On My GAME!

To those of you who are Ping Pongers......I hope you are practicing, cuz, I’m not, but no one here can beat me! (Just had to brag a little.) Ha ha! I have only played now 3 times on my mission but I tell ya, the skills don’t just go away like that! Jason, Jeff, Dad, you three especially better be practicing, cuz the lord has blessed me with extra skills! I just don’t lose! Okay, not true, I do sometimes, but only once or twice in many games, ha ha! We played ping pong today for p-day with the other Elders close to us, (our Zone leaders,) and I only lost once. It was so FUN! A few days ago, on Fri. we were in Cascais for a baptism of a little girl that Elder Davis taught for a while. We got there early and there were some people around and I saw a ping pong table and I asked, “who can play?” Elder Davis was like, oh man, Fabio is really good you’ve got to play him! So I did, spanked him! I ended up playing lots of games that night and I only lost twice. So I hope ya´ll are practicing, Cuz I’m not! But I still got it! Ha, ha Okay enough of that. I don’t mean to be too big headed, I’m just keeping the Gray family tradition of good ole Ping Pong champs going on over here on the other side of the world! Ha! I love that game! Okay so this week was pretty hectic. We actually didn’t get a whole lot done. We had about 3 lessons fall thru which bothered me cuz that isn’t REALLY common in this area so I was just like what the heck man!? And we went to Cascais which is far away. Far, far, away, but it was a great trip, and we had a lot of fun, and Elder Davis got to baptize a girl he had taught. It was his first time getting in the water! Pretty crazy! But it’s Europe. I can’t say much I only have 1 in the water experience too. But our week went by pretty fast. There were just a lot of random things that happened. We had a Christmas type thing program where President Torgan came and we as the choir, and he sang some Christmas songs. It was really good. He also sang a solo a few times. He is quite good. He has a VERY powerful voice. I wish I would have had my camera so I could have recorded it, but maybe I will be able to another day. We had a pretty good lesson with a less active member that went pretty good. She is just having some problems right now and we are trying to just be there for her, so I hope things will get better soon for her. We were in Church yesterday and we were about to start Priesthood meeting when Bishop comes up to us and says, “hey this little girl needs a blessing, she is sick.” So we got some oil, I did the anointing of the oil and Elder Davis gave the blessing. He did a really good job. Before the blessing, we asked her if she believed in Jesus Christ and she said, “Yes.” Then we said, “Do you believe that he can heal you?” She says, “Yes I do.” So then we gave the blessing. After church Elder Davis came up to me and says Elder Gray…..the little girls mom came up to and said that she is fine. She felt 100 percent better. WOW! Talk about power of the priesthood eh!? It was awesome! When he told me I was like oh my goodness really?? And I walk around the corner where I see a bunch of kids, and she is playing and laughing with the rest of ‘em! I knew she was sick before too, I could see it. She didn’t look good and she wasn’t talking and she was teary eyed. It was really sad, but it was awesome to see her heal so quickly!! Talk about awesome and a quick answer to a prayer! I would say that was the highlight of my week. Just seeing the joy in that little girl of feeling better so quickly just made my day. I know for a fact that the church is true! I know that through our Savior we can get through anything if we just have the FAITH! Faith, faith, faith!!! I Love You! Have a great week!Elder Robby Gray

Adventurous Week

This last week seriously flew by! I can’t believe I am already sitting here writing this e-mail again! It was very eventful, very good, but also very sad. A young kid in our ward, 17 years old, awesome, kid, one of those that you just know will be at church and he is just always smiling and happy and what not, well he got in a car accident on Friday night and died. He was with his older sister, the driver, and his 2 other brothers and his girlfriend. The car that they got in the accident with hit their car right at his door. The back left door. He didn’t have a chance. I heard that he broke every bone in his body. So, so sad, I couldn’t believe it. He was really an awesome kid. But, I know its life, things happen quickly and very unexpectedly and sometimes very tragic and super hard to deal with. I felt so bad for the family. His sister was driving and is still in the hospital. She broke a few bones and her hip. One other brother is in the hospital but will be fine, and the other is fine. He walked away without a scratch. The family is still having a hard time. I couldn’t help but feel the most for the girlfriend though. I left my “best friend” back home to serve my mission for these two years, but I know I will return and see her again. This tragic accident has left his girlfriend barely able to walk. She is so torn up, I just felt so bad. I felt so helpless.

Sacrament meeting this week was the best sacrament meeting I think I have ever attended. The spirit was SO strong it was really incredible. The chapel was chuck full of people and the meeting was about an hour and 45 minutes long. Our choir sang, (which I’m in) uuhhhhummm, thank you, thank you, (doesn’t mean I’m good by any means...) haha, but the spirit there was incredible. We sang a song about Trust in God. It was awesome! It was pretty hard to sing though cuz me and everyone else was choked up or crying. It was tough but truly amazing.

