June 28th Email

Hello everyone!

Jeff is Mormon!!!!! My oh my, he's so different. He's just got the glow going on. I am so happy. He bore a 40 minute long testimony and told his conversion story, which by the way was the oddest collection of random thoughts I've ever heard... but it was so wonderful and I'm so happy I got to be a part of it. So awesome.

Well... The most unexpected thing possible happened this week. Sister Brady and I BOTH got transferred! I got shipped clear out to Grand Island which is in the Kearny zone... which is super far away from Omaha. I must admit, I was kind of devistated to have to leave Omaha. Mostly because of the people we're working with, but I know that is where I need to be, and I am loving it so far. I am serving with Sister Hall. She took me out on exchanges my very first day in Omaha, and she's awesome. We are opening up Grand Island for sisters... so neither of us have a clue where we are. Grand Island is in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful, but totally foreign. We're covering 2 wards. Grand Island 1st ward and Grand Island 2nd ward. They are mad that they have to share us, and they haven't had sisters here for 20 years. It's pretty insane. We're starting from scratch. I was pretty spoiled in Omaha, so now I'm facing the realities of missionary work. HAHA. Oh yeah, and I'm not in the Trail Center right now. I'm full pros... so that's interesting.

Chad was really upset about this change. Sister Brady is sort of close to him, and still in the trail center, but I am clear out in Grand Island, so he's bummed. I was slightly worried about him having to get used to new missionaries, but got a call from the Assistants yesterday, and he is set for baptism. Heavenly Father knew exactly what he needed! I am so happy =)... I miss him though, and everyone else. I guess I'll have to get used to transfers.

Well, That's about it for now... Pray for me, I'm totally confused about this whole OPENING AN AREA thing... But it's lovely! ;) I love you all! Thanks for all you do! write me!

Sister Bonelli

Email from June 21st!

)Sorry it's late we moved this week ... life has been insane!!

HOLY CANOLI! What an amazing week.

First things first, Janetta was baptized and it was amazing! =)...

We had Zone conference. I spent the whole time listening to the trainings and thinking of how terrible of a missionary I was, and how much I needed to fix. But one training was about the spirit and really focusing on the spirit, so I really tried to pay attention to that training and take a lot from it. So the next day, I prayed all day to have the spirit, and it turned out to be one of the best days I've had in the field. I loved it! I've been trying to focus on that ever since.

Alright so there's some big news.... Jeff Woodhouse is FINALLY GETTING BAPTIZED! I'm not really sure how it all happened, but last week he fasted and got some answers. The other day he told us his biggest hold up was tithing, and so we told him to pray about it. Yesterday he called us and said he kept feeling like he needed to give the church money, but the thoughts were in a really random way, so he didn't realize that it was an answer... it was really funny. Anyway, he went to the trail center while we were working yesterday, and he was being really giddy, and showed up with blender so that he could make all of us raspberry lemonade. Hilarious. He gave sister B a really sweet letter saying he was probably going to get baptized, and it was really neat. Anyway, we went to our bishops house after dinner to pick up Janetta's baptismal record, and he told us that he had just talked to Jeff on the phone, and this was how the conversation went. "Bishop, I think I'm ready to be baptized, how about tuesday?!"....he didn't want to waste any time, so of course we were ecstatic and we were practically dancing in the streets! We are frantically trying to get everything together now, because that is tomorrow, but OH MY GOSH, he's getting baptized! He was our toughest case. He went from thinking Joseph Smith was a terrible person to knowing he was a true prophet. I'm so happy.

So it's funny when your a missionary. People always give you things. I bought this box about a year or so ago from the salvation army that I love, but on the inside someone wrote "CHARIOT"... but it actually more like "Charoit." I like to leave it open but it's ugly, so this artist who lives in the Indie house, named Jack, painted it for me. He gave it back to me and he pretty much knew exactly what I was looking for without me saying a word. People also like to give me food that is gluten free, which is nice =). And there's a senior couple who makes things for us all the time. Right now Elder Averet is making me a heart shaped necklace out of black walnut. I love it here.

We have a less active named kelsey who is amazing. She has such a testimony but she's been burned pretty badly by some people in the church. We got her to come to church on Sunday because I was singing, and she called us after and told me that she felt the spirit, and she hadn't felt it in a really long time. I had been praying that someone would that day, and it was her. I was really grateful.

Transfers are coming up on thursday, and I'm pretty sure I will be devastated if I leave Winter Quarters, but I am also terrified of turning over the area. I really have no idea what Is happening, but pray that I won't have a panic attack over whatever the outcome is! ;) I truly love the people here. I will be sad if I leave, but I know that whatever is supposed to happen will happen.

