"Merry Christmas!"

 Hello all!

     Merry Christmas! I hope that you all had an amazing weekend and are enjoying time off from work/school/whatever and the extra freedom you have.

Florida in the winter - 80 degrees, sunny, and humid. And alligators :)

    These past few weeks have been a little dead in the YSA, since nobody is really here, but that's ok! Christmas Eve was fun - we walked around campus for 2 hours and then around downtown Gainesville for about 4 hours in the afternoon. Wait, did I mention that it was a chilly 80 degrees? Welcome to Florida! It was really fun to be out though and share a Christmas video (on our ipads) with people who looked down or needed something to brighten their day. :)

      We went caroling this past Friday and Saturday night. On Friday, we went outside a local mall to a Christmas lights display and caroled which was just really fun! We provided music for about 2 hours and there was always an audience of about 50 people listening the whole time. I was able to play my viola the whole time which was a blessing and just fun. Some days are hard as a missionary, but little things like going caroling make life good.

We went to Catholic mass Saturday afternoon in St. Augustine,  just because we could and it was very good. I was actually surprised that they sang all of the same hymns that we sing for Christmas.

Christmas Eve with the other elders

When you realize that this is what you'll be eating for the next month...

When it's your first time cutting up a turkey. And neither of us have ANY idea what we're doing.

Christmas morning on a mission! Kind of weird? Yes. Kind of fun? Yes.

      Christmas we woke up, opened presents under a picture of a Christmas tree. Is that a little sad? Maybe.

      We studied then went to church where we had a fun program singing for an hour. There were 8 missionaries there, the branch president, his wife and 2 kids, and 3 other people. The struggles of being in a college congregation during Christmas...

      Then I got to skype my family! It was really great to see them and talk. I really love them and wish that I'd spent more time with them back home. So spend time with your family! Do it! 

      We went to a member's house and had dinner, which was great, then acted out the nativity. We were at the home of the seminary and institute director (brilliant man, he's read every gospel related book ever) so it was a very accurate nativity - starting with the angel Gabriel speaking to Mary, them going and finding lodging in a cave (fun fact - around Bethlehem, most of the places that animals were kept and people slept in "inns" were caves. What do ya know? Jesus was almost certainly born among animals in a cave space.) Then the wise men coming (4 of them, not 3, because nowhere in the scriptures does it talk about 3 wise men) and so on. It was fun and I loved it.  Their son, Joseph, got home from his mission a few months ago and he's one of my best friends here in the branch. 

           

       Anyway, there it is!  Have a great New Year. 

Love you all!

          Elder McMullin

One more picture from today: Our zone playing "Capture the Flag" on campus.. because it is so empty!

                                                         Good Fun!

Mission Christmas Party

Hello everybody!

 People are starting to leave for Christmas break (by now most of them have left) and so campus is pretty slow. We're going to try to find new, exciting things to do with our time now that nobody is on campus...There are lots of international students here and we're meeting with them and trying to get them excited for break. We're planning on going with some Chinese students to fun restaurants and such.

We had a mission Christmas party on Thursday and that was really fun! Every missionary in the whole mission was there and it was great to see all of the missionaries that I know. We had a bunch of skits that each zone put together, lunch, and then a music devotional. There were lots of amazing musical numbers and I was lucky enough to play viola in a few. 

Our zones skit: "The Night Before Transfers"

Waiting during the Mission Christmas Party. I think we were getting staged to take a picture... Or something...

All the Jacksonville Missionaries in one place!

There were several rooms like this, with Christmas packages lined to be handed out.This is the Gainsville corner, where my package sat.

Eating after the mission Christmas party!

We had our branch Christmas party that same night! The life of a missionary, just going from party to party. Yeah, not really. We had a really good time! We had our investigators Maurya, Chenzhi (we gave him the American name Brad...), Tony, and Raven. They loved it! 

Love you all!  Enjoy the snow! Save some for me.

Preparing for Christmas

Hello everybody!

      Transfers were this week.  (They are every 6 weeks.)  My new companion is Elder Mahoney and he's really great.  He's a lot like Elder Day - basketball and football player in high school and will be doing sports in college.

