Snow and cold and hearing problems

Hey Everyone!

This was a chilly week out here. Holy smokes we spend proba lynway too much time outside and it was probably not the best move for our health, but, Heavenly Father has definately been hearing my prayers asking for the health and energy to keep going! I haven't had so much as a runny nose! He's been looking out for us! 

So this week was new experience for me driving in the snow! That's right! My Companion, Elder Lewis, from Utah, lost his driving privileges a while ago because he decided to run a car into a garage haha so I've been driving here all the time and let me tell yall something: it's wild. We have this little front wheel drive Malibu and there's some slipping and sliding that's been had recently haha its been awesome.

But we went on exchanges this week and it was AMAZING. I got to go to Joliet 2 branch with ELDER JIMENEZ (THE LEGEND HIMSELF) We had a Flipping blast and it was awesome for me because it was a Spanish area and I got to speak the celestial language of Spanish with people and I was in heaven. We got to eat MOLE at a recent converts house and I was so happy. MOLE people MOLE. I was just as happy as could be. We met a homie at a supermercado named Fidel and they are now teaching  him! I'm so pumped! I helped find him! (at this point I have to take whatever Spanish work I can get) I had a great time and I made a new homie that day. 

Funny story of the week: we were out knocking doors and we knock this one door of this little old white lady and she opens the door and potliety asks what she can do for us. We respond that we are missionaries sharing a message of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of his Church upon the earth. She opens the door and says your doing what? So we reiterate our purpose and she says, and I quote: "I can't hear you, it's too cold outside." and proceeds to close the door waving us away hahahahah I died laughing at that one. Some white people are so mean and then there was her ahahah it was awesome.

But this week was awesome because of Steve. Steve is a 19 year old kid who asked a friend of his if he could come to chruch with him. Ryan, this señor in high-school said of course and he has come for the past three weeks to chrucb because he feels good here. We taught him the restoration on Friday and it was a spiritual outpouring for us. It was an amazing lesson and he is so cool. We are so excited to keep working with him and get him baptised here soon! Our new ward mission leader, brother Hansen is literally the greatest. He served I  Guatamala (Guata-mejorando) and it's awesome to speak with him in Spanish and reflect on the good day with the latinos man it's awesome.

But things are definitely going well here. I'm being tried in a good way by el Señor Omnipotente en mi fe y esperanza. Hay que reconocer los milagros en la vida, verdad?

As always, 

Elder Tracy 

PHOTOS 

Dang awesome graffiti in Joliet 

Elder Jimenez and I 

We made a dank dinner of steak and pasta (all of which was given to us!) 

Snow way bros

Hey Everyone!

THis was a much better week. Well, it was better, I don't know if I'd say much better. We had a good week and we stsrted putting numbers on the board and things are looking up from here now it appears.

This week we had exchanges and I was looking forward to a reprieve from the monotony of this area haha but we got some! Elder Dietz came over here from Bolingbrook and we put in some good work here it was awesome! We got a lot done and it honestly made me really happy! We found two awesome people to teach and one is named Jailen and he's a legend. We taught him the Restoration on his door step right there and we was feeling it! He's a high schooler but is really really solid.

We also saw some miracles this week! We worked way hard this week and it was awesome! We were expecting Jailen to come to chruch and we showed up and he wasn't there! But it turns out that two other people came to chrucb randomly! One was a former investogstor we are trying to start working with and another is named Steve and he is a legend. He asked one of his friends in the ward if he could come to chruch with him and now he is here! He has come like 3 weeks now and really likes it and wants to meet with us here soon! Solid miracles. God is real. 

Some funny thigns happen here though! So we knocked this one street the other day in the morning and legit 5 people opened the door and so yesterday we knocked the same street because we felt it had potential. And so we are knocking it again and it turns out we forgot we knocked a lot of them that had people and we had like three people yell at us to never come back and it was really funny actually! One guy like screamed profanities as we walked away with great haste haha

We were also knocking doors on that same night and this one young girl opened the girl and she was actually really pretty haha but she opens the door, Elder Lewis looks at her and turns to me and says "you got it" hahahahaha I died apparently he was like holy smokes I couldn't have talked to her if I tried hahahahaha haha I died laughing on that street right there.

