Three Letters
from a Missionary
by
Richard Gavin Bentley [Edited by Peggy Proctor]
The following
are excerpts from letters written during my mission, one near the
beginning, one at the middle, and one towards the end. To me they
are a portrait of change which I owe to our Father in Heaven and
the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Monday, May
24, 1999
Hello! Well, I'm in Mexico. It's zany. I'm not in Guadalajara
City, but four hours away from it to the northwest, in the city
of Xalisco, state of Nayarit. It's wild here! .....people are so
poor, total dirt roads with people living in shacks. We're teaching
a family now who have only one small room with dirt floors, tin
roof, boards and maybe some bricks for walls. That's like the majority
of people in my area. They have nothing but still come to church.
I REALLY appreciate what I've got--even running water is a luxury.-
There hasn't
been gas in our apartment since I got here--love those COLD showers.
We walk at least
a half hour to get to our appointments. Hopefully my feet will get
calloused so they'll be numb, and I won't feel them. There aren't
very many members here, and they live far apart, so we walk forever.
It's so hot and humid, and I hear it only gets worse in the next
couple of months. Hotter! It's near 35 Celsius! The food is pretty
good though. We eat with the members. I really love the people!
One awesome sister,-- Hermana Lulis, made chicken tostadas. Wow,
were they good!
There are four
elders in our apartment-one American, the rest Mexican.
My comp's cool,
Elder Castillon. He's a native and doesn't speak any English. Nice,
huh? I try to talk with him,--- sign language would help! He's cool
about it, though. Missionary life is hard, especially here. People
just go off in Spanish, and I sit and wonder what they're saying!
At times I have no clue how I'm going to learn this language, and
I don't remember all the words in English anymore. The people are
willing to listen, which is a blessing, but I don't know how to
find the "Golden Ones." I try to listen to the Spirit, but I feel
I need to knock on every door and talk to every person. I don't
know if it's the Spirit.
Our first baptism
is Saturday,-- Cristobal. He's 13. My comp did all the work, and
I'm baptizing him. Cristobal's little brother Brian is awesome!
He runs up and gives me five and goes off in Spanish, which I understand
little of, so I just smile. Speaking to children is great, they
have only a bit bigger vocabulary than I, so I don't feel so stupid!
I can bear my testimony, so I do when I can, in my broken Spanish.
The Spirit speaks to the hearts , so it's all good. The Lord put
me in this area so I could find my friends.
I need to find
these people!
I love you all,
Elder Richard Gavin Bentley
Monday, April
10, 2000-family letter
We went to the "Barranca" (The Canyon). It's huge! And really
deep. There's a little town in the canyon where humble people live,
so, we decided to go for it! We didn't know how big and long it
was, however! Down we went in full missionary attire: dress shoes,
ties, the works! It took us an hour going down the rocky, steep
slopes.--It's boulder alley! We talked to the people and found some
good guys to teach.
The way back
up was very hard! I almost didn't make it up the canyon. My hernia
was hurting me so much that I couldn't use my right leg. It didn't
want to react to what I was telling it to do. I'd say "lift up"
and it would say "no."----- To get up the mountain I had to grab
my pant leg and manually lift my leg. Pretty funny, huh. My leg
looked like Jello. I hated it. It was the heat of the day and my
leg didn't work and my heart was pounding 'cause I'm out of shape
and my hernia was hurting. It was a 5-star treat!--- But, I got
through it. During the climb up, if I stopped to rest it was worse
because my legs would discover that they could rest and they would
give out on me,---- so we didn''t rest.
At the end of
the trail there was a sign that read, "You've never seen better."
I laughed ; I thought to myself, "Have I?" The answer is yes! I've
seen a lot better before. But as you already know and as I always
say, it's all good! Esta todo bien!
I'll keep y'all
up to date. Does it really take a month to get my letters? I'm sorry
about the mail system. We hardly have time to write or to do anything
on P-days. Instead of 6 p m, our P-days now end at 4 p m. We now
have our district classes at 4pm. The president says it's another
thing we can sacrifice to get more success. I hope so.
Saturday we
had a baptism.
Her name is
Ahide (14 years). Her family got baptized about 6 months ago, but
she always said "not me." She said that she thought she'd get baptized
someday but she didn't feel the need or desire to do it for a while.
I told her to
pray and ask God if she should wait or if she should get baptized
now.
Two days later
she told me she wanted to get baptized. At her baptism, as a family
sang to her, she started to cry. Her mom put her hand on Ahide''s
shoulder and Ahide grabbed her mom's hand, then her dad grabbed
Ahide's hand as well. I saw the three with tears of joy and gratitude
in their eyes. I saw a family being united. Seeing and feeling this,
I was hit hard emotionally too. What a beautiful experience. I'm
so grateful I could be a part of helping unify a family for the
eternities. It made me even more grateful for my family, that we're
all sealed for eternity. I know that's true. I love this gospel.
I know this church is true. I say it everyday.
Monday, Oct.30,
2000
Hey! Well the good times keep rollin' here in Mexico. We have
more work than we have time,--the days are too short. Can you believe
that? I'm actually saying that there's not enough time in the day.
That's great. Yesterday in the district conference the president
referred to the members as the salt who give flavor to the lives
of others. We as missionaries are the "salt shakers." Cool, huh?
In my talk I
compared the missionaries to construction workers. We build houses.
The houses are converts! To be effective we build all of the houses
on a specific street. We can't go from one part of the town to the
other, because we waste time and money, etc. We need to plan every
morning to see where the houses are that already have a foundation
or the houses that are just barely getting started, so that we can
put a brick every day on our houses. To help the elders remember
to plan, I made bookmarks of a brick wall and wrote graffiti style
and I quoted M. Russell Ballard, "Live every day as if it were another
brick in the construction of a monument." The converts are the monuments.
I cut out their pictures and pasted them on the bookmark. The president
thought this concept was very profound and said that we should live
every day to put another brick on our monument.
Crazy stuff
is going on. Listen to this---- We were supposed to have three baptisms
last Saturday, but we ran into a major snag. I had to stay at the
elders' house that lives one hour away and then get up at 4:45 to
get back to my area early enough to give interviews. We had it all
worked out. We arrived and were interviewing an investigator when
she decided to tell us that her "husband" is not married to her.
They're just living together! Don''t worry, we worked through that
one and they are going to be married tomorrow.--- So we will have
three baptisms.
It's all good,
because in the mad process of trying to find the lady to get interviewed
we ran into a couple of members from Texas. They hardly speak any
Spanish, but they had left a note on our apartment door that said
that they had a couple of friends to take to church.
We were just
walking down the street, and a man came up to us and said, "Brother
McGovern, Texas." I said, "Elder Bentley, happy to see you, Utah.--
Wait, you're a member?" "Yup." We talked with the McGovern's and
some of the people they had invited to church.
The McGoverns
and their friends came to church that Sunday, plus another family--eleven
investigators in all. Awesome! Sister McGovern told me that she
wanted to bear her testimony and asked if I'd translate for her.
She bore a great testimony. I added my own testimony about how God's
plan will go forth. He has people He''ll put in our paths who are
ready to be taught and He will choose us to teach them if we will
accept. My testimony of the church is so much more profound now.
I know that it's true. I've lived it. Without the church in my life,
I'd be lost. I wouldn't have a foundation at all. What a blessing
it is to be where I am and with who I am. We need to give thanks
to God for all that we have.
Love, Elder
Bentley
I know that
this church is true. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us more
than we can comprehend, and is always trying to help rescue each
one of us. I know that Jesus Christ died for us so that we can return
to his presence. Life can be difficult at times but our Father is
all powerful and He provides the way to deliver us, just ask.
Editors'
Note: Submit your missionary stories to our Meridian Missionary
Journal editor, Peggy Proctor at missionaryjournal@meridianmagazine.com
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