"smoked again" 3/23/2011

Hola!

 

      Well this week has had some ups and downs. For downs, Humberto, who was planning on getting baptized this saturday, gave in and smoked again. When we went to visit him, we knew something was wrong right away. We could tell something was bothering him but he was avoiding telling us. I couldn't concentrate on the lesson the whole time, but the questions to ask him came into my mind and we finally figured it out. He was a little sad about it, but we decided to move his date into April so he could have more time to quit. Also, If anyone has any ideas about helping people quit smoking let me know...

 

      The spanish Elders in our branch had an "uh oh" moment this week when they went to visit a reference that they received. It was a reference given from a man who is listening to the missionaries in Wisconsin. Apparently she was so ready to hear the gospel that she decided on a baptismal date in April in the first visit. A few hours later though they realized that she was in our area. So the other person we have on date is named Victoria and we haven't even met her yet. I look forward to it though! I'm still not sure how they didn't realize before hand because its along the opposite border of our area... they were pretty bummed about it. Also I was looking a little closer at the boundaries of our area and I realized that it's even bigger than I thought! We don't even have a map of all of it because it goes beyond the county line in two places (which is probably why I didn't realize it in the first place).

 

      We had quite a few lessons this week too which was cool. Yesterday we went to visit a lady named Rosa who is super excited to learn more. She was never really religious until this past summer so she doesn't really know much about the Bible even. She asks us so many questions and she is really feeling the influence of God in her life. While we were teaching her we were reading James 1:5-6 and verse 6 really had a huge impact on her; she says it was literally an answer to her prayers about something important she was trying to decide in her life. So that was pretty awesome.

 

Thats all I can think of right now so I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

 

love,

 

Hermana West

     

"decided to get married" 3/16/2011

Hola familia!

 

     We found out about transfers yesterday and I am staying here with Hna Rojas! So my address is the same and everything. I think this also means that I will be here even longer...because Hna. Rojas is going home at the end of this transfer in April, and they probably wont want to whitewash the area (put two new missionaries at the same time). I'm ok with that though (for now). It was weird hearing about the tsunami in Japan. People mention it all the time but I really have no idea what actually happened, the results, how its going now, or anything. It makes me feel out of the loop or something. The first time I heard about it was from a lady we were teaching who said she was watching the news in the middle of the night becuase she couldn't sleep. She was saying that the Tsunami was going to keep going and hit the U.S. and South America and stuff. She also kept saying things like " but I know that God wont destroy the world by water again" which made me a little nervous and have thoughts like  "just how big is this tsunami supposed to be!?". But I figured it was a bit of an exaggeration, and from what I hear it was. It's good to hear that Nelson is ok over there too.

 

      On Thursday we had an interesting surprise; Katie (who we never really thought was understanding what we we teaching her) called us and said she and her boyfriend finally decided to get married because she thinks God will bless her family more if she's not living in sin. She said they already got the marriage licence and were going to the court house later that day. It was so unexpected I thought I misheard what she said (which happens a lot in spanish). We haven't been able to teach them since though because they both got sick. We're going to try to stop by today though.

      We've had a little bit of a set back with Evila, last week she told us that she didn't feel ready for her baptism and was wondering if she could push back the date. Both Hna. Rojas and I know that she is ready (so ready that she can pretty much teach us all of the missionary lessons). We told her to pray about it. We went back a few days later, she hadn't prayed but we had a great lesson with her and uncovered some of her doubts (she says she still hold some bitterness against a few people in her life and thinks that those feelings would take away from her baptism, among other things). We asked her we could set a new date with her for the 9th of April, and she says she would pray about it and tell us next time she comes.

 

Other random observations from this week:

 

-People like to talk, a lot. Sometimes I feel like I know too much about people...haha

 

-I think the weather is finally changing to the point that you can be outside and still be alive 5 minutes later. Today is in the 50's! I hope it's here to stay (though just because I said that it will probably snow again next week or something).

 

-Little kids can be very loud and distracting. Especially when they keep throwing a ball at your face while trying to teach. They're still cute though..most of the time. haha.

