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

Sept 16, 2013 С Днем Рождения! Я надеюсь, у вас есть замечательная неделя! (Basically, Happy Birthday and have a great week) That's good that you were able to help the guy in that motorcycle crash, daaaaaaang, not good for someone that age to be gettin hurt like that. Good to hear he is doin alright. I did get the peachies, I ate the peachies in like 3 sittings, it's been soooo long :) I'm sending your little birthday package today, nothing special but I think you'll like it. There is this waaaay good place that is on a bus, tasty Mexican-food. We like did a way good clean of the house we live in, it wasn't dirty before, but it became spotless. We played Dart-Wars and ofcourse, it's guranteed that you'll get shot in the eye and it reminded me of the part in Rango where someone gets a stick stuck in their eye. We went to the Raquetball club. I drew another portrait of Elder Johnson, it turned out pretty well, I'll have to get a picture to you some day. At District Meeting there was this huge box of Little Debbie stuff from the outlet and we were getting so fat from eating all of them. We helped out with K's drywall again. One of the kids there taught me a few of his moves, I think he does like Kempo or something. We had some delicious Snickerdoodles, ahhh so good. Had a slower start to our day, kind of a little bit of a cold or something, quickly got over it though. We went on splits with Sergio Revenderio. Hmmmm, I gotta get back to you we are going to the City of Rocks today as a group and we gotta head out, have a lovely week Love -Elder Bennett

Mon, Sep 9, 2013 Hello, Yes, McFarlane is headed back home on the 15th, but he'd be able to come back fairly quickly if all goes well. I'll probably be home before he comes back. The knee hasn't bothered me, I think It is a miracle that my meniscus isn't messed up right now. President Curtis was over on this side of the mission for interviews and we had ours in the morning before District Meeting, I love that guy, he's sooo great and inspires ya to just go out and get 'em. Elder Stoddard's District Meeting Training focused on the differences of qualities between Helaman's Sons and it reminded me of the time when President Cannon was like, "Ohhh, I hope we can just all be a bunch of good Shiblons" :) We had dinner at the Stake Patriarch's home. We had some pretty awesome breadsticks,and stew. We had a lesson at R's our tentative appointment, they had Frankenweenie on when we came in and I saw a few seconds of it, that is a weird show, Tim Burton's thoughts will not exist in the Celestial Kingdom :). As always, Ris awesome, he's getting closer to being baptized. Woke up bright and early at like 5 to pick up 3 other Elders and flip-flop companionships for the day so that we and the 3 District Leaders could go to Leadership Training Meeting in Twin by 8:30. We got a voicemail, way funny by the way, at 3 in the morning from Elder Mayfield, we could barely understand him, and he was explaining that he was puking all night long and had nothing left in his stomach and that he'd appreciate it if we could pick them up in the morning to take them to the "white house" so they didn't have to ride their bikes over like we had originally planned. We soon found out that Elders Kennedy, Loeber, Steimle, and myself we're feeling about the same and were all just sick together the whole day. We mainly went over policies and the reiteration of all of them and training on how we can be great stewards over our various wakes of leadership. Some of the policies though, some just did not get them, so we were beating a dead-horse for hundred hours of just pointless questions, it was tough to get through it, especially towards the very end when Elder Steimle wasn't feelin great, and then me. So Elder Steimle puked before all was said and done at the Mission Office and looked about as white as a ghost. I was on exchanges in Twin for the day and over night with Elder Hancock, ohhhh man, he is such a cool missionary, I was the one that took him out street contacting in Boise his first day here, so it was great to see him again and he's hilarious too, everybody likes him. I was on bike for a change. We had a good lesson with a claimed Atheist young man, M. he was waaaay funny though, reminded me of Elder Epperson in La Grande. His favorite thing in the world is Dragonball Z so we were able to connect on that level for a min :) The lesson actually seemed to make some head-way in his opinion and he knelt in prayer with us at the end. At dinner I was like, I know