Eyes to See, Isaiah 6:9 Challenge

How can we spiritually discern what are spiritual promptings, and where and when can we find them? Elder Taylor and I got to go to the Mesa temple this past Sunday before we Baptized Yared y Jarell. It was an amazing experience. While we were waiting in the chapel to go into a Spanish session, I decided to a little of gospel searching.  I found a scripture that I really liked and decided to do a little studying on it. Isaiah 6:9 I believe. It's where God commands Isaiah to go preach the gospel. I'll continue to study it in my free time to understand it better and come back with what I learned. I challenge you to do the same. It's a really good scripture that applies to sharing the gospel and the difficulty of it because of the characteristics of the people you teach.

 I'm sorry I don't have  ability to send pictures right now but I will as soon as I can. Te aman.

Elder Nathan Benson

Yared and Jarell get baptized.

We baptized Yared and Jarell, 15 and 10, last Saturday and confirmed them yesterday! I got to baptize and confirm Jarell. (All in Spanish) it was awesome! The spirit was there is a way that was hard to discern but such a peaceful and joy bringing feeling.  One thing that was cool about the baptism is what happened after. Right when we finished, about 5 min later it poured down like a waterfall outside! It rained so hard it started coming through the doors of the church and starting leaking thorough the ceiling in the gym. It was crazy.

The Spanish has been quite an experience as well. There have been times where I can speak well and understand the majority of what people say. Then other times it is quite the contrary. I continue to try to improve everyday and the progress comes. At times the progress is almost impossible to see, but if I allow myself to get discouraged that is when Satan gains control and I lose the Spirit.

We have a great area as well. Since we went out with Elder Corbridge we have put 6 on date for baptism. The people are amazing and so ready to receive the gospel. Hopefully they can continue strong through baptism and through the temple.

I have dropped to 168 lbs yesterday! Booya! And I can touch my toes in the hamstring stretch now! I've been a lot better about my health, thanks to a companion who likes to exercise. I also am cooking a lot. I make pancakes almost every morning and even French toast once! I am going to try to make tuna melts tonight. Thanks for teaching me how to cook mom. I absolutely love cooking now. And it's way cheaper to cook.

Elder Benson

Elder Corbridge (cont.)

He said that some of our weaknesses can be a great strength. How does

that work? He was talking about my Spanish. It is easy to tell that I

am new to Spanish. He said that my new Spanish requires much more

attention. When someone is fluent it is easy to tune out because it

doesn't take much brain power to focus. But since my Spanish isn't

that good they have to pay much more attention. So I have people's

attention and it also opens the door to the spirit because they are

involved in the lesson more, trying to understand what I am saying.

The next visit were Yared y Jarell, the two that got baptized this

past Saturday and confirmed Sunday. We had challenged Yared to write

about her feelings about the lessons we have taught them and the

church and also her baptism. She showed it to Elder Corbridge and he

read it a loud. We forgot one little point.... She likes to write....

A LOT.  It took him about 5 min to read it all. It was amazing at

describing what conversion was like and how we come unto God, but yes

it was long. The family was absolutely awestruck and took in every

second of it. We had a great lesson that was very spiritual. We talked

about the tree of life a little bit with our lesson, and how the fruit

of the tree was like taking a bite, was baptism. After the lesson I

was complemented on another aspect of my teaching. He liked how I

jumped between English and Spanish to make sure that Jarell was

following along, because kids here study English and know it better

than Spanish. I also got the complement from sister Corbridge that I

look like one of their twin grandkids that is two or three years old.

Hmm.... Cool!! I guess that means we got on their good side! Hehe

What was more cool is that we were complemented quite a few times in

the missions tour in front of that half of the mission that was there.

What was more amazing is that they had a leadership meeting after and

Elder Taylor was in it (being a District Leader) and he remembered

every single name of the people we taught the night before! Even I am

still working on that, and he only heard some of their names once!

That just shows that he was called of God to do His work and that

great gifts and abilities are given to them to progress the work. I am

super grateful for that amazing opportunity and I learned so much from

those two days.

Just to show that we were inspired, we have put 6 more people on date

with his method of teaching. Not only that, but the lessons have been

much more spiritual and we have much more investigators that are

amazing people. Love you guys! Keep focused on what is most important.

Doing the things that will allow us to return to our father in heaven

in the kingdom, the celestial kingdom. Where we can be together

forever.

Elder Benson

We got a haircut today.  What do you think?  Live celestial lives!

Learning to feel the Spirit, Elder Corbridge

So here is my update for the week. I don't have much time ,p (again).

But it's been great! Me and my companions are going on runs every

morning. Which has been great. Stress comes as usual but I am also

learning to handle it and keep it at a level that it keeps me moving

and working effectively.  

