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