Happy Birthday to.... Me!!

My dearest family and friends. 

Why hello there.... I sure hope that you are all doing well. Tomorrow (May 20th) is perhaps one of the best days of the year. And why is that? Because I was born, that`s why!!! haha But seriously it really makes me sit back and think. How incredible of an opportunity we have to have been born on this earth, to recieve a body and get to grow and have experiences that continue to stretch us and shape us into the people that God needs us to be. It`s not always easy, in fact most of the time it`s pretty hard. But what an incredible blessing we have to have the fullness of the gospel. To know that this life has a purpose, that we aren`t just here to pass time but that we each have a specific plan that a loving Heavenly Father has prepared for us. We aren`t always going to be perfect, but that`s why He sent Jesus Christ, to make up for where we fall short. I`ve been learning more and more just exactly what Jesus Christ did for us and the more I learn, the more in awe I am. I don`t think we will ever fully understand just exactly the magnitud of what He did for us, but the fact is that He did! And because of that one day, if we do our best, we can live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and our families for FOREVER! I´m sure you`ve all seen this, but since I`m here disconnected from everything I just barely saw it last week... haha but seriously this video is incredible. I want every single one of my investigators to watch it and feel the spirit and the peace and the hope it brings!

http://easter.mormon.org/

This week was pretty good. We`re hanging in there! The work has been a little slow and a little rough this transfer, but I know that as long as I do my best, I can help the Lord fulfill His purposes here. We`ve had a lot of citas fall through and a lot of people haven`t been recieving us. One day we walked around for a good 2 hours before we had our first lesson (wait aren`t I supposed to be in central america??). People hiding from us, or saying they were busy, or not wanting to listen. But these days always lead to finding new people to teach which I love. We contacted a family that was outside washing dishes that are SUPER evangelical, but they let us in and listened to our message. I felt the Spirit strong with them and they were receptive. We prayed with them and left them with a folleto (brochure) of the restoration. The next time we came we just taught the dad, but he told us that he was so grateful that we had come to teach him and that he knew that our message was true. He said that his wife had been sick, but after we prayed with them and left, she no longer had the pain and the sickness that she had been struggling with was gone. He told us that he wanted us to always come visit them and share our message with them because he knows it`s true. We invited him to be baptized and he said that he had already been baptized in the church that they were attending, but that just means that he doesn`t understand quite yet about the priesthood, so we won`t give up just yet :) I felt the spirit super strong, that Heavenly Father has something prepared for this family. 

This week we had a nice break from the blazing heat with rain. We went to the beach again today for p-day but with president Klein. After a while it started raining super hard! But I loved it and soaked it all up. Because the first half of the week was SO HOT: and the power was out so we didn`t have our fans and let`s just say I didn`t sleep. But mom, thank you for your prayers that I could handle the heat, because they were answered with rain and a cool breeze!! I even wore a sweater for the past 2 days.... haha that`s unheard of.... (it was 80 degrees and I was cold!) 

I sure love you all, and I hope that this week is great for you all. Thank you for you prayers and your support.

Next week is transfer week... again??! Crazy how fast time is flying by. I´ll let you all know if I`ll be staying or going, but I think I`ll be staying here... but we shall see. Adios!! Que les vaya bien!!

Hermana Bennett

Happy Mother´s Day!

Hola! 

I don´t have much time to write today. The power has been out here in Mezapa and it just barely came back! Can I just say that a power outage in this weather is NO BUENO! Last night the power went out right as I was falling asleep which meant no fan, and I couldn´t really fall asleep until it came back on a few hours later. It´s a heat that I don´t think I could possibly begin to explain with words, but hey. That´s just part of the whole experience! We´ve been learning to adjust to living without power. The other night when the power went out me and hermana olivas were outside sitting on our porch just listening to the wind and the peaceful silence when we both got the mischevious idea to scare the other sisters. We snuck over to their apartment and just stood in their window. They were sitting in their room writing in their journals with flashlights and hermana orgill was playing with the curtain. When she lifted it up Hermana Saylin saw both of us and just said, "woah what the heck??"  then H Orgill dropped the curtain in fright and we hurried and hid so when they lifted up the curtain again there was nobody there and they started screaming! Then we went back and opened their window and put their umbrella inside their room so that they couldn´t close it without running into the umbrella. We thought for sure they would suspect that it was us but we overheard them saying that if it was us we would have laughed by now. So we continued with our broma (joke) for a good 40 minutes until we decided it was time to reveal ourselves. They were so shocked when they found out it was us and we had a good laugh about it. Sometimes it´s good to have moments that break up the normal routine of missionary life... haha 

