"The Worst"

October 29, 2012

 

Hey there!

Happy Birthday to Britt this week! Oh and Happy Halloween!!! We get to go in an hour early on Halloween night...for safety purposes, so Sis Putnam and I are planning to doing something fun together. If only we had some ideas. haha.

As of late I've started using the saying "the worst" way too much. I think I tell Sister Putnam that she's "the worst" like 50 times a day. Obviously it's used in sarcasm, but I'm trying to drop it. haha. It's difficult to do. I didn't realize how often I say it!

Thanks for the pictures, Erin! They are so cute! Zachy is looking scruffy as usual. Keep up the good work Zach. The boys look adorable. The sister, Sister Wutkee, from Thousand Oaks who opens the FHC told me that Talmage looks like me, a lot. That was surprising. He's cute, so I'll take it!

I'm happy to be out here in sunny California while all of you back in Minnesota are enjoying some Halloween snow! Haha. Suckers! It's been really nice here. Actually, the past two days it's been a bit hot, but at night it's in the 70s or mid 60s. Sister Putnam is cold all the time because she came here from Bakersfield. She gets mad at me because I always notice when she's cold and turn off the air for her. The goose bumps on her arms are just too obvious. Haha. She's pretty funny. We've stayed up late talking probably one too many time this week. One night we just went on this tangent of talking about baby names and what name we really look like. She told me I look like an Ashley or Brittany. GROSS! Not that those names are gross, but that's not what I look like! I look like a Haley! Duh. It was hilarious for some reason. We were like rolling on the ground laughing about it. I'm not sure why we were on the ground and not in our beds, but it was fun. I'm enjoying being her companion...STILL! It's a Christmas miracle!

On Thursday we had to go get our oil changed in Thousand Oaks after district meeting. It was going to take about an hour and a half and we hadn't had lunch yet, so we walked over to California Pizza Kitchen and had lunch together. That was soooo good! Mmm! CPK!  Oh, and thanks Mom and Dad for buying me lunch. Haha. You're so sweet. :)

Oh and Dad, did you know that Dennis Pitta went to Moorpark High School? He grew up in the ward that I am currently serving in. Pretty cool, huh? Too bad his family no longer lives here. It's still cool though.

Ok, enough small talk. Now on to what's important!

I hope you've had a really great week like we had here in Moorpark. This past week I have been thinking a lot about the Atonement and how as my understanding of it grows, so will my desire to share the gospel. I feel like there are too many times when I just pass by someone on the street and don't stop to talk to them. I'm working on being more bold and giving everyone that we see the opportunity to hear about the gospel. I know that we really need to find more people to teach and I have faith that as long as we are obedient we will have the Spirit with us to help us recognize those who are prepared to hear the message of the gospel.

We were able to teach the Matweyews, Mathew, Michael, Penny B (less-active), Nanci and Kelsey, Jim and Heather, Nancy V, the Eatons, Anthony, Heena, Sean M, Brianna and Justin (less-active), Jan Diaz (less-active), and Hans this week.

The Matweyews are moving right along toward their baptism. They have come to church the past two weeks and I know that Sister M has really been feeling the Spirit as she's attended. Yesterday, Gavin even stayed for all three hours of church and he said he really liked it! We taught them this week about the prophet on the earth today and we also taught them about prayer. Our lesson about prayer was really good, because I think it helped Sister M, especially, understand that it's a relationship. It doesn't matter what other people think when you pray, but it's about developing that strong connection with our Father in Heaven through prayer. Gavin is really great. He loves praying and a few weeks ago we made him a "prayer rock" to help him remember each morning and night to say his prayers. He said he loves having that prayer rock and has been praying every day. He's such a sweet kid. He is always so excited when we come over to teach them. He told us last week that he thinks it's kind of exciting if we're a few minutes late because he's always waiting and watching at the window for us and he gets nervous that we might forget or something. Don't worry, we're not late often, but it was cute to hear about how he's excited to see us and learn more. I have really developed a strong relationship with the Matweyew family. I feel so much love when I'm with them and I feel like I really am able to see them the way that the Lord sees them. I've been day dreaming, maybe too much, about when I'll come back after my mission in a year and go to the temple with them when they are sealed as a family. Just thinking about it gives me the chills and makes me feel so much joy. I can't wait for November 10th when they're able to make the first, so important, covenant of baptism and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We were able to get in contact with a former investigator named Sean this week. Sean is 17 years old and when I first got to Moorpark Sister Tippetts and I met him and talked to him about meeting with him. He told us then that he would need to talk to his dad because his dad had been against it before. We tried to start teaching him, but it didn't happen then. Well, we stopped by last week and saw him and set up a time to go back and teach him. When we came for our appointment, Sean said he didn't have much time, so we talked with him and shared a scripture on his doorstep. I asked him if he really wanted to meet with us or not, because I didn't want to just keep showing up to his house and sharing scriptures on his doorstep. He looked surprised when I asked him that, and he said that he really does. He is going through some hard things right now with his family and with school, and I know that he needs the gospel in his life. When I first met him he had talked about how he knew he would become a Mormon someday, but just didn't think that he was ready for that yet. He has a lot of faith and I  pray that as we teach him, he will be open and willing to heed the promptings of the Spirit.

