Changes to the Mission

With the announcement of 58 more missions being opened up this last week. Parker has found that it will effect his mission. two ciities, Foz Do Iguacu and Cascavel will be taken out of his mission and be put into the Curitiba Sul mission. He is currently serving in Cascavel. His first area of the mission was Foz. So if he is still in Cascavel June 1st when this takes place he will have started his mission serving in Londrina mission and end in the Curituba Sul mission. Pretty exciting. The church is growing rapidly and it is an exciting time to be a missionary! Just a few weeks ago, over 1,000 missionaries entered the Mission Training Center in 1 week. With the recent change in age for the mission, (18 for guys and 19 for girls) the youth of the world have really responded to the call to serve and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ through out the world. Parker has been blessed for his faithfulness and his willingness to give 2 years to the Lord and he would be the first to tell you that he would not want to be doing anything else than what he is doing right now in Brazil!

 Mom,

    i dont know what im gonna do after the mission, you dont need to look into anything maybe when i get home from the mission God will start to talk to me about it but here on the mish He wont, seeing as how its not my purpose as a missionary. you can put that talk all on hold until i get released from my calling.

    thats awesome though that jenaye is finally pregnant! ill still be on the mission when she has it though huh, its all good though.

   its really cool about the missions though huh, only problem is that the new curitiba sul misson in brazil is going to get foz do iguaçu and cascavel so our mission wont get it and also pres. tavares did a conference with the mission and said that the missionaries that are in those two zones starting june 1st might be swithced over to serve in the curitiba sul mission haha im currently in cascavel still. this transfer ends march 12th and then there will be 2 more transfers until june 1st. if i stay two more transfers i might just finish my mission in curitiba sul, i hope not though. im bummed though becuase i want to get transfered to foz do iguaçu after this transfer but if i go there ill probably be there for the switch which i dont want. i saw that bakersfield got a mission, alright!!!

   i cant believe that stefanie has a baby now haha, im gonna recognize nothing when im home!

  im needing letters from young woman. letters letters letters, thats all i want in my life. letters from moças going to byu hawaii, idaho, and provo but not that one mormon college in virginia. i want pictures, pictures of young woman, i want pictures  pictures pictures. , tell lindsey to do the same with any beautiful young woman she knows also. im talking 17 and up though alright? can you do that for me please? i would appreciate it very much, thank you.

     tell koty i said he should be out on his mission before i get home. no excuses.

   today i was reading in acts 2 when peter baptized 3000 people. i studied in that book Jesus The Christ basically the best book ever written. i love peter. hes the man, he showed up at some pentecost thing and called everyone out there for crucifing Jesus The Christ, makes them feel so bad about what they did and they ask him what they should do and says repent and be baptized. peter is the man. can you imagine if this man lived today, theyd be opening up stakes every transfer where he served! that guy would baptize the whole world! i want to be like dan jones and brigham young! i wanna be like peter and john and just show up and baptize people! i just wanna baptize people mom! i need more baptisms, my mission needs more baptisms all these people around me need to be baptized. i just wanna find a group of 30 8 year olds and baptize them all. i wanna baptize weekly and then after ive accomplished that i wanna baptize daily. i need to get better! i need to better myself and my teaching strategies, i need to better my gift of persuasion, i need to be more worthy, i need to baptized mom. im dying here, i need to baptize, i havent baptized in a week! what am i doing with this time the Lord has given me if im not baptizing! where is my baptisms! i wanna be like Jesus Christ!!! Jesus Christ is a baptizer! He only talks about baptism! when He says in the bible love one another as I have loved you, all i read is baptize everyone as I have given you the privelege of being baptized. all my comps tell me i talk in portuguese while im sleeping and that i invite people to be baptized while im sleeping, it is the most profound desire of my heart! my calling is to baptize, i must baptize. without baptism how are we going to enter into the kingdom of God. when all those men asked peter what they should do he didnt tell them,  study the scriptures or say a prayer or just say youre sorry for what you did or ask them if they were prepared to be baptized, or tell them they need to learn more, or ask them there age, race, or religion before, he told them to repent and be baptized! peter was taught face to face by Jesus and as we know in the bible Jesus told them to baptize everyone in the world. Jesus wants baptism and His mighty will be done.

  p.s. i hope you get better from your sickness. love you mom!

