Week 74 Miraclez On Miraclez On Miraclez

This will prolly be the longest email I send out, but it’s also prolly the biggest miracle I’ve seen my whole mission.

The Lord has blessed us so immensely it is absolutely incredible!! So there’s a YSA in our ward (there’s no set YSA Ward in the Stake) named Katlyn Bailey & we met w/ her on Wednesday 2 weeks ago & shared a message about missionary work. She came to us Sunday & said she read The Book of Mormon w/ her roommate who lost her mother 2 years ago & invited her to meet w/ us & she said yes! So we met w/ Katlyn & her roommate Alyssa Johnston on Wednesday @ Chik-Fil-A & I can’t even begin to describe  how amazing/prepared Alyssa is! Easily thee most prepared person I’ve ever met & prolly the greatest miracle I’ve seen on my mission. We taught her the Plan of Salvation on Wednesday & part way thru she started crying & asked us, “How could anyone love me? How could I be of any worth?” Alyssa comes from a small town in Nebraska called Oogallala, never really knowing her father, a mother never really present in her life until the year before she passed who brought different men into Alyssa’s life who never treated her of any worth, really sad. But we testified to her about being a daughter of a loving Heavenly Father who sees her worth as more than she can comprehend, it was beautiful. After wiping away tears she asked, “So when can we meet again?” Hahaha we were like well let’s finish the lesson first then we can plan that. She texted us the next morning thanking us, I’ll attach a pic. 

Friday we met again & taught the Restoration, Alyssa’s whole attitude & body language had changed so much! She seemed so much happier & she even recognized it! We invited her to baptism & she tearfully smiled & said yes. We set the date for Feb. 9th...exactly 1 month from our 1st meeting w/ Alyssa. She came w/ us to a baptism Saturday & this sounds really bad but it was the worst baptism I’ve ever been present at hahaha. It was a 9 year old girl with a phobia of water who was splashing & kicking while trying to get baptized & not fully immersing. It took no joke like 10 mins but it happened haha. Afterwards everyone kept coming up to Alyssa saying, “It’s not usually like this” hahaha she didn’t mind it at all tho she thought it was the most incredible thing & it made her even more excited to take that step! Spirit works in mysterious ways but I am ever so grateful for it. 

Sunday she came to church & loved it! She felt so at peace & at home. Afterwards we all met in Bishop Ross office & talked w/ him & she asked him if it would be okay if she joined the church it was the sweetest thing.

Monday we taught Alyssa the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our Stake President’s home & it went amazing! Alyssa is up to 1 Nephi 13 & read to some of her patients Sunday night! (She’s a CNA in a hospital) It’s so crazy to think it hasn’t even been a full week & we’ve already seen such an incredible amount of progression from Alyssa! I feel like I’ve known Alyssa for so much longer than just these past couple days! I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to CHANGE. To being joy into our lives. When we first met Alyssa she reminded me of a lost puppy, scared, insecure, not knowing her purpose, depressed. But teaching her Monday she has blossomed! She’s comfortable, happy, laughing, & starting to understand her purpose & worth. It’s amazing to see the change & I feel so extremely blessed to be able to be apart of the journey. 

Soooo yeahhhh we’re super hyped for Alyssa if you can’t tell 

Crazy to think that Alyssa was only 1 invite away from being able to have all this peace, joy, & knowledge enter into her life & Katlyn made that invite to her & now Alyssa will forever remember Katlyn for inviting her. I know the Lord has people he’s preparing around us everyday, some of them are just 1 invite away, we gotta step it up & open our mouths!!!

We also taught Jason Grant’s oldest daughter Katelyn on Friday & it went so awesome! She didn’t have any interest in Christ’s church but after watching her dad, sister, & brother all get baptized & seeing the changes in their lives, it’s sparked something in her. We’re meeting w/ her again on Thursday!

In other news, Ben stayed in town & will be here another month cause he got sick & came to church Sunday!

