Thoughts on Doctrine

    One thing that I've become obsessed with is doctrine. What doctrine does for us and what the purpose is. By doctrine, I mean the foundation behind everything that we do, the reasoning for our actions.

I memorized 2 Timothy 4:1-8 the other day because I love these last verses that Paul writes. One thing that he says stands out to me. He's talking about the last days, and how to be a good evangelist in times when people "turn away their ears from the truth, and are turned unto fables." He says that we are to "rebuke, reprove, exhort, with all long suffering, and doctrine." I love how he instructs us to rebuke and exhort people with doctrine. Doctrine is what will change a person's nature. Understanding doctrine leads to a love of God and faith, which changes a person's nature. Fear just changes behavior.

So in this last district meeting, I decided that everything that we do as missionaries as we learn should be focused on better understanding doctrine so that our natures change. We have a goal-setting session in district meeting every week, basically 10-15 minutes where we review last weeks goal, after looking at our district total key indicators, and set goals and make plans for how to increase our numbers for the next week. It would be easy to set a "behavior changing" goal, like "everybody find 7 new investigators this week" or "hand out 15 copies of the Book of Mormon." But a focus I've been working on is setting nature changing goals, ones that help us understand doctrine and therefore help us BECOME more like Christ instead of just ACTING like him.

So yeah that's fun! I realized that I was super excited and always studying at the start of my mission. I read the whole Book of Mormon, I read doctrine and covenants, I studies for an extra 45 minutes in the morning and then for an hour during lunch and dinner. It's harder to study now, with everything as a district leader, but I want to get back into that routine of always having the scriptures open and reading. 

   Jesus Christ lives. He guides us every day. He leads this church. It is his work. He knows each of us and does everything that he can to touch and bless us. As long as we have faith and look for the miracles in our lives, big or small, we'll see them.

So this week's poem is short because ain't nobody got time for long emails when we have 2 hours to write everybody we know back home.

Miracles

We see them every day,

As we look into the light.

Our life is never gray,

As we're living in God's might.

His hand is all around us,

In every little thing.

We need not make a fuss,

So thanks to God we sing.

The miracle of family,

The miracle of joy,

Not one of these come haply,

So thanks to God employ.

Love you all!!!!! Hope you have a great week :)

We found a Wisconsin license plate. Enough said. 

Being fed dinner by some generous church members.

Playing Amazing Grace, Eating Fish Tacos...

Hello Everybody!

         We've really worked a lot with members this week. We were invited to dinner Wednesday night and had dinner with a member and four of his cousins.  We had a chance to teach them! Missionary work really is done better when teaching members' friends because they're much more prepared to accept the gospel.

        We had a powerful experience at another member's home this week - we were
eating there and they'd asked me to bring my viola and play something for their family.  (They hold a big family dinner Thursday nights where their kids and grand kids come.)  A very close family member had just passed away and they asked if I could play "Amazing Grace". So I played and improvised some variations and such, but the spirit that was in the house was amazing.

  Everybody but the four year old little boy in the house was crying by the time I stopped playing. I have a testimony of music and the ability that it has to bring the Spirit. (I also think that, when the Spirit is there while I'm playing, it kind of covers up all of the mistakes that I make somehow... Not sure how, but I'm pretty sure it works like that.)

This is a picture of us (my district) at a super cool fish taco place. It was so good!

        Here's a little poem thing that Elder Antares and I were thinking
about and wrote briefly together this week.

Me and Elder Antares at Zone Conferencet this past week.

 It's still in peer review, but here's a (very) rough draft.

 I AM THE DRAGON HEARTED

Where I go I shall bring light,
Though shadow may veil my path,
I shan't fear, I do not bow,
As the darkness encroaches,
I shall go ever forward,
As all others flee,
I shall be unmoved
          FOR I AM DRAGON HEARTED

And the flame which I carry
Rends the darkness like a sword,
While the light abides in me,
As a shield in a fallen world
          BUT NO, NOT FOR I ALONE

For this flame which I carry
Shall not be for mine own sake,
But for all whose light has faded,
For those who tremble and shake
          STILL, I AM DRAGON HEARTED

Though hell's harsh winds may bear down,
My fire shall ever endure,
This message never silenced,
My light shining ever pure
          LEADING TO SOMETHING GREATER

Like the dawn before the sun,
Blinding spark before the fire,
Lightning before the thunder,
I point to Someone higher
          WE ARE THE DRAGON HEARTED

At times, all seen is darkness,
And though one cannot fathom
An ever glowing sunrise,
We come to gently remind,
Perhaps they've closed their eyes
          OUR LIGHT SPREADS EVER ONWARD

Always glowing, bursting forth,
We are beacons in the night,
The bright fire in a warm hearth,
Beckoning them come to the light
          WE ARE THE DRAGON HEARTED

Whatever place I may go,
I shall always bring my light,
Shining and showing the way,
To the One who overcame darkest night
          WE ARE THE DRAGON HEARTED


 Love you all!!!!

