November
26, 2012
Well,
how do I put the TRAIN in training-wheels you ask? I've been called to be a
trainer in Moorpark this transfer! CRAZY! This will be my 5th transfer in
Moorpark! I can't believe I'm training. I am so nervous, you have no idea. I
feel very humbled at the idea that the Lord sees fit for me to train an
incoming missionary. This is a big responsibility. I'm helping set the standard
for this Sister's entire mission. I prayed a lot about it last night and this
morning, shed a few tears, to be honest, and felt the confirmation that this is
what the Lord knows and sees that I should do. I know that he will qualify me
to do this. I just need to have faith and be obedient and I know that I will be
able to help this sister start her mission out right. Please keep me in your
prayers a lot. I know you already do pray for me. I read a scripture this week
that reminded me of the support of my family - Moroni 8:2-3. Just say a few
extra prayers for me now. Thanks!
How is
my family?!? I hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving! I haven't gotten to read
the email from Mom yet about the craziness at the Bennett home, but I'm
sure it was really fun. I spent Thanksgiving at the Akinas' home. I really like
their family, but they are too willing to have missionaries be disobedient.
They were telling us about things that the missionaries would do with them in
the past when they came for a holiday and I was like "ooooooh no
sir!" We do not disobey. I had a lot of fun eating with them, but for the
next holiday I'm definitely going to do things differently. This
having been my first one, I wasn't really sure how things are supposed to go,
but now that I have, I want to change things a lot. We started the day off by
having district meeting. That was good as always, and then the festivities
began. The Akinas had us come over at like 3 and we didn't eat until 5! I was
not happy with that. I mean, it was nice to spend some time there with them. We
played a few games that were really fun. The Akinas have 4 daughters and three
of them were home. Jade (19), Kayla (9), and Alee (16). They seemed to enjoy
having us there and they laughed at me a bit too often. Haha. I seem to make a fool
of myself a lot. The food was good that we had. I missed having ham, especially
since I don't like turkey, but it wasn't that bad. They cooked it on
a rotisserie thing. It was pretty...alright. Haha. After we finally left
the Akinas, we went to a part-member family's home and had pie. Bill is the
non-member and we've started meeting with him. Their family is really great and
I'm really happy that we got to go and spend some time with them. For
Christmas, I want to be out talking to people a little more. I thought it would
be a really good opportunity to go and share a message and everyone in the zone
was praying to find a family to teach since they are usually all home and
together on holidays. Well, we didn't have that chance because we were barely out
talking to people at all! Oh well, it was still a really good holiday and I'm
grateful for the people that were so kind to us and fed us and what not. I will
be honest, I felt a little homesick when I woke up Thanksgiving morning. I've
never been away from home for any holidays. Plus, it made it a little harder to
know that you were all together. I just had to push my thoughts about what I
would usually have been doing on that day out of my head. Just know I thought
of you all! However, you should be a little jealous because it was 84 degrees
here for Thanksgiving. How's the weather where all of you are? Hahaha!
Suckers!
One sad
thing that happened this week was that Brother Lutz is going to be released as
the ward mission leader in second ward. They just reorganized the Bishopric and
he is the 1st counselor now. He hasn't technically been released, so I'm not
through with him yet! Hahah. He's so great. I love their family a lot. They've
definitely been my family away from home and the idea that I wont see them as
much makes me a bit sad, but I know that he's been called to do what the Lord
needs him to do and that our next ward mission leader will be really great as
well. We're going to be spending Christmas at the Lutzs' so I'm really excited
about that! OH, one funny thing that brother Lutz told me about last night. He
said that he was talking in his Bishopric meeting about us and how the ward
would be losing a missionary (because Brother Lutz kept telling me that I'm
going to Bakersfield) and Brother Rasmussen said "Which one? Is it the
athletic one?" Brother Lutz said yeah and asked how he knew I was athletic
and Brother Rasmussen told him that he could tell by the way I walk and present
myself. Haha. OH GREAT! What does that mean? haha.
Now for
the update:
This
week went really well. We saw a lot of miracles and very promising new
investigators. I'm really excited that I will be staying here for this next
transfer to continue seeing the fruits of our labors here. I was a little sad
at the possibility of missing out on Anthony's and Nancy's baptisms as well as
not getting to teach some of these new investigators that we have now. I have
seen the Lord's hand in this work a lot this week and I know that he will
continue to guide it here in Moorpark.
Just
yesterday we had a great miracle; every single person that we tried to contact
was home and we had a lesson with all of them! It was really awesome because I
had prayed a lot the night before and yesterday morning that the people that we
wanted to try to see would be home. I was praying especially hard because on
Saturday night no one was home! That's the worst when that happens because it
feels like we aren't doing anything. We need to be talking to people and it
just felt like we were in the car so much, driving from house to house. That
was a great blessing to have had so many lessons yesterday. Hard work does pay
off. Add in obedience and you have a recipe for success.
