Sister Benson: 7/15/22

 

saca esas cucarachas de tu casa!

Alternate title: yall don't seem cult-y.... 

We will explain the alternate title first and yall can figure out the other one im sure. 

this week we had tradeoffs! so i got to go on campus with Sister Foister. and we had some MIRACLES! And this was one of them. so we were going to go play soccer with some people they were trying to teach but it looked like it might rain so they cancelled on us :/ so we had some free time. we picked out three people that we could go visit. An old lady, and two young girls. we ended up decided against the old lady cause we thought she might be asleep cause it was later. but as we were about to leave the house sister foister said she just kept feeling like we needed to visit the older lady!! And so i was like okay lets do it! but then she felt like we couldnt go without something. so they happened to have some cake in the fridge so we cut a piece of cake and took it with us. we got there and it was an apartment complex. The door we went to was right under the stairs. well.... no one answered. so we were standing there writing a note when these two ladies came and sat on the stairs right above us! and we were very quiet and evesdropped like a good missionary should because they started talking about how they were looking for a new church!!! are you kidding me??? well sister foister and i were like whispering to each other and we were like what! what! lets gooooo!! so we walk out very normally and sister foister offers them our cake. and theyre like NOOOOOO we dont want your cake! they ended up telling us that the one ladies sons birthday was today and they had had TONS of cake. so we were able to start talking about families. and then they ended up asking us why we were here and we very normally and natually brought up church. they had both heard of the "mormons". we asked what theyd heard and the one lady- she was so embarressed- says "that yall are a cult.... but yall dont seem cult-y..." it was so cute. we all laughed and we got to explain some things like how we DONT worship Joseph Smith and how we actually DONT grow horns at night. it ended up being an AMAZING miracle, and these ladies said theyd come check out our church!! So! When you feel like you need to take some random old lady some weird cake wayyy too late at night, maybe just do it :) 

this week was just a whole week of miracles, so im going to share another. :)  sister ballard and i had just left a lesson. we were on the very EDGE of our area. and we have been asked to stay at at least a half tank of gas in case of a hurricane. well we were at barely a half tank and for some reason i was just like well lets go get gas. so we pull our map out and we start heading to this gas station. well i realize half way there that its just BARELY out of our area. and not that im not usually an obedient missionary but sometimes i just go get gas barely out of our area if we're already RIGHT THERE. but for some reason today i felt like we couldnt. so i whipped us around and we went to a station in our area. we usually get in and out pretty fast but this time we got drinks, we looked at candy, we just kinda took a minute. then we went out to fill the car. well i start filling the car and i look through the windows right as this big dude comes up to sister ballard and i was like... uh oh. so i speed walked around the car looking very confident and scary. obviously. but it turned out the guy was asking her about our tags! so sister ballard (the stud she is) started talking to him about THE BOOK OF MORMON!! anyways he ended up wanting to know more and asked us to meet him at a dunkin donuts right down the street so we could talk! So within an hour we had met the guy, and taught him the restoration in a dunkin donuts. it was so awesome. he read our name tags, "sister benson... sister ballard... well then. im.... brother david" it was pretty funny. at first he was very hesitant about the Book of Mormon. but by the end of the lesson he said hed read it. we set up another lesson the next day! so the next day we went to davids house and met in his jungle of a yard. (a literal spider was on me. disgusting.) and we asked him if hed read Joseph Smiths testimony like we asked. and he said yes! That never happens! and then. he said "yeah and i read a little more" and we were like what okay! what did you read? and he tells us the WHOLE STORY of Nephi and his brothers going and getting the plates! With names an everything! and he explains to us that Nephi only killed Laban because God asked him to, and because they NEEDED those plates. And then he says but God doesnt usually ask people to kill people so we dont need to worry about that. david had read like the first 6 chapters!! it was amazing. AND THEN HE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!!!!! what. miracles. 

anyways! I spoke AGAIN on sunday. 3 times a charm. 3 times in less than 2 transfers. who does that. Annyyyywayysss heres about our people :) 

Richard: is actually in the hospital and we would GREATLY appreciate your prayers. hes going to be okay, hes just having some medical complications. 

Louise+Camille: pretty much SO SAD. after they came to church with us last week.... they went to a CATHOLIC CHURCH. and louise told us that shes really just feeling drawn there by Mary. Mary is amazing!! BUT THIS IS THE TRUE CHURCH LOUISE!!!!!! you can have your daughter forever..... come on. we had a lesson with them and i testified of the temple and eternal families and told her how heaven would not be heaven without my mom and i TOTALLY CRIED and she didnt even CARE. we will see how things go with them...

Mansfields: another miracle is that we have started teaching a part member family. The mom and dad and oldest son are baptized, and there are 5 more kids. so we started teaching them which means we have 5 new people!!! It was an amazing miracle. we hope to bring this family together forever. So please be praying for the Mansfields!! 

love yall!!!