Email from May 24, 2010

Hello everyone!

Omaha is more and more wonderful every day! EXCEPT, it's starting to be humid and disgusting. I'm not a fan... but I'm getting tan, so it's nice =).... I'm still amazed at how beautiful it is here, even in the ghetto!

neat things happening-

• we've put Donnie on a non-smoking plan.... We're really excited, he needs this!
  
• We started teaching Chad... he's a very sweet, kind-hearted person, who's mom just got baptized. He just struggles with the idea that he will happier if he gives up some of his favorite sins. He has such a desire to be good though.
  
• I mowed my first lawn! Amazing, I know. pictures will be available shortly! ;)
• We ran into Jeff Woodhouse and offered to help him mow his lawn the other day (because we're so good at it), and so while sister Brady mowed his lawn, I gave him a spiritual thought. We talked about Ether 12:27, and he so genuinly asked, "but what if I don't know what my weaknesses are?"... I told him to pray to know what heavenly father wants him to work on.
  
• I've become BFFs with Elder Oaks' brother, President Oaks... He gave me gluten free advice. It was awesome.
• I discovered that sometimes my companion sleep walks/talks. Lets just say I've been easily entertained by this! =) it usually results in her trying to convince me that she is NOT sleep walking. The other day, she was very concerned about our well being, and she climbed onto my bed to peer out the window and check to make sure we were safe! The next time, she sat up in her bed, and I asked her what she was doing and she said, solemnly, "I am just trying to figure out what comes next." She then laid back down and ignored me.
  
• There's a lady that we teach sometimes, and we have been trying to turn her over to the elders, because she's a mom. Her name is Asha, and she called us the other day out of the blue, and told us that she had just gotten out of a really bad situation, and she knew that she needed to make some changes, and that she was ready to change. I was so happy that she called us. She told us she feels stronger when we're there. She was afraid to go to church because she thought people might look down on her for having kids from different dads. She was in tears over it, but we reassured her that Heavenly Father loves her, and they know that, and they will be welcoming her with open arms when she gets there. I love her so much! =)... she calls us her home-girls ;)
• I have a new district leader... Elder Osmond. YUP, he's an Osmond! He's one of the Deaf one's kids. He's awesome! I told him about the time I saw Jimmy Osmond at church, and he pretended to think that was really awesome.
  
• Ronelle is getting baptized on Saturday! =) When Bishop announced it in church, he threw up his hands and quietly said "yup, that's me!"... We were a little worried about it at first, because the whole thing happened so fast, and we didn't know if he realized what he committed to, but he does and he's amazing!
  
• We have had a few awkward, as expected while working in the mores sketchy areas. A week ago, a drunk man asked me, "So... if god told you to marry someone like me, would you?".... Then yesterday, We were teaching a guy named Ladell, who we quickly realized only had intentions of marrying Sister Brady... she said... well, "If you have Faith, Repent, are Baptized and Endure to the end, then MAYBE... MAYBE... MAYBE...someday" I then reminded him that he promised to say the closing prayer, which I couldn't help but giggle through... and then we swiftly walked away, agreeing to send elders his way!
  
• Recently we dropped Marcus and Dustin, who we thought had a lot of potential. The other day, sister Brady felt like we needed to stop by and see them, even though they are never home. So we knocked on their door, and they were HOME! They told us we could come back! We were so excited. Marcus had such potential, and we really had a hard time dropping them before, so we'll see how round 2 goes.
  

Well, That's about all I can think of at the moment! It's a wonderful life being a missionary. I love the mission so much. I feel so priviledged to be here. Heavenly Father is so mindful of me. I know that even thought I am still trying to be an effective teacher, that I have his help ALWAYS. I love the Gospel so much, and I am so grateful to be here! Thanks to all those who have made it possible for me to be here! I love you all!


Sister Bonelli

Weekly Letter May 18, 2010

Hellooooo everyone! =)

We had transfers this past week, and I'm in the Winter Quarter's ward for another transfer! Apparently I still need sister Brady, because we're still together ;)... But I'm so happy! I would have been so sad if I had to leave! Sister Endemann, my samoan roomy, got transferred, and I was depressed! but she's still in the Trail center so it's okay! Sister Brady and I working really hard right now to be diligent. We have to be! We can't afford to do anything but work hard. OF COURSE, we make sure to have fun along the way, though... so don't worry ;)

Exciting things have happened:

• David passed the Sacrament!
• We have a new set. Ronnelle! He's the sweetest.
• We had 5 investigators at church, and we were so happy! I felt like a mom with all of my children making good choices, it was great!
• QiQi, who has been putting off baptism for almost a year, thinks she is ready to be baptized!
  
• We have a teaching pool again, so that's exciting!
  
• Donny, the hippy, who has really weird beliefs, said yesterday that he wouldn't be baptized.... YET. That was, believe it or not, a big deal for him!

Things are just going really well. I'm working on a lot of personal goals right now. Just trying to be less of a wimp. I was doing really well for a while, but I've kind of fallen into old habits again, so I'm working on that. The trail center is turning out to be a lot more amazing though! I've had some really neat experiences there. Sometimes the Elders get permission to bring their investigators in, and we take them on tour, and I've had the opportunity to do that a few times. It's really neat, because the trail center is just another missionary tool, and a way to teach in a more interesting way. and you can focus on specific needs of people. It's so cool. A few days ago, a Tony and Ruth came in, who were not LDS, and they just decided randomly to pick up and go on a random vacation to HERE of all places. It turned out that they recently found out she has a brain tumor. I focused everything on the temple and families. It was one of the most special experiences. It's interesting how people bond with you when they come into the trail center. Even more than when you talk to people on the street. They didn't want missionaries, but I know, because of the things that they said that they felt the spirit. I snuck my address onto a post card, so that they could write me if they changed their minds. who knows if they will, but I'm never going to forget about them. I hope they can be touched enough to change their minds, especially for Ruth's sake.

Anyway, things are definitely amazing here. I love it dearly! =) I hope everyone is happy and healthy! write me! My letters have been a little slim lately! ;)

Sister Bonelli

Weekly Letter May 10, 2010

Hello everyone!

So this week was pretty great! We were really busy with a lot of different things, so we didn't get to teach as much as we would have liked. We were in the Trail center a lot, and we had "Florence-days" parade, where the whole zone had to dress up like pioneers and walk down 30th street. It was fun, but it took a big chunk out of our proselyting time!

Anyway, Transfers are this week, and I'm terrified that they are going to take my "mama" away from me! If they did, it would be ok... but I'd be really sad, and then I would have to find my own way around Omaha! scary. But who knows, I could end up going west, and serving as full-pros, no trail center. Most likely, I will stay for at least another transfer, but we'll see! =)...

Jeff Woodhouse is doing SO WELL. He is inadvertently doing missionary work! haha. He was defending us yesterday to someone... funny how someone so stubborn is becoming such a softy. We still have some finding to do. It's time to rebuild our teaching pool and baptize some more! Teaching is becoming less scary for me! I just have to get Sister Brady to talk a little less! She's a talker! =)... Tours are super fun now. I pray before each tour to be able to help people grow, and not just throw out pioneer information... although, that is also important.

I'm having a blast! Sorry, so short... I'll have a better email next week! =) I love you all!

MUAH!

Letter from May 4, 2010

Well, this past week has been pretty exhausting! We have baptized everyone, so now we have been trying to find people to teach. It's actually been pretty fun walking around. We find ourselves seeking YSAs and chasing them down quite often. It's the best!

So, you know you're a missionary when....

You start dreaming about gospel related topics
All of your jokes are gospel related
You find that some verses in the scriptures are funny..(ex: I nephi being large in stature)
(when working in the trail center) You have dreams about people pretending to be Brigham Young and walking into the trail center, trying to deceive you.

It's funny what happens to your sub-conscience when you are serving a mission!

So... cool story. We had our 3rd baptism on saturday. Justin. Justin was set before I got there, and we worked hand and hand with the elders in that area to teach him. He is in a wheel chair, and he was big on chewing tobacco and drinking. He quit everything and got baptized on saturday. It was so neat. They had 3 people carry him into the font, and sat him in a little chair, and 2 stood behind him, while Elder Boyer baptized him. we were worried about how it was all going to work out and when he baptized him, he laid him so gently in the water, and the others helped. It was the coolest thing I've seen here. So special. I love that Heavenly Father makes things possible for EVERYONE.

I had a very awkward tour experience. I gave this weird family a tour. They all seemed nice, just quiet, so I had no reason to think that I shouldn't invite them to take the missionary lessons. So at the end, I invited them. They expressed very clearly that they did not like that it wasn't "just a historical tour"... They Stormed out of the center and I followed shouting, awkwardly, "have a great day...".... then they left, I told the senior couple at the front desk what happened, and then I started balling! hahaha. It was so sad. I got yelled at for sharing my testimony. But I got over it, and I had lots of WONDERFUL tours after that. People are always surprised when they come in, because it's not just history, it's missionary work. Preach my gospel is incorporated with the tours, and it throws people off. But I have found that If I pray before each tour, it turns out okay.

Transfers are coming soon, and I'm worried that my "mama" is going to leave me. I hope not! haha. I'm nothing without her!

