Well I would have to say the highlight of the week is that we have someone marked for baptism! It’s a bit iffy and hard to say what may happen. But we are praying and hoping for the best! It’s this lady that is like 50 something years old. She is super nice but she can talk you ear off. We had a lesson with her and we were teaching her the importance of Baptism and how she can be completely clean of all her sins and of everything she has done. It was a great lesson and the spirit sure was strong. And I also just know that she was feeling it too, its just she is really nervous because she doesn’t know enough. And we were just like ummm well we are here to change that! And we just kept telling her that we would like to set a date for baptism and she is like "oh I dunno. I don’t know enough, I need to know EVERYTHING first." I was like "Lady, I don’t even know everything." Then we just explained how she can be baptized and continue to learn, she just has to have a good feeling about it and know what we are teaching is true, then she can continue learning from there. So finally she is like "Well Okay." It’s going to be a bit hard, she is marked for the 16th of May, which is a little while away, but its for a good reason cuz she is getting surgery this week and will be in Lisbon all this week and next week so we cant even get to her. So after she gets back we will continue to teach her and I just hope that everything goes awesome and she gains a testimony of the Savior! :)
So a little about our investigator Adilson, the one from Brazil. He seems to be progressing very much and very well, it’s just that he is nervous about the commitment and about knowing for sure what he needs to do; even tho we and he know what he needs to do. Its just tough cuz he is also visiting lots of other churches and talking to lots of other people so it’s just kind of hard cuz he has so many different things going thru his head. The last time we met with him we invited him to read 2 Ne. 31 and he did and he liked it, but the only thing was verse 14...He said that verse 14 makes him scared. Which makes sense! It should! So we talked about that then he had some other really good questions about the reading and what not. One of which was pretty tough for us to answer. BUT, the Spirit was there helping and guiding.
His question was about "Speaking in a new tongue" I think that’s how it is in English..."New Language"...I dunno..But about that and what does it mean. I know that some churches actually do something like that where someone stands up front and blabbers on trying to speak Chinese or something, and some other guy is translating what he is saying. So we had to explain that it wasn’t that and then we just gave him our vision of what it means. And at first I was just stunned, like I have no idea what to say....But then I just was thinking for a second and just started talking and came up with like 3 different great explanations! It was awesome! I have never been asked about that before so it was a good opportunity to rely on the Spirit to guide me. It was really neat and a great experience for me. And by the end I was like "Does that help? You have more questions?" And he says "Nope I don’t, that all makes sense." So it was just awesome! Now also remember I had to come up with all this in a new language ha ha! Pretty intense moment I would say. But yeah, it was really cool and we had a great lesson with him. I really want to get him baptized, but its just he has so many doubts and so many things that make him feel NOT worthy or something. So we just need some time with him. But we will just keep on going day by day! :)
The downside of this week is that we didn’t get anyone in church. Well any investigators. Its so frustrating. I hate when I give our numbers at night and I have to say zero for investigators in church. It just makes me feel bad and like we didn’t do a good enough job that week. But I guess on the other hand it’s a booster to make us have a BETTER week the next week. So we are hoping for a better one this week. Its just tough cuz on Saturday and during the week our investigators all said that they would go and we can go pick them up and stuff, then Sunday comes and it’s like they died. Its lame! But its also life and we just have to keep going and keep trying with a SMILE. :)
I hope all is going good for you all back home. I want you all to know that I am so grateful for the Savior in my life. We all know how UN-perfect I am, but through the Savior and his Sacrifice for me. I can be free. I can be Happy from all the wicked things in life. And that right there brings us true happiness. This world that we are living in sure does try to get to us, make us think that this and that is better and just things of the world will bring us happiness. Well I know cuz I have seen both sides of the river. And I know that when we do what is right and keep ourselves disciplined and do what is right, we really do find happiness, and NO ONE can ever take that away from us. I am grateful for my family and for my friends. I know that I have been SO blessed with an AMAZING family and UNBELIEVEABLE friends, all of them. Thru good and bad you have ALL been there for me and I’m SO grateful for that! I love you all so very much! I hope you all have a great week and I hope you guys are getting some sun over there, cuz we sure are!! Miss you and LOVE YOU!!
Elder Gray
Monday, April 12, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Plans for the US Estoril Tennis Open!
Dad! Get this!! Guess who I am going to see in person here in about a month.....FEDERER! Ha ha, Yup! We are planning on going to the US Estoril Open here in Portugal! It lands on a P-day and we wanna go so I’m pretty sure we will! Pretty awesome huh! There are some other guys that will be here too that are pretty big so I think it should be pretty awesome. I just hope it all works out and we get to go. :)
I got the Easter package, thank you very much! My companion and I are lovin it! :)
Jeff told me about that stuff he is using for his face and cankers, that Omega3 Fish Oil whatever it is....I want some! I am going to see if I can find some here this week but if I cant, I don’t even know where to start to try to translate it right and all that but I would like you to send it to me cuz Jeff says its working for him. I would LOVE to not have a canker....ha! But I will try to find it here first.
So NASCAR? In North Carolina? Flippin cool!!! Give me the details dad!
Mom I LOVED the stories you told me about Scotty and Gracee with the exercise ball! That was just way too funny! Ha ha I love it! "No its GRAMMAS BALL!" ha-ha I just love it! I can’t wait to see all that in person jeez! So awesome!
Anyways, I love you mom and dad! Have a great week!! :) Thank you for everything!!
Love Elder Gray
I got the Easter package, thank you very much! My companion and I are lovin it! :)
Jeff told me about that stuff he is using for his face and cankers, that Omega3 Fish Oil whatever it is....I want some! I am going to see if I can find some here this week but if I cant, I don’t even know where to start to try to translate it right and all that but I would like you to send it to me cuz Jeff says its working for him. I would LOVE to not have a canker....ha! But I will try to find it here first.
So NASCAR? In North Carolina? Flippin cool!!! Give me the details dad!
Mom I LOVED the stories you told me about Scotty and Gracee with the exercise ball! That was just way too funny! Ha ha I love it! "No its GRAMMAS BALL!" ha-ha I just love it! I can’t wait to see all that in person jeez! So awesome!
Anyways, I love you mom and dad! Have a great week!! :) Thank you for everything!!
