I know that Sister Kullick and Sister Rothmund are standing right now

RACHEL - Dear family and friends,

Halloween was on the Monday of last week and it was also our Preparation day. So the Mission had us switch around our work hours and had us work 3 hours in the morning and then have our P-Day for the rest of the day. We were able to teach Tony Duggan and Jason Brown at the last minute at Sister Radcliffe's home during lunchtime and we taught the Ten Commandments. Honestly, I love the Ten Commandments and teaching it to people. It is great to help those we are teaching know that these are still relevant and valid for them in their own day-to-day lives. They very much enjoyed the lesson as always! That evening we went to a Recent Convert family's home for a dinner. They are called the Sayle family and I love them! Brother and Sister Sayle and their three kids, the oldest is 14 years old.

On the Tuesday we really focused on calling by Former Investigators in Port Erin and trying to only stay down south so that for this month we don't use as many miles as last time. We were able to make 3 appointments from those who have been taught years before. Then in the evening time we taught Tony and Jason and just read from the scriptures with them in Alma 22 about Aaron and King Lamoni's Father. I have really fallen in love with that experience in the scriptures! It paints such a vivid picture :)

On Wednesday we only were able to teach Members or Recent Converts and Less Actives which is always lovely. However, we did call by a referral that Brother Sayle gave to us which is his mom. She made us some Fruit teas, which I have to say I was quite fond of. She was mentioning to us that she usually does not let religious people in but she then kept looking at us and saying, "But there is something different about you two...” Sister Rothmund and I seem to be getting that response quite often, more than what I am use to. We have heard recently that we are always so happy and shining. One of our Investigators looked at me and said, "Have you ever seen ‘Stardust’?" to which I responded yes. "You are her!” she said to me while motioning light coming from my face and smile. I thought that was funny but very kind as well. 

Thursday was an easygoing day where we did lots of calling by people. That evening, a member took us out to a restaurant, which is a weird feeling being a missionary, I'm not use to it but it was tasty!

Friday we got 1 New Investigator who is actually a Church Warden at his Methodist Church in Port St. Mary's. He is an older man with a good heart but we are not quite sure if he understood correctly what we shared with him. I will keep you posted. That evening we taught Tony the Law of Tithing. It went very well and he readily accepted it as we taught him. We had a single sister there with us as well as the Bishop and their miracles alone were spectacular. Tony is solid and has a great testimony!

Saturday was Guy Fawkes Night (Bonfire Night). Last year I was unable to go out and it was the same this year too. The mission had all the Missionaries doing their Weekly Planning Session during the night in our flats. Our Investigators attended an activity with all the members so that was very good. But before we went home we had tea with our Ward Mission leader and his wife. They are so wonderful! Sister Clarke has cancer and has been fighting it for a couple of years now but she's amazing. She made something called a "Hot Pot" and I absolutely love it! She was able to give me her recipe!

Sunday was our Stake Conference. It was very different from what I have ever experienced before. Since we are across the sea, they did a live broadcast for the Douglas Ward (us, on the Isle of Man) and that went well - sort of. The person who was in charge of the video camera in Liverpool was, well lets just say was trying to do as little as possible. This made it inconvenient for us watching on a normal size TV screen. At one point we couldn't really see the people speaking very well because they didn't zoom in and then the people's head were cut off for a couple of talks until they realized that we couldn't really see who was at the stand. Ha ha my goodness. But President Preston spoke and that was great because he asked all the Missionaries to stand. So, Sister Rothmund and I stood and then he said to the members to look at us and to become familiar to us. Then he gave us a little shout out by saying, “and I know that Sister Kullick and Sister Rothmund are standing right now on the Isle of Man right now too!” Our whole ward laughed because that was so unexpected. After Church we taught Jason and Tony and showed them a DVD on temples and Tony is really excited for the opportunity to enter into very soon. Afterwards we had a Ward Coordination meeting with Brother and Sister Clarke. It then got very cold that night as we were tracting and because it was very unproductive we decided to call by less actives and now we have some great follow up visits to make with them.

It seems unreal to say that this is my final email to you as a full time Missionary. Some days it has sunk in that I literally only have a week left and other days I am in denial and it doesn't even hit me. This service has been the most fulfilling experience of my life. Nothing has brought me greater satisfaction. The badge I wear means everything to me. I have worn that badge everyday for the past 18 months even on P-days and to think of the day when I will have to take it off is difficult for me. I love my mission and serving my God whom I love. I know God lives and that he wants each one of us to return back into His presence one day. I have been privileged to have played a small roll in other's lives to come unto Christ and I am so grateful for the very special people I know I was meant to meet. My life has been changed as I have had the opportunity to bear testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel and of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am deeply humbled and thankful for the members in my home ward and for the members in my family who gave of their means to support Teresa and I in this service. I feel as though I could never truly express how happy and grateful I am for you. I love you all and I suppose I will see you soon. Take care.

