Praying for an Assignment

Hello family!

So, first item of interesting news, me and my companion were called to be zone leaders last sunday. I was quite surprised by the call, but I kinda saw it coming a long time ago. I'm actually pretty excited about it because we are responsible for helping the new missionaries get comfortable with the mtc and for taking care of the rest of the zone. Me and elder sturgell were already doing that (even though it wasn't our "responsibility") so I saw it coming. We are getting a new district in today, so we go tonight to meet with them and to tell them they will still be alive tomorrow morning. Then tomorrow night, we get to give them a tour of the mtc. Should be fun! Another interesting thing, for our fireside last night, we had L. Tom Perry as our speaker and all but two of the Quoram of the Twelve on the stand. They are all here for the new mission president's seminar. It was really cool to see them all in person in the same room (even if the room is the size of a small stadium).

    It sounds like the entire house is switching around! Bet everyone's having fun with that. I thought you were giving my drums to Ryan Freeman, but thats awesome that Eli got them! It's really good to see others in our family start to pursue musical hobbies. I'm glad my drums can be the potential start of something amazing for Eli. I didn't know that being able to play guitar was one of Jamie's aspirations. I hope she sticks with it!

   I canot believe that my time here is almost up. It literally feels like last week that I was being dropped off at the curb by the Halligans wondering how I'd ever find my way around this place because all the buildings look the same. It's all become quite routine now, and I am very ready to move on to the real thing. If I'm not meant to go to Argentina for a while longer yet, I at least want to be reasigned somewhere that I can do real work. I've heard of a lot of people that have to stay in the mtc for a lot of extra time. I do not want that to happen to me. Please pray for me so that I'll be able to start doing real work as soon as possible.  

     I hope that out in the field I'll be able to use my talents a LOT more than I have here. Tell Brother Canon thank you for his comment about me sounding better than half the choir! Though, there are some REALLY good singers in there. I wish I had more I could talk about, but every day here is pretty much the exact same thing. Hope to hear from everyone soon. Love you all!

para siempre dios este con vos

Love, Elder Jacob Bentz

The long wait...

Thanks for the mini book of mormon! And The pictures you sent wont show up on the screen, so I can't see them ): Now for some not so good news. After the meeting with the visa agents, we all found out that the next meeting we have is when we sign for the visa in front of the consolate, and only after that (July 3rd) will they send the visa in for approval from argentina. And the wait time is at the most, 6 weeks after that, and my scheduled departure date is July 16th. So in other words, it's 95% positive that I'm going to get reassigned somewhere in the U.S. while I wait for my visa to get approved. That's fine with me, just as long as I don't have to stay in the MTC for longer than I'm supposed to. I want to get out there and start doing REAL work. Don't get me wrong, this place is great, but sitting in a desk for an average of over 7 hours a day gets old. So we'll have to see what happens with that. Piano playing on sunday went good. Though, I didn't even get a chance to audition for the special choir. We all filled out slips of paper a few weeks ago that said how much experience I had with voice lessons, etc. Which I have virtually none of, so I didn't even get a chance to audition. Ohhh well. Something exciting happening here is the new mission president seminar happening the end of this week and the beginnig of next week. So in other words, all of the general authorities will be here throughout those days just walking around the MTC!! That's soo coool! Other than that, it's just the same old story around here. Hope to hear from you soon. Love you all!

para siempre dios este con vos

Love, Elder Bentz

One month...

First off, I have AWESOME news. Me and all the other elders in my district going to Argentina got papers in the mail yesterday telling us about two meetings we have coming up: The first is on June 18th to meet with the visa agents, and the second is on July 2nd to meet with the Argentine Consolate. Soooo in other words..... we're all leaving on time!!! Thank you everyone for all of your prayers. I know for a fact that they all helped. I'm glad everyone liked the s.d. surprise! Elder Sturgell usually sang the higher part and I usually sang the lower part. We sang it on sunday for sacrament, and it was awesome. It made a few people cry, including a new elder who is a voice major at Berklee. Woww. That made me feel quite accomplished. We are practicing our song again today so that we can audition it tomorrow for a fireside. I also put my name in to be chosen to audition for a special choir that willl be singing at the upcoming mission president conference. On the paper, you had to write down the experience you have with choir and any vocal acheivements you've had. Experience is required to even be able to audition, so hopefully I'll be able to. I didn't know there would be so many musical opportunities here! I only wish I got to play piano. I've only been able to play it once in the entire time i've been here. I'm glad to hear (and see) everything going so well at home. Thank you for all the pictures! They seriously made my day. And tell Thor I said Hi  (;  Everything is still going good here. Just the same old stuff every day. I cannot eve believe that I'm already half way done with the MTC. Two years is NOT that much time. Oh, and I will send grandpa's watch back (as much as I'd like to keep it with me) as soon as I am able. Love you all!

May the Force be with you...

para siempre dios este con vos

 -Love, Elder Bentz

Music Video from MTC

Elder Bentz & Elder Sturgell "I Know That My Redeemer Lives"

Week Three

Im glad you got my sd card and enjoyed the pics.  When I send the next sd card home, there will be a special surprise on it for everyone (; To answer the question, there are FIVE of us going to Buenos Aires West in my district. Me, my companion, Elder McBride (the one from Gilbert, went to Highland Highschool. Isn't that Shayne's school?), Elder Smith (a fellow choir nerd), and Elder Nelson (BYU Basketball prodigy). I'm hoping that most if not all of our visas come through on time so that we can fly down there together. I cannot WAIT to get down there and get on with my "real" mission. All of our teachers and volunteers say how good my spanish is for only four weeks and how my accent is really good. That gives me a lot of confidence. I'm glad you enjoyed hearing about my experience with 3 Nephi. I try to share all the big experiences that I can, but so much happens here that sharing everything is simply imossible. I do try though. Thank you for sending the pictures, by the way. Feel free to send as many as you want. My allergies turned into a head cold last week. It was passed around to almost everyone in my district, exact same symptoms and everything. I am completely better now though, and yes I have been taking my vitamins and meds. On a side note, me and my companion came up with an arrangement of "I Know that My Redemer Lives" and are going to sing it for sacrament on sunday. Tomorrow (if we have it down good enough) we're going to audition it sing it for a fireside. That would be sooo awesome to be able to do. To sing in front of all roughly 2,300 missionaries...wow. Well, hopefully it all works out and we can do that. And if not, at least we tried. If you could send my Grama E's/B's addresses either in a letter or in an email so I can send them something, that'd be great. I love how you all write me individual letters, and I'll try my hardest to respond to all of them. One more thing, do you think I should have you send me one of my other watches? I'm becoming uncertain that taking the one I have now to Argentina would be a good idea since it has such sentimental value. Opinions/ideas would be greatly appreciated. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying summer (aka being bored to death and girlifying my old room ;)  I love you all!

 

p.s. Thanks for the news update about Argentina! That's so good to hear. 

  *Para Siempre Dios Este Con Vos* (God Be With you till we meet again)