Happy Pioneer Day!

After our District Meeting

We saw Sheryl

Keysa's Baptism

Dear Family!

It's been a pretty busy week for us, it's nice to stay busy so I can keep my thoughts centered on the work! The week ended just the way we had hoped and are looking forward to these next two weeks.

Tuesday was completely occupied by our Zone Conference. They had it up at the D.C. stake center which was a good hour or so drive depending on traffic, let's just say it's on the complete opposite side of D.C. You thought traffic at home was bad? Oh it's a night mare out here. But we had a fantastic conference. The focus was on the Book of Mormon and the Atonement. It was very impressed with Sister Johnson's ability to communicate her message. After she invited us all to repent, we have a few more things to work on so we can receive more blessings. That night but the time we got out, it was definitely dinner time. We went to &Pizza which I'll have to show you if we ever come back out. It's a build your own personal pizza place. Quite tasty and delicious!

Wednesday evening Keysa had her baptismal interview. President Johnson played a pretty mean joke on us, but he got us. Keysa passed with flying colors, but he made us think for a few minutes she had completely failed. Oh how it's great to have President Johnson as our mission President. He truly was called to help out this area and this mission. He can lay down the law, but still had a loving, kind, and cheerful heart! During the interview we taught her kids so that they can prepare for their own baptisms the 5th of August!

Thursday I was on exchange with Elder Criddle down in White Plains. It was quite the exchange not having the key to the apartment and everything that happened. But it was nice to catch up and to talk about the old time up in Brooklyn Park. But we are both grateful to be out of that area. We went out and hit the pavement to find some new people to teach. It was so hot that day, high 90's with the heat index in the 100's thanks to the humidity.

Friday was our temple day. We got to go do a session up at the temple. It has been a blessing to have a temple in our mission because it brings blessings. We were able to meet with Keysa one last time before her baptism that evening. She had us over for some dinner and we taught her and the kids the Laws and Ordinances. Her sister was there in attendance for it and it's starting to spark some curiosity. We talked about what needed to be finished for her baptism and how we were looking forward to having it!

Saturday was a long day. We were at the church bright and early so we could fill up the baptismal font with hot water. It takes quite some time to get it there so we had to spend time turning it off and on. Keysa arrived with all her kids and we got her ready. To our surprise there was a great turn out from the ward, the relief Society room was packed full of people. Our investigator Vielka and her kids came for it! The baptism was fantastic and i had the honors of doing it. Elder Chamberlain pulled the card that I was leaving so he wanted me to do it. After the service we had a chapel tour then cleaned up everything.

Sunday Keysa was confirmed. It was also probably the record for how many investigators showed up to church my whole mission also. Vielka and her kids came, Keysa's kids came, Alamine came and Michael stanek came. Elder Chamberlain confirmed her and gave the Holy Ghost to her. We were super busy though during church trying to get 100 different things done all at the same time. But we had a great week. 

I truly have loved serving here and serving the Lord! I hope you all had a great week.

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Final Why I Believe

Love this beautiful Temple!

Dear Family!

It's always hard to remember everything that happened this previous week because it's the end of this week but I haven't told you about last week! 

Tuesday after our district meeting I got to exchange with Elder Lee. The same Elder Lee from 2 years ago in the MTC, talk about throw backs! It was great to catch back up and to be together again. We got to go visit with Anik at his work. He works all day but can talk to us as he runs the shop. We visited about his Patriarchal Blessing and the importance of getting one. Bishop already gave him the recommend but needed to clarify that for him. It's always exciting to meet with him. He plans to go out to Utah and get back into school, he is tired of living out here and the atmosphere that is around him.

Shortly after that we got to go visit with Keysa at the Harris' home. Sister Harris made a dinner and dessert which always is delicious! It is nice that the members are taking her under their wing and are so willing to fellowship her. We talked about the first half of the commandments with her and she seemed prepared to live them. I love asking the young Harris boys to share their thoughts, children bring in such a sweet spirit. She is looking forward to the 22nd for her baptism!