I'm pretty sure there were more amazing events this week, but I can't remember at the moment, so sorry =(. But things are great! =) I love you all!

Sister Bonelli

Picture Post

This is Jeff Woodhouse


Elder w/ Gorilla at the Zoo


(My fav) Mowing the Lawn! Jeff Woodhouse Watching


Donnie & David


Elder's at Florence Days


With Sister Brady at Florence Days


At the Zoo



At the Zoo

June 15th Email

Hello Everyone,

Things are going well here in Omaha. David's niece is getting baptized this weekend! We're so excited. She's 18, so we got to teach her and she's just great! Jeff is progressing... slowly but surely. Donnie was ignoring us for a while, and we thought he dropped us, but it turns out that we're just really obnoxious and he just needed a break from us! Imagine that. We had a set baptism with a boy named Tyler Jaffe. He's a good kid, and has apparently read the BOM 5 times. The problem is we can never get a hold of him and he's always disappearing so we're not sure when he's going to be baptized.

Neat experience.... So we have taught this boy named Chad a few times. He's just the sweetest person. His mom was recently baptized so he's been looking into it. Anyway, he's had a really rough upbringing, and lately we haven't been able to reach him. But the other night a MIRACLE HAPPENED. He called us, and he'd been having a hard time, and he called everyone in his phone, and we were the only ones who picked up. We met with him the next day, and we taught him about the Atonement. He walked into the trail center that day and he looked SO sad. He was very down and not like himself. We taught him, and I felt like I needed to tell him how important he is. I said, "Chad, I wish you knew how important you are. You're Important." That was all I said, and I looked at him and I could see tears in his eyes (which is not like him AT ALL)... The lesson progressed, and he began to perk up. We took him into the Reflections of Christ exhibit, and that was also really neat. He was much happier in the end of the lesson. I was so glad. He's such a good person, he just needs the gospel. I think he's realizing that more and more. I just love him.

So we got to go to the Zoo last PDAY. IT was AWESOME!!!! They have a cool butterfly house thing with butterflies everywhere. They have a madagascar exhibit, which was supposed to be really amazing, but I didn't think it was that great. There's a huge jungle dome thing. And BEST OF ALL.... GORILLAS! And there's a story behind the gorillas. So we have an elder in our district named Elder Bailey. He's so sweet. He's like a Garen Holmes. He's about 6'11 and just a big gentle Giant. Anyway, he's been to the zoo before, and when he went to the gorillas, there was one in particular who was intimidated by him. Well we were there last week for our district activity, and the gorilla remembered him. It was amazing, he kept charging at the glass and Elder Bailey just stood there. this happened multiple times. we were rolling! pictures/video soon to come.

Service is fun. Weird, I know. I have found that when we're doing service with our investigators, it helps make things less formal, so they can relate to you more. We did that with QiQi last week, and I felt like we really got to know her more and understand her. She's doing really well.

So Elder Osmond made me train at our last district meeting. I was not happy! I don't do well with those sorts of things. BUT, it didn't go terribly. I could do it again if I had to. It's definitely not my favorite thing in the world though.

Anyway, things are going really well, and I'm loving it of course! I love letters in the mailbox... hint hint ;).... Love you all! take care! Muah!


Sister Bonelli

June 7th Email

Hmmm.... this week was full of interesting-ness

First things first, I forgot to mention last week that I had an interesting experience during a lesson. We were teaching Lia and Ben the Restoration. They had an adorable little puppy named zuzu, who was very excited to see us, and she plopped right on my lap. Right in the middle of "the gospel blesses families," I noticed that she was so excited that she peed right on my lap.... yup.... of course that would happen. It was mildly embarrassing. To top it off, Ben and Lia turned out to be atheists and didn't want the gospel.... BUT, I survived...

I went on exchanges with Sister Gingrich on Wednesday. This time, she came to my area, so I had to be in charge... I was pretty much a stress case the whole day... but I learned a lot, and I actually know my way around this place a lot more than I thought. But I did have to lead the lessons, which helped, but stressed me out. Haha. Lets just say I am not a fan of exchanges when they are in my area... I missed Momma Brady the whole day...

I got to go to target last PDAY and it made me so happy! I felt so at home! AND, I ran into Sister Baker.... She used to be in the Moval stake. She's one of the Powell/Baker/Hughes people... It was neat! Hopefully she mentioned it to someone =)

hmmm... Oh yeah, we had a crazy storm... Technically we had a tornado... well, the city of Blair had one... we just had a crazy Thunder/lightening/rainstorm, and 30th street turned into a river, right when we had to go to our dinner appointment. 10 seconds of backing sister Brady out of a parking spot resulted in me looking like I had just gotten out of the shower. It was ridiculous, but awesome.

