Ponte de Piedad

Sooo..this week has been interesting in a few ways. I have some pretty funky things going on with myself. I have some crazy weird thing going on with my hand. Almost like a super dry problem and it has caused this big crack in my ring finger, so typing with it hurts, I don’t get it. I have been using lotion and stuff too, I don’t know. I need to go to the pharmacy place but I’m just a slacker when it comes to that stuff. I have never liked going to a doctor or anything like that, and it costs money, its just weird cuz its humid here! It should be the opposite, but it is SO, SO HOT! My goodness, I sweat like a pig! It is GROSS! Thank goodness you all don’t have to see me this way. I feel nasty. Ewww, wet nasty grossness!! But it’s still better than the cold. I sleep with a fan hitting right on me every night, its just so hot! And of course there is no a/c here. Duh!

So this mail is a bit late I know, its cuz we went to Ponte de Piedad, in Lagos. SO, SO COOL! We went with the Casals, the married couple missionaries, AND...the best part, so we go down these super long stairs and there are these boats there where tourists go and stuff and you can go thru caves and what not, but we were like oh man lame! we can’t do that. Missionaries can’t go on boats. But...The Casals were like are you guys allowed to do this? I was like no, but, maybe we can call president and ask. So I called president Terry and he said yes! What?! I could not believe it, so we did it! We went on a boat ride and got to check out these crazy cool caves and stuff! It was so, so much fun. I loved it! I was just wishing I had a more fun comp that would say more than just like ya...oh ya, uh huh..oh. Like come on!! Uh Boring! But I had Elder Nelson there with me, so it was ok. Then after that we went to Sagres, it is the furthest point west in the southern end of Portugal. Pretty cool! Hot, and we walked a lot! Then we played basketball which I was not planning cuz I only had my flip flops, but we met up with other elders and played b- ball, so I played in my flip flops, totally worth it. It was a blast! But now...Ouch. My feet are killing me. I split open my right foot. So it really is no fun.

Okay so now some weekly stuff. We met this girl, her name is Tania. Her mom is a member, but very inactive. She hasn’t been to church in like 15 yrs. She was the one that got in contact with a member dude that lives close by, so we were like oh cool she wants to talk! Ok! SO, we go over there, turns out her daughter, Tania, is having a problem with visions. Her dad died 10 years ago, but she said that he is coming to her and she can see and talk to him, and he is telling her she needs to kill herself so she can be with him. Wow. When I heard that I was just wide eyed like what? are you serious?! She was crying and could barely even talk. I couldn’t believe it. She said she just really wants him gone and it’s really scaring her. Yeah, I’m sure! She is 15 by the way. So I was just dumbfounded like what on earth do I say?!?! Right now, think about that, what would you say? Well it was hard for me for a minute. But then I said, “first we can give you a blessing if you so desire,” then I thought for a minute, gave her a Book of Mormon, and said, “look, read 3 Nephi 11, then read Moroni 10.” Then I explained the very importance of prayer afterwards. So we left that with her then told her we can talk more at church. She didn’t come that week, she was sick, but then the next week, this week, she came. And the first thing I asked her was about her reading and if she was praying and she said with a big smile, yes I am. I then got this big smile and I was like good!! Keep going! Then I asked about her seeing her dad thing, and she said it has not happened since she started reading! AH, how cool is that! I was so, so happy! And it was just kind of cool cuz I was the one that thought of what to say cuz my comp just stood there with air in his head so it seems, he didn’t say a word the whole time. Uhhggg! But, ONE more week and I get a new comp! :) But ya, so that was really crazy. I hope she comes this week too and she continues to progress.

Yesterday we had an awesome lesson with a less active member named Irmao Pinto. Stud! but very, very mixed up in stuff, and old. BUT, he was really confused why we cant drink wine. Jesus did, so he thinks it’s totally fine. Another pretty tough question, because of the fact Jesus did, he just holds to that. SO, I just went off, it was really cool. Honestly, I don’t really remember exactly what I said. I really feel that the spirit just came in and took over 100 percent! Whoa! he was paying such good attention too I was loving it. And the Portuguese wasn’t feeling so hard either, so I KNOW without a doubt I had the spirit with me guiding me the whole way. Missionaries are so blessed to be able to have the spirit! BUT Satan is STILL here and working super duper hard on us. I know that. So we have to be constantly on our knees asking for strength.

