Loving the Flushing!

Date: February 27, 2012

Area: Flushing, Queens

Companion - Sister Lambert

Querido Familia!

How are you? Yo estan!?! I am SUPER Bien! The work here in Flushing is wonderful! The people here great! Happy people! We have a wonderful time here! I have talked to more Chinese people than ever in my life before! My companion and I have fun fearlessing the chinese and Korean people here. They really are such nice and humble people. We have what we like to call "Street Sweeps" like 3 times a week. This just means that we go and hand out cards like Mormon.org or english class flyers. I have found myself accidently trying to talk to chinese people in spanish :) That always makes for a good laugh.

This week was wonderful! Like the others :) I am trying to remember what happened. Ok so on Wednesday of this last week my companion and I were walking and we saw this lady named Glady's struggling with her groceries. So we offered to help. At first she was reluctant but then she gave in. We helped her all the way to her house and then she let us in. We were then able to teach her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved every minute of it and told us that she has a friend who is a member of the Church. When we explained the apostacy she got it! When we told her that we had this Book of Mormon for her, She gave me a hug! She was SO thankful that we had this book for her and she was MORE than excited to read it! She said that she is going to come to church! If only everyone reacted like that when they recieved the Book of Mormon. It is more scripture that the Lord has given us. We should all be HAPPY! I have really come to LOVE more than ever the Book of Mormon on my mission. It really has blessed my life and I have found so much peace and guidance through the Book of Mormon and that is what I hope to be able to help others see that.

We have had some really good lessons with Guillermo- he is a 13 year old boy who we are teaching. He is so humble and willing to do what his Father asks him. He is reading and praying. We asked him to pray about Joseph Smith and he did. We asked him what he felt and he said that he knew that he was a true prophet. Prayer is essential. If we do not pray we are not going to get an answer. It is so nice to see that he is taking these steps. It is just like the scriptures says " Ask and he shall recieve, Knock and it shall be opened unto you." Heavenly Father loves us, and that is why he has given us so many tools to help us through this life. He has given us the communication line- called Prayer. If we would just pray! Heavenly Father will Answer us. It is more often than not, that Heavenly Father answers us through scriptures. That is another reason why it is so important that we read DAILY from the scriptures. One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Nephi 32:3 " Feast upon the words of Christ, for the words of christ will tell you all things that you should know."

"If you want to talk to god Pray, if you want God to talk to you, read your scriptures!" We had a really good lesson with the Sanchez family! They are a family of 5 from Peru- Keep them in your prayers. They are good! We talked about desires and read Alma 22! If you have not read that chapter! READ it! I love it!

Well this is just been a wonderful week! I love this gospel I love this work! There is nothing that brings me greater joy than helping others come unto christ by recieving the Restored Gospel! Go and share your testimony with someone! We have a living prophet Thomas S. Monson and I am SO glad!! I love you all! Keep being the amazing people who you are!

And Always remember Who you ARE! You are a Child of GOD!

Loves
Hermana Gray



Daily Gems - 17 December 2008
Benefit and Blessing of Scripture

"As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have the benefit and blessing of living scripture as declared by those sustained as prophets, as well as canonized scripture found in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. . . . Written scripture, especially the Book of Mormon, brings us to believe in God and 'be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son' (Jacob 4:11)."

Craig C. Christensen, "A Book with a Promise," Ensign, May 2008, 105

Topics: Atonement, Prophets, Jesus Christ

Date: February 20, 2012

Area: Flushing, Queens

Companion - Sister Lambert

Viva Brentwood!

Date: February 13, 2012

Area: Brentwood, Long Island

Companion - 

Querida Familia,

Well Feliz Dia de San Valentine! Happy Valentines day!! Well Here we are again :) It's Monday! Another week has come and gone! What have we done? Everyday we are creating our own story book and making a new page. With Every thought, action, and word that we say we are creating our own story books. At the end of each day we can think....ok what did I do and what chapter did I create in my book of life :) Something to think about.

