NINO

Hola mamacita!

Everything is going great here right now! But I am happy that you are helping get everything set up for Grandma and Grandpa so they feel more at home. I am so sorry that he fell and got cut up! That is so sad!  I am glad that that you are helping out that missionary! That will help him so much and get him started out on the right foot! Having him just feel happy and feel loved is the best thing that you can do for him because he is so far away from home! Thank you for sending me all of that stuff though! I haven't gotten it yet but I bet it is arriving to the mission office today so I will get it when the zone leaders go over there and get all of the stuff!

[Answers to the Mom’s many questions]: I think I will get my light gray suit done for sure though because I haven't dry cleaned it since I have been out :) We don't need a nutribullet though! We have something similar it is just like a blender but instead of the huge pitcher part it is just a water bottle so we use that some times! But the grocery stores here are all great! They have a big Jewel-Osco that is like Smiths but we don't normally go there, but we always go to Aldis that is cheaper and has great stuff so that is where we always go! The apartment definitely needs some work but everything is great here, it gets the job done! But I don't really know a lot of the people in the apartment around me too well but we are starting to talk to them a little more. The area is super safe though again! We have 0 problems here (kind of sucks). The Spanish is getting much better too but I still have tons of work. It is getting a little warmer like it was in the 50s once this week and it felt like we were at the beach! It keeps randomly snowing though so we never know here, but it is getting better! I love Spencer though! Just change him into a bengal with the orange!

Everything this week has been good but pretty hard. We only taught one lesson and we are struggling to find people to teach but we are working hard to find more people! We have been talking to everyone. Although it is hard I love it more than anything! I am so happy to be here and to be working in the Lord’s Vineyard! The people that we found on the bus last week we have to give up because only part of them speak Spanish.

But I have gotten some letters from Dad and some from grandma that have gone straight to the new house! I also wanted to thank you for sending me those talks you used to teach about the atonement! I love them so much and I have been thinking about them and praying! I love the one about how we have to work to change our circumstances; we can't just pray and expect everything to be okay! I also love the talk where Holland talks about coming unto Christ and how we do that! I am actually going to use those to teach district meeting this week because it is so important for our investigators to know and also for us just as people in general.

Something funny that happens here is literally everyone here think I look so young.  Yesterday at church the Hermanas in our ward got a less active member to come to church and I bore my testimony because all the new missionaries had to do it, but after she was talking to me and she was like how old are you and said that I looked like her son in law.   The hermanas were in an appointment with her after church and she showed them a picture of the son in law and she was like he looks like the niño.

I love it here so much though and I am just happy to be able to feel the Lord’s love every day! I know this gospel is true and I know I am called here to Chicago for a reason! The pictures are from a store that we have close to our house that sells live poultry. I am going to try and send a video that was us doing MTV cribs in one of the houses here. I wouldn't put that video up on the blog because I don’t want someone to see it and be like hey that’s my house! But I hope you have a great day! lOve you all.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Happy St Patrick’s Day to you too! But I am happy you talked to Dan! I haven't heard anything from him but I think I will email him soon! And the baseball stuff seems fun - I miss it so much! We walked into sports authority last week and I saw all of the baseball stuff and I am not going to lie it was kind of hard to see. How is the team doing and everything then? Have they played any games yet? But we have a lot of places around here to eat and everything so that is good but we don't really have a ton of money to eat there so most of the time it is just at home or with the members.  I love the picture with Dad and Debbie though! I love their whole family so much and I love the picture with Austin too! How has he been doing lately? I love him and miss him so much too! But we live on the second floor so I think you can just put #2 on it.  But thank you for sending me the package! I loved it and Elder Martinez and I are wearing the green ties right now!

But this week has been great but it has been pretty hard. The missionary who was with Elder Martinez before had been here for almost 8 months so last transfer he was just sick of working and wouldn't do that much, so these last two weeks we have been contacting a lot trying to find new people because we don't have any investigators. We have been working some miracles though! Last Monday we were going to make one last visit to try and see someone and while we were there these two girls and one of their boyfriends and yelled at us and asked if we were Mormons so we started talking to them a little bit more about what we do and then we told them a little about the restoration and we got their numbers to come back.  We ended up taking the bus with them because we were contacting them but the bus came and after we got off we met the other girl’s boyfriend and they were all interested! So we went back and taught them on Saturday and we had a great lesson with them and we invited them to be baptized after and almost all of them said yes! The girls also had two little sisters there in the lesson! We are so excited and they are so legit but the only problem is they speak English.  Their mom speaks Spanish and so we are hoping we can still teach them but we will most likely have to give them up.  It was such a miracle because they were so willing to listen! Also, we had a less active member, Linda, come to church yesterday and when she walked in it was one of the happiest moments of my life! She is so funny and she is the one that yelled we scared her last week and always calls me baby face, but she came!! I honestly was so happy and had the biggest smile on my face! This area is hard because we have to find everyone but I love it more than anything!

