December 24, 2012
Merry Christmas to all of you!
What an awesome time of year it is to be a missionary!
Seriously. I wish I would have paid more attention to the real meaning of this
holiday. This morning I took my entire study time thinking about the Savior and
reading about the prophecies of His birth from the Book of Mormon and the
Bible. I also read in Matthew 2 about the wise men seeking Him. There was so
much leading to the birth of our Savior. One thing I noticed in all of the
scriptures I read prophesying of His coming, was that they all spoke of how He
would come to the earth to redeem His people, to be our Savior. The prophecies
didn't speak merely of His birth! Yes, we celebrate the birth of the Savior at
this time of year, but why is that birth so important? It's important because
of what He would do with His time on the earth. He came to fulfill His purpose
in atoning for our sins. He came to submit himself to the father. The prophets
had been telling of his coming for such a long time (1 Ne 10:4-5) and the believers
in 3 Nephi 1 were going to be put to death if the signs that Samuel the
Lamanite spoke of didn't come to pass. I love 3 Ne 1:13-14 when the Lord
comforts Nephi about the believers' lives being threatened. The way was
prepared and the time had come for the Savior to be born in the city of David.
On that day, all of the prophecies that had been given came true – “For unto us
a child is born, unto us a son is given." (2 Ne 19:6). I'm so glad that we
have the scriptures and the prophets who teach us about Jesus Christ. I'm so
grateful for His atonement for me and the opportunity I have to share that with
others as His representative. I hope you all remember why we are celebrating
Christmas and what it means to you personally to have your sins forgiven
through Jesus Christ.
We had a Christmas devotional on Friday. There were 5
zones there at the Camarillo stake center. I was overwhelmed a few times by the
feelings I was receiving from the Spirit. Throughout this past week I had been
kind of struggling because of the season - struggling with thinking about home
a lot and missing my family. In the devotional, an elder played a medley on the
piano that combined Christmas hymns with missionary songs. As he played, he
went from playing a beautiful rendition of "Angels We Have Heard On
High" (which once again reminded me of home) to "Called to Serve."
As I listened to "Called to Serve" I pictured myself at my home
branch, the day of my homecoming talk, standing and singing "Called to
Serve." As I pictured that, I felt an overwhelming feeling of gratitude
that I am serving a mission. I felt so happy to still have so much time ahead
of me, because I know that I have so much more to learn and accomplish before
that day comes when I'm at home reminiscing on the amazing experiences I had on
my mission. It's so great that I am currently having them! I think a lot about
President Uchtdorf's talk from this last conference about regrets. I don't want
to focus on the finish line as I'm serving my mission. I am going to do my best
to enjoy every minute so that I don't have any regrets. I just loved the entire
Christmas devotional. It was so fun to play "name that tune" with all
of the missionaries there and the messages that were shared were so uplifting.
This week we had exchanges with the traveling sisters.
I stayed in Moorpark with Sister Lillywhite and Sister Stoker went to Ventura
with Hermana Baker. I really enjoyed working with Sister Lillywhite. She is
such a great missionary and we really connected with each other. It was really
fun to work hard but laugh and have joy as we were doing it. I think lately
I've become so serious as I've been out working that it was a good reminder to
me to have fun while I'm going about doing this work. I don't have to be so
serious about everything. There is definitely a balance that needs to be
maintained, but we are meant to have joy as we share the gospel. Sister
Lillywhite teaches so well. That's one thing that I really learned from her -
the importance of teaching simply. We aren't aware of the words that we use as
we teach and how most people are very unfamiliar with them. Sister Lillywhite
understands the doctrines of the lessons so well that she can teach them simply
enough that a child could understand (just like it talks about in PMG). That's
a goal that I have. I want to really dig into the lessons more and gain a
greater understanding so that I can teach it in a simpler manner. Sister
Lillywhite is also great at declaring. She teaches using short, but powerful,
statements so that the people we speak with have the best opportunity possible
to understand what they are either accepting or rejecting. I really like that.