Wednesday morning we met with Fortunat. I always have loved meeting with him, his positive attitude can cheer up the worst of days. We talked with him about saying the closing prayer at Why I Believe this Sunday. He was pretty excited. He is coming along well and trying to get work off so he won't be tired on Sundays for church. I truly am thankful for the opportunity see his conversion. 

Shortly after we met with Vielka and her kids. We have been working with them to try and get them to read the Book of Mormon. Elder Lee and I read Ether 3 with them and illustrated the story. Vielka was very thankful for our willingness to help her kids learn how to pray. We invited her for a chapel tour later in the week but she wasn't able to make it.

Friday morning we finished going over the commandments with Keysa. Her two daughters joined in and want to get baptized August 5th! We will help them work towards that day. It was a strange lesson to invite them at because we were trying to teach the law of tithing to Keysa and the girls wanted to sit in. We had the Vogels there with us for that lesson and it was great to have them. How thankful I am to have the Vogels here in the area!

Sunday evening we had Why I Believe. It was my last one. Because of this Sister Johnson asked me to play the special musical number for it. When we had gotten there one of the recent convert testimonies cancelled so they asked Fortunat if he would like to do it. He said he would be excited to give it. He was nervous about talking in English but really did a great job! The spirit was very strong. The guest speaker was Robert Bushman and his wife. He is a sealer up in Manhattan and has some historical background or something.

Anyway it was a great week! The time surely does fly by quickly, but we are looking forward to the future days!

Love,

Elder Bentley

Summer Heat

A Great Day at the Temple! Elder Bentley and Elder Chamberlain

Fortunat at the Temple 

Us with the Agwu kids and brother Agwu 

 

Dear Family!

Well this has been a fantastic week! Everyday had something to look forward to. That just made this week fly by! Time is running out, and there are lots we still need to do.

Tuesday, the morning started off with a ward breakfast. It was the bishopric that took care of that. You could tell they had everything down to a science. It was hilarious walking into the church and seeing a bunch of older men cooking pancakes and French toast. But there was a great turn out, Keysa and her kids also came. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces so the whole motive behind it worked. Shortly following the breakfast came District meeting. It was Elder Chamberlain's first meeting that he ran. He did a pretty great job. Following the meeting we met Elder Vogel and went to go do some service for Keysa. She had some wooden fences that needed to be taken care of. In Utah we would've just thrown them onto a trailer and took it to the dump, but out here it's not that easy. We had to cut everything down and built a wood stack so they will have some firewood for their pit.

Wednesday morning we were supposed to meet with Fortunat but he was asleep. Not by accident though. The Lord needed us to knock some doors around his home to find a family right up the road. The Lady told us to come in and told her kids to come and listen to us. We had a great lesson with them and got on our way. The Lord knew they needed to be found. Later that evening we went to the Temple visitor Center with Keysa and her kids. The sister missionaries had a little tour/ lesson planned out in hopes to get the kids more interested in the gospel. As far as we can tell, the two daughters are showing willingness to get baptized so we will have a good visit this coming week with them. How thankful I am to have a temple so close and to have the utilities in the V.C. to teach.

Thursday evening we went and had a family home evening with the Centeno and Lee family. Roger and Dolly live with sister Lee and she has been pretty bold with them about the gospel. It has been nice for us to be bold with them and to tell them how it is. They seem to be coming along, just medical appointments and work get in the way. We will see what we can do to help them progress. They fed us a nice Filipino meal. They had some Lumpia, it's like a spring roll, but better. I am quite fond of most of the Filipino food that I have had on my mission. We invited them to read and pray daily in hopes this will encourage them to continue on the investigating path. They are blessed to live with members who are willing to answer their questions and to give support to them.

Friday evening we had our interviews with the Johnsons. Also we had the Agwu's baptism. Everything worked out pretty well. Interviews were running a bit late so that gave us a chance to fill up the font in a way that the water would be warm. The hot water heater dispenses all the hot water quickly so you constantly have to turn the font on and off so it will be warm. The baptism was very well attended. Ume and Ugo were both baptized so that made everything complete. They were both super excited about getting in the water! Then afterward we had our interview finally. Everything worked out and we got through the night.

Saturday we met with Fortunat. Even better we went up to the temple with him to do baptisms. The recent convert temple trip allows them to walk in through the front door of the temple and down the side staircase. But they get to see the huge mural that is at the end of the bridge. We got to be the witnesses and it was great watching how excited he was to be baptized for his father. It made it even more special to him because his father died 17 years ago to the day. It defiantly was a night we won't forget!

Sunday we got to meet with a couple of people. First we met with this newer guy we found, Nathan. He goes to an Episcopal church and has a true desire to find out truth. The only problem we are having is he has this wall of skewed opinions on the church and everything that makes it hard to teach for his understanding. At this point all we can do is pray for his heart to be softened. Following that we went over to the Smith home again. We taught Melissa another new member lesson. We had a great visit with them and afterward brother Smith grilled up some burgers and brots. They also made some stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon which were amazing! 👌🏽

We have been so blessed to be here in this area, especially with the work continually moving forward. I am blessed to be with Elder Chamberlain and to spend my last transfer with him. The time is flying and we are wrapping up all the loose ends.

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Happy Independence Day

Saying bye to Elder Rowley

Dear Family,

We had to say goodbye to Elder Rowley, and frankly that was pretty sad. He was the missionary that I've spent the most time with that was never my companion. But that was about the only sad thing that happened this week. 

Monday evening we were able to go and visit with the Agwus. We are teaching their kids, and they are set for baptism this week, but we took time to visit with the Parents. Sister Agwu cooked us a nice Nigerian meal and it was, to say the least, pretty good. It's been a while since they stopped going to church, but Brother Agwu has been coming pretty regularly. It was nice to spend some time visiting with them. We got the call there that we both would be staying. President also asked Elder Chamberlain to be District leader, and told me to guide him on this course. It will be a phenomenal transfer.

Tuesday we got to go and visit with Gerelle. They just had their baby so that was pretty exciting. We were grateful they let us into their home to visit with him and to help him move along the path. We talked about getting to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and family history work. It was great to see this light turn on where he is feeling the joy and excitement of doing family history work. We will hopefully get him to go do baptisms this coming Saturday. At church he was ordained to the office of a priest and given the Aaronic Priesthood, so we are excited for him. 

Wednesday was transfers, but as said above, we both stayed. It was quite the great way to start off. Sister Lee, a Filipino member, has these two others living with her. She is really great about sharing the gospel and felt prompted to sit down with them and to talk about the gospel. We were there last week and that led to us visiting with them this week. We taught the restoration and they both loved it. We extended a baptismal invitation and they accepted, but we need to find a date where they will be available for it. And there are some bumps on the log to smooth out. But we had a powerful lesson with Dolly and Roger.

Following that we got to go teach Keysa. She is coming along very well! We talked with her about the Plan of Salvation and she thought it was great. Didn't have any problems with it and is more than ready to accept it as the plan for her. We will be going over Tuesday to do some service for her so we pray we can talk with her two oldest boys as we do it. The night ended with us visiting the Harris family. It was a good chance to talk about missionary work and they things they can do to help us out. They are that family who are completely geared in the gospel and missionary work. They have had every member in their home for dinner at least once. They are on top of things.

Friday morning we got to go visit with Anik. He is a recently returning member who was baptized a few years ago. He got scheduled to work on Sundays so it has been hard for him to get to church. His boss is letting him have time to go, to church and everything. We talked with him about Family history and temple work. He has a name to take to the Temple and we are working with him to get him there. He had his Aaronic Priesthood interview on Sunday so that was fantastic. He will get there! That evening we got to the Agwu's home again so they could have their baptism interviews. The Zone leaders met us there so we could have them. We got there and Brother Agwu was gone, but thankfully he was only 20 Minutes away. They both passed and we are good for the baptism!

