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