Oct 28 2013 Hello, Well Elder Cardon came for the Mission Conference, it was quite spiritual. That is too bad that Shelly is sick, I felt that way last night; like the worst day of my mission. There is this place called Taco Bendito, fooled me once, shame on me, fooled me twice on Friday night (on our way home from the devotional at night) Ughhh, terrible night, I probably got like 1 hour of sleep, my tummy was unpredictable, and I couldn't feel comfortable when I laid down and my back hurt. Thank goodness I am feeling better now, it was just a few hour thing. J was baptized on Friday though, I was smiling ear-to-ear that she asked me to do that. She is a tremendous individual, also something that I did not know, she is fully blind, she doesn't not really give that off when you meet her, amazing that she is so optimistic and happy. Apparently a cousin of theirs wants me to bless their baby next Sunday if the brother doesn't come, never done that before, that'll be interesting if that goes down. Blomquist is coming to a baptism on Saturday and he told them how he is excited to see me. He said that he really wants to come to my homecoming and is wondering the details, could you let him know? Great to hear that Taycie is in the Principals Club, is the requirement giggling all of the time? For P-day we are going to be carving pumpkins. Well the bail-maze was an activity for the YSA Branch and we had permission to go, CJ, like one of our best friends from it, was wrestling Elder Steimle and the phone feel in the straw, heck, what a mess, it was awesome though, we were in the right place at the right time when it gave it's last beep-beep to let you know the battery was dead, so we got it :) J who was an investigator is over in Alaska now, she wrote a way tender note and was crying a lot, she told us we were her first and only friends in Burley for a LONG time, she said she will definitely be involved with the church over there and was going to read the BoM on the plane ride over, so waaaaay good to hear. R and H baptism and marriage is this weekend, it will be lovely, one of my favorite converts, we'll be buddies FOR EVER, they want me to come stay at their place with them sometime and play Mario Kart and watch movies :) We did some painting service for an investigator and they cooked dinner for us, so that is developing. I also got to interview this funny 11 year old girl, for the Hermanas, and that baptism was this weekend as well. I love the letters and the support you all have been giving me, it lights up my week. I'll see ya VERY soon, love you!!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN -Love Elder Bennett P.S. I'm gonna be a missionary this year :)

October 21st , 2013 Hello once again boys and girls and welcome to my third to last remaining email, thanks for joining.... Yeah crazy to think I could have been home today, glad I'm not I've got a few more things to do here. WONDERFUL news, R is finally getting baptized! He was scheduled to do it on the 16th, but then asked me when I was going home and when I said the 11th, it's now on the 9th :) so I'll be here still. He is going to get married I think on that day or very close to it so that'll be fun to attend as well. As I mentioned in the title, I'm gonna get my white pants wet one more time; J 10 year old girl who had to have a kidney transplant and has been battling that for a while so she wasn't able to be fully taught while I was covering the 3rd ward, called me the other day and said, "Can you baptize me", it made my day. She is soo hilarious and just a cute girl. So that will be this Friday and the confirmation on Sunday. While on exchanges with Elder Mander in Twin, we were moving this big table and furniture for this older lady and she had a box of items that she did not want. In that was this HUGE teddy bear with a bow on it's head and I took it having a feeling that it could be used for something. I've found out now that it would be perfect for Jenna. Sister Morey was able to wash it for me and I'm planning on giving that to her as a little baptismal gift, the Holy Ghost is warm and fuzzy just like that bear :) As you mentioned, also great news with Elder Silver, it truly is miraculous the rate of recovery that he is going at. He is strong-willed and just a good missionary, I know he'll get through it on top. You said, "as you saw in the picture" I sat and looked at that picture of them by that Tree in Vegas and couldn't get the clue you were sending my way, I realized later that the pregnant picture was at the end of the picture which I didn't see until the end. Good for them, one more hooligan runnin' around the house, it'll be fun. Fractured Prune seems fitting to describe your state of being, very spot on actually; especially when you are sick limping around the house with no purpose. Oh my heck, we've all got problems, your bones, Judy's mouth, my neck. I woke up two days ago and like thought my neck was broken couldn't move it at