November 11, 2013

Dear Wonderful Family of Mine,
Ah this week was absolutely FANTASTIC! I loved every second of it. My core experience with God was Him answering my prayers. It seemed like we talked about prayer like all week. And I think it is something that we need to be thinking about and discussing, evaluating and improving because it is and should be something that we do every single day. We need to improve our relationship with our Heavenly Father, at least we need to on our end. And so we need to be taught and retaught and then apply the things we learn. In Sacrament meeting we talked about prayer. The 2nd counselor in the bishopric spoke about prayer and how it cannot just be some rote presentation. WE need to actually be speaking to him. It was a great reminder. He also talked about how when our prayers are answered it’s because we expect them to be. We know that Heavenly Father always answers prayers and so every single time we pray they will be answered. It’s just like the Story of Joseph Smith. He needed his question answered, so he prayed expecting an answer and look what happened. The Gospel was restored. How incredible is that? We can have just as powerful experiences through our prayers. Heavenly Father will speak to us and we just have to be willing to listen.

In my practice as teaching as Jesus taught we had a lesson with a lady.  We were trying to help her resolve her concerns and let her know that Church can be a revelatory experience if we let it be. But the lesson was pretty incredible all at the same time. The spirit literally guided my words, it was incredibly powerful.  We had a lesson about Humility in Relief Society and the teacher felt prompted to have my companion and I share our testimonies about selfless service and humility. When I got up to do so, the Spirit was so powerful. I had no idea what to say, but the words just came to mind. I thanked Heavenly Father and all of them for letting me be the instrument in His hands to serve all of them.  I was so grateful at that moment for the amazing gift of the Holy Ghost. Without him I would be completely lost.

Each and every one of us needs to live worthily of the spirit. No matter what stage of life we are at. We can't just expect to do whatever all week long and then go to Church expecting the Spirit to be with us all the time. IF we want the spirit we have to live and breathe for it. I've come to learn on my mission, that life is impossible without the spirit. I can't think of how many times the Spirit has literally stopped me from doing things. And If I wouldn't have listened who knows what would have happened. All of you, please live worthy of the Spirit. Please! Just do it!  Your life will have so much more direction and you will be happier. You will be able to do all that Heavenly Father asks because you will know through the spirit. We can't waste the time we have here. Just as Moroni 10:32 says we must Come unto Christ, and rid ourselves of all ungodliness.

I talked a little bit about Fast and Testimony meeting last week, but I just want to reiterate a couple of things. IT really impacted my whole week and Heavenly Father really helped me to see the truths that were testified of in sacrament meeting to me this week.
First off happened on Monday. I had really felt the power of Eternal Families, and then one of my Very Best Friends who just got married this year and had a baby, testified to me of eternal families and I could just feel the power of her testimony and it made me really grateful to have an eternal family of my own. The next was on Tuesday. WE got to attend the Temple. Oh how I love the temple. But I just felt like I needed it more this week then before. So I prayed before the Session started to really be able to learn what Heavenly Father wanted me to learn. And because of that I was able to pick up on so much more from the Temple then I had before. It was such a powerful experience. I received the knowledge and revelation from Heavenly Father that I needed and I was so grateful for it. It truly is so amazing how Heavenly Father really is in every detail of our lives. The next was on Wednesday in our District Meeting. One of the elders in the District did a training on the Atonement. Man the spirit was so thick. And once again it was reiterated to me the power of the Atonement. I had felt that on Sunday and this was just another witness of the truth of the Atonement. The next was on Thursday and Friday. OH those days were just beautiful. We had a Sisters Conference with all the Sisters in the Mission. All 34 of us. We were trained on basically everything there is to be trained on in the mission field. And it was exactly what I needed. I felt the spirit, I was able to learn new things, and testify. It is amazing to have the spirit work in our lives. Ahh I just loved being with all the Sisters too. And in the next 3 months we are doubling numbers and having 30 more sisters come into the mission. So we all need to be prepared to Train, and be Sister Training Leaders. Which is just really exciting. I feel way more prepared and ready to do so now because of the Conference. I love meetings though. I just learn so much. Something though that really struck was something that Sister Howes said. "If you are almost obedient, you almost get the blessings, but if you are always obedient you always get the blessings." Obedience really is key. It lays the foundation for everything. I'm so grateful that I was able to come to an obedient mission, and be able to do this work for Heavenly Father. IT is exactly what I needed and I"m so grateful that I get to be a part of it.
Love you Heaps
Sister Benjamin