It's a Small World!

I met my second cousin! Nick Ballam! What a small world!

 

 

I spent 30 minutes looking through this book with Nick! I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time!

This is what I found out about my Grandma Welch in the book!

Our awesome investigator, Igor!

 

 

Dear Everyone!

This Christmas week has been so amazing! It has been full of the spirit of  Christmas. As you know I Skyped home, but I'll still include things I said just so everyone can hear. Monday we took the metro down to DC to have a brunch with a member of the DC 3rd ward named Cesear! He is such a great guy and has devoted his life to the missionaries. But he isn't one of those creepy one, he is just so sincere and kind! That night we went carolling to some less actives homes with the Andersons! It was such a blast and the spirit was greatly felt. 

Tuesday morning we had an early lesson with an investigator named David. He likes to feed us breakfast as we talk with him, we tried to extend a B-date but he said that he wasn't ready for it and basically denied us. We will work with him to get his life settled out so he can do that! We had our typical meetings and got our Christmas Packages. We found out that one of our ZL's didn't get anything from his family so we put money together and got him stuff for Christmas! It was so amazing being able to do that. His excitement Christmas morning when he woke up to presents was priceless. That night we went to the VC for Festival of Lights with the Frenchies which was great! It was Polynesian night so that was amazing, and the spirit was very strong there as well.

Wednesday we had appointments with Harold ( the crazy for missionaries one). He threw us a little Christmas party which was very nice of him to do. That night we had a lesson with two investigators who don't speak English. They speak Portuguese so we had someone translation for us, it went well but was hard to bear testimony. He denied a b-date because he had already been Baptized so we will work with him on that as well.

Thursday was Christmas Eve. We had another breakfast with David and finished teaching him the Plan of Salvation. We then helped someone move into a close by ward for the remainder of the proselyting day. We had an appointment with our golden investigator Igor, and let me tell you how ready for this gospel he is.

Christmas morning we woke up early to unwrap presents. And I am very grateful for everything that was given to me( thanks mom, and Brian & Shanna, yes this basically is a shout out.) We then went to the visitor center where the Cookes bore testimony. Following that we got to watch a little Christmas thing the APs put together and then Inside Out. Yes they totally let us watch a movie! We had a lunch at the stake center and a little talent show. The Cookes gave each one of us a Christmas card, Book of Mormon with their testimonies and a mission bookmark. We then got to Skype home and that was tons of fun! We spent the remainder of the night at the Landeriths home and had a blast!

Saturday and Sunday we got to go to the Festival of Lights. Sunday was with Igor and he is an all around great guy! There were bands that performed which was nice to hear their music. We had a lunch with the Ballams who I found out is my second cousin! We were sitting in their dining room and their little girl asked about great grandma Israelsen. I asked how old she was and from there found out that Brother Ballam's grandpa is Lyle (Eva's son) so they pulled out the heritage book that was put together and sure enough we are related! Nick Ballam is his name, we talked about uncle Lyle's cabin and such! It was such a great lunch! 

I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas!

 

Love, Elder Bentley

Merry Christmas!

Dear Family!

This week has been a slower week for us. We don't know why but we want to just say it is because of the Holidays. But we still have been able to have a great week!

Monday morning we got to go to a member in the Potomac Ward who is a very successful guy. There we talked about the church and had cheese. He doesn't really let missionaries over to his home, but he likes our roommates and has them over every so often! He has a Blüthner piano which he let me play on. It was such a great experience and I was so happy as I was playing it! His piano room is made to project the music throughout the entire mansion! That night we had dinner with a member who is just moved back to Utah. 

Wednesday we had our transfer meeting and I am staying here for another transfer. I am super excited to stay here because we have done so much in this ward and now we get to see some of the fruits of our labor. It was a very long meeting however because they had a presentation on racial topics for a good portion of it. We had dinner with Brother Chaney who is such a great guy, he feeds us every week and is fun to talk to.

Thursday we had an appointment with a Turkish less active member. He works in Sunday's so he isn't able to make it to church, but he said he was retiring in January so we told him we were expecting him to start coming. That night we got to go to the metro and talk with some more people. I got to talk to a coupe of great guys, on of which wanted to know about the atonement which was awesome to teach him about. 

Saturday we had an early appointment with a member down at the bottom of our area. So we spent most of the day down in that area. He wanted to mostly talk about race for most of the time, but we still brought the spirit for the few minutes of teaching with him. That night a family had us over after the BYU Utah football game so he filled us in with that. He has a great family and we had a blast over at their home. 

Since it was Christmas Sunday the ward put on a  program which was very great! There was a non member friend who showed up to church so we got to go around and try to explain things with him. He doesn't live in the ward boundary so we get to refer him to the right missionaries. A speaker fell on my head in the morning after our conference call with the ward council. It gave me a headache which comes into play later in the paragraph. We had an early breakfast with the Bearman family. They had a great meal and wanted us to play soccer with them afterward so we played with them!  After that we were contacting referrals and I decided I needed to get some ibuprofen. We went to a close by neighbors home who we chatted with and got the medicine. After which we went to the visitor center where they had a little choir of youth in the Potomac area sing. Our investigator on date showed up with his roommates and we got a lesson scheduled with them this week. 

It has been such a great week and I am so very excited for Christmas!

 

Love, Elder Bentley

Wonderful December

 

 

Mom,

We got to spend the morning at Dr. Prince's. He is an amazing man! He let my play his piano, it is a Blüthner (or something like that) there are 8 of them in the world and they are so very expensive. But he let me play it! He has the largest church history library outside of the church.  It was such a great visit with him.

 

 

The room that it is in is built specially for the piano, it projects it's sound though out the entire house!

~Elder Bentley 

 

 

Dear Family!

This week has been such an amazing week! So with no further delay, I will just get into the letter!

Tuesday was our Seneca Zone Conference. There we got to listen to President and Sister Cooke talk with us about not only our mission lives, but also with what is going on in the outside world. President Cooke really impressed on the topic of baptism. He wants us all to invite people to be baptized during our first lesson with them. It emphasizes it in Preach my Gospel, so it was nice to have a great reminder to do so. Sister Cooke talked about the birth of Christ, she shared with us some of her great insight on the Shepard. Following that conference, we went up to the farm and sharpened chainsaws, then we also did the writing. 

