Part of a December letter home...

Part of Asher's letter home this past week...

     I want to know why music brings the spirit so strongly and connects us to heaven. We were sitting in church yesterday (I'll write more about church later) but 8 investigators were there and then Eugene, our recent convert who now holds the priesthood, was sitting on the front pews with the other people passing sacrament. We started seeing the opening hymn, the "First Noel". I started thinking about the blessings of the gospel in these people's lives - 5 months ago Eugene was alcoholic and smoked a pack a day. Now he's passing the sacrament. I looked at the people we had in church and my mind went to where they are now and where the light of the Gospel of Christ is going to take them. I don't know why, but the Spirit just hit me in the middle of the hymn. It impressed on me that I actually am making a difference. That what we do changes people. And for some reason, I guess that music was the medium of the Spirit at that time.

     So yes, lots of people came to church. A less active sister, Louise, came with her less active twenty year old granddaughter, Octavia, and 9 year old granddaughter, Shanaya. They are the sweetest people - super super super humble circumstances but enormous faith in Christ. 

      Another family came - we received a "bible referral"  (where somebody requests a free Bible to be brought by)  for a lady, Angela, and have been trying to teach her for a while. We went over Thursday night and were invited inside. The whole family was there - Angela, her fiancee, her two daughters, and her mom. They live in a small trailer with one room in the back next to a cramped kitchen. They have a folding sports chair but that's it for furniture. Her daughters, 6 and 10, sleep in the little entryway right by the kitchen. We taught them and they all wanted to come to church. Neither of these families have cars. So, we arranged rides and they all came to church Sunday and loved it. 

        Busy busy busy for us making sure that everybody was in the right place - primary classes, relief society, priesthood meeting, Sunday school, etc. But they had a wonderful experience there and they all want to come to our ward Christmas party on Friday.  

      I have so much love for these people, mom... There are so many things that I love about them. They are all southern black baptist, and firmly rooted in that tradition. When the 1st counselor in the bishopric got up to begin sacrament meeting, he said, "Good morning, brothers and sisters!" So what happens right after that. Well, all of our investigators reply back "Good mornin'." Because that's what they do! And I love it! They were nodding and whispering "Mhm, amen!" during sacrament meeting and in classes afterward. They have so much faith, so much honesty, so much SOUL!!!!

       Seeing them smiling during church made me look around at the members in our ward and think, "Are you as excited about the gospel and about the Savior as our investigators are?" Anyway, I just love the people and will miss them big time when I go back.  We're going to make them cookies and try to make their Christmas special. Because there's not a penny in that home to buy any Christmas presents. 

Thanksgiving Week

Hi Everybody!

         Sorry that I haven’t written in a few weeks! We’ve been super busy teaching and finding people to teach. I’ll try to summarize the last couple weeks in a few sentences...

- Florida weather is amazing right now - it’s in the 70s during the day and gets into the 50’s at night. It’s pretty sad, but the mornings are freezing cold to me now... Back in Wisconsin, I prayed for days in the 50’s at this time of year! So I’m a cold weather wimp now.

- We have been teaching this brother named Josh for 9 months now and he still hasn’t been baptized. There were a couple things holding him back, one of them being getting married to his girlfriend who he lives with. He got married this week, and we set a baptismal date with him for the end of December - so that was awesome!

- Thanksgiving was so fun - we had Thanksgiving dinner with two families on Thursday. Two full dinners - Turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, stuffing, mac and cheese (I guess that’s a southern thanksgiving thing?), etc. How did I survive? Not totally sure. But I did.

I also wanted to tell everybody about the #Light the World initiative being put out by the church. Go to Mormon.org (do it. Like honestly, finish reading this and do it!) and you will see a message about “25 ways in 25 days” - different service ideas and ways to “Light the World” this Christmas season. I would love you hear input from y’all on miracles you see from doing it and ideas for how I can share it with the people here in Florida - I need your help with creative ideas for it.

        Here’s a poem about thankfulness with Thanksgiving this past week. Love you all - I hope you have a week filled with lighting the world and service!

