"An Instrument in His Hands"

Hello everybody!

This week... What a week! We've seen lots of miracles from following what God wants us to do. We've been able to help a lot of people who we wouldn't have been able to help if it weren't for us trying to do God's will.

For example, we were out biking on Tuesday. It had been a pretty slow day - we'd been out all afternoon trying to visit members, some of the people we'd talked to in previous months, and just talking to everybody who we saw and trying to teach them. It was CRAZY hot and we were sweating buckets, until it started pouring buckets. That cooled us off pretty quick. Florida weather... 13 months and I'm still not used to it. Anyway, we had dinner and then headed off to the neighborhood where our bishop lives. We asked him to pray that we'd be able to find somebody that night, and he did. At this point, we're just really hoping that we can find somebody and have a miracle, since we haven't seen anything all day.

We prayed and decided to go to an apartment complex right next to where we live. We have a few members who live there that we decided to visit and see if there were people there we could teach. We get there and... it's gated, so we can't get in. We're about to leave, but Elder Butterfield (the best new missionary on the planet) notices a little gate that the maintenance people go in and out of, and it's open! So we squeeze through and go to visit a member who hasn't been to church in a while. We're both new to the area, and don't know where he lives, so we struggled to find the apartment for just a minute. As we're looking, we hear some shouts, then a door slam, then some angry stomping down the stairs that I know too well from my teenage years. 

We continue walking and come across this lady, sitting on a set of steps, with her legs tucked in close and her head on her knees. We say "hello" and startle her a little, but introduce ourselves and how our message blesses, builds, binds, and strengthens families. She narrates to us the fight that she just had with her husband and declares that we've been sent to her from God (Spoiler alert - she's right.) So we teach her and halfway through, her husband comes out and sits down as well. We teach both of them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it blesses families and set a time to come back. It was a beautiful example of how God uses flawed mortal people like us to reach out and uplift his children. It's the best feeling in the world. In the Church it's referred to as being an "instrument in God's hand." In the scriptures it's referred to as being "a polished shaft in [God's] quiver." I think that those are both beautiful descriptions of how we should try to live - as tools in God's hands to do his work!

So this week's poem will be "An Instrument in His Hands". 

Our lives are full of chances,

Appointments to bless lives,

Let's choose well or they'll vanish,

For service we must strive.

A hundred times each hour,

He puts them in our way,

He guides us by his power,

To those who've gone astray.

We hang our lives on "our will",

It's true for all mankind,

But lose your life for His sake,

Then your life you will find.

An instrument in God's hands,

Is what we want to be.

Let's tune ourselves to his will,

And play his melody.

I love you all so much - I hope that everybody is having a great end to their summer before school starts! Enjoy it and go uplift somebody every day!

Week One with a "Greenie"

Hello Everybody!

     

  Phew! What. A. Week! So many changes, so many new things, but it's been easy how God has helped us and allowed everything to work out for our good. 

        First of all... My new companion! Elder Butterfield from St. George, Utah. I love him so much - he was a great swimmer back home and has a lot of love for the people around him, especially his family back home. He just came, last Tuesday, from the Missionary Training Center to the mission, so I have the privilege of helping him learn the many, many, many ropes of being a missionary. It's so fulfilling but also super hard! Just by virtue of how new he is, he doesn't know a lot of the kings that seem "obvious" to me know (planning, teaching, working with members, etc.) so it's been fun trying to explain everything that we're doing, in super simple terms. If anybody on earth needs to work on simplifying, it's me (i.e. my mom telling me to remove six pages of useless "fluff", as she rightfully calls it, from a seven page essay) so this is perfect!

Elder Butterfield and myself

Eating after meeting my new companion

          We are both new to this congregation and don't know the members too well, so it's been a big adjustment. Usually, one of the missionaries will stay and get a new companion, then he will leave and the other missionary will stay and get a. We companion, and the cycle continues. That makes it so that at least one missionary in the area knows the members and the people there that we teach. It's a fun transition! We've felt the Spirit helping us in so many ways - we've been working harder than ever before and God definitely strengthens us. We've been able to actually remember peoples' names. Surprisingly, we haven't gotten lost a single time. This week's poem is about "strength" - the scriptural strength, the kind that God grants us when we seek help getting through a trial.

When the end is far away, 

And dawn's hope is far from sight,

We may look down at the ground,

We may shut all from our sight.

If our burdens feel too much,

Far too great for us to bear,

We must lift our heads and think,

"There's another one who cares."

Christ will give us strength unknown,

Power we can't comprehend,

He will shape and lift our lives,

Far beyond our journey's end.

We must ask Him for this help,

We must seek and show our faith,

Knowing that throughout our lives

He will carry us with grace.

Love you all!!! Hope that you have a great week!

Visiting the Orlando Temple

Hello everybody!

        What a week it's been! Many great things, but one was a tradeoff I
had with Elder Weng in the Gainesville YSA (the same area I was
trained in!) He's from Taiwan and one of the funniest people I've ever
met. He's about 5'4" and has a super think accent and EVERYTHING he
says is hilarious. I don't know how, but he can say anything and it'll
make you crack up.

Elder Weng and I on our tradeoff!!!

        We went on campus and were able to teach some great people! It's the
very end of summer break, and there aren't a ton of people, so we are
REALLY excited for it to start.

        Another exciting thing... Elder Stuart and I were able to go to the
Orlando, Florida temple on Thursday! We get to go at our halfway mark
and then right before we go home. It was amazing to get to see all of
the missionaries there and be with them in such a sacred, beautiful,
Spirit filled place.

The drive from Gainesville to the Orlando Temple!

The Orlando Florida Temple

All of the missionaries in front of the temple!

        Our transfer call was Saturday night - Elder Stuart thought that we'd
stay together but... surprise! I'm going to 2nd ward here in
Gainesville to train a new missionary, and Elder Stuart is staying
here to train a new missionary! We're excited but also a little
nervous. It's a pretty big change so hence I decided to write a poem
about change. I'd give this one a solid C, with a big red circle
around it.


Change

From the gorgeous summer sun,
To the windy autumn sky,
To a frigid winter's night,
To the spring when birds do fly.

From the young years of a babe,
To a laughing, growing child,
To a man caught up in life,
To the old man's wrinkled smile.

Yes our lives are full of change,
Bringing joy and pain combined,
So we smile and jump and laugh,
As like silver we're refined.

Here are some pictures...

Elder Faber - this is just before he leaves to drive to Jacksonville Sunday night - he goes home tomorrow and in spending the day in Jacksonville today. One of the most loving people I've ever met - I learned so much from him and how joy literally is contagious!

We had dinner with our Bishop and his family + the sister missionaries in our ward. Such an amazing family - we have a lot of respect for them and the love that you can feel in their home.

Love you all!

Elder McMullin