"Thank you Preston, England MTC!"

I'm back! Shocker! Heehee, but this writing back home is always so exciting! I love to share whats been going on, things I've learned, and hear how everyone is doing! Alright, lets crack on.

So after writing last P-Day, we went and played some basketball, and that was a blast! Perhaps a little bit more intense because none of the teachers nor sisters were there, but no one got hurt! Later that evening, we watched this incredible devotional by Elder Bednar about the Character of Christ. Here's a few things that stood out to me. Jesus Christ never once turned inwards. He always reached out, during His toughest times, times where we all would definately turn inwards, He turned out. Bednar boldly told us, "This mission is not about you." We all need to be reaching out, and helping others, especially when it is the hardest to do so! Why would we do this? Because, Heavenly Father will not only help you bless others, but He will bless you for turning outwards, and will help you with your life. Just think about this: our Savior was dying on the cross, atoning for our sins, and what did He do? He reached out. He reached out for his mother. He reached out to those who put Him on the cross saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." We are all here to improve ourselves. To be more Christlike. So, ask yourself, "Is Christ in me? Am I turning out when the natural man in me would turn in?" Elder Bednar continued, informing us that a testimony of Christ is not going to be enough. It simply won't be. We have to be consistantly converted unto Christ by being true to our testimony; by acting on what we know to be true. For how is faith built? After the trial. After a bad thing, followed by another bad thing, where we want to give up, but we turn out, and turn to our loving Heavenly Father. I know that we will receive additional strength, guidance and comfort when we turn outward.Next, is perhaps the most incredible thing I've done. Okay, well yes, I did actually do it, but definately not on my own. Last Thursday we had a finding activity. Its exactly what it sounds like, we find those that may want, need, or be interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, we drove in a bunch of vans, to a train stop, hopped on the train and got to work. I sat down by this lady who is originally from Zimbabwe, but she's lived here since she was 6, I believe. Honestly, it wasn't that hard of a thing to do. I remember before my mission, this would have been terrifying, but the MTC teaches so well! We get talking, about her, and what she does, where she is going, her believes. Then, of course she is curious what I'm doing, and who I am. We start a good discussion, for I dunno, 20 minutes or so. I share with her the Restoration, and provided a pamphlet. Sadly, she didn't feel comfortable giving me her number to get back in touch, but I let her know about the website in case she had any more questions. When we get off, we start walking to this lovely place in inner Manchester called Piccadilly Square. I think we had just over an hour, to simply talk with anyone and everyone who may be interested. The first man, was fairly open to the idea, never thought much about it, but we got him pretty interested and moved on. This is the highlight, so read carefully. As we were wandering around, looking for people who weren't already talking with missionaries, I felt like we should go to this area we hadn't gone to yet. I don't know how to describe it other than I literally felt like we should. Was this the Holy Ghost? Sure, maybe? I just simply told my companion, I felt like we should, and so we did! Glancing around I see this lady, perhaps mid twenties. "Alright, yeah, she seems she'd be interested." As I begin to walk over, she pulls out a cigarette. Um.. ew, I hate the smell of smoke, and so I turn around and walk away. Then I pause.. I really, really felt like I should talk to her. You see, I turned outwards, who honestly cares if I smell smoke, forget about yourself, and so I turn around and go towards her again. Praises be to God, she put out the cigarette as we begin to talk. It went so, incredibly well. She had never thought about religion before, but she expressed she kind of would like that in her life. I testified with my companion, shared the Plan of Salvation pamphlet with her, and let her know what would happen if we got her contact information. She accepted, and we expressed again how excited and testfied more. Look, I do not take any credit for that incredible experience. I of course, prayed with faith days before we would find someone. I had faith that we would, and talked with loads of people. The Holy Ghost guided us to her, someone that was willing to hear, and investigate for herself! Incredible! This really helped me learn that everyone deserves a chance, and we cannot, in any way, judge others from the outside. She was the best person we talked to, of course we got some that were kind of interested, but probably won't do much and other, haha, other old men simply said, "No, go away. I don't want to talk to you." Oh man, so sad.. kind of funny. I love finding, and I can't wait to go tomorrow as well! Heavenly Father will provide, so long as we exercise faith!

