1/26/15 Week 46

As some of you may know, I am now currently 20 years old as of yesterday! Wahoooooooo!  I'm so old!  Actually I did wake up today with a new back ache....ah! Anywho.. so my comps couldn't decide what to do to celebrate my birthday.  They were actually making it more complicated then it needed to be because really all you need to do is make me a waffle and call it good, but they went all out.  I have the best comps ever!!!  They woke me up at 6 by attacking me in bed and when I got up and opened the door to go into the kitchen and I was about hit in the face by numerous donuts hanging from the ceiling! Then they announced that in honor of my cupleanos we were going to have an epic donut eating competition! So we gobbled them down without using our hands!  Haha - it was a great way to start the day.

Devouring dangling doughnuts without hands  - The dry and unhealthy version of bobbing for apples!

Other than that, I went to church, got some great Mexican birthday brazos (definitely better than gringo hugs), and then taught a freakin AMAZING lesson to our investigators from Guatemala!  It was one of those where it's so hard to keep my mouth closed because the spirit is just throwing sooo many things in there that they need to hear.  It was awesome!

All I really wanted on my bday was to have an investigator at church, and to have a super spiritual lesson …and both happened! Yippee :)  Another great thing about my birthday is… that the celebrating is still not over!  Today I'm about to seriously embarrass my zone leader by eating more pizza then him at Cici's! Muahaha! He really didn't know what he was getting into when he challenged me!

That's A LOT  of candles.  Holy Cow, I'm almost half my mom's age!

 As far as the work goes, WE SET A BAPTISM DATE! Yaya!! This area seriously has SOOO much stinkin potential its crazy! The date we set is with a young mom that told us she wants have the spirit in her life all the time the way she felt it when we taught about Joseph Smith. Talk about being prepared…!  The only problem is...sigh....she's currently breaking la ley de castidad :(   But I have faith in her.  Our investigator Raul came to Church yesterday.  He loves the people at church and feeling the spirit, but he still doesn't get why his other baptism wasn't valid.

I don't have time to describe all of the awesome experiences we had this week! Ok so when I get back ask me about the lesson where Raul cried, and the miracle of Abel and Liliana. I promise I will give you all the details!  We are hoping and praying that if all goes as planned this week, we could have as many as 4 or 5 baptismal dates set! There is so much to do and so many prepared people here in my new area :)  Quite a contrast from my old area.

I have a HUGE testimony that when we follow the spirit, miracles happen:) we couldn't do this work without it! LOVE YOU! 

<3 Hermana bonny

1/20/15 Week 45

Me defying gravity in my new Christmas PJs

So I'll give you one guess how I would describe this week.  Yep, you guessed it… CRAAAAZZZYY!! Have you heard that from me before??  Crazy but good :)   The changes have been fun and exciting to mix things up a little.  This week basically we just made it a goal to try and get to know all of our new investigators.  It's been a lot of driving around, which isn't my favorite...especially since it's been like 75 and sunny these past few days! Texas weather is so weird, but hey I can't complain about warmth!

To answer your question Mom, yes I'm senior comp ...not that that really means much.  If you haven't noticed I'm not really the bossy type.  Plus I don't think that pulling the sr comp card would really go over well in this trio.  The mission continues to teach me the right and sometimes wrong ways to try to have a close, successful, and unified relationship with sisters that don't always agree with me and that have mood swings as often as I do!   I've finally learned sometimes to just shut my mouth be comfortable with silence!

But because I am the companion with the most seniority it's kind of my responsibility to be the example ALL the time, but think I can do it!  I've really been focusing on just giving EVERYTHING to the Lord.  I know that’s how we are happiest!  And that doesn't count just for missions :)

My new comp is Hna Beckstead and she is awesome! She is still super new and is a breath of fresh air at times because she loves getting to know me and talking about "normal people things" like my life back home.

Anyways, right now with my old and new areas we have about 15 investigators! Wahoo! I honestly still don't even know half of them, but from what the zone leaders say they are pretty awesome.  God seriously is helping us out SO much here! Example: the ZL's were "positive" that they gave us the right address to contact this golden family (la familia Rosales) but we were driving around and we could not find it anywhere.  Finally we decided to pray (why didn't we think of that sooner?), then we got out of the car and just decided to start knocking some doors.  The 3rd door we knocked on a man comes out and is super friendly, listens, asks a bunch of questions, tells us we can come back whenever we want! Were thinking "sweet, good find!" haha then we ask what his last name is and he says "oh were the familia Rosales". Haha - God obviously really wants us to convert these people!

It's so cool, because that was just a tiny little tender mercy.  As missionaries they seriously happen so often that half the time I don't even realize how much God is really helping us until I take a sec and reflect on it.  But when I do, it's so obvious!! I'm willing to bet that it's kind of the same thing with all of you "normal people" at home. If you are ever feeling kinda blah, just take a sec and think of all the "tender mercies" that God has helped you with, or given you.  I promise you'll find something! And I also promise you'll feel less blah afterwards :)

LOVE YOU GUYS!

