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Hermana Whitney and I together at the Chicago
Temple for the last time before she goes home. |
Whew! What a busy week! I can't believe that today marks 11 months since
we started this adventure and 7 months until I am back home! It is so
crazy!
Last Monday: Today was another super busy
P-Day! We did our studies and then went and emailed. We grabbed our
"sack lunch" from Buffalo Wild Wings and then went to the Zone Activity
Talent Show. We practiced with the other Hermanas that we were going to
do our "talent" with. We did pregnancy yoga. It was interesting! I
wasn't the biggest fan of it but it was planned while I was in the shower last
night so I didn't have much say :) The talent show was so fun to watch,
there were some really awesome things. Rapping, the Cup Song missionary
style, bag pipes from the throat, roping, hula, and singing. Ours was
okay but definitely really weird! Afterwards we hung out, talked, and
emailed. Hermana Whitney and I next headed to a branch member's family for
dinner. Of course it was fish! But it had a lot of lemon and pepper
which helped me get it down. I ate super slow but was eventually able to
eat it all.
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| M&M's (Marvelous Missionaries) at Zone Training Meeting |
Tuesday: We had Zone Training Meeting today and it
was so good! We talked about a lot of different things: unity in the
companionship, courage as a missionary, questions of the soul, building
unity with the members, opening our mouths and contacting, and urgency.
Herman Whitney also gave her departing testimony. I was so sad but also so
grateful for the time that I have had with her as my companion. There was so many things
that I learned and made a goal to do better with. Zone Training was
made complete with the amazing package that my family sent. Everyone
absolutely LOVED the M&M's (for Marvelous Missionaries)! They were a huge hit! Everyone talked
about how my family is the best, to which I wholeheartedly agreed, and
said to thank them soooo much! President Woodbury also says thank you,
especially because I was able to send an entire bag of peanut M&M's
home with him to keep him company on the drive :) After Zone Training we
stayed there for quite a long time because President Woodbury was going
to do Hermana Whitney's exit interview because he has so many to do this transfer he wanted to get a head start. After
Hermana Whitney had her interview we went to
the Chiropractor for one last time. It is so sad to me to think that I
don't have an excuse to go there anymore! It was fun while it lasted :) We did some Facebook contacting and finished off the night with dinner at a hermana's home. We shared a message about the Plan of Salvation and
she liked having us in her home.
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| Our District with Hermana Whitney for the last time... |
Wednesday: Today was a really good work day. After
our morning of preparation, we headed to Chicago Heights to work. We
spent the next several hours looking for different people. We weren't
able to get in with anyone but we were able to make some return appointments which is really nice. We stopped by an investigator we haven't
been able to see for quite a while. She was home but was super busy but
still wanted to talk with us for just a bit. She confided in us about
how tough her life is right now. We just sat there and listened and just
let her talk which I think helped her a lot. We showed we loved her and
we cared about her and she really felt it. It is just such an amazing
thing how people come to trust you and confide in you when you wear and
uphold the name of Jesus Christ and show them you really care. I never
want to do anything to ruin that trust! After being with her we were
able to go and teach a little lesson to one of our investigators. We read in the Book of
Mormon, 1 Nephi 2, and she was able to read with us this time because
she had her large print Book of Mormon we had given her. It went okay
but her head was hurting and kids were running and screaming all over so
it wasn't the best. Next we went to see a hermano that we teach. He was home but
they were just getting ready to leave but he was way happy to have us
share a quick scripture with him. We read Alma 26:12 about glorying and
giving thanks to God and knowing that it is through Him that we can do
all things. He told us that he should be coming to Church this week with
his family so that is really great! We then headed to Gary for our missionary correlation meeting and dinner with our branch mission leader and his wife. We had a good MCM and talked about all of the
people we are working with. Dinner was amazing! Hermana made us mole and
rice and it was super good. We then headed towards home. We stopped at
the library because we still had some time and so I was able to get
started on designing the invitation for the Noche de Hogar our branch is having. It was fun
to start and be able to do some graphic design again.
