Reunited and It Feels So Good!

July 29, 2013

Dear Family!

You will NEVER believe where I'm being transferred to and who my companion is! Ok, maybe you'll guess but I never did! I'm going to be with Sister Burwell this transfer and I'm going back to the 2nd ward! This is insane! When President Castro called me last night to tell me, he said that he has really big plans for this transfer and Sister Burwell and I are a part of them. I'm pumped! I almost started crying when he told me because I was so happy to still be with her. I thought for sure that we were done working together and it was giving me depression. Haha. Anyway, I'm super excited to be reunited with her and to be reunited with the 2nd ward. Guess what's happening with Sister Hegstrom?!? She is training after only 6 weeks! Ah! I'm so excited for her! She will do SO SO SO great! She's nervous, but I told her to knock it off. I told her to not make this about herself and to focus everything on her new companion. That was the difference for me from the first time I trained, Sister Stoker, and the time with Sister Hegstrom. The first time I was so focused on myself and if I was doing things right, and I have a lot of regrets from training Sister Stoker. This time, I was totally focused on Sister Hegstrom and just focused on loving her. I have zero regrets. I feel at peace with the things that I taught her. She is going to do so well and I think I get to see her still because we may be in the same district! Awesome!

I am so thankful for the amazing week that Sister Hegstrom and I had, because I feel good about leaving her in the 4th ward to train. I really feel like I accomplished the things that the Lord wanted me to accomplish while I was in the 4th ward. Last week, I think I felt like I had more to do because I hadn't had very much time to work in our area. We had a full week of proselyting together and it was one of the best weeks of my mission. We saw so many miracles, and the Lord made it very apparent to me that this is His work and that there are so many people who are just waiting for the gospel. We need to find them. This past week, I really feel that we did. We found a lot of people who have been waiting for this message, and they are ready to act on it. This was one of the most successful weeks of my mission and I know that it happened from a combination of many things. The ward is becoming more missionary minded, so the Lord is going to trust them now with new converts. I also really believe that the Lord wanted me to have these experiences with Sister Hegstrom so I could show her and teach her skills that she would need in order to be prepared to train. This is the Lord's work. His way to do this work is perfect and he knows what's best. I have no doubt about that.

This week we invited 6 people to be baptized and 4 of them accepted the invitation and now have baptismal dates! We now have Cheryl, Kylie, Steve, and Julian with baptismal dates! This week we also taught Kathy (who is a miracle investigator), Bob, Brother Dixon, Jackie, Brother Fryer, Miranda, Chris, April, Sage, Martha, Shawntele, Daisy, Harp, Anthony, Juan, and the Landys. It was a super busy week. We learned so much and our testimonies grew a lot, too.

I love Cheryl so much. We taught her about the restoration. One thing that I just really love about Cherly is how she internalizes things, and then asks really great questions that always invite the Spirit. She thinks really deeply about the things that we share and she really wants to know if it's true. It was so neat to watch her as Sister Hegstrom shared the first vision with her. Cheryl was just smiling so much and I could tell how happy she was. After that, Sister Hegstrom invited her to be baptized and she laughed at first. She turned to me and said "Did you teach her that? She's getting more aggressive like you! I like it!" She told us that we're the most aggressive missionaries that she's met with, but she could tell that we were doing it because we truly care for her. She accepted the invitation to be baptized and she was SO happy! She said the closing prayer and got a little bit choked up because I know that she was feeling the Spirit. That was a wonderful experience. I had missed having those experiences because I've been so busy trying to help the other sisters have the same kind of experiences. I'm grateful that the Lord blessed us with that opportunity. Cherly is an elect daughter of God and I'm so excited to see how she changes and grows as she accepts the gospel and is baptized.

Right after our lesson with Cheryl, we walked across the street to Kathy's home. Kathy is the woman that we met a week ago when a member of the 3rd ward yelled for us to come over. She is the one that had questions about the Book of Mormon. Well, we showed up at the time that we planned with her and she opened the door and was confused. She thought that we were planning to come on Tuesday, but let us in anyway. She had read the introduction and testimonies at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. She said she had been planning on writing down her questions Monday night in order to prepare for us to come on Tuesday. She took a moment to recall any questions that she had, and we answered them. Each time we answered a question she would say "Oh yeah. That clearly make senses. How did I not see that?" It was so funny. We read the last two paragraphs of the introduction with her to really emphasize the importance of prayer coupled with reading the Book of Mormon. After we read them, she spoke up and told us that she really loved those paragraphs when she read them on her own. She explained that she was raised Catholic and that reading the Book of Mormon was against everything that she was taught because she was always told that there was only, and would always only be, the Bible. She then continued on to say that all those paragraphs are asking her to do are to read, ponder, and pray about the book. She then said "What will it hurt me if I read it? If anything I'm going to know it's true and my life will be changed." That amazed me. I just kept thinking about what would possibly go wrong, because everything was going so well. I probably shouldn't have thought that way. We asked her why she was interested in the Book of Mormon in the first place, and she just talked about how impressed she has been with the church from interactions she's had with members and also from times that she's visited for scouting events. She said that it seems like the Mormon church has something that no other church has and she wants to know what it is. How neat is that? I have such a testimony of the importance of members. Without members that had been good examples to Kathy, she would not have made it to this point. She was greatly impacted by her friend in the 3rd ward and many other members of the church who she has known over the years. I am so excited to see how she progresses.

