St. Patrick's Day and the "Green" Chicago River, Popsicles, 60 degrees and SNOW (again)!

St. Patrick's Day at the Chicago River
dyed green in downtown Chicago

Buenos Dias Querida Familia y Amigos! I hope you all are doing good! We have had another wonderful week here in Chicago.

On Monday we had a great P-Day because we were able to go downtown. I always love being in the downtown, there is just such an excitement and energy there. We saw the Green River (no, not the one in Wyoming or Utah, but the Chicago River dyed green for St. Patrick's Day) and went to The Bean. We also went to Chinatown for a little bit and that was neat. That night we had our Noche de Hogar with a family in the ward. It actually ended up being a party for one of our recent converts so that was fun because we had pizza and cake.

At "The Bean" in downtown Chicago

Tuesday was my 6 Month Mark!!! Ahhhh! Can you believe that it has been 6 months? Time on the mission is just so warped and I have just resigned myself to the fact that I won't ever understand it. It seems to have gone so fast and so slow, all at the same time! We had a great lesson with one of our less-actives. She really opened up to us, told us her concerns, and asked us to come every week so that she can learn more about

I love photos in front of the famous Chicago
Theatre in the "Loop" of downtown Chicago

the Gospel! We of course told her that we would love to do that and are really excited for her. Hermana Black and I then had some Chinese for lunch and then had a great lesson with one of our investigators. We taught the Plan of Salvation with little drawings and it went really well until we got to Judgement. That scared her and she told us she believed it but it scared her because she wanted to do what was right to be ready for it. She loved the idea of the Celestial kingdom and said she wanted to be there with us and her family. We are excited for her because she seems to really like learning about the Gospel and she is progressing well. We then went looking for different people, former investigators and less-actives. We "chased" one lady down because I felt like we really needed to talk to her. It was neat to recognize that inspiration. Although nothing visible came from it at that moment, a seed was planted. We also had a good Noche with another member family that night.

On Wednesday we had District Meeting. It was good. We talked about how we can work with the ward and concentrate on the things they would like us to do. Hermana Black and I also gave a lesson on contacting and it went really good. After District Meeting we had District Lunch. We went to this little Salvadorean restaurant that had papusas and they were sooooo good! Papusas are like thick tortillas that have been fried with things stuffed inside of them, like beans and cheese. It was super good and really fun to be with everyone. That evening we went and helped the Relief Society set up for the Relief Society Anniversary activity. We went to the activity too and it was fun.

Thursday we had a great lesson with an investigator that we have been teaching for a few weeks. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he is already basically living most of it. He doesn't smoke and said he would drink very rarely and would have no problem stopping that. He, just like everyone else here, has the question about why coffee because he says he isn't addicted to it. It is always a hard thing to answer, especially in Spanish, but we did our best and he said he will try to stop. He is so ready for baptism, he just needs to come to Church, hopefully next week he can! The rest of the day we spent weekly planning.

Buidling a New Chicago...
with the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Friday was a GORGEOUS day here! it was almost 60 degrees and it was just so great, especially because it was a walking and finding day for us. We spent the entire day walking around trying to find potential investigators and less-actives. It was so nice even the ice cream vendors were out. Hermana Black and I got Mango Popsicles to celebrate!

Saturday was another walking and finding day. I really love being in a walking area and just walking so much. We see and meet so many people. That afternoon we went to the birthday of one of our recent converts so that was fun. We also had a lesson that night with two new investigators and we actually taught it with the Elders. They had taught them a few days ago because they met them at one of their investigator's houses. We taught them about the Book of Mormon together so they could pass them off to us because they live in our area.

Not December...March in Chi-Town!

On Sunday. guess what?!?!? It snowed! We had Ward Conference and it was good. Unfortunately none of the three investigators we were hoping to have at Church came, we will have to work on that. The rest of the day we did studies and then walked basically our entire area try to find a lot of different people.

So it was a good, pretty normal, missionary week! Thank you so much for all of your love and prayers, it really does mean the world to me! Have an amazing week everyone!

Hermana Allyse