A Lot Happening This Week!

The week just flew by again, just like I thought it would...it was really good tho! I will find out today if I get transferred, and if I do, I will be gone tomorrow, which is sad to think about cuz I really do love my area here. But I have had my share that is true. We DID have our Baptism of Ines on Saturday! Whoop! It was AWESOME, and it went SO good too, also the confirmation. I will start with the start....of the week. :)

We taught Ines on Tuesday, and we had to be just straight up with her to be SURE 100 percent that she is ready. And it went really, really well and I could tell she was for sure ready! We taught her about how important it is for her to STAY on the right path and do what’s right. I loved it. We taught her at our 1st counselor’s house with Pedro too, so it was good cuz we had two other people to help testify the importance of STAYING in the church and NOT drifting away. Sometimes it can get hard and sometimes, people start to doubt their testimonies. Its THEN, when they need to get on their knees and get back in line and ask for help. I have already seen many people who were baptized fall away from the church, whether it be 1 year later, 6 months later, or 15 yrs. later, who knows, but the fact is, NO ONE is perfect. Everyone has doubts, but it’s what we do THEN that counts. It’s the way we ACT when we are feeling doubtful. If we do NOTHING....Nothing will happen. But if you TRY and you ACT, things will happen for the better and life will be happy, happy, happy! I have NO doubt about that! I have taught many times about the importance of ACTING. And it’s just SO true. We wont get anywhere without acting. Things don’t just happen for us. We don’t become FIRM in the gospel, in the church without ACTING and making our way THERE!!! So ACT and pray! That is basically what I told her, and what I’m telling YOU. We can all improve and be better. And there is no feeling greater than when we are doing our very best. Then we had one more lesson with Ines on Thursday. We had just a couple other things to teach her like fasting and obeying the law, and just a couple things like that and it ALSO went just perfect. She was an awesome investigator, she also asked a LOT of questions, which shows me that she cares and that she really wants to know! Then, of course we had the baptism on Saturday. Right before her baptism, she still had in her nose piercing, and so I said, “hey you ought to take that out now,” and she said, “OKAY, no problem,” and she took it right out. No questions, no complaints, nadda! It was cool! I have seen lots of people all sad about taking out their piercings and stuff but she was just like “OKAY” done! It was awesome. Her friend, a member, Gerson baptized her and he did a GREAT job. It was really spiritual, and it was his first time baptizing someone and he afterward was telling me, (he is 16) how grateful he is for us teaching her and giving HIM this opportunity to baptize her. He told me how strong the spirit was after he baptized her and he was shaking cuz he felt so good. NOW THAT is what I’m talking about!! Yeah, I kind of wish I could have baptized her, its always awesome getting IN the water too, but I tell ya, that hug that he gave me afterward and those feelings that HE felt too...well it just doesn’t get much better!
So I got to see TWO people have just AMAZING experiences! I was very, very grateful for the opportunity I had to be the one to teach her and see her baptized. It was incredible. That’s what missionary work is all about. :)

So get this, funny little story...We were at dinner with Pedro’s family, and we are sitting at the dinner table eating, when the little girl, Miriam said, “I am going to marry Elder Gray!” ha ha! Everyone was like huh? That was random! She loves me, but she doesn’t like my comp now or my last one, so its funny. She is always calling me a DOLL too. She is 6 years old, so I guess I’m going to have to wait a little while, ha ha! (Jenn, it’s the little girl you talked to on Christmas.)

OH!! I almost forgot! YOU ALL WILL NOT believe THIS! I still don’t really. I, ROBBY, SANG at the baptism. WHAT!? Yeah, it was so weird! I guess I did pretty well, I know I don’t sing but Ines wanted me to sing so bad for some reason with Gerson. So Gerson and I sang "Love at Home" for the closing song. It was crazy. One thing that was pretty interesting tho, is like...I wasn’t nervous. I mean, I kind of was but not really. I thought I would choke and die cuz I NEVER sing in front of people, so it was quite the interesting experience, and it went okay I guess.

Sorry I’m going kind of out of order here, but hey I’m keeping things interesting...So on Sunday! The Confirmation of Ines was great! Pedro did it and he was super nervous, but he got thru the first part just fine and gave a GREAT blessing! It was an awesome opportunity for him. He will be leaving on his mission here in February to Belgium. He did a very good job, and we got to stand in the circle.

Also at church, it was really funny, there was a little family sitting right in front of us, and a little girl saw a little spider, and I figured she would freak out like most people do, but instead she says, "MOM! LOOK! Awww...Mom he is going to starve to death!" Ha ha ha ha!! It was so FUNNY! She said it like 5 times, she was so worried that this little spider was going to starve to death! Ha ha, I loved it. Normally people just kill em! But no, she wanted to feed the poor little guy. HA HA! So anyway, we had a great, great week! :) A great week for me to end all my time here in Setubal. At least I’m pretty sure...I will know later today. I love YOU!! Have a GREAT WEEK EVERYONE!! Miss you!
Love Elder Gray

Hard Week

This week was pretty good, we got transfer calls, my old comp is gone, and now I’m with the Elders of Olhao till tomorrow. But I’m really not happy at all about my new comp. I know who it is. Its worse than before. I feel like I deserved to get a new GOOD comp. Worse? I am having a really hard time having the faith in the fact it must be for a good reason. I’m really stressing about it. He is Portuguese which is the only good thing and the fact my Portuguese will improve, but he is super boring and well I won’t go way into it cuz I hate being negative, but I’m not happy. I’m having a hard time. I thought sunshine came after rain. I don’t know, its just not good. I know I need to be positive, but I’m not perfect, so I’m a bit down right now and I’m sorry.

This week we went to the house of a inactive member named Maria Cabral. She is so, so funny, and we also visited Senhor Joao. He is hilarious! So I really loved it. They are just really funny and its fun to be over there. We had this candy lesson thing and he just was acting like a 10 year old it was so awesome. He isn’t a member and it’s fun going over there. We also taught Irmao Pinto again. I really enjoy teaching him because I seem to always be able to feel the spirit in the room and he pays good attention too. We talked about the importance of having the spirit with us and he seemed to really like it and enjoy it. It was great!

Last week we had lunch with Casal Nelsons, we had enchiladas! Oh my goodness!! I miss good food! But I have really grown to love rice! Anytime we eat anything with rice I get all excited cuz there are so many types, I love it! Portuguese food is pretty interesting. The longer I’m here the more I start to like it too.

Anyways well that’s about it for this week. Sorry it’s not a lot. It was just kind of slow with Elder Clark packing and we did a lot of time at the chapel working on this member book thing we are doing. So we didn’t have lots of lessons and stuff. Thank you all for everything. You are all an inspiration to me.
Thank you so much.
Love 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