More Tidbits from the Christmas Phone Call

Here are some additional things we learned in our Christmas phone call:

• Our Elder M met the OTHER Elder M recently. He is from St. George where all of Ed's McMullin side of the family is also from, so somehow they are cousins. We just don't know how distant.
• There hasn't been a baptism in the Stockyards area in almost 2 years (they've got some great investigators right now and hope that changes soon!)
• A large percentage of baptisms in the Chicago South mission are of Spanish speaking investigators.

I'll post some more as I think of them!

Christmas in Chicago -- Mission Update 12/23/08 and 12/25/08

Yeah! We got to talk to Elder McMullin on Christmas Day!! He's doing very well! They didn't have a dinner appointment for Christmas (when his Dad asked him if he did, he said "Are you kidding me!!") But all 8 of the missionaries in his district (2 missionaries each from the Soldier Field and Cicero areas, plus the 4 missionaries in the Stockyards), all had a potluck dinner and spent the day together playing games and making phone calls home. Here are just a few things we learned in the phone call:

• there's too much snow to ride bikes right now so they are taking the bus (the drifts at the street corners are too high and they have to carry their bikes over them, so it isn't worth it.),
• Elder M's companion, Elder Gardner, has a brother serving a mission in California,
• there are about 1 million people in Elder M's ward boundaries,
• a missionary in his district used to be in Elder Mooker's mission in Germany (and in fact served in the area that Elder Mook is now serving in), but he got sick and was transferred to Elder M's mission.

Pretty fun!! Now it's only 5 months until Mother's Day!!

Here's a copy of the email that we got on the 23rd:


Hey,
The libraries are closed tomorrow and thursday, so we're mailing today. People are setting up their phone calls and everything... I'll probably call in the morning for a little bit, then in the evening for a long bit :) I've been opening / enjoying my 12 days of Christmas!
I don't have much time to write this stuff now, and am excited to hear the update from home, but here's my week:
Wednesday was good. We swapped for exchanges in the evening, and had to drive to Soldier Field so Elder Collier could get clothes. While he was taking 52535 minutes to get ready, I goofed around with a GPS. I remembered Dad's favorite pizza place was Edwardo's, so I looked for that... It's in the mission! We had to drop off the other Elders off on Michigan Ave up near there, so we just went to Edwardo's right after and got a pizza... That was at least better than Giordanno's! It was really good. The cheese was insanely thick, and it seemed like better cheese than most places. I almost choked myself with my first bite, but it was worth it.
Elder Collier and I had a pretty good day Thursday. We taught 4 lessons, and only got stuffed a couple times. This was really good, because as of Wednesday night, we had 1 appointment, and had called 98% (seriously everyone but 1) of our investigators, less actives, and media referrals. Everything came together though, so it was good. We swapped at the orange line, then planned for friday.
Friday was pretty cold and snowy. We drove to our appointments, but got stuffed all but 2 times. I didn't get my Christmas present right. [He was guessing what gifts we had wrapped each day for the 12 days of Christmas. Apparently this was a tricky one to guess.]
Saturday was pretty good. We did service at a member in Cicero's area, and were over there for most of the day. We then went home and waited for transfer calls. While we were waiting, we saw some neighborhood kids sledding down their stairwell, so we went outside. We goofed around out there, then started to play football with the kids. We had a pretty good game going, then Elder Gardner tried to throw a ball past my iron curtain defense, and hit a baby in a man's arms that was near his car.... He got really angry! The baby was wearing a huge parka, and was just laughing, so at least she was ok... But, after "calling the cops," the man finally left. Then we got transfer calls... And our entire district is staying the same, which is pretty unusual. It's all good though, we should have a great transfer.
Sunday was the new coldest day of my life. The high was below 1 degree (it read at .6 on our thermometer), and was in the -'s for pretty much the entire day. After church, Elder Gardner and I went out to tract. It was -2, and they said in the -30's with wind chill, but we said we'd just go until we found a new investigator or froze to death.
Neither of us died, but the 2 hours got Elder Gardner sick, so Monday was pretty dull. We had our district meeting at the transfer meeting, so that was fun. I got to meet the other Elder McMullin there! His mom was born and grew up in Panguitch... How weird is that? I also got a ridiculous amount of letters and some packages, so that was good too. The socks came on the perfect day... I now don't have to do laundry until the day after Christmas! :-)
Today's been good, we've just planned and tried to set stuff up. Elder Gardner still feels ill, so we haven't done much else. Almost no one wants to meet with us until after the hollidays, so we probably wont get much done this week. Christmas will be awesome though, so all's well.
Anyways, that's it for me! I'm excited to hear from y'all the day after tomorrow!!
I love you so much and am grateful for everything you have done, and continue to do for me!
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin

Mission Update 12/17/08

Here's today's post from our missionary!


Hello,
This week has been pretty interesting! We've really laid the groundwork for some serious success in this area. The Stockyards has always been considered one of the crappiest areas in the mission, but that's about to change! I just found out that it takes around 2 hours for people in the north half of the area to get to church via public transit!! Alot of trains and busses shut down on sunday, so for people in our half, it could be a 10-12 hour ordeal going to church... which is a huge commitment for someone w/o a testimony yet! I was able to talk to the Relief Society President (yep, they are good for something :P ) about this problem. Apparently, there used to be a ward transportation specialist, because there aren't many people with cars in the ward. She got us a list of less actives that have cars, and is researching the PACE program, which is supposedly just a CHEAP taxi service for really poor people. We're going to focus on the less actives, so hopefully we can reactivate them! We really feel that some will start coming to church again when they have a responsibility, so this will kill two birds with one stone!
Anyways, there's the great news from the week! It's a work in progress, but I really feel that this area is going to have a boom soon. I may not be here when it's in full bloom, but it's going to be awesome!
It's good to hear from ya'll! I've been opening the 12 days of Christmas presents, and have so far been 100%! Seriously! I just looked at today's box, and guessed it right (it was toothpaste)! I hope you're having a fun Christmas break! You better get those decorations up soon...
So, yeah... My week has been good. Here's the rundown.
Wednesday was Zone Activity. We went to go ice skating in Hyde Park, but the ice rink was covered with a few inches of snow. It was going to take a couple hours for the 2 guys to clear it off... So we all just helped! We finally got it cleared, and zambonied, so it was time to lace up the skates. It was pretty fun skating, even though the ice was really really rough, and there was still snow all over the place. It made for some funny wipe outs. Playing football didn't help either. After that, we went back to the Hyde Park chapel and ate some pizza. After half a pizza, we all played basketball. I lost my first Zone Activity game ever... Bummer. It was really fun though. Everyone cleared out at around 6 pm. We changed at the church, then went straight to a less active appointment at 7. We got there, and the lady's house was boarded / barred up, so we were really confused. Fortunately, we have a cell phone, so we called her. She had moved! Out of our area... We were really close though, so we just went to teach her anyways. It turns out that she has a nonmember sister living with her, so there's a new investigator for the Stockyards northers. We also saw a man dressed up in a santa suit walking through the snow.
The next day was pretty exciting. We only had one lesson throughout the day, but the evening is what made the day extraordinary. Brother Mahon had all of the district over for dinner! We had a lot of Giordanno's pizza, and it was really fun. Brother Mahon and the Bishop sat us down for a white elephant game, except they provided all of the gifts. There were a bunch of ties in the box, and I got a really really nice one. It's black and red striped, and really glittery. I just bought a gold buttoned christain dior suit coat (some hot shot new york designer right?) for 2 dollars at a thrift store (haha), so they'll go well together at district meetings. While this was going on, Soldier Field was getting more and more packed. The Bears had a game that night, so we all looked out the window / balcony at the staduim big screen. We left not long after it started though, so we didn't see much.
Friday went well. We got a new investigator, taught a few lessons, and set up a member present lesson for this friday. We also had dinner at the Leals', which is always good. Elder Gardner's tire popped on the way home, so we had to walk a ways. That was pretty much it for the day.
The next day was one of those days where everything falls apart.We were going to walk to appointments, but as soon as we were on our way, they all cancelled! We literally accomplished nothing, so it was pretty lame. But, I had a 12 days of Christmas present, so all was well. I guessed animal crackers, and lo and behold... It was animal crackers! They were really good, and we gobbled them down in about 15 minutes. Thanks! :)
