emailed later cause we did that all this morning. At the top we got a picture taken with a huge python and then saw a giant millipede and a whole bunch of different birds and even some pheasants. We got a great view of Penang too, so way cool and I’ve got some great pictures. And I will have to do the pictures to a DVD. And I did have to change the quality so I could send them in the email sorry : / Funny thing about the Durian fruit though apparently it’s against our lease to have durian in our apartment oooppps :/ ha-ha so next time we have to buy the precut stuff so that the after math as in the durian shell isn't in the garbage room because later on we saw them all cleaning it up ha-ha. Also today we went to a Buddhist temple where snakes have now made it their home. We thought it was going to be all Indiana Jones style but it was just snakes on trees and stuff but was still cool. I guess you can say Penang is paradise but were not really on the island but Batu Feringgi SP is a nice beach there we want to see some time. There’s a great black market on it at night :) but we would only get to do that if we had Zone conference there. And next zone conference is the first Thursday in November but no idea where. But Pulau Penang is pretty beautiful. Also if you can send me the recipe for cheesecake a member here would like it. She said she lost hers. And that’s pretty much all to report. Thanks for all the letters that I have received so far.

Elder Watkins