Happy Day!

Enjoying Mia's baptism with the Ballams

Zone Color Run

Dear Family!

Well this week has definitely been a week where we have done tons of service which is great! Our investigator pool is lacking, but we have been able to help out the ward a ton so we still had a busy week.

Monday night we were able to have a lesson with Landry at our church building. It started off with a tour of the church and we were able to show him the baptismal font and all that fun jazz. He thought it was awesome and was asking how soon he could be baptized. He wants to be baptized asap and it was hard for him to realize that there are things he needs to do in order for him to be baptized. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and put him on date for May 28th. It was such a thorough lesson and he asked great questions.

Tuesday when we went to the farm we were able to go outside and help the kids ride around in the nice weather that we have been having. There was a little jump course for the horses to do that the instructor had all the missionaries do which was hilarious to watch! We did the usual things, groom horses, feed them, take them to the stables, play with the miniature horses. 

Thursday we were able to eat dinner with Betsy, we visited with her about the things that they had questions about. She made us pupussas, they are an el Salvadorian thing, like the equivalent of a quesadilla. We then went and visited David, we are trying to help him stop smoking. He has the want to quit, but he doesn't really have the motivation or the desire to. He struggles with it because his roommate doesn't help him at all with it. We are continually praying for him so he can quit the addiction.

Friday I went on an exchange with a Elder McBride in his area. They are the only elders in the district besides Elder Woodis and I. We had a pretty great day, the day entailed us visiting one of their less actives, some investigators and my trying to talk to a referral in French which turned out okay! We had a blast and it was great to see the fire that is burning in him! They have tons of investigators but they don't really follow through on their commitments. 

Sunday was such a great day! Besides the regular great day at church, there was a baptism in the ward of Mia who is 8. Her father just happens to be my 2nd cousin so there were some family members at their baptism! My Mom's cousin, Laurie,  came up and gave me hugs in behalf of my mom and grandma. It was awesome to see family that I never knew I had! Mia thought it would be cool to have a cousin relative who is a missionary be in the circle to confirm her so that was awesome!

It's been a great week with some fun filled adventures!

Much love,

Elder Bentley

Happy Cherry Blossom Festival!

White House Garden Tour - Look how close we got to the White House!

 

Most of the mission at the Cherry Blossom Parade

Holding the Cherry Blossom Balloons in the parade

 

Dear Family!

This has been such an incredible week! There has been a huge variety of things that we have done so I will try and stay focused and centered on the more important things. The weather has been amazing, it's been 70's and sunny so it's been enjoyable.

As far as investigators go right now, we got a text from Eric saying he was pretty busy so he wants us to touch base with him in a month which was very disappointing because he was progressing very well. We weren't really able to teach any of our other investigators except for Landry. Landry came to church last Sunday and loved it, wanted to meet with us, and asked how he would know when he is ready to be baptized. We invited him to Why I Believe and he showed up which was amazing. Also he went to church, had the gospel library app already downloaded and was asking how he could best use the app.

The less actives are doing very well, we had the opportunity to stop by Josef, he is Turkish and loves to talk about dreams he has had because they have come true. He published a book and everything, well it's still being published. We got to meet Selma, she is a retired lady in Leisure World and let us in instantly. We talked with her and plan on visiting her again this next week to invite her to church and to get her past her concerns. We put together a list of names that we weren't familiar with and are trying to contact them, most of them are inactive or just less active. Brother Corbin showed us to church because he heard that two new missionaries knocked on his door so he would go to church to contact us back.

The members are great here in the Derwood ward. They are great at taking care of us and love to feed us. Most of the time when we have an appointment or need someone to come with us, they respond quickly and let us have lessons in their homes. The priests are especially good and coming out with us so they can prepare for their missions. We helped Brother Matsen build part of a fence for his wife's garden. I didn't know how to really do it until this last Friday Night. Even though he's not the WML any more, he still loves to have us over and to ask how he can help. 

So the fun things we did this week, well we got to go to the farm as usual which was very great. There's nothing better than cleaning out horse stalls and helping the horses around. Saturday we had a mission wide service event for the Cherry Blossom Parade, some of us were ushers and others where Balloon Carriers. I was fortunate enough to to carry one of the Cherry Blossom Balloons and was in the opening of the parade, so yes international television. I was in the back left corner and don't even know if you can see us, but we were there. Following the balloon holding, Elder Woodis, Fitzgerald and I got to go to the Spring White House Garden Tour thanks to Senator Reid for the tickets. It was awesome because we got to go up on the White House lawn and meander around until we were satisfied with our free tickets. 

We got to go to Why I Believe because well I was asked to play the piano and Landry said that he would go. We had a blast, Senator Presslor was the guest speaker. He was baptized less than a year ago in the Chevy Chase Ward. I ran into a Brother Todd from our home Stake. He is from South Haight Creek Ward I believe. He said I looked familiar, and sure enough the lives up by Windridge. 

You could say it was a pretty great week, we got sun burnt so that added a little color to our faces. Hope everyone has had a great week!

