Week 23 - Chicago

Nov. 20th to 27th I taught the horse of God

Hey y'all 

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! 
Our Thankgiving was pretty legit. We had 4 dinners all from different countries and man, we were stuffed! We had Mongolian for lunch (the husbands name literally translates to Horse of God) Mexican in the afternoon, American at dinner, and Phillipano for night. It was really good! I have no clue how we kept it down though. I was definitely queasy by the 2nd one. Only in Chicago :)

Speaking of which we also went to this legit Spanish ward International Night with plenty of dances and food from all around the world (cough basically only from South America cough) It was super fun and had insanely good tamales.

We went Black Friday store contacting which honestly was boring and super tame. There's 2.8 million people in Chicago but there was no one at this mall and no one wanted to listen. It was quite sad. Although we found these rockin' Lady Gaga boots and had to take a picture. 

We taught plenty of PNIs (now new investagators yay!) and contacted a lot this week. It still blows my mind of how many people God puts in our path that is perfect for the gospel and they have no work so we can visit them whenever!! Like for example, I felt like we needed to talk to an older man at a bus stop. After a bit I noticed he had a Utah Shakesphere Festival jacket (I used to go to those plays ALL the time when I was a kid). Sure enough was THE director of Shakespearan Festival and he knows all about Mormons. Or my comp noticed an older Philippano lady on the bus, sat down and talked. After a half hour, apparently her husband recently died and she was just thinking about what happens after death. My comp gave the entire Plan of Salvation on the ride there and were meeting with her next week. She's absolutely ideal for this ward because theres 7-8 older widows. Definitely God sent. 

God is so merciful to us. I love the iconic verse "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be open unto you."  Life is great. Im off to the Zoo. Have a great week 

Sister Emily Coley 

True to the Faith: Happiness and Service "Others seek only to have fun in life. With this main goal, they allow temporary pleasure to distract them FROM lasting happiness. They rob themselves of enduring joys of growth, service and hard work." "You will find that the true key to happiness is to labor for the happiness of others." I love this idea and its SO true. 

Photos 1. Cutting the turkey for Thanksgiving 2. We went Black Friday store contacting and found this rockin' Lady Gaga Boots 3. Mexican Hat Dance 4. Us excited for Christmas

Week 22 - Chicago

Nov. 13th - 20th 
Hi everyone! 

Happy Thanksgiving!! Enjoy spending time with the people who care about you the most: your family. I will most likely be tracting and feeding the homeless that day. 

This week was transfers which always boggles my mind of what is life and how everything gets turned around. My new companion is from Gilbert, Arizona (she even knows my cousin) and loves talking to people. She's also was recently called to be Mongolian speaking which means we go to Mongolian less active members homes and they slowly teach her (and Im trying to learn too. Mainly because Im bored out of my mind but its a hard language to follow). The crazy part is I think the Lord keeps cancelling our appointment with investagators by having them become randomly uninterested, sick or super busy just to make time for my companion to learn Mongolian. We will be prepared to teach a lesson then they cancel on us last minute. We call up one of our Mongolian friends and that was the only time they could meet up this week. The Lord definitely works in mysterious ways 

Nothing really spectacular happened this week, just finding, teaching and recontacting. A cool moment weve been working with a heavy Catholic man named Patrick who visits his crippled wife in the nursing home that is 2 hours away from his home. He found the missionaries because he heard that we have the ability to heal people. This week after many prayers and fasting (he even fasted with us) we had a break through. His issue was he ran to his Catholic priest whenever we say anything thats different than the Catholic church believes and we debate a lot. Our lesson was straight up the priesthood authority, the Aposity and to stop running to your Catholic priest and just pray. Needless to say, we were praying hard. We walked him through the Bible with several scriptures that proclaims the apostles were given  "power and authority" to teach, heal, cast out devils, baptized, etc. We then came to the problem of "there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism" so which church has it? And to my surprise, without hesitation he said "this one, right here." Upon further asking him, he says "I did want you asked and prayed this morning. I dont know what came over me when I said that, but a wave of electricity filled my heart. I know this one is true and I will be baptized." This is the true church. Only this church can bring you happiness and joy that will swell within you thats undeniable. This church sure ain't easy to live, but its the best way to live your life. 

Have a great week!! Let me know if you need anything :) 

Sister Emily Coley

Amos 3:7 compared to Jacob 4:4-6 it's a classic but very powerful in comparing prophets in the Bible to the Book of Mormon 

Photos 1. The view of the city from the 97th floor of John Hancock buildings Womens bathroom (were too cheap to pay ) 3. Us inside Trump Tower lobby 4. Sis Pruitt and I