My MTC Christmas

Christmas was pretty awesome! Thank you for the package, I loved it! We had Elder David A. Bednar on Christmas Eve and Elder Holland on Christmas day. It was so awesome! When Elder Bednar walked in we were singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and when we saw him everyone started singing louder and the spirit filled the room like nothing I've ever felt before. I got the chills for what felt like 2 minutes! I just stood there singing full of joy and happiness and just really felt the spirit. After his amazing talk, we all got to shake his hand! How cool is that?! When I shook his hand I was just like...WOW, that's one powerful dude! Seriously, it was so awesome! Elder Holland was really good too, and I felt very good and I'd say we were really lucky to have them both come. I liked the Christmas card you sent, it was funny! I'm glad you had a good Christmas. I thought about you all a lot but I got thru it, and thank you for so much support. It really helped me to keep going.

Today we are going to the temple to clean. It's closed for cleaning till January 2nd so this will be our last time to be in the temple before we leave. We are supposed to get our flight plans today, so I will send you that info soon, and then I'll get to call home from the airport and hopefully get to chat with a few of you!

I'm glad Christmas was good and in 2 christmases I'll be back there with ya again. I miss you, and I love you!

Elder Gray

Merry Christmas!

Ola Familia!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! This is my Merry christmas family letter. Be sure to read this to Jeff, Jenn and Jase since they don't live there, and tell them Merry Christmas for me!
We get our flight plans this week! WOAH! Holy Cats! Santos Gatos! I can't believe it! I don't know portuguese! Who do they think they are sending me out in the middle of NO English!??! Aaahhh Freaky! I can't believe it, and it's totally insane and I'm freaking out, but then again, I'm ready to get out of this spirit prison and start the real work! It's gonna be WICKED SWEET!

Tonight we had a fireside and it was really good. He told tons of scripture stories and I wrote them all down so I can look them up again later. I love looking up scriptures! Oh, and guess what!? I finished the Book of Mormon this week!! That felt so good! I read all of Alma in ONE week! Pretty crazy huh? Pretty sweet huh?!

This last week was pretty good, kinda frustrating but not too bad. It was fun getting out of here to go to Costco to get my contacts and glasses. We got newb's this week so we get to know them better because we are the zone leaders and get to show them around. It's time for me to go do our service project for the day. We got the best service project in the whole place! We love playing on the big mat we're supposed to put away after we stack chairs. Muito divertido!

Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Elder Gray

We did Temple Sealings!

I got some nice cards and treats from some of the ward members and Mike and Amy. Please tell them thank you so much. I wish I had time to write everyone, but time in here is short. So Please express my thanks.

The speaking "no English" is going ok for me but this week was actually really tough, and I did not do very well when I taught the first lesson. I was really frustrated yesterday.

We got to go to the temple today though, and I felt much better after that. We did a sealing session for the first time and it was awesome! Elder Bell and I were very lucky to sit with a family, a mom, dad and son, and his new wife of about 3 months, and the dads mom. It was so cool and they were such awesome people. Then we found out the son went to Brazil and speaks Portuguese! So that was awesome to talk to him. He gave us some good tips and pointers. The temple sealing is so awesome! I seriously just felt at ease and happy the whole time we were there. :) It made me way excited to get married! I can't wait to be able to take my wife to the temple someday! I just know thats going to be the best day of my life!

I know now more than ever before how important that little picture is (in my room that mom gave me) that says: "I will make the choices today that will take me to the temple tomorrow." HOW TRUE! I just loved today!

SEND ME PICTURES!! I want to see my family!
Love you all!

Elder Gray

My Hamper, ha ha ha

So far this week has been really good! One of my best friends is here and I got to see him last night! It was so good to see Devin. I was so happy, it was the best night ever!

The week has flown by and we've been speaking strait Portuguese, and I don't feel any smarter! Ha ha! We had to teach the first lesson in Portuguese, talk about tough! I feel like with just the casual talking I'm doing ok, but when it's time to teach...Nao Bom! (not good)! But I'm pushin thru doing what I can to get by.

So...my hamper broke! It was a "piece" to begin with, so I had to buy a new one. It's AWESOME! I never thought that happiness could come through a hamper, ha ha ha. It's on a hanger, so it hangs up and its got a "dark" section and a "whites" section! It's totally WICKED SWEET!!

Everything's going just great...feel free to send peanutbutter bars, brownies, more goop...:)

Elder Gray

Scriptures

I can't believe I've been in the MTC a month now! It's crazy, but awesome. This last week went by so fast! Yesterday we started speaking Portuguese only. It's so cool, but hard for sure! The zone leader calling is going just great! A few more meetings and stuff, but good so far.

Dad, I liked the stories about your mission and learning the language because I can relate to it all. Thanks for the scriptures to look up. I am really growing to love the scriptures! I look forward to morning MDT (missionary directed time) cuz I love to read my scriptures. I'm just about to start in Alma. I feel like I'm learning a lot every time I read. I just love it. I wish I had even more time to sit and read the scriptures. Thanks for all the inspiration and words of wisdom.

Elder Gray

No More English

Thanksgiving was good here. We had a devotional by Elder and Sister Neuenschwander of the seventy. It was very good.

I only have the rest of this week to speak English, because next wednesday we go to strait Portuguese from then on! I don't feel even close to ready for that.

I am working very hard on being able to have the spirit with me 24/7. I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job of it, and I will keep it up. It's such an amazing feeling having the spirit with me whenever and where ever I need it.

So far the Zone leader position is going really well and my companion and I are really enjoying it. We have a few more meetings and obligations, but we will be blessed for it!

Elder Gray

I'm a Zone Leader!

This will be kinda short, but I wanted to tell you that my comp and I got called on Sunday to be the new Zone Leaders! Crazy! I wasn't expecting it.

Like I knew we were gonna be getting new Zone Leaders, but there is still one older group, so I figured it would be them. But nope! It was us. I'm pretty excited; I just hope we can do half as good as the old Zone Leaders. They left today at like 4:00 in the morning, so we said goodbye last night. It's gonna be weird without all of them. Sad too, because I got to be pretty good friends with a few of them.  But they're going to be in Lisbon, too, so hopefully I'll get to see them in the field.

Well, all is well, just thought I'd let you know that. Love ya tonz!

Elder Gray

Learning a language is tough!

Tomorrow I have to give the opening prayer and it has to be in Portuguese, so I'm really kind of nervous. I think I am going to try it without looking at my card, but I'll probably have to peak. Pretty cool though, I guess.

I think it is just hitting me like today how hard it will be to teach out there in the mission field. We taught the first discussion today to our teacher (he was acting as an investigator) and it's pretty hard. Takes a lot of practice, that's for sure. Like it's hard in English, but on December 5th it's all Portuguese from there! It's gonna be pretty crazy and probably confusing and of course very hard. But bring it on, right? Gotta learn somehow!

Elder Gray

P.S. This is a picture of me trying to "escape" over the famous MTC wall.  ;-)

Portugal-bound Missionaries

I love Sundays!

So yesterday, oh my goodness, it was the BEST day yet here at the MTC for sure! Sundays are awesome! It started out with breakfast at 7:20. Yes, can you believe it? Me up at 6:30 a.m. every day! I can't. Then we had Sacrament Meeting at 8:00 and me and my comp passed the sacrament, which was pretty cool. Then we had personal study time until priesthood meeting at 11:10. Then lunch, then more classroom and study time, and then at 3:00 we get to go to the residence halls and relax and do whatever we want until dinner.

Okay, but now is the good part! We had our devotional by Pres. David Madsen and his wife, which was really good.  But the concluding song, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", it was AMAZING! It was so, so amazing singing it with so many missionaries, two or three thousand I think. Man it was so awesome I can't even hardly explain it. The spirit felt so strong as we sang it I wanted to just sing it again and again and again. I got chills like multiple times.

Then my favorite part, we watched "Joseph Smith - The Prophet". That movie is so amazing! I got chills like I never have before. When he kneels down and that darkness begins to overcome him, I had the chills throughout my whole body. Even my head was tingling. It was amazing...I just loved it.

Love,

Elder Gray

P.S. The food here seems to be getting worse at time goes on. Sad. Horrible chicken today. The skin was like crunchy hard. So I had some cereal. Cereal is always an option, which is very nice. Oh, and the chocolate milk hasn't failed me yet either.  ;-)

Goop!

Hey mom, thanks for the goop! All my companions loved it, too. (Good thing you sent such a big box!)

We're pretty much into full-blown classes every day. We just have one classroom and two teachers that teach the gospel and Portuguese, too. So like two birds with one stone. But ya, we're learning the language pretty fast. It is so hard! Next week we have to teach a whole lesson in Portuguese; I'm so scared!

Thank you so much mom for everything. You're the best!   

 

Miss you, love you!

Elder Gray

Getting Letters is The Best!

Hey Dad,

I got your letter today! Now I know what everyone meant when they say how nice it is to get mail. I love it! It's like a big day brightener!

Anyways, everything is going pretty good. We taught our first lesson without notes to "investigators." They weren't really investigators, they were volunteers, but we still had to do our best and we actually did really well with the lesson. But I struggled with introducing ourselves in Portuguese. Learning a language is hard!

Today was our first full P-Day, so we got to go to the temple which was really awesome. I'm glad we get to go once a week. I wish there was a temple in Portugal.

I love you and miss you!

Love, Elder Gray

Well, I'm Here!

Dear Family,

Well, I don't even really know where to start. I still can't believe I'm gone. I feel like I should be coming home soon, like I'm at Youth Conference or something. But so far everyone seems really cool and nice.

Well, I gotta go to bed. I have to get up really early! I love you all so much; can't wait to hear from you!

Love,

Elder Gray

My Mission Call