March 18, 2013
Dear People that I am related to and
who I love,
That's right - being a sister missionary is like being a celebrity. Seriously. Whenever we see little kids, they freak out and run to say "hi," or they turn to their parents and say, "Look mom!" Just the other night we were in the church and opened the gym door to see who was inside, and these two little girls turn to each other, as the door was closing, and said, "Look! It's the sister missionaries!!" I don't know if elders get the same reaction, but who knows. :)
I can't believe that this is the last week of the transfer! Where has the time gone? I will have to repeat myself, but have been learning so much every week that it seems that it must have been more than 4 weeks that have passed by. That time has flown! That's pretty crazy. I had a neat experience yesterday at church. . . a small, personal experience, but it meant a lot to me. We were in our gospel principles class and the teacher, Sister Overton who served a mission recently with her husband, was teaching about the fall of Adam and Eve. She said that her mission really helped her to understand more about the fall and really about the gospel as a whole. She said that she was forced to gain a better understanding because she was expected to teach people about the gospel. As I sat there, I pondered on my personal understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement before my mission and compared it to where I am now. I had a strong feeling come over me of gratitude and clarity. I realized exactly the same thing that President Castro shared with us today from a quote by Elder Christofferson; "Even the mundane and repetitious can be tiny but significant building blocks that in time establish the discipline and character and order needed to realize our plans and dreams." The knowledge of the gospel that I have now is so much more fulfilling and so much greater than what I had before my mission. I know that came through PRAYERFUL study every single day in which I was guided by the Holy Ghost to understand the things that others needed from me. At times, that one hour of personal study seems small, in all reality I always feel that I need so much more time, but I know that it is the Lord's way and now I can see why. I have been building upon my knowledge "revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge (D&C 42:61)" over these past 10 months. I'm so grateful for that and especially for the revelation that I gained in church yesterday.
This week we had our last exchange of the transfer with the sisters in Agoura Hills. I spent the day in Agoura with Sister Burwell and Sister Lupashko. It was a beautiful day in Agoura. It was super sunny outside and it was about 84 degrees. I actually was caught off guard by that and got a little sunburned. . . whoops! It was a really fun day, as far as the work goes. We talked to a lot of people. Sadly, all of the people we had lessons with cancelled on us, but we still got to teach one investigator and we talked to tons of people on the street as we walked around. I was so excited to get to work with Sister Burwell because we get along so well - she's from Pennsylvania. We worked around each other when I was in Moorpark and she was in Thousand Oaks. I had heard many good things about her, so it was exciting to finally see her in action. She is great! She has a kind of zeal for missionary work that I have honestly never seen. She is just go, go, go. That's definitely my style. I was really impressed with how she literally talks to everyone, no matter what. She's very bold and she isn't afraid to tell anyone that she knows the message of the restored gospel is true. I think my favorite thing about her is how much faith she has in the message. She sometimes can become a bit overbearing/too persistent with people because she knows that if they'll just give us a chance to teach them about the restoration that they'll feel the Spirit and want to learn more. That's one thing that we discussed that she needs to be careful of, because a few people got a bit angry or upset with us because she became a little bit pushy. That's ok though, it's because she loves what she's sharing. Sister Burwell is a bit hard on herself at times, and it reminded me of myself. I think the Lord wanted me to see how Sister Burwell is so I can have a better perspective of myself and so I can help her. She really wants to improve as a missionary and I know that she will because she trusts the Lord to help her. We talked a little bit about teaching people and not just trying to sell a message. She said that is something she's been working on, and I know that if she'll try to connect with people and meet them where they're at that she'll have so much more success. I think she's just a fantastic missionary and with a little refining, she'll be unstoppable.
That's right - being a sister missionary is like being a celebrity. Seriously. Whenever we see little kids, they freak out and run to say "hi," or they turn to their parents and say, "Look mom!" Just the other night we were in the church and opened the gym door to see who was inside, and these two little girls turn to each other, as the door was closing, and said, "Look! It's the sister missionaries!!" I don't know if elders get the same reaction, but who knows. :)
I can't believe that this is the last week of the transfer! Where has the time gone? I will have to repeat myself, but have been learning so much every week that it seems that it must have been more than 4 weeks that have passed by. That time has flown! That's pretty crazy. I had a neat experience yesterday at church. . . a small, personal experience, but it meant a lot to me. We were in our gospel principles class and the teacher, Sister Overton who served a mission recently with her husband, was teaching about the fall of Adam and Eve. She said that her mission really helped her to understand more about the fall and really about the gospel as a whole. She said that she was forced to gain a better understanding because she was expected to teach people about the gospel. As I sat there, I pondered on my personal understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement before my mission and compared it to where I am now. I had a strong feeling come over me of gratitude and clarity. I realized exactly the same thing that President Castro shared with us today from a quote by Elder Christofferson; "Even the mundane and repetitious can be tiny but significant building blocks that in time establish the discipline and character and order needed to realize our plans and dreams." The knowledge of the gospel that I have now is so much more fulfilling and so much greater than what I had before my mission. I know that came through PRAYERFUL study every single day in which I was guided by the Holy Ghost to understand the things that others needed from me. At times, that one hour of personal study seems small, in all reality I always feel that I need so much more time, but I know that it is the Lord's way and now I can see why. I have been building upon my knowledge "revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge (D&C 42:61)" over these past 10 months. I'm so grateful for that and especially for the revelation that I gained in church yesterday.
