This week we had some good experiences, some weird or funny, and some down experiences. I think that’s about how it is every week actually. Anyway, we had family night with this family, and we gave a spiritual lesson that went pretty good, we taught about Abinadi and the extremely awesome faith that he had and that he was willing to die and give up his life to teach the Gospel. Then we also talked about Alma, and how he baptized 204 people in secret, which is pretty amazing! We are out here trying to baptize and do the Lords work and we are NOT doing it in secret. We are trying to talk to every single person possible to bring the Light of Christ to their lives. But Alma had to do it in secret and he did a great job of it! It’s a great story and I love it, so we wanted to teach it and some of its principles.
Afterwards, they fed us, and my goodness it was NOT normal! I mean the food here that we eat at member’s houses is usually pretty interesting at times, but then there are sometimes, you get something just whacked! So get this, we ate chicken, but not like the parts YOU would eat, NO....I think they kill the chickens, send all the good and normal stuff to the states then keep all the nasty crazy weird stuff here, ha ha ha, just kiddin, but really its weird. We ate chicken liver, heart, feet, neck, gizzard...of which I’m not even sure what that is, but that’s just what I found when I translated the word they told me...ha ha, yup, crazy stuff if you ask me...chicken neck?? Chicken feet!!? And the HEART?? Yeah crazy weird stuff! So I was eating, then I moved some rice and saw a piece of meat and picked it up and it was a heart! Straight up heart! I don’t even know how to explain it, and then I see a literal FOOT on my plate, with the little claws on it and everything! I just thought about how that foot was probably walking around in that pen with all the other chickens and walking in its own poo and who knows what else.....I lost my appetite. I didn’t eat the foot...I couldn’t…....
On Saturday we had this activity at the church and the young kids sang and we had this little meeting and people spoke, it was good and we had 2 investigators there and the spirit was strong. I just hope that they felt it and will follow their hearts! But get this, right before the activity, a little kid that is like oh maybe 2 or 3 I’m not sure, was outside and all of a sudden someone said, "Oh my gosh look!!" And the little boy had his pants down to his ankles and he was just peein right there in the middle of the sidewalk right in front of the church! Ha ha, it was so funny! And people start laughing then he starts laughing, but then mommy spanked him ha ha! Man it was way funny! On a sad note, we have pretty much just lost a progressing investigator Maria do Carmo. We went over there and she was so, so different! It really made me sad cuz she just kept disagreeing with anything we said. We tried to teach her the importance of going to church and WHY she needs to go, but she just kept saying, I can stay home and do my own thing…..and I was just like we are not here to do OUR OWN THING! We are to serve and follow the Lords path! But yeah, it was just really sad and she didn’t really want to talk or anything. I was sooo bummed cuz she has a family of 3 daughters and a son, so I was hoping to be able to teach the whole family, but now it’s going to be very hard to do. We did get 8 new investigators this week tho, 3 of which are really good and I’m excited to teach them. Two of them have gone to church 2 times now and I’m loving it! A boy and girl, the boy is the son of a member Nilzete, and his wife. He is 26 and she 20, and they have been married 9 years. DO THE MATH!! Yup! That’s right. I couldn’t believe it! When I asked him, I said, "So how old are you two? And how long have you been married?" And he says, "I’m 26 and she is 20 and we have been married 9 years." I was like "oh yeah, 9 months?" And he says, "No, no, 9 years" I just sat there. I was nearly speechless. I couldn’t believe it! I said, “dude I am 20 and I can’t imagine being married right now, I’m way too immature!” Ha ha, it was pretty funny, I couldn’t believe that!! The last few weeks, we have made some choco chip cookies for people, and man they are a huge, huge hit! We have now gone to 2 different members houses to teach them how to do it. It was funny but pretty cool they just love them! They don’t have these things here!
Well I hope you all have a good week and that things are going great for you. Don’t forget to SMILE. A smile to someone can just change their day! So if you just see someone not smiling or a little unhappy, go out of your way to make them smile. I have learned here that lots of people seem to be cold and don’t talk much, but even just a smile, can go a long way. You don’t even have to say a word, just show the happiness that you have in your life, because it’s thru that that people start wondering why you are happy all the time. People notice, I know that for sure! So just smile, smile, smile and be happy! Life is too short to not be happy. So smile, and see what happens. :)
The Church is TRUE! I know it with all my heart! I am so happy to be out here and serve, yes there are LONG days and HARD days, but if we just keep going everyday, we will be blessed. I am grateful for the opportunity to be out here and serve the Lord. I love you all and I wish you all a great week!
Love,
Elder Gray
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
We are Making a Difference!
We had a pretty good week! I was actually pretty impressed with our numbers because we lost a FULL day because of Zone Conference which usually brings our weekly numbers down a bit. But we still had OVER 20 lessons this week! That is our weekly goal to get at least 20 lessons, which was NOT happening at all in this area before I got here so it feels pretty good and I’m just loving it! Zone Conference was really good, as usual. It’s always great to hear and be inspired by President Torgan. Even though, at times things seem to be a little weird that he does, but I try to just keep in mind that he IS our President and he has the keys for this Mission so I just need to keep that in mind and follow and do what he asks.
Anyway, the Conference was really good; I have always enjoyed Zone Conferences. They are always a good time for a bit of uplifting advice and ways to better ourselves out here. Its pretty crazy, me and others have been out here for a year, some over a year, some almost 2 years, and we are still learning new things every day, all the time! Man, you would think that the learning would slow down a bit on HOW to do this work! But it’s the Lords work and the Lord works in mysterious ways so we just got to keep going, growing, learning and LOVE it the whole way!
One thing that we heard at Zone Conf, which made me OPEN my eyes wide in a way, was when President Torgan told us how many Baptisms we had in the month of February, THEN....he told us how many baptisms the Porto mission had in February. First, the Portugal, Porto Mission in the month of February had 6 baptisms. WE....Portugal, Lisbon Mission, had in February, 47 baptisms. How AWESOME is that! By the way, that is MORE than one per dupla. (Per companionship.) Crazy awesome! So we are kickin butt and takin names! (And using lots of water.) :) Ha ha ha! It’s pretty awesome! President talked a lot on those numbers and how Portugal is all the same. Porto, Lisbon, it’s all the same. Same peeps, same culture and all that, but we had 47. They had 6. What does that tell us? Is it because the people here are nicer? No.....actually it is commonly known that the people in Porto are generally more open and nice....HA! He was telling us how we had 47 baptisms because of US, because of the missionaries. US!! The work that WE do. It was really cool to hear that!
Now, about my “Ensign story" I started last week. Sadly there isn’t too much to say about that one anymore. It’s actually kind of a long sad story. But he is already dropped. We most likely will not be talking to him again. He has a lot of problems. He turns out to be more like a "can’t work because of being unstable" rather than "kind of retired." He told us that he is a "kind of retired doctor" but now we have come to find it’s more complicated. He has big issues mentally and lots of things. I won’t go way into it, it’s not really worth it, because there were 2 things he said, “I will be honest, I won’t read. I hate reading, I can’t and I won’t do it,” so that was kind of bad but then I was telling him it can be just ONE verse a day and I opened up and read a scripture and said, "See, that’s how fast!" Ha-ha so then he said, “oh....yeah, maybe then he said, "ummm there is something else...well I should not tell you.....but uh, I will, I smoke joints." And I just look at my comp like uhhhhhh great......this dude is like over 50 years old! Man it’s so sad! His life is so, so, so messed up. So yeah, we were WAY confused about why on earth he came into the church asking for a Book in the first place if he hates reading, yeah....weird. But that is about half of the story. Not worth wasting time over, sadly...but that’s life right there.
The good news lately, is just the fact that people are showing up ON TIME to church!! Ahh, it makes me SOO happy! Even our branch President has been on time the last 2 weeks in a row, which is way good! The last Elders that served here could tell you they don’t even know if he or many other people have been on time EVER! Ha ha, but it looks like to me someone just needed to OPEN their mouth!! So I’m SO, SO glad that I did! I am seeing a difference and that makes me so happy. Something small, like being on time is pretty important, seems pretty small but yet I’m so happy to see that I have made even just a little bit of a difference with my time here. I just hope that I can continue to do so and see and work more and more miracles!!
The not so great news of the week is that it was pretty hard to teach all our investigators because of the Conference. We didn’t even get to teach 3 of our main ones, which bothers me, but we are determined to MAKE UP for the lost lessons this week! Our investigators are all progressing but they all just need that burning to grow a little more so they can be baptized! I have high hopes. So hopefully this next week will be better and we will have lessons with all of them. And maybe even mark someone! I sure hope so! :)
On Saturday, we went with a member to deliver some food to a couple of families that are struggling with money right now, one of which being Brenda’s family. (She is 15, and has a little brother 10). She is the girl that is ALWAYS is willing to help us! They are an awesome, awesome family. Their mom is single and trying to provide for the two kids and things aren’t going all that well so we took over a whole bunch of basic food to them, without an appointment, and when we showed up, I went up first to the door alone to make sure someone was home, and I get there and I knock the door and Brenda says, "Quem é?" "Who is it?" And I say, "O Elder" and she says, "What!?!?!? I don’t believe it!" Ha ha, then she opens the door and sees me and is like what the…!? OH!! By the way they live kind of far away so we would NOT be there at night time ever, so she says, "What on earth?? Are you alone????" And I say, "Yes I’m alone and I ran all the way here!! I got in a fight with my companion!!" Ha ha! She says, uhhh....and, well I’m not too good at keeping straight faces really, so she says, "Ah you liar!" Ha, ha, it was way funny. But then we brought all the food up and went in to the house with it and the mom walks in and it was just so cool. I could tell that they, the mom especially was SO, SO grateful for the food we had brought. She said, "Oh my goodness, kids we have food!" That kind of hit me hard. I would never have guessed that they didn’t really have any food because they are such humble people and so happy all the time no matter what.
So this, everyone is my lesson for this week. :) Don’t take the little tiny things that you have for granted! This poor single mother had to sell her car so she could provide for her family, so, if you think your life is tough....Stop Complaining!!
I want you all to know that I KNOW that the Church is true! It’s such an amazing blessing in our lives! I gave a talk on Sunday and in the end I was talking a bit about families and how unbelievably AWESOME my family is (trying not to brag too much) and I just realized, that even if I don’t know much about the Church, I know that I will be with my family forever. And that is enough for me to be out here on the other side of the world preaching that fact. If that is the only knowledge I have, it would be enough. I always testify of families because I am SO eternally grateful for the fact that I will live with and love my family for ever! Not to mention my very OWN future family, I’m already grateful for the knowledge that the family I will have, will be mine FOREVER, and we will ALL live in a state of never ending HAPPINESS!! Isn’t that what we all want, happiness? Well just imagine eternity for a second.....Is living the way YOU want here on earth worth living in misery forever? If not, read, pray, and go to church! If you want to live in HAPPINESS then get your butt up and DO SOMETHING! I LOVE YOU ALL and I care about every single one of you that is reading this. I miss you all, but there is work to be done!! The field is here, now, and ready to harvest! I Love You!
Elder Robby Gray!
Anyway, the Conference was really good; I have always enjoyed Zone Conferences. They are always a good time for a bit of uplifting advice and ways to better ourselves out here. Its pretty crazy, me and others have been out here for a year, some over a year, some almost 2 years, and we are still learning new things every day, all the time! Man, you would think that the learning would slow down a bit on HOW to do this work! But it’s the Lords work and the Lord works in mysterious ways so we just got to keep going, growing, learning and LOVE it the whole way!