Here's all of the Elders in the YSA now! Elder Mahoney is in the back left, next to me. Elder Aiken (driving) has a new companion, Elder Kautai (front right) who was in our district before and I've been on a few trade offs with him.

  
      We teach a really nice girl, a freshman in college, who we've been trying to get to come to church, but she can't bring herself to come. Anyway, we invited her to an activity in Ocala last night - a bunch of nativity sets were all arranged in pretty lighting with beautiful Christmas music playing, as well as a church Christmas devotional.

 They had an area set up for kids and families to act out the nativity. Here a a bunch of  other missionaries filling in the parts of the Christmas story.

      We felt prompted to call her and ask if she wanted to go (we weren't going to go unless we had somebody coming with us) and she said that she would love to! She really enjoyed it and loved all of it. That segways into what I wanted to talk about a little bit.

      Jesus describes himself as the light of the world - a "light that shineth in darkness." Every time I think about special spiritual experiences, the main thing that stands out is how beautiful and light everything is. I think of the temple - a special building where we learn about Heavenly Father and Christ and make promises with them. I haven't been to the temple in about 5 months now, but when I think back on it, I just remember how pretty and bright it was!

The Chicago LDS Temple

The Orlando LDS Temple

     On Friday night, John Bytheway, a big motivational speaker for the church, spoke in Jacksonville and we went to sing in a big missionary choir (I played viola in a small orchestra.) It was great - he spoke on how we can press forward in hard times. He spoke really well and everybody who went really enjoyed it!

Elder Mahoney, John Bytheway, and I. Sorry for the blurry picture...

       I hope that everybody is having a good time coming up to Christmas!      Keep looking for chances to help people. :)   Wait! One last picture....

Um, no explanation, but just a really cinematic picture of after I woke up from a 5 minute nap in our church building. I was able to sleep on couches in the music building at Lawrence, on the floor in practice rooms, and thankfully that talent has carried on here in Florida, where I can fall asleep within 2 minutes basically anywhere... Random facts about Elder McMullin that nobody wanted to know.

Ok bye! Love you all!

First Thanksgiving in Florida

Hello everybody!

     I have to keep this short but there are pictures so everything will be fine... This week was great! It was really slow because there were no college students on campus/in apartments/in Gainesville/basically on earth for what it seemed like, so we spent a lot of time organizing lists, calling people, and doing paperwork-ish things.

      We spent Thanksgiving with all of the missionaries from our branch - Elder and Sister Booker, the senior couple here, had us over for thanksgiving dinner. It was really great to be in their company on such a great day. We really enjoyed it.

THANKSGIVING!!! I think that being in the YSA (young single adult congregation) and not eating as much has decreased my appetite, because I could barely eat a plate of food. It was so good... wow... Yeah, props to my mom for cooking for like this for us basically every week because, let me just say, I can sure appreciate a meal like this more after being in the YSA. 

Thangsgiving Dinner and my whole district

Eating food because what on earth else would I have pictures of?

 Also, notice my great bow hold on this glass of water. Professor Michelic would be proud :)

me and Elder Bangeter

Here is our wonderful district! From left to right, front to back...

Sister Koener, Sister Eberting, Sister Randle, Sister Hansen, Elder Martin, Elder Bangerter, Elder England, Elder Aiken, me, Elder Day. 

Yep here we are...

      Transfers are this Wednesday! Lots of exciting things happening... Elder Bangerter is leaving and Elder Kautai is coming back to finish training Elder Aiken! I went on several tradeoffs with Elder Kautai - maybe you remember him from previous letters. He was serving in High Springs, just outside of Gainesville, but is now here in the YSA! My companion is also leaving! Ahhh! he's going to be a Zone Leader in Ocala, and I'm excited for him. My new companion will be Elder Mahoney, who came out at the same time that I did.

      I hope that you all had a great thanksgiving and are getting excited for the Christmas season! Stay warm (not a problem here), stay happy, stay serving!

              Love you all,

                      Elder McMullin