Hola everyone! How are you?! It is so fun to read all of your emails and see your cute pictures! Hearing from you makes my day! I am glad that everyone had a good week. Haha I had a good week to but I am so exhausted. We were so busy but that´s how it should be! I do have a new companion now La Hermana Bracken. We came in to the mission together and she is also a sister training leader. It is way different then my last companionship. Pero bueno. We are different but she is a really good missionary and we are getting more and more used to each other. But I think that we are going to see a lot of success serving together! 

In the mission for our back up plans we do this thing called the pass by list. We make lists and maps of people (less actives, members, recent converts, and previous investigators) and we pass by them when visits fall through. I love it because when we are in an area and something cancels we pull out the list and pass by people that live close by. Anyways this last week we saw great success from this. Even though things canceled we found some other really great people. We found these two less active people (Americo and Cristina) who told us that we could come back to eat and visit with them.They are so nice and we are excited to try and help them come back to church. It is hard for less actives to come back to church, they need our help. And after meeting them we were walking and I contacted this lady on a bench named Rosa. She was really nice and interested. So we taught her a little bit and prayed with her. I am excited to teach her as well! We also got a reference of this excommunicated man named Jonas. He is nice and has desires to come back. It will be really interesting to work with him and the bishop as we help him prepare to become a member again. And he also has a non member sister who is interested in the gospel too! I feel so so blessed to be here. We are seeing so many miracles and the work is moving forward. 

I am so grateful for my mission and I have learned so much. I have learned the importance of doing the little things like reading, praying, and going to church. I knew they were important before but now I really understand and see why. I see the difference that it makes in my life and those who we teach and visit. My faith has also grown so much. I know that God listens to our prayers and that as we ask in faith he answers us. And that he loves us so much and wants to bless our lives. These are just a few of the many things that I have learned thus far! I love my mission. And I love you all too! I hope that you have a great week! 

xoxo,

Hermana Benson

Hola everyone! It was so so great talking with you all on Sunday. It made my week for sure! Haha too bad it always go by too quick. But I will see you soon! Anways not much has changed since we talked on Sunday haha but we have been busy visiting people and preparing Hermana Williams to go to her next area. She leaves this afternoon. And I will also be picking up my new companion this afternoon. Her name is Hermana Bracken. And she came into the mission with me and is also a sister training leader, so it is going to be great! I think that it will make going on exchanges a lot easier and more efficient. 

So yesterday we had a great experience that I wanted to tell you about. We went to go visit a great spanish family in the ward. The spanish members are few, so it is always a pleasure to work with them. They have been members for a long time and all the children have served missions. And the oldest son is actually the bishop right now. Anyways we went over to see them and as we started talking and eating (haha like always) they got a call from a neighbor who was going to come over to return something she borrowed. And then the mom got really excited and nervous because she told us that she had been thinking that she really wanted to share the gospel with this neighbor named Margarita. And that before it had just never worked out to have the hermanas over to meet their neighbor. Haha so before she came over they made a plan of what they were going to do and how they were going to get her to come inside. It was so cute and funny that they were so nervous. Haha I think most members feel that way though. It can be hard to share the gospel but if we act out of love everything will be okay. So we had the chance to meet her and she came in and sat down for a while. We just got to know her and then invited her to come to church. It was awesome. The members did such a great job. Ahh this is how missionary work should be. And their neighbor reacted really well saying that she would like to come to church. Yay!! I am so grateful for this experience because I have really been praying for the opportunity to work with the members more. And I think it really built the faith of the family. And it was so cool that God knew exactly when we were going to be there and then he sent their neighbor over right in that moment! 

God lives and he loves us. He is preparing the hearts of his children to hear the gospel. Alma 16:16-17. And the work is really going to move forward if members and missionaries work together. I am so grateful to be a missionary. I really love it! And I want to invite you to begin to pray if you are not for missionary opportunities. I know that it will bless your life and increase your faith! Thank you for all your love and support! I love you all and I hope you have a great week! 

xoxo,

Hermana Benson

Hola everyone! How are you doing? Sorry I did not have time to send a family email yesterday because I had a meeting all day. But it was a great meeting as usual where we discussed how we can help improve the mission. We are really trying to work better with the members, less actives, and recent converts, while of course still finding and teaching investigators. President Monson has said that now is the time the members and missionaries must work together to bring souls unto God. And I have a testimony that missionary work goes so much better when the members are more involved! I have really grown to love the members so much on my mission and I am so grateful for all their efforts to help. 

