Elder Clark Tour

Dear Family!

This week has been a really eventful exciting week for the entire mission you could say! It all started off while I was on an exchange with the Zone leaders. We were down in Annapolis, Elder McBride and I, and we started to do our finding for the day. It had been a very wet and rainy day so it was very discouraging getting rejected in the pouring rain! Right before we were going to call tracking quits before dinner, we knocked on Matt's door.

When he answered he was very puzzled on why we were there. As we told him we had a message that would change his life, he was starting to let the spirit into his heart. He then Let us into his home a few minutes later. We taught him the first discussion and it was cool to hear how the lord was preparing him for us to be there. He has anxiety attacks but hasn't had one for months when the day before we were there, they started up again. His fiancé will be excited to hear he let God back into his life.

Thursday was the day we had the mission Tour with Elder Kim B. Clark. He wanted to have a little meet and greet at the beginning so the meeting started at 8. We had various sessions talking about Repentance, obedience and the Book of Mormon. It was great to be able to hear words from a member of the 70. The great thing afterwards was when the Assistants announced who would be interviewing with him between the 3 zones. They picked 9 people and I was one of them! It was really great to be able to chat with him one on one and it's an experience I'll never forget!

That night we were super pumped to go out tracting. We decided since we were a little short on time we would just go to the street behind our house. We were only out for 90 minutes but had some quality conversations with some great people! We gave away all the copies of the Book of Mormon we had on us so it was very successful. This coming week we will be going back to follow up with them all and see how they liked the first chapter of Nephi.

The last few days of the week were focused on trying to follow up with the people we have already met in the past. It's hard when everyone works all day and get home at night just wanting to go to bed and repeat their day. But Friday we had a couple of appointments lined up. We got to meet with Andrew the Atheist and talk more about God. He opened up more to us and we were unsure how to help him because it's nothing we have either dealt with. But he will be a strong member of the church, we just need to help him realize he has a loving Heavenly Father.

A scripture that stood out in my studies this last week, in Alma 60:23 it reads, "Now I would that ye should remember that God has said that the inward vessel shall be cleansed first, and then shall the outer vessel be cleansed also." Sometimes as we are trying to help others, we first need to cleanse ourselves. We cannot help others until we are in a good position to do so. But as we spiritually prepare ourselves, God will give us opportunities to use that strength we have received.

Much love,

Elder Bentley 

December Is Here!

We went and picked up the Zone leaders truck from them last Monday

Temple during Christmas Time!

Me with a guy Elder Bailey knows

Dear Family!

The weather this week has been in the 50's with a wind chill of who knows how cold. No matter what you wear the wind trumps the clothes that you wear. But other than that, it's been a great start of December!

Sadly nothing too exciting has really happened. We have spent most of our time trying to contact our potential investigators. With the transfer that happened halfway through the week, the district changed up. No one in Brooklyn was transferred, but we got 2 sets of missionaries from another ward in our district. I'm hoping that with the new district I'll be able to keep the reverence of the meetings.

Thursday We did have the chance to go down to the temple for the Festival of Lights. We met Sheryl a Richards from Chick fil a down there on the opening night. She is an inactive member, so it was very great for her to meet us down there and feel,of the special spirit of the Temple Visitor Center. We were able to watch the Potomac Suzuki String Orchestra as the showing that night. Following that as we were talking about the temple, she asked us tons of questions that were leading into her curiosity of returning back to church. 

Something cool that happened while we were there, after she had left, we were taking a picture of the lights when I saw a guy taking photos as well. I walked right up to,him thinking he was a member and started chatting. Figured out that he was driving on the 495 and thought he could get some great photos of the huge white building he saw. He had only been there a few minutes planing to be there for just 5 minutes. He thought it was awesome how easily I started the conversation with him and he wants to meet us down at the Visitor Center again for the Lights.

