June 17, 2013
Dear Family,
Well, to start it all out I
guess I should update you all on what’s going with me here. I am whitewash
training and continuing to have the assignment of Sister Training Leader. I’m
moving to Ventura 4th ward
to serve there. Whitewash means that both missionaries are going into an area,
brand new to both missionaries. Usually one missionary is transferred in and
the other already knows the area. In the case of a whitewash, neither
missionary knows the area...so that's great. There is also another set of
Spanish Sister Training Leaders who were called, so President is dividing the
soon to be 18 companionships of sisters between the 3 sets of Sister Training
Leaders. This means that I only get to do 6 exchanges with whatever sisters are
assigned to Sister Burwell and me to exchange with. That's a nice part of all
of this...I will still get to see Sister Burwell often, because we're still
companions as Sister Training Leaders. The 6 exchanges thing is good and sad
for me. It’s good because we’ll have more time in our area. The 4th ward has been struggling because the
ward just isn’t excited about missionary work…that makes me feel a little
overwhelmed. Whitewashing is overwhelming on its own. Training is stressful on
its own. Being put in a ward that isn’t very supportive….is stressfully
overwhelming. Now…what do you get when you add all of these things to a sister
missionary that has to leave at least once a week to go and do exchanges? I
don’t know. I guess we’ll find out very soon. Basically, it’s good that I can
give the ward more attention than I would’ve if I had more than 6 exchanges.
The sad part is that I love all of the sisters so much. It makes me sad that I
won’t be able to work with all of them….only 6 companionships. With all of this
said, I’m doing alright. I feel a little sick to my stomach because I wasn’t
ready to leave the 2nd ward.
I really felt like there was more for me to do. Ugh…especially since Sister
Burwell and I just started having ASL language study! Isn’t that awesome! We’ve
been studying sign language every morning for Aubrey. President Castro gave us
a sign language book and said that we needed to start doing language study.
Well….that’s over for me now. Amongst all of my aches and pains about leaving
2nd ward and beginning probably the hardest transfer of my mission, the
scripture in 2 Nephi 4, verse 34 keeps coming to my mind – “O Lord, I have
trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in
the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the
arm of flesh . . .” The Lord is trusting me with this assignment. He sees
something in me that I cannot currently see, but I am praying that He will
quickly raise my vision and help me know the things that I need to do. I know
that I can do this. I have had so many experiences in my mission that have
helped prepare me to be able to do whatever the Lord asks. I also know that
“whom the Lord calls, He qualifies.” Even if I am not yet fully qualified at
this time to tackle this task, I know that I will be in time. I know that if I
do trust in the Lord, I can do all things. He is trusting me, how can I not put
my trust in Him and His grace to make me strong enough to be successful with
this assignment? I am giving myself to Him and allowing Him to do what He would
like to do with me, my companion, and the area that we are serving in. Please
keep me in your prayers. Please.
In other news….this week was
really great! We had some great lessons and we had a BAPTISM!! It was a
wonderful, wonderful baptism. I couldn’t be happier with the way that I ended
my time here in Ventura 2nd ward,
really.
This week we taught Aubrey and
Tyler, Jeff and Sarah, Maliah, Brother Wages, Geno, Buddah, Suzanne, Lisa, Brother
Dumond, the Biglers, Ted, the Rabagos, Stephanie, and the Evangelistas.
Our lesson with Aubrey and
Tyler went really well. We hadn’t been able to teach them since they were both baptized, so it was nice to
finally get to meet with them again. We asked them how they felt about their
baptism and they both said that they really loved it. Then, we asked Aubrey
about her confirmation and if she understood what was said or what was
happening. She said she really didn’t understand much of what was going on at
all, even though we had taught her about it previously. That’s ok, though,
because she had learned a lot…I’m not sure if we could’ve piled much more into
her brain. We explained to her what a blessing is and what her blessing meant.
We told her that it was special for her, and that she had been given the best
gift she can receive in her life. She didn’t remember anything that was said in
the actual blessing, so we shared with her the things that we could remember.
Her mom was signing for us which was great because she knew how to help Aubrey
really focus and understand the things we were telling her. We told her that in
her blessing she was told that she is deaf for a reason, it isn’t a mistake,
and that she had spoken with her Heavenly Father about having this trial in her
life. We told her that she agreed to it. Aubrey’s eyes were huge and she was so
focused on her mom as her mom signed these things to her. I’ve never seen
Aubrey this focused in the whole time we’ve been teaching her. We went on to
tell her that because she is deaf she is able to recognize the Spirit more in
her life and that she is to take the gospel to the deaf community. I know that
she felt the Spirit confirming to her that those things had come from her
Heavenly Father. I felt so much love and so much anticipation as I watched her
listen to what her mom was telling her. I could tell that she felt that same
love from God. I’m just so excited for her to continue to progress in the
gospel. I have learned so much from her humility, patience, and desire to learn
more about the plan that God has for us. She is amazing.
We had a really good/needed
lesson with Lisa this week. We taught her about keeping the Sabbath day holy.
Lisa has always been able to understand clearly the things that we’re teaching
her. She says, very often, “That makes sense to me” or “I agree with that.” She
told us that she feels like we must be sneaking around and following her or
listening to her thoughts, because every time we come over we teach her about
something that she’s been thinking about. She said, “It’s so creepy!” That made
me smile. It’s a testimony builder to hear people tell me that because it helps
me realize that planning is really so important. The time we take each week to
pray about and plan the lessons we will teach those we’re meeting with during the week is valuable. When Lisa
said that, it also made me feel like we must really be following the Spirit as
we plan. That’s definitely a plus! Anyway, as we finished our lesson with Lisa
we talked to her about baptism and how she feels about it. She said that she
definitely thinks that
baptism is needed, but she can’t say that she knows that the church is the true
church and better than any other church. She talked about how she does feel
like she’s gotten closer to God and she said that when she learned about the
Plan of Salvation that it really made sense to her, especially about the three
kingdoms of glory. She really agrees with that and it answered a lot of
questions she had before. We set her with a baptismal date of August 3rd and invited her to pray about that
day. I think she’ll make it and will get baptized on that day! It’s so
exciting!
OK! Now for Suzanne’s baptism!
It went really well. The talks were so great. Sister Smith’s, (Suzanne’s fellowshipper),
granddaughter, Tiana, spoke on baptism. She just came back from her mission in
Ogden and she did a great job. She spoke about the atonement and how baptism
allows us to fully access the atonement in our lives. That was really great.
Suzanne was baptized by a young man who will be going on a mission soon. She
didn’t really know any priesthood holders, so we thought it would be a good
opportunity for someone who’s preparing for a mission to do it. That made it
even sweeter. Suzanne was just so grateful and so happy about all of it. She
said she’s been waiting/looking for this for a very long time. I felt the Spirit
a lot, and I just love Suzanne so much! That was the perfect note to leave on…a
beautiful baptism.
Well, I’m looking forward to
see what the future holds for me. I’m doing my best to press onward with an eye
of faith, putting all of my trust in the Lord.
I love you all,
Sister Bennett
Baptism of Suzanne
No comments:
Post a Comment