November 12, 2012

1. Tell me all about the baptisms
2. Tell me about church and the plans for the temple
1. Who is going to the temple?
2. Are some of the very new members going to do baptisms? (I guess most are very new)
3. How many are getting endowments?
3. Please send pictures this week…

The baptisms were incredible. There was a different spirit in the meeting. I felt overcome with pure joy. Tomorrow afternoon the branch goes to the temple. They will be there three days. The majority will do baptisms because the majority have been baptized in the last 4 months. They are excited and have been taught of the importance of this trip. Many converts are going. A few will be endowed. The Relief society president will be endowed and two from the elders quorom.

We had 7 baptisms this week. The Hinestroza family is very special for all of us. Elder Welling and I found the family a few months ago. On saturday 5 of them were baptized. It was beautiful. They were all members of another church. Cruz who is the strongest of all of them afterwords she stood to share her testimony and said the church was true. Then she said i want to sing to you all. She sang and clapped and danced. I just smiled and we laughed as all the members and converts clapped with her.

Jhon Jairo and yised were also baptized. Jhon Jairo is 17 and he did not want to be baptized. It was special for his family to see him baptized. His dad baptized and comfirmed him. (His dad just recieved the priesthood it was great).

We are working hard and getting everything ready for the 24th for the baptisms.

I love you all thank you for everything.

Elder Belnap

November 5, 2012

1. How was your Sunday?
2. What did you do in Church today?
3. How many investigators?
4. How are your new members?
5. Did you have a baptism this week?

We had a special meeting in church. The majority of the testimonys included tears of how members had prayed for the church to arrive others that had no idea they were looking for the truth and found it. An investigator bore testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel (Future bishop or stake president). He will be baptized on saturday.

We had about 14 investigators. It is a little lower then usual but we are happy about the work. The members are doing great. There is one young man and his brother that we haven`t seen the last couple of sundays, Michael & Christian. We need to get the ward more involved with them.

We had a special week. I felt like the lord taught me some new lessons. Service and sacrifice. It has not been easy. There has been some things that have made it hard for some investigators to progress but we are looking for the chosen and trying to strengthen zion. We can not gather sheep if our fence is mangly and will easily fall over. There can be a million fish in the river but if your knot isn`t strong your fly will not be able to support it. (We need a dad type of knot, not a benny weak sauce throw it on there and hope for the best knot.)

The work in Buenaventura will move faster. The lord has shown his arm here. Miracles that are so apparent that they show us that Jehova has more power than any obstacle here.

I love you all, I am having fun and working hard.

Con amor,
Elder Benny Belnap

October 29, 2012

1. Do any of the missionaries snore?
2. What is the name of your companion?
3. Is he brand new?
4. Baptisms this week?
5. How are the lessons coming along?
6. How was church? Primary?

Well i think we all snore. But i honestly think the one from bolivia snores the most. haha My companion is Elder Alfonso, he is new in the mission. He has now been here in the mission for about 2 months i think. Time goes fast. We are preparing all the baptisms for the 10th of
November and the 24th of November. We are doing all we can. It has been kind of hard to start over in my new area. But we are doing all we can. We will baptize, it is who we are, that is what we do.
This week in church was special. It was a conference just for the country of colombia. Neil L Anderson spoke and presided. He spoke with two other seventies and the relief society president. It was great. Neil L. Anderson spoke in spanish. It was awesome. I think they people liked it. He talked about some people i know here in Cali and Some people from Palmira. It was a beautiful conference. He left a very special apostolic Blessing. He blessed colombia with peace. He promised that they would have food on the table and a roof over their head if they paid their tithing. It was a sacred blessing to listen to.
I also had a great experience talking to a couple with some marraige problems. I sat them both down, feeling like nephi "being lead by the spirit, not knowing before hand what i was to do..." and talked about how the lord desires our marraige. It was special. They are working it out and i am grateful for learning experiences like that.

I love this work and it is a privelage to open this city.

I love you all, Elder Belnap

october 22, 2012

1. Tell me all about your companion: name, where is he from, his family
2. Do you still live with Elder Welling?
3. Are there two sets of missionaries or three now?
4. How many are coming to church now?
5. Did you do anything fun for your day of birth?

I started my mission and will finish it with a colombian. I love colombian companions. He is from bucaramanga. His brother is a member. His parents are not. He has been in the church for a few years. He is so teachable and easy going. I feel good to train again. It is of course different but i am happy about it. We all live together. Me and Elder Welling moved all the beds in the same room so now we all four sleep together. It is good. We had 90 again this week. We wanted more this week but we are holding it. I didn`t do much. I went to the branch presidents house and she made some dessert and i ate some rice.

Well it has been a great week. We had a baptism. Nichol a young girl who is so special. Almost all her family is a member. More to come this month. This monday i came to the conclusion that i wanted to do something that had never been done before. I wanted to find 100 people in one day. Without using activities or doing divisions or anything. Well we left at ten on friday morning with very heavy backpacks and with so much energy. I honestly felt like we were going to do it. Well we did not do it. But we gave it our all. We found 54 people and taught 19 lessons. It was a special experience. Ï felt that the lord was happy with the effort and i felt the joy from inviting all of these people to baptism in the first lesson. :)
This work is beautiful. I love it so much I am trying my hardest here to do what is right. I love you all
Elder Belnap

Con amor,
Elder Benny Belnap

October 15, 2012

1. Did you get your birthday packages? I didn't call them that before because I was worried you won't get them
2. How was the finding this week?
3. Tell me all about church? Do you teach? Sing?
4. Any baptisms this week?
5. Did you find out about us helping to get the leadership to the temple?

