May 20, 2013
Dear Family!
This week was so great! We've been praying for miracles to happen here in this area - specifically to find investigators that have been prepared to progress toward baptism. The Lord has answered our prayers and has literally been pouring out blessings. I feel a little disappointed with myself, because there were many times last week when I was lacking faith. I felt like the work was going downhill and I didn't know why. I kept beating myself up about it because I felt that possibly I was doing something wrong or, more likely, I wasn't doing enough. However, after hearing from Elder Robbins my perspective was changed and I remembered learning (in Mosiah 23:20-21) about how sometimes the Lord chastens us, even when we're doing well and keeping the commandments, to help us become who He wants us to be. I guess last week was a chastening week and this week was a reward for enduring the chastening. I think the Lord needed to help me be more prepared for these elect children that He would like Sister Burwell and me to teach. My faith needed to be tried, and even though it was only a week...in missionary work a lot happens in a week...I learned a lot. This past week, I was able to use the new things that I learned from my "chastening" and we saw many tender mercies.
I think one reason that we've been so blessed this week is because last week during weekly planning we set some really good companionship goals for this transfer. Now each week we're setting goals to reach the goals that we've set for the transfer. We've set goals to teach in unity, to focus our conversation on missionary work, and to have 2 baptisms this transfer - Aubrey and Tyler's and one other baptism. I feel really good about these goals and as we pray about them and do our best the Lord will make up for what we lack and we'll be able to achieve these goals that we've set.
This week we taught Chris, Lisa, Julie M (less-active), Lindsey, Brother Dumond, the Heaths, Aubrey and Tyler (twice), Luis, Suzanne, Toni G (less-active), Stephanie and the Rabagos.
Saturday was a miracle day, so I'll share about what happened on Saturday.
We started the day out by teaching Aubrey, Tyler couldn't come because he had a baseball game in the morning. We taught about the restoration using a lot of pictures and some hand crated visual aids. The lesson was fantastic. Aubrey was focused and we know that she understood because we did a review of what we taught in the morning when we met with them again in the evening on Saturday. When we reviewed the restoration, she answered all of the questions that we asked and she knew what happened next as we taught. We met with them twice on Saturday because we were in a crunch. Aubrey is usually gone during the week because she goes up to a deaf school in Riverside. We were trying to do 3 lessons and an interview in two days. I cannot begin to say how stressed I felt about it, but for some reason I still felt peace amidst my stress. The reason for the peace came when we met with Aubrey on Saturday morning. Sister Pellum, Aubrey's mom, told us that Aubrey doesn't have school this week so we can meet during the week! That was a miracle! It lifted such a huge weight off of our shoulders, but not as much as when we could tell that Aubrey was understanding what we were teaching at a rapid pace. I know that the Lord has expanded her understanding and capability to learn these things. That is really the biggest miracle. She and Tyler are so excited to get baptized, and the best part is how excited their mom is. Sister Pellum needs this push, and I'm grateful that we've been able to really get to know their family and that I've been able to come to love them so much. Aubrey even got to come to Young Women's yesterday. I sometimes worry about how things are going to work with her getting fellowship in the ward, but I know that Heaven Father loves Aubrey and is going to provide a way for her to feel like she is a part of the ward family. The ward has already been so great and I know that they want to do all that they can for Aubrey. Now we just need to figure out what it is that they can do. I'm so excited for Saturday! The baptism is going to be amazing. We stopped by to see Sister Wood this week to ask about anything special that may need to be done for the baptism, and she told us that if we say the prayers at the baptism that she'll teach us how to sign a prayer. That would be so cool to do for Aubrey. We don't know if Sister Pellum wants us to speak or pray...or maybe none of the above, but we'll see what happens. I'm super, super excited!
We had a really cool experience on Saturday with the Spanish Hermanas here in Ventura. A few weeks ago we found a really great man named Luis. Luis is from Argentina. The first time we talked to him, he seemed skeptical and he seemed almost like he was going to argue with us, but I just felt love for him. At the end of talking with him, I asked when a good time to come back would be. Sister Burwell looked at me like I was crazy. I felt a little crazy because he didn't seem like he was interested at all and if we came back he would just try to argue with us. Well, the words came out and Luis agreed to meet with us again. Well, when we went back two Saturdays ago we understood why I felt prompted to ask him to meet again. He is searching right now and had just lost faith in religion because he's looked so much and has never found. In that lesson we realized that he really needed Spanish missionaries. He speaks English really well, but we felt that being taught in Spanish would help him spend less time trying to figure out what we're saying and more time listening to the Spirit. This past Saturday we met up with the Spanish sisters and had a pass-off lesson with them. They taught him the restoration in Spanish and we couldn't leave because then they wouldn't be able to stay in his apartment and teach him. I am so glad that we were able to be there. I knew I couldn't contribute by teaching in Spanish, so I just prayed the whole lesson that Luis would feel the truth of the message. Seeing the Hermanas teach him was a learning experience. They taught with such reverence and love, and it helped me understand that the most important teacher is the Spirit. I didn't understand what the sisters were saying, although I did understand a lot...surprisingly, but I understood the Spirit. It enveloped that room and Luis, when invited to be baptized, said "of course!" His baptismal date is on the 15th of June. That was a wonderful experience.