Sunday after church had ended, I was bombarded by members who were grateful i had stayed and were giving me music to play for Christmas. By the end of it, I think I've gotten three requests for songs to learn for either Christmas day or the Christmas Party, to be honest, I'm not really sure. I'll just learn them today and have them whenever they need them! It's great though because the Branch really needed me this month for music and I stayed here.

Other than that it's really been normal week. We have been encouraging people to do the 25 ways in 25 Days from Mormon.org. If you haven't had the chance yet to check it out, get on the website and start serving! Funny moment from that, we were with Brother Ledbetter and this lady walked up asking if we could take a photo, but then she couldn't find her phone. She realized it was in her pocket 5 seconds later and felt all awkward. So he said to her, "And just in case you forget, your glasses are on your face." It was so him to say that, then moments later he got a scolding from his wife. He then looked at us and said jokingly, sweet Elders, I've done my service for helping the blind see.

Anyway I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Bentley

It's Almost December!

This is Theo, he got baptized on Saturday. He was one I was teaching when I first got to the area, but when they switched the boundaries, the other elders got to teach him.

Dear Family!

Well there were some great things that happened this week!

Tuesday After a day of failed appointments, we went to visit one of our potential investigators Jamie. As we were walking up to his door, he motioned for us to come in so we did. We sat down and he started talking to us about things that have been happening lately. Then he turned the conversation to death so we were able to talk about the 3 kingdoms of glory with him. He was so excited to hear what we had to say it was tons of fun to see him love the message. Quote from Jamie, 'I eat Thunder and poop Lightning!"

Wednesday we had the opportunity to go down to the temple and help around the grounds. We decorated a couple of bushes and trees in lights and helped around with yard work. It was really cool to work on the lights because so many people come to see them! Brother Rogers, the guy in charge, was so thankful because of our service him and his crew would be able to take off Thanksgiving to spend it with their families. Between that and fighting traffic to get home, that contained most of our day. 

Thanksgiving was a pretty dandy day. We got to play football with some members in the morning. After that we commenced to our thanksgiving meals. The first one was with the Dotimas family. Knowing we had more after, we tried to control our food intake, but the meals was so great we just kept eating until we were packed full! As we were going to the next meal, we went and gave the leftovers to a homeless guy named Danny. He was super thankful and deserved a good meal for thanksgiving. Our last meal of the night was with Sister Rigsby. She is the new Relief Society president so we had a good chat about some of the members over dinner at Bob Evans. Then following that we helped her decorate her Christmas tree so she wouldn't have to do it alone!

Saturday we got to go and explore the top neighborhood of our area. There is an area with tons of Burmese speakers. We are just stuck because they know little English but always invite us into their homes. We are going to do what we can for them in regards to acquiring something they will be able to understand more. But for the meantime we shared Christmas videos that were just music and the video so there wasn't any worry for the language barrier.

A thought that came to mind this week. When we encounter people, we have the blessing to share with them the happiness we have. Sometimes as we share that love, they won't want to be receptive or will reject what we have to share. But sometimes we don't think about the influence we can have on others. They way we treat and deal with others can drastically change the outcome to them accepting the gospel. So continue to try and help others, because no effort is wasted.

Love,

Elder, Bentley

Happy Thanksgiving Week

Krispi Kreme for P-Day? I THINK SO!

Temple Trip!

Dear Family!

Well this week has been a huge learning week for me. I guess I learned the power of forgiveness and why we should forgive. The series of events that happened between this week was to teach me a lesson in a way.

So after the two Elders tried to walk to the Temple, I spent a lot of time with President talking about the options for transfers and whatnot. Friday when he decided that they were good to stay until transfers is the day I learned my lesson. Friday night after the day of working, we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders set up. Elder Rowley came here with me and we had a great time together.

After the typical nightly routine, we started talking and before we knew it, it was time for bet. At midnight I wake up to a pounding on the front door. I was over and see it was the other two Elders. I didn't know what to do so I woke up Elder Rowley to see what he thought. We couldn't fathom what they had done to end up knocking on our door at midnight. We weren't sure what they had done. After getting Elder Rowley up, they disappeared. (So great now he thinks I'm just imaging this.)

We walked towards the back balcony and heard them opening the outside door to the balcony. I quickly made sure the lock was locked so they couldn't get in. We had this weird standoff where we were trying to figure out why they were there. Finally they say that President Johnson sent them over because no one heard from us. Between our talking after we had got home, we completely forgot about Friday night Callins. I am so used to elder Guzzle bringing in the phone that we forgot it in the car.

During that event that night, I had just built so much anger and stress because of the series of events. Then as I was laying in bed I started to think about it on their part, they left their home at midnight to make sure we were okay. Everyone thought we were gone or dead so they came to make sure we were good. After counseling with the Lord, I forgave them for the previous stresses they caused and it was a huge learning experience for me.

But the rest of the exchange went pretty well with Elder Rowley. We went out and worked hard, set up a couple return appointments for this next week. Talked to a ton of people. We made cookies to give to our neighbors to invite them to the temple grounds for the Christmas lights. It was a great exchange.

Sunday night was Why I Believe. Two weeks ago I got a call from some sisters asking if I could accompany them as they sang. I practiced the song and when it came time to play it, felt pretty good about my end of things. As I was practicing after church, Sister Romney came up and said she knew they arrangement and offered to sing to it so I could hear how it fits with the parts. We had a great Why I Believe and made the hour long drive back home for the night!

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Sending Sunshine

This is Randall, we met him at bass pro shops on a Pday. We were browsing the fly fishing and he pops up and says, " are you the LDS missionaries?" Then he was all excited because he was talking with his friends about us and the church. He took this photo to post on Facebook but he was a pretty great guy. We invited him to the Festival of Lights.

Our Companion photo for the transfer

Dear Family,

Well this week has really been a week of learning and experiences for me that is for sure! There were also a couple of great things that happened this week so that was a bonus.

Well the miracles came in when we went to meet with Andrew. We have had a hard time getting ahold of him and helping him progress, but we finally were able to sit down with him and talk about the commandments that need to be lived so he can prepare for baptism. He is doing great, except his desire to still get tattoos. He also got his drivers license finally so he can drive himself to church!

I've spent some time practicing the piano this week for two things, the first is the Primary program. We got a prompting to text Sister Thompson to ask her if she would like for me to play the piano for the Program. She of course delighted to hear that so we got to spend some time with them Saturday morning going through the program. 

Following that program, we went and helped out at a horse farm of a nearby investigator. She was throwing a little shindig to boost her riding lessons and we talked with people about the church as we helped with it. We got back though quickly because we had an appointment to catch with another investigator, but when we got there, he cancelled.

Sunday was when the real miracle happened. We were at church and I was up playing the prelude so we could get started. When to my astonishment I looked over and there was Andrew standing with Elder Guzzle! Even better, he had he whole day off of work and invited his boss who was he original member who referred him to us! We had a great Primary presentation for the congregation and got onto the rest of the day. We tried to set an appointment with him, but he worked too much this coming week.

Tuesday was when the real drama and learning experiences came. Monday night the other set of Elder told us they were going to try and walk to the Temple for the Temple day on Wednesday, the only thing was they were leaving Tuesday morning to do it. After they told us I fought back the prompting to call the Zone leaders because we thought they were joking. But sure enough they headed out. I tried to tell them not to go and to be at district Meeting, but when we walked into the building, Elder Carling told me I'd just have to be the bad guy and call them in.

After much discussion with the Zone Leaders and President Johnson, we are waiting to hear what is going to happen with that companionship. It was hard for me to call back on them because I didn't want them to hate me for doing so. 

But the learning experience came as I talked with Elder Guzzle. He related this whole experience back to Nephi and his Brothers. We know that Nephi was in tune with the spirit and because of that his brothers didn't like him. They tried to bind him up, kill, and get rid of him. But he was protected because he was a servant of God. As we focus of the savior and his teachings, no matter what comes into our way, we will be able to keep that focus on the promptings of the spirit. 

Love,

Elder Bentley

Happy Halloween

The best portrayal of "black Jesus" that I've seen on my mission.

We went to go visit a potential investigator at the hospital and finally got to use this parking spot!

Dear Family!

This week has really been a testimony builder on going out to work. Elder Guzzle and I have been on top of getting out to go finding. The blessings it brings when both missionaries want to go work is so much nicer to have now!

The miracle was on Tuesday night, specifically with our lesson with Wiley. We were already feeling pretty great. That morning as we walked to the bus stop, a guy pulled over and got out of his car to talk with us. Some missionaries gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he has been reading it. He asked us about Ether and the things he was reading in Ether. The funny thing he said was, "I don't see why you guys are called Mormons. If you asked me, you should be called Moronis" 

Anyway, as we pulled up to Wiley's home, this car pulls in next to us. Brother Hyer said that he saw our car and thought "oh missionaries!" Then the spirit told him to follow us. He unrolled his window when we got out and asked what we were up to. When we said about to go into an appointment he was like, "Oh great! Are you ready for a member present?" That was such a blessing for everyone! First brother Hyer recognized the spirit and acted on it. Because of that we got a member in with our appointment to see how Wiley was doing!

The rest of the week really seemed like it was such a blur. We had appointments here and there, with meetings back and forth. It has been great serving in Brooklyn Park. Sometimes the area is hard, but others it just such an enjoyment to see the craziness in the world. Things that I've learned from, defiantly stay away from drugs. We were visiting with Sister Bolan Sunday night and she was telling us her story. The negative influence that drugs had and the desperation that it led her to. It was a great visit and lot was learned. 

Things I don't understand, for some reason Maryland has all these weird bugs that seem like they serve no purpose whatsoever. We were visiting with a new family that moved in and they talked about the differences between our west and here. They have gotten close to us because we can hold an actual conversation with them and somewhat know what they are going through in the branch. We have had this bug problem in our apartment, for some reason everywhere I turn there is ladybug here and one there! It drives me insane because they are too nice of bugs to squash but they don't belong in a house!

We met a couple of great people while we were out tracking this week. There was this guy named Jamie who was out in his porch just sitting there. We had a great talk with him and will be stopping be this next week to visit with him and talk about the Plan of Salvation. He doesn't live here, but spends lots of time with his sister who needs his help so he kind of does? He talked about the difference in the neighborhood that has happened since he was a lad. But he wants us to come back so we will be there!

Then last but not least, the Halloween party. I wasn't expecting it to have that big of a turn out, but when we got there the cultural hall/chapel was full of people eating. It was a potluck situation so everyone gave what they could! We got to help the ward primary with the actual Halloween part by helping the kids make fall crafts. We got done and I gave the building a good vacuum because it needed one. (Small building only took 20 Minutes for the whole thing)

I hope everything has been good at home!

Love,

Elder Bentley

Transfers With the Mountain Man

The Merrill girls brought up their snake for us to see.

Elder Guzzle and me

Dear Family!

Well this week we had our transfers! I got the call that I would be staying another transfer and would be receiving.... ( ha you have to wait until I get that far in my letter)

Monday night was a pretty cool night. We were waiting for our call out and decided we would stay in our apartments area. I looked at the map and told Elder Mellen we were going to go visit a less active member. We got there not really with the best hope, but they let us in. Brother Merrill and his daughters are members, even though they don't come to church, they still talk and teach about the church. We will be working with them to hopefully reactivate them. His two girls 11 & 13 loved having us over to visit and share a message so hopefully that'll be our in.

Tuesday was our last district meeting of the transfer. We had our little testimony meeting where Elder Sudweeks gave his "death testimony" he's going home. The rest of that day was Elder Mellen preparing his bags and packing for transfers.

Wednesday Morning Brother Klecz came and picked us up in his truck for transfers. He took all four elders down and came home with only two. The other set of Brooklyn Park Elders got a car so they drove it back. I got my new companion, Elder Guzzle, he is from West Jordan, Utah and likes hunting fishing and the outdoors. We got back home and went right to work. This will be a great transfer with him and we will get in lots of hard work.

Thursday night we got to visit Elizabeth and Gwynn. She said Gwynn was asking when we would come back and was excited for us to come and teach. The biggest miracle is how Gwynn tells her mom to read the "Mormon book." We talked with her more about the Book of Mormon and about fasting and tithing. She's progressing slowly but it's better than no progress. It's definitely helpful to have her 4 year old daughter pushing her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  

Saturday we went to check on a bible referral named John. He had come back from a work trip and had the day off. The best part of that visit was watching the spirit work in his mind and in his heart. He was saying like the Bible has this but that doesn't, or that it wasn't written by inspired men. But by the end of our little conversation with him he had the Book and is going to read it and pray about it.

That's about it that I have for the week!

Love you all!!

Elder Bentley 

OCTOBER 16TH

Me and Elder King

Dear Family!

Well this week was a pretty great one. There were only a couple of things that really happened this week work mentioning. 

We had the opportunity to go over to President Wolfe's home to help them paint the main floor of their town home. It's really the first interaction they have sent our way that's happened while I've been here. It seems like they are slowly starting to warm up to us. We painted their main floor a lighter tan color with the Behr paint that's only supposed to be one layer. I had the job of using the paint brush to get the cracks and crevices touching up what was missed. Overall it went well and they seemed to finish the second touchup layer later that day.

Thursday we went down to the Annapolis building for interviews with President Johnson. They were much needed for the Zone you could tell. It was also very nice to get everything I was wanting to talk about with him in and to council about the area. They are planned for 10 minutes, but they always are longer than planned because he wants to get to know us more and to make sure we are doing alright. That went over into the night and I traded a tie with Elder King.

Friday we had some service helping some guys from a Methodist church load up a trailer with food. We met them at the Maryland food bank in our area. We got there not realizing it was a little thing in the back and not a big event inside. But we are definitely going to be going down there to offer our service more often now we know it's there. Other than that this week it's been full of finding and talking to people.

Saturday was Baltimore's "Fleet Week," they had the U.S. Navy Blue Angels come and perform. It was out of the mission, but there's a spot at the top of our area at the hospital where hundreds of people gather to watch the planes fly over and around. We used that to talk to people about the gospel and to also watch some jets fly. 

That night we were out checking on some Referrals that we have. We received a new one where he was wanting a bible. His name was Ronald. When we stopped by he was gracious for his free bible and we asked if we could share some verses out of it. He invited us in not knowing we had an entire lesson to teach him! The spirit was strong and that was the miracle of our week! 

This week I learned more about charity. We had a lesson in Priesthood about it.  I took time to read the lesson this last week. I love the stories that it shares about loving our enemies. One of the examples that comes to mind however is in the musical Les Misérable. When Jean Val Jean tried to take the silver and get caught by the guards and taken back to the priest. He forgives him instantly and helps him realize there are bigger things in life. This one simple charitable act by the priest changed his entire life. How are our actions reflecting onto others? Are we being charitable? Do we love those who hate us? It's my testimony that as we develop charity, the lord will bless us with increased love towards others.

Love,

Elder Bentley

October 10th

This is us with Sister Missouri. She got us ravens and oriole's ties because she likes us. She told us we needed to wear them.

Me and Elder Mellen

Dear Family! 

Well this week has been a really great week! We had some great experiences that will be cherished for a very long time!

