Brilliantly Serving the British: "We May Never Know"

Why hello!

Goodness me, its only been about a month and it is amazing to see how fast things can change! So I was white-washed out of Crosby, and got transferred into Whitefield. Whitefield is just to the north of Manchester. Its quite an interesting place to serve with different areas comprised of different religions. Like to the south closer to Manchester there is a highly populated Jewish community and to the west there is a Muslim community. My newest companion is Elder Miller, and he is from Arizona. That would be only my third American companion. Crazy, innit? I like him, we have a good amount of fun. I think he is a great combination of both obedient and chill. He has been out in the mission field for six weeks longer than myself. The ward over here is quite small, and a good portion of them are goldie oldies. Thank goodness I've come to learn the dry sense of humor of those goldies.. There are also some great families that have already had us over for tea which is always very nice. The flat I have isn’t near as nice as my last one; loads smaller. However, it does have a sort of haven feeling to it..? Like we live in a tree house or something..? That is the best way I can describe it to ya. Sadly, we don't live close to a bus stop nor the church, so we travel quite a bit..

Definitely have had a handful of very interesting experiences so far in this new area! Oh yes, lets share some of them with yous. So we went up to a nearby town called Bolton to do a street display as a district! Its a very open town, perfect for displays or other street performers, (that is quite common). Ha.. as we draw nearer to the typical location, we hear like this rap music going on across the town square. Then I saw them. This wonderful group of black, non-denominational Christians rapping to songs but with lyrics changed to Christian living. We felt like we needed to take our approach up a notch after that.. ;) A few of them came over in-between songs to chat about our believes and theirs. Overall, it was nice to have some background music while doing something, since we all know it makes things better. Like, listening to some good tunes while cleaning? Nice! Or have you ever listened softly to church music while reading a talk..? I have. Its quite pleasant as well.

Oh and let us not forget about how I made two ladies cry! Look at me go! Yeah! Ha.. So a different day, we were just talking to people on the streets. Well, we stopped one lady maybe in her mid twenties and she was really nice. She said she believes in God, but after a death in the family it was a bit hard. I told her that as missionaries we teach people and encourage people to seek out their own experiences with God. She got super intrigued and asked if I ever had an experience before. Kind of laughing, I said "Well, yes, of course.

Many really!" She got quite interested, and just because she was much nicer than lots of other people I decided to tell her just that. Kaley got really touched by such a compliment and began to like wave her hand, "oh stop.." and crying a bit. Maybe she had a tough day..? I don't know, but I was glad I said that cause she was very chill with sharing her number with us afterward. Both of us are very excited to meet with her again cause she was such a nice and fun lady. The other lady I got to cry was perhaps one of the sweetest, purest, of old ladies I've met.She is originally from Africa somewhere, but has lived in England for quite some time. She sweetly made us a wonderful tea, and shared her conversion story with us. She was oh so polite, and

maybe a bit shy too. Bless.. I loved visiting with her. The best part came when we decided to share a Mormon Message with her called “You Never Know". If you don't know what it is.. find it and watch it. I love it cause it always invites the Spirit. After the video, we felt that calm, peaceful silence. Then we asked her what she thought, and she said in tears, "That's how I feel.. I am that lady.." I could tell she was trying not to cry in front of us. Such a tender moment.. I'd like to add my witness to President Gordon B. Hinckley when he said, "You never know the good you do." One quick example of this in my life was when I was serving in Liverpool. We were doing a street display and I talked with and got a number off a young university student. She never had time to meet up, or come to activities but I did try to keep in touch. She had mentioned she actually had a friend who was a returned missionary. Just the other week, I ran into that RM and he told me that when he got back from his mission, he felt inspired to pray for her. Recently they have had a good chat involving the gospel. I would have never known that if I hadn't bumped into him. I'm glad that God gave me that experience to show me that I won’t always know the results of the small goods I naturally do. At times, we don't always know the good we already do, but we also don't know the extent of the amount of good we can do in another's life neither. We, as children of our Heavenly Father, have so much potential to do so much good around our individual spheres of influence. Whether its a neighbour you begin visiting just once, every month, or keep in

contact better with your family telling them how you are doing. One may volunteer to babysit for a young couple so they can have a date night. You never know how those around you are doing, but I would bet

that if you assumed everyone was struggling to some degree, you would want to reach out even more. It is my hope that we accept the good things we are doing, and throw in a few more good deeds this next

month too. I love serving God and His children. I love this gospel and church very much. I am grateful for God's perfect plan of happiness, for His guidance, and the tender mercies He sends.

Love you all, wherever you may be.

Be good. Be chill. Be happy!

- Elder Bennett

P.S. I've recently weighed myself and I reached 14 stone 4 lbs! I've

gained weight! Yes, I am well chuffed about that cause that's hard for

me to do.

P.S.S. 1 stone is 10 lbs. :)