October 2012 - Miracles follow..

2 October 2012

This week was jam packed.

Interviews, which was awesome. Soo inspirational we could say. President pretty much repeated everything he told us during Zone Council, then his wife spoke well then we had some time where we pretty much summed up everything President said to make sure that everyone understands and applicates it. Good lunch (which we provided) and then the Assistants.

I really like our Mission President.  I want my life to be like his.

So even though a lot has happened, we have been working really hard in our area. Like I said, we have had these masive conferences and everyone is pumped to do and see miracles being performed, but I think the Lord is wanting us to polish ourselves up before we start seeing miracles explode.

I feel like this week was a week of refinement for us, as practically nobody listened to us.  Our message was treated with indifference.  We have been talking with sooo very many people, searching the elect. It's kinda draining.  Having said that, Saturday night we had a cool miracle meeting a girl from Spain, she was carrying heavy bags and we offered to help. We did, turns out one of her besties in Spain is Mormon. Cool little "coincidence" right?? We were able to give her a Book of Mormon last night and tonight shes coming to the YSA FHE here in Lyon :)

We have another 'ami', Rocky, who will be there and hopefully a new 'ami' as well.

Anyways, so lots and lots of finding, the fruits are only starting to blossom.

 

I love my comp, he works harder than me. He is a good example to me, he is a goof.

  

 

This photo in black and white is in our comp study. comp study with 4 in the appartment is a laugh. its not as spiritual but a laugh. when sharing what we learnt during personal study, one missionary took the skipping rope and used it as a mic, next thing its a radio broadcast as we take turns sharing, next thing we all moved to the kitchen and well the photo is the result.

 

This week I also went to St Etienne on exchange. The same day one of the members who I absolutely love, got his mission call.  He saw me in the arvo and showed me the envelope. Later that night he opened it with his family, going to Benen. He called me up. Cool little moment.

Elder J Bennallack

 

 

8 October 2012

It was a fun little week we had.

 

We were able to have two exchanges, and then this week coming we will have one with the Assistants, and also we will be taking a zone training meeting; which actually will replace a district meeting. So the zone will come down and we will teach them from 10 till 12pm, the space of a normal district meeting, eat, then theyll get back to their villas.

Should be fun :)

So as indicated, our area is starting to see some miracles.  The cool things that we had this week were the following:

 

 

We taught a man who is a friend of an investigator of the sister missionaries.  His nephew is a mormon missionary from Africa somewhere.  So that's cool.  He's really open and we talked frankly. Great lessons.

 

 

 

Mario is solid, solid.   He came to Saturday conference, then priesthood which for us is Sunday morning, time difference :) and then stayed to watch conference.  This morning he helped someone move house with us, but we didn't even know he'd be there.   He is just a part of the ward, active.  It's great.

 

 

 

Carolina our less active, had some massive, massive dramas.  It was a really cool experience to be there with her, to be someone that she could trust.  She opened up completely to us one day, and it was just one of those times that makes me thankful for who I am, and the good family I am from.  Carolina came to conference with her cousin.  She absolutely loved it.

 

Our 'ami' Rocky, was at conference on Saturday, liked it, came back and stayed two sessions on Sunday.  He is getting to know lots of members and is becoming socially integrated.

 

It's something that I am coming to understand more and more, spiritual and social conversion.  They are both important :)

These are all great things, but the really big miracles aren't hapening to us, but to others in the zone.



Things like white French families rocking up to church, the missionaries just happening to have swung by the church at the same time, seeing them and having the family ask them if there are ever services? :)  That happened yesterday with the other Elders in our apartment.

There is a french girl who's sister got baptised in New York.  When she went to go visit her, her sister took her to insti and she loved the sister missionaries etc. She just loved the culture.  The missionaries told her that when she got back to France she had to look up the missionaries. She said "ok", but in her head she was hesitant thinking that it would be a bit hard.

 

On the plane ride over to France she was in the same plane as a missionary coming into the mission! She's now enrolled at insti here in Lyon and was at conference yesterday.

 

All these little coincidences, the same type of coincidences that President Monson talked about on Sunday morning.

 

We are doing exchanges with a lot of younger missionaries.  I'm convinced that the Lord is placing the best of the best here in Lyon, France. 100 percent obedient, confident, willing to learn, hitting the ground running, great great missionaries. Better than my generation. I think it's going a lot with the Mission President's vision to multiply the baptisms by 5 in the three years that he is here. So it's just our job to help them be awesome. It's France's time :)
 

I'm loving Lyon, I'm soo glad our zone doesn't have problesms like Elder TB's with disobedience or unmotivation. Everyone is soooo, sooo awesome, so we are focusing on things like praying harder and having more faith.

It's a good time to be a missionary here in France.

 

Elder Bennallack

16 October 2012
 

Last night we had a a Mission President fireside, kinda like the ones that we have in Adelaide but in Lyon.  It was nice, there were about 90 people there, and like the ones we have back home, there were a lot of YSA's who stayed and mingled afterwards.

As Elder Frazier is our District Leader right now, we did an exchange with him.  I actually stayed in the office and did office work for a few hours on Friday morning.  It was fun.  I was sending our references to missionaries which was quite exciting.  Also in that exchange I was able to do a baptism interview for one of their investigators who was baptised Saturday night.
 

 

Thursday, we had a zone meeting training, which was just like a zone conference but only we spoke. We taught for about 2 hours and it went really well.  Elder Pilling and I teach well together. There are lots of things that missionaries have to do and remember and one problem is, that once we are taught a new thing, we have the tendency to let a lot of the older things slide, or we forget to do things. Essentially we need to learn how to keep more than one juggling ball in the air.  Teaching this principle, we mainly revised a lot of little things that we should be doing and the things that President has stressed as of late.

 

 

 

Afterwards we had a little meeting with all of the District Leaders. There were just 7 missionaries there, as President nor the Assistants were there.  It's was really, really powerful as we were able to discusss the zone, different districts, some of their concerns and talk about indivitual missionaries. I felt like a Jedi.

 

 As for our sector, we are still on the hunt.  Lyon is a big city so we just have to sift out the elect.

During the week we were able to eat with Carolina, her cousin and her best friend.  There, we were able to fix a return appointment to teach her cousin and her best friend. It was great. As the cousin speaks good French and the bestie good English, and Carolina good English and all of them good Spanish, there was a little bit of translating going on!  It was neat to see Carolina teach them and just be filled with the spirit whilst doing it.  They ate up the Book of Mormon and were super happy to each recieve one in Spanish :)

 

 

 



Elder Bennallack, Elder Sopi &
 Elder Pilling, at the apartment.