Wednesday we had planned to go and visit a bunch of Referrals that we had received  from the Festival of Lights. It happened to be that we had no luck with any of them because they didn't open their doors or answer their phones. We then thought to go and talk to a member who said she had a referral for us. She never called us back but her mom was there and took us up to go and have a lesson with him. His name is Igor and he is on date for January 16. He is such a great guy and now has the opportunity for the gospel. There are also those who live with him that want to learn as well.

Thursday morning we helped move some furniture into the investigators house that members of the ward wanted to donate. It was such a great time carrying a couch up a 4 story apartment. That night was spent with the bishops son going on exchanges to his home teaching appointments. 

Friday we were able to go up to the Festival of Lights again. It was a great choir from Baltimore that sang, except that our member didn't show up. We still had a great time listening to them. We had an appointment at 4 except that he wasn't home. His daughters were locked outside of the home from school. We talked with them and got to know them, asked about their family and school. Then we started to show them little magic tricks and next thing we know is that there are tons of neighbor kids wanting to see more and more. Their dad returned home, but by that time we had to get to our next appointment. 

This weekend was the stake conference and Elder Evans of the Seventy presided. They were great sessions and there was lots to be learned. Finishing off the week we went up to The Festival of Lights again with an investigator named Jason. He has tons of questions that we will answer at our next appointment with him!

A flash drive will do great. Thank you so very much. We will have the time to skype on Christmas Day. It will probably be later in the day for me. We spend most of the day up at the Visitor's Center. President told us to Skype after that or when we find time that day. So I'll keep you posted for that. As for Christmas stuff, we have an iPad mini 2. And those thing you said were correct except for ear muffs, I would like a pair of those. I think I said a small backpack as well. But it is Christmas so surprise me! 

Love,
~Elder Bentley

Festival of Lights!

Festival of Lights

View of the Temple from the beltway

 

 

Dear Family!

This has been a pretty great week regarding most things! This week has been most filled with finding activities again so that has been quite the fun filled week. We have had some great lessons at the door  at metro stops so that is very exciting. The weather here has basically been sunny for the entirety of the week. It's about 35-50 depending on the day but the humidity makes it bone chilling. I did indeed receive my package and I thank you very much for it!

On Tuesday we went to our district meeting as usual. And after that we got to go to the farm! It was such a great time. We got to go and do this thing called riding. We walk on the side of the horse while down syndrome kids do their riding lessons which is just tons of fun to do! We get to do that until it's time to be in so it takes the day up. We get to do a lot of farmy things. We get to plant garlic, clean stalls and such! It really is so much fun though because we get to be with other missionaries! 

Wednesday we got to go and do another session at the temple. It is always just such a joy to go and do! There are members of our ward that work on Wednesdays just because they love when all the missionaries come in. Following the great temple trip, Elder Timmerman had a birthday on Monday so we had lunch at Olive Garden because he had gift cards! It was a great lunch and we then got to go and contact before our dinner appointment. It is still very nerve racking for me to contact people but I am slowly getting better at it. 

Thursday night was the first day of Festival of Lights. It was our first opportunity to go to the visitor center and watch the performances they have on there. We are allowed to go every night if we have a member with us or an investigator. Our ward is really great at going to these so we have been able to go a couple of times. They have set up tons of lights at the visitor center so it is a pretty big public attraction! 

Friday night we were supposed to go on exchanges with President Cooke. We had an appointment scheduled with our investigator David. President Cooke got stuck in a meeting and wasn't able to make it out in time for our appointments. Since our last appointment of the night cancelled, we went to the nearest metro station and went caroling with our roommates district.  

 Saturday night was the ward Christmas party and there was a really great turn out. The ward was really great at putting it together and there were different things that happened with it. Santa even came! 

Sunday night we got to go to the Christmas Devotional from the First Presidency. It started at 8 though so we were late getting in. After the devotional had ended I felt like we needed to stay for some bizarre reason. Elder Johnson was trying to get us out of there but I didn't want to leave. As we were finally walking out of the door a member called us who was there. He had already returned home and couldn't find his cell phone. So we were able to go in and locate his phone to take home to him. 

It's been a really great week and the members are really taking care of us. 

Love,

Elder Bentley 

 

Dear Family!

This has been quite a great week in my new area. The Ward Mission leader is such a great member, the Bishop is hilarious, and the members are really great! As far as the investigator pool is going, we are slowly finding more people who are wanting to hear the gospel, but it is still hard to try to get into contact with them again.

This Tuesday we had an appointment with a recent convert who is Russian. His name is Gregory and he reminds me of Mr. Bean. He is probably in his 50-60's. When we went to our appointment he was waiting for us looking out his window until we got to his door. He let us in and asked for some help to try and get his computer hooked up to his TV. When we showed him how easy it is we got onto lds.org and showed him a Mormon message. That night we got to participate in a ward youth activity at the local mall. They played Where's Waldo inside the mall. We used that as a great opportunity to not only be with the members but to talk with others about the church. 

Once a week we get to go and do service at a Farm in which members own. It is a farm for autistic people to go and learn how to take care of animals, plants, and themselves. We were asked to go to a home that the members who own the farm just purchased to help move things around and get the building ready. It is more of an estate. They bought it for like 2 million dollars to house older autistic people to let them feel that they are on their own. It will have helpers who go and assist them, but it is was a great service opportunity. The estate was owned by a Mongolian man who bought it with inheritance money. He never lived much in the estate and sold it to the Princes (the members who purchased it). It had a very old feel to it but it was a very large house!

Friday morning we had a lesson with someone who we tracted into. His name is Mike and he is from New York. He didn't really seemed interested in what we had to say until we started talking about Joseph Smith. He really took the Book of Mormon well and asked us when we could return! That was exciting because he seems like he will be a great member! There is this member in the ward named Sister Puckett. She lives in a retirement home and is kind of crazy! She likes to have the missionaries over once a week and wanted help making t-shirts. She bought a heat press and puts pictures of animals on shirts. She made us shirts with pictures of squirrels on them which where very strange. 

