5, 6, Pick up Sticks

Amigos!!!!

Alas! I am once again here at a computer emailing y'all!

I would say this has probably been one of the longer weeks Ive had. It started off great. Since we had the tornado, there was damage everywhere! (I will send pictures!) So we decided a great way to meet and find people would be to go clean up their yards! So we got on our bikes and just started riding around looking for people with damage. (and we did this in our dresses so people would see us...that was fun and sweaty) We mostly were just playing a game of pick up all the sticks, branches and fallen trees in the yard. One day (We did this for almost three days straight) we saw this old guy raking his yard. It had a ton of leaves and sticks and then a big tree down. We went to help. I raked for a long time and then he cut branches off the tree, and we piled them up. We were there for about two hours and I had blisters on my hands by the end! I miss my farm callouses!!! Another person we helped had about two big trees down in the back. He had a burn pile (many people just make a huge bon fire in their yard and burn all the trees cause there is just too much) and so we helped him carry all the fallen stuff to the pile. We were sweaty, covered in ash and smelt like smoke. We had to go straight to dinner after that. Luckily we keep baby wipes in our car and had a wipe down bath before we went in. Im sure we looked really cute. haha. 

We also had Zone Conference this week. President Mansell is great. I love it when we get to hear from him. He also asked me to be apart of this object lesson about being prepared. He called two Elders up and asked them to nail a nail in a board using anything they had in their backpacks. Well they couldn't do it. They weren't prepared with a hammer. He then called me up and asked me to do the same. Well before the training he had given me a hammer to put in my backpack. (it was funny when he asked me to do it because he was thinking out of all the sisters, who could hammer a nail...haha)So I pulled it out and hammered it in. Everyone was so confused! Anyways like I said, It was great and I got some really good personal revelation. 

One of the talks he asked us to read to prepare to Zone conf was "Following Christ to Victory" by Hartman Rector Jr. GO READ IT! One of my favorite quotes from there was "If you dont do it, you really didnt want it." How simple, yet profound. 

The rest of the week was rough. Sister Bash was really sick so about 2 and half days we had to just sit inside. For any of you who have known me for more than 5 minutes, you know that I cannot sit still, and always have to be doing something. You could say I have been very creative in what I am doing this week, our apartment is spotless, and I have read almost every piece of literature in our apartment. I make is sound negative but I actually had great personal studies this week. I was able to finish the Book of Mormon (I started in the MTC so it was the first time finishing in the mission), I read "our search for happiness" and "Our Heritage." They were great. I was also able to start "Jesus the Christ." I learned a lot about sacrifice and I wish I had time to tell you about all my studies in detail, but alas, I cant. Study it yourself! 

Well Amy is on track to get baptized this saturday! I am so overjoyed! I cannot wait. It is going to be so special. She took us out to eat at a place in Tulsa, overlooking the Arkansas river (at sunset) called Red Rock Canyon. It was super nice. But anyways it will be my first baptism on the mission and boy I am jumping for joy! I love the work and I love this gospel!

Stay Fresh, 

Sister Gentry 

A few images after the tornado