Tornados and Policemen

Dear Family and Friends,

Man I feel like I didn't even leave Washington with this weather that has been going on! Well, here was my week! Monday was my birthday and it was on a P-Day which made it 100 times more awesome! We went fishing, but the lake was on its low for water so we caught nothing but weeds... that made me a little mad! After fishing we went to a members house and they made me my favorite dinner which is ribs! And we had a birthday cake and Mt. Dew, the drink of real men! Tuesday Elder Park and I did a lot of door contacting and went around sharing Luke 2 or the Christmas story! Lots of people either told us to come in and read with them or come back another day! It was awesome! We had a grandma tell us she was a baptist and didn't need to hear the Christmas story because she already knew it. I mean, it doesn't hurt to hear it again before Christmas geez! Wednesday was a weird day. We did some contacting, but then we got a call from our zone leaders and they told us we were on lockdown. I guess there was a big storm system going through our area and the threat or a tornado was not likely, but the mission president wanted all missionaries either in their apartments or at a members house. So Elder Park and I went to a members house and stayed there with all these little kids and played with them and helped out the family! Then our mission president called us. Now whenever the mission president calls, usually we both are like "oh dang what did we do?!" Basically our mission president told us we were the only area that had a tornado watch still so he wanted to know where we were and that we were safe! So we headed back to our apartment and got ready for bed. As we were lying in bed, our zone leaders called us and were like, "yea y'all have an 80% chance of a tornado tonight, so have fun and be safe! Remember to get bike helmets and a mattress over you in the bath tub if one does touch down!" After that I was like, dang! The thunder that night kept me up all night and it was awful! Luckily a tornado didn't touch down in our area, but Mississippi did get some bad ones that took the lives away from 14 people which was really sad. Thursday was a super wet day and we did some tracting, but it was useless because everywhere was either flooding or flooded. So we went to a members house for Christmas Eve and it was a lot of fun! they got us gift cards to Wendy's because Elder Park loves his Wendy's! Friday was Christmas and we spent it indoors all day because of flood/Flash flood warnings all over our area! I was grateful for the members house we stayed at because they got us presents and treated us like one of their own kids! Shout out to all the people who sent gifts and special shoutout to Marcus "Mark Bills" Van Gils for getting me a ghetto basketball head wear to keep the sweat out of my eyes! Saturday was dry, but everything was still flooded. We did contacting all day basically and everyone told us to go away. that night we had dinner with a member and we got to the members house about 30 minutes early, so we decided to do some door contacting! We got maybe 10 minutes into contacting when cops showed up everywhere and were flashing their lights on us. I was like, crud I can't get arrested out here! They asked us what we were doing and we said we were missionaries for our church. They said that we can't solicit out here, but we told them that we were proselyting, a huge difference! They were confused and said we needed proper licences to do this, so we showed them that as well! They had no idea what to do after that and didn't know if we could be doing it past dark which we can. They said sorry for bothering us, but they have to respond to calls. We told them that we were Mormons and one of the cops walked back to his car and yelled to the other cops still standing next to us, "You okay Tracy?" She yelled back, "Yea im fine! If anything they might save me!" It was funny! Sunday was Church and it was good! We then went to a referral's house and knocked on the door. I kid you not, this 6'9-6'10 guy comes to the door, looks at us, and says, "Y'all Mormons?" I was like yes we are, please don't kill me! As soon as we said yes, he smiled and opened his door and greeted us in! This guy has studied all Christian religions besides ours! So he wanted a Book of Mormon to read! He is open to learn, but told us he doesn't want to join any church. It was awesome to talk with him about what he has studied and his life too!

I love and miss y'all a lot! If y'all want to write me either a letter or an email, I would love to read whats going on in ya life and write ya back! Have a Happy New Year, and Roll Tide!

Love,

Elder Muhlestein

Sketchy in Scottsboro....

