WEEK 52

Well it's been a super busy week being the end of the transfer! Been coordinating a lot of things along with trying to get investigators to come to general conference has been a party! 

So transfer calls came and our area is no longer part of the international zone. They made the Korean elders the zone leaders and our area is part of the Torrance zone. Elder Maberry is staying and training! He's super happy haha. I'm leaving and am going to Torrance Palos Verdes as a ZL there. 

My new area is San Pedro. Gonna be interesting because I know nothing about that part of the mission! Gonna be very close to the ocean and its gonna be fun trying to teach rich people haha. My new companion is Elder Ekberg who is super cool so it will be fun! I'm excited but super sad to leave the Gardena ward. Honestly the Gardena ward has felt closest to my home ward. The stake center is almost exactly the same and everyone is awesome! For Pday we have been playing a lot of ping pong and bball. I'm going to be a pro ping pong player by next year haha. Loving the mission and miss you all! Have a great week!

Love Elder Bennett

WEEK 50

We played basketball and ping pong at the church with the Korean elders which was super fun! There is an elder named elder Jung who is hilarious! He's about 5"2 and has a ton of energy and is super animated. Elder Sambat was also there so it was fun being with him again! My ping pong skills definitely increased after playing against them all haha. Then we had dinner at sister Uno's house and had steak and mashed potatoes! She's the one with the huge English bull dog. 6

months old and 65lbs! So that was a ton of fun! 

Went on exchanges with the new Korean elders. Both the greenies came to our area with me and elder Maberry went to Korea town with elder Knudsen (their trainer). We had a really good day! Taught our recent convert Romeo the 3rd new member lesson, found a couple of interested people on the streets and got return appointments! They are both super awesome. Names are elder Hwong (from Chicago and both parents are Korean) and elder Barfuss (from Arizona and his mom is Korean). Both aren't native speakers but are picking it up fast! Great missionaries.  Exchanged back and had a pretty good day! 

Had a lesson with a new investigator named Ricky and man does he talk a lot.... One of those lessons where we could barely get a word in. He just went on and on and on. Then we had dinner, then had another new member lesson with Diego and Wendy. Talked about tithing and fast offerings! My stomach has still been bothering me so that's rough but got some pepto so should be feeling better soon!

Near the end of the week we went and saw josh and Ella. They came to our ward dinner which went super good! They met the bishop, elders quorum president and relief society president. Buuuut they didn't come to church.. So it's been tough! They seem so solid! We see them Saturday, they are super excited for church, then don't show up. So it's a process! Going to keep working with them. 

It was a great week though! The members are working with us a ton and I'm loving the mission! The Gardena ward is awesome. The stake center is pretty much exactly the same as the one back home haha. Love you all and have a great week!

Love, Elder Bennett

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

WEEK 47

Monday- We went and played basketball at the Inglewood stake centre with the lawndale and Inglewood zone leaders. Was really fun! Played a lot of 21 haha. Afterwards we went to dinner at our recent converts house and had steak and mashed potatoes . She's an amazing cook and professionally bakes so she had cookies for us afterwards! Then we went to brother Terrells house. His wife and 2 boys aren't members and his wife just recently gave the OK for us to teach them and baptize them. So they are getting baptized on sept 17th! Ages 9 and 12. The 17th is also the youngest ones 10th bday so it's gonna be super special! They are both crazy smart in the gospel and have been coming to church almost their whole life. We asked them why they wanted to be baptized and they said "so we can get the Holy Ghost and have a friend throughout our lives!"

Tuesday- I had my 2nd quarter training (still hasn't hit me yet that half my mission is gone...) which was really good! Got to look at the goals we had set 6 months ago and reset new ones for the next 6 months! President and Sister Haynie are awesome. In the role play we did I didn't have a partner so I got to role play with president which was intimidating but super cool! He's amazing. Then we had a very long day of finding in Compton.. Knocking on doors, street contacting, meeting crazy people. Then we saw a less active and a recent convert named Romeo! Sadly we found out he started smoking again so we are working with that. Stopped by an investigator who we haven't seen in a while because his family is super anti other religion (Catholics) but he said he's coming to church this Sunday! So that was a nice way to end the night.

Wednesday- We woke up at 5:45 to go do service at the temple for the morning! It's always fun doing service with a bunch of other elders. Me, elder Maberry, Knudsen, Kang, Dapp and Shultz all worked together digging up plants, transplanting them, and digging new holes for new plants. My days in the garden came in handy! Haha you can definitely tell what elders didn't do yard work haha. Afterwards we got to eat at the temple cafeteria! We then went to Carson and tried to find a bunch of potentials there. Found a few and got return appointments! Had a cool experience where I felt like we should go check on a Japanese member who has cancer. We went over and she said she had been feeling great after her chemo, and had hoped we would come by. Said she was preparing to get her patriarchal blessing and prayed the missionaries would come explain it. Her husband isn't a member so we are slowly working with him.

Thursday- Both our morning appointments cancelled so we did our weekly planning, then did service for an investigator who is moving to Wisconsin! Helped her get everything of her attic. Afterwards she fed us dinner and we taught her the plan of salvation! Went really good. Her husband who was kinda sitting in the backround (Inactive Lutheran) commented that he was very impressed with how Christlike Mormons are. How they are 24-hour Christians and not just the missionaries. Said if he decides to come back to organized religion, ours is the one he will look into.

Friday- We went to the USC institute building for district meeting and then exchanged with the Chinese elders there. Elder Hou came with me to our area. We had a super awesome day! Very busy with appointments. Taught 2 lessons, 1 member present lesson and a new member lesson. All after 3! Set a baptismal date with our investigator named Rocky. He’s a 6"7 dude who's super shy but awesome! Has 6 kids. Then we went and saw a former investigator who has been studying to be a Methodist preacher so that was fun. He seemed quite sincere actually and we just bore testimony of the BOM to him and he committed to read it again and pray about it. Then we saw Misha and taught her the plan of salvation with a member. Went super good! She had some good questions about the fall. Thank goodness for the BOM which explains it perfectly. Then we saw Romeo and taught him the POS too! Very busy day.

Saturday- Exchanged back in the morning and had a pretty rough day as far as appointments. All our morning appointments fell through. Finally had our first one at 4 with Napoleon our eternigator. Then had dinner at Denny's! I love Denny's haha. Rest of the night we went and visited less actives and non progressing investigators. Not too much

has changed!

Sunday- Best Sunday ever. We had 9 non members at church! New record haha for me at least. We had 6 of our current investigators come, and then 3 members brought their friends! Super cool. Met all of them and will be meeting with them in the future. Then we met with Maimai our RC and taught her the commandments, had lunch and left for LA stake reports at the Westwood building. Soon as that was done we drove back for dinner with our ward mission leader, saw a less active and an investigator, then went to the church to get transfer calls! Elder Maberry and I are staying together, but we are moving apartments. So we basically both have to move all our stuff across Gardena. They are bringing in 2 new elders to cover the west so now I cover the east. Which is Compton, and Carson. Woo! Haha don't worry Mom it's not as bad as all the stories (at least as a missionary) haha. So yeah that's about it!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Bennett