COUNT CHOCULA!!!!

So basically Mom is the best. I can't believe I completely forgot about Count Chocula til I went digging through my much anticipated package and found a box of Count Chocula. Even my companion was a witness of how excited I was.

First off, let's back track to the week before last. I can't believe I forgot to write about the Relief Society Christmas party we had in the Katikati Branch! Dinner was delicious, but we had a little variety show aftewards, Sister Perry & I did some songs (they love us two, I play, she sings, and everyone is in love with her voice). And then some of the sisters got up and did some Maori dances with a song and it was so fun! Sister Perry & I both agreed that it's pretty lame being white because we have no culture. We were trying to think of something American to do, uhh...Yankee Doodle Went to Town? It was just fun to see everyone loosen up outside of church and I fell more in love with that Branch!

Saturday we took two investigators to the Visitor's Centre again, and because the ward says there's no money for anything missionary related, they just put us on the bus that the Stake takes once a month on Stake temple day. So the bus left at 7, we got there around 8:45, but the VC didn't open til 10, and then were there til 3 because they were doing two sessions. It was a LONG day. So to change up the picture of my comp & I in front of the temple, guess what I did to change things up? Jumping picture! & this one is pretty funny. My hair just cracks me up!

So yesterday, we were tracting around the neighborhood of our dinner appt, which is also the street of one of our former investigators. So our dinner appt fell through, so we went back to the street we were tracting on before. As we were parking the car, we saw our former investigator, Redem, walking down the street. Long story short, she's living with her daughter in law, we were teaching them both, but the daughter in law ended up not wanting us to come to her house anymore, so Redem broke up with us. So we didn't know how Redem was going to treat us as she walked by (So Redem is this 60+ yr old lady from the Philippines), and she hung up her phone and came over to the car to tell  us her son in Australia just got baptized, told us to text her so we could meet with her this week and asked if it's okay if she asks all her family in the Philippines to join the church. Kind of a miracle! Hopefully SHE wants to get baptized. She just needs to come to church one more time. It was just such a blessing that we happened to be in the right place at the right time. I don't really care that after tracting for 2 hrs, we didn't have any follow up appts, I'm just glad that we were able to talk to Redem! Hopefully things go will with her!

I have 25 more pages to go in the Book of Mormon. I have LOVED reading it so fast. I feel like I understand the stories so much better of how everything relates. & basically the biggest theme of the Book of Mormon is that life can be GREAT when you're trusting in the Lord and striving to be obedient, and it's amazing how quickly everything can go bad when you get prideful and forget the Lord and no longer make him a priority in your life. I also liked how it said that the Nephites brought these wars upon themselves because they were being wicked and naughty and they could have avoided them if they had just been obedient and remembered the commandments God gave them. Clearly that is something that relates to us today, life really is so much better when we trust the Lord and exercise faith and be obedient. Blessings are predicated on obedience to specific commandments! I love the Book of Mormon and I know without a doubt that it was written for us today!!

Another picture is of us and Sister Moka. She has every missionary who serves in this ward go to her house to make a rock with their name, home town and today's date. She paints the rocks black, we write on em with gel pens and glitter glue, and she paints them with a clear coat. & then she gave us each a rock that she did herself. We got the same design, it's a picture of Tauranga harbor with Mount Maunganui and Matakana Island.

That's it for now. Kind of a long letter. But I have plenty of time to write since I don't have to take much time reading emails :) Love you! Talk to you next week!

Love, Sister Mullen

PS Before I forget, I don't know if Lauren is reading these, but I tried L&P ages ago. It's alright. It takes like lemon flavored, carbonated water. I feel like it could grow on me, but since I hardly ever drink sodas anymore, it just burns my mouth and I think it's something I'll pass on, haha, but I tried it just for you! Also tried toffee pops, so good. But not sure why they're called toffee pops...As far as I know, there isn't any toffee in there.