Devils Corner

Wow what a week it was! Honestly one of the craziest weeks of my mission and I loved it!

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Highlights:

Going to the temple with Fabian and his family!
Getting pranked by my companion that we were going to have emergency transfers because of me for a whole day! This was brutal and I definitely do not recommend you ever do this to your companion.(Got to respect Elder Lopezs poker face and dedication to a brutal joke). This joke got all the way to me calling my President and begging him to let us stay companions. So that was a rough one!
Going into the 2nd most dangerous part of our mission and one of the most dangerous areas in Mexico (That we are not supposed to go into because 6 missionaries have been gun point robbed 2 years ago) and finding 4 news in 30 minutes! My APs called me and said “Elder Bennion are you being righteous? Okay good I want you to go into your red area and find people who are ready to receive the gospel. No one has gone in the past 2 years so we know there are people ready there. Put on the armor of God Elder Bennion”. So I left all my valuable items in my house and took a note pad, a pen, 5 Book of Mormons, and all my confidence and walked into the sketchiest area of my life! The streets were smaller then my wingspan and there were little areas where people could hide in and jump out. It was like a labyrinth! But one of the coolest moments of my life! I knew I was on the Lords errand and I knew I would be protected. I felt like Ammon walking into Laminate territory! The Lord guided us to the people we needed to find!
Going on a trio division with my district leader and one of my APs and having a blast! They are both studs and we had a super successful day!
Seeing all of the Mexican Christmas traditions! They are so different from America, but I love them!
Going to our wards Christmas party and having 5 of our investigators come! I learned that piñatas are different here! After the piñata breaks it is an absolute free for all! Dads are diving for candy for their kids and it becomes a brawl for survival! But all together the party was super fun and my ability to hit a piñata is unmatched! If you want the video of me breaking the piñata definitely hit me up!

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Story:

This week was full of insane random stories but this one takes the cake. There is one corner of a street we call devils corner and it is really close to the Las Torres (one of the areas in our mission) church. It’s name is well deserved! Just as Joseph Smith felt the strongest impression of Satan before seeing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, the members of this ward are asked to go through the gut of Satan every week before the spiritual experience of Sacrament! On Tuesday we had a District Council and we on accident took an Uber to the Las Torres Church instead of the La Perla church. Normally it wouldn't be bad but our Uber dropped us off at devil's corner. My companion and I got out of the car. We turned to our right and saw a store owner hitting a woman with a bat. The woman definitely was a stereotypical crazy woman but no one deserves this treatment… right? As she came by we were just about to say if she needs someone to talk to and that we can help her, but before these words could come out of my mouth she took her two cups of beer and went to pour them on my companion and I. My quick reflexes allowed me to dodge the fatal blow. But as I looked to my right I found that my companion was not as lucky. He had taken the blow of both glasses of beer. To make it all worse it was in his brand new suit and his favorite tie. The woman proceeded to hit my companion. This is when the store owner came to our rescue. Running at her with a bat held high as a mighty stripling warrior! The crazy lady stopped hitting my companion and ran away and cussed at us repeatedly from afar. And that my folks is why this is the devil's corner. Luckily the store owner was there to save my companion because I sure was not going to hit the woman and get on the radar of her vicious attacks. We sat there in shock after. We just got attacked by a rabid viscous drunk crazy woman. Neither of us had experience in this aspect of the mission. But quickly my companion went from shock to a huge smile and a loud laugh. My companion had his suit and tie wrecked and he did not complain once. He simply enjoyed the story and the moment. I think we can all learn from my companion. The world sent him a mighty storm that would have thrown me off my whole day. I would have been livid at the women and my companion did not ever portray hatred towards the woman. He realized there was no solution that would come from his anger and rather than expressing pointless anger he moved on. He chose to have joy in his life. All of us can choose to have joy. No matter our circumstances, no matter how sad, and no matter how much beer is poured on you, you can choose to have joy!

This is only one story of the emphasis Devils Corner and if you are interested in more just reach out haha.

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Spiritual thought:

I have really been reflecting on so many things this week! For the past 3 weeks I have begun to listen to general conference and BYU devotional talks throughout the morning as I get ready. Honestly one of the best things I have ever done! I am going to start to leave some general conference talks that I recommend from my week.

My Spiritual thought for this week is on a single line in Helaman 4 that I have thought about a lot this week. It is Helaman 4:13 “because of [...] their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength”. This line is so simple but I just absolutely love it! To me it holds so much power. Whenever we think we are good enough at something to do it alone, God lets us do it alone. When we think we are strong, God stops helping us build more strength. When we think we are good at a language, God stops giving us the gift of tongues. Whenever we start relying on our own strength God will stop helping us lift up our strength. The truthfulness is our strength alone WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH! We are unworthy and nothingness as standalone creatures! In no aspect of our life is our own abilities enough. But with God we can do AMAZING things! I challenge you to find the things that you think you are pretty good at to stop thinking you are good at. Instead replace the attitude that “I am good at _____” with “I am good at ____ because God is helping me be good at _____”. When we do this we will no longer be left to our own strength because it will be a reminder of how we are relying on God to give us strength. There is one video of Peter walking on water with Jesus that I love! In it, it is clearly shown that when Peter looks away from Christ and into the storm he begins to sink into the water. The reason I love this scene is because Peter was a master of the water. HE WAS A FISHERMEN! He practically lived on the water. It was his job to know what certain conditions meant and how to react to them. By all means we can assume that Peter was a professional of conditions of water. So is is fair to assume that Peter knew what the storm around him meant? Is it fair to say his knowledge was good enough? He knew the danger of the storm around him. But it was in his own knowledge that he became to sink. Likewise we have the things that we are experts at! Maybe it is a sport or a boardgame or a job. We have things that we believe we know the in and outs of. But this is the danger of this knowledge that holds us back from walking on the water with Christ! we begin to “Boast in our own strength” as Helaman 4:13 implies. When we boast in our own strength we will inevitably fall because we will be left to our own strength!

Challenge: 1. Find your things that you are an expert at 2. No longer consider yourself an expert at that 3.Recognize that God can give you the strength because of the work you are willing to put in to be an expert at that. 4. LET GOD PREVAIL!

Talks I recommend you listen to: