Wednesday, December 28, 2016

WEEK 21  

"We are just spiritual beings having a human experience"


Merry Christmas! 


This has been one of the best weeks so far. It was Christmas week plus we were able to do a lot of fun things. It is always nice to see my family. So this week we find out if we are staying or going. Usually transfer boards are out by now, it's about 12:30 right now so while I am typing this I might just interrupt myself and tell you guys about it. Anyways I will start with the miracles.


The biggest miracle this week was when we Skyped to our families at the Berniers and after we were done Amanda told us that she got her answer. She told us that while she was out side with the dogs she was just thinking about how much we missed our families and that we were still out here. She told us that she just got this overwhelming feeling that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. She told us that us being out here even though we miss our families that we must be doing this because we know this is true. We talk to her more about it and told her to pray about a date to be baptized and she told us she would and that she knows that she can stop smoking. That was super crazy because before she told us that she didn't think that she could quit. So that was the coolest miracle. We are hoping to set a date with Amanda and Rourke and have them baptized the same day. We hope to see if we can get Blaine to be baptized with them as well, but we will see.


Now I have some bad news. We talked to Jonny Banks who is teaching the temple prep class to see if he could come out with us and teach. He told us he couldn't but he had some news for us. The Fickle's came up to him after the class and needed to tell him something. All Jonny said was that James is still struggling with his word of wisdom issue. He told the Fickle's to just talk to us about it because we will know what to do about it. So then when the Fickles took us out to dinner they told us about James and how the past few days he has been drinking a lot. They said that James was going to just lie to us and say that he has been sober and still be baptized. He really wants to be baptized and go to the temple but Satan is working against him. We are trying to find a way to talk to James about it without feeling like the Fickle's tattled on him. But we definitely cannot let him be baptized yet, he is not ready. So that is something we are working on with him and hopefully we can still get him baptized.


There are a few more people we have been teaching that are progressing, but they aren't close to baptism yet. William is  one of those people. He is super interested whenever we come over and has always had a lot of questions. He said he came to church last week, but we never saw him and he said he was coming this week but I don't think he did. Hopefully we can see him come sometime soon. We are also going to be able to start teaching Brent again if he is still interested. So that will be in a week or two. He had a baptism date set but said Satan worked against him so hopefully we can get that all figured out. We should be able to start teaching Steve again, the person who makes violins. Since it's after the holidays it is going to be a lot easier to schedule things of people. A lot of people have just told us to come back after the holidays because they are so busy. We met this lady named Kelly who was shoveling her neighbors driveway and we got out and helped her. She doesn't have a church and we invited her to our church but sadly she didn't come. We are trying to go back there and to see if we can take some members with us. We also saw this lady named Sheila who is an ordained minister but doesn't go to church because she hasn't found one she likes. She is a little crazy and laughs superhard and everything but she liked having us over.


So this week we were not in Red Wing as much. On Monday we went up to Cottage Grove for a district P Day. When all the sisters got there we built our gingerbread houses and ours it was definitely the best. And then we went into the gym and just play games. We played three hit staying with a volleyball and we also played a game called signs. It was really fun since we don't see missionaries very often. There are some areas where you are super close to other missionaries and you get to do that kind of thing every P day. 


Tuesday was really fun too. We went on exchanges with our zone leaders and I went up to Hudson with Elder Oldroyd. We met in Ellsworth, which is in our area, and stopped by a less active that Hudson has. Then we went out to River Falls and spent most of the day there. We met this sweet old lady named Janette who is super awesome. We gave her a Christmas present which was just popcorn but apparently she loves popcorn and eats it for dinner sometimes.  Elder Oldroyd told me that she also loves frozen grapes. Elder Last and Elder Oldroyd baked sweets with her last time they were there. While we were there we shared Luke 2 with her about the Saviors birth. We also met this really cool guy named Kareem who actually lives in St. Paul but was visiting a friend. He was super knowledgeable about the Bible and he says every religion is good so he didn't talk bad on our religion. He also said something which I put in my quotes. He said "we are just spiritual beings having a human experiences." Then while we were trying to see some people in this neighborhood we decided to knock on this random door because their lights were on and when she opened the door I started talking to her and she stopped me to ask me why we were outside it's so cold. Then she let us in and we were able to share the light the world video with her and set a return appointment with her. Her name was Carol and she was super nice but a little awkward. The last thing we did that night was go and see some recent converts, Aiden and Gage. They are both still in high school and their grandma used to be a member but removed her name. She reached out to the missionaries and told them that she wanted to be baptized again and that she had two grandsons that wanted to be baptized as well.  So while we were there we played go fish! Ha ha and then taught them about the Saviors birth. Elder Oldroyd said it was super cool to teach them because all they knew was that Jesus died. They did not know much more than that and didn't know a lot about the Savior.


