21 April 2014 (Pictures)

21 April 2014

Sister Rachel Mullen Amazing week. Transfers are this Thursday so we are working hard to make things smooth for the new missionaries coming in. Don't know who is moving yet. I've said this whole transfer I am not moving. I really don't want to. But if it happened, I love moving and I love new experiences and new people so whatever is fine. This last week was Songkran! The water fight. SO fun. I just love playing it here in Kamphaengphet. We met up with the members and just walked. It was so fun. Not too many crazies out. Sweet people. haha The next day we didn't have English. I was going to go to Uncle Tong's work to spend a little time with the family, but he is kind of in the middle of the water fight so we couldn't go. Tuesday was a work day, so couldn't play, but it was kind of hard because everyone else was playing. We would be biking to the church and I got hit. But I think for the most part, us wearing our skirts helped us. People thought twice about ruining our look and throwing water on us. haha but then others didn't care. haha We spent some time with Brother Suteb, the unit leader. We went out to his house to do some service, but I think the service he wants and needs is just for us to hang out with him. He showed us around all of his land. He grows mangos and bananas and loads of other things. We had sports day that night so we were kind of in a rush towards the end, because he would just take us to another and another and another part of his farm. He's like... no! these mangos are different than the last 2 places I showed you! haha Long story short, we end up filling up his truck with mangos for all of us. Yeah. We have BAGS of mangos in our apartment right now. This was on Saturday, so the day before Easter. We literally stop in the middle of the road somewhere and then yeah. Brother Suteb gets out, leans over, picks up a mini mango and bites into it. We all jump out of the car and are like, what? crazy. Then it happened. We turned into the most disgusting mango monsters. Just running around, picking up little mangos and chomping down. Throw them down and move on to the next one. We were there for a good while. Oh man, Brother Suteb must have been so proud of himself. We were so disgusting. We taught James and Beau. They are getting the Holy Ghost on Sunday. We talked about how after they will receive the priesthood and help with the growth of the church. James got all giddy and SO excited. It was the cutest thing. I literally could not contain myself I was laughing and just so so so so happy I can't even explain that lesson. They are so amazing and ready for everything. On Tuesday of this last week, Uncle Nun went to Big C while we were inviting. He asked what we were showing people. I asked him if he wanted forgiveness from his sins, and he gave me the answer that most older men give... I have no sins. My heart sank when he said that. And then in just reading in scripture studies about all of the people that came to the knowledge of the Savior, their Redeemer. In order for that to have any importance to them, they needed to realize that they were in sin. People become too comfortable with sin, and they won't see the need for Christ. And then in just applying words from Elder Richard G. Scott from this last conference, LOVE is how we help them. I think he saw how sad it made me that he didn't want this amazing gift... to be cleansed from his sins. So after that he said, why don't you come over to the house? I tell him I've got to do this. He said, why don't you tell us more about it? AH. My whole two months here, I've only gone over once. Had dinner, but no one would listen. Now this uncle, that I have never really had a relationship with before because first thing he'd always say to my face every time he saw me was... "she's fatter than last time!"... haha... now HE is the one that I am aching to see after this life. same with Everyone. I know that this mission, being here, is all preparation for the rest of my life, and I will continue to be an example and share with them... but I thought about the power and authority that we are set apart with as missionaries. Now is the time. I was studying Esther: "...and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" We fasted and went over. The spirit was so strong. We taught them the Plan of Salvation. I told them I want to live with them again. I told them I loved them. And they listened. They didn't say yes to baptism, but they didn't say no. When leaving, Uncle Nun said, it's hard for someone like me to change. I told him I loved him and wanted to see him again after this life, forever. Committed him to pray. Without this experience, I would have never been able to communicate any of this to my family. My FAMILY! that is the first time, I'm sure, that I have ever told them I love them. I love this Gospel. Forever. Sister Mullen

