9/8/14
Superb September
ok I have the most annoying bug bite on my foot. it itches
like crazy,
and then it swells and when I walk it feels like I am walking on one
of sheets of bubble wrap. trying to pop it. anyways.. gotta love the
Midwest.
ok, this week has been a real rollercoaster, SO STRESSFUL but so much
fun. And it is all so worth it. now that it is over I am so grateful
for it, and I learned a lot about myself, how to work with others,
being humble, working hard, how to communicate better and be a
peacemaker and the list goes on...
I don't remember if I told you about Shaun and Tarus and their family
or not, but we found her as we were walking to our car one night, and
she and her family were a sincere answer to my prayers. I have been
praying we would be able to find and teach a family and get them into
the gospel. this ward needs more families to support the ward.
anyways, we taught them twice this week, they were both really
excellent lessons. Carmella (9 yr old) is so close to the spirit, she
was so happy when she heard about the plan of salvation, and at the
end of our lesson we sang them "Child of God" and she just started to
cry. and Shaun kept saying I need to get my family here, my mom needs
to hear this. The spirit was strong./
then at our next lesson Tarus (her boyfriend/fiancée) was so engaged
and they all are just so interested and wanting to learn and change.
it is awesome! they had good questions like how do you know a prophet
when they say they are a prophet? and we served them by helping them
put away their groceries. ( the profiles are correct, all black people
love fried chicken, and they are proud of it.) haha so we put away a
LOt of chicken. we taught them about the power of fasting and invited
them to join us on sunday. they agreed and we floated out of that
lesson, and was so grateful for those experiences.. AWESOME!!
Tuesday was transfers.. so we didn't have as much planned because we
were unsure when we were planning.. anyways. It was a stretching day.
Basically what happened, is that there was a member in our ward
(African American) , who feels offended and is still hurt because of a
mistake my companion made. Well, lovely Sister Henderson is so sweet,
but can sometimes be very brash and bold and come off as not very
loving, and she knows it, and so she is working on this weakness and
is doing her very best. Well, we go to this members home and she
thought we were there to resolve things that happened a month ago,
(that I thought had already been resolved) and so she went off on us.
she didn't yell, but her words were not very kind, and there were a
lot of confusing things she brought up. She expressed to us a lot of
her frustrations, and after pondering about it I have come to realize
it is a weak spot in her testimony. She pointed everything at us (I am
sure it is because we are an easy target as missionaries) - that all
the weight of her problems was because of what WE had done, when in
reality it is because she doesn't understand and is somewhat hard
hearted. her pointing things at us didn't help sister Henderson feel
any better about her self with her self confidence and anxieties, and
so she became defensive. Needless to say, CONTENTION was present...
and I just sat there as they went back and forth, with everything to
Joseph Smith, to the infamous "blacks and the priesthood" to "why
don't you preach Jesus Christ?!" and everything in between. I
immediately pulled out the Book of Mormon and held it in my hands just
for the strength and power that come from it,.. it is like a security
blanket for me now.. haha seriously. I played mediator, and felt like
a judge in a court room, saying "its her turn to talk," "ok now its
her turn to talk" finally I just gave up. I had been praying the whole
time the lord would tell me and lead me what to do, and so I just sat
there in silence as they bickered. finally I had had enough, so I
opened the Book of Mormon to a random page and just started reading.
just happened to be Mosiah 2:9-12 and then I skipped to 15-17. The
spirit I know quieted them, it flooded the room, and taught them each.
I closed the book and said a prayer, the scariest part was right in
the middle of the prayer, her son (who was in the other room) yelled
out SUPER LOUD in a deep deep voice the F word, and it made my whole
body jump. it was like a bomb going off. There are so many parallels I
have pulled from this experience. it was so hard.
then on Wednesaday we taught Jennifer. She lives in the south side,
the DEEP south side, where it is dangerous.. kinda exciting if you ask
me. We have to tell the zone leaders when we are going and when we
leave and we are not supposed to go there after 4:00 and anyways, we
have pretty good lessons with her. she is something else.. just
imagine for a moment a Queen Bee. In every sense of what a queen bee
is, she is just that to all the men in the neighborhood. hahaha its
crazy! people on the south side,(at least the ones we have met) are
very nice and respectful to us. they understand who we are as servants
of The Lord, and are grateful for what we do. Basically everyone
needs the gospel and she has a desire to change. I don't understand
when people know what they are doing is wrong and they still do it, at
least when it is something that severe. I mean we all do that to some
degree... that is why the atonement is so important and so real. she
is not yet making big changes in her life, but it will be by small and
simple steps for her. It has been great because she has introduced us
to a lot of her friends that we have started to teach and referred to
the elders. its great! I will keep you posted on her and the
adventures in the south side.
Two more stories,
Erica is another investigator we really started to teach this week.
She has quite the past as well. She served 3 years in jail because she
shot a man 5 times and then gave him CPR to keep him alive. He was
breaking into her house and did some other things that I don't need to
mention, so she shot him.... 5 times, she has had a really rough Life
and I am grateful I am not responsible for judging her and all that.
But we had some great lessons, she loves the Book of Mormon and loves
learning with us. We read Enos with her and she identified with his
words, and testified that she knew it was true. She came to church
with us and loved it, participated in class and loved meeting new
people. It was such a good Sunday for her.
Sunday was extremely stressful, Erica was great and taken care of, but
it was Shaun, during sacrament she was talking loudly, and I know
people we looking at her, because they were probably wondering who it
was. she wandered the halls saying she felt a spirit of the devil
there because she felt unwelcome and judged. That people just stared
at her, and didn't say hello. Her husband loved church and loved the
spirit and kept saying "she will come around." Anyways she ended up
sitting in the hall and wandering down to the nursery where one of her
daughters was, and the leaders asked her to leave, anyways it was just
super overwhelming and all Sunday I was praying in my heart things
would work out, and sometimes i felt the weight of the world that
everything depended on me, then Those thoughts from the adversary
creeped in and I feared the members would think less of us because we
broth this "crazy lady" to church. Sister Henderson and Shaun got into
a disagreement, so I was the middle man again, and had to resolve
things, and honestly the entire 3 hour block I was on the brink of
tears, faithful everything would workout, but stressed and frustrated
but I didn't want anyone to know I was about to break down because
sister Henderson was already crying. So I silently struggled, until
sister Wynn ( one of my favorite people ever) just gave me a hug, and
I broke down and she just gave me the best motherly hug ever. I was so
grateful, and just an exemplary act of Christlike service, I am so
grateful, makes me cry just thinking about it... Anyways, that was
deep, I usually don't share those things with you, but that was a
really hard day. And as I said before I learned so much and I am so
grateful for it. I have learned a lot about African American culture
and their temperaments and a little insight to their perspective and
trials they face as blacks in America. I hope that very trial I face
I can face the way I faced this one, while the whole experience was
hard and I don't desire for myself or others, I felt so loved and
strengthened through the whole thing, I really felt the spirit with
me, and a calmness, even when I was faced with the very worst fears
and anxieties. I am grateful for the atonement and that it covers
everything we go through. The Lord loves me. I know it. I know he is
mindful of me and cares deeply and is always there to help us deal
with others and show them love even when it is hard. And I know the
same is true for each of you. I love being a missionary. I am grateful
that I am on a mission today, in the service of the lord. 78 "todays"
left. I am going to make them count and just enjoy the moment.
This church is true, don't forget it, and do all you can to nurture
your testimonies of Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.
Love you all,
Sister O'Neil
I am so excited! This week we have women's conference and zone
training and just so much good stuff!
