2/24/15 Week 50

So we woke up this morning and went outside to walk to the gym and there was a really weird sound.  I can't really type it out, but it was like "sshckkkk", just make that sound with your mouth and I think it should do the trick! Anyways so we walked out and it was ICING, not snowing, or sleeting or raining or any other normal liquid that falls from the sky, but pure ice!! Apparently it's a thing here.  All the streets are COVERED in black ice, and so until further notice our cars, our bikes and even our legs are grounded :( :(   INTENSE!  So ya, we will see how this week goes, but it's actually pretty frustrating because right now we really don't have time for this. Tim's baptism date is for March 8th and Jerry's is for the 13th!  And we still have to teach them both so much! Ahhhhhhh! Ya....I'm a little stressed...but (deep breath) I know God wants it to happen and he's not going to ask anything of us that we can't complete (see 1 Nephi 3:7)

IcE StOrM!          "V" for very frio!

As far as this week goes, all in all it was  pretty fabulous!  I honestly don't remember specifically why...but I'm just going to report my favorite parts  :)

We have this investigator named Bianca and she's been taking missionary lessons for FOREVER but has never agreed to a baptism date (as far as we know). Usually when we go over there her kids are crazy, and she's running around, then she feeds us something deep fried and we share a scripture, then set another time when we can come back and cross our fingers that it will go better. But this time we decided to bring a recent convert Hna Pierson to our lesson.  I love member present lessons!!  It was seriously the coolest thing EVER!  It's interesting how sometimes I don't even realize when I'm receiving revelation until after the fact.  Honestly, when we decided to bring Hna Pierson it was kind of a spontaneous last minute decision, but man, now I know it was from God!!

Meet Roman, a recent convert. He's sooo awesome!

Bianca hasn't gotten baptized because her husband isn't supportive of it, but Hna Pierson came in and she bore the STRONGEST testimony EVER about how she knew it was true, and her husband told her that he was going to divorce her if she got baptized.  She decided to do it anyways. Then she prayed with faith that the Lord would soften his heart.  A week later he came and told her that he loves her no matter what :)  He was actually the person that drove her to the exchange.  It was exactly what Bianca needed to hear!  The Lord doesn't only ask us to do easy things, if that were the case there would be no point to life!  We then set a baptism date with her for the 22nd of March!  She's still got a long way to go, but we are all praying sooo hard that God will soften her husband's heart.  I know we are witnessing a miracle.

This is what happens when you transfer into a ward just before Valentines Day.

Love you all! GO LOOK UP THESE SCRIPTURES: Mormon 9:13-19 (I think that's the reference...if its talking about miracles then you have got the right one - love it:)

<3 HERMANA BONNY

2/16/15 Week 49

Most people think that Valentine's Day is probably pretty boring when you are a missionary.  That's totally what I thought too, because lets be real, it's already the most over-rated holiday anyways...but hey! This was actually one of, if not my best best Valentines Days ever! Let me tell ya'll why... (isn't my Texan coming along great?;)

On Valentine's Day I was actually on an exchange with my STL Sister Vaha'i who is from Tonga and is sooo cool.  She converts the world and still barley knows English!   Ya she inspires me! We were on an exchange and the GPS broke (dun dun dun), every missionary's worst nightmare! So basically we ended up in this little trailer park contacting and handing out Book of Mormons...Books of Mormon...Books of Mormons...who knows.  Ok PAUSE the story for a sec - I have to tell you about our freakin awesome Book of Mormon challenge first.  Our zone leaders have all been texting and asking us to count up the book of Mormons that we have just sitting in our apartments.  Then they put all the numbers together for the whole mission and we figured out that we have....drum roll........ nearly 10,000!!!  TEN THOUSAND! One more time - TeN tHoUsAnD Book of Mormons just sitting in the apartments of all the Texas Fort Worth missionaries! So...since President Ames is the bomb he issued a challenge that we are going to give away ALL of them in 65 days! Why 65 days one might ask? See if you can figure it out and I'll tell you next week :) haha!  So we are "placing" them, not just throwing them at whomever we see in the street before April 18th!  That's 130 per companionship! So stoked!!  Also we are reading it in 65 days as well.  That's 8 pages a day for whoever wants to join us! :)

So the aliens can't read our minds...  (Did anyone see the movie Signs?)

Look at how long my locks are getting!

Ok back to the story...phew that was exciting! Anyways, 
so there we were scouting out the trailer park for the Lord's elect when we saw this one girl taking a nice 4 o'clock walk with her music (a possible sign of someone in emotional stress), so we went up and started talking to her, and she told us that she was actually going through some stuff right now and wanting to go back to church! So then we brought up the Book of Mormon and I felt like I should read a part to her.  I had no idea what to read or why I felt that, but it was SO COOL, the book literally fell open to Mosiah 28 (I think...see I don't even remember so it was obviously the spirit).  It talks about how the Lord supports you in your trials. I finished reading the few verses and I looked up and there were tears pouring out of her eyes! All she said was "wow I really wasn't expecting this on my walk".  The spirit was so strong and we bore testimony about the power of the Book of Mormon and our message! She said she couldn't wait to read the book! :)   Then later that day we got an awesome new investigator, and ate heart shaped pancakes for dinner.   It was a solid day.   Who needs all that romantic stuff when you have the gospel of Jesus Christ!? Haha

Authentic Hispanic birthday party...LOOK OUT,  incoming piñata!

As far as the work goes, we have FIVE people with a baptismal date right now!  Wooo!! 3 of them are a lot more solid that the other 2.  They all have such great desires, it's just getting them to act that is the hard part…but please keep Jerry, Tim, Ivan, Sergio, and Alex in your prayers!!  They are sooo awesome! This church is sooo true!  The Book of Mormon really has been a key to our work.   If any of you want a better testimony of the book of Mormon, I invite you to suit up (not literally) and be like a Texas Fort Worth Missionary for these next few weeks and give out a Book of Mormon before April 18th…and READ IT!  :)  We are already seeing so many blessing.  Ya'll are awesome!  Have a fantastic week!

<3hermana Bonny

 

We are actually wearing pieces of the piñata on our heads

2/10/15 Week 48

Transfers otra vez!  Leaving Arlington was a lot harder then I thought it would be. That place is so awesome! But I definitely can't complain here in Lewisville :) I'll get the basics out of the way then I'll get to the exciting stuff. 

So my comp se llama Hermana Millet.  She's super cool.  She's from Arizona, danced ballet and majored in music, and loves to eat frozen yogurt almost as much as me :) I think we will get along great! She just finished being trained and she is so cute and awesome!  Seriously, she will do whatever the Lord asks.  What more could you want in a comp?   But I have missed my old comps these last few days. 

In our area right now we have 3 people with a baptismal date, two of which we set in the past 2 days!  WOOT WOOT!  (I do that a lot in these emails I'm realizing..)   And we have like 10 other investigators, 7 less actives, and 1 recent convert who is basically already my favorite person EVER.  He just got baptized a month ago, and not only is he the most sarcastic and spastic Mexican I've ever met, but his testimony seriously glows!  Love it! Anywho, so  lots of awesome work.

Arlington Zone Conference before the transfer

If you think a mission is all serious business, think again!!

As far as the ward goes, it seems super awesome!  But it's really weird because we are the only missionaries from the Fort Worth Mission in our ward.  There are 6 other missionaries from the Dallas Mission that share the ward with us (technically the ward is IN the Dallas Mission). Ya, super weird...but they all know Aubrey!   The problem is that all except like five families live within the Dallas mission, which means we can't visit them :( They are really nice to see at church but other than that, getting members involved with our investigators is apparently quite difficult here.  But we've got lots of non-hispanics that want to help us and we are gonna try some different things to get help from the Dallas group.  I'm up for a challenge!

 The more exciting stuff:

#1  So of course for my first week in a new area guess what happens?...yep I got sick hard core! I have no idea what I had but Friday and Saturday it was hard to even lift up my arm.  Being sick as a missionary really is the worst because there is always SO MUCH TO DO.  We just don't have time for that.  And this being a new area I really wanted to make a good first impression. It was probably stupid but I tried to work on Friday anyways.  Then Saturday I just was beat. Long story short, I was not looking forward to going to my first Sunday in my new ward as a boogery mess, not to mention we were singing with the YW in sacrament meeting.  So I prayed and just asked Heavenly Father to please give me the energy and strength I needed.   I woke up Sunday morning and felt 100% perfect!   It was nothing short of an answered prayer, small miracle and a tender mercy!:)

#2  We went to one of our first lessons together and our investigator Felicia just flat out tells us "Hey my son is 8, can he get baptized in your church?".  Felicia is what we call a "dry Mormon".  She comes to church every week but can't get baptized because she's not married.   But her son is baptism age, so we are super stoked to teach him and the whole family the lessons! Hopefully that will give Felicia and her boyfriend another reason to get married!

The bottom line is that I'm super stoked to be here in this area and I know we are going to continue to see miracles.  I can't wait!  I feel like there's so much more stuff to tell...but now my email is so long that we will just leave it at that.

Mission life is the bomb! ...even if my bike seat did get robbed, but that's also another story….well really that's the whole story.  Just the seat is gone...not quite sure what to do about that.  Anywho, love you all!

<3hermana bonny

These beans are cold!  ...and I didn't get the thumbs up memo

2/2/15 Week 47

What does that spell?

I think the families of all the cockroaches I murdered in Fort Worth did some intense detective work and figured out where I was, and then decided to unleash Big Bertha to teach me a lesson! Seriously, this thing was the size of a MOUSE!!!  But ha!  It didn't work! We stabbed her with a knife and she died :) RIP Bertha.

Big Bertha - These are 6 inch tiles she's standing on!

I felt bad emailing you a bunch of cliffhangers last week and then not giving any details.  So here you are….I'm going to give you the detailed low down on everyone we're working with right now  (Even though this might be pointless since there's a pretty good chance I'll get transferred next week).
 

There's Raul, who is a humble older guy.  He's about 50 and he has a very Catholic family!  It's so hard because this last time we taught him tears were just streaming down his face. He said he knows it's true and this is the path god wants him to take, but he just wants his family to see that it's not something bad.  He and his wife (they call her "Gordita") kind of got into it a little in one of our lessons.  Kinda awkward!  So that's basically the only thing keeping him from being baptized at this point.  It was so cute.  In our last lesson he was crying and thanking God for sending him angels guide him.  Ahhhh - my heart..

Awesome birthday dinner with the Diaz Family

Moving along, we've got Abel y Liliana.  They're a cute young couple in their late 20's whose parents are members and apparently they’ve been investigators for forever.  But guess what?  The only reason they haven't been baptized yet is because Abel didn't have the papers he needed so that they could get married, but (it's about to get good) by some miracle he just happened upon this guy that works for a company who can help get the papers he needs.  Wahoo!  So the Bishop is going to marry them and then they can get baptized as soon as they want!  Apparently it’s a huge deal in the ward.  Everyone knows them and is super stoked.  I really hope I get to help with the wedding.

Also we've got Jesus, Alfredo, and Alvarro.  They are all 3 single guys and are somewhat similar.  They all just want a change in their lives and say they can feel something different about our message.  Ding ding, golden!  Also, I almost forgot about Margarita.  There was a mom in the English-speaking ward who would always put links and post church stuff on Facebook, and then she started noticing that one of the Hispanic ladies she worked with was liking all of her stuff.  She's so cute.  She said it was super scary, but she got the courage to talk to her, and ask her if she wanted to meet with us.  She said yes!  The lessons have gone awesome!  She has tons of questions.  That’s always a good sign of someone's interest level. 

Now it's 1015 and I'm so freakin stuffed full of pizza I can barely move.  I ate 1 piece for every year of my life.  Yep 20 pieces!  I'm never looking at a slice ever again.  And sigh…Elder Piera ate 21!  But I did shock all of them, which was basically my plan all along. 

I did some family historing and found these names.  I'm not quite sure what the deal was with poor Eystein but I sure feel bad for him!

Anyways, I could just go on and on.   But basically I really love it right now!  I feel really like I can be myself around my comps, which is saying a lot. We are still working on consecration….but we'll get there.  I just really want to give my whole heart to the Lord!  But that’s sooo much easier said than done.

Who wants to hear about an awesome missionary experience?  I assume you all said "ME!"  Last Monday an appointment canceled, and then while we were driving to go see a potential, we got a referral from the English sisters.  So we said "Yolo" (is that still a thing?) and went straight to the referral, who we literally knew nothing about.  She opened the door and let us right in. She was sooooo excited to see us!  It was kind of freaking us out a little. Haha, but basically she started immediately to tell us her story about how she was living in Dallas and going through some major health problems. She actually ended up losing her sight for awhile. During all of this she decided she better figure things out spiritually, and that's when the Dallas missionaries knocked on her door:)   They taught her right up until she had to move to Fort Worth, and she had been here for 3 months truly praying that God would send the missionaries back!! :)  Ahhh!  For those of you who aren't missionaries, this is literally what we dream about!  I almost started jumping up and down when she said flat out "I know that the Mormon Church is the path that God wants me to take"  -eeeeeeppp! So we set a baptism date for the 21st of February. We are so stoked to work with her! Well, I guess I would be but I won't be around, so my comps have some amazing work to do here in Arlington!

You heard right, I won't be around!  Transfer time again! Drum roll please....Hermana Bonny will be serving in…. Lewisville, Texas!  Woooooo!! Yup, I'm leaving again.  This is crazy!  But I've heard many good things about Lewisville :)  Transfers are always super bittersweet. I'm going to miss this ward TONS, and Nora and my comps, but there's always something exciting about going to a new place.  And the great thing about transfers is that you always know it's where God wants you to be.  So duh, you're gonna love it....or learn from it.  Usually both.  So some insane packing again for me! Yippee.
 

Hermana Bonny's new comp.  Sorry, we don't even have her name yet.

One other notable experience this week -  I went on a fantastic exchange this week with my sister training leader in CASTLEville (an appropriate name)! Literally it's called Southlake and its one of the richest zip codes in the US.  Glen Beck is in her ward, and if the Jonas brothers and Tiger Woods were Mormon they would be too! The houses there are INSANE!  After I got over my culture shock...and got over wishing that I had brought one of my skirts that didn't have a stain on it....I had a really awesome time! We went and did service at this really fancy retirement home, and helped them color pictures and read the bible. Then we went and ate Egyptian cuisine. Solid day:)
 

It was definitely a good time, but I was a little wierded out with myself when I was relieved to be back in the not so nice part of town.  What is the mission doing to me? Haha pretty much the church is true and I can't wait to go baptize all of Lewisville!! :)

<3hermana bonny