What a Week!

Dear family and friends,

This week went fairly well. I went on a couple of exchanges and had a few fun experiences. I still slept a lot as usual, but that's okay.  Tuesday was great! We had a zone conference which was good. It was a bit of a struggle to stay awake through all of it because we had to get up early and it went until 3:30. Usually I sleep until like 9 or 10 and then have a nap around 2:30 or so. So that gives you a bit of an idea as to how tired I really was that entire conference. I don't really remember getting any super intense revelation there or anything, but I did feel the spirit. It was good to reunite with my last zone as well. The entire zone had changes in companionships, so I don't know everyone super well anymore, but there were some friends there that were great to see again! We also found out some very exciting news! Elder L. Whitney Clayton, one of the seven presidents of the seventy, and Elder Neil L. Anderson of the quorum of the twelve will be visiting our mission on Saturday! It's going to be a spectacular meeting. I can't wait for it! I will definitely be taking careful notes at that meeting.

Wednesday I went with Elder Reed to his area on an exchange. It was pretty good. We did service for several hours for a lady. You should have seen her yard before and after! We had four elders and four sisters there working.  After a few hours it was looking great! I wish I had taken a before and after picture. Oh yah! In the morning we got to leave the mission. That was quite the rare opportunity! Ha ha, not really in the Mesa mission. Almost every missionary will leave with permission at least 2 to 3 times throughout the course of their mission because it's so small and there are different things that can only happen outside the mission. I had an appointment with the therapist to see if depression, anxiety, or some sort of stress disorder or other mental illness is causing my headaches. Well, I got some news! It's not any of those! Woooh! Ha ha, I'm not surprised at all. It was kind of funny. I think the therapist was wondering why the mission had sent me to him, because there wasn't anything even close to being wrong with me as far as mental illness goes.  Anyway, back to doing service. At one point I was pulling a weed out of the ground that was between a barrel cactus and a fence. There was about a six inch gap and I thought I could get it out without worrying. Well, when you're doing something dumb you usually hurt yourself. I totally wrecked my hand against that cactus. I tried punching it and it just bit my fist... HARD! When I pulled the weed it came out really fast. I hit the cactus so hard that it bruised my hand in about 6 or 7 places and I was stabbed by probably another ten needles. My hand has almost healed now. I wish I'd taken a picture of that too so you could see it. I just didn't think to. Oh well!

Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful and full of sleep. Saturday however I went on another exchange! This time with Elder Hastings. I'll send a picture of him. He's super funny and awkward. It's awesome! We didn't do a lot because I slept quite a bit, but when I did wake up we went to knock on some part member families’ doors. He's only been out about 4 months and seemed shy and reserved, so I asked if Elder Reed ever really had him lead. He told me no, so I told him that he would take the lead that day. We knocked on a man’s door named Abel Porter. He was an older gentleman and was ordained a deacon back in the 70's. Elder Hastings knocked on the door and I had the most awkward door approach of my entire mission! It was hilarious! Don't worry, he did much better after this initial door, but here's the conversation. H: is Elder Hastings A: is Abel.

A: *Answers door* Hi.

H: *Stands awkwardly for a moment* Hi.

A: *Long pause* How are you?

H: *Stands silent for a moment. Extends hand to shake Abel's hand* I'm Elder Hastings.

A: *Shakes Elder Hastings hand* Nice to meet you.

H: *Shoulders slump and makes sounds with throat* Um... Uh... Well...

We're the missionaries and we were just going around and meeting people. (In the most unconfident voice you can imagine.)

A: Well, nice to meet you.

H: Um... Well, are you doing pretty well?

A: Yah! I'm doing great!

H: Oh... Um... Bye. *About faces and walks away*

Hahaha! It was everything I could do not to laugh! He thought it was pretty awkward too. The next doors we did a lot better, but that first one was rough. We went to dinner after that and then we met back up with my companion so that we could go to the adult session of stake conference.

Sunday was fine. We had stake conference in the morning. I slept all afternoon and then we went out in the evening. Dinner was great! From dinner we went to the Sol family! They just adopted a girl who is 9 and is a nonmember. It is considered a convert baptism at this point now. Probably the easiest person in the world to teach! She lives in a very active family.  Her dad is the assistant Ward mission leader.  I mean you couldn't ask for a better scenario. It was fun teaching her. She has a ton of siblings and the whole family sat in on the lesson, so it took quite a while to get through it all. What usually takes around a half hour took us and hour and fifteen because all the kids were yelling, and being distracted, and talking and making the most random comments ever. I love kids, but sometimes they get stressful in certain situations.

I also got my blood results this morning! They all came back negative... So guess what that means?! I get to have an MRI! The church insurance actually just approved one over the weekend, so that's fortunate. Hopefully that goes well and brings results. Anyway, that's all I have for this week. We still aren't much closer to figuring out what's going on with my head. Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Mullins

Me and the Sol's daughter.  She is missing half of her pinky.

Elder Hastings

Me and Elder Svedberg making a transfer prediction-We'll whitewash the assistants!  Ha Ha, just kidding.

Me and Elder Reed Chilling in the Tempe Mission