Happy Easter

Before the Baptism

After the Baptism

Dear Family!

This has been such an amazing week, full of miracles and tender mercies! Now let me tell you about it.

It all happened Monday night when we went to the church to meet with the Beezers. They didn't have their kids which was a blessing because we were able to then have a nice discussion and quick chapel tour before they came for their baptism. We taught the Laws and Ordinances and you know they are solid when they agree with everything and say this, "We know learning will come in time, some question may never be answered." Following the lesson with them, Elder Rowley our District leader drove up to do their interviews. He walked out after them and said, "They've been ready for a long time." 

We spent a lot of the time this week trying to get in our 20 contacts a day. There was an area in which most of the tracting took place, however no matter where or when we went finding, there was always someone willing to listen. This really boosted our morale throughout the week. A blessing is we have the Metro station next to our home. When we have an extra 20 Minutes before the day is over we can go to street contact.

We contacted this lady who was sitting at the bus stop Friday Night. We walked up after a nice long conversation with a few others. She instantly took out an earphone and started listening. As we got into the lesson she took the other out and was way happy to hear the message that we share. I love it when you give someone a copy of the Book of Mormon and they say, "How much is it?" We just get to tell them the great news that it is free! After you say that they smile and are excited! 

Friday afternoon we had our interviews with President and Sister Johnson. It was hands down the best interview that I've had with them on my mission! Elder Chamberlain and I are working hard and trying to do our best. Sister Johnson opened up my interview saying, "Can you believe you go home in August?" Whoa there! Let's try not to think about that. Trunks talk makes the work harder than it needs to be. We had a great interview though and it was definitely at the top. President Johnson was very thankful for the work that I've put into the area and how great the ward is doing because of it. We invited them to the baptism which was the following day.

Saturday the day of the baptism. Everything seemed to be going pretty well for this service. Then things just started happening all throughout the hour before it started. It kept us on our toes but we got everything done. It's a story you'll have to had about in person because there are so many little things within the day. But the important thing is they were baptized! The ward is sad that we have this amazing family joining the ward because they will be leaving soon. Well happy they joined, sad they are leaving. 

Sunday they were confirmed as members of the church. There really isn't any better day for the confirmation than on Easter Sunday. That and the chapel was packed because it was Easter Sunday. Brother Beezer had already been interview by the bishop so the sustaining of him receiving the Aaronic Priesthood took place right after. Then right after sacrament meeting he was given the priesthood. Talk about a lot in one day for a convert! 

The rest of Sunday we were visiting with people. The ward took care of us making sure we had places to go for Easter. Not only did we have 2 meals that day, but 4 other members we making sure we were set. It's nice to know they have our backs. We did pick a new investigator up also so,that was pretty amazing. Just a referral from SLC headquarters.

I truly hope everyone has had a good Easter! To think that this last weekend were the days when Christ Atoned, Bled and Died for us. It makes me grateful to be out here during this holiday to share the message of the restoration.

Love,

Elder Bentley

Side note: After the Baptism we got to watch after a sick ASL Elder while his companion went out with the Ward Mission Leader to one of their appointments. It amazes me how well he can read lips! Elder Smuin is his name.

Transfer Week

Waiting at our station for the Cherry Blossom Festival

Missionaries at the Cherry Blossom Festival

Saturday Night at the temple with the Beezers and the Vogels!

Dear Family!

Well this week has had quite the number of changes and blessings. I don't even know where to start and sorry if it's a bit long.

Monday night right as our Preparation Day was ending we got the call about transfers. The transfer results are "Elder Mullen is going to Broadneck and Elder Bentley is receiving Elder Chamberlain." Well at first Elder Mullen was pretty mad, but I talked with him and he looked with home to the new transfer.

Tuesday we got news that we would be moving into our new apartment the day of transfers. Elder Miles (the guy over finding new apartments) called and asked a bunch of information about myself. Come to find out the lease is done in the name if the missionaries currently living there at the time. So I got to meet them in the office of the complex and sign a bunch of papers that were prepared for me. You could say that was a cool event in life.

Wednesday is when we had our Transfers. Elder and Sister Vogel picked us up so we could go all the way to the Temple. Thanks to them for all they do and all that they save for us. Here I picked up my new companion Elder Chamberlain. He is a super hard worker, obedient, humble, and all around a great missionary and guy. We got home from transfers and met Elder Miles again to get the keys to our new place. We stayed in the same complex, just moved to the complete opposite corner of the building. In a rush and hurry we started moving what we could to the new place. The zone leaders helped out which was a great blessing.

Thursday we planned to go out after we cleaned out the apartment. Little did we know how much stuff was accumulated there from all the missionaries who have lived there. You could say we spent a solid 11 hours cleaning, clearing, and moving things out that day. We were exhausted by the time we got home from the mission office. The Zone leaders took us home, (which was their new home for a few nights because they didn't have the needed things to get into the other apartment prepared for them. We drove through D.C. To save Miles and it was Elder Chamberlain's first time going through and seeing any of the monuments as a missionary. He was so excited to see them.

Friday when we thought we were finally out of the clear, we got to plan for the upcoming week. Since it was introducing a lot of new names and stories to our investigators it took a hefty amount of time. When we were ultimately finished, we go out to our car which we find out was dead. Elder Vogel saved the day! Two days in a row he has helped us with dead batteries. ( The moving truck had a dead battery) We got out and taught a great lesson to a Bible referral which brightened our spirits. 

Saturday we had the opportunity to help out at the Cherry Blossom Festival. This year instead of holding a balloon, I ushered. That was great because we got great shirts and got to talk with people. The parade was pretty great and we took lots of pictures. After the Parade we made our way home to change into suits. Elder Vogel and Sister Vogel picked us up again and took us to the Visitor Center at the temple. Ihsan and Tatiana met us there because they have never seen it. They loved it and are still on tract to get baptized this Saturday!! It was a great way to end the day. The spirit was strong, we have most of the lessons taught, and Elder and Sister Vogel took us to Olive Garden for dinner.

Sunday is where we saw a lot of blessings and work pay off. On top of Melissa, Ihsan and Tatiana coming to church, we were able to help teach a class to come ward missionaries. After we got out of church we got out working. I love it because Elder Chamberlain loves to work so it is easy to get out to proselyte. We taught a few lessons and called it a night.

Our new address for the apartment is: 

4701 Old Soper Rd Apt. 457 Suitland, MD 20746

Feel free to now send all those letters you've been withholding. ;)

This week we truly have seen how the Lord prepares those for his gospel. Please always extend your hand of fellowship to those who are new, members and Investigators alike. It truly touches their lives and helps them gain a testimony.

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Happy Conference!

Me with the Smith family. Melissa is right in front of me.

Dear Family!

This General Conference week has been a great one! It's weird to think that March is now in the past. The end of the month flew by and I have a feeling that April will go by quickly. 

A couple of interesting things happened this week. Monday night was the beginning of it all. After eating with the Merrill Family we went to contact a media referral that we had received. We knocked on Larry's door and he came our. We gave him the Bible he had requested and we started talking to him. The Book of Mormon was introduced and his wife walks out. I guess they are Hebrew Israelites. (What that is I don't know) She starts going off how she never would listen to us because the things she has read online about us, obviously Anti material. Then I asked her what one of those things were and proved it and her wrong using the Book of Mormon itself. She said that we believed something weird on Adam and Eve, then we read 2 Nephi 2: 22-25 and she said, "Well that's not what I read online." I then politely told her, "Not everything you read on the internet is true." She walked back into their apartment and Larry now Chuckling told us to come back in two weeks.

Tuesday night we got to visit with The Beezers again! Sister Goodwin let us into her home on short notice and we taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Well more of discussed it because they have done their studying and it was a powerful lesson. We invited them to watch General Conference that weekend and they so gladly accepted. Side note (When Saturday rolled around we got to watch the first Session with them at a member's home. Not only had they read what we had asked them, Brother Beezer has been reading Conference talks all week! He loves the gospel library app.)

