Monkeys (not referring to Elders), Snowballs, Tauquerias, Homemade Ice Cream and Investigators at Church!

Hello Amazing Family and Friends!

It has been another amazing, not too cold, week here in Chicago!

Hermana Black and I at the Zoo

Last P-Day was so fun! We were able

The Chicago Central Zone at the
Brookfield Zoo for a P-day activity

to go to the Brookfield Zoo. It was so fun. It was snowing so hard and was so cold that us missionaries had the entire Zoo to ourselves. Of course that meant a lot of the animals were hiding too, but we still saw a lot and had a lot of fun! That night us four Hermanas went to Pertillo's, a Chicago classic. They have chocolate cake shakes which is a chocolate shake with chocolate cake mixed in, and it was SO good!

Chicago is just an amazing place, I love it here!

I wasn't expecting to see Polar Bears in Chicago!
But with Chicago's record winter snowfall and
cold, it shouldn't surprise me... this guy (center
 of photo back by the rocks) should feel right
at home!

Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting and it was really good. The theme was prayer which was so amazing to me because that is something I have been working on personally and want to work on with our investigators. I don't think we fully comprehend or utilize the power of prayer. But when we stop and think about it, it is just an incredible gift from our Heavenly Father! For lunch Hermana Black and I went to a tauqueria because it was my 5 month mark. That night we went tracting and looking for some potential investigators. Funny story from this - We were walking on some streets across Western Ave., meaning everyone past that point is black, and we walked past a group of boys having a snowball fight. They stopped to let us past so we said thanks and kept on walking. After we had passed them, some of the boys hid behind a building and started throwing snowballs at us! We though it was quite funny, a bunch of black boys throwing snow balls at two white girls on the south side of Chicago! One of the boys then walked in front of the others and called to us, "Please excuse 'um, they don't mean nuttin'!" It was just a fun experience. They joys of being a missionary on the south side Chicago! That night we also had a Noche de Hogar. The Elders had their investigators there so we read 2 Nephi 31 and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We had tortas (sandwiches) for dinner. I also ate a chile because all of the members here say that is how you get better Spanish!

A classic taqueria lunch for my 5 month mark!

Wednesday was actually such a warm day we had to go back home and change our coats and take off layers, it was like 30 degrees! We had a good appointment with a less active and then spent the rest of the day walking around, trying to track down former investigators and see if they are interested in learning more. We got a few potentials from that. That night we were supposed to have a lesson with a really golden potential investigator. This is his story: When we were at the Sister's Conference a few weeks ago, a man just walked into the Church, speaking Spanish, and wanting to know more about the church. He said that his friend was Mormon and had told him he should go to Church sometime, so he did! Hermanas Whitney and Jones (the other two Hermanas serving in our Spanish ward) started talking to him and found out he was living in our area. So they got me and I got his information and told him we would be in contact. We stopped by later that week and he was so excited to see us. He was all for us teaching them right then, but his wife said to come back later because they were eating at that moment. We set an appointment for today (Wednesday) but when we went to it tonight, no one answered the door. We decided we would just have to try stopping by some other time.

Hermana Black and myself after working
in a cold Chicago drenching winter rain all day

Thursday was a rainy, beautiful day. We had a good lesson with one of our investigators. It was kind of a crazy lesson. He had read the chapter in the Book of Mormon we had left for him, 2 Nefi 31, and even had a question. We had a member couple there and they were a big help answering his questions and such. We read 1 Nefi 1 with him and then he asked a question about reincarnation! Him and the member went off and the conversation went from reincarnation to the Spirit World and then to the Law of Chastity. The Spanish was so fast and the topic was changing so much that Hermana Black and I were kind of lost! We were finally able to reign it back in to the Book of Mormon and told him we would prepare a lesson to answer his questions about all of the other topics for the next lesson, that should be fun! We then spent the rest of the day weekly planning. That night we made homemade ice cream because we had randomly found an ice cream maker in our apartment!

Nothing like homemade ice cream and
brownies to warm you up after a cold
wet day on the streets of Chicago!

Friday we had a good lesson with an investigator whom we hadn't seen for a while. She has read a little in the Book of Mormon and was excited to read more with us. We had walked past a member's house on the way to that lesson and when we got out of our lesson we had a call from that member because he had seen us and wanted to make sure we were OK and he also wanted to make sure we had food. We had already had lunch but you can't exactly tell a Hispanic no to food so he brought us some pizza. People here are so amazing! We went tracting too. We happened to knock on one door and started giving our "spill" in English because she was obviously an English speaker. Then she was like, "yeah, I'm Mormon". We had tracted into an English speaking member. This is always a possibility because we don't know where the English members are because they are in a whole other ward English speaking ward and missionary zone. So that was fun!

