Miracles Continue!!! He's USA Bound!!!

Mom,

  

this week was full of miracles!!!! we baptized 6 people this week! everything came out even better then expected, a man thats been coming to church with his wife now for 3 months came up to us our last week and said hed be baptized before we go home. we have been working with him for so long but had kind of given up cause he wouldnt be baptized and then he just accepted it. we baptized 2 people tuesday morning, him on friday night, and 3 more sunday afternoon. it was a week full of baptisms and miracles! im in the mission office waiting to get interviewed, but it doesnt look like it will be any time soon. im super excited to go home. its a little crazy here in the office so ive gotta get off, dont know if ill get on again but in case i dont send another email, thanks for all the support and love, it really helps a lot out here in the field. ya i love the people of brazil, but there aint no place like home! :D either way ill be home on thursday, and im very excited. i thought i was gonna be sad to finish the mission but i dont think ive ever felt so much joy in my life! love you all!

-         Elder Bennett

heres the threee baptisms from sunday, the lady is tereza, she is gabrieles mom the girl we baptized last week. it took us 3 weeks and being absolutely crazy with her everyday to stop smoking but she finally stopped and didnt smoke this whole week so she could be our last baptism, such a nice lady :D

  thats also some members from the ward at our going away "family night" there was about 50 people that went, it was awesome!by far my favorite ward i passed in, the members here were very supportive.

heres from friday, his names pedro, i see a future leader in the church with him :D

Batismos

MISSÃO BRASIL LONDRINA - 2013-11-10

Riviera B - Elder Araújo, Elder Chambers, Elder Bennett = 6

thats from the mission site, thats how we roll! i forgot to tell you but on sunday when we got home from everything and i was packing my bags, my belt buckle busted off and my belt broke, it lasted perfectly for two years and the moment it was done, gave out haha.

                                                                                                                                 

Dad,

im so excited to go home! this week the Lord blessed us a ton! we baptized 6 people this week haha! it was my most blessed week, everything went just right, unfortunately i dont have the pictures with me now but ill see if i can email mom the pics later. im in the mission office right now, my bags are packed and im waiting to get interviewed, love you a ton dad and thanks for all the support youve given me. love you a ton, ill be home on thursday!

     love you a ton!

    - Elder Bennett

LAST FULL WEEK ON THE MISSION! I'M COMIN HOME!

 

Mom,

an original jersey hits about 50 dollars or 100 reais but ill see what i can do. what kind does everyone want cause theres tons of european and brazilian team jerseys here or does everyone just want the normal standard brazilian jersey. 

   i bought 2 hammacks and i plan on buying about 2 more, because i rememeber you said you wanted that a while ago. ill bring home my alarm clock, but the missions have phones for the companionships so everyone just uses that as an alarm.

    it brings much joy to know that logan blessed his baby son. who would have thought that someday logan would come back to activity and become a worthy priesthood holder. i know hes being blessed for his decisions and im proud of him. i missed all of you guys for about 2 years, except baptizing people is really awesome so i forgot about you all for 2 years. bring the tissue boxes to the airport cause im gonna have a good cry.

     we married and baptized that couple i was telling you about on thursday. thursday we went to the marriage and thursday night we went to the baptisms. during the wedding, i turned to the other elders and said, im next.

 

 

       in all my time trick or treating and dressing up i never thought id be someday baptizing a family on halloween. they shared there testimonies after the baptism, arilson the dad, who usually is very shy bore a really strong testimony with some power. he explained how the gospel of Jesus Christ has changed his family. then the mom, tãnia went up and she started crying of so much joy she said. the older son, victor, he goes to seminary all by himself everyday and frequently tells us that someday he will be elder silva someday. theyve all committed to getting sealed in the temple here in one year. 

 

   this is my last real week to work, cause next week is packing and interviews with pres. im more then excited to end the mission :D 

    we took 9 people to church, 2 have dates set for tuesday morning and one for wedenesday afternoon and weve got about 4 or 5 possibilities to baptize this sunday, should be a good week. 

   make sure to tell me specifically what jerseys an stuff cause next week im just gonna look at the email and get out, i got things to do. 

        love ya, Elder Bennett

 

Dad,

we baptized that family, it was a special day in my life. we went to there short marriage then there baptisms later that night, this familys special. the 14 year old son goes to seminary on his own everyday so thats a good sign theyll stay firm. 

. looks like this is my last working week, im stoked to go home haha! loe ya a ton!

  - Elder Bennett

 

The Lord Will Provide A Way!

Mom,

 

of course we baptized this week, i told the Lord when i didnt baptize 3 weeks ago in shame that i would baptize at least one of His children every single week till i get home. We taught  this 14 year old girl named Gabriele, that we had marked to be baptized on Sunday. She became scared. We took Bruno over to visit with her since he was baptized 8 months ago and he had a lot of the same fears and he is now preparing to serve a mission. It was awesome. Sometimes when people commit to making changes in there life it can be scary. You are making a covenant with the Lord to be his disciple, it is serious stuff. He bore a powerful testimony and he told her he would baptize her, and she said ok. brunos all like, lets get this baptismal meeting started, were singing called to serve, thats my hymn! im baptizing her! he put his finger in the air and did the circle motion like, roll it up, ya know. it was awesome. so he did it was so amazing to see Bruno baptize Gabriele.. He is going to be an amazing missionary. He is working on his paperwork to serve now.

   THE LORD WILL PROVIDE A WAY!.ive got at least 2 for this week, 9 PEOPLE WILL BE BAPTIZED IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS.

       im sendin no love home, straight business since 92'

              - Elder Bennett

Dad,

ya we baptized a young girl so now we have 9 more people to baptize in 2 weeks, im totally gonna do it too. people will be baptized these last two weeks. dad when you work really hard you can look back after a while and see the HUGE contributions you can make in the Lords Vineyard. I LOVE THIS WORK!.

    - Elder Bennett

 

Crawling to the finish line!

Mom,

good thing i sent a long letter last week cause this week will be one of my shortest. we baptized a 12 year old named anderson, weve got 3 people marked to be baptized for this week. i have 3 weeks to baptize 10 people and if i dont i dont come home.

   tell em ill speak in stake conference, what kind of a joke is this making me wait one more week to speak, i have no idea where ill be the week after i get home. elder chambers is with us cause we wanna baptize more and elder chambers knows how to find baptisms. ima go play basketball right now. i love you all!

      - Elder Bennett

 

Dad,

forget cruisin to the finish line, im crawling just trying to finish! i feel so dead but for sure ill be giving it my all, im going to baptize every single week till i go home. ill make it short cause were going to go play basketball right now but i love you dad thanks for the support. ive got 10 more to baptize in 3 weeks, lets go!

I don't think this is something I would miss when I left Brazil!

 

Hard Work + the Spirit you can accomplish much

Mom,

o how the joys of posterity bless our lives! i want little babies and little children all over me when i get home in the airport, im all about the posterity, posterity brings joy and happiness. its all about procreating. you can be sure im bringing in at least a dozen of Heavenly Fathers children into this world. congratulations to jenaye and logan, im sure there really tired and destroyed. yeesh, 27 hours of childbirth, haha makes serving a mission look easy. note that i almost didnt get out of bed today im so tired. 4 more weeks and im callin it quits! im not sharing the gospel with anyone for at least 2 years after this whole mission thing. im feeling so happy knowing that theres another little nephew running around in the family. i love this life thing! the joys of seeing a newborn baby destroy any sadness that comes from someone dying! for behold, i say unto you that posterity is where its at!

     G mama moved into the next door house? did she buy that house or is she renting it? are you joking me, how much money does she recieve from the goverment? im totally living with G mama after the mish. that house is huge for one person. já era fi.

    im starting to sway more towards living with grandma, going to community college locally and working/saving money til i can transfer my studies to byu provo. that way ill have some money saved up and i can make the jump from cali to utah easier and not work and only party while im in utah. my goal is to be married within the first year of me being back, although 21st of december still stands also haha. i still plan on studying to become a lawyer which will take forever but itll be a good investment. if i want Heavenly Father to trust me with many of His children in this world im going to need to be able to provide for all of them according to all theres and my wifes needs. i feel like my persuasion and preperation skills have gotten a lot better on the mission so i should be able to take that into effect in my work life. if the spirit and i can  persuade a pastor in the evangelical church "assembléia de Deus" to be baptized in this church with his wife after 20 somethin years firm in that apostate church, why cant we do the same in the law field. im ready to take on the world.

     this family were teaching are the best people ever! the parents stopped smoking and marked there wedding for the 31st of october. looks like were gonna have halloween baptisms! we baptized there children this week, the 14 year old victor bore his testimony after his baptism in front of everyone. i taught him how to bare his testimony before, haha i told him its kind of like a prayer cause we always end our testimonies "in the name of Jesus Christ amen." just like a prayer. so he took it literally and went in the front and started out his testimony saying, " in the name of Heavenly Father im thankful for my baptism." i covered my mouth so he couldnt see me laughing. he said only a couple lines but he said, " i believe in this gospel, and i know that my parents baptism will bless them a lot." these moments almost bring tears to a poor elders heart. i cannot begin to explain the feelings you have when people except the gospel of Jesus Christ, but when its a family that excepts it, theres no feelings to describe it. they will be my 4th family, or married couple that ive baptized. it rocks!

  its funny how we change on the mission. i was remembering the other day when i was being trained in foz do iguaçu in 118 degree summer weatherr and i remember how id think to myself ive got to tough out the sun, im not gonna walk in the shade whenever id see big walls or trees providing much shade id purposely not walk underneath so i could tough out the sun. haha i was ready to take on anything the mission could bring. this last week we were walking in 86 degree weather and i was crouching down under neath this little wall that only went up to about my mid stomach but there i was crouched down walking with my comp. trying to hide from the sun and stay in the little shade it was providing for me.

 Sister Briggs from Fresno

   im coming up on a milestone in my mission, a couple weeks i hit the top twenty baptizers of all time in our mission from all the elders ive ever seen or heard of and elder petersen can look on the computers to confirm everything in our records and this week i should hit a mark that im pretty sure ive only heard of about 10 other elders of all time hitting. if i baptize 11 more on my mission ill put myself of with the legends in our mission. ive only got 4 more weeks to do it but we took 9 to church on sunday so thats a good start. the Lord has blessed me so very much on my mission! i cant even begin to believe how our God took me, an uncapable servant and has sculpted me into the missionary that i am.  i showed up here with NO capabilities whatsoever. i couldnt even speak the language of these people.i had no idea what i was doing. sometimes i feel like breaking down and crying but i always fight it off, nows not the moment, the Lord has more to bless me with so if i cry now there will be more blessings and more tears to come! but i cannot believe the absolutely remarkable people that God has put in front of me. i cannot believe the amazing men God has given me as companions, they are my heroes. its always heroic to here people say that they would die for someone but i love all my recent converts and companions that i will live for them. i will live this gospel the rest of my life. my will is the Lords. i will always act in such a manner to be of good report my converts. the Savior has given me so much and i cant complain about anything. hard work with the spirit, is worth it. the last month has arrived. :D

   love you all!

    - Elder Bennett

Dad,

wow, thats awesome! another little bennett baby! i remembered that jenaye was supposed to have levi this week when i was making a contact with some lady and her baby on saturday and i remembered that there was a new bennett baby coming this week, i looked at the date and saw that the date had already passed and said, maybe my new nephew already came haha

   this family we are teaching is so awesome! im so excited to help them in the gospel. there a perfect ending to my mission although id like to baptize about 5 more of them! im giving it my all out here, its really taking my all to actually get out bed and do the normal things in the day like study and plan, we are so tired. love ya dad, someday ill give you about a dozen grankids. :D

Rough Week and Goodbye to Elder Zioli

Mom,

conference was really good. i felt the spirit many times in almost every talk. i had the opportunity to watch the priesthood session but i had to watch it in portuguese, pres. monsons deu um discurso brutal cara! i especially liked something that elder eyring said in one of his talks that the companionship of the holy ghost should be present in marriage so that we can be equally yoked with our spouses. people cant have the holy ghost in there lives unless they get baptized therefore weve got to baptize everyone. why dont people give more missionary references? it breaks Jesus' heart.

     other then conference this week was rough. the mission only baptized 8 people and my zone didnt baptize anybody, we also baptized nobody also. ive never seen the mission baptize so little in one week and ive never been in a zone that didnt baptize at least one person. one of the worst weeks in history. on the good side of things though we took this family of 4 to church. the other missionaries talked to the son in the street and he said he was interested and they marked to pass by his house the next day at 7 ish. then the next day we were in the street talking to people and i talked to this man coming home from work and marked to pass by his house later that night and teach his family. later that night when we looked at the two people we marked we saw that it was the same address haha. so we showed up there and taught the family the message of the restoration. its an actual complete family with a mom, dad, and they have two sons. thats already a miracle that its not a broken family. we taught them and in the end after teaching them the book of mormon, we all neeled together to say the closing prayer and invited the dad to say the last prayer and ask if the book of mormon is true. holding the book of mormon in his hands, he offered a simple but powerful prayer and said, "Heavenly Father, is the book of mormon true? in the name of Jesus Christ amen." we and the family felt the spirit and they all said theyd be baptized. God answered the mans prayer in the moment like He always does and they all went to church. were gonna baptize the sons this sunday cause the parents arent married yet. missionary work is so easy with God on our side haha. i dont even know why we fear sometimes. God says He will do something then Hes gonna do it.

  we saw elder zioli off at the airport, never thought that day would come.

 

   hope your all keeping the commandments :D

      - Elder Bennett

 

Dad,

conference was awesome huh! i felt the spirit many times in the talks, very uplifting and inspiring also.

 we took 8 people to conference, one of them being a family of four, the father already recieved an answer of the book of mormon and everything, only problem is that there not married.  basically the biggest reason why theres not a lot of " family baptisms" in brazil. they do have two sons that are in the age of baptism.

theres a young man in our ward that will be going on his mission on the 14th of november, he always lets me and elder petersen know how much time is left till he goes on his mission and we finish ours. its devastating.

there should be at least 3 baptisms this week. lets see what comes from it! love ya pops! heres my little granson on the mission. :D

 

 

   - ELder Bennett

Last Transfer, New Companion

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMBRIA!!!

  11 years old, i remember thinking to myself when i left, " man, cambria will be 11 when i get back, thats gonna take so long." and here we are already. just dandy. love you cambria, next year you already start young womans. i like that devin went and is playing a role in her life, such a nice lady. she should be baptized.

    transfers came and looks like im finishing here, i didnt get transfered but elder luchmun did, my new comps name is elder araujo. he is from bahia, its a state in the north eastern part of brazil, its commonly known as having the slowest people from there haha. actually elder zioli trained this bicho. hes a nice quiet young man. hes gonna be my first brazilian comp in about a year and 3 months, its been a while. elder bailey came as the new assistant, hes like a bloodhound that smells out only baptisms. this guys a machine, anyways our house is stacked with baptizers so lets see what the bichos dão eh?!

    i almost forgot, ay mom, arrange a job for me when i get back so i can come back working and not stop. cant stay still, bad things happen when you stand still. life decleats you. 

the other day before we went to bed elder petersen tried to have a serious talk with me about life and the mission or somethin and he asked me if the mission changed me. i answered no, i changed the mission. he got mad and told me to stop and then asked me again and i replied, the mission changes no one, were the only ones that change ourselves. the mission just puts us in an environment to change ourselves. he got so mad and ripped me off the bed and him and elder zioli started beating me up. theyre some strong young pups thats for sure.

   elder cleveland got home?! why hasnt that guy emailed me or sent me some pics? this guy.

 

 

    









 

     ay the zone ended with 34 baptisms this month, and the mission finished with 182 baptisms, that breaks the old record we just broke. thats a lot of people being baptized haha. our zone baptized the most of all of them, wow, the Lord blessed us a lot cause this zone usually is one of the worst. its usually always in the bottom 3. lots and lots of miracles.

   we baptized this week but elder luchmun and i couldnt go because we were doing baptismal interviews in londrina, i was so bummed i didnt go to adrianos baptism.  

   elder ziolis plane doesnt leave til wednesday, so there still a chance we get it in time. i hope so!

    also this ward is super cool, i told this rich member that my birthday was this week and he told us to pass by and celebrate it with him. it was the next day and that day was the first time id ever talked to the guy. then some older ladies in the ward had us go over on sunday for one more b-day bash. we also had our own party in the huose, 3 birthday parties! people are so nice! 

     love ya mom and everyone!

 - ELder Bennett

Dad, 

the work is really going also. were teaching an actual wealthy man, hes been to church about 5 times now but he wont accept a date to be baptized, im determined to baptize this guy this transfer. hes dating a single mom in our ward and has already recieved an answer of the book of mormon and everything, all he needs is a little bit of courage. tell cambria i said happy b-day then. we baptized a nice young man this week, elder luchmun and i werent able to go because we were in londrina but he got baptized in the end thoughand thats what counts. the mission broke the record again and baptized 182 people this month, were gettin up there to some of the highest in brazil so thats exciting. love ya dad!

 

 - Elder Bennett