4/23/15 Week 58

Alrighty, so I'm just going to get right down to it! Of course it was a great week, but this time I did a better job writing down in my journal what happened so that way I could remember to tell ya'll!

Ok so first off...we are working with la familia Montoya.  Missionaries have been eating dinner with them for a pretty long time because their son has been on the verge of baptism since like august. However, everyone has been too afraid of grandpa and dad to actually teach them anything, which is understandable because they are basically the epitome of what is called "mauchista" (AKA intense man pride), but last time we met with them the dad decided to stay and listen - miracle! Then he had TONS of questions, (that's always a good sign) and not just any questions but like questions of the soul! We literally spent 2 hours with him teaching the Plan of Salvation (during a huge lightning storm which added a nice effect) just answering all of his questions.  His main question right now is "If we lived with God before this life, why do we need to leave just to come back to him?"  He doesn't get why this life is necessary.  Any unique insights they would be appreciated:)  His other questions are "how do we know what is really good and what is bad?"  And "what was the point of the pre-mortal life?", like what things we did there and stuff.  It was literally one of the best teaching experiences I've had yet!! My very favorite part was when he asked me specifically why "all this" (he gestured to all of my little drawings of the plan) is so important to me.  Then I literally just felt a rush of the spirit as it worked through me to bear the purest most powerful testimony I could about how important and precious our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation is.  then afterwards there was just this silence....ah! I try to describe these moments over email and it just can't be described with words!! Amazing. 

Also this week when we went and visited Tanya and she hurried and opened the door for us, then ran over and grabbed the herbal tea to show us and tells us proudly how she has officially given up coffee:)  Smoking is still a different story..BUT she said that week she never smoked a whole pack, and that's less then she's done in years! And she's going to the doctor to get a special patch and medication to help her stop! It's still a long road but her progress is so much more then we had hoped for.  Also she came to church on Sunday and loved it!

Another cool little story...So we have been teaching Bianca ever since I got here.  She's very interested but her situation is complicated by the fact that her husband is a devout Jehovah's Witness (I think I might have already told this one..).  We have been trying to get him more involved with our lessons, and we were suuuuper stoked when he said that he would let us come over and have a noche de hogar with them on Monday! So we pulled out all the stops! We found the perfect scriptures for him, we invited our ward mission leader and his wife to come, we even baked them m&m cookies! Then we show up on Monday night with all of that and at first we were super excited because we walk in and Bianca had cleaned the whole house and the kids were all there and everything. Yay!   Usually our investigators never clean up for us so that's saying something! So we go in and get ready to start, and we ask her where her husband is, and she tells us "oh...I don't think he wants to come..." I was crushed.  This was our one chance.  And so far everything had gone perfect, but if he wasn't going to be there then what's the point?   Well we decided to just go along with our plans, we sang and the Zamora's bore some awesome testimony, then we turned on Finding Faith in Christ (which was the movie su esposo said he wanted to see), and as we were watching it I just said a little prayer. "Heavenly Father please just at least let him hear a part of it from his room."  Then literally a minute later he moves slowly in to get a drink, then he pulls up a chair and sits through the whole rest of the movie!! Coincidence? I think not! He left again once we it finished, but he had to at least have felt something. I know God answers prayers. That is a testimony I know I will always have :)

I'm still frustrated with my thinning hair and with how difficult it is to get access to any health information that I need.  I know I shouldn't care so much but the fact that I haven't felt legitimately pretty in so long has affected me.

In other new, to round out our week, we did 14 hours of service this week picking up trash in a distribution center which was sooo fun! (Haha the things I never thought I would say in life...)   We rode about 15 miles on our bikes, and had an awesome exchange with our sister training leaders! Pretty good times!:) Love ya'll!

<3hermana bonny

4/13/15 Week 57

Have I mentioned I have the best zone ever?  This is what we did for Zone Council

This week was pretty dang awesome! Right now I bet ya’ll will never guess what we are doing? Ha-ha missions are way too much fun! We are currently in the middle of a glow in the dark marshmallow war.  I just got out...that’s why I’m in here writing this email.  Anyways, truly an awesome week!  Let’s see, we had zone conference – yippee, and we had a freakin awesome lesson with Tonia and committed her to live the word of wisdom...(its going to be a pretty big challenge for her). She told us that she has to wake up in the middle of the night to smoke that’s how bad it is.  If anyone has any tips on helping people quit smoking, HELP!!   

