Hola!

Prepare-check, Plan-check, Proselyte-double check!

This week has been so great! I have found that the Lord really does place people in our path. Quite literally sometimes. :) But one example of this is Paul Morgan.

Sister Hedemark and I were looking through potentials in the area book one day and came across the name Paul Morgan. We went to his house several times and he was never home so we thought that we would leave it for awhile. Then we got a text message from a member about a guy who came into the church one day and said that he wanted to be more religious. We got his name number and address from this member and it was Paul Morgan. So we thought, "ok, there is something in this" so we tried to contact him again. Well the number we had was wrong and he was still never home when we went by. So again we decided to leave it for awhile. Fast forward to Sister Whitaker times; we were teaching one of our investigators named Laura and she had a friend named Paul over. At the time I didn't take much notice to it. The next day I really felt like we should try to go see Paul Morgan again. We stopped by his house and it was a miracle because someone was actually home and when we saw who Paul Morgan was we were so excited because he is Laura's friend! He was excited to see us and we set up an appointment for the following day. And he came to church on Sunday! He has had a really hard life but he is trying to make it better and the gospel will be so good for him! It's just like in 1 Nephi when they were trying to get the plates of brass. The first two times they failed but the third time they succeeded. We tried to contact him twice before the Lord actually placed him in our path. He always prepares a way for us to accomplish the work. It is absolutley amazing!

Second miracle of the week is Richard. I stinkin' love that man! He is so determined to be baptised and quit smoking. We actually took 4 lighters from him this week and while he was praying one day he said that he had a thought to give us all of the cigarettes he had on him at the time. We gladly inherited 2 packages of imported Russian death sticks. I felt weird having death sticks and lighters in my possession but we had fun crushing them later that night :) He knows the church is true. You can see it in his face everytime we see him and everytime he comes to church.

Great things are happening in this area and the work continues to move forth. Sister Whitaker is kind of trunky which I think is kind of funny but I will try to keep her busy ;) She doesn't want to go home but she sure talks about it a lot. hahaha bless her. I love you all so much and I love hearing from you every week.

2 Timothy 1:7-9 :)

Love, hugs and fist bumps,

Sister Benson

Alo-ha!

The time has come my family and friends to talk of many things,

Of armour, and faith, and scriptures, of the gospel and kings,

And while the world is going crazy and.........feathered pigs have wings?

I don't really know that poem as you may have already guessed. I tried to change it but................

 

HELLO!!

I realized that by the time this transfer is over I will have spent 1/3 of my mission in Stroud. That's a long time. I love Stroud. We have been doing a lot more finding lately because we desire to teach more people. It's sad to see so many people reject the gospel before they even know what it is about, but at the same time it is a miracle to me how many people are touched by the Spirit right from the very beginning! We have been guided to some amazing people lately. Where their journey in the gospel will take them I don't know...but I feel so lucky to be a part of it. Really, being a missionary is great. I know I say that all the time but I really do mean it. I can't really put in to words how I am thinking it, so that will have to do.

Richard never ceases to amaze me. We have recently taught him about tithing, and the law of chastity both subjects that we were nervous to teach him about.....BUT he is so faithful. he is willing to do anything so long as God commands it. he accepts the gospel so readily because he knows that its true. He feels the Spirit so easily and that has really been helping him to stop smoking. He did not have a cigarette for 5 days! He relapsed a little and had half of one but he felt so horrible afterwards that he recommitted to give it up completely. You can tell that he loves the Lord and I have definitly learned a lot from him. I will be sad if I have to leave him next transfer. But that's a long way away!! So moving on....not literally...but next subject.

We recently started to teach a woman from Zambia studying at the Royal Agriculture College. She is exctied to learn and is anxious to find out if the Book of Mormon is true (IT IS!!!). I am very excited to teach her.

Another small miracle is that my new companion is not scary!! A lot of other missionaries, upon finding out who my next companion would be, told me that she was going to beat me up! hahaha I was nervous enough about the change and they made me even more scared of her than I needed to be. I absolutley love her! The Lord knows who our companions should  be and there is definitly something to learn from each of them. Probably the scariest thing going on right now is that I am kind of in charge. She is the senior companion but because she doesn't know the area I am semi in charge. It has definitly been a humbling experience and has made me appreciate Sister Hedemark even more. There is a lot that needs to be done and when there is just one of you that knows what that is, it causes prayers to intensify.

