Shaelyn in Chicago: I don't know what changed, but now she loves the missionaries!

3-19-2012
Familia,

Well. Its now summer in Chicago. Something interesting I learned this week is that Illinois doesn't believe in spring. It jumps straight from winter to summer. And I HATE summer in Illinois. Seriously. Worst thing ever, and its only going to get worse. Hermana Veliz and I moved our beds into the living room this week so that we could sleep right under the AC. If there is one thing that I miss most about Utah right now, it is the dry heat. Humidity kills me. Why can't Illinois just have mild weather? Is that too much to ask?

I guess there is something good about the weather right now though. Because its not yet as hot as it will be this July, a lot of people are out and about, sitting on their porches, going for walks, etc- which makes it a lot easier for us to talk to people. Its kind of hard for them to pretend they aren't home when we can see them. :P But we have had some good contacts, and even found some people that might have real potential. . . we'll see if they are home for our return appointments. These last two weeks I have been teaching a lot of one hit wonders it feels like. We teach one lesson and it is awesome, and the people seem really interested, and we make a return appointment and they cancel. Even the members are all cancelling on us. I don't know whats going on, but I went from teaching 25 lessons a week to 10. And its really bumming me out. . .

We did have success with one investigator though, who surprisingly did not cancel on us! I've been feeling like we needed to try to find Nancy, who I found once when I was on exchanges here. She lives above some of our members, and after Hermana Haws and I found her, they put her on date, but then she got busy and they lost contact with her. So I decided to go back, and see if we could find her. We were successful, set an appointment, came back- AND SHE WAS THERE! I know, I was shocked. We had a really simple but good lesson about prayer with her. And she said that she does still want to be baptized, she asked all sorts of good questions, like what she needs to do to be prepared. And now her work schedule is a little more set, so hopefully everything will work out. She is on date to be baptized the 21st of April.

We also found some old investigators, Berto y Yeni, who we have been trying to find for a while. We taught them the Plan of Salvation, and it went really well. They seemed to really like it, but said they would definitely need to pray about it to know if it was true. WHICH IS AWESOME! because thats exactly what we want them to do. Berto's mom was also there, and apparently she hated the missionaries before, because we don't believe in la virgen, but this time she sat in on the whole lesson, giving good input, holding Hna Veliz's hand the whole time and gave us big kisses when we left. . I don't know what changed, but now she loves the missionaries!

So thats about been my week. Nothing super exciting. Except that now that the heat is up, the ice cream trucks are out and about again. :)

Next week is transfers. We will know Saturday night whats happening. Since I just got here I am most likely not leaving, but you never know. and I have no idea whats going to happen with Hermana Veliz.

I'm glad Dad made it home safely from Mexico! And that he survived Guerrero! Sounds like everyone else is doing well. Keep it up.

Les Quiero Mucho,

Shaelyn

PS: Yesterday I had an experience that was really interesting. Saturday night I received a call from an Hermano in Indiana. He told me that their was an Hermana in the Loyola University Hospital, which is in our area, that he'd like us to visit. He said she was in the Burn Intensive Care Unit, and she had just woken up and could receive visitors. So yesterday after church we went over to visit her. Her name is Ana Maria, and she is from Venezuela. Before we went into her room we had to put on gowns, and gloves, and masks. I'm not sure exactly what happened to her, but I think the Hermano that called me said she was burned in an accident at work. She has third degree burns all over her body. She has no hair, and everything is burned. It was really really sad, and hard to see. She is 35 and has 3 little kids, and they are all in Indiana. She has been in the hospital since February or January, she says she can't remember, but she was in a coma or something- probably induced because of the pain, and she just woke up. We visited with her for a little bit, sang her a hymn, and shared something from the Liahona. Even though she is in such a terrible situation, her spirit is so strong! The spirit in that room was very very strong. She has so much faith, and hope. I really admire her. She's incredible. We're going to try to visit her has much as we can, and get the ward here involved, since she is usually alone because everyone she knows lives so far away. Please pray for her.

fotos: