Zone Conference and stuff

This week was so great. I think I say that every week, but it seriously was so good. 

We taught family night on Monday  to a part member, less active family and I was shocked at how much the kids knew and understood about the gospel. It was incredible. And we were invited over to teach again tonight and I'm really hoping we can help them out. 

Tuesday was pretty neat. We taught our PMG class and we talked about Praying with Faith. Because we prepared our lesson well, the spirit was there so strong. I think it actually taught me more than what I was able to teach the few people that were there. 

Wednesday, we had planned to see J again, but her husband is at work in the day so we have to have our lessons outside, unless we bring someone else with us. It was raining. Hard. At lunch, I knelt and prayed that the rain would stop so we could go to see her and help her out. The rain didn't stop, but my companion told me that one of our members was gonna come with us! He told us that the spirit had told him earlier that he needed to make time for us. It was amazing to see how a prayer was so clearly answered, just in a way I didn't expect. 

Thursday, the zone leaders had been teaching a family and the mom needed a baptismal interview. My companion is the district leader so he had to give her baptismal interview. Turns out, the family owns a place called Weston Sports and that's where we had the interview! They gave us a feed and then, during and after the interview, we played indoor cricket and touch rugby on their field. Turns out, cricket is actually fun. Weird right? 

Friday was zone conference and it was so great. It actually started off pretty bad. I was asked to play the piano and it was bad news. I practiced as much as I could, but I was nervous and not prepared enough and so I did pretty bad as I was playing. It really started off as a bad day for me because of that. I found that I didn't have the spirit at all and I wasn't learning anything as president was teaching about Joseph Smith. So I thought, this is stupid. Pray and ask Heavenly Father for help. So, even though I did not want to pray, I did. And. It worked. As I tried to let go and be happy, Heavenly Father helped me so much. He gave me the spirit again and the sister that I was sitting next to made me laugh and helped me as well. It was so great. Also, I learned a lot about finding and being a missionary and stuff because zone conference, but one of my favorite things was that I got to talk to President and Sister Hudson for a few minutes and they gave me very personal advice. I can't say how much I love having leaders, busy as they are, that take the time to help me out. It's the best thing in the world. 

Saturday and Sunday was basically a lot of people cancelling and not being home. LAME. But I can't help but feel that this is just an opportunity for me to show my diligence and dedication to the work. 

I love you all! Thank you so much for the prayers and letters. (I'm assuming the letters are coming. I've only got one or two in the mail so far. So step up people.:))

Love,

Elder Benjamin

September 14, 2015

I can't get over how fast the time is already going. It seriously feels like I was just emailing home yesterday.

So many good things happened this week. I love it so much. We've started to go door knocking as a district and we'll choose one area out of the three and all choose a street to knock. We're going up to the houses in our companionships, but it's really helped me feel closer to my district-it's only me and my companion, the zone leaders, and two sisters. We've all had quite a bit of success together and I love it. On Friday, we did it in my area and we found two potential investigators! One of them said she's wanted to get closer to God and she would love to have us back over! We left her a mormon.org card and are going over sometime this week.  Another one right as he opened the door and we introduced ourselves, he told us, "I'm not very happy with the big guy upstairs right now." I thought he would just say he wasn't interested and then shut the door, but he actually started talking to us. He told us that his wife died about 4 months ago and that he was really angry about it. We said that we didn't wanna push anything on him and we would love to listen if he was willing to talk about it.

He went on to tell us that he was so upset with God that his wife died because she was living righteously, didn't smoke or drink, and tried really hard to stay healthy so he couldn't understand why God would take her away. He said there was one day after his wife passed away that he was sitting in his living room and his wife's spirit appeared and she waved and said goodbye to him like she did every day as he went to work. It was because of this, he said, that started him to wonder if there really is a spirit world or some place we go after death. He also told us that he had other times where he had seen what he thought were spirits.

He wants to talk to a minister before he'll talk to us, but we ended up being able to leave a Plan of Salvation pamphlet with him before we left and he promised to read it. It was so powerful. He went from telling us he was mad at God, to having the spirit work with him to get him to open up to us and take a pamphlet. It was incredible.

Other than that, we visited a less active lady,  and she asked for a blessing before we left so she could find the courage and strength to come back to church. On Sunday night, Bishop and his wife fed us dinner and then we went on visits with the Bishop and that was really cool. We got fed 5 times I think this week.. I'm pretty sure I've already gained a few pounds. My companion said that it's called the 20 kg mission. He also asked me today if Rocky Balboa was still alive because he thought Rocky was a real person. Hilarious.

The work is progressing, the spirit is strong, and I love it out here.

Love,

Elder Benjamin

-I Love the Lord-

September 7, 2015

The mission is seriously so great. I love being able to give so much of my time to learn and study about the gospel and to serve others. It's the biggest blessing.

So Tuesday was exchange day and since my companion is a district leader, I went with one of the zone leaders. He's from Australia so that's pretty neat. We visited a referral and got a potential investigator and taught someone who's coming back to church from Gospel Principles. He's a fantastic missionary.

Wednesday: We went and played a game that's basically the NZ version of bingo at a nursing home. I sat next to a lady who couldn't quite do it on her own, and she ended up falling asleep during the game. Another lady was swearing and cheating the whole time. One lady couldn't understand anything we said and would ask what the number was again every time after we said it. The old guys were flirting with the girls. I love old people. We taught our first lesson to three kids whose parents love the church, the spirit was really strong.

Thursday: We do a lot of visits to less actives and old couples. The progress is really slow with them, but it's always great to be able to visit them and bring the spirit into their home.

Friday: We drove out to the end of our area and taught a guy from gospel principles. We visited a less active dad whose name I don't actually know, and he came to church on Sunday because of us! That was neat.

Saturday: We had a lot of people that weren't home or just talked to us on their porch so that was lame. A family in the ward had us over for dinner and that was great. They're a strong family in the church and so the spirit in their house made it feel like home. He told us that he's gonna be sustained as the new ward mission leader and that's such a blessing because he's so passionate about it and willing to serve.

Sunday: We taught priesthood without warning this Sunday and I accidentally played one hymn in sacrament meeting so now they expect me to play every week. On a serious note, I would really appreciate everyone's prayers for me so that I can learn the hymns well. After church, we took the sacrament to Tommy again and he told us at the end that he's sure he'll have a good week because, "you elders came to visit me and I took the sacrament." He has such a powerful spirit and I can feel how much he loves the Savior even just by sitting next to him. The bishop and his wife fed us dinner again and then we ended our night by an older couple that doesn't have any family around so the missionaries are about their only visitors. They aren't members, but they always give us food and talk to us and they love having us over so much.

The work is fairly slow, but it's so fulfilling. Even when we knock doors for an hour and nobody wants to hear what we have to say, it's so easy to be happy about it all.

Love, Elder Benjamin

-I Love the Lord-