june 24, 2013 Well like you said there is a little bit of a stir with all this change, but not too much, people are taking it well from what I can see. Elder MacFarlane is in Jerome Training a missionary and he is in Twin today for P-day, he is in the room emailing as well, waaaaaaay awesome to be able to see him again and hang out today. We have indeed left the home we were in and moved into the apartment it is amazing! Two-stories, two-bathrooms, separate kitchen, bedroom, and study room. No complaints there, the family that owns it is way cool. Yeah the Zone is doing wonderful, they are working so hard and we are seeing some success as well.We have an investigator who refered himself on mormon.org we have set a baptismal date for July 13th and he agreed to it and even attended a farewell yesterday. That broadcast was pretty good wasn't it, the church is gettin crazy with their videos and stuff, so profesh now days. The computer and FaceBook stuff doesn't apply to this mission for the time being, and we don't have iPads either. That's awesome to hear that Adam Baker is relocating closer as well, he's a great guy. I do feel good about life though, I'm so grateful that I was able to come finish what I started and just overall improve the quality of my life, my skill set, and testimony. Great to hear that Papa did a good job on his talk and that the Spirit was felt. We had the experience of contacting in the Rain/Hail and being trapped in it because we parked our car somewhere to save miles. There was a house that we went to and there was this small zip-line that I did because I weigh nothing, they have it for the grand-kids, but I'm like the size of one, there's benefits. They also have life-size Monsters Inc. characters down-stairs that we got pictures with, I'll get them over to ya sometime. We picked up a few investigators this week. There was this Pinterest recipe that a member used for Teriyaki hamburgers, ohhhh, soo good, you should try that sometime. We were able to help the Hansen ward with Chapel-clean up on Saturday. It helps you better appreciate the building and service if you are involved in the maintenance and up-keep of it all. We had dinner with one of our Ward mission leaders, Bro.Jackson, he works in the Radiology department at the hospital and gives people Radioactive pills to see where the blood is coming from on an X-ray, that type of stuff. Bro. R who we're renting taught me how to hit a golf ball correctly and everything, he's way good at it. We had to get some dish-ware, silver-ware, and such and I was able to see one of the previous Bishops that served over the 24th ward, Bishop Jacobia. Well thank you so much for everything you're doing, have a great week and I'll hear from ya soon. Love Elder Bennett! :

june 17, 2013 HAPPY FATHER'S DAY !!!!!!!!! I think I might have found out the reason why we only call on Mother's Day; it is more renound as a National/Global holiday, where as, Father's day is only practiced in most places and not virtually all, who knows though but It'd be nice to call, but at least ya got that text from Brother Richman. Thank you for helping me with my mission, with both aspects, the spiritual from the letters and the temporal with finances, it has been the overall best experience of my life, I've gained so many friendships, more knowledge, and "street-smart"; I love it. Hope you had a great day and that you were able to enjoy the company of the rest of your loins. Well I'd probably have to say that the most memorable part of this week was me getting some Bird Flu disease from Panda after I ate there, never would have thought, I've trusted them for so long... it might be awhile before I head back; the meat must have been out too long, something in the sauce, i dunno, terrible experience, but luckily it was for only a season, meaning 24 hours. Today, as well as most transfer days, has been crazy, running here to there and everywhere. That's good that you were able to have Juniper, I'm way jealous now, good thought to buy some packs of the seasoning. Well here we go 3 transfers left and one of them is already determined, I wonder what the next two will bring. The family that we're going to live with is really cool from what I hear. The Zone is doing amazingly, as a gang we got 199 lessons this week, 63 of those being lessons with a member present (teaching investigators) that's awesome. It's apparent why Heavenly Father sees a lot of potential in this area. We had dinner at Elder Allen of the 70's brother yesterday, it was awesome. His son is like a freakishly close doppleganger to Justin Hutchinson. His girls are all very musically talented and one learned harp with Elizabeth Smart. Stephen friend of Stephen Kofoed, my companion, they were like best friends in Missouri, lives in Jerome and got a hold of us and made it seem like he was an average smoe that wanted to feed the missionaries and then Elder Kofoed found out. We went to lunch with him and his wife at Chilis the other day, it was a good time. Well I've gotta run and get some stuff done. Anyways, love you all, I loved the letters from Ty and Jake and Taycie's picture. Have a great week! -Love Elder Bennett

