Well, Elder M is finally being transfered after ALL these months. It will be fun to be in a new area and meet new people, although he has loved working with the people of Aurora/Naperville for the past 8 months. In anticipation of the missions combining, they are combining lots of areas (because they have fewer missionaries), as you will note in Elder M's email. His current area is adding two areas (so there will be 2 missionaries where there used to be 6), and his new area is the same -- he will have what used to be 3 areas, and it looks like maybe next transfer they will take over a 4th area. So, that means lots more area to cover! Here is this week's email:
Hello Family,
It's good to hear from you. This is a crazy day. I'm packing up to get double transferred into BEVERLY! I'll be serving with Elder Taukeiaho who is from Sacramento. We'll be in Chicago. It's just south of Stockyards and is a huge area. The Morgan Park Ward used to have 8 missionaries, but Beverly has recently overtaken 2 other areas! It is sounding like we'll soon take over a 3rd. This area got the most Gladys Knight referrals even before taking over one of the areas we have. That means we should have a ton of people to teach. We'll probably cycle through them pretty quickly, but it's going to be awesome! So, it's going to be crazy... They're combining the Spanish and English Chicago Zones. Which is why Beverly is getting double transferred out... They're having the Spanish ZLs take over, which will be weird, and sending Elder Gates to come take my spot here in Naper 4. [Elder Gates was a ZL in the Chicago area and will move to take Elder M's place as a ZL in the Naperville Zone. Elder M won't be a ZL now.] I'm happy for him to come here, and am really excited about going to Beverly. It's going to be nuts. The Ward is pretty notorious for having a ton of characters.
So anyways, this has been a pretty good week. I'll write this pretty quick because we've got a lot to do today. Here's some of what's happened:
Wednesday was a good day. We just did some housework and rested. We then went on exchanges with Naper 2/3 for the evening. I went with Elder Thompson to a dinner appointment with the Tevagas, which was great. They cooked some mean steaks. After this, our appointment with the Baylogs fell through, so we went to the Greissmeyers to look at the Area Books for 2 and 3, which Naper 4 is getting this transfer. Elder Boyer and Elder Ojelade went to dinner at the Andersens and to an appointment with an investigator N4 is picking up from N23.
Thursday was pretty good. We had a great appointment with Derek. He is so smart and so awesome. We watched the Restoration movie and he loved it. He then took us through where he is in his Bible studies and what his dead ends are. He's found so much truth and really likes the Book of Mormon because it adds to it. I'm pretty excited for him. I'll tell more about him later on this email. We had our weekly planning as well, which went great. We went over to Sister Apodacas and read from Revelation with Mike too. That was good. We went to do a baptismal interview for one of the Spanish Elders' investigators. That went well. We had dinner with Nancy and the Barlaugs, which was great!
Friday was a fairly unproductive day actually. We went to the Adams' home to discuss the appointment we had with Derek. We had a visit with Amy Gonzalez, which was nice. Elder Boyer had a doctors appointment. We did some finding and visited the Gamboas who cooked us dinner.
Saturday was a good day. We had a productive MCM in the morning. We then went to help deep clean the church building. That took a while. We went to Maple Terrace for a while and talked with some people there. We had a great dinner with the Christensens. They invited a friend over, so we had a lesson with him. What great member missionaries!
Sunday was nuts. We had PEC / Ward Council for the 4th Ward at 9. We then have the end of 3rd Ward Sacrament. After that is 3rd Ward Gospel Principles, then talking with 4th Ward people before their Sacrament, which is at 11. After 11 Sacrament, there is 12 MCM for the 2nd Ward. Then there is 2nd Ward Sacrament. After that it's talk with 4th Ward people before 2nd Ward Gospel Principles. Then was Priesthood for 2nd Ward. We went to Priests Quorum, and the YM President served his mission in Tempe. He lived on the Vance Farm right where Benedict Park is! It was fun to meet a man that pretty much covered my home ward! I should have asked him if it was the Tempe 10th Ward then! Anyways, after that, we had MCM for the 3rd Ward. We then went to the Stacey's home for a lesson. They are such an awesome family. Brother Stacey is so ready. We taught the Restoration, and he completely got it and loved it. This was our first lesson with what I've called the Drumm family, but is actually the Stacey family because Sister Drumm is married to Mick Stacey. After this, we had dinner way over in Aurora with the Bradfords. That was great. After this, our day was done. It was a long, but good day.
Monday was good. After District Meeting, we went to visit the Zacas. They're doing well. It was a nice appointment. I said goodbye there. After that, we went to visit David Lopez. He's doing pretty well. We were there for a while. After that, we had dinner with the Whipples. That was nice. Alex Whipple is going to BYU this fall and is staying at Heritage Halls. He's pretty excited. After that, we went on another exchange with N23. I went with Elder Ojelade this time and went to visit an awesome part member family. I think the kid will get baptized really soon. Elder Boyer and Elder Thompson went to visit an investigator N4 is taking over. Pretty cool.
Tuesday was a great day. We had an awesome appointment with Derek. He had read Mosiah 3-5, Jacob 5 and part of Mormon since our Thursday appointment. He hasn't prayed about Joseph Smith yet, but is doing really well. We talked about Covenants because he's had some issues with the differences in the relationships Gentiles and Jews have with God and is confused about baptism. It went really well. He's going to read the talk on Covenants by D Todd Christoffersen and watch General Conference this weekend! We then helped out with a move that took forever. We moved so much stuff, it was crazy. After that, we went to visit the Drebenstedts and the Adams. I had my last supper at the Adams. I had called President Roach to see what was going on before going to the Drebenstedts, so it was nice to know.
That's pretty much it! We've got a lot of people to stop by today! Have a great week! I love you. I'm loving my mission, and am grateful for the Gospel! I know Jesus is the Christ and am looking forward to helping people in Beverly learn about the Restoration!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Mission Update -- 3/24/10
Another week gone by! For the first time I looked ahead and counted the weeks. Elder M. will have been out on his mission for 20 months as of next Tuesday. Because of his mission combining with the Chicago North mission, he'll be out 2 weeks longer than he otherwise would have. That means he has 21 weeks left! Here's his email:
Hello Family,
How are you doing? It is very good to hear from you! I believe I'm about to hit my 20 month mark! That's pretty crazy it was about 20 months ago we said goodbye at the airport! What a great 20 months! Dad, you said you were a little disappointed to miss our backpacking trip because of the mission extension.... Just come up to Utah for a weekend early in the semester and let's Jeep and backpack somewhere up there!
Anyways, how is your trip going G&G? Grandpa, how's the Book of Mormon reading going? Ask my mom about the scripture I gave to her from Alma 37! Caitlin, good job getting into all of those schools! That's pretty exciting.
Here's some of what's happened this last week:
Wednesday was really fun. We had a great Zone Activity over at Oakhurst Park. It's our neighborhood's HOA place, and is pretty cool. We barbecued, played volleyball, and played frisbee. It was honestly hot outside. Shorts + T Shirt = Beautiful! They also had some sort of controlled fire on a hill nearby, which was pretty weird. Anyways, after our Zone Activity, we got ready for dinner at the Houghtons. They're an awesome family. They're doing great missionary work too. They have a list of our investigators and pray for them. They're working to try to get us more. Madison, one of the girls, invited a friend to church and also Young Womens. Sweet! After our appointment with the Houghtons, we went over to the Baylogs! They're great. We had the first lesson, and it went really well. They couldn't come this last Sunday, but will come on Sunday the 28th! Sister Baylog is 50% Sister Craven and 50% Sister Pope. That is 100% awesome, and things look good for getting this part member family back to church!
Thursday was a neat day. We had District Meetings up at the Mission Office. I stayed for all 3. It was really great because the commitments we left at Zone Conference got followed up with, and that went really well. We worked on lesson plans, which is pretty much just a written chart of all the Doctrines, Scriptures, Good Questions and Examples for each principle from the Preach My Gospel lessons. My interview with President Roach was great too. It was pretty uplifting. He told me he majored in Business Management, which is neat. After all of these meetings, Elder Philbrick came with me to Naper 4. We MTC companions were reunited, if only for a day. He accidentally took the phone for his companionship, so we dropped it off at the Woodridge apartment after our meetings. We then went to teach some people at Maple Terrace. That went pretty well. We then took Mike with us to visit Sister Apodaca. She's doing well. We then went over to the Matucks. They had a friend over, but she left before the lesson unfortunately! It was a good try though. We found out that Elder Philbrick had stopped by the Matucks house about 5 times when they were less active in the Oswego Ward! It was an exciting for Elder Philbrick to see an elusive family active in the Church.
Friday was a great day too. We had our first appointment cancel, so we tracted for a while. We got chewed out, which was fun. People had been pretty nice to us tracting for quite some time, but Friday was the start of a cruel barrage! This lady just yelled at us to get off of her lawn and slammed the door. Not too bad. She didn't have more than 5 sq feet of lawn though, so it was funny that we got yelled at to get off something we were not only not standing on, but wasn't really there! We then went to do some service for some members. They also made us lunch, which was nice. After this, we went to Maple Terrace to teach Angel, who is a funny Mexican man. He's from Sonora, which is right next to Arizona, and cannot speak much English. We enjoy teaching him in what little Spanish I can speak (I've learned some being here in Aurora for so long). He yells out, "SOY CATOLICO!" every once in a while, but has slowly opened up. Elder Philbrick can speak really good Spanish, so he taught the full first lesson, and it went great. Angel actually is willing to hear from the Spanish Elders now, and wants to read the Book of Mormon. We called the Spanish Elders, so they came over and brought him a Book of Mormon. Sweet. After this, we went to switch back with our compnaions. We had an early dinner with the Osorios, which was great. They cooked us tasty Maricsos! We had some spicy shrimp that were great. The Osorios are some of the greatest member missionaries I've ever met. They love helping us teach people, and have invited a ton of people to take the missionary lessons. We tracted into them before they switched from the Spanish Ward to ours, and they gave us referrals back then! After leaving the Osorios, we tried calling a ton of potential investigators to get appointments. I contacted an old media referral that didn't want to meet when we got her info, and she said, "come on over tomorrow!" Awesome! I also contacted a former that was really anti and rude. It was pretty sad actually, but we had an interesting conversation for about half an hour. I bore my testimony and corrected so many misconceptions she had about the Church, but her heart had just been hardened beyond belief. Now we can only pray for her.