this is awkward, but can I just lay down on your floor, and they knew the situation and were just so hospitable, so I just layed like a clump and commented in the conversation occasionally. We had a good dinner lesson though, I missed the Bow-tie pasta, but I added my ten-cents in the thought and it turned out way good. My moment happened later, not as bad as his though, and it was just being postponed for the longest time so I followed the advice of a doctor that we had dinner with and stuck my finger down and just got it over with. Puked about 6 times or so at night and felt great, had some saltine crackers, took a shower, went to bed, new man in the morning. Maybe Tim would be jealous, I don't know, but the Hansen's have been canning like crazy and had this home-made cream corn that they gave us when we came home, it was good. I met a missionary while in Twin who is going to Bulgaria, the alphabet looks similar but still different, he says that the word on the street is that by speaking Russian I'd probably be able to understand 50% of Bulgarian. He very much reminded me of a slightly taller version of Elder Reed that I served with, voice and all. I got to do the Bishop's Store-house in the morning, fun, miss doing that every two weeks, when ever I've done it I've seen someone that I knew before. Elder Cardon is coming to our mission next month for a conference and we had to fill out this PMG questionare online. We watched this video on the temple during comp. study and it was way informative and explained why when Christ was crucified that the veil of the temple was rent (we get that a lot when people bash about temples). We picked up a new investigator named K. We met her while we were dropping some forms off at the Spanish Elders and saw her carrying out a dresser, so we helped and ended up getting involved in the remodeling project tearing down her bedroom walls. She has had a lot of negativity in her recent years and wants to increase her spirituality and says that baptism is a possible goal and is planning on church this week. I ate this mega-hot pepper that the Spanish Sisters got from this lady, it wasn't a good experience and lasted probably a half hour or so. F. who we are really trying to help give up his reckless lifestyle has not been trying as hard as he wants to, it's been frustrating but whenever we go over there we see some hope in him. The Hansen's had the video of the Twin Temple Cultural Celebration we watched a little bit of it. We got a package from Mom Steims, it was summer sausage, crackers, cheese, carmel pop-corn, it was good stuff. We had dinner at P's house it was fun, very missionary minded family. She made an awesome caramel cake, you've made it before, I forgot how much I like that. We are getting a fire goin with the 3rd ward and starting to have splits so things are pickin' up. We were able to teach K. in her home for the first time, went great, she definitely felt the Spirit strongly. Two soon to be missionaries getting ready to leave, one of which is Bob's son, we stopped by the house after church and had a little lunch outside with family and friends, it was fun. High Priest guy who we had dinner with is hilarious. Well, I'm gonna get goin, but hope that's enough info for ya, Love Elder Bennett

Tue, Sep 3, 2013 First off.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIMOTHY SON OF DAVID!!!, hope you had a good one. I just got my "Pre-Trunks" as they call them on Saturday, ohhhhhh things are happening quick. I've got to fill out Bishop/Stake President Information and such and that I'm flying, etc. and send it in as fast as I can. I have to agree with you on the whole it getting darker thing. It's a pain when you are trying to contact because when it's darker people are just wondering why you are out so late and they just wanna burrow in their caves and just be left alone. To answer some questions, we are back at the Hansens, not at the "White-House" with Elder Kennedy. You asked about the weather, it's been cloudier here and some rain, not a fan, it's like I'm in Finland :) Last week for a P-day lunch, we went to KFC. I should have learned my lesson over in La Grande when we got KFC once a month for free and it would put us out of commision for a day or so. I ordered these little boneless bite things and it was presented on this huge black styrofoam plate so it made my meal look super tiny and unattractive. One of the Elders got drumsticks and lifted it up and it seriously like dripped a gallons worth of grease/sweat off of it. We spent the later part of the night finalizing our Zone goals and info that we needed to present at Mission Leadership Council. Woke up at the crack of dawn, well not really, like 5 something, but still and lousy part of the day, and headed over to Twin to our interview at 7:45. I love President Curtis, he's awesome.He wants us to go straight to him rather than to the Assistants first, which also increases the bond and relationship that we have with him. Our Zone is awesome, there are always struggles, but I can say I'm as proud as a Peacock when it comes to the missionaries in it. You just gain a who ton more of love for all of them as a Zone Leader and they've recipricated that back with way nice comments. it just builds ya up. On the way home we took the Kimberly route and just stopped by quickly at the Wardells, where Elder Steimle used to live It was nice to glance at the old area. We got free Hoagie Street Deli on the way home. We went to R. home for our lesson and watched Finding Faith in Christ with him and H. He was comparing it to the Passion of the Christ, but you just can't do that, they have different focuses and messages, so one might have more of one thing or less than the other. I've seen that a lot on my mission, I saw a few minutes of it back in Meridian at a LA's house and I wasn't a fan, unnecessary depictions and fails to focus on the main message of the Atonement. Elder Mayfield's bike has been acting up again so we took the bike in the truck over to Wally World, where you find solace, and he traded it for another one. It is ridiculous how often people just hand us money. A lady saw us and just handed a $20 and said go have a good lunch, we're so blessed. We went to Arby's to feed 4 men, I think it turned out to be like $19.70 or something. I had exchanges in my area with one of the District Leaders Elder King. He's a good missionary and taught me a lot of stuff that he learned back in his Karate days, it was like I was companions with Mr.Myogi. One of my favorite investigators had to be handed over to the Sisters, the lesson turned out great for the switch, they brought a few fellowshippers to help. Elder King and I had Taco Bendito for dinner/lunch and I won't be eating there for awhile. D. is a new investigator that is basically homeless, like 28 or so, we're hopeful, he attended sacrament meeting this week. Had a District Leaders Conference with, obviously, the District Leaders, on what we gained from MLC. Had dinner at Brother Moreys house, he cooked some pretty dang good hamburgers, well they better be if he owns Morey's Steakhouse for heavens sakes. A. a less-active that we found a little while ago who was very alone after a separation and divorce, has found renewed strength as we've been able to introduce him to more members, he was also at church this last Sunday, Bro.W went and got him some church clothes and he was thrilled. Had Zone Meeting, as always, they loved it, I try to shake things up a little and make it exciting and applicable. I had another exchange with Elder Mander, one of the Assistants, it was fun, we went to the Star 2nd ward Fiesta, activity they throw for the spanish community in the area, it was good to have him there because he is Spanish Speaking. Sister M in the District had strep, the phone stopped working, so we had to drive to Rupert and get the house phone was her companion Sister E everyone is like sick lately. Had a great contacting experience with a referral give from the H's turned from a no, to a maybe, to a probably. We had lunch at this widow's house with the other Elders, she is hilarious, she pretends to be ticked off all the time but isn't. We had 3rd ward do splits for the first time, we're making headway. We got a call from F. a less-active who is in pretty deep with some harmful substances and we played this Mormon Message that really clicked with him, "Jesus Christ, The Way" you should check it out, pretty similar situation, but he wants to change and we're trying to help. We taught RS again, we used the Work of Salvation and templates for Family Mission Plans, it turned out really good. R didn't come to church so we went over after and he admitted that he was playin hooky and we were able to teach him to compensate for what he missed in class. Ate dinner at Brother Morey's again and then went out on Splits. It rained a ton in the morning so we had to postpone tennis, but we played dodgeball and ate at this mexican place called El Caporale. Well hope you had a good Labor day and relaxed, such an oxy-moron, on Labor day we don't Labor at work. Anywhos, I gotta run, talk to ya next week! -Love Elder Bennett!