It was so good to be able to talk to you all last night! It was a struggle... haha we had a member drive us about a half hour to our ward mission leaders house and then we had to download skype and then the speakers weren´t working and then the internet kept going in and out, but en fin it was nice to have at least a good 15 mintues of uninterrupted internet to be able to see your faces and visit for a while! It´s a blessing that the power didn´t go out until after we had gotten back to our houses! It was good to see Aaron and how big and chubby he is getting! I can´t wait to meet him when I get back :) Crazy to see how tall Matt is, too. It felt like just yesterday I was talking to you all on Christmas, it´s amazing how fast time has flown by! The family that I was with kept laughing because of how goofy you all are.... I sure love you guys :) 

This week was good. We continue to find new people to teach, and it´s amazing just how much the Lord really is in charge of his work. In the end we don´t really do much in the grand scheme of things, just do what we can and He takes care of the rest. It´s been a great transfer with Hermana Olivas. We are very similar! Quiet, yet not shy. Very pensive. Our minds are always running and running. But it´s been good to have her to lean on, and she has helped me to learn to really enjoy my time here and not stress so much over what we can´t control. For example, she is so aware of everything around her. She is always pointing out beautiful flowers, or a strange animals, or things that I usually don´t notice because I´m not looking. When something doesn´t quite go the way we plan, she´s always good about moving forward and staying positive. We have a lot of good laughs. She is always scaring the animals by clapping or stomping her feet and she laughs at their reactions. The other day we were walking past a heard of horses and all of a sudden that started charging straight at us! We were backed up to a fence and had no where to go and so we just grabbed  on to each other and screamed and closed our eyes... haha in the end they ended up NOT trampling us though I have no idea how we escaped. I just opened my eyes and they were already past us. I told her she better watch out because all the animals have a grudge against her for scaring them! 

Today we went to the beach in Tela and it was oh so beautiful! We decided that we just needed a day to escape Mezapa and just sit in the sand and listen to the waves. It turned out to be a success and it felt so good to have the ocean breeze in our faces and just be calm. The bus ride back we found lychees!! 

I was so excited since we haven´t had them since November. We shared them with the man that was sitting next to us and had a good conversation and ended up giving him a book of mormon and inviting him to church. Then as we were leaving I shook his hand and he pulled me in and tried to kiss my cheek and I threw up my hands and said, "!no puedo!" (I cannot) haha it took me off guard so I hope my reaction didn´t make him too embarrassed... haha but we all had a good laugh afterwards. (This email is full of "good laugh" moments....)

Anyways I sure do love you all and just want you to know how grateful I am for the opportunity that I have to be here on a mission. It is changing me and shaping me in ways that I never expected, and though sometimes it´s hard I wouldn´t change it for a thing! I know that I am here for a reason, and I know that I am learning lessons that are preparing me for the rest of my life. I´m learning just what it means to follow a prompting of the Spirit, what it feels like to have your mouth filled with words that aren´t your own, and am learning the essence of the word "patience!" I hope you all have a great week!

Hermana Bennett

Made it to the hump.... When did that happen??

Hola friends and family! 


I can´t believe that this week I will be completing the first half of my mission here in Honduras. There is no way to be able to describe how blessed I feel at this moment to be serving a mission, and for this opportunity that Heavenly Father has given me to share His Gospel and to learn and grow. It has in no way been a cake walk.... I feel as if I have been stretched and stripped and cut down in many ways, but I know that it is Heavenly Father´s way of making me become the person that He needs me to be - not the person that I want to be or that I think I should be. These nine months have been humbling for sure, but I know with all my heart that I am here for a reason and that Heavenly Father is teaching me lessons that are preparing me for the rest of my life and for greater things to come. I´m so grateful for my inspired mission president and his dear wife that are such a huge support to us missionaries, and their willingness to take time for "the one." I´m learning that Heavenly Father doesn´t need us to be perfect, nor does he want us to try so hard to be perfect! Because in the end, it´s an unreachable goal here in this imperfect world. What he wants us to do is give our all, to give what we can, and to let Christ step in and turn our B- into an A+. "Come unto Christ and be perfected IN Him..." He has called us in all our weaknesses and imperfections to merely be instruments in His hands as He fulfils His purposes and His work. As I look back on what I´ve learned this first half of my mission, there is no way I could possibly fit it into one short email, but to sum it up I´ve come to know without a shadow of a doubt that this is the Church of Jesus Christ and that there is no other. I´ve learned just how blessed we are to have the knowledge that we have and to be able to make and keep covenant with God. I´ve learned the blessing of the Spirit in our lives and that nothing is more precious than to have His influence every day. I´ve learned that Jesus is our Savior and can work miracles in our lives if we let Him and show a little bit of faith. I´ve learned that God fulfills his promises.... every time. I´ve learned that I´m not perfect, that I make mistakes, but that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me anyways :)

