Ending January WIth A Bang!

Saying goodbye to Igor

Classy Baptism Photo

Bridger with Aiden and GG

The cute Perez Family

 

 

Dear Everyone!

Well this week has been such a bitter sweet week. Read the entire email and you will see why. 

Monday we were allowed to drive for 3 hours 3-6 to go get supplies for p-day and then after that we had to have our cars in for the rest of the night. We had set up an appointment with Betsy and a member So the member came and picked us up. Traffic was horrible and we missed he lesson with Betsy but rescheduled for Tuesday morning. We had a great time at the members home, the Wilsons fed us very well and we had a great time at their house.

Tuesday we invited the Zone Leaders to come to our appointment with Betsy to interview her for baptism. Needless to say she passed and was all ready for Saturday! We didn't have any of our meetings because the church parking lots were full of snow. We helped shovel people out of their parking lots though for service all day Tuesday. We had a district shoveling get together and it went pretty well.

Wednesday was our temple trip, and the spirit was super strong there! We had a great time with the mission and are super excited for the next transfer! We ate at Continental, it's a pizza and sub shop in Kensington. We went to Harold's, that's all we will say about that. We had dinner with Brother Matsen and his family! It was a great dinner appointment, showing his kids friend that we are normal people as well. That night was training call outs, and Elder Johnson was told he is training so that means one of us will leave....

Well Thursday we shoveled snow all day, so yay for snow and service! We finished the night off with the Chaneys.  

Friday Elder Johnson and I wanted to get something nice for Betsy's baptism for her. We drove down to this is the place and got her a quad scripture set with her name on it. It was a very nice set of scriptures, genuine leather and gold leaf. We wrote our testimonies in it and let the sisters who helped do so as well. We had a few other appointments with random members the rest of the day. We had dinner with the Ballams and headed down to Igor's basement apartment in Silver Spring. We had a handoff lesson with him and it was very hard to say goodbye to him. He is getting baptized March 6th for real this time.

Saturday was Betsy's baptism! We got there early to prepare the church/font for the service. Betsy's sister in law Brenda set up tons of decorations for afterwards. It was a very nice set up for a baptism. We took pictures and started the service when Bishop Lewis finally arrived. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, and a member complimented on it which was great! Betsy was baptized and the spirit was very strong! Her mother in law gave a great testimony on how they had been praying for G and Betsy to go to church and for her to be baptized. Now she was baptized and all that was left was to get G to go back to church. But Betsy is such a great lady! Her husband is less active and came which was great! We had a great time with her and her family, the ward was super supportive with it as well. We shoveled snow for the rest of the day afterwards and had dinner at Lulu's home. We got the transfer call outs and I am staying in Derwood, Elder Johnson is leaving and he isn't happy about that. 

Sunday was ward conference. Betsy was confirmed and the Spirit was so very strong there. We could defiantly tell that she loved the church and how much it feels like home. She even beat us to church and saved us a spot! Like talk about what a great new member. Brother Andersen confirmed her, he works for the temple and is second counselor in the bishopric. We had a long ward council meeting afterwards and talked about missionary work. We had dinner with the Clawson family, they invited other families over as well and it was a big dinner party kind of thing.

Overall it's been a big bitter sweet week because we had to say bye to Igor, Betsy was baptized, and Elder Johnson is leaving.

Spiritual thought for the week. President Arnold ( stake president) talked about how in  the next 7 years he wants the equivalent of 2 more wards in the stake. And as he talked about this it reminded me of the talk the President Nelson to the young Adults about becoming true Millennials. In the talk he mentioned we need to prepare to accomplish the impossible, we need to pray to do so. As we pray for strength and courage to act on the feelings the Holy Ghost gives us we will be able to do so. I know that as we pray to accomplish the impossible we will be able to do so. Example in my life, our investigator Betsy, Elder Johnson and I were praying to find someone while we were together. We taught Betsy on December 30th for the first time and she was baptized on January 30th. We can do hard things!

Much love,

Elder Bentley

Home Bound during the Blizzard!

Fun in the blizzard!

 

 

Dear Everyone!

Well needless to say this has been a great week with the time that we did have to do missionary work! Well see this blizzard came into the East Coast, and basically shut down everything because everyone here is so unequipped with the things they need for it to function when there is any kind of snow, but we will get to that in a bit.

