Familia,
Hey all! I hope everyone is doing awesome! This week has
been a pretty good one for me. Especialmente porque hoy estoy en la ciudad!!
I'm sending this email from DOWNTOWN CHICAGO! YAYY!!!! We are going to go to
the Willis (formally Sears) tower, and to Navy Pier, and the Magnificent Mile,
and Millenium Park, all of that good touristy stuff. Its also awesome here
because of the weather. I mean its not warm by any means, but it is now nearly
the middle of February and we have had snow on the ground like three times, and
it all melted by the next day basically. Crazy. I thought Chicago winters were
supposed to be miserable? I really hope I'm not jinxing it by saying that. . .
. Don't get me wrong, I'm plenty cold.
Last week on PDay we had a zone service activity, and I was
super not excited to spend my PDay doing service- I know, I'm selfish. But it
turned out to be really awesome. We volunteered for this organization called
Feed My Starving Children, and we packed boxes full of food for starving
children. We did look slightly ridiculous wearing lunch lady hair nets though.
. . But itt was really really cool. Def
would be down for doing it again.
Thursday was a really really good day. It started out
looking like it would be awful, nearly all of our appointments cancelled, and
we had a lot of stop bys planned, hoping that we could find someone and people
would be home and let us into their house.
And the very first person we had on our list to stop by was Rosa. Rosa
is the Bishop's niece, the one who told us she wanted to be baptized right
before Christmas, we taught everyday for a week, and then disappeared. Well we
can't stop by her house too much because its so far away from everything else,
but we went over their and a man let us in. Turns out the man that let us in is
the husband of Rosa's sister, who wants to be baptized, but her husband won't
let her- so its actually SUPER surprising that he let us in at all. So he let
us in and we met Rosa's sisters and nieces, and then waited FOREVER for Rosa to
come down stairs. When she finally came down she was super awkward and told us
she doesn't want to change religions right now. I mean, it was kind of
disappointing, but she had basically already dropped us so it was nice to at
least get a for sure response from her. And I honestly don't feel like this is
the end with her or her sisters. I think a lot more is going on in that house
than we realize, and it is just not a good situation for those women. I hope
they can get out of it. But it was really good to see her, she was still
friendly and everything, and I'm really glad we were able to find her.
Later Thursday night we had an appointment with la esposa de
Alejandro, who we found last week. Her name is Ana, and she fell straight from
investigator heaven. When we got there it was just super comfortable. We got to
know her a little bit more, and she got to know us. And then instead of us
leading into the lesson, she did! We were just chatting, and then she pulled
out her Libro de Mormon and super excitedly told us, "I read!" We had
left her Ether chapter 12 to read, and she went on to tell us all about it and
what she liked about it and this or that part made her realize this and think
about that. . . It was amazing, I'm
pretty sure Hermana Maughan and I were in shock. She told us that she felt a
peace when she was reading it, but she recognized that it went away when she
wasn't reading, and she wants to be able to feel those feelings all the time.
We taught her about the first half of the Plan of Salvation and she was telling
us how she has always wondered what happens to us after we die, and had all of
these great questions and responses related to agency. She is amazing. I can't
even explain it. We were there for about an hour, and I feel like we could have
stayed all night and taught her everything and it wouldn't have been too much,
she wouldn't have gotten bored or anything. The whole time we were there she
was on the edge of her seat- literally. She is so prepared for the Gospel its
unbelievable. I really really hope I don't get transferred next week, because I
know that this woman is getting baptized soon and I so want to be there for it.
Bad news, Irma and Miriam's families are having some really
rough times so we haven't been able to meet with them for a couple of weeks.
There are all sorts of health problems and other stuff going on, I'm not even
really sure on the specifics, but its really causing Irma some stress, and we
haven't been even able to get a hold of Miriam. So if you could please please
pray for them, I think it would really help. I still feel like Irma and Miriam
have genuine desire to follow Christ, and to be baptized, but the adversary is
attacking their families. And the fact that Irma still hasn't been able to get
work off on Sundays puts a damper on her ability to be baptized as well.
:( Please remember them in your prayers.
On Friday Hermana Maughan and I were invited to go to
mission council and leadership training. Its a meeting for the zone leaders and
district leaders and they always invite two companionships of sisters. I was
invited to go with Hermana Summers back in like September too. It was cool I
guess. REALLY long. From 9 am to 4 pm, and the majority of it is sitting and
when we weren't sitting we were doing roleplays. oh soooo fun. . . But we got to learn some good stuff, and of
course got free lunch and got to see other missionaries, which is always cool.
Elder Nilsen who was in my district in the MTC was there! He is already a
district leader and training. It kind of scared me to think that if he is
training already, I could. Def don't want that to happen anytime soon. . .
Anyway, I think thats about all I've got for you this week.
Next week is transfers! Not too excited about the possibilities, but we'll get
the calls this Saturday and then transfers on Tuesday, so I'll let you know
whats going to happen next week.
I hope that everyone
is doing awesome! Love you tons!
Les Quiero,
Shaelyn
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