RACHEL - Dear family,
Wow, just hearing about Grandpa actually being able to perform the sealing ceremony just made my eyes brim with tears! Especially with the comment that he has wanted to try because of Teresa and I as well... wow I love you Grandpa! You’re in my prayers and I had been secretly praying (as well as my companions) that one day you would be able to one day perform my sealing ceremony, but I honestly cannot wait just to talk to you and tell you all the experiences I have had and people I have met whilst on the mission! I look forward to that day.
The Isle of Man is a choice land and I am not just saying that. Miracles have been occurring these past couple of weeks with 4 Investigators dated for Baptism on the 5th of November! We had 5 Investigators attend church with us and we are so excited for them all! Their names are Stuart (22 years old), His mom (Elaine), Tony and Jason (early 30's). We are very excited about how much they have progressed and the desire they have to be baptised! We met Tony and Jason just this last week while Sister Rothmund and I were tracting and they were just walking by so we talked to them! Stuart invited his mom around to hear about what he was learning and she wants to be baptised as well! I know that Sister Rothmund and I are blessed and really are trying our best to work hard every day and every moment. Unfortunately, we are leaving the Island for about a week which makes me worried when we have so many great investigators at the moment dated for the 5th of November. But we are going to go to great lengths to see that they are ok and taken care of by the ward! So much work that needs to be done but I would not have it any other way to be this busy and with my hands full in the Lord's work. We are also working with a Romanian part member family to have the husband baptised in December because he already knows it’s true and it’s looking really good that he will before the New Year. But we must take the good with the bad, Zoe sadly decided to stop seeing us but it's just not her time yet, one day she will.
The weather here can be sunny but then the next it can be overcast, misty, or rainy...very unpredictable. However I am grateful for our car! I am very grateful for a loving companion and have looked back at all of them and have realised how blessed I have truly been to have so many wonderful and life changing companions whilst on my mission. Things and the work have picked up drastically this transfer and I am so happy about all of it and with my calling as a missionary. I have thought about it a couple times before on my mission and thought to myself, "Would I do this forever if I could?" and I thought, yes I would love to. But there doesn't have to be an end (that's the very good thing about all of this!) because no matter if we are wearing the badge or not, we are always full time missionaries. We love the Douglas Ward and the Douglas ward loves us and appreciates all the hard work that we do! They are missionaries along side of us and there is no us and them but all of us working together! They are wonderful at giving referrals of just maybe even random people or friends they know which is wonderful because we have gotten a new investigator from all of it!
I am very grateful for a loving Mission president and wife. The Prestons truly care about every single missionary individually just like the Bullocks. I honestly needed both of them to help me evolve into who I am today. But most importantly I am very grateful for my Savior and Father in Heaven and for this beautiful plan that we have been given to become like them. I love the Book of Mormon with a passion and am grateful for the chance I have to make a small difference in the lives of others. I have grown to the people from the UK and British Isles and have made lasting friendships. Oh how grateful I am.
I love you all and thank you for the support given to Teresa and me constantly.
Love, Sister Rachel Kullick
Monday, October 17, 2011
More Pictures from Teresa
Sister Baxter blowing out her candles on the 2 cupcakes we made on the morning of her B-day!
Baxty blowing out candles on the cake from the district
Our Hamilton District in East Kilbride
The Lang Family in East Kilbride - they are the BEST!
Out at Pizza Hut with the Edward's family
On Pratt's Hill with the new missionaries
We stayed clear of there! Ha-ha!
(As her mom I'm wondering how she stayed clear but got close enough to take the picture!)
Helensburgh
Sister Peterson and I on the pier at Helensburgh
On the Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond!
(Those banks don't look so bonny to me so maybe I don't really know the translation of "bonny"!)
Pretty sunset in Eagleshem
Another one! (see above)
Pamela Galbraith and I - she's amazing!
Sister Isobel Green and I
Sister Jean Buchanan and I - our joint teach machine in East Kilbride
The gang at Family Home Evening in East Kilbride
On the ferry going to Ireland!!
Exactly how I feel :-)
Jesus in a box in Dublin City Centre with Sister Ring
Plaque reads: "May God bless the taxi drivers. Keep them safe and watch over them on their journeys."
The Spire in Dublin City Centre. Built in 2000
The Dublin Zone
Elder Schroeder, Sister Kullick, Sister Ring, Elder Freckleton
Sister Ring and I with Tom and Jasmina - Fantastic couple
Mt Joy and our district T-Shirts! Igor made them for us for free!
Baxty & I
The Hamilton District at Lock Lomond on the 4th of July
Baxty & I with Scottish History @ Loch Lomond
Sister Baxter & I doing Weekly Planning :-)
Sister Baxter and I with Sister Black - we called her "Black Attack" hehe
Us with Shona Lytell. She's awesome!
Me & Baxty's comp t-shirts = Unity!
This says it all...
Sister Peterson and I at Ian Smith's baptism
A bunch of sisters at the mission home for the Smart Start Conference
Some of my Dublin Zone :-)
Sister Ring and I - my current comp!!
Mt Joy District
Sister Baxter and I on the 4th of July
Sister Baxter and I with Bishop Cook's family in East Kilbride
Sister Baxter and I at Loch Lomond
(Those banks look "bonny"* to me now!)
(AND I just gotta say that took about 4 hours to upload, caption and complete!)
*Bonny means pleasing to the eye, handsome, pretty
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Changing Before Our Eyes
TERESA - Hiya family!
That's so great Kelly's getting married!! When did she start dating this guy? Too bad for Jeremy, I guess it wasn't meant to be! That's so wonderful; tell her congrats for me :)
Ok, so this week has been SO great - full of little miracles and such fun missionary work!
Sister Weight and I went out QGCing one day and we hit a high goal of 22/4 potentials! It was so great :) And let me tell you that is very good for Ireland standard for one day! So that got us totally pumped up for the week ahead of us.
Thursdays are ALWAYS busy here in Dublin! Sister Weight and I had WPS and then we had dinner at the Burkes (Aoife, our investigator's family) and it was really great! You can see that family getting closer and closer as Aoife has been learning more and more about the Gospel! I can't even tell you how amazing it's been to teach her! Plus, she's been off cigarettes for 4 days now and that a huge accomplishment for her!! She was such a heavy smoker and she really wants to stop! And we also taught her about the 10 commandments and she LOVED it! She kept saying throughout the lesson, "Whoa, I've never realized that before." or, "Are you serious? Man, I've got some changing to do." It was AMAZING! I love this girl so much I know I'm going to cry when I leave! It has been an excellent opportunity to see a person literally change before your eyes! She said she adored General Conference and wants to follow them. Honestly guys, when I first got here she hated the missionaries and had NO interest at all to learn! Now, she's progressing and changing in the gospel so fast! We are teaching her tonight and I really can't wait for that :)
We taught Vito again, the Italian man, and he is really enjoying the lessons. He's gone to Italy for a week so we'll tell you more about how things go with him when he returns. He thought it interesting that we view the Fall as a good thing and he said that it made sense! So things are looking really swell there. Oh and we dropped Kevin, another investigator, because he's got some serious issues that he needs to sort out first. I hope he gets the help he needs.
But let me tell you it has been busy busy busy! We have been working a whole lot with Brenda Blackmoore, our investigator with a baptismal date for the 22nd! She is doing SO excellently! She hasn't had one cup of tea since we've taught her the Word of Wisdom! She came to church on Sunday and loved it. She said she loved being apart of something :) Also, her son Shawn, who's 8 yrs, went to Primary and LOVED it! It was a little different because they are preparing for the Primary Presentation. Since we wanted Brenda to be in the classes and Shawn was a little hesitant to be with out mom, we went on splits for the day with our Ward Mission Leader's permission. So I was with Shawn in Primary with Sister Hancock (a senior Sister) and Sister Weight was with Brenda and a member! It worked out wonderfully! And they both enjoyed it very much. We taught her the Law of Chastity and the Law of Tithing and she responded so well to those too! In fact, when we taught her, she was excited to pay tithing and out of the blue Shawn said he wanted to pay tithing too! It was so neat. Brenda asked Shawn if he wanted to get baptized into the same church as mommy and he said yes! Brenda was so happy to hear that! (She didn't want to push him at all) So we will be teaching Shawn the lessons and he's scheduled to be baptized on the 29th of this month! A week after Brenda's! I am SOOOO excited! A little family! I feel so blessed to be here in Dublin and apart of their conversion! Also we've been working with Patti Green, Mary's less-active sister and friend of Brenda's, and she came to church on Sunday! That is a huge stride for her! She talked with Bishop and he told her that she could get to the temple if she continues to come to church. She was bursting about it! What great experiences!
And Sunday was wonderful for a whole bunch of reasons! We went over to the Hancocks, The Senior missionary couple, for dinner ant it was their Canadian Thanksgiving! We had quit the feast and it was nice to tell each other what we were thankful for. I went first and narrowed it down to 4 things:
1. The Gospel
2. My family
3. Rachel (I know she's in the family bit but I love her so much and am so grateful for her that I counted her twice!!)
4. Being on a mission in the Scotland/Ireland Mission
It was so nice to go around and share that! It was a good Canadian Thanksgiving! Haha
We visited a member family, The Aliphons, and they are SO great! We had so much fun with them teaching them about the Plan of Salvation. And we were all excited to set up another appointment! Plus, Victoria wants to be baptized (the youngest one who just turned 8) so we will work with them on that too!