The funeral was on Tuesday. We only got to see about 30 minutes though because we had to go to Lisbon for me, I had a doctor appt. that couldn’t be changed. Lame! But the half hour we saw was awesome! There were 2 great speakers and some amazing hymns and what not. It was great. I heard by the end of the funeral like at the cemetery there were over 400 people there! WOW! It’s like in this place everyone is just one big family. It was incredible to see the love and support from so many people.
Okay, so on a happier note, we may have lost one, but we are gaining 3 on Saturday! (Members, that is.) We have 3 baptisms on Saturday which I’m SUPER stoked for! They are 3 young guys, 17, 14, and 9. They are such cool kids and I have seen so much progression out of them it’s incredible. It’s mostly incredible to see what they are willing to give up to be a member of Christ’s church. It’s truly a miracle being able to see peoples lives change for the best here. I love it. I can’t imagine being on one of those missions where they baptize like 10 people a week. Wow! I’m just grateful for what I have. Chega. ;) We talked to the 3 boys last night about who will do what and stuff and they said they wanted both of us to baptize them, well one of them, and we were like uhh it can only be one of us, haha. The 2 oldest kids will be baptized by members here, and the young one, my comp will baptize. It’s his last transfer so it is an awesome way to go out I’d say!! Anyway, that’s about it for the week! It was quite the adventurous week. And it was good. Thank you all for everything. I LOVE YOU!
Love Elder Gray
Oh and also, next week we have one more marked for baptism. We really hope it will go, but his desire is a bit lacking. So we have more work to do. :)

This week was very good! We had some ups and downs as usual, always seems to go that way. We had this guy Antonio marked for baptism, but he decided not to be baptized. He said he just isn't feeling anything. Ugghhh. Party Foul. He leaves today for Angola, so hopefully something good will come of him in the future. BUT, we marked 3 kids of a member. They are awesome!! I'm so stoked! They love church! I love teaching them too cuz they are all so atentive and what not. I love it! So they are marked for baptism for Sept 5th. I cant wait to see them be baptized! We still have lots of work to do with them tho. So we will hope for the best that everything goes smoothly.

Last p-day, we went to a Castle here in Setúbal and it was awesome! So beautiful! The view was just amazing, right above the ocean! It really was an amazing view. The castle itself isn't very cool, its just the view that sells it!

This week we got 6 new investigators! Woop Woop! It was tight! We found a family of 5. They had been taught before, but got in a little tussle about money with Bishop so they left. But we are hoping now that they will find the truth, not want money.

So this last Sunday was amazing. We had a really good church meeting that went really well, a good show. Then after church, we had lunch with the 2nd counselor Douglas. He is from Brazil and he is so awesome! He is probably my favorite in the ward. He is way way cool and me and him actually somehow found a lot in common. It was way wierd in a way cuz he is like 26 or so, so he is like, OLD. haha!! And I'm not, and it will stay that way.... ;) We just talked for like 2 hours about just stuff and it was way fun. We talked a bunch about music and missions and life and growing up, for him, not me cuz I don't wanna grow up....haha, but it was just really cool to get to know him better and just have fun with him.

Later, we had a lesson with some new investigators we have been teaching that we found thru a member, Vagner. That went really well but was really fast cuz we had to go to Choir. Haha, yup I am in a choir! What? Ya, no, weird. I can't sing. I knew that before, but now I really know it. Notes going up and down and tryin to follow it and sing in portugues, its like an impossible double task, haha! But its cool and way fun because of the people we have here. So I just try to have a good time. I'm kinda learning how to sing but learning how to read notes doesn't change the fact of someone just isn't a singer, haha, oh well, who cares.

On monday, we met with Rafael, he LOVES the missionaries. He charishes havin us over, so I told him if he only smokes 5 cigarettes in one day, we will come over again, and he said, "OK I will try, I will try!!" It was pretty funny. I feel so bad for that horrible habit. But I know that with the right desire and will of heart, and trust in the Lord, its quittable.

Yesterday we had interviews. They went really, really well. President, I think really likes me, he told me some stuff in my interview that just really opened my eyes, and after saying some of the stuff he did, he was like Elder, I have not said any of that to ANYONE else today. I was all wide eyed and like whoa.....Cool. It was really really cool. Our new President is so awesome! He has an incredible desire to do SO MUCH GOOD! I cant wait to see what the future holds!

Well I'm sadly down to 2 minutes. I just want to close saying how much I LOVE you all. I am so greatful for you in my life. Thank you for all you have done for me. I miss you and LOVE you so much!!! Have a GREAT week!
Elder Gray