One last miracle before I report on exchanges. . .
We had dinner with the Smiths on Saturday evening and they had a friend over to have dinner with us. Her name is Suzanne. She is a really happy lady, in her 60s, and she just brought so much life into the room. She told us that she has a Book of Mormon, from her friend, Sister Smith, and that she's been reading it and loving it! Sister Burwell and I just looked at each other like "whhaaaaat?!!!" To put it simply, we were excited. The great thing was that we had planned to share a message about the Book of Mormon, so when it came time for us to share a message we were able to get a better feel for where Suzanne is at. She was raised Catholic but disagrees with the Catholic faith. She just feels that they don't live what they teach, but she loves the LDS faith. She was ranting and raving about everything that she loves about the church. It was almost like she was saying, "please, teach me and baptize me." I was just so caught off guard by her that I probably seemed like I didn't even know what we believe or teach! She came to church yesterday and we're meeting with her on Friday to teach her the first lesson. The only problem is that she lives right outside of the boundaries for 2nd ward. I don't know what to do, but we're just going to start teaching her and pray about it. It's hard because she has such great fellowship in 2nd ward. We'll see about that.
Ok, so exchanges. It was our first one, and we had it with the Agoura sisters! I stayed in Ventura with Sister Randall. I went on an exchange with her last transfer, and it was neat to see how much she's grown. She really wants to be move involved in teaching. She said that she bears her testimony a lot but doesn't feel that she contributes much to the actual teaching part. We worked on teaching every other bullet point in the lessons. She did pretty well. I can tell that she wants everything to sound just right, so sometimes she gets a bit wordy or flustered. I understand, because I felt the same way. We talked a lot about teaching simply and about studying the lessons and then practicing how to teach them in the simplest way possible. I enjoyed working with her because she has a really positive attitude. Even when she was talking about how she wished she would've done something better, she was so happy and positive. That's so great, especially for a new missionary. That positive attitude will propel her and help her become a really powerful missionary. She really loves the work, and that's so wonderful to see in a young, new missionary. She's eating up every moment of being a missionary and I'm excited to see how much more she grows before I go on an exchange with her again.
This week was so great! We've been praying for miracles to happen here in this area - specifically to find investigators that have been prepared to progress toward baptism. The Lord has answered our prayers and has literally been pouring out blessings. I feel a little disappointed with myself, because there were many times last week when I was lacking faith. I felt like the work was going downhill and I didn't know why. I kept beating myself up about it because I felt that possibly I was doing something wrong or, more likely, I wasn't doing enough. However, after hearing from Elder Robbins my perspective was changed and I remembered learning (in Mosiah 23:20-21) about how sometimes the Lord chastens us, even when we're doing well and keeping the commandments, to help us become who He wants us to be. I guess last week was a chastening week and this week was a reward for enduring the chastening. I think the Lord needed to help me be more prepared for these elect children that He would like Sister Burwell and me to teach. My faith needed to be tried, and even though it was only a week...in missionary work a lot happens in a week...I learned a lot. This past week, I was able to use the new things that I learned from my "chastening" and we saw many tender mercies.
I think one reason that we've been so blessed this week is because last week during weekly planning we set some really good companionship goals for this transfer. Now each week we're setting goals to reach the goals that we've set for the transfer. We've set goals to teach in unity, to focus our conversation on missionary work, and to have 2 baptisms this transfer - Aubrey and Tyler's and one other baptism. I feel really good about these goals and as we pray about them and do our best the Lord will make up for what we lack and we'll be able to achieve these goals that we've set.
This week we taught Chris, Lisa, Julie M (less-active), Lindsey, Brother Dumond, the Heaths, Aubrey and Tyler (twice), Luis, Suzanne, Toni G (less-active), Stephanie and the Rabagos.
Saturday was a miracle day, so I'll share about what happened on Saturday.
