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

I made it! I'm in Portugal!

Hello, hello, hello!! Oh my goodness, it’s about time I get to write [with a computer]! It feels like it’s been so long!! I actually don’t have that much time to write today, so it’s going to be pretty basic. Sorry.

OK, first things first… My P-Day is Wednesday, so that’s when I’ll be writing. The address for sending packages is the mission home, which is:

    Portugal Lisbon Mission

    Rua Jorge Barradas 14C

    1500 Lisboa

    Portugal

My new address of my apartment that you can send letters to (and please do!) is:

    Rua Almeida Garrett Nº4, 2ºA

    Agualva - 2735-423

    Portugal

Please spread the word!

[Editor’s note: The apartment address above is correct. Those little o's in the first line are correct. They are the Portuguese equivalent of the 'th' in 4th or the 'nd' in 2nd. - Brent]

OKAY...so everything is going good! It’s all been so, so busy!! It’s way cold though. The food…well is very not that good, so I please ask a few things. Top Ramin! It’s light, very quick and easy. Also maybe like easy Mac ‘n Cheese. My comp. eats ONCE a day! It’s crazy! I eat much more! Also....please, please...HOT COCOA! It’s SO cold here; they don’t believe in heaters!!!! Our apartment is so cold.

My companion, he is amazing!! I love him. We get along awesome. He is a huge snowboarder!! He’s way cool and very obedient. I love it cuz it helps me be very obedient, too! Our mission president is so awesome!!! He is for sure the most spiritual guy I have EVER met. At times I wonder where the water keeps coming from, from in his eyes...that doesn’t happen to me. haha 

I really like my area. It’s all just apartments, no houses at all, it’s crazy. They are all made from straight concrete. NO insulation! So, ya we freeze 24-7. I could never ever live here. (Well, except for the next 2 years of course! Haha) They don’t believe in heaters or air conditioners cuz they think the breeze of it can make you horribly sick and die. It’s the weirdest thing I have ever heard of!

About the language, uhhhh, I do not understand anything. It is horrible. It’s so frustrating!!!! I want to just be able to talk! But I do bear testimony and sometimes teach some principles about certain things in the lesson. Last night I taught about the atonement twice. It went pretty good, I think. It was really cool and I did enjoy it. I can only understand the very basics...but, oh well, it will come! 

Sorry, I gotta go. I love you all so, so much! I’ll update you more next time. Feel free to keep writing and send mail and stuff. Maybe send a letter to my comp, too. He hasn’t had real mail since last April and it was a Dear John. But he said it was good riddance. Anyways, I love and miss you all muito!!

Love,

Elder 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

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