What's up Fam and Friends, hard to believe another week has flown by, but I guess that happens when you’re having fun!!! So much has happened this week, but as always I think it is important to put the Lord first and share my spiritual message first. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been interacting with so many Deaf people, not only in Bismarck but also in other areas all over the mission that I sometimes feel like I'm not an English speaking Missionary. After talking briefly with President Howell as well as Sister Olson (NDBM Missionary Support Head) we made the decision that I am going to be receiving new specialized missionary tags that will clip on to my current tag (like the flag tags that the Sisters at temple square wear) and say that I am an ASL Friendly Missionary and I am happy to talk to them. So shoutout to all my friends in Highschool who told me it was the wrong decision to quite Sign Language Senior year because I thought it wouldn't help me in the future. With that I President Howell made an announcement to all Zone and District Leaders that if they ever find a Deaf friend that is interested in the Gospel then they need to set up a meeting with me translating, so exciting but yet also so stressful. Within hours of that announcement, I was asked to translate a meeting for some Elders in Bemidji with a sweet Deaf friend who was going through a very hard time right now. Her name was Nadia and she believed that she was cursed by the Devil because of some witchcraft that she did when she was in her twenties, and because of that, she could never rest or really even eat. She found the missionaries through one of our Peace in Jesus Christ ads and immediately got in contact with the Elders and asked for exercise. The elders were unsure how to approach the situation and asked if I could translate for them and get to know Nadia's situation. Nadia and I signed back and forth for nearly an hour talking all about our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ and His infinite and all reaching atonement. We also talked about the Book of Mormon and the beautiful truths and principles that work for hand and hand with the bible as another testament of Jesus Christ. I felt the spirit so strongly in that lesson and felt huge amounts of God’s love for her, I also felt prompted to ask if she would like a blessing of comfort in which I would translate the blessing so she could understand. Nadia agreed and it was absolutely amazing! There were many times when I wouldn't know how to sign something and then suddenly my hands would move and make a sign that was unfamiliar to me but knew that it was correct. Brothers and Sisters, Friends, and Families, the Lord, and our Heavenly Father loves you so much! He loves us so much that he gives us the Priesthood so that we can help others and bring peace and comfort to all those that need it. He also helps us that when we don't know what to say or do but have a sincere heart and faith that everything will be okay, mighty miracles can occur and impressions can be made.
Following those amazing couple of days, Elders Murray, Post, and I had some humorously hard days. I won't go into all the details, but we didn't have a car, had all of our camera equipment taken away, and are now getting into advertising Facebook fights with small churches flagging all of our ads and slandering our pages because we are a "false church that is not rooted in Christianity, but rather the vain illusions of Satan". Gotta love Mission Life!!! Finally, after a specially hard day of being in nearly 8 hours of Zoom meetings and trying to repair our slandered reputation we decided we needed to treat ourselves. We had a new Facebook training meeting that night with the District Leader so we decided we were going to turn this meeting into a party, so I cooked ribs, make homemade smash fries, heat up some hot pockets, and make Fiiz inspired drink mixes while Elder Murray serenaded us with his Ukulele impressions of Hymns and primary songs and Elder Post worked on the ambiance of the dining room. Needless to say, we recognized that a situation is only as bad as you decide to make it, because although we were super frustrated with all that we had going on, by making this meeting a fun even we were able to feel the spirit super strongly and build valuable relationships with our District Leader.
The last thing I want to talk about is the absolutely amazing experience of being able to help clean the Bismarck temple. I personally was super excited cause I have never cleaned the temple before and had only been through once and was excited to serve once again in the Lord's house. Well, it turns out the job they had in mind for us was cleaning and painting the new heating and cooling system for the temple in the boiler room. At first, I was kind of bummed as other Elders and Sisters had the opportunity to clean the Baptistry and other beautiful and sacred rooms of the temple, while we were in the poorly lit and cramped industrial room painting stainless steel white. However, while I was doing this I recognized that I still felt the spirit just as strongly as I have previously in being in the other various rooms of the temple and that although not as glamourous was still a very much needed and valuable part of the temple. I applied this into our own lives that as we go through life we may not always have the glamourous or popular positions in the Church or even in life, but if we focus on what we are doing and strive to magnify whatever calling we may have, we will be just as blessed and just as valuable in further the work of the Lord.
Love and miss you all so much and want to let you know that you are all absolutely amazing and wonderful sons and daughters of God!!! Look forward to writing to you next week!!!
Sent with love from,
Elder McMullin or yah know Elder McMuffin as my small friends like to call me :-)
Photo Gallery!!!
1) Found this Huge Squirrel and named him Remille
2) Elder Post outdid himself with the ambiance lighting
3) My fruit concoction- these were a big hit 10/10 would recommend
4) Pizza Rolls as the light appetizer
5) Homemade Smash Fries with a homemade BBQ Sauce
6) The Ribs tuned out well I think
7-8) Pizza Party following a five-hour Advertisement Photo Shoot- Love these guys!
