Catch-Up on Lance's Mission

February 25th 2013
There are two things that fit that description nicely. (In response to 'What's up?') The first is that transfers are this week. and no I'm not getting transferred; yes the address is going to stay the same (and tangent, as for where should you send which letters. If it's a letter with just like paper inside it you can send it to the mission address and they can forward it easily, if it's a package or something else my address will also work and since I'll be here for the next 6 weeks either one will do the job) and yes I'm getting a new companion. His name is Elder Belliston, don't know much about him except he's been out about 16 months and he's from Lindon UT.

 

And leadership I'm not anything. I haven't trained, I've never been a district or a zone leader (and the only other option is being an assistant to the president so that's definitely out of the picture). The only thing I have been is a Senior Companion (which just means I've served with another missionary where I've been out longer than they have).

 

We've just been continuing to work with people in the area. We have one person on date for baptism but she didn't come to church yesterday but that shouldn't affect anything with her date.

February 19th 2013
As for foods you will be impressed awed and discusted by what I am about to tell you. I had Japanese Sushi! (duh-duh-duhn) I had a Vegas, California, Philidelphia and a Washington Roll (I don't know what's in any of them, you can look it up, but I remember the Wash. one had eel in it). Then I also had Kimchi there as well. Maybe you could look that up and tell me what it is because I don't know even  after eating it. 

February 4th 2013

For cool stories imagine this: We're teaching the plan of salvation to a less active family and a non-member friend and we bring up baptism (as things you have to do in this life) and then the conversation went like this: "Wait, I have a question. What is baptism? I've never been baptized." We explain it's a commandment and the basics then she responds "Then I need to be baptized!" then we talk about the blessings of baptism to which she says "That would be so cool. I want to get baptized now!" and we respond "We can help with that." So that right there is pretty cool (and funny, because neither of us were expecting for her to be so interested in getting baptized).

 

Foods, we went to a Mexican place (like las hermanas) and 1) I ate the nacho chips WITH the salsa instead of just plain and 2) I ordered something that wasn't a bean burrito (I thought about a chimichanga, but we were going out with members and I didn't want them to pay more). but I've also had Hawaiian haystacks (with everything on it) and those are the only two foods I can think of off-hand.

Oh, and then the one mom of the family comes to church on Sunday (without anyone else) and bears her testimony about how she's coming back because she wants her daughter to be around good people and to have good standards and she said "and so I don't know why I'm here because my daughter isn't here" but it was super cool because she set the theme of sacrament meeting of returning back to church.

December 10th 2012
Because of the change in missionary age, the changes in the MTC, and other things, every mission is having to change the arrival/departure dates various weeks. So, our mission is moving our transfers up one week, so instead of me getting home July 9th, I'll be getting home on July 2nd.  That's an entire week of my mission that I'm losing. and as I also explained in my letter, that does mean that I'll be home for the 4th of July. Now that you know you need to spread the word to family and friends.

YES I'm enjoying my mission. It's helped in so many ways and I've learned so much that I can't even bear the thought of going home a week early. Yea my whole frame doth shake at the mere thought that I should leave my mission early (little bit of scripture throw in). I've met so many people, seen so many examples and people who have been affected by the gospel that I can't back down, I can't give up. I have to witness to all that this message is true and it can bless and enrich everyone's life.

My companion is getting transferred to Pasco. I'm staying here and his name is Elder Ng. Yes, I'll probably be senior companion becuase he came out a year ago October. I live on a hill in Battle Ground. (in answer to Tiffany's short multiple questions)


January 21st 2013
Nothing much has happened this week (honestly this time), my companion got really sick so for three days we were inside while he rested. It has been cold here, not as bad as Utah, but we had to scrape the frost of our car this morning and yesterday too, but the sun has been out which is really weird.  My companion is doing better now, just a sore throat a bit.

The car they get to drive for the mission! -- You got to love that face!! :)

The Zone at Multnomah Falls

New Companion-Elder Bates and 4th of July Fun!

July 2nd, 2012  (Email)
I got my new companion, Elder Bates, he's from Mapleton UT, but he went to Springville HS because the new high school wasn't built yet. He's been out for 22 1/2 months, or in other words his last 6 weeks is going to be spent with me in Kennewick (crazy, huh). He's a really cool guy and I've only heard really good things about him.

For 4th of July, we have to be inside by 8pm and we're not to play with the fireworks, but I'll let you know about anything exciting happens.

July 5th-7th, 2012  (Letter)
For 4th of July we went to a barbeque (hotdog, hamburgers, salad, homemade root-beer, & ice cream).  There was also a pool but we sat and talked. (The barbeque was with the family of the members we live with.)  That was it (except for the soda geysers we made to replace no fireworks) for us.

