"Without the bitter, the sweet isn't as sweet"

I guess the phrase "Without the bitter, the sweet isn't as sweet" would be my only reaction to each of your emails about Aunt Joyce. I'm more in shock than anything that this occurred, but I think it was best that I found out through email rather than President Hobbs calling me. I'm sure he was going to call me tonight, and then realized you all would be sharing with me the news via email, but I'm glad it worked out that way. Each time he calls me late at night, I always expect the worst, and I don't think the news would have reached me so pleasantly this weekend.
I can hardly believe what kind of changes I've experienced out on the mission, this was quite a surprise to me. At first I was confused and then it turned to grief at the thought of Dad losing another sibling. I feel as though I didn't know Aunt Joyce well enough, but now what a treasure it is to me that I received a letter from her last summer that really 'tickled' her she said. I should've been smarter and less narcissistic before I left on my mission to take the time to thank her for her service to the Lord. I know the things she had to say could've helped me prepare better for this journey. Send my condolences to each of those struggling with the loss of Aunt Joyce, and remind them that earthly words can only do so much and to seek out the solace that comes from the prophets this upcoming weekend.

My good news would have to be that President Hobbs said in my email this week that he tried to move me to a different area this transfer, but he didn't feel right about it, and perhaps this was why. I would've been torn to have to bear this in a different area. Elder Brent H. Nielson visited our mission this weekend and he shared with us a different perspective to the Atonement of Jesus Christ that answered my prayers so immaculately, I was engulfed in the talks we were assigned to read and study prior to his visit. I've been having this paranoia that I'd forgotten what the Atonement feels like. I claimed to understand it, but I couldn't make sense of how to use it when I felt that I wasn't doing anything majorly incorrect. That's when I learned from Elder Bednar that the Atonement is to make bad people good, and good people better, to eventually become the best saints. I also learned this very important concept that will be helpful to those suffering. In all scriptural cases in the Book of Mormon, I learned that each character that understood the Atonement never asked the Lord to make their troubles vanish; but they asked Him to be given the strength to bear through whatever it was that they were troubled with, because if the Lord were to directly take those away from us, we wouldn't be able to be stretched to such capacities that enable us to become better people. In some cases, we pretty much have no other option than to rely, beg, or plead with the Savior for His strength that can be granted to us, and by so doing, we will find strength beyond our own. That revelation I received from this talk has helped me so much this past week and will continue to for the rest of my mortal existence, I am sure of it.

This week we had a really good balance of finding people to teach, and teaching the members/investigators in our ward. This week we also had a long meeting in Rancho and I survived a root canal! whoo! They're not as terrifying as they sound, but I definitely would avoid them at all costs. We started teaching a guy named Hema, who is Brother Moa's cousin. It's not very often we get new investigators in the ward who are actually Tongan, so this is a pretty big deal to us! He was raised catholic, but he has said that he wants to be LDS. He really loves when we come over and is excited to be taking the lessons that are preparing him for baptism. I'm hoping that by the end of this transfer, it will happen, because he's one of the 'dry Mormons', but not for long! The Lord blessed us with the growth of our teaching pool that involves Hema in it; we are very excited about it! We also had a really good lesson with one of our favorites, Ngalu Otuafi. He was in Sacramento for about a month, but is back and now has his Melchizedek priesthood! He will also be going to Utah for conference this weekend, which I myself am so stoked for. I love conference and I've been looking forward to it since October!
On Saturday, we had that meeting down in Rancho for most of the day, and then when we got back we went to dinner at Tui Aholelei's mom's birthday party. She turned 80, which is a big deal in their culture since a lot of Tongans don't make it to that age ha. Her family is mostly Methodist and there were SO MANY Polynesians, it was so great. There was food everywhere, I had some really good pig and octopus and Tongan cake. We took another set of elders because we went to the meeting together and they didn't want to eat any of the food, so we ended up going to Wendy's afterward too ha. The Tongan food is growing on me a lot actually! There was also a wedding on Friday for the Bishop's daughter and that was good too.

I may sound repetitive, but the Tongan ward is really great! There's never really a dull moment around him, they love to joke around, so I often have some type of smile on my face. The ward always takes such good care of us for dinner; it makes me sad to hear other misisonaries don't get fed every day ha. The Lord is still making our ward fruitful, I love seeing the progress in the members who want to make a change in their lives. I look forward to much more interaction with their culture while it still surrounds me. I've embraced so much of what the Tongans are like, maybe I've been around them a little too much (; just teasing, but I think you'd be surprised that when it comes to our punctuality with the Bennion family parties, we behave very similar to Polynesians; always late! haha. I love you all, and really hope everything's okay back home with the Lukers, and of course Dad and Grandma Bennion. I will pray for them and hope the Spirit will find a way to comfort you all at this given time. Take care everybody, have a great conference weekend, pay close attention to what the Lord is trying to tell you. We always need to be progressing in this life and He has the best counsel for us (:

- Elder Shawn Lyle Bennion

Round 5 with Pictures :)

GOOD NEWS! I survived another transfer and the Lord finds fit for me to be in the Tongan ward for another 6 weeks!!! (: WAHOO! to be honest, I was at ease all week that for some reason that I wasn't going anywhere. The Lord has been very unpredictable in our mission as of recent, but I just had a feeling I was staying. 7.5 months in a Polynesian ward, what a blessing!

So, this week was a weird one. For P day, we played a super fun glow in the dark dodge ball game, that was awesome. On Tuesday at our scripture study, I started feeling odd. We came home that night and right before I went to bed I was throwing up, and it was not fun. I forgot how unpleasant it is to be sick. I thought I'd be feeling better by the morning, but as soon as the alarm went off I knew that I was gonna have my first sick day in the field. I felt awful all day long. I didn't even touch my church clothes! the only time we left the apartment was when the Aholelei's dropped off our dinner. I was drinking gatorade all day long and just trying to sleep, it was very unfortunate, I felt like death. Apparently it was a stomach flu going around our mission, I hope to never have another sick day out here, cause it's not like I can watch movies all day long like I normally would back home ha! We had a really good day planned too so that was a bummer. But I was progressively getting better each day.

On Thursday, we went to see a family, but then this girl was moving out of her apartment and said we could help out! It's not very often that people agree to letting us help them, so it was pretty cool. I think it's a little surprising how easy the gospel can come up. Of course we wear the clothes that show right away what our passion is, but it makes me wonder what it's going to be like back home to share the gospel and how people will react. This lady was very accepting of the church and said we could even send missionaries to her home in Arizona. I'm so glad that we could catch her at that time, even if we don't get to see her progress in the gospel, it was a blessing to be able to make her burden light.

Saturday was the relief society dinner and it was good! The table we sat at had so much seafood, oh boy. I had a very tasty lobster though and a traditional puaka (pig). It's such a greasy good, it's hard to eat very much! We went around other tables and mooched, and I ended up getting some meatballs and kumala (sweet potato) as well, that was good. There were a lot of cultural dances that we didn't get to stay for because of our curfew which is a huge bummer, but apparently there were a lot of non members there, so that's good!

Yesterday was ward conference and that was pretty good! We had a big ward council which was good. Tongans whether they're very active or not, make sure to give respect where it is deserved, so we had more people than normal come to church since the Stake President was there. Then for dinner we went to the Wills for a birthday dinner and then saw a family and that was pretty much our Sunday! The Lord is blessing us for our efforts, because we are going to start teaching Brother Moa's cousin, Hema, because he said he wants to be baptized! I am very excited because since these 5 baptisms, the ward has been a bit dysfunctional with Satan trying to interfere, but things are getting settled. The ward has been very busy with birthdays, activities, and an upcoming wedding, so we'll get to see them more relaxed and happier ha.

I'm still loving the Tongan ward and am happy I'm here for even longer now! The Lord still has work for me here to do, and it looks like it may be Hema keeping me here, we will see! I got the Tongan flag in the mail, so now our apartment is Tongan-approved! I can't really think of much more to ask for, I've been very blessed in simply knowing the ward and been so well taken care of for 6 months now. I like to daydream of our family meeting the ward so you can get all giddy about them like myself ha. They just make me fiefia! (happy).

