Staying Faithful & Busy!! Week 17

Hey Everyone,

        This week wasn't the best, but there were a lot of good things that happened, we were able to meet with our investigator three times and help him progress. we also had a ton of finding time so we stayed pretty busy. Its good cause i am trying to stay very motivated and that's why i am thankful for my companion who is super motivated and ready to do the lords work.

         One thing that was super cool is we were visiting some less actives and we were looking over the names of all the people we could go visit. So we decided to go see this old women who is really struggling and having a hard time so we just shared a message with her "Mountains To Climb" It is a really good video that talks about how we all can grow from the daily struggles in life and how the savior is always there to comfort us and help us thru the struggles. We asked her if she would like a blessing and with no hesitation she said Yes. It was Awesome and way cool to see the Lords Hand in our Work.

         We were able to meet with J. and help him grow and learn more about the Restored Gospel. We taught him a lesson on faith. and helped him grow a stronger testimony of the Savior. He has had a pretty rough life and says he wants to make Jesus Christ the center of his life so it is really awesome meeting with him cause he has such a strong desire for the Gospel. We had another lesson where we taught the restoration and he just says it makes sense that God would Restore his Perfect Church to the earth. He really is growing a stronger testimony of Joseph Smith and how he was a true prophet called of God. Me and Elder Honda are really excited going forward with him.

         We had a really good district meeting. I learned more on the importance of The Restoration and how important it is to help our Investigators understand the First Vision and the many things we can Learn from that event. another thing that was really cool is The Vanlueweens came back in town for like a week and took us missionaries out to Texas Roadhouse it has been a while since i have seen them so it was pretty cool and they are just like the coolest people in the world. I also had an exchange with our District Leader, Elder Bateman it was a lot of fun and i always Learn a lot from him.

         The Scripture I would like to leave you guys this week is 2nd Nephi 31:20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye Shall have Eternal Life. I just love this scripture and i know if we keep doing the little things like reading and praying it will bless us in our lives.  Anyways I love and Miss you all and i hope you guys have a Wonderful Week.

Elder Gentry

FOM  (Florida Orlando Mission)                          

Fear Not!! Week 16. 4 months out!!

Hey everyone,

it's been a long week but it's been a good week. We have been out trying to find new people to teach and just working hard, I'm really excited about this new guy J W that we contacted, he is a former investigator. We met with him on Saturday and he said that he wants to make a huge change in his life and wants to make Jesus Christ the center of his life. We are so excited going forward with him, he said he wants to meet with us two to three times a week so we are pretty excited to teach him.

Today is Beach P-Day, it is the second one I've had since I've been in the mission. It was pretty fun going to the beach and playing some ultimate frisbee and just hanging out with the other missionaries. The only bad part is I had to get up at 5 o'clock to make it to the beach, haha I still hate Mornings. This time we went to Cocoa Beach which is the same beach that we went to on vacation as a family in July 2013... so it was pretty cool.

This week I had some pretty cool things happen I was on an exchange with Elder Anderson, and we we're going to see some less actives and doing some tracting. We knocked on this one ladies door, she has a very strong faith in Jesus Christ, so we just shared a message with her. Me and Elder Anderson taught her the restoration. She loved everything about it and she told us she can't wait to get reading the book of Mormon to find out if it's true.

One thing that me and Elder Honda have been doing lately is contacting in the park, there's a lot of nice people in the park so makes it pretty easy to talk to them. One day I was just sick of getting rejected and was ready to go home and faithful Elder Honda said let's just try three more and the first and second didn't care to hear. and the last guy we talked to loved everything we had to say and invited us to his house so he can learn more. It's small miracles like that keep me faithful as possible because sometimes it is hard.

In district meeting this week I gave a training on rejection, and how all of us missionaries fear rejection. It is one of the hardest things to talk to people because of the fear of rejection. But in the Scriptures it says 13 times "fear ye not" 41 times "be not afraid" 75 times "need not fear" 112 times "fear not" Christ has told us not to fear. Hang onto that! Trust him! I talked more about how Christ has promised us blessings if we trust in him. As we share the gospel, don't share the message out of a sense of duty. Share it because you have love for others and know of the blessings they will receive. If you can look at them and love them your fears of speaking with them will go away! 

The scripture I would like to leave you guys this week is 1 John 4:17-18 and it says 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. I just love these scriptures they are very comforting. I had a pretty good week and I hope all of you guys have a wonderful week love ya and miss you all talk to you next week.

Elder Gentry

FOM

Sent from my iPad

Good Impressions!‏ Week 15 (PS I ate Alligator... & liked it)

Hey everyone, this week has been pretty good. It has also been pretty
challenging, the situation that we are in in our area Melbourne east,
It's a finding situation so we're trying to find people to teach and
trying to find those less actives that are willing to hear from us.
But as we keep working faithfully I know we will be able to find
people. Tuesday I went on exchanges with Vieira, Elder Penfold came
down to my area and we had a pretty successful day. We decided to go
knock the richest houses in Melbourne hah. We talked to this way cool
lady and she might be interested in the church. Plus we got like a
water bottle at every house. we tried to meet with some different less
actives and did some contacting in the park.

Wednesday we had district meeting, district meeting went really good
one thing that really stuck out to me. Was Elder Lauritzens training,
he gave a training on how we can use the Book of Mormon more
effectively in our teaching. Elder Booth also gave a way good training
he talked about the importance of meaning what we say when we are
praying and making our prayers more from the heart and not repetitive.
we also had a lesson With Brother H, I love this guy he is so
great. we taught him the importance of the plan of salvation and
having that knowledge can really help us in our lives. We also had him
teach us back the plan of salvation and he did a really good job, he
probably taught it more simply then I did haha.

Thursday we picked up a new investigator which got me pumped, I'm so
excited going forward and she was super interested in what we had to
tell her. Her name is K.  and she is just super open and wants to
learn more. We were trying to follow up on a less active, and K. 
answered the door and said that the lady that we were looking for
moved out, but she wanted to know what we were here for and wanted to
know more about the church. So we taught her the restoration. It went
really good, and I can't wait to teach her more this next coming week.

Friday was weekly planning. But after we planned we decided to make a
bunch of chocolate chip cookies and go deliver them to less actives.
Sister L, One of our less actives has stopped talking to us and
won't answer our phone calls so I wanted to give her cookies to see
how she was doing and she answered the door and she looked really mad
and gave me a evil look until I gave her some cookies haha, so I
learned that sometimes we just need to make a good impressions on
people and show them that we really care about them before they will
care to give us some of there time.

Saturday we went and did some service for the sweetest little old
lady, she is a recent convert in our ward and she just loves the
missionaries she thinks so highly of us and she's always willing to
take care of us. She loves to feed us and she's always giving us food
to take home. It was nice to do something back for her. Sunday was a
good day, it was fast Sunday so I didn't have much energy haha. But it
was really good and we were able to teach some lessons, we also met
with the B's, it has been a while but it went really good. We just
talked about the importance of coming to church and partaking of the
sacrament and what it does for us each week as we take the sacrament.
I had a pretty good week and I'm excited going into the next one I
hope all of you guys have a great week love ya and miss you all.

Elder Gentry
FOM

Transfers & David A. Bednar!!!‏ ( week 14 )

      

      Hey everyone it has been a great week. So I found out who my new companion is on Tuesday. His name is Elder Honda he is 1/4 Japanese. He is from Grand Junction, Colorado. He is such a nice guy and is always trying to help, he is a hard worker and very motivated to do the work so we got a lot of stuff done this week. Elder Weiss went to College Park. Transfer meeting was pretty nerve wracking, waiting for them to tell me who my Next Companion is but it was pretty fun. I got to hear the departing missionaries testimonies which was pretty cool. Elder Packard was the only one I knew because he was in Vieira and I went on Exchanges with him. his testimony was so powerful and he just talked about how we have to have love for those that we teach.

Wednesday was my first official day working with Elder Honda, He is super good at planning so we will always have a lot to do. it was bike week and my bike made it a week without any problems haha. we went to visit a lot of less actives and didn't have much success. We had dinner with the Monday nighters, it is a group of married widowed's they are so awesome and they love to take care of the missionaries. We taught a lesson with a Recent Convert M.P. , a lesson on Faith in Jesus Christ and how it is a foundation in our lives. We shared a video, it is one of my favorites it is Mountains To Climb.

Thursday was Zone Training Meeting, It went really good, We focussed on our vision of becoming more effective missionaries. I had to give a training on Safeguards for using Technology. There are 4 steps in the safeguards. Being In tune with spiritual Promptings, Being focused on our missionary purpose, Being Disciplined and Being One. I chose to focus my training on Being in tune with spiritual promptings cause i feel like it is the most important one to follow if we want to accomplish the work with the tools that we have. Later we had a lesson with Brother H. and we taught him a lesson on missionary work and how as members of the church we need to always be missionary minded.

Friday was a really good day, it is weekly planning so if we don't have a effective weekly planning then the week wont be as effective and Elder Honda is really good at planing so we have stuff to be doing every day all the time. We also taught three lessons. We taught the Plan of Salvation to M. A.  and it went really good and she loves it. We taught L. D.  the importance of modern day prophets and S. G.  the importance of the Sacrament. 

This last weekend Elder Bednar Came all the way to florida for Cocoa Stake Confernce and only the missionaries in the Cocoa Stake Got to hear from him it was way cool to listen to him in church. On Saturday He gave an amazing Talk Here are some of the things he talked about. If we simply want Christlike attributes and gifts we won't get them. We can't just simply want to be better study up and change. That's insanity. God works through us to bless others! All the gifts we can ever get will be used to bless others! Others believe Mormons earn their way to heaven. In the Book of Mormon is says we are saved by grace after all we can do. Professionals have argued over grace for decades and your telling me a 14 year old boy solved it by making up one verse? That's crazy! We aren't cleansed in the baptismal font. We are cleansed at the completion with the ordinance of the Holy Ghost. An ordinance is not a ritual. It's a doorway. Every time we participate in them the door opens wider and we receive more blessings to help sustained us.

Christ would say ordinances are important!!! With every ordinance is a covenant. 

Agency isn't just choosing. We are agents who can act and not simply be acted upon which is agency. Through ordinances we change the nature of our agency from individual agency to representative agency. We are making a pledge to gain more blessings. It is the beginning of the transformation, it becomes more about him and NOT US.. WHEN OUR AGENCY IS ENLARGED LIKE THIS, REPRESENTING CHRIST TAKES PRIORITY OVER ANYTHING ELSE WE COULD EVER DESIRE FOR OURSELVES.

It was pretty amazing hearing from and Apostle and I learned a lot.  I'm really excited going forward with Elder Honda and having a great transfer.  I hope all of you guys have a great next week. I love and miss you all.

Elder Gentry

FOM

End of Transfer 2 (Week 13)

Hey everybody I'm doing pretty good, I'm coming up on the end of my second transfer and I will be staying In Melbourne for my 3rd transfer. My companion Elder Weiss is leaving but I won't know where till tomorrow, I also won't know who my next companion will be till tomorrow so I will let you guys know next week. While it was a pretty good week it was also a little rough and had it's trials.

Tuesday this week I had an exchange with Elder booth, he's a pretty funny kid. This is my second exchange I've had with him it's also the second time I stayed in my area with him. It didn't start out the best it started out with a lot of problems with my bike again but got it fixed and hopefully it'll stay fixed haha. I was able to ride it all week since then and haven't had a problem. We were able to bike around and see some less actives, that's kind of been our focus lately because we haven't had much people to work with.

On Wednesday we did a lot of the same less active work, we were able to go visit brother H. He's such a cool guy and it's really nice to get to know him he's pretty much been activated since we've been meeting with him he's been coming to church for about a month now and it's really cool to see someone change, his wife is a member but she's like total anti- lds so it makes it really hard for him to not have that support. Me and Elder Weiss had dinner with brother and sister Graham. They just moved into the ward from Utah and brother Graham actually graduated from Manti high school it was pretty cool.

Thursday was district meeting, and this one went really good. Me and Elder Weiss had to give a training on hastening the work of salvation, just about how the work has changed and there's more of a focus on work through the members and not so much knocking and finding ourselves. this is great because it strengthens the wards and makes our job easier. We focused on President Gordon B. Hinckleys talk in 1999, Find the Lamb, Feed the Sheep. Here is one thing he said that was super important "Lets all work to grow the ward. Let there be cultivated an awareness in every member’s heart of his own potential for bringing others to a knowledge of the truth". I really liked this whole talk and it was a wonderful training.

Friday was weekly planning, and Saturday I had an exchange with Elder Bateman in Vieira. He is really cool I really like him. He is 25 years old, so for him to be on a mission it's really cool and he's obviously serving for the right reasons. I've learned a lot from him. On Saturday him and I  went and helped their ward mission leader Brother Shinsato move. It's sad that he's going Because he's like one of the best ward mission leaders you can have he helps out so much. After that we went with brother Nickerson to see some less actives. We had a lot of success with that. It was a fun day in Vieira.

I've been doing really good. I've had lots of fun with Elder Weiss for the past three months. we have seen some trials but we have also seen a lot of miracles. And I'm really excited to see who my next companion is and get right to work. The scripture I want to leave with you guys this week is from the Gordon B. Hinckleys talk. It is Alma 31:34-35. 34 O Lord, wilt thou grant unto us that we may have success in bringing them again unto thee in Christ. 35 Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee. I just love this scripture and I hope all of you guys have a great week.

Elder Gentry

FOM