So then Wednesday morning we went to Eagan for district meeting and met Elder Last and Elder Huntley at the Eagan Sister's apartment. We usually do not have district meeting in an apartment we usually do at the church but we all went to Eagan because we were having a district blitz in Eagan. So after district meeting all of the missionaries in our district did missionary work in Eagans area. Eagan used to be an elder area but they just barely put sisters in and they don't have a lot of work. So we decided we would help them out and do this blitz.  I got to go with Elder Last again and it felt just like when I was in New Prague I really missed being with him. And then after we all met up and talked about it.


They took forever for transfers so I'm just putting it at the end. Drumroll please… I am staying in Red Wing with Elder Huntley! But one of my zone leaders, Elder Oldroyd is going to be one of the assistants to the president. Also they put sister missionaries in New Prague. I talked to the assistants to the president saying that New Prague needs sisters so I pretty much did that.  Well not much else happened this week so I look forward to talking to you guys again next week. I love y'all so much!

Elder Bullock





Elder Huntley and Elder Bullock's creation




















Goofing off

Monday, December 19, 2016

WEEK 20



Mele Kalikimaka! (Merry Christmas in Hawaiian.)


This week was a super long week, but it was a super good week and I enjoyed it. We have gotten a ton of snow and we may or may not have played in it. We even spent some time shoveling people's driveways. We went over to the Berniers and started shoveling their driveway, but Blaine didn't like that so he came out and helped us. Then later that night there was a bunch of snow again so we shoveled it again for him and he is one of those people that doesn't like getting help from people. Then we just went around and did some other people's that we were teaching. The only part I didn't like, well it was still pretty fun, was getting into our driveway with all the snow. We live on a hill so it took us about half an hour to get up it and we had to get a lot of speed and I had to push. We eventually got it and now it is plowed so it's fine now. It was also pretty cold, but the coldest was yesterday and when we left for church it was -40 with the windchill. So it wasn't too bad, but I think we have climatized to the cold or we just have good clothing because it hasn't been too bad at all. Well and we don't have to be outside that much with our car, but our car is never warm because by the time it starts warming up we are already where we were going.

We have been to the Berniers a lot this week and we even were able to watch 17 Miracles with them! I really love that movie and we are going to try and watch Ephraim's Rescue which goes with 17 Miracles. They came to church again and they always call it their church which is super cool because there are some people that get baptized and still call it your church. We went over for dinner on Sunday and they fed us some thick steaks... like they were huge. That was Elder Huntley's third time eating steak over there and only my first. But they are all totally getting baptized. I don't know if I will be here for it, but I know it will happen eventually.

We haven't seen Bernie or James that much this week, but they are still going strong. They come every week for all three hours and they are involved in class. James keeps saying how excited he is for his baptism and he just wants to go to the temple super bad. Last Sunday we told Bernie that she could go do baptisms for the dead and she told us she wanted to wait for James. We had a linger longer after church and we sat by them and they just always talk about their studies and how much they love the scriptures. It is so cool to see the change in them especially James.

On Thursday we did service at Connecting Connections and we were almost done cause we had to go soon, but then this guy showed up and he had some dressers he wanted to donate and that was exactly what we were looking for so we rode in his truck with him to his house to grab the key to his old house where the dressers were. While we were driving we were just talking to him and then he asked a few questions about the church and we were able to teach a lesson, but he was the pastor for the first covenant church so we were able to ask him some questions too. He was a super cool guy and when we got the dressers and dropped them off at the people who needed them we asked him if we could come by and talk to him some more and he said we could, but he is super busy so just call his church and we gave him our number too. So we are going to convert him and his church and the New Life United Pentecostal church. 

So I don't remember if I talked about this in my last email so if I did just pretend I didn't. Plus there is new stuff since last week... so we got this call from some missionaries in Rochester and they told us about a family that moved into our area and the guy was a member, but his wife wasn't and they were being taught in the past so we should go ever there. So we called him and set up an appointment with him. So we went over on Saturday and he let us in and they had two new puppies that were so adorable, but not as good as my puppies back home! So R****** used to have her own dog sled team and she is starting that up again so she got some puppies and will get more eventually I think. J**** works on hot rod cars and has had a bunch of cool cars and he also like guns and was showing us his guns and to be honest... they were pretty sick. He said they moved here for safety reasons and doesn't wasn't us to give their address or number to the members. I guess there were some people that messed with them and is going through court now. Anyways they told us that she wants to become a member and told us when they were available to meet and so we are going to start teaching her and set a date with her!

On Saturday we also saw William W. and he has always asked a lot questions when we are there and this time we were able to have more of a lesson than usual. He was asking questions like what you had to do to be baptized and things like that. He said he was coming to church but sadly he didn't. He will come eventually I think so we have high hopes for him! He just found out he has stage 2 lung cancer so we were able to talk to him about it a little and he was asking things like why we go through trials and things like that!

