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