But things are getting better here. We are now working with some solid people and we are GRINDING out some great work in all this snow holy smokes it snowed like 6 inches. This is the most snow I've ever seen in my life. But things are looking up. I'm excited to keep tuigns moving.

Love you all! 

As always,

Elder Tracy 

PHOTOS 

SNOW

EXCHANGES WHERE WE ATE COTTON CANDY

WINTER SUCKS 

MARI FROM ARLINGTON HEIGHTS GOT BAPTISED! 

Cold, snow, and many other new things

Hey Everyone!

It's been a good first week here in Naperville 3! It's been a wild week though sk we will have to see how much I can remember and everything!

But we had transfers on Tuesday so Monday was a lot of packing and a lot of other things. We got to eat with the Rivas family and they are the best they will be missed dearly! But we drive down to Naperville with another Elder who is getting transfered and we arrived there at 9 am to find our new companions. We unload everything and get talking with a couple of people for a few minutes and then we get on our way out! I met Elder Lewis for the first time! He's a legend. Haha He is from Hurricane, Utah, he's a convert of about 7 years and he is essentially just a legend.

But it appears that not a lot of missionary work has been happening here for some time now... I'm essentially opening up a new area. (aka there was no one being taught for months) In a very wealthy area. (and where there affluence, there is white people) so we have been knocking a lot of doors. We have been talking with everyone we can. It's very very cold so it's very very hard to catch people outside or anything haha so we knocked probably close to a thousand doors this week because we talked to over 100 people. It was crazy. And we met a lot of not super nice people haha we also met some super crazy people too. Some that deserve to be among those in Woodstock  (Elder Anderson you know)

But Elder Lewis doesn't really know any of the ward members here either, so we kinda went on a blitz trying to contact and get in with every member possible this week and also try to start member missionary work. We recently got a new Ward Mission Leader who is ON FIRE. (for those of you members of the Cross Creek Ward he is just like Brother Hughes) high energy, convert of over 15 years, loves the gospel as much as his family. We really hit it off because he served a mission in Guatemala and I speak Spanish and it was a blast. But there's one Mexican FAMILY, The Bramascos, in the ward we visited this week and we get there and I say, so do you all speak Spanish? And they looked at me funny... And then said yes. And then we became HOMIES. Turns out the dad has been Bishop in Midway (my first area) knows almost all the members in Chicago 2nd and Chicago 4th wards so we were homies from the start and Elder Lewis was a little lost in all the Spanish haha (not to mention their 6 children)

We also have met a suprizing number of people here who have served in Brazil and Mexico! So I've had plenty of chances to practice Spanish and to start to learn a little Portuguese! This ward is awesome. We just have got to start to get them on board with missionary work even more and then we will be GOLDEN.

But things here are pretty good I'd say. We have a lot of work to do. A lot. But things are looking up. I've recently found a lot of solace in three scriptures.
1 Nephi 19:9
Doctrine and Covenants 122
Joshua 1:5

God is good. God is great. God is always there to help you when there are souls at stake.

As always,

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS
We had a bunch of dumb people putting dumb things into the washers in out building and breaking them so we decided to take matters into our own hands
Me and Elder Anderson
Me and Elder Moser
Me and Elder Anderson and the Rivas Kids
My and my new district (Elder Lewis is in the far back)

Los tiempos españoles ya me han pasado

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty awesome! We had a blast as it was out last week together with transfers and all! But we worked way hard to make some miracles happen and it was pretty awesome! We had some awesome tuigns happen!

We went on exchanges twice this week one after the other because we kinda forgot to do it earlier in the transfer. But I got to go to Bloomingdale for the day with Elder Vargas who is a legend! He's from Columbia but grew up in Spain so he's Spanish is obviously impressive! But it was super fun! We got to meet and teach some really awesome people! Then the following morning, we met up again and switched with the Elgin Elders and I went back to my area with Elder Leal. We went on exchanges once back in Chi 4 but we were back at it again! We met some homies that day we spent a lot of it tracting and having a good time! We taught an awesome lesson to this one family, the Solis Family, we are teaching ant they were feeling the Spirit and it was a really good time.

