10/20/14

Dear family,

We’re going where?
Guess where I am going right now?! That's right! BEAUTIFUL NAUVOO!
We got a text from the zone leaders on Thursday telling us that we
would be going today,  and so here we go! I am so happy about this. I
didn't think I would get to go again to Nauvoo while a missionary, but this is
so great! Such a tender mercy.
Speaking of tender mercies, I have seen many great mercies from the
lord this week. It has been such a wonderful week! I have noticed that
with this responsibility of being a trainer I have felt a greater abundance of the spirit
with me, and it has been such a blessing. I have learned so much and
have done a lot of reflecting about the beginning of my mission and
how much I have grown and come to understand things that I never
thought I would understand.  Having a new companion, I have been
reminded of all the fears and anxieties I had as a new missionary and
I have loved thinking back on all my experiences to see how each one
helped me mature and grow. It's really neat.  I hope more of these
opportunities to reflect back will present themselves through out my
life, and I hope you will look at your lives.  I love being able to
see the potential heavenly fathers saw in me and how applying the
process of the gospel has shaped me to become a stronger disciple of
Christ.

 Now I am in the middle of Iowa, traveling back. So for a few moments I
am west of the Mississippi, that much closer to home... And now we are
crossing back.  :) #missionaryforlife #idontwanttoleave #thatsgoodcuzidonthaveto...yet!
Nauvoo was great and amazing. I love the temple so much. It was such a
blessing to be there and be in those holy walls and learn from the spirit. It is such a joy and privilege in my life to be in the service of my fellow brothers and sisters, in and outside the temple. But I LOVE Nauvoo! seriously. I will attach some pictures.

so I started this email this morning, and now I am going to finish...

This week has been pretty good. It has not been a normal "missionary week" (well at least that is what I keep telling sister Sullivan) because she has been sick, so we have been trying to help her get some rest and health back, and then today we went to Nauvoo.

Anyways, we had to drop a couple of our investigators, so we are back to the beginning, working hard through members and tracting etc. to try and find some people to teach. Sister Henderson and I had met this lady last week and we went to teach her last night in hopes that she would become a new investigator. The lesson went ok, until about the 1st vision. people either love it or hate it. It was so weird because every time we tried to tell her about the vision she would ask a question or something, and we couldn't get to it. DARN SATAN!! he always gets in the way! but what it came down to was that she thought we had to pray through our prophet to strengthen our relationship with Christ, and today in the temple it was just SO CLEAR to me how important a prophet really is. I love the temple. so much. also it was like a fulfilling of the feelings I had during conference. I felt like they were preparing us for battle by fortifying our testimonies of prophets and encouraging us to pray etc. and then we went to battle last night. it ended with her inviting us to her church and she kept asking us "what is your purpose in coming here?" and she would not stay quiet long enough for us to respond.. so annoying. but its all good! she gave us referrals!! :) woot! so we are going to stop by them! 

Sunday was a really hard day. we always try to call linda and patricia to help them come to church - because they both still struggle with it a little bit.. and so we had called patricia and she was not very happy. then about two hours later she sent us a text about how she felt we were overwhelming her and she felt pressured.. and all these negative things, she said she was thinking about not being a member anymore and it broke my heart. I just sat down and cried for a while because of how hard other people exercise of agency can be sometimes. for a few minutes I felt like a total and complete failure and that all our efforts were pointless. and then I snapped out of it. The lessons that day were about reverence and I received so many comforting feelings from the things people said and the prayers others prayed. they were in tune with the spirit. And I just hope and pray she will have a softened heart again and not get off the path. She came to church at the very end to do her visiting teaching and I gave her a big hug and told her I loved her. I hope she knows that I meant it with all my heart. please pray for her. she needs it. :)

the church is true! have to run, we don't have any more time. but here are a couple of pictures from today!

I love you so much! thank you for your prayers and love.

training is hard, but so good! I really do love it. sometimes I forget she is new.. haha oops!! haha

love you!

Sister O'Neil