Christmas

Kia Ora whanau!! 

Well, Christmas happened. I was sweaty and there was no snow. In other words, it didn't really feel like Christmas. We had breakfast with our young mens president and the food was awesome. We ate at 7 and I was full until about 3... hahah. 

I also took a nap on Christmas. For like two hours. Our ward is tiny and everyone was either not home or had family over so we didn't do a whole lot. 

On Saturday, we had S's baptism! Our zone leader, was the one to baptize and confirm her, but the spirit was so strong. It felt so good to know that I had a part in that sacred ordinance. 

On Wednesday of last week, we had 4 lessons cancel in one day. 4 lessons. But hey, we decided to laugh about it instead of cry. 

I'm onto my 4th transfer now and I'm staying in the where I am to finish training my companion! I love that guy and I love my ward.

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Benjamin

Lessons Learned I Guess

This week has been pretty neat, like it always is. 

We door knocked into a less-active lady who invited us to come back next week to start teaching her! She told us that she wants to quit smoking and come back to church. She was even going to come this Sunday but she got sick so she couldn't. LAME. 

I spoke in sacrament meeting about the different names of the Savior and how they help us remember him. So, S/O to everyone that helped with that. You all basically wrote my talk. :) (We sent Jared an Advent Calendar for Christmas.  Each day there was a new ornament to add with a different name of Christ.  Each family member chose a name of Christ and chose a scripture and explained why that title of Christ was significant to them.)

Speaking of Sunday though. We had our Christmas fireside! Overall, I think the result was good. We got some non-members into the chapel, talking to ward members. We watched a video, people acted out a nativity that my missionaries narrated and people seemed to enjoy it. 

Lots of bad things happened from my perspective, like my USB breaking, but overall, I think it went well! 

We've been teaching S and she's really really receptive! It feels so good to work with someone that has been prepared. If all goes to plan, we should be baptizing her this Saturday! 

Love you all.

Love,

Elder Benjamin

December 13, 2015

Kia ora whanau!

This week has been awesome. Well, every week is. The mission is pretty cool. 

We taught our first lesson to the girl I told you about last week, she understood, she answered questions, and it was brilliant. Then, after, a few really cool things happened. The first was that they fed us KFC. Then, Susana came in with a flower for both of us. And then. She said, "Elder Benjamin, can I tell you something?"

"Yeah of course."

"Thanks for teaching me the gospel." 

That legits almost made me cry. It was so sweet.

One investigator that we've been seeing the whole time I've been here but her husband doesn't like mormons so she goes to a different church told us this week that we could meet her husband! She even said she'd plan a family bbq and invite us to come! 

We went carolling as a district and people offered us money at almost every door! Why don't they do that in the states? 

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Benjamin

Goals Achieved

So here's a few highlights of this week. 

There was a visitor in our ward, he was 16 and he bore his testimony. He was talking about the plan of Salvation and how we can become like Heavenly Father but he said, "We get everything Heavenly Father has. And that's like, a lot." hahaha so using his words, I'm really excited to get like, a lot in the next life. 

Here's the real one though. President and Sister Hudson wanted us to set a baptismal goal for this transfer. We decided to have one baptism as our goal. Then, we had no idea how we were gonna get it. Nobody we were teaching was even remotely ready to get baptized and it's getting close to the end. We have been working hard though, cleaning up our area and dropping investigators that weren't progressing. Last night, the zone leaders called us and told us about  a less active family that had been to their sacrament meeting two weeks in a row because they slept in late (ours is at 9 theirs is at 1.) 

Their daughter  is 9 or 10 and wants to get baptized. She's already been to sacrament meeting two times in a row, her parents are supportive and all that needs to happen is the lessons. So, the zone leaders called and told us that they set a baptismal date for us!! All we have to do is teach her. I'm honestly in awe. We've been working so hard and we set a goal like we were told and Heavenly Father just gave us the baptism. It's incredible. I'm so so so so excited, obviously. Cuz it's my first baptism!! We already have an appointment set up to start teaching and I know it's all gonna work out. 

Thanks for everything. 

Love,

Elder Benjamin

This Week

Kia ora whanau!!

I wanna tell yous about some really awesome things that have happened. We started splits/rescue visits to our less active members on Wednesday night and one of them came to church on Sunday! In Sunday school, he told us a story. He moved to Australia, joined the church because of his son, but he fell less active as he moved back to NZ. He had been out of the church for about three years and he said that he wanted to get back into it. So, he called the church to see if he could get the number for the elders serving in his area and after about 15 minutes, he couldn't find anything. He was pretty upset about it. A couple hours later, Elder A and our Bishop came knocking on his door. They came, got him a ride to church, and Elder A and I are gonna start teaching him the lessons again. It was amazing. 

This week started out pretty rough, though. I was really struggling and was pretty hard on myself as. (Surprising, right?) Haha I didn't really know what was wrong and I just figured that I needed to fix or change something. On Thursday night, because of an inspirational zone training, I decided to pray until I felt peace, comfort, the spirit, really anything. I've heard about 100 stories of missionaries praying and crying until they were just overwhelmed with the spirit. So, I went to the main room of my flat and prayed for about 50 minutes. I felt almost nothing. 

Dejected, but still believing that eventually I would feel something, I went to bed. 

Friday came and went and nothing much changed. On Saturday night, we went to visit someone that told us his entire life story which was incredibly depressing. We had no idea what to say. The spirit wasn't there, we had no words, and then he blamed us for making us depressed. We said we're sorry and we went home. 

During training, I had the thought to stop and ask my companion how he could teach the plan of salvation in a way that would address all that we had just heard. As we followed the spirit and practiced, the spirit came flooding in. We knew how we could finally help this man. 

I rejected the spirit a little bit though. I was really glad to have been able to feel that but I wanted to spirit to come as a result of my prayer. During my prayer. 

So of course, as I prayed again for that on Saturday night, I felt nothing. 

During sacrament meeting, I repented. I told Heavenly Father I was sorry. 

Then, during Sunday School again, I received that witness that I was so earnestly seeking for. Our Ward Mission Leader asked everyone, whether convert or raised in the church, how/when we came to know the church was true. My mind was taken back to my first youth conference. 

Before going, I had started talking to my parents about wondering whether or not I actually had my own testimony. During the testimony meeting, I stood up with a pounding heart and shaky voice and told all the youth in the ward that I couldn't deny that the church was true. I didn't know where the words came from, but they fell out of my mouth. After the meeting was over, my dad pulled me aside and helped me see that I had a testimony of my own! I did know it. 

I then remembered some of the countless moments that my dad has been there for. Priesthood blessings, phone calls, youth conferences. Always there as I need him. Never letting me fall away and always, always bringing me closer to Heavenly Father and the Savior. I was able to see that my dad's constant love and care for me were and still are evidence that I have a Loving Heavenly Father.   

I heard the words, "Jared. This is the witness you were looking for." 

Such a distinct and powerful answer to prayer. 

I know God lives. 

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Benjamin

New Transfer

So, I've learned quite a few valuable lessons this week and some pretty amazing things have happened. 

A while ago, we committed two kids to baptism. We've passed their set date and the baptism hasn't happened yet. This week, we came around to teach them about the Book of Mormon and commit them to read it and the spirit told me to re-teach the Restoration. As we did, the spirit was so strong, and for the first time, as I recited the verses from JSH about the "pillar of light" the spirit came flooding into the room. I had felt that as other, older missionaries had told the story and I was always wondering when I would be able to bring the spirit like that. It happened. I walked away from the lesson, knowing that I'm a successful missionary and actually knowing, for the first time, that Joseph Smith really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the Sacred Grove. I can't even begin to say how grateful I am for that experience. 

As I've started training and being a district leader and leading out my area, I have about 12089762893064 things that are stacked against me, more than 1/2 of them come from how small my ward is. As I've gone through this week, with a renewed desire to be exactly obedient, be diligent, and have faith, I've felt the Savior carrying me through this week. I've finally felt and recognized what the Enabling Power of the Atonement feels like. It's absolutely incredible. 

Things are just working out with me and my new companion being exactly obedient. It really does bring miracles. 

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Benjamin

Milestones

So. There's been a few milestones this week. Hence, the subject of the email.

I'm finished with my training!! That's pretty neat. I'm a "real" missionary now, according to everyone. 

I have officially gained ten pounds...... 

Also, on Thursday Morning, President Hudson called us about 5 minutes before Personal Study was about to start. My stomach dropped and my heart started racing because I knew that if he calls on the Thursday before transfers, he tells you that you're going to train. He wanted to talk to me and my companion and this is what happened. He said that my companion would be training a new missionary and whitewashing in a new zone. He then told me that I'm gonna be training a new missionary as well and that I'll be the new district leader.

Obviously, I was pretty overwhelmed by this new call. Seems to be pretty normal. But I've been overwhelmed with the spirit and that the Lord will help me do this. A couple days before the call came, between an inspired letter from a friend and my patriarchal blessing, I was overwhelmed with the spirit and realization that I've been a successful leader in the past and that I've been able to help people and I've felt since the call that Heavenly Father and the Savior are aware of me and they're going to work through me. All I need to do is exercise my faith and let them do the hard work because that's how it always seems to work in the gospel and it's brilliant. 

Other than that, the work has been going pretty slow, but I've been blessed with some really good ideas on how to work with different people and to really start progressing my area. I love you all! Love, Elder Benjamin

This week or something

I'm pretty sure this week was only about 3 days long... I have no idea what happened and we were so busy. It's all good things though. 

 On Tuesday, we had our district meeting with President and Sister Hudson and I love them so much. In my interview with President, he could see that I was being pretty hard on myself and that I didn't really believe that I was a good missionary yet. (Pretty surprising, right? hahaha.) He opened right up to chapter one of PMG and showed me what the Brethren were inspired to write and the guidelines of what makes a successful missionary. It had nothing to do with baptisms, having no fear, or being able to answer every question. The first thing was feeling the spirit testify through you to other people. Which, I have felt before and I had just told President about an experience with that. He went on to show me 4 or 5 other things that I'm already doing to make me a successful missionary. 

I don't share this to be prideful, I'm just so grateful to have a loving, inspired leader. 

We had a lot of meetings and this week was our Stake's 20th anniversary so we went to heaps of activities for that. One of my favorites was a fireside on Saturday night with Sid Going - an All Black legend that's had a conference talk and a mormon message about him. He's now the Hamilton Temple President. He and his wife stood at the pulpit together and answered questions and talked about their experiences in the gospel. It was pretty neat. I made a goal though, as I walked into the chapel, that I was going to get a picture with him before I left. I've missed a lot of opportunities in my life because of fear of talking to people, like David Archuleta in the MTC, and I didn't want to have that as a theme in my life. So, after the fireside was over, the missionaries were all talking and hoping that we could talk to Sid, and I took a couple deep breaths and walked up to him and introduced myself. I asked for a picture and every other missionary followed suit. It was pretty neat. The spirit has given me a confidence that I've never had before and I love it so much. 

We didn't do much teaching this week because a lot of people cancelled so sorry there's nothing about our investigators. 

Love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Benjamin

Weekly Email

Me out in the country side somewhere that I thought was particularly pretty.  It's also proof that I'm not fat. Yet.

This week has been pretty neat. To be honest, I don't have much to say..

Here's a few highlights of the week. 

We visited a potential investigator and he had just lost his job. He said, sort of jokingly, that maybe he should go to church to help things go better in his life. What it did though, was open up a discussion on the gospel and how much it blesses lives. We were able to give him a Book of Mormon and commit him to read it. We're gonna try and follow up this week and help him along the way. 

On Sunday morning, I was really struggling to be happy. I knelt down and asked Heavenly Father to give me strength that day and to show me something I needed to fix, if there was something, so that I could be happier. After I prayed, I stayed kneeling down, listening for the promptings of the spirit. I felt that I needed to sleep more. It wasn't quite the answer I was expecting, but it just showed me that Heavenly Father really is aware of every aspect of our life and nothing is too small for him to care about. 

As I went to fast and testimony meeting, a couple things happened. The first was that as the members of my little Omahu ward bore testimony of the gospel, I was strengthened by them. I received energy and happiness that I hadn't had before all because of others' strength. The second was that, because the All Blacks won the world cup that morning, literally every single person that spoke at all, mentioned them. hahaha. The third was that our gospel doctrine teacher, who is in her 80s I think, bore her testimony and talked about how her belief and knowledge of the gospel is unshakable. She said she's ready to defend her beliefs to anyone and, to prove her point, she all but yelled from the pulpit.

Anyways. Love you all!

Love,

Elder Benjamin

We are allotted 1000 Ks to use this month.  That's the odometer on Saturday night.

Prayers Answered

Sorry the email is a day late! Yesterday was a holiday here in Kiwi land and so the email shop was closed. Hence, the email a day late. 

On Sunday, in Hastings, there was a combined stake young men missionary day. We all went out to teach them how to invite a less active member to a fireside they were having and then we went on splits to do it. After splits, we came back to the chapel and they asked all the missionaries to each teach a group of the young men about chapter one from PMG. I agreed, as did everyone else, but I was really nervous about filling up 25 minutes in class, unprepared, on a chapter that I didn't know very well at all. I turned to Heavenly Father in a silent prayer and pleaded with him to bless me with the spirit and that it would give me what to teach and that it would help me teach a meaningful lesson for these boys. 

We got into our room and I wanted to start out learning every one's names so I could take up some of the time but the spirit told me to get straight into the lesson and teach them about the Missionary Purpose. As soon as I started teaching, the spirit took over. I was able to fill the time completely and teach the young men about what the purpose means and that they need to invite Christ into their own life before they can invite others to come unto him. I ended with bearing witness that he lives and that his atonement is real. It was one of the most powerful lessons I've been able to teach so far as a missionary and it all came from my prayer being answered. It's so clear to me that Heavenly Father is aware of me and He answers my prayers. 

This week has been great. On Saturday, our ward had a baptism for a boy named Hawaiki. We've been going over to have FHE with them for a couple months now. The mom is less active and the dad isn't a member. They all came to the baptism on Saturday and the spirit was so strong. Between the talks and a wet to dry lesson Sister S put together, I was able to testify to everyone that was there that baptism is a saving ordinance and that our Savior lives. Afterwards as we talked to the dad, he told us how strong he felt the spirit and how happy he was for his son. It was incredible. 

Here's something else I think you will like: On Thursday of this week we went to see C and S, but S was the only one there. He's only 12 and we taught him how to pray again. Elder A was giving him examples of what he could say in a prayer and one of the things he said was, "I'm thankful that Elder A is the man." So, as Saxon was praying, he said, "Thankful that Elder A is the man..... and that Elder Benjamin could come here too." hahahahahaha. 

Anyways. I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for all the prayers. 

Love,

Elder Benjamin

General Conference

So this week was pretty long. Bad start to the email, eh? It's because I was stuck in the flat sick for Tuesday and Wednesday!! So fun. I was actually confined to the bathroom for some of it... But I'll spare you all the details. 

Because of that, I was really bored and stuff. There wasn't actually much that happened this week because of it. So this will be quite a short email.

One thing that did happen was General Conference. I loved it so much. I've never loved conference so much. Oh my life it was good. A couple things I did differently that helped me enjoy it so much was to go into it with prayerfully pondered questions. They gave me things to look for and focus on. Another thing that helped oh so much was to write notes according to the Spirit, not just writing an outline of the talk like I usually do, haha. It helped me learn so much. 

A few highlights: One was Elder Holland's talk on Mothers. I think one of the best and most brilliant ways we have to learn of the Savior, is to get to know our moms, specifically my mom. I came to the realization that I already know him better than I realized because of her. 

Another was Elder Bednar's talk. I've never had such a powerful witness to me of the divinity of these men and their callings. The spirit very clearly told me that they were prophets of God and they speak as God and the Savior direct. 

Anyways. I love you all!

Love, 

Elder Benjamin

-I love the Lord-

Last week of transfers

Standing in the sunny rain. COOL.

Today is the first day of my second transfer. What the heck. The time has already gone by so fast and all everyone says is that it just keeps going faster and faster. I'm a little upset it's gone by so fast, to be honest. I want to be able to treasure this time and it's hard to when it feels like I was just emailing yesterday! Anyways. I'm staying in Napier and my companion is second phasing me. 

 Last week, after emailing, it rained and we had to bike home in it. It was *literally* (said like Chris Traeger) the coldest I've ever been. 

Tuesday: We have an old couple we visit, whose daughter needed help to put together an aluminum shed. So of course we offered to help and we did it! Neither one of us had done it before, but we got it up and it stayed together so I'm really proud of it. I would've taken a picture, but I forgot my camera.... And. I had pizza for breakfast and for dinner. Someone go and have Dominos for me. It's not nearly as good here. Or as big. LAME.

Wednesday: We went and played housie at the old folks home again. They're my favorite. One lady was super excited that we came and could play with her, and the she feel asleep like 14 seconds in and didn't wake up. hahahaha. 

We visited a less-active family, and we saw the husband because he was home from work! Turns out, Bronson Kaufusi's dad is his cousin! So that's cool. Anyways. As we talked, he said that he really wants to get his family back to church and invited us inside to give him and his wife a blessing. We had never been invited in before! I loved it so much. The blessings were powerful and the spirit was so strong. 

Thursday: We had district meeting and then mowed some one's lawn. and I don't remember much else of what we did...

Friday: Weekly Planning and stuff, we talked to a lady who hadn't been to church in something like 20 years and, through the incredible gift of the spirit, she agreed to have us come and read the Book of Mormon with her and answer her questions about it! 

We had our first correlation meeting with our new ward mission leader, and he's incredible. He has a vision of where he wants our ward and I know it'll get there. He's the right man for the job. 

Saturday: We helped a sister move something like 600 ceramic molds out of her shed and into a truck that someone brought. It was something like 6 hours, but service is good things. We went door knocking and then had dinner and made a few visits.

Sunday: Basically, we had church, had about 4309720934 people not be home after church, and then had dinner with George and Liz, or in other words, my grandparents in New Zealand. They love the missionaries so much. I'll send a picture soon.

Gorgeous Sunset

Here's something I wrote in my letter to President Hudson: This week has been really good. Every week is really good. I think it's been one of the hardest weeks I've had, but the last couple days I was able to feel very close to Heavenly Father. I had a rough few days in the beginning of the week, they weren't terrible but I didn't feel the comfort and joy that the spirit has brought me so much nearly as strong as I had and I really didn't like it. One day, I prayed and told Heavenly Father that there was something missing and I wasn't doing enough to be happy. I asked Him to please show me what it was that I needed to do better in the Book of Mormon so that I could be happier. I read a couple chapters from Jacob and was very humbled to realize that my prayers had been lacking. I had been praying, and still receiving answers, but I looked and realized that my prayers had become routine and were very much lacking in emotion. I wasn't pleading with Heavenly Father or feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. It's not very easy for me to pray with so much emotion every single time, but because Heavenly Father has given me everything and can help me with and through everything, I think He deserves everything I have when I pray to Him. I found that as I tried to do that, my days got a lot brighter and I have been able to be happier. It's incredible to see how aware of me Heavenly Father really is.

I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Benjamin

They say if your badge is wet that you'll have a pretty wife. So that's neat.

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-

August 30, 2015

We finished up the MTC last week and left at 6:30 AM on Tuesday to fly out to Wellington. I met President Hudson and his wife in the airport and they're super nice people. We went to a chapel (none of the buildings here have central heating so they're all freezing) and we had an orientation about the mission I guess. They told 4 of the 16 in my intake that we're expected to drive from day one. So, they took me out driving in Wellington that day and it's all screwy because it's on the left side of the road. I've been driving around every day. It's honestly kind of scary. But, I haven't been on the right side of the road more than once or twice.. :)

My companion's Tongan. He was born in Tonga but he moved to Auckland when he was 7 ish and so he speaks English and he's super great. He's really helpful with answering my questions and making me feel loved and accepted. Like I seriously couldn't have asked for a better companion. He said his name actually means bad day which is awesome because his name means bad day. AND. He likes running. So that's cool. 

We live in a pretty big flat with just the two of us and I super like it. I don't actually have any pictures though because I just figured out how to use the camera yesterday and we couldn't take any in the MTC. 

We've done a lot of service already which is cool because service. We did some at the Salvation Army which is basically DI, New Zealand style. One of the things they had us do was break down furniture with a sledgehammer to fit inside the garbage so that was pretty neat. :) 

We spend most of our time going and visiting people. There's about 200 people in our ward, but only about 40 of them are active in the church, so we have a lot of work to do. The ward seriously is tiny. They had me introduce myself and bear my testimony, we blessed the sacrament, and then we taught two boys Sunday school. After church, the bishop invited us over for lunch and his wife asked us if we could teach primary in a few weeks so it looks like I'll be plenty busy in this ward. Plus, I offered to the bishop that I'm willing to speak any time and I'm hoping he doesn't take me up on that..

We've spent a few hours knocking doors and street contacting and it's kind of really intimidating to introduce myself and the gospel to people I don't know, but they're all really nice, even though we get turned down by almost everyone. 

I'm really grateful to Heavenly Father for taking such good care of me. The members feed us about 5 times a week, the food is way better than the MTC, my companion is such a big help, I see prayers getting answered all the time, I feel His love when we go and visit people, and I love my time studying in the morning. 

Thank you all so much for the prayers and support! 

Love, Elder Benjamin 

PS They're making a Tongan ward and since my companion speaks Tongan, we might be assigned to work in that ward. This is 100% speculation, but it could possibly be a thing. 

First Email Home

Hey everyone!

I made it through the first few days! As soon as I went through security, I met an elder from Provo and he was going to Wellington as well. By the time we got to the gate, we had something like 6 other elders flying out with us. SLC to LA was a super short flight, and then we had a layover for 3 hours. The flight from LA to Auckland was about 13 hours long. 13 hours. But, I slept for about 8 hours of it so that was pretty dope.

Once we landed and made it through customs, there was an Islander there to pick us up and he was huge! Like 6'6" and 320 pounds huge. He loaded us up in the van and they drive on the wrong side of the road too! It super scares me to drive because of that. Like a lot.

The MTC is so crazy. We have something like 10 hours of class every day. The Spirit is so strong here. That confidence I was blessed with after being set apart is so much stronger now that I'm in the MTC and starting to learn how to be a missionary. We do a lot of role play, which is super awkward when other people are watching you, but I found that if I really dive into it, if I try to see them as investigators, that the Spirit just overwhelms me and I know what to say. I have scriptures come to mind, I can bear testimony easily, and I say what the investigator needs to hear.

One of  our teachers is crazy. She's kind of like if Breanna came from a Pacific island. My district was getting tired in one of our classes, and she had us play head shoulders knees and toes but we had to do the actions on our companion.

The first day I got here, the president asked me and my companion to be zone leaders. Because the MTC is so small, there's only two ZLs and I guess I was lucky enough to be one of them. It's really overwhelming, but it just kinda feels right to be serving the other missionaries. One of the best experiences with serving was last night in a class, a Sister started talking about her family and it made one of the Elders cry because he was so homesick. I felt like I should go up to him after and talk to him. I ended up sharing Doctrine and Covenants 121:7-9 with him and then asked him if he wanted a blessing. He did, so we took him into a classroom, said a prayer, and two other elders and I laid our hands on his head and gave him a priesthood blessing. I loved being able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands.

My companion is from Provo, he plays the violin and piano, he was a math sterling scholar, and he can speak Spanish. He played football, and danced ballroom. So basically, he's the most well rounded person I know. He's getting to know all the other missionaries so well and he loves the gospel.

The food here isn't bad, but it's not that good either. They do different things like spaghetti for breakfast or put tuna in pasta salad. Or make fish and chips that have an aftertaste of the cabin water. But I'm hoping the food will be better when I'm in the field.

Most of the time, I love it here. The spirit is strong, I'm learning a ton, I'm studying well, my prayers are more sincere, and it's just great.

I love you all and hope you're doing well!

Love, Elder Benjamin