Life As A Missionary And A Cleaning Man

                                                                        Mar 7, 2016

Hey Everyone,

     I just first like to say that rats are gross and if you find one in
your house it's just bad news. My companion and I dedicated almost 4
hours to cleaning out our closets. Doesn't sound big both our closets
are called the "abyss" because for years missionaries just throw in
their stuff that they will not bring with them. So it was packed with
junk but worse was that the rats left their droppings all over it so
nothing could be saved. So after 6 full huge trash bags, vacuuming,
and mopping with bleach/water solution, we cleaned out the abyss and
we were super grossed out. Absolutamente nunca quiero ver un ratón de
nuevo (I absolutely never want to see a rat again).

     Things got way better after that day though. We tried to find someone
we met during a finding activity but we instead found someone I
contacted and after trying to give him a Book of Mormon he said no
thank you and gave us $20 for lunch, we tried to refuse but he was
relentless. So we used for it for lunch.

     Also we have been some amazing lessons with an investigator with
Marco. He was found by missionaries almost a year ago and he wants to
be baptized and everyone in our ward wants him to be baptized but he
has to work Sundays. Lately he hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon
so we have been focusing on specific characters from the Book of
Mormon and he enjoyed so much the story of the Brother of Jared, he
told us that he would promise to read the assigned reading about King
Benjamin before our appointment tomorrow, how cool.

     While in the streets we asked a lady if she needed help with her
shopping bags then she said no then told us that her son was a member
of our church. We then asked if she would be interested in coming and
she said yes. How cool I hope her son will help us out. Also we were
able to find someone named Jorge who has a hard time hearing but we
had an awesome first lesson with despite having to yell in Spanish
almost the entire time. We have high hopes for them.

     That was my week I hope yours was great and hope this week will be
great for all of us.

                                                                                      Love, Elder Agre

           PS. Marco told us that grapefruit was not bitter but sweet at a
           certain time so he gave us grapefruit I almost died it was the most
           bitter grapefruit I ever had.

                           We found a one way sign and we pointed it up because that is the only way we want                                    people to go up towards God with faith

Hopefully Sunny Days Are Here To Stay

                                                                                                       Feb 29, 2016

Hey everyone,

    Spring is almost here hopefully, the weather is really warm right now
going to hit the 70 degrees soon and it will also snow soon too,
Chicago weather is so weird it can't make up its mind.

    For this week, we were able to find someone whose family are all
members expect for him and he seemed interested expect he works
Sundays (it is usually the case for all people we teach). I attended a
wedding reception for a member family, the Pillajos. Earlier that day,
the entire family, a father,a mother, and their son were sealed in the
temple. I'm not completely caught up on their backstory but they are
sealed for ever and that's what matter now. They are such a great
family, they showed us a video about how their people were descendants
of Lamanites and when they go to church they don't wear suits and ties
but are all white (even the pants) and have a sort of cape draped over
their shoulders and the mother always wears a long blue skirt and a
white shirt with a Aztec design. They are so neat looking.

    My district had a finding activity and I was able to give out 1 Book
of Mormon, 3 Libros de Mormon, and a DVD. What a great time hopefully
we will find fruits of our labor. I also got to give my first blessing
in Spanish, I would be lying if I say I didn't struggle but I was able
to say what was needed of me and I would be willing to do it again.

    That was my week, I hope you all have a great week.

                                                                                       Elder Agre

The finding activity with my district

I unfortunately don't have pictures from the wedding other than this one, but it makes a great companionship photo

My Baptizing Experience

                                                                                          Feb 22, 2016

 Hello Everyone,

      I hope everyone had a good week. As the title states above my
week by far my most interesting week. First off I can honestly say
that Chicago is the Windy City. Last week hit 50 degrees (that is
super hot for Chicago) and at the same time the wind was almost 20
mph. I got smacked in the face many times by leftover salt, saw trash
bags fly over 5 story buildings, and me and my companion got stopped
in our tracks by a gust of strong wind for a good 10 seconds. It was
so much fun.

