A week ago when it was so cold in the mid-west, a guy made a 30 second video showing just how cold it was in Chicago. It was pretty amazing to see (keep in mind you are not seeing snow in this video, that is cold air): http://videos.komando.
Now that it has warmed up to a balmy 24 degrees this week in Chicago, Hermana's Toney and Meanea are back on the prowl...
John
From: Allyse Meanea
Date: Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 10:08 AM
From: Allyse Meanea
Date: Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 10:08 AM
Hello Family and Friends! We made it through "Chiberia"!!! It was soooo cold but is warming up a lot now which is nice. This week was a pretty normal week so I don't have a ton to write about but I will try!!!
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| Hermana Meanea on the streets of Chicago wearing the necklace sent to her by the Whites of her home ward. Thank you Brother & Sister White! |
Last Monday after we finished emailing and getting our shopping done we spent the rest of the night in our apartment. They even canceled the Noche for that night because it was soooo cold. Honestly I have never felt cold like that. Even being out for just a couple of minutes was just painful. It really feels like actual needles stabbing you! On Tuesday our mission president told us not to leave our apartment unless we had a car because it was still so cold and an Elder had gotten frostbite from being out for just 5 minutes! So since we share a car with some other Hermanas we mostly spent the day together going to their different appointments and working a lot on converting our huge area book to the iPads. We did have a Noche that night. It went well. We taught the Plan of Salvation with the Zone Leaders because we both had investigators there. It went well, they had questions and we were able to help them overcome some confusions they had.
Wednesday was finally a more normal of a day because it was actually above negative temperatures. We spent the day trying to find a lot of people, doing stop-by's as we call it. But, no one was really home. We were able to catch our investigators that are on date at home finally. But they were walking out the door and couldn't talk to us then. We were able to stop by a less-actives and she let us in. We had a great talk with her and shared Omni 1:26. She gave us Quesedillas - Salvadoran style. These quesedillas are nothing like Mexican quesedillas. They are a kind of sweet bread made with cheese and were really good!
Thursday is weekly planning day. Weekly planning is such a long and sometimes arduous task, but it definitely pays off when we have specific plans for the next week. We also had an appointment with an investigator. We taught her the Restoration again and she seemed to understand pretty well. We taught that with emphasis on authority because we want to try and help her understand we aren't just there for bible study which is a mindset a lot of people have out here and trap that missionaries sometimes fall into. We are there to convert them to the true and restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and we want them to realized the difference and importance of this message.
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| Hermana Meanea at a church building for Zone Training, which is the same church building that she was able to attend Sunday Services at this past summer while visiting Chicago with her family on vacation, but before her mission began. |
Friday was great because we had Zone Training Meeting which is basically Zone Conference. President Woodbury gave a great lesson on the Brother of Jared and how it shows the cycle of the Doctrine of Christ and how we apply it to ourselves, investigators, and less actives. Just like the Brother of Jared, he taught us how we need to see the hand of the Lord in our lives. The rest of the day we spent finishing weekly planning using our iPads to plan specifically for the people we are working with. The mission is trying to go paperless so we are trying to figure out the best way to use our iPads in planning. That night we then ventured out to find our ward mission leader because we were supposed to have MCM, missionary correlation meeting, the next day but his phone wasn't working. Because it had been raining all day and has been warmer, we actually pretty much waded to his apartment. There were huge puddles of ice water the whole way there so it was an adventure!
Saturday we had MCM. On our way to the MCM we were waiting for the bus. A mother and her kids walked past. So I walked up to her said hello, asked her how she was and then asked her if I could giver her a card. I gave her a pass along card and explained who we were and what we were sharing. This was all in Spanish by the way, pretty okay Spanish because I have practiced :) She then looked at me, said she was Catholic and only spoke Spanish and then walked away. Ouch! Oh well, I tried and did it all on my own! I totally got rejected but it was fine because I tried! At the MCM we discussed the missionary work in the ward. They are trying more and more to get members involved. It is a slow progress, just like I am sure it is in your wards, but they really are trying and always encouraging everyone to support the missionaries. We then did some more stop-by's trying to find people. We stopped by some good potential investigators and they seemed really happy to see us. They were getting ready to leave right then but said we should come back another day.
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| P-Day Zone Activity of Volleyball |
Sunday was good. 9:00 Church is really beating up the attendance of the entire ward. It is also really hurting our investigator attendance. But, it will get better and we know that the Lord will open the way for people to make it to Church. The rest of the day was spent in studies and area book.
I love and miss you all so much! Missionary work is not easy but that is because the Atonement was not easy for our Savior. Salvation is so precious that it takes a lot of work. But I know that everything we go through in this life is going to be more than worth it when we are able to live with our God and our Savior and our families for Eternity. I cannot comprehend how incredible that will be. But I know I want it more than anything and that I am willing to do anything it takes to get there! Have an incredible week! I love you all!
Hermana Allyse Meanea
