Week 6 PRAYERS NEEDED

Before I go into my week I want to ask everyone to remember my sweet nephew Levi in their prayers. Levi was just diagnosed with Leukemia and will be going through chemo soon. Please pray for him as well as my brother Logan and his wife Janaye. Their family really needs the prayers right now.  Please pray for them, I know that there is power and comfort in prayer. Thank you everyone I love you all.

This week we taught the Bertagnole family on Tuesday with President McMurray so that was cool having him there with us. We taught them the restoration and the kids are all so excited to be baptized, it's really sweet! 

On Wednesday, we went by to check up on Tracey Bates because we hadn't heard from him and were able to chat with him and catch up with him. Unfortunately, he said he didn't see a reason for us to meet with him anymore but we could still stop by every now and then. That was tough to hear but he was nice about it and said we can still come by to chat still holding out hope for him.

Cool story from Thursday!! We were on our way walking to a dinner appointment and there's this house on the corner that has a bunch of cars out front and looks kind of abandoned and we were told the first day we got to the area that they think a member lives there so to maybe try it. So as we were about to pass it Elder Litster was just like I feel like we need to knock this door right now. So we go ahead and knock it and this younger guy probably  30-35 steps out with a box of cigs and lighter and so we just tell him we were told a member of our church lives here and asked if that was right and he goes "No, but I'll listen." So he lights up and we start talking to him. He tells us he's a Christian and was knowledgeable about the bible and asked really good questions. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he starts reading the introduction on the spot! And while he's doing that I start telling how the Book of Mormon came to be and about Joseph Smith and the first vision. It was funny cause after I recited the first vision he goes "Daaaaaang! That happened?!" And then he points at me and goes you been out longer huh and then when I told him I only been out 3 weeks he was shocked. He said I would've thought for sure you had been out longer cause I like the way you said things better and so now I get to tease Elder Litster about that and he gets all salty haha its funny. But so his name is Danny and he said he's going to read the Book of Mormon and that we could stop by this week!

Saturday was rainy and cold the whole day. We thought going out trackting people would show us sympathy and let us inside but that was not the case haha! We walked out in the rain and got soaked and although we didn't get into any homes or able to share any lessons, it was a fun experience that I'll remember.

Something cool I found during my studies. I was thinking of the scripture 3 Nephi 27:29 (originally from Matthew 7:7) "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you" because I love the picture of Christ knocking on the door. So, I started studying that scripture, and found it 13 (might be more) different times in the scriptures! I think it's pretty important if we are reminded that many times in the scriptures and a reassurance of how critical prayers are and the difference they make. I know praying with a sincere heart can bring personal revelation that we can receive answers from. 

Also, our mission is going to be an online proselyting mission starting next transfer so we'll be on Facebook I believe in the next couple weeks.

I love you all very much. Always remember. Families are Forever.

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 
1215 Walnut Street
Windsor, CO 80550

                                                Levi and Janaye in hospial bed

                                                              Levi

3-I got a special Greenie package from my "Room 8 Gals" on Wednesday. It was a sweet surprise receiving a package from the ladies I worked with at Woods! :)

Week 5 Windsor, Colorado

    This week has been great! We taught this family on Tuesday, the Bertagnole's. So background on them, they have 6 kids, 5 daughters and 1 little boy. 4 of the daughters are baptism age, parents sealed in the temple, dad a return missionary, but these 4 daughters aren't baptized. They recently moved here to Windsor from Casper, WY, where they apparently hadn't had the best experiences with the church there and had some anti-family around there so that was holding them back. They moved to Windsor for a fresh start so they have been coming to church and on Tuesday we taught their family and I was able to invite the daughters to be baptized and they said yes! So that was really exciting! We set the date for Oct. 14th. Then we have Rebecca Cook's the next week on the 21st, October will be an amazing month! But the Bertagnole's are such a sweet family!

After our lesson, they made us a poppy seed cake and we all just chilled. Their dad, Adam, and I get along really well and talked volleyball and video games for a long time so that was dope. 

   We did exchanges on Wednesday and Elder Doss and I went to this bakery that this recent convert owns and did service. I felt like I was working on the show Cake Boss haha. That’s basically what the place was and they're building this huge cake for a hotel opening up soon so that was really cool!

   While out trackting this week we had cool experiences. We ran into a woman named Brooke who has a family and lives here and grew up in Utah. She's friends with one of the families in our ward, they live in the same neighborhood, kids go to school together, and so she said we could come by sometime this week so were really hoping we can teach her family! Then that same day we were walking home and this younger guy pulls over his car in front of us, gets out, and comes up to us and says "I just want y'all to know I really admire you guys being out here, I took my records out a couple years ago but believe in the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith was a prophet." So we got his number and plan on meeting with him this week.

   So while walking around this week Elder Litster helped teach me how to solve a Rubik's cube so now I know and was so hype about that!

   We had stake conference this week and just wanted to share something really quick that stood out to me.

Sister McMurray spoke and talked about how big of a difference it can make when we pray for missionary opportunities and the faith and courage to act upon them when they come. She shared a cool story about a sister missionary in our mission's mom, who did just that, then started sharing her daughter’s emails with people and how it resulted with 2 people being baptized. It was really cool and I think that's huge if we sincerely are praying for missionary opportunities to happen, that they will come and we just need to have that faith to do what the spirit prompts us to do.

Another cool message I got from a mission training breakfast was:

Prepare with Purpose

Teach with Testimony

Labor with Love

I loved this and thought it was so cool! I love this gospel and the joy it brings into my life! Much love everyone!

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 
1215 Walnut Street
Windsor, CO 80550

1-This is me and Gene. Absolutely love this man and such a blessing to be living with him. I told him were talking a pic so he grabbed this wig and threw it on and said "Okay lets do this" just cause thats the goof he is. He said we need to dye the wig blue for next time

2-Just out on one of the paths we usually walk.

3-During our trainer's meeting.4th girl in from bottom of photo, is our Sister Harkness from my home ward.

4-If anyone in Fresno remembers Elder Mo'o, his cousin is in my mission and hooked me up with a haircut.

5- just because I love the Fort Collins Temple, it is so beautiful

Week 4 down 1st week in Windsor, Colorado

    I have been in CO for about a week now and loving it! My trainer is Elder Litster and he's a homie. We get along perfectly, he's from Simi Valley in SoCal and played football/wrestling in HS and graduated 2015 like me. He's been out 15 months now. We're referred to as the "pretty boy companionship" haha. We're serving in the Windsor stake in the Bison Ridge ward. We currently don't have bikes so just walk everywhere. We probably average about 8 miles a day and then my trainer and I run to the AP's apartment in the mornings to workout that's a mile and a half away. Funny cause it’s not at all what I had expected in this mission, I thought for sure that I would just be driving everywhere. Things are cool here it looks like the ward were in will be great and that we'll have a lot of success here! They do a pretty good job of feeding us for dinners, our calendar is pretty full which is nice. There are some really nice families in our ward. Our bishop is Bishop Houton who is like some world renounced orthopedic surgeon. One member said his waiting list is longer than my mission haha. But very nice guy who I look forward to working with. Me and my comp are getting along great and he's been very chill about me being sick. We're living with Gene and I absolutely love Gene he's such a homie! He's 75 and still teaching math at the college nearby. He cooks for us sometimes to, he's such a thoughtful man and we're so blessed to be able to stay with him.

