Transfers!

Well, this week was really, really good! The past 6 weeks have flown by! It's, by far, been the fastest transfer of my entire mission thus far. Friday will mark my 6 week mark too, by the way, so that's exciting! I honestly don't remember a lot of what happened this week, but I'll give some highlights. I don't have my journal with me so I don't have it to cheat off of, but oh well!

We made a lot of progress this week with our investigators and less actives as well as finding efforts. On Tuesday we always go out with the ward missionaries and visit members on the ward list that we don't recognize. Our ward has 650 members on the list and in the past 6 weeks Elder Bakaitis and I have found at least 10 people that aren't on the ward list that should be. Our ward mission leader, Brother Lorenz, went with another brother, and they found one house where the people had moved away. He asked the new tenants if they would be interested in learning more about the church, and they said yes. So now we have the Hammonds!!! We haven't met with them yet, but we did meet them very briefly a few days ago. They're a really nice couple. Brother Hammond has a club foot and is getting his leg below the knee removed in April. He says he's excited for it to just be gone, because at this point it's just annoying, gross, and painful. Hopefully it is fixed with the amputation. Pray for him. He's going through a lot, but I won’t to go into detail. They are going to be an awesome couple to teach.

Wednesday we had mutual and we had a HUGE turn out! It was a combined activity, but our young men really turned out for it! When Elder Bakaitis first got into this area 4 months ago Peni was the only boy that came to mutual or church. By the time I got with Elder Bakaitis we had about three boys that would come to church fairly consistently and another two additional boys that would come to mutual. Now, after we've been in the area together, we have 6, sometimes 7 young men coming to church every single week and we have 9 or 10 that come to mutual every single week!! It is absolutely incredible how the Lord is blessing the young men’s quorum. Daymian, our 14 year old investigator, is quite the missionary too! He brought a friend with him to mutual this week, which was really cool, and he has another that wants to meet us and learn more.

Thursday we went with Brother Roberts, the young men’s president, and visited a boy named Dakota. We didn't know this kid existed until we were in ward council and they briefly mentioned a 12 year old. We got his information and went over with Brother Roberts.  Dakota’s grandpa stopped coming to church with Dakota as a result of a really bad hip. He only has one arm on top of that so he can't drive.  It’s really sad. He should be getting a hip replacement in a couple of months though. Dakota is a really shy kid, but it seems like he wants to start getting to know the boys and making some friends. The quorum is so incredible. They are all best friends and it's awesome to go over to one of their houses and see that three or four other young men are hanging out over there. The quorum is one of the tightest I've ever seen. Dakota came to mutual on Tuesday. He got to know the boys there and he was accepted super well. He loves the quorum, and the young men are really working to fellowship him. Dakota has slight separation anxiety, so coming to church without his grandparents on Sunday was kind of tough for him at first, but when he found the young men he was just fine. He's a member. He’s just been inactive in the past.

 Thursday we met with Floyd. We read 2 Nephi 4 with him and it was exactly what he needed! It is seriously one of the most powerful chapters in the entire Book of Mormon. We went over on Sunday to check up on him since he didn't come to church and it turned out he was just taking care of his 76 year old mother who was feeling really sick. He told us he had been reading the Book of Mormon all day and couldn't get over the chapter we read with him. It blows my mind how much embracing the gospel changes lives. Floyd just got out of prison and was not a good man before we met him, but his life is changed entirely! He's progressing really well and says that he's almost ready to put everything’ on the altar of sacrifice’ and give his life up to the Lord. In other words, he's going to be baptized probably in the next 4-6 months.

We met with a man named Jim on Friday night. He is going through a lot and has some depression issues right now. He just went through a divorce and he's slowly dying because of liver failure as a result of alcoholism. He used to be in the music industry and did a lot of band management and other things like that. He is a really cool guy. I think he was expecting us to preach to him and then leave, but we just talked, gave advice, and shared a few scriptures that pertained exactly to what he was thinking. We set up a return appointment for Tuesday, so we will see what happens with him. It sounded like at first he was just sitting down with us because his grandma told him to, but when we set up the return appointment he told us he would love it and that our faces would be an appreciated sight. He loved meeting with us and thanked us for putting a smile on his face. It was a very powerful lesson filled with the spirit. He told us if we ever feel like failures as missionaries, not to, because we touched him that night and he hadn't been touched like that in decades. So, basically... the Spirit is amazing!!!

I love and miss you all! The usual spiel, I love my mission, yata yata yata, Oh! I almost forgot! We got our transfer news and Elder Bakaitis is going out to Mesa East Stake. Elder Sweeten is going to be my new companion! I love Elder Sweeten! I don't know him super well, but he is one of the nicest Elders I think I've met in the mission field. I'm really looking forward to it! I'll let you know more about him as soon as I get to know him a little.

Love,

Elder Mullins