Hola Family!

To answer a few ?'s first...

We are able to drive a car every other day, and our off day we have to walk or try to have member present lessons so we can get rides. But, we found 3 bikes from the ward and mission office so this week we will start biking which will be nice!

I have learned a lot of spanish already and everytime I hear or learn a new word, I write it down so I can remember it. One of the Hermanas we live with marked everything in the apartment with a sticky note with the spanish and english word on it and that has been fun!

The weather has been SO hot! I believe it has been in the 100s this past week with who knows what humidity! I don't think I am quite used to the humidity. It is weird being outside at 9pm and still be sweating! We learned really quickly to wear sunscreen!

Yes and no I am busier than I thought I would be. We are told to not really go "tracting" too much anymore because it is ineffective
and we could be using our time better, but since we arn't in utah, and members and people are more spread out, It takes time going from house to house for lessons and visiting and such...We found 8 or 9 potential investigators this week which is awesome! It is hard with all of our progressing investigators, because we give them commitments and know the blessings they will get from it, but they still don't change!

Our ward is really small and we are trying to build it up with strong members and trying to find families, but all of the people are gems. There are a few members who treat us very well!

The first night in, since there were so much people we stayed at member homes nearby. Then the next day we had delicious french toast at Pingrees home and headed to the church for transfers. I believe his home is just a few minutes away from the mission office. The elders live a few miles away from us. They are english speaking. But we are the only 2 english speaking companionships in our zone...so that shows what the main language is in our area! My two companions have been together for 3 transfers now. Sister Carter came out in april and Sister Jacobson has been her trainer since. Sister Carter is waiting for her visa to Australia. They have also been in this area since then. We have not ridden the bus yet, but Im sure we will. We have been getting some member referrals, we found a few people from walking on the streets and taught a few, when we arent busy we go contacting on Heights Blvd. Which is right by our apartment and try talking to people. 

Ok, I hope that answered most of the questions.If not let me know!

I have never had so many bug bites in my life! And they are huge!

I recited the 1st vision memorized for the first time last week! It was amazing the spirit was very strong!

I had my first real Bar-B-Q on thursday! A member took us there for lunch, it was devine! I have had all different types of food here! We have suprisingly eaten at a lot of members houses, nothing too crazy yet! But...EVERYONE will have avacados and tomatoes on everything or on the side...haha so I may come home eating those two foods.

I have always wanted to hear..."y'all come back now, ya hear?" I haven't heard that yet, but I have heard, "Y'all be safe now, ya hear?" haha it was so funny! I thought I would never hear that!

And it is true, everyone will say, do you want a coke? meaning a pop or soda.

Yesterday we were in a members car and it was 103 degrees outside. It started to rain a few minutes later and in less than 5 minutes the temperature went down to 85 degrees. I don't know if it was 100% accurate but it was pretty interesting!

Miracles happen everyday out here!

This is probably going to be the biggest one that has happened on the mission so far...

So on saturday we were at the church for a ward breakfast and after couldn't get a ride anywhere so we decided to walk all day in the very hot weather. We walked about a mile to a less active members home and he wasn't there but we met 3 people on the way. We decided to walk back to our apartment but it was about 7 miles away. After about 3 we took a break in a restruant and realized we can't walk that long in this heat. We called our Hermanas, all our ward members, basically anyone who could pick us up and nobody answered their phone. So we decided to pray to know what to do and somehow find a ride home. And to be safe, to be honest we weren't in a good part of town...like at all and we were a tad bit scared. A few minutes later a taxi shows up...we were like, oh my gosh! Thank you! It turns out it was picking someone up...so then we tried to find a bus route. We found one, waited over 1/2 hour and figured out it wouldn't be coming for a while. So we decided to just start walking. After a few blocks we started getting sick feelings, like we shouldn't be in this area. We see a few cop cars pass us and a scary looking man just starting at us down the street, so we cross the street, the cop car pulls a U turn which is now behind us. We get to the side walk and start walking close together. The cop car makes another U turn and is driving towards us, they pull over and we see that there are two women cops in the car. They pull over, roll down their window and say,"are you ladies lost, you shouldn't be in this part of town." We tell them our situation and how we can't find a ride home and we were just going to walk...."get in the car" they said. Long story short, those two women cops were a huge answer to our prayers! They said that they were driving down the road and saw us on the opposite side of the street. They knew we were out of place and decided to pull over and help us out. So I can now say that I have gotten in a police car as a missionary... there was nothing scary or strange going on at the time, but I think if we had kept on walking things would not have been safe and we would have gotten fried skin! Also if if hadn't been TWO WOMEN police, we would NOT have been able to get a ride!

no need to be worried, we are safe, and I am glad we had the spirit to tell us to pray and cross the street other wise all of that wouldn't have happened!

