New Companion!

First of all I just want to say thank you all so much for all you do for me! Really it means the world to me! And I love hearing from you. I’m sorry I can’t write individual emails to everyone every week. I wish I could, but we only get one hour and that’s just not long enough.

Anyways everything is going pretty good. My comp and I are still sick, so that’s no fun at all! I feel worthless! I need to get better so I can get back to work. This week was pretty exciting week though; it’s transfer week and the big news is…I’m not being transferred, BUT…my companion is! He is going to Oeris to be Zone Leader! Pretty awesome! He is really excited, mostly because he will have a dryer! How lucky! Ah, I would KILL for a DRYER! (Don’t take for granted such little tiny things!) Anyways, so I will be getting a new companion tomorrow. His name is Elder Hildabrandt and I hear he is a good kid and a good hard worker. So I’m stoked! It should be a great experience for me.

The baptism we had set for the 14th was changed to the 22nd because of her having to work. But she and her son are still going to be baptized. It’s so awesome! I am very, very lucky to have this opportunity to have a baptism so soon in my mission. The mission here is not like missions in other places....like Nicaragua where they are baptizing something like 400 people a month! No, no, here the average is about one baptism for a missionary per year. The people are just too stubborn. But they are awesome and I love our investigators and members.

This week we got to hear from Elder David A. Bednar. THREE times! It was incredible. He is so amazing! I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to know all he knows! All three times we heard from him he just did open question and answer time, the first time with the members and investigators, the second time with just us missionaries (AWESOME!!!) and the third time with young single adults. They were all really great and we all learned so much. He is so smart. I could really feel the spirit in the room with us while he was there. I loved it!!

Everything is going just great. I love hearing from everyone! It’s so awesome. I have already run out of time, but I really hope you all have an amazing week and continue to work hard and study and pray like none other! I know that prayer is an unbelievable opportunity to become close with our Heavenly Father. I have come to find the truthfulness of that more and more each day when I am trying to say new things that I can’t in Portuguese, but He is there and loves me and I know that! And he is helping me every day with this language!

I love the gospel! We are so, so lucky to live in this day and age to know of the truthfulness of these things. I love you all so much and miss you. Have a wonderful week! Don’t forget to pray, pray, pray!

Elder Gray

My MTC Christmas

Christmas was pretty awesome! Thank you for the package, I loved it! We had Elder David A. Bednar on Christmas Eve and Elder Holland on Christmas day. It was so awesome! When Elder Bednar walked in we were singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and when we saw him everyone started singing louder and the spirit filled the room like nothing I've ever felt before. I got the chills for what felt like 2 minutes! I just stood there singing full of joy and happiness and just really felt the spirit. After his amazing talk, we all got to shake his hand! How cool is that?! When I shook his hand I was just like...WOW, that's one powerful dude! Seriously, it was so awesome! Elder Holland was really good too, and I felt very good and I'd say we were really lucky to have them both come. I liked the Christmas card you sent, it was funny! I'm glad you had a good Christmas. I thought about you all a lot but I got thru it, and thank you for so much support. It really helped me to keep going.

Today we are going to the temple to clean. It's closed for cleaning till January 2nd so this will be our last time to be in the temple before we leave. We are supposed to get our flight plans today, so I will send you that info soon, and then I'll get to call home from the airport and hopefully get to chat with a few of you!

I'm glad Christmas was good and in 2 christmases I'll be back there with ya again. I miss you, and I love you!

Elder Gray