Eleventh Month!

Seneca Zone Mission Tour with President Johnson

Us WIth the Chaneys

Dear Family!

This week has been super week because we had the opportunity to have a little mission tour where everyone got to meet President Johnson. He and his wife came with the assistants and introduced themselves to us. They had their kids put together a little video where they talked about their feelings of the Johnsons coming on a mission. We got a little moment with both Sister and President Johnson where they asked where we were from and about our family. They are going to rock in this mission and we are super excited because President Johnson is a funny guy.

The whole weeks scheduling has been very messed up because we planned for it last week and found out the night before that the mission tour and interviews where changing days so we had to juggle our days a bit. The plus side to that was we got to go to an all day farm shift. We got to the farm, sun screened up and started to fill ditches with old moldy hay. That took about four hours to complete, it was great because Maryland has different bugs than Utah so we say a ton of them in the moldy hay. We then trimmed trees and had a jolly old time.

The night of July 4th we got to go with the Bearman family to the National Cathedral in DC. We were allowed to stay out longer since it was the 4th, we tried to watch the DC fireworks but the could a were blocking it so we walked around the cathedral at night and it was pretty cool.

We got dropped by two of our investigators this week. Anna told us that she wasn't really interested in being a Mormon and that she was fine being a non-denominational Christian.  We also got a new investigator from the sisters who was on date and was excited to meet with us. Then the day before our appointment with her she called and told us off practically. It was sad because our investigator pool was just picking up, then halfway through the week it dropped again. We will start working on building that again. 

We got to go visit some of the less actives of the ward. We went and visited Brother Comeford, he has a mental illness but he is a very smart guy. We sat there silently on his chairs while he did some things, it was very cool because we saw him call himself to repentance so it was awesome to see that. He has been returning to church and is doing great! We saw Brother Coberly who is a crazy cat guy. His home is stuffy with the smell of cat urine and all that cat hair so our visits are pretty short. He came to church this week though so that was awesome! 

We were able to teach a Muslim man who we tracted into more about our religion. He was pretty closed off towards Christians until our conversation so that was good. He asked tons of great questions that were showing his desire to learn and to find out the truth. We probably won't be visiting him at all or anything but it was a great run into that we had with him.

Love,

Happy Independence Day!

Playing Football at the National Mall

Playing basketball with a member and some friends

Happy Fourth of July!

Well this has been quite the exciting week for Elder Bailey and I. The week started off pretty great. Monday morning some of us missionaries met at the National mall to play football. It was pretty exciting, except for the fact that it was pretty hot outside.  We had a great time playing so it was worth it. We walked up to the Good Stuff a Eatery afterwards and got some killer burgers. That was the part I was super excited for. They have these fries that they put herbs on and they are surprisingly super good!

Monday night we had a lesson with Shaka. Jacob came on exchanges with us. He is in the priest quorum and his dad really wants him to hang around good influences that'll make him want to serve a mission. Anyway, we had a great lesson with Shaka. The real miracle was at the beginning of the lesson a referral that we received from the Baltimore mission walked into the lesson. We didn't have an address for her so it was a huge miracle! The spirit was in the lesson and you could definitely tell that both of their hearts were softened. 

Tuesday at the farm we didn't have any riders show up so we got to spend the day herding horses into different pastures to eat. That was great because we got to chase after horses trying to catch them it was a lot easier to catch them after we had some caught before hand. We could walk up with the horse and it was as if they couldn't see us which was super strange. 

Our investigator Jacklyn we were able to visit twice this week. The first visit was to see when we could visit her again within the week. We taught her quickly a little review lesson on the Plan of Salvation because it was apparent that she had forgotten the little bit that we had taught her. Our actual appointment with her we talked about prayer and the importance of finding for our selves the truthfulness of our message. She is a bit sarcastic so it's really tons of fun to teach her.

Thursday morning we had the privilege to go and help President and Sister Cooke finish moving things around the mission home for the new Mission President. It was a simple little thing that we got to go do but it was treasured because we were the last ordinary missionaries in person to say goodbye to them. President Cooke out his arm around me and said goodbye which was really sad. He has been a great leader for this mission. We will miss him tons.

