NY is Crazy and I LOVE it!!!

Date: August 27, 2012

Area: Brooklyn

Companion - Sister Delong

Dear Familia,

Its HURRICANE Season! Right now it is Storming like CRAZY :) It reminds me of last year. Maybe we will get some cool surprize :) jk I would rather not...but Hey it makes things interesting :) I hope that you all had a fantastic week! Mom,Dad,Kyle and Chelsea I am so glad that you all made it home safely. Sounded like quite the adventure! Mom always seems to have the best luck. Chelsea I wish you the best of luck in Nursing School, I know that you will do amazing!!

This week was fabuloso! So poor Hermana Delong has been rather sick...but she is a champion and has worked through it :) So Tuesday we went to go and look up this lady named Guadalupe Vasquez. When we knocked on the door she opened it, excused herself and went to turn off her Blaring music Avril Lavigne haha that was funny. ( you would maybe expect that from a teenage girl, but not from a Mexican lady.) pero ni modo....So we went into her tiny little room where we barely fit and taught in her humble abode. Her little baby named Angel laying on the bed, he is adorable! At the begging of the lesson we asked her what she expected from us. She then replied, " I expect you to teach me something that I have NEVER before heard." :) Well she was indeed right on the spot. The Restoration of the gospel is the very distinct message that we have to share. It is something Very different from ANY message that anyone has ever heard. We were there able to teach her the message that us as missionary's have. We know that God us truly our Loving Heavenly Father, and so he has reached out to us in love and given us Families. He has given us families so that we can learn and grow together. He has since the begging of time called Prophets- to lead and guide us and to let us know what his will for us is. Time and time again people rejected the prophets and disregarded their counsel. Then finally our Heavenly Father did one of the greatest acts of love and sent us his ONE and ONLY begotten son Jesus Christ, to see if we would actually listen to him. Christ when we has here, he established his church, and his gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, which included having faith in Jesus Christ, Repenting of our sins, Changing and becoming more like our Savior, baptism- baptism by immersion in the water representing our death and rebirth, by the proper priesthood Authority from God. Giving us another chance to Start over fresh! To be Born again, become new Creatures. Then another gift we are given after baptism is the Gift of the Holy Ghost- a gift to help us all stay on the Path. Then Enduring to the end. Striving our hardest to keep the commandments for the rest of our lives and BE HAPPY! I can not tell you how blessed we are! His plan is PERFECT! Unfortunately people even Rejected our Savior Jesus Christ, and we know that he was Crucified. His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Cross and his resurrection is known as the atonement. The atonement is one of the greatest gifts that we have. So that we can repent and be baptized by that authority to be made CLEAN. Christ gave that authority to his 12 apostles. However we know that just as the people did with Christ, the people rejected and eventually all of the apostles were killed. Therefore leaving us in Darkness....without the authority of God on the earth. Many people were lost and sought for the truth. That is why they began to change gospel principles and began to rely more on the knowledge of men than from God. This is the reason why SO many different churches started to form and many translations of the bible came about. People saw the need for a "Restoration"- in other words for Christ ONE AND ONLY True church to be restored. The lord when he saw the time was right, he called another Prophet to lead and guide us. Inthe year 1820 there was a young boy by the name of Joseph Smith. He was 14 and he began to worry about his own personal salvation. He read in the bible that there was "One Faith, One Lord and One baptism." ~ Ephesians 4:5 He knew that he needed to be baptized but he did not know what church to be baptized in. He then was reading one day in the Bible and he came across a scripture that he said touched his heart more than any other scripture. He read in James 1:5-6 which reads


5 a"If any of you lack bwisdom, let him ask of God, that cgiveth to all men liberally, anddupbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6 But let him aask in bfaith, nothing cwavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."




He then decided to Pray and ask God the Father which of all of the sects were right. So early in the Morning of the year 1820 he went to a grove of trees that was near by his house, and he knelt down and offered his first vocal prayer. Something beautiful and beyond words happened. In his own words he said,




I saw a pillar of clight exactly over my head, above the brightness of the dsun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself adelivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I bsaw two cPersonages, whose brightness anddglory defy all description, estanding above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My fBeloved gSon. Hear Him!




