Monday, March 18, 2013 So, while I was in Caldwell for the Leadership Meeting, we broke out into companionships and I was with Elder Beard for the day. So technically I was serving in Nampa for 24 hours. While there, we had a lot of great visits and drop-ins that we were able to set up future follow up and visits. The last stop of the night was an interesting one though. We went to a home and had what you might call a mini debate of Religion. He is a nice guy and has a sense of humor so it wasn't a hostile conversation, it ended up a somewhat good note, and I heavily challenged him to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and he agreed to do it and asked when we were coming back. You've got to be bold and testify of what you believe, if you notice in the Bible Videos on LDS.org Jesus lays down the law and doesn't let up when it comes to testifying of truth. It's been awesome to read from the atonement packet that we received from President Cannon. It's a challenge to read it before Easter and I learn so much every time I open it up. On Tuesday the Youth asked us to come and speak on the Atonement for about 20 mins. or so to all of the YM and YW. Check this out sometime... http://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/12/the-wondrous-and-true-story-of-christmas?lang=eng. The Atonement is 3 parts, when I was growing up and sometime said it, I only really thought about the Garden, but it involves the Crucifixion and Resurrection to complete it. I was also under the impression that the Atonement was only for sin and sufferings that we go through, but not the case as well, there are a plethora of things that it contains. Something that I learned today.... So often people say that the Jews/Romans killed Jesus, that might be true to a certain point, but not really. No one could take the life of Christ but Himself. He offered His life willing, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit". A man can't possibly kill the Son of God (Remember when Judas betrays Him and Peter cuts off that guards ear off and the Savior says to stop and reminds Him that if He really needed to, He could have 12 legions of angels come and like kill everybody), he gave His life as a ransom for many and He took it up again on the third day. So there ya go, spiritual thought of the day, commitment = watch the Bible video of His last week, named the "Final Days"... will you do that? I promise that you will love it. see giving commitments is easy. http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/categories/bible-videos-chronologically?lang=eng The transfer is only 5 weeks this time because of the whole influx of new missionaries and the shortening of MTC and Mission time by one week. So it's going to be the last week of March. You expect me to audibly/write where I would like to go, heck no, that just puts you in a position to have the opposite happen to you, I don't know exactly what is going to happen this time around, never do. Good to hear that Chalms is doing good, he's a good kid, it'll be fun to see him again. We made our way out to "Pumpkin Ridge" wherever the heck that is, I'm still confused how we even got to that place. Our WML over Elgin lives there and so does a potential investigator, it's like the Journey to the Center of the Earth or something. He showed us some awesome cars, like 1930 on luxury cars that he restores and sells. There was one that was bought and sent to Germany that got him a Million dollars, no joke, some of them there is like only 400 or so that were created, so he enjoys doing that... Had two amazing experiences this week where investigators tried to cancel 10 minutes before (fear,doubt/Satan) and we persisted and had some of the most spiritual lessons I've had in awhile. Both were actually on our way to La Grande from Elgin. Also a 16 year old boy wants to be in the YM and go to the activities. We did have a referral that we received from a member, and went and contacted her this week, it was a bomb lesson (good type of bomb). We taught the blessings of having the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation , a member went with us. He bore solid testimony and really helped the cause. She wants her daughter to really get involved in the YW. I felt like that Ty Pennington guy (have no idea how I can still remember that) on Saturday when we were putting sheet rock on Brother Bradshaw's ceiling of his additional rooms that he is adding to the Potter's Shack. Between this project and building that shed with Bob, I like know how to build my own house, I'll just build one across the street past the sidewalk in front of the house, just a one bedroom and one bathroom gig for meditation :) On Saturday we also had to fill the baptismal font, it was pretty steamy (like a little less than Jacuzzi) according to the people that went in it, thats how it always is though, and I said, "Well, now you know what it feels like to be "Baptized by Fire" ", they got a kick out of that. We had this missionary fireside in Baker City with the other Elders yesterday, my topic was on the blessings of my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. I shared my thoughts, scriptures, the summary in True to the Faith on pg.117 and showed a clip called, "We're still a family", one more to check out. http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/youth-curriculum-2013/02-february?lang=eng#2012-10-001-plan-of-salvation-were-still-a-family Well, that's about it for this week. Have a great week :) - Love Elder Bennett

March 11, 2013 Kujo and Chopper Had a pretty interesting week when it comes to furry creatures that people allow to have within the perimeters of their dwelling. Yesterday while we were contacting this list of people who previously "lived" in the ward boundaries who basically "fell off of the face of the earth" and had either moved, been abducted, gave a fake address, etc., there was this one house and it was probably 8 or so, so even with the time change moving forward another hour for light whatever, and I hear Elder John say, "Elder! Look at that!" I had no idea what he was talking about, then a couple seconds later, this bear-sized shape of fur emerged from these two parked cars in this little car part and it was either Kujo or Beetoven from "H" and it like roared like a lion and started charging at me and like chased me down half a block, unintentionally went different ways and it was like the saying, "Every man for himself" at least this way one of us would have survived I suppose. It slowed down and started returning after the owner screamed at it to come back. Scared us, ahhhhh man, gets my heart going just imaging that behemoth creature and makes me wonder how someone could contain something like that in