Happy Valentines Day!

It has been so cold this week!! Goodness! I would kill for a warm house right now!! (No heat in the houses here). But in the mixture of all the cold, and all the LOVE in the air, we had a pretty good week, a bit slower than the past couple of awesome weeks, but good. We still had a great number of lessons this week! So I’m happy about that.

I don’t remember if I told you how many people we had in church last week at 10 o clock when church was supposed to start, but it was 5, and this week was 7. That is so, so, so bad! We have a pretty decent branch too is the thing, but they are ALL always late! So, yesterday after church we had a meeting, and at the end when the branch President asked if anyone had any more to say, I said, "I do...and I got up and I basically said how it’s REALLY sad how no one can seem to get to church on time." I asked them "who knows how many people we had at 10 o clock last week here in the chapel?" and they were like uhhhh uhhhh dunno....And I was like exactly! No one here knows because no one here was HERE! And when I said we had 5 people I saw some eyes widen...and I was like yup 5 people. I just bore my testimony how it’s very important that we get to church ON TIME so we can start on time. Its good we have about 30 or so people in church by the END of the meeting. But I don’t even know the last time our Branch President even partook of the sacrament. I didn’t say that, but he knows. And so does everyone else. So I just told them how if they want their branch to grow, which we know they do, they need to get to church ON TIME! I really, really hope to see a difference next week. It went good, I think they all just needed a little push to realize the true importance of church!!

Happy Valentines Day (yesterday) ! I hope you all had a great one! I ended up being the DJ at a Valentines Dance Party thing, ha ha! It was fun for sure!! Kind of homey feeling when they wanted me to play a slow song, I tried to avoid those ones, ha!!

This week we went out to Alenquer. That place is pretty awesome. We were with our member helper Brenda, and we were knocking doors when this little old lady opened the door...First of all, I learned a lesson, DON’T judge even just on little things. Out of ALL the old people I have contacted on my mission, I think she was the first to actually let us talk. Right when she opened the door I was thinking "ah man she is just going to say I’m catholic and shut the door," well she didn’t. She turned out to be one of the nicest little sweetest old people I have ever met. It was really sad, cuz we started talking to her, and she started to say how the world is so bad these days, she is afraid to even leave her house, then worse, she started talking about how she lost her husband a while ago and just broke down and started crying! Ahhhh, I felt my heart just rip in two! I wanted so badly to just give her a hug, it was sad. I could tell in that moment that her husband was really important to her, so I asked her about him, and she said, "Yes, yes he was." Then I asked her, "Do you believe you will see him again?" and she says, "Well I hope so," Then I just bore my testimony to her. It was such a great feeling too. I felt so happy to know what I know, and share that with this stranger I just barely met and still don’t even know her name! It was awesome and very humbling for me. By the end, we had her looking happy and laughing with us. I just went out of my way as much as I could to change the day of this little old lady. I am confident we made her day. And most importantly we left her happy with the thoughts of my testimony letting her know that I KNOW that we will live together with our loved ones again after this life. It was a great, humbling little experience for me.

Remember those 4 new investigators we found? Well we taught 2 of them on Saturday and invited them to come to church, and it was all good and went well and the older guy named Ageu, that is about 22 asked a whole bunch of questions about the book of Mormon and how it came to be and stuff and we had a great lesson. Then again I asked him if he will come to church and he said he would, but then yesterday, at first he didn’t show and I was upset about that, but then about half way thru our meeting I saw him outside walking kind of slow looking at the building like, "is this it?" so I ran outside and got him and brought him in. It was awesome! So I was happy to have him come, he said that next week he will bring his brothers. :) They are really great people! :)

Anyway, that’s about it for this week! I hope everything is going great for you all!! And just a reminder, make sure that IF you write me/email me, make sure you are addressing it to elderrobbygray@gmail.com . I LOVE YOU ALL, have a great week!!! Most importantly remember who you are and take advantage of the GREAT knowledge of this Gospel! If you are lacking a little something, like getting to church every singe week, or being on time, FIX IT NOW! I LOVE YOU!

Love Elder Gray