Friday, May 30, 2014

Alta Loma

Well, the Alta Loma ward is so so so great. I love them so much. The Martinez are my favorite family in the ward and they gave me a birthday card, that was awfully nice of them. And the best news. Courtney Smith is getting baptized on June 14th! This one is for real gonna happen though because we planned on the 24th of June, but she moved it up by herself! She's 15 and friends with someone from the ward, but she's ready. I'm excited for that. A guy named Dylan King in the ward is gonna baptize her, it'll be a very neat experience (: Oh man, on Friday Elder Merrell and I went to this Muslim Mosque! we went because we met a girl at the park and she said she'd come to our church if she came to ours. It was interesting. Kinda weird to me that people on view Jesus Christ as a Prophet, but it got her to see what the church is like. Her husband came and he was excited to see people well dressed. At the mosque, people come in normal clothes usually, so he was excited to see no tattoo's at church haha! I'm not sure if they'll become investigators, but it was still a neat experience. But yeah, things are good here. It'll be a fun week because there's a wedding on Saturday and we're meeting with an investigator named Fiorella who may end up with a baptismal date, we will see. Wow this is a long email!
Well, thanks for everything. Glad to see your fam is up to great things. Those T ball pictures are SO cute, oh my heck haha! I miss brighton so much. He's gonna be a great ball player. Miss you guys, talk to you when i'm 20 (: Love you!
Love,
Elder Bennion

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Mother's Day

I'll update when My Mom forwards me her emails from Shawn.
Email to Ben and KoriAnn
What a day yesterday was! It touched a lot of different emotions, but it was so good to see all of you guys (: It warmed my heart that I got to spend 2 hours with the best people I know. There were many good laughs had. Brighton is just the cutest "Shawn stop crying!" haha! He hasn't lost an ounce of how adorable he is. You are indeed lucky to have the husband and kids that you do. And Bristol walks around without any problem! Man she is getting big! And Brighton starts Tball?! I'm excited to see his athletic talents into action and see them develop and which sport he ends up liking most. There's no doubt in my mind he'll be an all-around athlete. He's gonna be a very popular kid, wouldn't you agree? He's such a nut (:
 
Glad to hear that mom was in good spirits. I can't imagine what it's like to have both parents gone. I thought she was gonna have a hard time with Grandpa, but she seems to be doing well. I know it's a further thing to discuss, but what are they gonna do about the house? That basement holds so many good memories of my childhood! haha. I guess we'll see what happens there.
I hope you had just as good a time as I did yesterday. It was nice to hear from you guys. That two hours flew by and it makes me anxious to skype again ha. 
Well, I ought to respond to some other emails. Thanks for chatting yesterday, it was so nice to see you all and good luck with your calling, the funeral, your family, etc. I love you, have a good week!
Love,
Elder Bennion

Monday, May 5, 2014

A Great Week!

Email Conversation with Mom
 Mom, this week was the best week I have had on my mission so far. It was a really good week for me because it involved a lot of stuff with the members, the dinners were awesome, and we got 4 new investigators! Now the problem is getting these investigators to not be so flaky! Grr. But either way, I love you and am very much looking forward to this Sunday!!! Love you more, love you most (:
Love,
Elder Bennion

DO YOU SEE WHAT I AM HOLDING.
This is Perry (:
The Tate's are a super awesome family in the ward and when we were over there, we were outside (because everyone in California has nice backyards and pools pretty much) and it was dark, but I hear this dog barking and I can see a long body and once I found it was a wiener dog, I FREAKED. I was so stoked. And good news, Perry likes me! She's so stinkin cute. They want her to have babies, so if for some odd reason they have puppies in two years when we visit, i'm convinced it's a sign to get a wiener dog. I hope you enjoy this picture (:

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Mansions and New Companion

Email to Family
That explains why people keep telling me I look happier haha! That makes sense. I need a cord for my camera so I can send some pictures home! You need to see the houses here, OH MY LANTA. Mansions are so neat. We tracted them and they were interesting! They were actually pretty nice too, just not interested (:
Well, i'm very much looking forward to Mother's day! I'm so excited to see Brighton ahhh! If I do skype, it won't be till at least 3:00 (Utah time). We have church 9-12, ward correlation 12-1, and ward council 1-2. Goodness, Bishops spend so much time at the church!
Either way, things are good here! It was a bit stressful this week as a lot of plans fell through and we weren't really getting anywhere with finding new investigators, but we set a baptismal date with a girl named Courtney. The thing about this area is if we want baptisms, we need to work with the members more. Alta Loma didn't have ONE convert baptism in 2013. That's awful! So a girl named Mckenzie is killer at inviting her friends. We're eating dinner with 5 or 6 non members on Sunday, so that'll be fun!
Elder Merrell and I work really good together so far! We quote spongebob often and we cruise in our 2014 corolla and that's awesome. he's a good contacter. I think God  placed me here to gain the ward's trust, because the ward isn't too thrilled with the Elder's right now, but i'm determined to change that!
well I love you so so much and am looking forward to our skype date very much (:
have a great week!
Love,
Elder Shawn Lyle bennion
This is me and Elder Kirkham waiting for the eclipse! It didn't happen till like 1:00, so we didn't get to see it, but we stayed out till 11:00 (which was a half hour after our bedtime, yikes!)