Brno is Amazing!!

Hello, dearest family!

So Im back to using a strictly czech keyboard, so cant put in apostrophes - sorry! But its so good to be here and to serve in Brno. I love every city I serve in, and Brno will be another super special place in my heart.

(btw, before I forget, yes I did get your package! Thank you so much, I have already seesed the day haha!)

Oh mylanta, Landon is just the cutest thing ever!! I absolutely love the photos you sent - thank you so much for those. It was great to see some recent pics of you all - I like seeing your faces to know youre still alive and well too hahaha. Sure do love you all!

Ill answer a couple questions and then add on a little more about how amazing Brno is!

1)  Dad found the satellite of Cerna Pole on google earth.  We would love to satellite your apartment building if you are able to give us the address.  That would be cool if it is possible.  If it is too much trouble, no problemo!!  Also could you send us the address of the church building? - Not sure about the exact address, but I know the street next to us is Babičkova - just know that one because thats where we usually park. the church building is in a part of town called Žabovřesky and the street address is Stranského 41 - It is the only church building in the mission that was built by the church. Its pretty nice! Not the typical layout and definitely smaller, but its great!!

2)  Dad found online the best restaurant in Cerna Pole.  It's called Betlam and is at 27 Krkoskova Street.  If you get a chance why don't you treat yourself, your companion, and some other elders to dinner one night.  You can just put it on the visa if that works.  Not sure about the rules on that but you catch our drift. - Wowza, thanks a lot Táta! Well try to look it up and let you know how it is.

2)  Were the transfers well accepted by the missionaries? - Transfers are always accepted well because everyone knows that where President sends them is where the Lord sends them. Its wonderful to have such a spiritually in tune mission president like President Irwin so there truly is no doubt that where we are is where we should be. 

3)  How was your first Sunday in Brno?  How was the branch?  - Yesterday was so amazing! Ill tell you about the biggest miracle of church below, but I absolutely love the members already. It is a very functional branch, albeit a little smaller than Praha branch. Lots of amazing, humble people. I had the opportunity to introduce myself in the branch and bear my testimony, which was received very well. Im so excited to work with these people more.

4)  It looks like you have a Slovak district in your zone.  What is that arrangement to visit your district in Brataslava?  Will you need a visa for that?   - We can cross the border into Bratislava for short amounts of time with a czech visa and theres no border control because of the EU, so we can go there for exchanges and such without problem and vice versa.

5)  Did you get a chance to meet with your investigators?  We would love to know more about them... - see below!

6) Are you in a Panelak?  Tell us more about your space...not exactly like the apartment you left but probably a whole lot nicer than Jeff's grass hut with a hammock for a bed. - Im not in a panelak, im in a Barak which is like 3 apartments on top of eachother in one building. Its actually very nice. Its kinda cool too, Brother Vojkůvka (hes the son of the lady who was talked about in that daughters in my kingdom passage you sent) comes in and will talk with us for a little bit every now and then, telling us stories of the church in communist times. Its so interesting to hear - he showed us typewritten church handbooks they made themselves, since they couldnt get them legally printed, told us about the church meetings they would hold in our living room with 65+ people - its amazing what they went through to keep the church alive and thriving during those times. Its nice though, and Im excited to be here.

Ok, so sorry, but I am out of time completely - please forgive me! Ill try to type faster next week! Thanks for all the pics again. I sure do love you all. I know that this church is true and that the gospel contained therein can touch hearts and change lives - the Lord truly does prepare people to hear the message of the restored gospel. How grateful I am for this opportunity to be a missionary!

S láskou,

Starší Mullen

Greetings from Brno!!

May 16, 2012
Hello, family!

So, here I am emailing you from kind of an unexpected place - BRNO! Yes I am in Brno as a Zone Leader with ... Elder Buhler! Yes, Elder Buhler both sent me to the office and is taking me out of the office! So yes, I am here in Brno for the transfer, and I'm so excited! It's the second biggest city and branch, and there's lots of missionaries in the district, which is great. I'm so excited to be here, and it'll be great to serve with Elder Buhler again. How exciting it is to be here - I've only heard just awesome things about Brno. I'm coming into the Černá Pole area (chair-nuh pole-uh), which is fantastic. There have been already 3 baptisms in the area since the beginning of the year, which is fantastic. It's a solid area, and we already have 2 lessons set up for tonight! How fun it will be to be here as a Brňák (Burn-yaahk)!

