Happy Labor Day!

Dear Family!

Well this week has been full of some pretty great miracles! The great thing is that it's both the spiritual and physical miracles.

The first one was on Wednesday, we had a pretty great district meeting where we got to do our trainings on recognizing the spirit. It was great and a coincidence because earlier that week I was talking with an Elder in the district who has been struggle recognizing the spirit. He says he just doesn't feel it, but I think he just doesn't recognize it. 

Following that we had an appointment with our new investigator Andrew. He was a former who never heard back from the missionaries and got ahold of us via his boss at work. We had a great lesson with him and he told us he wants to get baptized. Since we didn't have his teaching record on the iPads we had a mini baptismal in review with him just to see where he was at and what was needed for baptism. We taught him some of the last things needed and we have just a few things to work through with him.

Thursday we had a lesson with Theo, he is quite the crazy guy. We listened to him for a good hour going on about everything. We tried to start with "How has keeping the Word of Wisdom been this last week?"  To follow up with him and to get a good lesson in with him. After that I'm pretty sure the next thing we were able to say was "We need to get going." It's either a hit or miss with those appointments. Sometimes we can have a great lesson and others not so much. He was talking about how when he meets with us he feel this burden pressure lifted off and everything is easier to talk to us about.

That night we got to have a great discussion with Sister Bolan about Agency. She fed us while we talked about it and invited her home teacher Brother Cruz as a third male. She really opened up in the discussion and we got onto further principles of the gospel that we will be discussing later with her. Brother Cruz we can always count on to come in with a great testimony and bring the spirit and take the lesson where we want it to go.

Saturday night we got to go see Cornbread and talk about the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. Sister Harmon kept referring to the Son of God movie because that was something that he could relate back to. When we were leaving they started to watch it again while they could. There is a boy named Jordan who is a nephew or something that's always there, he loves us and that's a connection we want to keep with him. He came to church on Sunday which was great as well! He told people he was there because he promised Elder Bentley he would go.

We had four of our investigators come to church which was a real blessing. Since it was fast and testimony meeting in the branch, that kept things very interesting. Our investigator Pat went up and bore his testimony about the atonement and then got on a rant and off subject so Brother Cruz kindly told him to close. After the meeting we were talking with him and he wants to get baptized as well so wahoo! It was sad to not see Andrew there, but we will get him there!

We got our transfer call outs last night and they were kind of what we were expecting. Elder Mellen and I are staying another transfer together which I am excited for. We have gotten along great and are working really hard in the branch. The other two Brooklyn elders are leaving though which was a surprise. They are the only change in the district this transfer. It's even possible that Elder Bailey could be coming up here to train someone.

Love,

Elder Bentley

Last Week of August!

Chuck=E-Cheese

Sidewalk Chalk

 

Dear Family!

This week we had a fun finding activity that we did on Saturday, we took some side walk chalk and we decorated the sidewalk outside of the church building with the plan of salvation. We had it as an open Brooklyn Park thing so the other Elders joined us and the Spanish a Elders came along as well to do it. We didn't really think anything came out of it until Sunday one of the Stake Presidency counsellors pulled us aside and said a guy walked into the church having questions about his purpose so our Stake President jumped in and talked with him and got his information! So success!

Tuesday we had our zone conference, it was awesome seeing the whole zone, but it was even better getting trained further into the Restoration. I saw it really help the new missionaries, to help them see more ways to teach the lessons. We got to listen to other missionaries and got to watch them teach as well. It was a really great zone conference.

Tuesday night/ Wednesday I got to go on an exchange with the Zone Leaders. We switched after zone conference and I got to go down into Annapolis for the next day. We got to go down onto the Naval Academy and teach on of their investigators. We had a great discussion about the first Half of the Plan of Salvation. We talked a lot about Agency and how it is important to the entire plan. It was also pretty cool because we got to walk onto the Yard so that was exciting!