This week was a great week. We saw and continue to see many miracles. one of my favorites was with our investigator Johnson. He is the man from Nigeria who we found while looking for another reference that the Elders gave us. We had a lesson with him this week were he told us that not only he was going to become a member of our church but his brothers and sisters as well. He said that he had been telling the a little bit about the church. And it turns out that his brother is a former investigator who was taught on the islands of our mission. Sooo cool!  We were so excited. And he finally came to church for the first time on Sunday! We went and picked him up and we walked over to the church together. And as we got there the members were all super friendly to him which was a blessing. And then we went and sat down in the chapel and listened to the piano music before the meeting started. And as we were sitting there he said, "I really feel the love that is here... I have a new family now." Ahhh it was so great. He has a baptismal date for the 10th of May. 

Another quick story... As we were sitting there with Johnson in the chapel a member came and told us that there was a man outside asking about the english class that we teach. So we went out for a second to talk to him. He told us that he was interested in the class and couldn´t believe that we taught english for free haha. After inviting him to the class, we asked him if he would like to come to sacrament meeting with his.  And guess what?! He came! His name is Eduardo. He stayed for the whole meeting and seemed to really like it. We will see him again tonight at english class. I do not think it was a coincidence that God sent him to the church right as sacrament meeting was starting. What a miracle. There are so many prepared people and God puts them in our paths everyday. 

I love being a missionary and I am grateful to be here. I know that God lives and that he loves him and that we are his children. He has made a pèrfect plan for us to return to live with him. One of my favorite scriptures in 2 Nephi 31:20 says, "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." I know this is true! I know that as we are obedient and faithful that one day we will have eternal life! 

Thank you for your love and support! I love you all and I hope you have a great week and that you have many missionary opportunities placed in your life! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Benson

Attached is a photo of my companion and I. She reached her "9 months" this last week! Haha

Dearest family and friends,

Hello! How was your week?! It is so fun to hear from each of you! And how was Easter? Haha mine and Hermana Williams day hardly felt like an american easter. During planning we stopped for a second so we could hide one chocolate easter egg for each other! haha. And then walking home from church we saw this creepy catholic procession. And then we ended the night with a round of Jenga. But besides all that, the best part of the day was partaking of the sacrament and remembering all that Christ has done for us. I am so grateful each week for the opportunity I have to renew my baptismal covenants and start a new week. I am so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ. I know that he lives and love us! If you hadn´t had the chance I want to invite you to watch the easter video the church has put out. It is stunning. (easter.mormon.org)

I went to the island of Palma this week to do two exchanges and to attend a special conference with Elder Evans from the 70. It is really beautiful out there and luckily I had the chance to fly out there with the Paces. I had no idea they would be on the same flight until I boarded the plane. It is always such a blessing to spend time with them. They are wonderful. One exchange imparticular was amazing. We were blessed with so many miracles! I wanted to tell you one story. I consider it to be one of the greatest miracles I have witnessed thus far of my mission:

