December 22, 2012
Wowza, only 3 days til Christmas?! That's crazy. Time truly does fly - but at least it flies happily!
I'm so excited to talk to you
all, also! So exciting. Any questions you want answered feel free to ask
during the call, I have no agenda for our conversation, except that I
would love to say hello to Landon! Just to enjoy talking for a bit. So
Marmee, Tata, Christers, and Jenna, start preparing some
questions/conversation pieces!
How
exciting to hear that missions of my group are being well served and
accomplished. Whenever we pray with President Irwin and the departing
missionaries the night before we take them to the airport he always
prays to thank Heavenly Father for "missions accomplished." I'd like to
think that I'm accomplishing my mission as I improve every day. I'm
still not perfect (and never will be), but I'm sure trying!
I look forward to seeing the Christmas Cards. I'm sure they look wonderful.
Please
send my love to Uncle Steve. It is good that you will all be together
and enjoy the Christmas time as family. Family is so, so important and I
love the perspective on family that the Plan of Salvation gives. I love
you so much, Uncle Steve, and look forward to hearing a bit from you
and Aunt Sue next Wednesday, too!
So
here are a couple answers! If my answers create more questions or if
you would like more complete answers, we'll have a golden opportunity
next week!
1. Tell
us about the Mission Conference yesterday in as much detail as you
wish. - The mission conference was wonderful. A little stressful to plan
(it was a lot less stressful last year when I just got on a train and
enjoyed the whole thing without worrying about timing and moving
missionaries and such!), but so worth it. We had a talent show in the
morning which was amazing. So fun to see the "hidden" talents of all the
missionaries. I didn't perform anything personally because we were
short on time anyways and I was a part of the afternoon program. But so
very fun. We then took the missionaries on a walk in the park while the
Senior couples transformed the chapel into a dining hall for lunch. It
was absolutely delicious. I felt at times that I was a shepherd myself
moving all the missionaries, but all was well and we had a wonderful
lunch. We watched a slideshow of pictures from the year and it was right
after lunch that I distributed the pens by district. President Irwin
announced what you had done and everyone was so impressed and excited to
get one. They thought it was absolutely amazing that you had made them
all from olive wood from the holy land and the senior sisters LOVED the
red pens. It was perfect and I had many missionaries come and ask me for
our home address to mail you a thank you letter. I also had a surprise
visit from Rachel Lazyk! I was so not expecting her there and thought at
first she was a Czech woman who might have come to the building - I
even greeted her with "dobry den" - it was when she spoke English and
introduced herself that it totally clicked in my head! I got some
delicious american items from their commisary - yum! After lunch we
converted the chapel back into the chapel and had a spiritual program in
the afternoon that consisted of carol singing as a congregation,
scripture readings by the senior couples, and all the songs from our
Christmas Concert. There was a special spirit there and it was so
strong. President Irwin spoke at the end about what gift we will give
Christ for Christmas and quoted the song "In the Bleak Midwinter" where
it reads "What can I give him poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would
bring a lamb. If I were a wise man I would do my part, but what I can I
give him, give my heart." It was a beautful message of Christmas and of
Christ. Yesterday was wonderful.
2. Tell
us about your concerts. - The concerts have gone very well and get
better with each performance. It's a shame that we only have 1 left! But
I'm excited to do it here in Prague for the members. We've been
inviting lots of investigators also and there should be a good crowd.
3. We
assume you got your “silver bells” box and packet. It’s not much, but
it comes with great love to you. - I think I've gotten every one! Thank
you so, so much. I'm excited to open them but even more to talk with you
all. Christmas is about Christ and about what He did for all of us-
making it possible to live with Him and each other forever. So, in that
sense, Christmas is also about family in not only an earthly sense but
in an eternal sense. I love this time of year.
4. Did
I miss anyone with the pens? Please simply give any extras away to
anyone you choose – members, investigators, whoever.- or keep them
for “later distribution.” J - Nobody was missed and I even got the extra
pens. I have it planned out who I'll give the extras to and plan to
give them out tomorrow. They will absolutely love them.
5. Share
with us an update of your investigators and any spiritual experiences
you have had this past week. We love to hear about those things most
meaningful to you. - One of our investigators continues to progress wonderfully and will be
baptized a week from tomorrow. We're having it on a Sunday because of
schedule complexities but we're very excited for her. We just had a
lesson today and she loves the church. She told us how much more she
feels the spirit now and how much she's learned from the Book of Mormon.
She's currently in Enos and is continuing to feast on the word.
Another investigator is doing great but is on vacation over Christmas and will be back on track in January.
We're working with a new
investigator this week who is amazing! He's a YSA aged kid
who we gave a building tour to after we stopped him in front of the
church building. He told us that he already knows Joseph Smith was a
prophet because when he heard the story of the first vision it sounded
familiar to him and he felt it was true. He is already in 1 Nephi
chapter 5 and is understanding it amazingly. He came into our lesson on
Thursday and said at the beginning that he'd probably never become a
"Mormon" - by the end of the lesson where we taught him the Restoration
and importance of the Book of Mormon we invited him to baptism and he
said "probably yes". It's amazing at the change that the spirit can
bring about in people. We're excited for our next meeting on Wednesday
before the concert.
That's
all the time I have for now, but I look forward to hearing from you on
Tuesday! I love you so, so much and wish you all the merriest of
Christmases. Make it a Christmas to remember by remembering Christ. He
is our Savior and our King. I love him and I love you.
S laskou,
Starsi Mullen
ps...dum dum!
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