First of all I hope you all had a great Easter weekend and I hope you all got a lot out of conference and enjoyed it like I did! I really enjoyed what we were able to watch, but we actually only watched 2 sessions because of the transmission difficulties. But the mission is going to hand out DVDs with some sessions on it. I’m not sure how many or which ones but I’m stoked to get it. I also hope that it is in English. It is pretty cool being able to watch it in a different language, but its a lot harder to focus and pay attention and get what I normally would out of it because it’s hard to understand it all in Portuguese. It’s a cool experience, but I hope I can watch it in English to understand it all the way I should. :) I hope you all don’t take it for granted how easy it is for you guys to see it there. It is much more difficult here, and I think how I only have to listen to or see conference just one more time here, but they are here every single time and they don’t even get to see ALL the sessions. It’s sad really. But hopefully when the country grows in the Gospel more, they will have better transmissions and satellite access.
So this week we had our interviews with President Torgan, and as usual they were really good. It was pretty awesome because lately I have been thinking and praying about how to figure out how I can be a better missionary and how we can have more success here with our investigators and things...well the training that Pres. Torgan gave us that day totally helped and answered my questions, prayers, and my doubts! It was for sure way cool! I am really grateful for the Spirit in my life. I feel so lucky to have the Spirit with me all the time to guide me. My personal interview went really well. Pres always helps me want to be better every day. There are always things that we can do better. And he helps me figure those things out and fix them. It’s always a special opportunity to hear from President Torgan and hear his talks and trainings.
This week we found a new family that was pretty awesome! The dads name is Fabio, and he has 4 kids. Two of them sat in and listened to our lesson, the others are really young. But this family was really nice and we had a really good lesson and it went really well. The only problem is that we don’t get to go back till this Friday, so I really just hope that when we do go back it will go really well!
We also have those 2 other investigators, Robert and Kate. They are Brazilian and they are way cool. The kid is the son of the member that has been married since he was about 17 ha ha. But they seem to be progressing so much I love it! They are such nice people, and they literally live in like a shack. Their house is NO bigger than our SHED. It’s just crazy how small their house is. It’s sad, but it’s amazing that they are still happy. And they will be even MORE happy if they keep going and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am hoping for the best for them. They just moved here and are trying to make things work out. And I know that our Heavenly Father is helping and them and will of course continue to help. I just hope they realize that fact. They are very nice people and our lessons with them are always spiritual and very good. We just had a lesson with them on Saturday and it was just awesome! I loved it. We talked about Baptism with them too. But they need time, or so they think ha ha, but we will just keep going with them and hope that they pray and read and gain a testimony! :)
So remember that crazy nasty stuff we ate last week? Well we almost had to AGAIN this week! But, luckily we got to SELF SERVE ourselves and it was just really casual so we just took everything AROUND the feet. Ugghhh Grody. Everything else was okay tho. ;) Ha ha!
It has been a good week. We are coming up on transfers ALREADY I can’t even believe it! It’s pretty crazy how fast time goes by when you are with a companion that you like. It almost goes TOO fast. But we love it and we hope to see some baptisms here soon! Things are going good here, I hope all is well back home. I hope you are all healthy and safe! And be smart! I Love you all!
Love Elder Gray
Showing posts with label President Torgan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Torgan. Show all posts
Monday, April 5, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
We are Making a Difference!
We had a pretty good week! I was actually pretty impressed with our numbers because we lost a FULL day because of Zone Conference which usually brings our weekly numbers down a bit. But we still had OVER 20 lessons this week! That is our weekly goal to get at least 20 lessons, which was NOT happening at all in this area before I got here so it feels pretty good and I’m just loving it! Zone Conference was really good, as usual. It’s always great to hear and be inspired by President Torgan. Even though, at times things seem to be a little weird that he does, but I try to just keep in mind that he IS our President and he has the keys for this Mission so I just need to keep that in mind and follow and do what he asks.
Anyway, the Conference was really good; I have always enjoyed Zone Conferences. They are always a good time for a bit of uplifting advice and ways to better ourselves out here. Its pretty crazy, me and others have been out here for a year, some over a year, some almost 2 years, and we are still learning new things every day, all the time! Man, you would think that the learning would slow down a bit on HOW to do this work! But it’s the Lords work and the Lord works in mysterious ways so we just got to keep going, growing, learning and LOVE it the whole way!
One thing that we heard at Zone Conf, which made me OPEN my eyes wide in a way, was when President Torgan told us how many Baptisms we had in the month of February, THEN....he told us how many baptisms the Porto mission had in February. First, the Portugal, Porto Mission in the month of February had 6 baptisms. WE....Portugal, Lisbon Mission, had in February, 47 baptisms. How AWESOME is that! By the way, that is MORE than one per dupla. (Per companionship.) Crazy awesome! So we are kickin butt and takin names! (And using lots of water.) :) Ha ha ha! It’s pretty awesome! President talked a lot on those numbers and how Portugal is all the same. Porto, Lisbon, it’s all the same. Same peeps, same culture and all that, but we had 47. They had 6. What does that tell us? Is it because the people here are nicer? No.....actually it is commonly known that the people in Porto are generally more open and nice....HA! He was telling us how we had 47 baptisms because of US, because of the missionaries. US!! The work that WE do. It was really cool to hear that!
Now, about my “Ensign story" I started last week. Sadly there isn’t too much to say about that one anymore. It’s actually kind of a long sad story. But he is already dropped. We most likely will not be talking to him again. He has a lot of problems. He turns out to be more like a "can’t work because of being unstable" rather than "kind of retired." He told us that he is a "kind of retired doctor" but now we have come to find it’s more complicated. He has big issues mentally and lots of things. I won’t go way into it, it’s not really worth it, because there were 2 things he said, “I will be honest, I won’t read. I hate reading, I can’t and I won’t do it,” so that was kind of bad but then I was telling him it can be just ONE verse a day and I opened up and read a scripture and said, "See, that’s how fast!" Ha-ha so then he said, “oh....yeah, maybe then he said, "ummm there is something else...well I should not tell you.....but uh, I will, I smoke joints." And I just look at my comp like uhhhhhh great......this dude is like over 50 years old! Man it’s so sad! His life is so, so, so messed up. So yeah, we were WAY confused about why on earth he came into the church asking for a Book in the first place if he hates reading, yeah....weird. But that is about half of the story. Not worth wasting time over, sadly...but that’s life right there.
The good news lately, is just the fact that people are showing up ON TIME to church!! Ahh, it makes me SOO happy! Even our branch President has been on time the last 2 weeks in a row, which is way good! The last Elders that served here could tell you they don’t even know if he or many other people have been on time EVER! Ha ha, but it looks like to me someone just needed to OPEN their mouth!! So I’m SO, SO glad that I did! I am seeing a difference and that makes me so happy. Something small, like being on time is pretty important, seems pretty small but yet I’m so happy to see that I have made even just a little bit of a difference with my time here. I just hope that I can continue to do so and see and work more and more miracles!!
The not so great news of the week is that it was pretty hard to teach all our investigators because of the Conference. We didn’t even get to teach 3 of our main ones, which bothers me, but we are determined to MAKE UP for the lost lessons this week! Our investigators are all progressing but they all just need that burning to grow a little more so they can be baptized! I have high hopes. So hopefully this next week will be better and we will have lessons with all of them. And maybe even mark someone! I sure hope so! :)
On Saturday, we went with a member to deliver some food to a couple of families that are struggling with money right now, one of which being Brenda’s family. (She is 15, and has a little brother 10). She is the girl that is ALWAYS is willing to help us! They are an awesome, awesome family. Their mom is single and trying to provide for the two kids and things aren’t going all that well so we took over a whole bunch of basic food to them, without an appointment, and when we showed up, I went up first to the door alone to make sure someone was home, and I get there and I knock the door and Brenda says, "Quem é?" "Who is it?" And I say, "O Elder" and she says, "What!?!?!? I don’t believe it!" Ha ha, then she opens the door and sees me and is like what the…!? OH!! By the way they live kind of far away so we would NOT be there at night time ever, so she says, "What on earth?? Are you alone????" And I say, "Yes I’m alone and I ran all the way here!! I got in a fight with my companion!!" Ha ha! She says, uhhh....and, well I’m not too good at keeping straight faces really, so she says, "Ah you liar!" Ha, ha, it was way funny. But then we brought all the food up and went in to the house with it and the mom walks in and it was just so cool. I could tell that they, the mom especially was SO, SO grateful for the food we had brought. She said, "Oh my goodness, kids we have food!" That kind of hit me hard. I would never have guessed that they didn’t really have any food because they are such humble people and so happy all the time no matter what.
So this, everyone is my lesson for this week. :) Don’t take the little tiny things that you have for granted! This poor single mother had to sell her car so she could provide for her family, so, if you think your life is tough....Stop Complaining!!
