5/27/14

A Few of My Favorite Things

bet you all thought you weren't getting an email this week. :) 

well on Tuesday there was A HUGE storm! It was so exciting! thunder and lightning and the whole bit! I was like.. WHAT THE HAIL when the hail came down and put dents in our car. our ENTIRE car is covered in dents... so we will see what happens in the future. we will prob have to have it fixed.  But the storm was so exciting. We sat at our window and watched as we were almost engulfed in the water. could have been a flash flood! 

Then on Thursday we had the wonderful wonderful baptism of Kylie Ryder! Kylie is such an outstanding wonderful little girl, with such a desire to learn and be kind to others.  The baptismal service was beautiful. Lots of her family and friends were there and many members from this ward. Her grandmother gave an excellent talk on the holy ghost that really brought the spirit. 

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges this week. It is only the second time I was able to leave my area for exchanges, usually i am the one left in the area to hold the fort down. so it was a nice "break" and i had a great time going to Elgin. Elgin is SO beautiful. their library is RIGHT on the river and every window  you can see the river. It is so peaceful. - if i lived here i would literally live in the library. while we were on exchanges we taught so many people. I think the greatest part about it was that I felt like every person i had met, i knew before i actually met them. does that make sense? everyone just seemed So familiar to me. There was this pastor guy who stopped us and asked us all these ridiculous questions.  it was interesting to listen to him, because as we did we knew that our testimonies and the knowledge we had were solid, and they came from god. we had a surety.  while his seemed so shaky and so unsure, he kept encouarging us to "go check this out on the internet" or "if you google.."  My heart started to race as i stopped him to testify of the Book of Mormon and I felt so alive! I LOVE defending the truth! there is nothing more satisfying! :) 

We had two really great lessons with Sue and one with Jerry. They came to church on Sunday! that was great! It was Andrew Neumann's Homecoming and he taught the restoration and bore powerful testimony. It was so PERFECT! the spirit was booming! and radiating. it was such a beautiful Sunday.   

HAHA it was so funny! during one of our lessons with Sue we taught her about the story of the Brother of Jared. As we told her about how he had great faith and saw the finger of the Lord, she said "I hope it wasn't the middle finger!?" HAHAHA it was so funny!   We laughed, and i said to my self "that seems like a question/statement dad would say . haha"   haha i love sue! 

Loni Williamson came home. she is one of my favorite members out here, and she was in singapore this last week, and I missed her. so i am glad she is back. She and Sue are really close.  

On Saturday we went to help Chris Skrede clean up her yard. she lives on a beautiful acre lot and it is full of trees and beautiful things and is right along the river. I want to live there, it was such a peaceful morning to be there and help her out. 

If you had the opportunity to read Elder Astles latest email, it is powerful. I add my testimony to his. If you didnt, go read it. the principles are true. and i know of the great importance of being a consecrated missionary (full time or not, i will forever be a missionary).  

I love general conference. I was able to read a lot of the talks again this week and learned much! also i love Jesus the Christ. It is so eye opening! :) love it! 

i love this gospel so MUCH! 

Love you all. Hope you have a wonderful week!  One week and a day and i am completely legal...the big 21! ....... sorry Megan.. ( you know what i am talking about.. 6 months! dont worry! ) 

but in all seriousness, i love my birthday! It is such a wonderful day because it was the day the Heavenly Father brought me to this earth to have this great experience and learn all that I have. and i would never trade it for anything. 

LOVE YOU! 

Sister O'Neil

Ps happy belated birthday Adrian! :)  

Brother Bingham Miracle 5-18-14 

We have been teaching Mackenzie, she is a care giver for brother Burton Bingham. Brother Bingham is 97 years old and has dementia and about the cutest old man on the planet. Since beginning our teaching to Mackenzie we have noticed recently that she has been struggling with the understanding of the necessity of religion and how it will truly bless her life. 

