Houston we've gotta big ol' problem

        People that serve missions have lots of different reasons for going and doing what they do. Maybe they go because that's what everyone in their family did, maybe they don't know what they want in life yet and this will help them figure it out, or maybe just maybe they are doing it because they know that they love the savior and believe in the gospel and want to help others come unto him in this way. 

        

        For me personally, it's that last one mixed with a very important promise to a very special lady. When I was close to the end of my freshman year of college, I was attending college and things just working out. Naturally, I did the one thing I was absolutely sure of, I prayed with everything I could for guidance. I was really trying to find out what I should do. My answer was not, "serve a mission". Heavenly Father and I don't talk to each other that way, he makes me work for it. EACH. AND. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. When I prayed I felt the peaceful feeling I was looking for and it was the push in the right direction for me. After I received that push, I needed to get a confirmation the only way that I knew how. I rode my bike over to see my bestest friend in the entire world. Grandma Susan. 

Grandpa Tom, Grandma Susan & I 

        My grandma Susan is grandpa Tom's 2nd wife, and she has no blood relation to me whatsoever. Yet, when I was making this decision, she was the first person I called and the person I seriously talked this over with. When I was a kid I sent nearly if not all of my time with her when I could go to her house. When I became a teenager we talked about anything and everything and she gave me advice when she thought I needed it, which meant that I did.  I spent my entire life with her and she knows me way better than I know myself. When I told her that I wasn't sure if I wanted to play basketball anymore, that I wasn't sure if it was my path like it was for my oldest sister, Meg. She looked at me and said, "Obviously it's not for you. You aren't your sister and everyone keeps trying to push you to be something you're not. Now, if you could choose right now, what would you be doing?" In all seriousness I said, "I want to read my scriptures and pray and learn more about my religion and be able to tell others about it." She just smiled, and said to me, "Now I think you need to go home and make some phone calls. Love you. Bye." She kicked me out of her house and I headed home. 

        After that discussion, I moved back home and started living with my mom and my younger siblings again and tried to do online school. It didn't work and my grandma made sure I knew at the end of that, that it wasn't the path I was suppose to be on. I don't know how she knew but she always knows. So I put school on pause and I worked on getting ready to serve a mission. I submitted my mission papers on September 3rd, 2017 and that was the same day I received a Patriarchal Blessing. Then exactly a month later my mission call came back and I opened it. It says, " Sister Mullings, you are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Texas Houston Mission." I was assigned to leave on December 20, 2017. Sadly, my grandma was in the hospital when I opened my mission call and passed away a little over a month after that. I will never forget the biggest smile she had on her face when I went to the hospital with my family and my aunt jana told her I was going to Houston to serve my mission. She couldn't talk but she could squeeze your hand or write things on a clip board so she squeezed my hand and I could feel her love just through that and it was another confirmation that I knew I was making the right choice. 

Sis Molisi & I

        That love that she had for me and I for her, is what helped me throughout my mission. I had many companions and over time I came to love them all as they each taught me something that I needed. Sister Molisi was my very first companion and we learned how to work together in the MTC in Provo, Utah and I loved her so much for it. We struggled with being away from family together and we overcame it and made through our entire missions no matter how badly we wanted to return home and be with our families. She's the most amazing woman i've come to know and I hope I can be more like her. During the time I was companions with each of them, it was hard and there was sooooo many times that I thought "there is no way that I will make it through this". Every time that thought comes, I ALWAYS find a way to keep going and do my job as a missionary. I was so lucky with amazing companions but I was even more lucky to have an incredible mission president, and his loving wife, President and Sister Peterson. They are the mom and dad of all missionaries in their given area, and they meet with them often, make sure they are doing okay, check their missionary work and offer any assistance in anyway possible. As I came onto my mission right after my grandmother passed away, I was having a hard time staying focused and really diving into the work. President and Sister Peterson came to see me and my trainer when I was a month out on my mission, and we talked about many things but, I remember telling them both that I wanted to go home to my family. President Peterson asked if I would at least finish my training with Sister West and I told him I could atleast do that, he then told me we would have a check up at the end of the training and see what I wanted to do. Sister Peterson gave me different things to read that would help, but her overall advice was this, " take each day at a time. Don't think about the next day quite yet. Focus on each day and fill each day according to what your area needs you to do." I did what they both said and I just worked, each and every day I worked the best I could according to how I was feeling. When the end of the training, I remember being too busy to talk to President Peterson about what the training was like and if I wanted to stay. 