Love always, Sister Rachel Kullick

Please, will you pray for her too?

TERESA - Hi Family!

This week has been really busy and next week should be as well, which is excellent as a missionary!

First off it was Halloween this last Monday and it was so great! We obviously couldn't go chapping or anything and we were told that if we didn't have an appointment then we needed to be in our flats by 8:00p.m. Well, I made sure that it was be a really fun Halloween so we went to Maria's house. She is a member of the YSA and she's from Idaho. She's here for an internship. But anyway, we all get on SO great! So we (the Elders, Kelvin Troy, and us) went over and had dinner and decorated cookies and carved pumpkins! It was sooo fun! It was a really nice way to spend my last Halloween on my mission!

Tuesday was my last District Meeting and it was really good! We have such a great District Leader, Elder Wilkins. He always comes up with the most creative ideas, which is nice because it really adds variety. This time we did the old school telephone with two cans and a string!  We related it back to prayer with our Heavenly Father and feeling the Spirit. It was sooo good. Then they unexpectedly asked me to bear my testimony! I did but it was pretty teary eyed I might add. I'm really going to miss this. But I've loved my district here in Dublin and the work here has been nothing but fulfilling. :)

Tuesday was really busy too with all these appointments! We saw Aoife and talked to her about Eternal Marriage/Temples/Family History. She really liked the idea of temples. And she is really getting it too because she realizes the severe importance of priesthood authority. She was going on holiday for the week (touring around with a friend's band) and she said she was taking her Book of Mormon without us even asking about it! We also warned her that Satan is going to throw a whole lot of opposition at her especially before her baptism, so we told her to be aware of that. We taught Vito as well and this lesson was completely directed by the spirit! Because we went in there with Gospel of Jesus Christ planned but we didn't really feel good about it. We ended up just reading with him from the Book of Mormon when Christ comes and visits the people of the Americas. It was perfect. Then we read about how we need more than just a Bible in 2 Nephi. It was just what we needed to focus on with him at this time. But to be honest, I don't think he is really interested in joining the church ever and he doesn't meet with us too often so I think we're not going to focus on him too much. Our new investigator, Mario, from Lithuania came to the YSA activity on Tuesday! It was so great! And as the Missionary YSA reps for the stake, we can go if we have an investigator there for the first time, so we got to join in! It was a lot of fun and Mario had a good time as well :)

Bad news on Wednesday though. We were planned to meet with Mario that day and we got a phone call from him in Prison! Apparently he has a bad history of shoplifting and he was caught doing it again and was put in jail. Oh my goodness. He wanted us to come and post bail for him and make an appearance in court for him. What?! We told him that the church could be no way involved in this and that we couldn't do anything about it. So yeah, pretty crazy but actually not too shocking for a mission… stuff like this, believe it or not, happens ALL the time!

Thursday was good as always with Weekly Planning. I couldn't believe that this was my second to last Weekly Planning Session! But I'm trying not to think about it!! Haha But that night we met with a member from Brazil, Patricia, who's struggling at the moment. Elder Geilmann (senior missionary couple) and Podge Brophy (our Ward Mission Leader) gave her a blessing and I wrote it down for her. She said that made her feel better. Then we had dinner at Babs’! We haven't been able to see her for about a month! And she usually feeds the missionaries every Friday. But she told us her serious family problems at the moment and we just hope and pray that everything will sort itself out.

Friday morning we saw Claire White who is a less active only because of health problems. But I love this woman so much! She is really easy to get on with and a good laugh. She just had knee surgery that has still been causing her trouble so we took her little dog Bo out for a walk. As we went along we talked to this one guy and his dogs. He wasn't interested but we thought this was a creative way of finding!! Haha.

That afternoon we had lunch with Sharon and Stacie Mahony and it was delicious as always! Sharon and Stacie told us such a touching experience while they were at the temple this past week. They said that Stacie admired and loved us so much. She wanted to serve a mission and had been thinking about it for a while!! Can you believe that?! We were sooo touched to know that we had influenced her even in the smallest way to serve a mission. It was such a lovely experience! Then we went to the Troy's house for dinner. Now I absolutely adore the Troy's!! They are so wonderful! Kelvin Troy, the RM, gave me some good advice to adjusting when I go home. He said that it's going to be really hard at first but you just have to jump in it with both feet and change your attitude. That was sooo important for me to hear!! I will definitely be trying to do that!

