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