Tak ahoj, rodino!

September 29, 2012

Tak ahoj, rodino!

I'm so happy to be emailing you today! This has been an eventful and exciting week so I'm excited to let you know all about it!

First off, please send my prayers and greetings to Mr. Grubaugh. I fondly remember all our time together in Journalism and consider him one of my greatest mentors from those years. 

And how fun that you get to see Chris and Jenna and Landon again! How I love you all! Please be sure to send lots of pics - I so look forward to seeing more pics of him. I can't remember if I told you, but last week I went back through the emails and looked at all the videos you sent that I couldn't open in Brno. He is so cute!

And, before I forget, Thanks Aunt Sue and Uncle Steve! I just got your package today and absolutely love it! You know you can't get Jello over here, and what a great treat that will be! I'll be sure to share with Elder Coleman - he says thank you, too. 

So here are a couple answers to questions:

1)  How are you enjoying being back in Prague?  Is this Elder Coleman's third transfer as an AP? - Oh, I love it! I love this city and these people so much. It's actually really fun to return to a branch, because you don't have to start at ground zero in building a relationship again. I came back my first Sunday and it was like coming home, although there are (thankfully!) a lot of new faces to get to know! It is Elder Coleman's third transfer as Assistant, so he is very experienced and has already taught me a lot and will yet teach me a lot. As I said, I love being companions with Elder Coleman and we get along wonderfully. So you can get to know him a little, he is from Cache Valley and is really smart. You know how you used to tell me all the time "you just get it"? Well Elder Coleman just gets it. He is a wonderful missionary and example for me and I look forward to all the good that we will be able to do together.

2) Are you so grateful for your experience in the office?  Do you think it helped prepare you for this new experience?  How are the Bohnes? - Absolutely! Being in the office before was a wonderful experience and taught me a lot of how the church works in a practical fashion. It taught me how to manage time and things effectively, while still keeping the big picture of what is really important. Now, I have the privilege of focusing more on the spiritual side of things and working more with the missionaries. I love the missionaries so much and learn so much from each of them and hope that they can learn something from me. It is a privilege to see the church from this perspective and how the gospel of Jesus Christ really does drive every activity and program that exists in the church. There's nothing like it. I've never seen anything like it - it's so different from studying business or anything of that nature, because at the basis and core of the gospel is not self-interest, but a love of God, of Christ, and of others. I love it. The Bohnes are doing well and I love being around them so often again. 

3)  Did you travel or teach this week?  Please fill us in on the details.  What do you have planned for the week ahead? - BOTH! But it's true, we did a lot of traveling! This week was a training week and my, was it a crazy ride! Elder Coleman and I prepared a training on the importance of commitments, how to use a baptismal calendar with investigators, and we also did a mini training on exercise in the mornings! It went very well and we got good feedback from everyone. Yeah, that's right, Elder Mullen gave a training on exercise haha! It was just focused on obedience and how it tells us in the white handbook to exercise 30 minutes every morning according to the missionary health guide, which says to do 20 minutes of cardio and 10 minutes of either stretching or strength. It was great! First, on Monday and Tuesday we moved into our new apartment and on Tuesday afternoon/evening we drove to Jicin with President for a district missionary coordination meeting (it was President Irwin, Elder Coleman and I, and the Praha District presidency). It was a wonderful experience and I treasure all the time I have to learn so closely from President Irwin. So on Wednesday we had a training for Prague and HK zones in Prague, then after packing the cars we drove to Brno and stayed the night to have the Brno/Olomouc combined specialized training. It was fun to spend the night in Cerna Pole again, and I got a cool update on the area from Elders Gabrielsen and Bird. They're doing great work! They're doing well and I continue to pray for them. So then after the training in Brno we drove to Zilina in Slovakia, where we had Slovakia zone specialized training on Friday. After that it was a 6 hour drive back to Praha and then we woke up this morning! It was so fun, last week we had dinner 3 times on the road with President and Sister Irwin. What an incredible opportunity to not only learn but to just get to enjoy knowing him even closer. He is an amazing man and I know that part of the reason I was called to the Czech/Slovak mission was to be taught by President Irwin. This upcoming week looks a lot more relaxed with much less travel, which will be nice. We will have a training for new District Leaders in Brno on Wednesday, but other than that we should stay in Prague, which is nice.

4)  How is your new apartment? - oh mylanta, it's nice! It is absolutely amazing - so clean, nice tile and wood floors - we're spoiled. Just gotta move in and unpack. We're also going to buy a dining room table and 2 new desks, which we are very excited for. 

And yes, this is the last transfer for the Sestry in my group, although Sestra Bean received permission to stay an extra half-transfer. Crazy!!

So this week was mainly spent on the road, although we still got to teach some investigators! We taught this amazing new guy and his girlfriend. They are both around 22 I'd say, and are amazing! They gladly accepted the Book of Mormon and we will have another meeting with them next week. We are also looking forward to a great lesson tonight from a miracle that happened at church. One of the members we work with here brought a friend to church! We set up a lesson with him and Br. Friedrich for today. So exciting things still happening. I love this work and serving as Assistant with Elder Coleman. There is so much good to be done. I have a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. In our travels we listened to a talk by Elder Tad R. Callister about Joseph Smith from a conference - if you can find it, I highly recommend it. I love you all and pray for you daily.

S laskou,

Starsi Mullen