ANOTHER BAPTISM!

This week was really good, it went by super fast! That seems to happen on occasion. I have a feeling this week will go even faster! I have pretty much planned on the fact that I will be transfered this transfer, which is next Tuesday. So I have one more week in this area. And I'm just going to try to love every single minute of it! Most of the people here know that I am probably leaving soon so our week is way, way full of stuff to do. We don't hardly have anywhere to squeeze in any thing else, so I'm excited for this week!

We have our baptism on Saturday! I dont think I have ever been so excited for a baptism in my mission. I am way stoked for this one! I think it's cuz I am the one that started teaching her, I have taught her everything, so its way cool. There are still some things we have to go over and figure out and make sure that she is FOR sure 100 percent ready. But I personally think she is very ready. We are going to have a little lesson on Tuesday with her and I am just going to have to be 100 percent straight forward with her and make sure she knows the concequences of going BACK to the "old" life. When I was getting ready for my mission, my Bishop told me something that I have never forgotten. Very simple but so true, that is to look FORWARD. To continue FORWARD and to not look back on the things of the past, only learn from them and realize what it is you will NOT go back to. So I pretty much told her that too and it just went really well. It is truly amazing to teach the Gospel. But its even more amazing to teach the Gospel with the Spirit. Without the Spirit this work would be SO much harder! I am so grateful for the Spirit that is constantly with us out here as we teach. It's especially amazing when you FEEL the Spirit and you RECOGNIZE it, that is spectacular! I feel that she is for sure ready and will be baptized, but I dont want to just baptize her for the number. I want to baptize her because she is READY and she now knows the truth and she has the true desire to be a faithful member. I see at times people that missionaries baptize just because it was easy and BAM! They are inactive. I don't want that. I want the people that I see get baptized, that are because of ME, stay. I can control the fact that I know a person is truly changed and READY for baptism. I think at times, some missionaries forget the real importance of baptism and just do it to have that NUMBER for President. It is hard not to tho, he is always breathing down our backs so to say, but its good too cuz it makes us work hard and find those ELECT!!

This last week, for P-day, we went to the Castle in Palmela that is kind of close to our house. Before the fact I just figured it would be kind of cool. But it was awesome! It rained on us like crazy! It seriously downpoured on us so so hard I couldn't believe it! In like 3 seconds there were rivers of water just going everywhere! But I think that made part of the experience. So it was really cool and lots of fun. Serving in Portugal is for sure cool when it comes to all the awesome Castles! I love em!!

Random question....Why do SO many people NOT brush their teeth at night? I have only had ONE companion that I have noticed brushes his teeth at night. I swear all my comps only brush in the morning. I dont get it! I think its gross. Eeewwww, I cant sleep without brushing...haha! Random, but it was just a thought....haha! Well I hope you all have a great week!

LOVE AND MISS YOU!
Love Elder Gray

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

I Learned a Respect Lesson This Week

We marked one more person for baptism!! Woop, Woop!! He is 11 yrs old and we are also going to mark his mom soon too!! His dad WAS a member...Yeah...WAS. He got excommunicated, I don’t know the story, but he has been coming back to church lately so I would like to get him back into the right way of things. I think he feels like he doesn’t belong. Which in a way I can understand, but everyone can be forgiven, the Lords arms are always stretched out to all. Hopefully we can do something about it. We will have to have an interview for him with the Stake President I think it is, but so far things are good.

The kid that is getting baptized next week is named André. He is a cool kid and he gets along really well with all the people in the ward. Dad, you mentioned how I am seeming to go ABOVE the quota of missionaries in this mission, well yes I would agree also, and I AM loving it! I do love this area because of the great success we are having! It makes me so happy and feel good cuz President Torgan loves it! So he loves me haha! If getting lots of baptisms is sucking up, well I am NOT ashamed haha!! :)

We are hoping to mark 2 other people for baptism. A couple and they are really incredible, I love them! I love teaching them! They are just great people! They are so nice and they love us! So that’s always good news. When we teach them, they are very, very attentive so it makes me feel like every SECOND is so worth it! They just soak it all in! It’s quite nice, but the problem is, they live together, and are not married. Ohhhh boy,that’s never a good sign, so they either have to get married, or promise and commit to the Bishop that they will not sleep together until they do get married. Hmmmm....So I don’t know what’s going to go down. But I see GREAT potential in them! And they are giving us dinner tomorrow! Woop, Woop! So, we are praying for their progression.

