5 months, and my 5th companion!

Hey yall, its monday, the 29th, and that means:

5 month mark!!

w00t. So this week was cool/annoying all in the same breath. A couple cool things happened, and some really not cool things happened.

So this week I had my first member refferal. We are teaching christine and gus, and we're teaching them at a members house. Its cool to see the ward help out in missionary work.

Then on wendesday, elder cook left and I WENT CRAZY. It took so long for elder schoenfeld to get here. Holy cow it was annoying. Elder Cook left at around 8:30 and elder schoenfeld got here at around 4:30. Annoying.

But, then on thursday i got some really awesome mail! My sister sent me some stuff, and my other friend Cassidy sent me a huge package full of andees (get the reccuring theme here? =) But, it got melted... so it now is a melted wad of andees goodness and some paper.

On friday, here's where it gets exciting folks, my companion had to go for a meeting in tampa, so I went on exchanges with another missionary. Elder Taylor is from St. George, and went to my high school, and we've hung out before. SO that was kind of weird in the first place, but we went out and worked hard. Tracted like 4 hours, delivered some medias, and visited some less active members. SO as we were heading home, we hit up 7-11 for some slurpies, and they were really good. We then went driving home, and right as i'm about to enter an intersection, i notice a guy turning left. I'm confident he wont turn, because its impossible for me to stop, and there are a bunch of cars coming right behind him. He decides to go, and I slam on my brakes, fly over the handlebars, and the worst part, dump my slurpie all over the place. I got up, inspected my injuries, and had a bunch of nice people stop, but the guy who almost hit me just sped away. My knee was hurt pretty bad, as was my elbow, but nothing too bad. A call to the mission president/mission president's wife informs me that I need to stay in on saturday. I HATE STAYING IN.

But, on the positive side of staying in, I memorized a bunch of scriptures and got a memorizing award. GO ME!

So thats the week in a nutshell. Special thanks again to Cassidy for the package, and for everyone who keeps sending me mail. Thank you so much. By the way, if you see my family, tell them how awesome they are. They deserve it.

Later!

[construction note: i started to title all my entries, but its too hard. too bad for you.]

This week was ehh.

I'm elder bennett, and this is your weekly wrap up for monday, march 22nd 2002.

sorry, practicing my journalism again.

How is everyone? I'm doing ehh... it was an ehh kind of week on the mission. I got sick 2x, from different symptoms, and my companion is leaving, so i'll expound.

#1-- Sickness!!! GWAARR!!!!

This week I forgot to take my pills, so i was out for an entire day while my body argued with me about it. So my companion had to figure out other stuff to do. Sickness the 2nd time was some heat related illness on saturday. I don't know what was up, since we were only in the sun for like 2 hours, but when we got home i drank 2 quarts of gatorade and lost 4 lbs, and still had a normal bladder cycle (dehydration at its fullest I think, but yeah.)

#2-- Transfers!!!

whoa, its transfers again! Surprise, for the 3rd transfer in a row, my companion is leaving! He's heading to St. Petersberg (pinnellas county) and he'll no doubt die** there. My new companion is elder schoenfield, so that should be cool. I don't think we'll be companions for very long (if the transfer prophesy is fulfilled, i'll let you know in 3 weeks.) but he'll have fun as a District Leader over sister missionaries in a full bike area, with less receptive people. Cape Coral frustrates me.

#3-- My ward is the best supporting ward in my mission.

I've gotten packages 3 weeks in a row from my ward. Holy cow. The Curtiss family sent me an awesome care package, and I appreciate it SOOOOOO much. Other than that, last week I didn't even get any mail, but I think i'm ok with that. Now that i've been out almost 5 months (holy poo) I really miss everyone, but I know that everyone is busy. (how bout that for a rebuke with love? =) No seriously, everyone is busy, so its totally understandable. Plus, i get a ton of new e-mail from my family and stuff, and i'm starting to forget about home.

#4-- Special Section for a couple of people

I got e-mails from a couple of friends this week, but I need your address (TESS and STEVE!) so i can mail you back. Oh yeah, and if you read this, send me a letter and say something about reading this, so i can know how many people actaully do read this.

I also added titles, so thats cool, and some other general website improvement. You can syndicate my site (if you would want to for some reason) and the sidebar has all the info. E-mail me if you need to know how to do that, but only if you want to syndicate this blog on your site. Thanks to all this website matinance (it took me an extra hour to do) sorry, i'm going to really write real letters tonight and mail them tomarrow. So, thanks to my slothfulness, everyone gets snail mail! Yay!

Thats your weekly update. From Cape Coral, Florida, I'm Randall Bennett, and I'm out.

Mia Hamm totally waved at me.

so... yeah, its monday.

last week was pretty cool. On monday we went to a redsox game... against the twins, and the redsox prevailed. Aparently derek lowe's wife is a member and lives in fort myers, so for part of the game we got to sit behind home plate... in the team area. Also, i saw pedro martinez (didn't play) and Nomah' garciparra, but the cooler part is I SAW MIA HAMM!! WORLD CUP CHAMPION MIA HAMM!! we were sitting, and saw nomar and some chick walk backstage, and i was like... dude, thats mia hamm! my companion didn't believe me at first, but then when we saw her again we realized it was mia hamm! So, i yelled "Mia!!" and she looked over, and i had a look of shock on my face. Imagine a 12 year old boy at a backstreet boys concert. That was me. So in that moment of shock and amazement, she waved.... and my companion tried to look cool, but i stood there. Shocked. I couldn't believe it.

I've already worn out a pair of shoes... rockport doesn't make the best quality soles. Note to anyone going on a mission, especially to florida, you don't need dry clean only clothes, and get some doc's and insoles. I found some insoles from dr. scholls @ walmart for 10 bucks that make the doc's feel as comfortable as my rockport shoes.

I don't know who reads this, so i can't give out too much info, but i have a transfer prophesy, and i'll let everyone know if it comes true in 4 weeks.

Speaking of people who read this, i bet the davis family does. They live in my home ward in st. george, and sent me a huge package. Lots of candy, and my favorite mint Andees!!! They are the bomb. They win for best package of the year to date.

My mission is just starting to get lonley. Right now there aren't any other elders in my district (because the other set is sisters) so we're stranded on cape coral without a car. It takes 2 hours to get to fort myers on the bus, so thats not really an option, and cape coral doesn't have much else other than houses and canals.

A cool thing about cape coral though is that the ward right now is meeting in a middle school, but they're building a new building, and the ward has already outgrown it! Oh yeah, and we tracted for 24 hours this week, but only taught 2 quality discussions, so you know, the work progresses. And, so far i've lost 15 pounds in the last 6 weeks.

Happy St. Patricks day, and go pinch someone or something.

Tony is gone

so.... its monday.

I say it every week, but its monday. What the heck. Missions go by soooo quickly. I'm already at 132... and I just remember just barley hitting my 100 mark. Dude... its already march. I know this sounds really cliche, but i have no sense of time. march 8th, i'm seriously shocked.

This week wasn't as bomb as every other week, but it was still on the whole pretty awesome. Lets see... tony moved... so thats no good. He was only on vacation till last thursday, and now he's back at fort campbell in kentucky, so thats not as good for me, but really good for others!

Right now its getting harder to be on a mission, i'm just praying for more success and more miracles. They're happening, and i'm thankful. Theres a passage in my patriarchal blessing that talks about heavenly father is always willing to pour out more blessings on the thankful. Thats not the reason to be thankful, but i think you get what i'm saying.

We're going to a red sox spring training game today, hopfully i can buy my brothers some cool stuff and get someone to sign it, but i know they'll probably just appreciate anything.

[venting]
florida is too much like st. george, too many people trying to get in your buisness. I'm at the library typing up my stuff, and this lady comes by and says "you have too many windows open, it will lock up the computer." Dude, these computers are brand new, and besides what buisness is it of yours if I lock up the computer or not?
[/venting]

This is the shortest entry of the mission, but i've got to get everything done way sooner too, so i'll see ya all next week.

Tony, he's the man

wow, i really need to define some way of checking my e-mail. Its getting lengthy now. Its like 1:30, and i'm just starting to write.. i'll tell you more about that later.

SOOOOO...... how is everyone? I am suuuper dooooper!!!! SOOOOOPER DOOOOOOPER!!

Heavenly Father loves you, and not only because you're reading this.

So.... we've had the best week of my mission.... i know i keep saying that but its true. This week was sw33t to the extreme. Lets see, last week we were tracting a whole bunch without any success. It was raining really hard one day, and I was pretty bummed about my mission. I was adding up the stats in my head and it sounded like this to me:
"been on a mission 4 months
tracted a billion hours
talked with a billion media refferals
and no one wants to hear what we have to say."
so then after a few more doors were slammed, and a few more ministers tried to save us, i finally was like:
"HF..... I am so low right now, i need some success. I would like the next person's door that i knock on to be baptized."
as i walked up to the door.... nothing. Dead nothing. I was super dejected... but ready to keep tracting. We began to walk away from the door when this guy comes out in a towel with all these tattoos and yells "Hey, COME ON IN! I've got some questions for you." In my mind I thought "great... another minister." Boy was I wrong.
Turns out "tony" was a great guy. He had just gotten home from Iraq, so he was battle torn... and it seems like he was super humble from the get go... so he went on in. We found out that his wife had cheated on him.... with a minister... while he was serving his country. I was like.... DOH. He was kind of turned off on religion. So we explained the first vision, gave him a "ghetto drawing" of the plan of salvation, and set up another appointment. Tony is going to get baptized. Right now, the only problem is he's moving to kentucky. On thursday. BUT HEY, i showed heavenly father that i can do what he asks, and i had the success i've been craving. He wants us over all the time. We're going back over tomarrow (for the 4th visit) and he's going to find the peace of mind he's looking for.

SUCCESS!!! YEAH!!! GO SUCCESS!!

D&C says somewhere imagine the joy of bringing souls to christ... and then if you bring more souls how much greater will your joy be.

Oh yeah, and i got more e-mails. I can't post my e-mail on this site (because a spam harvester could get it) but if you're reading this I'm sure that you can no doubt find a source of info. (parents, friends, significant others...) E-mail me, i deserve it. =) JK!!

Shout outs go to: THE BEECHER FAMILY!!! WOOHOO!!! I know they're reading this so its easy, but they sent me the bomb valentines letter. GO THEM!!! hey, go say "you're the nicest family to missionaries." So thanks to them, and thanks to all the other people who send me letters. Its super nice and awesome of you. I promise that we're super busy, so when i don't write back im' sorry, but its just really really hard.

I can't post my pictures from this library, but maybe sometime i'll find some place i can.