The Elders went to lunch at Gino's East last p-day. Apparently at Gino's East, everyone writes their name on an available surface. Here's Elder M's addition to the mess! :-) Ed says we ate here when he was working in Chicago in 1986. I remember eating there vaguely, but I don't remember all the names everywhere.Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Elder M. Writes His Name at Gino's East
The Elders went to lunch at Gino's East last p-day. Apparently at Gino's East, everyone writes their name on an available surface. Here's Elder M's addition to the mess! :-) Ed says we ate here when he was working in Chicago in 1986. I remember eating there vaguely, but I don't remember all the names everywhere.
Elders Eating Lunch at Gino's East
Elder McMullin says, "Elder Gonzalez and me looking silly at Gino's East." They were there eating lunch with Elder John and Elder Robinson.
Mission Update 8/11/10
I'm teary-eyed sitting here typing this. I cannot believe Elder M. will be home in a week. I've felt emotional all day; it's going to be so good to see him again. I'm so proud of him and how hard he's worked. I love that guy! Here's his email:
Hello Family,
I can't believe it! This may very well be my last email home. I'm not sure if we email from the mission home the day before we leave. It will be so good to see you though. I have loved my mission so much, and have sincerely striven to do my best! I will go home without regrets. Did I make mistakes? Too many (we all do...), but I've repented of them. The Lord has done more for and with me than I ever could have done out here in Chicago! I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve these people who I love so much. I know the Gospel is true - I have seen it change lives! I have seen people find happiness they never thought was possible as they have followed the Savior. I have found the same, and am determined to follow Him until the end. There are a lot of great things in the future, and I will strive to do my best!
We're really happy for Vera and Marquis too... We were knocking on doors two days after we were transferred in and met them. They told us they weren't interested at first, but we testified, and they had some questions. They invited us in, and began to progress. They were definitely prepared long before we met them. They had a lot of great questions, and were sincerely interested. They were pretty shocked, rocked, and shattered when they learned about the Priesthood Authority, and in what Church it is. They were scared for a while, then went out of town. Once they began to read from the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, they became solid! They have received answers to their prayers. Marquis said, "I will never forget the answer I got! I feel so good." Vera is committed. They had set a baptismal date of September 11th, but after reviewing the baptismal interview questions yesterday, found out they are ready now. Marquis is excited to be baptized on Tuesday! Vera is feeling great, but is thinking about waiting for September 11th. We'll keep praying for her to be strong in the Gospel and know she will do well whenever she enters into the waters of baptism and makes a covenant with God.
So, this last week has been great. I had been feeling really nervous last week, but am feeling great today. I've really been given peace, and am grateful for it! Here's some of what's happened:
Wednesday. We emailed after studies, then took the Red Line up to downtown! We got off on Grand, which is north of the loop. We walked over to Gino's East, and ate there. It is really really good pizza. The restaurant was really nice too. It's pretty neat, they have every wall completely covered with signatures. We got to sign our names after eating too. It was great, but I still believe Edwardo's is #1. Gino's is definitely #2 though. After that, we walked down Michigan Avenue, and looked at stuff. It's pretty cool up there. We then walked down to Washington and Wabash, where the suit store was. We picked up the suits, then headed home on the train. We then jumped into our car and went to the Ervin's home for dinner. We had chops and corn, but no greens. We had a lesson with a family friend over there too. That was pretty much the end of our day.
Thursday was a pretty weird day. We had Zone Meeting, which is a mini Zone Conference. We had it from 10 until 12:30, then had interviews. They made a whole interview schedule, with us being right next to the end. We had to wait a few hours before getting interviewed. The interview went well. People before us must have taken longer than scheduled, because we had to reschedule a couple appointments we had later that day. We met with the Flores family for dinner, which was great. They made us some Mexican food. After that, we went over to teach Marge, who is doing well. That was our day there. Oh yeah, we also dropped our rear-ended car off at the shop, and got a Malibu to drive until it's fixed!
Friday was great. We stopped by Manny's home, then went over to Brother Moore's for lunch. After our lesson there, we went to teach Joe. We then had a linner at the Sutarik's home. That was pretty good. They're going to make a list of potentials for Elder Gonzalez and his next companion. We then taught Louis, who is doing well. We then went to teach Vera. That was a great appointment. They are so excited, and are doing well with their scripture reading! We went to teach Charles after that, which went well too. We then went over to see the Hills. They are doing great.
Saturday started off in Calumet City where we watched the Testaments with Esau. He's doing OK, but needed the spiritual boost. We then went to teach Alfrieda, and met Carolyn Hill over there. She walked in the door, sat down, and began to testify. She is another Mark Pope! She is so awesome, and taught so well! She really helped Alfrieda. We then went over to the Motts and to Melbria's home. After that, we had some stop bys I think before going to teach Errol and Mercedes. Victoria ended up cooking dinner for us, which was good.
Sunday was a great day. We did some good planning before church. We then had a great day at church. Sister Prewitt picks up Vera and Marquis. She's become a great fellowshipper for them. After Church we went for dinner at the Jenkins home. They are so awesome. We had a great time there. Sister Jenkins started telling me about her sister that goes to UVU... After that, we went by the Motts, then to see the Childress family, then to Sister Flowers' home.
Monday was an interesting day. We had District Meeting, which went well. We had a lesson on the qualifications for baptism, which really inspired us to ask the questions at our next appointment with Vera and Marquis. After District Meeting, we went to teach Susan. Sister Sales came, and it was great. We watched the Restoration movie and Sister Sales testified of her conversion. We then went to help Susan move some stuff from a storage. She gave a lot to the Church too... We met Brother Thomas and his son over there, and packed stuff up for a long time. We then went over and took Brother Mott out with us. We went to visit Cedric (didn't see him, but saw his daughter), then the Hills, then Melbria. It was a great evening. They are all doing pretty well. While at Melbria's, there was a blackout. All power just died. Even the Red Line train died! It was pretty eerie out, but we made it back to our home that had power.
Tuesday went well too. We finished combining the area books from the other areas, and went out to teach. We saw LeBron, who is doing great. We then saw Prewitt, who is doing well too. We taught Joe, who is doing alright. We then taught Charles and Liz, who are doing well. We then had the real highlight of the day with Vera and Marquis. We had really been feeling this would be a big lesson ever since we left from our last one there. We walked up to the house, and Marquis was teaching a friend of his about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He even quoted some of what Heavenly Father said to the prophet Joseph! They are so ready, and Marquis will be baptized Tuesday. We're going to PEC tomorrow night, and will get things arranged then. We've been tracting too, and have met some neat people, and have been able to testify a lot, but haven't really found anyone that stands out too much lately. Things are great though!
Today should be good. I've organized things and began to pack some stuff up since I don't have a P - Day until I leave. I'll finish more today and get a hair cut. We're also going to play volleyball with the Zone for a while at Hyde Park. It should be a good day.
I love you a lot! Thanks for all you do! The Gospel is true and I am so grateful for it. Please live it, love it and share it!
Until we meet again NEXT WEEK,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
I can't believe it! This may very well be my last email home. I'm not sure if we email from the mission home the day before we leave. It will be so good to see you though. I have loved my mission so much, and have sincerely striven to do my best! I will go home without regrets. Did I make mistakes? Too many (we all do...), but I've repented of them. The Lord has done more for and with me than I ever could have done out here in Chicago! I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve these people who I love so much. I know the Gospel is true - I have seen it change lives! I have seen people find happiness they never thought was possible as they have followed the Savior. I have found the same, and am determined to follow Him until the end. There are a lot of great things in the future, and I will strive to do my best!
We're really happy for Vera and Marquis too... We were knocking on doors two days after we were transferred in and met them. They told us they weren't interested at first, but we testified, and they had some questions. They invited us in, and began to progress. They were definitely prepared long before we met them. They had a lot of great questions, and were sincerely interested. They were pretty shocked, rocked, and shattered when they learned about the Priesthood Authority, and in what Church it is. They were scared for a while, then went out of town. Once they began to read from the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, they became solid! They have received answers to their prayers. Marquis said, "I will never forget the answer I got! I feel so good." Vera is committed. They had set a baptismal date of September 11th, but after reviewing the baptismal interview questions yesterday, found out they are ready now. Marquis is excited to be baptized on Tuesday! Vera is feeling great, but is thinking about waiting for September 11th. We'll keep praying for her to be strong in the Gospel and know she will do well whenever she enters into the waters of baptism and makes a covenant with God.
So, this last week has been great. I had been feeling really nervous last week, but am feeling great today. I've really been given peace, and am grateful for it! Here's some of what's happened:
Wednesday. We emailed after studies, then took the Red Line up to downtown! We got off on Grand, which is north of the loop. We walked over to Gino's East, and ate there. It is really really good pizza. The restaurant was really nice too. It's pretty neat, they have every wall completely covered with signatures. We got to sign our names after eating too. It was great, but I still believe Edwardo's is #1. Gino's is definitely #2 though. After that, we walked down Michigan Avenue, and looked at stuff. It's pretty cool up there. We then walked down to Washington and Wabash, where the suit store was. We picked up the suits, then headed home on the train. We then jumped into our car and went to the Ervin's home for dinner. We had chops and corn, but no greens. We had a lesson with a family friend over there too. That was pretty much the end of our day.
Thursday was a pretty weird day. We had Zone Meeting, which is a mini Zone Conference. We had it from 10 until 12:30, then had interviews. They made a whole interview schedule, with us being right next to the end. We had to wait a few hours before getting interviewed. The interview went well. People before us must have taken longer than scheduled, because we had to reschedule a couple appointments we had later that day. We met with the Flores family for dinner, which was great. They made us some Mexican food. After that, we went over to teach Marge, who is doing well. That was our day there. Oh yeah, we also dropped our rear-ended car off at the shop, and got a Malibu to drive until it's fixed!
Friday was great. We stopped by Manny's home, then went over to Brother Moore's for lunch. After our lesson there, we went to teach Joe. We then had a linner at the Sutarik's home. That was pretty good. They're going to make a list of potentials for Elder Gonzalez and his next companion. We then taught Louis, who is doing well. We then went to teach Vera. That was a great appointment. They are so excited, and are doing well with their scripture reading! We went to teach Charles after that, which went well too. We then went over to see the Hills. They are doing great.
Saturday started off in Calumet City where we watched the Testaments with Esau. He's doing OK, but needed the spiritual boost. We then went to teach Alfrieda, and met Carolyn Hill over there. She walked in the door, sat down, and began to testify. She is another Mark Pope! She is so awesome, and taught so well! She really helped Alfrieda. We then went over to the Motts and to Melbria's home. After that, we had some stop bys I think before going to teach Errol and Mercedes. Victoria ended up cooking dinner for us, which was good.
Sunday was a great day. We did some good planning before church. We then had a great day at church. Sister Prewitt picks up Vera and Marquis. She's become a great fellowshipper for them. After Church we went for dinner at the Jenkins home. They are so awesome. We had a great time there. Sister Jenkins started telling me about her sister that goes to UVU... After that, we went by the Motts, then to see the Childress family, then to Sister Flowers' home.
Monday was an interesting day. We had District Meeting, which went well. We had a lesson on the qualifications for baptism, which really inspired us to ask the questions at our next appointment with Vera and Marquis. After District Meeting, we went to teach Susan. Sister Sales came, and it was great. We watched the Restoration movie and Sister Sales testified of her conversion. We then went to help Susan move some stuff from a storage. She gave a lot to the Church too... We met Brother Thomas and his son over there, and packed stuff up for a long time. We then went over and took Brother Mott out with us. We went to visit Cedric (didn't see him, but saw his daughter), then the Hills, then Melbria. It was a great evening. They are all doing pretty well. While at Melbria's, there was a blackout. All power just died. Even the Red Line train died! It was pretty eerie out, but we made it back to our home that had power.
Tuesday went well too. We finished combining the area books from the other areas, and went out to teach. We saw LeBron, who is doing great. We then saw Prewitt, who is doing well too. We taught Joe, who is doing alright. We then taught Charles and Liz, who are doing well. We then had the real highlight of the day with Vera and Marquis. We had really been feeling this would be a big lesson ever since we left from our last one there. We walked up to the house, and Marquis was teaching a friend of his about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He even quoted some of what Heavenly Father said to the prophet Joseph! They are so ready, and Marquis will be baptized Tuesday. We're going to PEC tomorrow night, and will get things arranged then. We've been tracting too, and have met some neat people, and have been able to testify a lot, but haven't really found anyone that stands out too much lately. Things are great though!
Today should be good. I've organized things and began to pack some stuff up since I don't have a P - Day until I leave. I'll finish more today and get a hair cut. We're also going to play volleyball with the Zone for a while at Hyde Park. It should be a good day.
I love you a lot! Thanks for all you do! The Gospel is true and I am so grateful for it. Please live it, love it and share it!
Until we meet again NEXT WEEK,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Monday, August 9, 2010
Mission Update 8/4/10
Hello Family,
Things have gone well here this last week. I can't believe how soon it is til I see you again. I'm really going to miss my mission. This is my favorite thing in the whole world to do. If I didn't have a great family waiting for me at home I don't even know what I'd do! It is going to be great to see you! Thanks for planning something so fun for when I get home (dentist), mom... You really know what I enjoy!
So, we've had a good week. We've had our teaching pool change quite a bit lately! We're just continuing to teach new people, which is really nice. Here's some of what's happened over the last week:
Wednesday we went to the Science and Industry Museum. It was pretty fun. After that we went down to Markham and taught Susan. She is doing pretty well. We then went over to the Motts, which was good. They're thinking about moving.
Thursday was a great day. We had Charles after our studies. We went over to Brother Moore's after teaching Charles. We went to teach a new investigator named Manny after Brother Moore's. He didn't even believe in Jesus Christ, which is very atypical for this area. We defended the Savior, and that was our appointment. He's the boyfriend of a member in a Spanish Ward. We then went to visit Todd. He's doing alright. We then went to teach Cedric, a random former investigator who we had felt prompted to stop by a few days ago. We taught him about the Restoration and set up another appointment. He seems great! We then went to Tomasello Martha's and taught Marge. I'm still winning in our races to type in the key code for the apartment building. Our lesson with Marge went great. She seems to be progressing. After that, we went way over to Joe's to teach him and Tiffany, but ended up just teaching him. On the way back we took a wrong turn and hit the Indiana State Border (where we turned around...it's not far away from his house), then had tons of fire trucks cut us off because a burning building, and got stopped by a train. We got back a little late, but we made it.
Friday was good. We saw LeBron, who we had been worried about because he hadn't been answering his phone. He's doing great though, so we're happy. We brought him a fan since his house is hot. We went out tracting and met a guy named Ron who invited us in and we taught. He was kind of interested, but didn't want to learn any more. We later taught Louis. We also went to the Leals for dinner. They made us Nopales... Cactus sandwiches! They were different, but pretty good. We then went over to Babatunde's home. He read the entire book of Moroni, and loved it! He gained a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith is a prophet! We're super excited about that. He is really high up in his church though, and was conducting services on Sunday, so he couldn't make it to Church. He doesn't want to prepare for baptism just now, but we have pretty high hopes for him. We then went over and had a lesson with Sister Hill... Who was getting ready and excited to help us teach on Saturday.
Saturday went really well. We had basketball in the morning. None of the basketballers are really progressing as we teach them classes, so we're probably going to cut back or stop basketball. We taught Vera that day, and had an excellent lesson. She and Marquis are both preparing to be baptized now!!! They want to get baptized on September 11th. It's a ways off, but that's when they feel they can be ready by. We're very happy about that. We had an appointment with the Rhodes, who are doing well. We were stopping by Alfrieda's when some guy and a woman started talking with us about the scriptures. We bore testimony of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, but nothing really happened after our near hour long conversation.