So yes, I am a Zone Leader and back out in the field! I'm here safely and happily. I'm so glad we got the opportunity to talk on Sunday - you all sound wonderful and it was just so much fun to talk with all of you. Landon sounds as fun and busy as ever, and he sure is a cutie! It was interesting for me - when we started talking, it just seemed so familiar and normal, as if we had talked just yesterday. Now I know it's been like 5 months, but strangely it didn't seem long at all. Now I don't know if Marmees and family members feel time pass at the same rate, but I just marvel at how crazy fast time is flying. The familiarity of it all just made me realize how familiar our Heavenly Father's voice will sound when we talk with Him again one day. I wonder if our life here will have seemed only a moment - it's not vital to think about, but it does make me wonder and smile to know how much He truly loves each of us.

So now time for your answers!

1   Where were your fellow MTC people sent to serve this time.  Were there any surprises?  You said the President is always full of surprises...hehe. - Elder Heath was moved to be ZL in Pardubice with Elder Egger, Elder Dietrich is going to Plzen as a Zone Leader, and Elder Salas is going to Slovakia! How crazy is that? All kinds of fun and crazy changes - but I know they are inspired and that all of us are here for a reason.

2.  How bad was it to pack up after being there for two transfers...probably  not so much fun huh? - Nope! Not fun at all! Haha, it was kind of a pain packing up - I thought that I had thrown away a good amount of stuff and sent some stuff home, but it seems like my bags are magically still only getting more stuffed! Aah! But it's all good haha.

3,  We are grateful for your positive attitude...What are your goals going to be for your new area? - I just want to carry on the success this area had in the last couple months. Success breeds success, and I don't want that success to fall through. I also want to really work well with the members - I've heard they are just amazing here. I'm super excited.

4.  Will you have special Zone Leader coferences, so you still will get to see the President? - Yes! We will have our first, in fact, on Friday! We have Zone Leader Council twice a transfer in addition to leadership training, zone conferences, and specialized training, so we'll have plenty of meetings to attend haha!

5.  Can u tell us about Brno?  What is your apartment like?   How large is the branch?  Do you have some investigators to "inherit"? - Well, I'll just answer these questions for Brno! Brno is the second biggest city in the Czech Republic, so it is quite large. It has MANY náměstí, and lots of great places to go contacting! Our apartment is crazy - it's literally a piece of history. We live in the apartment below the Vojkůvkovi, who were the family that basically kept the church alive during communism and hosted the famous yoga classes where they discussed the church. In our apartment, they used to hold church meetings during those times. How amazing is that? So from a historical side, the apartment is awesome, and it is quite big, as well. Unfortunately, because it is so old, it's kind of fallen into disrepair at times. But Elder Buhler and I are going to give it a nice deep clean and that'll help a lot. The branch is also the second largest (90 or so people go to sacrament meeting every week), which will give us lots of awesome opportunities to work with members here. Awesome! We also do have some investigators that Elder Coleman and Buhler were working with, and I'm excited to meet them.

6. How did your turnover go with Elder Sewell?  I assume Elder Gleue is the DL for this transfer, right? - The turnover went well, Elder Sewell I think was a little overwhelmed with all the responsibilities, just as I was, but I assured him he could call me any time (and he assured me he would haha!). And yes, Elder Gleue is District Leader in Prague this transfer.

So yes! Here I am Brno! It's so exciting and so new, and I'm looking forward to a fantastic transfer. I love you all so much  and pray for you often. I know that this Gospel is true and am SO grateful for it!

S láskou,

Starší Mullen

PICTURES...HOORAY!!

We are at the train station at Karlštejn! Gotta love those trains! Remember how exciting and crazy I thought that train was in Canada? Yeah, trains are just the norm haha.

Elder Medonich, Sister Bean, and I celebrating 1 year in the Relief Society room

The entry way of our new apartment building

Me and Brother Čaněk, the assistant Branch mission leader. He is an amazing man and someone who I really love and respect.

Going up the road to Karlštejn - how cool is this place?

Me at Karlštejn

Me at Karlštejn

Picking off the imaginary invaders with my imaginary bow...yes, I'm still my silly self.

Overlooking the beautiful surroundings. Isn't it amazing? How lucky am I to serve here?!

 Elder Medonich and I on the way back to the train. What an awesome Elder!

   

One Day More

May 12, 2012


Wow, what a fun day you had yesterday! Thanks so much for the pictures and for filling me in! Landon is such a cutie - and he's getting so big! Wow - apparently time there is flying as fast as it is here. But how wonderful it is. I love being here - you love being there - and we all love each other. Life is good.

