Boda, Bautismo y Bendiciones

Heeeeeeeellllo Everyone!

This week was very very awesome and let me tell you about it.

So to begin, we taught this really bomb lesson with this really bomb family of investigators and they are super duper awesome. We taught them the restoration because the elders that thought them before some another ward didn't do too hot of a job... So we picked up the slack and he fixed everything and they are super interested! It's awesome!

Out teaching pool right now is actually giant and we are having a hard time fitting it all in and making it all work sometimes but it's definitely a good problem to have. It's been the best transfer I've had yet. 

We then went and did some service with a member and he was kinda weird at first when he asked, but he ended up being a homie and he said that he owes us a lunch someday and I'm always down for that haha 

So as the title of the email says, WE HAD A BAPTISM THIS WEEK. Martin and Silvia got baptized finally! We had been waiting on Martin's Papers to arrive so he could get legally married to Silvia. And they came in like last month so we got them ready and off they went. So this weekend, they got married and then they changed and then got baptized that same night! It was an amazing experience to see. On Sunday we got to confirm Martin and Silvia and I got to confirm Silvia into the church and bestow upon her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was an amazing experience. I was just so peaceful and the spirit was peaceful in that meeting. It was a very very good week.

Also to add a cherry on the top of all that, Elder Wright and I are staying together for this transfer and we have some really good stuff happening in our area right now so I'm super pumped. A super great blessing indeed. 

As always, 

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS

District Pictures there are two haha 

Baptism and Wedding with Martin and Silvia and Elders Tracy, Wright, Farrer and Silvia way good day. 

Bitter and then sweet!

Hello hello hello everyone!

I hope that you all have had a fantastic week! Well this week was interesting! And like the title implies, it started out really rough haha. On Monday, we were heading over to the church to meet some other missionaries for our day off, and it was kinda rainy and snowy and good things like that. And here in Chicago, they are super smart and when they are fixing the road, they apparently like give up for a few days and they put these giant metal plates on the ground. And when they are wet, the are super slippery. So I was coming up to this intersection and there was a bunch of these plates, so I hopped up and I started in on them. And then I was on the ground haha I scraped my arm pretty good and I hit my knee pretty good too. I'm doing way better now but it was a rough way to start haha. 

But then we found this super amazing family! They are Javier and Carla and their two daughters! They are so awesome. An Hermana from another ward sent us the Referral and we were pumped and we started teaching them on Tuesday and we had an amazing lesson. And then on Friday they had us back and it was way good. They have been reading in the Book of Mormon, praying,  they accepted an invitation to be baptized and they ever came to church! I honestly feel that they are golden investigators.

Elder Wright and I are putting in some good work. We are finding a good amount of people and have made progress with a lot of them. It's been good. We also have had a super great time together! Everything seems to be going awesome! Also this week we met all our goalsbthat we set and I felt so accomplished! But as the Book of Mormon Prophet Ammon said, "I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things"

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Keep me posted on yall lives!! 

As always, 

Elder Tracy 

PHOTOS

Here's one of my arm when I fell haha

Here we are after a nice meal with some homie members 

Cold Week, Hot Mouth

Hello Everyone! This week was a super awesome but also kinda slow but overall super awesome.

So to start, we get a referral from the Chi 3 elders and they are telling us about how they just taught an investigators family of five jn our area, and they were giving them to us! So turns out that they are actually some really good friends of an English ward family and they are super solid investigators! So this week we got a solid family and we are having an appointment tonight! I'm super excited!

It's also been super duper cold this week. It's been sleeting and snowing and stuff so that's always fun. While riding in the sleet your fave gets hit hard. Because it's cold and windy the ice moves at about 57 miles an hour and they are sharp too so it hurts hahahaha

We also had Zone Conference and it was AMAZING. I loved it so much. We learned a lot and it was super powerful for me (Elder Tracy). We learned some really good insights and after I left, I felt super inspired to do God's work! It was awesome. Something President Bingham said that I thought was fun was "1 day of Church and 6 days of fun, odds of getting into Heaven: 6 to 1" If we aren't trying our very hardest to really not only keep the sabbath day, but to sanctify it, then we are not really keeping the Sabbath day holy. And as we know that is one of the 10 Commandments, the most basic laws we have, and if we can't obey that, can we really obey the higher laws that Jesus Christ has put in place, and thus receive those higher blessings? It's a powerful reminder to me of what I might need to change and how we can help others understand that and change.

