Sister Benson: 6/27/22

 

Hello my friends! I hope it has been a wonderful week for you! 

This week has been a pretty good one for us!! We've found new people, we've taught awesome lessons, we've learned a lot. So ill just tell a couple of stories and then let you get on with your day :)) 

This week we agreed to meet our friend David at his.... karate dojo. :) Yeah we were thinking we'd get to have a lesson but uh.... no. He did karate. While we talked to his Sefu!! (i dont know how to spell that dont come at me) But Sefu Des was SO cool!! He actually was really wise. He talked about how faith is like blocking. If you are in a fight and someone swings at you or whatever, but you dont think the block will work, you flinch. And what happens? You get hit. What about when you've tried and tested the block? You won't flinch. 'Cause you know it will work. He related this to faith because if we get in a situation where we actually have to USE faith, are we going to flinch, or are we going to get stronger. And i loved that!! Thank you wise Sefu Des. 

Another awesome thing that happened this week was a lesson with a man named Richard. Richard is deaf, so a lady in our ward who served a ASL mission came with us! And it was so cool. Richard is so sweet! I know very little sign language, but most of what I know either came from my mom or Jenny in high school. So shout out to them thanks! Cause I was able to introduce myself in sign language!! And he got so so excited!! It made me very happy :) one of my favorite things as a missionary is being able to feel God's love for people. And i felt God's love for Richard. 

We built a whole dog kennel this week. Which I have never done. So I just pretended I was my grandpa Ken and built the thing. :) And honestly it turned out pretty good! Everything was leveled and measured and drilled in right. We were pretty proud. the downside is that Sister Doxey and I both totally got a little sun sick. It "felt like" 111 degrees according to the weather app. So... yeah. Welcome to Florida!! It's just getting hotter!! 

We got to have an actual lesson with David this week!! But.... missionary fail we totally forgot to find a sister to come to the church with us so we COULD have a lesson. Because we cant be alone inside with a man. So we called and texted a ton of people but no one could. When we left our house we prayed so hard that God would help us find someone to come. We prayed for a miracle. We were five minutes from the church and still had no one when Sister Doxey suddenly said, what about Sister Nance? At first we brushed it off because they're moving, so she's probably busy. But we decided to call her anyways. And she was at the church five minutes later!! And what a miracle she was because David is a questioner. He has tons of deep philosophical questions about everything. And between Sister Doxey and I and Sister Nance, it was such a good lesson!!! lucky for us Sister Nance is a gospel GENIUS. We're so sad she's moving. But it was such a miracle!!! 

We had tradeoffs this weekend with the STLs, so I got to go to the YSA area with Sister Cavin! We had a great time and we talked to a LOT of people! But in the park we were in there was a girl we tried to talk to. She was very angry because she thought we were the people who had told her girlfriend she was going to Hell. It was pretty obvious she was looking for a fight, and Ive never experienced this before, but the Spirit literally shut our mouths. We had nothing to say. It was such a sad experience because I wanted to tell her no, that wasn't us. God loves your girlfriend and you, and He won't be "banishing" either of you to Hell. ('cause we don't believe in Hell) But God clearly wanted us to avoid conflict. So Ill tell yall what I wanted to tell her. God is our LOVING Heavenly Father. I struggled for a long time with the subject of the LGBTQ+ and the church, because I felt it was unfair. And I dont know everything, but now I understand what Nephi said in 1 Nephi 11:17. "I know that he LOVETH his children, nevertheless I do not know the meaning of all things". I dont know why things are the way they are sometimes. But I know that God loves ALL his children. Yes. That means you. That means your friend. That means the person you think if unloveable too. God loves them too. We dont go around telling people theyre wrong or that theyre going to Hell. We go around telling people that they have a loving Heavenly Father, and that he loves them perfectly. Endlessly. Regardless of anything going on. I wish i could have told her that. But I trust Gods timing, and I know someday that someone will be able to tell her ❤️ 

And last but not least. Sunday morning, 15 minutes before church started, we got a text from Brother Doty in the bishopric. Im sure you can guess what it said. "Sisters! Ive had two speakers cancel, could you fill in?" And what was our response? Fifteen minutes before church? OF COURSE BROTHER DOTY!!! So Sister Doxey and I prayed very hard, and did our best. We were asked to speak on faith. Which is why the title is what it is. :) I spoke about how faith is not passive, it is active. The line that everyone seemed to catch on to was "active faith rather than passive obedience". It was AMAZING to see that God truly does work with our hurried imperfection. He brings things to mind, he helps you know what to say. Im proud to say Sister Doxey and I both gave very successful, full 10 minute talks by the power and the grace of God. And im also very grateful to say that people felt the Spirit. And thats really all that matters. Im grateful to be able to be a tool in Gods hands, no matter how much warning i get in advance. Ill give my all to him! 

I love yall!! Keep being amazing. God loves you. All of you. Have a great day :)