Elder Bennett has arrived!

Itinerary

Here they come!

Elder Bennett has arrived!

Elder Bennett

We are thrilled to have him here with us, he is healthy and happy to be here.

With President and Sister Jaggi

Today we picked up our new missionaries at the train station and on our way to the Mission Office we stopped at the Ogden Temple and Ogden Tabernacle. 

Missionaries arriving

At the Ogden Tabernacle

At the Ogden Temple

We have training today and tomorrow after which they will be paired with their companion. 

Incoming missionaries

We will send another email tomorrow letting you know where they were assigned and who their new companion is. Enjoy the pictures attached.

Jeremy R. Jaggi
President, Utah Ogden Mission

Hey guys just letting you know I made it safely to Ogden! I can't believe how amazing it is out here, we have already started tracting and we are a Facebook mission, I also got your package it was awesome! I will tell you more in detail and share pics when I get time! Love you guys so much! Look for pics on President Jaggis Facebook wall too.

Last Week in the MTC

Tuesday August 16th:


So today started out with an early trip to the temple, we decided to get up at 4:15 a.m. to get ready for a 5:30 session. The session went really cool and it was fun to go through with my roommates. It was a pretty normal P-Day. We did our laundry and in between loads we went back to the room and wrote our emails. We just decided to get sack lunch again and just chill in our room and continue writing. We each got about a 2 hour nap which was really refreshing and helped the day go by fast. After that we went to the devotional. There were rumors that Jefferey R. Holland was in town and that he was speaking to us. They had teleprompters and they said that it was going to be live on tv so I figured it had to be him. Well, even though we shouldn't have been, we were all sort of disappointed when The Young Womens General President Sister Oscarson came in. She said " I'm sorry about this, but I heard a rumor that Elder Holland who is actually in Provo today, was supposed to speak, well, sorry you get me tonight". She was really good and it was overall a good day.

Elder Bennett

Wednesday August 17th:


Today we had the privilege of being able to host! That means we got to help be a host and show the brand new missionaries around the campus, show them there rooms, and show them where to go. There was going to be 574 incoming missionaries that day versus our 800+ missionaries who came in when I did on August 3rd. It was actually pretty hard not to cry because we had to watch all the missionaries families say goodbye for two years right there which reminded me of my going away. The first random missionary I hosted was from Utah and was going to the Reno Nevada, he was pretty laid back and was excited to be there. As I took him to his room I found out that he was in my Zone and that I was his zone leader. We had a little mixup because he was given the wrong key. After that I went back and hosted another random elder. It was funny because this guy was from Utah as well and was going to the Reno Nevada mission and was staying in the exact same room as the other missionary I hosted and I was also his zone leader. His brother also served in the Omaha Nebraska Mission. We had new missionary orientation where me and Peterson were in charge of everyone in the new districts in our zone. It was a good time and there were a lot of good missionaries, ready to work, which was awesome.

I wasn't receiving my DearElder letters for some reason and then just one day, I got all of them at once, haha

Thursday August 18th:


I was soo tired today!. After staying up late last night I did not want to get up. We had what we they call "Infield Orientation" all day. We learned a lot of new things/ what to expect in the field. It was really hard to stay awake because of how tired we were. We had our switch day which means we switch companions for a day. I was with Elder Beals, who is hilarious and did a good job of trying to keep me awake. It was cool because since we were all leaving this next week we practiced talking to people as if we were on the the plane, bus, or train traveling to our mission locations. I paired up with this elder form California. I told him I was from Nebraska and was on my way to Ogden and he said that his best friend from high school is a quarterback at Nebraska. I asked who it was and he said it was Patrick O' Brien! It was cool to talk with him about it and was fun to hear about their high school team.

