Dear
family and friends! This has been a wonderful week for me. It has been somewhat
slow in our area, but it's really picked up in the past couple of months, so
it's been great!
On Monday we had a pretty good P-day. Nothing of significance happened, but the mission office Elder who is autistic said something hilarious. One of the Elders who was hanging out there, just out of nowhere says, "Did you know that one in ten drivers on a weekend evening are intoxicated?" Elder Hursell, the office Elder, says really loud in a very confused voice, "What?!" The Elder repeats, "One in ten drivers on a weekend evening are intoxicated." Elder Hursell in a much more satisfied tone of voice goes, "Oooohhhh.... That makes much more sense! I thought you said constipated!" Hahahaha, it was pretty hilarious!!! We about died! Then Sister Owens, a senior missionary that serves in the office says, "Well, I would rather be intoxicated than constipated, because that way I know for sure that it will pass." Oh man, it was pretty dang funny!
Tuesday was discouraging in the beginning. We knocked on a few doors of potential investigators or people we felt like could give us referrals. Nobody answered all day until about 4 o'clock when the Higley’s answered. We were talking and he said that he had grown up in Kaysville and graduated from Davis high in '95. I asked if he happened to know Matt Loveland and he said he did! They were in the same ward growing up! It was pretty fun! They have a couple of neighbors they're trying to get to know better and want to introduce to the gospel. They're an awesome family. Later in the evening around 7 we went on splits with some of the ward missionaries. Brother Lorenz is the one I went with. He's a convert of 2 years and is amazingly strong in the gospel. I've never seen anything like it. I never would have guessed he was a convert. He's an assistant ward mission leader, acting as ward mission leader since ours has had 5 heart attacks in the past 4 months and just got a quintuple bypass surgery. We went and visited an older couple who live in an RV. It is seriously the nicest thing I have ever seen! Its 420 sq ft. and feels super open. It's nuts! They're pretty cool! After that we went to a lady’s house that Brother Lorenz talked to about a month ago. They had talked a little bit about how he had converted from southern Baptist to LDS. When I was with him he said that he felt like she needs the gospel in her life and that she would accept it really well. We went to her door and knocked. Nobody answered, so we went back to his van. Right as we got back into the van she opened her door, so we ran back. Her name is Lela. Brother Lorenz bore his testimony. I've never heard such a sweet and powerful testimony in my life. He invited her to hear our message and she said that she would give it some prayerful thought and get back to him. It was an amazing experience!
Wednesday we did some service for Brother Baker who is the Stake Young Men’s President. He's building his own house right now. He had a stroke about fifteen years ago so his left side doesn't work very well. We helped him paint a corner he couldn't get and helped carry a pane of glass up the scaffolding for him to put in a window. He lives in the furthest north point of our area. It's basically the Wild West out there. It's pretty cool! Later in the day we went to visit the Jaenicke family. They're a less active part member family. Their house burned down about a year and a half ago and they've been living out of a couple of trailers since then just next to the house. They haven't had power since their house burned. It was crazy to see it. I've never seen such a sad sight. I didn’t feel like I was in America. There was trash everywhere, and tons of cigarettes and beer bottles all over the place. It was nuts how impoverished they were. Sister Jaenicke's son is a heroine addict and his girlfriend is an alcoholic. They don't do anything but smoke and get drunk and shoot up on heroine. It's crazy how wild things are over there.
Thursday nothing really happened. We went with Brother Baker who is a convert that quit smoking and drinking. Floyd struggles with quitting smoking, but he's trying really hard! Brother Baker and he get along really well. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom quite a bit during the lesson. Floyd loves the Book of Mormon so we read out of Alma 41 to explain the Plan of Salvation a little bit. He's a really cool guy. He told us that he has made a commitment to himself to come to church every single week for the rest of his life whether he's sick, or has a headache, or is tired. He's planning on going. He's super solid and we hopefully will be getting a baptism date for him next week!
Friday was a very good day for us! As far as the area goes not so much, but the day was wonderful! We went over to a part member inactive family’s home to see if the mom was there since she's the non-member. Brother Lopez was the only one home, sadly... He hasn't been to church in years and wants to come back. We talked for quite a while and he basically told us that his wife isn't ready to change and doesn't see why it's necessary for her to 'restrict' herself as far as alcohol, tithing, and other things. We tried telling him that we could come over and explain some things to her and try clearing things up. He just told us that they weren't really interested any more. We don't really know what to do with them. They seemed super interested and excited for about two weeks and then just dropped off. After dinner we went to the baptism of one of the people Elder Bakaitis taught in a previous area. It was the best baptismal service I have ever been to my whole mission! The Spirit there was incredibly strong. The last speaker was the convert which is always a super powerful way to end. In a lot of baptisms they bear their testimony and the bishop stands up and bears theirs, which is good, but it's not what people need to hear. There were probably 50-60 people that showed up, which was amazing!