On Saturday we went and helped clean the Church and then had MCM. It went really well. Hno.

Another Zoo Photo from P-day, it seems
that missionaries are the only ones crazy
enough to go to the Zoo in the middle of
a Chicago Blizzard...

N........, our new ward mission leader, is working so hard and is so interested in all of the work we are doing and really wants to step the ward  up in terms of missionary work. That afternoon we did a stop by one of the investigators, the one whose lesson fell through on Wednesday, to try and find him. He was there, let us in, and asked what had happened with our appointment on Wednesday.  That made us real happy because he remembered the appointment which means he is serious about learning. We told him no one had answered the door when we arrived, and he was surprised about that. We taught them briefly about the Book of Mormon and how our Church services go, because they didn't have much time. But he is so prepared and excited and said they would be at Church the next day before we could even invite them!

My weekly mother required
selfie from the Library on
P-day

The missionaries were really fascinated
with the big monkeys (gorillas), or maybe
it was just warm and dry in the monkey
building so it was a good place to hang out?

Sunday was a pretty long day because we had 6 hours of Church! We went to our 9am ward, we were late because a train decided to go by really slowly, stop, and even back up a few times! Church was good. We didn't have any investigators there but we did have a less active hermana that we are working with there, so that was great! We then waited for our investigator and his wife to show up for the 1pm church services. They were really late but got there for part of Gospel Principles and all of Sacrament Meeting. He had been working that morning until 3am so he was really tired but they came and he seems so golden. We made an appointment for this week and we are so excited to teach him! After being at Church for six hours and spending 2 more hours traveling and trying to find people, we finally got home, ate, had personal study, and then companionship inventory. It was a long day with 6 hours of Church but so worth it to have our investigator and his wife there!

 

The Plan of Salvation makes so much
more sense then me calling these
 monkeys Grandpa and Grandma

It was another great week here. Thank you so much for all of your love and support! I miss you all and love you so much! Have an amazing week!

Eternal Love,

Hermana Allyse Meanea

Valentines in Chicago, sharing the Love of God... with Olympic Ice Skating, missionary style

This is personal study in the laundromat,
on P-day in Chicago while our clothes
are washing and drying.

Water Main breaks are common
in the cold weather here in Chicago
and the result is 2" of solid ice on
side walk for me to show my
Olympic Ice Skating Skills

Hello Amazing Family and Friends!

It has been another great week here in Chicago. On Monday we just finished up P-day by grocery shopping and letter writing. We had a Noche de Hogar that night with the C...... Family
and it was good and Hno. C....... gave a great lesson about how it is the member's responsibility to help recent converts and less actives, not just the missionaries job, a lesson that made us super happy!

Tuesday we did a lot of looking for former investigators. No one really opened their doors though. We also did some tracting and then went to an appointment with a less active, Hna. M........ It was so good. She made us enchiladas, which were amazing, and really good flan. She asked us some questions about tithing and the Sabbath Day. We also talked about the Book of Mormon and read the first chapter with her. She really seemed to enjoy it and it made her want to read. She also said she wants to start paying tithing because she had been thinking about it and it made us so happy to hear.

Wednesday we had District Meeting. We listened to a talk about self-worth and how to apply it to ourselves and investigators. We then had an appointment with Hna. M........, a super sweet less active. We talked about

Yes, this is just kind of a
 random picture. but we
 were just standing, waiting
 for the bus and I looked
 at it and thought it looked
 kind of neat.

agency and she fed us. That evening we had a fun experience. We were looking for former investigators and I put Hna. Black in charge of the map so she could learn the area better. I was just following her along. We stopped at one house and knocked and the door opened and a lady was like"Hermanas! Pasanles!" (Come in). I
looked at her and realized Hna. Black had taken us to Hna. E.......'s house, and active member! She invited us in and gave us hot chocolate and Oreos and we talked. It was just so funny because I hadn't been paying super close attention to where Hna. Black was leading and she was so confused! But it was good because we had a great visit with Hna. E........ That night, finally a miracle happened with family that we had taught a lot and gotten so close to baptism, and then they all of the sudden stopped communication with us.  We stopped by and they were home! They let us in and said they still really wanted to learn, they had just been really busy. We were able to teach them the Restoration and it went super well. Hopefully now we can stay in contact with them and they will start progressing again. We also stopped by a potential investigator's house. He had just walked into the Church when we were at Sister's Conference last week and said he wanted to learn more about the Church because he had a Mormon friend and his friend said he should go to his Church sometime, so he did! He was so excited to see us and wanted us to teach them right there but then his wife said they were eating and would prefer us to come back next week. He seemed to have a lot of potential so we are excited about that.

Thursday we had an appointment with a less active family, the A........... It was good. We got to know them and

Flautas with potatoes

shared a scripture about the Atonement, Alma 7:11-12. They fed us lunch so that was good too. We then had a lesson with Ramon, one of our investigators. It was a super good lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We were talking about Baptism and he started asking questions like, when, how, and who could be there. He is really ready, even if he doesn't think so yet, the only thing is we need to get him to Church. Because of his economical and financial situation right now he has to work on Sundays so that had been hard, but we will get him there! The rest of the day was spent in weekly planning. That night Hna. Black and I made Flautas with potatoes inside and they were sooooo good!

Valentine's Day! It was pretty much a normal day but it was still good. We went looking for some people but no

Valentines Missionary Outfit

one was really home. We then spent some time getting our ward list of actives and less actives ready for our missionary correlation meeting tomorrow. That night we went looking for more former investigators and then went to the Ward Valentine's Day party. We acted as servers so everyone could just enjoy it as couples. It was fun. I tried Chicharron and it wasn't my favorite! I also got the most amazing Valentines package from my incredible family today!

Saturday was a super good day. We had MCM with Hno. N......., our new ward

Lunch at Giordano's for Hermana
Black's 9 month mark. This is the
Tropical Pizza, their version of a
Hawaiian Pizza

mission leader. It was so good. He really wants to get the ward going so much more with missionary work and has some good plans and
ideas. Hna. Black and I then went to Giordano's to celebrate her 9 month mark as a missionary. It was amazing, of course! The rest of that day we spent checking up with former investigators to see if they had any interest to learn more about the Gospel. Most said: "Soy catolico." (I'm catholic) But that is OK because it just isn't quite their time yet!

Sunday was a pretty normal day. Church was good. None of our investigators came but Hna. M........, our less active, came AND she paid tithing! We then had studies and then tried to see some people who didn't come to Church but no one really wanted to open their doors.

Thank you so much everyone for all of your love, prayers, and support! I couldn't be doing this if I didn't have all

Us four Hermana Missionaries
outside of the library where we
email our families from on P-day

of you! I hope you have an amazing week! Sé qué esta Iglesia es verdadera. Sé qué tenemos un Padre Celestial y Él nos ama tan mucho, más que podemos comprender. Este Evangelio trae mucho gozo y paz e mi vida estoy muy agradecida a compartirlo con las personas de Chicago! Hasta Luego!

Eternal Love,

Hermana Allyse Meanea

Burned Out Home, Lost Cell Phone, Car Stuck in the Snow = Great Week!

Hello Everyone! I hope you all are doing incredible, I know you are! This was a really good, pretty busy week...

Snowy Chicago Winter

Monday night we had exchanges with the Hermana Training Leaders (who also happen to be the other set of Hermanas serving in our Spanish Speaking ward). Hermana Jones came to our area and I stayed here with her. We went looking for some former investigators and less actives and then went to the Noche de Hogar with the C...... Family. It was really good, we watched a video about about our Father in Heaven's Work and Glory.

Tuesday was a good day. We went and taught one of our investigators. We taught the Restoration, emphasizing on authority. It went super well and she seemed to understand really well. We then spent the rest of the day going around to the homes of former investigators, seeing if any of them had interest to learn more. We ended up getting invited in at two houses and we taught the Restoration. Those lessons went really well too and they want to continue learning!

Did I mention we had
a LOT of snow?

Wednesday's District Meeting was cancelled because it was a really bad snowstorm. Instead we had a conference call with the Zone. It was good but kind of awkward because they had us sing hymns and everything. We discussed goals and are planning on a good month. Next we had an appointment with Hna. M........., a less active. She is so nice. We had a lesson on Christ being chosen as our Savior and then she fed us some good food. We were supposed to have a lesson with a recent convert/less active tonight but after we picked up the member we were taking to go with us and then went to the his house, he wasn't there.

My Trainer (aka "Mom") Hermana
Toney and I at the Sisters Conf.

Thursday we had Sister's Conference where all of the Sisters in the mission got together. The theme was "Accessing the Power of the Atonement" and it was so good. It was so fun to see everyone and be together. We also had a self defense and a workout class, so that was interesting! That evening we ended up spending with the West Hermanas. We went and got food at a Taqueria and enjoyed our dinner hour together.

Our lovely burnt out house
we knocked on the door of!

On Friday we did a lot of looking for people. Our appointment that morning fell through but we had a great one with a member who fed us some good food. We then went looking for former investigators. One really funny story from this day is that it was really cold and windy so we had our faces kind of tilted down in our scarves. We knocked on one house where a former investigator lived, both of us thinking we weren't sure if anyone lived there because it looked a little in disrepair, but here in Chicago you can never be sure. No one answered so we decided to move on. Once we got back down to the sidewalk I happened to look up at the house and saw the entire second floor was burnt out! Of course no one lives there! The best part? There was a mailman sitting in his van right there and we are pretty sure we gave him a great laugh because we just knocked on this burnt out house! We then had MCM that night. It was interesting because he fed us and then just wanted to talk because we found out he is being released.

Saturday we spent a lot of weekly planning because we hadn't had time earlier in the week. We then went looking for some investigators, none of which answered the door. We had another funny/cool story from this night too. Hermana Black and I were walking along, talking, and all of the sudden I look over and Hermana Black is gone. I look back and see her falling, just like a cartoon with legs up and everything, on some crazy slick ice. We both laugh, luckily she wasn't hurt too bad and continue walking. Now this sounds pretty boring until about an hour later when we finally get back home. She reaches into her jacket pocket to get the cell phone so we can call some people, and discovers that it is gone! After thinking and searching, all we can think is that it fell out when she fell on the ice. So we make our way back over to where she fell, praying the whole way. 2 hours after losing it, we find the phone, sitting right there in the snow, in the middle of south Chicago, untouched. It was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord!

Hello everyone!

Sunday we were an hour late to Church because the other pair of sisters got the car stuck trying to get out of their garage when they were trying to come pick us up. After an hour of trying to get the car unstuck, they called the Elders that also serve in our ward.  Those Elders left church building, all 4 of them, and got the car unstuck in about 3 minutes! So no missionaries were in our ward for the first hour of the church services. The rest of Church was good though. We had some investigators there so that always makes us happy. We also got a new Ward Mission Leader that called us and already scheduled us an appointment with some less actives and scheduled MCM so he is going to be amazing! The rest of the day was spent in studies and looking for people, nothing as interesting as the night before!

Wow, time really is starting to go faster! I am loving it out here and even though I miss you all like crazy, it is getting better every day! I hope you have an amazing week and remember how much I love you all!

Hermana Allyse Meanea

Super Bowl Tracting... not so productive

Hello Amazing Family and Friends! I hope you have had a great week. This was a good week, a lot of walking, searching, and teaching which means a normal, but good week. I guess as normal as doing God's work of Salvation for His children in Chicago as a nineteen year old young woman can be that is! :-)

Last Monday our Noche de Hogar with the C.... Family was canceled because it was so cold. Since we didn't have a car and weren't supposed to go out without one, we had dinner and continued working on converting our area book to the iPads. Tuesday was another very cold day that we were supposed to "use good judgement" about going outside. Because of this we spent more time working on our area book and trying to proselyte on Facebook. Facebook is kind of hard sometimes because it can be tricky trying to figure out how to be productive on Facebook as a missionary, something that sounds like an oxymoron!

Wednesday we had District Meeting. It was really good because we also had President's Interviews then. Mine was really great. President Woodbury is so in tune with the Spirit and really uplifts you to just be able to talk with him. Finally that afternoon we were able to go out and do some work. We had the car and went around trying to find some less active members. We found one at home whose wife is not a member. He was really excited to see us and immediately invited us in. We talked for a while, them helping us a lot with our Spanish. He isn't able to attend Church because he has to work on Sunday, that is such a problem for so many people here, it is so sad. His wife is really interested right now. They have been taught many times by missionaries and obviously know the drill! But it was great to talk to them and they invited us over anytime when it is really cold and we need something to do to get out of the cold, something we really appreciate!

Hermana Meanea's Aunt
Christy dropping off a
surprise goodie bag at
Hermana Meanea's
apartment doorstep

