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.

General Conference Week

                                                                                                     Apr 4, 2016   
Hello everyone,

     General conference was amazing for the few who don't know what it is,
it's a semiannual event where the prophets of our day speak to us by
broadcasting from Utah to all over the world. They give us counsel on
how to better ourselves and to give us revelation for our days from
God. I loved Elder Patrick Kearon's talk on helping refugees, I may
want to come back from my mission and participate in this kind of
work. It felt so strangely good when they gave the number of
missionaries out in the field, about  75,000, and to think I was one
of those thousands.

     The rest of the week was good. We had a zone activity which was good
because I got to interact with missionaries I don't usually get to
talk too. While looking for someone we found this young man who wanted
us to help him find girls he could date. He was super excited to hear
that we had a ward with just young single adults. He also wanted us to
meet up with him later and to bring girls with us. Interesting but I
don't think we will be seeing much of him.

     We were at the church building and there was a riot across the street.
We found out more about it apparently there was no school that day
because students and teachers were protesting against the governor for
taking money away from schools and into banks. We found out later on
Facebook that one of the members of our ward was there. She is a
school teacher for special needs kids, her and her family calls me
Keith because I remind them of a student of hers named that. They say
it's because our personalities are similar, both of us are laid-back
and chill, but I wonder.

     This week has been rough for biking. It has been raining a lot this
past week so the roads are always wet. One time I tried to brake but I
only have front brakes so I was bucked off the bike, flew over my
handle bars and landed on the road. I was ok but later that day we
were riding to appointment then the chain fell off my bike then it
started to rain extremely hard and hailed too so I had to treat my
bike like a skateboard and arrived at the appointment soaking wet.
Luckily I have three bikes to use in this area; one a missionary left
here, one the mission president gave me (it's huge and pretty slow),
and one I got from an investigator named Marco (easily the fastest
bike I have but it's also the bike without the chain now).

     Speaking of Marco, he's going to get baptized at the end of May he's
been meeting missionaries for almost a year and now he finally has a
date when we get baptized, at this point he is already a member. Also
we will be having transfers and I will have a new companion tomorrow,
Elder Rojas, I know nothing about so he will be a complete surprise.

     Wow, a lot happened this week, I will just finish it up with this
spiritual thought. I was reading Alma 15:6-10, this is when Alma was
talking to Zeezrom who at this point is very sorry for the things he
had done to Alma and is suffering from a fever. He asks Alma to
forgive and to heal him. Alma says that it is through your faith in
Jesus Christ that you will be healed. Then something clicked in my
brain, those words just seem to hold so much power despite me hearing
them probably a thousand times. Through your faith in Jesus Christ you
will be; healed, and not only that you can find truth, you can find
peace, you can find strength, basically without faith in Him nothing
works even ordinances found in the church needs to be coupled with
faith in Christ. Baptism, temple sealings, priesthood blessings, even
praying about the Book of Mormon needs faith directed towards Christ.
It seems now the gospel to me is so clear but I know I will find
something new that will continually increase my understanding of
gospel and clear it up some more, I just hope it happens soon.

That was my week, I hope yours was and will be great.
                                                                                    Love, Elder Agre

Then in this picture, half my face is blocked off I can't wait 

Photos of our district, the different sides of us
 

Pictures of our entire zone I didn't like how I looked so I asked for a retake

Easter Fun

                                                                                                               Mar 28, 2016

Hey everyone,

        I hope everyone had a happy Easter.
  My Easter week started off on a act of service. We helped a sister who
  feeds the missionaries all the time move out her old refrigerator and
  move in a new one. It actually wasn't too bad we had to remove a few
  doors off but refrigerator are a lot easier to move than I expected.
  This sister has 2 daughters, one who loves missionaries and other who
  doesn't but we were talking about old shows we watched as kids and the
  daughter who doesn't like missionaries joined us, connection through
  TV shows! Who would have known?
       While on the bus we got a call from this guy we used to visit named
  Jesus (pronounced Hesus in Spanish ). I actually met at least 4 guys
  named Jesus out here in Chicago. We haven't seen him since February
  and he wanted to invite us over. We came over and one of the first
  things he did was invite us to go watch Superman vs Batman with him.
  No! I wanted to see that movie we told him we couldn't as missionaries
  so he told us that after we were done with our missions he would take
  us to a movie, awesome in 18 months I will take him up on that offer.
      Our friend Marco came to church. He got off work for Easter and next
  Sunday so he can watch general conference. He also said that by April
  he will change his work schedule to be able to come to church all the
  time. Yes Marco! And church was amazing yesterday we had a baptism of
  someone in the primary, wow! It was a party in the most reverent way.
  The primary kids sung at the program, the boy getting baptized gave a
  musical number, what confidence. There was food at the end that the
  ward made, it was as almost as big as the Christmas and New Years
  party.