Saturday was pretty weird. It had been in the 60s for a while, but just randomly started snowing. It was the nastiest day ever. It was wet snow and the wind was blowing really hard. We did our weekly planning in the morning. We then went to our appointment with Lydia Gonzalez, who we had set up an appointment with the night before. It went great! She felt the Spirit, and has come to believe Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. She committed to coming to church, and should be preparing for baptism soon. After this, we went to the church. Elder Boyer got a musical number sprung on him with almost no warning, so he needed to practice. The Naper 2 / 3 Elders were there too, and had Elder Boyer accompany them for a musical number they had schedule for one of their Wards. So Elder Boyer actually had 2 musical numbers sprung on him! We're going to go on exchanges with those Elders soon so we can really get a feel of our area-to-be. We stopped by the Drumms after this, and had a great meeting with them. They couldn't make it to church on Sunday, but want to take the lessons and try coming soon. We're looking forward to that. We went finding, and had someone yell at us again! The barrage continued... This one told us, "You're not welcome here!!!!" and got upset when we asked if there was anything we could do for her. We had dinner with the Rosas, which was great. They're awesome member missionaries. They're going to make Easter baskets for friends / neighbors and give them Church DVDs in the baskets. What a great idea!
Sunday was pretty good. We had great meetings. We unfortunately had Lydia call us because she was ill and couldn't make it to church. SHE reminded US about our next appointment though, so we figure she'll be alright. I think we had some stop bys after church, and a couple of appointments. We had a great dinner appointment with the La Plants. They're a great family. They're going to invite a friend to take the missionary lessons! Awesome. We also visited with the Barlaugs and heard a lesson that Nancy prepared for us. It went well. We also read out of Mosiah.
Monday was a pretty neat day. We went on exchanges with the Geneva Elders. I went to be with Elder Taukieaho (who lived in Sacramento before his mission) in Geneva. We went to do some service after our meeting, and got put to work making calendars. We felt like sweatshop labor children putting these things together. They are nice food storage calendars though. I'll send one home so you can put it on the fridge. It was with some great members surnamed Davis. Sister Davis is the lady who introduced Sister Bean to the Church! Awesome. After this, we went home and did a comparative study of the creation as told in Genesis and Abraham. We then went to visit with the less active Z. family. They're awesome. Brother Z. got into drugs and was a drifter for a while. He's settled down and has a nice family. He's afraid to finish changing his life like he knows he has to. He really opened up, and the lesson went great. I think he'll come back to church. After that, we went to the Hohman's home for dinner. Sister Hohman is a fairly recent convert and her kids are just waiting for their Dad's permission to get baptized. They're awesome, and we had a great dinner and meeting. We discussed how Jesus Christ created Earth, as described in Ephesians 3:9. After this, we went over to do a family home evening for the Ballard family. They're really nice. Elder T is great at playing the ukulele, so he sang a song and we taught a lesson. They also made us some great home made ice cream sandwiches. Yum.
Tuesday was an interesting day. We came down to exchange back. We then had a couple of appointments call and cancel on us! They rescheduled though, so it was good. We visited with Mike and Angel too. We then went tracting for quite a while. We met a really nice man who has an LDS brother. We also met a really rude guy who cussed us out. When we asked him what we could do for him he told us to get the (blank) out of here! That's the end of the cruel barrage up to this point. Will the saga continue? We had another great dinner appointment with the Houghtons. They're an awesome family. We also got to visit with the Gamboas. We taught them a lesson last time, and this time they taught us the Plan of Salvation! It went pretty well. That was pretty much it for the day.
Today should be a good day. We're going on exchanges with the Spanish Elders this evening. Elder Ferrel is coming here with me. We're going to the Andersens and the Baylogs. Exciting!
Anyways, this has been a good week! I hope all is well for you at home!
The Gospel is true and I love you! Please choose one scripture from your Book of Mormon reading and share it with me. I want one from everyone except for Tay... I want 2 from you, Tay Tay!
Have a great week! Let me know how everything is going for that college stuff Caitlin!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
How are you doing? It is very good to hear from you! I believe I'm about to hit my 20 month mark! That's pretty crazy it was about 20 months ago we said goodbye at the airport! What a great 20 months! Dad, you said you were a little disappointed to miss our backpacking trip because of the mission extension.... Just come up to Utah for a weekend early in the semester and let's Jeep and backpack somewhere up there!
Anyways, how is your trip going G&G? Grandpa, how's the Book of Mormon reading going? Ask my mom about the scripture I gave to her from Alma 37! Caitlin, good job getting into all of those schools! That's pretty exciting.
Here's some of what's happened this last week:
Wednesday was really fun. We had a great Zone Activity over at Oakhurst Park. It's our neighborhood's HOA place, and is pretty cool. We barbecued, played volleyball, and played frisbee. It was honestly hot outside. Shorts + T Shirt = Beautiful! They also had some sort of controlled fire on a hill nearby, which was pretty weird. Anyways, after our Zone Activity, we got ready for dinner at the Houghtons. They're an awesome family. They're doing great missionary work too. They have a list of our investigators and pray for them. They're working to try to get us more. Madison, one of the girls, invited a friend to church and also Young Womens. Sweet! After our appointment with the Houghtons, we went over to the Baylogs! They're great. We had the first lesson, and it went really well. They couldn't come this last Sunday, but will come on Sunday the 28th! Sister Baylog is 50% Sister Craven and 50% Sister Pope. That is 100% awesome, and things look good for getting this part member family back to church!
Thursday was a neat day. We had District Meetings up at the Mission Office. I stayed for all 3. It was really great because the commitments we left at Zone Conference got followed up with, and that went really well. We worked on lesson plans, which is pretty much just a written chart of all the Doctrines, Scriptures, Good Questions and Examples for each principle from the Preach My Gospel lessons. My interview with President Roach was great too. It was pretty uplifting. He told me he majored in Business Management, which is neat. After all of these meetings, Elder Philbrick came with me to Naper 4. We MTC companions were reunited, if only for a day. He accidentally took the phone for his companionship, so we dropped it off at the Woodridge apartment after our meetings. We then went to teach some people at Maple Terrace. That went pretty well. We then took Mike with us to visit Sister Apodaca. She's doing well. We then went over to the Matucks. They had a friend over, but she left before the lesson unfortunately! It was a good try though. We found out that Elder Philbrick had stopped by the Matucks house about 5 times when they were less active in the Oswego Ward! It was an exciting for Elder Philbrick to see an elusive family active in the Church.
Friday was a great day too. We had our first appointment cancel, so we tracted for a while. We got chewed out, which was fun. People had been pretty nice to us tracting for quite some time, but Friday was the start of a cruel barrage! This lady just yelled at us to get off of her lawn and slammed the door. Not too bad. She didn't have more than 5 sq feet of lawn though, so it was funny that we got yelled at to get off something we were not only not standing on, but wasn't really there! We then went to do some service for some members. They also made us lunch, which was nice. After this, we went to Maple Terrace to teach Angel, who is a funny Mexican man. He's from Sonora, which is right next to Arizona, and cannot speak much English. We enjoy teaching him in what little Spanish I can speak (I've learned some being here in Aurora for so long). He yells out, "SOY CATOLICO!" every once in a while, but has slowly opened up. Elder Philbrick can speak really good Spanish, so he taught the full first lesson, and it went great. Angel actually is willing to hear from the Spanish Elders now, and wants to read the Book of Mormon. We called the Spanish Elders, so they came over and brought him a Book of Mormon. Sweet. After this, we went to switch back with our compnaions. We had an early dinner with the Osorios, which was great. They cooked us tasty Maricsos! We had some spicy shrimp that were great. The Osorios are some of the greatest member missionaries I've ever met. They love helping us teach people, and have invited a ton of people to take the missionary lessons. We tracted into them before they switched from the Spanish Ward to ours, and they gave us referrals back then! After leaving the Osorios, we tried calling a ton of potential investigators to get appointments. I contacted an old media referral that didn't want to meet when we got her info, and she said, "come on over tomorrow!" Awesome! I also contacted a former that was really anti and rude. It was pretty sad actually, but we had an interesting conversation for about half an hour. I bore my testimony and corrected so many misconceptions she had about the Church, but her heart had just been hardened beyond belief. Now we can only pray for her.
Saturday was pretty weird. It had been in the 60s for a while, but just randomly started snowing. It was the nastiest day ever. It was wet snow and the wind was blowing really hard. We did our weekly planning in the morning. We then went to our appointment with Lydia Gonzalez, who we had set up an appointment with the night before. It went great! She felt the Spirit, and has come to believe Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. She committed to coming to church, and should be preparing for baptism soon. After this, we went to the church. Elder Boyer got a musical number sprung on him with almost no warning, so he needed to practice. The Naper 2 / 3 Elders were there too, and had Elder Boyer accompany them for a musical number they had schedule for one of their Wards. So Elder Boyer actually had 2 musical numbers sprung on him! We're going to go on exchanges with those Elders soon so we can really get a feel of our area-to-be. We stopped by the Drumms after this, and had a great meeting with them. They couldn't make it to church on Sunday, but want to take the lessons and try coming soon. We're looking forward to that. We went finding, and had someone yell at us again! The barrage continued... This one told us, "You're not welcome here!!!!" and got upset when we asked if there was anything we could do for her. We had dinner with the Rosas, which was great. They're awesome member missionaries. They're going to make Easter baskets for friends / neighbors and give them Church DVDs in the baskets. What a great idea!
Sunday was pretty good. We had great meetings. We unfortunately had Lydia call us because she was ill and couldn't make it to church. SHE reminded US about our next appointment though, so we figure she'll be alright. I think we had some stop bys after church, and a couple of appointments. We had a great dinner appointment with the La Plants. They're a great family. They're going to invite a friend to take the missionary lessons! Awesome. We also visited with the Barlaugs and heard a lesson that Nancy prepared for us. It went well. We also read out of Mosiah.
