Hola a mis querida familia y amigos! This week was...interesting!
Every single one of our appointments this week canceled and fell
through. That made for a bit of a tough week, but that is okay because
it means it can only get better from here and everyone has to have
those weeks sometimes!
On Monday we had our Zone Activity and it was a lot of fun. We went to
a park, colored Easter
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Easter Egg Coloring...
Missionary Style! |
eggs, and played soccer and kickball. It was so
great to be able to be with everyone AND to be able to wear real
clothes, although it was really weird too! We had one funny thing
happen to us. Us Hermanas were talking as some of the Elders played
soccer. Two random kids came up to us and asked us where we were from
and what we were doing because they had "never seen so many white
people there before"! We explained who we were and they were like,
"Oh, OK. Just be careful, things happen in this park!" It was just so
funny because we were just a lot of people and I don't think that park
had ever seen so many! That night we had our Noche de Hogar with a member family. It was great because both sets of Elders ended up
being there and a less active that used to be in our area
that we love so much, was there too.
Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting and it was super good like
always. We learned a lot about the Doctrine of Christ and how it
really is at the center of our message and how we need to use it to
paint the big picture for our investigators and everyone else we are
working with. We also learned about teaching simply and having faith
to find people. That afternoon we went to do some service to help an
Hermana move but it wasn't too organized yet and there weren't any
other women so we couldn't even go into the house with the Elders to
help. The Noche de Hogar with another member family was that night and our same less active was there again too!
We had a nice long day of finding on Wednesday, we did a lot of
tracting. I have a fun story to tell
 |
A wonderful church
member who watches
out for us missionaries. |
you about 2 sister missionaries
and a big dog, every missionary needs at least one of those stories
right? Well, I got one! We were knocking doors and everyone here has
gates around their houses. For the most part, these gates are normally
unlocked. So, to knock the doors, you open the gate and walk up to the
door. We did that at one particular house because it was only held
closed by a little rope looped over the top. I was working on closing
the gate when Hermana Black said, "Hermana, there's a dog!". I turned
around to see and saw this big black dog walking calmly towards us.
Hermana Black said again, "Hermana, there's a dog!" and I knew we
needed to get out of there. I slipped back outside the gate and
Hermana Black followed. Right as I was closing the gate again the dog
got there. As soon as we were outside the gate, he turned ferocious
and started jumping and barking. It was scary to get the rope back
around the top of the gate because the dog was right there trying to
bite me, but if I didn't get the rope looped, he would get out and we would have a bigger
problem. As I was trying to get the gate closed without getting my
hand bitten off, a window right next to the gate opened and a kid
poked his head out to see what was going on. I explained that we
hadn't realized there was a dog and we were just trying to knock on
their door. Tons of people here in Chicago have dogs and they proudly
display signs saying, "Beware of Dog", all except for this house! I
finally got the gate closed and the rope hooked back in and Hermana
Black and I walked away with our hearts pounding a good bit. It was
such a tender mercy to me from Heavenly Father that the dog
approached so calmly until we were outside of the gate, we were
definitely protected and now I have a fun missionary-dog story! The
rest of the day was very uneventful compared with that!
We went to the one appointment that was still scheduled and confirmed
with one of our investigators. We went with the a member and our investigator wasn't there. It was a little frustrating to have every lesson cancel, but that is missionary
life sometimes!
 |
This is how we missionaries
improvise when we don't have
the kind of baking pan we need! |
Thursday was Weekly Planning. We got all of our planning done and also
tried looking for some people, but no one was home. That was basically
what that day consisted of.
On Friday we had a lunch appointment with member. She is
Cuban and makes us the most amazing food, and a lot of it! Needless to
say, we walked out of there with very full stomachs! The rest of the
day we tried stopping by and seeing different people but no one was
really home. That night we got to go to the baptism of a kid who just
turned 8 that Hermana Black knew in Chicago 2nd. That was a lot of fun
to be there.
Saturday we had General Conference! I had been looking forward to this
all week like I am sure all
 |
Riding the CTA bus to the
church building to watch
General Conference |
of you were. Us missionaries watch it at
the Church and for the most part it is just us there. For the first
session they broadcasted it in English in the Chapel and then had
headsets for the few Spanish people there. We then had MCM really fast
and then Hermana Black and I helped member with her English
class while the other Hermanas went and got Subway, they brought us
back some too. For the second session they tried switching it up and
putting all of the missionaries in the back of the gym with a little
TV and metal chairs :-) But when the broadcast started, it was in
Spanish so while they were trying to fix it, someone pulled it up on
their iPad for us all to at least hear. But the iPad wasn't loud
enough,
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| Hermana Black and myself watching General Conference |
BUT, that morning I had the idea (inspiration now that I look
back!) to take my little speaker with me, for some random reason! So
while they were fixing the TV, we were all able to listen with the speaker I had brought,
it was really neat to me! That night we got a special treat to go and
visit a less active member. Even though she isn't in our area any more she really
misses us and texts us sometimes. She is going through a really rough
time and really needed to talk with someone. The other Hermanas
weren't available so we got permission to go talk with her for a
while. It was so great to be with her again and she was so excited!
Sunday we had more wonderful General Conference. I absolutely loved the
Sunday morning session!
We heard some great
messages in all sessions, and I am so excited to be able to go back through and read
the talks and study them. I really liked President Uchtdorf's talk on gratitude, it was really good. Elder Holland was amazing as usual too!
In between the Sunday
sessions an Hermana from the
Westchester Spanish ward brought food for their missionaries and she
was nice enough to share it with us, so we ended up having lunch too.
After Conference we went looking for some less actives and potential
investigators.
It was a good week, made even better with General Conference. I hope
you all were able to feel our Father's love and His individual counsel
for each one of us. I hope you all have an amazing week, I love you
and thank you so much!!!
Eternal Love,
Hermana Allyse Meanea