     We've already taught a couple lessons and have one girl who has a baptism date. Her name is Rebecca and she's 14 and her family is inactive and trying to reactivate so we've been working with them. The dad is trying to get active so that he can baptize her so her baptism date is some ways out at Oct. 21st. She's awesome tho she is attending seminary and church and loves the Book of Mormon. We taught another lesson to an older man named Tracy Bates. He read the whole Book of Mormon in 2 months and said it’s a good book but he's not sure if it’s true. He's been active in a Methodist church with his wife most his life so he knows that if he comes to know it's true he has a lot he would need to change but said he would do it if he came to know it's true! So were encouraging him to continue reading it and praying about it to know for himself and our lesson with him went really well and we have a follow up scheduled with him next week. So, if you want you could pray for Tracy so that he might be able to receive his answer and the faith to go through with it that would be awesome!

     Things are going great out here and I love my comp and the people of this area! I'm excited to be here and working with the members and believe we'll have great success here! Love y'all!!

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 
1215 Walnut Street
Windsor, CO 80550

Day 1 in the Fort Collins Colorado Mission

Elder Bennett arrived and was greeted by much love. He reports that he has a new companion named Elder Litster. In his words:

It's been a crazy long day but made it to Colorado! I got my first area and trainer. I'm serving in the Greeley area, Windsor Stake, in the Bison Ridge ward in north east Colorado and being trained by Elder Litster. He's a really cool guy and we get along perfectly! He's from Simi Valley in Ventura county, he graduated same year as me and has been out almost 15 months now. I got to meet some other elders that drove us to drop our stuff off at our place and they're serving in the Richey's ward and one of the elders has been there 4.5 months and finishing his mission there so he's gotten to know the Richey's really well. Oh yeah haha, the area we're in doesn't have a car, so we're either biking or walking, not sure yet cause we currently only have 1 bike. We're living in this members house and he reminds me of grandma Loy. He's this older guy who lives by himself in this nice 2 story house and he set us up upstairs. He's so funny, he plays his TV really loud and he has a stereo that he puts a CD in of just bird noises and he plays it all day long I think it's hilarious! He also has a pet bird named Kirby. He's still teaching math at Aims Community college out here too 4 days a week! Which I was blown away by when I heard cause he's probably at least in his 80's and he's still teaching but that's awesome for him. But yeah day 1 was sweet the guys in this mission are really cool and I'm pumped to get to serve and work with the people out here. Sis Harkness got assigned to the YSA ward in the same zone as me. I got to see Elder Arnold and Sister Lewis  too which was super cool! When I first arrived in the airport the AP's told me I was in a biking area and that my comp was a tool so I was a little bummed and stressin over it so I said a prayer about it and the Lord answers prayers! Cause I love my comp and think he's dope and ain't even sweatin not having a car. The Lord answers prayers I know this to be true and there is power in prayers so always remain faithful and PRAY!! 

Love you and praying for you all!

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 

Home Address
1215 Walnut Street     new address for Elder Bennett if you want to send goodies send to this address!
Windsor, CO 80550

Mission Office
500 Hillspire Dr.
Windsor, CO 80550

                                                        Sister Lewis, Sister Harkness Elder Bennett and Elder Arnold

                                                   Time to meet the new companion Elder Litster.

My comp is the one with the hat haha the other guy is Elder Prescott and he's the guy that trained my comp so he's my Grandpa. He's on his last transfer. He's gonna play football at BYU when he goes home, he turned down a full ride to USC to serve a mission he's a homie.

Departure from the MTC to enter the Mission to serve

I received a phone call on Tuesday morning, the 5th of September from Elder Bennett with his flight itinerary. He sounded good and was excited to see what area he would be serving in and who his new companion might be. Then later that day, we received an email from the Mission President's wife, Sister McMurray. She let us know Elder Bennett arrived safely and had  this sweet picture of Elder Bennett with the Mission President and his wife Sister McMurray. They will have a special role in Elder Bennett's life, and be like a Mom and Dad to him while he is away, to lead him and guide him along this journey, to be the best servant of the Lord he can be. Then a picture of the Elders and Sisters who flew with him at the Denver airport and then again a group shot of them in  Colorado.

Week 3 in the MTC

     Week 3 mtc They gave us today to email and get ready because tomorrow we're leaving! I'm so pumped to get out into the field! This week went by fast, we got new TRC's and invited both to baptism but they both said they wanted to learn more before committing. I learned how frustrating it is trying to get to know someone and teach them a lesson in 25 minutes. It's extremely frustrating when you start having a really good discussion and feel like you're getting somewhere then they tell you you're out of time. So I'm looking forward to being out in the field and hopefully if a good discussion is going on and the spirit is felt that they won't just cut it off and say "time's up."

      Crazy sad stuff going on in Houston right now I've been hearing all about it, and it's tough not really being able anything except pray for those people. I heard something cool in Priesthood this week, one elder told us that the top 3 Humanitarian responders for things like hurricanes and stuff like that are the government, Red Cross, and the LDS church. It's amazing how much service we do and how we're always there for our brothers and sisters in their hardest of time, yet we still get so much persecution from others. Really made me think, why would Satan try so hard to attack and take down our church? Catholicism and Christianity has been around far longer than our church, yet I feel like we receive much more persecution and are just seen as "the mormons" when people don't know that we are Christians, that's why our whole church is centered around Jesus Christ! Anyways, just something that was a good discussion we had in priesthood that had me thinking.

     We had a final district volleyball game and split up the people going to Colorado and Kansas on different teams and Colorado wrecked but it was a ton of fun! I love my district and that's the only thing I'm sad about leaving the MTC is having to leave my district. We've all gotten so close and I love them so much. I love that I'm going stateside and that I have a tablet mission it's such a blessing! Funny cause I was so upset about both those when I got the call but since I've been out here I've learned to appreciate it and am so happy about those things. Tablets make sharing the gospel so much easier, it's all right there, you can show them they can get it all on there phones, there's the search bar, it makes sharing the gospel so much easier. I love my call and I'm so excited to fly out and get assigned my first area tomorrow! Not sure when my next P-Day will be but I'll hit y'all up then! Much Love 

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 
500 Hillspire Dr.
Windsor, CO 80550

Pictures are:

1. New elders that moved into me and Elder Gillette's room and they're going to Salem, OR

2.Basketball hoop thats been passed around on our floor since 2013

3. Elder Gillette and I final pic

4&5. Visit from some homies before I went out into the field

                          Nothing like seeing your homies from home before you head out for two years.


This is the last picture of my district with one of our teachers before we head to Colorado

Week 2 in the MTC

 Sorry beforehand about how long this email is but had a cool personal experience I wanted to share.

    Wow these days are flying by! Next week this time ill be getting ready to board a plane to Denver! I love the MTC but its so nice to think I'll finally be able to start my time in the field serving the people out there.

    The MTC has a system called TRC (Teaching Resource Center) basically they hire members/investigators for us to practice teaching on so you don't know if the person you're teaching is really a member or not. This week we taught an investigator by the name of Mariah at TRC. It was so cool teaching her because she was struggling with her faith a lot and our testimonies really helped her a lot. Every lesson we taught her she would cry throughout and the spirit was so strong and so we invited her to be baptized after our 2nd lesson and she said yes! Our final lesson with her we talked with her about baptism and why it's important, enduring to the end, and she was really questioning Joseph Smith and the importance of the Book of Mormon. We bore testimony and as we did she had tears streaming down her face and thanked us from the bottom of her heart. She then confessed to us, she told us she never tells anyone because it's against the job but that she was already a member, but had really been struggling and doubting lately. But she thanked us so much and told us we were a direct answer to her prayers. I realized a little later that not every conversion ill have will necessarily end in baptism, there are members that are struggling too that need help and their worth is just as great and important as anyone else's. It was a cool lesson.

    We got our flight plans the other day. Crazy that I'm already getting ready to leave the MTC. Our flight is a week from today and we fly into Denver and then are taking a bus to get to the mission presidents home and we have a group of 22 going and I'm the travel leader so have to make sure that everyone makes it there and has a companionship and all that.

    The daily routines are so repetitive and its starting to get annoying doing the same things everyday so I'm pumped to be heading out in a week! I think cause were leaving on Tuesday our P-Day might be on Monday this next week.

    I had a cool experience in class this week. Our teacher asked us to write down any question we have on our minds...she then asked do we have faith that the Lord will answer it within the next 15 mins. I wrote down "Is the Book of Mormon a TRUE testament of Jesus Christ that Joseph Smith translated?" I've always had a testimony of the BoM but never had any like "heavens open and angels testify to me" experience that I feel like everyone has and even when i most recently finished and prayed about it I didn't really feel anything so thats why I wrote that down. She invited us to kneel and pray about our question and so I did. I immediately was prompted by the spirit to turn to Alma 45. I did so and found Alma speaking to his son Helaman and in verses 2-8 I'll paraphrase how it was to me. "Believest thou in these records which have been kept?...Believest thou in Jesus Christ that shall come?...Will you keep my commandments?" To all which Helaman replies Yes. And Alma tells him "Blessed art thou, and the Lord shall prosper thee in this land." Now when I read these questions I felt as though I was being asked them directly from the spirit. It was something very simple but I said yes to all the questions and was reminded and my testimony was strengthened that I don't need any miracle or sign to get my answer, I've always believed in these words and in Christ and have strived to follow thee. And so the Lord will bless me to prosper in this land. Don't think I'll ever forget that experience, it was such a tender mercy of the Lord that I was later able to use in my lessons.

     Love you all and I know the true gospel of Jesus Christ is restored on the earth today and brings happiness and peace into our lives if we let it!

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 

Some pictures from this last week.

                                  Elder Bennett and Sister Harkness  both from Clovis California

Special Moment Shared

So before I post the letter from week 2. I want to share what happened on week 1. I was visiting Utah from California for BYU Education week and heard that they would be giving tours of the new MTC. I thought this would be fun to see where Elder Bennett is and experience a little of the beautiful art work he had told me about. I was able to get a ticket and while I was on the tour taking pictures of the beautiful art and enjoying the peaceful grounds I came out of a building and saw a group of Elders and Sisters sitting on the patio area. My eyes quickly scanned the group and noticed there was one sister I recognized from pictures that Elder Bennett had sent home the few days after he was there. I continued to scan the group and could not believe it but there was Elder Bennett just looking down and studying away. He did not see me so I quickly ducked back into the building and proceeded to take pictures through the window, thinking this was the closest I was going to get to him.
He is the one on the right looking down. Then after observing him for some time I talked myself into going back onto the same patio to proceed on the tour. When I got out there he did not notice me and a sister took a selfie with me and Elder Bennett in the background (he is over my right shoulder).I

was walking down the patio area to enter another building when I stopped to speak to a Sister missionary and to point out that my son Elder Bennett was right over there. She asked me if I had said hi to him and I replied NO, I didn't think I could. She asked me if we planned to meet there that day and I told her no that Elder Bennett had no idea that I was there. She then told me to go back and say hi to him. I was nervous, not wanting to break any rules. I went over and spoke loudly from afar ELDER BENNETT, but he did not hear me, so I said BENNETT, and he popped up and our eyes met. What a tender moment. I waved and said I love you thinking that was as close as I would get,  but his teacher asked if I was his mother and she told him to go give me a hug. I was not prepared to see him let alone hug him, but I was so grateful to share that tender moment with him. He hugged me and told me he was so happy. Then he told me,"Mom you see that building behind me, the top floor in a room up there we study at this hour every night up there. We have never came down and sat in the patio area until just now".My heart felt so many emotions and there was no denying that the moment we shared was a precious gift from a loving Heavenly Father. I walked away and was teary but not because I would miss him but because God let me experience such a sacred moment and I know he did that because he loves me and he loves Elder Bennett.