We've got a week ahead of us. We already gave two blessings today and this Friday is a wedding, and then Saturday is all day zone leader stuff, including a meeting in Rancho with a quorum of the 70! Good things are always happening, we just have to show our faith first and then they will follow more frequently (: Love you all, talk to you in a week!!!

- Elder Bennion

Be Happy!

Family,

It seems as though many of you are living very busy lives, which I am very understanding of. Life never stops, that's for sure. Just as the Lord's work will always continue to prosper, especially as missionaries give up their lives for the Lord's will. I marvel at how Christ was able to do it for so long with such daunting tasks. I've never been harmed (unless you count the dog) and drastically mocked the same way he was (no one will of course), and the persecution he persevered for the opportunity for men to live with the Father once again is substantially astounding. Hopefully the joyful burden of taking upon ourselves the name of Christ will impact at least one person, but if not, our sacrifice to the Lord is what He is seeking after. I'm not sure as to why it's so comforting to know someone knows identically how I feel, but it really puts me at ease and I'm thankful our Savior is so reliable in times of need.

We had kind of an odd week. I'm not sure how, but it seems as though Satan is trying full-force to prevent our ward from progressing. Perhaps it's because 5 baptisms have happened since I've been here and there were a handful of people that were working to get their Melchizedek priesthood this weekend that he couldn't tolerate it, I'm not sure. Ever since this transfer, I've witnessed some odd things happen in the ward that haven't happened before and it stresses me out ha. There's been a lot of pressing time this transfer where I wanted to just take a break, but we watched an incredible video this Tuesday in zone meeting. Elder Eyring has a talk floating around about how diligent Christ was, and of course I agreed, but do you realize what he did after he was crucified? He didn't rest up from the crucifixion; he ministered and preached the gospel to those in the spirit world! He never stopped doing his Father's will, even after bearing every single pain, sin, burden, etc that's ever been felt! What a champion. I don't know about you all, but when I pass away, I expect that eternal bliss that Alma talks about ha! But of course our passion for the gospel won't fade in the spirit world unless that event happens on earth, so I imagine we'll be very, very busy there as well!

The ward has caught on that I've been serving here for a bit now, but it catches them by surprise when I say that I've been there for 5.5 months and I could and would love to stay another transfer if it were up to me. The Lord has been so unpredictable in our mission recently, so I hope and pray that He doesn't send me back to a Palangi ward just yet. Everywhere else just seems so dull compared to the Tongan ward "/ I've had such a great and unimaginable time serving in this ward and I'm filled with gratitude for the way things have been since I arrived here. 

I can tell that the Lord really wants His children to be happy, because His decision in sending me here has been the highlight to my entire mission, and undoubtedly will continue to be. I love the Tongan people and am able to detect that the Lord has sent me here to learn very valuable things that I will always cherish from them and the continuous way they have such a profound impact on my Spirit. I love you all very much and am delighted to hear from you, as always. Have a great week, miss you!

- Elder Bennion

Highest Stress Level

Family,

I feel as though I've hit my highest stress level of the mission (next to the time you reach when you only have days till your departure home), so forgive me if I seem a little off, there's just so much going on, it's kind of hard to keep up with! Thank heavens we've been blessed with P day!

It's such a blessing to be serving in the Tongan ward, otherwise I think I'd be making this harder than needs be ha. They're just such delightful people to be around, and since we don't see them as often anymore, I look even more forward to our dinners, activities, and church. I'm not sure why this transfer feels so different, some days I do better with than others, but I should've seen this coming because President Hobbs really wants our mission to increase our faith, so the Lord must be doing just that! I understand He sees a bigger picture than I do, it's just too bad that we as mortals tend to be so narrow-minded when things may seem inconvenient or a burden to us. I love in Hebrews 11:6 it says that without faith, we cannot please God, and faith seems to be the beginning to many things. I do have faith in the Lord and I do know that as I lose myself in His work, that's when I'll stop worrying about all the minor details and changes and be able to be of better use for our Father. It's a privilege to be doing what I do and be surrounded by a plethora of our Father's finest children. Although I do miss you all back home lots!