                                            My areas/ Companions 

       

     I stayed the rest of my mission, and saw that I was suppose to stay as a missionary for as long as I could. I only had three specific areas I was assigned to but they were the best areas I could've been in. 

Sis West 

    My first area was in Katy, TX within the Katy 2nd and Falcon Ranch ward boundaries. The members of the church in these areas are just sooo amazing. I only had two companions in these wards but they were amazing. Sister West taught me what it was like to be a missionary as she trained me on what I needed to do on a daily basis to be effective and help as many people as possible. In every aspect she was my mama and we emailed throughout my mission and she gave me advice when I asked for it or really needed it. Sister Covington was my other companion in this area and she really taught me what it was like to find joy in everything that I did and. I had to remain positive and happy otherwise I would simply make myself miserable. We met and taught a lot of amazing people and knowing what I know now, I really wish I would've stayed in that area longer. 

Sis Kunz & I 

    My next area was a little ways away but not far, in the Sam Houston 2nd YSA (Young Single Adult) ward and the Wheatstone ward. My next companion was Sister Kunz, and little did I know that I would meet someone so much like me. I think it was within our first week or maybe it was a little after, we discovered how similar we were. It felt like I ended up learning so much about myself because I was with her for so long. A lot people find their bestfriends earlier in their life but when we met, I felt like a part of me became whole again. Sister Lee came to me in that same area, and our relationship was a little complicated. How she talked and loved others was with a perfect love, and I learned more from her than any of my other companions. I learned how to love so many people and to put aside my own problems and help them as much as I possible could because there is nothing as important as that love that the Savior has for us all. Sister Lee was suppose to be with me for two transfers (twelve weeks) but in the beginning of the first week of our second transfer, she got really sick and in the course of a week we ended up going to the ER three or four times. Sister Crandall and Sister Limb helped so much by making sure I could still go out and teach lessons while someone stayed with Sister Lee at our apartment. The weekend of the October 2018 General Conference, my sweet companion had made her very last trip to the ER and was unable to continue serving the rest of her mission so she went home and she got better! As for me, I was put in a trio and we now started covering four ward boundary areas instead of simply covering my two wards that I was originally given. 

    At this point in my mission it started to get kind of hard to manage but, I had some sweet companions and we definitely made everything work. When I was put in a trio, I was a give a choice. I could make things easy and just get through the transfer simply with Sister Kay and Sister Leavitt or I could really challenge myself and work really hard with Sister Limb and Sister Moore who was a brand new missionary who arrived in the field about the same time that I got Sister Lee. I chose Sister Limb and Sister Moore and when Sister Lee left Sunday night to fly home, they came and picked me up from Presidents house and then we made our way to their apartment. Those five weeks were together felt like the most I had ever planned in my life. If we didn't plan the day out, no matter where we were going then we would not leave the apartment. We had to have some kind of a game plan. We never missed an appointment, not once. We often rescheduled in as much advance as we could give but we never missed an appointment. In covering four ward boundaries, we had my two areas and then the Katy 1st and Morton Ranch wards. It was such an amazing time and it prepared me for what was about to come next. 

Sis Ethington & I 

    When the end of the transfer came, I was ready for a new companion and to build up my area again. I missed teaching a lot like Sister Lee and I had been. The night before I was suppose to get a new companion, I got a phone call from President Peterson and he asks me if I would train the only new sister coming in and that I would be in my area for at least another two transfers. I was pretty shocked and was unsure but I knew that I could take on any challenges that were coming my way. I just wasn't expecting my companion to this amazingly wonderful servant of the lord that was just so willing and ready to do whatever it takes. Sister Ethington was such a light and a beacon to what missionary work should've been about and I think we as missionaries forget that. She had an abundance of devotion and drive to do the right thing 100% of the time and she never ever settled for anything less than her very best. While I was her a companion, there was another nearby set of sister missionaries that had a little bit of an issue. Sister Cloward's companion was going home from her mission early and I would be in yet another trio of sisters!! It was interesting because all three of us were so unbelievably  different. Sister Ethington had the strongest heart and determination despite her limitations, Sister Cloward worked as hard as she could and did everything she knew how to do and in the best way that she could think of, as for me, I planned thoroughly and made sure that we didnt miss any appointments and made sure that everything went according to plan. We were together for only five weeks  and we finished Sister Ethington's training and after nine months I was finally transferred to a new area with a new companion. 