Monday night we had a lesson with Betsy, needless to say it went amazing like they usually do. She just takes everything we teach into her heart and actually acts on it. We finished teaching her the Commandments with some youth there for her less active son. Everything went well and we scheduled a return appointment for Friday.

Wednesday we had the missionary world wide broadcast. We got together as a zone and watched that live. It was good, but seemed to go downhill as it went on. We had our Wednesday Harold trip and were out of there in time for dinner at the Padilla's. As we got out of their home there was snow on the ground finally!!! We carefully drove to our last appointment of the night with our investigator Millie. She was a referral from some other investigators in a different area, but she still was super interested. She was describing what she wanted for her kids, and it was the church she was describing without even knowing it. We filled up with gas, which was very great.

Thursday we spent the day basically trying to prepare for this winter storm that everyone was talking about. We still were able to go out on exchanges with Brother Lewis. We were with him and finally got in contact with Igor again! He is doing very well and he committed to live he Word of Wisdom, which is big because he loves coffee. We also got an appointment with some Ethiopians who wanted to learn about the Book of Mormon. 

Friday morning came, we picked up a few last supplies and went to our appointment with the Ethiopians. They want to learn more and it went very well. We returned home and stayed in for the rest of the day. President Cooke made it mandatory for everyone to be in by noon. The snow started at about 1:30 and continued all day. We just tried to hang around the apartment and read some scriptures and other stuff. That night we had a Skype lesson with Betsy and Brother& Sister Scardena. We finished the lessons with her and she is ready for baptism! It is such a blessing we have the technology as missionaries to do this.

Saturday we woke up with a good 2ish feet of snow and it was still snowing. We got ready for the day and walked over to the Zone Leader's apartment to do something with them. Outside was deserted which was amazing because it is always busy. We got there, played games, and had a merry time. We returned home for dinner and it was still snowing lightly now. We played in the snow! Yes we had a blast, and we jumped from the fence into a pile of snow.

Sunday church was cancelled because of the snow storm. There was a total of 32 inches. We did the same thing as the last few days, hung around the apartment, talked, and read doctrine. Our investigator Betsy needed to go to church today to be baptized this Saturday, but President Cooke said at she was good and could be baptized anyway. We played settlers of Cattan and Elder Timmerman won. We did our call in reports and that's it for the week!

Love,

~Elder Bentley

Skyping with an investigator for a lesson during the blizzard!

Another Great Week in the Mission Field!

I got this picture from a member in Bridger's Mission
She said "The Piano Lessons Paid off!"

      Elder Bentley played for "Why I Believe."  He did beautifully and he gives you credit.What a super missionary.

Dear Family! 

This last week has been a refreshing one. We have been trying to make contact with the less actives of the ward this last week. We were able to get an appointment with one of them. 

Monday night we had dinner with Sister Wills, she likes to have us over to talk with her grand kid about serving a mission. His name is Noah and he's 12. He has tons of questions about serving a mission so it is nice that we can help her answer his questions. We helped her carry boxes around her house be used she needed to take down all of her decorations from Christmas. She had knee surgery and wanted some help before she had the surgery done. 

Tuesday we had our typical meetings, which went pretty well. That night we were at the farm helping with the riding when it started to snow! It wasn't really that much snow and it didn't stick, but it was snowing! It is really a great opportunity that we have to work with the kids, and especially to work with horses! We also got to play with Peter, he is a miniature horse, they are still working with him to be more child friendly though because he still likes to bite fingers. We also had to say goodbye to Rusty, he was helping running the farm, and he is headed home to Idaho. 

Wednesday we tried to pack full with appointments. We had an appointment with a returning member and tried to help her recognize the importance of the Book of Mormon. We then went over to Harold's house so he could chat away with us about the dinner calendar. We had dinner that night with the McAllisters and it was a simple but quick appointment because we had to get to Betsy's home by 7. Betsy is doing great! She read the Young Adult devotional "What is the blueprint of Christ's Church?" And we were able to relate to that as we taught her the Word of Wisdom and Ten Commandments. Her kids are so hilarious and it was quite the appointment. Elder Johnson butt dialed 911 so in the middle of talking with her we heard, "This is the Montgomery County Police, what's your Emergency?" And we all started busting up! Her son Aiden asked if next time we came if we could have a Pokemon battle. That was so very cute!

We visited an in-active member who told us he has no desire to return to church, but he respects missionaries and opened his home to us whenever we were in the neighborhood. He was a member in the 80's until he had some complications in his family that led him off of the path. He really wanted to talk politics which was hilarious because his wife was getting mad at him for doing so! 

