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