ZONE HALLOWEEN ACTIVITY

This week has been great! Thank you so much for the packages! I am so grateful for you sending them it always makes my day! I haven't seen the one for Rojas yet but hopefully it will come today! 

We had a lot of great things happen right this week like today we are having a zone activity and we played a game called quittage like from Harry Potter and we did basketball while on broom sticks and the hoops were way up high! Then we carved pumpkins and we did Apple smashing today! I am exhausted but it is so much fun! We have been having lots of success but I will write you a written letter this week because I honestly have no energy right now! I love you more than anything and you truly are the best mom! I am so grateful for everything you do and seeing all of the people and families out here it makes me so grateful for the situation I have! Also, tell grandma that I love her and I am thinking about her! Also tell grandma and grandpa E that I love them too! I love you more than anything mom and thank you again for the packages! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

IT'S A GIRL!

This week has been great! Hermana Rojas had her baby this morning at 3!! Their baby is so cute we went and saw her this morning and she is tiny!! Her name is Mireya Isabella Rojas! Last night we were having a lesson with them and she gave us some of the food that she had made earlier and after we could tell that she was breathing pretty hard and then she went during the night to the hospital!! We have no time so I will try to email later but I probably won't have time! I love you more than anything though mom! You are amazing!

And also Hermana Rojas was talking about this candy that she loves that is from Utah that are called Utah Truffles. They used to sell them in the temple store! But please can you find a bunch of them for their family! Also if you want to send her something for her and the daughter do it! The moms name is Mireya Rojas and the daughter goes by Isabella Rojas!

A BUNCH OF NORMAL STUFF

This week has been pretty good so far! We haven't gotten the package yet but hopefully soon we will get it! And I haven't met Liz yet, where is she in Chicago because I would have to search for her because we only have Spanish wards in our building so we are not in contact with a lot of the English members. That's so great too that Amy is coming home from her mission! I feel like she just left!

This week was great though but there have been some crazy things that have happened! Our area and our ward are progressing so fast! We have a bunch of investigators in our area that we are working with that are close to being baptized they just need some more time so there are big hopes for this coming month! We have this new investigator who is 17 and her name is Eli and she came to church this week and we were so excited! The young women were so great with her and brought her right into their class and it was great! She is so funny but it is so sad because her parents are having tons of problems right now and she is in the middle of it so it has been rough for her but she said one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard and we know that the Lord is blessing her! Then on Sunday we have been teaching a family and the youngest son went into the mental hospital and so we went and taught him and it was a pretty weird experience. The only visiting hours were right during church so we had to miss our two classes and we made it back just in time for sacrament!!

Also, this week we were on exchanges with the APs and I went up to their area so we were in the Lake Shore YSA so we were right near the city on the north side and it was so much fun! It was so different though because it was the first time in forever that we haven't had a dinner appointment! But we went out to dinner and we were eating and my companion at that time walked in the bathroom and he brought his iPad in there and then there was this super shady guy who walked in after him. You know he is shady when you feel scared around him and you're living in the south side of Chicago hahahaha. Anyways he walked in the bathroom after him and he saw the iPad and basically just took off because he found the iPad. The other elder remembered literally 30 seconds after he had gotten out of the bathroom but the guy had just walked out of there. He had stolen it so fast! I felt so bad for the other elder! So we were pretty bummed but we went and contacted and we got shut down by like 90 people on the train and the last one we met was amazing! She was talking about how she had something tragic happen recently and she has been praying for something in this last week and I straight up told her that God was answering her prayer right in that minute! I felt like such a boss saying that! We had so much happen that day and so it was a miracle that we got on that train because if we would have had the iPad we would have been somewhere else.

Nothing funny though happened this week though sadly, just a bunch of normal stuff!

ROUGH PASTS

I am so sorry to hear about Jo Rose, that makes me so sad to hear. I remember always going up there and swimming and then after playing play station in their basement.  But this just makes the gospel that much more important, that they can all know they will see her again.

That is great too that you went to DC. It looks like you had so much fun there and loved every minute of it!  Conference was great this year too! I felt like this year it was so direct and so simple for everyone to hear and to learn.

But this week we have seen some pretty great miracles, we started teaching this young couple who has had some of the hardest challenges in their life.  The wife has gone through lots of domestic violence problems throughout her life and her family has struggled from it for years. Now she is with her new boyfriend and they are about to have a baby. The boyfriend used to be a gangbanger but now he is trying to clean up his life. They talk about all of their friends and cousins that have died out on the streets so the plan of salvation and also repentance has been helping them so much.  He is even starting to get his tattoos removed because if he goes outside a lot of people will recognize him and the tats and they will try to hurt him. Anyways we got him a white shirt and tie and we have been teaching them.  They came yesterday to conference and they have also come to members homes with us to family home evenings and we promised him that if he came to the family home evening with us although it is someone else’s turf that we would all be safe.  They are progressing so well right now and they asked us about the marriage and the baptism deal and they were willing so right now we are trying to work on that.  I am so excited because that was always my dream to convert someone with a rough past ever since I heard Chicago.  They truly are children of God and I love that they don't have to focus on the things of the past.

I love you all so much and I hope that you have a great day!

FUNERAL SERVICES

It's great to hear that you are doing well! This week has been crazy here though! We have been running around all day every day and I am so tired today!

This Thursday we had a funeral that we had to run so it has been crazy! So last week our recent convert Silverio died and all of his family is Catholic but we were talking about setting up the funeral and everything so we offered that they could do it at the church. All of the main family was like oh yeah that is perfect and then the daughter in law who doesn't live there but was running it was talking to the lady at the funeral home who was also catholic and then they were talking a about the tradition. So in the end they ended up doing the viewing at the funeral home and then mass at the Catholic Church and then the meeting in our church. We were worried because we thought they were just going to do it all catholic and then Elder Perez and I just look at each other and we were like speak now or forever hold your peace. So in the end it was all good because we had an amazing service and after all of the family and friends were talking about how much they loved the service at our church. Also, part of their family just came in from Mexico and they hadn't seen them for 14 years and it was the 6 year olds birthday so we brought her over a little bag of goodies and a card and they loved it. It's sad that the recent convert had to die but the work is rolling in their house so we are excited. 

Also a funny story, we got our eyebrows threaded today ;) sorry I have no time, I love you though! 

THE LORD HAS A PLAN FOR US

That's amazing that you went to the temple re dedication. It is such a blessing to have so many temples within access of our house! That's so crazy that Daniel and Mark are already leaving! It's so crazy to think how fast time is going!

But this week has been full of blessings but it's been crazy! So we have a recent convert named Silverio Mendoza who we have been working with quite a bit lately who just died this last Friday.  We were so sad to hear it but we know that the Lord has everything planned for him. We were talking about how he was baptized and then the Lord was like I need my son back right now because he is too important. We gave him the sacrament in his house last week too so he went out perfectly clean. It was sad but we know the Lord has his ways and now it's opening up lots of missionary opportunity with the family. We love that family so much!

Sorry that it has taken me forever to email you today it's just that one of the missionaries in our zone cut his hand really bad today so we had to go and pick him up and take him to the hospital so we have been running around all day helping with that. But everything is great here! Just enjoying and taking things day by day! Love you mom!

OUR AREA IS LITERALLY ON FIRE!

Yes we got our packages and thank you so much for sending them!

Being a zone leader is great though, I love being able to serve with all of the other missionaries! Don't make it a big deal though to other people, all of us are missionaries working together so I don't want people to just be thinking zone leader all of the time because that's not what it's all about! But I love being able to be with all of these great missionaries, our zone is truly amazing and progressing so much! Our area is literally on fire! We are having so much success here it's amazing! We still haven't baptized but I have never felt better as a missionary! We are teaching so many less actives and recent converts right now and our ward is becoming so strong! I feel like the area was set up perfectly for me to come into!  A few members just recently were reactivated and there are more that are so close to coming back! There are a few families who are working towards the temple in our area like the Romero family and we are excited for that! We are teaching so much in this area so I am excited! We are still working on finding new people but they will come soon!

The weather though here is freezing though already! The other day it was 46 degrees when we were driving home, I heard the winter here is supposed to be a freezing one too!

But funny story of the week was that this week we are helping the Rojas move some furniture and my companion bent down to lift it up and his pants shredded down the middle! I was crying I was laughing so hard and I was already bending down so I just fell down laughing!

Also this week the Puentes family came down and took us out to dinner so that was so much fun! Anyways it was a great week!   Below is the Rojas boy that lives downstairs.   And it's so funny because he is scared of cake!  It's the funniest thing!