The email came in next day! Don't know what happened, but here is yesterday's update (6/23/10). Make sure to look at the pictures after this post. Those came through even though the email didn't! Anyway here is the email:
Hello family,
I can't believe how fast my mission is going. It seems like I'm constantly emailing home these updates. We just got transfer calls for what would have been the last time if our mission wasn't getting combined. I'm grateful it is at this point. Elder Gonzalez and I will stay together. We'll also have Elder Rothlisberger for a couple of weeks until he flies out to his mission in Bulgaria. He was ill and is making a pit stop in Chicago. We will be covering the entire Ward, so that will be absolutely crazy. It will be neat to begin teaching those I taught last transfer again. Melbria was baptized this week, which went well. The Spirit was there very strongly. We had a great turnout. Even Caraline Hill came, and we talked with her about baptism. She has been thinking about it for a long time, and feels it is now time. She wants to get baptized in July! Awesome! She's thinking about July 24th, so we'll work with her for that day. We'll make her a baptismal calendar and give it to her Friday. She's also going to start making catfish again!
Anyways, here's a day to day for some of what's happened:
Last Wednesday was Zone Activity. It was very fun. We went to a field and played Chicagoball (softball with a squishy ball), football, and soccer. I got my package with the CDs! Thank you so much, Mom! They're perfect. After that, we went out to teach Melbria to help her get ready for her baptism. That went well. She was very excited for it.
Thursday was a good day. We had some good time to find and teach. We get pretty sweaty now when we tract because it's hot and humid. We met with Sister Prewitt, who is doing better. We also met with Alfreda, and had a great appointment! She's progressing. We talked a lot about church and baptism. We then got to meet with Kathy and Billy again. We had Brother Thomas there with us, and it went well. Billy is getting very excited! He loved learning, and is looking forward to coming to church. He couldn't that Sunday, but is going to come this Sunday. We then tried to teach some of Sister Tomasello's neighbors and watched the Finding Faith in Christ movie, which is great by the way. We went to the Motts in the evening, and had a great appointment. They're moving forward. We then had Melbria's baptismal interview. Both Melbria and Elder Ferrel can talk. It was about an hour long. They seemed to have a great time though, and we all had fun outside. There are a ton of kids in Melbria's neighborhood that just roam around everywhere.
Friday was a good day. We got our house inspected in the morning. We passed! We did some finding and had an appointment with Rick. We were so hot already, then he wanted to have the lesson outside. We've been broiled in our suit pants (and our long sleeve shirts that we tend to put on on what turn into the hottest of days), until we sweat half of our body weight out, then we've been steamed. We've had many hours to tract too! It's actually been great, we've met so many great people tracting. We had tracted into Rick a few weeks before actually. We then taught the Howorth family, who is less active, and helped them move some furniture. We then did some finding I would imagine, and got ready to teach Louis. A huge storm came in really fast right before we taught Louis. It was incredible how fast the weather changed. We enjoyed watching a seagull trying to fly to where we imagined his nest was in the wind. He was beating his wings so hard, but was going backwards, sideways, and every other way besides forwards. He got pushed really far away, then came back when there was a lull in the wind. Right when he almost got to where he wanted to go, the wind came back. He unfortunately couldn't make it home. We had dinner at the Leals, who are the family I had dinner with in Stockyards. They go to the Morgan Park Ward, but actually live in the Stockyards area. We got permission to go to there house.
Saturday was awesome. We got everything ready for the baptism. The hot water heater is broken, so we boiled some water too. It does give some hot water, but not very much. The baptism was excellent. One of the best I've ever been to. I gave a talk on baptism. Melbria bore her testimony at the end, and it was excellent. After that, we had some appointments fall through, so we went to visit Lebron. He's doing well. We did some stop bys and finding, and that was pretty much it for the day.
Sunday was a fairly slow day teaching wise. We had a great day at church. Melbria's confirmation went well. We went to the Jenkins for dinner after church. They are so awesome. We love going over there! After that, we went to the Motts. That was pretty much it for the day.
Monday was good. We got to visit the Motts and Melbria. We had a lot of time to find as well, because our other appointments fell through. It was hot. We had a good district meeting, and had some homemade ice cream a member made for us! Most of our day was finding.
Tuesday was excellent. We had our best appointment yet with Vera. She has stopped going to her old church, and is going to come to church with us on Sunday. She also wants to begin attending institute. She is doing so well, and we're excited she is progressing! We then had a lot of tracting before going to give a member a blessing. After that we had a lot more tracting! It's been nice to have time to do that. We've shifted our focus from some dead ends to finding new people, and have been blessed with the likes of Alfreda, Rick, Kathy and Billy, and others! We got another one Tuesday. We had about 30 minutes to find before meeting up with Brother Jenkins to do stop bys. We picked some hidden street that had overgrowth on the sidewalk. We figured no one had ever tracted the street, and even wondered why we were going to. At the house right after a cussing old man, we met what seems to be a golden family. The lady had a Book of Mormon in Georgia, but never got to take the lessons. She started crying when we told her who we were, and we had the strong feeling she had prayed for us, or at least something and we were the answer. We gave it to her, and set up an appointment after talking for some time. Her in law listened as we talked, and wondered about the unusual feeling she had as she listened to us teach and testify. She said she would get everyone in the family ready for our appointment this week! We're excited to see how it goes. I'm grateful we were led there by God. After that, we stopped by a less active with Brother Jenkins who told us how he had been thinking a lot lately about getting spiritual. Once again, we were led to the right person at exactly the right time. He was so amazed at the power of God to lead his servants. We're excited to meet with him. We also got to meet with the Rhodes, which was nice.
Today should be good! We're going to have a nerf war. Our District will only be us, and 1 set of Spanish Elders next transfer. The two Spanish areas are getting combined. Elder John and Elder Robinson will be there.
Things are great! The Gospel is true. I love you. Thanks for all you do.
Sincerely,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
View from 3rd Floor Apartment in Beverly
This is the view from the apartment that Elder M lived in when he was in the Beverly area (last transfer). 
Chicago Bug
Elder M says, "Here's a Chicago bug. They have these in apartments. They're really weird and pretty gross."Broken Fire Hydrant
Some people are enjoying the broken fire hydrant close by the Morgan Park church building.
Mission Update 6/23/10
Well, I don't think Elder M. sent us an email this week! He sent several pictures and had to resend them a few times, but no email came through. In one note with the pictures he told me that he and Elder Gonzalez will cover the combined area (Beverly and Evergreen, which is the one they've been in this past transfer) -- i.e. all the Morgan Park Ward, but that they will have Elder Rothlisberger with them in a 3 person companionship for a couple of weeks. Because the missions are combining next week, Chicago South will change to the Chicago North transfer schedule, which will mean that they have transfers again in 2 weeks. At that point Elder R. will be headed to Bulgaria. He had been in Bulgaria but came to the US for health reasons. Now he is going to head back once all his medical issues have been cleared. So, we'll see what happens in 2 weeks at the next transfer! Elders M and Gonzalez were headed off to have a Nerf war this afternoon for p-day.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Mission Update 6/16/10
Who's counting....but Elder M only has 9 weeks left!!! I'm getting pretty excited, if you can't tell. His mission president sent the plane reservation info. by mail this past week (we had already been sent it by email) with a letter telling us to keep our letters focused on missionary work. (Don't talk about parties, vacations, etc. that will be happening when the missionary gets home, etc.) Good advice and a good reminder!! I'm being good and not talking to him about it, but believe me, I'm thinking about it! Anyway, here's the weekly email:
Hello family!
This week has been great. It sounds like you've had a good week as well. Good job at your swim meet, Tay! That's so cool you got to swim against Olympians and record holders! Did you swim in the same heat as anyone famous? [haha, no!] Grandpa & Dad, I have Father's Day cards I'm going to send you probably today or tomorrow! I also have to send something for Baby Cait and Granny for your B-Days! Are you feeling 100%, Mom?
So, we've been doing really well. We had a pretty fun week. It has rained a lot! We have got soaked as we go out in the rain. It was raining so hard last night when we were tracting. We had a 91 year old man in a house that tried to take our umbrellas! We told him we could come back later & teach him too, but he told us to get out of there (before the boogie man got us)! We had a pretty great week for appointments falling through. I think we may have set a record... 30 (no exaggeration at all) appointments that we didn't get to teach a lesson at! Incredible. We still had a lot of wonderful things happen, and only fell 2 lessons short of the standard (20), which was a blessing. Anyways, here's a bit of what happened:
Wednesday was fun. We had a great time having a Nerf war with the district at the church. After that, Elder Robinson came with me to serve in Evergreen. He's a Spanish Elder, and this was his first exchange in an English area. Our first appointment got upset when we gave him a pass a long card with a picture of the Savior, because He doesn't have black skin. We got that mostly cleared up. We then tried some finding, and met interesting (pretty much everyone on the south side) people. We had our night appointment with Melbria. It was fun talking with Elder Robinson that night too. He has read a lot of the same books I've read (by the way Mom, I think the rule you had of bed time at 8:30 unless you are reading, was a great rule).
Thursday was a good day. We met 2 more people with the same issue as the man from the previous evening. We tracted into some nuts people as well. We had an appointment with the Carlsons, which was great. They also made us some raw men for lunch (ramen with a bunch of vegetables added in). Pretty much all of our appointments fell through, so we did a lot of finding. It was nice because we got to knock off a ton of the potentials we had found. We switched back right before dinner (which canceled). We had a member invite us over for desert, which was nice. We then went out to do stop bys for the evening. We did a lot of work this day, but not too much happened.
