Baptism!

Landry's Baptism

Landry's Baptism

Lnndry's Baptism

All the Elders who taught Landry

Dear Family!

Monday was a great day, well we had p-day which was amazing, but the real miracle was that night. We were eating at Sister Wills' home and she let us invite Diana. She showed up and we shared a great meal, the conversation was great, Sister Wills and Diana were bonding pretty well and she has been in contact since then. She told us some things that she is going through and was asking for some advice, we led her to some conference talks where of she is faithful with it, she will get her answer.

I got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders in my area. Elder Cruz came out with me. Since he speaks Spanish and Portuguese as well, we were able to utilize those as we worked. We parked in front of a former investigator and went and checked on a few people by foot, as we were walking we talked with some people, gave out some copies of the Book of Mormon. As we were walking back to the car, we passed some Hispanic ladies who were talking amongst themselves. We said Hola and kept walking to the car. At this point we were in the parking lot and I looked at Cruz and said, "let's go back and talk to those ladies" we got back to where they were and started talking with them. Both were kinda conceded but by the time Elder Cruz testified of the BOM they both accepted copies of it and gave them our numbers.

Thursday night we had Landry's baptism interview late at night. We got permission from president to do it at 9:30 so we were out late. But it was worth it because Landry passed the interview and was good for baptism!

Friday we spent the day preparing for the baptism. He showed up and immediately changed into his baptismal suit, took photos, and was ready to go. He was very enthusiastic about the whole program and we have the whole program on video from Brother Torres. Landry asked me to baptize him, after the ordinance was done we were talking in the changing room and he said he felt a warm hug from our Heavenly Father which was amazing!!!

The following day we got to stop by a less active who I've been trying to get ahold of for months. He wasn't home when we got there, but his wife was. We were talking with her and as we were doing that, I got an impression to asked to see something in their garage. She as more than happy to let us see her husband's car. As we were looking at it he pulled up and talked with us for a bit. He invited us back and we will be going there in a week. Brother Perry at the end of our conversation was pretty excited for our appointment so we are excited with that.

Sunday Landry got confirmed a member, he was just so happy about the whole thing and was super excited. His wife Vita invited us to their sealing in a year, I will still be here for it! The ward mission leader gave a lesson about family mission plans, getting together as a family and setting goals to help others come unto Christ. At the end of the day we got to go to a BYU football fireside. The Navy coach in Meet the Mormons was there and gave a great message. It was a pretty great event.

Thought for the week,

Inviting people to do things can be very intimidating. We all are afraid of rejection, especially when we are inviting our close friends and family to learn about the gospel. But if you think about Christ, while he was on earth he invited people everyday to do things. If you think about how many followers he had compared to the world at that time, less than 1% of people followed him. Think about the church today, with 7 billon people, our church has 15 million members. That's less than 1%. So since people didn't follow Christ, does that make his a bad teacher or a failure? No! So when we invite people to things and they say no, does that make us failures? No! We are beyond successful at the work in these latter days when we realize that having the courage to act on the promptings of the spirit to invite people makes us successful. So why is there fear of rejection? Us inviting them in itself is a success.

Love

Elder Bentley

May 23, 2016

Elder Bailey,  Coombs, Elder Bentley

Dear Family!

Well this week has been full of bitter sweets, and has been quite the happening week. 

Monday night we had our lesson with Landry and we finished teaching him the commandments. Jacob Ralston came with us to the lesson which was great practice for him! He is getting baptized this coming week and asked me to do it so that's very exciting. Elder Woodis will be coming up for it so he can give his talk on baptism that Landry wants him to give! 

Tuesday we got to go to our district meeting where we had the zone leaders, assistants, and the traveling training leaders at the meeting. I guess it was some big thing that they wanted to see how my district meetings were going. One of the sisters in the Spanish ward is a STL so there was that as well. Elder Coombs(a traveling trainer) came on exchanges with us afterwards and came to the farm. We did our awesome service and he chose the best day to come. There was a huge rainbow outside that night so that was cool.

Thursday we went Tracting and found this man named William, he invited us back but had to leave. He is wanting to still meet this coming week though! We had our lesson with David Bosnic but the funny thing is where his roommate who is obese fell asleep on the couch without a shirt on and was snoring hard core! That night we visited Anna and talked with her about the thirteen articles of faith. The lesson went very well and the spirit was very strong! We invited her to the baptism and it she said she would love to go! Diana came down a little later and we could tell there was tension between the two.

