He provides a clear map and points the way toward our desired destination.

Hey y'all!!



I was really tempted to start this email with all this boring regular stuff, like the weather forecast for this entire week, or the exact details of my outfit today, or what I ate for breakfast, but I decided instead of torturing y'all like that, I'll just jump to the good stuff!


So exciting things happened the week because it was transfers!!!! Yay!!!! Last Monday I ran around like crazy packing and cleaning my apartment. Tuesday I ran around saying goodbye and teaching lessons to the people I had grown close to. Then Wednesday I threw the last few things in my bags and then headed up to Irmo where the transfer meetings are held. Because Sister Ward was going to be training again she needed to go to a "trainers meeting" that is held for about an hour an a half before the transfer meeting itself starts. During this hour and a half I was without a companion and very grateful for the company of the member that had driven us. But my curiosity was driving me crazy. I can't even remember the last time I had an hour and a half go by so slowly. Then Transfer meeting itself started. By this point I was about to go crazy and just wanted them to announce where I was going immediately. But unfortunately there was a long opening song, then they introduced the new missionaries (simply stated their names and where they're from), and then had a musical number, and then finally they started the transfer slide show. So in the slide show they go by zone and they have a slide per area where a transfer is occurring. For example in my last area there was a slide that said "Lake Murray Sisters" then it had on one side "Staying on and being called as a trainer" and then they put up the picture of Sister Ward and said her name. Then the other half of the slide came up which said "Transferring in:" and then the put up my picture and said my name. It's very fun, but as a missionary nervously watching the slide show it's very annoying when your new area is not the first slide. Or even in the first zone. And you're just sitting there waiting and waiting and going crazy. Then finally you see your name on the slide and you look over at the other Sister who is already standing and you know that the next six weeks are going to be great.


Now as for the fun part, where I actually am! My new area is the Columbia Ward!! Now that may not seem super exciting at first, besides it being the Capitol of South Carolina, but let me explain the good part. So... my last area I served on Fort Jackson, right? Well there are two sets of Sisters that are among those that go to Fort Jackson and they are the Lake Murray Sisters and the Columbia Sisters!! This means that I still get to serve on Fort Jackson and I will still see Sister Ward every Saturday and Sunday! How crazy is that?? It also means that I already knew my new companion. As a Fort Jackson "District" we have a meeting every Saturday to discuss what needs to happen the next day (i.e. who's getting baptized, who needs to be taught what). And after these meetings the four Sisters all go out to lunch. It's really fun. So for the past 6 weeks I have been having lunch with my new companion every Saturday and then working with her every Sunday. So that's really fun!


Now onto my companion! Her name is Sister Webb. She has been out on her mission for 13 months! This is her third area and she has never kept a companion more than a transfer while she has been here (this is now her fourth transfer here). So we'll see what happens in 6 weeks haha ;) She is from near Saint George, Utah. She is super awesome and a great teacher! It's been a lot of fun already and it has been a much easier transition since I already knew her! I can already tell it's going to be a great transfer! We are going to work hard, but still have fun on the way. So I'm really excited!!


Well now that I've gotten all that out of the way, I'll tell y'all the highlights of the rest of my week or just some other random/fun facts about my new area. My district is tiny. We have three companionships total. It is the Columbia Sisters, the Columbia Elders, and the Hopkin Sisters. My districts is nicknamed the "Sistrict" because it is the only district with more Sisters than Elders! Haha! I guess I'll get to know everyone in my district really well! We actually share an apartment with the Hopkin Sisters, who just so happen to be the Sister Training Leaders. That will make exchanges funny because I'll still at the same apartment with my companion, we will just be going to different areas during the day haha!!! There's not a whole lot going on in the area right now because of some challenges that happened last transfer with a few of the missionaries, so Sister Webb and I are working extra hard to update all of our records and help the Elders do that same! It's been a lot of work, but we can all feel excitement in the air and that good things are coming. Hopefully not too far off haha! This week on Fort Jackson we had one baptism. Private S.! Also I got to teach some really cool people. One of them, Private Sm., he sat down half way through me teaching the Restoration to his battle buddy and he was talking about how coming to this church he felt like he was home and he wondered when he could be baptized! I got to teach him lessons two and three after sacrament meeting and he was so excited. He said that after today he knew the LDS church was the true church of God and then he asked me if he could start living the commandments before he was baptized! It was amazing! I am so happy that I still get to remain on Fort Jackson and have at least 6 more weeks to see the Lord's work progress there!


Well I think that's about it for right now! I am really excited to be in Columbia where I will get to go to the State House (the Capitol Building) and some museums on p-days. Also there is a Trader Joe's in my area so I can go by their amazing gluten free snickerdoodles haha! Also it's just fun being in the center and Capitol of the State!! Fun things happen. Oh also as a cool thing about my area. Fort Jackson is now actually in my area so we will get to see a few of the member of less active families that live there. It also means that we meet a lot of drill sergeants who live just outside Fort Jackson. We are actually teaching one right now, but they are super busy and always working so it's a little hard to coordinate schedules with them. But it's a really cool place and I'll keep y'all updated on the happenings here!


As for a Spiritual thought I want to share a quote with y'all. This is a quote from President Monson's talk in the Priesthood session of the October 2014 conference.


"Our Father provided the sun, the moon, and the stars- heavenly galaxies to guide mariners who sail the lanes of the sea. To us, as we walk the pathway of life, He provides a clear map and points the way toward our desired destination. He cautions: beware the detours, the pitfalls, the traps. We cannot be deceived by those who would lead us astray, those clever pied pipers of sin beckoning here or there. Instead, we pause to pray; we listen to that still small voice which speaks to the depths of our souls the Master's gentle invitation, "Come, follow me."


In this life we have all be given tools that help to guide us away from the sins of the world. One of those is that we have a prophet on the Earth. Private Sm. yesterday was so excited to hear that we have a Prophet on the Earth today who speaks to everyone two times a year. Seeing his excitement and wonder over that has really gotten me thinking of just how amazing that is. So I invite y'all to find a talk by President Monson from any conference and to read it and apply it to your life how ever you see fit!


I love y'all so much and I hope that y'all have a great week!!


Love always,


Sister Amy Bennett :)

The Package from the Hassell girls

Saturday Evening Stake Conference

 

The Lord's hand is in everything

Hey y'all!!

So a lot has happened since the last time I talked to y'all. It's been a crazy week!

First off yesterday on Fort Jackson we made our goal of 4 baptisms! It was amazing! It seemed like another week where we weren't quite going to reach our goal, but miracles are real. It's been really cool to see how much the soldiers light up after they are baptized. The gospel blesses everyone no matter where they are.

Also we got two new investigators! Funny story behind this. We were seeing one of our investigators and she was outside talking to her friend. We walked up to them and her friend thought that we were from the government. We briefly explained who we were and what we do on a mission. We talked about how we teach people about Christ and he immediately said he knew someone who needed that and asked if we could go see them. We said yes and he gave us the address. On our third attempt of trying to contact this person, she was finally home. When we got inside we soon realized that the guy who had given us this referral is her fiancé. So basically it ended up being a self referral and we think he was too embarrassed to say that in front of his friend. We laughed pretty hard about that. We've been able to teach them a couple times and then are going back again tonight!

The next really exciting thing is that M got baptized!!!!!!!! We were able to quickly pull everything together and it ended up being an amazing service! He said that he was so happy and after his confirmation on Sunday he said he felt like he was now part of the family. It was adorable! After the baptism service the Elders in my ward got on the topics of first names and they were trying to guess my first name. While they were M immediately said, "Amy." He said it so confidently, I wondered who had told him. After the Elders guessed, I asked if he already knew. He hadn't and he looked very surprised and pleased when I told him that he had guessed right haha!! It was a great day!!!

