January 3, 2011- 5th email

Well, today was really special. I woke up and rushed to my computer to see if I had a letter from our Elder yet and nothing....about 9:15 I started to worry just a bit that something had happened and that he maybe was not able to write this week. I had a missionary discussion at our house this morning with Chad's fiance and so I put aside my worries for the moment. During the discussion all of a sudden the phone rang, I didn't answer it but recognized it to be a Utah number. In a short moment the phone rang again and it was the same number so I figured I better answer, so I excused myself and answered. It was a woman who said she was with mission ties in Brazil. Really all I heard or tuned into was BRAZIL (a little hyper sensitive to this word) I asked her if she was calling from Brazil and she stated yes! She wanted to know if I had received the email she sent last week with pictures attached from my son? I stated that I had not and she said she had emailed me 3 separate emails with photos attached because there were so many. All of a sudden in the background I heard voices, men's voices..Hi Sister Bennett, this is Elder Peterson, Elder Carrell.. I asked her if they were right there and she said yes, I asked if my son Elder Bennett was there as well she stated all 4 of them were there including Elder Chambers. I"m not quite sure how I held it together but I did!! What a sweet, tender mercy from the Lord. To be able to connect for just a second with my boy was such a joy, even though I didn't get to speak to him directly just knowing that he was there and that I was connected for that moment through that sister, was pure joy. I have not been able to receive the pictures yet, I'm still waiting for her to try to resend them to me but before I hung up I could hear Parker in the background and it was killing me to not ask to deliver him a message from me...so I did, I asked her to tell Elder Bennett that his mom loves him.....I heard him in the background tell her to tell me that Elder Bennett is the "BEST" missionary EVER!!! Ahhhh I hope these little tender mercies keep coming for the next 2 years because they are pretty S W E E T!!!
I will hopefully be posting pictures soon~~ as soon as they figure this all out!

At the end of Parkers letter I have added a small portion of Elder Carrell's letter home this week. It has to do with Parker so I thought I would share. Love these boys and their desire to be their very best!

hey mom,
everything went great this last week. i forgot to thank you for that blanket you made for me its doing fine too. this week went by really fast as does every week here though so you can tell cambria that ill be back in no time. seriously though its going by super fast and i cant believe I've already been out a month. 23 more to go haha.
new years was awesome. blew Christmas eve out of the water. the whole city was alive and bumpin. the sky was lit up all over the place and once again it looked liked bombs were being dropped everywhere over the city. the locals got bored, and drunk, so instead of shooting there fireworks that would go about 200 hundred feet into the air then blow up they decided to start shooting them straight down the street. i seen a guy get shot by a firework and then watch it fly 30 more feet and blow up. they were just shooting actual fireworks down the street and watching them explode at ground level. it was nutz. then they got a little more drunk and started chucking these really loud basically bombs into the streets and were trying to time it so it would go off when a car drove over it. luckily they didnt succeed. so we went to bed really late that night but its not like you could fall asleep anyways. my companion yelled to this one guy and all the sudden freaked out cause he said the guy waved back with a gun in his hand but i didnt care much to look.
we got our first cat call from some girls driving by last p day. they yelled hey boys then drove off so we just sat there and laughed like crazy. its weird cause just cause your an American everyone is just absolutely fascinated with you here.
the language is coming slow but its coming. we have to teach all our lessons in portuguese and its funny cause we always get so frustrated or discouraged cause we cant speak a foreing language fluently in 1 month and then we look back and notice at how just one month ago we were asking people how to say hello and thank you and now were teaching 15 minute lessons in portuguese. granted there really akward and theres tons of pauses to think about what theyre saying but were getting there. the Lord truely has blessed us with quick open minds and were picking it up better then i ever could have imagined in 1 month. i took spanish for two years and i know 10 times as much in 1 month then they taught me in two years. im expecting to be fluent by 3 and half months and maybe 3 months. it comes a lot easier then you think especially when they throw us out into the field and theres no one that speaks english within a 30 mile radius so once i get out ill pick it up much quicker.
tell jared i get his letters and im loving them. its nice to hear about home. thanks jared and lindsey. i loved the christmas card they sent me also and tell brother and sister jackson thanks for the christmas card and for all there help. im sorry but i wont be able to mail them back cause stamps cost 3 reals pronounced hay i's so its really expensive for me to send things especially since the fact i dont have a job here so i only have the money i was sent with but i really appreciated that and the russells sent me one to. remind me who the russells are again...
im praying for chad also and thats great about nicole taking the lessons. i really hope shes able to feel the spirit strongly and it can change her life for the better.
good luck in whatever calling you get and tell everyone i love them. our favorite districts left today to and when we first got in they took us under there wing and were like big brothers to us. they will be missed and they left us with the crowned trophy of the CTM. a nerf basketball hoop complete with a torn up ball and all and the yoyo of superiority. both items have been passed down for years here and your supposed to find the next group whose worthy of taking care of it. we are so honored i dont think you understand. its one of the best things thats ever happened to me and my district. "the dirty dogz" as were known now haha but weve made CTM hall of fame baby! i dont think you fully understand how much of an honor this is its been treasured and passed down for years given to the best districts. even the teachers here know the yoyo as the symbol of top dog around here. problem is theres so many terds around here we dont know who were gonna give it to after us so hpefully we'll get a good batch of fresh terds tomorrow that look like they have some potential and we can take them under our wings. welcome to the big leagues baby! maybe my last email out of here ill write some in portuguese so you can see the progress im making but for now eu amo voces,
Elder Bennett


Elder Carrell's letter home (part of it)
this week has also been a really growing week for me and my comp! since i have decided to come on a mission, i think about the returned missionaries and how most of them come home men. they leave home like little turd boys and come home men. i have been thinking about it so much and i want that for me so bad! i left a little turd. lets be honest i was! but now that i am here i see that there is so much potential for all of us in this world! and i want to reach the highest i possibly can and so does my comp. Elder Bennett. one night we said our companionship prayer and afterwards talked about this very subject and what we wanna be when its time to leave our missions. we talked for what seemed like hours about what is a man, and what a man should do. we talked about how we have found a new respect for women! and how we need to treat them all like queens cause basically its what they are! we tlked real long and hard about how to become a true man and we are trying harder everyday to reach that goal. I think the easiest way to Manhood is this mission. i get to have the opprotunity to be out here everyday for 2 years thinking about others. and the easiest way to find who you will become is to forget about yourself for a while and focus on others and everything will fall into place without even thinking about it! you find yourself by losing yourself.

No doubt these young men are going to return Men in every since of the word. Could not be prouder of these two elders. This is a true companionship, pushing each other to be there very best! LOVE IT!