But I want to share with you an experience I had after church that was really special. So remember the Troy's? With the RM son, Kelvin Jr. and the Irish mom who taught me how to make French fries and the American dad? They are one of the BEST member families in the ward! And they even have daughters away to school at the moment and they always say that I remind them of one of them! I love it! Well, the dad, Kelvin Troy Sr. is one of my favorite people. He is so enthusiastic! My companion and I were talking with him after church for a bit. And by the way, he kind of struggles in the Gospel sometimes. He told us how he loves the church but how he has some problems with a few things - one being tithing. He said that if the family is the most important thing then you need to look after them first and make sure you get the bills paid and all that. And he didn't see how paying tithing could really help with being able to pay his bills. OK, just so you know, I have a STRONG testimony in the principle of tithing specifically! So I was so happy to talk to him about it! I told him about my dad. I told him how he had been unemployed for years and years with a few sporadic jobs in between. But that basically we weren't getting that much income and we were struggling. But I told him that my parents had ALWAYS decided that they were going to keep God's commandments and were going to pay a full, honest tithe on whatever they had. I told him that we saw miracles from that and that I never went without. We were always taken care of by our Heavenly Father because we proved to Him that He was more important than material things or money and that we would trust in Him over anything else. I told him how grateful I was to have a dad that set that example for me. That because of that, I will NEVER not pay my Tithing because I know that it is real and that it works. After that Brother Kelvin Troy Sr. looked at me sincerely and said, "Really Sister?" and I said, "Yes, I know that paying your Tithing will ONLY help you." He looked at me again and said very determined, "Sister, alright, I'm going to start paying my Tithing." It was such a miracle! He said that if it worked for my dad then it could work for him and that he would give it a shot. I am so happy! I am so happy that I was able to help someone through my parents' trials and experiences. So I'm telling you this dad, those trials were blessings in disguise for me. Thank you for helping me gain that testimony!
I LOVE it here. I love my mission. And I love you all. Thank you for loving Rach and I. We couldn't have done this without you.
Love Always, Sister Teresa Kullick
P.S. Dad I know your story would really help him. Would you mind sending me your complete experience over email so I can give it to him to read? I know he would LOVE that. Thank you :)
Potential Priesthood Holders
RACHEL - Dear Family and Friends!
Wow! Congratulations to Kelly for her engagement! Is this the same young man that had his mission call and she was going to wait for him or a new young man? But that is great! I am very happy for her! Give her my best wishes but will be there for the wedding! (At least I can go to one of them! ;))
This week began by doing service for Sister Radcliffe (the member we are living with), which is always a great time. She is truly hilarious and very down to earth, she's great! Well her daughter got married this week so on Thursday and Friday the house was truly crazy (good thing we are at the back in the extension but we can still hear everything and helped them out a tad)! It was wonderful to see her daughter in her wedding dress right before she went off to the church to get married and then on the Saturday she and her family took the ferry to the Preston Temple for her to be sealed! So Sister Rothmund and I helped fold the table napkins for the reception and so now we are feeding Sister Radcliffe's cat, Thomas, till she comes back which is Wednesday.
The Monday was not a P-Day for us because it was transfers week and so it was on a Wednesday. On the Monday we taught Zoe again with a member and at this point we are not going to push baptism anymore because she actually opened up to us a little with tears in her eyes saying that if she did, she would loose some of her family and friends so she needs to know that this is the right decision for her. Well, she came to us first so we are grateful for her thirst to learn and she has already enrolled in Institute so this is the beginning of something great!
I do not recall if I mentioned a wonderful miracle that Sister Rothmund and I experienced together as we were having tea at a Recent Converts family home, the Sayles. Well at the end of the lesson that we were teaching them, their nephew who is 23 years old came in and sat there with all of us. We left their home but then we remembered we have to ask everyone for referrals and so we ran back in and they said, "Well how about you teach Nathan?" So we taught him on the spot and it was great! We taught him again and apparently he says that everything in his life right now is going pretty great unusually and we let him know that that is no accident and that someone is watching over him. Then following that day, we taught our investigator Remus whose wife is a member and had a great heart to heart with him. Just so you know EVERY missionary that has ever served here has wanted to baptise Remus because he is so amazing. We finally got him to pray and ask the Lord if he should be baptised on the 23 of December (because that was the first date that came into my head) and he promised he would! He knows he needs to be baptised its just a matter of when.