New Transfer

June 11th
There hasn't been anything really going on this past week. Honestly it's just been missionary work. I went to a chiropractor early today (for free since I'm a missionary), I don't know what I was expecting (something like making all of my spine and neck pop and hurt) but it wasn't really anything like that and he just pushed his fingers into my back and then pumped the spot for a bit.


June 4th
Well it turns out that my neighbors (in the member's house we live in) is Janet Roach's sister. So that's pretty cool

The work has been struggling, it hasn't been easy and right when I got here people started dropping us (like one person who was ondate). Because of that we have been tracting a lot and also trying new lists of people to find more investigators. So far we haven't found that much success and it's been hard to find people.

 

A funny thing that happened was that there was exchanges (I left my area and another missionary came with Elder Williams) and during that they ran into some Mexicans and they invited us over for a barbeque the next day. When I get there we go to this barbeque and there are a bunch of Mexicans (and every neighbor) and they were having beer, and everyone was surprised to see "mormons" there and we ended up talking to most of them about the church.

 

The weather has been good. Not too hot, it's been really windy (but that's the Tri-cities for you) and the past few days it's been scattered cloud cover. Besides that it's been mostly normal days.

 

That's about it!

May 28th

My birthday (May 25th) was a typical day honestly. We went and tried to do missionary work by going through a list of part-member families, with no such luck, and then it ended up with just tracking, where we met a member, who hadn't gone to church since he separated with his wife, we had dinner and after that had a lesson with another member who is struggling believing everything (he has problems separating doctrine and culture) and that was the day (with my companion telling everyone it was my birthday today, one of the reasons I wanted to hide it from everyone, which didn't work). I had a birthday party/dinner on Saturday and right before the party I got nailed in the eye with a Nerf bullet and then at the dinner I both on accident and on purpose overstuffed myself and couldn't do anything for the rest of the evening. 

May 21st

Oh, my first experiences talking to people was 1) we said hellp to a guy and he said "I'll stab you" while just walking forward and 2) a guy rides up on a bike with random tubberware taped to his bike and talks about the "tech aliens" and the "autos" about how it's a conspiracy and how the "creator" is fighting off the tech aliens so they don't use their autos to take over the world. People seem a lot more crazy here, but I'm also out on the streets more here than anywhere else so, who knows.

 

There's nothing else to say really

May 14thU

Most of the tracking on doors goes like this:

 

"Hi my name's Elder Mullen, we're missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"

"I'm not interested."

"Is there any service or anything we can do to help you out?'

"No thanks. we're fine"

"Is there anyone you know that might be going through a hard time or could need a message about Jesus Christ?"

"No one that I know."

"Okay. Have a beautiful day"

A Conglomerate of Lance's Letters

*Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  Hope you forgive me.

4-30-12
Nothing stands out too much, there is a baptism scheduled on Wednesday and later today we'll be bowling.  The one family, the Espinoza's, that were baptized when I first got here are now moving to Moscow, Idaho and so I'll be saying goodbye to them later today and getting the address so I can keep in contact with them.

4-24-12
It was a slow and enriching week. Slow because we hardly taught any lessons, also partly due to me being sick, and enriching because we had Zone Conference on Thursday and the temple this morning. We are allowed to go to the temple once every 3 months.

 

I live in a basement of some members. It has a kitchen, bathroom, small living room, and the bedroom with 2 beds. The color design is white and cream (I think that's the color they call it). Walls are white, white tiles in the kitchen and bathroom and the carpet is white and cream(?)ish colors. 

 

My companion is fine. I don't have much to say about him other than is core of his testimony is centered in the Book of Mormon.

 

4-16-12

My new missionary companion is good. He's originally from California and moved to Colorado before coming out. He wants to do something related to business and has been out on his mission for 12 months (serving in Vancouver and Yakima before here).

 

We might be having a baptism next week, his name is Sonny Caskey, he's 10 years old and we got parental permission for him to be baptized but things aren't solidified in terms of when and so I'll let you know as time moves on.

 

We have a Zone Conference this week, so that'll be cool and then we also have interviews and a trip to the temple later this month.

 

4-9-12

I got a new companion, his name is Elder DeLeon, he's been out for 12 months and he is from (orginally LA but recently from) Colorado. He's 25, went to college for 2 1/2 years before coming out, has served in Yakima and Vancouver before here and knows Spanish.

 

4-2-12

We got the information right after Priesthood session and I am going to be staying in this area. That makes it 7 1/2 months here. I will be getting a new companion, Elder (now I don't know the spelling but it sounds like) Da-le-own.  We had a baptism March 29. It was for Ammon Jessop, the grandchild of the member's we live with.

 

3-26-12

This past week we had a guest speaker in the mission, Bro. Larsen (he is a NFL player for the Bronco's, linebacker I think, and he is also Pres. Greer's nephew) and when he came he talked to us about discipline and how that comes from being a disciple. His main focus was "The "whats" (ex practicing, working out, studying) don't matter as long as you have a "why" (ex to help others, to learn, to meet new people) and as a NFL player is why is to win a championship and that is why he practices and so forth; He then challenged us to find, if we don't know already, our "why" for being a missionary. This question took a lot of time, but this last Sunday I had a realization on my "why". Right now, my "why" is "things will get better"; the reason I do the things that I do is because I know that things will eventually get better. This ties in with the Gospel and how things will get better, but it was a cool realization/introspection learning about my why.

We are going to have a baptism this Thursday!! His name is Ammon Jessop, 9 years old, and he is the grandson of the people we are living with. He's really cool and really bright for his age. The family he lives with though, is off the wall, but I'm not sure if it's just because everyone is so young or about all of the crazy sisters he has (1 older, 2 younger), and since I haven't been around either situation very much I'm not a very good judge. Oh, and as Alivia, youngest of the 2 younger sisters, would say "Ammon is getting apatized." (she made the mistake the first time, but then after that she kept saying it because she saw that everyone was laughing because she was saying it).

 

Besides those two events, things are going well and I'm looking forward to my second general conference on my mission. (I already have an idea on the subject of Elder Nelson's talk and I'll be looking to see if I can catch his phrase he said he was going to use).

 

 

 

 

 

Just Doing the Good Work

Introduction
My next transfers is on Feb 22. My companion is still Elder Reeve and he's doing well. He's convinced himself that he'll be able to make me gain weight and also gain more muscles (he makes me do the bench press and other things in the morning when we're exercising). I'm currently doing 3 sets of 8 repetitions of 65 lbs. I'm doing push-ups, sit-ups, dips, and then weights lifting in my arms. The work is going good. We're teaching a lot of part-member families.

Weather
The weather is sunny. A lot of sun and not a lot of rain. It's either sunny with no clouds, or more likely sunny with partial clouds. Also, we had snow for 2 days (and they cancelled church for a light dusting) and then cancelled a trip to the temple for 6 inches.

Okay, Kelso

Dee and Linda Jessop- these are the members we live with. They are also in charge of the Addiction Recovery Program for the stake. They are really nice (and also old so they tend, or Bro Jessop repeats stories sometimes). The way I've described Sister Jessop, is think of Christine, but more focused on family and the gospel (and not rubix cubes and rollerblading)

Eric and Glenna Olson- our Ward Mission leader and his wife, the Relief Society President. We go to their house at least once a week. and as Ward Mission Leader, he is our connection to the Ward Council and the Ward. They're both older and they are thinking about serving a mission, but Bro. Olson needs to shave his beard to do it (so I tease him about it almost every time we see him).

Graff's - Bishop and his family. 4 sons and 1 daughter. The oldest about to go to BYU, so that was a quick in because they were asking me about BYU and what that was like. They are a really cool family and they love us (the missionaries) so, they're a great blessing in helping the missionary work in Kelso

Felicia and Robert - a family that we found by tracting into. Felicia is the member and Robert is not. Felicia was a convert and she signed up for the navy and that is when she met Robert. She has 3 daughters and the oldest is 6, then 5, and 1 1/2. We started teaching them, more at Felicia's suggestion, because she wanted to come back to church and have the other kids recieve baby blessings, but Robert, when we started talking about baptisms for the dead and genealogy work, was instantly excited. So, the Spirit of Elijah was the key for him.

Stephenson's - a family the bishop refered us to. It turns out the day we showed up they had just had the Jehovah Witnesses over and they realized they had had members of other faiths over more than they had people of their faith. They have two kids, Hunter and Will 10 and 6 and they are so fun. The day after we taught them the 3 things of the Atonement. They kept telling their parents for the next week about what the 3 things were that Jesus did for them.

Apelu's - a family from the island of Chuke (find that if you can :) ) and they are interesting just because of the way their culture is. They have family visit all the time and they are really good and they enjoy church, but there is a language barrier because of some not knowing english very well.

Eric - a single father we tracted into. Has one daughter, 6 yr old and they have been to church and are loving it.

Daniel and Alysha - a couple we found on the bridge in our area

Josh and Katie - a family that Josh was about to get baptized the week I showed up in Kelso

Victoriano's - a family that has 7 kids oldest having jsut finished 1/2 a year of college.