Awesome package from my Aunt Lorilee

Friday August 19th:


Today was a really average day. We have been teaching this guy named Ky and it has been pretty difficult in our TRCs. He doesn't know who God is or what religion even is so it has been a new challenge for us to explain things to him because he has a very scientific based mind. Overall it went good with him. After that we had like a 4 hour study time, and me and Peterson just went around and talked to people from the new districts more. It was to hear about everyones backgrounds and where they are from. Me, Beals Johnson, Peterson, Welch, and Pilling stayed up really late that night and talked about life in general and about our missions. It made me think of how blessed I am to have met these wonderful friends and to be able to share memories with them.

Our district at the temple

Saturday August 20th:


Today started off earlier than usual with service. We got up at 6 a.m. and headed over for service. The jobs were pretty easy but since we are supposed to be doing at least an hours worth of service the jobs they had us do at the end were pretty pointless haha. During our downtime today, Our districts as well as District D ( the two departing districts leaving this week) got to together to practice our choir piece of a Child's Prayer. For only have 4 girls in both district combined the song sounded awesome in practice time. Me and Elder Peterson had the opportunity of giving a blessing to one of our sisters in our district who was struggling with home sickness. We also picked up our dry cleaning. Me and Welch decided to dry clean one of our suits since it was only 8$ which is a great deal. Throughout the day we get bored sometimes and we just take candid photos of everyone in our district randomly and share them around to pass the time. For some odd reason our room just became associated with Shrek and the Shrek movies and it was kind of a joke around our district about Shrek. For dinner we actually got some new food. We literally got fall of the bone ribs which were awesome. For so many people that have to be fed they were pretty dang good.

With Elder Welch and Branch President Harris

Sunday August 21st:


Today was our last Sunday here in the MTC! It is crazy to think I have already been here for 3 weeks. It feels like I have been here for months. Today was also our last meetings as Zone Leaders and it always is kind of sad when you have to give the phone up and give it to the new ones. Sacrament meeting was really good. Everyone is always so nervous because every week everyone in our Branch has to prepare a 3-5 minute talk on a topic and then they just randomly choose 3 people to speak so you never know if you will be called upon. I didn't get called so that brought a sense of relief somewhat haha. We then had our special number of a Child's Prayer which went really good and was really fun to sing. Later that day we had a departing devotional for all the missionaries leaving. There were over 800+ leaving which is an MTC Record. We then had or annual temple walk, as beautiful as the temple is, it isn't fun because it is super hot out!. On the way back in front of the MTC gates they grow red peppers and I don't know if they are meant to be picked but Elder Welch, Peterson, Thomas, Pilling, and Beals all took one and ate it. They all were sweating and crying and Pilling and Welch didn't even eat dinner because they kept feeling like they were going to vomit. Later that night was the special devotional. We got the opportunity to listen and sing with the Nashville Tribute Band. They were awesome! It was nice to here how amazing their voices were and I liked how I already had heard and listened to their songs, as well as had them on my tablet, so I could listen to them again. It was so powerful because we broke another MTC choir with over 1700+ people in the choir which would be like the MoTab choir and taking them x 5. We also got the opportunity to see two new church films that have never been seen before except for the General Authorities which was awesome. Overall it was an awesome day.

Stage for the Nashville Tribute Band

Monday August 22nd:


So last night me, Welch, Pilling, Peterson, and Beals stayed up till 3 am and just talked because it was pretty much our last night all together. We did our laundry early in the morning because we wouldn't get a chance to on Tuesday due to leaving. After that we had class which went good we all took pictures together afterwards with our teacher Brother Chapman. After lunch instead of our normal exercise time we used it to get a start on packing. I was pretty upset because I am not a good packer at all and my mom did all the packing in nice way that fit so when I first go there I decided to make a list of what went where and what went in what suitcase. Well, needless to say I lost the sheet and it took some time trying to figure out where I left it. After our other class and pictures with Sister Roberts we had dinner and then just went back to our rooms and started packing. It took quite a while but we all finally finished. Me and Elder Welch stayed up to write emails because with traveling tomorrow we don't know for certain if we would have emailing time since P-Days are usually Mondays now in the field. We decided to make a "Narnia hole" for those who don't know what that is, it is a tradition at the MTC where the Elders who stayed in the room before you leave something in a vent, behind a mirror, or anywhere that can be hidden and leave you surprises for the new people to find. We decided to embrace the Shrek joke and centered it around that. We hid it behind our window door and put a bunch of goodies and things that were green to represent Shrek. We left our emails and told the new elders who find it to email us when they do. It is crazy to think this is the last night. It is crazy to think how time is flying and don't know how well I'll take the adjustment tomorrow. I am super excited and super nervous at the same time and am just going to miss my friends here.

The roommates after devotional

Add caption

Elder Johnson and Elder Welch

Elder Peterson and Elder Bennett

A Good But Tiring Week at the MTC

Wednesday August 10th, 2016:

Elder Peterson & Elder Bennett at the temple

Today was a pretty average day. Even though we had P-day the day before, we worked out a lot and were all really tired that next day. Nothing really big happened till we had more lessons with our TRC's Jose and Brooke. We felt like we needed to teach Jose about families. We were still a little nervous because of how rough it went last time with him. We went in more confident and more prepared. We asked him if he had a family and if he was close to them. He almost got emotional and said "it's funny you mention that because I pack a bunch of photos in my back to show my friend later". They were all photos of his family and he then got emotional talking about his grandpa who died of cancer. We had a really good discussion with him and he seemed eager to learn and wanted us to come back. After that we taught Brooke. She is really open to learning about the gospel. We taught her a lot of good things ad she was also excited to learn. That night was also new missionary orientation. Elder Peterson and I, as well as the other zone leaders and sister training leaders, helped welcome the new missionaries in at a meeting. We introduced ourselves and then all the new missionaries did as well. It was really cool to meet them and afterwards Elder Peterson and I gave them a tour of the MTC. We were all pretty jealous of the missionaries going to Honolulu Hawaii. I also was very surprised to find a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, a giant bag of sour patch kids, and some cookies from my Aunt Shantelle and her family- which was awesome!

Care Packages

Thursday August 11th, 2016:

Thursday was a pretty easy going day as well. We learned how to make these really cool colored drinks at lunch and they are actually quite good. 

Rainbow Drinks

I finally decided to play volleyball with Welch and Peterson and it was really fun a lot of people in our district play so it's a good time. For the rest of the day it was pretty normal. We didn't have to teach Jose that day because he was gone so we just taught Brooke. She accepted our invitation to pray and read the Book of Mormon which was cool. We even got her to pray for the first time which was awesome. Our room decided we would start journaling throughout the day because we were getting to bed at around 11:30 due to distractions and having to write in our journal so that has helped save time. This night we actually stayed up past midnight just talked as roommates and really got to know each other which was a lot of fun.

Friday August 12th, 2016:

Today was a super long day. It seemed like everyone throughout the MTC was just so tired. Our entire class was falling asleep it was hard to stay awake. It is hard to sit in a classroom for 6 hours a day doing 3 hour blocks each time. 

Tiring Schedule

Long Days!

 Today was our last TRC visit with Jose and Brooke. Jose has came a long ways from the first time we met him. This last time he really opened up and wasn't afraid to ask us questions. We had a really great discussion and we invited him to be baptized and he accepted which was awesome. After that we taught Brooke. Brooke is always so happy which was awesome. We talked to her about the Plan of Salvation. Then we talked about Baptism and she said she really wanted to be baptized. It was awesome to have both our TRC's accept the invitation to be baptized. We will soon find out our new TRC's for next week.

Ugly Tie Day with Elder Johnson & Welch

Saturday August 13th, 2016:

What another tiring day. Today we had to wake up at 6 am for service. For being used to a daily schedule of getting up at 6:30 am, it surprises me how much a half an hour more of sleep can make. Peterson and I had to wipe down all the computers throughout this building and then had to vacuum a few rooms so it wasn't too bad but I felt like I was sleep walking. We got back with about 25 minutes left till we had to get ready for breakfast and Johnson and Welch were already back asleep. It was a well needed power nap. Today was a probably the least busy day of the week so far so I didn't have much to write about. During exercise time, Peterson and I  just stayed back in the room and took an hour and fifteen minute nap which was well needed.

