The little rescued squirrel -- so cute!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Diggory the Squirrel and Elder McMullin
Here's the little baby squirrel that the missionaries saved and gave to a rescue group. The rescue group's blog says that the squirrel is showing some signs of brain damage (it fell 50 feet!) but it sounds like it's doing ok. Pretty cute little guy! (and not a bad looking missionary!)
Mission Update 9/30/09
Well, Elder M's been out for 14 months today! It was good to hear from him. I love Wednesdays! Ed is in Chicago on business and is going to drop off a package for Brad at the mission office this afternoon. Last night Ed went to a Cubs game with Matt and Mimi Snow (now living in Chicago while Matt goes to Univ. of Chicago) and they volunteered to give him a ride to the mission office today, so no need to rent a car. Yeah!!
Here's Elder M's email for the week:
Hello Family,
I'm glad you're doing well! That's fun Dad's in Chicago too! It's a beautiful day here in the Chi (and Aurora...)! Good job on your ACT Caitlin. Be good Taylor! I'm glad you had a good time in Pioche, G & G! I hope you got the stuff I sent you Mom! I've got something else I'm going to send you today... Some VIDEOS! And all my pictures. Hope you like them.
We've had a pretty good week. Kim's got a baptismal date now. Elder Denter got ill, but is getting better. Things are going pretty well. Here's what happened:
Wednesday was pretty good. After I emailed we spent a little bit of time with the Prestbury Elders, but soon got ready to go to teach Kim. The lesson felt a little funny. She was kind of out of it, so we didn't quite know what was up. We invited her to be baptized, and she let us know that she wants to be baptized. She had told her friends before, and said she wanted a short lesson and everyone there, because she was going to accept the baptismal commitment! Sweet. October 11th. After that, we went over to the Adams family home for dinner. They cooked us some Prime Rib, which was really good. They're a nice family. We would have gone to the temple with Brother Adams, but he's kind of ill now... So we're going to go with Brother Giese from Frankfort. We got permission, and called him. So we'll go on October 10th. That should be fun.
Thursday was pretty good. We went to go visit Diggory the squirrel in the morning. They put him on a website. Here it is - http://threedollarsquirrel.com/chatter/ [I checked the website out. Everyone seems to love this little squirrel who survived such a scary fall. Pretty cool!] It's kind of neat, but doesn't even mention the missionaries. We should tell them to put us in there, and put a link to Mormon.org! Anyways, after visiting him, and doing a little bit of service for Sister Glaviano, we went home to eat and do some planning. We did planning for Zone Conference, which was good. After doing that, we went out to teach. We taught Jose first. They're doing alright. After that, we went to Sister Apodacas home. After that, we tracted and found a couple of investigators. After that, we went over to the Zacas, and had a good lesson there. They're doing really well. That was pretty much it for the day. It was 8 or so, so we just went home and had dinner then.
Friday was pretty crazy! We had Zone Conference! It went well. I'll send you the commitment sheet we gave out for it. Neither of us were nervous at all. It's not bad doing these. We did have some people go super out of order when I was conducting, so I had to improv a little and fix it. I don't think many people could even tell though, so that was good. After Zone Conference, we went to teach Krista and Jessica. We taught Jessica, and she's doing well. We should hopefully have them set for baptism soon. They're great. After that, we went to teach Solomon. After that, we went over to teach Tania. She's doing great. We had her read out of the Book of Mormon, and she felt the Spirit extremely strongly. She should progress well! That was it for the day.
Saturday was pretty lame. Elder Denter was pretty sick. We had most of our appointments fall through. We did have a good MCM in the morning though. That was nice. We also had a pretty good dinner in the evening. Other than that, nothing really happened.
Sunday was better than Saturday. Elder Denter still wasn't feeling great though. We had some good things happen at church though... The Zacas came, and the Ward did an incredible job of fellowshipping them! We should set Kayla at least for baptism this week. After church, we had a couple of fallen through appointments, then had some good ones. We went to teach the Gamboas, which went pretty well. After that, we went to visit and teach Nancy and her family. Afer that, we had another lesson with Kim at the Nielsens. That went well. After that, we went over to the Stavrons for an incredible dinner of homemade super cordon bleu.
Monday was pretty crappy actually. We had District Meeting at the Bishop of the Prestbury Ward's home. They also cooked lunch for us. Both the meeting and the lunch were great. After that, we tried to find by tracting and other means for quite a while, but it was slow. We got a couple of referrals for the Spanish Elders though. We've given them a couple people that are progressing now, which is great... But we wish we could teach them! We had dinner at the Whipples in the evening, which went well. They were asking how much money we get, and if their son on a mission really needs money. I said yep, he does! He's in your mission, G&G! He's in Henderson right now. Anyways, that was pretty much all that happened.
Tuesday was much better. We had the Hesed House in the morning. That went well. My job was to find job listings for their job board, which was pretty neat. We had the best lunch of all time there too. After the Hesed House, we went to visit Mike. He's now reading the Book of Mormon since he finished the Old Testament. After that, we did stop bys and ended up teaching Jose. We had a good discussion and gave him and his wife blessings. After that, we went to teach Jeremy. He's doing well, and is ready for conference. After that, we taught Solomon. After that, we went to dinner at the Mitchells home, and had a lesson there. We also got a sweet media referral from the Mesa Arizona Temple! A part member family from our ward that is less active apparently went there, felt the Spirit, and really wants us to come over to teach them! They get back in town tonight, so we should hopefully see some good things happen there.
We're probably going to play tennis today. Should be fun. We've got a dinner in the evening, and not much else planned.
Well, I hope you all are doing well! Have a great week. Go to BYU Caitlin! I love the Lord, and am grateful to be out here serving him. I love you all too!
Love,
Elder McMullin
Here's Elder M's email for the week:
Hello Family,
I'm glad you're doing well! That's fun Dad's in Chicago too! It's a beautiful day here in the Chi (and Aurora...)! Good job on your ACT Caitlin. Be good Taylor! I'm glad you had a good time in Pioche, G & G! I hope you got the stuff I sent you Mom! I've got something else I'm going to send you today... Some VIDEOS! And all my pictures. Hope you like them.
We've had a pretty good week. Kim's got a baptismal date now. Elder Denter got ill, but is getting better. Things are going pretty well. Here's what happened:
Wednesday was pretty good. After I emailed we spent a little bit of time with the Prestbury Elders, but soon got ready to go to teach Kim. The lesson felt a little funny. She was kind of out of it, so we didn't quite know what was up. We invited her to be baptized, and she let us know that she wants to be baptized. She had told her friends before, and said she wanted a short lesson and everyone there, because she was going to accept the baptismal commitment! Sweet. October 11th. After that, we went over to the Adams family home for dinner. They cooked us some Prime Rib, which was really good. They're a nice family. We would have gone to the temple with Brother Adams, but he's kind of ill now... So we're going to go with Brother Giese from Frankfort. We got permission, and called him. So we'll go on October 10th. That should be fun.
Thursday was pretty good. We went to go visit Diggory the squirrel in the morning. They put him on a website. Here it is - http://threedollarsquirrel.com/chatter/ [I checked the website out. Everyone seems to love this little squirrel who survived such a scary fall. Pretty cool!] It's kind of neat, but doesn't even mention the missionaries. We should tell them to put us in there, and put a link to Mormon.org! Anyways, after visiting him, and doing a little bit of service for Sister Glaviano, we went home to eat and do some planning. We did planning for Zone Conference, which was good. After doing that, we went out to teach. We taught Jose first. They're doing alright. After that, we went to Sister Apodacas home. After that, we tracted and found a couple of investigators. After that, we went over to the Zacas, and had a good lesson there. They're doing really well. That was pretty much it for the day. It was 8 or so, so we just went home and had dinner then.
Friday was pretty crazy! We had Zone Conference! It went well. I'll send you the commitment sheet we gave out for it. Neither of us were nervous at all. It's not bad doing these. We did have some people go super out of order when I was conducting, so I had to improv a little and fix it. I don't think many people could even tell though, so that was good. After Zone Conference, we went to teach Krista and Jessica. We taught Jessica, and she's doing well. We should hopefully have them set for baptism soon. They're great. After that, we went to teach Solomon. After that, we went over to teach Tania. She's doing great. We had her read out of the Book of Mormon, and she felt the Spirit extremely strongly. She should progress well! That was it for the day.
Saturday was pretty lame. Elder Denter was pretty sick. We had most of our appointments fall through. We did have a good MCM in the morning though. That was nice. We also had a pretty good dinner in the evening. Other than that, nothing really happened.