Ok well lets see. We had a really good lesson with Christian ( a 19 year old boy) and his mom Judy. She is a sweet lady from Bolivia and she wants her son to learn good values.She loves having us over and said the other day, " My house is your house, you can come over here everyday" haha Christian is good, he has a lot of questions, which shows that he is curious and that he wants answers. He wanted to know how he could have his faith grow. So then we went ahead and read Alma 32 with him- which talks alllll about faith and what we can do to nourish it. Which, makes me also remember, we talked to a less active who gave us food this week. We were talking to her about testimony and how it is a process. We talked about those 3 things- those primary answers that we always hear. 1. Daily Prayer, 2. Daily Scripture Study and 3. going to church. She was wondering why her testimony had fallen....we talked to her about those three things and she then understood that a testimony is something that is very fragile and unless we are constantly nourishing it, then it will die. Just like a plant- it needs food, water and sunlight. Well our spirit and testimony also need to be nourished :) Why else do you think that the prophets and apostles are constantly talking over and over again and stressing the importance of those 3 things?! Just like in Alma 37:6-7 "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass."

Let us see....what else? ok how about funny note- ok so on Thursday we were driving after looking up someone who was not home. So we were driving and I saw a couple walking on the side walk, quickly I said to my companion, " PULL OVER" I have to talk to those people :) So she pulled over ( probably thinking that I was crazy) and I began talking to this couple. I told them that we were missionarys and asked if there would be a time that we could come over. Quickly the male responded, "How about Tomorrow?" haha ok fine by me :) So then the next day we went over to their house. We were quickly let in by a teenage boy and then soon the entire family was sitting down listening to us. A mom, dad , two teenage boys and a cute little 12 year old girl sat down as we were able to teach the restoration. I have never seen 2 teenage boys so attentive and asking questions in the lesson. It really makes me so SO happy inside when I am able to teach an entire family the gospel. That is what it really is about :) Families! This gospel Blesses families!

We were able to have a couple really good lessons with the Familia Carpio. They are so good, humble and really have a desire to learn. We were able to teach the Word of Wisdom this week, and actually they took it very well. We knew that they had a problem with several things, however when we taught it, they were very receptive and agreed to live it. They are so prepared. It just goes to show that the lord is really and has been preparing these people so that they can accept the gospel and enter into those sacred ordinances, the first being baptism.



Well I am being Transferred…it is always hard to leave an area, especially when you have fallen in love with the members and have truly worked hard to help others come closer to our savior Jesus Christ. However change is good J For we know that the only thing constant is change. I am excited to go into another area and get to work. There are so many people in NY that are just WAITING to hear the gospel. Having been on a mission sure does make me appreciate having the gospel in my life. It makes me appreciate the sacrifice that my parents made to be able to teach me the gospel principles and to have daily family prayer and scripture study. Just like Elder Bednar said, “Your kids may not all remember what you taught them in scripture study, but they WILL remember that you had scripture study.” I remember my parents being consistent. It has been truly humbling as I have seen family’s the Carpio’s and the Mendoza’s now starting to have family scripture study and prayer and really being able to see the changes that they have made. I truly feel honored and blessed to be here for the short period of time of a year and a half to be serving my savior full time.




As Valentines day approaches may we all remember the biggest act of love ever done. That of the atoning sacrifice of our Savior. He laid down his life for each and every one of us. So that if we use his sacrifice, his atonement we can then make changes appropriate so that become better people and that if we are baptized that we can one day enter back into his presence and receive eternal life. Its our choice :)




Well, I love you all! May we this Valentines day try to show more love by our actions and may we think in a way that we can show our love all year long, not just on this special day of chocolate and flowers!





I love you!!

Love,

Hermana Gray






Love - Elder Russel M. Nelson


If I were to ask which characteristic of His life you would identify first, I think you might name His attribute of love. That would include His compassion, kindness, charity, devotion, forgiveness, mercy, justice, and more. Jesus loved His Father and loved His mother. He loved His family and the Saints. He loved the sinner, without excusing the sin. And He taught us how we can show our love for Him.

