AHHH!!!

Hello family!!!! I wish I had time to read all of your emails before I write you because I am dying to know what happened this past week!!! And how you are all holding up and what parties you are up to with only a few days left for the little dal guy.....

 

So I will start by telling you my little miracle yesterday. I was praying really hard that I would be able to focus all day because I knew it was D's farewell and everyone would be getting together and I was a little sad to be missing all of that. Guess what happened?! ....I understood everything at church (and they were talking in spanish)!! Sometimes it is easy to get distracted and be thinking about other things once I start to not understand, but I was able to keep my mind focused the whole time because I understood what they were saying! Then we were running around like crazy yesterday because Ban got baptized.... our mission leader forgot to start filling the font, and we couldn't find a key to unlock the door to the library to show a little video etc (also ban's mom had us do the musical number at the baptism...ya I don't know what the deal is with all this musical stuff someone must be praying that I can overcome tone deafness...). It actually wasn't way hectic but I think I was just nervous for Ban all day. I wish I could express through email how amazing it was. It was such a tender mercy for me to have the baptism the day I knew my whole family would be getting together. So first of all tons of the ward came to support. There were over 70 people there. After Ban was baptized we were showing a video called Reflections of Christ and it is jsut a really powerful video. I was standing on the side of the room and I was just so happy because everything went smoothly and Ban was so happy. I was looking at everyone and just felt so much love. I was looking at the faces of all the people and I realized this room was full of my family here! Hna Prince and I got to bear our testimonies after the video ended when Ban came back out and it was such a powerful experience. I felt so strongly how we are all children of God, and Jesus Christ is the reason for everything in the gospel! It was such a blessing for me to get to teach Ban and it was so special to see how much it meant to his family for him to be able to get baptized. Hna prince and I were talking about it and both felt like the baptism yesterday made everything hard that we have done these 2 transfers worth it. Dal...I am sooo pumped for you to leave this week!

This week we had an awesome experience finding! We had spent days basically doing straight finding activities because we really wanted some new investigators and were really inspired by our training last week! But we had 0 new investigators still. We had no idea how that was possible when basically trying to find new investigators was all we were doing haha. We were trying to be really creative one day and took turns deciding on an activity to do. We looked into some service in the community, went knocking, looked up old investigators, were talking to members...everything! We had ten minutes before dinner and were going to look up this inactive teenage boy. We were unsure we even had time but decided we might as well because we were close. We found his apartment and the door was open with a guy sitting on the couch. We thought it was him so we said hello and this lady answered and asked if we spoke spanish, we said yes we were missionaries, and then she opened the door and told us to come in.  We thought it was his mom, come to find out he had moved a few months ago. This lady and her son who was the boy on the couch moved here from Guatemala and had spoke with some missionaries there (we aren't exactly sure if they were mormon missionaries lol). We prayed with them and set a return appointment. It was just very ironic that it was the last ten minutes we had and the place I was expecting it the least. Heavenly Father basically put them in our hands, all we said is we were missionaries and she opened her door to us!

 

Being a missionary is so cool! It really is! I love you guys and will be praying for you all so much this week!!! I am so excited to hear about this past week, please write me about this upcoming week too!

 

LOVE,

Hermana Mulliner!

Hermana Sha reporting in...

Family family family,

 

I am not going to lie, it is kind of hard sometimes to be all the way across the world in california(haha) when I know you are all getting together and doing family things as Dal gets ready to go and tate is home. So please write as often as you can. Any detail means a lot to me! I know you are all busy and things and I am too but it is such a boost to hear from you. And I wish I could be there for some of the stuff thats going on!

 

This week....where to start. This week I felt how much the Lord wants to bless us. The ant battle got really intense this past week...and we were definately losing. We lost a lot of food this week because of those little guys. One day we packed our peanut butter around with us all day so they coudln't find it haha. But we were running low on food and didn't have time to grocery shop again. But I was so humbled one day because every house we went to they offered to give us some food. We didn't mention to anyone that we were running low on food. It was so humbling because these people that were giving us the food had even less than us. We even got icecream. We came home and during our planning session we both felt like all day every where we went Heavenly Father was just giving us a little hug. We were totally taken care of, given more than we needed. At breakfast that morning we had talked about how watermelon always sounds good when it is so hot...and throughout the day someone randomly gave us a watermelon! I just felt how much heavenly father wants to bless us and wants us to have good things and how he will answer our prayers through other people. Even when we don't feel like we necesarily deserve it at the time. Heavenly Father loves us. I was so grateful for the example of the people we were with that day. Even this morning, we haven't gone grocery shopping yet today, so we were just going to make it through til then...but while we were doing our laundy we were studying outside the laundrymat and this old man came up and offered to buy us some donuts from the donut shop next door.

