Late post

(This was a post from a few weeks ago that I forgot to publish)

Bestest family ever:) Hello! How are you all??

Well this week was pretty good, lots of adventures as usual! I guess I'll get my dreaded story out of the way first...ha Singing at Mission Tour. Well Mission Tour itself was so great, I learned so much! Elder Echo Hawk and his wife had some really great talks, I loved it!! And then our zone got up for the musical number and me and Sis Tupa'i began to sing...well. I was SO SO nervous I thought my heart would explode out of me, and literally my voice would NOT come out...it was like a squeeking sound! hahaha Embarrassing. Luckily I just had to let out a little giggle and then after just one line I got it together and it was actually really pretty, but that first line was a total failure!! I'm proud of myself though :)

Then another hilarious story...we were teaching a recent convert this week, an old man that I can't understand Anything he says..but he has a lot of pets, and I got a hilarious picture of his kitten nursing on his dog!! I didn't know that was really possible ha but it was hilarious. It's a very strange picture.

This week we walked a LOT and had more appointments than usual fall through, I think one day we literally walked for 5 hours straight.. And I wish I'd taken a picture to send, but my shoes have holes in the bottom of them and literally my toes and heels are just touching the ground as I walk :P I will be buying new ones today for sure!  But it's really been a lot of fun, and me and Sister Tupa'i make it fun with lots of pictures :)

I also got to speak in church again yesterday. My topic was the restored church so it was pretty easy. I spoke with another Elder though and it was funny because it was like we were a married couple introducing ourselves into the ward or something..ha But actually I'm finding it way easy to speak now and give talks from all the teaching, so that's a blessing! But over all it was a good week, not many cool stories because sadly we have like 0 progressing investigators still but we're working hard trying to find one!

I love you all SO much, thank you for all your support and everything you do for me! I found a new favorite quote this week...It's "Our discipleship will be developed and proven not by the type of trials we're faced with, but how we endure them." I really like it because I think that's the biggest thing I've learned here on my mission. Everything about your life depends on your attitude and your responses  to the things you face. Hope you all have a great week! :)

Love you,

Sister Benesch

"Go up, thou bald head"

Hellllllo family man this week literally flew by!! I actually feel like today should not be Pday already, but I'm happy it is :) ha Actually we were going to have a zone activity today at Banal na Bundok again, but it was cancelled because of the rain...SO much rain. But that's ok because now we have extra time today and maybe I can actually take the first nap of my whole mission!! That'd be exciting. Anyway, this week was pretty good! Sadly our investigators are like diminishing even though we're trying hard to talk to everyone and find new ones, we just have less and less to teach. But we got a referral from the branch that we contacted, it's this old lady with one leg and she's hilarious!! I was trying to show her an object lesson with a pen on why prophets are so important, but she just kept repeating everything I'd say instead of following directions! Like I had her close her eyes and try to follow my fist with hers, then compared it to both holding a pen and how she could follow easily...maybe it doesn't make sense in writing..ha Anyway she just was closing her eyes repeating over and over "sundin ang Diyos, sundin ang Diyos..." and Sister Tupa'i just burst out laughing!! haha It was hilarious.. I hope we'll find a way for her to come to church, but it'll be hard because she can't on her own. We've been able to find more less-active, literally from the 700 members here in Baliwag only 125 go to church (that's why it's still a branch) and so there's a Lot of less actives that we don't know! But it's so sad when we find them and teach and they just tell us that they were mormon date (before) but now they are catholic, or born again, or iglesia ni Cristo...or one of the other million religions here. It's just sad that they have no desire to return and I just don't understand how you could forget the blessings of the gospel when you've had it before, and then settle for another religion with so much less. Satan really gets a hold of some people's hearts, and it's devastating.

But we had exchanges this week with the sister training leaders, and it was a lot of fun because we got to travel to their area this time! We left friday night and rode a jeep for like 3 hours to get there, then came back saturday so we were Exhausted at church yesterday..ha But it was really fun. They had a service project so we got to meet more missionaries and hang out with them. Because of that and then the travel home we only had time to teach one lesson, but we taught these people that they had just found that were also LA (less active) and they were truly the most humble people I've ever met, I immediately had the greatest love for them and wish so bad I could go back! Maybe I'll get transferred to that area sometime and can go teach them :) But it was a great experience. It was sad because Sister Winger (one of the sister training leaders I really like) is going home this transfer so it was my last time to see her...I've really made such good friends with a lot of the missionaries here it'll be sad when more start going home! Part of the mission I guess. But while we were there they had Mac and cheese that sister winger's family had sent her...oh my Goodness that stuff is amazing! I never knew I could miss it so much..haha If anyone wants to send me any, feel free ;)

But overall it was a really good week, a little rough with trying to just find anyone who is actually interested in the Gospel, but I know there's gotta be atleast one person here ready, we'll keep working hard on trying to find them! Oh, and I've been reading the Bible and found a great verse in 2 Kings 2: 23 that made me think about uncle Jon...share it with him and tell me what he says ;) haha I love you all SO much! Thanks for everything, I literally couldn't get through some of the things I'm faced with here if it wasn't for the Amazing support I have. I love you :)

Love, Sister Benesch

Here are some pictures of the Gonzales family...pretty much my very favorite here! They're less active, but the most amazing, nicest people in the world! Nanay (the mama) is the most hilarious person in the WORLD, and then Micheal is there son with down syndrome! I will really miss them when I leave Baliwag....

Sometimes you just have to giggle

Bestest family ever:) Hello! How are you all??

Well this week was pretty good, lots of adventures as usual! I guess I'll get my dreaded story out of the way first...ha Singing at Mission Tour. Well Mission Tour itself was so great, I learned so much! Elder Echo Hawk and his wife had some really great talks, I loved it!! And then our zone got up for the musical number and me and Sis Tupa'i began to sing...well. I was SO SO nervous I thought my heart would explode out of me, and literally my voice would NOT come out...it was like a squeeking sound! hahaha Embarrassing. Luckily I just had to let out a little giggle and then after just one line I got it together and it was actually really pretty, but that first line was a total failure!! I'm proud of myself though :)

Then another hilarious story...we were teaching a recent convert this week, an old man that I can't understand Anything he says..but he has a lot of pets, and I got a hilarious picture of his kitten nursing on his dog!! I didn't know that was really possible ha but it was hilarious. It's a very strange picture.

This week we walked a LOT and had more appointments than usual fall through, I think one day we literally walked for 5 hours straight.. And I wish I'd taken a picture to send, but my shoes have holes in the bottom of them and literally my toes and heels are just touching the ground as I walk :P I will be buying new ones today for sure!  But it's really been a lot of fun, and me and Sister Tupa'i make it fun with lots of pictures :)

I also got to speak in church again yesterday. My topic was the restored church so it was pretty easy. I spoke with another Elder though and it was funny because it was like we were a married couple introducing ourselves into the ward or something..ha But actually I'm finding it way easy to speak now and give talks from all the teaching, so that's a blessing! But over all it was a good week, not many cool stories because sadly we have like 0 progressing investigators still but we're working hard trying to find one!

I love you all SO much, thank you for all your support and everything you do for me! I found a new favorite quote this week...It's "Our discipleship will be developed and proven not by the type of trials we're faced with, but how we endure them." I really like it because I think that's the biggest thing I've learned here on my mission. Everything about your life depends on your attitude and your responses  to the things you face. Hope you all have a great week! :)

Love you,

Sister Benesch

Whiplash!

Hello family, wow this week was pretty crazy! I have lots of great stories for you :) Well I don't know about great, but lots of stories..haha Let me first start with..I LOVE my companion!!! She is the strongest person I have ever met, she's absolutely amazing. Just last month she got a call from President Sperry and he had to talk to her, and told her that her parents had informed them that they split up and her mom had moved from Samoa to New Zealand with her brothers and sisters, but her dad was staying in Samoa. Then 2 weeks later she got another call that her grandpa had died...So so hard. But she stays so strong and knows that what she's doing is right. She was converted 2 years ago, and just as she was leaving on her mission her mom also was baptized but they're the only members in her family. She just shows me that no matter how hard life gets, you can really make it through! She's so great. One Hilarious story though that I think I laugh at every day still...we were going to our district meeting on Tuesday and riding a jeep with the zone leaders, but the jeep kept breaking down. Well one time it was going pretty fast and Immediately broke down, and I think I blacked out a minute from whiplash and then when I could see normal, I saw Sister Tupa'i ALL the way down on her stomach on the bench, and had slid all the way up to the driver...hahaha It was so hilarious!! I honestly am laughing so hard right now thinking about it and she's telling me to shut up :)

I also learned this week (like Every day of my mission) just how blessed I am for the knowledge I have. As we teach people each day that tell us they don't have a desire to go to the temple with their family, or they don't care about what we teach, I try to not get discouraged but just be grateful that I know how important it is for myself and am receiving those blessings. I can really see the HUGE difference of having the Gospel, it brings SO SO SO much happiness. God truly blesses those who are obedient. Which I have really seen in our work. It's really hard for us because of the language, and we can't understand people a lot, but we've gone out every day on time and not come home early and done our very best to find and teach, and actually my numbers have never been better! We've exceeded our goals, we actually found 10 new investigators, and the standard for the mission is 4! ha We talked to a Lot of people and I just feel so so great about it because I know we were blessed for doing our best.

Also...I have some news. I think you will all DIE when you read this, but I will be singing on Wednesday during Mission Tour for a general authority! ha Elder Echohawk of the Area Presidency is coming, and our zone was asked to do a musical number. I was asked to put it together, so we're singing Joseph's smith's first prayer...BUT Sister Tupa'i and I are singing the first verse in Samoan! Yes, it'll be quite interesting. Just us two...so hopefully I don't just hurt everyone's ears..ha But actually it sounds really pretty :) So that'll be a new experience to sing in front of lots of people!!

Speaking of funny things...let me just tell you about Thursday. It was like the "typical missionary story" filled Day. So we were walking to our first appointment and of course she wasn't home, so we Kept walking And then all throughout the day our appointments fell through and we were trying to just teach SOMEONE it was so hard, but finally our last appointment we found a recent convert who isn't' coming to church and taught her and her gay uncle, who actually is Very interested!! ha So it was interesting just because of what we teach, but he was absolutely hilarious and so nice. And then we were blessed with dinner at Sis. Rosanna's house (they work with us every sunday, it's the little lady that drives us around on "Beatrice" if you remember, and I LOVE THEM) and so yet again, we were blessed for enduring :) That's what I learned this week...just endure it while trying your very best and everything will work out! I love you all so so much, I miss you tons!!! I hope all is well at home :)

LOVE,

Sister Benesch

New Companion

Hello family!! Alofa atu is Samoan for I love you! So I am now with Sister Tupa'i...and I love her with all my heart but let's just say this will be a very challenging transfer.

We get along great and she's like best friends with Sister Kalama because they lived in the same house before, and we have fun together! But...She's Samoan and it's been hard for her to speak english, much less learn Tagalog, so with both of us knowing very little  Tagalog trying to teach lessons and find people to teach it's quite interesting! And  so so hard to find people to teach. Luckily we haven't gotten lost yet too because I don't know some of the street names to tell Tric drivers..ha It's quite the adventure! We realized we're just going to have to get through this together, and hope that we don't completely run the area into the ground with our language barrier..ha I'm trying to get a better attitude about it, and I'm doing better than before :) I'm just so so grateful that atleast we do have fun together and get along, because if we didn't than I think it may just be impossible for us. So I know that we'll have challenges, but Heavenly Father is aware of what we need to be able to get through those challenges.

And because I'm no longer training we have more hours in the day to work with less studies, so now we're out from 12-9 (and here in our mission because it's SO expensive to go home in the middle of the day, it's very rare we go home for dinner) and so it can be some very long days out in the heat trying to find people to teach, sometimes we're stuck with like 4 hours at the end of the day with no more appointments and just not really knowing what to do..ha But we've always found somehow to get something productive done, and it's been ok. Hopefully it'll just improve as we get more used to it. But I love you so so so much, thinking of all of you helps me get through the hard days here! You're the best :) I hope everyone is doing fantastic.

Love,

Sister Benesch