Sharing "The Music of the Gospel"

Hello all!

Due to last weeks wonderfully wordy letter, this weeks entry will be sublimely simple.

We've been doing all that we can to involve members in sharing the gospel with others. Elder Butterfield and I are in this congregation here in Gainesville where about 150 people attend. There are about 400 on the records, so many don't come for health reasons or otherwise. There's also another set of missionaries in our congregation - some wonderful Sister missionaries. 

Now, with so many people to visit, and with the thought that we're to preach the gospel to "every creature", "all nations", and "every tongue and kindred", as Christ says, that's a daunting task for a couple teenagers! In fact, it's impossible without the help of members. So we've been doing everything we can to involve the members in sharing the gospel with their friends. Something really fun we are doing now is having people take out their smartphones during our dinner appointments, scroll through their list of friends of Facebook, and then pick somebody who they feel could use a gospel message. Then they go to mormon.org and pick out a little video or something they want to share with this friend, and just send it right there. Missionary work! 

  I'm blessed with lots of opportunities to play viola here. Our organist has a PhD in Organ Performance and is a phenomenal musician, and we're going to be performing together in sacrament meeting in two weeks. We'll also be doing a gospel music fireside within the next month or two. I'm pretty surprised that I can still play viola. Would my college professor be appalled at my technique? Yeah, probably. But I thank God that I'm still able to play well despite the absence of practice. 

There's a great video online that's produced by the church - it's called "The Music of the Gospel." It's really powerful and I love it. Everybody reading this should look it up right now if you haven't already seen it! That's an invitation. Nope, nope, don't just move on now that I'm inviting you to do something - open up a new tab and look it up right now please.  (click HERE)  I think it's about 4 minutes long. You can probably spare that. Thank you :)

Anyway, I love you all so much! Have a great, great week!

Encircled by Fire... not just burning rice.

Hello everybody!!!

This week we have had many many miracles that have come from being diligent. What is the Lord's definition of diligent, you might ask? Great question! Preach my Gospel, our missionary guide, defines diligence as "steady, confident effort in doing the Lord's work." So we've worked REALLY hard this week and we knew that we'd see miracles. And we did!

For example, last night it was raining. Not the drenching, hammering thunderstorm rain that usually comes, but a nice, constant Seattle drizzle that lasted all night. So we were biking and had a ways to go, so off we went. On the way, we saw a four car pileup on the side of the road - no police there, it had just happened - and asked how we could help. Then we notice that some of the people standing off in the grass, waiting, are members of our congregation - a father and his two teenage kids. We go and talk to them for a little while, and his teenage daughter asks for a blessing from the whiplash she got. So we give her a blessing, see if there's anything we can do, then go on our way.

THEN we go and stop by a less active member who we have never met before. She's not home, so we knock on her neighbors door with the hope that they can tell us if this member still lives there. A nice lady answers the door, Tasha, and we start talking. She has a constant smile and has a light in her eyes that we noticed from the second we started talking to her. We taught her and set a time to come back. It was a really Spirit filled lesson! The only downside? We talked for so long that her rice, which was on the stovetop, overflowed and it burned. That's 7 people whose food I've accidentally ruined by talking to them on their doorstep (yup, I'm counting.) Sorry! But hey, if you have to choose between a bowl of rice and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, hopefully you'd choose the latter...

We also had a BIG zone conference where some church leaders came and spoke. One of them talked about how, when the missionaries were teaching him before he was baptized as a teenager, they taught with power and authority. He said that it felt like they were "encircled by fire", as the Book of Mormon puts it. I love that visual! Just imagining the heat and power of fire all around us white we're teaching. The fire of our teaching burning in the heart of the people we're talking to. I want that so badly! So this week I'll write a poem called "Praying for Fire". Pretty good, eh? 

"Praying for Fire"

His eyebrows go up,

His glasses come off. 

He's stroking his beard,

He's starting to scoff. 

We're teaching of Christ,

We share what we know,

His doubts and concerns,

Are starting to show.

"Now how do I know,

What you've said is true?"

His questions are raised,

And they are not few.

We've said all we can,

There's no more to teach,

We've taught to his mind,

His heart we must reach.

We open our mouths,

This time he is awed. 

We see who he is,

A child of God.

The room fills with fire,

More real than not. 

This peace and this joy,

Is what we have sought. 

His eyes have teared up,

He looks at the sky. 

Words fall from his lips,

"May I be baptized?"

The power of God,

Is love, peace, and joy. 

In praises of God,

Our tongues we employ.

I love you all! I hope you have a great week - for those that are going back to school and getting ready for college, I wish you luck and that everything will go well. Enjoy the beautiful fall!

