Happy Thanksgiving from Chicago...

Hello sweet family & friends! How are you all?

This was a good, very crazy week.  I am understanding more and more Spanish. Now, I just need to work on speaking more :)

Me with some awesome Graffiti in "The Loop"

11/18/13 (Mon) - We had exchanges with Hermanas Milliron and Savage, the Spanish Sister Training Leaders, that started today. I went up to the Loop with Hna. Savage. I was a little nervous but it really was such an incredible experience. We did a lot of contacting! Literally every person we saw on the street, we contacted! I got a lot more comfortable with it! We also taught one lady, Stella, in English because she is more comfortable with it. The Spirit was really strong and she was accepting but very Catholic. They have a return appointment and I can't wait to here how it goes.

 11/19/13 (Tues) - Today (still on the exchange) we had a lunch appointment with a member. She made us really good eggs. We then talked about Alma and Amulek and how they worked together and how it is a great principle for members and missionaries to follow. I shared some scriptures and actually contributed a good bit! She has people in mind to share the Gospel with now. We then tried some other appointments and stop-by's but no one answered. So, we contacted some more. I got the Sister Leaders a really strong PNI, potential new investigator, by just going up and talking to a random guy. He was really interested but said he was very difficult to talk to. We asked why and he said because he asks a lot of questions. We said, "Perfect! We love questions!". Later in the day we then traded back to our regular companionships. I really enjoyed exchanges because I learned a lot and was able to see different ways to do things.

11/20/13 (Wed) - We had a great experience today. We were tracting while waiting to go to an appointment. A lady told us about one house that was an only Spanish speaking household so we knocked on the door. The mom answered and we gave "our spill" and then asked if we could come in and share more. She said yes! We went in, she gathered all four of her children and we taught the Restoration. It was really neat and we look forward to teaching them again.
We had a lesson with a couple of new investigators. It went well. They had questions from Church and we were able to answer them using the Restoration. They were very accepting and kind. The agreed to be baptized on December 24 if they are ready! The lesson was a little hard though because the member that is fellowshipping them is a more recent convert, about a year I think. He kept talking at bad times and he sometimes went off preaching false doctrines, like how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ don't have bodies, so it was really awkward, but we managed!

Hermana Toney and I when we got our iPads!

11/21/13 (Thurs)- iPad Mini day! They just handed them out and helped us set them up. Basically they are locked up pretty tight and Salt Lake can see everything that we do, no pressure :) It was so weird but I am so excited to have them and figure out how we can use them as missionaries. For the most part it is our area book with our teaching records that we have to put on from paper. Eventually we will probably work up to teaching with them but it is taking some time to get used to. I can't wait to figure out how to better use them to accomplish our missionary purpose and bring others unto Christ. We also went out tracting tonight. We found one guy who acted interested when we talked about the Book of Mormon. But, he really just wanted to bible bash us and destroy our faith. We shared our message and testified. When he became contentious, we testified again and left.

Me with my incredible "greenie" package!

11/22/13 (Fri) - Today was mostly our weekly planning day because we were at the iPad meeting all day yesterday. We then had the ward Thanksgiving Dinner tonight. It was incredible because we had so many people there! Our 5 people on date and their families and 2 less actives! It was a fun dinner because it was a total mash of Mexican and American Thanksgiving foods!

11/23/13 (Sat) - Today we helped to deep clean the Church for a few hours. Both of our appointments canceled so we just worked on moving our area book onto our iPads. A set of Elders in our ward had a baptism tonight so we went to that. At the last minute we invited our family on date, and they came! They seemed to enjoy it and were very interested.

Hermana Toney and I with our Thankful Turkeys!
Thank you Marshall family!

11/24/13 (Sun) - Church was good today. We had all five that are on date with their families there and a less active we are working with! The Gospel Principles lesson was on the scattering and gathering of Israel though so they were a little confused at the end :) Tonight we had a lesson with our amazing family that is on date. We reviewed the Restoration and then talked about the Word of Wisdom because we knew that it was going to be something for them to work on. All three agreed, no problem, to live it! Also, in Church today, the kids learned about Tithing and told their mom about it and how they wanted to pay it. We walked up to them after Sacrament Meeting and a member was helping them fill out a tithing slip so they could make a donation! How golden and sincere they are! But, we also have sad news with them. Unfortunately, we now only have 2 of them on date because one of them cannot be baptized for a year and a half.  It breaks our hearts! They are the best family and so desire to do this. We hope the family will still want to progress because they are becoming so special to me!

A "selfie" photo at the library on P-day

So this was a good week! There were ups and downs, but that is missionary life. Hermana Toney is getting along really well and I am doing good. I miss you all so incredibly much! I hope everyone has a fun week and Happy Thanksgiving! Yo se que esta iglesia es verdadera y que Jose Smith restauro lo. El vio nuestro Padre Celestial y nuestro Salvador, Jesucristo. El Libro de Mormon es un clave a nuestro religion. Las palabras en lo son verdadera y dan mucho paz y Consuelo. Dios nos ama mucho y quiere que vovemos a El. I love you all soooooo much! Happy Thanksgiving! Talk to you in a week!

Baptism Commitments!!!

You may have heard about the big storm in the Mid-West on Sunday that caused a lot of damage and unfortunately ended up costing 8 people their lives.  In Chicago there was not a tornado, but a historic thunderstorm so bad it caused a 2 hour weather delay in the Chicago Bear's NFL game.  On the news from Chicago, a couple of long time residents said that they have not seen it storm that hard for 40 years.  Allyse briefly mentions the storm below, and she told us separately that other then the 10 seconds they got soaked running from their car to the church, the storm didn't affect them at all.

Also attached you will see some photos, mostly of various places in her apartment.  We had sent her a bunch of General Conference "memes" (General Conference quotes shown with other graphics in a poster form) that she could hang up.  She took those photos to show us that she had hung those "memes" up and really enjoys them.  Thanks for your interest in Hermana Meanea!


Sweet Family! It has been another week already. The days seem to go slow sometimes but looking back, it does go pretty fast! I'm sorry, my emails will probably start getting shorter and shorter because it is mostly the same, but amazing, stuff each week.

11/12/13 (Tuesday) - The rest of P-Day was good, but very fast. We went shopping and I got some great boots for the winter. We played Volleyball for the Zone Activity for a couple of hours and it was a lot of fun to kind of relax and just enjoy playing together. We then headed back home. While driving we got a call that the family that was supposed to host the NDH (FHE) was canceling because they had some family issues going on. We got really worried because we hopefully had a family of investigators coming plus the Elder Zone Leader's had got special permission from President to come because they had investigators coming to this NDH there too. Luckily, we called another family and they agreed to host it. We then found out our investigator family wasn't going to be able to make it. We showed up to the NDH and the Elders did too. A few minutes later they get a call from their investigators saying that another investigator couple that was also supposed to be coming had picked them up but then decided to go a service at their Pentecostal church instead, and they took the Elder's other investigators with them! So us four missionaries were alone with a member family that had gone out of their way to host NDH on the spur of the moment for us, awkward! The Elders left since their investigators couldn't be there they couldn't either. We ended up reading from the El Libro de Mormon and then we had Chicago Dogs, Mexican style, so it was all OK. The family understood completely.

11/13/13 (Wednesday) - Today we had District Meeting and learned about becoming one with Jesus Christ. Our District Leader made us cookies so that was great! We visited with Hermana "M", a less active, and got her really excited about Temples and going to do Baptisms for the Dead.

11/14/13 (Thursday) - Today was weekly planning so that is mostly what we do the entire day. We also got a call from the Sister Training Leaders. We have exchanges today (Monday, 11/18) Starting at 5:15 and going until tomorrow at 5:15. I get to go be in "The Loop" with Hermana Savage! I am excited and a little nervous but it will be great!

11/15/13 (Friday) - We had a great lunch today with a Hermana from the ward. It was really good Pasole. I also found and gave the Spiritual thought, Alma 33:23, to her, in Spanish, and also to a recent convert we stopped by later. We were also able to have a Facebook lesson with a recent convert/less-active member. He hasn't been to Church since he was baptized in July but committed to come this week, so we are hoping! Tracting is going really well. I am getting more and more confident. We continue to blow away our District and Zone Leaders with our PNI, Potential New Investigator, numbers.

11/16/13 (Saturday) - Today we had another miracle lesson with our new investigator family. We took a couple from the ward with us and it went so well.  We taught the second part of the Plan of Salvation. The member couple contributed and explained things so well and the family was very accepting. At the end of the lesson we committed the dad, mom, and oldest son to baptism on December 14. They all said yes like it was common sense. They understood and desired it. It was an incredible feeling. One of those times that I got a glimpse of our Heavenly Father's love for His children and the happiness of this Gospel. We also committed them to come to Church on Sunday. It is a little miracle family. They listen and really try to understand.

Hermana Meanea gearing up for the Chicago
winter with her new coat and boots

11/17/13 (Sunday) - Today we had a massive storm! It was incredible! We were worried the rain would keep our investigator family home. But, we got to Church and there they were waiting for us with the family of the couple that had come to the lesson with us. The couple is doing incredible things, really fellow-shipping them so well. It was so great to have investigators with us. All of the meetings went well and the recent convert/less active was even there, which is huge because he hadn't been since July!

All in all, it was another amazing week and a missionary in Chicago! I am truly loving the people and the place. Everyone is so nice and patient, especially with me and my Spanish. This week is going to be pretty exciting. Our leaders get iPads today and we should get ours on Thursday so I should have some pretty fun stuff to write to you all next week! I am really starting to understand Spanish better. I still don't speak a lot but it is coming along. We did a lot of finding this week and that was great because it helps me to become more confident in myself, the language, and the Message. Hermana Toney pushes me to speak more and more which helps me a lot. This week we studied the lessons in Preach My Gospel very well. I am becoming a lot more comfortable with the doctrine and finding ways to teach simply with words I know so that I can contribute to the lesson.  My personal study is good. I am focusing a lot on reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish. I am having such a desire and hunger for the word and I know reading it in Spanish will help me so much with the language.

Hermana Meanea's bedroom area with her new "Memes"

 I am loving being a missionary and sharing this Gospel with the people of this area. Hermana Toney is teaching me so much and I love it all. I am learning especially how to recognize promptings of the Spirit and answers to my prayers. I cannot thank you all enough for your incredible love and support! I feel your strength and prayers constantly! Yo se que somos hijos de nuestro Padre Celestial y El nos ama mucho! Podemos vivir con nuestras familias para siempre por medio de el Plan de Salvacion. Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y El entiende todas desafios y pruebas tenemos. El quiere que ayudarnos. Esta iglesia y este Evangelio es verdadero! I love and miss you all tons! Have an incredible week!

Eternal Love,

Hermana Allyse Meanea

Hermana Meanea's dresser with "Memes"

Hermana Meanea's study area with "Memes"

First Chicago Snow !!!

We received this email letter from Allyse today.  Their P-day was moved to Tuesday this week because of Veteran's Day yesterday, and the public libraries were closed so they couldn't email.  Enjoy this letter and photos from Allyse:

Hermana Meanea's beanie

made for her by a ward member

Hi Family & Friends!

How are you all? Thank you so much for all of your love and support. This has been a great week here in Chicago!

November 4 - Tonight we were able to go and teach the Restoration to a referral. The lesson went well, she is very open and accepting. At our Noche de Hogar (FHE) one of the members gave us beanies she made, I am sure they will be a big use to us in the upcoming weeks and months!

Hermana Meanea and the
fall colors of Chicago...

November 5 - Today we went to try and contact a former investigator. A little girl, 3 or 4 years old, opened the door and we asked if her mom was there. She went to go and ask and came back saying no. We asked if she lived there and she said no after thinking for a minute.  Taking a hint, we said thanks and left. I had always heard about rejections like that and now I have my own story! We gave the car to the other Hermanas and they didn't have the bus passes so we walked everywhere today! It was one of those nights where I wished I had a Garmin to know how many miles we walked!

November 6 - Today we had District Meeting and it was good. We had a lesson about prayer and I gave a spiritual thought about working with the wards in which we serve. We then had a mini Zone meeting where our Zone Leaders introduced Moses 6:32 as our Zone Title of Liberty. They also asked us to commit to tracting for one straight hour each day and promised us blessings if we obeyed. So, that night we went tracting. We got 6 PNI's (Potential New Investigators)!!! It is super scary knocking doors and just talking but it is good for me!

Hermana Toney & Hermana Meanea
excited about a baptism commitment

November 7 - Today we had another lesson with the referral. Guess What?!?!?! She is on date for baptism after only 2 lessons!!! I can't believe it! We asked her and she just said yes! There is still a lot more we need to teach and a lot more she needs to do and understand, but, she is on date! She also has a son that will probably be on date soon too. We also taught two other investigators that have been on and off because they are the ones who's father in law was kidnapped and they still haven't heard anything. It went well, especially because we had a member with us. It was long because they asked so many questions! They really expressed a desire to come to Church.

November 8 - So today was huge! We got on Facebook for our one hour of proselyting online and saw a message from our mission president saying that our mission gets iPads!!!!!!!! we should be getting ours on November 21! The work truly is hastening! I am so excited. I also gained a strong testimony of having prayers answered today, even if they are simple, sometimes silly, little things.  If we truly pray with a sincere heart, Heavenly Father hears, AND, answers our prayers!

November 9 - Today was kind of a rough day because all of our appointments and plans fell through. Especially because our 2 hour long Missionary correlation meeting with the Bishop and Ward mission leader to plan how we can work well with the ward was canceled. We did a lot of stop-by's but no one was home or wanted to answer. But that is OK, we will have days like that sometimes.

The chapel that our Chicago Midway
Ward meets in for church

November 10 - Today we had Church. It was good and I understood a good bit of it. Sadly, our investigator that is on date didn't come to Church which means we have to push her baptism back from November 30 :( Also, our MCM that was rescheduled to today after Church was canceled again. It is hard when you try to work with the ward like we have been asked to do and it just doesn't work out, but we will get there! Tonight we went to visit the investigator who didn't come to Church and there was a guy there. Before this, we thought that a husband or boyfriend wasn't in the picture just because it didn't seem like it. But, he is her husband and they let us in which surprised us because she had kind of been avoiding us and we thought we were going to get dropped. We ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation part one to their family. The husband was so serious and accepting. He answered questions and gave commentary! At the end of the lesson he said he would prepare to be baptized, a soft baptism invite, and the whole family said they would read and pray! He then, with the help of my companion, gave the closing prayer.  We think he was even crying a little, the Spirit was so strong! After that he stood up and asked when we could come back!!!! Gold! I am so excited. They have a great desire and seem sincere!

My first Chicago Snow!!!

November 11 - Today we had our first Snow!!! It was cold but we put on layers and went tracting in the snow! What an experience! We also had a Noche de Hogar tonight. We found out 30 seconds before it started that because some people brought non-members, they wanted the missionaries to teach! Hermana Toney did everything! She was incredible. I shared the First Vision and then bore my testimony. It went well and the Spirit was there so that is all that matters. We then had a little party because it was one of the girl's birthday. They turned on Cha-Cha slide and it was so hard not to dance! It was fun though.

I cannot thank you all enough for your love and support of me and my family! Thank you for your prayers and letters and emails! I love you all so much and miss you tons!

Yo se que este Evangelio es el plan de nuestro Padre Celestial. El quiere que vivimos con felicidad y volvimos a El. El Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios y podemos aprender todas cosas necisitamos hacer cuando leemos lo. Nuestro Padre Celestial y Jesucristo nos aman mucho.

Have an incredible week!!!

Hermana Meanea

1st Letter from the Mission Field!

Hi Family & Friends!

I am here, in Chicago, in the US, and it is awesome!!!! I have so much to say but not a ton of time!  So here is a breakdown of the days since my last P-day in the Mexico City CCM...

10/25/13 (Friday) - We had infield orientation where we learned about finding, teaching, working with members, and planning and goal setting.

10/26/13 (Saturday) - Our last work day in the CCM was good, really hard to concentrate though :)

10/27/13 (Sunday) - Today was our last Sunday in the CCM. In Relief Society we studied President McConkie's talk on teaching from the last general conference, it was soo good. We had Sacrament Meeting and Elder Allen, head of the missionary department was there! He conducted a little focus group with my Zone and then gave our fireside tonight. We watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration and it was incredible. I didn't remember it from before but it really touched my heart and I felt the testimony of the Restoration and of Joseph Smith.

10/28/13 (Monday) - After two hours of sleep, we got up, got ready and packed, and got on the bus for the airport!!! Finally I got my bags checked and we got through security and I was able to call home! You all know about my contacting experience with the Spanish family I met on the flight from Mexico City to Dallas. The plane to Chicago was good and when we got to baggage claim there was our Sister Training leaders, APs and President Woodbury and Sister Woodbury there to greet us.  They are all soo nice! There was a group coming in from the Provo MTC at the same time. That group from Provo (English Speaking Missionaries) immediately got on the train and went contacting in "The Loop" in Chicago while us "Mexicans" as President Woodbury calls us went to the Temple for photos and then the Mission Home to start interviews with President. The Fall colors here are so incredible! It is the perfect time right now, I am so glad I didn't miss them! My interview with President Woodbury was good, he just got to know me and welcomed me here. Sister Woodbury then took us to see the Bahai temple and then Lake Michigan. Then, we had Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, the real deal from Illuminades(?). It was soooooooo good!!! Hna. Woolf and I then spent the night in the home of some members in a house that was built in the 1920's, it was so neat!

