Same Area, New Companion

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone ! 

Well, this week has been a pretty good one! On Wednesday we had transfers and I stayed and Elder Ballard ended up leaving and getting transferred to West Point! 

Saying Goodbye to Elder Ballard

My new companion is Elder Conrad. Elder Conrad is a super goofy guy and is an awesome missionary. He is from St. Gallen, Switzerland and has been out for 18 months!

New companion

This week we were pretty busy! We had a Family History Training, at the really cool, recently built Family History Center in Layton. It was really neat to get on there and see how far back you could get! While going way back I didn't realize how many different kings I am related to and it was awesome to Google them and read their history! At the training we learned the purpose of it and how we can help set up the people we taught or are teaching, an account so they too can look up their family history and possibly bring their family names to the temple!

New Family History Center in Layton

Elder Conrad was/still is in the Swiss Army back home so he loves to work out. We go and workout every morning at 5:30 am and it has been really nice getting back into shape! Elder Ballard picks us up, now that he has a car, and we go workout at Syracuse High school.

Elder Conrad from St. Gallen, Switzerland

We had an eventful Saturday, so Elder Conrad had a baptism up in his old area at 11 am and we had a Baptism scheduled for our investigator Jelena at 1.  Well, after we got done with his baptism we realized we had completely forgot to fill the font for Jelena's baptism, and filling the font is a long process. So we ended up pushing the baptism back till 3. Even though it was a small baptism it was spiritual. This was my first baptism I've ever done so I was ready, I told Jelena to make sure she bends her knees and I'll do the rest. That didn't happen. She would not go under. It ended up taking 6 times to baptize her! After the 3rd try she said "I nearly drowned as a kid and I'm terrified of going under water" so that was nice to know haha, but we ended up getting her under and it turned out good. We were able to confirm her on Sunday and we also brought another investigator we have on date to Sacrament and he enjoyed it, so things are looking good here in Clearfield South.

Jelena

On a spiritual thought, with Thanksgiving coming up this Thursday it is hard to not think about how blessed I am. I am super thankful to have been raised a member of the church, even though, a lot of time it is not easy, I know it is the right thing. I have been blessed with a super great family! During the 4 minute restoration, the second point we always emphasize is that Heavenly Father Loved us so much that he gave us families. The reason He gave us families is so that we can grow together as one unit in love, to feel the spirit and learn together. I'm truly grateful for my family, they have done so much for me and if it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't be on a mission! 

Here is a scripture that I liked on the topic of Thanksgiving:

Alma 34:38- That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and be sure to eat a lot of food!

House of the Lord

Hey everyone, so this week was a good week! Sorry this a pretty short blog! 

On Tuesday we had the wonderful opportunity to go to the temple this week! I am super blessed to be serving a mission in Utah where there are temples everywhere! So we have a Mission Temple Day and each zone is designated times to go through the temple! We had the 2:30 pm session. We got there pretty early so we ended up going to Farrs Ice Cream, I have heard a lot about this place and I was excited to go! It was good, but I am more of a soft serve kinda guy! 

The Temple Trip was awesome, it was really cool to be there with all the other missionaries and to see our mission president there.

Ogden Temple

After the Temple trip we ate with the Pierces again! This time they made one of my favorite meals, They made roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, rolls, and salad! It was super good and it is always a good time with the Pierce family! 

We started teaching a mom and her daughter named Jelena and Natasha, they are super excited to learn more every lesson and are planning on being baptized this Saturday! Which is super exciting!

 We did exchanges this week with our zone leaders which was fun! It is always fun to learn from a different companion and it is cool to go to a new area or show them the people we are teaching!

On a spiritual note I am thankful for the opportunity we have to go to the temple! I am super blessed to live so close to a temple that is less than an hour, back in Nebraska and here in Utah. Sometimes I don't always feel like going but when I do I feel so spiritually refreshed and good inside! The temple is the House of the Lord and is a place you can go to forget the trials and temptations of the world! There is an undeniable spirit in the temple and it is a place we can go to feel that!

3 Months in the Mission

After the Fireside

Hey everyone! Wow I can't believe how fast time is flying here! Thursday November 3rd marked 3 months that I have been on my mission! It seems like yesterday I boarded that plane for Utah! This week was a fairly good week! On Wednesday we had our weekly district meeting, which is always great because we learn new spiritual things and ways to improve our teaching each week! This week we did a lot of inviting. On Tuesday night and Wednesday night we went around to all three church buildings and invited all the youth to invite there friends and to come to the musical fireside this Sunday!

We didn't have a really busy week of teaching, we are searching each day to find new people to teach! We have a few investigators we are working with as well as a family we are trying to reactivate. We have been really blessed this week to receive like 7 referrals! We are really hoping that those referrals turn into some solid investigators as well as baptisms! That is the great thing about Utah is that we get a lot of referrals from members and that certainly helps with people to teach!

I was sad to hear that the Huskers got beat, haha! Oh well I still love them. Sunday was an awesome day, we had 3 people we are teaching come to sacrament meeting which is so good. We also were able to help confirm Cole Young, our recent convert baptism, as a member of the church! We also had the Musical Fireside on Sunday! It was awesome, although we didn't sing in it, I could really feel the spirit. The Ogden Tabernacle was completely packed all the way to the back. We went with a really cool family, the Johnsons!

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Musical Fireside at Ogden Tabernacle

On a spiritual note I just want to talk about the power of music! What a great experience it was to listen to the wonderful spiritual songs that the Ogden Mission sang. Songs can carry a strong message that can really help change your thoughts and mood! I know for a fact that it is not by chance that we have these Musical Firesides, song always for me brings a strong spirit and that is one way I feel the Spirit the most! On our programs that we handed out to everyone there were two sheets, one was the program and the other was a referral sheet, President Jaggi during the fireside got up and invited everyone to take a few moments and write down someone who they would like to meet with the missionaries, today President posted on Facebook that we have received over 100 referrals from this fireside! That is super awesome and I hope each and everyone of those referrals turn into baptisms! Have a great week everyone!

-Love Elder Bennett

Halloween and a Haircut

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope everyone had a fun safe night! So this was a fairly good week. We were supposed to go to rehearsal on Tuesday for our Ogden Utah Mission Fireside coming up but our zone leaders forgot us and so since we missed that we are way behind which is a bummer and won't be singing in it. We had a great district meeting this week and we set up a zone action plan of how we can become a better zone in finding and baptizing. We set a goal of 22 baptisms for our zone in the month of November!.

New Haircut

The bugs are bad here in Utah right now! on our way to a dinner appointment me and Elder Ballard rode our bikes right into a swarm of little flies and we had hundreds on us, it is quite disgusting because whenever we ride bikes they are on us. At least the cold weather will probably kill them off which will be great!

Sent from some members at the Ward Trunk or Treat

On Friday we had the great opportunity of being able to meet a few general authorities. We got to meet Elder Christensen (President of the 70) and Elder Natress of the 70, both of them spoke at the latest General Conference. They were here in Ogden doing a mission tour. We got to shake their hands and meet them. We were also able to have a question and answer with them as well as hear them speak on a few things they wanted to. I learned a lot of good insights and got some of my own questions answered. We then had a awesome lasagna lunch with everyone and it was fun to talk with the other missionaries.

Meeting Elder Christensen and Natress (taken from the mission Facebook page)

We went to a lot of trunk r treat activities this week. We went to one that the Spanish elders invited us too as well as many of the ones in our area. There was a lot of good food, candy, and interesting costumes, still none of them beat the ones from back in my home ward! This week me and Elder Ballard gave talks in the West Park Ward. I spoke on loving thy neighbor and he spoke on member missionary work. I thought it was going to be nerve racking, being that there is twice as many people as I am used to speaking to but it was really easy and I enjoyed preparing one.

For Halloween we got our cards renewed so we had a good time getting some much needed groceries. The weather was awesome for Halloween so everyone was out that day, the Walmart was packed and the lines were crazy long. We tried getting haircuts but they were closed so they told us to come back on Tuesday so we did during our lunch time. For Halloween we went over to a members house and we had pizza and handed out candy to all the kids until we had to be home which was fun!

So on a spiritual note, again we had the opportunity to give a lot of blessings to people in need this week! Each and everyday we must do what we have to do to remain a worthy priesthood holder. You never know when your time is going to come along that you need to give a blessing. So many times we hear many awesome experiences from General Conferences, and from youth videos about times that a blessing has helped tremendously. I loved getting a blessing from my dad each year before school. It was a awesome feeling when you were able to have that sense of comfort and peace and I love being able to give that to other people!

Another angle on that new haircut

Have a great week everyone!

-Love Elder Bennett

sorry I didn't take many pictures this week!

The Real Reason We are Here on Earth

Halloween Package from his Mummy!

I am doing a really bad job of getting these up on time! Well, this week was a pretty good week. On Tuesday we had dinner at a members house and they helped us get a presentation cardboard cut-out for our companionship unity poster that we had to prepare and present at Zone Conference the next day. We actually spent some time on the board and made it look nice. Wednesday we had Zone Conference. Wednesday was a full spiritual day, we learned many things from the other missionaries in the zone as well as the APs, and President and Sister Jaggi. President Jaggi gave a really awesome lesson about Joseph Smith and I learned some things I didn't know before, which is always awesome. We also had a really good lunch while we were there, we had chili, baked potatoes, rolls, and brownies it was good, the mission always keeps us well fed.

