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