Loving the Flushing!

Date: February 27, 2012

Area: Flushing, Queens

Companion - Sister Lambert

Querido Familia!

How are you? Yo estan!?! I am SUPER Bien! The work here in Flushing is wonderful! The people here great! Happy people! We have a wonderful time here! I have talked to more Chinese people than ever in my life before! My companion and I have fun fearlessing the chinese and Korean people here. They really are such nice and humble people. We have what we like to call "Street Sweeps" like 3 times a week. This just means that we go and hand out cards like Mormon.org or english class flyers. I have found myself accidently trying to talk to chinese people in spanish :) That always makes for a good laugh.

This week was wonderful! Like the others :) I am trying to remember what happened. Ok so on Wednesday of this last week my companion and I were walking and we saw this lady named Glady's struggling with her groceries. So we offered to help. At first she was reluctant but then she gave in. We helped her all the way to her house and then she let us in. We were then able to teach her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved every minute of it and told us that she has a friend who is a member of the Church. When we explained the apostacy she got it! When we told her that we had this Book of Mormon for her, She gave me a hug! She was SO thankful that we had this book for her and she was MORE than excited to read it! She said that she is going to come to church! If only everyone reacted like that when they recieved the Book of Mormon. It is more scripture that the Lord has given us. We should all be HAPPY! I have really come to LOVE more than ever the Book of Mormon on my mission. It really has blessed my life and I have found so much peace and guidance through the Book of Mormon and that is what I hope to be able to help others see that.

We have had some really good lessons with Guillermo- he is a 13 year old boy who we are teaching. He is so humble and willing to do what his Father asks him. He is reading and praying. We asked him to pray about Joseph Smith and he did. We asked him what he felt and he said that he knew that he was a true prophet. Prayer is essential. If we do not pray we are not going to get an answer. It is so nice to see that he is taking these steps. It is just like the scriptures says " Ask and he shall recieve, Knock and it shall be opened unto you." Heavenly Father loves us, and that is why he has given us so many tools to help us through this life. He has given us the communication line- called Prayer. If we would just pray! Heavenly Father will Answer us. It is more often than not, that Heavenly Father answers us through scriptures. That is another reason why it is so important that we read DAILY from the scriptures. One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Nephi 32:3 " Feast upon the words of Christ, for the words of christ will tell you all things that you should know."

"If you want to talk to god Pray, if you want God to talk to you, read your scriptures!" We had a really good lesson with the Sanchez family! They are a family of 5 from Peru- Keep them in your prayers. They are good! We talked about desires and read Alma 22! If you have not read that chapter! READ it! I love it!

Well this is just been a wonderful week! I love this gospel I love this work! There is nothing that brings me greater joy than helping others come unto christ by recieving the Restored Gospel! Go and share your testimony with someone! We have a living prophet Thomas S. Monson and I am SO glad!! I love you all! Keep being the amazing people who you are!

And Always remember Who you ARE! You are a Child of GOD!

Loves
Hermana Gray



Daily Gems - 17 December 2008
Benefit and Blessing of Scripture

"As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have the benefit and blessing of living scripture as declared by those sustained as prophets, as well as canonized scripture found in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. . . . Written scripture, especially the Book of Mormon, brings us to believe in God and 'be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son' (Jacob 4:11)."

Craig C. Christensen, "A Book with a Promise," Ensign, May 2008, 105

Topics: Atonement, Prophets, Jesus Christ

Date: February 20, 2012

Area: Flushing, Queens

Companion - Sister Lambert

Viva Brentwood!

Date: February 13, 2012

Area: Brentwood, Long Island

Companion - 

Querida Familia,

Well Feliz Dia de San Valentine! Happy Valentines day!! Well Here we are again :) It's Monday! Another week has come and gone! What have we done? Everyday we are creating our own story book and making a new page. With Every thought, action, and word that we say we are creating our own story books. At the end of each day we can think....ok what did I do and what chapter did I create in my book of life :) Something to think about.

