👻🕸🎃SPOOKTACULAR🎃🕸👻 Week #87

🎶You, You Got What I Need🎶 Is what everyone's been saying to us all week! Haha I wish.. it was a killa week tho. What's good everyone, Once again your favorite missionary from the sunshine state coming at you! Things are good, Elder Russell is Adorable (it's what he wanted me to put in this email) hah he is a pretty funny guy. I don't think there has been a dull moment all week!! This week has been kinda crazy but we have got some good work done, things are looking really good for this area and we're excited to see what can happen this next week!

So really cool thing that happened this week, Thursday we get a text from Brother Hill in the College Park ysa Ward. And he says "Hey Elders, the other day I gave this lady (Karen) a ride home from the gas station after work cause she needed a ride home. During the ride she mentioned she has been looking for a church and so I invited her the The Lords church, I call Dibbs on Baptizing her haha here's her info......" so we were like sickkk, you can have the tism we will do the teaching! We immediately call her and set something up for Saturday at 5, fast forward to Saturday.....Brother Hill meets us at our apartment and we ride over to Karen's, Brother Hill introduces us to her and we explain to her our purpose as missionaries and how we teach people about Jesus Christ and help them reach baptism. We taught her the restoration and she understood it really well! We get towards the end when we're showing her how we pray to know and how we can ask God direct questions and He will give us direct answers. She says "I can really ask God personal questions" and we were like Yes, God loves you Karen He wants to answer your questions!! It was a Killa Lesson! After, we invited her to the ward Activity for Halloween "Trunk Or Treat" which starts in 25 minutes!! we all get in the car and drive over, we get close to the chapel and she sees the temple and asks us what it is, soooo we just went there and spent like 15 min on the grounds and gave her a mini tour of the temple! She kept saying "I feel so much p.              eace here!" :) We go to the ward Activity at the chapel and it was a really good turnout and people were making Karen feel very welcome!! It was a really good day!! Sunday she came to church and it went perfect, the Gospel Principles lesson was on The Plan of Salvation and she talked about how it made so much sense and understood all of it!! she loved it and can't wait to have us over to teach her more!! 

We also have this investigator that we have been working with this week and things are going good for her, unfortunately she didn't make it too church. We do have plans this next week to get her some fellowship and get her too church!!

A quote that I wanted to share this week! Joseph Smith declared “It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance”. He added, “The principle of knowledge is the principle of salvation … ; and every one that does not obtain knowledge sufficient to be saved will be condemned”. This knowledge is founded on understanding the nature of God and Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation that They have prepared to allow us to return to Their presence. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”. The principle of knowledge has often been misinterpreted by men. “The glory of God is intelligence”. It surpasses all we can ever understand with our intellectual capacities. People who try to find God sometimes think that they have to look for Him in intellectually complicated concepts. However, our Heavenly Father is always available to us. He adapts to our level of understanding. “If He comes to a little child, He will adapt himself to the language and capacity of a little child”

The Plan of Salvation is simple Doctrine, because it's Gods Plan of Happiness for all of his children! 

Week one of the transfer in the books! Things are going good here in Olympia, I'm doing really well!! I love this great work and feel blessed everyday even when I am trunky!! Naw I've been good I feel pumped and ready to go hard for my last 4 months!! The scripture i would like to share this week is Alma 24:14 And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto us that we might not perish; yea, and he has made these things known unto us beforehand, because he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations. Love this scripture, Love you All.

Elder Gentry

FOM

🙌🏻Nothing Can Stop Me, I'm All The Way Up🙌🏻 Week #86

What's up everyone!!

 The end of the transfer is here! Elder Coon will be leaving sadly, so that means I'm getting a new companion! His name is Elder Russell. I don't know him too well but I do know that he's from California and he's got a good sense of Humor! He was in my district in Minneola over a year ago!! We have some good things going so I am excited for this next transfer! Crazy to think I only have 3 transfers left!!

So I was on Exchanges with Elder Salinas in my area and Bishop texts us and tells us to go see this lady that he ran into at a printer store, she was printing menus for her restaurant and he was printing pictures of Jesus, she asked him what church he goes to and bishop told her all about it and she said she was interested!! If bishop gives us someone to see, consider it done cause this bishop is intense it's almost scary! Haha So we go into her restaurant and it was sketch, we were the only ones there and it was a bar that was blasting loud music haha. Lets just say it's not the typical spot you would see missionaries!! So we sit at the counter hoping she would come out of the back room, she eventually came out and we talked with her a little bit, we shared some of the Restoration with her. She's really cool and says she does want to learn more she just works a ton so it's hard for her to get any free time, she said she had to come to church to keep her word to bishop so that's good we should see her at church soon!! 

Another cool thing that happened this week, we were seeing all of our Bible referrals and we go to see this one lady and she is super cool, We sit down with her and talk about the Bible she shares her favorite verses with us and about how the Bible strengthens her. We share the restoration and she loved it, as we were saying the closing prayer she started crying and says that she has been praying for someone to come to her house to strengthen her and her family. We hope things go well with her and we hope we can teach her!!

