Good-bye to the Matsumori's

Hello!!

What a week! It's been a good one for sure! We went from 0 investigators to 3!!! That's quite a miracle (well, for me it is...) And it was fun to watch Sister Croese light up each time we met them!

So first there was Marco! He's from Honduras, and he's been in DC for 7 years. He really wanted to hear what we had to say! And we were able to teach him yesterday! It went well... But I'm not sure how much he really understood. His English is good... Just not enough to assure me that he understands everything. So we passed him to the Spanish Elders in our district! They were so excited! Marco is golden! He just needs to be able to understand what it is he's learning. :)

So that brings us down to 2 new investigators, but it's still cool! These are friends of a member in our ward. They're all in a psychology program together at one of the Universities up here. Jeweleon and Antuan. They're super awesome guys! Our first meeting, they mostly wanted to get into some deep doctrine, but Sister Croese and I were still able to invite the spirit :) It was a good meeting overall and both of these fine gentleman agreed to take the lessons. When we committed them to read the Book of Mormon, they committed us to read the Bible! Haha, so we are. Sister Croese and I read the Bible every morning. It's really interesting. I'm in Genesis 34ish? I'm reading the story where Joseph is sold into Egypt. He just fled from Potiphars wife... So whatever that chapter is. We've been keeping our commitment, so hopefully they are keeping theirs (that's totally how it works right? Ha.)

So what did you think of those announcements on Sunday? Missionaries get to use Facebook now? What? That's weird. I'm not sure really how that works, but I'm sure we'll get details and instruction when our mission is permitted to start using the internet. We haven't been given the green light yet... Maybe that will come with the new Mission President? We'll see. Speaking of which, he comes out here really soon... He officially starts on Monday, and I get to meet him (and hopefully his wife and kids) on Tuesday! I'm excited. It's really weird to think the Matsumoris are leaving though! The mission won't be the same without them, but I'm sure the change will be good somehow, too? Missions are weird. Everything is always positive! (It's kind of freaky haha)

Sister Bullock hugging President Matsumori goodbye

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I really love my mission. I love being out here and meeting people. i love how the gospel can help all of us- No matter our age, circumstances, past life, or whatever. The gospel of Jesus Christ will lift and heal us all. I'm so grateful for our Saviors Atonement. I'm grateful that I have a knowledge of God's Plan for us His children. And I'm so very grateful for this opportunity I have to share this wonderful message with my brothers and sisters here in DC. The mission is the best :)

One more story :) It's short and cheesy, but I thought I'd share it anyway! A couple weeks ago, our District Leader handed us pieces of his cut up dress shirts (we was about to go home) and read us the story of Moroni and the title of Liberty, then he had us make our own Title (what is it that will inspire us to keep going when the mission gets hard) so mine is hanging on my wall with my collection of pictures now :) It says Family: Past. Present. Future. Isn't that what this gospel is about- Family?

 I love you all! thank you for everything you do! "Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage." Doctrine and Covenants 128:22

22 "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. ^aCourage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into ^bsinging. Let the ^cdead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the ^dKing Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to ^eredeem them out of their ^fprison; for the prisoners shall go free."

Love, Sister Bullock

Letter dated June 19, 2013

Hello!

This week has been really fun! We've studied A LOT, but we've had a ton of fun while studying. And we've had a good time trying it out on some people! Such a great week, but I don't know where to start! Nor do I have a lot to report.

Sister Croese is amazing! We get along so well! We have a very similar sense of humor which keeps us laughing most of the day. She is a hard worker and very missionary minded (though, she likes to talk about her boyfriend back home a lot). But she's just adorable! She really cares for these people already. She just amazes me! 

Sometimes, I forget I'm training :) But then, I'm quickly reminded of my responsibility. Oi! But it's fun :) 

Sister Bullock and Sister Croese at a training meeting

Everyone wants to date Jocelyn. Can't blame them, she's gorgeous and funny. Jordan is still a punk, but a punk with a heart. And it's great.

I love my mission! I don't know why they almost moved us to Kensington. I would have been in the same ward, juts a different apartment. But, they don't really offer explanations. Especially when things don't actually happen. So, who knows?

I do know one secret! For the World Wide Leadership broadcast thing on Sunday, my mission will be used for part of it. I'm not in it, but you'll see a lot of people I'm out here serving with! YAY! it makes me happy.