Well, that's my week.  Transfer calls this week, it will be interesting as Elder Pilling and I are both the exact same age. I have a few guesses as what President will do with me. There are a lot of villes opening up, one of them is the Island of Corsica, but 2 frenchies will probs go there, but there are some cool things happening.

Personally, I hope to stay, but time will tell.  Fun times in France, miracles everywhere.
 

Elder J Bennallack

24 October 2012 - Last Transfer

New companions: Elder Wulfenstein & Elder Bennallack



The news of the week is I will die in Lyon. I also was expecting to leave, but I am happy to stay.  I don't feel like I have accomplished what I'm supposed to do here yet.

As Elder Pilling and I would have finished at the same time, it's not suprising that one of us got transferred.  He got sent to Neuchatel in Swizerland with a native Frenchy. Lucky kid. I was a little jealou,s but I'm pretty happy because I recieved one of my favourite missionaries in the mission. He is a bit of a youngan, in his 7th transfer. In his 5th, he was junior in Besancon, then last transfer he was DL and trained in Besancon, and now he is with me. I'm pretty pumped. I see sooo, sooo much potential in him, and he is already the man. So im pretty happy.  My comps name is Elder Wulfenstein (wolf-'n'-steen).



..at the train station.

 

Here is a photo of him and me, also him at the train station with me. It was crazy. 51 missionaries passed through Lyon today, and we had to keep track of them.  Well Elder Frazier in the office kept track, I was on the floor helping them swap trains with all their luggage etc.  It's always a blast, tiring though. Especially today, probs half the trains were late, Frances problem, not ours, but it made things a little more intense :)



President threw the mission on its head again. There is even a Zone Leader who is in his 3rd transfer. The way I see it is, the more missionaries are out of their comfort zone, the more they rely on the Lord, and the more the Lord's work can progress.

 

This past week was also nice, we also had stake conference here.  It was cool because I got to see members from St Etienne who remembered me, and of course people from Villerubanne and Gerland.





"...me and some missionaries that finished up today, who were with me for 3 weeks in the MTC.  Elder Garland (the other redhead) is from England, he told me we should go to the Temple, could be a goer...."

 



 

 

This week we had Zone Council, which is always amazing.  This one, President talked less and there was a lot more ideas thrown around and discussed.  I really liked it.  It was fun to agree or disagree with different points of view and then in the end, having President make a decision, sometimes making me shut up :) I really enjoyed it.

 

This week on Friday, we tried something new.  Just going around speedily seperating people searching for the elect.  President asked us to go around and just ask people in a sense of urgency if they were interested in learning more about Jesus Christ.   So we did.   It was really weird at first, like being on a metro and then asking someone.  When they said no, I wished them a great evening, turned my back and talked to the person behind me, and so on and so forth.  It was something new for me, pushing me out of my boundries.  But out of it, we were able to find a French family that we should be able to teach this week :) A mum and 4 kids between 7 and 18.

Well it should be a solid transfer..

In the apartment there is me, from Australia, my comp is from St George in Utah, there is Elder Sopi, who is French and an Italian. kinda cool.

Elder Bennallack

 ,

 

 

 

 

September 2012 - Faith in Lyon

3 September 2012

My week was 'aighties'. Zone Council with President Tiexeira, then Zone Conference the next day, then we had a day to work in our area, so I was on exchange with another missionary that day, a District Leader from Valence, south of Lyon, then because of un previewed circumstances we had to go to Grenoble the Friday morning so that the DL could do a baptism interview.  Then we went to Valence so I could do one, then I got my companion back and we got back at 10pm that night, (as our train was one hour late) so travels are up..

 

 

 

Elder Tiexiera called us all to repentance during Zone Council, he was quite direct.  It was really, really, cool. I loved being instructed by him and by President. President was pulling things straight out of heaven during Zone Council.  It was combined, so I didn't have to do anything, just sitting back taking as many notes as my hand would let me
 

Back to Zone Council, so Elder Tiexeira opened up Preach My Gospel and turned to repentence in chapter 3, and then said how it's a change of behaviour, beliefs etc .  So for us, in order to expect miracles and sky rocket the work here in France, not only do we have to be exactly obedient but we have to have a different vison of the place, we have to believe differently, we have to have more faith.

 

 

Then he told us lots of stories from different missions here in Europe, which was killer, then gave us all the challenge to go find the elect.  He wants 10 new 'amies' from all of us every week.  This past week we got 2 but he said for all of us he gave 4 weeks to get that to 10 a week. So if we don't believe it, we have to repent. Kinda cool.  He then shared the parable of the 10 talents and broke it down.  He says it's all about leadership. It is. It made me realise that we are in charge to have real growth, even if it's tiny, in the area to which we are given responsability. If not, things won't be too good for us :p

All in all, a good couple of days.

Our 'ami' Fabian is going good, still hasn't accepted a date, but he's progressing towards baptism. We always have members with us so he is getting intergrated quite well in the ward.   He is really the man.  We had a cool experience this past week, we went to go visit him with our ward mission leader, then his older brother sent him out on an errand just as we got there, so fabian was gone for 30 mins. But we were able to get talking to his older brother about Fabian, what he's doing, what he is learning. etc etc. When Fabian came back, we were there 10 more minutes, and ended up giving a Book of Mormon to his brother which was cool. His brother will move cities in one week for university but we will be seing him again this week.

In other news. our less active now in full force, Mario is still going strong. This week we were actually also able to meet with a less active return missionary sister, who bumped into missionaries the same day Mario was found. kinda cool. That day there were all the new missionaries and we took them out blitzing Lyon. So good things came from that. This Sister, came to church, brought her cousin, so fun times. I really love less actives. They have testimonies, but it's just hard for them to do the right thing. But it's just the first push to get the ball rolling,then after that it's easier to keep it rolling.

This week ahead of us should be fun, lots of finding to do, lots of faith to find, fun fun fun.

These last couple days were actually really, really, cold. Rainy, 10 degrees C, but today it's a bit nicer, but still we had a glimps of winter.

Gros bisoux

Elder Bennallack

 

 

 

11 September 2012

Here today is transfer day. Things got shuffled up a little here in Lyon. I will explaine:



Elder Bennallack & Elder Pilling

I am still here, same place.  Elder Uluave got shipped out after just 6 weeks, he's down to Montpellier as ZL and the ZL who was there came up and took his place. So now I am with Elder Pilling :) this is kinda cool, as he was in the MTC at the same time as me. As we will both finish together it will be interesting to see if we will both finish together in Lyon. But this I shouldn't worry about too much.

