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