A couple of New Investigators

Okay so this week was another good week! Our numbers weren’t quite as good as last week, but they were good considering we had zone conference. They are way better than they were in the past from the other Elders here, so I’m happy about our work right now. We have TONZ of lessons that are planned fall thru, but its still going great!

One of our golden investigators that was SO ready to be baptized had to leave to go to Brazil. So that is a big bummer for sure. But its okay, I think she will for sure be baptized, just a matter of time. I hope things go well for her cuz she deserves it, she is awesome and very nice.

Last week, we found a new investigator named Deborah, she is just awesome! She lives basically everything already that we teach her and she likes everything that we teach. The only problem is that she believes that the Sabbath Day is on Saturday cuz that’s how it’s explained in the Bible. So it’s a bit of a stepping stone. We just had a lesson with her on Friday, and we were teaching her, and she just said out of nowhere, "hey look, I’m not going to change my religion, but I really like to hear about your religion and stuff too." So that kind of ripped my heart in two. I was sad, but we will continue to teach her and we will continue to pray for her and we will see what happens. Only God knows. But I know that I will do ALL I can to be sure what is supposed to happen, happens.

We have this other investigator named Didi, she is nice, but she is very, very stubborn. She just also likes to just hear our views on things, but we had a really cool lesson with her the other day that was a good experience for me. We were talking to her and she would just kind of shake her head and laugh sometimes and I was just getting frustrated cuz I was like ummm, that is not cool. I am BEARING my testimony to her and she laughs cuz she is like not agreeing with what I say, so I said, "wait, stop, let me finish." And I just bore a big long testimony of what I KNOW, and that I KNOW these things to be true. She just sat there and thought, quiet, so then we finished with a prayer right when I was done so we could leave her with her thoughts.

This week, guess what we got!!! We got a MICROWAVE!! Whoop! Whoop!! Yeah, I haven’t had a microwave in a long time, like over 6 to 8 months, so I love it!

On Saturday, we had a GREAT day! We found, get this, SEVEN new investigators!! In ONE day! It was so awesome! We were knocking at about noon, and I was all discouraged cuz mornings knocking here are so hard cuz everyone is ALWAYS asleep! But we just continued to keep going, and we knock this door and this kid about 15 opens it and lets us in to talk with him and his brothers! So bam, we got 4 new investigators! And it was an awesome lesson! My favorite part was when I got to start talking about the Book of Mormon, one of them, that is 22 yrs old, was like how can I get a copy of one of those? (as I had one in my hands) and I just reached out and put the book in front of him, and he got this look like what?? And I just said here, it’s yours! And he was like Wow...thank you! So it was great, I really hope they read and pray about what we taught them. We have our next lesson on Saturday same time, so we will see!

My new companion is funny, we are getting along just fine. I guess he thinks I’m pretty funny cuz he is Mr.Giggles, so we are having a pretty good time. Oh! Also on Saturday, we traveled out to Alanquer, it’s an area kind of far from us but its part of our area so we take the bus. But we have a member that lives out there named Brenda and she is awesome! She is 15 and she has the biggest desire to serve a mission, so she is always willing to walk with us and help us out, so we went out there and did some work with her and found this lady, man she was so sweet. She was hanging up her clothes outside on her line as we walked by, and SHE talked first to us. Not us to HER! It was crazy, that usually just doesn’t happen! And we started talking to her about what we do and why we are here and how we are Disciples of Jesus Christ, and once we said that she started talking about the Savior and how she says that she has visions about him and how he is crying everyday because of the iniquity in the world. It hit me, wow, She is so right. You know that the Savior cries because of the horrible things we do in this world. Think about it, we are all his brothers and sisters! Imagine if your brothers and sisters were at war and killing and all that worldly stuff. It truly is sad, and as she was talking about all this she began crying too and it got me choked up too. It was a great spiritual experience. I gave her a Book of Mormon and told her we will pass by again soon. She was so sweet. I have 100 percent confidence that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can and WILL bless her life so much. After that great experience, well we kind of got lost, not literally but we had walked into this foresty place that was just really awesome and beautiful so we just kept following the trail to see where it lead, well it went nowhere and we ended up at the top of this hill by a house. So we jumped the wall and snuck around trying to find our way out and some guy saw us and said, "Hey!! Where did you guys come from!! What are you doing here on my property?!" And sweet little Brenda was like ummm, we are lost and trying to find the way out.” He said, “oh, okay,” ha ha! It was funny how that worked out, and it made me think, how often do we get upset at someone or something before knowing WHY or WHAT? Think about that next time you see someone "Lost".

It was a great week for us last week. We’re praying for one just as great this week. I miss you all. Keep your head in the right place. GO TO CHURCH. Feel the spirit there testifying of its truthfulness. I love you all so much. If I love the people here, that I barely know, and want the best for them and their salvation....Imagine what its like for those of you even CLOSER to me. I LOVE YOU!!! Have a great week and SMILE!!
MUCH LOVE, Elder Gray