On the Wednesday evening, we taught Shaun, our other Investigator who is 23 years old as well. The elders before us were teaching him and he is just struggling with progression. We laid it out for him that we cannot continue teaching him if he does not keep his commitments or desire to change. We then asked him what would even be holding him back from being baptised and continuing to get better. He thought for a moment and said, "Well actually I don't know really...I guess nothing would hold me back from being baptised." She we set a baptismal date with him right then and there and are progressing to that, hope all goes well!
On the Thursday Sister Rothmund spent the majority of the day finding and it was raining all throughout. Well at the end we ran across this older woman, Ann and she said lets go back to my place and I will give you a cup of tea. So we went back to her home and just had water ;) but she said that she never just invites people that she meets on the streets into her home but she said there was something different about us our auras shone. I thought that was wonderful and so now we are going back to teach her and she said she would even like to feed us! So we are going over to a Potential Investigators home to eat a meal with her! That has never happened to me before! That evening we went and taught a young man of 22 years old, Stuart in Ramsey. The miracle of how we found him because our Zone had a weekly focus of speaking to busy people one day and so he was on the phone in town and we went up to him and asked if he could hang up his phone because we had a message to share with him and he did! Haha she we finally got to teach him and we had planned to teach the Restoration lesson but for the first time on my mission I had felt prompted to change it to the Plan of Salvation. He apparently lost his father a while back and recently his little niece. At the end he said he would be baptised on November the 5! It was great! We are excited to see him progress.
It is quite interesting the type of individuals we are teaching at the moment of YSA men. This Island really has young people who don't know they are looking for something and you would be great priesthood holders and missionaries. It is exciting to see the progress of those coming unto Christ.
On Sunday we taught the YW class with about 5 girls in there and it was helping them understand their worth. It was great! I gave them a commitment that I have developed on my mission and for my entire life to avoid using negative language. No words like fat, stupid, idiot, dumb, ugly...oh even typing those words out make me cringe. They are harmful and destructive and if we can use them so easily for ourselves than it's not too hard to say it about others. I have had to remind my companions constantly to not use those words, not so much about others but about themselves. I am grateful I have never had the instinct of desire to put myself down or to think I was worthless but that especially now more than ever I have begun to truly understand how I must conduct myself true to my divine heritage which is a daughter of a Heavenly King. I love my Savior and my father in Heaven, I know we have all been preserved for this time and because of that we are very very special. I love you all and thank you to Trish for her letter to me! I loved it! I hope all is well with everyone and thank you so much for helping Teresa and I be what we know we can become! Love you all!
Love always, Sister Rachel Kullick
P.S. Mom, are there any Sister Missionaries in our stake by any chance? Ha-ha just wondering.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Week made perfect by General Conference
RACHEL - Dear family and friends!
I am staying in the Isle of Man with Sister Rothmund still this transfer! I am very happy about that. This may be a short email but I hope it is still a little interesting :) This week was made perfect by General Conference. I had 10 Questions for this Conference and was excited to find that most all of them were answered! The Talks that touched me the most was the one especially in the Relief Society session by Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf. The 5th petal as he spoke about got me all choked up and reminded me of my worth. :) And I loved the 3rd petal too!
In the Saturday Morning session I enjoyed Pres. Boyd K. Packer. As he spoke I couldn't help but think of his daughter who has meant a lot to me and how her and her husband has changed my life, President and Sister Bullock my previous Mission President. He spoke about such wonderful and important things that helped me remember the eternal perspective. Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf again who helped me ponder on how much my Heavenly Father loves me as well as my true potential. In the Saturday Afternoon session I loved D. Todd Chrstofferson’s talk on Repentance which was inspired.
The Sunday Morning Session was probably my favorite! I loved Pres. Henry B. Eyring. I don't know about you but whenever an apostle or prophet begins to tear up in their talk, I always tear up too. I mostly remember the warm feelings I had during that talk and what I promised to become when I was baptized. I also loved Robert D. Hales' talk, what stood out to me was waiting for answers to prayers and Waiting upon the Lord. When I saw Tad R. Callister's name I was super excited because I want to read numerous books by him and his talk was so powerful and strong! I was mesmerized throughout his whole talk about the Book of Mormon and its truthfulness. I also loved Elaine S. Dalton speaking to fathers but I also applied it to parents and learned many things I want to be an example of with my children. Of course you cannot forget Pres. Thomas S. Monson! He was hilarious and I loved his testimony of prayer and having the courage to act on promptings from the Holy Ghost!
I still have yet to see the rest of the sessions but all in all, the conference and those asked to speak were there to bring peace and joy into my soul in great abundance!
I am so grateful for living Prophets and apostles today... I don't think we realize how blessed we are. I shudder to think about how I would either just sleep through some sessions before my mission or didn't have as much interest as I should have. But oh how grateful I am to have come to understand the great significance of General Conference and for the increased desire to remember and apply the words and principles of what they spoke into my own life.