This week we are beginning to ease into the rainy season of Honduras (right when I decided to break my umbrella... of course!) Me and Hermana Olivas were headed to an appointment in the morning and we had forgotten to bring her umbrella. All of a sudden she stopped and said, "hermana, oiga." (hear) It was the strangest thing. It sounded like a waterfall and when we looked in the distance, we could see that it was raining SUPER hard just a few blocks away and was coming quickly in our direction. It was like a wall of rain coming straight for us! It reminded me of the movies when people just stand and watch when the danger is coming for them and don´t start running until it´s too late.... haha soon enough we were caught in the downpour and had to run until we got to our investigators house and we were soaked from head to foot!! We had a good laugh about it :) It turned out to be a really good lesson despite being drenched :) Her name is Y and she shared with us that she had read Moroni 10:3-5 and that she prayed after and felt something very beautiful in her corazon (heart). It really does work!! Then towards the end of the lesson a random man showed up and started going off on all his problems and asking for advice, and before we could say anything our investigator bore her testimony about prayer and everything that she had just learned from her experience and she invited him to pray because she knows now that God answers prayers. It was a neat experience :)

Just want you all to know how much I love you. Thank you for all of your support and prayers, they are needed and felt. Shout out to my wonderful, beautiful, and incredible Mother :) I hope you have an amazing Mother´s Day, and though I can´t be there physically, my face/voice will be there via technology... haha I am so grateful to say that I am your daughter, and could never thank you enough for all you have taught me and for the support and love you have given me through the years. Even though we aren´t perfect, you have been the perfect mom for me and I wouldn´t be who I am without you. Shout out to all the other mother figures I have had in my life (Grandma Cook and Grandma Angus and all my loving aunts!). I have learned and grown from your many examples :) Thank you!!!

Until Next Week

Hermana Bennett

Ups and Downs

April 28, 2014
Hello Friends and Family! 

This week was... a good week. haha Okay so it was a hard week, but that´s okay it happens sometimes! Me and Hermana Olivas have been working really well together, but sometimes the agency of others makes things tough! Sometimes you just want to shake people and tell them all the things they could have, but unfortunately it doesn´t work that way. We lost a lot of investigators this week because they didn´t want to listen anymore and then a lot of others have been having some extra challenges that makes it hard for them to progress. It´s a testimony to me just how much Satan doesn´t want anyone to find happiness and their eternal salvation! It seemed like everything that could go wrong, went wrong (Including breaking my umbrella and losing my watch... haha). For example, we´ve been helping a young couple that have been going through some marriage difficulties. The husband is in the army and so he is gone for the majority of the time and we have been visiting his wife. The other day she was feeling super discouraged and ready to throw in the towel with her marriage but we were able to encourage her and give her a little bit of hope. We visited with the two of them and taught them about families and used the Proclamation. In the end they were both willing to try and things were going really great and the spirit was strong and then.... the husband said that he really appreciates all we´ve done to help them but that we should know that they already attend another religion and won´t commit to anything with us. Another investigator that has been progressing so well had a family problem due to the bad choices of others that left them all with lots of hatred, hurt and discouragement in their hearts. Her excitement about her baptism was replaced with worry and distraction. Towards the end of the week we were getting used to leaving the lessons with a new challenge ahead that we´ll need to deal with and help them to overcome. It´s hard to watch them struggle when you really grow to LOVE these people! But that doesn´t mean that we will give up just yet :) This is the Lord´s work not ours and he can still work miracles and soften people´s hearts and change their lives!

This week was also a testimony to me just how much discouragement can be an enemy of the spirit, and how important it is to hang in there and be happy even when it´s hard. Because without the Spirit, this work is next to impossible! By the end of the week, I was feeling like my spiritual gas tank was running on fumes but thanks to a loving Heavenly Father, each week we get to fill up again when we take the sacrament! Seriously, after church on Sunday I felt so much better and rejuvinated and ready to take on all the hard things to come. I felt the spirit a lot more and the lessons we taught on Sunday went better. We could look back on the miracles that happened this week despite of it all. When we can replace our negative glasses with positive ones, it´s amazing to see just how much the Lord has lead us in this work. We ending up finding some really great people and families. Gladis, the member we found last week that has been going to another church, came to church on sunday! That to me was a miracle. With the investigators that weren´t progressing we were able to ask them for references and have found several positive contacts from them. To me it means that no work is wasted and that there is a purpose for everthing! I was reading in Jesus the Christ and it was talking about how we have to plant the seed and then leave the harvest to the Lord. We can plant, water, weed, but it is the soil, the sun, the rain that does the nurturing. Things that our out of our control. Do our part and let the Lord do the rest. And to be patient enough to let the harvest grow!

Can´t believe it´s going to be May this week. What happened to April??  Sure do love you all and hope your week is a great one! Thank you for all the love and support. 

Until Next Week!

Hermana Bennett

Happy Easter!

Hola familia and friends! 

Happy Easter! It´s been a great week to reflect on what our Savior did for us in his Atonement, and the miracle of His Resurrection. They don´t really do much to celebrate Easter here - in church I don´t even remember anyone mentioning anything about the resurrection which made me a little sad. Here in Honduras they celebrate the whole week, but if you´re not Catholic, it generally means a week spent at the beach (probably because it is also known as the hottest week of the year!). I overheard on the news at a pulpería that there were over 18,000 people at the beaches... woah... Here in mezapa lots of people go to the river to swim. Which meant for us a week full of empty streets and abandoned houses! It was a little crazy.... haha I felt a little bad because it was my companions first experience here in mezapa and the back up plans of our back up plans fell through and it meant for lots of days of walking around and talking with those who happened to be in their houses :) haha but in the end we were able to find people and had some neat experiences that we wouldn´t have found had otherwise so I´m happy :) Me and my companion are working really well together! She is from Nicaragua and the first member of her family to be baptized in the church. Her younger brothers followed her example, but the rest of her family aren´t members. It really is amazing the testimony of a recent convert in helping investigators to take a step back and really think and ponder about what we are sharing, instead of just writing us off in the beginning.

 

We had a neat experience the other day. We had tried and failed to find any of our investigators in our agenda which meant contacting. We stopped at a house and a man came out completely drunk. We talked to him a little bit but it was soon apparent that it wasn´t going to do any good trying to teach him the way he was. I was ready to move on, but then he mentioned that there was a woman in the house we could talk to. I was a little reluctant to enter but my companion said, "vamos!" so we did :) We found a woman washing clothes in the pila out back. She only had one leg, the other was amputated a year ago for diabetes. We started talking with her a little bit and she was super open and friendly. Soon she told us that she actually a member of the church, but when she moved here she didn´t think there was a church here and started attending an Evangelical church. We sat and listened to her story for quite some time and I was amazed at the faith and the hope of this woman despite all of her trials! She was super surprised when we told her that there is a church here and told us if she had known she would have never started assisting another. Hopefully we can help her to come back! She is now a leader in another church, so it might be a little hard, but we invited her to pray and ask God what she should do and she agreed. We´ll see how it goes! Things with our other investigators are going well. I really do have a lot of love in my heart for these people :) ... I love being a missionary!

Saturday there was a ton rain! It was a huge blessing (even though all my clothes were hanging on the line... haha) and the temperatures have dropped just a bit and there is a little more of a cool breeze. A little bit of a break from all this heat... :) Rain meant that the lights went out again for a while, I´m starting to get used to living by the light of a candle! haha 

I sure love you lots! I hope you are having an amazing week :) Shout out to Dakota for getting his mission call - that is so exciting!! And to the Allred's for the new addition to their family :)

Until next week!

Hermana Bennett

Hermana's in Mezapa

It smells like fish.... Feliz Semana Santa!

Hello family! 

Can´t believe it´s already time for transfers again... This transfer flew by! It seems like each transfer goes by faster and faster. 

Goodbye to Hermana Maldonado

On Monday night when they called to tell us about transfers all of us sisters were huddled around the phone with it in on speaker waiting anxiously while Elder San Andres took his time telling us who was going and who was staying. The suspense! En fin, Hermana Maldonado and Hermana Ashcraft had transfers. I´m super happy to be staying here in Mezapa, I really do love it here! I´m now with Hermana Olivas de Nicaragua. 