We held a lot of animals this week and did a lot of service. Mowing
the lawn, painting, etcetera. I sent pictures. :)
Hope all that makes sense. Let me know if you need clarification. Have
a great week!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE! Hope you have a wonderful day! Love you a butt ton! :)
and then it swells and when I walk it feels like I am walking on one
of sheets of bubble wrap. trying to pop it. anyways.. gotta love the
Midwest.
ok, this week has been a real rollercoaster, SO STRESSFUL but so much
fun. And it is all so worth it. now that it is over I am so grateful
for it, and I learned a lot about myself, how to work with others,
being humble, working hard, how to communicate better and be a
peacemaker and the list goes on...
I don't remember if I told you about Shaun and Tarus and their family
or not, but we found her as we were walking to our car one night, and
she and her family were a sincere answer to my prayers. I have been
praying we would be able to find and teach a family and get them into
the gospel. this ward needs more families to support the ward.
anyways, we taught them twice this week, they were both really
excellent lessons. Carmella (9 yr old) is so close to the spirit, she
was so happy when she heard about the plan of salvation, and at the
end of our lesson we sang them "Child of God" and she just started to
cry. and Shaun kept saying I need to get my family here, my mom needs
to hear this. The spirit was strong./
then at our next lesson Tarus (her boyfriend/fiancée) was so engaged
and they all are just so interested and wanting to learn and change.
it is awesome! they had good questions like how do you know a prophet
when they say they are a prophet? and we served them by helping them
put away their groceries. ( the profiles are correct, all black people
love fried chicken, and they are proud of it.) haha so we put away a
LOt of chicken. we taught them about the power of fasting and invited
them to join us on sunday. they agreed and we floated out of that
lesson, and was so grateful for those experiences.. AWESOME!!
Tuesday was transfers.. so we didn't have as much planned because we
were unsure when we were planning.. anyways. It was a stretching day.
Basically what happened, is that there was a member in our ward
(African American) , who feels offended and is still hurt because of a
mistake my companion made. Well, lovely Sister Henderson is so sweet,
but can sometimes be very brash and bold and come off as not very
loving, and she knows it, and so she is working on this weakness and
is doing her very best. Well, we go to this members home and she
thought we were there to resolve things that happened a month ago,
(that I thought had already been resolved) and so she went off on us.
she didn't yell, but her words were not very kind, and there were a
lot of confusing things she brought up. She expressed to us a lot of
her frustrations, and after pondering about it I have come to realize
it is a weak spot in her testimony. She pointed everything at us (I am
sure it is because we are an easy target as missionaries) - that all
the weight of her problems was because of what WE had done, when in
reality it is because she doesn't understand and is somewhat hard
hearted. her pointing things at us didn't help sister Henderson feel
any better about her self with her self confidence and anxieties, and
so she became defensive. Needless to say, CONTENTION was present...
and I just sat there as they went back and forth, with everything to
Joseph Smith, to the infamous "blacks and the priesthood" to "why
don't you preach Jesus Christ?!" and everything in between. I
immediately pulled out the Book of Mormon and held it in my hands just
for the strength and power that come from it,.. it is like a security
blanket for me now.. haha seriously. I played mediator, and felt like
a judge in a court room, saying "its her turn to talk," "ok now its
her turn to talk" finally I just gave up. I had been praying the whole
time the lord would tell me and lead me what to do, and so I just sat
there in silence as they bickered. finally I had had enough, so I
opened the Book of Mormon to a random page and just started reading.
just happened to be Mosiah 2:9-12 and then I skipped to 15-17. The
spirit I know quieted them, it flooded the room, and taught them each.