Love Elder Gray
Happy Easter
First of all I hope you all had a great Easter weekend and I hope you all got a lot out of conference and enjoyed it like I did! I really enjoyed what we were able to watch, but we actually only watched 2 sessions because of the transmission difficulties. But the mission is going to hand out DVDs with some sessions on it. I’m not sure how many or which ones but I’m stoked to get it. I also hope that it is in English. It is pretty cool being able to watch it in a different language, but its a lot harder to focus and pay attention and get what I normally would out of it because it’s hard to understand it all in Portuguese. It’s a cool experience, but I hope I can watch it in English to understand it all the way I should. :) I hope you all don’t take it for granted how easy it is for you guys to see it there. It is much more difficult here, and I think how I only have to listen to or see conference just one more time here, but they are here every single time and they don’t even get to see ALL the sessions. It’s sad really. But hopefully when the country grows in the Gospel more, they will have better transmissions and satellite access.
So this week we had our interviews with President Torgan, and as usual they were really good. It was pretty awesome because lately I have been thinking and praying about how to figure out how I can be a better missionary and how we can have more success here with our investigators and things...well the training that Pres. Torgan gave us that day totally helped and answered my questions, prayers, and my doubts! It was for sure way cool! I am really grateful for the Spirit in my life. I feel so lucky to have the Spirit with me all the time to guide me. My personal interview went really well. Pres always helps me want to be better every day. There are always things that we can do better. And he helps me figure those things out and fix them. It’s always a special opportunity to hear from President Torgan and hear his talks and trainings.
This week we found a new family that was pretty awesome! The dads name is Fabio, and he has 4 kids. Two of them sat in and listened to our lesson, the others are really young. But this family was really nice and we had a really good lesson and it went really well. The only problem is that we don’t get to go back till this Friday, so I really just hope that when we do go back it will go really well!
We also have those 2 other investigators, Robert and Kate. They are Brazilian and they are way cool. The kid is the son of the member that has been married since he was about 17 ha ha. But they seem to be progressing so much I love it! They are such nice people, and they literally live in like a shack. Their house is NO bigger than our SHED. It’s just crazy how small their house is. It’s sad, but it’s amazing that they are still happy. And they will be even MORE happy if they keep going and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am hoping for the best for them. They just moved here and are trying to make things work out. And I know that our Heavenly Father is helping and them and will of course continue to help. I just hope they realize that fact. They are very nice people and our lessons with them are always spiritual and very good. We just had a lesson with them on Saturday and it was just awesome! I loved it. We talked about Baptism with them too. But they need time, or so they think ha ha, but we will just keep going with them and hope that they pray and read and gain a testimony! :)
So remember that crazy nasty stuff we ate last week? Well we almost had to AGAIN this week! But, luckily we got to SELF SERVE ourselves and it was just really casual so we just took everything AROUND the feet. Ugghhh Grody. Everything else was okay tho. ;) Ha ha!
It has been a good week. We are coming up on transfers ALREADY I can’t even believe it! It’s pretty crazy how fast time goes by when you are with a companion that you like. It almost goes TOO fast. But we love it and we hope to see some baptisms here soon! Things are going good here, I hope all is well back home. I hope you are all healthy and safe! And be smart! I Love you all!
Love Elder Gray
So this week we had our interviews with President Torgan, and as usual they were really good. It was pretty awesome because lately I have been thinking and praying about how to figure out how I can be a better missionary and how we can have more success here with our investigators and things...well the training that Pres. Torgan gave us that day totally helped and answered my questions, prayers, and my doubts! It was for sure way cool! I am really grateful for the Spirit in my life. I feel so lucky to have the Spirit with me all the time to guide me. My personal interview went really well. Pres always helps me want to be better every day. There are always things that we can do better. And he helps me figure those things out and fix them. It’s always a special opportunity to hear from President Torgan and hear his talks and trainings.
This week we found a new family that was pretty awesome! The dads name is Fabio, and he has 4 kids. Two of them sat in and listened to our lesson, the others are really young. But this family was really nice and we had a really good lesson and it went really well. The only problem is that we don’t get to go back till this Friday, so I really just hope that when we do go back it will go really well!
We also have those 2 other investigators, Robert and Kate. They are Brazilian and they are way cool. The kid is the son of the member that has been married since he was about 17 ha ha. But they seem to be progressing so much I love it! They are such nice people, and they literally live in like a shack. Their house is NO bigger than our SHED. It’s just crazy how small their house is. It’s sad, but it’s amazing that they are still happy. And they will be even MORE happy if they keep going and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am hoping for the best for them. They just moved here and are trying to make things work out. And I know that our Heavenly Father is helping and them and will of course continue to help. I just hope they realize that fact. They are very nice people and our lessons with them are always spiritual and very good. We just had a lesson with them on Saturday and it was just awesome! I loved it. We talked about Baptism with them too. But they need time, or so they think ha ha, but we will just keep going with them and hope that they pray and read and gain a testimony! :)
So remember that crazy nasty stuff we ate last week? Well we almost had to AGAIN this week! But, luckily we got to SELF SERVE ourselves and it was just really casual so we just took everything AROUND the feet. Ugghhh Grody. Everything else was okay tho. ;) Ha ha!
It has been a good week. We are coming up on transfers ALREADY I can’t even believe it! It’s pretty crazy how fast time goes by when you are with a companion that you like. It almost goes TOO fast. But we love it and we hope to see some baptisms here soon! Things are going good here, I hope all is well back home. I hope you are all healthy and safe! And be smart! I Love you all!
Love Elder Gray
Monday, March 29, 2010
Me? Eat A Chicken Gizzard? A Foot? NNOOOOO!
This week we had some good experiences, some weird or funny, and some down experiences. I think that’s about how it is every week actually. Anyway, we had family night with this family, and we gave a spiritual lesson that went pretty good, we taught about Abinadi and the extremely awesome faith that he had and that he was willing to die and give up his life to teach the Gospel. Then we also talked about Alma, and how he baptized 204 people in secret, which is pretty amazing! We are out here trying to baptize and do the Lords work and we are NOT doing it in secret. We are trying to talk to every single person possible to bring the Light of Christ to their lives. But Alma had to do it in secret and he did a great job of it! It’s a great story and I love it, so we wanted to teach it and some of its principles.
Afterwards, they fed us, and my goodness it was NOT normal! I mean the food here that we eat at member’s houses is usually pretty interesting at times, but then there are sometimes, you get something just whacked! So get this, we ate chicken, but not like the parts YOU would eat, NO....I think they kill the chickens, send all the good and normal stuff to the states then keep all the nasty crazy weird stuff here, ha ha ha, just kiddin, but really its weird. We ate chicken liver, heart, feet, neck, gizzard...of which I’m not even sure what that is, but that’s just what I found when I translated the word they told me...ha ha, yup, crazy stuff if you ask me...chicken neck?? Chicken feet!!? And the HEART?? Yeah crazy weird stuff! So I was eating, then I moved some rice and saw a piece of meat and picked it up and it was a heart! Straight up heart! I don’t even know how to explain it, and then I see a literal FOOT on my plate, with the little claws on it and everything! I just thought about how that foot was probably walking around in that pen with all the other chickens and walking in its own poo and who knows what else.....I lost my appetite. I didn’t eat the foot...I couldn’t…....
