Ahhhhh my dearest family and friends,

Hola everyone! How are you doing? Wow can you believe it?! The time has come and my mission is coming to an end. It is such a weird mixture of feelings. But I am so grateful for the chance that I had to serve a mission. It has been incredible. It has changed my life forever and I will forever be grateful. I hope to never forget all that I learned and experience here in the Spain Barcelona mission. 

I love the people so much here and I will miss them with my whole heart. They have been a blessing in my life. It is amazing how God gives you this new capacity to love people as a missionary. It was so bitter sweet to be in my last sacrament meeting here in on the mission. I just tried to soak it all in. It is hard to imagine my life not as a missionary haha. I am nervous and sad, but happy and excited. I know that God has a plan for all of us and that change is esencial to our progression. I am excited for what God has instore!

I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. And because he loves us so much he sent his son Jesus Christ to show us the way back home to him. I know that Christ lives and that he is our Savior. I know that if we live his gospel we will be blessed with peace and happiness. I know that the church that Christ established when he was on earth was restored by the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that The Book of Mormon is true and that it is the evidence of the restoration of the true church. I know that President Monson holds the priesthood keys to lead and guide the church today. How blessed we are to have the gospel on Jesus Christ in our lives! 

Thank you for all you love and support. I love you all so much! 

Que Dios les bendiga! 

xoxo,

Hermana Benson

Hola everyone! How are you doing? Thanks for all the emails. I love hearing from you. This last week was super good but really crazy. We worked hard and are sooo tired. It was Hermana Lopez and Hassett´s first week with me in the area so I am trying to help them get to know the area and all the members, investigators, recent converts and less actives. Haha but they are so great and we are having so much fun together. Hermana Lopez has been on the mission for 6 months now. And she is always so postive and is always making us laugh super hard. And Hermana Hassett has been out for a year and she is a wonderful teacher. I am learning a lot from them and I am glad that I have the chance to serve with them. 

There were so many miracles this week, I am not even sure which one I want to share with you. I think the greatest miracle was that God blessed us with many new investigators to teach. We talk with a lot of people through out the day and God blesses us with prepared people to teach. Hard work and obedience equals blessings. One of my favorite families that we found was Viviana, Alejandro, and their two small children. We were on our way to a visit and we saw this cute little family eating ice cream and I thought well perfect, lets talk to them! Haha so we went over there and started talking and it turns out that the dad, Alejandro, had actually done some research about the church. Pretty great. So we shared something quick with them and then set up another visit for this wednesday. And I am super excited because teaching families is just the best. 

Yesterday we were blessed to have a specialized training with President Pace. It was an amazing meeting. The spirit was felt super strong. We focused a lot on The Savior, The Book of Mormon, and How to begin teaching in preach my gospel. My favorite part of the meeting was when 3 missionaries were asked to share their favorite story of the Savior and then inbetween their little talks we sang primary songs about the Savior. It was perfect. And then I always love the testimonies at the end of the meeting. It has been such a blessing to serve with President Pace and to learn so much from him. Hermana Pace wasn´t there yesterday because she is in Utah right now for her daughter´s wedding! 

Well my dear family and friends. And I am so grateful for all your love and support during my mission. My mission has been amazing. There really just aren´t words to describe it. But I am so grateful for all that I have learned and experienced. It has changed my life. I love you all so very much. And I will see some of you soon! 

Besos y abrazos,

Hermana Benson 

Attached is a picture of me and my district! 

Hola guapos,

Heyy!! ¿Como estáis? How was everyone´s week? It was fun hearing from all of you. Thank you for your emails! Sorry you didn´t hear from me yesterday. We have transfers today so our preparation day is Tuesday instead of Monday. But realllll sad news. My dearest companion Hermana Hair is being transfered. We really thought we would be together until I go home but nope. We were both pretty shocked. But I know that God sends us where we are needed. And I will be given not just one new companion, but two! Haha oh we are going to be a trio for a few weeks. I don´t know them yet... But their names are Hermana Hasset (from Ohio) and Hermana Lopez (from Spain). I´m sure they will be great just like all the other hermanas. I am just praying that they can learn the area quick before I leave. 

Okay I wanted to share with you two miracles today...

The other day we went on splits with members and contacted people on the street. And my companion and a cute member named Norma contacted this man named Alberto from the Dominican Republic. (attached is a photo with us and him and church) And we had our first cita with him on Saturday. During the lesson he expressed his desires to us that he wanted to change and start a new life. He told us about his past and we can see how badly he needs the gospel in his life. He was super receptive to our message and is now preparing to be baptized on the 16th of August. Wow it really was such a miracle! And the right after the lesson the hermanas from the other ward were having a baptized so he stayed for the baptism too. And then he came to church on sunday and loved it. I am really excited to see him continue to progress in the gospel. 

Miracle number two. The next attached photo is of my companion and I with Susi, Jose Luis and his son Jose Luis. About a month ago Susi and Jose Luis showed up to church because Jose Luis wanted to be baptized. Susi is an inactive member who had be teaching her boyfriend Jose Luis about the church. And that is when they showed up to church. And so we have been teaching them and preparing him for baptism while they wait for the papers so they can get married first.But they were just here in Barcelona for a few months while they were taking an art course. And on thursday the went back to Valencia, where they live. But here is where more miracles come in! So about a week ago they recieved their papers to get married. And my companion is being transfered to Valencia so she is going to help them get married and him get baptized! And they already have plans to come to Salt Lake in a year so they can get sealed. Ahhh I am so excited for them. They are wonderful people who have seen how the gospel really does bring us so much happiness, hope, and peace. 

