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! 

Hey everyone! How are you all doing? I love hearing from you every week. Thank you for your love and support! 

This has been an amazing week for Hermana Hair and I! I feel so so so blessed. I love my life. I love my mission. I don´t even know where to begin. Okay so the other day we were on the metro headed to the church and I noticed this dad and his cute little girl. And I just looked at my companion and we were both like ahhh lets contact him. So I walk over and start talking with him in spanish and he just goes in english, "Yes the church of jesus christ of latter day saints... I was a member." We were so surprised! He told us that back in his country (Nigeria) he was a member and even recieved a mission call. But since coming here to Spain he has been inactive. Also his name is Loveday, so that just makes everything so much better! So we were able to take his name and address and later that day we went and took him a Book of Mormon. You can tell that he still has a strong testimony and desires to come back. So we are excited to help him! The only problem is, is that he works on Sundays but we are all praying that he will be able to find a way to come. 

Next miracle. We were again on the metro. A woman came up and asked us if we speak spanish because I guess we were speaking in english haha. And of course we answered yes we do! Haha and then we just started talking and she started asking us all the questions and then telling us about her life. Her name is Madelayn and she is from Venezuela And it turns out that she has only been here in Spain for 3 months and has had a really hard time. And she is searching to find purpose in her life and to be spiritually strengthened. So we ended up going to a park and talking with her more and sharing a few scriptures with her. She is such a prepared person and we can´t wait to help her! 

The gospel is true and miracles exist. God loves us. And I love you too! I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

xoxo,

Hermana Benson 

P.S. Today for preparation day we are going through the Sagrada Familia and I am so excited! I will send lots of pictures. And Hermana Hair says hi!

Picture number one is Hermana Hair and I eating food from Ecuador and wearing hats from Columbia (where hermana hair was born). Picture number two- cats. 

Hola! Como están? I hope everyone is doing great! This has been a crazy but wonderful week. On Saturday our investigator Hever got baptized. He was so prepared and it was a beautiful day! I am so excited for him to progress in the gospel. My favorite part of the baptism was when we shared his testimony. And he has a great to desire to share the gospel with his family in Peru. So we are trying to help him send missionaries to his house there. Attached is a photo from the baptism. We were truly blessed with so many miracles this last transfer. 

Also I got transfered! That is why I wasn´t able to email you yesterday... But now I am serving in the actual city of Barcelona! It is pretty close to my last area but it´s a different zone and chapel and everything. But I am so happy and excited to be here. It was really hard to say goodbye to all the people I love so much in Hospitalet. I hope to see them again one day. And now I am companions with Hermana Hair. She is sooo great. She was born in Columbia but raised in Utah. So she speaks english and spanish perfectly. And she is the sweetest girl ever. I am so excited to be with her! Also the area and apartment are beautiful. You can see the Sagrada familia from our window! It´s so cool! And I hear the ward and area are great. 

Hmmm what else... Things are going good on the mission. I love it so much! Time is flying by so that really scares me. So I am trying to take advantage of every minute. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be on the mission it has taught me so much and it has changed me for the better! Thank you for all your love and support! I love you all so much! Have a great week! 

xoxo,

Hermana Benson

First picture is from the baptism.

Next picture is a from the english class that I was teaching every Saturday.

Hola a todos! Como estaís? I can´t believe we are already in summer. It came so quickly! It has been quite warm here lately and I am starting to get a nice farmer´s tan. And my companion is really burnt. I am happy to hear that everyone had a great week! We had a really good week here too. We have be so so blessed. Miracles everyday! 

So we are super excited because we have a baptism this saturday for our friend named Hever. He is about 48 and from Peru. He looked up the church online and showed up to church a few Sundays ago. He is honestly one of the most prepared people I have seen on my mission. He has already read the gospel principles book, is reading the Book of Mormon and he is working on watching all of the general conference sessions. And just yesterday he decided that he wanted to be baptized this Saturday! We were so excited! And he is here alone working in Spain but he has his wife and three kids in Peru and we are working on sending the missionaries to his family too. And we are also working with Jessica and Joshua, who are from Nigeria. They are the best. They too showed up to church a couple weeks ago. They will be baptized the 28th of this month! They love the church so much and it makes me happy! 