Ok well lets see. We had a really good lesson with Christian ( a 19 year old boy) and his mom Judy. She is a sweet lady from Bolivia and she wants her son to learn good values.She loves having us over and said the other day, " My house is your house, you can come over here everyday" haha Christian is good, he has a lot of questions, which shows that he is curious and that he wants answers. He wanted to know how he could have his faith grow. So then we went ahead and read Alma 32 with him- which talks alllll about faith and what we can do to nourish it. Which, makes me also remember, we talked to a less active who gave us food this week. We were talking to her about testimony and how it is a process. We talked about those 3 things- those primary answers that we always hear. 1. Daily Prayer, 2. Daily Scripture Study and 3. going to church. She was wondering why her testimony had fallen....we talked to her about those three things and she then understood that a testimony is something that is very fragile and unless we are constantly nourishing it, then it will die. Just like a plant- it needs food, water and sunlight. Well our spirit and testimony also need to be nourished :) Why else do you think that the prophets and apostles are constantly talking over and over again and stressing the importance of those 3 things?! Just like in Alma 37:6-7 "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass."

Let us see....what else? ok how about funny note- ok so on Thursday we were driving after looking up someone who was not home. So we were driving and I saw a couple walking on the side walk, quickly I said to my companion, " PULL OVER" I have to talk to those people :) So she pulled over ( probably thinking that I was crazy) and I began talking to this couple. I told them that we were missionarys and asked if there would be a time that we could come over. Quickly the male responded, "How about Tomorrow?" haha ok fine by me :) So then the next day we went over to their house. We were quickly let in by a teenage boy and then soon the entire family was sitting down listening to us. A mom, dad , two teenage boys and a cute little 12 year old girl sat down as we were able to teach the restoration. I have never seen 2 teenage boys so attentive and asking questions in the lesson. It really makes me so SO happy inside when I am able to teach an entire family the gospel. That is what it really is about :) Families! This gospel Blesses families!

We were able to have a couple really good lessons with the Familia Carpio. They are so good, humble and really have a desire to learn. We were able to teach the Word of Wisdom this week, and actually they took it very well. We knew that they had a problem with several things, however when we taught it, they were very receptive and agreed to live it. They are so prepared. It just goes to show that the lord is really and has been preparing these people so that they can accept the gospel and enter into those sacred ordinances, the first being baptism.



Well I am being Transferred…it is always hard to leave an area, especially when you have fallen in love with the members and have truly worked hard to help others come closer to our savior Jesus Christ. However change is good J For we know that the only thing constant is change. I am excited to go into another area and get to work. There are so many people in NY that are just WAITING to hear the gospel. Having been on a mission sure does make me appreciate having the gospel in my life. It makes me appreciate the sacrifice that my parents made to be able to teach me the gospel principles and to have daily family prayer and scripture study. Just like Elder Bednar said, “Your kids may not all remember what you taught them in scripture study, but they WILL remember that you had scripture study.” I remember my parents being consistent. It has been truly humbling as I have seen family’s the Carpio’s and the Mendoza’s now starting to have family scripture study and prayer and really being able to see the changes that they have made. I truly feel honored and blessed to be here for the short period of time of a year and a half to be serving my savior full time.




As Valentines day approaches may we all remember the biggest act of love ever done. That of the atoning sacrifice of our Savior. He laid down his life for each and every one of us. So that if we use his sacrifice, his atonement we can then make changes appropriate so that become better people and that if we are baptized that we can one day enter back into his presence and receive eternal life. Its our choice :)




Well, I love you all! May we this Valentines day try to show more love by our actions and may we think in a way that we can show our love all year long, not just on this special day of chocolate and flowers!





I love you!!

Love,

Hermana Gray






Love - Elder Russel M. Nelson


If I were to ask which characteristic of His life you would identify first, I think you might name His attribute of love. That would include His compassion, kindness, charity, devotion, forgiveness, mercy, justice, and more. Jesus loved His Father and loved His mother. He loved His family and the Saints. He loved the sinner, without excusing the sin. And He taught us how we can show our love for Him.

Another expression of our Savior’s love was His service. He served His Father, and He served the people with whom He lived and labored. In both ways, we are to follow His example. And we are to love our neighbors by serving them. We start with our families.

FEBRERO?? todavia?

