Mission Update -- 7/1/09

Our family is going through a horrible, tragic, sad time right now -- our neice, Elder M's cousin, 13 year old Savannah McMullin, was killed in a car accident on June 27 and her parents and sisters were injured in the accident. We waited to get as much information about the condition of family members and on Monday the 29th, Ed called President Roach to tell him so that they could determine the best way to let Brad know about the accident. President Roach ended up calling him to tell him about it, and that is what Brad is referring to in his email below.


Hello Family,
Wow, I am sorry about the Gallup McMullins' tragic accident. I've been praying for the family's healing, and for Savanah as she takes this next step in her eternal progression. I hope that they get feeling better, and the funeral can be set up. I don't know if I told you this or not, but Kevin, Sharon's son, passed away about a week and a half ago. We've had the opportunity to comfort her in this hard time, and the Plan of Salvation really is great. It's infinitely easier to take comfort when a family has been blessed with temple covenants though.
Well, I'd like to thank you for the love and support! I got my birthday package from you, G&G, the other day, and am enjoying it. That book is some really nice light reading (Doctrines of Salvation). I'm not sure about light actually, but it is really good.
So, here's the update on the ridiculous Chicago weather. We just endured the coldest winter in a decade. Then we had the wettest spring in all recorded history. Then we were way hotter than normal, which was totally miserable. Now, we're having the coldest July 1st in 60 years!! And, there's earwigs everywhere because of all the rain. We kill about 2 of them every time we walk into our bathroom. One even crawled on my tooth brush, so I have to buy a new one today! They're crazy too. If you flush one down the toilet, it will come right back up. If you pour bleach on it, it will just swim right through it. We cut their heads off and everything, but are convinced we just keep killing the same 5 bugs. On a lighter note... We now have a ton of fireflies outside, which are really cool! (forgive the pun, please).
Well, it sounds like San Diego went well! It's pretty funny... I think every time you go to the beach, we have a baptism here. For JoAnne's, it was Florida. For the Cravens, it was San Diego. I don't think you should risk jinxing Bob's... Where can you go to the beach on July 11th?
Caitlin, how long are you staying in Israel? Are you staying with the Schurs? Take a lot of pictures please! And have fun!
Well, here's what happened here this week:
Wednesday was OK. We switched back companions in Bourbonnais, and sat in Wendy's for a really long time. After hanging out in Bourbonnais, we came back to New Lenox to have dinner with the Carlsons. They cooked us some Thai food. They had Matt over again, so we taught him the 3rd lesson, and extended some invitations (which made Sister Carlson the Younger's eyes perk up). Matt is really open, and is a great guy, but doesn't have a baptismal date yet.
Thursday was a pretty good day. It started off in the morning with a split! Elder Hunt went with Brother Swenson to visit the Browns, and I went with President Hunsaker to visit Sharon. We scheduled and planned Kevin's memorial service. It was pretty wild, as we were eating lunch about an hour and a half later, we got a call from someone asking about an invitation for the funeral they saw on facebook. Crazy. After that, we visited Jim, who told us he would come to church. He's finally saying he definitely will come, which is a huge improvement... Even if he never has come. My relationship has changed from me having a silly vendetta against this crazy guy that harasses missionaries, to me becoming a sincere friend, and wanting the best for Brother B. I really hope he comes to church at least once before I'm transferred. He needs it. That evening, we had dinner at the Foersters', then had Branch Council. Branch Council went well, like always, except for some reason the air wasn't on, and it was HOT. We really have to watch out what we pray for. "make it warm!" "please get Kevin out of Sharon's life, he's her stumbling block!" Those two were definitely answered in unanticipated ways. I guess that's why they say specific prayers are so much more powerful than general ones.
Friday was great. President Hunsaker went out with us to teach in the morning again. He is such a faithful and great leader in the Lord's Kingdom. He helped us discuss Bob's baptism. It went really well. Bob is excited, and set for the baptism. That day, we also visited the Vines family, and shared a lesson with them. We also had linner with Elder Bradsher and Elder Richmond, who were up in Joliet for the district leader meeting. They brought my birthday present from G&G! Thanks for the present yet again! I just realized I admitted I opened it like 2 weeks early. That's ok though, it's not like I'm going to have a party for my birthday or anything :). Although Brother Giese is going to take us out for steaks! (2 baptisms = steaks. I chose my birthday to go, so I could keep the steak streak alive). [Elder M always chooses steak for his birthday dinner -- since he was at least 7 years old, if not before.] Ok, so back to what happened on Friday. We had a last lesson with the Cravens. This is pretty great. We went to the Cravens home, and no one was there. We called them, and Sister Craven answered, yelling, "THIS IS NOT A GOOD TIME! CAN I CALL YOU BACK?!?" It turns out Randy, the 5 year old, elbowed Kaden, the 11 year old, in the face, and gave him a huge black eye! They went to the minute clinic, and ended up quite late for their appointment. It was pretty funny, but Randy was in big trouble. Sister Craven went over the ABCs of repentance with him. Then she sent him to the corner, so I had to plead for Randy and say, "but Sister Craven, he repented." The lesson / baptismal prep & practice went well. After that, we visited the Weichingers, then Lisa Young and her family. Brett took out some stitches (he fell through a mirror when getting out of bed last week) with fingernail clippers. He also participated in the lesson quite a bit. After realizing it was getting very close to our curfew, we ran out, hopped in the car, and drove the speed limit home.
