8/25/14

First Day of Summer

Today it is SO HOT!! it finally feels like summer.

so far it has been very mild, nice and enjoyable. so it feels weird to finally have summer, now that the kids are back in school. 

roaches and fleas and spiders and floods, OH MY!!   yes we experienced all of those this week. our apartment is SO GHETTO and I feel like it just gets worse.. Every time it rains we get water on our carpet and well it rained a TON this week. so we now have a big fan under our carpet to dry it and the manager is giving the church a discount on the rent.  serves em right! this flood issue is like the 6th time this has happened since I have been here, and it was happening before I got here. Hope they get it figured out soon...

The fleas, I don't know how much we really have fleas.. I have not been bitten or anything by them. I have seen one, sister Henderson has seen 5.  soo.. we got some stuff and haven't seen any since..

We were talking about it one day and I told sister Henderson that I had always, in some ways, looked forward to eating gross things, and living in sketchy places with dirt floors etc. on my mission. for the adventure side of things!  And then when I was called here, I didn't think I would have any problems.. Well this has been an adventure.. for sure. I think sometimes the hardest part is just trying to stay positive about it all. And yet all at the same time, I really don't care.. haha has horrible as that sounds. I guess I figure my complaining and making  a stink out of things isn't going to change things, so why complain. why make it worse? 

This week we have been trying to rebuild our teaching pool. sometimes it is really hard because we just baptized so many, and the people we are not baptizing are not really progressing, so we have to do a lot of finding to make up. It is exciting. It feels good.

something I have been pondering and learning about it the importance of specific prayers. "you don't pray, you don't get answers." -P.fenn.  We have been learning a lot about it from President Fenn.  He actually gave us 10 steps about "spiritual decision making" at the last zone training meeting this week and  I want to share them with you and I hope you will study them.

1. Worthiness is a prerequisite to having the ability to make decisions by the spirit.  - D&C 121:45; 50:29-30

2. Ask questions - in prayer (pray in specifics)

-2 nephi 32:8; 32:4 -D&C 42:14; 46:30   He emphasized the importance of praying in specifics because the Devil will teach us to pray generically or not at all, and then most of the time we become repetitious, asking for the same things.  "the time you feel the least like praying is when we should pray the most." - Brigham young.

ask, seek, knock.  Knocking is action, aksing is prayer and seeking is study. 

3. ask the right question- things that matter most VS the trivial. -D&C 8:10; 88:65 - "it mattereth not unto me": D&C 60:5; 61:22; 62:5.

then president taught us so much about the story of the Brother of Jared! (oh ok I love ETHER!)  ok so he read to us Ether 2:19-25 and then commented on how he thought between the two things they needed - air and light - air was the easier one to figure out. (think about it... cut a hole.. kinda common sense..)  but then if you look at verse 23 the lord pretty much tells the borther of Jared "go study your scriptures." if you follow the foot note on the word Windows it goes to Genesis 6:16.  There it talks about "tsohar" which means a precious stone.  The brother of Jared had to study his scriptures to know the answer to his prayers and learn from the example of others how to get through his trials. - pretty cool. Noah figured it out and helped the Bro of Jared.  ( the church is so true.. that is all.. :) )

4. The holy Ghost teaches us what to pray for (scripture study = spiritual environment)  -romans 8:26 - 2 nephi 32:3 - 3 nephi 19:24   Basically, it is really cool.. we can receive revelation when we pray and we can FEEL the answers to our prayers.

5. Make a decision and ask for confirmation.

- reason and study precede revelation... I love this part about how to know what we are receiving comes from God. ( I think it is a question many people ask, and we will continue to ask, but we have a check and balance system given to us by the lord)

confirm our revelation ask ourselves:

 - is this consistent with the scriptures?

 - Is this consistent with the prophets?

 - is this consistent with rational thought?

 - is this under my stewardship?

-D&C 9:7-9; 8:2-3 

Spiritual decision making encompasses both our heart and mind. remember prayer is a form of work (as defined in the Bible dictionary)

Also there is a difference between no answer from the lord and the answer no. (look to step 9)

and we cannot receive revelation outside of our stewardship: - ourselves, our families (if we are mother or father) and our calling.

6. Listen to the spirit - feel the spirit in your mind and heart.

the adversary does not want us to believe we are led by the spirit, or that we have that gift that will work as we are worthy.

D&C 6:15 ; 8:2-3 1 nephi 15:8, 3 nephi 9:20, 1 nephi 17:45 1 kings 19- it is more felt than heard. 

"when your heart tells you something you mind didn't know, I call that enlightenment" - President Fenn

7. Failure to act causes a withdrawal of the spirit (FEAR) D&C 9:11  we are not entitled to multiple revelations about the same subject. Elder Holland calls that analysis paralysis.

don't give counsel to our fears. and remember past revelations.

8. Call to remembrance past revelations to strengthen you

-"cast not away therefore your confidence" - Hebrews 10:32,35 - D&C 88:67-68

9. move forward with faith when no clear answer comes: -ether 12:6 - Isaiah 55 - D&C 88:67-68

the answer no= a stupor of thought. and no answer is when we have to move forward- we shall receive no witness until after the trail of our faith.