all, like some nerve was busted up and pinched. I got in the shower and had the courage to crack it so the side, it was painful but I got some more mobility. I had it, still not as severe though. Momma Burgess, gave me these little patches that have menthol and aleve that release from them and put them on my neck and shoulder and they seemed to help. That was a FUN project, as you saw me on the 4 wheeler, we cruised over to this little rock-island a little bit from the bank and found these little shrimp things called Crawdad. So one of our Zone Trivia questions was, "What Harry Potter creature is mentioned from Genesis 1-35" the answer was Mandrake and it let to like 3 hours of pillow talk trivia about Harry Potter with Elder Steimle and I. I am impressed with my mind capacity, it's like I had a box put away of all this info and we were both just pullin out out of nowhere. We went to the Temple this week with the Burley District. Well we're heading out to do our thaaaaaaaang. Love you all, see you soon! Elder Bennett

October 14, 2013 Ha, I chuckled to myself when you started out with "Elder Beneficial" it reminds me of my times over in Kimberly when Elder Larsen, Elder Kellliher, and others would call me that. It was better than the alternative, Elder Bidet(like the toilet thing). Ohhhh Elder Ortner, he was a verrrrrrrry kind Elder and was just all around good. I'm lookin forward to watching this Russian movie, sounds interesting. That's great that you were able to get help, when you were sick from Judy when you needed it, I remember those days with your messed up hair to the side days walkin like a zombie around the house. Straw-bail maze As you saw from that picture, we went through the straw-bail maze, had lunch there afterward Disasterous District Meeting, Life-Flight, Out with Morley I forwarded the message from President to you concerning Elder Silver, we went to their District Meeting and Elder King and Elder Silver weren't there and wouldn't answer their phone and we finally got a hold of them and went to the hospital and it was a major sad fiasco. They life-flighted him and everything. We went out with Morley for the first time, he's a wonderful WML Priming the Shed, Archery practice, "Smashing Pumpkins", Malfoy, CJ the crazy German Taxi Driver We did this service with the other Elders Priming this shed, the neighbors, the Burgesses let us borrow some supplies and they had these little bows and we shot them for a second, it was fun. There is a kid in one of the wards that looks exactly like Malfoy from Harry Potter. CJ is a WM and he went out with him, he is hilarious, went to Germany, is a wayy good driver like the Russian taxi drivers. More shed and rocks, Correlation with Morey, Get-well Cards More service, had a meeting with Morey, prepared Get-well cards for Elder Silver, President took a whole box of them from the Zone over there. Disneyland Dinner with the Meers, Taycie doppleganger We had dinner with an awesome family that reminded me of Shelly and Justin's, we talked about Disneyland the whole time because they recently went not that long ago. I as well as a few other missionaries are Disneyland-trunky occasionally. Their little girl was like the spitting personality of Taycie, she got this tiara and stuff for her birthday and was trying not to smile when we told her how cute she was Mini-MTC, A's Baptism, Lunch with Sanchez, Shaw's Wisdom, Amanda YSA lesson We went to this Mini MTC breakfast and fireside thing, way good, wish we had those in our stake growing up, Sanchez took Elder Silvers place, I love that kid, so funny. Well we gotta get goin, I'm sorry about that, but we'll catch up with everything here pretty soon :) I love you all sooooo much, thank you for everything that you have done to help me on this journey of mine. thank you! Love Elder Benett

Mon, Oct 7, 2013 Pretty crazy that there are only 4 emails left huh? Hmmm, not ready for that, Elder Johnson was just telling me how weird it has been for him to be home, as well as Bloomquist. This has honestly been the busiest, most stressful (not overly though), wild week that I've had in a while. That's cute about the kids making little t-shirts for the arrival, that'll be fun to see. That wrestling picture was waaaaay funny, he was just puttin out smack, like usual and I'm like that's it, and tackled him and we wrestled for a second. He was saying for all these weeks, the last day your here I'm gonna take you down. Well, I could have been safe putting my whole life's fortune on the line with the expectation that I had of you raving about the talk that Holland gave, which by the way, was very needed for our society and for me as well. Russian kidnapping movie sounds interesting. TRANSFERS WERE CRAZY! Eaaaaaarly morning, picked up the Burley 2 Elders, put bike and luggage in the cab, went to Oakley Elders, picked them up, Kelliher and I went in the Malibu, everybody met at Walmart, shufflin around of people cars, drove to Twin, went to the