Health nut, meetings galore, and so much more!

So this week was the week of the meetings. We had MLC Tuesday, MLC follow-up (to get the District Leaders up to date) Wednesday, weekly planning (practically an equivalent of a meeting in how much it takes out of you) Thursday, Zone Meeting Friday, Interviews/District meeting Saturday, and a Conference that covered the SouthWest area of the U.S. (Nevada, AZ, TX, NM, etc) on Sunday. So coming out of this week, it was a spiritual, mental, and almost physical blast. It is amazing how many meetings can take place in the course of the week.

The biggest take aways from the meetings has been to simplify our lives. Anything from decluttering our schedule from activities, things we own, applications on our phones, or anything about things that are good and better, but may not be the best.

I found that as I have been taking a closer look at my desk, there were a lot of things that I was trying to do to improve. However, these things were to the point that they were counter productive and working against each other. Thus limiting my growth and connection with the Spirit. So what I have been doing is throwing anything away that I don't need or just moving it away in my luggage to where I won't worry about it. As I have simplified and have focused on just studying from the Book of Mormon and making it the source of my studies, I have found that I have been much more in tune with the Spirit. A new goal that I have set is what I feel is going to bring about success in my personal life as well as other aspects. What I want to do is learn how to prioritize and balance my life. So that as I go into studies, go about doing missionary work, or planning for the day, I am going to be looking for simplicity and focus. That way when I get involved in something, it will be very powerful and focused.

For example, instead of trying to chop on different parts of the tree, only hitting once in one spot, I am going to focus on hitting that one spot over and over until success is achieved. As Elder Lynn G. Robbins said "simplification is the best means to achieving success" and "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" - Leonardo Divinci

We have been working with our ward to get them motivated to do missionary work (this is best ward I have been in with regards to doing missionary work and helping the missionaries) and we are seeing that as we have been working closer with the leaders, results are coming. This past week we set a goal as a ward to get some families together and take them all to the visitors center in Mesa the 21st of November. We have one part member family who has committed through our personal efforts. We're going to be following up with our leaders to keep them on their toes. They'll have a Thanksgiving party to plan for (including 12 turkeys). But that will not be a problem :) .

Right now keep . . . in your prayers. These are families that are looking for a day job so they can actually sleep at night, putting together a marriage, and two seeking sincerely for the true church. We have a goal in our ward for a lofty goal of 10 baptisms, which our bishop set as a ward in PEC, and we are going to work hard to accomplish this. To give a bit of backround, our zone as a whole baptizes around 4-6 people a month, we are looking for 10 in our ward for the month of December. President Griffin has issued a challenge to our zone that if each unit can have 1 baptism/month for the next three months (27 baptisms) he would treat us to his famous steak dinner. (Hands down the best steak I have ever had in my life. He does own a few ranches in Montana after all)

Elder Benson

Left: So this week has been good. I have been enjoying my time as a missionary. There has been no other greater blessing.

Right: President whipped out a $100 bill and bought the Zone Subs during interviews. My reputation as a healthy person is becoming known. Thus "health nut."