Dear family and friends,

This week I can say was the weirdest week of the mission so far! Monday was P-Day so my companion and I went fishing and I caught a nice bass! After fishing we went home and did laundry and such! Tuesday Elder Park woke up feeling really sick, so we spent half of the day watching Book of Mormon videos and Bible videos and trying to get him over his sickness! The next half of the day we went out and did some tracting, but had no luck at all :/ Wednesday we  woke up and Elder Park still wasn't feeling good, so we went to The Mart and bought Nyquil and other drugs so he would feel better. We stayed home for that day so he could break his fever and feel better again! We then got ready and went to the Church for our Book of Mormon class we started! Nobody showed up, so we sat there and talked with Branch members that were hanging around the place. The YW and YM and Relief Society went caroling and came back and we all had hot cocoa and hot cider! The cub scouts needed a spiritual thought so we gave them one and then they wanted to play basketball! It was fun dribbling the ball around them and making them fall with swift moves like kobe or D-Rose! Thursday. This was the super sketchy day. We both woke up and did our morning routines and such and then we had to go to the church to print off some papers for our District meeting which was Friday. As soon as we walked into the church, broken glass. Someone broke glass on the door that lead to the family history center. At first we though it was an accident that someone didn't clean up, but as we went to the YW's room, the window was open and drapes were torn off the ceiling and things were thrown from the cabinet! Someone broke into the church and went through all the rooms in the church vandalizing them! Luckily they only rummaged through the cabinets and didn't take anything from them. We called our branch president and the police and they all came down and had to call investigators to assess the situation even further! We went into the library and found out that whoever broke in also stole two TV's and a projector from the library! I was so sad and mad that someone did this, but things happen. Apparently these people needed those items more than the church did! Friday was district meeting and it was good! Elder Park and I went to CVS and picked up his prescription medicine for his sickness. Saturday we spent the day hitting up that T-City life! We got into two peoples homes and shared the Christmas story with them! It was awesome and I think they want us to come back! Sunday was church and it was a good session! After church, Elder Park and I thought that we should go visit a man that recently lost his wife. So we called up a member who knew the man and we all went and visited him. He was super grateful we came by and wanted us to come back and take our lessons as well! It was awesome and I can say that having a member with us was the key to getting back to him! Without the member, we wouldn't have gotten a return appointment! After that we visited a member who recently got a divorce. When we got there, her kids wanted to play with the Elders! So we got out the toys and played with them as their mother talked with other members at the house. The kids had lightsabers and wanted to duel us. So being all jedi like we had little duels with the youngest kid and we always let him win! All the members were laughing and applauding the little kid as he took down the evil sith lord (me and Elder Park) and put his foot on our chest and flex his muscles! It was so funny and cute! I love and miss y'all! I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and remembers why this day is so important! On that day, God gave his greatest gift that we ever could have received, a Savior for all of us. Happy Holidays everyone!

Love,

Elder Muhlestein

Safe in Scottsboro!

Dear family and friends,

Wow im sorry for this email in advance but it is going too be sad and short because honestly nothing really happened this week! Monday Elder Park and I went fishing and caught about 6-8 fish in total! It was a good day of that! Tuesday was a boring day because we went too T-City and had no luck whatsoever! We knocked on 20 doors and only 1 person answered in a neighborhood! It was sad and we kept going and nobody answered! Even though no one answered, we kept going! Wednesday Elder Park and I started up a Book of Mormon class! It went really well and 4 people showed up! 4 dosent sound like a lot, but it is here in Alabama! After we did the class, we just helped out branch members with whatever they needed help with that were in the Church! Thursday Elder Park and I spent the morning studying and then we packed up our bedding and mattresses and left for Monte Sano! Yes I said mattresses! Some how we managed to fit both of them into our Toyota Carola! It was funny driving around with all of that in our car! Once we reached Monte Sano, we did a little exchange and I went with Elder Larson too visit some referrals! None of the referrals wanted too talk with us so we went to T-City and talked with a Church of Christ minister! The dude was super nice and was happy we were going around talking about Jesus too people. He said that both Mormons and Church of Christ's beliefs were the same, besides modern day revelation and miracles. He told us that if we could bless him and take away his ailments and make him whole that he would give us his house and all of his property. It was kind of funny cause first off we wouldn't do that because he basically wants too test God. I don't know if he has read lately, but the last time people wanted too test God like he wanted too they were either struck dumb or dead... So yea haha! After that we went to The Mart (Southern for Walmart y'all!) and did some store contacting there! No luck there! After that we drove to the Sparkman Elder's apartment because we were going too spend the night there! We had about 10 Elders in an apartment all at once! It was packed, but boy did we have fun! I got my hair cut which was good and so did some other Elders! Right as I was about too go to bed, my trainer and another Elder looked at me and holding a lighter said "Young one, we must mark you with a burn!" I didn't know they were kidding, but as soon as the Elder who wasnt my trainer walked towards me I went into fight mode! Shout out to Kristian for wrestling me cause as soon as he came near me, I put him in a head lock and went down and held him there! My trainer was laughing and decided to try too pull me off the other Elder and didn't have the best of luck! The other Elder still had the lighter in his hand so I grabbed it and accidentally snapped the metal part of it and we all stopped, looked at the lighter, and all laughed super hard! It was so funny and we all needed a laugh that night! Friday was the Christmas Party! I got too see Elder Ravenberg and Elder Whetten, my MTC district Elders again! It was awesome to see where they were at with their mission and catch up with them! We had a huge feast and a telent show and a movie for the whole party! It was good too relax for that day! After the party Elder Park and I went to a Christmas festival in Huntsville to help answer questions about our church! It was a good festival, but there were bashers that showed up and tried too "save our souls from going too Hell!" They knew what they were doing and had rehearsed it before and we just were like we will answer you're questions, but we are both christian and Christ wouldn;t want us or you to come into another person's church and tell them they are wrong! They all left after the festival was over. Saturday we did service for a branch member and again went to the festival in Huntsville because these branch members wanted us to go with them! So we went again and it was just as good! No bashers this time! As we were driving hoe, we got a call from one of the AP's. They called too let Elder Park and I know that we both would be staying in Scottsboro for another 7 weeks! It was awesome to hear that because this means I get too stay for 14 weeks! I was relieved to hear that I get to spend my birthday and Christmas in Scottsboro with branch members who love their Elders! Sunday was just church and eating with branch members! Love all of you guys and hope everyone is doing well! Ive got time too email so if you want too shoot a quick email, ill be here too reply! Stay safe and CHRISTMAS IS NEXT WEEK WHAT THE OH YEA!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Muhlestein

Bullfrogs and Bashes

Dear family and friends,

This week was filled with so much fun and spiritual memories! Monday was a usual P-Day and emailing people. It was raining so hard I felt like I was back home in Redmond! My companion and I went fishing for about 2 hours and had no luck whatsoever. Go figure... Then we played basketball and ate dinner and that was pretty much it for that night! Tuesday we started off at the dentist because Elder Park had to get some teeth stuff done. At the dentist, I learned I was going on an exchange with our zone leaders. I went to Huntsville which is North West of my area. I was with Elder Littleford for the day/night. We went to T-City and taught 5 lessons in less than two hours which is super good! The only problem was the lessons we were teaching, I wouldn't get too go back and teach them the next day because I would be in Scottsboro... Crap! But it was all good in the end! Wednesday we switched back and Elder Park and I got to go teach another guy who's name is Ben! He told us straight up he won't convert or anything, but he would love it if we played ping pong with him whenever he was free! I was thinking, "you say you won't convert now, but we will see when you find out what the gospel really has in store for you!" We played ping pong with him and he was freaking good! I only beat him once and it was pure luck! Thursday was the temple day! Ahhhh it was so nice to go there! It was a peaceful happy day, and then we went into the hood. That's right, I went to the real hood of Alabama! the area was Ensley Alabama and if you really want to know how cool/terrifying Ensley really is, google it. My companion and another Elder we were with both served there and wanted too have dinner there and say hi to a member there! It was super ghetto, but I want to serve in the ghetto so bad! Scotssboro is awesome and all, but I want crazy stories and such that only come from serving in the ghetto! The members house he went into had bullet holes in the windows and side of the house. Ensley is the 3rd most dangerous zipcode in America, or so we have been told. We said hi and had a spiritual thought with the member and then went back to safe Scottsboro. Friday we had district meeting and it went well! Then we said bye to some elders that we knew were going too get transferred to different areas. I so hope Elder Park and I don't get transferred! Friday was just another day of T-City after district meeting and such. Saturday we did service for a member and also met up with a kid named Hunter! He is 15 and his dad is super anti-mormon, but Hunter really wants too be baptized and be a member. He has had a hard time with family in his past, so he wanted to know what a father and mother's roles were in a family. We read with him the family proclamation to the world and through teaching him about it, I also learned a lot and how to become a great father. After we visited with Hunter, we went to dinner with a member at a restaurant. As soon as i looked at the menu, i noticed they had frog legs. I said "wow i have never had frog legs before!" And the member then bought about 7 fried frog legs. So yea, I had frog legs and these ones were honestly bad. I didn't like them at all and the meat was rubbery! Sunday was fast Sunday so that was fun and all! After Church Elder Park and I went with a member to visit an man who just lost his wife. This man was distraught when we came over and we made sure he knew that he would see her again and told him to come to church with us to learn more and also because someone falsely accused him of a crime that he didn't commit so his church wont let him come back. After that, we went to another family and this is where the bash began. This family wasn't part of any denomination at all and they were saying the weirdest things ever. We tried too teach them about having the proper authority of God and such, but they kept getting louder and yelling at us basically and telling us we were wrong. After that part about yelling at us, I stopped everyone and said "Lets say a prayer." After that, the whole conversation changed! The atmosphere was more in understanding way. It was honestly amazing! Hope everyone is doing well and if you want too shoot me an email, i'll be on the computer for a little bit today! Also I write letters too people! If you want to write a letter, I will write back and love to do it! Stay safe everyone and ITS ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!!!1

Love,

Elder Muhlestein

​Temple trip with my companion

​My P-Day set up for catfishing