We found out that President Cooke wants to come out on exchanges with us in a few weeks. We have been working hard to try and get investigators who are solid enough to have appointments with us at that time. We were able to get one for the latter part, but we are still looking for a new one!

A spiritual thought for the week. I was reading in the December 2015 Ensign, the talk was called "Asking the right questions in the right way," it was talking about how as teachers we need to ask questions in which will get our audiences mind thinking deeply. Not only does this apply to missionary work, it applies to everyone who is a teacher! We need to be able to rely on the spirit to help us teach, Moroni 10:9-10 shows tells us that we can have the spirit of teaching and knowledge. It is when we teach with the spirit we are able to touch those hearts of our audiences. Wether it be investigators, members, or even our own families. As we pray to have the spirit with us as we teach, he will edify our words into the hearts of all who listen. 

I hope all goes well this thanksgiving week! 

Love,

Elder Bentley

Happy December

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dearest Family!

This week has been a very busy week for us! Since it was Thanksgiving, we had to fit in our appointments to the remaining days. The mission is doing a mission wide challenge where we are challenged to talk to 10 people per missionary a day. So that's 20 people per companionship. Every minute that we are not doing something we are contacting people to try and find those contacts! 

Tuesday's we usually get to go do service at the farm, but they cancelled it because of the holiday and the absence of some of the residences. We didn't find this out until the end of our zone district meeting so we had to adjust our schedule on the fly. We went to the storage units for the mission to get elder Johnson a chair to study in. After that we were off into the public to contact people. Our favorite places to contact is right out of the metro station by us, it is in between the bus pads and the metro so there are usually a lot of people there. This was my first time really contacting like this so it made me super nervous. It was all over great and I talked with some man who was interested, but got on the bus before I could get contact information. 

Wednesday night we got to have dinner with the Jupiter family, Brother Jupiter has an amazing conversion story. He is also really great at cooking and makes amazing food. After their house we got to go back to the Station to GQ for the night. That night I met a guy named Derril and ended up giving him a Book of Mormon! He said that he would like to read it and will then call the missionaries in his area. 

Thanksgiving was a very great day. We got to go and play football with the ward which was a great gathering of most of the men. After playing football for a few hours we went home and showered to head off to our first thanksgiving dinner. This was with the Hares, and they had most of their kids their with their grandchildren. It was a great time. They had these like triangle puzzles that were really easy looking...they weren't that easy at all. After the Hares home (which they sent us home with tons of groceries and leftover) we went to a family named Lacsamanas who live in a different ward. They invited us over as well so we dropped in around 6. There they gave us tons more food and a pomegranate which I ate of course!

Friday and Saturday have been mostly just contacting people to try to get those contacts is as a mission! Sunday we had church which was great. A new investigator came to church who said he wanted to become a member so we will start teaching him soon. His family speaks French, but he made it clear that he wanted English church and lessons. We only were able to get 11 contacts before dinner, and Brother Bloem asked if we could go on splits with him. He was talking with one of his families and we decided to try and get some more contacts for Festival of Lights and the challenge. We were able to get more than we needed which was wonderful!

The ward here is such a solid ward! They are feeding us tons and we are loving them. We have been getting fed every day these last few weeks! 

Love,

New Area - New Companion

 

Bridger and Elder Johnson

Dear Family!

This last week has been such a great one with our transfers and with my new area! Monday night we went to go say goodbye to the Yarn family because they have become one of my favorite families this last transfer! They are such a great family, and they are just tons of fun to talk to! I really think the hardest thing about transfers is saying goodbye to all of the close relationships you've grown with people! Whether it be with missionaries in the area or with the members/investigators. It was hard to say goodbye, but I know I will see them all again before I leave my mission.

Tuesday was transfer day, since Archibald was going home, Sister Mays invited us go over to her house to say goodbye to us all! She is such a solid member! While I was there I ate three more peppers which was not as bad as I thought they were going to be! The remainder of the day we had to pack so I got everything packed up to go to transfers! Tuesday night James Lui took us all out to say goodbye, I am very thankful for his willingness to take us to Buffalo Wild Wings!

Wednesday was a nerve racking day for me, I didn't know if I was staying in the zone or not so I was nervous about everything. I told Elder Archibald when they announce my companion to look at me and nod if he was a great guy. So the first set of ZL's go up to the stand for the Seneca Zone, a few areas in they tell me that my new companion will be Elder Johnson and we will serve in Derwood. It was a relief that they called my name so quickly, and Archibald was definitely nodding his head. After we sorted everything out after Transfers, we headed on our way to white wash our area.

We took a while figuring out where we wanted to live, because our area is super big so we could live on either side of the ward and we chose to live with Elders Fitzgerald and Timmerman. They are the French elders and are great guys! The first night in the area Harold Watson called us, he introduced himself and told us who was feeding us for the rest of the week. Harold is quite the guy, haha I would try to explain it but it wouldn't do any justice. 

Thursday was our first full day in the area, we had to finish sorting out our area book and acquiring the investigators, so we spent most of the day trying to do that. We had dinner with the Chaneys and they were a great introduction into the ward! We had ward correlation with Brother Matsen, and come to find out that his nephew is Nick Waters, we went to elementary together and he is a great kid! That was very great to find out. Here Brother Matsen told us about the time suckers in the ward and to have caution around them. Harold was the first one he brought up, and told us to bear with him, but we are afraid that he will get into our way with the other members of our ward. 

Friday and Saturday we spent just visiting members and introducing ourselves and all that jazz. We got to meet some of them and it was very comforting because  all of them are super nice! We had a Pot Luck at the church which is 30 minutes from us and completely out of our area which will be rough getting to and from church, but the church building has the same layout and meeting hall as ours back in Kaysville! It made me kind of homesick, but on the plus side I know where everything is!

Sunday we had church which was great, but we got to go eat at the Bearman's home. They are great members, they gave us ice cream after dinner and holy guacamole do they have tons of ice cream! We had "Why I Believe"  as well and it was nice to see all the friends that I made in the Silver Spring zone! Elder Johnson and I get along greatly and I know that this will be a great transfer!

Love, 

Elder Bentley

Transfers Are Coming

Our District

Me with Rhys and Rebecca

Dear Family!

I'm just going to start with the events of the week! On Tuesday we got to go up to the Visitors Center and set up Christmas lights on some trees for the Festival of Lights! Elder Archibald is really great friends with the member who is the head Gardner of the temple! He has us over at the temple and we sat putting lights up in the trees! It was a great service opportunity but nice because we got to talk with the members and with each other!

Wednesday was the departing temple trip with the entire mission, we were able to go and do a sessions with the entire mission. It was amazing because afterwards everyone just stayed and talked to each other! We had to show up early since Archibald is leaving - he had the opportunity to hear from the Temple president with all of the other departing missionaries. That seemed like it was great for them! That night we had dinner with the Bishop and his wife and they invited us back for Thanksgiving!

On Thursday we had our little Zone District meeting up at the temple because President wanted to talk with each zone about the things that will be happening this next transfer, following the meetings I went on exchanges with one of the elders who also has a companion leaving. Everyone who is leaving this transfer has a departing dinner with the Cookes so that's why we were out on exchanges. We had a great time visiting members in his ward and going out to Chipotle for dinner! It was a great night to go out with Elder Torgersen! 

Friday I was able to go out with Elder Williams for most of the day to the appointments that we did have. My love for him really has grown these last two transfers and he has become a great guy. He has a lot of great stories and loves to listen to strange music! Friday night I really came to senses with Elder Archibald and I know that we are going to end off on a great note. Talking with him and President Cooke I have just realized that this is my time for the Lord. Whenever I have a companion that doesn't want to work I am just to do what I can to fill the days and to just do things to keep me busy!

Saturday was spent down in Anacostia visiting a family that Elder Archibald baptized that he has become really close with. It was awesome seeing how much they look to him for all that he has done for them. Their kids love him and it was amazing to see! We got to have dinner with the Atkinsons for the last time before she has her baby and we spent Time just talking with them about their lives. Sister Atkinson gave us her buffalo chicken chip dip which is just amazing! 

This week has ended up being a really great week to end the transfer! We have been able to spend time with some of the members that have touched our hearts the most and for him to say his goodbyes. This has been a great week with member meals because it is all their way to get us to come over so he can say goodbye! We got our transfer call-out and I am being transferred! I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me!

Love,
~Elder Bentley 

Thankful November

 

Us for the Halloween party

Some of the ward kids

 

Dear Family!

This has been a really great week! We started the week off with our Zone activity where we played some relay games and Elder Archibald made some food for everyone. It was a great activity and we were able to stay after and play basketball which was also tons of fun! Far our Pday was over we went to Sister Fulcher's home where she fed us one last time before she has her hip surgery this week. The dinner was so very amazing and her husband just made us laugh our socks off! It is amazing to see how he supports his wife with the church but we are grieved that he doesn't want to join. 

This week we were able to go to the temple twice to do baptisms and confirmations. We went Tuesday in the morning with our zone and did some family names that we had found! The mission is really trying to push us to find names and to start into family history so that we can help our investigators do that and to find ties into their heritages. I found some names that Elder Archibald and I did. It was an amazing experience because he baptized me then I turn around and baptized him right after. We were then able to do the confirmations for those names. After all of that they let us go and do the initiatorys for those names. The second time was Saturday morning, we invited a recent convert to come with us so he could do some of his family names. It was a recent convert temple trip so I got to do the baptizing for him and Archibald did the confirming. We are very blessed to be able to go to the temple on our mission so often. It really is a comforting thing knowing that we get to go so often. 

On Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Tutu'u who is from Tonga. Elder Archibald and Elder Tutu'us companion elder Cruz went to go visit some of the members they worked with up in the Germantown ward. It was a great day being able to spend it with Elder Tutu'u. He is in a bike area so we got to ride around on bikes and got to walk on foot a lot that day. The only problem was that they are in the Spanish program so I wasn't able to assist him with the teaching that day. It made me realize that I don't know Spanish! Even though we got poured on by the rain it was a great experience. The members of the Spanish program surely do know how to feed missionaries!

On Friday we had a Ward Halloween party that we were able to go to! It was a great night because we got to strengthen our relationships with the members of the ward. Some of the members even brought some investigators so it was a great way to introduce them to the church!  We got some face paint and painted our faces because it was the cheapest thing that we could do! That night was a blast and it was a great experience to help the ward with. 

On Halloween we had to be in Early because they didn't want anything to happen to us. We were indoors by 5. We woke up that morning and played basketball with the some of the members and some non members. After basketball we got dressed and went to a community event that the First Baptist church put on. They were first uneasy to let us in, but when they heard we were only there to partake of the festivities and not to share they let us in. We got free food and talked with some people that recognized us and everyone we talked with initiated the conversation with is so we were able to just tell them about missionaries. They even knew where our church was!

This Sunday has been such an amazing day! Following the church block Elder Hill and Elder Williams had a baptism of a lady named Lucie. I can definitely see why we are encouraged to bring investigators to baptisms because the spirit is so strong! I don't think the spirit has been so prevalent my entire mission! There is defiantly power in the gospel that brings others to us. Since it was fast Sunday, There were members who fed us lunch because we started our fasts Saturday Night so we could have lunch with them! They are really like our parents out here. They spoil us with food and are just tons of fun to talk with! Brother Jensen showed us the new telescope that NASA is working on and it was interesting seeing his devotion to it! Elder Archibald went on Exchanges with the Zone Leaders so they could have one last huraah before he leaves in a week. I was able to go to the mission home for a FHE with Elders Hill and Williams which was a very great experience to be there with their investigator. That is where I saw Bailey, she was visiting and actually gave the FHE lesson.  And she is Blaines age, she told me about how we was at our ward when Greg Taylor came home from his mission and I guessed she talked to Blake or something! 

It has been a great week and I am looking forward to this next week!