With Elder Ballard

Zone Conference poster

Thursday morning, we had the opportunity to help our landlord fix his sons car, well, really it was all Elder Ballard. He was able to help weld a part on our landlord's car, I took welding in high school but I don't think I could have done as good as he did haha. We also had a awesome night at a members house. We ate with the Hale Family. They made French dip and it was really good, as well as refreshing because we have been having pizza, tacos, and spaghetti for the last week. We had a good time with them and the dad showed us some of his cars which was cool.

We had quite the interesting experience after the dinner. We were heading to the church to use the computer, when we got to the church the silent visual alarms were going off in the church building. We walked around the whole building to see if anyone had broken in or if there was a fire and there was nothing we could see. We tried calling the Bishop but he didn't answer. A member pulled up and asked us what was going on and we told him the situation and we told him we were going to call the police and he said sounds good. Well, I told elder Ballard I wanted to call the police because it has always been in my list of things I've wanted to do haha. So, we called the police and told them what happened and 2 firetrucks and 2 ambulances came and the building manager showed up as well and he shut the alarms off. I guess the reason they were going off was due to faulty alarm being triggered. The firefighters still swept the building to make sure everything was clear and good, it ended up being nothing but hey, it made for one interesting night! Sorry for the low quality pictures all I had was my tablet and the camera isn't very good!

Checked off his bucket list, lol!

Friday was a great day! We had Cole's baptism today. We got the church all set up for it a couple hours before and got the font filled. All the family was able to make it and the baptism went really smoothly!

Cole's Baptsim Day

After the baptism, Brother Hale stopped by and brought us a huge surprise. He gave us a huge laundry basket full of food, snacks, etc. And we found a note in there with some money. I can't believe how spoiled we get here in Utah and I love it, I am also very grateful for the love that is shown to us here.

Brother Hale

Totally Spoiled!

All our favorites!

So generous!

On Sunday we had a special Stake Multi Conference Broadcast for the northern part of Utah and some of Idaho. We went to it at the Stake Center close to our house and it was packed. There was a lot of good messages, and it was cool to have President and Sister Jaggi on that stand representing the Utah Ogden Mission at the Conference. We also were able to hear Elder Craig C. Christensen, the President of the Seventy speak, he is doing a mission tour of the Ogden Utah mission and we get to meet and talk to him on Friday. Monday was a another day we just stayed at the apartment. It was raining all day and we didn't have anything planned.

This week's spiritual message would be on priesthood blessings. On Monday, we got a phone call around noon asking us if we could come give a blessing down at some rundown apartments a little ways from our house. He said he hated to call us but he tried multiple people and he couldn't get anyone. I don't know about Elder Ballard but I personally was kinda mad and upset because, this was our day we had to just relax. Well, we got changed and we biked over in the pouring rain. We got there and we were able to give the blessing. I was truly grateful for the opportunity to give this man a blessing. His living conditions were slim to none, he was almost completely blind and he was sick. I was really humbled by the opportunity we had and was thankful for how blessed I have been in my life. I made it a point to give the guy who was sick our number and told him to text or call us if he ever needed anything and I let him know we were here for him. That event made my day 10x better. I really like the topic of charity and it is something I try to work on each day. I really like the verses and the meaning of Moroni 7:45-47

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail
47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

I just wanted to bear my testimony about the love of Christ, I was so thankful for the opportunity I had to humble myself and to see that the real reason we are here in this earth is to have charity for our brothers and sisters. I invite you all to look for and pray for an opportunity to show the pure love of Christ to someone you know or maybe someone you don't, I know if you do that you will feel 10x better and will want to make it a habit, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Halloween Package from home

On the Straight and Narrow Path

The weather is getting cooler

 Hey everyone sorry for the late blog post this week! So this week was a pretty good week here in Clearfield Utah. Not much happened this week until Wednesday. We had service at the Community Foodbank again this week haha, we have served there so many times!. This time we mopped the entire warehouse, it actually turned out to be pretty fun. This week we also had the awesome privilege of going out to eat twice with return missionaries. The first missionary has been home for about three weeks and he served in Riverside, California. He took us to a Hawaiian Barbecue restaurant. It was really good and it was cool hearing some of his experiences on the mission. It's not to often we eat Hawaiian. The second returned missionary we ate with has been home almost a year now. He served in Colorado and he took us to Texas Roadhouse! I really enjoyed it because we have Texas Roadhouse back in Nebraska! We definitely took home some of their rolls in a box.

On Friday,  we went to the primary program practice in the Chrisim Meadow Ward and we talked to all the primary kids a bit about the importance of doing missionary work and how cool it would be to invite their friends to see the program. Also on Friday we were able to get a church building opened up and play Volleyball with a lot of the adults and some investigators and less actives in the West Park Ward, it was a lot of fun! On Saturday our landlord, Brother Berry, took us out to eat at the Chinese Dragon, it was super good. On Sunday we had the privilege of being able to listen a church historian come and talk to us about Joseph Smith. I learned a lot of things that I have never heard of before and it was interesting to hear things about Joseph's life. After that he was able to answer a lot of people's questions and he talked to us about the importance of getting to know our church history better.