She helped me recognize that I'm doing well with declaring and that I need to
remember that not everyone is going to want us to come back. I had been getting
frustrated with myself, feeling like I wasn't connecting the message to
people's needs, but I understand now that I just need to have more patience
with myself and those we contact while tracting. I'm really glad that we were
able to have exchanges, especially because Sister Stoker seemed to have learned
a lot. That made me happy.
Sister Stoker is continuing to improve and adjust. I
think she's starting to get to the point where she's used to being a
missionary...well at least more than she used to be. She still has her
struggles every once in a while, but she's so much more confident now! It's so
cool to see that. She's trying her hardest to help me teach as we declare to
people while tracting, and she's doing really great with teaching during
lessons. She still needs to get over the idea that we aren't college students
anymore. I'm trying to set that example for her with the language that I use
and the way that I interact with people so that she understands the magnitude
of our calling to represent the Savior. The great thing is that she has shared
with me that she recognizes that. She recognizes the need to remember that she
is no longer a normal 21 year old singles ward girl. She's a representative of
Jesus Christ. I know that things like that just take time to iron out, so
she'll figure it out. I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to be here with
her in Moorpark. If I am asked to move to another area, I know that she will
take care of the investigators here and through her obedience the work will
continue to progress. That's very comforting to me.
This week we were able to teach Cheyenne, Rocio, Kathy,
Nancy, Nanci and Kelsey, Khajid, Choice, Shelly, Steven, Delfy, Denise and
Karston, David Jr., another Nancy, Sophia, Heidi, Christine, the Matweyews, and
Anthony.
Kathy is a new investigator. We met her last week while
tracting and she agreed to have us come back over. When we got there her 19
year old daughter (Madison), her boyfriend (Kyle), and her younger daughter
(Riley) were all there. Madison and Kyle wanted to sit in on the lesson as
well, which we were definitely okay with. As we taught them, Kathy was agreeing
with a lot of what we were saying and it also seemed to connect with Kyle a
lot. Madison really wanted to hear what we had to say as well, which surprised
me, because she asked if it would be okay for her to nurse her baby, having a
cover-up of course, while we taught because she didn't want to miss it. When we
got to the point of the great apostasy, Kathy got a little heated as she talked
about how all of these different people had the Bible and would do totally
different things. It was pretty funny because I said "Woah Kathy! You are
totally jumping the gun right now! Did you already hear this lesson from some
other Mormon missionaries?" Haha. As we finished sharing the message of
the restoration, we invited them all to read and pray about the Book of Mormon
and be baptized when they know for themselves that it's true. They agreed. We
didn't set them with a baptismal date, but in our next appointment we plan to.
I'm really excited to continue teaching them. Kathy kept saying, before we
left, that she was so glad that we came back and that she was looking forward
to us coming this week. How great is that!?
One sad thing that happened was with the Oatmans. They
kind of dropped us. I'm actually a bit confused by what happened . We went over
for our appointment on Thursday night and when we got there I knew that Deanna
wasn't home because her car wasn't there. Keith answered the door and said that
they needed time and didn't want to continue meeting at this point. He said
that they weren't ready to commit and they wanted to figure some questions out
between themselves. I told them that's why we're there. Our purpose is to help
them answer their questions or help them know how they can get answers for
themselves. Then Keith told us that maybe after the first of the year we can
continue again, so I'm not sure if we've really been dropped. I guess we'll
have to go back and see what we can find. Sister Stoker was pretty bummed about
it. It really does feel like a punch in the stomach when you're excited about
teaching someone and they drop you out of nowhere...well that's how it seems -
that it's out of nowhere. I've just been praying for them that they'll want to
continue meeting with us. We'll see.
Enjoy your time together for Christmas! I love you all
and miss you, but I love where I am so it's ok!
I will talk to you....TOMORROW!! What the!? Don't mind
my accent.
Love,
Sister Bennett
Sister Bennett
P.S. - We'll be calling at like 10:30-11:00 our time.
I'll probably let Sis Stoker go first, so it'll be more like 11:30-12:00
probably when I call. Just be ready because I don't have the greatest idea of
when...haha. I'm pretty sure it should be around those times though.
Christmas California style with Sister Lilywhite.
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