A Week of Thanksgiving

Hey My Friends and family! How yall doing? I am super grateful for all yall and reading my emails hopefully haha

But this week was crazy. So many crazy things happened.

So to start, this week was full of door knocking so you already know it was crazy. We knocked on this one door and a man came out from the back and was asked what do you want? And we said that we were missionaries and he immediately cut me off and he said,  while rather aggressively clapping his hands to the side, I'M COOKING and then we walked back inside. Another time we saw a shirtless man yelling some not very nice things at his girlfriend as we passed by. He also was throwing things and swear words so we turned onto another street pretty quickly. Things in Chicago are going pretty good. We just end up with a lot of weird things happening to us haha

On Thursday, the other Elders in our District didn't have a meal appointment for Thanksgiving and neither did we. So, being the elders we are, we scavenged through our houses and put enough food together to make a meal for ourselves. It was awesome. But the ham they had found was low key kinda funky so we didn't really eat much of it hahah and after our feasts we did our weekly planning. And we called one of our investigators who we had been struggling to get in contact with and she answered the phone and we were surprised when she answered and even more surprised wheen she invited us over for dinner. So that was awesome. As we left the church, this homeless man entered the church thinking that we were giving away food. And we had already cleaned up so there was no food. And he was super crazy and was telling us how the Duck Brothers (Duck Dynasty) was really running the country and that the leader of the KKK was black and all this stuff. It was weird. But we eventually got him to leave after he stole my Payday Candy Bar. But we went to our invesigators house and her whole family was there. And after eating and talking with them, her brother and his wife were interested in the Church and what we have to say. So it was a successful day and it's crazy how God works like that.

We also had this super fun Thanksgiving Party on Saturday. The ward brought food and drinks and it was a grand old time! We also invited our investigators and her whole family and they all showed up! So we had brought 6 people to this event haha and side note, but our ward thinks that the Elders never do work because we never bring anyone to church or something. But when we brought those 6 people everyone was just kinda staring at us and were asking us who they were and were surprised when we said investigators hahah. But after eating and talking, the missionaries had put together a representation of Lehi's vision of the tree of life and the iron rod and the various temptations along the way. We had games, dancing and all other kinds of fun things to distract people from finding the tree of Life. It was super cool and super fun.

But things here are awesome. I'm loving the food and the people are awesome. I am beginning to trust more in God and in the whispering of the Spirit and my goodness it's awesome. I also want to say that I am so very grateful for each and everyone of you. Even if you read this or not (if you've gotten this far, you can make it just a little more!) I really do appreciate all the love and support that you send my way every day. I'm thankful for a Loving God and his plan for our happiness and eventual return to live with him again. I'm also grateful for Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross for us. Because by Him, and through Him, we can be forgiven for our sins and errors and also receive the hope and support we need. I'm thankful for my Mom and her prayers and letters and packages because I know that a Missionary Mom prays more than anyone. I'm thankful for you too, Dad. Through your generosity, I'm here in Chicago. I know that yall have been blessed and I can see it. Anyway. I love this Gospel and I love you all so much! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and may God Bless all of you!

As always,

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS
There is this super tiny toilet we found in the building and naturally things happened
I found another super cool Cubs/Sox Garage thing
Here is the feast the Other Elders and I prepared twas awesome.
Also, whoever was the homie who sent my an Apron, you rock, thank you!
Story: So a member gave us this fruit last night. And I thought it was pretty big. Upon arrival at home, I told Elder Osorio that that was the biggest orange I had ever seen. He just looks at me and says it's a freaking grapefruit you idiot and we had a good laugh about that haha

Third Transfer, Third Companion: With A Twist

Hey yall!

It's just your friend Elder Tracy here freezing in Chicago! I hope that yall have been good and happy and well. But things here have been interesting this past week. So here is what'sup

Remember how I said that I would be companions with Elder Case right? Well with the way God works, things can change in a second. In Monday night at 9:45, we received a call from President Bingham and he said that after interviewing all the greenes, he wanted me to train one of them! So after two transfers in the mission, I am training! So on Tuesday, Elder Osorio was born into the mission! He is a stud. He's from California but he is originally from Guatemala so he is fluent in Spanish so I don't even have to train him! He is already such a good missionary and is doing great! So this week has just been training and it's been super fun!

This week it has rained almost everyday and it's been super cold so it's been super fun being a biking missionary and getting to be outside all the time. I bundle up for the cold and then you have to bundle up for the rain too! On Friday it snowed a little bit while we were outside it was super cool.

We also got 2 new investigators and I'm super excited for them! Elder Osorio being the paisa he is, clicked with them and they said that we could come back any time in the evening! I'm super excited for them!

Well things here are awesome. I love Chicago so much and I am so glad I made the decision to come out here on my mission. I love getting closer to God and Jesus Christ and increasing my relationship with them! I love the gospel and I know this church is true.

As always,

Elder Tracy

Ps if yall wanna write me sometime here's my email seth.tracy@myldsmail.net

PHOTOS
When I picked up Elder Osorio and we became companions
I found this super cool garage this week
Here's the group photo of all of us

Third Transfer, Third Companion

Hey everyone!

I hope that everything for yall is going awesome wherever you are!

Well, this week was a super short week it felt like. We had a bunch or appointments with some potential investigators of the church, but all of them canceled on us haha so instead of nearly 16 lessons for the week, we ended up with 7. So that was a little disappointing but it gave us more time to do some finding of some people to teach and we found some really great people. So maybe next week all of our lessons will work out! This week was also the last week that Elder Farrer and I had together. President Bingham had told us both that we were not staying together about three weeks ago because he wanted our leadership and abilities elsewhere. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or what really hahaha but it is what it is. So we have been trying to enjoy what time we've got left. Which means photos, dancing randomly, laughing and making terribly dumb jokes, and that's the life I'm living right now haha and it's about the same as before really. So I haven't changed that much

So with this week being transfers, I have a new assignment. I am actually staying in my area of Chicago 2 but I'm getting a different companion! I am receiving Elder Case down here! He's coming from the north side and he's a good guy from what I've heard so I'm really excited to see what we can do together. He came in at the same time as me so I think that we will be able to do some good things down on the South Side. President told me to work him out here and make him work really hard. I think I can make that happen.

Well, this week has just been more of the same really whether wise. Except it did happen to snow for the first time on Friday. Which was an amazing and interesting experience. It was weird and only lasted a day before melting off, but it was snow none the less. So we will be getting bus money here soon so we don't have to ride our bikes in the real snow and deathly cold. Super pumped for that. Also it gets dark here at about 5:15 - 5:30 so that's a new experience. And we can do stuff after dark, but it's not the safest idea really, you just have to be smart about where and when you go places here. So we were riding home from a dinner appointment one day, and we were climbing a hill and all the sudden, the right cuff of my pants got stuck in the sprocket of my bike. I soon heard a good loud rip and I slammed on my brakes and I looked down and I saw that I had a ripped a good 8 - 10 inch in my pants and so I tried to sew it but I'm going to just see if a member can fix them. There is a seamstress in the ward so I hope she will help me out like she has other elders. So that was a fun project. And event.

But things here are awesome. I am loving Chicago and the people and all the awesome expiercnes I have had here already. I love this gospel and I have seen God's hand in my life everyday and I am so glad for that. I love all of you and I hope this email finds you all well. If you are interested, yall can send me stuff at seth.tracy@myldsmail.net I'd love to hear from you. Again, I love yall and this gospel that I have the opportunity to share with the people here. Stay in touch!

As always.,

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS
The Elders in my ward and these members that feed us every week
Elder Farrer and I saying goodbye to our grandpa in the ward. Hermano Gallardo sad day haha

Baptisms and tricks (not treats)

Hola mis amores!

Well this week was actually kind of crazy. A lot of great things happened So it was a rollercoaster.

First off, we had Zone Conference this Tuesday, and it also happened to be Halloween that day. (Who knew?) So Zone Conference was amazing. We got some amazing insight from President Bingham on how we can be good missionaries and continue onward and upward! We also had a super strong and spirit packed breakaway session with the Spanish Zone. So the Chicago Zone (my zone)has this super bad reputation of being super disobedient. And this was a reputation set by elders from years ago. And it has perpetuated up until present day. Now this zone is amazing and we are all really obedient and its a stark difference. And it's kinda discouraging to hear other missionaries, who have never served in this zone, talking bad about our zone and the South Side in general. We as a zone had a frank and powerful discussion on how we can change this reputation and it's going to be awesome. I'm excited to see what we can do and change this reputation. And since it was Halloween and this is the South Side of Chicago, we had to be inside by 6 pm. So that did and Elder Farrer and I got caught up on a lot of things we hadn't had the time for. So it was kinda awesome haha

Also this week, I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder English in the Cicero area of our ward. Let me just say, it was probably some of the greatest times I've had this transfer. We had a lot of fun talking between houses tracting, talking to people and a bunch of other things. We actually knocked on this one door and this older english Lady opened the door and we introduced ourselves as missionaries and she said "oh, let me get my husband!" So we waited on the doorstep for a second and this old guy come to the door and exclaims "Oh, Thank the Lord! Thank you for sending me some Men of God!" After which we were invited in and had a really awesome conversastion with this man and his wife. They weren't super interested in the church or anything, but they were happy to talk to two young "Jesus Boys." And they were honestly some of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. He made us take some 9 pistachios and a banana with us as we left. Great times.

The Family that Elder García and I found about two months ago had an exciting event. Adam, the dad of the family, was baptised this Saturday!! So I got to go and see his take this next step toward his salvation and it was so amazing to see him come out of the water just beaming with the pure love of Christ in his eyes. He is an amazing example to not only the rest of his family, but also the world of what a righteous man should be. I was blessed with the opportunity to also play the mandolin in a duet with his wife, Lilia. She and I played the primary song "I'm trying to be like Jesus" it was amazing and so touching for me to be able to contribute my talents in such a simple yet meaningful way.

One funny experience. On Saturday, Elder Farrer and I were out tracting and we were walking away from a door when it opened and a man came out and walked down the stairs. He greeted us in English and we began talking to him in English. When we introduced ourselves as missionaries, he suddenly said "Oh, Yo no speak la ingles good" Elder Farrer said, in Spanish, that's wonderful because we speak Spanish. Scrambling for a way out, he told us to talk to the woman inside. He then proceeded to run to his car and peel out. Good times.

But everyone, Good Ole Elder Tracy is going well. I'm getting actually pretty good at Spanish and I can understand people a lot of the time and it's pretty awesome. I have a strong testimony that who the Lord calls, he qualifies. I know He is helping me through my difficulties. The church is true and the Book is blue. If y'all want to email me go for at
seth.tracy@myldsmail.net
or you can send letters (and packages haha) to
800 Waukegan Rd
Ste 203
Glenview IL 60025

As always,

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS
Adam and his Family at the baptism! What a day.
There is a lot of cool graffiti here haha
Elder Farrer and I on our tandem bike after Zone Conference
Zone Selfie