Dec 24th 2012 Dont put it under a Bushel MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! It'll be way cool to see you guys tomorrow afternoon, looking forward to it. I didn't mention that Zone Christmas Gathering Talent show (meaning of the title) that we were involved in. Previously, we planned on doing a little skit as a Zone, but with like little to no practice, we did not want to brand ourselves as weird, so we kind of had a spur of the moment change. Elders Dearborn, Thomas, Reed (Not the one I served with), Dabel, and Heninger(Ohhhh, so funny, I want to serve with him, we get along just great) did a sort of whose line is it anyway improv skit on tracting into different characters and the missionaries being different people as well, impersonations acted out... (Obama, Elmo, Brigham Young, Prospector, Joker, Yoda, Batman, Jar Jar, The Emperor) Also, I did a hand-stand while saying "Your Purpose" in Russian and Elder Thomas and I played a Duet of "Heart and Soul" and that Jazzy tune that Jared learned in Korea on the piano. I've got it filmed so I'll just send the SD card soon. We STILL don't have our car, they said before Christmas and now they say by Friday, don't know if we're going there again, it took soooo long and everybody said that it's been faster through other providers. I sent off like 10 or so of those Thank you Christmas letters to people, Judy's gift card for Wendy's came like the day after so I didn't get one out to her yet, let her know I'm grateful and I'll send one. The sweater party looks like a big success. Mike's art is good, but I'm just not a fan, it is a shark ya know... :) That's crazy to hear about the freezing cold weather in Russia. I'm so thankful to be where I am spiritually today, we taught an investigator last night who is a recovering meth addict and is going through some depression, etc. and I was able to share my testimony on the Lord's timing, the power of the Atonement and prayer, that Heavenly is always totally aware of us and loves us. It seems like they were touched, they attended sacrament meeting and we sat with them so it was great. That's too bad that the Hobbit didn't work out for you, it is kind of interesting that they are spreading it out into 3 sections, kind of like the last Harry Potter movie, but I guess that way you get the whole experience without leaving anything out in the books, cool that Mike liked it. Jolee has been at the house lately, I'm not sure what type of dog it is, it looks like a fat poodle but isn't, but I love her, I took some video of her jumping around waving her hands in the air. I had the idea of having a massive White Elephant exchange, so I made it known to the Zone and we are doing that after emailing as well as doing challenges involving those dang jelly-beans, and other activities. The baptism was amazing, she is such a great example to everyone of her love for the Gospel. I sent some pics of it your way. Not sure what's gonna happen with transfers, I think I'm out of this area, but we'll find out on Jan 7th. Hope you are all loving the Holidays and each other's company. I love ya all to pieces, peace and blessins, peace n blessins. - Love Elder Bennett

Dec 17, 2012 Well my stories for this week aren't as good as Jared's or Shelly's, but I've got a "couple few" as the Idohoans would say, Interesting things that happened this week, I ate a habenero pepper, I was the only one at dinner that would eat one, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I lost my voice a little while ago from being on a bike in the pollution/cold weather, but it's back now thanks to Priesthood blessing, lemon/honey herbal tea, prayers, and time. Let Jared and Kista know that I am very grateful for the Subway gift card and the letter as well as the card and money from her Grandma Lewis and Lana. That stinks that they had to go through that fire thing, especially now with Christmas, shopping, etc. hope things go well for them, not fun. Also a terrible situation with the Conneticut shooter guy, that's weird, but everyone is flipping their lid it seems like. We have a baptism this Saturday, she is one of the most Golden investigators that I have ever seen, soooo ready, I'd be able to come in a year and see them be sealed, that'd be fun. Another person we are teaching, came to an LDS service for the first time yesterday. We had a Leadership Training meeting this week, it was great to see President and receive counsel from him. We saw this one Mormon Message about a kid in Canada that was driving in extreme conditions and they got hit by a Semi and one friend died and the other was in a coma for a month, but the driver walked away with just a few bruises. So it's his story of how he has been able to cope with the powers of the Atonement and how Christ has helped him. This kid is a friend of our new AP Elder and it happened on his (AP) birthday 4 years ago, his birthday was the day of the training so he was having a hard time. I went on Exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders Elder Rudd for a day. I've got some finger-wounds from making one of those Christmas displays for the Stake Christmas Program, cause: Exacto Knife. We should be getting our car back probably sometime this week or the beginning of next, they said before Christmas. Brother LaMarche has offered to have us over for Christmas Dinner and he has 3 computers that we can use to Skype, so that's where I'll be doing it, what is the Skype info that I need to do it with you guys? Putting stuff away at the Christmas thing we got to go to the roof and see all the interior stuff in the celing it was crazy, have a video of it. Forgive and Forget, I've learned a lot of that here. Things happen with members, investigators, we all get offended so easily, we need to look at things with a more Russian (hard to offend, always bold) or Eternal perspective. Being on a mission teaches you patience. It's helped me better appreciate the patience that Heavenly Father has with us, he has A LOT, more than we can comprehend. Well I think I forgot to tell you about the Mission Christmas Gathering happening tomorrow from 3pm-8pm. It's a talent show, dinner, and Christmas devotional. My talent is going to be hand-standing while saying "Your Purpose" in Russian, playing a piano duet of two songs with Elder Thomas, and we have a little Lord of the Rings skit that our zone is doing, it should be pretty fun. Anyway, I guess I'll see ya next week, hologram edition :) - Love Elder Bennett

Dec 10, 2012 Ooooo that dang spider that you sent, didn't think I'd see that for awhile, guess I was wrong.... We did get the Christmas cards as well, thank you very much, so much thank you. Send a picture my way of the whole landscaping stuff, I'd like to see it. Disneyland?! Ohhhh dang, I thought that I could hold them off long enough to wait until we could all go or something, but hope they have a fun time, those kids deserve that, they're soooo cute :) Send some pics of Mike's paintings as well, if they are good enough to sell, I'm expected like some Mona Lisa quality work. We found out that on Christmas we can do Skype, the usual is about an hour, so I guess prepare whatever needful things that you can for that. We were teaching a guy and two more of his friends some English at the church and one of them didn't believe that Sister Phyu could speak six different languages. Seeing that this was a teaching opportunity I called them up and Sister Phyu went off like Samuel the Lamanite preaching repentance (she likes to shout "Repent" all the time, it's funny to hear, especially with the Asian sharpness/accent) and about prophets and the role of the Savior in our lives. It's way cool to have her in the District to help us out. We went bowling on P-day again. We had dinner at Brother Crofts house. He lives in a part of Downtown that looks like New-Yorkish, if that makes sense, just the many trees and the layout of the houses. His wife made dinner like Cafe Rio with some of the same types of food, Lemon Rice, Barbocoa meat stuff, and the sauce at the restaurant. Their kids sang a Christmas song and the other played the chello, very talented, it was good. Sister Phyu gave one of the Burmese families a shoe-rack that she brought into the mission, it took us awhile to get it set up. She always likes to sing little songs, this time it was, "Buildin' a shoe-rack, havin' fun" whatever comes out of her mouth is funny. We also contacted a person with like a bear dog that wouldn't let Elder Dearborn in the car, whenever he moved toward it it blocked him and barked way loud, kinda scary, but it was a way nice dog nonetheless. There was this guy from Alabama that talked to us for like a half hour while we were at the New China Buffet. We went to our new investigators house for this lil birthday gathering, it was fun to get to know them better and see their three year old light up when she opened up her presents. ER Trip and Hoodlums: We had to go to the E.R with someone that was really sick. We also had the whole neighborhood ransacked by these hoodlums who spray-painted cars, fences, etc. Momma Truscott's fence was spray-painted. Also not too faraway a Spongebob flipping people off. A LOT of people were mad and a cop came and did the report for everyone that lives around, I hope we catch 'em, probably the same ones who egged us. We thought our bikes were stolen though as well, but it turned out that someone hid them at the church behind this fence thing (so they wouldn't be stolen) and we thought we brought them home. Member-Missionary Lessons: At church we taught two, basically three lessons. Two on Member-Missionary work with PMG clips and the other in Gospel Principles on the Gathering of Israel, uhhhh, hard one for new investigators, we have another baptism on the 22nd, so we're way excited for that. Thanks for all the love, support, letters, and packages, except for that dirty spider, he'll return will vengeance. Hope you all have a great week. Love you all, have a good one - Love Elder Bennett

December 3, 2012 Way good week!! whewww three more baptisms! Box of Pop-tarts, Three dollars, a new tie at the D.I., One Dollar, a "White Christmas"(meaning your investigators in white), priceless. We have been so blessed with all of the work and success in this area. We have a lot of help from the Ward Mission Leaders as well as the members especially right now considering the circumstances of us hoofin' it without a car. The weather is fine, it has been kind of rainy the last couple of days, but no sign of snow or anything like that, it's better than Logan's it'd bet this time of year. That's sad to hear about the Ward Split, hopefully the ol' Crew, will stay in our sector, which is everyone basically. Change is like manure though, it stinks, but it promotes growth, so look at it that way :) I've seen A LOT of changes that seem sucky at the first, but it turns out being really good. I was actually really disappointed at first to leave Meridian as you know, but there is a ton of work here that I have been involved in so I LOVE this area and the people that we have taught. Thanks for all the letters and packages. I did get your cards and stuff, appreciated. Tell Mike we will hang out when I get home with the whole fam, including those Diva sistas, Mibs and Lu Lu, of Shelly's. Have they let you know anything about that scholarship deferment at all? That guy was cool, that's too bad. Tell Shirley that I'm thankful for her letter. I don't remember the Dickens Festival at all or the Christmas Tree, I was a Zombie last Christmas. Well, I gotta get goin, Love you all soooooo much!!! - Love Elder Bennett

Nov 26,2012 When turning, choose the "Right" Well....... have a lot of stories for you today. I have debated whether to tell you about one of them in particular, but I remember when you told me that you wanted to hear ALL that happened, the un-cut edition of my mission, wow that rhymed really well, nothing really witheld, sooooo here ya go. First off, know that we are TOTALLY fine and safe. We were heading to a dinner appointment lead by Idahoan directions, so we were very confused, "Go West from the old water-tower and go as far as Berry's Market and then you keep goin and see a yellow house with a green-roof. So I go to this general direction and the GPS tells us to go down-town, so we are lead astray and call him and he says that it was close to where we were, so we make the travel back. We are on Washington S. going south and then find the water tower again and so now we are heading north on Washington S. (telling you the addresses so you can Google Map them if you want) making a turn onto 3600 N. we made the turn so we are facing west. We heard no brakes from their car and when we were hit and turned over 200 degrees, we were just confused at what was going on. As you know the left-turn is pretty much out of luck in any situation. I feel so very blessed though , I couldn't really get a lot of sleep that night, just thinking of the "what ifs" ya know, just so grateful that everyone is ok and safe. I had a terrible nightmare that President Cannon wouldn't talk to me afterwards and then sent me to Texas. Like I said, TERRIBLE, President Cannon would never do that, he's like that lady that if you slapped her, he'd compliment you on your swing, so nice and kind, the dream took me for a loop. I took a thing of flowers to the driver's house and just said, "I'm glad we are all safe, hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving" I feel that they really appreciated that, they are nice people. Oh well, it happens, I have heard MANY stories of missionaries in accidents in the mission. There was one just the other day (not