9/30/14 Week 29

This week, I have NO idea where all the time went, so this will be brief.  But basically Fort Worth is still the bomb!  I continue to love this area after 7 months...and another to go!  Next transfer will probably be the most bittersweet time of my life, or at least of my mission!  After serving the same people in the same area for half of your mission you get pretty attached.   At the same time I'm kind of getting excited for something new (it might just be my millions of mosquito bites though).

We decided that instead of trying to juggle a million investigators that may or may not ever be truly interested, we are going to start "weeding".  In other words, we are going to politely move on from of all the people who sit there and say "si" the whole time but never do anything.   And we are especially focusing on 1 thing: GET MARIA BAPTIZED!  She is sooo ready!   She texted us last night and asked which parts of the Book of Mormon she should read.  We didn't give her enough homework! Haha!  Also she asked us to pray super hard with her that her mom will sign her baptismal consent, because she can't wait to get baptized! eeeeep!!  I'll admit sometimes on a mission you wonder if you are even doing any good, but then you have people like her that just make it all worth it!  If Maria were the only person I helped convert my whole mission, I would be content, because I can already see how much this gospel has changed her life for the better!

I can't WAIT for general conference, and this time not just because of mom's cinnamon rolls.....although that does sound rather tempting.  Its the coolest thing to watch that stuff as a missionary because you aren't just listening for yourself at all!  It's like "wo that message will be perfect for so and so!" or "I have to make sure so and so hears this part".

Scrumptious and hearty mission breakfast

Neat story:   I was on an exchange with my Sister Training Leader (she didn't speak any Spanish...I felt kind of bad for her).  We had a lunch appt with Hna Hernandez, but when we got there her car wasn't there, so we called her and she told us that she had to go up to her sister's house.  She said that her sister-in-law who lives next store is going through a bit of a hard time and could maybe use a visit.  So we thought "what the heck, why not?"  We went and knocked on her door.  It turns out her husband is a less active member, but she used to go to church with him all the time and she really liked it!  Golden! Cha-ching!;)  But anyways, on to the cool stuff (this is all just background). 
   
She went on to tell us that sadly, her father was very sick and about to pass away .  So she asked if we could offer a prayer and ask that he could pass soon and be free of his pain.  So of course we agreed.  Since my comp that day spoke very little Spanish, I said the prayer and just asked that he could free of pain and pass soon, and that Ana could have peace.  Then we shared a scripture and left.  The next day she seemed super happy to see us, and she told us that 2 hours after we left her brother called her and told her that her dad had passed away at 1:30. That is right when left her house!   In our minds that is pretty strong evidence of an answered prayer!  Cuz I don't believe in coincidences! :)

love yall! 

love hna bonny


*These next pics are a little out of order but they are from last month when I had my Trainer training and I met my new greenie companion (or "daughter", as they say in the mission).

Who said that only trouble makers sit on the back row?

Welcome to your new area Hermana Limon!  THE FIELD IS WHITE...

9/23/14 Week 28

So we have a new neighbor, and he beats his dog.  We hear it through the vents and it makes it kind of hard to focus during studies, so I was just thinking about what I should do to help the poor thing.  But then I couldn't think of anything so I decided at least I could make it the title of my weekly email.  

So this week....I know I say this every week but ahhhhh!!!!  MARATHON WEEK for real! We didn't even teach that many lessons, but we had interviews with President, zone counsel, another meeting with President for all the trainers/trainees (awesome!!) the dentist, a fireside for our investigators, and a baptism for 3 primary kids that we ended up being in charge of.  Lots of stuff....but all good (except for the dentist)! 

I could go into detail about all of the meetings and such, but I think I might just tell y'all about all the wonderful people we are working with that the lord has prepared here in good ole Fort Worth. 

1. La familia M…..  You are all probably sick of hearing about them.  They are investigators that we have been teaching ever since I got here. LOVE THEM!  I call them my second family (like for reals they offered us a room in their small apartment).  They are sooooo close to baptism! The dad just need a little more work on the Word of Wisdom. 
2. La familia H…..: Another second family of ours! They are less active, but recently their daughter turned 9, so ding…Investigator!  They are super cool! The dad has a house full of ancient Aztec antiques that he loves showing us, and the mom makes cheeseburgers from heaven.  All they need is to come to church! 
3. Maria, Juanita y crecia: 3 teenage girls that asked us in our first lesson if they could get baptized! LOOOVE THEM!  Right now Maria is the only one who comes to church, but they will all get there soon:) She IS getting baptized in October!  Right now our obstacle is getting her to love Christ more than One Direction.. 
4. Monica: She is a cute Hispanic mom that is living here in Texas for 2 years so she and her kids can learn English. Her husband is a recent convert, so when she saw the missionaries at Wal-Mart, she flagged them down and said she used to cook for missionaries all the time in Mexico, and that they should come over.  Sad day for the Elders because she was in our area.  Hehe! And yes her food is DIVINE!  Any of you Spanish speakers fond of flautas?.... mmm.  But right now she is working to get baptized in October also. 
5. Dora: We found her when contacting.  We just gave her a card and made a return cita (which usually seem to fall through here), but the next week there she was with all her chairs set out ready to learn! Eeeep!  She's come to church a few times, but doesn't want to commit to baptism yet because she loves her catholic traditions...ya we get that a lot...but she's coming along! I know I say this with everyone but LOVE HER!  

