Saturday, February 18, 2012

Letter #41: Happy Valentine's Day

Hello Hello!
Thanks for all the love and support I get from you continually. I love you so much!
This week, I'm trying to remember what happened! It went so fast!!! We had Zone Leader Counsel on Monday, Leadership Training Wednesday, We had a Humanitarian Center and Welfare Square training Friday night that went really well and a tour of Elders and VIP's. They all went super well. We're really busy doing exchanges, taking care of sick sisters (unfortunately there were lots this week), meeting with the sisters, but above all... MISSIONARY WORK!! That's my favorite. We have some incredible Spanish investigators. I wish I could speak the language but I can still pray and plan for them and then just be on the phone and share my simple testimony. If Sister Hoyos writes out what to say, I can text in Spanish and that's about it! haha. But it's fun. We found out that Alejandro, one of Sister Hoyos' first investigators got baptized this week! YAY! It was so exciting because he's been so diligent in going to church that most of the members when they saw him dressed in white were so surprised because they didn't realize he hadn't been baptized yet! They thought he was a member! We thought that was pretty funny, but super exciting for this family! Now he can join his wife in going to the temple (she's been a member for a while now).
We were able to get many others in touch with missionaries. Trinicia is one of my favorites because she's SO southern, it's awesome! She just says "amen" and "hallelujah" to everything, haha! She's determined to be baptized soon. Her husbands passed away and so she's been very touched by the plan of salvation and to be with him again and still be husband and wife, not just friends as angels. What a blessing it is to have the knowledge that we have!
This year was BY FAR the best Valentines day I've had of my life! haha... it was not romantic at all! (it's so funny... I really know I've changed because romance is not appealing to me at all now. In fact it kinda scares me! haha... I'll be honest- I'm turning weird!! haha) But it was still filled with love. Instead of romantic love, it was love of the gospel and the true love of God-- Which is SO much better. I was on exchanges with Sister Elliott actually (who has been out 2.5 weeks and is companions with Sister Lane! -which is very fun) and we just had some incredible experiences and little miracles! There were four main stories but I'll share my favorite two because of time:
We met Victoria up at the Christus, and I had said "hello, how are you" before I realized that she was actually in tears! I felt somewhat bad for interrupting "a moment," but we started talking and it was really good! She's African American, 18 years old, been a member for just 2 years and is the only one in her family who joined except her aunt who is now inactive.. She recently moved out here and it seems she's just struggling with a lot of things, lost her motivation to read the scriptures and pray. We were able just to talk to her, share a scripture and commit her to start praying again and to read her scriptures tonight. Later we were on a tour with another man from Banff (who was also awesome!) and we ran into her again. She just ran over to us and hugged us both and said she had waited to see us again because she wanted to thank us. She said she prayed again and feels much better, and just hugged us again. What a special moment that was for us. It's not often that we know whether our efforts really help these people or not. Although we know pray and scriptures will help, we rarely find out whether they actually go and do it and how they feel afterwards. So it was just such a blessing to have her come back, and thank us, even though it really was not us who needed to be thanked. We didn't make her feel better, Heavenly Father was the one and only one who could do that, but it was a blessing to be a small part of it and give her the bit of guidance she needed to grow closer to God. As official representatives of Jesus Christ, that's what we're here to do! To bring people to Him. I'll never forget that special girl. I'm glad we could make a difference and help her out.
Before we met Victoria, we also had a great tour with a couple from Peru. The Husband Joshy (pronounced Yoshi, like Marios friend) spoke English and he translated for his wife, Maria. They were INCREDIBLE! and SO prepared. He loves the church, the members, the prophet, the temple, the promise of Eternal Families. He told us how incredible it would be to actually meet the prophet someday and how he hopes to do that! They live in Utah now so He's already looking forward to conference. Maria just told us how good she feels, how emotional and happy it was to be sitting in the Tabernacle and to finally see the church (temple) that her husband always talked about. She was just recently brought over from Peru by Joshy and their two children are back in Peru still. They hope we can teach them as well! But for now we're teaching them over the phone until the local missionaries arrive. It worked out perfectly because Sister Hoyos speaks Spanish so we can do that! They are so prepared and I cannot wait for our appointment on Tuesday morning. Heavenly Father is just amazing how he blesses us by simply meeting others here on this earth.
Well I love you all! There's a little bit about what I've been up to. Hope you're all happy and well!
I really know that the Lord is mindful of us and ALL areas of our lives. He hears and answers our prayers. I love you so so much!
Sister Mullen
PS- My friend Sister Ito told me she took Sean Crapo and his friends/Investigators on a tour! She was really impressed with him and how he's sharing the gospel with these friends still after his mission. I guess he's been home just 2 weeks she said? Tell him hello for me, welcome home, and I hope all went well with his investigators here! That's so fun he was here!

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