Chicago Week 9

 Hello from Chicago! 

   Well, I dont have much time today. But I just want to share that I know Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us. We are always within the bounds of His infinite and eternal love, no matter how short or unworthy of it we feel. I know if we turn to Him and to His Son Jesus Christ, we will feel of Their love and be filled with it. 

   - Elder Banister

 Also Shout out to my Aunt Kerri for sending me a box of goodies! I love you! 

Chicago week 7-8

 Hello from Chicago!

   It has been a good week. We have seen some pretty cool miracles happening here. One that happened is we met Ann! She has been having a bit of a rough time during the quarantine. She saw something on Facebook and reached out. We introduced her to the Book of Mormon and the peace that it brings. She is awesome! We are excited to keep meeting with her. 

   Another cool experience this week was some service! So we were contacting some people taught in the past and one person who answered was Claudia! Man, she is quite the character. She trains dogs on her 10 acre property, and has horses also. That's a lot of work! As she describes it, she's "not a spring chicken anymore," and is getting her place ready to sell. So we got to help! My favorite part when we showed up is one of the first questions she asked is "are you two city folk?" When we said yes, she was all like "oh this is going to be fun for me," or along those lines. Man, I love it when people make assumptions about the way I work. We spent the time cutting and dragging branches, one of my areas of expertise. So that was pretty fun! She even cooked us zone brats afterwards. It was a good time. 

   Another blessing from Claudia is her great bargaining skills. She calls herself the "bargain queen," and after talking with her, I agree! She said she has a friend getting her some 40 pound box of chicken for $15! So you know what I did? I told her to sign me up! So soon I will have 40 pounds of chicken to be cooking up on my new toy, the mini grill!

   I know that the work we are doing is right, and I can see the hand of the Lord in it. He still leads and guides it today. We have been given so many tools to share the Gospel in these latter days, and I know it has been prepared for our time. 

   Thank you all for the love! One scripture that has had a lot of meaning to me this week is Mosiah 18:21. Read it! It's super good! I'm working on memorizing it this week. 

   Elder Banister 

Chicago week 7-8

 Hello from Round Lake!

   This week has been great! One of the highlights I would have to say is the District Council we had. Its not very often I would say that! But the spirit and inspiration was flowing throughout this meeting. We focused on the Plan of Salvation and setting goals and plans. It was fantastic.

   We also had a district activity today, which was really fun! We did a barbecue at the park with my mini grill and cooked up some delicious chicken and pork chops, with corn, and watermelon, and chocolate pie, and drinks... it was fantastic. Then we played some frisbee golf, otherwise known as frolf. Good stuff indeed.

   Some of you may have seen a video that was on our mission page recently, with an Elder that may look a lot like me.... I can neither confirm nor deny that it was in fact me, but I hope that it was enjoyable! It makes me smile when I watch it hahaha

   We also had a lot of success this week with teaching. With the virus, we are not able to do any tracting yet, but anyone that was taught before and is in our area book, we are allowed to stop by their house. Looks like the times are softening some hearts, because a lot of them listened to our message! It has been fun, and I am glad to be here serving in the ICM.

   Thank you all for your love and support! And you are all lucky, you get 2 emails this week, I forgot to send the one for last week. Bet you thought you were off the hook, huh? "Oh good, none of that spam email junk from Elder Banister this week, he must have finally given up." Hahaha, not yet! 4 more months of it, so endure to the end! 

   Elder Banister 

Chicago week 6

 Hello from Chicago!!!

   Well kind of, I live in a place called round lake. This first full week here has been pretty good. It has certainly been interesting, and an adjustment for sure. But the good news is that the "weekly transfers" have ended and I will at least be here for another 6 weeks. So I can really buckle up and giterdun...

   We have had some miracles this week, especially teaching over the phone. Man, this stuff was unheard of for me just a few short months ago. Now we call people all the time and are able to share the gospel. One woman I was prompted to call picked up and I had a lovely conversation with her about her experience with past missionaries. She expressed her deep gratitude to us for the example we set for her boys while they were growing up, and how much of a struggle it was being a single mom (She was found a looong time ago). She told us about how she has been struggling with her health and has been trying to prepare her house to sell. Boom, service project. It's so cool to see first hand how the Lord is progressing His work, even in these unprecedented times.

   I had my doubts about coming back out, I'm not going to lie. But I have seen time and time again reasons that I did. 

   Today the Elders of the district went and played some disc golf! It was really fun! Also bought a grill, because I'll be staying here for at least the next 6 weeks, so it was necessary. 

   I hope you all had a happy 4th of July! Thank you all for the love and support!

   Elder Banister