Elder Aidukaitis talked a lot about how there are people here in the Chicago area that are prepared and waiting, and we need to find them.

9-24-2012
Familia,

Well, this week has been interesting. Last Monday we went to Cheesecake Factory during pday and Millie got SUPER sick on the way home. We think she got food poisoning or something. But either way, she was out of commission until about mid wednesday. It was almost some weird blessing that I also still have bronchitis, so while she was puking her guts out I was just knocked out due to cough medicine all day. Luckily she is now feeling better, and I'm slowly starting to be able to breathe.

Unfortunately, due to both of us being sick, I really can't think of anything exciting I have to tell you. For the rest of the week we had our regular appointments, but not much time for anything else.

Saturday was pretty awesome. We had a zone conference with a visiting authority.
Elder Aidukaitis of the seventy was there, so it was a huge conference. Two zones met in the morning, and then three zones, including my zone, met in the afternoon and we all ate lunch together in between. So we got to see a ton of missionaries and then get some awesome spiritual guidance. The conference was ballin, and I loved it. Elder Aidukaitis talked a lot about how there are people here in the Chicago area that are prepared and waiting, and we need to find them. I have been thinking about that a lot these last couple of months. He didn't really give me more advice than what I already know on how to find them, but at least he reassured me that I'm on the right track.

Yesterday was a good day. At church a lot of people we weren't expecting to come, showed up. And even one of my former investigators from when I was in Cicero! Lupe Torres, who I was teaching a lot when I first got here, but that disappeared and the elders haven't been able to find her, just randomly showed up to church. and it was AWESOME. After church I took some new cough medicine that completely knocked me out. It was bad, but after I recovered from that we convinced one of the Armenta girls, Alejandra, to go the the young single adults family home evening, and it was AWESOME. I mean the family home evening was kind of weird because the lesson ended up being some weird deep doctrine about cain and bigfoot and nonsense. But at least she made some friends, and we were able to have a really good talk with just her about baptism, and what she was feeling. Why she isn't ready, what she needs to feel ready, etc. It was really good. She still does want to get baptized- but she wants to be really sure about it when she does. We said thats fine, and that yes- we do want her to be baptized TOMORROW, but we don't want to rush her either. She is aware of what she needs to do to be sure, and she is willing to do her part. So yesterday was pretty awesome with that.

This week we are gonna freaking find some people to baptize. Thats the plan, and thats whats going to happen.

Weather here is okay. Definitely all of a sudden its fall. Millie is freezing to death, but I'm surviving. Luckily someone super smart sent me a million scarves last year. :)

Well, I hope everything is going well for you. I love you a ton.

Les quiero,
shaelyn

sorry i haven't taken any pictures lately.
a few weeks ago the bank built a fence around our parking lot cos they were mad at the landlord for not paying. or something like that. so thats the only thing i got.
love you!

 

 

 

pictures from millie's camera.

 

 



with the arreguin fam after hna passed her citizenship text.

 

 

when millie got food poisoning

 

 

and us in hats.

 

 
 

So overall, we didn't have a bad week. Hopefully the next one will be better. :)

9-17-2012
Familia,

This week has been okay. Surprisingly successful given i've been on drugs since Thursday. Thats right, I'm sick again. I know its super surprising. I have bronchitis once again. The nurse practitioner was floored when i told her I've never smoked nor did I grow up in a home with smokers. Maybe bad lungs are genetic?  Either way, the drugs they put me on basically make me a zombie missionary. So Hermana Milliron is being a pro missionary and i'm just following her around. But we had some good appointments, and picked up some investigators that had disappeared for a couple of months.

The investigators we found were Graciela and her daughter Lizette. I can't remember if I've told you about them, but they are super awesome. Graciela was a referral from a member in Aurora. She is a seventh day adventist and the single mom of 2 kids. She has a TON of faith and has seen some super legit miracles.  Its a little difficult teaching her though, because she is super super busy. So the last time we saw her was in July. Also its difficult teaching her because her beliefs are so close to our beliefs that its a little difficult to really help her understand how we're different, and what it means.  Like she believes in prophets, and believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that the Book of Mormon is true, she just doesn't believe that that means that there is only one true church. But she is a super sweet lady, and I love visiting with her. I feel like I learn a lot from her whenever we visit.

The Armenta's are good. We finally had a little bit of a breakthrough with Patty and figured out a little bit of whats holding her back from being baptized. She basically feels like she's half Catholic, and half Mormon, because her dad is Catholic, and her mom Mormon, and she likes what she learns at our church, but she just doesn't really have any desire to get baptized any time soon. Also our ward mission leader confusing the crap out of her with the stupid stuff he says doesn't help. But she and her sister still want to learn, are still at church every week, and HOPEFULLY will finally start reading the Book of Mormon.

Imelda finally has been feeling a little bit better and made it to church! So that was a miracle.

So overall, we didn't have a bad week. Hopefully the next one will be better. :)

I love you tons, hope all is well.

Les Quiero,

Shaelyn

So I'm still a missionary!

9-10-2012
Familia,

Umm. Well. So I'm still a missionary! I really have no idea what to write in these emails anymore. I remember back when I was in rockford and all the old missionaries would complain about how they hated emailing and had nothing to say, and were sick of pdays. I thought they were crazy, but now I understand. I just don't know what to say. And we're scraping the bottom of the barrel on fun pday activity ideas. Going to the city and not spending money can only be fun for so long. :P

This week was good. Pretty normal. We kind of had two pdays which was sort of cool, and also exhausting. Monday we got half a pday for shopping and stuff, and then Tuesday a full one. So by Wednesday we had super bad pday hangovers. But we worked through it. We had all of our regular appointments, and once again got fed way too much. The families are doing well. The Armenta's still aren't reading the Book of Mormon, so we're trying to figure out how to help them do that, but they are still regularly attending church.

We are visiting a less active hermana who's son died about a month ago, and she's finally starting to not be the saddest person I have ever met in my life. She has actually come to church the last couple of weeks and wants us to read the Book of Mormon with her every week.

Liz is still awesome. She hasn't been able to come to church for forever because her mother in law fell down a full flight of stairs and she's been super busy taking care of her, but we finally got an appointment with her and she's so solid still. She is sharing the gospel with her friends and was super stoked when we showed her the new spanish mormon.org site.

Imelda is still out of commission because of her super bad arthritis in her knees. I'm trying to get the ward more involved with visiting her too, but so far I think its still just the us. But she's so awesome, and wants to get back to church asap so she can continue preparing to go to the temple in a year. And she keeps telling us how much she wishes she had found the Church when she was younger. Man she is so so awesome.

Finally got to visit with the Rivera family again this week. They've been super busy, with school starting and Hermana Modesta working way too much. But Evelin got sick and had to have an operation to stop nose bleeds, so Hermana got some work off. It was really good to see them, I've missed them a ton.

This last week we also helped an hermana in the ward, Hermana Arreguin study for her citizenship test. It was SUPER stressful. But she passed!

Okay. I think thats about all of the news I can think of to share with you this week. It was really a pretty normal week. This next week we're going to start trying to track down some inactive members. We have a ward directory and I don't even know half of the people on the list, so we're going to try to see if they even still live in the ward, and if so whats going on. Hopefully we'll be able to find some new people to teach in the process.

I hope everything is going well for you, that school and work and all that is good.

Love you tons!

Les quiero,

Shaelyn

Mission miracle! I didn't get transferred!

9-4-2012
Familia,

Mission miracle! I didn't get transferred! I am still here in good ol' Melrose Park, Westchester 2nd Spanish ward! I am so stoked. I love this ward a freaking ton, and never want to leave. If I finish my mission here, which is entirely possible, I will have been in the ward for a total of 10 months. :)

This week has been pretty crazy. With anticipating transfers its been really stressful, and then on top of that Millie and I both got sick. On Wednesday we had three eating appointments and I came home and just puked up everything. and after that it took me three days to be able to eat anything. And then just as I was getting better Millie got the same stomach bug, so things have been a little rough. We tried to work the best we could, but people kept cancelling on us too.

The most eventful parts of the week involved saying goodbye to missionaries that are leaving this week, as well as visiting as many members as i could in case i was leaving. So I've got a lot of good pictures, but not too many good stories.

Yesterday was super awesome though. We went to the ward labor day picnic, and it was a blast. So fun to just sit with the hermanas in the ward and eat and talk and laugh, and watch the hermanos and the elders make themselves sick playing sports in the oppressive humidity.  After the picnic we went to a goodbye party for Elder Anderson that was thrown by some of his recent converts and a ton of missionaries were there. So it was just a very fun day.

This week brings lots of finding still. Pray for us that we can find some families!

I hope everything is well for you, and that everyone is adjusting to school.

Les quiero mucho,

Shaelyn


fotos

pday last week. united center and navy pier

 

 

Elder Anderson's funeral

 

 

what happens when i don't feel good at appointments

 

 

bye Elder Anderson!

 

 

Giordano's maybe goodbye party for me. with Steph and Patty

 

 

 

Me, Hermana Rosales, Hermana Armenta

 

 

me and Patty

 

 

goodbye Elder Mortenson!

 

 

love Stephanie to death

 

 

with Elder Derby and Melenciano

 

 

Elder Hansen

 

 

What we do before transfers. We try to predict where every hermana is going to be.

 

 

derby, millie, steph, me, melenciano

 

 

pozole dinner :)

 

 

goodbye sister raymond! they're sending her up to Rockford

 

 

Elder Anderson's goodbye party