Are you hungry for the truth?

Wow! Ok! Time flies. I cannot believe it has been another week, and Easter at that! I hope you all enjoyed Easter Sunday as much as I did. It was so incredible to sit in the House of the Lord and just have a sure knowledge that we are going to be together forever. I thought a lot about Grandpa Bengtzen and Aunt Mona and all those others that we love that have passed on, and I am sure they celebrated with us. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed being so far from all of you, and my heart hurts a little bit. Yesterday was one of those days, but I recognize that this is such a small sacrifice to give to a Savior that has given us everything. I just hope you all know how much I love you and miss you. I think about you often and pray for you always! I am so grateful to know that the Savior lives. That He is risen, and that He is constantly there for each of us every single minute of every day. I am grateful for His patience, His persistence, His mercy, and His unfailing love. I am grateful to know Him, and to have the opportunity to spend the rest of eternity coming to know Him and emulate Him. Thanks for all the Easter cards and the birthday wishes and the candy and the love. I feel all of your hugs way out here in Kearney! 

Miracles: 

So we are teaching this incredible girl! She is 18 and her name is Stacy. Her boyfriend is a member of the church and has been a remarkable missionary the past few weeks. Stacy has such genuine interest and is so excited to learn more about her Savior. The youth took a trip to the temple this last weekend and Stacy went along for the ride! The whole three hour ride! (I imagine Dad turning to Max as he is reading this story and saying "A three hour tour.." Haha I love you Daddy!) Anyway, she sat at the visitor's center while they were in the temple and just soaked it all in. She is working towards baptism and she is such a remarkable edition to the youth of the ward. I can hardly explain it...but she has this way of earnestly seeking after light and goodness...and I think she is beginning to recognize she has found a fullness of it. So PLEASE keep her in your prayers!

Sherletha

Also this week we were walking out of this lesson with a potential that TOTALLY tanked and we saw this cute lady sitting on the sidewalk. We went up to talk to her and it turns out she had ordered a Bible from Mormon.org that morning! We hadn't even received the referral yet! She praised Jesus and threw in some Hallelujahs and Amens and the whole shebang! It was awesome. We prayed with her and she did some singing and we gave her a Book of Mormon and set a return appointment! Haha her name is Sherletha and she said she met with missionaries before. She was the sweetest thing I had ever seen and you would've thought we'd have given her a million dollars when we handed her the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Her face was priceless! We are seeing her tomorrow and I sure hope she pauses between praises long enough for us to teach her! Haha ;) I will attach a picture.

Funnies: 

Easter Candy Coma

I forgot to tell you this one...so it is from a few weeks back, but it still kills me! For the record I have permission to tell this story, so do not worry. 

So back when Sister Church was slowly dying because of her knee, we spent the night in Omaha and she texted all the sisters in our stewardship to see if any of them had baptisms set for the following day. One of the companionships sent back "Nada Pinata" and Sister Church, all hyped up on Ibuprofen and no sleep got all excited and responded "Is that one of your investigators?!" Haha she kills me.... 

Spiritual thought:

So I have been thinking a lot this week about this life and the temptations and hardships we face. It is a constant battle that we MUST fight...but I read a verse this week that put it into perspective for me. "Fear ye not...the Lord shall fight for you." (Exodus 14;13-14) I think so often I find myself wearied by the fight and not sure of myself, or my ability to fight, but I forget that I am not the one who is really fighting. Christ has already won the battle, I just have to let him help me through to safety! I make things so complicated...we all do...but the simple truth is that Christ has won the victory. HE IS RISEN. How grateful I am for that knowledge. This week I urge all of you to bury your weapons of war and allow the Savior to fight for you. 

Oh and also...I forgot about this...but we are now in a trio! Sister Church, myself, and sweet lil Sister Stocking from Washington state! Her companion had to go home all of a sudden so we are lucky enough to spend the rest of the transfer with her! She is a doll! Also Sister Church is doing much better and her knee is healing up real nice! 

ALL IS WELL!

This week was a whirlwind! 

I am so blessed to be Her comp!

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes again, and just all of the love. Really, I feel so loved and so blessed! I felt like Heavenly Father was giving me a giant bear hug all day yesterday! I really don't have any time at all, so I am just going to send a quick update.

Sabrina and the family whose basement she lives in.