 

My favorite quote the past little while has been "God doesn't expect immediate perfection, but he does expect immediate progress." Isn't that comforting?! Life really isn't about our own abilities. But on trying to rely on the Lord and improve. I can just feel that so much with myself as a missionary and really strongly with the members and investigators we visit. God doesn't expect us to be perfect. He loves us so much. He notices the little efforts we make and that is enough.

 

I had an intimidating experience this past week. I was asked to give the training in our district meeting. But then our district leaders companion got sick so they couldn't make it, so the zone leaders came to our meeting. I was intimidated to do a training with my own district but then the zone leaders had to be there too. haha. But something I feel like keeps happening to me is the Lord makes me go outside my comfort zone. Then I am really humbled. But then I rely a lot more on the spirit and then everything turns out ok.

We had zone conference this week. (we won the cleanest car award haha). President Hall is really amazing. He did a training on finding more with the spirit. Instead of working hard hard hard, working hard with the spirit and in a more inspiried way so we are finding more people who are prepared. I am so inspired by this knowledge that Heavenly Father is preparing people. If we are doing what we are supposed to then our preparation will meet heavenly father's preperation and we will find people who are ready for the gospel! Missionary work is so cool! Dal I am so pumped for you!

 

Love you LOTS!!!! Miss you LOTS!!!!

 

Hermana Mulliner

Uh...

So did I mention that this week was hot?! After knocking one day we got in the car and it said it was 120 degrees! Haha I don't think it was actually that hot but it was really hot. It is kind of hard to work in the heat it drains my energy just existing haha but it makes us feel like we are doing really hard missionary work ALL the time because we are sweating even if we are just sitting. But, on the bright side, I discovered an elder who can eat a lot of food! So, now, "randomly" I am next to him at dinners.

 

I had a little celebration this week because....wait for it....wait for it....ok....I talked on the phone in spanish and I talked back in spanish all by myself (without the phone being on speaker so hna prince could clarify or tell me what to say back)!

 

Ban, our investigator that is 14 and is developmentally behind, is gettting baptized soon. We have the best lessons with him because he is so funny and so honest and has the sweetest heart. But we asked him about the word of wisdom to see what he already knew about that. He said he already knew what it was. So we asked him what kind of things we shouldn't put into our bodies....he thought for a minute an then said, oh ya, salt water. Haha so just a little reminder in case you forgot that part of the word of wisdom, no salt water :)

 

This week was so interesting and different. We ended up visiting three different people in hospitals. This one old couple that are recent converts is so cute! She has to be in a hospital bed in her house all the time now. But this old man is soo cute, he is so encouraging about me learning spanish. Every time we go there he has me say the prayer so I can practice and every week after the prayer he talks for a few minutes about how much I've learned. He really is so sweet. But we were rolling on the floor laughing this last visit because they were telling us funny stories about them learning english. He said he learned how to say the phrase "ham and eggs" at the very beginnning when he was learning english. Now when they go to any restaurant if he can't pronounce the thing he wants in english he says "just give me ham and eggs." haha for any meal at any restaurant he orders ham and eggs because thats what he can say!

