Well, you can sort of see them.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Mission Update 3/25/09
Yeah, it's Wednesday, and that means another email from Elder M!! Here it is:
Hello Family,
It's good to hear from ya! It sounds like everything's going alright. Wish I could be there for your trip G&G... Good job at your swim meet getting that far western time Tay! It sounds like you had a great performance Cater! I'm glad you read a good book Mom! It sounds like you need to work out more, Dad... Uh oh. How many people are going to the canyon? That's fun even G&G and some Piochers are going!
Well, I've been doing alright, but I have a VERY SERIOUS CONCERN. I need you to immediately call Kathy Lynn Jones Brooks and ask her whats up with her sending Elders Stratton and Gardner a big box of incredibly delicious butterscotch cookies, and not sending me anything?!?!? I saw them at Zone Conference, and Gardner was like, "yeah, we got some package from your cousin..." you've got a really nice family Elder McMullin....
Anyways, I've been doing alright. We're all missing Elder Wiser down here, but he's doing well in Naperville. This week has been pretty busy, so I guess I'll just give you the day by day, play by play action.
Wednesday was really fun. Elder Wiser finished packing and preparing, then we went to go say bye to people. In the evening, we went to play ultimate frisbee with the young men. It turned out being Elder Wiser, Brother Giese (a fat old dude) [oh, Brother Giese, I hope you aren't reading this!!!], Richie Fredrick (who is 12, but looks like he's about 7), and me on a team against the fearsome team of Brother Curtis (FBI Special Agent), and all of the young men. All odds were seemingly against us, but we destroyed the young men. Elder Wiser and I just did long bombs and caught the frisbee over the ridiculous coverage.... Then tossed it to Richie who got a lot of touchdowns. Brother Giese was good moral support, so we were a pretty well balanced team! It was fun though, and a good way to end the day.
Thursday was alright. We woke up super early, and left for transfers. It's always fun being there at transfers seeing everyone, so that was good. We all ate at Freddie's, then left for our areas. We had appointment or two, so Elder Collier unpacked some stuff, then we headed out. I really can't remember everything about that, because I've got a new planner, but it was a pretty good day.
Friday was good too. We tracted, contacted, and stopped by people's homes. We had a lot of people get really mad at us, but did have some pretty good success. That evening, we were able to get in contact with Bill, who Elder Wiser and I had been trying to meet for a long time. He became a new investigator, so that was great! He's a funny guy, and goes hunting down near Watseka, so we had a lot to talk about. We also went to visit Ma Stachura.
Saturday was good. We did some more tracting and contacting. I really like it a lot better now that it's warm. We're able to just talk to people that are outside and stuff, which is way better than knocking on their doors. We found a group of teenagers who were shooting a ridiculous air soft gun which could blow up a can of soda, so we taught them a lesson, then I shot the gun which was fun. It had a legit scope and everything... You better watch out in case Jimmy Funk get's one of those and starts shooting people! When is he coming to Bourbonnais by the way? I hope I go there soon! Oh yeah, Saturday was also neat because we got a dinner appointment from contacting! We started talking to this born again, and it went really well! He invited us over for dinner on April, 2. That's the first dinner appointment I've ever gotten from tracting, and I haven't heard of anyone else that has... So there's evidence the Lord is taking care of us!
Sunday was good too. We had church, of course, which was great. Everyone is getting pretty excited for the Walk with Christ. We've been committing people to come to the walk, which should be excellent. I'm not sure if I've already explained what it is, but the Walk is basically a tour of the church, with presentations of different parts of Christ's life in each room. It's a great event that the Branch holds on Good Friday, and should bring us some new investigators! After church we had an appointment with Sister Bassey, where we met her non member daughter and some random guy that owns a flavored water company. We tried some of the water, and it was weird. It has some oils in it, so you taste nothing until after you swallow... Then you can taste the fruit. After that, we went over to the Greys and had some dinner there. It was a pretty good evening.
Monday was great. We didn't have district meeting though, because we had Zone Conference the next day. In the morning, we went to give Sharon a blessing. She had doused her huge pile of leaves and stuff with gasoline, then lit it on fire when she was too close. She got burned really bad and was in the hospital overnight. I honestly don't know who has had a harder life between her and Job, and I'm being completely serious in that comparison. She's such a good woman though, and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to give her a blessing. She's got great faith, and is healing well. After visiting Sharon, we went to a few businesses and handed out fliers for the Walk with Christ. After that, we tracted in the rain and found a new investigator. Then we went to the library, and I emailed a newspaper to get them to advertise for the Walk with Christ. Sharon found out that there's a free church notes section in the paper, so we got that organized. They emailed me back today, and said it will be published starting April 1st! We put all the information, then our phone number, so hopefully that will work well. After all of that, we went to dinner at the Willis's, then tracted out their street. We got a referral and taught a lesson, which was sweeeeet! After that, we went home and had a family home evening lesson with Brother Swenson. Sister Swenson was doing family history, so she had a good excuse to not join us. It went well, and was a good way to end our productive Monday.
Tuesday was great! We had to wake up really early. We left the Swensons at like 620 to meet up with Elder Na'a at the Joliet chapel. We carpooled with him from there to the Naperville stake center for Zone Conference. We got there at about 730, and we all got ready to sing. We were there so early, because Elder Nuenschwander, of the 1st Quorum of the 70 was there. Apparently, General Authorities have a tendency to start meetings early. President Boyd K. Packer sometimes starts meetings half an hour early! So much for mormon standard time... Elder Nuenschwander had started the other ZC 15 minutes early, but he started ours at 830 - the normal time. We heard talks from the Naperville Stake President, President Peterson, President Carlson of the Joliet Stake Presidency (and Frankfort Branch), President Fredin of the Mission Presidency (and Frankfort Branch), President Roach, Sister Roach, Sister Nuenschwander, then a pretty long presentation from Elder Nuenschwander. Elder N is on the general board for missionary work, so he is pretty big time for us missionaries. He had a pretty good presentation, and was a hard liner. He called up President Peterson in front of everyone, grilled him, and ultimately made him look unprepared. He educated him, and the Zone Leaders pretty well. Elder N is very bold, and has no problems cutting people off, and changing what they said to what they should have said. He then went through some with President Carlson, and set the Joliet Stake and Zone Leaders straight. After going through the Atonement pretty well, and how we have good news, he called up a companionship to discuss one of their investigators. He happened to call up a trainer and a greenie that had been double transferred into an area a couple days before! It was pretty crazy, but he outlined a really good plan of how to get the investigator baptized. It was pretty cool, and we'll follow his long term planning example for individual investigators. After that, we had a break, during which I got to have a conversation with Elder N in the hall. He's a great guy, and was teaching us that we need to always focus on Christ, which is pretty funny because that has totally become my focus for the past week or two. I shared with him what's become one of my favorite scriptures (it's in the letter that's coming to you), that basically says how the Nephites had Christ as the center point of their society. He bore his testimony on the importance of that, which I really enjoyed. After the break, we had some more training, and had the departing missionaries bear their testimonies. Elder Collier bore his, since this is his last transfer. After that, we had lunch. We had some pretty good food, and it was pretty fun. I sat with Elders Atwood, Gardner, Stroud, and some other pretty fun missionaries. It was good to be with some of my friends from out of the Zone. Gardner told how he got cookies from my cousin, and also how he got attacked by a pit bull! They were tracting, and someone let a dog loose on him and Stratton! The dog bit Elder Stratton in the crotch (I'm pretty sure he just got his pants)! It sounded pretty crazy, but they survived, and Gardner was constrained by the Spirit to not kill the dog, which is a surprise, but probably a good one. After lunch, Zone Conference was over. I guess General Authorities not only start early, they end early too. That was nice though, so we had a good amount of time for the rest of the day. We did some tracting, and ended up teaching a couple of lessons.
