Happy Easter!

With Zemir and Lorenzo

 

 

 

 

Dear Family!

This has been a very great week! The temperature has been pretty great, it really just feels like spring is on its way! It's amazing because the blossoms are starting to bloom so we are seeing all these beautiful trees everywhere! We are spending P-day in DC because we want to see the blossoms and we have tickets to go to the top of the Washington monument.

This last Tuesday was the day before transfers, we had a last great meeting with out districts and took photos. After the meeting commenced, we went home and changed so we could go work with the Horses. Working with horses and the kids really makes me want to own horses...but they are way too high maintenance. We get all the fun with them and don't have to do any of the gritty work.

Wednesday we went out with a priest who just recently got his mission call to Vancouver Washington, Spanish speaking. He is coming out with us pretty often which is a great experience for him. We visited a recent convert who is having some doctrinal related issues, she just needs our help to understand it more. We went out with Brother Lewis and Alex ( Betsy's son) that night. I got to take him and we visited a few of his home teaching families. We had a great discussion about missions and the importance of him finding out for himself if it's right for him. 

Thursday we had a pass off lesson with the Hermanas. We found this Brazilian named Zemir, he is super solid and we met him at a park. They had a great talk with him and invited him back to church. He came last week so we were hoping he would come this week. It wasn't easy to pass him off, but we needed to because we can't really communicate with him. That night we had a lesson with Betsy at the Matsen home. (Brother Matsen is the ward mission leader) The lesson went very well and she understands the gospel more than most people at her stage. 

Friday we spent a solid chunk of our day at a retirement home visiting with people there. Older people love to talk, especially when someone is listening to them. We visited a new move in in that area and visited with her about her life. It's a Jewish retirement community, but we have a few members who live there. That night we had dinner with The Palomos and spent a good chunk talking about how we can help Harold. Brother Palomo is his home teacher and is wanting to find a way to help him. 

Saturday Elder Fitzgerald and I went on exchanges because we had to go to a Leadership training meeting. It was great because I got to play the mission song and we learn some great ways to help our districts. The meeting finished and we just spent the rest of the night contacting a few of their less actives.

Sunday was Easter! Well it was a different Easter because we spent the whole day teaching people or going to church. We started off going out to home teach with Brother Scardena. When we had finished, we headed to church. Our investigator Eric came to church which was amazing! He is super solid. We got a new second counselor and a new Ward mission leader. Brother Matsen is now a counselor and Brother Bloem is now our Ward Mission leader. We had dinner with the Ballams and spent some time talking with them. 

All in all it was a pretty great week, it's been a while since an investigator came to church, so we hope to keep up the great work.

Love,  

Happy Spring!

 

 

Dear Family,

The weather has been fluctuating. It'll be in the 70's then it'll be in the 40's the next day. The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom so we are able to see them throughout all of Maryland. 

Monday and Tuesday were some typical days, we had our P-day and zone conference meetings/ the farm. I really think that it is a great opportunity that we have to work at this farm and to help these kids that need the therapeutic riding. It's worth it so much because we get to see the smiles on their faces, their smilies are always just so priceless!

Wednesday we had the temple trip because it is the last Wednesday before transfers. We had a great time at the temple, and came home for an appointment afterward. We met up with the zone leaders and went to a Brazilian's home to let Elder Cruz teach him in Portuguese because it's his native language. The zone leaders spent most of the day with us, they went out to lunch with us and even went to Harold's. The last couple of weeks Harold has been pretending to have amnesia and we wanted them to see what we were dealing with. We had a great dinner at the Padilla home that night. We might have Brother Padilla help fellowship Cemir into the church because he also speaks Portuguese.

Thursday we spent most of the day Weekly planning because we are trying to find better ways of finding people to teach. We ended up taking more time doing this than we thought. However, we set up enough appointments for the remainder of the week that we felt pretty accomplished afterwards. The work is really starting to pick up, of course it always does that right before transfers. We watched a guy get arrested in our complex for drunk driving which was great to watch. 

Friday I went on Exchanges with Elder Torgerson. He is my district leader and going out with him really helped me learn how I can become a better missionary. As I watched him talk with people and contact, it made me want to do that much better at doing that. It's still pretty hard for me to get the courage to do so, but he really helped me with that. We found some great potentials as we were out working in our area. We helped moved in a lady into a retirement home and visited one of his RC's. We had dinner at Lulu's. Bless her heart because she feeds us so much and always has her door open to us if we are hungry.

Sunday was a very great day. We went home teaching with a priest before church and when we got to church afterward President was a little upset because he had him in our car, I'm going to try and talk with President about the situation and clear everything up. Sister Cooke and President Cooke spoke in sacrament meeting. Sister Cooke talked the ward up on us to try and get them to refer their friends. After the meeting we gave a blessing to a member who wasn't at church and headed to dinner with the Matsens. We had a great meal and conversation with them before we headed to Why I Believe. We met Eric an investigator there and talked with him about temples and such. He said he would come to church at 1 next week so we are very excited to see him there.

Something that I learned this week: the Lord truly knows when we are having a hard time, wether it be with life, a situation, or anything. Because he loves us dearly and knows us each individually, he knows how to help us cheer up and make us happy. I defiantly have seen this in the last week and it's something I will remember throughout my life.

Much love,

Elder Bentley

March Madness

Us with Sheryl

Us with Lewis



My height in money

 

 

Dear Family & Friends!

Well this has been a pretty great week! 