Right now it's really unfortunate because Mary & Patti Green are fighting with Brenda Blackmoore. It's really sad, especially since Brenda is just new in the church and her friends are not being there for her in this important time. But to be honest, the situation is quite ridiculous and Sister Weight and I are staying out of it but WE feel like the adults here! Goodness me, it's really sad to watch but we hope and pray that their hearts will soften toward each other so this will all sort itself out. But Brenda has been great about it and it hasn't stopped her one bit in coming to church and remaining strong, good for her!

Sunday was a mental day! Ok so it all started happening at church. It was fast and testimony meeting and actually Patti Green bore her testimony and said how much of a role we played in her coming back to church, it was very sweet of her and nice to know we've been helping! The whole meeting was quite good actually. And then after church we met with this one member of the YSA that has been struggling with some things. Sister Weight and I could really relate to her problem and no joke, the spirit put into my mind something that helped me with that. She was sooo happy and loved my idea! She said that she felt inspired to meet with us. And then she said something else that really got me. She said, “even if you haven't been able to help anybody else on your missions, know that your helping me save my life and that you came here for me.” It was so special to hear that! And I know that she will be ok :)

But let me tell you about how the spirit directed us to do something we needed to do! Vito came to church but bailed out early without us knowing. Aoife was there and her baptism was announced for this coming Saturday! We went to class and then left because we then realized that Vito wasn't there and we went to find him (this was before we knew he had left). We went out into the foyer and who comes out of Primary but Aoife. She didn't look like herself and we knew something was wrong when she started crying. We went outside and talked. She said that that morning she woke up feeling completely unmotivated with everything; school, church, family, everything. At Sacrament she was just trying to pray so hard to get rid of that feeling but it kept bogging her down that she couldn't. She said it was horrible. I can't even tell you how sad we were to see her this way, it just wasn't Aoife and it was scary. We bore testimony to her telling her to make no doubt about it that it was Satan trying to attack her before something amazing will happen. He knows how much potential she has and he doesn't want her to achieve it. Honestly though, you all don't really understand how severe this change of heart for Aoife really is. When people found out she was getting baptized their mouths dropped to the floor. People kept saying that it was a full-blown miracle. They said if you had known her before then you'd know that she was completely anti - the devil's advocate. So you can see how Satan doesn't want to let her go. He had her and now that she's coming back to Heavenly Father he is NOT happy. We talked to her for a bit and she reassured us that she still wanted to be baptized but that she felt so completely torn in half. At the Chew & Chat members of the YSA went up and talked to her and I know that helped a little. A lot of ward members could see and were worried about her. When they found out we were seeing her that night they were a bit more reassured that we'd help her through it. Nice of them to think so much of us but gosh, we had a LOT of pressure with this! But that night was amazing. We talked with her a bit and she was feeling a little better. She was just so spiritually, emotionally, and physically drained though. So we felt inspired to watch “Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration” with her. She liked it and we bore heart-felt testimony of prayer and how much we mean to our Heavenly Father. Aoife was slowly returning back to herself again. And as I gave the closing prayer we were all really swept away by the spirit as we prayed for this feeling to leave her and be replaced with peace. Aoife is an AMAZING young lady and I think the world of her. I love her so much and as we walked out of there I felt a reassurance from the Holy Ghost telling me it was going to be all right. Please, will you pray for her too?

But needless to say this experience has been really good. I've learned a lot and I've seen how real the adversary is and his power to attack Heavenly Father's children. I personally believe as well that he focuses more on the most elect ones because he knows what they can accomplish and how great they can become. That makes a lot of sense with Aoife. I know that this gospel is the ONLY way to everlasting happiness. Think about that - a happiness that doesn't fade with the lights, and the music, and the crowds. I know that Heavenly Father loves us with every part of Himself and I'm so grateful to be His daughter. What an honor. I'm grateful I was found worthy to serve a mission for Him and see all these lives change! Thank you for everything. I love you.

Love Always, Sister Teresa Kullick

Booked every night

RACHEL - Dear family and friends,

I am very blessed to be in the Douglas ward and privileged to serve along side of them. I have let some of them know about my departure soon and have literally booked every night with tea appointments with members in the ward from today till the time I leave the Island. I sure do love them and will miss them dearly.