This season and this time,

The atmosphere’s sublime,

To serve and share God’s love,

To point to heav’n above.

I’m thankful for a lot,

For blessings that I’ve got,

But more importantly,

I’m grateful to be me.

I’m grateful for my mom,

I’m grateful for my dad,

My sisters and my brothers,

And fifty thousands others.

The live I get to live,

The love I get to give,

The chance I have to serve,

The gifts I don’t deserve.

Elder Merrill and I today before I go to lose at basketball (as usual - nothing out of the ordinary.)

Before our first dinner on thanksgiving!
 I love Elder Merrill - he’s really fun to be companions with.

Eugene...

Hi Everybody!

        Just a quick little post this week. A lot happened - many events, a really busy schedule, a bunch of meetings. But what stands out form the last week are the people - this week, specifically, a person; Eugene. 

         I wrote a little post about Eugene four months ago. Back then, he was very argumentative. We would teach him and he would disagree. But he came to church every Sunday, he participated in study groups, he seemed excited about the gospel. He is brilliant - he knows Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic very well, and can quote the Koran and Bible like the back of his hand. If you misquote a scripture or its location, he will call you out and correct you. Trust me, I know because it’s happened. :) If I could describe the look in his eyes? Cold and calculating. Cunning. Conniving. Eh, maybe that’s a little too much but whatever. 

         Anyway, that look is gone. He’s just as intense, but there’s peace and love in his eyes. Eugene was baptized last Saturday. The change of heart that he had in the three months that I was gone from this area is unbelievable. He has read, prayed, and come to church more sincerely. As a result, the Spirit has worked on him and softened his heart.   He’s become more willing to change. He now has such a desire to serve in the church. He showed up two hours before a special session of church yesterday to park cars. Who does that? I sure wouldn’t have, before my mission! 

         I’m grateful for how the gospel softens hearts and changes people’s hearts. I love Eugene. It makes me so glad to see him accept the gospel. Watching people change for the better is so fun. 

         Love you all! Have a great week preparing for this holiday season!

Elder McMullin

At Eugene's baptism on Saturday

And ... a few pictures from last week.: 

Our zone pre-transfers. 

I love this District. I will really miss the missionaries who are leaving Gainesville! They’re all so fun, unique, and quirky. They love being themselves. 

Leaving a baptism church. We saw this while out biking and had to take the opportunity. It was the last night of the transfer. I’ll really miss elder Butterfield, but I’m glad that we’re both still in Gainesville! 

Farewell to the Bookers...

Hey everyone!

Hope you're having a good day. It's pretty cloudy here in Florida right now. Lost of mist rising from everything. Florida's still confusing with with the weather... One minute, we'll be driving in torrential rain and thunder, the next minute we'll be out sweating to death walking around, the next minute we'll be getting blown away by wind. 

A lot happened this week and I've been really exhausted for the last few days. My companion and I do "tradeoffs" with the other 8 Elders in our district here in Gainesville (basically we just switch companions for the day, just to make sure they're doing well/feel loved/aren't breaking any mission rules.) We had three, back to back, last week, and that was really tiring, though also fulfilling. BUT it was all made up for by last night. What happened last night?

The "Why I Believe" devotional in Jacksonville! Since I play viola, I got to go play with our mission orchestra and choir because we did a musical number. There were a couple other musical numbers and several beautiful testimonies from recent converts. The Spirit was strong, lessons were learned, and it was great to see the missionaries in Jacksonville.

We got a ride up with the Bookers. Here's a picture of me with them that we took last night. Just so you know who is being talked about.

    The Bookers are one of the best, most loving, most caring couples I've met in my entire life. They were baptized when they were both 26 - they'd only been married for a few years, and they were living in LA. They had a little baby girl and another was on the way.

Now, fast forward 40 years. They have 8 kids and many grandkids. They just served a senior couple mission teaching religion classes at the church building off campus here at the University of Florida. They've blessed many, many, many lives of people inside and outside of the church. They go back home to their family in Utah this Friday.

