Wishing you all the best from my heart.

Family,

To make sure that I don't forget, let me confirm that I did get the cards you sent me, thank you for those, they are going to be a huge blessing to me for when I put them into use. 

It's so strange to be e-mailing you right this second. I'm used to transfer day being hectic and little to no spare time. Luckily, I'll be spending my last transfer in Diamond Bar with Elder Hsu, so today will be pretty relaxed. I'm grateful for the news I received on Saturday about staying. It took me a little bit to enjoy serving in Diamond Bar, but I've noticed how much the Atonement gives us strength to adjust and grow and enjoy the things that are challenging in our lives. I've been looking in the scriptures for the word 'remember' to see what happens when people do remember the Lord. It's so interesting to see how the Nephites and Lamanites behave when they do remember Him. I think that for us, it instantly fills us with gratitude and assurance that if He's done something good for us, it's bound to happen again. No wonder we promise to remember Christ throughout the week when we partake of the Sacrament. Because of this, it's caused me to ponder how many times the Lord has presented opportunities for me to share the gospel and how he'll continue to do that forever. I have this irrational fear that I'm going to leave feeling incomplete about my service. It's so hard to push that thought aside.

Which is why I've chosen to do this thing called The 40 day fast where you write down a couple of things that you either want to remove or cultivate that will help you to have the Spirit more and when you begin, you fast and attempt to edit these things in your life for the next 40 days. I've begun today and am looking mostly for further trust in the Lord from this experience. It'll be good for me. Elder Hsu says that I'm basically punishing myself ha, he's a funny elder. But in all seriousness, I'm determined to do this. One of the things I've put down is to only email for 45 minutes, I don't want to become pre-occupied or attached to things back home quite yet. I'm really not even sure that I want to Skype on Christmas, we will see as the time gets closer. 

Can you believe that we're one day shy of entering December? The holidays are great and all, but it can make missionary work challenging with all the family around and investigators going out of town. President Hobbs says this is the time where he gets the most homesick emails ha! Makes sense. I imagine at this point you want to hear about my Thanksgiving? It went well. We ate at a family's house named the Merrill's and they made some really good food! It was very nice of them to have us in their home that day. We still had English class, but only 2 people showed up. Then Sister Kilburn made these delicious rolls from Lion House? Is that a restaurant in Salt Lake or something? either way, they don't top Maddox, but boy they were delicious. It turned out to be a good day.

Our whole week was pretty good really. Week 6 of the transfer always tends to be a good one. No complaints here, just a lot of work to do (:

Well, I'm concluding this email and wishing you all the best from my heart. I pray for your safety each night and am so grateful for what you have all done for me while I've been in California. Thank you for everything. I love you.

- Elder Shawn Lyle Bennion