 Friday night we got to have a lesson with Melissa! She's the nine year old. We had a lesson scheduled Thursday but her dad totally forgot about it. When we called to see if he was on his way to pick us up (he lives on Andrews Joint Base) it was silent and he was very apologetic. He reinvited us over for dinner and a lesson this time. It is just a hoot visiting with him and his wife. We knocked out the commandments and tried to make the lesson interactive. We set the date for her baptism on April 22nd. Wahoo! Then we took pictures because one of us might leave with transfers coming up here this week.

Speaking of which, don't send any letters or mail until we get a new address. Our lease is up and we are moving out Wednesday. We will get ya'll the address when we find out where we will be moving to. 

Thursday night when the appointment fell through we felt prompted to go visit Carlos and Melissa.We set up a ride so we could get Carlos to Priesthood session with his 17 year old son. Then before we left we watched part of the women's session with Melissa. (Different Melissa, I know it's way confusing) We always seem to show up when it's most needed for them. You think the Spirit was apart of it or something!

General Conference weekend was great! We loved listening to the Prophet and Apostles speak! We we at different places for each session so that made it go by even quicker. Saturday was at the Nelson home with the Beezers, then at the Vogels and Priesthood session at the church. Sunday morning we found ourselves at the Church again then at the Donovan's home. It was a great session and I loved the talks given by Elder Holland "Fortunately, the seats for this particular number are limitless. … “Come as you are,” a loving Father says to each of us, but He adds, “Don’t plan to stay as you are.”

Also the talk given by Elder Costa, "Let me invite you, with all the energy of my heart, and from the depths of my soul: go and be baptized! It is the best thing you will ever do. It will change not only your life but also the lives of your children and grandchildren."

Hope you all had great weeks!

Love,

Elder Bentley

March 27th

By the statue of Brigham Young at the Capital

Dinner with Sister Roblino

All the bread we have received

Dear Family!

This truly has been another great week in the service of the Lord! As Elder Vogel would put it, "Wahoo!! Life Is Good!!" This week we have had a lot of learning opportunities and teaching ones as well. But you'll hear about those throughout the week. 

Monday Night after our preparation day, we met up with Maxine finally. We had taught her the first discussion about a month ago and invited her to be baptized. She said of course so this was our time to follow up with her. She has been a busy person this last month but found time to do some reading. Our discussion went great with her. We invited her to prepare for baptism April 29th so we hope and pray she follows that Date!

Tuesday we had our Zone Conference. It was a training of obedience and of love. I loved the way things were presented and it threw some more fuel of the fire to be the best missionaries. Elder Mullen and I talked about things holding us back and have resolved to fix them. And that's when the blessings will start to pour in. This was a much needed training for this zone and it will show its fruits! But it was cool to hear that our mission has jumped from the 26th in the area to the 2nd in baptisms. Everyone was excited to hear that.

That night we ate with Sister Roblino. She had some family in town that she wanted us to try to talk with about the gospel. No better way than with food! We had some Cuban dish and tried our best to communicate with her family friends! They speak Spanish and we don't have any nearby Spanish missionaries. It was a cool experience though because it gave Sister Roblino time to share her testimony of the restoration with her daughter and family.

We had another lesson with the Beezer family. The Nelsons had us into their home with them for dinner and a lesson. It was quite the environment to share the gospel within the member's house. It is also great to see the willingness and preparation that the Beezers have come through to meet the missionaries. We felt prompted to invite them for a specific date, but didn't know exactly what one. As we taught, the spirit made it clear to us that they can make it for April 15th. They both accepted the dates and Sister Beezer said, "We can do it that soon?" With excitement in her voice. We talked about Conference and the joy it'll bring to them as they spiritually search for truth.

Friday was exchanges with the District Monkey so Elder Mullen went with the District leader. It's weird being on this end of the exchanges now, but it is really relaxing because now all I need to worry about is serving the Lord. It was a good exchange with Elder Buchanan and we had tons of fun. Within the day Brother Brooks called us and said he had some bread for us. Picture is attached. French toast for months. 

It really has been a great week and we are looking forward to conference! 

Love,

Elder Bentley

March Madness

Sister Vogel made us soup and cookies!!

That moment when all you have to eat is spinach....

Dear Family!

