It was a crazy week!

Family,

It's becoming the norm to want to start out my emails with "It was a crazy week!" but in all honesty, my companion would vouch for me on that statement if he were reading this ha.

To summarize, we did a lot of mini exchanges this week with the zone leaders in our mission. That took up all of our time on Wednesday and Friday, and on Friday, there was a big fire up in the high desert which was where we were conveniently located and so the quickest roads home were all closed off so we had to drive all the way to a city called Big Bear and drive on Highway 18 to get home. It was a 2.5 hour trip ha, so at this point, basically the only place in our mission I have not yet seen is Wrightwood, which is a mountain town in the Victorville stake. Big Bear was super cool though, it doesn't look anything like Southern California and it had this huge lake and it was just beautiful up there. I was grateful to observe what God has created there.

As for teaching, it was a really good week for us! We had our first lessons in the Tongan ward, we taught a 9 year old boy named Mikey, who's mom is a member. Teaching children is always interesting because you can never really tell how much they are retaining, but he did pretty good. And then on Saturday, we taught a part-member family and I'm surprised the husband hasn't been baptized. I feel good about him though, I'm excited to see what the future has in store for their family.

On Sunday we dropped off the 2 week missionaries and surprisingly it was raining all weekend long, so it was a slow drive up to Hesperia and back. Church was really good though, I really enjoy learning about the Sacrament and realizing the impact it can have on our lives. It's meant to change us, and if we treated the Sabbath day as God has outlined, then I think we as a whole would be more thoughtful of our Savior throughout the week, receive answers to our prayers, questions, or doubts, and be able to trust in God and His plan even stronger. 

I'm grateful for our Savior and I know we are prone to mistakes, but that He is here to rescue us from the things that are unpleasant in our life. I know God sent Him to help us and that He is always watching over us. I know He can ease our burdens and give us lasting relief through His mercy. I know He loves each and everyone of us. 

Have a great week everyone, happy Pioneer day!

- Elder Shawn Lyle Bennion