Missionary Heaven!

Mom,

ya that area in ala 2 where elder chambers is at is where elder delgadillo got robbed and then when we were living on another part of the city in ala 3 they robbed us there but i think that it was the same people they just followed us. its all good now cause we got a place in a closed off apartment. hes a big boy, he should be fine there.

   thats awesome that you all went to traviss homecoming talk, i bet he felt pretty special. miguel delgadillo is a little mexican firball huh!?

(just had to insert  pictures of our visit to see Travis Denna and Miguel Delgadillo, welcome home elders!)

         all the nieces and nephews started school! when i see things like that you'd think that im thinking there getting old but actually what passes in my head is that im getting old. i turn 21 in less then a month, were goin all out also.

    im loving living with these guys! its so awesome, cause were all old on the mission, so theres no training or worrying about others, we can just work and goof off all day. the house is really nice also, theres two bathrooms! sometimes we dont plan well enough for the days because we have a serious problem with getting home and just talking about the day with one another. all in all it rocks except sometimes elder petersen likes to pretend hes a gorrilla and he beats me up and goes crazy.

        i got to teach this family full of haitian people, there must be about 16 haitians living together and one speaks portuguese and the other speaks english, his names roger, hes randomly from new jersey.  the rest speak french and criollo, i have no idea what they say to each other though, i felt like a new elder cause i understood nothing they were saying and then we went to take a picture with them all and one of the haitian ladies thats pregnant tried to sit on my lap in the photo, im pretty sure i squeeled like a squirell when it hapened its been a while since ive been that close to someone of the female type. elder luchmun loved it though.

      elder schenewark is in our zone also, and the name of the zone is tiradentes but were doing an inner mission competition of zones versus zones and our zone name in the comp. is the dirty dogz haha., hes a district leader here, ive got my little baby boy and my gran baby all united. also elder morgan is training so i took a pic with my other gran baby, carefull mom here in a little bit ill be passing you ;D

           we buy pizza about 3 times a week and its very expensive and delicious pizza, i feel like im in missionary heaven. once you pass through apucarana the Lord will bless you!

   heres some photos from the week, love you all!

           - Elder Bennett

      

Dad,

wow i didnt know that you all were really going to go and watch his homecoming talk haha, hes a really good guy, a good little bud! im having the time of my life, this house is full of my best friends and the zone is really cool, finally im working a little bit in the actual city of londrina. love you dad, ive got 3 more months of baptisms baptisms baptisms, i love this work!!!

   - Elder Bennett

The end of Denna and Bennett!!

Mom,

haha kaysons getting destroyed! love that little bugger!

  congratulation christina! now do you see why baptism is so awesome!!! it changes lives! i just wanna throw everyones name on the book of heaven aka heavens preach!

    i talked to pres. genaro and he passed it to the secretaries. turns out that i cant extend my mission because my visa runs out. im coming home in nov still. i got transfered to the tiradentes zone, ill be zone leader with none other then elder luchmun who i was comps with in arapongas! ill be living with the assistents, elder zioli and elder petersen!!!! im throwin at least another 30 in heaven in the next 3 months!  im super excited, also e. chambers will be in the zone, in the dreaded ala 2 that area where elder delgadillo and i got robbed haha! seriously though, start the countdown, my goal is 30 people in 3 months.

   ya i killed elder denna last night. little elder denna ends the mission. 4 months together and 14 baptisms, not to shabby if you ask me.

           unfortunately our baptism fell, her aunt found out shed be baptized sunday and sent her off to arapongas for the day, opposition can come from anywhere. saturday night she said she was gonna goto her aunts house to get medicine for her grandma, we never saw her ever again. its incredible the things people will do to get in the way of someone being baptized, you know why, cause its the only baptism thats right! the opposition is a testimony to the truthfulness, if it was any other church people wouldnt care at all, because other churches just give free baths, here we actually baptize people ;D

   also elder morgan, whom i trained got called to train. now both my little boys have trained and ive got two gran babies in the mission. let my mission posterity grow as the stars of the skies!

\hey mom, this dog followed elder denna and i home saturday night, hes such a cool dog!

hey mom, i forgot to tell you but in apuca i slept on a mattress on the ground for 4 months! thats awesome huh! not! i have lower back problems now, call me old man perry! yes thats also elder dennas butt.

 go see elder dennas homecoming in sacramento. also elder denna owes me 100 dollars, get the money mom.

      love ya!

-          Elder Bennett

congrats on the baptism dad!!! bringing people into the gospel is better then anything in the world! i cant believe she baptized! next the daughters...

  this week was very eventful, elder denna and i did everything but unfortunately we would to have had to break mission rules to get a baptism, cant break rules, the Lords Kingdom has a structure, a government and its not us that makes the decisions but us that follow the decisions that He makes in His Kingdom. its a tough thing im learning right now as a missionary, i think its something that will help me a lot in the church.

    riley already a junior, and cambria already in 5th grade, my goodness gracious, how does time pass so fast. i was just holding her in my arms in that little home we had when we first moved to fresno, and she was just a little baby still. even crazier to think that within the next 2 years ill be holding my own child in my arms...

   love you a ton dad, thanks for everything, i got transfered and im gonna be in a flatter area, many baptisms to come!

Some physical restrictions wont break his spirit!

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!

   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!

Health issue plaque him again! ugh

Mom,

the weeks keep getting busyer for you there in home it looks like! must be a crazy house with all those grand kids. elder denna found out that he became an uncle right now, hes pretty excited, first timer haha i showed him the picture you sent and he said i hate you.

(this is the picture I sent him. some of his nieces and nephews and sister cambria on right)

   elder zioli goes home next transfer, i think its in october. all my friends are going away... i feel like some old grandpa in this mission now, all my freinds are either dead or dying and were all forced to train the upcoming generation so that when we die they can keep the progress going or in other words not mess everything up.

   ill be staying in londrina for the first part of this week for meetings/ tests i also have to do. pres. genaro asked me if i know how to use computers really well im my interview with him. i kept thinking about why he asked me that out of nowhere and i remembered that the secrataries of the mission stay inside all day using computers and i thought to myself, " i think hes thinking about putting me as a secretary?!" i called him and asked him if thats what he was thinking about doing, he said he had thought about it. i told to stop thinking about it cause i'll never go, he told me hed let me work til the end of my mission then. Then the boys told him to go back, they did not need his help. He said, “My shadow on this farm is worth more than the labor of all of you.”’

although im frustrated because of my health right now im gonna just forget about everything and baptize people.

i love you mom!

   - Elder Bennett

  

10 points to who can guess what im doing in that picture,,, yes its exactly what it looks like :D

    we had a district fireside on missionary work, i dont know why but the district pres. wanted a photo like this we look like were some evangelical church.

Dad,

not only my knee but ive been struggling a lot with my health this last month. ive got a sinus infectionc or some sort of infection that is killing me. this whole last week my voice was gone because this sickness took over my throat, elder denna did most of the talking this week. everyday im coughing up and blowing out yellow gunk, its been like this for a solid month and i went to the doctor, he gave me an antibiotic and i took it.i was good for about a week then on sunday it came back. the missions awesome but life is terrible right now. its a very large factor why we havent baptized for 3 weeks now, im struggling pretty bad right now. every day i feel like my knee gets worse also, this week ill stay in londrina to get the results from a test i did so we'll what happens this week. after this week i should get results to see how my trials will be taken from me, but for now i feel like punching everything i see. including members. love you dad! im becoming a man! - Elder Bennett

(Is that a mold monster in the top left corner of the picture?)