It really is rewarding when you are doing what is right! The blessings come in like a heavy river flow. I really am so, so grateful for the gospel, for the gift of the Holy Ghost. And how amazing is this work, I love teaching. I love it. I always look forward to all the lessons we have. They are always such a blessing for us, because lessons don’t happen too often at all...but it’s really amazing when we have one. I love this work. And I know without a doubt it will continue to go forward! Thank you all for all you do for me. I love the letters! I would like more to the apartment tho, you are ALL slackers on that one. Except mommy and daddy. Especially not dad :) I love em. And mommy likes to try to make me fat. :/ ha-ha, but thank you so much! (Jason...Are you still alive??)I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Have a great week! Love Elder Gray

Sand World P-Day

Ola minhas amigos!! Tas fixe?? So...This week was pretty good, a bit slower than last week, but we for sure had a few really good lessons and what not. We have this couple named Jefferson and Jucileia, they are from Brazil. Brazilians are awesome!! (Josh you are lucky to be going to Brazil!) Anyway, they are way fun to talk to every time we go over there. Lots of times we talk about English, they really want to learn English so every time we go over we teach a little bit of English then give a lesson. It’s really awesome. They are really fun. I just hope they will read and pray. They do pray a bit but not quite the same way, they are Evangelical, so I think their prayers are repeated prayers. And I haven’t quite figured out how to go about that yet. But I will soon. I think it would be hard to be told you are praying wrong and need to change it, so we are just giving it time till the right moment arises. But so far so good, we asked them to read Alma 32 yesterday, so I really hope they take it serious and find the time to read. The people really like to make up excuses for not being able to read cuz they have NO time. Granted, yes I know time is hard sometimes to find, BUT I also know that everyone has at least a couple minutes for our Father in Heaven so I’m never a big fan when people say oh I’m just too busy. Ahhh, NO, your not. It’s just not a big enough priority, but we will just keep working at it.

The other day we were going thru the cell phone and found a number of some dude named Koky and we were like who is this? So we just called him and he said we could come over so we did and he ended up being just a total stud! So I’m way stoked to teach him more. We have a big activity thing on Saturday and he said he would come so I really hope he does cuz I think it will be an awesome experience.

Last p-day we went to Sand World. WOW! Talk about an amazing place. I couldn’t believe all the talent of the art there! There was some really cool stuff. I went nuts with pics that’s for sure. I think everyone did, it was way cool. For sure a good p-day! Last week in church, we had some visitors from England! That’s not too common, so because it was fast sunday everyone bore testimony and during the meeting Elder Clark translated for them, but then he got up to bear his testimony so I figured I might as well try to translate for them. Man I tell you what, translating is HARD! It’s very tough and I did just ok. Not too great. I kept saying stuff in Portuguese but then realized like duh, you are supposed to be translating! Ha, ha, it was just really weird, but way fun. Cool new experience for me. My first time being a translator! And I don’t want to do it again. Just playin. Well at least not for a while, tho it was cool to see what it was like, and that its hard!

So guess what...I’m learning the piano!! (Kiley, you better step up your game ;) ) I have learned a couple of hymns, not too well, BUT I can play one FULL hymn with both hands! Ha,ha! Cool eh?! I started by just teaching myself, and was doing alright, but then a couple days ago as I was playing, a girl in our ward, (she is like 21 and she is also learning the piano, but she is way, way ahead of me) She walks in a sits down next to me and well pretty much just started giving me pointers and started teaching me! It was pretty awesome! So I started another hymn that is more complicated and I’m getting it down! So I really am hoping to keep myself going and keep learning more, cuz I LOVE the piano! So that was really fun. We will see how that goes. :)

Well that’s about it for this week...thank you all for all for everything! I love the letters you send, even just the little itty bitty ones!! I love em! Thank you so much! I’m so, so grateful for all of my family and wonderful friends. I know I have been very extremely blessed. I am really thankful for my opportunity to be out here and serve my Heavenly Father in Portugal. Missionary work is amazing. How lucky are we to already have the knowledge of the truth?! I am so, so grateful for everything we know and the comfort it brings. I know the church is true without a doubt! I love you!LOVE Elder Robby Gray

A compliment on my Portuguese!

This last week was actually really good. From the day I got here in Tavira to now, I have already seen a difference. I think I had a few techniques that Elder Clark just never thought of….weird, since he goes home in 22 days, ha-ha. I am enjoying the teaching that we do. It’s really amazing, I love it! I love to teach! There’s not much like teaching the Gospel to someone who has no direction in their life, pretty amazing.

We have an investigator named Carlos, he was born with no legs. And he asked me about that the other day, if God is such a great God then why don’t I have legs. Wow! That was really tough to answer. I really had a hard time with it. But I tried my best to explain, and he seemed to agree and understand. We are trying to get him to come to church but getting people to church is SO tough. It is so nice when we have more members to help and invite people. There are just so few, and more than half of them don’t care much to talk with the missionaries I feel like, so we just keep going and try to get into their house. Sometimes I feel like I may be annoying, but hey, they need to do more! Do their part! Like Preach My Gospel says...about the members helping out! So we are trying.