Saturday we got to spend time playing basketball with members and their friends. They had a tournament for the whole thing and Bailey and I won the whole tournament. The member thought we were joking when we said we would win. We found out that the new mission President President Johnson wanted to come out on exchanges with us. It was his second day and he was already coming out us. We were the first missionaries that he went on an exchange with so that was awesome. He is still a little washy on the rules, but he was asking questions and I was helping him answer the questions about rules he had.

This mission even though we have had a change of leadership is still directed by the Lord. I know that President Johnson has been called by God to serve and direct the missionaries in this area at this time. He is everything that this mission needs, funny, hard working, and most importantly very spiritual. We will miss President Cooke, but President Johnson will take this mission further than we think we can go. He will push our limits, help us become better disciples of Christ, and better men and women for this rising generation.

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Last week of June

Us at Lulu's

The Sock Game

Dear Family!

Well this week has been quite the different week for Elder Bailey and I, the week flew by time wise, but we weren't able to really have too many lessons so the days felt like they were dragging on. 

Tuesday was a pretty interesting day. We had our typical district meetings, but I got another district that sat in because their DL was at a training meeting. There were like 7 companionships in the meeting so that was pretty enjoyable because we had participation from tons of people. It started to pour down water through out the meeting but farm was still on. As we were at the farm we were weeding between rain storms and helping with the Riding. Cool thing that happened, McKenna Erasmus is in this mission. She used to live in our ward like 10 years ago.

Wednesday we got to go help a member mow her lawn. She is getting old so she had a riding lawn mower. Of course I offered to use that because it was just an enjoyable two hours of service. She is the member that orders us pizza every other Saturday. We got to go visit Harold today, hurrah.... He got mad at us last week and we had no idea why. But we called him to see if we could visit this week and he got mad at me for making eye contact with him and looking away last week or something. Just causing contention and what not. We got to go visit the Cabanban family that night and set up an appointment to go play basketball with Brother Cabanban and some of his friends, but that fell through. 

Thursday was my birthday! We had our last interview with President and Sister Cooke. They made everyone sing to me so that was exciting. He forgot until we were about to leave and I thought it would have been funny if we had left because he was running through the church looking for me. We went to Betsy's afterwards and they fed us lunch and her kids were excited because we were having our birthdays. Other than that not much happened. We did a lot of contacting and planning for the rest of the day.

Saturday we spent the entire day doing service. We helped out Lulu mow her lawn and take care of the sticks and branches in her yard. We put all the wood in a pile and she gave us this sweet saw to cut the branches into small pieces and so we had a great time with that. While Bailey mowed, I power washed the deck and the Patio for her. We took care of the Matsen's chicken because they were both out town for the weekend. That was quite enjoyable. To finish the night we helped a new family move into the ward. They have a few kids so that meant tons of stuff to move. Luckily tons of helped showed up so we got it done surprisingly very quick.

Sunday we had our first and only appointment with any investigator for the week. Jacklyn was a referral from the sisters who was interested in the church and the joy our message brings. Our visit was short but sweet and to the point. 

Spiritual thought, when we take the sacrament we are taking the name of Christ upon ourselves. Think about having a little Christ statue pinned to our shirts, would we act the same way we would without it? Would we treat others differently? When we take the sacrament we take his name upon us. We are all representatives of him, we need to live his example.

Love,

Bridger's Birthday Week!

This is my district!
 

 

Dear Family!

Well you could say that it's been a pretty great week for Elder Bailey and I. We had transfers this week which usually makes it feel like a slower week, but since Bailey and I are staying we were able to just work like normal. 

Tuesday we had our district meeting where we were able to celebrate another birthday in the district. Elder Bailey and I went and got cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory because that was Sister Sherrow's favorite cake. Thanks to Elder Bailey for funding it though. We had a great testimony meeting and cake party following that for her birthday. We went to the farm after that so we could go and serve with the horses. There were some cancellations so that meant we spent more time cleaning stalls and whatnot but it was still great!

Wednesday was transfers but the only change in the district was we got another greenie. His name is Elder Wilsher and he is from Draper Utah, originally from England though. We helped them get to the store and what not, but other than that we went our proselyting and went and played some pros ball. We came to a park where there were 3 guys playing and they let us play with them. Bailey sat out in the game but we still won so that was great. That night we got to go visit another new move in in our ward. He is in his residency just starting it up. It was great to see that even though this ward is loosing a ton of members, new ones are coming to fill the gaps.

