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

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

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

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

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

WEEK THIRTEEN

Hey guys!

This week seems like the longest week of my mission, but nonetheless it was a good week. Not a lot happened this week and it just seems  like forever since last Monday!  I am getting close to finishing the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission. I am reading in 3 Nephi about when Christ came. I have noticed that reading that part compared to the rest of the Book of Mormon I feel a lot more peace.

I guess the highlight of the week was that we had an investigator at church! Her name is Courtney and she is friends with one of the youth in the branch. This was the first investigator I have had at church so far. We haven't taught her at all, but I am hoping that we can start to teach her. She came with Alyssa Dvorak to the chili cook off we had on Saturday. Elder Last and I brought our own chili and a pumpkin cheesecake. We invited a bunch of investigators to it, but no one showed, except Courtney, which is disappointing.

So for our zone focus this transfer we are focusing a lot on referrals. So we have made it an effort to ask everyone we talk to if they know someone that could benefit from our message or if they need any help. We taught a lesson to this lady named Dianna and as we were leaving we asked her if any one she knew could use some help with anything. She said definitely not the guy right behind her because he is a bad guy, but the next house down she said she thought she had seen missionaries there before and when we left we checked our area book for an investigator that lived there and no one did. So we were like great we got a referral! So we were walking down there and that guy she said not to talk to was outside and he started talking to us and he was this super grouchy old man. We told him we were missionaries and he said he doesn't know what religion we are and he doesn't care. Anyway we walked over to the house and right before we went to walk to the door I realized that we were at our Branch Presidents house. It was a super inspired referral and I think we did a good job with it, they are already baptized and they committed to come to church every week. We knocked on the door and told them about the story.  Anyways I thought it was worth sharing.

We had dinner at the Segers last p day and when we got there we heard this meowing and we went over and found this little kitty. So the Segers are keeping it. Haha Elder Last  and I got to name it! His name is Tux haha he looks like he has a tuxedo on. I have some pictures so you can see.

The investigators we have right now really aren't progressing that much, but we still have some that are doing good. We went and saw Little Fawn again with Brother Brimhall and Mitch and she was super stressed because she is trying to get her kids back from her ex husband and she needs space to put everyone. We helped her move all her stuff from room to room because Joseph and her were fighting and he wasn't there. She was super appreciative and I am hoping she will progress eventually.

So today we are in Mankato for a zone p day, but we had an interview with President Forbes. We left New Prague and met Faribault elders in Waterville then drove to Mankato. We just talked about our area and asked him a bunch of questions about whatever.

I'm just going to leave my testimony that I know that this church is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Being in Minnesota is way different and to just say that to someone has a lot of power. There are a lot of less actives that go to a different church now and I didn't think that ever happened in the church. I know that having a testimony of this gospel is how you stay active in this church. A lot of the less actives are less active because they don't have a strong testimony and they aren't reading their scriptures or praying often. I have realized that as I have been on my mission and I plan on carrying that with me as I get home. I would encourage all of you to continue to go to church and to read and pray to gain a stronger testimony of this gospel. I love y'all and I will talk to you next week!

Elder Bullock

"Tux" the kitten

Elder Last and I

WHO knew?  If you don't get that, never mind :)