1 Out of 3 Ain't So Bad, also, Members are Awesome

                                                                                                            Jun 13, 2016
Hey Everyone,

         It's been an interesting week. Full of strange events and miraculous
blessings. Last week I talked about I was excited for 3 people; Jaime,
Emily, and Maria.
         Earlier Jaime had texted us some pretty weird things
about drinking and etc. So on the day of the appointment we brought a
member to have back up in case something went down. Jaime's daughter
answered and said her dad wasn't home, luckily our house is 2 minutes
away from his and the member was 5 seconds away from so we all went
home and we gave Jaime, a call. He answers and says his name was
Gabriel Sanchez and that Jaime doesn't exist. So then I asked, "Don't
who have we been texting?" And he answers with "I don't know, wrong
number". It should have been frustrating but at this point it was
another humorous turn of events.
Maria unfortunately keeps not having time to meet with us because she
has to take care of the baby but that means the baby is still alive
which is awesome. Emily was one of the highlights, also the 1 out of
3. She works at the mall with one of the members, Jessica,  (they both
are great friends now) and she is so down to learn about the gospel.
We had an awesome Plan of Salvation lesson with her and Jessica was
such an awesome member present, she was the one who invited her to
church and Emily seemed down.
That was all Tuesday, definitely our busiest day.
          Then we get a call from our bishop to go visit a
member who moved in the area a month ago and just recently found got
in contact with the church. So we visited Dora, such an amazing person
she would have been at church since week 1 but she didn't have the
information of the church or a ride. So we asked Jessica, the VIP of
this week to help us out one more time with getting Dora to church
since she lives really close to her. And she did, Dora was at church
and she just seemed to fit right in. End of the story without Jessica
our week would have been way sad.
          We also had zone conference, nothing is better than
hanging with 30 other missionaries and your mission president for 6
hours and being fed with spiritual nourishment. I was so spiritual
stuff, I couldn't even eat dinner. I had too though because Jessica's
family made us dinner, Jessica also made the missionaries lunch during
zone conference. (Jessica basically made this whole week). This was
our president's last zone conference with us, we get a new one at the
end of June, doesn't seem so far away. His last possible words to me
as mission president was "Elder Agre, I'm excited for how the rest of
your mission will turn out". I'm usually excited all time and I didn't
think I could get more excited but lo, and behold every fiber of my
body was saturated with excitement.
          This was my week, I'm still way excited and hope you all
have something to be excited about.
                                                                                             Love, Elder Agre

We did our zone activity today, it was so much fun. We had a scavenger hunt, one of the things on the list was a 4 leaf clover. How we found it is:

Me- "I have never seen a four-leaf clover in my entire life. Oh, wait I found one"

I have a feeling I'm about to get lucky this week.

3 New Investigators, 2 Cannibal Little Girls, and 1 Perfect Plan

                                                                                                      Jun 6, 2016
Hey Everyone,

          Summer is here, my favorite season for now and forever. 100
days of heat until back to 265 days of Chicago winter. I had a lot of
cool, fun, weird, and worrisome experiences this week.
          One night we receive a call from a member who told us about
a lady in the hospital whose 8-day old daughter is about to die and
asked us to go over and give her comfort (the lady was Catholic and
was worried about her daughter not being baptized before she passes
away). So we went over the next morning and it was a little heart
wrenching for me to see such a tiny baby in the arms of her crying
mother. I also got the chance to translate for a doctor who wanted to
tell the mother about the situation a little bit more. The baby has a
chromosome defect so her heart, brain, and body is all has problems.
The baby has the possibility of living of one more month but then
after that who knows. The morning before me and my companion
researched and studied about the message do share with her about how
children are saved in Christ and it seemed to me one of those times
where the veil between life and death seemed to blur a little for me.
Such a huge message of hope. The Plan of Salvation is becoming my
favorite thing to teach now because it's so perfect, I've come to
realize that everything is based on our free will, even in the end, we
choose which kingdom we go to because we choose now how we live our
life based on the knowledge that we have. They accepted the message of
Plan of Salvation full heartedly and we will see them this Tuesday to
see if they will continue hearing the message.
         Flash forward a little, all the missionaries were helping out
setting up a party for a little girl. During this time the birthday
girl and her cousin (both are about ages 3 to 4) are going around and
playing, at one point me and my companion for the day, Elder Seger,
got bombarded by them. During dinner, they started eating Elder Seger
alive, then one of them started licking me, luckily I was wearing a
rain jacket but man, little kids are vicious. Elder Seger was wearing
a white shirt so he got spaghetti sauce bite marks all over it.
     On Tuesday, we contacted Jaime, a man who lives way close to our
house (when we park our car at night we can see his place across the
pond next to our home). We considered him our miracle for the week but
he accepted the Book of Mormon and said he would be glad to have us
over. Yesterday we texted him to sent up an appointment with him
tomorrow then he texted us back saying "Sure, I will also have beers
and how many of you will be over, I'll have girls over for each one of
you". Sigh, we will see if he's serious, a less active playing around
with us, or just crazy but this Tuesday will also have something else
to look forward too because investigator named Emily whom we have had
trouble getting another appointment with, had called one of the
members and asked "hey, when are you guys coming over?" So we have
Jaime, Emily, and Maria (the mother of the sick child) all this
Tuesday, tomorrow is going to be fun.
     I have been feeling bad because lately I have been able to write
about any cool missionary experiences so I'm glad this week has been
different. I hope your week has been great.

