Good letter for the family from elder murdock

Bonjour everyone! 
How's it going?

  So yesterday was transfer day aaaaaaaaaaanddddddd. I'm gonna stay :). Elder Bennett got moved to Switzerland in the Yverdon-les-bains sector (It's kinda near Bienne) and I received Elder Castillo Pazmiño.  He's originally from Ecuador, then he moved to Spain, and then he lived in England for a bit.  I'm excited for this upcoming transfer and more opportunities to serve the Lord with my new companion! :D

  Last week was pretty packed, but I'll still try to keep this email short.

On Monday we visited an elderly sister, she seemed to really appreciate it.
Tuesday we did some work with our DMB (stands for Ward Mission Leader).  He drove us around to different towns so we could pass by some less-actives' houses.  

  The first house we tried to pass ended up being some kind of farm.  Our DMB had to park his big white van far from the actual house because there was a chain blocking the long road leading there.  So Elder Bennett and I hopped out and walked in the mud up to the farmhouse.  We had almost reached it when Elder Bennett suddenly stopped.  I looked a bit closer and we had almost walked straight into an electric fence circling the area to keep the cows in.  We climbed over the fence and continued.

  We walked up to a set of buildings that we supposed would be the living area.  A few were sheds and garages, but one had what seemed to be a front yard, but we couldn't see the door from where we were at.  So we rounded the corner to look for it, but as we did so, we saw a group of cows just standing there.  One of them was a bull, and as we got closer, still looking for the door, he started stamping one of his feet and lowering his head looking like he was gonna charge us, so we quickly backed away to save that house for another day!  XD

   Wednesday we met with Pascale (Agen's amazing recent-convert) for Lunch.  On the bus ride there, this French girl did some reverse finding for us and contacted Elder Bennett, so now we have her number and Facebook XD.  After the meal with Pascale, we had that rendez-vous with Espoir that he set up last week when we passed by his house.  When we arrived, he wasn't there of course. :P. Figures. 

   Thursday we went to this outer village called Auch.  We shared a spiritual thought and ate with an older, but still very active member at his house there.  We told him we were also planning on visiting another member who is even older than him named Philipe.  He offered to show us the way to where he lives, so we happily agreed, seeing as neither of us had been to Auch before.  On the way, he became our tour guide as he showed us Auch's big Cathedral (which is actually kinda beautiful in a very imposing and apostate way).  The cathedral is at the top of a big hill and from it, you can see most of Auch and the surrounding area, so that was cool.  Going down the hill there was also a really nice, big staircase with some verses of the Bible made of metal on the ground of one tier written in Latin.  Apparently, they are about Noah and the arc. Kinda interesting.

   Auch is pretty nice, kinda reminds me of Angoulême, where I used to go for exchanges while I served in Périgueux. 

   So we arrived at our destination and it turns out that Philipe, who comes to church almost every week along with the other older member, lives in a mental hospital...
He is mostly sane, but that explains why he always acts more like a kid than an old man. 
We talked with him and shared a video in the waiting room of the hospital.  The fact that we visited him made him really happy!  After the lesson, as we were leaving the mental hospital, we saw some of the other patients walking around, and we deducted that Philipe is probably the most sane person there!  He's honestly probably in there because he no longer speaks French very well.  He speaks better English in fact, but that's probably because he served a mission in Canada and lived in England for a while.  

Friday we had transfer calls and weekly planning.  We went around and said goodbye to some of our friends and invited

Elder Bennett

hallelujah means welcome!

hallelujah means welcome! 

Hello everyone!! this week we got our transfer calls and i moved up into switzerland to a ville called Yverdon!! its awesome into a little mountains and a lake too! my new companions name is Elder Weinmann and hes French hes still got a few weeks left in training, hes allready a great guy!! hahah its gunna be really good for my french! im really excited for this transfer and plus, i get to have a Swissmiss, (christmas in swiss) 

this last week, i spent in Agen, and we did some good work, we found some good people to start teaching and it was a week full of meetings! rendez-vous. i forgot what to call it. and thats what i loved about Agen is there was alwasy someone fun to talk to! 

we had a Christmas meal at the church and it was really cool! we ate really good too!

appointments, thats the word i was looking for. 

the sunday was sad becuase i was saying my a la prochain( to the next time) to everyone and it was pretty sad, then, we went up to a super strong members house, it was her birthday, and we celebrated it with her! it was great! i dont have a whole lot of time, today! but love you all! best of wishes! 