Monday was a pretty neat day. We went on exchanges with the Geneva Elders. I went to be with Elder Taukieaho (who lived in Sacramento before his mission) in Geneva. We went to do some service after our meeting, and got put to work making calendars. We felt like sweatshop labor children putting these things together. They are nice food storage calendars though. I'll send one home so you can put it on the fridge. It was with some great members surnamed Davis. Sister Davis is the lady who introduced Sister Bean to the Church! Awesome. After this, we went home and did a comparative study of the creation as told in Genesis and Abraham. We then went to visit with the less active Z. family. They're awesome. Brother Z. got into drugs and was a drifter for a while. He's settled down and has a nice family. He's afraid to finish changing his life like he knows he has to. He really opened up, and the lesson went great. I think he'll come back to church. After that, we went to the Hohman's home for dinner. Sister Hohman is a fairly recent convert and her kids are just waiting for their Dad's permission to get baptized. They're awesome, and we had a great dinner and meeting. We discussed how Jesus Christ created Earth, as described in Ephesians 3:9. After this, we went over to do a family home evening for the Ballard family. They're really nice. Elder T is great at playing the ukulele, so he sang a song and we taught a lesson. They also made us some great home made ice cream sandwiches. Yum.
Tuesday was an interesting day. We came down to exchange back. We then had a couple of appointments call and cancel on us! They rescheduled though, so it was good. We visited with Mike and Angel too. We then went tracting for quite a while. We met a really nice man who has an LDS brother. We also met a really rude guy who cussed us out. When we asked him what we could do for him he told us to get the (blank) out of here! That's the end of the cruel barrage up to this point. Will the saga continue? We had another great dinner appointment with the Houghtons. They're an awesome family. We also got to visit with the Gamboas. We taught them a lesson last time, and this time they taught us the Plan of Salvation! It went pretty well. That was pretty much it for the day.
Today should be a good day. We're going on exchanges with the Spanish Elders this evening. Elder Ferrel is coming here with me. We're going to the Andersens and the Baylogs. Exciting!
Anyways, this has been a good week! I hope all is well for you at home!
The Gospel is true and I love you! Please choose one scripture from your Book of Mormon reading and share it with me. I want one from everyone except for Tay... I want 2 from you, Tay Tay!
Have a great week! Let me know how everything is going for that college stuff Caitlin!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Mission Update -- 3/17/10
Here's Elder M's email for the week:
Hello Family,
I'm glad to hear things are going well! I enjoyed the email about CLUB ED. Send me one of those shirts please! Caitlin, don't talk crazy about taking BYU off your list! Taylor, what class do you have at school that goes until 4? When will you get your braces off? What are you up to G&G? Thanks for all you do MOM!
Well, things are great here! Someone asked when I was going to have another Zone Activity... We're having it today!
So here's some of what's happened this last week:
Wednesday was CRAZY. We went out coupon shopping with the Newcombes after emailing. It took us a long time to get all of our coupons ready at their house, then to get everything at the store. We ended up getting $136 worth of groceries for about $6!!! It was pretty fun. We had it rigged where you could actually make about $1.50 getting 32 yogurt cups! Some things we got were weird though, but it was great. After this, we went to hear from a chiropractor about acupuncture and back adjustments. They say they can fix even allergies by alligning backs. That sounds tempting! After this, we went to visit Alda, a lady we tracted into, with Brother Osorio. She was ill, so we didn't teach her, but we had a goot chat on the doorstep. She has an aunt that joined the Church in Mexico... And is coming to visit soon. Hopefully right in time for her to get baptized. After this, we went to dinner at the Coopers. They're pretty excited Jorge is doing so well. It was a great appointment. That was pretty much our day.
Thursday was a crazy day too. We woke up really early so we could be at the mission office at 7AM. We went to the Chicago Zone Conference to help check cars. It was raining outside when we checked, but was still good. Every Zone Conference they have car cleanliness checks. The winners get extra miles for the month. Some missionaries really want the miles, so they clean their cars really well... Others attempt to bribe the car checkers with treats left in the back seat of the car. Winners tend to do both. After we checked cars, we got to go in and listen to Zone Conference. We also had lunch up there. We came home after that, and had a little bit of the day left. We had an appointment fall through, so we did some final preparations for our Zone Conference. We then went to visit the Gaffneys in the evening and also the Matucks. Elder Ahlman called from Joliet just to confirm some things for our Zone Conferene when we were at the Matucks, so we let them answer the call which was fun. After that, we went home for the night and got ready for Friday.
Friday was great. We had a really good Zone Conference. We had some good training. We had a great lunch. We also got to see a presentation of the ideal MCM by some of the Joliet Highcouncilmen and the Frankfort MCM. It turned into them pretty much just doing the typical Frankfort MCM. Our ZL training went well. We're excited for the Commitments we've got for the Zone. All of them tie into District Meetings where they can be followed up on. I'll email a copy of our assignments! After Zone Conference, we came back for a few appointments. We got to visit with Brother Ottinger on his door, and also the Housers. They're ill now unfortunately, but are hanging in there. We went to the Barlaugs for dinner and a lesson. They're doing well.
Saturday was an interesting day. We had a great MCM meeting. After that, we went over to the Gallegos home (less active family we found). They're doing well. Sister Gallegos is actually a Karate Grand Master we found out. Sensei Gallegos put us to work doing some service... We put together a bench press bench for this 75+ year old sister! She also fed us a pizza lunch, which was nice. We then went over to the Adams to help them with some service. They ended up asking if we had dinner, so we told them no... So they ran to the garage and got out huge rib eye steaks! It pretty much turned into a July 9th dinner. We then took Brother Adams with us to visit Amanda Davis. The lesson went geat. Amanda made the decision to come to church! It was pretty exciting actually. So that was our day. We didn't have many appointments, but we were running from one to another.
Sunday was great! We didn't switch our clocks to daylight savings time, so we were running a little behind in the morning... Uh oh! Church went really well though. Amanda Davis came. Jorge did too! He's now come 3 weeks in a row, and is loving it! We're really excited for that. He's just so hard to schedule an appointment with. He's out of town this week, but we'll be able to teach him next week, and hopefully help him pick a date for baptism! Brother Pope gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting which was great. Elder Boyer got told at Church he was going to do a musical number in a week! Wow! We got to go guest teach a little bit for a primary class which was nice. We went to visit Sister Apodaca with Mike after Church. We got her picture for Sister Stratford's slide show. We went to the Stratfords to bring it to her, and ended up getting suckered into a mini ping pong tournament while she got it loaded onto her computer. We also went to the Christensens who invited us over for ice cream. We were not there long. We had dinner at the Clarks, which was great. I got a picture over there with me and their bird. They have 2 birds that are really nice and will stand on your shoulder while you walk around and even eat dinner. After dinner there, we went to visit the Gonzalez family, who's doing well.
Monday was a really weird day. Elder Boyer had a traffic ticket court date in Chicago, so we went there to that. We took the trains (bad call), and it took forever. We got on one about a mile from our house, and went all the way into Chicago. It was neat seeing everything though. We spent most of our day trying to get to the traffic court, and getting back. We got back and were able to visit the Langstons. We also had a late dinner at the Harris' home, which was great. They do awesome missionary work. We had a lesson where everyone got lessons they had to prepare answers for by 1. Teaching 2. Testifying and 3. Inviting. They did well.
Tuesday was pretty good. We went to visit Mike in the Morning after studies. That went well. We then went to get Brother Adams to bring him with us to teach Derek. That went well. Derek really is a neat man. He knows the Bible so well. He pretty much knew the Plan of Salvation. Next week he's going to show us his dead ends, and we're going to try to help him through those with the Book of Mormon and the teachings of the Prophets. Lessons there take a long time, but are good. Elder Boyer had a doctor appointment after that. Maybe I should call him Shirley Buck, because he has some bad knees. The rest of the day was pretty much filled with appointments that fell through actually. We did stop by the Gaffneys and have a good visit with them. They're actually going to move soon we just found out! Going to Florida. Not much else exciting happened Tuesday.
Today should be great! We're having Zone Activity at Oakhurst Park, which is right next to our appartment. It is SO nice out. It's been beautiful lately. We're going to barbeque, play volleyball, and also play frisbee! Tonight we're going to the Houghtons for dinner, then going over to the Baylogs to teach them! They're going to start coming to church soon they said last night. Good.
Saturday we have an appointment with a media we got, which is exciting. Caché sounds ready. We're going to have it at Sister Bean's home, who's going to be a great fellowshipper.
That's pretty much it! I know the Gospel is true. I'm grateful Jesus Christ restored His Gospel and His Church, and am happy to be out serving Him! I also love serving the people in the Crazy City of Chicago!
Take care and have a great week! I love you.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
I'm glad to hear things are going well! I enjoyed the email about CLUB ED. Send me one of those shirts please! Caitlin, don't talk crazy about taking BYU off your list! Taylor, what class do you have at school that goes until 4? When will you get your braces off? What are you up to G&G? Thanks for all you do MOM!
Well, things are great here! Someone asked when I was going to have another Zone Activity... We're having it today!
So here's some of what's happened this last week:
Wednesday was CRAZY. We went out coupon shopping with the Newcombes after emailing. It took us a long time to get all of our coupons ready at their house, then to get everything at the store. We ended up getting $136 worth of groceries for about $6!!! It was pretty fun. We had it rigged where you could actually make about $1.50 getting 32 yogurt cups! Some things we got were weird though, but it was great. After this, we went to hear from a chiropractor about acupuncture and back adjustments. They say they can fix even allergies by alligning backs. That sounds tempting! After this, we went to visit Alda, a lady we tracted into, with Brother Osorio. She was ill, so we didn't teach her, but we had a goot chat on the doorstep. She has an aunt that joined the Church in Mexico... And is coming to visit soon. Hopefully right in time for her to get baptized. After this, we went to dinner at the Coopers. They're pretty excited Jorge is doing so well. It was a great appointment. That was pretty much our day.