Saturday was an interesting day. We met with Eryn, a girl we tracted into last week. We talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon and the priesthood with her. We read in 2 Nephi 31 and helped her see the importance of it all. It was a good lesson, struck up lots of conversation between ourselves about teaching throughout my mission. Later that afternoon these huge thunder clouds rolled in out of nowhere. Next thing we know, the rain was pouring down on us!! We were completely soaked, so we just kept going on knocking doors. We eventually dried off and during dinner got to change into warm dry clothes. That was quite the experience.

Sunday was a great end to the week. We say Keysa at church with her kids which brings joy to us! After church we met with a new lady Ashley, for the first time. She loves the Book of Mormon and was just intently listening to everything st we had to say. It was a great lesson with her. We invited her to be baptized on August 5th so we pray that can go through. That night we went to teach Melissa one of her new member lessons. We got to visit with Brother Smith and Sister Smith. They have been busy with military related things so it was nice to sit down with them and talk about how things have gone. 

It has been a fantastic week. How blessed I am to be part of this work and to see everything move forward in it! 

Love,

Elder Bentley 

June 26

I found a $10 bill this week!

Dear Family!

First off thank you for all the birthday wishes! This week has quite the turn of events. Some would say it was a "Sick" week. But I'll leave that up to your judgement.

Monday evening we were able to visit with Keysa, she had some more basic questions about the church so we started her on the discussions. At the end of the restoration, it was great because she already knew a lot of the story of Joseph Smith and his importance. The spirit was very strong throughout the lesson and we invited her to baptized on the 22nd of July. Hopefully we can help her children make a date soon after. She had some initial concerns but she talked about the last couple of weeks since we've been meeting it seems like she has had more patience in working with her coworkers. Then she related it back to how it was soon after we started visiting with her that more patience came. She is already reaping in blessings of the gospel.

Tuesday I started to develop a sore throat. But that didn't stop us from going out to work. After our district meeting we went out tracting near a former. This man from South Carolina was outside and waved us over. I guess about 15 years or so ago he was a navy seal. He just so happened to be stationed on Hill Airforce Base which was when he first met Mormons. Nothing too impactful, but seeds were planted. He was more than willing to start reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. A few houses down we ran into another lady who said she would love to hear the message. After which she said we could come back and we hope to visit her again this week.

Wednesday and Thursday my sore throat led to a cold. But we still went out finding both days. Thursday evening we met Elder Vogel and went to visit with Keysa again. She is serious about joining the church and is willing to start trying to live the Word of Wisdom. We will give her about a week and a half so she can cut down on her use, but we hope by then she will be ready to live it completely. I love taking Elder Vogel out with us because he has such a strong testimony of the gospel. He was able to relate to her situation and it was a powerful visit.

Friday, my birthday. I was on exchange with Elder Criddle here in Capitol. We went and worked hard to find some more people to teach. The morning started off teaching Ogechi a new member discussion though. It has been a while since we've been able to talk with her, but we will get these lessons out of the way. Sister Vogel made me some strawberry trifle bless her heart! It was pretty delicious, but there's no trifle like the home trifle. Later that afternoon we found ourselves tracting, my cold was starting to peak, and we tracked into Eryn's home. I guess she has been searching for some more solace in religion. We talked with her about the gospel, about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and invited her to be baptized. We didn't see her at church though so we will go follow up with her.

Saturday I just had congestion and a pretty bad cough. We had lunch with Bishop Hoyle and he talked to us about things he wants done in the ward. We will see what we can do to fulfill those callings. We got out to work and visited with a less active at work. He is trying to work the most he can so he can go out to Salt Lake City in December for school. He is also from Bangladesh. Oh the people you meet out here!

The week came to a close as we saw Keysa and her family and church and the Agwu kids! We are now anxiously waiting to see what will happen for transfers tonight praying that we both will stay this last one!!

Love you all!

Elder Bentley

June 19

I found $3.00 on the ground this week.

A street sign Elder Chamberlain wanted to take a picture of.

Playing the piano at the Mission Conference

The temple when we got out of "Why I Believe"

Dear Family!

It seems the closer we get to having success, the more opposition that we face. This week was a hard one because Every lesson that we had scheduled with anyone cancelled on us. I think in my 22 Months out this is the first week where everything cancelled on us.  But that didn't stop us from having a great week.

