Sister Benson 2/14/22

 

For those of you who dont understand the email title... you clearly dont watch my facebook story. So 1. im a little hurt, but 2. Jesus gave second chances and im trying to be like Jesus so... ill put the meme in the pictures i send. Then youll ALL get it!! 

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!! Sunday was pretty much the best pre-valentines day I have ever had. And Im fixin to tell yall why. A couple of weeks ago Sister Ashby and I were just heartbroken realizing how many widows and widowers there are in our area/ward. (same thing) We had spent some time with one of our besties, who is a very recently widowed women, and realized this would be her first Valentines day alone. And that. Is so sad. So we had the thought to buy some flowers, and deliver flowers to all the widows in our area. And so we did. We ended up buying a couple of bouquets and deconstrucing them. Then we wrote a ton of little cards. The ones I wrote said "we reaaaally 'lilac' you!!" and then had 1 John 4:8 on the back with love the sisters. And the ones Sister Ashby wrote said "we love you a 'lily' more every day!" with 1 Corinthians 16:14. We visited soooo many people, and honestly it was amazing. Valentines day is so often associated with... hm how do i say this... wOrdly things, and it was amazing to have it be completely focused on Christ. Because in all honesty, who is the most loving person you know. Raise your hand if its Jesus? If youre not raising your hand youre wrong. Your mom can be second. Christ loved each and every one of us enough to not only DIE for us, but SUFFER immense pain for each of us. For you. He did it out of love. If that doesnt sound like the most loving person in uh ETERNITY then i dont know who is. But, speaking to moms, Elder Holland gave this OUTSTANDING talk-- as he always does-- about mothers. Its called "Behold thy Mother". I would invite yall to read it. And cry. Because at least for me, and i know everyones situation is different, but my mom truly is the second most loving person I know. 

This week at district council this week the district leader- our fearless leader Elder Radmall- and his companion gave a really cool training. Elder Radmall brought his nice big Cache county utah farmer boy hat, and put a rock in it. And then he called up the Waycross elders. Remember Elder Stafford and Elder Dees? Well, poor Elder Dees this was his first ever district council, and suddenly his face is FAR in this hat and he is required to write a scripture. NOT just any scripture however, it had requirements. It had to do with Jesus, the atonement, salvation, it had to have a brand new name that no one had heard before BUT had to fit with the culture of an ancient civilization that no one really knew about yet, AND it couldnt contradict itself in anyway. Oh and he had to forget everything he had learned after third grade. And say the scripture in flowery language. All while looking at a rock in a farmers hat. Hopefully youre catching on. So while Elder Dees made up a... profound (?) scripture off the top of his head, Elder Stafford wrote EVERYTHING he said down. So. While the Book of Dees includes many "shoots", "wait dont write that", and "uhhhhh", the Book of Mormon did not. And Joseph Smith did... pretty much that same thing. UNLIKE the Elder Dees, Joseph Smith was a called prophet of God. And if you dont believe it, I would invite you to stick your face in a hat and do one better. Or just pray about it. :) 

This weekend we had stake conference. It was AMAZING. One thing I will say is that church and stuff is wayyyy better as a missionary. It may be because its one of the only times in the week that people dont hate you, and actually want to talk to you. Or. Its because youre learning. Either way I love both. :) But there are some things I would like to mention about stake conference. Sister Ashby and I currently live in the Kingsland, Georgia stake. If you dont know where that is on a map, dont worry i dont really either. I just know its.... south east. But the city of royal treatment (as it is so motto-ed) is about an hour and a half from us. And we as missionaries are expected to attend both Saturday night and Sunday morning sessions. In person. And heres the thing yall. I grew up WALKING to stake conference. I just got dressed 10 minutes before and left. There was none of this leaving two hours early so you could still be early enough to talk to everyone and their cat business. I mean if Im being real, I could go to GENERAL CONFERENCE faster than I could get to my own stake conference out here. Im just staring to think... huh. Maybe I was really blessed to grow up in Utah. I know many people on this email list dont live in Utah. And i know that this may not be the case for everyone. But heres the thing. I grew up five minutes from the church building, and like thirty minutes from at least three temples. In Waycross, Georgia Sister Ashby and I live fifteen minutes from our church building, and four hours from the NEAREST temple. And thats just us, some people in our ward live farther. We talked to a couple in our ward who went to the temple once a month before COVID. And people drive alllll the way to Kingsland on Saturday afternoon, go to the adult session, stay the night, and go to the morning sesson. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we are expected to make sacrifices. And the people here in Waycross sacrifice at least gas money and time to be devoted members. But we are all asked to give up different things for the Lord. So im not calling you to repentance i promise haha, im just illustrating how life is here, and what these people are willing to give up. And so i invite you to think about what you currently do to show your devotion to Christ, and I invite you to think of what you can do better. Because theres always room for improvement. :) 

I would loooove to hear if any of yall tried to turn conversations to Christ this week, and how they went!! I love yall soooo much thank you for your support and prayers <3 

love sister benson