10/29/13 (Tuesday) - We had some training and got a lot of information then it was time for the transfer meeting. My companion in Hermana Toney and we work in the Midway Central Area of Chicago.  She is so nice and such an amazing trainer! She is from Lehi, Utah and has been out 7 months. Then, we got in our car with another companionship of Hermanas we share the car with and traveled through Chicago towards our areas. We stopped at Walmart so we could do a little food shopping and it was so weird doing it completely for just me! We then went to our apartment and it is so fun, I love it! I unpacked a little and then we had a Noche de Hogar (FHE) with the T. Family. We read the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 19 & 20, and they had me pray. Then we had dinner, Pasole soup. It was such a fun thing.

10/30/13 - (Wednesday, first full day as a missionary in the field) You just go. No easing into it or anything, you just go to work! We had all of our studies. We do this great thing where we get up at 6:30 and exercise for 30 minutes. Then, I have an hour to get ready while Hna. Toney has Personal Study and then we switch. This way we have plenty of time and aren't waiting on each other. Then we have 2 hours of companionship study because we are training. Then an hour for language study. Next we did Facebook which was so weird! (The Illinois Chicago Mission is one of the early adopters of using Facebook to contact people to teach). We had a lunch appointment with Hna. R.. She is a very sweet, 90 year old, very deaf. We had amazing food and she just wanted us to eat more and more, I think I had 20 tortillas! We shared a scripture with Hna. R. and left. We contacted a referral and set up an appointment. We were able to go an visit two "lost sheep". Lost sheep are investigators that we have lost contact with. We set up return appointments with both.  One of them dropped off of our map because her father in law was kidnapped in Mexico and is being held for ransom. So the family has been working really hard to get money to pay the ransom to find out if he is still alive and will be released. Ummm, yeah, wow! Hna. Toney acted like the was pretty normal but I was flabbergasted! We shared a scripture and then were getting read to go and she asked if we could read more! It was great!

10/31/13 - (Thursday) Happy Halloween! Today I dressed up as a Sister Missionary :) We had lunch with Hna. I. today.  She is Cuban and we had the most amazing food! It was sooooo good! Hna. Toney's mom had arranged for a candy basket with Halloween balloons to be delivered so we went back to the apartment and got that. Then we had Facebook contacting. We went to see Hna. E. and her girls, who are recent converts.  We saw the girl's Halloween costumes. Next we went to a Panaderia and got cookies and brownies to have while we were in the apartment tonight doing weekly planning. We had to be in by 7:00pm because tonight is a night for other people to go around knocking on doors :)

11/1/13 - (Friday) Today was Zone Conference. It was wonderful! It was with Elder James B. Martino (http://www.lds.org/church/leader/james-b-martino) and I learned a lot of great stuff about working with members and working with our might and mind. He used the story of Alma and Amulek to illustrate the importance of having the right Amulek for our investigators. After ZC we went and saw Hna. M, a less active, and she agreed to come to Church and bring two of her sons.

11/2/13 - (Saturday) In the middle of studies we found out our MCM, Missionary Correlation Meeting, with the Ward Mission Leader was changed to 10:30 am, in half an hour! So we went to that and discussed what we had done this past week. We then had an appointment with Hna. M where we taught the Plan of Salvation part 1. I would introduce each topic simply and then Hna. Toney went into more detail. It went pretty good!

11/3/13 - (Sunday) We studied this morning and then had Church at 1 pm. Relief Society was first. It was good but I didn't understand a lot (the Chicago Midway Ward that I serve in is a full Spanish Ward, so all of the church services are in Spanish). Then we went to Gospel Principles and learned about the Law of Chastity, I understood a good bit. Then we had Sacrament Meeting. I bore my testimony in Spanish and it went really well. Hna M. came to church with her two sons and they all liked it a lot! We spent the evening trying to contact some less actives but either no one was home or their gates were locked.

I love you all so incredibly much! Thank you for your love and support and prayers!

Yo se que este Evangelio es la uniquia manera podemos volver a Dios y vivir con felicidad. Nosotros somos hijos de Dios y El tiene que much amor para nosotros. Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y puede nos ayuda con todas cosas!

Hermana Allyse Meanea

Editor's Note - As this is a public blog, and to protect the privacy of those people with whom Hermana Meanea works with in Chicago, individual names that Hermana Meanea writes about will be replaced with initials.

 

Hermana's of my Zone at the CCM In Mexico City

Scripture Case I got from Mexico City

Early Morning Flight from Mexico City to Dallas

I love the fall colors at the Chicago Temple!

Chicago's newest Spanish Speaking Missionaries at the Chicago Temple
 

Illinois Chicago Hermana's fresh from the Mexico MTC

Bahai Temple in Chicago

Authentic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

My Casa!

My dormitorio...

My armario

Our Halloween Treat

A surprise shirt from my mom that I received at zone conference mail call...