On a tradeoff with Zone Leader Masino! He's amazing and super fun!

Memorial Weekend Pictures

Hello Everybody!

         This week was so great!  We were so busy! Lots of rain, lots of biking, lots of fun smiling and laughing while biking in a tornado watch. It was fun.   I don't have much time, so here are some pictures...

         Picture one - a basic biking selfie. We bike a lot and we honestly like it better than driving. We talk to more people, we are in public more, we lose weight by sweating gallons every day, etc.

       Picture two - Memorial Day in the south was fun. Literally everybody here is barbecuing. The entire state smells good. They can probably smell it from the space station. 

       Picture three. We were out knocking and a few kids challenged us to a 1 v 1 game of basketball. We accepted and agreed to play to five, but only on some conditions. If we win, we show them a three minute video of Christ, if they win, we give them a free Book of Mormon (we don't charge for them anyway haha....) Elder McBride lost on purpose so they could have the Book, but it was fun! We're going to go back and invite their families to church, they're so great!

A New Spunky Companion: Elder McBride

Hello Everybody!!!
     
   This week was amazing!
     
    I have a new companion.  I'm serving with Elder McBride and he's
so great!!!   If I could describe him in one word, I would say that he's
humble. He's willing to learn and grow and therefore is a fantastic
missionary.

Elder McBride is the one at the front.

 Some things about Elder McBride...

 - He is from Arizona, a little town called Paige.
 - He worked at a fancy resort in Montana REALLY close to where I grew
up - Missoula - and did many things there. He was a clown in circuses,
helped people with archery, picked people up from the airport and
dropped them off, and lots of other things.
 - Ran cross country in high school.
 - Doesn't think that I'm too weird/awkward, which may be a first.

     We worked really hard this week! For the last few weeks the work has
been a little slower and we haven't had a lot of visible success. This
week was different! We talked to many people, we had a lot of visible
success, and we saw miracle after miracle where God put people in our
path who we needed to talk to. What it came from was our desire to
work and our sense of urgency. A wonderful prophet of God told us to
expand our vision and lengthen our stride, and so that's something
that I've been trying to do for the past few weeks. Whether that's
literally walking faster and taking bigger steps or maybe less
literal, it's blessed us this week. So this week's poem will be dubbed
"Why are we walking so quickly?"

Why are we walking so quickly?
Why such a spring in each step?
It's raining, it's muddy, we're tired and hot,
Not a single appointment's been kept.

Each step brings us closer to victory,
To finding a new child of God.
So many souls out there now waiting,
So many it almost seems odd.

So our steps must be brisk,
And our pace must be quick,
As we knock every house,
Whether wooden or brick.

We're here finding who's ready,
They who will hear God's words.
Fire burning through our hearts,
And we're singing like birds.

        So yes there it is. Expect a Elizabethan Sonnet next week and then
Petrarchan the week after. I might need my mom to help me brush up on
that...
        Love you all and I hope you have such a great week!

                        Elder McMullin

The Week of Unexpected Detours

Hello Everybody!

        Very weird week this week.   Many random things
just popped up over and over again.  We weren't able to spend
as much time out proselyting as we would have liked to. Here are just a few
of the random things that came up this week, as given in a poem...

             I'm Confused

We're both out knocking doors,
Helping people come to Christ,
Biking - oh no! There's a bump!
Then this bike tire gets sliced.

Trying to plan for next week,
About to get finished up,
Ring, ring! An unexpected call!
Surprise meeting with Bishop.

We're on our way to dinner now,
Excited after a long day,
But nope! Off to help an old lady,
Into the mud her car had been swept away.

It's been a pretty crazy week,
We haven't done what we'd planned,
But whatever! We just keep smiling!
We know it's all in God's hands.

        Yes, many weird things this week... But the highlight was Darrell's
baptism on Saturday!!! We'd been talking to him since the very
beginning of when I came to Fort Caroline, about 4 months ago, and
there were times when we were convinced that he'd just never be
baptized. But he's changed so much and come such a long way - watching
his conversion has changed me as a person. So it was special to watch
him be baptized.

        The other picture is another surprise event - a sister tells us that
she is moving (this was Tuesday afternoon) and asked us to take the
food from her pantry and keep it! So we took it all and tried to fit
it in the car. This is the result. No cans or bones were broken in the
process.