I want you all to know that I KNOW that the Church is true! It’s such an amazing blessing in our lives! I gave a talk on Sunday and in the end I was talking a bit about families and how unbelievably AWESOME my family is (trying not to brag too much) and I just realized, that even if I don’t know much about the Church, I know that I will be with my family forever. And that is enough for me to be out here on the other side of the world preaching that fact. If that is the only knowledge I have, it would be enough. I always testify of families because I am SO eternally grateful for the fact that I will live with and love my family for ever! Not to mention my very OWN future family, I’m already grateful for the knowledge that the family I will have, will be mine FOREVER, and we will ALL live in a state of never ending HAPPINESS!! Isn’t that what we all want, happiness? Well just imagine eternity for a second.....Is living the way YOU want here on earth worth living in misery forever? If not, read, pray, and go to church! If you want to live in HAPPINESS then get your butt up and DO SOMETHING! I LOVE YOU ALL and I care about every single one of you that is reading this. I miss you all, but there is work to be done!! The field is here, now, and ready to harvest! I Love You!
Elder Robby Gray!
Anyway, the Conference was really good; I have always enjoyed Zone Conferences. They are always a good time for a bit of uplifting advice and ways to better ourselves out here. Its pretty crazy, me and others have been out here for a year, some over a year, some almost 2 years, and we are still learning new things every day, all the time! Man, you would think that the learning would slow down a bit on HOW to do this work! But it’s the Lords work and the Lord works in mysterious ways so we just got to keep going, growing, learning and LOVE it the whole way!
One thing that we heard at Zone Conf, which made me OPEN my eyes wide in a way, was when President Torgan told us how many Baptisms we had in the month of February, THEN....he told us how many baptisms the Porto mission had in February. First, the Portugal, Porto Mission in the month of February had 6 baptisms. WE....Portugal, Lisbon Mission, had in February, 47 baptisms. How AWESOME is that! By the way, that is MORE than one per dupla. (Per companionship.) Crazy awesome! So we are kickin butt and takin names! (And using lots of water.) :) Ha ha ha! It’s pretty awesome! President talked a lot on those numbers and how Portugal is all the same. Porto, Lisbon, it’s all the same. Same peeps, same culture and all that, but we had 47. They had 6. What does that tell us? Is it because the people here are nicer? No.....actually it is commonly known that the people in Porto are generally more open and nice....HA! He was telling us how we had 47 baptisms because of US, because of the missionaries. US!! The work that WE do. It was really cool to hear that!
Now, about my “Ensign story" I started last week. Sadly there isn’t too much to say about that one anymore. It’s actually kind of a long sad story. But he is already dropped. We most likely will not be talking to him again. He has a lot of problems. He turns out to be more like a "can’t work because of being unstable" rather than "kind of retired." He told us that he is a "kind of retired doctor" but now we have come to find it’s more complicated. He has big issues mentally and lots of things. I won’t go way into it, it’s not really worth it, because there were 2 things he said, “I will be honest, I won’t read. I hate reading, I can’t and I won’t do it,” so that was kind of bad but then I was telling him it can be just ONE verse a day and I opened up and read a scripture and said, "See, that’s how fast!" Ha-ha so then he said, “oh....yeah, maybe then he said, "ummm there is something else...well I should not tell you.....but uh, I will, I smoke joints." And I just look at my comp like uhhhhhh great......this dude is like over 50 years old! Man it’s so sad! His life is so, so, so messed up. So yeah, we were WAY confused about why on earth he came into the church asking for a Book in the first place if he hates reading, yeah....weird. But that is about half of the story. Not worth wasting time over, sadly...but that’s life right there.
The good news lately, is just the fact that people are showing up ON TIME to church!! Ahh, it makes me SOO happy! Even our branch President has been on time the last 2 weeks in a row, which is way good! The last Elders that served here could tell you they don’t even know if he or many other people have been on time EVER! Ha ha, but it looks like to me someone just needed to OPEN their mouth!! So I’m SO, SO glad that I did! I am seeing a difference and that makes me so happy. Something small, like being on time is pretty important, seems pretty small but yet I’m so happy to see that I have made even just a little bit of a difference with my time here. I just hope that I can continue to do so and see and work more and more miracles!!
The not so great news of the week is that it was pretty hard to teach all our investigators because of the Conference. We didn’t even get to teach 3 of our main ones, which bothers me, but we are determined to MAKE UP for the lost lessons this week! Our investigators are all progressing but they all just need that burning to grow a little more so they can be baptized! I have high hopes. So hopefully this next week will be better and we will have lessons with all of them. And maybe even mark someone! I sure hope so! :)
On Saturday, we went with a member to deliver some food to a couple of families that are struggling with money right now, one of which being Brenda’s family. (She is 15, and has a little brother 10). She is the girl that is ALWAYS is willing to help us! They are an awesome, awesome family. Their mom is single and trying to provide for the two kids and things aren’t going all that well so we took over a whole bunch of basic food to them, without an appointment, and when we showed up, I went up first to the door alone to make sure someone was home, and I get there and I knock the door and Brenda says, "Quem é?" "Who is it?" And I say, "O Elder" and she says, "What!?!?!? I don’t believe it!" Ha ha, then she opens the door and sees me and is like what the…!? OH!! By the way they live kind of far away so we would NOT be there at night time ever, so she says, "What on earth?? Are you alone????" And I say, "Yes I’m alone and I ran all the way here!! I got in a fight with my companion!!" Ha ha! She says, uhhh....and, well I’m not too good at keeping straight faces really, so she says, "Ah you liar!" Ha, ha, it was way funny. But then we brought all the food up and went in to the house with it and the mom walks in and it was just so cool. I could tell that they, the mom especially was SO, SO grateful for the food we had brought. She said, "Oh my goodness, kids we have food!" That kind of hit me hard. I would never have guessed that they didn’t really have any food because they are such humble people and so happy all the time no matter what.
So this, everyone is my lesson for this week. :) Don’t take the little tiny things that you have for granted! This poor single mother had to sell her car so she could provide for her family, so, if you think your life is tough....Stop Complaining!!
I want you all to know that I KNOW that the Church is true! It’s such an amazing blessing in our lives! I gave a talk on Sunday and in the end I was talking a bit about families and how unbelievably AWESOME my family is (trying not to brag too much) and I just realized, that even if I don’t know much about the Church, I know that I will be with my family forever. And that is enough for me to be out here on the other side of the world preaching that fact. If that is the only knowledge I have, it would be enough. I always testify of families because I am SO eternally grateful for the fact that I will live with and love my family for ever! Not to mention my very OWN future family, I’m already grateful for the knowledge that the family I will have, will be mine FOREVER, and we will ALL live in a state of never ending HAPPINESS!! Isn’t that what we all want, happiness? Well just imagine eternity for a second.....Is living the way YOU want here on earth worth living in misery forever? If not, read, pray, and go to church! If you want to live in HAPPINESS then get your butt up and DO SOMETHING! I LOVE YOU ALL and I care about every single one of you that is reading this. I miss you all, but there is work to be done!! The field is here, now, and ready to harvest! I Love You!
Elder Robby Gray!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Ups and Downs This Week
This week was good, but not quite as good as I wished. We had lots of ups and even more downs. But its okay, its just life and that’s how things go on the mission. You just have to hit it in the face and try to keep going!! That’s really hard tho. Saturday was a really hard day for me for some reason, anything that could have gone bad did. Anything that could have fallen thru did. Anything that could have been just the opposite of what we want was. It was just a hard, hard day. It felt like a week. The story of the day that just started it all off bad tho, was when we had a lesson marked for noon. And we were excited for it because it was with the family of 3 brothers, and their cousin, all from Africa. We had taught them a couple times and we had Saturday marked to go back. So we did, and we get there and go inside and right as we sat down with one of the brothers, Jonatas, his dad walked in, and I didn’t think too much of it so I was nice and I greeted him and asked him his name and all that. But before I could even explain why we were there and what we do, he just went off on me and told me how ANYTHING we have to say is NOT worth it. They will not accept us in their house any longer. I tried and tried many times to explain what we have. The importance of what we HAVE! But he would just shake his head and say nope, nope, it’s not welcome here, and he just went on and on about how they have their religion and they have the Bible and that is enough. He wouldn’t even really let me talk. I got SO annoyed, but more than anything sad. It was just devastating that those 4 boys will not hear what we have anymore because of him. They loved everything we taught too, and we loved them. It just really broke my heart as we walked out that door on Saturday morning.
Saturday night, we passed by a few of our investigators homes and told them, "We will be here tomorrow morning to take you to church at 9:40," and they say, "okay we will be ready." Well, Sunday came, 9:45 came....nothing, from all of them. They all stood us up. Ahhhh it was so annoying, SO frustrating! I hate how flaky people are in this country. It just happens SO much. They are so lazy, lazy!! DONT BE LAZY!! Especially if you have made a promise to do something, like go to church. If you are baptized, you have MADE the promise that you will continue to GO, SO GO!!!! Don’t be lazy!! Procrastination is a killer!!