Thursday was a crazy day too. We woke up really early so we could be at the mission office at 7AM. We went to the Chicago Zone Conference to help check cars. It was raining outside when we checked, but was still good. Every Zone Conference they have car cleanliness checks. The winners get extra miles for the month. Some missionaries really want the miles, so they clean their cars really well... Others attempt to bribe the car checkers with treats left in the back seat of the car. Winners tend to do both. After we checked cars, we got to go in and listen to Zone Conference. We also had lunch up there. We came home after that, and had a little bit of the day left. We had an appointment fall through, so we did some final preparations for our Zone Conference. We then went to visit the Gaffneys in the evening and also the Matucks. Elder Ahlman called from Joliet just to confirm some things for our Zone Conferene when we were at the Matucks, so we let them answer the call which was fun. After that, we went home for the night and got ready for Friday.
Friday was great. We had a really good Zone Conference. We had some good training. We had a great lunch. We also got to see a presentation of the ideal MCM by some of the Joliet Highcouncilmen and the Frankfort MCM. It turned into them pretty much just doing the typical Frankfort MCM. Our ZL training went well. We're excited for the Commitments we've got for the Zone. All of them tie into District Meetings where they can be followed up on. I'll email a copy of our assignments! After Zone Conference, we came back for a few appointments. We got to visit with Brother Ottinger on his door, and also the Housers. They're ill now unfortunately, but are hanging in there. We went to the Barlaugs for dinner and a lesson. They're doing well.
Saturday was an interesting day. We had a great MCM meeting. After that, we went over to the Gallegos home (less active family we found). They're doing well. Sister Gallegos is actually a Karate Grand Master we found out. Sensei Gallegos put us to work doing some service... We put together a bench press bench for this 75+ year old sister! She also fed us a pizza lunch, which was nice. We then went over to the Adams to help them with some service. They ended up asking if we had dinner, so we told them no... So they ran to the garage and got out huge rib eye steaks! It pretty much turned into a July 9th dinner. We then took Brother Adams with us to visit Amanda Davis. The lesson went geat. Amanda made the decision to come to church! It was pretty exciting actually. So that was our day. We didn't have many appointments, but we were running from one to another.
Sunday was great! We didn't switch our clocks to daylight savings time, so we were running a little behind in the morning... Uh oh! Church went really well though. Amanda Davis came. Jorge did too! He's now come 3 weeks in a row, and is loving it! We're really excited for that. He's just so hard to schedule an appointment with. He's out of town this week, but we'll be able to teach him next week, and hopefully help him pick a date for baptism! Brother Pope gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting which was great. Elder Boyer got told at Church he was going to do a musical number in a week! Wow! We got to go guest teach a little bit for a primary class which was nice. We went to visit Sister Apodaca with Mike after Church. We got her picture for Sister Stratford's slide show. We went to the Stratfords to bring it to her, and ended up getting suckered into a mini ping pong tournament while she got it loaded onto her computer. We also went to the Christensens who invited us over for ice cream. We were not there long. We had dinner at the Clarks, which was great. I got a picture over there with me and their bird. They have 2 birds that are really nice and will stand on your shoulder while you walk around and even eat dinner. After dinner there, we went to visit the Gonzalez family, who's doing well.
Monday was a really weird day. Elder Boyer had a traffic ticket court date in Chicago, so we went there to that. We took the trains (bad call), and it took forever. We got on one about a mile from our house, and went all the way into Chicago. It was neat seeing everything though. We spent most of our day trying to get to the traffic court, and getting back. We got back and were able to visit the Langstons. We also had a late dinner at the Harris' home, which was great. They do awesome missionary work. We had a lesson where everyone got lessons they had to prepare answers for by 1. Teaching 2. Testifying and 3. Inviting. They did well.
Tuesday was pretty good. We went to visit Mike in the Morning after studies. That went well. We then went to get Brother Adams to bring him with us to teach Derek. That went well. Derek really is a neat man. He knows the Bible so well. He pretty much knew the Plan of Salvation. Next week he's going to show us his dead ends, and we're going to try to help him through those with the Book of Mormon and the teachings of the Prophets. Lessons there take a long time, but are good. Elder Boyer had a doctor appointment after that. Maybe I should call him Shirley Buck, because he has some bad knees. The rest of the day was pretty much filled with appointments that fell through actually. We did stop by the Gaffneys and have a good visit with them. They're actually going to move soon we just found out! Going to Florida. Not much else exciting happened Tuesday.
Today should be great! We're having Zone Activity at Oakhurst Park, which is right next to our appartment. It is SO nice out. It's been beautiful lately. We're going to barbeque, play volleyball, and also play frisbee! Tonight we're going to the Houghtons for dinner, then going over to the Baylogs to teach them! They're going to start coming to church soon they said last night. Good.
Saturday we have an appointment with a media we got, which is exciting. Caché sounds ready. We're going to have it at Sister Bean's home, who's going to be a great fellowshipper.
That's pretty much it! I know the Gospel is true. I'm grateful Jesus Christ restored His Gospel and His Church, and am happy to be out serving Him! I also love serving the people in the Crazy City of Chicago!
Take care and have a great week! I love you.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Mission Update -- 3/10/10
Here's Elder M's update for the week. Since I started getting excited about him coming home "soon", the time is going so much slower. I need to go back to thinking it's so far in the future that I can't even really think about it much. Because of the "extension", it's still over 5 months until he gets home, even though he's been gone 19 1/2 months. But he's loving every minute of it, so that's ok!!
HELLO FAMILY,
It's good to hear from you. Good job at the State swim meet Taylor! I'm glad your trip to Arizona has gone well G&G. I'm very happy to hear Grandma has finished the Book of Mormon! I am in Helaman in my current reading... I just read of the rise and fall of Pahoran 2, Paanchi, Pacumeni, and Kishkumen this morning. Keep reading!
So, here's what's been going on this week:
We had a good preparation day. I think we just worked on lesson plans. I also got a hair cut I believe. I don't remember what I don't write out, and I tend to not write out what I do on preparation day. Anyways, I did write out our evening. We went to the Bradfords to share a lesson there, and help them with their missionary work. After that, we took Brother Bradford with us to teach Amanda. The lesson went really well! Amanda had been struggling with a testimony, but she got an answer to her prayers, and has that testimony. We are very happy for that.
Thursday was a good day. We had the Hesed House, which went well. We also went through some PMG with Mike. He was feeling ill, so we dropped him off at the hospital (it turned out to be nothing). We then finished up some plans for our District Leader Council meeting. After this and a stop by or two, we went to the Ottingers home. Brother Ottinger moved in with a bunch of non members in our area. We taught him, but didn't get to teach any nonmembers at this appointment unfortunately. We then went to teach Krista. That went well. We went to teach the Gaffneys, which went well also. We then went to have dinner and a lesson at the Matucks. They're great!
Friday was an interesting day. We had our District Leader council at the Stake Center which went well. We've got some good district leaders and a great Zone. After this, we took Mike with us and visited the Apodacas. We then went out to do a ton of stop bys. We got in contact with some great people. The most exciting one was the Drumm family. Sister Drumm has been less active since youth. She and her husband and 2 kids recently started looking for a church. They've only tried one or two so far, and haven't found what they want. She had just been thinking about trying the Church. They want to take the missionary lessons and try it out! Awesome!! They're busy for the next couple of weeks though, but we should start teaching them in about a week and a half! We're pretty excited because this seems like a perfect situation. Other than all these stop bys, we also visited the Barlaugs and shared a message there.
Saturday went well. We did our Weekly Planning, which was productive. We also did a little work on our Zone Conference. After this we did a lot of stop bys and tracting. We met some people that we're excited about. One is a lady that has an LDS aunt that lives in Mexico. We're going to bring Brother Osorio with us to teach her. We also got a referral for the Spanish Elders. We did this for quite some time. We had dinner with the Blackhams. That went well. They do good missionary work, and are going to do even more. We then went over to the Adams to help get some things going for these missionaries.
Sunday was a good day. We had Stake MCM in the morning. President Roach was speaking in a Stake Conference where a General Authority was speaking too, so he wasn't there. It was weird to be in there without President Roach, but it was a productive meeting. Members have gotten pretty excited since Elder L Tom Perry came, and are making some great changes to their Ward Mission structure. We then had an appointment in between this and church, but it fell through, so we had our studies. Church went very well. Jorge was there again, which was awesome. He brings a lot to class, and we hope to help him progress to baptism. After church, we went out to do stop bys and finding. We came in contact with a less active lady whose name isn't yet on our records. That went well. We got absolutely covered in animal hair though. It was crazy! It looked like I had a fur coat on. We then went to teach a partially active family, and that went well. We had dinner at the Petersons, which was, as always, great! They're a nice family, and we always have a great Fast Sunday appointment with them. We taught them the Restoration lesson. They're trying to prepare others for the missionary lessons. We then went to the Gamboas to visit with them. They were ill, and hadn't made it to church. They'll be ok though.
Monday was a good day. We did a lot of tracting throughout the day time. The most exciting thing that happened was a lady that answered the door and told us, "I Chinese!" We asked if there was anything we could do for her and she told us, "Bye bye!" and shut the door. Hahaha. We had an appointment with the Newcombes to help them with missionary work. They're doing great, and have several people they're going to invite for dinners or FHEs. They're great. Brother Newcombe came out with us for an appointment with the less active lady with the animal hair house. We had a dinner appointment with the Houghtons that went well. We stayed for FHE, which was great.
Tuesday was a great day! We had a productive lesson with Amanda. We then went to read from the Book of Mormon with Mike. After that, we took Brother Adams [the Adams' are the family that came to visit us a month or so ago] with us to visit Derek. Derek is a neat man. He's an investor, and works a lot with currency exchange. He has gotten into the Greek and Hebrew translations of the Bible, and has been searching for truth. He's tried many many churches, and has not had a good experience with many so far... And he's inviting us back. He believes the Book of Mormon is the Word of God now, and is progressing. He's completely open, and we've got high hopes. Lessons there are pretty long, but quite productive for all in attendance. After this, we went home to have a late lunch. Some members had given us bags of salad, so I cooked some chicken, then we put it in the salad and had a really good salad. After this, we went to take some pictures over to the Stratfords. They're making a Relief Society slide show with all of the sisters from the Ward on it. We've now become some sort of secret agents to get pictures. Christian was showing us a book he was reading, so I handed him a copy of the Book of Mormon. He took it and is going to hand it out. Nice! We then had dinner at the Christensens that went really well.