Love, 

Elder Benett 

Elder Bennett

Elder Dallen Bennetts Letter nov 27 - dec 11

Salut!! 

last week, Elder Murdock and I did a whole ton of contacting, and porting ( tracting). it was more that what i have usually done! it was hard and pretty cold because it is close to christmas, which means its usally pretty cold, unless your in the tropics *cough* friends toward the Equator. it always feels so satifying to find those people who want to follow Jesus Christ! 

ahh and now for my french that i work everyday on. there is this elder whos a native french speaker and idk, my goal is to speak great french. so i asked this native french speaker what i should do, he said, practice reading with a pen in your mouth, so you have to try hard to pronounce the words. so its pretty funny, just imagine me trying to pronouch all these frenche R's and OU's with a pen in my mouth, its pretty great. 

Last Monday, It was our Christmas Conference!! it was so great and President and Sister Brown came down to toulouse for it and we had such a great timme! we made little baggys with candy in it, and a "light the world" card in it and went out and gave it to some people!.. theres alot of poeple who dont like candy much.. haha it was alot of fun and we met some really cool people! 

we ate a whole bunch, and laughed a whole ton, and watched some proformances from missionaries, it was super great! 

also this week we went back to Aix en Provence for my companions legality, we woke up at 5 A.M. which.. if anyone on amission knows. sleep is valuable. haha that was hard and the train wasnt super confortable.  but we made it safely and it was a smooth ride! 

we had some really great lessons with people this week. some Amis, Recent Converts, and Members. its alot alot of fun around christmas time! one of our amis, her name is Maire, she is super sweet, she loves to follow jesus christ, she is just having a problem with church athority because she thinks every church with the name Jesus christ is the ONE! haha but she is super charitable. she talks a whole lot, but for this christmas season, she siad, me and my comp are like her sons, and that she loves us, she gave us for christmas a super cool scarf and gloves and some l'eau de toilette. it was super nice of her and i was touched my that. 

love you guys, thanks for all your examples of followers of Christ. 

love,

Elder Bennett

pics, 

1. Elder murdock and I

2. christmas in ville nueve

3. pretty spot in Agen

4. old man named Philip. he speaks perfect english, better than french, and he was trying to give me bunny ears. he also brings marshmellows every sunday to give to kids. 

5. alexandre, he said we were eskimos

6-10. light the world

11. PASCALE and we decorated her tree:)

LIGHTTHEWORLD!

okay!! so this week the basic run down was alot of trains, my companion got to do his legality in AIX which is a super cool ville, ive got a few pictures this week! 

anyways, this week started out with Pday in toulouse, with Elder Wagner and Elder Alveranga and Elder Murdock, i went on an exhchange with Elder alverange, who can speak spanish, portugese, english, french, chinese. he is a weapon. we went hard on contacting, and he really helped me with my french and my contacting! 

we then went back to chez nous in Agen, and left the nexxt morning for Aix, all day on trains, then i saw another Stud of a missionary, Elder Sundwall, hes such a cool dude and i look up to him alot! 

we got back and went to a conference with a president Johnson and President Brown, it was a good way to spend Thanks Giving, he talked about the importants of Faith, commitment to the commandments, and Testimony. as we use our faith to commit ourselves to the commandments our testimonies grow.

we got back, AND WE HAD A BRANCH TALENT SHOW! hahah me and my comp played 'silent night' by filling up glasses with water to change the tone! it worked out really good! and we did a another act with a member who is from south africa and we sang a south african song and did a south african dance! it was really cool! haha it was alot of fun and it helped our branch grow closer together! 

i hope everyones week was well! je vous aime!! make time to LIGHTTHEWORLD! LIGHTTHEWORLD! 

Love,

Elder Bennett

more pics

This week we had three mangez-vous

HI EVERYONE! This week has been great! My transfer has been a little bit differnt with a new companion, but we are seeing some cool things when we are completely obedient! 

This week we had three mangez-vous, (dinners) and they were all so good! We had a grear district meeting and focused on the . what lack i yet. talk. Its about bettering ourselves! 

