10/7/13

LOVED conference! (exclamation point!)  (if you watched you would get that :))

Ok seriously so good. i could just sit here and write a report about all the things i learned and how i am going to improve my life and my missionary efforts, but that would take WAY to long and.. each of us have different spiritual experiences. So instead each of you re read your notes and make those improvements! yay!   I love repentance and the atonement.   BUt i just love love LOVED conference and what was said.  And i am grateful for our prophets and apostles who prepared those things that the Lord would have for us to hear.   Church is true. 

Well... Peoria is great.  its smells like toast/english muffins with a hint of rotten egg in the air, because just right down on the banks of the Illinois River is where a corn factory is and where they process all the corn that occupies this state.  (have i mentioned before how much corn there is here?.. well theres a lot! )  we share this area with Elders and so it was split down the middle and we have everything west of the River and just a tad on the east side. anyways. its fun to share a ward with the Elders. a different experience but still fun.  It is a really small ward.  i didnt get to meet too many members this week just because it was conference but there are only 6 rows in the chapel. and most of the ward is 65 and older.

I live with a member!   her name is Sister Goodrich.  she is just a hoot!  she has lived here a long time but has the cutest southern accent. and just the sweetest lady.  we live in the basement and have our own bathroom>upstairs> and we get a along great. and she has family in town who come over a lot. She has 4 kids all married and has a lot of grandkids. so she is great! and we love her.  I even nicknamed her "mama goods" haha i love her already. 

It has been a hard adjustment.  leaving my first area and the people i love, and just being with a new companion.  Its just a BIG restart.  in pretty much every way.  so in some ways that is a blessing, but i do miss Sister Pankretz dearly and have just been pushed out of my comfort zone again - but for good reason.

Its really pretty here. the streets are mostly brick and they are tree lined. so i enjoy knocking on doors. :) its pretty.  We have zone conference this week. so i am looking forward to that. and the great instruction i will receive there.

Sister Payne is awesomel. she is from Bosie Idaho and is a great missionary.  She has a strong testimony and has a deep desire to bring others unto Christ.  Its been pretty cold these last couple of days. nothing too bad, just cold days.  i pulled out my rain coat as just another layer to have. 

"i think im gonna like it here! " - Annie   I am grateful to be here in Peoria and to serve with the missionaries that are here.  Its going to be great.  I am going to push my self to talk with everyone as Elder Ballard said. I just LOVED conference and i am excited to see miracles unfold as we follow the council from the Lord.  I LOVE this gospel. I LOVE being a missionary. and i LOVE my savior.  

Thank you for all the prayers and support. i love you and feel of your love.  

love love love

Sister O'Neil   

9/30/13

I am being sent to live with "the sticks and the hicks" - as a member in our ward said.  I am being transfered to Peoria, IL.  and i am pretty sad.  I feel like i am being taken away from all the people i love and being exiled to the booneys.  ok, I dont really know what peoria is like, and i know that i will love it. But i will miss this ward and many of our investigators here.  I will also really miss SIster Pankretz. we have become best friends and she has taught me so much.  and has really helped me to continue to be me while preachin the good word. :)  I love her so much! we will be life long friends. i know it.

So i am going to peoria and my new companion will be Sister Pane.  and on the phone President Fenn was sure to tell me that she is not a pain.  hAaha  but something interesting, which might add challenge to my job, is that we have been out the same amount of time.  so we are co-senior companions.  should be fun. dont know anything about her or where she is from. and will find out tomorrow all the deets (details). 

this week we had exchanges again. so sister Higginson (one of the Sister Training Leaders) came and I was in charge of our area. it was so scary/exciting.  we had a great time and it was a busy busy day with her.  We met this really nice lady at the park and had a good chat with her. she said she knew some members from the Geneva Ward (which is the ward that sister Higginson usually goes to) and that she wasnt interested at all, but later that night we got a phone call from the sister in the Geneva ward that she knew and the sister told us that she was asking all these questions and becoming interested. so that was awesome! and just so exciting!  also it was really funny/awkward. we had dinner at a single male members house. so we brought another sister with us from the ward.  We didnt know him that well so we asked about his conversion story, and he told us and then just went on and on all about how he used to be a womanizer and how he met his now wife.  haha it was really awkward and funny. 

