3/23/15 Week 54

THERE IS SUNSHINE IN MY SOUL TODAY!

So this week was pretty dang aweeesome! Umm let's see...oh! I got a new companion! Se llama Hermana Ford (everyone calls her Hermana Cuatro...haha!)  She is super cute, she's from Seattle, and is an equestrian.  Oh, if only we had been together back in my pony pals days...anyways, I love her so much already! This week we WORKED it was awesome!

Now it is time for a few brief spiritual experiences from the life of Hermana Bonny: enjoy -

#1  We went out with Hermana Hatfield driving around in her cute pink barbie jeep to visit this less active family, la familia Perez.  We'd tried to visit them a few other times, but they NEVER answered the door.  So it wasn't really a shock when again nobody answered us, but then we had this strange idea to try and knock their neighbor's trailer just for fun:)  So we did, and this Latino family answers the door (score!) and I just felt like I should ask..."are you the Perez family?"  And they were like "Yes! How have you been misioneras! Come in!" haha! It turns out they had moved one trailer over about 2 years ago, but they haven't been to church in forever so no one knew.  But what is even cooler...they turned out to be basically bffs with Hermana Hatfield! She got them talking about all the good times they used to have with her at church, and at the activities, and now they say that they want us to come back and teach them! It's hard to describe how much of a miracle that is without giving all the background, but basically God guides us to the people he wants us to see:) 

#2  In our ward we've been cleaning out the ward list, and calling people and figuring out who lives where and who is who so that way they can get all the home teaching and stuff figured out...ya, its quite the process.   We were calling a few #'s waiting for our exchange to come pick us up and we got a hold of a lady named Isabel, and when we told her we were the missionaries she started crying!  She said she is sooo glad that we called because she wants to come to church badly, but the woman she now lives with is a non-member who won't ever give her a ride to church.  So she gave us her correct address, and now we can help her get back to church where she can get back on track for eternal salvation! All from 1 phone call! How about that?? 

I knew it - the Easter Bunny IS real!

#3 One of our investigators who had literally dropped off the face of the planet just happened to show up to a ward activity on Saturday and told us that her son got baptized up in the Denton ward!  Woooo hooooo!! Now the English Elders are teaching her :) Yay!/aww

#4  We have another investigator who I was convinced Hermana Millet had just invented que se llama Connie.  We have literally stopped by her house 100 times and I still have yet to meet her! Any ways she just called Hermana Hatfield yesterday and said that she needs us to come over because she's having a really hard time and needs God back in her life. Haha...sometimes I love it when God chastens people :)

#5  We went contacting on Sunday and talked to 3 people, taught 3 lessons, gave out 3 Book of Mormons, and got 3 return citas! Not bad - Haha!

It was just one of those weeks where you really just feel like the heavens are open.  I feel seriously so blessed to be here!! I LOOOVE TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and all of you guys -

<3hermana Bonny

Roman - the best, coolest, recent convert EVA!

3/16/15 Week 53

Its a bird!  Its a plane!  No, its...Superhermana!  Thanks for holding my cape Jerry (isn't he cute)

Does anybody else ever get bored of writing these?? Actually no, I love them I just feel like they are becoming slightly redundant....oh well. Ok, so this week we had LOTS of meetings!  How exciting right?   I actually feel weird now because as missionary meetings are basically like the best things ever!  And it's even weirder because here I have 2 different districts! I'm kind of a part of the Dallas and Fort Worth Missions (Fort Worth is better...no offense Aubrey ;) haha) Anyways, so we had district meeting, zone council, choir practice, AND a super awesome exchange with my sister training leader! Good times...

The last frozen yogurt with H. Millet.  Why must awesome things end? :(

Umm, what else...oh ya! Transfers otra vez!! And sad news :'( :'(:'(:'(:'(:'( Hermana Millet is leaving me.  Ya it's a pretty depressing day. But we did have a good cry over some fro-yo so that made it a little better :) As far as the work, since we've had tons of meetings it's been a little harder getting to see all of the people that we need to, but Ivan is still doing awesome, and Blanca, Fabiola, Jerry, and Jeffery all came to church!!  wooooooo hooooooo!!  Nothing makes for a better Sunday :) Not even your massive chocolate chip cookie Mom ;)  Haha, so ya pretty much Lewisville is BY FAR my favorite area so far!  Everyone here that we teach and all the members are just so awesome!

Highlights of the week -

 1. We helped our investigator Sonya (she moved here from Honduras a year ago) make 70 pastelitas (little deep fried sausagy things).  She was frying onions in her teeeeny kitchen and we both literally had tears streaming down our faces.  I think my eyes are still swollen!

  2. We invited the Elder's quorum president to come teach with us and he brought an entire member family!  We had no idea!  People were really shocked when they opened the door at 8pm to a herd of church members! Their faces were pretty funny...and no one let us in to teach...awkward...

 3. After 3 years of investigating the church Fabiola is FINALLY starting her marriage papers! She is going to get baptized!  Everyone pray and cross your fingers.  Or just pray...:)

 4. We helped this loca grandma move all of her Chinese antiques for 3 hours on Wednesday...a very tiring but interesting experience.

