Semana 87: Going Back To My Birth Place- It All Comes Full Circle

Semana 87: Going Back To My Birth Place- It All Comes Full Circle

Que onda familia,

This week turned out to get better and better as it went on. A couple of items of business to take care of first though: We had interviews with President Leonard on Thursday and my ecclesial endorsement  interview is done for BYU. All he needs is my CES ID. If you would email that to me I would appreciate it mucho! It feels really weird to be looking up classes and having to think about all this. I'm just nervous and don't know if I want to go to BYU. :P There is just a million thing on my mind about it all. I just want to be at the place where I will be most successful and can pull a 3.8 or higher. I did find out after my mission I can take a Spanish placement test through BYU and it will give me 16 credits of either A, B, or C credit depending on how well I do on the exam. That would really boost my GPA if I could get all A credit. I also need to fill out my FAFSA info sometime soon. I have no clue how to do it so I'm going to need your help. The last thing is if you go to Nike will you look at their basketball shoes. I keep playing in my airmax 180's and I keep thinking I'm going to roll an ankle any day. haha You could also just grab a pair of basketball shoes from my closet and send them in a package. I forget which basketball shoes I have. Just don't send the baby blue and yellow Jordan retro ones. Those would get too beat up out here.

I'm sure you wondered what the title of this week’s letter is for and that is because we got transfer calls last night. I will be going back to EPHRAIM and I will be covering the Spanish branch and all the family wards. My companion's name is Elder Herera and he is from Peru. He has only been out for three months so I'm going to have another young missionary. That really isn't anything new. The average time all my companions have been in the mission when I get them is about 5 months. I'm excited to go back to where I started and to try to teach some of the people that weren't ready at that time. More than anything I'm excited to go back knowing Spanish and being able to communicate. It should be good... just cold. 

Last Monday was another perfect day for golf. I only shot a 44 but I ended up cracking the head of the driver I was using so I had no driver. haha Brother Jones gave it to me as a trophy. I think I will need to cut the shaft off to make it more portable although Elder Earle and I like taking practice swings with it from time to time. All of our lessons fell through so that was disappointing. At five o'clock everyone texted and told us they would have to reschedule. It was discouraging but that that doesn't kill me can only make me stronger. We ended up having three lessons (Bridy, Hermano Perez, and Gene) but they were not the most quality lessons.

Wednesday we went on exchanges so Elder Lewis from Dallas Texas came with me to Beaver. He is a hoot and is always messing around so tracting for four hours out in a place called The Grove flew by. It was nice to have a change for the day. We met a ton of free spirits that said they didn't need a church, they said they could reword the bible under a tree and feel the spirit. I though it could have been a good segway into the Joseph Smith story and how Joseph Smith prayed in a grove of trees for an answer to his prayers. As witty as I though that would be I refrained and didn't get smart with them. We did end up teaching the most lessons out of any other day of the week though. Nothing feels better than just doing work and having the day fly by.

Thursday we spend a good portion of the day out in Richfield because of interviews with President Leonard. He cut his hair shorter than I've ever seen it and his eyes were really puffy. It just seemed like President looked older and a bit tired this time. I'm sure I only know a portion of the duties President has and it amazes me how each and every mission president dedicates three years to serve with out payment. It sure is a testimony builder that this is Christ's church. After we got home from Richfield we stopped by the post office to get the mail and a lady yelled out her window, "How many outfits do you own?!" We just laughed. I thought it was a random comment to make, especially in Beaver. Then the next day a lady stuffed a twenty-dollar bill in my shirt at the post office as we were leaving. That was just one of the many people that have been really generous with us. I found out as well two other restaurants we can eat at for free and the gym here in town is free. If there were more people to teach in Beaver this would be a fantastic area. 

I was realizing this week we have a lot of investigators and most of them have only made baby steps while I've been here in Beaver. I felt a little discouraged that it seems like that has been the trend for me over the past few months of my mission. Then there was a voice that told me to “never forget my success in an area is paved by the struggles and hard work of past missionaries who were just not as fortunate to see the fruits of their labors.” I remember in St. George I was the benefactor of several baptisms that were people who had investigate the church for three years straight. 

Missionary work is not easy but that is the way God intended it to be. Salvation is not cheap and neither should missionary work be. I've seen many great missionaries while serving and I've seen a few knot heads as well. One thing I've learned though is that if this church wasn't true, the missionaries would have destroyed it a long time ago.

I've made it a goal to download and listen to every General Conference address by both Elder Holland and President Monson before I go home. I've listened to 15 or so talks by Elder Holland and it just confirms to me every time that this is the restored church of Jesus Christ. I'm livin' the dream! Vaya con Dios.

Dios es amor,

Elder Bennion