Yummy Breakfast

Sunday August 14th, 2016:

Sundays are always the best days. The breakfast which is usually all you can eat wasn't there. They must have been running short on breakfast food because all they had was cereal to eat. After breakfast Elder Peterson and I had zone leader meeting where we were finally made Senior Zone leaders of the four districts here and the 2 new districts coming in. 6 districts is like the most districts they have had in a long time. We also finally got the holy grail, as they like to say, the phone! You can't doing anything except make calls and receive them. 

The Holy Grail!

It was funny because in the meeting they said they are going to be using plastic spoons for the day because over 200 spoons have gone missing from the cafeteria. Every dorm has vending machines and they serve ice cream cups so everyone takes the spoons for that. After that we had sacrament meeting which was really good we actually had the MTC president join in so that was cool. Everyone is required to prepare a 3-5 minute talk on a topic because they just choose you at the meeting, so you have no idea if you will be asked to give one. I wasn't called but it was a great meeting. Today was the worst day for lunch, there was so many people that the line wrapped around twice and we had to wait in line for over 45 minutes for lunch which threw all our class times off, the branch president said it was the longest line he has seen in 10 years. After lunch we did our Temple walk which was really cool but it was still so hot out so we didn't stay long. There was another huge line for dinner due to an early dinner for choir members which isn't ideal because over 1500 people are in the choir. We practiced two new songs so we will sing 4 songs total next Sunday. After that we had a cool devotional about conversion by Daniel K. Judd. Then we just stayed in the gym and watched 17 Miracles which was awesome! I love that movie and it brought me to tears.

Monday August 15th, 2016:

Today was a good day. We had had a pretty good breakfast with eggs and sausage and bagels which is always a great way to start our day. Then we just had class till lunch which we had Hamburgers and fries which was really good and filling. 

Hamburgers

Then we just had class till we had our new TRC with Ky. He is a big 300 pound Polynesian man with a pony tail. It was kind of difficult to teach him because he had no knowledge of God or of any religion, so it was pretty interesting talking to him and teaching him about Jesus Christ's love for him. For dinner they had Taco Bell which was really nice! 

Taco Bell!!!!!

But its the amount of food- good food that is not helping. I have gained 7 pounds since being here and they say that the average weight gain in Ogden is 40 pounds so lets hope that is not the case with me haha. We had about 4 hours of personal time so all the guys hung out together and had a good time. We then carried hanging out to the room and we were still up at past midnight talking until the security guard came and said that we were being to loud haha. We are planning on getting up at 4:15 am to go to the temple.

Late Night Snack Pile

Tuesday August 16th, 2016:

Our second P-day started off really early. We got up at 4:15 am to for a 5:30 session at the temple. Last time we tried going it was over an hour wait so we decided to beat everyone today. It was really good and fun to go with all the other missionaries. We got back around 8:05 for breakfast which closed at 8:10 so we barely made it for breakfast. We then started all our laundry and cleaned our room. Welch and I decided to get our suits dry cleaned, it was only 8 bucks, so we said why not. We have just been chilling back at our room emailing and then I'm going to take a long nap!

(Connor mentioned in an email today that he got to see his cousin Ethan quite a few times and talk with him, but unfortunately they never got a picture together. Ethan made the long journey to Orem today.)

Elder Bennett       

Bedroom

Elder Johnson & Elder Welch's Desk

Elder Bennett & Elder Peterson's desk

Closet space

Great First Week!

Hey everyone- how have you been?! Oh my goodness, there is so much to tell you I apologize for it being too long! 

