21 October 2013

Sister Rachel Mullen So Monday, after we did emails and everything, President Senior calls. Thankfully it was Sister Stevenson's phone day and she answered. I was freaking out like usual. Then he talks to me and says I'm getting a new assignment. I was being transferred and I would be training again. AH! The next few days happened. We gave our investigator Cream a date in November! Said my goodbyes. Way sad. Didn't have time to go visit the lady, Amnuay, that we contacted, but Sister Stevenson told me she has a date now for November 3rd! We lit off lanterns with the Elders my last night. Super dramatic I know, but it's actually the season for it or whatever so they had some. We're not very good at it. Sister Stevenson threw her's in the air and it landed on the roof. I thought we were all going to die. Another one went into the neighbors yard! Yeah, should NOT give these things to foreigners. We didn't know what we were doing. Took some last minute pictures and were on a bus to Bangkok. Got no sleep. Got to see so many missionaries! It's always fun to see everyone. Transfers was crazy. A missionary who has been an AP for a while is training, same with another Zone Leader. It was amazing what President Senior said about trainers. For him to do that, he said it really shows what God thinks about ALL of his trainers. They said all of the Bangkok areas and I still wasn't called. Crazy, I thought I would be going back to Bangkok. but Oh my goodness. He said Phitsanulok and I stood up and screamed, WHAT?! haha Anyways, that happened. Got on the bus with the rest of our district. 4 sisters and 2 elders so this will be different! Sister Stevenson's mom sent me a package! SO SWEET! she made me an elephant, like one that sister stevenson had with her! AH i almost cried on the bus. I am so sad to be leaving mahasarakham. So many amazing things are about to happen. But I am so grateful to be going to the North! to Phitsanulok! First day, we did an inviting activity with the rest of our district. Drew the Plan of Salvation with chalk on the wall by a river... It totally worked. Got to talk to some people. Our next day we invited some more. That's all we can do for a while because we are white washing in. We got an appointment with one guy that we met inviting. We went to teach him the Restoration yesterday. He gets really distracted. He keeps saying I look like Mona Lisa. There was something kind of like a chili cook off but for papaya salad on Saturday. I invited a Less Active Brother to the activity and he came and it turned out to be someone I remembered from a while back. It was sad to see he was a less active but we got to talk and I got to show him pictures. And then he also came to church the next day! I learned so much in Mahasarakham, white washing in and I really want to bring all of that here to Phitsanulok. We had a miracle on Saturday also when someone called and said, Hey what's going on at the church? This person was outside and saw all the vehicles outside. It was way funny. She came in and I got to give her a Book of Mormon. She was contacted a while back and just called! Let the miracles begin! Sister Mullen #1