On Saturday we had this activity at the church and the young kids sang and we had this little meeting and people spoke, it was good and we had 2 investigators there and the spirit was strong. I just hope that they felt it and will follow their hearts! But get this, right before the activity, a little kid that is like oh maybe 2 or 3 I’m not sure, was outside and all of a sudden someone said, "Oh my gosh look!!" And the little boy had his pants down to his ankles and he was just peein right there in the middle of the sidewalk right in front of the church! Ha ha, it was so funny! And people start laughing then he starts laughing, but then mommy spanked him ha ha! Man it was way funny! On a sad note, we have pretty much just lost a progressing investigator Maria do Carmo. We went over there and she was so, so different! It really made me sad cuz she just kept disagreeing with anything we said. We tried to teach her the importance of going to church and WHY she needs to go, but she just kept saying, I can stay home and do my own thing…..and I was just like we are not here to do OUR OWN THING! We are to serve and follow the Lords path! But yeah, it was just really sad and she didn’t really want to talk or anything. I was sooo bummed cuz she has a family of 3 daughters and a son, so I was hoping to be able to teach the whole family, but now it’s going to be very hard to do. We did get 8 new investigators this week tho, 3 of which are really good and I’m excited to teach them. Two of them have gone to church 2 times now and I’m loving it! A boy and girl, the boy is the son of a member Nilzete, and his wife. He is 26 and she 20, and they have been married 9 years. DO THE MATH!! Yup! That’s right. I couldn’t believe it! When I asked him, I said, "So how old are you two? And how long have you been married?" And he says, "I’m 26 and she is 20 and we have been married 9 years." I was like "oh yeah, 9 months?" And he says, "No, no, 9 years" I just sat there. I was nearly speechless. I couldn’t believe it! I said, “dude I am 20 and I can’t imagine being married right now, I’m way too immature!” Ha ha, it was pretty funny, I couldn’t believe that!! The last few weeks, we have made some choco chip cookies for people, and man they are a huge, huge hit! We have now gone to 2 different members houses to teach them how to do it. It was funny but pretty cool they just love them! They don’t have these things here!
Well I hope you all have a good week and that things are going great for you. Don’t forget to SMILE. A smile to someone can just change their day! So if you just see someone not smiling or a little unhappy, go out of your way to make them smile. I have learned here that lots of people seem to be cold and don’t talk much, but even just a smile, can go a long way. You don’t even have to say a word, just show the happiness that you have in your life, because it’s thru that that people start wondering why you are happy all the time. People notice, I know that for sure! So just smile, smile, smile and be happy! Life is too short to not be happy. So smile, and see what happens. :)
The Church is TRUE! I know it with all my heart! I am so happy to be out here and serve, yes there are LONG days and HARD days, but if we just keep going everyday, we will be blessed. I am grateful for the opportunity to be out here and serve the Lord. I love you all and I wish you all a great week!
Love,
Elder Gray
Afterwards, they fed us, and my goodness it was NOT normal! I mean the food here that we eat at member’s houses is usually pretty interesting at times, but then there are sometimes, you get something just whacked! So get this, we ate chicken, but not like the parts YOU would eat, NO....I think they kill the chickens, send all the good and normal stuff to the states then keep all the nasty crazy weird stuff here, ha ha ha, just kiddin, but really its weird. We ate chicken liver, heart, feet, neck, gizzard...of which I’m not even sure what that is, but that’s just what I found when I translated the word they told me...ha ha, yup, crazy stuff if you ask me...chicken neck?? Chicken feet!!? And the HEART?? Yeah crazy weird stuff! So I was eating, then I moved some rice and saw a piece of meat and picked it up and it was a heart! Straight up heart! I don’t even know how to explain it, and then I see a literal FOOT on my plate, with the little claws on it and everything! I just thought about how that foot was probably walking around in that pen with all the other chickens and walking in its own poo and who knows what else.....I lost my appetite. I didn’t eat the foot...I couldn’t…....
On Saturday we had this activity at the church and the young kids sang and we had this little meeting and people spoke, it was good and we had 2 investigators there and the spirit was strong. I just hope that they felt it and will follow their hearts! But get this, right before the activity, a little kid that is like oh maybe 2 or 3 I’m not sure, was outside and all of a sudden someone said, "Oh my gosh look!!" And the little boy had his pants down to his ankles and he was just peein right there in the middle of the sidewalk right in front of the church! Ha ha, it was so funny! And people start laughing then he starts laughing, but then mommy spanked him ha ha! Man it was way funny! On a sad note, we have pretty much just lost a progressing investigator Maria do Carmo. We went over there and she was so, so different! It really made me sad cuz she just kept disagreeing with anything we said. We tried to teach her the importance of going to church and WHY she needs to go, but she just kept saying, I can stay home and do my own thing…..and I was just like we are not here to do OUR OWN THING! We are to serve and follow the Lords path! But yeah, it was just really sad and she didn’t really want to talk or anything. I was sooo bummed cuz she has a family of 3 daughters and a son, so I was hoping to be able to teach the whole family, but now it’s going to be very hard to do. We did get 8 new investigators this week tho, 3 of which are really good and I’m excited to teach them. Two of them have gone to church 2 times now and I’m loving it! A boy and girl, the boy is the son of a member Nilzete, and his wife. He is 26 and she 20, and they have been married 9 years. DO THE MATH!! Yup! That’s right. I couldn’t believe it! When I asked him, I said, "So how old are you two? And how long have you been married?" And he says, "I’m 26 and she is 20 and we have been married 9 years." I was like "oh yeah, 9 months?" And he says, "No, no, 9 years" I just sat there. I was nearly speechless. I couldn’t believe it! I said, “dude I am 20 and I can’t imagine being married right now, I’m way too immature!” Ha ha, it was pretty funny, I couldn’t believe that!! The last few weeks, we have made some choco chip cookies for people, and man they are a huge, huge hit! We have now gone to 2 different members houses to teach them how to do it. It was funny but pretty cool they just love them! They don’t have these things here!