One thing that we heard at Zone Conf, which made me OPEN my eyes wide in a way, was when President Torgan told us how many Baptisms we had in the month of February, THEN....he told us how many baptisms the Porto mission had in February. First, the Portugal, Porto Mission in the month of February had 6 baptisms. WE....Portugal, Lisbon Mission, had in February, 47 baptisms. How AWESOME is that! By the way, that is MORE than one per dupla. (Per companionship.) Crazy awesome! So we are kickin butt and takin names! (And using lots of water.) :) Ha ha ha! It’s pretty awesome! President talked a lot on those numbers and how Portugal is all the same. Porto, Lisbon, it’s all the same. Same peeps, same culture and all that, but we had 47. They had 6. What does that tell us? Is it because the people here are nicer? No.....actually it is commonly known that the people in Porto are generally more open and nice....HA! He was telling us how we had 47 baptisms because of US, because of the missionaries. US!! The work that WE do. It was really cool to hear that!
Now, about my “Ensign story" I started last week. Sadly there isn’t too much to say about that one anymore. It’s actually kind of a long sad story. But he is already dropped. We most likely will not be talking to him again. He has a lot of problems. He turns out to be more like a "can’t work because of being unstable" rather than "kind of retired." He told us that he is a "kind of retired doctor" but now we have come to find it’s more complicated. He has big issues mentally and lots of things. I won’t go way into it, it’s not really worth it, because there were 2 things he said, “I will be honest, I won’t read. I hate reading, I can’t and I won’t do it,” so that was kind of bad but then I was telling him it can be just ONE verse a day and I opened up and read a scripture and said, "See, that’s how fast!" Ha-ha so then he said, “oh....yeah, maybe then he said, "ummm there is something else...well I should not tell you.....but uh, I will, I smoke joints." And I just look at my comp like uhhhhhh great......this dude is like over 50 years old! Man it’s so sad! His life is so, so, so messed up. So yeah, we were WAY confused about why on earth he came into the church asking for a Book in the first place if he hates reading, yeah....weird. But that is about half of the story. Not worth wasting time over, sadly...but that’s life right there.
The good news lately, is just the fact that people are showing up ON TIME to church!! Ahh, it makes me SOO happy! Even our branch President has been on time the last 2 weeks in a row, which is way good! The last Elders that served here could tell you they don’t even know if he or many other people have been on time EVER! Ha ha, but it looks like to me someone just needed to OPEN their mouth!! So I’m SO, SO glad that I did! I am seeing a difference and that makes me so happy. Something small, like being on time is pretty important, seems pretty small but yet I’m so happy to see that I have made even just a little bit of a difference with my time here. I just hope that I can continue to do so and see and work more and more miracles!!
The not so great news of the week is that it was pretty hard to teach all our investigators because of the Conference. We didn’t even get to teach 3 of our main ones, which bothers me, but we are determined to MAKE UP for the lost lessons this week! Our investigators are all progressing but they all just need that burning to grow a little more so they can be baptized! I have high hopes. So hopefully this next week will be better and we will have lessons with all of them. And maybe even mark someone! I sure hope so! :)
On Saturday, we went with a member to deliver some food to a couple of families that are struggling with money right now, one of which being Brenda’s family. (She is 15, and has a little brother 10). She is the girl that is ALWAYS is willing to help us! They are an awesome, awesome family. Their mom is single and trying to provide for the two kids and things aren’t going all that well so we took over a whole bunch of basic food to them, without an appointment, and when we showed up, I went up first to the door alone to make sure someone was home, and I get there and I knock the door and Brenda says, "Quem é?" "Who is it?" And I say, "O Elder" and she says, "What!?!?!? I don’t believe it!" Ha ha, then she opens the door and sees me and is like what the…!? OH!! By the way they live kind of far away so we would NOT be there at night time ever, so she says, "What on earth?? Are you alone????" And I say, "Yes I’m alone and I ran all the way here!! I got in a fight with my companion!!" Ha ha! She says, uhhh....and, well I’m not too good at keeping straight faces really, so she says, "Ah you liar!" Ha, ha, it was way funny. But then we brought all the food up and went in to the house with it and the mom walks in and it was just so cool. I could tell that they, the mom especially was SO, SO grateful for the food we had brought. She said, "Oh my goodness, kids we have food!" That kind of hit me hard. I would never have guessed that they didn’t really have any food because they are such humble people and so happy all the time no matter what.
So this, everyone is my lesson for this week. :) Don’t take the little tiny things that you have for granted! This poor single mother had to sell her car so she could provide for her family, so, if you think your life is tough....Stop Complaining!!
I want you all to know that I KNOW that the Church is true! It’s such an amazing blessing in our lives! I gave a talk on Sunday and in the end I was talking a bit about families and how unbelievably AWESOME my family is (trying not to brag too much) and I just realized, that even if I don’t know much about the Church, I know that I will be with my family forever. And that is enough for me to be out here on the other side of the world preaching that fact. If that is the only knowledge I have, it would be enough. I always testify of families because I am SO eternally grateful for the fact that I will live with and love my family for ever! Not to mention my very OWN future family, I’m already grateful for the knowledge that the family I will have, will be mine FOREVER, and we will ALL live in a state of never ending HAPPINESS!! Isn’t that what we all want, happiness? Well just imagine eternity for a second.....Is living the way YOU want here on earth worth living in misery forever? If not, read, pray, and go to church! If you want to live in HAPPINESS then get your butt up and DO SOMETHING! I LOVE YOU ALL and I care about every single one of you that is reading this. I miss you all, but there is work to be done!! The field is here, now, and ready to harvest! I Love You!
Elder Robby Gray!
Monday, March 15, 2010
My Ensign Story
First of all this week, we marked then had to unmark a kid for baptism. He was marked on Tuesday for Sunday. But then they had to talk to their dad about it and he won’t let him be baptized cuz he says he is not old enough to make decisions for himself. He is 10 yrs old. A great kid ready to be baptized for sure, but now a bit of a hold up. So we are working on the other family members. They are ALL so ready and just need to take the steps to baptism! The other problem is the mom, Regina is not married. I guess they have just never thought about getting married. That’s crazy to me, they have 3 kids! Like why not just get hitched? But they have never even talked about it. Crazy! So that is a bit of a problem because in order for her to be baptized they have to get married. But as of now we are focusing on the oldest one Adilson. He is 18 yrs. old so he CAN be baptized, he just isn’t sure yet. He has doubts like everyone does, so we are continuing to go over there and meet with them about twice a week. I really want him to get baptized and I think that he will, I believe that he will, he just needs a bit more time, which is hard to have with President Torgan. He is all about baptizing YESTERDAY, so it’s hard when we have our Zone Leaders breathing down our backs all the time about WHEN is our next baptism and stuff like that. It makes things kind of stressful and at times questionable, but we are trying and doing our best to get some baptisms here.
We also have our other Adilson, the one from Brazil. He is doing way good and progressing. He had to work yesterday so he couldn’t come to church which was a bummer, but we still had 4 investigators in church! :) Whoop!! That is still way good, but we are WANTING like 8! So we still have some work to do no doubt!
I made "Ensign Story" my heading because I am in the middle of what could be one of those stories that you read about the missionaries in the Ensign ha ha, it’s quite awesome. In a way I just want to wait till next week to tell you ALL about it cuz that would give me more time to see how its going to unfold. But, I will tell you what I know from what has happened so far. Yesterday I was sitting in church just about 5 minutes before our meeting was about to start, and the Branch President walks up to me and says, "Elder Gray, there is someone outside wanting a Book of Mormon!" Now that right there is crazy enough! So I run out there and greet this Portuguese guy named Rui. Awesome fella, older man about 6 feet tall I would say, so I start speaking Portuguese (of course) and he says, "Do you speak English?" So I said, "Yes I do" and so he speaks English....kind of...haha, but he loves to speak English, he prefers it over Portuguese. Anyways, so he asks me if he can have a "Bible" and I said, "Well, actually we don’t have a Bible right now but I can get you one later on if you would like, but we have this book called The Book of Mormon." and he says, ”Umm what is the difference?" So I explained a little about the difference and where the Book of Mormon came from and all that stuff and he said, “Yeah sure I’ll take this one.” So I give him the book and I say, “Hey our meeting is about to start right now if you would like to come in.” He couldn’t...sadly, BUT he gave me all his info and was like "I would like it if you would come to my house and talk with me." So of course I said that we would love to! So he told me to call him sometime this week. So my plan was to call today later on after P-Day. But get this, so I’m sitting here writing an email to someone, (our internet store is right next to our church) and I look out the window and see him walking with someone towards our church and I watch him to see what he is doing and he goes, looks around the corner sees that the door is shut and turns back around. So I KNEW that he was looking for US!! So the guy he was with was almost looking at me in the window so I pounded on the window and the other guy saw me and I pointed to Rui so, his friend pointed to me....and he looks up and I wave and he makes a gesture like "I need to talk to you!" So I jump up! And I run outside and talked to him. He says, "Hey, listen I would like you to come to my house? I want you to talk to me and my wife. But she is not prepared, so call her today and talk to her, you speak Portuguese right?" and I say, "Sim" ha ha and he says, “Okay call my wife and tell her you talked to me and you want to come over." So I say, "Okay I will call her today!" And he says, "Yeah, I would like you guys to come over tomorrow." Awesome! Then he says, "I want YOU to come, because you are cool. And we need more cool people like you in Portugal." Ha ha ha!! Funny huh! So I say, "Yeah me and my companion can came over." He says, "Sounds great!" Pretty cool, right?! I know! I am stoked! So we will go over there most likely tomorrow and see how things go. This guy is really nice and cool. I guess he is a retired Doctor. So maybe we will be going to a mansion!! (Which in this country means a house.) Ha ha!! So, I will give you the updates next week and let you know how things went! But man I tell ya.....speaking to someone like I was doing in ENGLISH was SO, SO, SO weird!! I don’t know why. I had a serious problem. I wanted to speak in Portuguese to him and I would keep saying stuff on accident in Portuguese and he would just laugh and I’d be like "Oh! Duh I mean....." So it was really funny. But cool too, ha ha!
Guess what? For those of you who know of course how being CLEAN is important to me, my companion is the CLEANEST comp I have had yet!!! I love the kid! And not just cuz he is clean, he is awesome! We are having a great time together, I think he is my favorite companion so far, AND he is super clean. I love it! Man it just takes so much pointless stress off my chest! Ha ha, I only had to do the dishes twice this week and it was only cuz I had to like RACE him to the sink to do them. But I think it has a lot to do with the fact that my STUPID fingers and this skin thing I have going on here is STILL irritating me. (Yes mom and dad I still have it.) But I have an appointment with a doc in a week or so. But it’s worse....... AHH! But yeah, he respects that fact and how it royally sucks having to use gloves to do dishes. He is legit and we are having a great time and doing great work!! :)
That is about it for the week! I hope you all have a great week and everything goes well and you are all HAPPY! Don’t forget to smile! I love you all so much and miss you tonz. This is the Lords work I am doing and its great! I am loving it and I am trying to live up to every minute I have out here serving the Lord! There are souls to be saved!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!
Love Elder Gray
We also have our other Adilson, the one from Brazil. He is doing way good and progressing. He had to work yesterday so he couldn’t come to church which was a bummer, but we still had 4 investigators in church! :) Whoop!! That is still way good, but we are WANTING like 8! So we still have some work to do no doubt!
I made "Ensign Story" my heading because I am in the middle of what could be one of those stories that you read about the missionaries in the Ensign ha ha, it’s quite awesome. In a way I just want to wait till next week to tell you ALL about it cuz that would give me more time to see how its going to unfold. But, I will tell you what I know from what has happened so far. Yesterday I was sitting in church just about 5 minutes before our meeting was about to start, and the Branch President walks up to me and says, "Elder Gray, there is someone outside wanting a Book of Mormon!" Now that right there is crazy enough! So I run out there and greet this Portuguese guy named Rui. Awesome fella, older man about 6 feet tall I would say, so I start speaking Portuguese (of course) and he says, "Do you speak English?" So I said, "Yes I do" and so he speaks English....kind of...haha, but he loves to speak English, he prefers it over Portuguese. Anyways, so he asks me if he can have a "Bible" and I said, "Well, actually we don’t have a Bible right now but I can get you one later on if you would like, but we have this book called The Book of Mormon." and he says, ”Umm what is the difference?" So I explained a little about the difference and where the Book of Mormon came from and all that stuff and he said, “Yeah sure I’ll take this one.” So I give him the book and I say, “Hey our meeting is about to start right now if you would like to come in.” He couldn’t...sadly, BUT he gave me all his info and was like "I would like it if you would come to my house and talk with me." So of course I said that we would love to! So he told me to call him sometime this week. So my plan was to call today later on after P-Day. But get this, so I’m sitting here writing an email to someone, (our internet store is right next to our church) and I look out the window and see him walking with someone towards our church and I watch him to see what he is doing and he goes, looks around the corner sees that the door is shut and turns back around. So I KNEW that he was looking for US!! So the guy he was with was almost looking at me in the window so I pounded on the window and the other guy saw me and I pointed to Rui so, his friend pointed to me....and he looks up and I wave and he makes a gesture like "I need to talk to you!" So I jump up! And I run outside and talked to him. He says, "Hey, listen I would like you to come to my house? I want you to talk to me and my wife. But she is not prepared, so call her today and talk to her, you speak Portuguese right?" and I say, "Sim" ha ha and he says, “Okay call my wife and tell her you talked to me and you want to come over." So I say, "Okay I will call her today!" And he says, "Yeah, I would like you guys to come over tomorrow." Awesome! Then he says, "I want YOU to come, because you are cool. And we need more cool people like you in Portugal." Ha ha ha!! Funny huh! So I say, "Yeah me and my companion can came over." He says, "Sounds great!" Pretty cool, right?! I know! I am stoked! So we will go over there most likely tomorrow and see how things go. This guy is really nice and cool. I guess he is a retired Doctor. So maybe we will be going to a mansion!! (Which in this country means a house.) Ha ha!! So, I will give you the updates next week and let you know how things went! But man I tell ya.....speaking to someone like I was doing in ENGLISH was SO, SO, SO weird!! I don’t know why. I had a serious problem. I wanted to speak in Portuguese to him and I would keep saying stuff on accident in Portuguese and he would just laugh and I’d be like "Oh! Duh I mean....." So it was really funny. But cool too, ha ha!
Guess what? For those of you who know of course how being CLEAN is important to me, my companion is the CLEANEST comp I have had yet!!! I love the kid! And not just cuz he is clean, he is awesome! We are having a great time together, I think he is my favorite companion so far, AND he is super clean. I love it! Man it just takes so much pointless stress off my chest! Ha ha, I only had to do the dishes twice this week and it was only cuz I had to like RACE him to the sink to do them. But I think it has a lot to do with the fact that my STUPID fingers and this skin thing I have going on here is STILL irritating me. (Yes mom and dad I still have it.) But I have an appointment with a doc in a week or so. But it’s worse....... AHH! But yeah, he respects that fact and how it royally sucks having to use gloves to do dishes. He is legit and we are having a great time and doing great work!! :)
That is about it for the week! I hope you all have a great week and everything goes well and you are all HAPPY! Don’t forget to smile! I love you all so much and miss you tonz. This is the Lords work I am doing and its great! I am loving it and I am trying to live up to every minute I have out here serving the Lord! There are souls to be saved!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!
Love Elder Gray
Monday, March 8, 2010
Twelve New Investigators!
This week was really good! We are even impressed with our own numbers and how everything went. It was just awesome! For the most part everything went through and worked out as planned! Of course there were a few things....but can’t complain. One thing that was just awesome was that we had 12 new investigators this week! We felt like we were just rolling them in! And it’s also crazy because this week was transfer week and I got a new companion! So because of transfers we lost a whole bunch of working time, but yet we still had a great week, with over 20 lessons! (Here that is not very common.) So it was way sweet!
Since I have been here we haven’t really been able to get any investigators to go to church. Well I just changed a little about the way I go about inviting people to come to church and basically poured out my heart about how important it is to go and if we do, we will be SO blessed! That goes for all of us, members, and non-members everyone! SO, we had 5 investigators in church! I was just so thrilled! Then, better yet, our testimony meeting was just AWESOME! I loved it so much! Not to be boastful, but 3 different people talked about me and something that I had taught them earlier this week and how it has just changed something about them. It was really cool for me to see that I AM making a difference. It really made me feel good!
Remember how I said a few weeks ago, when our branch was having a HUGE problem getting to church at 10:00, that I talked about it and basically told them it’s not good to be late? Well this one guy, Fernando, gets it and now the last 2 weeks he and his family have been at the church on time, so it was awesome! We have this in-active member that we went and visited last week on Sunday. We had a great little lesson with him and I just started asking him "why" he isn’t going to church, "what" is the excuse and things like that. And he was saying how its just hard cuz he gets home from work as a bouncer, (this guy is HUGE,) at like 9 in the morning and said going to church is just hard and he has a hard time staying awake in the meeting so he just goes home. So I taught him about sacrifice. I taught him about blessings and I told him that it’s a sacrifice to go to church. Of course it’s just EASIER to go to bed. But we need to give our all and give just 3 hours of our WHOLE week to the Lord. I also told him how I am out here for 2 years! Imagine that! Away from my family and friends that I LOVE, for 2 years dedicated to the Lord and bringing the Word of God to as many as I possibly can! As I was telling him these things I just felt the spirit so strongly testifying how important this work really is, and I could tell HE knew too. He was just kind of quiet and not saying too much. I was basically just testifying to him and telling him how I know that he needs to go to church and do HIS part in this world so he can be saved and inherit Gods kingdom. The funny part of this, well this guy like I said is a BIG man! His arm is like, bigger than my head ha ha, but....he came to church yesterday, AND he bore his testimony! Then last night we passed by his house and I just said how great his testimony was and how strong the spirit was in the chapel today, and he said, "yeah it was, I couldn’t not stand up even tho I haven’t been to church in a long time and I thought it would be weird." It was so neat to feel his spirit; he’s like a big Teddy Bear. (But just don’t anger the Teddy Bear cuz this cuddly lookin teddy bear could snap me into like 7 pieces with one quick judo chop! Ha-ha, but yeah, it was incredible!) There were also others that bore testimonies that were amazing too! It was just a GREAT testimony meeting. A girl 15 years old, bore her testimony and this girl is just always happy and smiling. She is so fun to be around. She is just one of those people that are always smiling. Someone said that to her at school once, and she said to them, "Well we are here to be happy!" It’s so true, so be HAPPY!
One last thing that I have started teaching our investigators that I really enjoy. We know that God has SO many blessings for us but he is waiting for US! He cannot bestow his blessings upon us without US first doing OUR part! I know that that is so true! If we will just do our part which is tough at times, but we can get thru it, we will be SO blessed! I wish I could say this in Portuguese; it seems to make more sense to me ha ha. Like "God has so many blessings for us, but he has to WAIT for us." Get it? I dunno that’s kind of how it sounds translated. But I love to teach it in this language cuz it sounds much better. Okay so a quick bit about 2 of our new investigators, they are just awesome! Two of the 5 that came to church, they are not related, but two separate investigators. Maria do Carmo, and Adilson. They are so awesome! We only taught Maria do Carmo once, on Friday, and on Sunday she came to church! It was really awesome. I was so happy! I will give more details later after we have taught her more. :) But Adilson is from Brazil and we have taught him a few times and we are also teaching him English. He has been doing for the most part, all that we ask him to do, so it’s awesome and he is progressing like crazy. On Sunday morning I called him to make sure he was coming to church, and he didn’t answer so I was all bummed but I called one more time like 10 minutes later and he said, "Yeah I’m on my way! I was in the shower when you called the first time!" Ha ha ha! AWESOME!!!
Well to end off the email, I got a new companion this week like I was saying. His name is Elder Bradshaw, also from Utah. He is kind of shy...but he is way cool! He is 6 foot 3 tho so he makes me feel tiny. :( Lame ha ha, but so far we are working really well together, having success, and we are having a really fun time! And it’s only the beginning! :) So I’m really excited for our time to serve together, it’s going great!! :) Have a great week!! I love and miss you all so much! Hey Good news!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!
Love Elder Gray
Since I have been here we haven’t really been able to get any investigators to go to church. Well I just changed a little about the way I go about inviting people to come to church and basically poured out my heart about how important it is to go and if we do, we will be SO blessed! That goes for all of us, members, and non-members everyone! SO, we had 5 investigators in church! I was just so thrilled! Then, better yet, our testimony meeting was just AWESOME! I loved it so much! Not to be boastful, but 3 different people talked about me and something that I had taught them earlier this week and how it has just changed something about them. It was really cool for me to see that I AM making a difference. It really made me feel good!
Remember how I said a few weeks ago, when our branch was having a HUGE problem getting to church at 10:00, that I talked about it and basically told them it’s not good to be late? Well this one guy, Fernando, gets it and now the last 2 weeks he and his family have been at the church on time, so it was awesome! We have this in-active member that we went and visited last week on Sunday. We had a great little lesson with him and I just started asking him "why" he isn’t going to church, "what" is the excuse and things like that. And he was saying how its just hard cuz he gets home from work as a bouncer, (this guy is HUGE,) at like 9 in the morning and said going to church is just hard and he has a hard time staying awake in the meeting so he just goes home. So I taught him about sacrifice. I taught him about blessings and I told him that it’s a sacrifice to go to church. Of course it’s just EASIER to go to bed. But we need to give our all and give just 3 hours of our WHOLE week to the Lord. I also told him how I am out here for 2 years! Imagine that! Away from my family and friends that I LOVE, for 2 years dedicated to the Lord and bringing the Word of God to as many as I possibly can! As I was telling him these things I just felt the spirit so strongly testifying how important this work really is, and I could tell HE knew too. He was just kind of quiet and not saying too much. I was basically just testifying to him and telling him how I know that he needs to go to church and do HIS part in this world so he can be saved and inherit Gods kingdom. The funny part of this, well this guy like I said is a BIG man! His arm is like, bigger than my head ha ha, but....he came to church yesterday, AND he bore his testimony! Then last night we passed by his house and I just said how great his testimony was and how strong the spirit was in the chapel today, and he said, "yeah it was, I couldn’t not stand up even tho I haven’t been to church in a long time and I thought it would be weird." It was so neat to feel his spirit; he’s like a big Teddy Bear. (But just don’t anger the Teddy Bear cuz this cuddly lookin teddy bear could snap me into like 7 pieces with one quick judo chop! Ha-ha, but yeah, it was incredible!) There were also others that bore testimonies that were amazing too! It was just a GREAT testimony meeting. A girl 15 years old, bore her testimony and this girl is just always happy and smiling. She is so fun to be around. She is just one of those people that are always smiling. Someone said that to her at school once, and she said to them, "Well we are here to be happy!" It’s so true, so be HAPPY!
One last thing that I have started teaching our investigators that I really enjoy. We know that God has SO many blessings for us but he is waiting for US! He cannot bestow his blessings upon us without US first doing OUR part! I know that that is so true! If we will just do our part which is tough at times, but we can get thru it, we will be SO blessed! I wish I could say this in Portuguese; it seems to make more sense to me ha ha. Like "God has so many blessings for us, but he has to WAIT for us." Get it? I dunno that’s kind of how it sounds translated. But I love to teach it in this language cuz it sounds much better. Okay so a quick bit about 2 of our new investigators, they are just awesome! Two of the 5 that came to church, they are not related, but two separate investigators. Maria do Carmo, and Adilson. They are so awesome! We only taught Maria do Carmo once, on Friday, and on Sunday she came to church! It was really awesome. I was so happy! I will give more details later after we have taught her more. :) But Adilson is from Brazil and we have taught him a few times and we are also teaching him English. He has been doing for the most part, all that we ask him to do, so it’s awesome and he is progressing like crazy. On Sunday morning I called him to make sure he was coming to church, and he didn’t answer so I was all bummed but I called one more time like 10 minutes later and he said, "Yeah I’m on my way! I was in the shower when you called the first time!" Ha ha ha! AWESOME!!!
Well to end off the email, I got a new companion this week like I was saying. His name is Elder Bradshaw, also from Utah. He is kind of shy...but he is way cool! He is 6 foot 3 tho so he makes me feel tiny. :( Lame ha ha, but so far we are working really well together, having success, and we are having a really fun time! And it’s only the beginning! :) So I’m really excited for our time to serve together, it’s going great!! :) Have a great week!! I love and miss you all so much! Hey Good news!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!
Love Elder Gray
Monday, March 1, 2010
Ups and Downs This Week
This week was good, but not quite as good as I wished. We had lots of ups and even more downs. But its okay, its just life and that’s how things go on the mission. You just have to hit it in the face and try to keep going!! That’s really hard tho. Saturday was a really hard day for me for some reason, anything that could have gone bad did. Anything that could have fallen thru did. Anything that could have been just the opposite of what we want was. It was just a hard, hard day. It felt like a week. The story of the day that just started it all off bad tho, was when we had a lesson marked for noon. And we were excited for it because it was with the family of 3 brothers, and their cousin, all from Africa. We had taught them a couple times and we had Saturday marked to go back. So we did, and we get there and go inside and right as we sat down with one of the brothers, Jonatas, his dad walked in, and I didn’t think too much of it so I was nice and I greeted him and asked him his name and all that. But before I could even explain why we were there and what we do, he just went off on me and told me how ANYTHING we have to say is NOT worth it. They will not accept us in their house any longer. I tried and tried many times to explain what we have. The importance of what we HAVE! But he would just shake his head and say nope, nope, it’s not welcome here, and he just went on and on about how they have their religion and they have the Bible and that is enough. He wouldn’t even really let me talk. I got SO annoyed, but more than anything sad. It was just devastating that those 4 boys will not hear what we have anymore because of him. They loved everything we taught too, and we loved them. It just really broke my heart as we walked out that door on Saturday morning.
Saturday night, we passed by a few of our investigators homes and told them, "We will be here tomorrow morning to take you to church at 9:40," and they say, "okay we will be ready." Well, Sunday came, 9:45 came....nothing, from all of them. They all stood us up. Ahhhh it was so annoying, SO frustrating! I hate how flaky people are in this country. It just happens SO much. They are so lazy, lazy!! DONT BE LAZY!! Especially if you have made a promise to do something, like go to church. If you are baptized, you have MADE the promise that you will continue to GO, SO GO!!!! Don’t be lazy!! Procrastination is a killer!!
I heard a story once. Every year, Satan holds a meeting with ALL his angels. And they talk about what they can do, and how they can better their work so they can bring more and more souls to hell. And every year there is an award given to who gets the most souls taken. Well, every year Satan wins! And the angels are saying, "How does he do it?" So finally after Satan had just won AGAIN in the year 2009, an angel got up the guts to ask him, "Satan? How do you do it? How do you win over SO many souls?" And Satan said, "Well it’s easy, I tell everyone to read their scriptures, go to church, and pray." And the angel had a crazy look on his face like what?? No, that can’t be, then Satan continued, "I tell them to read their scriptures, go to church, and pray.......Tomorrow." Procrastination!! Don’t let Satan get a hold of you! If you are NOT going to church, GO. Because that just means that Satan is winning! Like I said last week (I think it was) we are in a battle! And we cannot win with our warriors procrastinating. Procrastination is a BIG and EASY gateway to Hell. DON’T let it GET you!
Anyway on a bit of a better note, last night we did find a good new investigator that is very cool and very nice. His name is Adilson and he is from Brazil. We invited him to go to church on Sunday next week and he said that he would so I really hope that he will! (Unlike all our other investigators) So we will see how that goes and I will be sure to keep you updated. :) This week we also had our interviews with President Torgan. Man, I tell you, that man is a marvelous speaker! It is such a pleasure every single transfer, twice a transfer to hear him speak to us. He does such a great job and we love it. He really is such a great President! My interview was really good....he knows how to hit me in the heart too. He just makes me want to be a better missionary for ME. Not for him, not for my family, my friends, my girlfriend, anyone!! Just ME! And it’s really cool how he put it all into perspective for me too. He compared it to sports. He said, "Elder Gray, I can see that you seem to be an athlete, you love sports and you DON’T like to lose, am I right?" I say, "Yes that’s exactly right," And he says, "If I recall correctly you like to play Tennis right?" I say, "Yes" and he says, "And will you not do ANYTHING you can do to win? Will you not GIVE YOUR ALL to win that match?" And I smile and say, "Yes, that is true," Then he says, "Well PUT THAT INTO THE WORK!!!" Ha-ha it was just awesome! I loved it! It just made me laugh and I was like wow, how TRUE is that! If we want to WIN this battle against Satan that he just keeps on winning EVERY YEAR....we need to put our ALL into the work! :)
Now a bit of a funny story, I have officially doorbell ditched here in Portugal. Ha ha ha! I know, I know its bad but I got scared so I RAN! Ha-ha, but its for a good reason, well kind of, but in the end it wasn’t. But we had knocked this building in the morning at about 11 or so, and we didn’t get hardly ANYONE to open the door except about 3 or 4 doors out of like 24. So we decided to go back later that day, well, one that just so happened to answer was a mean old man, and he was like NO! So we were trying to remember where it was and we knew that it was on the 3rd floor, but when we got to the 3rd floor, just out of habit I hit the doorbell thing, and I wasn’t really thinking, then I realized we were on the 3rd floor, then I couldn’t remember WHICH door it was, so I was like "oh crap! This is the 3rd floor!" and I just hit the stairs! Ha ha and of course my comp comes running behind me giggling cuz I’m just kind of random and do random things often....ha ha, and we get to the bottom and I’m just like "oh man, I don’t wanna go outside, the person is probably lookin out the window or something ha ha! And well sure enough....SHE was! Yeah that’s right I look up when we start walking away and it was some OLD Lady!!! OOOOppss!! Man I felt like an idiot! Ha ha ha, but it was way funny and it got a big rise out of my companion so it was fun. Afterwards I kind of felt bad tho cuz it was just the wrong door! But it was funny!
Anyway, that is about it for the week. Not a whole lot went down, but we had a decent week. I hope you all have a good week and have fun! But don’t procrastinate the day of your repentance!!! :) 2 Nephi 31:12-16 Also, transfer calls are today. ALREADY!!! I feel like I just got here. So it’s possible I will get a new companion tomorrow, but I don’t know. I feel like we are probably staying another together, we’ll see! Keep your heads up and SMILE! Têm Bom Ânimo!
I LOVE YOU!
Love Elder Gray
Saturday night, we passed by a few of our investigators homes and told them, "We will be here tomorrow morning to take you to church at 9:40," and they say, "okay we will be ready." Well, Sunday came, 9:45 came....nothing, from all of them. They all stood us up. Ahhhh it was so annoying, SO frustrating! I hate how flaky people are in this country. It just happens SO much. They are so lazy, lazy!! DONT BE LAZY!! Especially if you have made a promise to do something, like go to church. If you are baptized, you have MADE the promise that you will continue to GO, SO GO!!!! Don’t be lazy!! Procrastination is a killer!!
I heard a story once. Every year, Satan holds a meeting with ALL his angels. And they talk about what they can do, and how they can better their work so they can bring more and more souls to hell. And every year there is an award given to who gets the most souls taken. Well, every year Satan wins! And the angels are saying, "How does he do it?" So finally after Satan had just won AGAIN in the year 2009, an angel got up the guts to ask him, "Satan? How do you do it? How do you win over SO many souls?" And Satan said, "Well it’s easy, I tell everyone to read their scriptures, go to church, and pray." And the angel had a crazy look on his face like what?? No, that can’t be, then Satan continued, "I tell them to read their scriptures, go to church, and pray.......Tomorrow." Procrastination!! Don’t let Satan get a hold of you! If you are NOT going to church, GO. Because that just means that Satan is winning! Like I said last week (I think it was) we are in a battle! And we cannot win with our warriors procrastinating. Procrastination is a BIG and EASY gateway to Hell. DON’T let it GET you!
Anyway on a bit of a better note, last night we did find a good new investigator that is very cool and very nice. His name is Adilson and he is from Brazil. We invited him to go to church on Sunday next week and he said that he would so I really hope that he will! (Unlike all our other investigators) So we will see how that goes and I will be sure to keep you updated. :) This week we also had our interviews with President Torgan. Man, I tell you, that man is a marvelous speaker! It is such a pleasure every single transfer, twice a transfer to hear him speak to us. He does such a great job and we love it. He really is such a great President! My interview was really good....he knows how to hit me in the heart too. He just makes me want to be a better missionary for ME. Not for him, not for my family, my friends, my girlfriend, anyone!! Just ME! And it’s really cool how he put it all into perspective for me too. He compared it to sports. He said, "Elder Gray, I can see that you seem to be an athlete, you love sports and you DON’T like to lose, am I right?" I say, "Yes that’s exactly right," And he says, "If I recall correctly you like to play Tennis right?" I say, "Yes" and he says, "And will you not do ANYTHING you can do to win? Will you not GIVE YOUR ALL to win that match?" And I smile and say, "Yes, that is true," Then he says, "Well PUT THAT INTO THE WORK!!!" Ha-ha it was just awesome! I loved it! It just made me laugh and I was like wow, how TRUE is that! If we want to WIN this battle against Satan that he just keeps on winning EVERY YEAR....we need to put our ALL into the work! :)
Now a bit of a funny story, I have officially doorbell ditched here in Portugal. Ha ha ha! I know, I know its bad but I got scared so I RAN! Ha-ha, but its for a good reason, well kind of, but in the end it wasn’t. But we had knocked this building in the morning at about 11 or so, and we didn’t get hardly ANYONE to open the door except about 3 or 4 doors out of like 24. So we decided to go back later that day, well, one that just so happened to answer was a mean old man, and he was like NO! So we were trying to remember where it was and we knew that it was on the 3rd floor, but when we got to the 3rd floor, just out of habit I hit the doorbell thing, and I wasn’t really thinking, then I realized we were on the 3rd floor, then I couldn’t remember WHICH door it was, so I was like "oh crap! This is the 3rd floor!" and I just hit the stairs! Ha ha and of course my comp comes running behind me giggling cuz I’m just kind of random and do random things often....ha ha, and we get to the bottom and I’m just like "oh man, I don’t wanna go outside, the person is probably lookin out the window or something ha ha! And well sure enough....SHE was! Yeah that’s right I look up when we start walking away and it was some OLD Lady!!! OOOOppss!! Man I felt like an idiot! Ha ha ha, but it was way funny and it got a big rise out of my companion so it was fun. Afterwards I kind of felt bad tho cuz it was just the wrong door! But it was funny!
Anyway, that is about it for the week. Not a whole lot went down, but we had a decent week. I hope you all have a good week and have fun! But don’t procrastinate the day of your repentance!!! :) 2 Nephi 31:12-16 Also, transfer calls are today. ALREADY!!! I feel like I just got here. So it’s possible I will get a new companion tomorrow, but I don’t know. I feel like we are probably staying another together, we’ll see! Keep your heads up and SMILE! Têm Bom Ânimo!
I LOVE YOU!
Love Elder Gray
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