Since Wednesday, let me see what has happened! We had visited one of our best fellowshippers (who is in Young Women's) in the hospital and then we had ward coordination meeting with our ward Mission Leader and his wife who are two of the strongest members I have seen in my life because they are going through a lot right now and are still smiling. I really do love them both. Thursday we had Weekly planning that takes place for three hours in the flat and then finding and calling by people to potentially teach. On Saturday we taught a new Investigator who is from Poland, Bart. He has a very strong belief in God and he truly understood the Restoration. He is a strong Catholic and he knows it's either one or the other and not like what you always seem to hear nowadays which is, "oh all religions lead to God" which is a false statement, but he is going to prayerfully make his choice. During “Joseph Smith's First Vision” he said that he felt light and peaceful, we helped him to understand that that is the Spirit telling him what he heard was true. We are excited to see him progress! That same day we were sooo blessed to have made so many appointments with Former Investigators who had been learning years ago even back to when the Sisters were here teaching them on the Isle. All we did was go through our Area Book and pick out those we feel impressed and either called by them or called them to see if they desired to learn again and the three we tried all said yes! Yippee! We are happy about that!

Sunday was lovely of course and it was a Fast Sunday. We had one of our Investigators attend church with us, his name is Sean. We told him right before we left that if he doesn't show commitment then we cannot teach him anymore and he came to church! So that is a very good sign :)

Unfortunately, Stuart the 22 year old we were teaching wants to take it slower now because he has gotten busier, but hopefully the Sisters in the future will see him get baptised. His mother, Elaine as well has decided to not continue to learn but she still noticed the difference. Jason (Tony's friend) is struggling with personal issues so we decided to push his date back further until he's overcome them. Tony is still on schedule to be baptised on the 12th of November and boy oh boy I am excited! This is the reason why I skipped Sports Day and I am happy I made that choice!

Today is Halloween and we cannot go out teaching after a certain time so we were asked to work for three hours in the morning and then P-Day for the rest of the day until a certain point. Sister Rothmund and I taught Jason and Tony the Ten Commandments with Sister Radcliffe this morning (the one we are living with in the back of her extension) and it was great as always! Sister Radcliffe is one of a kind and she is an amazing Latter Day Saint and every time we talk to her I am always bending over because I am laughing so hard, she is hilarious!

I am very blessed and I know that I have had such great help and support while I have been serving. I know that God is always guiding his missionaries to those who need to be found and is helping the members to be more missionary minded as well. I love this work and I love this Island!! I feel at home when I am in Chorley and when I am here, I love it!!


Thank you so much for all that you have given me and Teresa! We love you all!
Love always, Sister Rachel Kullick

Major flash floods

TERESA - Hiya Family!!

So this week started off kind of crazy with unexpected rains. Now in Ireland, this is not too much of a surprise but it rained hard for hours and hours. We were on a bus to go to our appointment with our recent converts, Brenda and Sean and as we looked out the bus windows it was shocking what we beheld! Major flash floods. The stuff you see on movies or the news but never do you actually live through it! The water was up to knee high and cars were being abandoned. The pipes were breaking up through the pavements and it just kept getting worse and worse! Then we realized that we needed to turn back because there would be NO way of getting back to our flat at the end of the night. So we literally "jumped ship" and headed back home. A lot of it was sloshing through the rain till we caught a bus back. But the saddest part was when we got back to our flat (we live in a 3 story flat, a basement, middle level, and then a top story. We live in the middle level.) Well the girl that lives below us was standing outside with all these bags. Apparently her flat was flooded up to her knees and she had to find a place to stay for the night. We felt extremely sorry for her and hope she'd be alright and that the flooding wouldn't reach our house! But we did help her carry her stuff to the bus stop. Wow, talk about a manic Monday! Haha

So this week has been really good! Filled with recent convert lessons, less active lessons, member lessons and investigator lessons! It's been way great! Nothing too crazy to report....let's see what can I tell you... Well we were waiting for the bus one day to go see Aoife for our lesson. When the bus pulled up it was early and we still had loads of time so Sister Weight and I felt impressed that we should just wait for another bus. So we did and then this random guy stops us and asks if we're Christians. We start talking to him and he's from a different country, Lithuania, his name is Mario. He had just gotten to Dublin and was homeless. He was so excited when we gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a time to meet with him at the church. Then we actually saw Aoife and took the bus with her and had our lesson. It went super well. We talked with her about opposition and how Satan's going to hit her hard especially before her baptism. But we saw Mario the next day and the lesson went so well! He was scheduled for the 19th of Nov and said he'd come to church this Sunday! At first he wasn't going to come to church because he had an appt. with this place to become a pastor. But we talked with him and said "It doesn't make sense to go be a pastor for another church that doesn't have the entire truth. You need come to our church because we have the WHOLE truth". And he said simply, "Yeah, ok!" We were so happy! And he was happy. He kept saying that he could feel the spirit there and wanted to feel it ALL the time! Good stuff!