Thursday: Hermana Whitney's last full day of work
was today in Chicago Heights. That is so strange to think about! We had
our regular studies and then headed to Chicago Heights. We went to visit a friend of a Chicago Heights member that asked us to visit
him in a nursing home. I was SUPER nervous about this because last time I was in a
nursing home, it didn't go so well, I almost passed out. I really didn't
want that to happen again. But we went in and I was able to sit down,
which helped a lot, and we just talked with him and I was fine. He was
happy to have some visitors and to just talk. He seemed like normal but
everyone else in that place was crazy! After that we went to an appointment with a Hermana. She made us some good food, fish again, of course! I
was able to get down one piece and then just continued eating rice the
entire time so that it looked like I was eating and so she wouldn't
offer me more fish :-) She loved having us there and she just talked,
and talked. We shared Moroni 7 and discussed charity. She talked some
more, and some more! We then tried another potential new investigator that ended up not being
home. As we were heading back to our car, we contacted a man in his
yard. He was cordial enough but didn't seem super interested. Then we
saw his wife up on the porch and so we walked up to introduce ourselves.
She was happy to meet us and when we asked if there was a time that
they would be interested in having us come by and share our message, she
invited us to sit down with her right then and teach her! We taught
her the Restoration very simply and she understood it quite well and
seemed to have a lot of interest. The lesson went good and I felt like we were able to teach pretty powerfully.
At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized when she knew these
things were true. She said she would be because she knew she would have
to act and follow Jesus Christ. We tried to set a date as a goal for her
and she said to give her the week to read in the Book of Mormon and to
think and pray. Even though she didn't accept the date I felt really
good about it because she truly has a desire to know for herself because
she knows what a big step this is. It was so great to find and meet
her. Then as we were leaving her house, we talked to a woman pushing her
baby in a stroller. She only spoke English and she told us it was funny
we had stopped to talk to her because she had actually just been
thinking about how she hadn't been raised with a religion but wanted one
for her son. We talked to her a little about the Restoration and she
was super interested and wanted to know why we were different from
everyone else. She was happy to take a card and to go online and visit
Mormon.org. We were able to tell her where the Church was and she
seems super legit. But she didn't want to give us her contact info, she
said she would check it out. Even though we didn't get all of her info then, as we walked away we just got the feeling that The Lord and
the missionaries weren't done with her yet! We could see she had a
bright future ahead and that someday the missionaries would find her. It
was just so amazing to be able to see that in a person we just met
randomly on the street, even though we know it wasn't random at all! The
Lord truly does place people in our path all of the time. Even though
often times it doesn't lead to much right then. It is a contact with the
Gospel of Jesus Christ that people will remember. It is a seed planted
and someday it is going to grow!
Friday: Today was our weekly planning day. After
our morning of studies and lunch, we started weekly planning. It is
such a weird feeling to be planning for next week and to KNOW that Hermana Whitney and I won't be together, that I will have a new companion, that Hermana
Whitney will be home. Super strange! We got a lot of good planning done
and made some super good brownies too :) After that we drove to Chicago
Heights for our appointment with a family we are teaching. It went really well. We
talked about faith and read Alma 32:21 and Mosiah 3:17. We had a dinner appointment with a Hermana and her family. They
made us this really good pasta that I liked a lot, except for the whole
shrimp part! Luckily I only had one small piece that I was able to
choke down. Seriously though, the only good part about Hermana Whitney
leaving is that hopefully I won't get fed as much fish! People seem to
know that she loves fish because I haven't had fish at any other time on
my mission (except for one time as I was leaving Midway) until I have been with
her. The things I do as a missionary because I love people! We shared a
message about charity and read in Moroni 7 and they really enjoyed it.