Brother Bingham is a retired-active member of the church. He was the stake patriarch and very knowledgeable in the gospel- complete with the aurora of the spirit. That being said, since I knew that about him, every time we have been over there to visit and teach Mackenzie, I have said a silent prayer in my heart, that at least once he would be coherent and help us in our teaching Mackenzie the gospel. That in some way he would understand the questions we would ask him, and would respond with his testimony, in hopes that a small miracle might occur and Mackenzie would come to understand more fully how the gospel has blessed his life, and how it can and will bless hers. 

 Typically he sleeps in his den chair while we are there, and only opens his eyes and says a few sentences that don't make sense, but this time was different. During our latest visit with Mackenzie, brother Bingham was very alive, and very involved In our conversation, all things considered. As we taught Mackenzie about the miracles that Jesus Christ performed while on the earth we shared bible videos with her and I told her my testimony that miracles happen everyday. That even though Jesus Christ himself is not here, that his power is on the earth, and as we are faithful we can see the miracles. Well, God works in mysterious ways, that is when our miracle happened.  

When we asked brother Bingham questions pertaining to the gospel we hoped to receive gospel answers from him, but the first few questions he didn't answer. Then slowly we noticed that he would answer our other questions and answer them correctly instead of his typical answer of " what are the gas prices, or what time is it?" We noticed he was coming to be more conscious of the conversation at hand, rather than in his own mind. So we asked him questions we all knew he would know the answer too, like " how long have you been a farmer?, and what do you farm?" Hoping he would continue to stay with us.  And it worked. 

There were some really funny moments that had the 4 of us laughing. :) ( the 4 of us being Mackenzie, me, sister Oliveira and sister Joyce Metoyer.)  

He asked us once, what this thing was that was In front of him - it was his walker- and we responded with " it's your home." And in a mocking tone he responded: 

"I ask you all the time, what is this thing, where am I.. And all you say is, " it's your home Burton!" And shook his head in a diva-esque, matter -of -factly way.   It was hilarious. Mackenzie told us how he has done something similar to her when he wants to leave and go for a drive he says " your 97 , you can't drive. This is your home." 

It was super funny! 

At the end of our lesson, we asked brother Bingham if he would give us the closing prayer, since he was " there with us." So we asked him to say the closing prayer for us and sister Metoyer said "bless Mackenzie", and he said.  " what? She wants to be black?!" Pointing over to me he says, " this fine white lady wants to be black? The lifestyle of a black woman is very different." Oh it was so funny! We laughed for a long time after that. :)

So after a few minutes we asked him again and he agreed. In his tender and beautiful prayer, I could feel that he knew perfectly well who he was talking to, and of the closeness he felt to our Father. It was obvious that he was listening and understanding what we were discussing with Mackenzie. The spirit directed him and we could feel of Heavenly Fathers love. In his prayer he asked that we would be able to understand and recognize why things happen to us. He also thanked God for the wonderful day and for the privilege of being here on this earth and for the opportunities we have.  All of those things, were in someway related to the very topics we had discussed with Mackenzie,( one of the things being why her mother passed away when she was 12).  It was amazing and I felt the spirit flood that room and tears came to my eyes as I realized the great miracle this was in my life, and an answer to my prayers. 

As we were leaving I knelt down next to brother Bingham, first to take a picture with him, and then to ask him to teach Mackenzie about Jesus Christ. After a few tries of explaining to him to teach of Jesus Christ, he got on a train of thought that could not be stopped. He began by telling her to serve, that members of the church fulfill their callings by serving. That as we read the books and magazines and publishings of the church we will understand Jesus Christ.  Then he drifted into a prayer and then concluded by saying "we love thee, in the Name of Jesus Christ, amen."  

What a blessing this has been, something I hope to never forget.  Our Heavenly Father loves each of us, and uses us as tools no matter our age or capabilities dependent upon our righteous desires to serve him. I hope that in someway I can follow the example of Burton Bingham and be righteous and faithful to the end, always worthy to be used as a tool in the hands of The Lord. " wherefore ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold this saith the father; ye shall have eternal life." - 2 Nephi 31:20 

At our exit we said to him. " we love you brother Bingham! " 

 And he said " does your husband know that?"  

Hahaha and sister Metoyer said 

 " No! They are missionaries!" 