We had dinner at the Troy's. The one's where the dad struggled to pay tithing. Well I gave him the paper with mom and dad's testimony on it and he LOVED it! He said he knew he was receiving blessings because he was paying Tithing. Then on Sunday he was ordained to the office of the Melchizedek Priesthood! I was SO happy!

We also taught a fun lesson on Missionary work to Brenda and Sean. We had one sweetie and said that that was Abinadi and his efforts as a missionary. But because of him one person listened (put another sweetie out) and then 450 people were baptized. Then we dumped out loads more sweeties. We told them that they can make a huge difference starting just with them. They responded so well to it and Sean wants to tell all his pals at school and Brenda took some pass-a-long cards to give out! It was great and they are moving along SO well!

Sunday was a good day. We had our Dublin Stake Conference and all the talks were wonderful. It was centered on eternal families. We had 3 investigators there and 2 of those are with a date for baptism! We had a lesson with Aoife that night and she just adores the thought of the temple! She is so excited to go do the work for her family that has passed on. Man she is the BEST. I love this girl! We did a fun lesson too. We read out Lehi's Vision of the Tree of life and we all drew it out as I read it. It was great! She loved it and she also loved the interpretation of it too! She drew a good picture :) I gave her my drawing and she gave me hers. On hers she wrote this and I almost cried when I read it! It said, "Dear Sister Kullick, Thank you for teaching me how to hold onto the iron rod. I love you millions! Aoife" Oh my goodness! I am so grateful for the opportunity to have met her and to have been a part of her conversion process! She has changed SO much! She has taught me that anybody can change and that it may be a slow process but it can happen, which actually is what our training with President was on this week. He taught us about being the 4th missionary (a sacred missionary) and about whom we want to become and what we're going to give up to become that. I LOVED it! It helped me see that I am still on this process of change even after my mission. It was such a lovely and spiritual training.

Thank you for everything you do for Rachie and I. I love being here and I love you all!
Love Always, Sister Teresa Ann Kullick

I love being a full time missionary

RACHEL - Dear family and friends,

This past week has been very wonderful! On Monday, (P-day) we decided to teach one of our Investigators in the morning and then in the evening we taught a less active and then our Investigator Stuart. It was a good day. On Tuesday we were blessed to have two new Investigators from Lithuania! A daughter and a Father, we are excited to see how they progress. Then on the Wednesday Stuart brought his mom over to a lesson with us and she became our new Investigator as well! Then we were able to teach Tony our other Investigator in the morning and as always that went well. We sat down with one of our non progressing Investigators and said to him that he either needs to keep his commitments and come to church or we cannot keep teaching him and that went really well! All in all we had Members at every lesson and that is always amazing help from the Lord!

On the Thursday we traveled over to Liverpool on the ferry ride at 3pm. On the Friday, Sister Rothmund and I attended the Specialized Training and Interviews in Chorley! (My home!) It was a great experience; we were with the Preston Zone! I am truly grateful and thankful for two Mission Presidents because the Lord placed them in my mission at the right time perfectly for me. When President Preston came over to the Isle of Man with us, I asked if we could have a Sports day in the Mission and on the next calendar for the transfer I see a Sports Day! I was so happy and he had been telling every missionary in the mission that he put it on because it was my idea. He has expressed to me the numerous thank-yous from missionaries for it. However, I later found out that if I went to Sports day on the 9th of November I would have then been immediately transferred to a different area with a different companion till the end of the transfer while another Sister would take my place and right after Sports day take my place and go back to the Isle with Sister Rothmund. This thought stung a little, but especially when we had 4 Investigators dated for baptism on the 12th of November and I wouldn't be there to see it. So Sister Rothmund and I really thought about it and decided to miss the Sports Day. When I asked President at Interviews if I could do that, he was shocked but granted our request. Very bitter sweet but we are sacrificing something good for something greater.

After the Trainings at Chorley I was able to see my Smith family that I taught and were baptised about a year ago! I cried when I saw them and was so happy to see them! What a sweet experience! But if that wasn't enough, I found out that a man I taught in Swinton was getting baptised and President gave me and Sister Rothmund and I permission to see him get baptised on the Saturday the 22nd! It was amazing to see him have completely transformed from when I first taught him with Sister Bibb to now! It was great to see Sister Bibb and Sister Allison (my old companions) again! It was incredible as well to see my recent Convert Sister Helen and the members in the Swinton ward!

