October 2014 Pictures

27 October 2014

I love it too! Honestly I know we aren't supposed to covet leadership positions but i was so hoping i would stay so that I would just be so busy for my last transfer. I guess I haven't told you much about it. But for our region we cover three zones and 6 companionships. Its a struggle sometimes because communication with elders is hard. No one knows how to talk to each other! haha. We're all learning I guess though.

We have a goal again of achieving 100 convert baptisms in November. We are having a pacific area fast this sunday and a special sacrament meeting november 30th. I'm pumped!

Updates on our investigators.

Sean! ( i learned how to spell his name )

He didn't come to church because he forgot again but we've really been discussing repentance and the atonement and he really wants to have regret and sorrow lifted from him so he's praying about baptism for the 22nd of november.
And our other investigator Carol, we invited her to be baptized a long time ago and she said no and we didn't bring it up again but she said randomly on monday "i mean maybe i do need to be baptized again." WE WEREN'T EVEN TALKING ABOUT BAPTISM. WHAT!? miracles are happening and thats because we're continually realizing as a mission that this is HIS work and we literally can't convert anyone with out first addressing HIM.

My compy and i have a gratitude jar so that has been helping us realize how much he actually gives us just in a day.

We have a baptism next weekend for Kiara. Not sure if i mentioned much about her but her sister is a member and yeah. MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK, WORKS!

Hmm. what else. i'm excited for this next month. We have 3 trade offs planned next week. We've done one. WE HAVE OUR WARD TRUNK OR TREAT ON FRIDAY! i'm sooooo excited! :)

there was something else but i can't remember now. sorry i'm so scatter brained.

Ofa atu!

Sister Mullen

17 November 2014

well here's just a little update.

i was actually really struggling this week just because i've been slack. i do my best, but its not how my best has been previously. so i was just frustrated because i felt like i was slowing down. We don't really have many people to teach and the ones we do have been dodging us or are not progressing and i was just so mad because this is NOT how i wanted to leave an area. So we've been finding all week. Trying to be as diligent as we can, but the heat is just exhausting. it was 41 the other day. But yeah after asking for something to help me just be more motivated, we fasted as a zone on the hottest day of life! And GUESS WHAT.

yes. we saw a miracle. This girl literally rocked up to church last week and i talked with her and she said oh yeah i just thought i'd come back to church. and it was the primary program so there was heaps of less actives there. so i thought she was less active. turns out she wasn't a member and yesterday told us she wants to be baptized. so hopefully with the approval of her mom she'll be baptized this saturday! miracles are happening all throughout this mission like that. its amazing to see that this truly is HIS work and when we allow Him to test our faith, we are blessed enough to reach our goals.

Thank you for everything again. :)

ofa atu.
sister watermullen

10 November 2014

Hello!

Just a few updates on the week. We only spent a couple of days in our area because we were in Ipswich for trade offs with the Toowoomba and Darling Heights sisters. The sisters are doing well. The sister from Thailand is solid! The only thing that is holding her back is the language but she's very self motivated and thats something that we don't see too often.

Afterwards we went on trade offs with the Bunya Forest sisters. They are having a hard time at the moment. Its hard because they won't let anyone help them. So you can't really make people change. My golden Sister Tobiassen is living with them and she's telling me all the drama that is going on and when we approach the sisters about it, they act as if nothing is wrong. We commited them to work so hard that they don't have time for this drama nonsense. But i know that this is just a trial that is trying to prevent us from reaching 100 in November. So i will not put up with it! haha.

Drama is no good especially on a mission. President said that he would deal with it and we just keep focusing on the rest of our region.

but its good. i prayed for my last transfer to be hard haha.

Heavenly Father is really pushing me to the end.

I was telling Rachel that I am ready to come home. I might not say that when it gets closer but as for right now i'm excited to face the temptations i used to face and respond differently this time. I cannot believe that i was questioning whether to come on a mission because i don't know how i could continue to overcome things without as strong a testimony that i have now.

Heavenly Father prepares us for whirlwinds and storms. I know that anything we face and will face, we ARE prepared for.

ofa atu.