Friday President Cooke interviewed us for one of the last times. He told us what was to come in the near future and let's just say there will be some exciting things happening! We got a call from Diana later on and she said she was moving out immediately so we spent the whole day helping her pack and move her stuff to the Storage unit. It was an adventurous day and she gave us a ton of random little things. I hope she can find somewhere to live here soon that is still close to us so we can teach her. By the time we finished she was going insane because of the shock of everything. She gave us money to buy a lock and just left because her brain was shot.

Sunday was just full of good ole' meetings. One after another! But it ended up to be a really great day. President Cooke called because someone told him that there was a returned missionary living at our apartment. There are some pest control guys who are RM's who live in our complex, but not with us. We had a great hype meeting with the stake presidency to get member work moving along. Something we are having our families do is start a family missionary plan. I encourage everyone to do this because it will help everywhere. As we pray for missionary experiences and set goals, the lord will put people in our way so we can help them into the gospel. Wether it be praying for service opportunities or just little missionary experiences. 

I know that as we do what 1 Timothy 4:12 says, "12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an bexample of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." We will be able to help others come unto the gospel through our example. We face it everyday as missionaries, there is always someone who is watching us and we wear the name of our church with us. But more importantly, we each have covenanted with our Heavenly Father that we will take upon ourselves the name of Christ. As we act as he would act  and say what he would say, we can be an example to others and help them come unto Christ. 

Love,

Elder Bentley

Singing Festival

Dear Family!

So this week has been a pretty successful one. I have been working
with Elder Bailey so that he can get his basic missionary skills down.
It's been a blast teaching him how to contact, how to teach, and all
that stuff! It was a pretty busy week with meetings and such, but it
went well.

Monday night we had a lesson with Landry, as usual the lesson went
very well and we taught him the Word of Wisdom, it's funny because he
doesn't really like coffee or tea or any of that. When we were
teaching it to him his friend said "Landry drinks 5% coffee and 95%
cream and sugar." Well needless to say it was a great lesson with him.

Tuesday we had to go to specialized training because Elder Bailey is
still so new. It was basically 8'hours of things that could have been
done in a short and simple email. But it was great because we got
lunch so I'm not complaining. We got to go down to the farm, it was a
Elder Bailey's first time going to it! He said that he really enjoyed
being able to go down to the farm so that is always great! When people
wanted to schedule appointments with us on Tuesdays he would get
disappointed because that is our farm day.

Wednesday we got to go and visit wit Diana, we were able to cover the
thirteen articles of faith and the first 3rd of the Restoration. She
said we could come back again this next week so we are looking forward
to seeing her this week. We hope that we can also meet with her
roommate Anna as well this coming week. Betsy fed us dinner and they
got to know Elder Bailey, it's really easy to get the members talking
because they love basketball and whatnot.

Thursday night we got to go to the Temple Visitor Center and see a
film with what was supposed to be the Elders Quorum. Well in all
reality the only people who showed up were us and our investigator
Landry with brother Saint-Jean. But it was still a great activity, we
were able to watch the Restoration film so it helped him gain a
stronger testimony about Joseph Smith and the restoration.

Saturday we had the opportunity to perform in a member's voice
recital. Every Friday for the last few has been giving us voice
lessons so we can go to the recital at our church with a bunch of non
members. It was a pretty great experience, at the end we got to sing
"If the Savior stood beside me" it was pretty good we were told. It
was a great opportunity for non members to just see us and to get to
mingle with us afterwards. The hope was to just get them to recognize
us so if missionaries every knock on their door, they can make that
connection.

Sunday was a great day, but the best part was Landry came to church
again! We got to go to Why I Believe as well, Sandra Turley was the
guest speaker. She played as Cosette on Broadway in Les Mis. She sang
a few songs and bore testimony. It was a pretty great and successful
day!

I hope everyone had a great week and that everyone has a great next week!

Elder Bentley

Look Who I Saw!

Thurl Bailey and Bridger!

Happy Mother's Day

Dear Family!

Well this line is for Brian, I am still alive, doing good, and the
investigators are doing well as well.

Well this Monday we were able to have a lesson with Landry who is
still on date for this 28th. We got to teach him the law of Chastity
one on one with us. We decided we should do a lesson without his
girlfriend there so we could see if he has that sincere desire. The
lesson went very well and we were able to commit him to it! We invited
him to come to the ward activity.

