Dog Fights and Street Races

Dear family and friends!

Life out here has been CRAZY! This week we went to the Easter Pageant several times at the Mesa temple. It was really good. It was awesome to be able to bring our investigators and inactive members with us to see it. I saw tons of people I know there!  I saw Jodie Beals.  She’s my Mom’s friend who lives in Gilbert.   I saw Joyce and Gary Havens from back home.  I also saw the Haroldson’s, who were my neighbors in Arizona, and I even saw my cousin Elder Jones who is serving in the Phoenix mission! It was awesome to see all of those people there! The pageant is really good and it seriously is so inspirational. I learned a lot of things about Christ’s earthly ministry. It helped me a lot to see it visually. It was fun to go to that so many times.

Earlier this week we went over to the Springer’s who are a part member family. Our goal in visiting them was to invite them to come to the Easter Pageant. When we went over they let us into their gate. Their German Shepherd and Pit bull were out in the yard. They live in a town home.   Their neighbor’s Husky mix was out in the yard too. We were talking with Sister Springer when all of a sudden the husky and shepherd got in a serious fight. They were biting super hard, there was blood everywhere, it was nuts! We went and grabbed the hose and started spraying them trying to get them apart when Mickey, the Pit Bull, all of a sudden came from behind and attacked the Husky too. She chomped right down on the Husky's hind legs while Thor, the German Shepherd, had the Husky's snout. Elder Sweeten grabbed Mickey by the scruff and carried her off into the house. I think Elder Sweeten had some adrenaline pumping because that dog is probably a 60 pound dog, and he was lifting her like it was nothing. We came back and the two owners of the dogs had finally gotten them apart. They were fine, but Thor had scratches on his forearm and a hole in his ear and several puncture wounds around his face and chin and one on his back.  Mickey was totally okay other than a hole in her chin. The Husky was pretty messed up, but it'll live. I'm sure within a week it'll be back to normal. They said the dogs had never fought before and that that was really odd of them. So that was pretty intense...

Elder Sweeten met some people a couple of weeks ago while on a split. Their names are Laura and Terry. We went and met them earlier this week. Laura seems more interested than Terry, but they both are somewhat interested. Laura was left with a Book of Mormon, and she had read the introduction. We sat down planning to teach the Restoration, but she asked question after question after question. It was awesome. She just couldn't stop with the questions. We were there for about 3 hours just answering questions. It was awesome! I'm sure she'll be baptized. Terry asked quite a few questions too, but not quite as many as Laura. It was great to meet with them.

Conference this weekend was awesome! Our youth went to conference in Salt Lake. We had 2 youth and one of their parents who are investigators that went. It was super awesome because all of them had very specific questions that the General Authorities answered exactly! One of them had the question, ‘what is the difference between our church and general christianity?’ Because he didn't grow up in a church at all he doesn't really know. Elder Perry asked that same question and answered it perfectly! It was awesome! There were tons of questions I had and other investigators had that were answered like nobody’s business! It was super cool to see all of those things!

After conference, we were with our recent convert filling out his baptismal record. Suddenly we got a phone call. Somewhat annoyed I pulled it from my pocket to silence it, but the name that popped up was one of our former investigators, Jim. I told our convert I had to take it, so Elder Sweeten talked to him for the duration of the call while I talked to Jim. I was a little worried it would be a pocket dial, but nope! He answered and he just said that he found his Book of Mormon and felt impressed to call us and touch base. At the end of the call he asked us to come over Monday at 3.   That's today.  Hopefully we can make it. It's a total miracle that he called us and told us to come over!

This morning we were hiking flat iron. We got up about half way and were exploring a bit. I was up above with Elder Green.   Elder Sweeten was telling a story and suddenly his hand hold broke loose and he fell about 4 feet and a big boulder came crashing down right on top of his head. We jumped down to him with adrenaline pumping. Elder Green pulled off his shirt and we used it as a bandage. Elder Sweeten started applying pressure to that when he realized he had broken his right hand too. While Elder Green and I applied the first aid we had with us, Elder Mann went and grabbed the backpacks that we left behind to make it easier to climb. We gave Elder Sweeten a blessing and started heading down the mountain. He has a pretty bad concussion it seems and his skull is dented pretty good. I'm actually in the emergency room right now waiting for him. His hand is definitely broken and it looks like he probably is getting a few staples in his head and stitches across the back of his hand.  Getting him down the mountain was a team effort since he wasn't exactly all there. He felt like he was totally fine, but he's talking kind of funny. The boulder that fell on him basically scalped him, so he's got about an inch across circle of just fat and bone on the top of his head right now. He'll be fine I'm sure, but it was pretty intense getting him down. Elder Mann helped him down while Elder Green and I ran down the mountain to grab the car and bring it closer so that they didn't have to walk quite so far. We got him to the hospital with his broken hand in a sling, gauze pads over his cut on his hand, and a t-shirt on his head. He looks like quite the wreck. Haha! He's staying positive though and he was very calm the whole way down.  Anyway, we're all fine. I'm just sitting here waiting to see what happens. I'm positive he'll be alright.  He just needs a little bit of doctoring up.

We just got out of there and he has 12 staples in his head. It's an awesome cut! If you want pictures of it before and after just let me know. I won't include it in this general email just because they are pretty graphic. It was super cool to see it though.  He also has his hand wrapped. He didn't need stitches on his hand, hallelujah! This whole thing has been pretty intense.

*(Mom) This is where his email ended.  I’m sure he had his hands full taking care of Elder Sweeten and probably contacting the mission president to tell him about the accident.  I asked him about his title “Dog Fights and Street Races”.  He forgot to tell me the street races part.  He emailed back and said they had seen a pretty intense street race between two really cool sports cars.   As far as I know Elder Sweeten should heal pretty quickly.  Stay tuned next week for the rest of the story.

Elder Mullins, Elder Sweeten (not sure of couple)

Cousins, Elder Kevin Jones Phoenix Mission  Elder Mullins Mesa Mission