Sister Jasmine Mullen Hello! Its been a great week! The weather is starting to cool down so its perfect weather. We went walking the other day instead of using the car because it was so nice. Its always interesting emailing on Tuesday, I feel like heaps of stuff has happened so i dont even know where to start! Wow! That easter egg hunt thing sounds soo cool! I wish we knew that before easter! We tried to be creative and come up with some things but yeah thats really cool, i bet the sisters enjoyed that. The more i meet nice members the more i think of the missionaries that used to come around to our house. I never even offered them water! If a mission doesn't teach me anything (which is impossible) it will teach me how to treat servants of the Lord! But yes. I'll start with last Monday after Pday. It was a pretty rough day. One of my companions got some bad news about her family and then we were dropped by Vaun and Kalina. I started crying a lot when my companions asked me why he dropped us. I love the spirit. The spirit helped me to understand what was going on in his head. But also helped me to understand that he wouldn't accept what we were saying right then. Sometimes people just need time. I am here to baptize but just like him, I am exercising my own faith. I know that their family will be baptized and receive all those blessings, it will just take some time and understanding. I've been able to teach with Sister Mann's niece this week. Sister Wrigley is amazing. They found a part member family for us to teach. I was really nervous at first because I was going to teaching on my own. But the spirit was there and they came to church! BUT! they came after it was over haha. They had a rough morning but it was so good to see their family didn't forget about it and church was just important to them as it was to us. Our recent convert Maria, set up a member present lesson haha. she's amazing. she's so willing to share the gospel with everyone she knows! Martha our other recent convert also met a less active two days ago and invited her to church! Wow. Its amazing what a simple invitation can do. Our other investigator Lillian dropped us as well. It was really sad. But as we move forward with faith, the Lord continues to bless us with new people to teach. We've been really trying to focus on Melissa the best we can. Our members are really involved with her which helps us out heaps. She is an amazing daughter of God though, my companions are trying their best to love her, and i know how hard that is. But I know that as we pray for charity God will give it to us liberally. That has brought so much peace to me this last week. Let me know how you feel about it. My studies have improved so much these past few transfers because of Sister Tempany. She's a great example. Anyway i love you heaps. Thanks so much for all you do. AND THANK YOU FOR THE EASTER PACKAGE. IT MADE ME SO HAPPY. YOU ARE THE BEST. :) Love always, Sister Mullen

14 April 2014

Sister Rachel Mullen So life here is good. It's way cold outside. Like way cold. Ugh, not really. I keep saying that because I'm pretty sure all the heat I'm feeling is just mental. It can't ACTUALLY be this hot in one place. Songkran is today. Got my shirt on from last year and we are going to venture out to the river to play! Hopefully the Elders will protect us from crazies. They failed last night when we were in our room and a couple of weirdos knocked on our door and shot their nerf guns at us. Just kidding. It was the Elders. They had face masks on that Sister Ellis had bought for them. They are so weird. This week was wonderful. We went to Sukothai on Monday and met up with Plok! So fun. I've officially been there 3 times! WOOT! I just like singing on the bikes, I'm not really into ruins. Elder Kelley translated the hour long Joseph Smith movie. It was so good. You know Thai people and their attention span, but I think it was good for them to actually see his history and the persecution. Holy moly we watched conference. Is something crazy going to happen or what?! Stand strong as a disciple of Christ is what I got out of it. Woah. We got to teach James and Beau the day after they saw the movie. We review Lehi's Vision and they are awesome. I'm about to ask James to say the closing prayer and he decides to lead the lesson and asks me to. I say something about Joseph Smith and then amen. They just keep sitting there for a while and then James says, Joseph Smith sacrificed a lot for us to have all of this, huh? AHHHHHHHHHHHHH I thank Heavenly Father everyday to have been given the opportunity to teach them. We had to tell them they wouldn't get the Holy Ghost until the week after General Conference. They seemed sad about it. AH, I die. I also have a testimony of referrals. Awhile ago, we were inviting in neighborhoods and came across this man that was feeding his birds that he sells for Buddhism stuff. Ask him if he wants to be baptized, he points us inside to talk to his wife. We ask her, and she also says no. We ask if there is anyone else. Long story short, she gives us her daughter's phone number. She was out of town until last week. SHE called US and said... ok I'm getting into town tomorrow, can I meet with you then? Yeah. she's prepared. We met with her for the first time. Taught her all the commandments, and she wants to be baptized. Date for the 27th. Sister Ellis and I just look at each other. Missionary work is not supposed to be hard, or a matter of convincing. If you have invited someone to learn with the missionaries and they reject you. Don't give up. Keep praying for them. Have faith that they will change and open their hearts. But in hastening the work of salvation, keep moving and find the one that God has prepared. Once you find that person... you will know. Because it is simple, testimony bearing that influences them to make that conversion. Not a heated argument, or loads of persuasive debating. I was on the edge of my seat when M. Russell Ballard was following up on his commitment to us all. Did you do it? If not, do it. 4 times this year at least. I know I will be doing it and preparing to do it forever when I get back. I love you all, and I love this Gospel. so much. Remember what's most important. His work, just fyi ;) Love, Sister Mullen #

Sister Jasmine Mullen Happy New year! Last zone pday we had to do skits. And i hate skits so much but we did one about different cultures. And all i did the whole time was throw water at people. haha I'm really creative. The work is going great. Lillian is on a baptismal date for the 3rd of May! Ahh it was so exciting. She is seriously like those investigators in The District that are just sooo interested. And then at the end of the lesson we found out she was MARRIED! The spirit was so strong during the lesson and when we were about to leave i saw her wedding pictures. What a tender mercy. I would've stayed up all night wondering how we could bring it up with her. I was like "ohhh! is this your wedding?" She had no idea how much that meant to us. We ran out of there squealing and i did a few bell clicks. I dont know i just really felt like it. The joys of missionary work. Haha no eggs lately. But I can tell you that my attitude has gotten better and the strength to do that has come from general conference. All the messages just really proved to me, that the promptings on how I can improve are really from my Heavenly Father. I'm on the right track, so thats good. Now its just a matter of letting it change me. And i know that change takes time, but it does take effort. Experiencing a mighty change requires changing little things, OFTEN. Every day is a day to practice. I'm amazed that times when I get mad and used to be mad the entire day can leave my mind and heart so quickly now. My companions have helped me with that and of course most importantly, my Savior Jesus Christ. I love that this gospel demands so much of us. We wouldn't be able to follow Christ if it didn't. HOW INSPIRED WAS CONFERENCE. I love the urgency in each of their voices as they bore their testimonies. Robert D. Hales gave me chills when he said "be careful who you follow". It was soo GOOD! Oh and Sister Reeves talk, I love how she said that she knows it stresses sisters out when she tells them to do more, but she has an unwavering testimony of how the gospel can open up doors for us. I continue to hope and pray that I can grow a testimony that can stir someone's heart like she did to mine. My goal is to not care how upset, annoyed, or frustrated people get with me. I am going to be a missionary. I am going to do what God tells me and defend His gospel, I'll be "courteous and compassionate, but I'll defend it". I can't wait for the magazine to come out! Oh and it happened this week. I got engaged. hahaha. Yeah i felt like i was in fiddler on the roof. We are teaching a muslim family and she is really interested in the Book of Mormon but she's always showing us pictures of her sons haha. and then we met her son, and when we made a return appointment he said "next time i'll have a ring for you. I want to engage you." haha. it was so romantic so i'm really glad my heart is locked up that would've been hard. (sorry, i'm still working on my sarcasm.) :) Well other than that, the work is great. always improving, or at least trying, which is improvement haha :) I get to buy a new study journal today and pens! :) Randy's pens lasted me a while. I feel like its halloween haha. I'm not sure whats happening with mother's day yet. They'll probably tell us at transfer meeting. Hope you have a great week :) Thanks for always encouraging, inspiring and motivating me! :) Sister Mullen

7 April 2014 (Pictures)

Eating Earthquakes at Swensons.

The church in Kampaengphet.

This recent convert now wants to serve a mission.

They had stake conference in city hall.

Jasmine's new companion from Indonesia.