I learned a really important lesson this week - NEVER ignore a prompting, no matter what. We were going to an appointment in some apartments and were running late. As we got out of the car and were walking up to the apartment buildings, I noticed a man that was watching us. He looked like he was curious about who we were, and almost like he wanted to talk to us. The thought popped in my head that we needed to go and speak to him, but I pushed it to the side because we were already late to an actual appointment. As we kept walking, the thought came to me again. Sadly, once again I pushed it to the side and promised myself that we would go back and talk to him if this appointment fell through. While we were standing at the door of our appointment, the man walked up and asked us if we had an appointment or if we were just knocking on people's doors. I was worried that he was an apartment manager because earlier that day we got kicked out of a trailer park for tracting there. We told him that we had an appointment and he nodded his head and stood there awkwardly. Finally, I decided we needed to talk to him, so we turned away from the door of our appointment and went over to talk to him. His name is Steve. Steve had investigated the church 15 years ago in Camarillo. He still remembers going to church and the lessons that he had with the missionaries. He just hadn't gotten baptized because he really felt that is was a big commitment. He is right, but we told him that we would explain the blessings so he could see that it's all worth it. He seemed really excited to meet with us. On Saturday night, we invited Steve to come to a baptism with us. After the baptism, we gave him a tour of the church and stopped in the chapel to have a lesson. We read in 3 Nephi 11 about how Christ taught the manner and mode of baptism. I always love teaching that, especially after the investigator just saw a baptism because we can show them that the person that was just baptized was baptized the way that the Savior himself set up baptism. That was really neat. At the end of the lesson we invited Steve to be baptized and he accepted. The elect are out there!

I'll share one more neat experience that we had. One day, we were going about following the plans that we made for the day and we had just tried to see an investigator that has been MIA...as usual. I felt a little frustrated that we kept using precious time to find her and wished that she would just come out and tell us if she's interested or not. As we walked down the street toward our car, a young man came out of his house and just stood there next to the stairs. He looked like he was about 17 years old and he didn't look very happy. This is the roughest part of our area, Saticoy, and there aren't the best people there. I'm usually wary of talking to young kids like him because I know that they have a lot of gangs there, but I made the decision that we really needed to talk to him (most likely because of my experience with Steve - never pass anyone up). The young man's name is Emilio. We talked to him about his faith in God, and, surprisingly, he opened up and told us that he's been through a lot of hard stuff. He told us that one of his good friends was shot a year ago and that day they were holding a memorial for him in the park. He said that his trials have helped him know for sure that God is real. We asked him if he felt that he had a purpose in life. He was pretty solemn when he responded with a "no." I felt the Spirit welling up inside of me, and felt so much love for him as I explained that God knows him, loves him, and wants him to live with God someday. We explained that there is a purpose to this life and that he can know that for himself. I felt so much power behind my words as I taught him about having an eternal perspective. We taught him about how he will one day be freed from the burdens that he now has and that the message we share is the way to that freedom. He was so focused on every single word that came our of our mouths. He was so apologetic that he couldn't sit down with us right then, but he said he'd really like for us to come back. That was a neat experience. I'm just so grateful for the love that I'm able to feel for every single person that we speak to. I truly love these people.

Well, I'm looking forward to another new transfer and more experiences that help me grow and progress. I cannot say in words how happy I feel to be able to work with Sister Burwell still. I love her so much and I'm excited to learn even more from her. I'm sad to not be with Sister Hegstrom anymore, but I feel that I've taught her the things that the Lord would have me teach her. It was such a wonderful experience training her. I truly felt that I was guided constantly by the Spirit to know what she needed and how to teach her. I grew so much with her this transfer and it was amazing to watch her grow. I really love her. She is an amazing person. She is a powerful missionary.

I love this! AHHH! SO MUCH! I love you, too!

Love,
Sister Bennett