Dear family and friends,
This week was incredible! We had 6 investigators at
church which was great! I've been here for nearly a month now and we still
haven't found any new investigators. So that's sad. But! When I got here our
area book was a total mess and had uncared referrals from years ago and an
endless list of potential investigators who had never been visited and were in
the area book for hundreds of days. (It tells us how many days since the last
visit.) We actually finally crossed someone off this week who hadn't been
visited in 1200 days! Turns out they had moved! (No surprise there.) Anyway,
the point I'm getting at is we had a very disorganized area book a month ago,
but it's starting to clear up and become decipherable. It's fantastic.
Just last night we met a lady named Adrienne who Elder
Ojala had met with once before at the door. We just knocked and she said she
didn't have time right now, but she came out and talked with us for a good 20
minutes. She told us about having just gotten back from a camping trip and then
told us a ton about her life throughout the story of how their campout was. She
has a 13 almost 14-year-old daughter. She's a single mom. Her husband passed
away about a decade ago. She loves her family deeply and considers herself a
very family oriented person. She has her own beliefs, but has met a lot of
really good Mormons and would be interested in hearing more about what we
believe. When we got in the car I told Elder Ojala that she was so prepared for
the gospel! I guess he hadn't really been paying much attention because he
said, "Really?" Haha! Then I pointed all that stuff out to him and he
says, "Oh! She totally is!" It was a great visit!
We also had another lesson with Matthew, the 10-year-old
we taught last week. We talked about baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to
the end. He understood it fairly well, but we caught him on a bad day. Usually he's a little more cognizant but that
day he just wasn't feeling it. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would
think about it. Usually when you teach little kids they'll say yes to anything
you ask them to do, but he really thinks about things. It's nice that he wants
to make the decision all on his own.
Elder Ojala is really gullible sometimes…well, all the time.
He says he's trusting, not gullible. (He told me to say that.) My form of
sarcasm is I'll say something so ridiculous and so out there that I think no
one will ever believe me on it, but then I say it in a serious tone as though I
wholeheartedly believe that to the truth.
There were a few moments this week where I was just trying to be funny,
but Elder Ojala thought I was serious. We go by the Cox family from time to
time to get some water. They used to live in Georgia, so we make up all sorts
of fun facts about it just joking around. One of my first weeks with Elder
Ojala we told him that they have green, blue, and yellow buses in Georgia. The
blue for elementary students, the green for middle school/Jr. High, and yellow
for high schools. That way people would
be able to use varying degrees of caution around them. I didn't think he
believed it, but about two weeks later he brought it up and I died of laughter
and had to tell him we were joking. The other day we went by to get some water
and I sarcastically asked them if they had ice cream in Georgia and they said
no sarcastically. Leave it to Elder
Ojala to ask his favorite question.
"Really?" Oh boy... And then last night I told him Freddy
Mercury was still alive and he totally thought I was serious! I need to work on
not being so sarcastic all the time, but all of those things seemed ridiculous
enough that nobody would believe them. Fortunately, he's a good sport about it
and he thinks it's pretty funny usually. Most of the time he doesn't think I'm being
serious, but every once in a while... We get a good laugh! Haha!
One of the biggest heart breaks of my entire mission has
been healed at last. A girl named Francine in my first area who was 11 and from
the Congo loved the missionaries and the church. She read from the Book of
Mormon nearly every day. She came to church and activity days every single week
and month. The only problem was that her parents wouldn't let her get baptized.
I thought she would have to wait until she was 18. She has sickle cell as well,
so she has a serious possibility of not even making it until then. Elder Karlinsey and I got a Facebook message
from her this week that said we are cordially invited to her baptism on June
11th!!! She lives out in Phoenix now, so we asked President if we could go and
he totally said yes!!!!!!!!!! I
seriously am so happy! That was by far the highlight of my entire week! You
have no clue the joy I feel to have the opportunity to see her baptized! I'll
put a picture of her in my email. She's a great girl! She's now 13! I'm
seriously so excited now!
Not much else really happened this week. It went by super
quick once again. I can't hardly believe it's already Monday again. The closer
and closer to the end I get the shorter and shorter the weeks get. I'm excited
to be heading home, but I'm more excited that I still get to be a missionary
for another 3 months. It was weird enough telling people I've been out 20
months; 21 months however, people think I'm basically home tomorrow. And don't
say that's the truth. Some may say I'm living in the state of Arizona right
now, really I'm in the state of denial. Elder Gilbert who started his mission
with me just pointed out to me that we have 99 days left. How dare he...
Anyway! I love you all! Talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Mullins
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| Me at the beginning of my mission with Francine and Cedrick |
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| The Cox family got a super cute puppy |
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| Elder Ojala and I take some great selfies |
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| Elder Quist is wondering what is going on? |
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