A Miracle With the Language

This week was pretty good, but the work seems to be slowing down a little. Everyone bails on us with our lessons we set up! It is so, so frustrating! The people here just don’t know how to keep their word. We call before the lesson, then later when its actually time, they aren’t home or just don’t have the time, or they have to leave...They just come up with all these excuses! BUT, it was still a good week!

The Agues family, the boy I baptized and the mom that was baptized too, well they are doing amazing! I LOVE going over to their house 3 times a week. It is so awesome! The mom, Eneida is just so amazing! She is still continuing to progress so well! I love going over there because she is always so excite to hear what we have to teach that night. They are an absolute amazing family. They are from Cabo Verde if I didn’t mention that earlier.

So last week we went and played Futebol. Soccer in English...and it was really fun. Even though I’m not the best at it, we had a really good time.

This week we had divisions and I went to another area with an Elder named Elder Hatch. He is kind of new also. He was in the group above me in the MTC, so I knew him before and he also doesn’t speak much of the language. We had a lesson that night and he started talking about prayer and faith and the Holy Ghost, but then started to stumble on his words then went blank. So, I took over and just started talking about how important it is for us in our lives. Then the girl that is a member asked me if it’s still possible to have the spirit with you even if you are sinning. I gave her the story that Elder Uchtdorf gave in one of his talks about the airplane going off only 2 degrees. I don’t know how I got through it cuz I don’t know nearly enough Portuguese, but I did. And I ended up talking for an hour and 10 minutes. I could not believe it. It was so amazing though. I could really feel the spirit. I told her that story and how it’s like that with the spirit. If you just go off the straight and narrow you may start going further and further off the path so its RIGHT NOW you need to get back on the right path so you don’t get way off to the point where its nearly impossible to get back on. It was really a good lesson and I really enjoyed being able to say all that in Portuguese.

Now don’t be fooled, I don’t speak very well. It is so tough! Portuguese is so hard. Not gonna lie, sometimes I feel like I’m progressing, but then others it’s like I don’t have a clue what to say or what’s going on. It’s really difficult at times and very frustrating. Learning a new language is not easy. I have gained a whole new upmost respect for all the missionaries around the world who are learning a new language. But I am keeping my head up and I am going to keep going at it until I get it! Then once I get it! I will keep going until I perfect it!

Also this last week, kind of a funny story, we had a run in with a very drunk guy that I could not understand a single word. No one could because he just slurred everything he said. But somehow we talked to him for 15 minutes and we just kept saying how we have to go but he kept talking. So I just finally said, “Can I get a picture with you?” I just totally changed the subject from who knows what he was talking about and yup, I got a picture with him. He totally looks like a dude from the circus he has a big huge mustache and crazy clothes, and....a pass along card from me! :-) In my picture he is holding up the card too. It’s awesome. It was a funny night. I just wish I could have understood anything he said. Someday.

So a little about the church here, it’s pretty awesome. The members are all awesome and they LOVE the missionaries. But...not enough cuz we can never get them to help us with lessons. Getting members to help is very good for the teaching, but it’s so tough here because everyone says they don’t have time. Ever. But I think it’s not that they don’t have time.

So, here is my little lesson to all of you today. Don’t ever say you don’t have time for something so small and something that doesn’t take long at all, especially when it has to do with the church. If you say you don’t have time, it means you don’t care enough. That’s that. So care. And make the time.

Eu sei que nossa igreja é verdadeiro. Eu sei temos um profeta este dia. Eu sei nossa igreja é unique verdadiero igreja em na terra. Sou muito grato para todos os meus amigos e por minha familia. Muito obrigado por sempre a ajudar-me. Eu amo-vos.

I love you all so much! Thank you for everything. Work Hard. Pray. And remember who you are and who you stand for.

Thank you for everything! Thank you for your support.

Elder Gray

Missionary Work is Amazing!

This week just flew! It was a good week though, except for last p-day, which was not too much fun. We had to clean our apartments. ALL DAY. It turned out to be a big test from President Terry, a test set up for us to all fail. And well, long story short, yep everyone failed. We were told to stay and clean, so we did. We cleaned good, very good. (You know me...haha.) I cleaned, my comp not as much, but our place looked so good!

This week I had a pretty cool “understanding of the language” moment in a lesson we taught. We taught a member, Francisca, and we were talking about how we came to find the church is true. And when she told her story I understood like 90 percent of it!! I loved it! I just felt so good! But...well, it’s not always like that, but I think it’s getting better, just VERY slowly.

But I just want all you to know things are going well. The work is slow; it’s Portugal...this isn’t Utah or anywhere in the states for that matter. BUT, missionary work is missionary work and it’s amazing! Hard, but amazing!! The things I have already seen out here are just fantastic. I love our new members that we baptized last week. They are like totally different people and always so happy. I love going over there. It’s always a fun experience with them. I have just seen so much growth in them.