The Missionaries
Okay, other elders these are the other missionaries in the area besides me

Elder Reeve - my companion from Logan. been out 16 months. came out with Elder Fowlke

Elder Peck - LV 2 missionary. going home in 1 1/2. From Utah. also served in Walla Walla when I was in Milton-Freewater

Elder Atchison - LV 2 missionary. going home in 7 weeks. From California. Trained Elder Fowlke

Elder Joslin - LV 1 missionary. From Utah. been out 13 months. Is half Japenese a district leader

Elder Anderson - LV 1 missionary. I don't know how long he's been out or much about him except he's good at basketball

Elder Tom - LV 3 missionary. My district leader. Spanish elder. Is from ???. Likes baseball. served in Walla Walla when I was in Milton-Freewater

Elder Gray - LV 3 missionary. Spanish Elder. Been out 4 months. Is from Orem. the star football player his last year. also good at basketball

Elder Crowther - Cathlamet misisonary. I don't know much about him. I only see him a couple of times a week (he lives 25 miles away from Longview)

Elder Peterson - Cathlamet missionary. I don't know much about him. I only see him a couple of times a week (he lives 25 miles away from Longview). been out 5 1/2 months

Elder Fenn - Woodland missionary. Zone leader. I don't know much about him. I see him about 2-3 times every 6 weeks.

Elder Bates - Woodland missionary. Zone leader. I don't know much about him. I see him about 2-3 times every 6 weeks.

Time to play catch-up! (...Tiffany's bad)

Nov. 15^th

Yesterday (14^th) there was a half-mission conference and not only did I get to see 7 of my MTC District (Elders Dees, Metz, Thomas, Packham, Moon, Periera, and Gwynn (which doesn't count as much because he's already in my zone)), but just seeing them was amazing. Oh, did I mention that 3 of my MTC District are training new missionaries this transfer?! Elders Kendrick, Packham, and Thomas are training a new missionary, that is something that doesn't happen often, but it is the goal with the new training program (which is to train in new missionaries in such a way so that by the end of the 12 weeks they could train a new missionary). But, even more cool than that was to meet and listen to Elder Christensen of the 1st Quorum of the 70! Man, that was amazing. He had such amazing insight about prayer and so many ways that we could improve that it probably got everyone pumped and feeling the spirit of missionary work again. Then after the conference we got the November Ensigns and so then I got to look at the talks given at General Conference and feel the spirit of those messages. It was a very good Monday.

Oh, by the way there's a street in Longview with the name "Jimmer Place." How cool is that?

Nov. 8^th

Yeah, it's been good here and guess what happened this Sunday? We were heading for church and I looked at the sky and guess what I saw? I saw the sun, and I mean I looked straight at it as if it was the moon because that was how foggy it was, it didn't even hurt me to look at the sun for a few seconds. Now, that was a strange experience.

So, first off this area can be described in two words; wet and hills. It's either fog, or rain, or heavy rain, or light rain, or mist, but there is a lot of moisture and then there are a lot of hills, or ups and downs and I guess that is true in an area like this.

About the people, they seem to be a little meaner than they were in Milton-Freewater, not that they aren't nice, just that they don't seem to be as nice and cordial out here.

I will be here (Kelso) for Thanksgiving (unless I get emergency transfer) and the transfer ends Nov 30, so there is a chance that I might leave and be in a new area for Christmas. And I do not know where I will be sent to next, that's part of the revelation that President Greer has. Also, transfers are six weeks; this is the 4th week, so you can start keeping track of when I might be leaving.

Nov. 1^st

Elder Baca. A head shorter than me, wears glasses, dark hair, from Mesa AZ, and he doesn't know what he wants to do in school. There's nothing that annoys me really, we don't have a lot in common (except being skinny), his favorite colors are red and gold, he plays guitar, and he’s writing a funny story about Kelsoites and Longviewites.

Oct. 25^th

So my new area is "Longview," technically Kelso and Castle Rock. First off, I'll say that Kelso is to Longview as Orem is to Provo (aka they border each other) the only difference is that apparently they have a fierce rivalry between the two. Castle Rock is a small "town" (I use that word loosely in this context) and it has over 10 churches (they have a sign of all the churches in the town coming in and out of the town.

There are actual mountains here! (In Milton-Freewater they claimed they had "mountains" called the blue mountains, but they were glorified hills). This area has mountains, and trees and rain. Oh, I forgot to mention that earlier. This area is known for two things 1) being the "black hole of all happiness" (not my words) and 2) raining constantly (I first thought the two were connected but I'll explain those common misconceptions)

First, it is known for being depressing because it is almost always overcast, so you don't see the sun that often and I guess after a while that could be depressing. The second error was that it does "rain" almost always, but this rain is not like rain back home. It kind of squirts small amounts (almost that you can't feel it) and it does that and then it sometimes gets worse where it's has a lot of these tiny droplets, but there hasn't been anything yet so bad that it reminds me of some of the bad storms back in Provo.