trying to scare you or anything). Also a blessing in disguise because Elder Dearborn is from Denver so he probably knows how to tackle the roads in heavy snow better than I do. Church policy is that if the damage is over $1500 then you lose your driving priviledges and the companion drives, makes sense, but that dollar amount is basically nothing with how cars are made now-days with the plastic and fiber-glass. Car people are going today to get an estimate so we'll maybe get it back soon, not sure on a date yet, we'll just have to wait and see. Still don't know if telling ya about it was the best thing to do, hope you know everything is ok. We are riding our bikes and getting rides from members lately, so it's brought us closer to them. I've been thinkin', for my Christmas thing that you want me to ask for, I just ask that you know things are going great, I have mountains of Pop-tarts and Reeses so I'm good until probably years from now. I honestly can't think of anything that I need. Also, let Justin know how cool that is that he is in the Summit, and to tell David and the crew hello. Let's start on a good note shall we? I am so dang lucky right now! Brother Simpson, one of our Ward mission leaders goes to Utah every other week or something like that. He had more packages of Maddox Turkey Steaks than he needed an I can't remember how we started talking about it, I think I mentioned that I missed Logan's Turkey Steaks, and he offered to give one of the bags to us that we usually buy at home, I'm in heaven, think I'll cook one up here pretty soon :) That's awesome to hear about the Mega-plex theater thing in St. G, you may all go to see the Hobbit in my stead next month when it comes out and let me know how it goes, good FHE activity :) Was the Pi one the tiger and the boy on the boat? Please let Sue know how much I appreciate her cards and money that she sends, she's so kind. No transfers for us, I was called to be the District Leader so that'll be interesting with training as well. Elders Sangio and Kelliher are going to Burley and Meridian, I'm gonna miss those two hooligans, love 'em to death. We will get two new Elders in their area and Sister Pugh and Sister Anderson will take the place of Elder Sangio and Elder Kelliher. Sister Pugh is from Burma so that will be awesome to have her help us with teaching those groups of people. We have baptisms this Saturday,we are excited about that. We went to the Temple on Tuesday, ahhh so amazing, it gets you away from the stress of the world. Did you figure out that coded message that I sent? We had a great Thanksgiving at the LaMarche's, that's a sweet letter that he wrote, he is so amazing, he has helped us out tremendously. There were fireworks here in the area as a start of the Christmas season. We went with E. Kelliher and E. Sangio to a member's home where they had a hot chocolate and donut get-together, it was fun. That's where we received the transfer voicemail, we were all really suprised at what transpired. Elder Hardy is staying and training in Meridian, he constantly lets me know when they eat at Chick Fil A. Well, upward and onward as they say, It'll be good to see ya on Skype or whatever. Alright, well, sorry that I had to start out the way I did, hope ya understand. I love ya all, together we can do this, together we can bring change, thank you, thank you. Hope you have a stupendous week and Merry Thanksgiving and Happy Christmas :):) - Love Elder Bennett

Monday, November 19th, "20:5:13:16:12:5 __ 4:5:4:9:3:1:20:9:15:14" Speaking of "Matrixes", I have given you a matrix/code of numbers that correlate with a letter of the alphabet. To find out the title you have to de-code it, bwwaaahhh huh ha, I'm so evil. Here is a hint... 1=A, 2=B. Can't believe it's been another week out on the mish. It really is crazy that one year ago I was Zombie-Billy and I came home and was in that awful state that I was. So grateful for all of you, Heavenly Father, and the Savior for healing me at that very complicated time in my life. We didn't go to Boise for the Cultural Celebration, but it was broadcasted at some of the local stake centers. We took two investigators with us. One of them is preparing to take his GED soon, he is suuuuuper intelligent and loves "mathmatics". I'm sure he'll pass with flying colors. We have set up lessons with him that a portion is dedicated to helping him study English, Math, Grammar, etc. and the rest is Gospel study and reading from some of the pamphlets, lately it's been on the Restoration. We have 3 baptismal dates as of now. They are set