One thing that had been bothering me lately,

and that had been adding to my stress, was something that every

missionary wants more than anything.  I felt like I wasn't getting

spiritual promptings from the Holy Ghost.  Well, not that often that

is.  I want to always have the Spirit with me, and I felt that in

order to know that I always have the Spirit to be with me I had to

feel Him always. Always guiding me.  Always showing me the people I

needed to meet, always tell me exactly what to say.  But I learned

something very important from my wonderful companion, Elder Taylor.

At times we may feel like the Spirit is not with us at times, but

we know we are doing the right things.  So why do we not feel the

Spirit?  The answer lies in the main purpose of the Holy Ghost, and

that is to guide us.  He guides us in the direction that we need to go

to eventually return to our Father's presence.  So when there is a

specific person we need to talk to or an important decision we need to

make for our future, or if we need a sense of purpose in our lives to

keep us moving; the Holy Ghost is there to turn us in the right

direction and help get us going.  But what happens when we are going

in the right direction and we are still moving?  Then we don't have to

have Him taking us by the hand anymore. In others words, we don't need

to constantly feel his direct presence every second of every day.  And

The Lord doesn't need to carry us along the path of life, he walks

beside us and praises us taking the correct steps without Him holding

us up.

So here is the story with Elder Corbridge.  Saturday night we finished

our final lesson and we were driving back to our apartment.  That's

when we got a call from Elder Bryson, one of the assistants to the

president.  He asked if we could have Elder Corbridge go out to teach

with us the next day from 6-9pm.  Of course we were shell-shocked and

after the initial shock was gone we said "yes of course!"

    So Sunday rolled around and we were getting really excited for

this opportunity.  However, when we were driving back from church our

car said"Low on gas" uh-oh.....  So we were brainstorming how we could

get gas without having to buy any (because it was Sunday and we didn't

want to break the Sabbath Day.)

    After a short prayer we were inspired to call members to ask for

any extra gas they had.  We found one!  So we put in about 2 gallons

figuring that would be enough for the trip.  Well it was just enough

to get us there, but we went through half of the gas. So we then had

the problem of not having enough gas to drive back after our visits!

But President Griffen came through and lent us his car for the night.

    So the night began, and boy were our expectations different.

Definitely not set too high, maybe even a little too low, but definitely

different from how things went.

    Elder Corbridge wanted to speak completely in Spanish, which we

were told ahead of time.  But he was a little rusty, so I was a little

worried he would have trouble in the lessons.  We talked just to get

to know them a little better on the way.  And they were a little

quiet, probably just getting to know us and warming up to us.  So we

arrived to our first lesson.  Obviously the family was super excited

with the fact they had a general authority in their house, so their

house was super clean.  That was great.  So the family we were

teaching are all members except for an inactive father.  Our focus was

to help him know how he can strengthen his testimony and how it was

important, because he works with some anti-Mormon people that bash on

him sometimes.

    We were teaching the first lesson, and it was going well.  Later

Elder Corbridge commented on how well we did a good job at being

invested in the lesson, even while the other one wasn't speaking.  He

actually brought that up in the mission tour with half of the mission

the next day.  And we also asked him to contribute as well.  He made a

lot of good points, but at the end he said something that caught us

off guard that he ended up teaching in the mission tour the following

day.  He told the father that his testimony was important to have, but

the most important thing was something more than that.  He needed to

be sealed I the temple with his family so that he could live with them

forever.  Wow! He skipped all of the fluff and went straight to the

whole reason why we were there as missionaries!  We want them to go

into the temple so that they can be with their families forever and

return to live with God.  Without going through the temple and making

those covenants, we can't live with God. That was something we learned

I the mission tour, show those that your are teaching the ultimate

goal.  That is to return to live with our Father in Heaven and be with

our families forever!

On the way to our next lesson we were talking with them again.

Fortunately he gave us some compliments and advice for teaching.  The

thing that really was great for me was that he praised me for my

confidence as a missionary that had been in the field for 1 month.  He

also pointed out something that also was a big confidence booster.

Obviously I am far from fluent from teaching, but I am also learning

at quite a fast rate. He said . . . 

Elder Nathan Benson

My companion, Elder Taylor, is an awesome missionary!

The mission has been great!  I definitely agree with the

statement that these will be the best two years FOR my life not OF my

life.  This mission has really pushed me into things that I would

never would've imagined. But it has been so rewarding.  I feel like I

have developed so much in these short two months and I am starting to

understand how to become a consecrated missionary. I am grateful for

what The Lord has blessed me with, and I hope that I will continue to

be humble enough to accept whatever thing he gives me.

