Good Luck Greenie

I thought it would never come, but on Tuesday Elder Bentley will be done his 6 weeks in the Argentina MTC and will be heading to Uruguay! To celebrate him becoming a greenie...but mainly to celebrate the fact that I have made it this long...haha I made him the typical greenie package! So creative.

what's in it?
>Open when...letters. Cheesy, and over done? Probably. But I did it anyways because I knew he would love it.
>Mission Book. I created a book through apple and compiled all my favourite talks, quotes, scriptures, gospel pictures, and his missionary pictures.
>The Mountain t-shirt.  Mason wore these nature t-shirts all the time before his mission, and I found the perfect green one to add to the package.
>Green Tie. Mason told me that tie trading is a big thing in the mission, so I included a nice tie for him to use specifically for that purpose.
>Klean Kanteen. My brother's swear by this water bottle, and I thought it would be extremely useful for him.
>Green Treats. You know what your missionary likes, so make it personal (and shippable!)

Here are just a few more ideas that I thought of after I had already mailed it:
>The Infinite Atonement. This book is small (good for shipping), green, and is an awesome book for missionaries to study...if their mission presidents will allow them.
>Pocket hymn book.  If your missionary is learning a language, try to find a hymn book in their specific language. 

5.

In 5 days Elder Bentley will be leaving the Argentina MTC to serve the people of Uruguay! I cannot believe that 6 weeks went by as fast as it did. It's made me realize that 2 years is such a short time to give up everything in order to serve the Lord. 
"So I see the cardston temple on the background of these computers all the time and let me tell you, I feel like it is my temple.  I get so stoked everytime I see it.  First thing I do when I get to Canada is go through that temple!"

It's mail time

It is the first handwritten letter. Forgive me for posting.

4.

And this is why I love my missionary:

"It was on Saturday when we went proselyting. Oh my goodness, I love proselyting so much. We were in the same area as last time and we got there and were working way good and getting a lot of contacts and lessons and what not before lunch and then we went and ate lunch and got some ice cream. Dulce de leche flavor. Nice. It was way good and then while we were around there I saw two kids with a soccer ball so I asked if I could kick it around with them and they said yes and then left and that was it. So we were going around calpping at doors again and we look up on this roof and it was the two kids with soccer ball so we freaked out and asked if their parents were home so we could talk to them! Their mom, 5 other siblings, and about 5 dogs came out of the house and invited us in. It was the coolest thing ever, because nobody ever actually invites us in!!! She invited us into her nice little humble home and back to the back patio which was nice and we sat down and taught her a lesson about the restoration, about the plan of salvation and about the book of mormon! It was sooo coool because it was all in Spanish and she was very receptive and she had her family there. It was incredible, I could feel the spirit so strongly which is kind of a hard thing to do while you are trying to get your spanish down. I am sending a picture of her and her family."

After the lesson, me and Hartvigsen went up on their roof and played soccer with the two kids for quite sometime before we left to go contacting some more. As we were walking to our ride, the kids caught up to us and gave us bracelets!! Ahh! I am soo stoked for the actual mission, because that is what it is going to really be like.

It was really sad though because we bonded with this family but we will never see them again. We took down their information and are giving that to the missionaries of the area but that is so sad! It was definitely the best day of my mission so far, and I look so forward to being able to do that everyday."

21 Brown Paper Packages

Before Mason and I said our final goodbye on the afternoon of his farewell, he placed a large box in the back seat of my vehicle and told me to open the envelope addressed, "Open when... You are driving home from my farewell."
After 2 hours worth of tears had stopped, I opened the box.  Only to have them start all over again. Inside I saw a stack of envelopes, his mission picture, and numerous brown paper packages.  The top envelope he had instructed me to read was thick.  I could see the penciled outline of his handwriting underneath the sharpie ink. Every detail he put into these made me miss him that much more.  I won't share everything he put into this letter, but I will say that it was perfect in every way and was exactly what I needed.  He always knows.
After reading the letter I thumbed through the rest of the envelopes to find these:

Open When...

>>You Need a Laugh<<

>>You Crave a Movie<<

>>You Want a Snuggle<<

>>It is Our Anniversary<<

>>You Need a Date Night<<

>>You Are Feeling Lonely<<

>>You Are Craving A Kiss<<

>>You Don't Feel Beautiful<<

>>You Just Want a Fun Letter<<

>>Grades Are Stressing You Out<<

>>You Are in a Real Cooking Mood<<

>>You Are Really Really Missing Me<<

>>You Are Thinking About The Future<<

>>You Have Opened Your Mission Call<<

>>You Have Gone Through The Temple<<

>>You Are Going Through A Rough Time<<

>>You Are About to Leave on Your Mission<<

>>You Need to Know How Much I Love You<<

>>You Want Something That Reminds You of Me<<

>>You Are Making the Long Drive to Provo For School<<

>>You Have the Desire to Open Every Single One of These at the Same Time<<

I came to find out that on the back of each envelope there was a number that corresponded to a brown paper package.  Everything was strategically placed within the box. As I continued to look through the package I found that under each layer of packages he had placed hundreds of pictures of us.  Did I mention he is the most perfect human being? I'm in love.

It has been exactly a month since I've said goodbye and so far I have opened two more Envelopes.

>>When You Crave a Movie<< & >>When You Need a Laugh<<

I knew exactly what the movie package was and that was probably why I opened it first.  It included my favourite movie—Fantastic Mr. Fox— and Mason's favourite Movie—500 Days of Summer.  He even included another one of my favorites: popcorn.

The second package my family encouraged me to open while they were all visiting.  The letter definitely made me giggle, and the package... let's just say it scares me how well Mason knows me.

3.

Thursday mornings always bring up mixed emotions.  There is nothing I want more than to get an email from my missionary.  I anticipate it like a little kid on Christmas morning, but Thursdays are also the days that I tend to miss Mason the most.  I can hear the sound of his voice as I read his weekly email, and I feel like I know exactly how he is feeling at that moment.  It makes me extremely happy to hear the joy he is experiencing, yet it makes me miss him even more. 
"It was a pretty good week, Hartvigsen and I are really in sync when we are teaching our fake investigators lessons and we are getting better with our Spanish, I am excited to start teaching real people and be able to see how the gospel blesses their lives. On Sunday we had a devotional and during it we heard testimonies from past prophets and apostles and President Hinckleys voice came on a couple times and it nearly brought me to tears hearing my beloved prophet from my youth bearing his testimony. It was incredible. I love this gospel, I really do and I love seeing the blesses it has brought to our family and hope to see these blessings in the lifes of those people in Uruguay!!!"

2.

I've decided to do a weekly update with every email I receive from Mason.  I don't plan to post his whole email—he has a blog for that: http://mason.elderbentley.com/, but my favorite bits and pieces. Such as this:
"It is weird as Hartvigsen and I are teaching our "investigator" because it is just a teacher at the CCM. But we feel like he is such a real person and that he NEEDS to be baptized. It is the weirdest thing, we pray for him, we feel for him, we prepare lessons for him. We do everything for him and he isn't even a real person!!! When they are real people it will definitely be easier but the teachers here are really good at role playing. It blows my mind! I can always feel the spirit during our lessons even though they are all in Spanish."

I'm embarrassed to admit how long it took me to understand how this picture was created....