This week has been quite the drop from other weeks, in the sense that we had a winter storm warning for Tuesday. But a storm out here is 1/2 inch so really nothing. Just a bit icy. The weather has slowly been climbing back up though so we have been doing well.

The week started off crummy, I guess Monday night we are something that was bad and got food poisoning. Tuesday was a very long day full of sicknesses. Wednesday was pretty similar, but talk about timing. The winter storm hit right as we got sick, that must have meant there was work to get done. 

Wednesday night we saw the love from the ward though. We had a meeting that night and Sister Vogel made us some homemade Chicken Noodle soup, she definitely took care of us. The ward that night was asking how we were doing and just gave us lots of food to eat and to get better with. But the week was off and on about how we were feeling.

But the big thing that happened this week was the new Family we found to teach. Within the week we received a Book of Mormon referral and called to try and contact them. Ihsan answered the phone and we set up an appointment for Saturday. When the time came for us to meet, he graciously invited us into his home. His wife was there as well. We sat down with both of them and started to get to know them. They have a friend in Virginia who had sent them the link for the Book and has been very supportive in helping them. Just a good example of sharing the gospel.

They are a golden family. As we were teaching they practically invited themselves to church the following day, talked about how they want their kids to grow up in the gospel, to attend seminary and the whole nine yards. The only thing that came up was Race and the Priesthood, really the only set back. But we have faith they it'll pass quickly and the whole thing will go great.

They came to church Sunday and loved the ward. The members killed it in fellowshipping them. Brother Wassum took them to classes, showed where everything was, etc. The Nelson family invited them into their home for a meal and lesson, it just went very well. They said they would come back the following weeks and it all went great. We are excited to have this family to whom we can teach the gospel.

That made it for a great week, thought that comes from that. Be an example to everyone we see. The members who Ihsan ran into were loving, kind, and open to help them. We need to strive to find opportunities to share the gospel and to be that "light." Matthew 5:16 "16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." I know as we look for opportunities to do this we will touch the hearts of others.

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Spring is in the Air!

Eating the left over desserts after the party.

Dear Family!

This week we have had a couple of great opportunities to share the gospel in our teaching appointments. Also have had the chance to use our building tools. So you could say it has been a great week! Beside the fact the weather has dropped back down to cold, and the possible winter storm warning this week.

Three lessons that were great this week:

Thursday Night we went and met with Brother Pinkard and Tierny. The Vogels usually accompany us to these lessons, but they were booked for the night. We got there and started to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Brother Pinkard is less active and works on Sunday so he isn't able to make it to church. He did sacrifice his lunch break to meet with us though so sacrifices are apparent by them. We received the great news that he will have every other Sunday off because he just trained a new guy at his work. We then taught as much as we could before he had to return to work. The miracle showed when he came into the chapel Sunday morning ready for Work. Tierny wasn't there, but it's great to have that seed springing forth and bearing fruit.

The Second lesson that is worth mentioning was the Plan of Salvation Lesson with Melissa Friday Night.We have been trying to find fun creative ways to teach her since she is young. Over the last week or so we have been inviting members to help us with that. We invited specific families to meet at the church and set up a room based on principles of the Plan. We knew it was going to be great when Brother Smith walked in with Melissa and all the members were already there set up.

We got everyone into the Relief Society room and opened with a prayer. First we went to the Pre-earth life. Sister Close the Primary President had a nice little table set up to teach Melissa. We got to sit on the sides and testify towards the end of Each section. Next the Harris Family talked about our life here on earth and the Atonement. It is great to see the interaction between the Smiths and Harris families that had occurred.

Next we moved into the Spirit World where Brother Merrill (deacon) taught Melissa about that area. Sister Merrill let him do all the teaching so that was cool to see his preparation. We then were all "resurrected" and got judged. The Activity days leader brought in all the activity day girls to come interact with it. They did a great job. Last but not least, Brother Barnes (WML) gave a nice overview of the kingdoms where he had a review and taught it very simply. 

