"We are NOW the Lord's missionaries!"

October 21, 2013
Hello everyone!

It has been a fantastic week!  I am leaving tomorrow morning to go to the CCM in Columbia, so today is my last day in the US for 2 years!  So on Tuesday I got to hear from Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!  It was fantastic.  He spoke on what makes our Church different and what makes it TRUE.  He broke it down in three points.  

1:  We have additional living scripture

2:  We have the Priesthood Authority of God

3:  We have a unique relationship and love of the Savior Jesus Christ

It was so cool to be in his presence, when he walked in it was just epic!  One of the greatest highlights of being in the MTC is when we all sing the primary song "We will bring the world His truth"  It has always been one of my favorite songs, and in the CCM they change the lyrics from "We will be the Lord's Missionaries..." to "We are NOW the Lord's Missionaries and bring the world his truth..."  It's so epic every time we sing it I get all teary eyed!  The Spirit is so strong here ALL of the time.  It's the best place on Earth to feel the Spirit and learn.  Other highlights were we finished up teaching our "investigator" Shonna and it was really cool to see the improvement in my language abilities, teaching abilities, and most of all seeing her open up to us and the love that we had for her and she had for us.  Yes, it is all a act, but it feels just as real as you make it.  And the Spirit will ALWAYS be present when we testify of truth.  That is what is most important, for the Spirit does the converting not the missionary.  

This week I got spoiled!  3 Packages of goodies!  I have been eating and sharing goodies like a mad man.  Thanks Mom & Dad, Sabrina, and Devore's!  Sarah, those milky way cookies and 'better than crack brownies' are infamous among my zone.  Everyone is talking about them!  |
Also, thank you everyone for all the awesome E-mails!  The support is greatly appreciated.  I wish I had more time to write back to everyone!

This week my Companion Elder Cisneros got his Patriarchal blessing and seeing his complete transformation from who he was before he went into the room to receive the blessing-to who he became afterwards was a testimony builder to me about Patriarchal blessings.  Tonight I am going to read mine again!

I just want to throw in here that I have the best district ever.  Since me and one other sister are leaving tomorrow to go to the MTC in Columbia we had a district testimony meeting during some of our personal time.  It was amazing, its so cool how you much faster friendships grow when the spirit is present.  I am kind of bummed to leave this awesome District!

I heard an awesome quote from Elder Holland recently that I'd like to share.  He said that when Jesus set up his Church is was part of the calling to Apostleship to be messengers of the Gospel and be missionaries.  Think back to "FEED MY SHEEP!"  He then went on to say that as full time missionaries we are 'Extensions to the arms of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles''  That is so cool to think about!  Missionary work is great, and I am so grateful to go to the Colombian MTC and hope to learn Spanish even faster there!  I testify that God knows each and every one of us, and that he loves us infinitely.  I also want to share one last awesome quote that I heard since being here "God loves all of his Children equally, he just loves his Missionaries more equally!" Serving my Master, Redeemer and Savior full time is such a blessing and I feel so blessed to be a part this hastening of the work.

I love you All!

-Elder Bender