Welp folks...I am going to BROOKLYN :)

Date: June 18, 2012
Area: Flushing Queens - Transferring to Brooklyn
Companion - Sister Allen


Dear Family,

I hope that you all enjoyed fathers day and Dad I hope that the family made it special for you! I love you dad with all my heart and am ETERNALLY grateful for all of the eternal truths that you have taught me and the love that you have for the work of the lord and sharing your testimony. You have truly been an incredible example to me and all of us children. So THANK you :) I love you muchisisisismo!!!

This past week has been amazing as always. Many different miracles have happened and prayers answered....not in the way that we expected but they were answered. I love love this gospel so so much and am so thankful for the principles that it teaches us to live by. Ok so we were able to teach Manuel Lopez about about faith and watched the movie, Finding faith in christ. I thought before the mission that I really understood faith. Believing in something that you can not see. However on my mission I have come to realize that, that is JUST the beggining of faith. Faith is SO much more than that. To simply HAVE faith is NOT enough, however we should ultimately have faith in Jesus Christ. He is the one that makes everything possible. ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is possible through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the one that helps us get through our days. HE is the one who loves unconditionally. It is Us the ones who sometimes fall away, however his arms are ALWAYS stretched out still. He is just waiting to convert us in time of need. He is waiting for us to REPENT and make those changes neccesary so that we can becoem closer to our father in Heaven and one day make it back to live with him in his prescense. I am so grateful and words can not fully express how I feel about my savior Jesus Christ. However this is a HUGE reason why I am out here on my mission. I LOVE MY SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.

Fun note- So on Tuesday night I recieved an unexpected phone call from President Nelson. I was asked if I would train another new missionary. Sure thing :) I am excited and extremely humbled to be able to train another missionary. I have learned SO much from Hermana Allen and I know that I am going to be able to learn SO much from the other sister missionary. She is from Las Vegas I cant wait to meet her tomorrow! All of these experiences are helping shape me into the missionary that the lord wants me to be.

Ok so Thursday we were able to go to the temple with Alexandra Ayala and Manuel Lopez both recent converts. We were able to go with the flushing branch. I never thought that you could grow to love someone so much in such a short amount of time, however I have truly come to LOVE all of the members in the flushing branch. They are SO incredibly humble and just want to serve the lord. It was really neat to be able to go to to the temple and to do baptisms for the dead for the first time with Manuel and Alexandra. It is so neat to be able to see recent converts participating in the great work of the lord.

We had a fathers day BBQ on Friday night which was a HUGE success. There were quite a few people there who were not members whom the ward members invited. Hermana Allen and I sat at a table with these people. There was this one lady named Jackie who kept asking about our beliefs and said that she was going to come to church next Sunday. She was able to see the standards of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She started talking about baptism and we explained to her that we believe in the age of accountability in having one when at the appropiate age ( age 8 and older) be able to choose whether or not they wanted to be baptized. She really liked that, and told us that is the reason that she never baptized her children as a baby. She was excited when we began talking about baptism and is really excited to learn more.

It was strange saying goodbye to everyone yesterday. Like I have said earlier I have truly grown to LOVE all of the people here in Flushing. It is weird on the mission its almost harder for me to say goodbye to the people that I teach then it was to say goodbye to my family back home. You just get so attached to all of these people and you also desire more than ANYTHING their salvation and you just want to truly helpe them through the atonement and the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ.

I know that My redeemer lives. I know that our Savior Jesus Christ performed the atonement so that ALL of us if we obey can make it back to live in the prescense of our Father in Heaven and his son Jesus Christ with our FAMILYS. I know that baptism if the GATE way by which we enter to make it to Eternal Life. I know that Joseph Smith was called as a the prophet of the restoration. I know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. I know that this is his WORK!

I lOVE being a missionary!

I love my family!

I love this gospel!

Love,
Hermana GRAY

HAppy birthday Jocelyn, Amanda Walker and Lindsay Olsen! I love you!