11/26/14 Week 37

Ahhhh!! It was one of those weeks where I was sitting and pondering in the car what to say to ya'll and there's just TOO MUCH! I can't decide.  So since I have very limited time and too many long stories that require far too many details, I decided to go with a bulleted list for this week.  If there's any specific bullet that strikes your attention, then make a note of it and you can ask me for all the juicy details in nine months k? :) 

1. We set a baptism date with William! Woot woot!! :)  He's our investigator that has the thickest Puerto Rican accent EVER.  I thought I was good at Spanish until I met him. Apparently the sisters before had been trying to set a date for awhile but he never accepted, until Thursday! Yippee!  The spirit was so strong while we were testifying about the Book of Mormon and then afterwards Hna Lund asked him and he said yes!  I'm pretty positive he's not like many others that say yes just to make us happy...no. this baptism is happening!
2. We had the best lesson EVER with our investigator (well technically the elder's investigator, because she speaks English) Lily.  Her story is just crazy, and man do I have a testimony of Joseph Smith. That guy was awesome! Right after we finished talking about his story and sharing the First Vision, she burst out into tears! Then we all started crying and hugging.  I've only been in a couple other lessons in my whole mission where the spirit has been that strong.  It was amazing.  She's getting baptized on the 27th of December!
3. Our investigator Nora came to church with her whole family.  She's got a baptismal date for the 13th of December :)
4. I was literally fed out of a TROUGH full of food!  I'm getting really sick of frijoles….
5. Our mission is doing this thing called "The Living Christmas Card" where we get to go to the homes of people that members refer us to, sing a Christmas song, then read some verses from the Bible and give them a little gift!  Sweet!  I'm sooo stoked for Christmas. 

Lots of love! The church is true!

Love hna bonny

11/20/14 Week 36

The new Dream Team!  Hermanas Lund, Bonny, and Mangelson

Hello Arlington!!  I've had my first transfer so finally feel like a full fledged missionary. Woot woot! And I LOVE it here!  I live like 6 minutes away from the Cowboys stadium, 7 minutes away from the Rangers stadium, and 8 minutes away from Six Flags amusement park... none of which is actually any fun when you are a missionary.  Really it just makes for TONS of traffic every Friday and Sunday! 

But seriously, Arlington is awesome! I don't even know where to start. My comps - Hna Mangelson is from Ohio, she's a runner, and a serious go getter.  She just got done being trained but she is seriously training me right now!  Sis Lund is a crazy, quirky, musical theater major who loves scaring the snot out of me!  Pretty much every time we walk into our house at night she grabs me and screams bloody murder because she thinks it's funny how I jump!  Anybody got any good ideas to get her back?  I seriously need something good..muahahaha!  I feel like I'm going to have lots of funny stories from this transfer!   Hermana Lund has an amazing testimony!

 



Contacting and teaching is a little strange though with a threesome. It has seriously felt like with the 3 of us, we just walk in, outnumber them, smack 'em with the spirit, then leave and they don't even know what hit them! Haha - having 2 comps is just a blessing! 

My apartment is sooo nice!  Its massive. There are three of us but still not one cockroach.  Yepee!  We are all tricked out with a gym and everything!  I feel so spoiled.

 Saying good bye in Fort Worth really stunk.  Tuesday, Brittany (our good friend in the YSA Ward who always came out with us) took us out for Greek food (: yummm, then Hermana Hernandez  invited us over for her famous tacos!  In most cases I’m not too fond of double dinners…but I couldn't say no.  And while we were there Itza wrote me the saddest/cutest note about not leaving right before her baptism.  It was heart-breaking  ):  I had been working with her family my whole mission to get them to come back to church.  Then Itza turned 9 and she became our investigator.  We were able to get the whole family on board with coming back to church so Itza could get baptized.  When I left they had been coming for a month straight!   Itza's baptism is this Saturday…I'm so stoked that its happening, its just really hard to not be able to be there.  But at least they are on their way to becoming an eternal family. Ahh! I love them!

Any ways, after that we went over to the Merinos who I hadn't even told I was leaving…ya that was really unfun!  Lots of hugs and tears.  Especially with Arleth.  She's like my sister!  Sniff, sniff  ):  But I can't WAIT to see the family's baptism picture on the slideshow at Zone Conference.  I know it will happen!

Ok, enough with the sad sappy goodbye stuff.  Arlington - This area has only been open for 1 transfer so we don't have too many investigators right now.  We have about 6 and there is SOOO much potential here!   This week has been pretty darn crazy just getting settled and getting a feel for how we all teach, and how it works best with a trio.

I've only met 2 of our investigators so far.   One is named William from Puerto Rico and I can't understand a thing he says!  Apparently it’s a thing there to leave off the last half of their works…ah!  He's going through a really hard time right now,  because his wife just died from cancer.  So now he's trying to understand where she's at.  We've definitely got answers for him.  The other investigator I've met is Daniel and we just found him my 2nd day here.  We were trying to see William, but he wasn't home so we knocked on a trailer and Daniel let us right in! Apparently he'd met with missionaries before…how 'bout that?    We then had the most powerful lesson on the restoration I've ever had on my whole mission!!  I can't even describe it in words.  Afterwards he said he wants to be baptized and gave us all his mom's info so we could go teach her.   It was honestly one of the best lessons on my whole mission, like a spiritual slap in the face!

In case you don't know me very well, I LIVE FOR WAFFLES!

We're also apparently working with a bunch of less actives!  Yay!  Hay un gran espacio en mi corazon para ellos!   I LOVE  the ward here! We have dinner lined up every night for the rest of the YEAR!  Man..oh I'm gonna get fat.  All the little girls in our ward call me Elsa, I think because I always wear gloves with my hair in a long braid (see pic), but I've convinced them that I have frozen powers!  Hehe!  I love ninas.
   
But seriously, based off of everyone I met yesterday this ward seems really into missionary work!  That is definitely something I'm not used to.  There are so many families helping the missionaries.  I wish I could tell you the specifics, but honestly right now there are so many new names, faces, schedules, houses, and life stories, my brain is going into overload mode so now I can't remember anything!  Seriously though, every time we drive up to someone's house (and I'm the designated driver....again), its "Ok, who is this?"  "Oh, it’s Alfredo, the Dad, who's meeting with us because he's a friend of Hno Jimenez, the one with the wife who's short with black hair. Remember?"  Ya, so far I've had like zero idea what's going on, but Hermana Magelson and I have just been going with it and the spirit has been making up for my poor melting brain!

love you all TONS!

LOVE HERMANA BONNY

11/10/14 Week 35

Becoming a missionary has really brought out my serious side...NOT!

Fort Worth South has been wonderful for me!  There have been some ups and downs, cockroach infestations, skunk friends, wild coyotes, and extra terrestrials.  **warning - literary sarcasm alert**  There have been tears, heartache, and sorrow, but also inexplicable joy and love have been felt within the sacred boundaries from Seminary Street down to the rolling country fields of Joshua.  But alas, after 8 blissful months together, the time has come for us to part. I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!

I know I made that a little more dramatic than it needed to be...mostly I just like using the word "alas".  But hey it's a big deal for me! I've served half of my mission in this place!  It's quite bittersweet.  What stinks the most in that I'm going to miss the baptism by 1 week of the Hernandez daughter who I've been working with my whole mission.  Now they've come back to church and the girl is getting baptized!  Yeah!:) I kind of suspected I would miss it, but I'm still sad about it.  I guess I'll just be grateful that now she can be saved in the Kingdom of God!  After all, that is the whole point.
 

My last pic with the Merino Family:(  They came to the Mission Pres fireside! 

I'm getting transferred to Arlington and I'll be in a trio.  Apparently, the place where I'm going to live is right by the Dallas Cowboys stadium and they call it "The Mansion" - oo la la:)   My first transfer!!…I'm kind of nervous, but also super stoked!  My new address is at the bottom - WRITE ME.