Oh and another funny story is that we have one kind of half investigator who Elder Martinez has met like 3 times and every time this man will let them in but would never let them teach or anything but we went and visited him and he was giving us food and everything and then he went to the door and we knew he wouldn't let us teach him right away but they had never gotten him to do anything and he came back and I bore testimony just about prayer and how it could help him he agreed right away. They never could get him to but I got him to so easily! I feel like that is one of the reasons why I am in this area because it was just like things clicked in his mind! I also have seen a few people that I met in my last area that were referrals from out of the ward and I swear they all live in my new area! It is truly amazing and I know that The Lord was the one who is working in this mission because President Woodbury is so in tune with the Spirit! My testimony is growing so much and I really love this gospel! I love you so much though and I hope everything keeps going great!

5916 FULLERTON, CHICAGO

[I goggled his 5916 Fullerton address and got this picture of his apartment  -- it's amazing what you can find and see on the internet!]

Oh I am so glad that you got the package and that everything was still there! But I am not sure if we will be able to go downtown for St. Patricks day because they might change our pday because it will be crazy but I really want to go!! We are going to ask president this week for permission to go down there! I thought that you would love the journal though! But that is so fun that you all went down on a girls trip! I miss St. George so much!

But this week has been great! I love my new companion! We are working so well together and I love our new area! His name is Elder Martinez and he is from Arizona! We are already great friends! We actually live in our area this time too so that has made everything a lot easier! My first district meeting this week was a little awkward because I didn't really know what I was doing! All they really told me what to do was they gave me a binder to put the numbers in and then that’s it.  It has one page of instructions which doesn’t explain anything really. But I love having the opportunity to serve the people in my district and ward! The new ward is great though! The members are so funny here! We have a less active named Linda who we were talking to her son and then he let us in and she walked out and just like yelled "Elderes, me asustaste!!!" meaning we scared her and she kept calling me baby face. I was laughing so hard and I love it in this area! We meet in the Foster building which is on Foster and Pulaski if you look that up but it hard because it takes us about an hour to get there by bus so it is hard to get investigators there. Our area is struggling a little right now so we are really working hard to pick everything up! Our house smells pretty bad though and I think it is from the heater so that is kind of weird but after you are in there for a minute it stops smelling. Everything is going great though and it is like 50 degrees today and it feels amazing! Yesterday it was like 35 and then it just jumped! These last two days have been so warm compared to the rest!

My address is 5916 w Fullerton, Chicago IL 60639. Send packages and everything to the mission office because it is an apartment so its not great for that but you can send letters straight here! I love it here though and all of the people! I am just happy for a change! I was wondering if you could maybe send me some more preworkout though? But I love you mom and I am so happy you are happy! I love you more than anything!

NEW COMPANION, NEW AREA

This week has been so great! But for transfers, I am going to Chicago 4^th ward which is the ward just west of us. I am going to still be in the same zone and my new area is actually touching my area I am in right now! But I also am going to serve as district leader there! The ward was part of our ward but it split like 10 years ago so all of the members know each other!  I don't know if Eric served here before it split! I will be serving with Elder Martinez. I know him already and he is super nice and so I am so excited!

But Jesus wasn't baptized this week. We got his interview done and

everything with the President on Saturday morning and so we were way excited and we were like yes everything is working out! Then we had the program all done and everything and at like 5:30 (the baptism was at 7) he sent us a text and was like oh I cant come today.. Then we tried texting him and called but he didn't answer.   We called the member who has been doing everything with him and he talked to him and he said Jesus’ problem was he didn't have a towel and that was why. So we were way relieved! Then he texted us like an hour later and he said he was going to a movie and he didn't want to be baptized any more.  So anyways he didn't get baptized but he thought it was okay because he said since it was a church movie he was fine.  We then taught him yesterday and he just has ideas in his mind and wont let them go.  But he said for sure in 2 weeks so he will be baptized soon! But there was another investigator who was baptized in our ward that day so that was amazing!

I took some pictures though! The one where we are all standing with a family is the Family Rubalcava who we live with! They are so amazing and they have done so much for me! Then the second family where we are sitting on the couch is the family Perugachi! The smallest boy Yaury is the funniest kid I have ever met. He loves wrestling so he always waves in front of his face and yells you cant see me. Then one day him and his older brother Denny were wrestling on the bed and Yaury jumped up and double kicked him and since Yaury is so small his kick just like bounced off and he almost shot off the bed! I love their family so much.