<3 sister watermullen

2 November 2014

Sister Jasmine Mullen

hello familia!

its crazy how we just had pday on wednesday but i feel so exhausted. its been really hot and i'm turning polynesian again. i'll just quickly update you but its just been an amazing week. we fasted as a mission yesterday and it was just so uplifting. my testimony of fasting is really growing and the whole ward seemed to really be uplifted by the fast as well. president said the prayer over a conference call and it was just soo... i dont even know. i just think all of us are truly humbled and know that we truly NEED the Lord for this.

the trunk or treat was a success! so many nonmembers and less actives. The ward did an amazing job especially because it was their first time but everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Sean didn't come to church again :( but! he will! i just know it. its frustrating because we know that he knows God is real he just keeps choosing to deny it. But it will happen!

ofa atu.
thank you for everything.

Sister Mullen

20 October 2014

It's time for high adventure!

 

Hello I never name my emails but i thought I'd start now haha.

WOW! Another transfer meeting come and gone.

I got my new companion Sister Harris :) She is from New Zealand and she's pretty sweet as.
I'm excited. We're going hard this transfer. I haven't told her yet, but I really want to go on two trade offs with all the sisters! So that means lots of walking so that we can do trade offs.

Oh btw. I am dying in Richlands area. I love it here and I'm so blessed to stay. This ward is amazing. And things are just now picking up speed again.

SO updates on Shawn, HE IS GOING TO BE BAPTIZED. soon. I can just feel it. He is planning on coming to church on Sunday. So I'll tell you about that next week.

He's so close to knowing, His answeres are becoming more recognizable to him

Um all our recent converts are doing good. We're trying to get specific families to be their family!

What else? Oh I loved all of conference. I loved the ones you mentioned I especially loved the German man. That was insane! I also liked one of the first ones. I can't remember what its called. Oh and of course Uchtdorf's talk in women's conference and the Blonde lady. I can't remember her name either. Sorry this is going to be quick and random but yeah.

We had an amazing week! Very productive and my motto for the rest of the transfer is

" work harder than you did yesterday"

Love you all. Thank you soo soo much for everything. I couldn't do this without your support.

Ofa atu!

Sister Mullen

13 October 2014

Hello!

Yes it was a wonderful week! It went by so quick, we went to Toowoomba to visit the sisters there. Oh I"m supposed to give you Elder Tino's email for his uncle: its tasino.tino@myldsmail.net. But yeah we got to go to two zone meetings to give trainings and it was awesome! I had so much fun. It was a tender mercy as well because I got to see my old companion Sister Hwang give her last testimony. After she gave it, we had planned that for trade offs we'd switch since I went with Sister Hwang last time, but then I just had to go with her again. So we did and we had an amazing day. She is such a wonderful sister and she has taught me so much. It was nice to be able to be companions again one last time :) 

And then my day with Sister Tempany (my other old companion) was just what I needed. Both of us needed that trade off. First off so many miralces happened with just teaching and finding. But what was so amazing was our discussion at the end. I just felt such a huge tender mercy of the Lord. I honestly feel so inadequate filling this position of sister training leader. I always feel like I'm behind and that I'm not doing things professionally enough or well enough. But as I talked with Sister Tempany, the spirit told her things that she needed to hear and in turn she gave me something I needed to hear very much. She explained to me that she was praying for a few days that I would go on trade offs with her because she wanted to learn how to love. I don't know if I told you or not or maybe you could tell by my emails but sister tempany and I fought like sisters.And I used to regret a lot of how things happened during our time together. But I do really love her. And it was just such a blessing to know how much she knew that. I truly know that we can change. People can change. And we don't even realize it. Sometimes we think we're just as weak as we were a year ago but then one day we realize that we're so much stronger and that we can take on more. I don't want to sound boastful like i'm the best stl ever but I just want to say especially to you mommy, daddy and rachel, that sometimes we just feel so down on ourselves like we haven't progressed or have even gone backwards, but i know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to go backwards in our spiritual progression when we are doing our best. Even when our best falls short. Others can see it and I know that Heavenly Father sees how much stronger we're getting even when we don't. 

I LOVED conference. It was amazing. And something I NEEDED. I especially liked Uchtdorf's talk at the women's conference how he said that Heavenly Father is not waiting for us to overcome our weaknesses before He will love us. That just gives me so much hope. 

I fell short a lot this week, but I'm trying to understand the enabling power more so that I can do all of this. I know that the Atonement is real because I have felt guilt and I understand the feeling of forgiveness but this is kind of new to me, using it to strengthen my weaknesses. 

