September 20, 2011

Hey ya all!!!! I hope you all had a great week!!!! What a fantastic week!!!
wouldn't you all agree!!!! I love being a missionary, there is no greater
joy that comes than doing this great and marvelous work. I cant wait to tell
ya all about my week!!! Like I said before I have absolutely loved this
week. I know this week wouldn't have been as great with out your all's
prayer and support that you are giving to me and the many missionaries
around the world. I can truly see the blessings that come as you all pray.
And I want to express my thanks for that it truly is amazing to watch the
lord pour out his blessings upon our area!!! And first things first I want
to wish my Uncle Wes a happy Birthday. Wes I hope you know how much I love
you, you are such a great uncle to me and i look up to you so much!!! I miss
all our fun times golfing. I hope our Cowboys are doing well!!!! Uncle Wes I
love you thank you so much for everything and i miss ya buddy.
Well I gotta say its so weird being in a tri-companionship. This week we
had to get a third member to our companionship because this Elders companion
got his Visa and headed to Africa. Ill sure miss that elder that left we
became the really good friends it was amzing to see him in 4 weeks into the
mission find someone and baptize that person in 4 weeks. It was a cool
experience to be a witness of. But anyways it feels pretty good teaching
lessons we have more back up ha ha. But this will last just till tomorrow.
Anyways, so you know how I was telling you all about the new student
investigator we got last week, we have meet with her twice since last week,
we have meet with her on Sunday then last night then we are teaching her
again tonight. I am so excited for this girl. She is so excited to be
baptized. I feel like it is a blessing from our heavenly father that we are
teaching her. When we meet with her on Sunday we taught her about her plan
of salvation and the lesson went so well!! The whole time we were focusing
on how the plan is centered around the gospel of Jesus Christ. During the
lesson I shared my favorite scripture Doctrine and Covenants 19 about the
atonement and it totally made her cry, and she told us how much she loved
that one to. It came near the end of the lesson. I got the opportunity to
bear my testimony of the plan of salvation and then it came time I felt
something urging me to give her the baptismal date so I did. I don't
remember how I tied it in so well, but I just felt like I was guided by the
spirit to know what to say ahead of time it came out just perfect!!! I was
so nervous to hear what she would say. . . There was a short pause I looked
down at the ground and right back up and I heard her say silently like a
whisper YES!!!!!! I was so happy everyone in the room was so excited. It was
amazing. I am so glad I followed the promptings of the spirit. She is going
to be baptized on October 7. We are super duper excited!!!! We have a great
feeling that a couple more people will commit to baptism this week as well.
We are so excited and I felt like this was a great blessing from father in
heaven. I am so grateful for these teaching experience that I get the
opportunity to be apart of on my mission. We were teaching another
investigator-student this week and I asked in the 1st lesson if you were
come to know if the things we teach are true would you follow the example of
your savior Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood
authority of God. And she said YES!!!! Things are just going so well for us.
I hope I can continue to be worhy of all the lords blessing in this area.
And I hope that we will continue to find success as we continue to teach and
spread this gospel and the blessings that come along with it to all these
people in Buena Vista.
So this week had a leadership training meeting in Charleston. I really
enjoyed it. We had two teachers from the MTC come meet with us and they
talked about how much better our mission can do. We did a lot of role
playing such as how to extend baptism commitments, inviting people to
church, and to pray. I hope that I can help Elder Parker learn about all
these things and get him comfortable with extending these commitments. I
absolutely love training by the way!!! Elder Parker is doing such a great
job. I just hope I can be that example to him throughout his mission, and
help him become the missionary he wants to be. Its so awesome. . . I love
being a missionary thats all there is to it:). oh and by the way. . . Elder
Partridge is coming to be my zone leader and we will be living in the same
apartment ha ha I was so excited to hear that !!! Its going to be a
blast!!!!
So this week I have been really thinking about what I have wanted to share
with you all, and I have a feeling to share with a story from the bible
about the prodigal son. The story comes from Luke chapter 15, I am pretty
sure that you all are familiar with this story. I hope that this parable
will help you as much as it has helped me. At the beginning of the parable
the father gave all he had to his son. And soon after the son went and spent
it on riotous living, and soon after there arose a famine in the land and
the son began to be in want. He then found a job feeding pigs and yet he
still perished with hunger. He then started realizing I can earn more with
his father. And he got really sorrowful to a point where he needed to repent
to his father. He just simply wanted to go to his father and say. When he
was making his way back into town to go to his father. His father saw him
aways off and had compassion on ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
" Father I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight,and I am no more
worthy to be called thy son."
I really love that story. I know I made it brief, but I have learned so much
from this story. I love the role of the father in this story. How he had so
much compassion on his son. We can compare that to many things. But what I
got out of it as a missionary means so much to me. I know that Father in
heaven is always there with compassion to our investigators they just got to
have that desire to repent. I think for us as members of this church it
means so much more. how often do we act as the father to those around us.
How can we have that same compassion as we bring others into this gospel. I
know for me its the greatest feeling in the world to welcome my friends back
into the gospel after having wandered and gone through so many hard trials.
I have made it a goal a part of me to show that compassion more towards
others who don't have the gospel. Its so easy to just ignore the person in
front of us at the grocery store or to walk past someone in the mall. But
how often do we take the time to show that compassion by spreading the
gospel. I know for a fact I am not perfect at this but i can sure do better
at showing that compassion to others. and I would invite you to do the same.

Thank you all so much for all your prayers and support not only to me but
to me family we really are thankful for all of you and for your love. I hope
that I can show that same love back to all of you as well. Thank you so
much. Happy Birthday to anyone that I have missed ha ha. I hope you alll
have a great week and know that I am missin you. Cant wait to tell ya all
about next week!!!


love ya:

Elder Bentley- Moroni 8:3