Today for preparation day we went and played football as a zone on this field near the olympic stadium it was really fun! It was good to play some real football. But the natives had no idea how to play haha it was funny. There were these other young people from Montreal watching and they came and joined us. But before that when we were waiting for the other missionaries to arrive we ran into Elder Mazzagardi who is in the 70 and his cute wife. They are here on vacation from Brasil trying to avoid all the craziness from the world cup happening there. I will attach a picture! 

Well that is really all for now! I am glad everyone is healthy and happy! I love you all and I hope you have a great week! I look forward to hearing from you again! 

Besos,

Hermana Benson 

Hey everyone! How are you doing? It is always so good to hear from each of you. It makes me happy to know that you are all doing well. I just love you so much! 

This week was a really good week. We saw so many miracles here in our area. We have been blessed with some new investigators that I am really excited about. The first ones are Luis (17) and Mirian (15). They are children of Catalina who is a less active woman. They recently arrived here in Spain from Bolivia. They came so they could be with their mom. And she is so excited and anxious for them to learn about the gospel. They are so so cute! They came with us to play volleyball this saturday morning with all the other young people. We had a good time and we are excited to keep teaching them. We are also going to start teaching Jessica and Joshua from Nigeria. They just walked into church last week with their bibles and all. They are really nice and they like the church a lot. So those are some of the miracle news that we were blessed with this week! 

This month in Spain is the month of invitation... Maybe it´s a world wide thing haha I´m not sure. But it means that this month as a ward we are really focusing on having more people in church every week. So each night at 10:00 we are praying with all the members that they might be blessed with opportunities to share the gospel. It is really great because I feel like it is really united the ward and making them more excited to do missionary work. Go members. They are number one. We met with one member last week named Anna Maria. And she started to tell us about all the things she is doing to share the gospel. When she goes into like phone stores or the apple stores she makes sure to leave the church website on the screen. Haha such a great idea! And she is also taking with her friends at work about the church. And she asked for cards, folletos, and a book of mormom that she could give away! She has caught the missionary fire! Wow we were so impressed and we can´t wait to keep working with her. Members are so important in this work. As missionaries we need them if we want the work to keep moving forward in the Lord´s way. 

Thank you for all your love and support! I hope you have a great week and that you have to opportunity to share the gospel with someone! Les quiero mucho! 

xoxo,

Hermana Benson

P.S. Ahhh also I almost forgot. This week we got a surprise call from Mark Scott (our recent convert) saying that he had made it safely back to Nigeria and that some one that lives in his house is a member and that they are planning on going to church together! Ah I was so relieved and happy to hear that.  

This is my dearest companion Hermana Reid and I at concilio last week! I trained her in San Sebastian last summer... Love her so much! 

Hiii everyone! How are you doing? This week was a great week because Mark Scott got baptized! We have been working really hard with him for the last 3 months and his baptismal dates kept falling through. And so I was praying so so hard that we could have a baptism in our area. I know that God hears and answers our prayers and blesses us when we do our best. All last week we had been trying to meet with Mark Scott but he kept canceling on us. And I was so so sad because I didn´t know if he would be getting baptized. And then finaly on Friday evening we were able to meet with him and he told us that he wanted to be baptized before he goes back to Nigeria.  And I was hesitant because he had been firing on us and I didn´t know how I felt about baptizing him and then having him leave the country. So we met up with him and went to a localtorio to go find the church that was close to where he will be living in Nigeria. And we were just planning on sending his information as a reference. But he kept asking us if it would be possible if he could be baptized on Saturday. So we went over the interview questions with him and it went well so then we decided to call Elder Garcia (Our district leader) to see if it would be possible to have an interview that same night. And miraculously they had time! So there you have it. We planned the baptism in one night and the baptism went so smoothly the next day. It was really one of the most spiritual baptisms I have been too. There were not many people there but it was very quiet and the spirit was felt strongly. And he was so happy. It was so amazing to see his progress from the night that we contacted him to the day he was baptized. The gospel is true. And it changes people´s lives. 

I love you all and I hope and pray you are happy and healthy! Thanks for your love and support! I hope you have a wonderful week! 

Here are some pictures from the baptism! 

Hey everyone! How are you? Sorry I have zero time to write today because we had our leadership meeting all day today. But I will have a little more time tommorrow. I just wanted to let you know that things are going well here and we were blessed with a baptism on Saturday! Mark Scott finally got baptized and it was a wonderful day! I love you all and thank you for your emails, love and support! 

xoxo,

Hermana Benson 

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.