I heard a story once. Every year, Satan holds a meeting with ALL his angels. And they talk about what they can do, and how they can better their work so they can bring more and more souls to hell. And every year there is an award given to who gets the most souls taken. Well, every year Satan wins! And the angels are saying, "How does he do it?" So finally after Satan had just won AGAIN in the year 2009, an angel got up the guts to ask him, "Satan? How do you do it? How do you win over SO many souls?" And Satan said, "Well it’s easy, I tell everyone to read their scriptures, go to church, and pray." And the angel had a crazy look on his face like what?? No, that can’t be, then Satan continued, "I tell them to read their scriptures, go to church, and pray.......Tomorrow." Procrastination!! Don’t let Satan get a hold of you! If you are NOT going to church, GO. Because that just means that Satan is winning! Like I said last week (I think it was) we are in a battle! And we cannot win with our warriors procrastinating. Procrastination is a BIG and EASY gateway to Hell. DON’T let it GET you!
Anyway on a bit of a better note, last night we did find a good new investigator that is very cool and very nice. His name is Adilson and he is from Brazil. We invited him to go to church on Sunday next week and he said that he would so I really hope that he will! (Unlike all our other investigators) So we will see how that goes and I will be sure to keep you updated. :) This week we also had our interviews with President Torgan. Man, I tell you, that man is a marvelous speaker! It is such a pleasure every single transfer, twice a transfer to hear him speak to us. He does such a great job and we love it. He really is such a great President! My interview was really good....he knows how to hit me in the heart too. He just makes me want to be a better missionary for ME. Not for him, not for my family, my friends, my girlfriend, anyone!! Just ME! And it’s really cool how he put it all into perspective for me too. He compared it to sports. He said, "Elder Gray, I can see that you seem to be an athlete, you love sports and you DON’T like to lose, am I right?" I say, "Yes that’s exactly right," And he says, "If I recall correctly you like to play Tennis right?" I say, "Yes" and he says, "And will you not do ANYTHING you can do to win? Will you not GIVE YOUR ALL to win that match?" And I smile and say, "Yes, that is true," Then he says, "Well PUT THAT INTO THE WORK!!!" Ha-ha it was just awesome! I loved it! It just made me laugh and I was like wow, how TRUE is that! If we want to WIN this battle against Satan that he just keeps on winning EVERY YEAR....we need to put our ALL into the work! :)
Now a bit of a funny story, I have officially doorbell ditched here in Portugal. Ha ha ha! I know, I know its bad but I got scared so I RAN! Ha-ha, but its for a good reason, well kind of, but in the end it wasn’t. But we had knocked this building in the morning at about 11 or so, and we didn’t get hardly ANYONE to open the door except about 3 or 4 doors out of like 24. So we decided to go back later that day, well, one that just so happened to answer was a mean old man, and he was like NO! So we were trying to remember where it was and we knew that it was on the 3rd floor, but when we got to the 3rd floor, just out of habit I hit the doorbell thing, and I wasn’t really thinking, then I realized we were on the 3rd floor, then I couldn’t remember WHICH door it was, so I was like "oh crap! This is the 3rd floor!" and I just hit the stairs! Ha ha and of course my comp comes running behind me giggling cuz I’m just kind of random and do random things often....ha ha, and we get to the bottom and I’m just like "oh man, I don’t wanna go outside, the person is probably lookin out the window or something ha ha! And well sure enough....SHE was! Yeah that’s right I look up when we start walking away and it was some OLD Lady!!! OOOOppss!! Man I felt like an idiot! Ha ha ha, but it was way funny and it got a big rise out of my companion so it was fun. Afterwards I kind of felt bad tho cuz it was just the wrong door! But it was funny!
Anyway, that is about it for the week. Not a whole lot went down, but we had a decent week. I hope you all have a good week and have fun! But don’t procrastinate the day of your repentance!!! :) 2 Nephi 31:12-16 Also, transfer calls are today. ALREADY!!! I feel like I just got here. So it’s possible I will get a new companion tomorrow, but I don’t know. I feel like we are probably staying another together, we’ll see! Keep your heads up and SMILE! Têm Bom Ânimo!
I LOVE YOU!
