Chinese New Year!

  I'm glad you guys met Brother Sun! Sounds like it was a lot of fun. He was really impressed with you guys. He even talked about how "handsome" Noah is, hahaha. He's a really good guy, I'm grateful I got to be apart of his conversion. And it's so cool they are naming their girl Lydia! I gave them a list of my favorite names for girls and boys back when they first knew she was pregnant, and that was their favorite one. You will definitely  have to meet his wife some day, she is so sweet, and her english is better :) haha.

  This week has been a little different. I'm pretty sure this week we had the lowest numbers that I've ever had on my mission, but I feel like I worked harder than I have in a long time. Some of my fondest memories of talking to people about the restored gospel have been made this week. We were able to testify to so many people and invite them, I felt really satisfied at the end of each day. I felt much closer to the Lord and I feel like I understand his will much better, I'm very grateful for that.

  I was able to finish the Book of Mormon this morning. After finishing, I wrote in my journal about how I felt after reading this time through and I realized something (most revelation I've received has been from keeping a journal, I love it!). While I was writing I remembered a time about a year and a half ago after I had receieved my call I got up and bore my testimony in sacrament meeting. I remember saying that "I'm grateful I have the chance to serve a mission and give back to the Lord just a small fraction of what He's given me." A righteous desire, that I think most missionaries have when they first come out. But I realized today that that is not the case at all. The Lord has given me more in the past year of my life than at any other time. I am in no way at all paying him back. This really is the greatest thing thats happened in my life. Even though I've gone through more trials and hardships than ever before, even things that I still have no explanation for, I've learned so much and I know there is much more learning to come. I believe learning is the lifeblood of living an "endure to the end" type life. The gospel is true. I love the quote by Hugh B. Brown, "The gospel is beautifully simple and simply beautiful." It is very true.

  I love you guys so much! Every one of you is in my prayers. And tell Alia to tell Bryson hello for me! Haha. Have a good week. (Alia is Brad's wife Cami's sister...She lives in Virginia and Elder Bryson Westover (Ben's good friend) was at her house this week!)

Love, Ben.

Hey it is also Chinese New Year today! We had a small little party at a members home after church yesterday... Here are some pictures of our relief society sisters and elders quorum presidency... (yes the sister on the right is crazy.) And I'm sorry i don't take enough pictures. I'll work on that!

Jingwei

(This is a repeat from a post from my blog... but I wanted this recorded for Ben to have forever!)

 

We received a phone call a few days ago from a gentleman that Ben baptized last October.  His name is Jingwei and he is from Beijing China.  He and his wife came to California last fall.  He has a degree in Chinese Literature and a Law Degree from China.  He was in Provo to visit with the Law School admissions office.  He hopes to start Law School at BYU in August.

We were going to dinner for Noah's birthday and invited him to come with us.  He was such a gentleman!  He even brought me flowers...   He loves our Elder Dixon so much.  He shared a story..."My wife and I had been in California just a short time when an American young man knocked on our door.  He spoke perfect Chinese and I wanted to know how that was possible.  Elder Dixon shared with us his love for the Chinese people, culture and language.  We felt how sincere he was.  He then taught us the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We will be forever grateful for him... his message has changed our lives!"

He shared with us that he and his wife are expecting their first child... a little girl!  Then he told us they are naming her Lydia!  I started to cry... that is the name Ben loves (one of his favorite bands) and he wants to someday name a little girl of his own...  "We asked Elder Dixon for a little girl name, and we are naming her Lydia!"  So sweet.  

This was such a wonderful, tender evening.  Jingwei was a remarkable man with a deep testimony.  He can't wait to take his wife to the Temple later this year.  We were witness to an absolute miracle!

 Here is what Ben wrote right before this baptism...
"This upcoming Sunday we'll be having another 4 baptisms in the ward. 2 younger couples, both of the woman are pregnant and due in June :) They love the gospel and the commandments. Last Monday we had a family home evening with them at a members home, and we had a really good discussion about the temple. They can't wait for that day. One of the couples that I talked about last week, Jingwei and his wife, were talking about when they have their baby, they're going to tell him all about "Dai Shushu" (Uncle Dixon), as soon as they said that I started crying as we talked about God's eternal plan for all of us. We bore testimony that He knows each and every single one of us, and them accepting the gospel at this time in their life is part of their own specific plan of happiness for their young family. It was such a beautiful experience! It's times like these that make every single sacrifice worth it."

We are so grateful for our Missionary Son!  What an experience this was that we will never forget!

Love you Ben!!!

Noah's 15!

Hey family!

   Happy birthday Noah! I can't believe you are 15. That boggles my mind. I remember feeling so old at 15. So you guys are headed to PF changs tonight eh? fun! say ni hao to all my asians for me. It's also Elder Bench's birthday today, so thats kinda cool.

