Monday, December 28, 2015

WEEK 17

No letter but these pictures sure made us miss this guy this Christmas!

Monday, December 21, 2015

WEEK 16: CHRISTMAS

      Well, it doesn't feel like Christmas without snow but it's all good! The ward has been awesome and we have seen a ton of blessings from this Christmas season. Had a ton of miracles this past week. First, one of our investigators, who has been taught for a looong time, accepted a baptismal date for Jan. 24th!! So cool. Second, we met with one of our new investigators that we had found on Hollywood blvd and she also accepted a baptismal date for the 24th! Third, we got a call from the temple visitors center and it was the sister missionaries and they said that they had a man come in and they taught him the restoration and he accepted a baptismal date for Jan 17th and he lives in our area and he came to church with us just this Sunday!! And finally fourth, our investigator who is living with her member boyfriend, got married Sunday night at the church by our bishop! We got to go and they asked me to speak..!! I was so nervous but I talked about how I was able to tell that my parents loved each other even when I was little. The spirit was very strong throughout the whole wedding! She is getting baptized on Jan. 3rd! So happy for them. We have been very busy going between teaching visits and it has been so cool to see the blessings from following promptings. Even just deciding to take a right or left and an intersection and talking to someone who is ready to hear our message.

      I'm so excited for Christmas and getting to call home! It's definitely a different experience being a missionary during Christmas. Definitely have been able to focus on the true meaning this year! Loving the mission and hope you all have a great Christmas!

ST- Strive to not only learn about our Savior, but learn to know Him.
     
Love Elder Bennett

Monday, December 14, 2015

WEEK 15

Alright so I wasn't able to write a general letter last week so here is the summary of the last two weeks. 

Our baptism fell through. He felt uncomfortable being baptized because his family is all methodist and he wanted to be completely sure everything was true. We tried super hard to help him but it's just gonna take some more time. I have no doubt that he will get baptized though. 

We got a ton of new investigators this week! Transfers were on Tuesday and my new companion is Elder Sambat who is a 5' 4" Filipino. He is so cool! We get along super well and we just set a baptismal date with one of our investigators last night! Her boyfriend is a member and they are getting married this week so that she can get baptized on January 3rd so it's super cool! The Hollywood ward is awesome. The members are suuuper good at fellowshipping all of our investigators. We had 5 investigators at church this Sunday! All of them said they loved it! I feel like this transfer is going to be a good one haha. 

The weather has gotten decently cold this past week! We had rain twice so it's getting "crazy" haha. Had water pooled in the streets so it was quite the shock to everyone! Having tons of fun and meeting tons of crazy people! We had Mongolian and Korean food last night for dinner. Had kimchi? I think that's how you spell it. Dad will be proud haha. We found 3 new investigators this week on the streets too so that was awesome! Had a lesson with one of them the next day at the church and she is super interested! Had a member present and it well very well. So many blessings! 

So excited for Christmas because a Samoan family in our ward is feeding us! The mission has been both a challenge and a party so it evens out! We have been having tons of success by talking to people on the streets about the true meaning of Christmas and telling them about the, "A Savior Is Born" video. I challenge anyone who reads this to think of something you can do to remember the true meaning of Christmas this year! It changes the whole feeling for the better. Hope you all have a great week!

ST- Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. The world is getting more and more wicked and Satan is throwing everything he can at us to make us fall away. Stay Strong! 

Love Elder Bennett

Monday, November 30, 2015

WEEK 13

      Well, this letter gets to summarize what happened in the past two weeks! I wasn't able to write last week because my companion had a doctors appointment for his knee. A lot has happened in the past two weeks but the main things are that we got 2 new investigators, put 2 on date, and many of them came to church! It's been awesome! But our one investigator that was supposed to get baptized didn't come to church. He has sorta fallen off the map. We weren't able to see him all this week. So that is a work hopefully soon to be in progress. I am having so much fun! It's so easy to love the people here. I am teaching such a wide variety of people. Tongan, Jamaican, Philipino, Mexican, Samoan, and East Indian!! It's so much fun and such a great experience.