The missionaries who taught them had absolutely no idea the impact they made on the Bookers' lives, and on the lives of thousands of other people, including my life. They taught and baptized the Bookers, who have taught and helped so many others. They helped me when I started out my mission in Gainesville as a nervous 18 year old a long ways away from home. Even the first time that I met them, I could feel of their loving kindness.

Point is, they've helped me understand that everybody makes a difference. We usually don't recognize the differences that we are making in people's lives, just like those missionaries who first taught them didn't know all the long-term repercussions of teaching the Bookers. A lot of people don't want the loving service you want to give, but it makes a difference in the long run.

Love you all - I hope you have a great, fun filled week!

Elder Rice has been out for just over a month and we had an exchange. He is going into veterinary medicine when he goes home. He loves dogs. A lot. He has charity for them. 

The city of Archer! I finally got a picture to out to the place. It's my favorite place in our area - the people are so sincere, honest, and humble.

    This is Cherrie, a lady the other elders have been teaching. I know her daughter and grandkids well from Wisconsin.  Her daughter asked my mom to tell me to check in on her during the hurricane last month. The other missionaries live closer to her, and they helped her out and talked with her a bunch. Long story short, she's being baptized this Saturday, and I interviewed her for baptism last Saturday. Exciting? Yes!

"Focus on the little moments and be glad."

Our wonderful zone here in Gainesville! I knew that I was short before I left on a mission, but being out here with all these tall people is just really letting it sink in. Love it :)

Hey everyone!

This week was probably the most productive week of the last two transfers. We haven't talked to a lot of people since I came into the area, mostly because the people here have million dollar homes and are very at ease with their lives. This week, though, we had a few great miracles that just carried us through the week.

As a missionary, life is pretty hard. At home, there are a lot of things to look forward to and that you find fun. What was fun for me? Playing games with friends, playing tennis, being around family, practicing viola, concerts, writing, listening to music, and so on. Being focused on my purpose of bringing people to Christ, I choose to do basically none of those things, so I had to learn to find joy in other things. There are usually a few little experiences or moments that carry us throughout the week in the face of constant rejection and getting cussed out - here are two of them.

I was on a companion exchange with Elder Brown - he's an amazing missionary with a powerful testimony, and a very talented singer. We were walking around an apartment complex - it was hot and the sun was beating down. We were sweating hard (we were biking that day) and nobody in the complex had wanted to hear our message or watch a video about Jesus Christ. As we are getting our helmets back on, and getting ready to peddle away, a car pulls up and a middle aged gentleman with a tucked in button up shirt runs over. He calls out in a southern drawl, "Hey y'all, I saw Jesus Christ on those nametags and just felt like I gotta come talk about the Word with y'all. What've ya got for me today?"

So we talked to him for 10 minutes - it was a great conversation and we were able to bear testimony of the restored Gospel and faith in Christ. We set a time to come back and see him, then biked away. We smiled as we biked away - those 10 minutes had made the previous 2 hours worth it.

Another experience - just yesterday afternoon. We were sitting in church next to a great lady who had agreed to visit church with us. A wonderful sister was speaking on the Book of Mormon and the Spirit was strong in the room, despite the incessant crying of little children. I was getting ready to go up to the front of the chapel to perform - I was playing a duet with our wonderful organist, Brother Cornely. Out of the corner of our eyes, we saw a couple walk in the doors on the far left of the chapel. At first I didn't recognize them. I probably wouldn't have, but my amazing companion Elder Butterfield, with a huge smile on his face, whispers to me, "That's Rey and his wife!"

I wrote about Rey last week - we met him last Saturday and he said he'd come to church with his wife, but then didn't show up. So here he his, with his wife and two kids, walking into church after we haven't talked with him all week. As a missionary, that never happens. It usually feels like we're dragging people to church, and here they just show up. I can't even describe the joy we felt that they came - it just made our day. I'm smiling about it right now just thinking about it. 

So it's little things - moments and experiences with people and the gospel - that carry us through the week. Listen to these words of Joseph Smith - "You know that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves." Lots of applications here, but one is that, in the storms of life, we should let little pockets of light brighten our way and steer us through the day.