I too have seen how the gospel has blessed my life so much. I know it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it is the only way that we will make it back to our Heavenly Father. I know that God loves us and that he wants us to have joy in this life! And it is through the gospel that we find this everlasting joy. Thank you for all your love and support. I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Benson

 

Hola everyone!! How are you doing? It was great to here from you again this week. It makes me so happy to know that everyone is alive and well. Can you believe how fast summer is flying by? It is almost august! But life is so great. 

This past week started out pretty slow but my good companion Hermana Hair and I kept on working hard and moving forward with faith. There may have been a little stomach flu in the middle of the week haha but we worked through it. But as we got to the end of the week it was apparent that we needed a big miracle on Sunday to be able to reach the goals that we had set at the beginning of the week. So we made a plan and called some members to help. And we prayed a lot. And then all of Sunday afternoon we went on splits with members and got to work! And it was awesome. We ended up getting in contact with some inactives in our area that we had no idea about before and now we will be working with. And we found some new investigators to teach! And we ran into investigators that we hadn´t been able to get in contact with in a while. We saw miracle after miracle, and at the end of the night when we got back together we found out the we had reached our goals! Ahh it was the best. Haha and we went to bed sooo tired last night. I guess what this whole experience taught me was that when we set goals, have faith, and do all we can do, God answers our prayers! 

Today was my last mission leadership council (haha I think that´s what you call it in english... It´s just concilio in spanish). And they gave me a chance to share what I have learned on my mission. It was really hard to sum it up in words. But I am so grateful for all that I have learned and experienced on my mission. And I still have time left!! Haha. Anyways, it was such a powerful meeting. I feel so grateful for the chance I have had to work closely with President and Hermana Pace. I love the Spain Barcelona Mission so much. 

I know that God knows us and loves us. And that everything in our lives happens for a reason. I am grateful for all of you and for the roles that you have played in my life. I hope you have a great week! 

xoxo,

Hermana Benson

Attached is a picture of Hermana Reid and I! I trained her in San Sebastian about a year ago.

 

Hey everyone! Thank you for the emails! I love hearing from you each week. I am glad that everyone is having a fun summer. Speaking of summer, it has been really hot here lately! Haha Hermana Hair and I have been using our spanish fans a lot. I don´t know if it is hotter than Utah but it is so humid. It does weird things to my hair haha.

Anyways things are going pretty good! I am still loving the ward and area so much. We have been working hard to find new investigators, so last week we spent a lot of time contacting and using our pass by list. We usually get home and we are sooo tired. 

Recently we have been working a lot with our investigator named Cecilia. She is a 40 year old woman from Cuba. She just walking into the church three weeks ago. She said she was looking for a church to join. She has been so prepared! She is progressing quick and I think she will be baptized within the month! The sad thing is, is that she has been through a lot of hard things. She just needs a lot of love and care but that´s what we are here for! So on Sunday we had her come a little bit early to church and we brought her some clothes (including a skirt of church!) and a few hygiene things. So she changed her clothes and we did her hair and makeup and helped her feel beautiful! She has also been attending english and piano classes (that the missionaries teach) in the church! And she is so happy. 

Well I can´t think of much else to write. Other than I love you all so much! Thank you for your love and support. It means a lot to me! I hope you have a great week! 

besos,

Hermana Benson 

Hola guapos,

Hola! Como estáis? Espero que todos estén muy bien. Hermana Hair and I had another really great week here in Barcelona. I am loving every minute. I am so grateful to be serving here. We have been blessed in our proseliting area. And recently we have seen some great success working with the members! 

The other day we took a member with us to go pass by a list of inactive members and to contact along the way. And we brought with us Hermana Norma, she is a 60 year old woman from Peru. She is always so willing and excited to help. At the beginning we were not having a ton of success but after about 30 minutes we felt the impression to go knock a door... And we weren´t even knocking doors. So we went, and the first bell that we rang let us in. It turned out to be this woman named Sandra, who is also from Peru. Since then we have now been back 2 times to visit her! After that we were walking through a park and found a bunch of cute spanish ladies sitting on a bench so we stopped and talked with them, prayed and sang a hymn. They loved it and hopefully they will come to church too! And just yesterday we had another member with us and our visit got canceled, so we went to the park with her and ended up sharing a message with a group of people who were there. Haha it was a little intimidating but fun at the same time!  

I think that member missionary work doesn´t just mean asking members for references. It means helping them experience just a little bit of what we experience as missionaries everyday. It builds their faith and gives them more excitement to share the gospel with their own friends and families. I know that God is aware of us when we involve the members and that he puts prepared people in our paths. 

D&C 4- If you have desires to serve, then you are called to the work! 

Thank you for all your love and prayers! I love you all mucho! 

Besos,

Hermana Benson

Attached are some photos from the Sagrada Familia... It was beautiful!

I forgot to tell you that I went to do an intercambio in Girona this past week! It was so fun to go back to the area that I opened last year. This is a picture of me with the Thielke family. They are a great member family that I love so much in Girona! I also got to go back and see my gypsy family. They are doing good and were happy to see me. I also got to go see Moroni and his family! 

Love you all!