Meeting with Nanci B (less active) and Kelsey (investigator) this week was interesting. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation. Nanci really wants Kelsey to learn and get baptized. Kelsey is 18 years old and doesn't seem to have any idea of what she believes. She doesn't have any friends and she is constantly consumed by reading books, which is great, but I think Nanci just wants Kelsey to learn for social reasons. We've realized that Kelsey honestly isn't interested, or she really isn't ready at this time to hear about the gospel. As we taught her about the Plan of Salvation she was all over the place. She was very argumentative throughout the entire lesson. It was really hard to be patient with her and not just argue over different points that we were teaching about. It was probably good for me to have been in this situation, because it really helped me understand the importance of my testimony. No one can argue with me and tell me that I don't KNOW these things are true. Kelsey kept wanting things to be more complicated than they are when it comes to gaining a knowledge for herself. I bore my testimony probably ten times in that lesson and each time I felt the Spirit telling me, and Kelsey, that these things are true. I think Kelsey was just feeling uncomfortable and maybe even scared about trying to pray before reading in the Book of Mormon because she isn't used to thinking about these things. Her mom didn't raise her in a religious atmosphere so this is all very new to her. Anyway, we're not sure what to do with the situation because we want to keep teaching Nanci so we can help her get back to church, but Nanci wants us to come over for Kelsey. At this point we're just planning to focus on Nanci when we plan the lessons and hopefully Kelsey will be humbled through the lessons so she can accept the gospel. We'll see how this goes.

We had a really good lesson with Heena this week. About two hours before our lesson with her, she called us to confirm the appointment. While I was on the phone with her she told me that she had a bad week and she sounded really stressed. Then, out of nowhere, she kind of unloaded everything on me. She said she felt like she wasn't really getting answers to her prayers. She also talked about how when she had gone to church, the Sunday before, she felt like I had ignored her. She said that Sister Putnam came and hugged her and gave her attention, but that I was very distracted. She was right. I am very busy at church. Sister Putnam was trying to help me get things done as much as she could, but she doesn't know everyone yet so she can only do so much. We had just spoken in sacrament meeting so there was even more going on than usual because everyone was coming up to us and introducing themselves or telling us we did well. I remember giving Heena a hug and saying hello, plus when I was on the stand I was smiling at her and waved to her. I felt really bad, though, that she felt like I hadn't given her attention. That made me a little nervous to go to our appointment with her, but as we drove there I prayed to myself and I felt a lot of comfort so I knew that we would have the Spirit with us to guide us in helping resolve Heena's true concerns. When we got there she told us about how great she felt after church on Sunday, but then the week following was really rough. We talked to her about Satan and about how he will do anything he can to stop us from knowing the truth or doing things that the Lord wants us to do. We totally had the guidance of the Spirit as we taught her that night. It was really amazing to feel the Lord working through us to help Heena. When we left, Heena felt great and she had a better perspective on things that she can keep with her as she will go through more trials while learning more from us.

Those were just a few of the experiences that we had this week. There were so many more, but there just isn't enough time to share them all! I'll just have to type faster next week!

Here's a scripture I read this morning - Alma 37:6-7. I was thinking about how we, young, immature, simple missionaries are the small and simple means by which the Lord brings about great things in missionary work. It's humbling to know that we are instruments in the Lord’s hands. How are all of you being instruments in the Lord's hands? How have you seen the Lord use small and simple means to bring about great things in your lives?

Well, that's just something to think about.

 

Have a wonderful week. I love you all!

Love,
Sister Bennett

 

P.S. - Funny story: This week when we were tracting, we got to a door and there were obviously people home. They didn't have a doorbell and I really wanted them to answer the door, so I took it upon myself to knock REALLY hard so they would be able to hear that someone was at the door. Well, that hurt really bad. About an hour later I had a really big bruise on the knuckle of my middle finger. Hahah. Well...I need to give them the best chance possible to hear about the gospel! :)