Hello to new companion Hermana Olivas

It was funny, on the bus ride here she was sitting behind us and we were talking and joking and saying that we were going to be companions and would you look at that? Companions! We had a good laugh after. It seems like after having so many companions already, it´s a lot easier to adjust to a new companion. It doesn´t really matter who you´re with if you have love, patience and the same purpose :) She is a convert of 3 years - I love it!

This past week was full of lots of great experiences. On Tuesday we past the day with  a heat that I´ve NEVER experienced before in my life. It was sooooo hot. When we got back to the house for lunch and looked at the thermometer.... 122 degrees. 

122 degrees F'

Is that possible? Yikes! We´re melting here! haha but that night we had a pretty good break from the heat. We walked outside our apartment and there was sooooo much wind. It was a little eerie because in the distance we could see a wall of polvo (powder) coming towards us and then it would pass super quick in a swirly fashion (if you can picture what that would look like...) De repente (suddenly) the lights went out! It´s super dark here when there are no lights. There was a church down the street that had a concert going on and all of a sudden the music stopped and then a bunch of people went running... I personally was enjoying myself, the wind felt soooo nice. The next day it felt super chilly and when we looked at the thermometer? 102 degrees..... haha a bunch of people were repairing their roofs (since the majority are just tin slabs), and we passed a bunch of houses with big rocks that had been tossed on the roof to prevent the slabs from getting picked up with the wind. Apparently there had been a tornado! It left us without power and running water for a few days, but that´s what candles are for :)

Lately we have been finding some incredible people to teach! We are currently teaching a women, who wasn´t super religious but was receptive from day one. She is reading the Book of Mormon and when we asked her what she was learning she gaves us a complete resumen of 1 nephi:1-5 that went a little like this, "well I´m learning a lot about how much faith these people had back then. How Nephi´s dad Lehi told them they had to go back and get the plates from this man Laban which I get the impression he was pretty powerful, and how he still went even when his brothers beat him up about it. And then how another family came out with them in the desert but I can´t remember their name. If I came and told you we had to go live in that mountain because God told me to would you come with me??" we were almost speechless! Also the other day we were in Los Pinos when our citas fell through so we prayed to be led to someone that was prepared for us. Then we met a young mother whose husband is in the army. She told us that she just recently starting going to a church because she wanted to be closer to God. We taught her and then found out that her and her spouse are officially and legally wed! Hooray!!! That is sooo uncommon here. We came back another day when her husband was there and taught them both about eternal families and the spirit was so strong. Now they are both reading the Book of Mormon and preparing for baptism :) I really do love being a missionary. The happiest I am is when I´ve spent the day working as hard as I can and can come home satisfied that I´ve done my part. There really is no other joy to compare to it. 

The other day we contacted a woman and taught her about prayer. She seemed nervous and was hiding a fat lip with a rag for the first part of the lesson. In the end we asked her to say the prayer but she didn´t want to. In the end she finally agreed to say it and halfway through she broke down in tears and said one of the most sincere prayers I have heard. When she finished she opened up and let us know of the trials she was having. We were able to testify of her divine worth and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was going to move to a different pueblo the next day, but she was super excited to read it and we were able to give her number to the missionaries that are in that area. I hope they can find her!

This week in my personal study I´ve been learning about patience with Alma 32. Specifically verses 41 and 42. We always think about this chapter talking about how faith is like a seed we have to plant, but sometimes we forget what comes next. Once we plant the seed, we have to nourish it or it will die! Sometimes it´s hard to keep going when the blessings aren´t immediate or when the progress is slow, but if we can look forward to the fruit that we can have later on, if we can have patience and keep going, eventually we will be able to enjoy the fruits that come. It´s something that has been really helping me - I need to learn patience!!! And I need to be patient while I am learning patience!!! haha 

I hope that all is going well and that you enjoy this Easter weekend! This week is called Semana Santa. It´s a Catholic Holiday and the tradition is that they can´t eat meat. So everywhere you go there is fish... And it sure smells great.... haha but in the end let us always remember the amazing reality of Christ´s resurrecion and what he did for us. I´m so grateful for my Savior. Though He suffered and died for us, how wonderful it is to have the knowledge that He lives today! Let us do all we can to be close to Him and enjoy the happiness and peace He can give us. 

Love you all!

Hermana Bennett

Conference!!!!!

Hey family and friends. 

