11 November 2013

Sister Rachel Mullen I was given permission to see the family as long as it is not a distraction. And it cannot be because we had our first investigator at church this last week! And it was wonderful! She is 15 and we really just invited her at the river this week, called her for church and she came. Not really any real lesson lesson, and of course the 2nd hour is about baptism and she was the only investigator there so they talked to her the whole time. But the 3rd hour was awesome. We got to sit in young women's with her and they all did SO amazingly at making her feel welcome. I just saw the members be friendly and warm and just accepting a new person. That seriously made ALL the difference, I can't even talk about it. ahh Sister Peterson is doing wonderful! She has such a wonderful spirit and you feel it so strongly everytime she bears testimony in lessons. This week Brother Ap and his wife... we taught about temples and families and introduced to them preparing to go and be sealed. They have a lot of concerns, but as we are being taught in the mission EVERYDAY, miracles happen when we believe in them. We encouraged them to work together and plan. Yesterday at church we saw them both there and they paid their tithing! With the temple as a goal, people are motivated. We are trying to work with Brother Sawat and Sister Tong, because they know a lot of LA's but are hesitant to find them and invite them. But we have an appointment with Sister Tong this week to go visit an LA. We went and she taught us how to make food and her and Brother Sawat got to show pictures of our family. They really love you and mommy and I am using that connection to them to get them more involved with the work and getting them more comfortable in working with us, because they are so giving and wonderful and can do so much in bringing back LAs. We went to visit a member to followup with elder ballard's challenge and not many members take it well when we encourage them to reach out to others and invite, but then I asked her how long she has been a member. I asked if she knew Brother Mike. She was like yeah, he's so nice... that big rice pot we have at church, that's from him! and just on and on and when I told her you were my dad, she was just like WOW! and she was more willing to do what we asked her. I've been wondering why I was sent her sometimes. Like, it's cool and all, I can speak Thai now and read and write, but why am I here as a missionary right now? And only having been in country for 6 months getting to serve in each area: Bangkok, Isan, and now the North. Some don't get all three. I am here right now. 2 hours away from my family. This is why. I can't talk about everything socially interesting, but I can explain the plan of salvation, I know how to share Joseph Smith's experience in Thai. I am praying up until I do see the family, that they will be "astonished" and wonder what has all of sudden happened to our family in these missionary efforts. I know that I am here doing what is most important right now and this opportunity to do it 24/7 doesn't go unnoticed. I want to do it forever. I'm not coming home. Bye. sister mullen ps Haha just kidding. but seriously. why am i so funny.

Sister Jasmine Mullen Its week 6. I can't believe it. seriously. This transfer has flown by. I don't know what to do with myself. Well this week some amazing miracles happened. The mission work here is picking up. I don't know if the ward knows it yet, but we do. We have been so blessed as an area both areas are teaching so much. we're always doing something and nothing is ever finished. I must say this week was hard. Satan was working really hard on getting me down. And he did win for a couple of days. Its like when you're sad you just want to be sad all day and then you think of the saddest things and everything bad that has ever happened to you. haha its pretty dramatic. but thats what happened to me. but i just have to say that prayer is real and it works. i have never been so sure of anything in my entire life. it may feel like you don't really know who you're talking to, but God is there and He is real and He is listening. I prayed, it was simple. I wasn't even kneeling, I didn't really say much and I think I fell asleep before i said amen. But what I prayed for was to be able to have some way to get out of this funk i was in, i knew i couldn't do it myself. So Heavenly Father gave us a miracle. We went to a LA house and her name is Natasha. She has been LA for 3 years and is kind of just not really interested she's a single mom and she has 4 kids. She is very disorganized and not very motivated. I'm not saying these things to talk bad about her, I just want to give you a picture of what she looked like before. So then we showed her the talk by Elder Uchtdorf. Bottom line is, she came to church this past sunday for the first time in 3 years. She is ready to make changes in her life. It was the greatest feeling ever. All i know is, that the cure for a bad mood or a bad day is to serve others and to see a change in them. We have shown that video twice to 2 LA families and both times we have shown it, the family suddenly has this change of heart and awakening that they need to come back to church, NOW. Not someday, the very next sunday. Its been an amazing experience. So i know that those talks really are inspired. All we have to do is show it to people. Another miracle happened when we had trade offs. We had trade offs this week on Saturday. I was with Sister Cummings. The day started off pretty rough. But then we went to go teach Nicholas. He is the 10 year old that is getting baptized THIS THURSDAY! EEEeeek! I'm so excited. But thats not the miracle I'd like to share. So his dad is LA. When we first got there he didn't even look at us or say hi. Then a few weeks later he sat in on the lessons but his comments were pretty negative and he wouldnt stay for the prayer. Then on trade offs. He started talking to Sister cummings and I and just compeletly broke down and opened up. He is going through SO much. I've never met someone so in need of the Mormon Message Mountains to Climb. He felt the spirit so strong and he wants a blessing and he is going to pray on his own soon. It was a complete change. I couldnt even speak after the lesson. It was by far the most amazing experience I've had so far. I'm sorry if i couldn't put it into that good of words. But yeah. a funny thing happened this week. The STLs slept over because we had trade offs and it was too late to be driving back to their flat. So we all slept down stairs. Lucky we did because at 1:30 in the morning we hear a banging on our door. I sleep right by the window. But since it was so late i had no idea what was going on, when we all realized what was happening we started panicking. it was so funny (well its funny now but not then) anyway so then we realize its our reactivated member England. He lives down the road from us and he was locked out so he needed to use our phone to call his brother. hahaha it was so funny i think you mightve had to be there. but it was pretty funny. everything weird happens on trade offs. Hmm. What else. we sang at the seminary graduation last night and I'm singing at our northern zone conference tomorrow. Eeek! hopefully i dont cry too much. Everyone always wants me to sing He'll Carry You. So i dont really sing anything else too much. Also so not so great news. So they have a new bike policy and basically I was wondering if you could help me pay for a bike and i will make payments to you monthly by putting it into my bank account? i paid 100 of it already but i need to pay 400 more. i know its not really helping. the whole point of me going on a mission was to not stress you guys out haha. kidding but seriously. also just wondering, ( this is just a question) i kind of want to stay to dress maddie for her last christmas show in galena when i get home. i dont know how that would work with thailand and everything. just let me know if thats possible. i miss you guys. i'm really grateful for how much you support me and rachel. rachel is half way! thats crazy. why does time go so fast now? Oh the other day i had some rice and terriyaki chicken. it reminded me of when we had that at that terriyaki time place. i cant wait to do that with you guys again. i think a really good thing i'm learning is how much i love family time. i think about how much i revolved myself around boys and it makes me so frustrated with myself. i dont know sometimes i still think about matthew and jd but i dont want to and i dont like to. so thats new for me. i love that i'm not supposed to think about anything except the work. i dont know if that made sense but bottom line is im happy to be enveloped in this work. its so great :) if you send this out to people probably dont put this in there haha. i love you. i'm so happy. this is the greatest experience of my life! sister mullen #2