Brilliantly Serving the British: "Good-Madness"

Heyyyy!!

This is going to be a post that definitely has not been thought out because there is a major lack of time. My fingers will just be running with my thoughts and I'm betting that half of what I type will be deleted. Doh.. Yeah, yeah things are doing great for me. Transfers have actually happened just barely, and I am staying in Whitefield but with a different companion from Finland! Two Viking countries down, two to go! His name is Elder Rantenen. He has served a lot of his mission in the office. Fun, innit?? I'm excited to get to know him better. Erm.... what else.... Oh! Yes! A couple Mondays ago it was my birthday! Yeah, that was just lovely! Got an opportunity to go to the temple because it was a bank holiday! LOVE. Nothing can beat the temple as a missionary! Well, okay, maybe a baptism.. but its a close second! I really enjoyed that, and then afterwards, a bunch of us pitched in money and got Domino's pizza! My favourite. Yaayyy... Later that evening we went to our ward mission leader's home and we ate an incredible meal and they had gifts too. Oh! Bless them all. I love spending time with their family. They truly do have a special place in my heart.. I love them all dearly.

Lets see.. General Conference was last weekend! That came fast, didn't it? I know we all enjoyed it as always. The Spirit is so strong, and the heavens are truly opened. If someone asked what talks were my favourites, I would tell them.. Elder Hollstrom's, Elder Ballard's, and Elder Bednar's! Those are the ones that meant the most to me, and I felt the Spirit quite strong. I hope that we can all keep the Spirit that comes from it growing by studying those talks, and finding small ways to apply them into habits. This past Sunday was really good to us. A lovely member picked up our Congo friend, sat by her at sacrament meeting, joined her for gospel principles, the Relief Society gave her a quilt, and a different member drove her home! I was VERY impressed by so many people reaching out to her. It made me so, so happy even if it does seem like small things to them. Later that evening, we went with her and a different member to the missionary fireside in Manchester. Those are always so powerful. A potential problem was fixed because we have a missionary from Congo who translated the testimonies shared for her! Ha, how great is that! This is where madness strikes though.. One person who recently got baptised was sharing her testimony but she was from Liverpool! With a Scouse accent! The missionary from Congo couldn't understand so then what happened was.. I translated from Scouse to like.. easier English, then she translated from easy-English to French for our friend! It was a good kind of madness though! I do have faith that our dear Congo friend will be baptised in the coming months if not weeks.

I'd just like to end with a rather simple, but sound testimony and experience. Last night we watched the movie "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" with the family we are working with. In so many instances, at least eight times, I just started tearing up because I felt the Spirit so dang strong! What a man. What a man.. All the persecutions, all the pain and hard times. I was just so surprised at how much I cried when we watched that! I was glad that the family enjoyed the film and learned from it. One part that stood out to me is when Joseph Smith rebukes the murderers of men, women, and children. "Every soul is precious in the sight of God". I add my witness to this doctrine. I know God knows His children, by name. He knows what they need most and at what moment they need it. He loves us beyond description. With that simple testimony, I bid you all adieu.

I love my life, and am grateful for everything there-in,

- Elder Bennett