So lesson learned.

1. Pray for help. Heavenly father does answer you and he is ready to help in mysterious ways you just have to ASK. He is also very clever and funny! We were not expecting a cop car!

2. Listen to the spirit, it is trying to keep you save and out of harm.

3. Wear sunscreen, even if you want to get a tan, you will still get fried...

I don't think I will ever forget that day...it showed us all that god is trying to keep us safe and he really know all of our needs and what is best for us!

Well I think that is it for now! We are going into the city today! Well, I think to the galleria...so basically the city! I love you all! Thanks for all the support and love you have shown me! Talk to y'all next week! Love Sister Bonner

First email home...

Hello Family!!!

Wow, I don't even know where to begin! That is crazy about Morgan, maybe she really wanted to see me before I left! And meredith to! At least I can see lots of pictures of her!

There is SO much I can talk about, first of all, I tried to read all of you e-mails and I only have 25 minutes left on the computer AHH! But we have another 1/2 hour later on in the day, so i'll send out the mail letter now and go from there! Besides being in Temple I have never felt the spirit strongly for so long at a time! It is great so see so many missionaries just like you walking around EVERYWHERE! So My comp. Is Sister Flanders. She is fom Atlanta, Georgia and she took a year at BYU so she knows the provo area. We are pretty similar and get along well which is very good! I'll repeat what I wrote in the letters I sent, but she is going to Houston as well. We have another sister companionship that are going to Houston, I knew them from facebook before! Sister Laws and Sister Ririe, then we have 6 elders going to everett washington...So meredith you told me to look out for Sister Holt, what do you know, she is one of my main teachers so I spend 3-4 hours with her every day! She is so sweet, she thinks its a sign that she is my teacher and she said that you are one of her fav. families when she was on her mission!

I can believe that I have already taught 4 30+ minute long discussions! I am glad there is an MTC because I have learned so much in just this short week of being here, I am not totally ready for the field but I have one more week which will be good and I need to make the most of it. One thing...nat, dad, and jeff probably know this. Lessons WILL NOT I repeat WILL NOT go as planned! Which can be good, as long as you are in tune with the spirit and following what it tells you to say you will teach the investigator exactly what they need to hear! So the first three lessons we taught a teacher here that was acting. Yesterday when we taught her, afterwords she said the me and my companion said some things that will actually help in her in her real life which is great to hear! The huge thing not is Teach People Not Lessons. So not only do you need to have the lessons memorized and scriptures to go with it, but after you meet your investigator for a while and find their needs, you have to teach by the spirit and you will most likey teach not a ton of things you planned. That has been the hardest for me...how do you prepare! I guess it just show me that it will come through more practice and the investigatior will much more likely feel the spirit if you are telling them specific things that they need to hear!

So the food isn't as bad as I thouht it would be, sometimes it is interesting but that is just preparing me for what I will be eating at members homes while I am in the field ;)

EVERY day I see so many people from High School and even a few from college! I have seen Jordan, Elder Oldroad almost everyday since our class rooms are in the same building. He leaves this afternnoon

Before I forget, We leave the MTC this next wednesday July 17, we are taking the shuttle at 2:30am! Ahh! I don't have my Itenirary with me, Ill write a letter at the end of the week, but our flight leaves at around 6 or 6:30 to Dallas. Then we have a 3 hour wait until we fly into Houston, so Ill probably plan on calling the house or cell phone between 10-12. My estimated return date is Jan. 14, 2015, seems like a LONG time but considering how fast this week has flown, I will be home shortly!

I got a few blisters, but I am used to them by now, but my tape and moleskin has helped!