Wednesday should be good. We're at the library now, and have a good day coming up. Tonight is going to be awesome. We had Shane Stachura schedule us 2 appointments for this evening, but we already had one with Nick in Peotone... I was talking to Shane on the phone last night, and it hit me... We could split, and double up our work! We got permission from president last transfer, but couldn't get it organized... But here it is! It should be awesome. Other than that, I'm not sure what we'll do today though. Elder Collier [doesn't like sports], so that's a bummer. We have no miles either... So I really don't know what to do. Maybe I'll just read the BoM and take a nap.
Well, there's that! I know the Gospel is true, and I know the Lord loves us. Our Heavenly Father has a plan for us, and I'm excited to teach people about it. We can live with our Father in Heaven again, and that's great news. Christ's church has been restored, and I'm excited to tell people that. I'm doing well, and am enjoying my mission. Thanks for keeping in contact, I love hearing from home. I hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
Hello Family,
It's good to hear from ya! It sounds like everything's going alright. Wish I could be there for your trip G&G... Good job at your swim meet getting that far western time Tay! It sounds like you had a great performance Cater! I'm glad you read a good book Mom! It sounds like you need to work out more, Dad... Uh oh. How many people are going to the canyon? That's fun even G&G and some Piochers are going!
Well, I've been doing alright, but I have a VERY SERIOUS CONCERN. I need you to immediately call Kathy Lynn Jones Brooks and ask her whats up with her sending Elders Stratton and Gardner a big box of incredibly delicious butterscotch cookies, and not sending me anything?!?!? I saw them at Zone Conference, and Gardner was like, "yeah, we got some package from your cousin..." you've got a really nice family Elder McMullin....
Anyways, I've been doing alright. We're all missing Elder Wiser down here, but he's doing well in Naperville. This week has been pretty busy, so I guess I'll just give you the day by day, play by play action.
Wednesday was really fun. Elder Wiser finished packing and preparing, then we went to go say bye to people. In the evening, we went to play ultimate frisbee with the young men. It turned out being Elder Wiser, Brother Giese (a fat old dude) [oh, Brother Giese, I hope you aren't reading this!!!], Richie Fredrick (who is 12, but looks like he's about 7), and me on a team against the fearsome team of Brother Curtis (FBI Special Agent), and all of the young men. All odds were seemingly against us, but we destroyed the young men. Elder Wiser and I just did long bombs and caught the frisbee over the ridiculous coverage.... Then tossed it to Richie who got a lot of touchdowns. Brother Giese was good moral support, so we were a pretty well balanced team! It was fun though, and a good way to end the day.
Thursday was alright. We woke up super early, and left for transfers. It's always fun being there at transfers seeing everyone, so that was good. We all ate at Freddie's, then left for our areas. We had appointment or two, so Elder Collier unpacked some stuff, then we headed out. I really can't remember everything about that, because I've got a new planner, but it was a pretty good day.
Friday was good too. We tracted, contacted, and stopped by people's homes. We had a lot of people get really mad at us, but did have some pretty good success. That evening, we were able to get in contact with Bill, who Elder Wiser and I had been trying to meet for a long time. He became a new investigator, so that was great! He's a funny guy, and goes hunting down near Watseka, so we had a lot to talk about. We also went to visit Ma Stachura.
Saturday was good. We did some more tracting and contacting. I really like it a lot better now that it's warm. We're able to just talk to people that are outside and stuff, which is way better than knocking on their doors. We found a group of teenagers who were shooting a ridiculous air soft gun which could blow up a can of soda, so we taught them a lesson, then I shot the gun which was fun. It had a legit scope and everything... You better watch out in case Jimmy Funk get's one of those and starts shooting people! When is he coming to Bourbonnais by the way? I hope I go there soon! Oh yeah, Saturday was also neat because we got a dinner appointment from contacting! We started talking to this born again, and it went really well! He invited us over for dinner on April, 2. That's the first dinner appointment I've ever gotten from tracting, and I haven't heard of anyone else that has... So there's evidence the Lord is taking care of us!
Sunday was good too. We had church, of course, which was great. Everyone is getting pretty excited for the Walk with Christ. We've been committing people to come to the walk, which should be excellent. I'm not sure if I've already explained what it is, but the Walk is basically a tour of the church, with presentations of different parts of Christ's life in each room. It's a great event that the Branch holds on Good Friday, and should bring us some new investigators! After church we had an appointment with Sister Bassey, where we met her non member daughter and some random guy that owns a flavored water company. We tried some of the water, and it was weird. It has some oils in it, so you taste nothing until after you swallow... Then you can taste the fruit. After that, we went over to the Greys and had some dinner there. It was a pretty good evening.
Monday was great. We didn't have district meeting though, because we had Zone Conference the next day. In the morning, we went to give Sharon a blessing. She had doused her huge pile of leaves and stuff with gasoline, then lit it on fire when she was too close. She got burned really bad and was in the hospital overnight. I honestly don't know who has had a harder life between her and Job, and I'm being completely serious in that comparison. She's such a good woman though, and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to give her a blessing. She's got great faith, and is healing well. After visiting Sharon, we went to a few businesses and handed out fliers for the Walk with Christ. After that, we tracted in the rain and found a new investigator. Then we went to the library, and I emailed a newspaper to get them to advertise for the Walk with Christ. Sharon found out that there's a free church notes section in the paper, so we got that organized. They emailed me back today, and said it will be published starting April 1st! We put all the information, then our phone number, so hopefully that will work well. After all of that, we went to dinner at the Willis's, then tracted out their street. We got a referral and taught a lesson, which was sweeeeet! After that, we went home and had a family home evening lesson with Brother Swenson. Sister Swenson was doing family history, so she had a good excuse to not join us. It went well, and was a good way to end our productive Monday.
Tuesday was great! We had to wake up really early. We left the Swensons at like 620 to meet up with Elder Na'a at the Joliet chapel. We carpooled with him from there to the Naperville stake center for Zone Conference. We got there at about 730, and we all got ready to sing. We were there so early, because Elder Nuenschwander, of the 1st Quorum of the 70 was there. Apparently, General Authorities have a tendency to start meetings early. President Boyd K. Packer sometimes starts meetings half an hour early! So much for mormon standard time... Elder Nuenschwander had started the other ZC 15 minutes early, but he started ours at 830 - the normal time. We heard talks from the Naperville Stake President, President Peterson, President Carlson of the Joliet Stake Presidency (and Frankfort Branch), President Fredin of the Mission Presidency (and Frankfort Branch), President Roach, Sister Roach, Sister Nuenschwander, then a pretty long presentation from Elder Nuenschwander. Elder N is on the general board for missionary work, so he is pretty big time for us missionaries. He had a pretty good presentation, and was a hard liner. He called up President Peterson in front of everyone, grilled him, and ultimately made him look unprepared. He educated him, and the Zone Leaders pretty well. Elder N is very bold, and has no problems cutting people off, and changing what they said to what they should have said. He then went through some with President Carlson, and set the Joliet Stake and Zone Leaders straight. After going through the Atonement pretty well, and how we have good news, he called up a companionship to discuss one of their investigators. He happened to call up a trainer and a greenie that had been double transferred into an area a couple days before! It was pretty crazy, but he outlined a really good plan of how to get the investigator baptized. It was pretty cool, and we'll follow his long term planning example for individual investigators. After that, we had a break, during which I got to have a conversation with Elder N in the hall. He's a great guy, and was teaching us that we need to always focus on Christ, which is pretty funny because that has totally become my focus for the past week or two. I shared with him what's become one of my favorite scriptures (it's in the letter that's coming to you), that basically says how the Nephites had Christ as the center point of their society. He bore his testimony on the importance of that, which I really enjoyed. After the break, we had some more training, and had the departing missionaries bear their testimonies. Elder Collier bore his, since this is his last transfer. After that, we had lunch. We had some pretty good food, and it was pretty fun. I sat with Elders Atwood, Gardner, Stroud, and some other pretty fun missionaries. It was good to be with some of my friends from out of the Zone. Gardner told how he got cookies from my cousin, and also how he got attacked by a pit bull! They were tracting, and someone let a dog loose on him and Stratton! The dog bit Elder Stratton in the crotch (I'm pretty sure he just got his pants)! It sounded pretty crazy, but they survived, and Gardner was constrained by the Spirit to not kill the dog, which is a surprise, but probably a good one. After lunch, Zone Conference was over. I guess General Authorities not only start early, they end early too. That was nice though, so we had a good amount of time for the rest of the day. We did some tracting, and ended up teaching a couple of lessons.