7 April 2014

Sister Rachel Mullen This passed week for district meeting we talked about humility... the Hardest Christlike Attribute. And in trying to improve it this week... I was given SEVERAL opportunities. Just on Saturday we were inviting at the market, talking to everybody... the people selling things know us, they know what we are offering. I go up to a man and ask him if he wants to be baptized. Doesn't answer my question, just keeps pointing to other people. He's like... them them. I get frustrated. When people just point off and are like, they want it they want it... it usually is just them pushing off the awkwardness to people they don't like... or to their friends because they think it is funny. He literally grabs the people he was talking about and has me talk to them. Turns out they were interested, and they even ended up coming to church yesterday. I went up to the man and thanked him. I then thanked Heavenly Father for miracles and for the kindness that we receive from others regularly. No doubt the rejections are often, and the impoliteness is ever so frequent... haha, but God is looking out for us. He is ready to help us. It's all Him. James and Beau passed their interview! I let them borrow my triple in Thai so they could read Joseph Smith History. They LOVE Joseph Smith. After we were done teaching them, one of our appointments fell through so we were going to clean the church a bit. They wanted to stay and help. So here we are, cleaning the church with our investigators. They just took over the mopping and killing spiders, and whatnot. So fun. This passed week was also zone training. So we went to Plok again! It was SO good. The mission has been up on this high of baptisms. This passed month we had 214 baptisms!!! But during the training, they didn't talk about numbers. They talked about finding joy in the work. We have all been working hard, and its amazing because some companionships are getting 10+ baptisms, but there are still some that struggle and President doesn't want us comparing. He wants the idea of success to be the joy that we receive from our labors. It was perfect. We are all happy for the mission, but when we feel that we have not contributed as much to the success, we feel like we are doing something wrong. We were assured that we are not. 2 hours of inviting, if you don't get a number... you were still successful. Ahhh, it was perfect. We've been going up to the roof lately at night after planning to write in our journals and Sister Ellis will play her ukulele. It's so peaceful. But the Elders have been coming up lately and attacking us with nerf guns so the atmosphere has changed a bit, but it's SO fun. We got approved for a TV!!! So now we have one! Saturday night there was some random storm. Elder called and told us to go home. He said people said there was a tornado coming. Haha We first went to Big C to get some food. It was just funny. It was so windy and crazy outside and I see people in Big C getting haircuts and stuff. haha. I just think of like, Uncle Henry from Wizard of Oz, screaming there's a storm coming, but nobody was doing ANYTHING! but the minute you step outside, tents are flying, people are freaking out haha. It was funny. It was pouring down rain, everyone is just sitting waiting for the rain to stop, Sister Ellis and I just walk RIGHT out into the rain, strap our groceries onto our bikes, and ride away. like a boss. Fast sunday this last sunday. We had our first fast and testimony meeting. Our investigators shared their testimonies! After church it was about 11:45 and we started eating before we went out to the river for the baptisms. James didn't eat because he started his fast at noon on Saturday so he wanted it to be a full 24 hours. SO CUTE! The baptism was perfect. This week has been eye-opening, and I am so grateful for this experience. I don't think I can say it enough. This is how I should have been living my whole entire life.This is what brings true happiness. There is no sacrifice over here, none. Just blessings WAHHHHHHHHH Sister Mullen