Mount St. Helen's is in my area so that's nearby and there's a certain spot that you can see that and Mt Hood and some other mountain nearby all from one spot (but it has to be on a clear day).

(He’s around 55 miles to Mt. St. Helens that someone said.)

Oct. 18^th

I'm getting transferred to Kelso-Castle Rock ward over in the Longview stake so this is my last Tuesday here in Milton-Freewater.

Oct 4^th

Yeah, the temp's been steadily going down, and Elder Fowlke, who is from Wyoming, has been enjoying the weather.

[About the new Provo Temple] I know!!!!! When I heard that it was awesome!! I felt the Spirit and it was amazing to hear that. You have to keep me updated on how that is going along because I want to visit the temple there when I get back

Most of the missionaries are good people and I'm getting along with most of them. The work seems to be slowing down, but we have some really promising people that we are working on teaching. Milton-Freewater depends on where we go. In most areas people are "you're doing a good work spreading the word, but I'm not interested (or I have my own church)" but in this one area we visited people were a lot more hostile, I guess would be the word.

September 26th, Scripture Experience

It was personal study and I was reading the Book of Mormon in Mosiah and I came to chapter 10 and I read verses 11-18 which says:

"Now, the Lamanites knew nothing concerning the Lord, nor the strength of the Lord, therefore they depended upon their own strength. Yet they were a strong people, as to the strength of men.
They were a wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, believing in the tradition of their fathers, which is this—Believing that they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem because of the iniquities of their fathers, and that they were wronged in the wilderness by their brethren, and they were also wronged while crossing the sea;
And again, that they were wronged while in the land of their first inheritance, after they had crossed the sea, and all this because that Nephi was more faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord—therefore he was favored of the Lord, for the Lord heard his prayers and answered them, and he took the lead of their journey in the wilderness.
And his brethren were wroth with him because they understood not the dealings of the Lord; they were also wroth with him upon the waters because they hardened their hearts against the Lord. And again, they were wroth with him when they had arrived in the promised land, because they said that he had taken the ruling of the people out of their hands; and they sought to kill him.
And again, they were wroth with him because he departed into the wilderness as the Lord had commanded him, and took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, for they said that he robbed them.
And thus they have taught their children that they should hate them, and that they should murder them, and that they should rob and plunder them, and do all they could to destroy them; therefore they have an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi.
For this very cause has king Laman, by his cunning, and lying craftiness, and his fair promises, deceived me, that I have brought this my people up into this land, that they may destroy them; yea, and we have suffered these many years in the land."

When I finished reading that I just stopped and I felt/got the thought that there was something in those verses that I was supposed to learn and figure out so I spend the rest of my time (this was already 3/4 of the way through) thinking about what I was supposed to take out of those verses and guess what? In district meeting about an hour later we talk about those verses. There are no such things as coincidences with God! Just thought I'd share that.

Play: Lance and the Strangeness of a Q&A Session

By: Lance Mullen
Slight Revisions by: Tiffany Lloyd

Lance is talking with Tiffany and JD in some kind of room.

Tiffany: So I want you to write to me about something exciting or fun that happened to you.

Lance: Well, it's hard to think of something to write about, that's such a broad topic that I need something specific so I can spend my time about that otherwise it's like me writing about everything.

JD: Well, what's the weather like over there?

Lance: There's no mountains so the sun is already up at 6:30 in the morning and it has been hot but it hasn't reached triple digits and that's odd for this area but it's cooling down now and it's getting dark at 7ish so it's hard to find people to visit when it's so dark out.

Dad: Well, what's your car like does it have a nice transmission?

Lance: When did you get here? Anyways, I only get to drive the car when Elder Fowlke is gone on exchanges and you know that I'm not good with car terminology. I think it's a 2011 Corrolla and it was brand new just before we got here so there aren't problems with it and I think it works pretty well but it's still hard to get used to driving for one day and then go another 6 weeks sitting in the passenger seat.

Mom: Are you eating healthy and staying safe?

Lance: I guess this is some type of family gathering or something. Well, I'm eating a lot healthier than when I was at home. I don't even get to eat ramen or macaroni very often because the member's feed us so much and give us a ton of food. That and my companion loves food from other countries and so we go to Chinese, Mongolian, Mexican restaurants and so it's a new experience for me to see and eat all of these new foods.

Jordan: Are you adjusting well from a nerd to a servant of the Lord?

