IT'S FREEZING!

That party sounds like so much fun! I can't click on the link to the invitation but if I go to the Library today I can maybe look at it! Our ward is doing a Christmas party this Saturday!  And also on this Friday we are going to the temple and we are also doing a white Elephant type of thing at the mission home with our zone and one other!

But we don't have any plans for Christmas Day yet because I don't really know what we are supposed to do! But I think we will have our same pday because we can't really go out and buy groceries on Christmas but I am not completely sure yet! We should be able to skype because I have it on my IPad so I think we will be allowed to just do it right from home! But I don't know yet what time we will call yet! I am sure they will tell us this week so I will let you know! I should be able to tell you next pday though for sure if our pday isn't on Christmas! But I am so excited to talk to you guys again! Today marks three months that I have been in Chicago so that's how long it has been since I have heard you guys! That's crazy! Haha but Kev is hilarious! I can just picture it perfectly in my head.

But it's freezing here! Sometimes when I am texting someone my hands start to hurt because it is so cold! But can you actually send me another pair of long gs and also a pair of wool socks? I got the calendar this week but I am saving it for Christmas to open it! I am looking to buy something and send it home for Christmas it's just so hard to find something because we have so little time! But I am going to invite Twall to go over for Christmas and talk if that is okay with you. [yes!] But things here are going pretty well! I got my new companion and he is from Colombia! He is helping me a ton with my Spanish because he speaks a lot slower than Elder Gomez did.

But Liz and her family are doing great! We are still trying to figure out the whole priesthood thing for Oscar so he can baptize her but they are doing great! This week Oscar’s step brother got home from his mission so they have been with them the last few days and went to his ward. We also went to their daughters Christmas performance for school and it was so cute! I feel like they are my little sisters! I just love their whole family so much! And that investigator who asked to be taught by the sisters last week is on date now so that's a miracle! I am so happy for her because I have taught her too!

Yesterday though it was amazing though, we were walking and there was this lady with her two daughters who were about our age and they had a flat tire! They asked some people to help them but everyone said no and then we walked by and helped them! So we changed their tire and everything, luckily my companion knew how to do most of the stuff because I didn't really, but we got everything fixed up for them! After she was handing us some money and we were like no we do this all out of love and we are just here to serve and help people and said we were missionaries! She was so grateful for us and just had the biggest smile and she was like at least let me give you guys a hug and we couldn't deny her! I felt so happy just because we made this family’s day and holiday season just a little bit better! This is what the gospel and missionary work is about! Helping others to be happy!

But I am glad everything is going great! I am going to email Samara and tell her thank you for the shirt, if you are at home will you show her the picture of me wearing it to her! But what are your guys plans for Christmas? How are you guys doing in General? I love you and remember to stay healthy! I love love love you guys!

I have to get off but I love you more than anything! You are the best Mom I could ask for and I am so grateful for everything you do for me! Although we are far away I feel like you are here with me because of how much love you show! You are the best Mom I could ever ask for! You are so important to me and I'm so excited to talk to you next week!

Love you bebe!

My shirt from Samara

Elder Dominguez and me at Wendy's

Elder Gomez and me with Oscar and Liz's family

My District

It's Freezing….

1ST TRANSFER

Everything is going great here! I love the presents and I am a little

behind so I am going to catch up soon! But it always makes my day!

But so Saturday is when we got our transfer calls and we got a text that

said we wouldn't get a call so we were way happy because we thought we

were going to stay together and then that night we were going to a

family’s house and we were with 2 other missionaries because this

family just had their daughter and son in law get sealed. They were

already married but the husband just got his endowments and they were

sealed, the wife is a rm.  But we were walking in and we get a call

from the assistants and they kept joking around with us and we ended

up finding out that Elder Gomez is getting sent to the cornfields and

I am receiving a companion from Colombia! His name is Elder Duson or

however you spell it so we will change out tomorrow! He got here like 3 weeks after I did because he left the MtC early or something because he is fluent so technically I will be the senior companion. It's crazy to think that but I am going to

focus more on my Spanish this transfer because my companion can speak some

English but I heard but he's much better at Spanish! Hopefully I can help

him learn a few things too!

But it was amazing we had 3 different investigators come to church yesterday!!

That's the most we have ever had! But it was kind of sad, one of the

investigators that was there I was talking to her and I had to ask her

to repeat a few things and then she was like I think I want the

hermanas to teach me. I am bumbed because I feel like it is because of

my Spanish and it just made me feel terrible. But on the bright side,

Liz and Oscar are doing great! We had a family home evening with them

at Oscars parents house yesterday and she is so excited to be

baptized! She loves the gospel and she is so prepared for the gospel!

We only have to teach her a few more lessons and then she can be

baptized but we are figuring things out with Oscars priesthood so he

can baptize her! He was less active but now he is considered active

because he has come the last few weeks! So this was so great and I

love their family so much! Other than that nothing else big has really

happened!