Sister Jasmine Mullen Hello! I'm so jealous that everyone already watched conference. But thank you for the wonderful quotes. This week was great. Maria finished reading the Book of Mormon. WHAT THE HECK. She is just amazing. And it kills me because she calls us many times a week crying because she feels like she is a horrible person. If i don't baptize anyone else on my mission, it would be enough for me to feel the joy that comes when a child of God believes that they are loved and that they have a purpose in this life. Being lost is a dark place to be in and we're here to lead others to the light that is available to all. Vaun and Kalina are our other investigators. They are so amazing. Kalina agreed to be baptized but then we talked with them about the Law of Chastity. I have never had to invite someone to get married before so the invitation came out pretty broken and awkward haha. I was sweating trying to ask them. But they prayed about it and Vaun got a blessing after church so he feels like that is what he needs to do, so we dropped their date but they will get baptized soon. :) Martin got baptized on Sunday. It was a beautiful baptism. He said his testimony and he only said he knows the gospel is true and the Book of Mormon. And afterwards we were like, you testimony was so short! and he was like "thats all they needed to know" haha. he is such a smart little boy. These 9 year old kids just amaze me. This week has been a bit tough personally. I had a few break downs only because my companions get really sad whenever i'm sad. and it just stinks because my whole mission, my companions have told me about my attitude, and i'm trying my best. but its just so hard to get out of a mood when i'm in one. i know i've improved but yeah im just exhausted honestly. But i dont want to regret not loving my companions again. So i'm going to keep trying to improve and not give in when anger or frustration sets in. I've felt the Atonement help me in that this past week. My companion is also going through some tough stuff. She's 27 and always sees guys that she has dated around so she's really sad that she's not married yet. And it makes me feel so useless because i'm 20 and she doesn't really want to listen to me because it just seems like a baby telling her how to live. So this week has been a bit heavy. But it'll stop raining soon. Sunlight always comes after a storm. And we all love each other. so i know it'll be okay. I love this life. Through the tough times and the uplifting times. I'm grateful for trials and to quote one of my favorite mormon messages " i'm grateful for trials, not because they're easy or wanted, but because they teach us how to love". I love you both very much. Thank you for all your love and support. I hope you have a great Easter! Love always, Sister Mullen

31 March 2014

Sister Rachel Mullen Let's just start off by saying we have the 2 best investigators in the whole entire world. I've never been so happy teaching anyone. They are so excited to be baptized and they are just 18 and 19 years old. It amazes me everyday. These kids in their youth, concerned about their salvation? It's unreal. They are reading way good in The Book of Mormon and love learning more. We started a kind of diet. It's been going ok. Not too hard. Until I want a coconut drink thing. MMM they're so good. We were teaching a lesson this passed week and there was a mouse in the church. AHHH. but no mouse can kill the spirit. It didn't even phase me. Boom. We had switch offs this passed week too. Together we got 21 numbers! It was crazy. I got 6 numbers. and with all four of us we got 21. it was sooo cool. Some of the college girls are going home because the term is over, so we taught them for the last time this passed week. They had some last minute questions. In Chiang Mai I guess patriarchal blessings were introduced to them. I think they may have misunderstood, but it was so cute. They asked if I had mine and then asked me, so who does it say you are going to marry? Haha We explained to them it's not like that, more like a guide to help you prepare for that one, but it was SO cute. I'm going to miss them. The Elders investigators were being interviewed Thursday night so it was up to us to do scripture class. Not many came, just 3 members and our 2 investigators, and it was the FUNNEST time ever. We read about the Liahona and about Nephi breaking his bow and how we should do things with faith and diligence. We gave them a few different tasks to do, to test them. One of our investigators was still working on it when we were moving on. Someone was like, he's not a Nephi, he's a Sam. Haha, sounds harsh, but it was funny. We explained faith and diligence is not immediate success, but patience til the end. They were all Nephis. :) After that, we had about an hour left so we just went inviting... and the members and our investigators came and invited with us!!! Why are they so awesome?! Oh did I tell you they changed the music policy at Zone Conference? It's not just MoTab that we can listen to, but any hymns are fine. As long as there are no drums or electric guitars. HUGE news. It's way awesome too that they didn't say anything about electric bagpipes. We've got some awesome music over here. haha There is a talk about being a consecrated missionary and about having the constant companionship of the holy ghost. It is a challenge to do a 40 day fast. You begin with a fast and write down all the things that come into your mind or that make you think of things other than the work. And then you are to fast from those things. I wanted to do this personally, so I started this last weekend. It's so strange, because I know I wasn't thinking about these things as much as I am, but I am totally thinking about them more because I know I'm not supposed to think about them. Repentance, it's hard, but its possible, and I know the change is what is what I want in the end and that's all that matters. Our goal for the month of April... a baptism every weekend. This is for our companionship. Yeah. Faith baby, faith. Sister Mullen #1

