Rough Beginnings mean Great Endings!

Dear family and friends,

This week started off a little rough for me, but by the end it was wonderful! It was kind of strange. I'm usually not homesick at all, but for some reason the first few days of the week I was feeling pretty homesick and discouraged. I don't really know why. We were having success, I was enjoying myself out here.  I've been getting along great with Elder Jencks.  It was kind of interesting. I got over it though, so that's super nice! There were a couple of really, really neat experiences I had this week!

This week when we went over to teach Trevor we were planning on inviting him to be baptized. We taught about faith, repentance and then baptism. After talking about baptism we gave him the invitation. When we extended it he was somewhat hesitant and said that he needed to know more before he said yes or no. It's kind of unfortunate because his dad has a few doctrinal issues and, he's planting those seeds of doubt into Trevor's head. Fortunately, Trevor is willing to ask questions, so we can clear some of it up. We are hoping that his dad will be in support of him when he does make that decision to be baptized. I think his dad's biggest issue with the church is that he doesn't believe that Jesus was perfect. Trevor brought up a couple of concerns about that we were able to correct with a fair amount of ease. I feel like his dad's concerns are more of an excuse to not live the gospel than anything. His dad's a member, by the way. 

Basketball was super good this week! We had a great turnout!  There's this guy named Brother G. who is 6'5 and his neighbor that just moved in, Joe, is 6'6. Those two came and it was pretty cool to play with them because they're both awesome players! Joe is one of Miami Elders’ potential investigators. (There is a small town named Miami in Arizona.  It’s out by Globe where Jayden is serving right now).  He's super nice. He gave us all sorts of suggestions on how to play better. What's nice though is that he is really about teamwork. It's kind of funny because we'll be doing our best as a team and if we suddenly are falling behind a little bit he'll take the ball and shoot a few threes with no problem and then keep playing. Haha! It's pretty funny! I liked being on his team, because I'm kind of terrible but we still won! It was awesome!

After basketball I got a text from my good friend Elder Sweeten.  He said that one of our investigators, Matt, was wondering if I could baptized him at 2:00 the next day. Of course I said yes. We left to Apache Junction the next day and got there about a half hour early. I put on my white clothes, Matt got into his white jumpsuit and, we got ready for the baptism.  The first time I saw Matt I thought I recognized him. When we got into the first lesson I kept trying to think of where I had met him before. After the lesson he told me I looked very familiar and he felt like he knew me from somewhere. We told each other about where we lived, and when, and pretty much determined that there was no way that we knew each other because we had always lived several hundreds of miles apart, but there was something there. I'm pretty sure we were friends before this life. I've only had a few people I've ever met where I had a very strong feeling of familiarity and connection like that. It was really neat teaching him because it seemed like I could understand just what he was thinking and how he needed his questions answered. The baptism came and let me tell you, the feelings and emotions I felt as I immersed him in that water were some of the most intense, spiritual emotions I've ever felt. I've never felt such joy and had such a strong understanding of the sacredness of souls. At the end of the service he bore his testimony which was very powerful.  The spirit was strong. It was also great to be able to see all those people in Apache Junction again! You know what's interesting about that Ward? When I first arrived there wasn't much going on, but by the time I left it was completely on fire! They've had 9 baptisms this year! I taught 8 of those 9 people with Elder Sweeten.  Last year they only had 2 baptisms.  It was a great thing to recognize that there's no such thing as an area without potential. It will always be as successful and busy as you make it.

Yesterday was a spectacular day! In church we spoke in both wards that we cover. In 1st Ward we spoke on member missionary work. That went well. Elder Jencks did super well on his talk and I felt like I did a fine job, but definitely not the best. In 2nd Ward we spoke on enduring to the end based off of a couple of conference talks. Mine was based on “Stay by the Tree” by Elder Kevin W. Pearson. It was kind of scary for me because I got to church, opened up my notes where I had written my talk, and it was deleted. Somehow, some way, it got deleted. I took this as a sign from the Lord that that must not have been what He wanted me to tell the people of Globe, so I prepared for about a half hour and was ready to go! When I got up I was impressed at how many times the Spirit prompted me to say things. I think that was one of the most powerful talks I've ever given. It was super cool! I never stuttered, never got lost, never said um or uh, and what's even better is I was originally supposed to speak for 15 minutes, but when I got up I realized I needed to fill 25 minutes. That was not even a little bit of a problem. I'd send that talk for all of you to read, but it's not typed out, so sorry about that! Haha!

Later that night we went to the D. family’s home.  Brother D. is a member, but his girlfriend and her daughters aren't.  Brother D. is active, and he has been bringing his girlfriend Rowy to church with him. Her daughter, Eloise, came a couple of weeks ago and seemed like she enjoyed it. She's a super shy girl, but she is one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. She graduated high school at 16 and should have her bachelors by 19, so that's pretty nuts! We just stopped by because it was super hard to get an appointment with them. I never in my life have felt so welcomed into a home! They even fed us some super good spaghetti! It was a little bit different.  Rowy is from the Philippines, and they put sugar and carrots in the sauce. It was super sweet, but it was surprisingly really good. We even got a return appointment for Wednesday! She's read the entire Book of Mormon.  She and her daughter read a chapter a night.  Plus they're super knowledgeable about the Bible because they're very active in the Catholic Church. It's going to be a ton of fun to teach them  We just need her and Brother D. to get married and they'll be good to go! 

This week was amazing! If the week starts out a little bit rough I know that the Lord is bound by laws and one of those is for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. That was super true this week! It started out rough but it definitely ended opposite of the way it started! I loved it! Have a great week everyone! 

Love,

Elder Mullins 

Matt, a guy I've known for a long time, yet just met him.