Love, 

Elder Bentley

Last week of October

Dinner with the senior sisters

 

Beautiful Autumn Woods

 

 

Dearest Family!

This has been a very great week. Since we cannot get much work done because of Elder Archibald I try to get the schedule as packed as we can so we can go out and teach members and investigators. This week I have definitely come closer to some of the members just through service and through teaching them and such. 

On Tuesday we had the schedule for the day as interviews with President Cooke. We had to be there 20 minutes before our scheduled time with him. We got there around 2 and we found out that everything was 2 hours behind schedule because of the interviews that went long earlier that day. We ended getting home from them at 7. This is where Sister Chinchilla really showed her love for the missionaries as she wanted to take us out for dinner at 5:30 but waited for us to get out of the interviews so we were still able to go and eat at Chick-fil-a with her! That was a be nice thing of her to do. She is an amazing member!

The next day I went out on exchanges with Elder Hill. We got to go into Chevy Chase because he had some skin appointments. (Chevy Chase is right by the Temple in Kensington) We got home in time for lunch and went out back into teaching some of his investigators. That night we had an appointment with a less active who is starting to return to church. His name is Konah and he is a very sweet man. He had a brain injury a few years ago but still is very humble. He has had a rough past but he isn't letting that stop him from coming to church now. We went with a a member to this appointment and as we were reviewing the restoration with him the member jumped to the end so we had to back track which was a great experience. 

Thursday I received the package which you sent me! I loved getting all that candy, music, a tie, socks, and my iPod! That you so very much for all of the things in the package! When I opened it at the zone meeting people were baffled at how full it was with candy! Thank you so very much! Thursday after our meetings we went out with the Senior sisters who are in our district to Outback! They paid for us and it was a great experience that we had getting to know them right before one of them leaves since she is done with her mission! 

The last thing that I will talk about today will be what we did on Friday. We had lunch with Sister Mays and I ate another Scotch Bonnett pepper so that was such a blast! When she asked if I would like another some other day and I said I would love one she looked at me like I was crazy so that was a great lunch! It is really nice because she has 8 missionaries over every time so we get to bond with each other and with her!

We went and did service for one of the members in our ward. We leveled her yard and put in some garden boxes so that will be cool to see how they turn out. She is a great member! Her husband is not a member but is such a hilarious guy! He is a Druid so that is interesting to see all of the things he has from that!

This week has been a rough one with Archibald but they will get better I know it. It dawned on me this week that the best way for me to still keep my sanity with him is to serve others so I do! I've noticed that as I do I am happier that day and that it is easier for him. Mosiah 2:17 When ye are in service of your fellow being, ye are also in the Service of your God. That scripture is so very true, so I want to invite all who read this letter this week to pray for opportunities to serve others more. As we serve others we will notice that our life is being blessed. 

Love, 

~Elder Bentley

Why I Believe

 

Bridger playing at the "Why I Believe" night.

 

 

 

Dear Family!

It definitely is getting a lot colder here in Maryland! It's been in the 50's most of the week but Saturday and Sunday night it was getting down to 33 degrees. It definitely makes me excited for the winter because it's a cold I've never really experienced before. The members have been feeding us a lot this week, we think it is mostly because Archibald leaves in a few weeks so they want to pamper him, but it is really enjoyable! We were fed 8 times this last week. 

On Tuesday I was able to go on exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders. Elder Collins and I had a couple of great experiences while we were out tracting that night. We pulled up in the car and parked in a cold-a-sack, when we climbed out of the car a little boy runs up to me and starts talking with me. He asked how I was and what we were doing. He was talking with us for a couple of minutes then asked if we wanted to see his dog. He walked over to his driveway and picked up his little puppy, we started talking to his mother and shared our message of the Book of Mormon with her. It was a great contact because it was because of the little boy that we were able to share the gospel with her. 

The next house we knocked on was this really nice lady who talked with us for a few minutes. She told us that her mother was very nice to the missionaries down south when she was a little kid. Because of her mother she wanted to do the same for us as well. She works right by the temple to we were able to invite her to go to the events that happen there every month. She told us to come back sometime so we will stop by and see how she is doing. 

On Friday we were able to finally go to the temple to go through a session. This was the first time since I came into the area and it was a great experience. The temple workers are so very nice to us and you cannot but feel like you are home and loved. The smiles on their faces when we go to the temple are priceless. Since that was what we had planned for the day we were able to spend time pondering, reading, and praying. The connection to our Heavenly Father is so much more powerful, especially as a missionary. 

Our lessons with investigators have been really scarce, we had only had one appointment this last week. There are many factors that I think play into it. We had an appointment at the end of church with a man who wanted a Book of Mormon. It was very nice because we were able to teach him a lesson with the same drop by on Sunday. Tonight we got fed by a family named the Phillips. Their oldest daughter is 7 and found out that I play the piano and has really taken a liking to me because of it. She drew us all pictures and we thought that was very sincere. Sunday night was also Why I Believe, which Sister Cooke had asked me to play for it in light of the following speaker. As I started to play, my fingers just started to play themselves. It was faster than I anticipated but overall I did well. The best I could have done in a weeks notice. It was lots of fun to play on the Steinway and sons piano. The speaker, Vai Sikahema afterwards thanked me for my music and that he thought it was amazing. That really started to boost my spirit.

This week has been a great week and I am even more excited to go out this next week and find those elect children of the Laurel area. 

 

Love, Elder Bentley

Hot Peppers!

Tears of hotness running down my face after eating the pepper!

Elder Bentley & Elder Yang

 

 

Dear Family!

This week has been quite the eventful one! First I'll just start with the beginning of the week! We were invited to lunch with a Sister in the neighboring ward. Her name is Sister Mays, she likes to feed us lumpia, chicken, rice and scotch bonnet peppers! She has this thing where she has every missionary she feeds eat a scotch bonnet pepper. Those are like the 3rd hottest pepper in the world. They are really so hot! They tell us to start chewing and to not open your mouth. It is so hard to describe the intensity of the pepper. It just keeps on getting hotter and hotter. She gives us ice cream to try to help it. But all it does is numb your mouth for a few seconds. And it lasts for a half an hour. As I started chewing the pepper tears just started streaming down my cheeks. It was a great sensation!

