Monday, March 13, 2017

Monday, March 6, 2017

WEEK 57

Monday
For pday last week we hangout with sisters for the first time haha. The rule with our mission now is that we can but there has to be and odd number of companionships. So there were 4 sisters then me/elder Taylor. We went to a place called fishermans village which was pretty cool but a bunch of the shops were closed that had the cool souveneirs so that was a bummer. There was one place that was selling hand made stuffed animals and the cheapest was a tiny sea horse for 60$... So we just looked haha. Then we went to a Japanese food court which was super good! Got a giant beef/rice curry bowl for 6$. Then went to get milkshakes at honey boba which was super good. For dinner the Tapps took us to a suuuuuper nice restaurant called the warehouse. Seriously the cheapest thing there was 20$. I ended up getting a Mahi mahi which was super good. Flash back to deep sea fishing in Hawaii! The restaurant was right on the edge of the Harbour and apparently is quite famous because there was a bunch of pics on the wall of celebrities that go there regularly. John Wayne had been there! So it was pretty sweet. Got some complimentary developed pics taken of our table so I'll have those when I come home haha.


Tuesday
Was a pretty slow day. We had to drive the other elders around a lot. When we finally got to our area the zone leaders called for a surprise ZLC (zone leadership council) so we had to take the other elders up to the VC for that. Then we had dinner at the Larsons and sister Larson is from Iran and cooks suuuuuper good Persian food. But just before dinner our bishop texted us and told us that one of the eternigators in our ward was moving named Nataliya. So after dinner we went to her place with some members and moved her out. She is from Ukraine and is moving to San Diego. Has been coming to church for 2 years and has tried to get missionaries to see her parents but it's a war zone right now so the missionaries got taken out. She's going there to visit her parents before she moves and plans to give them a Book of Mormon.


Wednesday
Weekly planning then did service for brother Larson who then took us for dinner! Went to California chicken cafe which was soooo good. Had ward correlation then went on splits to find less actives. I went with brother Gardner and we found a couple of members.. Both weren't very nice haha but we did find our investigator Casandra and got an appointment for Saturday which is super good! She has been to church 2x and loves gospel principles. The class is taught by the ward mission leader/missionaries who are all guys in their 30s so it gets pretty fun sometimes haha.


Thursday
We knocked doors the whole day... Had dinner then went on member splits! We went with brother Mcmurtrey and found quite a few less actives! One of which was a lady who opened up the door and said "How did you guys find me.. Again?" Haha she wasn't interested but was very kind and her mom called our bishop the next day and thanked us for reaching out to her daughter. Amazing how many people move here to "hide" from the church. We have found a few that are open to coming back though.


Friday
Had ZTM, then worked the area. Just another day of finding. Haven't had a lot of success with the potentials in our area book as they have no info or just say "they were nice." Have yet to find someone actually interested. It's a pretty tough area as there are hardly any people in the streets unless you go closer to the beach where most are tourists or aren't religious at all so it's a good time haha.


Saturday
Was a great day! We finally had a lesson with our investigator Casandra. She is super cool and has a little boy named Anthony. Her Dad is awesome as well and loves missionaries but works Sundays so considers himself exempt from having to go to church but pushes Casandra to go haha. Casandra has a ton of potential and we have a return appointment for Tuesday!


Sunday
Casandra came to church! She loved it and Anthony even went to primary during gospel principles. Bob was at church as well. Some big news is that brother Mcmurtrey got released as 2nd counsellor and is now our ward mission leader! So that's pretty sweet. Had dinner at his place to top the day off and he and his wife are super cool! His wife does car movie stunting and has coordinated the car scenes for fast and furious and is currently doing all the car scenes in the TV series "modern family". Then we hit potentials from 6-8:30 and we found 4 people that accepted return appointments! So that's super cool. Probably felt bad for us because elder Taylor was shivering so bad in the 55 degree weather haha. I still haven't climatized. It was a great week and I'm loving it! I'll send all the pictures from last week.

Monday, February 20, 2017

WEEK 56

Well this week just kinda breezed by! We are sharing the car with the other elders in our ward so its been kinda rough combining schedules. We are figuring it out though. Had a lot of rain this week and had so much on friday that our mission president told us all to go home for the day which was pretty nuts. Guess there were little streams on the side of every road so big news for California! Haha so that was a slow day. Saturday was almost as rainy but cleared up here and there. Finally met with one of our investigators named Bob who has been coming to church for 4 years. Super close to being baptized. My brain is mush right now so guess ill just send pics and call it good! Sorry Mom haha.