Sister Jasmine Mullen Man. I always hate when we have temple day just because I have to try and tell you all the amazing things that happened this past week. It really was amazing. I'm so excited for Tia. Where is she going again? Caboolture is pronounced Kaboocha. Thats how you say it with an accent at least. Nope no baptism. It got pushed back again. But I just know that they will be baptized on their new date November 1. If they don't then, wellp. it might be a while. So one Less active doesn't talk to us much now. He got offended because we couldn't get him into the talent show. I felt so bad. I cried so much because he was mad at me and I felt like it was my fault. But then I realized if he stopped coming to church because he couldnt sing in the stake talent show, then he wasn't coming to church for the right reasons in the first place. It just breaks my heart when people stop coming for those reasons. We had the Jones family come to church on Sunday. Not sure if I told you about them but Yanine ( the mom) has been texting us asking US to come over and teach her family. Her daughter paris has anxiety and shes had a rough time. I really hope they felt the spirit at church. We had an amazing lesson with a lesson with a referral from our EQP. He had been meeting with this less active man and his son wants to get baptized. So he told us to go over and meet the family. We did and i can't even explain. His name is Nicholas and he is the most amazing 10 year old i've ever met. He is reading 3 nephi and wants to learn more so badly. Just to give you a picture of what his life is like, he lives in a house with 2 families. His parents have lots of tatoos and many children to attend to. He is around drinking and foul language. Can you imagine? I just cant even wrap my brain around the fact that he lives there and yet he is the sweetest little boy with the strongest most simple testimony i've ever seen. I just wanted to keep asking him "why do you want to get baptized?" I didn't. I figured once was enough but i just wanted to hear his testimony all day long. He is getting baptized next month and I am so excited to teach him. We also met a guy tracting. His name is Yuan he doesn't speak good english just moved here from Taiwan. We knocked on his door and he came outside and started talking to us. i thought he wasn't interested but then he started crying. 22 year old man crying. He invited us in and asked to know more. then he told us the trial he was going through. He just broke up with his girlfriend. :) it was a little bit funny considering i thought someone died. But i can understand why he was so sad. he ended up coming to the ward activity that night and make really good friendships with our Less Actives! Our ward is great. But its really cool to see the less actives stepping up and hastening the work. Its inspiring. And yeah then he had work sunday but he's made arrangements to get work off this upcoming sunday :) I don't even know what I'm doing. Its like the Lord literally just needs vessels. Vessels of people who are willing to give up a short amount of time. All He needs are people willing to help. Willing to listen to the spirit. All i have to do is listen to the spirit. I'm so grateful for the miracles I've seen this past week. I know that coming on a mission was for me. I know i've said that before but its the biggest truth out there. My mission is to save ME and to teach ME how to be a better disciple. I have been reading my setting apart and particularly brother martin's comment stood out to me "some of the most sorrowful and joyful times of your life will be on your mission" i can testify that that is 100 % true. of course it is. and i love it. i love you. i'll talk to you again really soon! sister mullen #2 thank you for everything.

14 October 2013

Sister Rachel Mullen I'm so sorry about your test! Sometimes when things are under pressure like that I don't perform as well. Like... ugh... roleplays. But I recognize that after they are done, I know EXACTLY what I need to do to improve. It's kind of like a love hate relationship right now. Same with accountability in conferences. We were told to ask people to be baptized at the first, no later than the second lesson. We hadn't been doing that and I felt so bad. And when I think about what struggles we have had with some investigators, I think about those commitments that I MYSELF did not keep to be a better missionary. So after we realized that we went street contacting and told everyone about baptism. We met an Amnuay everyday for 3 days. I think that means something. We went inviting one day and went passed a thai temple, some young monks were sitting on the roof and were yelling at us that we were cute. How awkward is that? General Conference this week was inspired. We finally got to watch it and I loved it. I especially liked No Other Gods by Dallin H. Oaks, especially because afterwards when we went to go and visit 2 different Less Active women, they brought up concerns we could probably hint at, but that was easily answered by his talk. Before my mission I would just assume that people become less active because they are lazy, or they were offended. But here I have learned that they just forget, and how easy it is for these people who have been members for years, but have stopped going to church for years, to gravitate back to their Buddhist ways. We are teaching them as if they are investigators because they do not remember that they LOVE God. If we are not keeping the commandments of God, any one of them, we need to reevaluate our love. That is what I have learned. I love God. As I see Him everyday in this work and how much He helps us in the saving of His children I know how much He loves us. That makes me love Him. In return I am expected to keep His commandments and help others. And how important it is that we hold so close to us, the recent converts of the church, so they do not forget and continue to convert. I LOVED Elder Ballard's invitation to each of us to reach out to at least one before Christmas. I hope that everyone is praying for that person that they will introduce to the missionaries. I am also praying for my person. I may be a missionary overseas but am still a member that has friends still at home... hopefully haha. I know that no matter what happens, we will all be blessed for having done something that is seemingly scary at first. But if we Know these things for ourselves, that should give us courage. When you know, that enables to to act differently. Do it. Sister Mullen

Sister Jasmine Mullen Okay so i have so much to say. First off, i gained 20 pounds. yep. i did. and i cry all the time now. haha but no I'm going to start taking that cardio tip more seriously. :) Also I take back everything i said about christmas. Please don't send me anything. If you want to do something, listen to what happened at general conference and donate to the mission fund and find someone to share the gospel with by Christmas. That would make me more happy to hear about the blessings that come from doing those thhings than eating a bag of hot cheetos would haha. But seriously. This week was full of miracles. Our DL asked us why we thought we were doing so well. I couldnt answer. I thought it was from our obedience. But I know I haven't been exact lately so I was trying to figure out why Heavenly father was blessing us so much. (Not that i wanted it to stop!) But then I realized its because sister hwang and I have been praying for enthusiasm and happiness. And so from that, I think thats how it happened. It was an amazing feeling to see that our prayers were answered, and its even cooler to see that, we can change our natures if we pray. One miracle is a LA that has been texting us. Its pretty much her saying that she needs our help to help her come back to church. and now we are teaching her daughter and husband. they are so elect its unreal. (im crying right now in a library) The Lord is preparing so many people to hear the gospel. I dont know if they are ready to get baptized now, but the fact that they're willing to listen and they dont find it peculiar is a testimony to me. Conference was amazizng! It was funny because we started watching last april's one and i thought i had received revelation or something because i recognized the talk president monson was giving haha. when we finally got the right one started, man. i cant even believe what i heard. i want to read them again and again. i loved all of them! especially Bednar's! eeek. So something I struggle with a lot is approaching groups of people my age, especially boys. They're usually mean or say something demeaning. But i did one day because I wanted to practice courage. I didn't know i'd have to practice charity and patience as well. They said something demeaning and so we walked away and they started yelling Jesus at us. I wanted to throw something at them. And then I thought about how much Jesus was persecuted for the hopeful message he brought to others. He had to suffer that and more. Its so humbling to think about how much He endured. This whole week was humbling for me. We have the Edmonds baptism next weekend! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK! I've never been more excited. I love you. I hope you're not working yourself too hard. you are both amazing. and i hope you know how much i appreciate you. thank you so much for the cd. its perfect. i miss you a lot. love, sister mullen#2

7 October 2013

Sister Rachel Mullen Balanced key indicators this week for this companionship. We made a lot of changes. We had to drop Elvis because after the 3rd time of even a soft baptismal commitment he hadn't opened his heart to coming into this church. He enjoys what we teach but to progress, at this time, wasn't happening. But we went this week to our new investigators home to have a family home evening. We taught the message of the restoration. It was 11 am, but who cares. We won the heart of the boy by playing UNO and the heart of the mom by the cupcakes we made. And they came to church! We had 2 people at church this week and they stayed all 3 hours. We have never had an investigator here stay and sit with us in the 2nd and 3rd hour. We won't get a baptism, but I'm so grateful for this miracle. We were praying and fasting for our dater Beer. She told us, the Elders, everyone she was coming to church. She wouldn't have been able to stay the whole time because she had to go with her family somewhere but she had bought a skirt and everything! But then at 10:29 pm she calls and says her family is leaving earlier than she thought. She said she was going to pray about it and if we didn't see her at church the next day it was because she went with them. President Senior told us to share Matthew 10:37 with her. It's pretty perfect so we are going to see her tonight. We went last night to visit a grandma. She has a lot to deal with but we enjoy just helping her and making her feel good. There was a man drinking with some others at another table and he starts speaking English to us. REALLY bad I might add. I don't think I have ever heard worse pronunciation skills than this semi drunk man. I say things super clear, several times, and he still didnt get it. "BATHROOM!!!!!!!" so we accepted "Toilet". Taught him a few phrases and then of course, how to pray. He asked how we speak such good thai. I say Jesus Christ. As I was talking to him he kept motioning for me to scoot to the right... there was a light in his eyes hahahha and he wanted me to block it for him! hahahah He would say things like, "Hello darling" -"No. Sister." "Hello sister?" -"Yes." "Hmm... [he walked away and said "rejected" in thai] Hahaha it was the funniest thing of my life. Anyways, just loving this place, loving the people, loving being a missionary. No bad days. Sister Mullen #1

