HI!
How is my family this week? I hope you're all doing great. I'm
excited to give you an update this week because it's been a really great one!
I'm excited for Cortz to get started back up at BYU-I. I'm sure she's been
aching to be back with her people. Being at home in MN gets to be a bit hard
after all of the excitement of being out at school with things going on
everyday and being around your best friends all the time. I hope she's taking
some fun classes! I keep telling all of the young people in the ward that they
should be friends with Cortz. Jade Akina, a member, is going to go to BYU-I -
but not for two years. I told her that she should go now so she has the chance
to meet Cortz. I always tell Kayli and Caitlyn about Cortney too
because...well, because Cortney is so cool and I love her! Anyway, don't be
surprised Cortz if anyone named Kayli, Jade, or Caitlyn add you on Facebook.
They all want to be your friend because I told them you're a lot like me but
even cooler.
Mom, I'm glad to hear that there are some more pianists that
have moved into the branch. The Lord is blessing you for always giving of
yourself to help with the music! That's so great. I need to be more willing to
play the piano here. I don't feel confident about playing hymns because I'm not
very good. You know me. I like to practice the songs a ton before I will play
them. I am not as confident when I play piano as I am with sports or playing
the drums, but I know that I need to do it. I shouldn't hide my talent.
Oh, I don't know if I ever told you about Charlie Alpert. He
just got to MN for his mission. Before he left, he did a lot of missionary work
with us and he is so great! He is serving in Colerain - it's right outside of Grand Rapids. I read his
email (his mom printed it off for me) and I laughed a lot because he described
Minnesota so well. He talked about how he has to drive SO MUCH. Haha. I love
Minnesota! I told Sister Alpert that she needs to send his emails to you, Mom,
so you can forward them to me throughout my mission because I want to know
where her serves and such. I also told Sister Alpert that if he ever gets close
to where we live or if he serves in the Metropolitan area that I would send
you, Mom and Dad, to take him to dinner or something. I hope that's ok. He is
so great! The people in MN are lucky to have a missionary like him serving
there.
Quick questions for Britt -
How did you know the Hunters when
you were at BYU? I talked to Brother Hunter, and he said he thinks he knew a Britt
but couldn't remember. He said he knew you at King Henry? Is that right?
Thanks again to Uncle Brent for the package you sent to me. That
was so nice. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family that gives me so
much support as I serve. I really have felt so much love from all of you
through your letters and in other moments when I remembered that I have many
prayers that are said on my behalf.
This week we taught the Matweyew family (Stephanie and Gavin),
Amanda V. (less-active), Mario and Murrae, Nancy, Kayley K., Heena, Tonya and
Caitlyn, Paula and Carol, Tyler, and the Caudel family (less-active).
We started the week on a high note with Sister Matweyew and
Gavin. Brother Matweyew recently became active again in the church and his
wife, Stephanie, has been coming to church with him almost every week. We've
had trouble getting an appointment with them because they've had a lot going on
with their oldest son. Finally, on Monday, we were able to go to their home for
dinner and a lesson. It was so great! Sister Matweyew has the best personality.
She is really fun and so sweet to us. Gavin is one of the nicest little boys
ever. He is 13 years old and he actually went to scout camp this past summer.
He comes to church every once in a while, so we're working on helping him come
each week with his family. We taught them about the restoration of the church
and the lesson went really well. We were able to answer Sister Matweyew's
questions and help her connect the dots between everything her husband has been
telling her and the things she has been learning at church. Brother Matweyew
bore his testimony about Joseph Smith and it was really powerful. We invited
sister Matweyew and Gavin to be baptized on the 22nd of September and they
accepted that invitation. They said that they had been talking about being
baptized and talking about the temple and being sealed, so we know that their
ultimate goal really is the temple. It was just really neat to see that they
had been thinking about these things even when they weren't able to meet with
us. Brother Matweyew had actually been telling them all about the second coming
the night before, and Sister Matweyew told us that she kept saying "Gavin,
don't listen to him because the Sisters will come over and tell us what is true
or not. Your dad doesn't even know what he's talking about." That was funny.
She said that she told them she didn't know why he was telling them about the
second coming when they barely know about the 1st! We are really excited to be
teaching them again.
On Tuesday we had dinner with Mario and Murrae. It did not go as
we had hoped. When we got there the meal wasn't ready, but Murrae told us that
it would be about 10 minutes. I kept thinking to myself that we should leave
and go tracting while she was finishing so we could use the Lord's time the
best way possible. Well, I ignored that prompting and I learned my lesson. It
took her a lot longer than 10 minutes to prepare the meal, and I just felt
terrible sitting there talking to her. I felt like we weren't helping her
understand our purpose as missionaries. We aren't here to "chat" with
those that we teach. We are here to teach them about the gospel and help them
increase their faith unto repentance. The worst part of the night was that
dinner took so long that we didn't even get to teach them what we planned, which
was the plan of salvation. We just had to share a scripture and leave. I guess
that was something that needed to happen for me to learn from. Even if my
companion is ok with sitting there and chatting, that is never something that I
want to do again. This time is not my time, but it is the Lord's. I need to use
every minute the way that he sees is best. I know that I need to take more
control of different situations so that I am always fulfilling my purpose as a
missionary.