Well, where to begin. The first week has been great! The first day we got there it was a lot of orientation type stuff and getting to know our way around campus. Like I think I mentioned earlier there was over 800 missionaries that came in so everything was pretty chaotic. The first evening we were there we sat through a large meeting called People and Your Purpose. It was a large meeting where they had investigators (members acting like investigators) sit at the front and they allowed us to ask them questions and give them answers based on there questions. It was really cool because it was kind of the like the first experience we all had as new missionaries. After that we had dinner and all the seasoned missionaries here love Wednesdays because of one thing, new missionaries= Utah Creamery Ice Cream. The ice cream is so good and they have so much food here its unbelievable, you never go hungry in the MTC. The first couple days the food has been great and its awesome because its sort of like a buffet because there are so many options. They have even had Chick'fil a and Papa Johns for dinner but after the first week you really start to get tired of the food and in the end you feel fat haha.

With  his companion Elder Peterson from Tuscon AZ

August 3rd Wednesday:

On that first day we had a district meeting where we were introduced to all the District and Zone leaders over our Branch. I am in District 43A. We all introduced ourselves and the leaders introduced themselves gave us another tour and answered any questions. Something pretty cool is in our branch we actually have John Bytheways grandson. He is kind of a bigger kid and a little goofy and but it is still cool. I also talked to a relation of Gordon B Hinkley. The beds haven't been to bad lately the room is fairly warm so I haven't even been sleeping with any blankets. The second day was so tiring. After getting up at three on Wednesday and running on an hour of sleep it was so hard to focus and stay awake. I figured it would take a few days to get into a consistent sleep cycle. Getting ready in the morning has been difficult. With only 6 showers and over 80-100 people on one floor its difficult to get a shower especially in the morning which is when I like to shower. At times you can be waiting up to 15 minutes for a shower to open leaving you with less than 15 to shower, get dressed, and walk all the way across campus for 7 a.m. class. I figured out by just waking up 5 minutes earlier than the scheduled wake up time I can be one of the first people in the shower. On that first day we met our morning teacher of what we call PI and that is when for most of the class we learn how to prepare and we study and practice giving the lessons to investigators. We surprisingly get a lot of time to just study by ourselves and with our companion. 

We also have our teacher be an investigator and we go into separate rooms and we teach him as an actual investigator his name was Zach Johnson . The first lesson with him was pretty rough it was our first time preparing and teaching an investigator a lesson. It was a struggle to find words, fit everything we wanted to say in, and flow together as a companionship. But I overall thought our first lesson went good we taught him about the restoration. Also in that first day they assigned like music directors, district leaders, online counselors and greeters. Elder Peterson or I didn't get a calling but that was alright. I was made Senior Companion so I kind of take the lead on everything regarding me and Elder Peterson. They all invited us to join the choir because they told us something special was happening August 21st and they can't tell us what it is and if you are in the choir you are guaranteed a seat. Well we were pretty excited anyways. Elder Peterson was in show choir and choir for 4 years so he is a really good singer. Elder Peterson is kind of short kid . He is from Tucson Arizona he has a fairly big family and his dad is actually an athletic trainer and has worked with JJ Watt before so that's pretty cool. He has a funny personality like to joke and has a strong testimony. The first couple days with him I was pretty quiet but we have grown close and I honestly couldn't have asked for a better companion. 

Roommates: Elder Bennett, Elder Peterson, Elder Johnson & Elder Welch

My roommates are awesome we have a lot in common and like to talk about anything. The other two roommates are Elder Welch and Elder Johnson. Elder Welch is a pretty tall funny dude. He played volleyball in high school and is really funny. He is the life of the room and he is always joking and does really good impressions. He wants to go to BYU and go into film, he likes to sing a lot and also is obsessed with Subaru cars. Elder Johnson is funny. He is really smart, didn't play sports and has a scholarship to go to Arizona State in computer sciences. We also noticed that you and his mom must have done a lot of the same things. We both had packed the same things and they were both packed the same. And we had a lot of the same things and he said his mom had joined some Facebook pages so I am wandering if you guys are in the same groups.

Temple Grounds

Thursday& Friday August 4,5
Day two and three were fairly easy days. Today was the first day we didn't have to wear a suit coat so we all enjoyed wearing our shortsleeve shirts because it is hot up here. 

Shortsleeves

That day in class we got taught how to invite people to be baptized and it really surprised me that they encouraged us to invite people to be baptized on the first lesson so that they have a goal to work towards down the road. Today was the first exercise day which was fun. The gym is pretty big but there are so many people its packed. I played basketball the whole time and just shot around. I haven't shot in a while so I was pretty rusty but it was still fun. One thing that kind of stinks is that there are so many people in the gym that you are only allowed to play 3 vs 3 basketball games and you play first one to six by ones. So when a game finishes there will be 15-20 people in a line shooting to get into a game so if you miss a free throw once you most likely won't be playing. Its nice because they have an hour exercise time and then 30 minutes to shower and get redressed. On this day we also learned about the proper way to use our tablets my district is one the only districts that we all have electronics so its pretty cool. ( I accidentally mixed these days up so there are some Thursday and some Fridays things.)

Saturday August 6th:

Today was an awesome day although we had to get up at 6 am to do service. We have an alloted hour service time where you are supposed to be serving the whole hour but since there are so many missinoaries here and our branch has one designated building we can only do so much before it is done. Me, Elder Peterson, Elder Welch, and Elder Johnson were assigned to set up the small chapels for sacrament service so it was really easy. 

 Today was the second lesson we had with Zach it went a lot better this time we had had an easier time talking and teaching him. He said he had tried praying but never felt like ever gets an answer. So we taught him about prayer and challanged him to pray. Later that day we were scheduled to teach him again. This time we went in with the mindset to be more personal and just talk with him because the first lessons we felt like we were doing all the talking. So we talked about his school and his life. He had said he prayed and still hasn't gotten an answer so we shared with him 2 Chronicles 7:14 and Mosiah 3:4 with him and then placed a Book of Mormon. After we did he said that's exactly wanted he needed to hear and then started legit crying, there were tears coming down his face. After we said goodbye we couldn't tell if he was fake crying or actually but I think it would be pretty hard to fake cry on the spot. So that was really cool and the highlight of my day. We also had TRC orientation where were told about how the program worked and then who we got. We got Brooke Black and Jose Meza-Leon.

Sunday August 7th:

Wow this has been one of my favorite days so far. The day started out with us being 15 minutes late to class because of the shower situation. Not two minutes after we got there our zone leaders came and pulled me and Elder Peterson out. The first thought that came to our heads was " oh no we are going to get a lecture about the importance of being on time" but instead they said " congratulations you are now the new zone leaders. First thought was holy cow I wasn't expecting that and then just kinda shocked and nervous We went right into branch council meeting where we learned a lot.

We are the assistant zone leaders for this next week until the senior zone leaders leave then we will be the head zone leaders for our last week. We then had sacrament meeting and it was awesome it was fast Sunday so we had testimony meeting. It was really cool and I could feel the spirit so strong. A lot of the missionaries who shared were the third week people who were leaving that Monday or Wednesday. Elder Welch got really emotional because a person was talking about the strength they gain from getting letters from home and he hasn't received a single thing yet so he was pretty emotional over that. Since so many people in our branch shared testimonies we went 5-7 minutes over and we had mission conference afterwards and they don't waste a minute here so we were part of the 500-1000 people who filled the overfill chapels and didn't get to fit in the gym overall it was good. Then we had priesthood meeting and then another branch council meeting. 

Then finally we got to go on a temple walk and see the temple we all took pictures as a district and as a branch but I don't have the branch picture yet. It was hard to see because it was so bright and it was very hot there. 

On the way to the temple

District 43A

Since we had choir practice that day we ate an early dinner at 3:40 and headed down to stand in line to get into the auditorium to have practice. The line was out the door and it took about 45 minutes to even get into the gym and another hour and 30 minutes just for people to get into the gym. We practiced Praise to the Man and we are singing another song but I can't remember the name of it but the Nashville Tribute Band is going to be there on the 21st to sing it with us which is cool. 