Date: February 6, 2012
Area: Long Island
Companion - 


Querido Familia,

Another week, a New Month a New Year :) So much happiness ahead! alright where to start! Well how about Monday. Monday we took Wendy over with us to go and teach Judy. It was incredible how well they matched up. Wendy bore testimony of how the  gospel really has changed her life and the life of her family. She testified about how her family has now been brought much closer through the gospel. Judy was really touched because everything that had gone on in Wendy's life before she became a member was everything that was going on in the life of Judy. Judy was so touched and wanted us to come and teach her and her family. She said that she wanted that same peace and joy that Wendy now felt. Wendy is just a testimony to me that the gospel really does bless families. I think that sometimes us as members who have been members our whole life, sometimes take advantage of how much the gospel really can and does bless our lives as individuals and as family's. I really have seen now being a missionary and seeing the way that many different types of people live their lives, bow truly blessed that I was and am to have grown up in the gospel. The gospel has blessed my life so much and that is why I am here! To help bring people closer to christ through faith in him, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. How blessed are we? Incredibly! Sometimes I just want to shout out to the whole world, because of how happy that I feel being a member of this True Church. The only church that has the proper priesthood authority to perform baptism, but not only that, it is baptism that counts here on the earth and in heaven.

Wells...what else. We have been able to teach the Carpio family a couple of times. They are incredible and just soaking up everything. The little Carpio girls are reading in the Book of Mormon and praying about it. I asked the girls if they thought that the Book of Mormon was true, and then Alison replied ," I know that the Book of Mormon is true, because every time that I read it, I understand more and more." It is so neat to see an entire family learn about the gospel. Alfredo- who is the father, just loves everything that we teach and wants nothing more than for his family to do this together. We had several good lessons with them this week. One of them was about keeping the Sabbath day Holy. We taught that if we put the things of the lord first in our lives, then everything else falls into place. I can not tell you how many times I have seen this in my own life. When we put our trust and faith in the Lord and do his will first, before that of what we think might be right, then we will always always always be happier. For any of you who are reading this, I challenge you to try it. Whether it be reading your scriptures before studying or doing your homework. Or going to church on Sunday instead of doing your normal activities. Whatever it may be, I invite you all to try it! Put the Lord first, and he will make sure that you are able to get done whatever you need to. Heavenly Father loves us, and wants nothing more than for us to be happy! ( 3rd Nephi 13:32-33) ~~ One of my favorite scriptures :)

Welp! It was my companions birthday this week so I had lots of fun having little surprises for her :) It started out by us blindfolding her and taking her to the Majanos for a Birthday breakfast :) And did a surprize in the church after english classes we ate some cake and also the family Lee- made her a Birthday Dinner! I love birthdays and watned to make sure that she enjoyed hers. Birthdays on the mission are a little bit different, because you do not have your family, however on the mission the people around you, your investigators and the ward that you serve in become like your family! I really enjoyed throwing surprise party's for her haha

Funny Note for the week- Ok so the sisters gave us a referral so one night we decided to go and look up this man that they were in contact with at the laundry matt. So we went to his house and well he was not there, but when we knocked about a million and 2 kids came racing up to the door. We then asked the lady if she had like 5 minutes that we could talk to her. She was a little bit hesitant, however all of those kids - ( there were about 10 kids under the age of 9) said all said in unison, "We have time We have time!" and so the mom asked them if they were really going to listen. We then were welcomed inside when all of those little kids piled on the couch, with bright eyes and bushy tales sat quietly eager to learn. So we quickly taught ( knowing that their attention span was very short) them how to pray, and to keep the commandments. The little girl said the prayer and another one closed and said the other. Whenever I see little kids it just is a reminder that to me why the Lord talks so much about little children in the scriptures. How we need to become like little children to enter into the kingdom of god. They are humble, meek, loving , teachable and always the first to forgive. For any of you who have little kids, pay attention to them, and look for something that you can learn from them. I promise you it is there :) After wards we gave them all little pass along cards and they all came running up to us and wanted us to sign it. I felt like a celebrity :)

Well Sunday was Church. And you will never believe it! The Carpio Family showed up to Church!! They even brought a little friend :) She was American- and they all said that she looked like she could be my little sister. ha Reminded me of you little Courtney! Sunday was great! I just love Sundays, and am extremely Thankful that we have the opportunity to go to church and to partake of the sacrament to renew our baptismal covenants.

The Lord loves each and every one of his children, and that is why he has created the plan of Happiness. So that we would each have a way to return to live with our father in Heaven. We are blessed with the opportunity to choose between good and evil. Just like our parents hope that their children will choose the best, so  does our heavenly father want nothing but the best for us, and so he has given us each tools to help us choose wisely. etc- families, a living prophet and the scriptures. I am so grateful for the scriptures and that we all have the chance to read of them and apply the teachings of them in our daily life. I love this gospel! I love this work! For it truly is the work of the lord!

Love you all,
Hermana Gray

"Agency used righteously allows light to dispel the darkness and enables us to live with joy and happiness." Robert D. Hales