Lake City, Florida

Hello everybody!

WOW I’m sorry for the radio silence over the past few weeks - I don’t have any good excuses. I’m serving in Lake City right now with Elder Jenkins and it is an amazing place to be!

Who is Elder Jenkins? Hmmn. Try to imagine brownies with vanilla ice cream, with a cup of hot chocolate to the side. With whip cream on top. And chocolate drizzled over the whip cream. That’s Elder Jenkins. He is from Utah, has 15 siblings (no, that’s not a typo), he loves reading, and is a man of few words. He serves more diligently than a server at a 5 star restaurant - he’s always doing something to serve, whether it’s washing dishes, asking me if he can help with anything, asking members if he can help, etc. 

Elder Jenkins and I! 

Right outside our house. That’s a Hispanic evangelical church, in case you’re wondering. They sing loud gospel Spanish songs every Friday night and I love it. 

Florida greenery outside our house!

Lake City is smaller than Stoughton and probably half the total population.  Lots of southern white people. Everybody has an accent. This is the real south - Gainesville was the fake south :) 

       Most of the people here are cattle farmers or work at correctional facilities of prisons outside of town. Hard workers with hands so calloused that it feels like I’m shaking hands with a rock. I love it! Having hands so calloused that they feel like rocks is now one of my life goals, but I’m not going to get there playing viola. Sudden career change coming in the near future...?  Maybe yes. 

     The members in the church ward are great. They’re all super solid, southern families who love the gospel and have pretty deep roots in it. It’s cool to hear their stories about how their families have been here since the 1800’s. 

    (The following section is an excerpt from a letter to me, Asher's mom, about a major festival the town held two weeks ago, the "Olustee Festival".  The small town is invaded by thousands of visitors for one weekend each February. They host a parade, an art and crafts fair, and open stages with live music and food booths.  The town runs shuttles out to the nearby historic civil war battlefield, where hundreds of Civil War re-enactors,including horses for cavalry, come together to relive the only major battle fought in Florida during the Civil War.  I asked him how the weekend went.)

Parade during the Festival

     "The festival was honestly really neat!  It was very very very busy!  

      Lots of booths and shops set up in the streets. Lots of good smelling and good tasting food. If it had been lunch time, we definitely would have gotten some, but it was just as good being able to smell all of it. They had a lot of really neat things that I hadn’t seen other places - super finely crafted fancy leather belts and shoes, lots of huge meat smokers out, it felt very southern. Haha! Some people were super intense and dressed up in their southern civil war garb.

         Unfortunately, not many people were super prone to talking about their family history with us. Most of them were just going from place to place and didn’t want to talk. We were able to talk with a few older folks who were sitting down and shared neat experiences of how their ancestors had fought in the war - some of them accepted family history cards with the family search website on it,  (https://www.familysearch.org/)   but nobody wanted to come to the family history center or let us come and help them with family history.   Alas.     It was a really good experience though!

         I wanted to play viola on the street and see if anybody would let us, so we went to the festival management booth and asked a lady. She looked behind her and yelled for her dad - he came up, and it turns out he’s the mayor of Lake City. I ask if I can play on the street just for fun, not for money or anything, and with his cowboy boots and hat and thick white mustache says “Well dadgum I reckon there ain’t a problem with that. Y’all go right ahead, fellas!”

So we did! I got my viola and played some hymns and “You are my Sunshine” and some folk songs I could remember. I wish that I knew more!!!    Agh!!!!    You were so right mom, I should have learned folk songs was at home. Yes, mom always knows best. Point it, when I get home, I’ll learn some old school folk music so that I can bring a smile to old people's faces."

   We were spending some of our allotted 2 hours/week to do family history, and I was trying to learn more about how our ancestors converted and such. I was looking at James H Walker, and reading about his mission stories.

Above:  My great great grandpa James Walker with a majestic middle part while he was serving as a missionary in Holland in the early 1900’s. I’ve been learning more about him the last few weeks and look up to him a lot! I’m afraid that I will never be able to look as regal as he does. 

 I’ll leave with a short, barely below average haiku and then let y’all get on with your lives :)

Lake City Haiku

Lake City my home,

Few words, many lakes, stray cats,

I love Florida.

If I could describe the hardest part of my life in one word? Trains.
 If standstill traffic is frustrating at 4:57 when you have a 5:00 appointment, what about watching a train cut through the entire town for 15 minutes? It gives us great time to read scriptures and make phone calls though, so it’s fine by me!

When a member says that they’ll bring you something for dinner. 

  I spend 7 days every month and a half with other missionaries from the other small towns in the area to learn from them and teach things that our mission president wants everybody to know.  This is Elder Jenson, from California, whom I worked with this week.  He is brilliant and knows the scriptures like the back of his hand!

    Last month, there  was a mission leadership council this last week and accountability was discussed a lot. Since, then, I’ve been really excited about the principle of accountability and the blessings that it brings.  At the end of the day, my companion and I will talk about how we did with our goals for a few minutes, then one of us will pray and tell God about the day. It really opens the windows for constant revelation and shows God that we care about the people he’s entrusted us with and that we want to improve. I have started doing it individually and I love it! I think I will continue doing it when I get home - if I have a personal goal to be kinder to others in college, or to compliment people more, or whatever, then I will pray and tell God about specific times I feel I did well and when I could improve. I love love love it - accountability is powerful, and I feel can help us be better disciples of Christ.

President Lee teaching about accountability

President Lee, Elder McMullin, and Elder Masino

Good food afterwards!

Love you all!

Elder McMullin

     

Goodbye Gainesville

Hello Everybody!

