Tuesday, October 11, 2011
October 10, 2011
Family,
My new city is Palmira. It is real close to Cali and it is hot. But I still don’t like to shower with cold water. Nothing about the package. I will call the office today. My companion is from Ecuador he is 24 and his mom and sisters are members but his dad isn´t. He is a convert. I do like working with converts, they have such powerful witnesses of the gospel. We go to cali every month for Zone leader Council. We have some investigators that they left us. The problem is is that the left the area without any baptismal dates so for two weeks we wont see baptisms. We are finding with the members and i have organized a couple of activities that will be really great.
It has been a good first few days here in Palmira. We are trying to get to know the area a little more and to win the confidence of the members. It is awesome here because it is a whole different culture and a very different people. There is a basketball court right outside the door of the house. I´ll tell you it has been excellent playing ball every morning. All the young men play every morning at 6 30 with the missionaries... stop it... I have loved it. The branch here is doing okay. We don’t have a chapel so everyone has to travel far to get to church in another area. That is hard but it will be okay.
I am stoked about the zone. We have so many goals and what we are going to do to get them done. In November Palmira will be the best zone of the mission..
All is well. I had an extremely powerful experience in a baptismal interview I did this week. It was great. We have sisters here in the zone. It will be the first time I have had sisters in my same zone. We will see how that goes. We have zone conference on Wednesday. So stoked. Love you all. Elder Belnap
My new city is Palmira. It is real close to Cali and it is hot. But I still don’t like to shower with cold water. Nothing about the package. I will call the office today. My companion is from Ecuador he is 24 and his mom and sisters are members but his dad isn´t. He is a convert. I do like working with converts, they have such powerful witnesses of the gospel. We go to cali every month for Zone leader Council. We have some investigators that they left us. The problem is is that the left the area without any baptismal dates so for two weeks we wont see baptisms. We are finding with the members and i have organized a couple of activities that will be really great.
It has been a good first few days here in Palmira. We are trying to get to know the area a little more and to win the confidence of the members. It is awesome here because it is a whole different culture and a very different people. There is a basketball court right outside the door of the house. I´ll tell you it has been excellent playing ball every morning. All the young men play every morning at 6 30 with the missionaries... stop it... I have loved it. The branch here is doing okay. We don’t have a chapel so everyone has to travel far to get to church in another area. That is hard but it will be okay.
I am stoked about the zone. We have so many goals and what we are going to do to get them done. In November Palmira will be the best zone of the mission..
All is well. I had an extremely powerful experience in a baptismal interview I did this week. It was great. We have sisters here in the zone. It will be the first time I have had sisters in my same zone. We will see how that goes. We have zone conference on Wednesday. So stoked. Love you all. Elder Belnap
October 3, 2011
Hello,Yes i am being transferred. I will be in palmira, I dont know many details because i am still in chinchina. My new companion is elder fiestas. I have met him before. he is from ecuador. My feelings are very mixed. The president called yesterday at about ten o clock and said that i would be leaving chinchina to be a zone leader in palmira. I wasn´t sure what to say to him. We will be entering the area my companion and i completely new. The two missionaries that were there before were transferred. Palmira is real close to Cali and it is hot. That will be different from this perfect mountain climate.
Conference it is something i cant describe. Conference truly touched me and I felt the love of the lord. We were able to watch it here in chinchina with the members it was a blessing. I expected more members to come. only 7 were in the priesthood session... wow... We had investigators saturday and sunday. our convert Luz was in every single session. She is so powerful, she was so prepared to accept this gospel. Of course I loved all the talks. I felt inspired by the Asian Elder and Elder Holland in priesthood meeting. He truly made we want to repent and be better.We had a great week. I had a feeling i would be transfered so I wanted to leave it all on the court here in chinchina. We worked hard. There will be many more baptisms to come here in chinchina. I love chinchina. Thinking about leaving these people is a pain that cant be described. I am bound together with these people and i will love them forever. I have seen the saviour change lives i have seen miracles happen. I am so grateful to have been a small part in the lords work. he truly blesses you with such peace as you do all you can. i feel that in my heart. i have included many pictures. From a parade they did in chinchina and today we went to the finka. (I dont know how to say that word in english) I got to work with a machete all day. It was great. I have some awesome videos and it was beautiful. When they announced the temple there were a few cheers and a lot of talking and many people crying. I cried with them. Another temple in their country is a big deal.I love you all. pray for palmira. It is about to be the best zone in the mission colombia cali. Elder Benjamin Belnap
Conference it is something i cant describe. Conference truly touched me and I felt the love of the lord. We were able to watch it here in chinchina with the members it was a blessing. I expected more members to come. only 7 were in the priesthood session... wow... We had investigators saturday and sunday. our convert Luz was in every single session. She is so powerful, she was so prepared to accept this gospel. Of course I loved all the talks. I felt inspired by the Asian Elder and Elder Holland in priesthood meeting. He truly made we want to repent and be better.We had a great week. I had a feeling i would be transfered so I wanted to leave it all on the court here in chinchina. We worked hard. There will be many more baptisms to come here in chinchina. I love chinchina. Thinking about leaving these people is a pain that cant be described. I am bound together with these people and i will love them forever. I have seen the saviour change lives i have seen miracles happen. I am so grateful to have been a small part in the lords work. he truly blesses you with such peace as you do all you can. i feel that in my heart. i have included many pictures. From a parade they did in chinchina and today we went to the finka. (I dont know how to say that word in english) I got to work with a machete all day. It was great. I have some awesome videos and it was beautiful. When they announced the temple there were a few cheers and a lot of talking and many people crying. I cried with them. Another temple in their country is a big deal.I love you all. pray for palmira. It is about to be the best zone in the mission colombia cali. Elder Benjamin Belnap
September 21, 2011
Good News: He got my package and it didn’t cost him but there is still a package out there somewhere which has not arrived.