So, we have an investigator, Jeff Woodhouse. He's 30, and a major skeptic. He's the one we had to have a DTR with. Anyway, he wants all of this physical evidence. but every time we meet with him he seems to be softening up.. in really interesting ways. He gets answers in the form of questions. For example, he called the other day and said, "I got another question! And I think, I might actually have to READ THE BOOK."... I said, sarcastically, "Yes jeff, that's a great Idea, I can't believe I never thought to tell you that before!"... Then... he went to fast and testimony meeting with an inspired question, and I asked him how he liked it and he said..."Good, I got an answer. My question was 'why do people believe in this?'... and when I heard everyone's testimonies I realized, it's because they felt the holy ghost!".... Hahahaha. So basically, we have to figure out how to make everything his idea.

Anyway, life is grand, and I love it so much! pray that we will find more people to talk to and teach! =) I love you all! MUAH


Sister Bonelli

Picture Post

Lianna didn't have time to tell me who was in these pictures and what they are of so I'll do my best! They seem pretty self explanatory though! She looks really good!



Lianna's comp Sister Brady!

At another Baptism! I think this must be Justin?!

I'm totally guessing but I think this must be all the trail sisters?!

Beautiful Omaha Sunset?

No clue! I'm guessing this is an investigator!

Sister Brady, Sister Bonelli & Justin

This will look familliar! Lianna, Domus & Richie at the MTC!

Lianna at the Trail Center! Love the Tulips!

(This is not Lianna related but that was one thing I still miss about Wisconsin! They planted Tulips EVERYWHERE! And you wake up one spring morning and they are all blooming it's beautiful in the Midwest in the Spring!!! )

This Week - 4-26-2010

David got baptized!!!!!!! I am so happy! He is just great. He has had so much faith and I am amazed by him. He doesn't even need us! Yesterday, we had Jeff come down to the trail center so we could show him the Joseph Smith movie... (The trail center is the ultimate missionary tool, so we get to watch church movies sometimes in the theater) Jeff has a problem with Joseph Smith. To put it simply, he thinks he's a creep and read a bunch of anti-mormon literature that confuses him with John C. Bennet. ANYWAY, we thought the movie might help him a bit. He has been gradually softening up, and when I say gradually, I mean VERY gradually. So yeah, we watch the movie, and David came along, cause he had never seen it. Afterwards, Jeff had lots of questions, which he normally does, and David basically took over. We had to leave so we could get home for curfew, but they stayed there and talked, and I'm pretty sure David's new spirituality had to have sunk into jeff somehow. We haven't talked to either of them yet today, so hopefully it went well. We're praying for Jeff a lot, because he's on a 3 week plan to discover that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and then he said if he knew it was true, he'd be baptized!

So, There's this hippy-ish guy who lives in Dawn's apt complex, and I've been wanting to talk to him for forever, but he's always leaving when we get there. FINALLY, we saw him sitting on his steps outside, and we "GQed" him. He told us we could come back and talk to him. SO, we did. His name is Donny. Basically, he's 25 years old, and he is very intellectual. He Believes Joseph Smith saw God... but he believes lots of people could see God. He also believes in this thing called Twin Flames, which means that every person has a male and a female half to themselves or something. Kind of like soulmates? I guess? BUT, the intersting thing is he thinks that Mary Magdalene is Jesus' twin flame, and that she suffered for all womankind. So..... we're kind of trying to figure out what to say to him about that right now. He is awesome though, he's very open-minded, and he went to church last Sunday. The problem is, he's always wanting to talk about Revelations, and it goes right over my head every time. haha. But he's great.

Our problem right now, is that most of our people are guys. And that didn't really bother me before, but our bishop came up to us and asked us if they know that there are "boundaries to be kept".... It made us feel awkward.

We have a great ward though. They are always willing to go on teamups with us, and feed us. It's great. Also, I have the best zone ever! really... I have the best mission ever! I feel so much love all the time. It's awesome.

BTW, Nebraska is incredibly gorgeous right now. The trees are all humongous! there are these cool trees everywhere that have white flowers all over and then they fall off and it looks like snow. it's cool. also, they have black squirrels here. I don't know if I every mentioned that. but the do. and it's weird.

This is Lianna's Trainer Sister Brady! Their first day together!
This is the day Dawn was baptized by her friend James!
This is Lianna and Sister Brady on Dawns Baptism Day!
Lianna getting some training at the trail center! She said they were looking for dead people... I guess they must've been at the cemetery!

These are just a few! I guess her camera was acting up so she borrowed these from Sister Brady! Hopefully we'll get more pictures soon!