We had Zone Conference this week, it was really good! It was President and Sister Terry’s last one! We are getting a new President. It feels weird and kind of scary. But I think he will be a great guy.

We went over to a less active member’s home, and after a little bit of talking he asked me, “how long have you been in the country?” I said “well, almost 5 months.” His eyes got huge and he was like, “wow Elder! Your Portuguese is amazing! You speak very, very well!” I couldn’t help but smile. I loved it! I love to hear that. But I am STILL having troubles understanding people. I can say nearly anything I want for the most part, but boy it’s tough to understand some people!

Last night we had a ward activity and we played The Price Is Right. O Preço Certo. It was way fun actually. I didn’t think it would turn out very good but it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it! The members all really enjoyed it too. Now we just need to get our investigators to come to our activities! That’s the next step.

Well, things with my comp are going fine. It’s boring, but it’s going okay. I entertain myself and things go fine, ha-ha, but we are getting along okay. We had our house checked last night by the Casals, which means “the married.” The Elder and Sister couple down here in the Algarve, and they were AMAZED about our house! They said they have never seen something so, so clean! I loved that. Being clean really does pay off I tell ya!! I’ve got to get on to a couple other e-mails, so thank you all for everything! I love you all so much. Have a great week!


Love, Elder Gray

Entertaining Myself.......

I say it was an interesting week for a few reasons, mainly, because of my comp situation. It’s going better. It’s still hard and I’m really, really bored A LOT of the time. BUT... I have figured something out to help. I seriously speak my mind. He is probably annoyed by now, but I don’t care. I hate silence, so I literally speak my mind all day. If I think something, anything, I say it out loud. And just wait and see if he gives any reaction or says anything back. Usually not, so I just go on and keep talking, pretty much to myself. It’s like I’m taking my dog for a walk… talking to him. Then once in a while you get some kind of reaction like he barks or stops to pee, well that’s about how exciting my day gets. When my companion stops to sniff something, it’s just always something new. You never know what’s going to happen next or when he will say something next. So I just talk pretty much alone. OH and I sing too. I sing with myself. Sometimes it gets fun. Cuz I try to get him to also but it doesn’t work. So I just keep singing. I wonder if he will ever just be like Dude! Elder Gray …. Shut up! I don’t think so. Maybe it’s entertaining to him. Well either way it entertains me. You will see. I have started taking more videos. They are kind of pointless and stuff but they are fun! I find it entertaining. I think I might be weirding myself out just trying to find something to do at times, like a dog chasing a car. But once I would catch it, I probably wouldn’t know what to do with it, so I just go with the flow and try to be happy and entertain myself! It seems to be working ok so far.

Elder Tucker though, he is in my district, he is a life saver. He is probably for sure my best friend of the mission so far. We are good friends so it’s really, really nice having him in my district.

This week was good; we had this stuff called Conquilhas. Weird! They were some kind of sea food stuff in a shell. I don’t know what it is in English. I asked a native, and well he said its slang for a bad word, well more like a crude word, so I won’t say it. Anyway, maybe you can figure it out? If you do, let me know cuz I’m dying to know what I ate.

This week at church was good, small, small as usual. I think we had 13 people there! Yay! What a number eh!!! And I was called on out of the blue to talk. Eh pa...It was kind of hard, but I think I did fine. I probably totally slaughtered the Portuguese though. Oh well... But yeah, things are going slowly but surely. The work here is so tough! We just don’t have that much we can do and teach. But we do have one investigator I love named Ramiro. He is way cool! He said he will come to church next week so I'm hoping for the best!! I love you all so much! Thank you for all you do for me. I hope everything is going great for you.
LOVE YOU!!!
~Love Elder Gray

Well, for starters my new area is quite different in many ways! First of all, it is just gorgeous! Very, very beautiful! We live pretty close to a river that just flows right through the city! It is so, cool! Reminds me of Venice or something like that, and especially at night it is really amazing! There are a lot of tourists here too so we talk to a few people in English once in a while that are all from England. It is really actually weird and kind of hard to try to preach in English! It’s very weird! I am always thinking of what to say in Portuguese so then I have to translate what I’d say in Portuguese to say it in English and it just sounds really, really weird ha, ha! It feels really weird to speak in English about the gospel. But we don’t do it too much cuz everyone shuts us down really fast here. Whether they are tourists or not, they are just like, whoa dude…. no. We are on holiday, no thank you. That’s the English language in there...Holiday? Ha, ha but then anyone we try to talk to here just says no. Straight up, NO. I’m like dude, come on, you don’t even know what I’m about to say! Talk about being judged by the cover! Sometimes I think we would have a bit more success maybe if we’d proselyte in other clothes. It’s a good place though.

