Whelp, my birthday is over and I am ok with that. It was an ok day.
Well, we'll talk in terms of Haley vs Sister Bennett. For Sister Bennett, my
birthday was great. We traveled back from exchanges in San Louis Obsipo in the
morning - we stopped at McDonald's first for a b-day BREAKFAST -woot! -
and then had appointments the rest of the day. The lessons that we had were
pretty good, especially considering the circumstances of not having time to
plan when we got back and that we were super tired. Also, we had a great lesson
with Bob and got to go to a baptism with him. That was great! Perfect birthday
gift for Sister Bennett! For Haley, it wasn't the best day ever. Since I'm a
girl I seem to be always up and down with emotions. I don't really know the
people here in Ventura too well, so no one knew it was my birthday. Bob didn't
even remember and we told him a few days before that. It wasn't a day for me to
feel super special, although Sister Lillywhite made her best effort at it. She
gave me some really cute earrings, made me a cake, and made me a really
funny card. Sister Stoker also sent me a card with some pictures of us in it
and she had made me a piece for a visual of the plan of salvation lesson that I
had lost. That was sweet. I haven't gotten the package from you yet, mom, but
I'm excited for it! I'm going to have a good birthday p-day today! I think
we're going to the mall, and I'm going to get myself some new shoes! Well, I
really have to because both pairs of shoes that I wear the most are basically
done. They've served me well for a good 8 months. One really nice thing that
happened for my birthday was that I got to sit by President Castro at the
baptism. Toward the end of the baptism he asked me if he could see my planner.
I was thinking "Oh no! We didn't even have time to plan today since we had
been on exchanges! This is the worst possible day for him to look at my
planner." Thankfully, Sister Lillywhite had filled in some of my planner
since I had been complaining that it was so empty...it just looked wrong. She
had written happy birthday all over it. Well, when President got it he wrote me
a really nice note. It was simple, but it made me feel appreciated. That was
nice. Anyway, it was a good day. I shouldn't have expected it to be all about
me....I'm a missionary. We serve others. Haha. Duh.
It's going to take some more time to get used
to being a traveling sister. I'm not accustomed to going to meetings,
traveling, and doing all of this extra planning that keeps us inside when I
would usually have been proselyting. I get a bit of an itch if I have to stay
inside for too long, so it's been interesting attempting to make this
adjustment. This week was really great. I was so grateful to have been able to
attend zone leaders council. Usually, it's just the zone leaders that attend
that meeting. They meet once a month and President Castro instructs them and
gives them training. Well, the traveling sisters were invited this time so that
we can get ideas and prepare for sisters' conference. I received many answers
to my prayers in those ZLC meetings and it gave me a lot of motivation going into this
new calling as a traveling sister. One thing that I really
enjoy about when President Castro teaches is that he walks us
through passages of scriptures. It's very powerful, and it reminds me of the
guidance I should be receiving through my scripture study. He was
a professor of religion at BYU-I, so he knows his stuff. I felt
the Spirit a lot at ZLC and I really hope, and pray, that we can help the
sisters have a very spiritual, powerful experience when they come for sisters'
conference next week. One of the best things about being at ZLC, for me, was
listening to the comments and insights of the zone leaders. It came to me as a
very powerful, testimony building experience of reconfirming that the Lord
works through us to accomplish His work. It was amazing hearing these 19-21
year old boys share their testimonies and what they have learned. They could be
doing anything else in the world, but they are here. I would never guess they
are only 19-21 years old because of the maturity they have. That was really
neat for me witness.