Mon, Aug 26, 2013 No need to worry about the lump any longer, it's not bad any more. Injury of the week though, we were carrying the Sisters luggage down the stairs and I don't know what they pack in those things but it was like 500 pounds and when I took the final step my ankle rolled and like broke, not really broke, but felt like it for a second. It only lasted about a day. Oh time is going to fast. I did appreciate the quote "God gives every bird it's food, but he does not throw it in the nest", Well not the best P-day ever, but they're always good. We started out by getting up at the crack of dawn to go to the transfer spot, got our new companions, went and emailed. Missionaries get to go to this place called Impact Athletic for free so we went there and played Raquetball for a while, it was a good time. We had a FHE service project at this one home in the 7th ward, it had like no lawn at all, and now it looks like the lawn could be in the home-show, well, maybe not that good. There was sooo much member-support there and even R. our investigator, came as well. We finally got to see J. again, things are looking more on the brightside with her getting more involved. We gave her an Ensign about Temples and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read. She really enjoys the message about life after death and being with families forever, if anything, that's the "selling point" for her. We had a wonderful lesson, as always with R. We shared the video on lds.org of Elder Holland talking about the time a football team was on a field and one of them was struck by lightning and one of the coaches gave him a blessing, "Sanctify Yourselves", it's a great one. We challenged him to pray every time he feels like he needs to smoke, so hopefully that has helped. We ate at this authentic mexican place called La Tacoria, or something to that effect, it was pretty good. The Sisters called and Sister Dodds was as sick as a dog and so a member of their ward went as well as us to give a blessing. When we went in, she was curled up on the couch like a little sick chinchilla, I couldn't even tell if she was there or if it was just the blanket. Then that night, Sister Wright felt the same way so we went over again. We also went to Walmart that day and got them some Powerade, Jello, mashed potatoes, soup, the essentials, they really appreciated it. Soooo many new missionaries all over the place! It was like we were drowning with all the little errands we had to run that day. Back and forth and back and forth with all of their luggage, leading them to their houses, making sure area books were there, it was wild. One of the Sisters on the first day of driving turned in the wrong lane and a cop was there and like followed them and they lost him and then he found them again, he was WAY nice though and just said be careful. We got this address flip-flopped for dinner and this lady let us in and started talking to us and making the impression that she was the one feeding us, well, it wasn't her, wrong house. It was pretty funny, the house was right around the corner :) Elder Kelliher had Elder Mayfield on his back running at night to our car and tripped and Elder Mayfield like collapsed on the hood, it was the funniest thing I've seen this week probably. Good ol' B. took us to Papps again, we had a good visit, things are progressing. We were killin some cat-faced spiders with a hose and rocks for J. there was quite a bunch of them. She is getting closer to coming to church, the RS and WML went over there and both times went great we heard. We went out on our first round of splits with Bro.W. he's awesome, and he was just raving at how good we did at our appointments, the 7th ward is catchin' fire. Went on our first splits with Star 2nd. Found out that some of our investigators are heading to Burley 3rd, whewww, still in our boundaries, that's not usual. So cool to have Morey as a WML. We got a truck! Hahaha, I'm confident that I won't get smushed by it this time around. It's a Nissan Frontier, not as cool as the Tacoma, but it's good. As we were leaving to take some Elders to Oakley, there was a car crash that happened right in front of us at a light and the girl had a bloody nos the car looked bad, and the horn wouldn't turn off, it was a mess. We taught Relief Society as well. We showed some of the Work of Salvation training and talked about who's responsiblity it is to share the Gospel, and then talked about Family Mission Plans, which you should try as well, and how they as a Family can make goals to share the Gospel. We were caught in some Apocolyptic Tornado for awhile, the videos don't do justice on my camera I'm gonna get goin, so we'll catch up next week, love ya -Love Elder Bennett

