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