Lance: Jordan? What are you doing here? Is this some type of open invitation question and answer segment or something? And don't forget that you're a nerd too, just saying. And it wasn't as hard of a transition as I thought it would be. The part I was most scared about was getting up at 6:30 every morning because of my sleeping habits back a home but everything has been going smooth for me and the time has been flying by and things like teaching and testifying to people are easier for me.

Kohor: You are a specter from the gods.

Lance: Kohor?! Who let you in? (*proceeds to beat Kohor through the door and locks the door behind him*) This place really needs to improve the security.

TJ: Well, maybe it's all this talk of food that's drawing everyone here. What are you liking most about being in Milton-Freewater?

Lance: Well, this place has really nice, members and nonmembers, and I think that's both good and bad because that means that people are willing to listen to our message and to what we say and not kick us off their lawns but it's bad because some people are apathetic (I think that's the word) and they are happy with their lives and what their doing and some people are encouraging us even though they don't want anything to do with us, now that's something that I wasn't expecting.

JD: What is something that you look forward to the most?

Lance: Hmm... Two things, one spiritual and one more temporal. The spiritual thing I look forward to is the change that I see in the investigators and how they change to a better person and are happier in every aspect in their lives. The temporal thing that I look forward to is letters. I know that sounds kind of lame but I like hearing from everyone back at home about how life is and for me it's reassuring to know that everything is okay and a letter really helps.

Danny: You need better security in here. The door wasn't even locked when I came in.

Lance: What? Okay, whoever is in charge over here needs to make some improvements, if not there's going to be people showing up that not everyone knows and who knows what will happen then.

Bishop Steward: Hey everyone! I'm Elder Mullen's bishop back in Provo. How is your ward?

Lance: Well, it's a nice ward, the members that show up are really funny and are great people. A less desirable feature to our ward is we have a lot of less active and so we never are without work from the Bishop in helping out members and teaching less active members.

Edler Lythgoe: Hey! (something in Russian that no one in the room understands) I'm Elder Mullen's roommate from his freshman year at BYU. So what are the people and the area like in Milton-Freewater?

Lance: (looks at Elder Lythgoe) How did you get over here from Russia? (shrugs it off) Anyway, like I said earlier when you weren't here the people are all really nice and the place is mostly farm land and there are a lot of wineries too (unfortunately). The missionary work is going well and we are able to get a lot of referrals for the Spanish Elders that live in Walla Walla and they are all pretty nice.

Bro. Christensen: Nice to meet everyone! I'm one Elder Mullen's teachers from the MTC. Speaking of other Elders what is you zone and district like?

Lance: In our district there's Elder Fowlke and I, two sister missionaries and two senior missionaries. Our zone has three districts and they are all Elders, two Spanish and 6 English.

Lance: Well, not that I don't want more people to pop up out of nowhere but I got to get going but we'll do this again some other time.

Kohor: Do not disappoint me.

Lance: I give up. (leaves the room)

Just a reminder:
Elder Lance Mullen
8656 West Gage Blvd. Suite 205
Kennewick, WA 99336

or email him through Tiffany at tiffanyalloyd@gmail.com

I've been working on the Barn

All right. There was an experience I wanted to share last week but because of time restraints I wasn't able to write it so I'll do it now.

We were putting metal sheets on the roof of a barn that was high up (around 10 feet) and we were supposed to screw screws on there to keep them in place. Near the very top the roof increased in height and slope (it got more slanted; it went from a slope of -1 to -4 (on a graph)) and the sheets we were placing were heavily rusted and so there were some parts that the rust had created a hole in the sheet and when you put pressure on it you could see the ground and how high up we were.

Anyways, my job was to screw screws at the very top of the roof and in my path to get close enough there were several rust spots that didn't look in any way safe enough for my to put my weight. So, I was looking at this task and thinking how impossible it seemed when I thought of the advice that we were given when we first climbed on the roof by the member.

It was: "Always look where the screws are; Those screws let you know where the pearls are underneath and those are the spots that will support your weight."

So, I looked forward and I saw the pearls (wooden support beams going across the length of the roof) and when I then moved my leg to a spot where the pearl ran under, it held my weight. Then I was able to get to the top and finish my task.

Oh, we had Stake Conference this last week and Elder Holland and President Packer spoke (it was broadcasted from SLC, just so you're aware) (did you know they did that?) It was nice to hear them talk in person and not just a CD from 2008 General Conference (that's the CD my companion has that we've been listening to).

Today I bought a Mormon Tabernacle Choir anniversary collection (4 different albums) for $9 and a fancy Disney watch on clearance from $60 to $15) (it has Goofy on the front) (I feel like I'm the customer that stores love and are drawn into the merchandise and just have that urge to buy it.)

