Weirdest week so far...

June 22, 2015

Hello Family,

It's always good to hear from Mom and Dad. I'm happy Mom gave a talk. I am really looking forward to reading it. Thank you once again for all the support you give me. I'm learning the art of being bold. I've had some experiences this week that have helped me be more bold. Mainly going on exchange with Elder Sharp again. I found out that he's actually really good at street contacting. He's good at talking with people and becoming their friend. Another example I look to for being bold is the Savior Himself, since He was the perfect example for everything. There were several times where He had to be bold but He was always loving. 

This week was by far the weirdest week so far. Early in the week we heard it was supposed to rain a lot and Elder Lynch said he doesn't like the rain because it messes everything up. And it does. Rain messes everything up. It's hard to describe but it just does. I have to go day by day. I can't think of a better way to describe this week.

6-15-15 Monday

Today was another fun P-Day. We ate at Emery's again and spent most of the afternoon watching bible videos and started entering information into the AreaBook Planner app we got today. That's the app the church designed for missionaries. It combines the Planner and the Area Book all on one tablet. Later, we met with a Ms K and helped her burn a giant grass pile in her back yard. There was smoke everywhere. My clothes smelled like smoke for a while.

6-16-15 Tuesday

Today I went on another exchange with the ZL's. This time it was Elder Spencer. Pretty much everything fell through and some of our investigators dropped us by text message. We met with a couple and they've made a lot of progress with the WoW. They really want to join and have given up smoking, coffee, tea and are on the last of their tobacco. When they run out, they'll never buy more again. To end the day we ate at Pres. Sodders home again. At the end of that he pulled out some of his guns. I took pictures. Even though a lot fell through today, the ZL I was with was impressed at how well I knew the area and the people in it. 

6-17-15 Wednesday

Today was the first day we got soaking wet by the rain. We decided to park at the church and walk about a mile up the road to see some people we were meeting with in that area. No one answered and right as we turned back, it started raining. Hard. After we were good and soaking, someone in a truck stopped and offered a ride. We took it and since we were all in the car, Elder Lynch and I asked him if he'd be interested in the church. He said "no" in a very kind way. When we got the church, we entered more information into the AreaBook app. Later that night Elder Lynch interviewed Brenda. The Corydon Hermana's (Spanish sister missionaries) have been working with Brenda for quite a while now and she's finally getting baptized.  

6-18-15 Thursday

Today was fun. Brenda's son's birthday was today. I had a lot of really thick waffles. Her son asked for a "How to be an Elder" book so we gave him the old 1970's BoM I got a few weeks ago. Then we had district meeting and during the meeting we took "funeral" photos for Elder Lynch and Elder Spaulding (one of the ZL's) since they're both going home (dying). After that I went on exchange with Elder Sharp again, only this time I stayed in Corydon and got to drive around. I don't miss driving. We met a really solid potential, Mr A, who we're meeting tomorrow and we got caught in the rain AGAIN. This time we had to go back to the apartment and change. Later that night we had a dinner appointment with Bro. Larson and his family. He's the kind of person who's incapable of being mean. After dinner he went out with us to an appointment with Ms K. We taught a powerful Lesson 3 (The Gospel of Jesus Christ) but she still won't commit to baptism. 

6-19-15 Friday

After we exchanged back we went to see Mr A, the potential Elder Sharp and I met yesterday. We taught him a really solid Lesson 1 (The Restoration) and he understood everything. He told us that he's been looking to change his life for the better and we pointed out how right after he made that decision he met us. We actually meet a lot of people like that. People who realize they need to change and soon after they decide that they meet us. That's just a further testimony builder that God places people in your path. Later as the rain was about to start, we met with another less-active family and right after we got in with them, the rain started pouring again. If we hadn't gotten in with that family we would have been soaked again. And just before we left the rain stopped. Later that night, the former Branch President Bro. Blackburn and his family fed us. They fed us some of the best lasagna I've ever had. They also gave me a copy of Spencer W. Kimball's "The Miracle of Forgiveness" to borrow. I had heard several things about that book. Mainly, it makes everyone who reads it feel like a wicked sinner and that they need to speak with their Bishop to repent. Since the Blackburns read a ton of books I thought they would be good people to ask about it. So I did and they gave me a copy to borrow. 