August 19, 2013 You wondered who I was with, you probably have seen him in previous pictures, but it's Elder Steimle from San Clemente, California. Anywho, he served in the other part of Kimberly while I was with Elder Kofoed and Elder VanZalinge. We picked him up at 6:15, ughhh, what an ugly morning for all of us at the transfer spot in Walmart parking lot. I am going to miss Elder Pyper sooooo much, he is a great friend, (going to Twin Falls), at least Elder Kennedy is staying, we were literally the Three Amigos, better even. Elder Kelliher and Elder Mayfield are coming my way so that will be way fun. There are a lot of changes and new areas, it's crazy to see the growth. We have 3 new ones as of now and a ton of missionaries coming in this week to be trained. We're a fairly Green Zone you might say, but they are doing an amazing job. Also, could you let Kyle and the Family know how grateful I am for the copy of Jesus the Christ that he gave me at my farewell, I LOVE that book, it is so informative and just racks my brain with knowledge every time, Talmage is a sly one. Oh my goodness, the Fair was a good time. Every one in Idaho, central Utah, and who knows where else and their dog was there. Fun times for sure. We, The Fantastic Four (Blum, Pyps, Kennedy) went to this Raquetball place that we get for free and played, it was way fun. Also played kickball in the gym in that huge group. We ran the Unity food booth with the four of us, it was like we had a little Cafe thing. I got to shave a shoulder of this sheep. This was a scary day, B. the one in Star ward that I love and always go on visits with, his son was extremely injured from this steer at the fair. We got a call from Bro. Morey and he was like, where are you, can you come to the emergency room. So we did and the boy couldn't even breath really, 7 broken ribs, brusing on the lung. He slipped on something and the cow stepped right on the center off his back. We gave him a blessing though and it was a way powerful moment where the Spirit and the Priesthood was present. We also got a call that the Oakley Elders were hit by a Semi, wow, lucky. They signalled late and they were going the same way. Glad that they are not hurt. R. is doin' great, I love that guy, he'll be baptized her soon. We taught him about the reasons we have commandments and shared a video on Mormon Messages called "Stay in the Lines" its a good one, watch it. We met President at a gas station off of the freeway and got the new area books for the 3 new places opening up, it's awesome to see all this growth. We met this solid guy who, as always is going to Sister Wright and Sister Dodds area, every time, I've given them like 5 Golden referralls this week. We helped Morey with stapling his new wood floor, that gun that you hit with a mallet is crazy. Blum had his Last Supper. As missionaries we have a lot of those. Blum was packing for awhile, sad to see him go. Met an investigator that LOVES video games and wants to be baptized. Blum is gone :( We got to go in Morey's Steakhouse kitchen. He cooked us up some butterfly shrimp. Elder Pyper took on the Pap Kelseys Scorpion pepper sandwhich challenge. There is this major hive by where we park and I was sick of it and got this piece of wood and stabbed a few while they were gathered and one filtered in on me and got caught in my hair and stung me like 5 times on my head. I planned revenge the whole day and we torched a group of 'em out with some fire and lube spray. Now I have this bump behind my ear and I asked this ward member who is a doctor how much time I have left and he said it should just be a swollen lymph node fighting bacteria and infection and will go down soon. We were at this Birthday Party and I had this Smurf doll and was making this 3 year old girl laugh and the other Elders after were like, Bennett, you're too happy/funny, you're makin us look bad. We went to the YSA branch and H. got the Priesthood and I got to stand in on that. Well we're goin so you guys have a great week!!! -Love Elder Bennett

August 12, 2013 Oh man, another week bites the dust I guess, it all goes by so fast. This is Blum's last week so it will probably be a solemn occasion, it'll be sad to see him go. At least he gets to experience the Fair before he leaves though, there aren't too many of those in Northern CA. All of us missionaries were able to get a booth at the Fair and the Stake is really helping us get prepped for that so that we can have a nice, presentable space so that we can receive a lot of referrals at this crazy thing. Apparently there is supposed to be like foot-traffic of about 10-15 thousand people the surrounding towns just like shut down, not sure if that's daily or throughout, but I expect it to be wild. I was able to take some of my experience running that Summit booth with Joclynn and incorporate it into this, such as a drawing, etc. so it should be good. Tell Sue that I'm very grateful for the Chinese New Year envelope and money.Sounds like Jake enjoyed the video from the picture of me on the TV. I was talking to someone and I get a hand on the shoulder and someone whispers in my ear, "Elder