Tuesday, August 27, 2013
26 August 2013
| Sister Rachel Mullen This was our official first week with the new district leader and it's funny how each DL emphasizes different things. So now we are all about getting balanced key indicators which seemed crazy because... balanced key indicators include: 2 daters: We only had one. 10 lessons with a member/RCLA: never have gotten 10 2 new investigators 2 people at church: After weeks of inviting, none of our investigators have EVER come to church But we did almost Everything! We just needed one more person at church. But even that one person that did come to church, we were so pleased and happy she came anyways. This investigator, she has learned with many elders before. She has been interviewed before but did not pass because she has to work on Sunday. We have not taught her since we have been here because we were told she doesn't want to learn if she can't be baptized or something like that. I asked our District Leader if she can be baptized if she still has to work after church and he said yes. We went and told her the good news and she came to church with her less active husband! Ah, it was wonderful! After church we went to her little store and started teaching her, just by starting off with a review of the restoration. Didn't have to teach much because she remembered it so well. I asked her if she has prayed to know if it is true, and she said she hasn't prayed in a while, but she starts tearing up as she explains that everytime she talks about Joseph Smith's experience with missionaries or members, she can feel it and she knows. It was so powerful as we just sat on the floor of her little shop in the mall and talked about the Restoration of the Gospel. Also in the search for a new dater, we committed our cute little 15 year old investigator. It has been pretty slow with her because her Grandma is so outspoken and scary. I remember the first time we went there... The Elders took us to meet her because they had been teaching her before us. We went with another member and she asked the grandma if we could turn off the tv and the grandma was offended and she DRAGGED the tv into another room so she could keep watching it! I will not explain the few other visits that we have had but let me tell you about this last one: We got there. Said Hello. The grandma tells Min (the 15 year old investigator) to bring the table outside. The grandma gets a red table cloth out. Takes us to the kitchen to taste what she has been making... and we sit there. And eat a delicious dinner, apples, grapes, and a frozen drink that she made. And then every now and again she would sit in and listen to us read the Book of Mormon with Min. We were really nervous because the grandma wasn't leaving and we were planning on asking Min to be baptized! But it was great that she was listening in. After a while, the grandma got up and we asked Min to be baptized and she said yes. We said with planning and prayers we can make it happen. The grandma came back as we continued to teach about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the precious love that God has for us. God's work, I'm telling ya! No new companion. Sisters usually get to stay with their moms for ALL of training which is nice! She is worried she is going to train after training too. She's ridiculous. Of COURSE she is already ready to train. She knows this whole, me training her is MY follow up training. She's already ready though for sure. Funny story: So we are on our bikes at a stop light. A man walks up and holds out his hand to shake my hand. I shake his hand. Then he leans down and kisses it! AH! Mind you he was missing teeth. I pulled my hand away and God LOVES HIS MISSIONARIES because the light was green and I sped off. Lesson learned: people are not going to come up to you and want the Gospel. You need to tell them and invite them first. I really thought he knew I was a missionary. ugh. hahahahha Anyways, Sister Nok... you need to meet her. I told her about my hopes and dreams of being the first sister missionary in Laos and she is going to read the Laos Book of Mormon with me!!! But then she also said she is not going to speak Thai to me anymore... just Isan/Laos. aweiohnfrkljasdbnkljdfg;qoiwerhfjlwse;fl~ Love, Sister Mullen #1 | Sister Jasmine Mullen Thats so cool about going to the temple! I'm excited to go! OH THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT YOU BOTH NEED TO BE HOME ALL DAY SATURDAY. YOU HAVE TO. I CANT TELL YOU WHY BUT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT. I'm am all better! im really glad i'm done being sick. It was awful! Oh man, i'm getting fat. I eat too much bread. Its just so good i can't help it. But I am going to start being healthier. A member is feeding us friday and asked me what i missed and i said vegetables haha. she looked at me really funny. It is officially the first day of a new transfer. Man! I am feeling good. It was really hard to say goodbye to Sister Taivei this morning. She was an amazing missionary and I learned a lot from her. I didn't expect our goodbye to be as heartbreaking as it was but, it was hard! Especially because we really did have an awesome last few days. I dont know if you remember me telling you about the Edmond family. Their daughter is jade who is ready to get baptized. Well they had a "date" but they started not returning our phone calls and not being home for our appointments. So we had no idea what was going on. We stopped by on Sister Taivei's last day and had an awesome lesson. It might've been just a spiritual high for us because we were working so hard to end Sister Taivei's misison with a bang. But who cares. It was amazing. We brought up something that someone said to me in the MTC. Just before Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, he almostt gave up. They are on the verge of a miracle. They will be baptized before the end of this transfer. I am SO EXCITED FOR THEM. Greta, the girl that got baptized my first week here, her brother came to church! And we had dinner with their whole family! It was a big step and we were very happy. Craig came to church! Ah! we were so happy. His testimony is so strong and I know that once he recconnects with his family in the church and his friends, a miracle will happen. He's really excited about the musical fireside we're planning haha. he's pretty much planning it himself. So one of our ward missionaries is really great. She works hard and loves it. But she does go overboard sometimes haha. Its great to have someone over rather than under though. The other night she wanted us to come out to her house and correlate. We were so confused and told her the mission rules about only having meals with members for an hour and that we only correlate with our ward mission leader. She was going to call the mission president to "talk it over" apparently she's done it before. She's awesome though. It was just so funny. But other than that. I'm doing great! I'm excited to work with my new companion sister hwang. We talked in the car and we both LOVE being obedient. I am still working on not being crazy about it though. I learned a lot this week. I need to be more patient with myself. and not expect too much. just improvement. I have learned that being a missionary is not something that you "get good at". Its a daily decision that i will make for the rest of my life: to serve the Lord, or to not. I have also learned that "the tough times will out number the good times. but the good times will out weigh the bad". I love being a missionary and i love tough things! I'm excited for this transfer and to see the miracles that will come of it! I love you. sister mullen |
Thursday, August 22, 2013
19 August 2013
| Sister Rachel Mullen oh we are trying to find a way to get a keyboard to the night market so i can play and sing. its amazing doing all of this inviting and see nothing come of the inviting itself, but then we get referrals randomly and we know that is Heavenly Father blessing us always. We are trying now more than ever to get more people to church. We are going to try really hard to find ways to teach people the importance of Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. It's different for people in Thailand when it isn't really a part of their culture, but God doesn't give us commandments we can't keep! We just need to find the way to really show them it's importance! There was an investigator that had a date when we got here and she ended up not having time for us to meet with her to teach her the rest of the lessons. That was really hard for us but this last week we went in and just stopped by at her house. Without a member, just stopped by and wanted to tell her how much we know baptism will bless her. And she shared with us how that very morning she wanted to call us and see us. Because she had free time anyways, she even got out her scriptures, and she says that she feels God is quiet in her life right now. It was all so perfect. We taught her the Gospel of Christ right there and talked about how much she will feel God in her life if she goes to church. It is difficult to understand peoples' working situations but we just need to be patient with God's timing. But this visit reassured for us that God is there and continues to work with people even when we can't. It's His work, not ours. We also were able to see our investigator, her nickname is Beer. Yeah. Haha. She hasn't really showed much of a desire but has prayed and read from the scriptures and we decided to teach her the Gospel of Christ and asked her to be baptized and she said yes to a date in about a month! Afterwards she said to Sister Mod (the most amazing member missionary that is putting in her papers VERY soon) that she was about to cry when we explained baptism to her. Everyday my testimony in Christ as our Savior is strengthened. When I don't know what to teach, I teach about Jesus Christ and His perfect example for us all. That's all. We also have a 14 year old investigator whose mother is in another city so she lives with her grandma who is not allowing her to come to church or learn with us. And we learned of an amazing member that could help us with her grandma. And they just clicked! The grandma ended up bringing us a ton of food, flowers from her yard, and this conditioner she makes that makes your hair soft. It was the most amazing thing just to see everything unfold the way it did. Member missionaries. Members working with the missionaries in the ward/branch... it really is the only way. And now the 14 year old, sister min, has permission to come to fhe tonight. ok more about my companion. she's wonderful. we had a random comp inventory last night. i just want to know how she REALLY feels because she is just so accepting of everything and ready for everything that