So we had a pretty crazy miracle this week. We went to the YMCA to try and get a gym membership and since we don't make any money we were trying to get a discounted membership and we went in and told them we were missionaries and we didn't make money and they had us fill out some stuff and then the next day we got this call from this guy that works there and he told us that him and his staff kind of talked it over and they decided since we do so much to help out the community that they were just going to give us a free six month membership and all we had to do was just tell them when we were leaving and stuff so now we are going to get to be swoldiers and it makes it a lot easier to work out since it is cold out and we can actually go running now!

So right now we are on our way to Cottage Grove to have a district p day and so I am typing this in the car on my IPad. We are going to be making gingerbread houses and playing board games haha so much fun! So I won't have as much time to email today! Anyways that's about it for this week! I will talk to y'all next week! 


Elder Bullock



-40 with windchill


Elder Huntley and I keeping warm

Ice crystals on the eyelashes






















Elder Huntley's snow angel
Elder Bullock's snow angel





Monday, December 12, 2016

Week 19


Hey guys!  So the highlight of this week would have to be the snow! I have been praying for it for awhile and we have gotten a bunch Saturday and Yesterday! We have been having a little trouble getting up our driveway and I usually have to get out and push because we live on a hill, but it is so worth it. It is supposed to get pretty cold soon too! Its been in the teens and I have gotten fairly used to it by now. The bad part about the snow is that not a lot of people came to church yesterday and we only had one investigator and that was James. I am getting pretty excited for his baptism and I should be here for it, but we will see. We actually stopped by yesterday and listening to him talk about the gospel I can just feel that he is really committed to it and I just love hearing his testimony! He called us a few days ago just to tell us he missed hearing our voices and that he had been reading some conference talks. I thought it was super cool! 


We saw the Berniers this week as well and it went super good! Amanda was in a good mood and she usually isn't because she was always hurting. They were asking a lot of questions and saying things like, if I got baptized, and it was super awesome. We are going to go over there and watch 17 Miracles with them sometime because they want to learn more about the saints and all that. They watched the movie The Prophet of the Restoration and they liked it. They kind of saved us because we had a dinner scheduled, but we were up in Oakdale for a Zone Conference and I guess every year they watch a movie as a zone around Christmas so we watched it's a Wonderful life. I also got to see the temple and it is super beautiful. It is a small temple, but I like it. It is actually right next to the stake center too. Anyways, we couldn't make it back in time for our dinner and so as we were driving home we got a text from Amanda and she told us to come over for some pizza so we were super blessed! 


Another cool miracle this week was we got a referral from one of the youth in the ward, Angela, and she was talking about the gospel with her friend Alex, but I guess they stopped talking so she wanted us to go over and try to teach her, but she didn't want us to use her name so we were trying to figure out how we could get a way in without using Angela's name and so we did a role play and Elder Huntley pretended to be Alex and I acted like I was knocking on her door. So after I was done talking Elder Huntley felt like there were some things I said that would really help her. So we went over to Alex's and we knocked on the door and it wasn't Alex, but I decided to just say what I was going to say and she told us she wasn't interested. Then we asked her if there was anyone she knew that could use this message and her face lit up and she said Alex. She told us that she was at her moms right now, but we could stop by on Monday after school. We think it was her step mom we talked to, but her name was Charity. I thought that was super cool and I know that wouldn't have happened if we didn't prepare for it.


Well not much else really happened this week. There weren't as many people at church this week either because of the snow! Anyways that's about it! I will talk to y'all next week.


Elder Bullock



Zone Conference

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree



Monday, December 5, 2016

Week 18- Four month mark




Hey guys!


I guess I will start with the highlight of the week! On Saturday I hit my four month mark and on that day I had my first baptism! It felt so awesome to be there for that and to see them change their lives. Elder Huntley did the baptism since he had been there the whole time for her and was the one who taught her the most. She did choose me to be one of the witnesses though which was pretty cool, I just made sure she went all the way under the water. We had a lot of people there to support her which was really cool to see. I know it really helps converts stay active when the ward is there to support them. When she got to the church she told us that Satan was working on her and  was a little stressed because she was afraid she was going to be late for her baptism. She was actually early, but she wanted to be extra early. We told her that she was fine and that we have everything planned out and all she had to do was be there. Then after that everything went awesome and it was a cool experience for us, since she was Hawaiian her husband said the opening prayer in Hawaiian and her daughter said the closing in Hawaiian as well. The next day on Sunday she was confirmed and Brother Hadler was supposed to do it, but when we all went up there he wasn't there so we had to have someone else do it and she asked Elder Huntley to do that as well. After we sat down we saw Brother Hadler and he told us he had to put his plow on since it snowed that day and he owns properties that he has to plow and so he was late. He explained it to them after and they understood so it was all okay! We got James involved in the confirmation by having him hold the mic during it and so he was kind of part of the circle. I am pretty confident that James is going to be baptized and I feel like they will both stay active in the church. It would be pretty cool to be there when they are getting sealed in the temple. 


We did see the Berniers this week as well and I love this family. We went by to see if we could set a date with Rourke and we kind of talked to him about the baptismal questions and told him about the commitment that he would be making. After we taught him his dad wanted to wait and make Rourke go to all three hours of church  for a couple months to make sure he really wants to do this and I was kind of mad because I wanted to set a date with him, but I see why now because on Sunday Rourke didn't want to go to the last two hours. So I feel like it was a good choice to wait for him. After we taught Rourke we talked to Amanda a little bit and we asked her if she wanted to quit smoking and if she wanted to get baptized and she said she wanted to quit, but she didn't think she could and that she could never be as good as the sisters in the ward. We were thinking about trying to get a  sister to fellowship her and try and help her and it was cool because on Sunday Sister McGrath came up to her after church and started talking to her and asked her if she had ever been to Relief Society yet and then asked her if she would come this week or next and told her she thinks she would like it and then gave Amanda her number and I thought that was super cool. Sister McGrath is super awesome and she is the one who converted her husband and now they have been through the temple. Now when we talked to Blaine after Amanda he told us he is not going to quit chewing and even if it is going to kill him he won't quit. He believes the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet and everything we tell him and he comes to church every week and even wanted to be baptized until he found out about the Word of Wisdom. So he chews during sacrament and even has his bottle and we were talking about it in Ward Council before church and some people were saying we should tell him to stop and the Bishop said not to worry about it because it isn't worth pushing him away. So then we saw him come to church and he didn't have chew in his mouth and that was the first time that I had seen him without it. He looked completely different and it was partly because he shaved his beard so he looked way different. So hopefully that can continue at least during sacrament!


We stopped by Brant's this week and we were supposed to meet with him on Saturday, but we were in the area and so we stopped by and then the next day he sent us a text and told us that he doesn't want to meet anymore until January and doesn't want any contact at all. He said it is because he is still having an issue with alcohol and he isn't on his medication right now so that is kind of a bummer, but hopefully we can continue with him next transfer. 


On Saturday we went to Mickey D's to celebrate our baptism and then when we prayed for our food a guy came up to us and thanked us for praying for our food and then just walked off and I wanted to run after him and try to get his name, but I thought that might be to weird. It was still a super cool  experience and we even took a selfie after! 


On Thursday we went and got haircuts and I was pretty excited because my hair  was that awkward medium length stage so we went to Sister McGraths and she cut it for us and I had the measurements from last time in my head and it liked it that length, but after I told her and she cut it... it was shorter than I wanted and so I was wondering why it was so short and I guess I was just super confused because later I realized that I told her the wrong length so now my hair is pretty short and I have come to accept it. Its getting cold enough where I can just wear beanies all the time anyway so its all good!


This morning we actually got to teach seminary so that was a cool experience and we taught about the parable of Lazurus and the rich man in Luke 16 and I actually learned a lot from studying it last night. I am not sure if y'all have read it or not but it talks about a rich man  and a beggar named Lazurus who is begging for food at the rich mans gate and the rich man never gives him any and so in this life the rich man lives a comfortable life and Lazurus is in torment and then after they both die it talks about how the rich man is in spirit prison and how he sees Lazurus in Abraham's Bosom, which is spirit paradise. So now Lazurus is the one who is living the comfortable life and the rich man is in torment. And the rich man cries out to Abraham and and asks him to bring Lazurus back from the dead and send him to go teach his brothers so that they won't have to suffer like he is and Abraham told him that he won't do that because he already has prophets on the earth and if they won't listen to them they won't listen even if they see a miracle. I can think of when Laman and Lemuel saw angels multiple times, but they still rebelled and it didn't convert them. Alma the Younger saw an angel, but he was converted and ends up being an amazing prophet and my favorite in the Book of Mormon. It wasn't because Alma saw an angel that he was converted it was because he fasted and prayed to know these things and I love what he says in Alma 36 about his experience, but you can read that on your own (; 


Anyways it was a good week like usual and I will talk to y'all next week!


Elder Bullock



Bernie's Baptism


Monday, November 28, 2016



Week 17


Man I feel like it was just yesterday that I emailed you guys! Well it has only been 3 days so that's probably why! I forgot to say somethings in my last email because I had to hurry so we could go eat a lot of food so I will probably talk about last week a little bit too.


The highlight of this week was on Saturday and Bernie had her interview! The Zone Leaders came down and I got to see Elder Last again. They met us at the church and then Elder Last did the interview and we helped Bernie get her suit. She is super excited and I can totally tell she is ready! She has been a good influence for James and he is excited for his baptism too. I was a little concerned about his Word of Wisdom issues but in Elder Quorum he was talking about how the beer wasn't tasting as good and how he can hardly finish one. I starting smiling and I felt super good about it after that. We are going to be at the Fickles and McShanes and they are going to be making a lot of Hawiian food! I am pretty excited for that. On Sunday we went over to the Jones for lunch and the Fickles and McShanes came as well and we set up everything for Bernies baptism and Elder Huntley is doing the baptism and I am going to be one of the witnesses.


I am pretty excited for my first baptism, but we have hopefully three more within the next  two months if not more. We have Bernies this Saturday and James' on January 7. Brants is on December 17 and Rourke Bernier wants to be baptized and we are trying to do it soon, like this month. We are going over there on Wednesday to set his date. Also on Sunday Aidan got his priesthood and I was able to stand in on the circle. We are trying to work on their parents Blaine and Amanda. The main thing holding them back is their Word of Wisdom. It is kind of weird because they come to church every week and they believe its true and are super supportive of Aidan and Rourke. The funny thing is that Blaine chews during sacrament, but we are going to try to challenge him to go one hour a week without it and that would be during sacrament. We are hoping that it will help him to overcome it. Blaine and Amanda usually leave after sacrament, but Blaine came back during third hour to see Aidan get the priesthood.  We ended up talking to him and another guy for a bit so Blaine decided that he would just stay instead of go home and come right back, so he came into Elders Quorum and it was so perfect for him. A lot of people were bearing their testimonies about how they were converted and how they overcame their addictions and the whole time I was just hoping that it was helping Blaine.


Brant is the one I am concerned about most because we haven't been able to see him in awhile because he had been working a lot lately. We are meeting with him on Saturday and and teaching him again. Hopefully he is still on track to be baptized.


On Friday there was the Holiday Stroll. They had people singing Christmas music and there was a parade and stores and things like that. Everyone in town was there so we  went and talked to people and tried to share the new Christmas Video! It is super good and I absolutely love it! If you haven't seen it it's on Mormon.org or lds.org or the gospel library app. Along with it is 25 ways in 25 days and each day, starting December 1, there is a way that you can serve like Christ did. Our zone is really trying to use this video and we are trying to share it 1000 times as a zone! I hope all of you can show this video to some one, either in person or post it on social media. Anyways we met a guy named Tom who is the scoutmaster for the area and we talked to him about scouting a lot and we talked about how scouting was for us and told him we were both Eagle Scouts and that helped us talk with him. We offered to do service with him and his scouts if he needed it and gave him our number. We also shared the video with him and he really likes how our church actually tries to do good things instead of just going to church on Sunday. We were only able to share the video with him because believe it or not people don't like watching a two minute video about the Savior. We also got to pet some penguins! They had some penguins in the basement of the library and we waited in a long line to go see them. There was also mini reindeer and the one had a huge rack for just a lil' guy. (We took pictures)


For Thanksgiving we went to the Hadlers and since it was p day we could just chill most of the day! We were able to talk with some nonmembers there and they asked us a lot of questions. So that was cool. Brother Hadler is a convert and he is the only member in his family so after he was baptized he went on a mission to San Diego! I thought that was super cool and Sister Hadler is a convert as well. She waited for him and they got married 8 days after he got back! He was a little older when he went and he told a story about his mission president getting his wedding announcement while Brother Hadler was still on his mission.


Well that is all I can think of that happened in the last three days so I will talk to y'all later!


Elder Bullock




Penguins at the Holiday Stroll

Mini Reindeer with a nice set of antlers

The car we have now

Friday, November 25, 2016

Hadler Thanksgiving Mannequin Challenge Nov 24 2016

Elder Bullock spent a part of Thanksgiving with the Hadler Family.  Their family did a mannequin challenge with Elder Bullock and Elder Huntley as "guest stars" ;). You can only see the Elders for a few seconds but it was fun to watch





WEEK 16


Hey guys,

So I guess you noticed that my p day wasn't on Monday this week. They moved it to today so that we could have our p day on Thanksgiving! Also I am not in New Prague anymore, I was transferred to Red Wing!


