Before I get to his email, I just have to point out that on Friday the 30th, Elder McMullin will have been on his mission for 6 months!! Transfers are next week; it will be interesting to see what happens. I think he'll stay where he is (obviously just a guess).
Now, here's his email:
Hi everyone!
Happy Birthday Tay! I've got something that I'm going to send you... I've been meaning to mail stuff for such a long time, but just have never got around to it. Sorry!!! But it will be there soon, and you should love it... I hope :)
Anyways, sounds like you've all been doing well! That's good to hear. That's funny about all those books you've been reading! We were talking about how crazy Captain Ahab was in Moby Dick just the other day! Elder Gardner was getting pretty excited and wanted to read it, but we assured him that MOST of the book was pretty dull. Haha.
Grandma asked if we're allowed to read non-church books or play games. The book part is an interesting question. You're not allowed to study books outside of the "missionary library," which is the scriptures, Preach My Gospel, Jesus the Christ, and like 2 or 3 other books. So no Moby Dick for me. As for games, yeah we're allowed to play games. We play cards all the time, since we have to be in really early. We also play some board games and stuff, and I used to do a lot of crossword puzzles.
Since we have from like 6 to 10:30, we do a lot of random stuff. Don't worry Dad, we don't make chlorine bombs or anything crazy... But one missionary did get some remote control helicopters the other day. They're actually really fun! They're made to fight, but they're pretty hard to control in such a small apartment. They end up going kamikaze after 30 seconds or so... If you're good.
But yeah, other than that, I make a LOT of phone calls, and do a lot of planning. It probably takes about 15 phone calls to set up one appointment out here, and when you're shooting for at least 20 appointments a week, that means a lot of time on the phone. 20 is the coveted mark that L Tom Perry set for missionaries (he came to the stake conferences like a month before I got here), but is seemingly impossible for people to get here. It's funny, I was reading Mooker's email, and it had said something like "we're not in America, so it's pretty tough to get appointments" which is kind of like what they say here... It's "impossible" to get 20 lessons. Everyone in America is satisfied and doesn't want to hear anything... Which is for the most part true, but Proverbs 3:5-6! Trust in the Lord, and make a ridiculous amount of phone calls! Haha. But yeah, it's pretty hard here, and I'm sure it's harder to get people to talk over there in Europe. We're definitely not in South America... But anyways, we got our 20 lessons last week! It was pretty exciting! We still haven't got anyone to church, other than less actives, but all of our return appointments definitely give us hope.
So yeah, I guess I left off on Wednesday for the Daily Update. After I wrote, we went and played snow football! It was awesome! It was so fun. The second play of the game, I cought a long bomb and did a half flip dive into the endzone for fun. It was fun, but I ended up getting snow not only inside my pants, but inside my thermals... So it probably wasn't worth it. It ended up being a really good game, and we had to have a couple overtimes. Elder Atwood, who drove Elder Gardner and I to the Hyde Park Pointe (where we played), lost his keys in the almost knee deep snow. We all had a prayer, and actually found the keys! It was pretty amazing, so we had a thank you prayer too. After that, we went to the Hyde Park church, which is right next to Obama's house, and had a pot luck lunch. It was really good, and pretty fun. After that, we played some ping pong, dodgeball, and basketball. The Lobo, Elder Stratton was there. He's a really cool guy, I'd love to be his companion some time. We're both pretty stoked for the Arizona Cardinals to win the Super Bowl next week! Anyways, after Zone Activity, we went over to the Bishop's house for dinner. They cooked some awesome twice baked spaghetti, and we had a lot of fun. Bishop Haydock does a lot of top secret chemical engineering, so he was telling us about some of his projects. They sounded pretty sweet.
Thursday was pretty good. We got dumped, and ended up only visiting William. He's a pretty avid gardner, so we taught him the Allegory of the Olive Tree! How many investigators do you think get taught that? Elder Gardner and I spent a while going through it pretty thoroughly, so we'd be prepared. It turned out pretty well, then we went home for the night.
Friday was good. At about 3:30, we were walking down the road, and pretty much got overran by 20 cops! I have no clue what was going on, but it was definitely something. You pretty much never don't see a cop rolling around here, but this was insane! It's alright though, we are 100% definitely kept safe around these crappy neighborhoods. The Lord takes care of his servants. We ended up having some awesome lessons, including some random dude that approached us on the street. We got one new investigator that had found a discarded pass a long card on a bus, and decided to call. We had an awesome lesson with her, and she ended up wanting us to come back... Then she gave us the name and phone number of some people she wants us to teach! It was great. We then went to William's again, since he's been working hard to stop smoking, then went home.
Saturday was the most packed day ever. We had 9 appointments scheduled before it began. It started off with a tube, so we ended up going to some taco shack that had a sign saying "Top 5 tacos in Chicago, - Chicago Tribune," or some thing like that. It was actually really good. After that, we had a good appointment, then one that stuffed us. We definitely got inspired at that point, and called a less active family. They had been pretty sick, so we went over there, had a good lesson, then gave the wife a blessing. We ended up having 4 more awesome lessons after that, so our day was really really productive. I also ordered some new scripture marking pens.