Love Elder Gray
Saturday night, we passed by a few of our investigators homes and told them, "We will be here tomorrow morning to take you to church at 9:40," and they say, "okay we will be ready." Well, Sunday came, 9:45 came....nothing, from all of them. They all stood us up. Ahhhh it was so annoying, SO frustrating! I hate how flaky people are in this country. It just happens SO much. They are so lazy, lazy!! DONT BE LAZY!! Especially if you have made a promise to do something, like go to church. If you are baptized, you have MADE the promise that you will continue to GO, SO GO!!!! Don’t be lazy!! Procrastination is a killer!!
I heard a story once. Every year, Satan holds a meeting with ALL his angels. And they talk about what they can do, and how they can better their work so they can bring more and more souls to hell. And every year there is an award given to who gets the most souls taken. Well, every year Satan wins! And the angels are saying, "How does he do it?" So finally after Satan had just won AGAIN in the year 2009, an angel got up the guts to ask him, "Satan? How do you do it? How do you win over SO many souls?" And Satan said, "Well it’s easy, I tell everyone to read their scriptures, go to church, and pray." And the angel had a crazy look on his face like what?? No, that can’t be, then Satan continued, "I tell them to read their scriptures, go to church, and pray.......Tomorrow." Procrastination!! Don’t let Satan get a hold of you! If you are NOT going to church, GO. Because that just means that Satan is winning! Like I said last week (I think it was) we are in a battle! And we cannot win with our warriors procrastinating. Procrastination is a BIG and EASY gateway to Hell. DON’T let it GET you!
Anyway on a bit of a better note, last night we did find a good new investigator that is very cool and very nice. His name is Adilson and he is from Brazil. We invited him to go to church on Sunday next week and he said that he would so I really hope that he will! (Unlike all our other investigators) So we will see how that goes and I will be sure to keep you updated. :) This week we also had our interviews with President Torgan. Man, I tell you, that man is a marvelous speaker! It is such a pleasure every single transfer, twice a transfer to hear him speak to us. He does such a great job and we love it. He really is such a great President! My interview was really good....he knows how to hit me in the heart too. He just makes me want to be a better missionary for ME. Not for him, not for my family, my friends, my girlfriend, anyone!! Just ME! And it’s really cool how he put it all into perspective for me too. He compared it to sports. He said, "Elder Gray, I can see that you seem to be an athlete, you love sports and you DON’T like to lose, am I right?" I say, "Yes that’s exactly right," And he says, "If I recall correctly you like to play Tennis right?" I say, "Yes" and he says, "And will you not do ANYTHING you can do to win? Will you not GIVE YOUR ALL to win that match?" And I smile and say, "Yes, that is true," Then he says, "Well PUT THAT INTO THE WORK!!!" Ha-ha it was just awesome! I loved it! It just made me laugh and I was like wow, how TRUE is that! If we want to WIN this battle against Satan that he just keeps on winning EVERY YEAR....we need to put our ALL into the work! :)
Now a bit of a funny story, I have officially doorbell ditched here in Portugal. Ha ha ha! I know, I know its bad but I got scared so I RAN! Ha-ha, but its for a good reason, well kind of, but in the end it wasn’t. But we had knocked this building in the morning at about 11 or so, and we didn’t get hardly ANYONE to open the door except about 3 or 4 doors out of like 24. So we decided to go back later that day, well, one that just so happened to answer was a mean old man, and he was like NO! So we were trying to remember where it was and we knew that it was on the 3rd floor, but when we got to the 3rd floor, just out of habit I hit the doorbell thing, and I wasn’t really thinking, then I realized we were on the 3rd floor, then I couldn’t remember WHICH door it was, so I was like "oh crap! This is the 3rd floor!" and I just hit the stairs! Ha ha and of course my comp comes running behind me giggling cuz I’m just kind of random and do random things often....ha ha, and we get to the bottom and I’m just like "oh man, I don’t wanna go outside, the person is probably lookin out the window or something ha ha! And well sure enough....SHE was! Yeah that’s right I look up when we start walking away and it was some OLD Lady!!! OOOOppss!! Man I felt like an idiot! Ha ha ha, but it was way funny and it got a big rise out of my companion so it was fun. Afterwards I kind of felt bad tho cuz it was just the wrong door! But it was funny!
Anyway, that is about it for the week. Not a whole lot went down, but we had a decent week. I hope you all have a good week and have fun! But don’t procrastinate the day of your repentance!!! :) 2 Nephi 31:12-16 Also, transfer calls are today. ALREADY!!! I feel like I just got here. So it’s possible I will get a new companion tomorrow, but I don’t know. I feel like we are probably staying another together, we’ll see! Keep your heads up and SMILE! Têm Bom Ânimo!
