Letters From The Field – Elder Tanner Bennett’s Mission Blog – Week 16

Elder Tanner Bennett was a guest on a previous episode of LDS MissionCast. He agreed to share his mission letters with the readers of our blog. So each week we will bring a letter from his mission. We will interview him at the conclusion of his mission as well. So stay tuned and stay connected to Tanner’s story each week on the LDS MissionCast Blog! Hello my beautiful family and friends! What a week this has been! I got my birthday present finally and I just bawled my eyes out. Thank you to my family who wrote their testimonies for me and shared their love and strength. The spirit testified to me so strongly of the truths that each of you have spoken and I just feel so indebted to my Savior and love him so much for the blessing each of you are to me. I’m so grateful for the truths of eternal families and that through our obedience and faith we can all be with our families forever! What an incredible gift! My heart is full, and I just can’t hardly accurately express my feelings in English any more, trust me, this email is taking far too long to write haha. However, I know truthfully that this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, I know that Joseph smith is a prophet of God and the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. My dear loved ones, the atonement is REAL, it’s healing power is purifying, cleansing and is the only means by which true peace and joy can be felt in this life. What a blessing it is. I know that God lives, I know we are his children, and I know that we can make it if we just have faith. This is my testimony I seal in Jesus’ name, amen. I would love to extend an invitation to each of you now, if you aren’t already, read the Book of Mormon EVERYDAY, and on your own pray both morning and night. It is by small and simple things great things are brought to pass. I’ve seen in the matter of a single week people changed by the Book of Mormon and prayer. Don’t believe me? TRY IT. Do as Alma says and “Experiement upon my words…that a portion of my word may be within you.” Alma 32:26-28. I know that as each of us strive to grow closer to the Savior and live by his counsel through modern day prophets, we will suddenly one day find ourselves prepared for the Judgement bar. We will feel the peace and power that repentance and the atonement bring into our lives. Don’t delay, start tonight!

As for my week, I have been asked to baptize our favorite Fillipina, Maria. This gospel has forever changed her and I have seen so much light, joy and peace enter her life has she has strived and changed to live the principles of this gospel. She says everyday in our meetings how excited she is to be baptized, how badly she desires her family to be baptized and all the things she does to share this message with EVERYONE. She’s a better missionary than I am! I’m so excited for her to be baptized. Other fun things happening this week is we had THE MOST number of investigators we have EVER had at church! 5 NEW people all came to church and LOVED IT. We are expecting this time next week to have 7 investigators on Date! how amazing!! God has truly blessed this place and our members are so warm and loving, our investigators just can’t help but come back! I love it!

Now for the explanation of the title of this email. His name is Kevin. Over 2 months ago, we caught Kevin coming home from school and he was very excited to set up. The next week he stood up our appointment (also known as “fonging”) and we were really sad. Well, this week we were biking a way we hadnt been before, just on a feeling and found Kevin again walking alongside the road. After a flurry of apologies, he set up to meet again and he showed up! He had missed his last appointment because his mother is extremely sick and he is her primary caretaker (He’s 16, mind you). His father is out of the picture but supports them financially and he missed our last appointment because his mom was having an really hard day and he needed to help her. He said he felt so bad for missing the appointment but had no way to contact us and so felt he had “missed his chance.” It turns out Kevin has been praying and reading the Bible on his own since he was 7 and had always wanted to be baptized. He never was able to because apparently other churches charge money for baptism in Taiwan and he could never afford it. He had been saving for 3 years to be baptized and when we found him he agreed to meet with us because he finally felt he had the money he needed to pay for his baptism. We were in shock. When we told him baptism is free in our church he was speachless. He welled up with tears and accepted a baptismal date. The spirit was profoundly strong in that lesson and in his closing prayer he thanked God for helping us find him again. Since then, he has been reading the Book of Mormon like a freak and asks for assignments and places he can read to answer his questions. it’s incredible! This gospel is so AMAZING! In other news, our investigator Lin dixiong (brother lin) believes he has “received revelation from God” telling him that because he works in the health industry (Usana sales) he doesn’t need to get baptized because his job is “very similar to a missionary’s work.” … Yeah. We shut that down hard. We were very loving but he was adamant about his “revelation.” We know he hasn’t been reading the Book of Mormon or praying and so we, after an hour of intense mandarin debate, testimony, scripture sharing, and POWERFUL spiritual confirmation, convinced him if he were to read the scriptures and pray he would know he needs to be baptized. The power of the adversary is so real. We must all be careful to not be deceived by his influence and our own pride. Please keep him in your prayers. This week we had 4 NEW investigators, which was cool, we’re on a 4 day streak, so we’re praying really hard to keep that going. We know it’s absolutely possible, and it’s exciting to see the results of faith in this incredible work. Next week is transfers so Elder Jacobs maybe leaving me, it makes me sad, I’ve really come to enjoy him as my companion. I know however, he or I will be needed in another place in this beautiful country, we’re excited to see what happens! That’s pretty much all for my week, I love you all so very much and thank you for your prayers on my behalf and on the behalf of my investigators! I love y’all! Best, Elder Tanner Bennett莨匠熊長老