Hola.

So remember how I was all excited about it being fall a while back? Summer is back with a vengeance. It was EIGHTY FIVE degrees today. What is that all about? And today was one of the cooler ones we've had this week. It's crazy.

 

The big news of this week is that we got FOUR new investigators, and they're both COUPLES with CHILDREN! FFFAAAMMMIIILLLIIIEEESSS! We're so excited.

 

The first two are a couple from the Dominican Republic. They just barely moved to Virginia and are still getting settled in. Super cute, four kids, way nice, and seem interested. It was pretty funny how we found them. About a week ago we walked through that whole trailer park writing down trailers that look potentially Hispanic (you learn the signs after a while). Then on Tuesday we started knocking each of those. As we were doing this, we passed some people outside so we asked them if any of their neighbors were Hispanic. He pointed to the end of the street, so we went down there. We knocked the trailer that we thought it was, and when I knocked the door, it pushed open a little bit. Pretty soon a dog pushed its way out of the now-open door and started growling and barking at us. I wasn't too scared, but my companions freaked out as we started walking away and wanted to run away and not knock the last trailer. That last trailer had a fenced-in yard, though, so I suggested that we go in there to escape from the dog. We did, successfully escaped the dog, knocked on their door, and they turned into new investigators! I don't know if there was any divine intervention or just a mean dog, but I like to think that he got so angry and chased us that way for a reason.

 

The other couple was a referral from the zone leaders that they found during a blitz last week. They are from Guatemala and super nice. They work on Sundays, though, which is going to be hard. Why must everyone work so much?

 

This week we also went to a nearby city, Poquoson, to see if there are any Hispanics there... there are not. It was an adroable little town, but definitely no Hispanics in sight. We found one Mexican restaurant in the whole place, went in, found Mexican workers, talked to them for a bit, and found out that they live in... Newport News! So much for that idea. It was a fun little trip, though.

 

Besides that, here are some funny little stories that I've been meaning to write about for a couple weeks and keep forgetting.

 

There is an 84-year-old lady in our branch, Hermana de la Cruz, that feeds our whole district every week. Most of my pictures are taken inside her house. She is the best person in the whole world. I love her. She's starting to feel the effects of her age and can't get around as well as she used to or remember everything, but she has maintained a wicked sense of humor and a firm testimony. You just never know what's going to come out of her mouth next. One day we got there for lunch and before we could finish knocking on the door she pulls it open fast, strikes a pose, and says, "Princesas! Por que nacieron tan bonitas?!" ("Princesses! Why were you born so beautiful?") Hahaha. Every time she hugs me she says, "Mi gringa mas linda." ("My beautiful white girl.") I adore her. And her food is the best.

 

This one only my mom will truly appreciate. We are teaching a Cuban family that just got to the states as political refugees about four months ago, so they're still VERY Cuban. The other day we were sitting talking to the two parents when the husband says, "Traeme un vaso de agua." ("Bring me a glass of water.") Without a blink, the wife dutifully gets up and brings him a glass of cold water. He drinks it all and simply says, "Mas." ("More."), so she brings him more. Then the son says, "Yo tambien tengo sed." ("I'm thirsty too.") So his mom brings him a glass. He drinks one sip and then hands it back to her and returns to what he is doing. And she does not complain one bit! I was amazed. All I could think about the whole time was, "Tengo un poco de sed." I was dying laughing inside. Hispanic men. Gotta love 'em. Especially Cubans. For some reason Cuban men in particular have no shame about their bellies and love to be shirtless. Makes for some slightly awkward situations for us, but it's all right. All in a day's work.

 

This will have to be last because I'm running out of time. My companion was on conference!!! Probably none of you even remember this, but Elder Valenzuela talked about the Mexico City MTC and it showed a bunch of pictures, one of which was of two hermanas walking around outside. Well, one of those hermanas was Hermana Johnson! Pretty exciting. My companion is famous! :)

 

All right, that will have to do for today.

 

I LOVE YOU!!! Have a great week.

 

Hermana Bennett

I have this habit of leaving my camera card plugged into the computer after I finish emailing, so I'm going to send pictures first and then write.

 

Here's my district before Hermana Hilton and Elder Goodwin left. Elder Goodwin wants to go into the military after the mission, so we bought him this cheap camo Walmart cake and surprised him with it. Pretty fun. They're the best!

 

 Hermana Johnson and I before leaving this morning. We're a party.