Needless to say the ward crushed it at this lesson. It was especially great because Sister Vogel made treats for the end and everyone got to partake of the delicious cookies she made. Brother Smith was astonished to see how many people cared enough about them to show up and help out. It was a great testimony builder for Melissa and Brother Smith. (Exciting news, he got the Melchizedek Priesthood yesterday so we just need to get a date for the baptism!)

Saturday Morning we went to go drop off a bible to a referral. Little did we know the Lord has been Preparing her for this gospel. Three years ago she ran into missionaries in NW D.C. And was taught a little about the Book of Mormon. (Thank you for being diligent in your contacting) When we introduced it to her she was already familiar with it. We shared the Restoration with her, as we taught she would write down scriptures we would read, pages to study, and the date of her accepted baptism date. She also mentioned to us that she was taking a trip to Rochester to visit her family up there. We pointed her towards Palmyra when she gets there to check it out and to feel of that spirit. (She goes at the end of this month) 

So yeah you could say it was a great week. To end Saturday we had the opportunity to go to the temple to see Vivian do baptisms for the dead. What a great feeling to see converts in the temple! I know that the temple can make it so our families can be together forever. As we keep our mind focused to the Temple we will find happiness. Habakkuk 2:20 "20 But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." The Temple is the House of the Lord and we can feel of his love and spirit there.

Hope everyone has a great week! 

Love,

Elder Bentley

March is in the Air!

Found a $20 bill blowing down the street!

Bread a member gave us!

Dear Family!

This week here in Capitol has been such a great one. Monday night after our preparation day ended we got to get into the Merrill's home to eat and to teach them a lesson. I always enjoy going over there because they expect us to invite them to do something to get them to do missionary work. It is great to see the fire in member's now as well! Following that we got to Sister Booker's home. She is a less active the RSP asked us to go visit. We had a family home evening with her and her daughter with her Brother listening in. It was a discussion about the importance of the scriptures and church in our lives.

Tuesday we went over to the hospital to give a blessing to a less active member. As we were in his room visiting with him, the nurse walks in and starts asking questions. We were prepared to get roasted when all of a sudden it turned into a simple teaching situation where we got to teach her about the church and the Book of Mormon. Her name is Rosa and she works at the hospital practically all day so we will follow up in the future. That night we went and visited with the Pinkard Family. Sister Pinkard committed to reading the entire Book of Mormon in 60'days so that'll be great for her.

Thursday while we were out in Brandywine checking potentials we went to a lady's home who just got out of rehab for brain cancer. She wasn't really there mentally but we visited with her two nurses and taught them the gospel. We will be returning back on Friday to teach them more. They previously ran into missionaries in DC so that was good for the, to get back into contact with the missionaries in general. That night we had a family home evening with Sister Strachan and her two daughters. It was a way to introduce the gospel into their lives. We played jeopardy which turned out to be a huge success in bringing the spirit to their lives.

Friday night we got to go teach Melissa again. It was great because we had Sister Gray there from the primary presidency. We bypassed the second lesson for this coming week and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a simple to teach using stepping stones to get across the family room. She thought it was neat. We have been on base a lot recently so that has been great.

Saturday was a pretty exciting day. Even though we were out contacting people most of the day as we were walking along the road I looked down and there was $20. That made me pretty excited so I made Elder Mullen take a photo of it! Wahoo! That night we had a great lesson with the Crouse family in preparation for their daughter to submit her papers. It's just to help her get familiar with the lessons she'll be teaching!

I hope everyone has had a great week! I know this gospel has been restored and that it can bring happiness into our lives!

Love,

Elder Bentley 

February 27th

Photos from the National Harbor - Pepper Palace 

Dear Family!

To be honest this week has been a pretty slow week for us. With transfers, cancelled appointments and strange weather it's been a slow week. However the weeks fly by and it's almost the end of February! Also weird thought, the weather here has been in the 70's most of the week, it's been a very mild winter in Maryland. 

