Wiser. . . Like Shadow!

  Mom,
Happy Birthday Riley and Mom. congrats on another year of life! i hope that this year is full of health and happiness for you all. love you two!
     ive never understood celebrating birthdays, do we celebrate them to help us feel a little better about getting older and closer to dying... im tryin to stay 20 the rest of my life.
i love cascavel so much! the weather here is so much nicer, and the people are way more receptive to us. haha im gonna baptize every week here! the people are a lot more accepting of us and its not very hot, its actually good weather with a nice breeze always. haha im so happy right now. the only problem is that im training, i have to stay in the house a lot and help Elder Jewell with the extra studying. its something everyone has to do in there first 12 weeks in the field, its cool and all but it takes 2 hours out of everyday. its whatevs though, im still gonna baptize weekly here though! :D
   skyping was pretty awesome, went by really fast though but it was nice to see everyone together. this next Christmas ill be there and not skyping with everyone, im happy about that. i heard rileys gonna baptize someone huh? still wants to be just like his big brother! tell him to get his own life! ;D im joking thats really cool should be exciting!
    personally im scared of this new age limit for sisters, generally, im not saying all, but the sisters that come out are out because they havent gotten married yet. now were gonna get sisters that are out on there mission that are 19, why does this hold a potential problem, cause there gonna be sisters that probably would have been married by the time they turned 21. like heather dockstader, thats a pretty girl there, im 99 percent sure she would get married to someone within the next 2 years before she had the opportunity to serve. what am i trying to say here? theres gonna be pretty sisters in the field and i dont like it. hopefully ill be gone before most of them get there visas to come to my mission. i hope she writes me though while shes in berminham alabama ;D
  im changing as a missionary. ive found that the more i repent, the more power my words have when i speak, the more powerful my Priesthood becauses when im cleaner. Priesthood power is so much more powerful with virtue. i dont feel like ive changed my style of teaching up that much but for some reason people are starting to accept my invites a lot more, my challenges that i make to people seem to be stronger and impact them more. people believe in me as a representative of Jesus Christ more i think. all i know is that im inviting people to follow Jesus and theyre actually following Him being baptized! ive found power in repentance, a power that comes from letting virtue garnish your thoughts, desires, words and actions unceasingly. other elders are asking me what im doing differently because they percieve the powerful effect that my words are having on my investigators. the Lord is blessing me a lot more in His work. i dont know how to explain it, i used to leave the house every morning thinking, lets see if God will put an elect person in front of us today! now i leave the house knowing that will put an elect person or family in front of me today. the other day another elder told me, i remember you from a year ago, you were super excited about missionary work and you yelled alot. why are you quieter now? i replied, im still excited, im just excited with wisdom. he asked me what that meant, i replied i dont exactly know haha something has just changed. i feel more worthy. elder jewell was asking me a bunch of questions about how were gonna baptize this girl this week, i told him to not worry about it. just sit back and watch, im the old dog and youre the young pup, just watch how its done. and it was done and now her moms gonna be baptized this saturday.
    i feel like i came onto the mission as that young dog ( i forgot his name) from the movie homeward bound and now ive turned into shadow. homeward bound analogy to end my letter, still love that movie to death.  
         love you all!!!
                - Elder Bennett
Dad,
      ya skype was awesome, im glad it was my last Christmas skype on the mission though haha. next year ill be there!
  thats crazy to think that riley is already turned 16, man how time flies! baptizing someone is super duper easy actually, they just have to bend there knees and its basically all done. who is this kid though? thats crazy to hear cause i dont ever remember hearing about any convert baptisms in our ward... im excited though. i made the batizador list this week and im gonna keep on baptizing weekly! someday im gonna move to daily baptisms!!! ever since i changed to Elder Bennett, ive baptized every week. Vamos Lá!!!!
      sounds like there basketball team is pretty good, does riley get in much?
    how did cambria get a pimpall? isnt she only 10?!! i dont understand how that happens?
probably cause shes got armenian in her blood.
   well i love this area a alot more, the members are way more excited about everything here, they just havent had very many baptisms the last couple months, then i showed up.
         love you a ton dad, keep the family up and running!
       - Elder Bennett

Cascavel with a new companion

Mom
        when i first got in the field there already was another elder bennett in our mission and you cant have two missionaries with the same name so i had to change. he went home in september so i decided id stay elder parker until i left tupã because all my recent converts and everyone already new me as that. now that i left ive swithched back, its that simple.
         My new companion is  elder jewell he is 6'4 and 240 pounds and is from highland utah. i dont think he has any blog or anything but hes got a sister!  honestly, hes new, he has no idea whats going on and his last comp kind of just put him down all the time so he doesnt really have any self confidence. but he baptized his first person this week! i love first week baptisms! we baptized a young man named mario, hes really cool, hes lived in brazil for the last 3 years. he was living in japan. he speaks japanese portuguese and english fluent. hes a smart young man, i dont know how the last missionary here didnt baptize him? i think all it lacked was just an invite to be baptized haha.
    my new address is:
                                 R. Pio Xll, 1701- AP 0019 BL C
                                     CEP: 85802170       Cascavel- PR
                                               Brazil
 we live in an apartment complex and thats why its a little bit different then the other addresses. we live with another companionship of missionaries also, elder scoville from sacramento and elder arf from some city in são paulo. there all cool though.
   we havent found anyone to use there skype account yet but were looking for, so i dont know what time it will be or when but it will happen.   love you all, until tomorrow!
                  - Elder Bennett

 Dad,
ya i like cascavel alot better. the ward is much stronger here. we baptized a 25 year old young man this week and it was a really good baptism, hes made a lot of mistakes in his past but he really was repentent of it. it was elder jewells first baptism, hes from highland utah, hes really struggling in the field. he'll be alright though. well i dont have much time but tomorrow will be awesome. ill see you tomorrow then. love you dad, merry Christmas!
              - Elder Bennett

TRANSFERRED!!!

Date: December 17, 2012
Area: Cascavel
Companion: Elder Jewel

Mom,
   sister sorensen got home, o please tell her to write me!
   i got TRANSFERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im leaving today!!! im going to a city called Cascavel its a 9 hour bus ride and is 2 hours out of Foz do iguaçu! im training some amercian elder again! his names elder jewel hes starting his second transfer. lets go!!!! elder schenwark is staying here, good luck sucka! i did my time in the pen, got my street cred, put it on my street cred card and now im free!!! and we baptized a little young family this week, im leaving having baptized a family and i couldnt be any happier!!!!
    i have a ton of sisters in my zone, i love sister missionaries they make cakes for district meetings an stuff!!!! im leaving today at about 5 ish then im going to sleep in another city then travel to londrina tomorrow then get on the bus for 9 hours. everything but the bus part is cool about that!
     o im going to send the Christmas present really late cause i waited for something to come out first, then i bought it so my present will probably show up about two weeks late. sorry but its worth it.
     they do everything we do in the states for Christmas except the fact that its a 105 degrees. have you ever woken up in december in the middle of the night sweating. Christmas in Brazil! haha
     i dont have my address for cascavel because its in another state. yes im leaving the interior part of são paulo!!! im going to a stake and not a district, im going to serve in an actual ward and not a branch. i miss having a bishop! its been 7 1/2 months since ive had these joys!
     what? chads gonna get released before i come home!? i dont believe it!!
     we should skype around the same time we did last time which i think was around 7 for me and about 1 for you all. i dont know the specifics but ill be able to email you on Christmas eve so we can plan everything out correctly next monday.

     im going to miss elder Schenewark, dear mother of Elder Schenewark, i love your son. hes an awesome missionary and will baptize hundreds on the mission. this next transfer will be easy sailing for him cause he's rock solid. put this in his next email please. his next comp is really good, i know him, hes a cool argentinian elder and he will love him. just so you know, in our 3 months together, we baptized more then this area has baptized in the whole entire year. thats 6 more other missionaries and 9 months of work that they put here and we have reaped the benefits of more success in a third the time. i think that the work and numbers speak for your son as an exemplerary representative of Jesus Christ. im very grateful i had the opportunity to serve with him.

    hey mom, i finally got my name changed to Elder Bennett again! im reppin the whole fam now!!!! and Elder Bennett arrived in the field with 2 baptisms this week! lets go!!!! first baptisms of little Elder Bennett!! i hope i made my momma proud!!
love, Elder BENNETT

   i need pictures of hot chicks! i heard from numerous sources that some good looking girl moved into our ward about a year ago?! whats this!? why have you never sent me pictures of her!!! please mom, its the best Christmas present i could recieve!!!!

We MUST do our part as Member Missionaries!!!

: December 11, 2012
Area: Tupa-SP
Companion: Elder Schenewark

Mom

     nice to hear that logan is heading out for the mission also! ya i remember brother slaughter, i remember playing pokemon at his house one time with christopher, did he ever go on a mission? how does he not know where hes serving yet?
     why did nicole and khloe move out? where did they go? ya i write chad, i usually just return his letters he sends to me. i was the last to write him so im waiting for the reply letter.
     sounds like you have been saying this house project would be over every week for the last two months. is it ever going to really end?
     ya i wont get the package till after Chrismas but im fine with that. heres my last Christmas on the mission though. i come home this coming year haha.
     what do i want for transfers. with every ounce of desire in my little heart i want to leave this place and never return. theres a reason why the church has been in tupã for 33 years and they still dont have a stake. the church arrived in manaus 25 years ago and not only do they have at least 9 stakes they have a temple also. (you need at least 9 stakes to have a temple) the church only grows where the members are willing to work. i am certain that of my baptisms here, almost all will leave the church. the members never do there home teaching or visiting teaching. im still baptizing, i was looking at the baptisms here with the last two years and i have the most baptisms here of anyone thats passed through in the last 5 years. besides some spencer mechum from arizona that baptized a ton here and NOBODY from his hard work is active, and i know that cause its me that is trying to reactivate them right now. ive actually got 3 possible people to baptize this sunday and 2 more for next week, its not that the works not moving with the missionaries its that the members here are FUBECAS. i baptized a single 21 year old of two small children back in september with elder saraiva and shes already gone inactive. she has been assigned visiting teachers and the branch member missionaries to make visits to her and teach her again and within 2 and a 1/2 months you know how many visits shes gotten... 0
    even with her less active nobody cares. im preaching to a dead congregation. ill always baptize wherever i go, the only thing is that after there baptized id like them to stay active and here in tupã theres almost no chance for that. i feel like im fulfilling my duties basically just to do it and nothing else. i have faith in the work, just not the people. terra amaldiçoado! i dont get dissapointed, this is the best work ive done or will do in my life.
     youre gonna have to make me a skype account cause i dont have one and what if i get a comp next week that doesnt have one. make me a skype and next week send me the password and stuff please. haha kayson is funny huh. another girl. o boy.
     my shoes are fine, one pair just wore down way faster then the other and was already getting destroyed so im just gonna let them die then switch to the others. there my nice pair for sundays and zone conferences! :D
      I LOVE YOU ALL! IM EXCITED TO SEE THAT MY FAMILY IS GROWING SO MUCH!!!!!!! - Elder Parker

1st Year Down....

Date: December 04, 2012
Area: Tupa-SP
Companion: Elder Schenewark

Mom,
yup one year passes by so fast. but it came and it went, i was going crazy though the day of but now its settled in. im and old missonary now. cant say im still a newby.
crazy to think that in a year, what i just did, ill be going home. got me thinking about all my recent converts and how there lives changed and in about 1 year i wont be here anymore to babysit them and itll be just them and ill be just me. ill only have myself to look after, wont have this stress of what there doing because its "not my job!" - mac dre i guess in the end of everything, when all is said and done and i walk off the plane, the only thing i can ask myself is, "am i a better man walking off this plane then i was when i got on 2 years ago?" that is a really difficult question. so i asked myself, am i better man right now then i was one year ago?
i dont know about the Christmas package because transfers are on the 17th which means i could be out of here on the 17th. maybe itd be betterto hold off on the package.
we had 70 people in sacrament meeting, its pretty good. im trying to get stuff done here but i feel so limited. nothing ever happens on the timeline we want huh?
i think Christmas time is better when its cold, hot is terrible. its wierd saying merry Christmas with sweat running down your face.
i really dont have much to write about this week im sorry, i need to baptize more people though on my mission. só batiza!
so this is what 1 year feels like, nothing to write haha. everybody tells me that within 6 months my emails will turn into about a paragraph and that ill recieve about a letter a month. well the letter one is already true but the email one seems like its coming also. im sorry i just have nothing to write to you all,
o ya im gonna get my haircut today.
well love you all, im working really hard and i hope i see the benefits here pretty soon. - ELder Parker


Dad,
sounds like winter has come around there. here in tupã it is super hot. yesterday the priesthood leaders had a council to see if they should excommunicate this one lady here that actually got baptized this year. shes basically gone crazy and is crazy. just another sunday in tupã :D
i need to start baptizing more people and fast. im so sick of trying so hard just to squirt out one baptism. im trying to baptize families, families families families, but every family seems to have a step dad that drinks to much and is numb to the spirit.
good to know that riley is still playing basketball, careful though, this is the age when the boys start to get into the habit of breaking the commandments, i never did like the environment of sports teams that much. were working really hard and seeing little results but we will keep on working. love you dad! - Elder Parker