10. the lord will protect you when you have followed the proper course: 3 nephi 9:20

do we trust the lord?  do we have confidence in him?  sometimes the knowledge that god loves us has to be enough to get us through. It needs to be enough.

"Let the holy Spirit guide, let him teach us what is true,

he will testify of Christ, light our minds with heavens view." -hymn 143

I loved learning about this. I hope you will find it useful in your life decisions you have to make and in your callings and just in increasing our faith and trust in the lord. I have been praying that I might use this more specifically in my life and with the work I have at hand.

HAVE YOU SEEN ELDER BEDNARS TALK?!!! Mom and dad: were you there?  If you have not, go and watch it. it is amazing!!  #sharegoodness!!  - will you each make a post this week on your facebook and use the hash tag?  I will be looking for your posts people!! and I am going to follow up with you next week, but seriously,. it is an amazing talk. and I hope we can each do better at sharing the goodness in this world. also I am SO excited about  "meet the Mormons!" OCTOBER 10th!! yeah!!

ok so as I said last week I had to give a talk on sunday. I prepared so much for it. I was so worried about it and just wanted the spirit to be there. sister Henderson kept saying: " I have never seen anyone prepare this much for a talk"  haha well I just have come to really know that I have to have every word written out. or I sound like a baboon when I get up there. anyways, I was so nervous - have not been that nervous in a LONG time. I was more nervous than when I get up to sing somewhere. My heart was racing, I felt like I was having a heart attack or something. my hands were so clammy and cold and I just felt sick. It was not an exciting feeling. anyways, I feel that I felt of the spirit. I knew heavenly father had helped me in preparing for it.

A lot of members of the ward were so kind and told me what a wonderful job I had done. it meant a lot to me, and I was grateful for all they said. I hope the learned from the things I shared with them and the spirit touched their hearts.

well here is to another week as a missionary!! :)  It is pretty great!  transfer calls are this Saturday. I cant believe another 6 weeks has passed. CrAzY!!

Anyways! I love you all!

hope you have a great week! and stay true!

Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith is a prophet and the church is true!!!

love,

Sister Jenny O'Neil   

 

8/18/14

Knowing What I Know Now

Hello my lovely family!

Another week older and wiser too.  Happy P-DAY to you!

BUT Happy Birthday to ELIZA!!! yay baby!!  AND..

Happy 40 years mom and dad!! congratulations!! That is quite an accomplishment. Thank you for your excellent example to me and many others of true love.  Thank you for living Christ-centered lives that are coupled with covenants and serving the Lord! I love you both!  Thank you for all you have taught me and the wonderful life you have helped to provide me with. ( now I would hold up my glass of sparkling cider and say "here's to eternity!" :) )  haha  I love you! hope you have a wonderful day together.

Well the fab 3 weekends are over. All three of our baptisms happened! and all three went very well. It was such a wonderful feeling to be there to witness their baptisms. It was awesome! 

Kaitlyn's baptism went well!  Their family was there and a lot of people from the ward came to support their family. It was wonderful.  I noticed that every baptism became much easier to set up for and execute as we became more experienced. It was interesting how much I learned and the knowledge I gained as we worked on these baptisms. Following the baptism was the ward party in Chillicothe and they came and stayed the whole time. They talked with so many other members and it was great! I am so happy for them!! :) The ward party was great. it was at this place called shore acres and it was right on the bank of the Illinois River. It was such a beautiful spot. and I loved being there and enjoying the time with the members.  I told brother Gappmayer ( who was cooking the hamburgers and Hotdogs) all about dads fancy trick to put the burgers in water. he was so amazed and said he is going to do that next time. :)  **dads a pretty smart guy... just sayin... ***

This week we received a referral from a member, she had met this lady at the park and just started talking to her about the gospel.  she was interested so sister Claghorn asked for her number and we called her and scheduled a time to meet with her.  Her name is Erica, and when we went for our appointment she wasn't there and we met her daughter, Miracle (that's her name). and was it a miracle!  we taught her the restoration and she loved it! she understood so much of it as well.  and then we went back to see her on Saturday and she wasn't there but her mom was, so we met both of them! it was great! one referral and two new investigators!! :)  pretty awesome! so don't be afraid to be a missionary!! look, now there are two more people learning about Christ because of Sister Claghorns small invite. SO GREAT!! and she really didn't go out of her way... 

We are working hard with our recent converts and trying to find more people to teach. it is always a work in progress, but a great work.  I love reading the book of Mormon. I recently restarted and I am trying to read the whole thing in 65 days. no more no less..  It is really awesome. I have been highlighting the topic of "knowledge" and just everything to do with it. it is so enlightening. I love it.

We have zone training meeting this week. I am looking forward to that and learning lots. I am also looking forward to exchanges, we always see so many miracles while we are on exchanges.  And it is just going to be a great week!

I hope all of you are enjoying your kids being in school (or starting soon)  Hope they are loving it! I would love to see back to school pictures! ;)

I love being a missionary.  I love serving here. I love our Savior. I love learning. I love The book of Mormon. I love the Prophet Joseph Smith. 

love you!

Sister O'Neil

** p.s.  I have been asked to give a 5 minute talk next week on "the power of the book of Mormon"  I have no idea where to begin.  If you were to give that talk what would you focus on and why?    I would really REALLY appreciate feed back!   love you!