ALRIGHT, so our people.... JEFF is doing great. He fasted yesterday, which was not his favorite experience in the world, but he had a prompting of the spirit, and he acted on it... it wasn't about baptism, but he recognized it enough that he told us about it... So we're realizing that we can sort of just help him realize that these things are really promptings and that he's getting closer to understanding the spirit and how it works. It's pretty neat. Slowly but surely. DONNIE... Donnie's not doing so well. He is getting a little bit scared. He was doing so well for a while, so we'll see what happens but he is holding back a bit.

NOW, we need to broaden our teaching pool again. Everyone keeps getting baptized or dropped, so we have to switch it up again. It's always fun to start fresh though, so it will be good. I'm excited. Man, I love being a missionary. Right now I'm focusing a lot on my goals and trying to follow through with them. I'm really bad at 1. thinking of goals and 2. remembering the ones I've set... so I'm working on that right now. I'm trying to study with specific questions in mind, really focus on the spirit when we're in lessons, and a few other things. This morning was a good one for study, so I'm feeling good so far!.... Anyway, I really love this fancy place =) I'm doing really well, I hope everyone else is also doing well! Write me letters! I love you all! take care!


Sister Bonelli

June 1st Email

Hello everyone I love! =)

This past week was fabulous!

First things first, Ronnell was baptized! This is my favorite story ever. He got out of the font, and they closed the curtain thing, and all of a sudden we heard him shout "WOO! I feel great!".... Spoken like a true southern baptist...

Right now we have this amazing exhibit at the Trail Center. It's called Reflections of Christ. There's this DVD you can get and it's a slide show of photographs taken by this guy named Mark Mabrey, and It's all pictures depicting Christ's life. It's one of the most Beautiful things I have ever seen, and one of the neatest depictions of Christ I've ever seen. It's amazing. ANYWAY, we have the original prints from the photography in the trail center right now. They are going around to the different visitor's centers, and we have it until August. It adds such an amazing spirit to our little center. I advise ANYONE to get the DVD and see the pictures, and watch the special feature that shows how it was all done. It's so cool.

David baptized his mom on Saturday. I'm pretty much amazed by him! =D

Donnie is quitting smoking. David is helping him. I love my life.

So we have this house full of indie kids that we teach. They are amazing! They always have such neat things to say, and one of them seems to be really wanting what we have to offer. Her name is Emily. There's a house across from them, with a bunch of people as well, who are great, but they are always drunk. The other day we went by to teach one of them, (who stood us up, so we decided to teach the ones that were there instead) and all of a sudden two Native American men walked up to the porch and decided to sit in. They were clearly under the weather, judging by the vodka in their hands, and they decided to offer the prayer, which ended up being a Native American prayer/song/thing. It was beautiful, but impossible to understand. Anyway, we began teaching, or trying to teach, and one of the Native Americans kept trying to talk to me, but I had no idea how to understand his slurred speech! This made him angry, but he continued to try talking to me, and lean on me, so I pulled the scoot-chair-in-sneaky-manner trick, and it seemed to work. Then, everyone started drinking vodka, and talking to each other, making it impossible to teach a normal lesson! ugh. But one thing that was neat, was one of the Indie house kids showed up (Nate) and when the vodka kids would try and get confrontational, He would stand up for us, so that was sweet. But I guess the moral of this long story is to show that its easy to tell when the spirit isn't there. I had such a bad feeling the whole time we were on that porch. So eventually we just left. Haha. That's the problem with teaching YSAs in the Ghetto.

I have been so amazed by Nebraska sunsets. Sister Brady and I were heading home the other night and the sky was completely orange. It was amazing. (btw, it was 8:45 and it was just barely sunset. sleeping takes a while sometimes) It looked like the sky was on fire. I have never seen a sky so beautiful in my life! Oh man. And I'm pretty sure that my favorite temple is now the Winter Quarters Temple. It's the best. I got to go last week, and I'm in love.

Sister Brady is the best. I just love her. We've always been close, but now that we have our apartment to ourselves we have a lot more time to bond in the evenings, as well as focus on being diligent. I've come to realize that when she likes a song, she puts it on repeat. A lot. But I also realized that if she's feeling sad, I can put on her favorite songs and she feels better! =) we also have a secret handshake that never turns out the same. It's the best.

WELL, I think that's basically it. Thanks for all of your support! I just love being a missionary! Write me letters! ;)

Sister Bonelli