WEEK 48

Monday- We played basketball with the Chinese, and Farsi elders. It was great because elder Weidrick (Farsi Elder) is 6"6 and played in highschool so he played some 1 vs 1. After pday we had dinner at a Hawaiian families home. The father isn't a member and the rest of the family has been working on him for years haha. He will come around. They gave us left overs! (Best gift a member can give a missionary).

Tuesday- Transfers... So Elder Maberry and I stayed, but we moved to the east side of Gardena. So now we cover Compton, Carson, and a little bit of east Gardena. The area is basically dead so we are in the process of building it up again. Honestly Compton isn't as ghetto as I expected! All the people are, but the area isn't haha. I'd say Watts was more trashed and sketchy than here. Anyways so we got to usher everyone on Tuesday. Meaning the departing and new missionaries. Got to meet all the new missionaries and welcome them, and say goodbye to the missionaries leaving and show them where to go. Elder Lupeni is now home! Sad to say goodbye to them all. After we were done that, we had to move all our stuff to our new apartment by ourselves... Took 3 trips in our Corolla haha. So that took most of the day, we then had dinner at Denny's, then street contacted for the rest of the evening! Found a few people and set return appointments.

Wednesday- We helped the Gardena elders go shopping and get all situated. Then from 2 till 5 we walked the streets of Compton haha. Found a lot of new potentials! There are two types of people in Compton. Hardcore Baptists who refuse to listen to us, but praise us for spreading the word and doing the Lords will, and the inactive Baptists who will listen to us haha. There's a couple Catholics here and there but not much. We then had dinner, and saw Romeo our recent convert. We made a plan with him to resist temptation to start up smoking. Gave him mosquito spray so he would stop using cigarettes to scare away the mosquitos haha.

Thursday- Had weekly planning and coordinated with the west elders concerning all their investigators. Then we had a lesson with a guy named Eric who accepted a baptismal date for sept 25th! He's super cool. He's 22 though and we will probably be giving him to the YSA sisters. Then we had dinner at the Parkes and had ribs and mashed potatoes! Then we exchanged with them and I went and saw Edwin with elder Zabriskie. It was a drop lesson because he's not making any progress. Super sad to see someone who knows this is all true, but won't act on it.

Friday- Had district meeting, then Elder Maberry had an interview with president, then we had dinner, and then we street contacted here in Gardena.. Very busy and quick day haha.

Saturday- Another day full of street contacting. Had a miracle though! We were coming around a corner and saw a couple painting a fence, the girl looked up and said "Mormons! Come and teach my boyfriend!" Turns out she is a member who got baptized when she was 12. Her dads side are all members. She's less active but wants to start coming back to church! Her boyfriend is very interested in learning. They are in the process of moving in so we are going to help them, and start teaching him. We will see where that goes! We then had dinner at the Burnt Tortilla with sister Olsen. Then had a lesson with a former investigator named Chuk. He's from Nigeria and has a lot of questions. We did our best to explain the Book of Mormon and the need for a restoration but he wasn't quite getting it. He finally said "Moses was given a staff to show he was a prophet! What evidence was Joseph Smith given??" I just pointed at the Book of Mormon in his hands. He then seemed to get it and said "Oh..." Then asked if there was an account of Joseph Smiths vision. We showed him a short video of the first vision on my iPad. Amazing to see the light bulb turn on. He had tears in his eyes. Afterwards he summarized everything we had been trying to help him understand perfectly. Promised to read and pray about the BOM and thanked us for coming by again! Awesome lesson.

Sunday- We went to Santa Monica for stake reports, then drove back just in time for our stake conference. Charlotte and Rocky were both there! There was also a recent convert/investigator meeting at 8 in the morning before and Charlotte went to it! Apparently she loved it and even bore her testimony. She stayed for all of stake conference as well. She's no longer our investigator but I still feel like she is haha. We then street contacted in Compton all afternoon and found out that all the members in that area have moved away... So we are clearing up the wards less active list haha. Then we street contacted in Gardena and stopped by a member who is Samoan. Her Pitbull squeezed

out the door and ran right past us and down the street! It scared us to death haha. Was a long tiring day but I feel like this week just flew by!!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Bennett

Elder Lupeni and I.

Elder Coleman was the missionary who took me street contacting my first day in the mission. 

Elder Fehoko who I played ball with almost every pday haha