Saturday for dinner a member from the White Plains ward came up here to celebrate her kid's birthday with her grandparents. They took us to Chuck E Cheese so we had a nice pizza dinner with some entertainment and some arcade games with her son. We won a couple of the Jackpots so we totaled 1000 tickets very quickly.

We had a couple of great appointments this week, our first one was with Theo. He has been working with the missionaries a lot and we taught him the Word of Wisdom. He has some strange ideas about a lot of things, but he seemed to take the message pretty well and committed to live it. It was also really cool because he showed up to church. He had slept in but still knew the importance of church so even though he was late he still came.

We also taught Cornbread again. He hasn't progressed any since we saw him on Sunday last week, but he was straight forward about it so that was nice. We taught him the first half of the Plan of Salvation as well. We got there at night so when we were finally able to teach him it was late (8:15ish) and the house was silent. We had a good lesson, the only struggle is Sister Harmon will chime in talking about some warped doctrine so we have to pull the reins back and make sure he understands the truth.

Love,

Elder Bentley

August 22

Perez Family
 

 

 

Dear Family!

This week has been a really great one! I have had the opportunity to go on exchanges with more of the Elders in my district and it's been a great time with them. The weather has been warm, more bearable these last few days so that's been great.

Wednesday while we were out tracting after our studies but before lunch, we were knocking doors that were about half a mile away from where we live. The sun was beating down on us and he homes so it was getting pretty uncomfortable to be out in the sun. We crossed the street into the houses that were providing shade on the porches. We knocked a few doors, but there was no one home. We got to this door that was open and the screen was closed, we knocked and this kid just looked at us, so we knocked again. 

Finally he went and got his father to come visit with us. He came out and closed the screen so we knew we were going to be talking with him for a few minutes. He told us he was Atheist and was ready to hear our pitch out of kindness. He listened and it got to the point he was asking questions about everything we would say. You could tell he was asking the questions out of respect not out of hate. We talked and it got to the point he needed to get back to work. He said if we were in the neighborhood we could stop by. I looked at him and set a return appointment so I am excited to go and teach him again.

Thursday I got to go with Elder Carling in the Pasadena ward. We were sitting in subway during lunch after we had just gotten our sandwiches. One of the workers looked at us and asked if we were Mormons. We simply replied, "Yes we are, have you met other Mormons?" Even though she didn't answer our question, she started talking and we were able to teach her about the restored gospel. It was really cool because you never know when or where we will meet people who need the gospel.

Friday I got to go with Elder Tasauga who is from Samoa! He learned English while he was here so I enjoyed the entire day listening to him say churchy words! He is a hard worker and is pretty funny. We went to an appointment with one of their investigators, it was a good little read from the Book of Mormon. When we walked out from the appointment I looked at my arm and there was a bed bug.... But I squashed it and haven't seen anything since. We then went and taught a little girl who wants to get baptized and they had me take the lead because I know how to work with kids. That was awesome to do that.

Saturday we had the opportunity to see Aiden get baptized. It was great to see the whole Perez family and to get to participate by confirming him. It was great to hear everyone from Derwood welcoming me back. From the sounds of it they miss me because I would talk with them all! They said Bailey and Edwards were just a little too quiet. We weren't there for long because we had some appointments we had to get to.

Saturday night was my favorite appointment. It would be a perfect photo for like a missionary magazine. We were teaching Sister Harmon's boyfriend Cornbread. As the lesson progressed, more and more people would come into the circle of learning. It was a picture perfect moment. The spirit was strong and they took the message really well. The only hard part is Sister Harmon has some strange doctrine in her head so we had to work around that when she would bring it up.

Sunday we had the opportunity to go to Why I Believe to play the piano. I got to play the opening hymns and closing hymns and that fun stuff. Brother Cruz drove us all the way down and is a real champ because of it. It was really cool because Sister Crites drove down with a few other sisters to support me. It was cool seeing a few people from the branch down there. 

You could say it's been a good week, but it all comes as we put our minds and hearts to the Lord.

Love,

Elder Bentley