Spanish? Kind of.

Hmna Diaz-Bonilla: the final farewell :(

So this has been a good week! I'm still getting my feet under me and getting to know the area. It's about 3x the size of my previous area, with probably less hispanics. We have a little Spanish group that attends a big English Ward, and most of the Spanish members don't even need English translations. This week we lucked out and didn't need to translate, but we'll see how next week goes. My new companion Hmna
Craner is super great!

I ran into Hmna Yep from Aurora at
the women's conference! Happy surprise!

I really like the people here. To be completely honest I was super scared to go to an English ward, after being in 100% Spanish for over a year. But to my surprise, English people are nice and I can talk to them and it's ok! And I know all the words to the hymns without reading the hymn book! :) One fun change is that as HTLs we'll be covering both English and Spanish missionaries. So on our exchanges we'll be bringing some English sisters to come teach our Spanish lessons! I'm actually super excited, it will be a great opportunity to get to know some of the sisters in the mission, not just hermanas.

The main people of the week:

Irving and Maria: awesome investigators! Maria is a powerhouse- she read 5 chapters of the Book of Mormon in 2-3 days, and loves coming to church! She just has some marriage papers to figure out, and she can be on track for baptism! Her son Irving is one of the sweetest souls I have ever met and one of the reasons I think I was sent here. He is in his mid 30s and has schizophrenia. He is half polish half Hispanic. This past week he completely gave up coffee (he is 5 days clean!) and is working on giving up smoking!

Edgar: less active that actually lives in the other Chicago mission, but works in our mission (we are right on the border of our mission) so we teach him at work during his break. He is awesome. And Guatemalan.

Not-the-best Selfie

Delgado fam: less actives. We had a really cool lesson with them reading from the Book of Mormon . It was the chapter about the 3 nephites and how they became immortal.. it was really cool. We are making them a Book of Mormon reading calendar so they remember to read, and giving them a treat if they read every day this next month. I love missionary work. :)

Carolina: sweet investigator from Mexico. she is super in tune with the spirit. We watched the 20 min restoration video and she said she felt something very good in her, and she knew it was true.

Fatima: she is from Argentina, and is on date for baptism! We just need to get her to church.

Adan and Azael: roommates, both from Mexico. Adan is a Messianic Jew. So they has been interesting to teach him. They both have a lot of potential and desire. And they come to church! That helps a lot.

That's about it! Love you all!
Hermana Hokanson