Sunday was better than Saturday. Elder Denter still wasn't feeling great though. We had some good things happen at church though... The Zacas came, and the Ward did an incredible job of fellowshipping them! We should set Kayla at least for baptism this week. After church, we had a couple of fallen through appointments, then had some good ones. We went to teach the Gamboas, which went pretty well. After that, we went to visit and teach Nancy and her family. Afer that, we had another lesson with Kim at the Nielsens. That went well. After that, we went over to the Stavrons for an incredible dinner of homemade super cordon bleu.
Monday was pretty crappy actually. We had District Meeting at the Bishop of the Prestbury Ward's home. They also cooked lunch for us. Both the meeting and the lunch were great. After that, we tried to find by tracting and other means for quite a while, but it was slow. We got a couple of referrals for the Spanish Elders though. We've given them a couple people that are progressing now, which is great... But we wish we could teach them! We had dinner at the Whipples in the evening, which went well. They were asking how much money we get, and if their son on a mission really needs money. I said yep, he does! He's in your mission, G&G! He's in Henderson right now. Anyways, that was pretty much all that happened.
Tuesday was much better. We had the Hesed House in the morning. That went well. My job was to find job listings for their job board, which was pretty neat. We had the best lunch of all time there too. After the Hesed House, we went to visit Mike. He's now reading the Book of Mormon since he finished the Old Testament. After that, we did stop bys and ended up teaching Jose. We had a good discussion and gave him and his wife blessings. After that, we went to teach Jeremy. He's doing well, and is ready for conference. After that, we taught Solomon. After that, we went to dinner at the Mitchells home, and had a lesson there. We also got a sweet media referral from the Mesa Arizona Temple! A part member family from our ward that is less active apparently went there, felt the Spirit, and really wants us to come over to teach them! They get back in town tonight, so we should hopefully see some good things happen there.
We're probably going to play tennis today. Should be fun. We've got a dinner in the evening, and not much else planned.
Well, I hope you all are doing well! Have a great week. Go to BYU Caitlin! I love the Lord, and am grateful to be out here serving him. I love you all too!
Love,
Elder McMullin
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Mission Update 9/23/09
Usually we get our email at around 9:30 or 10 in the morning. This week we waited and waited and finally got it at around 3:30. Elder M explains why in his email update, but we were sure beginning to wonder when we'd get it! Here's his email:
HELLO FAMILY
&
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I HOPE YOU HAVE THE GREATEST BIRTHDAY EVER AND GET MY LETTER! CAITLIN, TAYLOR, DAD & G&G, PLEASE TREAT MY MOTHER WELL. SHE IS THE BEST AND YOU BETTER MAKE HER BIRTHDAY AMAZING. THANKS!
So it sounds like things are going pretty well. I can't believe Cait & Tay are going to see Hannah Montana though! Hahaha... I just told Elder Denter and he said, "oh my gosh" before laughing. It drives him nuts because we see around 100 pictures of her every day. We went into Wal Mart to buy some food a while ago and counted how many times we saw her. It was over 75. What was that commandment about no idols?
I hope you get feeling better from your cold Caitlin! And you from your darn tendon problems, Grandma! And Grandpa, you better not be feeling ill either. It seems like everyone is ill over here. I'm feeling much better though. Things are going pretty well.
I'm writing so late because we spent the day at Nancy's house helping them roll thousands of newspapers. They had about 5000 to deliver today and needed some help. They usually have around 400.
Well, things are going pretty well. We're going to postpone Amanda's baptism though. Her son got pneumonia and had to be hospitalized, so she didn't come to church... And needs to a few more times before she's baptized. It's ok though, and for the best.
We've had a good week; here's what happened:
Last Wednesday night we ate at the Neuders' home. It was good. That was pretty much it besides playing tennis and stuff.
Thursday was a good day. We started off proselyting by teaching Amanda. She's doing alright, but is getting sick too. She should hopefully get better soon and progress towards baptism. After teaching her, we went over to Javier's home and taught him. He showed us all of his pictures from when he was in the Navy too. He's been a lot of places and seen a lot of things. Now he's just got to come to church and see that. After that, we did some planning for District Leader Council, which we had to teach Friday. After that, we went tracting. We were going, then contacted a member from the Spanish Ward. Sister Osorio is the wife of the man that helped us talk to David's dad to get his baptism ok. She gave us some referrals, which was pretty nice. Later that evening we went on splits. I went with Trevor Pearson to visit the Zacas and the Matucks, and Elder Denter went with Ben Richards to teach Nancy and Co. and Tania. All appointments went well. The Zacas are doing better, and committed to come to church. Awesome. Tania did too.
Friday was pretty good. We started off by teaching Jeremy [who just got baptized]. He's doing pretty well. He's now got a calling, and works in the library at church. He does a good job in there and enjoys it. After that, we went over to the Stake Center and had District Leader Council. We just have about an hour long meeting with all of the District Leaders in the Zone and their companions. We gave them supplies and other stuff too. That went well. After that, we came back to see what we could do. We stopped by Jose's home, and had a good discussion there. He is really interested, but is pretty bogged down because his wife is so ill. She's got some serious anxiety issues. Pray for Sister S. please. Thanks! After that, we went by the Gamboas and had a lesson there. They forced us to eat some chicken, which was good. Elder Denter also ate some Chilis too. We were all laughing our head off because they looked terrible, but Elder Denter is pretty tough. After that, we went to visit the less active Sister Apodaca. We give her a list of investigators to pray for when we go over there, and she enjoys hearing how they're doing. We also read out of Esther. I've learned that the real hero from that book is not Esther... It's Mordecai. Haha. After that, we went to visit Krista and Jessica. They too are ill. They're surviving though, and we had a good lesson. After that, we went to the Glaviano's home for dinner. It went well. She's got a less active daughter that we pick on and try to trick into coming to church. She's pretty funny... She slapped Elder Williams the first time she saw him, and acts like that girl from the "welcome to King Burger, can I take your order" youtube video. After dinner there, we went to do a baptismal interview for a kid the Spanish Elders were teaching. It was kind of a long drive. The Glavianos live in Naperville and the investigator lived on the west side. The interview went well though. Alcario Lopez, the man I interviewed a couple of months ago did the baptism. That was it for the night.
Saturday was pretty good too. We went over to teach Nancy and Damien in the morning. We had planned on going somewhere else, but they cancelled on us. We also helped them out with some paper rolling that day too. After that, we went to go teach David. He's doing pretty well. After that, we went to go help some members move. A lot of people over here ask missionaries to come do service for them. They fed us some pizza too. After that, we went over to teach a partially less active family. They're doing well. We're going to take out the son to teach with us, which should be good. While we were there, the young men's president stopped by to invite the son to watch the BYU game. He ended up sitting in and helping us teach before taking the kid to watch the game (which we were later told went really bad). After that, we went out tracting for the evening and found a new investigator. We found a man that was kind of referred to us by Sister Osorio. Ram Dura is Hindu, and had pretty much no knowledge of our Heavenly Father. He enjoyed the visit, and wants to continue learning. He's very open, and understood the Plan of Salvation, which we stripped down to the very basics. That was pretty much it for the day.
Sunday was a day we were super excited for. We had 11 investigators committed to attend church. We were going to lead a caravan of 3 carloads of people to church. We ended up having some cancellations, but still had 8 investigators there, which was great. We had Krista, Jessica, Kim, Adam, Jeremy S., and 3 Gamboa cousins who've been taught off and on, and we're going to teach more now! Sweet. We also had a potential investigator who we should begin teaching soon, and the excommunicated man we found contacting. We got invited to guest speak in a couple of classes, which was pretty fun. After church, we went out teaching. We had one appointment with Jeremy. He's been praying about getting baptized, but is still unsure. He is so ready, but it just hasn't completely clicked yet. Please pray for him to get his answer. He's doing well though, and will hopefully accept our commitments soon. After that, we went to teach Kim. She's doing really well, but still isn't quite ready for baptism. She should accept a date pretty soon. We've been having more object lessons there. This last one was neat... We wrote principles of the Gospel on a plate, which represented Christ establishing his church. We then broke it, and had them try to piece it back together. It doesn't work... But thankfully we see that the Restoration happened. Viola, a new plate! We forgot the extra plate though, so I just wrote stuff on a notebook. Anyways, after that, we went over to the La Plant's home for dinner. That went really well. They're a nice family, and are pretty good at missionary work.
Monday was kind of slow, but not bad. We did quite a bit of tracting, but only found 1 new investigator. Ricardo has got a few kids, and wants to learn about the Restoration. We found an injured squirrel baby when we were tracting. We've got a member in the Ward that has a pet help charity, so we called her. She drove over there and picked him up. He fell out of a tree (really really far) and was pretty messed up. He's getting better now. We're going to go visit him tomorrow (Thursday). After all that, we went to visit David again. He's doing pretty well. After that, we went to visit Nancy and Co. We're going to start teaching Adam more now. He's interested, and very teachable. After that, we went to eat dinner at the Capeners' home. We had some good chicken that was cooked by their 14 year old daughter.
Tuesday went well. We had a good time at the Hesed House. We ran out of food, which was somewhat of a crisis. They cooked some more spaghetti though, and it turned out ok. After that, we went to go visit Mike C. We then tried some finding, but gave up and went home to plan Zone Conference, which is this Friday. After that, we went to teach Solomon. It turns out that Solomon and Damien, Nancy's son, sit next to eachother in their GED / trade school class. After that, we didn't have much in the evening, so went home.
Today has been alright. We spent pretty much the whole day at Nancy's home helping them roll papers. For some reason they've had a ridiculous amount of extra paper routes lately, and needed some help. We then came back, and emailed. Tonight we're going to teach Kim again, then go to dinner at the Adams home.
Hey, good job with your missionary work, Mom! Please have some more, and let me know about them. I just need to hear one from Caitlin too... I think it's about your turn. How about asking a friend to come over for a lesson with the missionaries! Good luck!
I love you all and hope you have a great week. Remember God loves you.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
HELLO FAMILY
&
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I HOPE YOU HAVE THE GREATEST BIRTHDAY EVER AND GET MY LETTER! CAITLIN, TAYLOR, DAD & G&G, PLEASE TREAT MY MOTHER WELL. SHE IS THE BEST AND YOU BETTER MAKE HER BIRTHDAY AMAZING. THANKS!
So it sounds like things are going pretty well. I can't believe Cait & Tay are going to see Hannah Montana though! Hahaha... I just told Elder Denter and he said, "oh my gosh" before laughing. It drives him nuts because we see around 100 pictures of her every day. We went into Wal Mart to buy some food a while ago and counted how many times we saw her. It was over 75. What was that commandment about no idols?
I hope you get feeling better from your cold Caitlin! And you from your darn tendon problems, Grandma! And Grandpa, you better not be feeling ill either. It seems like everyone is ill over here. I'm feeling much better though. Things are going pretty well.
I'm writing so late because we spent the day at Nancy's house helping them roll thousands of newspapers. They had about 5000 to deliver today and needed some help. They usually have around 400.
Well, things are going pretty well. We're going to postpone Amanda's baptism though. Her son got pneumonia and had to be hospitalized, so she didn't come to church... And needs to a few more times before she's baptized. It's ok though, and for the best.
We've had a good week; here's what happened:
Last Wednesday night we ate at the Neuders' home. It was good. That was pretty much it besides playing tennis and stuff.
Thursday was a good day. We started off proselyting by teaching Amanda. She's doing alright, but is getting sick too. She should hopefully get better soon and progress towards baptism. After teaching her, we went over to Javier's home and taught him. He showed us all of his pictures from when he was in the Navy too. He's been a lot of places and seen a lot of things. Now he's just got to come to church and see that. After that, we did some planning for District Leader Council, which we had to teach Friday. After that, we went tracting. We were going, then contacted a member from the Spanish Ward. Sister Osorio is the wife of the man that helped us talk to David's dad to get his baptism ok. She gave us some referrals, which was pretty nice. Later that evening we went on splits. I went with Trevor Pearson to visit the Zacas and the Matucks, and Elder Denter went with Ben Richards to teach Nancy and Co. and Tania. All appointments went well. The Zacas are doing better, and committed to come to church. Awesome. Tania did too.
Friday was pretty good. We started off by teaching Jeremy [who just got baptized]. He's doing pretty well. He's now got a calling, and works in the library at church. He does a good job in there and enjoys it. After that, we went over to the Stake Center and had District Leader Council. We just have about an hour long meeting with all of the District Leaders in the Zone and their companions. We gave them supplies and other stuff too. That went well. After that, we came back to see what we could do. We stopped by Jose's home, and had a good discussion there. He is really interested, but is pretty bogged down because his wife is so ill. She's got some serious anxiety issues. Pray for Sister S. please. Thanks! After that, we went by the Gamboas and had a lesson there. They forced us to eat some chicken, which was good. Elder Denter also ate some Chilis too. We were all laughing our head off because they looked terrible, but Elder Denter is pretty tough. After that, we went to visit the less active Sister Apodaca. We give her a list of investigators to pray for when we go over there, and she enjoys hearing how they're doing. We also read out of Esther. I've learned that the real hero from that book is not Esther... It's Mordecai. Haha. After that, we went to visit Krista and Jessica. They too are ill. They're surviving though, and we had a good lesson. After that, we went to the Glaviano's home for dinner. It went well. She's got a less active daughter that we pick on and try to trick into coming to church. She's pretty funny... She slapped Elder Williams the first time she saw him, and acts like that girl from the "welcome to King Burger, can I take your order" youtube video. After dinner there, we went to do a baptismal interview for a kid the Spanish Elders were teaching. It was kind of a long drive. The Glavianos live in Naperville and the investigator lived on the west side. The interview went well though. Alcario Lopez, the man I interviewed a couple of months ago did the baptism. That was it for the night.
Saturday was pretty good too. We went over to teach Nancy and Damien in the morning. We had planned on going somewhere else, but they cancelled on us. We also helped them out with some paper rolling that day too. After that, we went to go teach David. He's doing pretty well. After that, we went to go help some members move. A lot of people over here ask missionaries to come do service for them. They fed us some pizza too. After that, we went over to teach a partially less active family. They're doing well. We're going to take out the son to teach with us, which should be good. While we were there, the young men's president stopped by to invite the son to watch the BYU game. He ended up sitting in and helping us teach before taking the kid to watch the game (which we were later told went really bad). After that, we went out tracting for the evening and found a new investigator. We found a man that was kind of referred to us by Sister Osorio. Ram Dura is Hindu, and had pretty much no knowledge of our Heavenly Father. He enjoyed the visit, and wants to continue learning. He's very open, and understood the Plan of Salvation, which we stripped down to the very basics. That was pretty much it for the day.
Sunday was a day we were super excited for. We had 11 investigators committed to attend church. We were going to lead a caravan of 3 carloads of people to church. We ended up having some cancellations, but still had 8 investigators there, which was great. We had Krista, Jessica, Kim, Adam, Jeremy S., and 3 Gamboa cousins who've been taught off and on, and we're going to teach more now! Sweet. We also had a potential investigator who we should begin teaching soon, and the excommunicated man we found contacting. We got invited to guest speak in a couple of classes, which was pretty fun. After church, we went out teaching. We had one appointment with Jeremy. He's been praying about getting baptized, but is still unsure. He is so ready, but it just hasn't completely clicked yet. Please pray for him to get his answer. He's doing well though, and will hopefully accept our commitments soon. After that, we went to teach Kim. She's doing really well, but still isn't quite ready for baptism. She should accept a date pretty soon. We've been having more object lessons there. This last one was neat... We wrote principles of the Gospel on a plate, which represented Christ establishing his church. We then broke it, and had them try to piece it back together. It doesn't work... But thankfully we see that the Restoration happened. Viola, a new plate! We forgot the extra plate though, so I just wrote stuff on a notebook. Anyways, after that, we went over to the La Plant's home for dinner. That went really well. They're a nice family, and are pretty good at missionary work.
Monday was kind of slow, but not bad. We did quite a bit of tracting, but only found 1 new investigator. Ricardo has got a few kids, and wants to learn about the Restoration. We found an injured squirrel baby when we were tracting. We've got a member in the Ward that has a pet help charity, so we called her. She drove over there and picked him up. He fell out of a tree (really really far) and was pretty messed up. He's getting better now. We're going to go visit him tomorrow (Thursday). After all that, we went to visit David again. He's doing pretty well. After that, we went to visit Nancy and Co. We're going to start teaching Adam more now. He's interested, and very teachable. After that, we went to eat dinner at the Capeners' home. We had some good chicken that was cooked by their 14 year old daughter.
Tuesday went well. We had a good time at the Hesed House. We ran out of food, which was somewhat of a crisis. They cooked some more spaghetti though, and it turned out ok. After that, we went to go visit Mike C. We then tried some finding, but gave up and went home to plan Zone Conference, which is this Friday. After that, we went to teach Solomon. It turns out that Solomon and Damien, Nancy's son, sit next to eachother in their GED / trade school class. After that, we didn't have much in the evening, so went home.
Today has been alright. We spent pretty much the whole day at Nancy's home helping them roll papers. For some reason they've had a ridiculous amount of extra paper routes lately, and needed some help. We then came back, and emailed. Tonight we're going to teach Kim again, then go to dinner at the Adams home.
