I could hardly wait to get Elder M's email today. We pretty much knew he'd be transferred because Elder Hunt only has one more transfer left in his mission, so one of them had to be transferred (so they wouldn't have 2 new missionaries in Frankfort at the next transfer.) Since Brad had been there so long, we assumed it would be him who got transferred. Sure enough....
Hello Family,
Dad's prediction is not right... At all. [Ed had first said he thought Elder M would be transferred to Indiana. Then he said he thought Elder Hunt would be transferred instead of Elder M.] Although I would've been pretty happy with it. [I think he means staying in Frankfort. He has loved it there.] I am getting transferred to the Naperville 4th Ward and will be a Zone Leader. So I'll be conducting Zone Conference and stuff like that. I also will be going on exchanges with District Leaders... Which means I'll be going on an exchange with a Spanish Elder! Weird. Anyways, the area sounds pretty good. I'll be with Elder Denter, who's a really good guy from Springville, Utah. The area covers some of Naperville and some of Aurora. I've come up with an Arizona comparison... It should be like a bean shaped area right around South Mountain; I'll have some rich, like Awhatooke (sorry for spelling) and then some incredibly Latino area, like South Phoenix around the Pointe (or as my tennis coach said, point-ee).
Elder Watson is coming here from South Shore (which is ghetto Chicago). He's a good guy and will do well here. [Side note -- Elder Watson came out from the MTC with Elder M. If you look back at those old pictures from the MTC, you can see him in them.] He also knew Kehaulani from home, which is pretty funny. [Elder Watson is from Hawaii.] Watseka is being closed down... No more missionaries there. Elder Bradsher is going to be in Hyde Park with Elder Philbrick (MTC Companion) for the Gladys Knight fireside. Pretty lucky, that's where I wanted to go. Elder Richmond is going to Stockyards to be with Elder Bird. There's going to be 4 missionaries in Stockyards again (once again because of Gladys Knight). Elder Thornhill is going to Bourbonnais to be with Hunt Jr and Elder Church is coming with me to Naperville. He'll be in Geneva, which is right next door. It's pretty wild about Watseka being closed. They're also closing 2 other areas. I don't think we're getting a single greenie this transfer, so our mission is shrinking pretty well now.
I'm going to miss Frankfort a lot. I was pretty upset when I got moved here from Stockyards, but am so glad I did. The Lord has blessed me, and the Branch, so much in the last 6 months. I'm a little nervous, but excited for my next opportunity to serve the Lord, the Naperville 4th Ward, and the Naperville Zone. I'll at least still get to work with President Fredin a lot... He comes to all of our meetings with the Stake Presidency and Mission President. I've been saying goodbyes, and will be visiting quite a few people today. Should be busy. I haven't done much to get packing, but will do that soon.
Anyways, I hope everyone's doing great at home! I'm sorry about your back Grandpa! I hope it gets feeling better, and will be praying for you. Have fun in Pioche Tay! I just saw some girl with a shirt that said "Tay Tay," and thought of ya. Have fun doing orchestra and jury duty Mom! I think you're the one in a million that probably will enjoy jury duty, so that's exciting! Thanks for Brother Baker's address, even if it took a year! Hahaha. [That was Caitlin, not me!!!]
Anyways, here's some of what has happened here this last week:
Last Wednesday was pretty good. After E Mailing, we went to Applebee's and ate some lunch there. Thanks for the gift card! After that, we went and played a round of frisbee golf. We're no longer very good, because we hadn't played in quite a while. After that, we stopped by a potential investigator, who wasn't home, and not much else.
Thursday was an awesome 3 meal day. We went over in the morning to help the Weichingers pull weeds. We told them we would if we could also share a full lesson with them. They upped the ante and gave us breakfast and lunch in addition to listening to the lesson, which went extremely well. Later in the day, we went to visit Austin Cramer with Chris Spencer. After having a lesson there, Chris took us over to teach Jim. Jim committed to driving Elder Hunt and I to church on Sunday (and almost followed through with it)! That evening, we went over to the Loftus home and taught Linda, JoAnne, and Christine (JoAnne's friend) the Plan of Salvation with President Carlson. It went quite well, and now Linda's reading the Book of Mormon, and is progressing! Awesome. We also played rummy over there (we had an FHE format for the meeting), and I got whooped.