Volleyball

Monday was a pretty relaxed day. We decided to stay at the apartment for the day and just relax. This was the first p-day where we haven't had anything planned and it was nice to not have to worry about being somewhere and then being gone all day. We got a lot of things accomplished and it was a much needed day off.

A Malimu named Ruger

On a spiritual note, I was reading in first Nephi Chapter 11 and in this chapter Nephi is wanting to know about the things his father Lehi knows. Much of this chapter is about Nephi being talked to by an angel and having things revealed unto him. Two of the main things that stuck out to me were when he is shown the tree of life and the great and spacious building. At one point within the chapter the angel asks Nephi if he knows what the tree of life represents. Nephi is able to answer that question in verses 21-23. Nephi realizes that the tree of life represents the love of God. Later on Nephi is also shown the Great and Spacious building. From what he saw he learns that the building represents the pride of the world.

A Husker fan in Utah

We should all be striving to follow the iron rod to the tree of life and staying on the straight and narrow path back to our Heavenly Father. It is not easy to stay on the path with the worldly things we face today. One thing I've learned on my mission is to rely on the Lord and to put our faith in Him that He will help us stay on the straight and narrow. I know that if we do that, we will notice a difference in our lives and I can testify that I have noticed that while serving a mission.

Power of the Book of Mormon

Serious picture in his new floral tie

Sorry for the late weekly update but here it is! Well it was a pretty good week. On Wednesday we went up the Habitat for Humanity up in Ogden which partners with Weber State College. The place we worked was a big warehouse store deal and we built some shelves to put windows in. We also helped unload stuff for the store. There was a communication error so me and Elder Ballard were the only ones there haha, but it went good. We got some free Weber State T-shirts out so that was a bonus.

Free T-shirt

This week was transfer week. I didn't go anywhere and I am still with Elder Ballard which is good! The Weber East Zone seems completely different now, there are so many new faces and new missionaries. It was fun to get to know everyone and I was happy to see my MTC roommate, Elder Johnson, join the Weber East Zone! 

Another highlight this week, Aiden (the 9 year old we baptized) his families washer went out and they couldn't afford a new one. So one day I signed up on "Items Needed" list at the Sunset building while on exchanges and a few days later we get a call saying we have a washer for you! It was awesome because the folks who gave it to us were able to take it down to Aidens house and we unloaded it hooked it up for them! They were so grateful and you could tell they were super happy! Which always makes us happy. We were also able to help a family move into a new house, so we had a lot of service opportunities this week which is awesome!

We ate out lot this week! And what is so great about serving in the Ogden Utah mission is everywhere you eat is 1, good and 2 either discounted or free for missionaries! We ate at Sills (breakfast place), Paces-2 times (burger place), and Del Taco. Also one of my favorite places to go get a drink is Fiiz. It is a soda cafe deal where you can mix your favorite Drinks with all kinds of flavorings. I have gotten the Purple Nurple (MT. Dew and Grape) and the Xandew ( pineapple and berry with mt dew). It is a great place and they give the missionaries drinks for a dollar which is great. 

Fiiz drinks

We also attended a chili cook off in the West Park ward. They had really good food and it was to be able to play catch (baseball) and ultimate Frisbee.

For P-day we played speedball as a zone. It was a lot of fun as usual and President Jaggi came and played with us for a couple hours which is awesome! 

Recently the mission has started a 90 day Book of Mormon reading challenge. I am a little behind because I started late but what an awesome opportunity we have to read the Book of Mormon. Before my mission we read the Book of Mormon as a family, but I haven't really taken the time to read the whole thing by myself and my goal is to have it done and have it read many many times before I go home. Something that is helping me to focus on what I am reading is writing down the keys points and events that take place in each chapter. From what I have noticed so far it is easier for me to remember what went on when I write these things down, which is making it easier for me to continue reading which is great! 

I know the power of the Book of Mormon and what it can do in our everyday lives. I love how the Book of Mormon isn't there to replace the Bible at all, but it is a companion to the Bible. There teachings go hand in hand and I love reading from both and love how both books contain testaments of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that still pertain to this day and age. The mission office has pictures up on the wall and they have this meme that says "Mormons, the most secretive church that knocks on your door to tell you all about it".

The Book of Mormon is open for everyone to read! Moroni 10: 3-5 says:


3. Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
4. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

I would like to invite all of you to read it and to pray ask Heavenly Father is these things are true.!

Finished a burger at Scruds & got to sign the wall

Go Big Red!!