Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 4:57 PM Subject: Parked Cars & Coconut Bars Parked Cars = Funny story I'll explain in a second and Coconut Bars = I dunno, just because we had them last night at dinner and it made the phrase rhyme. Anyway, so Elder Hardy and I were going to a dinner appointment and we didn't want to go into the wrong sub-division, so I asked him if I could see his GPS (a few missionaries buy them to make finding easier, I wouldn't need one, I'm pretty good with a map, we just didn't have the luxury of time) and I was just quickly entering in the address and when I look up I see the back of a grey Honda Civic and it totally owned me. My front tire hit the bumper and I bounced of the bike and then it fell on me, quite a site to see, we were laughing pretty hard. Nothing serious happened to the car, just some dirt/scuff from the tire, I went up to the door and explained everything to the owner, he was way cool about it and not mad, just wanted to know if I was OK. I offered him 5 bucks to get it washed because I felt bad and he wouldn't take it, but like I said, it wasn't a big deal. It was just a little bit tiny awkward because we were heading outside of the house and got our bikes yesterday and the same guy was taking a jog (probably like a half of a mile away from the house) ran by the Christensen's. I'm so happy this transfer though, Elder Hardy and I are good friends and we are always laughing . I met this Russian guy today while we were all playing Ultimate Frisbee. He was mowing the grass on a riding-lawn-mower by us on the high school grass and once he found out that I spoke Russian he told me to sit in the seat next to him and we rode around for a second while we talked. Brother Walker,asked us to teach Gospel Essentials in the Hunter ward this last Sunday. VERY busy day that was. We also gave two talks in two different sacraments meetings with all different topics. The work is going great, our highest number of meetings was "Member-Present" ones once again, which is optimal, a lot of investigators are getting closer and attending church. Let everyone know I love 'em, and this mission, I am so happy to be here! I'm so glad that Heavenly Father has given me another opportunity to serve; where I feel like I'm making a difference and becoming a refined missionary and priesthood holder. Thank you for all that you do, talk to you next week!!! :) - Love your Mango-Peach (drinking that right now) loving son, Elder Bennett

Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:56 AM Subject: The St.G Crew It's so great to be able to run into all these great missionaries who are from St.G that I can see after the mission. Elder Guzman is hilarious and from Ivins, he's serving in a different District, but the same Zone so I see him quite often especially on P-days. Elder Hardy is great too, I'm really happy to have him as my companion, we'll have a great transfer together. He comes from the Slick Rock ward if you are able to see his parents sometime. He actually knows Elder Terry (from St.George) in Russia that I knew, they played baseball together. It's a small world isn't it? I did hear about that shooting at the Batman Premiere, that is crazy. That act affected hundreds of people and families. All of these things are prophesied in the scriptures though, more crazy times are ahead I'm sure, that's why it's so important to be grounded in the Gospel and be close to your family including your Heavenly/Spiritual, ward, and neighbors. We are teaching a pretty good amount though, we had 7 lessons last week with a member present and 6 Others, meaning to an investigator without a member there, and 5 Less-Active lessons so 17 total, so things are going great. We played some basketball at this YMCA place with a few other missionaries, it was fun, I still got the moves. I had some nice shots and it was fun to have some physical activity. I love you all vuuurry, vuuury, much. I hope you have a great week. Elder Bennett

Hello family, how goes the battle? It was great to hear from you and I have planned responses to write to you tomorrow morning . Since it was transfer day, things were a little crazy. I received a new companion, Elder Hardy, guess where he is from.... St. George! He is really cool and kind, I'm for-seeing a great transfer. It was super funny though, I tried to play a prank of sorts on him when we first met. I put on my Russian name tag and pretended like I was a real Russian and other missionaries went over to him and said, "Yeah, Elder Bennett doesn't speak that much English, so you'll have to help him" I think he was a little nervous. Anyway, I'll write a email tomorrow morning since we didn't have time really today, love you!!! - Elder Bennett