<3 Hna bonny

1/13/15 Week 44

AHHHH!!   CRAZINESS!!! Are you ready for this??  Craziest week of my life!! Ok so Tuesday afternoon Hna Mango and I were just out doing a normal missionary day, when we got a call from the AP's (assistants to president) never a good sign...and they tell us that we are being emergency transferred because another sister had to be sent home for surgery.   Hna Mango is going to Fort Worth and I am going to be staying here, but will be in a trio with Hna Beckstead, and none other than Hna Limón, who I trained just a few months ago.  So we had to pack up our whole apartment (because they are basically closing my area) and be at the mission office the next morning at 8!

But guess what? There's more! it just so happens that this is the same week that the sisters were switching apartments and areas with the zone leaders, so not only did I just get switched into a trio with a companion I just had, but I got switched into a white wash! We have a whole new area that none of us knows anything about.  So I now have all my old investigators plus all the new ones that I have yet to meet.  But I'm super excited about it!

And then that same day that we were moving everything in, one of our new investigators (we've never met her) calls us and tells us that she fell and broke her hand and needs a ride to the hospital!  So we called everyone and finally found her a ride. We spent like 5 hours with her at the hospital! (Oh her bones were pretty much sticking out of her skin! And it was kinda cool looking...)

We toured the Taj Mahal of football stadiums, Cowboys Stadium, literally a few minutes from our apartment.  Many consider this "Holy Ground"

It's one of those weeks where just too much has happened so I feel like I can't start because otherwise this email would seriously be like 10 pages long if I told all the details of the emotional roller-coaster that happened this week!

So I'm just going to end it with my testimony that I know this is the one true church of God on the earth!! I know it with all of my heart! I know that He knows me personally and that everything that happens in this life is just to strengthen us.  He knows the person we are capable of becoming  :) When hard times come your way, just look at it as a time to prove yourself. He will be there every step of the way.  I know that is true! I love you guys!

<3 Hermana bonny

1/6/15 Week 43

Wow, I'd better be a pretty flippin awesome person when  I get home! Want to know why?  When you are a missionary, the term "New Years Resolution" has a completely new meaning! Thinking back on my pre-mission life as a normal human, I remember I set basically the same New Years goals every year: Get straight A's and don't get fat. I would work on them for like 2 weeks, then put them in my designated junk drawer and then forget about them just like 99% of society.  

Well, as a missionary, we have none of that!   At the beginning of December, President Ames challenged us to fast so that we will be able to think of good goals to set for the coming New Year, to really pray and take a good look at who we are and who we want to be.  Then last week we all fasted as a mission so that we will be able to be more consecrated, and be able to actually set meaningful goals to help us become the most powerful missionaries/awesome people EVER!  Man....my brain is literally sore from all the introspection that has been going on this past week.

Anyways so long process/story short, Hna Mango and I have now cleaned out all the junk from our minds and apartment, and are sooo stoked to be the better missionaries and people!  We are going to baptize this transfer! ...we aren't quite sure who at this point...we have lots of people to teach but nobody that is really is making any changes and progressing.  BUT we are working sooo stinkin hard! Like for reals, I'm ALWAYS exhausted!

William kind of told us last night that he actually has no ganas to change churches, he was just meeting with us because we are pretty girls. We decided to drop him.  It's sad but it's not….another long story. Anyways, we have been WORKING SO HARD!  I have never worked this hard before on my mission, I'm always exhausted!  But because of the experience of another sister in this mission, I've just been constantly singing the words to the song "Praise to the Man" where it says "SACRIFICE BRINGS FORTH THE BLESSINGS OF HEAVEN'.  We are putting it ALL in and I can't wait to see really what God can do with me.  :)   There is much we don't know, but we know that one way or another we are going to see some serious miracles this month. 

We had a loco New Years Eve.  We followed the white handbook and went to bed at 10:30 Wahoo!  BUT I decided to make things exciting so I set my alarm for 11:59. But when it went off I was too tired to do anything crazy so I just said…

      "Hermana Mango."
       No answer.
      "Hna Mango!"
      "What..." 
      "Happy New Year"
       "Ok"
       Then we went back to sleep.

Pretty crazy right?? Haha but actually earlier that night was awesome because we happened upon a New Years party with a Guatemalan family and they let us right in, fed us delicious banana nut bread, and pulled up chairs because they wanted us to teach them! Turns out they had all been investigating in Guatemala and just went to a temple open house and want to learn more!! :) Sooo awesome! We are going to start teaching the ones that live here next week.  Haha.  they lied to us like 4 times that all the food we were eating had coffee in it.  They obviously are familiar with our church! It was hilarioso!

I love you all so much! I know that if you want more in your life all you have to do is give more to God.

 Love Hermana Bonny

"All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given us"
-Gandalf