Saturday was really great! We played softball for quite a while in the morning. I forgot to put sunscreen on, so I looked like a tomato for the next couple days. After softball, we helped JoAnne create a mission plan. (How is yours by the way? President Egbert told me that all families are expected to develop family mission plans. I think that's great. That's what we've done here the last few months. We had 1 referral in the 1st Quarter of 09, but then saw a ridiculous spike and had something like 6 for the 2nd! They definitely work.) One of JoAnne's weekly goals is to bring a friend to church with her. She's also planning on having at least one friend start taking lessons per month. Doing baptisms for the dead is another monthly goal. JoAnne is quite the achiever, and is doing very well. She's now visiting teaching, and being visiting taught. We're quite excited for her progress. So anyways, back to what we did on Saturday. We ate some lunch, then got ready, then went over to the church to get ready for the baptism. The baptism went really well. We had a great turnout. We even had President & Sister Roach come, which was nice because the Cravens initially found the church through a mission president in California! Sister Craven was beaming the whole time. This is what she's been praying for for quite a while. James did a great job, as did Garrett and black eyed Kaden. After the baptism, we went home to help the Swensons develop a family mission plan. They ended up watching the news, so we just read in our room. I've been reading that Doctrines of Salvation a lot lately.
Sunday was a good day. We went to church an hour early for a second session of Branch Council, which went well. After that, we had sacrament meeting. We heard some stellar talks. The rest of church went well. James did a great job confirming Kaden and Garrett. After MCM, we went over to the Ericksons for lunch. They know I love jello with bananas (it has to have bananas), so we had that and quiche. We don't get quiche very often, which is too bad, because it was really good. After sharing a message with them, we went over to the Cravens' open house. We had a good time over there. I was playing soccer with the boys indoors... with giant bouncy balls... which was fun, and nice for them because that's pretty much the only way they can get away with it. I'm getting pretty good at saying, "aw come on Sister Craven, we won't break anything!" [Sounds like what he used to say to me!!] After that, we hurried over to the church to meet up with Brother Forrest to go out and teach people. We went over to Sister DeLaney's home, and had a great visit there. After that, we went over to the Greys' home for dinner and a lesson. The Greys are really nice.
Monday was a pretty unique day. We started it off by going over to the Browns for a lesson with Brother Johnson. Amber was out of control [fussy]. We had a good visit with her mom though, and are going to help her stop smoking now. During our appointment at the Browns, we missed a call from President Roach, and got a message saying he needed to visit with me. There's only two reasons for a call like that - You're in big trouble, or something really bad happened. I couldn't think of anything President would get upset about, so I had a pretty nervous day. After visiting the Browns, we visited Sharon, and gave her a blessing. After that, we came home to get ready for Kevin's memorial. Right before we left, President Roach called and gave me the news about the McMullin family. They are in his prayers and mine. After throwing on some black ties, we left to be ushers at Kevin's service. It went really well. There were over 100 people packed into the Branch Assembly Room. 2 of Kevin's friends spoke, and President Hunsaker gave a touching sermon on the Plan of Salvation. Everyone left the building enlightened, and hopeful. Hopefully they will search for more truths that have been Restored in these Latter Days. After we cleaned up the church, the Greys took us and the Ericksons to Chili's for dinner. It was pretty funny eating Monday night dinner with the 2 families that fed us on Sunday. The dinner was great too.
Tuesday was pretty lame. We had 4 canceled lesson appointments. BUT, we had a great one with the Cancialosis! We took Brother Swenson with us to discuss the priesthood, and what Bob's role will be when he's ordained. We also filled out paper work and set up his baptismal program. Elder Hunt is going to baptize Bob, and I'm going to confirm him. He'll be a great asset for the Frankfort Branch.
Today should be pretty good. We're going to go down to Bourbonnais since we all have new miles. We also got some great news this morning. Sister DeLaney called us and asked for our dinner schedule. She's been called as the missionary dinner mom! We asked for someone to do that on Sunday, and President Hunsaker really hopped on it! She's going to get us dinner / lesson opportunities with less active and part member families, which will be great. This evening we've got an appointment with a part less active family... Lisa Young. After dinner and a lesson there, Lisa's going to come with us to share a new member lesson with the Cravens! It should be a good day.
Well, I hope you all are doing well. We certainly are here. I'm loving my time serving the Lord (I just hit 11 months actually), and am growing so much. I've learned so much here in Frankfort. There are so many incredible members here that have taught me a lot, and I've also had a great opportunity to personally study the Gospel. I've been going super in depth with the Book of Mormon my whole mission, and am about to finish it. It looks like a rainbow on every page. Every color and marking means something though! I've also been doing it to the Doctrine and Covenants and the New Testament, which has slowed down my reading significantly. It gets really tedious sometimes going through it like this, but I've been setting up a foundation for my lifelong scripture studies. I've also had the wonderful opportunity to read some other great doctrinal books, and am now moving along in the Joseph Smith lesson manual, and Doctrines of Salvation.
Take care family! HAPPY ALMOST BIRTHDAY CAITLIN AND GRANDMA! I can't believe you're almost 17 Cater, and still look like you're 27 Grandma!! I love you both so much! Well, take care! Until next week...
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
PS I'll send you pictures soon.