We got to teach Nancy again this week. The day that we taught
Nancy was the day that I was on exchanges with Hermana Clark (a traveling
sister). As we taught Nancy about the word of wisdom, I realized that she won’t
be ready to be baptized on the 1st of September. She has no problem with
obeying the word of wisdom, but she hasn't been reading in the Book of Mormon.
The reason for that is most likely because she can't really understand. She
doesn't read English very well, and it actually seems like she doesn't read
Spanish either, so the Tollivers are going to get her the Book of Mormon on CD
so she can listen to it. Our main focus with her right now, that we think is
what will help her prepare for baptism the most, is to get her to come to all 3
hours of church. She comes to sacrament meeting but usually leaves right after.
I talked with Hermana Clark about it afterward and really felt like we would
need to reset her with a different day to be baptized. I shared that with
Sister Wilkinson and she agreed. Nancy will get there, to baptism, but it's
most important that she really understands the covenant that she is making and
the importance of it. I believe that she would get in the water tomorrow, just
because she believes what we teach her, but she needs to know for herself.
On Thursday we caught Heena again, the Indian lady. She is so
funny. She is so honest with us. She always just tells us when she has been
screening our calls or ignoring us. The funniest thing is that when she calls
or leaves messages it's always directed at me. She always says "Hello
Sister Bennett." It's hilarious because she has an Indian accent Just
imagine it in your mind. Well, when we saw her on Thursday she invited us in
and was really nice. She told us that she was going to call us because she
realized that whenever she doesn't see us she has a bad week. Duh, Heena! You
receive blessings as you learn from us! She is held up about baptism because
she talked about how she was raised Hindu and that's all that she has ever
known. She said that she really believes what we have taught her is true, but
she doesn't know if she should leave what she was raised in to become
Christian. I bore my testimony to her about the power of prayer and how she can
know if this is what she is supposed to do at this time. One of the coolest
things about being a missionary is that when we promise things to people, we
know that if they do what we invite them to do, that promise will be fulfilled.
The Lord backs up every promise. I promised Heena that if she prays with a
strong desire to receive an answer, and most importantly to act on the answer
(real intent) that she will come to know that she should be baptized and she'll
feel a great urge to do so. That was really cool. I just felt the Spirit so
powerfully as I promised her that. At the end of the lesson we invited Heena to
a baptism, and she said she couldn't go but we also invited her to church. She
got a funny look on her face and then said "Ummm, the air conditioner man
is coming on Sunday." I'm pretty blunt/bold with the people we teach, I
mean it's me, right? So I said "Ok Heena, but church is at 9 a. I know you
can come!" She laughed and said that the air conditioning man was coming
at nine. I was not going to just take that! I said to her "Heena! I can't
believe this! That was the first time you lied to me!" She burst out
laughing and then quieted down and said that he seriously was coming then.
Ohhhhh Heena. Right before we left, she said "Wait, I have to get
something!" Then she ran upstairs and came back down and gave each of us a
scarf from India. She said that she had wanted to give it to us last time we
came over. That was so nice! It's weird how much stuff people give
missionaries. Oh well, I'm ok with it!
When we taught Amanda V. this week, we were able to talk to her
about prayer and about how answers come through the Spirit. Amanda really wants
some big event to happen with her to make her know what she needs to learn from
the trial she is going through at this time. I know that it isn't going to
happen that way, because the Lord needs her to learn to be diligent and keep
the commandments. I always feel the Spirit when we teach Amanda, and I know
that we are supposed to be helping her at this time. She told us about an
experience she had this past week when she was talking to her mom about Joseph
Smith. Her mom isn't a member, and Amanda was explaining about how Joseph Smith
was really passionate about what he taught because he knew it was true. She
then said to her mom, "You know how I'm getting really excited and really
passionate as I tell you about Joseph Smith, well that's because I know and
believe this!" Bam! It hit her right then that she does know that Joseph
Smith was a prophet and she does know that this is the true church! How cool is
that? That's exactly how I first had my own testimony of Joseph Smith, it came
through bearing it. That was so cool to hear about her experience. Now we're
just working with her to help her read in the Book of Mormon and come back to
church. She knows the truth, but she is still waiting for some big event to
make her want to go back to church. Another cool thing that happened when we
taught her was that she really didn't want to pray, but we talked to her and
helped her realize that it was important for her to say the closing prayer at
the end of our lesson. As she prayed the Spirit filled the room and I could
feel our Heavenly Father's love for her. It was a beautiful prayer, and I am so
glad that we followed the Spirit in urging her to say the prayer. Prayer is so
important in our lives.