The weather has been alright if I do say so myself. Its sort of raining right now, but I don't mind! There's a sister in my district from South Africa, and she says the missionaries there say "The more burned you get, the prettier your wife will be." Ha, I'm pretty sure this applies to rain too! I can't wait to get soaked to the skin while serving my Heavenly Father! Hah, the food has been alright. I still eat the things that aren't so appealing, but my favorite food has changed. This one won't be much of a shocker but last week we had fish and chips! Ahh! Hah, sorry pizza.. you got bested. Soooo danggg goooodd!! You better believe I went back for seconds. Last time I checked my weight I gained maybe 3 pounds? Eh, thats alright I suppose. So, during dinner one night, we Americans were talking with an English missionary on how we are better at the Olympics. Not being too mean of course, but just saying we were better. Haha, then.. in pipes a Canadian, Elder Thompson. "Alright guys, alright, put away those nuclear weapons. Why don't we all just calm down and be kind... we all  know who's the best.." Haha, of course he was being a stereotypical Canadian, but it was rather funny, cause they did get more medals I believe.  Yeah, things are just amazing. Theres actually a word that perfectly describes what it means to me that I'm a missionary! Ineffable. Ineffable means something like.. an overwhelming feeling that is hard to contain, usually implying too much joy for one. That is totally me right now. One last insight, last week during my studies, I figured out why I love the Preston, England Temple so much! Remember how I loved the gold accents in there so much? Take a gander in D&C 110:2, 137:4, and you too can know! It was just so cool finding that out! Yep, as much as I love the MTC, I'm ready to work, work work, and teach real investigators.

"A testimony is a simple declaration of what we know to be true." - Elder Bednar. To whoever is reading this, I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. I have experienced for myself the joy, peace and guidance that it personally brings into my life. It can bring these things into anyone and everyone's life if they let them. I know that prayer works, and when we pray for help and then work harder, that results will come. God is real and He is waiting to bless us.

Keep moving forward with faith,   
-Elder Bennett

The Elders and I after finding in Piccadilly Square. 
(Sister Tholin being silly behind us.)

Elder Rongo and I. Oh man, he's a hoot.

Because who wants the cute, smiley picture of the Mosiah District when

 we have this one? Sister Garrett (who enjoys that face, scares me everytime.) Sister Gilbert, Sister Sibisi,Elder Larson (he actually is looking normal than usual .in this picture, hah, love it. Elder Boehme, Elder Carpentier, Elder Bennett

 Elder Thompson and I being just so.. yeah.
 He's gonna be a famous singer.
 We are tight. Jealous?

 Heres sort of what the MTC looks like?
 One building, 3 floors, not too shabby!

This is our district motto.
 It means we will dunk others into the baptismal font.
 Nike. Just Do It.

"The MTC is Going to Kill Me! Literally!"

Hello there everybody! 
Ahh! This is so exciting! No worries, no worries, I am doing fantastic! Don't let the title fool you! Well, not completely I guess, its rather accurate! You'll see.. you'll see.

Onward! Plane ride, was just sooooo sooo lonnngggg... hahah, lets see, like 4 hours to Atlanta, then.. 8 til Manchester? I honestly can't remember. Perhaps the most interesting thing was the flight to Atlanta. Prepare yourself, its just incredible. Sister Sant sat next to me, and both of us are from Sandy. We were sooo curious who the third person on the same row was gonna be. Would they be cool? Old? Weird? Anyways, this guy sits down. We get talking and this is what he's all about. Chase is 20, he is flying to his parent's estate in Alabama to move a plant inside, then he will fly back home to Los Angeles. Wait, it gets better. This weekend he is going to New York for a "watch show", because.. he basically runs his own corporation, buys watches, the nice Rolex kind for thousands of dollars, then sells them to other people? The watch he wore was a nice gold Rolex, and its like 1 out of 8 in the world? Incredible. I'm just speechless. We get talking more, and the following I say without any sort of pride or.. boasting. I had been praying that week to hit the ground running and find someone at the airport to talk to spiritually. I prayed with faith, and the spirit hit me so hard, and I knew, that I would find someone. Chase was the someone. We had talked about what we were going to do, before we landed, I talked about the Plan of Salvation, and gave him a pamphlet. We exchanged emails, and I will write him or see if he writes me! Great guy! Jet lag from 7 hour of time difference? Meh, maybe a little. Not really..

On to the MTC! Bet you're wondering where the death part happens. Hehe, you'll see. I am so blessed and lucky to be companions with Elder Carpentier. He is French and has been here for a month! Oh and you pronounce his name: Cah-poh-shi-ay. Yeah, he has been here for a while and knows sooo much, so its kind of like a trainer? It takes a while to get used to having a companion like all the time, but man.. he grew on me! Sometimes I'll accidently say things with a French accent cause his is so strong! I understand him, sometimes others don't. He makes me laugh a lot, heres perhaps a few reasons why. We're eating dinner, and Elder Carpentier and Elder Bybee, (he is in the german district) love to mess with each other. Like they are mean, but still in a joking way? Anyways, Elder Bybee does something mean, and so before we pray, Carpentier says "Listen carefully to my prayer." He prays and then in the middle he says "Bless this our food, all except Elder Bybee's" and man, it was hard to keep in my laughter, we just busted up laughing after he finished. Too funny.. Another time, we were eating dinner, and it was this sort of meat pie? Trust me when I say Heavenly Father blessed my tongue. Somehow it tasted good, but looked like slop? Haha, I'm laughing already.. he goes to eat it, and well. It was hot. Really, really hot. Haha, I always laugh when others get hurt and I just lost it. His reaction was priceless.