Sunday was good. We had the Christmas program at church, and it was good. We then had MCM after church, which was very productive, but also took FOREVER. It took so long that we weren't able to go to visit Earl and Diane's church, which was unfortunate. We also found out that we didn't have the means to fix the flat tire, so it was another dissappointing evening. But, I had a Christmas present! I was wondering if it was a newspaper or something, but then Elder Gardner lined an envelope up to the box. The official guess was envelopes, and envelopes it was.
After District Meeting on Monday, I went to Calumet City on a Zone Leader exchange. They swap out with DLs and their companions once a transfer. We had a few appointments over in Cal City, and they went really well! We got two new investigators, and taught some awesome lessons. Elder Petty is probably the best missionary I've ever met! He's a really hard worker, and has a strong testimony. After teaching lessons and eating dinner, we went over to salt an old woman's walkway. Her salt was in her shed, and it was an adventure getting it out. Once we got the lock off, we found out the bricks in front of the door were frozen to the ground. We couldn't move them, so we went inside to get some hot water. The first trip didn't do it, so we went to get more... By the time we got back outside, the water was completely solid!!!! We finally got it off though, and salted the path. It was really cold though. Actually, Monday was probably the coldest day I've ever had in my life. The high was 14 degrees, but there was 30 mph wind, so it was -10 with the wind chill... for a high!!! We all ate lunch at Freddie's, which is an awesome Italian / pizza restaurant in, and watched the weather channel. I saw it was 58 degrees in Arizona... Brrr... Oh yeah, I felt the present for Monday, and was going to guess swedish fish, but then I heard the sugar in the bag... So I guessed Sour Patch Kids! They were awesome, thanks!
Tuesday was cold too. We switched back, fixed the bike tire, then got ready to go. We had two people that confirmed their appointments, so we headed out. It was snowing REALLY hard. We got 3 or 4 inches as we were biking, and it was pretty crazy. It's hard to bike through that much fresh snow. We kept going though, and to our dismay, we got double tubed. One wasn't home, and the other was getting into her car as we came to her house! It was alright though, I had a present to open! Elder Petty had the 12 days presents, and had just got a yo yo, so i pretty much just felt this one and got it right. If I hadn't seen Elder Petty's I probably would never have guessed.
Anyways, that's about it up until today. We don't really have anything planned for today. We're completely out of miles, so it'll be a pain to go anywhere... We'll just have to see what happens. Oh yeah, here's two random things that happened last week or the week before that I don't think I said. One is that I had the opportunity to walk an old lady across the street! This blind woman asked if I would, so she held onto my arm, and we walked to Subway. Pretty exciting. Another was that a missionary was telling us how he called someone outside of the district, then called the ZLs to see if it was ok... Which you're not supposed to do. We were joking about how President was going to chew him out (which wouldn't ever happen), when we got a phone call... From President Roach! It was in the middle of our conversation about him calling, so it was super surprising! He was just calling to congratulate Elder Gardner and I on our success in the area though, which is still extremely unusual, but in a good way. It was really funny to see this Elder's reaction though!
Anyways, I've been doing really well. I know the Gospel is true, and love telling people about it. I love you all, and love to hear from you! I just sent a package yesterday, and also the letter I had written the week before, but never mailed. I just realized I didn't put a note in the package... It's not much for Christmas, and is mostly stuff that's been given to me out here, but I hope you like it. There's not really much to buy out here for ya, and I'd feel bad sending tithing - bought supplies! Enjoy though :)
Have a merry Christmas, I'm excited to talk to you, and to find out where I'll be next transfer, and who I'll be with!
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin

Mission Update 12/10/08

Oh brrrrr....I just looked at the weather for Chicago today and the high is 19 degrees. Think warm thoughts for our Elder McMullin!!