What an INCREDIBLE conference, verdad (truth)?? I don´t know if it´s because I´m on the mission or what, but I ate up every single word that was spoken and loved every single talk! Seriously I was almost in tears with how happy I was. Can I just say before I say anything else just how blessed we are to have this Gospel in our lives? While listening to each session I was filled with such a sweet joy and peace that was almost overwhelming. I can´t describe how amazing I felt, and can honestly say that I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt in my mind that this church is true. That Heavenly Father lives and loves us, that Jesus Christ is our loving Savior, that Joseph Smith was chosen as a prophet of God to restore the plenitud of the gospel in our times, that Thomas S. Monson is a true and LIVING prophet and that we are blessed beyond words to be led and guided by Jesus Christ himself through his servants. I learned something from each talk and am excited to get to read them and study them again. Some of the highlights for me was Elder Holland´s talk when he mentioned that sometimes this world wants a God that pats them on the head and tells them to run along and pick marigold´s, instead of a God that actually expects them to keep His commandments (wait.. you want me to go to church???). Sister Stephens talk when she said that this gospel is not just a checklist of things to do, but lives within our hearts - it is not weight but wings! Elder Bednar´s talk when he mentioned that it is often the load that gives us the spiritual traction to get out of danger and difficulties and safely home to our Father in Heaven. Elder Uchtdorf´s talk about an attitude of gratitute - not to be grateful "for" all things, but "in" all things. The talk that mentioned the Olympic athletes and the sense of urgency we should have as our time on earth is only a mere "4 minutes" to perform and then we have a whole eternity to think about how we did, and though some may feel that 

they´ve already blown it, that their four minutes are already a disaster, that the atonement of Jesus Christ can make up for these flaws and imperfections and allow us to continue forward and "finish the race." I loved Elder Anderson´s talk when he said that the world has changed it´s laws on marriage, but God has not and will not. I loved President Monson´s invitation to go back to the basics and to LOVE one another!!!! I could go on and on and highlight what I loved from each of the talks but that would take forever and I´m sure you all don´t want to read a novel :) What and incredible and inspiring conference for us all! 

Shoutout to Natalie Dallimore - I saw her in a Mormon commercial just after the first session of conference and almost fell out of my chair I was so excited! haha also to Alicia Johnston-Wood, Audrey Roper, "Neon," and Cydnie Dial. It´s always a treat to see familiar faces in the choirs of the Conferences! Especially now, being so far from home. I remember leaving the stake center to catch our bus back for the hour ride to Mezapa with the greatest feeling of peace, I looked at all the people surrounding us on the streets, on the bus, in our little pueblo and having a desire that each of them could feel it, too. Seriously, I don´t think we often grasp how urgent it is that we can share this gospel with as many people as we can, to give them the opportunity to feel the happiness and joy that we have felt, and to have the hope that this gospel gives us. It isn´t easy, and sometimes really sad, when people decide not to listen due to their own agency :( but so it is with the life of a missionary, they come and some go, but I´m comforted to know that no work is wasted! That sometimes Heavenly Father needs us to prepare His children for when the time is right for them. Each time we share our testimony or show our example we are helping them take another step towards their own conversion, even if it´s later down the road.

This was a pretty good week! We´ve been doing a lot of contacting and finding new people, and we´ve had a lot of good experiences in the process. It seems like a lot of the families we are finding aren´t married, and Honduras just recently changed it´s marriage laws so that it is SUPER expensive to get married, so that has been one of our biggest challenges recently. But we are a people who believe in miracles, so we can´t lose the faith!

One day this week, we decided to take a different, quicker route to get to a different colony within our pueblo from a colony called Los Pinos that is the furthest away from anything. It´s a back road that runs along a palm tree forest. As we were walking along, suddenly right in front of us in the middle of the path was a giant snake! My heart jumped into my throat and I screamed... haha Hermana Maldonado jumped clear back and ran off a distance because I had scared her. It was one of those snakes that are red and black striped that I´ve only seen in the movies. The ones that are apparently super poisonous. Luckly after further observation, we realized that it was recently dead..... haha but that didn´t stop us from walking super cautiously around it practically carrying each other until we were a safe distance away. I kept imagining it suddenly jumping at us... We had a good laugh about it, but it made me remember that we truly are protected as missionaries when we are trying our best. President Klein once said that when we arrive home at night and say, "gee what a great day," that the angels are saying, "YOU thought it was a great day.... but you didn´t even notice what kind of a day WE had protecting you!" It´s so true, and I´m so grateful for it!

I sure do love you all and am grateful for your prayers and your support. Don´t forget how blessed we are!! Until next week :)

Hermana Bennett