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