We know that at this time he saw God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. They told him that NONE of the churches were true. That they only had a part of the truth, and they told Joseph that he had a GREAT work to do. God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ told him that he was to RESTORE - in other words bring back the SAME EXACT church that Christ had established when he was here on the earth. Joseph smith was called as the Prophet of the Restoration. Knowing that people would not believe Joseph Smith, the Lord revealed NEW Scripture. The Book of Mormon- which is the convincing evidence of what Joseph Smith saw, because he translated it by the power of God. We now have more of Heavenly Fathers Word. How blessed are we? Very! We can read this book and ask God in prayer if it is true. Just like Joseph Smith did. I know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God, because I have read it. It has been a source of happiness and helped me more in my life than I can describe. It is Truth! I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I know that this is Christ's Church restored and that we have a living modern day prophet today. I know that I can be happy through following the gospel of Jesus Christ. This truly is the lords work. I couldn't be happier!





To make a long story short Guadalupe felt the spirit, we invited her to be baptized and she gladly accepted. It was a wonderful lesson and the spirit was really the teacher. Thursday we were able to teach Richard again. He had not read so we were able to read out of the Book of Mormon together. We read 1 Nephi Chapter 1. ( probably the most read chapter ) haha I think that before my mission I may have taken for granted the beauty of 1st Nephi 1. There are SO many KEY principles in this chapter. We read with Brenda (Richards Husband) Richard and Maria Jose. It reminded me of home and how everyday as a family we were able to read together as a family. Some of my treasured moments. ANyways it was really good and everyone understood what was going on. We asked Richard at the end of the lesson to tell us something that he had learned from the chapter. He then proceeded to tell us for a couple minutes some key things that he learned. It is just testimony to me that the Book of Mormon is true. It really changes lives once we take the time to read it and APPLY it in our lives.



Missionary Work is the BEST! I feel so honored to be able to testify of our Dear Savior Every single Day! There really is nothing else like it! I feel blessed to be a member of this Church. I feel blessed to know that I am a daughter of My Heavenly Father. This know that God has a plan for me far greater than I can comprehend and that if I continue doing what is right that Heavenly Father has a place prepared for me!



I love you all!


Love Hermana Gray


P.s. if anyone feels like sending me some chocolate carnation instant breakfast packets I would happily accept them :) hehe


P.s. Please Read the talk "Go ye Therefore" ~ Silivia Allred Its SO GOOD!


“Few men on earth,” said Elder Bruce R. McConkie, “either in or out of the Church, have caught the vision of what the Book of Mormon is all about. Few are they among men who know the part it has played and will yet play in preparing the way for the coming of Him of whom it is a new witness. … The Book of Mormon shall so affect men that the whole earth and all its peoples will have been influenced and governed by it. … There is no greater issue ever to confront mankind in modern times than this: Is the Book of Mormon the mind and will and voice of God to all men?” 2 We testify that it is. ~ Ezra Taft Benson

                  Oh What a Wonderful Life!!

Date: August 20, 2012

Area: Brookly, NewYork

Dear Familia,
Como tu ta?!?! That is Dominican :) Que lo Que?! Okay sorry just embracing myself in the culture :) ok I hope that you all had a wonderful Vacation in London and everywhere else in the world! Dad I am loving the fact that you are rocking the I love NY shirt that I got you :) It looks mighty good on you.

So folks this week was the the week of Charity and Love. Hermana Delong and decided that each week we are going to have a theme. Being one of the Christ like Attributes from Preach My Gospel. So...we decided that we were going to have this week be the Week of Charity and Love. We decided to look for any opportunity that we had to do service. It all started on Monday night. Our Appointment canceled so....we decided to go and look up this man named Jose Allende. Well....como siempre...Nos perdimos...haha that means that we got lost! Well to make a long story short we ended up running into Hermana Jean Joseph. She was carrying a lot of groceries, so we quickly picked up her groceries. That was one of our first acts of service that we were able to render :) It sure did make me happy. Although we did not get to teach, we were able to help Hermana Jean Joseph. There is just something about service that makes you happy! I love it!

Tuesday tuesday....We went to go and look up this lady named Maria. We went up stairs and knocked on this door. We asked for Maria and then this lady answered the door. We asked her if we could come in for a couple of minutes. She was Mexican- she was blending up some Green Salsa :) Anyways we were able to teach her about how God truly is our Father in Heaven and how he wants Nothing but the best for us. We talked about Families, and she expressed some of her feelings towards her family, and what she wants for her family. We then we able to continue and then we started talking about our Beloved Savior Jesus Christ. We asked her what were some of her feelings about Jesus Christ. She then started crying... It was so humbling just to put my arms around her and to testify of the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. I love the what Joseph Smith said about the atonement. How everything that we teach is only an apendage to the atonement. We are here to allow people to recieve all the blessings of the atonement. It is ONLY through Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End that we can then recieve the blessings of the atonement. She quickly thanked us and invited us over the next day.

