Parking and Spiders and Spiritual Weed

Wow. One more week down and it was pretty fantastic. I got one of my first funny mission stories so I'm going to tell it. 

We were teaching this guy, let's call him J. So we were teaching J and his friend, and it was going really well. They were both really interested in what we had to say and the spirit was really strong. His friend was Christian but told us he liked hearing our lessons because the brought the holy spirit. Anyways we were probably about halfway through the lesson when somebody came and started knocking on the window. J went to the window and told them we were currently having bible study. They asked if they could join so J said it was all good, and two more people came inside the room, and guy and a girl probably in their late 20s. They were brother and sister. The girl was like "you are Mormons! I know all about them, and Jehovahs witnesses!" 

So then she started to try and teach us about the religion that were apart of, and so that was exciting. We told her that we were trying to give a lesson that focused on Jesus and how he is the center of the religion. Then her brother asked us if we would tell him the bad stuff WE'VE done, and the bad stuff Joseph Smith had done, and about the Book of mormon. We told him none of us are perfect. And then him and his sister started bashing with us and the spirit left instantly. I was like what happened.

J was defending us though by telling them he knew that "John Smith translated the gold book" i was trying soooo hard not to laugh because John Smith is the dude in Pocahontas if I remember correctly. But ya know at least he was defending his beliefs. Then the brother literally started rolling a blunt during the lesson! This boy was about to smoke weed during the lesson! Elder Bolton was like "Can you please smoke that outside? It hurts my lungs." His sister got mad because it was J's house and "weed is from the earth, so naturally it's of god." So anyways they left and we told the original people about how the spirit left because of contention, and kinda made a lesson out of it haha. So yeah that was one of the more exciting things that happened. 

So the reason for my subject. The spiders here.... Oh my goodness. Many of you probably know how much I hate spiders. And there are so Many! Right outside our apartment there's like this massive web with like 20 huge spiders. For this reason Illinois would not be my choice of living, but a great place still. I cannot leave my window open very well at night. It stresses me out 

Also, the parking here. Words cannot describe. Let's just say it took us 30 min to park last night. It was a disaster  sometimes I don't know why we have a car, but then I remember cause our area is huge like I swear it might be like a 4th of the mission. So we need it it's just parking is an adventure. Also parallel parking is our new life. I wish I had paid more attention when Bundy made me practice at the temple. It's crazy stuff 

We met a couple of new people this week, and even had an opportunity to teach this guy a restoration lesson on the UIC campus! So that was really cool 

We've been eating dinner with members of the YSA or S.A. pretty much every night. I Love eating dinner with the members cause we get to know them all and they're all really awesome people! The only thing I don't totally like is that they take us out like half the time, and it makes my fear of the dad bod seem closer and closer every day. We have a treadmill on the first floor of our apartment so I run two miles every day so I try to stay in shape but these members are showing no mercy haha. So far I haven't gained any weight so still hanging in there but I fear the day is coming. But I love eating with the members they're super fun and awesome. 

Contacting is still not my favorite, but I'm getting a little better I think. Our method is to ask people to take pictures of us together and then we talk to them right after, so I'll probably have a ton of random pictures but it does the trick. 

This morning we went to the beach of lake Michigan and I went running two miles and then I played ultimate frisbee with my district and it was really fun. Sand ultimate frisbee is harder but still way fun. 

We went to a dinner with a member named andrew and got some Chicago deep dish. It's pretty good but I'm sorry people I still don't think it's on that Dominos level! I just don't get it! The pretty just make it upside down like the crust, the pepperoni then cheese then sauce. Like why?! Still though it's pretty good I just don't understand the hype it's like star wars  

I feel like that's most of the cool stuff that happened this week! Chicago is awesome and I'm still alive so I reckon I might live a little longer. love all of ya! 

Sunrise at lake Michigan 

Lunch with the elders 

Member drew this of us

Attempt to talk to someone by having them take a picture of us