 . Oh.. ( with a smirk) ha! 

Love him! 

Love from the Midwest,

Sister O'Neil 

WEDDINGS, BAPTISMS, MIRACLES, AND BUNNIES

5/19/14

OK! So this week I learned the valuable lesson that Preach My Gospel is inspired of God. That it comes from the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve and therefore it comes directly from Jesus Christ. Please don't ever undermine it or degrade it. To me it is a sacred book that with out which, I would be lost as to how to be successful in this work.  I know it is powerful direction given to us, and as we follow it with exact obedience we see success in our Missionary efforts and a greater endowment of faith that we can be member missionaries. Follow the counsel from Elder Ballard - obtain a copy and study it :) I know it is true.   and you will be blessed! :)

Ok - ok  i know you dont want to hear me preach all day long.. i do that already... :) haha #fulltimetestifier  #gospelistrue.

 now this week was amazing! and it has been a long - full week.

It snowed on wednesday! WHAT THE..... ILLINOIS has issues :) just kidding  i really loved it. 

Sue update! - first thank you for the prayers directed for her. they are being answered.!! this week we talked with Tim, Her son. and He said that he wanted his dad to learn from us. and so he called up his dad - Jerry and asked him if we could come over later that day. SOO we went and had an amazing lesson. Sue was there with us and she testified of the things she knew to be true. IT was simply amazing! it was like a member present lesson, but shes not a member yet! hahaha!!  SO COOL! the spirit was strong. It is a great experience because Jerry is a paraplegic and is almost deaf, so we have to choose our words very carefully and speak slow clear and loud. causes me to carefully measure my words.  

Then on Saturday we had an amazing day.  We had our monthly coordination meeting with Bishop at 7:00 am and then right at 9:00 we had the wedding of Salvador and Sandra.  Sandra has been a member, and to make a long story short, is in love with Salvador but initially Salvador didn't want anything to do with the church. The elders and the spirit worked their magic and he is now the newest member of the Sycamore Ward. He has been waiting for 3 months to be baptized, completely ready, but couldn't because he had to be married to Sandra first. We had to wait for divorce papers to come from Honduras, and they were held up because the country just wanted more and more money for them.  so finally they arrived and the ward rallied around them and threw a wedding together in a week. It was amazing to watch how the ward truly came together and everyone put in effort to help them. It was a wonderful experience and beautiful memory I hope to never forget.  Such an example to me of all that is possible when everyone works together for a common righteous cause. 

Directly following the wedding we went into the relief society room and Salvador was baptized! WOOT!! I love baptisms.

the rest of that day felt like a Sunday. there was a peace to the day and it was simply beautiful. - the weather has been nice too! :) 

This week we visited a less active family. Sister Lea Roberts has been sick. she has a hole in her lung and has been struggling, but we went and visited with her and her kids and they had a bunch of baby bunnies ( i dont know what they are called, a flock?, a school?, a nest?, a heard? a family?  what is a family of bunnies called??? hahaha)   They were the cutest little things ever! just a few days old and were opening their eyes the day  we were there. so fun!  But their family is awesome. we enjoy our visits with them. :) 

This Thursday Kylie Ryder will be baptized! I am so excited for her! and the family decided to have the baptism here in Sycamore, so we are happy and grateful for that decision. It is nice to have a convert baptism with parents who are members, because they will take care of all the nitty gritty details. :) 

There was a HUGE miracle that happened last night at brother Binghams home. I am in the process of writing the story on my iPad and will send that your way when i finish it today.  He is so hilarious and we had an amazing time with him. I love Burton! :)  hahaha last night as we left we said " we love you brother bingham!' , as we were leaving and he said " does your husband know that?"   hahahah he is a funny guy! :)  just think about 97 years for one second... his teenage years were in the 20s and 30s! WHAT?!?!!  So i will send that too you. and hopefully you will be able to understand the siginificance of this event!  amazing! :) 

I love you!  - actually.... its a toss up between you and missionary work to be honest! hahah just kidding :)

Sister O'Neil 

5/12/14

Well fam, It was awesome to talk with you. I missed you. and it is crazy to see how your children are growing so fast.  You are so hilarious! Cant wait till we are together again! :) 

It has been a pretty good few hours since i talked with you, we left thank you notes all over the bishops house last night in fun places. It was like hiding Easter eggs. anyways. A fun time, and then we just have been doing things around our apartment. 