After this lesson we were able to meet up with Maria Jose to go and look up people to teach. We were able to go into teach Arturo Hernandez. He has not been to church in like 8 years. We were able to teach him the Restoration and in the middle of the lesson he said, " I think that I am going to come to church this Sunday." It was a really good lesson and we were able to testify of the Book of Mormon and of the Sacrament. Later that night we were able to once again meet up with the Mora Family and the Calderon Family. We were able to teach the Calderons the restoration of the gospel. Diego was really interested and wants to read from the Book of Mormon.

So Update......Richard!! We were able to finally teach Richard :) Richard is Maria Jose's Dad. He has already come to church 3 times. So we went over with Hermano Cuevas, who is AMAZING!!!! It was an amazing to be able to testify and put an emphasis on the atonement because, their family was going through a hard time right now, which made both Richard and Brenda more receptive to the message. He said that because we came at the time that we did, that we were an answer to their prayer. So we taught the Restoration with Richard. He really understood the restoration and the spirit was there. He said that he would read from the Book of Mormon, and he even said that he would come to church this Sunday and stay for the entire time. It was nice to end the lesson with a kneeling prayer.

Sunday was an amazing Day! We had Church and guess who showed up!!! Richard :) He was so funny right when he walked in the door he said ," Hermanas I told that you that I would come, See? I am here" He came and he stayed the whole entire time! He loved it. Guess what happened!!! Okay so I was sitting in Sacrament meeting and I turned around and TWO of my Favorite members from BRENTWOOD ward came inside! My heart jumped! You have NO idea how happy I was :) They found out that I was serving here in Midwood so they took a trip ALL the way out here to come and see me! I was able to sit with Hermana Lee during Relief Society it was so good to have a familiar face whom I love so so much!

I know that this is his Work! I love teaching and testifying of our Savior Daily. There is Nothing Greater than this work. I love being able to tell people that their Savior Jesus Christ died for them and that they can have eternal life through the atonement of our Savior. Letting them know that Today we have a living modern day prophet. We have more Scripture- The Book of Mormon through reading the Book of Mormon we can be Happy! Who doesn't want to be happy? The gospel we have a plan....the Plan of Happiness! Its simple :) I love you all! Thank you family for all of your love and support!

Les Quiero!

Go and do an Act of Charity!



I consider charity—or “the pure love of Christ”—to be the opposite of criticism and judging. In speaking of charity, I do not at this moment have in mind the relief of the suffering through the giving of our substance. That, of course, is necessary and proper. Tonight, however, I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind ofcharity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient. ~ President Monson

Are you sure that I was not born in Ecuador?


Area: Brooklyn, NewYork
Date: August 13, 2012

Querida Familia,

I have to say that I am in LOVE with Ecuadorians.....hm...Ok well maybe I am just in love with the Spanish Culture....But lets face it! Ecuadorians are SWEET!! I hope that you all had a wonderful week! I think that the days are getting shorter....Here I am back again writing you this email. Mom,Dad,Kyle and Chelsea I hope that you are all enjoying yourselves in London :) Chelsea Thank you so much for the post card, I sure do miss you Chelsea Poo :) 

All I have to say is MEMBER work is the BEST!! Ok so this week we were able to go out with Maria Jose, She came teaching with us. She is awesome and a GREAT fearlesser :) I have really enjoyed working with her and seeing her testimony grow through sharing the gospel. After going out to go and find people to teach.....knocking on doors, looking up potentials and all that jazz then we went to the Familia Moras house. We were able to go and have dinner at their house. They are from Ecuador, so I was secretly praying that they would feed us Cerviche ( My FAVORITE dish...its like a shrimp coctail :) ) So when we got there we walked into the house and they were still cooking and GUESS WHAT THEY WERE MAKING!?!? Cerviche! A HUGE bunch of it. So I was happy :) We then were able to help them finish cooking! Then the Elders showed up and then 4 investigators that they had invited!!! 

