July 23, 2008

So now since I'm here, we do email at this photo business that this family runs, and we can do it for as long as we want. They also let us do our laundary here and use their soap. So we can instant message and email each other for as long as we want on Wednesdays.
Yeah the baptism was great, and the cool thing about this one is it is one that we found, not one that was already being taught when I got here. So this is a complete one, and he's got a famous name. It was cool my comp did the baptism. He was really stiff going down into the water, for a second I thought he was going to start flailing. I got to do the Confirmation and holy ghost, and his first blessing in Sacrament meeting. I was so nervous, but a couple of people said it was a beautiful blessing and Bill said "thanks for all the blessings you poured out on me." At the baptism there was maybe 10 people including us and Bill, so my comp had it easy, he only has to say a short thing, mine is a lot longer. So I got up to do the Confirmation and I was nervous. I had a couple of ideas of things that I wanted to say, but that was it. Then things started to come to me, it was really cool. OH and Bill asked me to give a talk at his baptism also... anything else I can do!! It went well though, I don't mind talking. It was a cool experience to see him baptized. The Lord truly does bless us. It is the Spirit that converts people not me, not missionaries, not anyone. It's the Spirit that works through us. We are just the instruments, the sweat and the marrow. If you put for the work and the effort and strive to be obedient then the Spirit can work through you and the Lord can bless you. This is not my baptism, remember that, this is the Lord's, this is the result of the Spirit working through a humble soul that has been prepared by the Lord, and I am so grateful to have been a part of it. I look forward to continuing to harvest this white field.

Oh so you wanted to know about my comp running with me. He has rode his bike along once before, but since he got hit by the car his leg acts up a lot and he has tried to run a couple times but has stopped completely now for 2 weeks or so. When we were running before, I would run and then as I would get ahead of him a block or so I would then run back till I was a block behind him and then turn around and do it again. Back and forth while he ran at his pace. Then I had to just run in the alley behind our apartment, back and forth, while he did push ups and sit ups, and a couple of times I don't even think he came out, but whatever. The other thing you wanted to know about the zones and districts. So in a district you have missionary companionships. In ours there are 4 companionships (8 elders). We have district meeting every monday. Then every so often like two or three weeks you have Zone meeting. A zone is composed of a couple districts, and there are zone and district leaders. See how it's like scouts ( ie. patrols make up troops). The Zone Conference we had was actually for the whole mission, they do that twice a year, the next one is at Christmas, and they hold a talent show. Hope that makes sense.

I got the Pexton's letter, that was great. I also got the Girl's letters, (2 of them) I was surprised no techna.. techno.. technilojikal... technological things. No I'm just kidding they were great. I had no idea that they looked up to me, and admired what I was doing. It was cool to hear from them and what they thought about what I was doing. I want to try and write them back. Oh and thank you so much for the cook book. That is so cool!! I'll keep my eyes open for the bar and the pictures.

That's way cool spencer, that you're working on your Eagle. I remember those scouting days. I miss em'. I want to know what your project is and I want pictures of the project and ceremony. Man I miss doing scouts, I remember getting my Eagle. Now that I think about it even though I didn't always want to go on a mission the Lord was preparing me. Hurry up and get it done ya hoser, don't slip up like the Garcia boys. You better have it before the next transfer. (That's 6 weeks)

Josh sounds like you're having fun... That's a bummer dude about your AP art, but don't sweat it. You're ok in my book. Congrats on the EMT thing to, come to Chicago you could get a job no sweat. There's ambulances driving around all over town. It's crazy how many we hear and see. You know you could probably just stand on a corner and help people. So yeah plenty of work that way here in Chicago. Check out the tight pictures that I just sent yesterday of Cabrini Greene. It's a ghetto here in Chicago. Then go watch "Hardball" because that's the ghetto that is in that movie. They are tearing part of it down now though. So yeah you should see some pictures soon. Hey and T-Bone you should probably go to The young single adults class, why don't you want to go. It's awesome. They are probably some of the coolest teachers and people I have ever met. I mean we went to "The Roof" for an activity for pete's sake.

