What's up friends and family!!! It has been such a crazy week, but so exciting at the same time! For starters, I want to talk about my wonderful experience at a food truck rally. Now when you hear food truck rally, wonderful may not be the way you describe it, especially when its 42 degrees outside without wind chill. Despite the oily smells of grease and fat bubbling and customers heckling prices, I would say it was a pretty magical place. We were volunteering at this rally washing and sanitizing tables to help everyone feel safe and comfortable at the rally. We met so many amazing and cool people at this rally and were able to give away so many passes along cards and were able to teach so many people about who the "Latter-day Saints" are and what we believe (we also got a lot of free food which was an amazing bonus). One amazing person we met was a very devout atheist who absolutely loved the Choir at Temple Square, so much in fact that she planned a trip to Utah just so she could listen to the Choir in person for their Christmas concert. We told her that the choir has a special performance in October where they sing hymns to the whole world in a worldwide devotional that we call "General Conference". She was absolutely ecstatic and said she would like to stay in contact with us so we could watch General Conference with her and her family, who also loved the choir. Needless to say, it was an amazing 4-hour service project, not because the service was fun, but because the work was good and the fields were white and ready to harvest.
Another super cool experience that happened this week deals with my new position as Ad Committee Chair. Recently, Area Seventies have been collecting and analyzing advertising data from all United States missions. I am proud to say that the North Dakota Bismarck Mission was in the top five for most results and views on our Facebook and Instagram Ads and ranked number three for missions with the most social media presence. With that, we as an advertising committee now get to be a part of a new pilot program that's overseen directly from the quorum of the Twelve Apostles where our Ad committee now gets to focus on an international level, creating social media platforms for missions all over the world and running culturally unique ads all around the world. Not only that but we will now be responding to all of the questions and comments the ads bring in and refer them to missionaries in the area! It's amazing that not even a Pandemic, Civil unrest, or even fires can stop the Lord's work from reaching all far corners of the globe, and I am even more amazed and excited that I get to be a part of it!
To close I want to share the biggest miracle that I have ever seen! If you remember a while back, around four weeks, our mission put together a virtual choir video, which was absolutely amazing, and I was able to do a signing portion where I translated the song to ASL. A few weeks later we posted this exact same video on our YouTube channel and hoped that people would maybe watch and become interested in the church. Just a few days after we had posted the video a Deaf lady felt inspired to go onto YouTube and search "religious music videos" and by some spiritual miracle, our video was the first search result! Allison, the name of the Deaf lady, was super impressed with the church and noticed that I could even sign so she immediately called the church and called the Sister Missionaries in Fargo to try and get in contact with me. Now, this is the crazy part, Allison lives in Bismarck, and an even crazier miracle is that she’s even in our ward boundaries! We were able to set up a Zoom meeting and it was so amazing and yet so confusing. You see, Allison used to live in Lehi, UT where she was a programmer at Adobe, specifically coding for photoshop, and she was actually taught by the missionaries there. The missionaries wrote down all of the lessons on paper and passed notes with their testimonies while she read the essay. I had no knowledge of this before we got onto the Zoom call and she started reciting the 13 articles of faith (which she had memorized) as well as laws of Chastity, Tithing, fasting, and word of wisdom. Shell shocked I asked if she had read the Book of Mormon, and all she signed was "Oh yeah I love that book! I'm reading it for the fourth time now. My favorite part is Moroni 10 where he promises that if we pray we can receive a witness that the book is true". At this point, I was trying not to explode with joy and was trying even harder to keep my hands still while signing cause I was so excited! She explained that she really wanted to be baptized but needed someone to translate for her in church and for her baptismal interview with the District Leader (yep, she knew who and what a District Leader was) . I took a deep breath and asked in my best sign language if I could translate for her in church and even baptize her as a member of the Church Jesus Christ. Immediately her eyes began to well up with tears as she said she had been waiting nearly a year and a half for someone to ask her that question in sign language and immediately said she wanted to be baptized in three weeks.
Brothers and Sisters, friends, and family, the Lord works in mysterious ways. I had no idea why I learned sign language in middle school and high school, I had no idea why I needed to sign for the virtual choir, I even had no idea why I needed to leave my beloved Fargo and come to Bismarck. BUT THE LORD KNEW! He knew that I would be able to help this sweet and wonderful daughter of God enter into the covenant of baptism that she has been waiting for, for nearly two years and be able to talk with her and remove any feelings of loneliness and anxiety. I am thankful that we have a Heavenly Father that knows and loves us individually. I am also thankful that he trusts in His missionaries to bring other wonderful souls unto Christ and bring happiness and light that we all need. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen!
Love and miss you all so much!!! Remember that the Lord loves each and every one of you and that it is physically and spiritually impossible to sink below our Saviors infinite love for us. Stay safe and one last time: LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!
sent with love and good tithings,
Elder McMullin
Photo Gallery!!!
1) This is the coldest September I have ever had!
2) Practicing my Hot Chocolate brewing skills- apparently it’s like an artform out here
3) Sunrises always make me so happy!!!
4) Who needs a Ferrari when you can have this sick ride
5) These super addicting puffs of happiness and joy from a Food Truck (I'm not going to tell you how many donuts were in the bucket in the beginning)
6) Elder Murray and Elder Post! Love these guys!
7) I got lucky charms for like the first time in a month and it was such a spiritual experience that I'm taking on a photo and sharing it with you... don't judge :)
