Another week on the Island :)

Date: October 24, 2011

Area: Long Island

Companion - Sister Lewis

Dear Family,

Where to begin…the week’s just keep getting faster and faster! I cannot believe that October is pretty much over!! This week was wonderful! I mean how could it not be? The mission is just incredible! We have been doing a lot of less active work which has resulted in finding more people to teach. We visited this lady named Marcia and were talking about the importance of the Book of Mormon, when this man walked in and so we invited him to sit down and talk to us. He was really neat and had a lot of good questions. I love to see how the lord really does prepare people to hear this gospel.

We do what is called 2x2x5 here on the mission. This means that when you go to a house and they are not there then you knock 2 doors to the left 2 doors to the right and then 5 doors right in front of it. Anyways we have seen a lot of good come from that. So we were knocking doors and this sweet Dominican lady answered the door. We told her that we had a message that we would love to share with her about Jesus Christ and families. She invited us right in. We were able to have a really good lesson about the atonement and the sacrifice of our savior and talked about what that meant to each of us individually and what we can do to show our love and appreciation for our savior. She loved our message and invited us to come in and visit another time. Her little boy kept running in and saying stuff like “I know who Jesus is.” Ha he is adorable!

So I do not know if you remember the family that my companion and I found like a week ago. If not it’s ok…ha but anyways they are an incredible family and I have seen how prepared they truly are to receive the restored gospel. So my companion and I found them however they were in the other sisters area so we are not able to teach them. However one of the Hermanas has been really sick and had to stay home so I went on splits with Hermana Nay and we were able to teach this family J this made me super happy! Anyways so we went over there to teach them and they invited us right in. It was so neat to see an entire family sitting on the couch ready to hear the message that we had to share. We read with them out of the 3rd Nephi 11. Before my mission I never really quite understood why missionaries always assigned this chapter for people to read, but now I understand exactly why it is the perfect chapter. The reason is because it talks about when Christ came to the Americas and established his church and when he taught the people the way that we need to be baptized and he gave them the priesthood authority to do so. Right after we read that part the father of the family paused and said

“Well this means that I need to be baptized “– ha you have no idea how happy this made me inside. When someone comes to accept the message of the restored gospel and they come to know for themselves that it is true…there is no other feeling like it! We invited their whole family to be baptized and they said yes when they come to know for themselves that it is true. The spirit was super strong in that lesson. Without the spirit we cannot teach. It makes such a difference when the spirit is there, because the spirit testifies of our savior Jesus Christ and he testifies of truth- allowing the investigators to FEEL. Because if they do not feel for themselves that something is true, then they are never going to know!

We were able to visit Hermana Bonilla. She is this lady who is got to be in her 70’s or 80’s and she is paralyzed waist down and has some sort of Handicap. Anyways I have never seen someone so strong in the church. She has such a strong testimony and even though she can hardly move and when she does move it hurts her she still does everything that she knows she is supposed to. She also has something wrong with her hands where she has a hard time picking anything up. But she still presses on. She could easily have the excuse….” Oh I can’t go to church because I am paralyzed waist down…but she doesn’t! She comes to church EVERY single week because she knows of the importance of it. She likes the way that it makes her feel. Not only that, she reads from the Book of Mormon EVERY SINGLE DAY! This lady has really given me strength. She has a faith very firm in our Savior Jesus Christ and knows that through him ANYTHING is possible!

We had an amazing stake conference yesterday- and they talked about the importance of Gospel in Action, the Scouts program and the Young Women’s Program and Personal Progress. They talked about how important it is for us to accomplish them. There was this priest who bore testimony of the Scout program and how close he has gotten with his dad because of it. I am so grateful for you dad in teaching to your sons the importance of obtaining their Eagle. And helping them achieve their goal and mom for always making sure that they were working on it. Mom I am also thankful for you making sure that us girls all have worked on our personal progress. I am thankful for you example, and I am so happy that Me, Chelsea, Alyssa have all achieved our personal Progress award and now little Courtney has the opportunity to work on it. It is not just a program but something that will help us in our lives. Something that will help us to set goals and achieve them! I love this gospel so much and am thankful for it. The church is so incredibly organized and it amazes me! The only way back to the father is through his son Jesus Christ. He died for us so that we might live!

I am so thankful for the scriptures and the opportunity that I have to really immerse myself in the scriptures and learn from them. We are so blessed to have a living prophet today who leads and guides us. I know that this Church is True!

Thank you all for your examples and support! You truly are the best!

Much Love ,

Hermana Gray

My favorite chapter for the week Alma 58! Talks about the Stripling warriors J you should read it!! I love verse 58!!

Always Faithful Obedience

"At times we may rationalize that the Lord will understand our disobedience because our special circumstances make adherence to His laws difficult, embarrassing, or even painful. However, faithful obedience, regardless of the apparent size of the task, will bring the Lord's guidance, assistance, and peace."

Bruce A. Carlson, "When the Lord Commands," Ensign, May 2010, 39

Topics: Obedience, Faith, Courage