 

-The sky is blue

 

Well thats all that I can think of for this week, Thanks Mom, Dad and everyone else for everything you do to support me!

 

love,

 

Hermana West

6 Month Mark! 3/9/2011

Hola Familia!

 

      So yesterday was my 6th month mark. That was weird. It means I only have a year left. It doesn't feel like I've been out that long. This week has been pretty good, things are starting to pick back up again with having lessons and finding people which is nice. We've had a few weeks with very little. We've also been able to find some of the people that disappeared almost all last month which is good. We've had some interesting lessons this week. One was with this lady named Diana, her parents, and her brother. Her Dad came in partway through and pretty much took over the conversation with a loud voice saying his opinion about one thing or another. To combat Diana also was talking in a very raised voice. It was kind of like they were fighting only they weren't really disagreeing on much. It was just a very loud conversation about receiving answers to prayers and why bad things happen in the world among other things. The other two who were listening just remained silent with looks of "here we go again" on their faces. To top it all off her son was shooting his metal toy cars off the coffee table onto the wooden floor. good times. Overall I think it went pretty well. The other interesting lesson was with a lady named Maria (at least half the women are named Maria); we were talking about the first vision and then she started telling us about the time when she thought she saw an alien when she was a kid...I had no idea how to respond but my companion handled it pretty well saying "hmm. things happen". Then moved on.

 

      Most of the people we find, it seems, progress only at a snails pace and there's nothing we can do about it. We also have quite a few who really just like to listen but that's all. I'm discovering more and more that many Mexicans associate being Catholic and being Mexican as two inseparable characteristics about themselves. Because of this we have a large number of people who believe what we are teaching them...but want to stay Catholic. We even have a few who have admitted out right that they don't want to change because leaving Catholicism is like leaving being Mexican... they also have a tendency to disappear when we bring up things like coming to church and baptism. Pero, con paciencia.

 

      We had stake conference this Sunday broadcast from Salt Lake. President Eyering, Elder Cook, Bro. Burton (presiding Bishopric), and Sister Cook (YW presidency) all spoke. I'm pretty sure it was good. It was hard to understand rapid paced Spanish with their mouths moving to the original English.

 

      This week we had kind of a cool experience with a "casual" investigator (as I like to call). She's been listening to the missionaries off and on for a year or two. It's like she's interested but against her will. Every time we find her we show up at just the right time so she knows that we're there for a reason, but her lack of religious motivation is holding her back (and not wanting to change). Two weeks ago I had the impression to stop by her (after about a month). She was a mess and so was her house because people had been there all night trying to air out her house from a carbon monoxide leak. We shared Hel 5:12 and talked about building our foundations on Christ. She liked what we shared but said she was too busy to make another appointment. This week we had the impression to stop by again so we did and she looked a little happier to see us. We talked for a little bit then shared some scriptures in 2 Nephi 2 about opposition in all things. She said the scripture was an answer to her prayer the night before where she was really frustrated with God. She was just sitting there looking like something hit her over the head. She knows that God is trying to talk to her. She told us to stop by next week.

     

      We still have Humberto and Evila who are preparing to get baptized on the 26th. Our greatest fear now is transfers on the 16th (which, by the way, is next week so probably don't send any mail directly to my apartment until then). We're both hoping we can stay here at least one more transfer.

 

      It sounds like everythings going fantastically back in WA! Mom, I'm glad your talk in stake conference went well. I'm also glad that I could be part of the reason you were asked to speak. haha. And don't worry I think you can take credit for my awesomeness =D. Thanks for everything all of you are doing to support me here! Untill next week

 

Love,

 

Hermana West

 

Most Common Excuses 3/2/2011

Hola Familia!