We had such a cool experience with this other recent convert. She and her husband both ended up in the hospital a few weeks ago and they are not doing so well. We had been going by their house, calling their children trying to track themd own because no one knew what happened to to them. When we finally found out where they were we visited them and it was one of the saddest experiences. We went to the nursing home where they were and it was painful to be there because it was just so sad. I cried on the way home because I just couldn't believe that was their life right now. It was really hard. That first time we saw them, Susana and Fernando, Susana was sooooo grateful. She calls us angels and held our hands the whole time we were there. Fernando was not mentally doing so well and was moaning and crying the whole time we were there. All we could think to do to calm him down and bring them some peace was to sing. We sang them some hymns and had to go, and on the way out we had the thought to give them a book of mormon. we pulled one out of my backpack and she said thanks but she couldn't see without her glasses. we told her thats ok she can just hold it or look at the pictures in the front. When we came back the next day it was a miracle. She pulled out her book of mormon and there was a corner of a page where she had marked where she had stopped reading. She was able to read the book there without her glasses had read a lot in just one night. Physically she looked and seemed the same, not so good. But she was like glowing with hope. I just really felt the power of the book of mormon so strong, in about the saddest environment she could be in she was so optimistic!

 

I love you all so much!!! have a good week!!!!!

 

Hermana Mulliner!!!

Pics...more pics...and...more pics!!!

Agosto

Family shmamily,

 

Can you believe it is august?!?! I have no idea where July went haha! Can you PLEASE get ella and reese to stop growing while i;m gone?! Also mom...I think i read it wrong in the package you said something... that I am only going to be yoru fav missionary for a few more weeks then i'll have to share that title? Whats going down these last few weeks of summer?

 

This past week was really awesome. The members in our ward are such good examples to me. Most of the ward members are converts and they just love missionaries. They are excited about coming out with missionaries which is really awesome for us. I saw the power of having a member share their testimony in a lesson this week. Armando, this, just the sweetest man you'll ever meet. He used to be an alcoholic and has really changed his life. You'd think he was a general authority or something the way his scriptures are marked and the questions he asks in lessons. He knows the Book of Mormon better than us! He and his wife gave us a big box of granola bars so we can have a snack while we are out during the day, cute huh? And he gives the sister missionaries flashlights so they can backup the car at night haha. Anyways he is just so sincere, and we had such a powerful lesson with him because we had two members with us who shared their testimony of how they got an answer to be baptized. I learned a lot about sharing testimony from them. He said the most sincere prayer at the end of the lesson. This is one of my favorite things we experience every day as a missionary, hearing people pray for the first time, or the first time in a while. It is so powerful because usually they are really scared especially to do it infront of people. So they just have such great faith and you can feel it. I just imagine how much Heavenly Father is enjoying that moment when one of His children is talking to him after a while, how close he is listening. They say really simple things they are grateful for like their car and family and things they need right now like a job. I always feel the spirit so strong and want to improve my own prayers. It also makes me realize how much knowledge I take for granted. When we taught Ofelia how to pray, I just realized, wow she has gone her whole life without knowing that she can talk to her Heavenly Father whenever she wants and not knowing how. You can really feel the power of prayer when you hear someone pray for the first time. I love it and feel so humbled to get to be there when they try it.

 

I have to tell you about yesterday...we had five investigators come to church! That is a lot for us. And it was so cool because on sat. we did a blitz in our area and met some really awesome people! We met this one guy named Diego who is about 20 and works at a preschool haha and right now he is working on this costume. A huge box he is making to look like a traffic light to run a 5k in. haha ya he is really funny. But we taught him about the Book of Mormon and invited him to church on saturday and he said yes...and he actually came! Don't people have amazing faith? It was really funny because we showed up to church and walked into him, then turned around and bumpded into Armando, And then this sweet lady named Laura who is really shy and has a lot going on in her family showed up with her grandson. We walked in to the kitchen and danced and quiet screamed for a minute because we were so excited to see them here and making friends with the ward members that we didn't know what to do! 

 

I have to tell you the funniest situation that we are teaching in right now. It was a miracle to us the day we found them. We went knocking on a street near our house and this girl our age opened the door and told us she was a member...haha we were talking more and found out that the english speaking elders in our area are teaching her. We finished knocking that apartment building and as we were walking away this lady came running after us and said you speak spanish? my husband isn't a member and I want you to come teach him. His name is Alvaro, from Peru. And he studied at some religious school in Peru. He also works a lot so our lessons start at about eight thrity and then he talks a lot about what he has learned from his religious school and then his wife always wants to feed us dessert so we make very slow progress with him but he is so so so sweet. The funny part is any time we get a chance to teach and then invite him to church or to read or anything it is hard to keep a straight face because his wife is next to him giving us faces and thumbs up kind of like encouraging us to keep going and getting excited. Haha I really wish some of the stuff we do was recorded! 