  The last week of March! Wonder how it will end? Hallelujah!
                                                                                              Love, Elder Agre

Different Views are Interesting

                                                                                                   Mar 21, 2016
 Hi Everyone,

       This week has been a little slow. We only met with members save for
  one investigator appointment all week. Which is good because it means
  more food and also we get to be better friends with them, which is a
  focus our mission is trying to implement, because we will find more
  people if we have members helping us out.

       Also we met a Jehovah's Witness minister who was very opened to talk
  to us and we were able to find more about his beliefs, he's not
  interested in the Church but now I have a better understanding of
  them. Also we met a member of the Scientology religion ( I think it
  would be considered one), he told us (and I don't know if it's same
  beliefs for all members) but he said that he believes that humans
  aren't smart enough to get to where we are now without the help of
  extraterrestrials. He believes that the spaceship with advanced
  technology crashed in Roswell and we used reversed engineering to use
  advance our own technology. My only question is even if we did get
  help from alien technology how does that take God out of the equation?

       All was interesting but the best thing was zone conference. We talked
  a lot about working with members and we had a departing testimony for
  all of those leaving this transfer. One of them, Elder Gillis, my zone
  leader, gave his testimony and I actually almost shed a tear because I
  realized that I would miss him so much. I also realized that other
  people were crying in the audience. And it becomes he just loves
  everyone, he has welcomed my first day and has never stopped making me
  feel like a lifelong friend that's the kind of attitude I want to
  have.
  That was my week, can't wait to see what happens this week.

                                                                                                         Love, Elder Agre

March Madness

                                                                                                           Mar 14, 2016

  Hello everyone,

        How are you? My week has been interesting as always. I got to
  drive a car again, and me and my companion have decided that we will
  never live in a place with one way streets. It took us 10 minutes to
  get home, and 30 minutes to park the car. It's definitely nice to
  drive a car though, so much quicker than biking everywhere.
       This week has been totally biking until Saturday. We were helping
  out with a move when so I locked my bike on a gas pipe connected to
  the house we were helping move out and my companion, Elder Hanna, said
  that was a crazy place to lock my bike and locked his bike on the
  other side of a street on a fence. We had to go to the back of house
  then we came out to the front and we see this guy sawing through Elder
  Hanna's bike. We stopped him and said that he was sawing through it
  because it was on his property. So right now until we can fix up his
  bike, we'll have to walk/bus around.
       On the missionary work side of everything, we had an elders
  conference, where all the elders meet up in the area. It was so much
  fun, at one point we had a the mission president's wife talk to us
  about personal hygiene and fashion, it was interesting.
       Also we had a baptism with an investigator of the other
  elders. Her name is Olga, it was awesome to attend because me and
  Elder Hanna have seen her progress almost from the beginning, we even
  have attended a few lessons with her. Also this Sunday an investigator
  finally came to church, Armando Salgado, a man who is looking for a
  job right now but we were able to convince to come to church. This
  Wednesday we are going to the church employment office with him to get
  him some job help, hopefully he keeps coming to church too.
      That's the hope, I hope your week has went well.

                                                                      Best wishes, Elder Agre

All the elders who attended elder conference, not all the elders in the mission, just in the area.

Person on left, Jimmy, Olga's son. The two in white are the missionaries who taught her, Elder Jones and Elder Rejas. They both are in white because the smaller one was doing the ordinance and the taller one helped get Olga submerged. Then there's Olga. Then there are me and Elder Hanna.