million-dollar adventure

I don't have too much to report this week but today we are having an adventure! But first things first; we now have half the area and a set of Elders with us. One of the Elders is the same that was serving in my first ward. His companion is brand new, has about a week here now and is awesome. The new Elder is from Memphis, Tennessee and tells the craziest stories. We eat lunch together every day and it is so much fun. At one of our lunches, the member, I guess suffers from epilepsy and told us she drinks iguana blood to help manage it. We all about freaked out and when I translated for the new Elder he thought I was joking. Then the same woman brought out some bones and my companion told him that was dessert. He just about lost it and was ready to stand up and leave. Oh man it was funny!

     Last week my companion finally told the President that her permanent retainer is coming off and he made a dentist appointment for her. Because it is near the mission home, he and his wife came and picked us up Sunday afternoon and we spent the rest of the day at their home. Last night was fun—we just ate dinner and talked about the mission and we heard lots of stories about their kids and grandkids. It feels like we are home in the States! Unfortunately we forgot to tell our landlady that we were going with the President and we got a phone call last night from a ward member asking us where we were. Apparently they had been out searching for us when we didn't come home! We felt bad but it makes for a good story, right? 

Having an American breakfast!

Katherine with the mission president and his wife.

So the mission home is like a really fancy hotel. No joke it is nicer than most houses I've been to in the States! And the beds were so comfortable my companion and I couldn't sleep. My comp almost got on the floor to try and sleep! But we have the dentist appointment this morning and then the President and his wife are going to take us around and show us the area where they live. They also made us pancakes this morning and it was easily the best breakfast I've had in nine months! The mission home is located in a tiny little gated community of four houses. One of them is for sale—for 12 million pesos. Yup, the houses in this tiny section of the city are easily worth a million dollars! Crazy!

The mission home.

But we are doing well! We had a busy week of finding people and of the ten people we taught we think about five will progress. Having a smaller area means we have to work harder to find people to teach but it is a blessing for us. We are loving it. 

     I hope you all are doing well, that you are enjoying the last of summer and loving life. I am so grateful for all of you and your example. I hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Hermana Bennett

surprises

What a week! Actually not much happened, it was actually a short week of extremely long days. But a few stories. Last Monday we figured out our oven! And promptly made brownies; we miss our American desserts! We started teaching a single mom and her two kids, that are 12 and 9. They are amazing. We leave chapters of the Book of Mormon for them to read and we left a chapter on the Fall of Adam and Eve. Usually people have lots of questions and don't really understand it. But they did! They explained it nearly perfectly to us; why Adam and Eve had to eat of the fruit and what we gained from it. It was a nice surprise. Later on we were trying to find an investigator when two older men walked over and each picked one of us to talk with. The guy that came over to me asked me what we were doing there, why we were there, how long and then asked me how old I thought he was. I guessed low and eventually he told me he was turning 76 next month and he likes white girls. I just about died when he said that—some people are crazy!

Brownies the sisters made.

So tomorrow there are cambios, and we don't have them! I get another transfer with my companion in this area! When I finish, it will be six months here. Good thing I love it and my comp so much! Our other surprise was that this morning our District Leader called us and said he got permission for our district to go to the pyramids!! So about three hours later we arrived and it was so awesome. I loved it! It is amazing to think about the history of the people here, especially considering the Book of Mormon. We hiked the pyramids, took lots of pictures and then hurried back. It was a quick trip but well worth it.

The sisters atop Teotihuacan pyramid.

We don't have much more time since we spent so much of our day travelling but I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!! 

Love,

Hermana Bennett

eight months

I've officially hit the 8-month mark on my mission! Sometimes I feel like I've been here forever and other times I feel like I just got here yesterday. But it feels great when I think about everything I've learned and how I've changed as a missionary. For a quick recap of this week, it was tough. One day I named a "Series of Unfortunate Events" because quite literally everything went wrong. My companion got really sick (we think from something she ate), lessons fell through, nobody was accepting our contacts in the street, investigators became unsure about baptism, recent converts had a terrible trial and we just did everything we could to keep our heads up and finish the day. It was a welcome relief to go home and plan for the next day. It was a day of testing and small trials, and I'm glad to say we overcame them. Sometimes, all you can do is keep moving forward and trying your best. We have been teaching people a lot about diligence with the example of trying to go up on an elevator that is coming down. If you don't keep moving, you'll never get anywhere. It is hard to be diligent, but it's absolutely necessary in the Gospel. You are either progressing or not; there is no "resting" and as a missionary I have learned that lesson. Often times people think they are doing okay and don't need to keep reading or praying, or going to church all the time, but to stop any of these is to stop progressing, to stop receiving blessings and to stop preparing for the future. So keep going! Keep learning and doing all you can to live the Gospel.

     This last week we had the opportunity to help a woman in our ward with our laundry. She's in a wheel chair and we stopped by to share a message with her and found her hard at work. So we forced our way in (people are really resistant to letting us help them do any type of labor) and set about helping her. She had a washer but we had to wring the clothes out, rinse them in an outdoor sink, soak them in another type of liquid, wring them out and then hang them to dry. With both of us working hard it took us an hour. We were tired but happy when we finished—I love serving! 

Missionaries are always hard at work—sharing the Gospel and serving.

I hope you all are doing well and serving others. I finished the Book of Mormon last month and am working on Doctrine and Covenants, which is actually really easy in Spanish. And oh man there is so much good stuff in there. I'm reading a lot of mission calls right now, and it's inspiring for anyone who wants to share the Gospel. Keep studying the scriptures everyday, they will help you wherever you are in your life.

I love you all!!!! Have a fantastic week :)

Love,

Hermana Bennett

eating bugs

Well not a lot happened this week. We had trouble finding people at home and walked around most of the time. But one day we were walking and a man contacted us, asking what we were doing. We explained a bit and he invited us to his home. So we followed him and met his wife and son. They weren't interested in our message but wanted to do something nice for us. They were really kind and they gave us lots of fruit! But what was funny to us is their son, when introducing himself, said he was single. And he said he'd only convert if one of us married him! Plus he guessed my companion was 30 years old! I about died laughing; my comp turns 20 next month and really doesn't want to. She's a bit funny about age. But oh man did we laugh once we left!

     One random note from last week; when we contact someone on the street, we always say we've come a long way to share this message, and they always try to guess where. Several people guessed Germany this week—and when we asked why, they couldn't say. One girl said we didn't sound American, so I guess that's good! Also this last week we ate fried insects. I couldn't get my mind off the fact that we were eating bugs and stopped after the first one. But the family that offered them to us was eating them by the handful! Even the little two year old couldn't get enough of them.

A bowl of fried insects. Looks tasty, right?

But enough of that. Yesterday we baptized most of a family! One daughter couldn't get work off so she and her daughter are getting baptized next week. But we baptized the other four yesterday and it was great. We had the baptism right after church so lots of people were able to stay and support them. So an interesting story about this family. We split up and contact opposite sides of the street and I knocked her door. The mom/grandma answered and said yes but that she probably wouldn't be home, so we didn't go back. A few weeks later we were in the street and decided to contact a woman, and it was the same lady! When that happened we became determined to teach them. And from that one contact we found a whole family! She, Maria and her husband, Ernesto, two of their daughters, plus two granddaughters (each daughter has a daughter). It was a little miracle.

The sisters' latest baptism. Families are important.

Really quickly I want to share a scripture I really like, it's in 2 Nephi 32:8–9. We need to always pray without ceasing, so that Heavenly Father will bless our endeavors. Especially as missionaries this is important, but I remember when I was in college and read this, I realized I always wanted his support in my decisions. And the only way we can achieve that is through prayer. Be diligent and you will receive the blessings.

Love,

Hermana Bennett