This week was incredible & filled w/ so many Miraclez, I feel so blessed & I love my Savior Jesus Christ!
Peace & Love,

Elder Bennett aka YOBOIGATOR 

Yoboi w/ A Raptor

Snickers Da GOAT

Horsssse

Texts Like These Are Priceless

Kaitlyn and Alyssa and some of the missionaries hiking

Week 73 Tortilla To The Dome

My boi Elder Ufland caught a tortilla to the dome this week at dinner hahaha! So we’re at dinner and this little girl like 3 years old is sitting across from Elder Ufland and we’re just enjoying the meal & chatting away when outta the corner of my eye I see this tortilla flyin thru the air and dome Elder Ufland! We all lost it, I almost spit water all over the table haha. After we gained our composure the 3 year old little girl was set straight haha

This week was real good. We taught Audrey & Alex Burns & read 2 Nephi 31 w/ them & were pretty bold about how they need to put the work in to know if this is true! They came to church on Sunday & they said they’ve been reading where we left off w/ them & have been praying!! Audrey said she’s been feeling much better about herself & in a much happier mood lately since then! That was a huge answer to fasts & prayers! #TheLordProvides

We taught Ben & he told us he’s gonna be moving on the 11th :( We’re sad about him leaving but know that it’s gonna be good for him to be w/ his family again! We’re gonna teach him 2 more times before he leaves & make sure we get all set up to refer him to his new missionaries :)

We had a crazy super cool experience w/ a woman named Katherine, her 4 crazy little girls, & their German Shepherd!! They were all outside when we walked by & started talking w/ her & these little girls were crazy! Like bruh, you don’t even know. All over us tryna steal our phone, wallets, scriptures, etc & jumping all over us while we were just tryna preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to their Mother. WILD. Anyways, I shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon about it being the words of Christ (2 Nephi 33:10-11) & then testified about eternal families & the priesthood. She asked how that could be possible. I then shared Mathew 18:18 w/ her & she all sassy goes “Now where can you show me that in the Bible?” #GOTTIIIIII. Not gonna lie that was a super cool moment how we were able to then testify of The Book of Mormon being another witness of Jesus Christ that supports the Bible & her whole mood changed. Shortly after I’m pulling out the phone to try and look at times to come back when I get bombarded by the little girls tryna steal the phone so I’m running around all jokingly in the yard, goin back and forth, juking & making moves when I go to plant my foot & step in snow/mud and just get dropped hard. I hit my knee hard on the ground, in pain just lying there for no more than a second when all 4 of the girls catch up to me and jump on top of me & get back to tryna steal my phone, wallet, & scriptures. This proceeds for the next 30 seconds of me trying to fend off these lil thievens, during which I catch lil glimpses of Elder Ufland off testifying to Katherine...what a good comp I couldn’t be more proud! Well eventually the phone was pried from my hands & at about the exact same time the German Shepherd from inside the house gets thru the screen door & comes charging at me & hops on me a couple times until Katherine came over & grabbed the dog. Prolly one of the most joyous & memorable times of my mission haha! Katherine then told us she wanted us to come back when her kids were in school so she could give us more of her attention haha so we’re super excited to go back & teach her!

Keep Ya Head Up! Much Love 🤟

Elder Bennett aka YOBOIGATOR 

Baby Chick

Pic w/ The Thieven

Week 72 Hog Rider

No, not Clash of Clans. YOBOIGATOR, thee Hog Rider. We were doing service at Bakerz & I rode a pig for like 2 seconds, homie was boutta go straight into a tree so hadda abort real quick! Talk about adrenaline rush it was a blast haha!

We taught the Plan of Salvation lesson to Jaxon, Chaslynn, & Jason their dad on Thursday. Jason hasn’t been to the temple yet since his baptism in October so we invited him & Chaslynn to pray for a day to go to the temple & take names from their ancestry. We prayed in our planning session Friday for a date we felt would be good for them & came up w/ Jan. 12th. We talked w/ Jason on Sunday & he said he set up Chaslynn’s temple recommend interview for next Wednesday & was thinking we go the Saturday after her interview...the 12th! Revelation is real! So we goin to the temple to do baptisms for the dead on the 12th w/ them & are so excited!!

Other than that amazing miracle, it was a rougher week for teaching. Most people we’re teaching are gone for holidays & coming back this week. For those whom we did teach, it was weird, we just are kinda at a stagnant spot & trying to figure out the next step for a lot of people to help them strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ. 

We go do service at this old folks home & there’s this sweet old lady named Dorothy from Scotland & she talks in a Scottish accent & loves when we come! And all last week she was telling me bout she’s gonna be dressed in her kilt for New Years & bring her Scotland flag...well she held true to that promise so I had to get a picture w/ her.

I got to see my trainer! Thee Bobby Lit came thru the mission & we were able to get some dinner & catch up, it was a fun time.