After practice we stayed in the gym for a fireside and it was cool because the person talking was Jeffery R Holland Son Matthew Holland who is the UVU President. He sounds a lot like his dad and he talked about Joseph Smith. He told a lot of things about Joseph Smith and his family hardships that I have never heard of it was awesome and I could really feel the spirit. One elder sang a solo in honor of Joseph Smith and sang Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief which was really good and at the end we sang Praise to the Man. There were over 1500 people in the choir which is the most ever in the MTC history and just singing that song it was so cool and powerful. 

After that we had film showings and one of the ones that everyone recommends is Character of Christ by David A Bednar. So we got in there and everyone was saying how it was the best talk they have ever heard, it was the highlight of there mission, it was amazing. I was really hoping for that but I don't know if I was just super tired or just came in with high expectations but I thought it was pretty good but not jaw dropping like everyone said it was. It talked a lot about being more like Christ. Some of my favorite things from it was that Jesus Christ turned out with love when the natural man would be selfish and is an enemy to God until we put off the natural man. He also said "you are to convert yourself to the lord and not just have a testimony" and my favorite thing was he said " The greatest convert on your mission should be you". And that really hit home with me because I knew I need to change and I need to be converted and that's one of the reasons I came is to see that change in me as well as others.

Monday August 8th:

Today was a pretty normal day Except for the TRC. Our first TRC lesson was with Jose- Meza Leon and we get a little synopsis of them before we go to have somewhat something to prepare for. Well Jose is a boxer, humanitarian (does a lot of charity work), and he believes with all religions. When we first walked in it was pretty nerve racking. He just sat there and stared at us all while eating a red bell pepper like an apple. We tried teaching him about the restoration and how the priesthood was upon the earth and was removed. We also talked about how our priesthood is what makes our church unique. It was hard because he believed due to his Catholic Faith that Peter received the Apostolic priesthood back then and it never left the earth. Then he asked how he would treat other religions. I said that we would love them and respect them and be kind and be willing to learn about what they believe and not ignore them. Apparently that rubbed him the wrong way because went on a 10 minute rant of how God would do more than just respect them and that he would love them. Afterwards I apologize and said " I am sorry, I really liked what you said Jose and I totally agree with you I didn't mean to have respect come across that way". The hardest challenge is going to be convincing him that our church is the only true church because he believes that the Lord would love all the churches and that if they are doing his work no matter what church that the Lord is satisfied. So after that lesson Elder Peterson and I felt really down and gloomy. 

View from our classroom

After dinner we had our other TRC investigator named Brooke Black. She is a young college student attending BYU and she lives with her husband in her Mormon friend's basement and felt it was time to learn about her friend's religion from the missionaries. This one went a lot better. She was really sweet, happy, and willing to listen. She asked us if there was a God and how she has heard that God is always angry and does things to his people if they don't obey. We shared with her that God loves her and that she is a daughter of God. We then went on to talk about the restoration and she listened a lot. We invited her to Baptism, you could tell she was nervous and surprised and we reassured her we would teach her a lot more. We then challenged her to pray and she said that she would would pray on her own and ask if God was there. She said she would say the prayer next time we visited her. Sister Black was definitley a blessing because our spirits were lifted and we felt a lot better.

Tuesday:

Well today is our first P-Day we slept in till 7 and got dressed to go to the temple. We were told it was best to go early. So after breakfast we headed up there for a session. Well we were told it would be over and hour wait so we decided to go next week. People from our district went at 5:30 am this morning so we might have to do that next week. We got all our laundry done and it was pretty easy. We just got lunch and have been eating in our rooms and cleaning up. This keyboard is really helpful and I am really glad I got it. So thats pretty much today and we can nap too so I'm happy about that.


Anyways ,I really miss you guys and love you very much! It is crazy how fast time is going and how fun it has actually been I hope everything is going really well back home. Tell Mo I said Hey puppy! 

Elder Bennett