Last P-day we were tired of sitting around the apartment so we went bowling. It was a pretty great activity for our Preparation day. When we got there the lady said we could bowl for a discounted price, we had planned on 2 games. We had a little competition as we bowled also which made it enjoyable. As we went to pay to leave the lady told us that it was on the house! Blessings of bowling!

Elder Mellen and I went out finding Tuesday after lunch. As we were walking down a street his knife fell out of his pocket into the drain. I told him I could get it out, so after fastening a magnet to some string I fished it out. Tuesday night we had to give our car to the other elders so they could go to a training meeting. We were left with our bikes to ride home. As we rode home a guy got mad at us for riding our bikes, but there wasn't anything either of us could do.

Wednesday we got to spend doing an errand for the mission office. We spent that morning weekly planning before Brother Klecz came and picked us up. There was a new couple moving in for some archive work and they needed a bed. We had a queen at our apartment and was asked by the office to get it down to the apartment. It was a highlight because everything Brother Klecz says just makes you laugh. We got everything finished and had dinner with the Harmon family.

Thursday Elder Randall K. Bennett from the seventy came and visited our mission. It was really an amazing experience. He stood in front of us talking about what and how we could be better missionaries. His whole talk rekindled and relight the fire of missionary work in my soul! After seeing the spirit work throughout the meeting, we got out and did some work. We met with our investigator Elizabeth afterwards and talked to her about the importance of the Book of Mormon. We read some of Alma's words to his son Coriantum to help her see the importance. That night she sent us a picture of her daughter bringing up the Book of Mormon to have her read it! Miracles do occur!

Saturday we were out and picked up our newest investigator Jeremy. He's the first new investigator that we have been able to pick up for a while. We were checking on a row of homes to do some finding, his was the last home on the street and he invited us in. We had a nice quick lesson with him because his father was wanting him to help out his mom. We finished up and set a return appointment for this Monday!

Also as we were out on Saturday we stopped at a rehab center to check on a lady from a ward up north. She had surgery and is inactive but wanted a blessing. It was strange because as we got there and were wheeling her to her room for the blessing, a crazy lady thought we were taking her. She fell into tears pleading with us to not take her. Then on our way out was trying to "pick us up" she was talking to a group of older ladies and said to them "shhh! I'm going to go pick up some young guys" ( we walk past) "oh young guys!" It was a very crazy trio to say the least. We left her with a prayer and got on our way.

I was reading in Mosiah 20 this last week. It talks about the tower and how Limhi and his people were protected because they could see the dangers lurking outside. That's much like our prophet. We had this amazing opportunity to hear from the head of our church and it's up to us to apply their talks everyday!  I know it's from our Heavenly Father and it's what we need to hear!

Love,

Elder Bentley

Happy October

Elder Davidson and me waiting for conference to start.

Dear Family!

Well this week was a bit slower than I would have liked it, but we got to watch conference at the end of it so I'm not complaining!

Tuesday I went on exchange with Elder Haggard. There are lots of missionaries that don't really like him or get along with him. But as we went on our exchange with each other I got to see how loving he really is towards others. He has a very focused mind and heart so he's constantly going and going. We were driving down a pretty busy road as he pulls across trafic to talk to a guy who was on his bike. It was kind of scary, but the talking with the guy was worthy it.

Thursday Evening we got to go visit our investigator Elizabeth. At our last visit, we had invited her to pray daily. When we went into this visit with her we had the goal of inviting her to read the Book of Mormon. She has a 3 year old named Gwen, who is constantly running around wanting to play. Elder Mellen occupied her so I could teach Elizabeth with no distractions. We talked about the Book of Mormon, the stories that are in there, and the things we need to do to gain a testimony of it. She seemed pretty content with the invitation to read and pray so we hope she will do so!