Something I wanted to share this week comes from General Conference As we read and ponder the scriptures, we will experience the sweet whisperings of the Spirit to our souls. We can find answers to our questions. We learn of the blessings which come through keeping God’s commandments. We gain a sure testimony of our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of Their love for us. When scripture study is combined with our prayers, we can of a certainty know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Said President Gordon B. Hinckley, “May the Lord bless each of us to feast upon his holy [words] and to draw from [them] that strength, that peace, [and] that knowledge ‘which passeth all understanding’"As we remember prayer and take time to turn to the scriptures, our lives will be infinitely more blessed and our burdens will be made lighter.

Well everyone here goes another transfer and I'm just pushing along in the best way I can, it's hard not to get trunky especially close to the holidays but I'll be fine hahah I love this Great work the scripture I would like to share thanks to Elder Gillen!! Jacob 7:22 Now, this thing was pleasing unto me, for I had requested it of my Father who was in heaven; for he had heard my cry and answered my prayer. God always answers our prayer!! Love you all have a good week!!

Elder Gentry

FOM

🙏🏻Let The Whole Church Say Amen!🙏🏻 Week #85

What's good everyone!!

 Elder Gentry coming at you once again from 10502 Satellite Blvd, Orlando, FL 32837  (feel free to send me letters and packages!!) Haha 😂    wow can't believe we are going into week 6 of the transfer, we get the call this coming Saturday, hopefully Elder Coon and I will be staying together for at least another transfer! We have some good things rollin! Well finally, it's been tough but we've seen good things especially this last week!

Thursday was definitely the highlight of the week! It was just one of those days where the Lord made everything work out perfectly! People were home and we had some good lessons! We were Less Active Hunting and we come across this lady in the ward roster and we go to visit her. As we ask the people that we're outside her house if she lives there, they tell us "we just moved in a month ago and we don't recognize that name, are you guys from the Mormon church???" Yea "About 8 years ago I visited with missionaries quite often I even visited that chapel right next to the Temple." Oh that's cool would you like to learn more "Yes I would love to!" Soooo that was a pretty cool experience. The Lord had us go there for a reason. Hopefully we can start teaching the family that lives there and everything goes well!!

So Saturday afternoon Bishop calls me and asks if I can give a talk tomorrow, he said "the concluding speaker had to bail and wasn't going to make it so I need you to fill in for him". Uhhhh I'm not the biggest fan of giving talks but i think it went good! I was asked to talk on how General Conference can answer questions we have. Here is some of my talk! 👇

"God has always spoken through prophets and Apostles....and he will continue to and as we intently listen to General Conference with questions in mind. We will receive answers!! This most recent General Conference I had the question in mind, How can I make The Sacrament more Personal and More Fulfilling? And I received my answer during the Sunday Afternoon Session, Brian K. Ashton said"..... "One way would be to make a conscious effort each week to prepare for the sacrament by taking some time to prayerfully consider where we most need to improve. We could then bring a sacrifice of at least one thing that keeps us from being like Jesus Christ to the sacrament altar, pleading in faith for help, asking for necessary spiritual gifts, and covenanting to improve during the coming week. As we do so, the Holy Ghost will come into our lives to a greater degree, and we will have additional strength to overcome our imperfections." 

Well another week that has come and gone very quickly! Things are still going well, we feel like the things that we are doing are moving in the right direction! I'm still doing very well, the mission is a trip! 😜It's been good to me and I've loved it!! The scripture I would like to share this week comes from Mormon 9:29......see that ye partake not of the sacrament of Christ unworthily; but see that ye do all things in worthiness, and do it in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and if ye do this, and endure to the end, ye will in nowise be cast out. Love this scripture, love you all have a great week!!

Happy Birthday to the Late Michael Gentry, My Dad!! 

Elder Gentry

FOM

💨⛈Here I Am⛈💨 Week #84

Rock You Like A Hurricane!! 

Wowohwow what a week it has been!! While it was supposed to get exciting with Hurricane Mathew rolling in, over here in the heart of Orlando not a whole lot happened! I guess you could say that was a blessing! We as missionaries were locked in our apartment for 72 hours and were asked not to leave sooooo it got pretty boring, Elder Coon and I did survive and we found things to do to entertain us. The East Coast did get hit pretty hard but it was supposed to be a lot worse, so that was a blessing as well! Our week was a little crazy and completely different from the norm but it was a good one to say the least!!

Due to the crazy event that happened this week, we were not able to get out and get much work accomplished! We did get to visit a few people, we also had Zone Training Meeting and it went really well. The whole thing was a big discussion between all of the missionary's, we talked about missionary work and our motivation and desire to do the work!! it was very productive! They made some announcements about the upcoming storm and that's when we began to prepare! People were going nuts, filling up there cars pwith gas and buying tons of water and bread! I guess it's better to be over prepared than under prepared, we started filling our tub full of water getting as much water as we could making sure we had all of our food and the supplies we needed and we felt like we were ready to take on the Hurricane!!! 

