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