 

      Things are going well here in Illinois! just been doing the same thing pretty much. Finding people, them telling us to come back, them not being there (or "busy"). Yup the usual. I think I'm going to make a list of the common excuses we get when we're contacting and start keeping tally marks. So far I think the most common would be "es que estamos ocupados" (we're busy) the most general. The second most common would probably be "oh es que ahorita vamos a salir" (we're about to leave) most of the time I think they really mean that they're going to leave in 2 or 3 hours. One man we were talking to got caught by his little boy who declared "no vamos a salir todavia" (no we're not going to leave yet) after using this excuse. Sneaky sneaky. We just told him to call us then. After that the next two common excuses are probably "estoy cocinando" (I'm cooking) we get this one at any time of day and "estoy cuidando los niños" (I'm taking care of the kids) why thats a problem I'm not really sure.. 

 

      We're starting english classes in the church on thursdays. It sounds like a good idea except none of us really have any idea of how to teach english (being as I don't remember learning it myself). We have some books though and Hna. Rojas has been studying them a little while I do my language study. She also took nine years of english classes in Greece so she'll be the most help probably. Hopefully she doesn't get transferred...

 

 I gave my talk on sunday! It went pretty well I wasn't even nervous at all which was weird because even in English I usually get at least a little nervous. It was cool though. I think everyone could understand me. Hna Rojas says that I didn't make any bad mistakes so thats a plus.

 

      We're still working with Humberto on quitting smoking. He smoked one 3-4 days ago which wasn't good but he says that was the last so hopefully he means it. We finally talked to Jesús about baptism, he doesn't want to set a date with us yet but he says he will put a personal goal to get baptized in the future.  All in all though we're happy for him because its still a huge change and he says he feels a lot of peace at church. His wife Evila still seems firm in her decision to get baptized -- I think setting a date has really helped motivate her. Now she's even telling her daughter (age 4) that when she's 8 she can get baptized too.

 

      Happy birthday Dad a few days ago! I hope that everything continues to go great back in WA! I love you all! Oh and let Sister Farmer know that we've tried a few times to stop by her friend in carpentersville but we haven't been able to find her home yet.

 

Love, Hermana West

"excited about Evila and Jesús" 2/23/2011

Hi Everyone!

 

      It's been another good week here! Though it decided to drop below freezing again. Yesterday we had zone meeting and interviews which was good. We talked about the importance of teaching with the spirit and what we can do to improve in that. It was good. In my interview President Doll told me he wants me to be making most of the phone calls from now on (I don't know how he was able to figure out my weakness) because starting in the next two months or so 6 Hermanas will be leaving and I'll be one of the "veterens" as he says. My companion thinks that means I will be training soon...which is a scary thought. Also scary is the fact that understanding spanish on the phone is a bajillion times harder than in person, though it actually hasn't been as bad as I thought. I'm hoping I can have at least one more transfer as Junior companion though (less stressful). This sunday I'll be speaking in sacrament meeting on service (In spanish of course) so that'll be fun. We finally figured out the whole less-active situation with the ward and the mission president. So hopefully we don't have any more problems with that.

 

      This week we're really excited about Evila and Jesús. They both came to church again and are both even participating in the classes. We also had our first lesson with Jesus in like 2 months. We are planning to ask Jesús if he wants to be baptized too the next time we teach them. From the first time I taught Jesús to the lesson we had this week theres a huge difference. Before he was really argumentative and didn't really want to listen to us but now when he's talking to us he has this softness in his voice when he's talking about the gospel that I never would have expected before. It's neat how the spirit can work on people's hearts over time without us really doing anything. We saw him leave the church building on Sunday with a big smile on his face. We also want to try to move Evila's date up a little becuase she really is ready. The branch is really supportive of them too which is good, but also makes us sad at the same time for Humberto because they've all pretty much "given up" on him and he's also pretty quiet so he's kind of a loner at church. The last time we taught Humberto he was still going strong with the stop smoking program but he still felt really bad from the nicotine withdrawal. We'll be having another lesson today so we'll see if he's starting to feel any better.

 

      Other than that nothing really new or exciting happened. I'm feeling more comfortable in my spanish all the time which is good. Me and Hermana Rojas have been cleaning the apartment all day. Oh and we've found like 6 spiders in the past 3 days. I don't like spiders. I think it's because there are cracks in the edges of the walls and floors. not cool. Thats also where the ants get in I think. Well, I hope that everything continues to go great back home! Until next week!

