Welcome Home Elder Ogden

Bennett's Homecoming Report will be:

Sunday July 29th @ 11:00am

Highland Ward

2130 East 10000 South (Gyrfalcon Dr.)

Sandy, UT. 84092

Last week in the Field

Great week here in Palmer. It's been weird knowing that everything I do from here on out is a last for me on my mission. I had my last zone conference. It was really cool having my exit interview with the mission President.

It was also the summer solstice this week. It's incredible how bright it is around midnight. One of the names Alaska has is the land with the midnight sun. And it's so true. The sun is always out.

Elder Jarvis and I have been visiting a lot of potential families right now. We especially have been working with Vivian and her family. It's been amazing working with them.

Sorry for the short email. Crazy to think this is my last week in the field. I hope you'll have a solid week.

Elder Ogden

Here's a couple photos from last pday. We went on a quick hike with our investigators

Loving last parts of my Mission:

Solid week out here in Palmer!

Cool little miracle. We've been teaching a recent convert the new member lessons. She was baptized a few months ago. Her father was baptized just a year ago. It's been really cool to see their progression in the gospel. We've been at their house many times to teach Gillian, the daughter who was baptized, the new member lessons. On Friday night Gillian's sisters were asking about Mormon beliefs. Her sisters said that when they go to the Catholic church they don't feel anything. They also said they can see the difference in Gillian and their dad. They see how much happier they are since joining the church. The sisters decided to investigate and come to church. It was cool to see the sister's faces light up when were talking about the Holy Ghost because they realized they felt it when they were at church and when they talk about the gospel with the missionaries. We've got more lessons with them. I'm really confident they will be baptized soon.

I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Kunz from Anchorage. It was really cool serving with him for the day. We've served around each other for quite some time and have had many exchanges. It's cool to see the progress we both have made from our first exchange to our last. We worked hard tracting in the rain.

I'm loving these last parts of my mission. We've been receiving a good amount of referrals. It's been amazing meeting new people and teaching the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm just gonna keep pushing along.

Have a great week. Sorry there's no photos this week.

Elder Ogden

Sharing the Gospel through Croquet & Parading:

Hey everyone. This week was super solid. Last Monday my comp and I joined another companionship to play croquet. This companionship tracted into this dude named Harry. At all times he has a croquet course set up. He invited the missionaries to stop by whenever to play so we thought we would join along. It was pretty legit especially since Harry cuts his grass with paths in between each croquet loop.

Cool little miracle this week. For my entire time in Palmer I've been trying to meet with this certain potential investigator. We would stop by a lot but could never actually sit down and talk with him. My companion and I eventually decided to stop trying. Well... a few weeks later his 12 year old son texts us out of the blue about their dog having puppies. We went over the next day to check out the puppies and see if maybe we could finally set something up. Of course the father wasn't there but we asked his son if he would like to know more about what we do as missionaries. To our surprise he said he took the book of Mormon that was given to his dad. He said he read nearly 100 pages already. I was shocked. We then talked about who the characters were and explained the story. Hopefully more good things will come from this.

On Saturday we were teaching Vivian her new member lessons and right as we began the lesson her mother asked us to help with the colony days parade. The parade is pretty much the biggest thing Palmer does. It was cool helping out. We walked in the parade handing out balloons and water bottles. It was good to have the church represented in the parade.

 The work is going great.

 Elder Ogden

 Here's some pics of P-day and the Parade

This week, I have included Bennett's "family email" above his "general email."  His Grandpa Ogden recently passed away and the funeral is this weekend.  We asked Bennett to send us a memory he had of Grandpa O. for a family gathering. The memories he shared were so sweet, I wanted to post them on his Blog for family and others to read. I've also taken the liberty of posting some picture. Thanks, Lisa

Memories of Grandpa O:

Here's a little memory thing I have of grandpa: I don't have one specific memory of Grandpa Ogden that stands out above the rest. There are certainly memories I will never forget. But to me Grandpa Ogden was a man of simple acts of kindness and wisdom.

Some of the simple memories that I love are... Exploring Southern Utah with Grandpa. From hiking to jeeping as well as spending time in Lake Powell and Alton. I love how the Ogden Family always seemed to be outside. Most of my favorite memories come form Lake Powell. I love the memory of Grandpa O. wearing his long sleeve shirt on hot summer days in Lake Powell. Haha.

I remember how he would relax in the house boat and use his binoculars to find trials and animals in the distance. Grandpa would also go on hikes with the grandkids so that we might catch frogs. I loved how on the last day in Lake Powell I would wake up on the top of the house boat to Grandpa driving the boat back to the dock. I love how he would be patient and play with the grandkids in the basement of their home.

I love knowing that he was a man who put The Lord first. I remember visiting Grandpa and Grandma as they were serving their mission. Anyways those are just a few simple memories that I love from Grandpa O. I'm sad that he's gone but know that I'll see him again.

Elder Ogden

General Email:

This week was stellar. I've really enjoyed my time serving with Elder Jarvis so far. We also are now living with another companionship. We've been following up with a lot of people from tracting. We've done a lot of finding in the past. We're hoping all the potential investigators will progress.

A couple weeks ago we helped a lady out with yard work. Her health situation doesn't allow her to do a whole lot so she asked if we would help out. We stopped by this week and taught her the restoration. It was neat answering all her questions as well as reading the scriptures with her.

Everything else is going great.

Have a solid week,
Elder Ogden

Here's a pic from p-day

"Findiarod"

Here's an update from the past couple of weeks. President Kearon from the Presidency of the Seventy visited the mission. It was really cool hearing from a General Authority. We met with him pretty much all day. Most of the missionaries were able to drive into Anchorage. Some missionaries video called in. It was a great time to have him visit. The mission is on an upward swing at the moment.

All the missionaries in the mission participated in an all day tract. We called it the "Finditarod." It was a huge day of finding. All the missionaries tracted from 9:30am to 9:30pm. We only took a 30 mins breaks for lunch and dinner. Elder Larsen and I saw a bunch of neat little miracles. We happened to tract on a street where three Pastors live. That was fun. It actually was really cool though.  We found a lot of people we hope to start teaching. As a mission we handed out 436 copies of the Book of Mormon. We set up 374 return appointments. We had 97 lessons on the spot. Super awesome!

MLC was super sick. I'll have a photo at the bottom.

Here's the big news. We had a baptism!!! Vivian was baptised on Saturday. This was a huge miracle. We had no idea how we were going to get a baptism this month. At the last moment, Vivian committed to being baptized this month. It was hectic getting everything ready but it was amazing. I'm so excited to continue helping her progress more and more in the gospel.

Transfer calls are in. I will be spending the rest of my mission in Palmer. I'm really excited. My new companion will be Elder Jarvis. I'm super stoked. He's an awesome missionary. I've been able to serve around him a little bit. We'll be in a companionship for four weeks then he will trio with other missionaries when I fly home.

 Have a great memorial day.

 Elder Ogden

 Pics at Vivian's baptism

MLC

Pictures say it All:

Bennett was too busy this week to write a letter!  He sent pictures of his busy week: