Flipping Frio

Buenos días mis amigos y Familia!

Como han estado? Well this week was pretty awesome. A lot of awesome things happened. We really haven't gotten to teach a whole bunch of people yet, but the people we have been teaching we have made some headway with them so we are on our way up haha so but another fun thing about Chicago I wasn't mentally prepared for was cold. It's so cold here already and it's only October! This week was in the 30s and 40s and I wasn't flipping ready. The cold, wet, gale force winds off the lake literally pierce my soul and take my breath away. It's wild here. The coldest days in Texas can't even hold a candle to the extremity and depravity of degrees Fahrenheit we will face in the coming weeks.  I have a jacket and stuff so I'm prepared on that front, but it's so cold and we have another like 70 degrees to drop and I'm not ready to meet my maker yet.

Sometimes, my Spanish is super good and some days not so much. And with that comes understanding people. So we were knocking doors and I knocked on this door and this man opened the door. I said buenas tardes amd he said something back amd i didnt hewr him because he was opening the door at the same time so i said mande which is just like repeat yourself please, and elder farrer is like my gosh Tracy amd then he starts talkijg to this dude and i eventually jump in the conversation and it was good. But it turns out that this man had just said buenas tardes back and I immediately yelled back for him to repeat. Haha it was a lot funnier in person sorry y'all

We have this one investigator, Maria, and she is an older lady, but she's super sweet and loves to hear from us. But we have had a couple lessons where we taught her a bunch of material and we felt it was good at the time. But as we thought about it, we realized it might be too much for her. So we just read and talked about the Book of Mormon and explained things and answered questions as she had them. We ended with Moroni 10:3-5 and explained Moronis promise to her and I could tell that it was starting to click for her. We invited her to just read. As much or as little as she can. And for her to then pray, in the name of Christ, to know if these things are true. We promised her that she would recieve something from God if she does what she needs to. I could feel the spirit so strong in her little living room as we testified of it all to her. I could feel gods love for her and for us.

So with that, I want to give a brief summary of what I've learned from my mission about God and his Everlasting Gospel. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and contains the fu illness of the everlasting love of God. With that, I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and he restored the plain and precious truths of God to the Earth. I know that God is infinitely aware of each and everyone of us and is directing our paths everyday. I know the Church is true and contains a all the happiness and joy I will ever find in my life.

Stay happy y'all. I love y'all. If you have questions, send me an email at seth.tracy@myldsmail.net or a message through Facebook because my mission is now allowed to teach people back home so if y'all want to know more let me know!

As always,

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS
Here I am with a nice looking tree with some fall colors!
OUr ward had a talent show and so we helped set up for it and it was super fun!
Finally, at new missionary training last week, I took this photo with some homies from the MTC that we know (from left) Elders Anderson, Moser, English and Tracy all Spanish speaking!

Good times, good times

Buenos días mis amigos y Familia de la Villita!

 So this week was pretty great! Elder Farrer and am have been working really hard to try and continue to find people to teach! And it's working pretty well! This past week, we had met a bunch of cool people knocking doors and as things happen, we had a couple of people invite us back later this week! It was awesome! Only two of the appointments actually followed through, but it was awesome none the less. We have been also trying to contact some less active families and we have gotten in with several of them and simply tried to become friends with them, express our love and gods love for them, and invite them to church again. Something I have found out about missionary work is that it's not a numbers game. Yes numbers are important at the end of the week, but what's more important is finding in yourself that Christ like love for people here. Whether it be after someone tells you off for "recruiting people to create an institution and not a church" or people literally getting up off the park bench and walking away disgusted when you try and greet them, (both of which have happened) we as missionaries and people in society must have love for one another. And as we do, we can see the importance of that great commandment given nearly two thousand years ago.

So here's a fun experience we had this week, on Tuesday, we were out knocking doors in the afternoon after people had gotten home from school and work. And we we were working our way down this street, there were some young kids probably about ages 6 - 10 on the other side of the street. And as we walked past them, they began yelling at us in english and cussing us out and kept being all big and bad as much as a 8 year old kid can. As we continue down the street, we realize they are following us on the other side of the street. Not a big deal they are like 8. But then, they start throwing rocks and glass bottles and other assorted projectiles at us as we are talking to this old guy in his doorway! And so we finish up there and we just turn around and face these kids and just stand there and watch. As we did they, they all kinda ran away except for one kid who was behind a tree on our side of the street. Eventually he peeked out, saw us and ran hahah. But just dumb kids trying to kill us. But thats just our area.

So but this week was filled with meetings. We had new missionary training again because Elder Farrer and I are both still greenies! And it was amazing! President Bingham is literally a wizard with the scriptures. He will start talking about something and then he will stop mid sentence and say turn to Ether or something crazy. He's amazing. I felt the Spirit testifying to me telling me what he was saying was true. We also had Stake Conference. Which was a blast and a half. The talks were so good anni learned so much. Oh and that family that elder Garcia and I found are getting baptised on the 4th of November and Elder Garcia volunteered me to play a duet with Lilia, the mother of the family on the mandolin. So I have some practicing to do. To say the least.

But things are awesome. I have had so many testimony building experiences this week. For one, for those of you who don't know, my grandparents are not doing super well right now. They are getting better little by little. But I do know that families can be together forever and that I will see them again, no matter what happens to them or me in these next two years. I have no fear. God is here and will provide a way for us. I know the church is true. I know we have a prophet, called of God, to lead and guide Gods children here on the earth. I know the book of Mormon is true, and I could never deny it. I love you all.

As always,

Elder Tracy

A Wet and Wild Week

Hello all my dearest friends and family!

This week has been a crazy ride. We have done a lot of work. But it has been raining super hard and cold this week. So it's been super fun!

We have just been contacting people really because we don't really have investigators. We have three 'investigators' but they are these super flakey and hard to find. For example, one of them Betty, sells tamales on the weekends in the mornings and we called her and she said that we could come and find here. We said ok and she told us a time and a place. We go there and she is no where to be found. So we call her and she doesn't answer and we stop by her house and no one is home. So. That was good. So we are trying to find people interested in learning about our message! It's really hard because a lot of these people think we are the police and scurry away from us and one lady said she doesn't want to go to a white church, to which we explained that our congregation is almost all Mexican and she said she didn't believe us and walked off. So good week for that. Also the rain makes it easy to knock doors because everyone is inside their house! We we have had some success with that. I don't know exactly. Hopefully next week I can report about how many people we have found.

Adam and Lilia, the people Elder Garcia and I found in the street about 6 weeks ago, have both agreed to be baptized and they are on date for the 28th! I'm so excited for them even though I am no longer in their ward nor area! I'm so glad they are taking that step toward salvation!

Since Elder Farrer and I have only been out for two months now, we are having to just throw ourselves out there and convey our messages as best we can. Our Spanish is actually pretty decent and we can communicate pretty decently with the people here it's pretty awesokme. We are just waiting on people to be a little bit interested!

But things are pretty good here. I'm really loving Chicago and the South Side because it's the place to be. Everyonenhere freaks out whennthey see elder farrer or I speaking spanish and its awesome. Bht everyone thinks we are the police so they are hesitant to talk to us...  but it's all good. I also LOVE the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all the blessingsnthat come along with it. I am so eager to share this message with people here if they listen haha. I love y'all and hope you're doijng okay! Next week I hope to habe more to talk about!

As always

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS
Here are some *quality* photos of me on last p day when we went to the Field Museum and downtown a little! I'll make sure To send some more next week!

So. I. Fell.

Hey y'all!

So this week was pretty eventful to say the least. It was transfer week!

So I received a new companion this week and a new ward assignment! I left Elder Garcia and Midway Ward and im now with Elder Farrer in Chicago Second Ward!  Elder Farrer is super cool and and super fun! He is St. George, Utah and is a hard worker. We arrived in Chicago at the same time. A typical missionary gets 12 weeks of training. We both had 6 weeks of training. So we are like babies released into the wild. We are learning very quickly how to speak and teach haha. We have had some great experiences finding and teaching already. My apartment is pretty awesome. Others say it's the second nice at apartment in the mission. It's super clean and it has this killer kitchen and it's all around awesome. I miss the old apartment, but this one will do. But Chicago Second is a really cool area. There is this one part of our area, called the Villita with little Mexican shops and restaurants. But, yesterday alone, we heard like 14 gun shots and saw a man peeing in an alleyway. So its super lit and awesome here. I love this place. The members are pretty cool and they are willing to feed us sometimes so that's great.