Sunday was great! We had Susan come to church for the first time. That went well. Vera and Marquis were there too, which was nice. They had some sort of Relief Society conference, so they had men help out in primary. I was with Brother Jenkins in Nursery watching 3 kids. It was tough. Really tough. I figured out the best thing to do was just look interested in some toy, because then someone will really want to take it from you and will be interested for a little while. After church, we tried to take some things over to Sister Howorth. She was not feeling good though. We had our dinner with the Jenkins, which was great... As always! They are the best family ever. We drove down to Calumet City after that.
Monday was a pretty good day. We ate at I - 57, which filled us up beyond the brim. We were stuffed. We had an appointment with Melbria and helped her clean out her oft flooded basement. We also had an appointment with Sister Prewitt. We sit on her porch and talk, which is nice. After that, we went and taught Cedric. That appointment went really well! He was pretty excited about the Plan of Salvation. We taught him all about it, and he will come to church on Sunday, and should progress. We then taught Susan again. She fed us a surprise dinner, which was great... But we were really full and had a dinner appointment right afterwards! We ate up though, then left for the Childress family home. They didn't have food for a while, which was really nice. It was really good, and we packed it all in our bellies. We then watched the Lamb of God movie with them.
Tuesday was a good day. We met with Charles, who is doing well. We also met with Vera and Marquis, who are doing really really well! We had a lesson with Alfrieda, who has had some trials recently, but is doing really well now. We told her about how we were led to find her. Out of the 500,000 + people in our area, the Lord took us to her home in a spare 20 minutes we had. After that, we went to teach Joe. We then went to Melbria's for her first home teaching appointment with Brother Sutarik. We then went to the Hodges home. They're really nice. We did this neat priorities object lesson I'll have to show you, and ate some fried chicken and greens for dinner. We then came home.
Today should be great! I get my new suits, which will be exciting. We're also going to eat at Gino's East, which is pretty exciting. It's the last one we have to try to confirm Edwardo's really is Chicago's Best Pizza! Let's see how it measures up!
Family, I love you so much. I am grateful for all you do for me. I appreciate your prayers and your support. I'm trying to do my best out here. I love what I'm doing so much, and am grateful for the 2 weeks I have left to serve.
Take care. Know this Gospel is true. It blesses lives. I am so grateful it's blessed mine.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Things have gone well here this last week. I can't believe how soon it is til I see you again. I'm really going to miss my mission. This is my favorite thing in the whole world to do. If I didn't have a great family waiting for me at home I don't even know what I'd do! It is going to be great to see you! Thanks for planning something so fun for when I get home (dentist), mom... You really know what I enjoy!
So, we've had a good week. We've had our teaching pool change quite a bit lately! We're just continuing to teach new people, which is really nice. Here's some of what's happened over the last week:
Wednesday we went to the Science and Industry Museum. It was pretty fun. After that we went down to Markham and taught Susan. She is doing pretty well. We then went over to the Motts, which was good. They're thinking about moving.
Thursday was a great day. We had Charles after our studies. We went over to Brother Moore's after teaching Charles. We went to teach a new investigator named Manny after Brother Moore's. He didn't even believe in Jesus Christ, which is very atypical for this area. We defended the Savior, and that was our appointment. He's the boyfriend of a member in a Spanish Ward. We then went to visit Todd. He's doing alright. We then went to teach Cedric, a random former investigator who we had felt prompted to stop by a few days ago. We taught him about the Restoration and set up another appointment. He seems great! We then went to Tomasello Martha's and taught Marge. I'm still winning in our races to type in the key code for the apartment building. Our lesson with Marge went great. She seems to be progressing. After that, we went way over to Joe's to teach him and Tiffany, but ended up just teaching him. On the way back we took a wrong turn and hit the Indiana State Border (where we turned around...it's not far away from his house), then had tons of fire trucks cut us off because a burning building, and got stopped by a train. We got back a little late, but we made it.
Friday was good. We saw LeBron, who we had been worried about because he hadn't been answering his phone. He's doing great though, so we're happy. We brought him a fan since his house is hot. We went out tracting and met a guy named Ron who invited us in and we taught. He was kind of interested, but didn't want to learn any more. We later taught Louis. We also went to the Leals for dinner. They made us Nopales... Cactus sandwiches! They were different, but pretty good. We then went over to Babatunde's home. He read the entire book of Moroni, and loved it! He gained a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith is a prophet! We're super excited about that. He is really high up in his church though, and was conducting services on Sunday, so he couldn't make it to Church. He doesn't want to prepare for baptism just now, but we have pretty high hopes for him. We then went over and had a lesson with Sister Hill... Who was getting ready and excited to help us teach on Saturday.
Saturday went really well. We had basketball in the morning. None of the basketballers are really progressing as we teach them classes, so we're probably going to cut back or stop basketball. We taught Vera that day, and had an excellent lesson. She and Marquis are both preparing to be baptized now!!! They want to get baptized on September 11th. It's a ways off, but that's when they feel they can be ready by. We're very happy about that. We had an appointment with the Rhodes, who are doing well. We were stopping by Alfrieda's when some guy and a woman started talking with us about the scriptures. We bore testimony of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, but nothing really happened after our near hour long conversation.
Sunday was great! We had Susan come to church for the first time. That went well. Vera and Marquis were there too, which was nice. They had some sort of Relief Society conference, so they had men help out in primary. I was with Brother Jenkins in Nursery watching 3 kids. It was tough. Really tough. I figured out the best thing to do was just look interested in some toy, because then someone will really want to take it from you and will be interested for a little while. After church, we tried to take some things over to Sister Howorth. She was not feeling good though. We had our dinner with the Jenkins, which was great... As always! They are the best family ever. We drove down to Calumet City after that.
Monday was a pretty good day. We ate at I - 57, which filled us up beyond the brim. We were stuffed. We had an appointment with Melbria and helped her clean out her oft flooded basement. We also had an appointment with Sister Prewitt. We sit on her porch and talk, which is nice. After that, we went and taught Cedric. That appointment went really well! He was pretty excited about the Plan of Salvation. We taught him all about it, and he will come to church on Sunday, and should progress. We then taught Susan again. She fed us a surprise dinner, which was great... But we were really full and had a dinner appointment right afterwards! We ate up though, then left for the Childress family home. They didn't have food for a while, which was really nice. It was really good, and we packed it all in our bellies. We then watched the Lamb of God movie with them.
Tuesday was a good day. We met with Charles, who is doing well. We also met with Vera and Marquis, who are doing really really well! We had a lesson with Alfrieda, who has had some trials recently, but is doing really well now. We told her about how we were led to find her. Out of the 500,000 + people in our area, the Lord took us to her home in a spare 20 minutes we had. After that, we went to teach Joe. We then went to Melbria's for her first home teaching appointment with Brother Sutarik. We then went to the Hodges home. They're really nice. We did this neat priorities object lesson I'll have to show you, and ate some fried chicken and greens for dinner. We then came home.
Today should be great! I get my new suits, which will be exciting. We're also going to eat at Gino's East, which is pretty exciting. It's the last one we have to try to confirm Edwardo's really is Chicago's Best Pizza! Let's see how it measures up!
Family, I love you so much. I am grateful for all you do for me. I appreciate your prayers and your support. I'm trying to do my best out here. I love what I'm doing so much, and am grateful for the 2 weeks I have left to serve.
Take care. Know this Gospel is true. It blesses lives. I am so grateful it's blessed mine.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Carolyn's Baptism!
Carolyn was baptized on July 24, 2010. So exciting!! Elder M baptized her and Elder Gonzalez confirmed her.
Mission Update 7/28/10
Elder M. left 2 years ago! He left on the 30th, but it was on a Wednesday and today is the Wednesday closest to 2 years ago, so close enough!! Wow! Here's his email. Only 3 more after this and he'll be home!
HELLO FAMILY,
I hope you are doing well. It sounds like you are. Good job at your swim meet Taylor! It's pretty funny... Elder Gonzalez has a little sister who sounds a lot like you... And she was just at a big swim meet at the same time as you were!
Things are going so well here! Everyone we're working with is now giving us referrals like crazy! We've found so many new investigators even though we've only had time to eat once and tract for a few seconds. We've really been blessed, and I'm grateful for it. Here's some of what's been going on this week:
Friday was an interesting Preparation Day. We emailed after our morning schedule, which was great. We then went to Pep Boys to get our car fixed. While we were waiting, we walked almost a mile to a hair cut place. After I got my hair cut, we walked back to the auto shop. We had quite a few appointments scheduled before they told us P Day was switched, so we changed the one we could, then went to the afternoon and evening ones. We taught Louis first, which went well. We then went over to eat at Tomoko's. That was great. We then went over to teach Tony Burton. After that, we went over to the Hills to have the last lesson before Carolyn's baptism! She was so excited! (she always says, "I'm
SO excited" or "I'm SO happy!" )
Saturday was great. We came to the church early to set up for the baptism. We had the basketball people still come, and taught them as we filled up the font. We kicked them out before everyone showed up. President and Sister Doll tried to make it to the baptism, but the freeway was flooded, so they couldn't make it! To answer Grandma's question - no the roads didn't flood around us, except for one place. A ridiculous amount of peoples homes have been flooding pretty regularly throughout the summer though. The baptism went really well. She felt great about it, and is so excited for the Gospel. Her goal is to get her whole family in the Church now. After the baptism, we went down to Cal City to teach Collette. It's pretty tough doing this, but we had to tell her that we're going to drop her if she doesn't progress soon. They say it can take more faith to let someone go than it does to find someone. After that, we went to Baracco's Pizza for Elder Gonzalez's early birthday dinner. It was pretty good, but we decided it was inferior to Edwardo's. The only place we have to test now to see if it's the best is Gino's East. We found out there is one really close to our house in the area next door too! Pretty neat. After that, we went to the church for a multi-church choir. They were really good. Sister Beer directed it all, and it was pretty neat. We then went over to Charles' home. Then we went over to visit Errol and make sure he called a member for a ride. We then went over to the Motts' home and had an FHE with them. After that, we went over to Melbria's home and had a lesson. She's doing really well. She is such a strong member! After that, we went over to Sister Tomasello's home to teach one of her friends, but the friend left, so we read some scriptures before leaving. That was it for the day!
Sunday was really neat. We got a referral for some people that live in Markham... which is this strange little finger in the southwest corner of our area (it's fairly close to Frankfort!). It's a lot like Mokena (I'd say it's more sub-rural than sub-urban... ditches instead of sidewalks, tons of trees, etc) down there, which is awesome! We got to teach Helen, who is an awesome old lady that baked us a cake, Susan, who is her grown daughter, and got to meet Uncle Jim, who lives there with them. One of Helen's daughters is a member in Canada, and absolutely loves the Church. We gave Susan a blessing, and have our next appointment tonight! After that, we went to MCM, which was our last one with Brother Beer. We then had a great day at church. Elder Gonzalez confirmed Carolyn, and it went perfect. We also stood in the circle for Errol's ordination to the Priesthood! After church, we took him down to Sister Flowers' home and did the Sacrament. We then went over to the Jenkins' home for dinner. They are so great. We had an awesome meal and sang Happy Birthday to Elder Gonzalez. We then went to Sister Howorth's home and gave her a blessing. After that, we went to the Motts' home. We sang again to Elder Gonzalez, and it was pretty fun. We also had a lesson, then went home. We had a great week... Probably our most productive one ever actually. It was pretty sweet.
Monday was a good day. We taught Alfrieda (we've been misspelling her name! Oops) in the morning. She's doing well. She's been reading all of her baptismal calendar scriptures and writes her interpretations of them on paper. After that, we had District Meeting, which was great. We then went to visit LeBron and watched part of the Special Witnesses DVD. We then went over and taught the Ervins. After that, we went over to visit Charles. He's doing better, which makes us happy. We brought him some gum and some grapefruit juice to help him stop smoking. After that, we went over to the Flores home and taught about the Plan of Salvation. We then took Lorenzo with us to teach Marge again. The lesson went really well. She had some concerns that we talked about for the whole lesson, and Lorenzo did great. It was very positive and she should progress well. We then went over to the Hills and met a relative named Casimir. He stayed in and we taught him the Restoration. He had a ton of great Plan of Salvation questions, and wants to take more lessons! We have another appointment with him on Saturday. Carolyn did great at helping us teach! She's going to help us teach Vera at our next appointment there, which we are so happy about.
Tuesday was another good day. We had an appointment in the morning fall through, so went out to do stop bys. We met our mailman friend Torey Moore again, who gave us a referral for his brother. They are a family of ministers, and are really into selling some strange miracle coffee made with mushrooms from Korea. They just want to get us involved with their marketing system! After that, we went over to Charles' home and taught him. We then went and taught Kathy. She's doing well. We then gave Sister Mitchell a blessing. After that, we went over to our appointment with Joe Thompson and he had a friend over that we're now going to teach! We then went to Vera's home. She is preparing for baptism now, and is doing so well. The Spirit was there really strongly. She expressed her concerns - when she joins will she get a calling, will we still visit her, and has there really been a prophet in the last 20 - 30 years because of the wickedness of the world. To her last question, we ran outside and got our Special Witnesses movie and played Gordon B Hinckley's testimony of the Restoration and the Savior, then asked her to be the judge. Without hesitation she exclaimed that he was and is in fact a prophet! They watched his testimony with rapt attention and jaws dropped. It was awesome! We then went over to the Hodges and had a lesson over there. They also fed us some pizza. They were going to have a friend over for us to teach, but he couldn't make it so we'll teach him next time hopefully. He is going to come to church too. After that, we felt kind of strange and prayed about what we should do. We were led to visit someone who was in trouble. They weren't home, but we were led to find them on a street after taking some strange turns in a maze of houses. It was pretty cool to be led by God just like a GPS. We came home after that, and had a great night.
Today should be good. We may go up to the Science and Industry museum, or may just relax. I suppose we better decide soon.
The Gospel is true! The Lord's work is going so well here. I am loving my mission so much! We're really happy for all of the people we're working with that are progressing. Elder Gonzalez is doing great too! He's an awesome companion.
Take care and have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
HELLO FAMILY,
I hope you are doing well. It sounds like you are. Good job at your swim meet Taylor! It's pretty funny... Elder Gonzalez has a little sister who sounds a lot like you... And she was just at a big swim meet at the same time as you were!
Things are going so well here! Everyone we're working with is now giving us referrals like crazy! We've found so many new investigators even though we've only had time to eat once and tract for a few seconds. We've really been blessed, and I'm grateful for it. Here's some of what's been going on this week:
Friday was an interesting Preparation Day. We emailed after our morning schedule, which was great. We then went to Pep Boys to get our car fixed. While we were waiting, we walked almost a mile to a hair cut place. After I got my hair cut, we walked back to the auto shop. We had quite a few appointments scheduled before they told us P Day was switched, so we changed the one we could, then went to the afternoon and evening ones. We taught Louis first, which went well. We then went over to eat at Tomoko's. That was great. We then went over to teach Tony Burton. After that, we went over to the Hills to have the last lesson before Carolyn's baptism! She was so excited! (she always says, "I'm
SO excited" or "I'm SO happy!" )
Saturday was great. We came to the church early to set up for the baptism. We had the basketball people still come, and taught them as we filled up the font. We kicked them out before everyone showed up. President and Sister Doll tried to make it to the baptism, but the freeway was flooded, so they couldn't make it! To answer Grandma's question - no the roads didn't flood around us, except for one place. A ridiculous amount of peoples homes have been flooding pretty regularly throughout the summer though. The baptism went really well. She felt great about it, and is so excited for the Gospel. Her goal is to get her whole family in the Church now. After the baptism, we went down to Cal City to teach Collette. It's pretty tough doing this, but we had to tell her that we're going to drop her if she doesn't progress soon. They say it can take more faith to let someone go than it does to find someone. After that, we went to Baracco's Pizza for Elder Gonzalez's early birthday dinner. It was pretty good, but we decided it was inferior to Edwardo's. The only place we have to test now to see if it's the best is Gino's East. We found out there is one really close to our house in the area next door too! Pretty neat. After that, we went to the church for a multi-church choir. They were really good. Sister Beer directed it all, and it was pretty neat. We then went over to Charles' home. Then we went over to visit Errol and make sure he called a member for a ride. We then went over to the Motts' home and had an FHE with them. After that, we went over to Melbria's home and had a lesson. She's doing really well. She is such a strong member! After that, we went over to Sister Tomasello's home to teach one of her friends, but the friend left, so we read some scriptures before leaving. That was it for the day!