Because of the whole glow in the dark marshmallow war (listed above) I don’t have tons of time today, and I’m kind of having amnesia right now trying to think of what exciting things happened this week. Oh! We did have our first bike day of the summer! I loooove biking! I’m a little sore now...and it was kind of windy, which is never fun when you are a sister riding a bike in a skirt....ha-ha

Pretty much right now on my mission I’m just loving it!! It’s so cool when you get to a point where you can just look back and see how far you've come.  I thought I had a strong testimony when I came out here but now looking back, I really didn't.  But now, I really can say that I know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that Joseph Smith really is the prophet of the restoration.

It’s so cool how if you just put in a little more than you think you have; God makes up the difference!  Anyways sorry for the short and scatter brained email! I’ll be sure to bring my journal to the church next time so I remember what cool things happened.  Love you all!

<3hermana bonny

 

Service anyone?

4/6/15 Week 56

This was a pretty dang splendid week! We had zero time to teach anyone, but its ok cuz my cup of revelation is officially at the brim! General Conference is to a missionary like tamales are to a Mexican! In other words: the BEST THING EVAAA!! But I’m going to start from the beginning of the week, then end with the good stuff to build the suspense. Ha-ha

This week was my 2nd favorite day of the year...April fool’s Day! Or Dia de las Bromas! Jeje! Let’s just say we really aprovechamos del dia:) At the end of the day there was green milk, neither of us could find our fruit, the sink was taped, Vaseline was on the drawers, we saran wrapped the elders door, and switched all the cereal/granola into various bags :) ya it was a pretty good day:)

District service activity - I am seriously going to be an excellent gardener when get back

Another great thing that happened this week was our fantastic Easter choir testifying experience!  It was up in Fort Worth...it always weird going back to old areas...ahh trip down memory lane. But it went sooooo good!! That day also happened to be the cumpleanos de mi hermosa companion (yippee - Hna Ford!)  An hour before the performance our investigator Fabiola had fed us each a million flautas, so before I got up to sing my solo I was so nervous I felt like I was just pumping out all the flauta grease through my sweat glands. That’s basically the life of a Spanish speaking missionary in Texas, but I think I pulled it off.  And then they played "Because He Lives" at the end and everyone was crying.  It was beautiful!

Now we are finally to Saturday General Conference! Hooray!!  We watched the first session at the stake center with our entire zone, and then our ward mission leader took us to this crazy all you can eat sushi buffet.  The Elders and Sister Ford wanted to throw up, but I think I found a new favorite food!  But then for the next session...TANYA CAME!! WOOOHOOO!  Tanya is our wonderful investigator who we just set a date for baptism on May 10th. It’s more of just a goal to work towards because she has some things to work on.  It might be kind of a long road, but she wants it badly and is willing to work, so really  that and some faith is all she needs! But she came to the church with the 2 cutest girls ever that she nannies.

Awkward story...so that day, of course at 2:30 right in between sessions all the youth from the stake were just getting back from trek...ha-ha - ya try explaining that to an investigator who is just coming to church for the first time! "I promise we aren’t Amish!!"  But other than that minor setback and the slightly awkward 15 minutes of announcing and sustaining the general authorities, there were definitely a few talks that were very specific to her :)

Sunday!  Yippee!! Best day the whole week.  Feliz Pascua! This day was kind of frustrating because we were supposed to have a beautiful sunrise singing festival with a bunch of other churches and it was supposed to be the awesome missionary spirit filled bucket of joy....but then after waking up at 5 am and driving to the other sister’s house it was canceled because of rain. Nooooo :'(:'(   So we went and broke down the elder’s door to get the waffle iron (YUM), then headed out for our second choir performance up in rich people country.  

The Colleyville stake put together a very interesting Easter morning music program...we sang, they sang, then Glenn Beck spoke! Ya apparently he's a big deal and he lives there.  I really had no idea what the big deal about this guy was...before I heard him speak....wow!  There’s only 1 word to describe it....INTENSE!!  He was slamming the pulpit, waving his book of Mormon in the air, yelling at the top of his lungs, it was crazy.  I just kept looking around to see if anyone else felt as uncomfortable as I did, but I guess it was a good experience. I definitely am grateful for the SOFT QUIET whisperings of the spirit :)   

After that we headed back down to watch conference at the Wankiers (aka family away from family) - love them! We watched conference and had some brunch, received revelation, played conference bingo (ha-ha good times) It was awesome! I wish I had brought my notebook with me so I could share all of my favorite parts with ya’ll.   For the afternoon session, we headed out to Carrollton to watch it with our Dallas district, part in Spanish, which was super cool.  After it ended (sniff sniff, always the worst part) we headed back to the Wankiers for a fantastic Easter bbq then out to Lantana to practice this song for Zone conference - lots of singing, so my voice is kind of nonexistent today.  But it just happened to be the house of my bff Sister Olsen from the mtc! So cool!! And they gave us an awesome referral, can’t wait to go back!

La Familia Guzman - my favorite!

Anyways sorry this email is so scattered.  Just so many things happened this week! It was amazing! I just want to share with ya’ll my testimony that I know Thomas S Monson is a prophet of God on the earth today.  God called him and all the other apostles and 70's to be his hands on the earth today.  I love what Elder Nelson (I think) said "What are you going to do with what you have learned today?"  I hope you all learned awesome things during conference, cuz I know God had a message for each of you if you were willing to listen! Now take that message, and in the words of president Ames, "Fly with it!"  Put it to use and make it a part of you.  Blessings will come.  I know it.  Love you all! 

<3 HERMANA BONNY

3/29/15 Week 55

So I feel a little bit like the "boy who cried wolf" with these emails cuz I say every week "man, this was the best week ever!", even when it was only an average week.  So now when I actually have one of those truly "best weeks ever", none of you are going to believe me.....but this time I swear I'm telling the truth that this really was one of the BEST weeks EVER! :) 

Ok so first off...Fabiola has been an investigator for like 3 years but she hasn't gotten baptized because for various reasons she hasn't been able been able to marry her esposo. Buuuut...this week we show up at her house and she is sooo excited, and she shows us her passport that she has just gotten!  And tells us that she and her esposo are going to go ask to the bishop to marry them!  ahhh!!  :)  I'm trying not to get too excited, but it's not working!! Ahh...I'm exploding with joy!  She still has one more appointment with a guy for some legal matter (I don't really know any details if you can't tell..) but she is soooo close. It's so exciting! Then we were talking to her about why they all of a sudden decided to get married, she told us the most beautiful testimony EVER about how before he really wasn't convinced he even wanted to marry her because of her grumpy attitude. She said basically their relationship wasn't going great, until she started meeting with the missionaries.  She said the gospel slowly changed her into a person that he really wants to marry and that her kids can look up to!  It was beautiful! The gospel really changes lives. If ya'll haven't noticed yet  :)

Secondly, we have Bianca who has been an investigator por las eternidades also, which has to do with the fact that she is married to a Jehovahs Witness.  I'd never even met the guy until last night when he stayed for our entire lesson!  He was sooo cool.  He said that we could come back whenever we want and even invited us for a movie party to watch that new bible movie.  We'll probably have to pass on that one but it's the thought that counts :) Haha - pretty much it was a HUGE miracle that we got to talk with him!

Thirdly, we were having a bit of a hard time planning on Friday night.  We couldn't think of anybody to go see at 3 o'clock (that's always the hard time for us), but randomly the name of this less active popped into my head (aka the spirit told me) of Hermana Rodriguez.  She's more than less active, she hasn't ever opened the door to us more than a crack for like 3 seconds to tell us that she doesn't have time.  So logically it's a waste of time right? But since I was really hoping it was the spirit telling us to go see her we decided to do it.  The next day we stopped by and hooray! We were right! She was outside gardening with her 2 daughters. She didn't even have a choice of if she was going to let us help or not, we were already kneeling down in her garden and grabbing her shovels.  But it turned out AWESOME! She really opened up to us, and I think she might actually come to our mission choir concert this Friday.   Missions are funny things...I never thought I would ever get so stoked to help someone garden or do their dishes as I do here!

Fourthly, we played glow in the dark tennis today.

Also, we had 7 people at church!!!  That like hardly EVER happens! It was funny, every single person that came to gospel principles class was our investigator and their friendshippers  :)  And my new comp Sister Ford is sooo awesome!!:) She's so good at listening to the spirit which makes our work alot easier.  Man, I feel like I've been getting so lucky with my comps here. We all just get along so good!  She's been out 9 months. It's weird, after this transfer there is only going to be 1 Spanish sister older than me in the mission!

As you may have heard, I've had some funky health issues lately, the most annoying of which is too much of my precious hair seemed to be falling out.  I saw a doctor and had a blood test which just showed some vitamin deficiencies, so hopefully this will be an easy fix with just some good supplements. Feel free to remember me in your prayers :) 

Love ya'll! Don't forget to watch BECAUSE HE LIVES!!!  It sooo beautiful! I almost cried and thats saying something!! Anywho, share it. Live it. Love it.

<3hermana bonny

**Sorry - no pictures this week**