Almost...

It was all I could do not to just dive into this barrel - REECES!

I really don't even remember what we did this week.  I remember that I had my first pomegranate, and now I officially have a new favorite food (besides waffles).  We found SIX new investigators this week! Yipeeeeeee! And the great thing is that they aren't six normal investigators that say "Oh ya i love God. You can come back and si Dios quiere voy a estar aqui."(*God willing, I will be here).  Oh no, they have questions.  They are looking for something, it's amazing!

One of them is named Michael.  We were stopping by to visit an investigator and they weren't home, so we decided we would walk the street before we left for dinner.  It was like a Liahona moment, we just started walking, turned up a random street, and he was the first person we talked to! He said he used to be very into the church his sister preaches at, but now he's started feeling that a bunch of stuff they teach isn't true. He started asking us tons of questions about what is the purpose of life and all that good stuff that we as missionaries LOVE!  So we set up a return appointment with him, but then we found out that he actually lives in.....ARLINGTON! Coincidence? I think not!

The church is sooo true!

Love Hermana Bonny

1225 Vincent Street #1111 

Fort Worth TX 76120

11/4/14 Week 34

I'm not gonna lie, I've been in Fort Worth for a VERY long time.  Sometimes it feels like I've been here my whole mission, and then I remember, oh yeah, I have been here my whole mission!  To be honest, I've been a little excited to move on…until this week happend....:)  We had some serious miracles! Like the kind that you always hear missionaries talking about, but you never really believe them.  Well guess what?  THEY HAPPEN, and amazingly in our case, all within a few days!

#1 - Our lunch cita canceled so we tried our backups and nobody was home.  It was like 2pm (aka dead-time) so we decided to open up our ultimate source and try some "formers". We just drove to the first name that stuck out to us, "Maria" - haha...Spanish speaking missionaries will get why that's funny:).  We knocked on her door and she answered and we had only just started with the small talk when she burst into tears and told us to come inside.  Then she was just hysterically crying (it was a little awkward..) but when she finally regained herself enough to talk, she told us all of these horrible things that are happening in her life right now and how she just wants to find peace somehow.  Ahhhh - PREPARED!   Basically we taught one of the most spiritual discussions EVER! And she's for sure coming to church on Sunday:)

 

Hotdog anyone?

#2- So we went to a house trying to find an Erika, but for some reason, when they opened the door the name Elsa came to my mind instead...so I said "Hola, esta aqui Elsa?", which got me a weird look and a "no" from Erica's 16 year old son.  Long story short  - we didn't teach Erika, but because I accidentally asked for Elsa, we decided to look for and actually found a person by this name in our magic book (I do love the movie Frozen..maybe that was it).  So we went to her house and on the way we talked with her neighbors who are currently going through a change of faith and want to meet with us again (sweet!).  But then when we got to Elsa's house she answered the door and we started talking, and then out of nowhere she started telling us how depressed she is, and that we should come in!  Uhh....ok. Hna Limon and I just gave each other that "lets just go with it" look.  So we sat down and she started explaining about how just 3 weeks ago her daughter committed suicide and how she wants to feel peace and know she will see her again.  Her story did kind of break my heart, but she, like Maria, is also very PREPARED. 

It pains me that these two people are just so sad.  But the great thing is that as missionaries we are pretty much holding the recipe for happiness in our hands at all times:)  Being able to share this message with people who I think are prepared enough for it to change their lives truly is a MILAGRO.

#3-Our famila Hernandez came to church so Itza is officially getting baptized!  Yayayayayayayay!!  I almost jumped out of my seat when I saw them come in.  I just love them SO MUCH! 

So many other amazing things have happened this week, but sadly I don't have time to write them all! It's just one of those weeks when I really just feel like Alma 26:12:) I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

LOVE  HNA BONNY:)

I've never been this excited about pengiuns!!