Update for last week and this week :)

Koriann,

i'm here to tell you right now that you gotta make the temple a priority for your relationship! Ugh. I've only been away from the temple for 4 days and it has felt so long ha. The temple was such a great place. If it were open on P days, I would definitely try to go weekly. Utah missionaries got to go once a week! Lucky ducks.

The temple was so perfect. Make it a habit and a promise to the Lord to go at least once a month! Someone's salvation is on the line waiting for you to perform their ordinance! Don't procrastinate their potential exaltation (:

Speaking of weather, I am officially a baby about the weather. It was in the 60's this weekend and was whining for the need of a jacket haha! It was embarrassing. It felt good at some points considering it's been so blasted hot here, but overall, the weather is good as always! (: It's gonna be so weird not to have a white Christmas. Sometimes they say it can be 80+!

I am so excited for conference. Elder Ballard is actually my favorite apostle and I'm so glad he emphasized Preach my Gospel, it can help just like the scriptures! The apostles said PMG was together so perfectly and they're so thrilled to have it accessible to everyone. Keep learning from it, it's such a useful source of growth for each of us, even members! Can you believe it's conference time again?! I can't believe it! Also, we had the primary program yesterday! it was great. The kids each get like 3 parts though since it's so small. There's only 20 kids ha. They sang Families can be together forever as the closing song and I nearly started crying haha!

Koriann, I seriously think i'm allergic to cats or something. I was fine all day but we got to a members house and I pet the cat and then my eye was so itchy and so red. and my chin as well! By the time we left, Elder said it looked I was stoned haha! It was so weird...

But I have enjoyed my time with Elder Boltz. Cycling through companions is normal and you get more attached to some than others, but I think since he lives so close, we will remain friends as well. He has a rough home life which is too bad. Elder says my desire has progressively slid down the more I stay in Alta Loma. Sad, but true. I'm ready to take something new. I've been here for nearly 6 months and I have LOVED serving here so much. This area has been everything I could ask for in a mission and I love the people here so much, I just want something new. This weekend was kinda rough, but I do believe that I'm being transferred this upcoming Monday. I guess we'll see!

To close, seriously: get to the temple! (:

I love you! thanks again for emailing, I always look forward to yours!

- Elder Bennion

Koriann,

It sounds like your roadtrip was a great success! I had no idea a chunk of his mission hit Kentucky. The boundaries must've been much larger back then before the number of missionaries sky-rocketed. You'll have to tell me some other cool stories if you think of any! You went through many different states, my goodness. I'm glad the car is exactly what you wanted though, I know mom was stoked to watch the kids (: You'll have to send me a picture! I'm glad Ben finally got to go back. I'm sure it's a second home to him and that memories were flooding in from his mission. It'll always been engraved in his heart because he loved those people so much.

I've only been to Kung fu Wok twice because Panda Express is like 15 minutes away and out of our ward boundaries. Plus Elder doesn't like Chinese very much.

I loved the temple so much, oh my goodness. Redlands is an older town, and it's a pretty small temple, but it was so cool to see palm trees on temple grounds, I haven't seen that before! It was so great to be at the temple again. I haven't been in 8 months! That's so long! I really wish we got to go back more often, but I understand that the work we need to do for the living is right now more of a concern, which I agree with completely. I'll have to send some pictures next week, I got a lot of em! I gotta get the Nowa's a thank you card or something, because they took us out there this morning and we had a great time with them.

My mission is so great! Here's some neat stories as of recent:

We contacted a lady who is in her 20's and she said her best friend is LDS. We talked for about 20 minutes, and she showed us her backyard and there was a trampoline. I asked if I could jump on it and told us to come back next weekend when her husband was around so I could show him some tricks. Well we went back and there was 4 of their friends there and they looked so confused as to why missionaries were coming to hang out in the back yard with them. So I did some tricks and what not, and after that, we stayed at their house for an hour because they would just so naturally curious about the church and had so many questions for us. There's a couple named Travis and Tonya that took a particular interest and they gave us their address to stop by! It's always super cool how teaching opportunities come about when you least expect em.

Also, the spirit is such a neat and vital tool we must use in missionary work. Someone in the ward offered to take us to lunch and I just felt so weird about it. We declined, and decided we needed to be proselyting during the intended lunch hour. We stopped at a former investigator of ours, Jessica, and had a great lesson with her and she said she really wants to come to church and considered baptism once again. We're seeing her tomorrow, so hopefully we can get her on the right path again (: her life has sorted out a bit since we last went, so the spirit is definitely more accessible at her home. 

My mission is super cool. Alta Loma is great as always. I've been here for about 6 months, so somedays are harder than others because sometimes I just don't know what to do, but as we continue to be diligent, we meet new people (like Travis and Jessica) on the way and we just keep pressing on because we want to be obedient. Here's something cool: I miss movies so much and they just announced we get to watch Meet the Mormons at the mission office! i'm so stoked! 

Also, missionary work truly is being done through social media, I got to witness it this weekend. Tori Tate is 17 and she took a picture of us and put it on Instagram and a comment was made by a guy named Josh, who we taught once and gave a Book of Mormon too. The Upland 5th elders ran into him about 6 weeks ago and they said he said he's been reading it! we never got any contact information other than his grandmother's address in our area, so we haven't taught him in weeks. This kid is in Tori's class and because of that picture, we've been able to re-connect with one of our old investigators! pretty neat!

We're reaching the end of week 5 of this transfer, which means I have Elder Boltz for only one more week! What?! It feels like last week I just started training! I was so nervous, but the experience has been such a positive thing for me. I've got a lot ahead of me, and I'm excited to continue serving in this mission. I couldn't be anymore satisfied with how things are going. We are most grateful when we feel like we don't deserve more than what we have, and that is how I would sum up my time in Alta Loma. This place is so great! I love you so much, talk to you on Monday!!

Love,
Elder Bennion