We have a couple we are teaching named Jefferson and Jucilea. They are really, really awesome. I’ve really enjoyed talking to them. They seem to have interest for sure but are having a hard time keeping the commitments we extend. But we will keep trying and hope and pray for the best. So at church, well it’s a for sure WAY new experience. You would never believe how many people were at church. (Not in the good sense ha, ha.) When church actually started there were EIGHT people there. Eight!! Holy Cats! I was like is anyone going to come or what?? I couldn’t believe it. But that just goes to show how LITTLE the church is down here. By the end of church there were maybe like 12 or so. But still. 12 people! It’s pretty intense. There are only two little rows of chairs in the chapel. And the chapel is just the bottom of an appt building. The only way you can tell it’s a church is by the little sign on front that says The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but of course in Portuguese.

So, a bit about before I got here...I mentioned we were going to Fatima. And WOW what an experience that was! It was so, so crazy! Very cool! There were so many people there I could not believe my eyes. I took lots of videos and pictures. But it really was an amazing experience to go to that and see all the people crawling on their knees and what not. I just couldn’t believe it.

Remember the story about the little boy that died? Well we went over to try to talk to the family a week later, but they were gone, moved out. Gonzo. Doesn’t surprise me too much really, but we were kind of sad we didn’t get to have the chance to try to talk to them and share about the plan of salvation. But we did give them a pass along card so hopefully that was a good well planted seed.

So as you know, my new comp is a bit hard for me right now. He is just boring, but I’m trying to do all I can to make things a bit more fun. He is a good hard worker, but just boring and he never tells me what we are doing, so it’s tough. But I’m trying to keep my head up. This is his last transfer. So he goes home in 5 weeks so I will FOR SURE get a new comp after this transfer so I’m just hoping I will get someone more fun. But I am going to try to make this the best I can and learn from it in any way shape or form. It’s tough tho. But with the Lord I know I can do it and I know that I must have been sent here to either learn something or teach something. So I will just keep going with my head held high, as high as I can...ha, ha, but because its rather boring, I would REALLY, REALLY be grateful for ANY kind of MAIL. You know, in the mailbox, more now than ever before.

I really am so grateful for this opportunity to serve my mission. It is the hardest thing I have ever done. But it is and will be more and more rewarding every day, week, month, and year. I am so grateful for the church. I know I wouldn’t be who I am and where I am and have the amazing family and most amazing friends without the gospel in my life. It has directed me and shown me who and what is the most important. I’m so grateful for the knowledge I have of the gospel. Thank you all so much for your love, letters, and support. It means so much to me. I hope you all have a Wonderful Week!! I miss you all and love you ALL so much!

My new address:
Rua Dr. Manuel Trinidade
Nº4 R/C Esq. 8800
Tavira, Portugal

Feel Free To Write! :)
Love you all!! LOVE ELDER ROBBY GRAY

Transferred!

So the news is in. And I am being TRANSFERED! I am going to the ALGARVE! It is the furthest south of the mission! I hear its way cool down there so I am excited; the only problem is...who my comp is, I met him. He is a huge goober. And I hear from 2 other people in my district now that he is so, so boring and does pointless work. So, I’m kind of sad about that. But I’m going to have one of my favorite people in the mission in my district.

Dad...you were very close! I’m going to Tavira. It’s very close to Olhao. I hear good things about Tavira but I didn’t get my new address. I go down there on Thursday (not Tuesday) so I’m pretty excited.

Everything is way, way hectic right now so this email is not going to be real long and stuff but I just wanted to let you all know I am leaving. I will give you my address next week. So if you have anything to send me, wait one more week to send, cuz I will give you my address to my appt. I know I will be there for a while.

Today we are going to Fatima! I’m not sure what it will be like but I know that it will be awesome! I am way excited. Today is the day where there will be tons of people there too. So I’m stoked for it, it will be way fun.