their house. It's like the Avengers when the Hulk freaks out on the airplane thing and like takes out half of it, you just can't control something that big. Chopper is a small version of a demon which becomes friends on his terms. We made our once a month trip to Enterprise the other day and this time we stayed with Bishop Hipple. He is soooo awesome, along with Sister Hipple. He is like a Business Consultant of sorts (he told me that's like a title for taxes, but much more) and he gave me some pretty good tips for the future. When we got there, there was a long haired chiuaua that he picked up and tucked under his arm like a football, I petted him and he like snarled and bit me. He's like one of those dogs that you have to spend time with. Happy to say that by the end of the trip that me and him were good buddies, he'd come and snuggle by me. When Brother Baxter (aka Kirby Hayborn) came by to pick us up to go and work with him for the day, it came by his foot and he made a sudden movement and it started freaking out and since he had bad experience with dogs on his mission in Brazil he like almost fell down the stairs backing up from it, and he was like "I'm done, goin downstairs" pretty funny to have been there. His brother just got called to the Rostov, Russia mission while we were there. The more tropical part of Russia by Ukraine and the Black Sea, there were a few Elders I knew in the MTC that went there. We had a productive visit to Enterprise though, lot of non-members that we met, some we taught, and some came to church and want to become members so yeahhh, pretty cool. We also spoke in Sacrament with Brother Baxter and it was referred to as a "Power-House Meeting", people enjoyed the talks and it was good to meet more people. Oh also, we're introducing this 21 day promise/challenge to the various wards to get them excited about missionary work, yall should give it a try, I'm sure that you could find a version of it online... That's good that you are finally able to admit you have a game addiction. Donkey Kong, that dang Publishers clearing house wheel in the mornings, Mario, Zuma (frog game), and now this. How do you expect to tell us now not to play games if you are in this hopeless state of being? This last week we made trips to Boise, Ontario for Trainers Meeting and Zone Meeting and this week I have a Leadership Meeting in Caldwell. I'm gonna take a road trip by the way when I return home to Razos as well as Twin and Meridian and whatever other areas I serve in. Give Sue my regards in ol China, tell her to prepare some ground work with her Daughter of the Pioneer spirit so we can help convert the place. The Cannons are a tremendous pair, I love them to pieces, make sure that all the kids are there so they can see how cute they are. Well, we gotta get goin, have a wonderful day filled with bliss and Reeses, buh byyyyyyyeeee Love Elder Bennett

March 4,2013 I was a witness for the baptism though and was invited to the little social gathering afterwards as well which was fun. Elder Lehmuller had to baptize her twice though, he forgot to say her last name, probably because she has two middle names, and dunked her and they went into their changing rooms and a lady in the crowd and a few others (LOT of people there, including her non-member mom and friends) said that he forgot her last name, and we were like "Ah yeah, you're right, we gotta do that again" so I, in the moment not realizing it, almost ran into the room where she went with my hand on the door handle and realized what I was doing and said, "AGHhhh, I caaaaan't go in there" and some of the women such as her mom got a pretty good kick out of that. So when all was said and done, it was a great program. A lot of non-members had questions for us at the get-to-gether and have become new investigators for the other Elders, because, as I tried to explain, they are in their area.... "J" was baptized as well, It was way cool, he chose me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and I was the only full-time missionary to participate in that one, so It tells me that we have made a pretty good friendship, he'll be like a Stake President in China one day, just you wait and see..P-day We mainly just played Basketball with some Priest-age young men and went shopping. At out appointment, Elder John and Travis taught the investigators future mother-in-law the 1st lesson and she became a new investigator so we are excited about that as well as another one we picked up. A member took us to Taco place Thursday at La Fiesta on Thursday, pretty cool, you can order up to 9 tacos and they are only a dollar each. We ate with a couple , she is getting much closer to baptism, she's attended Gospel Principles and Sacrament which is great. We have a new ward mission leader in Elgin, Brother Hendrickson. The 4 of us hooligans had breakfast at a members house the other day in the other Elders area by our house (we don't live in our teaching area), it was fun, we had waffles like at IHOP or something with a lot of toppings. Sunday was a "Pot of Luck" at the church with like 5 people in attendance. It was "Tough in the Streets" (common missionary lingo) yesterday Contacting some Potentials and Formers, not a lot answered and if they did, they belonged to a different church . One lady who was from another Church said that she wants nothing to do with us after I told her that we were Christians as well, I went on to say, "We believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior and atoned for our sins, etc. so we could be together as a family forever, what's wrong with that?" She went on to say she had a Book of Mormon and read a little and doesn't want ANY of it in her home and sent us off. There's that momentarily comes of feeling like "dusting your feet" (if you read the New Testament, Jesus told the Apostles to "dust off their feet" if there were none in the city to receive them. We were heading back to the truck on this street and it was pretty dark, like 7:40ish and there was this humanly figure, kind of like that gremlin, (weird night, like the one we had in Disneyland that one night, creepy girl silouettes in the window staring at us with a street light flickering, ahhhh I can't even think of it, way creepy night though) walking their dog and I said, "How are you sir?" it replied, "Well I'm a mam, and I'm doing fine" phmmmm, I had to hold it in, looked like a male gremlin, I was mistaken, and I said, "Ohhhh, sooo sorry, I can barely even see ya" they laughed, but I quickly changed the subject and asked about this freak light snow flurry that was currently happening... Well there ya go, Have a wonderful week not filled with Sloppy Joes, Dr. Pepper, or Spinach Brownies or whatever you made, -Love Elder Bennett :)