Today should be great. We're going to go with the Newcombes "coupon shopping" soon. They have it figured out where they stack coupons and get a bunch of free stuff from the store. They're making us a shopping list so we can get free stuff too. This family of 6 has cut their food budget by 75% from doing this coupon shopping, and has built an impressive food storage at the same time. We're later going to meet with someone that is going to tell us about homeopathic medicine. That should be interesting. We have an appointment with Alda, the lady we tracted into that we're going to bring Brother Osorio with us to teach at 6. We then have an appointment with the Coopers at 6:45 for dinner. We really hope Jorge will be there so we can teach him too.
So, things are going well. I'm still loving my mission. The Gospel is true! I love you! Have a great week.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
HELLO FAMILY,
It's good to hear from you. Good job at the State swim meet Taylor! I'm glad your trip to Arizona has gone well G&G. I'm very happy to hear Grandma has finished the Book of Mormon! I am in Helaman in my current reading... I just read of the rise and fall of Pahoran 2, Paanchi, Pacumeni, and Kishkumen this morning. Keep reading!
So, here's what's been going on this week:
We had a good preparation day. I think we just worked on lesson plans. I also got a hair cut I believe. I don't remember what I don't write out, and I tend to not write out what I do on preparation day. Anyways, I did write out our evening. We went to the Bradfords to share a lesson there, and help them with their missionary work. After that, we took Brother Bradford with us to teach Amanda. The lesson went really well! Amanda had been struggling with a testimony, but she got an answer to her prayers, and has that testimony. We are very happy for that.
Thursday was a good day. We had the Hesed House, which went well. We also went through some PMG with Mike. He was feeling ill, so we dropped him off at the hospital (it turned out to be nothing). We then finished up some plans for our District Leader Council meeting. After this and a stop by or two, we went to the Ottingers home. Brother Ottinger moved in with a bunch of non members in our area. We taught him, but didn't get to teach any nonmembers at this appointment unfortunately. We then went to teach Krista. That went well. We went to teach the Gaffneys, which went well also. We then went to have dinner and a lesson at the Matucks. They're great!
Friday was an interesting day. We had our District Leader council at the Stake Center which went well. We've got some good district leaders and a great Zone. After this, we took Mike with us and visited the Apodacas. We then went out to do a ton of stop bys. We got in contact with some great people. The most exciting one was the Drumm family. Sister Drumm has been less active since youth. She and her husband and 2 kids recently started looking for a church. They've only tried one or two so far, and haven't found what they want. She had just been thinking about trying the Church. They want to take the missionary lessons and try it out! Awesome!! They're busy for the next couple of weeks though, but we should start teaching them in about a week and a half! We're pretty excited because this seems like a perfect situation. Other than all these stop bys, we also visited the Barlaugs and shared a message there.
Saturday went well. We did our Weekly Planning, which was productive. We also did a little work on our Zone Conference. After this we did a lot of stop bys and tracting. We met some people that we're excited about. One is a lady that has an LDS aunt that lives in Mexico. We're going to bring Brother Osorio with us to teach her. We also got a referral for the Spanish Elders. We did this for quite some time. We had dinner with the Blackhams. That went well. They do good missionary work, and are going to do even more. We then went over to the Adams to help get some things going for these missionaries.
Sunday was a good day. We had Stake MCM in the morning. President Roach was speaking in a Stake Conference where a General Authority was speaking too, so he wasn't there. It was weird to be in there without President Roach, but it was a productive meeting. Members have gotten pretty excited since Elder L Tom Perry came, and are making some great changes to their Ward Mission structure. We then had an appointment in between this and church, but it fell through, so we had our studies. Church went very well. Jorge was there again, which was awesome. He brings a lot to class, and we hope to help him progress to baptism. After church, we went out to do stop bys and finding. We came in contact with a less active lady whose name isn't yet on our records. That went well. We got absolutely covered in animal hair though. It was crazy! It looked like I had a fur coat on. We then went to teach a partially active family, and that went well. We had dinner at the Petersons, which was, as always, great! They're a nice family, and we always have a great Fast Sunday appointment with them. We taught them the Restoration lesson. They're trying to prepare others for the missionary lessons. We then went to the Gamboas to visit with them. They were ill, and hadn't made it to church. They'll be ok though.
Monday was a good day. We did a lot of tracting throughout the day time. The most exciting thing that happened was a lady that answered the door and told us, "I Chinese!" We asked if there was anything we could do for her and she told us, "Bye bye!" and shut the door. Hahaha. We had an appointment with the Newcombes to help them with missionary work. They're doing great, and have several people they're going to invite for dinners or FHEs. They're great. Brother Newcombe came out with us for an appointment with the less active lady with the animal hair house. We had a dinner appointment with the Houghtons that went well. We stayed for FHE, which was great.
Tuesday was a great day! We had a productive lesson with Amanda. We then went to read from the Book of Mormon with Mike. After that, we took Brother Adams [the Adams' are the family that came to visit us a month or so ago] with us to visit Derek. Derek is a neat man. He's an investor, and works a lot with currency exchange. He has gotten into the Greek and Hebrew translations of the Bible, and has been searching for truth. He's tried many many churches, and has not had a good experience with many so far... And he's inviting us back. He believes the Book of Mormon is the Word of God now, and is progressing. He's completely open, and we've got high hopes. Lessons there are pretty long, but quite productive for all in attendance. After this, we went home to have a late lunch. Some members had given us bags of salad, so I cooked some chicken, then we put it in the salad and had a really good salad. After this, we went to take some pictures over to the Stratfords. They're making a Relief Society slide show with all of the sisters from the Ward on it. We've now become some sort of secret agents to get pictures. Christian was showing us a book he was reading, so I handed him a copy of the Book of Mormon. He took it and is going to hand it out. Nice! We then had dinner at the Christensens that went really well.
Today should be great. We're going to go with the Newcombes "coupon shopping" soon. They have it figured out where they stack coupons and get a bunch of free stuff from the store. They're making us a shopping list so we can get free stuff too. This family of 6 has cut their food budget by 75% from doing this coupon shopping, and has built an impressive food storage at the same time. We're later going to meet with someone that is going to tell us about homeopathic medicine. That should be interesting. We have an appointment with Alda, the lady we tracted into that we're going to bring Brother Osorio with us to teach at 6. We then have an appointment with the Coopers at 6:45 for dinner. We really hope Jorge will be there so we can teach him too.
So, things are going well. I'm still loving my mission. The Gospel is true! I love you! Have a great week.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Update on Merger
I mentioned before that we've been wondering what effect the merger of Chicago North and Chicago South will have on Elder M's return date. He was scheduled to come home on August 6, but since missionaries come home on transfer dates, we were wondering what the new transfer dates would be after July 1 when the missions merge. Ed called the mission office because we're just too curious to wait I guess (he actually wanted to plan some summer activities with the Priests in our ward and didn't want a conflict), and learned that the combined mission will move to the Chicago North transfer schedule, and Elder M will likely come home on Aug. 19. That could change, but that's the plan. So now we know! That will give him one week to get home and up to BYU, so it'll be a busy week! With Caitlin starting school around the same time, it could be very interesting! We'll keep you all posted when we really get the official word 2-3 months before he comes home.
The Elders Make Cookies!
Here are Elders McMullin and Boyer with the cookies that they baked at Nancy's house for a ward party. Wow! I'm impressed. That's a lot of cookies!A Gift From Tempe 10th YM
A couple of months ago the 10th Ward YM went to the dollar store and came up with things for packages to the two missionaries serving from our ward. This was one of the treasures that they sent :-) Put it in water and watch it grow!
Mission Update -- 3/3/10
Here's this week's update. Chicago North and Chicago South had a WONDERFUL conference last Thursday and Elder M. got to meet Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Hallstrom, as he will tell you below:
Hello Family,
This has been a good week here. It was great to hear from ELDER L TOM PERRY and ELDER HALLSTROM!
I'm glad to hear things are going well at home. How is swimming going, Taylor? How did this Grandparents Dinner go? Is anyone else in the family out hiking with Dad? How's Monty feeling now with his allergy medicine? Where is everyone in Book of Mormon reading?
Well, here's some of what we've been up to here:
Wednesday was pretty good. we had a calm Preparation Day, and did some preparations. I worked a lot on lesson plans, and did some studies throughout the day. We also cleaned and did things of that nature. We had a good dinner appointment with the Matthews family, who have relatives in Elder Boyer's home ward! We were going to have a late appointment with Amanda, but that fell through, so this was pretty much the day.