Anyways, my day to day life goes like this. Wake up at 6:25. Excercise for 30 minutes during either flexibility or strength excercises switching off. I then take a shower and eat breakfast. I have an hour of study time that I use sitting down on the floor (becasue I don't like the desk in the apartment) and read from the Book of Mormon for 30 min and the second half I study whatever I feel like I need most of. We then have 2 hours of companionship study consisting of: hymn, mottos, missionary handbook study, planning lessons, and doing the new missionary training program that tells us what to study. We then have lunch (since it's 11) and then we go out and do stuff (sometimes we have appointments with less-active or investigators, but most of the time we either try to get a hold of people on our potential investigator list or go out finding). We then have dinner at 5-6 normally at a member's home and we share a thought with them and then at 7 we have our exchange. This exchange is a member coming to our apartment and we go to appointments with them. We go back to our apartment at 9-9:30 and we plan for tommorrow for 30 min and then we have 1 hour (or less depending on how late we get back) to write in journals and so forth. Then we go to bed at 10:30 and that's our day. Any questions?

Love,

Elder Mullen

Becoming familiar with Milton-Freewater

My flight was awesome. I didn’t get a window seat, but I got to look outside the plane and we were above the clouds.

About first thing I was asked in the field off of the airplane was “do you know the Mullen’s that live in Walla Walla?” and “Are you related to Spencer Mullen?” So everyone but me knew about Spencer Mullen and they also knew (some did at least) that we were cousins. [In case you don’t know, Spencer is Wayne’s son, Wayne and Harley are brothers. (Harley is Lance’s dad)]

Area where I’ll be until October 30ish is farm-land (mostly wheat & wineries). Story of Milton-Freewater; There were two towns (settlements) one was Milton & the other was Freewater. They were bordering each other and water was free in Freewater, but in Milton they’d have to pay for water from Freewater. So they combined the cities (At least that’s what I’ve been told.) Not a lot of trees. A few (baby) mountains (compared to Utah mountains.) Like I said their mountains are hills. There are rocks. I only see them when the road goes through a hill. There are like five waterfalls in the mission, just none here. People here are nice (I was hoping for some door slams, and drunk people yelling at us, but it hasn’t happened yet.) No BK’s, only one McD’s & one Safeway.

I've eaten all of these foods and haven't thrown up or disliked them yet: Ravioli, Rice (cooked), strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, blueberries, blackberries, burrito with peppers and sauce, casserole, watermelon with black seeds, and there might be a bit more. I've met some cool elders but I've only really gotten to know Elder Fowlke. He's from Gillette, Wyoming and he thinks that country towns are where you find the best members (I disagree with him on this point). He's a good guy. Before his mission he was in his words a pc gamer nerd. He likes to cook. He's not an overbearing guy. He seems nice. Likes to have fun, but likes to work too.

[Answer to ‘How is the work going?’] We just need to get the investigators to church and we can get people baptized. We need to meet with one investigator and his mom so she can approve of the baptism and so we can set a date.

Oh, and a 6 yr. old girl, Rachel, drew a picture of me & Jesus.

[Advice to Tiffany] Try getting some sleep every now and then, don’t tell anybody but 8 hrs of sleep actually is good amount of sleep so you aren’t tired the next day. (I think it’s a church secret for missionaries. Shhh!)

Tell everyone I love them. (again, please)

….One Week Later….

August 16, 2011

I'm really enjoying my mission and it's almost easier to wake up and study for 3 hours than I thought it was going to be. I live in a nice area and everyone (even those not interested) are nice to us. Me and my companion are assigned to a ward (the Milton-Freewater Ward), other missionaries may be assigned to more than one ward or branch, but we only have one ward so we only have one 3 hour block on Sunday. I'm doing great and I'm going to be listening to Elder L. Tom Perry on the 17th so I'm being spiritually fed while I am here.

We do have a car in our mission with 600 miles per month. I won't be driving as long as I'm still getting trained (so 12 weeks from July 27th). The ward is nice (at least 75% inactive/less-active) and we get fed dinner almost every night, there are times when we have to cook it ourselves though. We go to the grocery store every P-day and we get food that we think we'll need. There's a walmart in Walla Walla (about a 5 minute drive away) and a Safeway a few blocks down from our house. At the start of each month each missionary receives $130 (sister missionaries receive $135).

Our purpose is to "invite others to come unto Christ" and to follow direction of the ward and stake leaders. So, along with investigators the bishop has asked us to also focus on the less-active members by teaching them the discussions and try to rekindle that flame of the Spirit back into their lives. I don't think that we will be able to do everything ourselves. We need the support of the members with us.