Sister Jasmine Mullen I know! Its going to be weird watching conference this weekend in a church building. I won't be able to just sleep. I think i got my package today. Sister Jenkins went to the transfer meeting so hopefully she's bringing it back with her. I GET TO STAY! Sister Hwang and I are the only ones in our zone who didn't got to transfers. We are so excited! I really didn't want to go but then I thought, maybe I was going because I want to stay. So i tried to do reverse psychology (that doesn't really work on the Lord) haha. But maybe it did work because I'm staying! I'm alskdjf;a i just cant even contain my joy. It is sad though because Sister Parata is leaving. She was so much fun and she always kept our flat really fun and peaceful. She'll do great in her next area though. Ahh can you get her email for me? and sister langi? Maybe wear more cologne than the sister. then maybe she'll stop wearing so much. OR go in their room and accidentally dump her bottle out. But yeah this week was good. very busy but good. we had a mini missionary. she was a blessing. I realized that I have a lot of growing to do particularly in patience before i train someone haha. she was SO enthusiastic it almost made me explode. she was very shy but she felt so motivated. i hope that we were a good influence on her. me and sister hwang dont really talk when we walk to appointments. when we're working we work and we like the quiet. but i think she had a good time. We have our investigator Bruce who kinda just calls us whenever he feels down. He's really trying to stay sober for a relationship with his family. We went over to his house before church and he looked awful. he'd been on sleeping pills for two days and he hadn't shaved his face. he was so hopeless and he's just so hard on himself. all we had to do was show him the "good things to come" mormon message. and he started crying/laughing and was like alright. who cares? i got drunk two days ago. I'm going to keep trying. I'm going to shave and put on some nice clothes and go to church today. then he did! It was great. We are preparing the Edmonds to be baptized on the 26th. i am so excited! I am so happy that i will be able to be here to see them. They are an amazing family. We made dinner for bishop and his family on saturday. sister hwang made kimbab and the other sisters made garlic prawns and i made....EGGROLLS. yes i did it. thank you thank you so much. (i said that in a kristen wiig voice on snl when they're playing the secret word. "yes i said it. i said the secret word") i hope you remember that haha. but yeah it was good. didn't taste like mommy's of course but it was okay. i couldn't find the right wraps. bishop and everyone loved em. so it was a success. i'll send you apicture of those soon. thats crazy about the missionary meals. i'm excited to go home and help out with those. are sister missionaries still going to be living at our house when we get home? i hope so. love you! thank you for everything :) i really liked what i think was an exerpt from your journal! its funny because it related to what i wrote you today! (oh and craig is not doing so well. hasn't been to church in a while we'll get him back though) love always, sister mullen

