SURPRISE PHOTO

Sam got a text from Nate Cannon posing with these missionaries.  Nate Cannon is one of Sam's friends who is getting his MBA in Chicago.

BACK VISITING MIDWAY

This week has been a pretty great week! That is so crazy that Josh is home already! Also, tell Emma that I say congratulations to them!!

We had some amazing things happened this week! On Saturday I was lucky and went on an exchange back to Midway and I absolutely loved it! We got to see Hermana Rojas and Santi there and it was so much fun! It was funny because when Hermana opened the door for us I was hidden behind Elder Wray, and when she saw me she was so shocked! And then we were talking to Santi and she was like Santi look it's Elder Eichers and he was like no Elder Eichers meaning that I had left. It was so sad but it was so cute! They see so many missionaries go through there! The rest of the family was all at on of the other members homes but I loved being able to see them! Then afterwards we went out with The Martinez family! This family we found and all of them were reactivated and then the 8 year old son is going to be baptized in like 2 weeks and the husband Freddy is getting so close to be baptized! He just has a few last things but we think that when he sees his oldest son baptize the youngest that he is going to have the desires! He already comes to church every week and loves the church so we hope that he will be baptized soon! My favorite part of the whole exchange was that we got to see Karina Huicochea and her family! We knocked on their door a little earlier than the appointment that we had and only the daughters were there with their dad and I was so happy because the youngest daughter Kamila remembered my name and it was the best moment ever! We had to come back though when the appointment actually started so that we could find Axel and Karina though! When we were out front of the house for the second time we hear someone yell Buenas noches esta bien si le dejamos con una tarjeta? Meaning can we give you a card and it was the hermanas. So they went in right before us and then we went in after because we couldn't be in there at the same time but when I went in We just had the best time there! Karina is doing so great and she is so bright with the spirit. She is struggling though because her husband still is really against the church but we had an amazing lesson that was so powerful, there was a reason why I had to be there that night and it was a great day! 

LOVING IT!

Photo from Liz White while Elder Eichers and Zacher were at zone conference.

This week was a tiring week but I loved it! We have gotten dropped by a few of our investigators so we have had tons of time to do finding but it gets pretty long at times! So we were teaching this guy named Luke and we have been teaching him ever since I got here in the area! He was so solid and he was loving coming to church and loving meeting with us but he never put full effort into seeking an answer and last week he called us and said that he just wanted to stay with the Catholic Church. It was so hard to hear because he is honestly one of the most prepared people I have ever seen for the Gospel but we are going to keep inviting him and keep talking because he is such a great person! It was really sad but there is still lots of hope!

On the bright side, we are teaching this girl named Aly and she is amazing! She was invited by her boyfriend to church who is a returning member. Her boyfriends name is Drew and just recently he invited another one of his friends named Allie who got baptized in a ward more towards the north and she just moved into our ward. There fire is there in their house! So all of them are actors and they love history and plays! They are just so much fun and so energetic to be around! But Aly is progressing so much! I'm her Book of Mormon reading she is in Alma chapter 60! She is so ready to be baptized it is just hard to get her to come to church because she has play rehearsals Sundays in the afternoon but two weeks ago all three of them went to the family ward and this week they were able to come because it was stake conference and earlier! She said that after going her first time to church, that any doubts that she had (not that she had any to start with) were all gone! She is just loving things and knows the gospel is true! She is so ready to be baptized we are just waiting with the right timing and helping here come into the ward and get involved. We are thinking she will be baptized once her plays stop going and when she wont be practicing on Sunday's!

I am glad you love El though! I haven't gotten the package yet but probably this weekI   I don't think I ever got the letter but yes I do love my companion a lot! And I use my spanish a ton still! We don't teach but we see lots of Hispanics out on the streets so we contact them! My companion will always stop people and we are both talking to people and then he will yell to me and be like hey they speak Spanish and so I still use it a lot!! I can't believe Josh is already going home! The time is just going by so fast! 

I am loving everything out here though! Everything is great, I have everything I need. I hope you have a great week!  Love you tons mom!

Elder Garrett Eichers

Illinois Chicago Mission

BLIZZARD AND A PHOTOSHOOT

Yes I am so sorry that I didn't have time to write to you last week.  Sister White told me that you texted her all worried..  But everything is great! The reason why I didn't respond last week was because we were with the new missionaries coming in and this transfer was huge, we had 22 leave and 21 come in so it is a giant group. I was absolutely exhausted and we didnt have any time on Monday but yes everything is great here. 

My new companions name is Elder Zacher and we are loving being together! He was just in the Logan Square ward where Sister White is serving! He is from Billings Montana! He is huge into basketball and football so we love talking about that! We are already doing so great together and having so much fun!

These last two weeks have been amazing! We have had two baptisms!! Last Saturday Jacki was baptized and it was such a great experience. She has been up and down on the whole idea for a while and we wanted to do the baptism right before Elder Foster went home but she was scared because she had to miss church the sunday before due to being out of town for work so we were just going to plan on doing it a later day. Elder Foster was going to extend his mission but he ended up not doing it. But on Thursday of that week we get a text from Jacki saying that she wanted to talk to us and she ended up telling us that she wanted to get baptized before he left. So anyways, we threw a baptism in like two days and she had a select group of people she wanted there so we were running crazy trying to plan it and find the clothes and everything. In the end, she was baptized and it was so great! She bore a powerful testimony about the love that all of the members have shown for her. She was confirmed yesterday and we got to stand in the circle.

 Then on Saturday, Dash was baptized.  I was so lucky because he asked me to baptize him! We had to pass him to the sisters because he is married so he got baptized into the family ward! The sisters just met his wife a few days ago and she is the sweetest! They think she is going to get baptized quickly because when they first met her she kept saying she was jealous that Dash was going to get baptized and she was so excited for him! They are an amazing couple!

And a crazy experience was that last week our church was canceled due to snow.  It straight up blizzared.  At the end of Sunday night there was probably about a foot and a half or two feet of snow that came down all in that one day. It was nuts, all of the people were getting stuck and the cars were all buried in.  So on Sunday we ended up just shoveling snow and helping people get out and then we had the Sacrament service in our home with just Elder Zacher, Foster and me. It was a great experience to have! Then we went to a members home and he did a photoshoot for us.

Elder Foster loved touching peoples ears so this was our picture