23 June 2014

Sister Rachel Mullen So here is what the mission has. We have Balanced Key Indicators. They say then the next step is Better Balanced, which is just a few more new investigators each week and more lessons, and then Best. When they came out with Best, Sister Mullen over here got a little excited and thought it was ok to just skip getting better balanced. (shakes head) So. After much consideration a few weeks ok, we tried for better. Got it. Then that following week we had a baptism, with the 71 year old lady. She was a true blessing. That week we got better again. So... as He promises, we were blessed with not just one baptism this last week... but TWO. This man came to church on Sunday, we taught him twice and he is so strong and willing. And then Brother Dotcom, the 15 year old, got permission to be baptized. Wow. I can't talk of the blessings of this work and how God blesses us as we try. I feel like I've been trying my whole mission and I'm trying to put my finger on what changes the efforts we put forth to success. It is absolutely our faith and our humility to follow our leaders and our PATIENCE. I think I was always evaluating myself and being like, yeah. I've got no doubts, and expecting miracles in that way but the patience bit has been the hardest to recognize. It stinks it has taken me so long to learn these lessons. But I am so grateful for them. There is nothing better than the patterns in which God prepares us for life's experiences. It truly is perfect, this whole thing. Love, Sister Mullen

Sister Jasmine Mullen Its been a great first week. I'm so sorry, I always forget to bring my planner so I can never remember what actually happened. But this week was for sure filled with miracles. We're coming to an end of Joyful June and we only have 1 weekend left to baptize 100. We were doing weekly planning and my companion started telling me about a guy they had a date set with. His name is Kevin and they met him a few weeks ago. She said he has trouble learning and he speaks slow because of a stroke that he had. We decided to move his baptismal date from august 24th at 2:00 p.m. to this weekend. We prayed hard about it all day and then the next morning we had our lesson with him. I just knew that if he was supposed to get baptized, it would be easy. The spirit kept telling me that. So i was going to be satisfied with any answer he gave. We started talking about how much God loves him and then we just cut the fluff and just asked, "Do you want to be baptized this weekend instead?" oh my goodness. the next thing he said made me love him even more. "Yeah! What time? Like 2:00 p.m. again?" We just started laughing/crying. But wiping our tears away quick so that he wouldn't see. :) The rest of the day was amazing too. We went to a street we felt prompted to find on and found like 10 potentials, a part member family and a LA. Its funny because with islanders they just are "waiting to be found" and then they just come to church. haha. But yeah come to find out that the part of the street we were finding on was just out of our area. So we ended up getting very low numbers because we pretty much did "nothing" for a whole day. But as sister tautuiaki and i talked about it, we were really happy for our day. The numbers didn't really matter because we got to experience those numbers, that means a lot more to me. But i'm super pumped for the other sisters to follow up with them! My companion is amazing. we get along really well. She runs after everyone and the other day we were running from house to house. We go finding in the dark, and people don't get angry! YAY! I'm so excited about our four way. just to BE IN ONE is nice. Haha. I live with all islanders, and its an islander ward. So its a first. I'm trying really hard not to get fatter. Everyone keeps talking to me in Samoan, even though they know I'm American. Haha they just want me to learn i guess. We did some lightning visits and I sang in samoan! that was pretty fun. Being an STL is so normal except lots more phone calls and more meetings. I'm excited because I get to go on a trade off with sister hwang! I haven't seen her in ages. But yes we are both STLs which i'm SO grateful for. and we account to President our numbers. We're doing it next week so eeeekkkk!!! Probably won't have any ipads until after I leave. President was pushing hard for them at first but he hasn't mentioned them in a while. I love you all heaps. Thank you so much for everything. Sister Mullen