Few Highlights of the week though:

Thursday went by pretty quick. We had service with the Bodmers, weekly planning and a few appointments. However the highlight comes in from that night. We were pretty bummed because the people we planned to go visit cancelled, but we went into the "proper" upper Marlboro area. There we knocked onto a door that had a Ukrainien family and an African American husband. At first they were pretty standoffish at the door. Well the Ukrainian lady was direct and to the point, but we snuck the message in through family history and talking about what we do anyway. If they are willing to listen, we will try every avenue we can think of to invite the spirit into their lives. We had a duo teaching, Elder Mullen taught the husband and I taught the Wife all at the doorstep. Then they sent us off with water, apples, and granola bars.

Friday night we found ourselves knocking doors again. Wahoo! We were in the area of a bible referral that we planned on visiting. We walked up to this door and knocked it, casually like every other door. Then we noticed the posted no soliciting sign. Side note, sometimes we knock those doors sometimes we don't depending how the spirit feels at the moment. Anyway, here we are knocking this door. This nice lake Ms. White answers the door. We asked her if she knew Larry (the guy we were looking for) and then talked about the gospel. It was a pretty great contact with her. She was open to visiting and to talking about God.

Saturday we went to this old run down apartment building just off Naylor Road, but the metro stop. I guess there was a huge crisis that happened at this building a few years back but we had an appointment there with a guy named Curtis. He called headquarters asking for a free finding faith in Christ DVD so we gave it to him! Ends up he is this pretty solid guy who is down to listen to our message and to meet often to keep the spirit in his life. As we left the building it was an eerie feeling building so we exited pretty quickly. Not like an unsafe feeling, just like an apocalyptic feeling because it was worn down pretty bad.

Sunday we had some pretty great meetings. It was nice to see the Smith family come and to see Michael there as well. The day went by quickly and we ended at a member's home. He is just visiting the ward for a short time but Bishop Hoyle asked us to visit him. He is here because of a recent divorce to his wife that was also recently married to. He opened up and we had a great discussion with him. There it's where i came to a conclusion about life.

Life Lesson Learned this Week:

Practice makes perfect (or perfect practice makes perfect) however you want to say it. Through out my mission I've been pretty resentful about doing role plays and practice teaching with members. Even before I came out on my mission I always dread practicing. I wasn't always good at it and missed out on some great blessings. But these last 6 weeks we have been sitting down with members teaching them discussions from the pamphlets. My confidence in teaching that lesson has grown immensely and we've noticed drastic changes in our teaching abilities. We can better adjust the situation to the lesson and can shape it to the person we are teaching. I know it's directly related back to the practice that we have been putting into the lessons. 

Hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Bentley

Happy President's Day

A couple of "Bentley's!"

Our District

Dear Family!

This week has been a great week here in Upper Marlboro! The most exciting thing that happened would've had to been the killer Valentines night that we had. This has been the biggest miracle of the week hands down. Tuesday we got a text from a member who is dating one of our investigators saying they wanted to have us over for a little dinner that night. Even though we already had a dinner appointment for the night we set this up we need to take every shot that we have. We got there and had some subs while discussing thing that have been happening in Will's life. Sister Huss had already contacted us about keeping our lesson focused on helping him quit smoking.

We got into the lesson and moved straight into repentance. We decided to approach it through the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we daughter repentance and keeping the commandments for strength, that's when we brought it up. We talked about how his lack of obedience to the word of wisdom is holding him back from blessings from the lord. Then after strong testimonies were born, we committed him to stop smoking for 1 week, and the good news is that he has stopped! The hard part of over, now he just needs to fight over the mental aspects of the addiction. His body however is no longer addicted! We knew he was doing well especially when we saw him in church yesterday!

Wednesday we went with Elder and Sister Vogel to the Pinkard family house to teach them. We had been stressing over what to teach them in the family home evening, but when we got there two Mormon messages came into mind to show them. We had a pretty good lesson with them, but they seemed to be distracted by their youngest son, we will keep working with them. 

Thursday I was on exchange with Elder Wach. He came to see how things were going and if there really was anything he could do for us. While we were out and about we got to go to an area where we had a few cool things happen. We ran into this home that had a Bentley parked outside their home, I knocked the door and the Indian family thought it was way cool I was a Bentley! They invited us back so we will get back to that area! There was also a Ukrainian lady who's door we knocked onto. She knew hardly any English, because she was living with her daughter who was at work. Before we left though she ran inside and grabbed us some yummy Ukrainian chocolate which was way nice with her.