This week we started to use Obispo to help us get around because we don't have the miles to do it! But he's been driving us around every once and a while and he does NOT like to drive. We were driving to one lesson and the COPS PULLED US OVER AND HE DIDN'T HAVE HIS LICENSE IT WAS ONE OF THE FUNNIEST THINGS EVER we took a selfie with him because it was amazing.

We meet a bunch of crazy people while knocking doors here. We knocked this one door and the guy opens it and I start speaking to him in Spanish and we says, and I quote: "no espeak English" and I said "Y por eso, le hablo en Español" needless to say he was not very interested. Haha we also met this one guy thought we that were the Jehovahs Witness and we was talking with us about thier church and we talked with him for probably about 15 minutes, telling us that he read Hebrew (which he didn't) but then realized we weren't the J dubs so he dipped real fast. We were able to found some funny people

But as the title alludes, this week was transfers. We received my call and I'm heading out of Arlington Heights! These 6 months have been some of my favorite 6 months honestly. It's been amazing to serve here. I've met some awesome people. I won't forget them ever. But I'm heading out to Naperville 3 with is in the Joliet Stake. It is an English Ward which is sad because I love speaking Spanish, but I've been 4 of the greatest Spanish wards known tk man so it's time to move on I guess. And I'll be getting Elder Lewis, whom I have never met! It will be a really fun time and it will be very very very different than what I'm used to. But I'm excited!

Things are going grest and are getting better! Hope you all have a great week! 

As always, 

Elder Tracy 

PHOTOS

Selfie with German and Lorena and Maya and Sami and Elder Leal

Selfie with Obispo and the cop 

Elder Andersons great parking jobs 

Elder Leal and I

Elder Vargas sleeping ahah 

Story time: so our apartment smelled really really bad one night so Elder Anderson decided to Fry up some oranges and try to help the terrible smell. It actually worked pretty well. 

Ya se me acaba el año blanco

Hey Everyone!

It's been a good week out here in Arlington Heights with my boy Elder Anderson! We have been working crazy hard. It's been a blast. Really I only have to talk about a couple of days this week considering we last spoke on Wednesday due to the the change in days!

But this week was a we e we were able tk find a bunch of people to teach and we were also able to visit some people this week and weekend and it was awesome! We found this one family last week, la Familia Soliz and they are homies. We also have been working ING with this one guy named José and he is a legend. He is super solid actually! We are also still working with Mary! She is a awesome person! She came to church this week which always awesome! (she showed up about 40 minutes late, but she came!) She son Angel is wild haha he is like 4 and he never sits still for more than about 1.2 seconds! He is hilarious honestly!

We also had an interesting lesson with our friend Nahu. He is a good guy, but he got into researching the Book of Mormon on the internet and he found a bunch of anti-mormon (I know we aren't supposed to say that anymore haha) literature and he tried to make it a big deal to us and try and tear our beliefs down, telling us that we've been lied to the whole time and that we need to study better. But Elder Anderson, being the savage he is, looks him straight in the eye and says "I have been a missionary, talking with people like you for more than a year. Do you really think you're the first person to tell me these things? I know what I know and nothing can change that" Nahu didn't seem to get who we was talking to, Two seasoned spiritual war veterans, and it was a lost battle for him at that point. He's a legend haha

But as the title says, my white out year is ending. 2018 was a full year that I dedicated to the service of my God. It will have officially ended tonight. It has caused me to reflect a lot on who I am, where I've come from and how much further I can go! I've gone from kinda speaking Spanish, to being able to really talk with anyone. I've gone from knowing the basic doctrine of the restored Chruch of Jesus Christ to truly knowing where it all come from in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I've gone from a lost missionary training another in the city, to a far more competent and hard working Zone Leader. Truly this is the purpose of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: to change and become more of the person that my Heavenly Father desires me to be. I've gone from believing to knowing. I've gone from 18 to 19. Change is the essence of Repentance. It's all true. The Book of Mormon, Priesthood Power and Authority, Miracles, The Atonement of Jesus Christ, all of it. 100% true. I couldn't ever deny this, nor will I. I feel as though my life's desire currently is best described as in the Book Of Mormon in 2 Nephi 26:33. Look it up at https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/26?lang=eng and if you want to know it's true like I do, do what this verse says in Moroni 10, verses 4 and 5: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/10?lang=eng

If you have questions let me know on Messenger

Love you all and I hope you all have a fantastic start of 2019! See you all soon!