I love you all! I hope you have a great week. Focus on the little moments and be glad.

Elder Butterfield and I drove to Jacksonville to get the car fixed and it was fun being back in Jacksonville. It reminded me of the 6 months that I spent here and the special moments that I loved from serving in Fort Caroline.

The sunset was beautiful, and we were biking, so here you go. The sunsets here are always nice, but this one looked especially good.

Just the sunset.

A visit to Archer, Florida

Hey everybody! 

This week was good - we're still getting used to Facebook, having smartphones, and some other new things. It's been quite the adventure! Trust me, after using a flip phone for 15 months, trying to type on a screen has been quite the experience. I feel like a clumsy elephant trying to play piano. But hey, that's how I am with most things, so it's nothing new.

We had an amazing experience out in Archer on Saturday. What's Archer? Thanks for asking! Let me explain it for you in poetry.

This town is like no other,

It obfuscates my mind.

Epitome of "southern",

Is how it is defined.

With stray dogs running wild,

And old cars parked on grass,

The old town's tone is mild,

There's nowhere to get gas.

The people here are sincere,

They say what's on their mind.

The sounds of gunshots we hear,

Though everyone seems kind.

Anyway, so that's Archer. Just imagine a town that was build 50 years ago, and then no maintenance or repair was done on anything (stores, houses, cars, people's teeth, etc.) and that's Archer. I honestly absolutely love it. It's so much more fun to be in then rich neighborhoods where nobody will talk to you. Everybody in Archer is genuine, though maybe also crazy. 

Anyway, so we were walking around talking to people in the streets, trying to share videos about Christ, and a little message with them. We met this one man who was grilling out front of his little house. On the grass parked in front of the house was a Challenger and a Mustang - there's another thing about Archer, some people have really nice cars, and keep them in good shape, and then their house is just falling apart. Priorities...?

Anyway though, back on topic, his name is Rey and he has a thick black beard and a southern drawl - he's wearing a white tank top, like 99.9% of the male population in Archer. He tells us that he's recently lost his father and grandfather, and has been looking for where God is in his life. We shared a video on how, because the gospel and authority of God have been restored to the earth, our families can be together forever. He said that he'd love to come to church. We swapped phone numbers, said goodbye, and drove off. Twenty seconds later, we get a call from a random number. It's Rey's girlfriend, who was also at his house but didn't talk to us. "What do y'all believe?" She asks, seeming a little suspect. 

"We believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God - that he came to the earth to give his life for us, and that if we have faith in him, repent, are baptized, and endure, that we can be clean and return to live with God."

"Ahhhhhhh sounds good. We'll be comin' to y'alls church tomorrow."

So why is this cool? Because they called and confirmed that they'd come to church! Usually it feels like we're calling, texting, and trying to pull people to church so they can feel the Spirit and have better lives, but she called us! So that was fun.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week. Help others. Say hello to somebody you don't know. Reach out to somebody in your class or at work who looks down. Go make a difference.

Love you!

Elder McMullin

"Small and Simple Things"

Hello everybody!

        This week has been quite the week! Honestly so much has happened that I can't remember. Racking my brain right now... I'm struggling too hard to do this right now so I'm doing going to list the best parts of the week. 

• District meeting on Tuesday was really, really good. The missionaries in our district are so close together. 
• We got an oil change and tire rotation on Saturday. It was supposed to take an hour. It ended up taking 3. So Elder Hibbert and I sat outside on a bench and studied and talked about the gospel. It was beautiful, windy, and cool. And we were reading scriptures. The Gospel+Florida autumn = heaven. 
• We had a lesson with the Khandakar family! They're from India and are the coolest people ever. We got them a Book of Mormon in Bengali and they love it! Because of their amazing upbringing in Indian culture, they always force us to eat food when we're over, even if we adamantly say, "we just ate dinner and aren't hungry."
• Some of our investigators fed us boiled peanuts and it was the best thing on earth.
• A lady we did service for last week called us out of the blue at 9:40 Thursday night, asking if we could come answer some of her questions about God and religion. We went over the next day and had an amazing discussion with her - we'll be able to keep meeting with her and she will be able to come to church in a few weeks.