OH! and Shawn might come to church this week. I just LOVE teaching him. I wish you could meet him but yeah our lesson was amazing yesterday with him. I WANT HIM TO UNDERSTAND HIS ANSWER! 

Anyway, transfers are this sunday, our zone leaders are wanting both of us to stay, who knows miracles happen haha.

Thank you for the wonderful email. Sorry if i didn't answer any of your questions :) haha

Ofa Atu!

6 October 2014

hello beloved family members. <3
thank you for all your spoiler alerts from conference! haha jokes. but seriously its cool, they're like movie trailers that just continue to pump me up for when i get to watch it. so i'm counting down the days.

 God is truly guiding us and always watching over us.

on a brighter note. i've finally learned that i need to ask for His help for my talents as well. i dont know why it took me this long. but as soon as i've started praying i've written 2 songs. :)

i love you guys. thank you for everything.

ofa atu.

sister mullen

September 2014 Pictures

8 September 2014

Hello! It sounds like youg uys are doing some exciting things in the grove! :) I love hearing how involved everyone is with missionary work. You guys are such a great example to me.

 

This week was wonderful. Guess what? i get to STAYYYY. I'm so happy. Also, I'm not gonna go crazy or anything buttttt, I know that if i come home fat, you guys will know that i have been taken care of. And let me assure you I AM. I'm so grateful to this ward, they are so patient and just so giving of everything. I have learned so much from them.

 

Sister Wulfenstein and I are now in a two way. They took the other sisters out and are putting elders in our ward! Eeek! I'm excited, I think its easier in two ways to stay focused.

 

Heaps of missionaries went home this past transfer. It was so sad, but I'm so grateful for their examples to me. Esp, my favorite compy sister tautuiaki. I'm so glad i got to see her before she left.

 

Lets see, we are just seeing miracles left and right! A member's son has been doing missionary work, his friend has been coming to church with him for the past two weeks and he just wants to get baptized hey! Because he's only 10 years old. we had to wait before teaching him so that we could make sure it was okay with his parents. But while we were on splits yesterday sister wulfenstien and a ysa set a baptismal date with him! :) it was the best! so its set for September 20th. We are way excited.

 

Anywho. I love life. If you ever feel like sending me pinterest quotes. by all means DO IT :) DOOO IT! I love you heaps.

 

thank you for all you do for me, it blesses the people I am called to serve.

 

Ofa atu

 

sister mullen

29 September 2014

Hello! This week has been wonderful. 

I'm a bit more tired than usual because we've had mini missionaries two weeks in a row. Its just a little tiring because its like double duty. But yeah both of our minis have been great. Full of spirit and desire. Sometimes I forget I'm older than them because they always tower over me.

We have had some powerful lessons this week. 

I don't know if I've mentioned our investigator Shawn. Well. He's my favorite. He claims to be atheist. But we can just feel the spirit so much each time we go there. He knows. He says little things that tell me that he does know God exists. So we are praying extra hard this week that he will get an answer this week. He's super sincere, he just doesn't know.

Also our investigator Carol. She rides a motor bike and she doesn't want to come to church or get baptized but she isn't prideful or anything, she just has had bad experiences. But she LOVES the Book of Mormon. So we love going over there. She is progressing and so hopefully she'll come to church soon.

Saia is a less active that asked us to come to his house and teach him the Restoration he said he was in desperate need to feel the spirit. It was the most powerful lesson I've been able to witness. Even the adversary knew that he would have a change of heart. It was crazy because we were teaching him and all of a sudden when the spirit was super strong it started pouring. SO LOUD. and we were almost yelling so that he could hear us. It was amazing though :)

I'm sorry this is so short but at our zone conference we had a training on keeping up with our recent converts. So i was humbled and I know I need to do a better job at taking care of them.

I love you all so much. 

Ofa atu.

Sister Mullen

22 September 2014

WOW! thats so exciting :) you guys will be wonderful for the YSA. 

No those youth or ysa now  miss you so i know they're excited. man you guys just keep following us :) haha.

Whenever i start getting stressed or impatient with myself or others i always just tell myself "the church is still true" haha i know its silly but it really helps me to gain an eternal perspective.

That sounds like an amazing activity! I'm sure lots of planning. We're trying to create something like that for our youth and ysa here. I really feel for the ysa here because its so much harder to stay active in Australia. I've seen how lucky we are to live in a place where the church is so strong. People really struggle here. Strengthening them is the biggest goal we have.