                                                                                                       Love, Elder Agre

I Need to Stop Telling People my Parents are from the "Costa de Marfil"

                                                                                                  May 30, 2016
Happy Memorial Day,

     I had this thought (the above title) last Tuesday as we did our
service of English classes in the library, which is one of my favorite
things to do now. The "Costa de Marfil" is Spanish for Ivory Coast or
Côte d' Ivoire as it is formally known. Because it seems once people
know where my heritage comes from they think I speak French which is
not the case at all. Last Tuesday when we entered the library to start
the class, one of the sister missionaries came up to me and said,
    Sister Missionary:"Hey, Elder Agre, you know how you can speak
       French?"
    Me: "Like barely"
    Sister Missionaries: "Well we have a French student today and you are
       going to teach her, have fun"
    Me: "Wait what?"
     So that day I taught both a Spanish and French student at the same
time. They were both really good at English but explaining words was a
bit of rough. I could do it fairly well in Spanish but in French was
kind of hard. She asked me what a storm was, I thought I was using
words in French to describe what it was but when she seemed more
confused I just drew her a picture of a thundercloud and rain. Then
she asked me about the words "looking over", she then described what
she thought it meant, in French. I knew what she said was right but I
couldn't tell you why.
It was a bit rough but I'm way excited for next time.
      In other news, we were doing some finding and we found two
former investigators and hopefully we are able to get more
appointments. We also found a less active and he invited right in. We
were able to have a really spiritual lesson with him, it was amazing.
He didn't come to church yesterday but I really think he felt the
Spirit. No new investigators yet but perhaps next week we will find
the one, I have my hopes up.

I hope your week was great,
                                                                                                  Best wishes, Elder Agre

I'm Not in Chicago Anymore, also, NO PAPAYAS

                                                                                                                                 May 23, 2016

Hi everyone,

     I have a lot to say about this week as promised some good experiences,
some things I never want to experience again. First I learned I'm
allergic to papayas, Monday night I had some homemade papaya ice
cream, I had 3 cups of it, the next morning I was horrible; my stomach
was killing me, I couldn't stand for long, had a really bad headache,
and I was so tired all day. Tuesday morning is when I moved to Gurnee,
and they already had me working. We teach English at a library, every
Tuesday; we just go over how to pronounce words.

     I try to help give a blessing but I had to sit down during the middle
of it, kind of embarrassing. I also slept in the car a lot  in between
appointments, but by the end of the day, I felt way better. Goes to
show that the cure for missionaries is just hard work. We went to the
temple twice, what a huge blessing. The first time we went as a
missionary zone to the temple and participated in sealings, (a sealing
is when families go to the temple to be sealed together for eternity,
people who passed away can be sealed through proxy). Every missionary
got to play a part, I got to be a proxy for a son, and the mission
president and his wife were proxies for the parents. The day after our
ward was doing baptisms for the dead and so we got to help out
confirming and baptizing in Spanish and English.