Assistants to shave, had the Transfer meeting, had lunch at Maxies, tried to see A. and J. quick, went to the office, got assignments to get mattresses from this place, took the mattresses to Burley to each apartment that needed it. Picked up the Oakley Elder that was moving took him to Rupert let them finish packing moved their stuff to their new apartment, came back to Burley, moved both sets of the Burley Sisters stuff. Went the White House to get Elder Diaz clothes dropped those off and their bikes. BUSY DAY! Had a District Leaders Counsel with them to prepare them for Zone Meeting, went to Burgers Etc. for a shake afterwards, did more prep for Friday President Curtis came to Zone Meeting, our announcements, planned for 10 minutes, took 40 minutes, President Curtis admits that whenever he comes to a meeting it goes waaay longer than it was supposed to :) Some guy called and needed a huge piano moved . The Bishop in the 1st ward looks like Mitt Romney and is an OBGYN. Our other new area the YSA, we met the Branch President. We have a WML named Morley, that's gonna get confusing... Everyone has been giving us apples and potatoes now, watched conference with R for the Saturday morning session we had awesome cinnamon bun things, we carried buckets of squash down for the Hansens, We watched the Afternoon Session at home downstairs, we couldn't get a hold of any investigators to watch it with for that one. Our investigator almost died because of his illegal drug use and it scared him and he called us and wanted us to help him so we missed a little bit of the Priesthood session. He has a desire but doesn't really do anything about it, it's frustrating. Played a round of pool to help us relax a little bit after all this stress We watched the morning session with Bishop Jeppson, in his scrubs, like delivered a baby a half hour earlier. Watched the afternoon one at Moreys. We went to this member's neighbors house who we are going to be doing service for. He's Russian. Spanish Sisters had a baptism that we went to, k, now, like the coolest story ever. So there was a time, Fair week, that Elder Pyper, Elder Kennedy and I were together and we were trying to contact someone. There was this guy that had headphones on and walked like he was too busy to talk. I had a strong feeling to talk to him. I stopped him and he took his headphones off and listened. I explained that there was a lot of activities held at the church and that he should come and explained a little bit about ourselves. He told me where he lived and I determined that was the Sisters area so I gave him the Sisters number on a mormon.org card. Never thought I would ever see or hear from this guy again. Anyway, so he is at this baptism with the Sisters and comes up to me and is like, "This is the missionary" and I'm like what, and he explained that he was that guy that I stopped and that he is getting baptized this month. WAAAAAAY cool, it like blew my mind. You never know the impact that you can have by just smiling, talking, having conversation with someone. Well there you go, I gotta get going, but have a great week, I love ya, thanks for the letters, packages, love. Talk to, and see you soon! :) Love Elder Bennett

Sept 30, 2013 Toned down version of the Russian office..... We've had a lot of correlations and meetings, preparing for transfers, figuring out travel/transportation for the Zone (new responsibility of Zone Leaders) so it has been a lot of logistical things happening all up in here. It's crazy though because I'm doing similar things as to what I was doing over in Novosibirsk Russia in the Office, where you are applying all the time because you say that you can do it, but It doesn't even stress me in the slightest really, maybe a little, but that can be expected and viewed as normal. I feel like I'm am to do everything like a million times better because I've been able to adapt and learn how to manage those variables in life. When we received a sheet and it had everyone leaving, what time they needed to, swapping, etc. I looked at it and had it done in about 5 or 10 minutes, it seems like my learning has been turbo-charged or something like that, I feel very blessed. As you have probably heard from Sister Bench, I am not being transferred, I am remaining as Senior Zone Leader and staying in Burley for my last hoorah. Our area is changing a little bit though. We are losing 3rd and 7th wards to Sister Wright and who she will be training, but keeping Star 1 & 2, and gaining Burley 1st and Burley West YSA; so the work will probably have a different flavor here for a while. Today was fun, the Bishop in Star 2nd has that huge pond that you have seen before and there is a zip-line. Two other missionaries went with us to try it out, my camera card is almost full so I'll send that soon. Then we went to play football, just two-hand touch, with the Zone. We had lunch at Papa Kelseys because we get 50% off there. Now we're here, that's the story of today's P-day