Sunday was really neat. We got a referral for some people that live in Markham... which is this strange little finger in the southwest corner of our area (it's fairly close to Frankfort!). It's a lot like Mokena (I'd say it's more sub-rural than sub-urban... ditches instead of sidewalks, tons of trees, etc) down there, which is awesome! We got to teach Helen, who is an awesome old lady that baked us a cake, Susan, who is her grown daughter, and got to meet Uncle Jim, who lives there with them. One of Helen's daughters is a member in Canada, and absolutely loves the Church. We gave Susan a blessing, and have our next appointment tonight! After that, we went to MCM, which was our last one with Brother Beer. We then had a great day at church. Elder Gonzalez confirmed Carolyn, and it went perfect. We also stood in the circle for Errol's ordination to the Priesthood! After church, we took him down to Sister Flowers' home and did the Sacrament. We then went over to the Jenkins' home for dinner. They are so great. We had an awesome meal and sang Happy Birthday to Elder Gonzalez. We then went to Sister Howorth's home and gave her a blessing. After that, we went to the Motts' home. We sang again to Elder Gonzalez, and it was pretty fun. We also had a lesson, then went home. We had a great week... Probably our most productive one ever actually. It was pretty sweet.
Monday was a good day. We taught Alfrieda (we've been misspelling her name! Oops) in the morning. She's doing well. She's been reading all of her baptismal calendar scriptures and writes her interpretations of them on paper. After that, we had District Meeting, which was great. We then went to visit LeBron and watched part of the Special Witnesses DVD. We then went over and taught the Ervins. After that, we went over to visit Charles. He's doing better, which makes us happy. We brought him some gum and some grapefruit juice to help him stop smoking. After that, we went over to the Flores home and taught about the Plan of Salvation. We then took Lorenzo with us to teach Marge again. The lesson went really well. She had some concerns that we talked about for the whole lesson, and Lorenzo did great. It was very positive and she should progress well. We then went over to the Hills and met a relative named Casimir. He stayed in and we taught him the Restoration. He had a ton of great Plan of Salvation questions, and wants to take more lessons! We have another appointment with him on Saturday. Carolyn did great at helping us teach! She's going to help us teach Vera at our next appointment there, which we are so happy about.
Tuesday was another good day. We had an appointment in the morning fall through, so went out to do stop bys. We met our mailman friend Torey Moore again, who gave us a referral for his brother. They are a family of ministers, and are really into selling some strange miracle coffee made with mushrooms from Korea. They just want to get us involved with their marketing system! After that, we went over to Charles' home and taught him. We then went and taught Kathy. She's doing well. We then gave Sister Mitchell a blessing. After that, we went over to our appointment with Joe Thompson and he had a friend over that we're now going to teach! We then went to Vera's home. She is preparing for baptism now, and is doing so well. The Spirit was there really strongly. She expressed her concerns - when she joins will she get a calling, will we still visit her, and has there really been a prophet in the last 20 - 30 years because of the wickedness of the world. To her last question, we ran outside and got our Special Witnesses movie and played Gordon B Hinckley's testimony of the Restoration and the Savior, then asked her to be the judge. Without hesitation she exclaimed that he was and is in fact a prophet! They watched his testimony with rapt attention and jaws dropped. It was awesome! We then went over to the Hodges and had a lesson over there. They also fed us some pizza. They were going to have a friend over for us to teach, but he couldn't make it so we'll teach him next time hopefully. He is going to come to church too. After that, we felt kind of strange and prayed about what we should do. We were led to visit someone who was in trouble. They weren't home, but we were led to find them on a street after taking some strange turns in a maze of houses. It was pretty cool to be led by God just like a GPS. We came home after that, and had a great night.
Today should be good. We may go up to the Science and Industry museum, or may just relax. I suppose we better decide soon.
The Gospel is true! The Lord's work is going so well here. I am loving my mission so much! We're really happy for all of the people we're working with that are progressing. Elder Gonzalez is doing great too! He's an awesome companion.
Take care and have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Elder M. in Brother Flores' Fireman's Suit
Well, I have no idea how to rotate this, so I guess we'll just have to turn our heads.
Mission Update 7/23/10
We got our email on Friday and here it is. Sounds like he is working HARD and finishing up strong. Way to go Elder M!!
Hello Family,
It is good to hear from you! Things are going better than ever! Carolyn Hill is ready for her baptism tomorrow! Alfreda accepted a baptismal date (August 21st). We've been very busy. Our days consist of us going from one appointment to the next from about 10:15 AM to 9:30 PM. The Lord is blessing us and we're continuing to find people as we travel from one appointment to the next! How? I really don't know, but we do, and it's nice!
So, how is everything at home? It sounds like it's going very well. Thanks for all you do for me. I've enjoyed everything you sent me for my birthday! I never knew that our McGhie ancestors joined the Church and came to America! That's pretty neat.
Mom and Dad, thank you for the new suits... I say suits because of the deal they had going. You told me to expect a buy one get one half off deal... They ended up having a buy one get two free deal!
So here's some things that have been going on:
Wednesday we went downtown. We took the L up the whole way to the north end of the Loop. We then walked all over. We went up Michigan avenue, and had fun. We were looking for a Jos A Bank, but just couldn't find one (I forgot to get the address before going), but eventually found a Garmin GPS store! We used one of the GPS units there, and found the closest Jos A Bank... Which was right next to the train stop we had gotten off of! I'll be able to pick up my suit on August 4th (conveniently it's Preparation Day). After that, we came back to the ward house and played board games with the District. We then went to the Hills and had a lesson over there. Carolyn has been getting really excited!
Thursday was great. We had our weekly planning in the morning after studies. We then went over to Brother Moore's home for lunch. We had asked for chili and stew, so he mixed them both together. After that, we went out to teach Charles. He is doing well. The family is great. Their house is pretty warm though. After that, we went and taught Vera. She is doing well. She was out of town for a while, but is still progressing! We're excited about her progress. We then went by the Moore twins' home. They're doing well. We then went to the Flores' home for dinner. They're an awesome family, and help us out a lot. We then went over to Melbria's home - right next to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church.
Friday was another good day. We went by the Carlson family home in the morning. We love talking about the Gospel with Sister Carlson. We also practiced teaching. We then went to visit Charles. We are working toward baptism with him. He has a baptismal calendar and the target date of August 21st, but that may not go through. We then went over to Sister Mitchell's home and read the scriptures there. We then went and saw Kathy, who called a while ago when we had left a pass a long card on her door while tracting. We had taught them a couple of times, but they went out of town. She's going to come to the baptism tomorrow. We then had our appointment with Louis. That went well. We then went to the Leal home for dinner. We then went over to the Motts and taught them. We usually go to the Hills on Fridays, but Carolyn was feeling ill. It was good to get to the Motts though.
Saturday was great. We had basketball and taught all of the kids there. We also had some other people come who we taught at the church too. We went over to teach Errol and Mercedes after basketball. We then went by the Prewitts. Sister Prewitt is doing great. She is good for coming to church now, and is becoming a central figure in fellowshipping Sister Hill. After that, we went over to dinner at Sister Tomasello's home. She had a friend over for dinner who we were able to teach. We then drove down to Cal City and taught the Childress family. Sister Childress came to church the week before, which was awesome! You probably can't tell at all from these names, but we drive a lot. I'll give you all the addresses for one day on one of our busier days.
Sunday went well. We had MCM and church. All went well. Todd Romac came to church for the first time, which was awesome! We went to do stop bys after church, then had dinner with the Jenkins. We then went down to Cal City and did the sacrament for Sister Flowers, then went to visit Collette. It was a good Sunday.
Monday was great. We got Elder Robinson to be with us for a few days. His companion went to Naperville for a few days for meetings. We picked him up at 7:30 AM, then came home for studies. We left to teach Alfreda after our studies. The appointment went pretty well. We then went next door and taught her neighbor who we had talked with after another appointment with Alfreda. We had a good lesson there, and Fannie wants to continue investigating. We then went by the Ervins. We taught them and had a great appointment. After that, we stopped by Barbara's home. We then went to teach LeBron. He's doing well. We then had a spare 1 hour, so we stopped by one Spanish place, but they weren't home. We stopped by Joe Thompson's home (a less active), and he let us in. He is going to come to church on Sunday! We then rushed over to the Hills for our appointment there. We called ahead and ordered a pizza on the way from LeBron and Joe Thompson, then ate it in the car. Thanks for the Pizza Hut card!
Tuesday was quite busy. We went by the Flores family home (109 and St Louis) and taught them at 10:15. We then took their son Lorenzo with us to teach one of Sister Tomasello's friends (98 and Campbell). We then went over to the Rhodes family home (79 and Indiana) and had a lesson there. We then went to teach Charles (100 and Cottage Grove). After that, we went to teach Errol (108 and Wentworth) and get him excited about coming out with us too. After that, we grabbed a Rainbow cone (Pistachio, chocolate, strawberry, orange and vanilla w/ cherries... It sounds weird, but is far superior to any ice cream cone I have ever tasted... It's a Chicago thing!) from the Original Rainbow Cone on 92nd and Western and dropped Lorenzo off. We then drove over to our appointment at the Prewitt home (85th and Wallace). We had about 10 minutes to spare, and felt inspired to stop by a former named Babatunde. We knocked on the door and found out he had been waiting for missionaries to contact him again! He believes the Restoration, and is very excited to be taught! We're really happy about the Lord leading us there. We then went to Prewitts for dinner. That went well. We then went over to the Hodges home (123 and Sangamon) and taught them. Brother Thomas came with us over there to help out. We then went over to the Motts and Melbria's home (both on 91 and Harvard), where we were going to go on splits, but Melbria couldn't meet. We had a great meeting with the Motts. We then drove home (97 and Pulaski). Plug those addresses in on a GPS or Google.
Wednesday was a great day. We taught Alfreda in the morning. We (Elder Gonzalez!!!) extended a baptismal invitation to her with a date and she accepted it. She had a change come upon her in the meeting, and is getting excited! We are too! We know it is going to bless her life so much. We then had a couple of stop bys before going to teach Errol. One of the stop bys turned out well and we got a potential. We got lucky and had an ice cream truck pull up as we got out of the car at Errol's. We otherwise wouldn't have had time to eat that day. I got a strawberry and vanilla cone... Yum! As we taught about teaching, Joe came up. Joe's our bud. He is the one white person that lives anywhere in that area. He is a vet, and is pretty funny. He would be great friends with Grandpa. He tells us how miserable he is, and how he eats dog food. He doesn't like the hard kind though, because it hurts his teeth. There is a homeless guy named Macaroni that lives on the block. He is an old drunk that walks around with two canes (Joe only has one). They really detest each other. It's a pretty funny rivalry. Anyways, Joe is very rude. One thing he said about me was "You were found... Not born!" We asked him what he meant and he asked, "Have you ever looked in a mirror?" He then asked "What (as opposed to who) are you going to get married to?" We always try to get Joe to come to church, but he never will come. We tried to teach him with Errol, which was pretty fun. It didn't really work ( After that practice, we took Errol out with us to teach Vera. It went really well. Errol bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and taught on faith, then went and toured Marquis' room. We talked with Vera, and she said she finally felt something as she read the Book of Mormon. We explained that it was the Spirit and the beginning of her answer. She's happy about that, and wants to keep pressing forwards. We're very happy about that. The Lord just continues to bless us and those we're serving! We then went down to Calumet City (155 and Torrence area... Look that one up!) to visit the Childress family. We then went over to Collette's home and taught her (same area in Cal City). That went well. After that, we drove up to 79th and Cottage to teach Carolyn Hill. She got ready for her baptismal interview, which was on Thursday!
Thursday was a great day. We made a baptismal calendar for Alfreda, which took a while. It turned out really well though. I'll send a picture of it. We then went to Brother Moore's home again. The Lord's work just cannot be stopped... As we drove down an obscure residential street, we ran over a glass bottle that was in the bag on the way over there, and it popped our tire. Within a minute or so of us pulling over, a AAA emergency rescue car drove by. He asked us if we needed help and we said no (people try to get money around here). He just got out of his car and changed the tire then drove off... It was pretty nice! The whole ordeal took about 5 minutes, and we just kept going! We had some good food there. We then took him with us to teach Charles. That went really well. Brother Moore drove with Charles to church one Sunday and Charles almost got in an accident, so Brother Moore is always telling us we better not make him go with Charles... Charles on the other hand always asks Brother Moore to ride with him (honestly without any suggestion from us). Charles got Brother Moore to say yes this time! Hahaha. After we taught Charles, we all went over to visit Alfreda. That went great. She's pretty excited and is moving forwards. We then dropped Brother Moore off and went down to visit Joe Thompson (lives near the lake on 109). We had a good visit there. He should come to church on Sunday. We then went to eat at the Flores family home. Elder John was dropped off there. We then all went over to the Hills for Carolyn's teaching appointment and interview. It all went well. They are all very excited! After that, we came home. We got back at our typical 9:30 and just didn't feel like stopping. It's been hard to go to bed the past several days. We just want to keep working.
Our missionary work has been going so well lately. We were talking last night and we're saying how we wish we could just keep going. This is the busiest I have ever been, and I don't think we could physically be any busier. We are grateful for all the Lord is doing for us. I am so happy to be on a mission. I am determined to continue doing my best and improving until I get home. I know the Gospel is true. It has blessed my life, and I have seen it improve so many others. Happiness truly is a fruit of righteousness. I know the Restoration is true by the power of the Holy Ghost and know that everyone that prays about it with a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ will know also. Please live it, love it, and share it!
I love you all so much! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
It is good to hear from you! Things are going better than ever! Carolyn Hill is ready for her baptism tomorrow! Alfreda accepted a baptismal date (August 21st). We've been very busy. Our days consist of us going from one appointment to the next from about 10:15 AM to 9:30 PM. The Lord is blessing us and we're continuing to find people as we travel from one appointment to the next! How? I really don't know, but we do, and it's nice!
So, how is everything at home? It sounds like it's going very well. Thanks for all you do for me. I've enjoyed everything you sent me for my birthday! I never knew that our McGhie ancestors joined the Church and came to America! That's pretty neat.
Mom and Dad, thank you for the new suits... I say suits because of the deal they had going. You told me to expect a buy one get one half off deal... They ended up having a buy one get two free deal!
So here's some things that have been going on:
Wednesday we went downtown. We took the L up the whole way to the north end of the Loop. We then walked all over. We went up Michigan avenue, and had fun. We were looking for a Jos A Bank, but just couldn't find one (I forgot to get the address before going), but eventually found a Garmin GPS store! We used one of the GPS units there, and found the closest Jos A Bank... Which was right next to the train stop we had gotten off of! I'll be able to pick up my suit on August 4th (conveniently it's Preparation Day). After that, we came back to the ward house and played board games with the District. We then went to the Hills and had a lesson over there. Carolyn has been getting really excited!
