Half Way There

Hello there everybody! How are you :) Well this week was a week.. ha I've learned a Lot.

First off I want to say thank you to everyone for their support, I just keep getting great letters from family and they really help so much! So thank you :) And especially thanks for the adorable valentine's chain I got from Rex and Celeste with everybody's scriptures!!! That may be the best letter I ever got.. Thanks :) haha It was funny though, I was like having a great experience reading them almost in tears because I miss you all and then I got to Dad's in Zechariah...about the food fight. It made me laugh pretty hard so thanks :) haha

So as far as some nice stories about our investigators...Susan is our one investigator that's progressing the most, but sadly she did not come to church again because she said they had no clean clothes to wear...what. ha So we're just really going to teach her boldly this week about how important it really is and hopefully she'll progress more, because she really is so prepared and the spirit is so strong in our lessons!! Even her husband who we can't really teach because of his job has been reading the Book of Mormon and sometimes when we pass by one our way home at night he yells out hello to us and is so nice. The gospel would help their family so much.

We also FINALLY got some new investigators! We got a referral from our members of an 11 year old boy named Francis. He's so nice but so shy! ha But we were able to teach him with his Grandma and had a really great lesson so hopefully as we teach them his Grandma can have a pull on his parents to get them to listen so it can be the whole family. But we haven't had new investigators in a long time so we're happy about that! :)

We also had quite the adventure this week in our house...we got TONS of maggots and BIG worms all over inside! So we had to flood our house and just clear it all out with our hose then sweep the water out and use fans to dry it all up...it took quite a while and was absolutely disgusting. But atleast it wasn't more dead rats :) ha I think I will be SO brave when I get home!!

On Monday we had Zone Conference which was absolutely incredible! I'd been having some hard days..actually here we call it our "mid-mission crisis" when you are excited that you're already halfway done and then realize you have do go through ALL of that one more time..haha But zone conference really was so spiritual and it made me feel so great :) However I was like bawling because Sister Mower got up and boar her testimony for the Last time since she leaves this transfer...she is definitely my best friend in the mission. She reminds me Exactly of Chelsey! And I tell her it all the time :) ha She's great, I'll really miss her. But then Sister Sperry came up to me after conference and pulled me aside and says, "Sister Benesch I've been watching you today, and I can tell something's a little off...are you ok?" So it's practically like your Grandma looking at you so lovingly asking this, of course tears just go straight down my face! ha It's been a really hard transfer to say the least..but actually she just sat and talked to me about how sometimes we need to be aware of why God calls us to do certain things, that as a missionary sometimes what we're called to do at one specific time isn't so much focused on the investigators aspect, but maybe more like a companion like in my case. So it was great to talk to her and just feel that support and have that nice reminder that I can do it :)

I've also learned something this week about missionary work. No matter where you serve on your mission-whether you have 1 baptism or 100, every single missionary learns to trust in Heavenly Father in a way that no one else ever will, unless they serve a mission. It's incredible the strength you receive just by trusting in Him. Missionary work truly is impossible for any of us to do, especially me, but I've realized that as I just trust in Him that it becomes possible and so so rewarding. Even though being a missionary is the hardest thing I've ever done, it's the Most rewarding!! I absolutely love it and wouldn't change this experience for anything. I'm so so lucky to be serving a mission :) I just need to keep looking for those people that the Lord has prepared...I haven't found them yet..haha But I'm trying my best :) I love you all SO so much, thank you for everything!!!

LOVE,

Sister Benesch