Well I hope you all have a good week and that things are going great for you. Don’t forget to SMILE. A smile to someone can just change their day! So if you just see someone not smiling or a little unhappy, go out of your way to make them smile. I have learned here that lots of people seem to be cold and don’t talk much, but even just a smile, can go a long way. You don’t even have to say a word, just show the happiness that you have in your life, because it’s thru that that people start wondering why you are happy all the time. People notice, I know that for sure! So just smile, smile, smile and be happy! Life is too short to not be happy. So smile, and see what happens. :)
The Church is TRUE! I know it with all my heart! I am so happy to be out here and serve, yes there are LONG days and HARD days, but if we just keep going everyday, we will be blessed. I am grateful for the opportunity to be out here and serve the Lord. I love you all and I wish you all a great week!
Love,
Elder Gray
Sunday, March 21, 2010
We are Making a Difference!
We had a pretty good week! I was actually pretty impressed with our numbers because we lost a FULL day because of Zone Conference which usually brings our weekly numbers down a bit. But we still had OVER 20 lessons this week! That is our weekly goal to get at least 20 lessons, which was NOT happening at all in this area before I got here so it feels pretty good and I’m just loving it! Zone Conference was really good, as usual. It’s always great to hear and be inspired by President Torgan. Even though, at times things seem to be a little weird that he does, but I try to just keep in mind that he IS our President and he has the keys for this Mission so I just need to keep that in mind and follow and do what he asks.
Anyway, the Conference was really good; I have always enjoyed Zone Conferences. They are always a good time for a bit of uplifting advice and ways to better ourselves out here. Its pretty crazy, me and others have been out here for a year, some over a year, some almost 2 years, and we are still learning new things every day, all the time! Man, you would think that the learning would slow down a bit on HOW to do this work! But it’s the Lords work and the Lord works in mysterious ways so we just got to keep going, growing, learning and LOVE it the whole way!
One thing that we heard at Zone Conf, which made me OPEN my eyes wide in a way, was when President Torgan told us how many Baptisms we had in the month of February, THEN....he told us how many baptisms the Porto mission had in February. First, the Portugal, Porto Mission in the month of February had 6 baptisms. WE....Portugal, Lisbon Mission, had in February, 47 baptisms. How AWESOME is that! By the way, that is MORE than one per dupla. (Per companionship.) Crazy awesome! So we are kickin butt and takin names! (And using lots of water.) :) Ha ha ha! It’s pretty awesome! President talked a lot on those numbers and how Portugal is all the same. Porto, Lisbon, it’s all the same. Same peeps, same culture and all that, but we had 47. They had 6. What does that tell us? Is it because the people here are nicer? No.....actually it is commonly known that the people in Porto are generally more open and nice....HA! He was telling us how we had 47 baptisms because of US, because of the missionaries. US!! The work that WE do. It was really cool to hear that!
Now, about my “Ensign story" I started last week. Sadly there isn’t too much to say about that one anymore. It’s actually kind of a long sad story. But he is already dropped. We most likely will not be talking to him again. He has a lot of problems. He turns out to be more like a "can’t work because of being unstable" rather than "kind of retired." He told us that he is a "kind of retired doctor" but now we have come to find it’s more complicated. He has big issues mentally and lots of things. I won’t go way into it, it’s not really worth it, because there were 2 things he said, “I will be honest, I won’t read. I hate reading, I can’t and I won’t do it,” so that was kind of bad but then I was telling him it can be just ONE verse a day and I opened up and read a scripture and said, "See, that’s how fast!" Ha-ha so then he said, “oh....yeah, maybe then he said, "ummm there is something else...well I should not tell you.....but uh, I will, I smoke joints." And I just look at my comp like uhhhhhh great......this dude is like over 50 years old! Man it’s so sad! His life is so, so, so messed up. So yeah, we were WAY confused about why on earth he came into the church asking for a Book in the first place if he hates reading, yeah....weird. But that is about half of the story. Not worth wasting time over, sadly...but that’s life right there.
The good news lately, is just the fact that people are showing up ON TIME to church!! Ahh, it makes me SOO happy! Even our branch President has been on time the last 2 weeks in a row, which is way good! The last Elders that served here could tell you they don’t even know if he or many other people have been on time EVER! Ha ha, but it looks like to me someone just needed to OPEN their mouth!! So I’m SO, SO glad that I did! I am seeing a difference and that makes me so happy. Something small, like being on time is pretty important, seems pretty small but yet I’m so happy to see that I have made even just a little bit of a difference with my time here. I just hope that I can continue to do so and see and work more and more miracles!!
The not so great news of the week is that it was pretty hard to teach all our investigators because of the Conference. We didn’t even get to teach 3 of our main ones, which bothers me, but we are determined to MAKE UP for the lost lessons this week! Our investigators are all progressing but they all just need that burning to grow a little more so they can be baptized! I have high hopes. So hopefully this next week will be better and we will have lessons with all of them. And maybe even mark someone! I sure hope so! :)
On Saturday, we went with a member to deliver some food to a couple of families that are struggling with money right now, one of which being Brenda’s family. (She is 15, and has a little brother 10). She is the girl that is ALWAYS is willing to help us! They are an awesome, awesome family. Their mom is single and trying to provide for the two kids and things aren’t going all that well so we took over a whole bunch of basic food to them, without an appointment, and when we showed up, I went up first to the door alone to make sure someone was home, and I get there and I knock the door and Brenda says, "Quem é?" "Who is it?" And I say, "O Elder" and she says, "What!?!?!? I don’t believe it!" Ha ha, then she opens the door and sees me and is like what the…!? OH!! By the way they live kind of far away so we would NOT be there at night time ever, so she says, "What on earth?? Are you alone????" And I say, "Yes I’m alone and I ran all the way here!! I got in a fight with my companion!!" Ha ha! She says, uhhh....and, well I’m not too good at keeping straight faces really, so she says, "Ah you liar!" Ha, ha, it was way funny. But then we brought all the food up and went in to the house with it and the mom walks in and it was just so cool. I could tell that they, the mom especially was SO, SO grateful for the food we had brought. She said, "Oh my goodness, kids we have food!" That kind of hit me hard. I would never have guessed that they didn’t really have any food because they are such humble people and so happy all the time no matter what.
So this, everyone is my lesson for this week. :) Don’t take the little tiny things that you have for granted! This poor single mother had to sell her car so she could provide for her family, so, if you think your life is tough....Stop Complaining!!
I want you all to know that I KNOW that the Church is true! It’s such an amazing blessing in our lives! I gave a talk on Sunday and in the end I was talking a bit about families and how unbelievably AWESOME my family is (trying not to brag too much) and I just realized, that even if I don’t know much about the Church, I know that I will be with my family forever. And that is enough for me to be out here on the other side of the world preaching that fact. If that is the only knowledge I have, it would be enough. I always testify of families because I am SO eternally grateful for the fact that I will live with and love my family for ever! Not to mention my very OWN future family, I’m already grateful for the knowledge that the family I will have, will be mine FOREVER, and we will ALL live in a state of never ending HAPPINESS!! Isn’t that what we all want, happiness? Well just imagine eternity for a second.....Is living the way YOU want here on earth worth living in misery forever? If not, read, pray, and go to church! If you want to live in HAPPINESS then get your butt up and DO SOMETHING! I LOVE YOU ALL and I care about every single one of you that is reading this. I miss you all, but there is work to be done!! The field is here, now, and ready to harvest! I Love You!
Elder Robby Gray!
Anyway, the Conference was really good; I have always enjoyed Zone Conferences. They are always a good time for a bit of uplifting advice and ways to better ourselves out here. Its pretty crazy, me and others have been out here for a year, some over a year, some almost 2 years, and we are still learning new things every day, all the time! Man, you would think that the learning would slow down a bit on HOW to do this work! But it’s the Lords work and the Lord works in mysterious ways so we just got to keep going, growing, learning and LOVE it the whole way!
One thing that we heard at Zone Conf, which made me OPEN my eyes wide in a way, was when President Torgan told us how many Baptisms we had in the month of February, THEN....he told us how many baptisms the Porto mission had in February. First, the Portugal, Porto Mission in the month of February had 6 baptisms. WE....Portugal, Lisbon Mission, had in February, 47 baptisms. How AWESOME is that! By the way, that is MORE than one per dupla. (Per companionship.) Crazy awesome! So we are kickin butt and takin names! (And using lots of water.) :) Ha ha ha! It’s pretty awesome! President talked a lot on those numbers and how Portugal is all the same. Porto, Lisbon, it’s all the same. Same peeps, same culture and all that, but we had 47. They had 6. What does that tell us? Is it because the people here are nicer? No.....actually it is commonly known that the people in Porto are generally more open and nice....HA! He was telling us how we had 47 baptisms because of US, because of the missionaries. US!! The work that WE do. It was really cool to hear that!
Now, about my “Ensign story" I started last week. Sadly there isn’t too much to say about that one anymore. It’s actually kind of a long sad story. But he is already dropped. We most likely will not be talking to him again. He has a lot of problems. He turns out to be more like a "can’t work because of being unstable" rather than "kind of retired." He told us that he is a "kind of retired doctor" but now we have come to find it’s more complicated. He has big issues mentally and lots of things. I won’t go way into it, it’s not really worth it, because there were 2 things he said, “I will be honest, I won’t read. I hate reading, I can’t and I won’t do it,” so that was kind of bad but then I was telling him it can be just ONE verse a day and I opened up and read a scripture and said, "See, that’s how fast!" Ha-ha so then he said, “oh....yeah, maybe then he said, "ummm there is something else...well I should not tell you.....but uh, I will, I smoke joints." And I just look at my comp like uhhhhhh great......this dude is like over 50 years old! Man it’s so sad! His life is so, so, so messed up. So yeah, we were WAY confused about why on earth he came into the church asking for a Book in the first place if he hates reading, yeah....weird. But that is about half of the story. Not worth wasting time over, sadly...but that’s life right there.
The good news lately, is just the fact that people are showing up ON TIME to church!! Ahh, it makes me SOO happy! Even our branch President has been on time the last 2 weeks in a row, which is way good! The last Elders that served here could tell you they don’t even know if he or many other people have been on time EVER! Ha ha, but it looks like to me someone just needed to OPEN their mouth!! So I’m SO, SO glad that I did! I am seeing a difference and that makes me so happy. Something small, like being on time is pretty important, seems pretty small but yet I’m so happy to see that I have made even just a little bit of a difference with my time here. I just hope that I can continue to do so and see and work more and more miracles!!
The not so great news of the week is that it was pretty hard to teach all our investigators because of the Conference. We didn’t even get to teach 3 of our main ones, which bothers me, but we are determined to MAKE UP for the lost lessons this week! Our investigators are all progressing but they all just need that burning to grow a little more so they can be baptized! I have high hopes. So hopefully this next week will be better and we will have lessons with all of them. And maybe even mark someone! I sure hope so! :)
On Saturday, we went with a member to deliver some food to a couple of families that are struggling with money right now, one of which being Brenda’s family. (She is 15, and has a little brother 10). She is the girl that is ALWAYS is willing to help us! They are an awesome, awesome family. Their mom is single and trying to provide for the two kids and things aren’t going all that well so we took over a whole bunch of basic food to them, without an appointment, and when we showed up, I went up first to the door alone to make sure someone was home, and I get there and I knock the door and Brenda says, "Quem é?" "Who is it?" And I say, "O Elder" and she says, "What!?!?!? I don’t believe it!" Ha ha, then she opens the door and sees me and is like what the…!? OH!! By the way they live kind of far away so we would NOT be there at night time ever, so she says, "What on earth?? Are you alone????" And I say, "Yes I’m alone and I ran all the way here!! I got in a fight with my companion!!" Ha ha! She says, uhhh....and, well I’m not too good at keeping straight faces really, so she says, "Ah you liar!" Ha, ha, it was way funny. But then we brought all the food up and went in to the house with it and the mom walks in and it was just so cool. I could tell that they, the mom especially was SO, SO grateful for the food we had brought. She said, "Oh my goodness, kids we have food!" That kind of hit me hard. I would never have guessed that they didn’t really have any food because they are such humble people and so happy all the time no matter what.
So this, everyone is my lesson for this week. :) Don’t take the little tiny things that you have for granted! This poor single mother had to sell her car so she could provide for her family, so, if you think your life is tough....Stop Complaining!!
I want you all to know that I KNOW that the Church is true! It’s such an amazing blessing in our lives! I gave a talk on Sunday and in the end I was talking a bit about families and how unbelievably AWESOME my family is (trying not to brag too much) and I just realized, that even if I don’t know much about the Church, I know that I will be with my family forever. And that is enough for me to be out here on the other side of the world preaching that fact. If that is the only knowledge I have, it would be enough. I always testify of families because I am SO eternally grateful for the fact that I will live with and love my family for ever! Not to mention my very OWN future family, I’m already grateful for the knowledge that the family I will have, will be mine FOREVER, and we will ALL live in a state of never ending HAPPINESS!! Isn’t that what we all want, happiness? Well just imagine eternity for a second.....Is living the way YOU want here on earth worth living in misery forever? If not, read, pray, and go to church! If you want to live in HAPPINESS then get your butt up and DO SOMETHING! I LOVE YOU ALL and I care about every single one of you that is reading this. I miss you all, but there is work to be done!! The field is here, now, and ready to harvest! I Love You!
