CHICAGO CHRISTMAS

Chicago Temple

Service Selfie.  

This week has been so crazy but great at the same time! There were a lot of people gone  this week out of town, but all of our investigators came so it was great! We had four people there at church and two less actives came! The bishop in our ward is amazing! He is so funny and he loves the ward so much! We went over to their house on Christmas Eve and they did a big breakfast that night and it was so good! They had the egg casserole thing and then this cinnamon French toast that was amazing! It was a really good opportunity to learn more about the ward.

Then on Christmas we went up to President Woodbury’s house and it went great! It kind of sucked because all of the investigators we had who were going to go backed out but at least one of them came! It was so nice to enjoy with their family and we just had a great Christmas Day! After that we went to a dinner with one of the members and her family who are non-members and the dad is such a boss! He had tons of sports memorabilia and he had some of the sickest pictures of Wrigley Field! It was so fun to be at their house! Then after we went down to Rojas’ house and they are the best as always! It made me so sad I wasn't there with them the whole time, but it was so great just to see them because they always make me so happy!

We also found two golden investigators this week too! One of them his friend invited them to church and he is Mongolian and named Dash.   The next one put his name in the referral generator on mormon.org 6 months ago and nobody ever went and he saw some other missionaries on the bus so he talked to them and then they passed the info to us!  He is so solid!  We were in exchanges when they taught him but the stories they tell are amazing!  That same day while we were on exchanges I was down super south and we were tracking and we found this lady named Erica who is so ready for the Gospel. She let us right in and it was amazing because I have never had that happen before to me!  We made Bunnelos that day too that are like those little chips from taco time that are the bomb they are just bigger and round like a tortilla. It was amazing because that exchange was Spanish too :)

Yesterday we went to the Liconas (chi 4) too because the daughter Duvy is a YSA member so it was great to be back! Anyways, I hope you have a great day! Love you! 

These pics are Christmas selfies!

[Looks like they have on their new Christmas pjs]

Crepes at the Kris Kringle market

ZEBRA COMPANIONSHIP

MTC Reunion with Elder Larkin

Merry Christmas!!! Sorry that recently I have been so bad at emailing just recently we haven't been having very much time!

And can you guys talk at 1 here time?? We are going to the temple tomorrow though and I am so excited!! It has been so long since I have gone so I am ready to go in again! This week we have some great plans! So tomorrow in the morning we will go to the temple and then to the mission home afterwards! We will then just have our normal appointments.  On Christmas Eve we are all going to the bishop of our wards house with some of the members.  On Christmas we are going to the mission home and having lunch with the Woodburys and also a recent convert and some investigators from our ward! I am so excited! Then we are going to another dinner and then hopefully to the Rojas! 

So now I am in the Lake Shore YSA and it is so sweet! We are in a zebra companionship so my new companion is Elder Foster and he only speaks English. This ward is absolutely amazing but it is pretty intimidating because they are all in medical school or law school and are just all geniuses! They all talk about their missions and it's crazy how good of missionaries they all were! I love it though because we are meeting people who are so diverse. We are working with some people from West Africa like Bene and places like that! The ward is honestly so diverse! Anyways, everything here is going great! I love you mom and thank you for everything you do! I love you more than anything!

La Hermana Anguiano.  She has recently had some health issues.

The Guzmans!  I love this family so so so so much! 

Garcias

La familia Romero

Reyes (Oscar and Liz's family)

La familia Gonzalez

NEW AREA

Sorry I have no time today, I just wanted to let you know I love you

and everything is great!  I've been in a new area since Friday, but said bye to everyone on Sunday. We are now in the mission home though because we picked up all of the new missionaries today. I will try to send some pictures of saying bye to everyone. I love you mom and have a great day!

Elder Garrett Eichers

Illinois Chicago Mission

 

La familia Najera

The Rojas Family - The family I've been living with in Midway, Illinois.

Javier 

Martinez Family

 Omar and Idalia

The Alvarez family

A BLESSING FROM PRESIDENT WOODBURY

I am so sorry to hear about the loss of Grandpa.  President Woodbury visited with me and told me that Dad had called in that morning and he gave me a blessing and everything. Earlier this week I was super stomach sick and so we had to stay in side but on one of the mornings we had to run up to the mission office and we were talking with one of the senior missionaries who is a nurse and she could just tell I wasn't feeling well. I honestly felt so sick, but later that day was when dad called into the office.   President and this senior missionary were talking and he had already felt the impression that he had to go down to our building today and then when she told him that I wasn't feeling too well it just made everything clear. But he came down there and he gave me a blessing which really helped. I have so much peace about grandpa passing away though like I thought it would have made me sad or something but just the knowledge that we have it is like nothing has even changed.  There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to see him again!! 

We had a pretty crazy week though just because there was no time to work being sick and everything but it was truly amazing! So Karina was baptized on Saturday with another hermana named Irais! Elder Perez baptized Karina and then I got to confirm her! It was such a cool experience because that was the first time I have ever done that! The spirit was so strong at the baptism because she has the strongest faith and she has battled for so long to get to this point and she finally got there!! She is one of my favorite people I have ever met and she is the best example to me! Their family is just so humble and loving and I love every minute that I get to be with them! She was telling us her testimony after though and she was like I have been waiting for this for years and finally the right people came along and let me have every blessing of it! It was so powerful!  Now we are working with her son Axel! He is like my little brother because we are into so many of the same things!! We are teaching him now and he said that he is the next one to be baptized! He acts just like our group of friends back in the day! (I feel sorry for him ;) just kidding hahaha).

But last week we went to a funeral too and we got to be the pallbarers or how ever you say that and we all took a picture. It was of a part member family so the first service was at our church and the second was at the Catholic church.  I was laughing so hard because I lost those little white gloves though and we were all driving and I was just freaking out like I am done for! I was thinking nope you guys are left alone but in the end we got some more, I left them outside of the church hahaha.  The funny but sad part was though that there was a less active/ active member there at the misa at the catholic church and he gets up there and is helping the priest and lead the congregation at the very beginning and we were just giggling because the other missionaries have worked so hard with him but he just didn't understand!

Anyways, I feel like I am learning so much out here and I am just loving it! It is so hard because there is so little time and so much to work on and do so its overwhelming at times but I wouldnt change it for the world! I love you so so so so much Mom! Have a great day and always remember to be happy!

Sea feliz, Sea Mormon

Elder Garrett Eichers

Illinois Chicago Mission

Fourth Ward pictures that I just got:

 

Elder Eichers is pretty funny...

SMILEY EMOJIS

This week has been great!  Today we have been downtown all day and we went shopping! I bought a new coat today from HM because I have just been having to layer up lately so I just got a good one!  

Anyways, we had a huge miracle this week with Karina and her family! So we taught them basically every day this week because the kids were out of school and we have been working with her and her family so closely! They even invited their neighbor to receive a blessing and to receive us too!  It was amazing! But on Friday we had a lesson with her and we have just started teaching her son, Axel, too.    He told her that he wanted to get baptized with her!  But we had a lesson with them and we asked him and he was scared to talk to his dad so now he is waiting but Karina got permission so she will be baptized on Saturday!! She has been so excited and sending us Facebook messages with tons of smiley emojis and she is so solid!! I am so happy for her and I love her family more than anything!

More will come next week!