I just need to make sure she's not being patient with me. If there is something I need to do better, she needs to tell me, and I've told her the ways to tell me so I don't feel bad. She can write me a letter or say it really dramatic to the point of it being funny. But we get along great. We had struggles in the beginning with this area but we have grown so much because of it and have really found ways to become better missionaries. I told her from the beginning, I'm not training her, we are training each other and it's so true. I learn so much everyday being here in Mahasarakham. We had transfers last week. Our elders were white washed out, and now we have two new Elders! and now transfers are 9 weeks!!! Made new goals and ready to get them done this next transfer here! Sister Mullen | Sister Jasmine Mullen Hello! So i forgot to bring my planner with me to the library so I wont be able to tell you a lot of what happened this week. BUT I HELD A KOALA TODAY! And I fed a kangaroo. It was pretty cool. Our whole zone went to the zoo together. It was really fun! Well I had fun. But yeah when I held the koala ahhh i just wanted to squeeze it! And we were feeding kangas too and while i was trying to take a picture with one i almost sat on this other one coming up behind me and it started climbing on my back. ahh it was so scary it was about to kick me. they didnt have any lemurs there either. i was so sad. after the san diego zoo experience im just dissappointed with zoos in general. but yeah this week was really good, tough but good! We would have met all of our goals if i hadn't gotten sick thursday night. i dont want to gross you out but i tried making that milo banana stuff that mommy makes and i think i just got too excited and drank it too fast. i felt so bad for my companion and flat mates because i was throwing up the entire night and friday. i wanted so badly just for mommy to be there. but i did my best i could without her! i was sobbing because i didnt want to throw up. im sure my flat mates all thought i was crazy. so we didnt got out on friday and the best part was we had trade offs saturday! so i was able to show off my best skills to our sister training leader haha. but no trade offs were really good. we went tracting and I FOUND WHERE ALL THE THAI PEOPLE ARE HIDING. Man i was so happy. I could finally connect with someone here haha. Sister Taivei has all the islanders so i needed someone. but yeah it was great. They invited me to a thai festival in brisbane and i invited them to church. they didnt come haha. So sister mullen #1 is gonna have to teach me some of the thai phrases she uses over there. but yeah it has been a good week. tough but good. none of our investigators are progressing sadly. we haven't been able to see the poi family for 3 weeks. oh onese and amelia moved to sydney! tracting on saturday was soo cool though! We met this girl, she sounds like nicole solano, he name is vikki and she is half thai. when we knocked on her door i told her who we were and she was like "OH! yeah! My mom and dad are busy but you can teach me!" So she came outside and we taught her. That was such a miracle to me because I had been praying a lot lately that we would be led to the people who have been prepared so it was a cool miracle to see. Everything is good! I love tough things! Thank you for everything you do. love you. sister mullen |
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
12 August 2013
| Sister Rachel Mullen What's worse than when you are talking to a Thai person on the phone while riding your bike and you fall off? ...when you do all that and you fall into a puddle of water. That didn't happen to me, I've just been really nervous it is going to happen. I remember that family! And I remember they had really really good quality rice at their house... really. Anyways we had a Save yesterday!!! That means the Less Active that we have been working with came to church and we had her get her interview and stuff all set up for her to be a returning member! It was such a nice thing to get done because none of our investigators came to church again because it rained. Praying for the opportunity to use those really strong scriptures in inviting. We talk a lot about the easy living that Thai people are so happy about, but that's not what's going to save them. We did more singing this week for inviting. Oh, so I didn't say last week. but I had a Super high fever. like it was around 102-104 for a couple days. But I'm all better. I didn't know it was that high. But after working through it for 4 days I went to the hospital and the doctor said I had Dengue Fever! but it lasts for 5 days, so I didn't have to be hospitalized because I already had it for 4! so that was SUCH a blessing. And Sister Senior was the sweetest always checking in on me as was the rest of the branch. I felt so bad but Sister Stevenson was just always there and taking care of me. She was the best and never complained about us being indoors and things like that. Oh anyways, Sister Stevenson bought a blue guitar and we wanted to use that for inviting. So we took it to the market and asked if they had a free lot. they said yes. Took us to it. and they set up MICROPHONES! So when we sang hymns, it was on the intercom for the whole MARKET to hear! We were only able to stay for a short time because I was getting dizzy that day, but we are doing it this next week for sure! Its SUCH a wonderful opportunity! haha I pray that the language is getting better. I can't really tell now. Sometimes there are really profound things I want to say but I can only say it in English, but lessons and things that we do have are going smooth. There was a bat that flew out of the AC in the sacrament room. I don't know if anyone can scream louder than me. Til next time, Sister Mullen | Sister Jasmine Mullen Mum? Dad? Where are you? Tell me about your week and how it went! My week was pretty great.It was my companion's 18 months this past week! We threw her a "party" haha. Actually it was kind of a party. We danced around to hymns as we threw glow sticks stuff all over the walls. We bought candles and had her pretend to blow them out. It was pretty crazy haha. But we got to eat cheesecake. I don't have much to report on this week because a lot of our appointments fell through. But I do find miracles everyday. Like one day we got a referal so we decided to tract that street until we got to the house. We found 2 PEOPLE who just LET US IN. They opened the door and I was all prepared to try and convince them but before I even said who we were, they invited us in haha. The one I want to tell you about is Craig. So we met Craig and he started talking to us saying that he was raised in the church and grew up doing seminary and everything. So i was expecting him to say like but then i grew up and just stopped going because I was too busy. But then he told us that he stopped coming because he came out of the closet when he was 19. HE IS THE MOST AMAZING PERSON EVER. His family all still goes to church. And his mum died and you can just tell that he's so sad about that. We were able to meet with him the other night. He loves singing and he saing us this song about angels. He told us that he believes everything with his whole heart. He just doesn't know what to do because he's gay. We told the bishop about him and he asked us if he was trying to change or not really. I know it wont happen instantly but you can see in his eyes that he is willing to change. He wants to. He just needs help. I know that our wonderful bishop can. We invited him to sing in a musical fireside we're planning. he was super excited. But yeah. Things are going great here. The transfer ends soon. i cant even believe it! I'm killing off my companion, now I almost wish I didn't love her so I didn't have to say goodbye. I've been saying goodbye to everyone for the longest time! haha. Sister Jenkins and Sister Parata had a baptism on Saturday. Her name is Annie. She's my twin. Sorta. When you glance at her haha. But yeah she's amazing. I had the opportunity to sing at her baptism. It was the first time I've sung since i've been out. It was an amazing experience. I've been feeling for the past couple weeks that the Holy Ghost was not as strong in my life as it had been in the past. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. And then after I sung. There it was. I read in my patriarchal blessing that I need to vocalize myself in the presence of others. Its funny how things stick out to me AFTER i've figured it out. Haha. But its good and I've learned now. And its great. I'm striving to sing at every opportunity i can. We had our mission tour yesterday(thats why my pday is today) And it was exactly what I needed. I'm sorry this is going to be so long but I just want to share this with you! But Elder Pearson asked us :"why do you think this change was made during your time? Its to save YOU." I can barely type that. I look so ridiculous now in the library. Oh well haha. But how amazing is that? This is to save ME. I know thats true. I know that the person I was, was not the person I am. I want to be the missionary that you both think i am. Heavenly Father has seen me get through these trials before so thats why I KNOW i can do this. He talked a lot about our personalities. Like when you say "thats just how I am. I cant change". YOU CAN. "It is contradicting the entire gospel of Jesus Christ to think that our loving Heavenly Father put limits on our personalities." I love that. And daddy, I know that whatever you "try" to do the Atonement of Jesus Christ will be there to pick up the rest. You both are amazing parents. I've truly had the best week. Love you! SO MUCH! Again, sorry this was so long. Sister Mullen |
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
5 August 2013
| Sister Rachel Mullen So can someone look up and see what vinegar does to your body? I am pretty sure I put way too much in my noodles and rice soup, but I will only stop if I have proof that it is literally eating away at my insides. We had switch offs this week. Sister Carter came here and it was JUST what I needed. I learn so much from her! I vented all my worries and just my desires to work more effectively. So that morning, we did our 2 hours of inviting first instead of studies. We went to the morning market and sang hymns! It was the funnest! And people would come up to us and ask us more about what we were doing. I just really really like it. We still are able to converse with these people, but it is not so much forcing them to accept anything. When we sing hymns, it is allowing people to use their agency. They can choose and that is how we find those who are interested. It was a great learning experience and just nice having a trainer again for a day that I can ask questions to. Maybe it is what I needed because in this whole training experience, I feel I haven't been giving as much time for my luug as I need to because I feel I still need to train myself. But I am going to try better to give her responsibilities and have her teach lessons, so that she can learn and grow. We went and helped Sister Champ pick rice!!! We did it maybe for only 1 and a half hours... but I have NEVER BEEN MORE SORE! I am pretty sure I definitely pulled something! We have plans to make a big stand out of it. Bring a table to markets with all of our fliers, have a poster, so that people know we teach how a belief in Jesus Christ can help them. Sister Stevenson wants to buy a guitar and we are going to sing with some of the young women too. It's the fun way of inviting and even then surprisingly enough, it's feeling more effective already. Working hard but working smart. Also, idea for your perfect list: companion study. It is the best way to grow together Sister Mullen | Sister Jasmine Mullen HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! (and dad soon) i have a package im putting together for you both. its pretty exciting. but you probably won't get it until halloween. i hope your birthdays were/are amazing. i wish i could make you some coconut cupcakes momma or say YO MOMMA to you haha. i bet you'd love that. Malo lai lai! so sorry i forgot to tell you to not expect an email from me on monday. or sunday for you. but we had pday on wednesday this week because we got to go to the temple this morning! ah it was so great. in this mission we get to go to the temple once a transfer. it was sister taivei (my trainer) last time going. i can't believe she's going home in 2 weeks. i can't believe this transfer is over in 2 weeks. but yeah it is going by way too fast. oh yeah and dont worry about that sarcasm article from the ensign, my flat mates already have that covered. they came home from the mission office and told me to read it. i'm slowly in the process of repenting haha. i haven't actually had time to read it yet but hopefully tonight i will. so i haven't finished the book of Mormon yet either. BUT I have 30 pages left so i will have a celebration tonight. this week was pretty eventful. man. okay so i dont know if i told you about onese and amelia. but they were people we just street contacted and they had all these family members who were in the church. amelia has been to church with us a few times but they speak tongan and so its hard to communicate with them sometimes. and the lessons were going okay, but there was definitely something missing. UM. come to find that they are BOTH already members and have been baptized MULTIPLE TIMES. man haha. it was way funny. so obviously we have to get that sorted soon. but yeah so now wwe're working on getting them to be active. haha. oh my goodness but the cushway family! ahh. they are the ones that i said i would like to get sealed. we had a lesson with them last week. adrian is the less active and lisa is his wife. she opened up to us SO MUCH. we showed her the video mountains to climb. it was just an amazing lesson. she recognizes the spirit. she's so sensitive to it and its amazing. she's got a lot of health problems and depression. but they are just such a Christ like family its amazing. We also met with Queta ( a new investigator) she is 71 and doesnt have any children that live near her. her husband died a while ago. she hasn't left the house in 5 years. so shes very lonely but very nice. she was interested mostly because we were nice. but i was okay with that. but this last time we went she got really upset. her mind is going a little bit so she got really angry because we were confusing her with all this new information. ugh it just ached at my heart. we also met with a 7th day adventist. she gave us 3 books. i dont even know what to say except that when i left that appointment i was drained. they can talk your ears off! so last week i made a lot of mistakes. i was judging my companion so much. and something that i've learned about life is that you can have a perfect life if pride doesn't get in the way. MAN! pride will forever be my struggle. but i made a promise to myself to make sure that i try and learn as much as i can from her this week. and guess what? it worked. i learned so much. and shes an amazing missionary. and the best part is, she is so Christlike that she knows how to deal with me when i get in my prideful moments. i've come up with a new slogan that is tacked on my wall. "feeling prideful? crack a joke!" it always helps me to just be sarcastic or make a joke about something when i feel myself getting prideful. i do always try and make sure though that im not being mean sarcastic. oh and just an fyi the only reason i'd ever come home early is if a bat landed on my head. when we ride our bikes home at night ( OH YEAH I RODE A BIKE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER AS A MISSIONARY THIS WEEK!) there are so many bats flying around. but yeah if any of them attack me im walking back to good ol' elk grove where i've never seen a bat. haha of course im kidding. but seriously :) but yeah thats my week this week. missionary work is great. my companion is perfect. i miss you always. thank you for the support. keep up the missionary work back home! we're all one army :) love always, sistah mullen |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)