My new mission president probably goes into the MTC today or tomorrow! That's exciting! 

Sister and President Cooke, Sister Bullock's new mission president as of July 1, 2013

Oh! And birthdays produce miracles! (Yesterday was Ally's bershday. Happy day, my dear) And we were able to have 2 other lessons and find a new investigator (Marco- I'll have more for you there next week), AND receive a referral from Salt Lake (never happens), AAAND everything just went well :) It was a good day. And today will be just as good. 

President and Sister Matsumori , Sister Bullock's out-going mission president

Tomorrow is the last time I'll see the Matsumoris before they leave. Sad day. I can't believe they're leaving! It's so weird! And the new President has kids that he's bringing with him! Young kids! That will be weird! But fun to see! 

I can't believe I only have 7 1/2 months left! What happened? Where did the time go?? I'm so confused. Also, I love my scriptures more than ever right now. I love reading them! Right now I'm towards the end of Alma. There are hidden treasures that I've never noticed before. Usually, it's just "war chapters-ugh", but now, I actually get spiritual things out of it too! it's awesome :) 

I don't really know what else to say. I probably have all these stories I'm forgetting right now... Sorry! I just love my mission and everything about my life right now. The Lord's hand is in all things! Just remember that! I love and miss you all! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Bullock

Sister Bullock at a trainers meeting

June 20, 2013

An exciting week!

June 12.2013

Hey there :)

Sister Smith, Jocelyn, and Sister Bullock

So this week has been eventful! First things first, JOCELYN GOT BAPTIZED!!!! But, of course, it couldn't just be that easy! So Jocelyn wanted 2 things: A) for the bishop to say her name right in sacrament, and B) to be dunked only once... :) So here's the story! It started off with the program! Things were all wrong, so it had to be re-printed and whatnot. Then her name was announced as Jacklyn (for the 2nd Sunday in a row.) THEN! There has been construction in the area, so when they started filling the font, they discovered the sediment build up! The water was SUPER brown! You couldn't see the bottom of the font! So they drained it and refilled it. The water was still brown, but less brown. And now they have the problem of filling the font in time! So they had a train of people going from the bathroom to the font with pitchers full of water. And there were buckets being used. And even a hose was brought in from outside. All of that, and the font still wasn't full when we started! But the service was so great! The spirit was so strong! Sister Smith and I gave the baptism talk together, which was a first, but it was really fun :) Then came time for Jocelyn to be baptized. She tells us the water came to right above her knee. Jocelyn is tiny, so that means the water was really shallow! But yeah, because it was so shallow (and her jumpsuit was too big) something was always sticking out of the water. After being dunked twice, they had her and Elder Bodily kneel down! Third time was the charm! Jocelyn's baptized, and so excited to receive the Holy Ghost! And we're so excited for her!!

Dirty brown water

Water pitcher train to fill the font for Jocelyn's baptism

Sister Morotti, Elder Bodily, Jocelyn, Sister Smith, Sister Bullock, and Elder Watts

Sister Bulock, Sister Morotti, Jocelyn, and Sister Smith

Okay, next! Transfers! I'm still in DC 2nd! YAY! I still get to live in the District also, which makes me really happy (they almost moved us to Kensington- by the temple).
And...
I'M TRAINING!!!!!!!


Yep, I have a daughter (as we call them here!) Her name is Sister Croese! She's from the Nederlands (I got the only international sister from the bunch! YES!) and she has the sweetest accent (you have to listen close to here it though!) She's 20 years old and has a rock solid testimony! She's going to be such a wonderful companion! I'm so excited to watch her learn and grow and become even stronger! But we get along great already! She is so cool! I love her! These next 12 weeks are going to be really fun! :) And filled with lots and lots of prayers. I don't feel ready to train, but ready or not here it is!

Sister Bullock and Sister Croese meeting for the first time (they were jumping)

Sister Croese and Sister Bullock June 12, 2013

"Mother" "Daughter" nametags

Third: Jordan might be considering a mission...? I'll have more on that for you next week :) I hope he goes. It'll be sweet! But he wants to marry this Utah chick... So we'll see what happens. He has a year to decide anyways. No rush!

Sister Smith, Jordan, and Sister Bullock....She said, "This is Jordan, see what I have to work with here?

