Hey!

Glad everything has been going well :) Glad you are having fun at Lake Powell- hope the weathers nice! I have a cool short-sleeve shirt tan and a tan from my shoes on my feet-- its the best :) Oh, and it's raining outside right now. Welcome to Chicago!

Ha this week has been pretty great. Let me tell you.... The mission never ceases to keep you on your toes!

New Companionship In South Chicago

We met our new mission president last week- he  and his wife are awesome! They have had a CRAZY past month or two- they had one of their kids married in Denver on Friday and Monday they were taking the reigns in the mission! Whoo! Ha President and Sister Woodbury are from Parker, CO and apparently they know President Walker! Cool stuff :) I'm excited to continue working with them. 

Fourth of July was the craziest day, I think. Well, all of the days were. On Tuesday, our investigator (who was gettting baptized that Friday) got sick, canceled our appointment with him, and went totally MIA, along with our Ward Mission Leader who was on a business trip. It went a little crazy- we were trying to plan for a baptism that we had brief and hestitant unsurity about because our investigator kind of fell off the face of the Earth at like the worst time.

Gustavo and His Sister at the Baptism

Then on Wednesday, luckily the baptismal interview with our investigator and everything went AWESOME and we met President and Sister Woodbury and then had to book it over to an appointment that fell through, and another appointment that fell through, and another appointment that fell through, and oh, another appointment that fell through. Haha oh man busy busy.

THEN the next day (the 4th) was weekly planning day but since our dinner appointment fell through for that night, and we had to be in by 7, we decided to go get lunch at an apparently famous ghetto Chicago-dog place called Fat Johnnie's (sp?) and then go visit an investigator in that area. Well, our investigator wasn't there, so we headed to the park to go contact and teach. We only got like 2 blocks- we taught 3 lessons in an hour and met our PNI goal for the week in that one hour.
Haha awesomeeee. Then we went and got some legit tamales that were DELICIOUS. They were 75 cents each :)

Forth of July Lunch - Tamalles

Then we picked up the baptismal suits from a member that washed them all, and went home to do weekly planning. 45 minutes into weekly planning and like 5 calls later, we found out that the baptismal suits had to be at the church in time for someone else's baptism Friday morning at 11. Oh great. Ha well we didn't want to get up to go to the church early, so we decided to peace out and drop them off right then. We ended up having a 40 minute trip take 2 hours because of a bunch of different logistical reasons including getting stuck behind a train, and having the gate to the church locked, and realizing that we needed to get our investigators clothes reserved right then, and waiting for him to get back to us on the sizes, and I got nominated to play piano, and I had to practice big time. THEN we got a call from another investigator that he might go to jail for 6 months to a year because of a DUI he got 4 months earlier, and we were the only ones he's told, and his court day was the next day. Cool. Then we had to book it home, got home a couple minutes before 7 (on time, YES) and started weekly planning again.

My First Panederia Experience

A half hour later, we get a call from Elder Lucero, the AP saying "oh hey, I'm outisde your window"... uh what? I jumped from the window to see the AP's and Pres and Sister Woodbury in a car right outside our apartment. "We're going to find a place to park. Well be back in a second".... whaaaaat? Then the next 2 minutes turned into "The Best Two Years" where the elders were trying really fast to clean up the apartment. Our apartment wasn't that messy, we were just freaking out a little and didn't know what to do or why they were here. They came up to our apartment, we gave them a tour of our place, and President asked to talk to Hermana Milliron in the kitchen. A half hour later, they come back and President says, "we need to pray". Oh great.... for what??? We all pray, then he invites us to sit down. He starts by looking at Hermana Toney and I and saying- "You're strong enough...." OH NOOO!!! What's that supposed to mean!!! (My first thought was that Hermana Milliron was being taken away, and Hermana Toney and I were going to be alone "speaking spanish" in the south side ghetto 4 weeks premature of our training.... blah!!)

Our Look after we found out we would be
loosing Hermana Milliron

He then proceeded to tell us that she had been called as the Sister Training Leader. Awesome. :) We all got blessings, and he informed us that we would be getting a new trainer the following week. Awesome.

They left, and with only 20 minutes left, and our minds officially blown, weekly planning went out the door for the day haha Our investigator that was maybe going to jail called us back and Hermana Milliron had to read him comforting scriptures for like 20 minutes, and then arrange for him to get a priesthood blessing. Then we watched the fireworks and discussed our day. It was the best. They don't really have rules on the fireworks here, so it was like drunk people putting on a firewook show in our front yard. It was the best! I thought of Dad how he used to put on firework shows. He would've gotten a kick out of what I saw. Ha one of our neighbors lit a huge exploding aerial firework by our car. He lit it. But here's the thing-- it was under a tree. So the shells or whatever would shoot up, get tangled in the branches of the tree, fall back down on the street and explode on the street like they would in the air. It was very colorful and close-up and 3-D. There were like 6-8 of them and most of them fell back down on the street. Hahaha it was AWESOME. But hey, good thing we were being obedient :)

Us with Elders Asher & Chica Vivas - Our Zone Leaders

There's my long story

Gustavo was baptized on Friday and confirmed on Sunday. He truly does 'know enough'! He is awesome! We are so happy for him :) I felt the Spirit really strongly during that service.

I understood a lot more at church this week that I did last week (which isn't saying much because I understood NOTHING last week) haha it was great- we had an awesome lesson on Charity in Relief Society that I LOVED :)

Edyn and her 5 Girls

Edyn and her daughters came to church again. They are the cutest most impressive little girls ever, and I love them all to death!!

Sorry my email was crazy... but thus is a reflection of my week :) Hermana Milliron is heading out tomorrow morning, and Hermana Toney and I will get a new trainer. Her name is Hermana DeLeon and she is from Guatemala! Whooo!

The church is true. God's hand is in this work. I love being a part of it :)

Love you all!!

-Hermana Walton

Me with my old Mission President and Wife -- President & Sister Fenn