Thursday night was a great night. We haven't been seeing Betsy at church the last few weeks so we stopped by to she how she was doing. They have just recently moved to a new home so on that process they weren't staying at their apartment and went to her sister-in-law's ward. We had a great conversation with her and told her about stake conference this weekend.

We were asked by the stake presidency to have the bishop select 10 member names prayerfully that we could go visit and help them get motivated into sharing the gospel. We finally got our list from the bishop so we got to go visit members through out the end of the week to challenge them to write their testimony in a Book of Mormon. It's been so much fun going around and getting them to commit to do it. 

Most of that covers what we have done this week, so that's really all I have to say. Hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Bentley

June 13

 

 

 

Dear Everyone!

Lulu feeds us all the time!

Well this has been a very slow week for Elder Bailey and I. I'm still getting over this whole sick thing so we weren't really able to get out much because I have a wicked repulsive cough. But that's just a minor detail.

Something that we have been able to do this week is proselyte by playing basketball. Since Elder Bailey is very great at playing Basketball, we have the up hand advantage as we find people on the street playing. We have had many people who wouldn't normally talk to us listen to what we have to say and accept a copy of the Book of Mormon. It was a great way that we could get out and find different kinds of people as we still had fun.

Monday night we had to say goodbye to Landry because he is moving up out of the mission. He moved to Frederick where his wife lives and will be attending church up there with her. They invited us to their sealing in a year though so that is a definite time we will get to see them. They took us to Cafe Rio and we had a great and jolly time there. Talked to him about the priesthood and how it is time for him to prepare himself to receive it.

Wednesday we got to go to the temple with all the missionaries. It was another great death temple trip. This was President Cooke's last temple trip because he leaves at the end of the month. The new mission President will be coming in on July First so we are excited for that. Elder Bailey's parents have run into him a couple of times while they have been out and they say he's a pretty great guy. We went and played pros ball before our dinner and placed a Book of Mormon so that was great.

Thursday was Elder Bailey's Birthday! We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch with some of the other Elders in our zone. While we were eating at some point Bailey snuck away and paid for all the Elders which was very nice of him. We got to go and see a couple of members that day but the best was at the end when Lulu had us all over. She got a huge cake for him and we had a little cake and ice cream party for his birthday at the end of the day.

Saturday we got to go help a member move within the ward boundaries so we were more than happy to help him. We packed up the truck a couple of times before we had most of the big stuff over at their new home. Since he lives close to the park where we were having the ward BBQ we walked over when we were done. We got to spend some time with the ward before we had to go back to work. We went over to Betsy's new home and dedicated it because they wanted that done before they moved in. It was great to see Betsy and some of her kids in the little time we had to go and visit their new home. We had transfer call outs that night, we found out that both Bailey and I are staying at least one more transfer together. This will be my 6th transfer in the Derwood area. 

We went over to the Matsen's after we had church. They were excited to hear that we were both staying another transfer. Their home is like my home away from home. Sister Matsen made us a killer ice cream cake for our birthdays. It was a layer cake with both of our favorite kinds of ice cream. When we had finished there it was time to go in. But it was very kind of them to let us go and celebrate our birthdays with them.

Even though the week was slower, we still had a great time and hope to pull up the work this week as we continue to work in this area.

Elder Bentley

It's Summer!

 

 

 

Zone Activity

 

Dear Everyone!

Well this week has been a little slower of a week for us, but it still was a good one! I have had a cold for most of the week, but I have tried to not let that weigh is down in our work!

Tuesday was a pretty big day for Elder Bailey, he finally got his iPad so he is now independent and its up to me to make sure he knows how to use everything on it properly! We got them at a specialized training for the trainees, at the end we play a game that's a scripture chase, a white hand book chase, and a first vision competition. We smoked all of the other trainees and got the prize ties at the end. I made sure that he had everything down so we could work together to win. We went to the farm at the end of the meeting. The riding instructor broke her ankle so most of the riders were behind schedule. With that, we went fishing at the farm pond, and cleaned out some of the algae.

Wednesday we finally got to go visit Kareen. We taught her the law of Chastity and she is going to talk with her husband to see if he is interested in taking the lessons and joining as well. Their daughter is completely intent on joining, she loves the young women's program and is going to all the camps and activities this summer. We are hoping that the family can see that through the daughters love for the church they will love it. The first started investigating because they wanted to find a church with a good youth program. We visited the Wight family for my first time in 7 months. It was a great meal and we had some great conversation. Little did we know she would be released as the Relief Society President on Sunday.

