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