I got your package mom. It was great. However you sent the package was great because it got here quick and didn´t cost me anything to get it. i think the best way is through the postal service. Not a private company. Maybe i would like a hymn book in english?? Jackee sent me the other one. It was awesome.These are the questions about: conference, the streets and marriage
I hope that we can listen to it here in Chinchina but we might have to go to the city. That is not what we want. It would be nearly impossible for our invest. To go and see it if it really is in the city. Almost all the streets here are paved. Couples getting married. that is the eternal battle. The family system is so messed up here. The men almost always have more then one girl and the women just want to have someone so they dont really care. It is a hard thing. We are always trying to help people get married and baptized. It is really difficult.
We had leadership training in pereira. It was a really great day. We learned a lot of things. However, the most impactful moment for me was not in the training. It was at lunch when i had about an hour talk with the assistent. He is a gringo. He is from mantua. I think that is how you spell it. He does speak the language great. i know him and the things he has done in the mission. So i asked him, Elder how do you do it? He explained some great things to me that i have taken to heart. He said, my whole life i had to fight and work. I always had a job and helped my dad out on the farm. He said, there is no substitute for hard work. He tripled the baptism in the zone of medellin in one month. only because he believed and worked harder then you have ever seen a missionary work. It hit me hard. I realized that i was not giving it my all. That maybe i was giving 95 but i wasn´t running at maximum power. Now that has changed. We worked so hard this past week. My companion was dying but it felt so good to get to the house at night after teaching so many lessons and finding new people. I love the work and i am leaving it all on the court in chinchina. This could be my last week here, and if so i want the lord to know that i couldn´t have done more here.
We played soccer with some members and invest. I rolled my ankle pretty bad. I guess it is all part of the process. And yes i did have my ankle brace on. Enjoy the photos. The missionary is the assistent, Elder Farr.
I love you all, I love conference on the mission. Elder belnap
I got your package mom. It was great. However you sent the package was great because it got here quick and didn´t cost me anything to get it. i think the best way is through the postal service. Not a private company. Maybe i would like a hymn book in english?? Jackee sent me the other one. It was awesome.These are the questions about: conference, the streets and marriage
I hope that we can listen to it here in Chinchina but we might have to go to the city. That is not what we want. It would be nearly impossible for our invest. To go and see it if it really is in the city. Almost all the streets here are paved. Couples getting married. that is the eternal battle. The family system is so messed up here. The men almost always have more then one girl and the women just want to have someone so they dont really care. It is a hard thing. We are always trying to help people get married and baptized. It is really difficult.
We had leadership training in pereira. It was a really great day. We learned a lot of things. However, the most impactful moment for me was not in the training. It was at lunch when i had about an hour talk with the assistent. He is a gringo. He is from mantua. I think that is how you spell it. He does speak the language great. i know him and the things he has done in the mission. So i asked him, Elder how do you do it? He explained some great things to me that i have taken to heart. He said, my whole life i had to fight and work. I always had a job and helped my dad out on the farm. He said, there is no substitute for hard work. He tripled the baptism in the zone of medellin in one month. only because he believed and worked harder then you have ever seen a missionary work. It hit me hard. I realized that i was not giving it my all. That maybe i was giving 95 but i wasn´t running at maximum power. Now that has changed. We worked so hard this past week. My companion was dying but it felt so good to get to the house at night after teaching so many lessons and finding new people. I love the work and i am leaving it all on the court in chinchina. This could be my last week here, and if so i want the lord to know that i couldn´t have done more here.
We played soccer with some members and invest. I rolled my ankle pretty bad. I guess it is all part of the process. And yes i did have my ankle brace on. Enjoy the photos. The missionary is the assistent, Elder Farr.
I love you all, I love conference on the mission. Elder belnap
September 5, 2011
Hello Hello, First the water. That was a tough week in the water situation. The whole town was without for 4 days. We bought water and there were a couple neighborhoods that had water luckily there was a member who lived there so we could shower. I will be sending pictures today. Mom dont forget i sent my memory card with elder crompton. He lives in logan i dont know how you can track down his number. he has yours. No letters or packages. It has been like two months or so without seeing mail haha. The baptism of william was a very special day. Our ward mission leader jhon baptized him. Jhon is probably my best friend here. He is in all the pictures and he is in the picture of us fishing with the net. William bore his testimony after and simply said it was true and testified to his mom that she needs to be baptized i had a very powerful experience the day of his baptism. I felt the power of the lord and i felt like he was forgiving me of my sins. I felt peace and joy. I felt like what i was doing was changing lives. I felt love for the saviour and desire to follow him. Baptisms are great in the lives of missionaries. We are teaching some great people. Luz londono she was prepared by the lord to accept our message. She will be baptized on the 17th of this month. Gislena is her best friend and we are teaching her also. Liliana patricia, she came to church for the first time. She believes everything we say to her and she is very poor. She has ten kids and they beg every day to eat. It has been sad seeing the lives of the family but we are doing all we can to help them. Those are the main people that will be baptized this month. We will see about who we find next. haha Find teach baptize. That is what we do and that is why we are here. Our area is so small it is fantastic. we never have to go in bus. Chinchina is a tiny tiny town and everyone lives on top of eachother so it is great. We have seen many changes in the mission. President prince has many ideas that are really helping the work. He is an inspired man that is trying to help in the lords work. I love you all. i should see mail this next week. Elder Billy belnap
August 30, 2011
Hello,To answer your questions I was not transferred and I am still here with my son elder Jara. I haven´t seen a package or mail in quite some time. Ya, mom a large jersey of the US soccer team. And peanut butter please.I do not remember what the daughters name is.This week was good. I brought my camera to send some sick pictures but I forgot the chord so it looks like another week without pictures. The whole town has been without water for 2 days now. We will see what we will do. They had some accident and it won’t be back for 3 days. We don’t know what to do quite yet but we will figure it out.Today was awesome, we went fishing with our ward mission leader. But not normal fishing we went with bamboo and a net. I felt like Peter fishing haha. We laughed a lot and I thought of my brothers and my dad. I learned a lot fly fishing. I think fly fishing should be a part of mission prep and hauling hay. It is obvious that my companion has never done something hard in his life. Physical labor about kills him haha.I got a letter from my first companion today which was cool. I always thought about my Grandma Myrne and how much I love her and how much her strength has helped me to be a better missionary. We are happy and I am very happy I wasn´t transferred. God bless you all. Benny B.(I asked him if he caught anything) We did it all we chucked the net we did some other things. It was fun. Dad would have laughed hard. but it was great to be on the river. We aren´t going to eat them no haha.I asked him if we was going to bathe in the river since they don’t have water) Of course I wanted to bathe in the river but I didn´t know if as a missionary that would be a good idea. haha. Water to drink if we buy it.
August 22, 2011
Hello everyone!William’s baptism will be on Friday because his grandma has been in the hospital. So we felt good about putting it for this week. We will know about transfers tonight. I could be gone as early as tomorrow. Mom I am sending my broken camera and also a memory card with elder Crompton. He lives in Logan. His homecoming will be on the 11 of September. He will call you next week so you can get in touch with him. My companion gets homesick when his favorite soccer team is playing but that is about it now ha-ha-ha. No package yet. We will see. For the shirt it would be a large. ya I think a large.This week has been great. The Lord has placed many new people in our path. We are teaching Luz who we found in the street. She was truly prepared by the lord. She will be baptized in September but first she needs to have an interview with the mission president. William is awesome. Today we were with him. Also the president gave Mamani permission to come to Chinchina for the afternoon. It was cool to be with him again and to see all of our converts we had together. I don’t know what the lord has in store for me but I have loved Chinchina. If I am transferred I will leave a lot of things behind. But, the lord knows I gave it my all here and did all that I could to help other people. I have grown a lot and passed through every type of experience. I am always reminded of the deep love of the lord. He is our light. We represent him. Every day I strive more to be like him and every day I realize how short I come. I am trying to be like Jesus. I love you all family. Until next week after our baptism, enjoy some photos.
With much love Elder Belnap. I am happy to see Preston got to Paraguay and I loved the picture of all the boys from Bountiful in the MTC. The MTC was great. But I thank heaven I am not there anymore ha-ha. The pictures were going too slow I couldn´t wait ha-ha.
With much love Elder Belnap. I am happy to see Preston got to Paraguay and I loved the picture of all the boys from Bountiful in the MTC. The MTC was great. But I thank heaven I am not there anymore ha-ha. The pictures were going too slow I couldn´t wait ha-ha.
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