We started the day out by teaching Aubrey, Tyler couldn't come because he had a baseball game in the morning. We taught about the restoration using a lot of pictures and some hand crated visual aids. The lesson was fantastic. Aubrey was focused and we know that she understood because we did a review of what we taught in the morning when we met with them again in the evening on Saturday. When we reviewed the restoration, she answered all of the questions that we asked and she knew what happened next as we taught. We met with them twice on Saturday because we were in a crunch. Aubrey is usually gone during the week because she goes up to a deaf school in Riverside. We were trying to do 3 lessons and an interview in two days. I cannot begin to say how stressed I felt about it, but for some reason I still felt peace amidst my stress. The reason for the peace came when we met with Aubrey on Saturday morning. Sister Pellum, Aubrey's mom, told us that Aubrey doesn't have school this week so we can meet during the week! That was a miracle! It lifted such a huge weight off of our shoulders, but not as much as when we could tell that Aubrey was understanding what we were teaching at a rapid pace. I know that the Lord has expanded her understanding and capability to learn these things. That is really the biggest miracle. She and Tyler are so excited to get baptized, and the best part is how excited their mom is. Sister Pellum needs this push, and I'm grateful that we've been able to really get to know their family and that I've been able to come to love them so much. Aubrey even got to come to Young Women's yesterday. I sometimes worry about how things are going to work with her getting fellowship in the ward, but I know that Heaven Father loves Aubrey and is going to provide a way for her to feel like she is a part of the ward family. The ward has already been so great and I know that they want to do all that they can for Aubrey. Now we just need to figure out what it is that they can do. I'm so excited for Saturday! The baptism is going to be amazing. We stopped by to see Sister Wood this week to ask about anything special that may need to be done for the baptism, and she told us that if we say the prayers at the baptism that she'll teach us how to sign a prayer. That would be so cool to do for Aubrey. We don't know if Sister Pellum wants us to speak or pray...or maybe none of the above, but we'll see what happens. I'm super, super excited!
We had a really cool experience on Saturday with the Spanish Hermanas here in Ventura. A few weeks ago we found a really great man named Luis. Luis is from Argentina. The first time we talked to him, he seemed skeptical and he seemed almost like he was going to argue with us, but I just felt love for him. At the end of talking with him, I asked when a good time to come back would be. Sister Burwell looked at me like I was crazy. I felt a little crazy because he didn't seem like he was interested at all and if we came back he would just try to argue with us. Well, the words came out and Luis agreed to meet with us again. Well, when we went back two Saturdays ago we understood why I felt prompted to ask him to meet again. He is searching right now and had just lost faith in religion because he's looked so much and has never found. In that lesson we realized that he really needed Spanish missionaries. He speaks English really well, but we felt that being taught in Spanish would help him spend less time trying to figure out what we're saying and more time listening to the Spirit. This past Saturday we met up with the Spanish sisters and had a pass-off lesson with them. They taught him the restoration in Spanish and we couldn't leave because then they wouldn't be able to stay in his apartment and teach him. I am so glad that we were able to be there. I knew I couldn't contribute by teaching in Spanish, so I just prayed the whole lesson that Luis would feel the truth of the message. Seeing the Hermanas teach him was a learning experience. They taught with such reverence and love, and it helped me understand that the most important teacher is the Spirit. I didn't understand what the sisters were saying, although I did understand a lot...surprisingly, but I understood the Spirit. It enveloped that room and Luis, when invited to be baptized, said "of course!" His baptismal date is on the 15th of June. That was a wonderful experience.
One last miracle before I report on exchanges. . .
We had dinner with the Smiths on Saturday evening and they had a friend over to have dinner with us. Her name is Suzanne. She is a really happy lady, in her 60s, and she just brought so much life into the room. She told us that she has a Book of Mormon, from her friend, Sister Smith, and that she's been reading it and loving it! Sister Burwell and I just looked at each other like "whhaaaaat?!!!" To put it simply, we were excited. The great thing was that we had planned to share a message about the Book of Mormon, so when it came time for us to share a message we were able to get a better feel for where Suzanne is at. She was raised Catholic but disagrees with the Catholic faith. She just feels that they don't live what they teach, but she loves the LDS faith. She was ranting and raving about everything that she loves about the church. It was almost like she was saying, "please, teach me and baptize me." I was just so caught off guard by her that I probably seemed like I didn't even know what we believe or teach! She came to church yesterday and we're meeting with her on Friday to teach her the first lesson. The only problem is that she lives right outside of the boundaries for 2nd ward. I don't know what to do, but we're just going to start teaching her and pray about it. It's hard because she has such great fellowship in 2nd ward. We'll see about that.
Ok, so exchanges. It was our first one, and we had it with the Agoura sisters! I stayed in Ventura with Sister Randall. I went on an exchange with her last transfer, and it was neat to see how much she's grown. She really wants to be move involved in teaching. She said that she bears her testimony a lot but doesn't feel that she contributes much to the actual teaching part. We worked on teaching every other bullet point in the lessons. She did pretty well. I can tell that she wants everything to sound just right, so sometimes she gets a bit wordy or flustered. I understand, because I felt the same way. We talked a lot about teaching simply and about studying the lessons and then practicing how to teach them in the simplest way possible. I enjoyed working with her because she has a really positive attitude. Even when she was talking about how she wished she would've done something better, she was so happy and positive. That's so great, especially for a new missionary. That positive attitude will propel her and help her become a really powerful missionary. She really loves the work, and that's so wonderful to see in a young, new missionary. She's eating up every moment of being a missionary and I'm excited to see how much more she grows before I go on an exchange with her again.
Well, there's the update. The work is great, and I am, too!
I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Bennett
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