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

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

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