On to the food perhaps. Keep in mind, there is a picture in the line saying "In the MTC" with a real chubby Elder chomping down, and next to it says "In the field" with a rather skinny Elder with nothing on its plate. I realized that having food, and having someone cook is a blessing. The meals are usually good, but of course there is things I really don't like. I look forward to dinner because of the desserts! They are always so dang good! Also, there is this soda here called Vimto. There is nothing like it in the states, but it is soooo delicious! Always have it for lunch and dinner! Sometimes I'll mix it with lemonade too. Favorite meal? That I can remember would be pizza. Wow, I'm boring.. but it was so good!

My district is fantastic. There is me and my companion, Elder Larson from Utah, Elder Boehme from Canada, Sisters Garrett, Gilbert and Sibisi. Utah, Idaho and Zimbabwe? We have so much fun together and mess with each other. Of course we study well and prepare for our "investigators" but we have lots of fun! I love them a whole lot! So yeah, the MTC is rather small. There is maybe.. 40 missionaries total? about 15 are in the German District?

So I'll wrap up with a real good spiritual story of sorts, a good laugh, and how I almost died. When I use the term "investigator" it means that its really a teacher pretending, but boy, do they act good! It is such a great way to learn how to teach and apply what we learn. Out of like.. 5 visits, only 1 went poorly, and thats because our teacher literally fell asleep and was someone sleep talking? It was weird. Anyways! Our first visit with Dom went well. We taught the Restoration, and his family are LDS so he is rather interested. Second visit, I honestly don't know what happened. We just got to know him more, more of what he was wanting to learn. Basically the Holy Ghost just was so strong, and it felt way too amazing. So amazing, he even prayed with us before we left. I just imagined my first investigator praying for the first time, and I got teary eyed. I know its not a real investigator, but the Spirit was still there, and so strong. It was phenomenal.

Another funny story. In the showers, there is a missionary from New Zealand. He is really entertaining, pretty funny at times, and loves singing in the shower. Like that song from 'Remember the Titans'. Really. Loud. He doesn't hold back at all. Well, at a meeting with the MTC president, he ever so kindly says "Elders, I am just informing you that there is a balcony near our offices, and whatever sound you make resonates really loudly off the balcony." Oh.. yes. He heard that Elder belting his songs out nice and clear. So funny, but even more funny? He still. sings. way. loud. hah.. love it. So how did I almost die? Well, before bedtime, we have snacktime. One snacktime, my companion was messing around with another Elder who was kind of mad at him. I dunno, it was all rather nonsense, but everyone was laughing. Unfortuately for me, I was drinking some vimto, and laughed. It got like stuck in my throat, and I just couldn't breathe and was gasping for air. It was getting scary, but finally, I caught my breathe. Yup! I almost died here from laughing!

I'm not too sure what else to say. We went to the temple today, and it is my favorite. I do love the St. George Temple a lot, and the Salt Lake Temple as well! This one, well, has this beautiful gold accent, and its in England. I have never felt more at home than in any other Celestial Room. I just let those tears come down, and I just feel at home in England. So, obviously, its my new favorite.  I love the gospel, I know of its truth, and as much as I do love the MTC, I can't wait to leave next Saturday, preach the truth, and help others become truly happy. Side note, I kid you not. I sometimes speak in a British accent without even meaning to. I swear, it freaks me out. I don't mean to!

With love,

- Elder Bennett

Sister Sant, Chase, and Elder Bennett

the airplane provided dinner and it was so good!

cheeky picture of Sister Sant and I 

driving on the wrong side of the road!!

my companion, Elder Carpentier and myself at the Preston Temple

Elder Thompson and I. love this guy, he's from Canada 
but sadly going to the Leeds mission

Elder Boehme with the greatest face, Elder Larson, and Elder Carpentier
 In the room we spend soo long in being taught and studying.

yeah.. he's been here for a while. i don't blame him in this one. haha

the sisters of my district. Garrett, Gilbert, and Sibisi
 they are silly sisters.

These Elders our roommates!
 Elder Seidl is from Slovakia, he's a gentle man
  Elder Mateer is from Sussex, he's just great too
Both are in the German district.

just a house on our way to the bookstore today,
 a lot of them are similar to this one just old
 England I guess you could say