Sister Jasmine Mullen WELLP. Hopefully my email can lift your spirits. I know how you feel though. Man i cannot even imagine how you felt as Bishop. Thanks for always being patient with me. Haha i just think of the videos when i was little on the camera...always doing something obnoxious for just a little too long and you'd be like OKAY ENOUGH. haha Taught me to be a semi normal human being. I would like to start off by saying I know that tender mercies are available to all those who have faith in the Lord. SERIOUSLY. What the heck. God knows me so well and loves me so much. I just laugh some times at how small I am but how important He makes me feel. Elder Kahi says hello. And elder smith. (my zone leaders) This week has just been full of tender mercies. Sister Lindha, my new companion is one of them. She reminds me of mommy. She's from Indonesia and is about the most humble person I've ever come across. She is laughing all the time and has a positive outlook on life. She says she's sad on the inside sometimes but she never shows it! I've learned more from her in the past 6 days than any other of my companions. She's full of love. We have had so many miracles this week and our zone leaders asked us how we just skyrocketed this week. The answer is love. Sister Lindha by her example has taught me how to love better and more fully. It changes our work, and increases our faith. My other comp Sister Tempany told me in comp inventory this past week that I've improved in my ability to show charity and be happy all the time. So she said whatever I've done, to keep doing it. So sister lindha has been such a blessing. And I'm really grateful for the increased spirit I feel and for the increased love i feel for my companions. Its not like super easy yet, and i still make mistakes and say mean things sometimes but i'm learning! I read the Other Prodigal talk by Elder Holland the other day. I am now determined to come home as that son. Not one who ever really strayed off the path but one who is able to overcome those destructive feelings that can claim our happiness. It was really inspiring and i know the Lord can help us all to overcome those feelings. But yeah this week went by crazy fast. Being in a three way we are able to get so much done. Sister Lindha is a saint. We're running around like chickens with our head cut off and she is so patient and calm. She's learning the area slowly though. I was able to see sister tobiassen this week because we were supposed to go to the temple with James, but then while we were in the tunnel going towards the temple sister wulf called us to tell us the trip was cancelled because of the rain. So we ended up just spending time in the car talking haha. It was a tender mercy to be able to just talk with her. i miss her a lot. This week has never felt more like a battle against the adversary. He's working really hard on both Maria, Martin and Abi. All of them are going through very hard things. But I know that light always overcomes the darkness. To quote President Uchtdorf, the hope of God's light is real. And no matter what the adversary is trying to tell us, we are always good enough and we can always win. He's already lost. Another crazy tender mercy is that the Edmonds came to visit me at church on Sunday. I was having a really hard time with my companion and I wanted to keep loving her, so i swallowed my pride and stuck it out and then when I felt so tired, there they were and I just cried. It was so great though. So the guy we taught last week, his name isn't Flawn or Fawn its Vaun haha. But he's asked us to be baptized on April 22nd. So yeah. "That was easy". Seriously the more the work is hastening, the less complicated it gets. You just go out and work with your heart and the Lord will provide the blessings. Its funny how simple the gospel is and how often we have to be reminded of that. Something really cool I learned this week besides Love. Is that just like the Christ like attribute of faith is a seed. So is every other Christ like attribute. Often I hear myself or others say, "i have no patience, or my hope is gone". Thats Satan trying to tell us we are bound to these destructive behaviors. We're not. We all are born with seeds of hope, charity, patience, etc. So we have to nourish them and help them to grow. Thats all i love you! sister mullen

