"people think i dont know a butt-load of crap about the gospel, but i Dooo" - Nacho Libre.
but in all seriousness, this week i have realized just how
much I Dont know about the gospel. I mean i guess that initially hit me
when i was in the MTC but this week for some reason i have just realized
how much i have to learn. its a great thing because i am excited to
learn it and apply it to my teaching. My companion is great and has
helped me in my efforts to learn as much as i can. i am excited. on one
subject of the many things to learn, i was reading a book on the
restoration. and i learned that all three of the 3 witnesses of the BOM
left the church. and that they never denied their experience. they just
left. but i guess i knew that i just needed to be reminded. anyways then
i also learned that when the 3 witnesses and Joseph went to pray to
have the angel show them the plates, it was in the middle of the day,
ANd that while they were praying nothing was happening, and so MArtin
Harris knew that he shouldnt have been there, so he left and the angel
came and showed the 3 of them. and then joseph went and found martin
praying and the angel came again to just the two of them. didnt know
that. dont know if that made sence. but it was cool to me. anyways.
DAD: two things i had this week that reminded me of you and i KNOw
you would LOVE. flan- with coconut on the bottom.. so delish!! and A
chocolate CAke shake from portillos. SO DELISHIOUSLY YUMM!!!! they
literaly take a piece of their famous chocolate cake and put icecream in
a blender and mix it up and give it to you. SO good! just the way you
like it. mushy!
I also had Goose Island root beer this week. it is famous to
Chicago and very good. it isint too fizzy. its nice. Riley, have you
had this?
Tuesday we had a "new missionary training" meeting. with all the
new missionaries and their companions. which was more than half the
mission. President Fenn talked to us multiple times and it was SO GOOD!
i learned SO much in that meeting. He talked about 10 things the devil
doesnt want us to teach, and is attacking int he homes. very
interesting. but one of the things that really stood out to me was the
importance of the restoration. I mean it is extremely important, but he
made a point that revelation didnt begin at the first vision. revelation
for Joseph Smith came at the time he read JAmes 1:5. he explained
that if he had not the revelation to go and pray and interpret the
scripture to fit his life he had pondered the scripture for some time
and then made the decision, it would have never led him to go and pray
in the grove. very interesting to me. so ponder scriptures :)
then wednesday and friday are big days. we will come back to them
thurday we went and painted Sue Ellen Smith's house. she is
awesome and just a sweet lady. we painted for her a couple of weeks ago,
but went back to paint another room.
ok. wednesday we got a headquarter refferral. we didnt have a
chance to call or go and meet this person yet and then we recieved a
call from Utah. We usually dont pick them up if they arent from our
area, but they had called 3 times so we called them back.
This lady's name was Whitney and her friend here Gael
Westphal wanted a book of mormon. Whitney and her husband in Utah sent
her one with their testimony in it and then told her that she would
contact us to have us come and teach gael. Whitney also told us that
Gael was anxious for our call and was sad that we hadnt called her. (we
had just recieved it and hadnt had a chance.) any ways we called Gael
and she is just As golden as gold. i mean she is so ready for the gospel
it is incredible. she is going through a divorce and she pretty much
woke up one day and said. the church is true. Whitney was her nanny
25 years ago in New York and so she knew about the gospel that way. so
we went and met her on Friday. she was Extremely receptive to the
restoration and understands it all. she is a fun, loving woman so open
and just not afraid to ask us questions. she is already a missionary
because she is re-teaching to her roommate all that we are teaching her.
and she said that Terry (her RM) wants to sit in our discussions
and "even if shes not interested, at least we are planting a seed." my
reaction was wAHT!??! is she mormon! so cool. so we invited her to be
baptized. she said yes! but.. it wont be till october 10th because she
wants her friend from Utah to do it. (well her friends husband thomas).
so we will be meeting with her 2 times a week until then! so excited.
hope i dont get transferred. i would be so sad. Then on Saturday
we went and helped her do yard work at the place she is living we got to
listen to Adele playing in the back ground. oh how i love Adele. .
OH!!! how could i forget/. she lives in a BARN!! it is so cool!! its
this big old red barn and she lives with Terry. see gael is from Georgia
and is just here for a while. so we went and helped them pull weeds on
this big 2 acre lot that their house and barn are on. and make it look
purdy! they are preparing to sell it. if i had $370,000 i would buy it.
tear down the house and rebuild. it is SO beautiful. i will take
pictures next time we go out and send them :)
Then we went straight to our next appointment. this was with
Herman and Tina. they are married and so awesome. we only had about 15
min to meet with them but during our lesson Herman got up and went to
get something. you would NOT believe what he came back with...... A
QUAD! like all of the scriptures quad. It was crazy! he said he had read
it all. cover to cover. and he said "its the bible and the book of
mormon all in one book. just like it should be." i thought he was a
member and just pullin our leg. like maybe a less active member
idk. hes a jokester so i thought maybe. and so sister P and I asked him
"are you mormon" and he said no. but it was so funny! AHH it was
amazing. they are both really receptive as well. and look forward to
meeting witht them. we love them all!!
right before we went in to Herman and Tinas this little black
nissan drove by and started yelling at us "hermanas!! Hermanas!!" and we
looked around and these two mexican tiwn ladies were yelling at us.
they wanted us to go to this house and "save brenda" we were so
confused. we didnt know why they were sending us there. so after their
lesson we went over to this house and we went in and found out that
Brenda was a sister to the twins and her mother or mother in law or
grandma or something. someone is dying. she was there on a hospital bed
surrounded by 3 catholic ladies singing her "songs to god" in spanish.
she has cancer and a couple other things. basically dying. we couldnt
communicate well with them because they only spoke spanish. so anyways
we were just kind of sitting there. and the grandma asked us to sing. so
ssiter P told me i had to because she cant carry a tune.i agreed. and i
had No idea what to sing. the only thing that came to my mind was "o
divine redeemer." hahahah so i sang the chorus to that song. ahah and i
felt like Aunt Rose singing at a funeral.i know it wasnt nearly as good
as how Aunt Rose can sing it. anyways i felt bad for singing that song
just because i have always associated it with funerals and death, and so
i felt like i was sing this little mexican ladys swan song. haha oh
well. sister P and i both still dont know why we were went to that
house. oh well it was funny.
it was a good week to say the least. i loved it. and look forward
to this week., we have a zone meeting tomorrow and will be taught by
president again. SO excited! did i tell you that he is buddy buddy
with Elder Oaks or Nelson. something like that. anyways. sometimes he
will be a the puplit and get a phone call mid sentance and just walk out
and answer it. he comes back and says. "you all know who that was."
haha hes awesome.
this is an amazing work! I love it so much,. thank you for
the letters and love.. Oh i got 10 letters this week! it was awesome!
thank you friends and family! i loved it!! :) so good!!
Made my week! and day!
All is well in Chicago. its been cold this week, especially at night. but its been nice.
peace and blessin's
Sister O'Neil
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