That night we had a great appointment with Deea. She was taking the lessons to learn how to flip her life around. There was good news and bad news though. The good news was that the spirit was strong in the lesson that night, the bad news was she texted us the next morning dropping us. We were so devastated about that. I felt a strong sorrow for her decision to drop us. Just her circumstances would improve if she really knew the fullness of the gospel.  

That didn't kill our day though, the Smith family had us over for dinner that night. We have gotten word that their oldest daughter is 8 and they are wanting her to get baptized. They are just waiting on the uncle to fly out to ordain the father and to be there for the baptism. She will turn 9 before he gets out here so we started the lessons with her. Brother smith made us a nice Texan meal. Steak and potatoes with stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon. Melissa the daughter has an English accent because her mom is from England. It was hilarious watching her enthusiasm about things in America, especially 7-Eleven.

Saturday night we got to visit the Jackson family. They are baptists and are pretty strong in their faith. The interest in the church is our ability to answer their questions that have been on their minds for months that their 17 year old son asks them. We had a great lesson with them as we taught the restoration. They invited us for dinner so we ate as we taught. They had some great cornbread! The spirit was very strong and they committed to reading and will come to church in 2 weeks! Sister Jacksons brother passed away the 15th so it was good timing for us to be there. 

Other than that it's been a quick week! We have transfers this Wednesday so we will find out if one of us leaves. I don't think I will, but there is a small possibility that Elder Mullen will be leaving.

Love,

Elder Bentley

Happy Valentine's Day

Dear Family!

This last week has been a great week with a couple of phenomenal new investigators who have been added to our teaching pool!

Monday was a pretty long day for us. We didn't have our Preparation day because of the coming temple day. We did receive a call though from a member within our boundaries that needed some help with service. He lost a leg in an automobile accident and needed help taking leaves in his yard. What we thought could be a few hour project took us a little longer than we anticipated. There were leaves rooted into the grass so the total outcome of leaves were unbelievably too many. We raked/blew them into a ravine behind his house. The pile was large enough to jump off the ravine into the leaves without a worry of being hurt.

Tuesday Night we went on splits with The Vogels and Brother Sargent. I was privileged enough to go with Brother Sargent. We had a few people in mind for us to check on that night. Our first appointment fell through but we kept on going. Eventually we ended checking on a potential who told us to come a few weeks later than we did. After explaining the prompting we received she was more than happy to chat for a few minutes. It was great to get out with Brother Sargent.

Wednesday was when one of our first miracles of the week happened. As we were weekly planning, we called a Book of Mormon referral that we haven't been able to get in contact with. She finally answered and told us to come that day. After making it to her house later in the day we sat down and had an amazing first discussion with her. We were able to explain the things she had wanted to know and answers her questions. She read a paragraph in the history book about Mormons and wanted to learn more so we went online! She accepted a baptismal invitation and we will be working with her on that! It was a great lesson with Maxine!

Thursday we got to go to the temple so that was a good refresher. It was nice to finally get our preparation day. We had been pretty worn out and being able to have most of the day was great. We got to visit a few stores up by the temple so it was simply a great day!

Friday I was on exchange with an Elder in the White Plains ward. We were down in his area so it was nice to see a little more part of the Zone. The morning consisted of us helping one of their investigators Brother Jones move somethings out of his attic. He is in the middle of moving out of his home into a new one. After we finished we went to this hole in the wall diner for lunch. They had some of the best onion rings that I've had ever. The diner had no name, just a little hole in the wall place. After which it wasn't too much of an exciting day, but it was great to help out Brother Jones.

Saturday we got out to go see some of our potential investigators. The first appointment was with Deea. She requested a copy of the Bible. We turned that into a new teaching situation where we invited her to read part of it. She committed to going to church next week and also to a baptism that our roommates are having! She wants to turn her life around so we will be her guides! The next one was with another potential. Once again another Bible referral. We found out that he has been incarcerated for 46 years and doesn't know too much about the gospel.

It made for a great week!

Love,

Elder Bentley