Elder Alex Bennett's Mission Blog

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Tuesday, June 28, 2011 11:41 PM
From: "Alex Bennett" View contact detailsTo: "vicki bennett" Ohhhhhhh man, what an eventful week! First off, I'd like to announce that I love you all very very very much!!! I miss you all and hope things are going great! I will send an SD card with pictures on it and my english tags here pretty soon. If you'd like, you can still write letters occasionaly, it's always good to have a tangible message every once in a while, but thank you for all of the emails, i really appreciate them. Well, about a week ago, i was "reborn". I was born in the city of Tomsk ("born" is the first area that you serve in and you "die" when you serve in your last city) It's a college town and it's really beautiful. The drivers are CRAZY though! It's really fun to ride on the buses, they go pretty fast. My papa (term for trainer) is Elder Peterson. I'm soooo glad that he is my companion! He is so funny, nice, and has taught me so much. He is awesome!!!Oh and he also saved both of us from getting jumped by some drunks when we were contacting the other. I was on the fence about telling you, but everything is fine were both safe, so I thought I'd let you know :) It was Sunday and we were walking down the street by the bus stop and two very drunk college age boys stopped us and were asking about the church. They got really close and started grabbing Elder Petersons arm he told them to not touch him. One of them said that he was going to take one of us to go buy beer and stay and talk to the other one. Luckily there was a person walking by and Elder Peterson told them that we needed help and we started walking across the street with him. After we were on the other side of the street we booked it! They were yelling that we were from the CIA or Nado and American spies. Goes to show that Heavenly Father is watching out for his missionaries! But everythings alright don't worry :) Anyway, There is actually an official branch building that the church owns here which is really nice. We go there for English club (which we had last night, we taught some vocab and phrases for weather), church, and when we meet with a member or investigator. It was quite the adrenaline rush when we were at church and Elder Haynes (ZL) told me seconds before sacrament meeting started that I was going to testify up at the pulpit. I'll admit it, i about pooped my pants when i heard that. But it turned out great, i think that most of the members understood me and they thought that my russian was funny. I asked "Ponyatna" after i said everything and the members and the branch presidency were nodding their heads and chuckling a little bit. Im sooo blessed, we have such amazing members. They sacrifice so much and are so dedicated to serving the Lord. I was really lucky, there was a baptism this first week that i came! Elder Peterson is on his last visa trip so for the last couple days i have been on an exchange with Elder Haynes. We had family night the other night with some members it was really fun! We played games and ate a lot of candy. Oh, and let everyone know that I say hello, I can only write two emails a week: 1 to the mission president and 1 to yall. I've had borsh, it's suprisingly delicious! I've had a little bit of culture shock yes, but I love it. Papa can probably remember from the "Best Two Years" movie when he looks like a deer in the headlights when he's talking to the one person, i've had a lot of those moments :) but its really getting better, i'm understanding a lot more, i'm getting a lot of help from my companion, the members, and the Lord. It'll be weird when i'll be able to rattle it off one day! Well I will tell you more in the weeks to come. There is just so much to tell that i can't smoosh it into one email and i have to read all of the emails and write one to the Pres. which takes up some of the time. Thanks for being the best family in the world!!! I love you all SOOO MUCH!! - Elder Bennett :) :) :)