I LOVE YOU!
Love Elder Gray
Monday, November 23, 2009
On My GAME!
To those of you who are Ping Pongers......I hope you are practicing, cuz, I’m not, but no one here can beat me! (Just had to brag a little.) Ha ha! I have only played now 3 times on my mission but I tell ya, the skills don’t just go away like that! Jason, Jeff, Dad, you three especially better be practicing, cuz the lord has blessed me with extra skills! I just don’t lose! Okay, not true, I do sometimes, but only once or twice in many games, ha ha! We played ping pong today for p-day with the other Elders close to us, (our Zone leaders,) and I only lost once. It was so FUN! A few days ago, on Fri. we were in Cascais for a baptism of a little girl that Elder Davis taught for a while. We got there early and there were some people around and I saw a ping pong table and I asked, “who can play?” Elder Davis was like, oh man, Fabio is really good you’ve got to play him! So I did, spanked him! I ended up playing lots of games that night and I only lost twice. So I hope ya´ll are practicing, Cuz I’m not! But I still got it! Ha, ha Okay enough of that. I don’t mean to be too big headed, I’m just keeping the Gray family tradition of good ole Ping Pong champs going on over here on the other side of the world! Ha! I love that game! Okay so this week was pretty hectic. We actually didn’t get a whole lot done. We had about 3 lessons fall thru which bothered me cuz that isn’t REALLY common in this area so I was just like what the heck man!? And we went to Cascais which is far away. Far, far, away, but it was a great trip, and we had a lot of fun, and Elder Davis got to baptize a girl he had taught. It was his first time getting in the water! Pretty crazy! But it’s Europe. I can’t say much I only have 1 in the water experience too. But our week went by pretty fast. There were just a lot of random things that happened. We had a Christmas type thing program where President Torgan came and we as the choir, and he sang some Christmas songs. It was really good. He also sang a solo a few times. He is quite good. He has a VERY powerful voice. I wish I would have had my camera so I could have recorded it, but maybe I will be able to another day. We had a pretty good lesson with a less active member that went pretty good. She is just having some problems right now and we are trying to just be there for her, so I hope things will get better soon for her. We were in Church yesterday and we were about to start Priesthood meeting when Bishop comes up to us and says, “hey this little girl needs a blessing, she is sick.” So we got some oil, I did the anointing of the oil and Elder Davis gave the blessing. He did a really good job. Before the blessing, we asked her if she believed in Jesus Christ and she said, “Yes.” Then we said, “Do you believe that he can heal you?” She says, “Yes I do.” So then we gave the blessing. After church Elder Davis came up to me and says Elder Gray…..the little girls mom came up to and said that she is fine. She felt 100 percent better. WOW! Talk about power of the priesthood eh!? It was awesome! When he told me I was like oh my goodness really?? And I walk around the corner where I see a bunch of kids, and she is playing and laughing with the rest of ‘em! I knew she was sick before too, I could see it. She didn’t look good and she wasn’t talking and she was teary eyed. It was really sad, but it was awesome to see her heal so quickly!! Talk about awesome and a quick answer to a prayer! I would say that was the highlight of my week. Just seeing the joy in that little girl of feeling better so quickly just made my day. I know for a fact that the church is true! I know that through our Savior we can get through anything if we just have the FAITH! Faith, faith, faith!!! I Love You! Have a great week!Elder Robby Gray
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
This week was very good! We had some ups and downs as usual, always seems to go that way. We had this guy Antonio marked for baptism, but he decided not to be baptized. He said he just isn't feeling anything. Ugghhh. Party Foul. He leaves today for Angola, so hopefully something good will come of him in the future. BUT, we marked 3 kids of a member. They are awesome!! I'm so stoked! They love church! I love teaching them too cuz they are all so atentive and what not. I love it! So they are marked for baptism for Sept 5th. I cant wait to see them be baptized! We still have lots of work to do with them tho. So we will hope for the best that everything goes smoothly.
Last p-day, we went to a Castle here in Setúbal and it was awesome! So beautiful! The view was just amazing, right above the ocean! It really was an amazing view. The castle itself isn't very cool, its just the view that sells it!
This week we got 6 new investigators! Woop Woop! It was tight! We found a family of 5. They had been taught before, but got in a little tussle about money with Bishop so they left. But we are hoping now that they will find the truth, not want money.
So this last Sunday was amazing. We had a really good church meeting that went really well, a good show. Then after church, we had lunch with the 2nd counselor Douglas. He is from Brazil and he is so awesome! He is probably my favorite in the ward. He is way way cool and me and him actually somehow found a lot in common. It was way wierd in a way cuz he is like 26 or so, so he is like, OLD. haha!! And I'm not, and it will stay that way.... ;) We just talked for like 2 hours about just stuff and it was way fun. We talked a bunch about music and missions and life and growing up, for him, not me cuz I don't wanna grow up....haha, but it was just really cool to get to know him better and just have fun with him.
Later, we had a lesson with some new investigators we have been teaching that we found thru a member, Vagner. That went really well but was really fast cuz we had to go to Choir. Haha, yup I am in a choir! What? Ya, no, weird. I can't sing. I knew that before, but now I really know it. Notes going up and down and tryin to follow it and sing in portugues, its like an impossible double task, haha! But its cool and way fun because of the people we have here. So I just try to have a good time. I'm kinda learning how to sing but learning how to read notes doesn't change the fact of someone just isn't a singer, haha, oh well, who cares.
On monday, we met with Rafael, he LOVES the missionaries. He charishes havin us over, so I told him if he only smokes 5 cigarettes in one day, we will come over again, and he said, "OK I will try, I will try!!" It was pretty funny. I feel so bad for that horrible habit. But I know that with the right desire and will of heart, and trust in the Lord, its quittable.
Yesterday we had interviews. They went really, really well. President, I think really likes me, he told me some stuff in my interview that just really opened my eyes, and after saying some of the stuff he did, he was like Elder, I have not said any of that to ANYONE else today. I was all wide eyed and like whoa.....Cool. It was really really cool. Our new President is so awesome! He has an incredible desire to do SO MUCH GOOD! I cant wait to see what the future holds!
Well I'm sadly down to 2 minutes. I just want to close saying how much I LOVE you all. I am so greatful for you in my life. Thank you for all you have done for me. I miss you and LOVE you so much!!! Have a GREAT week!
Elder Gray
Last p-day, we went to a Castle here in Setúbal and it was awesome! So beautiful! The view was just amazing, right above the ocean! It really was an amazing view. The castle itself isn't very cool, its just the view that sells it!
This week we got 6 new investigators! Woop Woop! It was tight! We found a family of 5. They had been taught before, but got in a little tussle about money with Bishop so they left. But we are hoping now that they will find the truth, not want money.
So this last Sunday was amazing. We had a really good church meeting that went really well, a good show. Then after church, we had lunch with the 2nd counselor Douglas. He is from Brazil and he is so awesome! He is probably my favorite in the ward. He is way way cool and me and him actually somehow found a lot in common. It was way wierd in a way cuz he is like 26 or so, so he is like, OLD. haha!! And I'm not, and it will stay that way.... ;) We just talked for like 2 hours about just stuff and it was way fun. We talked a bunch about music and missions and life and growing up, for him, not me cuz I don't wanna grow up....haha, but it was just really cool to get to know him better and just have fun with him.
Later, we had a lesson with some new investigators we have been teaching that we found thru a member, Vagner. That went really well but was really fast cuz we had to go to Choir. Haha, yup I am in a choir! What? Ya, no, weird. I can't sing. I knew that before, but now I really know it. Notes going up and down and tryin to follow it and sing in portugues, its like an impossible double task, haha! But its cool and way fun because of the people we have here. So I just try to have a good time. I'm kinda learning how to sing but learning how to read notes doesn't change the fact of someone just isn't a singer, haha, oh well, who cares.
On monday, we met with Rafael, he LOVES the missionaries. He charishes havin us over, so I told him if he only smokes 5 cigarettes in one day, we will come over again, and he said, "OK I will try, I will try!!" It was pretty funny. I feel so bad for that horrible habit. But I know that with the right desire and will of heart, and trust in the Lord, its quittable.
Yesterday we had interviews. They went really, really well. President, I think really likes me, he told me some stuff in my interview that just really opened my eyes, and after saying some of the stuff he did, he was like Elder, I have not said any of that to ANYONE else today. I was all wide eyed and like whoa.....Cool. It was really really cool. Our new President is so awesome! He has an incredible desire to do SO MUCH GOOD! I cant wait to see what the future holds!
Well I'm sadly down to 2 minutes. I just want to close saying how much I LOVE you all. I am so greatful for you in my life. Thank you for all you have done for me. I miss you and LOVE you so much!!! Have a GREAT week!
Elder Gray
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
