Well, another good week to be a missionary here in the Great California Ventura mission! It was a weird week for me, but good, nonetheless. I hope you're all doing well. I also wonder who's going to tell Cortney that our friendship is hanging on a string called "WRITE ME A LETTER!" Just saying....missionaries need love, too. Haha. Just kidding Cortz....kinda.
Elder Anderson came to visit! He came for stake conference. He spoke in both the adult session and the normal session of conference, of course. I really loved hearing him speak. He was less formal and super funny! He talked a lot about faith and how faith is not simply a feeling, but it's a decision. I loved that. That's what reminded me of the scripture in Mark...."Be not afraid, only believe." He had some great council that he gave us. I'll share more about that later in the email.
This past week seemed so jam packed with a lot to do! We had a great exchange on Tuesday, our meeting about sisters' conference on Wednesday, we met with the other traveling sisters on Friday, plus there was stake conference, and time needed for preparing for sisters' conference! Let's just say that it's an adjustment for me to be going to meetings and staying in to plan extra for things rather than being out doing normal work all day every day. It's been good, though! I've been learning a lot and I have been seeing the Lord helping me make the necessary adjustments.
I'm really excited for sisters' conference tomorrow. I've never been to a sisters' conference yet and I'm excited to meet all of the sisters and get to know them better. It's kind of weird that I've never been to one and somehow for my first one ever I'm partially running it! It's really neat how I just love all of the sisters so much. Sister Lillywhite and I pray for them every day. We pray that they can grow and overcome challenges, and that we can know how to help them. It was fun calling the sisters to give them assignments and information about the conference because they were all so excited. It's always nice to be around the other sisters, so I can't even imagine being with every single sister in the mission. It's going to be a really great day and the Spirit will be very strong.
This week we only went on one exchange in Agoura Hills with Sister Lupashko and Sister Cooper. I went with Sister Lupashko. Guess where she is from!? The Ukraine! Pretty sweet, huh? I love her accent. Hahaha. She is a temple square missionary! I loved talking to her about temple square, all day. It is just so intriguing how things are done there. They watch movies sometimes! What the? Sister Lupashko said that she saw Harry Potter there and Despicable Me. Oh well, I guess different mission, different rule. I'm happy to be where I am, because I think I wouldn't like that. The Lord knew where I needed to be. Haha. We spent the whole day out tracting and trying to contact potentials or former investigators. I was hoping that we could have a lesson, but our only one fell through. That was ok, though, because I think Sister Lupashko needed some time to work on declaring. Sister Lupashko is really great. She is very optimistic. That is probably what stuck out to me the most. There were some people who were very rude, but she was so sweet to them. It really made me think about the Savior and how He would react if he were out tracting with us. I just had so much fun with Sister Lupashko. It's so cool getting to go on exchanges. I get to see all of the different areas of the mission plus I have the opportunity to get to know the other sisters a lot better. There are quite a few international missionaries serving here, so it's sweet! I get to go on an exchange with a sister from Japan in a few weeks, too. She's serving in Moorpark! Jealous! Haha. Just kidding, I really like Ventura.
Ventura is a cool city. It's right on the coast. When I stand on the steps of the church, I can look down and see the ocean. It's not a very wealthy area. It's really diverse. There are some people with wealthier homes that live more up on the hill sides, and then down in the city are people in poorer circumstances. The weather here has been really nice this past week, but today it's pretty windy and back down to 60. haha. Everyone makes comments about me loving the winter since I'm from Minnesota. I just don't feel like it's winter at all! I really just keep thinking it's fall or something, but somehow it's almost February! The ward that I'm serving in is an older ward. Most of the people are in their late 40s-60s. They're good people, though. I like Ventura a lot. The people here are ready to hear about the gospel! That's for sure!
This week we taught Julie (less-active), the Walkers (less-active), brother Callahan (less-active), Rhoda, Lisa, Sage, Bob, another Lisa, Steve (recent convert), Jane, Denis, Ariana, the Rabagos (less-active), and brother Bigler (less-active).
The time that we did have out working this week, mixed with the preparation for sisters' conference, was really great. We had some wonderful lessons with Bob. He is so prepared to be baptized. He is truly "feasting upon the words of Christ." Every time we meet with him, he comes with questions galore and has so much to share that he has learned in his studies. We talked to him about prayer this week, because we didn't feel that he was quite understanding the blessings of prayer. He has prayed with us a lot, but it wasn't always the correct way and he always said that he just feels normal when he prays. We taught him about the relationship that we can establish with our Father in Heaven through prayer and shared many scriptures about miracles that have come through prayers of faith. I have a strong testimony of prayer. It has changed my life - the way that I have learned to pray throughout my mission - so I was happy to be able to share some experiences that I've had. Bob came to both sessions of stake conference and he really enjoyed it. He wanted to shake Elder Anderson's hand, so we went through the line with him so that he could meet an apostle of the Lord. When Elder Anderson got to Bob he recognized that Bob isn't a member (especially because Bob was wearing jeans). He had been moving along as he shook the previous people's hands, but Elder Anderson stopped on Bob. He said to Bob "these sisters have a special spirit about them. Can you feel that Bob? I sure can." Then he told Bob that the church needs him, and Bob responded by telling Elder Anderson that he's getting baptized. Elder Anderson told Bob that he is proud of him and then he turned to Sister Lillywhite and me and said "I'm really proud of you two sisters. Thank you so much for your work." Smack! I felt the Spirit so strong. An apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ, told my companion and me that he is proud of us. That is like hearing the Savior himself speak those words to us. That was such a great experience just hearing Elder Anderson speak, and then meeting him was just an added bonus. The best part was that when we met with Bob last night, he told us that he noticed in all of the people who spoke an obvious assurance about the gospel and a peace that they've received in their lives from it. Then he said that he knows that will come for him as he continues to immerse himself in the church. That is amazing! It's crazy seeing how different Bob is now since the first time I met him on his porch smoking a cigarette. The power of the atonement of Jesus Christ is real and anyone can apply that power in their lives if they will just make the choice to come unto the Savior.
There was one other experience that I wanted to mention quickly. On Thursday or Friday, Sister Lillywhite and I were just out tracting a street and we met a lady named Lisa. As we were talking to her, I just felt the Spirit so strong because Sister Lillywhite and I were teaching with so much unity and I know that we were both following the Spirit. I had a, kind of, out of body experience, and for a moment just thought about how COOL it is to be a missionary. We were just standing on some lady's porch on some street in Ventura, California teaching her about the truth. I don't know that Lisa realizes that what we were sharing with her will change her life and bring her peace and happiness, but I knew it as we taught her. It is so awesome being a representative of Jesus Christ, inviting all people, all day every day, to come unto Him. Pretty amazing!
No more time to write! I love you all so much! Choose faith!
Love,
Sister Bennett
On Exchange with Sister Lupashko
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