Things are heating up!

Hello all friends and family!

This week was a lot of cool tuigns that happened! 

We went on exchanges this week! I was with Elder Sharples in Chicago 3rd for a day and it was an experience! A lot of interesting things happened and a lot of cool members were met! It was a great time! 

We also spent a lot of time finding this week because we had the time and so why not? Something I've noticed on my mission is that a lot of the great and funny stories happen when you're out tracting. For example we met these two super drunk guys and we just got talking to them and they were really funny and they were telling us about fishing stories and war tales it was a very interesting 25 minutes haha

The other ward that borders ours and the missionaries in that are in that ward had an activity on Saturday in the park and they were trying to get people to learn about the Book of Mormon! It was a park that was literally about 2 blocks from our area so we decided to hop over and help for a bit. It was fun and we actually found a group of guys that were interested so we have some solid referrals now. Missionary work is awesome! 

We had a ward party yesterday for Memorial Day and as missionaries we were invited and we invited literally everyone we know and it was awesome! There was soccer, food, friends, family, water, piñatas, cakes, faces in cakes, singing and dancing to name a few things. I'm telling you all, Mexicans know hot to party it is so much fun. A very hot day in the sun but a very good time.

Things are going super duper awesome for me! Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and love and support. Yall rock¡ Que tengais una buena semana! 

As always, 

Elder Tracy 

PHOTOS

We found a really smooth street

Jesus is the light of the world... And this car

Our investigator has amazing fair and we finally got a picture

Here is us are the Activity at the park! 

And here we are at the ward party! Having a blast! 

Swearing Drive Bys, Great Lessons and 19 years later

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic week! I certainly did! But, here is my usual weekly report! (She's lengthy, so if you don't want to read it it's cool, but if you do then you'll find a lot of great stories, memories and tender mission moments that are exclusively found here in this email) 

One day, we were out here doing some stop bys of some former investigators, seeing if they were home and if we could stop by. And as we were walking to this one house, a white guy in a sketchy van pulls up and is like Hey do you all know a guy named Jesus? Obviously we do. He says I do too, but he doesn't speak much English! (haha very good Dad Joke) and then he kept telling us to be safe and stuff very interesting. But as he pulls away, we keep walking on our way, and the car behind him has these two teenage guys and they roll down the windows and yell some very colorful greetings, and then say they love us haha

We also had an amazing lesson with some of our investigators on date. They essentially were trying to drop us and say that they weren't ready. But we were able to convince them otherwise and we pushed the date back two weeks and they felt better about it. But the convincing process was filled with honesty, heart felt statement, testimonies and tears. It was very very memorable. 

We also had a Get to Know You Party in our Elders Quorum. Essentially everyone already knew each other, but Hispanics can find any many reasons to party and eat a bunch of food, and I like that. But we had chicken, steak, hot dogs, salsa, many awesome foods and most importantly, Soccer. Some minds were lost haha I was also forced to eat a corn on the cob (in case you all didn't know, I HATE corn. Like so much) 

 It was also my Birthday this week! On Sunday! I'm finally 19! Some of the little kids found out and they made me some gifts out of Tithing Envelopes. We also had an appointment with one of the homies in the ward and they made us some amazing food. Overall, a very chill birthday with no cakes in my face (another Mexican Tradition) 

So last week, we met this kid names Marcos and he knows the Bible about as well as his very existence. We were like cool let's get him on the Book of Mormon! So we left him one and we had a return appointment. In a week he read Alma, Mormon and Moroni (for my non mormon friends, that's a feat) and he essentially just told us that the Bible and the Book of Mormon don't agree. He was essentially trying to get us to see the flaws in the doctrine that it presented and it was a very discouraging experience. But we came home and we started looking in the Bible and in the book of mormon and we started finding all the flaws in his arguments and Elder Wright and I both had our testimonies strengthened by this. We were able to see for our selves the doctrines outlined in the Bible and Book of Mormon such as The Plan of Salvation, Faith V Works, and many others. I know this church is true and God has made his will manifest through this church. 

I hope you all make it this far, if you do, you're the best! 

As always, 

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS

One Elder in our ward likes Spinach a lot, so we found him some more food on the sidewalk oneday

Two pictures of me with corn:before eating and after 

Finally me with the kids that made my birthday a little more awesome

Mother's Day and Miracles

Hello everyone!

This week was amazing! We saw a lot of miracles happen and also a lot of interesting things! But to start, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO EVERYONE I honestly have the best mom and the greatest teacher (who is also my mom just to clear things up) so I'm eternally grateful for her and all she does for me! 

So thing started out good! One of our investigators, Jarwin accepted a baptismal invitation! The gospel is starting to click for him and he likes the changes he see in life! We also found a family of four to start teaching! They are awesome and have a lot of potential! We also found four other new investigators this week, so 7 in total! So we usually get anywhere from 2 or 3 a week, but we got 7 this week! We also have just been busting out butts to get people to church and we have some people that have been coming regularly for about a month or so now so it's awesome! It's been really rainy here recently, but we have been trying to stay outside and either talk to people or knock doors because they are probably inside at that time! So we got two of those new investigators through that! 

I have been really loving my study time as a missionary! My hour of personal study is never ever enough! I always want to keep studying but I never can! It's been really awesome to see my love for the scriptures and the Word of God grown over these last 10 months. It's been crazy. Also on Saturday, I HIT TEN MONTHS WHOOO it's crazy to think that I'm almost a year done I don't want to have to face that reality yet... 

But things are honestly AMAZING right now! I hope that you all have an amazing week! If you want to say hi, please feel free to at seth.tracy@myldsmail.net! I can read emails all week, but can only respond on Mondays! 

As always, 

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS

Me and my family Skyping! 

We found a very sad statue 

Good door knocking days

Last p day adventures in the Zone Leader Van x2(we fit 8 bikes on that bike rack) 

The difference between 'ñ' and 'n'

Hey everyone!

This was a pretty fun week so here we go¡

We had a pretty solid week, we found another family to teach and so that always fun! But they're from Puerto Rico so that's a little harder because there are hard to understand haha but all is the work of the lord amiright? But things are good. We have a bunch of people to teach and sometimes it's hard to balance it all but it's Def a good problem to have. 

So I had some interesting moments while teaching investigators hahah For instance, we were teaching this one family about the word of wisdom and we were talking about how through fasting and prayer, we can get the help we need tk overcome the temptation to drink and smoke etc. The mom in the family, Carla, she asked if we fasted everyday, and we explained that we can fast whenever we want to, but that we all fast as a church on Fast Sunday. I was trying to explain that we only do that 12 times a year (por año) but what I said was 12 times an anus (por ano) it was really funny hahaha

We also went and stopped by this one guy we hadn't seen in a while and we knock and his Grandson opens the door and we ask if Mario is home, he says hold on. He comes back and he says, My Grandpa said to tell you that he isn't home, but he is. So needless to say, we got to get in and teach him hahah

Things here in Chicago 4th could never be better. We have some good work to do, we have a good ward, Elder Wright and I are always getting along and having a blast, my studies are always the best and honestly way too short. Things are just awesome.

I love you all and I hope you have a great semana, if you want hit me up, you all know where to find me! 

As always, 

Elder Tracy 

PHOTOS

We didn't take many this week, but we were cooking something and it said it needed to be covered. And we didn't have a lid, so we made do with what we have haha