      We had a cool tender mercy a few days ago where we had an appointment at 7 PM but got there 20 mins early because traffic wasn't bad! We decided to walk around the block. We came across a lady who had just stepped out of her house with her dog and talked to her and she told us she felt that we were representatives of Jesus. We got her number and address! She also said she had a husband and son she wants to be taught. So cool! We also got a call and it was a less active who wanted to come back to back to church and take the lessons again. We went to see her and she brought 2 friends to join in on the lesson who both came to church on Sunday! Amazing! And our other investigator and her member boyfriend are going to get married in the next 2 weeks so that she can be baptized! So many tender mercies. We see miracles happen every week. It's such a great experience to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. I'm loving it! Thank you all for the letters and emails! Love and miss you all!

      ST - Think of someone who could benefit from the knowledge of the plan of salvation. It brings peace to everyone.

      Love, Elder Bennett


Pictures from Thanksgiving. It was chicken... haha

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Week 11

      So this week was full of ups and downs. On Monday night one of our investigators cancelled on us and said she wanted a break from missionaries for atleast two weeks. She was doing so good! So that was frustrating. Tuesday night we left our car out in front of our apartment accidentally and it got towed.. Was a long frustrating day trying to get it back but we finished off the day by taking one of our investigators to the visitors center which went really good! So that was a blessing. Wednesday we went to contact a former investigator and an old guy in a wheel chair stopped us and asked us "Do you believe that Satan is the one true and living God?" We said no and he said "Well you don't believe in me then because I believe that I am Satan." Then he wheeled off yelling "Praise Satan!!" Man there are crazy people here in LA haha. We spent wednesday teaching some of our other investigators which went really good! Thursday we street contacted most of the day and had a lot of success! That night we had a lesson with one of our investigators and got him on date! He is getting baptized this sundayon the 22nd. Woo! Friday all of our appointments fell through which was quite frustrating. So we contacted more people and got a lot of new potential investigators! So even with the bad beginning of the week it ended good. Sunday was great as always! It's so nice to go to church. 
  
      ST-Keep the sabbath day holy. We all need to look at the things we do on sunday and think of what we can improve on. We had a really good talk about it in sacrament meeting. 
      
Love you all and have a great week!
     Love Elder Bennett

Monday, November 9, 2015

Week 10

      So this week went by super fast. I'll just go through each day and talk about the cool little tender mercies we had. On Monday night our dinner appointment got cancelled so we went to burger king because we had some coupons. While we were eating, the guy that took our order came and talked to us and said he was a member but has been inactive for years. He asked us where the church was and what time it started and said he would be there on Sunday. He came! So cool how the Lord makes things happen so that we go where we are supposed to go.

      On Tuesday we had new missionary training with our mission president all day which was super good. On our way back we got stuck in LA traffic for 1 1/2 hours and were late for dinner but it worked out and we taught our investigator and the lesson went super good! She said that she felt everything we said is true but she wants to get an answer from her prayers. We tried to explain that maybe that good feeling of what we said was true may be her answer but she said she still wants to get a good feeling after a prayer. I think she is ready and if it's her time she will get and recognize the answer.

      Wednesday we spent all day updating our area book and planning routes for our ward to go on this Saturday for our find-and-invite activity. We make a route of less active families of about 4-6 and our members go knock on their doors, talk to them, and invite them to our Thanksgiving dinner on the 21st! It was super successful. Did street contacting also. Again we found people that were interested so it's so cool!

      Thursday we got to go to the temple which was amazing. It's so peaceful there and all the stress and thoughts in my mind were calmed down. I love going to the temple. Elder Nimori felt super sick after the temple from driving so much so I got a lot of time to do personal study which is thee best! We went to a less active's for dinner and he is awesome. He has a drinking problem but he came to church on Sunday and we have seen a huge change in him! I spoke in church on Sunday on the missionary purpose. He came up to me afterwards and said he was touched by my talk and thanked me for it. It made me realize just how important church is. We receive answers we didn't know we had or needed.

     I went on exchanges with our zone leader on Friday after zone training meeting. His name is Elder Guerrero. Super cool guy! He was a Spanish elder though so all of our appointments were in spanish so I just smiled the whole day haha. Cool experience though! In one of our lessons with an investigator, Elder Guerrero felt prompted to move his baptismal date to this Sunday instead of next month and the investigator accepted! Follow those promptings.

     Saturday we had our find-and-invite activity, which I already mentioned. Our ward contacted over 100 less actives in 1 hour. We had hamburgers afterwards so that's always good. Spent the rest of the day street contacting, knocking on less actives doors, and inviting them to the Thanksgiving dinner and contacting referrals!

     Sunday I gave my talk, we had a bunch of less actives come to church, our district leaders had 2 baptisms, and we had a new investigator come to all 3 hours! This week was great.

     Spiritual Thought - Practice making your prayers more sincere. Pray about all aspects of the church so that your foundational testimony will hold against the fiery darts of the adversary. Satan is throwing everything he has at each of us because he knows these are the last days. We need to all hold strong to what we know is true and stay or get back on the path. Love you all! 
   Elder Bennett

Monday, November 2, 2015

Weel 9: Finally Arriving in LA!

      Ok so I didn't get to write last week because I flew to LA and today was crazy busy because I had to go take a drivers test and also had to get a hair cut! I'm in Hollywood of all places and I'm in a trio again haha. My companion is Elder Nimori and we have Elder Adcox with us too who is a visa waiter. He leaves next transfer because his visa came already. I don't have much time to write because LA traffic is terrible but I'll try to sum up the past two weeks the best I can. 

      So going back to my last week in the MTC. Elder Taylor my companion he rolled his ankle on Tuesday so he was on crutches all week. A seventy came and talked to us Tuesday night and Elder Griffin knew him so I got to go with him and get a picture with all three of us so that was cool! Had a lot of fun teaching investigators in the MTC and one of them was an actual investigator and she really liked us and said she learned a lot from us and said that she would email us if she got baptized so that was cool! I met a sister Hinckley from Calgary who went to Aberhart. Also met an Elder Nelson who was a grade older than me and he went to LCI. I played bball against him in grade 10. He knew John Brewerton. 

      Said good bye to my district on Sunday night and woke up at 2:30 am Monday morning, took a train to the airport and flew to LA! Went through all the orientation and went and street contacted for 3 hours with Elder Coleman. That was super fun and we had a ton of success! Went to a member's house that night and slept there, then Tuesday got my companions and went to Hollywood! This mission is quite a high-baptizing mission. Our mission has an average of 40 baptisms a month. We will probably be having 3 baptisms this month in my ward - all converts. We are always either teaching lessons, contacting refferals or less actives. Crazy busy! Loving it though. Our ward mission leader is an actor and he plays basketball every night with famous viners so that's pretty crazy. It's amazing how wicked Hollywood is, yet every day we find someone that's been prepared to hear our message. It's awesome! 

      Had a crazy experience where I felt like we needed to go into an apartment complex and talk to someone, so we did and there was only one lady there. We introduced ourselves and she was super interested! Taught her the first two lessons right there. Following promptings always brings blessings! The members here are awesome and our bishop is so cool! One of our investigators attended church on Sunday and we just met her on Friday. She said she loved it! Our bishop asked me and Elder Adcox to speak next week so kinda nervous for that. Weather is awesome and I'm having so much fun! 

      ST (Spiritual thought)- Gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Our entire religion depends on it. If it is true then we have a prophet on the earth today and all the standards, commandments and rules we follow in the church are directly from God. Never forget that when you question a standard that the church has set. Love and miss you all! My letter next week will hopefully not be so rushed. 
   Love Elder Bennett


Monday, October 19, 2015

Week 7

      Well it was a sad day saying goodbye to my companions. Especially Elder Elliott. Gonna miss that guy. I was picked up from district meeting by Elder and Sister Pepinger. Flew out by myself which wasn't stressful at all surprisingly! Took a cab to the MTC with a Mexican elder who didn't speak english very well so that was funny. My companion is Elder Taylor form Las Vegas and he is 6'4 so that's humbling haha. He was super sick on Friday and Saturday so I didn't do much those two days. The sisters and elders in my district here are amazing! Elder Griffin has also served in the field already, he's my district leader. Our zone leaders are Elder Toki and Elder Pearson. Elder Toki and I are pretty much best friends. He is Tongan and is from Hawaii and we just get along so well! He has made it his goal to spread the word that i'm Canadian and am the coolest elder here so now whenever people see me they say "Elder Benneeeeeett" so I'm feeling the love haha. 
      The MTC has been great so far! I've learned so much in 6 days it's mind boggling. Main thing I learned this week was the importance of the Book of Mormon. If we gain a testimony of it then the rest of the gospel falls into place. I'd like to challenge anyone that reads this letter to find a time this week to pray about the Book of Mormon and promise that if you do so with a sincere heart your testimony will be strengthened. Even if you have already done so, do it again! It's helped me grow so much. Love you all so much and I'm excited to be in LA next week! Don't know if I'll be able to write because I fly out on Monday. 
  Love Elder Bennett


Monday, October 12, 2015

Week 6

Crazy to think this past week was my last in Canada! It was sad saying goodbye to everyone. Again, it's just crazy how I've come to love it here in such a short amount of time! Gonna miss the people.

This week went really well! We got to visit with our new investigators out at Siksika and it all went good! Got a new investigator here in Strathmore even! The girl out in Siksika that we have been teaching is going to be getting baptized on her 10th birthday so that's exciting! On Sunday my companions spoke in church out at the Gleichon branch. I spoke on prayer and the holy ghost and I felt like it went well haha. We were all supposed to give 10 min talks and not going to say who but one of my companions gave a 5 minute talk so we ended kinda early haha. But it was all good! We had an oreo test this week with the missionaries in the zone. And of course they are all Americans and voted that American oreos are better... I disagree!! I can't stand American oreos haha. 

I'm excited and sad at the same time to be leaving tomorrow! My back has been hurting me quite a bit though this week and they haven't been able to find me a chiropractor so hopefully there is one at the MTC! Didn't really have a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving haha. The house we were at decided to just have turkey wraps which was good but just wasn't the same. Kinda short on time with it being a holiday and can't really think right now! With it being my last pday here, the zone leaders and a couple other elders are coming to Strathmore and will be here soon! Just been thinking a lot this week about Larry R. Lawrence's talk on how we need to pray about how we can improve. I've tried it out and it's helped me a ton! Stay strong and keep doing the little things! 
   Love Elder Bennett

Monday, October 5, 2015

Week 5

Man the weeks fly by.. Mixed feelings about my visa coming because I've already grown to love the people here! Gonna miss them. Excited to see Jocelyn in the MTC though! Gonna be weird going to the MTC after 6 weeks of being in the field but that's ok! This week was hit and miss. Had some good days, boring days, half good and half bad days. We just had so many appointments drop it was frustrating! But each time we were spent and didn't know what to do we said a prayer, and within a half hour in were at someones home sharing a message. Thank goodness for prayer!! It's become so real to me how prayer is literally speaking with Heavenly Father and how asking sincerely always brings blessings and answers. We seriously would have had 0 success this week without prayer.

  I got a hair cut on Monday for a lady in our ward and I made no bake cookies to pay her haha. Pday we played bball as usual with the rest of the zone which is always fun! I'm staying in great shape contrary to what everyone says about missions haha. Doing my 30-minute workout every morning makes a huge difference but morning workouts are hard haha. 

  Had a ton of strong spiritual experiences and dinner messages, especially at FHE with a family. When anyone bears their testimony the spirit instantly enters the room. We did get a potential new investigator here in Strathmore from tracting which is sweet! On the doorstep I testified that our message would bless his life in numerous ways, etc., and he agreed to meet with us Monday night! So we will see how that goes. Out on the reserve our appointments got dropped and moved to this week, but we reactivated a less active which was awesome! Elder Elliott was prompted to call her and she invited us over. It went super well and she bore her testimony. She watched all the sessions of conference! She hasn't been to church in over 6 months and she said she never wants to miss another week. We also saw a less active man and he asked us to give his son a blessing. His son has been sick for the past week. Elder Elliott gave it and I did the annointing. The spirit was super strong. We got a call for a sister in our ward that night, who is also native, and she wanted a blessing too. I gave that one. I was nervous but I remembered how blessings are from God so I just said what came to my mind in the moment. I thought it went well and she thanked me afterwards. Just a great blessing and experience to be a missionary!