June 10th, 2013 Hello, how was everyone's week? Is there any chance that anyone knows a David Scott? He is like one of my favorite people in the world, he reminds me of some of the Newton classics, he'd fit right in with you all, Clair, Sue, he's a real hoot. He's our Ward Mission Leader in Hansen ward and we love 'em, he is soooo good at what he does. He also manages the Church Welfare farm out here which is even more commendable, just a stellar individual. Speaking of those type of people, President and Sister Cannon, Wednesday at our meeting in Boise could possibly be the last time that I see them, VERY sad, I love those too soooo much, they are amazing friends and servants of the Lord. I hope you are able to hook up in St. G like she was saying, that'd be cool. So some news on the new mission. As you probably know, it takes affect on July 1st, but the determining transfer is in a week on the 17th. For the Twin Mission, there is going to be a 3 week transfer (half the time of normal) to usher in everything, so there will be a transfer at the beginning of July, kinda crazy. Not sure if this changes departure dates or anything we'll find out. It'll be interesting as well to only have like 2 to 3 sets of Zone Leaders here rather than 12 or so in the whole mission, there's a lot of responsibility President Cannon has said in making this whole transition, it'll be good . We have had some of the most productive and spiritual member-missionary dinner appointments that I've probably ever had on my mission lately, there are so many awesome members who are going to be a MAJOR part in teaching and preparing for the hastening of the work in the area. One of the families, their son went to Venezuela on his mission and it sounded like it was probably at the same time as Tim, not sure though. So every month we have a "Zone Vision" which is a paper that is designed in a way that catches the eye and makes you want to keep the commitments for the month. I completed my first one and the reception was great, I'll attach it for you to see. There is a family and the dad looks like a younger version of Papa and he has Italian connections, long lost relative??? It was way cool to be out on splits the other day in the 1st ward. There was a former investigator that a member and I contacted and she wants to make improvements in her life and progress in the Gospel, we've taught her twice and she said that she'll be coming to church this Sunday, so I"m hopeful for that as well as this other guy who had an interview, passed it and everything and something happened and the baptism fell through, so we're trying to get him on board, he's pretty awesome and knows the Bible like the back of his hand. I'm going to start a Marketing Research Development Foundation with Elder Porras, we were working on some of the logistics at Bishop's Store-House this week, I'll manage the southern part of Utah and he'll cover the top. He's from St. George but all of his siblings went to USU so he is probably going there. Great missionary and friend, he is one of the APs in Twin right now. I have found Mibs the 2nd, they look identical, it is crazy, you'll have to send a picture so I can compare the two. They nicknamed her George for some reason and I told them about Mibs. Wonderful family, they have 9 kids, and most of them are from Haiti, they have a great set up and are tremendous parents. One of them is a social worker and looks like he was one of Tim's friends. The Mibs girl is Ukranian and 3 years old so unfortunately she doesn't know any Russian :( but her parents speak it. There was a HUGE yard sale thing at the park by our house and I was able to see some friends, a guy in Twin that Elder Dearborn and I set up to be baptized, happened a week after I left, and Brother and Sister Christensen, ward missionaries in the 16th ward in Twin, they were sooo happy to see me. Elder Sangio who was with Elder Kelliher back in the days of Dearborn, came with this girl to Maxies at the same time that all the missionaries were eating, it was great to see that guy. This is the last P-day before the split so it'll be weird to see a lot of new faces next week, but it's life. Are you guys doing the D&C challenge as well? Well I gotta get goin, sooooo have a WONDERFUL week, Love ya much! :) - Elder Bennett

June 3, 2013 First off... Well, another crazy week as usual, it sounds like you guys had a pretty interesting one as well. The exchange with Elder Mander went great, I was able to see this guy that is the father of one of my previous investigators. Also while we were by the Family History Center this guy was saying that this Russian guy lives across the street. Soooo of course we went by and he answered the door and didn't seem very sociable or anything, but I started speaking Russian and he was like, "Huh, Interesna?" (Uhh that's interesting) and he was like wow, you don't have a bad accent, and I was like, you don't either, he laughed and slapped me in the shoulder (did it another time for something too :) ) nice guy, but he said that his kids read the bible and that we should go teach someone who doesn't know Jesus and it kind of ended there, he wasn't interested in us coming back but he was cordial about it. It's a small world, he came from Kazakhstan and a few other countries. We ate dinner at this guys house who is an Advertising/Marketing Director for local businesses, he helps them create their commercials and stuff, ahhh, that's like almost exactly the type of stuff that I'd like to do. His son plays tennis and is apparently pretty good, they won like some Western Coast Classic tournament or something. We haven't moved yet, it's somewhat of a fiasco to a certain point. We have to move like in a week, week and a half or so. You're right, it will be a very sad day when President Cannon