Tuesday we took our car in to get the side mirror replaced finally. Oh how nice it is to not have to worry about that. It opened the possibilities of where we can go to find now. In the afternoon we had previously received a call from a member in the ward just south of us. They were moving Sister Beal out of her school since the year just ended. The idea was to have us help so we could introduce ourselves to some of the faculty. We got there and most teachers had already cleared out but it was very nice to be able to serve them.

Wednesday was a day full of tracting. Usually I dread these kind of days, but the day went by way to quickly. As we were out contacting time just seemed to fly, it was a great day spent finding those who are being prepared for this gospel.

Friday we helped a member with some preparations for a Juneteenth event at a nearby Baptist church. We helped him assemble bags for the event. It was a good way to get the name of the church out into the area. He ended up inviting other people who were in charge of the event the following day to help us out. That night as we were tracting we saw a few blessings and some frustration. The frustration, the last door we knocked on was a non denominational Christian guy. He started to go off on a rant how he isn't interested in any other churches. He told us that if the path he is on is wrong, he will find out one day when he dies. It saddens our hearts to hear people who are content with the limited knowledge that they have. At least he didn't yell at us about being out.

Blessing: as we were out tracting that night it started to lightly sprinkle. It only being 8:30 we continued to knock doors. As 9 hit we got back to our car, it seemed right as we closed our doors the rain just started to down pour on us.

Saturday we had a mission conference with Elder Brent H. Nielson. He is the executive director of the missionary department. He came and informed us of some of the things the church is trying to do to help us teach more. It was quite nifty, you'll have to ask me about it in person. Sister Nielson taught about how to be a good companion. That was a worth while talk as well. It was nice to be able to see the mission all together, since it is a rare occasion now.

That night ended with another guy trying to argue with us. "What is God's real name?" It seems like that is one question we get asked a lot by the Black Israelites, they just are looking for arguments. He got mad that we knocked his door rather than ringing the doorbell. But it being after 8:00 we don't want to wake kids if they are in bed. But all is well in Zion.

Sunday is when everything became fantastic, we had Stake Conference and got to see a couple of friends of past! When we first walked in was an old missionary who left last year, Coombs, it was great to see him. As we were talking Milas walked into the chapel! It was great to see him as well. Stake Conference had commenced and we weren't expecting any investigators this week, but there came Keysa and her family through the doors! It surprised us because they said they were going to a different church rather than ours this week, but looks like the spirit won!

We got to finish the night at the Visitor Center at Why I Believe. It was not as full as it usually is, but the speaker still did a great job. We had Fortunat there and it was awesome when they showed the baptism pictures on the big screen, his face lit up in excitement when his baptism photo came up! It truly is the little things that make the days joyous!

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Air Force One

We saw Airforce one take off while we were out tracting yesterday. The president of the United States is in that plane!

Our side view mirror that we came back to.

Dear Family! 

Well this week we had to face some opposition than came in some unusual ways. But that's won't stop the work from progressing. Overall it was a great week.

We had our Zone Conference on Tuesday. The topic was on prayer, how we can make our own prayers more meaningful and how to help our investigators do so as well. We talked about why we kneel to pray, why we bow our heads and fold our arms. Talked about the infinite wisdom and power our Heavenly Father has. And yet he still wants to hear from us every day. It was a pretty well planned Conference and we all walked away with the goal to change and strengthen our prayers.

Wednesday morning we were able to help Clandi's mom with some outside work. It's quite great being able to help her out and bringing the influence of the gospel. She definitely puts us to work! Other than that we knocked doors all day so thats that.

Thursday is when we started to see our opposition. We had a pretty great day planned, lesson scheduled and etc. We started the morning off weekly planning which finished right after lunch time. Tired of being in the apartment we went out to go do some work. We stopped up to check on a potential that lives just a mile or so north of the church. The car was parked on the side of the street right next to every other car there. After getting back from trying to contact her to our surprise someone had rand into the side of the car. (Classified as a side swipe on the online reports) thankfully they only took off the side view mirror and didn't tear up the side of the car. 

That led to the joyful call to our vehicle coordinator to tell him the fantastic news. Oh he was so excited. We got to spend the majority of the afternoon in the Toyota dealership trying to figure out repairs. They didn't have the part in and there were some complications in the paperwork. Long story short we are waiting on a call to go in for the repair. Since we had to side view mirror the Vogels saved the day and took us to our appointment that night with the Agwu family. It was nice to end the night on a better note at least having a great lesson taught. 

We jimmied the broken mirror in temporarily so we can still get around but photos are attached. Friday was a day of redemption. We were able to meet with Ibrahim again and talk more about the gospel with him. He is loving the church and enjoyed the baptism last week, looking forward to his. We taught the restoration and he received it well. We are trying to get his family involved because they are less active. We will do our best.

Friday night we got in to see Keysa, which was a blessing all in itself. We were talking about church, she was already planning on attending this Sunday. I guess her kids really loved it, and that's what they are trying to shoot for. We ended up talking a little,about the Word of Wisdom and the Restoration with her. We got to watching the Restoration film with her and Marcus. It was actually quite great. Her husband walked in halfway through and finished watching it with us. We had a great conversation with him about the gospel.

Sunday was quite the day, Gerelle was confirmed as a member of the church. That was a great way to start off the day! Also Keysa and her family came to church, and they seemed to enjoy it. We were able to focus more on the meetings today rather than scurry around putting together a baptism. Ibrahim also came and he seemed to enjoy all the meetings. It was pretty hot for the day. We had our entire day open up so we went to a neighborhood to tract for 4.5 hours. Wahoo! We ran into this man named Nathan, he was super inviting wanting to learn more about Salvation really. He said it affects eternity so it's very important to get it right. Hopefully the spirit can touch his heart!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Bentley

Happy Summer!

Gerelle's Baptism

Dear Family!

Well, one could say that this last weekend was the best of my mission, but that would imply I was already home. So since there are still many days that can be greater I'll say best weekend so far! I truly have enjoyed being companions with Elder Chamberlain, it feels like people are just falling into our laps to teach.

Monday night we had a nice visit with Ume and Ugo. Their family has been a little less active for the last couple of years so their two youngest haven't been baptized yet. We invited their home teachers over as well to start to build a large group of fellow shippers for them. Up until this week we weren't sure how well they were grasping what we taught, but this lesson proved successful. We talked about repentance, faith, really the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And at the end when they prayed you could tell they were understanding what was taught. A few funny confessions came out from their mouths. "It's bad when someone hits you and you want to keep hitting them back and never stop." "Or when you get online and order a bunch of things from Amazon without asking your parents." It was a great visit. We also were delighted to see them at church.

Tuesday we met with a less active member who has been hidden in our area Book. Come to find out she has like 7 kids and the youngest one also wants to join the church. We will be working closely with them to make sure that is able to happen here shortly. As we got out of the lesson with the Hardys we got a call from the Zone leaders saying they had someone call them who wanted to be taught by missionaries. And they are in our area! His name is Ibrahim and his family are all members. But they are less active. This didn't stop him from reaching out to have help changing his life. He accepted a baptismal date of July 15th. Since we saw him at church yesterday he is also now officially on date!

Thursday I was on exchange with Elder Rowley. It was a day that flipped our weekend around. We had this fantastic day planned and all our plans went out the window. Cancellations, moves, and lots of finding. But we were able to hold a lesson with Gerelle. As we met with Gerelle he asked if he would still be able to be baptized this weekend. We expressed our thoughts of moving it back but decided to let the spirit decide. As we taught the last few commandments it was prevalent to everyone there he should get baptized this coming Sunday. We scurried to find people to help out with the baptism and to fill the program.

Saturday was the start to the phenomenal week. We started the morning off early at the church with Gerelle. We filled out paperwork and President Johnson met us there for his interview. After what seemed like forever they walked out smiles on their faces and we knew everything was set for Sunday. We bid our farewells and went to go visit a family we tracked into a few weeks ago. Kesha was her name and learning was the game. We talked with her about the church and it seems like every concern she has is found in the gospel. We hope she can make that realization. We knew things were doing well when she and her 4 kids walked into Sacrament meeting 20 Minutes early.