So I will start with the highlights of this week! First off I am with Elder Huntley again! It was a happy reunion and we were able to talk about what we did the last two transfers. We have told every member we talk to that we were companions in the MTC and it blows their mind! Second off we were able to get three date sets in the first few days! The first person is Bernie  and they actually set a date with her the day before I got there. She is super for baptism and she actually asked them if she could be baptized. She is Hawaiian and her sister is a member here in Red Wing, Sister Fickle. So this week we have been over at the Fickles a lot to teach Bernie's family, who are staying there. We finished teaching her all the lessons on Monday and planned her interview with the Zone leaders. We then set a date with James as well. He has some Word of Wisdom issues to overcome, but last time we met with him he was a week sober. He said he wants to start the year off with a clean slates so we set a date for January 7, but we told him that if he kept sober he could get baptized with his wife, who is getting baptized December 3! The Fickles are starting to come back into activity as well since the Bernie and James have been taught. Our third date set was with a guy named Brant. He was actually a former investigator who was being taught last spring and was actually going to be baptized, but then his girlfriend at the time stole a bunch of his stuff and sold it so she could go buy heroin. So that kind of ruined that, but when we saw him last Saturday we were finishing our lesson and we brought a member with us who actually helped out a bunch. Brother Edwards came with us and he was baptized two years ago and overcame a lot of the same things that Brant went through. His date is set for December 17 and he is going to have to overcome Word of Wisdom issues as well, but he said he can do it. We have a family we are teaching and their son Aidan was actually just baptized a few weeks ago. We went over to teach him about the priesthood since he is getting it this Sunday and his younger brother, Rourke, told us he wants to be baptized. He has said that before, but his dad, Blaine, said he doesn't really know what that means, but this time he told him he could if that's what he wants.  He pretty much taught him about what he is going to have to do after he is baptized, like go to church every week and read your scriptures and things like that. So we are going to go set a date with Rourke and then try and work on their parents, Amanda and Blaine. So hopefully we can convert the whole family. I know they will eventually because they believe all of what we teach is true, they just aren't willing to give up their addictions yet. Amanda smokes and drinks coffee and Blaine chews. I don't know if I have ever seen Blaine with out chew in his mouth. We have a few other people that I think are progressing, but not enough to talk about them.
 
So the people in my district and zone are pretty cool too! Elder Huntley is the district leader, or the Relief Society President, because our district is all Sisters! Sister Westover and Sister Darrington are in Woodbury and Sister Darrington has only been out a week. Sister Frank and Sister Eriksson are in Cottage Grove and are the Sister Training Leaders, which is like a Zone Leader, but they are for the Sisters in the zone. Sister Brown and Sister Peterson are in Eagan and they pink washed the area, which means there were Elders there right before they got there. Sister Brown came out with Elder Huntley and I. My Zone Leaders are Elder Oldroyd, who has been a Zone Leader in Hudson for 6 months now, and Elder Last is my other Zone Leader. It was kind of funny when we had our district meeting through Skype and the Zone Leaders were on it and all of us were introducing ourselves and one of the questions was the area where they Last served and Elder Last, Elder Oldroyd and I all said New Prague. I had heard a lot about him while I was in New Prague.


On Sunday we were at a baptism for one of the members, which was right after church, and then that evening at 6 we went to church again. No not at our church... we had one of our investigators that we called to try and set up a lesson or something invite us to her church where her Dad is the pastor. So we told her we would go. The name of the church is New Life United Pentecostal Church and I just got to say... it was weird. When we got there Becca came and said hi and thanks for coming and then we sat down and started singing songs and there was a piano and and guitars and stuff and we sang this one song that was actually kind of catchy about letting the hallelujahs roll. We sang songs for like 15 minutes and I was starting to think that all they did at this church and I thought they just sang the whole service and that was their church. The weird part was after every song people would say things like "Praise the Lord" or "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" and some people got really weird with it. Then finally a guy came out and actually taught us stuff, I didnt agree with all of it but it was still good. Then at the end he asked everyone to come up to the front and stand and we stood up but in the back and he started saying a prayer and then the person on the piano started playing and singing and everyone started saying Praise the lord and things like that and there was one lady kneeling down crying. I think it was awesome that they love Christ so much, but it was just a little too much for me. After though Becca thanked us for coming and some other people came and introduced themselves to us and they were super friendly. The pastor even came over and said hi. That was my first experience at a different church.


Well we have to go to eat some yummy food so I am going to have to cut this short, but have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Sorry if I don't get to email anyone back, I don't know if we will have time. At least you only have to wait four days this time!


Elder Bullock




Elder Huntley and Elder Bullock re-united again

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Elder Bullock's p-day has been moved to Thursday(Thanksgiving) this week~Sharlyn

Monday, November 14, 2016



Transfers -- Week 15



Well this week was transfers.. but I am not going to say anything until the end of my email.. so don't skip to the end to see. This week has been pretty good, we had more lessons than we usually do.


On Tuesday, we stayed in New Prague for a little bit so that we could see Darius and we had to wait for him to get to New Prague and then we met up with him and we had a lesson plan for him but we ended up just answering a lot of his questions. Then we went to Belle Plaine and we went and saw a guy named Kent and he said we could come by sometime. We decided we were going to ride our bikes to save miles and then halfway to the subway we were going to and then I popped my bike tire. We had to walk back to the car and drive anyway and it kind of sucked, but it was kind of cool because after we got our food this lady came and gave us $10 subway gift cards. She isn't a member but her family is  and she wanted to feed us. Then we went to go see Marty but we wanted Mitch to come with us but he was at work so we went and picked him up after he was off work and went and saw Marty and had a good lesson with him. Then we got back to the apartment to meet the Faribault Elders and they stayed the night. And the assistants called and Elder Jones was going to come stay with us for a bit.