                 - Elder Bennett

Dad,

yup the work is going real well these days, im as happy as ive ever been to be working! tell the kids i said hi, there all gonna be so big when i get home huh haha. well my email will be short today also, love ya, the missions really excited right now cause were baptizing a lot and this month of march were gonna finally baptize 200 in one month, its gonna be awesome. also a lot of changes have happened in the missions in the world including ours. wow 405 missions!  love you dad,

                                         - Elder Bennett

Gaining confidence of leaders

This week Parker responds to my questions about him being old on the mission and not caring.(the last 2 emails) I needed clarification as to what exactly that meant. I was just a little concerned that the mission had lost its sparkle. . . .but he sets me straight! enjoy

mom, please stop talking about me losing enthusiasm on the mission, youre not understanding me, i think youre thinking that im trying to say i dont care about the mission anymore cause im old, im trying to say that im so old on the mission that i dont care about anything but the mission anymore. im not passing through anything difficult either mom but if you keep putting stuff like that in the emails im gonna go crazy.

    nah dakota doesnt need to work, just go on the mission you mole rapaz. why would he want to wait, if he leaves as soon as possible maybe he could come to my misson and i could see him in the field.

    it rained this whole week entirely so it wasnt that good to work in but we still found some  people. we baptized this young man thats a really special kid. hes 14, his baptism was really good because it was a reference from the 1st counselor in the bishopric in my ward. and that same counselor baptized him so hes all excited now about missionary work and he loves me now. that same counselor gave me a reference about a month and half ago and i baptized him also so now the first counselor loves me, im finally gaining the confidence of the leaders here. that same counselor cussed me out on the phone like my 5th week here becuase i was pushing him to hard to help with his own reference being baptized, now hes hugging me and inviting me to family nights in his house every monday hehe! remember how i told you that this area wasnt baptizing very much and all the members were not wanting to help at all in missionary work and the bishopric was getting mad because i was baptizing people that they felt werent prepared so the bishop made that  rule that we can only baptize on saturday nights? everythings changed now! now i have there confidence! bishop used to avoid me and not answer my calls and now hes pulling me aside and telling me who i need to visit and who needs help and hes wanting to help now! its because the last two references that the ward gave me ive baptized so now everyones all excited and starting to give more references and wanting to help, theyre really starting to trust me now here. the leadership was cold here though, took them almost 2 months to finally warm up to me. bishop and the first counselor both pulled me and my comp aside and talked to me about teaching the investigators that are in the other elders area. our ward has 2 sets of missionaries and so the ward is divided in half. the other area has recieved really really good references in the last month and they havent baptized any of them.were talking a family of 3, really cool also and another family of 5 and they still have done basically nothing with them, so bishop pulled me aside and told me that he understands its not my area but he would like that i started teaching them instead of the others, i cant though its not my area. but that means a lot  to me becuase of the trust, its funny though because a month ago they were telling me that im baptizing people before there prepared and now there coming to me and telling me theyd like me to start teaching them because ive got a "faster vision then the other missoinaries". im so grateful though because i have been praying and fasting and praying and fasting for them to finally start to help and trust me. i even talked to pres. tavares about this like 3 weeks ago and he said to just serve them and and continue praying and fasting. so we helped rake one of there lawns and continued praying and fasting and now were seeing the benefits.

  ya i got the package, it takes about 12 days to arrive. love you mom and family.

    -  Elder Bennett

Dad,

haha thats a pretty funny photo of them, (picture was of Riley, his brother , his cousin Dakota and a friend named Devin) they just randomly decided to nap together on the trampoline? when you talk about devin are you talking about devin hankes? are they in your ward now?

   ya were all really blessed to have the gospel in our lives but the only way to show real gratitude is by sharing it with others...

  how is dakota doing? preparing to serve a mission this summer or is he thinking about waiting? is he gonna graduate from seminary, i want him to get called to my mission in londrina and he cant if he doesnt graduate from seminary.

    the work is going good here, rained the whole week though, ive never seen anything like it, from monday until thursday and half of friday it rained. for 4 days straight you just fell asleep to rain woke up to rain and worked in the rain haha. i like the rain about 1 time a week but more then that, no.

   well this week was really good and the Lord is blessing us with miracles and baptisms and more people to baptize! love ya dad!

                                    - Elder Bennett

Carnival Week

Mom, send me that dr. scholls wart burner kit thing. i have one on my thumb thats gotta go.

  elder beaudoin and i are super good comps together!  hes from oregon and has been out on the mission for 10 months. we have fun together, its something ive missed the last couple of weeks. hes yoked though. hes my height, and weighs 220. the woman in our ward like him already.  the other day he was telling me that he has to watch what he eats because if he eats to much he gets "fat like a woman gets fat." i dont even know what that means haha

    calm down mom, its impossible to not love the work. i just dont have anything new to write about in my emails. the mission is that way, for example, on p-days i used to love sitting at my desk for like 4 hours writing letters to people, now i get in the house and just eat açai all day and sit around doing nothing. i just dont have desire to write anymore, i dont care. its just what happens on the mission. im always out working with the same enthusiasm but now im just not as excited for p-day emails and letters, ive just lost the desire im sorry. not very many new or exciting things happen anymore, its carnival week so at night when cars drive by us girls usually scream and whistle at elder beaudoin and i because were "gatinhos"  other then that your moms intuition is off.

    but get that package out though i dont think ill be staying here that much longer. this next transfer many elders are  going home so a lot of people will be transfered.

     are jared and lindsey really gonna name her emma?

   OH! we want letters from young woman also! elder arf wants letters now, hes a brazilian from são paulo and he wants letters also. hes a handsome brazilian also.

    my health has been good mom dont worry haha. i had a sinus infection this week though so that wasnt fun, but im feeling better already because of the antibiotic.

   i love you all and hope youre keeping the commandments.

   - Elder Bennett

theyre super laid back! its a double edged sword though cause the members are super laid back also and never wanna work. the members will sometimes help you baptize there family and friends but help them stay firm, they will not help with that. its there culture is why they baptize so much, people just let you in thinking you wanna share a spiritual message with you and because the gospels true, you get some that feel the spirit and follow it. the thing about brazilians though is that they hate hate hate committments to anything. commitment to follow a church commitment to help people stay active anything with commitments they hate it. but everyonce in a while you find a gold nugget that recieves an answer and follows it. my new comp is way better hes already got 10 months on the mission so were a lot better team together. love you dad thanks for everything!

          - Elder Bennett

New Companion

Mom,

elder jewell got transfered, my new comp is another american named elder beaodin. hes from washington. why americans?

   no i didnt mail jareds package yet. its difficult to do that. ill do it someday.  no elder delgadillo is still in the mission. i dont know where hes at right now though.

   tell madison roubecek i said hi, and I wish her the best on the mish.

    i think i have a sinus infection because my head feels like its splitting into two. i was thinking about going to the doctor but doctors are hard to baptize so ill let it worsen up before i go. and its my p-day and i just wanna lay down.

   if you ever send me another package again, please send me that canker sore medicine stuff that dad always has.

   im sorry that my emails havent been so great the last couple times but im old on the mission and i just dont care that much anymore. i used to look forward to p-days and emails and now there just regular days also. it all starts to just become one giant blur.

   we baptized this 14 year old kid, hes cool, i think ill baptize his friends also.

   you all broke the sabbath watching the super bowl on Sunday?

    this transfer will only be 5 weeks long also.

  the love of my life is baptism. ive never experienced such joy in my life then seeing someone repent of there sins and be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority. its the only thing i want and the only thing i love. im in this for the numbers mom. nothing else matters to me but numbers. numbers, numbers, numbers! people say, "lets baptize someone!" and im like "NO! lets leave out the "some" and baptize the 1 (one)" NUMBERS! thats what im doing with my district. were all about the numbers here! its a mathematics kind of thing, you do so many of this, get so many of these and you get this. its like some sort of mathematical formula of baptism and thats why our zone and district baptized the most this week. welcome to the mission mom. ill be your guide on how to baptize. its all about the key indicators. when i first showed up on the mission i was like lets be super spiritual and people will change and want to get baptized! still the same attitude just a better way of gettting the result becuase if you stay working with good people that feel the spirit and dont get baptized, bam time wasted. work with a ton of people and let them all feel the spirit and the elects will decide to get baptized. the higher the numbers the more baptisms. just dont keep working with people that will need a little more patience or that will be baptized in the next month or even day. im trying to baptize now. Jesus wants baptims now! Jesus said follow me. He didnt say follow me when you want or follow me next week He wants it now! why should someone thats indecisive about following Jesus now be given more opportunity then someone else out there that God is preparing right now that you havent met yet. lets Go!!! its all about the numbers in this zone!

 70 references per week

 20 lessons with member

 10 other lessons

 35 contacted

 20 new investigators

 8 investigators in sacrament meeting

 BATISMOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 D and C 20:38     it doesnt even say confirm, it only says baptize!!! ;D

   love you all,

-          Elder Bennett   

thanks dad,

                  transfers happened and elder jewell got transfered and im going to stay. my new comp. is cool, i know him. his name is elder beadoin, hes from washington. its cool that he will be my comp but i really want a brazilian comp. its way better that way. i just love working with brazilians and this will make 4 straight transfers with an american, a young american comp i mean. its whatever though ill baptize anywhere i go.

   tell cambria i said i love her also. i hope shes doing fine.

         love you dad, thanks for the support.

     - Elder Bennett