A Wednesday Night Miracle

Hello Everybody!

    This week was amazing - we saw so many miracles this week as we tried to find people to teach. It really helped me build my faith. I'll share just one miracle that we had on Wednesday night...

We had received a referral for somebody who had visited mormon.org and asked for a bible to be delivered to them (we, as missionaries, go and deliver the Bible to them). Elder Willets thought that he knew which apartment this person was in, so we drive into this apartment complex and then realize that we're on the wrong side of town. The lady we were supposed to give the Bible to lives about 3 miles northeast. Whoops.

But we both felt like there was a reason why we were there, so we prayed and asked for help finding the person we were supposed to talk with. There was a light on in one of the apartment buildings, and we both felt like we should go see who was there. We knock on the door and an amazing older man opens the door and invites us inside. He tells us that he's served as a pastor for 20 years - in Georgia and in Florida, and was looking for something that he felt was missing from the Bible. So when we shared our message about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon, he was super excited! He's now on track for being baptized at the beginning of April. It was just a really neat miracle to see that God uses us and that, everywhere we are, there's a purpose for us being there.

We got home from dinner last night around 7:00 and were just getting ready to bike out to the appointment we had that night when we hear lots of police sirens in our complex. We step outside and there's a helicopter flying over our complex with a searchlight shining around. Both of us got a super bad feeling and basically just booked it back inside and waited for half an hour while cops ran around our complex and the helicopter stayed searching around. Kind of creepy? Yeah maybe a little bit.

Love you all! Stay warm :)

Elder McMullin

Reaching out to help people with rough lives...

Hello Everybody!

     This week was pretty crazy, honestly... Lots of things happening! I took a night and wrote in my journal a list of all of the different activities that we did that day, then compared it to a list of the things that I did generally in a busy day at Lawrence. We do so much every day... It was crazy to compare, actually. No wonder we're drop dead exhausted every single night when we get in!

This week was hard in some ways - we had a few really great investigators who we met with often and just LOVED teaching, and all 4 of them were on track for being baptized this month or next month, but we had to refer them to missionaries in other areas. Church buildings and congregations are geographic, so there are area boundaries for the people that we meet with, and if they move out of our area, then they go to a different church building and meet with different missionaries.

      So that was sad because Elder Willets and I really love them and it was sad to see them go! But that means that we get to work super hard and find new people this week, which is one of my favorite things to do. I love talking to people at doorsteps and on the street because it's just really fun to see how to teach the message of Christ's restored gospel  effectively over busy street traffic, lawn mowers, them washing their car, or while they're raking. Fun times :)

This week was a big growing experience - one of our investigators, Darrell, has been going through a ton and has just had a crazy hard life. After a really intense meeting on Friday night, Elder Willets and I just got home and were thinking "What on earth are we trying to do helping these people who have had decades of struggles that we can't even totally imagine? How can we possibly fix their lives when so much needs fixing?"  But it's comforting to see that all we can do, and have to do, is point them to Christ and He'll do the fixing. And I really have faith that He will "fix" and build up every single person who turns to him.

Here's a picture of  me and our investigator Darrell...

Love you all lots! It was pretty chilly biking on Saturday so we had to put on sweaters - it was in the 60's. ;)

Thoughts from Mission Leadership Conference... and worn out shoes

Hello!

        This week was fun - it got a little chilly this week! It was in the 60's and I actually had to put on a long sleeve shirt. Just kidding - it was probably in the 40's and with humidity here, it actually feels cold. Don't laugh at me! It is pretty funny, though, to be out working, knocking door to door to find somebody to share our message with, and everybody keeps asking "How are you out in this cold?" when it's in the 60's. 

Missionary shoes. In a year and a half my dress shoes will look this this too. 

Edit: JUST KIDDING I have new shoes... It's fine...

         We had a lot of really great involvement from the members here in Fort Caroline this week - enough to where we actually had 9 member-present lessons, (where a church member is with us when we teach somebody who isn't).   It is hard to do sometimes because people are busy and aren't able to come out at nights a lot of the time. 

         

    There's a big emphasis to have missionaries really focusing on their purpose, which is "to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."  

     We focused a lot on this topic at the Mission Leadership Conference I got to attend last week.   We were also trained on using our ipads to skype in members during our teaches. With technology today, we shouldn't ever have a teach without a member present (in person, or via skype).

Getting training at Mission Leadership Conference

All the missionaries at the conference... I'm in the third row back, seventh from the left.

      So Elder Willets and I have been re-evaluating our teaching and making sure that we are focused on building people's faith from the second we meet them, instead of just teaching a history lesson about prophets, Christ's life, the Book of Mormon, etc. We've seen a lot of miracles and people have been very receptive as we've done it.

           Best wishes from Florida! Stay warm! :)

Elder McMullin

Elder Day and I at the Mission Leadership Conference last week!
Good to see him again!

First week in new area: Jacksonville/ Fort Caroline District

Hello Everybody!

       

    I'm in Fort Caroline right now (a section of Jacksonville)  with Elder Willets. He's been out for about 3 months and is so happy! He's always excited to work and he is happy from the time he gets up to when he goes to bed. And I'm sure that he's happy when he sleeps. 

    It's fun being in a ward with lots of old, southern people! They're so crazy.   hahaha. It's funny. 

    It was honestly probably the hardest part of my mission to say goodbye to all of our members and investigators in Gainesville.  Did I cry?  100% yes.  I didn't realize how much I loved everybody there until I had to say goodbye, realizing that I probably won't see them again. 

    But, there are lots of amazing new people here in Fort Caroline to love!  Our investigator Darrell is getting baptized in a few weeks and he's just such a great guy - he loves the Book of Mormon and says that having Elder Willets and me stop by is the best part of his week. 

    My new address just so that everybody knows.  Elder McMullin,  355 Monument Road, apt 9A1, Jacksonville, FL, 32225. 

Here are some pictures of the Fort Caroline area.

My companion, Elder Willets, on the left, and Elder Wilson, one of the other missionaries here. This is our apartment. It's about twice as big as my old apartment back in  Gainesville. 

Our kitchen.

My bed. Really well made, huh?

As soon as you walk out of our apartment. Thanks Florida.

Florida, again! 

All of the Elders in the Fort Caroline district. This is right after 5 hours of service digging hundreds of pounds of trash out of a trailer infested with cockroaches. It was actually really fun! But... I was really tired. 

 Love you all! Have a great week!

"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!