Beneficial", and it was that guy, he's waaaaaay cool. Elder Kelliher told him to find me while he was at the homecoming and give a little shoutout. I LOVE President Curtis, he's awesome, we've been really blessed to have him. Had an idea to have a big Zone dodgeball thing and it turned out really good. I've got a sweet video of me doing some impressive moves, I'll have to send you it in the mail sometime soon. We get snowcones for free from two places, also we have free Raquetball which we are going to go try out today, there's a few hook-ups here in Burley. R. one of our investigators had her baptismal interview and passed, I haven't really taught her, it was mainly work from previous missionaries, but her baptism is scheduled for Saturday. We got a new WML, and we are excited to tear it up in the Burley 7th ward with him. So we had this funny idea, there was this squeeky pig, dog-toy at the other Elder's apartment and Pres. Curtis' favorite animal is a pig, so I put it underneath my armpit underneath my suit and when I shook his hand before Zone Conference it was like "won won wonk, weehh" and he thought that was pretty funny. I was on exchanges with Elder Stoddard, a missionary who usually teaches in a spanish area so we were able to take advantage of his ability to speak spanish . Well this boy that we were going to teach is moving out to Pela, but we were able to watch the Restoration with them and teach the first lesson, it went way good. M. if you remember her, was baptized. H. was also was baptized in the other Elders area. Morey, one of our Ward Mission Leaders, owns Morey's Steakhouse and he fed us there when we dropped off our Progress Record, he is SOOO awesome. Like I said, Lance had his Home-coming in the 7th ward, I met Lance's best-friend that served in Moscow and found out that he was Elder Kelly's companion in the MTC, small world. We had dinner with the Stake President and got 7 referrals there, wayyyy good. Finished up the night with Star 1st visits and I was with Bob, I love that guy, you'll have to meet him one day. Anyways, I gotta run, but I love ya all, have a great week! -Love Elder Bennett

Mon, Aug 5, 2013 Edited version Congrats lil Jakie on being baptized, I'm glad I could participate and that I could be of service with the video. There was this guy we ran into while trying to contact someone else, he was a brother, and he was preparing for a divorce and we tried to give him some comfort but he was saying that if we read a scripture he wouldn't remember it because he was drunk, etc. so I left one for him to read. Well, never thought I'd see him again really, after I bore my testimony in one of the wards and we walked out in the hall to go to the other building I hear my name and it was the guy we talked to. It was way awesome to see him come to church, sometimes before the Lord will lead us to new people, we've got to administer to the less-actives and the people who are there already. While we were doing some more contacting, oh man, we ran into this family, SUPER Golden, we had a return apt. and they were way excited to meet again. Now, we think they'll probably go to the Spanish branch, but they were saying before that they wanted to go to English, sooooo there goes another one to some other missionaries, we're givin out people everyday it seems like this transfer. We went to MLC and there have been a few changes that some people aren't thrilled with, but they are in reality not bad at all. The Hansen's have been having their family renunion so we had to leave for like a week. We're living with Elder Kennedy (White House) and Elder Pyper right now, we love those guys, some of my best friends ever, it's been great. We gave our investigator a blessing (fellowshipper did it) to stop smoking and afterwards he was like, "Woah, is baptism this powerful?" so it's looking up. We were on our way to the temple from Rupert and Blum was driving but Johnson sarcastically told him to take this one exit that was the wrong one and he did it and it was a wild goose chase out to Declo on the Pocatallo exit and it took forever to get back on the right road. We saw this other less-active who is struggling to make ends meet, just went through a divorce and while we were visiting with him, this big strong guy, he just broke down and said how great it was for someone to just listen to him, it was way spiritual, glad we were able to locate him. Had some good splits with Bro. Smith, it turned out to be his last time, we got a new WML in that ward Bro.Winmill. Everyone LOVED Zone Meeting, it's the best one that I've ever done. We had awards after, I'll have to attach the paper in the email. We haven't had anybody sign for dinner for this week so we had this microwaveable chicken in the church kitchen. Well, thank you for the updates and the package that I"m going to go pick up today, love you all so much! - Love Elder Bennett

