Hey guys!

So this is my actual email for the week. Sorry I was able to send a longer one at first. So first off, happy birthday dad! I didn't forget. I sent you a card on Saturday, I was hoping it would get there today...Sorry I couldn't do more..I'm a little limited out here.

So this girl in my district, Hermana Stoddard, (which means Sister Stoddard) had surgery and had her gal bladder taken out this week! She was in tons of pain and they kept telling her it was a small kidney stone but they took her to the e.r. one night and found out that her gal bladder was swelling and disgusting so they took it out. Luckily, it was an easy surgery and she will not have to go home or even be delayed.

I forgot to tell you guys this last week, but the experienced people in our district left so we got a new district leader...guess who? Yep, this kid. So I'm the district leader here until I leave to my real mission. Thought that was kinda cool, I get these awesome responsibilities now like getting the mail and going to meetings...Its great! ;)

Ha so I've been getting up at 5:30 every morning to work out and all these other Elders decided they wanted to too. So now every morning there's a group that works out in the hall with me. (none of them can finish it or do it right but it's the thought that counts...) then we have "Benson Track" which is another group of Elders who wants to stay in shape so they ask me for a workout during gym time so they can stay in shape. It's kind of fun and it's keeping me sane. Basically getting ripped here in the MTC...;)

There's some really cool kids in my zone that I keep forgetting to tell you about too. Elder Youngblood, he's from Oregon and he was a decathlete for Oregon Ducks before he came here. We've talked a ton about track and even raced to see who was faster. (I won obviously) but he's still really good at jumping and apparently a pretty good javelin thrower too. Also, there's Elder Larsen who played at Northridge High School. He was offered at Utah State and Dixie. He is a BIG kid. The MTC has a weight room...which only has dumbells...and we go lift together all the time. He benches a lot! But he's a good workout partner for sure! Then there's a couple polynesians in our zone that sing together during lunch and dinner and they are crazy singers. Every single one of them could make it on to American Idol and one of their brothers is in the top 40 of American Idol right now. So, it's cool!

Next, we had our meeting with the Argentine Consul on Wednesday. They warned us to not talk about the Church because they have denied Visas to kids who would bother them about it. The guy ended up loving me and talking to me for about an hour about track. He almost made it on the Argentine Olympic Track team for the 100m but didn't quite make it. That was in 2008 by the way. He says that they should take anywhere from 10 to 3 weeks. Which should be just in time for us! Keep your fingers crossed! I'd rather not have to be transfered to another mission for awhile. I can't believe I've already been here 4 weeks though! It's going by pretty fast. I'm glad, because this place is starting to get old. Sitting around all the time is killing my back. It's terrible.

Thanks so much for the protein too! I was getting low again. All I eat is salads, celery, peanut butter and protein bars. So I go through them pretty fast. But I also should be good for awhile. Muchas gracias.

Spanish is coming along very well. I've been speaking it so much sometimes I forget that I was even speaking it! So it's going well. I understand most of conversations and i can reply, it just takes me awhile to conjugate verbs into the right tense, so I can't speak that well. My vocab is limited too, but at least it is coming along:)

I was reading in Jacob 4 this week, and I have read it over about 6 times over. I found some things that were incredibly amazing. I realized how important it is to build faith upon Christ and nothing else. If you build your faith upon Christ it will never fail when other things can. Then, once you have your faith in Christ, and it is strong enough, you can receive the revelation for your questions. But if the answer will shake your faith and hurt your salvation you will NEVER get an answer. I think that it can be a big reason we don't always receive answers to our prayers...as well as He can be giving you a trial. But, in Jacob 4 it also says that trials brings you power. Without trials you can't do the works of God, you need to know your weaknesses so they can become strong or we will never grow. As I thought about that, I realized that every answer, or good thing that has happened to me has been through trials. Even getting good at sports came because of trials. If I wouldn't have faced trials I wouldn't appreciate the talents that I have now either. I wish I could explain it better, but I don't get a ton of time. I hope that makes enough sense.

Last thing, I forgot my locks for my luggage at home. And our branch president told us we absolutely need them, (and they have to be airport approved or something so the airport can check our bags) or the people in Argentina will definitely steal stuff in our bags...I remember dad gave me some, but I didn't bring them and I cannot remember where I put them. If you can't find them I can buy some here just let me know.

Anyway, I think that is it. I miss and love you guys a ton! Keep me posted and please send Dear Elders while I'm in the MTC so I can read them throughout the week. It was a bummer to not hear from you guys this week:( Let me know if I can do anything for you. You are always in my prayers.

Elder Benson