9/2/14 Week 25

Mission Control Center

Oh man what a week!  I know I probably say that every time, but with my trainee, craziness is just my life now!  This week pretty much all of our investigators decided to spontaneously leave to Mexico and Maryland for the week...so that made things a little depressing when I would look at my schedule and literally see NO scheduled citas!  But we decided not to let it get the best of us, and that since we can't see our existing people, we really need to find some more!  So we spent much of this week doing some serious hardcore biking, melting, and finding of new investigators.   And guess what...with some pretty intense prayers, sunburns, and bike chain tattoos, we now have SEVEN new investigators and EIGHT return citas!:) YAHOOOOOO!!

This week was seriously one the biggest miracles of my life!  Just by fearlessly opening our mouths, talking with everyone, and bearing testimony, the spirit really does touch these people! 

 

Texas sunset out of our apartment window - no mountains but still gorgeous!

Example: There was a guy who was out working on his truck that we decided to go talk to.  At first he didn't even want to look at us, but then we asked (in Spanish) "Hey would you mind if we just showed you a few pictures of Jesus Christ?", and he said "ya fine".  So then we just started bearing testimony while showing him the images from the restoration pamphlet, and by the end he was nodding and talking with us.  Now tonight we get to go back and teach him and his whole family!  Its sooo cool to watch the spirit testify of truth to these people right before your eyes! Have I ever mentioned that I love being a missionary?

In other news...I'm now officially the ward organist.  Don't ask how that happened.  I'm really gonna have to brush up on my hymns...and organ skills that I've never had.   Wish me luck!

Also in other news I have surgery tomorrow! Yaaaayy:(  I'm just glad that this time there won't be anyone there to video me and put my embarrassment on YouTube (thanks Dad)!  Sierra after Dental Surgery  (you're welcome)

 

Well I believe that is all. Oh, Hna Limon is awesome! She literally has me laughing in tears! Haha but yes...she definitely still is a greenie.  Let's just say there have been a few awkward moments in our lessons, but her testimony is of steel!  So I'm not worried.

The church is true! Love y'all TONS!!

Love Hermanita Bonita!

How's my form Mom?

8/25/14 Week 24

Busy, crazy, exhausting, awesome week!

Wow - what a freakin' week!  I feel like I just need to go sit and do nothing but stare at a wall for 24 hours, then I will feel like myself again! This training thing is EXHAUSTING!!   For all of you who are like "Wow that's awesome that you are training, you must be so great at speaking Spanish",  ya'll are wrong!!  I'm still trying to figure out what happened when President assigned ME to train...but hey, we are gonna make this work and baptize the world:)  

 Training itself is exhausting; calling everyone (which I already had a phobia of in English..) setting up all the citas, leading all the lessons, remembering everyone's names, problems, and schedules, and then throw in being asked to talk on Sunday!  I'm barely holding my brain in my head right now!! I legitimately feel like I've had to grow up 10 years all in 2 days. (Deep breath)  I will thank Heavenly Father for this opportunity one day. 

Introducing...Hermana Limon!

But on the plus side my new comp is super cool!  Her name is Hermana Limon.  She's from Colorado Springs and she speaks pretty awesome Spanish - which I am so grateful for.  But right now I still teach pretty much everything.  But hey guess what?... I hate blog bragging, but we made top 8 again in the mission!  And that's like a HUGE deal, since it was my first week organizing and teaching everything, so that definitely gives me hope.

 

Hermana Limon has only been a member for a little over a year.  Her conversion story is sooo cool! She was hard core Catholic then met the missionaries and all this other stuff that I don't know if she wants me to tell the world, but pretty much like the situation of half the people we teach.  So I'm pretty pumped to watch her testimony help our work!  And guess what?  It already is!  Our family (the Martinez) have the most solid baptism date that there has ever been!  I know I've said this before, but right now I have no doubt that they will get baptized on October 4th.   We took this family (Condes, love them!) who also used to be super Catholic to have a bbq with them, and afterwards our lesson just turned into this awesome testimony session.  I asked the dad if he still feels like baptism is just something in the future and he said "no un dia mas pronto" eeeeeeepppp!! (and this is after he said he prayed about it)  So we set the date for Oct 4th!  PRAY FOR THEM!

In other news I have officially lost 12 pounds since the MTC!  Woot woot!!  Of course, I did gain like 8 pounds on Nutella there...but still:)   All I do is eat fruits and veggies.  No joke - zucchini, yams, bananas, and blue berries are my favorite foods now.  Hna Black introduced me to some amazingly delicious health foods!  Haha - Grandma and I are going to get along so good when I get back!  Nutrition is fascinating to me.  

Fabain and Margarita. They are from Ecuador and feed us BASTANTE!!...but we love them:)

I don't have too much more time, because my dearly beloved daughter took 2 and half hours buying groceries...oh I remember the good ole greenie days...so ya, pretty much I have no time.  But I love all of you! La iglesia es verdadera!:) 

Love Hermana bonny

8/18/14 Week 23

The beautiful Botanical Gardens

Yesterday Jenny and Eric got baptized!  HOORAY!!  She is 10 and he is 8, and they are 2 kids that really grew on me.  I'm not gonna lie, at first I had a harder time loving them.  The feeling was mutual because initially they DID NOT want to meet with us, but then as time went on, we got to know them well and they really warmed up to us!   I'll never forget our lesson last week when we were walking out to our car after the lesson, Jenny ran out of her house, gave us hugs and said "I love you."  Awww!  And this is coming from the same girl who would say "Missionaries! Hide!" when we were knocking on the door and they thought we couldn't hear them.  It just goes to show that if you just spend time with someone, love will connect you….and everyone wants to be loved:)   Cheesy but so true!  These were my first baptisms and Hna Black's last (sniff sniff..I try not to think about it).

Jenny

In other news....I'm going to be training!!!  AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm more than a little nervous.....actually when President Ames called me I about had an aneurism.  So yep, Wednesday I get to go pick up my little greenie who won't know any Spanish (gulp).  Any prayers for the Spanish speaking ability of my greenie would be much appreciated. 

New Trainers and District Leaders

On the plus side I did get to go to an awesome leadership and training meeting on Friday!  It was so spiritually awesome! And then afterwards our ride got lost so we got to hang out at the church with President and Sister Ames for an hour, so I can't complain:) They are the most amazing people ever! 

 

Sorry, I know my picture looks kind of evil.  Thankfully Hma Black stayed classy.
 

It's been a pretty crazy week just trying to get everything ready for next week, and watching Hna Black pack up all her stuff …I'm still not going to talk about it:'(  If her family ever reads my blog,  I just want them to know that Hna Black is literally one of the most amazing people I know!  Her testimony and her positive attitude about everything, really set the perfect tone for what I needed for my mission, and is exactly what our investigators needed also!  She is the kind of missionary I want to be in a year.  So thanks for raising an awesome daughter/sister.  Oh and thanks for feeding her super strange healthy foods that she could share with me to help fix my horrible Nutella diet:)  

We can fly!!

  

So it looks like I'm officially going to be staying here in Fort Worth hasta Noviembre. Woot Woot!  The work keeps rolling along:) Love all of you tons! 

 love Hna Bonny

District jump photo fail

8/11/14 Week 22

GO TIME!

Last week and this week are serious GO TIME!  Hermana Black only has this week left, and we want to see some baptisms!! We had 7 pretty solid dates for the 16th of August, but then we had to move the 3 sisters because Instagram and boys are more important than church right now....but I remember being in that boat not too long ago, so I still have high hopes for them!  There are 2 kids with less active parents that are for sure getting baptized this Saturday.  Oh btw mom, Jenny won't stop bugging us about getting her a cat, so I told her maybe you could help her out with that.   Hint hint...I'm still holding out hope that ours will be in the "PURRestrail Kingdom" by the time I get home. (Major LOL) 

Anyways, organizing a baptism is super stressful!  We have to get all the talks, reserve the building, make programs, make sure they have clothes, get them interviewed, etc…I sleep REALLY good at night!   Other than that we still have the Martinez family...love them soooo much!  They came to all 3 hours of church and are loving it.  But alas...they still don't want to get baptized without their padre, and he is still not ready.  But their day will come! Keep prayers coming.

Love 'em - most awesome family ever

Sunday was the most awesome day ever at church!  The Martinez came for all 3 hours and we had a GOLDEN investigator family come and love it!  We've only taught the mom twice, and apparently she and her boyfriend want to get married, but they want to find a church together first.  Talk about perfect!  "Well did you know in our church you can be married for time and all eternity?"  Then even more perfect was the topic in priesthood and relief society; it was on eternal marriage.  They said they loved it and are for sure coming back next week!   

FINALLY found self serve yogurt.  Go TCU!

Also a less active family that we've been working with ever since I got here came to church for the first time in a year!  They are one of my favorite families ever! My heart literally almost jumped out of my throat when I nearly ran over Hna Hernandez on their way in!  It was probably one of the best days at church so far on my mission.  This ward really is starting to feel like home:)

 As always - the church is true!  I look back on how we met some of our most golden people, and it never is a coincidence!  The Lord has prepared so many of these people, and then leads us to them.  And it is awesome to see what can happen when you act on a prompting, no matter how silly or unimportant it might seem at the time.  I love how this gospel is a gospel of miracles, both big and small.

Love Hna bonny