Hey, good job with your missionary work, Mom! Please have some more, and let me know about them. I just need to hear one from Caitlin too... I think it's about your turn. How about asking a friend to come over for a lesson with the missionaries! Good luck!
I love you all and hope you have a great week. Remember God loves you.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Mission Update -- 9/16/09
Sounds like our missionary is feeling much better! I was glad to hear that and to hear that the week went well. Here's the email:
Hello everyone!
How's everyone doing? How did you do at the swim meet Caitlin? What's the latest news on your upcoming surgery, Grandma? So who's going on a cruise? I don't think I've heard anything about that until today... And it's the East Caribbean, huh? That sounds really fun!
Well, I've been doing well here. We've had a pretty good week. I'm feeling better, but still have a cough. We've been looking at LDS.org for talks and stuff... It's pretty fun! We can now get a lot of things to listen to. We've been listening to a lot of talks lately, and are really enjoying that. Will you please buy and send me some talks. We've listened to John Bytheway, some other BYU professor, and W Cleon Skousen's "Last Days in the Life of the Savior" and "The Sermon on the Mount." They were all good. I'd love some more W Cleon Skousen, and would love a Matthew Cowley talk more than anything else. Thanks! Oh yeah, I bought medicine and other stuff, and blew through my money this month, so I'm now using the home card. Sorry about using so much!
Well, here's some of what's been going on:
Last Wednesday was pretty good! We played a lot of tennis, which really tired me out. It was fun though. After that, we went over to the Allens' home, which was great. It was a pretty big ordeal to try to get an investigator over there too, but even with us and them calling, we failed. It was OK though.
Thursday was pretty great. We saw Amanda in the morning, which went really well. She's getting excited for her baptism. We had some weekly planning after that, then had a cancelled appointment. We later saw Jose and Hermana Santiago. She's really ill, but they like to learn. After that, we went over to the Zacas home. They're doing well. We had a neat lesson where we used the pepper and soap object lesson. For that, you put pepper in water and talk about that being sin. When you put soap on your hand and "baptize the finger with the Authority," the pepper shoots to the sides. It's pretty cool. Anyways, after that we found a lady to teach. We hooked her with a free Holy Bible, then she was interested in the Restoration too. Sweet. After that, we visited David. He's doing pretty well. He's really getting into fitness, and now runs 5 miles a day! After that, we went to visit the Matucks (the man that Brother Dorf baptized and his wife). They're doing alright, and we had a great discussion there.
Friday was pretty neat. We spent most of the day over at the mission home for Zone Leader Council. ZL Council was an extremely eruditious convocation of servants of the Lord. After that long meeting, we went to the mission office to get supplies. We got a TON for the Zone. Some people ordered a lot, and I decided we'd get some extra just to have at our apartment. We filled up our car with media, it was crazy. After that, we came back to teach Krista and Jessica. They're progressing well, and hopefully will accept a baptismal date soon. It was pretty sweet... As we were teaching them on their porch, their neighbor walked up and asked us if we could teach him too. We set up an appointment with Keegan, which was awesome. After this, we went to stop by Nancy's home. She wasn't home, but we talked with Darrel for a while. He's an awesome guy, and has a lot better relationship with the church now. He always tries to feed us, which is pretty nice. After that, we went over to the hospital to deliver a Bible to a media referral. We accidentally almost broke into the psych ward, but then found out that was definitely the wrong place. We got directions to the General Hospital, and went there. Johnnie is awesome, and the lesson went really well. She just moved to Aurora from Chicago, and doesn't have many friends or a church yet. She's just got to recover from her athsma attack, and then hopefully she'll join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Anyways, that was pretty much it for the day.
Saturday was pretty good too. After our morning, we went to teach Yolanda, who was a tracting come back. She started off really "all churches have some truth, and I don't like organized religion," but really grasped the Restoration, and enjoyed it. She's starting to look pretty good actually. Hopefully we can get her to church next week. After that, we had a little bit of time before our next appointment, so we left to tract. Right as we were getting out of our car, a man drove by on a motorcycle and stopped to talk to us. Turns out he is a former member of the church, and has had a lot of trials. We together came to the conclusion that both parties were led by the Lord there for a reason. He agreed to come to church and read from the Book of Mormon. It was pretty crazy. After that, we went to teach the Bible lady from the other day. She couldn't meet, but another man was there that wanted to learn, so we taught him. After that, we went to teach Kim. We did the pepper and soap thing again, and it went well. She agreed to come to church, read and pray, and continue learning, but hasn't accepted a baptismal challenge yet. She's doing well though. After that, we went to do stop bys and find, and met with Solomon. He's doing well. As we were there, we started teaching two of his nieces too. Ta'shon and Ta'shika are 21 year old twins, and were pretty excited about the Gospel. They expressed their feelings that God led them to the appointment, and want to learn more. Awesome! After that, not too much happened until dinner. We had a good dinner with the Zinns, and had a good lesson. We've been committing people to invite people to take missionary lessons. It's pretty exciting, and we're getting some referrals. Nothing too big yet, but I think the foundation is being laid. After that, we went to the Adams home to help them with their move more, and to talk with Brother Adams. He's really awesome. We'll probably go to the Temple with him. If he doesn't get feeling better, I may call Clint Giese from Frankfort to see if he can go. That would be really awesome, but we should probably try members here first.
Sunday was good, but disappointing. We went to church really early, only to discover the early meetings were cancelled because of Ward Conference. We talked with the Stake Presidency though, which was nice. One of the councilors just got back from vacation, so another one asked him how it was, then jokingly asked me how my vacation's been. I told him it was a great two year vacation! They both expressed feelings of "Oh yeah, that honestly would be nice!" We had an incredible Ward Conference. We had some great talks and a great combined Priesthood and Relief Society lesson. Elder Denter and I got sprung on to teach Gospel Principles, and a youth sunday school class. We just combined them, and actually had a really good lesson. It was pretty great. Church was all good... Except there were a ton of investigators that had stuff come up and couldn't come. One child had pneumonia, one got ill, others were "busy," so that wasn't the greatest. Oh welll. We had a good rest of the day though. We taught Nancy and co., then taught her neighbor too. Elitania is doing well, and has read over 30 chapters of the Book of Mormon. She's going to come to church next week, and we're pretty excited. After teaching her, we went over to the Israelsens' home for dinner and a lesson. That went well.
Monday was pretty good. We had a great District Meeting. Our District Leaders have really stepped it up. The whole Zone has been doing so well lately. It's really exciting. Last month we saw the Naperville Zone account for 40% or so of the missions baptisms, which is incredible. Of course we'd like to see more from everywhere else, but we love to see our Zone so productive. Anyways, after that and lunch, we went out to teach. We had one fall through, then went to teach Keegan, who is Krista and Jessica's neighbor. We went in to teach, pulled out our scriptures, got ready to say a prayer, then got told we had to hear something first. Keegan got a CD with beats on it, and freestyle rapped for us for about 15 minutes or so! That's the first time I've ever have an investigator just bust out rapping before a lesson. It was pretty fun though, and after he was done, he was excited to learn. We had a good lesson, and he's pretty much ready to go. We extended a baptismal invitation, and I think he would have accepted if it weren't for him going on a vacation right when he'd be able to be baptized. He'll be looking good soon though. He can't read well, so we gave him a pamphlet, and are having him make a rap song about the Restoration to make sure he comprehends it. After that, we visited Krista. She's been ill, I think with what I have, but it turned into bronchitus. After that, we went to teach David's neighbor, Javier. He's the "subliminal message" guy. He really liked the lesson though, and wants to start learning seriously. He's going to come to church too. After that, we went to dinner at the Mitchells. They're awesome, and are getting ready to go on a mission. We're pretty excited for them. After that, we went to visit the Glavianos and had a lesson there. Sister Glaviano is having some sweet missionary experiences which we're excited about. That was pretty much it for the day.