On Sunday, we went to the Liverpool Ward and were on exchanges that day with the Liverpool Sisters. Sister Rothmund was with Sister Chuo and I was with Sister Gong from Mainland China! It was a completely different experience teaching Chinese individuals because on the first lesson they don't teach the Restoration because the investigators don't even have any idea or concept of God and what it is or could be. So we taught the relationship and relevance God has to them and then to invite them to pray and read the scriptures at the end of the lesson instead of inviting them to be baptised because they would have no understanding on what that even meant. Fascinating.

On the Monday we went to Manchester South for my final Zone Conference. We had President Kopischke there from the Seventy and He asked us to set an amount of individuals that will be baptised in our area till the end of the year. So we all had time alone with our companion and prayerfully considered and set a goal. Sister Rothmund and I set 5 for the Isle of Man and to focus our time in Ramsey. We were with the Ashton and Manchester Zones and it was great because my old companions Sister Suaybaguio and Sister Dell were there! A lot of questions were answered that Conference with a Question and Answer Session by President Kopischke. At the end, there came the departing Testimonies by those missionaries that were leaving. This time it was a tad different because President Kopischke asked us to make it short and powerful by stating 3 things.

   1) The greatest insight I have gained/learned on my mission was...

   2) What I want my grandchildren to know about my mission is...

   3) A simple and powerful testimony on the Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith...

Sister Babbel went first and then me. I have dreaded this day for my entire mission and it makes me sick to my stomach to think how fast that day has come. I began by saying, "The greatest insight I have learned on my mission was to enjoy every moment, even the difficult ones; to not fast forward but to love what you are doing now. What I would want my Grandchildren to know is that my mission for me was a process of sanctification. Understanding what my Heavenly father wants me to do to become like Him." Then I bore a simple testimony of my Saviour and Prophet expressing simply how blessed we were to be preserved for this time and how I know Heavenly father loves me by giving me two Mission Presidents that have changed my life. I know these things to be true because of the way I feel when I read the Book of Mormon.

The whole time my eyes were brim with tears but I felt peaceful. Sister Rothmund and I got permission to go to the temple on the Tuesday to confirm our goal of the amount of baptisms for this year and I desperately needed to go to the Temple anyway because my mind is filled with tons of questions and unsettled feelings about Investigators and personal life. It was a special time for me. I also got to see Brother Holm again in Chorley who I spent New Years day with him and his wife by the Temple. That night we went home and boarded to docks onto the ferry to arrive back at home on the Isle of Man. It is a wonderful feeling to be back and I am excited for the work here!

I love my mission and I love being a full time missionary. Nothing can compare to the feelings of seeing souls come unto Christ. Thank you for all that you do for Teresa and I! Take care and love you all!

Love always, Sister Rachel Kullick

I LOVE being a missionary

TERESA - Hello Hello!!

OK, I can't even begin to tell you how AMAZING my week has been...but I'm going to attempt to try!! By the way mom, I received your package! Thank you! The LOOK bars are as delicious as I remembered! Ha ha

OK so I will start from the beginning that way you can see the turn of events in order! We had a lesson with Aoife on Tuesday. She has been progressing SO well up to this point! We taught her the law of tithing and she loved it! We did it in a really fun way too that I knew she would like. We said, "Since we love you so much we want to give you 10 sweeties." Then I placed them in her hands counting them as I went. Then I asked if I could get one back and without saying anything she handed one to me. Impressed, I told her thank you and because she did that I said I wanted to give her even more sweeties. So she held out her hands as we poured mini Mars bars out into her hands and they were spilling all over the place. Then we related it back to the Law of Tithing - Malachi 3:10:

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

She responded so well!! It was great :) We asked her what she thought about everything that we've taught her and she said that she believed everything (we've taught her all the lessons too) and that it all made sense, that she's prayed about it and that she knows it's true!! Oh my goodness!! We were so beyond excited to hear that from her! Then I said to her, "Aoife, remember when we first taught you? And we asked that when you knew what we are teaching you was true, that would you be baptized?" She smiled and said, "Yeah." Then I responded, "Well, what do you think?" and she then said, "Physically and spiritually, I have NO problems with it at all. But there's this mental barrier in my mind that just freaks out by the thought of it. I really can't explain it because I have no idea what I mean either." She went on to say that she was really angry when her mom and her brother were baptized and that maybe she's subconsciously been building up this little wall without her knowing. Although she's not mad anymore and loves the church she may have created a mental block. Now this was a tough one. We asked her to pray for help to get over that and to even pray about a date to be baptized. She said she would and then we went away happy. But immediately when we got out of there Sister Weight and I both had the impression that we needed to fast for her ASAP. Sister Weight then said, "We can start right now!" So we did! We started our fast on a bus to the city! It was excellent!