Saturday we knocked on every referrals' door that we had to get drop them if they weren't answering. We did that for most of the day until our dinner appointment with the Washington Family. Sister Washington invited tons of people over to her home for a football night and fried Chicken. She wanted us to teach everyone that was there but we felt like it was better to just keep it simply on Christ. We spent most of the time taking about missionaries, what we do and how we live. 

Sunday was killer! Betsy came to church With her three kids again! She is super excited to be baptized and her little son Aiden who is 7 said, "when I turn 8 I want to be baptized!" She has been such a golden investigator! We had dinner with the Lewis family and they let me play their piano which is a forte! Why I Believe was that night as well, Terryl Givens spoke at it. He is the author of The Crucible of Doubt, The God who Weeps, and Wrestling with Angels. He had such a great talk prepared and it was so amazing! I also got to play the opening hymn and closing hymns there so that was fun! Mima Kearl is the wife of the mission doctor and she talked to me after the Why I Believe fireside!

This week was amazing and I hope all of you had a great one as well!

Love,
~Elder Bentley 

Missionary Greetings

Re: Greetings from

Dear Family!

This has been another one of those great weeks! The temperature has been around the 35-50's since it rained this weekend, but it's been slowly getting colder! We have definitely had a very crazy week with appointments, but it has been so great because the spirit has been there!

Monday night we had dinner at the Tanguilig's home. Sister Tang is from the Philippines and their culture has been so much fun to see! They usually have one of their parents living with them and her mom cracks me up! As we eat over at their home, her mom would offer us food, then more food, and then even more! She just kept giving us food until her grandson told her that she should probably stop before she kills us. We had a blast over at their home!

Wednesday was such a great day. We started off the day by trying to contact referrals that we had, but they didn't answer their phones or their doors. Harold wanted us to come over so we did. It was they typical visit where he just tells us how lonely he is, and about his disease he has. Following that we had dinner with Natalie, she is a recently returned missionary and her mom loves to feed the missionaries! But following that she came with us to an appointment we had with Betsy. We put Betsy on date for the 31st of January, and had a great lesson with her. She has three kids, the oldest Alex is already baptized but he is inactive so we have been teaching him as well. Then there is Aiden, he is 7 and he reminds me so much of Gabe, he loves Pokemon cards and he loves to come talk to me about them! Then there is GG, she's this cute little three year old that just makes your heart melt! Anyway we have been teaching them and the lessons have gone well!

Thursday we had an appointment with a less active member who had been offended by one of the members a few years back. He is from Turkey and he was telling us about these dreams he has that have foretold the future, that was weird to listen to him about that. We still had a great time over at his house and hope to see him at Church when he retires. We had dinner at the Chaney's and it was a great visit! Following that we went to a recent converts home to teach him the rest of the commandments. He is doing well and him and his older brother are reading the Book of Mormon!   

Friday we went on exchanges with President Cooke! We had the night all planned out, we had an appointment with Igor and the with Betsy. We had confirmed both of them before we went to dinner at cafe rio. As we were driving back for the appointments we get a call that Igor had to cancel on us because of him mom. We didn't expect that because we had confirmed with him just a few hours earlier. We called President Cooke and told him the situation and told him to meet us at the metro so we could contact. Our appointment with Betsy was at 8, and president said he was gonna have to get going soon (this was around 7:45) but then I told him we had an appointment with an investigator who was a Festival of Lights referral and on date! He said that he would like to sit in on the lesson so we drove up and taught her again! The lesson went great and we were able to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Saturday we went to a funeral for a member of a different ward whom we gave a blessing to last week. It was a great service and the spirit was there! We then came home and went to the temple where we were going to meet Isaiah, but his mom was sick and didnt tell us. We were there already but left to a member in the Gaithersburg ward. We had a great time at the Lacsamanas, and while we were there the French Elders called and asked if we wanted to go to the Landerith's. We went and had a great time talking with them.

