Sister Benson: 7/25/22

 

Hey yall! what a wonderful week it has been. sunny and rainy, Spirit filled and change filled. lets get to it. 

the beginning of this week i was ONCE AGAIN sick. fun thing about being a missionary is that youre around everyone, and if anyones sick guess who gets it. The missionary. Plus apparently my immune system is past garbage so... if anyone has any tips on that im open to suggestions. But! It was still good. Sister Doxey and I taught lessons and did service and packed like crazy 'round here. Sister Doxey was trained in this area, so its her first time being transfered. so she had TONS to pack. that always happens I guess. Sister Doxey truly went out with a bang though because on Wednesday night- her last night in Gainesville- we went to mutual. We've been trying to have a focus on showing the youth that missions and missionary work is fun. The obvious thing is that missionary work moves forward the best when members are involved. And members dont want to refer their good friend to a missionary they dont trust, because what if that missionary is dumb and ruins their relationship. Thats why member trust is so important! And the great thing is that our youth have SO many nonmember friends because theyre in school. so we've been gaining trust with the youth so theyll start bringing their friends to activities. So! We went to mutual. And they were doing Christmas in July. and for the last of the activities they did a "snowball fight." How do you do a snowball fight in july in FLORIDA? with dollar tree squirt guns. so all the youth get these flimsy water pistols. and theyre all begging us to join. Of course i was on board :) how wet can you get with a tiny water pistol. right? wrong. lets just say i get a little competitive sometimes and some of the youth ended up with buckets. of water. so me and my team were SOAKED. Head to toe. and yes.... i was in a dress. dont worry it dried and relationships were built and youth talked about bringing their friends next time!! God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes he works through giant water fights. 

on thursday morning we drove to Lake City, Florida for transfers. Sister Doxey knew she was going to Starke, Florida with Sister Palfrymen as her new comp. I knew... that i was going to be in Gainesville. And thats it. I knew NOTHING about my trainee. So i met up with two of my favorite sisters who were also training, sister petersen and sister jensen, and we went into the meeting. it was an hour long training on... training lol. with president and sister elbert! it was great :) then we all filed into a room where all the trainees were. and we all introduced ourselves. then president elbert paired us off one by one. And I was assigned sister ballard. :) sister ballard arrived from the MTC on tuesday. Shes from west jordan, utah, and is so excited to be here!! Her and I graduated at the same time and we're like two months apart so thats exciting! She is so so sweet. I got to say goodbye to some friends, sister ashby whose being transfered to nocatee, florida which is far away so.... ill just never see her again its fine. elders thomas, dees and stafford- all the waycross elders!! sister waite, sister carter, and of course sister doxey. we said goodbye and headed home to gainesville!! 

Sister Ballard has just killed it this week. for rel youd never know this was her first couple of days cause shes amazing! she asks inspired questions and gives amazing invitations. Shes obviously very heartbroken that its not like the MTC, not everyone is ready to hear the gospel. So shes getting used to the rejection that comes with being a missionary. but shes doing great :) we get along very well and im very excited for this transfer! 

Update on our people:

Nyaja: we taught the restoration to her and got her a ride to church. she was so excited!! when we showed up with the member on sunday... she wasnt there and didnt answer our calls. we had about 6 people COMMITTED to coming to church. And only one of them came. And he comes every week... so thats hard. 

Rhonda: we tiled her shower for her this week. We're praying hard about how to move forward with her. 

ricky: we taught ricky how to pray this week and the Spirit was so strong. 

Louise + Camillie: didnt want to come to church on sunday cause they went to la leche shine. they went to a milk shrine. whatever that it lol. but we have hope for them! 

i dont even know who else to put on here but yay! good week. We could definetly use and appreciate your prayers for the work her in Gainesville!! 

love sister benson