Thursday was great. We had our weekly planning in the morning after studies. We then went over to Brother Moore's home for lunch. We had asked for chili and stew, so he mixed them both together. After that, we went out to teach Charles. He is doing well. The family is great. Their house is pretty warm though. After that, we went and taught Vera. She is doing well. She was out of town for a while, but is still progressing! We're excited about her progress. We then went by the Moore twins' home. They're doing well. We then went to the Flores' home for dinner. They're an awesome family, and help us out a lot. We then went over to Melbria's home - right next to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church.
Friday was another good day. We went by the Carlson family home in the morning. We love talking about the Gospel with Sister Carlson. We also practiced teaching. We then went to visit Charles. We are working toward baptism with him. He has a baptismal calendar and the target date of August 21st, but that may not go through. We then went over to Sister Mitchell's home and read the scriptures there. We then went and saw Kathy, who called a while ago when we had left a pass a long card on her door while tracting. We had taught them a couple of times, but they went out of town. She's going to come to the baptism tomorrow. We then had our appointment with Louis. That went well. We then went to the Leal home for dinner. We then went over to the Motts and taught them. We usually go to the Hills on Fridays, but Carolyn was feeling ill. It was good to get to the Motts though.
Saturday was great. We had basketball and taught all of the kids there. We also had some other people come who we taught at the church too. We went over to teach Errol and Mercedes after basketball. We then went by the Prewitts. Sister Prewitt is doing great. She is good for coming to church now, and is becoming a central figure in fellowshipping Sister Hill. After that, we went over to dinner at Sister Tomasello's home. She had a friend over for dinner who we were able to teach. We then drove down to Cal City and taught the Childress family. Sister Childress came to church the week before, which was awesome! You probably can't tell at all from these names, but we drive a lot. I'll give you all the addresses for one day on one of our busier days.
Sunday went well. We had MCM and church. All went well. Todd Romac came to church for the first time, which was awesome! We went to do stop bys after church, then had dinner with the Jenkins. We then went down to Cal City and did the sacrament for Sister Flowers, then went to visit Collette. It was a good Sunday.
Monday was great. We got Elder Robinson to be with us for a few days. His companion went to Naperville for a few days for meetings. We picked him up at 7:30 AM, then came home for studies. We left to teach Alfreda after our studies. The appointment went pretty well. We then went next door and taught her neighbor who we had talked with after another appointment with Alfreda. We had a good lesson there, and Fannie wants to continue investigating. We then went by the Ervins. We taught them and had a great appointment. After that, we stopped by Barbara's home. We then went to teach LeBron. He's doing well. We then had a spare 1 hour, so we stopped by one Spanish place, but they weren't home. We stopped by Joe Thompson's home (a less active), and he let us in. He is going to come to church on Sunday! We then rushed over to the Hills for our appointment there. We called ahead and ordered a pizza on the way from LeBron and Joe Thompson, then ate it in the car. Thanks for the Pizza Hut card!
Tuesday was quite busy. We went by the Flores family home (109 and St Louis) and taught them at 10:15. We then took their son Lorenzo with us to teach one of Sister Tomasello's friends (98 and Campbell). We then went over to the Rhodes family home (79 and Indiana) and had a lesson there. We then went to teach Charles (100 and Cottage Grove). After that, we went to teach Errol (108 and Wentworth) and get him excited about coming out with us too. After that, we grabbed a Rainbow cone (Pistachio, chocolate, strawberry, orange and vanilla w/ cherries... It sounds weird, but is far superior to any ice cream cone I have ever tasted... It's a Chicago thing!) from the Original Rainbow Cone on 92nd and Western and dropped Lorenzo off. We then drove over to our appointment at the Prewitt home (85th and Wallace). We had about 10 minutes to spare, and felt inspired to stop by a former named Babatunde. We knocked on the door and found out he had been waiting for missionaries to contact him again! He believes the Restoration, and is very excited to be taught! We're really happy about the Lord leading us there. We then went to Prewitts for dinner. That went well. We then went over to the Hodges home (123 and Sangamon) and taught them. Brother Thomas came with us over there to help out. We then went over to the Motts and Melbria's home (both on 91 and Harvard), where we were going to go on splits, but Melbria couldn't meet. We had a great meeting with the Motts. We then drove home (97 and Pulaski). Plug those addresses in on a GPS or Google.
Wednesday was a great day. We taught Alfreda in the morning. We (Elder Gonzalez!!!) extended a baptismal invitation to her with a date and she accepted it. She had a change come upon her in the meeting, and is getting excited! We are too! We know it is going to bless her life so much. We then had a couple of stop bys before going to teach Errol. One of the stop bys turned out well and we got a potential. We got lucky and had an ice cream truck pull up as we got out of the car at Errol's. We otherwise wouldn't have had time to eat that day. I got a strawberry and vanilla cone... Yum! As we taught about teaching, Joe came up. Joe's our bud. He is the one white person that lives anywhere in that area. He is a vet, and is pretty funny. He would be great friends with Grandpa. He tells us how miserable he is, and how he eats dog food. He doesn't like the hard kind though, because it hurts his teeth. There is a homeless guy named Macaroni that lives on the block. He is an old drunk that walks around with two canes (Joe only has one). They really detest each other. It's a pretty funny rivalry. Anyways, Joe is very rude. One thing he said about me was "You were found... Not born!" We asked him what he meant and he asked, "Have you ever looked in a mirror?" He then asked "What (as opposed to who) are you going to get married to?" We always try to get Joe to come to church, but he never will come. We tried to teach him with Errol, which was pretty fun. It didn't really work ( After that practice, we took Errol out with us to teach Vera. It went really well. Errol bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and taught on faith, then went and toured Marquis' room. We talked with Vera, and she said she finally felt something as she read the Book of Mormon. We explained that it was the Spirit and the beginning of her answer. She's happy about that, and wants to keep pressing forwards. We're very happy about that. The Lord just continues to bless us and those we're serving! We then went down to Calumet City (155 and Torrence area... Look that one up!) to visit the Childress family. We then went over to Collette's home and taught her (same area in Cal City). That went well. After that, we drove up to 79th and Cottage to teach Carolyn Hill. She got ready for her baptismal interview, which was on Thursday!
Thursday was a great day. We made a baptismal calendar for Alfreda, which took a while. It turned out really well though. I'll send a picture of it. We then went to Brother Moore's home again. The Lord's work just cannot be stopped... As we drove down an obscure residential street, we ran over a glass bottle that was in the bag on the way over there, and it popped our tire. Within a minute or so of us pulling over, a AAA emergency rescue car drove by. He asked us if we needed help and we said no (people try to get money around here). He just got out of his car and changed the tire then drove off... It was pretty nice! The whole ordeal took about 5 minutes, and we just kept going! We had some good food there. We then took him with us to teach Charles. That went really well. Brother Moore drove with Charles to church one Sunday and Charles almost got in an accident, so Brother Moore is always telling us we better not make him go with Charles... Charles on the other hand always asks Brother Moore to ride with him (honestly without any suggestion from us). Charles got Brother Moore to say yes this time! Hahaha. After we taught Charles, we all went over to visit Alfreda. That went great. She's pretty excited and is moving forwards. We then dropped Brother Moore off and went down to visit Joe Thompson (lives near the lake on 109). We had a good visit there. He should come to church on Sunday. We then went to eat at the Flores family home. Elder John was dropped off there. We then all went over to the Hills for Carolyn's teaching appointment and interview. It all went well. They are all very excited! After that, we came home. We got back at our typical 9:30 and just didn't feel like stopping. It's been hard to go to bed the past several days. We just want to keep working.
Our missionary work has been going so well lately. We were talking last night and we're saying how we wish we could just keep going. This is the busiest I have ever been, and I don't think we could physically be any busier. We are grateful for all the Lord is doing for us. I am so happy to be on a mission. I am determined to continue doing my best and improving until I get home. I know the Gospel is true. It has blessed my life, and I have seen it improve so many others. Happiness truly is a fruit of righteousness. I know the Restoration is true by the power of the Holy Ghost and know that everyone that prays about it with a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ will know also. Please live it, love it, and share it!
I love you all so much! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Thursday, July 22, 2010
P-Day Changed
I sat around the computer all morning on Wednesday waiting for my email. Around 11:30ish I got one finally -- from the mission office telling us that P-day was changed to Friday because of training. Oh well... So, update to come on Friday.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Mission Update -- 7/14/10
5 more weeks!! Here's today's email:
Hello Family,
Things are going well. This last week has been great! Thanks for all you've done for me! I loved getting the Birthday cards & gifts.
We're going up to the suit shop soon [Ed suggested that Elder M purchase a new suit while he is in Chicago since he won't have much time while he is home to do it], so I'll be brief:
Wednesday was good. We went out to Naperville, then came back and napped. It was really nice. We then went out with Brother Beer to teach Carolyn Hill. While driving over the top of a hill, we got rear ended. That was a mess. We had to spend a while in the police station figuring that out. The appointment went well though. [No one was hurt -- I read this email and quickly sent him one back to ask, and he said everyone was fine.]
Thursday was great. We did our planning, then went over to Brother Moore's home for lunch. We had a good time there, then went over to visit Charles. He is doing well, and wants to get baptized on the 21st of August. We then went to visit the Ervins, who are doing alright. We gave Towanda a blessing. We then went to a hospital and gave a blessing there as well. We then went to the Flores family home for dinner. They're awesome! After that, we went by the Motts' home and had family home evening. We played a pretty fun game called concentration, where you have about a second to name a book in the Bible no one else has mentioned. If you can't name another, you lose. After that, we went home. We've been busy, and it is nice!
Friday was my Birthday! We went to the Carlsons after our morning schedule, which was nice. Then we got Brother Moore to come out with us to teach Alfreda, who is doing very well (came to church, and is coming again)! We then went by and taught Henry Webster, who is going to be in Tucson for the next couple weeks. After that, we had a couple lessons not go through, so we went to get steak (we otherwise wouldn't have had an opportunity to). We went to an interesting steak house.[Elder M's traditional birthday dinner is steak, so we sent him a gift card so he and Elder G. could go out for steak for his birthday.] The second you stepped into the place you felt the happiness sucked right out of you. They were shocked I ordered a steak medium rare, and even more shocked when I turned down A1. The medium rare steak turned out to be a seared piece of raw beef, so I had to give it back to get cooked a little more. It came back pretty rare, but still was much better. After that, we went and taught Louis. We then had dinner at Tomoko's home. We then went by the Hodges, who are doing well. We then went to teach Carolyn Hill. She is really looking forward to her baptism. Overall, it was a good Birthday. We didn't really do much besides run from one appointment to another, but I'd definitely take that over anything else.
Saturday was fun. We had basketball in the morning and got a couple of new people to our class there. We had a great time playing ball too. After that, we went down to Calumet City and did some work there. The Childress family fed us some carnitas. We went by Victoria's home and had a lesson there. They now have an organ in their home, which is pretty fun. We went by Sister Prewitts home as well (she came back to church this Sunday!), which was nice. After that, we actually had some time to tract! We then had a fall through and went by the Howorths home to help bring a couch into the home... Which turned out to be crazy. We lifted this couch up over the balcony on the 2nd floor apartment because it wouldn't fit up the stairs. It was epic.
Sunday was pretty neat. We had some good people come to church. It was really nice having Alfreda come for the first time! She was taken aback because it is SO unlike Baptist church services around here. She said she needed to talk with Brother Moore about it, which got us a little nervous. We scheduled the appointment for Monday morning. After church, we talked with the Bishopric for a while. We're going to have a new Ward Mission Leader soon because Brother Beer is moving to Utah. We went by the Motts after that, and did some other stop bys. It was a great day overall.
Monday started early with an appointment at Alfreda's home. We had to cut our studies short to get Brother Moore and bring him there, but it went really well. They had a great talk, and she is going to continue attending. We're really excited about that. We then had our District Meeting. We have 2 north side sisters in our district, which are pretty cool. After that, we went out and did stop bys for medias and the like, We then had an appointment with Charles. He is doing well. We then went by and visited Lebron. After that, we met with Todd Romac! We gave him a blessing and got to talk for a while. He hasn't been to church in years, and is going through some really hard times. He should come Sunday, and really make some big changes. He's one that we stopped by and was so amazed at the timing. After that, we had dinner over at the Hills. They made us some catfish and spaghetti. It was good, and filled us up beyond belief. She asked Elder Gonzalez to do the confirmation and me to do the baptism. Sister Carlson and Sister Piecuch are going to give the talks at the service. It should be great.
Tuesday started off in the auto body shop getting an estimate for the repairs on our car. After that, we did our studies and headed out to visit Sister Prewitt. She is different now. It's incredible how much happier she is even from a few days ago. She's going to be solid now for church, and is going to be Carolyn's permanent ride. We're excited about that! We then did some stop bys and finding, which was nice. We also met a man that was convinced we were FBI agents even after we told him we're really representatives of Jesus Christ. He told us all about how we could get into military bases, and fly to Puerto Rico. He sees us young FBI agents cracking down on crime pretty often, which is nice. After that, we went by the Mitchell's home. We then had another appointment with Todd, and also met his sister in law, who isn't a member. That went really well. We then went over to the Ervins' home. They fed us some dinner. I ought to take a picture of some South side food sometime... After that, we went by the Hodges' home again. We got to meet some more relatives and friends over there, which was nice. We then went over to Melbria's. We also got a new air conditioner from the APs because ours broke! We became like most people we teach... Air conditioner-less.
Today is going to be awesome! We're going to take a train up to Chicago! Our plan was to go to Union Station, but I just realized the train from where we are now (Hyde Park) doesn't go there. After spending some time downtown, we'll come back here and play some volleyball. President Doll is awesome... We called him to get permission to go to the suit place in the Loop today and for when I pick my suits up, and he told us to go all around, including Navy Pier!!! When we go to pick up the suits, we'll go to Navy Pier. Today we'll probably look at the bean and some other cool stuff, then come back down.
Well, all is well. I'm loving my mission. I love you a lot! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
Things are going well. This last week has been great! Thanks for all you've done for me! I loved getting the Birthday cards & gifts.
We're going up to the suit shop soon [Ed suggested that Elder M purchase a new suit while he is in Chicago since he won't have much time while he is home to do it], so I'll be brief:
Wednesday was good. We went out to Naperville, then came back and napped. It was really nice. We then went out with Brother Beer to teach Carolyn Hill. While driving over the top of a hill, we got rear ended. That was a mess. We had to spend a while in the police station figuring that out. The appointment went well though. [No one was hurt -- I read this email and quickly sent him one back to ask, and he said everyone was fine.]
Thursday was great. We did our planning, then went over to Brother Moore's home for lunch. We had a good time there, then went over to visit Charles. He is doing well, and wants to get baptized on the 21st of August. We then went to visit the Ervins, who are doing alright. We gave Towanda a blessing. We then went to a hospital and gave a blessing there as well. We then went to the Flores family home for dinner. They're awesome! After that, we went by the Motts' home and had family home evening. We played a pretty fun game called concentration, where you have about a second to name a book in the Bible no one else has mentioned. If you can't name another, you lose. After that, we went home. We've been busy, and it is nice!
Friday was my Birthday! We went to the Carlsons after our morning schedule, which was nice. Then we got Brother Moore to come out with us to teach Alfreda, who is doing very well (came to church, and is coming again)! We then went by and taught Henry Webster, who is going to be in Tucson for the next couple weeks. After that, we had a couple lessons not go through, so we went to get steak (we otherwise wouldn't have had an opportunity to). We went to an interesting steak house.[Elder M's traditional birthday dinner is steak, so we sent him a gift card so he and Elder G. could go out for steak for his birthday.] The second you stepped into the place you felt the happiness sucked right out of you. They were shocked I ordered a steak medium rare, and even more shocked when I turned down A1. The medium rare steak turned out to be a seared piece of raw beef, so I had to give it back to get cooked a little more. It came back pretty rare, but still was much better. After that, we went and taught Louis. We then had dinner at Tomoko's home. We then went by the Hodges, who are doing well. We then went to teach Carolyn Hill. She is really looking forward to her baptism. Overall, it was a good Birthday. We didn't really do much besides run from one appointment to another, but I'd definitely take that over anything else.