Sis Leavitt, Kayley & I

    When I was transferred I was sent to College Station, TX and my new companion was Sister Leavitt. I knew Sister Leavitt from when I was companions with Sister Lee, and she was in an area near mine. Sister Leavitt and I served on the Texas A&M University and talked to as many people as we could and invited them to activities that we had, to learn about the gospel and eventually attend church with us. There were so many amazing people that I met and taught there, but there was one especially amazing individual named Kayley. She was attending A&M and Sister Leavitt and her former companion had taught Kayley a few lessons before and she wasn't quite ready to fully commit to the church just yet. When I met her, we had taught her one lesson together and Kayley knew it all to be true to her.  The next lesson I couldn't help co-teach because I had a leadership phone call with other missionary leadership, but Kayley ended up committing to a date to be an baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As much as we attempted to plan to teach her and help her with accepting the gospel, she already knew that it was true in heart so there wasn't much for us to teach her. Two weeks before her scheduled baptism date she gives us a call and it turns out that she is with Bishop Garlick and starts to inform us that she doesn't want to be baptized on the date that we had set. Bishop Garlick then comes on and informs us that she wants to baptized today. We talk it over and we needed to get one of our leadership missionaries to do a baptismal interview to go over everything briefly and make sure that she knew what she was getting herself into. So we scheduled that for four pm that day and then we went to go fill up the baptismal font at  five pm. She passed her interview with flying colors and she was baptized at six pm that day. To me she was a walking miracle that no matter what, that God reveals the truth to his children and when they knew it there was simply no denying it. Eventually Sister Leavitt was sent to a new area and I got my amazing companion who would be my last companion in the field: Sister Fleming. 

Sis Fleming & I

    Sister Fleming was one of my favorite companions, and I learned a lot from her on how to be selfless, kind and loving. Sister Fleming and I were together for only three months but it was such an amazing time. Every week we volunteered at a food supply place in our area and we helped as much as we could along with a lot of other missionaries inside the stake boundaries. I spent a lot of time helping the other sisters inside the stake as Sister Fleming and I were both leaders. Towards the end of my mission I got very anxious about coming home and Sister Fleming basically had a 6th sense of when I was feeling that way because she would talk to me or we would go and do something on campus. My first week with her, I actually got food poisoning from a burger I ate on campus and I was so so sick. I had puked all over the bathroom and I was eventually laying down with the worst cramps that I could've ever gotten in my life. Finally I had puked it all up and then I was fine again but I'm pretty sure that the bathroom smelt horrible for a few days after all of that. Towards the end of our time together, Sister fleming got super sick and we took her to the doctor and she was eventually prescribed cough medicine and it made it very drowsy and very loopy when she was awake. She woke up one night and we were just chatting about different kinds of noodles and it was decided that I was a multi grain noodle. It was an interesting conversation and it is definitely something that I will cherish forever. Our last few weeks were hard because my extreme anxiety was in overdrive and I had a hard time thinking straight but by the time we left I felt good about the things that I had done and even though I know I should've worked harder, I have absolutely no regrets. I remember when I said goodbye to Sister Fleming and I knew I was really going to miss my little sister because in my eyes thats what she was to me. We cried and she got prepared for the brand new sister missionary that she got the opportunity to train and to serve along side with. 

    My time as a missionary was amazing and there are certain life lessons that I learned that I will carry with me for as long as I will live. Lessons of love, selflessness, family, and most of all a lesson of why we need the savior. Now, this isn't me forcing religion on anyone but based on things that I know and have learned I know for myself that I need him in order to go on day to day. The savior is the missing part of my life that I have filled by serving and helping those that want to wish to come closer to Jesus Christ. Throughout my life I will always carry those friendships that I made and I will cherish them for as long as I can.  There was some amazing sister missionaries that I loved so very much that were never my companions like Sister Crandall (She's literally the greatest friend and gives the best hugs when your just really needing it), Sister Kay, Sister Chamberlain and Sister Tanuvasa (the last two were both in the MTC with Sister Molisi and I). I obviously can't put into words everything that I experienced, a lot of those things are just too sacred but a lot of those memories I have are just too important to me to share them with anyone other than myself. 

    So Houston, we've still got a problem, I need to come back because I'm missin' y'alls cute faces.