Friday was good. We only had 2 appointments fall through before our first good one. We had Brother Cunningham come with us to teach Van. It went really well. He's on the right path, and is just working to get past smoking. Brother Cunningham will be good to help him get past that. We then had a member that was going to come out with us to a couple appointments fall through, so we had to scramble to find someone else. We ended up getting Brother Tony Burton. He came out with us, and got to meet some of Vera's family (they rescheduled their appointment to Saturday). We had a great appointment with the Motts, and also a great one with Melbria. We went through the baptismal interview questions with her, and she is good to go!
We had basketball Saturday morning. We finally got to teach them all. It went pretty well. We taught about the Savior, the Atonement, the Book of Mormon, and the Restoration. It was also fun playing basketball. We took Brother Moore out with us to teach Vera, which was perfect. She has a hurt leg, so doesn't move around much now, but will come to church when she heals. We're going to bring Errol and Mercedes for her son to meet! We also went by LeBron's, which was perfect. We ate dinner at a fried chicken place, and got to meet a Muslim man. We taught and talked with him for a long time. He was a really neat guy, and was excited to read the Book of Mormon, and pamphlets we gave him. He would get excited and high five us when we told him certain things like, "we do not believe in the trinity." After that, we went over to Melbria's, but she had fallen asleep already, so we went by the Motts. It was good to be over there again.
Sunday was a good day. Melbria was very excited at church. All went well. We went to the Jenkins' home for dinner. They are such an awesome family! We did finding until our appointment with Melbria in the evening. Brother Ennis and Sister Porter helped us teach, which went well. All of them are talkers. We could have been there all night, but we left them with a prayer after a while. We love how Melbria is getting along so well with members!
Monday was pretty good. We had a lot of fall throughs again, but had a lot of good things. We did some finding, and did find 3 new investigators. We had left a pass a long card at their house a couple of days ago when tracting and they called the number. We got to teach them, and it went great! We're going to continue teaching this family and their friend. We had a lot of finding that day too, which I believe was really warm.
Tuesday we got to teach Van again. He is doing well. He's finishing up the book of Alma now for his Book of Mormon reading. We also went by the Mitchells home for a lesson. We had an appointment set with a former to give her husband a blessing at the hospital, but he was asleep when we got there. We did some great tracting in a downpour. To us it felt like our testimony had a lot more weight when we were waterlogged. We did service in the morning, which was really good. We helped a family from the Spanish Ward move some things out of their garage. They cooked us some awesome breakfast! They also served tamarindo juice, which you have to try...
Today should be fun! We have Zone Activity really soon up near the Stockyards apartment. We're going to play Chicagoball (softball with a larger and softer ball than normal softball), which is one of the most fun P-Day activities ever invented! Tonight we'll probably go visit the Prewitts and Melbria.
Well, there you go. I'm loving my mission! The Gospel is true, and I'm grateful it has blessed me so much. It's blessing the lives of those I'm teaching, and I hope to help others receive the blessings from it soon.
Take care!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello family!
This week has been great. It sounds like you've had a good week as well. Good job at your swim meet, Tay! That's so cool you got to swim against Olympians and record holders! Did you swim in the same heat as anyone famous? [haha, no!] Grandpa & Dad, I have Father's Day cards I'm going to send you probably today or tomorrow! I also have to send something for Baby Cait and Granny for your B-Days! Are you feeling 100%, Mom?
So, we've been doing really well. We had a pretty fun week. It has rained a lot! We have got soaked as we go out in the rain. It was raining so hard last night when we were tracting. We had a 91 year old man in a house that tried to take our umbrellas! We told him we could come back later & teach him too, but he told us to get out of there (before the boogie man got us)! We had a pretty great week for appointments falling through. I think we may have set a record... 30 (no exaggeration at all) appointments that we didn't get to teach a lesson at! Incredible. We still had a lot of wonderful things happen, and only fell 2 lessons short of the standard (20), which was a blessing. Anyways, here's a bit of what happened:
Wednesday was fun. We had a great time having a Nerf war with the district at the church. After that, Elder Robinson came with me to serve in Evergreen. He's a Spanish Elder, and this was his first exchange in an English area. Our first appointment got upset when we gave him a pass a long card with a picture of the Savior, because He doesn't have black skin. We got that mostly cleared up. We then tried some finding, and met interesting (pretty much everyone on the south side) people. We had our night appointment with Melbria. It was fun talking with Elder Robinson that night too. He has read a lot of the same books I've read (by the way Mom, I think the rule you had of bed time at 8:30 unless you are reading, was a great rule).
Thursday was a good day. We met 2 more people with the same issue as the man from the previous evening. We tracted into some nuts people as well. We had an appointment with the Carlsons, which was great. They also made us some raw men for lunch (ramen with a bunch of vegetables added in). Pretty much all of our appointments fell through, so we did a lot of finding. It was nice because we got to knock off a ton of the potentials we had found. We switched back right before dinner (which canceled). We had a member invite us over for desert, which was nice. We then went out to do stop bys for the evening. We did a lot of work this day, but not too much happened.
Friday was good. We only had 2 appointments fall through before our first good one. We had Brother Cunningham come with us to teach Van. It went really well. He's on the right path, and is just working to get past smoking. Brother Cunningham will be good to help him get past that. We then had a member that was going to come out with us to a couple appointments fall through, so we had to scramble to find someone else. We ended up getting Brother Tony Burton. He came out with us, and got to meet some of Vera's family (they rescheduled their appointment to Saturday). We had a great appointment with the Motts, and also a great one with Melbria. We went through the baptismal interview questions with her, and she is good to go!
We had basketball Saturday morning. We finally got to teach them all. It went pretty well. We taught about the Savior, the Atonement, the Book of Mormon, and the Restoration. It was also fun playing basketball. We took Brother Moore out with us to teach Vera, which was perfect. She has a hurt leg, so doesn't move around much now, but will come to church when she heals. We're going to bring Errol and Mercedes for her son to meet! We also went by LeBron's, which was perfect. We ate dinner at a fried chicken place, and got to meet a Muslim man. We taught and talked with him for a long time. He was a really neat guy, and was excited to read the Book of Mormon, and pamphlets we gave him. He would get excited and high five us when we told him certain things like, "we do not believe in the trinity." After that, we went over to Melbria's, but she had fallen asleep already, so we went by the Motts. It was good to be over there again.
Sunday was a good day. Melbria was very excited at church. All went well. We went to the Jenkins' home for dinner. They are such an awesome family! We did finding until our appointment with Melbria in the evening. Brother Ennis and Sister Porter helped us teach, which went well. All of them are talkers. We could have been there all night, but we left them with a prayer after a while. We love how Melbria is getting along so well with members!
Monday was pretty good. We had a lot of fall throughs again, but had a lot of good things. We did some finding, and did find 3 new investigators. We had left a pass a long card at their house a couple of days ago when tracting and they called the number. We got to teach them, and it went great! We're going to continue teaching this family and their friend. We had a lot of finding that day too, which I believe was really warm.
Tuesday we got to teach Van again. He is doing well. He's finishing up the book of Alma now for his Book of Mormon reading. We also went by the Mitchells home for a lesson. We had an appointment set with a former to give her husband a blessing at the hospital, but he was asleep when we got there. We did some great tracting in a downpour. To us it felt like our testimony had a lot more weight when we were waterlogged. We did service in the morning, which was really good. We helped a family from the Spanish Ward move some things out of their garage. They cooked us some awesome breakfast! They also served tamarindo juice, which you have to try...
Today should be fun! We have Zone Activity really soon up near the Stockyards apartment. We're going to play Chicagoball (softball with a larger and softer ball than normal softball), which is one of the most fun P-Day activities ever invented! Tonight we'll probably go visit the Prewitts and Melbria.
Well, there you go. I'm loving my mission! The Gospel is true, and I'm grateful it has blessed me so much. It's blessing the lives of those I'm teaching, and I hope to help others receive the blessings from it soon.
Take care!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Elder McMullin with President and Sister Roach
President and Sister Roach are being released on July 1. This picture was taken at their farewell Zone Conference on June 3. Elder M. has loved President and Sister Roach and will miss them when they leave (although he won't be too far behind them!)
Elders at the Chicago Field Museum
Not the greatest picture quality, but kind of a neat picture of the Elders at the museum on a P day. Elder McMullin and his District
Here's Elder McMullin's District at the Field Museum in late May or early June 2010.
Mission Update -- 6/9/10
Elders McMullin and Gonzalez have a baptism coming up on June 19th! Here's Elder M's email:
Hello Family,
How are you doing? I hope you are having a great day! Things are going well here. I hope you are all healthy! Are you excited for Sandy Ogie? It should be fun!
So, our investigators are doing great. Melbria is getting ready for her baptism and is very excited. She asked Bishop Baxter to do the baptism when we were at church! He's getting really excited also, so it's perfect. Our other investigators are progressing, and we've been able to meet a lot of people finding.
Here's a day to day summary of some things that have gone on:
Last Wednesday was really fun! We did the preparation stuff, and had a great time at the church with the District. We all bought some cheap Nerf guns, and had a huge fight. It was really fun actually. We're going to do the same thing again today, which should be fun. We went to dinner at Sister Tomasello's home and ate dinner there with the Beers. After that, we went by Melbria's.
Thursday was a good day. We had Zone Conference. It was President and Sister Roach's last Zone Conference, which was pretty sad. They had the "silver plates," which they had found which were written just like Nephi's plates. It talked about every area and missionary in the Zone, and also had some writings from President and Sister Roach. It was pretty funny. We had one of the Spanish Wards make lunch for us, and it was pozole, which is really good. After Zone Conference, we came back to the Morgan Park church house and helped with another funeral. People just keep passing away around here. We then went to go out to find, and I believe found some potentials. We got an appointment with one that seemed pretty excited. We also met a couple of Hispanic people for Elder Gonzalez to teach in Espanol. We had an appointment with the Motts too, which went really well. They're a great family.
Friday was pretty good. We started proselyting and went out to the Mitchells home. We read out of the Book of Mormon there. We then went to teach Van, who is doing pretty well. We then had some time to find before getting to teach Alfreda. She's the lady we met while trying to stop by formers. She is actually really great! One of our top investigators now. We had a great appointment there. We then went to the Leals for dinner. It had been over a year and a half since going there, and it was great. They're an awesome family, and are going to continue having us over. We then went by Melbria's.
Saturday we did Weekly Planning (usually Thursday, but we had been busy). We also ate some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch (meal #1). We then went out to teach someone we had tracted into, but just like Mom's appointment with an investigator, it fell through. [I told him in my email to him that the missionaries here in Tempe had asked me to go visit some investigators. I set up the appointment, but when I got there, the investigators weren't home. Brad says that is called getting "tubed", so I guess I was "tubed" just like the missionaries :-)] We then went by a less actives home, and had a lesson there. She gave us sandwiches (meal #2), and a watermelon. We took the watermelon home, and made smoothies out of it and some strawberries we had (meal #3). We then went to meet with Brother Butler, and give his brother a blessing. He bought us too much McDonald's (meal #4 - 2 chicken sandwiches, both of which were close to 400 calories)! We then went over to teach one of Sister Tomasello's friends. We watched a DVD there. Sister T gave Elder Gonzalez some candy (meal #4.5). We then went by the Prewitt's home and found out Sister Prewitt had bought a ton of food for us! We had a bunch of fried chicken, greens, mac n cheese, rolls, and cake! She made sure we ate up too. We were dying as we consumed meal #5! Dad, you told us in a letter we should get fried chicken, and that it is only greasy on the outside... We've had Harold's, which is the famous south side joint, and also this chicken, and some other chicken... It definitely is greasy on the inside as well as the outside! It is deadly (you can't got more than 5 minutes without seeing an ambulance around here), but it does taste good. After that, we went over to Melbria's.
Sunday was great. We went around to do stop bys before church. We had choir, which was fun. We then had MCM. After that, we had church. Melbria asked Bishop to baptize her, which was great. He gave her a Neal A Maxwell book to read, and she has loved it. She is doing so well at church, and is here to stay. The rest of church was great too. Van is doing well at church too. He, Sister Ervin and Brother Cunningham all went to the same school on the near south side. Pretty neat. We then went to dinner at the Schields' home. They are such an awesome part active family! The husband doesn't come to the church, but is great! We had a good time. He is a cop, and works up in Englewood, where I was in Stockyards. He had some stories from there. After that, we went to give Sister Tomasello the sacrament. She got cleared to come this week now, so that will be great. We then went to stop by Melbria.
Monday was a pretty good day. We had an appointment fall through before District Meeting. We then had our meeting, which went well. A neighborhood kid walked in during our meeting, which was pretty unusual, but hopefully he'll turn out to be a good investigator for Beverly. We had quite a few (5) appointments fall through Monday, but it was still good. Elder Gonzalez fell and sprained his ankle after we taught the less active Lebron (who should be good for church this Sunday). He felt no good, so we had a tough day. He got a blessing in the evening though, and woke up feeling totally fine, even though his foot is bruised. We did get to see quite a few of the people we wanted to teach though. We saw Alfreda, and set up another appointment to teach her. She was running a restaurant out of her front yard, and gave us some chicken, which was great. She's a really nice lady. We also got to see a mail lady we had talked to while tracting a couple of days earlier. We also went by and taught Melbria.
Tuesday was a good day. We only had 4 appointments cancel! We were actually quite busy. We taught Alfreda in the morning, and that went great. She should be at church this week. She gave us more chicken, which was great. We went by to watch Our Heavenly Father's Plan at Sister Tomasello's building. It is beginning to look like another Maple Terrace, just with old people instead of section 8 people! We then went to the Mitchell's home. They're a part member family. Sister Mitchell is semi active, and is pretty awesome. We then went by the Prewitts and put up a new closet hanger rod. We had dinner, then went by Melbria's home. We had some of our tracting in the rain this day, which was fun. I have an enormous umbrella that I found in an apartment. It completely dwarfs Elder Gonzalez's baby umbrella.