Saturday was pretty good. Elder Bakaitis was on an exchange with the assistants so I went with the other zone leader’s companion, Elder Beus, for the day in our area. The area is super confusing as far as the streets so I was a little worried I would spend most of the day just being lost. I fortunately had my ipad, so I was able to look at a map, and that was convenient! We spent the whole day in reactivation efforts. We had a list of about 10 names to go visit. Of those ten only one of them answered... :( He was a pretty interesting guy, but very frustrating to talk to. His name is Brother Murray. He's a pretty nice guy, but he told us straight up when we started talking to him that he was born lazy and he still is lazy to this day. I asked if he was still working or if he had retired. He said he had never worked a day in his life and that he claimed disability, so the government takes care of him. It was pretty sad. I asked if he went to church and he said no. I asked why and instead of saying because he was lazy like I expected him to he told us to follow him. He took us out to his front porch and sat us down. We sat in silence observing nature. He lives clear up north like Brother Baker does, so there's nothing up there but desert. I'll send a couple of pictures of it. Anyway, we sat and he asked what we could see and hear, so we described it to him. Then he followed up with the question, “so why do I need to go to church?” I told him that I went to church to learn more about God and gain a further appreciation of Him and His creations. He told us that he's already been to church before and already knew it all. I also brought up the sacrament and that we needed to participate in the ordinance in order for us to renew our covenants. He told us that he could renew them at home right there on his porch. We asked how he did it and he told us by sitting and observing nature. We told him we need the priesthood authority and the sacrament to do it. He started getting a little upset and told us that he used his priesthood authority to do it by observing nature and God’s creations. We finally gave up and Elder Beus asked, "So you know everything huh?" Brother Murray said yes, that he's been to church several times, he's read the Book of Mormon a couple of times and has made it through the whole Bible before. He just doesn't understand why he needs to do it more than once. Elder Beus proceeded to quiz him on a few things that are a little deeper doctrine and he didn't really know answers, I finally said, "Well, we need to get going." We left in a hurry just because what Elder Beus was saying got his point across, and Brother Murray was starting to get offended and upset. Hopefully he's a little humbled, although I wouldn't recommend Elder Beus's methods. It might have changed something in him. I don't know. Later that night we visited one of our other investigators named Robert. He's a pretty awkward guy. He's bipolar and has ADHD really bad too. We shared a message with him and he received it well. He told us that it all made sense to him which is what makes it so he can know if something’s right or not. He left his other church because it didn't make much sense to him, but he said what we were saying made sense. Out of nowhere he stood up and went to another room. He told us he wanted to show us something. We went over to look. He had over 50,000 baseball cards in boxes stacked up about 7 feet across and 5 feet high. It was insane how many cards there were! It was pretty cool because I would point to any one of these boxes that held one row of cards, about 300 of them, and he could tell me exactly what set was in it and every single player in there and all their stats, all the fun facts about the cards, and all of the values of each card. It's crazy! He also has read 4 complete sets of encyclopedias. He's a pretty interesting guy!
On Monday we had a pretty good P-day. Nothing of significance happened, but the mission office Elder who is autistic said something hilarious. One of the Elders who was hanging out there, just out of nowhere says, "Did you know that one in ten drivers on a weekend evening are intoxicated?" Elder Hursell, the office Elder, says really loud in a very confused voice, "What?!" The Elder repeats, "One in ten drivers on a weekend evening are intoxicated." Elder Hursell in a much more satisfied tone of voice goes, "Oooohhhh.... That makes much more sense! I thought you said constipated!" Hahahaha, it was pretty hilarious!!! We about died! Then Sister Owens, a senior missionary that serves in the office says, "Well, I would rather be intoxicated than constipated, because that way I know for sure that it will pass." Oh man, it was pretty dang funny!
