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