Made it to Mississippi, and now in Louisiana

Hey Hey!

I'm here in good old Mississippi! I really like it! Even though it is quite humid! Woot! Haha :) It feels really strange being here because I'm definitely not prepared at all for the South. I know really nothing about the people and I feel like I'm going to say stupid things to them and they will think I'm a freak. But hopefully not. The Mission President is absolutely wonderful. They are so kind and I'm so glad. I didn't even know who they were when I walked off the plane, but that's understandable because I'm here not in Australia. The other sisters who are here waiting for visas are all really nice. We are having such a good time together so that's good. I was worried but it is all working out fine. :) We had a little orientation meeting and they talked about putting 2 feet in the mission field and that is so true. I can't be thinking about being anywhere else. This is the work I'm supposed to be doing. I know I am supposed to be here and with the Lord's help I can do anything.We slept in the Mission home last night and it felt so good to be able to sleep in a real house not in the crazy MTC. I love the feeling that  home gives. I'm so glad to be able to be here. I'm freaking out, but it will be great. I'm relying completely on the Lord to carry me through this, taking it one day at a time. If I think too far ahead I can't handle it. All the things I have to do just seem too much, but one day at a time with the Lord's help will be just fine. They put me in a trio. I haven't met them just yet but I bet they will be great. They put us in trios because they said as soon as our visas come they will just ship us right out. My first area is in Louisiana in West Monroe. I can't believe that I'm going to Louisiana. I really truly can't even believe I'm here. It all feels very surreal. I still feel like its a dream and one day I will just wake up.

I can't believe that I'm actually starting in the field today. It really is surreal. I'm really scared but it will be good. Heavenly Father will watch out for me and protect me. I'm still praying every day for my Visa and you should do the same. But as long as I'm here, I will serve my heart out. It doesn't matter where I am, the work is the same. Everyone is God's children and they all need the Gospel. 

I really do love you all. I'm so grateful for the support and strength you are all giving me. Thank you for all your letters. It truly was so wonderful. 

I'm really glad to hear you are all doing well. I know the Lord is watching out for you just as much as he is for me. No matter where we are Heavenly Father sees us, knows us and will take care of us. I hope you have a good week! Love you!

Sister Benjamin

Sister Benjamin in Jackson, Mississippi

We got a short phone call today from Alexis to tell us that she is being temporarily reassigned to the Mississippi Jackson mission until her visa comes.  She will leave the MTC early Monday morning. Her cousins have also been reassigned while awaiting their visas.  One is headed to Kennewick, WA and another to Houston, TX.

Last MTC letter

 If Lexie's visa does not come this week, it looks like she will be temporarily reassigned until it does come through.  She should find out today (April 4th) where she will be going until the visa comes.  If the visa happens to come in the next two days she will go to Australia on Monday.  Either way she should be leaving the MTC on Monday.

Well this week certainly has been challenging but I have had some of the strongest spiritual experience so far. So I'd say overall it has been good. :) Since we have been delayed we have been going deeper into the other lessons and our teacher was teaching us about the restoration and she wanted us to try to have an experience like Joseph Smith. To go into prayer with a question that has been on our mind a lot and then listen for what God has to say. I was really struggling with why I was still at the MTC and why was I even serving a mission? So we went in and I prayed, really hard. I basically prayed with my whole soul is what it felt like to me. And then after I was just sitting there trying to listen to what God had to say to me, and I felt this huge feeling of peace come over me. And Heavenly Father really  helped me to see a lot of things; like how much my testimony has been strengthened just in the month I have been gone, and how much stronger that has made me as a person. He helped me to feel actual love for the scriptures. I never really had felt that before. I mean I enjoyed reading them, and I knew they were true but I never really loved them all that much. And I just felt this over powering feeling of love for them. That is the Book that will get me back to my Heavenly Father. That is the book that gives every step that I need to follow. It gives me peace and comfort when I need it. And then to why I am serving a mission, I remembered this time my Freshman year of college and one of my teachers told me to pray for my future family and he said he knew we would have a good experience with that. So I did that and as I was praying I saw basically a vision but more like a picture of me kneeling around a bed with my family. My husband was across the bed from me and there was a lot of kids around us. Heavenly Father helped me to remember that experience and told me that the main reason I am here serving is for my future family. I will be blessed by this experience, and because of that I will be able to share that with my future husband and children. It was one of the coolest experiences I have had in a long time.

Another really great experience was one of the lessons we taught to our investigator Fred. We were just kind of struggling with what we should teach him, for him to really understand and feel God's love and care for him. So we prayed to know what we should do and then Sister Tanner said she felt strongly that we needed to sing I Believe in Christ to him. So we practiced it and we sang him the 1 and 4 verse. When we were singing the spirit was so STRONG, almost overpowering. Fred was crying and I almost had to stop at points because the spirit was so strong. I really felt the power of God in that room. There is a scripture in D&C that talks about as one teaches with the spirit and one listens both are edified and uplifted together. I definitely felt that. I felt God's love for Fred as well as for me. Really being a missionary is the best decision I could have made. I never would have been able to come this far without my mission.

