Elder Riley Bennett: Week 81 “I’m An Experienced Lover”

Who says ya can’t plan to have a wedding/baptism in 48 hours?! This week has been WILD!! We went & taught Steve Nath & his fiancé Jazmuhn on Saturday. So they’re moving to New York on the 18th & Jaz’s dad lives out there & they want him to marry them cause he’s a judge & Jaz’s dad. Therefore we haven’t really pushed baptism w/ Steve because they weren’t planning on getting married till New York. Well, while teaching Saturday we told Steve he was very ready for baptism & he said “no way, I thought I thought I was years away.” So we started to go over the baptismal interview questions w/ Steve to show him he was ready, thinking nothing of it. Well that went great.

Saturday night we get transfer info, Elder Ufland & I are both leaving, that was a huge shock. I’m going going back back to Loveland. I’ll be double covering wards. I’ll be in the Harmony Park & Kechter Farm wards, I’ll still be on bike, and I’m pretty sure I cover the area around the temple. It’s actually in Fort Collins but in the Loveland Stake & Zone. I’m gonna be training a new missionary that I’ll pick up & meet tonight. I’ll still be the District Leader over there & my MTC comp Elder Gillette is in my district so you already know we gonna have a ton of fun & been doin some mad work! Super hype!

So Sunday during 2nd hour in Sunday School our Bishop pulls out Steve and takes him into his office. They talk a while & come out & Steve said that Bishop Ross said, “I felt prompted to pull you out & tell you that you need the companionship of the Holy Ghost before y’all move to New York. I will marry y’all tomorrow and we can have you baptized Tuesday before the Elders leave.” Bishop Ross is the man. So he told them to pray about it. So Steve & Jaz went & prayed about it & afterwards Steve said he felt good about it! So then it was time to plan out the wedding & baptism

Fast forward to Monday night @ the wedding. Bishop Ross stands up & opens it up to anyone to give Steve & Jaz any advice or counsel about being married. Well I stand up, and mind you that the Stake President is sitting in front of me, and Bishop makes a joke about me, being a missionary giving marriage advice. And the first words out of my mouth are, “I’m an experienced lover.” Very poor choice of words haha. Everyone had a good laugh & I felt like an idiot after sitting down it was great. The wedding was beautiful & I’ll have the pleasure of baptizing Steve tonight. Right after Elder Fronk & I will drive to Windsor, CO to pick up the missionary I’ll be training. I can honestly say this has been the most wild past couple of days of my mission. I’m sad to be leaving Buffalo Ridge, so many great people. I’m excited to go back to Loveland. I love y’all 🤟