Letters From The Field – Elder Tanner Bennett’s Mission Blog – Week 17

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 wonderful, beautiful, friends and family! What a spectacular week it has been! Elder jacobs are on a 12 day finding streak of new investigators and the work in 民雄 has been going wildly fast! Today is the official end to my training, and with that comes the sad reality of my companion leaving. We got the call Saturday night that Elder Jacobs would be moving up to Taizhong and becoming a zone leader up there. I’m very sad, but I’m also excited for my new companion, Elder Loe to arrive! Our spectacular investigator Maria was baptized yesterday! WOOHOO! I had the enormous privilege to baptize her and I have never seen someone so happy as Maria was coming out of the font. She has been baptized into 4 other churches previously and has spent the majority of her life “looking for the church that was right.” In her testimony she shared the sweet experience of the night she decided to open a book of Mormon she FOUND RANDOMLY 2 years previously and kept. She said that she was depressed, missing her family who are in the Phillippeans, work was becoming ever harder and she honestly felt she couldn’t go on. After praying to find peace and comfort and asking God what she needed, she felt like she should open the Book of Mormon that had been sitting on her shelf for 2 years. She opened to a random page and began to read. The first verse she read was Mosiah 4:9 “9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.”She said that nothing had ever felt more true to her than this scripture at that moment. She spent the rest of the night reading and read from Mosiah 4 to Alma 7. The next day she set up with us and was determined to be baptized. I feel so blessed to know Maria, she’s such an example of charity and missionary work.

Everything we shared either ended up being heard by her family, her friends, or any random english/Tagalog speaker that would give her the time of day. Maria has herself helped missionaries set up and begin meeting with her family, friends and strangers in the United States, Phillippeans, other places in Taiwan, and even Malaysia!  This work is miraculous and the change that I’ve seen in Maria in the matter of only a few months has been extraordinary. All yesterday she spent with the biggest smile on her face because she “finally found home again.” What an incredible experience, I’m excited to see where this gospel will take her next. As for other bits of this week, we found 8 investigators this last week! Elder Jacobs and I were determined to emulate the example set in Jerimiah 16:16 which says ” 16 ¶ Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.”We wanted to find those who have been prepared and had some incredible experiences while doing so. One of these was this last Tuesday, we decided to go to some of our secondaries and try to find some people. That day we biked 50 miles and we’re able to find 2 new investigators! It was truly incredible. Also, we’ve been having typhoons like crazy here! Biking and tracting in hurricane level winds and rain has honestly been super fun haha, but I haven’t been dry for over a week and a half. People are astonished when you knock on the door and they come to see these two white kids standing there soaked to the bone, a stop sign flying around behind them with smiles on their faces holding up a little book and saying “we have something important to share with you, may we come in?” We’ve found some awesome families we’re excited to start meeting with this week!

Since it was the end of training, I also decided to whip out some of the ol cooking skills and make us a steak dinner. I’ll say, I even impressed myself. I had basically 2 vertical jet engines for a stove and a toaster oven to make this steak and it was pretty awesome. I loved getting to cook again. We often don’t have time to cook and will usually eat out because restaurants here are so cheap, but all the same it was really good haha. I wish I had time to detail the rest of my week, but with transfers today, Elder Jacobs and I are about to head out to the train station. I love you all so much and I know this church is true! Seek and he shall find! Knock and it shall be opened unto you! Pray to the father and he will never leave you comfortless. You’re all in my prayers and I hope home is doing well! Love ya! Elder Tanner Bennett 莨匠熊長考