Elder Riley Bennett: Week 79 #DoryStrong

What an incredible week! We had our zone conference on Thursday & the theme was repentance. President McMurray focused it around Alma 23:7 & “burying our weapons of rebellion.” P Mac really went all out. He dressed up as an Anti-Nephi-Lehi & had us all go up & bury our weapons of rebellion, it was dope.

Also while at Zone Conference we were able to hear some powerful testimonies which I’m grateful for. The first was President McMurray’s. He talked about his grandson Owen who had been born last week at 27 weeks & was 1lb 7oz. Who lived only a few days before passing in his parents arms. It was extremely sad & devastating & I watched President McMurray tell this story without shedding a single tear & said, “this is not a sad story, but a hopeful story.” He bore powerful testimony of eternal families & his knowledge & gratitude of that. It was incredible.

The next was by a young man named Kyle Dory. So while in Laramie I got to work closely w/ President Kirk Dory & we met on about a weekly basis. He was always talking about how excited he was for his son Kyle to serve his mission. I never knew Kyle personally while in Laramie but had heard of him & his story, but at Zone Conference we got to hear from him personally & boi was that somethin! During Kyle’s sophomore year they found a tumor on his brain which was diagnosed as cancer. He went thru radiation & chemo, fought hard & won. He was healed. He was preparing to serve a mission & so excited, he received his call to the New York Rochester Mission & was scheduled to leave in January. The week before his report date he went for one final check up only to discover his cancer had returned & this time was more fatal. He was devastated knowing that he would no longer be able to serve, although thru miracles, Kyle was able to go to his mission for a week & serve as a full time missionary to his assigned mission in New York. Nearly a month later he came to our Zone Conference to share his story & testimony. It was truly special hearing his testimony. The part that stuck out to me most was he was talking about a talk he had heard from Elder Bednar when Elder Bednar went to visit someone who was sick & Elder Bednar asked the person “Do you have the faith to not be healed?” Afterwards Kyle said “I have the faith to be healed, the Lord has already done it. But I also have the faith to not be healed.” That was deep. Kyle is an inspiration & I feel so blessed to have been able to have heard his testimony.

I invite you all to lay down any of your “weapons of rebellion” thru repentance so that you fight no more against God. Also to have “the faith to not be healed.” Willing to submit cheerfully to whatever the will of the Lord May be. I promise you will find joy & you will find peace by doing so.

After Zone Conference & feeling like complete scrubs & realizing our problems in life are nothing compared to what others go thru, we got to go to the temple w/ Alyssa & Katlyn!!! That was such a wonderful experience. Alyssa said while we were in the temple she could feel her mother w/ her. I also forget to add last week, Thursday night before Alyssa’s Baptism she was struggling to fall asleep & said that during that night she heard her mother’s voice say, “I’m proud of you Alyssa.” It’s been so incredible to see the miracle that Alyssa has been & all the amazing experiences she’s had. Oh, & she’s almost finished w/ Alma in The Book of Mormon...pretty sure she’ll have it finished before I leave haha. She’s incredible.

I also hit 18 months last week & completed my “Sister Mission.” Wild. I feel so blessed, this last week has be tremendous! Extremely grateful for the changes so that I can video call the fam now too. Wild. Thank you for all the love & support! Love y’all!

Peace & Love,

Elder Bennett aka YOBOIGATOR