hello family!      7/29/13

NOTE TO EVERYONE:   I DON'T KNOW HOW TO COPY PICTURES HERE--SORRY,  DSO

hope you are all doing well and happy. glad to hear about Grammys imaginary friends and see baby Retts huge head, as usual.   real good, real good.

This week has been great.   On Monday we went to the Hindu temple here in town and saw what that was all about. very interesting. then we went to a corn field and ran through it. i went a few rows in from the road and started feeling lost. haha those things are scary. that was a first for me, but super fun. hopefully i can do it again :) maybe we will today.. hahah

Then on tuesday we had an awesome experience.. we were tracting in this neighborhood that is middle class and we were across the street and sister P. and I saw this lady across the street that we both thought we should go talk to, and so when we got around to her house she let us in first thing.  that house felt like coming home. there was the smell of fresh baked bread in the room and there was such a special spirit an it was just amazing. she was so friendly and later we came to find out that she cans! (like cans food)  we taught her about the Book of Mormon and the usual stuff and she invited us to come back. the second we walked out of her house, sister Pankretz and I looked at each other and said " she cans!!!"  (it being a sign of mormonisim and all) so she is pretty much mormon. hahaha so excited to see her be baptized. its gonna happen for her!  (just dont know when yet) yay!! 

on thursday we went to Kenny Ustads again ( is my 92 yr old adopted grandpa) the WW2 Veteran?  ok yeah so before he joined the marines he was a cowboy, so he has a nice collection of whips and can crack his whip and blow out candles.  is pretty cool! so we went to help him try a couple of different ways to do it ouside, because our lesson yesterday in gospel principles was about talents, and the teacher asked  Kenny if he could share this talent with us. so we were helping him prepare to do that. it was so cool. and fun to watch. and then he let us try and crack the whip. it is a lot harder than it looks. thats for sure.   i learned from Kenny that when the whip cracks it is going between 700 and 900 MPH and is breaking the sound barrier. that is why it is SO lound!   pretty cool! learn somethin new everyday.  

Also that day was SO awesome becasue i got to see my freind Hillay Zapata from school. Hillary is just so sweet and i love her so much. it was great to have her come with us and to see her. this is her home ward (not sure if i mentioned that or not) but she came home from school and so she came out with us to do a couple stop bys and that is when we met Elizabeth. Elizabeth is hungarian and speaks pretty good english. she just let us right in and we taught her about the BOM and invited her to church and she CAME! so much happiness. kinda disappointed - sacrament was especially boring this week. oh well. hopefully she will come again. so we are going to see her on wednesday.

boy oh BOY did i find the black community!!  i mean, girl, if you had been there, you would have been like WHAAAT?!!  

and you best believe i love them. we met two older black gentlemen with a few teeth missin here and there that we are going to teach. they are so funny. and so interested. it will be fun. 

and we are still teachin Shirley. She is better than good. she real good.  she is still learning. we are trying to explain to her the difference between the sin of lying and the sin of abortion.  shes interesting to say the least.  but so funny! AHH! i just love the blacks! they have so much soul and are just hilarious to be around.  

ok enough.. exciting news is that we planned Isaacs baptism saturday. and so everything is set and ready for that mostly. it will be great!  Isaac is awesome he told us saturday that he already shared the restoration DVD with his friends. hes not even a member and he is already missionary minded! AWESOME!! 

I am doing so good! i love this work. i LOvE LOVE love this ward. they are so awesome. love the people here and love the support we have.  its so great.

peace and blessin's

 

Sister O'Neil  

Mom  will you include Emily  and Chelsea in the forward?  organic.em@earthlink.net , Chelseasrad@gmail.com 

 Also i am sending my temple clothes today. so hopefully you will get them sometime this week.  And mail takes FOREVER to get to me.  its weird. 

love codys letters! he is hilarious! hahaha so SO funny! 

7/22/13

Well, I never thought i would say that I would eat too much ice cream, but it happened this week.

 

In my talk one week ago, i told the ward from the pulpit that the next day was national ice cream day. I also told them how much our family loves ice cream and how much i too love it.  It probably wasnt the best idea because every house we have been too has given us ice cream since then.  haha well they do know how to please us missionaries, but it was too much.  Three nights in a row we had big banana splits at different memebers houses and we have felt some what sick since. Too much sugar and goodness.