Funny note- If you did not know I am in LOVE with Chile anything picante.... haha you all know that :) So the Hermana Mora made this salsa picante and so therefore I put it in my cerviche, on my rice and meat. So I was on One side of the table and Elder Schlechty (another elder from AZ) who also loves chile. So throughout dinner we both were asking Elder Hunter in the Middle to pass the chile back and forth needless to say it ended up being a competition. So back and forth the chile was being passed back and forth. More and more chile we were putting inside out Cerviche :) Needless to say I won :) haha I accidently inhailed it, and I my eyes started to water haha It was wonderful :) The members were laughing their heads off! 

Ok so anyways we were able to teach Francisco, Diego, Alejandra, and Lourdes about how God is our Heavenly Father and how he loves us so he has given us Families. The Mora family was able to bear testimony about how the gospel really blesses families. Hermana Mora the Mom bore powerful testimony and practically quoted Preach My Gospel. It was an amazing lesson and Hermana Mora talked about Baptism and Francisco the dad of the Alejandra was asking good questions and they were really intrigued. I have such a powerful testimony of using members to teach. They are able to understand better where the investigators are coming from. Also when they have a friend they are able to support one another. The spirit was so strong and at the end of the lesson Lourdes said, Ill see you girls at church on Sunday, even before we asked her :) It was a wonderful lesson and I know that they will get baptized. They truly have a desire to learn. This gospel is beautiful and when you teach to someones needs and follow the spirit, Heavenly Father lets you know what things need to be said. Our Father in Heaven knows his children so well, and he knows what we need. I am so eternally grateful for a father in Heaven who loves us more than we can imagine who has given us this plan. A way to return to live with our father and to be happy! 

We have been working a lot with members to get referrals and to be able to foster that relationship. This Sunday we went to go and eat at the Familia Montoyas house. Afterwards Hermana Montoya invited her best friend to come over for a Family Home Evening. Myra came over and her 6 year old daughter Milena. We were able to teach the Restoration of the Gospel. It was an amazing lesson, the spirit was there and we were all edified. She had told us that she wanted something good. She wanted a church that made her change and made her be a better person. We told her that, that was all what our church was about ........its about Change its about Repenting! Its about coming closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. After the restoration video, we asked her how she felt, and she said good. At the end of the lesson her little girl Milena out of no where shouted, "I feel Happy"! Her mom asked her why? Then she said, " I dont know...I just do." We then explained that it was the spirit. Children are so sensitive to the spirit. After the lesson she said. "I am going to come to church!" Even before we asked her. She is Golden! She then said, " I want you to teach my other two daughters who are 14 and 17! Can you do that? OF COURSE :) 

I love this gospel! It is true. I love the opportunity that we have everyday to make changes in our lives to come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. I love my Savior, I love the Book of Mormon! I feel so happy when I read it. I am grateful for the chance that I have to receive personal revelation as I am filled with the words of Christ. 

I love you all! Keep being awesome! Always remember C.P.R ( Church, Prayer and Reading the Scripture! ) 

Go and MAKE A DIFFERENCE :)

love mucho,

Hermana Gray

Our Heavenly Father did not put us on earth to fail but to succeed gloriously. It may seem paradoxical, but that is why recognizing answers to prayer can sometimes be very difficult. Some face life with only their own experience and capacity to help them. Others seek, through prayer, divine inspiration to know what to do. When required, they qualify for power beyond their own capacity to do it.~ Elder Scott

                  Agosto! El tiempo esta volando!!!

Date: August 6, 2012
Area: Brooklyn, NewYork


Querida Familia!


This week was another week full of Miracles! Midwood is the place to be :) I love it here! I have truly fallen in love with the Spanish Culture and I love love the members here and the many people that we have the opportunity to teach. I feel SO blessed to be here serving a mission. There are so many people here that say, " It is a big sacrifice to be here far away from family, putting school on pause."etc...However I see it as quite the contrary. It is TRULY a blessing to be here serving my lord and savior for this short year and a half. I feel so happy! Serving others makesme HAPPY!! I hope you are all happy! If you are not....then take a minute to serve someone and I can promise you that you will be happy. We are truly happy when we forget about ourselves and we think about others. I love My Savior and for the chance that he gives us to learn and grow. Heavenly Father is So SMART! He gives us so many tools for us to make it back to him. He has given us Prophets, Apostles, The Book of Mormon - ANOTHER testament of our Savior Jesus Christ. How lucky are we to have more scripture?!! I am so thankful that our Heavenly Father has reached out to us in love and given us his restored gospel, and the knowledge that we have the SAME church that Christ established when he was here on the earth. I love this gospel! It makes sense! I am so thankful for prayer- that we are able to talk to our Father in Heaven at ANY time and any day. I love and cherish more than anything being able to kneel down and plead to my Heavenly Father and express the feelings that I have and tell him how my day went and ask for guidance and help. Then being able to listen and see through the Holy Ghost where he wants me to go and what he wants me to do. I love My Savior Jesus Christ. He means EVERYTHING to me! That is why I am here, Because I love my Savior!