We had our fast with Elizabete, at first she didn’t seem to know much about an answer. But yesterday, we asked if she has been thinking about her fast and what she needs to do, she said...I got an answer. My eyes just went HUGE!! I was like YES!!! But then we were like what is it....she says, “It’s good,” that’s it. So she doesn’t expound much on stuff, but the news is, she got an answer. She knows she needs to be baptized. But it’s just a matter of when. She is so awesome! I will really miss her. Then, I asked her son Edivaldo, what he thinks and he said, “yeah, I really like it”. I asked him if he wants to be baptized and he said “yup, I think I do.” WOW!! I was amazed! At first, this kid joked about everything, joked about prayer wouldn’t pray, he would laugh at others while they pray, but then BAM! He finds the truth and how prayer is not just talking to your self. He and his mom pray together often. It is amazing. I will really miss teaching them and seeing them progress every day. But I am going to try the best I can to keep in touch with them.

Well I’ve got to go cuz we have to leave for Fatima, but next week I will have my full hour and be able to write more specifically about my new area and let you know how that is. I miss you all and love you all so, so much! Thank you so much for your love and support. It means the world to me! I LOVE YOU!
Love Elder Gray

Wow. Talk about a pretty crazy week. It feels like not a whole ton really happened, but it was just really busy, we didnt hardly do any street contacting or anything like that because we were just constantly busy busy doing stuff. It was a really great week. I loved it. The weather is absolutely beautiful right now! We are always wearing short sleeves and its so so nice! Except for when we have Church and wear our suits, it is way hot, ha ha. And its only going to get more and more hot! But its way better than the cold!

So we had a really sad experience this week. We were over at a less active member’s home giving a lesson, and only had being there for about 10 minutes, when we start hearing like some screaming and crying and just loudness outside. We were wondering what on earth is going on!? Is that a cry? Or someone that just sounds like a cry but its not...So we go to the window to look out and we can’t really see much other than just a lot of people gathered around and some crying, so Elder Hildebrant and I decided to go check it out so we go out side and walk up to where everyone is..... there was a little boy, probably about 4 years old on the ground. He fell out of the window of his appt. on the fourth floor. So that’s about 40 or 50 feet or so. A pretty big drop, it was so, so sad. I could not believe it. A woman saw it happen that lives below the window the boy fell from. She went to her window to have a smoke and saw the boy fall right in front of her. Wow...I can’t imagine seeing that. It was such a sad, sad thing. The family was just absolutely distraught. When the medics arrived they did all they could for about 30 minutes or so, but I’m pretty sure he died right on impact. When the medics pulled out a cover thing to cover the body, the family went crazy. I mean crazy! It was amazing to see how everyone reacted so differently. We kind of figured out who was who just by listening to them and telling the cops who they are. But the mom was just like in shock. Crying a little, but she could not talk, she could not walk, it was so sad. Then we saw who was the uncle, and crying very loudly, the brother I think...not sure tho, then he got violent. Then the sister was just screaming and screaming, and there were two other girls just hugging and crying, and one other girl just sitting at the wall crying. It was just amazing. It really made me so, so grateful for the knowledge I have about The Plan of Salvation. The plan God has for each and every one of us. It’s hard to explain more of that night. It’s sad to talk about and frankly I don’t like to. It was pretty hard for everyone, but we put in a few words with the grandpa about that this isn’t the end and they will have the boy again. He was the only one we could talk to cuz he was pretty much the only sane one. But I think we are going to try to go pass by the home in a few days. Sad, sad.

Okay but now, on a happier note, we got some new investigators that are friends of some members that just moved into our ward. They are the elect! Or so I like to think, ha ha, they are so awesome! We have only taught them once but it went so, so well! They loved all of it and they are coming to church this week! And it’s a big family. And they have a HOUSE! My first people to teach that live in a normal house! Ha ha. Well, kind of normal. They don’t have any doors yet, but it’s cool.

So today, we decided to do internet after the p-day stuff, cuz we went again...to the beach. It was so, so nice! Probably the last time I will get to go, not sure, but for this summer at least, cuz when it gets warm, the ladies bikinis dissappear somehow ha ha! No, but seriously, we have to be cautious! It was a gorgeous day, we played some ultimate football, yes, my team won. :) But the bad news of the day, my flip flops got stolen! What the freak! I was so mad! I don’t know how we didn’t see it happen, but I’m really mad about it cuz they were nice! So now I just have 5 dollar crappy ones. Who would steal my flip flops!? Europe.... ha ha!!

On Friday, we are having our fast with Elizabete. I am really excited about it and she is too. I hope so much that she finds an answer. She is so awesome! I would love to get her baptized, but unless she does it soon, I don’t think I will be here for it. I am pretty sure I am getting transferred. If I don’t, it would be very crazy cuz it will mean I will be here for TWO more transfers! Long time, but we will see. Anyway, I hope you all are doing awesome! I miss you all so much.

To all you Mommies...HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!
Love Elder Gray :)