Come Unto Christ‏ Week 26

Things are going really great here in Minneola north, we are just now getting settled in and are ready to get the ball rolling and help others come closer to Christ. We had a really good lesson with Ceasar. We were able to teach him the gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of having that faith in Jesus Christ. We focused a lot on baptism and why it is important to make that next step and make a Covenant with God. He said that he really wants to make that step and be baptized, we didn't set a date with him but we plan on setting a date in our lesson this week for him to be baptized.

We had a really nice ward barbecue, it was good to see all the members that came, I really have grown to love this ward and the people that are in it. There so many great people and they all support the missionaries. While I was at the barbecue Bishop snuck up behind me and told me something I didn't want to hear, he wanted me to give a TALK in church haha. I'm not someone who loves giving talks but after it was over I'm glad I did it because it really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

My talk was on Christlike attributes, but I focused on Charity (The Pure Love of Christ)

Charity is a gift. When Christ was on the earth he loved all the people with the perfect love. Even after wicked men scourged him and nailed into the cross, He pleaded, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Sometimes we as imperfect beings find it difficult to love others. Because we are human and burdened by the natural man, it is not always easy to see other people as the Savior does. But as we sincerely pray and follow the Savior's example of performing acts of love towards others, we are given the gift of charity. Through this gift we are changed by the power of the Holy Ghost to become more like the Savior, and we then receive the power to see others through his eyes. 

This week like I said had its challenges but it was also very good week. I'm so happy with the companions that I have, and I'm very excited to serve with them and work hard and bless others and bring them closer to Christ, the scripture I'd like to share this week is Moroni 10:32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. Love you all have a wonderful Week

Elder Gentry

FOM  (Florida Orlando Mission) 

Loving one Another through the Lords Work!‏ Week 25

Hey everyone so things are shaking up again here in Florida, I am going to be taking over the Minneola North area and Elder Bateman is taking over the Minneola South area. We Will be getting our companions tomorrow, however they called me,  and I'm going to be in Trio so I will get two new  companions tomorrow so that should be fun, looking forward to it I'm pretty excited. This week was pretty great Lots of good stuff happened one thing I really enjoyed this week was stake conference here in the Leesburg stake.

Elder Nielson of the Seventy talked about how we need to change. The gospel is about change.

If you think you don't need to change, you're wrong. We should all be changing to become more like the Savior because none of us will ever be as perfect as him. So we should always be working and always be willing to change and make ourselves better and get as close as we can because that's what brings this true happiness, and will ultimately bring us back to our father in heaven.

Elder Nielson's wife talked about how we all need to be striving to be at the top of the gospel tree because those that are on the bottom need help and we need to pick up other people and help them do the things that are necessary for us to return to our Heavenly Father. If someone is struggling reading the Scriptures we need to help them realize the blessings that come from them when you read your scriptures. And someone struggling with praying we need to help them realize the blessings that come from praying in your own life. There are so many blessings that we have in our our life and people don't realize how they can have those blessings, so  that's what we need to do is to pick others up and help them.

I'm so thankful for my opportunity to hear from Elder Nelson and his wife, once again they talked ultimately about how the Lords work is all about loving others and doing all that we can to help build people up and help each other out. I'm so thankful for my opportunity to help others change their lives each day. I gave a training in district meeting this week about loving the people, and how it is so important that we love everyone and do as Christ did. 

I can't believe that I've already had my six-month mark, a fourth of the way done. That is so crazy and it's going by so fast!!

The scripture I'd like to share with you guys this week is Moroni 7:48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen. We should all be praying for opportunities to lift others up and to help someone in there life. Love and miss you all. 

Elder Gentry

FOM

God will prepare a way for us. Week 24

Hey everyone it's been a pretty good week, there are couple things that didn't go our way and we face a little bit of adversity but I've been able to see those things have strengthened me and my companion this week as we work diligently. It's crazy that we have already finished up week five and we're going into week six of the transfer the last week. I'm really hoping to stay with Elder Bateman for another six weeks here in Mineola but I guess we'll see how it goes this Saturday.

One thing that was really cool this week, we had the opportunity to go out with our bishop to see some people in the ward. We had dinner with him and his family and then we went out and saw Bother and Sister Kelepi and their family. There son John is like a movie star and he was in the music video of "All about that bass" and he is a new movie coming out next year where he plays the younger version of Dwayne the Rock Johnson in high school. Haha He's pretty cool anyways We showed them a short message on charity and I got to see how much our bishop truly cares about all of the members of our Ward. We also got to go see brother and sister Wasden, they are just the coolest retired couple in the Ward, they have a strong testimony of the gospel. We shared a short message on patience and how we must act in faith and be patient for blessings and we will see them in our life.

Later in the week I went on an Exchange with a baller Elder King, I just love this guy. He is a good missionary and I've learned a lot from him. He has a powerful testimony and cares about the people that he is serving. We were going around visiting less Active's and he decided to go see one that he has tried to see like 5 times and hadn't has success. But anyways we go over there and we just made her day I was able to see how Elder King makes others feel loved and she has such a strong testimony and we were able to invite her to church. It was a pretty cool experience.

