Go All Blacks!

Oh heyyy!

I'm sure you've all been wrapped up in the Rugby World Cup, oh wait, I didn't even know that happened til I got here. & I also didn't know the US even sent a team to the Rugby World Cup. And so I'm sure you all know the All Blacks won! Woot woot! The game didn't start til 9, so it finished after we went to bed, and like 10 min after we were in bed, we heard 3 gun shots, and we figured the All Blacks won. And they did. 8-7 against France. Dad informs me about what's going in the states, so I'll inform you all about what's going on in NZ. We called some members this morning and they were all singing in the back around and cheering because the All Blacks won. Also, almost everyone here has All Blacks flags are their car too. Kinda fun how excited everyone is/was!

So this week has been good, the weather is warming up and feeling really nice & I love it! It's been hard finding people to teach and being able to set up a second appointment with some of our investigators, but we're trying! That's in Tauranga, but things are going great in Katikati. I wish we could stay out there for like a week. The memebers are awesome as well! There's this TOngan family out there who I just absolutely love! & their mum served a mission as well, so we loves us too and is so willing to help us out! Friday we had a bunch of appointments set up and it just feels so good when we have a productive day. We have this one investigator that we met knocking doors and she is so ready. After teaching her about the Restoration, she said it all makes sense.  She was also so excited to get her own copy of The Book of Mormon and said how she had been wanting to read it. The struggle is getting her to church, and also how she doesn't like to give her cell phone number out. So we can't call her, and we only go out to Katikati twice a week, so things are moving along very slowly with her. We also had 2 appts with some Indian ladies, & I don't know why, but those appts made me really nervous. I think because I dont' know what to expect, and it's hard teaching people who arent' Christian, but all Indians are so willing to have anyone come in and talk religion with them and will agree with anything you throw at them. We taught a mum and an 8 year old daughter. & they're actually going/learning from Jehovah's Witnesses at the same time too, haha, but they're not practicing it hard out I don't think. We showed up Sunday morning to see if they were coming to church, the mum wasn't coming, so she just sent her 8 year old daughter with us. (Who does that??) Thankfully they're just down the street from the chapel so we could walk there since we can't give her a ride. We had a lesson later that afternoon with the mum and clarified a bunch of things. I don't know much about JW's, but I know they're not Christian, but they make it sound like the understand more about Christ and the Atonement than they really do. And saying that Christ is the son of God, but obviously they call God Jehovah, and it came out that the mum really just believes that Christ was a good person who taught good things. Anywho, it's hard unteaching what they believe so we can teach them the truth. But they're both so sweet, and I think there is lots of potential with them!

So I read Alma 26 this week and just absolutely loved every single verse. It's where Ammon is going off about how much success they've had, but Aaron calls him about for boasting of himself, but then Ammon goes off about how he's only boasting about his God who has given them so much success and I just love how he truly recognizes how everything good that has happened to them has come from the Lord and he is so ridiculously happy that he can't stop talking about how amazing God is and has been to them. I know I can definitely work more on recognizing the Lord's hand in my life every day.

Hope things are going well in "the states." I love you all!

Love,

     Sister Mullen

Oil Spills=Not Cool

** This was her letter from last week. I was just a slacker and never posted it.

Oh heyy!