Tuesday was alright. We had the Hesed House which took up a good chunk of the day. After that, we taught Mike. That was good. After that, we had a cancelled appointment, so we went out to prepare for our lesson with Kim, which was for the night. We prepared for an awesome object lesson, that was tough to prepare for and took forever. I'll write about that later thouh. Anyways, before that lesson, we went out to teach Solomon, Ta'shon and Ta'shika. We took Trevor Pearson from the Ward to come teach with us. Ta'shon and Ta'shika unfortunately weren't there. Solomon's brother was there though! He came up and thanked us for coming over so faithfully and being good to his family, then sat in for the lesson. He liked it, so we set up an appointment for the Prestbury Elders to go over to his home and teach his family. It's pretty funny, Solomon's family is all starting to learn now, and they're liking it. We hopefully will see some greater things there soon! After that, we went over to the Nielsens' home to teach Kim. We had an awesome object lesson. We had a hard boiled egg that represented Kim, or Elder McMullin, or anyone else for that matter. Now this egg had to get into a Gatorade bottle, which represented heaven. There were some things the egg had to do though. It first had to develop faith, to motivate it to move forward. Then it had to "repent", and wipe off sin, which was written on the egg shell. After that was wiped off, it still wasn't good to go... It had to get the shell off. So it was "baptized" and shelled. After that it still couldn't fit into the bottle. The next step was the "baptism of fire". We all headed outside, and put rubbing alcohol into the bottle, lit it on fire, then put the egg on top of the bottle. The pressure sucks the egg right into the bottle. It takes a while to go in though, so we of course have to endure to the end. Kim liked it a lot, and understood it which was the important thing. She is getting more excited about learning and coming to church, but still "isn't ready" to be baptized yet. Hopefully soon! That was pretty much it for the night.
Today should be good. We've been looking at LDS.org, which has been fun. I'll probably make a CD of Bible stories soon too. They've got everything on there. We'll probably play tennis again today, which should be fun. We've got a couple of appointments for the evening too.
Well, I hope you all have a great week! Take care! I love you and know the Lord does too. Continue reading the scriptures every day. There is no substitute, and no excuse not to. Let me know what you learned from the scriptures this week when you next write please. Thanks! Also, thank you for the awesome missionary experience story you sent me, Tay! Good job! Let me know how your friend is doing too. Did he come to church with you? Keep it up!
Well, I'll talk to you all later!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
PS Mom, thank's for Brother Baker's real address. The one you sent me before was not even in Palmyra. Who know's where it was, or even if it was real. Hahaha. Thanks again, and happy early Birthday!
Hello everyone!
How's everyone doing? How did you do at the swim meet Caitlin? What's the latest news on your upcoming surgery, Grandma? So who's going on a cruise? I don't think I've heard anything about that until today... And it's the East Caribbean, huh? That sounds really fun!
Well, I've been doing well here. We've had a pretty good week. I'm feeling better, but still have a cough. We've been looking at LDS.org for talks and stuff... It's pretty fun! We can now get a lot of things to listen to. We've been listening to a lot of talks lately, and are really enjoying that. Will you please buy and send me some talks. We've listened to John Bytheway, some other BYU professor, and W Cleon Skousen's "Last Days in the Life of the Savior" and "The Sermon on the Mount." They were all good. I'd love some more W Cleon Skousen, and would love a Matthew Cowley talk more than anything else. Thanks! Oh yeah, I bought medicine and other stuff, and blew through my money this month, so I'm now using the home card. Sorry about using so much!
Well, here's some of what's been going on:
Last Wednesday was pretty good! We played a lot of tennis, which really tired me out. It was fun though. After that, we went over to the Allens' home, which was great. It was a pretty big ordeal to try to get an investigator over there too, but even with us and them calling, we failed. It was OK though.
Thursday was pretty great. We saw Amanda in the morning, which went really well. She's getting excited for her baptism. We had some weekly planning after that, then had a cancelled appointment. We later saw Jose and Hermana Santiago. She's really ill, but they like to learn. After that, we went over to the Zacas home. They're doing well. We had a neat lesson where we used the pepper and soap object lesson. For that, you put pepper in water and talk about that being sin. When you put soap on your hand and "baptize the finger with the Authority," the pepper shoots to the sides. It's pretty cool. Anyways, after that we found a lady to teach. We hooked her with a free Holy Bible, then she was interested in the Restoration too. Sweet. After that, we visited David. He's doing pretty well. He's really getting into fitness, and now runs 5 miles a day! After that, we went to visit the Matucks (the man that Brother Dorf baptized and his wife). They're doing alright, and we had a great discussion there.
Friday was pretty neat. We spent most of the day over at the mission home for Zone Leader Council. ZL Council was an extremely eruditious convocation of servants of the Lord. After that long meeting, we went to the mission office to get supplies. We got a TON for the Zone. Some people ordered a lot, and I decided we'd get some extra just to have at our apartment. We filled up our car with media, it was crazy. After that, we came back to teach Krista and Jessica. They're progressing well, and hopefully will accept a baptismal date soon. It was pretty sweet... As we were teaching them on their porch, their neighbor walked up and asked us if we could teach him too. We set up an appointment with Keegan, which was awesome. After this, we went to stop by Nancy's home. She wasn't home, but we talked with Darrel for a while. He's an awesome guy, and has a lot better relationship with the church now. He always tries to feed us, which is pretty nice. After that, we went over to the hospital to deliver a Bible to a media referral. We accidentally almost broke into the psych ward, but then found out that was definitely the wrong place. We got directions to the General Hospital, and went there. Johnnie is awesome, and the lesson went really well. She just moved to Aurora from Chicago, and doesn't have many friends or a church yet. She's just got to recover from her athsma attack, and then hopefully she'll join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Anyways, that was pretty much it for the day.
Saturday was pretty good too. After our morning, we went to teach Yolanda, who was a tracting come back. She started off really "all churches have some truth, and I don't like organized religion," but really grasped the Restoration, and enjoyed it. She's starting to look pretty good actually. Hopefully we can get her to church next week. After that, we had a little bit of time before our next appointment, so we left to tract. Right as we were getting out of our car, a man drove by on a motorcycle and stopped to talk to us. Turns out he is a former member of the church, and has had a lot of trials. We together came to the conclusion that both parties were led by the Lord there for a reason. He agreed to come to church and read from the Book of Mormon. It was pretty crazy. After that, we went to teach the Bible lady from the other day. She couldn't meet, but another man was there that wanted to learn, so we taught him. After that, we went to teach Kim. We did the pepper and soap thing again, and it went well. She agreed to come to church, read and pray, and continue learning, but hasn't accepted a baptismal challenge yet. She's doing well though. After that, we went to do stop bys and find, and met with Solomon. He's doing well. As we were there, we started teaching two of his nieces too. Ta'shon and Ta'shika are 21 year old twins, and were pretty excited about the Gospel. They expressed their feelings that God led them to the appointment, and want to learn more. Awesome! After that, not too much happened until dinner. We had a good dinner with the Zinns, and had a good lesson. We've been committing people to invite people to take missionary lessons. It's pretty exciting, and we're getting some referrals. Nothing too big yet, but I think the foundation is being laid. After that, we went to the Adams home to help them with their move more, and to talk with Brother Adams. He's really awesome. We'll probably go to the Temple with him. If he doesn't get feeling better, I may call Clint Giese from Frankfort to see if he can go. That would be really awesome, but we should probably try members here first.
Sunday was good, but disappointing. We went to church really early, only to discover the early meetings were cancelled because of Ward Conference. We talked with the Stake Presidency though, which was nice. One of the councilors just got back from vacation, so another one asked him how it was, then jokingly asked me how my vacation's been. I told him it was a great two year vacation! They both expressed feelings of "Oh yeah, that honestly would be nice!" We had an incredible Ward Conference. We had some great talks and a great combined Priesthood and Relief Society lesson. Elder Denter and I got sprung on to teach Gospel Principles, and a youth sunday school class. We just combined them, and actually had a really good lesson. It was pretty great. Church was all good... Except there were a ton of investigators that had stuff come up and couldn't come. One child had pneumonia, one got ill, others were "busy," so that wasn't the greatest. Oh welll. We had a good rest of the day though. We taught Nancy and co., then taught her neighbor too. Elitania is doing well, and has read over 30 chapters of the Book of Mormon. She's going to come to church next week, and we're pretty excited. After teaching her, we went over to the Israelsens' home for dinner and a lesson. That went well.
Monday was pretty good. We had a great District Meeting. Our District Leaders have really stepped it up. The whole Zone has been doing so well lately. It's really exciting. Last month we saw the Naperville Zone account for 40% or so of the missions baptisms, which is incredible. Of course we'd like to see more from everywhere else, but we love to see our Zone so productive. Anyways, after that and lunch, we went out to teach. We had one fall through, then went to teach Keegan, who is Krista and Jessica's neighbor. We went in to teach, pulled out our scriptures, got ready to say a prayer, then got told we had to hear something first. Keegan got a CD with beats on it, and freestyle rapped for us for about 15 minutes or so! That's the first time I've ever have an investigator just bust out rapping before a lesson. It was pretty fun though, and after he was done, he was excited to learn. We had a good lesson, and he's pretty much ready to go. We extended a baptismal invitation, and I think he would have accepted if it weren't for him going on a vacation right when he'd be able to be baptized. He'll be looking good soon though. He can't read well, so we gave him a pamphlet, and are having him make a rap song about the Restoration to make sure he comprehends it. After that, we visited Krista. She's been ill, I think with what I have, but it turned into bronchitus. After that, we went to teach David's neighbor, Javier. He's the "subliminal message" guy. He really liked the lesson though, and wants to start learning seriously. He's going to come to church too. After that, we went to dinner at the Mitchells. They're awesome, and are getting ready to go on a mission. We're pretty excited for them. After that, we went to visit the Glavianos and had a lesson there. Sister Glaviano is having some sweet missionary experiences which we're excited about. That was pretty much it for the day.
Tuesday was alright. We had the Hesed House which took up a good chunk of the day. After that, we taught Mike. That was good. After that, we had a cancelled appointment, so we went out to prepare for our lesson with Kim, which was for the night. We prepared for an awesome object lesson, that was tough to prepare for and took forever. I'll write about that later thouh. Anyways, before that lesson, we went out to teach Solomon, Ta'shon and Ta'shika. We took Trevor Pearson from the Ward to come teach with us. Ta'shon and Ta'shika unfortunately weren't there. Solomon's brother was there though! He came up and thanked us for coming over so faithfully and being good to his family, then sat in for the lesson. He liked it, so we set up an appointment for the Prestbury Elders to go over to his home and teach his family. It's pretty funny, Solomon's family is all starting to learn now, and they're liking it. We hopefully will see some greater things there soon! After that, we went over to the Nielsens' home to teach Kim. We had an awesome object lesson. We had a hard boiled egg that represented Kim, or Elder McMullin, or anyone else for that matter. Now this egg had to get into a Gatorade bottle, which represented heaven. There were some things the egg had to do though. It first had to develop faith, to motivate it to move forward. Then it had to "repent", and wipe off sin, which was written on the egg shell. After that was wiped off, it still wasn't good to go... It had to get the shell off. So it was "baptized" and shelled. After that it still couldn't fit into the bottle. The next step was the "baptism of fire". We all headed outside, and put rubbing alcohol into the bottle, lit it on fire, then put the egg on top of the bottle. The pressure sucks the egg right into the bottle. It takes a while to go in though, so we of course have to endure to the end. Kim liked it a lot, and understood it which was the important thing. She is getting more excited about learning and coming to church, but still "isn't ready" to be baptized yet. Hopefully soon! That was pretty much it for the night.
Today should be good. We've been looking at LDS.org, which has been fun. I'll probably make a CD of Bible stories soon too. They've got everything on there. We'll probably play tennis again today, which should be fun. We've got a couple of appointments for the evening too.
Well, I hope you all have a great week! Take care! I love you and know the Lord does too. Continue reading the scriptures every day. There is no substitute, and no excuse not to. Let me know what you learned from the scriptures this week when you next write please. Thanks! Also, thank you for the awesome missionary experience story you sent me, Tay! Good job! Let me know how your friend is doing too. Did he come to church with you? Keep it up!
Well, I'll talk to you all later!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
PS Mom, thank's for Brother Baker's real address. The one you sent me before was not even in Palmyra. Who know's where it was, or even if it was real. Hahaha. Thanks again, and happy early Birthday!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Mission Update -- 9/9/09
Poor Elder McMullin has been really sick this week. It's days like this that I wish I could talk to him and see how he's doing. I guess this is the first time he's been sick on his mission (other than the case of food poisoning he had early on in his mission), but this sounds like a bad bug. Some exciting news too though! Another baptism coming up!! Here's his email:
Hello,
This week has been alright. I've been sick, so not too much has happened, but we've seen some good things. I hope you're all doing well. It sounds like Labor Day was great! I'm glad it was fun.
Alright, here's what happened:
Wednesday was crazy... Oh my gosh. We had an appointment in the morning, then shopped and hung out with other Elders at our house. The crazy thing was a referral from Sister Roach though. She called us up, and said she had the information for someone that wanted to be baptized. This is of course very exciting. We got it, then called him. He was awesome. He asked, "Is there an age limit to joining your church? I'm 68 and hope that's not a problem..." We set up a loose appointment time, and were very excited... Until we GPSed his address. He lives about 2 blocks outside of our area! It was pretty sad, but will be good for Elder Wiser, who's getting transferred into his area. After all that drama, we had a good dinner at the Blackhams' home.
Thursday was great. We had a meeting with Amanda in the morning. We helped her make spiritual plans, and she accepted the commitment to be baptized on September 26! We're very excited about her baptism. She also had surgery for her hernia and cyst, and is recovering well. After that, we made our Stake MCM report. After that, we went to visit Brandon and Nancy, then took Brandon out with us to teach. We started to teach Krista, then her sister and mom came out... So we taught them too, and got 2 new investigators! Awesome! After that, we ate dinner at Panda Express, then went to teach Elvin. He's doing well and almost came to church (his son said he didn't want to go, so they decided not to). After that, we went to teach David. I started feeling a little bad Thursday... Just like I had bad allergies.
Friday was bad. I felt very sick. We did nothing except teach Solomon at 4:30. I slept a lot.
Saturday was not soo good either. We did tract for a little bit, and found one new investigator... Shanna. We helped the Adams move a little bit of boxes, then taught Nancy. Once again, I slept a lot.
Sunday was an early morning. We woke up super early for Stake MCM. Once again, it was the full Stake Presidency, the full Mission Presidency, us, a high councilman or two, and a secretary. It went well. This month was the best month of the year by far, and September is set up to be even better than August. Things are going so well here now, it's incredible. After that, we went to church. After church, we came home and I took a nap because I still felt ill. We had a lunch appointment at the Petersons, which was great. After that, we visited Jeremy Stultz. We challenged him for baptism, but he just isn't quite sure he's ready yet... Even though he is, and wants to be baptized. He's praying to be sure. Please pray for him to get an answer. Thanks! After that, we had the Gamboas. We had a good lesson and chat there. That pretty much ended the week.
Monday was alright. We had a good District Meeting. We got tubed a lot. We had one appointment. I still felt ill, so I called Sister Roach. Apparently this bug's been going around and lasts 7-10 days. Yuck. I'll be alright though. The Lord takes care of us, so that's nice. We did have one appointment on Monday though. We visited a less active, and read from Esther. It went well.
Tuesday was pretty great! We started it off in the morning by teaching Amanda. She's doing well. After that, we went to the Hesed House. After that, we went to teach Shanna, who we found tracting the other day. She's awesome. She ate it all up, and has really been looking for something else in her life. She wants to start coming to church, and learning more. She was about to leave, so we had a short lesson, but she is looking extremely promising. After that, we taught Mike C. After that, we came home for lunch. After that, we went to take Brandon with us to teach Solomon. After that, we taught Nancy and Damien. After that, we went to dinner at the Lees. That was pretty fun, and we had some good steak! After that, we came home and that was the night.
I'm not sure what we'll do today. I'm still pretty beat from my bug. We'll probably just hang around with some other Elders.
I hope you have a great week! I love you, and enjoy hearing about what's going on.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello,
This week has been alright. I've been sick, so not too much has happened, but we've seen some good things. I hope you're all doing well. It sounds like Labor Day was great! I'm glad it was fun.
Alright, here's what happened:
Wednesday was crazy... Oh my gosh. We had an appointment in the morning, then shopped and hung out with other Elders at our house. The crazy thing was a referral from Sister Roach though. She called us up, and said she had the information for someone that wanted to be baptized. This is of course very exciting. We got it, then called him. He was awesome. He asked, "Is there an age limit to joining your church? I'm 68 and hope that's not a problem..." We set up a loose appointment time, and were very excited... Until we GPSed his address. He lives about 2 blocks outside of our area! It was pretty sad, but will be good for Elder Wiser, who's getting transferred into his area. After all that drama, we had a good dinner at the Blackhams' home.
Thursday was great. We had a meeting with Amanda in the morning. We helped her make spiritual plans, and she accepted the commitment to be baptized on September 26! We're very excited about her baptism. She also had surgery for her hernia and cyst, and is recovering well. After that, we made our Stake MCM report. After that, we went to visit Brandon and Nancy, then took Brandon out with us to teach. We started to teach Krista, then her sister and mom came out... So we taught them too, and got 2 new investigators! Awesome! After that, we ate dinner at Panda Express, then went to teach Elvin. He's doing well and almost came to church (his son said he didn't want to go, so they decided not to). After that, we went to teach David. I started feeling a little bad Thursday... Just like I had bad allergies.
Friday was bad. I felt very sick. We did nothing except teach Solomon at 4:30. I slept a lot.
Saturday was not soo good either. We did tract for a little bit, and found one new investigator... Shanna. We helped the Adams move a little bit of boxes, then taught Nancy. Once again, I slept a lot.
Sunday was an early morning. We woke up super early for Stake MCM. Once again, it was the full Stake Presidency, the full Mission Presidency, us, a high councilman or two, and a secretary. It went well. This month was the best month of the year by far, and September is set up to be even better than August. Things are going so well here now, it's incredible. After that, we went to church. After church, we came home and I took a nap because I still felt ill. We had a lunch appointment at the Petersons, which was great. After that, we visited Jeremy Stultz. We challenged him for baptism, but he just isn't quite sure he's ready yet... Even though he is, and wants to be baptized. He's praying to be sure. Please pray for him to get an answer. Thanks! After that, we had the Gamboas. We had a good lesson and chat there. That pretty much ended the week.
Monday was alright. We had a good District Meeting. We got tubed a lot. We had one appointment. I still felt ill, so I called Sister Roach. Apparently this bug's been going around and lasts 7-10 days. Yuck. I'll be alright though. The Lord takes care of us, so that's nice. We did have one appointment on Monday though. We visited a less active, and read from Esther. It went well.
Tuesday was pretty great! We started it off in the morning by teaching Amanda. She's doing well. After that, we went to the Hesed House. After that, we went to teach Shanna, who we found tracting the other day. She's awesome. She ate it all up, and has really been looking for something else in her life. She wants to start coming to church, and learning more. She was about to leave, so we had a short lesson, but she is looking extremely promising. After that, we taught Mike C. After that, we came home for lunch. After that, we went to take Brandon with us to teach Solomon. After that, we taught Nancy and Damien. After that, we went to dinner at the Lees. That was pretty fun, and we had some good steak! After that, we came home and that was the night.
I'm not sure what we'll do today. I'm still pretty beat from my bug. We'll probably just hang around with some other Elders.
I hope you have a great week! I love you, and enjoy hearing about what's going on.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Mission Update -- 9/2/09
Transfer day, but no transfer for Elder McMullin. We didn't expect one, so no surprise there. Another great week! Here's his update:
Hello!
Everything is going well. We got transfer calls last night. Pretty crazy stuff. Elder Denter and I are staying the same. Elder Sorensen is leaving Prestbury for Woodridge 2, which is in the Joliet Zone. Elder Gates, who is a really good soccer player, is taking his spot. Elder Price, from Woodridge 1, is becoming a new Zone Leader in Chicago. Elder Tzunun is taking his spot to be with Elder Barker, who's been in his first area for 6 months already. Elder Baum is coming to take Elder Wiser's spot in Naper 6. The Spanish are all staying the same. We've also got a new AP, Elder Wilson, who was a Zone Leader in Chicago. There's the news for the Zone! The other Sisters and the Geneva Elders are staying the same.
So, how's everything going? I hope you have a fun Labor Day! Tell me all about it. Send me some pictures too please. How was your Birthday, Grandpa? I'm sending you a card! Sorry it'll be a little late.
Well, here's what happened for the week:
Wednesday was pretty good. We just went to a liquidation Men's Warehouse place. It was pretty neat, but really made us want to buy stuff. Elder Sorensen gave in to temptation, and bought a leather jacket. That's pretty much all that happened actually. It was raining really hard that day.
Thursday was good. We went on an exchange with the Woodridge Elders. Elder Price came here to Naper 4 with me, and Elder Denter went to be with his old companion, Elder Barker. We had a pretty good day. We visited Solomon, who is doing well. Solomon has now got a job, and things are looking bright for him. Hopefully he can get permission from his parole officer to attend church. After that, we stopped by Amanda who is doing OK. She has another doctor's appointment today, and hopefully will finally get a timeline for her treatment. After that, we visited and taught the Gamboas. After that, we went to stop by a recent converts house, and talked with his sister. Krista listened to a lesson, and agreed to come to church and start learning. That was pretty exciting. At some point in the day, we came home for a couple of minutes. We decided to try that seaweed.[A little "gift" from Ed!] It was gross. We took a movie, so I'll send that to you soon. After that, we went to the Houghtons' home for dinner. We had some taco salad, and had a good time. After that, we swapped back... Then came home to exchange with the Spanish Elders. I went with Elder Yarrington to be in the Spanish program for a day!
Friday was really fun. The Spanish program is awesome. The people are really nice. We found a couple of new investigators, and had quite a few appointments. We had one with a man who was about to get baptized (and was the next day) and his wife, who was previously pretty anti. We had a pretty funny lesson with her, and she got interested. They spoke English, so it was nice. After that, we had an appointment with a man that spoke no English... So I just sat there and listened except for bearing my testimony through translation once. After that, we had dinner with an awesome family. They gave me 2 referrals, and we had a great time over there. The wife could speak very little English, and the husband spoke OK English. That's usually how it is apparently. The men know more because of work. We had a good time over there though, and I learned a lot of Spanish. Sister Palacio learned some English too. The food was really good. After that, we exchanged back.
Saturday was pretty good. We had a breakfast appointment with some members from the Naper 6th Ward, which was pretty good. It was with the Nielsens, who is the family that has us and Kim over for lessons. After that, we had MCM. MCM was good, but we got fed another breakfast, which was kind of too much. After that, we helped a family of potential investigators move into our area. After that, we tracted and found 4 new investigators, which is really awesome. After that, we helped another family move. This family was moving from a big house into a townhome, and had a ton of stuff to move. A good chunk of the Ward was there helping, but it still took a while. They fed us pizza there... Already a 3 meal day. After that, we left to teach Amanda. We're trying to get her to commit to baptism. She's been flaking out a bit, but should get serious soon. Please pray that she does. After that, we went to visit the Gaffneys, who are a less active family. After that, we taught Krista, and got her a ride to church.
Sunday was nice. It's the one Sunday every 3 months that we don't have to get up at 5:30. We have PEC and Ward Council every 2nd, 3rd and 4th Sunday, then have Stake MCM every 1st Sunday before church. It's ok though, they get things done. Sunday went well though. We had great attendance, which was great. After church, we got tubed by two appointments in a row, so went tracting. We tracted into one family that was on their way to an Adventist baptismal service. We got a return appointment with them, which was pretty funny. We later had an appointment with Kim at the Nielsens. It went well. She's coming to church next week, and we should hopefully see some good things soon. After that, we went to teach Nancy. She's doing pretty well now. They had us over for dinner too, which was nice. We started teaching some of their neighbors when we were there too. They've actually become some good investigators. We got an appointment for Monday with them Sunday night though... So more about them later.
Monday went well. We had a good District Meeting, then went out to eat some Buffalo Wild Wings. After that, we tracted. We found a new investigator after a while, and got a referral for the Spanish, which is seemingly going well. We also visited a new investigator from saturday and had a lesson there. Elvin, Jose, and his wife are doing alright. The wife is really ill, so we didn't stay long. After that, we went to visit Sister Apodaca. She's pretty feminist, so we read from Esther, and discussed that. After that, we got tubed, so went to get a haircut. I tried to teach a lesson to the haircutter, but unfortunately never got an opportunity. She was a talker, but just seemed to have no interest in the Gospel. Elder Denter did though, good for him. After that, we went to dinner at the Robbins' home. We had some Swedish meatballs, which were good. After that, we went over to teach Nancy's neighbors. Elitania and Gustavo both have rough backgrounds in gangs and stuff. They've both made a lot of changes though, and are really sincere people. Both committed to reading the Book of Mormon and doing the experiment to find out it's truthfulness. Gustavo will read 3 Nephi 11 on, and Alma 32, and Elitania is going to finish the Book of Mormon within a week. She volunteered that, which was pretty wild. They've also got a young girl named Mimi that came for the lesson too. They're awesome, and we will have another lesson next week. That was pretty much the day!
Tuesday was great. We taught Amanda in the morning, and had a good lesson. She's getting her results from the doctor today, and tomorrow we're going to help her make a spiritual plan to get to baptism, and where she needs to be. We should hopefully set a date tomorrow. After that, we went to work at the Hesed House. After that, we went to teach Mike. He's doing a lot better now that he's out of the hospital. He doesn't really eat... He just drinks a couple liters of Pepsi a day. His home teacher is trying to teach him how to cook, and we may too. After that, we tracted and eventually found a new investigator. We'll go visit him Sunday. He is actually pretty promising. After that, we got tubed a couple of times, then visited David Lopez. That lesson went well. He's a good kid. After that, we went to check up on Brandon, who's doing ok. After that, we went to eat dinner at the Capeners' home. We had pancakes and smoothies. It was pretty good. After dinner, Jeremy came over for a new member lesson. Brother Capener and Brother Hoyt are his home teachers. The lesson went pretty well. After that, we waited for transfer calls so we could relay them to the Zone. They came really late, which was crazy.