And certainly tomorrow will be a wonderful day! I am so looking forward to it - it'll be a wonderful 45 minutes I'll get to share with all of those who mean the most to me. As far as content of the call goes, I'll prepare a couple things to fill you in on, but be sure to ask away on questions! I also would like to be sure to answer some of Chris and Jenna's questions if they have any. And of course I want to wish my FAVORITE Marmee a very happy Mothers' Day. 

So I'll answer some questions and go straight into a couple things from this week!
1.This will probably be our last email for a Saturday...is that right?  Will we go back to Monday emails?  We assume that we won't hear from you email wise until a week from Monday as this will be transfer week.  If it is any different can you let us know? - We will go back to Monday emails, but because next Wednesday is transfer day it is P-day for all the mission except the office, which means that I will be emailing AGAIN next wednesday, then the next monday. From then on it should be normal. So yeah, this is going to be a SUPER bonus week of communication with you guys haha!

2.  How are you feeling about leaving the office?  Do you have any idea where you are headed?  Seems like you just moved didn't you? - I'm gonna miss the office, not gonna lie. But it'll be OK - I'm excited for a change as well. I have no idea where I'm headed except that I'm headed somewhere not in Prague haha. President Irwin told me today that he will tell me, however, before our call tomorrow, so I'll be calling in with some exciting news right off the press, so to speak! It is amazing, though, how time flies. In some ways, I feel like I've been here for ages, but in other like only for a blink.

3.  We made contact with Elder Meiling's mom.  They do live in Encinitas close to the Johnson's and know some of the people we used to know down there.  Very fun connection and very small world.  They said they are coming to pick James up at the end of his mission and they are very excited. - I heard! Elder Meiling's mom actually emailed him your email conversation, so I got to read it today on the train to Karlštejn (Carl-sh-tine) for our Pday vylet (tell you more later on in the email). What a small world we live in!

4.  Do you know where Elder Meiling will be assigned next?  How long has he been an AP?  Lots of times mission presidents will send their ap's out to the field for the last transfer of their mission...just wondered if that was the case here. - I'm pretty sure he'll stay as AP, even though he's been one already 2.5 transfers, since Elder Nichol MUST go back to Slovakia because of Visa restrictions. But you never know, President is full of surprises!

5.  How are you feeling about leaving your investigators?  It seems as though you and Elder Gleue have meshed so they will be in good hands and that helps to reassure you.  Please give her our love and her friend too. - This is the bummer part. I'm gonna miss these people so, so much. They and so, so many others will just have to carry on without me! That's the best part, though, that everything will carry on without me. I wouldn't have it any other way. They're preparing for a temple trip on the 2nd of June, which is AWESOME! I think I've made a positive impact in both big and little ways, which is reassuring and confirmation for me that my time here was a success. I will be sure to pass along the love and greetings.

6.  Any progress this week with your other investigators? - One of our investigators continues to come to church every Sunday, but is still hesitant to meet during the week. We keep phone contact, but not much new. He'll be coming to church, tomorrow, though! Another came to church last week and really enjoyed it, but unfortunately he couldn't meet all week because of his work. He works crazy hours, but he is coming to church tomorrow.

7.  Do you know who will be replacing you?  They will get that phone call just like you did and what a great experience began with that sweet phone call from President Irwin to come and be the office manager.  Sweet stuff. - I DO know who will be replacing me, but I'm not supposed to tell until tomorrow - so I'll tell you in the phone call haha! But yeah, what a truly sweet experience this has been. What I have learned and experienced here will have repercussions on my entire life. I've loved every minute.

So yes, tomorrow is the call! As I said, I will be sure to have some stuff to say, but I want to be sure that I get to answer your questions and just talk. Marmee will be for sure the star, since it is her day after all haha. But it truly is a day for all of us - how exciting it will be to speak with my favorite Marmee, Táta, Christer, Jenna, and Landon on the whole planet!

We had a super fun vylet (vee-let) today to Karlštejn castle, which was amazing. It was like a fairy tale, Lord of the Rings type castle. I'll send some pictures! 8 of us went and it was a blast!

So in order for me to send some pictures, I'm gonna have to end this email a little early. But know that all good things are happening, and that I can only expect good things to come as I continue to do the Lord's will. The church is true, and I love you! I so look forward to 17.00 tomorrow! Talk to you soon!

S láskou,

Starší Mullen

Year One Was Wonderful...Year Two Will Be Even Better

May 5, 2012

Hello, family!

So yes, I have been on the mission for officially over 1 year! What kind of craziness is this? Didn’t I like just get here? How crazy. How grateful I am for this opportunity to serve the Lord with a singleness of mind and fullness of heart. The Lord’s blessings have been pouring, and I hope you’ve caught a couple of them back home as well.