I love yall and I hope everything was good! If you have anything to say, say it to my face at seth.tracy@myldsmail.net

As always, 

Elder Tracy 

Ps Elder Wright and I ate Habenero Peppers (hence the title of this email) and we have a video and if you wanna see it, let me know and I'll add you to it!

PHOTOS

We found the infamous Chicago Sign. 

We went bowling last Pday! I bowled a 149 I was super proud haha

Here we are chilling after a gator canceled on us haha

And we decided to try something new with tracting with a sign! 

X Y Toe Sew (Successful)

Hello everyone who still reads my emails!

This week was pretty intense and really good. We had a lot of success and it was way awesome to see. This week a lot of little miracles happened too so it was definitely one for the record books!

So the Elders before us had found this guy named Ivan and all he wanted was to have a church for his son to grow up in! And they were like we can do that haha so we finally got the chance to teach him for the first time and it was an amazing lesson. He told us that he really wanted to come to church with us and that he would bring his girlfriend! (they didn't end up coming though so kinda sad)

We also have these other homies who are going to get married here soon so that they can get baptized, and we are super pumped for them. They just got their papers and they are really pumped to get baptized. So on top of the Baptism, we are gonna have to plan a wedding!

We also were at the church building the other day and Two Senor Missionaries were there and they were going ti do help some hermanas move a couch and stuff so we voulenterred ti go helo some other elders move the couch with them. It was so much fun!

Things are just going great for Elder Wright and me here. It's been awesome to see the Lords hand in my everyday life more and more and really gain that closer, personal relationship I need with him. I just would like to end this email with my personal testimony of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Christ lives and that he loves each of us enough thathe was willing to suffer for each and everyone of us for our every pain, weakness, sin and sickness. He always stands at the Door. We must be willjng to open it and let him in. And we can do that through our honest faith, repentance and enduring to the end.

I love all of yall and hope that les vaya bien!

As Always,

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS
We had some precious cargo and my backpack is always helpful
It's April and it's still super cold, but things are definitely heating up haha
Two couch pictures!
I looked out the window and what did I see? SNOW. I SAW SNOW IN APRIL

General Conference, Easter, Temple! Oh My!

Well hello my friends and family! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Weekend and that you all had a good time listening to General Conference!

Well this week was one for the record books. We start off with the fact that we got to go to the temple here in Chicago and it was way cool! There was a woman who had told the temple that she was coming in to do some baptisms and she was going to be bringing close to 300 names, so the temple asked if a group of 8 of us missionaries would be willing to help with those. So we of course said yes and so we got to do baptisms! I got to baptize and also be baptized and it was a super fun thing! We then got to go do a session with the Other Spanish Zone because we missed ours!

This week was also General Conference, and for those of you who don't know  General Conference is when our dear Prophet Russell M Nelson and the 12 apostles of Christ and various other church leaders address us. (go to lds.org if you want to know more) but I learned so much and I had several wonderful moments of personal revelation as questions were answered, doubts were resolved, advice was given and testimonies were strengthened. I can tell you all that God has called his Prophet to the earth today to lead and guide us and help us learn the will of God for us all. One of the most meaningful things I heard was that If we are struggling to forgive someone, we should think of that Jesus Christ did for us. And then it will all be put into perspective.

This week we also received a referral from some English Elders who had found a Spanish family who they couldn't really teach. So we went over before Conference on Saturday and they accepted us in and we gave a quick Restoration Lesson and as we discussed it, and came to the account of the First Vision, the Spirit came over all of us like a wave. I was feeling it, Elder Wright was, and most importantly, the two people were too. They told us afterward, with small tears in their eyes, that they wanted us to come back on Tuesday and to teach them more. So we definitely are going back! It was an experience I will never forget.

With this Sunday being Easter, I would just like to leave you all with my growing testimony that Christ lives. He suffered and died for all of us, but we have to take the initiative and work to receive the remission if our sins through dilligent repentence. He loves us all so much that he,  being the perfect, very Son of God, paid the infinite price for our infinite sins so that we could be infinitely happy one day.

We had a good week this week, I'm really happy about it all. I hope yall have a good week and if you want to know more about the church and General Conference, let me know! seth.tracy@myldsmail.net (sorry this is a super long email a bunch happened this week)

As always,

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS
Here is Elder Wright and I in front of the Temple
Here is Elder Anderson, English and I taking some redneck photos in the woods of the temple grounds
We write out names on these cups we had and Elder Wright wrote my name on his so I wrote mine on mine and things happened haah