Thursday I thought was going to drag on, but Elder Bailey made a fun day out of it. We had tons of finding time and as we went from house to house he videoed our journey so it made it very enjoyable. We placed a BOM so it made it worth the time. We visited with Anna that night and she has questions about the chapter we gave her to read. We tied it into the first half of the Plan of Salvation and she ended to understanding most of it which was great!

Friday I got to go on exchanges with the Elders in my district. I went with Elder Williams to their area and we had a great day. The day was full of talking about how we can strengthen their companionship and how he could help his area. We got out tracting and it showed him what really can come out of it.

Saturday we got to help one of my favorite families in this ward with some yard work. We helped Sister Matsen paint a fence, pull weeds and cut down some shrubberies. It was a blast because it was like being back at home with the family doing yard work. Also it's something missionary we can do even though I am congested and can't really hear out my right ear. Saturday night we went to the Hasting and had a great time there, the invited me back after church on Sunday to look at my ear.

Sunday we had the opportunity to teach Primary to the 7&8 year olds. It was a pretty great experience, and tons of fun to do. You could say that it was overall a great week!

Love,

Elder Bentley

Baptism!

Landry's Baptism

Landry's Baptism

Lnndry's Baptism

All the Elders who taught Landry

Dear Family!

Monday was a great day, well we had p-day which was amazing, but the real miracle was that night. We were eating at Sister Wills' home and she let us invite Diana. She showed up and we shared a great meal, the conversation was great, Sister Wills and Diana were bonding pretty well and she has been in contact since then. She told us some things that she is going through and was asking for some advice, we led her to some conference talks where of she is faithful with it, she will get her answer.

I got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders in my area. Elder Cruz came out with me. Since he speaks Spanish and Portuguese as well, we were able to utilize those as we worked. We parked in front of a former investigator and went and checked on a few people by foot, as we were walking we talked with some people, gave out some copies of the Book of Mormon. As we were walking back to the car, we passed some Hispanic ladies who were talking amongst themselves. We said Hola and kept walking to the car. At this point we were in the parking lot and I looked at Cruz and said, "let's go back and talk to those ladies" we got back to where they were and started talking with them. Both were kinda conceded but by the time Elder Cruz testified of the BOM they both accepted copies of it and gave them our numbers.

Thursday night we had Landry's baptism interview late at night. We got permission from president to do it at 9:30 so we were out late. But it was worth it because Landry passed the interview and was good for baptism!

Friday we spent the day preparing for the baptism. He showed up and immediately changed into his baptismal suit, took photos, and was ready to go. He was very enthusiastic about the whole program and we have the whole program on video from Brother Torres. Landry asked me to baptize him, after the ordinance was done we were talking in the changing room and he said he felt a warm hug from our Heavenly Father which was amazing!!!

The following day we got to stop by a less active who I've been trying to get ahold of for months. He wasn't home when we got there, but his wife was. We were talking with her and as we were doing that, I got an impression to asked to see something in their garage. She as more than happy to let us see her husband's car. As we were looking at it he pulled up and talked with us for a bit. He invited us back and we will be going there in a week. Brother Perry at the end of our conversation was pretty excited for our appointment so we are excited with that.

Sunday Landry got confirmed a member, he was just so happy about the whole thing and was super excited. His wife Vita invited us to their sealing in a year, I will still be here for it! The ward mission leader gave a lesson about family mission plans, getting together as a family and setting goals to help others come unto Christ. At the end of the day we got to go to a BYU football fireside. The Navy coach in Meet the Mormons was there and gave a great message. It was a pretty great event.

Thought for the week,

Inviting people to do things can be very intimidating. We all are afraid of rejection, especially when we are inviting our close friends and family to learn about the gospel. But if you think about Christ, while he was on earth he invited people everyday to do things. If you think about how many followers he had compared to the world at that time, less than 1% of people followed him. Think about the church today, with 7 billon people, our church has 15 million members. That's less than 1%. So since people didn't follow Christ, does that make his a bad teacher or a failure? No! So when we invite people to things and they say no, does that make us failures? No! We are beyond successful at the work in these latter days when we realize that having the courage to act on the promptings of the spirit to invite people makes us successful. So why is there fear of rejection? Us inviting them in itself is a success.

Love

Elder Bentley