November Happenings!!!

Date: November 14, 2011

Area: Long Island

Companion - Sister Lewis

Dear Family,
Well this week has come and gone. I cannot believe it! It was a
wonderful week as always! Time on the mission is a weird thing; it
comes and goes within a blink of an eye. I better stop blinking or it
will be over before I know it. It’s like my zone leader said, “You
have a year and a half to do your mission, and a life time to think
about it.” So I better make sure that I am doing my best do magnify my
calling as a missionary and be the kind of missionary that the lord
would have me be.


I hope that you all had a good week this week I know that I sure did!
Ok so on Monday we had a wonderful lesson with our investigator named
Wendy and her novio Rey. They were all so excited to have us over
there; they had everyone sit down listen to us. Wendy at the end of
the lesson began to express some of her feelings that she had been
thinking about concerning to baptism. She said that her and her novio
“boyfriend” who she has been living with for 5 years want to get
married, because she knows that in order to be baptized we need to be
married. She expressed that she loved church and that she feels good
at our church. She also told us that she had attended many different
churches in the past but always felt like something was missing. She
felt that when she came to our Church that – that hole that she had
felt was then filled. We called them on Sunday to remind their family
to get ready for church and the little boy named Anderson was like we
are all getting ready to go! Oh this made me so happy to see their
entire family in church sitting together. It was the first time that
Rey had come to church and he said that he loved it!!


We had another good lesson with Denis and the Family Zelaya. They are
progressing very well and continuing to read and pray about the Book
of Mormon. They are soaking everything up like a sponge I love it!
They just love learning!!! We had the opportunity to be accompanied by
Sister Nelson – President Wife. She served her mission in Chile years
ago. She is incredible, a she teaches boldly and with love. I learned
so much from her. We were able to teach this really good lesson with
this sweet Dominican lady named Ester! She is so humble and really
likes what we teach. She says that she has been searching as well and
gone to many different churches but never felt that peace that she is
looking for. She said that she felt good however when she talks to us
and when she reads the Book of Mormon.
We were on our way to an appointment one day and had a couple of extra
minutes and so we decided to go and stop by this sweet lady from El
Salvador named Lila. Her husband had never been there when we teach
but she always listens. Her husband happened to be there and he
invited us right in to teach both him and his wife. We had a really
powerful lesson on the atonement – the beautiful sacrifice of our
Savior and what we can do to show that we appreciate the sacrifice
that he did for us. After the lesson we asked the sweet couple if
there was anything that we could do for them. The husband then went on
telling us that we have done enough. He said that there have been lots
of different people from all sorts of religions that have wanted to
come over and teach him and his wife. However he never felt good about
it. He said that when he met us, he HAD to let us in. There was
something that he felt when he talked to us. He thanked us for the
message that we share. He said that he is interested in the message
and wants to learn more and more about our Church. You should have
seen the look on his face when I gave him a free copy of the Book of
Mormon. He was excited to read it and learn about our Savior Jesus
Christ.


This church is SO true! If we want to know more about our Savior Jesus
Christ we should read the Book of Mormon. Our Savior is everything! It
is amazing the miracles that we can have in our life if we would but
just choose to let the Savior in. He is there knocking on our Hearts,
it is just up to us to let him in. We can be healed with the love of
our savior if we would just choose to use the atonement. We can become
better people, we can develop more love, more charity, more humility
if we would just ask for it. The lord will bless us with opportunity’s
to better ourselves if we just ask. There are so many blessings that
are conditional upon our asking. Prayer is real, I know that no matter
how big or small – the lord listens and answers EVERY one of our
prayers, because HE LOVES us! I am So thankful for this Gospel and for
the Chance that I have every day to better myself to go to the lord in
daily prayer, humble myself and ask for his help. This church is the
Lords Kingdom on this earth. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that
he gave us his only begotten son, so that through him we can be made
clean and be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father and be
with our families again for eternity. The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints makes sense and I Love it! I am so thankful that I
have the opportunity to be a missionary here in New York at this time
in my life! It is the BEST!!

I love you all! Take care and don’t you be eating too much Turkey the
next week 

Love
Hermana Gray

"Our understanding of and faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ will
provide strength and capacity needed for a successful life."

Richard G. Scott, "He Lives! All Glory to His Name!" Ensign, May 2010, 77
Topics: Atonement, Faith