I AM HERE AND WELL

Elder Mullen with President and Sister Irwin

Ahoj, rodiče!

I am here and well!!! I am sure you are all wondering the big questions, so I’ll just get to those first! We arrived yesterday safely and I am loving it here!  My first area is a city called Plzeň, a city to the west of Prague. It is an amazing city! Look up pictures on Google - hopefully it has good photos!  My companion is Starší Egger, and he is from Austria! I think this will be a great companionship - he seems very nice and I think I will really grow under him. It’s only his third transfer, but he speaks Czech very well! The first conference was absolutely wonderful! (k, for now, I’m going to switch all my ys and zs, because they’re switched on this Czech keyboard, and I want to just type as fast as I can!! haha) We arrived in the Prague airport, all of us just so psyched to get out into the city. We went an an AMAZING Prague walk, where we were showed all around the sights of the city - it was so amazing. You’re going to love it when you come here one day!

We ended our Prague walk with 15 minutes of contacting, which I was so nervous for! but I ended up being paired with Starší Heath, and it went SO well! The first 2 people we talked to just ignored us...but the third one we ended up talking to for a good 10 minutes! His name was Petr, and he spoke just a little English, so most of the contact was in Czech. And it really went so well - he said that he doesn’t (k, that weird symbol is supposed to be an apostrophe,´but I can§t find it on this keyboard haha - i§ll get a hang of this eventually!) believe in God, but he will someday - I thought that was a really interesting answer. Never heard that one before. But we kept on talking, answered some questions about shromaždění (church), gave him a pass along card with the address of the church and got his phone number! Dobrá prace, ne? Haha

Today is my p day only because it§s transfer day, but our p day will normally be on Monday. Cool!

We live in a panelák apartment about 15-20 minutes outside of Plzěň, which is actually nicer than I thought it would be! It’s a little messy from the last companionship, unfortunately, but it’ll do! We have a bedroom/study room, kitchen, little dining room, entry hall, and living room with couches and stuff. The bathroom leaves a little to be desired, but it’s OK haha. I don’t have my camera cord to load pictures today, but I’ll try to upload some on Monday. I’m super excited to be here! What a blessing to serve in a place as beautiful as this country!

The people I’ve met so far are for the most part SUPER nice! On the train ride from Praha to Plzeň, I sat next to this older couple who were just so nice! I was trying to speak Czech to Starší Egger, and we started talking when the older lady corrected a bit of my Czech word order. So we kept on talking and talking, practicing Czech together - it was so cool! She is a Czech history teacher, and also teaches Czech language. She didn’t speak hardly any English, but she spoke her Czech slowly so I could understand - and understand I did! We talked for at least 45 minutes, and at the end, we exchanged addresses and we gave her a pass along card - she wants me to write her a letter, and then she’ll write me back haha - I got a picture with her that I’ll send next Monday. How cool is that?!

I really love it here. It is so fascinating - the history, the language, the culture, the people. I love everything about it. Starší Egger and I are blinding into this area, and there is only one other companionship in the whole city (which is the fourth largest in Czech!), which will be a great learning experience for me. So today and tomorrow will be a lot of getting familiar with the area, the members, the progressing investigators, etc. What an experience this will be!!! I seriously cannot even express my excitement to be here, preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ! How excited I am to meet the members and move the work forward with their help!!!

Anyway, some more quick fun things from the past 2 days...

President and Sister Irwin are wonderful! They’re such a cute couple, and are just so nice to all of us. They like to joke around and are very on top of the important things and low-key on less important things (like rolling up sleeves, etc haha). President Irwin told us that nobody can replace our parents, but we’re theirs forever now haha. This morning they made us a wonderful breakfast at the mission home - juice, cereal, breakfast pastries, pancakes, milk, bananas...it was wonderful! I just feel so blessed to be serving under their leadership - they truly are amazing people!

As we were walking to the apartment in Praha where we stayed last night, we ran into Milan - THE Milan, who Bratr Johnson baptized and played the role of for us to teach! I felt like I was meeting a celebrity haha. He seemed really nice. Last night was actually really nice - super low key, and i got a lot of rest, which was nice. I have to admit I’m a little tired right now, but I know that I need to keep pushing through to fight the jetlag.

After this email, Starší Egger and I will go get some groceries and probably get a bite to eat, then head back to our apartment. It’s so exciting to be here! I have to admit, it’s weird not being with my fellow MTC groupies - they’re all dispersed throughout the country (Ostrava, české budjovice, Praha, Ylín, etc.), and it’ll be weird not having them around. But next Wednesday we’re all returning to Praha for a training day and to get our visas registered with the foreign police, so we won’t be apart for too long haha! It was weird saying goodbye - but now it’s time for us to divide and conquer, so to speak!! haha.

Because our apartment is so far away from the city, we’ll probably eat out for most lunches and dinners, and eat breakfast at the byt (apartment). We’ll use the trams and busses mostly, I think, which will also be a cool experience. The public transit in Czech is so massive!

By the way, there’s a new law in the Czech republic that all packages with a combined total value of more than 28 dollars has a LOT of trouble getting through the post - so if you send mail, be sure it’s under that value - just a piece of info passed along from the mission office. Also, a couple requests - could you send me some simple breakfast food recipes (like crepes, pancakes, etc.)? I would love some to make us breakfast sometimes!

Anyway, I hope that all is well with you. Starší Egger said we usually spend an hour writing emails home and to the mission president combined - I didn’t have to write a mission president report this week, so that’s why I could fit so much into this email! Just a heads up so you know that unfortunately not all of them will be this long or detailed haha.

I have a testimony of this work. I love this country and these people. I love you all, and I love my Lord.

Starší Mullen