On Thursday we went on our first exchange. We
drove up to San Louis Obispo, which sits on the coast, on Thursday night. It's
about a 2.5 hour drive. When we got there we planned for the next day with the
sister that we are having the exchange with. It was really nice that I wasn't
very nervous. Well, it was actually a miracle because I had been praying that I
would feel confident and prepared to go on exchanges. I spent the day on
Friday with Sister Baliar. She is from the Philippines. I love her
accent, haha. I was really excited to get to know her better and to learn
new things from working with her. She's really cute. She's just super excited
about everything, and she just kept telling me "I'm really excited to work
with you Sister Bennett"...even when we were done. haha. She also kept
talking about how happy she was that I would go try the less-actives that had
"DNC” (do not contact) next to their name on the ward list. haha. She told
me that Sister Putnam had told her that I would go do it because I'm not scared
of anyone. Haha. Sister Baliar was just so excited all day, so our exchange was
super fun. We spent a lot of the day out knocking on doors, which was a
blessing because her goal was to be able to speak of the importance of families
while teaching the restoration. I thought that was a great goal, and she was
definitely focused on it throughout the day. She always started the
declarations out by asking about the person's family and she shared experiences
that she has had with her family. Sister Baliar is really loving. All
throughout the day she just told me how great she thinks that I am. It made me
feel so good! That was something really big that I learned from her - she
really focuses on others and looks to learn things from those around her. In a
companionship that is so important to building up your companion and I'm sure
that her companionship is unified because of her selflessness. I am definitely
going to take that and apply it to my companionships. I really didn't feel like
a "traveling sister" throughout the day. It was just a normal day of
missionary work. At the end of the day, before we went in, we sat in the car
and I reviewed with her the exchange. We talked about things that she learned
and goals that she has for the future. I shared with her the strengths that I
saw and things that she can work on. I am just really grateful to have had the
Spirit guiding me as we talked and throughout that entire day. She expressed a
lot of gratitude for me and for the exchange. She said she learned a lot, so
that made me feel good. Hopefully she really did! Haha. Exchanges are fun!
We're going on another one tomorrow. We're driving to Agoura tonight and will
be spending the day there tomorrow.
This week in Ventura we had some really good
lessons and some great miracles. We taught Ruby, Chantell, Bob (twice), Matilde
(less-active), Jennie, Sage, Teresa, Brother Dumond, Jane (twice), Cheryl,
Jose, Sister Rous (less-active), the Avangelistas (recent convert), and the
Rabagos (less-active).
Bob is so great. He's just ready to be
baptized! We taught him twice this week, and both times he came prepared and so
excited to learn more. He is always talking about his baptism and how things
are going to go for it. He's still going strong with living the Word of Wisdom.
That is just such a great miracle! He just stopped everything, cold turkey! On
Saturday, we had a lesson with him at the church on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It was so great, because immediately afterwards there was a baptism and he
wanted to go. We all went to the baptism and it was a really great one. The Spirit
was really strong there and I think that helped Bob a lot because it was
somewhat unknown to us. We had tried to explain what a baptism is like, but
it's definitely better to attend one so that he can feel the Spirit there. He
came to church again yesterday, and as usual he was taking notes and adding
comments in the classes. We're hoping that we can move his baptism to a sooner
day than the 16th of February, because he's ready! We'll see what happens when
we meet with him this week and discuss it. I'm just so grateful that we get to
teach him. He is definitely elect, and I'm glad that Sister Lillywhite and I
have been prepared to teach him and that we're trusted by the Lord through our
obedience and diligence.
One great miracle was that Sister Rabago, who
is less-active, came to church with her family yesterday. It's such a miracle
because she hasn't been to church in 3 years. I was so happy to see her there
and even more so because she was so happy to be there. Everyone in the ward
made a big fuss over her, which was really great because I think she really
appreciated that. She also talked about how strong the Spirit was there and
that she just really wanted to keep coming. We went to the Rabagos' home last
night to teach them, because they are all less-active, and she just kept
talking about how much she loved church. She said she couldn't pick out a
favorite part because she loved it all so much. That family is so great. I just
love them so much already, and I'm grateful to feel that for them. That was
something I was praying for, to love the people here just as much as I loved
the people in my last area. I can see that the Lord is blessing me to feel
such.
Sister Bennett
P.S. - Dad, I'm IN Ventura. There are 4 wards here, and we are
serving in the 2nd ward....so our area is their ward boundaries. It's beautiful
here. I'll need to send pictures soon. I keep forgetting to bring my camera in
to emails.
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