Dear Family,
Did you hear that I'm official now!?? There
was an announcement a few weeks ago that all missions will now have a
"mission council" which includes assistants to the president, zone
leaders, and sister training leaders. That's right - we have a legit title now.
We're no longer "traveling sisters" but we're "sister training
leaders" and all missions are required to have them. It's pretty amazing
because President Castro has been doing the exact things that the first
presidency has asked the sister training leaders to do for about a year and a
half now. Basically, he's inspired. Now he doesn't have to worry about taking
time to make all of those changes, because we're already up and running in that
area. He can focus on helping with the
Bakersfield mission. Isn't that so cool!??
We had another busy week. I think that I start
every letter by saying that, though. We were in San Luis Obispo on Thursday and
Santa Maria on Friday, and President's interviews took up most of our day on
Wednesday, so that didn't leave us with a lot of time in our area. That's ok,
though, because while we were in our area we were very blessed. We had another
great lesson with Aubrey and Tyler as well as Brother Wages. I'll share more
about that later on.
I've been thinking a lot lately about how my
companion and I can prepare more to help the sisters in the mission understand
what they can do to baptize each month. This morning I really started pondering
on daily and weekly goals that we set and how effective they've been in our
companionship. I love goals. I love them because they help me stretch and grow
while helping me gauge my personal growth. The same goes for daily and weekly
numbers we set for our goals. They can help us really grow if we're being effective
in our goal setting. Sometimes I just feel like we make up goals at night and
don't even have a shadow of thought about them the next day as we're working.
There have definitely been times on my mission when I've been a lot more
focused on those goals that we set each day and we've been more successful.
Sister Burwell and I discussed that this morning and we're going to really work
on setting meaningful goals and focusing on them daily. Hopefully by the time
we go on exchanges with the sisters next transfer we will be proficient in this
area and we'll be able to teach them how to do the same. I know that these
steps, starting with smaller/daily goals, will help the sisters gain the larger
goal of having a baptism each month. I think that will help them understand why
we even set daily/weekly goals, as well, because I, for the longest time,
didn't even get why we did it. Now, like Nephi (1 Ne 10:1) and Moses (Moses
1:1), my vision has been raised and, in turn, now I'm going to do my best to
raise the sisters' vision as well. The
Lord has really raised my vision in all aspects of the work. I truly feel that
he has brought me up into an "exceedingly high mountain" because He
wants me to bring others up with me.
In my interview with President Castro I was
very open with the questions that I had and the ideas that I have for the
sisters. I don't usually just say things that I think we should do, but I told
myself that there is a reason that he has me in this position. I'm so grateful
for the trust that President Castro, and the Lord, have put in me. I am willing
to do whatever the Lord asks me to do because I love Him. The things that he
shared with me in my interview really meant a lot to me and I am grateful for
the opportunity to be given this assignment. I know that I can have a great effect
on the sisters in this mission. At times I'm intimidated by the thought but in
my patriarchal blessing and in the blessing I received when I was set apart, I
was promised that the Lord would qualify me for the tasks that I'm given and I
was told that with my testimony and with humility, I will lead others. I have a
lot of faith in those promises, and I've learned a lot of patience through this
process of changing and growing to be more qualified to fulfill my responsibilities.
Now for a report on the exchanges we went on.
On Thursday I worked with Sister Baliar in San Luis Obispo. Her goal for the
day was to ask more questions in declarations to check for understanding. I
thought that was a great goal, because I know that is something she has
struggled with before - people understanding the things that she is teaching.
She did pretty well with her goal, so I just talked with her about taking it
even further into lessons and declarations. She's so good at asking questions
at the beginning, but as we go further into teaching the restoration she just
blows through without stopping to see where the person we're teaching is at. She is super
humble, so she took all/any advice I gave her very well. She just kept talking
about how much she loves exchanges and that she was very grateful to have me
there. That was so nice of her to say and it put things into a better
perspective for me. I go on many exchanges in a transfer, but for each sister
this is their only one and they really look forward to it. I'm so grateful that
the Lord helps me so much on exchanges. I have seen Him help me recognize each
sister's needs and I've seen Him give me more energy to fulfill the tasks of
the day. Sister Baliar is doing well, she's grown a lot since I worked with her
two transfers ago.
For our exchange on Friday, I worked with
Hermana Hernandez in Santa Maria. She's from Mexico! That was a treat working
with her. She is probably the most humble/teachable person I have worked with.
I could just tell that she was trying to learn as much as she could from me.
Throughout the day she would always whip out her planner and start writing
things down. Finally, I asked her what she kept writing and she said she was
writing down the advice I was giving. She was so grateful to be working with me
for the day, just like Sister Baliar. She talked about how with Sister
Wilkinson sometimes she doesn't get as much of a chance to learn the little
things and that she wasn't sure what to do, but she said that maybe she felt ok
about things because she knew that I would come and teach her what she needed.
That was amazing. I was, again, just so grateful that the Lord helped me know
what I needed to do for Hermana Hernandez. I had been praying a lot that I
would know how I, Sister Bennett, could help her, because I know there are
reasons that each sister that I go on exchanges with needs to work with me. I
just felt that the Lord really trusted me that entire day because I felt the Spirit
a lot. It was different than I've felt it before. I just felt very connected to
Hermana Hernandez and very in-tune with what I should say and do to help her.
The best way I can describe the feeling is love. I felt the kind of love for
her that I have always felt for my little sister, it's different than the kind
of love I feel for investigators and other sisters. It was crazy and very eye
opening. Hermana Hernandez will continue to do well. She expects a lot out of
herself and she'll be very successful. I'm just so grateful that she decided to
serve a mission after overcoming so much. She is/will be a huge blessing to
this mission.
I just wanted to quickly mention two of the
lessons we had this week. First I would like to share about Brother Wages and
then about Aubrey and Tyler.
I have prayed about Brother Wages a lot,
because he is such a great man but isn't progressing as much as he could be in
the gospel. He has been baptized for a year now and has not received the
Aaronic priesthood. He is very hesitant because he hasn't felt ready or worthy
to have the power of God given to him. As I've prayed about him, I started to
think about myself and what has held me back, in the past, from doing certain
things in the gospel. It's always been that I've relied on myself more than the
Lord. When I wasn't confident in myself, I just wouldn't do things. That was
the absolute wrong way to look at things. I shouldn't have been thinking -
"can I do this" - but I should've thought - "can the Lord do
this...through me?" I realized that Brother Wages has encountered the same
problem but hasn't yet realized how to overcome it. I'm so grateful that I have
learned to trust in the Lord rather than in myself. The results have been
magnificent. The Lord has changed me and I've seen Him do amazing things as
He's working through me. After sisters' training, a lot of sisters came up to
me and told me how great they think I am and how much they felt the Spirit as I
taught. In those moments I really felt amazed at what the Lord had done with me
that day. I knew that nothing that happened had been on my accord, but that the
Lord had been working through me to help the sisters. I shared those
experiences with Brother Wages and we also shared 2 Nephi 4:34-35 and talked
about not trusting in ourselves over the Lord. The Spirit was very strong there
and the Woods were there and they shared experiences and testimonies with
Brother Wages, as well. At the end we invited him to pray about a day to
receive the Aaronic priesthood and also to teach us about the priesthood in our
next lesson, rather than us teaching him. He was very receptive and willing to
do those things. I'm really excited for when we'll meet with him this week.
The other experience I wanted to share was
teaching Aubrey and Tyler again yesterday. My love for Aubrey, especially, is
just growing more and more every time we teach her. I don't really understand
why the Lord trusts me to be one of the missionaries to teach her, but I am so
grateful. This is a whole new experience, teaching her. It isn't like teaching
a child, but it's like teaching someone who speaks a completely different
language than I do. I'm so grateful for Sister Wood, because she's so patient
with us and is so willing to do whatever she can to help us teach Aubrey. Even though
I don't know sign language, I feel very connected with Aubrey and I have felt
the Spirit almost stronger than I ever have in the lessons we have with her.
Sister Wood told us that we're going to need to be very creative with how we
teach her, because it's hard for her to connect with the things that we're
teaching. We need to find ways that she can see the things that we're teaching.
We've planned a pretty great lesson on the Plan of Salvation for her this
Saturday. It may take a bit of work, but it's so worth it. We set her and Tyler
with a baptismal date of May 25th, and I hope we can be guided to know the best
way to teach her so she'll be prepared for that date.
Well, wonderful week. I love being a
missionary. That's for sure!
I love you all! Thanks for your letters, not
you Cortney, and your prayers,
Sister Bennett
P.S. - I love scaring Sister Burwell. It's one
of my favorite activities to do when we're at home. I seriously get her all the
time. I'm the best. I attached a picture of what she found the other day when
she opened the bathroom door. I turned off all the lights and just sat on the
floor and waited for her to come out. I got her preeeeettty good!
P.P.S. - I also attached a picture of Sister
Hernandez and I. I loved being there, because in the morning we played
basketball. Sister Wilkinson is so fun to play with. Hopefully that'll hold me
until I can play again.
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