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