For the first time in my mission, a dog bit me! As I was shaking someone's hand to leave, a stinkin' Chihuahua/Pomeranian bit me ha. It didn't hurt, it just kinda startled me. It's always the small dogs that are most vicious! However, A huge husky crawled from under a fence when we knocked on a door and it looked like it wanted to eat Elder Bartlik and I. He was smart enough to suggest we don't linger at the door for very much longer.

This transfer has just been so wacky! It can be summarized by tracting, meetings, dentist appointments, and illness (Elder Bartlik, not myself.) There's a guy named Noke in our ward who was baptized in Tonga, but he lost his records, so I've been teaching him for 5 months and then all the sudden the bishop says he wants to be baptized. I was excited, yet doubtful at the same time. I really don't think he's ready. He has to come to church 3 times and then we'll take it from there and see if his faith is sufficient for baptism. It's a really big commitment! 

I want to share something interesting that I realized in Gospel Principles: We were talking about prayer and then I thought about how it makes mom really angry when someone hangs up on her. I then thought about how real our communication with God is and that when I used to pray and get nearly furious and ended up stopping mid-sentence, to God it was almost as though I was hanging up on Him. It was humbling to me that if we have the decency to call upon Heavenly Father for His help, we should finish what we intended to mention.

We have 2 more meetings this week and stake conference this Sunday, I'm expecting good things from this week. I can't believe it's already March, it seems as though you all survived another Utah winter! I know it's not completely gone, it's probably still really cold there, but you're so close to the spring weather! it was really cold this week! All weekend it was in the 50's with wind as well. I don't handle the cold very well out here, it's actually pretty pathetic ha.

At this point, all I can do is thank Heavenly Father for blessing me with the opportunity of serving a full time mission. I really do enjoy what I do and I enjoy the trust our Father has placed in me to take upon us the name of His Son. I know that all of us as members of the church have to always be on our best behavior. We don't want to taint the name of Christ and missionaries are kind of like a dulled, flawed replica of the Savior (but not really, we're even less than that), but I know that the Lord will always continue hastening His work and continue to bless me as I try to remain obedient and diligent. I know that there is a time and a purpose to everything under the Heavens and we don't need to try figuring them out, we just need to get to work! I love you all and hope everything is splendid back home. 

- Elder Bennion

The mission continues to be both a delight and a challenge.

The mission continues to be both a delight and a challenge. I know the Lord puts us in uncomfortable situations (in a good way) for our benefit and he's proved that to me a lot these past 2 weeks! My new companion and I get a chance to do a lot more finding. It's pretty self explanatory that in a Tongan ward we look for Tongans to teach, but because all Tongans know each other (especially in the high desert since there isn't a huge amount of them), a lot of our work is looking for people in other missionaries' areas and passing them off to the correct work if they do show interest in meeting with missionaries. The work in our ward has slowed down since our investigators all were baptized, so I have a handful of stories where the Lord has really given me no other option than to put faith in the Savior and do things that are hard. Each time something great has resulted though, which is so nuts to see happen. In the ward we get fed a lot and I was having the worst stomach pains but I didn't want to stop working, so I prayed to feel better so I can keep working and it was as though instantly I felt better and motivated to work. That night, all our plans went wacky and it was 8:00 and we had no idea what to do, so we prayed and told the Lord we were going to knock on 5 doors and call it good. Victorville is kinda sketchy that late, so people don't tend to answer their doors, but the 5th and last door we knocked on led us to a couple that the Lord knew we were determined to find. They were a young couple who said they were conveniently searching for a new church to go to (: It was really cool! Miracles are everywhere, you just have to show the lord your faith. And when you think about it: what does faith look like? It looks like action! so I was very excited that the Lord blessed us with that opportunity (:

We've had a lot of meetings recently that has occupied our time because our mission is struggling in finding new people to teach so we've spent a bit of time in Rancho so not too many crazy things have happened, but regardless the chance to serve is more than I could ask for. I know that there are tough moments out here, but I know that I'm closest to the Lord now than I ever will be and that's so comforting to me to know. I would say something that the mission has taught me is that through Christ, we can do hard things, because he did the hardest of them all. What an incredible man he is. We met someone at the laundromat today who left the church and right now he is so incredibly bitter toward God and he said that Christ wasn't anything more than a good man, and I can tell you right now that if Christ was an average person, never would his name have carried over from generation to generation. His name would've dissolved in a matter of years, but because he accomplished the unthinkable, the unimaginable, time itself revolves around our Redeemer. I know that Christ is the reason why we live and that the God who loves us more than anything was willing to give him to us. The most alarming thing to me is that God sent His Son to people who don't even love Him or His Son. His love is unfathomable and never beyond our reach; even to those who deny his divinity.

