A DIFFERENT CHRISTMAS

Christmas was great! It sure was nice talking to the fam, that’s always exciting! Here, they celebrate Christmas different...Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve, which seemed really strange to me at first, but it turned out to be really cool and lots of fun. We went to a member’s house at about 5PM or so and hung out, and waited for the rest of the people to get there, played games whatever, then we had dinner which was alright. Dinner at home is always amazing, so I guess I’m spoiled...ha ha, but it was fine. So we had dinner, then at midnight they all opened all their gifts. They did a secret Santa kind of thing tho which was really funny cuz every time someone would go up and get their gift for whoever they had and then they would describe that person. Then they would all guess finally who it was and everyone would jump up and say Paparazzi, Paparazzi! And they would take tons of pictures! It was really funny every time, and lots of fun to watch the madness! Ha ha! After dinner and presents and all that good stuff we just hung out talked and played some games, so it was a good night and lots of fun. :)

Then the next day Christmas! We went to our friend Pedro’s house! He and his family are just awesome! They let us just hang out with them and have lunch and just chill. Christmas day here they just hang out and relax. So that’s what we did! And we talked to our families! It was a good time. :)

I have a feeling I am going to get transferred here in a few weeks, and I’m kind of scared cuz this area and this Ward is just amazing! That’s it, they are just amazing here! I could stay here another 6 months! Sheesh! I would like to stay one more I think, but it’s not up to me obviously, but we will see. I’m just kind of nervous that next I’m going to go to some little branch of 20 people, ha-ha. But no matter where I go I know it’s where the Lord wants me so I will go with a smile with a bunch of GREAT MEMORIES of good ole Setúbal! :)

So this week is going to be a new year! Wow pretty nuts eh!? 2009 is gone! It’s really weird to think that I have been here in Portugal this whole year! That my friends, is a pretty strange feeling! But it’s good too!

Well this week was pretty much one of the fastest weeks ever, I can’t believe it’s gone already, I feel like it was all just one big day! I feel like I’m out of stuff to talk about cuz Christmas was the highlight of the week! Anyway, things are going good, the Holidays were great, but now its time to get back to work! I’m excited for it! This transfer we are focusing on finding new people, so pray that Setúbal will open their hearts for us! I know there are people ready for the Gospel! We just need to find them. :) Thank you all for everything you do for me, thank you for you support and love. I love you!
Happy Holidays! LOVE ELDER GRAY

Maos que Ajudem.....Helping Hands

Its pretty crazy to me it’s already December! (tomorrow) But it’s just crazy!! Its weird to me that Christmas is coming so quickly. I will be getting a new companion right before Christmas, which will be interesting. I just hope he is cool!! We got invited by a member to stay at their house for Christmas so that’s probably what we will be doing. I’m not sure what we will do the whole day, but I will probably know more as time goes on I guess...I feel like the work is slowing down just a little bit here cuz we have baptized all our investigators that were just progressing so well! So now I feel like we just have no investigators! I mean we do, but it’s just strange not having all those that we DID have before.

We had a lesson with our investigators Manuel and Cristina and it was really good! They are determined to QUIT smoking! I love it! Manuel said that on November 30th, (today) will be the LAST time he smokes. I just really hope he does it. I know that it will be very hard, much harder than he expects. So we are hoping and praying for him and her too of course. So they are progressing and it’s really awesome. I just really, really hope they can quit and get married so we can get them baptized! They are just awesome, awesome people. I feel like they pretty much already ARE members! They always come to church and participate and everything, they come to ALL the activities and it’s all just really good! But they are not married and have LOTS of stuff they need to settle before they can be baptized. They are really incredible tho, and very, very nice to the missionaries which we just love! :)

So a couple of days ago, on Saturday we participated in this thing called "mãos que ajudem" (Helping Hands) At first we were thinking that it was going to be super boring and hard to get thru the day cuz it was also going to be for 6 hours. But I tried to just go into it with a real positive attitude which was hard, cuz my comp was determined that it’s going to suck. So I was just trying and trying to just be like, “well, let’s just give it a go and try to have fun.” And in the end it was fun!! We stood in stores and handed people bags right as they walked in and said, "Would you like a bag to help fight hunger?" And it was fun cuz of course we are Americans so we probably sound funny cuz of our accents and what not so we just had fun with it. I would actually love to do it again! So it was a good experience. :)

Well I hope you all have a great week! And how about you write me my bruthas! Slackers......
Ha ha ha!!! I LOVE YOU!
Love Elder Gray

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

My MTC Christmas

Christmas was pretty awesome! Thank you for the package, I loved it! We had Elder David A. Bednar on Christmas Eve and Elder Holland on Christmas day. It was so awesome! When Elder Bednar walked in we were singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and when we saw him everyone started singing louder and the spirit filled the room like nothing I've ever felt before. I got the chills for what felt like 2 minutes! I just stood there singing full of joy and happiness and just really felt the spirit. After his amazing talk, we all got to shake his hand! How cool is that?! When I shook his hand I was just like...WOW, that's one powerful dude! Seriously, it was so awesome! Elder Holland was really good too, and I felt very good and I'd say we were really lucky to have them both come. I liked the Christmas card you sent, it was funny! I'm glad you had a good Christmas. I thought about you all a lot but I got thru it, and thank you for so much support. It really helped me to keep going.

Today we are going to the temple to clean. It's closed for cleaning till January 2nd so this will be our last time to be in the temple before we leave. We are supposed to get our flight plans today, so I will send you that info soon, and then I'll get to call home from the airport and hopefully get to chat with a few of you!

I'm glad Christmas was good and in 2 christmases I'll be back there with ya again. I miss you, and I love you!

Elder Gray

Merry Christmas!

Ola Familia!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! This is my Merry christmas family letter. Be sure to read this to Jeff, Jenn and Jase since they don't live there, and tell them Merry Christmas for me!
We get our flight plans this week! WOAH! Holy Cats! Santos Gatos! I can't believe it! I don't know portuguese! Who do they think they are sending me out in the middle of NO English!??! Aaahhh Freaky! I can't believe it, and it's totally insane and I'm freaking out, but then again, I'm ready to get out of this spirit prison and start the real work! It's gonna be WICKED SWEET!

Tonight we had a fireside and it was really good. He told tons of scripture stories and I wrote them all down so I can look them up again later. I love looking up scriptures! Oh, and guess what!? I finished the Book of Mormon this week!! That felt so good! I read all of Alma in ONE week! Pretty crazy huh? Pretty sweet huh?!

This last week was pretty good, kinda frustrating but not too bad. It was fun getting out of here to go to Costco to get my contacts and glasses. We got newb's this week so we get to know them better because we are the zone leaders and get to show them around. It's time for me to go do our service project for the day. We got the best service project in the whole place! We love playing on the big mat we're supposed to put away after we stack chairs. Muito divertido!

Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Elder Gray