The next day Elder Last and Elder Bono went to Faribault and Elder Araoz and I went and taught Darius and had a good lesson with him. Then we went down to Le Sueur and tried to stop by a few people we were only able to see a couple people but the cool part is we stopped by a lady named Marie and she couldn't speak a lot of English but Elder Araoz is from Argentina and Spanish is his first language so that was cool. We were able to set a return appointment for Wednesday. We went to the Segers for dinner and then went to the church for mutual.


On Thursday, Elder Araoz and I drove to Fairbault and I got Elder Last and then we drove back to see the assistants waiting and Elder Jones stayed until Friday afternoon. We ate lunch and walked over to a ladies house named Sonja and when she first answered the door she said to come back later then Elder Jones offered to carry in a box and he noticed some paintings in her house, she painted them, so she let all of us in to see all that she painted and we were able to teach her part of the Plan of Salvation. Then we drove to Shakopee which isn't in our area but Brother Dvorak set up an appointment, with Presidents approval, with a Judge. We met Brother Dvorak outside and he took us inside and we went through metal detectors and we went back into his chambers and we were able to talk to him. Brother Dvorak has been trying to set this up for a year now and he said he had to wait for Elders he trusted so we were those Elders. We read a letter Brother Dvorak wrote to him and taught him about part of the Plan of Salvation and that families are forever. His daughter recently died so we told him how he was going to see her again. It was a super good lesson and he was a super nice guy. Then we left and went and tried to do work there but no one was home.  There were some kids playing basketball and Elder Jones wanted to play with them and we played two games with them. We shared a video with them and got one of the kids numbers. We told them the church had a court and that they could come play. Then we went back to the apartment for dinner and went to the Burtons and taught them a lesson and then they gave us some ice cream.


Then Friday we went to breakfast with Brother Skok in Belle Plaine and it was super good food. He is such a nice guy! When we got back to the apartment Elder Kozlowski was there to pick up Elder Jones and we got pictures and stuff. Then we went to the church to do our weekly planning so it was a slow day. That evening we went to Jordan and rode our bikes in super cold weather. We saw Will for a second and set a return appointment for Thursday. We rode over to a less active that goes to a different church. He was kind of a different guy but said we could come back too. We went and taught active member lessons to Brother Mittion and then we went and saw Brother Newcomb.


On Saturday we went to the food shelf again and no one showed so after it was over we rode around Montgomery and after no one answered we went to Sister Grewes so that Elder Last could use the bathroom and we had a dinner there and the cops showed up to take Nic because he has been acting up and they took him for a little. Then we went up to Lakeville and we got a ride from Brother Newcomb and had the adult session of stake conference and it was super good. They had recent converts give a talk and it was really good they had only been members for a few months.


Sunday was good as well with stake conference and they had a lot of good talks and I am getting really excited to tell you about transfers so we didn't really do a lot on sunday.. so Elder Last is getting transferred to Hudson which is in the Oakdale zone and he is going to be a zone leader! Aaaand I am going to Red Wing, MN right on the Wisconsin border to be with Elder Huntley again! Anyways I am super stoked! It is sad that New Prague won't have any missionaries for a while though.  I leave Wednesday so the next couple days will be packing and sayings goodbyes to people and getting pictures! Anyways that's my week. Love y'all.


Elder Bullock


The Dvorak Family

Brother Skok (second from right)

Jolly Green Giant

Big church that is just cool

Monday, November 7, 2016

I thought it would be interesting to put a map of the areas that Elder Bullock travels to in his current area.  -Tayson's Mom


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P-day pumpkin carving


 Hey guys this week has been kind of slow, but it has still been a good week! I have been sick the past couple days and today has been the worst day, but its just a cold which is weird because it hasn't been cold here at all. Today we broke or tied the Minnesota record for the latest into the year that we haven't had a freeze and the record was set in 1900 so its been like 116 years so that's  kind of cool. We haven't had to wear jackets like all week, I had to make sure I was actually  in Minnesota because I thought Minnesota was cold! 


Anyways on Monday we had that Halloween p day in Mankato and we carved pumpkins and played a lot of basketball. Our p day went until 9 o'clock instead of ending at 6 because we had interviews until like 1. We left Mankato at 9 and got to our apartment late and so we didn't get as much sleep that night so have been tired all week.