   We dealt with some anti people this week and with some less actives who have been looking in to anti mormon books. Arguing gets you nowhere haha. With people who are unwilling to doubt their doubts, you just have to bear you testimony. A testimony speaks to the heart, and is the only way to help those people change. I saw that happen this week twice. 

  Conference was so good! Loved Elder Lawrence, Nelson, and Bednard's talks! And President Monson's talk was sooo powerful. Amazing to see him so weak, yet still testifying with all his strength of the truthfulness of the gospel. He is a great example. We got one of our investigators to watch the Saturday sessions with us! She said she loved it. Went to Chili's with the elders in the zone before the priesthood session which was super fun! Elder Hopoi is excited for me to meet his family. He says "We Tongans eat like no other, so if you're hungry just go to my house and say I sent you." haha I love Elder Hopoi! I hope he comes to Magrath. 

   Remember the things that stood out to you this conference. Pray on how you can improve and work on building your testimony each day! If you feel you don't have a knowledge of something, pray about it. "Not with curiosity, but with a sincere desire" - James B Martino. 
Stay strong! This is the only church on the earth with the fullness of the gospel. So live the commandments and standards we have! True happiness will always be the result. Love you all!

   Love Elder Bennett

Monday, September 28, 2015

Week 4

   This week was we did a lot of service the first few days. Our district didn't have a district leader yet because Elder Fullmer was leaving and on tuesday night our Zone leader Elder Christensen called us and asked us to put him on speaker phone. He then asked me to be the new district leader for this transfer. I said "uhhh sure why not" and then he said "Ha! Just joking man!" He got me so good haha my companions said the look on my face was priceless. So no not a district leader. Elder Thompson is our new district leader and Elder Fullmer is a new zone leader in Cardston.


   On Wednesday we picked up our new companion Elder Bachman. He is super quiet and shy but he's a super nice guy. He's from Pocatello Idaho, same as Elder Elliott, so that's pretty cool. They didn't know each other because Elder Elliott lived in a small town called Aberdeen just outside of Pocatello. 

    We had a lot of success this week. A family out on the Siksika Reserve asked us to come and teach one of their daughters who said she was interested. We taught her the first lesson on Wednesday and the second on Sunday. She said she wants to get baptized so are going to set a date on Wednesday. Super cool how she was so accepting of everything we taught! We also got 2 referrals from a less active lady that we go and visit so we knocked on their doors and they both were super interested! We taught the lesson to the one lady and she said she wanted to read the book of mormon, gave us her # and asked us to come see her again on Wednesday and teach her more! The other referral was a guy who is catholic and while on the doorstep when we were talking about who we were, I felt the need to get my book of mormon out of my backpack and promise him that if he read it and prayed about it he would know it was true. He smiled and promised he would do what I had said and have questions for us the next time we saw him. He asked more questions about what we believe in and he told us he wants us to teach him more! We are going to visit him on Wednesday also. It's amazing how that little prompting to testify of the Book of Mormon lead to his interest and desire to learn more. Just another example of how we should always act on promptings!

    I'm having so much fun out here with my companions and the members. Just saw Vince Harker at church and met Gary Morton (Parker Cliftons uncle) this week. I'm known to some of the members here as the terrorist because my visa still hasn't come haha. We are getting closer to more members and got some referrals from them this week. Mainly all less actives. It's really hard to find new investigators here in Strathmore. Tracting has gotten us nowhere. All of our lessons come from help from the members. That's something I feel that Magrath needs to work on. Get to know everyone and work on introducing them to the missionaries! Be brave and just do it haha. Oh, and to make me feel better about being here, one of the innactive guys we go and see said, "You're not the missionary that Strathmore wants, but the one that it needs" (Batman voice) hahaha I'm loving it here and learning to love the people here! Just hoping to go to LA before winter hits haha. Stay strong and keep doing the little things! Say your prayers, study the scriptures and go to church! Doing the simple things is what keeps our testimony strong. 
  Love Elder Bennett


Monday, September 21, 2015

Week 3

So on Pday since transfers are coming soon all the elders in our district went to the trampoline park in Calgary for 2 hours. Tons of fun playing dodgeball, dunkball and seeing who could do the coolest flips into the foam pit. We went to the Vanderveers for dinner on tuesday (innactive family) and they have a lasting record set by their son of 13 crepes in one sitting. Since I am somewhat competitive... haha I had to beat it so I ate 15 crepes in 30 mins.. Yes I didn't feel good the rest of the night and next morning but having the record makes it all worth! We are still teaching their daughter and are going over the lessons again with her. I was a little shaky giving my part of the lesson at first but I'm getting more solid as we practice as a companionship. We got a potential new investigator but he works on the rigs in Saskachewan so it will be tough setting up appointments. 

Got to mow some lawns and do other service for less actives this week. Elder Elliott is going to be training and we pick up the new guy tomorrow. Elder Fullmer is going down south so maybe Lethbridge! We went to the trainers meeting and saw Elder Lusk there! Haden will remember him. Saturday we did the food drive all morning. Got to unload for 6 hours haha but it was fun and I saw Tanya Vanbruggen. We then had to rush back to Strathmore for Stanley's baptism and it went super well! The spirit was so strong there. It took two tries cuz his toe came up haha but it was all good! We gave the lesson of the restoration and I played I Am a Child of God on the violin. Also I made no bake cookies as the refreshments afterwards haha I think my companions like me cuz i make them treats! It was a great way to end the week. Sunday was a farewell for a girl in the ward and I got to be in the circle for Stanley's ordination and confirmation.
It's such a great experience to be a part of helping someone come unto Christ. Honestly the best feeling ever seeing people choose to change their lives for the better. I am so grateful to have chosen to come on a mission. It's only been 3 weeks but I already feel like I've changed. Anyone that is debating on going on a mission just do it. I promise you will not regret it and it it is thee best possible thing for us to do. Just being in the routine of studying my scriptures, studying preach my gospel and saying meaningful prayers every morning has strengthened my testimony in places I didn't know needed strengthening. Try reading your scriptures with a highlighter every day and you will be amazed how much of a difference it makes. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and testify that doing the simple things with purpose consistently strengthens our testimony immensely. Love and miss you all! Stay strong and always keep an eye out for missionary opportunities! 
   Elder Bennett

Monday, September 14, 2015

Week 2

So weird how 2 weeks feels like 2 days! Tuesday we went and visited an old guy named John who is one of our investigators. I talked about how he went to see the Lion King and that the guy who played Mufasa was a mormon. He then went on to say how he thought Mormons were great people and that he wanted to start taking lessons! But he is gone to Mexico for two weeks so we won't teach him till he gets back. Funny cuz he felt something different as the "Mormon Dude" spoke that made him interested in learning more. He calls us "Ding Dongs" (From a south park episode about mormon missionaries. Don't watch it Mom haha) So he is a really cool old guy! We are also visiting a less active lady here in Strathmore who has a job that makes her work on Sundays and we went and painted her house for her on Friday. She gave us pizza for lunch so it was all worth haha jks. She has a small dog that is super smart. Does tons of tricks and played dead! When you make a gun with your fingers and say back he roles onto his back and lets his tongue hang out haha so it's always fun to visit her. Wednesday we had zone training and we are really focusing and working with the members. The work in Strathmore is getting super tough because we have tracted (knocking on doors) every house. The only way for us to find potential investigators is by getting stronger relationships with the members which leads to getting referrals. As soon as the members see that we are cool missionaries they trust us to talk to their neighbors haha. That's something that needs work in Magrath too. Start thinking of non members and less actives that the missionaries could visit! Now being a missionary I see that we get nowhere without having an "in" (member that knows them). To all the high school kids, start inviting non members to all church activities! Start even inviting them to church. You will be surprised at who will accept the invitation. A lot of the missionary work here is happening from the youth inviting their friends to sacrament meeting so get on it! That's one thing I regret was not inviting my non member friends to more activities and such. Take a leap of faith and who knows who might be interested! The Lord works in mysterious ways. 
   
On Thursday all the missionaries met at a stake center in Calgary and Brother Martino (A 70) spoke to us all about missionary work and how better to work with members (again, the member focus). But it was really cool what he taught. The main thing I got from it was his way of asking members for referrals. Instead of saying "Do you have anyone that we can teach" he advised to ask three questions instead: 

1st: Do you know any non member or less active friends who have lost a loved one recently? 
2nd: Non member or less active who has recently had a new baby? 
3rd: Non member or less active who is struggling raising teenage kids. 

So we now ask those three questions and it gets members thinking more. Then after they have thought of a few people we then ask them to invite those people over for dinner and gain a better relationship with them and eventually introduce them to us when they feel they can. Already we have received 4 referrals just this weekend! The meeting with Brother Martino went for 6 hours but I never fell asleep! (possibly because I was on the front row haha) But he taught a ton of things and got all of us thinking on how to improve. Afterwards we exchanged Elder Fullmer with Elder Jones. We did service all of Friday and helped a lady move whose name is Bohne. She said that she is Brad Bakers, uncles mom? Idk. Just another tie to someone I know haha. She is moving down to Raymond. Friday night we went to dinner at the Road House with the Quists who are my favourite older couple in the ward. Honestly had thee best salmon ever so if anyone ever goes to Strathmore I recommend going there haha. I made a deal that I would mow his lawn for letting me get the salmon haha. 
   
Saturday I got a call from the ward music lady (can't think of what it's called), Sister Harper, and she said she was told by Danny Dudley (Brother Dudleys grandson) that I played the violin and so I played Come Thou Fount in sacrament meeting. Sister Harper accompanied me. I was told it was really good by a lot of teary eyed people. It was super nice to get to play the violin again! We then went out to Gleichon and attended their branch. We had a meeting with a less active at church and she told us to meet her at the Siksika community center. Turns out it was a church meeting where they had 3 guys just singing christian music and a lady who basically said "We love you Jesus, Praise Jesus etc" over and over again. It was an interesting experience haha. 

Overall being a missionary is thee coolest experience. Yes we get rejected and appointments get dropped but each day something happens that makes it worth it. My companions are sweet and I'm having a blast even if I'm only 2 hours from home! Love you all. 
   Elder Bennett

Monday, September 7, 2015

Week 1: First Letter!

Alright so I'm in Strathmore! Joined two 5'6 missionaries named Elder Fullmer and Elder Elliott. Yes, I've been cracking the short jokes! We are already great friends and we all get along great! Elder Fullmer is from Bountiful Utah and Elder Elliott is from Aberdeen, Idaho. Elliott is super funny and plays basketball! Hallelujah! Fullmer reminds me of Morgan. He's always quoting disney movies, monty python and nacho libre! 

The work in Strathmore is rough. When tracting, every door opens and says "No thanks" and closes, or says "We already believe in Jesus" and closes. But we also go out to the reserve in Gleichon. I placed my first book of mormon there to a lady named Nikki and we are going to go see her. Mostly what we do is visit inactive and less-active members and share a thought with them. We are teaching a girl named Shanice who wants to get baptized but wants her family's support. Her parents got offended by something a few years back and are quite anti now.  Also, there is a girl named Kaylee who is getting baptized when she turns 18. Her parents are similar to Shanice's but nicer haha. 

I've met tons of people with ties to Magrath! Walter Dudley is the stake president? (I think that's his first name) Danny Dudley is in the ward along with his mom. There is only one ward in Strathmore. Also Kathy Harker's daughter lives here. The first night I was here we got called over to give brother Clark a blessing. His name is Fredrick Joseph Clark and Grandma taught him school in the Calgary 3rd ward! He said he loved her! His wife is Bill's aunt (Bill and Anette) So many ties! 

Just  on a Saturday a girl who was 22 passed away in the ward in her sleep. She had health problems but death wasn't a worry so their family is in shock. The funeral is this week. We went and mowed their lawn Saturday morning. So the ward is pretty gloomy right now but their family bore their testimony at church! 

I’m loving the missionary life! Its so much fun just talking to anyone you feel you can approach haha. Weird how as soon as I got my name tag it suddenly just feels normal. Yes, it feels weird serving here in my home mission but I know I'll find some people that need to hear from me in particular. My testimony gets stronger each day and it's cool how natural it feels to bare it now. This week has been so much fun! (minus the cold rain this weekend) My companions are sweet and I'm so glad I'm here. Love you all!  
  Love, Elder Bennett