24 March 2014

Sister Rachel Mullen Well we were determined to get balanced this week, even though we would only have 2 full days to get everything done. Monday, our investigator Brigham couldn't make it, so we just did fhe. I sat Thai style, pretty much the whole time, so when it came time to leave, my foot was WAY dead and I didn't even know it. I kind of hobbled over the first time I stepped down on it, then the second time it COMPLETELY bent over the wrong way. Something super cracked and then I literally could not hear anything. For some reason it was just muffled sound for a few minutes. My foot got swollen and I was hobbling around the apartment. That night I had to go to the bathroom but I made sure I didn't make ANY noise. Can you imagine Sister Ellis waking up and I'm limping in the dark. No. I couldn't do that to her. That would scare everything out of me. The next day was English day. I met a guy on Sunday and got a return appointment so he met us right before English and we taught him. He's very open and ready to accept commitments. He wants to be baptized, but we need to do it quick. He works on an oil rig thing where he is out on the ocean for a month, and then rests for a month. He leaves next month to go back out. He needed to come to Chiang Mai this passed week if he wanted to be baptized on the 30th, but he didn't. But then the next day we met with an 18 year old and 21 year old boy. We just did it. We taught them all the commandments. They made friends with the members we had at the lesson, and they REALLY wanted to go to Chiang Mai. Later while we were in Chiang Mai, they told us their moms wouldn't let them go, but they will definitely be baptized next month early! Chiang Mai was awesome. It was great for the members to be able to go and see a church building, to meet with all the members. We had zone conference with just missionaries about raising expectations and becoming. We are doing it. We traveled a couple hours to Lamphaang on our random day of not doing anything to go help them invite. It's a small town. We were there for just an hour and 45 minutes, but I thought it was great they sent a few of us out there to go and help. District Conference was great. I got to play the most amazing piece with Sister Jackson. She is amazing at the violin and she has this Oh My Father version that we love playing together. we served together in plok. I got to see so many people from Phitsanulok! They said I got skinnier which was so nice of them to say, because I know for a fact I've gained like 2 kilos here. A lot of them are planning on coming to Kphet soon to visit! And I think the members here became really good friends with people in Plok so it's going to be SO SO awesome. I got to see Lukas, the gay investigator from Plok. I missed him. He was baptized just the week before. Seeing him in the new members meeting was perfect. I was just sitting over in the corner crying haha. Hot mess. Sister Mullen

Sister Jasmine Mullen Hello! GUESS WHAT! I have a new companion! We are now a three way here in Chermside. I'm really excited. Its really cool. Her name is Sister lindha. She is from Indonesia. Sister Tempany (my other companion) her brother actually baptized sister linda. How crazy is that! But this week was great as well. I've learned to suck it up a lot. Week 6 is always tiring and our DL knew that so he challenged us to get 14 hours finding this week. We tried our very best and it was great! We got 8 hours so barely half but it felt really good to work. I haven't learned how to stop complaining but haha that'll come. This past week one of the highlights was being able to go to the temple with our recent converts. In our mission we are allowed to go to the temple for our recent converts first time :) Its really cool and I'm so grateful to have that rare experience. It was amazing just to see Maria and Abi in the temple. There were 6 recent converts there for their first time :) The spirit was definitely present. Although they didn't completely understand what was going on, THEY felt the spirit. We've been struggling trying to get the young men to fellowship Abi. He's the only member of his family so the support needs to be there. They are trying but they don't really know what to do yet. still learning. but yeah luckily our Ward Mission Leader's wife has talked about it and they are "adopting" him. Her dad was the only member to join in his family and she understands how much it affects so many generations. So she feels an enourmous love for Abi. Maria is still looking for a house so we haven't been able to see her much lately. But how crazy is it. That we met her four weeks ago and she's been baptized, and gone to the temple. I just can't even believe there was a time when she was searching for truth. Her son Martin, has a baptismal date for April 5th so we're preparing for that. We went finding for 5 hours yesterday and we were really trying hard to improve our skills. SO it went by really fast! and guess what. thats right we saw heaps and heaps of miralces. i was just like "whats going on" all day. The spirit was just present the whole day. We contacted 100 people! I was excited I've always wanted to do that in a day.But one experience I want to share is when we contacted a referal. Her name is Kalina and we were talking with her and then her partner walked in and starts talking about how he was homeless and found Jesus and stuff. The spirit was just there as he was talking. Then he finds out we're mormon and thats when he said "Oh I've read the book of mormon, I reckon that should be in the Bible, its better than the bible. Its true." WHAT WHAT WHAT. I was speechless. Like what do you say? haha Yeah so we're teaching them on Friday. I'm so excited and nervous but yeah. AHHH! Also we met some really golden people yesterday. And the last guy we talked to he couldnt open the door but he looked out the window and simply just said "Come back tomorrow". hahah WHATS GOING ON. Anyway fun times. Sister Tempany said the other day "You know Mohammed Ali said I have a dream.." AWKS. I was like that was Martin Luther King. And she was like well Mohammed had dreams too! haha i was rolling on the floor. Maybe its not so funny to you guys but maybe. haha As for the weather its getting cooler. its been raining today. Oh and we have full time car! Eeek. :) what a blessing. my legs couldn't take those hills no moe. I like that motto, Just keep swimming, because miracles are around the corner. :) LOVE YOU! be safe, accident free, lollies for me! (thats what we have to say everytime we get in the car) hahaha. our mission has a thing with car accidents. I think ours is the worst of all the missions. but yes. i love you. :) sister mullen