July 29, 2013 Edited version Woooooooooooooooow, I thought that Jake's Baptism was this past Saturday, like 2 days ago, I was in all in a ruffle not thinking the video was not going to get there on time and that your chastisement would have fallen upon me and my posterity. Yeah, I felt like the video turned out pretty well. There's someone here that knows Kelli Jorgensen way well, last name Hawkes. Yes, I did that Zone Vision, my companions have been commenting on my nack for creativeness. They do celebrate the 24th Celebration here, in fact, we had a huge one @ the Bishop of the Star 2nd ward's Pond, tons of space with a Zip-line, water-slide, rope swings, fields, pavilions, etc. it's pretty impressive. Commentary on Tanner's post, I wrote in a sassy time of the day, I got to do two baptisms in the last little bit here.One was a way funny like Phillipino kid and the other was from New York and he was like so spiritual and was able to socialize so well. We went to see this lady who nobody like even knows about and at first she just peeked her head out but wouldn't come all the way out, but after we started talking to her more she came outside and we had a conversation with her. She lost her job, was running out of medication, sad story, after we talked for awhile I asked if we could have a prayer and she wanted me to say it and afterwards we looked and she had tears rolling down her face, she felt the Spirit and she felt loved. It was a way good experience for all of us, namely her and Bro.M he brought it up in a Ward Council and he got choked up and said that this drop-by made the whole night worth it, all the rest of our appointments weren't there or cancelled. That's the cool thing about a mission, you get to see stuff like that all the time.So I was sleep-talking and Blum told me that I was saying all this stuff about calling people and also "There are some Skeptisms about exchange forms, Porras (Elder Porras AP, love 'im) and other churches", huh, interesting stuff to say, he even asked me if I knew what I was saying and I replied confidently, "Yeah" and then went back to sleep. We were able to convince this one district in our announcements that we couldn't wear blue for the month of August because of Gang Activity in the area and that was their specific color. Each time we have "announcements" in a District Meeting we always give the right ones, but slip a fake one in as well. With that Dance Festival here there were people from all countries the Koreans were at our place for breakfast and Sister Lee from Korea was able to converse and probably curse us with them in her native tongue. We spoke in sacrament. It went well. Someone broke into Morey's Steakhouse restaurant and tried to steal stuff and he had a prompting to go and check on it at 4 in the morning with his wife and the guy was still there, CRAZY stuff. Yes, we had the baptism was on Sat, it was great for me to be able to perform that. In the box I sent home, the marble piece is a piece of the Boise Temple (marble) that a member gave us Pencil box is from Russia, wanted to keep it for memory sake About 80% of all of your letters is about all of you complaining about tumble weeds So at this last week's P-day activity we had a ton of people there and it was in Twin at this park in Shosone. Well, we're heading out, so I'll explain more as time goes on. Have a lovely week Love you all, Peace n Blessins' - Love Elder Bennett

July 22, 201 Edited version Went to Declo for a District Meeting, afterwards we like got to make our own hamburgers and shakes, it was fun, We gave M a tour of the church with her friend, this family took us out to eat at this restaurant called the Canton. One of our WMLs is a cop. The Sisters were freaking out because there phone wouldn't work,we took out the battery and put it back in and it works just fine now We have a hook up of Dairy Queen once a week, I tried their chicken strips and they were nasty. At a DM afterwards we played Gospel Trivia and if you didn't fool the majority you had to eat a bean, I didn't have to eat one luckily, We have a WML who used to be in a band and such and has this room upstairs, he lives in like a Gentleman's Fellowship Hall thing, it's awesome, anywho, upstairs he has all this equipment, one of them being an electronic drum-set that's hooked into his bass system, so he played the guitar and I did drums. They have this little electric moped and I rode on it for a sec So in this area with schedules and everything we are able to attend all 4 sacrament meetings and we have Ward Councils in the morning, turns out to be a LONG day, we are teaching someone there that was a WM who was impressed (not sure why) and said, "Ohhh if you keep teaching like that, we gotta have you stay until November". I had a Family convinced that I was a Russian spy . I guessed their marriage date right (sign above the sink) (talking about their kids proposals) 2. Guessed his blood-type (by chance) 3. I said, "There is someone that's