The lessons have been awesome and quite the contrary. But I only have

time for positive. We have 2 on date! They are developing by

themselves. We have no part in it, which is what it should be! I'll

fill you in about how they do. They are definitely going to be

baptized.

My companion, Elder Taylor, is an awesome missionary! He is everything

that I aspire to be as a missionary.  Exact obedience, humble, hard

working, way fun, and spiritually in tune. ( and fluent in Spanish)

but having a district leader that knows that his position doesn't put

him on a pedestal has been a great example to me.

I have officially dropped down to 168ish and now my thighs have gotten

quite a bit bigger since I got here. My jeans that were baggy fit my

thighs snuggly.

Stay strong in The Lord, he is our strength, our drive, our courage,

our habilities, our growth, our patience and love. But most

importantly, our Father in Heaven.  May we all keep Him in our

thoughts and actions and the way we live. In the name of Jesus Christ

Amen.

Elder Nathan Benson

"Do you love your family?"

I love that point you made and that revelation you received about

having the Light of Christ.  It's no small task to accomplish this in

it's fullness. Yet I testify we that we can accomplish this. And it is

through our faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. And through his

atoning sacrifice we are not only forgiven from our sins from our

sincere desire to change, but we can also be strengthened beyond what

our physical capacity can comprehend or achieve. You may be down or

disappointed for your one hour of underperformance, but let me tell

you this. You are an exceptional women and even better mother.  You

and dad have taught me so many valuable and important things that I

have been able to apply on my mission. Along with little simple things

that helped me greatly as well (cleaning, cooking, eating healthy, etc.).

I am grateful for all of you love for me and even more than showing it

to me, but showing you love unto our Father in Heaven who has truly

blessed our lives in more ways than we could ever imagine.

I'm short on time but here is a little update of this past week.  The

families we are teaching that were basically thrown into our laps (all

of them) are developing so well, they never cease to impress us if

their desire to learn more about the gospel and feel f his love in

their live more fully. 

One of our investigators went up and bore her

testimony in church! We also have been working on giving the baptismal

invitation in every lesson and it is showing a lot of success!  There

was one man whose wife had been baptized and their family is on

different levels of spirituality. His wife had been receiving the

lessons and received baptism, but he never committed to anything. And

to talk about certain people come to spirit in a certain way to unlock

the hearts of certain people.  We were talking with him and the lesson

was aimed at the daughter who is really close to accepting baptism,

and like I was a mouth piece I almost out of the blue asked him two

very inspired and simple questions "do you love your family?" "So do

you want to live with them forever?"  After he said yes to both, Elder

Taylor invited him to baptism. He said yes! We didn't set a date, but

he said yes to something we never thought he would!

The spirit has been working very strong with the people we have been

teaching, which is just what we want because it means that these

people are becoming converted unto The Lord and not us as

missionaries.

Love you guys!!!!! La iglesia es verdadero y nos ama mucho!!!!!

Elder Nathan Benson

My First P Day

Wow that is way awesome! You guys are doing a ton of amazing things! You all have caught fire in the work and it's stronger than I could've imagined. Through hearing of the experiences you are all having back home I continually find my testimony being strengthend. Much as gracias por sus fe y deseo de servir nuestro padre celestial y desarrollar en nuestro habilidad a Predicad su Evangelio.

My new companion is super awesome! He's from chihuahua Mexico so obviously fluent in Español and he's also fluent in English as well. The funny part is that he's just as white as me! Jana ya he's awesome, and we get along great. He's super loving and patient and teaches me a ton of good stuff.

The mission is going great as well.  The first day I get here we started right off working because my trainer hadn't planned for me because he didn't know he was going to be a trainer until after he had already made plans.  So we went right on teaching, and boy am I shocked. There are at least 2 lessons scheduled per day and like 3 backup visits if the lesson falls through.  So basically there is no down time, which is what I like so my thoughts can be focused here and not home.  There are a ton of cool things that have happened this week but I'm short on time so I'm going to tell the highlights. 

We gave a pass along card and had a short conversation with a deaf guy!  I've started to contributing a little to the lessons. I can follow the direction the lessons are going, but it's hard to jump in because I don't want to say something wrong or totally random. But I've become more confident in my Español. 

We had 2 rock star lessons this week.  One family had received a lesson or two already and were showing promise.  They were invited to be baptized but didn't commit and the dad said he haven't ever felt the Spirit before. So we went in with the goal of teaching what the Spirit was. Then BOOM! The lessons was awesome and super spiritual.  I even contributed to the lesson too.  At the end they knew what we said was true and it was nothing we said, but "something more..." Ya it was awesome.

Te amo ustedes mucho! La Iglesia de Jesucristo es verdadero!

Elder Nathan Benson