/10/27/14

. Happy People are Spiritual.

Hello family!!

well this week we had a little bit of a pre-Halloween with lots of blood! Sister Sullivan had 3 extremely BAD nose bleeds this week, that lasted for like 40 minutes each, and it was incredible. I was so fascinated by the whole thing because I had never seen someone's nose bleed like hers did. I was also probably really intrigued as well because I have never had one. so it was so weird. anyways, I attached a picture for you all to see..:) hahaha she is a good sport about it all.. I guess It happens a lot to her, so it was nothing new..

We have been working hard, and sometimes, most of the time,  it never feels like it is enough or that we satisfy others demands, or what we THINK they desire of us.. most of the time our perception is wrong about what other people think of us. anyways, so it can be little bit stressful and hard to "measure up" and I just have to keep pushing myself and not become defeated. Its a great stretching activity!  y'all should try it! :) haha

before I forget, Patricia is doing well. She came to church, and she helped one of the Elder's investigators, who is blind, around church. It was great to see her serve others and help them she is the best! I seriously Love Patricia!  we had a good lesson with her this week that lifted our spirits. thank you for your prayers, they have been answered. She really opened up to us and told us a lot about the trials she has had in her life and all that hse has been throught. it is overwhelming. and then to look at her and see how strong she is, it is amazing. I know it was only because of the Lord that she is in the place she is in. She has really come a long way and is being healed through the gospel. it is amazing to watch.

When sister Henderson was here we were looking for some places we could do community service and volunteer, so we found this place in Chillicothe called Helping Hands. It is a volunteer run second-hand thrift store that is Christian based but non-denominational, and we would be going there to help sort and organize. oooook. so we finally got back in there to get the info and ask them when we could come and help and they invited us to come on Saturday. side note- Chillicothe is a 30 minute drive north, and a lot of miles, so we try not to go there more than once a week. anyways.. We get up there to start our shift and the lady Chris says to us "while you volunteer here you have to take off your name tags." ... ummm what?? I am 95% positive my jaw dropped in front of her. hahahha I was in disbelief. I have NEVER been asked to do that, so I wasn't really sure how to respond. she went on to say " we are interdenominational here and so you will have to remove them."  so I calmly said to her " we don't take our name tags off for anything. We are representatives of Jesus Christ and we wear them so that others can recognize us." She cut me off and said "well we are too! but you will have to take them off... you can put them under your sweater!"  I explained to her that we would not actively proselyte or teach others while we volunteered at their organization out of respect, but she just responded with "well you will just have to wear them under your sweater"  ... LADY!!!  THAT IS Like Not wearing it at all!! hahahahaha!!  seriously! ( I didn't say that.. I just thought it..)  At this point all the workers around us  ( about 5 or 6) stopped to watch this discussion, because she was really snippy and short and rotten with us. it was sad that she felt so strongly about this. But we just kinda stood there and told her we would not remove our name tags and that we were sorry that their organization had such restrictions that we could not offer our helping hands. I gave her our info again and said if they ever felt like they needed additional help they could call us.  I think I was in shock for a few moments after that experience, I think mostly I was just sad that someone was asking me to hide who I am. I wondered about if we had been a nun or Muslim or some other obvious religious or cultural belief if she would have asked them to do the same, to remove entirely or partially .  to me my name tag is part of my armor. Its a part of who I am right now and I am dreading the day that I have to take it off. I was really grateful for that opportunity to boldly defend who I am and not

this week I read an article on either Mormon newsroom or lds.org (I cant remember) but it talked about happiness and the 10 charactersistics of happy people. I relaly loved this article and the quote at the very end from Man's search for Meaning.

"Even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself. He may turn personal tragedy into triumph." Its all about ATTITUDE!! it always about our attitude, which is something we control. it is a choice we make. and we have the help of the lord to change it when it is hard to.

We are off to carve pumpkins! I didn't do it last year, so  I am determined to this year. We have our trunk or treat on Wednesday and then on Friday for Halloween we are going to the Crespos home to use their home theater to watch a church movie. It is super nice like the White's home. :) they are so nice to let us come and use it. :)

I am so excited, next week is Stake conference here so I am eager to see some ward members from Pekin! I am excited for them to come and so that I can see them!  woot! it will be great! :)

that's all folks!

love you all!

have a great week!

love,
Sister O'Neil