     I actually got to visit my old area for a little bit and I thought I
would feel sad about being back in my first home but I actually felt a
lot of hope both that the missionary who took my place would do a lot
of good for the area and that I could do a lot of good in my new area.
We have no people we are visiting because our last investigator got
baptized as soon as I arrived so me and Elder Hincha will be searching
high and low, far and wide for the ones the Lord have prepared for us.

     I'm super excited to be able to write next time about miracles of
finding people in our area. Hope your week goes well.

                                                                                                        Love, Elder Agre

My Last Days in the City

                                                                                                         May 16, 2016
Hey everyone,

     First off, Marco, our investigator, is so ready for baptism. He knows
everything, give him a topic and he can talk hours and hours about the
subject. The literal only problem is that he works Sunday but all he
has to do is talk to his boss, the only thing that needs to happen. It
has been a little rough for him because work has been crazy ( the
manager, the person who was helping Marco get his schedule changed,
died suddenly of a heart attack) so we are having our fingers crossed
he gets ready before May 28th because that is his baptismal date.

     Also today is my last day in city of Chicago for now, I'm leaving
Chicago 3rd Ward to Gurnee, a place out in the country of Illinois. We
have a term here in the mission called banishment, if you are sent to
Gurnee, Woodstock, or Indianna then you are banished because these
places are way far away from downtown Chicago. I'm was sad to say
goodbye to everything and everyone I knew and love but I'm also way
excited because it will be like entering into a whole new world. My
new companion's name is Elder Hincha, I have only met him a few times
but he seems cool.

     I really loved Chicago 3rd with all the people I met, places I have
seen, and experiences I had so I'm extremely excited to see what
Gurnee has to for me, excited out of my mind.

That's what's happening this week. Sorry this email seems shorter than
usual, I definitely have more in my next email, probably but hope your
week was great and that he this one will be amazing too.

                                                                                                     Love Elder Agre

Pictures I took after church yesterday, I love all these people so much. I was sad to say good-bye.

My last zone picture

Where are the Members?

                                                                                                    May 9, 2016
Hi everyone,

       This week we have been trying to find the members in our area;
active, less active, and "do they even exist?" More often than not, we
found out they move away, up to 5-6 years ago. Other times we find
members who love having missionaries over but missionaries never do.
       We found a new investigator named America, we were trying to
find her cousin who ended up moving 6 months ago. At first we were way
excited and scheduled a next appointment. Then we taught her a week
later. The lesson was awesome, she even had a friend with her. But it
was so awkward, she hardly talked there were some moments of silence
in the beginning. Afterwards she and her friend invited us to eat out
with them which seemed even more awkward for everyone. Maybe she will
yes to everything and eventually be baptized, hoping. Our investigator
Marco is still on date but he really needs to start coming to church
        Got to call home which was amazing, I called in downtown
Chicago so I had a super hard time hearing my family, next time I will
definitely do it some place quieter. A miracle that happened is that
we went to visit a member whom we have never visited. She opened and
said she would not have opened the door if she was alone but
thankfully her son-in-law was there so that was awesome.
         Not much else to say for this week. Transfers calls are this
week so we will see if I stay in this area for another transfer which
would be 7 months and a half in this area or maybe I will go on to my
next and second area. I hope your week goes great.

                                                                                             Love, Elder Agre

Us in a park with our awesome member, Oneil. He wanted to go with us so bad too, he was handing out cards with us. He put a smile on everyone's face. I wished I was that courageous when I was that young. 

Here is us throwing up a new smoke alarm.

The Young and the Wetless

                                                                                                                 May 2, 2016
Hi Everyone!

      First off, doesn't matter where, the homes of investigators, members,
or even restaurants and if it is Hispanic, there is a 75% that there
will be a soap opera or a "novella" on. I'm not saying I'm a pro when
it comes to novellas but I find the only difference between a soap
opera and novella is the language they speak in.

      Anyways last week it was sunshine and sunburns now it's rainstorms and
cold nights. Chicago weather is so fickle. And all week we were riding
and walking in the rain for hours at a time. At one point I opened up
my suitcase and unpacked my winter gear because we were so cold this
week. We had a few things go on this week. So last Monday miracles! we
were wondering what to do and I thought to be myself maybe we should
go stop by this one member because we don't have her number anymore
and she hasn't been to church in a while. Then we get a call a second
later from a number I don't recognize. Surprised I asked who it was,
it was the same person I was thinking about, we got an appointment
with her two hours later. Another problem arose, she lived alone so we
tried find a man to come with us. We couldn't so we decided to leave
the rest to God and it was meant to be because when the door opened
her husband, whom I haven't seen in 2 months, was there. Blessings
from showing our faith!