We got to teach the 21 year-old named Tyler again this week. We
taught him about the plan of salvation and it was an amazing lesson. It was
probably Sister Wilkinson and my best lesson since we've been companions. We
taught with such great unity, and the Spirit was there the entire lesson. Tyler
is always so focused as we teach him. He really just hungers so much for more
truth. He asked many great questions that helped us see that he truly wants to
know for himself if the things we've taught him are true. We invited him to be
baptized on the 29th of September and he accepted. Before either Sister
Wilkinson or I had the opportunity to invite him to church, he said "And
I'll need to come to church. When is it?" That was so great! We'll be
passing him off to the YSA elders soon which makes me a little sad because we
won’t get to see him progress, but it's great because I know that he will. The
YSA elders are so great, so I'm not worried in the slightest.
Now, the baptism! Tonya's baptism was wonderful. The Spirit was
there in great abundance, as it is at every baptism. It was even more special
than usual because Sister Tippetts came from Vegas and she actually spoke at
the baptism. I was so happy to see her again. I was just so grateful that she
made the effort to come down, because Tonya really appreciated it and it meant
a lot to me, as well. I just can't believe that Tonya is baptized now! I felt
like that day was taking forever to get here because I was so excited for her!
Now she is getting ready to go to the temple next week to do baptisms for the
dead for her first time. She is so excited because she just has such a love for
temples. Whenever we see her she talks about how she was looking up stuff about
the temple on mormon.org
or lds.org. She
is so great! I'm just so grateful that I was able to be a part of Tonya's
conversion. What a blessing it has been for me to have taught her as well as
Caitlyn. I got to have a nice chat with Caitlyn on Thursday, because Tonya was
in an interview for baptism with President Castro, so while we waited I got to
talk with Caitlyn. Sister Wilkinson was talking with some elders that were
there. Caitlyn talked about how she has a hard relationship with her older
sister and I could tell that she really wished that she had a good relationship
with her. She told me that she always thinks it's so cool when I talk about my
relationship with Cortney. She said she wished she had a big sister like me
that she could be best friends with because, she said, it is so obvious how
much I love Cortz. Well, I told Caitlyn that I'll be her big sister, because I
already feel that way. I just want to look out for her. Caitlyn said she is
really worried that I'll be transferred next Tuesday, but I know whatever
happens is what's best. She said that she's going to write to me for my entire
mission, and I believe her so that made me happy. Anyway, I just think it was
good for Caitlyn to talk to me about her concerns and it was a good experience
for me.
Having Sister Tippetts here was awesome! You never know what you
have until it's gone, and that's how it has been with Sister Tippetts. I didn't
realize how much I've missed her until I saw her again. She was just such an
amazing missionary and really helped me have a running start for my mission. I
love her! We'll be really good friends after the mission, I'm sure. Cortz,
you'll have to look out for her at BYU-I and say hi to her for me, so look at
the picture of her from Wendy's baptism, ok?
Exchanges with Hermana Clark were great! It was too short for
me, however. I wished that I could have been with her all day because I know
that I can learn so much more from her! Even though it was short, I did learn a
lot. Hermana Clark is such an obedient missionary who has the Spirit with her
at all times. The way that she interacts with people is so wonderful. You can
just tell how much she cares about every single person we meet. I learned a lot
from her. I really want to work hard to ask more questions when we are
tracting. Hermana Clark is so good at that. She gets them to talk about their
faith and what they believe and then it's so easy to know what restored truth
to share with those that we meet. That is one thing that I'm working on because
a lot of the time with Sister Wilkinson she just gets going on sharing the restoration
like we're an audio recording. I saw such a huge difference when Hermana Clark
would ask them a question, and then cater the message to what the person needs
to hear. She is so great at helping them see why it will matter to them. I just
really liked being with Sister Clark because it made me have a great desire to
work really hard so that when I get to that point in my mission I can be like
her. She just has it all put together. It was so cool to see. It just reminded
me so much of Sister Tippetts.
Well, I hope this email wasn't too long. I had a lot to say!
I'll leave you with a scripture to look up - Alma 26:13. This really hit me
this week when I read it. The power of Christ's word is truly in us. We need to
strive to represent Him in our lives and bring others unto him through being
examples. I hope you all are doing some kind of missionary work, because it is
our duty to share this blessing that we have.
I love you all!
Sister Bennett
Tonya's Baptism
Sister Wilkinson, Tonya, Sister Bennett, Sister Tippetts
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