It is amazing how quickly things change in missionary work. and everything is going great and amazing and then like the flip of a switch everything changes Now for some sad news: 

This morning "walls came tumbling down" and "the floods came up" to my eyes... a rough start.  (this is only the 4th time.. mom and dad... :)  )

 Sue Dewey, dropped us. I truly felt so sad. I was initially really upset because her reason was that she " doesnt want to antagonize her husband."  Her husband is a paraplegic who is almost deaf, and is struggling and so i think he is trying to hold on to any kind of control he still has in his life, and use it. And that is affecting Sue. He is upset that she is meeting with us.  See, He was out of town until this time. He was living in Arizona for the winter with his brother and came back into town for his other brothers funeral. And so he is home and Sue is finally telling him about her learning with us, and  I dont think he is taking it well. What is it with Satan using spouses! ARGGH!!  So she has made the decision to "cool it" and invite us back when she feels it is best.  I hope she will feel the difference in the spirit in her life. She is continuing to read the Book of Mormon and is already in Mosiah, and she is praying every night.  It is just so hard because just this week we had a great lesson, and Sister Oliveira and I both felt like it had finally been revealed her true concerns and questions about the church. and we know exactly what to discuss with her her when we go to meet her again, and now I feel like we are taking a huge step back.  I just felt so sad for her, so defeated and disappointed. I felt the spirit teach me something, i knew before, but needed the reminder.  That this sadness is what Heavenly Father feels, not only when people like Sue make these decisions, but when each of us make decisions that are contrary to his will, when we know perfectly well what we should do. It makes me think of this quote/ thought dad shared with me recently it says: "Help us, Oh lord, when we want to do the right thing but we don’t know what it is. But help us most of all when we know perfectly well what we ought to do, and we don’t want to do it."  I will be praying for her.  This is hard.

It is really hot and sticky outside already, It feels like when i just came to the mission field, it is an extremely strange phenomenon and kinda sad because time is running out!!

#happy11monthstome! 

#11monthmissionary....what? 

#thisisweird. 

#onemonthtooneyear

I love this work. I love being happy and sharing this with others. I love the peace i have in my life. I love the faith I have and I love the examples I have. Here is to another good week, full of good hard work! This gospel is TRUE! Act on it! :) 

love you all! 

Sister O'Neil 

5/5/14

ANTZ

HELLO!! anyone want to come and rid our apartment of Ants?  there are SO MANY OF THEM!!!  it is kinda gross. Sister Oliveira found them in her purse and all over our kitchen floor. I guess its the signs of spring! :)  

Another not so lovely sign of spring the pollen's in the air.  I am not really sure why i didnt figure this whole allergy thing out before now, because upon my reflecting of this issue, i have had this head cold thing every year, this week of the year for the past 3 years - at least. hahaha and i just never put two and two together. So that has been a fun battle. Luckily the worst of it is over now - i hope. I have my voice back and i am not as stuffed up as i was.  hahaha  

ok well this week was amazing!!  Just amazing! so good!! :) belting "the hills are alive" good. i mean top notch.  SOO GOOD! (teen girl squad). 

well, on Monday we had a wonderful lesson with Thomas Weitzel. He is doing amazing. he agreed to stop chewing tobacco and is still on date to be baptized on the 17th.  :)  he is so inspiring, he has this notebook and he writes EVERYTHING in there. he comes to our lessons with questions and notes written about what he is reading. He is an excellent example of an honest truth seeker. I hope to be a better note taker and follow his example. He truly has a deep desire to follow Christ and agrees to everything because he knows and understands that it will bring him blessings and closer to God. He is AWESOME!! He also came to our even on thursday that i will tell you more about.

OK. FAMILY! My prayers have been answered!!!! 