30 September 2013 (Pictures)

30 September 2013

Sister Rachel Mullen This week has been crazy. First off we were studying on Tuesday and during the middle of it, the sister training leader called and just started talking: Ok, you need to get on a bus to Korat and you are going to work there with Sisters Steele and Madsen while your luugs go to Bangkok to do visa stuff. They need to leave no later than 6 pm from Korat. So we packed, got on a bus and there went a couple days we hadn't planned on for our week! But it was so fun to be with Sisters Madsen and Steele, we all came in to Thailand together and I love them both! As we were inviting at the bus station waiting for our luugs to come back to Korat from Bangkok, Sister Steele got a phone call from President Senior. So what we knew was, there were Thai missionaries coming in and 2 were sisters. And we thought 2 of the Thai sisters that were already here would be training them... Because they are companions right now and so that wouldn't disturb any other companionships, because there are about 3 weeks left in this transfer too! Long story short, Sister Steele was training a new missionary coming in and her luug had to go back to bangkok the next day. I felt so bad, she looked really sad. It was so unexpected. An even longer story short, Sister Steele is training a sister missionary from LAOS. I bet you anything she is preparing to go there! Ahhh! It's so exciting! There was a mini transfer before transfers. It's crazy right now, but if anything we are working so hard right now. We know that President wants us to have a baptism before we leave and we are SO close with Sister Beer. She didn't come to church this week again. We try so much to make her feel comfortable about the fact of going, but we are going to pray so hard for her, she is so willing. She also lives with her boyfriend and she expresses concerns about how she is 28 and if they broke up it would be hard for her to have a family any later. It makes sense. I just feel for these people here where the family is not a strong unit. She wants a family in the church, but he is not yet interested. And he doesn't understand the need for her to move out to be baptized. But I have so much faith in her and I know that things will work out for some reason. Funny story, we were out inviting and then stopped to buy something to drink. I go up to pay, Sister Stevenson is still looking at what to buy and the man sees my nametag and just wonders if we believe that we live again. I end up telling him about how Christ was resurrected and how we will too... So Sister Stevenson comes back and is like... woah. She comes in as I'm like talking about how "our spirit and bodies will be reunited again" haha. It was just funny. Anyways, Faith produces miracles, and we need miracles these next few weeks and I know they can happen. For sure. I love this place and these people, but I know that if I move in the next few weeks after having been here for over 3 months I want to leave it better than I found it. Trust in God and work your hardest every single day. Missionary or not. Sister Mullen

Sister Jasmine Mullen Thats an amazing story! I'm really happy you guys were able to get everything. I wonder why that memory card was so dumb. Oh yes please! I'd love to see it! Yeah apparently I have to paint eyes on the back of my helmet. And their real name is "Butcherbird". If i knew there were birds called that, I would never go outside. The work is great. This week was rough, but its the last week of the transfer (CRAZY) so we're expecting to see some miracles. We have a mini missionary this week. She's so excited about being a missionary. Way more prepared to be one than I was when I was 16 haha. remember that year dad? Man good times. haha Something is going on with Craig. He hasn't been to church 2 weeks in a row now and every time we go to his house he's drunk. I think its getting harder for him to come to church because the more he comes the more he feels the spirit and the more he knows that he has to change his life. How do you do that after 10 plus years? I couldnt imagine. But we're going to try to keep helping him. Tracy and Jade still have a date for this saturday. We havent been able to see them this week though, We stopped by everyday but they were busy or not home. It was cool though. The other day when they weren't home, we'd thought we'd tract around while we wait for them. So we did and we found some less actives. I love when that happens. Because you seriously see the Lord guiding you to find them. They'd been living in our area for a few years and no one knows about them. Hopefully we can help their family, ( the powels) come back. :) OH MY GOSH. and how could i forget. Sister Powel was like, I feel really good about meeting with the missionaries again. You guys are the only church who comes when i ask God for help. Everytime, someone from the church shows up. I love those experiences that give you goosebumps. So good news! I'm a good budgeter. I'm the only one in our flat who still has money on their card at the end of the month. So i've become the sugar missionary. I buy our last week's groceries haha. I dont think I do anything, i think its just the Lord taking that load off my shoulders because that would be too much maybe. And maybe he knows how bad i used to be at that so he's helped me out a bit haha. Oh one of our investigators John came to church. He's the atheist. We went over to visit with his wife who tries her best to be active. She has a lot of health issues. But she is gone to the Philippines this month and he came! crazy right? What a miracle. And our recent convert Greta's brother sits in on the lessons by himself now and he comes to church. the young men love him and he's going to the ym camp this weekend. We don't even have to do anything, the Lord is doing it all, its an amazing miracle to watch and i have front row seats! I think thats it. Its been a quick week since we just had pday on wednesday. I love you! Thank you for everything :) sister mullen #2