This
week we taught the Matweyews, Anthony, Michael, Delfy, Nancy, Nanci and Kelsey,
Heidi, Blake, the Oatmans (Keith and Deanna), the Caudels (less-active), the
Smedleys (less-active), TerryAnne, Brother Mason, Gisele, Monica, and Sister
Schaffner.
Our
lesson with Delfy went really well. We taught her about prophets because she
said she believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet (supposedly) but she believes
there are many prophets. She said there are probably a lot on the earth at this
time and we just don't know about it. I guess we didn't help her understand the
role of a prophet well enough. We talked to her about authority and about how
God has always called a prophet to lead and guide His children on the earth.
That morning during studies, there were specific scriptures that really stuck
out to us for teaching Delfy and the Lord obviously prepared us because Delfy
seemed to gain a better understanding through those scriptures. I think Delfy
believes us, the missionaries, when we say things, but I know that she doesn't
have her own testimony of these things because she is struggling with reading
the Book of Mormon. I just felt a huge desire for her to read it because I know
that if she does she will find out that it's true. I bore my testimony to her
and promised her that she would get an answer if she would sacrifice some of
her time to read and pray about it. The Spirit was very strong and I have been
praying a lot that she will have a desire to read it. If not, we may need to
stop visiting her because I'm worried that she just likes the missionaries too
much. It's not about us, it's about finding the truth for herself, but she
needs to have a desire. We'll see what happens there. You can tell someone is
becoming too comfortable/converted to the missionaries when they're worried all
of the time about if we're leaving or not and not more concerned about the
messages we share. Delfy has a lot of faith and I know she has felt the Spirit,
but I don't know if she is ready yet to accept the gospel.
We got
to teach Heidi again this week. She's pretty great. She has a lot of questions
and it makes me excited because I know that if she will read the Book of Mormon
that those questions will be answered. Heidi has a 12 year old daughter and we
really hope that she, Rachel, will get involved in the lessons. I think Rachel
would really like church and that she'll connect well with young women there.
Rachel plays the drums, and so do I, so we connected quickly and I just hope
that my companion and I can be good examples to her and that she'll want to
learn herself. Heidi seems very logical, which is fine. She just doesn't seem
to have a firm foundation in her life at all. We taught her about the Plan of
Salvation because she asked a lot about why it matters if what we teach is
true. I think, well I know, that Heidi really needs to gain a testimony of the
Plan of Salvation so she doesn't feel like she's just wandering around in her
life. She talks about how she has had many different "purposes" -
being a student, having a career, raising a child. She feels like she's
completed a lot of her purposes here in life, so it was fun teaching her about
the plan that God has for us. I really hope Heidi will start coming to church
because I think she could really use that support in her life. She's a single
mom and it doesn't seem like she has many friends, so one goal that we have is
to get her to church, of course, but also to really try to get members involved
in her conversion.
We also
got to teach Gisele again this week. She's so sweet. She seems very open to
learning and said that she is excited to read the Book of Mormon. Brother Lutz,
our ward mission leader, had a copy of the Book of Mormon in Portuguese for us
to give her and she was really pumped about that. We are lucky, because in our
ward there is a couple who served in Brazil and they are really active in doing
missionary work. Sister Omer, the wife, is going to be coming to our next
appointment with Gisele, so hopefully they'll really connect and enjoy speaking
Portuguese together. It will also be nice to have Sister Omer there because she
can explain things that Gisele doesn't quite understand. I'm excited to keep
teaching her, but the main goal is really to get her family to learn as
well.
One cool
experience that we had while tracting this week was meeting Blake. When Blake
opened the door he basically asked us to come back and teach him before we
could introduce ourselves. He said he knew who we were and he was really
interested in Latter-Day Saints and what we believe. He also told us that he
has read part of the Book of Mormon and really enjoyed the message that it
contains. He talked to us about how he has met so many different LDS people and
he feels that we contribute so much to society. Basically he just had a ton of
good stuff to say about the LDS faith. We asked him if we could pray with him
and explained how we pray. We talked about how we know it's not memorized but
that it is truly a relationship that we have with our Father in Heaven through
prayer. He remarked that that is really nice and after Sister Putnam prayed he
said that her prayer was very beautiful. I'm super excited to go back and teach
him next Saturday! He seems to be very prepared to learn about the gospel, so
I'll keep you updated on that.
I love
you all so much.
Talk to
you soon,
Sister
Bennett
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