Week 2

It was so great to hear from everyone this week! Thank you so so much! I miss everybody and the letters and emails I received were so uplifting and just so good to hear from everyone. I miss being able to speak to people so immediately... Letters are great because I am able to respond anytime of the week, so feel free to use good ole snail mail, and who doesn't love a good old fashioned letter.

KUMUSTA PO KAYO everyone?!?! I hope everything is going well with everybody! I hope everyone is safe and having a great time ( like obviously everything is better when I am there, but hope everyone is still having fun despite my absence!) The MTC is getting better with time. I was talking to an elder who described MTC time as "The days feel like years and the weeks feel like days." Pretty much the most accurate description I could possibly come up with.

ernesto: Tagalog is HARD, but through a lot of prayer and relying on the Lord, the language has come fairly well. While teaching our "investigator" Ernesto three times this week, Sister Whitehead and I tried a bunch of different teaching methods to see which was the most successful. One lesson we REALLY prepared, like every word and sentence was in our notes and we basically read off it like a script. That lesson was no good. Ernesto didnt have time to ask questions and we could tell that he did not feel the spirit of our message.

The second lesson involved a lot less prep and more PRAYER. (Sister whitehead is patient with me, I literally have us pray probably like 15 times a day). The lesson was not good again, and I was really discouraged because I assumed that God would just let the words flow out of our mouths and Ernesto would feel the spirit. I do feel in that lesson the spirit was felt, because we were able to teach him how to pray and he prayed to understand us and thanked us for our efforts in the prayer, but there was no way he knew the message that we taught him (He is actually a white skinny BYU student who went on his mission to Philippines, but he acts like he doesn't and oz of English). At one point in our lesson he said, "hindi ko inggles" (or something to that effect) which means I don't speak English, and slightly frustrated I replied, "Yeah and I dont speak Tagalog." I felt so bad about the sassy comment!

SO finally, on our third lesson, we prepared A lot, but we prepared in both English and Tagalog and instead of writing down words we had not learned we just used words we Knew and spoke Tagalish. And we once again, said MANY prayers, but instead of praying for our abilities, we prayed that Ernesto would feel the spirit, that Ernesto would understand what we were telling him, and that ernesto would feel the truthfulness of our message. We enter with our notes, say a prayer in Tagalog with him and we kinda glanced at our notes and gave our lesson. When preparing we decided, that if the spirit told us to say something, to just say it, even if it was in English. However, WE WERE NOT GOING TO ASK "do you have any questions?" because there is no way we can understand him. Anyway, Lesson was going great and we got our message across, he said he felt the spirit and liked what we were telling him and right before Sister Whitehead gave him a baptismal invitation, I felt the spirit tell me, "You have to ask him if he has any questions, it is too soon in the lesson to ask him to be baptized" I turned to sister whitehead and apologized, and then asked, "may tunong po ba kayo?" and she looked at me so afraid, and i was so worried, (this is all slightly dramatic in retrospect, but its a good story about the spirit) Ernesto just went off really fast and I was so lost, but somehow I understood what he was asking, and we were able to answer all of his questions, in very terrible tagalish, but we answered them nonetheless. THE SPIRIT WAS POWERFUL in that room! Usually our lessons are about 10-15 mins and this one was about 30. At the end sister whitehead read the Baptismal Invitation and Ernesto said "siyempre! ( of course)" and then we asked if he and his family would come to church every sunday and he replied "siyempre!" and He told us a bunch of other stuff that i couldn't understand, but i am 98% sure it was good stuff because he was smiling. We ended with a strong prayer and came out elated. I was teary when he told us yes to a baptism, I didnt realize how much joy is found when one of your brothers and sisters accept to come unto Christ and except the gospel. You feel unexplainable joy because I know of the joy that Ernesto is going to feel. Although, he is not a real investigator, the experience gave me a lot of excitement to head out into the field and really be able to see the change and the light that the gospel will bring.

Sorry I have definitely turned into one of those missionaries. But don't worry I still have to work on my sarcasm and sass. I keep making a goal, "okay today I am not going to be sarcastic" and without fail, my district sisters have to say, "sorry Sister Gentry maybe tomorrow." It'll happen one day. Today isnt that day though...MY District is the bomb. Like honestly, the best district in the MTC I'm sure. We are all really close, the Elders are so great and we all do EVERYTHING together (even gym and laundry).

This week my stomach has been WACK. I blame the MTC food, but it could be a number of things. Either way, it felt like the wrath of God was taking place in my stomach... and it was rough. I'm being dramatic but either way, I hadn't eaten a full meal in a few days and it was no good. So I finally asked my district leader if I could have a blessing. Him and his companion were so nervous, but so sweet about it. Elder Evans hands were shaking so much, and then Elder Smith (DL) gave me one of the best blessings I have been given, He was pausing and taking time and you could tell he was really listening to the Holy Ghost. It was amazing and had me shocked that a 19 year old could give such a powerful blessing. I was so grateful that I was able to have that experience. and I feel better today, so YAY! Priesthood Power is real!

Two elders in my district are 20, and they both have serious girlfriends, that they cannot stop talking about. One elder from Idaho was actually engaged to be married this month and they had already bought house stuff and picked out an apt and amonth ago he said, "I really need to go and his girlfriend was completely supportive and they'll just get married the day after he gets back apparently. My first name has now become Sister. During the blessing, when I sat down, I was like do you need my full name? and the elders told me no, because as a missionary, your official name becomes Sister Gentry. Its weird getting used to and when I see my real life friends I have to call them sister and elder too. I kinda really like my first name, but its chill, whatever.

"In this world it is what we give up that makes us rich."There have been so many revelatory moments this week, where I have really strengthen my testimony and felt the love of Heavenly Father and my Savior. I have become a spiritual crier, so I have cried more in the last week than probably the last 5 years of my life. I had this ah ha moment when I was wondering how in the world, I - a 19 year old girl- was going to teach older more experienced people. There is no way I can understand what these people have experienced in their lives and they will have been through so much more that I could ever imagine. How was I going to do this, as I was personal studying, I read a scripture in D&C 1:20-24 :

20 But that every man might speak in the name of God theLord, even the Savior of the world; 21 That faith also might increase in the earth;22 That mine everlasting covenant might be established;23 That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed bythe weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, andbefore kings and rulers.24 Behold, I am God and have spoken it; thesecommandments are of me, and were given unto myservants in their weakness, after the manner of theirlanguage, that they might come to understanding.


Now I wont be teaching any kings or rulers, but I am most certainly weak, but the Lord is not, the gospel is not. So were my inabilities cause me to fall short, the gospel and Savior, Heavenly Father and the Spirit exceed the difference. I am simply a representative of Christ, sharing the light and truth with those who have lost it, bringing them back to their Father in Heaven and helping them realize there relationship with him. And there is not one person who does not deserve to know that.


Too hard to fit everything in, there is so much!!! My address has changed, my departure date is now August 20th because I'll be spending 5 days in the Manila MTC. Also, I MISS THE KIDDIES. I WOULD love to have some pictures of them mailed, so that I can brag about them. Everyone shows pics of their boyfriends and girlfriends, so I can at least have something to brag about. I LOVE LETTERS OKAY! I Love you ALL so much. Miss you and I am praying for you EVERYDAY.


Much love,


Sister Gentry


(working on the pic things... PC's dont make sense to me"