Ending January WIth A Bang!

Saying goodbye to Igor

Classy Baptism Photo

Bridger with Aiden and GG

The cute Perez Family

 

 

Dear Everyone!

Well this week has been such a bitter sweet week. Read the entire email and you will see why. 

Monday we were allowed to drive for 3 hours 3-6 to go get supplies for p-day and then after that we had to have our cars in for the rest of the night. We had set up an appointment with Betsy and a member So the member came and picked us up. Traffic was horrible and we missed he lesson with Betsy but rescheduled for Tuesday morning. We had a great time at the members home, the Wilsons fed us very well and we had a great time at their house.

Tuesday we invited the Zone Leaders to come to our appointment with Betsy to interview her for baptism. Needless to say she passed and was all ready for Saturday! We didn't have any of our meetings because the church parking lots were full of snow. We helped shovel people out of their parking lots though for service all day Tuesday. We had a district shoveling get together and it went pretty well.

Wednesday was our temple trip, and the spirit was super strong there! We had a great time with the mission and are super excited for the next transfer! We ate at Continental, it's a pizza and sub shop in Kensington. We went to Harold's, that's all we will say about that. We had dinner with Brother Matsen and his family! It was a great dinner appointment, showing his kids friend that we are normal people as well. That night was training call outs, and Elder Johnson was told he is training so that means one of us will leave....

Well Thursday we shoveled snow all day, so yay for snow and service! We finished the night off with the Chaneys.  

Friday Elder Johnson and I wanted to get something nice for Betsy's baptism for her. We drove down to this is the place and got her a quad scripture set with her name on it. It was a very nice set of scriptures, genuine leather and gold leaf. We wrote our testimonies in it and let the sisters who helped do so as well. We had a few other appointments with random members the rest of the day. We had dinner with the Ballams and headed down to Igor's basement apartment in Silver Spring. We had a handoff lesson with him and it was very hard to say goodbye to him. He is getting baptized March 6th for real this time.

Saturday was Betsy's baptism! We got there early to prepare the church/font for the service. Betsy's sister in law Brenda set up tons of decorations for afterwards. It was a very nice set up for a baptism. We took pictures and started the service when Bishop Lewis finally arrived. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, and a member complimented on it which was great! Betsy was baptized and the spirit was very strong! Her mother in law gave a great testimony on how they had been praying for G and Betsy to go to church and for her to be baptized. Now she was baptized and all that was left was to get G to go back to church. But Betsy is such a great lady! Her husband is less active and came which was great! We had a great time with her and her family, the ward was super supportive with it as well. We shoveled snow for the rest of the day afterwards and had dinner at Lulu's home. We got the transfer call outs and I am staying in Derwood, Elder Johnson is leaving and he isn't happy about that. 

Sunday was ward conference. Betsy was confirmed and the Spirit was so very strong there. We could defiantly tell that she loved the church and how much it feels like home. She even beat us to church and saved us a spot! Like talk about what a great new member. Brother Andersen confirmed her, he works for the temple and is second counselor in the bishopric. We had a long ward council meeting afterwards and talked about missionary work. We had dinner with the Clawson family, they invited other families over as well and it was a big dinner party kind of thing.

Overall it's been a big bitter sweet week because we had to say bye to Igor, Betsy was baptized, and Elder Johnson is leaving.

Spiritual thought for the week. President Arnold ( stake president) talked about how in  the next 7 years he wants the equivalent of 2 more wards in the stake. And as he talked about this it reminded me of the talk the President Nelson to the young Adults about becoming true Millennials. In the talk he mentioned we need to prepare to accomplish the impossible, we need to pray to do so. As we pray for strength and courage to act on the feelings the Holy Ghost gives us we will be able to do so. I know that as we pray to accomplish the impossible we will be able to do so. Example in my life, our investigator Betsy, Elder Johnson and I were praying to find someone while we were together. We taught Betsy on December 30th for the first time and she was baptized on January 30th. We can do hard things!

Much love,

Elder Bentley