Sunday was a great day, we had an early meeting at 8:30 at the church. The only problem with that was our church is 25 mile round trip and we can't afford to make that trip twice in a day so we had to stay there until our church started at 1. As we were walking the halls at 12, I remembered that I was playing a piece for sacrament meeting! Ha that was really frightening to just remember an hour before Church but I felt like I did a great job! Betsy and her family came to church which was amazing!! They weren't there when church started which made us worried but she told us and Natalie that morning she would be there so we waited for them. They came and it was just in time for the sacrament! I told Aiden earlier that week that he would love primary and sure enough he had a blast he said! When they first got to church he had his new Pokemon cards in his pocket because he knew he would see me and he wanted to show them to me! We finished off the night at the Bozzo home. Sister Bozzo just got engaged to Brother Roy, both in their late 30's but have kids, and it was a great appointment. Their boys wanted to have a nerf gun war with us which was fun to do with them! Following that we just talked with them about their marriage which is coming up and such!

It was a great week and I am very excited for this next week! I hope everyone has been doing well!

Love, 

Elder Bentley

Happy New Year!

 

Playing Pie Face

Merry Christmas!

 

Family,

Oh goodness I cannot believe that it is already 2016! Time really just flies as we serve the lord every day! There's been so many things that I have learned in the last few months that have helped my testimony grow. The weather has been dropping and now we are consistently in the 40's so that's very nice! Starting off the week, Monday night we went and gave a blessing to a lady in the Shady Grove hospital which is about 10 minutes away from where we live. She was in there because she was having breathing problems and she wanted to leave. Sister Nutter was a member o the Gaithersburg first ward, which our roommates cover partially because they are in the French group. We found out that she passed away on Thursday which was very sad to hear, but she defiantly is in a state of peace and happiness now. 

Wednesday we had a great lesson with our new investigator Betsy. She came to the Festival of Lights and wanted to learn more about the gospel. Her husband is a member but is in-active. Our lesson with her went great and she said she would be baptized. Her kids were just the cutest as we talked about Christ they threw in little comments which was great to hear from a 7 &3 year old. That night we had a group dinner with some members in the ward which went great!

New Year's Eve we had a great time as we started off early in the morning a lesson with our investigator David, he has a very long way to come but we hope he will realize how much he needs to do before he can progress. We got home from that appointment and studied a little before we went to help teach English with the French Elders. There we are helping them teach English to one of their investigators where they start teaching English and end with a spiritual lesson. Elder Timmerman is patiently helping me learn bits of French which is great! That night we went to a party at a members house until about 9:30 when we had to be in. We stayed up until midnight all bored but was awake for the new year.  

New Year's Day was a non pros day and they wanted us to spend time with members when we could. The only problem is most of the day on New Years the members are busy or are asleep so we went and had Cafe Rio with the French Elders. Following that we just hung around and had a blast together until we went to Lulu's house for dinner. We spent the rest of the day there and talked with her and her daughter about her mission. 

Saturday was a slow day, but that morning we got a text from Sunny. He lives in North Carolina and wants to learn more about Christ so we talked with him on the phone and taught a little restoration to him as I made lunch. After talking with him I got ahold of the bishop who lives in the area to get the missionaries number but the bishop asked who the referral was. When we told him it was sunny he told us that Sunny was a member who was confused and was calling missionaries all around the U.S. Trying to get them to teach and talk with him. Needless to say he told us to not acknowledge him and that they were working with that problem. Ha it was so funny to find all that out!

Sunday was a very busy day for us. We now have church at 1. Igor didn't make it to church that day. We haven't had contact with him his last week and we are working hard to try and get contact with him. It was sad when he didn't show up because we have to push back his B-date. But following that we had Stake correlation and then dinner with the Hares who fed us waffles! It was such a great fast Sunday!

I hope all has been well for everyone!

~Elder Bentley 

It's a Small World!

I met my second cousin! Nick Ballam! What a small world!

 

 

I spent 30 minutes looking through this book with Nick! I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time!

This is what I found out about my Grandma Welch in the book!

Our awesome investigator, Igor!

 

 

Dear Everyone!

This Christmas week has been so amazing! It has been full of the spirit of  Christmas. As you know I Skyped home, but I'll still include things I said just so everyone can hear. Monday we took the metro down to DC to have a brunch with a member of the DC 3rd ward named Cesear! He is such a great guy and has devoted his life to the missionaries. But he isn't one of those creepy one, he is just so sincere and kind! That night we went carolling to some less actives homes with the Andersons! It was such a blast and the spirit was greatly felt. 