Tuesday was discouraging in the beginning. We knocked on a few doors of potential investigators or people we felt like could give us referrals. Nobody answered all day until about 4 o'clock when the Higley’s answered. We were talking and he said that he had grown up in Kaysville and graduated from Davis high in '95. I asked if he happened to know Matt Loveland and he said he did! They were in the same ward growing up! It was pretty fun! They have a couple of neighbors they're trying to get to know better and want to introduce to the gospel. They're an awesome family. Later in the evening around 7 we went on splits with some of the ward missionaries. Brother Lorenz is the one I went with. He's a convert of 2 years and is amazingly strong in the gospel. I've never seen anything like it. I never would have guessed he was a convert. He's an assistant ward mission leader, acting as ward mission leader since ours has had 5 heart attacks in the past 4 months and just got a quintuple bypass surgery. We went and visited an older couple who live in an RV. It is seriously the nicest thing I have ever seen! Its 420 sq ft. and feels super open. It's nuts! They're pretty cool! After that we went to a lady’s house that Brother Lorenz talked to about a month ago. They had talked a little bit about how he had converted from southern Baptist to LDS. When I was with him he said that he felt like she needs the gospel in her life and that she would accept it really well. We went to her door and knocked. Nobody answered, so we went back to his van. Right as we got back into the van she opened her door, so we ran back. Her name is Lela. Brother Lorenz bore his testimony. I've never heard such a sweet and powerful testimony in my life. He invited her to hear our message and she said that she would give it some prayerful thought and get back to him. It was an amazing experience!
Wednesday we did some service for Brother Baker who is the Stake Young Men’s President. He's building his own house right now. He had a stroke about fifteen years ago so his left side doesn't work very well. We helped him paint a corner he couldn't get and helped carry a pane of glass up the scaffolding for him to put in a window. He lives in the furthest north point of our area. It's basically the Wild West out there. It's pretty cool! Later in the day we went to visit the Jaenicke family. They're a less active part member family. Their house burned down about a year and a half ago and they've been living out of a couple of trailers since then just next to the house. They haven't had power since their house burned. It was crazy to see it. I've never seen such a sad sight. I didn’t feel like I was in America. There was trash everywhere, and tons of cigarettes and beer bottles all over the place. It was nuts how impoverished they were. Sister Jaenicke's son is a heroine addict and his girlfriend is an alcoholic. They don't do anything but smoke and get drunk and shoot up on heroine. It's crazy how wild things are over there.
Thursday nothing really happened. We went with Brother Baker who is a convert that quit smoking and drinking. Floyd struggles with quitting smoking, but he's trying really hard! Brother Baker and he get along really well. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom quite a bit during the lesson. Floyd loves the Book of Mormon so we read out of Alma 41 to explain the Plan of Salvation a little bit. He's a really cool guy. He told us that he has made a commitment to himself to come to church every single week for the rest of his life whether he's sick, or has a headache, or is tired. He's planning on going. He's super solid and we hopefully will be getting a baptism date for him next week!
Friday was a very good day for us! As far as the area goes not so much, but the day was wonderful! We went over to a part member inactive family’s home to see if the mom was there since she's the non-member. Brother Lopez was the only one home, sadly... He hasn't been to church in years and wants to come back. We talked for quite a while and he basically told us that his wife isn't ready to change and doesn't see why it's necessary for her to 'restrict' herself as far as alcohol, tithing, and other things. We tried telling him that we could come over and explain some things to her and try clearing things up. He just told us that they weren't really interested any more. We don't really know what to do with them. They seemed super interested and excited for about two weeks and then just dropped off. After dinner we went to the baptism of one of the people Elder Bakaitis taught in a previous area. It was the best baptismal service I have ever been to my whole mission! The Spirit there was incredibly strong. The last speaker was the convert which is always a super powerful way to end. In a lot of baptisms they bear their testimony and the bishop stands up and bears theirs, which is good, but it's not what people need to hear. There were probably 50-60 people that showed up, which was amazing!