Friday went well. I mailed a package home, and a package to Mooker. I sent him a Bears shirt and some other stuff. What's crazy is that it cost me about the same amount to send something to Germany as it did to send to Arizona. I think those flat rate boxes are bogus because the bag box thing I sent to Germany was about the same size. Other than that, we had a lot of awesome stuff happen. We were able to have the first new member lesson with Bob. He's doing so well, and has got such an incredibly bright future. After teaching Bob, we went over to teach Sharon and her son Kyle. Sharon is stopping smoking now, and will set a baptismal date when she's stopped for a week. Brother Vines sent her an awesome letter and challenged her to get to the temple. I think she's finally going to make some steps forward. We also visited Jim, a referral we got from Jacob Carlson, who turned out to be a religious fanatic. He's Christian, but believes the Old Testament is more legitimate than the New, and studies a lot of Hebrew. We had an interesting discussion, but he was not willing to pray and receive revelation from God about the Book of Mormon. After that, we went to the Portwoods' home for dinner. We had an excellent dinner and lesson there. Laura should be baptized pretty soon. They're moving, but they don't know where. If they end up staying here, I'll probably be able to go to it. If they move to Missouri, which is a possibility, that would be tough. As long as it's done, that's what matters though.
Saturday was pretty great! We started it off by going to visit the Browns. Megan is stopping smoking. Awesome. She's also getting a new job that will clear up her Sundays. Awesome. We should see them at church more, and see some good things as they progress to the point where Amber can be baptized. After that, Brother Giese took us out to lunch. After lunch, we went to visit Shirley, who's a super reclusive less active that lives in Manhattan. We had a good appointment there. Saturday evening is when the miracles started happening. I had felt for a while we needed to go visit the Bellus, a family of former investigators that is Nigerian. We went there and had a great visit. We ended up getting a return appointment to discuss the Restoration. Awesome. After that, we felt impressed to go visit some random less active who we doubt even lives at the address we've got. He wasn't home. The neat thing though, was we drove by a family that Elder Wiser and I tracted into's former home, we felt touched to stop by that house. We knocked and met a lady that had just moved in. It turns out her mother just died and she doesn't have a church around here. We taught the Plan of Salvation and made some big promises, and in turn watched her get washed by the Spirit. We got a return appointment and a solid new investigator / baptismal candidate!
Sunday was great! I was able to confer the Aaronic Priesthood and ordain Bob a Priest! That was pretty awesome, and went really well. Neither Brother Johnson or Brother Murphy were at church, so I got the opportunity to teach Sunday School with zero notice. We had Brother Fisher, from the High Council, there and also the Stake President's recently returned missionary son, so it went pretty well. They were here to speak in Sacrament meeting right after JoAnne! JoAnne gave a wonderful talk. Her mother also came to listen, and did pretty well at church. After church we had a wonderful MCM, and Brother Fisher praised the whole Branch, which is great since he's usually the MCM Nazi. He told us Frankfort is the most productive area in the whole Joliet Stake now! The whole Branch is doing great. We're having a ridiculous amount of people in MCM, which is pretty wild. We also got a ton of team teachers from the meeting. After church, we went over to the Cravens' for dinner. Both Brother Dupin and Brother Craven were out of town, so their wives pitched in together with some kids and made us dinner. It went really well, and was pretty fun. We helped them make study calendars, and caught bugs. They gave me 5 fireflys in a jar to keep in my room overnight. Awesome. That was pretty much it for the day.
Monday was pretty great. In the MCM, they asked what we needed... We told them breakfast and lunch appointments. We got a breakfast appointment from the Vines' Monday morning. It was a 5 course breakfast, and was stellar. After having a lesson over there, we went down to District Meeting. After District Meeting, we went to lunch, then went over to the Loftus home for a lesson. We took Sister Fredrick, who got along well with Linda, so that was great. After that, we went over to the Guymons' for dinner. They made us Edwardo's Pizza, which was great! I LOVE it. After a good time, and a lesson, there, we went over to the Greys' home for Family and Friend Home Evening. We had the Youngs and JoAnne over, and it went very well.
Tuesday was pretty wild. We started proselyting by going to Trish's home for a lesson. We took Sister Cammarata with us, and couldn't have gotten anyone better. Sister Cammarata is pretty much Trish in 15 years. Trish has a husband that is not supportive of her going to church. She wants to be baptized, and we're helping her work to that point now. It should go well. After lunch, we ended up going to Sharon's home. We had a good lesson, and she's going to progress now. After that, we went to the Murphy's for dinner. As we ate, I got a call from President Roach. They said it was ok to answer the call, so I did and got the transfer news. I was pretty surprised to hear what it was. After the dinner and lesson, we went over to the Youngs home. They had Anna over, and we had a pretty good lesson. We went through Romans 12, and some of the duties of Saints. At first I accidentally had us reading Romans 13, which is good, but not what we wanted to teach at all. Hahaha. I made some calls to people that evening to say thank you and goodbye. I'll be sad to leave Frankfort.
Today should be good. I've done laundry so far and will be packing. We've also got quite a few appointments to visit people that want to say goodbye. A couple families have requested your address, Mom and Dad, to write you a letter. Hopefully they're good.
Well, I've still got to write President Roach and have to get some pictures on here, so if you want to write me something really quick I'll probably see it. I love you all so much, and am grateful for everything you do for me. Take care!
Love,
Elder Bradley E. McMullin
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