Wednesday should be good. We're at the library now, and have a good day coming up. Tonight is going to be awesome. We had Shane Stachura schedule us 2 appointments for this evening, but we already had one with Nick in Peotone... I was talking to Shane on the phone last night, and it hit me... We could split, and double up our work! We got permission from president last transfer, but couldn't get it organized... But here it is! It should be awesome. Other than that, I'm not sure what we'll do today though. Elder Collier [doesn't like sports], so that's a bummer. We have no miles either... So I really don't know what to do. Maybe I'll just read the BoM and take a nap.
Well, there's that! I know the Gospel is true, and I know the Lord loves us. Our Heavenly Father has a plan for us, and I'm excited to teach people about it. We can live with our Father in Heaven again, and that's great news. Christ's church has been restored, and I'm excited to tell people that. I'm doing well, and am enjoying my mission. Thanks for keeping in contact, I love hearing from home. I hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Elder McMullin and Snowblower
Elder McMullin's first time using a snowblower. Looks like he's clearing the driveway at the Swenson's home, which is where he lives.
Elder McMullin's District
From left to right, Elders Birkett, Church, Richmond, Baum, Wiser and McMullin, serving in Bourbonnais, Watseka, and Frankfort, IL.
Elder M and his Third Companion, Elder Wiser
Elder McMullin served with Elder Wiser from Feb. 4, 2009 to March 18, 2009. Elder M says they were "the Epic companionship. We just broke 100 lessons for the transfer, which very well may be the standard for the zone!"
Mission Update 3/18/09 -- Still in Frankfort, with a New Companion
Yeah, more pictures! And a change in companions on this tranfer. Here's the update:
Hello,
Thanks for your letters, emails, and the st patricks day package! I have worn the green clover pin for the past few days to celebrate my Irish heritage. How Irish am I by the way? I really don't know all that much, so I just say I'm English, Irish, and Scottish.
Well, I hope all is going well at home! Tell me how the state swim meet goes, and also those performances! Tell me if an Elder Carpenter comes into the ward, because his grandma lives here in Frankfort.
My week has gone well. [Last Wednesday] we went down to Bourbonnais and played racket ball and basketball at the YMCA. It was really fun, but I messed up my knee somehow. My knee killed for a few days, but it's feeling mostly better now. After leaving Bourbonnais, Elder Baum and I left for Watseka. We called up the Clutteurs, who were excited to have us over that night. They've been doing really well. Brother Clutteur is about to start teaching an Addiction Recovery class for the Stake, which should be excellent. They have one in Joliet, which is a great help for a lot of people. After the Clutteurs, we went by to visit Tony and Pamela. Tony hasn't got laid off, which is really good news. He drives a truck at a sand and gravel mine, so I was worried he might be. Kye has a boyfriend now, so it was funny threatening to tell Pamela (who would go ape). After saying hi to them, we went back to the farmhouse for the night.
The next day, we woke up got ready, then headed out for breakfast at the Clutteurs. It turned out to be more of a brunch, with scones and fajitas, and was excellent. We finally said bye to them, then headed back to meet with our companions. After meeting back, we went to visit our favorite person ever, Jim (who still hasn't come to church). After that, we didn't go to visit Erica, because she canceled. Bummer! We had nothing, and I could hardly hobble around on my leg, so we just went back to the house for a while after that, which was really lame. We visited with the Swensons for a while, then left for dinner with the Foersters. They had a present for us, which was exciting. We both got a pair of new socks (which I'm wearing right now), because we look goofy playing basketball in dress socks. Haha. It was an excellent dinner. After dinner, we headed out to Manhattan (not NY) with Brother Foerster to visit the less active Steven. Steven is really cool. He was in the world champion barbershop choir a couple of years ago, and is a regular medalist at the world championships. We really need to activate him for the sake of our Branch's hymn singing (which one investigator enjoys complaining about).
Friday was alright. We got canceled on, taught a lesson, then came back home because Na'a was on his way. He brought us down a package for Richmond because he was getting a new car, and thus had a lot of miles. It's always good to see him, so that was fun. After that, we didn't really get much accomplished. I still couldn't walk very well, so we didn't tract... Which was unfortunate, because it was nice out!
Saturday went well. We taught a few lessons in the morning, then went out to find after lunch. The knee was feeling better, so we got a lot more done. After some unsuccessful finding, we headed out for Brother Giese's house to teach him a lesson. Brother Giese could pass off as Alan Young's twin, so he's pretty cool. We visited for a while, taught a lesson, then got $20 a piece because he feels bad he doesn't feed us very often! What a nice guy. After that, we went to visit a part member family and had an excellent discussion. After that, we tried to get Jim to come to the branch game night. Cops was on, so he couldn't make it.......... He hasn't missed Cops since it's come on TV. Anyways, the game night was pretty fun. I played tribond and this really fun game called quibbler or quiddler... I can't remember which, but it's super fun. After playing games and eating desserts, we left for home.
Sunday was awesome. After church, we went out to tract and street contact. We went into this neighborhood that has a cool park, and just walked around. There were a lot of people outside, so we were able to teach a couple lessons before our first appointment. We then had a great appointment, and committed them to invite people to the Walk With Christ open house the branch is having. I used some sales tips Dad taught me... "So, do you want 2 or 3 of these flyers to hand out?" They took 3, then gave us a gallon of milk, so it worked pretty well! After that appointment, we called Nick, who came out to tract with us. We found a couple of people to teach, and played basketball with some kids for a while which was pretty fun. It was so nice out on Sunday, it was ridiculous. After that, we went to the Greys' for dinner. We had this amazing chicken ham & cheese stuff that wasn't a cordon bleu, but was incredible. Sister Grey is an excellent cook. Then we had to make NCAA brackets, and I picked UNC to win... Which is pretty much what I do every year. Wiser and I just kinda picked random teams, so we'll probably do poorly, but whatever. After dinner with the Greys, we headed home for the night.
Monday was good. We had the last district meeting of the transfer, which was neat. We took pictures and stuff. After that, we went to the Frarys' house as a district to visit them. The Frarys are a really nice family from Bourbonnais. We played football in their yard, and ended up getting unfortunately dirty. It was fun though. When we came back home, we really had to clean up, then ended up not getting too much accomplished for the rest of the day. Mondays are usually slow, especially without a single appointment.
Tuesday was interesting. We started off by helping Sharon do some yard work as we taught her a lesson. That went well - her dog only jumped the fence twice! Rocky is seriously the craziest dog ever. After that, we went home for lunch, and to get dressed. After lunch, we visited Jim. We told him he has to come to church, and he seems a little bit more willing. After that, we went home to see how the Swensons doctors appointments went, and ended up teaching them a lesson. After that, we went to dinner with Brother Johnson, and had an excellent St. Patrick's Day feast... At Buenas Nachos, which is pretty much Amado's in Frankfort. After that, we went to the Grey's to pick up the gallon of milk that we had left in their fridge, and then waited for transfer calls. We got the news..... Elder Wiser is getting transferred to Naperville to serve in the 1st and 6th Wards, and Elder Collier is going to come here. Wiser and I are both bummed he's leaving, but he's going to a good place at least. Elder Collier is from Utah, and has served in the Serbian mission and Mooker's mission before coming here. This is his last transfer before going home, and we are co-senior companions... and also co-junior companions I suppose. I don't know why they don't just say companions, but that's apparently just how it is.
Anyways, I've been doing well, and will continue to do well. I will do all I can to bring as many souls as possible unto Jesus Christ. I know they'll be blessed, and I know I'll be blessed. I guess that's all that really matters.
Well, you take care! I love you a lot,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
PS we're going to come to the library later today to email some pictures, so expect them later!