I’m so glad you received the quick letter and package of random papers and stuff. There’s some really fun stuff in there that we’ll have a fun time going through one day – I’d really like to maybe even involve some of them in the scrapbook! Speaking of which, I am so sorry I’ve been lame about writing and sending descriptions along with sd cards. Time is amazingly short here on the mission – I figured that what we might end up doing is going through them all together, along with all the papers and memorabilia stuff I’ve sent home. We’ll figure out something that’ll be fun to reminisce on!

How fun that you got to go to Malibu! Sure do love our family trips. The museum looks and sounds awesome – glad you had fun there!

Glad you got a snapshot of the BYU soccer team with us – it was kind of a crazy mixing of worlds for me. 2 girls on the team were in my Freshman ward at BYU, and we got a picture together. It was just so crazy to see a completely full chapel of Americans! Haha it was a wonderful experience, though – they put on a fireside, which a new investigator with a baptismal date, and our recent new member and others came to. It was great, and it was so good for everyone to see so many amazingly strong youth all in one place. So cool!

Thanks for spending time with me every week, dad. I love reading your letters and cherish each one – I’ve kept or sent home every single one in its envelope. I want to make it into a booklet or something to remember and cherish. I sure do love you, Táta!

So now for the answers! (yes, I know the drill haha)

1.  I think that if you dial the number I gave you it should work ok without the +…but I’m not stoprocent on that. How’d you do it at Christmas? Cause that worked just fine haha! I’m so excited to be able to talk to you. Crazy – just 8 days.

2.  How was the Concert?  Favorite part? - The concert was great! We all went and had a good time. My favorite was a piece they did by Dvořák which the chamber choir sang in Czech. I could understand it! It was so cool. And their r-haček was the prettiest I’ve ever heard haha! But it did make me so, so grateful for the living and restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The Kostel where it was held was beautiful, but just very cold and old and there was a lot of death around. I love President Hinckley’s quote that the reason we don’t have the cross everywhere in our church is because it is a symbol of the dying Christ, while we choose to focus on the living Christ. As he said, the symbol of the church is the lives of the people – how true that is!

3.  We want to get a package off to you...any requests?  Oh my, I still have so many goodies! I love packages, but I have no idea what I’d like haha! One thing that I did love, though, was that box of customized Sees – you sure do know all my favorites! I absolutely loved the pictures you sent – pictures are so awesome! I laughed so, SO hard at all the pictures of you all with the exercise equipment. What a wonderful, silly family we have! So if you have any more pictures, I’d love those. But I really don’t know what I’d like otherwise – surprise me!

4.  How are your investigators doing?  We cannot wait to meet them one day!! - One of our investigators is doing well, we’re gonna see him at church tomorrow. He is reading faithfully in the Book of Mormon, but is still hesitant to meet sometimes. He is very curious though and wants to continue to come to church and learn more. Please continue to pray for him.

5.  Are there things you still want to accomplish before you leave the office?  What a great experience it must be to work so closely with the Irwins, and the Bohnes, and the others in the office.  And then to work so closely with one who has literally come to bask in the light of Christ.  What an amazing experience. - As far as things to accomplish before I leave the office, I just want to make sure that the transition for the new office manager will be as smooth as possible. I have to admit that it will be quite strange to not be in the office and have all the extra responsibilities. On one hand they will be missed, but on the other I am looking forward to being able to “go back to the front lines” so to speak haha.

So, like I said earlier another guy we are teaching has a baptismal date – yay! He is a former investigator I’m super excited for him, he should be coming to church tomorrow as well! He’s around 26 years old, and we’re excited to see what happens as we move forward with him.

Our recent convert continues to amaze us with her ever growing testimony of the Gospel and the atonement. She understands the atonement and the power it has to cleanse and better our lives so amazingly well. I think that I’ve probably learned more from her than her from me. She’s absolutely amazing. She’s preparing to go to the temple for baptisms on the 4^th of June – she’s talked with her mom already and her mom agreed for her to do baptism for her grandma. Brother Č, the assistant branch mission leader who is absolutely AMAZING, is going to help her prepare names to take. It is so wonderful to see her being just so totally absorbed in the gospel. Please continue to pray for her.

So yes, other than that I have little extra to report this week haha. How grateful I am for this gospel and this church and this opportunity to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength. It is an amazing experience. I know that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God and will draw us closer to Him. I love you all.

Year one was wonderful.

Year two will be even better.

S láskou,

Starší Mullen

My, How Time Flies!!

April 28, 2012


Hi there!

My, how time flies! This upcoming week I will hit my 1 year mark - yeah...weird. In some ways it feels like I've been a missionary forever - in others, only a moment. But whether it's forever or a moment, or some confusing mixture of the two, it has been wonderful and I can only expect more wonderful things in the near future.

Just to clarify, our investigators baptism was on the 14th, which was 2 weeks ago - not sure if I ever made that clear. But she's doing awesome. She received a calling this last week as a translator for Sacrament meeting, since she speaks english fluently. She's excited to be able to serve in her calling and continues to love the gospel. She is one of the most sensitive people to the spirit I have ever met. We were just in a lesson yesterday teaching about the Plan of Salvation and how Christ makes it possible to overcome our weaknesses and shortcomings, and she interrupted and said "can you feel the spirit right now? Because I can." It was such a great moment, and the spirit was so strong. I pray for her continually to continue to have that strength of spirit to move on even through hard times. 

One of the things I love about the Gospel is that it doesn't make everything harder - it makes everything meaningful. It's not just a to-do list that we check off and finish - it is a pattern of living that makes life manageable and, even more, fulfilling. 

So now for a couple answers - you have some good, ponderous questions this week...we'll see how I do haha.

1. What would u say have been your hilights of your first year? - Wow, highlights of the year so far...to start, it is definitely seeing people I taught choose to follow Christ and be baptized. Each of them are so special, and I love and pray for each of them. Other highlights, big and small, include working with the saints here, Christmas Eve at the member's home, singing at the the Branch President's house after moving their piano, working in the office, Elder Christofferson's visit, and most recently seeing our investigator and her friend staying strong together. Those are just a couple that come to mind.

2.  Will you be getting new missionaries when you transfer?  We assume you will orient the new office manager early in the week like you were and then transfer out midweek.  Is that right? - Yup, máte pravdu. We will be getting new missionaries, and I will be training the new office manager. I have no idea who it'll be, but I'm sure he'll be amazing. 

3.  We will be excited to hear about the concert. Any other prague moments to share? - Concert is later tonight, so you'll have to get the low down on it next week. But this week we moved to a new apartment just down the street from the church building (1 tram stop). It is an awesome apartment, and I'll be sure to send pictures. It has an amazing view of Prague castle - Prague moments come often. We'll be walking down the street, and sometimes I'll just say to myself "we're in PRAGUE." What an amazing place to serve. I love this country and this city - it is a privilege to serve here.

4. More importantly we would love to hear of your missionary moments of the week!! - We had several wonderful lessons this week where the spirit was very present. Like I said before, most of the most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission have here with our most recent investigator - I'm so excited to see her progress in the gospel, even from a more removed position. Otherwise, we started meeting with an awesome man this week - he is probably in his 50s and has a 28 year old son who lives in New York - and his son just happens to be a returned missionary and active member of the Church. He apparently talked with his son and his son told him to come and look up the church building, so he came and we set up an appointment with him after a quick chapel tour. He came to church this Sunday and we had a meeting on Monday. He is a wonderful man and speaks fluent English and Czech (he lived in America for 25 years). He has absolutely no background in faith or religion and no real belief in God now because of how he grew up - he grew up in the Czech Republic during communist times where all the teachers and his family told him that there was no God. But he is willing to try and read the Book of Mormon and pray. I'm excited for him!

5. Is your district doing well?  We bet it has been fun to get to know new missionaries as well!! - District is doing well, I love the missionaries in the district. We're all different but are all focused on the work and very obedient, which is awesome.

6.  What are the mission rules re emails from non family. Brother Smith was asking. - we can receive emails from others but cannot reply to them - we're only allowed to email family (you guys, chris and Jenna, aunts uncles cousins). But if they write me an email I'll usually include a paragraph in response in my email to you. I had the goal to also write a response letter to every letter I receive, and more and more I realize that time runs short every pday. I am so sorry to those writing me who still haven't received a letter back - I'll still try to get letters off in response, but it just might take a while. Missionary work is pretty darn busy our letter writing time is limited!

 OK, so as far as mother's day goes, let's do the call at 5:00 my time - that'll give me ample time to then prepare for call-in reports.   So call that number and we'll be cooking! I'm so excited to talk to you all again - it seems like just yesterday we were talking at Christmas! (sorry if it doesn't seem that way to you guys haha!) But I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Unfortunately I am completely out of time, but know that I love you all so much. This gospel is true and I am so, so grateful for it. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it will guide every willing heart to a life of fulfillment, joy, and peace.

Until next week,

Starší Mullen

(ps - dum dum!)