Great news is that we received 6 member referrals this past week alone and were able to contact 4 of them! We have a new Investigator out of one of them so we are very happy about that beautiful miracle!
I really do know that my Heavenly Father is aware of me and the desires of my heart. He knows what I want to aspire to. I am grateful for the Gospel in helping me achieve my great potential. I have never loved the Book of Mormon as much now than I have ever before in my life and I know it is from God. Thank you so much for supporting Teresa and I in our service to the Lord!
Love always, Sister Rachel Kullick
I am staying in the Isle of Man with Sister Rothmund still this transfer! I am very happy about that. This may be a short email but I hope it is still a little interesting :) This week was made perfect by General Conference. I had 10 Questions for this Conference and was excited to find that most all of them were answered! The Talks that touched me the most was the one especially in the Relief Society session by Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf. The 5th petal as he spoke about got me all choked up and reminded me of my worth. :) And I loved the 3rd petal too!
In the Saturday Morning session I enjoyed Pres. Boyd K. Packer. As he spoke I couldn't help but think of his daughter who has meant a lot to me and how her and her husband has changed my life, President and Sister Bullock my previous Mission President. He spoke about such wonderful and important things that helped me remember the eternal perspective. Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf again who helped me ponder on how much my Heavenly Father loves me as well as my true potential. In the Saturday Afternoon session I loved D. Todd Chrstofferson’s talk on Repentance which was inspired.
The Sunday Morning Session was probably my favorite! I loved Pres. Henry B. Eyring. I don't know about you but whenever an apostle or prophet begins to tear up in their talk, I always tear up too. I mostly remember the warm feelings I had during that talk and what I promised to become when I was baptized. I also loved Robert D. Hales' talk, what stood out to me was waiting for answers to prayers and Waiting upon the Lord. When I saw Tad R. Callister's name I was super excited because I want to read numerous books by him and his talk was so powerful and strong! I was mesmerized throughout his whole talk about the Book of Mormon and its truthfulness. I also loved Elaine S. Dalton speaking to fathers but I also applied it to parents and learned many things I want to be an example of with my children. Of course you cannot forget Pres. Thomas S. Monson! He was hilarious and I loved his testimony of prayer and having the courage to act on promptings from the Holy Ghost!
I still have yet to see the rest of the sessions but all in all, the conference and those asked to speak were there to bring peace and joy into my soul in great abundance!
I am so grateful for living Prophets and apostles today... I don't think we realize how blessed we are. I shudder to think about how I would either just sleep through some sessions before my mission or didn't have as much interest as I should have. But oh how grateful I am to have come to understand the great significance of General Conference and for the increased desire to remember and apply the words and principles of what they spoke into my own life.
Great news is that we received 6 member referrals this past week alone and were able to contact 4 of them! We have a new Investigator out of one of them so we are very happy about that beautiful miracle!
I really do know that my Heavenly Father is aware of me and the desires of my heart. He knows what I want to aspire to. I am grateful for the Gospel in helping me achieve my great potential. I have never loved the Book of Mormon as much now than I have ever before in my life and I know it is from God. Thank you so much for supporting Teresa and I in our service to the Lord!
Love always, Sister Rachel Kullick
I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE
TERESA - Heya!
So quite a bit has occurred this past week. Let me start from the top.
A rather neat experience happened when we got a text from this guy saying that he wanted to meet with us. We had never met him before but we had given a pass-along card to his friend and she didn't want it but he said that he'd be interested to learn more about our church. So on Tuesday and Sunday we met with him and it went pretty well. He's very Catholic but he's curious to see what we believed. We taught him the Restoration and he responded quite well to it actually! In the closing prayer he even said that it went a lot better than he had expected! Haha Well, hey, that's great! I love investigators' closing prayers; they tell you exactly where they are at and how they are honestly feeling! It's extremely helpful! We invited him to be baptized when he knew it was true and he said that he would but it's a long way off from this point. But hey, that's not too bad! Then that night we had a lesson with Aoife and that went amazing as always! She is so great and I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to teach her! Tonight we are going to talk to her about the Word of Wisdom so we hope she reacts well to that (since she's a smoker). But it's been amazing to sit there and see the spirit work on her. Whenever she asks a question she's confused about and we take the time to answer it, you can literally see it click in her and then she has no qualms about anything! And THAT is what happens when you strive to teach by the spirit; otherwise we would just end up messing it up! Haha
Sad news though, we haven't been able to get a hold of Chedu. Sister Ring and I are getting worried about her. Her good friends from YSA also haven't been able to get a hold of her as well. So we have kept her in our prayers, will you as well? Thank you!