     The rest of the week though was more faith showing. We spent hours
contacting and I got two people to give me their numbers, I didn't
trust the first one because after I get their information I always
repeat back to them back but I change a number or two to see if they
correct me. The first one didn't so I was skeptical. But when we
called the numbers two days later, I felt like Korihor(for those
unfamiliar him, he is a false prophet from the Book of Mormon who
became mute for asking for sign without first acquiring faith) because
it was the same girl who I contacted earlier so I was speechless. Then
this person trampled us (Korihor died from being trampled on) because
we left a baptism party earlier to go meet with her in the heavy rain
but she wasn't at the meeting place and she wouldn't call us back so
we rode back to the church soaked but unlike Korihor instead of dying
we got baptism/birthday cake and a ton of leftovers. I like our story
better. Oh yeah the second person also didn't work out but at least
she was close to our house and it was dry.

     We also had a Sports Night, the ward did at least, the missionaries
just watched but the turn out was great. We have a new investigator,
the boyfriend of a member, hopefully he will start meeting with us.
Yesterday we had a ward party and it was awesome, I was so stuffed my
stomach hurt. I had a lot of cool experiences in this ward; learning
Spanish here, getting hi fives from kids just because I learned their
names, being called "papichulo" (a nickname I hope doesn't follow me
around in the mission), but the coolest experience by far was when my
companion met someone named Gonzalez during church and asked him who
was his missionaries, then Gonzalez pointed to me and said to ask him
because I was his missionary. How cool to be in a ward for so long,
the members know exactly who you are and how far you've come. Only
problem is I had no idea who is Gonzalez and in our ward there is 10
Gonzalezes. So other than me checking our ward directory for 30
minutes checking to see who it could possibly be (still haven't found
him) it was a really cool experience.

                                                                                       Love, Elder Agre

Last Week of April

                                                                                                                            Apr 25, 2016
Hey everyone,

     What a wild ride! This week my companion Elder Rojas went home, he
left Saturday and now my companion is Elder Erekson. How strange I was
just getting used to my new one and then he gets switched in the
middle of the transfer. So I'm done with the car for now and it's back
to bikes. Before the mission president picked him up we all got to do
a priesthood blessing with him. Then our mission president said "I
usually give the blessing but when you come back from recovery, I
won't be here (the mission president is leaving in 2 months) but these
missionaries will be to welcome you back". Way powerful.
     This week was pretty OK. There was a baptism and birthday party
of a little girl in the ward. It was fun. We got to see Marco twice,
he read his scriptures and when he told us what he read, I was blown
away, he had gotten so much of it without help. When he asked us what
we were going to teach him I almost wanted to say we got nothing else
let's say the closing prayer. He is so ready for baptism, especially
after 1 year of meeting with missionaries, his baptism date is May
28th but if he can get his work schedule change, we may commit him to
an earlier date.
     This morning all the Spanish elders of my zone had a special
conference with President. Pretty much he told all of us to repent in
a loving way. What really got me is when he said "If you guys think
this is too hard than we move you to English program". Not I'm not
saying that any language is better than another, to be honest Spanish
speaking mission in Chicago would have probably been my last choice
for a mission but this is MY mission that the Lord has choose for me,
MY challenges to face, and MY miracles to be had. At that moment
moving to other mission seemed to be the worst thing ever. If I was in
the English program and if he had said "If English program is too hard
for you, you can choose to go Spanish", I wouldn't want to change, I
would never want to choose something different than the Lord's way
because what way is better than the Lord's way?
   In the end, that was the point I wanted to make, the best way is
the Lord's way. That was my week. I hope yours was awesome.

                                                                                               Love, Elder Agre

I found this magazine in a hair salon. Other missionaries said he looks just like me and I don't mind looking like Chris Rock.

My last photos with Elder Rojas.

My new companion is on my left. 

Is it finally here?! Spring/Summer!?

                                                                                                      Apr 18, 2016
Hi everyone,

     Here in Chicago it is 60 to 70 degrees all week long. And it's so
humid too I love it so much reminds me of home. If I am not sweating
within 5 minutes of being outside then it's too chilly for me. But
despite the great weather not all is well here. We found out what is
wrong with my companion 's knee. It could have been his Meniscus which
torn which would have been a 6 week recovery or his ACL which would be
a 6 month to a year recovery. Turns out it was both he jokes how it
wasn't the two cars that hit him but a fall down a hill which messed
up his knee. We don't know how long he has to stay. It's so weird
because he has been out as long as I have, I can't even imagine how he
feels.
     Despite this fact we have still been working as much as we
can. An awesome experience I had happened this Tuesday. Being stressed
out by not knowing and the fact that we had to teach in front of a
bunch missionaries the next day he decided to take a bit of a rest. I
decided to start my language study then remembered I needed to pray. I
then started praying then I heard in my head Koster Park. I thought
that's weird but grabbed my companion taking the thought as a
prompting and we went over to the park. And we met a guy named Omar
after knocking on doors for a while and we taught him the Restoration
and gave him a Book of Mormon and that was pretty much it. The rest of
the day went normally and I thought nothing of my prompting until our
zone leaders came the next night and talked to us concerning the news
of the knee. Then my companion said that despite being a missionary
for as long as I have and for having done so many great things in his
last area, he finally felt like one when we were talking to Omar, just
a regular old missionary thing. Whoa, I had no idea my companion felt
like that. The Lord's timetable is so cool, and it still amazes me how
He can make everything fit together just for one person.
     This week we also said goodbye to a member of this Ward for 30
years. And for each of those years she has been feeding missionaries
after church every Sunday but not fast Sunday where she makes us
sandwiches to break the fast with later. Her name is Hermana Curi and
she is moving to Idaho with her daughter. I can't even thank her
enough for 30 years, wow! Another Hermana said she would try to
continue the tradition we will see.

That was my week, some sad but still an overwhelming awesome week.

                                                                                               Love, Elder Agre

Hermana Curi is the one with the flowers, she will be missed by members and missionaries alike.

New, New, New, Everything is New

                                                                                                    Apr 11, 2016
Dear Everyone,

     Wow everything is so different. I got a new companion named Elder
Rojas and with him came a huge change. Elder Rojas hurt his knee last
Friday so now he has to wear a leg brace and crutches. So now we are
using a car which is interesting to use because there is a whole new
set of challenges we need to face; like finding a parking spot, one
ways, making sure we don't get towed, but we can look at each
challenge and mistake with laughter at the end of it, which there is
quite a bit of since I am the only one who can drive. Also we had
plenty of doctor appointments for Elder Rojas's knee, I hope and pray
that he recovers soon. I just got him as a companion!

      We also went to the temple on Saturday with members who we visited
often, one of them, Juan Perez, went to get his endowments for the
first time. It was so cool to be part of it. For those who don't know
the temple is a place where we can obtain many blessings that last for
eternity. Anyone who is a member and gets a temple recommend (it's
kind of like a pass to the temple you get after you complete an
interview with the bishop) can enter into the temple however anyone
can go on the temple grounds and visit the visitors center.  Every
time I go to the temple I am always reminded of how life doesn't end
after death or that it didn't begin at birth but there was way more
before and there will be so much more after this life.  I'm so happy
to have this knowledge and so sad when people choose not to accept or
reject this happy message. But all I can do is offer right? Everyone's
free to choose.

      Yesterday was one of the best Sundays I have had so far in the
mission. We stopped by this one member Georgina and her two daughters
and we were welcomed so warmly, Georgina gave us a bunch of little
treats from the store she works at. Then we visited the Tinocos after
not seeing them for 2 months. Apparently the father had changed jobs
and it was just like old times they even wanted us to come back so I
can try real "Mexican" food, apparently Taco Bell isn't real Mexican
food.

      That was my week, sorry I would have had sent this earlier but I was
driving quite a bit this morning, long but fun! Hope your week went
well.
                                                                                   Best Wishes, Elder Agre

Me and my new companion, I usually wear glasses but in the photo it looked like I had a lazy eye, so I went with no glasses.

All the treats we got from Georgina.