Saturday was fun. We had basketball in the morning and got a couple of new people to our class there. We had a great time playing ball too. After that, we went down to Calumet City and did some work there. The Childress family fed us some carnitas. We went by Victoria's home and had a lesson there. They now have an organ in their home, which is pretty fun. We went by Sister Prewitts home as well (she came back to church this Sunday!), which was nice. After that, we actually had some time to tract! We then had a fall through and went by the Howorths home to help bring a couch into the home... Which turned out to be crazy. We lifted this couch up over the balcony on the 2nd floor apartment because it wouldn't fit up the stairs. It was epic.
Sunday was pretty neat. We had some good people come to church. It was really nice having Alfreda come for the first time! She was taken aback because it is SO unlike Baptist church services around here. She said she needed to talk with Brother Moore about it, which got us a little nervous. We scheduled the appointment for Monday morning. After church, we talked with the Bishopric for a while. We're going to have a new Ward Mission Leader soon because Brother Beer is moving to Utah. We went by the Motts after that, and did some other stop bys. It was a great day overall.
Monday started early with an appointment at Alfreda's home. We had to cut our studies short to get Brother Moore and bring him there, but it went really well. They had a great talk, and she is going to continue attending. We're really excited about that. We then had our District Meeting. We have 2 north side sisters in our district, which are pretty cool. After that, we went out and did stop bys for medias and the like, We then had an appointment with Charles. He is doing well. We then went by and visited Lebron. After that, we met with Todd Romac! We gave him a blessing and got to talk for a while. He hasn't been to church in years, and is going through some really hard times. He should come Sunday, and really make some big changes. He's one that we stopped by and was so amazed at the timing. After that, we had dinner over at the Hills. They made us some catfish and spaghetti. It was good, and filled us up beyond belief. She asked Elder Gonzalez to do the confirmation and me to do the baptism. Sister Carlson and Sister Piecuch are going to give the talks at the service. It should be great.
Tuesday started off in the auto body shop getting an estimate for the repairs on our car. After that, we did our studies and headed out to visit Sister Prewitt. She is different now. It's incredible how much happier she is even from a few days ago. She's going to be solid now for church, and is going to be Carolyn's permanent ride. We're excited about that! We then did some stop bys and finding, which was nice. We also met a man that was convinced we were FBI agents even after we told him we're really representatives of Jesus Christ. He told us all about how we could get into military bases, and fly to Puerto Rico. He sees us young FBI agents cracking down on crime pretty often, which is nice. After that, we went by the Mitchell's home. We then had another appointment with Todd, and also met his sister in law, who isn't a member. That went really well. We then went over to the Ervins' home. They fed us some dinner. I ought to take a picture of some South side food sometime... After that, we went by the Hodges' home again. We got to meet some more relatives and friends over there, which was nice. We then went over to Melbria's. We also got a new air conditioner from the APs because ours broke! We became like most people we teach... Air conditioner-less.
Today is going to be awesome! We're going to take a train up to Chicago! Our plan was to go to Union Station, but I just realized the train from where we are now (Hyde Park) doesn't go there. After spending some time downtown, we'll come back here and play some volleyball. President Doll is awesome... We called him to get permission to go to the suit place in the Loop today and for when I pick my suits up, and he told us to go all around, including Navy Pier!!! When we go to pick up the suits, we'll go to Navy Pier. Today we'll probably look at the bean and some other cool stuff, then come back down.
Well, all is well. I'm loving my mission. I love you a lot! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
The 3 Missionary Companionship
Here are Elders Rothlisberger, Gonzalez and McMullin, wearing their mission t-shirts. Elder R. joined Elders G and M as a companion for a 2 week transfer (the last transfer of the Chicago South Mission.)
Mission Update -- 7/7/10
Well, the North and South missions officially combined last week and transfers were held this week. Under President Roach, the missionaries found out where they were going on Tuesday and then transfers were on Thursday. With President Doll (at least this time), they found out on Tuesday morning instead of Tuesday night, and transfers were today. This is Elder M's LAST TRANSFER! Hard to believe. Here's his email:
Hello Family,
Things are going well here. I'm glad to hear good things from home! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAITLIN![Her birthday is 7/8]. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA! [Her birthday is 7/12]. And Happy Birthday Elder McMullin! [His birthday is 7/9]. Thanks for the packages, I really appreciate them. I already opened them, which you of course know I'm very good at doing. Elder Gonzalez and I will be going to the steak house that is across the street from our apartment for lunch most likely on my Birthday!
So, we had transfers today actually... Elder Gonzalez and I are staying together and Elder Rothlisberger left for home. Elder Boyers and Ahlman are going to the Northside. We're getting some north side sisters in the district coming into Blue Island. Hey, awesome news... Jorge Quintana from Naper 4 has got a baptismal date now! He's getting baptized in August, and his family is flying in from New York for it! That is so awesome!
Here it is... The beginning of the end. My last transfer has begun... Which I have to say I am not excited about. I love you all a lot, but wish I had a little while longer. Now I suppose I can only make the most of what time I do have.
Here's some of what's happened this last week:
Wednesday was the Taste of Chicago P day. It was pretty fun. [Now that their mission covers all of Chicago, they don't have the dividing line down the middle of the city!] We drove up there and parked near Edwardo's Pizza. We walked up Michigan to Monroe, then went over. The place was packed. It was really hot too... Especially in Pros (pronounced pross... what missionaries call proselyting clothes). Elder Gonzalez tried some goat. I was looking everywhere for Gino's East pizza, but did not find it. I settled on trying some other pizza that people say is so good. We got a couple of other things too. After that, we went to a haircut place for Elder Gonzalez. Elder Rothlisberger split to go with Brother Jenkins to a couple of appointments, and Elder Gonzalez and I drove 20 miles to an appointment that tubed us. We had another one though, and it ended up being a really good preparation day.
Thursday was awesome. We took Brother Moore with us to visit Barbara. She is awesome, and we really think she'll progress. She told us she was in fact praying for help, and we were an answer to her prayers. We're pretty excited about that. The lesson went well. We taught the Restoration, and the conversation with her and Brother Moore progressed as far to how sad it would be when missionaries got transferred in the future (and how many she would meet through years in the Church). We also had lunch with Brother Moore. He used to be a gang banger (long) before he was a member, and the #1 in his (near 2,000 man) gang passed away recently. Brother Moore was next in line to take control, but he's a member so he of course will not take over. For our lesson we discussed King Benjamin's address before giving away "#1" to Mosiah. We then went to visit Charles Williams and watched the Family Answers DVD with him, which is, by the way, one of the most unique Church DVDs I have ever seen. We then went by the Moore twins' home and had a lesson with them. The family is nice. We went over to the Flores family's home for dinner. It was excellent. They are such an awesome family (less active), and should be coming back to church immediately! We then went by the Motts' home, and had a great lesson there. I love that family so much. We played some catch with their neighbors too.
Friday was the new Mission President meeting. It went really well. President and Sister Doll are awesome. They are very different from President and Sister Roach, but I like them a lot. They just had everyone introduce themselves. It was pretty casual actually. After that, we drove down to Calumet City to visit Collette. That went well. We then went over to visit with Louis. What a drive to and from Cal City. Louis went well. We tried to go by the Rhodes, and were up there for a while. We then went to the Leals for dinner. That was great. We then went by the Hills. While driving, we saw several churches outside on the streets singing and dancing about the Savior. It was pretty sweet. We recorded one group, and I should send that soon. I have really enjoyed my cameramen companions!
Saturday was great. We had a good time at basketball. Brother Mott came out, which was fun. My team won quite a few, but we also lost some close ones. We did our Weekly Planning after that. We then went by Victoria's home. That went well. We had dinner later with Sister Tomoko, which was good. We also got to visit Charles Williams and LeBron. I believe we also stopped by Alfreda's and Sister Prewitts. It was a pretty crazy day of driving around.
Sunday was an awesome 4th of July! We went by Charles' home in the morning, then had a great day at Church. We had taught 26 lessons for the week, and wanted to finish up with 30, which is an amount of lessons that transcends the level of ridiculousness. We said that if we could get 30 we would get I-57 (on a later day). It was down to the wire. 4 lessons between 4:30 and curfew. Everyone was at BBQs and no one wanted to meet. We got an appointment set up with Sister Flowers to teach her and bring her the sacrament. 5:10 - 1 down, 3 to go. We went to do stop bys, but no one was home. 5:30 - 1 down, 3 to go. We got a call and someone gave us frozen food, so we hurried and drive to our apartment to drop it off before dinner. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw red and blue lights flashing. We were worried, but the cops saw our name tags and let us go. 6:00 - 1 down, 3 to go. Dinner was awesome! Sister Jenkins is one of the best cooks I know. She cooked us so many rolls (our favorite), chicken, potatoes, home made desert, etc. It was good, but we were there a while. 7:40 - 2 down, 2 to go. Frantic calls were made, and we drove all the way over there as fast as we could within the speed limit. We contacted the Prewitts, and it turns out they were at home doing nothing. We went by and had a lesson. They had to go soon, so it was quick. 8:30 - 3 down, 1 to go. We would only have 15 minutes or so at anywhere we went so we could get home on time... We had to roll the dice and pick someone. If they weren't home, we couldn't have any I - 57! We went by the Motts. They were home, and it turned out really well. We got 30! We get I - 57! We got to watch their neighbors do fireworks too, which was fun. Now I'm done with this silly paragraph too...
Monday was a great day! We taught Alfreda in the morning before District Meeting. It went really well. We had a good District Meeting afterward. We learned about inviting people to make baptismal commitments. We decided we would do so that day. We went down to visit Collette, but she wasn't home. We took our first lunch break in a long time and ate Quizno's. It was terrible. After that, we finished our planning. We have been all over the place working, so it's been tough to finish all that. We had an awesome lesson with Charles. He ended up setting a baptismal date! Awesome. He had already given us his ashtrays, and started working on quitting smoking. He's set for August 21st. Crazy. We then went by Brother Moore's and got him for some appointments. He came with us to visit Alfreda again. This appointment went even better. She should really start progressing faster now. I'm pretty happy about that. We then went by Sister Hill's. She is doing great! I'm really excited about her baptism.
Tuesday was a good day too. We got transfer calls in the morning. We had a couple of appointments fall through, so we did things to help Elder Rothlisberger prepare to go to Bulgaria. We did get to teach the Hodges, who came to church on Sunday for the first time in years, and also the Ervins and some relatives. We said goodbye to a couple of people for Elder Rothlisberger, and did stop bys. It was a pretty good day.
Today was great. We drove out to Naperville for transfer meeting. We all met up there. It was fun to see people, even though we mostly saw people we didn't know. That was fun though. We also stopped by the mission office on the way back. Not sure what we'll do for the rest of the day until our evening, when we've got an appointment with Sister Hill.
Well, you all take care. I love you a lot. I'm grateful for my opportunity to serve here. Have a great day. Keep the people of Chicago in your prayers please.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
Things are going well here. I'm glad to hear good things from home! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAITLIN![Her birthday is 7/8]. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA! [Her birthday is 7/12]. And Happy Birthday Elder McMullin! [His birthday is 7/9]. Thanks for the packages, I really appreciate them. I already opened them, which you of course know I'm very good at doing. Elder Gonzalez and I will be going to the steak house that is across the street from our apartment for lunch most likely on my Birthday!
So, we had transfers today actually... Elder Gonzalez and I are staying together and Elder Rothlisberger left for home. Elder Boyers and Ahlman are going to the Northside. We're getting some north side sisters in the district coming into Blue Island. Hey, awesome news... Jorge Quintana from Naper 4 has got a baptismal date now! He's getting baptized in August, and his family is flying in from New York for it! That is so awesome!
Here it is... The beginning of the end. My last transfer has begun... Which I have to say I am not excited about. I love you all a lot, but wish I had a little while longer. Now I suppose I can only make the most of what time I do have.
Here's some of what's happened this last week:
Wednesday was the Taste of Chicago P day. It was pretty fun. [Now that their mission covers all of Chicago, they don't have the dividing line down the middle of the city!] We drove up there and parked near Edwardo's Pizza. We walked up Michigan to Monroe, then went over. The place was packed. It was really hot too... Especially in Pros (pronounced pross... what missionaries call proselyting clothes). Elder Gonzalez tried some goat. I was looking everywhere for Gino's East pizza, but did not find it. I settled on trying some other pizza that people say is so good. We got a couple of other things too. After that, we went to a haircut place for Elder Gonzalez. Elder Rothlisberger split to go with Brother Jenkins to a couple of appointments, and Elder Gonzalez and I drove 20 miles to an appointment that tubed us. We had another one though, and it ended up being a really good preparation day.
Thursday was awesome. We took Brother Moore with us to visit Barbara. She is awesome, and we really think she'll progress. She told us she was in fact praying for help, and we were an answer to her prayers. We're pretty excited about that. The lesson went well. We taught the Restoration, and the conversation with her and Brother Moore progressed as far to how sad it would be when missionaries got transferred in the future (and how many she would meet through years in the Church). We also had lunch with Brother Moore. He used to be a gang banger (long) before he was a member, and the #1 in his (near 2,000 man) gang passed away recently. Brother Moore was next in line to take control, but he's a member so he of course will not take over. For our lesson we discussed King Benjamin's address before giving away "#1" to Mosiah. We then went to visit Charles Williams and watched the Family Answers DVD with him, which is, by the way, one of the most unique Church DVDs I have ever seen. We then went by the Moore twins' home and had a lesson with them. The family is nice. We went over to the Flores family's home for dinner. It was excellent. They are such an awesome family (less active), and should be coming back to church immediately! We then went by the Motts' home, and had a great lesson there. I love that family so much. We played some catch with their neighbors too.
Friday was the new Mission President meeting. It went really well. President and Sister Doll are awesome. They are very different from President and Sister Roach, but I like them a lot. They just had everyone introduce themselves. It was pretty casual actually. After that, we drove down to Calumet City to visit Collette. That went well. We then went over to visit with Louis. What a drive to and from Cal City. Louis went well. We tried to go by the Rhodes, and were up there for a while. We then went to the Leals for dinner. That was great. We then went by the Hills. While driving, we saw several churches outside on the streets singing and dancing about the Savior. It was pretty sweet. We recorded one group, and I should send that soon. I have really enjoyed my cameramen companions!
Saturday was great. We had a good time at basketball. Brother Mott came out, which was fun. My team won quite a few, but we also lost some close ones. We did our Weekly Planning after that. We then went by Victoria's home. That went well. We had dinner later with Sister Tomoko, which was good. We also got to visit Charles Williams and LeBron. I believe we also stopped by Alfreda's and Sister Prewitts. It was a pretty crazy day of driving around.