This week was a LONG week. So since the goal of the new training program is to have the new missionaries were ready to train by the end of the 12 weeks, so Sis. Perry has been putting me in charge of more things so that if, and probably when, our mission president asks me if I feel like I'm ready to train, I can say yes. Sometimes I really don't like it when we sit down in a lesson and she whispers "you're in charge" and I start freaking out about what to do, but practice really is the best way to learn how to do everything. I'm quite content to not be the one in charge, Sis Perry is doing a great job, but I'm not always going to be the new missionary, so I really am thankful for this training program and the opportunity we've had to study for 2 hours everyday for comp study and will be sad when it's over! So speaking of throwing me in the deep end a little bit, haha, we were having a lesson with this less active family yesterday in the Katikati branch, and after having an opening prayer and talking a little bit, Sis Perry told me to go for it, ahhhh! I was freaking out! (Sis Perry asked me today if I was mad at her for throwing me in the deep end since we hadn't figured out what to teach them before hand because they have such young children, I wasn't mad exactly, mostly just freaking out about not knowing what to talk about). But we had talked to the 8 year old about how she had learned about prayer in primary, so I went off on that and we ended up talking about family prayer and how they've been trying to have it morning and night recently and came up with a plan to help them remember better and to also work on reading the scriptures as a family together and it ended up being perfect. I didn't realize til after personal study was over, but that experience related perfectly to my personal study about how we're not supposed to be led by the Spirit in every single decision we make. Heavenly Father gave us agency because that's part of the growing process, and I didn't have this huge revelation to know what to talk about with the Tupou family, but as I just started talking, it ended up being the perfect topic. Thankfully it didn't end up a disaster! haha

So I don't know if you've heard much about this in the states, but there was a ship not too far from the harbour here in Tauranga that had crates (or whatever they're called) of oil on the boat and the captain was trying to turn around or something and waves ended up pulling the ship over, so there's been a big oil spill and the beaches are all nasty and the parks are slowly closing as they're getting contaminated by the oil since all the parks are right on the beach and it's so sad how much it's affecting the Bay of Plenty. We were planning on having  ward summer kick off bbq thing in a couple weeks at one of the parks, but now we're going to have to have it at the chapel, and now all the fish is contaminated and the saddest thing is that the beaches are all not going to be accessible for the summer. Not cool, even though I can't go to the beach. Hopefully we're going sometime this week to help clean up the beaches.

So I'm pretty sure I talked about our Samoan investigator, Tao, last week. We took one of the Elders here in Tauranga with us to Katikati to have a lesson with him since he speaks Samoan as well and even though I had no clue what was going on most of the lesson and the Elder didn't do the best job of filling us in on what was said, I could definitely feel the Spirit there and came out loving Tao so much more. He is such a good guy and really does want to change his life around (we found out he quit smoking and drinking the day he met us even though we still haven't mentioned the word of wisdom to him, umm, awesome!!) and wants the best for his family (living in Aus, but hasn't seen them in 4 years. They'll be here in Dec). He called us and left a message yesterday before we got home saying how much he loved the lesson today and how he was just lying on his bed feeling so good about everything we talked about. We've just got to help him recognize those answers he's receiving to his prayers and the feelings he's getting from the Holy Ghost.

One more thing, Glenn, who got baptized 2 weeks ago. The one who would show zero emotion & whenever we asked how he was doing, "yeah, I'm alright." or whenver we'd try to get him to committ to anything he'd say, "yeah, I suppose." My goodness, he is a completely different person now! Even on the phone he sounds SO much happier. & he came up to Sis Perry and I individually at church yesterday instead of trying to sneak out without saying anything to us and was just so happy! & before, he would NEVER have approached someone at church. Ahh, it's so exciting to see how much his life has changed since he's gotten baptized!

So the picture attached is of me getting some ice cream after we had a lesson with one of our investigators by an ice cream shop. Like I said, NZ is very proud of their ice cream and they had signs all over about being the best, freshest New Zealand ice cream. & they even put a little NZ flag in it, and I loved it, haha. Not a very exciting picture for this week, but that's what you're getting. I should have better pictures next week because we're driving to Whakatane tomorrow for district meeting and heard that there are some really pretty beaches along the way. (PS, here, I'm assuming it's in the maori language, "wh" makes an f sound, so Whakatane=Fakatanie). Love you all! I heard Kurt 2 lost a tooth, feel free to send me a picture.

Love,

Sis Mullen

Bring on The Mission Tan

Kia Ora!