I have learned the art of parallel parking finally. I never had to parallel park until I came here. I tell you what its a good place to learn too because the roads are so narrow it definitly takes some skill. I'm probably not an artist like DaVinci....but maybe Picasso. I'll have it mastered by the time I get home anyway. I also need to take a driving test here soon. So I can get my big kid license.

I really like President Monson's ABC's for an abundant life. That man truly is inpsired. Maintaining a postive attitude is so important. Sometimes it is the most difficult but it really will change the course of our whole day. Just like Pes. Monson said, " We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails." Focus on what you can control. I can't control how many doors get slammed in my face (If I could than it would never happen), I can't control how often it rains (If I could than it would be sunny more often), and I can't even control how people accept the gospel ( agency is very frustrating sometimes) BUT if I stay positive, believe, and take courage in standing up for what is right than I can control whether or not I make it to the promised land. I love ABC's. So simple and basic but very profound at the same time.

I love you all and I hope you enjoy your lives. Having faith in Christ is the best way to live!

Love, hugs, and fist bumps

Sister Benson

HOLY TOLEDO!!

Dearest people,

These last few weeks have been a bit crazy so I haven't been able to right as much as I would like to. I don't have much time now either. Sorry.

We didn't both survive transfers this time. :( Sister Hedemark got moved to Harbourne (Birmingham area). She was excited but at the same time really bummed. She loved Stroud and she has been in Harbourne before. She really wanted to open a new area. But President Ogden said that he really felt like she needed to go back. A lot of crazy things happened this transfer. Lots of changes. One AP and several ZL's were released to train new missionaries. So there was a lot of shuffling around and new areas were opened in a few places so the work is expanding in the best possible way! :)

My new companion is Sister Whitaker from Nevada. She is a hard worker but I can already tell things are going to be really different. I knew this day of change would have to come sometime. I was really sad to see Sister Hedemark go. She was a great mom ;)

We have been continuing to work with Ricahrd and he is making some great progress on not smoking! He doesn't find it difficult at all really. Which I find amazing. Prayer, fasting, and priesthood blessings are sooooo powerful. I love this gospel more than anything. I learn new things everyday and I never knew it was possible to feel this way about anything. Especially a book. (you know how much of a reader I am) The book of Mormon is so inspiring and sometimes I feel the Spirit just looking at the blue cover copies that we hand out to people.

I hope you are all very well and I promise to write more next week!

Love, Hugs, and fist bumps,

Sister Benson

Time is far spent!

Time is short today. We have to catch a train to Gloucester at 11:22 because we are going to play volleyball with the zone!

This past week has been great!

Richard is getting ready for his baptism and I just love that man! When we first started to teach him he kept saying, "when I get the faith......" But the last few times he alwasy says, "I know...." It has been so amazing to watch him grow like that!!!

Miguel is also doing really well despite the language barrier sometimes. We watched the Restoration DVD with him and he said that after watching it he really wants to pray "with more strength". He prayed for the first time with us at the end of the lesson and it was really powerful. He prayed in Portuguese so I didn't really understand what he said but I could feel the spirit. Phenomonal! I don't know if that's correct but oh well.

I. LOVE. THE BOOK OF MORMON! I am amazed everyday at things that I find that are new to me. You would think after a lifetime of reading I would know the whole thing by heart by now but still things continue to jump out to me! That my friends is the power of God. He knows what we need to learn and when we need to learn it. The Spirit is the best teacher! I hope to have a portion of that teaching ability by the time I go home. But it's by the Spirit that I am even teaching. I don't do anything really...but I'm gonna try. :)

That's all the time I have really. Sorry to be so short. But if nothing else, THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!

Love, hugs, and fist bumps,

Sister Benson

Well, its off to the great unknown!

Dear Family and Friends,

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!! I hope you all had a really great Christmas day! I know that we did. We were so blessed to have a lot of less actives at church. Can you believe that there were 10?! I couldn't. It was a Christmas miracle....really. The key was that the bishop had asked a less active family (of 6) to sing in church, we should do that more often I think! That's the key to getting them to come out to church-INVOLVEMENT! that's a fact. yup. yup.

Everyone in the ward is so great. We just got showered with presents after church it was pretty ridiculous. Half for us and half for the Pinkertons (Sis. Pinkerton just had surgery so they are taking some dow time). We almost weren't able to carry all of this stuff home! I'm pretty sure that we have enough cookies, chocolate, and Shloer to last us a lifetime and to make us each gain a stone! (a stone is like 14 lbs) I hope I don't though. I don't need to gain anything else....weight wise anyway.