Sister Church is OKIE DOKIE! She got a cortisone shot this morning and we are on the mend! Thank heavens for modern medicine! 

We are trying so so so hard to find, so please keep these people of Kearney in your prayers! It's hard not to get down on ourselves sometimes, but we know that this is the Lord's work and not ours, so we are pushing through!

Streamers

But here is a miracle! 

We stopped by to see one of our investigators the other day and her name is Staysha Redfield. She told us that she had started to read the Book of Mormon and that she really loved it, she pulled out her copy and we saw that she highlighted 1 Nephi 1:12. We asked her about it and she told us that she felt the same way Lehi did (as he described in that verse) filled with the spirit of the Lord! We were thrilled! And it was so evident that she had heard the whispering of the Holy Ghost. She even told us that she read the Book of Mormon her entire lunch break at work because she felt so good when she did. But what broke my heart was that last night she texted us and told us she was no longer interested in learning. But at least a seed was planted!

She got lots of cards from her family!

Love you all! 

xoxo, 

Sister Bengtzen 

Hay is for Horses

First things first. Thank you for all of the birthday wishes and love! My heavens I have the best team in the tournament! Seriously you are all my favorite. Can't believe I will be 20...woooooooot! Look out adulthood...here I come!  

Second things second. SISTER CHURCH AND I ARE STAYING TOGETHER FOR 6 MORE WEEKS!!!!! Best birthday gift I could have asked for! So all of y'all better get excited to meet her on Mother's Day because she is excited to meet you! 

Third things third. Sister Church most likely tore her meniscus...so we are hobbling along on crutches and trying to keep her from hurting it worse! She is a trooper. 

Miracles: 

This week I went on an exchange with Sister Poulson and that girl is incredible! The gospel has sunk deep into her heart and she has this incredible ability to share it in a way that is 100% Sister Poulson! She is genuine in all that she says and you can tell that she practices what she preaches. Man I have so much to learn. Anyway! While on exchanges we went to see this less active member and it turns out his less active daughter was there as well. Her name is Arianna and she has a 15 month old son and one on the way. She told us how she has been thinking so much about the church and that she has recently had the strongest desires to come back again. She told us that she wants to raise her sons to know the Savior, and she knows in her heart that she needs to raise them in the LDS church. Sister Poulson and I were speechless. She clearly has poignant feelings connected with the church, but she isn't quite sure of her testimony yet. We committed her to watch General Conference and approach it with a question, and she was so excited about it! So we get to follow up with her about that tomorrow. WOOT! 

Also, we watched General Conference with Pam and another recent convert named Jo Lind and it was SO cool to see them receive revelation live! And get answers to their questions. Seriously conference is incredible! 

Oh! And we started teaching the sweetest new family of 6! They are the Rodriquez family and we found them a few weeks ago. They are on the path to progressing, they are just super busy, so keep them in your prayers. Teaching families is the best thing! It just makes the work so exciting. 

Funnies: 

Sister Church borrowed some rusty crutches from a ward member and as she was waddling along yesterday they broke and she fell...haha it was SO funny! I made that sound way worse than it was...she was laughing too! I promise!! And she didn't get hurt at all! 

Spiritual thought: 

I hope you all enjoyed General Conference as much as I did! Seriously we are so blessed to have a Father in Heaven who loves us enough to send us a prophet to lead us and to guide us and to walk beside us. As I was watching General Conference this weekend so many things stuck out to me, but there is one in particular I want to share. Towards the end of his talk Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said something that just pierced my heart. "Come as you are, but don't plan to stay as you are." Our Heavenly Father loves each of us infinitely and perfectly. He will always take us as we are, but he strives to help us be better, to improve, to change. We all came to conference as we are, but I want to urge each of you not to stay as you are! Take the things you were taught by the spirit and APPLY them! Make changes, even if they are small. And recognize the glorious blessings that come from doing so. The Savior promise us time and time again that by small and simple things, or small and simple changes, GREAT things come to pass. I testify that his promises are sure and He is bound when we do what he asks of us. This church is true. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer lives. And I say these things in his name. Amen.

LOVE YOU ALL!!! 