I closed the book and said a prayer, the scariest part was right in
the middle of the prayer, her son (who was in the other room) yelled
out SUPER LOUD in a deep deep voice the F word, and it made my whole
body jump. it was like a bomb going off. There are so many parallels I
have pulled from this experience. it was so hard.
then on Wednesaday we taught Jennifer. She lives in the south side,
the DEEP south side, where it is dangerous.. kinda exciting if you ask
me. We have to tell the zone leaders when we are going and when we
leave and we are not supposed to go there after 4:00 and anyways, we
have pretty good lessons with her. she is something else.. just
imagine for a moment a Queen Bee. In every sense of what a queen bee
is, she is just that to all the men in the neighborhood. hahaha its
crazy! people on the south side,(at least the ones we have met) are
very nice and respectful to us. they understand who we are as servants
of The Lord, and are grateful for what we do. Basically everyone
needs the gospel and she has a desire to change. I don't understand
when people know what they are doing is wrong and they still do it, at
least when it is something that severe. I mean we all do that to some
degree... that is why the atonement is so important and so real. she
is not yet making big changes in her life, but it will be by small and
simple steps for her. It has been great because she has introduced us
to a lot of her friends that we have started to teach and referred to
the elders. its great! I will keep you posted on her and the
adventures in the south side.
Two more stories,
Erica is another investigator we really started to teach this week.
She has quite the past as well. She served 3 years in jail because she
shot a man 5 times and then gave him CPR to keep him alive. He was
breaking into her house and did some other things that I don't need to
mention, so she shot him.... 5 times, she has had a really rough Life
and I am grateful I am not responsible for judging her and all that.
But we had some great lessons, she loves the Book of Mormon and loves
learning with us. We read Enos with her and she identified with his
words, and testified that she knew it was true. She came to church
with us and loved it, participated in class and loved meeting new
people. It was such a good Sunday for her.
Sunday was extremely stressful, Erica was great and taken care of, but
it was Shaun, during sacrament she was talking loudly, and I know
people we looking at her, because they were probably wondering who it
was. she wandered the halls saying she felt a spirit of the devil
there because she felt unwelcome and judged. That people just stared
at her, and didn't say hello. Her husband loved church and loved the
spirit and kept saying "she will come around." Anyways she ended up
sitting in the hall and wandering down to the nursery where one of her
daughters was, and the leaders asked her to leave, anyways it was just
super overwhelming and all Sunday I was praying in my heart things
would work out, and sometimes i felt the weight of the world that
everything depended on me, then Those thoughts from the adversary
creeped in and I feared the members would think less of us because we
broth this "crazy lady" to church. Sister Henderson and Shaun got into
a disagreement, so I was the middle man again, and had to resolve
things, and honestly the entire 3 hour block I was on the brink of
tears, faithful everything would workout, but stressed and frustrated
but I didn't want anyone to know I was about to break down because
sister Henderson was already crying. So I silently struggled, until
sister Wynn ( one of my favorite people ever) just gave me a hug, and
I broke down and she just gave me the best motherly hug ever. I was so
grateful, and just an exemplary act of Christlike service, I am so
grateful, makes me cry just thinking about it... Anyways, that was
deep, I usually don't share those things with you, but that was a
really hard day. And as I said before I learned so much and I am so
grateful for it. I have learned a lot about African American culture
and their temperaments and a little insight to their perspective and
trials they face as blacks in America. I hope that very trial I face
I can face the way I faced this one, while the whole experience was
hard and I don't desire for myself or others, I felt so loved and
strengthened through the whole thing, I really felt the spirit with
me, and a calmness, even when I was faced with the very worst fears
and anxieties. I am grateful for the atonement and that it covers
everything we go through. The Lord loves me. I know it. I know he is
mindful of me and cares deeply and is always there to help us deal
with others and show them love even when it is hard. And I know the
same is true for each of you. I love being a missionary. I am grateful
that I am on a mission today, in the service of the lord. 78 "todays"
left. I am going to make them count and just enjoy the moment.
This church is true, don't forget it, and do all you can to nurture
your testimonies of Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.
Love you all,
Sister O'Neil
I am so excited! This week we have women's conference and zone
training and just so much good stuff!
We held a lot of animals this week and did a lot of service. Mowing
the lawn, painting, etcetera. I sent pictures. :)
Hope all that makes sense. Let me know if you need clarification. Have
a great week!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE! Hope you have a wonderful day! Love you a butt ton! :)
