Week 1 Sept 23, 2013 - Illinois

Hi! :)

I hope everyone is doing supah dupah.

This week was a little crazy.. So I'll just start with Monday..

Monday i flew into Chicago around 12 i think. Met my mission president in the airport and then guess what. They handed me a Book of Mormon, said we're going on the subways or whatever they're called, and you are going to give some one this Book of Mormon. I felt really nervous! And kind of lame because EVERYONE ELSE was suuuper excited. Dah. So we go. And i try talking to this guy sitting next to me and it's just not working haha. So i talk to this lady, Mary, she's super nice.. but wouldn't really let me talk haha don'tcha love those. I tried but anyways another sister ended up giving her husband a Book of Mormon and Mary was an environmentalist, so we only gave her one :P After that we toured the city a little bit, i took pictures by "The Bean" haha it was cool. People were taking pictures of us... We were in a group of about 40 brand new missionaries haha. Then we ate Chicago style pizza at the mission home. The crust was yummy :) we had a little meeting and then went to bed.

Tuesday: Woke up, had an interview with President Woodbury, he's super nice. He said how much he loves getting visa waiters, bc they only send super hard workers/ really committed missionaries to Brazil. It made me feel good:P Then we went to meet our trainers! It was soo cool. We were in the chapel and he called up the trainer to introduce the area and then he called up the new missionary, the first pair was us! hahaha. While i was walking up, he's like oh yeah, and this is our Visa waiter. ha. it was cool.. So we got out new car. Which is very new... should i tell you? It's a 2014 Chevy Cruze. They love us i guess. haha everyone opening an area got a new car. Super sweet. So we drove for about an hour to Antioch. Sister Spackman is the best. She's been out for 6 weeks, so technically only like 12 days longer than me haha. But she's a great trainer. She has 6? brothers and 1 sister. She wants me to marry her brother ha. We had dinner at a members house and it was super sweet :)

Wednesday: we met a man named Carl, he seriously walked up to us and we started talking annnnnd he's gonna be baptized. He doesn't know it yet though ;) we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. (spoiler alert: he has haha) So he's been really cool. We have an appointment with him i think Wednesday, bc his wife will be home:)

...Saturday we went tracting. HOLY GOODNESS it was fun:) we went to inactive members homes and then tracted around their neighborhood. We met Paul, Danielle, and Eric who we sort of have appointments with:) they want us to come back and i'm super excited. We also met this Marines guy... Don't know how interested he was but we gave him a Book of Mormon :) On the way to our dinner appointment, i really wanted to knock on this ginormous house so we pulled over and did ha. Right when we got back to the car a Police Officer pulled up with his lights on.. D; he got out and looked either really out of it or maybe that was just him:P he asked us what we were doing so we told him, you know, we're missionaries, we were knocking a door.. and he was just so confused. haha so i was like we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Have you ever heard about the Mormons? And he was like, What's a Mormon? We are just another religion, we're Christians.. He was not getting it haha. Finally he asked, so your car isn't broken down? Nope. Okay have a good day... Hahah it was really funny! He was so awkward.

Sunday was sweet. Church went by so fast! And guess who said their first prayer in Sacrament meeting...... ME. Yikes I was so nervous. But it was good. Then we went home and studied for 4 hours and then went to our dinner appointment. We were do study for 4 hours a day.. 1 for personal, 1 for companion, 1 for language, and 1 for our 2nd companion study. Haha sooooooooooo much fun :) I learn a lot though. Then we went to our dinner appointment and they were the sweetest, the Searle family:) they have 2 kids at home and their personalities are just super fun. I really love the ward here. They are all about missionary work and it's great.

Monday is today, and after we are done emailing, we are going to go on a hike:) I'm excited.

I love being a missionary. I love all of you, and i hope everything is super :)

Love, Sister Holden

Pictures: (sorry about them being sideways)

THE BEAN ;)

I'm in Chicago YO

Cool view from a bridge