On Sundays we drive in our car and when we need to track we get out of the car and start door knocking, afterwards we get back in the car and drive. We also get rides from members on exchanges which happen every day. These exchanges are when a member goes with us to appointments and helps us fellowship someone we're teaching so they can have someone to rely on besides us.

When we started it looked like we'd have 3 baptisms within the next few weeks and now none of them are going to get baptized in our area any time soon. One moved to Walla Walla and is on date for Sept. 3, one is moving to either Boise or Tri-Cities and will get baptized there and the last is having problems getting permission from his parents. So, I need to accept the Lord's hand in this work and not expect things to happen my way.

Oh yeah that reminds me, I'm serving in a town that worships frogs. At least every block there is one wooden frog statue next to a building. These frogs aren't little. They're human-sized, and it's weird seeing them everywhere. There's a reaper, a gas station employee, a weight loss frog, lumberjack, a frog on a ladder. They are everywhere. I just haven't seen any actual frogs yet, but next week is the annual "Muddy Frogwater" days that are advertised all year on the sign entering the town. (Compare Muddy Frogwater to Milton-Freewater, do you see a resemblance? Do you see how much they worship frogs?

Lots of Love,

Elder Lance Mullen

First Letter from Oregon

First, My first area is Milton-Freewater OR (and guess what they don't have sales tax in Oregon). It's a nice place, it's a country town (in my opinion), there are wineries and wheat fields. Oh, and our area covers MF, Athena, and Umapine, so it's a big area. Thank goodness we have a car. It's a nice ward, and we do get fed (almost) every night at a member's house. It's a small group that came to sacrament meeting 20-30 but there are a lot of inactive members (total there's about 200-400 members in our area).

There are a bunch of really cool and nice people here. Most people are either Catholic or Seventh-Day Adventist. No one has really been mean to us but there's a lot of apathy and "You're doing a good work telling people about Christ!" and I think that the key is we need people to know what is unique about our message and that it's not just about Christ, like we have a living prophet.

Oh, my companion. Elder Fowlke, he's not as big as I thought (only about 1 inch taller than me), but I think that they were meaning the other way of being big. He's a great guy and he's really loves the gospel and the members that help us.

Elder L. Tom Perry is coming to speak to our mission (or the east half of the mission) on August 17, that will be three weeks into my 12 week training period.

Thank you for reading and if you want to send me letters I would appreciate it plus I promise to write you back.

There are so many windmills on the hills to create power. That and that I'm not used to the sun being out in the sky at 6:30 AM since there's no mountains there's nothing blocking the sun (and the "mountains" they have here are lightweights) (I'm just saying that as a fact not like I'm biased towards the Wasatch Front or anything *Cough* *Cough*)

I love you. Gospel is true. Cutting off arms is okay, (as long as there's sheep involved). and never confuse a Korean for a Japanese.

Love,

Elder Lance Mullen

Second Letter Home

The Church is true. I just had to say that, I wish I could tell you more, but the stories will have to wait. I’ll be honest, I think I didn’t really have a good understanding of the Gospel and I think that I’ve really changed here. By the time you read this I’ll be in Washington (probably) and I’ll already have my first real experience with real investigators. I think what our teacher, Bro. Christensen, said about how the longer you’re in the mission the funnier things “seem” to be, since I think I can see that in the jokes we laugh at now. For example Elder Dees wrote in a letter home “And it came to pass, in the first year of the reign of the Zone Leader Elders Dees & Elder Metz... And it came to pass that I close this epistle.” And Elder Thomas created a verse “Thou shalt not be a thief in the night lest thou shalt be smitten with a curse, yea even the same curse which brought destruction upon the wild dinosaur beasts in ancient times of old.” And everyone thought those were both hilarious.


The teacher’s we’ve had were amazing and we finally got to get feedback on how we had been teaching them as investigators as a teacher, and how we should respond. One of them also said that Elder Thomas & I were the best listeners in our district. I saw Elder Ormsby and Elder Gregory.

My Mission Home Address is:

Elder Lance Mullen

8565 West Gage Blvd. Suite 205

Kennewick, WA 99336

Love,

Elder Lance Mullen

Here are some of Lance's pictures that he took.

Missionaries walking from the MTC.

The Elders having a Harry Potter Party with Krispie Kreme doughnuts. Lance is on the upper right bunk bed.

Elder Dutson is on the left looking a little off guard.

Lance and Elder Pereira

Lance with his new haircut!

The MTC Mission President. I hope Lance isn't in trouble ;)

I think this picture is self-explanatory. :)

From left to right, Elder Gwynn, Elder Dutson, and Elder Thomas.