It was there, then it was gone😵‍💫🤪🤷

 Howdy yall, this week was an insane week

to say the least. The title of this email goes with about everyday this week. So throw on your boots 👢, and get ready for the most chaotic week of my mission. 

So on Monday 6/24, we started out our normal P-day like we always do. We went shopping and did some apartment cleaning. We then went to the church to chill, when we got there, I remembered that my bike still was broken. If yall remember what happened 2 weeks ago when the pedal fell off, y’all will remember that I put it back on. Well the pedal still wasn't 100% good, and in fact I had to stop constantly and tighten it back up. So we borrowed the Zone leader's truck, grabbed the bike and took it to the shop. The dude at the shop was kind of a rude dude. But long story short, he gave us a discount because we were missionaries and he fixed it. Now here's where our day goes absurd real fast. So Elder Anderson was playing basketball with some other Elders. While playing basketball he jumped and when he landed, he hurt his ankle. So he iced it and after some debating on what to do, we decided to go to urgent care and make sure it wasn't extremely hurt. So that's what we did. We drove to the Urgent care, and after 3.5 hours of waiting, doing x-rays, and all his dr visits. He comes walking out of the back with a BIG BLACK BOOT on. Yep, Elder Anderson fractured his ankle playing basketball. So there goes biking for who knows how long. So we came home, called some of the mission leaders and nurses. And then we got informed that we will be getting a car, since Elder Anderson Can't ride a bike with a boot on. So we did an emergency car swap with some other missionaries, and they gave us a Toyota Rav4. So we came home and didn't know what parking spot was ours, so we found a spot, came in, and went to bed.

Now Tuesday 6/25 rolls around. We wake up, get dressed. And I went to look out the window, and there was a different car parked in the same spot where we parked last night. I turned around and said “Elder? WHERE'S THE CAR?” He said “Elder, what do you mean?” I said “Elder, the car is not there and so I believe our car got towed last night.” So we laughed, worried, and called our car coordinator. We called and told him that our car got towed. And the first thing he said was “Have you ever lived in an apartment complex?” I said “no sir” and he goes “yep, that's why it got towed.” 🤣🤣🤣 so after some time and trying to get info from the leasing office which was not helpful at all. We found out where the car got towed too. So at this point, I'm worrying and thinking now what do I do? Then Elder Johnson from Loomis who is in the mission office, knocks on our door. I answered and he said “Elder Bennett, sounds like you have had a morning.” I responded with “Yep, and how did you get informed about this shenanigans?” he said “Elder Bennett, everyone in leadership pretty much knows what happened.” “great” I responded with. He said, “c’Mon, let's go get your car back”. And at this point I'm on the verge of tears, because I just got a car towed, everyone knows I messed up, and some missionaries weren't being nice when we asked for a ride. Elder Johnson could tell I wasn't all there and he said “Elder Bennett, what's wrong?” I said “I just need a hug, it's been a rough go this morning.” so we hugged, and can I just say, his hugs are the best. So we then went and got the car, paid the huge tow bill ($360.00). I decided that if you wanna make money, go tow cars🤣. We then came home, did our studies, and made visits. We then went to the mission office to grab a few things. And as soon as I entered the office, I had a swarm of people around me wanting to know the tow stories. And I would just simply say “well, in California. If you park in someone else's parking spot, they get offended and they tow your car. So don't park in someone else's parking spot”.We then came home, did some more studying and then went to bed.

Now on Wednesday 6/26, we went to District Council and then came home and tracted a lot. Nobody was super interested, but that's okay because at least we tried. We then went to our dinner, now this was an experience I will never forget. And to make sure I don't, I'm going to tell you about the time I ate a Duck Embryo!!! Yep, I ain't kidding you!!! A FULL ON DUCK EMBRYO!!!! So the people are Filipino, and they are super awesome people. For dinner, we had a lot of good filipino food along with Sushi. Then they whipped out the duck Embryo, I guess it's a delicacy in the Philippines. I don't know, but anyway it's hard boiled. You then crack the top of it open and drink the broth which kind of tastes like chicken broth. You then peel the shell off and eat the yoke, and I hate hard boiled eggs because of the yoke and a duck yoke tastes the same as a chicken yoke. After you eat that, you peel more of the egg. And once you do that, that's where you find the Duck itself. Just typing this up is making me nauseous 🤢. You then eat the duck itself in one shot, head and all. And the body was good but the head poked my gag reflex and I about lost it all. But we didn't, so after that experience which they do with all the missionaries they have over. We had some really good normal ice cream so that was good. We then came home and did studies and face book work then went to bed. 

On Thursday 6/27, we didn't do much, all we really did was vist people that our Bishop wanted us to visit and some formers and those who are interested. So we basically just did contacts. Oh ya, we also had dinner with the Knudson family and they are so awesome. We had some smash burgers, and they were okay, but not as horrible as the duck Embryo.

On Friday 6/28- We started out by doing a service project, we helped a dude lay gravel down in his yard. Where we laid it was above a pool, and we only got a few rocks in the pool. I was able to take my landscaping experience and make his yard look really good. I also got to talk to the dude, and he's a special agent for the FBI. Super lit dude, anyway, we then came home. We then did our studies, and facebook work. We then went tracting in this triple decker apartment complex. Nobody was super interested, but we were able to find a nice older lady named Karen, and she's super sweet. Also there were a lot of Ukrainians and Russians there as well. We then went to dinner at the bishops house, Bishop Bair. He's super awesome, his wife made homemade pizza and it was so good. We also watched soccer, because they are huge soccer fans. We then came home and called it a night because Saturday was going to be absurd.

So now on Saturday 6/29- it was a very crazy day. Allow me to tell you about this crazy Saturday. We started out with running a 5K, yep a full on 5k. So the story behind it is that last year, a guy passed away who loved running. And they decided to do a 5k in his remembrance, and he also loved the missionaries. So they invited the missionaries to come and join them. So the whole zone pulled up, they gave us a cool shirt and all the merch. Now Elder Anderson is still broken, and we had service right after I just wore my service clothes along with my cowboy boots. 🤠 But then peer pressure from the other missionaries, they talked me into running this 5k. So your boy Elder Bennett ran a full on 5k (13 laps around the track) in cowboy boots. Then after that shenanigans, we went and played sod (Grass) down for a member in a different ward. It was fun, they also found out that I have done grass professionally so I pretty much had control over the project. It was super awesome. We then came home and did some tracting but nobody was interested so we called it a night at 9:45.

Now on Sunday which was 6/30 aka the last day of June. We woke up, did studies and went to church. Church was okay, the bishopric wasn't there and it was kind of really dry. After the sacrament meeting, we went and did the singing time in primary. It was a blast, we did a game where how good they sang was how much material we cut off our ties. (Don't stress, they were cheap ties we bought from the goodwill store.) We then came home, had lunch, had a bashing lesson with a dude over facebook. Then we went to our dinner which was pretty good. They had a pet snake and I hate snakes so much. But other then that we came home, had a mission wide zoom call with our families, then went to bed.

Well, I hope yall enjoyed this email, and this week was super crazy, I love you all so much. Enjoy the pictures 📸 and we will see you next week. How was your week? I would love to know❤️❤️❤️

P.s happy 4th of July 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

1- One way is the Book of Mormon 

2- Sod project 

3- little kid was so happy when he cut my tie 

4- After the 5k

5- Duck Egg

6- Missionary after 9 rock out 

7- California sunsets hit different 

8- Elder Anderson looking good