Elder Clark Tour

Dear Family!

This week has been a really eventful exciting week for the entire mission you could say! It all started off while I was on an exchange with the Zone leaders. We were down in Annapolis, Elder McBride and I, and we started to do our finding for the day. It had been a very wet and rainy day so it was very discouraging getting rejected in the pouring rain! Right before we were going to call tracking quits before dinner, we knocked on Matt's door.

When he answered he was very puzzled on why we were there. As we told him we had a message that would change his life, he was starting to let the spirit into his heart. He then Let us into his home a few minutes later. We taught him the first discussion and it was cool to hear how the lord was preparing him for us to be there. He has anxiety attacks but hasn't had one for months when the day before we were there, they started up again. His fiancé will be excited to hear he let God back into his life.

Thursday was the day we had the mission Tour with Elder Kim B. Clark. He wanted to have a little meet and greet at the beginning so the meeting started at 8. We had various sessions talking about Repentance, obedience and the Book of Mormon. It was great to be able to hear words from a member of the 70. The great thing afterwards was when the Assistants announced who would be interviewing with him between the 3 zones. They picked 9 people and I was one of them! It was really great to be able to chat with him one on one and it's an experience I'll never forget!

That night we were super pumped to go out tracting. We decided since we were a little short on time we would just go to the street behind our house. We were only out for 90 minutes but had some quality conversations with some great people! We gave away all the copies of the Book of Mormon we had on us so it was very successful. This coming week we will be going back to follow up with them all and see how they liked the first chapter of Nephi.

The last few days of the week were focused on trying to follow up with the people we have already met in the past. It's hard when everyone works all day and get home at night just wanting to go to bed and repeat their day. But Friday we had a couple of appointments lined up. We got to meet with Andrew the Atheist and talk more about God. He opened up more to us and we were unsure how to help him because it's nothing we have either dealt with. But he will be a strong member of the church, we just need to help him realize he has a loving Heavenly Father.

A scripture that stood out in my studies this last week, in Alma 60:23 it reads, "Now I would that ye should remember that God has said that the inward vessel shall be cleansed first, and then shall the outer vessel be cleansed also." Sometimes as we are trying to help others, we first need to cleanse ourselves. We cannot help others until we are in a good position to do so. But as we spiritually prepare ourselves, God will give us opportunities to use that strength we have received.

Much love,

Elder Bentley