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!