Hello all,                                                                                    8/19/13

this week i was nicknamed Irish, yelled at by a Jew (followed by a door slammed in our faces) and then had a wonderful dinner with our mission president. all in all it was a great week!! 

Last monday Sister Pankretz and I went to the mall to meet up with some other sisters and guess who i saw there?!?  COURTNEY LYONS!!  It was SO good to see her. she was my roommate last spring. i really miss all my friends and i was just happy to see her.  it was great! 

that day i also remembered just how tiring shopping is.  and its really not that fun. (well sometimes it is , but i was tired after that..) hahah but i did get a cute skirt for cheap. so that was fun! :) 

On tuesday we got up and helped a member in our ward. they are a young couple and both of them have pretty serious health issues. and i am sure it is hard with their two little ones. so we cleaned their house for them and helped with making breakfast for her and their two little ones. the Savages are their names.  anyways that was fun.  and then later we went and Watched the Testaments with a Less-active member and i almost cried again. I just love that movie. it is SO good. and the spirit is so strong every time i watch that.  so you should watch it too. 

We had another opportunity to provide service for an investigator her name is Susie Sherrick. and she lives in one of the houses owned by Aurora University. and her sister is the president of the university so she gets to live there. anyways she nicknamed me Irish and sister Pankretz Pancake. and that really is what she calles us. is pretty funny.  she is just awesome and makes up for our other investigator Gael who moved to Utah. but we did find out that she has had her interview for baptism and is going to be baptized on August 31st! so that is exciting! we are happy for her.  

on saturday we had (what felt like) nothing to do. It was a long day. AND we were waiting for transfer calls. so we were both anxcious to know if we were being moved or what not, and we are both staying here. i am happy!  it will be great. so all day we pretty much tracted.. all day.  most of the day no one answered or really were not interesed. its hard work. so we knocked on this one door and this really nice guy came and was very genunie, and kind. and so we said "we are representatives for the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS etc." and he just said. "oh, well im Jewish. So i Killed your Savior."  and then he  slammed the door and walked away. and i just laughed a little and said, have a good day! and then sister Pankretz kinda of medium yelled.. " you killed your Savior, stupid!" hahah it was a good laugh.  sad but a funny moment.  we also started church tours this saturday. it was the first one and it was for an hour from 2-3 and no one came. many reasons people didnt come. main one is the lack of support or enthusiasum from our ward, but that is another discussion for another time.  haha BUT.. sister Pankretz and I were there for that designated hour and so we had a great time giving the spirits a tour of the building.  we told them all about the chapel and showed them how the organ works, and taught them why we dont have crosses in our churches. they were very understanding. it was fun. and then we went and grabbed a late lunch and got a half cooked pizza, and we were trying to find a park to go and sit at and we came accross a black convention! I kid you not. there must have been 400 black people at this park.  and they were just sitting and standing around. it was really weird.it was like a giant tail-gate party.  

we drove away and i told sister pankretz that i was really tempted to go back and just get up on a table and just start preaching repentance to them.  haha in my dreams. i dont think i could ever do that. haha 

sunday was very good. we had an excellent talk given by a sister Clements in our ward and she talked about prayer, and how when we pray we have to go to the Lord with a plan. she realted it to Ice Cream. there are many different flavors of ice cream. minty, chocolatey, nutty, smooth, sweet etc. none of them are wrong. they are just different. each gives you a different experience.  the same happens in life, we have to make a choice as to what "flavor ice cream" we will have in life.  the Lord lets us choose our experiences.  none are right or wrong but we have to choose and go to the Lord.  and then he will help us with our choice.  most of the time it is right, because we have the Holy Ghost, but when it is totally wrong he will guide us and tell us to throw that Ice Cream away because it is no good. it has expired. but when we have choosen the right flavor he lets us enjoy it and enables us to get through the tough times. (or the nuts and the chewy parts, or  the sensiivity of the cold to the teeth.) anyways i really enjoyed that analogy.  prayer is great. i love praying, for many reasons.  

now everyone go eat some Ice Cream and enjoy it. :)  

I love you all. thank you for the letters and the support and love and prayers. tell me about your adventures.  Is everyone ready for school?!  i know Lisa and her kids started.

Peace and Blessings 

Love        Sister O'Neil