As always
Elder Tracy

Photos
Obispos house with the other elders
A awesome truck we found
A good Sunday selfie haha
We found this lit house

Last Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

It is little late, but here we are wishing you all merry christmas! We were told to work on Monday and Tuesday because people were going to be home so we decided to work really hard those two days to see what could happen on Christmas! It was way fun! we spend the day with members eating, with people we are teaching, and we spend the most of the day just knocking doors to try and spread the cheer! (turns out a lot of people are not having the idea of a Christmas Message on Christmas about Jesus which is why we celebrate Christmas. Weird right?)

But this week was kind of legendary. We did a lot of awesome tujgs this week and last too! For example, we were able to put one of the homies on date for this next month and she is a legend! Her name is Mary and she is the coolest. She is a sweet lady with a little kid and she is coming to church and she has some awesome members as friends!

This Sunday we went sang villancicos to the people we are teaching and some members who don't come to church a lot. We went and sang to Mary, Dennis and Gloria, The Rivas Family and several more! They are the homies. We went with the Najera Famoly to go and sing and it was way fun!

We also had an awesome lesson with Dennis and Gloria yesterday. They were kinda avoiding us this week it seemed, but we were able to get in with them again and they were way happy to see us and they said that we're super in. The Spirit was super strong and it was a way good lesson.

Things have been good. I've been recently been thinking a lot about the birth of Christ and I'm so grateful for him. It's thanks to him that we can have happiness in life and how we can overcome difficulties. Without him, we would always be drifting further and further away from happiness and God. But we can be grateful for this gift we have received.

As always

Elder Tracy

PHOTOS
Some pictures
And one of obispo throwing away some stuff a person we are teaching he shouldn't have had

workin'

Howdy yall!

It's your boy Elder Tracy and you're all tuned in for another exciting week in the great Chicagoland with the Tales of Elder Tracy and Anderson!

But this week was wild busy. We worked super hard all the time and we saw some miracles. For Example, we were able to get in with that awesome couple Dennis and Gloria and they are so awesome! They accepted a Baptismal Date for the next couple of weeks! We just need to get them to church! We also had some awesome experiences with them and we taught them a super powerful lesson!

This week Obispo Belmont called us and asked if we could visit a "friend of his" to help him with some addiction problems. So we said sure and we went and it turned out to be the father and husband of this one family in the ward who is not a member of the church but wants to keep make a change in his lafe after hitting almost rock bottom. We taught him Tuesdat, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday this week and he is progressing a lot! Pray for Armando please!

We got to go on exchanges with the Assistants to the President this week and it was way fun! I went to Woodridge with Elder Anderson (The AP) and Elder Tu'vou (The AP) went to Arlington Heights with Elder Anderson (my companion) we had a really good time talking to a bunch of white people who were not having it but it was legendary haha we had a blast! We ending up driving around a lot that day but it was a blast all in all! 

This week one of our friends here who won't get baptised for anything, Alfredo, took us to this buffet called Hibachi Grill and I despise this place but Elder Anderson wanted to go, so we went. When you eat there, the food will and also ways does wreck you. I had learned my lesson the past couple of times there so I knew what to avoid, but Elder Anderson didn't know and he got destroyed this week. DESTROYED 

We were out knocking Sasturday night and we felt prompted to go stop by this one random lady we had met last week and we went by and she was home and we taught her a little bit about the restoration right thereon her door step and she was feeling it. She cried during the First Vision of Joseph Smith. We invited her to church and lo and behold, she came and stayed for all three hours!! It was way cool! She is certainly a miracle. She said that she really liked it all and she has serious desires to come back and we asked her when we could come by again and she told us any time we wanted to! She is so solid and she wants us to teach her family too! Please please please pray for Mari this week everyone. she need it. 

Things are going awesome this week. Things are picking up. We are convinced that the level to which you are consecrated, you show your love to the Lord. So we are workin so hard to show our love to the Savoir!

I Love you all so much and thanks to all of you who have already sent me Christmas wishes! You're the best!

As always

Elder Tracy