I love the Lord's work and I love the people in California. I'm so lucky that Tongans have an operating ward that they worship in because I am just so fortunate to know them and call them my eternal friends. I know that my patriarchal blessings refers to them when it's in that context in my blessing. It would be uncalled for and unnecessary to ask for anything more from the Lord because of so fully He has blessed me in His work. I am blessed abundantly as I press on in the work of the Lord. I know He understands the sacrifices we make in order for us to qualify for eternal life and one day, we will we be back in His embrace and His gospel and His Son are the road paved to that glorious victory. I love you all dearly and pray for your well-being and protection each and every day. Take care! (:

the Liava'a's baptism!!!!

Family,

My email won't come out the way I want it to, so I think I'll start with the news of transfers. Lucky for me, I'm staying in the Tongan ward for another transfer! It's not really news to me though because Elder Thompson was here for 5 transfers so it was expected of him to leave the area, so i'm glad that I am safe here for another 6 weeks. My new companions name is Elder Bartlik and he is from Texas! He was serving in the Samoan ward, so he gets to jump to another Polynesian ward, he's so lucky. Everyone knows in the stake the Tongan ward is better than the Samoan ward (; The Tongan ward does have more work going on though.

Let me tell you about the Liava'a's baptism!!!! It was the smoothest baptism actually. This was a really big deal for the ward and there were a lot of people to support. It was super funny, the suits we got them were a bit too small and Siaosi was so paranoid about it ha! He really reminded me of Nacho Libre for a minute ha! But we got it figured out. But the program went so great. Some of the family members did some musical numbers and oh my goodness, they have such beautiful singing voices! I was so pleased with the spirit that was felt. Bishop got to baptize them and the whole family came and there was a party afterward and it was just such a good baptism. I am so happy that this day came. I love those kids so much and am so happy for the future of their family. I really think when the time does come, they will serve a mission. They are such intelligent kids and they love the Book of Mormon. I have been missing out on not having Polynesians in my life ha! They are just so great.

As for this transfer, President Hobbs doesn't want us baptizing/teaching anyone in the ward if they aren't Tongan, so this will be a little interesting. Which is also a bummer because I have the coolest tracting story to share. We were at Tuku's house and I had this feeling unlike any other that we needed to show a bible video to their neighbors. This was at 8:15 at night and it's very rare I knock on someone's door this late, but I've never had a prompting give me so much confidence that the neighbors were going to be receptive to the gospel. Sure enough, we have a lesson with them that went about 45 minutes, and they were saying how they've been wanting to get involved in church and that we were sent from God that evening. It was so cool! I'm not sure what it was, but I absolutely knew that they were ready to hear the gospel. We have an appointment with them on Saturday and he's gonna feed us carne asada's and then we have to give them to the Apple Valley elders, but I don't mind (:

So yeah, the work is great, I'm just a bit stressed with this new transfer is all. Pray for me! It's gonna all work out though, I know it. Hooray for still being in the Tongan ward!!! (: love you!

Rudy's Baptism

I have received a lot of emails today and I wish I had time to email you all individually, but I really did enjoy hearing from all of you! Sounds like a good time in Utah (: I however think I can top the weekend you may have had because everything was just so great!

