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