Here's Elder McMullin's update. Sounds like he's had some disappointments this week, but I appreciate that he always looks for the postive. I'm proud of him. Here's his letter:
Hello,
I'm glad to hear everything is going well in the West. Things have been going well in the MidWest, even if the weather has not been very nice at all. We've had some good missionary success though.
Last Wednesday, we went to dinner at Dan and Jean's home. Jean isn't a member, and is usually pretty elusive, but she stayed for the lesson, and committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, which is great. Until that point in the day, we didn't really do much [for P-day].
Thursday was an OK day. Actually, it wasn't that great. One of our most promising investigators, Erica, told us that she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. I convinced her to pray about it specifically, then to talk in a few days to see if she should continue to investigate, but we haven't talked yet... So that was a bummer. We also had another investigator family tell us they love having us over, but they don't want us to come over if we're going to teach anything. Bummer. Another appointment canceled in the morning, because her surgery hasn't healed as well as it should have. Ugh. We did get to visit a less active member, and then go to the Guymons' home for dinner. The Guymons are awesome, so it was a great dinner appointment (they're the family of the girl I went to BYU with). We tracted between those appointments, and had no luck. We also tracted after dinner until Branch Council, once again without much luck. We almost tracted into the Spencers though... but we saw Sister Spencer outside, which was pretty fun. Branch Council went well, like always. President Hunsaker is pretty on top of things. After Council, we booked it home and got ready for Friday.
Friday was pretty good. We tried to find some service, but nothing far away since we have been super pressed for miles. We didn't find much, but invited a few people to the Walk with Christ. We had a return appointment with Brent, a guy we found tracting, at 2. It went really really well, and he was happy to read from the Book of Mormon and pray about it. After that, we went finding, and only found one person for the rest of the day.
Saturday was actually really good. We visited Lisa Young and Co in the morning. They're awesome, and after we asked for referrals, they told us they'd invite a family to have FHE with them and us! Sweet! So there will be a whole family of very promising new investigators! After visiting them, we left for Sharon's. She's doing a lot better, and attributes it all to the blessing. She's got a lot of faith, but still is having a lot of trouble quitting smoking. After that, we got ready to play basketball with the Branch, only to discover that everywhere was full. That was quite the bummer, but life goes on. After that it started raining, so we went to stop by some people's homes. We stopped by one potential we had found tracting, and ended up giving her a blessing and teaching a short lesson. After that, we left for the Cravens and had a good visit with them. After that, we felt inspired to visit a family in the area, and ended up choosing the Logsdons, who didn't have a phone number in the Branch List. They were home, and were very friendly. As it turns out, Brother Logsdon had been seriously contemplating coming to church for the first time in many many years. We had a very good lesson, and they said they would seriously consider coming again. After that, it was time to go home.
We woke up Sunday morning to a pure white hell. Our windows were open, so we saw all of the snow that covered the area. It was coming down really hard, but we didn't get nearly as much as they did farther north... Thank goodness. I'm sending some pictures of the snow, by the way. Anyways, church went really well. We had one of the best fast and testimony meetings I've ever been to. After church, we went to lunch at the Ericksons. They fed us amazing shredded pork burritos - I'm salivating now that I've thought about them because they were so good. After that, we went to Outreach, which is one of the coolest things ever. Once a month, the Priesthood Brethren meet up after church to go stop by less active families. We were able to get a hold of 2 of our 3 families, and extended invitations to church, and branch activities. Brother Swenson always has really good luck for outreach, and we were fortunate enough to go with him. After that, we left to find some new people. Most of the snow was melted before the late afternoon, so that made it not so bad finding people. It was still pretty cold and windy though, so it wasn't that fun. We ended up teaching a lesson to a woman whose husband we had taught a week ago or so, and gave her a Book of Mormon. We also taught another woman that lives near a member family.
Monday was also good. We had Presidents Interviews, which went well. President basically just congratulated us, or at least me, for doing good work in the area. That was a pretty good improvement from last time, where he basically said Frankfort sucks. After that, we tracted for a while, and got a potential referral for the Joliet Spanish Elders, who just drive around the Stake teaching all the Spanish speakers everyone else finds. They get a really good chunk of the missions baptisms... I'm a little bit jealous. We also got to call in a referral we got for the Peoria mission, which was fun. A random lady we gave a blessing to gave us that referral, so hopefully that man will become a good new investigator for the Champaign Elders. After that, we started something awesome. We arranged splits for the evening! I went with Nick Grey to the Stachuras, while Elder Collier went with Brother Swenson to visit the less active Sister DeLaney in Manhattan. After dinner and a lesson with the Stachuras (Part Member family), I switched companions, and went with Shane to visit the Portwoods. Elder Collier and Brother Swenson then tried to stop by another family, but that didn't work... So we all met up, then Elder Collier and I came home for the evening. It was really great, and is something I hope we can continue to do.
Tuesday was alright, but could have been much better. It was really rainy out, so that was lame. We tried to do some stuff without being outside, but eventually had to go tract. We looked for umbrellas, but only could find Elder Collier's one... So we had to ask the Swensons if they had any laying around. They looked, and could only find Sister Swensons... Which was really little and pinkish-purple. We decided, what the heck... We'll just go out. But, it turned out that the little umbrella didn't really do anything, and all of my stuff was getting wet, so we had to go to the store. We drove to Kohl's, and I bought an umbrella and 2 ties which were like 90% off. One of the ties was like $2.30, and is the ultimate tie. It looks like a rattlesnakes back, and was super cheap. I'm sending a picture of me wearing it outside of the Swensons' home... So you can see me, the tie, and where we live! After that, I stopped by Ritz Camera and bought a new memory card. My one has been full, so I haven't really been taking many / any pictures. After that, it stopped raining, so we did some tracting before dinner with the Spencers. Dinner was an incredible homemade lasagna. It was REALLY good. After dinner, we helped them make a family mission plan, which should be really good. After that, our day was pretty much done... Especially because we were over miles. We came home and got ready for bed.... That's when the story gets interesting... We were laying there, and Elder Collier got an impression to check the screws holding our bunk bed together. I really felt like it was something real, so we got out of bed and checked it out. One screw was hanging out, and some others were coming out... So we decided to not sleep in the bed. We slept out in the living room, which turned out to be awful. It was really bright out there, so we didn't sleep well at all. When we woke up for the morning, I just went into our room, and rolled myself up in my blankets and slept on the floor for a while. It was really lame.
When I woke up, it was officially P-Day! We're probably not going to do much today. I've been doing laundry, and now we're at the Library. I'll have to read the Lincoln Way Sun newspaper, because they're publishing the invitation to the Walk With Christ that I wrote. That's pretty exciting. We've got team ups with Brother Forrest this evening, and found out that he scheduled us a dinner appointment with the Greys, which is about as good as it gets. For team ups, the person we go with is supposed to get us a couple of teaching appointments, so it's pretty funny / awesome that he got us a dinner appointment!
Well, that's it for the week! This week should be great. We've got a lunch and dinner appointment tomorrow. Lunch with Sister Bagnara, who is bringing over a friend for us to teach the Restoration, then dinner with the man we tracted into! Sweet!
Anyways, the Gospel is true, and I love you! Take care and have a great week.
Love,
Elder Bradley Edward McMullin
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