Shaelyn in Chicago: Friday was my year mark! What?! So bizarre.

5-21-2012
Familia,

Wow, this week sure has been busy. Whitewashing is kicking my butt, but its also really awesome. We still don't have a huge teaching pool, but those we are teaching are so legit.

Firstly, Liz is still doing awesome. She is still coming to church regularly, keeping commitments, reading, praying, etc. She is the definition of a golden investigator. Last time we were over there her husband, Marco, told me that her new homepage is lds.org. And he wasn't kidding, she pulled it up and told me how she spends all of her spare time reading conference talks, watching videos, and listening to music. I just couldn't help but have this crazy grin on my face the whole time she was telling me this. She will totallybe ready for her baptism date in June. We are also now trying to work with her husband and the bishop to see if he can baptize her!

Imelda is also still doing awesome. I was a little worried because last week after church she booked it out of there before I got the chance to talk to her, and it was kind of an intense meeting- not much doctrine taught, just crazy members ranting. So I was scared that she might have gotten scared off. But no, I called her to confirm our appointment and she was all about us coming back. She told me she loved church because she loved how she felt. She told me she knew the Book of Mormon was true too because she could feel the Spirit when reading it. We taught her the restoration, and I asked her to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, and she said that she would, even though she already knew because she could feel it. Melrose Park = land of golden investigators.

Last week we also found this super ghetto part of our area, called la selva- which means the jungle. Its a couple of blocks in Franklin Park packed full of Mexicans. We were walking around it at 8pm on a Friday night, and it really just hit me as I watched the same cop car circle around for the 5th time, that before my mission there is NO way I would ever be near a place like that, and now its no big deal. In fact, its like a golden find because of all the hispanics! :) But, anyway, we were going through our records, looking for former investigators that live there, and we found a record for an inactive, single mom with some daughters that are of baptism age, but not baptized. Her name is Modesta, and her daughters are Evelyn, age 11, Danielle, age 9, and Madelyn, age 7. So we dropped by, she let us in, and told us the reason she hasn't been coming to church is because to get there she has to drive through this area called Stone Park, where the cops are super corrupt, and will pull anyone over if they look hispanic, and she is illegal, so she can't risk it. But she said she wanted to come back, so she'd see if she could find another way. We set a return appointment, and came back and met her inactive brother, who said he also wants to come back to church. We taught the Plan of Salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and asked the girls if they wanted to be baptized. Modesta had already told us she wanted them to be. They said yes, and I tried to set them on date for like a month and a half from now, but Modesta wants to do it even sooner! So I told her we could, BUT they have to come to church every week for the next three weeks and we have to be able to visit 2x a week. She understood, and was all about that. So. . . If all goes well, Evelyn and Danielle will be getting baptized the 16th of June! Haha it was also funny because her brother had his son there, who will be turning 8 soon. And the brother kept asking the son, "Do you want to go to church? Do you want to be baptized? You have to tell your mom you are just coming to play with your cousins every sunday, you can't tell her you're going to church. its not really a lie, because you aren't doing anything bad. Are you doing anything bad? then its not a lie. Just don't tell your mom." Not that I'm advocating going behind parents backs for religous purposes, it was still hilarious.

Friday was my year mark! What?! So bizarre. We were going to celebrate, but instead I spent the morning puking my guts out. Maybe I was just remembering how I felt exactly a year ago. But Saturday we went to lunch at the place that Stephanie works with some of the elders. It was super fun. But I did have mini panic attacks all day thinking about how fast the time is going by. Ahhh. Its terrifying.

Umm. I think thats about all I've got this week. We are working hard though, meeting the members, getting some referrals. This area is awesome. And it doesn't help that I have the best comp ever. Can you say greenie fire?

So yeah. Overall. Awesome week. I hope you all had as good of week as I have, but maybe a little less exhausting. Dang I can barely keep my eyes open anymore. I am so tired. all the time. I know, its not really anything new, but still.

Les Quiero Mucho!

Shaelyn

fotos: