12/18/17 Hasta Luego Gurnee,12/11/2017 Trio, 12/4/2017 Exceedingly Great Faith, 11/27/2017 Acción de Gracias

12/18/2017 Hasta Luego Gurnee
Que tal? 

I cant believe Christmas is in one week, time is flying by. 

First of we got our transfer calls yesterday, I will be getting transfered down to Blue Island in the Chicago Zone. My new companion is Hermana Marple, she was Hermana Lee's old companion. Last transfer we even joked about me going with Hermana Marple next becuase all Lee's companions end up being companions! Im stoked!! Im gonna miss Gurnee though we have so many great investigators and the ward is just awesome. Yesterday church was packed too, ive never seen that many people there before. Hermana Lee is gonna continue doing some great things up here, I cant wait to hear about it all. 

This past week was straight up insane. We had exchanges, then immedietly right after we had emergency exchanges so we werent with our assigned companion from Monday night until thursday. Then friday we got a call in the middle of personal study from one of the Hermanas who had gotten their car towed and had to be at the temple in 2 hours. So we dropped everything and drove an hour to pick them up, them drove another hour to the temple. We barely got them their on time. Talk about stressful. Then we drove an hour back in order to get to a meeting in time. We had no time to get ready for the day, and pretty much hadnt gotten any sleep the past four nights so we looked like zombies all day. It was funny.

Saturday was a lot more calm, we had time to do some planning and preperation for transfers. We had two christmas parties. One for Lake Villa then Gurnee. They were at the same time so we ran back and forth in order to be at both. Hispanics know how to party! They had the best food, and after they all dance! It was so much fun watching them get into it. 

Since we are covering two wards we have twice the meal appointments aswell. Yesterday we had FOUR dinner citas. I thought I was going to die. And if you try to cancel they get super sad, so we endured through and somehow survived the night. Overall this week was pretty good, taught lots of good lessons, met lots of cool new people, and made some great memories. 

As president would say "things are great, and geting better."

Feliz Navidad 

Con Cariño 
Hermana Cutler 

1. TRIO

2. The only district picture we ever got #Gurnee3

3. Chick-fil-a con miembros

4/5. Me killing Elder Litke in airhockey (I also killed him in minigolf too)

6. She copied me

7. My Investigators

12/11/2017 Trio

🎶"I got two phones, one for Lake villa, and one for Gurnee..." 🎶 -Hna Lee

Okay let me explain.  We are now in a TRIO!!!!! Our new companion is Sister White,  she is serving in the Lake Villa 1st ward (Brandon im serving in your old ward!). Her companion had to go home early so we now have two areas, two phones, two cars, and one busy week until transfers. Its crazy, we literally have to run from cita to cita in order to fit them all in. 

Being in an English area is such a culture shock. We have to take off our shoes at members houses, they feed us dinner and dont expect us to eat more, they eat with us, they dont feed us dessert, and they only speak ENGLISH! During the closing hymn at church Hna Lee turned to me and was freaking out becuase she didnt know the song. One of them asked me to say the prayer and I had such a hard time, I said half the prayer in spanish and didnt even realize it. Also I keep forgetting Sister White (aka Hermana Blanca now) doesnt know any spanish, we were at a Noche de Hogar and I was chatting with a member, then I turned to her and asked a question in spanish. But she just stared at me, so I asked again, and she still stared at me! Then the member reminded me she didnt know spanish, it was so funny becuase I didnt even realize I was speaking in spanish. Fun times. 

Last week I talked a little about this new family who came to church. Let me just say they are so amazing!! We went over for dinner and a lesson last monday, wednesday they came to a baptism, thursday their hijas went to youth group, then saturday they helped us with a big ward service activity. Then came to church again. And they love it, their hijas are my favorite too. The youngest reminds me so much of Colby, shes my little buddy now. 

Overall pretty solid week. We were able to attend a baptism, and most of our investigators ended up coming. It was so packed! Then we had zone conference which was so good. Lately our ward has been trying to get more involved with service and helping out the community. We came up with this great activity to make 500 cookies then go hand them out to people at the Grocery Market. It was so fun to watch little kids face light up when we gave them a bag of cookies. One lady stopped and talked with us for a little while, turns out she helps the church with family history work! She has been working on the 1950s census and just finished Spokane Washington! She isnt a member but really respects our church, and might stop by sometime. It was neat. 

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas season, take time this week to serve someone around you and let them know you care (:

Love
Hermana Cutler 

1) less active helped us hand out cookies

2-3) zone conf

4) CHIEK!!!!! One of my friends from school who got called to my mission 

12/4/2017-Exceedongly Great Faith

We have been working really hard the past few weeks on having exceedingly great faith to find new investigators, but nothing really has been happening. A lot of our current investigators were getting busy with the holidays so we havent been able to teach as much as we would like. 

Then Sunday came! Blessings on blessing on blessings. First we got a call from our disctrict leader, telling us there was this less active family that lived in our area who would be at church on Sunday. The wife is a member and has been inactive for 16 years! She has been wanting to come back for a while now but didnt know how to. Her brother called our district leader and gave them her number. He the then called her and she was so excited. They came to church yesterday for the first time! Her three daughters and husband arent members but they want to learn and are excited about our church. 

Then a few weeks ago while we were on exchanges Sister Valentin and I went tracting in North Chi. We started in one direction but after a few houses we had a really bad feeling and needed to leave. So we headed back to our car. We got in but I felt that we needed to knock this one tiny street. It was getting dark but we did it anyways. I might have mentioned it in a past email but the last house we knocked this guy named Cristobal came out. At first he wasnt intrested at all, but once he found out we were Mormon he got so excited and started talking about all his friends back in Mexico City who were Mormon, and they had this BIG beautiful temple. He was so excited and told us to come back. Well yesterday he came to church!! And he loved it!! He wants to bring his son next time, and learn more from us. He was so touched by everything you could really see it in his eyes. 

After church we were in the hall all excited about our new investigator when a member came up to us and told us it was really time for her family to start taking the missionary discussions, and she wants us to come and teach her kids this week! We are really excited about all that has been happening here, and because we have exceedingly great faith like our mission president talks about the Lord is blessing us and leading us to those who are ready to learn. 

I hope everyone had a great week!! 

Love
Hermana Cutler 

1. Frisbee golf

2. Merry Christmas 

11/27/2017 Acción de Gracias  Hola todos, hope you all had a great thanksgiving! 

Thanksgiving was so different this year, but fun. First we went to a members house who lives alone and doesnt have any family in town. She made us these really good enchiladas, amd we had a good visit with her. After we went to Obispo Suastes house and he had about 20+ people there, it was a party! Thanksgiving isnt really a holiday mexicans celebrate, but they try to adapt the culture so we ate half mexican food half american food. After they turned a "fútbol" game on because most americans watch football after they eat, it was funny! Overall it was fun stopping by members houses and visiting with different people, and seeing how different families celebrate the holidays.

This week was kinda slow, most of our investigators were out of town for thanksgiving or had family in town so we couldnt meet with them. But we got a ton of good tracting time in and meet some really cool people. Then last night we had la noche de hogar con un investigador at a members house, it was so good! It was the first time we tried doing it here and it was really sucessful, we are going to try having it with other investigators too. 

Overall it was a good week. I am grateful for all that I have and for the opportunity to serve a mission, and come here to Chicago. 

Love
Hermana Cutler 

1. COSTCO!!!!!!

2. Thanksgiving with a Member