Love, Elder Bennett

Monday, February 13, 2017

WEEK 55

So this week was transfers and went down to the Torrance stake center to get Elder Taylor! He's awesome as ever and we get along great! Nice that he's not on crutches anymore like in the MTC haha. So we opened up a new apartment and it had 0 furniture except for beds. No utensils or anything so we had to go to another elders apartment to cook our food. Finally got everything on Thursday and spent the day unwrapping everything and putting it all together. It's a pretty small apartment but has everything we need. Just wish it was carpet instead of hardwood haha and the shower head is 5"6 which is rough haha. I'm 6"2 and elder Taylor is 6"6 so it's a party! We are a little intimidating in the streets haha.

We have been having some good success though! Since we whitewashed the area we didn't know any of our investigators or what they looked like so we had to be introduced to them at church by members haha but we texted them before hand so they knew we were elders now. The area is great and very rich! Went and picked up dinner from a member who lives by the beach in a giant apartment building with a water fall wall and valet parking. Elder Taylor and I both agreed we suddenly feel very unsuccessful haha. Our ward is part of a new initiative where the ward gives us a list of all the less actives that they know nothing about and we go try to find them by knocking their door, their neighbors and the apartment manager. The ward goes on member splits with us each wednesday and Thursday night which is awesome. I forgot my adapter for my camera so I'll send pics next week! Love you all!

Love, Elder Bennett

Monday, February 6, 2017

WEEK 54

Well this week wasn't the most productive. One of my companions has a cough that won't go away. Has a coughing fit every 20mins that's has been going on for a couple weeks now so we have been stuck in the apartment a lot. But we have gotten some work done! Our investigator Raanjit is progressing great! We took him to a baptism on Saturday night which he loved and he said he was imagining himself being the one being baptized during the baptism haha. He's so golden and will be
baptized in a couple weeks! The sisters in our ward also had a baptism on Saturday which we got to go to. I'll be taking their area starting this week so they had me witness at the baptism so I could have an in with Dan (the investigator that got baptized) to make the transition better. 

We got our transfer calls last night and I'll be with Elder Taylor! My MTC companion so that's sweet! One of my two companions that's been taller than me haha so we are gonna be a little intimidating in the streets. 

Had a New Years revolution resolution set up by our zone and had a good turn out! My New Years resolution is to be more kind/positive when giving advice/counseling people. I have a tendency to be impatient with people's blatant bad choices so I'm gonna work on that haha. Fast and testimony meeting was pretty nuts haha there seems to always be one crazy lady in each ward in LA haha. Loving being back and hope y'all have a good week!

Love, Elder Bennett

Monday, January 30, 2017

WEEK 53

Well I'm back on the mission! It was so cool flying over top of my old areas on the plane and seeing the temple. Was a lot different when I first came out haha. A senior missionary picked me up from the airport (Elder Bangeter) and took me to the mission office. The APs then took me to the church just behind the mission office to meet my companions Elder Guerrero and Hicken. We are in the Mar Vista ward which is pretty close to the beach! The members are super cool and rich haha. We have a really nice apartment that pretty close to the mission office so we don't live in our area which is kind of annoying. Lots of traffic... Which is really the worst thing by far about this mission haha. Met a Ted Ellison who apparently knows the Brewertons? So that was pretty cool.

We have mainly been doing service these past few days for Elder Wright who is from Edmonton. Set up a new apartment for some new senior missionaries and moved some stuff into my soon to be apartment. I'll be taking the other half of our ward next transfer and replace the sister missionaries that are there right now. We have a really sweet investigator name Ranjit who is Hindu. We teach him at the visitors center and he is progressing really well! Has been to church once and has accepted baptism so it's sweet! Had dinner at the stake Presidents house yesterday and he remembered me from stake reports (my last report with him was the day that I left my iPad on top of my car haha). I'm loving it so far and it's great, weird, fun, exciting to be back!

Love Elder Bennett

Monopoly deal!!
Traffic.
View from senior missionary apartments.

Monday, October 3, 2016

WEEK 52

Well it's been a super busy week being the end of the transfer! Been coordinating a lot of things along with trying to get investigators to come to general conference has been a party! 

So transfer calls came and our area is no longer part of the international zone. They made the Korean elders the zone leaders and our area is part of the Torrance zone. Elder Maberry is staying and training! He's super happy haha. I'm leaving and am going to Torrance Palos Verdes as a ZL there. 

My new area is San Pedro. Gonna be interesting because I know nothing about that part of the mission! Gonna be very close to the ocean and its gonna be fun trying to teach rich people haha. My new companion is Elder Ekberg who is super cool so it will be fun! I'm excited but super sad to leave the Gardena ward. Honestly the Gardena ward has felt closest to my home ward. The stake center is almost exactly the same and everyone is awesome! For Pday we have been playing a lot of ping pong and bball. I'm going to be a pro ping pong player by next year haha. Loving the mission and miss you all! Have a great week!

Love Elder Bennett