Tuesday morning we had an early lesson with an investigator named David. He likes to feed us breakfast as we talk with him, we tried to extend a B-date but he said that he wasn't ready for it and basically denied us. We will work with him to get his life settled out so he can do that! We had our typical meetings and got our Christmas Packages. We found out that one of our ZL's didn't get anything from his family so we put money together and got him stuff for Christmas! It was so amazing being able to do that. His excitement Christmas morning when he woke up to presents was priceless. That night we went to the VC for Festival of Lights with the Frenchies which was great! It was Polynesian night so that was amazing, and the spirit was very strong there as well.

Wednesday we had appointments with Harold ( the crazy for missionaries one). He threw us a little Christmas party which was very nice of him to do. That night we had a lesson with two investigators who don't speak English. They speak Portuguese so we had someone translation for us, it went well but was hard to bear testimony. He denied a b-date because he had already been Baptized so we will work with him on that as well.

Thursday was Christmas Eve. We had another breakfast with David and finished teaching him the Plan of Salvation. We then helped someone move into a close by ward for the remainder of the proselyting day. We had an appointment with our golden investigator Igor, and let me tell you how ready for this gospel he is.

Christmas morning we woke up early to unwrap presents. And I am very grateful for everything that was given to me( thanks mom, and Brian & Shanna, yes this basically is a shout out.) We then went to the visitor center where the Cookes bore testimony. Following that we got to watch a little Christmas thing the APs put together and then Inside Out. Yes they totally let us watch a movie! We had a lunch at the stake center and a little talent show. The Cookes gave each one of us a Christmas card, Book of Mormon with their testimonies and a mission bookmark. We then got to Skype home and that was tons of fun! We spent the remainder of the night at the Landeriths home and had a blast!

Saturday and Sunday we got to go to the Festival of Lights. Sunday was with Igor and he is an all around great guy! There were bands that performed which was nice to hear their music. We had a lunch with the Ballams who I found out is my second cousin! We were sitting in their dining room and their little girl asked about great grandma Israelsen. I asked how old she was and from there found out that Brother Ballam's grandpa is Lyle (Eva's son) so they pulled out the heritage book that was put together and sure enough we are related! Nick Ballam is his name, we talked about uncle Lyle's cabin and such! It was such a great lunch! 

I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas!

 

Love, Elder Bentley

Merry Christmas!

Dear Family!

This week has been a slower week for us. We don't know why but we want to just say it is because of the Holidays. But we still have been able to have a great week!

Monday morning we got to go to a member in the Potomac Ward who is a very successful guy. There we talked about the church and had cheese. He doesn't really let missionaries over to his home, but he likes our roommates and has them over every so often! He has a Blüthner piano which he let me play on. It was such a great experience and I was so happy as I was playing it! His piano room is made to project the music throughout the entire mansion! That night we had dinner with a member who is just moved back to Utah. 

Wednesday we had our transfer meeting and I am staying here for another transfer. I am super excited to stay here because we have done so much in this ward and now we get to see some of the fruits of our labor. It was a very long meeting however because they had a presentation on racial topics for a good portion of it. We had dinner with Brother Chaney who is such a great guy, he feeds us every week and is fun to talk to.

Thursday we had an appointment with a Turkish less active member. He works in Sunday's so he isn't able to make it to church, but he said he was retiring in January so we told him we were expecting him to start coming. That night we got to go to the metro and talk with some more people. I got to talk to a coupe of great guys, on of which wanted to know about the atonement which was awesome to teach him about. 

Saturday we had an early appointment with a member down at the bottom of our area. So we spent most of the day down in that area. He wanted to mostly talk about race for most of the time, but we still brought the spirit for the few minutes of teaching with him. That night a family had us over after the BYU Utah football game so he filled us in with that. He has a great family and we had a blast over at their home. 

Since it was Christmas Sunday the ward put on a  program which was very great! There was a non member friend who showed up to church so we got to go around and try to explain things with him. He doesn't live in the ward boundary so we get to refer him to the right missionaries. A speaker fell on my head in the morning after our conference call with the ward council. It gave me a headache which comes into play later in the paragraph. We had an early breakfast with the Bearman family. They had a great meal and wanted us to play soccer with them afterward so we played with them!  After that we were contacting referrals and I decided I needed to get some ibuprofen. We went to a close by neighbors home who we chatted with and got the medicine. After which we went to the visitor center where they had a little choir of youth in the Potomac area sing. Our investigator on date showed up with his roommates and we got a lesson scheduled with them this week. 

It has been such a great week and I am so very excited for Christmas!

 

Love, Elder Bentley