 

Love,

 

Hermana West

 

      

"a little octopus on my spoon" 2/16/2011

Hola Familia!

 

      This week has been good. Finally on Saturday the weather decided to warm up a little bit. It's been around 40-45 degrees. Its such a big difference that we were thinking it would be a nice to go find a beach and get some tanning in. But we are missionaries. And theres still snow everywhere...so no. Haha. On Monday we went over to a members house to eat and she gave us something called shrimp cocktail. Its like a cold soup, It wouldn't be so bad if it really had only shrimp..but there were a bunch of different unidentified objects/creatures from the sea. I was fine until I noticed that there was a little octopus on my spoon - legs and all. It took me a few moments to recover and but I was able to eat it all. A little slimy and fishy for my taste but it didn't taste tooo bad.  

 

     Me and Hermana Rojas are still trying to stay positive even though every meeting the ward has with the missionaries is turning into a "what can we chastise the missionaries on this week" session. The past few weeks a few of the leaders in the ward have been upset at us for not doing "our part" with the less active members in the ward. "Our part" being visiting some less-active single sisters in the Elders area (which we aren't supposed to do)...we're still trying to work that one out. The ward mission leader is good though. He's usually on our side.

 

     This week was harder to find lessons than usual but we finally had more people at church! And we set a baptismal date with Evila. Every time in the past when we would ask Evila about baptism she would always say some excuse, finally last week we felt that she was finally ready to accept a date and we asked her, at first she said no again saying she wanted to learn more first but we told her that if we put a date it would add motivation to be ready by that time and she accepted the 26th of march! We were worried that she got scared though because she wasn't there at sacrament meeting when it started, but partway through the meeting she walked in with her husband Jesus- That was a surprise. He never really wants to listen to us when we teach her and he has a crazy work schedule but we are starting to see his heart soften- he was even participating in gospel principles. We are thinking we will ask him to be baptized as well the next time we find him.

 

      Humberto is still making progress quitting smoking. We started him on the 15 step program we got from the mission office and when we got to the part where it tells us to have the person crush their cigarrettes he was like "I don't have any". He had already been a few days without smoking. So I think he is finally ready and I've never seen him so determined the whole time I've been here.

 

      Well I hope everyone has a great week! I've got to get going we're going to the Temple today! Oh and Happy Birthday to Barry!

 

Love, Hermana West

"he hadn't smoked at all that day" 2/9/2011

Hola Familia!

 

       It's been another cold week. Yesterday was especially cold. We were out knocking some apartments and first the people would reject us then they would tell us that we were crazy for being outside. One lady told us that we shouldn't be out because our faces would fall off from frost bite. My face is fine though.

 

Hmmm nothing really exciting happened this week. We've been trying to figure out how to re find people which is hard. At the end of last month we realized that we found 23 new investigators in Jan and now we're trying to figure out where they went...and how to find them again...many of them are probably trying to avoid us and the rest are just super busy. Pretty much everyone tells us that they never know their work schedule because it changes all the time so we can't make appointments. When we do they don't show up. Most of them work and a majority of them work every single day. They all say they will call us when they find a time...and the total number of people who have ever called us after saying this is about 1 the whole time I've been here.

 

      But other than that it's going great here. We're still finding lessons to teach even though most of our appointments fall through. Humberto, our investigator who wants to get baptized in March, is making progress quiting smoking. We were starting to worry about him because we made an appointment with a brother from the stake who helps people quit smoking and he was 40 minutes late (and missed the appointment). So on Monday night we went to talk to him to find out if he was really serious about this and he surprised us by telling us he hadn't smoked at all that day and the day before only once. So he really is trying. He told us that he needs to, he wants to. We told him to put a goal to quit by the end of this month and he said hopefully he could in two weeks. So thats a good sign. We ordered a program from the office that we've been looking over so hopefully that will help him as well.

 

      Evila, one of the "eternal investigators" whose been listening to the missionaries for 7-8 months but not really doing anything now is making progress. She came to church 2 sundays ago and loved it. She's has seen the benefits of the gospel in her life and we know she's ready for baptism, we just now need to help her see that she's ready (because she doesn't think she is). We also think her husband is the main thing also holding her back because he isn't really religious at all and we think she's scared to do it by herself.

 

      One of the lessons we had this week that stands out a lot in my mind is Anna, a recent high school graduate who we found on Saturday. She was telling us about all of her frustrations with the catholic church and the other churches out there and how they all seem to be "fake" and hypocritical. She also told us she has doubts about God in general. We taught her about the restoration, our purpose on earth, and that the best way to find the truth is to ask God directly. The spirit was so strong. She said she would like to look more into it herself and we made another appointment for this week.  We might have to refer her to the English Elders though because her English is better than her spanish. It depends on if she's rather go to church in English or Spanish. We'll see.

 

       Wow congrats to the Mortons with their new baby! I remember finding out that they were expecting but it seems so fast. I guess I really have been out a while now...I think my perception of time in the real world is a little off. Thats also interesting that MTV's been filming a little at the church, let me know if it gets aired! Thats great the Kevin is improving so much in swimming! Congrats on getting first place in some of the races! Hope that everyone has a great week. Good luck Mom and Megan with all the hard school work!

 

love, Hermana West

"It was waist deep" 2/3/2011

Hola Familia!

 

      So hopefully you weren't worrying or anything but p-day (and transfer day) got switched to thursday this week because of the snow storm that we had. So thats why I didn't e-mail yesterday. The mission president told us not to drive anywhere from 4pm tuesday to 4pm wednesday which was good because around 3pm tuesday the weather was starting to make me really nervous while driving. It was so windy the snow was falling sideways and I kept seeing other cars slipping and sliding in directions that cars usually shouldn't (not me though because I have skills don't worry Mom). So we headed back to the apartment. It snowed a ton! I'm not sure exactly how much but probably between 2 and 3 feet. It's hard to tell because the wind made the snow fall unevenly so some spots are about waist deep and others knee deep or less. And some of the piles from clearing are taller than me. We did our weekly planning and stuff until 4 when we could leave. Luckily the management at the apartments cleared a lot of the snow from the parking lot so it wasn't too hard to get the car out. The roads were still pretty bad, I think they canceled school and a lot of businesses were closed.

 

     Most people weren't so lucky to have an apt manager to clear their driveways though. Some people were out shoveling and others hadn't even tried. Imagine waking up and finding your car trapped behind 10-20 feet of 2-3' deep snow. Not fun. I think some people even had trouble getting out of their houses depending on which way their doors were facing to the wind. When we realized the situation we both felt like we should go check on Matilde (the widow who's really into self-defense) because she's alone and no one really helps her out. And yup, we found her out there by herself shoveling snow. So we got out our two shovels that we had in the back of the car so we could help her.  She had a lot of snow too it was waist deep on me. It was so tiring! I'm glad we found her though because she's slightly OCD and I think she would have done the whole thing all by herself (including paths to her front door and to the garbage cans in the back). I think she was really touched that we came. She made us hot chocolate and we shared some scriptures from Isaiah 53 about Christ. She's super stubborn though and changed the subject to her life story and the things she hates about America... 

 

      Oh about transfers, I'm staying in Carpentersville with Hermana Rojas. So no changes. My whole district is the same too. This week the people have been as flaky as ever. I'm not sure what It is. Marisol (the one who had a baptismal date) didn't show up on Monday so we're leaving her for a while. I wish she would just talk to us though and be honest. One thing i've noticed is that the white americans are more likely to tell you straight out and slam the door in your face and the hispanics don't want to say no so they just tell you to come back at a time when they wont be home. sneaky sneaky. Some people are home though and just don't answer the door. They think they're being sneaky but we can usually tell. Like when we hear the volume of the TV drop right after we knock. hmmm. But oh well they don't have to listen if they don't want to.