My address in Villeurbanne, Lyon is:

Elder Jonathon Bennallack

Les Missionnaires

138 Rue Dedieu

69100 Villeurbanne

France

 

This week was a good one, soo many miracles. We arent doing too much, it's kinda like we are starting to reap the harvest.  This past week I taught the most amount of lessons I' have ever taught, but we haven't done too much different.

 

 

One of the greatest highlights is we have been working more with a less active who comes from Venesuela.  She's the return missionary who is coming back and she is just amazing!!! We went over to see her this week and she was there with her cousin who came to chuch with her last week, also a new friend who just moved here from Venesuela. When we asked who was going to pray, like a missionary she touched her nose, this means dibbs not.  The game is, last one to touch their nose says the prayer. As her friend has never seen this before he was the last, so she explained to him soo naturally and confidently how to pray, then he said a great little prayer.

The RMs name is Carolina, she is just soo amazing. She also introduced us to her tutor (french) and we were able to share a thought also with her cousin who came to church last week.

We were also able to teach some investigators in the homes of some members.  One member we went to with one of our investigators, actually had someone else there who wanted to be taught. So we taught both of them :)

A lady called us up on Saturday night saying, "hey is this the Church of Jesus Christ??" I said "why yes it is". Then she said "ahh cool, I was wanting to come to church tomorrow".  And she did :)

This week we taught a mother with her 16yo daughter and 11yo son the Plan of Salvation.  The mum has read through to Mosiah 27 in the Book of Mormon.  This week when we got there. I asked her where she was up to. I have just finished the part in Mosiah with Abinadi, and as soon as I mentioned Abinadi she said, "oh I just hate how cruel the people were with him in burning him to death. It's just awful". Then she posed the question: "where did they burn him, was that still in Zarahemla??" - yeah you can imagine me frantically looking through the pages trying to see! hahah

They all came to church this week, and loved it. I love this family soo much, from cote d'ivoire (Ivory Coast).

We met up with another man this week, he bought us a hot chocolate.  Then he was talking about his life and how he is searching for more peace. After the hot chocolate, it was delicious, we gave him a tour of our chapel. He cried, and was there at church again on Sunday.

I think i may have told you, that Sister Tiexiera gave us the challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 60 days. The time it took Joseph Smith to translate it. We have been doing that, and I am absolutely loving it. It's giving me more and more and more desire to share it with others. It really is a book with power.

Elder Tiexiera is now the new Area President, he was in the presidency before but now is the president.

This pday is really busy, as transfer day normally is.  I am now again in a 4 man apartment with another Frenchy.  The apartment is really a 3 man, so it's soo squishy, but with Elder Pilling with me, should help a lot to keep things steered. He's a good man, a good missionary, we should be able to do much good together this transfer

 

 

Elder Bennallack (the good looking one)

 

 

 

18 September 2012

 

'lyon' in Lyon!

It's really fun with my new comp.  He's a really funny guy. It's interesting how you judge someone before really getting to know them. I had all these ideas of how my comp would be, but he is heaps different from all of them. He works really hard, is obedient, so the perfect companion :)

 

This past week we worked towards our goal of 10 new investigators.  We did a lot of contacting which was really really fun.  One down side is that we nelglected a little bit on phone calls. And as Elder TB  correctly said a couple months back, if any one ever wants to get missionary work going he has to use the phone. So we taught less, and should have had a little more contact with our current investigators.

As there were a couple new District leaders and some new things in Lyon, we did a couple of exchanges early on. Actually I am going to back track. Monday was transfers, Tuesday the newbies came in. So as Elder Pilling has mission permission to drive (he was in a few areas with a car), we went and helped the 15 new missionnies come in. It was fun, it took almost the whole day as we were running around behind the scenes trying to get all of the transitions smooth for the huge first day that the newbies had.  We had taught, worked a bit, trained a District leader and we will train another this week back in Besançon.  Also this week coming, we have Zone Council which should be way, way fun. It's going to be all about prayer. Calling down the powers of heaven.

Fabian our 'ami' is still coming to church every week, he is progressing but taking his time to make the big step. But he is the man.

I am pumping through the Book Of Mormom in personal study. I'm a little slow as I do all my studies in French (I read better than i speak). I really look forward to personal study every morning :)

It's alarming, after being with a newbie, then an Elder who didn't like speaking French at all, my French is at an all time low. Well, not an all time low, but I can really feel the difference. I am struggling to get out sentences that I was saying with ease when I was at Besançon.  For example, considering how long I have been in a foreign country, I should be speaking a lot better than I am, but a transfer with a French guy in the apartment should hopefully help me a little.  

Elder Bennallack

 

 

 

24 September 2012

 

Great week for me :)

 

really busy and really tiring.

Tuesday, we had Zone Leader Council, it was a moment never to be forgotten, just a real highlight of the mission. The spirit was really, really, strong as we recieved lots of instruction. President just blasted us with the spirit. Just before lunch, we had another prayer and we all went out and worked Lyon, just went contacting for 40 minutes. It was great!  I really felt like there were angels walking down the street with me. Great experience.

 

 

After lunch while the Assistants were teaching us, President had to leave, I think he had to pick up his kids from somewhere, but he said whilst leaving, "Just so you know that the assistants aren't going apostate, they are going to have each or you give each other blessings before you leave". Which we did. It took about 40 mins, maybe more, but at the end, one by one, companionship by companionship, we gave each other blessings. Such a powerful moment. I really like Zone Councils. They're great.

 

 

At the same time they are really draining.  That night we were way tired. Then the next morning we were up at 5 am to go to Besançon for an exchange and to train up the DL who is there.  It was such a great exchange. Actually during Zone Conference the Assistants talked alot about real conversion and how for real conversion we need real repentance. Once people repent, they will want to be active. So we focused that day on basically calling people to repentance, which we can do, because we ourselves are doing it :)

 

 

We had a RDV with a recent convert who fell less active and now is trying to come back, but is having a hard time leaving behind things of the world.  She has a hole in her heart that she's trying to fill with things that won't fill her.   So we called her to repentance (all four of us were in this rdv, peculiar in itself).  Straight after going home, we were contacting and we were talking to nice French people coming home from a long day of work.  We stopped one lady and she asked us what we wanted, I basically said that we had been sent to invite people change their lives to be more in accord with Jesus Christ. Not too much different to what we normally say, but with the focus on repentance it changed everything.

