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