OK now onto the next...We have been teaching Sean (8yrs) with his mom there this past week and not only has it been good for him but also for Brenda! We were teaching him from the nursery manual and Sean has been improving so much! I'm not going to lie, we've seen a drastic change with him since we've started teaching him and the gospel has been in there life. We even had the Primary President come out teaching with us to see him and talk to him and his mom about Primary! It was so nice. It's so wonderful when you can get the ward members out with you, it just adds a different spirit there you know?

Then we saw Aoife again and taught her about baptism and confirmation and we did another neat visual the she also loved! We had two bowls filled with water. One had pepper in it and the other was clear. We had her dip her finger in the pepper one and told her that was her in the world, how a lot of the time we get stained with those bad things and sins. But when you get baptized (we had her dip her finger in the clean bowl) then you get clean from all the sins and bad things of the world. And when you receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost (we put dish soap all over her finger and dipped it into the world) then you are protected from those evil influences. As she dipped her protected finger in, all the pepper dispersed from her finger and she came out clean. It was SOO neat! What great object lessons huh? We never told her we fasted and we talked about her feelings on everything. There was still no change as far as we could tell, even though she knows it's all true and when she even defends the church when others try to bash it. But she said she'd come to Brenda and Sean's baptism (first one she'll ever attend) so we were happy about that. But I'm not going to lie; I kind of went away thinking that the fasting didn't do much to help.

Day of BAPTISM!! It was amazingly wonderful! Everything went according to plan and all smoothly too! Out Ward Mission Leader, Brother Brophy took care of everything :) He's a member of the YSA as well and has been helping fellowship Aoife and they've become good pals! But anyway, I was asked to give a talk on Baptism, Confirmation, and Enduring to the End and that went well, I really just talked to Brenda and Sean as everyone listened haha. But it was great!! And then after as everyone was eating, Brother Brophy said that he was going to talk to Aoife about setting a date for baptism! (Because we hadn't gotten anywhere with that so far) As they were gone I felt I should talk to Aoife's mom. I pulled Mary Burke aside and I asked her if Aoife had spoken to her about the lessons we've had with her and she said she'd only gotten bits and pieces. Here's the thing, Mary is REALLY big on not pushing any of her children into the church so she really takes a back seat to it all. So I took the time right then to tell her everything. I told her that Aoife knows the church is true and wants to be baptized but isn't sure when. When I was talking to her about it, Mary's eyes started to tear up. She told me that she NEVER thought she would see the day. She said if I had only known Aoife before then I would know how big of a deal this is and how impossible this seemed for her to believe that it was actually happening. Then to my utter surprise Aoife comes running back in and excitedly says to her mom, "How would you feel if I got baptized on the 12 of November?" I can't even tell you how happy I was!!!!! I couldn't hold it in!! And Mary was in complete shock! She said that that was around the same time she had gotten baptized 5 years ago, around the 12 of November! Can you believe this?! Ever since we started teaching her I always thought to myself that I would be the happiest if I were able to see her baptized!!! And now it's happening! I told Aoife that was right before I leave and we both got a little emotional, haha, and I just couldn't stop hugging her!!

Fasting works people, it really does. Now I'm not saying that that's what did it but it certainly helped!! This family has changed forever. And it further proved to me that people can change. Even if it seems impossible it IS possible. So this week was far beyond amazing! I LOVE being a missionary!! Nothing is better than this. And the gospel is completely true! I love this!

Thank you for Everything!! Rach and I appreciate you and love you!

Love Always, Sister Teresa Kullick

"Really? Is this it?

TERESA - Hi my dearest loved ones!

I can't even tell you how happy I was to hear about Grandpa doing the sealing ceremony mom!!! I totally teared up. That will be amazing for Kelly and Matt. But to be honest, I am MOST excited to have Grandpa do that for Rach and me on our wedding days. I have ALWAYS pictured him doing that for us and how extremely special that will be. But mom you slipped in a note that Grandpa thought of trying this because of the wish of Rachie and I? Oh my goodness, that makes me feel so loved. I love them so much and I'm excited for them to be an ACTIVE part of my sealing! I am SOO happy!