This week has been a rough week for Elder Archibald and I. He has been just super burnt out and such. But he talked with sister Cooke and hopefully this next week he will have some kind of motivation. It has really made me work on patience and to find the best use of time that he takes from the day. We have been trying to cheer him up and so but it is all good!

We had an appointment with an investigator who is about my age. He has some addiction problems and his house is really torn apart. He has a little brother who is neglected. This last lesson his little brother just wanted to play clue with me. He didn't know how to play clue so I made some little way up and played it with him. This was the first time I have seen him smile. It was way awesome! He hopefully will be able to overcome it. If you haven't watched the addiction recovery videos take an hour out of your time and watch all 12 of them. They are so very powerful. 

We were able to go do service for a member and that was also very great. He is a band teacher so he is quite the guy. His wife also makes us all laugh. She was rubbing her sons ear and he asked what she was doing. She looks at him and says "I'm tenderizing the cartilage so it is easier to rip off." We also were able to just chop wood into pieces which I thought was very enjoyable! We sat there with brother Renberg and he told us mission stories as we chopped the wood into many pieces. 

Sister Mays took us to this place called Smoothie King where they sell protein shakes but they are all fruity and amazing! Sister Mays is a legend member. She makes missionaries blankets and does fix ups on clothing and such!

This Sunday we had a Night of Music and Inspiration. It was a great experience because music brings a different kind of spirit. We had a little hiccups during our performance but we still brought it strong. Sister Cooke was proud of us from our performance. She asked me this last week to play at the Why I Believe this coming Sunday so hopefully I will be able to prepare another song. This week was a great week!

 

Hopefully all goes well at home this next week!

Love,

Elder Bentley

Happy Conference!

 

 

Dear Everyone! 

This week has been such a great and marvelous week! I guess that I will just start with the first of the week and move throughout the week. This week was an average temperature of about 57 degrees and almost everyday we had rain. 

Monday we had our first zone activity and it was such a blast! We went to a park and basically just played different games/sports and got to know the people in our zone more and have fun. Following the zone activity we just did normal p-day activities like shop and do laundry. That night we went out tracting and it was a night where everyone was just watching T.V. And they don't really answer their door which is frustrating because you know they are right there. 

The highlight of Tuesday was after dinner Elder Archibald and Elder hill went on exchanges because they felt like they needed to have a talk with each other because they both are struggling. It was a down pour that night and since we are not allowed to drive a car until our third transfer Elder Williams and I went out and tracted in the rain and got soaked. We did find this lady, right at 8:30 and she was more than willing to listen to what we had to say. Her mother died a few weeks ago and she had questions about the whole after life. Her name is Japonette and she said she wanted to come to church and even watch conference if she had the time. 

Wednesday was transfer meeting which was very anti climatic because no one in my district is being transferred so we just had to go to the meeting for the free bananas and lupia. Everyone went down to go to lunch at Costco and also to buy bulk items because we were there and had gotten paid so we bought the bulk items. Elder Hill and I also bought a Costco card and split it so we can shop there now. 

On Friday we were supposed to go down and help some elders move out of their apartment and into a different one. There was a leadership training and the zone leaders had to be there but we needed their truck to go and help the move so we got the zone leaders truck. The French elders were with us in the truck because they are in a trio and their companion had to go to the leadership training as well. We spent the day after helping the other elders move with the French Elders taking them to their appointments because they didn't have a car. We sat in the truck waiting for the Frenchies just talking about Halloween. 

This conference weekend was so amazing. This is the first conference weekend where I didn't fall asleep during the sessions. On Saturday we went to the Yarns house and spent the day there helping them put up Halloween decorations and watched conference. I think the line in conference that stuck out the most to me was "there is no darkness so thick that cannot be penetrated by light." -Vern P. Stanfill

That night for priesthood we went to the stake center and had a pizza social before and we went with Brother Yarn to pick up 72 pizzas for that. 

Sunday conference was still just as amazing. It was hard to get a strong enough wifi signal to stream it live in our apartment. But we were finally able to get it and watch it on one iPad. It was hard to watch President Monson's health slowly decrease as his talk went on. After that session of conference we went to the Atkinsons and they had a Super Bowl meal planned for us which was so amazing. It was like lunch dinner and dessert. I liked Devin G Durrant's talk about how we need to set aside money every week. I also loved how he challenged everyone to memorize and ponder one verse a week. I would like to extend that challenge to everyone who reads this. I know that by doing so your life will be blessed and you will find yourself closer to Christ.

I hope that all will go well this coming week and that everyone will be able to apply the conference talks into their lives this week. 

~Elder Bentley

Happy Super Nova Eclipse!

This happened at church today when I was playing the piano. He is only 2 and hopped up and wanted to play with me! His name is Rhys pronounced Reese 

FOOD DRIVE

Typical selfie. We found some other missionaries in our area so we covered their car in pass along cards. We are hoping they are the French or ASL so they aren't poaching. 

Dear family!

That is so very awesome hearing about the Super Nova Eclipse! I would say we would try to go out and see if we could see it in the sky, but the air is so polluted here and it would be past our curfew for going outside. But the weather here has been so amazing! It has been cloudy and in the 70's most of the week! This next week it says it will rain most of the week and will drop down to 60. The General  Conference here is so very great. We get to watch the sessions either at a members house, a chapel or from our iPads at the church. They have streamings of the Spanish translation in the Chapel which is awesome because we can basically invite everyone to come now. We are going to members houses on Saturday, their names are the Yarns and they are a solid family. 

This week has been a harder week because all of our appointments on Wednesday cancelled on us or just weren't there. 4 appointments in a row dodged us which was hard, but we just went back out and started to visit more less-active members. The members here are really great at feeding us, this last week we hardly ate with members though. There is this great member named James, he is single and we are 100% positive he is one of the three nephites. He sold his tv and everything and we just joke with him about how he is always out teaching the gospel. He took Elder Archibald and I to Outback Steak house. Bless him because he payed for us both and he is just so great!