+ many more things. I'm grateful for how all of the small and simple things add up. There's a scripture that I love from the Book of Mormon - it teaches us that "by small and simple things, great things are brought to pass." That's true for everything. Music, athletics, the gospel, living a happy life. I'm so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the "small and simple things" that just make me look back and say, "This was a great week." Hence, this weeks poem is "Small and Simple Things". Sounds like the next Taylor Swift album or something, but whatever. 

A smile over here,

A laugh over there,  

A bite of chocolate,

A breath of fresh air.

The singing of birds,

The bright autumn sky,

The rustling of wind,

The sun way up high.

Your stoplight turns green,

Your bed has been made,

Your shower was hot,

Your car's in the shade.

A dozen small things,

That slip through our day.

Now could there be more?

Let's look, if we may.

A home full of love,

A roof overhead,

Some food we can eat,

Pillows on our bed.

A million small things,

We have and let go,

Now turning to God,

Our thanks we may show.

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

                                 

This is a picture of our wonderful district.

Hurricane Irma - view from Gainesville

Hello Everybody!

       This week was absolutely fantastic. Like WOW I love being a
missionary! The hurricane came through and gave us so many wonderful
service opportunities. We've been helping and uplifting people all
week and it's been great. Many miracles and people we wouldn't have
been able to see or meet with had Hurricane Irma not knocked some
trees down.  

        Jennifer, for example. Members in a local congregation told us
about this lady who loves missionaries and has met with us before, but
not in Gainesville. A tree fell down in her backyard and she needs
help. We went over and were able to clean up a good deal of the tree.
We talked to her at the end and she was crying in gratitude for us
coming to help. As a missionary, we know what we are doing is right. I
now know that I have a testimony of the gospel that's strong enough
that I would happily keep working if I didn't see any success and
nobody listened or even talked to us. But seeing Jennifer cry and be
so grateful for our service really made an impact on me - we are
making a difference in people's lives. All of us are. It's really hard
to see that sometimes, but it's true.

         Many have asked  what the hurricane was like. We
were in our apartment Sunday afternoon - Tuesday morning. Saturday
it seemed like a constant rain storm, just a drizzle.  On Sunday there
were occasional gusts of wind, and rain.  Sunday morning at  9:42 AM (I
checked), there was a big gust of wind, and then suddenly our power
goes out. We pulled out flashlights and kept studying, as a diligent
missionary would. The wind picked up throughout the day until it was
just LOUD all night long. Our apartment was totally fine, but then Monday 
morning we walked around the area to see how everything looked.

This face sums up how I felt out biking during the hurricane.

          There's a retention pond in our complex - very deep and very
big. There's a parking lot right next to it. The pond was overflowing
and all the cars next to it were chest deep in water. It only drained
a few days ago. Many of the roads nearby us were impassable because of
flooding. Lots of trees had fallen down, but not much damage to houses
- mostly just on power lines, in the middle of the street, ya know,
the typical places for a tree to fall.

When you're biking to a teaching appointment and realize that you'll
have to find another way to get there. A regular occurrence this week.

Out biking...

Only in Florida... These things were more common than stop signs. (Maybe not quite.... that might be hyperbole.)

Florida sunsets are beautiful! The picture doesn't do it justice.
 It literally looked like the sky was on fire. 

          That was about it, though. It wasn't as bad as we thought it
would be. All the missionaries and members are totally safe. We will
have service to do for another few weeks, but we are getting back to
our normal routine. In my free time I memorized John 17    (10/10, would
definitely recommend.) I decided that week that memorizing verses is
too hard, because I can never remember where they are, so memorizing
chapters is much more straightforward. Working on the Sermon on the
Mount right now...

When God sends you a message through Panda Express.
Not an expected answer to my prayers, but hey, it works!
(Fortune cookie wisdom:  "Be willing to admit you may be wrong. You're only human.")