Elder Robby Gray!
Monday, March 15, 2010
My Ensign Story
First of all this week, we marked then had to unmark a kid for baptism. He was marked on Tuesday for Sunday. But then they had to talk to their dad about it and he won’t let him be baptized cuz he says he is not old enough to make decisions for himself. He is 10 yrs old. A great kid ready to be baptized for sure, but now a bit of a hold up. So we are working on the other family members. They are ALL so ready and just need to take the steps to baptism! The other problem is the mom, Regina is not married. I guess they have just never thought about getting married. That’s crazy to me, they have 3 kids! Like why not just get hitched? But they have never even talked about it. Crazy! So that is a bit of a problem because in order for her to be baptized they have to get married. But as of now we are focusing on the oldest one Adilson. He is 18 yrs. old so he CAN be baptized, he just isn’t sure yet. He has doubts like everyone does, so we are continuing to go over there and meet with them about twice a week. I really want him to get baptized and I think that he will, I believe that he will, he just needs a bit more time, which is hard to have with President Torgan. He is all about baptizing YESTERDAY, so it’s hard when we have our Zone Leaders breathing down our backs all the time about WHEN is our next baptism and stuff like that. It makes things kind of stressful and at times questionable, but we are trying and doing our best to get some baptisms here.
We also have our other Adilson, the one from Brazil. He is doing way good and progressing. He had to work yesterday so he couldn’t come to church which was a bummer, but we still had 4 investigators in church! :) Whoop!! That is still way good, but we are WANTING like 8! So we still have some work to do no doubt!
I made "Ensign Story" my heading because I am in the middle of what could be one of those stories that you read about the missionaries in the Ensign ha ha, it’s quite awesome. In a way I just want to wait till next week to tell you ALL about it cuz that would give me more time to see how its going to unfold. But, I will tell you what I know from what has happened so far. Yesterday I was sitting in church just about 5 minutes before our meeting was about to start, and the Branch President walks up to me and says, "Elder Gray, there is someone outside wanting a Book of Mormon!" Now that right there is crazy enough! So I run out there and greet this Portuguese guy named Rui. Awesome fella, older man about 6 feet tall I would say, so I start speaking Portuguese (of course) and he says, "Do you speak English?" So I said, "Yes I do" and so he speaks English....kind of...haha, but he loves to speak English, he prefers it over Portuguese. Anyways, so he asks me if he can have a "Bible" and I said, "Well, actually we don’t have a Bible right now but I can get you one later on if you would like, but we have this book called The Book of Mormon." and he says, ”Umm what is the difference?" So I explained a little about the difference and where the Book of Mormon came from and all that stuff and he said, “Yeah sure I’ll take this one.” So I give him the book and I say, “Hey our meeting is about to start right now if you would like to come in.” He couldn’t...sadly, BUT he gave me all his info and was like "I would like it if you would come to my house and talk with me." So of course I said that we would love to! So he told me to call him sometime this week. So my plan was to call today later on after P-Day. But get this, so I’m sitting here writing an email to someone, (our internet store is right next to our church) and I look out the window and see him walking with someone towards our church and I watch him to see what he is doing and he goes, looks around the corner sees that the door is shut and turns back around. So I KNEW that he was looking for US!! So the guy he was with was almost looking at me in the window so I pounded on the window and the other guy saw me and I pointed to Rui so, his friend pointed to me....and he looks up and I wave and he makes a gesture like "I need to talk to you!" So I jump up! And I run outside and talked to him. He says, "Hey, listen I would like you to come to my house? I want you to talk to me and my wife. But she is not prepared, so call her today and talk to her, you speak Portuguese right?" and I say, "Sim" ha ha and he says, “Okay call my wife and tell her you talked to me and you want to come over." So I say, "Okay I will call her today!" And he says, "Yeah, I would like you guys to come over tomorrow." Awesome! Then he says, "I want YOU to come, because you are cool. And we need more cool people like you in Portugal." Ha ha ha!! Funny huh! So I say, "Yeah me and my companion can came over." He says, "Sounds great!" Pretty cool, right?! I know! I am stoked! So we will go over there most likely tomorrow and see how things go. This guy is really nice and cool. I guess he is a retired Doctor. So maybe we will be going to a mansion!! (Which in this country means a house.) Ha ha!! So, I will give you the updates next week and let you know how things went! But man I tell ya.....speaking to someone like I was doing in ENGLISH was SO, SO, SO weird!! I don’t know why. I had a serious problem. I wanted to speak in Portuguese to him and I would keep saying stuff on accident in Portuguese and he would just laugh and I’d be like "Oh! Duh I mean....." So it was really funny. But cool too, ha ha!
Guess what? For those of you who know of course how being CLEAN is important to me, my companion is the CLEANEST comp I have had yet!!! I love the kid! And not just cuz he is clean, he is awesome! We are having a great time together, I think he is my favorite companion so far, AND he is super clean. I love it! Man it just takes so much pointless stress off my chest! Ha ha, I only had to do the dishes twice this week and it was only cuz I had to like RACE him to the sink to do them. But I think it has a lot to do with the fact that my STUPID fingers and this skin thing I have going on here is STILL irritating me. (Yes mom and dad I still have it.) But I have an appointment with a doc in a week or so. But it’s worse....... AHH! But yeah, he respects that fact and how it royally sucks having to use gloves to do dishes. He is legit and we are having a great time and doing great work!! :)
That is about it for the week! I hope you all have a great week and everything goes well and you are all HAPPY! Don’t forget to smile! I love you all so much and miss you tonz. This is the Lords work I am doing and its great! I am loving it and I am trying to live up to every minute I have out here serving the Lord! There are souls to be saved!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!
Love Elder Gray
We also have our other Adilson, the one from Brazil. He is doing way good and progressing. He had to work yesterday so he couldn’t come to church which was a bummer, but we still had 4 investigators in church! :) Whoop!! That is still way good, but we are WANTING like 8! So we still have some work to do no doubt!