Tuesday, at transfers, I had the WONDERFUL opportunity to see my old companion sister Coburn (one of my favys.) and the first thing she told me was that KIRA FRIEDRICH is on date!!!! KIRA is going to be BAPTIZED on Thursday!! I started crying. ( almost an ugly cry). I worked with Kira every week i was in Pekin and she has been so prepared for such a long time, and she finally made the decision. :) She is seriously my soul sister. i love her so much! ; prayers answered. 

unfortunately because i went from one end of the mission to the other, i cant travel all that distance to go to her baptism. Its a bummer, but president said i could call her before the service and talk to her. - a tender mercy  of which i am grateful for. 

Also, at transfer meetings president spoke to us (he usually does) but this was such an amazing experience that i hope i never forget. There was a big thunder storm that was rolling through as we met together on tuesday morning. President Fenn gave a wonderful sermon (because his talks are more like sermons than they are talks - love it! ) and a couple times just as we was making serious points, there would be a clap of thunder to underscore his point. and then the rain would beat on the roof harder and harder until at important points and it would quite as he shared experiences. 

 He told us in his address about his health, which has been a worry. Explaining that he was in the hospital last week for a procedure, he made it very clear the severity of his condition. He had to take a heart stress test that he failed. And long story short he has to have surgery on his heart because one of the 3 main arteries is completely blocked. He is not supposed to have his heart over a certain pulse, because if he does, he could die. BUT if he has another peanut allergy attack, and there is a need for an epipen then his heart will go over that. - so he needs to have this surgery. He is living on a fine line.

He had his internists look for the best hospital in all the world that has the best success rates for this surgery he needs and this is what he said. 

" it is interesting why the Lord calls you to a certain mission, (he referred to when Elder Martino was here and shared some thoughts with us on this topic) I have never really questioned why the Lord called me here, but when my internists came back they told me the best place in all the world is at Loyola University. 20 min from my house here in Naperville."  WOW! what a blessing. - no comment. 

The church is true. "The Lord is in the details of our lives" - President Monson

In other news, I am also grateful for the knowledge of  the plan of salvation. Grandpa Kenny Udstad, from the Prestbury ward, passed away yesterday. He is one my favorite people i have met while on my mission, and i am going to miss him. I learned so much about WWII and being a cowboy from him and how to crack a whip. He is living proof that you are NEVER too old to change. He was 92. I love him. Cant wait to see him again! 

This week I learned something really valuable from Preach My Gospel. In Relief Society this week they prepared a lesson on the first two lessons found in preach my gospel.  And then they had everyone write down a question that they had from a friend, and then using the knowledge we know from the first 2 lesson, had to answer that question. it was really good! but as i was looking through Preach My Gospel I felt inspired to look in the "how to improve my teaching skills" section - section 10 :) And this point really stuck out to me. That if we want to help others understand the God that we believe in, and reach them the true nature of our Heavenly Father, the best way to do that is to teach them through the spirit. We have to provide for them a spiritual experience. Share your testimony every time you answer a question about the Church. It is the best way we can help them to understand God. (it lists many other ways we can help them understand that, that is just one of the easier ways, i encourage you to go and study that, it is under the " how to teach people with out a christian background section." 

Sue is doing really well! She came to church. We are going to invite her accept a date to be baptized. We hope she will agree! it is awesome. she told us that she knows Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. ( maybe i told you) but it is beautiful!  

Thursday President came to NIU to speak for anyone and everyone. He basically taught the first 3 lessons in 40 mins. It was so impressive. And then he answered our investigators questions. It was an awesome experience to see as president helped to answer our investigators questions. I love working with him. He is an amazing individual :) 

Well family. I love you!  I will see you in 6 days!   

Love, 

Sister O'Neil 

I love sister Oliveira, sometimes she says really funny things because English is her second language. the other day she said " i need to take a pregnancy test." and then looked at me and i gave her this WHAT?! look... and said " I Mean a pregnancy picture!" hahaha some sisters take "pregnancy" pictures at their nine month mark. haha it was really funny. :)