So, Sunday was pretty good too. We had MCM, church, then left for home. This crazy man in the ward wanted us to help them carry a fridge over a fence (don't even ask why he wanted us to go over the fence... We were pretty confused too), so we were all getting ready to do that, when we got a call. He said that the pipes had broken in a house, so the door was froze shut, and we couldn't get the fridge now. From this, and some other clues, we came to the conclusion that this crazy man wanted us to help him steal a broken fridge out of an abandoned house. What the heck? We were all dressed in P-Day clothes at this point, and it was dark, so we just lounged around all evening.
Monday was weird. We had district meeting, then I went on an exchange to Calumet City, with a zone leader. Our first appointment was for a media referral that ended up being a RIDICULOUS aggressive woman. It was pretty hard to restrain myself from telling her how stupid she was, but after scriptorally shutting down everything she said, we ended up just asking her to show some faith in Christ, and just pray. After that, we went and had a really good lesson somewhere else, then went to a dinner appointment. The woman we had dinner with was from Mesa, so she was really nice. She ended up giving us a TON of food, so I definitely came home richer. I got a ton of ramen, a couple loaves of bread, soup, frozen pizzas, noodles, and some other stuff... It was pretty sweet.
Tuesday was good too. We switched back, then went out for a couple appointments. Anyways, the day ended up pretty well. Oh yeah, our phone had broke, so we got a new one, and when we were trying to activate it, everything went crazy. We got an old one from the Peoria mission, and when we got it activated, we accidently stole the Springerville Zone Leader's phone number! Ooops!!!
Anyways, my time is up...
take care, love you, the church is true,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Mission Update -- 1/21/09 A Week of Ups and Downs!
Here's the latest from Elder McMullin. Sounds like some of the best days of his mission and one of the worst days! Here it is:
Hey family!
This week has been crazy!
Last week started off REALLY WELL. We were on pace to break 20 lessons, which is kind of the coveted / almost unattainable goal of lessons for any area. The best two days were Monday and Tuesday.
Wednesday was good too. I can't remember what we did for p day... Nothing really exciting, but we met with a less active that evening, and had a really good lesson. That was pretty much it.
Thursday was great. We had Zone Conference throughout the day. It was probably the best Zone Conference I've ever been to. Super spiritual, and really pumped us up. It was also the coldest day ever... Having a high below zero, and wind galore. It was nuts. We had a lesson afterwards with a media referral, and that went really well. The woman didn't have heat in her home, except for her bedroom, so we all just froze hardcore. There was a ton of mist after every word we said. It went well though, and at the end she sang hallelujah! We had just been promised in Zone Conference that if we worked hard, and did well, we'd have an investigator do that! It was pretty funny it happened so soon. After that we went back home, and ended up having to park on the end of the street. We also swapped with Cicero, and Elder Atwood came to the Stockyards with me. It was -13 degrees (before wind chill) when we went to bed.
Friday was by far the worst day of my entire mission. We woke up freezing, got ready, and went to the car for an appointment. Our entire street gets blocked off by people saving spots with buckets and chairs, so it was hard to find spots to politely park last night. I ended up parking on the edge of the road, leaving enough room for the person who saved the spot almost at the edge to park. We had a ticket for "parking in the crosswalk" on the car, and a note that said, "Hey ____, if you ever park in this spot again, your car is going to be in a frozen block of ice. See you in the spring!" It was weird, lame, and pretty infuriating for all of us. We had been polite by giving them enough space to park, which gave us a ticket, and then they get mad. Anyways, we got over that, then left for our appointments. We had set up an epic day.... But 6 appointments crapped out on us, and the one we had was awful. William, for the second or third time, wasn't ready to sign the smoke free declaration of independence. And our tire popped, which completely shot Saturday. And it was cold. Anyways, there it was... The worst day ever. Now I can look forward with faith, knowing that all the days coming will be relatively good! :-)
Saturday was alright, we waited for the tire to get fixed until 5 PM. We then picked up a member, and went to 2 appointments with him. They went alright. It's always good to have a member with you. The local drug dealers on that block know us pretty well now too. They're always driving up and down the street in their ghetto banging van, but they said hi and talked to us. They're actually pretty nice!
Sunday went well. We had church. That was pretty much it. The most dynamic week ever finally ended.
Then a great week began! Monday was great! We had a few lessons, including an awesome one with William. He was excited and ready to sign the declaration of independance! He did, and has been smoke free since! It was awesome. We also had a couple other lessons, and all of them wanted us back. The last one was a dinner appointment with the Tupayachi's, and it was great. We also had William give us the usual cookies and juice, and another person we visited gave us a box of 12 packages of wafer cookies!!! It was a pretty productive day for both spiritual, and sugary food. The day ended with Elder Sorensen, from Soldier Field, coming down to be with me for Tuesday. It was another cold night...
But Tuesday was beautiful! It got to the 40's!!!! It was amazing, seriously. We had a really good day too. We taught some great lessons, and had a dinner appointment with the Mahon's in Soldier Field's area. We only got stuffed once too! The guy that we couldn't meet with works nights, and we figured he just slept through his alarm and our phone calls. It's alright, he loves meeting with us so we'll see him soon.
Today should be great. We're about to leave to play some snow football, which will be awesome! Then we're having a potluck and all sorts of fun things at the Hyde Park church, which is as close to Obama's house as our house is to the Bennetts. Maybe even closer, but either way it's right there, and there's going to be cops and roadblocks, and all sorts of fun stuff. And yes, people were pretty excited. The day of inauguration was right after MLK day, so everyone was pretty excited about both of those. We saw some people marching around with Obama signs, but not many.
