Mission Update -- 2/10/10

It's been a busy week and I just realized I forgot to update on Wednesday. Here's Elder M's email:

Hello Family,

It is very good to hear from all of you. I am glad you are doing well.

I've been doing well here. We've got Zone Activity today, so I probably won't be here long. We're playing volleyball which should be fun.

Here's some of what I've been up to this last week:

Wednesday was good. We played clue with some other missionaries after spending some time in our apartment. We also had a dinner appointment with the Mitchells which went well. They're a nice family, and are coming up with some plans for missionary work.

Thursday was a pretty good day. We had the Hesed House, which was great. We also had a visit with Lorenszo, which went well. Deanne Adams had been asking us to come over, so we went over there to see them. [The Adams' were the family that came to visit last month. Deanne is their autistic 26 year old daughter. It was so fun getting to know all of them.] Brother Adams just had surgery for a cataract, but he's recovering pretty well. We took Josh Nair out with us in the evening, and had an appointment with Amy G. It went for a long time, but was very productive. They also fed us some dinner over there which was nice.

Friday was a long day! We had President's Interviews, which are at the Mission Office for the Naperville Zone. We stayed for every District Meeting for the Zone. It was like another Zone Conference, except we didn't get lunch. It was good though, and we learned a lot. President Roach is great too, and it was good to talk with him. After this day of District Meetings, we came back to Aurora. We helped cook some dinner for Sister Drebenstedt and Brandon. We also read 2 Nephi 33 over there, which includes the famous "If you don't believe in these words, believe in Christ..." passage. It went well. After that, we taught Bobby Martinez. That went well too. That was pretty much it for the day.

Saturday was actually an unfortunately slow day. We went over and cooked lunch for Sister Drebenstedt, and prepared dinner for Brandon and her. We had some stop bys and people to contact, but didn't get an opportunity to teach them. Our dinner appointment cancelled on us, so we went back to Sister Drebenstedt's home, and had some of the New England Boiled Dinner we made. It was good. We then stopped by Arsone, and got an appointment with him. We saw Mike driving by in Brother Eldredge's car when we were there, so we went to stop by and visit him. He went to the temple for endowments on Saturday, which was exciting. He had a great showing from the Ward there to support him. He's doing well.

Sunday was great. We had my 7th Stake MCM in the early morning. We've got a good Stake Presidency, and they're doing great things. This month was the best by far for member present lessons. That's a really important key indicator to track. Members help more then most realize when they come and help us teach. After this, we had some time to study before church. Fast and Testimony meeting was great. I got asked to give the opening prayer, which was neat. The entire block went well. After Church, we took Christian S. We had a fall through appointment, but got to teach Jessica Langston. We went through the Tree of Life Vision, which was fun. We didn't tell her any answers, but gave her the chapters where she could find them. The task we all have is to draw a picture of the Tree of Life Vision and label everything. Jessica's excited about it, and we are too. After this, we drove to the other side of the area and had dinner with the Petersons. That was great, as always. They're doing some great missionary work, and have a family mission plan now. After this, we didn't have too much time left in the day, so we did our planning, and took call ins.

Monday went well. We had a morning appointment with Amanda. She really felt the Spirit, and received some direction from the scriptures. We then went to the Spanish District's District Meeting. They had a good one. After that, I went with Elder Melton to serve in the Spanish Area for the day. It was fun. We went to our first appointment which was a referral from Elder Gates and Elder Dearinger. It turns out that they just couldn't understand the lady telling them she wasn't interested. She did let us in to teach though, and I didn't do much besides bear my testimony. "El Libro de Mormon, Otro Testamento de Jesucristo es verdad. Yo se la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias es la Iglesia de Jesucristo y es verdad." We did some stop bys and some tracting. The tracting bought us what was most exciting for Naper 4. On the same street we found a less active member that isn't on the Ward list, and a great new investigator. It turns out Ben has been praying for a church every night, and wants to get baptized. We're really excited to be able to teach him. Elder Melton and I called his information over to Elder Boyer and Elder Ferrel who taught him the next morning before exchanging back. After this tracting, we taught some members who have a 7 year old kid who's getting ready for baptism. That went well. We had some other stop bys, and one encounter with a really obnoxious Jehovah's Witness. Ugh. We had dinner with a really nice family that is from the Dominican Republic. It is Alcario's (I interviewed him for baptism quite a while ago) brother and sister in law. We had some other stop bys after this, but nothing too exciting.

Tuesday was great. We woke up to a lot of snow. We went to visit Alcario quickly before District Leader Council at the Stake Center. DL Council went well. Afterwards Elder Boyer and I went to visit Sister Matuck at work (it's right next to the Stake Center). It was nice to see her and JoDee there (member from the 1st Ward). We then got some Arby's and headed back to Aurora. We had our weekly Book of Mormon reading with Mike, and also saw Sue and some other people over at Maple Terrace. We then went out to do a lot of stop bys. We got a few done before dinner over at the Jones' home. That was great and went well. We did a lesson with them about how to answer Gospel questions. We then had an activity and all had questions to answer, which went well. We had that lesson plan given to us randomly by inspiration, and we've got to use it a couple times. After dinner, we went out with Brother Osorio. Our appointment fell through, so we did some more stop bys. We did get to visit with Sebastian's son, which was great. The whole family seems ready, we just never seem to be able to teach them all. Brother Osorio is an awesome member, and was a great help driving us around in the blizzard!

Today should be a great day. We have Zone Activity and a couple of appointments.

The Gospel is true and I love you! Take care and have a great week.

Love,

Elder Bradley E McMullin