Hey Family! What a week it has been out here in the desert. I hope everything has been going well back home. i hope you are enjoying your new job mama. It's already late July, which is crazy. Time really does fly out one the mission.
Well where do I start? For starters San Geezy (aka St. George) is hot. I know, shocking right? It's even hotter too when you have to walk everywhere and you cover three stakes in the heart of St. George. A couple days the temperature has gotten up to 106 degrees but we just keep walking while our shoes melt into the sidewalks. Just kidding. :) The first few days my legs and feet were killing me. I swear I've sweated more than I've ever sweated in my life but I'm acclimating. I love the bigger city and feel more at home in the city but I still miss good old Ephraim at the same time. I wish I could describe all the differences in being a missionary down here in St. George and Ephraim but there are a ton. I'm starting to know the area a little better but our area is so big! We biked for two hours one day and only covered roughly half of our area. The stakes are St. George, St. George East, and the Morning Side stakes. Ideally we would be able to just use a car a few times a week for a couple hours so we could go visit our whole area and find new people to teach. This area has a ton of potential. It's shocking to me the amount of Hispanics in St. George that don't speak English or speak very little. I really like our area and the people. We live about a block from Dixie High School, Dixie State is a few blocks away, and the Temple is only a few blocks away as well. The Temple is absolutely gorgeous! In-N-Out and Del Taco are not in my zone which is a bummer but you can't have everything in life now can you?
My new companion is Elder Leguizamon. He is from Argentina but has lived in Clearfield Utah since 2001. He is a good Elder and I love having a native Spanish-speaking companion. This is Elder Leguizamon's second transfer so I'm his follow up trainer. (aka his step father) It's weird, I've only been out one transfer than him and I'm follow up training. We are by far the youngest companionship in the mission.
The big thing Elder Leguizamon and I did this week was go through all the investigators him and his last companion were teaching and weed out all the investigators that were not progressing. I will admit it was a little worrisome to see how few solid investigators we had. I told Elder Leguizamon that in dropping them we would find people... and we did!
On Saturday I had one of the best days of my mission so far. We walked and walked and walked some more. We worked your tails off and it paid in dividends. We had 9 lessons, received 3 new investigators and had two lessons with some less-active members. This week alone we found 6 new investigators in 6 days! To make Saturday even better I received a call from Mauro. He called just to tell me he had got baptized Saturday morning and we just got to talk about other little things for a bit. I called President Leonard afterwards because he was at Mauro's baptism. he said Mauro was disappointed I couldn't baptize him but that the baptism went great. President Leonard said he could tell Mauro had really bonded with me. I got a little chocked up hearing that but I held it in. President also said the other baptisms we set up before I left are set and should happen in the coming weeks.
Another miracle of serving here is the Spanish branch. The called it "La rama verdadera" and I have to agree with that. All the pews were filled and there were even people in the over flow seating! 90% of the members are actually Hispanic and it was one of the coolest things I've seen. It is a little different than what I was accustomed to back in Ephraim.
This work truly is amazing! When you are a worthy vessel and live up to your purpose God blesses you. I have a HUGE testimony of this. The Lord will use you as an instrument in His hands. As President Monson said, the greatest feeling we may experience in mortality is knowing that we were used to do the work of you Heavenly Father. I've felt that love a lot this week and I feel so privileged to have these experiences and to know I'm a loved child of God. I'm loving St. George! Vaya con Dios.
God is love,
Elder Bennion
Ps. We are living with the English elders and there is on elder named Elder Beach. If any girls want to write him I would REALLY appreciate it! Even if you only write him and not be because you don't have time I'm fine with that. He is a really nice but he doesn't get a lot of letters and he needs some love. Just mail it to the mission office address that is on the blog or on my Facebook and just address it to him. Muchas Gracias!
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