I will try to send some pictures later if I have time for it!  I love you guys!

A CHICAGO THANKSGIVING

Yeah I have all of the decorations up! But this week has been great! So we went to the family Armendariz house for Thanksgiving and the food was like half American half Mexican. They had turkey and mashed potatoes and rolls that I loved and a green bean casserole type thing that you would make! The Mexican part was that they had this stuffing type stuff that was different but actually pretty good! It was different being away from home but they were so nice and tried to make us feel as comfortable as possible! Their family is so nice and loving!

Other than that it was just a normal week with missionary work! Liz and her family are progressing super well and she is a perfect investigator! We basically just had to find her and then Oscar’s parents have taught all of the lessons and she asks questions that complete our lessons perfectly! We aren't really doing anything it is mostly between her and the spirit! I feel like any missionary could teach her because the Lord had her so prepared for the gospel so I am just grateful I got to be a part of everything!

But I loved the package that you sent me! I was so happy and I loved that you all wrote me letters! That was my favorite part! Coco sent me a package with the 25 day things and it was so nice of her! She is so sweet!

But everything is great here! I just keep pushing forward! Love you guys!

Coco's 25 Days of Chrismas!  Happy Smile!

 Decorated for Christmas

 Selfie with my new I-Pad

4th Fast Sunday on my Mission,

and wearing my Fast Sunday tie matching my Dad's tie.

In heaven with a member's new puppy

NEW IPAD - TWITTER?

I got those shoes returned last week at the Nordstrom and it was really simple! They put the money back on your card! And one really important thing, that drivers record thing that I sent in the mail to you guys when I first got here, did you guys get that filled out and sent to the Mission office??  And that is so crazy that Chase is leaving! His whole call time has been since I have been here in Chicago, it seems like I haven't been here that long but back at home tons of stuff has gone on!

But this week has been great! We got our Ipads on Wednesday so we have been trying to get everything figured out on that all week! The church has it super restricted and everything so I unfortunately can't get my twitter back up and going but I guess that's okay. ;) We have wifi in our house too because of the members that live underneath us so that is really convenient because we can just do our facebook from here but it is a big temptation! We now are putting our area books onto our IPads too and that literally sucks. We have to upload all the information from it into our Ipads and it is taking forever. It wipes us out and we aren't even out working! It sucks now but once we have it all done it will be so convenient!  But all this sitting around has gotten me kind of homesick because it has been pretty boring here.  I hate just sitting in the house but we have to do it! Early in my mission I was just like I just want to relax and read the BOM but now I would much rather be out teaching and walking around! It is freezing outside some days but I love it for some reason! It is dumping snow outside right now and it just brings a smile to my face for some reason! I am beginning to love the snow and the cold weather!

But Liz’s family came to church yesterday together for the first time! She has been progressing so much but there were tons of time conflicts so we could never get them to come and we finally did!! She loved it and she cried during relief society she loved it so much! Her kids made turkeys in Primary and Oscar stayed with us!  Their whole family is doing so great and they do family home evenings every Saturday and they are learning so much! Liz says she wants to get baptized we just need to put her on date! Their whole family is amazing and I love them so much!! They treat us so well and they are so happy so bringing this joy to them is the best feeling!  

But we don't teach as much as a lot of my friends in other countries but that just makes me more grateful for the everyday little successes that I am having! I am working my hardest!  And I love everyone that I have come in contact with here!

The members take care of us so well!  For thanksgiving we are going to a member family named familia Armendariz. They are so nice and they are a great family! They have two kids, a daughter who is a little older than us and a son who is just younger! They told us if we had any food that we always ate at thanksgiving to tell them and they would make it for us! They are so nice and I am so excited for thanksgiving so don't worry about me, I will be in a great home! It is really weird not being with you guys for thanksgiving but we will be together for eternity! I love you so much though! Have a great week and stay healthy!!

Love Markell I mean Elder Eichers

DUET AT NOCHE INTERNACIONAL

Hahaha I loved that you took Hermana Culotta and her companion out! She said she loved it and that you ate really fancy! But I got your letter this week and I am sorry that it made you sad that I don't need anything but I am just kind of overloaded.

But this week has been great! Things just clicked this week! I think your fast helped even when I didn't know about it! L's family is amazing! I love them so much! Yesterday we went over for her son’s birthday, and I loved every second of it! She is doing so great with the gospel too! They are having family home evenings every Saturday with her husband’s parents who are members, and they really enjoy them! We were teaching her before the party yesterday and her husband (Who is less active) was reading about repentance and after he read it she was like when he was reading that I felt something, I don't know what it is but I felt something! It was so great, we explained to her that it was the spirit! She is progressing so well and we love their family so much! While we were teaching too we asked the husband why he was baptized and he shared his experience and how he felt the spirit at another person's baptism and wanted it for himself! It was a perfect testimony for his wife! Everything just went perfectly!

