Sister Benson: 2/21/22

 

Week 14: The Champange Miracles

Goooood lovely Waycross afternoon my friends :)) I so look forward to Mondays. Talking to and hearing from yall really just make each week worth it. Much has happened in wonderful Waycross this week and I cant wait to fill yall in on the adventures of one Slashby and Susbenz. (thats our hotspot/superhero names if you were wondering.) 

This week started off with an AMAZING trip to Lake City, Florida!! Last week President Wood asked EVERY sister in the Florida Jacksonville mission to come to Lake City, to have a sisters health conference!! And so to Lake City we did go! It was about an hour and fourty-five minute drive for us. But so worth it! Through green highways and past state signs, Sister Ashby and I ate fruitsnacks, a literal loaf of bread, and sang songs at the tops of our lungs. What a JOY am I right. The conference its self was just so good. We heard from a couple speakers about different health concerns both physical and mental. The coolest part is that everything relates back to God. :) Both physical and mental issues, questions and miracles, are all of God. He created us. Our bodies, our wants, needs, desires, likes and dislikes. He created us. He created YOU. It was such a cool expirience to be hearing all of these things in direct relation to my Heavenly Father. We talked a good bit about mental health. That is a HARD thing. You dont need to be diagnosed with something to have hard days. Sometimes days are just hard, I wish they werent. We are so often wayyy to hard on ourselves. Right? (if youre thinking youre constantly super nice to yourself.... like go you I wish. Tell me your secrets.) It is my personal opinion that there is a reason that it is so difficult to have good self-esteem. And that reason is that you are a child of God. A child of THE almighty being, who has no beginning or end. Who has all power. And who has perfect love... for you. Now you may be asking, uh Sister Benson I think you might be crazy town because, why would that make it so hard to love myself??? Wellllll I am crazy, but not for that reason. Plus Im gonna tell you. I think that because YOU are of divine heritage, Satan comes for you. Satan didnt get a body. He never will. And he is maaaad. He is way jealous. His eternal goal is to mess your life up because you chose Gods plan, you got a body. I think that maybe those mean, hateful and ugly thoughts you have about yourself, arent from you. And theyre definetly not from youre LOVING Heavenly Father. I think theyre from the eternally ticked off fallen angel- Satan. Mosiah 5:40 says this exactly! ALL that is good comes from God. Is that really mean thought about yourself a good thought? No??? Well then you know who its from and why. Because YOU my friend, are DIVINE. Remember that. And also remember that God gave man the power to "crush the serpants head". So put on your steal toed boots and get stomping. 

At the end of the conference President Wood spoke about women in the priesthood. He told us that God is not the originator of the idea that women are less than men. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were EQUAL partners. God even refers to THEM as "one" and as "Adam". They are a team! So from the beginning, there was no superiority between Adam and Eve. I would also suggest that- as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints- the worldly claim that Eve was weak by taking the fruit... is a garbage claim. :) Eve knew exactly what she was doing, she knew that the plan of salvation must move along, and that this was the next step. And Adam followed suit because THEY WERE A TEAM. Yay celestial marrige am I right? These two followed God, hand in hand, to the very end. SO. Moving back to President Woods focus on Eve, i LOVE this scripture. Its doctrine and covenants 138:39. For context of this verse, President Joseph F. Smith (a suuuper cool dude!! Served a mission to Hawaii when he was 15!!) is having a revelation of the spirit world. And hes like woaahhhh its Noah and Adam and Abel and Abraham and Jacob and Moses and WOAHHHHH!!! I would be like woah. Mind blown look at all these cool prophets I want to go listen to them talk for like... hours. But. This is what I think is the cool part. Verse 38 is when he starts telling of who he sees. He starts off with Father Adam. Then verse 39 is wholly dedicated to "glorious Mother Eve, with many of her faithful daughters". And then moves to the other prophets! How cool is that. Mother Eve is CELEBRATED for her brave choice in the Garden of Eden. And her faithful daughters will be glorified. So this was President Woods advice to any woman who ever feels like Satan is trying to convince her she is less than anyone else for being a woman, just say "Bubba. Im a daughter of Eve. Get thee behind me." 

And now! For the absolute most Waycross thing we've ever done. I looooove Waycross and its crazy so much. :) During the day on Wednesday we got a call from a sister in our ward, Samantha. Her husband was just admitted to the ER, and she wanted a blessing of comfort. We wouldnt be able to go in to see her husband because he wasnt checked in yet. :( SO! We called the elders and high-tailed on over to the ER. There Samantha was in the parking lot with the Kirklands, a wonderful couple in our ward. We find all the spiders when we do service in their barn. So the elders and us pulled up and started talking to everyone in the parking lot. We determined that the best way to do this, was to put the tail-gate on Brother Kirklands truck down and have Samantha sit on it, while the elders stood in the bed. So thats what we did. And my goodness. If you would have asked me last year if I saw myself standing in an ER parking lot, listening to a blessing given to a woman sitting on a tail gate, given by two elders standing in the truck bed, in Waycross, Georgia..... I probably would have said sign me up. I love this place. I love that God finds a way to do his work not matter what. The elders were blessed to be able to give Samanthas husband a blessing the next day, and things seem to be turning up. God will bless those who seek him. Even if its in an ER parking lot. :) 

Now I believe its time to explain the title. "The Champange miracles" seems to be the most fitting title for this week. And no its not because we were sipping champange with the bishop and discussing the weather. (althought the weather is very nice) For anyone who knows what Area Book is, its awesome. It helps us find members, intersted people, unintersted people and more. So Sister Ashby and I were scrolling through unintersted persons and reading why they werent interested the other week. And we found a lady named Champange. Obviously the name made us curious, so we looked to see her story. And what a story it is! Turns out she was on bap date over a year ago, but she was having a problem with smoking, so the sister fell out of contact with her. So sad! So we decided to give her a call a couple weeks ago. She never answered, so we decided to go to her house! She wasnt there, but the man there gave us an address for where she would be. So this week, we went to that address. And no one answered. :( Sister Ashby and I walked back to our car. I got in and she went around back cause... she had to back me. Yay missionary life. When I got in the car I just sat there for a minute. It didnt feel right that we couldnt get a hold of Champange!! So I started praying. I prayed and asked the Lord that if we were supposed to get in contact with her, she would answer the door or something. I said amen, and the door opened. My God is a God of miracles. We talked to the lady at the door and she said Champange wasnt there, but shed give us her number! Turns out we hadnt had the right number. So we left and on our way to our next stop we called her. And she answered! (no one ever answers) She told us that we had PERFECT timing. She said that she never answers the phone, so she didnt know why she did this time, but that she was glad. She said she was having a really hard day and was just crying, praying and asking God to show his love. And then we called. She told us that our religion made so much sense and brought her so much peace. And we set up an appointment for the next day. Miracles. Fast forward to the next day. We went up to our lesson with Champange, and she didnt answer the door. And then she didnt answer our calls. And Im not going to lie to you I was like uhhh what happened to our miracle?? But they continue. :) 

On the same street as Champange is another lady we have been trying to get in contact with. We met her once and she expressed interest, but we havent been able to catch her again. Her name is Charlene. So, since Champange didnt answer us we decided to knock on Charlenes door, even though she probably wasnt going to answer. (oh ye of little faith right? awwwkward. But hey, oh yeah that recognize patterns.) So we went up and knocked and she answered. Of course. She said that she was super busy right now, but gave us a few minutes to talk. She told us that shed been reading the bible we left her. She hadnt been home so we left a book on her porch but... it wasnt the bible. it was the Book of Mormon!! And shed been reading it!! She said that she loved it! "Your Bible has a lot in it that mine doesnt have, but i like it!" What. A. Miracle! She invited us to come teach her about it on Tuesday. So you bet we will be there Tuesday. And later that day Miss Champange texted us saying she had a family emergancy and was so sorry she missed us, but was excited to meet. So everything works out the way God needs it to. You just need to let yourself be a tool in his hands. :) 

So invitation of the week: look for miracles!! Theyre there, I will promise you that. You just need to have the faith to give God the credit. :) I would love to hear about any miracles yall expirence or notice!!

I love yall :) I know this email was long sorry! It was just an amazing week. Read your scriptures, pray, love your life, youre amazing. Please keep me in your prayers, please keep Devin in your prayers too. Have a good week!!!!