Happy New Year!!! Big Thingz comin in 2K19!
Peace & Love 🤟

Elder Bennett aka YOBOIGATOR 

Hawwwwwwwg Ryderrrrrr

Sweet Sweet Dorothy

Bobby Lit

Lovely Cheyenne Weather 

Week 71 It’s All About Family

Hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas!! It was an amazing week here in Cheyenne! I feel so blessed this email won’t do any justice to the amount of miracles we saw & blessinz I felt this week. Jaxon & Chaslynn got baptized on Saturday by their dad Jason! It was such an incredible day & their was such a special spirit there. There was great support from the ward as well which was awesome! There were tears all around for the whole family, it was really special. Jason pointed out something really cool, he was baptized Oct. 20th & 2 months later on Dec. 22nd, he was able to baptize his kids. Such a special day.

Sunday was a great day! President & Sister McMurray came & spoke in our ward so it was great having them & their family in our ward for the day. Also, Elder Ufland was able to confirm Jaxon & I was able to confirm Chaslynn! We also had a man named Will that we’re teaching who came to church. He’s this big black bodybuilding and it was so funny when they were passing around the sacrament he took a piece of bread then was like, “I can’t have this...it has carbs” We was laughin bruh. He eventually ate it after holding it in his hand for like a couple minutes haha.

We were able to teach Benjamin Saturday night before he flew out to see his family in Tennessee Sunday morning & that went amazing! He just kept thanking us, he’s such a humble man. When we texted him Sunday morning he told us he had been listening to 1 Nephi in the airport on his phone, can’t wait till he gets back so we can continue working w/ him! He also came to the baptism on Saturday which was super cool!

We found some new people to teach this week that we’re really excited about! First is Crys’ Dawna & her husband Chris, they have 2 young kiddos. But they’re so sweet & were so excited about them! We went & caroled to them on Christmas along with some others :)

The others are McKenzie & Donald, they’re brother & sister. We met them Friday & they told us we could come back Saturday & teach them so we did & after sharing the message of the Restoration w/ them it was so awesome! They both said they felt so good and at peace & that things had been really hectic lately & the message made them feel like things weren’t as bad as they thought they were & they felt really calm. They felt the Spirit, it was so awesome!

We’ve been so blessed & are so grateful for everyone we have to be teaching right now!  

We spent Christmas Eve w/ our Stake President Brown & his family. It was such a blast! We had tons of fun w/ them playing games & acting out the nativity & also go to get very spiritual singing hymns & paying remembrance to their sister who’s passed on. It occurred to me very strongly the importance of family. I can’t really put it into text it’s hard, but family is what it’s all about & I am so forever grateful for my family & for my Savior Jesus Christ who makes it possible for me to be w/ my Family Forever.

It’s all about Family. Much Love Y’all.

Peace & Love,

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 

Zone Conference 

Jaxon & Chaslynn’s Baptism

Merry Christmas!

Week 70 The Karate Kid /// Birdz In Da Trap

don’t even know where to start this has probably been one of my favorite weeks thus far. My heart is so full of joy & life is incredible! Cheyenne has been beautiful & the weather has been amazing so far. The members here in the Buffalo Ridge Ward are incredible & so willing to help us out I love them so much! My companion, Elder Matthew Ufland who is from Alberta, Canada, is such a stud! He’s only been out 3 months but has such a strong desire to be obedient & is filled w/ so much love! He’s so humble & excited to learn, I love him so much! We have seen so many miracles together & feel so blessed!

 One miracle is a humble man named Benjamin who’s working here but originally from Tennessee. We met him Thursday night when he was finishing his work day & walking up to his apartment and we started talking. He was so humble. When we met with him Sunday he opened up to us a lot & told us he had been cheating on his wife in Tennessee, felt so awful, and felt God didn’t love him. When we talked to him he knew it was a sign from God. A sign of hope he could change & try & save his wife & family. Benjamin has 4 kids in Tennessee. He has a desire to be baptized but wants to make sure that it isn’t something he takes lightly but commits to. We are so excited for him. It was wonderful being able to testify of the healing powers of the Atonement to him & watch the light come into his eyes. He said he would pray that night, for the 1st time in 9 years. We prayed that morning for the Lord to place people in our path while we were out who were prepared & we would open our mouths & talk w/ everyone. He answered that prayer. I know the Lord placed Benjamin in our path at that exact time we were passing by. I KNOW Heavenly Father hears our prays & answers them! This is just 1 miracle from our first week together, there were many more!

We’re currently teaching Chaslyn & Jaxon Grant. So quick backstory. Their dad Jason married a member, Sariah, & was just baptized in October & is the coolest guy! He’s got such an incredible testimony, he listens to conference talks while he works & just got called to serve in the young men’s presidency. At first, Chaslyn who is 13 & Jaxon who is 9, didn’t want anything to do w/ the church until they saw Jason get baptized. They’ve been getting taught since & their baptisms are this Saturday! We taught them Thursday night & then again on Saturday & helped them set up Christmas lights & finished up the lessons & reviewed w/ them. Their both so excited & were so excited for them! Also, Jaxon is actually Jason’s biological nephew whom they just finalized the adoption for on Friday, so this has been a very exciting week for the Grant’s!

Aight so The Karate Kid. There’s this guy here named Baker in our ward, no lie, this guy is 100% my brother Landon. He reminds me of Landon so much it’s hilarious, I’ll have to snag a pic w/ him next week. Anyways, Baker owns a farm...a bird farm. And it’s so dope! He’s got chickens, ducks, geese, emus, rayas, peacocks, ginneys, goats, horses, pigs & we go & do service there. So when we went over he asked us to catch all the ginneys and put them in a closed off area. So we got to work & yo boi felt like the Karate Kid tryna catch these things haha. It was such a blast, some of the funnest Service I’ve done my whole mission!

Merry CHRISTmas!!! I love my Savior Jesus Christ & am so grateful for this time to celebrate him & his birth. Peace & Love 🤟

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 

Birdz In Da Trap

Helping the Grant’s Set Up Their Lightz (Left-Jason & Sariah. Right- Jaxon & Stockton)

On The Lookout ft. Rdlph Th Rd Ns Rndr 

Sweeterbriar Boyz. The End of An Era.

Shout Out To Da Homie Elder Kellogg For The Fresh Tie He Made Me For Christmas 

Week 69 Completing The Cycle

We have 6 Zones in our mission & I've served in 5/6, serving in Cheyenne will make it 6/6 therefore, yoboi completing the cycle.

This week was a huge shock! I had just got out here in Casper & Elder Fronk had been here for 6 months so I was certain he’d leave and I’d stay but we’re both getting transferred. I got released from being a Zone Leader & am going to be serving in Cheyenne, WY as a DL in the Buffalo Ridge Ward! And Elder Fronk is going to be ZL in Cheyenne so we’re still gonna be around each other haha. My boi Elder Thacker on the come up & is taking my spot out here in Casper along w/ my homie from the MTC Elder Gillette so I know the area in good hands. 

I’m excited for this new assignment out in Cheyenne! The Stake President (President Brown) out there is a baller! The Stake usually averages 30 baptisms a year and he set a goal for 100 baptisms in 2019!! So you already know, BIG THINGZ HAPPENIN IN CHEYENNE!!! And President Brown is in the Buffalo Ridge Ward I’ll be covering! My companion is Elder Ufland, he’s a younger missionary in his 3rd Transfer, I know nothing more of him other than he’s from Canada :) We gonna be on bike/foot in the middle of the Wyoming winter & this Cali boi soft so #pray4me

We had our Ward Christmas Party on Friday which was a ton of fun! The Hillan’s showed up and Michael was having a lot of fun & was in such a good mood! There was also lots of families that usually don’t come to church that came as well which was great to see! Santa even made an appearance & yoboiz wasn’t gonna miss an opportunity to take a pic w/ him. Shoutout to Brother Bowen for being the best Santa I ever seen.

We’ve been goin around saying our goodbyes and said bye to the Lavering boyz last night. It was sad but really sweet, they kept bringing stuff up to us that they wanted us to have & Xavier said he still wants me to baptize him in June when he has his birthday which was sweet! We’ll say goodbye to the Hillans tonight. I’m grateful for the relationships I was able to build in my short time here in Casper & the blessing it was being able to serve here! I love y’all so much! Don’t forget to LightTheWorld! 
Peace & Love,

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 

New Address:

2424 Pattison Ave. Apt. A

Cheyenne, WY 82009

Picz w/ Santa

Lavering Boyz & Their Grandparents Shane & Kayleen

Week 68 Back To Back To Back Like Jordan 96,97,98

We spent lots of time traveling this week & spent half the week in Colorado. We had to leave Wednesday to go to Loveland for our exchanges w/ the AP’s & it’s about a 4 hour drive. On Thursday we were on exchanges & The Dream Team was reunited!! I was able to be w/ Elder Halladay for the day & it was a ton of fun! We got to teach together, do service together, minister, & catch up. Great day! On Friday we had our MLC meeting which was really good! Yo boiz went for the 3 Peat in the MLC quiz game 

On our way back to Casper Friday we stopped in Laradise for dinner w/ a bunch of the YSA. It was so much fun & felt like home being back w/ them! We were able to have a great visit & I was able to minister to Joe & Loren which made the visit worth it. They bought Elder Fronk & I dinner :) Kevin was there too!! He’s being doing good, has started reading the Book of Mormon (Joe & Jordan have been reading w/ him), & is asking questions in his prayers! Such a huge step for him! It was so wonderful being able to see him, he had to take off pretty abruptly so I didn’t snag a pic w/ him. 

We’re still teaching Zander & Xavier along w/ their grandparents. We taught them last night & it was so funny! We have a Plan of Salvation kit that when solved spells out “LOVE” and we tested them w/ it to see if they remembered it & it was so fun to watch! Right when we set it down immediately Zander was like “where’s pre mortal life...where’s the veil...where’s birth...and so on” it was really incredible to see how well they remembered it & how quickly! They had it done in like 30 seconds! Afterwards they both got up & started dancing & Zander said, “That made me feel like I’m on a sugar rush!” Hahaha I’ll tell ya teaching children Jesus Christ gospel is the greatest blessing. At the end Xavier gave the sweetest prayer, prayed for the world, his grandparents, us, President Nelson, and his brother Zander. He’s 7! His prayer blew me away! I think children are one of God’s greatest gifts on earth, they possess such a sweet & tender Spirit. No wonder we’re invited by Christ to become like children.

We also got to watch the Christmas Devotional w/ Michael & the Hillan Family! Such beautiful music & a blessing to hear from our prophet! My favorite quote was “If you ever think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve obviously never spent the night with a mosquito.” BARZ. We can make a difference, never get discouraged! A great way to make a difference right now is w/ #LightTheWorld. I love the reminder it gives us during the holiday season of the true meaning & importance behind Christ commandment, “Love One Another.” Help someone out this Christmas & #LightTheWorld! 

Peace & Love!

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 

CHAMPS

Elder Fronk & I :)

MLC

YSA Homiez

District Squad Pics

Week 67 Gas Masks & Christmas Treez

What a wonderful week! Michael was baptized on Saturday and it was such a special day! He was so excited and his family was just as excited for him!! When it came time for the baptism they have little kids come up and kneel, but Michael’s whole family came up and they all stood & watched next to the font. It was special to see. They knew how important this was and wanted to be right there to watch it! 

We’ve still been meeting w/ the Lavering boyz Zander & Xavier & that’s been going great! We’ve seen some amazing miracles there! Their grandmother came to church last week and sat in on the lesson last night! That was the first time she has & that was so amazing to see! She was asking the boyz questions and participating, it’s been such a blessing watching what Zander’s decision to be baptized has done for their family!

Thanksgiving was great! We spent it w/ Troy & Rana Dixon. Rana was baptized a few months ago & Troy started returning when she was being taught & they’re the coolest! We had fun playing Pool w/ them while we waited for the food to finish. Afterwards we went to the Lavering’s & visited w/ them. I promised Zander I’d play a basketball game w/ him but it was some nasty weather so we postponed it haha. Then we helped out a member in our ward, aka Santa Clause (this man is literally Santa I swear haha) we helped him unload a couple hundred Christmas Trees in 40+mph winds...that was a blast trying not to get tipped over while carrying 12ft trees!

Lastly, we’ve been doing lots of service for a hoarder. And it’s BAD. But, she is still a daughter of God, and in need, so we have been helping. We been wearing gas masks sometimes when we clean cause of how bad it is, hence the subject line. They do make for some dope pics tho haha! I kept making Bane quotes from Batman while wearing man, how could ya not. I love life & my heart is full of joy. I love my Savior & brother Jesus Christ. Much Love y’all!
Peace & Love,

Elder Bennett aka yoboigator 

Christmas Treez Gang

Gas Mask Boyz

Michael’s Baptism & his family! (Should have better quality pics next week)