A couple of not so awesome things, first of all, I burned myself TWO times this week! What the flip right? Once on my thumb that went pretty much all the way up my thumb, and another on my finger! That’s just how GHETTO our stuff is. We have one and a half hot pads, so if you are not extremely careful you get burned! Party foul eh?! The one on my thumb hurt way bad but its calming down a bit now tho, haha. That was just the party foul of the week. But get this, so yesterday we are sitting in Priesthood meeting, and there are these two guys that are sitting behind us, and they TALK, TALK, TALK the whole flipping time! So after about 5 or so minutes, it was kind of funny cuz right at the same time me and my comp turned around and stared at them, like uh, duh dudes shut up...then he was like “Oh my bad guys sorry,” so we turn back around and try to listen again, and they start talking! Again! So after a few minutes I’m just like this is ridiculous! AND not to mention the guy that was giving the lesson is a NEW guy, well pretty new, and he is shy, so I’m just like you have GOT to be joking! So I turn around and I’m like guys....stop please! Again he is like “Oh, ok sorry, did they stop? NO!! So I just kind of ignored it cuz I didn’t want to be that mean Elder person...haha, but it just made me realize, and I want to apologize to anyone who I have ever disrespected when talking or giving a lesson or anything of the sort. It just really, really bothered me and I know I have probably been that kind of disrespectful at some time, so I’m sorry.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week, and remember to think about others. I would have to say that is my message for the week. BE RESPECTFUL!! Especially you men to your wives. I saw a guy yell at his wife the other day, and it SERIOUSLY bothered me! I didn’t feel it was my place to say something, but it bothered me a lot. So, you all, think, before you speak and get out of hand. I know I have learned a lot on my mission and one thing is respect. If everyone would just respect others this crazy horrid world would be a much better place. So we need to be the bigger ones and start that.

I am really grateful for the things that we are taught in the Gospel, and I’m grateful for the opportunity I have to be here on my mission and learn these things first hand. Thank you all for your patience with me at any time. I’m sorry to those of you I may have wronged. Most importantly, lets remember who WE ARE, and WHO and WHAT we stand for each and everyday. I am extremely grateful for my family and my friends. I couldn’t live without them! I love you all very much. Have a Great Week!! And SMILE!! Love you.
LOVE Elder Gray

Fastest Week of my Mission

I am pretty sure I just had the FASTEST week of my mission. I can’t believe its Wednesday already. I think I said that last week too, but this week is even more so! I can’t believe it! But its just cuz stuff is going so well right now! We had those 3 baptisms. They were incredible. Everything went just PERFECT! And the brothers are all just doing great! We went and saw them yesterday and it was fantastic! The middle age one that at first was kind of the one falling behind, well now he is the one just eating up everything we give him! I love it! At the end of the lesson we say, “so is there anything we can do for you guys?” And he says “YES,” so we are like ok, “what’s up?”...and he says, “come back!” We say, “yep of course...when?” He says, “Sempre!!” Haha, it was awesome, I loved it! Then we went to a dinner appt. that went really well. We have had a dinner appt. every day so far!!

We had lunch on Sunday, then dinner on Monday, dinner again on Tuesday, we have dinner again tonight, tomorrow we have appointments for lunch AND dinner! It’s just crazy! I think we have one on Friday too but I’m not sure exactly. Its crazy, it’s almost like I’m in the states!
Oh yeah, and at the baptism I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, and it was really good, went really well. Okay kind of, it was hard, but it went alright. Oh, AND we have another baptism this week! On Saturday again, this kid named Wilson. He is progressing a bit slower then we’d like but at least he is ready and going for it. We for sure have to keep going and helping him. It’s really awesome though.

This ward is just fantastic! I could stay here the rest of my mission!! I guarantee there is no better area than this one here in the Lisbon mission. I love it here. I will be getting a new companion here next week. I hope it will be someone way cool! And someone CLEAN for goodness sakes!

