Mom,
i find it funny that it happened to kayson and everyone must
have been super worried for him and the day after he was running around as a
pirate again! the joys of being a child!
congrats to
christina being baptized this saturday, thats awesome! im estatic! everybody
wins when theres baptisms! tell her i support her along with Jesus and Heavenly
Father!
dakota sounds
like a future missionary for sure, i bet that boy wants toget out of there now
if he could. unfortunately im gonna ask to stay one more transfer and if
everything goes according to plan then i will come home on dec. 18 with the
next group. its not for sure yet but im gonna start talking to pres. genaro and
see if i can, i want to stay a ton, when youve got something good, hold on for
as long as you can! yeehaw!!!
this is the last
week of elder denna, apostaty will happen. were throwing people in the pool!
we finally baptized this lady on saturday, ive been teaching her for
about 3 weeks, i think shes the longest investigator ive ever had, i gave up on
her about a million times but e. denna wouldnt let us cut her, ya well now shes
baptized! i was on a division with elder de los santos from uruguay because
elder denna was interviewing some people for baptisms on the other side of town
and the original plan was to just take her to her baptismal interview on
saturday morning then her little son of 11 years was sitting there yelling in
her face telling her not to go and telling her to tell us that she doesnt wanna
be baptized or go to the interview. so she comes to us and says, im not gonna
go. i said, you know you are, wash your face and get your shoes. so she goes to
get her stuff and then the little son starts yelling at her again and i was
thinking man were not gonna get her if this guy keeps yelling at her. So
someway, i dont know how, we started talking about werewolf’s with him and he
completely forgot about his mom getting her stuff. she comes out of the house
and was ready to go, and i asked her " did you get a towel and change of
clothes and flip flops?" and she responded "no, im just going to the
interview right? im not goin to be baptized " so i said, alright just
bring a towel and change of clothes and flip flops just in case and she was
like "ok" hahaha why else would we want her to get a towel if she
wasnt gonna get baptized?! she got the stuff, we got the bus and went to the
church, she did the interviews and we had planned for her to be baptized on
sunday or that night but because of her kids speaking bad to her there was no
way i was gonna let her go home without being baptized, she changed her clothes
and fell in the baptismal font with a priesthood holder baptizing her! e.
barton baptized her, hes a cool guy. it was such a crazy baptis though!
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then the next day
on sunday, my knee was dead, bumshot, good for nothing and we were super far
into our area and i told elder denna i dont even wanna work today and then the
phone rang and there was some sisters in arapongas with a man that had already
been interviewed for baptism but that he didnt want to because he didnt feel
prepared for baptism. but the sisters wanted to baptize him on sunday and they
marked his baptism for tuesday instead which would be tomorrow, and i was like,
"sweet!" i dont wanna do anything today anyways let me go there and
help this guy understand the importance of baptism and see if he will be baptized tonight. e. denna approved so we
took the 1 hour walk to the bus station on the other side of town and i took
the bus with e. glover, e. denna had to stay for some meeting. we took the bus
to arapongas and the sisters brought this man to the chapel and one of the
first things he said was that he was just going to watch the other baptism for
that night and that he wouldnt be baptized today but on tuesday. his names
fabio, and hes a jumpy energetic 33 year old, he cant sit still sometimes,
super funny guy. so i took him into an interview with me and he kept telling me
about how he didn’t feel ready to be
baptized and hes not gonna do it till next week. i talked with him a bit and gained his confidence but i had to do it
fast because they wanted to start the baptisms at seven thirty and it was
already about 6 ish almost 7 when i started. after the first 2 minutes i realized that he
wasnt someone that wouldnt be convinced from doctrine or scriptural references
so i just decided to talk more personal with him. i showed him pictures that i
have and hed ask me whos this, id reply my dad, hes baptized. then hed say whos
that, my brother, hes also baptized. haha i did that for about 40 pictures it
was hilarious.but any time id try to teach him or make the big invite to be baptized
right now on that very night hed get super jumpy and nervous and start
studdering and talking really fast and not sit still and listen. it was a tough
ride for about 35 minutes. its pretty intense to sit across a little wooden
desk alone in a room with a 33 year old man and try to tell him God wants him
to be baptized right now, not tomorrow,
or tuesday or next sunday but right now, this very moment we walk out of this
door and be baptized. so finally being touched by the spirit of urgency, (he
had his arms on the desk and i was sitting back) i sat forward, grabbed him by
the forearms not to strong to scare him and not to soft to let him get away,
looked him straight into the soul and told him, " fabio, you passed the
interview, God knows that youre ready to be baptized. i came from california and i have
the authority to baptize you. fabio, im going to baptize you tonight." he
sat there super calm, nothing moving in the room. he responded, " ya
but.......ok then" i said, " youre gonna say a prayer right now and thank
God that Hes letting you be baptized right now and then were both going to get
changed and im going to baptize you, tonight." he bowed his head, said the
prayer and then we went and got changed and fabio was baptized 30 minutes later
and neither of us brought a change of clothes and it was freezing outside, it
was very pleansant. the spirit though, when i made that invite and grabbed him
and looked him in the eyes i saw straight into his soul, mom, i saw the fear
that he trully felt for being baptized without being prepared, the fear in his
eyes i saw it as a tangible thing, the conviction and persuading power of the
spirit when in that moment, his whole presence changed he calmed down and i saw
the fear taken from him and replaced with desire, and peace of heart, security.
hes one of maybe the only person ive ever met here in brazil where i
can say, that i was called to baptize and that he would never have been
baptized by another person. every move i made and every word i said was
perfectly guided by the spirit. I LOVE THIS WORK!
although i have some physical
restrictions right now, you can still stick the devil into a room with me for
an hour and hell walk out wanting to be baptized. its like pres. mckay said
once," my shadow on this farm is worth more then the labor of all of
you."
ya next week ill be
transfered for sure, im sorry mom but my knee cannot take these hills anymore,
if i could, i would have stayed longer. love ya mommy! happy brazilian fathers
day to dad!!!!!!!!!!!
-
Elder Bennett
Dad,
looks like this week was pristhoodly action packed for you!
feels nice to exercise the priesthood! this week was full of miracles for us,
we were able to baptize 6 people in the zone, an awesome week! i hope everything
goes well with kason and the others also. thats exciting that dakota is going
to the temple, i loved the temple before i went on my misson, its an awesome
place. it was fairly cold this week for us here, i cant stand the cold but i
think its the last really cold winter were gonna hit. coming up in elder dennas
last week on the mission, we will baptize people this week! :D love ya dad!
- Elder
Bennett
Far from Thug life, thank goodness!
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