Happy Forth!!!

Date: July 4, 2011

Area: Jamaica, Queens

Companion -

Dear Family,

I hope that you all are doing fantastic and that you had a blast at Stadium of Fire :) Wish I could have been there to watch little Courtney Dance! I love you all! Who would have thought that I would be in New York on the forth of July watching Fireworks from the roof of my apartment :) I love it!

So this last week was great as always! We had another wonderful training meeting which as usual was amazing! We talked about how true conversion comes through the spirit and that we need to be worthy of the spirit and that we need to be prepared. Something that stuck with me is when we talked about the spirit, and the information by which it draws from. We are told to rely on the spirit, however the spirit can ONLY draw from information that we have already studied,pondered and thought about. That is why it is SO important to study up the words. Just like it says in Doctrine and Covenants 11:21 "Seek not to adeclare my word, but first seek to bobtain my cword, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my dSpirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the econvincing of men." I have truly fallen in love with my scriptures and really do treasure those early hours in the morning where I am able to study my scriptures. and not only to study them, but to study not only for me, but most importantly for my investigators and their specific needs.

We have been able to do a lot of street contacting this week, which I absolutely love love! One because we get to talk to people, and I love talking :) haha no but really it is being able to bring people closer to christ and when one truly comes closer to Christ we can really see that light begin to shine in their countenance and it is just the neatest feeling.

We also learned in training meeting about how important it is to really talk and teach about the Book of Mormon in EVERY contact that we do. So not only giving away pass a long cards but carrying the Book of Mormon and using the introduction to teach.

One thing amoung many that I love about the Book of Mormon is the Introduction itself and the last two paragraphs which says

We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3–5.)

Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah.

The reason why I love this, is because if an investigator truly reads the Book of Mormon, and prays to know of its truthfulness they also will gain a testimony that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet, That This is the True Church and they will gain that by the personal witness of the Holy Ghost. That is just something that is just pure joy to me :)

We were street contacting and we ran into a name by the name of Pedro. He pretty much telling us his life story, and that he wanted the best for his Two sons. He said that he did not believe in drinking or partying and that he wanted his son to gain an education and talked to us about the importance of attending church. We were able to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon with him and the spirit was there. He said that he really wished that he had more time to talk with us, however he said that he had to go. We then gave him the book and he had the HAPPIEST look on his face. We got his info and he was super excited to be able to meet with us :)

We were challenged to invite everyone that we see to come to Church :) So in doing so we invited this cute little mexican lady who was hauling around 6 kids! We asked her if she wanted a free DVD and she said no, but that she was going to come to our Church on Sunday! Fine with me :) Oh the little joys.

So as missionarys being in the Spanish Area, we have the opportunity to teach English! Which I LOVE!!! ( I have a secret desire to be a spanish Teacher) anyways so my companion and I were coming from an appointment racing to the English Classes, which we usually have only about 6 maybe 7 people who come. To our surprize when we got there, there were about 15 people! ( Guess handing out those flyers worked) ha anyways at the end of every class we are able to teach a part of a lesson. We taught about the plan of Salvation.

Afterwards I began speaking with these two new faces who I had never seen before "Josealine and Judith" The mother and daughter were originally from Ecuador however moved to Spain! I told them that I had always wanted to visit Spain! They said that If I come I can stay with them!! ( YIPEE! Now I have hook ups in Spain) haha so turns out that they are visiting family down here in NY and are going to be here until August. Anyways after the class they asked if they could learn more. She wanted us to teach them both English and wanted to know more about the gospel! (MUSIC TO MY EARS) :) :) So the next day we met with them both and were able to teach them a little bit more english. Then we taught them about the Book of Mormon and Invited them to read it! They were ESTATIC and asked if they could have one to read in English as well. They understood not only the importance of reading it, but the importance of reading it every day. I am excited to meet with them again later this week!

The work is good! I love the fruits of the gospel and the true joy of being able to share it with others. We are so blessed to have the true gospel restored to us in this day.

I love you all so much!

Love Hermana Gray

P.s. Shout out to Amanda Walker! Happy BIrthday! I hope that you had a great one :) I love you!! p.s You're legal!

The last picture is a picture of Dulce and I. She is the CUTEST little girl of Antonia an investigator that we are teaching!