On Sunday we had a Sacrament meeting all together for Easter. We were all able to take the Sacrament together. There was over 3000 missionaries and at least 100 elders passing. The Spirit was really strong and it was really amazing to have so many people taking the Sacrament together, with all of us recommitting ourselves to follow the Savior for the upcoming week. Bishop Causse came and spoke from the Presiding Bishopric and that was really great. He spoke a lot about Christ and what he has done for us. One of the things that really stood out to me was he asked, "How well do we really know our Savior? Do we know him independently from everyone else? Do we know what he has done for us personally? It really hit me hard. So I challenge you if you haven't done that, or you don't know that, pray and ask God what The Savior really has done personally for you. It really is a cool experience.

Then Sunday night Sheri Dew came and gave a devotional. It was so good. She is such an inspiring lady. I can't believe all the things she has done. She is so strong and powerful and just great. She talked a lot about the Savior as well and one thing that struck me really hard was that Christ is the only chance that we have. I think I knew that I just never thought of it in that way before. Christ is our only chance for happiness, peace, joy, hope and us getting back to live with Heavenly Father again. He isn't only our last chance he is the Only Chance.

In class on Monday our teacher had us go on a picture walk, just looking at pictures of the Savior and really trying to listen to the spirit. Before I tell you what happened, we went to the travel office this week and they told us that they had submitted our names for reassignment. And that we will find out where we are going on Thursday. But if our visas come they will cancel our reassignment, but I was just feeling really stressed about that. I just felt like I didn't know what was going to happen to me. That my life was turning upside down every other day and I was just feeling really discouraged. So when I was looking at all the pictures of Christ, I felt very strongly to just have faith. Have faith in God. God has a plan for me and he is watching out for me. He will not let me down. Even if I go on reassignment that is where I am supposed to be. The scripture that says Be Not Afraid Only Believe, kept going through my head. I really needed that comfort because I really struggle walking in the unknown and so God helped me to feel comforted. And I mean who wouldn't feel comforted when an all powerful being is watching out for you. Then we were talking and we read 2 Nephi 9 and a couple of the verses say something like How Great is our God. and I just kept thinking, but really He is amazing. He loves each one of us so much and He will do anything to protect us and bring us back to Him. I feel that I definitely have a very personal relationship with God now that I didn't have before.

We then had a Devotional last night and one of the 70 came and spoke and he talked a lot about how much we really know about Enduring to the End. He said that one of the best ways to learn how to prepare to Endure to the End is by serving a mission. It definitely is not an easy task and it takes a lot of work but by enduring to the end of our mission we will be much better at striving to follow God when we get home from our missions. One thing I really loved though is he talked about us adjusting back to normal life when we get home. But he said that when we get back we shouldn't be adjusting back into the world. We are so close to God on our missions and that is how we should be living our life always. When I get back I'm supposed to be different because i should be striving to be closer to God. And that is what I want to do. :)

Well I hope you are having a GREAT time in Arches. I loved it when we went last time :)

Love you

Lexie

No Visa=another letter from the MTC

Well this week has been very interesting but really good all at the same time. This week we talked a lot about really seeing the investigators needs. But sometimes that can be really hard, but already I've been able to see their needs because of the Holy Ghost. We teach a lot of people even here in the MTC and when I'm teaching them I get to see what they really need and my love grows for them. It has been a really great experience.

We had infield orientation on Friday. It was from 8-5. It was really long. But it was really good at the same time. I learned a lot about how beneficial it really is to have members find people and give you referrals. Another thing that really has been fun to learn is the authority that I was given as I was set apart as a missionary. I never have felt that much responsibility before. I really love that. In PMG it says that we are "set apart from the world to a higher plane of thought." As missionaries we leave behind all the comforts from home so that we can learn to fully rely on God, Jesus Christ, and the HG. It has been a strugglefest already for me to learn, but now that I'm used to it I really know that they are there. I know that I am talking to God when I pray and I have seen the answers he gives me. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he loves me and that he sacrificed everything for me. He bled at every pore and his heart literally broke from all the pain. Because of this I can be who I am today. We are so blessed to have the Atonement. It is an AMAZING gift and I don't even understand it all. I really am so blessed. I've also learned a lot about the Holy Ghost here. The spirit has never been stronger with me before. I feel it constantly here, which is how it should be out in the world as well. But there are just so many distractions and the spirit will leave as soon as it isn't welcome anymore.  But we really have to rely on the Spirit. How else are we going to know what God has to say to us. So if you ever receive a thought, feeling, prompting or whatever, if it won't hurt, ACT. We need to show God that we will follow when he guides us and if we don't act how can we show that? I know it's hard, but we can all do it! :) 

My Teacher Bro. Dickey in his lesson on Saturday night had us write down as many of the things we can think of how God has prepared us to be here on our missions. Some of the things I wrote down were, as my PB says I am one of the Vailant ones who God saved for these last days. I was blessed with a testimony that I need to share and help other people with. I was born into a wonderful family, just like Nephi with "goodly parents" who have always followed in the footsteps of the Savior. It was a really cool experience to write those things down, because as I wrote, more and more, tons of thoughts kept popping into my head from my life that really have prepared me for my mission. I know I am supposed to be here, and this is what God's will is for me. 