      So the crowning event of this week can only be described as
awkward for everyone. First off all, the person who was baptized was
name Jillian. Jillian is extremely timid and quiet. Also she is
uncomfortable with anyone who she doesn't know so despite not speaking
very much Spanish she goes to the Spanish Ward because her grandmother
goes there. Also she was being taught by the sister missionaries. So
all the people she knows in the Ward is her grandmother and the sister
missionaries. She does know of us elders but only because the
grandmother invites over to eat and Jillian  never talks to us just
avoids us. So when the time came for her to choose who would baptize
and confirm her a member of the church it was awkward because she
didn't really know any people who could baptize her. When asked who
she wanted to baptized her it went like this.
Sister missionaries-"How about the bishopric?" Jillian-"no" (For those
who don't know, the bishopric is the bishop and his two counselors who
watch over the Ward and their members)
Sister missionaries-"One of the elders?" Jillian (with hesitation)-"ehh"
It wasn't a no and since she was quite tall and she has seen me before
I was decided to baptize her. The day of the baptism was pretty
interesting too. I had borrow white pants from the church and it was
way too tight around the waist but I fitted somehow.

     However all the awkwardness was worth it when we went in the
water. Surprisingly the easiest thing was to memorize the baptismal
prayer in Spanish and then she went into the water. Unfortunately not
her forehead so we had to do it again and this time all of her
submerged beneath the water. Next day we had to confirm too.
(Confirmation is when we place our hands upon a person head and give
them what is almost like a priesthood blessing but you bless them with
the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is the constant companionship of the
Holy Ghost). Usually you have quite a few people confirming but it was
only me and my companion, he confirmed. And despite doing all these
things with her, Jillian still avoids us like the plague.

     I never expected my first baptism to be like this, I thought it
would be someone I taught. Despite this Jillian does now have a place
in my life as the first people I baptized and maybe I hold a place in
her life or she will forget me when I leave this area, that will
probably be the case.

     However Jillian made the choice for herself to be baptized
and though she probably felt awkward during the whole process of
becoming a member, she is now, and she along with her grandmother can
be an example to the rest of her family, her mom is inactive and the
rest are nonmembers, about how the gospel can change lives and be a
blessing to her. I love this work and can't wait until I see someone
who I dearly loved and helped get into the waters of baptism.

     I hope you found this experience  amusing, I will probably smile about
it for years. I hope you all have a great week.

                                                                   Best wishes, Elder Agre                                                                                 

Happy Presidents Day / Valentines Day

                                                                                           Feb 15, 2016

Hola Everyone,

       Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. I did, despite not having a
Valentines yesterday, I did get to hear from one of the Seventies at
stake conference, Elder Stacey. He was such an interesting man, so
bold, so funny, so different. The rest of the week went alright, I'm
going to be spending my third transfer, another 7 weeks (we have an
extra week put on this transfer to match up with the MTCs), here in
this Ward but we have a two new investigators, Jesus (our fourth
person named Jesus yet)and Armando. A family that is showing promise
is the Tinocos, Jose in a less active member who wants his family to
get baptized and Anna is the mother who is showing a lot of interest
in the church. They have two kids one is 9 and other is about to turn
8 so we could be having 3 baptisms really soon.

        I'd just like to share a story that Elder Stacey shared with
everyone in the conference. He used to work in as the director for a
hospital back before the 2000s and there was a incident in Colorado
how there was young man named Matthew Shepard who was almost beaten
death for being a gay man. He was admitted into the hospital and Elder
Stacey and his staff watched over him until he passed away in the
hospital only weeks later. An historian from Colorado came over to
Elder Stacey to record this event in Colorado's history. And over
time, Elder Stacey really came to love and care for the Shepard
family. So during the interview, the historian asked if Elder Stacey
was a Mormon, to which he answered yes. Then the historian how he
could have such kind feelings and mourning for this boy considering
what the church preaches. To that he said he said my church teaches
about Jesus Christ and loving all people, despite who they are or what
they do.

