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