Life in the mission is very strange at the moment. I am in my last transfer and time is slipping away fast. I remember listening to Brother Chris Patterson when he got back. He said that he felt like something was missing and you could sense that longing to be back in the full-time mission field. I remember sitting there and Rach and I both looked at each other and agreed that we both wanted to feel that way. My goodness, I guess you should be careful what you wish for because I'm starting to feel that sense of sadness to leave this wonderful experience. I guess it is a good sign because it shows that I have been really trying hard to be the best missionary I can be. But please don't misunderstand; I KNOW going home is what I have to do. I cannot be a full-time missionary forever. I need to go home and progress and help that part of the Lord's Vineyard grow and blossom. And plus, if I stayed a missionary forever, that would mean I would never see Rach again, and I really couldn't do that. I just can't help but think, "Really? Is this it? The year and a half is up already? I feel like I have JUST barely started." Well then, I still have time to go and I'm going to give it all I've got and finish hard. Like how I would at the end of a run - I sprint to the finish line.

Well, we saw a sad thing happen....we lost our car. Ok ok, I guess it's not THAT bad really. While President was talking to me and telling me he was taking it away he said, "You're not going to have it easy in your last moves Sister Kullick!" haha, And I responded, "What? C'mon President!" haha But no, that did not convince him to let it stay. So now Baldoyle is a bus/walking area. Not going to lie, it's been a little stressful to try and figure all the bus times out and where they go but Sister Weight has been a real star and has been right on top of it for us. (Really though, this is why I was NEVER called to white wash - I couldn't have handled the stress!! haha)

So remember how I told you that Brenda Blackmore's son Sean (8yrs) was getting baptized? Well guess what, after talking it through with the ward and with our ward mission leader we decided that they should be baptized on the same day!! So that way they can enter the waters of baptism together as a family. I am SO excited! Brenda and Sean are so ready and have that HUGE desire to join the church! Honestly, Brenda's faith is bursting! She said that she doubted for a second if she could afford to pay the bus fare every Sunday for church but then she thought about it and realized that it was Satan who was filling her head with doubt. She knew it was test and so she remained strong and held to her faith! I was sooo proud of her when I heard that! We are going through the lessons with Sean now; more Primary based ones so he'll really be involved. I love this. I LOVE the idea that their home will now be a place where principles of the gospel are being taught. Sean will now grow up in the gospel and their family will progress so well! It's been lovely to see their progression. Every time Sean prays is so amazing! He loves it and he even tries to help mom when she gets stuck. I feel so blessed to be a part of this family's conversion! Things are going really wonderfully :)

On Sunday as well, we found two new investigators! Joel & Patricia are from Ghana and Kenya. They have 3 little ones and they are so great! We are so excited to continue to meet with them and to see them progress as well!

And onto one of my favorites! Aoife is doing better and better!! We have one more lesson to teach her and then we've officially taught her all she needs to know to be baptized. We are going to ask her next time to prayerfully consider a date for baptism. Honestly, if she wanted to she could get baptized next week! But as you know this has been a long time coming. Aoife holds a lot of weight with this family and we are trying to be careful. But we finally got her involved in the YSA!! She was not excited about doing that but we introduced her to an amazing girl Lorna (who's actually going to serve a mission in St. George in Feb!) and she has totally fellow shipped her!! It has been amazing! It's so wonderful when members step in and do what we missionaries can't. We leave and come and go but they can help her make lasting friendships in the ward. Honestly guys don't underestimate fellow shipping investigators or recent converts!! We need members help! But anyway, it has been excellent. We are going to see her on Tuesday and see how things are going then. But here's one example of her progression: I asked her how her not smoking was going. She looked a little sheepish and said, "Yeah about that..." And I was like "Nooooo Aoife!" haha I'm not even exaggerating! I totally did the "movie" no. haha. She then said, "I only had one, well not even one, like only 2 puffs and that was it. But if it makes you feel any better I felt horrible about it! I couldn't believe I gave in but after that I realized I didn't even want them. After that, I took the rest of the pack and 'Titanic'ed them in the sink." I can't even tell you how happy that made me!! So even though that may seem like a setback, it totally isn't! She showed herself and us that she was serious about it and wasn't going to do it again, especially by getting rid of the rest herself.

It has been marvelous to see these little miracles happen. I am trying hard to be better and I am excited to be here. All of the love and support that Rach and I have received has been crucial to our progression as missionaries and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for that. I love you all and I love this gospel!

Love always, Sister Teresa Kullick

P.S. Thank you for the Tithing letter dad and mom! I really appreciate it! Love you!