So the on Thursday, we were riding back from the church to our house, and some of the other elders had left some food in our house, so they were riding with us. Our house is a solid two minute ride from the church. So we were hauling and racing to our house and we made the turn onto 31st from Pulaski. And as we are flying through the intersection turning right, the other three elders make it through fine. But I was hauling and I was gonna make this turn. So as I make the turn, I realize that I'm going too fast but it's too late--I went flying through the air. I landed and rolled onto my back and slid on my backpack for about 30 feet. I immediately popped up and got on my bike which was about 20 feet further down the road. In my fall, my bike pedal had taken the majority of the fall. So that left the pedal itself bent. The crankset was fine, but the pedal was bent. And as a result, as i pedaled, I was really unscrewing the pedal from the bike. After we had gotten about half a block down the road and thirty second later, my left pedal gave out as soon as I was pushing down on it. So my foot hit the ground, my handlebar wrenched to the right and I went over the handlebar yet again. I landed and rolled a good little bit. Needless to say, I walked the rest of the way home. It was honestly one of the funniest things I've ever done and Elder Farrer and I didn't stop laughing about it until like 11 o clock that night. It was awesome. We did get my bike all fixed up and I really only scraped up my elbows. So God is watching over me and protecting me. I feel blessed to not to have been hurt worse. My backpack took almost all the slide. And yes, I wore my helmet, like everyday. So #blessed

We have been feed some amazing authentic Mexican food almost everyday. This ranges from simple meals of rice, beans, meat and tortillas, to complex meals such as Chilis Rienos which are Chilis stuffed which cheese and meat and then cooked with a thin bread layer or something. I have eaten some of the most spicy food of my life and I have also been forced to eat far more than I thought physically possible. It's been awesome.

Things here are freaking awesome. I love the people and the Language is coming along. I can speak pretty well. A lot of the people we talk to say that we speak really well and I am really beginning to understand people nearly all the time. (If I try to listen and ask them to repeat...) We found two new investigators this week and we are hoping to find more. It's all a wonderful learning experience and I have grown as a person and as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am so excited to be able to share the gospel with these people. I know the church is true.

Love y'all and hope to hear from you! (Email me at seth.tracy@myldsmail.net)

As always,

Elder Tracy


PHOTOS;
The Crash
Thomas the Tank Engine!

Semana 12 - General Conference and Transfers

Hello hello all my friends and family!

I hope that all is well for you in all of your respective lives and wherever you may be right now! But this week was pretty good. We did a good amount of things so here we go.

On Monday, which was last p day, we went to Burlington and I bought a winter jacket! I'm so excited! I'm getting ready for winter but in the same instant I have no clue what is happening for winter...

Since this was the last week of the transfer, our Zone Leader was frantically trying to get in his exchanges he needed for the transfer. So I was on exchanges for a day wherein a taught elder Basilio how to contact people in the street and in their homes. He was absolutely clueless haha but it was a good time.

So also this weekend was amazing. We had the wonderful opportunity to watch General Conference and to hear from God's called men and women! It was AWESOME. Like my sister says, General Conference is like the Superbowl for missionaries. We all gathered together in the relief society room of the church and everyone brought food and sodas and it was a lot of food. But the main highlight was being spiritually enriched and getting a little spiritual jump start! I absolutely loved General Conference and I am so glad we were able to watch it this weekend.

So this Sunday was the night of Transfer Calls. So the Assistants to the President or the Mission President himself will call us and tell us what's happening fornthe upcoming transfer period of 6 weeks. We got back to our house a little after nine o clock and we began to wait the call out. People we texting us saying were they were off to and we were still waiting. Through al, the texting we figured out what was happening for us. At about midnight we decided that they had forgotten us and went to sleep. But moral of the story. I am leaving the Celestial Kingdom of Midway Ward and heading a little north to Chicago 2nd Ward. I will be leaving Elder Garcia in midway and he will receive 2 new greenies! I will be paired with Elder Farrer who was one of the new elders who came in with me. He and I both have only been put for 6 weeks so we are essentially training ourselves for this transfer haha it's going to be awesome I am super stoked.

One final thing. We have these investigators, Adam and Lilia, and they are amazing. But Elder Garcia told me to invite them to Baptism and Adam said yes! We have a date set up for him on the 28th of October! Lilia needs some more time but its perfectly okay. God is preparing them both, just at different rates.

I want to share my favorite thing from General Conference. Elder Hallstrom of the 70 quoted the prophet Mormon by asking "Have the days of miracles ended?" And I can tell you all that with out one single doubt, that the heavens are open and God is blessing us and giving us miracles everyday. We just need to open our eyes a little wider and look a little harder for the hand of God in our lives. He's there. He wants to help us. He will help us.

As always,

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS:
Exchange Day
New Winter Coat