         I loved that story so much, because it drives home to me the center of
the message all missionaries teach, Jesus Christ and his teaching love
one another. Elder Stacey made the point that Jesus never ever
approved of the sin and of course he despises sin but he did love the
sinner.

         I hope you guys will have a good week this week.

                                                                               Love, Elder Agre

Another Week In The Second City

                                                                                                Feb 8, 2016

     Hey Everyone,

          I have heard that Chicago has been referred to as the Second City
     but I have no idea why. This week has been awesome. It started off
     with me and my companion just knocking on doors for an entire day in
     the rain, it was pretty heavy and extremely cold but we were able to
     give out 6 Book of Mormons at least. So I would call it a successful
     day. The next few days just taught so much about priesthood blessing.
     Those not familiar with it is when you are given a personal blessing
     of comfort, peace, and health through someone carrying the authority
     of the priesthood. So many times we were told straight after how we
     answered a concern they had.

          In one blessing I said something to the effect of "the Lord
     will help you succeed in what is expected of you" and she told us
     afterwards she was worried about her final exams and passing them. At
     a hospital my companion blessed an elderly lady telling her that she
     will have work to do in the next life. Everyone there had tears in
     their eyes and the daughter of the woman told us about how her first
     daughter died when she was three so she was happy that one day her
     mother and her daughter will be reunited. Then Sunday we had a lesson
     all about priesthood blessing and other ordinances, I feel like there
     was a message to learn this week.

          I hope it's warm for you because here it's going to get colder
     hitting 8 degrees but hopefully this should be the last cold period
     before we get some heat here. Spanish is getting way easier as I was
     speaking one time I was able to get what I wanted to say without
     finishing the entire thought in my brain it was such a neat
     experience.

         This was my week, it was enlightening and I am sure this week
     will be too. Hope you all had a good one too.
                                              

                                                                                     Love, Elder Agre

Hello To February 2016

           Feb 1, 2016

Dear everyone,

    Hey happy first of February, everyone here in Chicago is a little wary
right now because February is supposed to be the coldest month ( it
was -40 degrees last year, they called it Chi-Beria because it was as
cold Siberia), but right now it's 43 degrees the hottest it's been so
far.

    However the warmer the weather the more people we get to talk to and
the less layers I have to wear so I'm glad for this kind of weather.
This week has been by far my most progressive week, I have learned so
much and experienced so much. One of the experiences that my companion
and I will keep with us for our entire eternal lives is a dinner
appointment with the members. We were talking about being member
missionaries and what it means to serve a mission when one of the
members start tearing up. After the lesson she came up to us
afterwards and told us that she doesn't know how we knew but we said
exactly what she needed to hear. And it still makes me emotional
thinking about that, there was definitely Spiritual  guidance in that
appointment.

    Another experience I had was just being on exchanges (when we for a
day temporarily switch companions with another pair of missionaries in
the zone for those who are not familiar with the term) with an elder
who will return home in April. I love being with experienced
missionaries because they teach by example so well, just by his
actions he answered my questions about spirit prompting and connecting
with people just by being himself. He also gave me wisdom but the time
I have as a missionary it fortified my resolve and I was so excited to
return back to my area and continue the work.

    I also drove that day for the first time in months. I forgot how fun
driving was and I learned I can still drive a minivan I thank my
family for having one since elementary school. Definitely my favorite
kind of car. Fun fact I was the only missionary to come out of the CCM
in November. And still I am. Also me and other sister missionary were
the only new Spanish speaking missionaries (she came with the other 14
new English missionaries from the Provo MTC ). So, in other words I'm
still the newest Spanish elder despite being out for 3 months and
perhaps for another few months. I think it would be fun 3 months later
to say "I'm the one of the newest Spanish missionaries" and start
speaking  in fluent Spanish.

    That was my last week in January I hope you all had a good end to
January and will have a great start in February.

                                                             Best wishes and Love,
                                                                              Elder Agre

 I forgot this picture that my district took. We love mustaches!