So on Sunday and Monday, we met with this family, Familia Santos. They are the COOLEST family! They are way normal and just fun! AND when we ate with them.....They had ICE! Whoa!!! ICE, what? No way! OH yes I ate it up! I had probably like 25 pieces of ice, haha!! It was amazing. Another one of those “Little Things” that you just don’t realize how good it is till it’s GONZO for 2 years! Like Free Refills! Goodness don’t you guys take that for granted! It will be nice to have that back someday....haha!

So church this week was really great. Spiritual as normal, and it was fast and testimony meeting and there were a lot of talks about the plan of salvation because of the boy that died. It was tough, but very spiritual. That is what I got out of it. I’m still having a hard time understanding this Portuguese stuff. What is Portuguese rated on the hardness to learn scale? Its GOTTA be pretty far up there, right under learning a new alphabet or something. J Jenn, Scotty, tell little Gracee happy big number 2 for me haha!! I expect PICS soon. (Again) :) Thank you all for everything! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
LOVE ELDER GRAY!

Hard times, spiritual times, fun times, sad times

Hi everyone,

This week has for sure had its ups and downs. Some very hard times, some very spiritual times, some very fun times, some very random times and some very sad times.

Some of you may not know, but my wonderful Grandpa passed away Monday. This time was very hard for me, that being I am on my mission and can’t be there at home with everyone. But I know that without a doubt, if Grandpa could tell me, he would tell me that I am exactly where I should be right now and there is nothing better that I could be doing.

During this hard time, I have REALLY thought about the Plan of Salvation and what it REALLY means. Before, I knew what it was, I knew that God has this wonderful plan for us, but I have never really had anything to "try" that faith of mine until now. When I found out that G-pa was sick, ever since then I have taught the lesson of the Plan of Salvation really from my Heart. Not just because I knew the facts, rather now I teach it directly from my heart. And I also know now that Grandpa is going to be with me always in my lessons, and if I am having any tough times, he will help me through them. I know that without a single doubt in my mind.

I really know that we are so, so blessed to have this knowledge of the Gospel and the knowledge of eternal families. In my lessons to people I have always expressed my deep love for my family and how important I know families are, and the fact that we KNOW, we KNOW, that we can live with these families for ever. It’s SO marvelous! It’s such a huge blessing to have that knowledge!! How lucky are we?

Whenever I meet people that say they don’t believe in God or in anything at all and they think this life is all there is, I’m like, “Wow!” I just wish so, so badly that they would accept the wonderful message we have for them! If they only knew! But that is why I’m here; to try to bring those wonderful sons and daughters of God to this knowledge.

So many times here in Portugal, we get rejected. The people here are not the most open people, that is for sure. But every time we get rejected, a piece of me feels like it breaks, because they JUST had the chance to come to know the truth, but they rejected it! It’s really hard for me to make contacts or knock on doors because of how VERY much we get rejected, but it has been prophesied that "there are more elect people here in Portugal than the missionaries can handle." And I try very hard with faith to remember that as I am out on the street talking to people and someone finally says, "Hey ya, why not, sure, pass by sometime," I just get this BIG smile on my face. And something inside of me grows. What a blessing it is to be able to spread this Gospel to all the people in the world!

This is truly an incredible work. Missionary work is VERY hard, but so amazing. It is much harder than I expected. Coming into it, I was like, “Oh bring it on; it can’t be THAT hard.” HA! Wrong. It is hard. I can’t deny that, but a wise cat once said, "I never said it would be easy, I just said it would be WORTH it."

We have this investigator named Antonio who was marked for baptism, but then we found out he was leaving to go back to Angola. But the day before he was to leave, we found out he is now leaving on the 25th, three days after his baptismal date! WOW! God is a God of miracles! That was really awesome for us. So we are trying to get him prepared. We know that his flight plans were delayed because Heavenly Father wants him to get baptized. He has some things that he needs to leave behind, so we are working with him, but we are hoping he can do it and get baptized. He is in our prayers.

Yesterday we had Zone Conference. It was really, really good. There are a couple of my good friends ending their missions with this next transfer. They are good friends to me, so it was kind of hard, but they shared AWESOME testimonies, so it was really good. I really enjoyed it and the spirit there was super strong.

Well, I’d better wrap this up. I hope you are all doing awesome. I thank you all so much for all you do for me. I love you all SO, SO much. Don’t forget to pray. Heavenly Father wants to hear from EVERYONE. (How would you like it if you gave your child all he could ever ask for and he didn’t ever talk to you? So, so, so many blessings everyday and you don’t hear anything back? Think about that next time you forget to pray.

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! ALL OF YOU!!

Love,

Elder Robby Gray

Baptism!!

This week was great! As you all know, last week I was saying that we had a baptism scheduled for Sunday. Well, good news, we did have it, but at first they were just going to have our Bishop baptize them. But then on Friday night they had their interviews and they decided to have another elder, one of the zone leaders…and ME do the baptisms!!! I could not even believe it! So, yep I got to baptize Yuri Agues on Sunday the 22^nd of February. It was awesome! I couldn’t believe I was getting this opportunity so soon in my mission. There are many elders that have been out over a year and haven’t been in the water. So I feel very blessed and very lucky. It went well and the two people we baptized are doing great. We went over there yesterday and they are like new people! That just shows how amazing this gospel is and how important it is in our lives!

I want to apologize to all of you who have sent me emails and I haven’t responded directly to you. I got so, so, so many emails this week I could not believe it! I got 29 new emails! You love me too much! Ha ha. But that took me quite some time to read all of them. Thank you all so much! I LOVE getting the mail from all of you and hearing all of your stories!

This week we went to this Japanese restaurant. It had a big conveyor belt thing and they just put food like crazy on it and there were a few different kinds of sushi yuuummmmy! And just a ton of very, very good stuff! So we got to eat as much as we possibly could. And the very best part? It was only $6.50!! That is cheap! For as much sushi and amazing Japanese food as you can possibly eat! Oh, it was awesome! I loved it. Elder Hildebrandt and I are going to go there after our weekly planning session on Friday for lunch. I love it!

This week we did some door knocking and like usual some more street contacting. The door knocking is so annoying though unless we can get inside because they just say ‘quem em’ through the box thing and we don’t even get a chance to say anything. It’s so nice when we can follow someone in the door.

My new comp is really cool. We get along great. I’m still learning new things everyday. Well, I hope all is well back at home. Continue to work hard. I love you all so much!

Elder Gray

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

A baptismal challenge! How cool is that?

Well, it’s already been another week! Sometimes I feel like the time just goes pretty slow, but then I look back and I just think wow I feel like I was just sitting at this computer yesterday! The time warp on the mission is pretty crazy! Days feel like weeks, but weeks feel like days!

This week was pretty good. There were for sure a lot of ups and downs throughout the week though. The beginning of the week was really tough actually because all of our appointments and people we had scheduled to teach bailed on us! It was so frustrating! Then to make things worse, our favorite family, the Ages Familia, they got their car stolen. And when that happens here, well you are pretty much out of luck. They found it two days later completely ripped apart and totaled. I felt so bad! They are such an awesome family they did not deserve that at all! I just hate it! I wish there was something I could do to help. But there is just nothing we can do. It’s really sad.

But...on a good note, even though they have gone through this hard time, last night we marked Ineida (the wife) and their son, Yuri, for baptism!!! How cool is that? We are so happy for them. We are really hoping they keep working hard and pray with all their hearts. That and reading the Book of Mormon is so vitally important! They are scheduled for baptism on Feb 14th. So I really hope they continue to progress so we can get them baptized.

It is still really cold here. I want it to warm up soon! My fingers are numb right now. And we are inside. I find it so weird that they don’t believe in heaters. It’s crazy! My companion says you just get used to it, but we’ll have to see about that!

Have a wonderful week and do not ever forget to read and pray! Every Single Day! I have come to find so much how very important that is in our daily lives. Praying is such an unbelievable gift that we get to have to be able to communicate with our Father in Heaven. Do NOT take this for granted! Sad to say before my mission I didn’t pray nearly as much as I should have. But I have repented for that! And the blessings come much more as you pray day and night! I know this is so, so important!

I love this gospel! It’s such a comfort to me knowing that I will live with my family in eternal happiness! IF we endure to the end. So work hard! ... As will I!! I love you all. Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Gray