The day of the Hurricane! Sadly It was pretty lame just a lot of wind and nothing else, we didn't even get much rain. Every once in a while there would be big wind gusts but not loud enough to keep me up through the night I set my Alarm for 3 A.M. to check out the storm and nothing so I just went back to bed! Let's just say everyone here in Orlando Over prepared haha it's all good tho!! 

Sunday was really cool, so instead of regular church meetings the whole stake decided to send people out to the coast to help people who were affected by the Hurricane, we got sent up to a Palm Coast near Daytona, there was a lot of damage out that way mostly trees that have fallen and were everywhere, before we got started we all got together at 7:30 in the A.M. and we had a mini Sacrament meeting, we literally sang the first verse of "I am a child of God" and just took the Bread and Water!! It was pretty cool! Then my group went on a special assignment to help a part member family who had a tree fall through the roof and into there dining room! It was nuts there were tree limbs all over the yard! It looked like a Bomb went off, we helped them clean up there yard and then we started helping the surrounding neighbors clean up their yard!! We went strong for like a solid 10 Hours! 4 Chainsaws and 20 People Later and a really bad sunburn we finished! We did a lot of work but it was well worth it! It's always great to serve others!! 

Something I would like to share this week comes from General Conference October 2012 "Be Anxiously Engaged" "We read of the service Church members provide around the world and especially the humanitarian service given in times of crisis--fires and floods and hurricanes and tornadoes. These much-needed and much-appreciated emergency responses should certainly continue as a way of bearing one another’s burdens. But what about our everyday lives? What would be the cumulative effect of millions of small, compassionate acts performed daily by us because of our heartfelt Christian love for others? Over time this would have a transformative effect upon all of our Heavenly Father’s children through the extension of His love to them through us. Our troubled world needs this love of Christ today more than ever, and it will need it even more in the years ahead."

So my crazy week has come to an end! Things are going good, Olympia is a little slow right now but we are doing what we can to get it going! The scripture I would like to share this week is Matthew 10:7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's always important to share the gospel and let everyone know of Christ's church and how we can return to the Kingdom of Heaven. Anyways I love you all hope you guys have a good week!!

Elder Gentry

FOM                                              

                                    Me And Gillen Today!!!

                                              Before the Storm ⛈

M

                                                        Me and the not so crazy Hurricane!!

🙌🏻🗣🙏🏻Preach, Preach, Preach!!🙏🏻🗣🙌🏻 week #83

Wow 😳 what a great weekend, this was my 4th and final time watching General Conference on the Mission!!! Next time I watch General Conference I will be on my couch back home. hahaha Whats good everyone, Elder Gentry wrapping up another week here in Olympia. Things are going good this week was a little slow, we didn't get much time to get out and work, we had service Tuesday and Wednesday and then obviously  General Conference took up the weekend! It was good I really enjoyed the talks! Happy Birthday to Elder Coon who turned 21 on Thursday, we are both still doing well!! 

This week we went teaching with our Ward Mission Leader Brother Nash, it was good we had an appointment with the Less Active that just moved into the ward, she was nice but she talked a lot!! like you wouldn't believe how much she talked it was hard for us to even get a word in but we did it. hahah Her roommate (Patrick) was there and we asked him to join in on the lesson, we read the introduction fromww the Book of Mormon and talked about the importance of the book! We asked Patrick if he was interested in learning more and he said he would, he is agnostic but we will see how it goes we think he could have some real potential!!

We had a pretty good lesson with the recent converts that just moved into the ward for Fort Lauderdale, this is the family with 4 kids and the 3 youngest are members, the oldest is the non member and she seems somewhat interested it's kinda been a weird situation. So the first time we met all of them she seemed way interested and the second time we went and saw them she was not interested at all!!! And then this last time we went we taught the 3 youngest and she kinda listened in and we straight up asked her if this was something she wanted to learn more about and she said yes so we will see.... 

This was probably my favorite talk from this weekend it was in the Saturday afternoon session. It was by Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita titled Be ambitious for Christ. What does it mean to “be ambitious for Christ”? Being ambitious for Christ means being motivated, focused, and dedicatedw to His work. Being ambitious for Christ will seldom mean that we are singled out for public honor. Being ambitious for Christ means that we serve faithfully and diligently in our wards and branches without complaint and with joyful hearts. …In our lives we experience trials, but if we are ambitious for Christ, we can focus on Him and feel joy even in the midst of them. Our Redeemer is the ultimate example. He understood His holy mission and was obedient to the will of God the Father. What a choice blessing it is to bring His wonderful example to our remembrance each week as we partake of the sacrament.

Another week has come and gone!! Can't believe it's already October!! These months are flying by I am still doing good, just plugging on the best way I can, I love my mission, I feel Blessed! the scripture I would like to share this week is 3rd Nephi 10, 11  Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. 11 And behold, I am the light and the life of the world.... I love this scripture and I know that Jesus Christ Lives!! Jesus Christ is the life of the world and its only through him that we may be saved. Anyways I love and miss you all have a good week!

Elder Gentry

FOM