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