I am excited to tell you about Rudy's baptism; the funny thing is no matter what day it is, if you have a baptism, something is gonna go wrong ha. We got to the church and there was no paper anywhere in the library to make copies for the program so we had to drive to another building just to make copies and there was only 7 papers we could find, it was so dumb ha. Then the baptism started but the key we were given did not open the doors to the baptismal font and we were working on it for 20 minutes! Sione Vai is this chubby 8 year old and he even tried to help us but it didn't work ha. Finally I suggested we say a prayer and waited for a solution. Nobody was answering their phones from the Apple Valley stake and everyone piled into the room and we sat there really awkwardly and then about 5 minutes after each auxilary leader tried getting the door to unlock (we were on the verge of kicking the door till it opened, which the Tongans could've easily succeeded at), a high councilman just so happened to walk into the building and had a key. What a relief! THE LORD'S WORK WON'T STOP FOR ANYTHING! I wasn't very stressed because I knew that eventually Rudy would get baptized that day ha. So it all worked out and then we of course had food afterward and it was delicious. Rudy's brother Gilbert asked if we could start meeting with him too! Ahh man, the spirit was definitely there. He's awesome. Then we had dinner at Fe and Sese's and they're one of my favorites, she made bomb enchilada's!

Then Sunday came and Rudy was confirmed and I was just so excited that he got to receive the holy ghost officially and have that cleansing on the inside. I'm just grateful the Lord gave us the sacrament so we don't have to have so much sin build up after a period of time. Like Alma 34 says, without the atonement, we'd become a hardened, fallen, and lost people and that's the truth. There comes a time where sin just weighs on you so heavily, thank goodness for our Savior always being willing to heal us. I'd say that my favorite part about when people choose to get baptized isn't when the ordinance takes place, but to see them catch fire when they fall in love with the gospel and you see the fruits of their repentance. They find such joy in the simple things and you see them become so obedient and innocent and want to do anything to get them closer to the Lord. I find such comfort being right by his side in my service. I know there's no other time than this that I could be closer to Him; it's a no-brainer as to why I'm loving my mission. 

Things are just going SO well here, I can't say it enough! I know that the Lord is the reason why the work here is so fruitful, but someone in the ward said that Elder Thompson and I were a match made in Heaven when it comes to companionships ha. I got a good laugh out of that. I don't know how to go about this without sounding boastful, but the ward just really likes us, let's keep it at that ha.

We had a really good day of the super bowl too, even though it was hard to find people home. Every Sunday, Mele 'Iongi has us over for dinner and she makes such good food, good grief. I love Lasagna so much. Then we had delicious pie and played a football trivia game with church questions and it was fun. Then we went to the Liava'a's and did the same thing with them, they're such a cool family! Everytime I'm around them, I just get so eager for you to one day meet these families. I promise they are the best people you will meet. They are so generous and loving and supportive.

The weekdays were good too, nothing extra special, but we did move somebody and that was fun, this is the zone where we do the least service, but it's all good. Whether it's spiritual service or physical, it doesn't matter. 

So this is week 6 of the transfer and chances of Elder Thompson and I being companions are very slim ): It's too bad, i'm always nervous to get a new companion. Elder Thompson and I have seen so many great things happen in the ward and he's been a great companion. We've found numerous ways to serve each other and it's definitely bettered our relationship. Ben pointed out to me that it's his mission too, so it only makes sense as to why we should be serving each other. After all, we are brothers paired together by the hand of the Lord. I feel very blessed to have had him as a companion. He goes home in 3 short months, he has everything planned out for when he gets home, so he should be stress-free for quite some time (: I'll enjoy these last few days with him, I'm gonna miss him a lot!

I'm going to try to attach pictures and that takes a bit and we have a p day activity we need to get going to, but just know that this is by far the best choice I could have ever made in my entire life! I love being a missionary so much, between the schedule, the clothes I get to wear, the people I meet, etc. there's no work more satisfying than what the Lord has provided in these latter days. I know that our Savior gives us a reason to find hope in any circumstance and that our Father in Heaven is ever-mindful of the things that you stand in need of. I know that Joseph Smith restored Christ's church to the earth again and that because of what he did, we can know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ even better! I know their love knows no limits and that it will continue to touch so many hearts that allow the work to move along in His way. I extend my love and appreciation to you all for keeping up with me and allowing me to share my love and gratitude for our Father, His Son, and of course His Polynesian children with you. The gospel is true! May we live in it's constant beams of happiness and pleasure by obeying our Father's perfect will above our own.

- Elder Shawn Lyle Bennion