I can feel my testimony growing so much and I'm so glad to be on my mission. Its the best choice I have ever made in my life!

Hey there Everyone!

Well this week has flown right on by. Time is going fast here and next Sunday i will have been out for two months already. WOW. I'm having such a good time out here! The members are awesome and so so loving. This week we got invited to three members birthday parties and boy the Mexican food is just amazing! Me and Elder Adams have been working out in the mourning and then running at night to workout and try and loose some weight.

So yeah its going good and i don;t have any new news on Cynthia. We couldn't meet with her this past week cause she had finals and didn't have time. She texted us every night with a text saying Hey Elders, I'm still praying every night and reading the Book of Mormon so she is doing really good and we actually have another lesson staring up again with her tonight so I'm super excited to keep teaching her!

So this past Monday we went on exchanges. I was with Elder Hunsaker, our zone leader and we had really fun together. When we go on exchanges we go with a different elder for 24 hours. I went to his area and it was actually English speaking so i got to teach a little in English. It was honestly different cause i kept forgetting words in English and would say things in Spanish so yeah but it was really funny. It was good and now I'm back with elder Adams.

So next Friday we are going to a cubs game! our p-day next week will be on Friday because of that so yeah the next week or so will be a little messed up scheduling wise. I'm super excited for my first Pro Baseball game and can't wait to go! President Fenn is awesome and bought our tickets in the same area so we all get to sit by each other. 250 missionaries at a pro baseball game! Ha if you all at home watch the game you might see me on TV. So yeah I'm super excited.

Sorry i haven't been able to send pictures yet. I just haven't had time and i will try my hardest to send some next week. This area is so beautiful but it is most of the time raining. I really like the rain but the lightning here is amazing. When it would pour at home, that is like a little rain storm here. Their storms here are intense and Elder Adams and myself were woken up to the thunder literally shaking out dang apartment. It's awesome but the rain keep floods up and some of the members houses are halfway under water so were all praying that the rain will stop for awhile.

So this week we had a pretty weird experience. We knocked on this door and this huge guy answered the door and was like Hey Elders come on in and take a seat, ill tell you what you believe. So we went in and this guy was super anti Mormon. In the field we are told not to bible bash or argue with the people. He started saying how our religion was messed up and said some really disgusting things about it. I was like blown away and was speechless. After like twenty minutes of this guy just laying it on us Elder Adams said ok we have to go. We got up and walked off the guys porch. He started yelling get you A's back here and how do you believe any of this BS. Elder Adams said i can testify that these things are true with all my heart and we got in the car and drove away. I wasn't scared but so dang mad at this guy. Elder Adams looked at me and said one more word out of that guys mouth i w as going to be sent home for shutting him up ha. I felt the same way but had no idea what to do in that situation. It was a good experience so i knew what to do next time. Elder Adams is awesome and I'm glad he is my companion!

Alright well that's all for this week and i ask you all at home to continue to keep Cynthia in you prayers but also Armando. He is another investigator not knowing what to do with his life. Thanks so much and i know that our Heavenly Father answers our prayers. Maybe not right away all the time but he does at the right times! I can feel my testimony growing so much and I'm so glad to be on my mission. Its the best choice i have ever made in my life! I love you all and I'm so thankful for everything you all do for me! Keep up the good work and I'll talk to you all next Friday. Love you all!!!

Elder Banta :)       

Settling in to Chicago

Hey There Everyone! 

Whats going on??? k so i'm here in Chicago. Its already so stinking hot and the humidity is getting to me! besides that i'm doing good!!

Ok first I i'm in the Jolliet 2nd South Area. I love it here! i'm kinda in the country and yes i'm in a Spanish branch so i'm speaking Spanish and not English !! WAHOOO!! I love the people here so much already! there so nice and caring and the members are awesome! My area is so dang big though! when the mission gets split in a couple weeks my area will cover half of the new mission! Crazy right! Well it looks like i wont be searving in the city but i know this is where god wants me to be so i'm not complaining  Also because of the people and how beautiful it is here!!! Also President Fenn is taking all of us missionaries to a Cubs game in like a week so i'm super excited for that!!! We have to pay like 15 bucks to go but i'm really excited for that! 

So my first companion for the next twelve weeks is Elder Dakota Adams! He is such a cool kid and were allot alike! He is from Utah and he is a straight up cowboy. He rides bulls and stuff like that so yeah he is cool. He has been out for like 14 months and his Spanish is so good and he also has a girl at home still writing him! there so cute together! Hes also super funny. When we wake up he just runs around the house and yells in Spanish ha. Its the funniest thing ever! We are gonna do work together because were so alike and yeah its just awesome!