Well, I love you.
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
Hey family!
This week has been crazy!
Last week started off REALLY WELL. We were on pace to break 20 lessons, which is kind of the coveted / almost unattainable goal of lessons for any area. The best two days were Monday and Tuesday.
Wednesday was good too. I can't remember what we did for p day... Nothing really exciting, but we met with a less active that evening, and had a really good lesson. That was pretty much it.
Thursday was great. We had Zone Conference throughout the day. It was probably the best Zone Conference I've ever been to. Super spiritual, and really pumped us up. It was also the coldest day ever... Having a high below zero, and wind galore. It was nuts. We had a lesson afterwards with a media referral, and that went really well. The woman didn't have heat in her home, except for her bedroom, so we all just froze hardcore. There was a ton of mist after every word we said. It went well though, and at the end she sang hallelujah! We had just been promised in Zone Conference that if we worked hard, and did well, we'd have an investigator do that! It was pretty funny it happened so soon. After that we went back home, and ended up having to park on the end of the street. We also swapped with Cicero, and Elder Atwood came to the Stockyards with me. It was -13 degrees (before wind chill) when we went to bed.
Friday was by far the worst day of my entire mission. We woke up freezing, got ready, and went to the car for an appointment. Our entire street gets blocked off by people saving spots with buckets and chairs, so it was hard to find spots to politely park last night. I ended up parking on the edge of the road, leaving enough room for the person who saved the spot almost at the edge to park. We had a ticket for "parking in the crosswalk" on the car, and a note that said, "Hey ____, if you ever park in this spot again, your car is going to be in a frozen block of ice. See you in the spring!" It was weird, lame, and pretty infuriating for all of us. We had been polite by giving them enough space to park, which gave us a ticket, and then they get mad. Anyways, we got over that, then left for our appointments. We had set up an epic day.... But 6 appointments crapped out on us, and the one we had was awful. William, for the second or third time, wasn't ready to sign the smoke free declaration of independence. And our tire popped, which completely shot Saturday. And it was cold. Anyways, there it was... The worst day ever. Now I can look forward with faith, knowing that all the days coming will be relatively good! :-)
Saturday was alright, we waited for the tire to get fixed until 5 PM. We then picked up a member, and went to 2 appointments with him. They went alright. It's always good to have a member with you. The local drug dealers on that block know us pretty well now too. They're always driving up and down the street in their ghetto banging van, but they said hi and talked to us. They're actually pretty nice!
Sunday went well. We had church. That was pretty much it. The most dynamic week ever finally ended.
Then a great week began! Monday was great! We had a few lessons, including an awesome one with William. He was excited and ready to sign the declaration of independance! He did, and has been smoke free since! It was awesome. We also had a couple other lessons, and all of them wanted us back. The last one was a dinner appointment with the Tupayachi's, and it was great. We also had William give us the usual cookies and juice, and another person we visited gave us a box of 12 packages of wafer cookies!!! It was a pretty productive day for both spiritual, and sugary food. The day ended with Elder Sorensen, from Soldier Field, coming down to be with me for Tuesday. It was another cold night...
But Tuesday was beautiful! It got to the 40's!!!! It was amazing, seriously. We had a really good day too. We taught some great lessons, and had a dinner appointment with the Mahon's in Soldier Field's area. We only got stuffed once too! The guy that we couldn't meet with works nights, and we figured he just slept through his alarm and our phone calls. It's alright, he loves meeting with us so we'll see him soon.
Today should be great. We're about to leave to play some snow football, which will be awesome! Then we're having a potluck and all sorts of fun things at the Hyde Park church, which is as close to Obama's house as our house is to the Bennetts. Maybe even closer, but either way it's right there, and there's going to be cops and roadblocks, and all sorts of fun stuff. And yes, people were pretty excited. The day of inauguration was right after MLK day, so everyone was pretty excited about both of those. We saw some people marching around with Obama signs, but not many.
Well, I love you.
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Mission Update -- 1/14/09
We got our weekly email today, so here it is!
Hey, sounds like everyone's been doing well at home! I was looking at the paper the other day, and right under where it said "WORST CHICAGO WINTER IN A DECADE," it said PHOENIX 70 DEGREES!!!! I'm a little jealous. We're in a blizzard now apparently, or at least a warning for it. They scooped all of this last weeks snow off of the main roads (making sometimes waist deep piles!), but all the sidestreets are pretty nasty. We're lucky the mission only has new cars, because a LOT of people get stuck. But yeah, it's pretty fun.
So anyways, I'll just go through the weekly run down. I wrote some letters I've got to send, but I just never remember to go do it.
Anyways, last Wednesday was good! We went to the Shed Aquarium and had a lot of fun. They had a 4D planet earth movie that we went to, and it had some pin in the seat that hit you right in the spine. It was pretty crazy! We saw some cool fish from all over... Including quite a few I've seen in the wild! After that, we just went to Borders and looked around. I started reading some book about a sociologist that went to U of Chicago, then started studying gangs / made friends with a gang boss... Then realized that their gangster hideout was within a couple of miles of our apartment. It's over in Englewood though, which is the crapster area that we go to a few days a week... Not in our beautiful, immaculate neighborhood :)
Thursday was good too. We had President's interviews / district meeting. Those went well. After that, we had a few appointments, but nothing too exciting. Actually, one of our investigators went into a 28 day rehab program, so we just taught a lesson to his LDS girlfriend. As we were teaching her, her physical therapist came in and did his shindig. We also got a borderline creepy new investigator, and got some other work accomplished.