Keep on keeping on :) 

xoxo, 

Sister Bengtzen 

MARCH MADNESS

Y'all probably think the NCAA tournament is entertaining, but lemme tell you, watching Sister Church, myself, and President Gardner shoot free throws would've blown college basketball out of the water! We had the Nebraska Omaha Mission (N.O.M.) Olympics this week and Sister Church and I killed it! We took the gold! And had way too much fun doing it. So there's a lil' update. In other news we ran out of money this month so today we went to the store and bought a total of 8 bananas for the week. Mom don't freak out! I promise that the Cammacks let us have some of their food and we won't starve! Ya know what they say..."Man cannot live on bananas alone..." 

Miracles: 

So this week there was a baptism in a nearby branch and it was so happy! The girl's name was Mila Gonzalez and she is 19. She was baptized into the small family branch in Holdrege, NE, but the YSA was there to fellowship her at her baptism, so Sister Church and I got to attend as well. One of the best things about a mission is that you get to just see how aware of each of us Heavenly Father is. One of the recent converts from the YSA attended the baptism and her name is Natasha. (I LOVE HER.) Anyway, Mila got up to bear her testimony and just poured her heart out about how her family was not supportive, but she was so grateful that she made the decision to be baptized regardless. Natasha's family was not supportive AT ALL when she was baptized and as Mila bore her testimony tears filled Natasha's eyes. The moment the closing prayer was finished Natasha ran to Mila and told her her story. They both started to cry and just held each other. It was like they had known each other for years. Now Mila has a new friend, and an entire YSA branch eager and excited to get to know her. And they never would've crossed paths had it not been for the Lord and his hand in their lives. 

I got to go on exchanges this week with Sister Gershin and OH MY GRACIOUS! That girl. She is an incredible missionary, and she truly has given her whole heart to God over the course of the last 18 months. I had the incredible blessing of being her last exchange ever and we had loads of fun! But during our last chat of the night she said something so profound and it hit my heart hard. She told me that she didn't serve the mission she wanted to serve, but she served the mission the Lord wanted her to serve.

 My heavens these sisters teach me so much more than I could ever hope of teaching them. I am so blessed to be a missionary! 

Also this week is GENERAL CONFERENCE! If that is not a miracle than I don't know what is! Prophets and Apostles of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are going to be speaking directly to us. And I CANNOT wait! I CANNOT WAIT! I urge all of you to approach conference with a question...because when we ask we receive answers. 

Funnies: 

This morning I woke up at 4:11 am absolutely freezing cold, so I slowly slid off my bed head first and grabbed my blanket that fell on the floor. As I was doing this Sister Church sat up out of nowhere and looked at me and this is the conversation that followed: 

Sister Church: "You good??"

Me: "Yeah I'm good..." 

"What time is it?" 

"4:11"

"YESSSS.....(she leaps out of her bed) I need to go the bathroom so bad, I am about to explode!"

Next thing I knew it was 6:30...haha

Spiritual thought: 

I guess these past few weeks I have been struggling quite a bit with finding. We are finding all the time! We are being obedient, our efforts are diligent, and we are studying hard, but people don't seem to be willing to make commitments or have a desire to continue to learn more. I have been in a little bit of a rut, so I have been seeking answers through fervent prayer and scripture study, and I read a verse the other day that just filled my soul with assurance and increased faith. 1 Nephi 21:5 reads "And now, saith the Lord - that formed me from the womb that I should be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him - though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." As I read this, the spirit replaced two words of this verse to teach me something crucial. "And now, saith the Lord - that formed me from the womb that I (myself) should be his servant, to bring [Sister Bengtzen] again to him - though [Nebraska] be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." The Lord has placed me upon this earth to learn and to grow, and ultimately my job is to bring Sister Bengtzen (myself) again to him. Although the entire state of Nebraska may not be baptized, and although others may not listen or commit, the Lord is still proud of me and I will rely on God to carry me through. How grateful I am for the scriptures and for my relationship with my Savior. How grateful I am to know that numbers do not determine success, that the Lord does not look upon the outward appearance of things, but the Lord looks upon my heart. (1 Sam 16:7) Sometimes it seems like we just aren't having success, that our lives don't look the way they should or that things aren't going the way they should, and it's hard. But Heavenly Father knows that we are trying. He is aware of the efforts that we make and above all he knows our hearts. So even if life seems to be a mess, keep going, keep trying. The Lord is with you and he will lead you along. 

I love you all! Even when you go to Cancun and tour Book of Mormon ruins without me. I will forgive you! Maybe! 

xoxo, 

Sister Bengtzen