Today is going to be great! We've got 3 appointments for the evening too. One is with a new guy we called out of the area book. The other is with Van. The 3rd is with Melbria.
Tomorrow we've got some good appointments set up too!
Well, I love you all so much! I appreciate all you do for me! I'm loving my mission, and am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve. It has blessed me so much. Keep sharing the Gospel... It's true!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
How are you doing? I hope you are having a great day! Things are going well here. I hope you are all healthy! Are you excited for Sandy Ogie? It should be fun!
So, our investigators are doing great. Melbria is getting ready for her baptism and is very excited. She asked Bishop Baxter to do the baptism when we were at church! He's getting really excited also, so it's perfect. Our other investigators are progressing, and we've been able to meet a lot of people finding.
Here's a day to day summary of some things that have gone on:
Last Wednesday was really fun! We did the preparation stuff, and had a great time at the church with the District. We all bought some cheap Nerf guns, and had a huge fight. It was really fun actually. We're going to do the same thing again today, which should be fun. We went to dinner at Sister Tomasello's home and ate dinner there with the Beers. After that, we went by Melbria's.
Thursday was a good day. We had Zone Conference. It was President and Sister Roach's last Zone Conference, which was pretty sad. They had the "silver plates," which they had found which were written just like Nephi's plates. It talked about every area and missionary in the Zone, and also had some writings from President and Sister Roach. It was pretty funny. We had one of the Spanish Wards make lunch for us, and it was pozole, which is really good. After Zone Conference, we came back to the Morgan Park church house and helped with another funeral. People just keep passing away around here. We then went to go out to find, and I believe found some potentials. We got an appointment with one that seemed pretty excited. We also met a couple of Hispanic people for Elder Gonzalez to teach in Espanol. We had an appointment with the Motts too, which went really well. They're a great family.
Friday was pretty good. We started proselyting and went out to the Mitchells home. We read out of the Book of Mormon there. We then went to teach Van, who is doing pretty well. We then had some time to find before getting to teach Alfreda. She's the lady we met while trying to stop by formers. She is actually really great! One of our top investigators now. We had a great appointment there. We then went to the Leals for dinner. It had been over a year and a half since going there, and it was great. They're an awesome family, and are going to continue having us over. We then went by Melbria's.
Saturday we did Weekly Planning (usually Thursday, but we had been busy). We also ate some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch (meal #1). We then went out to teach someone we had tracted into, but just like Mom's appointment with an investigator, it fell through. [I told him in my email to him that the missionaries here in Tempe had asked me to go visit some investigators. I set up the appointment, but when I got there, the investigators weren't home. Brad says that is called getting "tubed", so I guess I was "tubed" just like the missionaries :-)] We then went by a less actives home, and had a lesson there. She gave us sandwiches (meal #2), and a watermelon. We took the watermelon home, and made smoothies out of it and some strawberries we had (meal #3). We then went to meet with Brother Butler, and give his brother a blessing. He bought us too much McDonald's (meal #4 - 2 chicken sandwiches, both of which were close to 400 calories)! We then went over to teach one of Sister Tomasello's friends. We watched a DVD there. Sister T gave Elder Gonzalez some candy (meal #4.5). We then went by the Prewitt's home and found out Sister Prewitt had bought a ton of food for us! We had a bunch of fried chicken, greens, mac n cheese, rolls, and cake! She made sure we ate up too. We were dying as we consumed meal #5! Dad, you told us in a letter we should get fried chicken, and that it is only greasy on the outside... We've had Harold's, which is the famous south side joint, and also this chicken, and some other chicken... It definitely is greasy on the inside as well as the outside! It is deadly (you can't got more than 5 minutes without seeing an ambulance around here), but it does taste good. After that, we went over to Melbria's.
Sunday was great. We went around to do stop bys before church. We had choir, which was fun. We then had MCM. After that, we had church. Melbria asked Bishop to baptize her, which was great. He gave her a Neal A Maxwell book to read, and she has loved it. She is doing so well at church, and is here to stay. The rest of church was great too. Van is doing well at church too. He, Sister Ervin and Brother Cunningham all went to the same school on the near south side. Pretty neat. We then went to dinner at the Schields' home. They are such an awesome part active family! The husband doesn't come to the church, but is great! We had a good time. He is a cop, and works up in Englewood, where I was in Stockyards. He had some stories from there. After that, we went to give Sister Tomasello the sacrament. She got cleared to come this week now, so that will be great. We then went to stop by Melbria.
Monday was a pretty good day. We had an appointment fall through before District Meeting. We then had our meeting, which went well. A neighborhood kid walked in during our meeting, which was pretty unusual, but hopefully he'll turn out to be a good investigator for Beverly. We had quite a few (5) appointments fall through Monday, but it was still good. Elder Gonzalez fell and sprained his ankle after we taught the less active Lebron (who should be good for church this Sunday). He felt no good, so we had a tough day. He got a blessing in the evening though, and woke up feeling totally fine, even though his foot is bruised. We did get to see quite a few of the people we wanted to teach though. We saw Alfreda, and set up another appointment to teach her. She was running a restaurant out of her front yard, and gave us some chicken, which was great. She's a really nice lady. We also got to see a mail lady we had talked to while tracting a couple of days earlier. We also went by and taught Melbria.
Tuesday was a good day. We only had 4 appointments cancel! We were actually quite busy. We taught Alfreda in the morning, and that went great. She should be at church this week. She gave us more chicken, which was great. We went by to watch Our Heavenly Father's Plan at Sister Tomasello's building. It is beginning to look like another Maple Terrace, just with old people instead of section 8 people! We then went to the Mitchell's home. They're a part member family. Sister Mitchell is semi active, and is pretty awesome. We then went by the Prewitts and put up a new closet hanger rod. We had dinner, then went by Melbria's home. We had some of our tracting in the rain this day, which was fun. I have an enormous umbrella that I found in an apartment. It completely dwarfs Elder Gonzalez's baby umbrella.
Today is going to be great! We've got 3 appointments for the evening too. One is with a new guy we called out of the area book. The other is with Van. The 3rd is with Melbria.
Tomorrow we've got some good appointments set up too!
Well, I love you all so much! I appreciate all you do for me! I'm loving my mission, and am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve. It has blessed me so much. Keep sharing the Gospel... It's true!
Love,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Mission Update -- 6/2/10
Here's this week's update:
Hello Family,
Thank you for all you do. I am grateful for it. Congratulations on your graduations Caitlin and Taylor! That is very exciting! You're great sisters, and I love you both!
I've got a few letters written that I have to send. I just never seem to find the time to send letters anymore... I have that one still that I wrote to you, Taylor, a while ago... I should send it within the next couple of days.
So, here's some of what's been going on here:
Last Wednesday we went to the Guitar store and I learned some guitar. It isn't too hard, but those strings are like razor wire cutting your fingers. We had some time to relax and clean at home too. We went to the Busse's home for dinner. They're a great family. They really remind me a lot of the Spielbergs at home. They cooked a great dinner too. We then went to Melbria's home, and had a lesson there. She is doing so great! She absolutely loves church.
Thursday was an alright day. We did our weekly planning, and some finding. We had some cancelled appointments, so we did quite a bit of finding actually. We also helped a member with some service, and it was hot, so we got a little nasty. We had an appointment with the Motts in the evening, who are doing great. They're a part member family just coming back into the Church, and Brother Mott is getting ready to baptize his daughter, which is pretty exciting.
Friday was pretty good. We did stop bys in the morning, then went over to the Carlsons for an appointment. We talked about the Gospel and practiced teaching a lesson. It was great. They're an awesome family. We then went to Sister Tomasello's home and taught Loraine again. It went well. We then went to teach the less active Sister Mitchell, who is pretty neat. She should be coming to church this week. We also went by and taught Tony Burton. We're helping him get ready to help us teach. He had got in a bad car accident which made him unable to walk for a long time, and our investigator Amanda had a similar experience. We want to bring him by with us to help teach. We then went to teach Louis, which went well. We always teach him at the Mall near our home. We then went to the Applebee's right outside the mall with that card you sent (thank you!)... And found out that it was some sort of a local gay gathering place. It was an interesting experience... They even asked us if we were celebrating our anniversary! We had to tell them, "nope!" We then went and taught Melbria, who still is doing great.
Saturday was basketball day. We had it all set up to teach all of the kids... Then we had a pretty lame incident. The Spanish Ward had canceled an activity they had at a local park, and tried to take over the gym. We just told the kids to start playing basketball because we were unsure if it could go on, and for how long. Long story short, the lesson didn't happen this week. It's alright though, we will start that soon. After this, we had our appointments cancel, so we went out to find. We did stop bys and tracting, like we usually do. We also had an appointment with Melbria.
Sunday was good. We had an appointment that didn't happen before church, so we went to Chior. That was good. We had a great MCM too, then a good day at church. President and Sister Roach came to our Ward this week, which was neat. Melbria enjoyed meeting them. We went to do the sacrament for Sister Tomasello after church. We then went to the Jenkins' home for dinner. They're an awesome family! We then went over to Melbria's, but she was ill so we didn't have a lesson.
Monday was raining like crazy! What a dreary Memorial Day. It turned out well though. We took our lunch break with the Beverly Elders and cooked chicken and made smoothies. After that, we went to teach Patricia, who had been taught by the Sisters a while ago. We then taught Vera, who is doing well. She got injured though, and is pretty incapacitated, so may not be good for church. We did stop bys, and some tracting with umbrellas, which is fun. We then went by Melbria's home for her birthday visit. Elder Gonzalez had bought a guitar, and I had my ukulele, so we sang her a birthday song, which was pretty fun(ny).
Tuesday was actually pretty ridiculous. Most things fell through so we did hours upon hours of tracting. We got some good potentials, just like we did the previous several days, and got to visit Alfreda again. She's doing well. We also got to teach Lebron Hale, who is an older member. We've also been talking with Leon, one of Melbria's neighbors. He was cold until Monday, when he just all of a sudden really opened up. We also got to stop by quite a few of the old medias we could never contact because we got new miles for the month! Nice.
Well, there you go. Things have been great! I've been studying the book of Revelation this last week. It's pretty fun! I'm almost done, and should finish tonight or tomorrow.
Have a great week! I love you and appreciate all you do.
Sincerely,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
Hello Family,
Thank you for all you do. I am grateful for it. Congratulations on your graduations Caitlin and Taylor! That is very exciting! You're great sisters, and I love you both!
I've got a few letters written that I have to send. I just never seem to find the time to send letters anymore... I have that one still that I wrote to you, Taylor, a while ago... I should send it within the next couple of days.
So, here's some of what's been going on here:
Last Wednesday we went to the Guitar store and I learned some guitar. It isn't too hard, but those strings are like razor wire cutting your fingers. We had some time to relax and clean at home too. We went to the Busse's home for dinner. They're a great family. They really remind me a lot of the Spielbergs at home. They cooked a great dinner too. We then went to Melbria's home, and had a lesson there. She is doing so great! She absolutely loves church.
Thursday was an alright day. We did our weekly planning, and some finding. We had some cancelled appointments, so we did quite a bit of finding actually. We also helped a member with some service, and it was hot, so we got a little nasty. We had an appointment with the Motts in the evening, who are doing great. They're a part member family just coming back into the Church, and Brother Mott is getting ready to baptize his daughter, which is pretty exciting.
Friday was pretty good. We did stop bys in the morning, then went over to the Carlsons for an appointment. We talked about the Gospel and practiced teaching a lesson. It was great. They're an awesome family. We then went to Sister Tomasello's home and taught Loraine again. It went well. We then went to teach the less active Sister Mitchell, who is pretty neat. She should be coming to church this week. We also went by and taught Tony Burton. We're helping him get ready to help us teach. He had got in a bad car accident which made him unable to walk for a long time, and our investigator Amanda had a similar experience. We want to bring him by with us to help teach. We then went to teach Louis, which went well. We always teach him at the Mall near our home. We then went to the Applebee's right outside the mall with that card you sent (thank you!)... And found out that it was some sort of a local gay gathering place. It was an interesting experience... They even asked us if we were celebrating our anniversary! We had to tell them, "nope!" We then went and taught Melbria, who still is doing great.
Saturday was basketball day. We had it all set up to teach all of the kids... Then we had a pretty lame incident. The Spanish Ward had canceled an activity they had at a local park, and tried to take over the gym. We just told the kids to start playing basketball because we were unsure if it could go on, and for how long. Long story short, the lesson didn't happen this week. It's alright though, we will start that soon. After this, we had our appointments cancel, so we went out to find. We did stop bys and tracting, like we usually do. We also had an appointment with Melbria.
Sunday was good. We had an appointment that didn't happen before church, so we went to Chior. That was good. We had a great MCM too, then a good day at church. President and Sister Roach came to our Ward this week, which was neat. Melbria enjoyed meeting them. We went to do the sacrament for Sister Tomasello after church. We then went to the Jenkins' home for dinner. They're an awesome family! We then went over to Melbria's, but she was ill so we didn't have a lesson.
Monday was raining like crazy! What a dreary Memorial Day. It turned out well though. We took our lunch break with the Beverly Elders and cooked chicken and made smoothies. After that, we went to teach Patricia, who had been taught by the Sisters a while ago. We then taught Vera, who is doing well. She got injured though, and is pretty incapacitated, so may not be good for church. We did stop bys, and some tracting with umbrellas, which is fun. We then went by Melbria's home for her birthday visit. Elder Gonzalez had bought a guitar, and I had my ukulele, so we sang her a birthday song, which was pretty fun(ny).
Tuesday was actually pretty ridiculous. Most things fell through so we did hours upon hours of tracting. We got some good potentials, just like we did the previous several days, and got to visit Alfreda again. She's doing well. We also got to teach Lebron Hale, who is an older member. We've also been talking with Leon, one of Melbria's neighbors. He was cold until Monday, when he just all of a sudden really opened up. We also got to stop by quite a few of the old medias we could never contact because we got new miles for the month! Nice.
Well, there you go. Things have been great! I've been studying the book of Revelation this last week. It's pretty fun! I'm almost done, and should finish tonight or tomorrow.
Have a great week! I love you and appreciate all you do.
Sincerely,
Elder Bradley E McMullin
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