8/26/13

Christmas is the Best!

Well family, another week has passed.

Time is just flying by.

first!  Mother and Father, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! :) i knew it was coming up and i was pretty sure it was this week. and i was right. so YAY!! thank you for finding each other and being obedient to the Lord. Because of you two, listening to the spirit etc. , I have been blessed with two of the finest parents in the whole world. I thank you and i love you both, very much.

last monday we were with sister Steffenson and sister Montag up in Arlington Heights, just goofing around for a while. Sister Steffenson and Sister Pankretz are good friends and so we went up to say goodbye to sister Steffenson, she went home on wednesday.  > weird to think of returning back to real life. 

anyways, then on Tuesday we went to the McNeils house for dinner and brother McNeil shared something very interesting about scriputres before that i want to share.  basically that Luke 17:34-36 is the three fold mission of the church. pretty cool, Christ taught that during his ministry and just another testimony builder that the church is true. anyways. all of you should read that and ponder that and tell me your thoughts. its great :) - dont forget to pray! 

but the McNeils are so nice, sister Pankretz and i really felt at home there, and we were relaxed and comfortable, and just so nice to be there, they made us delicious food and had good converstaion. we both really felt at home there with them.  it was nice. 

Sister McNeil is the one who takes us bike riding every monday morning. today we went, it was nice, but i was feeling terrribly sick while riding, so i was pretty slow. anyways, i went home and showered and ate and felt better. - i know its becasue i didnt get a good nights rest, its werid sometimes how many times i wake up. i dont get it... anyways. its good.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Kim. she is still meeting with us which is great, but she is really afraid to leave her church. she has been there for 40+ years, it would be hard to up and leave everything you know. ya know?! but i had a first time experience with her. we taught her the lesson in a car. haha kim was running late and didnt have a chance to clean her house, and it was too dark to meet outside, so we met in Sister McNeils car, she was our member with us for that lesson.  So that was interesting. not the best way to teach a lesson, but fun and you could feel the spirit. hopefully she will come to church this next sunday. we'll see :) 

On saturday we met at the church again for church tours and Hillary came!  (no not my sister :) )  it was actually a very cool experience. Sister Pankretz and I on Friday had some extra time - so what to missionaries do?! we tract.   so we had picked a street before hand and we were driving along the street finding a place to park and she just stopped the car, and said "that house" and pointed to it. so we go up and Hillary comes to the door, well tell her that we are from The Chruch of Jesus Christ of LDS and she says, "oh! my mom gets visits from you guys, but it is usually two guys" we were confused because we are the only english missionaries in our area and we are sisters. - so we keep asking her questions and she says well im not really interested in your church becasue i really love Christmas, and i like to celebrate my birthday.  THE WHOLE TIME she thought we were JW's!  haha so we laughed and told her no. and explained. anyways. so she was actually very interested. we ended up talking with her for a good 12 min or so and left her with Mormon.org. she came to the church, had the tour and really liked it. and told us that she had read EVerything on mormon.org! it was great! so she is just awesome she has 4 kids, all adopted. she was a foster mom and adopted them all. and just an awesome lady. she told us she would come to church on sunday, but she didnt come. we waited for about 30 min outside for her. we were pretty bummed. but she will come next week. it will be good. we are going to see her thursday. 

also on saturday we went to Teris house. Teri is Gaels friend. (gael is the one who lives in the barn, GOLDEN investigator, and then moved to Utah) so we went to give service to Teri. we know that through service her heart will be softened to our message. she is actually very prepared for the message, she just doenst know it. YET.  hahaha....  her barn is even cooler that we thought. it has 2 more levels! this place is HUGE!!! it is just SO cool. and i would still buy it if i could. so beautiful.

oh so about the McNeils, their name used to be O'Neil. and so they were wondering if we were related. do we have that family chart that goes back (how far?)  could you send me a copy some how.   maybe i will just look on familysearch.org

also the story of the Red hand of.. ulster? ulser?  is that right? (hahaha)  .  i dont know if i tell it 100% correctly. could you send me a copy of that too?  thanks!   

I volunteered my self to sing for our ward on September 8th. EVERY sunday there is an intermediate hymn, and this ward chooses the WEIRDEST songs in the hymn book. so i thought i should change it up a bit. haha.  I am singing a really pretty arangement of "Savior, Reedeemer of my Soul"  I will send you a copy mom, and you can pretend i am there singing while you play the piano. :) 

i guess that is all for now. ta ta for now. 

peace and blessins.

Sister O'Neil  

Addendum

I almost forgot!

Sister Pankretz ate a hot HOT! chili - a thaibird pepper i think it is called, yesterday at a members. and it was the funniest thing!! she was crying and sweating. i got the whole thing on video!   hahah it was awesome. 

she said today that her intestines and butt are buring. hahaha  she brought this upon her self. hahaha anyways just a funny time :)

we were at their house for Abuletia Mangos birthday!  that is our nickname for Rosa Ortega.  Rosa is like our foster mom out here.   she is always giving us food and water and is so nice and goes out tracting with us a lot.  and just awesome. we love her and have good laughs with her. 

p.p.s. we are promised to have the holy ghost with us always as our comforter.  comforter in Greek means orphan.  the lord will not leave us as orphans. just a little something special. you are not an orphan to the Lord. :) he loves you.

ok for reals. love you all.