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 40

Monday

For Pday we had to run around a lot and pick up things. Elder Hutchinson had to do a few errands and we didn't get to the church till around 1. Played basketball with Elder Lupeni and the ASL elders. Also played a game called chair soccer which was really fun! Btw if all those who email me could email me Sunday morning, that would be awesome because I can read your emails Sunday night and pre write.

After Pday we had dinner at a Hawaiian families house, then went and saw our investigator Edwin who is preparing to be baptized on the 10th. It was super cool as he talked about how he felt at church. Says he just feels a peace as soon as he walks in the building, and the rest of his day always goes better. When he prays about baptism all he feels is a good feeling! We are going to take him to the visitors center on Friday. We then biked home and got home at exactly 9:30 and our apartment was about 95 degrees! I'm gonna have to get used to the heat before I'll be able to sleep good at night haha

Tuesday

Well it was my birthday! Don't feel any different. Still a teenager so I guess nothing has changed! Does feel weird to think that without the age change, I would be just going out now. Don't know what I'd have done this past year if I'd been home haha. This morning we went to find a referral that we had gotten, got to the apartment building and none of the doors were marked. And there were about 60 apartments...

So we were in the courtyard debating if we wanted to tract the whole building when a guy walks out of his door, and says "Are you looking for Tony? Because that's me." Haha so he invited us in! He has talked with a number of missionaries on the street before but finally decided he'd give them his address and listen. The lesson was powerful and he had tears in his eyes as we shared the first vision. In his prayer at the end he asked God to help him find all the truth that he knew was in the Book of Mormon. He super sincere! Then we met with our investigator Napoleon who is cohabitating and trying to move out. He has come to church for the past 2 years every week. Just doesn't have the money to move out! Then we saw a less active named Andy who just recently sold an app to a company for 18 million dollars... He always tries to tempt us into driving his thunder bird, charger, corvette and porche haha. But we haven't given in! Then for dinner we ate at the Vanisi's who are always helping us with the flat tires we get. Brother Vanisi is awesome! They bought me a cheesecake from kings Hawaiian, and gave me a card. Awesome family! It was his birthday on Monday and we got him a card. It was a great day! Other than the 3 gun shots we heard as we were getting into our apartment. Good old LA!

Wednesday

In the morning we went to our wards bible study at the church. We had a few recent converts and investigators there and it went really good! Afterwards we had lunch, then I went on exchanges with Elder Monger who is in the ASL program. He is 90% deaf so it was tough to communicate but he is awesome! We spent the day visiting less actives in their branch and we even went to long each because their boundaries go part way into that mission haha so I left my mission! Then we went with the branch president to see an investigator who's nephew is deaf. He has a ton of questions like our investigator Marquel. Things like "Why did Moroni take the gold plates back?" And "What archeological evidence is there of the Book of Mormon people?" And "How does he differentiate between us and the JWs when they claim they know their book to be true through the power of the Holy Ghost?" So it was a fun lesson! Haha but we tied it back to read, ponder, pray and president Sutton bore a powerful testimony. It seemed to catch Michael (the investigator) of guard as president Sutton bore testimony and the spirit just flooded the room. He accepted the invitation to read, ponder and pray after that! Then we went and got subway to end the night. Crazy that we now have a new mission president!!

Thursday

This morning we went to the "Meet the President" meeting and met President and Sister Haynie! They are from Washington and turns out that sister Haynie is a Peterson, who was born in Magrath, grew up in welling and taught school in Magrath? So that's crazy awesome! They said they both have visited Magrath many times. They are both awesome and they have an amazing spirit about them. They both bore their testimonies to us and it was just so motivational! President Haynie has met a ton of general authorities, from Spencer W Kimball, to Henry B Eyring. They are gonna be great. We then had lunch, did weekly planning, had dinner at our ward mission leaders house, then visited a few less actives! One quote from sister Haynie that stood out to me was "We need to have a current testimony. Not one that happened with a spiritual experience long ago, but one that has been reaffirmed regularly." Amen! Haha

