Mission Update -- 7/7/10

Well, the North and South missions officially combined last week and transfers were held this week. Under President Roach, the missionaries found out where they were going on Tuesday and then transfers were on Thursday. With President Doll (at least this time), they found out on Tuesday morning instead of Tuesday night, and transfers were today. This is Elder M's LAST TRANSFER! Hard to believe. Here's his email:



Hello Family,

Things are going well here. I'm glad to hear good things from home! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAITLIN![Her birthday is 7/8]. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA! [Her birthday is 7/12]. And Happy Birthday Elder McMullin! [His birthday is 7/9]. Thanks for the packages, I really appreciate them. I already opened them, which you of course know I'm very good at doing. Elder Gonzalez and I will be going to the steak house that is across the street from our apartment for lunch most likely on my Birthday!

So, we had transfers today actually... Elder Gonzalez and I are staying together and Elder Rothlisberger left for home. Elder Boyers and Ahlman are going to the Northside. We're getting some north side sisters in the district coming into Blue Island. Hey, awesome news... Jorge Quintana from Naper 4 has got a baptismal date now! He's getting baptized in August, and his family is flying in from New York for it! That is so awesome!

Here it is... The beginning of the end. My last transfer has begun... Which I have to say I am not excited about. I love you all a lot, but wish I had a little while longer. Now I suppose I can only make the most of what time I do have.

Here's some of what's happened this last week:

Wednesday was the Taste of Chicago P day. It was pretty fun. [Now that their mission covers all of Chicago, they don't have the dividing line down the middle of the city!] We drove up there and parked near Edwardo's Pizza. We walked up Michigan to Monroe, then went over. The place was packed. It was really hot too... Especially in Pros (pronounced pross... what missionaries call proselyting clothes). Elder Gonzalez tried some goat. I was looking everywhere for Gino's East pizza, but did not find it. I settled on trying some other pizza that people say is so good. We got a couple of other things too. After that, we went to a haircut place for Elder Gonzalez. Elder Rothlisberger split to go with Brother Jenkins to a couple of appointments, and Elder Gonzalez and I drove 20 miles to an appointment that tubed us. We had another one though, and it ended up being a really good preparation day.

Thursday was awesome. We took Brother Moore with us to visit Barbara. She is awesome, and we really think she'll progress. She told us she was in fact praying for help, and we were an answer to her prayers. We're pretty excited about that. The lesson went well. We taught the Restoration, and the conversation with her and Brother Moore progressed as far to how sad it would be when missionaries got transferred in the future (and how many she would meet through years in the Church). We also had lunch with Brother Moore. He used to be a gang banger (long) before he was a member, and the #1 in his (near 2,000 man) gang passed away recently. Brother Moore was next in line to take control, but he's a member so he of course will not take over. For our lesson we discussed King Benjamin's address before giving away "#1" to Mosiah. We then went to visit Charles Williams and watched the Family Answers DVD with him, which is, by the way, one of the most unique Church DVDs I have ever seen. We then went by the Moore twins' home and had a lesson with them. The family is nice. We went over to the Flores family's home for dinner. It was excellent. They are such an awesome family (less active), and should be coming back to church immediately! We then went by the Motts' home, and had a great lesson there. I love that family so much. We played some catch with their neighbors too.

Friday was the new Mission President meeting. It went really well. President and Sister Doll are awesome. They are very different from President and Sister Roach, but I like them a lot. They just had everyone introduce themselves. It was pretty casual actually. After that, we drove down to Calumet City to visit Collette. That went well. We then went over to visit with Louis. What a drive to and from Cal City. Louis went well. We tried to go by the Rhodes, and were up there for a while. We then went to the Leals for dinner. That was great. We then went by the Hills. While driving, we saw several churches outside on the streets singing and dancing about the Savior. It was pretty sweet. We recorded one group, and I should send that soon. I have really enjoyed my cameramen companions!

Saturday was great. We had a good time at basketball. Brother Mott came out, which was fun. My team won quite a few, but we also lost some close ones. We did our Weekly Planning after that. We then went by Victoria's home. That went well. We had dinner later with Sister Tomoko, which was good. We also got to visit Charles Williams and LeBron. I believe we also stopped by Alfreda's and Sister Prewitts. It was a pretty crazy day of driving around.

Sunday was an awesome 4th of July! We went by Charles' home in the morning, then had a great day at Church. We had taught 26 lessons for the week, and wanted to finish up with 30, which is an amount of lessons that transcends the level of ridiculousness. We said that if we could get 30 we would get I-57 (on a later day). It was down to the wire. 4 lessons between 4:30 and curfew. Everyone was at BBQs and no one wanted to meet. We got an appointment set up with Sister Flowers to teach her and bring her the sacrament. 5:10 - 1 down, 3 to go. We went to do stop bys, but no one was home. 5:30 - 1 down, 3 to go. We got a call and someone gave us frozen food, so we hurried and drive to our apartment to drop it off before dinner. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw red and blue lights flashing. We were worried, but the cops saw our name tags and let us go. 6:00 - 1 down, 3 to go. Dinner was awesome! Sister Jenkins is one of the best cooks I know. She cooked us so many rolls (our favorite), chicken, potatoes, home made desert, etc. It was good, but we were there a while. 7:40 - 2 down, 2 to go. Frantic calls were made, and we drove all the way over there as fast as we could within the speed limit. We contacted the Prewitts, and it turns out they were at home doing nothing. We went by and had a lesson. They had to go soon, so it was quick. 8:30 - 3 down, 1 to go. We would only have 15 minutes or so at anywhere we went so we could get home on time... We had to roll the dice and pick someone. If they weren't home, we couldn't have any I - 57! We went by the Motts. They were home, and it turned out really well. We got 30! We get I - 57! We got to watch their neighbors do fireworks too, which was fun. Now I'm done with this silly paragraph too...

Monday was a great day! We taught Alfreda in the morning before District Meeting. It went really well. We had a good District Meeting afterward. We learned about inviting people to make baptismal commitments. We decided we would do so that day. We went down to visit Collette, but she wasn't home. We took our first lunch break in a long time and ate Quizno's. It was terrible. After that, we finished our planning. We have been all over the place working, so it's been tough to finish all that. We had an awesome lesson with Charles. He ended up setting a baptismal date! Awesome. He had already given us his ashtrays, and started working on quitting smoking. He's set for August 21st. Crazy. We then went by Brother Moore's and got him for some appointments. He came with us to visit Alfreda again. This appointment went even better. She should really start progressing faster now. I'm pretty happy about that. We then went by Sister Hill's. She is doing great! I'm really excited about her baptism.

Tuesday was a good day too. We got transfer calls in the morning. We had a couple of appointments fall through, so we did things to help Elder Rothlisberger prepare to go to Bulgaria. We did get to teach the Hodges, who came to church on Sunday for the first time in years, and also the Ervins and some relatives. We said goodbye to a couple of people for Elder Rothlisberger, and did stop bys. It was a pretty good day.

Today was great. We drove out to Naperville for transfer meeting. We all met up there. It was fun to see people, even though we mostly saw people we didn't know. That was fun though. We also stopped by the mission office on the way back. Not sure what we'll do for the rest of the day until our evening, when we've got an appointment with Sister Hill.

Well, you all take care. I love you a lot. I'm grateful for my opportunity to serve here. Have a great day. Keep the people of Chicago in your prayers please.

Love,

Elder Bradley E McMullin