         Well I'm just blabbering on at this point so goodbye! I
actually took some pictures this week, so enjoy those. I hope you all
have a great week, and know that I love you all! :)


-Elder McMullin

Pre-Hurricane Irma post

Hello Everybody! 

     

  Well it seems like only five days ago that I email y'all! Oh wait... it was... 

Anyway, our preparation day was changed to today because we will be inside all day next Monday due to Hurricane Irma! That fun little storm! So you get to hear from me even earlier! 

      It's been crazy - it's felt pretty apocalyptic. Cars backed up like a parking lot in traffic. People yelling and swarming the gas pumps to fill up on gas. (It's completely out in Gainesville). There hasn't been water on the shelves in Gainesville for a few days. People are boarding up their windows with plywood. It's just crazy! None of it has made me nervous, but it's just crazy! It's honestly like something from the Hunger Games, where there's a tiny little bit of food and everybody from a starving, poor district. Like holy cow! I'm trying to describe it in words. There's an atmosphere here outside, on the roads, talking to people. If I wasn't a missionary, and I didn't have the gospel, I'd be SUPER scared. We've been super optimistic, though. We listen to the Spirit, not negativity! We've done everything we can to uplift the district and keep them focused on our purpose instead of being scared or becoming ineffective. 

      

   The hurricane has made me really focus on others, though. It's been really interesting to monitor how I feel now compared to Hurricane Matthew last year. I'm always thinking about companionships in our district - if they have enough food, water, gas, where they're at, are they doing ok? Are they staying focused? Do they feel like we're here for them? Etc.

      Anyway, the storm has been quite a fuss around here. Honestly it's pretty pesky for us. As of right now, it's not exactly working with us to help people build their faith. Everybody is pretty focused on "ooh, the route of the hurricane changed" or "there was just a new shipment of gas at this gas station!" or "water is back in stock at Walmart, let's go!" We've had some great opportunities to do service and have been blessed in that way. We're incredibly excited for the many service opportunities in the coming weeks! We know that people will be humble and teachable, and that there will be a lot of people who needed this little change in their life to recognize that they are missing something. 

Visited Wal-mart pre-storm with my district today.

Here is a picture of what the shelves in all the stores here look like

Here is a picture of what all of the stores and homes here look like...

    This week has reminded me of two beautiful scriptures that apply well to storms and hurricanes.  This is from the prophet Helaman. "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless woe, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

      

     Then, these words from Jesus Christ. "if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."

         

I know that these words are true, and that exciting times like this come our way for a reason. So Elder Butterfield and I can stand here in Gainesville, with the eye of Hurricane Irma coming right our way in t-minus two days, and say, with Caleb of the Old Testament, "Give me this mountain." Maybe that's a little dramatic, but it really is the upbeat attitude we have. We're excited for all of the opportunities that our loving God gives us, and here's one of them, right at our front door!

        This week's poem is called "Give me this mountain." Background to the story of Caleb - he was with Moses and the children of Israel after they crossed the sea and we're going to the promised land. When they came to the land the Lord promised hey would have, they found it inhabited by people. Caleb was excited and welcomed the challenge of defeating them and living there, but the other people lacked faith. So after them all wandering around for many years, the Lord allowed them to return and gave gem another chance at showing faith by taking over this land. It was inhabited by the sons of Anak, who are described as "giants." At this point, Caleb is now 85 years old. This is where, at the prospect of risking everything to take the land, Caleb says to God "give me this mountain." There's some backstory for ya. It's a pretty epic story, honestly, so you should go and read it. (Find the story in the Old Testament, or just click on these chapters:  Numbers 13 , Numbers 14 and Joshua 14.)

A hurricane's coming,

Many are running,

God's truths they are shunning,

Give us this mountain. 

We go boldly forward,

The storm's coming shoreward,

We're still preaching God's word,

Give us this mountain.

A smile on our face,

Upheld by God's grace,

To man's aid we race,

Give us this mountain. 

                      -Elder McMullin