District Conference

We had an interesting week this week. We had District Conference this weekend so it feels like we lost a LOT of time to teach. The District Conference was really good. We had President Torgan speak a couple times. I LOVE hearing him speak. It is truly amazing; he is such a good speaker. I really wish I could record one of his talks and send it to you all! But then again, it wouldn’t do any good unless you speak Portuguese...ha ha!

A couple of my favorite parts were just a couple of simple stories that he shared with all of us on Sunday. One was about a little girl. This little girl was asked, "Why do you pray to our Heavenly Father?" and you know what her answer was? "Because I think God misses me." Ahh! SOOOO TRUE! Then, going with that he told one more story, about another little girl that he saw in the airport RUNNING to her dad, and her dad was kneeling down with his arms stretched out and she jumped into his arms and both having just the biggest SMILES ever! That is what it’s going to be like when we move on and we see Heavenly Father with his arms STREATCHED out ready to give us a big huge hug. It’s so wonderful that if we fall short of who we are, that because of our Savior Jesus Christ we can still run to our Heavenly Father and his arms will be stretched out! I just really LOVED that story. Another story, of which I’m sure most of you have already heard, at least I think so, I have heard it a couple times, is about a little 9 year old boy, and he was asked to give blood for his little sister, he said, "if I give her my blood will she be better?" and the doctor said, “yes she will.” So, willingly he did so. After he had given blood, he asked the doctor, "When will I die?" Is that not the PURE LOVE OF CHRIST!? And of course it happened with a little 9 year old boy, WILLING to give ALL his blood. He was ready to give every drop of his blood and die for his little sister so she could get better. When President Torgan told that story it just hit me, and I got a little choked up, which doesn’t happen too often, but that story I will never forget. Our Savior Jesus Christ DID give ALL his blood for us, for all of us! If YOU don’t feel like going to Church on Sunday, think about that. YOU have the knowledge! Therefore, you KNOW that you need to go to church. Quit being SELFISH!!! If we don’t go to church and re-new our covenants with the Savior, especially when we KNOW that it is right, that makes the death of Jesus Christ in VAIN. To me, that is so sad to think about, because there are many people that know what’s right, and they KNOW they need to go to church but they don’t. How do you think the Savior feels when he sees you rather SLEEP or something rather than go to Church?

Our life here on earth is like a big battle. WE, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, are the Warriors, US! We are the ones at the front of that line! And what are you doing? Are you just chillin up there watching the others fight? Cuz if you are you will DIE. I have never heard of a soldier that stood up there on the front lines and just hung out took some vacation time and didn’t get killed. No way, WE are the warriors. WE need to do our part and fight the battle against worldly things. In these "Last Days" we cannot, CANNOT afford sleepers. We cannot afford to lose our Warriors of the Savior to worldly things. We all know our capacity and what we are capable of. So don’t let your guard down!! GO to church, do your part to be a true Warrior! Think about your future, think about eternity! Think most of all about your family, whether that be your family now or your future family. Keep your head up and your guard up or you are going to get a sword right through your "spiritual" heart. Read, Mosiah 2:41. I LOVE to share that scripture with people. It is my favorite scripture. I just love how CLEAR it is and so SIMPLE to understand! Read it, and then act!

On to a pretty funny story this week. We were knocking doors on Wednesday, when I knock this door that has a sticker on the side that says "God is All Mighty" right away we knew it had to be an Evangelical person. The guy opens the door and I say, "Good Afternoon! I am Elder Gray and this is my companion so and so, and we are Disciples of Jesus Christ" and he says "me too!" I said, “oh yeah?” And he just went OFF on how thru Jesus we are saved and he would keep saying "amen" and "hallelujah!" and stuff like that and then, he put his hand on my shoulder. I was like uhhhhhh dude.....what are you doing. And he was like "Thru Jesus, we are saved! Hallelujah!" And I was like "yeah.....because he died for us and..... bam!” He puts his hand on my neck. I just stopped and I didn’t know what to do! I wanted to be like YO DUDE!! That is not necessary! Hand off! And my comp the whole time I could just see he was snickering and trying not to laugh. So FINALLY we got him to stop and we left him at that and he shut the door. And I was like a deer in the head lights. I couldn’t believe what just happened, so I turned around ready the knock the next door (we’re in an apartment complex) and my comp just starts gigglin like crazy and I’m trying to be mature about the situation and keep my cool and tell him to shut up cuz the guy could be looking out his little peep hole and it would be mean if he saw us laughing and what not, so I’m trying to just keep my cool, and as soon as I knock the next door my companion looses it and can’t stop laughing and the lady opens the door and my comps got his back turned and you can just see his back like bouncing and I start making the next contact and the lady looks at my comp like what the?? And I look at him and then I just lost it. It took like 3 minutes to just say a little sentence. It was so funny! But the lady was really nice and fun about it cuz some people here would be like "I don’t have time for GAMES!!" (Yes, that has happened to me) But it turned out good and because of us being all jolly she was happy and nice so we got the contact! Ha, ha it was way funny! Pretty good memory that one. :)

So, back to normal stuff, we had a lesson with our investigator Deborah, she is super nice and loves to hear about what we have to say, but she has SO many doubts and she is SO strong in her church that its super hard to teach her. We keep trying and trying, but she just interprets things we try to teach in other ways and stuff. So it’s pretty hard. But it’s great because it helps me have things to study and learn to respond. But it’s hard, because she is so awesome and I KNOW that she would be such a great faithful member if we could just get her to come around.

On the other hand, we had an awesome lesson with our fairly new investigator Regina. She had been taught by the Elders about a year ago but for some reason we aren’t sure of stopped. I have the feeling it was one of those, the Elders that taught got transferred and over time they just lost contact or something, but that is why we have area books!! So we have taught her a few times and it has always gone great. So, last night we were teaching her about the 3rd lesson. About the 5 steps, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Endure till the end. As I was talking about Baptism, I opened up to 2 Nephi 31 and I left this chapter with her to read until our next appointment with her, and I just talked a little about the importance of baptism and ALL the many blessings that come from it. Now, we hadn’t planned AT ALL on marking her or even extending the commitment, but I did. I extended the invite to her to PRAY and READ about baptism. It was awesome! Afterwards my companion said, "Man, I didn’t think we were going to try to mark her tonight." And I said "Neither did I." That is where you KNOW that it was the spirit guiding me! It was really cool, and our hopes are high for her and her family. We will be going back on Tuesday night to see how it went and hopefully we can mark a date with her. Which would be amazing, because get this, she has NOT even been to church yet. But President Torgan has said that if we pray about it, and we get the answer that the person is ready, we can baptize them even if they have not been to church yet. So we will see how things go. If things go well, by the time she is baptized, she will only have gone to church once or twice. That would just be awesome!! So our hopes and prayers are with her right now.

Anyway, that is about it for this week. I want to thank you all for everything you do for me, for your little comments, e-mails, anything. I appreciate it. I want to say how much I love my Savior. I am nowhere close to perfect, I know it, and I know that I can admit it, But I also KNOW that thru the Savior he can and WILL help me, IF I do my part. I know that I have to do my part and ACT. I’m so thankful for the Gospel in my life. I’m so grateful for the Savior and that he died for my sins and my imperfections. I am doing my best so that his death was not in vain. And I invite you all to do the same. Mosiah 2:41. I LOVE YOU!! Have a great Week and don’t forget to Pray! God Misses You.

Love, Elder Gray