Saturday was pretty good. Elder Bakaitis was on an exchange with the assistants so I went with the other zone leader’s companion, Elder Beus, for the day in our area. The area is super confusing as far as the streets so I was a little worried I would spend most of the day just being lost. I fortunately had my ipad, so I was able to look at a map, and that was convenient! We spent the whole day in reactivation efforts. We had a list of about 10 names to go visit. Of those ten only one of them answered... :( He was a pretty interesting guy, but very frustrating to talk to. His name is Brother Murray. He's a pretty nice guy, but he told us straight up when we started talking to him that he was born lazy and he still is lazy to this day. I asked if he was still working or if he had retired. He said he had never worked a day in his life and that he claimed disability, so the government takes care of him. It was pretty sad. I asked if he went to church and he said no. I asked why and instead of saying because he was lazy like I expected him to he told us to follow him. He took us out to his front porch and sat us down. We sat in silence observing nature. He lives clear up north like Brother Baker does, so there's nothing up there but desert. I'll send a couple of pictures of it. Anyway, we sat and he asked what we could see and hear, so we described it to him. Then he followed up with the question, “so why do I need to go to church?” I told him that I went to church to learn more about God and gain a further appreciation of Him and His creations. He told us that he's already been to church before and already knew it all. I also brought up the sacrament and that we needed to participate in the ordinance in order for us to renew our covenants. He told us that he could renew them at home right there on his porch. We asked how he did it and he told us by sitting and observing nature. We told him we need the priesthood authority and the sacrament to do it. He started getting a little upset and told us that he used his priesthood authority to do it by observing nature and God’s creations. We finally gave up and Elder Beus asked, "So you know everything huh?" Brother Murray said yes, that he's been to church several times, he's read the Book of Mormon a couple of times and has made it through the whole Bible before. He just doesn't understand why he needs to do it more than once. Elder Beus proceeded to quiz him on a few things that are a little deeper doctrine and he didn't really know answers, I finally said, "Well, we need to get going." We left in a hurry just because what Elder Beus was saying got his point across, and Brother Murray was starting to get offended and upset. Hopefully he's a little humbled, although I wouldn't recommend Elder Beus's methods. It might have changed something in him. I don't know. Later that night we visited one of our other investigators named Robert. He's a pretty awkward guy. He's bipolar and has ADHD really bad too. We shared a message with him and he received it well. He told us that it all made sense to him which is what makes it so he can know if something’s right or not. He left his other church because it didn't make much sense to him, but he said what we were saying made sense. Out of nowhere he stood up and went to another room. He told us he wanted to show us something. We went over to look. He had over 50,000 baseball cards in boxes stacked up about 7 feet across and 5 feet high. It was insane how many cards there were! It was pretty cool because I would point to any one of these boxes that held one row of cards, about 300 of them, and he could tell me exactly what set was in it and every single player in there and all their stats, all the fun facts about the cards, and all of the values of each card. It's crazy! He also has read 4 complete sets of encyclopedias. He's a pretty interesting guy!
Sunday was amazing. Probably one of, if not the biggest miracle of my whole mission occurred! Sacrament meeting was really good. We had lots of less active members and investigators that showed up. Floyd came, which was great, and a whole bunch we didn't expect to see at all! It was ward conference, which was really good. The stake president, President Larson, spoke and said something that absolutely blew my mind. I had never thought of this. In 1 Nephi, Lehi gets the liahona. President Larson said that the liahona to Lehi is analogous of the Church to us. It points us in the right direction when we are being faithful and obedient enough to listen to it. It guides us to the promised land. It was incredible that he said that! I had never thought of that before. After sacrament meeting was the miracle. This lady named Lisa came up to us and introduced herself as follows. "Hi, I'm Lisa. I was meeting with missionaries several months ago and didn't take it too seriously, but a few things that have happened in my life. In this last month I've moved here from Washington. I've almost quit cigarettes, and I study the Book of Mormon every single day. I want to be baptized. Can we do it on Valentine’s Day? You can come teach me at 7 tonight and get to know me a little bit better." It was insane!!! She seriously just came right up to us and said, I want you to teach me and I want to be baptized on Valentine’s Day. I have heard about things like this happening, but never before in my life have I thought it would happen to me! It was absolutely incredible! That night we went over at 7 to teach her and took a recent convert named June with us. June quit smoking before she was baptized and offered support. She gave Lisa her number so she could call whenever she was tempted to smoke. She gave tons of tips on things that helped her quit too. They are going to be wonderful friends! Lisa wants to be involved with the relief society and do service projects and help out wherever she can. She's incredible!!! After church we went to the Simcox family’s home. We talked to Dayvid and Daymian mostly but also to Jasmine, Dayvid's girlfriend who is living with him, too. We finally have all of their numbers now and Daymian and Jasmine became new investigators!!! 3 new investigators in a day!!! It was awesome!
This was a wonderful week and
it ended with the greatest miracle I've ever witnessed in my life! It was
awesome! A little more about Elder Bakaitis: His name is pronounced, Buh-Kye-Tis. It's
Lithuanian, so it's a weird one. He is a genuine missionary and has a true love
for the work. He and I get along really well. He is really helping me become a
much better missionary, and I love it! Apache Junction has some pretty wild
things and there are places where you don't feel like you're in America any
more. There are lots of trailer parks, crime, and drugs. It's pretty crazy. I love
it though! The people here are so well prepared for the gospel!
Love,
Elder Mullins
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| Tons of citrus members gave us |
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| Us with the juice we made with our juicer from the citrus |
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| The beautiful sunset one evening |
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| What the majority of my area looks like up north |
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