besides, tonight, there is a BBQ of a lady that we helped move here in 10 minutes and we'll be heading out that way. So our dinner appointment...... they forgot that they had scheduled to have us over for dinner but we had a really good chat with her at the door. It ended in her giving us two copies of this book called, "7 reasons I left Mormonism". She was like "please just don't trash them" and they said in 2 weeks their family who is staying over will be leaving and their schedule will open up more. The book was about 100 pages, not sure if this was the best approach, but I think the result was positive; I went through it and marked it up like crazy with scriptures, commentary, etc. and gave it back to her. She was like "woah, ok, I'm looking forward to re-reading it with your notes". We are teaching someone at a fellowshippers home in 7th ward She has an interesting story. She is progressing though and agreed to watch conference. We had District meeting in Rupert and ate at this Spanish place called Penny's, it was clear in the heck out in Rupert in this lady's house that was turned into a restaurant; interesting location, good food though. I had exchanges with Johnson for the day and we had some pretty good pool games downstairs at night after planning. We had dinner at Bob Browns, it was some awesome Dutch Oven potatoes. Had our weekly Lunch Buffet @ Morey's, I love that guy. I had exchanges with Elder Wright this time and was in a Spanish area for the day. We had dinner at this house and the kids were hilarious. Also, we met this guy that was saying that he is an angel that fell from heaven and that Jesus is his son and that he is more powerful than anyone and that he has powers. (Admits to smoking weed) Eli Hansen out in Star ward is waaaay cool, it was a fun dinner. We did some planning for Mission Leadership Council. Had MLC, loooooooooooooong meeting, interviews 8, meeting 9-4:30, sooo tired :/ She made rice-crispy chocolate things like Nancy Griffin they were so good. Had our weekly meeting with Bro.Rasmussen, he's awesome, I'll have to keep up with him definitely afterwards. Had dinner at Morey's restaurant on him, it was our missionary-meal, he ate with us. We helped Bishop Seibold, over Star 1, teach the youth about missionary-work, it was a way good opportunity to meet them on a personal level and just see the enthusiasm they have to serve. We had another missionary combined youth thing in the 3rd ward later, a few people were talking about their missions and answering questions the youth had. Taught J. again. Hobsons was dinner, we had like huge slabs of ribs, potatoes, rolls, ice-cream cheese-cake, and it was a way nice house. Well I gotta get headed, love ya muchly! Have a fantastic week and enjoy Conference! :) -Love Elder Bennett

September 23, 2013 My fingers are flying, I can't even describe how crazy schedule-wise this day has been. With a trip to the City of Rocks or the Wind-Caves, it takes a chunk away with travel and the actual activity, so we have just been rushin' so much and I feel like a chicken with it's head cut off; so if the message sounds crazy then you'll know the reasoning behind it. That's great that you enjoyed the Penguin and the Cat card. Enjoy the trip to Cali, I'll be doing one of those in the future to see all of these hooligans that I've served with and around, so that should be fun. Actually, I am fine, really never freak out about anything. Well, like I said, things have been crazy so I'll try to give you a quick low down on some occurances of the week before we have to bounce to our lesson.... Firstly, I'd like to say that one of our investigators, R has been smoking for 30 years and said he'd never be able to quit, well he's been 100% clean for like a week now and is progressing so quickly. That truly is a miracle to go from 20+ cigarettes a day for that long and just stop, I'm so proud of him. I got to be on exchanges twice this week, with Elder Mayfield in my area and Elder Kennedy in his, which means I was on a bike, it was fun, but I prefer the truck :) Elder Kelliher took a spill on his bike coming home, that was the picture that I sent. LUCKILY, for whatever reason they had their helmets on. So I went and helped clean his gash, scrapes, and we got him medicine for his massive headache. We ate at some waaaaaaaay awesome member homes this week, the Benches, Knobbes (kids call the boy Cody one Knobbe): where we ate some of the best steak strips in my life. There were 4 baptisms in the Zone this past Saturday so we were rushin' to Rupert, Paul and around Burley, ahhh man Zone-Leader life is wild, but it's fun, I like it. Guess we'll find out soon what/where I am for the LAST transfer. Well, we are going to go have dinner with a Pastor of a different church and his wife. Sorry I wasn't able to give you fun titles or anything, it's just been a busy week, I'll make it up to ya though when we get some more time on our plates. Have a lovely week! -LOVE Elder Bennett