We had a good lesson with Brother Martinez and his wife Ashley, we had a lesson on the importance of reading praying and doing the things that God wants us to do. She has not been baptized but she knows the church is true. So we decided that we would make a timeline and I invited her to be baptized in October because I know that when we set a goal God will help us accomplish that goal that if we set out to do something that God wants us to do he will prepare a way for us to do these type of things it was awesome lesson and I was able to see how god influenced her decision. It was pretty exciting.

I'm so blessed to see the lords hand in our work and the scripture I'd like to share this week is 1st Nephi 3:7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. So I know that God will never ask us to do things without preparing a way for us to do them. Love you all, have a good week. 

Elder Gentry

FOM

Brother Kelepi

Faith=Actions : Hope=Attitude‏ Week 23

Hey Everyone,

Things have changed again here in Minneola. Elder Lavin was moved to another area so it is back to me and Elder Bateman. Things are looking good but it will be a little challenging cause now we are covering two areas for the Next three Weeks. There is a lot going on in theses areas and we have plenty to do and many people to see. This week went good and we were able to see a lot of success. 

We had lots of fun at the Clermont Night Out Event they had on Tuesday. We set up a Mormon.org tent and we were teaching people about safety and introducing the church that way. We are looking for all different types of ways to find people to teach. People would come to our tent and we would talk to their family about safety and family home evenings and it will strengthen the family and help them stay closer together and keep them safe. There was lots of games for kids to play and we got to discuss some of the church standards and help people learn more about us. It was a success we put in a good name for the church.

One thing that was really cool this week is we were able to get our investigator to sacrament and he loved it I think haha. Me and Elder Bateman were driving through this neighborhood after we just got done visiting a less active. When he was outside playing basketball with his friend. We stopped and we're like can we play you guys in a quick game and so we did and we beat them haha we had a good lesson on the restoration. He seemed really interested and we were talking about the Joseph Smith and the first vision. I bore testimony of how our Savior Jesus Christ and our heavenly father appeared to Joseph Smith to restore the fullness of the Gospel, we invited him to be baptized and he said that he would and then we got to come to church this week it was really cool. So wish us luck going forward with him.

This week we also had ZTM, there was a lot of good things that came from ZTM we were all little shocked when our mission president who's not normally at ZTM said that we need to start tracting more and knock on those doors. He pretty much said that we're not getting enough help from our members so we need to find as much people as we can through knocking so hopefully this goes good because knocking isn't the most effective use of time but hopefully we can find some people to teach. Someone also gave a training and they said something that really stuck out to me Faith is denoted by the actions that we take and hope is the attitude we have when we take these actions. I learned a lot from ZTM and I am looking forward to applying these things to my area.

Things are going great in my area and this past week was really good. The Scripture I want to leave with you guys this week is Alma 32:21 And now as I said concerning faith--faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. Love you all have a great ballin week.

Elder Gentry 

FOM

Blessings of The Scriptures!!!‏ Week 22

Hey Everyone,

This week has been pretty good, We Got a lot of things done and we were able to see a lot more people. Since we are now covering two areas and the whole Ward. This Ward is slowly getting better and more friendly and there are a lot of great Members. We went from two dinners my first week to six this last week and we have seven scheduled this next week. Being in a Trio is a little different and it's a little more challenging when teaching but we have done a pretty good job adjusting. 

We had a lesson with our new investigator Andre, I was calling a bunch of potentials in the area book and I called Andre and he told me he wasn't really interested and didn't want to meet with us. so I told him how valuable our time is and I invited him to be baptized, he said "I've been baptized" so we talked about how we believe that we hold the proper priesthood authority and it got him more interested and he agreed to meet and really get to know what we mean. So we had a lesson with him this last week and talked about that priesthood Authority and about the Book of Mormon it went really good and we hope to see him again this next week.

Another thing that was cool this week is we went and saw Brother Draper, he is this old man that has a lot of health problems and just wants some company so we went and talked to him and just talked about how the gospel and how it has blessed him through all of his trials, the whole time we were talking to him I felt the need to ask him if he wanted a blessing. He said "Yes I didn't think you guys would ask and I haven't had one in a while" so we gave him a blessing and had a good time talking to him. It was so nice to see him and put a smile on his face and make his day.

We had a lesson with the Brother Martinez and his Non-Member Wife, He has been a Member his whole life and his wife really wants to be baptized and knows the gospel is true she studies the Book of Mormon, but she has some health issues and they are some setbacks for her . We talked about the blessings of the scriptures and when we read them they bring us peace and Guidance in our lives. I'm so thankful for the Scriptures and the opportunity I have to study them every morning and help others come closer to Christ from reading the Scriptures.

This week was a little challenging, but was overall a good week and we got a lot done. The scripture I want to leave with you guys this week is 2 Nephi 4:15  15 And upon these I write the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass. For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children. Hope you guys all have a good week.

Elder Gentry

FOM    (Florida Orlando Mission)