Today should be good. We scheduled one appointment with a new investigator for this morning, but she wasn't there so it was kind of a waste. We don't really know what we're doing today, so it should be interesting. We've got a dinner appointment tonight, and that's pretty much it.
Well, there you go. I'm doing pretty well, and am enjoying serving the Lord. I love hearing from you, and appreciate all you do. Will you check and see if that really is Brother Baker's address you gave me, Mom? I wrote him a letter, but it got returned to me. I got a funny letter this week too... Elder Noah Robins sent me a letter from the Dominican Republic. It got to the mission office in April, then came to Frankfurt... But the postage was 1 cent short, so they sent it back to the Dominican Republic from Mokena. Those postal workers there really live up to their notoriety! He resent it, and eventually I got it at the end of August!!! 1 cent. Wow.
Anyways, I hope you all take care. I love you so much!
Hey, I've got a question. Who is Monty staying with? [while we go on vacation this weekend]
Thanks for everything.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello!
Everything is going well. We got transfer calls last night. Pretty crazy stuff. Elder Denter and I are staying the same. Elder Sorensen is leaving Prestbury for Woodridge 2, which is in the Joliet Zone. Elder Gates, who is a really good soccer player, is taking his spot. Elder Price, from Woodridge 1, is becoming a new Zone Leader in Chicago. Elder Tzunun is taking his spot to be with Elder Barker, who's been in his first area for 6 months already. Elder Baum is coming to take Elder Wiser's spot in Naper 6. The Spanish are all staying the same. We've also got a new AP, Elder Wilson, who was a Zone Leader in Chicago. There's the news for the Zone! The other Sisters and the Geneva Elders are staying the same.
So, how's everything going? I hope you have a fun Labor Day! Tell me all about it. Send me some pictures too please. How was your Birthday, Grandpa? I'm sending you a card! Sorry it'll be a little late.
Well, here's what happened for the week:
Wednesday was pretty good. We just went to a liquidation Men's Warehouse place. It was pretty neat, but really made us want to buy stuff. Elder Sorensen gave in to temptation, and bought a leather jacket. That's pretty much all that happened actually. It was raining really hard that day.
Thursday was good. We went on an exchange with the Woodridge Elders. Elder Price came here to Naper 4 with me, and Elder Denter went to be with his old companion, Elder Barker. We had a pretty good day. We visited Solomon, who is doing well. Solomon has now got a job, and things are looking bright for him. Hopefully he can get permission from his parole officer to attend church. After that, we stopped by Amanda who is doing OK. She has another doctor's appointment today, and hopefully will finally get a timeline for her treatment. After that, we visited and taught the Gamboas. After that, we went to stop by a recent converts house, and talked with his sister. Krista listened to a lesson, and agreed to come to church and start learning. That was pretty exciting. At some point in the day, we came home for a couple of minutes. We decided to try that seaweed.[A little "gift" from Ed!] It was gross. We took a movie, so I'll send that to you soon. After that, we went to the Houghtons' home for dinner. We had some taco salad, and had a good time. After that, we swapped back... Then came home to exchange with the Spanish Elders. I went with Elder Yarrington to be in the Spanish program for a day!
Friday was really fun. The Spanish program is awesome. The people are really nice. We found a couple of new investigators, and had quite a few appointments. We had one with a man who was about to get baptized (and was the next day) and his wife, who was previously pretty anti. We had a pretty funny lesson with her, and she got interested. They spoke English, so it was nice. After that, we had an appointment with a man that spoke no English... So I just sat there and listened except for bearing my testimony through translation once. After that, we had dinner with an awesome family. They gave me 2 referrals, and we had a great time over there. The wife could speak very little English, and the husband spoke OK English. That's usually how it is apparently. The men know more because of work. We had a good time over there though, and I learned a lot of Spanish. Sister Palacio learned some English too. The food was really good. After that, we exchanged back.
Saturday was pretty good. We had a breakfast appointment with some members from the Naper 6th Ward, which was pretty good. It was with the Nielsens, who is the family that has us and Kim over for lessons. After that, we had MCM. MCM was good, but we got fed another breakfast, which was kind of too much. After that, we helped a family of potential investigators move into our area. After that, we tracted and found 4 new investigators, which is really awesome. After that, we helped another family move. This family was moving from a big house into a townhome, and had a ton of stuff to move. A good chunk of the Ward was there helping, but it still took a while. They fed us pizza there... Already a 3 meal day. After that, we left to teach Amanda. We're trying to get her to commit to baptism. She's been flaking out a bit, but should get serious soon. Please pray that she does. After that, we went to visit the Gaffneys, who are a less active family. After that, we taught Krista, and got her a ride to church.
Sunday was nice. It's the one Sunday every 3 months that we don't have to get up at 5:30. We have PEC and Ward Council every 2nd, 3rd and 4th Sunday, then have Stake MCM every 1st Sunday before church. It's ok though, they get things done. Sunday went well though. We had great attendance, which was great. After church, we got tubed by two appointments in a row, so went tracting. We tracted into one family that was on their way to an Adventist baptismal service. We got a return appointment with them, which was pretty funny. We later had an appointment with Kim at the Nielsens. It went well. She's coming to church next week, and we should hopefully see some good things soon. After that, we went to teach Nancy. She's doing pretty well now. They had us over for dinner too, which was nice. We started teaching some of their neighbors when we were there too. They've actually become some good investigators. We got an appointment for Monday with them Sunday night though... So more about them later.
Monday went well. We had a good District Meeting, then went out to eat some Buffalo Wild Wings. After that, we tracted. We found a new investigator after a while, and got a referral for the Spanish, which is seemingly going well. We also visited a new investigator from saturday and had a lesson there. Elvin, Jose, and his wife are doing alright. The wife is really ill, so we didn't stay long. After that, we went to visit Sister Apodaca. She's pretty feminist, so we read from Esther, and discussed that. After that, we got tubed, so went to get a haircut. I tried to teach a lesson to the haircutter, but unfortunately never got an opportunity. She was a talker, but just seemed to have no interest in the Gospel. Elder Denter did though, good for him. After that, we went to dinner at the Robbins' home. We had some Swedish meatballs, which were good. After that, we went over to teach Nancy's neighbors. Elitania and Gustavo both have rough backgrounds in gangs and stuff. They've both made a lot of changes though, and are really sincere people. Both committed to reading the Book of Mormon and doing the experiment to find out it's truthfulness. Gustavo will read 3 Nephi 11 on, and Alma 32, and Elitania is going to finish the Book of Mormon within a week. She volunteered that, which was pretty wild. They've also got a young girl named Mimi that came for the lesson too. They're awesome, and we will have another lesson next week. That was pretty much the day!
Tuesday was great. We taught Amanda in the morning, and had a good lesson. She's getting her results from the doctor today, and tomorrow we're going to help her make a spiritual plan to get to baptism, and where she needs to be. We should hopefully set a date tomorrow. After that, we went to work at the Hesed House. After that, we went to teach Mike. He's doing a lot better now that he's out of the hospital. He doesn't really eat... He just drinks a couple liters of Pepsi a day. His home teacher is trying to teach him how to cook, and we may too. After that, we tracted and eventually found a new investigator. We'll go visit him Sunday. He is actually pretty promising. After that, we got tubed a couple of times, then visited David Lopez. That lesson went well. He's a good kid. After that, we went to check up on Brandon, who's doing ok. After that, we went to eat dinner at the Capeners' home. We had pancakes and smoothies. It was pretty good. After dinner, Jeremy came over for a new member lesson. Brother Capener and Brother Hoyt are his home teachers. The lesson went pretty well. After that, we waited for transfer calls so we could relay them to the Zone. They came really late, which was crazy.
Today should be good. We scheduled one appointment with a new investigator for this morning, but she wasn't there so it was kind of a waste. We don't really know what we're doing today, so it should be interesting. We've got a dinner appointment tonight, and that's pretty much it.
Well, there you go. I'm doing pretty well, and am enjoying serving the Lord. I love hearing from you, and appreciate all you do. Will you check and see if that really is Brother Baker's address you gave me, Mom? I wrote him a letter, but it got returned to me. I got a funny letter this week too... Elder Noah Robins sent me a letter from the Dominican Republic. It got to the mission office in April, then came to Frankfurt... But the postage was 1 cent short, so they sent it back to the Dominican Republic from Mokena. Those postal workers there really live up to their notoriety! He resent it, and eventually I got it at the end of August!!! 1 cent. Wow.
Anyways, I hope you all take care. I love you so much!
Hey, I've got a question. Who is Monty staying with? [while we go on vacation this weekend]
Thanks for everything.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
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