On Sunday we still thought we were leaving to go to Australia on Monday, so we went to a Departure Devotional. It was really good and it helped the spirit confirm that the mission field will be hard but it is what I need to be doing and that as long as I'm obedient and willing to do what God needs me to, he will be there every step of the way. So Sunday night and Monday morning we got all packed up. Three of the sisters in our district left early Monday morning for their temporary assignments. And all but the 2 elders going to Australia from our District left, so there were only 5 of us left in the district. So now I am in a threesome with Sister Tanner and her companion. We finished packing and went to the travel office to check on our Visas. The people in the travel office said they hadn't come in the morning so we needed to check back at 3 which was like an hour before we were supposed to leave for the airport. So we were sitting in class and the lady walks in our classroom and tells us that they didn't come. We kinda were shocked and just so taken aback. She told us that she hopes that they will be here by Friday and if they are we will leave by Monday. Hopefully, but the way she said it, could also mean that we might be in the MTC for another week... After she walked out, I immediately felt peaceful and the confirmation that this is what is supposed to happen. There are people we need to help here or more things we need to learn or a million other things but the MTC is the right place for us to be. A Scripture that Bro. Dickey shared with us really helped to comfort me and it was Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths." God does have a plan and this is the right plan for us. I'm so grateful to know that I have an all powerful being watching over me every step of the way and guiding me to where I need to be. And honestly I was quite petrified to leave the MTC and go to Australia. I know that will happen soon but I do think i needed to be here longer.

We also got to watch a Devotional that Elder Bednar gave last Christmas on the Character of Christ. It was really amazing. I Learned so much about turning outward like the savior did. My mission is not about me. It is about helping others come unto Christ. I can't be focused on myself, or my mission won't be successful. I need to focus on the needs of others and not myself. The Lord needs more of his children and I hope that I will be able to help with that.

I've also been pretty sick since Saturday. I picked up one of my usual colds that usually takes me out for about 2 days. I usually don't go to work and school. But here I definitely needed to be to everything. But my mind was feeling really clouded over and I couldn't feel the spirit as fully as I had before and I was just feeling really down. I was struggling a lot and I felt that I needed to ask for a blessing. My teacher Bro. Dickey gave the blessing and I felt so much better. God really did bless me and since then I have been able to focus and I've realized my power and that I have a purpose and I cannot back down.

2 Scriptures that really stuck out to me this week have been D&C 100:4-8. It talks all about how God has called us to the work, and how he will help us. You should look it up :) It's great

Also D&C 123:17 "therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

Well I love you all. I'm grateful to have wonderful family members who love me and love the Gospel. You are all amazing! I'm going to try to get on later and send some pictures home, but who knows. One thing I really am excited for is this Easter Sunday. We are having a special big Sacrament Meeting with all the missionaries. They are going to have at least 100 Elders passing the Sacrament. It is going to be really a good meeting I think. Well I hope you have a good week. Remember to study your scriptures and pray. Come unto Christ every single day. If you are then you are doing exactly what God asks :)

Love you

Sister Benjamin

See ya in 17 1/2 months.

P.S. I'm real excited to see Lauren.  It is a huge blessing that Sister Tanner and I will get to see her. :)

Another letter from the MTC

I really can't believe I am leaving for Australia so soon.  I feel like I just got here, but I am leaving.  Our District is getting split up as we fly which is sad.  The Perth missionaries are flying on a different airline than the Sydney missionaries.  Our flights do leave at about the same time which is good.  So my flight from SLC is leaving at 8pm Monday night so I will try to call you before that.  I'm assuming we will probably get through security and such around 6-6:30 so probably around then.  Just be home. :) 

Like I mentioned before, I am learning so much.  God really does love us so much and this MTC is just another one of God's gifts.  In the Devotional last night, Elder Whiting talked about an incubator and how the conditions are controlled just for growth.  I really feel that that is true for us here. We have really great conditions for us to learn how to best grow to become the best missionaries we can be. I have really learned how to study. I've learned better how to know what God wants us to know.  This Church really is TRUE.

They also assigned me  to be the music coordinator, which I really enjoy.  I get prompted by the spirit for which hymn to choose-and then our AMAZING teachers show how it relates to missionary work.  I never realized how many hymns relate to missionary work.  It certainly is a great testimony builder.  I really love all the teachers we have.  There are a couple of teachers who don't have districts so they are just "floating" and they come in and just blow my mind.  It is awesome.  I also learned in the devotional that we leave all the things that provide us comfort at home.  So that we can learn to rely on God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.  I really have grown so much and I'm sure I will continue to through out these 18 months.

The Book of Mormon is true.  It teaches of Christ and it is just an amazing book.  Joseph Smith is a prophet and he did restore this gospel here on the earth.

Also, thank everyone for their prayers in my behalf, and for all their words of support.  I LOVE YOU ALL.

Alexis SISTER BENJAMIN

P.S. Tell Dave Congrats on his mission call and tell ASH, JARE & GRANT to write me!