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Great members at the temple
from the Midway Ward |
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| Visiting branch members at the hospital |
Saturday: Wow! What an AMAZING day we had today! We
left our apartment at 8:00 to drive into Chicago to pick up Hermanas
Felt and Clanton to then go to the temple with some recent converts of
Hermana Whitney's to watch them do baptisms for the dead. It was SO
awesome because a lot of people from Midway were their and so I got to
see a lot of people that I love from my 6 months serving there. It was also
super special because Hermana Whitney got to see so many people from so
many of her old areas who also happened to be at the Temple. It was such
a tender mercy from The Lord. The biggest tender mercy was watching her recent converts be baptized for the dead, to see them make it to that point was just incredible!!! I just loved being
in the Temple and watching the baptisms and confirmations (as
missionaries we aren't allowed to do baptisms). It was a HUGE group,
with a lot of Spanish speakers, so all of the temple workers were pretty
stressed out, but it all worked out. After taking a bunch of photos
outside, the members wanted to take us all out to lunch.
The STL's had gotten it cleared with President so we went and had a fun
lunch at Subway. After that we took the other Hermanas back to their apartment
and then headed to a Children's Hospital in the South Side, in Oak
Lawn, to see some members from our branch. They were so happy that we were able to visit. Their daughter was doing a
lot better and was looking good. We just talked with them for a
long time and she told us a lot about her life. We then drove home,
finally making it back an hour later and 13 hours after our adventure
had started. We did nightly planning and got the dreaded text, "You WILL
be receiving a transfer call!" Shocker there, right? ;) Finally the
call came from Elder Johnson. Can you guess? I will be getting Hermana
Pearson!!!!! I was not expecting that at all, but am super excited!!!
Hermana Whitney is being transferred to New York and her new companion
is YTBD :-( So yeah, that is our big transfer news. But we had an
absolutely AMAZING day today. It was a TON of driving, but I loved it
soooo much!!!
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Luncheon after Branch Conference to say good bye
to Hermana Whitney |
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| Hermana Whitney and I with awesome branch members |
Sunday: Today was such a good, busy, full day! We
went to branch council. It was really good and we were able to have a
good discussion on the families we have been talking about. It was such
an interesting dynamic though because it is Branch Conference and so all
of the stake leaders were there. But a lot, if not most, of the stake
leaders do not speak Spanish. So we had whispered translation
conversations all over the room and others just having no clue what was
going on (not including me, most of the time!). :) Next we were able to
have a Gospel Principles class about faith because the Elders had an
investigator there. He was blind, Native American, and didn't speak
Spanish, so that was fun! But our lesson went super well, especially for
the fact that Hermana Whitney and I were teaching and hadn't even
looked at the lesson or talked about it beforehand (we kept forgetting).
Juan, the investigator, really liked the class and had a lot of good
questions. After that we had a combined relief society and priesthood
class. The Branch President taught a wonderful lesson on the importance of
being self-sufficient and how we can get there (pay our offerings,
balance needs and wants, serve in our callings). Sacrament Meeting was
so great because there were SO many people there, the most I have ever
seen! The branch really did take the challenge seriously to invite
people to Branch Conference and it worked. We had another interesting
dynamic in Sacrament Meeting. Because there were so many English only
speakers from the Stake there, Elder Bringhurst translated the meeting
from Spanish to English through the headsets for them. Then President
Cameron, the Stake President, got up to talk and so I ran around the
chapel switching the headsets to the Spanish only speakers because
President Cameron doesn't speak Spanish. We then had our luncheon
afterwards. There was so much food and so many people. This branch loves
Hermana Whitney so much and they are so sad to see her leave, they gave
her the most amazing send off. In the evening we went to visit a hermana, a less active in the Elders' area that has a little Mexican
Tienda and she wanted to see Hermana Whitney before she left. We drove to her
store and it was so neat! I loved it! She gave us food, a lot of it,
and fruit, and had us pick out sodas, and everything. Between taking
care of customers and such we were able to talk with her and get to know
her a little bit. She is so awesome, I already love her so much. She
speaks both English and Spanish and we really enjoyed talking with her.
We helped her stock sodas and then she gave us tamales and guacamole to
take home. She also told me to make sure that we come by more often,
which I will gladly do!
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| A wonderful branch member and I in her Tienda |
Sorry, I was really long winded again! But it was a super good week
and we were so busy! I hope that you all are doing good and have an
amazing week! I love you so much and I love this Gospel! I love sharing
it and really seeing it change people's lives! Talk to you soon!
Hermana Meanea
