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