 

 

That night particularly, I was very edified and I imagine that others were equally by the spirit.

Just a few choice experiences.

For District mtgs President is focusing on prayer and also on setting rediculously high finding goals. On average the Zone, separately, fixed goals for 13 ish new 'amis' each week.  Seeing that the current average is in between 1 and 2, it's quite the jump, but we are confident that we can reach it, or if not come really, really, close to it. Ourselves this week we had zero, so we have lots of work to do but the Lord is helping me know what things we need to change and improve on to merit his blessings.

President is focusing a lot on prayers, tomorrow we have zone interviews and we have to talk a little bit, mostly about faith, and then faith in our prayers. Things really at the base, but game changers.

At the moment we have some cool 'amis', not too many, but some cool ones. There's still Fabian who brought his little brother to church this past week, that was cool. We are also teaching a student from New Mexico that we bumped into a couple weeks back. Everyone just loves him. His name is Rocky. Everyone is asking us how he is going just because he is a really nice guy and everyone loves him. He is getting integrated nicely into the YSA here.

We are working with a less active as well who is an RM.  This week we went there to help her stop smoking and she said it's hard because her roomies all do it. So we called them all in and now they are all stopping together :) It's funny, when we told them we have a plan to stop in 7 days, they were soo, soo excited. They are soo taken in by this addiction and are excited to get out of ot.  We are too :) I love all her roomies, it's only a matter of time before they will be taught and accept the restored gospel. Surely :)

Elder J Bennallack

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2012 - ZL in Lyon

1 August 2012

Hey, craazy few days, never stressed or sweated soo much!

So I can't remember what I said quickly yesterday, actually we had to swing by the mission office quickly and I profitted of the occasion to sit down on one of the office computers to email you, while I was doing it, they recieved a call that during transfers, because there were soo many whitewashes, which means that both missionaries are taken out and two brand newies go in, there were a lot of passing of keys over to people. Anyways, so one comanionship rocked up to their new city and found out their keys didn't work, so the office Elders had a late night, leaving at about 8:30pm to go give them the right keys. Ahh! the joys of transfers!

Elder Hilburn, Festus and Elder Bennallack

Yes! baptism DID go through. Yay!  In the photo, Festus doesn't look too happy but he was and bore a fantastic testimony in church the next day. As he is an English speaking man, he asked me to confirm him. My English and my French are both pretty average right now. I cannot speak eather. Anyways, in the blessing I started talking to him using the "thee" form instead of you.  For instance, I think I said something like, "this is a great occasion for thee, of the Lord is happy with thee", can't remember actually, but I was 'thee' ing him! haha! whoops. I caught myself and corrected it though by the end!

Group photo! The sisters also had a baptism..

But yes, yesterday I spent the whole day at the train station. Not having time for anything, then getting back super late trying to have to plan and having a million people call me asking me questions about things I have no idea about.  Like I said, my companion and I have never been anything before, neither have 3 of 5 of the DL's in our zone,  so they are calling asking questions or we were calling them.  Then because we are in Lyon, the assistants are always calling us to get us to do things or the office Elders or just other missionaries in Lyon. Soooo busy. But there is Zone Council on Friday which will take care of alot of my questions that I have, then we will do some exchanges and things should calm down a lot by the end of this week.

Today was chaos as well, but we still managed to slip in a teaching appointment with someone the previous missionaries in our sector found.  Columbian. Golden. Loved it!

So my new compion is called Elder Uluave, he is from Salt Lake, he is the man. Soo charismatic, charming, one-quarter Tongan so he has that bronzed skin. Everyone loves him, so as President is huge on endearing all the members, ie making them fall in love with us, soo much that they start getting more involved in missionary work, it's no surprise that he is here.

Theres the board with all the missionaries,
a couple months ago I was in the bottom half, now you can spot me.

As I have already told you the mission has been tipped on it's head.  Today we went out with all the new missionaries who came in, they are amazing. Talking about raising the bar, my oh my, they were out talkng to people, their French is better than mine and they were setting up RDV's for me, which I wasn't complaining about, all in thir first two hours in the field. impeccable!

Also for transfer news, the new assistant is in his 7th transfer.  He trained last transfer like me. Solid missionary. Soo full of love. the mission is going to change sooo much, but no dubt all for the better, so excited!  Good things are gonna happen!

Dad asked if I had a car?  No I don't, but I do have a credit card because of expenses that we will have, and because of that missionaries are calling us all the time for us to do things. I think because tomorrow is the end of the month, and people need to renew metro cards etc etc, but it's cool. I feel special!

 I am, in a 4 man appartment, for 3 weeks. the two missionaries I am with just whitewashed in, but will finish early this transfer to go back to school. So very cramped!

Yes my address has changed but its no biggy for the moment, if ever mail goes to my apartment in Gerland where I was, I'll get it the same day. We see the other missionaries everyday here. I love it.

Although I will eventually give you my new address... when I know it. Yeah! I don't even know it yet, just know how to get to it! hahah!

Elder J Bennallack

13 August 2012
 

Fun week, busy week but fun!

Finally, this week we had a bit more time to go out and do some actual missionary work. We had some good times, the best actually was last night. Normally Sunday nights are the slowest times to meet people but last night we found some beauties. I love contacting in the Metro, it's great! I think one reason why I like it is because its natural. If you are in the Metro, it means you are going somewhere. People's guards are lower. I also love being non French. As my French skills really aren't that great, people know instantly that I'm not French and once they ask where I'm from, their guards are down, barriers broken, makes a smooth transition into gospel conversations. Is it unfair that everyone loves Australia??

We found and set up some great appointments for this week which we are excited about. One actually who was found in the Metro. I was talking to this young YSA aged girl (who infact spent a gap year in NZ) who I sat next to, and then after she left a muslim looking man who was sitting next to my companion starting talking to us. He asked us who we were etc etc. It turns out this arab guy, about a 22 year old, is a christian convert.  You think there is family pressure for white people who turn Mormon, when a Muslim turns Christian it's bad. But he said he read the Bible, prayed about it, got his answer that it was true and then cried for two days straight when he found out it was true. Great guy. We will be seeing him Thursday. Small miracle, especially as I probably would have never contacted him because of his race, but because we were super nice and friendly talking to people he felt comfortable starting a convo with us.