OK so anyway I've been holding off on yah here it is- I got transfered!! We had a great last P-day in Chicago last week though. We took the L-train into the City with our bikes and I saw the United Center and the Michael Jordan Statue, Wrigley Field-which was way cool because there's these two cool statues. One of Ernie Banks and the other I forgot of this famous announcer guy. There's pictures coming for ya. We saw these Water columns with faces on them, Cabrine Greene- a pretty hard core ghetto area, We went to this North Face store in the bottom of the Hancock building and I tried on the nicest coat they had. It's this big down coat with fur lining. It's $300, I tried in on in the store and took a picture. Look for it in the pics I sent. Riding bikes around town and under these huge dark overpasses, I felt like the Dark Knight on my black bike. We rode home for most of the way on the Lake Shore Bike path. It has such an awesome view and was really cool. We actually rod our bikes all the way home, it was a long ride, but really cool. Only part of it was on the bike path. Got some great pictures here. It was cool. You deffinately will have to come and see Chicago, your mouth will hit the floor. So they transfered both me and my companion out of the area to bring in sisters, because one of them can speak polish, and there's a ton of Polish people in our area. So we both got moved. I am in Beloit, Wisconsin. I don't know much about the area yet because I just got here. We have a car though, so that will be different. My companion is Elder Glauser from Tuscon, Arizona. The apartment we are in is nowhere near as nice. The kitchen is tiny, and everything is old. There is a weight bench in there though. My companion is going to try and get a bike so that we can bike also and save miles, so that will be fun still. It's going to be different. My comp says that here the members are awesome and it's just us two missionaries in the ward so you have a dinner appointment almost every night. Our first is tonight. He's only been here in the area a week, so we are both kinda new. You see the members in Chicago aren't as wealthy and it's hard to feed the 8 of us that were in the ward, plus there's tons of less actives, somewhere in the hundreds. So having dinner appointments will be something different. I like having a nice family setting.

Anyway so Bill Murry, the guy we baptized, wanted to take us out to lunch before transfers, just in case we ended up getting transferred. He is a court clerk, but said that he wanted to take us some place nice. We went to Fogo De Chao, (I got you, Dad, a couple boxes of matches cuz I know you collect them.) It's a Brazilian steakhouse, like Rodizio, except no pineapple. It's like $32 a plate for lunch, dinner's more. It was awesome. Fillet mignon, garlic beef, chicken leg (so tender and juicy), and fried bananas were my favorite. It was a really cool environment, and it was downtown, so we got to see the city again. They just bring around huge scewers of meat, it was awesome. the bill was like $108 for the three of us, I almost died. We got a cool picture of us downtown together. Bill was like, "Do you guys have to go back to work today, I wish this day would never end." So we found out that we were getting transfered monday morning and that's when we went to lunch and we told Bill. He was hoping that we would stick around since he just got to know us. YOu could tell he was going to miss us, but he said he couldn't be selfish because this was our missions. He also said how most of the friendships that he had been in he had not ended up changing but this one he had. He said we had had a good influence on him. It made me feel good and it touched me. I had changed someone's life and had made a lifelong friend. We told him that we could still write to him and keep in touch. We went and visited him on tuesday and we have started to plan when he will come to Utah to go to conference and go to the temple with us. He's getting the Aaronic Priesthood this Sunday too!! I'll deffinately come back and visit after my mission. I've got a ton of pictures of all this coming to you. We also gave this guy a blessing tuesday, that had been shot 5 times a year or so ago. Had survived it but had basically no intestines and everything had to drain into a bag. He was going into surgery in the next couple days with a fifty fifty chance of living. They are going to splice in cow intestines. I think how it happened was there was a robbery going on and he was walking by and so they shot him up. Chicago is crazy.
Monday and yesterday was a lot of cleaning, because Sisters are moving in and they're getting whitewashed in (All new missionaries in an area.) Lot's of cleaning an packing like a mad man. Then Bro. Mark took our luggage down to the church and took us out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. I had this awesome salmon and shrimp. Then we had Eli's Cheesecake at his house since we didn't know if we'd see him again. Eli's is a Chicago cheesecake favorite. Oh and I think it was Saturday he took us with his son Kendall to Grazia's. It's a really cool italian place, great atmosphere. I had the most fantastic fettuccini alfredo. This tab was like $74. Kendall is awesome. So that's my week and the end of Chicago and the City for me. I'm kinda bummed, but "I'll go where you want me to go dear lord..." This area I think will be cool and I am anxious to get to work. It's the only area in Wisconsin. Goodbye city, goodbye huge buildings, goodby crazy drivers. Write me, and I love you all.

Hey Devin,
Congratulations on your first baptism! To get one so early is really great. I'm glad you are having such a great experience in Chicago. It's really a neat place. If you get a chance, go to see the Museum of Science and Industry. I saw it when I visited Chicago in 1958. What a great place it is. There are huge displays of things like mines, planes and other full size exhibits. Hope you can go. Keep up writing the funny and informative e-mails. They are a hoot!
Love ya'
Granny