Alright enough blabbering.... So Brenda ( Maria Jose's Mom) Is really progressing. We were able to go over there this week with Hermano Cuevas ( He is a return missionary). We were able to teach the Plan of Salvation. Brenda has been reading and praying and she is really progressing. It is so neat to see how the Spirit and the Book of Mormon really is our Most powerful tool in Conversion. We must Learn to LOVE the Book of Mormon. My Love for the Book of Mormon has truly been strengthen on my mission as daily I have been able to read and study from its pages and apply them into my own life. Also more than anything as I have seen it change the lives of the people I teach. As they began to have a sincere study of the Book of Mormon. Brenda is starting to recognize the spirit. It is truly working in her and her faith in her Savior Jesus Christ is Growing. That is what is important is seeing their faith grow unto repentance, so that they can come in closer harmony with their savior Jesus Christ. The very first time that we invited her to be baptized she declined. However this time we felt like we should invite her again. To which she replied, " I need to keep studying and reading and I need to ask Heavenly Father if it is true." I am so excited to keep working with her. It is just another testimony to me about the power of the Book of Mormon. Just like my recent convert Alexandra once shouted, " Its TRUE Its TRUE!" :)



We were able to go and visit a Less active/ Part Member family named the Cevero Family. When we first rang the door, they let us into the apartment complex and then a Million and 2 little kids came running out. There were 7 kids, made me feel like I was at home :) We slowly made it into the apartment and we began talking to Ana Maria. The Cevero family are from Honduras ( So naturally I got excited) ha three of the kids got baptized while they were living in Honduras with their Aunt. We found out that as soon as they moved to the United States they no longer went to church. The Mom came in and the first thing that she said was that she did not want to listen to us. So she had a ton of groceries and my first thought was the story in the Book of Mormon of Ammon and when he served King Lamoni. So we helped her put all of her groceries away, then asked if we could share a message :) She kindly accepted. We were able to talk about the commandments and how when we obey the commandments we are happy Mosiah 2:41. The mom liked the message and invited us back, they even said that they would come to church, so we are going to do our best to get the members involved. I love the power of the Spirit and how it truly does change and touch peoples hearts.



New Investigators- So Friday night we were able to take a member with us to go and look up people. Our first one was not there and a lady answered who clearly was not interested....so we kept going. Hermano Corzo was the member that came out with us and he is SUCH a bomb Member missionary! If we had a million Hermano Corzo's the whole world would be converted :) So Hermano Corzo knows everyone in the World we were able to go and look up people that he knew that he thought would have interest in the church, so we were able to get a TON of refferals. So after a while it was getting dark and our appointment that we had canceled. So we decided to go and ask his friend if he wanted to hear more. We then sat down and were able to teach a really good lesson to his friend named Mitchell. We set up another appointment for next week we are so we are excited :)



Also last night we went to go and look up a less-active who we actually found out no longer lived there. So we knocked the entire floor and the floor above it. Hermana Delong and I were praying that we would get into a door. So we knocked about 8 doors and NADA. So right as we were leaving we decided to knock on one more door. Happily they let us in! :) It was the cutest family of 4 from Mexico! Dulce and Juan had had the missionarys over in the past we found out. They were super open and we were able to teach them the message of the Restoration. It was wonderful, I just get SO happy when I am able to testify of our Savior Jesus Christ and all that he has done for us. They said that they are going to keep read from the Book of Mormon and Pray.



I love this gospel it is so true! I am SO happy to be here serving my Savior. This truly is his Work!



Family I love you! You mean the world to me!



Mom, Dad and Kyle- Have fun picking up Chelsea in London! Bring me home a T-shirt haha jk but really I hope that you all take lots of pictures to show me :)



Chelsea, Alyssa, Kyle, Garrett, Alex and Courtney I love you all so much! You mean everything to me :) Keep being The Best!



Lots of Love ,
Hermana Gray






When our hearts are filled with the love of God, we become “kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving.” ~ President Uchdorf