Sister Benson: Ohio Cleveland Mission: July 15, 2013

Friends & Famillllia!

This week has been a crazy one! Sister O'Driscoll has been having a lot of breathing problems. We've been to several doctors, but no one can figure out what's wrong. It gets pretty scary sometimes! Despite the fact that we spent much of the week in the apartment, so many amazing things happened this week. We witnessed a miracle every day! .......

#1) Our media referral Monday, which I talked about last time! :)

#2) A woman in our ward made us the most cheesy, delicious, broccoli, chickeny thing ever!

#3) We had a lesson with our investigator, John, in the pouring rain on his porch. An awesome recent convert in our ward came with us. They're pretty good friends now- which is great. Even though the rain was literally dumping down on us, the spirit and peace that was there was so amazing. He said that he wanted to be baptized. It was wonderful! I truly cannot explain what a beautiful moment it was.

#4) On Wednesday there was a crazy tornado pretty close to us! When we first got the watch, it looked like it was going to be a nice day! We were at a member's house in gorgeous Canal Fulton (so green!) doing service. Our district leader told us to stay there. We ended up being stuck in the member's home for 7 hours! Pretty soon it started POURING. I have never seen it rain so hard in my entire life!! I filmed Sister Astle running out into the rain. It's a pretty great video and I wish that I could send it over email! We also made some pretty fun videos about funny experiences that we have had. I'll have to send the chip home! The strangest thing about all of this is when we got a text message saying "Take shelter: there is a live tornado heading toward Canal Fulton." All of us from the west started hurrying to put on our shoes and get in the basement. Meanwhile all those actually from Ohio and Missouri chilled on the couch and acted like it was no big deal.... so strange.

#5) Sister O'Driscoll says that I have started singing in my sleep. The other night I was aparently singing, "Come Unto Jesus." Hahaha! :)

#6) There was an old referral who we have been trying to set up an appointment with for weeks. We stopped by again and she let us right in! We had a great lesson with her and her friend! We're going back again tonight! :) :) :)

#7) We sat in the sunshine talking with a woman in our ward who recently had to go to live in a nursing home. She is so sweet!

#8) Sister Chapman and I taught John about the Restoration of the gospel and the word of wisdom. He said that he thinks it's true. He said that he would come up with a plan to start living the word of wisdom! (that darn tobacco...)

#9) We met a woman that a member in our ward referred to us. We have stopped by probably fifteen times over the last month. She finally was home! She is so nice. She got really emotional when we offered to weed her yard for her (literally: imagine the thorns in front of the castle in "Sleeping Beauty" that Prince Phillip has to cut through with his sword. Then imagine it in front of a suburban house.). We're going back Wednesday! :)

#10) We had dinner with a woman in our ward and two of her kids. The mom reminds me of my mom. Her daughter is my age and her son is David's age. But I must say that my mom's lasagna is much better. :)

#11) We visited with a less-active couple in our ward who really want to start coming back to church. Kathy has a solid testimony, but it sounds like her husband never really had a testimony and only joined the church because she wanted him to. He asked us if we would come back every Friday and teach them, though, so that's good! :)

#12) We had dinner with the members who feed us Buckeye ice cream for dessert. It's delightful.

One thing that I have definitely learned is to look for the miracles and blessings in our lives. Whether they are big or small, they really are everywhere. All that we have to do is open up our eyes and our hearts and look. :) I love you all! Thanks for writing me! Don't get into too much trouble this summer! :)

Love,

Sistaaa Benson

This is my plant, grown from the seeds that my mom sent me! It's only been about five days and look how big she is! I named her Ariel (hence, the Ariel stickers). It's fine.:)