Hello,
Thanks for your letters, emails, and the st patricks day package! I have worn the green clover pin for the past few days to celebrate my Irish heritage. How Irish am I by the way? I really don't know all that much, so I just say I'm English, Irish, and Scottish.
Well, I hope all is going well at home! Tell me how the state swim meet goes, and also those performances! Tell me if an Elder Carpenter comes into the ward, because his grandma lives here in Frankfort.
My week has gone well. [Last Wednesday] we went down to Bourbonnais and played racket ball and basketball at the YMCA. It was really fun, but I messed up my knee somehow. My knee killed for a few days, but it's feeling mostly better now. After leaving Bourbonnais, Elder Baum and I left for Watseka. We called up the Clutteurs, who were excited to have us over that night. They've been doing really well. Brother Clutteur is about to start teaching an Addiction Recovery class for the Stake, which should be excellent. They have one in Joliet, which is a great help for a lot of people. After the Clutteurs, we went by to visit Tony and Pamela. Tony hasn't got laid off, which is really good news. He drives a truck at a sand and gravel mine, so I was worried he might be. Kye has a boyfriend now, so it was funny threatening to tell Pamela (who would go ape). After saying hi to them, we went back to the farmhouse for the night.
The next day, we woke up got ready, then headed out for breakfast at the Clutteurs. It turned out to be more of a brunch, with scones and fajitas, and was excellent. We finally said bye to them, then headed back to meet with our companions. After meeting back, we went to visit our favorite person ever, Jim (who still hasn't come to church). After that, we didn't go to visit Erica, because she canceled. Bummer! We had nothing, and I could hardly hobble around on my leg, so we just went back to the house for a while after that, which was really lame. We visited with the Swensons for a while, then left for dinner with the Foersters. They had a present for us, which was exciting. We both got a pair of new socks (which I'm wearing right now), because we look goofy playing basketball in dress socks. Haha. It was an excellent dinner. After dinner, we headed out to Manhattan (not NY) with Brother Foerster to visit the less active Steven. Steven is really cool. He was in the world champion barbershop choir a couple of years ago, and is a regular medalist at the world championships. We really need to activate him for the sake of our Branch's hymn singing (which one investigator enjoys complaining about).
Friday was alright. We got canceled on, taught a lesson, then came back home because Na'a was on his way. He brought us down a package for Richmond because he was getting a new car, and thus had a lot of miles. It's always good to see him, so that was fun. After that, we didn't really get much accomplished. I still couldn't walk very well, so we didn't tract... Which was unfortunate, because it was nice out!
Saturday went well. We taught a few lessons in the morning, then went out to find after lunch. The knee was feeling better, so we got a lot more done. After some unsuccessful finding, we headed out for Brother Giese's house to teach him a lesson. Brother Giese could pass off as Alan Young's twin, so he's pretty cool. We visited for a while, taught a lesson, then got $20 a piece because he feels bad he doesn't feed us very often! What a nice guy. After that, we went to visit a part member family and had an excellent discussion. After that, we tried to get Jim to come to the branch game night. Cops was on, so he couldn't make it.......... He hasn't missed Cops since it's come on TV. Anyways, the game night was pretty fun. I played tribond and this really fun game called quibbler or quiddler... I can't remember which, but it's super fun. After playing games and eating desserts, we left for home.
Sunday was awesome. After church, we went out to tract and street contact. We went into this neighborhood that has a cool park, and just walked around. There were a lot of people outside, so we were able to teach a couple lessons before our first appointment. We then had a great appointment, and committed them to invite people to the Walk With Christ open house the branch is having. I used some sales tips Dad taught me... "So, do you want 2 or 3 of these flyers to hand out?" They took 3, then gave us a gallon of milk, so it worked pretty well! After that appointment, we called Nick, who came out to tract with us. We found a couple of people to teach, and played basketball with some kids for a while which was pretty fun. It was so nice out on Sunday, it was ridiculous. After that, we went to the Greys' for dinner. We had this amazing chicken ham & cheese stuff that wasn't a cordon bleu, but was incredible. Sister Grey is an excellent cook. Then we had to make NCAA brackets, and I picked UNC to win... Which is pretty much what I do every year. Wiser and I just kinda picked random teams, so we'll probably do poorly, but whatever. After dinner with the Greys, we headed home for the night.
Monday was good. We had the last district meeting of the transfer, which was neat. We took pictures and stuff. After that, we went to the Frarys' house as a district to visit them. The Frarys are a really nice family from Bourbonnais. We played football in their yard, and ended up getting unfortunately dirty. It was fun though. When we came back home, we really had to clean up, then ended up not getting too much accomplished for the rest of the day. Mondays are usually slow, especially without a single appointment.
Tuesday was interesting. We started off by helping Sharon do some yard work as we taught her a lesson. That went well - her dog only jumped the fence twice! Rocky is seriously the craziest dog ever. After that, we went home for lunch, and to get dressed. After lunch, we visited Jim. We told him he has to come to church, and he seems a little bit more willing. After that, we went home to see how the Swensons doctors appointments went, and ended up teaching them a lesson. After that, we went to dinner with Brother Johnson, and had an excellent St. Patrick's Day feast... At Buenas Nachos, which is pretty much Amado's in Frankfort. After that, we went to the Grey's to pick up the gallon of milk that we had left in their fridge, and then waited for transfer calls. We got the news..... Elder Wiser is getting transferred to Naperville to serve in the 1st and 6th Wards, and Elder Collier is going to come here. Wiser and I are both bummed he's leaving, but he's going to a good place at least. Elder Collier is from Utah, and has served in the Serbian mission and Mooker's mission before coming here. This is his last transfer before going home, and we are co-senior companions... and also co-junior companions I suppose. I don't know why they don't just say companions, but that's apparently just how it is.
Anyways, I've been doing well, and will continue to do well. I will do all I can to bring as many souls as possible unto Jesus Christ. I know they'll be blessed, and I know I'll be blessed. I guess that's all that really matters.
Well, you take care! I love you a lot,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
PS we're going to come to the library later today to email some pictures, so expect them later!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Mission Update 3/11/09 -- Things are good/Need more mail!
Here's Elder McMullin's update for the week. Too bad about the mail mix-up. Poor missionaries! If you get a chance, sounds like he would love a letter. Here's the email:
Hello,
I just got an email from dad saying we're finally out of the depths of winter... It just barely got to 20 degrees outside... It's pretty cold again! It has been nice temperature wise, but there's been a lot of rain and some flooding this last week... And funnel clouds that almost turned into tornados on the border of the Watseka and Bourbonnais areas! Nobody got hurt by the flooding or the funnel clouds though.
Our letter situation has been weird for a while and we just found out why... The office messed up and has been forwarding all of our mail to the wrong zip code. I just barely got one from dad and from mom / caitlin. Elder Wiser hasn't got much, except from one person that just sends to the Swensons, so we're afraid we've lost mail (that's somewhat more comforting than the probable truth... People are just forgetting about us). Bummer. We called the office when we found out, and they fixed it though.
I hope you're all having fun at home, especially those that are making calls to collect money in these tough times. [I told him that I'm collecting money for the high school orchestra tour.] That's going to be fun. It seems like everyone around here is scared of getting laid off. There's randomly a lot of linesmen in this area, and they're getting fired like crazy. The Swensons daughter got laid off, so she may be moving out of Downers Grove to Texas or something.
How was having the missionaries over for dinner, G&G? Did they teach the first lesson? I teach that lesson a lot, and really enjoy it. There are so many truths in it, and best of all, there's proof! The Book of Mormon combined with prayer is an infallible way to find out the truth of the Restoration. All we really have to do as missionaries is to get people to sincerely pray about Christ, the Book of Mormon, and prophets, and then God will do the rest. I think it's a pretty sweet deal. One of the investigators we found a couple weeks ago has been praying sincerely. She's had a lot of deep questions and concerns, but has been reading from the Book of Mormon, and has been praying sincerely... I'm excited for our appointment tomorrow, because she'll probably have that answer. When explaining this, I usually bring in Alma 32 to talk about how we can't know for a fact that God the Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith... But we can pray, and know for a fact how we feel when we pray about that, and with that perfect knowledge of how we feel when we pray, know that God is acknowledging the truth of the Restoration. Pretty exciting stuff!
Anyways, I've had a really excellent week since I last emailed. Right after I wrote, we left for Zone Activity. We went there, played volleyball for a while then left for bowling. Bowling was pretty fun! We got there and there were somewhere between 20 and 30 lanes open, but the workers got upset when we told them we had 20+ people coming to bowl. They said, it doesn't look busy, but it is!!! Not. It was pretty funny though. We spread out over a few different lanes, and bowled. I won both times on my lane, beating Wiser by one, then Baum by 2, but didn't score quite as much as one sister that was getting strikes like crazy. She was really really good, it was pretty funny. After that, we went back to the church to play basketball and eat hot dogs. Then we left to go eat dinner at the Dupins. That was awesome, but we had to get out of there to go on a split with President Fredin and John Guymon, who's a priest. We went and taught the Restoration to a less active family. It went well.
Thursday was great! We started off by teaching Sharon about tithes and offerings. We then went to give a blessing to a sick young woman. After lunch, we taught Jim and exhorted him to come to church (he hasn't yet), and the Branch game night we're having this Saturday. After visiting Jim, we taught Erica with Sister Carlson, and it went really well. She's sincerely praying, so she's going to progress very well. After that, we stopped by the Cravens, but they weren't home so we tracted for a while until our dinner appointment with the part member Portwoods. That went really well. We should have a baptism there pretty soon. Brother Portwood is a great guy, so hopefully that will happen soon. After that, we left to visit Gina and Will, who we had tracted into a while ago, but they were unavailable, so we came home.
Friday was just about as awesome. We helped Sharon with some yard work and taught her in the morning, then came back to Mokena. We went to the library and made some maps and routes for stop bys on Google. That was actually pretty frustrating, and took forever. We later figured out we could've just put all the names in our GPSs and done it way faster. Bummer. It was ok though, because we put it to good use and got a hold of 4 people to teach throughout the rest of the day.
Saturday was pretty good. We taught a couple people in the morning, gave a blessing, then headed out to tract / stop by former investigators. We did pretty well, and got a new investigator. Josh is the brother of a guy that met with the missionaries a couple years ago, but is in jail now. He won't be back for another year, so we unfortunately can't teach him... But his brother is nice!
We're going to try and teach his whole family, so that could be awesome. After that we went to play basketball with the Elders Quorum and the nonmembers they should've brought. The gym ended up being closed, so we went all around trying to find somewhere, which took forever. We drove with Brother Foerster, which was nice for miles... But it eventually led to us staying and playing basketball far too long. I started feeling ill, because we had eaten White Castle (which is the worst place in the entire world!), so I was glad to leave. When we got back into the car, Brother Foerster realized that his wife had been calling, and was pretty upset. I was given the phone to call her and get him out of trouble... She answered with a rough, "What the h...?!?" She was embarrassed, and it was pretty funny! After the call, Brother F was out of trouble, as long as I didn't get his wife in trouble. Haha. We got back, didn't have much time to do anything, and were really hungry... So we headed out for McDonald's, but I saw something amazing on the way. As we drove by Mindy's Ribs, I saw what looked like a drive through. We took a U Turn to check it out, and found out that Mindy's indeed has a drive through. I got a half slab of baby backs, and Wiser got a rib + shrimp combo. We didn't go to McDonald's, but we had an awesome kind-of-fast food dinner.
Sunday was pretty good. We had church and MCM, then left for lunch. Before going home, I asked Sister Foerster how the h... she was doing, which she got a kick out of. I can't remember what I ate, but probably eggs and a bagel or something like that. After lunch, we went on a team teaching trip with Brother Willis... But our appointment, and our back up plan both fell through. Then we went and stopped by places, and our C, D, and I think even E plans fell through too. BUMMER! We had one appointment with the Johnsons that we were able to go to though, so that was good. After that, we ate some dinner, then went to a fireside. Brother Vines' ex wife's father was in the Polish Army and the British Air Force in World War II, and had some pretty crazy experiences and miracles. He gave a good presentation, and it went really well.
Monday was pretty good. We had District Meeting, which went well, then all went out to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. I'm not a big wing fan, but it was pretty good. At least my Honey BBQ wings were... My teriyaki wings were nasty! After that we headed for home to do some work. We didn't find anyone new, and only had one appointment that didn't fall through, so it was fairly disappointing... But our appointment was great. We had dinner at the Fredin's home with Sharon. We taught about the Plan of Salvation, and went through some questions Sharon had. President Fredin had been the stake president for 10 years, and in another stake presidency forever before that, and is now in the mission presidency... So he and his wife were able to help us out quite a bit. It was awesome. They also sent out a spam email to the ward about our dinner calendar... Which was pretty much stolen by our new ward missionary. She's in charge of getting us at least 4 appointments a week, so we gave her our calendar after writing down our weeks appointments in our planners. She disappeared the next Sunday, so we not only missed out on people signing up for dinner, we had no clue where we were supposed to go. Fortunately, we got a hold of her and found out, but it wasn't until after the spam. We got a funny call from one member telling us that we had missed a lunch appointment with him on Sunday, and how his wife set out so much food which was amazing, but went to waste since we didn't show up. Hahaha.
Tuesday was alright. I don't know how this happened, but both Elder Wiser and I fell back asleep after waking up in the morning, so neither one of us was able to "save" the other. We unfortunately wasted quite a bit of time, but eventually got out for the day. Jim told us our appointment was actually for Thursday (not true), and his house was too dirty, so we left there after giving him another flier for the branch game night. We then left for the library, and gave them a flier for another Branch Activity that's in April. They said they'd hang it up, but I don't see it up today, so we may have to try again. We didn't find anyone between then and dinner with the Murphys, so it was a slow day. Dinner was some excellent meatloaf (yes, excellent) with mashed potatoes and some other awesome sides. Sister Murphy is a really good cook so it was all pretty good. After leaving them with a message, we went and visited a part member family named Lovelace. They are really awesome! Brother Lovelace had just barely flown home from Tempe, Arizona! They'd been 4 wheeling in Wickenburg, then stayed in Tempe their last night before coming home. The trip was organized by a member of the stake presidency here, so it was funny to hear that they accidentally went to a hooters-esque restaurant on Mill Avenue. Apparently it has good food, but I'd still watch out for "the library" on Mill.
Well, there's my week! Today we're going to go down to Bourbonnais for P-Day, and then I'm going to go on an exchange to Watseka! It should be really fun going down there, but the Clutteurs are probably out of town. Bummer.
Well, I just want to let you know that I love you! Thanks for everything you do! I know the church is true, and am happy to be out here serving the Lord. I hope you have a great week.
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
Hello,
I just got an email from dad saying we're finally out of the depths of winter... It just barely got to 20 degrees outside... It's pretty cold again! It has been nice temperature wise, but there's been a lot of rain and some flooding this last week... And funnel clouds that almost turned into tornados on the border of the Watseka and Bourbonnais areas! Nobody got hurt by the flooding or the funnel clouds though.
Our letter situation has been weird for a while and we just found out why... The office messed up and has been forwarding all of our mail to the wrong zip code. I just barely got one from dad and from mom / caitlin. Elder Wiser hasn't got much, except from one person that just sends to the Swensons, so we're afraid we've lost mail (that's somewhat more comforting than the probable truth... People are just forgetting about us). Bummer. We called the office when we found out, and they fixed it though.
I hope you're all having fun at home, especially those that are making calls to collect money in these tough times. [I told him that I'm collecting money for the high school orchestra tour.] That's going to be fun. It seems like everyone around here is scared of getting laid off. There's randomly a lot of linesmen in this area, and they're getting fired like crazy. The Swensons daughter got laid off, so she may be moving out of Downers Grove to Texas or something.
How was having the missionaries over for dinner, G&G? Did they teach the first lesson? I teach that lesson a lot, and really enjoy it. There are so many truths in it, and best of all, there's proof! The Book of Mormon combined with prayer is an infallible way to find out the truth of the Restoration. All we really have to do as missionaries is to get people to sincerely pray about Christ, the Book of Mormon, and prophets, and then God will do the rest. I think it's a pretty sweet deal. One of the investigators we found a couple weeks ago has been praying sincerely. She's had a lot of deep questions and concerns, but has been reading from the Book of Mormon, and has been praying sincerely... I'm excited for our appointment tomorrow, because she'll probably have that answer. When explaining this, I usually bring in Alma 32 to talk about how we can't know for a fact that God the Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith... But we can pray, and know for a fact how we feel when we pray about that, and with that perfect knowledge of how we feel when we pray, know that God is acknowledging the truth of the Restoration. Pretty exciting stuff!
Anyways, I've had a really excellent week since I last emailed. Right after I wrote, we left for Zone Activity. We went there, played volleyball for a while then left for bowling. Bowling was pretty fun! We got there and there were somewhere between 20 and 30 lanes open, but the workers got upset when we told them we had 20+ people coming to bowl. They said, it doesn't look busy, but it is!!! Not. It was pretty funny though. We spread out over a few different lanes, and bowled. I won both times on my lane, beating Wiser by one, then Baum by 2, but didn't score quite as much as one sister that was getting strikes like crazy. She was really really good, it was pretty funny. After that, we went back to the church to play basketball and eat hot dogs. Then we left to go eat dinner at the Dupins. That was awesome, but we had to get out of there to go on a split with President Fredin and John Guymon, who's a priest. We went and taught the Restoration to a less active family. It went well.
Thursday was great! We started off by teaching Sharon about tithes and offerings. We then went to give a blessing to a sick young woman. After lunch, we taught Jim and exhorted him to come to church (he hasn't yet), and the Branch game night we're having this Saturday. After visiting Jim, we taught Erica with Sister Carlson, and it went really well. She's sincerely praying, so she's going to progress very well. After that, we stopped by the Cravens, but they weren't home so we tracted for a while until our dinner appointment with the part member Portwoods. That went really well. We should have a baptism there pretty soon. Brother Portwood is a great guy, so hopefully that will happen soon. After that, we left to visit Gina and Will, who we had tracted into a while ago, but they were unavailable, so we came home.
Friday was just about as awesome. We helped Sharon with some yard work and taught her in the morning, then came back to Mokena. We went to the library and made some maps and routes for stop bys on Google. That was actually pretty frustrating, and took forever. We later figured out we could've just put all the names in our GPSs and done it way faster. Bummer. It was ok though, because we put it to good use and got a hold of 4 people to teach throughout the rest of the day.
Saturday was pretty good. We taught a couple people in the morning, gave a blessing, then headed out to tract / stop by former investigators. We did pretty well, and got a new investigator. Josh is the brother of a guy that met with the missionaries a couple years ago, but is in jail now. He won't be back for another year, so we unfortunately can't teach him... But his brother is nice!
We're going to try and teach his whole family, so that could be awesome. After that we went to play basketball with the Elders Quorum and the nonmembers they should've brought. The gym ended up being closed, so we went all around trying to find somewhere, which took forever. We drove with Brother Foerster, which was nice for miles... But it eventually led to us staying and playing basketball far too long. I started feeling ill, because we had eaten White Castle (which is the worst place in the entire world!), so I was glad to leave. When we got back into the car, Brother Foerster realized that his wife had been calling, and was pretty upset. I was given the phone to call her and get him out of trouble... She answered with a rough, "What the h...?!?" She was embarrassed, and it was pretty funny! After the call, Brother F was out of trouble, as long as I didn't get his wife in trouble. Haha. We got back, didn't have much time to do anything, and were really hungry... So we headed out for McDonald's, but I saw something amazing on the way. As we drove by Mindy's Ribs, I saw what looked like a drive through. We took a U Turn to check it out, and found out that Mindy's indeed has a drive through. I got a half slab of baby backs, and Wiser got a rib + shrimp combo. We didn't go to McDonald's, but we had an awesome kind-of-fast food dinner.
Sunday was pretty good. We had church and MCM, then left for lunch. Before going home, I asked Sister Foerster how the h... she was doing, which she got a kick out of. I can't remember what I ate, but probably eggs and a bagel or something like that. After lunch, we went on a team teaching trip with Brother Willis... But our appointment, and our back up plan both fell through. Then we went and stopped by places, and our C, D, and I think even E plans fell through too. BUMMER! We had one appointment with the Johnsons that we were able to go to though, so that was good. After that, we ate some dinner, then went to a fireside. Brother Vines' ex wife's father was in the Polish Army and the British Air Force in World War II, and had some pretty crazy experiences and miracles. He gave a good presentation, and it went really well.
Monday was pretty good. We had District Meeting, which went well, then all went out to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. I'm not a big wing fan, but it was pretty good. At least my Honey BBQ wings were... My teriyaki wings were nasty! After that we headed for home to do some work. We didn't find anyone new, and only had one appointment that didn't fall through, so it was fairly disappointing... But our appointment was great. We had dinner at the Fredin's home with Sharon. We taught about the Plan of Salvation, and went through some questions Sharon had. President Fredin had been the stake president for 10 years, and in another stake presidency forever before that, and is now in the mission presidency... So he and his wife were able to help us out quite a bit. It was awesome. They also sent out a spam email to the ward about our dinner calendar... Which was pretty much stolen by our new ward missionary. She's in charge of getting us at least 4 appointments a week, so we gave her our calendar after writing down our weeks appointments in our planners. She disappeared the next Sunday, so we not only missed out on people signing up for dinner, we had no clue where we were supposed to go. Fortunately, we got a hold of her and found out, but it wasn't until after the spam. We got a funny call from one member telling us that we had missed a lunch appointment with him on Sunday, and how his wife set out so much food which was amazing, but went to waste since we didn't show up. Hahaha.
Tuesday was alright. I don't know how this happened, but both Elder Wiser and I fell back asleep after waking up in the morning, so neither one of us was able to "save" the other. We unfortunately wasted quite a bit of time, but eventually got out for the day. Jim told us our appointment was actually for Thursday (not true), and his house was too dirty, so we left there after giving him another flier for the branch game night. We then left for the library, and gave them a flier for another Branch Activity that's in April. They said they'd hang it up, but I don't see it up today, so we may have to try again. We didn't find anyone between then and dinner with the Murphys, so it was a slow day. Dinner was some excellent meatloaf (yes, excellent) with mashed potatoes and some other awesome sides. Sister Murphy is a really good cook so it was all pretty good. After leaving them with a message, we went and visited a part member family named Lovelace. They are really awesome! Brother Lovelace had just barely flown home from Tempe, Arizona! They'd been 4 wheeling in Wickenburg, then stayed in Tempe their last night before coming home. The trip was organized by a member of the stake presidency here, so it was funny to hear that they accidentally went to a hooters-esque restaurant on Mill Avenue. Apparently it has good food, but I'd still watch out for "the library" on Mill.
Well, there's my week! Today we're going to go down to Bourbonnais for P-Day, and then I'm going to go on an exchange to Watseka! It should be really fun going down there, but the Clutteurs are probably out of town. Bummer.
Well, I just want to let you know that I love you! Thanks for everything you do! I know the church is true, and am happy to be out here serving the Lord. I hope you have a great week.
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Mission Update -- 3/4/09
Here's the latest update! Sounds like all is going well.
Hey everybody,
It's been good to hear from you! It sounds like everybody is doing well, even if Dad is a little bit sick. It sounds like you've had some good hikes, and are having a good one today. What's everyone doing for Spring Break? Are you going to come visit Chicago? It's actually warm here now. We're wearing T-Shirts right now... But is supposedly going to get cold again next week. Bummer!