 Love,

Elder Bentley

Elder Bentley at the Washington DC Temple

Michael Todd (From our Stake) and Bridger

Bridger and Elder Wattis

(These are tender mercies for missionary mom's! It's awesome when someone sees your missionary and passes pictures and nice words on to you!)

Sandy,

This is Mike Todd from the South Bench Ward.  I am back in Washington DC on business and decided to go to the Washington DC Temple Visitor Center for a fireside.  It was a missionary fireside that recent converts share their conversion story and testimony.

After the fireside, I got talking with your son and found out he is one of your children.  You should be so proud of him.  He is looking good, working hard and did a great job playing the piano at the fireside.  The spirit just radiated from him. 

I will send a couple of pictures of him and his companion and one with me in another email.

It was so good to talk to him and feel the excitement he has for missionary work.  Have a great night.

Mike

Igor's Baptism



Igor's Baptism

 

 

Dear Family!

Well this has been a pretty great week! The weather has been really weird, it was warm and then it was cold, then stayed cold the rest of the week. We have had some great lessons this week so that's what I'm going to talk about today!

We had the opportunity to have another lesson with Eric. We were going to have a lesson with him at a members, then the member had a medical emergency so he had to cancel. Brother Lewis saved the day and let us have it at his home. We invited him to extend the commitment and he said today in church that it rekindled his missionary fire and is excited for more. We invited Eric to be baptized, he was very hesitant and after some discussion accepted a date in May.

Our next appointment was with Kareen, we haven't been able to meet with her in a long time, but she was able to meet this week! We invited Sister Clawson and she killed it in the lesson. Their inner moms came out and they bonded very well, she invited Kareen's daughter to go to mutual and even offered to take her to and from. It was a stellar lesson. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she helped apply it to Kareen.

We have been meeting with a less active who has cancer and wants our help to stop smoking. We aren't really sure how to help him exactly, but we are asking the lord and are doing it by faith! We met with his twice this week, he doesn't have much desire at this moment to come to church, but he has potential to in the future. He is very sincere about this desire so we are doing what we can to help him!

Those are the highlights of the week as far as lessons go...

But I don't know how much you remember about Igor, he lived in Derwood up until about February when he moved down to White Oak Ward. We taught him a bunch before he moved, but anyway, he got baptized on Sunday! We were able to go down and participate in that with him which was an amazing experience. He considers all of us his "American Brothers" and has a great attitude about this covenant he made.

We had someone come to church today that we never had met, he was there with a couple of his friends who are members but live up in Frederick. They put in his address to Mormon.org and our building was his area so they went with him! He is pretty excited to meet with us and we are excited to see what this excitement is from. 

I think that's completes everything I have to say, we did go to the farm and I got to interview someone for baptism which was a really neat experience. I hope everyone has had a great week!

Love,

Elder Bentley

General Conference

Elder Smith and Bridger

 

Dear Family!

This week has been a very strange week for us! The weather has been fluctuating a ton so one day it's warm and the next it's 30 degrees. We have had some rain as week which was nice.

Monday we got to go down into the city for P-day. A member was able to get us tickets to go up into the Washington Monument and we didn't have to wait in the ticket lines. We also went down there because all the Cherry Blossoms were Blooming and it was so beautiful! Crazy thing happened, we were at the Jefferson monument and we ran into some DC south missionaries, I saw Elder Zach Smith which was crazy! He went to to same elementary and high school as me so it was great to see him!

Tuesday we had the opportunity to go to help the young women's with a mutual activity, they wanted us to teach them how to conduct a companion study and then to have them teach us. Since we did that we didn't get to go to the farm, but it was still a great thing to be able to do. 

Wednesday we had tons of time to go and contact/get ahold of potentials. We didn't have much luck, so we went to visit members. We visited Harold and had a strange visit with him, and headed up to Betsy's home for dinner. The Priests wanted to go out on exchanges with us so we were able to go with them and visit members of the ward.

Thursday and most of Friday were spent helping members move, it took up tons of time, but we were able to help them. We had tons of service in this week which was great, but we weren't able to have lessons because of that. Thursday night however, we had a lesson with Eric. We had it at a member's home and it was such a great lesson. You could tell at the beginning he was very nervous, but it ended up going very well. He is progressing and we invited him to pray about the Book of Mormon.

Saturday was Conference! We watched the first session in our apartment on our iPads (Eyring killed the beginning! He set it up for success) after which I went with Elder Fitzgerald to a Less active member's home to help her with some stuff and she made us dinner. Because of that we missed the last two sessions of the day. Since we have iPads I was able to catch back up Sunday morning before we went and spent the day at the Snyder's home. They invited us to come over for the Sunday sessions and we had a blast! It was just like being back at home for conference.

This week has felt like it has been pretty slow, but I cannot believe conference is over. I love what President Monson said about choosing the right. "May we choose the harder right, than the easier left." That is so true, especially in today's world. People become so lazy that they don't act on the impressions they get, or the don't let the Holy Ghost into their Hearts. I loved how Elder Holland told everyone they need to continually seek this "Spiritual High" after conference. 

Love,

Elder Bentley