Friday was a slow day, our car needed an oil change. Every time we got into it it would beep at us for a while. We called the vehicle coordinator who told us to take it into a firestone. We hated to have to take it in, but now it's fully functional and gets us where we need to go. We had a bible referral to stop by. It was this older Asian man named Kaw. I guess he is a reverend in his church so we also gave him a Book of Mormon. We were trying to ask him questions about himself and if he wanted to learn more, bit there was definitely a language barrier there. We will go back and see if we can teach his children though.

Saturday morning we got up and helped Elizabeth move some things out of her storage. The catch was when we were finished we would all go down and watch General Conference. It was definitely worth it to get her there. She seemed to enjoy the session. We decided that we wanted to watch the Second Session at home so that's what we did. The Branch had a Priesthood Pizza social before the priesthood Session. It made me miss going out to dinner afterwards with dad and the brothers.

Something from Conference, in Kazuhiko Yamashita's address he talked about being ambitious for Christ! Within his address he said, "Serving Jesus really is the best thing ever." Well I'm here to tell you how true that really is! Every day we get to wake up and represent two people. The first is my family. Being able to do this has not only brought joy, but love and respect as well. I'm not representing Bridger, but the wholeBentley name. Second is our Savior Jesus Christ. Through him everything is made possible, as we have faith, remember, serve and believe we are able to overcome,e anything and everything having joy.

Love,

Elder Bentley

Coookie Thief

Elder Rowley and I after our exchange

Dear Family!

Well this week was full of all sorts and kinds of exchanges. On a total, I went on 3 exchanges to see how the district has been doing. There was quite he turn of events that followed during so I will explain.

Tuesday was my exchange with Elder Chugg. When we got back to the apartment after district meeting, we started to bake cookies. There really hasn't been too much connection or trust built between the missionaries and the ward leadership. To counter that and to try to build relationships, I thought we would make cookies for the families and drop them by to share a message and whatnot. We made a good 160ish pumpkin chocolate cookies for this purpose.

That night we had a great appointment with our new investigator Elizabeth, it was a little longer of an appointment, but that was good as we talked about God. She has been looking for a church and her daughter got her to go to the temple visitor center. As we visited, we thought it would be best to talk about prayer and to invite her to pray.

We didn't get the chance to deliver the cookies because the exchanges and appointments made it so we wouldn't be able to until Sunday. We went on my next exchange with Elder Criddle who is training in my district. They cover the other half of the ward and we got to go work in it. We had a pretty good time you could say as we just went around and contacted people for most of the day. There really wasn't too much other than that that happened on that exchange. I exchanged with the Zone leaders that night at volleyball.

Elder Rowley and I went down to Annapolis for that exchange. The morning was service, cleaning out ditches. Something here that everyone does is bag all their yard waste. Let me tell you how much more proficient it is to throw it into a trailer and take it to the dump. We helped this lady they tracted into with her yard work. After that we got to go and check on a less active who was making up excuses at the door. But dinner that night was great! We went to the Tolman's for our dinner, brother Tolman is Dutch and loves to make Indonesian food. We had some kind of fried rice and had a great conversation with him.

When we went back up to Brooklyn Park that night is when I got really frustrated. So we made all these cookies to take to members and I told Elder Mellen to not let anyone eat them because they were for the members. When we got back, there were only about 40 cookies left. I guess while I was gone they thought it would be okay to have 8 Elders over to the apartment to hang around on a Saturday. It was super disappointed with the other Zone Leader and Mellen for letting that happen. In that process they ate tons of the cookies, and made a mess of the kitchen and such. 

Sunday during most of the day I was still super disappointed and Frustrated. Hopefully here soon I will be able to just come to terms with it and move on. 

Meanwhile during those last few days I found out that two of our most solid Investigstors were practically dropping us. One said they were going to Hawaii for a month and the other is up in Baltimore visiting his mom. I think Andrew after his visit will come to terms with the tattoos and want to get baptized. The branch already has a predetermined calling for him, ward Organist.

Hope everything goes well this coming week!

Love,

Elder Bentley