 

Pictures! The first one is of my district (elder's Faamu, Lei, Chavira, Hna Rojas, me, and Elder lancaster). Elder Chavira tells us he hates pictures. The second one is of me in the snow with frozen river behind me. The third is an example of a trapped car. The fourth is Hna. Rojas and me.

 

Well I hope you all have a great week!

 

Love, Hermana West

 

Adventure in Chicago 1/26/2011

Hola familia!

 

      Wow I can't believe it's the last week of the transfer already! Both me and Hna. Rojas hope we can stay together in carpentersville. We'll find out on tuesday. Oh so after thursday or friday you probably wont want to send anything directly to my apartment just in case. It got really cold this week - down to like 3 degrees. As in 3, without another number in front of it. Though I suspect it was even colder because the temperature detector in the car is a little off sometimes. The person next to me is listening to David Archuleta really loud through his headphones and it's annoying but oh well.

 

      So last week we did end up going to Chicago! It was pretty fun, and also, because we didn't have full access to modern technology such as google maps (or even an old fashioned map), it was very adventurous. The first adventure was trying to figure out where the metra stop was. The gps lied to us and took us to a random crossing of the road and the train tracks about 10 minutes away from the actual stop. After a few phone calls and some aimless driving we finally found it. And after another 10 or 15 minutes we found a place to park. Since we didn't know the times for the trains we were joking the whole time that the train would probably come like right when we were parking or walking and then we'd have to chase it. But then thats actually what happened. Though luckily we made it on before it started moving. We were like running though haha. The train took about an hour to get there (including some delay from construction) We're like the farthest stop from the city on that line. After we got there it took us another half an hour to find the other Hermanas in our zone that we were meeting there (Hna Mackley and Summers) because none of us knew the streets. By the time we found each other we gave up on the idea to go to the science and industry museum because we figured that by the time we figured out which busses to take we'd only have like an hour or less before the museum closed. So naturally, being women in our early 20's, we started asking people how to get to the water tower mall. After walking for forever and a half we finally got there and were so frozen that we really just wanted a place inside to sit down and thaw out. So we did. Then about 20 or 30 minutes later it was time to head back. We were laughing at ourselves because we went all the way to Chicago to sit down in some chairs in the mall. BUT it was still fun just walking around the city and seeing everything. On the way back we didn't feel like walking all the way so we found the L-train underground. I also grabbed a map of the busses and l-train lines so next time we will be more organized (smart huh?). I hope that sometime in my mission I'll be able to serve in the Chicago zone so I'll be able to go to the city more often.

 

      This week has been a little bit slower because almost everyone missed their appointments and they never answer their phones either. Also we haven't been able to find Marisol since we set the date for her baptism 2 weeks ago. So we had to drop it. We finally found her at her house again yesterday. She had a look on her face of "oh no they found me!" but she still insists that she's interested and told us to come back Monday...really it would be easier if she just said no. But we'll see maybe she will actually be there this time. Though we were still able to have some really good lessons and find a few new investigators so that was good! Well I'm still doing great here! My spanish is coming along but I still have a lot to improve. I'm learning a lot in general, it's great. One thing that I've been thinking a lot about this week is just how important the members are in the missionary work. The missionaries can only do so much by themselves. The majority of the members in the branch here live in Elgin (the Elder's area) which makes it even harder for us because we never get any referals and it's harder for our investigators to get to know members so they'll feel more comfortable at church. The Elder's have some really good investigators who come and they ALL have relatives in the branch. So our goal now is to get the members more involved in the missionary work. I think a  lot of times the members can do a lot more for the work that the missionaries can.

 

Thats so crazy that Kellian and Derick got married! They weren't even dating when I left. Tell them congrats for me! Also Kevin's ice cave adventure looked way fun (and cold) I hope it was a blast!

 

Well, until next week!

 

 

Love,

 

Hermana West

 

(oh I didn't take any pictures at the city...woops. I'll be better next time :) )