I made "Ensign Story" my heading because I am in the middle of what could be one of those stories that you read about the missionaries in the Ensign ha ha, it’s quite awesome. In a way I just want to wait till next week to tell you ALL about it cuz that would give me more time to see how its going to unfold. But, I will tell you what I know from what has happened so far. Yesterday I was sitting in church just about 5 minutes before our meeting was about to start, and the Branch President walks up to me and says, "Elder Gray, there is someone outside wanting a Book of Mormon!" Now that right there is crazy enough! So I run out there and greet this Portuguese guy named Rui. Awesome fella, older man about 6 feet tall I would say, so I start speaking Portuguese (of course) and he says, "Do you speak English?" So I said, "Yes I do" and so he speaks English....kind of...haha, but he loves to speak English, he prefers it over Portuguese. Anyways, so he asks me if he can have a "Bible" and I said, "Well, actually we don’t have a Bible right now but I can get you one later on if you would like, but we have this book called The Book of Mormon." and he says, ”Umm what is the difference?" So I explained a little about the difference and where the Book of Mormon came from and all that stuff and he said, “Yeah sure I’ll take this one.” So I give him the book and I say, “Hey our meeting is about to start right now if you would like to come in.” He couldn’t...sadly, BUT he gave me all his info and was like "I would like it if you would come to my house and talk with me." So of course I said that we would love to! So he told me to call him sometime this week. So my plan was to call today later on after P-Day. But get this, so I’m sitting here writing an email to someone, (our internet store is right next to our church) and I look out the window and see him walking with someone towards our church and I watch him to see what he is doing and he goes, looks around the corner sees that the door is shut and turns back around. So I KNEW that he was looking for US!! So the guy he was with was almost looking at me in the window so I pounded on the window and the other guy saw me and I pointed to Rui so, his friend pointed to me....and he looks up and I wave and he makes a gesture like "I need to talk to you!" So I jump up! And I run outside and talked to him. He says, "Hey, listen I would like you to come to my house? I want you to talk to me and my wife. But she is not prepared, so call her today and talk to her, you speak Portuguese right?" and I say, "Sim" ha ha and he says, “Okay call my wife and tell her you talked to me and you want to come over." So I say, "Okay I will call her today!" And he says, "Yeah, I would like you guys to come over tomorrow." Awesome! Then he says, "I want YOU to come, because you are cool. And we need more cool people like you in Portugal." Ha ha ha!! Funny huh! So I say, "Yeah me and my companion can came over." He says, "Sounds great!" Pretty cool, right?! I know! I am stoked! So we will go over there most likely tomorrow and see how things go. This guy is really nice and cool. I guess he is a retired Doctor. So maybe we will be going to a mansion!! (Which in this country means a house.) Ha ha!! So, I will give you the updates next week and let you know how things went! But man I tell ya.....speaking to someone like I was doing in ENGLISH was SO, SO, SO weird!! I don’t know why. I had a serious problem. I wanted to speak in Portuguese to him and I would keep saying stuff on accident in Portuguese and he would just laugh and I’d be like "Oh! Duh I mean....." So it was really funny. But cool too, ha ha!
Guess what? For those of you who know of course how being CLEAN is important to me, my companion is the CLEANEST comp I have had yet!!! I love the kid! And not just cuz he is clean, he is awesome! We are having a great time together, I think he is my favorite companion so far, AND he is super clean. I love it! Man it just takes so much pointless stress off my chest! Ha ha, I only had to do the dishes twice this week and it was only cuz I had to like RACE him to the sink to do them. But I think it has a lot to do with the fact that my STUPID fingers and this skin thing I have going on here is STILL irritating me. (Yes mom and dad I still have it.) But I have an appointment with a doc in a week or so. But it’s worse....... AHH! But yeah, he respects that fact and how it royally sucks having to use gloves to do dishes. He is legit and we are having a great time and doing great work!! :)
That is about it for the week! I hope you all have a great week and everything goes well and you are all HAPPY! Don’t forget to smile! I love you all so much and miss you tonz. This is the Lords work I am doing and its great! I am loving it and I am trying to live up to every minute I have out here serving the Lord! There are souls to be saved!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!
Love Elder Gray
Monday, March 8, 2010
Twelve New Investigators!
This week was really good! We are even impressed with our own numbers and how everything went. It was just awesome! For the most part everything went through and worked out as planned! Of course there were a few things....but can’t complain. One thing that was just awesome was that we had 12 new investigators this week! We felt like we were just rolling them in! And it’s also crazy because this week was transfer week and I got a new companion! So because of transfers we lost a whole bunch of working time, but yet we still had a great week, with over 20 lessons! (Here that is not very common.) So it was way sweet!
Since I have been here we haven’t really been able to get any investigators to go to church. Well I just changed a little about the way I go about inviting people to come to church and basically poured out my heart about how important it is to go and if we do, we will be SO blessed! That goes for all of us, members, and non-members everyone! SO, we had 5 investigators in church! I was just so thrilled! Then, better yet, our testimony meeting was just AWESOME! I loved it so much! Not to be boastful, but 3 different people talked about me and something that I had taught them earlier this week and how it has just changed something about them. It was really cool for me to see that I AM making a difference. It really made me feel good!
Remember how I said a few weeks ago, when our branch was having a HUGE problem getting to church at 10:00, that I talked about it and basically told them it’s not good to be late? Well this one guy, Fernando, gets it and now the last 2 weeks he and his family have been at the church on time, so it was awesome! We have this in-active member that we went and visited last week on Sunday. We had a great little lesson with him and I just started asking him "why" he isn’t going to church, "what" is the excuse and things like that. And he was saying how its just hard cuz he gets home from work as a bouncer, (this guy is HUGE,) at like 9 in the morning and said going to church is just hard and he has a hard time staying awake in the meeting so he just goes home. So I taught him about sacrifice. I taught him about blessings and I told him that it’s a sacrifice to go to church. Of course it’s just EASIER to go to bed. But we need to give our all and give just 3 hours of our WHOLE week to the Lord. I also told him how I am out here for 2 years! Imagine that! Away from my family and friends that I LOVE, for 2 years dedicated to the Lord and bringing the Word of God to as many as I possibly can! As I was telling him these things I just felt the spirit so strongly testifying how important this work really is, and I could tell HE knew too. He was just kind of quiet and not saying too much. I was basically just testifying to him and telling him how I know that he needs to go to church and do HIS part in this world so he can be saved and inherit Gods kingdom. The funny part of this, well this guy like I said is a BIG man! His arm is like, bigger than my head ha ha, but....he came to church yesterday, AND he bore his testimony! Then last night we passed by his house and I just said how great his testimony was and how strong the spirit was in the chapel today, and he said, "yeah it was, I couldn’t not stand up even tho I haven’t been to church in a long time and I thought it would be weird." It was so neat to feel his spirit; he’s like a big Teddy Bear. (But just don’t anger the Teddy Bear cuz this cuddly lookin teddy bear could snap me into like 7 pieces with one quick judo chop! Ha-ha, but yeah, it was incredible!) There were also others that bore testimonies that were amazing too! It was just a GREAT testimony meeting. A girl 15 years old, bore her testimony and this girl is just always happy and smiling. She is so fun to be around. She is just one of those people that are always smiling. Someone said that to her at school once, and she said to them, "Well we are here to be happy!" It’s so true, so be HAPPY!
