SLOPPY JOES

You never told me you were going to Maui!! That sounds like so much fun! Did you get another hole in one Golfing out there? That bike ride sounds great though, That would be sweet to start on the Volcano!

This week has been amazing though! We have had so many awesome things happen! So on Friday we went on exchanges with the Crystal Lake zone leaders and I loved it because I got to go to the suburbs for my very first time!! I had gone up there just to switch and drop Elder Foster off but on Friday I actually got to serve there!  We had a blast up there, I got to go with Elder De la Cruz and he is from California but he grew up in the Philippines! He is one of the funniest kids and we were just laughing so hard the whole entire time! My favorite part of it was that we went to dinner with the Bridges family up there. Last week Elder Foster was up in the suburbs too and he told me he had sloppy Joes and I started laughing because it's a classic white person food so of course this family gave it to us while we were there hahaha. But it honestly was the best! I forgot how good sloppy joes were and they had baked beans and everything! It was weird though because I felt so much like home there just because it was a bigger home and it was all nicely done with nice hard wood floors and paintings in the bathroom and everything, it was so great to be back in a situation like that! I now why I was serving in the city now my whole mission because if I would have started up there I don't think I would have ever gotten over homesickness! It is way too much like home! I remember when I started I just prayed to get sent to the suburbs and of course that was when they sent me to Chicago 3 which is in the heart of the city! I just loved being up there for the day! I would love to go serve up there one day!

Then yesterday was one of my favorite days of my whole mission. So we started off just by going to church and I just felt happy yesterday! It was so much fun to talk to all of the members and I just felt so happy to be there! I loved being there and then after we went to President Woodburys house and we had some transfer council so all of the sister training leaders were there and we talked about each of the sister companionships and how they are doing so that was fun! It's going to be a crazy transfer this time and also next because there are so many people going home! All of the Hermanas that I came out with will go home this transfer and the English sisters next transfer-- so it is crazy! They all came out in the wave so we will have to close lots of areas and change some of the sister areas to Elders.  It is going to be a lot of work but I am excited! Then we ate dinner and headed to a Book of Mormon fireside. It was a musical fireside and the spirit was so powerful there, the missionaries all sang I'll go where you want me to go.  I loved being there and it was with the whole Stake so I got to see lots of the members from Chicago 3 and 4, but my absolute favorite part was that the Vazquez family came!! I love them so much and I was so happy to see them!! I still think and pray about them constantly and have missed them so so much but they came!! Their family just has my heart because I love them so dang much!! I want you to meet them so badly! It makes me so happy too because the missionaries there right now are amazing and they have so much love for them too, They couldn't be in better hands! I just loved seeing all of the members though!

Everything is great out here though! I love you so much Mom! Have a great day today! Oh and today we are going down to Indiana to say goodbye to all of Elder Fosters Peeps.

Here is the picture of Vazquez yesterday along with Elder Randall (left) and Drebing (right). I'm kind of butt hurt that my suit coat was crazy but it's okay!

STEVE DIAZ' BAPTISM

This week has been great but it has been so crazy!! But I do know both of those missionaries! Sister Watts is in our zone and then Elder Bowden is down south! When I was in Midway we saw him on pdays because he was serving in an English ward down there! But that's good Nate is coming over on Friday! I was just emailing him the other day! 

But this week has been pretty stressful because we have been running around like crazy! On Monday night to Tuesday night we did exchanges with our district leader and that was pretty fun! Then this week since Elder Foster goes home soon we went on exchanges with Woodstock (all the way near by Wisconsin) and so I had another missionary come down with me! Elder Foster saw some of the families that he worked with up there and they told him that they would go to church if he was there, so he stayed up there! It was great for him and the area but it was crazy because Church was so busy and I was trying to talk to everyone but there was just too many people! While that happened there were two companionships who were having some issues that they needed our help with on and then there was a big thing happening with a bunch of elders meeting up today for pday which we had to work out and change so that has been stressful!

But while all of that happened we still had a great week! On Saturday we went down south to a baptism! It was for Steve Diaz! His family was one we worked with a ton in Midway and we reactivated his family and then he just got baptized! I am so happy for him and the baptism was great! Their family is so amazing and it is always hard to say good bye to them even though we only saw them for about an hour!  It was so great! We also passed off our amazing investigator to the sisters in the family ward! (His name is Dash and he is from Mongolia.) He is so solid and he loves the gospel! We have been working with him for about a month now and he is so excited to be baptized but we found out he is married. So it was hard but it was so great for the sisters to have that new miracle!! 

This is a 7 week transfer so we still have 2 weeks. This week is normal but next week we will be planning transfers and then the week after is transfers! It is on the 4th!

And I officially decided that I want to go to BYU. I have been trying to pray about it but I don't have too much time to think about it so I felt like every time I have prayed the Lord has said to go there. I just feel like that would be better for me so if you want to talk to Leslee Ellis and Zach and Matts parents that would be great! But I love you and I hope you have a great day! 

PRESSING FORWARD IN THE WORK

Thank you for sending the packages! I was really glad you sent them!  

Everything in this area has been amazing so far though! We had a baptism this week from the sisters in our ward with a girl whose name is Ola. She is from Nigeria and she is so amazing! She is super quiet but she loves the gospel! Her whole family are members of the church but she was the last one to come over to the United States so she just started learning and she is great! The baptism was so powerful! Then on Sunday after church we had one of our investigators whose name is Jacki and she is progressing so well! She has been coming to church for a while and has always been a little up and down but ever since Elder Foster and I have been together she has been on fire! She loves the gospel and has so many big goals for the church and for her life in general! She is an event planner so when she is working she is always super busy and crazy but she has had a little break for the holidays and she set one of her goals for this year as becoming a member of the church! She said she wants to get baptized before Elder Foster goes home! She has a friend/boyfriend (we are not sure what they are) who just recently got reactivated and they are progressing so well! I love them so much and am so excited for them!

But I have been speaking quite a bit of spanish! Last night we ate with our neighbors who are members in the spanish ward here and it was great! The guy Oliver spoke English so we would just translate for Elder Foster and also Oliver's sister who is married and has two kids. Also we still see a bunch of Hispanics out on the streets for example today we met an amazing lady at the lavanderia, I forgot the word in English but where we wash clothes.  Her name was Maria and we just started talking and she was just an old little lady and she was interested but when we were getting her information she had to bring her daughter over because she didn't know it exactly! I have grown to love the Hispanics here so much though so every time I see them I just fall all over them! 

The new ward is honestly amazing though! The people are all so kind and they love missionary work and the missionaries! We are just pressing forward in the work!

But Sophia Heiner is so young mom! She will still be in high school when I am home! And for your talk I love the healing power of the atonement but honestly any way you go with it will be powerful!

But thank you for everything you do mom! I love you more than anything! Honestly the reason why I love so many members out here is because so many of them love me just like you do and I am so grateful for that! Have a great day!

Thanks! And also can you send out that calendar please?

Elder Garrett Eichers

Illinois Chicago Mission

This was me faking asleep the other day:

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...