That's wild the Swensons are moving. That's a really nice area, as long as it doesn't smell like cows too much. I wouldn't have minded going to Basha. It's nice living with the Swensons over here [the couple that the missionaries live with are the Swensons]. They're really funny. Brother Swenson knows every bad joke ever invented... He'll sit there and set something up for 10 minutes, then it's super lame. Sister Swenson is great too... Even if she say's wash like Grandma! Woishe?
Anyways, I haven't heard from you in a long time Caitlin! What's up with that? I wrote back to your seminary friends that wrote me... Has that gotten there yet? How's Seussical? Is this play for the valley youth theatre, or some other company?
Grandpa, I haven't gotten anything from you in a long time either! How have you been doing? How're your Coffee Cup buddies doing? What about that guy who started his own church?
Mom, I'm glad you liked the pictures. I tried sending them the week before, but they got rejected for some reason. I'll try sending some more next week. They take a while to upload, but that's mostly just because these computers are really dumb and sign you out of your email in the middle of sending stuff, so you have to just save a draft.
Oh yeah, I remember reading some questions you had asked me in a letter that I never answered. You asked if I was the driver, and yes I am. I only got 1 ticket, the other's being disputed... And it wasn't that bad anyways! They usually just take away your driving privilege if you crash a car. You asked who's the senior companion, and that is me... They typically just do whoever has been out longer. Send me another question sheet... I'm happy to answer more, but you've gotta ask more than 2 questions.
Anyways, I've been doing well. I do miss the bungalows in Chicago (Sister Ramirez and Gary lived about a block away from the "Historical Bungalow Block"... Which was super ghetto, but historic nonetheless), but I've been enjoying Frankfort too. [I had emailed him that I saw a show on TV where a couple was looking for a "historic Chicago bungalow" to buy. The houses they were looking at looked just like the house he lived in while he was in Chicago.]
Last Wednesday was fun. The Watseka Elders had extra miles, so they came up here for P Day. We played basketball and football, and had a lot of fun. We had a fairly early dinner, so we went over to the Murphys. Sister Murphy is German! That was pretty exciting to learn, but we didn't hear too much else from them - they're really quiet. It was a great Thanksgiving feast, complete with macaroni and cheese (which is apparently a necessity in the East).
Thursday was interesting. A lot of people canceled on us, so we didn't have a lot to do. I can't remember for sure, but I think we did some tracting, visited Sharon, then got ready for dinner. We had dinner planned with a part member family that lives in Peotone. We had Brother Johnson, the branch mission leader, come with us the many miles down there to Dan and Jean's home. We get there, and the food was just about ready... And the table was set for 3 people. They fed us an awesome meal, but didn't eat anything themselves! The non member wife went [in the other room], so we had a lesson with Dan. Both Dan and Brother Johnson had the scriptures on their ipod or palm pilot, so Wiser and I felt old school. It was interesting, but they had 3 cats. Gross. Luckily, I got a blessing from Elder Wiser and Brother Swenson a while ago for cats... I got blessed, and my body was "given strength to endure" with all these nasty cats everywhere. Afterward, I told Elder Wiser that I was hoping for a cure, not strength, but it truly has been incredible how much my nose and eyes have improved since then! Oh yeah, we went to Branch Council Thursday night too. It was pretty interesting.
Friday was Zone Conference! We were in Joliet, with the Joliet and Naperville Zones. It was really fun to see everyone there. Zone Conference was really long, like always, but we learned a lot. We had a planner check, and I won a prize for having a well kept planner... Check that out Mom, I'm organized! We didn't win an award for the cleanest car though... So I guess I'm not organized and clean enough. After Zone Conference, I think we did some more tracting. We've been filling out this big map in our room, and unfortunately decided to start with an "upper middle class neighborhood." [Elder McMullin is jokingly referring to the man whose door they knocked on who told them that they had a lot of nerve tracting in an upper middle class neighborhood]. We had no luck on Friday.
Saturday was great! We visited Sharon pretty early, then stopped by this random guy from the area book's house... He was home, friendly, and became a new investigator! We're going back there this week to meet his wife. Sweet. It was pretty awesome, because President Hunsaker asked the branch to fast for missionary work. Right after 12:00 PM, when some people were starting their fast, we found a new investigator. Pretty awesome. We went to play basketball with the Elders Quorum later, but there weren't any non members, except for a couple of kids... Bummer. We were just going to ask David O McKay's golden questions so we didn't creep them out in front of their buddies. After that, we showered, got ready, and went out to tract! It was cold! Once again, we had no luck... But we finished a pretty big swathe of our upper middle class neighborhood!
Sunday was good. We had a good fast and testimony meeting, a good MCM, and a good meeting with President Hunsaker. We got a new ward missionary this week... And her job is to get us more dinner and teaching appointments... Sweet! She's a really nice lady who just moved into the branch. She's a pretty recent convert, and apparently has wanted to be a missionary for a while. We're pretty excited to work with Sister Basse. After church, we picked up the fruit and the bags of candy people had brought us, and went out to tract. It was awful tracting before breaking our fast. We did get 2 pretty good potential investigators though, and saw a mastiff. Other than that, it was cold and pretty eventless. We met some crazy people of course, but that always happens. After a while, we went home, broke our fast, then went back out. We didn't stay out long after that, because it was ice cold, and getting dark. We came back and had a lesson with the Swensons about the Plan of Salvation. It turned into a really good conversation about the Gospel, and was a good way to end our Sunday.
Monday was interesting too. The Watseka Elders were doing their meals on wheels route, so they were going to come late. They called the District Leader to tell him, but Elder Church forgot to tell us... So we went down there at the normal time, then we all just waited a while at the church. We waited and tried calling the Watseka Elders for a while, but they never answered their phone... so we just figured they weren't going to come, and went to lunch. We came back to pick up our stuff, and saw the Watseka Elders had left a note saying where the heck are you guys? They gave up and went home, as did everyone else when we saw the note. We eventually found out that the Watseka Elders had left their phone at home, and we had just missed them when we left for lunch, then they just barely missed us when we came back to the church! Ridiculous. After that, we came back to Frankfort, and went to dinner at the Choates. We had a great dinner and a good family home evening over there.
Tuesday was great! We had a good lesson with Sharon, who's pretty excited for missionary work, and wanted fliers and stuff to hand out so she can get us more people to teach. We just need to get her baptized! She's got a drug addict son that has been breaking in and stuff lately, which stressed the heck out of her, so she has been struggling with the Word of Wisdom lately. She'll break her habit though... I just hope it's soon. We then went to teach Erica, who's the investigator with a lot of questions. We asked her to write her questions down, and then taught her a great first lesson. We had Sister Foerster with us, who had been super obnoxious when we taught her family a lesson after dinner. It was pretty funny calling to ask her, and let her know she was going to get a taste of her own medicine! Erica is really sincere though, and is going to pray... So I can see her progressing really well. We're going on Thursday to answer the questions she had for Tuesday, so that'll be good too. After that, we went and stopped by a potential investigator we had, and she became a new investigator... And invited us over again to meet her fiance! Nice! Elder Wiser felt ill, so we went back to the Swensons for a while before our next appointment. Our appointment was with some more people that had been taught years ago, and they were super nice. The mom and dad aren't interested in converting, but love having us over. The 18 year old kid on the other hand is amazing. He's looking for his own faith, and is pretty sincere. He's read from a LOT of different religious books, and will most likely give the Book of Mormon a legitimate shot. He seems sincere, so he should be a great person to teach. There we got some more new investigators. After that we went to try to find someone else to teach, but didn't get anyone. That's alright though, it was a great day!
Now today... We've got Zone Activity. We're going bowling over in Joliet, which should be fun.
Well, I've got to go bowling now, so I'll talk to you all later! I love you a lot, and am grateful for all you do. I'm happy to be out here on my mission, and am excited for my opportunity to share the Gospel with our Brothers and Sisters in Illinois.
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
Hey everybody,
It's been good to hear from you! It sounds like everybody is doing well, even if Dad is a little bit sick. It sounds like you've had some good hikes, and are having a good one today. What's everyone doing for Spring Break? Are you going to come visit Chicago? It's actually warm here now. We're wearing T-Shirts right now... But is supposedly going to get cold again next week. Bummer!