One last thing that I have started teaching our investigators that I really enjoy. We know that God has SO many blessings for us but he is waiting for US! He cannot bestow his blessings upon us without US first doing OUR part! I know that that is so true! If we will just do our part which is tough at times, but we can get thru it, we will be SO blessed! I wish I could say this in Portuguese; it seems to make more sense to me ha ha. Like "God has so many blessings for us, but he has to WAIT for us." Get it? I dunno that’s kind of how it sounds translated. But I love to teach it in this language cuz it sounds much better. Okay so a quick bit about 2 of our new investigators, they are just awesome! Two of the 5 that came to church, they are not related, but two separate investigators. Maria do Carmo, and Adilson. They are so awesome! We only taught Maria do Carmo once, on Friday, and on Sunday she came to church! It was really awesome. I was so happy! I will give more details later after we have taught her more. :) But Adilson is from Brazil and we have taught him a few times and we are also teaching him English. He has been doing for the most part, all that we ask him to do, so it’s awesome and he is progressing like crazy. On Sunday morning I called him to make sure he was coming to church, and he didn’t answer so I was all bummed but I called one more time like 10 minutes later and he said, "Yeah I’m on my way! I was in the shower when you called the first time!" Ha ha ha! AWESOME!!!
Well to end off the email, I got a new companion this week like I was saying. His name is Elder Bradshaw, also from Utah. He is kind of shy...but he is way cool! He is 6 foot 3 tho so he makes me feel tiny. :( Lame ha ha, but so far we are working really well together, having success, and we are having a really fun time! And it’s only the beginning! :) So I’m really excited for our time to serve together, it’s going great!! :) Have a great week!! I love and miss you all so much! Hey Good news!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!
Love Elder Gray
Since I have been here we haven’t really been able to get any investigators to go to church. Well I just changed a little about the way I go about inviting people to come to church and basically poured out my heart about how important it is to go and if we do, we will be SO blessed! That goes for all of us, members, and non-members everyone! SO, we had 5 investigators in church! I was just so thrilled! Then, better yet, our testimony meeting was just AWESOME! I loved it so much! Not to be boastful, but 3 different people talked about me and something that I had taught them earlier this week and how it has just changed something about them. It was really cool for me to see that I AM making a difference. It really made me feel good!
Remember how I said a few weeks ago, when our branch was having a HUGE problem getting to church at 10:00, that I talked about it and basically told them it’s not good to be late? Well this one guy, Fernando, gets it and now the last 2 weeks he and his family have been at the church on time, so it was awesome! We have this in-active member that we went and visited last week on Sunday. We had a great little lesson with him and I just started asking him "why" he isn’t going to church, "what" is the excuse and things like that. And he was saying how its just hard cuz he gets home from work as a bouncer, (this guy is HUGE,) at like 9 in the morning and said going to church is just hard and he has a hard time staying awake in the meeting so he just goes home. So I taught him about sacrifice. I taught him about blessings and I told him that it’s a sacrifice to go to church. Of course it’s just EASIER to go to bed. But we need to give our all and give just 3 hours of our WHOLE week to the Lord. I also told him how I am out here for 2 years! Imagine that! Away from my family and friends that I LOVE, for 2 years dedicated to the Lord and bringing the Word of God to as many as I possibly can! As I was telling him these things I just felt the spirit so strongly testifying how important this work really is, and I could tell HE knew too. He was just kind of quiet and not saying too much. I was basically just testifying to him and telling him how I know that he needs to go to church and do HIS part in this world so he can be saved and inherit Gods kingdom. The funny part of this, well this guy like I said is a BIG man! His arm is like, bigger than my head ha ha, but....he came to church yesterday, AND he bore his testimony! Then last night we passed by his house and I just said how great his testimony was and how strong the spirit was in the chapel today, and he said, "yeah it was, I couldn’t not stand up even tho I haven’t been to church in a long time and I thought it would be weird." It was so neat to feel his spirit; he’s like a big Teddy Bear. (But just don’t anger the Teddy Bear cuz this cuddly lookin teddy bear could snap me into like 7 pieces with one quick judo chop! Ha-ha, but yeah, it was incredible!) There were also others that bore testimonies that were amazing too! It was just a GREAT testimony meeting. A girl 15 years old, bore her testimony and this girl is just always happy and smiling. She is so fun to be around. She is just one of those people that are always smiling. Someone said that to her at school once, and she said to them, "Well we are here to be happy!" It’s so true, so be HAPPY!
One last thing that I have started teaching our investigators that I really enjoy. We know that God has SO many blessings for us but he is waiting for US! He cannot bestow his blessings upon us without US first doing OUR part! I know that that is so true! If we will just do our part which is tough at times, but we can get thru it, we will be SO blessed! I wish I could say this in Portuguese; it seems to make more sense to me ha ha. Like "God has so many blessings for us, but he has to WAIT for us." Get it? I dunno that’s kind of how it sounds translated. But I love to teach it in this language cuz it sounds much better. Okay so a quick bit about 2 of our new investigators, they are just awesome! Two of the 5 that came to church, they are not related, but two separate investigators. Maria do Carmo, and Adilson. They are so awesome! We only taught Maria do Carmo once, on Friday, and on Sunday she came to church! It was really awesome. I was so happy! I will give more details later after we have taught her more. :) But Adilson is from Brazil and we have taught him a few times and we are also teaching him English. He has been doing for the most part, all that we ask him to do, so it’s awesome and he is progressing like crazy. On Sunday morning I called him to make sure he was coming to church, and he didn’t answer so I was all bummed but I called one more time like 10 minutes later and he said, "Yeah I’m on my way! I was in the shower when you called the first time!" Ha ha ha! AWESOME!!!
Well to end off the email, I got a new companion this week like I was saying. His name is Elder Bradshaw, also from Utah. He is kind of shy...but he is way cool! He is 6 foot 3 tho so he makes me feel tiny. :( Lame ha ha, but so far we are working really well together, having success, and we are having a really fun time! And it’s only the beginning! :) So I’m really excited for our time to serve together, it’s going great!! :) Have a great week!! I love and miss you all so much! Hey Good news!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!
Love Elder Gray
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