A few months ago two hermanas serving out on the islands contacted a man who initially was interested but then the contact was interrupted with a crazy man. Haha awkward contacts happen so so often. But they ended up getting his name and number. And every time they called him he was unable to meet and then left to go on vacation in Germany for about a month. As we were sitting in the church waiting for an appointment we received a call that the woman could no longer come. So Hermana Carter starting looking through the phone and she came accross this man´s information. By the way his name is Jesus so it just makes the story so much better. She talked with Jesus and found out that he had time to meet right then. So we walked over and meet him and bring him back to the church. As we were walking to the church I had no idea how things were going to go. Jesus is a 22 year spaniard, hippy, musician who plays regae music. Basically the coolest combo ever. And we get in the church and there happens to be a member there that we invite to come with us teach Jesus. So we start teaching him... And we find out the he is amazingly prepared. He told us that when we called him he was praying. And that he tries to follow God every day of his life. And that ever since he was young his mother taught him to believe in God and Jesus Christ. As we taught about the Book of Mormon and gave him his own copy he was so excited and grateful. He kept bearing testimony the he knows that God is in the details of our lives. Ahhh it was just so amazing and the spirit was so strong. And the member.. Wow. He bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon and it was so powerful. The whole time during the appointment Jesus was on the edge of his seat and he had the biggest smile on his face. He was so excited when we invited him to read and pray. So then I knew that he had to be invited to be baptized right then and there. So I set up the invitation and turned and looked at the other hermanas giving them the chance to invite him. They invited him and he said with a huge smile of his face, "CLARO!!!" And we set his baptismal date for the 3rd of May. The lesson then ended with us singing a hymn around the piano because we were meeting in the sacrament meeting room. And then we knelt as Jesus offered the closing prayer. After he left we did one of those girly jumpy group hug things. It was wonderful. I am so grateful to have been there. It was an experience that I will never forget. 

Sorry is this is getting long and you are getting bored! Haha. I want to share my testimony with you and say that I know that God knows us. And that he is in the details of our lives. We just have to look for him! We are his children and he has a perfect plan for us. I also love you all so much and I hope that you have a great week! Thanks for all your love and support! 

xoxo,

Hermana Benson

P.S. Yesterday I gave a talk in church! Ahh it is always so nerve racking speaking in spanish! Haha but I think things went good. And it was so cute because the young woman who went before me is a recent convert who was giving her first talk. She was so nervous so I was glad I was there to sit with her and comfort her. It helped me to not think about how nervous I was. And she ended up doing a great job! 

Also I ran into Elder Jacobson on the islands! It is a rare occasion that I see him. He seems to be doing really well! 

Hola everyone! Happy holy week! This week in spain everyone is now celebrating the week of Pascua or Easter. They are going to be some big parade like things with lots of Jesus and The Virgin Mary stuff.... Because of the Catholic influence. And many people even went to mass yesterday... They only go like twice a year. Haha we contacted a man who said, "I just got back from mass." haha and then he pointed to the sky and walked away. Haha pretty great. But it is a really great week to be a missionary because more people are thinking about our Savior Jesus Christ. 

I love this time of year because the trees and flowers are all coming back to life. What great symbolism to help us remember that our Savior also came back to life and that he still lives today! How grateful I am for my Savior Jesus Christ. Thanks to him and his sacrifice we know that we can recieve forgiveness for our sins and that we too can live again. I know that he lives and he loves us and he knows us personally. He is there for us through all the good times and the bad. He gives us the strength we need to carry on. How blessed we are to have this knowledge of the gospel! 

This week in Hospitalet and we saw many miracles! The work is really starting to pick up and we are excited! And guess what?! Marina and David have a date for their wedding!!! It is not until October, but we are so so excited for them. And then after they are married, Marina can be baptized and they can start preparing to go to the temple. Yayyy! I am so happy for them! 

On Thursday I will be flying out to the island of Palma to do a few intercambios with the hermanas out there! And then I will be staying out there until Saturday because an area 70 is coming to speak! It will be really fun and I am excited to see what the islands are like. Oh also this morning my companion and I had the opportunity to have interviews with President Pace. It was the best! I left feeling very edified and motivated. I am also giving a talk on Sunday in our ward... Haha giving talks in spanish always makes me nervous but I am so grateful I have the chance to speak on Easter! So great. 

Well that is really all. Please keep me updated on your lives! Thank you thank you for your emails, love and support! I hope you have a wonderful Easter and that you find time to think of our Savior and his sacrifice for us. 

I love you! Os quiero! 

Hermana Benson

Hola everyone! So sorry I wasn´t able to send out the family email yesterday. I was in a meeting all day long and I didn´t have very much time to email last night but now I have a second to finish.Thank you for your emails. It is so good to here from all of you. It is so nice to have your love and support. 

Hermana Williams and I had a great week here in Hospitalet. We were busy with appointments, found some new investigators, and we had the opportunity to see most of general conference. I hope you all enjoyed conference as much as I did. My favorite talks were those by President Uchtdorf about gratitude and by Elder Holland about discipleship. General Conference is like christmas on the mission and I feel like these talks were what I really needed to hear. I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and that he answers us through many different ways and always in his own time. But I know that general conference is a great time to recieve answers and personal revelation that we are searching for. So I want to invite you to go back and listen to or read the talks. I know that as you do this you will find the direction and guidance you need in your lives. 

This week we found Johnson. Yaayyy. He is great. He is about a 30 year old man from Nigeria. Yes another African. I don´t know, I guess I am meant to teach the Africans here in Spain. Haha but I love it! Anyways we found him when we were going to visit a reference the elders gave us. And we went to the address that they gave us and we found Johnson instead of the other woman. Right away he told us that he wanted to unite himself with our church. Ever since he left Africa 10 years ago he has been looking for a church to join that was not the catholic church. He has so much faith and a strong testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. We invited him to be baptized and to read The Book of Mormon. We are exciting about working with him and we can´t wait for his progression in the gospel! Oh and side note, we could not go into his apartment because there was not a woman there so we were just standing there and teaching for a minute until he brought us out chairs to sit on. Haha so there we were sitting right outside of the door while he sat inside. The few people that walked by while we were there, must have been confused haha. I love being a missionary! 

Another quick story or two... We received a reference from President and Hermana Pace. While they were on a date the other week they met a woman named Pilar. So we went to go visit her and take her a Book of Mormon the other day. She is a spaniard woman who is so so prepared. She was really interested in reading the book of mormon, so we left her with a chapter to read and we will be going back this week! Also walking out of conference I contacted this really nice Columbian man who is also interested in hearing our message! We are meeting with him tonight! I will have to let you know how everything goes. The work is moving forward here in Spain and I am so grateful to be a missionary! 

Please keep me updated on all your lives! I love you all and I hope you have a great week! 

xoxo,

Hermana Benson

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? Thank you for your emails. I love hearing about everyone. I love you all so much. This week has been kind of crazy but all is well. We have been working in two areas because on of the hermanas we were living with went home due to problems with depression. So we have been a trio for about 5 days now. It has been hard juggling both areas but it has also been fun to meet people from the other ward. But the other hermana leaves for a new area today. And they will be closing their area, so now we will be the only hermanas here in hospitalet and we will be living alone ;( They had to close some areas this transfer because so many missionaries finished their mission and not very many are coming in. And they also took 2 Elders out of our area so we now have more area and people to work with, which will be good. 

I am having a hard time of thinking what to say so I just want to share a scripture with you. This is one of my favorite passages of scripture so share with people. And I might have shared it with you before, but that´s okay. It´s found in Mosiah 24: 9- 16. The scriptures are written below. I love this story so much because God knows what we are going through and he loves us so much. And he doesn´t always just take away the things that we are going through but he lightens our burdens and helps us get through them. I know these things are true and that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and who has a perfect plan for us. 

I think of you and pray for you often. I love you all and I hope you have a great day! 

Besos,

Hermana Benson                                                                                    

9 For Amulon knew Alma, that he had been ^aone of the king’s priests, and that it was he that believed the words of Abinadi and was driven out before the king, and therefore he was wroth with him; for he was subject to king Laman, yet he exercised authority over them, and put ^btasks upon them, and put ^ctask-masters over them.

 10 And it came to pass that so great were their afflictions that they began to cry mightily to God.

 11 And Amulon commanded them that they should stop their cries; and he ^aput guards over them to watch them, that whosoever should be found calling upon God should be put to death.

 12 And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their ^ahearts to him; and he did know the ^bthoughts of their hearts.

 13 And it ^acame to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

 14 And I will also ease the ^aburdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as^bwitnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their ^cafflictions.

 15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did^astrengthen them that they could bear up their ^bburdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with ^cpatience to all the will of the Lord.

 16 And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage.