Pictures

-NZ Sunsets...never get old
-Dinner with the Ueleses. He served his mission in El Paso, and I love hearing him talk about it. And I just love, love, LOVE this family.
-It looks like I'm really riding the tiger, right? ...we had fun at the zoo this week for p-day!

-Jumping picture...in front of the temple...surprise? This was when our last District leader (the one next to me) was going home. Sad day. I hate sending missionaries home. And we've sent someone home the last 4 transfers.
-We had dinner with a recent convert yesterday, her husband ain't a member and isn't keen to learn, but she always tells us when he asks about us when we haven't been by in a while :) His heart is softening. Anywho, their kids were having a blast putting on our gumboots and walking around in them. Sorry, Sister Somma, I'm sending the picture where I look good and you don't, haha.

-Loving the car.
-Hating the bikes.

-the 4 musketeers. We've been in the same district for 3 transfers. Sis Tovale finally made it up to Auckland, she's been here since before I got to the VC. Weird not having her at the VC. And I have loved being able to serve around Sister Chan for more than our 2 transfers together. I feel it's only been a month since I picked Sister Chan up from Auckland, and now she's been out over 4 months. Where is my life going??



Growing Pains

All I can say is that I had NO idea what I was getting myself into when I came on a mission. Still encountering new experiences that are pushing and pulling me in directions I didn't even know I could go or that mattered. And it's painful sometimes. But I will forever be grateful for the experiences I've had as a missionary...good and bad. I'll never forget any of it. And there has been heaps of growing this week...and it has not been particularly enjoyable, but besides all of that...we've had some amazing experiences this week.
First off: my favorites right now are Kimi & Leesa. Kimi (he's the male) is a less active coming back to church, Leesa is the investigator and just soaking up the gospel! They moved into our area a couple weeks ago and I have LOVED teaching them...probably because they're pretty much our age, so we feel like we're legit friends with them. They're getting married in January (6 days after I leave...I was praying that it was going to be while you're here, Mom & Dad, but unfortunately not). So the deal was that she was getting baptized after they get married in January, but we decided to have her pray with us to know if she should get baptized in October instead. She did not want to pray in front of us because she still doesn't feel comfortable, but we were a little persistent, and she prayed, and it was amazing, and one of the most powerful experiences I've had and she got her answer that she should be baptized in October. That was friday, they came to church on Sunday, and we had a lesson afterwards at the VC and obviously went over the Law of Chastity and how they can't be living together, and they had talked about that since our lesson on Friday. They don't think they can handle it living separately right now, but when talking to them, I've never felt so confident that God would provide a way for them and bless them so much in return. So we're still working on them. Despite what happens, we'll keep teaching them and loving them. After our lesson on Friday night, Kimi said, "Now I agree with my dad when he always said, 'Sisters are the best.' " ...feels good to hear that, haha. (PS they've met with elders in the past, but it hasn't really gone anywhere and they just decided recently to move forward in the gospel...and then they moved into our ward.)
Other miracle of the week was our little eternigator friend, Landy, decided she finally wants to be baptized!! She's met with 13 sets of missionaries, got married to an RM in January. She's busy as and is so hard to set up appointments with...but she knows it all, it just getting her to tell her family (they're quite involved in their Samoan church). And we heard at church on Sunday that she told Bishop she wanted to get baptized, so we went and saw her last night and she told us too! Oh my goodness, it was a miracle. Just scheduling problems. This weekend is "too soon" for her family, she'll be gone the next weekend, the next weekend is General Conference (which I am so frustrated with!) and so it'll be the NEXT Saturday...after transfers. Kill me. We're still hoping it'll happen this Saturday. Why not? Especially because Oct 20 is AGES away!!
Part member families, or part member couples in these cases, are my favorites to work with. Even though we're not baptizing a family of 12, but it's basically like baptizing a family knowing their kids will be raised in the gospel and bless their family for generations. It's just so rewarding!
We also went to the Temple this week...haleluja! (..however you spell that) It has been too long since I've been in, but nonetheless, still felt great to be there. I really do think everyone is better looking in white :) I had a cool experience last week with George...I think I wrote about him last week, a random nonmember who came to the VC, and he tried to go inside the temple and he told me how it was a completely different feeling in there...even being in the VC didn't come close to it.
Another highlight of the week was seeing a family from Tauranga. The parents got baptized just a couple weeks before we got to the are and the mum came out with us HEAPS to lessons. Their kids got baptized a couple months before the parents, and they were at the temple because their son is going on his mission in a couple weeks and the parents told me they're planning on getting sealed in December. They weren't even my converts, but it was just so exciting to see them and hear how great they're family is doing. They're living the dream you want for every convert!
One of the many, many lesson learned this week: how important faith is. It really is the first step of the gospel, but easy to brush over. I've just had it reinforced how important and basic faith is. Don't leave home without it.
Ofa atu!
      Sister Mullen

Oh Hey...