Bonus: I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTIE SO A SWEET LITTLE GIRL! I'm so excited :) So I'll have a nephew AND a niece to meet when I get home! Yay!! I'm so excited!

So yeah. That is the big news for this week! I hope you enjoyed that :)
I love you and miss you all! Thanks for all you do! Let me know if there is anything I can do for any of you!
Love you, love you, love you!
Love, Sister Bullock

Letter dated June 5, 2013

June 5, 2013

Washington South Zone

 JOCELYN IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SUNDAY!!!! We're so excited for her! I love Jocelyn so much! She is so sweet and kind and sincere! She is so ready to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! I'm really excited for her to take this next step in her eternal progression! And, I can't wait for her to go to the temple for the first time! The peace and love she'll experience there... AH! I just can't wait! She has so many blessings in store! We're so proud of her :) (And thankful because all of this was nothing short of a miracle!)

AND! Jordan got BAPTIZED and CONFIRMED! And! He received the priesthood also. (Preach My Gospel says not to do it that fast, but oh well. I guess they do things a little differently in Provo.) He sounds so happy and so excited! He is being a great missionary, too! His friend is getting baptized soon because of Jordan's example (and because Jordan is a little pushy, let's be honest). But we're so excited for him. Oh, and he and his girly got engaged while he was in Utah, too. Sister Smith and I have been invited to the wedding :) It'll be in a year in the Timpanogos temple. Haha, this kid moves so fast! He'll be back here in DC this weekend, so that'll be interesting.

AND!!!!!! I have a new sister :) Congratulations to my Bruder and his Mrs! I'm so excited them!! I can't wait to see pictures and maybe hear some more details :) (hint, hint)

 

The Family: Maddux, Cesar, Beckham, Ally, Kris, Amanda, Logan, Rick, Flat Kelsey, and Sierra

Sunday was a pretty awesome day! We had 2 non-members at church and we were able to set up appointments with them, so now they are our new investigators. There was Christina, who is a former investigator, and Seunghee, who is from Korea. She's here doing some exchange program thing at AU. (We also have another potential investigator named Shamika who we'll teach tonight. Hopefully it goes well!) So that was cool. Then after church, we talked to Jocelyn and kind of set up her baptism. She seemed excited about it all so it was fun! Then! We went over to the VC for our shift. It was the Night of Music and Inspiration night :) Sister Clement (who is amazingly talented) was the Sister in charge of planning and organizing it this time. And because she's so amazing, everyone wanted to usher this event (we all really just wanted to see how cool she is, haha). But, almost all of the Sisters IN the program, were also on shift, so they got to be ushers which meant that  none of us other Sisters would see it. And it was so sad! really, it was! BUT. Then, 10 minutes before the program was supposed to start, we lost power in the main theater. So we had to have the program upstairs! So all of us (Elders, Sisters, President Matsumori) started scrambling around setting up chairs facing the temple :) It felt like ambassadors night again :) so even though we didn't have the Mormon Messages that were planned or the lighting or microphones, the night was so much better. It was probably the best one yet. The setting was much more intimate, we were able to play the Christus narration, and the spirit just filled to room. It was incredible. I loved it! The theme was the Plan of Salvation which made it even better. Sister Clement is a genius. So yeah, Sunday was probably the best day this week :)

Fun item of the week: We went to Shake Shack Monday night! It was super tasty! I highly recommend it :)

Shake Shack in Washington DC

I don't know. Now I'm just blabbing. I'll just share one more thing with you. Before leaving my Elders in the MTC, our whole district wrote each other letters. At one point this week, I was reading mine, and I found one from Elder Holladay! At the time I received this letter, I guess I just didn't understand it or something because I didn't realize what a sweet testimony was written there. And I didn't see how much it could really help me. But as I read it this week, I saw those things, and it gave me a little boost :) May I share my favorite part? Towards the end her says, "Jesus Christ didn't include himself in the commandment to be perfect* until after he came to the Americas in a Resurrected state. Heavenly Father doesn't ask us to be perfect in this life, He just asks us to be worthy. *"be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heave is perfect" compared to "be ye therefore perfect, even as I am" Perfect means complete." It's true. Keep that in mind as you go about your week.

I love and miss you all!

Love, Sister Bullock

PS. Happy Father's Day, daddy! Wish I could call you!