We started in our new area and its been so good! We took some ysa and youth out with us finding ALL day. It was so much fun and they had the best attitude. We saw so many miracles. Like this blind lady that we knocked into. It was amazing. She has tons of health issues and never answers the door because she lives by herself but she felt like when we knocked she needed to open it! So we've started teaching her and Bailey got baptized on Friday. He's an amazing little kid. I'm so grateful i've had the opportunity to baptized 3 10 year old boys. My testimony has truly grown from their examples.

I haven't gotten swooped yet so that should be a testimony to all that prayer is real! :) 

All jokes aside though i'm so grateful for the things I have learned this week and for the Atonement especially. Whenever i fall short or whenever i've really messed up, the Atonement is always there to keep me from getting down on myself.

I'm so grateful for you guys and all the support. I'm espcially grateful this week for the person you raised me to be.

Ofa atu!

Sister Mullen

15 September 2014

Hello! Its been a wonderful week. Thank you for all the prayers because I haven't been swooped yet. I don't have tons of time to email today but i hope you enjoy the pictures. I have a really cool thing to tell you about Tangled though.

So we resplit our area with the new elders and now we are in a mostly "finding" area. FOR NOW of course. :)

But i was thinking of the different types of people we come in contact with. I would like to compare this to the movie Tangled. Rapunzel is up in her tower and she's singing that song that she's so happy and she has so many things to do. It appears to her that she is living life to its fullest. But she has no idea what the grass feels like, or what it feels like to have her toes touch the water. It isn't until her "prince" invites her to come down that she realizes that there is so much more happiness out there than she thought. I would like to compare that to investigators or just people who are perfectly happy but they don't have the gospel. It appears that they don't need this. But they do and it takes us as members to invite them to come OUTSIDE. I hope that makes sense.

Ofa atu :)

Thank you for all your support.

Ps. we have a baptism this friday for an amazing 10 year old boy named Bailey. The Lord's work is hastening and its because of members! I'll tell you about his story next week.

Sister mullen

August 2014 Pictures

1 September 2014

It was an amazing week.

I would first like to say thank you for all the love and support you've given me. Especially for all your prayers for the people we are teaching. I know more than anything that prayer is real.

The Leos were baptized on Sunday. Honestly, I couldn't believe it. Not that they weren't ready but just the fact of having the opportunity to be a part of their conversion. It was amazing. In their confirmations it was clearly stated that their dad would follow them. :) I hugged Carol afterwards and she was like "I'm so glad its over" haha i was just happy i could carry the burden of stress with her. We almost both sighed out of relief after the program was finished haha. 5 souls. 5 souls of a family were brought closer to returning their heavenly home. It was amazing. So many people came. I will send pictures next week hopefully.

I witnessed so much how much Satan works on us before the miracles. It was definitely a trying week but I'm grateful for a wonderful companion and for the Atonement especially.

I'm grateful for the softening of hearts and for promptings and the WAY promptings are given. I love mistakes and I love that i'm learning to GET over things.

I know more than ever that Heavenly Father loves me and that He always will no matter how many times I drop the ball. I'm so lucky.

Thank you for the pictures. Thanks for your email i loved it!

"thank you for your comings. yous brings us the blessings." (what poly families say when we come over for dinner)

ofa atu!
:)

sister mullen

p.s. im SO TERRIFIED. it is september again and that means its bird swooping season :(

pray for me! haha

25 August 2014

Hello! Its been a wonderful week :) 

A long, stressful week but a good week. We have been trying to figure out how we could help the Leo family more and then at our training, DUH. I was called to repentance. We were so focused on getting her over smoking and helping them learn all 5 lessons that we didn't focus as much as we should have on the Book of Mormon. I felt so dumb. But it was a good experience, we had an opportunity to do "Hard Yakka" with President and Sister Henderson. Thats where they come and teach our investigators with us. Sister Henderson came to ours. She was so great. She said we were allowed to go to the Leos dance show this weekend. We're going to double check but yeah i'm excited! Honestly I've been so stressed about Carol. I don't know if she realizes she can't get baptized if she smokes. I know I've told it to her a thousand times and now I can't tell if the spirit is warning me or if the adversary is trying to knock my faith. I was stressed all day yesterday. But our President has encouraged each of the leaders to study a Book of Mormon missionary and develop a certain attribute about them. After praying, I chose Mormon and his faith. How PERFECT was that for me, especially in this trying week. So I was able to be at peace after I read about Mormon. And I've also been really tired lately, not going to lie, I love it! I love saying that I've done my best, but yeah sometimes I feel like I'm doing this area alone. BUT again! reading about Mormon. HE was completely alone and he STILL had faith and he used every bit of energy he had. And I'm not even close to being alone as him. So I'm grateful for studies this week. Because they saved me. I'm learning how to deal with elders still. Haha. I'm grateful though that i'm confident enough to voice my opinion, I'm still trying to be humble though when we disagree :) We took some young women out with us this week that were amazing! They have such a Christ like spirit and taught ME so much. I love taking them out. One experience we had, we were about to go into a lesson where they like talking about deep doctrine. And we just blanked, we had no idea what we were going to teach. And my comp and i were trying to talk it out  and figure out what to do, and finally this girl Maddie said, I think that it will all be okay, we've prepared and the spirit will tell us what to do now. Oh my goodness I almost cried. Sometimes we can lose the real spirit of this wonderful work. It is always wonderful, no matter how long we've been doing it and no matter how "good" we get at it. There are always miracles happening and they are PRECIOUS. I'm so grateful for this trying week and all that its taught me.

"I love tough things." :)

Sister Mullen

Ofa atu!

18 August 2014

Hello wonderful dearest family of mine!

Thank you so much for the pictures! You all look so cute. :) I was excited to see shayla! I love that we all have friends like that, where things just "don't change." we can leave for a year and a half and still be best friends. Is rachel good at cooking thai food?

Thats so funny she walked home from the stake center! street contacting on the way probs. This week was actually really good. We were able to go on trade offs to Toowoomba and Darling Heights. It was so much fun! Its soo cold and windy there and the poor sisters are all sick. But they're soldiers. There was one sister that had a death back home in her family and it was really hard on her. A lot of the sisters actually struggle with language. They are all AMAZING but they are just frustrated with themselves that they're not "better" than they already are. I don't know they're amazing to me. But yeah, i love having the opportunity to serve as STL for another transfer because the first transfer i was kinda like "whats going on" and now I actually sort of know what to do, and I can start focusing on the QUALITY of trade offs now. So yeah when we talked before we were done planning she said that she wants to go and serve in Tonga. She said President called and asked her to pray about it and he'd call her again to ask. And I couldn't understand. But then I related it to me deciding to stay at school or to go on a mission. Whether she goes to Tonga or stays here, it doesn't matter its not like one is a wicked desire and one is righteous. Its BOTH TO SERVE THE LORD. Thats where agency comes in. He lets us choose. And it just depends on what we're going to regret. She pondered on it that night. And the night before our trade off day I was on my knees for I don't know how long. I plead so hard that God would bless us with miracles that she needed. AND GUESS WHAT. We saw so many miracles that day and she was actually running to talk to people. I was just so thankful that the Lord allowed me to serve, anonymously. I didn't want the miracles to come because of me. I wanted her to see it was because of her. And she did see it :) Now i just hope she stays. But yeah that was an amazing experience with those sisters out there. I also got to be with my old companion Sister Hwang. That was so fun :) She goes home next transfer! So weird.

We had amazing experiences with 2 sisters who are preparing for their missions. I don't know if i told you but my comp and i took advantage of the fact that we're the only sisters in the stake. We put our avalability sheet out to all the wards and now we have heaps of people who actually WANT to come out with us. They call us! Seriously. One in particular, Sandra, She's amazing and she's so willing to serve. I'm grateful that somehow we are blessed to be answers to other people's prayers. But yeah we taught another lady named Carol and she is just SO open. She's been prepared. We invited her to be baptized and she sad she already has but we asked her to pray and she said she would! She's so nice. She posts about us on FB she said haha.

Carol Leo and her family are doing good. They're a bit shy so its hard to tell sometimes. We've been specifically praying that she'd have a desire to give up smoking. She told us thats what she's struggling with most but yeah, she needs to give it up on Sunday. They're amazing though. I still can't believe how we met her. MIRACLES!

Another miracle. It was pouring rain all day on Saturday and its not our car day. We were trying to go on splits because we missed out on two days in our area. Sadly the girls had something come up. But it was all good, nothing really happened at all that day and then we were following up with potentials around our house. and we were trying to find this one street but we walked to far and came to Arosa street, And i was like there's someone who lives here so we can just go to them, because it was like 8:50. It was funny though because I specifically saw her name but saw she was Aussie and thought, she might get upset because its so late. But "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing, THANKFULLY its His work, not mine. But yeah we show up at her house and she was so nice! We made an appointment with her for the following day. PAUSE.

Then sunday, we had three young women come out with us. Its usually our busiest day because everyone we teach is at home and expect us to come. 

NO ONE LET US IN. And we took out 14 year old girls so we weren't allowed to door knock with them. So pretty much me and this girl were walking around for 3 hours haha. She was such a soldier about it though. We kept saying, we're just putting miralces in our miracle meter! Haha. So she was excited to come out with us this upcoming Sunday to see what miracles will happen. BUT. It happened later that day, A YSA called us with a solid referral of her family saying they want to be taught! And then We taught that lady from the previous story and she was AMAZING! So humble and she's been through so much. We'll be teaching her slowly but I know she's ready for the Book of Mormon.

But yeah! Its been a great week! I love it here. I love my companion. We're very different but she's amazing. 

Have fun reading the Book of Mormon!

Ofa atu!

Sister Mullen

11 August 2014

Wellp. My week was a roller coaster. I have some weird news and I hope it doesn't offend anyone. One of my best friends on the mission went home early. She's been suffering from an illness for a really long time. She called me to let me know that she was going home. I cried forever. I felt so bad, we started out together and now she didn't get to finish. But I know that the Lord has a different plan for her. BUT the point is, her going home was somehow a tender mercy for me. I knew that with Rachel going home, that would be a real easy way to get distracted. But since my friend went home, I feel even more urgent. So I still have a desire to serve the Lord but Sister Jenkins has added this huge push for me to be diligent for her. I love her heaps and I'm going to miss her.

BUT! This week has been greeeeeeeeeat. I'm grateful for that mini trial at the beginning of my week. To make me try even harder.

I sure do love my companion. We get along well. Haha.  But her stories are great and its good because all I have to do is listen.

I'm really grateful that the region I look over is mostly my companions. It makes it so much easier for me to discern with the spirit of what they need. Most of our sisters struggle with confidence in one form or another. So we are trying our best to uplift and help them! So Rachel, if you have any ideas, PLEASE tell me. :)

I have been stressing all week because for some reason I feel like I'm always behind. My stuff isn't even really unpacked and its my 8th week here. But its all good i guess. We do our best and the Lord makes it up. Right? thats how it works? haha. But in particular i was stressed about our family getting baptized on the 31st of August. There are so many little concerns to help them with. She smokes but honestly they are such a golden family that I always forget when we are teaching them?! Haha but when we went over yesterday we were able to talk and she was like "yeah i was wondering when you were going to talk to me about that. haha. I love them. they are island dancers did i tell you? I'll send you a video home on a usb. They are SO GOOD! It makes me want to learn it.

This ward is great. The members are so loving and everyone just does their best with what they know and have. I'm learning a lot about not just going to an area and demanding but working WITH everyone.

I'm so excited that Rachel is home. Its so weird because I'm always telling people my sister is serving a mission in thailand! I'm so grateful for her example to me. And for the first time, I'D LIKE TO LEAVE A COMMITMENT! I would like to invite you three, to speak thai in the house ALWAYS. Will you do that? Yes? Well! I can promise you that when I come home I will be able to pick it up haha ;) I always laugh about that thought that you guys will be saying secrets about me and i'll never know.

Wellp! I think thats it for now! Oh except i forgot to tell you we got sprayed with a hose on saturday. What a classy man.

Malo aupito!

Ofa atu!

