PLAYING A LOT ON MEMORIAL DAY

This week was great! And yes our Pday is today! It is nice because it is finally a holiday that we can play on so today a lot of our members are free and there are lots of things going on! Nothing super special happened this week though, just the normal! I am sorry that this weeks letter is really short but we are playing a lot today so I don't have a lot of energy to write! I am happy though! 😌

Elder Garrett Eichers

Illinois Chicago Mission

Von and Carolyn Christensen: LOGAN SQUARE BUILDING

The Logan Square building is an interesting structures.  The parking is underneath the Chapel as parking is limited in Chicago.

Von and Carolyn Christensen: TEMPLE ZONE TRIP TO CHICAGO TEMPLE

We were able to attend a Zone Temple Trip with these great missionaries.  Twice a year the missionaries have this opportunity - May and December. Each of eight zones attend the temple in the morning, have lunch at the mission home, then have a testimony meeting. We are part of the Willmette East Zone according to the ward we attend.  Hopefully, in the next two weeks, we will be able to share this experience with other zones.

  The Mission President and Temple President addressed this group in the temple chapel and in the sealing room, confirming to them how important the sealing ordinance is in our eternal progression.  We are grateful our President wants these young people to have these unique teaching experiences.

 We did endowments and sealings.  Some of our missionaries had never witnessed a sealing before, and that proved to be a wonderful experience.  Von and I were able to be proxies for one sealing. Two missionaries were witnesses, and three acted as proxies for children.  As we listened to the discussion in the sealing room, we were filled with gratitude for our own sealing 45 and a half years ago...and also the sealings of our dear children as they were adopted into our family.  Thinking of these sealings always fills us with hope and joy.

Von and Carolyn Christensen: MISSION OFFICE, BEAUTIFUL CHICAGO BURBS

Another picture of the Glenview State Bank Building that houses our office.  We are at the far end of this building 

on the second floor.

With the help of the AP's, they moved the

refrigerator in the closet to make it easier

to get into.  Elder Eichers is a great help

 in the office when we need

things moved

Regardless of where we are in the suburbs, forest preserves and woods line many of the streets.  Though we know we live in this small area with millions of people, greenery is important, and these roadside forests and woods pop up all over. 

BOOK OF MORMON PLAY AND MIRACLES

This week we had a great week and it went by so fast! But yes we did get to go to the temple this week but we only went with our zone! It was so amazing to go and we also got to see some sealings! A few of the senior couples did them so that we could watch and also President and Sister Woodbury! I loved being able to see them because I had never watched one before! 

We also had some huge miracles this week as well for the work in our area! We have been struggling lately to find new investigators for a while and we keep setting goals and praying but just nothing was working. It was a little sad because we have been doing so much contacting and we can get lots of people's information just nobody was turning into new investigators! We just keep working and working though and the Lord is really starting to bless us! On Tuesday we were on exchanges so I stayed in our area and I was with a missionary named Elder Alvey! We were contacting in the trains for a while that morning and nothing special was really happening but as we were getting off the train to get onto another one there was his guy who was waiting for us. We hadn't seen him while we were on the train because we were talking to others but we get off and he stops us and he was like "you look way familiar" to me. In my mind I was just thinking oh that's random but maybe he had seen me on a train before. But then he said he spent last thanksgiving and around Christmas with me and I was so confused! He then said that he was family with Carmen who we taught in Midway and that he knew Juan Perez!! He remembered me although I had only seen him one time before!!! It was so crazy because he made a special effort to talk with us and he happens to be a young single adult going to school on the north side now so he fits perfectly into our area! We have an appointment to teach him tomorrow and we are so excited! It was such a miracle!

Yesterday, we had stake conference so that was great to be able to see everyone but we had another huge miracle! At Stake conference we were introduced to this guy named Diego, he has been here from Colombia for a few weeks and he is staying with his aunt! His aunt is just reactivated in the Chi 3 Ward but he is super interested in learning about the church and coming to the YSA Ward! It's sweet too because he speaks mainly Spanish so it is a huge testiment to me of why I am in this area!! It is such a miracle and we are so excited to meet with him his week! The Lord is blessing us so much and it is amazing!

Here is a picture of us by the Book of Mormon play!

DAY AFTER MOTHER'S DAY SKYPE

Yes it was so great to talk to you yesterday! I am glad to see that everything is still going great at home! You basically already know everything that happened but I don't know if I ever told you that in Midway we got to see two investigators be baptized! Their names are Vicky and Jairo! It is so crazy how much they have changed in the last few months, especially Jairo! I had not seen them since I left and Jairo looked like a completely new person! The Gospel helped him so much! I just love their family so much! Here are some of the pictures! I love you Mom! Have a great day!

This last picture is with Omar and Idalia, they are members in Midway!

I AM REALLY EXHAUSTED!

Mom! I am glad that you had a great week! And I am sorry the pictures that I sent didn't go through, was it all three of them or just the last one? And that is so crazy that Andrea and Brette are engaged, and also that Rob is home!! That seems crazy to me that that is happening! It is so weird to see how fast things are going! I think it was last week that I got a wedding invitation from Elder Perez so it is crazy to see that people our age are getting married!! I feel like we are all still so young!

This week has been a pretty normal week though! Nothing super special happened that you haven’t heard but we did have quite a few new investigators come to church who we are working with so that was awesome! Other then that we are just on the missionary grind! I am really exhausted but I am just loving the work! Today we were invited by some other missionaries to go downtown with a recent convert of theirs for lunch so we are doing that.  After one of the member’s birthday is this week so we are going out for deep dish pizza with him! Sorry its kind of a boring email but we just wrote the other day! I love you mom and I hope that you have a great rest of your day!

For Mother’s Day we were thinking about 5 PM here time, would that work for you??

Elder Zacher, Elder Randall, Me, Elder Richards