Elder McMullin

Gainsville Zone, with Sister and Elder Nielson of the Seventy, Elder and Sister Godoy of the Seventy at our conference this past week.  (Elder McMullin is back row middle.)

"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

"Good Mornin' Boss!"

"Hey good mornin' boss!"

        I've decided to open my weekly emails now with ways that
people here in the south greet us. This was my personal favorite this
week - an old black man sitting in a wheelchair just yelled it out to
us across the street with his hand raised and a big smile and it
literally made our lives complete. People here are so expressive and
unique, nobody is bland. Point to be taken from the story? 1) Don't be
boring 2) Say hello to people, it makes a difference!

       This week was incredible though. It's humbling to be on a
mission and I can't explain the love that we feel for the people here.
That's probably been the biggest part of my mission - learning to
love.
    
      We had a powerful experience on Friday night. We have an
investigator named Samantha - young mom with a pretty hard family
situation. We went to teach her, and her boyfriend was there - a super
nice man named Bobby. We're teaching Samantha  and we have been for
about half an hour - we're answering some of her questions about
prophets and the Book of Mormon. Then, out of the dark, I feel a hand
in my shoulder. A little surprised, I look back and see Bobby. He's
standing there, smiling, and holding three bowls. He gives one to me,
then walks to the couch where Elder Stuart and Brother Jack, a member
of our local congregation, sits. He gives a bowl to each of them.
       
     Inside the bowl are two hot dogs and fries, all covered in
chili. It's sloppily put together and a little cold. Let me say - that
food tasted better than any chili/French fry/hot dog hodgepodge I've
ever had. For this family, that much food was a huge deal. It built
our testimony of charity - they gave out of pure love.
      
  So on the topic of love and charity... Here's a poem about charity!

It starts as a feeling,
As small as a seed,
But quickly it blooms,
From a thought to a deed.

Far stronger than armies,
More grand than the sky,
Pure love leaves its mark,
Sometimes unseen by eye

All thoughts lead to actions,
So where does love go?
It's brings us to charity,
Which isn't for show.

Charity ne'er faileth,
It's part of our soul.
So all over the world now,
Our love now will flow.

Feel free to hate on the rhythm - charity ended up being an awkward
word to use in poems because of the three syllables and strangely
stressed foot but OK MOVING ON!

I love you all! Continue to have a great summer :)

        Elder McMullin

Elder Head and I on tradeoffs

Hello Everybody!
        This week was great! So many great experiences.  Friday- Saturday we
had a tradeoff with the Assistants to the President (basically, the
missionaries who help President Lee with everything he has to do.)
Elder Stuart stayed with Elder Botalla here in Gainesville, and I went
with Elder Head to Jacksonville.Here's a description of Elder Head if
he were in a movie.

       The driver's door opens. A man steps out. White shirt. Black pants.
Blue paisley tie. Nametag. Nothing out of the ordinary so far.
        Black hair, European complexion, five o'clock shadow to rival even
the finest con-man. Shoes that have been scraped and polished, scraped
and polished so many times that they're more polish than shoe.
        He closes the door and it shuts with a bang. An infectious smile goes
ear to ear. His warm brown eyes are fiery and lively. He walks toward
us, with an awkward gait that goes along with his tall, lanky stature.
You can feel his love from 20 feet away. 15 feet away. Then ten feet.
Five feet. A warm hug follows, and I feel like I'm getting squeezed by
a black bear. His voice is deep and warm, belying his love and
strength.

Elder Head and I

        I would keep going but oh well, we only have oh so much time. Our
trade off was great though. We had found a lot of GREAT people who were
interested in the gospel, then we get to 8:59 PM and 20 seconds. Why is
this number significant? Good question! As missionaries, we have to
head home at 9PM , unless we have a lesson in progress, then it is 9:30PM. 
So we had 40 seconds to find somebody who we could teach and invite to learn about Christ.
       
      We start running. It's raining. We're drenched but laughing because
of how bizarre we must look. We're just looking around this apartment
complex for people, and see a lighted apartment. We sprint there and
knock the door. We talk to this amazing, sweet, kind lady who is
interested in learning more, and accepts our invitation to learn more.
She said that she'd been looking for a way to build her relationship
with Christ.

        But yes, I just love being a missionary. It's so fulfilling. I love
being able to just focus on one thing - helping people build their
faith and progress. When I get home, I'll never have that same
opportunity because I'll be thinking about family, church, work,
school, etc.
    
       Here are some pictures. First Elder Stuart
in our natural habitat. Walking to and from peoples' doors...

Then this next picture.  It's hot in Florida. We drink a lot of water! We're
away from public restrooms a lot. So this was like manna from heaven.