But another great thing this week was on Saturday we had Noche Internacional that is this giant party that they do at the church to try and invite people to come! There is a big performance and tons of people would do their cultural dances and things and there were rooms all around the church that were different countries! In these rooms the members from that country decorate everything and bring food for everyone to try from their country! It was all so amazing and I loved trying everything! The activity was combined with another ward. As missionaries we had to perform and we did a super funny random skit! And then we had to perform with the young men and women and I had to sing a duet for one of the verses with one of the young women. I don't know how I got roped into that because I haven't sung since like 6th grade but I did it. I was thinking though even if I messed up I could have just emergency transferred out so I wasn't way nervous hehe.  But this fiesta was packed and it made me so grateful to work with all the Hispanics, I love them all so much and the cultures are amazing!

But I am returning my shoes today just to the Nordstrom here because there was no paper with the shipping stuff like you said, I searched through the boxes so many times and I couldn't find it.  I love you so much Mom and I miss you more than anything! Oh and I will send you tons of pictures next week because I took a lot I just forgot to bring my camera here today!

Oh I forgot to say! We get IPADS this week!!!  Provo monitors it all but still we have IPADS!  Kind of sad that we can’t have angry birds and teach lessons to the little pigs, but I am excited:)

las banderas para la Noche Internacional

Mi Distrito  me, Elder Gomez, Elder Dominiguez, Elder Dean

Elder Gomez, me and Elder Dean

Elder Gomez, Liz and Oscar Reyes and family, and me

FAMILIAS PUEDEN SER ETERNAS (FAMILIES CAN BE ETERNAL)

Hahaha Jamakunu I just made that up so it doesn't actually mean anything! Haha I love that picture (from U of U game)!  And I miss that so much!  That is great you are going out to Dinner with Hermana Culotta!  I love that, I told her you would when she got to Provo!

But my favorite part of Chicago is probably the Magnificent Mile! I don't buy anything there but I love seeing it! I just love downtown so much!

But this week we are on buses and we spend so much time walking because of the timing of the buses and yesterday we thought there was a bus on this one street but there wasn't so we ended up walking like 12 blocks. We have it pretty down by now but we still make mistakes with the buses!

But L is doing great and her family is great too! On Saturday they had a family home evening with O’s parents (Her husband). (His parents live down south and L’s parents live above them, Os parents were the only parents with them on Saturday).  His parents are members and his Dad works in the temple here. His mom (Step Mom) taught the whole lesson and it was about temple marriages and eternal families so it was perfect. She said she wants to be baptized so I was so happy! We are going to try and get her a date this week some time! But after that lesson we played a game called headbandz with them and it was so much fun! I just love being with their family and you can just feel the love so strongly between them and just the spirit of joy that they have in their house!

I am learning so much though everyday! Everything is so hard but that just makes the good times so much better!  The hardest part is finding people to teach and having them keep their commitments.  If they would just give our message a chance the spirit would do the rest for them but it is hard to get them to try things out for themselves! When we are busy and have appointments I love it!  I love the people in our district though! Elder Gomez and me get along really well!

Love and miss you all! Have a great week and stay healthy! Love you!

Elder Eichers didn't send any pics this week, so I'm attaching a few that did not come from him:

Hermanas Hernandez and Culotta at dinner in Orem.
 Hermana Culotta was in the same District as Elder Eichers in the Mexico City, MTC

Elder Eichers at his own baptism, with Elder Josh Stephens (Mexico City, Chalco) and
Elder Jackson Rose (Mexico City MTC then to North Carolina)

THIRD FAST SUNDAY

A lot of our investigators aren't really progressing but I am learning so much! We are focusing a lot on trying to get members to our lessons right now because we can teach the investigators, but the members will astonish them and we are trying to have them be like Amulek like in the story of Alma.  But my Spanish is getting better but it is still not great!

But we are trying to teach S but we haven't been able to find her lately. But L and O are doing amazing! They live in the same house as L’s parents. Most families all live in same house or next door here. But we had always talked to her parents but they had never really loved us until Wednesday we were just dropping off an invitation to a birthday party for the family to go to of a member in our ward.  We had something right after so we were just going to drop it off and leave and then her mom and dad were just so nice to us and were like oh please come in and eat and everything! It was amazing and it is such a miracle! We were talking with them too and the mom was like "you guys are going to still talk to us when you guys leave right?" I was about to cry I just love them so much and I was like yeah just adopt me right now!!!!!  But I didn't say that because you are my family ;) But I love this family so much and they are doing great and are progressing so well! I am learning so much and always figuring out new ways to try and be a better missionary! Be safe and be healthy! Love you guys!

 Third Fast Sunday.  Wearing the matching tie with Brad.

Halloween