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 :)