Laura, I am sitting in the office of the mission. We came to have our interviews and pick up a new missionary. It should be great. I got my packages thank you so much. I feel very weird being in the office again. But happy to see my friend Elde Rivadeneira again. Today is my birthday i am 21. That is neat. Like my letter says, just another day in the office. :) I am happy to serve on my birthday. I wish i could serve the lord on all of my birthdays. We had a great sunday. Elder Patiño left and finished his mission. It was a very sad moment. I taught the sunday school and Priesthood. How to do home teaching. haha I thought about all the times i would visit with dad. That was a special time for me. We had 1 baptism this week and we are going to have a few this saturday.

We had a great week here. We are trying to work in a balanced plan. We are working hard out here in Buenaventura. We are going to work as a team this transfer. From the looks of it, me and Elder Welling will stay here. I will finish my mission here and give it my all. The lord has blessed us and we are trying our hardest to change the world. This sunday will be very special. We are going to try to break all the records for church attendence and new investigators this week. May the lord bless his work here.

Thank you for all your letters this week and all your support. I even got a dear elder from Emmo. Miracles do exist.

Love you all. Elder Belnap

October 8, 2012

1. What did you like about conference?

2. Did you get your packages?

3. Did your people come to conference?

4. Did you listen in Spanish or English?

5. What are the thoughts in the mission about the change in ages for missionaries? I love it…..

6. Did get get any pictures last week….Try again but only send a few in several emails…I want lots of pictures

Laura, i will talk about conference in the letter. No packages. They didn`t send it to me yet. lame. We had a pretty good turn out. Many members just dont know. Saturday there was just... us in the chapel. That`s okay though we are working on it. We listened in english and priesthood in spanish with the men.

Okay well the first official feed of General Conference in Buenaventura. Very special. We have some great people getting to know the church right now. It is special to work here. It is different. I enjoyed all the talks. I however wasn`t expecting what made the difference for me. I felt something different then i had ever felt. I felt strong spiritual impressions. Not abnormal just not overly common. They were so noticiable and so real i felt as if someone was whispering in my ear and quietly expressing to me the will of the lord. I was overcome by the holy ghost. During President Eyerings talk, the signal dropped and we could only hear it on the internet radio. I focused on every word he said and that is when i started to feel this special presence. It was an unforgettable conference for me.

We watched conference on sunday on a cell phone. A colombian version of what i think is something like the I phone.

We are trying to do the right thing here in buenaventura. Sometimes we dont know what is the most important thing to do. Find?? Strengthen investigators?? Help the members?? It is all important but we have neglected the 3rd. It is huge. Can you imagine having a box full of beautiful ornaments for your christmas tree and when you go to put them on there are only 2 3 strangly branches to hang them on?? Or trying to shift a car from 1st to 5th without going through 2nd 3rd and 4th?? We must STRENGTHEN our stakes, and then we can EXTEND our boundaries. We are trying to do it all here but we are doing some searching to see how to do it. Any thoughts?? President Taylor would have a good answer to this problem. Can you ask him Laura??

Love you all Elder Belnap.

This is what he wrote about the Saturday announcement at conference:

Yes i freaked out about the mission announcement. Awesome! the women down here are more then excited. "We can get married and go on missions!!" they all say.

October 1, 2012

I asked him about the Earthquake in Colombia…

1. I need pictures…Lots of them
2. Tell me about your baptisms this week?
3. Where do you go to write your emails?
4. Is Buenaventura the poorest area in the country?
5. What do people do there for work?
6. How much do people make in a week?
7. Tell me all about church today….

We write our emails in this nice air conditioned place on the naval base. It is nice. Buenaventura is for sure the most poor place in the mission. I have heard there are other places where it is worse. There are a lot of issues here. Most of the people here make their money from the port. Inport and export, fishing, selling stuff, or working for the Navy. Or the rich people the Drugs. :) there is a lot more money in drugs so the people tend to like working in that more. the normal workers make maybe 100 dollars a week. But the people that are poor maybe 50 or 70 dollars a week.

Well about the baptisms, they were great. President Prince came and enjoyed the afternoon of baptisms. We had 8 baptisms. So Buenaventura finished the month with 16 baptisms. Some of the converts now have callings, (Primary teachers, relief society help, and more to come) The baptisms were very special 2 mel priesthood 3 young men, 2 for the relief society, and 1 for the primary.

I wish you could all see how happy the members are here. They are so happy. But are so knew... Some examples, praying to jesus in sacrament instead of God, calling out people from the congregation to read scriptures while giving a talk, Giving the missionaries the tithing money, baptizing with the left hand in the air...dont even get me started about the sacrament. haha i feel like i am in 1830. We have manuals everyone lets read them. :)

There was an earthquake during sunday school. Everyone started to freak out a little bit. I stayed very chill i was teaching i just told them all to relax. All is well.

Love you all. Elder Belnap