We actually went back to Mankato on Tuesday evening to go on a blitz, which is like an exchange, but we all go to one area instead of having two of us stay in New Prague and the other two going to Mankato. The Zone Leaders were on their way back from a meeting in Bloomington so they stopped by and then we followed them down to Saint Peter and then we switched and I went with Elder Peterson and Elder Last went with Elder Magleby. We went to the Zone Leaders apartment and ate dinner and then we had two appointments set up. The first people we went to was a less active lady and her husband was a nonmember and they talked like nonstop and it was hard to even get a word in there. She doesn't think she's has to go back to church and she believes that they are going to be okay and she is happy where they are at. I had to interrupt her to say anything, but I asked her if she believes that the Book of Mormon is true and she told us that she does. Elder Peterson decided that we were going to stop visiting them. The next appointment was a recent convert named Marcus, they were teaching him all the lessons again because he had a hard time understanding them. We taught him the end of the Plan of Salvation and drew him the picture of it to help him.


On Wednesday we all went to the college there to do some contacting and I went with Elder Peterson again. We would just walk around and we would take turns talking to people. The first three people we talked to were agnostic which is like they can't prove there is a God but they can't prove that there isn't a God. We were able to get a return appointment with one of them the next day, but I wasn't there for that. We talked to a few more people that were Catholic or Lutheran and then we were walking and there was this guy that didn't look interested at all and it was my turn to talk, but I just passed by and I was making sure to hold my Book of Mormon so that you could read the cover. He said hey to us and then said that he found one of those in a hotel and he has read the first couple books and thinks it is a good book. He told us that he has been trying to get closer with God and he really likes our church and we were able to teach him the Restoration. It was super awesome and now I know that you really don't know who is interested and you do have to talk to everyone to find out who is. We had dinner with them and then we drove back to New Prague and went to the church for mutual because it is missionary week. The youth practiced teaching lessons to us and we would act like investigators then tell them how they could do better. They did a pretty good job and that is probably how I would have taught before my mission, but it is amazing what the MTC does for you.


Thursday we went and tracted for a few hours because we need to find some new investigators and we tracted this street with 30 and only 2 answered so that was disappointing. Tracting isn't that effective, but you have to do it sometimes haha it would be nice if the members would work wth us some more and try and help us teach people they know because that works better and has more success. Brother Dvorak is setting up an appointment with one of his friends that is a judge in Shakopee which is going to be cool. We were able to teach the Restoration to a lady named Virginia though. We had dinner with the Calls and after dinner we got haircuts which was nice because my hair was getting long. We went to Elko after that and taught the Plan of Salvation to the Choes and they acted like investigators for us and we went and saw Brother Dickerson for a few minutes.


Friday we had a Zone Specialty Training in Lakeville and it was actually a few zones. We are the Lakeville South Zone and Lakeville was there and so was Minneapolis.  Was able to see sister Rosier because she was ETed, Emergency Transfered, to the Prior Lake ward which is in Lakeville. There were Elders there before and now there are sisters. We had some tractings for the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders and from President and Sister Forbes. Elder Last and I rode up in separate cars, which was actually nice because we saved miles by not driving. Our zone went to Costco for lunch because it was cheap and then we all went home.   We had a dinner in Montgomery so we walked around there and tried to see a few people but they weren't home. We did get to talk with somebody's room mate who said we could come back sometime. At dinner Zoiey wanted to take pictures with Elder Last and I. So I will put those in the email.


Saturday we worked at the food shelf again like usual and it was fairly slow. The rest of the day was pretty slow too. We stopped by Little Fawns and she was packing a backpack and I guess her and Joesph were fighting. We talked to Joseph  a little after she left but I think they are good now. We have been trying to get them to church but we can never have a lesson with them. We had to do our weekly planning Saturday because we were in Lakeville on Friday so that took the evening up and the Burtons came and picked us up from the church and took us to the Segers for dinner and they took us back as well.


Sunday was awesome because we had another hour of sleep and church started at 11 because of a regional broadcast and Elder Rasband spoke. Usually we have to be at the church at 8:30 for meetings and stuff. We had Lunch at the Brimhalls again and then Mitch came with us to Belle Plaine. We went to go see Festus but he wasn't home and his dad, Clifford, answered the door and he recognized that we were Mormons and he told us what he knew from the internet and told us we were too young to know about our church and that we were a cult and super secretive and that we raise people from the dead in secret using drugs and things like that. We told him none of that was true and told him about Mormon.org and he said he would call if he had any questions. He grew up in Ghana and his dad was one of those people that worshipped idols and had voodoo dolls and that stuff. It was kind of interesting though. We had a dinner in Jordan that night too.


Today we have been taking it a little easy because I am not feeling the best, but I did finish the Book of Mormon today. I started in the middle of September to read the whole thing because some of the Elders in the zone were racing to see who could finish first, and I won. I love the Book of Mormon and I know with out a doubt it is true and it always can bring the spirit. I want to ask that, if you haven't, read it. I promise that you will have a stronger testimony of this gospel and it can bless your life and you will learn so much.

Elder Bullock




Adorable Zoiey