Thursday was awesome!!! We started it off by trying to stop by a former, and going to the Hesed House. We took Mike with us to visit Sister Apodaca, but she wasn't home, so we got ready for our Mission Conference. We went there really early to be the ushers. We got to meet a lot of missionaries from the North Side, which was fun. President Doll is awesome too, and will be a great mission president. President and Sister Roach and President and Sister Doll were out in the foyer waiting for the Bretheren as we were the "guards" for the door Elder Perry was going to come in as pretty much everyone else was in the chapel singing hymns. Everyone was pretty excited. Finally we got word from the ushers on the other side (who had seriously been praying Elder Perry and Elder Hallstrom would come in through their doors) that a mysterious black Mercedes was arriving on the wrong side! President Roach ran over there, and soon came back across the building through the church's gym doors. I was about to ask him if they were there yet, but then Elder L Tom Perry, and Apostle of the Lord, walked through the door! He made a joke and asked us if we were the guards, then shook our hands and walked through to another room where he spoke with the mission presidents before the meeting started. You really could feel the spiritual power Elder Perry and Elder Hallstrom had - when they came in and shook our hands we felt our hearts fill up with the Spirit as a glass fills up with water. After their meeting, they walked into the chapel. Everyone stood, and sang until we finished the song. When it was over, Elder Perry exclaimed, "Why'd you stop singing?!" He is pretty funny, and made everyone laugh the entire time he was there. We then all lined up and went to shake the hands of President and Sister Roach, President and Sister Doll, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder L Tom Perry. It was awesome. We then heard from the two mission presidents. They gave excellent talks. It was nice to from two very different leaders speaking with a unified voice. After they spoke, we heard from Elder Hallstrom. He had a great presentation, and got us reading a lot on why we were gathered there today. We learned of learning by Faith. After he spoke, we got to hear from Elder L Tom Perry! He told us some great stories, and really got us motivated. He had a good one about how missionary work prepares us for life after the mission. He got a new job after graduating college at a financial institution. He was taking over for a man who just got fired, because he had never been able to get a budget through the board. The man had done presentations on a chalk board, and would get flustered when the executives started arguing. Elder Perry was looking around the auditorium where he'd do the presentation, and saw some flanel on a wall. He remembered the flanel boards he used on his mission, and decided he'd use a flanel board to present the budget. The business men were amazed, and passed one of the budgets he had prepared. They called him the next day, and made him a Vice President. He also went through some excellent scriptures about the organization of the Church with Chrsit as the Head. Elder Perry told us a lot about the new program the Church has with an emphasis Ward missions. Since they (L Tom Perry was the head of the missionary department) instituted that program in April of 2009, baptisms worldwide have gone up 12%! We also heard about the 3 step process of (member) missionary work. It starts with step 1. Enlighten. We must enlighten others about what the Church really is all about. 51% of the people in the North America Region don't even know about the Church. 47% of those that do have a negative impression of it. We have to let others know who we are and what we believe. 2. Engage. We have to find out a way to get people interested. Let's get them involved in discussion about the Church, to activities, to family home evening, and best of all, into a missionary lesson. 3. Convert. This is when the full time missionaries step in with members, and present the missionary lessons. The Spirit then changes the heart of the Child of God, and covenants are made. We also learned much more, and I'm still going through my notes to discern the Spirit of the conference. After Elder Perry spoke, we closed the meeting, and the Bretheren walked out the back door. L Tom Perry put his hand on my shoulder as he walked by and exclaimed, "we've got to do something with you!" He was either issuing me a rubuke or a call to duty... or was simply being a funny Apostle. Whatever way, it was pretty fun. After the meeting, everyone had to book it out of the parking lot. All of the Stake Presidencies, Bishops, and Ward Mission Leaders from the surrounding 8 Stakes were coming in for a meeting with Elder Perry. It was an extremely productive meeting, and got the members really pumped up. We went to dinnerat the Matucks after the Conference, and had a great time there. We went through the Articles of Faith there. They're still doing very well, and are reading their scriptures daily!
Well, I'm going to go through the rest of the week quickly, I've been here a while typing all of this.
Friday was a good day. We did our weekly planning. We went over to read through PMG with Mike, then took him with us to visit Sister Apodaca. We also taught a lady named Kathi. She's nice. We're going to try and set her for baptism. We also went to dinner at the Zacas. It was their first time having missionaries over for dinner, and was great. We had a lesson over there afterwards, and Martin came in. He joined us in the lesson, and participated, which was great. He's a good man, and if he gets Sundays off work will hopefully progress.
Saturday was a strange, yet good day. We had an excellent MCM meeting in the morning. Brother Stavron was pretty excited because of the meeting with Elder Perry. He gave the prayer, and therefore was one of the first to shake the Apostle's hand. We helped the Anderson family move after this meeting. We moved so much heavy stuff. It took a while, but was great. This family is really starting to do some great missionary work, so it was nice to get to spend some time with them. After this, we had a follow up appointment with the Flemings. They are going to distribute some media to help Enlighten their friends and then to move onto phase 2 of Engaging them. We went over to Nancy's house to bake some cookies for a Ward party we had in the eveining. We did that, and read some scriptures there, then went to the party. It was really fun. We were expecting quite a few referrals from it, but a lot of people couldn't make it unfortunately. It was still great, and we had 3 investigators and 1 potential there. It was good to have them there. I've got a picture of our cookies I'll send to you. Everyone was pretty surprised to see our baking supremacy.
Sunday was a good day. We had a productive PEC in the morning before church. Church was great, and we learned a lot. We had some good talks and lessons. We also got to guest teach for a couple minutes for the Teachers Quorum. After church, we did a bunch of stop bys. We found out that a less active member moved. We then had dinner with the Madura family that had invited a part member family over for dinner. It went well. They're a wonderful family, and do a great job at fellowshipping. After this, we went over to Amy's home, and had a good appointment there. They want to get involved with the Young Mens and Young Womens, and we're pretty excited about that.
Monday was Zone Leader Council day. The North Side Mission APs came, which was pretty fun. They're pretty good guys. After the meeting, we went to the mission office. I got the package, and loved it! Thank you for sending me a package, and thank you for the gifts G&G for Valentines day! We went to an early dinner at the Newcombe's after this, which was great. They're doing some good missionary work! They invited a family over for us to teach in their home a while ago, which was great. We went to interview a guy named Todd for baptism. I had met him at the Woodridge Pageant, and was able to share my testimony with him there, so it was rewarding to have the opportunity to interview him for baptism. We then went to get a Priest, Kyle LaPlant, to come out with us for a late appointment with Amy Gonzalez. That fell through, so we drove Kyle home. It was overall a good day. Kyle is doing some good missionary work, and is going to get us a few people to teach. We're excited for that.
Tuesday was a good day. We did some tracting in the morning, and met a family who was moving to India. They didn't want to investigate, but they gave us a bunch of stuff. It was nice. We went to Maple Terrace, and read with Mike for a while. We tried to find by tracting and stop bys throughout the day, but not too much happened. We did meet with a less active that doesn't want to come back. We went to an early dinner at the Olive Garden, which was great. Thanks for those cards! We then went to try and teach the Gamboa's Polish neighbor, and taught their family. They always do great missionary work.
We have a good day set for today, and hope to find some new investigators to set for baptism! I didn't mention it, but we also got to visit with the Baylogs again this week. Andrea was baptized quite a few years ago, and has some non member kids. Her daughter really wants to come to church. They're a super nice family, and Sister Baylog has a testimony. Life's just crazy for them, so they haven't been able to make it. We're really hoping they can soon, and are pretty excited for their progress actually. They're a family to pray for! Sister Baylog is 50% Sister Pope, and 50% Sister Craven. I have a good feeling about this family!
Well, things are going well. I love you a lot, and appreciate all you do. Keep up your Book of Mormon reading, and share the Gospel! I know the Book of Mormon is true, and have been blessed by the Lord as I've worked to strengthen my testimony. Let us always do missionary work, and seek to Enlighten our friends, Engage them with the Church, and then we'll see the miracle of Conversion!
Take care!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
This has been a good week here. It was great to hear from ELDER L TOM PERRY and ELDER HALLSTROM!
I'm glad to hear things are going well at home. How is swimming going, Taylor? How did this Grandparents Dinner go? Is anyone else in the family out hiking with Dad? How's Monty feeling now with his allergy medicine? Where is everyone in Book of Mormon reading?
Well, here's some of what we've been up to here:
Wednesday was pretty good. we had a calm Preparation Day, and did some preparations. I worked a lot on lesson plans, and did some studies throughout the day. We also cleaned and did things of that nature. We had a good dinner appointment with the Matthews family, who have relatives in Elder Boyer's home ward! We were going to have a late appointment with Amanda, but that fell through, so this was pretty much the day.
Thursday was awesome!!! We started it off by trying to stop by a former, and going to the Hesed House. We took Mike with us to visit Sister Apodaca, but she wasn't home, so we got ready for our Mission Conference. We went there really early to be the ushers. We got to meet a lot of missionaries from the North Side, which was fun. President Doll is awesome too, and will be a great mission president. President and Sister Roach and President and Sister Doll were out in the foyer waiting for the Bretheren as we were the "guards" for the door Elder Perry was going to come in as pretty much everyone else was in the chapel singing hymns. Everyone was pretty excited. Finally we got word from the ushers on the other side (who had seriously been praying Elder Perry and Elder Hallstrom would come in through their doors) that a mysterious black Mercedes was arriving on the wrong side! President Roach ran over there, and soon came back across the building through the church's gym doors. I was about to ask him if they were there yet, but then Elder L Tom Perry, and Apostle of the Lord, walked through the door! He made a joke and asked us if we were the guards, then shook our hands and walked through to another room where he spoke with the mission presidents before the meeting started. You really could feel the spiritual power Elder Perry and Elder Hallstrom had - when they came in and shook our hands we felt our hearts fill up with the Spirit as a glass fills up with water. After their meeting, they walked into the chapel. Everyone stood, and sang until we finished the song. When it was over, Elder Perry exclaimed, "Why'd you stop singing?!" He is pretty funny, and made everyone laugh the entire time he was there. We then all lined up and went to shake the hands of President and Sister Roach, President and Sister Doll, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder L Tom Perry. It was awesome. We then heard from the two mission presidents. They gave excellent talks. It was nice to from two very different leaders speaking with a unified voice. After they spoke, we heard from Elder Hallstrom. He had a great presentation, and got us reading a lot on why we were gathered there today. We learned of learning by Faith. After he spoke, we got to hear from Elder L Tom Perry! He told us some great stories, and really got us motivated. He had a good one about how missionary work prepares us for life after the mission. He got a new job after graduating college at a financial institution. He was taking over for a man who just got fired, because he had never been able to get a budget through the board. The man had done presentations on a chalk board, and would get flustered when the executives started arguing. Elder Perry was looking around the auditorium where he'd do the presentation, and saw some flanel on a wall. He remembered the flanel boards he used on his mission, and decided he'd use a flanel board to present the budget. The business men were amazed, and passed one of the budgets he had prepared. They called him the next day, and made him a Vice President. He also went through some excellent scriptures about the organization of the Church with Chrsit as the Head. Elder Perry told us a lot about the new program the Church has with an emphasis Ward missions. Since they (L Tom Perry was the head of the missionary department) instituted that program in April of 2009, baptisms worldwide have gone up 12%! We also heard about the 3 step process of (member) missionary work. It starts with step 1. Enlighten. We must enlighten others about what the Church really is all about. 51% of the people in the North America Region don't even know about the Church. 47% of those that do have a negative impression of it. We have to let others know who we are and what we believe. 2. Engage. We have to find out a way to get people interested. Let's get them involved in discussion about the Church, to activities, to family home evening, and best of all, into a missionary lesson. 3. Convert. This is when the full time missionaries step in with members, and present the missionary lessons. The Spirit then changes the heart of the Child of God, and covenants are made. We also learned much more, and I'm still going through my notes to discern the Spirit of the conference. After Elder Perry spoke, we closed the meeting, and the Bretheren walked out the back door. L Tom Perry put his hand on my shoulder as he walked by and exclaimed, "we've got to do something with you!" He was either issuing me a rubuke or a call to duty... or was simply being a funny Apostle. Whatever way, it was pretty fun. After the meeting, everyone had to book it out of the parking lot. All of the Stake Presidencies, Bishops, and Ward Mission Leaders from the surrounding 8 Stakes were coming in for a meeting with Elder Perry. It was an extremely productive meeting, and got the members really pumped up. We went to dinnerat the Matucks after the Conference, and had a great time there. We went through the Articles of Faith there. They're still doing very well, and are reading their scriptures daily!