for December 1st, so we'll have a white Christmas and "white Baptisms" I guess, this was our Zone goal (Have some for December). There was a mini-Thanksgiving hosted by the 2nd ward, Brother LaMarche has a picture of it on his iPhone that he'll send me. He invited us to have Thanksgiving at his house, we're excited for that, him and his family are so awesome. That's cool that Judy got that Honda, they're usually pretty good, maybe you should go that route. Lambo is decent, but I'm tellin ya, he'll give out soon, it's only a matter of time. So we had Zone Conference this week, it was from 8:30 am - 5 pm, talk about a long day, but a good one. We found out some more information about departing missionaries. Now the procedure is to leave the Saturday before transfers because it's more convenient for going to the last trip to the temple with President as well as flying out, scheduling, etc. but who knows if it will change when President Cannon leaves in July :( :( :( I love that man, he is truly one of the most loving, patient, charitable people I have ever met, as well as Sister Cannon. Anyway, with this change, I would come home Oct.26th instead of the 31st for example, I think that's my dates, idk. Not getting trunky or anything, just letting you know of the recent news. Since it was the Zone Conference of the Holidays, we got to play this hat game where you switch hats to this music, like musical chairs, and if you don't have one when the music stops you're out. There were so many cheaters. We also got to watch, "The Other Side of Heaven, OSOH is a pretty good movie, I forgot what really happened in it so It was a good refresher. I remember when he came to the Benson Stake and talked to us and all I got from it was that rat bit the soles of his feet off, I was younger, less attention-span. I knew those girls that you mentioned from SV, good for them. That was a good quote that you left in your message. It'll be cool to meet all of these Russian people that you claim are migrating to St.G. Well I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, I'm gonna miss the circus, but I'll be there next time :) Thank you for all of the letters and packages, I'm spoiled :) Love you all, talk to ya next week! Oh p.s. There is a woman in the Relief Society in the 2nd ward who is like related to Elder Kelly that I served with in Novosibirsk. She said that he is very competitive in family games. Anyway, we'll obshatseya (converse) paposhye (later)! -Love Elder Bennett

Tuesday, November 13, 2012 2:35 PM Prrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvviiiiiiiiieeeeeeeetttttttt to my family and friends on this wonderful Tuesday of November. So there was a situation yesterday where the library was closed for the Veteran's holiday and the Family History Center was having electrical work done so it was not in operation, these means we're pretty much out of luck, on getting emails out :) President said that we would have an opportunity today to do our normal hour and fifteen that we usually do on P-day. That is why I didn't write cha yesterday, It's not because I ignored ya or anythin of that nature... Ty gave a talk? Wow, he's surely growing up fast, I thought it was a few years before he started doing that. Last P-day I got some music at Desert Book , pretty good, but stuff get's old fast especially when you have a 300 mile Road Trip to Boise and you're the driver. Hey I get to see you soon on Skype, I'm not sure on the deets, but it'll be fun to hear yall voices and hear about the pork loin yall are makin for the holidays. Right now one of Momma Truscott's friends is on vacation so we have two extra furry creatures runnin' around the house, Skippy, a sassy Corgie that I love, and Joey, this dog that's half-shaved curly hair so it looks like a girl, but it's a boy dog. And of course, Tuffy, chiwawa, and Bob, who loves to just be lazy in this tower carpet thing that she bought him. We've been helping an investigator build his shed. We picked up a new investigator who came to church this last Sunday and stayed for all meetings and really liked it so we're way excited. We also have a few baptismal dates coming up here,one is set for December 1st, so we'll see what happens. Oh yeah, soooooo I tried the new battery on the camera and it worked for like one hour and now it doesn't. I think it might be the camera itself, it won't charge any more, so I can't take any pics. Well we're heading out to go do some missionary work with Brother LaMarche (Ward Mission Leader) so we'll talk to ya later! -Love Elder Bennett :) :) :)