6-20-15 Saturday

Today was the weirdest day in the weirdest week. About half way through the day, we arrived at one of our investigator's small apartment complexes. They lived on the top floor around a corner at the top of the stairs. When we got to the door we knocked and no one answered. Right after that we heard the downstairs door open and someone walking up. We thought it was our investigators but it was actually someone else. When they got to the top we saw that it was a man and a woman. When they stopped, they looked at us, and the man said "I'd like to invite you two to dinner." There was a bit of a pause and Elder Lynch and I looked at him like he was some weirdo. Then he added "I'm a member, and I served my mission here back in 1999." Elder Lynch and I were kinda mind-blown. He said his name was Bro Flam and his wife was Sis Flam. They were in the area doing an anniversary/mission tour and giving every companionship they met a free meal. They said they saw us right when we walked into the apartments. They asked when a good time to meet for food would be and since we had an appointment just barely fall through we said that right then would be a good time. They took us to O'Charlies and I ate this really well-made cedar plank salmon. They said they'd be at church tomorrow. After we ate they took us back to the church and we parted ways. The last half of today is where it gets all over the place. Tonight was Brenda's baptism in the New Albany Stake Center. At about 5:30 the person she asked to baptize her called us and said he couldn't find his white pants and asked us to be backups. We accepted the offer but because we were in New Salisbury at the time that required us to drive all the way back to the apartment in Corydon to get extra garments and drive all the way back to New Salisbury by 6:00 to meet Pres Sodders who was our ride to the baptism in New Albany. The baptism started at 7. As we were driving back Pres Sodders saw a doughnut shop he's always wanted to try, but it's always been closed every time he's driven past it. He asked us if we would like doughnuts for breakfast and we said "yes." So we stopped for doughnuts. We had to drive from New Salisbury to Corydon again and right before we would have gotten to the apartment, the Corydon Hermana's called us and asked us to "deal with a really big black snake right outside of their apartment". The snake was no more than 12 inches or so. It was the smallest garden snake. They are the biggest wimps with snakes I've ever seen. They live on the 2nd story of their apartment complex and the snake was on their top step. After Elder Lynch and I dealt with it, we finally were able to head back to the apartment.

6-21-15 Sunday

Sweet glorious Sunday! We had church, and church is relaxing, and this week wasn't relaxing, and I needed something relaxing. Bro and Sis Flam showed up at church. They're a really nice couple. Not a whole lot happened missionary wise today as once again, everything fell though. At night we ate at Pres. Sodders house again. The Hermana's and the Flams were there. After dinner Pres. Sodders took us on a tour around his 30 acre plot of land. That was actually the 2nd time I've had that tour. It was the Hermana's first time. 

That was this week. This week was weird. Rain makes everything weird.

Missionary work is becoming fairly routine now. But every day is still different. That's probably my favorite thing about the mission field. Every day is different. Even though I might teach the same lesson over and over again. Even though I may read a scripture over and over again, I can still pull something new out of it. Something I've come to realize is things like Scriptures or the whole Gospel itself has something I call "Eternal Value". I don't know why this never clicked with me before. Even though the scriptures are ancient they hold just as much value today as they did yesterday. Arguably more value today than yesterday. They were written by Prophets who were called by God to be basically God's mouth piece. Essentially, God wrote the scriptures. Since God is an eternal being, time doesn't hold the same value for Him as it does for us. And since God doesn't change, His teachings won't change. Something he revealed to a Prophet thousands of years ago holds the same value today as it did then. The scriptures are written in such a way that no matter how many times you read them, as long as you're reading them to continually find new things and learn new things, you'll always get something new out of them. I find that most material written by Prophets and Apostles, anciently and modern day, have this same trait. You could read a talk by Gordon B. Hinkley a million times and still get something new out of it. You could read King Benjamin's sermon a million times and still get something new out of it. The point is to always be searching for something new. Something you didn't apply before. Emphasis on apply. I feel like that's the biggest difference between an average member and someone who's truly converted. It's one thing to live the Gospel standards. It's a completely different thing to apply the Gospel itself. 

Thank you for sending me the viper knot picture. Unfortunately I can't go on Pinterest. I think if you just send me screen shots of an instructional video I'll be able to figure it out. Thank you for sending me all the temple pictures. They all look very pretty.

Thanks a million!

Elder Bennn

How am I already 10% through? #TimeFlies #NowhereNearTwoYears #Missionary

P.S. The church wants us to become familiar with their "Hash Tag campaigns" for the iPads. I never through I would use hash tags but I guess the church wants me to. 

Just some of Pres. Sodders guns...

He realized something...

Fiesta... we're with some members of the Spanish Branch.

"Funeral" photos

Here are some of the district meeting/funeral photos.
Names from left to right: Elder Rasmussen, Elder Koenig, me, Elder
Spencer, Elder Money, Elder Sharp, Hermana Bennett, Hermana Bateman,
and the two laying down are Elder Lynch and Elder Spaulding.

"No comment"

The Hermana's gave us food so we set up tables to eat it at our District Meeting.