NY is crazy and I LOVE it!!!

Date: September 5, 2012

Area: Brooklyn, NewYork

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. In the 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, and dupbraideth 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 meI bsaw two cPersonages, whose brightness anddglory defy all description, estanding above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling meby 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 mefar 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