I can't believe how fast the weeks are going now, I feel like I just emailed y'all a couple days ago. I can't believe it's past the middle of September...I'm still disoriented with it being cold this time of year...I feel like I'm in February...probably doesn't help that I never got a "Summer Holiday" either so everything is a big blur.
So last weekend everything was looking sweet as in our area...but it's funny how quickly things take a turn and don't work out that well. We've still got heaps of potential...but working on turning it into reality and not potential. One of the best parts was that we got this referral from other missionaries awhile ago for Hong, from Cambodia, 15 years old. We stopped by to see him, but he didn't really want to set up an appointment, and just kept telling us to come pick him up for church, but then he wasn't able to come to church. So last Saturday, we called in to see him again, and were trying to set up for later in the week, and he just kept saying, "yeah, come get me for church." So we called a member Saturday night to give him a ride, and Sunday morning, he was still keen to come (by the way...bit of a language barrier with him, but we definitely understood that he was eager to come to church), I explained to him that it was going to be a different church meeting (because we had Stake Conference yesterday...and getting a new Stake President...so it was really really different.) but he kept saying, "Okay, come pick me up for church." Sweet as. The member brought him to church and Hong showed up with a Cambodian Book of Mormon that apparently he got from his brother who got it from missionaries ages ago. The member was laughing at us when we found out he had a Book of Mormon and it didn't come from us. Anywho, he's just going to heaps of churches (showed us a program from another church) so hopefully we can teach him what makes this church different.
Sister Chan (my super quiet, but awesome companion I trained from Hong Kong) told me this week she feels like she is so loud now after being my companion, haha, I loved hearing that. Not that anyone would describe her as being loud, even now, she's still pretty quiet, but glad to know I could help her out in that way...especially now that she has a pretty quiet companion.
Rode our bikes a few more times this week. Funny how sometimes I actually want to ride it (only short distances though :) )...mostly because it's always an adventure riding our bikes and I'm always laughing...mostly at how ridiculously it is to ride a bike wearing a skirt. Seriously though, skirts on bikes is the worst idea EVER!
Something I've been off/on about for ages is trying to recognize the tender mercies the Lord gives me everyday. So now I'm trying to be better about it again, but it really is so good to try to notice that, because they're always there, and it just shows how much Heavenly Father is willing to help us out. I don't know if I've said this before, but I don't believe in coincidences anymore...anything good that happens is a tender mercy from Heavenly Father.
One of the many many tender mercies of the week: we were on foot in our area yesterday after church for a couple hours (it's just a massive neighborhood). It was POURING all morning, so we put on our gumboots and serious raincoats and were prepared for the rain! We came out of our first appointment at 3 and it was sunny as and beautiful! ...and remained so until we got home at 7:30 last night (for the record we go home early on Sunday evenings...don't think we're being dodgy missionaries :) ), and then it started pouring again. Heavenly Father is too good to us. Not all of our appointments went through, so we were walking around for a couple hours in our gumboots and massive raincoats over our bags in the best weather we've seen all week. Our bags were so heavy and my legs were killing me at the end of the night. But I'll take it over tromping through the rain for hours! Been there, done that, hated it. Ha.
Things are going good. Going to the temple this week and I'm giddy like a little kid. Love the new VC directors, the McLachlans. They're just so...lovely! Just great to be around and I'm excited to serve with them. The Hardy's (the couple from Clinton, UT) left today. So sad, but I know I'll see them again. So we got the fulltime couple to replace them, the Bakers. He is from England, she is from NZ, but they live in Utah...well did, before they got here. Experiences I had this week and having so many new missionaries here (young and senior couples) I realized how I'm the old foogy here and so everyone looks to me because they think I know what I'm doing...who signed me up for this job? The McLachlans wanted me to take the Bakers on a tour to "show em how it's done." Oh my, I still have so much to learn myself! But just definitely have had it reiterated to me lately that the Lord calls us in our weaknesses and blesses AND qualifies us in the work, as it says in D&C 35:17, "And I have sent forth the afulness of my gospel by the hand of my servant Joseph; and in weakness have I blessed him;" I now understand what my MTC teacher meant when we asked him when he felt like he finally knew what he was doing as a missionary and had the skills down...and he told us, "I never felt like that ...I always had things to work on."
That's it, see y'all at the same time next week.
Love,
     Sister Mullen

Sharing is Caring

Lots to say this week, here we go:

Drum roll for transfers...oh wait, still at the VC, but I love it, and I've come to love this area.

Our theme for the transfer is Sharing is Caring...because we now have to share a car. I'm still in the same area (for those who don't remember...I'm still in the heavily populated LDS area where we cover 7 wards), still with Sister Somma from Italy. When the Zone Leaders called us about transfers and told us they were taking our car away, I didn't believe them and was just in shock. I figured they would have to keep me here because I'm one of the few sisters with a driver's license and we need a car in our area. First off: freaking out because we have an investigator who lives 15 km's away. Second off: I was thinking, "How am I supposed to look good for the VC when I'm on a bike?" ...kind of kidding, but not really.   Besides the fact that I don't want to bike the scary highway stretch from Temple View to the other side of our area where there are actually nonmembers, I was then just frustrated with how ineffective walking is. lakjfvnjd, Anywho, worked my magic and now we're sharing with the other sisters because that's how they used to do it in the past (but there are still times we don't have the car). When our Zone Leaders found out we're sharing, he said , "I'm Sister Mullen, and I get what I want." Haha, I do what I can.

-So last District Meeting (that consists of only 3 companionships) we had a testimony meeting and it was so good. Like the elder in charge said, it's one thing sharing your testimony with your investigators and completely different with other missionaries. I loved it. I realized I love bearing my testimony. I feel like I'm going to be one of those people that races up to the pulpit every fast Sunday with the Barrons and Brother Pena.
-Rode my bike for the 3rd time on my mission, but it was only from our flat to the VC which is 1 km. I hate bikes. When we called one member to give us a ride to the other part of our area, she said was busy, but told us to go to the shop in the area and look desperate because there are always people going into town. Are you kidding me??
-My testimony of "I Am A Child of God" has definitely grown as a missionary of how powerful it is. We started teaching a girl with 5 kids 7 and under, single mum. Oh boy. Anywho, we had a lesson on Friday and we sang "I Am A Child of God" with her and her kids, and at primary on Sunday, the 4 year old kept requesting that we sing "I Am A Child of God." I was just amazed since she had only sung it once. Another investigator we had a while ago, she had 3 little girls, 5, 3, and 1 year old. and We often sang "I Am A Child of God" and the mum said her girls were always singing it. Love it. And we have this fun music video type thing to "I Am A Child of God" at the VC that we show to almost everyone.
-Most people just don't know what to say to the missionaries, and it's really funny sometimes. We called one girl to come to a lesson with us, but turns out she's going to Aussie for a week, and so I told her to have a fun week in Aussie and she said, "Have fun with your lesson...and with being a missionary for the next week!" Haha, I'll try to.
-Tried contacting a former investigator this week who's name was Rosie...reminded me of the good ol' days of wanting to be Allyson Rosey Mullen. I'll never forget that horse.

Things are picking up like craziness in our area, it's so exciting. We're finding out about all sorts of people from members and people who have been coming to church with their friends, ah, the wards are just too big it's hard to know what's going on, but we're finding out the secret nonmembers that have been coming to church.

This is the highlight of the week though, for sure: A week ago we tried to go see a less-active male (haven't really tried to see LA males like at all on my mission because we would need a female to go inside anyway) and we saw one, and he wasn't the least bit interested ,but I decided to knock on some of the neighbor's doors, and we met Bruce and he was willing to let us  come back to his house to meet his family on Saturday. So on Friday, I called to confirm the appointment, and a girl answered and when she found out it was the missionaries, she said we didn't need to come by because they were already affiliated with a church. And I asked if it would be okay if we still came by to see Bruce sometime, and she said we didn't need to..but then she asked, "But did Bruce say he wanted you back?" And I said that we scheduled a time to come back, and she was willing to let us come by. I felt like the appointment wasn't going to go through because Bruce wasn't too keen when we first talked to him, but he was there, waiting for us, and let us in. We sat down with him, and eventually his partner came over too, Emily. And she wanted to know why there were so many churches, so we taught about the Restoration. And then at the end, she said that she has been wondering how to get Bruce to come to church with her. Turns out I had talked to Emily on the phone about the appointment, and she said she realized in the middle of our converstation that maybe this is how Bruce would come to church with her. She wondered if we were an answer to her prayers...uhh, yes, yes we are. Wow. I've never had that experience before and it felt so good. They agreed to prepare for baptism on the 6th of October, but she works on Sundays, so we have some work to do. Oh, did I mention they have 5 kids. Anyway, love it. Feels good knowing we were in the right place at the right time.

Met a sister who served at the LA Visitors' Centre came in on Saturday and it was fun talking to her and hearing about how different the LA VC is. Primarily how much more busy it is. Made me feel like a bum at our VC that is quite slow except on Saturdays. Made me want to serve at a busy VC, but I love it here and wouldn't trade the experiences I've had for ANYthing.


Heaps of miracles and tender mercies this week...but that would just turn my email into a novel.

Love,
    Sister Allyson Rosey Mullen

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 4:6-7, " I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal body—I say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be, even unto the end of the world." Ponder it on your own, I just fell in love with it. I love finding scriptures that I've read a million times, but this time it hits me different and I love it and wonder how I've never caught it before. Yay for the blessings that come the Atonement and putting our trust in the Lord!

Just a Random As Letter

Hi. It's me again.

Not the most amazing week, but still good. I'm still happy...as (that's for you Danny). I feel like I just have random thoughts/stories from the week, so here we go:

-Sister Somma was sick, so Sister Chan (the sister I trained) came with me to a lesson and that experience was definitely a tender mercy. It was cool to see how much she's grown even in the last 5 weeks since we broke up. It was fun having her back me up in the car again, haha, and it just felt like we were companions again. Love that girl so much. She's training this upcoming transfer and I just feel like a proud parent, my little Sister Chan is growing up. Oh, I still feel so blessed to have had her as a companion.
-Kelly, our main investigator: he's preparing to be baptized on September 22. He has short term memory loss, so it makes things interesting. His sister is a member and he's just fun to be around. It's been fun teaching him.
-When a member found out I'm from Texas, he told me, "When we're all forced to move to the states to build Zion, I want to live in Texas." Unfortunately Zion won't be in Texas, but I'm glad he knows which is the best state.
-Our Visitors' Centre directors from Canada have FINALLY gotten here. They are a lovely couple and I'm excited to serve with them. (Well, hopefully I stay here and serve with them.) They feel quite overwhelmed with their responsibilities and just being in a new country too. I just remembered how lost I felt being here too and told them they're not alone. I constantly had to ask Sister Perry what people were saying because I just didn't understand...especially the kiwi lingo.
-Our stake had a glee fest this week. It was so fun. Our stake needs to jump on that ship. It just made me think of how fun it was when I would make "music videos" with Mel and Carolyn...except they were singing too and had better costumes than us pulling things out of our closets. Oh my, I am just DYING to watch some of those videos right now.
-A funny story from a couple weeks ago that I forgot to share:

So we were on chats, but having some technical difficulties. Sister Somma couldn't type, so I had to say everything in the conversation, but we found out half way through that I wasn't getting everything that person was saying on my screen, so it made for some pretty funny comments. What I did NOT see is in green, so I would say one thing, but it turns out she had said something else in the mean time, so it made my comment out of place. I hope you  understand...we were dying laughing when we found out what had happened.

(she was asking about Santa Clause...)
Lucy: I thought there was a Christian Santa, a Jewish Santa and a Hindu Santa.

Lucy: And they all deliver presents to children of their faith.

Lucy: Do Mormon Children not get presents then?

Allyson: Not that I personally know of, but I can't speak for other churches.

...

Allyson: Do you have a belief in Jesus Christ Lucy?

Lucy: I don't really know much about him.

Lucy: I'm just kind of looking into religions now.

Lucy: To find out what they are about. I've seen some pictures of him before though and I must say he has superb facial hair.

Allyson: That's cool, well how have you heard of our Church before?

...but now that I've typed this up, it doesn't seem funny. Hope you get a laugh out of it. Some stories just don't translate well into an email.

We had a cool experience going to see a less active family. We knocked on the door, and she said that she had requested no visits, but let us in and gave us a hot drink. So we were able to talk for a bit, and I'll be honest, sometimes I had NO idea what to say, but I knew that Heavenly Father would not open my mouth to speak, and that I just had to start talking and it would come. We were both praying hard out to know what to say, and thankfully we were on the same page and bringing it back to the Atonement. She said we had lovely spirits about us and invited us back! That definitely was an inspired visit and was a reminder that I am here doing the Lord's work. It feels good to help people. I was thinking of the pre-mish days and feeling like I was doing nothing to grow and progress, especially in the gospel...and the thought that came to my mind was, "How was playing kickball helping anyone progress??" Haha, I'm sure I'll go home and keep on playing intramural kickball...but for now, it seems like there are better things to do.

Had a good study today looking up scriptures in under "Trust in the Lord" in the topical guide. The scriptures I came across talked about the blessings that come from trusting in the Lord: deliverance from our enemies, mercy, love, and most importantly: eternal life. So let's just do it. It really is so much better when you know that you're doing what the Lord wants you to do. So let's all care more about what the Lord thinks instead of what other people think. It'll make us happy. Easier said than done, right?

Love y'all (people love it on the rare occasion I say 'y'all' I need to say it more.) Love the gospel. Love New Zealand.

Ofa atu!

    Sister Mullen