Friday brought yet another meeting. We had the Zone Leader / District Leader council, which went on FOREVER. Actually, it wasn't bad at all. After the meeting, we just went around and got stuffed a couple times, then had 3 appointments in the evening. The Leal's fed us hot dogs, pizza, and taquitos.... and TAMARINDO pods! Which was the go to "here try this" nasty soda at BYU until some girl hoochied herself and some supersalty cookies into my life. But that tamarindo stuff is so gross. I had only tried the Jarritos brand tamarindo soda, because someone saw that it was cheaper than all other flavors and got it then had everyone try it... But the real deal is way worse. Actually, I just mentioned Tamarindo, and they happened to have some. We also got some Tamarindo candy / butter stuff, which is also disgusting... Anyways, it was a really good meal, with or without the Tamarindo.
Saturday was pretty good. This was the first day of the ridiculous snow. We got somewhere between 9 inches and a foot. There were a lot of cancelations. It was pretty ridiculous, a lot of people cancelled because of the weather. We told them they only had to open their door and let us in their house, but apparently that would be too much exposure. We still did get a couple of lessons, but most our day was spent just waiting around in our house.
Sunday was pretty good. We had church, and then were going to have a lesson with Mary B, but they cancelled... This weather kills everything. We got a call to clean off the church's sattelite dish, so we did that... Then watched President Monson's fireside! It was really good!
Monday was pretty awesome. We did our weekly planning, got ready, studied then left for a couple of appointments. We had some good ones, then had one kindofcancellation of an appointment we hadn't really set, so we tracted for quite a while. It was really cold, so we called and asked if we could go to our next appointment early. Brother Scott was kind enough to take us in, and he fed us an amazing dinner. Brother Scott is an older man that recently lost his wife. She passed away a few months ago, and it sounds like she was really funny! Scotty's really into sports and his grandkids, so we talked a lot about that. It started to snow like crazy while we were there, and to our great surprise and happiness, Brother Scott gave us a ride home.
Tuesday was a really good day. We had five appointments and no cancellations! One of them was with Clara, a less active we hadn't ever met. She has been ill, but is doing pretty well now. We talked with her for a while, then her physical therapist walked in... and it was that same guy we saw on Thursday at a different person's house! All of us were just like, "what the heck? How're you doing?" It turns out he got his doctorate in Salt Lake... So we're going to start teaching him next time we see him! Hahaha. We also had another investigator decide to stop smoking! Friday's going to be great, we should have 2 investigators on the stop smoking program. We also got to meet Carr Davis, who G&G's friends knew! [A couple who lives in Boulder City went on a mission to Chicago South several years ago and were in the ward that Brad is now serving in.]He's a really good guy, but hasn't been coming to church lately. He has a strong testimony, and is going to come back. He just got laid off, and has had some problems, but he'll be alright. After meeting with him, we went home.
Today should be alright. We don't really have anything planned, so we'll see what happens.
I've been doing well though, and am enjoying being in the service of the Lord! I love you all a lot, and am glad you write to me. Take care.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hey, sounds like everyone's been doing well at home! I was looking at the paper the other day, and right under where it said "WORST CHICAGO WINTER IN A DECADE," it said PHOENIX 70 DEGREES!!!! I'm a little jealous. We're in a blizzard now apparently, or at least a warning for it. They scooped all of this last weeks snow off of the main roads (making sometimes waist deep piles!), but all the sidestreets are pretty nasty. We're lucky the mission only has new cars, because a LOT of people get stuck. But yeah, it's pretty fun.
So anyways, I'll just go through the weekly run down. I wrote some letters I've got to send, but I just never remember to go do it.
Anyways, last Wednesday was good! We went to the Shed Aquarium and had a lot of fun. They had a 4D planet earth movie that we went to, and it had some pin in the seat that hit you right in the spine. It was pretty crazy! We saw some cool fish from all over... Including quite a few I've seen in the wild! After that, we just went to Borders and looked around. I started reading some book about a sociologist that went to U of Chicago, then started studying gangs / made friends with a gang boss... Then realized that their gangster hideout was within a couple of miles of our apartment. It's over in Englewood though, which is the crapster area that we go to a few days a week... Not in our beautiful, immaculate neighborhood :)
Thursday was good too. We had President's interviews / district meeting. Those went well. After that, we had a few appointments, but nothing too exciting. Actually, one of our investigators went into a 28 day rehab program, so we just taught a lesson to his LDS girlfriend. As we were teaching her, her physical therapist came in and did his shindig. We also got a borderline creepy new investigator, and got some other work accomplished.