We have been working with Brenda Blackmoore allot lately and she is progressing REALLY well! Everything is on track for her baptism on the 22 of this month! Since she was raised Catholic and practiced it her whole life, it's been rather interesting to try and help her and teach her the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But it's been good! We've taught her all the biggies (ex. Restoration, Plan of Salvation, Gospel of Jesus Christ) and now we need to move on the commandments - I think the 10 will be good to cover with her a bit more in depth :) But she's shown some real improvement and has kept all her commitments!
We've been getting the chance to spend some time with members and it's been lovely! Tom and Jasmina are excellent and while we were over there for dinner we got to see a little slide show for the Reflections of Christ, The Book of Mormon one and it was real nice! Also we had dinner at the Meehans for the first time and it was great! They are a younger couple with two kids and one on the way. And it was actually really funny because Brother Meehan really reminded me of my brother Steven! It was so neat! They made me think of the day when Steven and Erika will have little ones and how they'd be with them, it was so weird but fun to think about at the same time! And we also visited Claire White and she's such a lovely woman and really funny too! She stays by herself and because of health she doesn't always make it to church so we will definitely go and see her more often! And of course we spend time with the Troys and Sister Troy made us dinner and taught me how to make homemade French fries! OK so most of you will think, well that's easy; you didn't know how to make that? Haha Yes, I didn't know but now I do!
And here comes the best part of the week.....General Conference!! It was AMAZING! It was JUST what I needed!! And guess what made it even better? For the FIRST time on my mission we had investigators at every session we attended!!! What a miracle! We have been sooo blessed!! And let me tell you, we were not expecting too many to come. And all the past conferences I've attended on my mission NO one has ever come so this was great! Better than great, EXCELLENT! So Brenda went to the Relief Society Session with us and then the Saturday Morning Session Kevin came. Saturday Afternoon session Brenda came again and then Sunday Morning Session Vito attended! And Aoife stayed for 3 sessions! After wards I asked her what she thought and she said, "Basically, I begged my mom if I could stay!" Can you believe that?! And the Sunday Afternoon Session is aired live here at 9p.m. to 11p.m. so we aren't allowed to stay and watch that one but I will later! Golly gee wiz, those were little miracles and I'm so happy it happened! In between the Sunday Sessions (for us it was Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning) the senior missionary couples made us missionaries and all the YSA dinner! It was delicious and very nice of them!
I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! The talks that really popped out at me were:
I love you all and I thank you for the help that Rach and I have received from you! Thank you :) Love Always, Sister Teresa Kullick
So quite a bit has occurred this past week. Let me start from the top.
A rather neat experience happened when we got a text from this guy saying that he wanted to meet with us. We had never met him before but we had given a pass-along card to his friend and she didn't want it but he said that he'd be interested to learn more about our church. So on Tuesday and Sunday we met with him and it went pretty well. He's very Catholic but he's curious to see what we believed. We taught him the Restoration and he responded quite well to it actually! In the closing prayer he even said that it went a lot better than he had expected! Haha Well, hey, that's great! I love investigators' closing prayers; they tell you exactly where they are at and how they are honestly feeling! It's extremely helpful! We invited him to be baptized when he knew it was true and he said that he would but it's a long way off from this point. But hey, that's not too bad! Then that night we had a lesson with Aoife and that went amazing as always! She is so great and I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to teach her! Tonight we are going to talk to her about the Word of Wisdom so we hope she reacts well to that (since she's a smoker). But it's been amazing to sit there and see the spirit work on her. Whenever she asks a question she's confused about and we take the time to answer it, you can literally see it click in her and then she has no qualms about anything! And THAT is what happens when you strive to teach by the spirit; otherwise we would just end up messing it up! Haha
Sad news though, we haven't been able to get a hold of Chedu. Sister Ring and I are getting worried about her. Her good friends from YSA also haven't been able to get a hold of her as well. So we have kept her in our prayers, will you as well? Thank you!
We have been working with Brenda Blackmoore allot lately and she is progressing REALLY well! Everything is on track for her baptism on the 22 of this month! Since she was raised Catholic and practiced it her whole life, it's been rather interesting to try and help her and teach her the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But it's been good! We've taught her all the biggies (ex. Restoration, Plan of Salvation, Gospel of Jesus Christ) and now we need to move on the commandments - I think the 10 will be good to cover with her a bit more in depth :) But she's shown some real improvement and has kept all her commitments!