I love you all so much! Thank you so much for all your support. Have a great week. Keep praying and smiling. I love you.

Eu sei que o evangelho é verdadeiro! Eu sento estes coises em minha coraçao cada dia! Sou muito grato por minha familia e por meu muitos amigos. Continuar estudar e orar cada dia ta bem?? Eu amo-vos muito!! Tenha um muito bom semana!

Elder Gray

New Companion!

First of all I just want to say thank you all so much for all you do for me! Really it means the world to me! And I love hearing from you. I’m sorry I can’t write individual emails to everyone every week. I wish I could, but we only get one hour and that’s just not long enough.

Anyways everything is going pretty good. My comp and I are still sick, so that’s no fun at all! I feel worthless! I need to get better so I can get back to work. This week was pretty exciting week though; it’s transfer week and the big news is…I’m not being transferred, BUT…my companion is! He is going to Oeris to be Zone Leader! Pretty awesome! He is really excited, mostly because he will have a dryer! How lucky! Ah, I would KILL for a DRYER! (Don’t take for granted such little tiny things!) Anyways, so I will be getting a new companion tomorrow. His name is Elder Hildabrandt and I hear he is a good kid and a good hard worker. So I’m stoked! It should be a great experience for me.

The baptism we had set for the 14th was changed to the 22nd because of her having to work. But she and her son are still going to be baptized. It’s so awesome! I am very, very lucky to have this opportunity to have a baptism so soon in my mission. The mission here is not like missions in other places....like Nicaragua where they are baptizing something like 400 people a month! No, no, here the average is about one baptism for a missionary per year. The people are just too stubborn. But they are awesome and I love our investigators and members.

This week we got to hear from Elder David A. Bednar. THREE times! It was incredible. He is so amazing! I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to know all he knows! All three times we heard from him he just did open question and answer time, the first time with the members and investigators, the second time with just us missionaries (AWESOME!!!) and the third time with young single adults. They were all really great and we all learned so much. He is so smart. I could really feel the spirit in the room with us while he was there. I loved it!!

Everything is going just great. I love hearing from everyone! It’s so awesome. I have already run out of time, but I really hope you all have an amazing week and continue to work hard and study and pray like none other! I know that prayer is an unbelievable opportunity to become close with our Heavenly Father. I have come to find the truthfulness of that more and more each day when I am trying to say new things that I can’t in Portuguese, but He is there and loves me and I know that! And he is helping me every day with this language!

I love the gospel! We are so, so lucky to live in this day and age to know of the truthfulness of these things. I love you all so much and miss you. Have a wonderful week! Don’t forget to pray, pray, pray!

Elder Gray

Teaching a Great Family

First of all I just want to thank everyone!! For all of your support! It really means so much to me and it helps me to keep on going every single day!

The work is going pretty good. The language on the other hand, man, it is so tough! I can’t understand a word anyone says! They all speak so fast its crazy! But I know that I will get it. I have faith in the Lord and I know that through him, anything is possible. He doesn’t ask of us to do anything that is not possible, so I just keep going every day and work hard at it.

The people here are great though. They are patient with me not being able to say what I’m trying to say to them very fast. They are really awesome. The people on the streets, however, are sometimes a whole different story. You get ignored so much! Even if all I want to do is say a friendly hello, they tend to not say a word back. Sometimes when we are making street contacts we have to literally step in front of their face and say Boa Tarde! And I try to be really outgoing and outspoken (even though I can’t hardly say what I want to.) But when we try to be outgoing with them they usually at least say hi back. But then when they find out we are from the church...they don’t want anything to do with it. Sometimes we get people that literally run away from us. Kind of sad I think. They have no idea what they are missing out on!

The mission is an amazing thing. I have already come to find that. Mainly with the investigators that are progressing. We have this family, I don’t know their last name, sorry, but it’s hard to remember even just their first names! (And it doesn’t help that they have like 5 names!) But anyways, the husband, Jose Carlos, is a member. He was baptized last year and now we are teaching his wife and 3 of his kids and his son’s girlfriend! It’s awesome! His wife is dong really well lately, she is reading and praying. We talked about baptism yesterday and she got like way into it. So, I hope we will soon extend the commitment for her to be baptized and that she will accept!! I pray for her and their family so much. I know the gospel has already blessed their lives. Ineida (the wife) really has just been so much happier lately. It is just awesome!

Well I have already run out of time. But I will write again next week and fill you all in on a bit more about my crazy life right now! I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week and don’t forget to pray, pray, pray! 

LOVE,

ELDER GRAY

Short and sweet this week

Sorry, but I only have six minutes to write! Lame! I am trying to write like fast short letters to everyone but anyways, I will really try to make more time next week, I promise.