going to walk in the back-door in 5 4 3 2 1, and someone did, family coming over (saw their reflection in the big clock) they were super freaked out and thought it was funny, last teaching apt. with M :( handed her over to the Sisters We ran the school track with the Sisters and the Spanish Elders for a morning workout, Elder Kennedy is pretty legit at bowling, like your scores for WII bowling, we played Elder Blomquist's favorite sport: Ultimate Frisbee, he wants to take it to the Olympic level. Some Elders loved my impressions of Super Smash Brothers characters while we played B-ball, Wendy's =stale nuggets, an older lady came to us and bought us gift cards. This lady in the ward cuts hair and shaved Elder Blomquist's "caterpillar" uni-brow. We showed the kids magic tricks and played spoons, I taught how Joseph in Genesis was able to prophesy while the magicians and sorcerers were not able to, turned out to be a good spritual thought. We met this nice German guy, part member family so potential, we had shishkabobs for dinner, I had a cow-tail candy for the first time, it was decent, the Korean kids that the Hansens played ping-pong with us and figured out our card tricks mathematically We are teaching a guy,D, he has a bapt. date for the 3rd of August. Talk to ya next week Love Elder Bennett

July 8th, 2013 Well as you know I am now in good ol' Burley, I will probably finish my mission considering that I have 2-3 more rounds left. Apparently I'm supposed to get a call from President Curtis here pretty soon where we discuss departure dates and I receive my "Pre-trunks" in the mail (some forms I need to fill out or something of that nature). David and Lorri are awesome, it'd be so fun If I could jump on that Marketing/Sales team again while I'm goin' to school, we'll tear it up. I thought I did tell you about that last Missionary Leadership Council with President Cannon, oh well, anyway, so they usually end at 2:00 or so and it ended at 4:00 if you get the drift. It was hard to see them go and there were a lot of wet eyes, but the work goes on and I'll see him again one of these days here soon. The reason we don't have backpacks anymore they look unprofessional and the elude the impression that you could be carrying a lot of valuable items, a bomb, or maybe a small animal. Plus, I even like my other bag better now that I've been giving it a shot. I can't remember those definitions for Dagon, but all I know is that they were all pretty dang hilarious and convincing. When is Jake going to be baptized? Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKIE!!! HOPE YOU HAD A WAY AWESOME DAY! Speaking of baptism,we have a investigator who we have been teaching and is GOLDEN, very close to or as much said that he would like me to baptize him, which is an honor that'll be way cool. I got in touch with the Italiano in me this past week as we went to Maxies with Elders Steimle, Risley, and Narvaez, Bro.Hayes, who owns it let us make our own personal pizzas and garlic bread, it takes sooo much better when you made it. The Rules were so awesome, loved them. It was a very cool privilege that we had as Zone Leaders (& Sister Leader Trainers, new) to actually set the vision, culture statement, and goals for the new mission, pretty unique, not a ton of the 70,000 or so missionaries have had that opportunity, so I feel honored. The Twin Zone did wonderful, I feel like a Papa Smurf to all of them. I had a lot of really nice comments from everyone on how they would REALLY miss me and that it would be hard to see me go. At least I can see them at mission stuff and P-days. I'm also in the same Zone as Elder Johnson, one of my favorite missionaries so that's cool. This morning we worked out in the basement of this member's place where they have their own gym. One of their boys just got back from the Vladivostok mission last month and we were able to chat for a bit in Russian, he says that, "I well speak" which in English grammar means "You speak well" :) For the 4th we had breakfast with the 5th ward, there was this guy that went on a mission, returned home, and sought out Anti stuff and such and is now not active in any way. He was talking to us and I had a "not being confounded before men" moment when he asked a question, I gave a response, and he was like "Good point, good point, I agree with that" and he didn't ask us any more. We had a great Zone meeting, each District Leader presented some training in it and I received a lot of positive feedback, it turned out really good, I can attach the Zone Vision that we made. Had a Last Supper with the Richmans on Sunday, it was fun to be with 'em again. We had potatoes, pork-chops, heavenly rolls, and this way good Smuckers lemonade. Well I guess that's about it from me this week, hope you all had a good one in the Brick Oven, more like Red Rock Oven that is St. Geezy. I do like that there is minimal humidity there. Have a good one! -Love Elder Bennett