 As for the last bit of exciting news.... I am getting transferred on Wednesday! This was very unexpected, to say the least. My mission president is a big fan of keeping missionaries is the same place for a long time. The average he keeps someone in one area is 6 months. The missionary before me was here for nine months. Also training is 12 weeks, or two transfers, and missionaries are most commonly with their trainer for all 12 weeks. Also in the interviews we had a few weeks ago, President made it sound like, to both me and Sister Ward separately, that we'd be together for at least two more transfers. The way transfer calls work is that on Friday, President Turner will call all the missionaries who are being placed into leadership (training, district leader, etc.) and tell them. On Saturday the Zone Leaders send out a group voicemail saying the names of all the missionaries in the Zone that are being transferred. So for us we got a call on Friday from President telling Sister Ward that she's starting training again with another brand new missionary! If this HAD been the end of my training and Sister Ward wasn't going to train again, I wouldn't find out that I was being transferred until the group call. We don't find out where we are going or who we are going to be with until the transfer meeting on Wednesday. In the phone call to Sister Ward, President said that I was going to be placed in a training trio. Meaning that here was one trainer and two sisters that are in the second half of training. But when I saw the Assistants on Saturday for Fort Jackson Role Play, they told me that might be changing. So I guess I'll find out Wednesday haha!

So yeah, it was an exciting week, and exciting times are ahead. One thing I've learned so much on my mission is how much the Lord's hand is in everything. He's able to coordinate everything so perfectly, especially as far as missionary work goes. The Mission President spends a lot of time working on transfers. When we got the call that I was leaving, I was a little sad. I feel like I was just barely starting to get to know people really well here, we just had a baptism, and my trainer is awesome. But I knew that it is the right thing for me to be leaving. My curiosity is starting to drive me crazy though haha! But I challenge you all this week to look more at how the Lord's hand is guiding your life. It'll be fun, I promise ;)

Well that's about it for this week haha! Stay tuned next week for where I am and who I'm with! It'll be an adventure for sure! I love y'all so much!!


Love always,

Sister Amy Bennett :)

 1. This is the Fort Jackson "District."

 

 

 2. This was my district for this transfer. Three of us are leaving.

3. M's baptism!!! (We are doing the "hang loose" equivalent in Micronesia)

 

Miracles are all around us!

Hey y'all!

As you could probably tell for the subject line, this week had some exciting things happen! First of all it rained on Wednesday!!! That was a lot of fun, but we also got very wet. This was my first rain storm since being here and then it rained almost everyday the rest of the week. Wednesday and Thursday were really crazy though haha! The one hard thing is that when it is raining, no one opens their doors. Not even people with set appointments really want to open their door in a rain storm, so it makes missionary work a little difficult. But we had a miracle Thursday! Even though it was crazy rain, every door we knocked on, someone answered. We actually did no street knocking that day because we were able to talk to a lot of people! The funny part was on Thursday we taught the exact same number of lessons that we had taught all of the previous week combined! It was really amazing to see how God gives us hard days to appreciate the good days even more!

Another fun thing from this week is we got bikes! (Picture below) although it is an adjustment to learn how to get on and off bikes in a skirt, they have actually made it so we could contact people we wouldn't have been able to otherwise. Plus riding a bike adds a little bit of a breeze that walked doesn't, so it actually felt cooler to be on a bike haha! So we were excited about that!

Also exciting is that Cheerios are now producing gluten free!!! I found my first box of gluten free honey nut cheerios! I was so happy! That's all I ate for breakfast this week!!! It also makes me excited for when a few other flavor a of Cheerios go gluten free!

As for the biggest miracle this week, M was at Church yesterday!!! So his boss didn't want to give him Sunday off and all week we were praying for a solution. Sister Ward and I felt like we needed to move forward with faith and that everything was going to be okay. M kept asking his boss for Sunday off so he could be at Church, and he even talked to the person over his boss. But it kept not happening. We went to bed Saturday night before he got off his shift. In the morning he had called us and left a simple message. He said, "I have good news. I can come to Church." We were really excited to say the least! It also meant that we no longer would need to push back his baptismal date. During weekly planning we both kept feeling like we needed to plan for his baptism this week, but we were a little unsure. We moved forward with faith, and miracles happened. We found out that he was scheduled to work all day Saturday (the day of his baptism) and his boss wouldn't give him time Saturday and Sunday off, believable. We asked and found out that we could hold his baptism on a day that wasn't Saturday. His day off of work is usually Thursdays. We figured that we could ask him if he would want to be baptized this Thursday or wait until next Thursday. Before he answer both me and Sister Ward knew he was ready for this Thursday and that is what he said too! That makes the next few days a little crazy, so that we can have everything for his baptism all ready in 3 days haha! But I can really feel the Spirit guiding everything and the Lord is helping everything fall into place. So we are keeping our fingers crossed and a prayer in our heart for a baptism Thursday! It was really a great lesson on moving forward with faith and the Lord will provide a way!!

A scripture I really liked in my study this week is 3 Nephi 20:42. It reads: "For ye shall not go out with haste nor go by flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel shall be your rearward." So basically Christ will go before us, or He did go before us. He came to Earth and set the example for how we should be living our lives. He's like the guide in a giant exploration and He blazes the trail for us. God is behind us on the exploration so that if we stumble or fall, He is there to catch us. This verse gave me a really cool visual that I wish I could project into this email, but unfortunately that technology doesn't exist yet haha! But basically we don't walk this earth life alone. We are surrounded on all sides by people or Heavenly Beings that are there to help us :)

This week was a big example to me that miracles are all around us. Some are big, like M getting to come to Church on Sunday. And some are small, like finding a box of Gluten Free Cheerios at Walmart. Either way, miracles surround us because God loves each of his children and He has created the plan for us to return to live with him!

I hope that y'all have a great week and that your lives are going well! I hope that we all begin to recognize more fully the miracles that surround us :) I love y'all!

Love always,

Sister Bennett :)

1. Bikes!!









2. What is this place? (Look closely at the street signs)





















3 and 4. What a baptism at Fort Jackson looks like.













5. Teaching at Fort Jackson!

Consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God

Hey y'all!

It's me again! This week has been very long, but it can't possibly already be Monday again haha! There were some bumps in the road, that made this week a bit more challenging and we had extra meetings so we didn't have as much time to proselyte as we normally do, but the work continued anyway!! There were a few exciting things that happened this week, mainly our investigator M (hence the subject line). But I'm going to save best for last and talk about him at the end of my email.

As for a few random occurrences of the week... One is that two people this week made the connection that I am related to Lynden and Marta Bennett! The first is an Elder Kendall in my district who is friends with Jaren. The second is a Sister in my ward, Nancy Cheney, who lived in Morgan about 20 years ago! What a small world haha! A funny occurrence this week is there is a yellow door on one of the houses on the street of one of our investigators. The funny part is apparently I have noticed it each time we've gone to her house and then forgotten about it and noticed it again the next time we are on the street. Apparently I have done that every time we've been on that street and have no memory of it hahaha!!!

As far as a Fort Jackson update (because I love Fort Jackson). The Spirit hasn't stop performing miracles! This week we had one baptism, which we hadn't been anticipating, so we were very excited!!! Also I got to teach one of the classes this week! So instead of teaching one on one lessons with soldiers after sacrament meeting, I taught the non member class, which is basically teaching the Restoration lesson to a group of soldiers all by myself! It's pretty crazy, but the alone teaching is becoming easier each week! There were some really cool soldiers in the class! The soldiers never cease to amaze me! Lots of them have really cool and crazy stories to tell! Also testimony meeting on Fort Jackson yesterday was amazing. The spirit is already so strong there because of how humble and searching the soldiers are, but then to add on the simple testimonies of quite a few soldiers was very powerful!!

Now onto the exciting part! So we have this investigator named M. I honestly can't remember if I mentioned him in last weeks email. Anyway we found him in our lead book and he set a date for baptism that we are working towards. We had a lesson with him last week and he talked about how he believes everything he is reading in the Book of Mormon is true and the several ways he has already seen daily reading bless his life! Yesterday he came to Church for the first time! We were so excited to say the least!! He teared up in both sacrament meeting and Sunday school! We asked him after sacrament meeting how he felt and he said, "blessed." After church we asked what he thought and he told us he wants to come back every week and that everyone felt like his family!! The only struggle is that after church his boss told him that he couldn't have any more Sunday's off because the other workers are too slow and Sunday is their busiest day. He called us really sad because he wants to keep coming to church, but doesn't know how he can now. Please keep him in your prayers. Sister Ward and I talked about how everyone should be M because one of the main struggles we have is that people don't read the Book of Mormon so they don't get an answer of whether or not it's true and they don't see the correlation. M understood he needed to read to get his answer and the he found out for himself it was true! We are really excited and I'm happy that I get to keep working with him. We are praying hard and keeping our fingers crossed that we'll be able to figure out what to do about his job situation.

Well other than that it was a pretty uneventful week. We did a little bit more to help a family finish moving. We got to meet a couple new families this week that had just moved into the Ward. We got to teach Sunday school yesterday. And we got to do a lot of work! One of my favorite quotes is "the secret to missionary work is work." Haha!

As for a spiritual thought this week is Mosiah 2:41! It kept popping up in random places (like unrelated people talking about that scripture) this week so I figured I'd better pay attention to is haha! It says: "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." So basically God wants us all to be happy, we just have to keep his commandments and He'll fill in the rest!

I hope that y'all have a great week! Thanks for all the love and support y'all have shown me! Let me know is there's anything I can do for any of y'all!


Love always,

Sister Amy Bennett :)

Random selfie :)



Set goals,pray for them,work really hard to accomplish them, that is when the miracles happen

Hey y'all!

This past Friday marked the one month anniversary of when I entered the MTC! It feels like years have passed, but it can't possibly have already been a month haha! I am doing great!

The work is really picking up here, so I'm excited to see what the future has in store! For some excitement this week we got 2 new investigators!! One of them came up to us at the library and asked what our name tags were for. We were able to teach him the restoration and then set up another appointment for tomorrow! Our second new investigator is a man named Max. We found his name in the area book and set up an appointment with him. When we came to his house he told us that he's been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon every day. We taught him the restoration and he agreed to be baptized saying that this is what he has been waiting for. We were really excited and we hope everything goes well with him!! The next exciting this is we were able to meet with Skyler again last Tuesday! When we arrived at her house she told us she just found out she was leaving town in 20 minutes, but that we could still teach her! We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read it. We texted her a few days ago and she said she had! We are really impressed by her! She doesn't get back in town until half way through August though, but we are glad she's reading!
We also had a pretty awesome miracle at Fort Jackson! We've set a goal to have 4 baptisms a week. We've been talking a lot about how we can accomplish this goal and what we as missionaries could be doing better. Last week we had four on date, but two of them didn't show up. This week we also had four on date, but then one of them didn't show up. We were feeling a little sad because we'd been working extra hard this week to meet our goal. Then one of the soldiers came up to us about 15 minutes before we were starting the baptism service and said how she's been coming to church and had some of the missionary lessons and decided she wanted to be baptized that day! We were really excited for her and it meant we made our goal!!
Another story from this week, but this time a funny one. One night at about 8:30 we came outside from a lesson and we were talking about how good it felt outside. Sister Ward and I declared that it should be that temperature all the time because it felt so nice. We got in our car and looked down at the thermometer and it was 95°! We laughed really hard and declared it must be hot when 95 felt really good!
So yeah the work continues to go on and we are keeping strong faith. This week I've learned the importance of goal setting. As missionaries we set goals every day and we work towards them. We have found that we don't reach our goals every day, in fact it is rare to meet them. But if we set these goals and pray for them and work really hard to accomplish them, that is when the miracles happen like finding Max in the area book or Private Smith coming to us to be baptized. I was also able to help a soldier on Fort Jackson understand this. He was talking about how he's not opposed to the idea of being baptized, he's just not sure he's ready yet. I was able to tell him about how when we set a specific goal, the Lord is able to help us in specific ways. He agreed to work towards the goal of being baptized on August 2nd. The Spirit really seemed to touch him about the importance of goals, but I would appreciate it if y'all could keep him in your prayers.

I am grateful to be a missionary and I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for the people of Lake Murray! I love y'all so much and I hope that all is well for you! Let me know if there's anything I can do for y'all!

Love always,

Sister Amy Bennett :)

I was really excited about how big the leaves on this tree were. We named him Momma Steve :)

Focus on Loving :)

Hey y'all!!

Life continues to be great here in Lake Murray. We continue to work hard despite the 100 degrees temperature every day. I am even more grateful for the AC in the car! I've had some pretty fun adventures this week! The first was that they already sent me on an exchange!

So last Tuesday I was companions with Sister Millett in the Irmo ward for 24 hours. It was fun and I got to meet some really cool people there! Sister Millett is also really awesome and has been out for a while so she had some really good suggestions!

On Wednesday we had what is called "Family Day" at Fort Jackson. The families of soldiers who are graduating from Basic on the Thursday get to come spend the day with them on Wednesday. The 4 missionary companionships rotate going to these. We stay at the chapel and it provides a place for members to come as well as those who were baptized at Fort Jackson have the opportunity to introduce their families to the Church there. It's a neat experience. I also got my background check started so that I can get my real pass to get onto Fort Jackson!

Thursday we knocked into a 13 year old girl named S.. She was really open to the Restoration and invited us to come back today. We confirmed our appointment with her yesterday and she really does want us to come back so we are super excited to see how it goes! We also had a funny experience while knocking. We were knocking on someone's porch when we heard the garage start to open. We saw a car getting ready to pull into the driveway. Then the driver noticed we were on his porch so he quickly started to close the garage and pretended that he was using the circle to turn around. That gave us a good laugh, especially when he came back to his house only a few minutes later while we were knocking at the house across the street. Funny experiences always make the day better!

Friday we did a lot of service, which was awesome! Also one of our investigators, K., prayed out loud for the first time since she started meeting with the missionaries. (Which was about a year ago.) We were also really excited about that!

I want to talk a little bit more about how Fort Jackson works on Sundays. We show up at 8:30 and we start teaching soldiers who are there. (Soldiers arrive anytime between 7:30 and when Sacrament meeting starts at 9:30.) We finish teaching and interviewing those who are on date for baptism and teach any one else who is interested. We then have Sacrament meeting, which goes until 10:10. This week they had me share my Testimony in Sacrament meeting, so that was a cool opportunity. After Sacrament meeting we split up into classes. There is a class on the Restoration, a class on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a new member class, Relief Society, and Priesthood. While those are going on they hold the baptismal service. The AP's (who help teach at Fort Jackson) have a portable font that they bring and set up during Sacrament meeting. This week we had two baptisms, include Private C.! I was so happy and she talked about how much lighter and happier she felt afterwards! It was awesome! During the classes missionaries also pull aside soldiers who are on date to be baptized and teach them one on one. This week I taught Private R.. She is on date to be baptized next week and I taught her lessons 3,4, and 5. She is super excited and already has such a strong testimony. It is amazing to see the power of acting in faith. After classes are over we have about 10-15 more minutes to talk and teach soldiers. Then we have to leave the chapel by 11 so that the next denomination can set up for their meeting. It's an amazing experience and an awesome atmosphere!

A few more funny things about the great state of South Carolina! A popular ground covering is called pine straw. It is dried up pine needles. The stuff that we usually spend hours sweeping up from yards, they buy in bales and spread around. I think we should start selling ours online haha! Also no one here uses crosswalks, even when they are 10 feet away. It reminds me a lot of the scene in Mulan where her grandma is testing out the lucky cricket. haha!

Well as for a tender mercy from this week it would definitely be K. praying. The week I showed up we were considering dropping her, because she hadn't been progressing for a long time. We prayed about it and I got the answer that I needed to focus on loving her. As I focused on that she has made considerable progress and is already seeing what she needs to do to come closer to Christ. I hope that she remembers the progression she has made.

I think that's about it for news from Sister Bennett!! I hope y'all are doing well! Thanks for the letters, emails, and prayers!!!


Love always,

Sister Bennett :)

 

Amy on Exchanges day... in her LEMON BLOUSE!





Entering Ft. Jackson





By her study desk at her apartment!

 

We have to trust the Spirit & Welcome to South Carolina!!

Hey y'all!!!

I am in a time warp where I feel like I have been in South Carolina forever, when in reality I haven't even been here a full week haha! For starters, I'll talk about where I am and who I am serving with!!

My companion's name is Sister Ward! She joined the Church about 3 years ago. She is the only one in her family that joined. She has a super strong testimony and knows the scriptures really well, which is awesome! She is from Minnesota but went to school in Rexburg. She's 22 and in the same grade as Sarah Janis! So that's awesome! Oh another crazy thing is that with the number of incoming Sisters with me (12) there weren't enough trainers so President Turner (my Mission President) had to get a little creative. In Sister Ward's case that meant she just barely finished her own 12 week training and is now training me. I hope I don't have to train in 12 weeks!

I am serving in the Lake Murray ward! Since there are Elders in this ward as well, my area is only half of the ward! I am hopefully going to attach a picture below of my mission map. In case I don't, Lake Murray ward is in the city of Lexington, which is a suburb of Columbia! It's awesome. Another special opportunity I have as a Lake Murray Sister is that I get to be one of 8 missionaries who serves at Fort Jackson. Fort Jackson is a military base where there are lots of Soldiers for basic training. Each Sunday morning we get to drive up there and teach Soldiers before and after a Sacrament meeting. One thing interesting is that because there are so many Soldiers who are interested we don't teach in companionships. At one point I was teaching around 10 Soldiers all by myself! It's pretty crazy! They are all humble and ready to learn so they are baptized after about 2 weeks. Yesterday 2 Soldiers were baptized and we have around nine on track for next week! It's amazing! This week I taught Prive C. the last two lessons so she could be baptized next week. She is at basic training for the summer and then she will finish her senior year of high school. She first came to Church with her battle buddy (battle buddies are like companions where you have to be with them all the time). Next week she's going to bring one of her friends with her. She already has permission from her parents to be baptized. So keep your fingers crossed for her, and include her in your prayers! Also I would love to know more about the history of Fort Jackson so if anyone looks it up and emails it to me they will an electronic hug from me!

Also excitingness is that I am in an iPad mission! Church headquarters picked out 60 missions in the US and Canada to pilot a new program for mission iPads. My mission received them June 17, so we are still in the transition mode. Meaning someday iPads will be used for everything and we will have zero paper work. Like it will be our area and planner and a few other things like that, but we aren't doing that quite yet.

So a bit about missionary work or just general stuff with Lake Murray/South Carolina. There are a lot of people who when we knock into them they are too nice to tell us no, which we take as a yes. So we go around visiting a lot of potential investigators. Sometimes they are genuine investigators, and other times they surprised that we actually showed up again. It makes for fun adventures! There are also a lot of less actives and we've made it a goal to visit all of them, so we try to meet with them as well. Some of them are really awesome and still have lots of faith, but don't come to Church anyway. Some of them have a lot sadder stories. We met this couple this week, Brother and Sister S. They are awesome and super friendly. Brother S. has some funny conversations. Sister S. is all for coming back to Church, but Brother S. won't let her. It makes me sad, but I am happy to see that they still both have faith in Jesus Christ. Also another opportunity we have each week is to do service knocking for an hour. Meaning knock on doors down a street in our service clothes asking if they need help with anything. We normally do that on Saturday's. This Saturday we ended up not being able to because we were teaching lessons, so that was nice. But I am excited to do that this week!

Awesome thing about South Carolina is that there is seriously every kind of tree here. Like there will be a Palmetto tree, growing right next to a Pine tree, growing right next to all sorts of other trees you didn't know could exist in the same climate! Also they aren't very creative with their street names. In one neighborhood we were driving on Garden Arbor Lane, when we intersected with Garden Arbor Drive. Then we intersected with Garden Arbor Court. I am very grateful I am not the one driving because that happens a lot and is very confusing to me. Another thing is people tell us that we can't go into an air conditioned car and back out into the heat or guzzle a cold water bottle otherwise the monkey will get us. (meaning get heat stroke.) It's a pretty awesome way of saying it! So you'll hear people talking about getting monkeyed or things like that ha, ha!

So Sister Ward and I are at our apartments by ourselves. There used to be another set of sisters that lived there, but there are fewer Sisters in the mission than there used to be. But it's nice because we have a washer and dryer in the apartment. We also have a piano keyboard. I'm excited to get to play it later today!

Spiritual thought for this week is that we have to trust the Spirit. There are still a few things that I am learning (obviously), but that's the biggest one. Often times the Spirit will prompt me or my companion to do something that confuses me, but it turns out to be exactly what the investigator or less active needed. It's awesome how when we turn to the Lord, He really will guide us.
I hope life is good for y'all. I've decided y'all is the best phrase ever! I've already picked it up and am using it so much! It really is the best! Thanks for the letters and emails! Love y'all!


Love,

Sister Amy Bennett :)

 Amy and Sister Ward








Amy's mission. She is serving in the West Columbia Stake in the Lake Murray Ward.