Following that we embarked on our journey to the temple. Why the temple you may ask? Allow me to tell you. Wednesday morning we were talking and I felt the urgent need to text a convert from the Derwood area. After I texted Landry later that day he called letting us know he and his wife were getting sealed, which also meant he was taking out his endowments. We were able to receive permission from president Johnson to attend that. It was such a blessing to see him and his wife sealed for time and all eternity. When we first walked into the temple, he was standing there at the front desk. What a blessing the temple is and how thankful I am to be serving in a mission where we have one. I also am thankful for the Spirit prompting me to text him. If I would've waited any longer we would have missed the opportunity to be there. 

Sunday was also a tremendous day. We got to church and started to prepare things for the baptism. As we were walking out to the car to grab the program there was Kesha getting out of her car with her kids. Wahoo! We then got everything set and got through church. Fortunat was ordained a priest during Elders Quorum and he seemed pretty excited about that, he told us we will need to come and explain to him what this means. After church we scurried to get everything set for Gerelle's baptism. The ward was pretty supportive of it. But I'm not a fan of having a baptism after church because it is too crazy for us. We were trying to get all our investigators to classes, have members meet them all and fill the font all at the same time. But it was a fantastic baptism. The spirit was strong!

Anyway I hope everyone had a great week!

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Happy Memorial Day!

Fortunat's Baptism

Arlington Trip

Dear Family!

Every week as I type emails out it feels like I was just doing that a day or two ago. These weeks are starting to fly by. As I think I might have mentioned, we had transfers and I will be staying here in Capitol with Elder Chamberlain, thankfully. We are really working hard and he goal would be to end off with him.

This last P-day we had the opportunity to go visit and tour the Arlington Cemetery. Well those of us who finish off within the next 6 months. It was really cool in a few ways, 1. It blows my mind to think that we were here just two years ago on vacation before I left on my mission. 2. Elder Miles (who led the tour) made it funny, entertaining, educational, but most importantly spiritual at the end. There are many things in which we can compare the gospel or missionary work to, but at the end he talked about the similarities between the Tomb of the Unknown Solider and the work. It was nice to have some time with those Elders we came in with to reflect on the last year or two. To end the day we had &Pizza (I only mention it because if you ever visit this area, you have to give it a shot.)

Tuesday was also a monumental day within my mission. We were able to finish the night off teaching Fortunat at the Harris' home. First off there is no one better in Maryland to teach, and second I love the Harris family! They had us over for dinner and we taught Fortunat the last few odds and ends before he would receive his interview. There were some odd questions asked by Fortunat that really applied to the lesson that we had an interesting time answering. Just remember that within some subjects he doesn't know how to express himself in completely in English, and it doesn't understand it either. But thankfully the Brother and Sister Harris saved the day. We would try to explain it and Fortunat wouldn't understand. Then Brother Harris would say almost the same exact thing and Fortunat would understand. The spirit works wonders in this gospel!

Wednesday night we had his interview for his baptism. This week was a lot of preparation getting Fortunat ready. It was interesting filling out the baptismal form with him using a bunch of African names. But none the less we got through it. After the interview there was no doubt that he was ready for baptism. I wish I could fit all the neat little experiences in email, but ask me when I return! 

Saturday was his Baptism. We had a ward picnic before it so after the picnic we just herded everyone into the relief society room so we could have the baptism. He was so excited to get dressed in white and to go into the font with Bishop. There was nothing except for joy at the baptism. After the baptism he had an opportunity to share his testimony and his experiences finding the church. It was super neat.

Sunday he was Confirmed. Brother Harris did the confirmation for him. It was a neat experience having so many people come up to be a part of the circle and the blessing that was given. Within part of it was helping others find this gospel, his family, and eventually his home country. We are glad to have all of that done with. He was super happy after the blessing.

That's really the neat experiences we had this week!

Love,

Elder Bentley