First off, here is an aerial photo of our neighborhood. Our building is the one with the little Red 'A'. That’s where we live. It’s made of concrete, so it’s freezing! Haha.

A quick note about a family we are teaching. They are so awesome!! I love them. I really look forward to going over there to teach them. They are working hard and doing their best to do what’s right and they are reading the Book of Mormon, too. It’s awesome! I don’t understand hardly a word...but I do feel the spirit there and I bear my testimony often and talk about the things I feel are necessary to say at certain times. And they seem to understand, so I am progressing. I do know that. But it is for sure tough because sometimes I don’t understand ANYTHING THEY SAY; they talk super-duper fast. Party foul! But they are amazing and they help me a lot and correct me and tell me better ways of saying things and what not. It’s cool. They are great, great people.

My comp and I get along great! He is very helpful to me, so I know I was blessed with an awesome companion! I am very lucky.

Love you all so much and miss you! I will really try to do better next week.

Love,

Elder Gray

We did Temple Sealings!

I got some nice cards and treats from some of the ward members and Mike and Amy. Please tell them thank you so much. I wish I had time to write everyone, but time in here is short. So Please express my thanks.

The speaking "no English" is going ok for me but this week was actually really tough, and I did not do very well when I taught the first lesson. I was really frustrated yesterday.

We got to go to the temple today though, and I felt much better after that. We did a sealing session for the first time and it was awesome! Elder Bell and I were very lucky to sit with a family, a mom, dad and son, and his new wife of about 3 months, and the dads mom. It was so cool and they were such awesome people. Then we found out the son went to Brazil and speaks Portuguese! So that was awesome to talk to him. He gave us some good tips and pointers. The temple sealing is so awesome! I seriously just felt at ease and happy the whole time we were there. :) It made me way excited to get married! I can't wait to be able to take my wife to the temple someday! I just know thats going to be the best day of my life!

I know now more than ever before how important that little picture is (in my room that mom gave me) that says: "I will make the choices today that will take me to the temple tomorrow." HOW TRUE! I just loved today!

SEND ME PICTURES!! I want to see my family!
Love you all!

Elder Gray

My Hamper, ha ha ha

So far this week has been really good! One of my best friends is here and I got to see him last night! It was so good to see Devin. I was so happy, it was the best night ever!

The week has flown by and we've been speaking strait Portuguese, and I don't feel any smarter! Ha ha! We had to teach the first lesson in Portuguese, talk about tough! I feel like with just the casual talking I'm doing ok, but when it's time to teach...Nao Bom! (not good)! But I'm pushin thru doing what I can to get by.

So...my hamper broke! It was a "piece" to begin with, so I had to buy a new one. It's AWESOME! I never thought that happiness could come through a hamper, ha ha ha. It's on a hanger, so it hangs up and its got a "dark" section and a "whites" section! It's totally WICKED SWEET!!

Everything's going just great...feel free to send peanutbutter bars, brownies, more goop...:)

Elder Gray

No More English

Thanksgiving was good here. We had a devotional by Elder and Sister Neuenschwander of the seventy. It was very good.

I only have the rest of this week to speak English, because next wednesday we go to strait Portuguese from then on! I don't feel even close to ready for that.

I am working very hard on being able to have the spirit with me 24/7. I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job of it, and I will keep it up. It's such an amazing feeling having the spirit with me whenever and where ever I need it.

So far the Zone leader position is going really well and my companion and I are really enjoying it. We have a few more meetings and obligations, but we will be blessed for it!

Elder Gray

Learning a language is tough!

Tomorrow I have to give the opening prayer and it has to be in Portuguese, so I'm really kind of nervous. I think I am going to try it without looking at my card, but I'll probably have to peak. Pretty cool though, I guess.

I think it is just hitting me like today how hard it will be to teach out there in the mission field. We taught the first discussion today to our teacher (he was acting as an investigator) and it's pretty hard. Takes a lot of practice, that's for sure. Like it's hard in English, but on December 5th it's all Portuguese from there! It's gonna be pretty crazy and probably confusing and of course very hard. But bring it on, right? Gotta learn somehow!

Elder Gray

P.S. This is a picture of me trying to "escape" over the famous MTC wall.  ;-)

Goop!

Hey mom, thanks for the goop! All my companions loved it, too. (Good thing you sent such a big box!)

We're pretty much into full-blown classes every day. We just have one classroom and two teachers that teach the gospel and Portuguese, too. So like two birds with one stone. But ya, we're learning the language pretty fast. It is so hard! Next week we have to teach a whole lesson in Portuguese; I'm so scared!

Thank you so much mom for everything. You're the best!   

 

Miss you, love you!

Elder Gray