Friday

Had no district meeting today because of the meeting yesterday. We were supposed to go to the temple with our investigator today but he didn't get back to us! Wasn't picking up his phone, or texting us back. So that stunk. We ended up making a route of potentials and less actives to walk to so we could get some street contacting in. Didn’t have too much success finding, but then a car pulled up with an African American couple in it and they asked us if we were LDS missionaries. They then asked "Could you please come and teach us? Our address is ...." Then drove off so that was awesome!! Definitely a tender mercy. We then had dinner at the Parkes, then street contacted some more. We found a guy from Mexico who hasn't seen his family for 20 years. He has been living in LA and has been just sending the money he makes here to them. He was super excited at the idea of eternal families. It was a good day! Got 2 new investigators, and a few new potentials.

Saturday

Our first 3 appointments fell through today... So that was frustrating! But then the ZLs texted us to meet us at the church and get our mail and I finally got my birthday package! Woo! Which definitely made the day awesome haha. I'll admit it was pretty rough getting it back to the apartment on bike.. But worth it! We had an awesome experience though as we went to see a less active who we hadn't met yet. I called her on the phone to see if we could come by and she said "Well sure but I'm going to another church." So I said "Sweet we will see you tomorrow at 3!" So we went over, and she had invited a friend over to listen as well who isn't a member. It was a little awkward at first, but they warmed up to us quick and we started talking about the Book of Mormon. She got baptized 20 years ago, and said she knew it was true then, and so we asked her how she knew, and she said she felt the spirit when she prayed about it. So we then asked her what it felt like. And she couldn't remember. We then talked about how Satan is always trying to make us forget spiritual experiences, or brush them off. It was like a lightbulb turned on in her head and she said, "So I need to read and pray about it again to feel the spirit again." Plus Rudy (the friend) had some good questions. He is Catholic and has met with missionaries before but said he felt enlightened this time. Said he learned a lot and felt something different. Told us as we left "Don't think you wasted your time. You helped both of us. And now we can spread the word as well.” Miracle!

Sunday

Fast Sunday was great! Testimony meeting was awesome. Had a lot of "different" testimonies but they were sincere and the spirit was there! We then went and visited a guy who is a literature teacher, and Methodist preacher.... Quite daunting as we listened to him explain his accomplishments, but it was amazing as we bore testimony his attention became focused and you could tell he felt the spirit. Amazing how the gospel can excite the minds of the most intellect, and the most unlearned. After that we had dinner at the Lee's and she made apple crisp and had vanilla icecream!! My favorite (well peach is but close enough). Then we went and saw a less active who bore his testimony today. We had a lot of people today tell us his testimony touched them. He fell away from the church after highschool, but came back when his wife joined the church. It was a great day and a great week! Hope you all have a great 4th of July!

Love, Elder Bennett

WEEK 36

This week went very well! We found more people and some of them are very promising! On Tuesday we went on exchanges and I was with Elder Jacklin from Utah. It felt like a super short exchange because we had member splits that night. I took one of the young men with me to see the Filipino family and it went super good! Jules the 17 year old was the only one home so it was perfect. We talked about how he felt about baptism and his questions and the spirit was super strong. In the past couple months I have been making book marks of scriptures in the bible and that support and answer gospel questions. They came in handy and Ezekiel 37:16-19 is awesome to read/explain to people. You see the little light bulb turn on and then watch as they accept the Book of Mormon. So many scriptures in the bible that people over look or misinterpret that can be answered by other scriptures. At the end of the lesson Jules and his mom Maggie both agreed and said they know they will be baptized, they just want to have a sure testimony first so we are helping with that now.

Wednesday we had interviews with President and Sister Weidman for the last time. Amazing how inspired a mission president is in knowing exactly what each individual missionary needs to talk about and what they need help with. Going to miss him with our new mission president coming in June 30th.

Thursday we had a lesson with the Filipino family again and found out that Maggie has been drinking coffee. We talked about the word of wisdom and she kept claiming that she wasn't addicted to it. So I stood up, went and took the coffee after the prayer, and we left haha. She wasn't happy but she came to church today and all was well and she hasn't bought any more! Jules is keeping her accountable haha.