        This was a great week! We talked to a lot of great people about the Gospel, learned a lot, served God’s children, the usual. I’m coming to realize that most of our weeks as missionaries are basically the same - because everything we do is focused on serving others by strengthening their faith in Christ and inviting them to come closer to God through change. There are lots of specifics, but that really sums up our days, weeks, months, and the whole two years. So, we did that again this week! 

         But... one of the neatest experiences, inside of that, was on Tuesday. We went to visit one of the people we are teaching, Curtis. He is an older man and has come to church twice. He lives by himself in a very humble neighborhood with lots of violence. His trailer is small, very little furniture, and always smells heavily of smoke. His heater won’t turn off, and he doesn’t have money to fix it, so it’s always super hot in there. Most of the lights have broken and he doesn’t have money to change them. But his trailer is one of my favorite places, if not my favorite place, in Gainesville because of our love for him and the time we’ve spent there teaching him the gospel. It’s a special place to me. 

         He invited us inside and he offered us dinner. Elder Birch and I had chosen to skip dinner before so we would have more time to talk to people, so we hadn’t eaten. We said we would love to, if he had enough. He made us boiled neck-bones and pinto beans. It was so kind of him! And it was delicious. We ate with him and had a lesson on the Book of Mormon a spirit of peace, unity, and love was there. Love brings the Spirit! I know that it does. 

  Later this week, I’m being transferred to Price Creek, a country area by Lake City, to train a new missionary. I am excited for it! So, my address is changing and I will send it next week. 

This is one of the district in our zone. I love them! A lot of the missionaries are leaving Gainesville  on Wednesday to go to other areas, and I will miss them a lot.

This is us and Rachel, who photobombed this photo. We did service for her mom and her family - they needed help moving things from the house of her recently passed grandpa. They are from Tennessee and all have super southern accents and lingo. It was funny to hear. 

Love you all!

Elder McMullin

"Spiritual band-aids and pain medication"

   Hi all,

     This week I learned that the gospel is true again, for the millionth time. It’s incredible to see how it helps people with everything in their lives. We have a man we are teaching, Curtis, who expressed to us that he has a lot of guilt and shame for previous mistakes. He feels like he is separated from God. 

          I feel to blessed to be able to testify from my heart that because of Jesus Christ, we don’t have to be separated from God.

      I was thinking about what life would be like without a Christ. For example, we would have been talking with Curtis the other day, and how sad if would have been if he had expressed his grief, and we could only say “Well sorry, but you will have to live that for the rest of your life! We can give you some little spiritual band-aids and pain medication, but it will be temporary.” 

     No! I’m grateful for Christ as the Healer of our souls. So even people who are torn up inside by sin, and hurt with grief and pain, can be healed. 

Love you all! Stay strong with any New Years goals and I hope you have a great week! 

Elder McMullin

Here are some pics from the week:

A wonderful snapshot of how a good deal of our time is spent - while going in reverse, one of our mission rules is for the other missionary to be outside of the car. So this is a view of what that looks like, since it happens about 10 times a day. :)

Florida being beautiful. 

Dinner! We decided that it took too much time to come home for dinner, so we enjoyed hot dogs with bread instead, and baked beans. It was honestly really good, filling, and we enjoyed every second of it. 

A New Year Begins...

Hello everyone!

        I’m sorry for not having written a post in a while - repentance is real, and I will be better now! Well, for the next few weeks at least. We’ll see after that. 

       What’s exciting about this week that y’all would care about?  Curtis - you should care about Curtis, and I’m excited about him! Curtis is an older fellow who lives in a beat up trailer. He lives with a few friends who don’t have anywhere else to stay, so he’s kind enough to let them in. He’s had a hard life and has gotten a little beat up. He smokes two packs of cigarettes a day and has been feeling pretty down lately.

         We have taught him for several weeks now but he hasn’t been keeping the commitments God has given him, through us, to pray, read, and come to church. But, breakthrough, Curtis came to church on Sunday! A member offered to give him a ride, and he came to all three hours of church. He felt loved and needed, expressed how much he learned and enjoyed it, and said “Yeah, y’all already know that I’m gonna be back here next week.” I love Curtis - he has such a good heart and a desire to serve. I’m excited to watch as he keeps repenting and growing closer to Christ.

         It’s a new year! New Year's resolutions I’m sure are forthcoming with many of you and your families. I was thinking about starting a new year this morning, and how grateful I am for repentance, or the ability to get up over and over and over again in the process of progression toward perfection. How many times have you set New Years resolutions and then failed something within a few weeks, days, or even hours? I thank God for the ability we have to change because of Christ, what a joyful thing!

This weeks poem, to start off the new year, is about repentance and growth.

The ache of broken hearts,

Waiting for a new day.

That pain the dearly smarts,

Won’t seem to go away.

A hole that can’t be filled,

A gap that can’t be crossed.

Why can’t we just rebuild?

Why must we feel so lost?

Well simply we must try,

To look up up in the dark.

Something will catch our eye,

Two hands with nail-scarred marks.

It’s Jesus Christ our King,

The one who beckons us.

Now to his hands we cling,

Our lives to him we trust.

We went with the Young Single Adult Branch missionaries to IHOP for pancake breakfast this morning. It was fun to share time with them, but more fun to eat pancakes. Just kidding, I love these wonderful missionaries more than pancakes. :)

My trainer, Braden Day, visited Gainesville and we were able to talk for about 5 minutes in-between appointments. It was fun to see him - I love him and I’m grateful for everything he taught me as a young missionary, and for the example he sets for me now!

Love you all - happy new year and have a good week!

Elder McMullin

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!