 

on Tuesday some members took us out to Panera bread, and i learned that they both work from home as travel agents. they have their own travel agency and so they just plan trips for people and then go with them! how cool is that?! they are awesome! they are just about your age mom and dad, and they have been to every continent. (even antarctica!) so cool! basically hearing their story makes me want to travel the world! Lets go!!

 

Lessons this week were really good. We had one with Kim, I dont know if i have told you about Kim, but sister Pankretz and Sister Clark (I am sister Clarks relpacement) found her sittting in her car about 2 months ago, and she has been taking the discussions ever since. We had some members the MAttesons come with us and the spirit was so strong in that meeting. it was amazing. The Mattesons were so good at chiming in at the right moments and just saying what needed to be said, and it was amazing! Kim got teary eyed at the end and hopefully she will come to church this sunday! we love her! she is awesome!

 

We got Isaac on date! he is going to be baptized on August 10th!! and he found US! he saw the sisters one day and just asked them to come and teach him. and so, now he is going to be a member! So exciting!! :)   he is just awesome!

 

then yesterday we had a lesson with Keith. Keith is in his 50s and we dont know how much he is retaining. it was a difficult lesson because we had members there with us who just kind of took over and so we had a hard time teaching him anything that he needed to learn. it was hard and neither of us knew what to do really. 

 

The ward here is awesome! they LOVE the missionaries! and i love them. they all care so much for us and there is hardly a day that we dont have a dinner apointment.  just this morning Sister Pankretz and I got up at 5:30 and went on an hour bike ride with two sisters from the ward., the took us on this beautiful trail right along the river. we rode all the way to Batavia which was almost 10 miles. And there were tree/wooded areas we went through and it felt like we were in the seceret garden. so much fun. so beautiful., and it felt good to be outside in the fresh air and RIDING A bike! i loved it! i forgot how much i missed it. 

 

anyways, it was a really good week. I love you all. i hope you are all staying healthy! and safe!

Happy Birthday Eric! (and anyone else i forgot) 

 

Oh! i had portebellos this week! it was super delish!   had their italian beef sadwich. and we had some of their cake. 

OH! Shirley! how could i forget! Shirley is this little 80 yr old black lady who just is hilarious. we just started teaching her. she is so funny, just calls us honey and says "ok baby" and "eerrybody! " haha i love her! she has so much soul!

 

ok love you so much! tell me about all your adventures, and funny things your kids say (siblings) and take pictures. 

 

miss you all

love

Sister O'Neil

July  15, 2013

Happy National Ice Cream day! I hope all of you eat some today the good old fashioned O'Neil way. :)

THANK YOU ALL!! loved the package from the ranch! I loved your thoughts and messages and pictures! thank you! it made my day and week. and i love looking at it.  i put it above my bed and feel surrounded by your love every night. 

this week has been great! we had 4 investigators at church yesterday! and it was great! they all loved it and hope they will commit to be baptized soon!

last Monday I held one of the oldest books of mormons.  this old guy in our ward Brother  Williams, bought it at a garage sale for like $70 and he had someone from the church come out and look at it and they said it is worth $150,000!! CRAZY!!  And he let me hold it!

so this book of mormon is the 16th one ever printed on paper that you could print on both sides with.  when he found it, he and his wife thought of taking it apart and selling each page, but the first night they had it in their house, he and his wife had the same dream, and they took away that this book of mormon had great importance in the history of the church. they dont know how, but the spirit was SO strong as he flipped through the pages and let me hold it! it was so cool!! an awesome experience.

Then on tuesday we painted a members stair hallway.  They had really really tall ceilings and so my arms were sore the next couple days from holding the pole above my head for a while. it was fun and then later that night We went to the relief society activity and helped them sew feminine hygiene kits for girls in Africa who dont have the resources they need so they continue to go to school during that time of the month.  Many of the sisters were impressed that I could sew, and sister Sue Ellen went around telling everyone that I came and painted her house earlier.  I was immediately grateful for both mom and dad because they taught me those skills.  to Paint and to Sew. 

Wednesday we had zone teaching and president Fenns "lesson" was so good! he talked about the many different ways that we as missionaries can help the members feel more comfortable about sharing the gospel.  his thoughts were great and inspiring. 
Then thursday we went on Exchanges and so I went up to another area to serve with a different companion for about 24 hours. it was a lot different. and I learned a lot.  there were things that i struggled with but i learned so much. It was worth it.  

thursday was 7/11!! did you go get free slurpees!?!! I did!

and sunday I spoke in church! I was asked to speak thursday night, so I prepared like crazy on friday and saturday.  I spoke on sharing the gospel in a free country. I felt really prepared. It was a pretty easy subject for me and I included a lot of stories.  I had one of dads talks called "no longer neutral" that i used! so thank you father!!! your talks are the best! and all of your children have benefited greatly from your wisdom!!  THANK YOU!  It went well and I think the ward liked what i had to say.  They were very appreciative of my preparedness. 

How is Jill doing with her knee? also I am so excited that they got a house! cool!! when do you move?  I want pictures of your new house! 

How are the Sorensens doing?  lizzy wrote me and said they might have a couple more months. and she was planning on helping them move when she got home. do you know anything? are you going to help them move? 

I hope and pray that you stay happy and healthy.  and having so much fun!! I feel like i have been doing this my whole life and love it!! 

 love you all! :)  thank you for your letters and love and support and prayers.

peace and blessins'

Sister O'Neil

 

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July 1, 2013

I am in Chicago!! how crazy is that.  So that you know I am now a member of the Chicago West Mission. It split today and so the City is no longer in my mission. kinda bummed, but still exciting.  I love President Fenn and i am excited to have him as my mission president for my mission.  He has been here one year and so i have heard that he is not as strict as he used to be. 

My companion is Sister Pankretz.  She is from New Mexico/ Arizona and she is the 11th out of 11.  Pretty Exciting.  she is a great trainer and knows what she is doing. 

The adjustment to the "real World" missionary work has been harder than i expected. but its still good.  I love it.  There are SO many people waiting for the gospel and you can just see how the Lord has really prepared them!  It is amazing!

I am in Aurora IL and I am serving in the Prestbury ward.  It is my friends ward! it is so exciting!!  My friend Hillary from school, (you know how i have that big group of friends all from here) and this is her home ward! it is soo exciting! we had dinner with them on friday and it was so fun to meet her siblings and parents.

ok here is a little run down of the week.

Monday we flew in and just hung out at the mission home.  President fed us famous hotdogs and italian meat sandwiches and then we took a nap and had interviews and then for dinner we had stuffed pizza! it was delish! then we had some meetings and tuesday we went to transfers. and we met our companions and where we were going. I was sad to say goodbye to my companion from the MTC. she was assigned to an area that is now in the Chicago Mission. So i wont be seeing her.  But my other really really really good friend Sister Hardy is still in our mission. and i love her so much. 

on tuesday we went to teach this lady Sara. and the second we went in there we could tell that it was a set up and all she wanted to do was bash on us. she just started out with a prayer and it was very contentious, and from there it was rough.  we had a sister from the ward with us and she did all of the talking.  It was great. I just was quiet/ kinda had NO idea what was going on. haha but it was hard to see her (sara) reject the gospel because she has a beautiful family and i just wanted them to come into the fold. 

Wednesday, thursday and friday were all about the same. we had some really awesome learning and teaching experiences. we tracked every day and found at least one person everyday that we are now going to teach.  WE are just jumping into the work! its great!

Thursday we are having a 4th of July breakfast and we have invited everyone we talk to.  On friday i had the prompting to just offer to sing the national anthem for this flag raising and breakfast. so I am.  haha on sunday the brother in charge showed me the program.  So Listen to the national anthem on The 4th and pretend i am singing it to you. and then eat pancakes! :) haha  This ward was really welcoming and loving to me being the new missionary.  They need help BEING missionaries them selves but they love us!  They loved me so much that i said a prayer in everymeeting on sunday. the closing in sac. and the opening in the other two. and sister Pankretz tells everyone i meet that i can sing.  haha Poor sister pankretz cant even hold a tune and she knows it.  so she tells everyone i can. hahaha

Thank you for your love and support.  I hope you are having fun at the ranch and enjoying your time together. make a video and send it to me! I love you all! so much.

Can you guys send me some pictures?  I didnt bring many and want more!..  of anything and everyone! 

I love you.  happy birthday to anyone who's birthday it is this week :)

love you love you!

Sister O'Ne