Subject: It was like Christmas Morning! So one of our families came to church!!!! I was so happy to see them! They came a little less than half-way through so it didn't seem like they were going to come, we were in the hall at the same time, it was great. I gave (the dad) that little ocarina . He said, "What's this" (probably joking, he just says funny stuff) and I said, "An ocarina", he was like, "What's an ocarina?!" I guess you just would have had to be there, he is just hilarious all the time, anything he says is funny. I've met two different Russian families in this last week. One was on companionship exchanges with Elder Bailey in his area.. He showed us his 100 gram tupperware container of caviar that cost him $100. He said he would join the church if we were able to get him more,. Great guy though, it was fun to talk to him. The other was closer to home in the same area that we live , and he was nice, but not really interested in our message or us coming over to teach, but he said we could drop by., but one of the people that has been working a little on the temple was able to give us a piece of left-over tile, which is sweet, I don't wanna send that one, kinda too heavy and would be expensive. For P-day a couple of us went to Jump-time, it's a place like Anti-gravity in St. George, it was a fun time. Well gotta run, Love you all, Peace N Blessins..... -Elder Bennett

This is a condensed version of Elder Bennetts letter TO: • vicki bennett Monday, July 9, 2012 1:41 PM Hope everyone had an eventful 4th, it was a great one for us; except for the whole not being able to sleep until 2:00 in the morning because rainbow-colored lights were bouncing off the ceiling and booming cannon noises. We were on pancake duty for the Sundance ward 4th breakfast, it was fun. I was in charge of going by the grills with a metal pan and getting the pancakes and transferring them over to the serving table. There was a big turn out and we ended up serving like 100000 people. Ok that might be an exaggeration, but that number would be pretty close to the actual number of miles I have ridden on my bike, my thighs on fire!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh just to clarify, It sounded like in one of your letters that you thought that I was over one ward, not the case, we manage five of them. Meridian 2, Sundance, Hunter, Settler's Bridge, and Cottonwood Park. So sometimes it's crazy to figure out which one's to work with and which people to meet, but I love it, things are going really good. Apparently I missed a good Sunday though, it was the week before I came. President Piper in the 70 who served as a mission president in Moscow I think was here, that would have been cool to talk to him. There was a kid in Elder's Quorum that went to Czech Republic and we were able to understand each other a little bit, some small similarities in the languages. I ran into those Russian kids on the 4th riding home, they were going to swim so we didn't have a lot of time to talk , but they understood me and it was neat to finally talk to them. (talked to a family about the role of the Book of Mormon and the importance of believing in Jesus Christ, and some of our investigators were even at church. We've been having great food, I've had smoked Salmon twice this week, I'm in heaven! It might sound like a generic statement, but the potatoes here REALLY are so much better, the mashed potatoes are amazing. Well I think we're gonna head out to go have some P-day fun. I love you all, try to stay cool, long-sleeve shirts do the trick, they actually keep you cooler come to find out. Have a wonderful week! -Love Elder Bennett :) :) :)

I will post a very condensed version of his letters........

Monday, July 2, 2012 4:24 PM So remember Eric Tuiolosenga that is like my best friend who's going to cook us a pig, after we helped him move (pretty much all of Saturday dedicated to it) he was kind enough to take us to this Japanese Restaurant that he goes to all the time. It was REALLY good, I ordered a Terriyaki-Beef bowl or something to that effect. I also tried octopus, which I thought would never happen in my life. I'm so sorry about what I said in the last letter, I shouldn't have said that about my companion, even if it is true sometimes. Things are getting better and he is less that way, we're becoming better friends everyday. We got to bear our testimonies twice yesterday, such amazing wards here in the mission. I can't even begin to describe how much the Lord's timing is blowing my mind!!!! It is so crazy how everything just falls into place and He places people in our paths at the EXACT right moment. We were riding home one night and it was getting close to 9:00 when all of a sudden I started slowing down and my back tire felt funny. The Infamous Goat-head thorn. So with a flat, we had to start walking and it was going to take us quite a while from where we were at to get home. If you are familiar with the old '90's T.V. show "The Magic School Bus", or I guess the books as well, this will make sense. I said, "Ugghhh, I wish we had some 'Spirit School Bus' to pick us up right now..." low and behold, literally 5 seconds later a van stopped on the side of the road and asked us if we needed a ride, like I said this stuff is blowing my mind! Another time, we were going to go home for lunch, but a feeling came to me to go to a house and try one more time. So we rode our bikes a ways and knocked again, still not home, as we were walking to our bikes, their van came around the corner and we were able to talk to them. We had exchanges this last week, I was with Elder Foley, one of our Zone leaders. He's from Missouri so he knows all about the City Museum, the Zoo, etc. He's way cool and we had a good time serving with each other Brother Norton fed us dinner that night, he reminded me a lot of Gil Merrit. Tell him it was so fun to have him as a leader, he was the best, the whole time we were eating and I heard him talk and just his all-around personality, I was like "Owwww, you remind me of Gil :(, I miss that guy". There was a "Best Smelling Car" award that Elder Foley and Elder Harrell won, it's probably because I was on splits with him the day before and they could smell my Hollister cologne... :) President Cannon is so kind and just a great friend. I've finally put a finger on it, Sister Cannon reminds me (personality wise) of Heidi Griffin, she is way nice and just easy to talk to. Oh yeah, President Cannon also gave me a Boise, Idaho mission pin that I can wear with my suit, I'll wear it with pride, really, I'm so happy to be here. There have been a few Elders that run into Russians here. Two kids opened the door and Elder Rogers said, "This is the one" So I got ready to just rattle off Russian when I saw the dad come to the door. When I saw him, that's what I did. He looked at us like we were crazy and said, "Uhhh, I have no idea what you're saying is that like Greek?" I told them the situation and they were like Ohhhhhh they live over there two houses down :) After Zone Conference, a member gave us a ride and it turns out that he is Brock Peterson's (Served in the Novosibirsk mission at the same time or close to me) Grandpa. He took us to 5-Guys. I feel so spoiled, We had dinner last night with the Christensen's who we live with, I ate some of the best rolls I've ever had in my life!. I love you guys. Talk to you soon, Love you!!! :) - Elder Bennett

Tuesday, June 26, . The title is officially, "I LOVE THIS MISSION!!!!" There is no exaggeration in that, even with the caps. My experience here has been simply amazing! I have met so many great members and people here, I sort of feel like Ammon when he goes on a mission to teach the Lamanites and king Lamoni, read Alma 17:23, he pretty much says I could serve here forever until the day I die basically. That's how I feel about this mission, President Cannon is soooooo cool! Sister Cannon is like one of the kindest ladies I have met, and the missionaries are way cool as well. I am serving with Elder Rogers right now in the Meridian 2 area. He is from Springerville, Arizona and then moved to Phoenix, so he's a Lizard as well. We work really well together, we've both been "shot-gunned" into the area so it's been kind of crazy to build a teaching-pool and work through some of the struggles that come along with that, but we've had a lot of success. . Anyways, things are truly great. I'm loving every minute of it. When I arrived at the airport, there was President & Sister Cannon just as happy and excited as can be. He took a group of us to Cafe Rio, his favorite place to eat, before we left for our areas. We live at the Christensen's home on the upper floor. It's a pretty big house and the Christensens are great, it seems like I've know him before. . Everything is SO different! We have meals provided every night from the members (there's a sign up) and it's always delicious. I feel so spoiled! Also the fact that we went to Wal-Mart to get some items and groceries is so crazy to me! It's such a posh (is that a word) experience from what I was used to. We went to 8 hours of church yesterday, it goes by faster than you would think, but kinda insane when you first hear it. . My district is really fun, and that Sister missionary from New Zealand, the one you saw the blog of, is in my district. Elder and Sister McMullin are the Senior Couple and it's way awesome to have them in our district.. I forgot to mention that at church I chatted with Brother Staheli,, who served in Ukraine. We shot the breeze in Russian for a bit, it was cool he seemed really comfortable still with speaking it. Also, Elder Rogers was telling me that there is a Russian family across the street from the park so I'll have to go place the KHNGA MORMONA (sorry don't have a Russian Keyboard) over there. I've been told that there are a lot of refugees here too. I feel so more "on top of the ball" here. The Ward missionaries are so fantastic to work with, they've got a lot of fire and want us to request help from them and really use them in the work. Missionary work always is best with the constant help of the members, we can't do it by ourselves. It's like we've got our own taxi-system here! Random people all the time pull up to us and ask, "Do you need a ride somewhere?" There is a Samoan member that we met his last name is fun to say, Tooi - oloo - sayynga. He says one of these days that he is going to roast us a pig and cook us Samoan pancakes., SOOOO many interesting people I'm meeting, I love 'em! We're going to have Zone Conference this week, so that's exciting, I'll let you know how it goes, tell President Topham, the Bishop and the rest of the ward know I love them and am loving the mission.... Well, we are going to the Robert's (Relief Society Pres.) home for Family Night to share the message of the Restoration and help them to know how to share it with their close friends and family. A thing members have wanted is to know how to use Preach My Gospel and how to share the Gospel with their friends, so we're coming up with innovative ways to do that. I love you, thank you for the emails, I love you so much, thank you for your examples, love, and service that you have given to me to help me get to this point. Have a wonderful 4th and we'll talk to ya soon!!! - Elder Bennett :)