Tuesday we got to go out to say goodbye to the members that Elder
Woodis wanted to. We got to see a few of the members he loved and we
wrapped the night off by going out to dinner with Betsy's family to
costal flats. It was a sea food restaurant where Gio told us to get a
steak so that was very good! Now that I look back I don't think anyone
got seafood besides Gio who got 1 crab cake. It was a great night and
we had a blast! We headed home afterwards so Woodis could pack his
bags and got ready for the next transfer.

Wednesday was transfers! My new companion is Elder Bailey, he is 6'
8'' and from Highland Utah. He is the son of Thurl Bailey and is a way
sweet kid! We got to go do an endowment session after the transfer
meeting and then headed home so he could get situated. We got to have
dinner with hot the Saint-Jean family and had a nice little Star Wars
theme thing going. We had a blast and got to talk with them about
their thoughts of the ward since they just moved in.

Friday we got to have an appointment with Diana and Anna. Diana moved
here from Virginia recently and was taught there a year ago. She has
been having us over so we can help her learn more about the church.
The lady she is renting from has been very receptive to what we have
to say as well. They invited us over for dinner and we spent the night
talking about basically everything! It was such a great experience and
we got to set so,e return appointments with both of them,

Saturday we had a ward party, it was a chili cook off Hoedown. The
attendance was pretty good, but the exciting part was when Landry
showed up for it! He told his girlfriend that he was going to it with
or without her. He is so dedicated to the church and is wanting to be
baptized very badly. Also another highlight of the night was when or
investigator Kareen walked in about half way through! Sister Clawson
has been inviting Kareen's daughter to come to mutual and she is
loving it. Kareen came and we were able to talk to her about our next
appointment and apologize for missing our other one due to the lock
in.

So all in all its been a very great week! I hope everyone has had a great week!

Love,
Elder Bridger Bentley

May the 4th Be WIth You!

I got this picture and short email from a member in Bridger's mission! Looks like he had more fun on May 4th than I did!

We are enjoying a star wars themed meal with your sons right now!
Chewbacca pulled pork
Yoda salad
Storm trooper mashed potatoes

Transfer Time

Temple Trip with Elder Woodis

 

Elder Fitz, McBride and I went on a Billy's goat trail down on the Potomac last p-day

Sister Wills told us we couldn't leave church until she took our photo.

 

Dear Family!

 

This has been a really great week for both Elder Woodis and I! A couple of exciting things have happened. We had transfer call-outs this Saturday and we found out that I am staying here for at least another Transfer and Elder Woodis is leaving. We found out Wednesday that I am training a new kid right off the plane. The weather has been pretty gloomy, it's rained most days of the week and so there hasn't been much sunlight.

We had another Great lesson with Landry on Monday, we invited a Brother Padilla (Elders Quorum President) and Alex Alverez to come along since it was at the church. We taught him the first principles and ordinances of the gospel which he took very well. We are going to push his date used of the scheduling conflict with a reception that same day. We had a great learning expirence afterwards with Brother Padilla and you could say we are getting better!

Tuesday we got to go to the farm which was great as always! We had some of the riders cancel on us so I got to walk around with Peter (he is a mini horse). They are trying to break him in so I walked around the farm just pulling him along, it was quite fun. 

Thursday I got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders so I went with a Elder Mayta for the day in the Spanish program! Let me tell you one thing, I don't know Spanish at all, but it was a great day. We had two lunches and a dinner within 3 hours and the Hispanics love to feed so we were almost to the point of popping all day long. It was a great day and nice to spend it with good ole' Elder Mayta. Woodis and Cruz helped a new investigator move from Virginia, her name is Diana and she gave us a ton of random furniture that she couldn't fit into her car. 

It's important that I mention her because she loves the missionaries and loves to give them ties and whatnot. We went to visit her on Friday in the case that Woodis got transferred. (At this point of time we were thinking since I was training I would leave and Woodis would stay) We got to her town home and talked with her and her roommate. Long story short, her roommate now wants us to come back to feed us and we will watch Meet the Mormons with them.

Saturday was an adventure! We got to go give a blessing to an elderly woman in our ward before I had to go to the Trainer meeting. We met up with all the other Elders who were training and Woodis went with one of their companions to check on less actives. The meeting was good, we just talked about how important it is to help our trainees and to work with them. When we switched back we went to dinner with Sister Wills at Far East restaurant. It was great Chinese food and a thank you for helping one of her friends move. We got the transfer callout and was shocked when we found out I was staying.

Sunday was a great day, we got to go to church and Woodis started to say goodbye to the members. We visited a few of them after church so he could say bye and all. It was a great week with lots of twists and turns.

Love,

Elder Bentley