17 March 2014

Sister Rachel Mullen No letter from Rachel this week?!?

Sister Jasmine Mullen Hello Wonderful Family! I was wondering how you were going to do anything for mommy without our bank accounts to hide in haha. I'm glad it all worked out. Wow, thats sorta scary, the other day on splits I tried to call my companion and i didn't know how to use the members' iphone. It just looks so complicated now! Thank you for sharing that, yeah I would like to hear more, I think once I start hearing more of what other people learn, I'll be able to pick things up myself better. So its only been a few days since I last emailed, so I don't have many too exciting updates. But its great as always. :) Haha this week we got invited to a less active's house randomly for dinner. So we were really excited to start making more progress with her. She told us she lived on Gympie street and so i assumed that she meant gympie road. Yeah, they're two different streets. WHO DOES THAT? haha Seriously in the same town, you would think they would have other things to name streets, like kangaroo or some other weird creature that lives here haha. But anyway so we rode to the end of gympie, and then found out it wasn't the right street and the street she lived on was 4 suburbs away. But we just felt we couldn't just rain check it. So we rode to her house and then we couldn't figure out which side of the train station she lived on haha so it was a very back and forth night. She said she'd meet us at the station but then her phone kept dying so she had to go back and charge it haha. OF ALL THE TIMES TO RUN OUT OF BATTERY haha. but eventually we found her and we had a lovely dinner. It wasn't anything huge, but again I feel like its just those small moments that matter most. When you have just an inkling to do something, FOLLOW IT. It will add up to something huge later. I think i said it before but I have a huge testimony of following small promptings. And its even better if not a huge miracle comes from it, because that means it was Heavenly Father testing you to prepare you for that big moment when it does. Like Maria, I was tested a lot with so many people before to see it I really would talk to everyone I see, and then when it came time for me to speak to her, I was ready. Anyway, off topic but yeah that day was really fun. It made me feel like a real missionary. Like you hear those stories of horrible day when everything goes wrong, or horrible weeks. But how great it is to have a "horrible day" on the Lord's errand. Horrible days our here are my favorite. We started teaching the Nabi family, the muslim one we GQ'd. They're beautiful! They have such an urgent desire to know the truth! Its great. We were teaching the plan of salvation and I was drawing it out and everytime the girls would finish translating for their mum, they would say "okay whats next, draw the next one." haha it was great! But yeah, I've never taught muslim people so it'll be interesting as we continue to work through their concerns. The two girls came to church and it was a bit of a mess. President says we need to orchestrate our investigators' church experience and if it goes up in flames, don't be discouraged, thats the way it was supposed to be. So yeah we planned it all out and it went up in flames haha so we'll see them tonight and ask how they liked it. :) Anyway we had dinner with the Fergusons and Sister Ferguson was telling us about Deborah from the Old Testament. And she was described as a woman with a torch like spirit. It was pretty inspiring. After we shared our spiritual thought, she did too haha. But yeah life is great the mission is great. I just realized this was really long and nothing has really happened this week haha. Thank you for all that you do. I'm very appreciative of the little things. I love you guys. Have a great week! Also, I'm emailing on Tuesday next week. Another transfer DONE! crazy as. Sister Mullen