Monday we were able to go down into the city to visit the bureau  of engraving and printing. This is where have of the money is printed that we use. We were able to get tickets to go on a tour through the Building and watch them make money. The best part is at the very end...you can buy money with money. Elder Fitzgerald and I went to go eat afterwards at a place called Good Stuff Eatery. They had some really great burgers and fries. Afterwards when P-day had ended, we went over to Betsy's home to teach her the new member lesson of the Restoration. I enjoy going over so much, we were able to have a great discussion about Joseph Smith.

Tuesday was our typical Zone district meetings. Instead of going down to the farm, we went to a dinner with the French elders. It was at the Lacsamanas home. It just so happened to be Lewis' birthday. (Brother Lacsamana) we invited our friend Sheryl from Chick-fil-a to go because she is from the Philippians as well. We had a great discussion with her and we found out that she was baptized into the church 14 years ago! It blew our minds and now we just have to find out how to get her to come back to church.

Thursday we tracted into a man who let us into his home. He is 21 and was more than willing to listen to what we had to say about Christ. After we had taught him the discussion, we got a return appointment with him. He was very timid about praying because he never has before, he never was taught how to. He told me that if I would say a prayer in French then he would try one in English. So needless to say we are returning on Tuesday for another appointment to see how his praying and reading are going.  We finished off the night at Betsy's home helping her find family names to take to the temple.

Saturday is where I had a crazy day. So Elder Woodis was sick and so was Elder Call, He lives upstairs. I went out with his Companion Elder Rowley to go teach our investigator Kareen and we had a great time teaching her. She is struggling making it to church because she has late night classes and so we will talk with her about sacrifice. We had an appointment with one of their Investigators and went to that at the public library where someone interrupted our lesson telling the investigator he was wasting his time talking to us. Pretty positive she was possessed or something. After which we went to pick up Alex (Betsy's son) to go on exchange with me so I spent the rest of the day with him. Elder Rowley went with the Zone leaders and then with a member. Alex and I went to go to our appointments but they all fell through so we knocked doors. We're trying to help him want to serve a mission because he doesn't really seem interested in it. I'm hoping that he will enjoy it and want to go on a mission. We visited an Investigator named Cemir. He speaks Portuguese and Spanish with a tad of English. We are handing him off to the sisters, but I figured since Alex knew enough Spanish today would be a good day to do it. Cemir said he wanted to go to church and was very excited.

After all was said and done Saturday, we were able to go to the Temple for the recent convert Baptism trip. We were able go through the front doors and I know Betsy and Alex had a fantastic time. It makes Betsy want to be sealed that much more to her husband. We were able to have a great discussion about her experience and hopefully I'm in the area another transfer so we can go again with her. 

Sunday we spent the day at home because Woodis was still feeling sick. A member made sandwiches and took them to church for us, since we weren't there Betsy offered to bring them for us. I love Betsy so much, she does so much for us! We were able to go to the French Elder's baptism. They asked me to play the piano so we went to do that. It was a great week and I Hope all of yours has been amazing!

Love,

Elder Bentley

March Madness!

An in motion picture with Elder Fitzgerald in Georgetown

Elder Woodis and I at St. John's cathedral on Lafayette square



Bridger and Copper

 

 

Dear Family!

Monday was a really great day! We went down into the city where we stopped at a stationary store, pen store and at Caesar's home. We got to go and see this old canal that's in Georgetown. We got to explore some of it and took some great photos! Going down into the city is such a great opportunity that we have because we are still able to contact people as we go around from place to place. 

Tuesday we got to go back to the farm! Who know that on my mission in DC that I would learn how to groom and take care of a horse! I guess it's one of those surprises that no one mentions. Earlier that day we had our zone district meeting. We have a super small district, there are total 6 of us. 

Thursday was a great day. We got to accompany the Montgomery Village Elders to a members home that wanted to feed them. Since she is single, they asked us to come as the 3rd male. Needless to say she is a pretty crazy old French lady! Sister Kirkham is pretty insane...she has us do all this little service because her husband spends most of the year in Florida to dodge taxes or something like that. That night we were going to have Betsy's family over to our ward mission leaders home. The focus is to try and get her husband a friend in the ward. He got a call into work because they were expecting 3 inches of snow so that got cancelled.

Friday we had a super amazing experience. We ran into this Brazilian who let us into his house from when we just knocked on his door. His name is Cemir. He doesn't really speak English that well, but Elder Woodis has some pretty killer Spanish so they were able to have a little lesson. He invited us back so this next time we visit him we are taking our zone leaders because Elder Cruz is Brazilian and speaks Portuguese. We were also out tracting and ran into some French speakers and I was able to somewhat talk with her and was able to refer her to the French Elders!

Saturday was a pretty rough day, our appointments for the day cancelled, but that meant we got to go tract for a bit! Other than that really nothing happened. We were able to get a couple of Spanish referrals for the Hermanas. Since Sunday was fast Sunday we fasted since lunch so we could be prepped for Sunday. When Sunday came, the strangest thing happened. I've talked about Harold before, well he came into church claiming that he doesn't remember anything because of something that had happened in DC the day before. He claims he doesn't remember either me or Johnson. After talking with Woodis, we decided that he is trying to hoax the ward, but we will put it out and see how it goes. We finished off the night at Lulu's home for dinner and saying goodbye to her daughter Natalie. She helped us bring Betsy to church and teaching her. She's moving to Utah to try and find a job in Provo. 

It's been a pretty great week, hope all of you have had a great one as well!

Love, Elder Bentley