Here's his email update from a couple of days ago:


Hi,
I've been doing really well! It sounds like everyone else is doing well too, so that's awesome! I'm really excited to start opening my Christmas presents... Only 3 days! [We sent him some little things for the 12 days of Christmas.]
We've got Zone Activity today, so I'm going to have to type this pretty fast, but here goes nothing...
On Thursday we woke up early so we could be at the Pulaski building to let President Roach & Co. into the building to set up our Zone Conference. We hung around the church for a while, then took our seats for the Christmas Devotional / Zone Conference. We heard some music, some talks, then watched a Hollywood movie! It was The Nativity, and was pretty good. It was pretty funny when all the previews came on at the beginning and everyone was freaking out. Haha. Anyways, Christmas Devo was awesome, and we got presents too... Every companionship in the entire mission got cell phones! These will be incredibly useful... Especially in an area like the Stockyards! We get dumped really often, so being able to call from their neighborhood will be an amazing help. Anyways, after ZC we booked it home to go to an appointment... Who turned out to be to sick. We then didn't really have much to do for a while until our next appointment, which was with Hector, the less active that just got out of the shelter. It went really well. This family is really strong, and has definitely benefitted from coming back to church. That was our last stop, so we went in for the night.
Friday was a pretty exciting day. We had an awesome schedule set up, but we got dumped 4 times and couldn't find anyone until dinner. We had dinner at the Leals, like every friday, then headed over to visit William. We had asked Brother and Sister Hanson to come with us, and they did... Thus making that lesson the first Member Present in recollectable Stockyards history! It actually went really really well. Sister Hanson was supposedly a less active, but she has one of the strongest testimonies I've heard. William definitely felt the Spirit, and he told us that our religion completely makes sense. He's pretty stuck in his ways, so this was an amazing step. He wouldn't accept a ride to church, so we're going to bring by the man that would give him a ride. They should actually get along really well! Both are living alone and such, and in their 70's... So that could / should be magic! Anyways, after he gave us our weekly Oreos, we headed home.
We did another Former Investigator blitz on Saturday with the miles we had for having the 3rd cleanest car in the Zone (25). We also dropped off some media referrals, and were able to get 2 new investigators. One of the new investigators we got was a real neat guy. He has had an illustrious past, but he wants to repent and find God! He had committed to baptism over the phone at the referral center, and should be a great guy to teach. He is pretty goofy, and actually introduced us to a local drug dealer... Pretty much everyone thinks we're FBI agents or the cops, so all the low lifes get really afraid when we're around... He just wanted to let his neighbor know he was OK. After a full day, we went to the Ward Christmas party, which wasn't attended very well, but was still awesome.
Sunday we woke up, got ready for the day, then found out one of our tires had popped. We changed it, then hurried to MCM. Church was awesome, but we didn't have any luck at all afterwards. We were going to go speak at Earl and Diane's ministry, but they had already adjurned for the day. They just kinda follow the Spirit, so their meetings can be extremely long or really short. After not being able to find anything for a while, we went back home and got ready for the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, which was awesome.
Monday started well... We had District Meeting at our apartment, so Elder Gardner and I cooked everyone Egg McMullins. We got loaves of bread for everyone, then filled them with eggs, bacon, and cheese. We used 30 eggs, or something ridiculous, but it was really really good. After that, the other missionaries took the car to Pep Boys, and we left for the day. We only could get one appointment, but it went really well. The people we were teaching brought 3 kids over, and they all had their Bibles out. They really liked the message, and all want to come to church on sunday. One of the men there was telling us about how his attitude used to be against God, and how he still fights that, but he's going to come to church since we promised him that would help. On our way home, we found a pretty good potential investigator for the Stockyards North Elders, which was great. [Brad and Elder Gardner have the south half of the Stockyards and the other missionaries they share an apartment with have the north half.] All in all, this was a pretty good day.
Tuesday was a pretty mixed day. We woke up, looked outside and said, "aww, crap." It had been slush raining, and it was pretty much awful. We made calls though, and did our best to fill in our day. We went out, set a return appointment one place we had anticipated to teach, then got told to come back tomorrow by the next person, and ended up having a few hour block of nothing... And rain was coming down horizontally. We were pretty much soaked to the core, so went to the west englewood library to warm up. We made some calls, and were able to bump our appointment up with Sister Johnson, a less active, to earlier in the day. We rode over there, then heard her amazing testimony. It may have been the strongest testimony I've ever heard. The Spirit was so strong in the room, it was awesome! We shared a message, and asked her if she could come to teach people with us that live in the area. She agreed, then we headed out. That's an awesome step, because teaching lessons with members present is by far the most effective way to teach. We then got out and couldn't find a place to stop by, so we headed over to William's. We had a Q&A, then read through Moroni 10 with him. It went really well. William is Catholic, but his beliefs are more in line with ours... He's just taking a long time to realize it. He said it would be alright for Brother Scott, who is his potential ride, to come visit him with us. He also gave us a Christmas card, which was really nice. After that, we went home. Oh yeah, on the way to William's, the rain had turned to snow... When we went outside from his house, our bikes were covered! It was snowing pretty hard, and was extremely windy... Our bike ride home was pretty interesting.
That takes me to today. We woke up to a nice batch of snow. We're getting a ride to the Hyde Park chapel, but are taking our bikes with us so we can ride home. The ground is really icy, but we're getting pretty good at riding in the snow. When going in a straight line, it is best to sit down... Your back tire gets better traction that way, and you don't peel out all over the place. When turning, it is best to stand up... If you sit down, you will slide out, and won't be able to catch yourself with your feet.
Anyways, that's that for the week!
Thanks for giving me the news for this week! I love you all, and am excited to talk to you on Christmas.
Thanks for sending that stuff mom! That'll be a great help. We drove to make library reservations last night, and I left my soaked gloves in the car... They were frozen solid this morning, and it was pretty crazy getting them heated up with my hands! Those liners will be awesome! :)
Anyways, take care. I love you a lot!
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin

Mission Update -- 12/3/08

Here's the latest email from Elder M. Make sure you take a look at the pictures he sent. They are posted below!


Hi,
This week has been pretty crazy and good! We've had some great success, but quite a few days where we didn't really proselyte... For legit reasons of course! I've been doing well though, and have stayed AWAP (As Warm As Possible)!
Thursday was Thanksgiving, and it started off well. We had a big Turkey Bowl up near Soldier Field, and it was really fun. We played for about three hours, then headed over to the Soldier Field Elders' apartment to shower. After getting dressed, Elder Gardner and I took a cab to Brother Mahon's condo. He lives on the top floor of a lakefront skyscraper, and has a ridiculous view of the city and the football stadium. Besides the Mahon's and us, the Bishop was there, and also some couple young couples. It definitely wasn't Reno [our family all got together in Reno for Thanksgiving], but it was a pretty good Thanksgiving.
Friday was pretty good as well. Elder Gardner and I went to the Zone Leader / District Leader meeting. It was actually pretty good, because we got a car and my bike! So, we have a car now... But almost no miles. We'll pretty much just have it to go to church and district meetings, but that's going to be way nice! After the meeting, we biked to some appointments. We got stuffed once, then went to the Leal's for dinner (the 1 family that feeds us). We had a good dinner, then went to visit William, the eternigator.
Saturday was probably the single most ridiculously productive proselyting day in the history of the Stockyards area. We still had our allotted miles for the month, but only 2 days to use them, so we went all over the place. We killed our media referral list, visited less actives, and also old investigators (Marco's investigator's old house was abandoned by the way). All in all, we visited 13 people! We dropped a good chunk, but got 3 new investigators! After dark, we used some more of our miles to go to Sam's Club... Where we got a few hundred dollars of food. We all just pitched in, since we're living the law of consecration.
Sunday was really good too. After church, Elder Gardner and I did the same thing we did on Saturday, but with much less success. We pretty much just dropped everyone we visited... Except the two investigators we had an appointment with. The lady has her own ministry in her apartment, and they were having a big service for a deceased relative. We were able to attend part of it, and were given the opportunity to teach the Plan of Salvation! It was actually way awesome. Everyone was extremely receptive, and we'll go back to visit them pretty often. Including Sundays. The minister had a less than Christlike past, but was prompted by the Spirit to start her church. We're going to tell her about the Cambellites and explain to her how she can bring her congregation into the Kingdom of God. Anyways, it was an awesome day.
Monday was interesting. We woke up to a few inches of snow. It's an understatement to say it's awful to bike through snow. We did though, and had 2 appointments cancel on us. This was pretty lame, so we went back to the apartment to make sure our last appointment would be there. They never would answer, so we didn't know if we wanted to bike to the absolute corner of our area (74th street and way East). We knelt down and prayed, and felt that we should... So we got up, and started on the most ridiculous bike ride I've ever gone on. As we were slipping around the sidewalk, a car started to pull in front of Elder Gardner. He was forced to suicide wreck so he didn't get ran over. It was alright though, so we just kept riding... Until we hit the train tracks. There was a train that was STOPPED on the tracks, and went completely out of our area! We had to get past it, so we ended up hobo-climbing it, and rode away on the other side. Somehow Elder Gardner's gloves got shredded while climbing. We kept riding though, and before too long, I pressed my brakes a little too hard, and ate some ice. We kept going though, then finally got to our appointment. We tried to watch the Restoration movie, but the DVD player broke. Then we were just teaching, and an insane man comes out and explains over 45 minutes how I'm his black brother. It ended up being me humoring this guy for another 30 minutes or so while Elder Gardner finished the lesson. We got a new investigator over there though, and committed a woman to baptism, so it was very productive. The ride home was pretty uneventful, but that's not a bad thing. Oh yeah, we couldn't unlock our gate because the keyhole was filled with ice. It took forever, but we finally got it open.
We woke up Tuesday and looked at the lowest low on our thermometer. It had gotten down to 3 degrees!!! We left pretty early, and met Brother Rann at a church near his house. He then gave us a ride to the Words of Wisdom bookstore, and the Temple. The Temple was awesome of course. After our session, we left for Brother Rann's house. We got some Buffalo Wild Wings on the way. We got a bunch of different flavors, and also 1 Blazin wing for everyone. It's the hottest of the hot, and it was AWFUL! I ate one bite, and it was alright.... for about a second. Then I felt horrible, and ended up drinking about half a gallon of Oberweis... Pretty fun! Haha. The rest of the day was good, but we were pretty tired.
Today's been good so far too. After I finish this letter, and one to President, we're going to head off to the Planetarium. It should be fun.
Anyways, I've been well, and am enjoying the work. The Lord has blessed us with 10 New Investigators so far, and I pray He'll bless us with more. I'm so grateful I have this opportunity to teach people about the Gospel. I know the Gospel is true, and I know it's neccessary. I love the Lord, and love serving Him!
I love you too! Take care!!
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin

Elder Greenway

Here's the 4th missionary in the apartment, Elder Greenway. He and Elder Houston are companions.

Elders Gardner and Houston

Here's a picture of Elder McMullin's companion, Elder Gardner (on the left - no hat) and Elder Houston, one of the other missionaries living in his apartment. Cool hat!

Elder McMullin With a Member from Chicago

This is Elder McMullin with Brother Rann, the kind member in his Chicago ward who volunteered to drive Elder M. and Elder Gardner to the temple!

Chicago Temple

Elder McMullin and Elder Gardner got to go to the Chicago Temple on December 2! Here's Elder M. standing in front of the temple. All the missionaries were allowed to go to the temple last transfer, but when it fell through for Elder M and his former companion, Elder Adair, President Roach gave them permission to go during this transfer.

Elder M Looking Cold

Here's Elder M. in front of the house he and 3 other Elders live in, located in the "Stockyards" area of Chicago. Brrrr. Looks cold!

Elder M and a Watseka Branch member

This shows Elder M in his P-Day clothes with one of the kind members from the Watseka branch (Brother Cluetter, whose wife is the best cook Brad has ever met!) and his dog, Curly! This was taken on Elder M's last day in Watseka as he was telling everyone good-bye.

Watseka Branch Building

Here's a picture of the little church building that Elder McMullin went to when he was in Watseka, IL (his first area).