So it's definitely starting to warm up here, and I love it! I love those days when the weather is PERFECT. I wish the weather would be perfect for like a month, but unfortunately those days are pretty rare. I'm starting to get a lovely watch tan, and last week we had a lesson with a recent convert outside and I think I got a little pink on my neck. Bring on the farmers tan, haha

So we started teaching this Samoan man. We met him when we went over to a part member home, the wife is a member and we have been trying to get a hold of her non member husband who comes to church quite often, and his friend, Tao, was over watching rugby, so we started talking to him and had a lesson with him this week and things are going good. He's been to church one and came to conference this weekend and yeah, things are good. During our lesson though, we asked him to say the closing prayer and he wanted to hold our hands, you can imagine how much I loved that. & he was also using his Samoan bible and so when we would look up scriptures in ours, he would tell us to read out loud and he would jsut read his, but he was having a hard time finding James. He said it was Jacob, and we read James 1:5-6 probably 5 times, he kept reading his verses and saying "read the first one again...read the second one again..."  trying to figure out if he had the right verses, it was pretty crazy, so we gave him a Book  of Mormon in Samoan and English, we'll see how future lessons go.

So last night we had some awesome experiences tracting. We were on our way home and our mission president wants us to speak to a minimum of 150 people per week, and our goal was 170 and we haven't been reaching our goal the last couple of weeks, but we were determined to reach it this week. Long story short: we're supposed to be home at 7:30 on Sundays, but because of the training program, we have to have 2 hrs of comp study every day, so we do it in the evening on Sundays, and we usually go home at 5:30 to get that done, but we were determined to get our goal! So we were going to tract on Princess street, but as we were driving down Margaret to get to Princess street, we decided to just stop on Margaret and the first door we knocked on, we got a follow up appointment with the guy and I feel good about him, I think there's definitely potential. And then further down the road, a lady opened the door and said, "Hello sisters" turns out she's inactive and has been for several years, but lately has really been thinking about coming back to church, and I know that Heavenly Father knew that she needed us to see her. She said that her word of wisdom issues are what have been keeping her from church, but she's quit smoking for a couple of years now and is working on some other habits. And she has a 19 yr old daughter who was baptized when she was 9, and her son is 8 and she was thinking how she wants her son to be baptized while he's still 8, so we're going to start teaching her and her son the lessons as a refresher for her and to teacher her son about the church and yeah, it was just an awesome experience. I walked out of her house loving her even though I had known her for like 20 minutes and I'm so excited to work with her more! Then we knocked on the door of this lady I talked to on the street the other day. So we were driving down this pretty big street, Sis Perry pulled over and I ran across the street and was basically running after this lady who was running after her kids, all I said that we were missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and when she said she had to catch her kids, I asked if we could come by her house later and she gave me her name and address. Well we obviously hadn't been by her house yet and forgot she lived on Margaret, but we knocked on her door and she said, "oh yeah, I talked to you the other day" Thankfully I remembered her name, and it turns out her mum was baptized when she was younger and when to Church College, but left the church when she got married, but yeah, we have an appointment her this week too. And then we got home, and this less active girl called us. We met her ex-husband, Anwar (they split up about 2 months ago), & I don't remember giving Anwar our number, but he obviously told Geraldine we came by looking for them both, and Geraldine called us and said her and her friend want us to come teach them. YES! Ahhh, it was so exciting because we've had such a hard time finding people and it was amazing to see the blessings as we really pushed to reach our goal!

We watched Conference this weekend and I felt so left out since we were watching it so late, haha, and it was also weird not being there. The Conference Center has never been further from me and I feel so blessed to have been able to go to conference so much! Love you all! Hope you enjoyed conference a week ago!

Arohanui (I think that's the word, haha, I'm slowly picking up more maori),
Sis. Mullen

Pictures

Sis Mullen, Sis Perry, Ash, Adrian

Sis Mullen, Sis Perry, Natasha, Redem and kids

View From Temple Doors

Glenn's Baptism

Sis Mullen, Sis Perry, NZ Temple

View From Member's House

I'm Running Out of Titles

Kia Ora!

