12/28/14 Week 42

Why can't Christmas happen twice a year?

So guess what I got for Christmas this year??.... The stomach flu!!!  Pretty much my already explosive insides plus 3 Mexican Christmas eve dinners = a very uncomfortable (for lack of a better word) Hermana Bonny. Ok it really wasn't that horrible, Christmas Eve actually was AWESOME despite the pain! First of all, we had an AMAZING (I'm probably going to use a lot of those types of all caps adjectives in this email) devotional with President and half of the mission! And we ate a good ole' Texas BBQ and then watched the Christmas Carol.   Afterwards we sang songs and listened to President and Sister Ames give AMAZING Christmas themed talks.  The spirit was so strong! Then they gave us all these letters from our bishops and parents with their testimonies and everyone cried.   It was great :)

Some very jolly Hermanas

Pres and Sis Ames walk on water!

Then the families started feeding us...first we ate a big bowl of pusoli with the Diaz, then to the Aguilars, our favorite less active family, where we baked jelly filled peanut butter cookies! Oh I love them! Then right when we were about to leave their mom got home and insisted we eat her spicy Mexican sausage! ahh! THEN, onward to the Garcia's, where we were served a full plate of bbq ribs, potatoes and Olive Garden!!  I never thought that the sight of Olive Garden breadsticks would ever make me want to puke, but it's completely possible…when your estomago es tan lleno! That dinner was actually my favorite, because the reason they invited us was because their whole family who aren't members were there! So we got to chat and now they agreed to meet with missionaries in Grand Prairie! Woot woot!:) Christmas miracle :) Then Christmas Day of course was great talking to the fam and all:) Everyone just sounds like they are going through puberty! Haha!

The Garcias SPOILED US!

Tis the season...to eat junkfood

Basically Christmas is the BEST time to really just feel the spirit of Christ.  I think that is why missionaries love Christmas so much, because really the spirit is so strong! I have such a strong testimony of my Savior.  Through this time, I've really been pondering more about him, and now I really can say for surety that I know how much he loves me.  I can feel it so strong every time I bear testimony of him.  :)   He lives and he love us!

Love Hermana bonny

12/21/14 Week 41

THIS WEEK WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!!  I know say that every week....but seriously...Nora got baptized!! We have seen some pretty amazing miracles through this whole process, so I'm gonna tell you about them...:)

Doesn't Nora look beautiful in white?!

Firstly, Nora's whole family are Jehovah Witnesses, so it's pretty much just a miracle in the first place that she even wanted to meet with us.  BUT the reason why she decided to was because of her neighbors, the Campos.  She saw how happy they are and wanted that for her own family.  Right there is a perfect real life example of why we need to be examples to our neighbors! You never know when and who is watching you! Anyways, Nora basically just decided that she wanted what the Campos have, and if that path was wrong, God would tell her.  But until then, she was just going to keep going with the lessons :) SO MUCH FAITH!  So we kept teaching her, and literally with  every lesson I just couldn't believe how open and accepting she was of everything.  It's common for Mexicans to tell us they believe everything we are telling them, but Nora actually had this amazing desire to understand everything and just soak it all in.  It is SOO fun to teach someone like that!

But the biggest miracle happened during the baptism.  She has this 2 year old son, who is VERY  attached to her! Literally every time we would come over he would not just cry, but SCREAM!  It was crazy.  So you can guess that we were extremely nervous that he was going to do the same thing during her baptism and ruin the whole thing for her and everyone else's ear drums...but guess what?  Ahhh! After much prayer and fasting, Leo fell asleep right as the service started!  Then, and here's the part that gave me the goose bumps (the good kind:), when he woke up and saw that his mom wasn't there, he just sat there quietly and looked around not saying making a sound.  If that wasn't a tender mercy of the Lord… :)

Farewell to the Fearsome Threesome - Hna Lund (and her tongue) transferred out  :(

Her and conversion and baptism was definitely a highlight of my mission.   Other highlights this week involved spreading lots of Christmas/gospel cheer! (even though they're basically just the same thing)

LOVE YOU GUYS! MERRRY CHRISTMAS!!!

<3 hermana bonny  alma ch 26..best chapter in the book of mormon:)

12/15/14 Week 40

For those who aren't familiar with "Hump Day", it means I have 6,120 hours left on my mission!

 Hmmm.....hmm.....normally I take a few minutes before we come to the library to have some reflecting time on the past week so that way I can have some good stuff to tell ya'll about.  But this week I had to forgo the pondering time so now of course I'm drawing a complete blank.  Let's see, this week really we just taught a billion Christmas lessons. It's been awesome! Including less actives, this week we taught 22 lessons. Wahoo!! Like I said, Christmas time is the BOMB when you are a missionary, because really who can close the door on 3 girls in skirts singing The First Noel?? ..Ok it actually did happen once.... but then he opened it back up and said sorry...and then closed it again. Hahaha! It was so weird, we just busted up laughing!

Also this week we've been organizing the activity for Dia de los Abuelitas (Grandparents Day).  Ward activities can go 1 of 2 ways for missionaries. Either they are awesome and they have tons for us to do,  we get to talk with all the members, and our investigators come and it's a jolly good time, or we go and the members have already taken care of everything, so we just kind of stand around awkwardly and make small talk with the older folks who are also just sitting around.  There's nothing worse than a missionary without work to do! We don't have a place in society without it.  But luckily this activity went awesome! And William came - yay!...well he comes to everything so we kind of expected it, but still!

Transfers are this week! Sadly, our 3 amigas are now being reduced down to 2...sniff sniff  ;'(   Hna Lund is heading to my old area in Fort Worth to baptize those Merinos!  Hna Mango' and I are staying here :)  Yippee!

Sorry if this email was probably kind of boring.  I'll make sure to spend some good thought collecting time next week.

love yall!:) :)

Remember "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!" I have such a testimony of those wise words from Buddy the Elf! 

love hermana bonny

12/12/14 Week 39

Eloytha got baptized :)  :)  :)

So this week was pretty freakin awesome, because guess what?  One of Heavenly Father's children entered the kingdom of god!  Wahoo! Nothing makes a better week for a missionary :) Her name is Eloytha and she technically wasn't our baptism, but Hermanas Lund and Gwynn found her right before I got here, and since she was English speaking they had to have the Elders come teach her (oh the life of a state side espanol missionary..).  But we still spent a lot of time with her, and we love love LOVE  her.  So that was extremely exciting!

Other than that, we are making pretty awesome use of our trio and going "Christmas carol contacting".  It's similar to the Living Christmas Card idea I explained last week.  We basically just go sing to homes were we know the Latinos live, and tell them that we have a message that can help them feel the Spirit of Christmas always :) So far it hasn't failed us. We are getting some awesome new familias!

Nora and William are still on for their bautismos! Wahoooo! Nora is getting baptized next week.   She is so ready.  But as I have learned through experience, this is the time when Satan likes to attack....so any prayers for her would be very ,very helpful.

This week I think I've eaten more tres leches cake then I will the rest of my entire life!! If you don't know what that is, I recommend you stay away from it because you will get addicted.   But I am going to make it for my family when I get home so some of you won't have a choice :)   Also, it was the birthday of the beautiful Hna Lund, and these members here in Arlington are too awesome! We were treated to a Mongolian buffet!  Again, if you're not familiar with that, don't start now...Sooo good!

I think I'm going to sign off and take a nap now....we got up to go to the temple before 5 this morning...yaaaawwn! It was so worth it but now it's hitting me hard!

Heaven on Earth!

love yall!:)

the church is true!!

love hermana bonny