The best miracle we had today was that our Christmas dinner suddenly got cancelled (that's not the miracle...) All of a sudden we had nowhere to go and we were planning on spending the afternoon in our flat studying, when one of the less active ladies came up to us and asked us if we would like to come over to her house for dinner. It was so amazing! It was the first time I had met them because they don't want visits from the missionaries. It's a less active couple with two girls who aren't members but come to church every Sunday....so its a little backwards but it was so good to spend time with their family. As we were leaving they told us that we could come back anytime! :) I love Christmas. It does such wonderful things to people's hearts. Whether you believe in God or Jesus Christ or not...you gotta admit that Christmastime is special. That's because it is all about CHRIST!!

I just started reading in Ether, and that book is pretty amazing. Heavenly Father has something with boats....but I suppose there is a good reason for it. But I picked out something cool this time. In Ether 2 he builds the boats, "tight like unto a dish" yeah? Amazingly enough he builds them according as the Lord has directed and then he asks for solutions to problems. No doubt he realized while he was buiding that they weren't going to have air or that they wouldn't have light, or a way to steer. BUT he continued to build the barges in the Lord's way because he trusted the Lord to provide a way. I started to think about how many times I go along doing something in the Lord's way but then I come with an idea that I think might be better and alter my course a little.....no bueno. It doesn't work that way. You can't do what the Lord wants and what you want at the same time....unless of course it is the same. Funny story to illusttrate my point better. ready? OK!

hehe

it's funny

I was driving (that's not the funny part), and we were going home after having dinner with the stake president and the sat nav (she's a little crazy sometimes) was directing us what road to take and things like that when all of a sudden we thought we were going on the wrong road so we turned the sat nav off and decided to go a different way. Bad idea. We ended up on some little back country road that was leading us out to the middle of nowhere. What made matters worse was that when we turned the sat nav back on she was lost too and she was no good to us because she thought we were out in the middle of a sand pit and she kept telling us to make a left at the roundabout but there weren't any! So we had a bit of an adventure off road but we eventually made to an area where there were signs and we were so far away from where we should have been! Moral of the story is: follow the sat nav. Moral of the spiritual side of the story: do what the Lord says the first time and you won't get lost!

I love you all and I hope you have a very good week!

Love, hugs, and fist bumps

Sister Benson (who apparently has an accent)

Shock-ed and Amaz-ed.

Dearest Family (including those who may be sore) and Friends,

 

I cannot believe how close Christmas is! We have so many things that we want to do before Christmasand I fear that it will pass too quickly and we will no longer be able to work along side the special sprirt of Christmas. We have discovered a few things this week and have seen many great miracles!

Richard, who is preparing for baptism, has a smoking problem...However! We found out that dreams really do come true. We were nervous about teaching him the Word of Wisdom because we weren't sure how he would take it because he enjoys smoking so much. The night before we were scheduled to teach him Sister Hedemark had a dream that we taught him about it and told him that he needed to stop smoking and he said, "Yes, I will do whatever it takes to be baptised".....that would most certainly be ideal. :) Well we went to Richard's house and told him about keeping all of God's commandments after baptism and he seemed ok with that and then we said that he needed to start doing that before baptism too and he still seemed to be ok with that. Then we told him that one of the commandments was that he needed to stop smoking and drinking....The look that came on his face was priceless! He was shock-ed and amaz-ed. He told us that he has had friends tell him to stop smoking before but he said that he never would because he enjoys it too much...he paused and pondered...smiled and then said that if that's what was required of him in order to be baptised he would do it. He said he would do whatever it takes even though he admitted that it would take some time and that it wouldn't be easy but he still wanted to do it.

Wait, what? Sister Hedemark just looked at me and we were also shock-ed and amaz-ed. How great and marvelous is the Spirit of the Lord! We could definitly see the Spirit working in him during that lesson. It wasn't because of us that he agreed to stop smoking. Never ever ever give up!! If Richard can give up smoking than anything is possible!

We have been so blessed while finding this past week. We set up many return appointments for next week which is amazing that people want to schedule time to see us even though its the week of Christmas. We only have 3 and half days to work and teach this week really. Tonight, tomorrow,Wednesday and Thursday morning because of Christmas things going on. I am so excited to spendChristmas as a missionary! We have a lot of good things planned and exciting ways to find people!

My time is running short so this email will also be short. lo siento.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Don't forget why this time of year is so special!