So that is all of the people we are working with right now who are close to baptism.  And then there's a list that's way too long of the people who we meet with like once every 2 weeks when they actually are home for our citas.  And then also there are our less actives are also some of my favorite people ever.  Ahh!  I've just been in this area too  long! What am I gonna do at transfers!!??  
Any who-  love you all - the church is true! Just barley Hna Limon lost her wallet, and so we prayed and walked into the library and there is was. BAM miracle! Love it! I have the strongest testimony that they happen everyday:)

 love hna bonny

9/16/14 Week 27

This was a pretty fantastic week!  As of 8am yesterday we had SEVEN baptism dates!   But then the obispo decided to rain on our parade and said that nobody is allowed to get baptized on the 4th or 11th of October.....so this week we have a lot of date re-setting to do.

Here are a few highlights of this week -  Our ward had a HUGE fiesta for "Dia de Independencia"  where it's basically just a huge party for all of the 4th of Julys for every Hispanic country all smashed into one!  Sooo fun! Our ward (even though the majority definitely hails from Mexico) does have some very awesome families from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and other places that I can't remember.  And they all cook bomb food.  To represent America somebody went and bought fried chicken and just threw it in there with all the fancy rice and saucy meats...I thought it was funny. Oh how I love Tex-mex:)  

We got our dear Maria to come to church finally. Yay!! She's 15 and we've been teaching her for FOOOREEEEVVVER but she always has a reason why she can't come to church.  So we took matters into our own hands.  Saturday morning we went to this Stake clothing swap with her and her sister so they could pick out skirts.  We got them both super cute outfits that they were excited to wear the next day, which they did:)  Sometimes a cute skirt is all it takes to get someone onto the right path (hopefully a girl)!

love yall!! 

love hna bonny

9/9/14 Week 26

This week was a little bit on the strange side...seeing as how I can't account for pretty much any of what happened on Wednesday.  Haha - yep, we have the Word of Wisdom for a reason people! Drugs do STRANGE things to you!!  So I got my metal screw yanked out of my mouth on Wednesday and whatever drugs they gave me were INTENSE!  I have some brief memories of running around a self serve yogurt store, sampling all of the flavors and deciding it made sense to buy the largest tub I could and overload it with rainbow sprinkles because, according to Hna Limon I said they were "vewy pwetty".  I was pretty high.  Then the next thing I remember is waking up in the evening and freaking out because we were late for planning!  And also, I woke up for like 5 minutes so I could throw up all my frozen yogurt.  EEEEEWW!  

In case you can't tell, I'm pretty drugged.  Why else would I try to consume a metric TON of yogurt?!

So it was pretty exciting I guess....or just awful and strange.  But then Thursday it was back to work!:)  Yipeee!  And guess what?  We now have 5 baptism dates!  I'm REALLY praying hard that they will come through.  All of these people have the strongest faith and the strongest testimonies...just NO ganas para hacer nada (they don't act on it at all). I don't quite understand how someone could tell us that they feel the spirit and believe the church is true, but they don't want to read the scriptures. It just makes no sense! So if any of you fellow missionaries who actually have time to read this email have any advice in the "keeping commitments" area, it would be much appreciated:) 

The stress level of training is definitely going down.  We have more solid investigators and TONS to do!  This week was just a little hard on me physically.  My body feels exhausted all the time and I'm not quite sure what to do about that. Going from greenie to trainer has been an intense transition!  One of strangest parts has been the difference in my companions. Sis Black had a lot of mission experience and was very particular, quiet and reserved, but in some ways Hna Limon is like her opposite!  She's very open and talkative!  But she's super funny and we definitely have fun!  But the mission has taught me a lot about learning to have unity and work well with different personality types.  I'm also trying to work on being more bold with people.  I just have such a hard time saying things how they are because I don't want to offend anyone. I guess sometimes its just what they need to hear.

6 month sock burning party!  Woot, woot!

Cool, creepy story!! (But before you read you must promise to not judge me. Yes? Ok great you may proceed)   Last night I woke up at 3am and I just had this feeling like I should go check and see if the keys were on the counter...very strange and random thought to have at that specific hour.  Usually my thoughts when I wake up at that time are about whatever I've been dreaming about, which lately has been mainly Oreo milkshakes.  Anyways, I sat there for awhile but I just could not get back to sleep. I had to go check. So I did and they weren't there!  They were always there!  Then after some midnight searching I found them.  ha..still in the outside of the door (that's where the no judging part comes in).  I don't know what would have happened if I would have left them there all night, but all I know is that god really does protect his children:) 

Love ya'll! Until next week!

love Hna bonny