Friday brought yet another meeting. We had the Zone Leader / District Leader council, which went on FOREVER. Actually, it wasn't bad at all. After the meeting, we just went around and got stuffed a couple times, then had 3 appointments in the evening. The Leal's fed us hot dogs, pizza, and taquitos.... and TAMARINDO pods! Which was the go to "here try this" nasty soda at BYU until some girl hoochied herself and some supersalty cookies into my life. But that tamarindo stuff is so gross. I had only tried the Jarritos brand tamarindo soda, because someone saw that it was cheaper than all other flavors and got it then had everyone try it... But the real deal is way worse. Actually, I just mentioned Tamarindo, and they happened to have some. We also got some Tamarindo candy / butter stuff, which is also disgusting... Anyways, it was a really good meal, with or without the Tamarindo.
Saturday was pretty good. This was the first day of the ridiculous snow. We got somewhere between 9 inches and a foot. There were a lot of cancelations. It was pretty ridiculous, a lot of people cancelled because of the weather. We told them they only had to open their door and let us in their house, but apparently that would be too much exposure. We still did get a couple of lessons, but most our day was spent just waiting around in our house.
Sunday was pretty good. We had church, and then were going to have a lesson with Mary B, but they cancelled... This weather kills everything. We got a call to clean off the church's sattelite dish, so we did that... Then watched President Monson's fireside! It was really good!
Monday was pretty awesome. We did our weekly planning, got ready, studied then left for a couple of appointments. We had some good ones, then had one kindofcancellation of an appointment we hadn't really set, so we tracted for quite a while. It was really cold, so we called and asked if we could go to our next appointment early. Brother Scott was kind enough to take us in, and he fed us an amazing dinner. Brother Scott is an older man that recently lost his wife. She passed away a few months ago, and it sounds like she was really funny! Scotty's really into sports and his grandkids, so we talked a lot about that. It started to snow like crazy while we were there, and to our great surprise and happiness, Brother Scott gave us a ride home.
Tuesday was a really good day. We had five appointments and no cancellations! One of them was with Clara, a less active we hadn't ever met. She has been ill, but is doing pretty well now. We talked with her for a while, then her physical therapist walked in... and it was that same guy we saw on Thursday at a different person's house! All of us were just like, "what the heck? How're you doing?" It turns out he got his doctorate in Salt Lake... So we're going to start teaching him next time we see him! Hahaha. We also had another investigator decide to stop smoking! Friday's going to be great, we should have 2 investigators on the stop smoking program. We also got to meet Carr Davis, who G&G's friends knew! [A couple who lives in Boulder City went on a mission to Chicago South several years ago and were in the ward that Brad is now serving in.]He's a really good guy, but hasn't been coming to church lately. He has a strong testimony, and is going to come back. He just got laid off, and has had some problems, but he'll be alright. After meeting with him, we went home.
Today should be alright. We don't really have anything planned, so we'll see what happens.
I've been doing well though, and am enjoying being in the service of the Lord! I love you all a lot, and am glad you write to me. Take care.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Mission Update -- 1/7/09
Elder McMullin sent us an email yesterday on his way to the Shedd Aquarium! Fun! He had also sent us one late last week after p-day was over (Saturday) because the library was closed on his p-day (New Year's Day). Here are excerpts from both emails:
From Saturday, January 3, 2009:
Hi everyone! I should have just emailed everything Tuesday... The libraries were closed the next couple of days! I'm over at the Chicago Lawn library, which is near where our first appointments are today. We are walking / bussing today. It's pretty warm out... I'm wearing too much, so I'm going to take my sweater off, or else I'll start to sweat like crazzy.
Anyways,
My week has gone well.
Christmas Eve was good.. I've told you [a little bit] about it, but we had a couple of appointments, got a new investigator, then headed over to Hector's house for dinner. They fed us an amazing turkey leg dinner... It was really good, but I felt bad since Elizabeth, Hector's wife, scooped it all out for us, then had like nothing for herself. After that, we went home and hung out until bed time.
Anyways, Christmas started off well... I woke up and opened my remaining 3 presents, got dressed, and called home to set up the long evening call. It was fun hearing your voices! The other missionaries in the district came over for a potluck breakfast, which was pretty good. We had french toast and other random stuff. Elder Gardner and I also put ingredients into the crock pot for our amazing Christmas Soup! Everyone hung out at our house throughout the day. People called home off and on, so there was pretty much always someone in a room talking to their family. I called home at 6pm, and it was really nice. It was fun to hear from the people I love most! It was definitely the highlight of the Christmas season. After the call, we ate some soup, then didn't really do anything else. Actually, Elder Maliwauke and I went to the one Walgreens that was open (found via GPS), and got some soda and stuff. It was ridiculously packed... The parking lot was overflowing into the street, and it was a major traffic jam. After that though, we just went to bed to get ready for the next day...
Which wasn't particularly productive. Nor was the next day. We got stuffed, dumped, rejected, and all other obscure manners of rejection because people "had their family over," or were "cleaning up decorations." They were alright, but we just didn't get too many lessons or anything. It's alright though, we were able to set appointments for this week. It got REALLY warm for a couple days... Like 50's and I think even 60's at one point! It melted pretty much everything, which is really really nice. We still have beautiful snow free sidewalks.
Sunday was interesting... We got out of bed, got ready, then started studying... Then got a phone call. All of the missionaries were assigned talks! I had prepared some at the MTC, so I just pulled one out of my notebook and modified it a bit. No biggie. Church went well, and we had fun giving talks. We started over for the new year for Gospel Principles, which was nice.