Well, I'm going to go through the rest of the week quickly, I've been here a while typing all of this.
Friday was a good day. We did our weekly planning. We went over to read through PMG with Mike, then took him with us to visit Sister Apodaca. We also taught a lady named Kathi. She's nice. We're going to try and set her for baptism. We also went to dinner at the Zacas. It was their first time having missionaries over for dinner, and was great. We had a lesson over there afterwards, and Martin came in. He joined us in the lesson, and participated, which was great. He's a good man, and if he gets Sundays off work will hopefully progress.
Saturday was a strange, yet good day. We had an excellent MCM meeting in the morning. Brother Stavron was pretty excited because of the meeting with Elder Perry. He gave the prayer, and therefore was one of the first to shake the Apostle's hand. We helped the Anderson family move after this meeting. We moved so much heavy stuff. It took a while, but was great. This family is really starting to do some great missionary work, so it was nice to get to spend some time with them. After this, we had a follow up appointment with the Flemings. They are going to distribute some media to help Enlighten their friends and then to move onto phase 2 of Engaging them. We went over to Nancy's house to bake some cookies for a Ward party we had in the eveining. We did that, and read some scriptures there, then went to the party. It was really fun. We were expecting quite a few referrals from it, but a lot of people couldn't make it unfortunately. It was still great, and we had 3 investigators and 1 potential there. It was good to have them there. I've got a picture of our cookies I'll send to you. Everyone was pretty surprised to see our baking supremacy.
Sunday was a good day. We had a productive PEC in the morning before church. Church was great, and we learned a lot. We had some good talks and lessons. We also got to guest teach for a couple minutes for the Teachers Quorum. After church, we did a bunch of stop bys. We found out that a less active member moved. We then had dinner with the Madura family that had invited a part member family over for dinner. It went well. They're a wonderful family, and do a great job at fellowshipping. After this, we went over to Amy's home, and had a good appointment there. They want to get involved with the Young Mens and Young Womens, and we're pretty excited about that.
Monday was Zone Leader Council day. The North Side Mission APs came, which was pretty fun. They're pretty good guys. After the meeting, we went to the mission office. I got the package, and loved it! Thank you for sending me a package, and thank you for the gifts G&G for Valentines day! We went to an early dinner at the Newcombe's after this, which was great. They're doing some good missionary work! They invited a family over for us to teach in their home a while ago, which was great. We went to interview a guy named Todd for baptism. I had met him at the Woodridge Pageant, and was able to share my testimony with him there, so it was rewarding to have the opportunity to interview him for baptism. We then went to get a Priest, Kyle LaPlant, to come out with us for a late appointment with Amy Gonzalez. That fell through, so we drove Kyle home. It was overall a good day. Kyle is doing some good missionary work, and is going to get us a few people to teach. We're excited for that.
Tuesday was a good day. We did some tracting in the morning, and met a family who was moving to India. They didn't want to investigate, but they gave us a bunch of stuff. It was nice. We went to Maple Terrace, and read with Mike for a while. We tried to find by tracting and stop bys throughout the day, but not too much happened. We did meet with a less active that doesn't want to come back. We went to an early dinner at the Olive Garden, which was great. Thanks for those cards! We then went to try and teach the Gamboa's Polish neighbor, and taught their family. They always do great missionary work.
We have a good day set for today, and hope to find some new investigators to set for baptism! I didn't mention it, but we also got to visit with the Baylogs again this week. Andrea was baptized quite a few years ago, and has some non member kids. Her daughter really wants to come to church. They're a super nice family, and Sister Baylog has a testimony. Life's just crazy for them, so they haven't been able to make it. We're really hoping they can soon, and are pretty excited for their progress actually. They're a family to pray for! Sister Baylog is 50% Sister Pope, and 50% Sister Craven. I have a good feeling about this family!
Well, things are going well. I love you a lot, and appreciate all you do. Keep up your Book of Mormon reading, and share the Gospel! I know the Book of Mormon is true, and have been blessed by the Lord as I've worked to strengthen my testimony. Let us always do missionary work, and seek to Enlighten our friends, Engage them with the Church, and then we'll see the miracle of Conversion!
Take care!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Mission Update -- 2/24/10
Last week was a busy one (took a trip to Tucson), so I didn't get this posted. Here's Elder M's email from the end of Feb.
Hello!
It's good to hear from each of you this week! I'm glad things are going well. We've had a pretty good week here. Elder Boyer has been ill, but we've had some good things happen, and he's feeling better.
Here's some of what's gone on this week:
Last Wednesday we didn't do too much. This was Elder Boyer's first day of his first illness. We had a pretty restful Preparation Day, and said bye to the Elders that were to be transferred. We had dinner with the Houghtons, which was great. They're doing some awesome missionary work. They brought a friend to a Ward Activity, and are prepared for some more missionary work.
Thursday was a good day. Elder Boyer was still a little weak, but we had some good appointments. We had the Hesed House as well, which went well. They're really nice there. We also found a really old Spanish Book of Mormon there that had a family's testimony in it. Pretty neat. I've enjoyed the copies of the Book of Mormon you've sent me with your testimonies in them. We later went to visit the Apodacas. They're doing well. Our dinner appointment got cancelled for the evening, but they gave us money. It feels a little weird to take money from members, but it was nice of them. We went to Applebee's and used that money and the card I got in the mail. We went out with Brother Mitchell in the evening to teach. Our first appointment fell through, so we did some stop bys. We went to the hospital to teach Adam. The lesson went well, and Brother Mitchell did great. Adam is progressing both spiritually and physically with his leg, so we're happy there.
Friday was a productive day. We had our weekly planning after our morning schedule, which went well. We then went to Maple Terrace and taught Mike and Lorenszo there. We tried to stop by a few people, but didn't get to contact many. We went to Nancy's to try to teach Adam, but he was held in the hospital past his release time. We ended up teaching the family anyways. We had a dinner appointment at the Christensens that went well. They're a very nice family, and are a great help for us. We had some other stop bys, and tried to visit Adam in the hospital, but got there right after he was released! We just weren't meant to visit him on Friday.
Saturday was productive as well. We had a great MCM. Brother Stavron is a little nervous because he is going to give the closing prayer for the L Tom Perry meeting with all of the Stake Presidents, Bishops, and Ward Mission Leaders for the 8 Stakes of the Chicagoland area. We think it's pretty cool he's on the same program as an Apostle, a member of the Presidency of the 70, and an Area 70. We went to do some service for the Christensens after MCM. We helped them put together a bed. They also gave us some lunch. They're a great family, and have given us a referral for some other missionaries. After this, we drove to Naperville for our appointment with Hell-Bongo. He was home, but had to reschedule for Sunday. We then went and stopped by quite a few people. We had a visit with the Gamboas and taught some of their relatives, which was great. We had a dinner appointment with the Flemings, who are awesome. They're getting ready to do some missionary work. Sister Flemings dad was in the old mission presidency, so they've got a great background in sharing the Gospel. We went over to Nancy's to teach Adam after dinner. After that, we went by the Langstons and visited with them, and a family friend who we invited to take the lessons. She said no, but it was a good encounter.
Sunday was a good day at church. We had a productive PEC before church. They're setting up a temple trip for recent converts and other people, which should be great. The Popes are looking forwards to going. We had some great talks in sacrament meeting, and great lessons afterwards. We were happy to see a neighbor of the Gamboas who we invited to church show up with them too! After church, we went out to our new appointment with Hell-Bongo. He lives close to the Popes, so we took Brother Pope with us. Hell-Bongo wasn't home, so we went to stop by a less active in the area. She let us in, and we had a lesson. Brother Pope bore his testimony, and taught like Alma the Younger to the people of Ammonihah. Elder Boyer and I were his equivalent of Amulek. It was a great appointment, and very very productive for the less active sister. She's got some things to get her head around, but is quite nice. We hope to help her come back to acivity. She wouldn't commit to becoming active now, but promised she'd come when her grandkids come to visit. Brother Pope told her when she comes in he and Sister Pope would sit on either side of her family, and show them around. Pretty good for being a 2 month member! We were there for quite a while, so we didn't have too much time left in the day after that. We had dinner with the Hoyts, which was good. They're doing some awesome work with a part member family, and are great member missionaries. Their son also brings a lot of his friends to young men's basketball. We then went to the Adams. Sister Adams is our dinner calendar scheduler, so we were going through a list of people for her to call. After this, we exchanged with the APs. Elder Wilson came to Naper for to be with me, and Elder Boyer went to be with Elder Bateman, who is from Mesa.