This last p-day we went to the Atlantic Ocean part of the mission and spent some of the day down there which was lots of fun. 

There is this great investigator that we have his name is Ian. He is a Bass player and plays for people that need someone to play for them. He is really hard to get an appointment with because his schedule changes every week depending on the gig he is playing that week. But he is very interactive with us, he asks questions, reads, and let's us come back to teach him more. Every time he sends us a text telling us about his schedule he always addresses it to me, which is funny because it's our companionships phone. I've just been to every lesson that we have had with him.

Sunday night we also met this great guy named Joseph. His family is really strong in their religion but he had a lot of questions on where we go after this life. The way he talks it makes it seem like he has a past he wants to repent and be forgiven for. We gave him basically everything that we possibility could with our number and he said to give him some time to read and to ponder. He said he was very inspired just by our devotion to the gospel that he knows it will be something to check out. 

On Saturday we had a food drive that the entire mission did where we each went to different stores and collected food from people going in and out of the stores to donate to the local food bank. At first when we started the service we felt like it was going to really drag along that day, but after an hour people just started giving us can after can of food so we filled up a box and a half of food. It was awesome because we got to interact with people and they didn't slam doors in our faces! They were all super kind and polite about it. We had a great time doing the service and we are looking ahead for more opportunities to do these food drives. We think it is an initiative that the mission is trying to roll out so we will see about it. It was also nice because we got to be in regular clothes and people wanted to talk with us! 

I hope everyone who reads this email will try to serve others more this next week. Have a great week and I cannot wait to hear from everyone!

Love Elder Bentley

Happy Falll!

This is down at the tip of Maryland down at the Ocean. It is across
the entire mission which was so much fun to drive down there and see
the sea and stuff!

Making trifle for Elder Archibald's birthday

A little boy that just moved into our ward. He loves to play with our name tags
 

Elder Archibald's birthday stuff

This is a map of our area. The blue lines are areas we have tracted.

Dear family!

This week has been such an amazing week! First to start off, they finally gave us our iPads. It has been nice because there is the area book app on it and it is so much more convenient to do the work. We also found out this week that the mission is going to start to try to initiate Facebook back into the mission. Elder Hill and Elder Archibald didn't seem to happy about this, I think most of the missionaries just waste lots of time scrolling on it. 

Friday morning we got a call from the Visitor Center sisters asking if I could play the piano for a duet at the night of inspiration. That is October 11th so everyday I am allowed to take some time and practice for that! That was really cool, but at the same time super weird because they said they would look at the roster for my email to send me PDFs of the music. I then was like "wait I didn't sign up on any roster" then Elder Archibald said that Sister Cooke signed me up because she knows I play piano. 

Another cool thing that happened this week was I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Hill my District leader. We had an appointment with an African named William, it was our second lesson with him and Elder Hill looked at me in the middle of the Lesson and said "Right now" so I invited him to be baptized and he was more than excited to say yes! Right now he has a date set for October 10th. He just has to come to church every Sunday between now and then, and he can be baptized! He lives with his Brother and his Sister-in-Law. His brother is in the military and is at a Training. So we thought that his sister in law was his wife because he calls her wife. I guess in their culture if your brother marries someone, everyone refers to her as wife. He has a wife and kids in Liberia, he is working here and sending money back to them. It was a great experience to invite him to be baptized!

Sunday night we had something called "Why I Believe" it is something the VC puts on here to invite others to come hear testimonies about some of the more famous members. The speakers last night were John Smith and his wife Hannah. He worked at the White House as the lead lawyer to President Bush for homeland security matters; at a major law firm in DC. He is also a direct descendant of George Albert Smith. Hannah served two clerk ships at the Supreme Court for Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A Alito Jr.  It was really cool because we have to invite less actives and investigators to it. Every missionary is supposed to invite somebody to it.

It was Elder Archibald's Birthday on Sunday also! We surprised him with balloons and presents. We then had Trifle, except for the fact that we did this all Saturday night because we had Why I Believe Sunday night. He said that it was one of his better birthdays which is really good!

When we got our iPads we had to go to a Specialized training where President Cooke and Sister Cooke have us talk with the APs about the struggles that some of them are having with their companions. Elder Paul and Elder Fisher were there and it was awesome being able to talk with them for a little before the meeting started. I am blessed that Elder Archibald and I get along well because some of the other trainees and their trainers are really struggling so that was a blessing.  I also saw Elder Fisher at the Why I Believe, he is such a great guy! The ZL Elder Parker told me that out of the Trainer pool that was set for the group of missionaries that came out was not the best, but that I got lucky with Elder Archibald. 

We do a lot of tracking. When we don't have anything to do we tract. We find a lot of people that way because they see the devotion. We have area book apps on our iPads, we also have gospel library where we have all the Mormon messages that we can share with the investigators. We also have the lds tools app. We are also allowed to email from our iPads as long as it is the P-day. Most missionaries like to just email Sunday night because they are out and about on Mondays and don't have wifi. The church has a lot of restrictions on the iPads, there is a chip in them where it restricts most of the apps. Basically just the things that are gospel friends are not restricted. 

I am glad to hear that everyone is doing great in Utah!

Love,
Elder Bentley

Sept 14, 2015

Love the pouring rain!

Dear Family,

Yes I have been able to find names to take to the temple, we still have another month before we are able to even go to the temple to do the baptisms. This area that we are in is a car area, but I do have my bike and it is all set up. We still ride our bikes though because we only have 850 miles a month to do the work that we need. And since we have to go to all these meetings around Maryland, we have to be careful with the miles that we do use. We also are saving miles so we can go down to the tip of Maryland to Look Out Point, so we have been saving alot of miles for that as well. 

This last week was supposed to start to cool down, most of the week was still pretty hot, it was high 80's and low 90's most of the week, but then on Saturday we just had a down pour of rain and it cooled down to the 70's. When it rains down here, it pours, we had planned to go out tracting and since it was raining we got to go out into the rain and tract for a little, the rain stopped pretty quickly and we realized we had already tracted those houses. We left that area and went to go check up on some of the potential investigators that we had. The lady Elsa is now an official Investigator and we have another appointment with her this week.