We've been getting the chance to spend some time with members and it's been lovely! Tom and Jasmina are excellent and while we were over there for dinner we got to see a little slide show for the Reflections of Christ, The Book of Mormon one and it was real nice! Also we had dinner at the Meehans for the first time and it was great! They are a younger couple with two kids and one on the way. And it was actually really funny because Brother Meehan really reminded me of my brother Steven! It was so neat! They made me think of the day when Steven and Erika will have little ones and how they'd be with them, it was so weird but fun to think about at the same time! And we also visited Claire White and she's such a lovely woman and really funny too! She stays by herself and because of health she doesn't always make it to church so we will definitely go and see her more often! And of course we spend time with the Troys and Sister Troy made us dinner and taught me how to make homemade French fries! OK so most of you will think, well that's easy; you didn't know how to make that? Haha Yes, I didn't know but now I do!
And here comes the best part of the week.....General Conference!! It was AMAZING! It was JUST what I needed!! And guess what made it even better? For the FIRST time on my mission we had investigators at every session we attended!!! What a miracle! We have been sooo blessed!! And let me tell you, we were not expecting too many to come. And all the past conferences I've attended on my mission NO one has ever come so this was great! Better than great, EXCELLENT! So Brenda went to the Relief Society Session with us and then the Saturday Morning Session Kevin came. Saturday Afternoon session Brenda came again and then Sunday Morning Session Vito attended! And Aoife stayed for 3 sessions! After wards I asked her what she thought and she said, "Basically, I begged my mom if I could stay!" Can you believe that?! And the Sunday Afternoon Session is aired live here at 9p.m. to 11p.m. so we aren't allowed to stay and watch that one but I will later! Golly gee wiz, those were little miracles and I'm so happy it happened! In between the Sunday Sessions (for us it was Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning) the senior missionary couples made us missionaries and all the YSA dinner! It was delicious and very nice of them!
I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! The talks that really popped out at me were:
- -President Boyd K. Packer's (I LOVE him by the way! He has grown to be one of my all-time favorites!). His answered allot of my concerns for after the mission.
- President Henry B. Eyring. I have now made a pact that I won't let a day go by without reading the Book of Mormon ever!
- Elder Tad R. Callister's was excellent! It was a nice follow up to Elder Holland's talk "My Words Never Cease"
- Sister Elaine S. Dalton's was amazing! That one I was wrapped up in the Spirit the whole time! It made me think of you dad! And also of my future home with my future husband and how the Priesthood HAS to be the center of it! It was so wonderful :)
- President Thomas S. Monson's was most enjoyable! Helped me further recognize the importance of the Spirit! I love the Prophet! He's so funny!
I love you all and I thank you for the help that Rach and I have received from you! Thank you :) Love Always, Sister Teresa Kullick
Monday, September 26, 2011
Every single missionary wants to serve on the Isle of Man
Dear family and friends,
Happy Birthday dad! You should be getting a tiny package from me soon! I hope you had a great birthday!
The week began with going to a special place on our P-Day in Peel. We went to the House of Manannan, it was incredible! It was almost like a museum but was very interactive and very detailed and realistic! I really enjoyed it; it took you through almost the entire history of the Isle of Man up to the present. There is honestly so much to look at on this Isle that there is no time as a missionary to do all these things, but that's ok.
We were scheduled to go over to Liverpool for a specialized training and had a ferry taking off at 3pm. We had then planned to do our weekly planning on the boat ride over and then arrive at 5pm in Liverpool. The Sisters had already had some lessons planned for us to go to when we got there so we were very excited. Plans changed for Sister Rothmund and I however when the weather was very grumpy. It became very windy and then even stormy a couple hours before we would depart. So we got a call from the Mission Office informing us our Ferry was cancelled and that they were booking a later boat that would leave at 7:45pm and arrive in Hashem (Preston) at about 11:45pm. I was a little surprised at the changes but was glad we were still heading over for our trainings...eventually. Sister Radcliffe (the member we are "living with") gave us some sea sickness tablets to take before we boarded. So we did our weekly planning not on the boat but in the day instead and that filled up our time very effectively. Sister Rothmund did an OK job sleeping on the boat ride over, but I wasn't very successful. We arrived and we received a lift to travel over to Liverpool which took us about an hour and a half. 1:15 in the morning we arrived at the flat and thankfully we were able to sleep in till 8am. Because of that experience, I have been feeling the lack of sleep ever since then and hoping I will catch up again soon!
Our Trainings were a focus on our Quality Gospel Conversations and a new Vision by our new Mission President. Uniting With Members. We are very excited to see the miracles from the new Vision and I am very happy about this wonderful new way to even further strengthen our Mission.
