It's Been an Awesome Week!

Dear family and friends!

This has been a fantastic week! It's incredible to me that it's already passed! I hit my 8 month mark last Monday which is crazy. It certainly doesn't seem like it's been that long. It's crazy, once again, now that I'm not sick anymore, my companion is sick... again... It's been like that for the past two months or so where one of us is sick, then the other, then the other, and so on... It's getting pretty annoying, especially because when Elder Sweeten is sick he's crazy grumpy and not very pleasant to be around.

This week we met Alisha's boys. Alisha is an investigator who just randomly showed up to church and asked us if we could teach and baptize her. It's kind of funny because we bring at least four or five investigators to church every single week and nobody in the ward notices, but when she came, EVERYONE was asking who she was. (She's the only black person that comes) It's pretty funny how much attention she gets! Her cousin Davetta comes every now and then too, but she's a member. Alisha has been progressing so rapidly I can hardly believe it! She's had a crazy rough life. Her husband died about ten months after she had her first son, Cyrus. She has a lot of different issues from her past.  She struggles with anxiety and depression pretty badly at this point. She says she's been doing MUCH better since she's been meeting with us though. She's been really enjoying learning about the gospel and really likes Elder Sweeten and me. The bishop told her not to get too attached to us because we move around from time to time. Bishop said that she cried when he told her that, so hopefully Elder Sweeten and I get to stay together at least for a third transfer. 

Jim, the one with liver failure, is doing well as well. He knows the basic gospel and has a powerful testimony. He just needs to make it to church. He's getting so ill at this point that he can  hardly stay awake for more than a few hours at a time. He has good and bad days, but the bad days are starting to be more and more frequent. We go over there at least twice a week to check up on him and he really enjoys us. He's also pretty attached to us. Last time we were over there I was with Elder Reekie hanging out in the apartment because he was sick, so Elder Earl went with Elder Sweeten to see Jim. Jim told us that it felt strange not having me there and like it just wasn't complete. Again, I hope that we stay together another transfer.

We recently came in contact with a man named Stan. He's CRAZY! Haha! He's about 65 years old and is just crazy. He gave me a trumpet this week which I think I'm going to flat rate home so that I don't have to drag it around everywhere with me on my mission. He also gave Elder Sweeten a ukulele. There are some pretty interesting stories behind those instruments that probably wouldn't be the best to tell here. He's a member, but inactive. He told us he would come to church next week though, so we're excited for that! We go to his house all the time and he gives us lunch pretty much every time. He really enjoys having the missionaries over. Just so you kind of can see why I say he's CRAZY, he told us about this theory he has that aliens made the planet under the direction of God and how aliens procreated with the cavemen thus producing humans like Adam and Eve who have the intelligence modern humans have and how the reason we've never found the link between the two species of humans is because of that. So that was pretty interesting. Haha, I don't think it's very true, but who knows right?! That kind of gives you a taste of Stan; pretty interesting guy. 

The Hodges family is getting baptized on Saturday!!! WOOOOOOO!!! They are seriously on fire! It's so crazy that they finally are getting baptized! Jimmy has been investigating the church on and off for 17 years now. I never would have guessed that he would be baptized while I was still in the area! They had their baptismal interviews on Thursday and all passed with flying colors! Talon forgot who Thomas S. Monson was, even though we had talked about him, literally, two minutes before his interview, but he's 9 and I'm sure he was nervous. This Thursday we'll have a lesson on prophets again. Their baptism is going to have a ton of people there, apparently, so that'll be really, really cool to see! We are stoked out of our minds!

Saturday was a pretty crazy day to say the least. We went from appointment to appointment to appointment. It was pretty awesome! We went to the Ayala families.  They had a bunk bed outside they were selling.  We offered to buy it.  They told us that for ten bucks they'd even deliver it for us. We accepted the offer in a heartbeat! We helped to load it into their truck, unload it, then into our apartment! It's a pretty sweet bed too! It's got tons of drawers in it, so now I have a place other than the floor to put all of my junk. We're pretty excited about it!

This week has been absolutely incredible! I've really had a good time all week long. Things are really starting to click for the area and the work just keeps picking up. We are ALWAYS busy and never have time to get around to doing everything we need to. It's bad that we can't get around to visiting everyone that we need to, but it is a nice problem to have. A lot of areas in the mission aren't very busy so missionaries don't really have a lot to do. I don't even know what they do because all I really know is this area and how busy it is. I'm excited to see what next week brings. I also get to call home on Sunday, so that'll be a party!  I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Mullins