So our first couple days have been awesome! Were teaching allot of people and people here are so nice and willing and ready to accept the gospel! Ok so here is a crazy story! so my companion has been in this area for a while and has taught this 18 year old girl named Cynthia  They have taught her all the lesson but she wont commit to being baptized. Our second day my companion said your teaching the lesson today and i was like oh crap, my Spanish is bad, what if i mess up, what do i say, and we get there and my companion just happened to forget to tell me that she speaks only English ha! so i was freaking out for nothing! So we went in and i started teaching. She started crying and said Elder Banta You said exactly what i needed to hear! I then committed her to being baptized and She committed to being baptized on June 1st. Isn't that just a cool story. I was bauling at the end of lesson and i didn't know or remember one word i said! its amazing how the spirit works through us! So i'm excited for her and her baptizim coming up soon! Well so that's my first mission story and i'm excited to be here.

OK so anyways because of the time shortage on emails i don't really have enough time to email everyone so i'm really sorry, If you can i would rather write letters because i can write them whenever. So anyone who wants to write me letters feel welcome and ill try and email the ones who still email me! my new address for the next twelve weeks is 1230 Rockrun Drive, Apartment 105, Cresthill, IL 60403. If anyone has written me letters already and sent them i wont get them for a while because they only give them us to at transfers and stuff so yeah sorry ha. I will do my best to keep up on the writing and stuff!

So the first night here we stayed at the mission home and President Fenn bought us all Chicago deep dish Pizza. WOW is all i can say it was the best pizza i have ever tasted in my life. It was awesome to be there for a whole night with President Fenn and his wife and just talk and get to know them! Anyways Well yeah that my area, companion, and story for this weeks email. I'm super excited for Cynthia so please keep here in your prayers. Shes the only PI we have right know on date for baptism and were working on others so keep them and her in your prayers please. I will try to send pictures soon its just been super buys the first week here getting settled in and everything! so sorry for the inconvenience if that's how you spell that word ha. So its sad to hear about President Monsons Wife. I know shes in a better place and that President Monson more then anyone knows that!! Remember to keep them in your prayers though for sure! 

So Spanish is coming along great and its getting better bu the day. Its awesome how many Spanish people there are here in my area like probably 80 percent no joke. So i'm pretty much submersed in the Spanish! Our Branch is so awesome also. There is only about 50 Members but there all super awesome and help us allot. The Priest Quorum here is so dang cool. They have gone on splits with us allot to lessons when we need a member present and there all so dang cool. So each week we get to eat with the members each night for dinner, or whoever signed up to feed us. Every meal so far has been homemade real Mexican food and it had been Awesome!!! I get up every mourning and run for 30 minutes with my companion so we don't gain weight because they feed us so good and so much freaking food. So far though i have lost 11 pounds and i'm trying to keep going but its hard when these people just feed and feed and feed you ha! 

Ok so the area i'm in right know is a car area and yeah i'm driving. Scary right ha just kidding. But my companion doesn't like to drive so I've been the driver and he takes care of the phone. Its awesome and were having allot of fun so far. Were also being careful as well, not to scare everyone but the area i'm in the the 3rd most dangerous area in our entire mission. We've already seen thing i don't like to talk about and been yelled at by a bunch of black guys and then chased by them so yeah its been fun and scary but we know the lord is protecting us!! Sorry if i scared anyone but yeah that's just how it works down here! but i love my area and wouldn't trade it for the world!!! 

Well that's all for this week, i love you all and miss you all like crazy. Please write letters and emails and keep in touch. Its nice one day out of the week just thinking of home and writing to my family and friends. But anyways good luck to everyone finishing school for this year and i hope everything is well at home!!! I'll watch for all of your letters and emails and stuff! Oh yeah and if anyone is sending packages or anything bigger like that its safe to send that to our apartment as well. Our place is in a nice little safe neighbor hood and is sourounded  by gates with pass code so yeah but thanks again everyone!!! Love you all and hope the best for everyone!!! 

Love Elder Banta        

Ready to head to Chicago!!

It has been about 6 weeks and Elder Banta is more than ready to go to Chicago and hit the ground running!!  He leaves the MTC May 13th about 5:30 am and will arrive in Chicago around noon.

Last Week at the MTC

Hey there Everyone!

Hows everyone doing at home? We just got back from the temple for our last time here at the MTC. It was great as it always is. Our zone did a session together and all said our final goodbyes to the ones me might not see again before we leave. Oh yeah ha well i got my travel plans and im leaving this coming monday to chicago at like 4 in the mourning! im so super excited! We fly out of saltlake at 7:30 i believe and fly to minnesota. Then we have an hour layover and then we fly to Chicago. Crazy how time has flown by! Im going to miss going to the temple every week and i hope we will be able to go on our p-days out in the field!

So this past week was awesome and it was great! We had fast and testimony meeting on sunday and it was awesome to listen to everyone share thier testimonies in spanish/spanglish haha. It was good and me and my companion were going to go up but we ran our of time haha. On sunday night devotional we got a suprise....Chad Lewis came and spoke to us. He played for BYU and then was drafted to play in the NFL for the Eagles. He got up and the whole dovotional was like a pep talk to us to get us pumped for the field. It was so awesome! he searved a mission in China and he had to learn mandarin. When he got back from his mission the China embasy asked him to narrarate the Super Bowl in Mandrin. Ha he said when you learn a language for your mission you learn the gospel part of the language. He said he tried to learn football talk in the language but it just wasnt happening. He made us all laugh when he said he was on national tv and all he knew how to say was gospel talk during the superbowl. He said i was testifying that the quaterback would make this pass and testifying that the call was a good call. Haha we were all laughing so dang hard. He was a big guy and after the devotional we went out and i had him sign my white bible(Missionary Handbook) hah.

So this is my last couple days here at the MTC and im a little nervous to get out into the real world and be tested of how much spanish i know ha. I know the lord will help us and im excited to be in the real world preaching the truth to all sorts of people. We got a letter in the mail from our mission pres and he said because of the new missionary age we are going to be swamped with missonaries. And that it could be possible in our mission to be switched to just speak english! i heard this at first and im was like YES!!! but i hope know i dont get switched because i have been here for six weeks learning the language and dont want to have done all that for nothing. But i will go and do what the lord has planned for me!

Well next time i write all of you i will be in chicago and i dont know when my p-days are so i might not email for a week or jus until i get settled in. Well thanks everyone for all the help and for all the letters. I got in the mail a couple letters from the primary and tell the primary thanks and that they are all awesome! I miss you guys and cant wait to be our baptizing the world!!!!! love you all and please keep in touch!!! Until Next time....

Elder Banta  

Elder Heaton and the snail

Hey there Everyone!

Everything is going very good here at the MTC. We just got back from the temple and it was amazing as always. Today i did sealings for the first time ever and it was really cool. The spirit in the meeting was so strong and its awesome to know that we are sealing people together forever and for all eternity. So our p-day today went good so far. A normal P-day at the MTC goes as follows. First you wake up(early if your our district) and go do your laundry. Then you can write letters/emails. The whole day after that is basically yous to do whatever like study/go to the temple/maybe take a short nap ha/ or just prepare lessons for that week ahead of you. P-days are fun to just relax because during the week as a missionary there is no suck word ha.

So this week(today) 700 more missionaries came into the MTC. Its so wierd how many missionaries they can fit into this place. The food is getting better and im getting more use to it. Tuesday devotional last night was good. Elder Packard The Missionary Funds Dude ha came and spoke to us. He talked about how our missions will prepare us for eternal life so it was good. Sunday we got to bless the sacrement my companion and I, in spanish of course and it was really fun. Then on monday we had to say goodbye to the Older district in our zone.Elders Hatch, Head, Underwood and Pauu. Elder Pauu is a polynesian and he has a full ride to play footbal for BYU when he gets home from his mission and he is a really cool guy. He reaps all the time and makes the MTC experience alot more fun. Elders Hatch, underwood, and Head are all fun to talk to and they liked to play jokes on us. Anyways so now my district is the oldest district in our Zone. So wierd to think!!!!! I will only email home one more time and then i will be in chicago!!! Time has just flewn by!!!!!!

So my companion is a very different kid!!! We get along fine but he is just different. During personal study we were out on the benches studying and he found a snail. The stupid snail was the biggest one i have ever seen in my life and my companion was determined to keep it as a pet. So we takes it to our classroom and starts letting it just chill on his desk and just plays with it. Then Elder Clark says "I dare you to eat it" and my companion was like maybe for some money......Gross well he decides to not eat the snail but to put it on his tounge and let it walk all over his tounge. GROSS. We were all about to puke when he did it and he thought it was the coolest thing ever haha. So yeah it was kinda funny. The hermanas didnt like his puting it in his mouth so they took the snail away and took it outsde and let it go in the bushes. Ha it was a very good day. That night my companion was up puking all night and we all said it was the snail haha.

Well i cant believe that the time is flying by so darn quick. Next week i will probably say it again but just incase Happy Birthday to Jerrick Next wednesday. Its wierd that everyone is getting so old haha j/k. Spanish is coming along great and im getting the hang of it more and more each day. Thanks everone for the emails and pictures. Im sorry if i havent emailed anyone yet im just super busy here. Feel free to write me whenever you can. Love you all and will talk to ya next week.