Sunday was an awesome 4th of July! We went by Charles' home in the morning, then had a great day at Church. We had taught 26 lessons for the week, and wanted to finish up with 30, which is an amount of lessons that transcends the level of ridiculousness. We said that if we could get 30 we would get I-57 (on a later day). It was down to the wire. 4 lessons between 4:30 and curfew. Everyone was at BBQs and no one wanted to meet. We got an appointment set up with Sister Flowers to teach her and bring her the sacrament. 5:10 - 1 down, 3 to go. We went to do stop bys, but no one was home. 5:30 - 1 down, 3 to go. We got a call and someone gave us frozen food, so we hurried and drive to our apartment to drop it off before dinner. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw red and blue lights flashing. We were worried, but the cops saw our name tags and let us go. 6:00 - 1 down, 3 to go. Dinner was awesome! Sister Jenkins is one of the best cooks I know. She cooked us so many rolls (our favorite), chicken, potatoes, home made desert, etc. It was good, but we were there a while. 7:40 - 2 down, 2 to go. Frantic calls were made, and we drove all the way over there as fast as we could within the speed limit. We contacted the Prewitts, and it turns out they were at home doing nothing. We went by and had a lesson. They had to go soon, so it was quick. 8:30 - 3 down, 1 to go. We would only have 15 minutes or so at anywhere we went so we could get home on time... We had to roll the dice and pick someone. If they weren't home, we couldn't have any I - 57! We went by the Motts. They were home, and it turned out really well. We got 30! We get I - 57! We got to watch their neighbors do fireworks too, which was fun. Now I'm done with this silly paragraph too...
Monday was a great day! We taught Alfreda in the morning before District Meeting. It went really well. We had a good District Meeting afterward. We learned about inviting people to make baptismal commitments. We decided we would do so that day. We went down to visit Collette, but she wasn't home. We took our first lunch break in a long time and ate Quizno's. It was terrible. After that, we finished our planning. We have been all over the place working, so it's been tough to finish all that. We had an awesome lesson with Charles. He ended up setting a baptismal date! Awesome. He had already given us his ashtrays, and started working on quitting smoking. He's set for August 21st. Crazy. We then went by Brother Moore's and got him for some appointments. He came with us to visit Alfreda again. This appointment went even better. She should really start progressing faster now. I'm pretty happy about that. We then went by Sister Hill's. She is doing great! I'm really excited about her baptism.
Tuesday was a good day too. We got transfer calls in the morning. We had a couple of appointments fall through, so we did things to help Elder Rothlisberger prepare to go to Bulgaria. We did get to teach the Hodges, who came to church on Sunday for the first time in years, and also the Ervins and some relatives. We said goodbye to a couple of people for Elder Rothlisberger, and did stop bys. It was a pretty good day.
Today was great. We drove out to Naperville for transfer meeting. We all met up there. It was fun to see people, even though we mostly saw people we didn't know. That was fun though. We also stopped by the mission office on the way back. Not sure what we'll do for the rest of the day until our evening, when we've got an appointment with Sister Hill.
Well, you all take care. I love you a lot. I'm grateful for my opportunity to serve here. Have a great day. Keep the people of Chicago in your prayers please.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Missionaries with Elder Denter
Edler Denter (one of Elder M's former companions) left for home last transfer (June 24). Here he is with Elder M. and some of the other missionaries in the Chicago South Mission. Elder Denter left just before the missions combined to form the Illinois Chicago Mission.
Basketball
The Elders played basketball with these kids one evening after teaching an investigator. As they played, other people came out to join in. Fun!"Street Contacting" in Chicago
Elder M. says this is a common sight in his neighborhood, unfortunately. However, the missionaries on at least one occasion were able to chat with the police officers (see his email of a few weeks ago.)
Mission Update -- 6/30/10
I've been in San Diego, so am posting a little late. Pictures and video this time (if I can ever figure out how to post the video!) Here's the email:
Hello Family,
President and Sister Roach are now gone. They served well. We now have President and Sister Doll. President Doll called the other night. He will be great. We got permission from him to go to the Taste of Chicago today. That should be fun. Caraline is now preparing for baptism! She wants to get baptized on the 24th of July! Awesome! Things are good with us 3 missionaries, and also covering the whole Ward. We're pretty busy now, which is nice.
Here's some of what's gone on:
Wednesday was fun. We had our last Nerf war. We also helped clean out the Beverly apartment. It stormed like crazy, which it has been a lot lately. We had planned on meeting with Melbria again, but she doesn't like us driving when we've got these crazy storms.
Thursday was a good day. We had our transfer meeting, which was the last time to see President Roach. A lot of missionaries went home too. It was pretty sad. After that, we came back and got some of Elder Rothlisbergers stuff to bring to our apartment. We had a couple appointments too right then. Our first one fell through though. We then went out with Brother Jenkins to find out that Todd Romac (I always think Tony Roma's when I say his name) moved out! We had an appointment with the Prewitts after that though. We had another appointment fall through, so we went to visit Errol and Mercedes. That was pretty fun. It had been a while since going over there. We also had a lesson with the Motts, which went well. Also one with Melbria, who is a really strong member! Our house was so filled with stuff because of having 3 people and the supplies of 2 apartments!
Friday was pretty good. We did organizing for exercise in the morning. We went to the Carlsons' home after studies for a practice lesson. We then got to meet these 2 eleven year old twins that had moved in from Las Vegas for the summer. They were baptized there, and are pretty neat. We also met some man that was staying at their house that was a mystic and told us all about ourselves. It was pretty eerie. After that, we went with Tony Burton to teach his dad. That went well. We stopped at McDonald's for lunch and were approached by a couple from Utah that bought us lunch! It was nice, but kind of strange they were in that neighborhood. We had our dinner appointment with Sister Tomoko, who fed us sushi. After that, we went by the Rhodes and had a lesson there. Brother Rhodes (non member) sat in, which was nice. After that, we went by the Hills. It is so good to be back over there. Caraline is doing really well. I'm very excited for her to progress towards baptism.
Saturday was a great day. We had class at basketball again. It went really well. After basketball our appointments fell through for a while. We helped the Assistants clean out the Beverly apartment and close it down. That took quite some time. We then went to Sister Tomasello's for dinner and to teach Lucy, one of our investigators. We then went by Melbria's.
Sunday was awesome! After MCM, I went on a split with Brother Beer to pick up investigators. We first picked up Vera and Marquis! They were so ready for church. It was awesome to have them come for the first time. It's been about 6 weeks since we tracted into them, and Vera told Bishop she very well may join the church! Marquis was in a ridiculously nice suit. We also picked up Caraline Hill, who is very excited about the 24th of July! She's one worth keeping in prayers. They all enjoyed church. Melbria is doing well too, as is Tonika. It's fun to have them participate so much in class. We also had a family come to church for the first time that we are going to meet tonight! Their sister was baptized in Springfield, and was up here visiting. After church, we went by Victoria's home. They're doing well. We then went to the Jenkins' home for dinner. They are so awesome! We love going over there every Sunday for dinner. After that, we went over to visit the Motts and Melbria.
Monday was a good day. Before District Meeting, we went to a local hospital where Bulgarians work. Elder Rothlisberger is going to go back to Bulgaria soon, and got to have some good practice meeting them. We had a Brother who is a former Chicago missionary in the area. He had married a girl from here, and needed some help loading up stuff for them to move to Texas. We helped out there after our District Meeting. We then went by the Rhodes, who are doing well. Elder Denter called them when we were over. We then went to the family we had tracted into where we felt particularly led by God. The lesson went great! The family is awesome, and we're very excited for them to progress. We will meet them again tomorrow morning. After that, we went by the Prewitts, who gave us some Polish sausages. We then went by the Hills to help Caraline get ready for baptism.
Tuesday proselyting started off at Tonika's home. We had a lesson there. She is doing well. We then went by Charles' home. He's doing alright. We hope to help him accelerate his progression. We then went down to Cal city and met with Esau and the Forrests. The Forrests gave us a ton of food. Probably literally a ton. We filled up our freezer. We then went on a split. I went with Brother Jenkins to visit a semi active family and Elders G and R went to the Ervins. After that, we went by the Florez' home. They had gone less active, but are awesome. They're going to feed us tomorrow, and should be coming back to church!
Thats pretty much it now. Things are great! The Gospel is true, and I love you! Have a great time at the beach. I hope things are well in Snowflake.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
President and Sister Roach are now gone. They served well. We now have President and Sister Doll. President Doll called the other night. He will be great. We got permission from him to go to the Taste of Chicago today. That should be fun. Caraline is now preparing for baptism! She wants to get baptized on the 24th of July! Awesome! Things are good with us 3 missionaries, and also covering the whole Ward. We're pretty busy now, which is nice.
Here's some of what's gone on:
Wednesday was fun. We had our last Nerf war. We also helped clean out the Beverly apartment. It stormed like crazy, which it has been a lot lately. We had planned on meeting with Melbria again, but she doesn't like us driving when we've got these crazy storms.
Thursday was a good day. We had our transfer meeting, which was the last time to see President Roach. A lot of missionaries went home too. It was pretty sad. After that, we came back and got some of Elder Rothlisbergers stuff to bring to our apartment. We had a couple appointments too right then. Our first one fell through though. We then went out with Brother Jenkins to find out that Todd Romac (I always think Tony Roma's when I say his name) moved out! We had an appointment with the Prewitts after that though. We had another appointment fall through, so we went to visit Errol and Mercedes. That was pretty fun. It had been a while since going over there. We also had a lesson with the Motts, which went well. Also one with Melbria, who is a really strong member! Our house was so filled with stuff because of having 3 people and the supplies of 2 apartments!
Friday was pretty good. We did organizing for exercise in the morning. We went to the Carlsons' home after studies for a practice lesson. We then got to meet these 2 eleven year old twins that had moved in from Las Vegas for the summer. They were baptized there, and are pretty neat. We also met some man that was staying at their house that was a mystic and told us all about ourselves. It was pretty eerie. After that, we went with Tony Burton to teach his dad. That went well. We stopped at McDonald's for lunch and were approached by a couple from Utah that bought us lunch! It was nice, but kind of strange they were in that neighborhood. We had our dinner appointment with Sister Tomoko, who fed us sushi. After that, we went by the Rhodes and had a lesson there. Brother Rhodes (non member) sat in, which was nice. After that, we went by the Hills. It is so good to be back over there. Caraline is doing really well. I'm very excited for her to progress towards baptism.
Saturday was a great day. We had class at basketball again. It went really well. After basketball our appointments fell through for a while. We helped the Assistants clean out the Beverly apartment and close it down. That took quite some time. We then went to Sister Tomasello's for dinner and to teach Lucy, one of our investigators. We then went by Melbria's.
Sunday was awesome! After MCM, I went on a split with Brother Beer to pick up investigators. We first picked up Vera and Marquis! They were so ready for church. It was awesome to have them come for the first time. It's been about 6 weeks since we tracted into them, and Vera told Bishop she very well may join the church! Marquis was in a ridiculously nice suit. We also picked up Caraline Hill, who is very excited about the 24th of July! She's one worth keeping in prayers. They all enjoyed church. Melbria is doing well too, as is Tonika. It's fun to have them participate so much in class. We also had a family come to church for the first time that we are going to meet tonight! Their sister was baptized in Springfield, and was up here visiting. After church, we went by Victoria's home. They're doing well. We then went to the Jenkins' home for dinner. They are so awesome! We love going over there every Sunday for dinner. After that, we went over to visit the Motts and Melbria.
Monday was a good day. Before District Meeting, we went to a local hospital where Bulgarians work. Elder Rothlisberger is going to go back to Bulgaria soon, and got to have some good practice meeting them. We had a Brother who is a former Chicago missionary in the area. He had married a girl from here, and needed some help loading up stuff for them to move to Texas. We helped out there after our District Meeting. We then went by the Rhodes, who are doing well. Elder Denter called them when we were over. We then went to the family we had tracted into where we felt particularly led by God. The lesson went great! The family is awesome, and we're very excited for them to progress. We will meet them again tomorrow morning. After that, we went by the Prewitts, who gave us some Polish sausages. We then went by the Hills to help Caraline get ready for baptism.
Tuesday proselyting started off at Tonika's home. We had a lesson there. She is doing well. We then went by Charles' home. He's doing alright. We hope to help him accelerate his progression. We then went down to Cal city and met with Esau and the Forrests. The Forrests gave us a ton of food. Probably literally a ton. We filled up our freezer. We then went on a split. I went with Brother Jenkins to visit a semi active family and Elders G and R went to the Ervins. After that, we went by the Florez' home. They had gone less active, but are awesome. They're going to feed us tomorrow, and should be coming back to church!
Thats pretty much it now. Things are great! The Gospel is true, and I love you! Have a great time at the beach. I hope things are well in Snowflake.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Update Update
The email came in next day! Don't know what happened, but here is yesterday's update (6/23/10). Make sure to look at the pictures after this post. Those came through even though the email didn't! Anyway here is the email:
Hello family,
I can't believe how fast my mission is going. It seems like I'm constantly emailing home these updates. We just got transfer calls for what would have been the last time if our mission wasn't getting combined. I'm grateful it is at this point. Elder Gonzalez and I will stay together. We'll also have Elder Rothlisberger for a couple of weeks until he flies out to his mission in Bulgaria. He was ill and is making a pit stop in Chicago. We will be covering the entire Ward, so that will be absolutely crazy. It will be neat to begin teaching those I taught last transfer again. Melbria was baptized this week, which went well. The Spirit was there very strongly. We had a great turnout. Even Caraline Hill came, and we talked with her about baptism. She has been thinking about it for a long time, and feels it is now time. She wants to get baptized in July! Awesome! She's thinking about July 24th, so we'll work with her for that day. We'll make her a baptismal calendar and give it to her Friday. She's also going to start making catfish again!
Anyways, here's a day to day for some of what's happened:
Last Wednesday was Zone Activity. It was very fun. We went to a field and played Chicagoball (softball with a squishy ball), football, and soccer. I got my package with the CDs! Thank you so much, Mom! They're perfect. After that, we went out to teach Melbria to help her get ready for her baptism. That went well. She was very excited for it.
Thursday was a good day. We had some good time to find and teach. We get pretty sweaty now when we tract because it's hot and humid. We met with Sister Prewitt, who is doing better. We also met with Alfreda, and had a great appointment! She's progressing. We talked a lot about church and baptism. We then got to meet with Kathy and Billy again. We had Brother Thomas there with us, and it went well. Billy is getting very excited! He loved learning, and is looking forward to coming to church. He couldn't that Sunday, but is going to come this Sunday. We then tried to teach some of Sister Tomasello's neighbors and watched the Finding Faith in Christ movie, which is great by the way. We went to the Motts in the evening, and had a great appointment. They're moving forward. We then had Melbria's baptismal interview. Both Melbria and Elder Ferrel can talk. It was about an hour long. They seemed to have a great time though, and we all had fun outside. There are a ton of kids in Melbria's neighborhood that just roam around everywhere.
Friday was a good day. We got our house inspected in the morning. We passed! We did some finding and had an appointment with Rick. We were so hot already, then he wanted to have the lesson outside. We've been broiled in our suit pants (and our long sleeve shirts that we tend to put on on what turn into the hottest of days), until we sweat half of our body weight out, then we've been steamed. We've had many hours to tract too! It's actually been great, we've met so many great people tracting. We had tracted into Rick a few weeks before actually. We then taught the Howorth family, who is less active, and helped them move some furniture. We then did some finding I would imagine, and got ready to teach Louis. A huge storm came in really fast right before we taught Louis. It was incredible how fast the weather changed. We enjoyed watching a seagull trying to fly to where we imagined his nest was in the wind. He was beating his wings so hard, but was going backwards, sideways, and every other way besides forwards. He got pushed really far away, then came back when there was a lull in the wind. Right when he almost got to where he wanted to go, the wind came back. He unfortunately couldn't make it home. We had dinner at the Leals, who are the family I had dinner with in Stockyards. They go to the Morgan Park Ward, but actually live in the Stockyards area. We got permission to go to there house.
Saturday was awesome. We got everything ready for the baptism. The hot water heater is broken, so we boiled some water too. It does give some hot water, but not very much. The baptism was excellent. One of the best I've ever been to. I gave a talk on baptism. Melbria bore her testimony at the end, and it was excellent. After that, we had some appointments fall through, so we went to visit Lebron. He's doing well. We did some stop bys and finding, and that was pretty much it for the day.