  This past weeks district meeting was the best one yet, but I tend to get nervous the mornings before.  I LOVE GIVING TRAININGS SO MUCH. I love it not because I love talking and unfolding scriptures to people (even though that's fun) but I love getting people to receiving revelation as they speak. I love picking the right people to share their feelings and impressions, I love coming into a
training with a goal and then having the district get there without me even doing anything. 

   This past week I trained on Charity and the importance of loving our companions. This week I'm training on the importance of helping our investigators understand the concept of "remission of sins". Nobody in the south understands what a "remission of sins" is. They think that it's "1 cross + 3 nails =4given" (a bumper sticker that we saw a few days back.) Not even the right number of nails.... Try again....

    Why do they need a remission of sins? So they can "stand in the presence of God"! That's the role of everything we teach! I feel like our mission talks about the doctrine of Christ really well, but we tend not to understand why we're teaching it - so that our investigators know how they can be truly forgiven of sins.

Here's our sweaty district today.

        Love you all!!! Have a great week!

                        Elder McMullin

Poetry and Ice Cream Sandwiches

Hello Everybody!!!

This week was a fun week. I had the chance to go on a trade-off with one of the members of our district, Elder Antares, and it was a super fun day! So here's a short bio about him because he's an interesting guy. We'll just say that.

 - Loves Lord of the Rings and watched all three movies + all three part of The Hobbit consecutively. 21 hours straight and he didn't fall asleep. Respect. 

 - He's from Pleasant Grove Utah. Ironically, the same city that his companion is from. Did they know each other? Nope. 

 - He likes Banana Pudding.

 - He went through Basic Training this last summer in Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

 - While there, he sold cough drops and peanut butter for ridiculous prices and made over $500 by doing so. 

 - He looks kind of like my favorite tennis player, Roger Federer. Maybe it's just the nose. You decide.

Elder Antares 

Federer

     Anyway, we went out and spent some time looking for less active members of our congregation and we were biking. We got sworn at/yelled at/the usual while we were biking, but it was all worth it because one of the people we visited gave us ice cream sandwiches. The point of this story is - if two Mormon missionaries ever knock on your door, give them ice cream sandwiches.

     Just kidding, that's not the point. The point is, it's relieving a lot of the time to see how many amazing, good people there are here in Florida! We talk to so many grumpy, mad people that it's hard to keep a positive attitude while we're looking for people to teach. But there are lots of them. "Count your many blessings, name them one by one, soon it will surprise you what the Lord has done."

Also, at the subtle prompt of my mother, who feels that my blog posts lack artistic talent (she's right), I'm going to start writing a poem at the end of each. In honor of how we spent about 3 hours a day last week, this poem is entitled "Knocking Doors".

We walk around the city,

We knock on many doors.

Sometimes we're all giddy,

Sometimes we're all snores. 

Sometimes we walk in silence,

Sometimes we laugh nonstop,

We are faced by much violence,

We are gifted some soda pop. 

Why are we out here knocking?

Why do we scour the streets?

What is it that keeps us walking?

What keeps us out in this heat?

It's the Gospel of Jesus Christ,

The desire to share what we know.

Because from the tomb He rised,

The way to true joy we can show.

   So I took about 5 minutes and wrote this because I don't have any time on Mondays... so save critiques for when I'm home in two years. Also, here's a kind of basic picture of me and a nice sunset. Florida has really pretty sunsets, even if it is crazy humid and hot. 

Love you all, and have a great week!

Elder McMullin

Itemized Rejections and Various Pictures

Hello everybody!

        This week was good - the work is a little slow right now and we don't have a lot of people to teach, so we are spending all of our time trying to find people. It's hard and the days are long, but I always feel like days spent out finding are the most productive and I'm happiest during days when we're out working hard talking to people. 

        So we counted the rejections that we got, offering to show people a video about Jesus Christ, and here are the top three rejections this week... Leading the list at number one is "I've already been saved", which we heard 11 times. Closely following is "I already know Jesus", at 9 instances. Then the basic "I'm busy" coming in at 8. I think that it's funny that people who love Jesus don't want to watch a video about Him. Funny! Maybe that's just bad, and I'm weird. But everybody already knows that. 

And now for pictures from this week:

        Here is a picture of me one night last week. We'd been out working all day and may/may not have just drank about 75 ounces of water within one minute. Maybe I am smiling, but the only thing going through my mind was "why did I just do that?" 

   Here are all of us with Brother Hernandez.  He's in the navy and he comes out teaching with us a bunch. He's really great and he's leaving this week. All the missionaries will miss him!!!

   Here's us on p-day!   (Preparation Day, where we take a break, have fun, go shopping, etc.)   We usually meet up with a bunch of other missionaries at the church to play basketball while we type our letters home.   I'm slowly growing a love for basketball.. hahaha.

Love you all! Have a great week!!!

         Elder McMullin