Wonderful December

 

 

Mom,

We got to spend the morning at Dr. Prince's. He is an amazing man! He let my play his piano, it is a Blüthner (or something like that) there are 8 of them in the world and they are so very expensive. But he let me play it! He has the largest church history library outside of the church.  It was such a great visit with him.

 

 

The room that it is in is built specially for the piano, it projects it's sound though out the entire house!

~Elder Bentley 

 

 

Dear Family!

This week has been such an amazing week! So with no further delay, I will just get into the letter!

Tuesday was our Seneca Zone Conference. There we got to listen to President and Sister Cooke talk with us about not only our mission lives, but also with what is going on in the outside world. President Cooke really impressed on the topic of baptism. He wants us all to invite people to be baptized during our first lesson with them. It emphasizes it in Preach my Gospel, so it was nice to have a great reminder to do so. Sister Cooke talked about the birth of Christ, she shared with us some of her great insight on the Shepard. Following that conference, we went up to the farm and sharpened chainsaws, then we also did the writing. 

Wednesday we had planned to go and visit a bunch of Referrals that we had received  from the Festival of Lights. It happened to be that we had no luck with any of them because they didn't open their doors or answer their phones. We then thought to go and talk to a member who said she had a referral for us. She never called us back but her mom was there and took us up to go and have a lesson with him. His name is Igor and he is on date for January 16. He is such a great guy and now has the opportunity for the gospel. There are also those who live with him that want to learn as well.

Thursday morning we helped move some furniture into the investigators house that members of the ward wanted to donate. It was such a great time carrying a couch up a 4 story apartment. That night was spent with the bishops son going on exchanges to his home teaching appointments. 

Friday we were able to go up to the Festival of Lights again. It was a great choir from Baltimore that sang, except that our member didn't show up. We still had a great time listening to them. We had an appointment at 4 except that he wasn't home. His daughters were locked outside of the home from school. We talked with them and got to know them, asked about their family and school. Then we started to show them little magic tricks and next thing we know is that there are tons of neighbor kids wanting to see more and more. Their dad returned home, but by that time we had to get to our next appointment. 

This weekend was the stake conference and Elder Evans of the Seventy presided. They were great sessions and there was lots to be learned. Finishing off the week we went up to The Festival of Lights again with an investigator named Jason. He has tons of questions that we will answer at our next appointment with him!

A flash drive will do great. Thank you so very much. We will have the time to skype on Christmas Day. It will probably be later in the day for me. We spend most of the day up at the Visitor's Center. President told us to Skype after that or when we find time that day. So I'll keep you posted for that. As for Christmas stuff, we have an iPad mini 2. And those thing you said were correct except for ear muffs, I would like a pair of those. I think I said a small backpack as well. But it is Christmas so surprise me! 

Love,
~Elder Bentley

Festival of Lights!

Festival of Lights

View of the Temple from the beltway

 

 

Dear Family!

This has been a pretty great week regarding most things! This week has been most filled with finding activities again so that has been quite the fun filled week. We have had some great lessons at the door  at metro stops so that is very exciting. The weather here has basically been sunny for the entirety of the week. It's about 35-50 depending on the day but the humidity makes it bone chilling. I did indeed receive my package and I thank you very much for it!

On Tuesday we went to our district meeting as usual. And after that we got to go to the farm! It was such a great time. We got to go and do this thing called riding. We walk on the side of the horse while down syndrome kids do their riding lessons which is just tons of fun to do! We get to do that until it's time to be in so it takes the day up. We get to do a lot of farmy things. We get to plant garlic, clean stalls and such! It really is so much fun though because we get to be with other missionaries! 

Wednesday we got to go and do another session at the temple. It is always just such a joy to go and do! There are members of our ward that work on Wednesdays just because they love when all the missionaries come in. Following the great temple trip, Elder Timmerman had a birthday on Monday so we had lunch at Olive Garden because he had gift cards! It was a great lunch and we then got to go and contact before our dinner appointment. It is still very nerve racking for me to contact people but I am slowly getting better at it. 

Thursday night was the first day of Festival of Lights. It was our first opportunity to go to the visitor center and watch the performances they have on there. We are allowed to go every night if we have a member with us or an investigator. Our ward is really great at going to these so we have been able to go a couple of times. They have set up tons of lights at the visitor center so it is a pretty big public attraction! 

Friday night we were supposed to go on exchanges with President Cooke. We had an appointment scheduled with our investigator David. President Cooke got stuck in a meeting and wasn't able to make it out in time for our appointments. Since our last appointment of the night cancelled, we went to the nearest metro station and went caroling with our roommates district.  

 Saturday night was the ward Christmas party and there was a really great turn out. The ward was really great at putting it together and there were different things that happened with it. Santa even came! 

Sunday night we got to go to the Christmas Devotional from the First Presidency. It started at 8 though so we were late getting in. After the devotional had ended I felt like we needed to stay for some bizarre reason. Elder Johnson was trying to get us out of there but I didn't want to leave. As we were finally walking out of the door a member called us who was there. He had already returned home and couldn't find his cell phone. So we were able to go in and locate his phone to take home to him. 

It's been a really great week and the members are really taking care of us. 

Love,

Elder Bentley 

 

Dear Family!

This has been quite a great week in my new area. The Ward Mission leader is such a great member, the Bishop is hilarious, and the members are really great! As far as the investigator pool is going, we are slowly finding more people who are wanting to hear the gospel, but it is still hard to try to get into contact with them again.

This Tuesday we had an appointment with a recent convert who is Russian. His name is Gregory and he reminds me of Mr. Bean. He is probably in his 50-60's. When we went to our appointment he was waiting for us looking out his window until we got to his door. He let us in and asked for some help to try and get his computer hooked up to his TV. When we showed him how easy it is we got onto lds.org and showed him a Mormon message. That night we got to participate in a ward youth activity at the local mall. They played Where's Waldo inside the mall. We used that as a great opportunity to not only be with the members but to talk with others about the church. 

Once a week we get to go and do service at a Farm in which members own. It is a farm for autistic people to go and learn how to take care of animals, plants, and themselves. We were asked to go to a home that the members who own the farm just purchased to help move things around and get the building ready. It is more of an estate. They bought it for like 2 million dollars to house older autistic people to let them feel that they are on their own. It will have helpers who go and assist them, but it is was a great service opportunity. The estate was owned by a Mongolian man who bought it with inheritance money. He never lived much in the estate and sold it to the Princes (the members who purchased it). It had a very old feel to it but it was a very large house!

Friday morning we had a lesson with someone who we tracted into. His name is Mike and he is from New York. He didn't really seemed interested in what we had to say until we started talking about Joseph Smith. He really took the Book of Mormon well and asked us when we could return! That was exciting because he seems like he will be a great member! There is this member in the ward named Sister Puckett. She lives in a retirement home and is kind of crazy! She likes to have the missionaries over once a week and wanted help making t-shirts. She bought a heat press and puts pictures of animals on shirts. She made us shirts with pictures of squirrels on them which where very strange. 

We found out that President Cooke wants to come out on exchanges with us in a few weeks. We have been working hard to try and get investigators who are solid enough to have appointments with us at that time. We were able to get one for the latter part, but we are still looking for a new one!

A spiritual thought for the week. I was reading in the December 2015 Ensign, the talk was called "Asking the right questions in the right way," it was talking about how as teachers we need to ask questions in which will get our audiences mind thinking deeply. Not only does this apply to missionary work, it applies to everyone who is a teacher! We need to be able to rely on the spirit to help us teach, Moroni 10:9-10 shows tells us that we can have the spirit of teaching and knowledge. It is when we teach with the spirit we are able to touch those hearts of our audiences. Wether it be investigators, members, or even our own families. As we pray to have the spirit with us as we teach, he will edify our words into the hearts of all who listen. 

I hope all goes well this thanksgiving week! 

Love,

Elder Bentley

Happy December

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dearest Family!

This week has been a very busy week for us! Since it was Thanksgiving, we had to fit in our appointments to the remaining days. The mission is doing a mission wide challenge where we are challenged to talk to 10 people per missionary a day. So that's 20 people per companionship. Every minute that we are not doing something we are contacting people to try and find those contacts! 

Tuesday's we usually get to go do service at the farm, but they cancelled it because of the holiday and the absence of some of the residences. We didn't find this out until the end of our zone district meeting so we had to adjust our schedule on the fly. We went to the storage units for the mission to get elder Johnson a chair to study in. After that we were off into the public to contact people. Our favorite places to contact is right out of the metro station by us, it is in between the bus pads and the metro so there are usually a lot of people there. This was my first time really contacting like this so it made me super nervous. It was all over great and I talked with some man who was interested, but got on the bus before I could get contact information. 

Wednesday night we got to have dinner with the Jupiter family, Brother Jupiter has an amazing conversion story. He is also really great at cooking and makes amazing food. After their house we got to go back to the Station to GQ for the night. That night I met a guy named Derril and ended up giving him a Book of Mormon! He said that he would like to read it and will then call the missionaries in his area. 

Thanksgiving was a very great day. We got to go and play football with the ward which was a great gathering of most of the men. After playing football for a few hours we went home and showered to head off to our first thanksgiving dinner. This was with the Hares, and they had most of their kids their with their grandchildren. It was a great time. They had these like triangle puzzles that were really easy looking...they weren't that easy at all. After the Hares home (which they sent us home with tons of groceries and leftover) we went to a family named Lacsamanas who live in a different ward. They invited us over as well so we dropped in around 6. There they gave us tons more food and a pomegranate which I ate of course!

Friday and Saturday have been mostly just contacting people to try to get those contacts is as a mission! Sunday we had church which was great. A new investigator came to church who said he wanted to become a member so we will start teaching him soon. His family speaks French, but he made it clear that he wanted English church and lessons. We only were able to get 11 contacts before dinner, and Brother Bloem asked if we could go on splits with him. He was talking with one of his families and we decided to try and get some more contacts for Festival of Lights and the challenge. We were able to get more than we needed which was wonderful!

The ward here is such a solid ward! They are feeding us tons and we are loving them. We have been getting fed every day these last few weeks! 

Love,

New Area - New Companion

 

Bridger and Elder Johnson

Dear Family!

This last week has been such a great one with our transfers and with my new area! Monday night we went to go say goodbye to the Yarn family because they have become one of my favorite families this last transfer! They are such a great family, and they are just tons of fun to talk to! I really think the hardest thing about transfers is saying goodbye to all of the close relationships you've grown with people! Whether it be with missionaries in the area or with the members/investigators. It was hard to say goodbye, but I know I will see them all again before I leave my mission.

Tuesday was transfer day, since Archibald was going home, Sister Mays invited us go over to her house to say goodbye to us all! She is such a solid member! While I was there I ate three more peppers which was not as bad as I thought they were going to be! The remainder of the day we had to pack so I got everything packed up to go to transfers! Tuesday night James Lui took us all out to say goodbye, I am very thankful for his willingness to take us to Buffalo Wild Wings!

Wednesday was a nerve racking day for me, I didn't know if I was staying in the zone or not so I was nervous about everything. I told Elder Archibald when they announce my companion to look at me and nod if he was a great guy. So the first set of ZL's go up to the stand for the Seneca Zone, a few areas in they tell me that my new companion will be Elder Johnson and we will serve in Derwood. It was a relief that they called my name so quickly, and Archibald was definitely nodding his head. After we sorted everything out after Transfers, we headed on our way to white wash our area.

We took a while figuring out where we wanted to live, because our area is super big so we could live on either side of the ward and we chose to live with Elders Fitzgerald and Timmerman. They are the French elders and are great guys! The first night in the area Harold Watson called us, he introduced himself and told us who was feeding us for the rest of the week. Harold is quite the guy, haha I would try to explain it but it wouldn't do any justice. 

Thursday was our first full day in the area, we had to finish sorting out our area book and acquiring the investigators, so we spent most of the day trying to do that. We had dinner with the Chaneys and they were a great introduction into the ward! We had ward correlation with Brother Matsen, and come to find out that his nephew is Nick Waters, we went to elementary together and he is a great kid! That was very great to find out. Here Brother Matsen told us about the time suckers in the ward and to have caution around them. Harold was the first one he brought up, and told us to bear with him, but we are afraid that he will get into our way with the other members of our ward. 

Friday and Saturday we spent just visiting members and introducing ourselves and all that jazz. We got to meet some of them and it was very comforting because  all of them are super nice! We had a Pot Luck at the church which is 30 minutes from us and completely out of our area which will be rough getting to and from church, but the church building has the same layout and meeting hall as ours back in Kaysville! It made me kind of homesick, but on the plus side I know where everything is!

Sunday we had church which was great, but we got to go eat at the Bearman's home. They are great members, they gave us ice cream after dinner and holy guacamole do they have tons of ice cream! We had "Why I Believe"  as well and it was nice to see all the friends that I made in the Silver Spring zone! Elder Johnson and I get along greatly and I know that this will be a great transfer!

Love, 

Elder Bentley

Transfers Are Coming

Our District

Me with Rhys and Rebecca

Dear Family!

I'm just going to start with the events of the week! On Tuesday we got to go up to the Visitors Center and set up Christmas lights on some trees for the Festival of Lights! Elder Archibald is really great friends with the member who is the head Gardner of the temple! He has us over at the temple and we sat putting lights up in the trees! It was a great service opportunity but nice because we got to talk with the members and with each other!

Wednesday was the departing temple trip with the entire mission, we were able to go and do a sessions with the entire mission. It was amazing because afterwards everyone just stayed and talked to each other! We had to show up early since Archibald is leaving - he had the opportunity to hear from the Temple president with all of the other departing missionaries. That seemed like it was great for them! That night we had dinner with the Bishop and his wife and they invited us back for Thanksgiving!

On Thursday we had our little Zone District meeting up at the temple because President wanted to talk with each zone about the things that will be happening this next transfer, following the meetings I went on exchanges with one of the elders who also has a companion leaving. Everyone who is leaving this transfer has a departing dinner with the Cookes so that's why we were out on exchanges. We had a great time visiting members in his ward and going out to Chipotle for dinner! It was a great night to go out with Elder Torgersen! 

Friday I was able to go out with Elder Williams for most of the day to the appointments that we did have. My love for him really has grown these last two transfers and he has become a great guy. He has a lot of great stories and loves to listen to strange music! Friday night I really came to senses with Elder Archibald and I know that we are going to end off on a great note. Talking with him and President Cooke I have just realized that this is my time for the Lord. Whenever I have a companion that doesn't want to work I am just to do what I can to fill the days and to just do things to keep me busy!

Saturday was spent down in Anacostia visiting a family that Elder Archibald baptized that he has become really close with. It was awesome seeing how much they look to him for all that he has done for them. Their kids love him and it was amazing to see! We got to have dinner with the Atkinsons for the last time before she has her baby and we spent Time just talking with them about their lives. Sister Atkinson gave us her buffalo chicken chip dip which is just amazing! 

This week has ended up being a really great week to end the transfer! We have been able to spend time with some of the members that have touched our hearts the most and for him to say his goodbyes. This has been a great week with member meals because it is all their way to get us to come over so he can say goodbye! We got our transfer call-out and I am being transferred! I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me!

Love,
~Elder Bentley 

Thankful November

 

Us for the Halloween party

Some of the ward kids

 

Dear Family!

This has been a really great week! We started the week off with our Zone activity where we played some relay games and Elder Archibald made some food for everyone. It was a great activity and we were able to stay after and play basketball which was also tons of fun! Far our Pday was over we went to Sister Fulcher's home where she fed us one last time before she has her hip surgery this week. The dinner was so very amazing and her husband just made us laugh our socks off! It is amazing to see how he supports his wife with the church but we are grieved that he doesn't want to join. 

This week we were able to go to the temple twice to do baptisms and confirmations. We went Tuesday in the morning with our zone and did some family names that we had found! The mission is really trying to push us to find names and to start into family history so that we can help our investigators do that and to find ties into their heritages. I found some names that Elder Archibald and I did. It was an amazing experience because he baptized me then I turn around and baptized him right after. We were then able to do the confirmations for those names. After all of that they let us go and do the initiatorys for those names. The second time was Saturday morning, we invited a recent convert to come with us so he could do some of his family names. It was a recent convert temple trip so I got to do the baptizing for him and Archibald did the confirming. We are very blessed to be able to go to the temple on our mission so often. It really is a comforting thing knowing that we get to go so often. 

On Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Tutu'u who is from Tonga. Elder Archibald and Elder Tutu'us companion elder Cruz went to go visit some of the members they worked with up in the Germantown ward. It was a great day being able to spend it with Elder Tutu'u. He is in a bike area so we got to ride around on bikes and got to walk on foot a lot that day. The only problem was that they are in the Spanish program so I wasn't able to assist him with the teaching that day. It made me realize that I don't know Spanish! Even though we got poured on by the rain it was a great experience. The members of the Spanish program surely do know how to feed missionaries!

On Friday we had a Ward Halloween party that we were able to go to! It was a great night because we got to strengthen our relationships with the members of the ward. Some of the members even brought some investigators so it was a great way to introduce them to the church!  We got some face paint and painted our faces because it was the cheapest thing that we could do! That night was a blast and it was a great experience to help the ward with. 

On Halloween we had to be in Early because they didn't want anything to happen to us. We were indoors by 5. We woke up that morning and played basketball with the some of the members and some non members. After basketball we got dressed and went to a community event that the First Baptist church put on. They were first uneasy to let us in, but when they heard we were only there to partake of the festivities and not to share they let us in. We got free food and talked with some people that recognized us and everyone we talked with initiated the conversation with is so we were able to just tell them about missionaries. They even knew where our church was!

This Sunday has been such an amazing day! Following the church block Elder Hill and Elder Williams had a baptism of a lady named Lucie. I can definitely see why we are encouraged to bring investigators to baptisms because the spirit is so strong! I don't think the spirit has been so prevalent my entire mission! There is defiantly power in the gospel that brings others to us. Since it was fast Sunday, There were members who fed us lunch because we started our fasts Saturday Night so we could have lunch with them! They are really like our parents out here. They spoil us with food and are just tons of fun to talk with! Brother Jensen showed us the new telescope that NASA is working on and it was interesting seeing his devotion to it! Elder Archibald went on Exchanges with the Zone Leaders so they could have one last huraah before he leaves in a week. I was able to go to the mission home for a FHE with Elders Hill and Williams which was a very great experience to be there with their investigator. That is where I saw Bailey, she was visiting and actually gave the FHE lesson.  And she is Blaines age, she told me about how we was at our ward when Greg Taylor came home from his mission and I guessed she talked to Blake or something! 

It has been a great week and I am looking forward to this next week!

Love, 

Elder Bentley