6 month mark!

wow, the infamous 6 month mark is approaching. This thursday... its crazy! My mission has flown by so far.

We had a baptism on saturday. Oh yeah, and we didn't teach them, the sisters in cape coral did. Rita and Steve got baptized. Rita was confirmed on saturday, steve on sunday in sacrament meeting. Wow. To see the look on rita's face was priceless. She came out of the water and was smiling so big, she was so happy, it was awesome.

Lets see, what else is up... i'm a beta tester for a new e-mail service from google, so thats cool. Even when i'm on my mission, i can still beta test things, how cool is that? the answer? Really cool. I really like it already, so just e-mail me today!

I added a counter, and sorry i didn't write more.


(addendum for harold nelson)
Freaking mr. nelson, you better write me! =)

may 8th!

wow, wow wow!!!!

Everything is better than I thought! No more weird people to contend with, and we have a baptism date set firmly for miguel! May 8th!! Mark it on your calendars folks, and make sure to get your plane ticket to fort myers florida. Miguel spent sunday at church bearing his testimony to me. He heard in a dream some things about the priesthood which just totally shocked me. Miguel getting baptized is a definate plus to me being in cape coral. The irony is, its the first baptism i've had where i've taught someone, and it was off of door knocking. Door knocking baptisms are a rarity... so i'm fortunate to have my 1st "real" baptism off of door knocking.

We have president interviews today, and thats awesome. I love president interviews, because no matter how much things are looking down, every time around president interviews everything changes. All my hardest times are whenever president interviews are weeks away, so its kind of an easy way for me to tell when my favorite times will be.

Transfers are the first week in may, and i dont really have an opinion on whether i'll get transferred or not, or whether i care either way. It would be cool for miguel to get baptized while i'm here, but you know, cape coral isn't the funnest place. This baptism is the first that southern cape coral has seen in over a year. So... while i don't want to sound like a weenie, its really hard down south.

I still want to figure out some way to know how many people read this, so i might do some website upgrading. Thanks for all the support you give me. It helps me sooo much.

"Things are never as good, or as bad, as you think."

i already killed one blog entry, so here goes part 2.

A wise man once told me, "Things are never as good, or as bad, as you think." This wise man, who i will refer to as "the man" has helped me deal with my stupid personality traits. My personality is one who typically sees things as black and white, with no grey area. If you'll look at past blog entries, typically either the week is super, or bad, with little in between. This week, just like last week, was the two extremes. The two extremes that really don't matter all that much in retrospect to myself.

There is a guy, who we'll call number one, who aparently has contacted missionaries for over a year. When we met him, he seemed genuienly interested in learning more about our church, but i soon learned that his "genuine interest" was more than a front. At our return teaching appointment, he came at us with some anti, and a much less "i'm willing to learn approach" and a more of a "i hate you, and you're going to hell" approach. We were in shock. We didn't know why he would have such a contrasting view. We called a missionary that used to serve in our area, and asked him if he had heard of the name. CORRECT! he did, and apparently he tried to corner two missionaries or something at his church, but whatever. At any rate, it put me into a feeling that i'd been decieved, and my time had been wasted. Regardless of his logic, and wordsmithing, i think that deception was an accurate view of how he treated me/the church. Number one, if you ever read this, think about what you're doing. If your church is so superior, then why would you need to worry about people praying and having god talk to them directly? (rhetorical question)

Anyway, thats the dreadful. The moderate of the week was another bike wreck. Boo. My seat was broke from the last bike wreck, so i was looking down at it when my right handlebar tagged a mailbox. D'oh.

The great was when we taught miguel's family, and he decided that he wants to be baptized. He's feeling the spirit, and its awesome. He wants his family to feel the spirit, just like he does. Its awesome.

Well, i feel positive now. A mission is hard, but this "forced progression" makes you a better person.

Oh yeah, and sorry that i haven't written anyone latley, i'm a slacker and i deserve to be fired, but i figure that the blog still keeps you a little updated.

W00t for this week

today is the shortest entry of my mission. And i am geniuenly sorry about that.

alright, here comes the quick update. I've got a few more minutes than previously estimated. Last week was great/dreadful. A mission is a lot like the second coming; every day is great and dreadful.

We had zone development meeting on tuesday, which basically re-invegorates everyone, and then we moved out the north fort myers apartment. There aren't going to be any more elders around these parts anytime soon. Then we went on exchanges, and didn't have any appointments, so that chupared.

Wednesday, we tracted, and met a cool family, who doesn't really want to learn more, but was cool never the less. We had a bunch of people dogg us, and then went and ate at the schultz's house. I love that family.

Thursday, Zone Conference!!! I finally got a memorization award... and in record slow time of 5 months. Actually, 5 months is about the median, so i'm not that dumb. All it took was my bike wreck to progress. =) I felt the spirit really strongly, as did our mission president who relayed a message that he felt the spirit as strong in that meeting as he did when he met the prophet. I think that says something about this mission. Its going to be exploding here quickly.

I finally met a family who might get baptized. Miguel, this really cool guy from the Dominican Republic, and his wife brenda are interested in the church. Miguel worked with the church before, like 20 years ago in the DR, and really liked it. I taught miguel a 1st, a 2nd, and then I taught brenda a 1st. So yeah, go prepared famialies. We're heading back over there tonight to teach them.

General conference was like whoa. I loved it so much. The only problem was, I read an article in the new era about how they make general conference, and it made me think about the production side of things, so i was constantly directing it in my head. (ready 2, take 2!) and the sort. Their robotic cameras need some fine tuning, because sometimes they zoom way too fast, but yeah.

Oh yeah, and i felt the spirit too.

just kidding.

I watched general conference like i've never watched it before. Listening to all the talks so intently, and with the spirit so strong, as i am actually prepared to listen, it was just amazing. I want to make sure to go to the temple before i get released so i can feel it just as strong again.

Thanks go to cheryl alldredge, the stewart family, and anyone else who wrote/e-mailed. I swear i'm going to catch up. Its sooo busy right now on my mission, so yeah. This is the preview entry. I'll write more if i have time.

any nerds reading this:
did hotmail get DoS'ed?

And on another note, if i was my brother rick, i'd want to beat me up so bad. I would hate me too. My brother rick is sooo much cooler than everyone. This is my public apology to him. Let me discourse on the coolness of a brother.

#1-- comforts me in times of strife.
#2-- ever since we were little would take me to do stuff.
#3-- opened his house, his heart, his family to me
#4-- saw me at the airport before i left on my mission.
#5-- came all the way to florida to see me!! (which is illegal now... so perfect timing!)
#6-- I could go on and on, but yeah... i'll save it for my letter to him.

got some good e-mails this week, some folks wrote me and i found out some stuff, so yeah!

later,

Elder Bennett