That's wild the Swensons are moving. That's a really nice area, as long as it doesn't smell like cows too much. I wouldn't have minded going to Basha. It's nice living with the Swensons over here [the couple that the missionaries live with are the Swensons]. They're really funny. Brother Swenson knows every bad joke ever invented... He'll sit there and set something up for 10 minutes, then it's super lame. Sister Swenson is great too... Even if she say's wash like Grandma! Woishe?
Anyways, I haven't heard from you in a long time Caitlin! What's up with that? I wrote back to your seminary friends that wrote me... Has that gotten there yet? How's Seussical? Is this play for the valley youth theatre, or some other company?
Grandpa, I haven't gotten anything from you in a long time either! How have you been doing? How're your Coffee Cup buddies doing? What about that guy who started his own church?
Mom, I'm glad you liked the pictures. I tried sending them the week before, but they got rejected for some reason. I'll try sending some more next week. They take a while to upload, but that's mostly just because these computers are really dumb and sign you out of your email in the middle of sending stuff, so you have to just save a draft.
Oh yeah, I remember reading some questions you had asked me in a letter that I never answered. You asked if I was the driver, and yes I am. I only got 1 ticket, the other's being disputed... And it wasn't that bad anyways! They usually just take away your driving privilege if you crash a car. You asked who's the senior companion, and that is me... They typically just do whoever has been out longer. Send me another question sheet... I'm happy to answer more, but you've gotta ask more than 2 questions.
Anyways, I've been doing well. I do miss the bungalows in Chicago (Sister Ramirez and Gary lived about a block away from the "Historical Bungalow Block"... Which was super ghetto, but historic nonetheless), but I've been enjoying Frankfort too. [I had emailed him that I saw a show on TV where a couple was looking for a "historic Chicago bungalow" to buy. The houses they were looking at looked just like the house he lived in while he was in Chicago.]
Last Wednesday was fun. The Watseka Elders had extra miles, so they came up here for P Day. We played basketball and football, and had a lot of fun. We had a fairly early dinner, so we went over to the Murphys. Sister Murphy is German! That was pretty exciting to learn, but we didn't hear too much else from them - they're really quiet. It was a great Thanksgiving feast, complete with macaroni and cheese (which is apparently a necessity in the East).
Thursday was interesting. A lot of people canceled on us, so we didn't have a lot to do. I can't remember for sure, but I think we did some tracting, visited Sharon, then got ready for dinner. We had dinner planned with a part member family that lives in Peotone. We had Brother Johnson, the branch mission leader, come with us the many miles down there to Dan and Jean's home. We get there, and the food was just about ready... And the table was set for 3 people. They fed us an awesome meal, but didn't eat anything themselves! The non member wife went [in the other room], so we had a lesson with Dan. Both Dan and Brother Johnson had the scriptures on their ipod or palm pilot, so Wiser and I felt old school. It was interesting, but they had 3 cats. Gross. Luckily, I got a blessing from Elder Wiser and Brother Swenson a while ago for cats... I got blessed, and my body was "given strength to endure" with all these nasty cats everywhere. Afterward, I told Elder Wiser that I was hoping for a cure, not strength, but it truly has been incredible how much my nose and eyes have improved since then! Oh yeah, we went to Branch Council Thursday night too. It was pretty interesting.
Friday was Zone Conference! We were in Joliet, with the Joliet and Naperville Zones. It was really fun to see everyone there. Zone Conference was really long, like always, but we learned a lot. We had a planner check, and I won a prize for having a well kept planner... Check that out Mom, I'm organized! We didn't win an award for the cleanest car though... So I guess I'm not organized and clean enough. After Zone Conference, I think we did some more tracting. We've been filling out this big map in our room, and unfortunately decided to start with an "upper middle class neighborhood." [Elder McMullin is jokingly referring to the man whose door they knocked on who told them that they had a lot of nerve tracting in an upper middle class neighborhood]. We had no luck on Friday.
Saturday was great! We visited Sharon pretty early, then stopped by this random guy from the area book's house... He was home, friendly, and became a new investigator! We're going back there this week to meet his wife. Sweet. It was pretty awesome, because President Hunsaker asked the branch to fast for missionary work. Right after 12:00 PM, when some people were starting their fast, we found a new investigator. Pretty awesome. We went to play basketball with the Elders Quorum later, but there weren't any non members, except for a couple of kids... Bummer. We were just going to ask David O McKay's golden questions so we didn't creep them out in front of their buddies. After that, we showered, got ready, and went out to tract! It was cold! Once again, we had no luck... But we finished a pretty big swathe of our upper middle class neighborhood!
Sunday was good. We had a good fast and testimony meeting, a good MCM, and a good meeting with President Hunsaker. We got a new ward missionary this week... And her job is to get us more dinner and teaching appointments... Sweet! She's a really nice lady who just moved into the branch. She's a pretty recent convert, and apparently has wanted to be a missionary for a while. We're pretty excited to work with Sister Basse. After church, we picked up the fruit and the bags of candy people had brought us, and went out to tract. It was awful tracting before breaking our fast. We did get 2 pretty good potential investigators though, and saw a mastiff. Other than that, it was cold and pretty eventless. We met some crazy people of course, but that always happens. After a while, we went home, broke our fast, then went back out. We didn't stay out long after that, because it was ice cold, and getting dark. We came back and had a lesson with the Swensons about the Plan of Salvation. It turned into a really good conversation about the Gospel, and was a good way to end our Sunday.
Monday was interesting too. The Watseka Elders were doing their meals on wheels route, so they were going to come late. They called the District Leader to tell him, but Elder Church forgot to tell us... So we went down there at the normal time, then we all just waited a while at the church. We waited and tried calling the Watseka Elders for a while, but they never answered their phone... so we just figured they weren't going to come, and went to lunch. We came back to pick up our stuff, and saw the Watseka Elders had left a note saying where the heck are you guys? They gave up and went home, as did everyone else when we saw the note. We eventually found out that the Watseka Elders had left their phone at home, and we had just missed them when we left for lunch, then they just barely missed us when we came back to the church! Ridiculous. After that, we came back to Frankfort, and went to dinner at the Choates. We had a great dinner and a good family home evening over there.
Tuesday was great! We had a good lesson with Sharon, who's pretty excited for missionary work, and wanted fliers and stuff to hand out so she can get us more people to teach. We just need to get her baptized! She's got a drug addict son that has been breaking in and stuff lately, which stressed the heck out of her, so she has been struggling with the Word of Wisdom lately. She'll break her habit though... I just hope it's soon. We then went to teach Erica, who's the investigator with a lot of questions. We asked her to write her questions down, and then taught her a great first lesson. We had Sister Foerster with us, who had been super obnoxious when we taught her family a lesson after dinner. It was pretty funny calling to ask her, and let her know she was going to get a taste of her own medicine! Erica is really sincere though, and is going to pray... So I can see her progressing really well. We're going on Thursday to answer the questions she had for Tuesday, so that'll be good too. After that, we went and stopped by a potential investigator we had, and she became a new investigator... And invited us over again to meet her fiance! Nice! Elder Wiser felt ill, so we went back to the Swensons for a while before our next appointment. Our appointment was with some more people that had been taught years ago, and they were super nice. The mom and dad aren't interested in converting, but love having us over. The 18 year old kid on the other hand is amazing. He's looking for his own faith, and is pretty sincere. He's read from a LOT of different religious books, and will most likely give the Book of Mormon a legitimate shot. He seems sincere, so he should be a great person to teach. There we got some more new investigators. After that we went to try to find someone else to teach, but didn't get anyone. That's alright though, it was a great day!
Now today... We've got Zone Activity. We're going bowling over in Joliet, which should be fun.
Well, I've got to go bowling now, so I'll talk to you all later! I love you a lot, and am grateful for all you do. I'm happy to be out here on my mission, and am excited for my opportunity to share the Gospel with our Brothers and Sisters in Illinois.
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
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