Sister Mullen

4 August 2014

Sister Rachel Mullen This is surreal. Last emailing session. I really am so excited to see everyone... But here's the thing: God is whipping out all the miracles my last days here in Kamphaengphet and it's making it painfully hard to leave. We had wonderful potentials at church, have started teaching great people, and the members progress everyday. But I guess that is how I would want to leave an area regardless, so I guess I'm ok. This last week we had MLC and president gave me the opportunity to 'speak my mind' for a second and nobody tore me down haha. It was really good training and it's still interesting to me that he had us all go down there for it when many of the sisters are going to be ending their missions within the next week. Another part of being a leader for the zone is after you receive the training from president, you go out to the areas in your zone and have trainings with them. So that was about 3 days out of our area my last week, but it was such a blessing to go out and the the sisters in the zone. We had planned on one baptism this week, a 17 year old girl, whose been ready from the get-go. But then an older man who passed his interview but went away for some time, came back. AH! He caused us so much emotional mess haha. But he was baptized also. Brother Dotcom, always doing missionary work, even with 'aquaintances' not friends. He brought this 16 year old kid, that has learned almost everything within the past 2 days. And Brother Dotcom is finding success in his crazy amounts of effort in spreading the Gospel. I HAVE to do the same. He's such an example. Last Sunday was so happy. Sad also, but happy. We had two baptisms, and our three daters came to church and loved it, and a;dlkfna;woeljfnasdfn;alskdjf Thank you. Really. This experience has changed everything. Love, Sister Mullen

Sister Jasmine Mullen I KNOW RIGHT? oh my goodness. im so happy though. i feel selfish because i had a dream last night she got called to hawaii and she was leaving october 31st. so im really happy i get to see her before she leaves. i know! i wrote her but i didn't even know what to say, in the package im sending home for you guys it'll have some "home" stuff for rachel. it'll be kinda weird. i felt like sorta secure having her out too? i don't know i don't think it'll hit me because I won't actually be seeing her. Sister Wulfenstein is great. She's such a blessing to me and to the ward. I actually don't like living with people from my intake. I love these to sisters to death and i don't mean for that to sound mean but yeah. Its like really distracting? Especially because we're all from America, they always want to talk about home. But they are solid sisters and they teach me quite a lot, i'm glad i get to live with sister allen again.I always feel like I could have done more to serve her when we were companions and i get to try again now! The Lord is full of second chances. I think thats His favorite blessing to give. Which makes me happy :) This week has been such a miracle week. We have taken out the key indicator of finding hours and we're focusing on teaching. Everywhere and Anywhere! Its been AMAZING! I love it so much. There is so much more faith involved. We have our new name for this month! Its called Ascension August. Cool huh? A sister in our mission came up with it. At first when we started the goal of having a repeat of June, there was a very relaxed feeling, no one really felt the urgency i guess. But then we had a conference call and it was SO good! One of our APs told us it is the Point of no return. OH my goodness. It just changed the spirit of everything. The Leos texted us and said that they're busy August 30th and to move it to September. Ahh i died But then sister Wulfenstein and I prayed to make sure this was their date and not just the date we want them to be baptized on so we can contribute to a "number" but yeah we felt to ask them for August 31st. When she texted back I was so nervous to open it, so we said a prayer and then read it and it said YES! :) Now I know that the text was already written but I know that our prayer contributed. Faith needs to be shown. Gratitude needs to be shown. He deserves everything we have especially for the blessings He's been giving us every day. Yeah other than that! Things are great! Thank you so much for your support. I'm excited for 3/4 of our family to be reunited! I would love to see TONS of pictures :)  Also if you could record her homecoming talk. I just know thats going to be amazing. Ofa atu :) Sister Mullen

28 July 2014

Sister Rachel Mullen We taught, we biked, and we prayed.  2 investigators interviewed and did not pass. I chose to be happy, but then the tears just came. It's supposed to be hard. Our agency is what our Heavenly Father has to deal with too, so this is just helping us become more like Him.  I got to go on switch offs this week also. It was great to get the know the sisters in the zone a little bit more. They were open about their concerns to me and it's so amazing their strength amidst all the challenges and struggles. Sometimes we break down, but when we have the choice to keep working and expecting miracles, we empower ourselves. I can't tell you the strength I feel AFTER the trial when I had just chosen to keep going. That's all we have to decide and then heaven helps us. MLC is this week. I'm planning on what I am going to say on notecards so I don't chicken out and I participate! haha Rough week, but I trust that God knows me Perfectly. I have different lessons to learn from other missionaries. I'm ok with that. Sister Mullen #1