 

Ok pretty much this week was really fantastic, and right now my zone is having a waffle party and I reeaaally want to go so sorry this is so short! But I love you all! I love life! 

<3hermana bonny

3/12/15 Week 52

Pres and Sis Ames teaching us the ropes

Well this week was pretty fantastic! (bet ya'll weren't expecting that!) Haha - its one of those times where this whole week I've been thinking "man this is a great week!" but then I sit down to write this email and I can't really think of any specifics why...I think it was just one full of a bunch of those mini miracles :)

So this week we were at Jerry's house literally EVERYDAY preparing that kid for his baptism that was supposed to be this Friday...but the Bishop and our Ward Mission Leader talked to his mom and we all decided that a bit more time would be good for him. But man have we had some good laughs teaching that little gordito!! Haha! He seriously looks exactly like a young Nacho Libre!   Hna millet and I are starting to make a Jerry quote book - here's a sneak peak at what's in there... we were trying to review what the Word of Wisdom was and Jerry kept calling it "the word of the wizard", then when we asked him to draw some healthy foods for us he drew meatballs  :) Oh Jerry...we love him!

Other than that we've been giving out Libros de Mormon like crazy!! Have I told ya'll that we are giving out 10,000 by April 18th?  Ya it's for reals happening!  I freaking LOVE that book!  And I've officially decided to name my first child Ammon no matter what it is!  He is my hero!:)  Umm what else...oh we got like 3 inches of snow!  whaaa?? Then it was like 70 the next day..So there were a lot of sad zombie-looking snowmen around!  

As far as our people...Tim is officially getting baptized into the YSA ward! Yay/aww it's always super hard to pass off your favorite investigator.  Because of all the dumb snow we haven't been able to see Ivan in like forever.  So we have LOTS to teach him to get him ready for his baptism! Pray for him por favor!

Oh ya and I had a birthday:) I tried to have a nice reflective moment of "where I was a year ago"… but then I remembered I was in Mexican jail and I stopped reflecting.

Completed 1 YEAR on March 6!    ( Not sure why candle is #2..?)

Love ya'll sooooo much! Take luck.

<3hermana bonny 
This is my birthday cake. Carmel spice cake if ya can't tell:):) mmm-mmm good! Only 40 cents at a Kroger near you!

3/2/15 Week 51

We tried.

Do you want to build a snowman??  I did!  We had some more SUPER EPIC snow days this week!! As a missionary snow days are actually unbelieving boring...BUT we had some revelation:) Along with our snowman, we started making these little Spanish packets that we are going to start putting in all the Lewisville church buildings so that people know that "Hey! We actually have Spanish speaking missionaries!", and then they can tell their Hispanic friends about us and then we can convert them!  Hooray!  All it is it a little packet with pass-along cards, our number and "all the Spanish you need to know to be a missionary!"  So hopefully that project will be a success, we are pretty excited. We've already got 3 exchanges out of it!:)

Before the amazing ice storm of the ages occurred, I went to the first ever TEXAS FORT WORTH MISSION CHOIR PRACTICE!! wooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!  When I got the email that we were going to have a mission choir, it was just another testimony that ya, God really knows me :)  We are doing some Easter performances I think and some other meetings and...ya, I don't even really know, I just show up and sing.  And I did get the only solo, so I AM STOKED!

You find interesting things when you clean out a missionary's apartment.

Now it's time for a few brief miracles!

MIRACLE #1- Tim is really awesome. He officially decided to get baptized! He is doing it in the YSA ward rather than ours, which is a little bittersweet, but what matters most is that he gets it done  :)   His family is really awesome too, but they have never really been interested in the gospel, but last week we were able to teach them a little about the Book of Mormon.  We gave them a copy and marked Moroni 10 and all that good stuff.  Then on Tuesday our appt cancelled and I felt super strong like we should go visit Tim's house.  We had just gone the day before and we hadn't planned anything to share, but I just felt like we couldn't go anywhere else! So we went and it turned out that Tim's dad who has NEVER been interested in the gospel had been reading the Book of Mormon and had TONS  of super awesome questions! :) We can't wait to start working with them!  We never would have known if we wouldn't have listened to the spirit.

MIRACLE #2- Yesterday was Fast Sunday, and 4 o'clock is always the hardest time for me to teach lessons! I love the spirit and all, but my body energy level is always at 0.  Yesterday I just felt sooo drained.  More than usual, and we were stopping by a cita with a less-active family who had never let us in once, and our only back-up was to go knock doors in the 34 degree weather for an hour until dinner. I just physically did not have that in me! But I'm not gonna lie, my faith that this family was actually going to let us in was super low.  So we parked in front of their house like we had done a million other times, just to drive away again 2 minutes later, and we just sat there.  I looked at Hermana Millet and she looked just about as drained as I was.  We just decided to pray and we asked Heavenly Father with all the energy of our hearts to please soften the hearts of the Mejias to let us in to teach them.  I really believe in tender mercies:) Yup, you guessed it!  For the first time all transfer they let us in to teach them:)

God is a God of miracles:) especially in the Texas fort worth mission! Love ya'll! :)

<3hermana bonny

Why is it so hard in life to stay away from junk food?