leaves. I hope that the new one is compassionate and kind like he is, I'm sure he'll be great as well. Mike acting crazy at Lake Powell diving off 45 foot cliff's isn't a surprise to me, he's always had some daredevil blood in him. You all are probably gaining a few pounds from all these restaurants in Kentucky and Tennessee... speaking of which Cafe Rio is the Korihor of the Restaurant business, you start out at $4 and you end up with $8 or so, they always try to catch you in your words and make it seem like their condiments are free... "Would you like Lettuce" "Does it cost money" "Yes" "Would you like some Pico salsa" "Is that extra?" "Yes" ughhhhh, it makes me mad, they are deceptive and sit on a throne of lies. The prophecies are coming true, "Things will become slippery from your hands" speaking of Papa's Oakley's and whatever else you too lost, just signs of the times :)... I'm really excited to go to the Temple this week with one of the Districts, it's been awhile. Hey we're heading out, that's awesome that you got to have a fun little trip together. I saw Shoshone Falls this week, it's pretty impressive, a WML took us out to see it quick. Things are going great though, we're getting closer with a few people. For Tim, there is this family that's awesome that fed us Tres Leche, it was good. Have a wonderful week you guys, love you all!!! :) - Love Elder Bennett

May 27, 2013 Hello, Yeah, the Kreigers are awesome, that's way cool that they called you. They served as a Senior couple in Alabama and have told us some pretty funny stories, such as an Elder that had a pet Raccoon in their apartment and they were able to tame it. You asked if the Burmese were baptized, they were, and there was a wedding an hour before, very casual, the Stake President, President Harris, married them. It was cool to see him, he was happy to see me again. I also got a picture of me with the LaMarche's Since we are in Twin for District Meetings, Interviews, Conferences, eating, etc. etc., I have the chance to see some people that I knew, it's way cool. That area is really blessed though, we always seem to be busy. It'll be interesting to see how the members change as there are more missionaries and less jurisdiction, we're all bankin' on more work because if they don't raise the bar then we are going to not have a ton of work to do or success. Zone conferences are about every 3 months. A quote that I have heard over and over, "The Gospel can make bad men good, and good men better". Doesn't surprise me about the whole people at the Temple mistaking Shelly's age, expected, she could get into Disneyland for the tween admission. You said that you were starting D&C, read something else for a few days and start it on June 2nd, that's the beginning of the 140 day challenge which ends in October. When we conducted the 8 baptism interviews, we each got a Burmese name from the Family, mine is Tarapoachee which means "little brother and teacher", it was tight to be able to get the "hook-ups" that I previously did in Twin, namely Free Great-Clips hair-cuts and Free Coldstone on P-days. I am learning SOOO much from the orange manual of the New Testament (Jesus Christ and His Apostles). I bought these ones from the DI that were like a dollar, Old Testament and D&C. We ate at the Kreigers 3 times in the last 2 weeks, they signed up a lot :) We played a lot of basketball last week. For Leadership Meeting, we went on exchanges and I was with Elder Larsen for the day. He is John Mayhew's personality in the flesh, like almost exactly. There was this dog that came over to me flopped on my feet and peed on me. Me and the WML went over the Directory and it took FOREVER and Elder Larsen fell asleep it was funny. We also went and got an ice-cream on the way home and it was the worst cone that we've ever had. Pop-corn Prayer=Success: Pop-corn prayer is a way of getting investigators comfortable with prayer. Each person just says one or two things they are grateful for or need. .............. Chick-Fil-A Demon children, So after one of our meetings, I believe it was a District meeting, all of us were hungry and went to Chick-Fil-A. It was kind of a bad experience which usually isn't the case. We had to sit at these little tiny table things with chairs with no back support and right by us was the glass to the playground things and kids were trying to break through to get us, spitting on it, licking it, and rubbing their lips and faces all over, the glass was disgusting. We had great lessons with 2 part-member families and the non-members have agreed to keep some commitments so we'll let ya know how that goes. One of the Bishop's here looks like and sounds almost exactly like Nicholas Cage So there is this family that lives in an Indian Hogan, the whole house is in a circle, no rooms,pretty interesting, everything is just in plain view. We contacted a few people and they were atheist, non-interested, etc. felt a little down afterwards, but we ran into some members outside afterward and shared a scripture with them and I did the one in Alma 8 where Alma the Younger is going to Ammonihah and he is rejected, spit on, reviled, and even kicked out and he's feelin pretty bad walking back and an angel appears to him and lets him know that he did his best and fulfilled his responsibility. Brother Robinson told us a thing he did on his mission in Alaska, Well there ya go I said that I'd describe the week more and I did it, have a great week! Thanks for everything, Love Elder Bennett