One story id like tl focus on this week is a members house we were able to go to this week, her house was really hard to get out to so this time was one out of the few times missionaries have come! This lady is from brasil and actually  served where my dad served. Porto alegre brasil. She is so sweer and shows so much christ like character. Her husband is not a member and is somewhat closed to the church. We were having dinner and our lesson and their little 7 year old girl said the opening prayer. This cute innocent 7 year old said a prayer blesing her dad, blessing her family, blessing the missionaries, and it was so great. The spirit was so strong, we all shed a little tear. So if yiu can, please ask for the the heart of the father to be softened to hear the voice of the spirit! 

I love you guys, stay faithful! Light the world! 

Im grateful for all your influences on me! 

Love, 

Also heres soome videos. 

https://drive.google.com/a/myldsmail.net/file/d/1-RK7oIxbfKiVSee1P-s_-VUC6EK4U2bg/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/a/myldsmail.net/file/d/1zt-JS_pGQiL-c04FPTRrQyC7I8xKRDgr/view?usp=drivesdk

Elder Bennett

To Mom

HII MOM!! haha thats good french with bonjour! 

yes, the its like humid and cold here so it like seeps into your body and just gets cold! hahah 

ahh yes! brauntae sent me some pictures and said that you went on a fun ride ther?? that is really cool how you guys can do that now! thats super fun for sure!! 

ahh terrell! hes a stud! he would be a super great missiionary! he should go!! haha wrestling will hold cause hes good enough! ah yes! there has been many moments when i think of that movie! hahah

ah wow! and it will start snowing pretty soon too so that good! thats go ing to be an awesome yard to come back to! 

What???? jordens football is over already? thats crzzy! and i hope basketball will go good! he'll love getting to know the bball boys more! but rec is honestly so fun. so he should do that as well. 

haha yes knitting is great! its like something we can do when we need to relax and unwind. plus. the recent Convert, Pascale heired, (you can search her on facebook on my friend list if  you want) haha she knitts with us too and i think we might start knitting with her neighbor which woulld be a cool way to get a new investigator! 

hahah so i got my new companion yesterday. his name is elder murdock and hes from south jordan. hes got red hair and im sure youll see some pictures soon. so hes different than my last comp. hes french is not good. haha so its funny when im correcting him when hes been out for a year. so iim hoping my french will still be able to stay decent. he aslo sleeps in. so were gunna have to work on that. haha but other than that. my dream last week came true. i was able to just play basketball in my church clothes. and total wreck these french kids. hahah it was fun. we got some contacts from it, they like playing ball with me and my old comp! hahah thats been a dream though. so yah. and we also went to a cool rugby matcch the other day and it reminded me of connyrs rugby days! 

anywasy love you mom and sorry i hadda email today! 

PS; i gave your number to one of my freinds, so she might be calling or texting you soon. idk why. but eh.. ca va. she cool and cute so its all good. hhaha 

love, 

Elder Bennett

2 corinthians 5: 7 ( for we walk by faith, not by sight:)

to me this week, ive been thinking about this scripture, what is it that we give up to take steps by faith and not by sight. to stretch and grow. 

why is it important to walk by faith and not sight? thats how we grow, learn, be where we need to be. 

why is it hard to walk by faith and not sight? because us as humans like to know and see.  but faith, is knowing that god is there and you can lean on him. he will not leave us alone. 

so this week i got a new companion! thanks elder Romer for being my trainer! he did great and i love that man. hes  a great role model!

so im staying in agen for at least another 6 weeks! my new comp is elder Murdock and im excited to show him around and meet all the great people here in Agen. 

so this week was such a good time, me and my comp( elder romer) got a text that told us that some of our friends around the area were playing ball. and a few americans playing some ball against some french. pfft.  we rolled up in our church clothes and started playing. that was a great time to play these kids. they werent all that bad, but we still won! its great because they got to see us as real people. we got some numbers from that and that will be cool if we can get them to come to church in the future! 

we also went to a members house here who has a pond and got to use his fish trap. it was super cool and hes got a big yard we are thinking of doing an activity of golfing in his yard. hahha yah its a yard. 

the missions going good! its getting cold now, litterally everyone tells us they saw the bird flying south so that means its cold now. haha love you all!! 

ps: thats elder Romer and the christmas tree. 

