Monday, March 26, 2012

Semana 56: My God, My God Why Has Thou Forsaken Me




Well it has been awhile since I've written. The past few weeks have been much to write home about. I guess I will start with the biggest news that we receive every six weeks. Transfers… So, nothing too exciting is happening this coming transfer. I will be getting a new companion here in Price. His name is Elder Ayala and he is from Mexico but lived in Springville for a several months before he came on a mission. He has only been out for 3 months and from what I hear he doesn't speak much English. It should be interesting for him to only be an hour from his house. I'm not exactly enthusiastic about this coming transfer because I've knocked just about every single door that has a Hispanic family and we haven't had the best luck. On top of that our area is getting cut in half and all our families that were progressing are being given to another companionship.

On a brighter note we were able to go to the Manti Temple last week. Half the mission went to the St. George Temple and the Northern half went to Manti. It had been about ten months since I was last in Manti. It was a cool feeling to drive through the first area I ever served in. Take those feelings and multiply them by 100 and that is how great it was to be in the Temple. The trip was short lived and the drive was extremely long but it was worth it. There is no place on Earth more holy or exquisite that the Lord's university.

As far as quality of lessons went this past week, it was better. Elder Noriega and I are teaching really well together. We are much more able to convey the message of the Restoration and then allow the Holy Ghost to do the rest of the work. It is the lessons where we can almost read each other's minds that I love. I leave feeling that the choice to accept this message is now between them and God. I can stand content knowing I did my job to help my brothers and sisters. We still do not have anyone dying to jump into the baptismal font but I know I'm fulfilling my purpose.

I've been pretty sick since last Friday. I don't know if I have the flu or what but my whole body aches and it feels like someone rubbed my throat raw with sandpaper in the night. It is so bad even my hair hurts. I think I'm getting slightly better but there is no time to rest when you are a missionary. These past few days have been full of tribulation but I've been blessed for sticking it out. Just when I've felt I couldn't visit one more person is when we have had our most successful times and I know that is the Lord teaching us life lessons. What a shame and travesty it would have been if I would have foregone my mission and continued to study. I don't think any young man who has not served a mission can put into perspective or fathom the closeness  to the Lord, the oneness with the spirit, or the personal growth one attains while serving a full-time mission for our Father in Heaven.

With General Conference coming up I decided to review my notes from the past General Conference, so that I might continue to remember the richness of the words that were spoken six months ago. I just love General Conference! To me it is the Mormon Super Bowl! I can't get enough of it. I remember when I was younger I just  looked at it as a day we didn't have to go to church and that was why I loved it. Now I love it because it is my semiannual opportunity to hear the voice of the Lord through his servants, the Prophets.
God does binspire men and call them to his choly work in this age and generation, as well as in generations of old; Thereby showing that he is the asame God yesterday, today, and bforever. Surely the Lord God will do nothing, abut he brevealeth his csecret unto his servants the dprophets. The Lord has always done it one way and will continue to do so for the rest of time. I know that Thomas S. Monson is his Prophet, seer, and revelator today. God has called a Prophet to help us hear His words. As you listen to General Conference, listen to the words spoken not with your physical ears but with your spiritual ears. As you listen you will be able to hear the voice of the Lord in the teachings of President Monson this coming Saturday and Sunday. Vaya con Dios

Dios es amor,

Elder Bennion



Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Semana 53: Yo Compartira Mi Testimonio Hoy, Manana, Y Para Siempre


Semana 53: Yo Compartira Mi Testimonio Hoy, Manana, Y Para Siempre

Que loca es la vida?! It was another non-action packed semana here. There were some good, bad, and ugly moments throughout the week. First off though, I have a few items of business. First please tell dad I'm not in St. George anymore. I guess Adrienne sent me a letter and it is in St. George. I just had Elder Valdez read it to me over the phone and put it with my stuff at sister Mower's. Second, please ask Kodi if he got my voice recording a few weeks ago. That turkey still hasn't written me!

The week was off to an interesting start on Tuesday. I went on exchanges with Elder Leguizamon. It was fun being companions again even if it was only for the day. The work was slow as usual. We knocked on the door of this English speaking couple that Elder Noriega likes to see if they knew where more Hispanics live. The woman is a member but her husband goes to the Church of Christ. He likes missionaries but flips if you bring up the Book of Mormon. Anyway he wanted to talk with Elder Leguizamon and we never opened the Book of Mormon, yet he was just irate after we left because he felt we were pushing the Book of Mormon on him. I just thought of the talk Safety For The Soul by Jeffrey R. Holland and how he said, "I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days." I just kept thinking that if every single word I ever speak is to be recorded in Heaven I want it to be clear when I too stand before the judgment bar of God. I want to stand confident with all the assurity of my being and say I bore my witness of the Savior at all times, in all things, and in all places. At times it is hard to say what I know to be true but the truth is liberating! I've been flipped off, yelled at, and had more doors slammed in my face in these three weeks than I've had in my first year of the mission BUT it is a refiner’s fire.

Wednesday we spent most of the day out in two little towns called Elmo and Cleveland. It easily can be said it was not a productive usage of time, energy, or the church's car. We were able to help the Huntington sisters and their recent convert. He was moving from Cleveland to Huntington and we had no set appointments so we did service. It was a nice change to know my service was appreciated. I had actually interviewed the man we helped move and he had the strongest testimony of the church out of anyone I've ever interviewed.

Basically to sum up the rest of the week we; tracted for hours, taught members and asked to meet their friends, went on exchanges and before Elder Weyant and I went to bed I saw a mouse in the trailer (Yeah that was a REALLY fun night), and that about sums up my week here in Carbon county. It was funny though, I met another person that lived in Snow Hall (those are the same dorms Zach lived in at BYU) and he remembered me from a year ago. I thought that was strange how I've met two people in two weeks that I met at BYU. I think his name is Preston Grant. We actually had two investigators come to church as well. Talk about a miracle. I think that about sums up my week. I've really learned this week that I can't be afraid to share my testimony no matter what. In Romans 1:16 it says, "For I am not aashamed of the bgospel of Christ: for it is the cpower of God unto dsalvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." I'm not ashamed of this message which I share because I know it is 100% true. God is good, (root)beer is great, and people are crazy.

Vaya con Dios,

Elder Bennion