Friday we went on exchanges with our zone leaders and I went to a Spanish area for the day with elder Wheelwright. I got to learn some more Spanish and practice it which was nice! It’s getting a lot better.

Saturday all of our lessons fell through.. It was a lot of walking, driving, and talking to people on the street but we found quite a few new potential investigators!

Sunday we gave 5 min talks in sacrament meeting and the rest of the day we had dinner, and then had a lesson with a recent convert and said goodbye to people! I am being transferred to the Torrance North in Gardena. Also I am now a district and I'm on bike! So that will be fun. Elder Lupeni is staying in the Tongan ward but switching apartments. Big surprise haha. But it was a good week! Gonna miss this area and I'll keep you updated on if Maggie, Jenina and Jules get baptized. 

Love you all!

WEEK 31

So I am in the Centinella 1st/2nd ward. English and Tongan. This week was quite a bit different getting used to the new area, people and my companion but Elder Lupeni is awesome! Tongans are so funny but hearing people speak Tongan is so cool! We have a few Tongan investigators and part member families so it's a great experience.Right now our current investigators are a Philippino family who consist of a grandma, grandpa, mom, daughter and son. They are all Catholic by tradition and super cool! The Grandma and Grandpa don’t speak much English so the son translates during our lessons. 

We spent much of the rest of the week finding more people. Gotta get more investigators! Which a super cool thing happened. We were trying to find a referral and it was about 8 at night so dark but these two ladies who had just parked their cars got out and asked us if we had an extra Book of Mormon on us. So that was awesome! We got their info and invited them to the Gladys Knight presentation and they came to that, and they came to church yesterday as well! Super awesome. The GK Presentation was suuuuuper cool! We had 7 investigators at it sitting with us and Gladys gave one of our investigators a high five! We got to hear her sing a few songs, and her husband bore his testimony along with Gladys. Spirit was super strong and our investigators loved it!! 

The whole Philippino family came to church yesterday as well. Church was 6 hours long for us.. The English ward went from 9-12 and the Tongan ward from 1-4, then dinner at 5 so the day went super fast. All of our investigators loved church and I completely zoned out during the Tongan ward. Gonna be a fun transfer! Haha oh some funny things, the Philippino grandpa kept clapping during the sacrament meeting songs, I gave our new investigator a Book of Mormon and she gave me a hug right in front of the ward mission leader, and a Tongan young woman kissed me on the cheek haha. I thought it was the custom or something so I let her and all the Tongans just started laughing. So it was an interesting week! Love you all and hope you have a great week!

 ST- The worth of every soul is great in the eyes of God. Each of us are brothers and sisters. Who wouldn't want to have their whole family in the celestial kingdom? So do missionary work :) 

      Love Elder Bennett

WEEK 30

      This week was pretty cool! We had 3 new investigators come to church today! They all said they loved it and said it was awesome because it wasn't a "hootin and hollerin church." We spent the week talking about the temple with Peter and Monica getting them prepared and learning about family history. They are both super pumped! Peter doesn't think they will be able to find any of his ancestors because he is from Haiti but we will see! Also an interesting thing happened. The other

elders in our district had 3 investigators who were getting baptized and one of them asked me to baptize her! She had a pretty tough name but I got it first try haha. They are from Belize and just moved here.

      Peter and Monica both got confirmed today as well so it was a great end to the week and transfer!

     Speaking of which, transfer calls were last night! I am going to the Centinella 1st and 2nd ward. It's a English and Tongan ward and the Tongan ward feeds us every night... So I'm really gonna have to exercise haha. But it's awesome! My new companion is also Tongan and his name is Elder Lupeni. Gonna be sweet! Still have a car so my record of not going on a bike is still going strong haha. I'm excited though and I'm still in the same zone so I'll see the same elders here and there.

      But the mission is going great! Loving the areas I'm in and the people are fun to work with. Love you all and hope you have a great week!!

     ST- Jesus said, that if we love God, keep the commandments. But he also said If we love Him, feed his sheep. Sharing the gospel is one of the ways we can show our love for God and how grateful we are for our Savior.

  Love Elder Bennett