I'm getting excited for that Mother's Day phone call, but I haven't said anything to Elder M about that (other than a brief mention that I'm looking forward to it.) We got the official letter from the mission president telling us when he would be released, and at the end he said something to the effect of stay interested in their mission. In other words, don't talk too much about when they come home, etc. There's still a lot of time left!! Brad is good at staying focused. I'm proud of him. I have to do the same! Here's his email:
Hello family,
Things are going well here! It sounds like you're all doing alright. That's good.
So, I'm just curious to hear where Caitlin is going to go to College! Tay Tay, I got your letter about the i Pod... We're going to have some problems... Just kidding! I've written a letter and am going to send it soon. I'll just tell you now what it said though - you can keep the i Pod! [Tay took over Brad's I-pod when he left as you can probably tell.]
Well, here I am at Chicago State University's library. Elder T is at the "trunky meeting," which is a how to get a job meeting they have for all missionaries before they go home. He'll be in Naperville with all the missionaries a transfer or 2 older than me. I'm here with 2 missionaries that are serving in Indiana, which is neat. We're probably going to play some sports with our district a little bit later today.
So here's a little bit of what's happened this week:
Last Wednesday we went to Chinatown, which was pretty fun. We also drove through some of Chicago and looked around. We then came back to our apartment and the Spanish Elders came over. We just hung out for a little while. We had an appointment with Charity and Esau in the evening, which went well.
Thursday was Zone Conference day! It was pretty nice not having to do anything. Zone Conference went pretty well. We gave the Sisters a ride there and back. We learned about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and quite a few other things. A major focus was helping Wards to follow through with their 5 Focus Families and have every High Priests Group, Elders Quorum and Relief Society contact 5 families from the Ward and invite them to take the missionary lessons. After Zone Conference, we came back for an appointment with Victoria, Errol and Mercedes. That went well. We also met an interesting woman. She walked into the house when we were teaching Victoria's family, and just stared us in the eye for about 10 minutes and wouldn't say a word. She didn't blink or move her eyes. I thought she was some sort of militant anti mormon person, and was just holding back from stabbing us because we were in Victoria's home. She then started talking with a thick accent (she sounded like she was from Ghana or something), and talking about how the Holy Ghost sent her to us, and she needs to hear the word. She could feel the Spirit was strong with us, and was saying a lot of off the wall things, all while continuing to stare us down. She then spoke in tongues. She let us teach her a bit, was interested... So we set up another appointment to teach her more. After that, we had an appointment in Cal City fall through which would have been our last appointment.
Friday went well. We couldn't contact the lady we met the day before, which may have been a blessing. We had a great appointment with Tonika. She is very excited to go to the Temple and wants to start doing baptisms ASAP! Awesome. We had lunch, then an appointment with Charles Williams. He's a good man, and wants to progress. He wants to start coming to church, and is moving in the right direction. We had an appointment with Terrell at the Ervins. Jazmin was also there. We went through the Plan of Salvation, and it went pretty well. We had a dinner appointment with Sister Tomoko. She is so nice. She always makes a huge dinner and even gives us wet hand towels on a tray like they do in Japan. After that, we went out to help the Childress family with some service. We helped them move a lot of junk out of a garage. We met a family friend that is from Ann Arbor there. I told him you had just gone over there and thought it was nice.
Saturday was good. We had basketball in the morning. After that, we went to teach Henry Webster. His LDS daughter from Tucson is coming to Chicago soon, so that should be good. We then went to teach Collette. That went well too. She's going through tough times, but wants to get baptized. We then went to Pep Boys to get our oil changed. The missionaries who were here before Elder T and I got transferred in had got a notice, and hadn't got their oil change... So we got told, "GET IT CHANGED!" We sat in the Pep Boys for quite some time, which was ok. We then had an appointment with the Rhodes that went pretty well. It started raining outside and the wind blew pretty hard too.
Sunday was good. We had our meeting in the morning. Church was great. We had an appointment with Sister Flowers after church. We then went out to do stop bys and got a hold of one less active member. We set up an appointment there, so that was good. Other than that, we just made some calls.
Monday went well. We had our District Meeting after the morning schedule. It went great. We then went to teach a member. We had gone through Elder Bednar's talk, "More Diligent and Concerned at Home" at church, and he had some questions. It turns out that he had never said, "I love you" to his mom, and was trying to get courage to tell her. We went through that, and he decided he would do it! So we've got a pretty unique follow up right there for this man. I hope it went well. After that, we took Brother Thomas out with us to teach Charles Williams again. That went great. We then went to visit Brother Moore. After that, we went to the Hills. They are doing great! I am really optimistic about Caraline progressing to baptism. She's on the right path. They got us Dock's, which is the best fish in Chicago. We ate perch, which was pretty good. The Hills love their fish, and I'm enjoying it too.
Tuesday was good. We went out to do stop bys in the morning and got a hold of Wendy Weather. She's had some things come up, and hasn't been able to get to church, so her baptism will be pushed back. Good news though... Her boyfriend wants to start learning so they can do it together. We're now trying to work around his schedule. After that we went out to lunch. I just made a budget for next month. I'm going to really try to stick to it so I get in good practice for when I'm home, and in the future with a family, etc... So, that means that we're going out to eat as much as possible before the end of the month! Hahaha. Not really, but we did go out to eat for lunch (...and dinner...). We're actually just out of food, and are about to go to a members home tomorrow who gives us groceries, so we don't really want to buy any. After eating lunch, we went out to do stop bys. We're trying to find someone out in the Calumet City area to reactivate so they can give investigators rides to church. We met one lady who doesn't have a car, but has a bus pass. We're going to figure out the route for her so she can come to church. She's an older lady and is quite nice. She lives in one of the buildings of a 10 story super senior center. After that, we went over to Henry Webster's home for another lesson. That went well. We then had an appointment with the Rhodes. That went well too. They're a great family. They love to talk to people they meet about the Gospel, and had some questions about how they could respond to some silly things that were said. We then went to Victoria's home. There is this old man named Joe that wanders around their block that is super funny. He approached us with a "200+ year old quarter." He told us it was probably really valuable, and he was lucky to find it. He asked us what we would give him for this valuable quarter. I looked at it, and saw a Maryland state quarter with 1788 written on it above the real date, 2000. When we told him he should keep his valuable treasure, he got upset and threw in on the ground. After this, we went to visit Altione and his daughter Phoenix, who we want to help get baptized. That went well. Other than that, we just went to Home Depot to get new circuit breaker plugs. The power to our AC went out, and the circuit breaker doesn't have switches... It has these screw in plugs. We figured it out though, and got power back!
Today should be good. We're going to go play sports with the district later.
Well, I hope you all take care! I love you and love hearing from you. Thank you for all you do. Keep sharing the Gospel. I'm grateful I was raised with the Gospel in my life.
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
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