Sister Jasmine Mullen Hello! WELLP. yes. its happened again. Transferss. brrrrrrrrrrrrrup! And guess what. no i didn't not get to keep my beloved Sister Tautuiaki :( she is actually dying in my last area, Maryborough! But i'm doing okay because i get to see her at the mission home. We were so close. I know I say this a lot but she was my favorite companion. Everyone could see it. Presdient said that we were two peas in a pod, haha and then he said, "and i love peas!" haha. But yeah guess what! I now have my beloved Sister Wulfenstein. We were in the MTC together. She's the one that does Kirsten Wiig impersonations. We both laughed. I'm so excited. She's amazing. And she just came from where a huge piece of my heart is, Centenary Lakes. So yes. We have heaps to catch up on. So yeah we had a mission wide full day pday. I love this mission. Its a huge family. I loved South Carolina, but this is definitely where I was called to serve. It was so fun. We got mission wide shirts that say The 105 :) to represent the first time ever that this mission has gotten over 100 baptisms. In the last leadership council I finally said my first thing. oh my goodness. i was sweating the whole time haha. i dont know when i will get used to talking in front of people. i can teach lessons and say prayers on the side of the street, in the mall, at the bus stop like nothing. but when i'm in a room full of missionaries in front of a whiteboard, i've got a red face and sweaty hands. haha. but yeah president had inspiration to have every companionship baptize int he month of august. And you could just feel the load instantly because there are some zones that struggle to baptize even 3. I know that we'll be able to do it soon but the bar was just lowered a little to instead having a repeat of june. Which i'm so excited for. We've been dealing with some pretty dramatic sisters in a region but i feel more confident now and feel like i know how to listen to the spirit better to know how to handle all these situations.  I get to go on trade offs in one of my old areas and the farthest we travel is 2 hours to toowoomba. Its funny because i've had so many companions i get to see them a lot because most are in my region haha! Its funny. I don't know if i've told you about the Leo family. But they are amazing. a family of 5, the dad is nice but not interested but all the kids and the mom are getting baptized. Trying to finalize the date but yeah we set it with them last night. they literally just came one sunday and we started teaching them two weeks ago. She just rocked up and asked us to come. She's had a testimony for so long and is already raising her family in such a righteous way with the standard of the church being her guide. I know i'm not telling this story how it should be told. but just know that they are amazing. Its my second "Maria". I just feel so humbled to know that Heavenly Father trusts me with these amazing souls. i love you! thank you for everything that you are sacrificing for me. This area is taking care of me, we often tell them that they are an answer to our parents' prayers :) love you heaps. sister mullen.

21 July 2014

Sister Rachel Mullen What a week. I'm just going to list off some things that happened: One of our investigators passed his interview, but is now not able to get baptized  until the 3rd of next month We taught one of our RC's daughters who is 40+ and SHE wants to be baptized! The next day when we went to go teach our RC, he was not into it. He assumes she can't make the commitment, it was REALLY sad. He is also talking about how he doesn't want to learn in 3rd hour because it is boring. I asked if maybe HE'd want to teach it. Sassy? He said no. Us 20 year olds, telling grown men to go to church. And then it just confirms it all, that it is OUR responsibility to stay active, to learn. If we think that we're done, we're not going to be ready. He still has a LOT to learn, and it needs to start with his attitude towards his daughter who could join him in the church and essentially the kingdom of God. It has NOTHING to do with how skilled the teacher may or may not be. It is our decision to participate and allow the Spirit to teach us. Ah, sorry. I'll stop. Anyways, all in all. A HARD week, but we were blessed with great work. Lots of teaching and great lessons where the spirit was felt. But in the end, MANY did not show up for church. The Saturday before, we had 2 daters (including the one who passed his interview) drop us, when we thought they were pretty solid. All these trials but we do a PRETTY good job at hoping for the miracles the next day, and when all our others didn't show up, it was hard not to cry.  We aren't going to make the goal of 4 baptisms this month. That's the hard thing. We went inviting and got a lot of numbers. Went back to the church to wait for an appointment and just talked. I'm so blessed to have this sister as my companion. We reevaluated the week and all that we did and saw how blessed we were for the amount of work that we had. No regrets and did all we could. All that God wants from us is the have hope for the future. It may not be the next day, or the next week, but I think that the miracles or the blessings that we are expecting sometimes do not come in the baptisms alone. The kind of person we are becoming from this oppositions, these trials, is the ultimate goal. Perfection requires patience and as we just keep going, knowing that the Spirit has guided us, we will feel and Know we were successful. Sister Mullen

Sister Jasmine Mullen hello! i'm alive. sorry i don't have much time to email now but i love you both so much. we're at our full day pday :) i'll update you next week. im sorry this is not an email you guys deserve. but i love you  heaps :)