That same night we went and contacted a referral that we had received and he just wanted a bible. We ended up teaching him the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon as well. He was searching for the truth and had been going to different churches trying to find the true one. He was more than willing to come to church the following day, but he ended up not coming. We have an appointment with him this Saturday so hopefully we can find out why he wasn't there.

I went on Exchanges with one of the zone leaders this week and we were out tracting an area where a bunch of Muslims lived. He was very great at starting little conversations with them and one of them invited us into his house. It ended up being that he was telling us about Islam and his religion, but his wife made us smoothies and we were more than willing to listen. Hopefully since we listened to him, he will want to listen to us. He said that he really respected Mormons and that he liked them as well. After about an hour in his house, he gave us both awkwardly long hugs and sent us on our way. 

We also contacted a less active member who we though was a member, but he ended up having a record because his mom was LDS and so when he was born he was given a record, but he never got baptized. He had so many questions when we met with him that we were able to answer. His dog had flees, and we were pretty sure that they had bed bugs so we had the whole bed bug experience stripping down after the lesson and had to take scalding hot showers. We talked with him for about an hour and it put us past our curfew, and Elder Archibald's blood sugar was getting super low so he was feeling dizzy and that made it so I had to drive. We are not supposed to drive until after 12 weeks in the mission, except for an emergency which this was.  

We had this thing called the Global Gala Saturday night. The ward threw this big dinner where they had dishes from all over the world and the gym was decorated with each continent's things. It was lots of fun because we got to mingle with the members and got to know some of them better. We also got a lot of food from it so that was always a bonus.

We get our iPads this week finally, it will be nice to have access to our own area book and to be able to use it as a teaching tool. We have to watch every Mormon Message and learn them so we can apply them into our teachings. Elder Archibald said that that was one of the hardest things to do just because there are so many of them that it is hard to remember which ones is what off the top of your head. 

This week overall has been a great one. We got fed most of the nights so that was nice to get to know the members really well. We ate Sunday dinner last night with the Atkinsons and that was a blast because they are a great couple just to sit down and talk with. We ended up being there for 2 hours last night and when we were done we did not have that much time to go out and proselyte so we did a call wall.

This last week I got a letter from Brian, Shanna, and the boys which was really great. Writing them was just so much fun and after I sent it the letter last night it reminded me how much fun hand writing letters was!

Love,

Elder Bentley

Happy Labor Day

Dear Family!

The Weather here in DC has been so very hot, we have been in the 90's most of last week, but the real excitement about that is Elder Archibald and I spent most of last week tracting. It has been a very sweaty week for me, those handkerchiefs really do help a lot with the brow sweat, but everyday this week at the end of our tracting period I have had sweat marks on the rear end of my pants, my clothes have just been drenched and we have had many people this week give us water, even though they didn't want to hear our message which was very kind of them to give us water. This humidity has just been the sweatiest thing ever.

We had a really cool experience this last Tuesday while we were out tracting. We knocked on this first door and there was a lady who said she would be willing to hear our message, but she was just starting to get her kids ready for bed because school started this last week down here. So we will go back this week and visit her, but the house right after that we knocked on and I asked the lady if she wanted to hear our message about Eternal Families. And she said Yes! I had no idea what to do because no one has said yes yet. Luckily Elder Archibald had my back and he jumped in and saved the day. We taught her the plan of salvation at the door and then got her number. Her name is Elsa, yes just like in frozen, she seems like she will really be able to progress so we will go out and teach her! She if African but spent twenty years in France. She is fluent in English so we get to teach her. 

On Thursday we had our typical meetings with the zone, district, and trainer meetings. We talked a lot about the Process of Purification. I will send you a link to the story when I get my iPad here in next few weeks. Everything happens through these iPads and it has been a real hindrance because there is only one to a companionship in the trainers companion ships. The trainees get ours on the 17th so we will be able to have the area book and links that we need to teach. Thursday night we had a lesson with one of the recent converts, Bob, he is such a solid member, 20 years ago some missionaries gave him a Holy Bible and he finally wanted to know more. He really loves this church and wants to spend time serving his new church. At the end of the lesson he offered the most sincere prayer I have heard on my mission. He blesses the children of the world and follows it with "Without you I would have nothing" knowing that Heavenly Father has given us everything. He also asked for opportunities to serve the church so we brought that up in ward council and hope that he gets a calling this next week.

After the lesson with Bob we were riding our bikes around the area and we had a feeling that we should go visit a former investigator named Paris. She is really struggling with her family life and finances. She was taking the lessons a few months ago and she did not want to meet with the missionaries anymore. When that happened she noticed her life took a big turn for the worse. She realized that she had been chastised and told us she wants to keep meeting with us. That was cool because she was really interested in the gospel.

We had a new investigator come to church yesterday with his wife, we jumped on that and made an appointment with him this week and we are spending most of our days now teaching people which I am really excited about! The members in this ward really love the missionaries! We got fed today by the Myers, bless their hearts! They invited 8 elders over to their house for breakfast on some of our Pdays! We are eating alot with the members, we have 7 food appointments with the members this week, two of them are today, and every other day is at night, except for thursday. Typically we have lasagna, spaghetti, chicken and rice, or just whatever they fix, I have been really good about eating it all though! 

Last night Elder Archi and I were going around visiting less-actives, typically none of them answered except for the last one. Her husband let us in and she is a member but he is not. She invited us back for dinner this next tuesday and we are really hoping that she wants to share the gospel with her husband and that is why she invited us back!

Last story, we went to go do family history on Friday because we get an hour of it every week, we have the chance to go do baptisms if we find family names that need to be done! But we were riding our bikes here and before we left Elder Williams told us hid did not know how to ride a bike! So we cancelled all of our tracting plans and spent the day teaching him how to ride a bike, It was a cool experience because we all felt like dads to him teaching him how to ride his bike! Patience is really a virtue.

Hopefully everything goes well at home this week!

Love Elder Bentley!