We only have 3-4 50 minute gym times everyweek, which is ok, I wish we had more but with only being in here for 2 weeks it is kind of hard. So there are only 6 bunks per room, with very little room! The 4 sisters that were with us left for the D.C South mission this morning and we get four more this afternoon.

Its funny how only after 1 week, your district already starts to feel like best friends! Maybe because we spend every breathing minutes together besides bedtime! I have written in my journal and taken a picture every day...so far! Yeah! Well my time is almost up...Im going to try to get this picure thing to work, and later on today depending on how much time I have Ill try to write a bit more!

 Good Bye! I love all y'all!

Love,

Sister Bonner

Mission Pictures

Here are some of my mission pictures done by my amazing sister. You can check out her blog at http://www.meganhauzephotography.blogspot.com/

Week in Washington D.C.

My oldest sister and her family live in the Washington D.C. area. This past week her and her husband took a trip to Italy. So...I was the girls mother for the week. We all had a blast-well at least I did. I was able to do some sight seeing and bonding with the girls one last time before my mission. It was beautiful weather almost every day which is a plus! The day before Meredith left, she took me to Annapolis. It is a beautiful city. 

  Inside the Cathedral at Annapolis.

 Yes that is a potato...it's also the best one I have ever eaten.

All of the beautiful trees were in bloom.

  Who knew chickens could be so cute?

 Oh Jo Jo...I will miss ya!

 The Washington D.C. Temple. SO BEAUTIFUL

My favorite memorial.

These girls kept me laughing the whole week.

 Madi and Sami dressed up for their 5th grade wax museum presentation at school. They did very well! I cant believe I have been an aunt for 11 years now!     

And that wraps up my week with the Holman girls. I will miss these kiddos!

Prayers Do Get Answered

My sister is currently serving a mission in Toronto. She got transferred to a new area last week with a new companion. They have been spending the past week finding new investigators and meeting members. She shared this in her last email. " We have been working a lot on finding new investigators. We started really praying about streets we need to go tracting on and letting the spirit help us more in this work, it’s been amazing to see the results. We had prayed and found a street that we felt like we needed to go this last week, we went and about the first ten houses didn't want anything to do with us, but we knew someone there was prepared so we didn't get discouraged! We knocked on a door, we did our little saying and then she said she knows who we are, she lived next door to a member who is her best friend before she moved here to Kingston. She let us in to teach her( that is the first time that has happened on my mission!) she has been married for the first time for about two years, she is around 40, she wanted to have kids and she couldn't so they adopted. They had a little girl for about two months and then the parents came and took her back. It was really hard to listen to her story, I can’t even imagine what she is going through, before we came she was starting to clean out the room and getting rid of things, she said she knows everything happens for a reason and we were to come to her for a reason. It was such a miracle for her and also for us."
This is a huge eye opener for me. Prayers really do get answered, but you need to be patient and have faith. I'm so glad that my sister and her companion prayed beforehand about what street they should go on. They were also in tune with the spirit which is really important as a missionary. They were able to comfort this woman at the exact moment that she needed. 
This gospel changes lives for the better. It brings families together. It comforts those in times of need. I cannot wait to get into the mission field and share this wonderful gospel with those who are searching for the truth but don't know where to find it. {D&C 123:12}

Well here goes my first post! I made this blog mainly for my family and friends to view while I am on my LDS mission in Houston Texas! Also to follow other sisters while they prepare and are on their mission. I cannot wait for this new and exciting adventure! I am so excited to share this true and amazing gospel. This past week was General Conference. It was amazing. I was able to go for the Sunday Afternoon session with my parents and little brother.

You could feel the spirit VERY strongly. Each talk was very different, but I was able to learn something from each one of them. Here are a few of my favorite quotes...

"Hope on. Journey on. Fan the flame of your faith." -Elder Jeffery R. Holland

"Terrific marriages are completely respectful, transparent and loyal." -Elder L. Whitney Clayton

"Spiritual light rarely comes to those who merrily sit in the darkness waiting for someone to flick the switch." -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"There are few things more powerful than the prayers of a righteous mother." -President Boyd K. Packer

When President Thomas S. Monson announced these numbers I got really excited for all of the work being done! I am on of the 20,000! :)