Monday went well. It was warm when we woke up, so we went running. We had district meeting at the church, then set off for a crazy day. A LOT of the media referrals we get have dead phones. It's pretty amazing actually... They call the referral center, then have their phones disconnected within a couple of days! Welcome to the ghetto... But anyways, we just went to try to hunt all of these people down, and ended up dropping a lot of people. We got some more that just wanted to meet after the New Year... Just like everyone else we had been trying to teach for the last week or so. We made a lot of appointments in the evening, and the day was finished on a good note.
Tuesday was crazy. We had 6 appoinments, and only got dumped one time! It was awesome. We met some people that were pretty into it in the morning, then headed off to visit a less active member... and her non-member boyfriend was there! We taught him a lesson, and he was really into it, then gave him a blessing! (we had given her one the week before, and he wanted one too). We then went to teach the people with a church and William in the evening. It was probably the most productive day of my mission.
New Years Eve was far from being the most productive day ever... Pretty much no one wanted to meet with us, so we didn't have much to do until going to Hector & Elizabeth's house in the evening. They're such a great family, and are doing their best to fix their lives. They have a tough time bringing their family to church, so I bought some bus passes for them earlier in the day. As we were in a Currency Exchange (that's what they call payday loan center's over here), some lady came up to me and started telling me how pretty I was. "Oh, you got the prettiest eyes. You better watch out, being so pretty... Even the girls are going to try and rip you off. Even your friend is going to, since you're so pretty!" She was pretty interesting, so I just thanked her, then got out of there. We didn't do much until going to Hector and Elizabeth's. They fed us an AMAZING turkey dinner. We helped them make a sheet of goals, then planned some stuff for their family home evenings. Then we played Trouble... It was really fun, but I got smoked! Every time I got my guys almost to the end, they'd get eaten. I probably had the most guys out, but I got destroyed! Elizabeth couldn't get anybody out of her home base, so it came down to Hector and Gardner both having a guy on the last place rolling for a 3. It went for a really long time, but Gardner got eaten by Elizabeth, and Hector won before anyone could do anything about it. Ugh. Hahaha. It was not only New Year's Eve, it was P-Day Eve, so we stayed up until 12 playing games.
Then slept in the next day, and got ready to do... Nothing. We ended up just going to the mall and looking at stuff, but we pretty much just wasted the entire P-Day.
Friday was good too. We had a lot of appointments again, but got dumped qutie a bit more than Tuesday. We still had 4 appointments that went through... and got fed at EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. It was insane. We went to the first one at 3 PM. It was Ruby Selvie, a media referral, and it went really well. She had gotten the BoM in the mail, had read to Jacob, and is really interested. She's a solid new investigator, and she gave us some cake! After that, we went to visit the Tupayachi's... Who are a less active family that has a car. They are super nice, and were very hospitible. Two of their three children were way excited to have us over, and showed us just about every single toy they own. We were talking with the family, and they sneek-attack fed us! This was about 4:45, and we had a dinner appointment for 5:00, but it was prepared really well, and brought to us, so we had to eat it. It was a really good, and really large, serving of rice, beans and pork. I was pretty much stuffed from eating this, but we shared a message, invited them to church, and left for the Leals... Where we got fed rice, beans and pork! It was crazy, and once again, we got served a HUGE serving of food! Brother Leal is the biggest goof ball ever, and was pretending to get offended when we slowed down on eating, which was pretty quick. We forced more down, but finally just couldn't do it any more. After that, we shared a message then left to visit William. We taught him a lesson, and invited him to church. He says he'll most likely come, so that's good. At the end of the lesson, he gave us our juice and cookies... Which we happily put in a bag to take home. He gives us food every time we visit him, so we always have a box of Oreo's or something at home. And a lot of Jumex Nectars... But anyways, my stomach was about ready to explode by the end of the night, but I felt good when I laid down, and even better when I went to sleep.
Then we woke up today, and walked / bussed down here to the Chicago Lawn library! We've got quite a few appointments today, so it should be good.
I love you a lot, and appreciate all of your letters & such! I know the Gospel is true, and am happy to tell people that.
Take care,
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
From January 7, 2009:
Hello!
It's good to hear from you! [Then he put in some messages to each person in the family.]
I think I last emailed you on Saturday [morning]. That day went pretty well. We went out and got stuffed a few times, then had a couple appointments. One of them was with a less active that has a car. She was really friendly, and showed us her dog. She has a few, but only one of them is an all-indoor dog / spoiled child. The other ones hang out in the back yard and bark a lot. She was telling us how her neighbors don't like dogs, and got fed up with them one day... and paintballed the dogs! It was such a sad / hillarious story! Anyways, we asked her to give a ride to some investigators, and she said she would... Which is awesome news! After that appointment, we went out with Brother Ocampo, the assistant / interim ward mission leader. He helped us teach one lesson, and the investigators agreed to coming to church with the less active. We then got stuffed twice, then got dropped off at home. It was a good day.
Sunday had such potential. We had William that should have come to church, but got sick, Mary B. and her family that was coming with the less active sister, and another less active family. We also were going to have a dinner appointment that evening. We were excited at church, but it turns out that the less active sister just called the investigators right before church, and they had given up I guess, so they weren't there. The less active family also wasn't there. Then, the man we were going to have dinner with ripped his hand open, and had to go to the hospital for stitches! It was a pretty ridiculous day... But, the one less active sister that was giving the ride came, so it was good.
Monday was pretty good. I went to Cicero on an exchange; we didn't really accomplish much, but we had fun. We had what we thought was Mamma Mia pizza from Pizza Hut, but it was really pizza mia. Not as cool of a name, but still good.
We switched back Tuesday, and then quickly got ready for an appointment.... Which crapped out. We had a few later in the day, and had three follow through, including dinner with the less active Tupayachis! They're a really nice family, and stopped coming to church because the wife's leg went paralized after her c-section... I guess they somehow pinched / cut a nerve? It sounds pretty lame, but she's gotten much better, so hopefully they'll come again! Brother Tupayachi was at work. He's a cop on the north side, and arrests a lot of drunk drivers. Sister Tupayachi gave us a ride home, which was awesome. It was snowing pretty good at that time, and the busses were starting to slow down.
On Tuesday we all got packages too! I got my boots, and they are amazing! They're really really comfortable, and they are completely impervious to... well, everything.
I've been doing well, and it sounds like y'all are too! I love all of you, and am grateful for everything you do for me. I'm grateful for my opportunity to share the Gospel with the people of Chicago. There are a lot of people in this world that need to know the truth. I know that Christ died for all of our sins, and am so grateful for that.
I love you, Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
From Saturday, January 3, 2009:
Hi everyone! I should have just emailed everything Tuesday... The libraries were closed the next couple of days! I'm over at the Chicago Lawn library, which is near where our first appointments are today. We are walking / bussing today. It's pretty warm out... I'm wearing too much, so I'm going to take my sweater off, or else I'll start to sweat like crazzy.
Anyways,
My week has gone well.
Christmas Eve was good.. I've told you [a little bit] about it, but we had a couple of appointments, got a new investigator, then headed over to Hector's house for dinner. They fed us an amazing turkey leg dinner... It was really good, but I felt bad since Elizabeth, Hector's wife, scooped it all out for us, then had like nothing for herself. After that, we went home and hung out until bed time.
Anyways, Christmas started off well... I woke up and opened my remaining 3 presents, got dressed, and called home to set up the long evening call. It was fun hearing your voices! The other missionaries in the district came over for a potluck breakfast, which was pretty good. We had french toast and other random stuff. Elder Gardner and I also put ingredients into the crock pot for our amazing Christmas Soup! Everyone hung out at our house throughout the day. People called home off and on, so there was pretty much always someone in a room talking to their family. I called home at 6pm, and it was really nice. It was fun to hear from the people I love most! It was definitely the highlight of the Christmas season. After the call, we ate some soup, then didn't really do anything else. Actually, Elder Maliwauke and I went to the one Walgreens that was open (found via GPS), and got some soda and stuff. It was ridiculously packed... The parking lot was overflowing into the street, and it was a major traffic jam. After that though, we just went to bed to get ready for the next day...
Which wasn't particularly productive. Nor was the next day. We got stuffed, dumped, rejected, and all other obscure manners of rejection because people "had their family over," or were "cleaning up decorations." They were alright, but we just didn't get too many lessons or anything. It's alright though, we were able to set appointments for this week. It got REALLY warm for a couple days... Like 50's and I think even 60's at one point! It melted pretty much everything, which is really really nice. We still have beautiful snow free sidewalks.
Sunday was interesting... We got out of bed, got ready, then started studying... Then got a phone call. All of the missionaries were assigned talks! I had prepared some at the MTC, so I just pulled one out of my notebook and modified it a bit. No biggie. Church went well, and we had fun giving talks. We started over for the new year for Gospel Principles, which was nice.
Monday went well. It was warm when we woke up, so we went running. We had district meeting at the church, then set off for a crazy day. A LOT of the media referrals we get have dead phones. It's pretty amazing actually... They call the referral center, then have their phones disconnected within a couple of days! Welcome to the ghetto... But anyways, we just went to try to hunt all of these people down, and ended up dropping a lot of people. We got some more that just wanted to meet after the New Year... Just like everyone else we had been trying to teach for the last week or so. We made a lot of appointments in the evening, and the day was finished on a good note.
Tuesday was crazy. We had 6 appoinments, and only got dumped one time! It was awesome. We met some people that were pretty into it in the morning, then headed off to visit a less active member... and her non-member boyfriend was there! We taught him a lesson, and he was really into it, then gave him a blessing! (we had given her one the week before, and he wanted one too). We then went to teach the people with a church and William in the evening. It was probably the most productive day of my mission.
New Years Eve was far from being the most productive day ever... Pretty much no one wanted to meet with us, so we didn't have much to do until going to Hector & Elizabeth's house in the evening. They're such a great family, and are doing their best to fix their lives. They have a tough time bringing their family to church, so I bought some bus passes for them earlier in the day. As we were in a Currency Exchange (that's what they call payday loan center's over here), some lady came up to me and started telling me how pretty I was. "Oh, you got the prettiest eyes. You better watch out, being so pretty... Even the girls are going to try and rip you off. Even your friend is going to, since you're so pretty!" She was pretty interesting, so I just thanked her, then got out of there. We didn't do much until going to Hector and Elizabeth's. They fed us an AMAZING turkey dinner. We helped them make a sheet of goals, then planned some stuff for their family home evenings. Then we played Trouble... It was really fun, but I got smoked! Every time I got my guys almost to the end, they'd get eaten. I probably had the most guys out, but I got destroyed! Elizabeth couldn't get anybody out of her home base, so it came down to Hector and Gardner both having a guy on the last place rolling for a 3. It went for a really long time, but Gardner got eaten by Elizabeth, and Hector won before anyone could do anything about it. Ugh. Hahaha. It was not only New Year's Eve, it was P-Day Eve, so we stayed up until 12 playing games.