 

I love you all so much! 

Hermana Mulliner  

Fambam!

Family!!

So I just want to tell you everything when I sit down at the computer! At this library you make a reservation for an hour and there is this little timer at the bottom of my screen counting down the time I have left, it stresses me out! I just want to start off by saying being a missionary is the best!! Everyone should go on a a mission! haha! But, seriously.

There was a day this week where it was one miracle after another! (I don't know if I use too many exclamation marks, but its all really exciting!) We were knocking, actually doing a blitz where our whole district goes knocking in the same area. We were doing it in one of the elder's areas.

So it all began...once upon a time there were two beautiful, awesome, really cool sister missionaries who attended a different church on a saturday night. (that is me and my companion;) They had to leave the service early because they needed their beauty sleep...as we were walking to our car behind us we saw this teenage boy walking his bike. We decided to slow down so we could talk to him. His name was Jamie. And his bike tire popped so he had to walk his bike home and he lived far away. We couldn't really help him but we talked to him for a minute gave him a pass along card and got his info. We didn't know the street that he told us he lived on. A week later we finally had time to try to find his house. We found the street but realized he had given us an apt building number but not the apt number. Since the street wasn't in our area we decided we would give the info we had to the missionaries in that area.

Now fast forward we are on the blitz and the elders text us what street to meet on. We thought oh thats cool I think that is Jamie's street. We get there and the elders tell us where we are assigned to knock, we think oh that's cool Ithink that is the area where jamie's apt building is. We decide to go to the building we think is his first just because we were excited. We walk in the complex and start walking around. We walk towards the back and we are looking around. We decide to go up a staircase. We knock on a door and this young boy answers who looks kind of familiar. We start talking to him and then mid sentence hna prince stops and asks, do you have a brother named jamie? and he said, ya. Haha we might've freaked him out because we both started looked and each other and started laughing. The first door we kocked we found him! We then saw a lady washing her car and asked if we could help and she said no but we found out she was Jamie's grandma! then we were knocking in the next apt complex and knocked into jamie's aunt! When I tell you stories I don't know if it is as exciting as it was in the moment haha.

Basically this story is how I feel about my mission so far. Looking back on a day or week it is so easy to see the miracles and its obvious the Lord is in the details. But it is so beautiful and exciting and faith building to be a part of it while it is unfolding. When we are following the spirit miracles really do happen and we don't even realize it all the time. I love being a missionary and I always want to be where the Lord needs me and be willing to do what He wants me to do.

Some funny things that happened this week is someone asked if I was hna prince's daughter! Also we are teaching a 14 year old boy who is at about a third grade level. His family are members but he wants to be baptized. He is THE best I wish I could tell you more about him. We are teaching him because His mom speaks mostly spanish and he speaks mostly english. his mom told us she is trying to help him gain his testimony so she will say a phrase she knows in english randomly throughout the day. Haha, I just want you to picture this. They are all eating dinner or walking to the car and she blurts out 'Joseph smith was a prophet" and then they continue on their normal activity. Haha isn't that great?

Yesterday we had the coolest lesson EVER! That lady I told you we met who couldn't stand mormons. She is our little grandma now. She has a lot of illnesses though so she can't move a ton. We went to visit her yesterday and she was sitting out on the porch of her apt and some kids were talking with her. We sat down with them and we sang to start the lesson. The kids loved the song so we sang another one and more kids kept coming out and sitting with us. We sang another one, and it was funny because we kept seeing doors open and people were poking their head out to see what was going on. And the kids wanted to keep singing. It was really sweet we were sitting on the porch with Ofelia and her little neighborhood kids singing. then we taught a little lesson about Jesus Christ and they loved it because we gave them each a book of mormon to hold and "read" while we talked to them and they were so cute! It was probably one of my favorite lessons so far, it was just so sweet to hear these little kids talk about Jesus and try to sing with us. And we had ofelia help us teach part of the lesson and I think she really loved it too.

I love you all so much!!! California is so great! My too favorite things about this area so far are, the airport is right by our house so we get to see airplanes all the time, it is so cool! And there is a bazillion different types of trees it is really beautiful.

Love you,

Hermana Mulliner