Sawubona everyone!!

Thank you everyone for  your emails!  I need to figure out how to manage my time better when writing you guys back.  I only have twenty minutes left for the group email so I'll do my best:

I was officially inducted into missionary work!! It was such an awesome experience.  The ritual includes going into a yard, three dogs, and band-aids.  Yep, I was attacked by three dogs a couple days ago.  I'm fine though! No need to come home for rabies shots.

There are a lot of churches down here! Me and Elder Asay refer to them as the 'happy clappy' churches.  During one of our lessons, we were teaching about ten people.  Throughout the whole lesson, these people were happy clappy.  When I was teaching, they would shout things like 'Yes!' or 'Amen!' or just clap and rejoice.  It was so hard to keep my cool!! I'm surprised I didn't laugh that much!! Afterwards, in the car, me and Elder Asay were tearing up from laughing!!

In another lesson this week, we walked into a man's house.  His name is Zanele Jack.  This man is intelligent! Elder Asay has been teaching him for about a month now an he's progressing so quickly!  That lesson was a different story.  The first thing that comes out of his mouth was, "Why did Joseph Smith have forty wives?"

.........

Only my first week here, and I already get that question? Eish.

We did our best to answer him, but he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that God would command the church to practice polygamy at that time.  We're teaching him again this week.  Please pray for us with Zanele!

Yesteray was Carlissia's baptism!!! It was an amazing experience for everyone involved.  The baptismal font was pretty unique, but that didn't take away from the amazing experience it was.  The opening hymn of the baptismal program was 'Praise to the Man', and the Spirit was felt so strong.  I have some pictures from the baptism.  It was a special day.

For everyone wishing to serve a mission: this is a invaluable two years of your life.  I've only been out two weeks, but I've experienced more joy than I ever have before.  One of the days all of our appointments fell through, which was extremely frustrating for us.  With only an hour left, we decided to go contacting.

That hour has proven to be the best so far on my mission.  It was truly preaching the gospel!! We gave out most of our pass-along cards, and handed out 7 copies of the BoM!!!  From gas station attendants to grocery store baggers to normal people on the street.  It was a very fruitful night, involving souls that were prepared for us in that hour.

That's all the time I have this week.  I love you all so much!!  Until next week!

-Elder Benson