  This week has gone pretty well. We've picked up quite a few new investigators and things are going more smoothly than last week. We taught a lady named Damsy this week, she's from Shanghai I think. She has a pretty crazy story. 2 years ago she was in a huge car accident that left the left side of her body completely numb, her husband took her to doctors all around the world but they couldn't do anything for her. Her husband ended up leaving her because he didn't want to have to deal with it anymore (sad!). At that time, she was already a christian and grew up in the 7th day adventist church, but she never really had a real testimony of God or Jesus Christ and didn't like the church in the first place. She eventually came to America to stay in a care home, and got in contact with another church. The church fasted and prayed for her for 1 day, and the next day all of the feeling in her body came back. She really feels that she's been healed by Jesus. When we introduced the Book of Mormon to her, at first she was a little stand-offish because her last church believed they were the "one true church" and she really doesn't like them, so she didn't like the idea of another church claiming the same thing. She just wanted to attend a normal christian church. After an hour and a half of testifying and answering all her questions, she commited to pray about our message. We haven't been able to follow up with her yet, but we're hoping to soon.

   I'll be finishing the Book of Mormon again this week. I'm so grateful for that book, I wish I had a way to describe how I feel about it in words. I got to read what's become my favorite chapter in the whole book yesterday, Ether 6. The first time it really impacted me was while I was in the MTC just before I was headed to california. In verse 4 it talks about how the Jaredites, just before they are about to leave in the barges,  "prepared all manner of food, that thereby they might subsist upon the water, and also food for their flocks and herds". Preparation in so important in all things, and I felt prepared to leave the MTC when I read that for the first time. After they get in the boats and head out, it talks about a mighty wind that takes them to the promised land, and "the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters" this is true about our trials. No matter how hard the wind may be blowing, we can always be assured we're being blown towards the promised land if we "thank and praise the Lord all the day long", just as the Jaredites did. I love that chapter.

  Well I hope Noah's birthday is fun! I think I'm gonna send some of my clothes that I brought on my mission back to him. I have 2 pairs of pants and a nice shirt that I never wear. So I'll try to get on that when I have time. I love you guys! have a good week!

 

Ben

Birthday Week!

Good morning!

   The weather has been so HOT here lately, I can't stand it. Sometimes I'd much rather be in the good old cold! But I'm surviving. I can't find a good word to describe this week. It's been pretty good! Thank you for the ties, they are all super sick. and thank you for the pocket watch, pops! It is so sweet and I've pretty much showed the whole ward. They are all super impressed with your talent, and most of them think I inherited the talent as well. If only that was true, haha. We celebrated my birthday with a few of the members, it was lots of fun. Sister Zhang from Beijing gave me a silk wallet from the Yunnan province of China... it's so cool! She and her family just moved here from Utah... but they were in Beijing before that, thats where they found out about church. They know Elder Han from when they were back in Beijing. Her son just graduated from the law program at BYU and got a job out here, so pretty cool. And I got lots of Hongbao's from the ward (money :)) I also got a tape from the Lenhart fam for my birthday, probably the funniest and best thing of my life!  It has definitely been a good birthday week.

    We've been struggling finding people to teach lately, and the people we are finding are really unstable. We have one baptismal date for this month, Leo, we're really praying he'll make it! He and his mom have been investigating for a little bit of time, and he wants to get baptized, just lacks the drive to come to church and be sincere. I think if we can get his mom to commit to baptism with him, things will go much smoother.

   I don't know if you guys remember this, but in my 1st or 2nd transfer I talked about an old man that we would go visit, Brother Shao. He had been less active for a really long time, but after visiting him for a while he decided he wanted to go to the temple with his wife. Well, this week his wife got up to bear her testimony in sacrament meeting, she started crying and said that her husband had just passed his interview with the stake president to receive his temple recommend, and they're going to the temple to be sealed at the end of this month. Man, I haven't felt that much joy in a long time! It was so good to hear that. So happy for them.
  Well fam. I love you guys. It's been good 20 years... 

  Thanks for everything! Have a good week!

Love, Ben.

Happy Birthday...2012!

Celebrating Ben's Birthday at Tucano's last year!  Lots of laughter and memories... oh we miss him!

 Happy New Year! 

Man I can't believe it's already been this long. Yes, it does feel like just yesterday I was standing on that chair at Tucanos celebrating my birthday last year, hahaha. Good times.

   Got transfer calls this week! I'm staying here for another transfer. But some changes were made... Elder Han and I got a new companion. We're now in a threesome. His name is Elder Bench. He has been serving in english work for his whole mission, and President decided to switch his call to Chinese. He's from Indonesia, but his mom is from China so he can speak a little chinese. It's a little less than MTC level right now, but we're working on it! He's actually been a huge blessing to our companionship. He's so humble and has such a strong desire to learn the language, he brings the spirit. And he's teaching me Tai-Chi and some Indonesian, so thats a bonus too. Last night we had our first appointment with him, it was a very sweet start for the transfer. We ate dinner at Sister Song's house, and some other members came as well. After eating  we had a testimony meeting/family home evening. Sister Song told us her conversion story and all the experiences she's had in the church, it was just so awesome and spiritual. Then all the missionaries told their conversion stories and testimonies as well. When it was Elder Bench's turn, he just started bawling. About 2 minutes later in really broken chinese he said "I know Heavenly Father loves me" it was so touching, everybody was crying!

   For my birthday we're going to Sister Jiang's (the one that was baptized a couple months ago) house to eat Jiaozi. I'm way excited. Then I think we'll go out as a District to eat dinner on P-day 'cause 3 of us in the district all hit our year mark on the 5th :) Me, Elder Tryon, and Elder Su.  pretty cool stuff...

  I love you guys! Thanks for everything that's happened the past 20 years... I wouldn't be here without you guys, and I can't imagine life in a different family. I'm so grateful for all the things I've been taught by my parents. Some things taught by word, but most things taught by example. I've gained such a strong love for the scriptures and this gospel because of your examples. I love you all so much.

have a good week!

love, Ben.

December 2011

 

Hello,

   okay first off, mom I'm fine stop worrying :) I never went to the doctor because I never felt that bad. And the senior missionaries were worrying about me just as much as you were so thats probably why they said I went to the Doctor, haha. They're so funny. And thank you for the meds, I've been scarfing down those vitamin C's, They're so good! And I got all the packages as well :) I opened up the CD's because I just couldn't wait for new music... I love it! I love Kalai. And Hillary's cd was a little surprising but I like it... yeah. I feel like the family looks so different in all those pictures! Brad and Ty are catching on to how cool it is to have a beard... I think when we get old we're all gonna look like Mom's brothers with their beards. haha. I keep forgetting that life is still moving forward while I'm out here, it doesn't feel like it!

   This week has been pretty awesome. We had a mission Christmas party on Wednesday, it was so much fun to be with everyone. There was a talent show too. I was signed up to sing and play the guitar with another Elder, but we backed out because of me being sick. I'll do it next year though, if I'm there! Sindy was baptized this week as well, it was a really good baptism. All went smoothly. She's awesome, definitely one of my most favorite people that I've taught. We're kinda struggling with investigators right now. Lots of chinese people leave for the Christmas season, including our  most solid investigator currently. But hopefully she comes back soon.

   I'm gonna be honest, I'm kinda hoping that for Christmas I get a transfer call, haha. It's not that I don't like my area... I'm just craving change! Variety! but we'll see... with the way things are right now it doesn't look like there will be any change in the chinese work. BUT AH i've been here so long, nobody has ever stayed in the same ward this long, haha.

   Well. I think I'm just going to call you guys on Christmas, not Skype. I was going to use Skype because Elder Han has to use it to talk to his mom, but he's calling on Friday so it'll be less convenient if we have to find another member on Sunday to use Skype I think. And I'd rather talk to you guys personally than all at once :) So I'll probably call Linda's phone. We only have sacrament meeting on Sunday. I'll probably call around 3 or 4 I think. So be ready this time! :) well cool. I better get going. Talk to you guys soon! :) love you all.

 

 Ben.

A Difficult Week

We were able to call Ben last week, as we had to break the news to him

that his sweet cousin Leah had passed away.  It was so hard to hear him sobbing on the other 

end of the phone.  Leah and Ben had a very special relationship.

Here is his email from this week... It seems he had quite an adventure with some severe winds in California!

Family,

   Yeah, it has been a difficult week. Looking at all the pictures from the funeral and just thinking about Leah is making me cry. That came as a huge surprise to me. I've been praying for Linda and Al all week, I hope everyone is doing okay. Make sure they know I love them!

    Honestly, this has probably been the craziest week of my mission. I don't know if you guys have heard about the wind storm in southern California... but I live right in the center of where it hit. We were out of power for 4 days! It hit Wednesday night, I didn't sleep at all haha. We woke up in the morning and looked out of our apartment, it didn't look super bad, just some flower pots broken and a broken umbrella is all we saw, so we didn't think much of it. When we left our apartment though... that's when we saw the damage. Tons of trees were fallen over, tons of road closures, and absolutely no power anywhere. It took us almost an hour to drive to the church building that day because all the lights had to be treated as stop signs and all the road closures. So that night we came home and used a candle to plan and stuff. And to top things off, the next day we were driving and our car broke down, so we had to have some other elders drive us around for a while. It was an extremely ineffective week, and I just felt super weird all week. But that's okay, things happen! But yeah, they say this kind of storm hasn't hit this area in a way long time, so I do feel kind of cool to be apart of it. Yesterday at church a member brought a generator, and we lit the primary room with lamps that some members brought from home and had sacrament there. It was a really touching testimony meeting, everyone talked about how grateful they were for the food storage they had saved up and how nobody was hurt. The sacrament meeting ended up going for 2 hours because so many people wanted to share, it was really sweet. Our high priest group leader told a story, after the wind storm his wife wanted to go out and find a place to charge their cell phones, so she and his son left. When he was shutting the garage, the wind caused the garage to shut really fast and it clipped off one of his fingers... at that time there was no electricity and his wife had his cell phone, he couldn't even call 911! But his son had a feeling to come back, and they were able to take him to the hospital in time. Crazy stuff.

   Well I love you guys. I hope everything is going alright. I got a confirmation in my prayers that Leah is in a better place. I'm grateful for her.

Love, Ben.