Miracles DO happen!

Date: October 10, 2011

Area: Jamaica, Queens

Companions - Sister Lambert, Sister Hughes

Dearest Family,

First of all Happy Birthday Mom tomorrow!!! And happy BIrthday Alyssa in like 4 days! I love you both and hope you know how amazing you really are :) I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family, I love each and every one of you! I love love telling people that I am the Oldest of 7! Its funny to see the type of reactions that I get from people. Thank you Mom and Dad for teaching me to love the lord and to always put the lord first, I know that If we put the lord first that everything else will work out how it is supposed to :) ( 3rd nephi 13:32-33) one of my favorite scriptures!

Okay so this week was just wonderful! I went on Exchanges last Monday- Tuesday. So I was able to work in Richmond Hill with Sister Fifield. She is an incredible missionary and I am so thankful for the opportunity that I had to work and learn from her. I just love people! Everyone has something good to give. We can really learn from everyone, it we just take the time to stop and think, think about how you can learn from someone and apply those things into your own life. I really learned about listening from her. Sometimes as missionarys we get in this robot mode.....ha where we just want to get the lesson done and everything covered. However if we just take the time to listen to people we can come to understand and recognize their own needs and then alter and change the lesson according to their needs. Also when we listen we are able to follow and rely on the spirit more. It is incredible to me how much our Father in Heaven really does love each and everyone of us and how he knows exactly what our needs are. He loves us more than we even can begin to comprehend and he wants NOTHING but the best for us, I know that for a fact. I have seen that in my life. I have seen the lord direct me in my life, when I go to him and seek his advice in honest, heartfelt prayer. I can feel of his love.

Ok so at the begining of this transfer we were talking as companions and we decided that we wanted to find a family to teach! So we did what we like to call this "Celestial Finding". So what we did was we drew a picture of a family, and we made it specific, we wanted to find a Mother & Father with 4 children and we wanted on of them to be a girl :) Also we did not just want to find any family, however we wanted to find a family who were bien prepared. Ok so we drew the picture of the family and stuck it on or door. Then we made specific goals in order to be able to find this family. Along with that, everytime that we prayed we made sure to say a second prayer SPECIFIALLY for this family. I have never prayed SO hard and SO much in my life!!! Honestly I was wondering if I was going to see this family while my time in Jamaica. We worked our hardest - we made sure that whenever we saw a mom with a stroller that we talked with them among a lot of other things.

So this last week it happened! We were looking up some potential investigators when we decided to look up this person named "Paul". Ok so when we got ahold of this person to our surprize it was a family! A Family with A Mother A Father and FOUR little kids, and one of them was a girl! You have NO idea how happy this made me! PRAYER IS REAL! I have no doubt about that! It is amazing how the lord works. The lord does answer prayers- maybe not in the time frame or in the way that WE want, however I know that he DOES answer. He loves us SO much so he answers. He is just waiting to bless us, all we have to do is ASK! Mom just like you say " It never hurts to ask" :) Same goes with our Heavenly Father. I am SO excited! oh I forgot to mention...not only did we find a family, but they were VERY prepared. The mom whose name is Monica - well ALL of her family are members EXCEPT her! This family moved from Utah Provo that is haha a year ago and were taking the dicussions from the missionarys and going to church in provo! I can not believe it! THey even invited us over the next day and wanted us to teach them ;) We had the Gonzales family come with us and the made instant friends. They had READ from the night before! They KEPT commitments! AH you have no idea! ha keeping commitments as a missionary means SO much! Ok the story even gets better! They ALL came to church oh and not to mention her sister who is a member was visiting from Utah was there and also able to help with the lesson. Even though I am sad that I am not going to get to teach them, I know that everything happens for a reason, and everything happens on the LORDS timing :)
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So this last week was what I like to call "La Semana De Milagros". We talked a lot about miracles in our Combined District meeting - and miracles are spiritual manifestations. When the spirit is there! My companions every night take the time to recognize the miracles that happen in our day. I want to challenge you to do this. Whether it be with your family, or with your spouse, or just by yourself. Take the time to recognize the miracles in our life. They do not have to be anything big - it could be that you got home safely, that you were able to talk to someone new, that you got to eat breakfast :) However big or Small take the time to recognize those miracles and tender mercies in your life! Count your many blessings :) Youll be able to realized how much the lord has really blessed you!

Family I love you! I am SO grateful that we have a living prophet today President Thomas S. Monson, May we never forget how blessed we are! Take the time to thank Heavenly Father for what you have for he has given us all :)

Have the best week ever! I can not believe its october! Live up every moment - time goes too quicky! I leave Jamaica tomorrow! I am excited to see what the lord has in store for me next and what people I can help come closer to christ! :) I love the mission!

Love,
Hermana Gray