Water Shop Miracles

This week has been wonderful! I really enjoy being out here and being able to feel the spirit so often! Not a ton happened on Tuesday, but it went really well. We had dinner at a family's house, and they invited a part member family over to join us. All the members of the family are inactive and about half the kids are baptized. The dad is the one we really are trying to get baptized, but we have never met him. He, supposedly, was doing something else at home so he didn't make it to dinner. His wife is super protective of him. He was meeting with missionaries about a year ago and the second the missionaries extended a baptism invitation she told them not to come back, because they were pushing him way too hard. I think she doesn't really want him to be baptized, because as soon as he is, she knows she has to become active again. That's kind of a struggle there. We plan on going over to their house this week to meet the dad and get to know him a little better. Hopefully she doesn't kick us out like she did the other missionaries. 

Wednesday was pretty good. It was just a normal day, but that evening was kind of interesting! That night we met a couple of people. The first one was named James. He has one of his legs amputated about 4 inches below the knee, because he got a bone infection. They gave him the options of having the leg amputated and getting a prosthetic leg, or go in for a very painful surgery with a very long recovery process that could possibly make it so he couldn't walk for the rest of his life. He chose amputation so he could walk within 6 months. He's probably in his late 60's. He's a pretty cool guy! We talked to him a bit and we asked if we could come by and visit him sometime. He asked if we were going to try converting him so we responded, "You never know!" He responded, "Yeah, you're right. I guess you never know. Sure, I'll give you guys a call in a few days." We left our number with him, he gave us his address and told us to come by if he doesn't call, and we went on our way. I hope we can talk to him. He's a super friendly guy and really cool!

At the end of the day when we were heading back to our apartment we met the scariest man I have ever talked to in my life. I'll just give you what I wrote in my journal about him. 

"On our way to the apartment we met a guy who calls himself L-Easy. He's a gangster and I think he must be pretty high up in the system because he kept trying to get us to join. We asked why he's called L-Easy and he told us it's because every time he fights someone, within the first few hits he always gets them with a right-hook in the head and he lumps 'em over real easy. So it's lump easy, L-Easy. He also was trying to convince us to sell our souls to Satan. He says that when you sell your soul you can gain the riches of the whole earth and everything in it and you can have anything on earth that you want. He says he's been thinking long and hard about it for a few years now and is thinking he's going to do it."

We asked him what brings joy to his life and he told us one of the most terrifying things I have ever heard. He said, "When you're fighting someone and you get that last blow in, when they drop down on their knees, that look in their eyes as they're taking their last breath, knowing that you caused that, that's what brings me joy. I take that energy and increase it ten fold! There are few things if any that give me that sense of pleasure and power."

So basically that guy is freaking insane and a Satan worshipper. I wasn't really scared and didn't feel threatened by him as we were talking, because he was being pretty respectful and trying not to swear around us.  He is not a very good man. He's a fairly friendly guy, but I would never want to get on his bad side or make him upset. It was definitely a unique experience! I'm just glad it was us talking to him and not the sisters. 

Thursday was a pretty good day too. We did quite a bit of service. We started the day off with service for a lady named Julietta. That's my trumpets name! It's just spelled wrong, my trumpet is Guilietta. But whatev's. We just trimmed her citrus tree a little bit and got all the dead branches off of it; nothing too big. Then she fed us some awesome breakfast! She gave us sausage and breakfast burritos. It was pretty good! I couldn't stop laughing at one point and neither could Elder Parker! Somehow we got onto the topic of how we don't digest corn all that well and how you can see it when it comes out, you know. Awkward!  Anyway, we came up with the question, "If you swallow a grape whole, will it come out whole? Or does your stomach acid digest the skin unlike it does corn?" When Julietta came in and started talking to us, she was talking to Elder Parker. He looked over at me while she was talking.  I put a grape in my mouth took some water, swallowed it whole, and opened my mouth to prove it. I don't know why, but it was really funny! It was so hard not to laugh and we couldn't while she was talking to us, because then we'd have to explain the experiment to her. It would have been incredibly awkward to explain to a 75 year old woman! That was a lot of fun! (By the way, they don't come out whole).

After breakfast a lady named Dede came and picked us up to go help her organize her storage unit. That lady has so much stuff! I'm not even going to try listing it all for you! The one thing that I was very impressed with was when I pulled out a luggage bag and it weighed probably 80 pounds. I asked what was in it and she said journals! She has kept a journal for 42 years now and has only missed maybe 100 days! I hope that one day I can have that many journals! Then when I get old, and I'm bored, and retired, and don't know what to do, I can pull out my journals and read back on my life.  It would be so cool to be able to read my every day life!

After the storage unit, Dede needed to go to the DI. I haven't been there in over 2 months! I forgot how fun it was there! I just got a really sweet tie there, but saw a whole bunch of cool things. It was a ton of fun there! It's also outside my mission boundaries which we aren't allowed to leave, so I probably won't go there again on my mission. That's sad, but, oh well. 

Not a lot really happened Friday. We weren't too terribly productive, but Saturday was awesome! After studies we went to the water shop across the street to fill up our water jugs. There was a lady there that shouted to us, "This is kind of a stupid question, but do you have an extra copy of the Book of Mormon? I'm just curious about your church and want to learn more!" I handed her a Book of Mormon, a restoration pamphlet, and our card. Unfortunately, she's moving in a few days, so we don't get to teach her, but we gave her a card with information on how to get in contact with missionaries. What was even crazier about that is as we were leaving the apartment that morning, Elder Parker kind of looked at our shelf of Books of Mormon and didn't grab one, so I grabbed a book and a pamphlet. I almost didn't do it though. I'm so grateful for the promptings of the spirit!

Later we went and visited Marie! I love Marie! She's having a really hard time right now. Her son is going in for a back surgery that, if the surgeon makes a mistake, could paralyze him. She's really worried about him. We talked with her a lot about prayer. We showed her a talk David A. Bednar called "Pray Always" which is one of my favorite talks. It has completely changed the way I say my personal prayers and the way I think of prayer. She really enjoyed it I think. You always have questions for me, but I have one for you this time. I know we are told over and over again to listen to the Holy Ghost's promptings. How do you know that the spirit is speaking to you? It's hard for me to know if I'm listening to the spirit or if it's just me. What do you think about that? I do have an idea on it, I just want to hear your opinion.

We also had dinner with a single mother and her 10 year old daughter, Demi. The mom's name is Delores. Delores is having a really hard time and her doctor thinks she might have cancer. She has to go in for surgery on Tuesday to see what's going on with her. Keep her in your prayers. We gave her a priesthood blessing after dinner. They used to be an inactive family, but ever since Elder Parker and I got here they've been coming every week! They were one of the first people we met and we didn't even know they were members. They weren't on the church records. We just saw her grandson on the teaching records and thought we would go over and teach him. We later came to find they were strong Christians that are members of the church, but go to other churches. It's kind of interesting though because we mentioned Joseph Smith and they had no clue who we were talking about, so ya... That's them!

Sunday not a lot really happened. We had the primary program which is always a lot of fun! I love listening to the little kids talk in the mic with their mouths about a quarter inch from it and shout as loud as they can as they sing! It's always fun to go deaf in those meetings! Haha!

I'm loving it out here! I'm having a great time and I'm learning a ton!

Love,

Elder Mullins