Then slept in the next day, and got ready to do... Nothing. We ended up just going to the mall and looking at stuff, but we pretty much just wasted the entire P-Day.
Friday was good too. We had a lot of appointments again, but got dumped qutie a bit more than Tuesday. We still had 4 appointments that went through... and got fed at EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. It was insane. We went to the first one at 3 PM. It was Ruby Selvie, a media referral, and it went really well. She had gotten the BoM in the mail, had read to Jacob, and is really interested. She's a solid new investigator, and she gave us some cake! After that, we went to visit the Tupayachi's... Who are a less active family that has a car. They are super nice, and were very hospitible. Two of their three children were way excited to have us over, and showed us just about every single toy they own. We were talking with the family, and they sneek-attack fed us! This was about 4:45, and we had a dinner appointment for 5:00, but it was prepared really well, and brought to us, so we had to eat it. It was a really good, and really large, serving of rice, beans and pork. I was pretty much stuffed from eating this, but we shared a message, invited them to church, and left for the Leals... Where we got fed rice, beans and pork! It was crazy, and once again, we got served a HUGE serving of food! Brother Leal is the biggest goof ball ever, and was pretending to get offended when we slowed down on eating, which was pretty quick. We forced more down, but finally just couldn't do it any more. After that, we shared a message then left to visit William. We taught him a lesson, and invited him to church. He says he'll most likely come, so that's good. At the end of the lesson, he gave us our juice and cookies... Which we happily put in a bag to take home. He gives us food every time we visit him, so we always have a box of Oreo's or something at home. And a lot of Jumex Nectars... But anyways, my stomach was about ready to explode by the end of the night, but I felt good when I laid down, and even better when I went to sleep.
Then we woke up today, and walked / bussed down here to the Chicago Lawn library! We've got quite a few appointments today, so it should be good.
I love you a lot, and appreciate all of your letters & such! I know the Gospel is true, and am happy to tell people that.
Take care,
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
From January 7, 2009:
Hello!
It's good to hear from you! [Then he put in some messages to each person in the family.]
I think I last emailed you on Saturday [morning]. That day went pretty well. We went out and got stuffed a few times, then had a couple appointments. One of them was with a less active that has a car. She was really friendly, and showed us her dog. She has a few, but only one of them is an all-indoor dog / spoiled child. The other ones hang out in the back yard and bark a lot. She was telling us how her neighbors don't like dogs, and got fed up with them one day... and paintballed the dogs! It was such a sad / hillarious story! Anyways, we asked her to give a ride to some investigators, and she said she would... Which is awesome news! After that appointment, we went out with Brother Ocampo, the assistant / interim ward mission leader. He helped us teach one lesson, and the investigators agreed to coming to church with the less active. We then got stuffed twice, then got dropped off at home. It was a good day.
Sunday had such potential. We had William that should have come to church, but got sick, Mary B. and her family that was coming with the less active sister, and another less active family. We also were going to have a dinner appointment that evening. We were excited at church, but it turns out that the less active sister just called the investigators right before church, and they had given up I guess, so they weren't there. The less active family also wasn't there. Then, the man we were going to have dinner with ripped his hand open, and had to go to the hospital for stitches! It was a pretty ridiculous day... But, the one less active sister that was giving the ride came, so it was good.
Monday was pretty good. I went to Cicero on an exchange; we didn't really accomplish much, but we had fun. We had what we thought was Mamma Mia pizza from Pizza Hut, but it was really pizza mia. Not as cool of a name, but still good.
We switched back Tuesday, and then quickly got ready for an appointment.... Which crapped out. We had a few later in the day, and had three follow through, including dinner with the less active Tupayachis! They're a really nice family, and stopped coming to church because the wife's leg went paralized after her c-section... I guess they somehow pinched / cut a nerve? It sounds pretty lame, but she's gotten much better, so hopefully they'll come again! Brother Tupayachi was at work. He's a cop on the north side, and arrests a lot of drunk drivers. Sister Tupayachi gave us a ride home, which was awesome. It was snowing pretty good at that time, and the busses were starting to slow down.
On Tuesday we all got packages too! I got my boots, and they are amazing! They're really really comfortable, and they are completely impervious to... well, everything.
I've been doing well, and it sounds like y'all are too! I love all of you, and am grateful for everything you do for me. I'm grateful for my opportunity to share the Gospel with the people of Chicago. There are a lot of people in this world that need to know the truth. I know that Christ died for all of our sins, and am so grateful for that.
I love you, Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Friday, January 2, 2009
Small Update This Week -- 1/2/09
Elder McMullin's P-day was on the 1st, and apparently the library was closed because we didn't get an email. He was at the library on Tuesday looking up the church's "Stop Smoking" program for an investigator and sent us a quick note. It said, "We've got 5 appointments today, and are going to try to visit William too. So we should get 6 or 7 lessons today, it's lookin good!" That's about it for the update!! We'll keep you posted when we hear more.
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