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