The unusual part of our journey back was that more Missionaries would be traveling back with us. President Preston and Sister Preston! Ha-ha It was great! They came to the Isle with us on our Friday boat ride back at 11:15am and arrived on the Isle at 1:45pm. They would then depart on Saturday in the early afternoon. They wanted to primarily meet the Bishop and some members and Investigators. So, Sister Rothmund and I planned in detail all that we would do with them and who we should see. We planned this with those individuals in a week in advance because it is such a special occasion. First thing we did was arrive at the Chapel and have a Meeting with the Bishop, First Counselor of Bishopric, Ward Mission Leader, A ward Missionary, Us Missionaries and Sister and President Preston. It was a great meeting and the potential for this Isle is amazing! We then went to visit a recent Convert family with three kids called the Sayle family, they are great! Then we went and had tea with a Recent Convert and her husband (our investigator) and their two sons who are all from Romania. It was a very special occasion and they were very happy. Then we went and taught Zoe (our Investigator who is 25 years old) at Sister Radcliffe's Home. Everyone we visited really appreciated and enjoyed the Visit. I am very grateful for their visit here as well. I asked President that evening, "So can you now see why every single missionary wants to serve on the Isle of Man?!". They really did feel something special here.
On Saturday, we had our Cultural Night and a girl who is waiting to turn in her papers to serve a mission (originally from Oregon), baked an apple pie for us to represent America as I helped Sister Rothmund braid her Switzerland bread. It was a very successful ward Activity and very tasty too! I had no idea how diverse our ward is!
I am very grateful for the letters and support that is continually given to Teresa and I while we have been serving. Thank you!
Love always, Sister Rachel Kullick
Happy Birthday dad! You should be getting a tiny package from me soon! I hope you had a great birthday!
The week began with going to a special place on our P-Day in Peel. We went to the House of Manannan, it was incredible! It was almost like a museum but was very interactive and very detailed and realistic! I really enjoyed it; it took you through almost the entire history of the Isle of Man up to the present. There is honestly so much to look at on this Isle that there is no time as a missionary to do all these things, but that's ok.
We were scheduled to go over to Liverpool for a specialized training and had a ferry taking off at 3pm. We had then planned to do our weekly planning on the boat ride over and then arrive at 5pm in Liverpool. The Sisters had already had some lessons planned for us to go to when we got there so we were very excited. Plans changed for Sister Rothmund and I however when the weather was very grumpy. It became very windy and then even stormy a couple hours before we would depart. So we got a call from the Mission Office informing us our Ferry was cancelled and that they were booking a later boat that would leave at 7:45pm and arrive in Hashem (Preston) at about 11:45pm. I was a little surprised at the changes but was glad we were still heading over for our trainings...eventually. Sister Radcliffe (the member we are "living with") gave us some sea sickness tablets to take before we boarded. So we did our weekly planning not on the boat but in the day instead and that filled up our time very effectively. Sister Rothmund did an OK job sleeping on the boat ride over, but I wasn't very successful. We arrived and we received a lift to travel over to Liverpool which took us about an hour and a half. 1:15 in the morning we arrived at the flat and thankfully we were able to sleep in till 8am. Because of that experience, I have been feeling the lack of sleep ever since then and hoping I will catch up again soon!
Our Trainings were a focus on our Quality Gospel Conversations and a new Vision by our new Mission President. Uniting With Members. We are very excited to see the miracles from the new Vision and I am very happy about this wonderful new way to even further strengthen our Mission.
The unusual part of our journey back was that more Missionaries would be traveling back with us. President Preston and Sister Preston! Ha-ha It was great! They came to the Isle with us on our Friday boat ride back at 11:15am and arrived on the Isle at 1:45pm. They would then depart on Saturday in the early afternoon. They wanted to primarily meet the Bishop and some members and Investigators. So, Sister Rothmund and I planned in detail all that we would do with them and who we should see. We planned this with those individuals in a week in advance because it is such a special occasion. First thing we did was arrive at the Chapel and have a Meeting with the Bishop, First Counselor of Bishopric, Ward Mission Leader, A ward Missionary, Us Missionaries and Sister and President Preston. It was a great meeting and the potential for this Isle is amazing! We then went to visit a recent Convert family with three kids called the Sayle family, they are great! Then we went and had tea with a Recent Convert and her husband (our investigator) and their two sons who are all from Romania. It was a very special occasion and they were very happy. Then we went and taught Zoe (our Investigator who is 25 years old) at Sister Radcliffe's Home. Everyone we visited really appreciated and enjoyed the Visit. I am very grateful for their visit here as well. I asked President that evening, "So can you now see why every single missionary wants to serve on the Isle of Man?!". They really did feel something special here.
On Saturday, we had our Cultural Night and a girl who is waiting to turn in her papers to serve a mission (originally from Oregon), baked an apple pie for us to represent America as I helped Sister Rothmund braid her Switzerland bread. It was a very successful ward Activity and very tasty too! I had no idea how diverse our ward is!
I am very grateful for the letters and support that is continually given to Teresa and I while we have been serving. Thank you!
Love always, Sister Rachel Kullick
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