Hope it goes well

This past week we also did a couple exchanges. My companion went to St Etienne, I stayed in Lyon and took out a missionary in his second week of his mission. Great missoinary. Then we did an exchange with the assistants. Ooh boy did I love that. I was with Elder Gubbay, who looks like Clark Kent.  He was in the MTC with me and he met Thomas, Michael and others in the family at Temple Square when everyone was there for Bens wedding. He shared some insight about what he's learnt from the mission. One thing that really hit me, which is kinda silly actually because of it's obviousness, but that was a big hitter for me, was that how he learnt that the strongest converts are those who are baptised, for a remission of their sins. It's silly but it's true.   There are a lot of different reasons for which people are baptised. Often as a missionary I have used different reasong to try and 'help' people to be baptised, for example, entrance into the kingdom of God, or to recieve the Holy Ghost afterwards, but as we are commanded to preach nothing but repentence and baptism it's clear what the prime reason for baptism is. The whole night my head was tripping thinking that I had found some great secret in life. But all in all, good exchange, fun times,.  I love missionaries.



Before the mission, it was said to me: "the mission is great, as a missionary there is a great sense of brotherhood".  It's soo true. When I think of all the other missionaries here in the mission who are now great friends and brothers. There is that sence of 

Us uprooting a ginormous tree. A very manly moment!

fraternity which there isn't elsewhere.

Speaking of missionaries that I love, as I mentioned the two missionaries who are doubling up in our apartment for one more week before they finish their missions. Life is sooooooooooooooooooo funny. Soo funny. Companion study is a laugh. Planning is a laugh. Bed time is a laugh. We just laugh all day every day at, and with each other. It's soo much fun. Will our time be more productive when they leave? Yes. But I am enjoying every single tiny second of having them with us while I can. So hilarious!

Coming up this week we have lessons, finding, exchanges, baptism interviews (which gives us another reason to travel), two different special district meetings with exchanges. Oh la la! crazy week ahead!

Elder J Bennallack

21 August 2012



'Guignol' means idiot in French. kinda.

Lyon is hot!

I think summer only just hit France, but it's quite the hot. Our apartment isn't air conned so we had a couple of really, really, hot nights. But I'm still alive!

 

This week was a crazy one. Two special District meetings, followed with exchanges.  One of the exchanges I spent in with Elder Hilburn as he was sick.  He had been sick for about a week, that morning he woke up with a nose bleeding profusely, he lost soo much blood he passed out. Twice.  So I had the fun job of cleaning, and watching the Testaments for a day :)

 

 

I also was able to go back to St Etienne for a day on an exchange which was fun. It was a public holiday so there was virtually nobody on the streets, but we were able to pass and see recent converts who remembered me so that was nice.

 

 

Friday we went to Valence.  We had to go there to do a baptismal interview. We got to the train station early to make sure we didn't miss our train to Valence.  As we get there, we see listed that our train would be 20 mins late.  This was then cutting things close. Then the 20 mins became 40 which ended up listing that our train was CANCELLED. ahh France!  So it was the only train having difficulties, the rest were fine.  So we called the office Elders and asked if one of them could drive us down to valence, lucliy that day there there was a car free so someone came and got us and drove us to Valence so we could do the interview. It was a good experience, for me anyways. It was my first time interviewing someone.  A 24yr old french woman, a police officer actually. Her fiancé got baptised a few weeks ago and was able to perform the baptism on Saturday. Exciting time in their life for them!!

 

 

 

Actually in the zone this weekend there were 3 baptisms, so thats nice.  Another couple are coming up this weekend, one of which is being taught by a DL so we will be going to St Etienne this week again to do an interview. Also this week, we are doing an exchange with the DL in Besançon so we will take advantage of the long travel and attend the District meeting in Dijon in the same voyage.

It's fun doing what I am doing.

 

 

The down side in this past week with all this going on, we didn't really have much time to work in our own area.  Actually we didn't see any of our 'amis' this week.  We only had a couple of hours free and this next week coming, as we are quite busy again, most of our other time will be spent in teaching appointments which is great. Elder Uluave does a great job setting up teaching appointments.  He is a good man.  So as mum asked about our ex muslim "ami" we will see him and everyone else this week. We hope.

Well there is my update.  Elder Moore and Lumakaso who were in the apartment with us finished their missions today.  It was fun having them, I learnt lots.  But seriously soo much fun!!! Actually it was scary seeing them finish up. It's the first time I've seen it. Scared the bejeebers out of me. Last night I was lying awake and had another one of those resolution moments to do, and be better.

 

I had a haircut. It was another missionary that did it. He cut the sides and then went a bit high on one of the sides, so it's all shaved off.  At least it's cooler (temperature wise).

 

Elder Jonny Bennallack

 

 

27 August 2012

Ahh!  This week you had a cold snap, we had a hot one, oh la! it was hot!

It was a fun week, we had a bit more time being able to work in our sector. WH are teaching an 18 yo called Fabian.  He's the man. He wants to be a missionary like us one day, of course he knows that he has to be baptised before! haha.  This week he accepted the law of chastity and the word of wisdom, and was at church for the 6th week in a row.  In the past he has been hesitant to engage himself with baptism, but no doubt he will take the big step soon. Often the good strong converts take time :)

He was being taught by a bunch of missionaries before, including Elder Moore and Lumakaso who just went home, so we are just having the fun time now of teaching him the big commandments

Speaking of them being gone, the apartment is soooo much quieter. I feel like more of a missionary now! hahah.  Like there is time to think, not too much, but a little bit. 4 man apartments are soo much fun, but I think there's a good reason that they are a rarity in the mission.

It was interesting reading Elder TB's email about how he got into a ward that was relitively cold towards the missionaries. With President Roney, we are focusing on that very one thing. Loving the members. He says often that he wants us to love and endear the members soo much that they will offer us to marry their daughters. It's from Alma 17 or 18 with Ammon, but it's funny none the less.

Elder Uluave and I have been talking a bit about different ways to gain or earn members trust. One of the things that we have thought to focus on, is the quality of investigators that come to church.  There are always multiple people to contact and so normally a choice often has to be made. Too often misionaries tend to take the easy option and avoid talking to the French french people because with them there is an increased chance of rejection, so they choose to talk to an "easier target".   So that's one thing that we are trying to change, first with ourselves.

 

So the delicious fruit was given to us by a less active, named Mario. That is Mario in the photo with my comp. So Mario was met by another missionary while we were singing in a really dense mall in Lyon.  He is in our sector so we visited him. We have seen him three times in the past three weeks. He has come to church the past two weeks as well as other activities. He was baptised in Argentina, he is from Chili, and has been less active for 15 years. Now he's pretty much made up the resolution to come back to full activity and we love him soo much for his efforts.

