July 8, 2013

there has been So much rain this week and then It stopped raining and got SUPER hot for a couple days and now there are thunderstorms.  it is fun to feel the thunder as i write. 

So much happened this week! it is amazing. every day has felt like 5 different days squished into one and there are just so many details that i would love to tell you about.  here are a few:

1. Everyone here rides their lawn mowers!  its crazy. well first its crazy that they even have riding lawn mowers, for the small yards most of them have to mow. and then they just ride them around like motorcycles. haha weird.

2. SO so SO many people smoke Weed! it baffles my brains!  almost every other house we knock on wreaks of marijuana.   sometimes sister pankretz and i laugh a lot while we are tracting.  hahahahah... wonder why...  :) 

3.  CLEAN YOUR HOUSE!!!  I have met more hoarders here in Illinois than anywhere else. i am sure there are many people in California as well with that problem, but it is a serious one.  Sister Pankretz and I go every week to this less active ladys house.  her name is De'etta. And her living situation is just gross.  It smells in there, and its not just her house, it is many homes.  so basically my point is, thank you parents for having a standard of cleanliness that you have raised me to have.  and for teaching me how to clean and eat healthy,  they tend to go hand in hand. :)

4.  WE have the cutest neighbor! Her name is Tomeko she is from Japan, and is 82 and looks like she is maybe 60. she is amazing. she is just the sweetest. she  will always talk to us and tells us how beautiful we are. "oh honey.. you are so pretty." in a cute asain accent. she will talk to us about almost everything except the gospel. oh well. she is nice and brightens our days. and we invite her every time to come to church and such. shes just not interested. which is fine :)

on Wednesday we taught one of our investigators. her name is kim and she has a beautiful garden.  We teach her outside because her and her husband are hoarders and dont like other people in their things.  (that is what they told us) they are very neat, and organized, just have too much. but i really loved our lesson outside.  We sat there till i got dark and then were joined by the fireflys. it was fun. i love the fireflies here, there is something magical about them. just wish they would eat the misqutioes and they would stop eating me!

5. i have a favorite member of our ward already! (well a few..) but his name is Kenny Ustad.  he is 92 TODAY! (happy birthday!) (picture attached) and he is a WW2 Vet.  he has a ton of artifacts and souviners from the war and his house is set up like a museum.  He took this flag from a Japanese fallen soldier in the dug outs somewhere while he was in Japan.The japanese before they would leave to serve their country would have their friends and family sign a flag and certian characters mean different things, and so this flag has Large character on it, so they think he was of great importance.Kenny said that they have some other ones in museums, but they have only every found 4 or 5 so this flag is pretty valueable. a great artifact.   He took it from the dead man and has it today and he wants to return it to the family, so the biggest Japanese newspaper sent one of their reporters and came and heard his story. and so that story is being published on the front page and they have 8 million in circulation. so hopefully they will get some feed back and can find this family. and return the flag. 

Kenny is awesome! he is so sweet and so kind. he was baptized in 2011 and is just so SO cool! and so good to us. he just has so many stories that have great messages and I just love listening to them! hes awesome.

Thursday was the 4th! we had 3 investigators come the the pancake breakfast! it was awesome!! ANd they all really enjoyed it! so that was a great success. and My singing went well. didnt even get to practice before, so we made it count :) Then we got approval to go to this members appartment to watch the parade.  it is a big deal down here. She lives in the tallest building in downtown Aurora and so we went up to the 8th floor and watched it with her.  they had a giant flag entry, like we have, and some pimped out cars, and an old helicopter. so it was fun and i felt partriotic. 

then we went over to this families house in our ward for lunch/dinner.  it was yummy just a classic bbq. and their family is funky but funny. they are all stuck in the 70's.  their hair, the way they dress. everything. the dad is like a little kid. so their house is just always a fun environement with a hint of weird.  haha

and then on saturday we got to pick cherries!! It was a service project for the Burzlaff family in the ward. they are and awesome family. they are really an olderish couple. prob. about your age with kids and stuff. they also have a beautiful garden. so we went and picked cherries and black raspberries.  they were yummy. ( the berries) the cherries she uses for jam and pies, not really for eating...  but i was fun. I will send pictures. 

This week has been great. a lot different then last week.  we enjoyed teaching a few people and did a lot of tracting.  we are working on getting our ward invloved. so if you have any ideas. that would be very helpful! :)

tell the ward I say Hi and thank you for the prayers. they are definitely felt!

I have learned more than i thought i would learn about the Book Of Mormon and the Bible and our gospel.  And it is true!

Looks and sounds like you all had a WONDERFUL FUN time at the ranch! wish i could have been there.

i love you all! hope and pray you all stay safe and happy and healthy. 

I love you.

Sister O'Neil