Hey Family!
It’s been such a fantastic week here in Tasmania! First, some big news: we found out transfer
news…I’m staying in Tassie with Sister Chan!!! I was so excited when I found
out. I really love this area a lot and I’m glad I have some more time here! I’m
also grateful I get to be with Sister Chan another transfer, she is pretty
hilarious. Example: Just yesterday after having a huge member feed of tacos, I
saw her in the kitchen eating some leftover curry and rice from the last
night. When I asked her why she was
still eating, she answered, “If I don’t eat rice or noodles every day I feel
like I dishonor my ancestors.” Hahaha.
Cool experience of the week: Two Sundays ago, we did not
have any investigators at church. Sister
Chan and I discussed it later that night and decided we wanted to focus on
helping people attend sacrament the next week.
We started mentioning it in every prayer. Because we were out of our area at meetings
for 3 days, we were not able to meet with many of our investigators, but we
kept praying to have people go to church. And in the last few days of the week,
6 people committed to coming to church and four of them actually came! One of those 4 was just someone we met on the
street on Friday and invited to church.
Two of the others had never gone to church before. It really made me realize once again how
aware Heavenly Father is of us and how willing He is to answer our
prayers. “Ask and you shall receive.”
I was reading the story of Balaam this last week from the book
of Numbers in the Bible. It is one of
the stories I remember being told as a bedtime story many times when I was
younger. Balak the king of Moab is
afraid of the Israelites and bribes Balaam, a prophet, to come and curse the
Israelites. Balaam is commanded not to
go, but leaves anyway. AS he is
traveling to Moab, an angel appears in his path with a sword, unseen by
everyone except the donkey Balaam is riding.
The donkey saves Balaam three times by swerving out of the way of the
angel. Balaam, not understanding why
the donkey is behaving so strangely angrily starts to beat the donkey. They (here come the part I loved as a kid) the
Lord opens the donkey’s mouth so it can talk to Balaam. The Lord also opens Balaam’s eyes so he sees
the angel with the sword, who would of killed him if not for his donkey. That’s as far as I knew the story before
(probably because my attention span as a child tuckered out after the talking
donkey part). However, as I had the chance to read through the story again, I
was able to find out the ending of this story.
Balaam continued to Moab to see Balak. However, to the king’s dismay,
Balaam blesses the Israelites rather than cursing them. In Numbers 24, Balak angrily commands Balaam
to leave. He tells Balaam in verse 11, “I
thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the Lord kept they back
from honour.” Doesn’t that sound
familiar? I feel like there are many
members of the church who have been told that because they follow the commandments
of God they are being held back from prestige, promotions, riches, opportunity,
or honour. But I love Balaam’s rely to
the king in verse 13: “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and
gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either good or bad
of my own mind; but what the Lord saith, that will I speak.” Balaam understood the concept that faithful followers
of Christ throughout the history have realized; no amount of honour or glory we
receive form man can in the least compare to the honour and glory we get from the
Lord as we follow His commandments EXACTLY.
I love you all and pray for you often!! Have a great week! Love, Sister Bennion
My zone in Tassie!
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