Sister deBenito's Mission: Week 22- "OK... I'm Just Going To Be Blunt With You, If That's OK? Boys are... Dumb."

Well since last week was a little weird and we had our pday on a Tuesday it made me mix up all the days this week. It ended up feeling longer than it was because of all the things we had to do in a shorter amount of time. Or maybe it's just me exaggerating:) probably..hah

And next week since we will be in meetings on Monday for leadership and then Tuesday is the 4th of July so we will be in the Provo parade as a mission our pday will be moved to Wednesday!! So I won't be writing on Monday!

Well on Tuesday we (as a district) got to go to the beautiful Payson Temple. I know I've talked about it a lot before but can I just say that there is no other feeling than walking into the doors of the temple and feeling an unexplainable happiness come over you. That was me.. smiling all the way up to the doors of the temple just excited to feel that feeling once again. It truly is the House of the Lord and there's no place I'd rather be:)

Later that night we had an activity with the youth that we had to put together in less than 24 hours, where we taught the youth the first lesson and then we told them… “now you'll be going out and teaching investigators this lesson.” ahhh the look on their faces were priceless! They were all saying, ‘we can't do that’ or ‘are you crazy?!’ or ‘i'm soon nervous, I don't want to.’ but as we talked to them and told them that these investigators knew they were coming..(which were actually members that lovingly said yes to letting youth come into their homes, the youth didn't know that though hehe), and that a youth leader was going with them.. they calmed down a bit and felt a bit more confident.

Hermana Perez and I got the awesome opportunity to go to an actual investigators home and sit in the kitchen while a set of youth taught Beth. What a surreal feeling it was to, in a way, see myself from the outside. To see how we started and how far we've come as missionaries. I loved to see the struggle and how they stumbled on their words. But none of that mattered because I could feel the spirit coming from the youth as they spoke. We as missionaries have to start somewhere and we of course mess up all the time but as long as we have the Spirit that's all that matters:)

We headed back to the the church after the lesson was over and the rest of the youth were there, beaming with happiness! We asked some of the youth how it went and they were all now saying.. ‘it was awesome!’ or ‘when can we go back?’ or ‘I want to go on a mission! I was a bit nervous but that was so cool!’.

Let's just say… I love being a missionary!

Wednesday I had exchanges with the awesome Hermana Ulin! She has such a spirit with her that is quiet but powerful. We got to teach Gabi about the word of wisdom and that went really well! Afterwards we changed up and headed over to the Baker's. We have been helping clean their home and orderly since her triplets like to dirty a lot of things up and the landlords were coming in to check up so she needed all the help she could get. It was fun because Hermana Brooks and Shirley were on exchanges as well and so there was a total of 8 sister helping and catching up that day since some of the sisters hadn't seen each other in a while!

The rest of the day was fun being able to talk to Hermana Ulin about some of the things she had learned on the mission. To see how much she's grown and how she's overcome trials in her life. Let's just say that she is an inspiration to me.

Thursday was the absolute best because I got to see some of my favorite people all in one day! We did our studies then went over to the Nielsen’s, one of the coolest senior couples! They love the missionary work and want to help us as much as possible! Then I got to the one and only.. President Hodgman! He's such a spiritual man and I love when I can talk to him because he always has the best answers. Let's just say I'm excited for next week because I get to see President and his wife 2 days in a row:))))

Later on we went back to the Baker's to help them some more with cleaning and I got to see my missionary mom Hermana Brooks! She is honestly the best and always wants to help me with anything I'm concerned with or just help me be in an a better mood than I already was. Hermana Brooks and Hermana Shirley are the funniest together and will make you laugh so much! They have a talent! Later that afternoon we went contacting and saw the elders on their bikes, I honked and almost scared Elder Barnes off his bike! Hahaha (Hermana Perez and wish we had gotten it on video!) but as we were talking a girl randomly walked up to us and had a snake around her neck. If you know me the 2nd thing I'm most scared of is snakes. So my reaction to putting it around her neck gave me chills! Ahhh but I got over my fear and first held it in my hand and then for about .2 seconds put it around my neck but I wasn't having it when it started slithering towards my neck. No no no no… I'm good. But I did it.. that’s all that matters! Hah

Friday morning we got a text from the mother of the son that was getting baptized on Saturday about the program and who she had asked to be a part of it and she had only assigned the opening and closing prayer! We freaked out and started scrambling for people that would participate in the baptism. Usually you have a couple weeks to put together a baptism and this one was the next day. Nothing had been done. We did it in 2 hours! It was probably the most stressful 2 hours. The church hadn't even been reserved for the baptism haha

But as Saturday came around we went to the church and set up the room, saw Miguel come in and he was just smiling! The service went beautifully and his father who converted last November was able to baptize his son. Everyone was crying. You could just feel the spirit and how amazing it was to see a father baptize their son when he thought he couldn't. Such a small and simple thing as a 10 year old boy turning his life around and saying he wants to be more like Jesus is the best feeling and sight in the world. What a awesome way to celebrate 5 months on the mission!! Those stressful and hard moments are all gone when I get to see something as incredible as this.

Sunday came and Miguel was confirmed a member of the church. We had a bunch of meetings with stakes and we decided to go to a english speaking sacrament meeting and let me tell ya! That was weird! I'm not sure how i feel about it but it was fun to meet some other members from different wards. After the meeting was over a member came up to us and gave us a referral! Ahh I love when blessing like that happen! Later that day we were teaching an investigator and he told us that he had been praying about baptism and he knew that he didn't want to wait, so he wanted to be baptized on the 8th of July! What a miracle that was! We just started teaching David a couple weeks ago and he already wants to be baptized. We are so excited for him, that he's deciding to become a better person and turn to the Savior. It's just we needed to top of the day and start this new week:))

As we were driving home we saw an open house for a missionary that just got home from Chile! We decided to stop by and just say hi! As missionaries were allowed to be awkward right!? Hah the Elder ran outside and started talking to us! He said that it was so nice to talk to missionaries and if we ever needed someone to go out with us then he wanted to help. He said it was super weird to be home but he was happy! I feel like that's going to be me! Super awkward and not knowing how to act. But I don't need to worry about that for a while:)) I love my mission so so much and I wouldn't ever want to change these experiences for anything else!

Ahh I love my Savior and I love this gospel.

I hope you all find the miracles and blessings in every day this week!

Con Amor,

Hermana de Benito