So this week was a tad crazy. We did go to the VC Saturday though and it was so fun and exciting! We've been planning this for over two weeks, but found out Thursday that our ward mission leader wasn't going to be here this weekend, so he was no help. & apparently there is no money in the ward budget for missionary work, so they weren't going to help pay for petrol. So we found one family who was going to let us borrow their van, but they're family was coming in town, so we found someone else to drive it, and then we called everyone in the ward for another car, but of course it was too late of notice, so one of our investigators ended up driving. But then it was drama about who was paying for petrol for the van since the ward wasn't too willing to help, anyway, it was madness, but it all worked out. Maybe not everyone was happy, but we got our investigators there and it was an awesome experience! It was also a very interesting drive up there. Remember the lady from last week who helped me teach gospel principles? Well she was our driver. And always has something to say about everything. & then she told us to start singing hymns. So for about 20 min, Sis Perry and I were singing hymns since we were in a van full of investigators who clearly don't know the hymns, and Sis Tarawa would chime in on the ones she knew. And she told Sis Perry one time that she started in a half key...who can hear a half key unless you have perfect pitch? & as we were singing, we found out she doesn't have perfect pitch. Like I said: something to say about EVERYthing! So we walked around the VC a little bit with one of the Sisters there kind of guiding a tour that wasn't really much of a tour, and we watched the new Joseph Smith movie and it was awesome. It actually made me a little homesick for the States and made me realize how much I really do love America, but I am still loving NZ! So we took 5 investigators (an older lady, her daughter in law & her 2 kids), another guy we're teaching, Ash, and a guy that got baptized the first week we were here, Adrian, and it was just great to teach them more about the temple. And it was just cool how Ash and Adrian were DYING to go into the temple and they both can't wait to go in! Ash, who isn't even baptized yet, is so determined to have a temple marriage. He is truly converted to the gospel and I LOVE it. He also shared his testimony yesterday in Sac Mtg and it was choice! Ahh, so good. Even all the member loved it. We had an all around amazing testimony meeting and really opened my eyes of the strength of the testimony of the members in the ward and the potential of how much good they can go, we've just got to figure out how to get them to help us! So the first 2 pics are from the VC. One is of Sis Perry and I and Natasha (the daughter in laugh) and Redem (short for Redemption) and her 2 kids. The other is of Ash, our investigator, and Adrian, the most recent baptism. I think the 3rd picture is of the view when you walk out the temple. It's on this tall hill and out in the country and it's just gorgeous! I love NZ!!

& then Saturday evening we had a baptism and it was tso exciting! Glenn has been set for baptism before and has been learning from the missionaries for a while and it was truly a miracle that he got baptized! He was set for the week before, but he didn't quit smoking. & then we didn't talk to him for 48 hrs before his baptism. He went to an island for a land meeting on Saturday and was gone all day friday at work, we were freaking out! But we showed up at his house 2 hrs before and he seemed slightly excited! Let me tell you about Glen. He is SUPER quiet and is so hard to get info out of him or to see ANY emotion on his face, & he didn't seem too excited about baptism, but he knows everything, but then it finally came out that he is taking prescription drugs and he thought the church wasn't okay with that, and after that, I felt like he was much happier about everything. & then he showed up to church in a white shirt on Sunday (he usually wears a dark shirt) and he was chewing gum (our alternative for smoking) and it was so exciting! He was even at church 30 min early! Ahh, it was so good!

So it's pretty funny the reactions I get when I tell people I'm from Texas, and I was talking to one of the counselors in the bishopric at our baptism last Saturday and he was blown away that I was REALLY from Texas. Of course everyone asks me if there are a lot of cowboys and horses. But he was saying how Texans just have a different way of thinking and seeing the big picture, haha, that was kind of a surprise. & Of course they ask  me if I knew the old mission presidnet who was from Texas. Umm, nope, Texas is kind of big. Try multiplying NZ times like 10, haha.

New Zealanders are quite proud of their ice cream and I feel like I"ve heard a lot about it this week & everyone asks me, "Have you had NZ ice cream? it's the best!" & It really is good, it's just funny how proud they are of it.

Well, that's it for this week. I wish I could tell you all the stories of the crazy people we meet on the street sometimes. Oh, & some of the members, especially the polys see it as such a blessing to feed the memebers and one lady this week just kept going on about how special the missionaries are and how much we need to feed them. Ohh, you are too kind! haha

Love you all!
-Sis Mullen