The Lord Loves Me

November 11, 2013 

Dear Family,

This week was such a great week for me. I felt like myself. I feel like I've grown so much closer to my Heavenly Father. I've really been trying to understand what His will is for me for the remainder of my time here. I want to do all that I can and all that He expects me to, so I spend a lot of time praying and pondering on how I am to help the sisters and especially Sister Stoker. She really needs me right now. She struggles with doubting herself and the assignment she's been given. She gets discouraged very easily, and I know that I need to help her with that. I've never felt as much joy as I have when I'm working with these sisters, and I know the reason for that is because I'm not focused on myself at all. Whenever I've gone through hard things on my mission, during the time that I've been a Sister Training Leader, when I've gone on exchanges they always changed things for me and made me feel way better. It's a choice to be happy.That's a huge lesson I've learned, and now I need to teach that to Sister Stoker. I feel that sometimes she just looks for what she can be upset about and then dwells on it rather than looking for the good things and the tender mercies in our lives. We talked a lot about that this week, because after one of our exchanges she felt really discouraged because they didn't have a bunch of lessons or find new investigators in our area. She's worried about our area because we don't have a ton of people we're teaching. However, I know that the Lord will provide us with people to teach. There is no doubt in my mind because He has done it time and time again as I've had this assignment. I don't know how to help her understand that. She needs to go forward with faith and have hope that He will provide. That's my focus right now, helping her trust the Lord more. I have experienced too many miracles from the Lord's hand to not trust Him. Sister Stoker can learn the same thing.

We had Mission Leadership Council this week and it was excellent. I learned so much about being a better leader and really about what's in store for me after my mission. I look forward to being a mother, because I know that's why I've really needed to learn the things that I've learned on my mission, especially the things about being a leader. The Lord is preparing me to raise His choice spirit children, and He needs parents who are up to the task of doing it righteously in this very confused/unrighteous world. I felt the Spirit testify to me that everything is going to be ok when I end my service here as a full-time missionary. It was hard at times during the meetings because I am really going to miss this. I love being a missionary. I love feeling so close to the Lord and being with people who are just as close to Him. I loved singing "We'll Bring the World His Truth" knowing that I am one of those servants who is bringing the world His truth. However, I know that I can have these things in my life after the mission. I will have a husband who is close to the Lord, and together we will bring the Lord's truth to our children and also to others through callings and assignments in the Church. He will be my favorite, and best companion. I know that. There is so much to be done as a member of the Church, and I'm really praying that I will be prepared to do all that the Lord needs me to do as a returned missionary.

The exchanges I went on this week were excellent! The sisters I went with, and I, had some wonderful experiences and saw some AMAZING miracles! I love miracles, so it's nice being a missionary since we see them all the time! My first exchange this week was with Sister Platt in Santa Barbara. She's brand new and she is so shy and unsure of herself. I couldn't believe it, because when she musters up the courage and starts teaching, she's so great. I really just spent the entire day telling her that she is doing great and that the Lord will help her. That's the hardest thing as a new missionary, just learning to trust the Lord to use the knowledge that you've gained to bless the lives of others. It's a blessing to go out and open our mouths. We get to test the Lord's promises every single day! Every day, I see Him fulfill those promises. He has never failed, and I know He never will. That's what Sister Platt and I spoke about a lot. She said she felt better at the end of the day, so I just hope she'll take what she learned and keep pushing forward.

On Thursday, I went on an exchange with Sister Arndt in 4th ward. I love her so much. She's such a kind, loving person. She said some of the nicest things to me, and I could feel my Heavenly Father’s love through her. We saw a HUGE miracle together. We went and taught a lady named Lydia. Originally, we hadn't even planned to go and see her, but she texted us and said that she wouldn't be able to meet with the sisters on Friday. Sister Arndt texted her and asked if we could see her that day, and she agreed. We went over, and before we got out of the car we stopped to talk about what we would teach her. That morning, in companion study, we had planned to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson to a man named Ronnie, but he hadn't been home. When Sister Arndt told me about Lydia, she said that Lydia hadn't committed to baptism yet, but she loved the Church and everything that she was learning. I really felt like we should go ahead and teach her the lesson we prepared for Ronnie and invite her to be baptized. The lesson went great. The Spirit was really strong and Sister Arndt and I taught really well together. Lydia understood everything that we talked about and I felt a huge push to invite her to set a baptismal date. She said that she couldn't set a date because in the Catholic Church they were taught there is only one baptism. She said she understood what we were saying about the Priesthood, and she needed time with Heavenly Father to work through the idea of being baptized again. We invited her to pray specifically to know if she needed to be baptized by someone with Priesthood authority and we left. We went to dinner and then had a lesson at the church right after dinner. When we got out of the lesson, we had a text from Lydia. It said "I think I've gotten my answer, and I'm ready to talk baptism." WE FREAKED OUT! We called Lydia right away and she said that she had been praying and the "answer came through loud and clear" and she said she wanted to be baptized. Sister Arndt started crying and I was just beaming! I didn't know what to do, so we just hugged. That was an amazing miracle. I know that we were blessed to have that experience because the sisters there in 4th ward have been obedient and the Lord trusts them to teach His children. Sister Arndt is doing a wonderful job. She's grown a lot from her experience with training. I love her a lot.

My last exchange was with Sister Thurgood. She came to Ventura and worked with me in my area. It was a great day. We just went out and taught together like we'd been companions for months. I love it when that happens. She has changed a lot. She follows Preach My Gospel somuch more closely, and because of that we were able to work well together. I really enjoyed getting to know her better and sharing things that I've learned with her. She had a lot of questions, and I could just feel her desire to learn. She's doing really well.

One quick miracle from our area, Ghana, Bob's friend who used to really not like us, invited us to come over for Thanksgiving! We told her that we already had plans, but she asked us to at least come by for breakfast. We said that we'd come after studies for a little bit. Her heart has been softened so much! Plus, she said she'd come to church with Bob when he's feeling well enough to go since he just started Chemo-therapy treatments. That is a huge miracle!

The Lord sure does love me, doesn't He? I'm worried about telling you all about all of these great things going on because you'll see that He really favors me. Hahaha. He loves His missionaries!

I don't have time to write more, but I'm doing great. Ugh. I wish I had more time, because there are SO many more miracles. The Lord is providing us with people to teach. That's all I can say. I love this work. Sister Stoker and I are happy and working hard to help the sisters in any way that we can. We're just continuing on!

We're speaking next Sunday in church, so pray for me! It needs to be good because we're hoping that a lot of non-members will be there! I'll let you know how it goes in my next email. I love you all!

Love,
Sister Bennett

Sister Arndt and I