 

 

 

Funny side note, my comp HATES fruit. With a passion. But twice now Mario has made us a delicious fruit platter and I enjoyed it while he forced it down. Literally a struggle! hahaha!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another baguette fight from our travels to Dijon and Besançon. We went to District mtg in Dijon, where the photos were taken then to Besançon for an exchange. It was cool. All four of us worked in Besançon for the day, I was able to pass one old investigator and one potential investigator from my time there. We were also able to teach and find, so I was really, really, happy with the day there. Plus I LOVE the missionaries who are there!

 

 

The raw meat with an egg yolk on it is precicely that. Raw beef with an egg yolk on it. Only in France could you eat that at a resturant. We have a really good friend here in Lyon take us out to eat the other night, and we both accidently ordered this meal. The meat is soaked in vinegar over night to kill all the bacteria or what not, but honestly it was one of the nicest things I have ever eaten in my life. Delicious!

Only in France could you find something like that though! hahaha!  I dont think that would pass health checks elsewhere :p

All in all, a good week..

Elder J Bennallack

 

July 2012 Training in LYON

3 July 2012

Lyon this week was hot, then one night there was a storm, then it rained for a day, and now it's cool. Speaking of cool you should all look at our new propaganda board :) excellente!

Street Boarding: "It's Cool to be a Mormon"

That says,"It's cool to be a Mormon". We took it to the streets and it seemed to be a crowd pleaser. Within the first 30 seconds of walking from the metro to where we were going, someone had already taken a skeaky 'pitire' of me carying the board which then struck up a convo between me and a lady next to me who had heard about the Book of Mormon musical.

So yes! It's cool to be a Mormon!

This week was 'aight'. The weeks are passing faster and faster, though not much really happens in the weeks. It's hard fitting in all of the studies for Elder Hilburn, there are really quite alot. Four hours of studies each day. Although it's good, we enjoy the French study together. He's a good missionary, young, confident, good looking, like most missionaries, the only thing lacking is his French, so once he polishes that up, he will be unstoppable!

On the flip side this week, I've been sick. lame. I completely lost my voice for about two days. I'm not sure what the cause was, like I don't feel bad, just the voice didn't come. It's still really croaky and I cant speak too much, but today is a lot better than yesterday. Yesterday I could mumble and grumble in English but when I tried to switch to the French, nothing really came out! Luckily last night we had dinner with one of our new friends who is a French student with all of her roomies, and they all spoke excellent english so that suited me fine!

Street contacting with our board

Honestly without a voice you can do NOTHING as a missionary. We did a litle split one night so I could tag along with another missionary, he talked and I just looked good. haha!

So pray for my voice, I"m half expecting it to come back lower ;)

A whole bunch of finding was done this week as well. So much finding. Tuesday we're hitting up a slamm town just outside of Lyon. We are going to knock on a few doors searching for nice families so I'm pumped for that.

As for President Roney, he got in on Friday. I think it was Wednesday we helped President Murdock move stuff around at the mission home. He seemed finished, it was pretty funny. I love him. Love him.

Lyon

With Elder Hilman, I don't have the impression at all that he's a new missionary. He's broken pretty well into missionary life, but every now and then he will hesitate because he doesn't know how to do something and he needs my help or he will stop and take a photo of something French like because it's way new. I love him already, easily one of my favourite companions. I hope we can just start teaching more people soon :p

Elder Bennallack


10 July 2010
Good week, not too special, lots of finding, some potential... all in all good, like every week :)

But this week was a bit special as we had interviews with President Roney. It was great!  As Lyon is a massive Zone it took a long time. Especially as it was the first time we met him, for most, including me, he instructed us with words of everlasting wisdom for about an hour and it was amazing.   Within the first thirty seconds, he had us all won over. A very funny man, very confident, very down to earth. Just like a normal person. I like him alot. He expects us to quadruple the baptisms in the mission.  He's very confident that we can do it. I believe him.

One of the first things he talked about is how theres a bunch of computer geeks (his terms) in Oram UT who have created a bunch of mock websites so that when people google 'Mormon' the first page comes up with practically good things about Mormons. And how in French when you do it,  it's mostly pad stuff like really anti.   So he got them a month ago to start doing the same for French so eventually in a little while, when people google 'Mormons' only good things will be there; then he added, "I feel like I'm cheating, it's like we are buying baptisms!" hahaha. Oh I love him!

Oh, but the very first thing he said was he stood up just after his wife spoke to us, were "quelle jolie femme uh, oh la la" which is like saying, "isnt my wife just gorgeous". Everyone laughed! haha!

But for the most part, he just pulled apart Alma 17 (I believe) where Ammon meets the King Lamoni for the first time, and after being bound and taken to the King to possibly be slain or imprisoned or cast out from among them, the King is just like,

"what are you doing here?" and Ammon says "I just wanna be among your people for a little bit and maybe even for forever" (paraphrasing), and then the king says, "great! here's one of my daughters to marry".  Like I said that to the guy at the French consolate, but he never offered me one of his daughters! Then he talked about how Ammon prayed for a portion of the spirit of God and the fact of having that, just made him more attractive, something about him and it touched people. So he said, "we are going to have the spirit, we are going to endear people, ie make them love us, and then teach them the docrine of Christ."  So that is the focus!

'Prepare, Endear, Teach the Doctrine'

Which is nothing new, especially with the French. They have so many walls, so before they can feel the love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a few of those walls will have to drop. It has been very interesting as well just to see how people see us differently when they feel the love of God through us, even if they don't understand what it is.

I think thats one huge thing I've learnt. The spirit changes desires. Simple :)  Aahh missions!  Aren't they great :)

Well good week,  new President, lots of love in the mission, miracles everywhere! We have met some cool people, but they all aren't in our sector, or our ward. This past week though, the Zone Leaders returned us the fevour and passed us two investigators, one of who is way sweet who they have started to teach but are in our ward so that's cool.

Elder Bennallack

Oh, also just so you all know, this morning I woke up at 4am, I was hit in the nose by the smell of the bakery putting through it's first, well I imagine, batch of goodness that they were preparing.  I fell back asleep quickly. Then as it's nice and light and warm in the morning getting up was no worries. Beautiful days, beautiful smells, beautiful France. Such a hard life, n'est-ce pas??

The view from our apartment..

17 July 2012

This week was a good one. There was lots of service actually, but we were able to teach some progressing 'amis' too. yay! Actually whist teaching one 'ami', someone that a recent convert brought to church 4 weeks ago, a Nigerian, Elder Hilburn was able to engage him to baptism, so that was nice. Proud of him!  So our friend Festus normally will be baptised in two weeks, as long as there are no bumps, but we'll be praying that there isn't too many :p


Before I forget this detail about interviews with President last week.. Whilst interviewing me, he's like, "tell me about your family'. Then as soon as I start talking, he bends down and starts polishing and shining my shoes. Yeah that's right, the man gave me a shoe shine. He did the same for all the Elders... with black shoes. Very, very humbling.

We are starting to see some nice miracles here. This week I was able to talk to a lady on top of the Metro, or underground subway station. She was with a stroller and came out looking for another entrance to go into because she wasn't able to get down to the level she needed to go to with the lift. I  talked to her, she was way cool, started talking to her about about the family etc etc. then I offered to carry her stroller down the Metro. We left our board and went down carrying her stroller. A small act of service but she was touched, we got her mumber and will try and se her when she gets back from holidays next week. Oh, and she already has a Book of Mormon in her house. Cool little experience but we are having lots of little things like that which is great. well these things happen all the time but i like it when they do :) oh and best thing of the strory; shes French. I love French people!

As Elder B2 is talking about different ways to find, we have started singing in the busiest outside mall in Lyon every Saturday morning. It's great! A bunch of missionaries and a couple of members, we just sing hymns and it's great!  Good publicity ;)

Elder Bennallack



24 July 2012

First, I forgot to mention last week, the 14th of July is 'Bastille' day in France, it's like the 4th of July in USA or to an extent, Aussie day on the 26th Feb. So there was a huge fireworks display and President gave us all permission to go out and watch them. They started at 10:30pm and the show lasted 20 minutes. Every missionary in Lyon was there, it was great!  Great, great fireworks. I love fireworks. Then after, we drew the short straw and had to accompany the sisters back to their apartment and didnt get back to ours till 11:44pm. Crazy times, but fun times. By far the latest night on the mish but fun!



Street contacting with our 'Smiley' board..

This past week we multiplied our lessons taught by 4 with great results.  I'm not saying that we are now teaching lots, but we're now teaching! :p   But it's fun picking up some quality investigators. Tithe paying members is what I want, so this past week we met with some cool people.

Festus is still cruising for this weekend.  Tomorrow night we are going to teach him chastity and tithing in the one lesson.  I don't think there should be any dramas as he's the man. A married man!  He was at church this past week for the 6th time straight and is just full of faith. So that's great news. There are actually 3 baptisms previewed for this Saturday, one of ours, the sisters and the assistants, all at the same time, so it should be good. Hopefully they all go through. Fingers crossed!

Thankyou soo much mother for the genealogy. If you find your November 2011 'Ensign', conference addition, (maybe the one before, but the edition with the Salt Lake Temple and a really blue sky).  Turn to the contents page, and you will see a man with his hands on his son. That's Fr Léporé, he is now famous!  Sunday we were at his house, us and the sisters, and he showed us indexing.  It's crazy. I think I am just hit by the Elijah bug. Everything about genealogy is just enveloping me. It's great. I want just to have more time so I can get into it more. Today I just looked at my family tree on new.familysearch and Grandma wasn't connected to her parents, (not from my tree anyways on the new search). So I joined that connection, and once I made the connection with Grandma's dad, everything else just popped up. Generations and generations!  Anyways, it's great the spirit of Elijah.

We actually just came from a RDV with a native Venusuelan man. He keeps every engagement and is just at the research of God.  Evertime he asks us, "hey Elders! how was your week this week; did you find anyone else like me??" haha he is just great. So this week he read Amla 40 to 42 because he had questions about the ressurection.   Today we talked about the Plan of Salvation. Coming from a catholic background it was all very very new for him. I expounded scriptures from the Bible, and then when we were testifying about the work that is currently talking place on the other sde of the veil, that old prophets like Moses, Abraham and Nephi are all teaching people the gospel, the spirit filled up the room like a flame torch just got lit or like someone just opened up the blinds and the sun brightened up everything. It was great!

I love the spirit.  When I feel it, I feel like I have superpowers! A feeling that makes you glow and feel so happy and makes everyone want to be your friend, and every one of your words more powerful and interesting. It's kinda unfair the advantage we have having the spirit but I enjoy it none the less. tant mieux pour moi right??



Today I went shopping. I walked into a store, normally a store for both sexes. There were only girls th
ings. I asked "ou se trouve la section d'hommes" where's the mens section?  The lady replied straight in broken English. She didn't even ask where I was from, she just assumed that I was English speaking. Humbling experience. lots of work to be done for me I guess.

I actually had a dream that I came back and went into a French class with Mr Thorburn, my French teacher in High School. I wasn't the best in the class and it haunted me. Nightmare!

Love Elder J Bennallack


31 July 2012   Transfers!!

Quickly!! I have no time today, I was in the 'gare' the WHOLE day! President has tipped the mission upside down. I got transferred, I got transferred to LYON! yay!  Same city, different ward. President actually whitewashed the Zone Leader companionship here, and threw me and another companion, who's in his 6th transfer in!! Neither of us have had ANY experience in leadership yet. So it should be fun. I'll write more tomorrow, as it's time to go. Hectic day!

Elder Bennallack

 

June 2012 Thrusting in our Sickle

5 June 2012

This week I have grown to love more my companion. So many hilarious stories.

We had a great RDV with Lucie, our chinese and at the moment, our only investigator (she is going great!!!) We have been working on getting new investigators. We taught a couple of lessons so we will see if we can turn those into constant 'amis'.

My highlight of the week was with a lady whose door we knocked on. We taught her with her YSA aged daughter. She assisted in the past with the Jehovas Witnesses and has been slightly doctrinised by them, but she didn't like them so never became part ot them.

In sharing the First Vision, she cut me off halfway through the vision and said, "wow wow, you're not telling me that he saw God the Father? No one has seen God the Father". Then after trying to testify she said "it's even written in the Bible". Then I said "yeah it is, in John 1:18. In fact lets turn to it now". So we turned to it and it says something like 'no man has ever seen God'. Then I said ok, now lets go a little bit further to John 6:46, it says something like 'no man has ever seen the Father, except him who is of God, he has seen the Father'. Then she said "yeah but it says only those who are of God". Simply I asked her, "and you? Where do you come from??" After a few seconds of silence her daughter said, he has a point!" :)

I often don't like using the Bible to prove things, well actually I love doing it, but I don't because I know it's not good, but in this case, it just felt right. And the question was just so perfect that I know it wasn't mine because I'm rubbish with questions, but that one just seemed so perfect, so simple, but worked a treat.

Today we saw a couple cathedrals in Lyon, right next to Roman ruins..

Elder J Bennallack

Cathedral..

... and another one

Roman ruins

11 June 2012

Yesterday in the corner of Europe, there was a European wide conference, kinda like a general conference but just for Europe. It was by satelite and there was Elder Zwick of the Seventy who spoke, Elder Nelson and President Eyring. We all congregated in Ecully chapel to see it, and I was in the English room. It was really, really good. There was a sister, Sister Stevens who spoke and it was just wonderful. She talked about how to raise good kids. She talked about how in Utah there's a new immersion school, where it's in French and experts are praising it because they say immersion is the best way to teach kids a language. Then she tied it in nicely to how immersion progams of spiritual experiences is the best way to raise kids. I liked it.

Me with the glasses of a member, yes this week we visited 5 different families.
I quite like me with this style of glasses!

Speaking of liking things, Lyon's getting good. The assistants are down and today we all played soccer, the 8 Elders in Lyon (the office elders didn't come) soo much fun.

This week we were able to add two new 'amis' to our pool. One is another asian girl, just a crack up. She speaks perfect English and is just so outgoing. She comes into institute for the first time and is just laughing with everyone, it was great. We met her just outside of our apartment coming in one night, and she is just excellent. We taught her the Plan of Salvation this week, actually Lucie as well (new girl is called Luan) and to help explain, as it can be quite confusing. I took a hilarious photo of me, cut it out, put it on paper, cut the paper out, so there was me and then a paper cut out of me. We used it to explain spirits and bodies. It was so effective and hilarious. Good times!

The other was also YSA, a Fench but brown skin guy who plays american football and can drop a nice beat. The YSA girls were happy we brought him to the institute and want us to continue contacting good looking, tall, 22 year old men.

In our mission we are reading 'Preach my Gospel' in the month of June. It is excellent. As a pre-mish I never liked reading 'Preach my Gospel'. It was boring to me and I never got into it. Such a mistake. It is just filled with wisdom. aA book of spiritual power phrases.

In a weeks time a whole bunch of missionaries will finish, then the transfer after, another 30 ish will finish. The start of the big change over, with the new President as well, things could be pretty different. But a nice shake up always makes things more lively.

Elder J Bennallack

photos from P-day:

Me in Le Parc de la tête d'or (in the parc of golded head, yes the name is decieving as there is no giant golden head, though there are many animals).

19 June 2012 - She was lost but now is found!!

Yes the baptism I performed in Perigueux, Fabiola, went less active, moved to Bordeaux and we lost contact completely with her. For over a year nothing. Last week, a missionary in a small town near Toulouse found her!!! They were walking past a stand of Jehovah Witnesses and wanted to show them up, stopped a girl right in front of them and she's like, "hey I was baptised by Elder Smith and Elder Bennallack". haha ooh la!! soo good. Great news!

Ok, to correct falsehoods that I may have preached. The thirty missionaries that are leaving leave next transfer, ie in 6 weeks. Only 11 or so leave today. There are a whole bunch who are coming in. 18 this week and then another 14 or something next. So that's exciting for the mission.

This week was a toughy, In brief, we are back down to 0 investigators, but that's all good because in the zone of Lyon it's find new 'amis' week. yay! Should be fun, fun, fun, fun. Tomorrow night to start ,off, as there will be a whole bunch of trainers who, because they are picking up their missionaries here in Lyon, we are going storm one of the busiest places. Hopefully people find me some 'amis' :)

Today as it is transfers, we spent most of the day in the train station helping missionaries come and go. It's great seeing missionaries. Elder Temanaha-moo is being shipped of to Bordeaux which is great for me because the man was force feeding me. This will give me a new start to eat less before sleeping. :) So Elder Tmoo is out and I'm recieving one of the newbies. I will be training but I don't know who he is yet. Out of the 18 new Elders coming in, there is one English, one Tahitian and I belive the rest are American, so time will tell. There will be hard work ahead this week, it's going to be good.

This week we also did service in the new mission home. We tore up some floating floorboards. Speaking of service, we also helped another missionary companionship move. 5th floor, no elevator. You do the math! I was sore for a few days! hahaha!

Elder Bennallack

Removing floorboards in the Mission Home

Many opportunities for service in Lyon..

26 June 2012

Elder Bennallack & Elder Hilburn

My companion's name is Elder Hilburn. He's from California. He was born and grew up in LA or a suburb of, but now is from Sacramento. He's a studly man, good cook. He doesn't really understand it right now, but he's already French. Everything he does is French-like. His likes and dislikes go hand in hand with French culture. So it's no surprise that he's been sent here.

What a fun week I have had. It's getting kinda hot, well not really hot, just humid. It's crazy. Like it will be hot then 30 mins later the clouds are covering the sky and it's raining. Makes for fun times though! The mornings are perfect temperatures for running. We went this morning, so twice already with eEder Hilburn. We run to a park, to be honest it's not that far away, then we workout there. Being June 21 this week there was lots of sunlight. Long days, but I love it. Love it. No matter what the time of the day is, if it's sunny, missionary work can be done. I remember in winter when it got dark at 5 something PM, if we talked to someone they feared for their life! ahh I love summer!

Dad asked what happened to all our amies? Good question. I'm not quite sure, well I am, the two asians for the moment nothing is happening, long story, family pressure for one and busy life for the other, but we hopefully will get them back in a few weeks . But still we started this week with zero 'amis'. A great start to a new missionary right? But we took it in our stride and acted and had such a great week. Honestly its probably one of the most fun of the mission. Lyon has people and missionaries everywhere.

This week we did a whole bunch of street boarding. We met some great people and picked up one new investigator, on Suday arvo, a man we met on Saturday. Angolese, father and husband of 4, and he just lapped up the Book of Mormon. Loved it. So hopefully great things will come from that. But Lyon is just full of people. Soo many elect.

I think with all this contacting I'm going crazy a little. I have no comfort zones when I get into it. But I have found that the bolder I am, in terms or getting ppeople to stop and talk to us, the more people stop and talk to us. I love my smiley face board, it's still going strong. And with the quesiton "for you in life what brings you the most happiness" it's a winning comination.

President Murdock goes home Friday, President Roney is in on Friday. That's exciting for the mission.

Elder Bennallack