WE met this guy Ditrick (d-trick) and he is awesome! he has such a special spirit. he is trying to raise 4 boys by himself, he is on dialisis and has no toes on one foot.  he drives around every Sunday morning to pick up his boys and take them to church.  and now he is really interested in the chruch.  we found him tracting and he came to chruch on sunday! and it was soo good to see him there. and he LOVED it!  it was awesome! he is just so cool.  I am excited for him.  Sad to leave here and miss out on teaching him.  

Sunday was HIllary Zapatas farewell "party" at the bishops house. so we went to support her and I got to say goodbye to a lot of people i love. And especailly Liahni Hamrick. I love her so much! i will miss her.  

We were supposed to have interviews this week, but we were treated like the middle child and forgotten. (not really forgotten, but our whole zone got moved to another week because President was so stressed about transfers.)  so those didnt happen.hahaha    dont know when i will have that opportunity next, but i am looking forward to it. :)

Saturdays broadcast was just wonderful!   i really enjoyed President Monsons talk. (to be expected.)  and just the overall message from the meeting.  It was great. I love being a woman in this church.  I love being a missionary. and I love being in Illinois!   

The Church is true.  Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord. I love him. Heavenly Fathers love is real.  real good. :) 

love love love. 

Sister O'Neil 

9/23/13

HELLO!! 

first, to explain the subject of my email.  We started teaching this girl Marrie. She is african american (to be policially correct) and she is 20 and has the greatest black attitude. so funny. so she was telling us how she dosent like those Holy roller, Hallelula churches.  especially the ones who shake and "look like they be havin a seisure" when they feel the Holy Ghost.  they she said " i dont want to feel no holy ghost, they all dancin like they on fire or somethin." we laughed and it was funny and then she was talking about another chruch that would dance when they felt the spirit and that is when she said "are we at the club? or is this Jesus' house?"  haha so funny! we laughed for a couple days about that one.  haha :)  

Saturday we went to Teri's again. and helped her peel and cut up apples. SO MANY APPLES.  we were working for 2 hours. and then she fed us delisious pot roast and SHE asked us if we could have scripture study! that was SO awesome!   we went over the introduction to the B of M and she really felt the spirit you could tell.  anyways it was super good and we had a great time with her. she is funny too. i just love all our investigators! they are awesome people!

ok sooo something happened this week.  mom, remember in june on my birthday eve and i was up all night because i was sick.  well. all that happened again - just a mini version.  get ready for another nacho libre quote because here it comes.... it felt like i had "direahhas since easters! "  hahaha. wednesday night i got SO sick.  It was about 7:30 and we were waiting outside for Liahni Hamrick (from our ward)  to come and pick us up to go to a lesson with Kim and it hit me. my stomach got so hard and i just was not feeling well. and so I told sister pankretz and i booked it inside to the bathroom.  there are many lessons to be learned from this experience, including, but not limited to:   

• never eat at sonic!  most people think its cool because it is all old fashioned, yeah not soo cool!!  i am pretty sure the lunch we had from there gave me food poisioning becasue it was exactly 8 hours later. so dont eat there. i am never going to again.  
• dont wish for something you are not willing to work for. >dont know why i learned this lesson, but i did :)   
• afflictions are but for a small moment.  (D&C 121:7)  I was quoting this the whole time I was sick, just praying that my pain would go away. and it did!  :) power of prayer is real.  and looking back. i almost forgot that even happened.  just feels like it was weeks ago.  

anyways the Elders came and gave me a blessing.  and all is well :)  im better

one day later i burned my leg from boiling hot water. its not bad. just it happened.  and all is well :)  

all in all it has been a REALLY good week!!  I love my mission and wouldnt trade these experiences for anything.  transfer calls are this saturday, so it will be a long week in anticipation for those. BUT we have interviews on thursday so i am looking forward to that. AND we are going to go on exchanges again this week. so should go fast. 

love love love!  

thank you for all you do for me! I love ya! 

Sister O'Neil