Thursday was a pretty busy day because we had the car and wanted to use it as much as possible because we don't have it that often because the other Hermanas need it so much because they are sister training leaders. (Yes, I know that was a great run on sentence!) We had an amazing lesson with an investigator, R....... When Hermana Toney and I first started teaching him, we weren't sure if he had any real intent or was just curious. Our lesson on Thursday was amazing. We taught the Plan of Salvation and he asked some great questions and our member was able to help answer them and reassure him about his concerns. It was great to have her there because his Spanish is really hard to understand and she was able to help a lot with that too! It was a great lesson and he truly wants to learn more and come closer to God. We did some weekly planning and then had a lesson with I....., another investigators. Her and her boyfriend, M....., are great. They truly want to accept this Gospel and have it help them change their lives. She is reading the Book of Mormon and they are good about coming to Church. We hope to try and meet with them more regularly so we can help them progress more and come closer to Christ, hopefully through baptism. That night we went to the Church because the Bishopric had told us they wanted to feed all of the missionaries in the ward dinner. So here we were, all 8 missionaries waiting there, expecting some Mexican food. Then the 2nd Counselor walks in with some pizzas, soda, sets them on a table, sings a song and says a prayer with us, and then says he has to leave. So there are 8 missionaries with pizza, soda, and ice cream in the Church all by ourselves. It was fun but pretty awkward too!

A beautiful sunset in Chicago,
I can never get enough of them

Friday we got a call that morning that our ward mission leader wanted to have MCM. We rescheduled an appointment we had to be a little earlier so we could go. We went to the appointment but no one answered the door. That happens quite often. We just know we will have to try again later. We then spent the afternoon looking for people and trying to contact people. On our way home for dinner we got a call that the C....... Family were throwing a surprise birthday party for Hermana C........... So we went to that. It was a lot of fun and there were a lot of people there, including some of our investigators and some of the elder's investigators. This created quite a funny conversation between us and the Elders through text messages. We texted the elders to let them know that their investigators were there, just so that they would know we saw the investigators and made contact with them. Their investigator, Jose, has been spending a lot of time at our investigators Jesus and Maria's home and we haven't been sure why. Then when Jesus introduced Jose to the C........ Family, he said Jose was his uncle. Things suddenly made a lot of sense to me so I texted the Elders to see if they had known that Jose was Jesus's uncle. Here is how our conversation went:

Us: Did you know Jose is Jesus' uncle?

Elders: No, Jesus is Jose's son...

Us: Hna. C........ just asked if Jose was Jesus's dad and they said no, uncle

Elders: Oh yeah because Jose wasn't the birth father? But legally Joseph is Jesus' dad.
(at this point we were thinking, "What are the Elders talking about?!?!?")

Elders: Wait are we talking about Jesus el Christo or a different Jesus?

I know it probably isn't nearly as funny to you all as it was to us. We were talking about our investigators but the Elders thought we were randomly texting them telling them Joseph was Jesus Christ's uncle! It was so funny because their family, Jesus, Maria, and Jose, just work out like that!

Saturday, we worked. We saw a less active and recent convert, E..... It was really awkward because her sister was watching a movie in the same room we were in and it was definitely rated R! But we shared a scripture, 1 Nephi 16:28, about the Liahona and how it is the Holy Ghost in our lives today and works according to our diligence and faith to following the promptings of the Spirit. That night we tried to see S........ and her family, some of our investigators.That family is breaking my heart right now. We have tried and tried with them so much but they have completely dropped off of the map. We stop by and text and call all the time. I was finally able to talk with her on Facebook that morning. We asked if we could come over that night and she said they wouldn't be home. We stopped by later, just to see, and they were home. But they were eating and she didn't want to invite us in because of that. They have stopped trying to come to Church and I am not sure if they are interested any more. But, I have faith, I fasted for them yesterday, and we will keep trying without being too pushy. I know that everything is on the Lord's timing and in His hands, they are His children. That night we went to another party, without knowing it was a party ahead of time, with the N........, an amazing member family. Good food of course. I just wish I was so much more comfortable with Spanish so I could just talk with these people and have conversations! But it is getting better everyday!

Hna Black and me out trying to find people
on Super Bowl Sunday, didn't go too well

Sunday at Church was great. Unfortunately none of our investigators really came. But that is okay because we are working with them and they will get there. In Gospel Principles we talked about the creation. It just really hit me how the entire earth was created for US. Just the significance of how it started at the basics, light, water, dry land, and then went onto plants and then animals, and then humans. Our lives in the Gospel can be the same. We start with the basic principles and ordinances. But, just like the earth. Nothing else could exist without those basics! We then had studies and then went out looking for less actives. Of course no one really wanted to open the door to us because they were too busy watching the Super Bowl. Back at home, during dinner, we had our own Super Bowl party and watched the two "I Am a Mormon" videos about ex-NFL players. Best Super Bowl party ever!

I truly want to thank all of you soooo much for all that you are doing for me and other missionaries around the world. We feel your love and support and prayers. I hope you all have an amazing week! Remember who you are, a literal Child of God, and that He loves you more than you can imagine! Have some great adventures!

Eternal Love,

Hermana Allyse Meanea