November 24, 2012
Wow,
what a wonderful week it sounds like you had! I absolutely loved the
pics - so good to see all of my favorite aunts in my favorite house all
together. And what a wonderful surprise it must have been to have Kate
come. I loved your description of Marmee beaming and clapping for joy - I
can totally see it and hear it haha. Gotta love that clapping Marmee! I
loved the little video you sent of when she came in - so good to see
you all! I so wish I could hear Cori's house concert - I'm sure it will
be wonderful. Will you do it out back, then? 90 is an awful lot of
people! But such fun.
I
loved your description and pictures of the feast. And good to see that
you've still got me doing ridiculous things in my cardboard cutout form
haha. I love you all so much - how grateful I am for our family.
I (and
Elder Coleman, and the whole office for that matter) look forward to
the Christmas package - sure do love you guys! You're so good to me and
my companions. I was talking with the Martinovi the other day and
mentioned that I was making pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and Sister
Martinova said something to the effect of that they were talking about
me the other day in the district because one of the Sisters asked if
they could get pumpkin pie anywhere. Elder Bird, one of the Zone Leaders
in Brno, replied that all someone has to do is be Elder Mullen and
his parents will send it haha. So you're famous!
So here’s a few answers for the week.
1. How
was transfer day? Any surprises? Still hard to believe that Sisters
Brimhall and White have concluded their mission with Sister Bean soon to
follow. We bet it was fun to take the new missionaries on their
“Prague walk.” - Transfer day went quite smoothly! Our district is wonderful! We have Elders Coleman and
I, Elders Knapp and Clyde in the office, Sister Pysnakova and Barney (a
new missionary), Elders Durrant and Tenney (Elder Durrant is a former
AP and he and Elder Tenney are spending their last half-transfer here in
Prague before they go home for school on the 18 of December), and
Elders Egger and Boysen! Yes, "mein Vatr" is back in Prague for his last
transfer! It was wonderful to be with Sisters Brimhall, White and Elder
Dietrich on their last day and take some of them to the airport.
Amazing how time flies. Sister Brimhall said something that I really
liked, though, and that is that our mission really never ends. The work
continues, just in a different part of the world and perhaps in a little
bit of a different way. How wonderful, though, that we are always
missionaries. We actually had transfer day on Monday for most people in
the mission, then we sent the new missionaries straight out to their
areas on Tuesday evening, instead of the usual Prague walk, sleep for
the night in Prague, and then breakfast and sending them out on
Wednesday. We thought we'd try it out this way, and we'll do a Prague
Walk with them all in 2 weeks time when we have Progression Training in
Prague. They'll in all honesty enjoy it more then when they aren't dead
tired haha.
2. Is
this Elder Coleman’s final transfer? We sense from your emails he is
just an outstanding missionary and has been a great companion. - No,
Elder Coleman still has 2 transfers, so he'll probably get to go back
out into another area his last transfer. I really love serving with him,
though, and we are seeing miracles together in our work. The Lord truly
is laboring with us and we are so privileged to serve together another
transfer. Plus, we'll get to do lots of fun things this transfer
together with Christmas and new years and all.
3. What
is your holiday routine for Christmas? Will you gather as a mission
for a program/party similar to last year and there hand out the “silver
bells” packages from home to each missionary? - We will have another
Christmas program this year, which we are excited for - all the
missionaries will come to Prague and we'll have a wonderful day
together. It'll be lots of work on Elder Coleman and I, since it is the
APs with President who organize nearly the entire program. So lots of
work, but lots of fun.
4. How
will you spend Christmas day? As a District? Or will you and Elder
Coleman just be with the office staff and the Irwins? - Not quite sure
on the Christmas Day details, but I would assume it'll be as a district
instead of just the office. We love all the missionaries!
6. Did you receive the sheet music e-mails? - Yes! Thanks so much. We
also sent the hard-copies as a back-up! Could you perhaps record your
performance so we could share? If not, we fully understand. We just
love to see and hear you perform! - Thanks for sending those, we're
really excited to do the concert. We're looking at 4 potential cities to
do it in, and I'll see if we can get someone to record it somehow so
you can get a taste.
7. Most
importantly, how are your investigators doing? Please share with us
your missionary experiences this past week. Are you traveling much this
coming week? - This week brought more miracles in the work.
Unfortunately we haven't been able to get in touch with one of our investigators this
week, but we are prayerful that the
Spirit will work with her to help her realize the importance this path
can have in her life. However, we have made amazing progress with many
of our investigators! First of all, do you remember me telling you about a particular investigator? Well, she's working toward a baptismal date again
and is going for it super solid. We had the most amazing, spiritual
lesson with her when she realized how much baptism could help her no
matter her age, and she's forming wonderful friendships in the branch.
She's coming for all 3 hours of church tomorrow, hopefully with her daughter, and then she'll be attending the branch choir rehearsal
with her member friend, then she's coming with us back to a member's
home for lunch and a lesson. The members have helped her so much and
they love her and she loves them. Never underestimate the power you have
in the lives of investigators and recent converts - it is real. I can
just see her being loved into the Gospel right now, and it is beautiful
to see. We also began teaching another lady who has accepted a baptismal
date for the 29 of December. A member in Prague brought her to church
and I had the privilege of sitting close to her - we talked for a bit
afterwards and set up a meeting. We've met with her twice this week and
she is loving our meetings. She is a professional piano performance
player who used to have recitals in the national halls in the Czech
Republic - unfortunately when the economic crisis hit in 2008 she had to
stop due to lack of ticket selling and is currently a financial
adviser. But she is a wonderful person and is definitely a musician! Her
whole personality just fits it perfectly. She's also coming to church tomorrow and staying for
all 3 hours. We're also meeting with a YSA aged young man
who is studying at a university here. He is just such a friendly guy and
really loves meeting. He's going to come to the baptism today (a girl
from Plzen is getting baptized - that's 13 baptisms in Plzen this year!
Missionary work has just come to life in that branch.) and we're meeting
with him afterwards to set up his own baptismal date. We're also
meeting with yet another investigator right before the service and he'll attend - so many
miracles. We also had a wonderful experience teaching another member
referral this week. We were teaching a recent convert here in Prague and
asked him at the end of our meeting who he knew who needed the Gospel
at this time. He said he would really think about it, and he really did!
He gave us a call 2 days later and gave us the name, number, and
address of one of his tenants who he'd spoken with and she is amazing. We taught her last Thursday and brought Elder
Sandor, a missionary from Slovakia who had just returned from his
mission in England that night! We taught with him and he was amazing -
the spirit was just so present in our lesson and we had the privilege of
teaching her in her own home. It was wonderful. I wish I had time to go
into every small detail of our week, but that's about all I have time
for now. Needless to say, there are miracles happening in Prague right now!
Anyway,
know that I love you all sooooooo much. Enjoy the time together at the
house concert, be sure to get some pics of people who come and of Cori
singing. The Gospel is true. It brings true happiness and lasting peace
to all those who seek. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. He lives.
S laskou,
Starsi Mullen
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