Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Staying in Hesperia

My Mom and Shawn have little conversations throughout the hour while he is at the computer on P-days.
Mom,
You don't need to send me a wedding invitation, I honestly couldn't care less haha. Thank you for your letter! I'm gonna respond today. I'll write out more in there than I will here. Today's the start of the new transfer, so me and Elder Kirkham are here for another 6 weeks (at least), God has someone here waiting for me and it's hard to be patient for that, but everyday I receive a witness that He is watching over me and wants me to be successful. I know how much he invested in the church and how he wants it to thrive, but it will be done in his due time. I love my mission and am so glad I chose to serve, wholeheartedly, I cannot think of a better way to spend my time giving to others. I love you mom (: I normally dream about you guys at least once a week, it's odd. By the way, love the family pictures, they turned out so good (: I love you more!

Love,
Elder Shawn Lyle Bennion

Email to KoriAnn & Ben

Koriann,

My P day last week was ridiculous. I wanted to write really bad, but it was just so hectic! Plus, obedience is really big here on a mission, so I figured a letter can wait one more week. I tend to justify things too often, but I decided to be a good boy about the letter writing.
Daylight savings time I swear was going to kill me ha! We got in super late that night so when the alarm went off at 6:30, I was SO exhausted and could tell how much I love sleeping here. That's the thing, bedtime is bliss. And 6:30 without fail always comes way to early! I suck at getting out of bed on time ha.
Your calling sounds like a lot of work and a lot of time is going into it! It seems demanding, but boy doesn't it feel good to give to the Lord! I love serving so much, whatever it may be. One of the people in our ward is moving and her house is a disaster but we've been helping her a bit and it just feels good. I really hope my attitude towards serving lingers for quite sometime, because I do love it. The law of consecration is so neat to me and I love fulfilling it. Our Father in Heaven who 'preserves us from day to day and grants us breath' allows us so many opportunities and so much happiness and the way we can allow him to feel happiness is by giving back to him. I just feel so fortunate for what I do. I'm learning that every soul is precious in the sight of God, even the one guy who said the F word 3 times to me and Elder Kirkham at his door. Now that was not a fun experience. That was really the only rude rejection I've had since I've been out, and I hope I can avoid that as much as possible haha.
So let me tell you what. I love my mission, but i'm having a hard time with something; Patience. I'm not sure if Ben had the same problem, but I just see my time here to be so short and I want so badly to leave Hesperia better than I found it. That is my motto, but at the end of the day, I don't really feel like I did all I could. I think it's because I take to heart the fact you can't control people's agency and I focus to much on the numbers. If you really look at what me and Elder Kirkham are doing, we're doing quite a bit, but I was just expecting more investigators and baptisms. So if you could ask Ben his expertise on Patience, I would love anything.
But yeah, life here is really good. Today is the first day of the new transfer! I've been serving for 6 weeks already! Time makes no sense out here. I'm gonna write you a letter today though! Thank you SO much for the milky ways. Unfortunately, I was not smart enough to catch on to the 4 thing, but props to you! that was brilliant. Ben is right; packages and letters are gold. I absolutely love hearing from you. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support, I love you guys! Have a great week.

Love,
Elder Shawn Lyle Bennion

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