Monday was a good day. We had our District Meeting, which went well. We have a good district here. After this, we went out and tried to find. We tracted into some people that were nice, but didn't get a return appointment unfortunately. We proceeded to stop bys after lunch. We stopped by a lot of people, but didn't teach many. This seems to be the story of the week actually. We did teach Keegan, who we had taught several months ago. That went well, although wasn't the most productive appointment ever. We went to the Gaffney's for an appointment which was good. They came to church Sunday for the first time since I've been here, which was great to see! After this, we exchanged back. Elder Boyer and I went to the Capeners for dinner. They do great missionary work. We went through questions we all get asked, and how to answer them. After this, we went over to the Andersens home to help them with their missionary work. They have a few families they're working with. They have some that they're going to give media to, and prepare to take the missionary lessons. They're going to invite quite a few families to the Ward party this Saturday, and introduce them to us. We're then going to invite them to take the lessons!
Tuesday Elder Boyer became ill again. Uh oh. We did a mini exchange with Elders nearby because we had quite a few appointments set up. We went to teach Amanda in the morning. She's working to get Sunday off. She got it off last week, but got really ill! Elder Wiser then went with me to Maple Terrace. We were going to meet with Wilma to get her set for church, but she couldn't meet. We read the scriptures with Mike. He was worried about Alma, so we challenged him to finish it in one month. He was saying, "I don't know about that!" and "You're crazy!" He then started reading more though, so we said three weeks, and now it's down to two weeks. He's really burning through it, so we're all happy. They announced that Maple Terrace really is not going to get torn down until 2012. People there are not happy about that. After this, we went over to Naperville to teach Derek, but that appointment fell through. After this we exchanged back, and Elder Boyer rested. We had a couple fall throughs Tuesday, which is usually no good, but was probably for the better. We had a dinner with the Gamboas in the evening, which was good. They cooked us Chilis Rellenos, which are big green chilis stuffed with cheese that are fried in eggs. We want to start teaching their nighbor more. After this, we went to the Glassets to help them with their missionary work. They've got some good things going with quite a few less actives. We're excited to see what they accomplish as they invite others to come unto Christ!
Today was good. My studies were on items recommended to prepare for our meeting with L Tom Perry. We have D&D 50:22 and D&C 43:8-9 to read and ponder, and also Preach My Gospel Chapters 9 and 13. I've been studying those Chapters in Preach My Gospel a lot lately, and am excited to learn more about them from these Brethren tomorrow. The Chapters are about finding, and working with Stake and Ward leaders. We did a Preach My Gospel Activity from Chapter 9 for companion study, which was productive. We're going to have a restful Preparation Day today. We have dinner with the Matthews, and an appointment with Amanda at the Stavrons tonight. They should both be great.
Well, I hope you all have a great week! I love you. Keep reading the Book of Mormon. It's one of the greatest ways for our testimonies to grow. I love reading the Book of Mormon, and learning from it. I've also really enjoyed listening to Jesus the Christ as we drive. Elder Boyer and I really appreciate you sending that!
Love you,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello!
It's good to hear from each of you this week! I'm glad things are going well. We've had a pretty good week here. Elder Boyer has been ill, but we've had some good things happen, and he's feeling better.
Here's some of what's gone on this week:
Last Wednesday we didn't do too much. This was Elder Boyer's first day of his first illness. We had a pretty restful Preparation Day, and said bye to the Elders that were to be transferred. We had dinner with the Houghtons, which was great. They're doing some awesome missionary work. They brought a friend to a Ward Activity, and are prepared for some more missionary work.
Thursday was a good day. Elder Boyer was still a little weak, but we had some good appointments. We had the Hesed House as well, which went well. They're really nice there. We also found a really old Spanish Book of Mormon there that had a family's testimony in it. Pretty neat. I've enjoyed the copies of the Book of Mormon you've sent me with your testimonies in them. We later went to visit the Apodacas. They're doing well. Our dinner appointment got cancelled for the evening, but they gave us money. It feels a little weird to take money from members, but it was nice of them. We went to Applebee's and used that money and the card I got in the mail. We went out with Brother Mitchell in the evening to teach. Our first appointment fell through, so we did some stop bys. We went to the hospital to teach Adam. The lesson went well, and Brother Mitchell did great. Adam is progressing both spiritually and physically with his leg, so we're happy there.
Friday was a productive day. We had our weekly planning after our morning schedule, which went well. We then went to Maple Terrace and taught Mike and Lorenszo there. We tried to stop by a few people, but didn't get to contact many. We went to Nancy's to try to teach Adam, but he was held in the hospital past his release time. We ended up teaching the family anyways. We had a dinner appointment at the Christensens that went well. They're a very nice family, and are a great help for us. We had some other stop bys, and tried to visit Adam in the hospital, but got there right after he was released! We just weren't meant to visit him on Friday.
Saturday was productive as well. We had a great MCM. Brother Stavron is a little nervous because he is going to give the closing prayer for the L Tom Perry meeting with all of the Stake Presidents, Bishops, and Ward Mission Leaders for the 8 Stakes of the Chicagoland area. We think it's pretty cool he's on the same program as an Apostle, a member of the Presidency of the 70, and an Area 70. We went to do some service for the Christensens after MCM. We helped them put together a bed. They also gave us some lunch. They're a great family, and have given us a referral for some other missionaries. After this, we drove to Naperville for our appointment with Hell-Bongo. He was home, but had to reschedule for Sunday. We then went and stopped by quite a few people. We had a visit with the Gamboas and taught some of their relatives, which was great. We had a dinner appointment with the Flemings, who are awesome. They're getting ready to do some missionary work. Sister Flemings dad was in the old mission presidency, so they've got a great background in sharing the Gospel. We went over to Nancy's to teach Adam after dinner. After that, we went by the Langstons and visited with them, and a family friend who we invited to take the lessons. She said no, but it was a good encounter.
Sunday was a good day at church. We had a productive PEC before church. They're setting up a temple trip for recent converts and other people, which should be great. The Popes are looking forwards to going. We had some great talks in sacrament meeting, and great lessons afterwards. We were happy to see a neighbor of the Gamboas who we invited to church show up with them too! After church, we went out to our new appointment with Hell-Bongo. He lives close to the Popes, so we took Brother Pope with us. Hell-Bongo wasn't home, so we went to stop by a less active in the area. She let us in, and we had a lesson. Brother Pope bore his testimony, and taught like Alma the Younger to the people of Ammonihah. Elder Boyer and I were his equivalent of Amulek. It was a great appointment, and very very productive for the less active sister. She's got some things to get her head around, but is quite nice. We hope to help her come back to acivity. She wouldn't commit to becoming active now, but promised she'd come when her grandkids come to visit. Brother Pope told her when she comes in he and Sister Pope would sit on either side of her family, and show them around. Pretty good for being a 2 month member! We were there for quite a while, so we didn't have too much time left in the day after that. We had dinner with the Hoyts, which was good. They're doing some awesome work with a part member family, and are great member missionaries. Their son also brings a lot of his friends to young men's basketball. We then went to the Adams. Sister Adams is our dinner calendar scheduler, so we were going through a list of people for her to call. After this, we exchanged with the APs. Elder Wilson came to Naper for to be with me, and Elder Boyer went to be with Elder Bateman, who is from Mesa.
Monday was a good day. We had our District Meeting, which went well. We have a good district here. After this, we went out and tried to find. We tracted into some people that were nice, but didn't get a return appointment unfortunately. We proceeded to stop bys after lunch. We stopped by a lot of people, but didn't teach many. This seems to be the story of the week actually. We did teach Keegan, who we had taught several months ago. That went well, although wasn't the most productive appointment ever. We went to the Gaffney's for an appointment which was good. They came to church Sunday for the first time since I've been here, which was great to see! After this, we exchanged back. Elder Boyer and I went to the Capeners for dinner. They do great missionary work. We went through questions we all get asked, and how to answer them. After this, we went over to the Andersens home to help them with their missionary work. They have a few families they're working with. They have some that they're going to give media to, and prepare to take the missionary lessons. They're going to invite quite a few families to the Ward party this Saturday, and introduce them to us. We're then going to invite them to take the lessons!
Tuesday Elder Boyer became ill again. Uh oh. We did a mini exchange with Elders nearby because we had quite a few appointments set up. We went to teach Amanda in the morning. She's working to get Sunday off. She got it off last week, but got really ill! Elder Wiser then went with me to Maple Terrace. We were going to meet with Wilma to get her set for church, but she couldn't meet. We read the scriptures with Mike. He was worried about Alma, so we challenged him to finish it in one month. He was saying, "I don't know about that!" and "You're crazy!" He then started reading more though, so we said three weeks, and now it's down to two weeks. He's really burning through it, so we're all happy. They announced that Maple Terrace really is not going to get torn down until 2012. People there are not happy about that. After this, we went over to Naperville to teach Derek, but that appointment fell through. After this we exchanged back, and Elder Boyer rested. We had a couple fall throughs Tuesday, which is usually no good, but was probably for the better. We had a dinner with the Gamboas in the evening, which was good. They cooked us Chilis Rellenos, which are big green chilis stuffed with cheese that are fried in eggs. We want to start teaching their nighbor more. After this, we went to the Glassets to help them with their missionary work. They've got some good things going with quite a few less actives. We're excited to see what they accomplish as they invite others to come unto Christ!
Today was good. My studies were on items recommended to prepare for our meeting with L Tom Perry. We have D&D 50:22 and D&C 43:8-9 to read and ponder, and also Preach My Gospel Chapters 9 and 13. I've been studying those Chapters in Preach My Gospel a lot lately, and am excited to learn more about them from these Brethren tomorrow. The Chapters are about finding, and working with Stake and Ward leaders. We did a Preach My Gospel Activity from Chapter 9 for companion study, which was productive. We're going to have a restful Preparation Day today. We have dinner with the Matthews, and an appointment with Amanda at the Stavrons tonight. They should both be great.
Well, I hope you all have a great week! I love you. Keep reading the Book of Mormon. It's one of the greatest ways for our testimonies to grow. I love reading the Book of Mormon, and learning from it. I've also really enjoyed listening to Jesus the Christ as we drive. Elder Boyer and I really appreciate you sending that!
Love you,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
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