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