8/30/2010........Keep Spreading the Word

I would love to go through all of my pics with you mom. I have like all of them memorized anyway. That will be fun. anyway, yeah, a car? that costs money that I don't have! seriously, I think a bike will be good enough for the beginning, and the Bus too. I will proably have to get a car within a year, of course, but at first, I need to get some $$$$ We'll see about it later. I really still have no idea what I want to do for school. I was thinking about it lately (I know, a sin...) and I have been considering two options, teaching, more specifically teaching German, cause that is the only thing i have going for me right now, and something with computers, so maybe an electrical engineering degree or something like that, I have no idea, I guess I will have to worry about that all at the same time once I get back. oh well. Brad is already gone? man, that was fast...Rainy too...schade....

FOOTBALL!!!!! BASKETBALL!!!!! yes, I can't wait to watch every single game! dad, you should look into getting some tickets for the Suns, nosebleed is fine...preseason should be just starting when I get back right? I think those are cheaper...well, more about me this last week. It rained a lot, and we are no longer in a drit(3 guys) with Elder Wildey, he is in Mönchen-Gladbach now with his comp... We have a lot of finding time right now, due to the lack of new investigators we had LAST cycle, so yeah, shoot your own foot. We are meeting with some pretty sweet inactives right now, and they are making some good progress, and Vivian is doing awesome! She is seriously the most LEGIT convert ever! she just found out too, that some of her friends back in Taiwan are Mormon too! so that is cool. anyway. We should be playing ping pong with another one of Bishop's asian friends, I will get smoked probably, but I am definitely one of the best americans on the mission at ping pong...I will tell you how it goes. oh yeah, we found out that there IS another zoko, and it will be on the normal day and time, so yeah, one last time I guess...:) thanks for writing. I will see you soon! Tschüss! Love Elder Bentz aka Mooker

8/23/2010........Vivian is Baptized, new suit, shoes

I got the email with the pics of Brad at the airport, thanks. Man, that is so insane that Brad is home. I am coming up now too...geez. anyway, the baptism went perfectly. I gave a talk on baptism, It was in English too, I like that :) She was so happy, everybody who was at the baptism was so nice and supportive, For transfers, I am dying here in Krefeld and Elder Guin is gonna kill me, so all in all, it is good. I got a new suit the other day, It is LEGIT! don't worry about me gettin' a car dad, I wasn't planning on getting one anyway. I think I will just buy a bike,m or ride the bus, I have gotten used to it :) I still have to buy some Lloyd shoes too, and some more shirts...sooo, don't worry that I am taking some more money out at the end here. speaking of, I think it would be awesome if you took pics of me at the airport while I was walking up the terminal, just me by myself, I will do something cool don't worry...man, I am gonna have to send some stuff home pretty soon here as well, soo, be expecting some packages in the near future...hmmm....the weather is pretty crappy now, but shouldn't be too bad up until I leave, my crappy american suits should hold out until I leave, I will take them home I think, but never wear them again, there is a hole in the butt of my blue suit, and so my black one is saving me up until the end....that's how it is...well, the dritt is coming to an end this week, now we can just focus on our area, it should be good for the last few weeks here. Thanks for everything...I love you all. Tschüss!

Love, Elder Bentz (aka Mooker)

8/16/10....Vivian to be Baptized this Saturday

Cool, Brad is done! I will be sending off his package pretty soon, I might be getting home before it gets to him! if it is anything like last year at least! This week started off pretty normal, but ended up as one of the most different weeks of my mission. It started with a sweet pday in Düsseldorf, playing basketball with the rest of the zone, and then going by on this sweet less active family, and they fed us a lot of noodles, so far so good...then we have German class the next day with Vivian, our investigator from Taiwan, and we started off talking about what she had read out of the Book of Mormon, and she had some questions and concerns. We resolved them and Bishop (who is also from Taiwan) came in and helped explain it too, which was perfect. After they finished, Bishop left, and then Vivian said, '' That was the last of my concerns, I think I am ready to prepare for Baptism.'' ....OK..... so that really happened. We weren't even planning on talking about baptism again for a while. Because we talked about it a while earlier, and she said she wasn't ready yet, and it seemed like it would be awhile before she would be. but then she comes out with that. It was awesome. So we set a baptismal date for this Saturday, at 3:00 and she is good to go for it. She is way committed to it too, which is awesome. That was by far the best thing that happened this week. The next day we had another ZOKO, interviews were cancelled for it, and these are the big changes: ZOKO will be only every 3 months (all of these changes are world-wide changes that all missions are already doing, but we were for some reason left out of it...) interviews also, and the whole way missionaries will be trained at the MTC will be changed pretty much the whole thing is about not teaching lessons, but people. Making missionaries better teachers, and actually helping them to become great teachers, and not just people who repeat the same lessons over and over again. It is really nothing new, they just want missionaries to know that from the beginning instead of having to figure it out for themselves, like we did...and not know it until they are a year or so out...It should help the program all over. So that was that. After that. Elder White went home to go sign up for school on time, and so he was in Mönchen-Gladbach and it is really close to our area here in Krefeld. Elder White left, and his companion Elder Wildey, from New York is now with us here in Krefeld. We are in a drit here and still have to take care of 2 areas, and so that is a little stressful, but all in all it is a blast, more missionaries, more fun, that is pretty much how i see it, no matter who it is...and so we are together for about 2 weeks total, and it is going well so far. Transfer calls are this weekend, and then I will know what will happen for my last cycle, who is killing me, and if I am staying or getting ghosted. So next emails will be pretty big as well. So, that is about it for me, thanks for listening, I hope all is well, I love you all. Tschüss! Love Elder Bentz aka Mooker

8/9/10.......Mystery Zone Conference

Brad McMullin, serving in Chicago area comes home next week. Imagine not seeing your best friend for 2 years? There are lots of ways missionaries sacrifice. They will be seeing each other soon and hiking the Grand Canyon. Our friend Wes Dean will be coming to town for Mooker's homecoming. He's pretty excited.

Brad is already home to me. I will be sending a package to him pretty soon, at his home address, for our birthday...WES!! That is sweet that he will be there for my homecoming. I love that guy...Matt and Melanie moved, cool. I didn't hear anything from either of them this week, but Melanie is pretty good about writing me and even sends pics a lot of the time. This week went well, Vivian is doing well, and already finished the Book of Mormon, She read all of Mosiah in 1 day! She says that once she starts, she can't put it down, so that is cool. She is still not where she needs to be to get baptized, but it is coming, ever so slowly...We have another zoko this week, it is a special one too, nobody knows what it is even about. Everyone thinks it is going to be a Preach My Gospel 2.0 and it will change a lot about how we are doing missionary work, pretty exciting. We are in Düsseldorf again today for Basketball, should be fun. well. that is about it for me, I will send emails only 8 more times, so get in what you want to be said :) Tschüss! Love Elder Bentz aka Mooker

8/2/10......Homecoming, Shuss ! don't talk about it

Yeah, I will definitely be going on that Grand Canyon hike with Ed. Be sure to tell the Elders coming over for dinner, all about me and that I will be coming home really soon, and making sure they are doing good missionary work! jk, :) That will be weird to be on the other side of the table once I get back...anyway, yeah, those packages are probably at Koblenz address, and I still have not gotten them, so tell them that I did not, but still really appreciate it :) OH! be sure to take pics, and\or videos of Brad's homecoming, I totally want you to do that for mine too, I think I will be holding a camera while I am walking off of the plane...DON'T TALK ABOUT IT! IT IS STILL 2 MONTHS AWAY!!!!!!! so, this week, we had fun playing basketball in Düssseldorf with the rest of the zone, and then we had zoko and we were able to meet the rest of the missionaries who came into our mission from the merge a month ago. It was pretty cool. Vivian is doing ok. We tried to get her to see a baptism in Duisburg, a city close to Krefeld, but her GPS got us lost and we missed it, so that was too bad, but she came to church and is still meeting with us. She ended up hearing about some stuff about Mormons from some coworker, and so the last appointment we had we talked about plural marriage and why married people get to ''heaven''. I love it when people try to help us! NOT! She is still ok, and still wants to meet with us, but I don't think it will be happening for a while now though, keep praying though, it always helps. We made out some appts. with some other families this week and will see if we can't get anything from that. The weather is really crappy again today, and doesn't look like it is going to get any better. Summer is like already finished over here. It isn't hot anymore, and it is actually looking more like the beginning of Winter than the end of Summer. oh well. That is about it for me. Thanks for writing, I look forward to seeing some pics next email! Tschüss! Love Elder Bentz aka Mooker