A Police Story, Member Service and Transfers...

Hello Incredible Family and Friends!!! WOW! What a week! I am sure that you are all super curious to here what happened with transfers, but you will just have to read my entire letter to find out, hahaha!!!  :-)

Last Monday for the rest of P-Day we didn't do too much. We tried to stop by some people that evening but no one was home. We had a great Noche de Hogar with a member family. There was a lot of people there, members, an investigator of the Elders, and less actives. We talked about things we learned from conference and what they really meant and how they applied to us.

On Tuesday, we basically got to do service all day long. We went and helped a member family clean

Hermana Black and I dressed
as twinners accidentally one day,
we both walked out of closets
basically wearing the same outfit!

out and fix up a house that they used to rent out and now want to sell. We had to clean a ton of stuff out of the house, garage, and backyard. We then had to sort through an enormous pile of trash and toys and other random stuff to separate everything out. It was a long day but it felt so great to be able to serve and help and do some physical work. That night we went to the Noche de Hogar with the Trejo another member family in the ward. There was quite a few people there, including some investigators of the Elders. We taught the Restoration and the Elders came in partway through and helped us to teach it. Needless to say, by the end of the night, we were VERY exhausted!

Wednesday we had District Meeting where we learned about planning and teaching simply. We then

Chicago Midway Ward
Missionary District

had another day pretty full of service. We went back to the same house the we have been helping with and helped with the final details before the inspector arrived. We painted a fence and swept. We were then able to talk with some of the other ward members while the inspector was there and we had a great time laughing, listening to them tell stories. The inspection went pretty good for them. It didn't pass yet but that is because they have to go back and repaint some things because the inspector didn't like some of the colors (don't ask me what kind of building inspector it was, I though it was insane when we did a walk through afterwards and saw what he wanted fixed). For the rest of the day we did some finding and tracting.

Thursday was pretty much a weekly planning day. We did borrow the car from the other

One of thousands of cart vendors
that just go through the streets
selling all kinds of things

Hermanas in the ward for a few hours and I have a really funny story about that. So it was about 5 pm, not even close to dark yet, and we are driving through our area, enjoying the use of a car for just a few hours. We decide to try and see if an old referral was home because he lives in a part of the area we don't make it to very often (even though it is just 8 blocks south of our apartment) because it can be a little sketchy because it is right next to Western Ave. We get to his street and pull into a parking spot, after which, a police car drives past (which is pretty typical). After talking with each other and looking around from inside of the car for a minute we decided not to get out and leave the car (it is a super nice car because it is brand new and the other sisters just got it on Friday).  We decided to go somewhere else instead of trying to contact this referral. So we pulled back out onto the street, a ways now behind the police car. We turned onto a main road, still behind the police officer, and drive for a little bit before the officer pulls of to the side or the road and we drive past him. He then pulls in right behind us and turns his lights on to pull us over!!! We are both completely stunned because we were doing nothing wrong. We pull over and both officers make their way up both sides of the car. Hermana Black and I were freaking out, having no idea what is up, plus this is Hermana Black's first time ever getting pulled over as the driver. One officer walks up to her window and is like: "Um, what are you doing?" and sweet Hermana Black who is scared out of her mind blurts out exactly what we are doing, if not in a kind of not great way: "We are looking for people!". The officer gets this confused and stunned look and is like: "What?!?!"  My dear companion, realizing how bad that sounded, held out her name tag and was like, "Oh, we're missionaries". The police officer was like, "Oh, you're missionaries huh? And who were you looking for?" My companion explained we were looking for a guy named Israel Uribe and he asked why we were looking for him and we explained that he had been referred to us because he might have interest in learning about our Church. He then asked who told us to go see him and we explained we didn't know, just that he was a referral and then the officer asked why we pulled back out onto the road after pulling over and we had to explain that we had decided not to go see the referral. At this point he was like, "Oh, OK. We just wanted to make sure you were OK because we didn't know if you were really, really lost or buying dope.  But you shouldn't be down here it is really dangerous and if you ever have to come back here, you should come much, much, earlier in the day because it is bad here and there have been a lot of shootings here recently." So, yeah. That is my story about how 2 white girls in a really nice brand new car shouldn't be together in our area. We were both still shaking a half hour later and we promptly told the other Hermanas that we would no longer be using the car, it is just too nice and stands out way too much in our area! That evening we went to a lesson with a couple of investigators. We had a good lesson with them reviewing the Restoration. We will be passing them back to the Elders to teach (who originally found and taught them) because she can only meet at 8:30 at night and she lives in a pretty dangerous part of our area so it is not really possible or safe for us to teach them that late at night, especially because we don't have a car.

So, remember that talk a few years ago by Elder Nelson, "Ask the Missionaries, they can help you!"? Well people really take that to heart, which we love because we do love to help people. Like on Friday for instance, us missionaries were wedding reception decorators. We spent the morning setting up for a couple of our ward members' wedding reception. We had a lot of fun helping them.  We then had studies and we were supposed to have a lesson with an investigator, but she wasn't there and hasn't been answering her phone which is very unlike her. So we hope to get back in with her soon. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for former investigators to see if they had interest to learn more. No one was really home though because it was a Friday afternoon and it was a really nice day.

The Wedding and Mariachi Band

Saturday, transfer call day. We had our correlation meeting with the ward mission leader. It went pretty good. He talked about how he wants everyone to work harder and more with the members, something everyone always needs to and can work on. We then did a little bit of proselyting, it was so warm today (80 degrees) and I can already tell that summer will be interesting, before we went back to the Church for the wedding reception we helped to set up for. It was fun to be at the wedding reception and this time we got to be waitresses and serve everyone their food. Seriously ask, the missionaries will help you! :-) The wedding reception was fun because it was a Mexican wedding reception, complete with a for real Mariachi band, it was super neat! That evening we got THE text: "You WILL be receiving a transfer call :-)". Can you guess? Yep, I am leaving Midway :-(. I am so sad to be leaving, I love the area and the people so much. But I am so super excited for my next big adventure. Any guesses where to? Drumroll please...I am going to Indiana! My companion is Hermana Escobar. I have met her a few times and she seems awesome. I am way excited for Indiana too. It will kind of be the complete opposite of my area now but I am excited for the change. I will miss The City so much, but cornfields are nice too. It will be really interesting because I have been in the BIG city for 7 straight months now, it is weird to think of going back to something that is similar to home! But like I said I am ready and super excited for this change!

I am going to Indiana!!! (my sweet companion made this sign for me)

An awesome member family
that I will greatly miss!

Another awesome member family

We had a good Sunday. At Church I was able to say goodbye to a lot of people and get pictures too. Because it was Fast Sunday I was able to bear my testimony and I hope my Spanish was a little better than when I bore my testimony 5 months ago when I first got here! After Church we went to a member's house for lunch because they are leaving town tomorrow and do there won't be a Noche. They wanted to say goodbye to me and I to them so they threw together a little party. It was a lot of fun and I loved just talking and enjoying being with them. The rest of the day we spent doing studies and I worked on packing, it is amazing how much stuff I have accumulated in 6 months!

A great member of the ward

Other ward members who have
taken great care of me

Me and a cute girl in
the ward that I played
with during Gospel Principles

Sweet Family and Friends, I love you all so very much. Thank you for all of your love and support. I am so excited for this next step in my adventure. I hope you all have an amazing week!

Hermana Allyse