Sunday was a fairly slow day teaching wise. We had a great day at church. Melbria's confirmation went well. We went to the Jenkins for dinner after church. They are so awesome. We love going over there! After that, we went to the Motts. That was pretty much it for the day.
Monday was good. We got to visit the Motts and Melbria. We had a lot of time to find as well, because our other appointments fell through. It was hot. We had a good district meeting, and had some homemade ice cream a member made for us! Most of our day was finding.
Tuesday was excellent. We had our best appointment yet with Vera. She has stopped going to her old church, and is going to come to church with us on Sunday. She also wants to begin attending institute. She is doing so well, and we're excited she is progressing! We then had a lot of tracting before going to give a member a blessing. After that we had a lot more tracting! It's been nice to have time to do that. We've shifted our focus from some dead ends to finding new people, and have been blessed with the likes of Alfreda, Rick, Kathy and Billy, and others! We got another one Tuesday. We had about 30 minutes to find before meeting up with Brother Jenkins to do stop bys. We picked some hidden street that had overgrowth on the sidewalk. We figured no one had ever tracted the street, and even wondered why we were going to. At the house right after a cussing old man, we met what seems to be a golden family. The lady had a Book of Mormon in Georgia, but never got to take the lessons. She started crying when we told her who we were, and we had the strong feeling she had prayed for us, or at least something and we were the answer. We gave it to her, and set up an appointment after talking for some time. Her in law listened as we talked, and wondered about the unusual feeling she had as she listened to us teach and testify. She said she would get everyone in the family ready for our appointment this week! We're excited to see how it goes. I'm grateful we were led there by God. After that, we stopped by a less active with Brother Jenkins who told us how he had been thinking a lot lately about getting spiritual. Once again, we were led to the right person at exactly the right time. He was so amazed at the power of God to lead his servants. We're excited to meet with him. We also got to meet with the Rhodes, which was nice.
Today should be good! We're going to have a nerf war. Our District will only be us, and 1 set of Spanish Elders next transfer. The two Spanish areas are getting combined. Elder John and Elder Robinson will be there.
Things are great! The Gospel is true. I love you. Thanks for all you do.
Sincerely,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello family,
I can't believe how fast my mission is going. It seems like I'm constantly emailing home these updates. We just got transfer calls for what would have been the last time if our mission wasn't getting combined. I'm grateful it is at this point. Elder Gonzalez and I will stay together. We'll also have Elder Rothlisberger for a couple of weeks until he flies out to his mission in Bulgaria. He was ill and is making a pit stop in Chicago. We will be covering the entire Ward, so that will be absolutely crazy. It will be neat to begin teaching those I taught last transfer again. Melbria was baptized this week, which went well. The Spirit was there very strongly. We had a great turnout. Even Caraline Hill came, and we talked with her about baptism. She has been thinking about it for a long time, and feels it is now time. She wants to get baptized in July! Awesome! She's thinking about July 24th, so we'll work with her for that day. We'll make her a baptismal calendar and give it to her Friday. She's also going to start making catfish again!
Anyways, here's a day to day for some of what's happened:
Last Wednesday was Zone Activity. It was very fun. We went to a field and played Chicagoball (softball with a squishy ball), football, and soccer. I got my package with the CDs! Thank you so much, Mom! They're perfect. After that, we went out to teach Melbria to help her get ready for her baptism. That went well. She was very excited for it.
Thursday was a good day. We had some good time to find and teach. We get pretty sweaty now when we tract because it's hot and humid. We met with Sister Prewitt, who is doing better. We also met with Alfreda, and had a great appointment! She's progressing. We talked a lot about church and baptism. We then got to meet with Kathy and Billy again. We had Brother Thomas there with us, and it went well. Billy is getting very excited! He loved learning, and is looking forward to coming to church. He couldn't that Sunday, but is going to come this Sunday. We then tried to teach some of Sister Tomasello's neighbors and watched the Finding Faith in Christ movie, which is great by the way. We went to the Motts in the evening, and had a great appointment. They're moving forward. We then had Melbria's baptismal interview. Both Melbria and Elder Ferrel can talk. It was about an hour long. They seemed to have a great time though, and we all had fun outside. There are a ton of kids in Melbria's neighborhood that just roam around everywhere.
Friday was a good day. We got our house inspected in the morning. We passed! We did some finding and had an appointment with Rick. We were so hot already, then he wanted to have the lesson outside. We've been broiled in our suit pants (and our long sleeve shirts that we tend to put on on what turn into the hottest of days), until we sweat half of our body weight out, then we've been steamed. We've had many hours to tract too! It's actually been great, we've met so many great people tracting. We had tracted into Rick a few weeks before actually. We then taught the Howorth family, who is less active, and helped them move some furniture. We then did some finding I would imagine, and got ready to teach Louis. A huge storm came in really fast right before we taught Louis. It was incredible how fast the weather changed. We enjoyed watching a seagull trying to fly to where we imagined his nest was in the wind. He was beating his wings so hard, but was going backwards, sideways, and every other way besides forwards. He got pushed really far away, then came back when there was a lull in the wind. Right when he almost got to where he wanted to go, the wind came back. He unfortunately couldn't make it home. We had dinner at the Leals, who are the family I had dinner with in Stockyards. They go to the Morgan Park Ward, but actually live in the Stockyards area. We got permission to go to there house.
Saturday was awesome. We got everything ready for the baptism. The hot water heater is broken, so we boiled some water too. It does give some hot water, but not very much. The baptism was excellent. One of the best I've ever been to. I gave a talk on baptism. Melbria bore her testimony at the end, and it was excellent. After that, we had some appointments fall through, so we went to visit Lebron. He's doing well. We did some stop bys and finding, and that was pretty much it for the day.
Sunday was a fairly slow day teaching wise. We had a great day at church. Melbria's confirmation went well. We went to the Jenkins for dinner after church. They are so awesome. We love going over there! After that, we went to the Motts. That was pretty much it for the day.
Monday was good. We got to visit the Motts and Melbria. We had a lot of time to find as well, because our other appointments fell through. It was hot. We had a good district meeting, and had some homemade ice cream a member made for us! Most of our day was finding.
Tuesday was excellent. We had our best appointment yet with Vera. She has stopped going to her old church, and is going to come to church with us on Sunday. She also wants to begin attending institute. She is doing so well, and we're excited she is progressing! We then had a lot of tracting before going to give a member a blessing. After that we had a lot more tracting! It's been nice to have time to do that. We've shifted our focus from some dead ends to finding new people, and have been blessed with the likes of Alfreda, Rick, Kathy and Billy, and others! We got another one Tuesday. We had about 30 minutes to find before meeting up with Brother Jenkins to do stop bys. We picked some hidden street that had overgrowth on the sidewalk. We figured no one had ever tracted the street, and even wondered why we were going to. At the house right after a cussing old man, we met what seems to be a golden family. The lady had a Book of Mormon in Georgia, but never got to take the lessons. She started crying when we told her who we were, and we had the strong feeling she had prayed for us, or at least something and we were the answer. We gave it to her, and set up an appointment after talking for some time. Her in law listened as we talked, and wondered about the unusual feeling she had as she listened to us teach and testify. She said she would get everyone in the family ready for our appointment this week! We're excited to see how it goes. I'm grateful we were led there by God. After that, we stopped by a less active with Brother Jenkins who told us how he had been thinking a lot lately about getting spiritual. Once again, we were led to the right person at exactly the right time. He was so amazed at the power of God to lead his servants. We're excited to meet with him. We also got to meet with the Rhodes, which was nice.
Today should be good! We're going to have a nerf war. Our District will only be us, and 1 set of Spanish Elders next transfer. The two Spanish areas are getting combined. Elder John and Elder Robinson will be there.
Things are great! The Gospel is true. I love you. Thanks for all you do.
Sincerely,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
View from 3rd Floor Apartment in Beverly
This is the view from the apartment that Elder M lived in when he was in the Beverly area (last transfer). 
Chicago Bug
Elder M says, "Here's a Chicago bug. They have these in apartments. They're really weird and pretty gross."Broken Fire Hydrant
Some people are enjoying the broken fire hydrant close by the Morgan Park church building.
Mission Update 6/23/10
Well, I don't think Elder M. sent us an email this week! He sent several pictures and had to resend them a few times, but no email came through. In one note with the pictures he told me that he and Elder Gonzalez will cover the combined area (Beverly and Evergreen, which is the one they've been in this past transfer) -- i.e. all the Morgan Park Ward, but that they will have Elder Rothlisberger with them in a 3 person companionship for a couple of weeks. Because the missions are combining next week, Chicago South will change to the Chicago North transfer schedule, which will mean that they have transfers again in 2 weeks. At that point Elder R. will be headed to Bulgaria. He had been in Bulgaria but came to the US for health reasons. Now he is going to head back once all his medical issues have been cleared. So, we'll see what happens in 2 weeks at the next transfer! Elders M and Gonzalez were headed off to have a Nerf war this afternoon for p-day.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Mission Update 6/16/10
Who's counting....but Elder M only has 9 weeks left!!! I'm getting pretty excited, if you can't tell. His mission president sent the plane reservation info. by mail this past week (we had already been sent it by email) with a letter telling us to keep our letters focused on missionary work. (Don't talk about parties, vacations, etc. that will be happening when the missionary gets home, etc.) Good advice and a good reminder!! I'm being good and not talking to him about it, but believe me, I'm thinking about it! Anyway, here's the weekly email:
Hello family!
This week has been great. It sounds like you've had a good week as well. Good job at your swim meet, Tay! That's so cool you got to swim against Olympians and record holders! Did you swim in the same heat as anyone famous? [haha, no!] Grandpa & Dad, I have Father's Day cards I'm going to send you probably today or tomorrow! I also have to send something for Baby Cait and Granny for your B-Days! Are you feeling 100%, Mom?
So, we've been doing really well. We had a pretty fun week. It has rained a lot! We have got soaked as we go out in the rain. It was raining so hard last night when we were tracting. We had a 91 year old man in a house that tried to take our umbrellas! We told him we could come back later & teach him too, but he told us to get out of there (before the boogie man got us)! We had a pretty great week for appointments falling through. I think we may have set a record... 30 (no exaggeration at all) appointments that we didn't get to teach a lesson at! Incredible. We still had a lot of wonderful things happen, and only fell 2 lessons short of the standard (20), which was a blessing. Anyways, here's a bit of what happened:
Wednesday was fun. We had a great time having a Nerf war with the district at the church. After that, Elder Robinson came with me to serve in Evergreen. He's a Spanish Elder, and this was his first exchange in an English area. Our first appointment got upset when we gave him a pass a long card with a picture of the Savior, because He doesn't have black skin. We got that mostly cleared up. We then tried some finding, and met interesting (pretty much everyone on the south side) people. We had our night appointment with Melbria. It was fun talking with Elder Robinson that night too. He has read a lot of the same books I've read (by the way Mom, I think the rule you had of bed time at 8:30 unless you are reading, was a great rule).
Thursday was a good day. We met 2 more people with the same issue as the man from the previous evening. We tracted into some nuts people as well. We had an appointment with the Carlsons, which was great. They also made us some raw men for lunch (ramen with a bunch of vegetables added in). Pretty much all of our appointments fell through, so we did a lot of finding. It was nice because we got to knock off a ton of the potentials we had found. We switched back right before dinner (which canceled). We had a member invite us over for desert, which was nice. We then went out to do stop bys for the evening. We did a lot of work this day, but not too much happened.
Friday was good. We only had 2 appointments fall through before our first good one. We had Brother Cunningham come with us to teach Van. It went really well. He's on the right path, and is just working to get past smoking. Brother Cunningham will be good to help him get past that. We then had a member that was going to come out with us to a couple appointments fall through, so we had to scramble to find someone else. We ended up getting Brother Tony Burton. He came out with us, and got to meet some of Vera's family (they rescheduled their appointment to Saturday). We had a great appointment with the Motts, and also a great one with Melbria. We went through the baptismal interview questions with her, and she is good to go!
We had basketball Saturday morning. We finally got to teach them all. It went pretty well. We taught about the Savior, the Atonement, the Book of Mormon, and the Restoration. It was also fun playing basketball. We took Brother Moore out with us to teach Vera, which was perfect. She has a hurt leg, so doesn't move around much now, but will come to church when she heals. We're going to bring Errol and Mercedes for her son to meet! We also went by LeBron's, which was perfect. We ate dinner at a fried chicken place, and got to meet a Muslim man. We taught and talked with him for a long time. He was a really neat guy, and was excited to read the Book of Mormon, and pamphlets we gave him. He would get excited and high five us when we told him certain things like, "we do not believe in the trinity." After that, we went over to Melbria's, but she had fallen asleep already, so we went by the Motts. It was good to be over there again.
Sunday was a good day. Melbria was very excited at church. All went well. We went to the Jenkins' home for dinner. They are such an awesome family! We did finding until our appointment with Melbria in the evening. Brother Ennis and Sister Porter helped us teach, which went well. All of them are talkers. We could have been there all night, but we left them with a prayer after a while. We love how Melbria is getting along so well with members!
Monday was pretty good. We had a lot of fall throughs again, but had a lot of good things. We did some finding, and did find 3 new investigators. We had left a pass a long card at their house a couple of days ago when tracting and they called the number. We got to teach them, and it went great! We're going to continue teaching this family and their friend. We had a lot of finding that day too, which I believe was really warm.
Tuesday we got to teach Van again. He is doing well. He's finishing up the book of Alma now for his Book of Mormon reading. We also went by the Mitchells home for a lesson. We had an appointment set with a former to give her husband a blessing at the hospital, but he was asleep when we got there. We did some great tracting in a downpour. To us it felt like our testimony had a lot more weight when we were waterlogged. We did service in the morning, which was really good. We helped a family from the Spanish Ward move some things out of their garage. They cooked us some awesome breakfast! They also served tamarindo juice, which you have to try...
Today should be fun! We have Zone Activity really soon up near the Stockyards apartment. We're going to play Chicagoball (softball with a larger and softer ball than normal softball), which is one of the most fun P-Day activities ever invented! Tonight we'll probably go visit the Prewitts and Melbria.
Well, there you go. I'm loving my mission! The Gospel is true, and I'm grateful it has blessed me so much. It's blessing the lives of those I'm teaching, and I hope to help others receive the blessings from it soon.
Take care!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello family!
This week has been great. It sounds like you've had a good week as well. Good job at your swim meet, Tay! That's so cool you got to swim against Olympians and record holders! Did you swim in the same heat as anyone famous? [haha, no!] Grandpa & Dad, I have Father's Day cards I'm going to send you probably today or tomorrow! I also have to send something for Baby Cait and Granny for your B-Days! Are you feeling 100%, Mom?
So, we've been doing really well. We had a pretty fun week. It has rained a lot! We have got soaked as we go out in the rain. It was raining so hard last night when we were tracting. We had a 91 year old man in a house that tried to take our umbrellas! We told him we could come back later & teach him too, but he told us to get out of there (before the boogie man got us)! We had a pretty great week for appointments falling through. I think we may have set a record... 30 (no exaggeration at all) appointments that we didn't get to teach a lesson at! Incredible. We still had a lot of wonderful things happen, and only fell 2 lessons short of the standard (20), which was a blessing. Anyways, here's a bit of what happened:
Wednesday was fun. We had a great time having a Nerf war with the district at the church. After that, Elder Robinson came with me to serve in Evergreen. He's a Spanish Elder, and this was his first exchange in an English area. Our first appointment got upset when we gave him a pass a long card with a picture of the Savior, because He doesn't have black skin. We got that mostly cleared up. We then tried some finding, and met interesting (pretty much everyone on the south side) people. We had our night appointment with Melbria. It was fun talking with Elder Robinson that night too. He has read a lot of the same books I've read (by the way Mom, I think the rule you had of bed time at 8:30 unless you are reading, was a great rule).
