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!