Lots of Information

Mom, Dad, & Koriann,

This works out quite well to send you all three the same email as you seem to be the most interested in how things are going. I remember Brother Moore telling me that you can never add too much detail in emails, so I will try not to be short on things (:

As I reflect on our week, I have to say that we had a GREAT week! It was so exciting. Our investigator Rudy who is dating Tita Fotu is getting married this Saturday! Then will be baptized on the 27th most likely. How exciting to have another wedding/baptism combination. Elder Thompson and I marvel at how little we feel we are doing for the Lord's prepared children. Chris & Jasmine, Rosie, and Rudy all accept the gospel without hesitation. It makes you wonder if those you encounter are ready, we just may not know it. This is why we must not be scared to share the gospel! You'll never be able to say "I regret talking about the church to this person", so make sure if you get a prompting, you somehow make a way for these people to come a little closer to their Savior (:

On Monday, we went on a really nice hike! The weather was perfect. It's crazy to me how big California feels, yet we were only in Barstow. God has great taste in the creation, the world is a very beautiful place. Don't be fooled though, every morning we wake up with the windows fogged up and frost growing on the top and the trunk. On Tuesday, we had a nice zone meeting. For every zone meeting, we give one training and assign 2 other companionships to participate in sharing something we feel the zone needs to hear. It can be very stressful. It went good though. Afterward, we went to see a lady named Clara who always feeds us. We visit her weekly because she LOVES the missionaries in her home. We are very lucky to have her as a friend. Then we do our weekly scripture study on Tuesday night and that was REALLY good. I love reading the book of Mormon out loud in groups. Wednesday was pretty darn good too. We were able to see Siosi and Latu Liava'a! Such rad kids. We're going over tomorrow for a pizza party we're putting on. I really hope that this isn't considered being a 'suck-up' to Agnes. It's really not to soften her heart, Latu just talks about pizza everytime we go over there, so we thought it'd be fun. BUT I know Latu has been talking about it all week to Agnes haha! I want those kids baptized SO bad! Agnes really likes us though, it makes us happy (: Then we had dinner at the Moala's and she made an excellent Chicken pot pie with a delicious pecan pie. Her Grandmother lives in Plain city! pretty cool.
On Thursday we went on exchanges and Elder Houston and I had a fun day even though a lot of our appointments fell through. We had dinner at the Lousiale's who is our ward mission leader/relief society president and man, they are so great! They are very funny people, I so wish that you could meet all them and just know who I'm talking about, you would love the ward so much. Then we got to see 2 less active families and that was great. On Friday, there was an Elders quorum activity that we stopped by at. We had a busy day, so got food and left. Clara had us come over again to share the Restoration with her friend. Her name is Sissy. She is palongi, but as long as the fellowship is in the Tongan ward, we are allowed to teach them. She was really excited to hear about the Book of Mormon! The rest of the day went kinda wacky, but the Lord always provides a way! We say Rose and for real, she is getting baptized on December 26th. Sheesh, the process has been hectic, but she really does have a good testimony. Saturday was good too. We had our lesson with Rudy and then we were scrambling for plans all day long. Then all the sudden we got a call from Sister Hobbs. Someone asked if we could go to the hospital to give a blessing to someone. We were very excited for the opportunity. She was in the ICU and when we got to her, she wasn't conscious. But we proceeded with the blessing and man, the crazy thing is is that lady is going to continue with her life without knowing that her life might've been drastically changed by the influence of the priesthood. It's just a cool little story I will have with me from most interesting blessings I've given/received. Sunday was so awesome! We had 5 investigators at church! Then we had to go to Barstow to give a baptismal interview and the Hobbs were there too! i'm not sure how, but word got around I can do a backflip, so Sister Hobbs asked if she could record it. ha! she's awesome. I love my president and his wife. I'm very happy that we get to see them more often now that I am a zone leader. Later that day we saw a less active family, had a great dinner and then went to the stake musical christmas fireside thing. All week, Elder Thompson and I have been practicing Silent Night in Tongan so that we could sing it in Sacrament and this stake thing and I thought my chest was going to explode! I was so nervous. It's a beautiful song though, hopefully Elder Thompson and I can sing it for you on Christmas. The ward really liked it, they said we sounded pure Tongan! Later that night we went to the Batisaresare's. We haven't been over since the funeral, so we thought it'd be a good idea to stop by. I am so glad we did too. Atama is their father and he was very excited to see us. Although he is Methodist, he is such a great person. Fijian's are SO cool. They are an awesome family. We asked if we could take a picture of their flag and instead he gives us one to hang in our apartment. Man, their family really is so special. I know God has a special eye out for them.
So yeah, that concludes our week, very informative I hope!

I look forward to hearing from you all in 10 short days. We do in fact get a P day next week, so I will be able to email you next week as well. I do hate to admit it, but it is true that when I did talk to you all on Mothers day, it took me pretty much a couple weeks to adjust to missionary life again. It was painful to end the call, but I'm really hoping things will be different this time. Then again, I was still homesick, Grandpa had just passed away, and my birthday was in the next couple weeks, so it was emotionally draining. But I look forward to Christmas so much. Tongans don't really have a ton of technology, so we will probably be borrowing members laptops and skyping at the church. I'd love for you to meet someone from the ward, but I'm not sure that will be happening. No worries though. I appreciate any time I get to see your lovely faces. Christmas will be here before you know it! I love you all and am looking forward to our skype date. Send Kaylee my love!

- Elder Bennion