Hard times, spiritual times, fun times, sad times

Hi everyone,

This week has for sure had its ups and downs. Some very hard times, some very spiritual times, some very fun times, some very random times and some very sad times.

Some of you may not know, but my wonderful Grandpa passed away Monday. This time was very hard for me, that being I am on my mission and can’t be there at home with everyone. But I know that without a doubt, if Grandpa could tell me, he would tell me that I am exactly where I should be right now and there is nothing better that I could be doing.

During this hard time, I have REALLY thought about the Plan of Salvation and what it REALLY means. Before, I knew what it was, I knew that God has this wonderful plan for us, but I have never really had anything to "try" that faith of mine until now. When I found out that G-pa was sick, ever since then I have taught the lesson of the Plan of Salvation really from my Heart. Not just because I knew the facts, rather now I teach it directly from my heart. And I also know now that Grandpa is going to be with me always in my lessons, and if I am having any tough times, he will help me through them. I know that without a single doubt in my mind.

I really know that we are so, so blessed to have this knowledge of the Gospel and the knowledge of eternal families. In my lessons to people I have always expressed my deep love for my family and how important I know families are, and the fact that we KNOW, we KNOW, that we can live with these families for ever. It’s SO marvelous! It’s such a huge blessing to have that knowledge!! How lucky are we?

Whenever I meet people that say they don’t believe in God or in anything at all and they think this life is all there is, I’m like, “Wow!” I just wish so, so badly that they would accept the wonderful message we have for them! If they only knew! But that is why I’m here; to try to bring those wonderful sons and daughters of God to this knowledge.

So many times here in Portugal, we get rejected. The people here are not the most open people, that is for sure. But every time we get rejected, a piece of me feels like it breaks, because they JUST had the chance to come to know the truth, but they rejected it! It’s really hard for me to make contacts or knock on doors because of how VERY much we get rejected, but it has been prophesied that "there are more elect people here in Portugal than the missionaries can handle." And I try very hard with faith to remember that as I am out on the street talking to people and someone finally says, "Hey ya, why not, sure, pass by sometime," I just get this BIG smile on my face. And something inside of me grows. What a blessing it is to be able to spread this Gospel to all the people in the world!

This is truly an incredible work. Missionary work is VERY hard, but so amazing. It is much harder than I expected. Coming into it, I was like, “Oh bring it on; it can’t be THAT hard.” HA! Wrong. It is hard. I can’t deny that, but a wise cat once said, "I never said it would be easy, I just said it would be WORTH it."

We have this investigator named Antonio who was marked for baptism, but then we found out he was leaving to go back to Angola. But the day before he was to leave, we found out he is now leaving on the 25th, three days after his baptismal date! WOW! God is a God of miracles! That was really awesome for us. So we are trying to get him prepared. We know that his flight plans were delayed because Heavenly Father wants him to get baptized. He has some things that he needs to leave behind, so we are working with him, but we are hoping he can do it and get baptized. He is in our prayers.

Yesterday we had Zone Conference. It was really, really good. There are a couple of my good friends ending their missions with this next transfer. They are good friends to me, so it was kind of hard, but they shared AWESOME testimonies, so it was really good. I really enjoyed it and the spirit there was super strong.

Well, I’d better wrap this up. I hope you are all doing awesome. I thank you all so much for all you do for me. I love you all SO, SO much. Don’t forget to pray. Heavenly Father wants to hear from EVERYONE. (How would you like it if you gave your child all he could ever ask for and he didn’t ever talk to you? So, so, so many blessings everyday and you don’t hear anything back? Think about that next time you forget to pray.

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! ALL OF YOU!!

Love,

Elder Robby Gray