Love, 

Elder Bennett

the path to Miradoux

WOW! okay so iwasnt able to write a big weekly last week because we were short on time to write! but ill make up for it on this email!

okay! so to start back it was my comps Bday a few days ago and we went to a members home whos about 20 years old and made a little cookie cake think and just had a good time! so shout out to my comp, happy bday elder Roemer. 

the story of the "path to Miradoux" 

okay, so once upon a time, me and my comp just got out of a great meal with a member and we are walking to

our bus stop. i check our phone and we see a text.  we got a text saying that someone from Miradoux wanted to get a book of mormon! so super exciting! we make plans to go out there the next day. we take about a 50 minute bus ride out there, which while on the bus ride we talked with a women who wanted to buy a book of mormon.( which is rare, usually its hard just to give them away free!) then we were dropped off at Sainte marie ( not Miradoux yet) we thought there would be a bus that would go to this small town of miradoux. but nothing. so we walked, and walked and walked. for about 20 kelometers that one trip. but it was great! the scenes are beautiful witht the roling hills of france we also found a little fruit that was realy weird and we have no idea what it was. but theres a picture down below. ! we finally got the the little town and we were looking for the address number 1. and there is like 7 or 8 houses with 1 on it. so we got to guess. ended up finding the guy with his name on his mailbox. knocked on the door. turns out, this guy is not interesteed and it was ajoke that someone put in his information. but jokes on him. we  found two new amis ( investiagtors) from that trip! so all in all it all worked out! 

okay! i also want to talk about the Character of Christ. there is a film in the MTC that talked about this, the Character of Christ is turning outward, when the natural man would turn inward. its when turning outward on self pity, and helping others! and i am so impressed with how often i am seeing in here. there is a member in our branch and is so good at this. there is a few kids that just cant sit still. while i and some members sit there thiinking to ourselves" ah why cant they sit still or be quite" but this lady does something about it. she goes and help the sitiation, i am trying to learn how to beetter first think like that. think of others. help others. becasue thats why im here, in france, for others:) 

anyways! love you all and i hope all is going great!

Love,

Elder Bennett

For the Fam...

HEYY family!! so we dont have a whole ton of time to type this week but i wanted to let you guys know how my week went:)

so monday and tuesday i was in toulouse, which is a bigger city and way fun, because we go on splits with the other elders and its super fun! 

wednesday we got back to agen, and we ate food at pascales and my bike also broke way bad. like all my spokes popped off. soo bo if you know how to fix that. lmk. 

thursday was just alot of porting ( knocking doors) and its always so fun. because honestly its such a guessing game! haha 

friday and saturday just tried to do lots of passes and talk to our amies and members

sunday wwas church, and it was awaeome. we saw a miracle. a lady just showed up to church and siad she has seen our church and always felt like she needed to come. i love it when that happens. soo much easier like that! haha 

also. i wanna show you guys how inspired our leaders our. my mission president is so inspired. me and elder romer white washed Agen. not alot of missionaries like Agen becaise they say that nothing happens there. holy well presidient was inspired to white wash it. the members are really opening up to the missionaires now and that is were the works starts! dad youve got a big job as a ward mission leader to get it going! and now Agen is exploding! we see miracles every day. and we have 2 families that could get baptized, we have so much going on now. our weeks feel up really fast. but its so cool how we went from nothing to so much, because of how insipred presiddent is. 

anways! love you guys and love hearing from you all!! 

your bro, and son:)

Elder Bennett

Met the Mayor of Agen...

alright! this week you can tell its offically fall here. haha everyone doesnt leave their house unless they are wearing very fance, french super cool scarfs jackets cute lil boots and the whole outfit! even though its not that cold... but i guess its cold enough!

one of my coolest things that happened this week, we met the mayor of Agen. and he was super nice and invited us over to meet with him! hahaha so stay tuned for a king lamonhi story! 

we also did some super cool family history with a recent conver this week, ive got a picture of that. 

the best thing thats happened was last night, 

we had a good lesson with a family that we found a few weeks ago! we were able to pray with them for the first time as a family. ok. on that topic. i remember reading an email form a good friend. about parents teaching their kids, and then i read a good discors from a friends mom on that as well. and ive reallized that the ability to teach is so important. and ive learned so much at home. becuae my parents have done a good job of making a home a place of learning and a place of love! so. it was cool to start teaching about eternal familys to this family who this message was so unique and so new. 

i love all you guys and i hope all is well! read the book of mormon, follow and sustain your leaders, choose the right. in this there is safety and peice. 

Love,

Elder Bennett

PS: some photos of MTC, and of france and family history