Harrisburg Week 6

I'm so glad that everything went well for Mel's surgery, except for the elongated periods of waiting time. That's no fun. I guess Hospitals are notorious for that. I'm glad her pain is minimal and she's adjusting to the eating styles now! That would be no fun!  She's been in my prayers constantly, and I have such a good companion; he prays for her too! I didn't ask him to do it, he just did one night in our companionship prayer.

So I'm super excited for Steve to get his mission call!! And guess what? President Topham gave me permission to be able to call home when it comes! I'm pretty pumped! I'm pretty excited for it! Two weeks from now!! I'm also glad that you were able to meet President Summerhays! He's such an amazing man isn't he? I'm guessing he'll be some kind of General Authority one of these days. I was expecting the church to be completely full too! I guess I was right if there were that many people there! That's impressive! Elder Killpack and I were thinking about how many people would be: his family, all the missionaries, their parents/families, and the main ward. It's pretty intense!

So this week was a pretty average week I think. Another Transfer has come and gone, and now I'm starting 13 of 17 transfer of my mission! Elder Killpack and I are staying together another transfer! YAY! Our investigators are doing fine. There's not much new with them. Did I tell you about a new investigator named Verna A....? She's a really neat lady that we found a couple weeks ago. She said that she would be baptized as soon as she found out that the church was true! We don't have a date for her yet because she still has to come to church and read some more out of the Book of Mormon. Oh and this week we came across some Anti material about the church, particularly Joseph Smith. It was ridiculous! It made me laugh a few times because of how ridiculous it was, but it did a good job on making the church, and our doctrines look outrageous. If someone knew nothing about the church and came across that stuff, they would become totally opposed to everything that has to do with the church. Anyway, the Church is true, and "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing". So I take comfort in that!

Well I guess that's it for now! Have a great week!

love,

Benjamin

Harrisburg Week 5

Happy Independence day (Yesterday)!!!! The New mission president is so awesome!! I had the opportunity to be able to meet him on Friday for our Zone Leader Council over in Pittsburgh! Yes, I had to endure another 4 hour drive back over. It'll be a monthly thing as long as I'm a ZL, and as long as I'm over in HBG. But it's fun because it's a beautiful drive, and it's a time where I can just relax :) You don't get too many of those opportunities on the mission. President Topham will be, and is, a great mission president! I'm so excited to be able to work with him. And guess what? He didn't serve a mission when he was a young man, he just got married right out of HS! But he told us when he spoke to Elder Anderson of the Twelve, and President Eyring (yeah, cool I know) the it wasn't that important that he didn't because the form and style of missionary work the he would have performed, is much different nowadays. During his training in the MTC, Elder Perry said to all the mission presidents, that they needed to take the way of missionary work that they had learned during their missions and to put it in the back of a drawer, close it, lock it with a key, and throw away the key. Pres. Topham is a very spiritual man and has a great vision of the future of this mission. It's been a great transition. And No, there haven't been any rule changes.... yet. :)

The missionary work is going pretty good so far! This past Sunday our investigators Jim and Elizabeth S...... came to church when they said that they weren't able to make it! So that threw us for a loop and caught us off guard. But all went well. They stayed for all 3 meetings and seemed to enjoy it. Elizabeth, I think, bonded well with the sisters of the ward because she has an 11 month old baby girl, and of course, there are lots of mothers with children here. We were able to find a couple new investigators this week which is awesome! We're very excited that the Lord is blessing us with people to teach. And when we go finding, we find.

This 4th of July was a pretty good one! In order to ensure the safety of all the missionaries in the mission, we were instructed that we needed to be in our apartments by 6pm. And guess what? P-day is from 10am to 6pm! So we practically got the "day off" haha! It was fun. We met up with the walking elders here in Hbg, and went to Walmart, bought all the things necessary to have a grill out session, and we grilled! Last weekend we were able to obtain a grill for free from someone who was having a garage sale. So all we needed was charcoal, and a new grate for the grill. So we were also given a couple gift cards to Walmart so we were able to obtain needed things at minimal costs! We had grilled burgers, chicken, and pineapple! IT was great! The only thing was that a couple pieces of the chicken was a little undercooked... not raw, but undercooked. Everyone is healthy today so I have no worries about it.

There are some pretty exciting things going on back home! Steve is now an Elder, Mel is going in for surgery, Steve will soon be getting his mission call! I am pretty sure that I'll be able to call home when he get's his mission call. I know that President Summerhays allowed it, I guess I'll have to ask President Topham and see what his take on it will be. I sure hope that I'll be able to. I think what will have to happen if I get to call, you'll have to call me the day it comes in, and then call before he opens it. That would be best. But, we'll see what President Topham says.

It was great to hear from you today! I love you Mom! Have a great week! I look forward to hearing from you next week!

Love,
Benjamin

Harrisburg Weeks 3 & 4

6/20/11
 Life in Harrisburg is pretty awesome! It is so pretty out here, I will send a couple pictures.  The people here are really nice and the areas I cover are nice too! The Ward is great! Not as awesome as the last one I was in, but who's comparing? There are walking Elders that cover downtown HBG and they live real close and often times we have to give them a ride, which is okay but it tends to take up our time some days too. Which I don't like. Anyway, I love it here! There are so many fireflies!!! The other day we were driving through a farmy part of our area and we looked out over the fields and there were thousands of them all lighting up and flashing! It was incredible!! I love it!

We had an investigator come to church for the first time yesterday! Her name is Danesha H..... and she seems really committed! Her husband isn't really interested but he is supportive of her investigating. We'll get him to come one day! He's a really good guy. I think that Danesha will progress nicely, we have another appointment with her this coming weekend.

Love,

Benjamin

6/27/11

So I wrote this big long letter just barely and was working on it for the past 30 minutes then all of the sudden, right before I clicked the save as a draft button the computer ended my session and kicked me out! Therefore I lost a huge long letter. Anyway so I'll try to get all the important parts in it.

So this week was a long and tiresome week. The main thing that made it so tiresome is because I did a lot of driving. There was a missionary that had to go home due to some medical problems (he had a herniated disk in is back. Painful.) so Elder Killpack and I had to drive a long way to pick him up then take him to the airport the next day. This
happend from Thursday to Friday. Anyway, I never realized how tiring driving actually is. It's crazy! So for a lack of better words, I was completely pooped by Saturday and Sunday. I fell asleep in elders quorum, and then had a massive twitch which woke me up and caused a few pairs of eyes to fall on me. It was funny!

We found a great young couple tracting! They are awesome! Their names are Jim and Elizabeth S....... They are currently baptists and we have a few things to overcome with them, but they are open nonetheless, and somewhat hardheaded. But the power of the Book of Mormon, if they read it, will soften their hearts on a few points of the gospel.

President Topham is officially my new mission president today! He flies in and once he and President Summerhays look at eachother in the eyes, the keys of the mission go directly to President Topham. I'm pretty excited to meet him this weekend at Zone leader Council!

Hershey world was pretty good. It smelled wonderful! The tour was a nice, a little kiddish but hey, It's the experience. Then I bought some Extra Long Twizzlers! They measured at 18"! It was awesome!

All in all this week was great! I love you and I hope you have a great week this coming week!

Love,
Benjamin