This week we had our last exchange of the transfer with the sisters in Agoura Hills. I spent the day in Agoura with Sister Burwell and Sister Lupashko. It was a beautiful day in Agoura. It was super sunny outside and it was about 84 degrees. I actually was caught off guard by that and got a little sunburned. . . whoops! It was a really fun day, as far as the work goes. We talked to a lot of people. Sadly, all of the people we had lessons with cancelled on us, but we still got to teach one investigator and we talked to tons of people on the street as we walked around. I was so excited to get to work with Sister Burwell because we get along so well - she's from Pennsylvania. We worked around each other when I was in Moorpark and she was in Thousand Oaks. I had heard many good things about her, so it was exciting to finally see her in action. She is great! She has a kind of zeal for missionary work that I have honestly never seen. She is just go, go, go. That's definitely my style. I was really impressed with how she literally talks to everyone, no matter what. She's very bold and she isn't afraid to tell anyone that she knows the message of the restored gospel is true. I think my favorite thing about her is how much faith she has in the message. She sometimes can become a bit overbearing/too persistent with people because she knows that if they'll just give us a chance to teach them about the restoration that they'll feel the Spirit and want to learn more. That's one thing that we discussed that she needs to be careful of, because a few people got a bit angry or upset with us because she became a little bit pushy. That's ok though, it's because she loves what she's sharing. Sister Burwell is a bit hard on herself at times, and it reminded me of myself. I think the Lord wanted me to see how Sister Burwell is so I can have a better perspective of myself and so I can help her. She really wants to improve as a missionary and I know that she will because she trusts the Lord to help her. We talked a little bit about teaching people and not just trying to sell a message. She said that is something she's been working on, and I know that if she'll try to connect with people and meet them where they're at that she'll have so much more success. I think she's just a fantastic missionary and with a little refining, she'll be unstoppable.
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Agoura Hills
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Sister Lupashko is doing really well, also. She is so great at listening to everything that people have to say rather than listening for a bit, hearing something you can respond to, and then figuring out what to say. She listens the entire time and then responds to them in a very patient and loving manner. I think that people can really tell that she is very interested in them and isn't there to just try to "sell them religion." She didn't get to talk too much because Sister Burwell gets very excited and wants to share a lot. I talked with Sister Lupashko about taking the lead in talking to everyone and stepping in to teach and testify whenever possible. She's a really positive person and I really love her attitude. I'm sad that she is going back to temple square this week because she's such a wonderful missionary. I'm grateful that I was able to work with her twice while she's been here in the Great California Ventura Mission.
This week, in our area, we taught Gabby and Skyler, Jose (twice), Kristyn, Lisa, Rich and Christina, Brother Wages (recent convert), Julia and Daniel, Judy, Sister Ellis (less-active), Richard, Bob, and the Rabagos (less-active).
I'm really excited about teaching Daniel and Julia. Daniel is 12 years old and Julia is 9. They are a part member family. Their mom, Kristi, was less-active for a while but has recently moved in with her mom and dad and has been coming back to church. Daniel and Julia were never baptized and Kristi has received permission from both of their dads for them to learn and be baptized! They are planning on getting baptized on the 30th of March. I'm really excited! They're so fun to teach, because I've never had the opportunity to teach such young people. It really has helped me to simplify the way that I teach, because I have to. They are always so excited when we come over and they just really love missionaries. Julia and her little sister, Alexa (6), always want to hug Sister Lillywhite and me and they always hunt us down at church. That definitely makes us feel appreciated. Anyway, we're excited about teaching them!
We taught Kristyn again this week. That was a disappointing lesson. It seemed like everything was just going wrong. We've felt like we've been making so much progress with Kristyn. She's been learning from missionaries on and off for about two years now. She was finally reading from the Book of Mormon and praying and we felt that in our lessons with her she was getting a lot of answers she was looking for. She's also said, many times, that she feels drawn to the church. Well, when we went over this time it seemed like we had never answered the questions that we had, because she was asking all of the same questions again. It felt like we were back at square one, because she didn't understand why she needed to be baptized again, she hadn't been reading, and she wasn't praying specifically about the message. When we had left her the lesson before, she understood and said she felt really good about everything. She just hasn't been consistent at all with keeping commitments and that's why we have to keep answering the same questions over and over again. She hasn't resolved those concerns herself with the Spirit. This has just helped me realize how important reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it is. As we sat there, the member who came with us, Sister Ruiz, took over the lesson and barely let us speak. That made both of us feel even worse because we didn't get to talk. I just felt really down as I sat there, because I was excited for Kristyn to be getting it before and I just felt powerless in helping her receive the blessings that come through baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. When Sister Ruiz finally stopped talking, I was overcome with so much love for Kristyn and expressed that to her. I felt that she needed to know how much her Heavenly Father loves her and I think even more so, I needed to realize that. It made me get over the anger and frustration I was feeling and seek the guidance of the Spirit to know how to help one of His daughters. I don't know what's going to happen with Kristyn, but we're going to do our best to follow the guidance that we receive from the Spirit to know what we need to do for her.
It sounds like life in Minnesota is exciting. You have had snow every time mom emails me, and what a treat it must've been to have Nanner and Eye-liner there with you. Sounds pretty fun! I love you all and hope you have a good week.
Hey Jordan, you're getting married like in a week. That's so weird! Hahahah.
Love,
Sister Bennett
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