So the news of transfers is in! Hermana Freeman will be transferred the the Chicago 3rd ward (which is the area that includes "the loop" - the main tourist area of Chicago). It's going to be a night and day difference from here. Especially because it's the only area for Hermanas that doesn't have a car which means they use bikes and the bus (only while it's cold). She's excited. My new companion will be Hermana Stuart who has the same time in the mission as Hermana Freeman. We'll make the switch tomorrow. Oh also next week my e-mail will be coming on Tuesday because Monday is Presidents day.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges again and Hermana De Leon came with me for the day. She's from Guatemala! She's from a different part from where Barry is serving but she said that his mission is the nicest. She just barely started her mission. It was really nice to be able to speak Spanish with her for a day. Really helpful. It's just not the same trying to speak Spanish with other people who are learning. I hope I'll be able to find a way to keep improving my Spanish after my mission.
This week we had several of our promising investigators start avoiding us - really avoiding us - like we could see them and they still didn't open the door or answer the phone when we called afterwards. It was really sad. We're not really sure why...well other than the fact that we are pretty sure they are not reading or praying. With losing more promising investigators than gaining them it's been harder to get lessons. We're going to focus a lot more on finding new investigators this coming week. I'm really hoping we can get some through member referrals because knocking doors hasn't been very fruitful lately and we're running out of old investigators that I haven't stopped by. Getting referrals though is still a challenge. They keep saying things like they have no friends, or they aren't allowed to talk about religion at work, that their friends aren't interested...the usual excuses I guess. There have been a few little miracles this week. Like finding one of our more elusive investigators at McDonalds and then her inviting us to come over afterwards, and yesterday the father-in-law of one of our investigators let us in and even though our investigators were too busy to talk to us we were able to have a nice chat with him and leave him a pamphlet that he said he would read.
Ruben and Rosa are still on with the goal of March 24th. Ruben expressed concerns about leaving behind alcohol and coffee in our last lesson. Her asked us if just a little was ok and we said no. Afterwards he said "yeah I know it's probably better if it's not at all...I feel really bad every time I give in, but I've been trying to stop." We thought that was a really good sign since it was probably about a year ago that the missionaries taught him the word of wisdom and we haven't reviewed it with him yet. The progress record says that when they taught it before he said he wouldn't follow it but apparently it stuck with him maybe a little more than even he wanted it to. haha. So the spirit has been working on him which is good! We just hope we can help him find the confidence he needs to actually break the habit!
Jose brought two of his 9 -year old granddaughters to church again. Even though we aren't able to teach them for now I think Jose bringing them to church is going to have a big positive impact on them especially because their families aren't particularly religious. They seem to like it enough to come back, so that's good!
That's great to hear the Grandma's surgery went really well. I hope the recovery process goes really smoothly!
I love you all and hope this week goes well!
Hermana West
Pictures!
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| Me in front of the cornfield next to the church. It snowed again this week (just a little) so I was able to get one with the snow. This winter has been nothing compared to last winter |
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| After exchanges this week |
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