Thursday was a good day. We met 2 more people with the same issue as the man from the previous evening. We tracted into some nuts people as well. We had an appointment with the Carlsons, which was great. They also made us some raw men for lunch (ramen with a bunch of vegetables added in). Pretty much all of our appointments fell through, so we did a lot of finding. It was nice because we got to knock off a ton of the potentials we had found. We switched back right before dinner (which canceled). We had a member invite us over for desert, which was nice. We then went out to do stop bys for the evening. We did a lot of work this day, but not too much happened.
Friday was good. We only had 2 appointments fall through before our first good one. We had Brother Cunningham come with us to teach Van. It went really well. He's on the right path, and is just working to get past smoking. Brother Cunningham will be good to help him get past that. We then had a member that was going to come out with us to a couple appointments fall through, so we had to scramble to find someone else. We ended up getting Brother Tony Burton. He came out with us, and got to meet some of Vera's family (they rescheduled their appointment to Saturday). We had a great appointment with the Motts, and also a great one with Melbria. We went through the baptismal interview questions with her, and she is good to go!
We had basketball Saturday morning. We finally got to teach them all. It went pretty well. We taught about the Savior, the Atonement, the Book of Mormon, and the Restoration. It was also fun playing basketball. We took Brother Moore out with us to teach Vera, which was perfect. She has a hurt leg, so doesn't move around much now, but will come to church when she heals. We're going to bring Errol and Mercedes for her son to meet! We also went by LeBron's, which was perfect. We ate dinner at a fried chicken place, and got to meet a Muslim man. We taught and talked with him for a long time. He was a really neat guy, and was excited to read the Book of Mormon, and pamphlets we gave him. He would get excited and high five us when we told him certain things like, "we do not believe in the trinity." After that, we went over to Melbria's, but she had fallen asleep already, so we went by the Motts. It was good to be over there again.
Sunday was a good day. Melbria was very excited at church. All went well. We went to the Jenkins' home for dinner. They are such an awesome family! We did finding until our appointment with Melbria in the evening. Brother Ennis and Sister Porter helped us teach, which went well. All of them are talkers. We could have been there all night, but we left them with a prayer after a while. We love how Melbria is getting along so well with members!
Monday was pretty good. We had a lot of fall throughs again, but had a lot of good things. We did some finding, and did find 3 new investigators. We had left a pass a long card at their house a couple of days ago when tracting and they called the number. We got to teach them, and it went great! We're going to continue teaching this family and their friend. We had a lot of finding that day too, which I believe was really warm.
Tuesday we got to teach Van again. He is doing well. He's finishing up the book of Alma now for his Book of Mormon reading. We also went by the Mitchells home for a lesson. We had an appointment set with a former to give her husband a blessing at the hospital, but he was asleep when we got there. We did some great tracting in a downpour. To us it felt like our testimony had a lot more weight when we were waterlogged. We did service in the morning, which was really good. We helped a family from the Spanish Ward move some things out of their garage. They cooked us some awesome breakfast! They also served tamarindo juice, which you have to try...
Today should be fun! We have Zone Activity really soon up near the Stockyards apartment. We're going to play Chicagoball (softball with a larger and softer ball than normal softball), which is one of the most fun P-Day activities ever invented! Tonight we'll probably go visit the Prewitts and Melbria.
Well, there you go. I'm loving my mission! The Gospel is true, and I'm grateful it has blessed me so much. It's blessing the lives of those I'm teaching, and I hope to help others receive the blessings from it soon.
Take care!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Elder McMullin with President and Sister Roach
President and Sister Roach are being released on July 1. This picture was taken at their farewell Zone Conference on June 3. Elder M. has loved President and Sister Roach and will miss them when they leave (although he won't be too far behind them!)
Elders at the Chicago Field Museum
Not the greatest picture quality, but kind of a neat picture of the Elders at the museum on a P day. Elder McMullin and his District
Here's Elder McMullin's District at the Field Museum in late May or early June 2010.
Mission Update -- 6/9/10
Elders McMullin and Gonzalez have a baptism coming up on June 19th! Here's Elder M's email:
Hello Family,
How are you doing? I hope you are having a great day! Things are going well here. I hope you are all healthy! Are you excited for Sandy Ogie? It should be fun!
So, our investigators are doing great. Melbria is getting ready for her baptism and is very excited. She asked Bishop Baxter to do the baptism when we were at church! He's getting really excited also, so it's perfect. Our other investigators are progressing, and we've been able to meet a lot of people finding.
Here's a day to day summary of some things that have gone on:
Last Wednesday was really fun! We did the preparation stuff, and had a great time at the church with the District. We all bought some cheap Nerf guns, and had a huge fight. It was really fun actually. We're going to do the same thing again today, which should be fun. We went to dinner at Sister Tomasello's home and ate dinner there with the Beers. After that, we went by Melbria's.
Thursday was a good day. We had Zone Conference. It was President and Sister Roach's last Zone Conference, which was pretty sad. They had the "silver plates," which they had found which were written just like Nephi's plates. It talked about every area and missionary in the Zone, and also had some writings from President and Sister Roach. It was pretty funny. We had one of the Spanish Wards make lunch for us, and it was pozole, which is really good. After Zone Conference, we came back to the Morgan Park church house and helped with another funeral. People just keep passing away around here. We then went to go out to find, and I believe found some potentials. We got an appointment with one that seemed pretty excited. We also met a couple of Hispanic people for Elder Gonzalez to teach in Espanol. We had an appointment with the Motts too, which went really well. They're a great family.
Friday was pretty good. We started proselyting and went out to the Mitchells home. We read out of the Book of Mormon there. We then went to teach Van, who is doing pretty well. We then had some time to find before getting to teach Alfreda. She's the lady we met while trying to stop by formers. She is actually really great! One of our top investigators now. We had a great appointment there. We then went to the Leals for dinner. It had been over a year and a half since going there, and it was great. They're an awesome family, and are going to continue having us over. We then went by Melbria's.
Saturday we did Weekly Planning (usually Thursday, but we had been busy). We also ate some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch (meal #1). We then went out to teach someone we had tracted into, but just like Mom's appointment with an investigator, it fell through. [I told him in my email to him that the missionaries here in Tempe had asked me to go visit some investigators. I set up the appointment, but when I got there, the investigators weren't home. Brad says that is called getting "tubed", so I guess I was "tubed" just like the missionaries :-)] We then went by a less actives home, and had a lesson there. She gave us sandwiches (meal #2), and a watermelon. We took the watermelon home, and made smoothies out of it and some strawberries we had (meal #3). We then went to meet with Brother Butler, and give his brother a blessing. He bought us too much McDonald's (meal #4 - 2 chicken sandwiches, both of which were close to 400 calories)! We then went over to teach one of Sister Tomasello's friends. We watched a DVD there. Sister T gave Elder Gonzalez some candy (meal #4.5). We then went by the Prewitt's home and found out Sister Prewitt had bought a ton of food for us! We had a bunch of fried chicken, greens, mac n cheese, rolls, and cake! She made sure we ate up too. We were dying as we consumed meal #5! Dad, you told us in a letter we should get fried chicken, and that it is only greasy on the outside... We've had Harold's, which is the famous south side joint, and also this chicken, and some other chicken... It definitely is greasy on the inside as well as the outside! It is deadly (you can't got more than 5 minutes without seeing an ambulance around here), but it does taste good. After that, we went over to Melbria's.
Sunday was great. We went around to do stop bys before church. We had choir, which was fun. We then had MCM. After that, we had church. Melbria asked Bishop to baptize her, which was great. He gave her a Neal A Maxwell book to read, and she has loved it. She is doing so well at church, and is here to stay. The rest of church was great too. Van is doing well at church too. He, Sister Ervin and Brother Cunningham all went to the same school on the near south side. Pretty neat. We then went to dinner at the Schields' home. They are such an awesome part active family! The husband doesn't come to the church, but is great! We had a good time. He is a cop, and works up in Englewood, where I was in Stockyards. He had some stories from there. After that, we went to give Sister Tomasello the sacrament. She got cleared to come this week now, so that will be great. We then went to stop by Melbria.
Monday was a pretty good day. We had an appointment fall through before District Meeting. We then had our meeting, which went well. A neighborhood kid walked in during our meeting, which was pretty unusual, but hopefully he'll turn out to be a good investigator for Beverly. We had quite a few (5) appointments fall through Monday, but it was still good. Elder Gonzalez fell and sprained his ankle after we taught the less active Lebron (who should be good for church this Sunday). He felt no good, so we had a tough day. He got a blessing in the evening though, and woke up feeling totally fine, even though his foot is bruised. We did get to see quite a few of the people we wanted to teach though. We saw Alfreda, and set up another appointment to teach her. She was running a restaurant out of her front yard, and gave us some chicken, which was great. She's a really nice lady. We also got to see a mail lady we had talked to while tracting a couple of days earlier. We also went by and taught Melbria.
Tuesday was a good day. We only had 4 appointments cancel! We were actually quite busy. We taught Alfreda in the morning, and that went great. She should be at church this week. She gave us more chicken, which was great. We went by to watch Our Heavenly Father's Plan at Sister Tomasello's building. It is beginning to look like another Maple Terrace, just with old people instead of section 8 people! We then went to the Mitchell's home. They're a part member family. Sister Mitchell is semi active, and is pretty awesome. We then went by the Prewitts and put up a new closet hanger rod. We had dinner, then went by Melbria's home. We had some of our tracting in the rain this day, which was fun. I have an enormous umbrella that I found in an apartment. It completely dwarfs Elder Gonzalez's baby umbrella.
Today is going to be great! We've got 3 appointments for the evening too. One is with a new guy we called out of the area book. The other is with Van. The 3rd is with Melbria.
Tomorrow we've got some good appointments set up too!
Well, I love you all so much! I appreciate all you do for me! I'm loving my mission, and am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve. It has blessed me so much. Keep sharing the Gospel... It's true!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
How are you doing? I hope you are having a great day! Things are going well here. I hope you are all healthy! Are you excited for Sandy Ogie? It should be fun!
So, our investigators are doing great. Melbria is getting ready for her baptism and is very excited. She asked Bishop Baxter to do the baptism when we were at church! He's getting really excited also, so it's perfect. Our other investigators are progressing, and we've been able to meet a lot of people finding.
Here's a day to day summary of some things that have gone on:
Last Wednesday was really fun! We did the preparation stuff, and had a great time at the church with the District. We all bought some cheap Nerf guns, and had a huge fight. It was really fun actually. We're going to do the same thing again today, which should be fun. We went to dinner at Sister Tomasello's home and ate dinner there with the Beers. After that, we went by Melbria's.
Thursday was a good day. We had Zone Conference. It was President and Sister Roach's last Zone Conference, which was pretty sad. They had the "silver plates," which they had found which were written just like Nephi's plates. It talked about every area and missionary in the Zone, and also had some writings from President and Sister Roach. It was pretty funny. We had one of the Spanish Wards make lunch for us, and it was pozole, which is really good. After Zone Conference, we came back to the Morgan Park church house and helped with another funeral. People just keep passing away around here. We then went to go out to find, and I believe found some potentials. We got an appointment with one that seemed pretty excited. We also met a couple of Hispanic people for Elder Gonzalez to teach in Espanol. We had an appointment with the Motts too, which went really well. They're a great family.
Friday was pretty good. We started proselyting and went out to the Mitchells home. We read out of the Book of Mormon there. We then went to teach Van, who is doing pretty well. We then had some time to find before getting to teach Alfreda. She's the lady we met while trying to stop by formers. She is actually really great! One of our top investigators now. We had a great appointment there. We then went to the Leals for dinner. It had been over a year and a half since going there, and it was great. They're an awesome family, and are going to continue having us over. We then went by Melbria's.
Saturday we did Weekly Planning (usually Thursday, but we had been busy). We also ate some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch (meal #1). We then went out to teach someone we had tracted into, but just like Mom's appointment with an investigator, it fell through. [I told him in my email to him that the missionaries here in Tempe had asked me to go visit some investigators. I set up the appointment, but when I got there, the investigators weren't home. Brad says that is called getting "tubed", so I guess I was "tubed" just like the missionaries :-)] We then went by a less actives home, and had a lesson there. She gave us sandwiches (meal #2), and a watermelon. We took the watermelon home, and made smoothies out of it and some strawberries we had (meal #3). We then went to meet with Brother Butler, and give his brother a blessing. He bought us too much McDonald's (meal #4 - 2 chicken sandwiches, both of which were close to 400 calories)! We then went over to teach one of Sister Tomasello's friends. We watched a DVD there. Sister T gave Elder Gonzalez some candy (meal #4.5). We then went by the Prewitt's home and found out Sister Prewitt had bought a ton of food for us! We had a bunch of fried chicken, greens, mac n cheese, rolls, and cake! She made sure we ate up too. We were dying as we consumed meal #5! Dad, you told us in a letter we should get fried chicken, and that it is only greasy on the outside... We've had Harold's, which is the famous south side joint, and also this chicken, and some other chicken... It definitely is greasy on the inside as well as the outside! It is deadly (you can't got more than 5 minutes without seeing an ambulance around here), but it does taste good. After that, we went over to Melbria's.
Sunday was great. We went around to do stop bys before church. We had choir, which was fun. We then had MCM. After that, we had church. Melbria asked Bishop to baptize her, which was great. He gave her a Neal A Maxwell book to read, and she has loved it. She is doing so well at church, and is here to stay. The rest of church was great too. Van is doing well at church too. He, Sister Ervin and Brother Cunningham all went to the same school on the near south side. Pretty neat. We then went to dinner at the Schields' home. They are such an awesome part active family! The husband doesn't come to the church, but is great! We had a good time. He is a cop, and works up in Englewood, where I was in Stockyards. He had some stories from there. After that, we went to give Sister Tomasello the sacrament. She got cleared to come this week now, so that will be great. We then went to stop by Melbria.
Monday was a pretty good day. We had an appointment fall through before District Meeting. We then had our meeting, which went well. A neighborhood kid walked in during our meeting, which was pretty unusual, but hopefully he'll turn out to be a good investigator for Beverly. We had quite a few (5) appointments fall through Monday, but it was still good. Elder Gonzalez fell and sprained his ankle after we taught the less active Lebron (who should be good for church this Sunday). He felt no good, so we had a tough day. He got a blessing in the evening though, and woke up feeling totally fine, even though his foot is bruised. We did get to see quite a few of the people we wanted to teach though. We saw Alfreda, and set up another appointment to teach her. She was running a restaurant out of her front yard, and gave us some chicken, which was great. She's a really nice lady. We also got to see a mail lady we had talked to while tracting a couple of days earlier. We also went by and taught Melbria.
Tuesday was a good day. We only had 4 appointments cancel! We were actually quite busy. We taught Alfreda in the morning, and that went great. She should be at church this week. She gave us more chicken, which was great. We went by to watch Our Heavenly Father's Plan at Sister Tomasello's building. It is beginning to look like another Maple Terrace, just with old people instead of section 8 people! We then went to the Mitchell's home. They're a part member family. Sister Mitchell is semi active, and is pretty awesome. We then went by the Prewitts and put up a new closet hanger rod. We had dinner, then went by Melbria's home. We had some of our tracting in the rain this day, which was fun. I have an enormous umbrella that I found in an apartment. It completely dwarfs Elder Gonzalez's baby umbrella.
Today is going to be great! We've got 3 appointments for the evening too. One is with a new guy we called out of the area book. The other is with Van. The 3rd is with Melbria.
Tomorrow we've got some good appointments set up too!
Well, I love you all so much! I appreciate all you do for me! I'm loving my mission, and am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve. It has blessed me so much. Keep sharing the Gospel... It's true!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
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