2 Nephi 19:6

Love, Hugs and Fist bumps,

Sister Benson

 

ps- humble shepherds make the best missionaries! Luke 2:17 :) they heard. they saw. they shared it with the world :)

Blessings Galore!

Geetings! Salutations! Bonjour! Hola! and hi.....

 

I. LOVE. STROUD.

 

Love, hugs, and fist bumps

Sister Benson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA You thought that was it didn't you?!?! no way jose!

Stroud is alive with the Christmas Spirit and I love it! Ready to hear about some mini miracles from this week? ok. Here goes.

We have been praying for a family to teach, and lo and behold I think we found one! I don't remember if I mentioned Carol and David, the chinese couple? Well here is a quick recap. Sister Hedemark tracted into them in July and hasn't been able to teach them but last week we got a call from them saying that they wanted to come to church! We were so excited! They came to  church (dressed in casual clothes) and really enjoyed it and we set up a time to see them the next Sunday (yesterday) When they came to church yesterday David was in a suit! and Carol was dressed up too! We never said a word to them about what to wear they just did it. We taught them about God and Jesus Christ after church and when we were getting ready to finish David asked us what he needed to read to prepare for our next visit! I love Chinese people, they are just like that all the time and its great. So we not only got 2 new investigators but we also have a little family to teach. Carol is pregnant with their first, but we still think that counts as a family. :)

Remember Merle and Daniel? The most clever 11 year old boy ever?! We haven't been able to see them in awhile because of Merle's new work schedule but we decided to stop by their home and hope for the best. We were so blessed to have the whole family there! Graeme (the dad) asked us questions and thinks that we are doing a good job and that its good for Daniel (its good for the whole family but we are working towards that) We told them about the Joy to the World Christmas DVD and they want to watch it so we set up a time where the whole family will be there to watch it! yet another family!! I am so excited for next Monday night now! I just hope that I'm here......We are going to go on an exchange with the sisters in Harbourne starting Monday night. I hope that I am the one that stays in Stroud because I want to see the McArdle family (Daniel's family)!! But it seems like the junior companion is usually the one who leaves so that will be sad. But I'm sure Harbourne is great too.

TIM!! Right when we think we have hit a brick wall with Tim a glimmer of hope reappears. We taught Tim about the Word of Wisdom and committed him to stop smoking and drinking tea and he said he would try it for a week and see what happened....he lasted a day. So we decided that we needed to recommit him and set a date to stop by. We weren't too sure how he would take that but we needed to try. We have found that our best lessons with him are when we read from the Book of Mormon with him and explain what is going on (he struggles with his comprehension of anything really but the scriptures in particular are hard) So we were reading from the 1 Nephi about the Liahona and Nephi's bow breaking and such. And talking about faith, diligence, and heed (16:28) and out of the blue he says, "So I think that when I stop smoking and drinking tea and whatever else this will all make more sense. I think because God will see that I am trying to do what he thinks I should do so He will say, 'Tim is putting forth some effort so I will help him out a little bit.' But that's just what I think." Hallelujah!! Something sunk in! I was so excited I almost started laughing, but decided against it because that might be interpreted wrong. :) We were just like, yup. that's why we done did told ya to stop smokin'! that's one of the promises of living the word of wisdom- to have added treasures of knowledge! Oh bless...

AND we were praying super hard this week to have more less actives at church. We called tons of them and tried to visit even more because the Pinkertons have been out of commission this week. We got nowhere. So we just prayed that someone would be inspired to come to church on Sunday. We had some in mind that were likely to come and we prayed lots! We were so blessed because we were surprised by who actually came to church! One man, who the Pinkertons have been working with, hasn't been to church in like 20+ years or something like that and he was there!!!! He wasn't just there for Sacrament either, he was there the whole time! Dressed very smart and reading scriptures and taking notes and his whole countenance just shone. The man was literally beaming. I hope that we will start to see him more. The Pinkertons are doing such a great job with the less actives. He made the difference We met standard of excellence this week because he came to church. We want to send him a thank you card. But don't worry we remembered to thank the Lord! After we do all we can do the Lord will bless us for our efforts. Not always how we expect but usually much better!

Love you all and I look forward to talking to you soon.

Apparently Sis Hedemark is going to skype her family. I didn't think that was allowed but I will find out if that's an option. However I know that y'all don't have a webcam. I'll probably just call. But I will let you know for sure next week.

 

Love, hugs, and fist bumps

Sister Benson