Another expression of our Savior’s love was His service. He served His Father, and He served the people with whom He lived and labored. In both ways, we are to follow His example. And we are to love our neighbors by serving them. We start with our families.

FEBRERO?? todavia?

Date: February 6, 2012
Area: Long Island
Companion - 


Querido Familia,

Another week, a New Month a New Year :) So much happiness ahead! alright where to start! Well how about Monday. Monday we took Wendy over with us to go and teach Judy. It was incredible how well they matched up. Wendy bore testimony of how the  gospel really has changed her life and the life of her family. She testified about how her family has now been brought much closer through the gospel. Judy was really touched because everything that had gone on in Wendy's life before she became a member was everything that was going on in the life of Judy. Judy was so touched and wanted us to come and teach her and her family. She said that she wanted that same peace and joy that Wendy now felt. Wendy is just a testimony to me that the gospel really does bless families. I think that sometimes us as members who have been members our whole life, sometimes take advantage of how much the gospel really can and does bless our lives as individuals and as family's. I really have seen now being a missionary and seeing the way that many different types of people live their lives, bow truly blessed that I was and am to have grown up in the gospel. The gospel has blessed my life so much and that is why I am here! To help bring people closer to christ through faith in him, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. How blessed are we? Incredibly! Sometimes I just want to shout out to the whole world, because of how happy that I feel being a member of this True Church. The only church that has the proper priesthood authority to perform baptism, but not only that, it is baptism that counts here on the earth and in heaven.

Wells...what else. We have been able to teach the Carpio family a couple of times. They are incredible and just soaking up everything. The little Carpio girls are reading in the Book of Mormon and praying about it. I asked the girls if they thought that the Book of Mormon was true, and then Alison replied ," I know that the Book of Mormon is true, because every time that I read it, I understand more and more." It is so neat to see an entire family learn about the gospel. Alfredo- who is the father, just loves everything that we teach and wants nothing more than for his family to do this together. We had several good lessons with them this week. One of them was about keeping the Sabbath day Holy. We taught that if we put the things of the lord first in our lives, then everything else falls into place. I can not tell you how many times I have seen this in my own life. When we put our trust and faith in the Lord and do his will first, before that of what we think might be right, then we will always always always be happier. For any of you who are reading this, I challenge you to try it. Whether it be reading your scriptures before studying or doing your homework. Or going to church on Sunday instead of doing your normal activities. Whatever it may be, I invite you all to try it! Put the Lord first, and he will make sure that you are able to get done whatever you need to. Heavenly Father loves us, and wants nothing more than for us to be happy! ( 3rd Nephi 13:32-33) ~~ One of my favorite scriptures :)

Welp! It was my companions birthday this week so I had lots of fun having little surprises for her :) It started out by us blindfolding her and taking her to the Majanos for a Birthday breakfast :) And did a surprize in the church after english classes we ate some cake and also the family Lee- made her a Birthday Dinner! I love birthdays and watned to make sure that she enjoyed hers. Birthdays on the mission are a little bit different, because you do not have your family, however on the mission the people around you, your investigators and the ward that you serve in become like your family! I really enjoyed throwing surprise party's for her haha

Funny Note for the week- Ok so the sisters gave us a referral so one night we decided to go and look up this man that they were in contact with at the laundry matt. So we went to his house and well he was not there, but when we knocked about a million and 2 kids came racing up to the door. We then asked the lady if she had like 5 minutes that we could talk to her. She was a little bit hesitant, however all of those kids - ( there were about 10 kids under the age of 9) said all said in unison, "We have time We have time!" and so the mom asked them if they were really going to listen. We then were welcomed inside when all of those little kids piled on the couch, with bright eyes and bushy tales sat quietly eager to learn. So we quickly taught ( knowing that their attention span was very short) them how to pray, and to keep the commandments. The little girl said the prayer and another one closed and said the other. Whenever I see little kids it just is a reminder that to me why the Lord talks so much about little children in the scriptures. How we need to become like little children to enter into the kingdom of god. They are humble, meek, loving , teachable and always the first to forgive. For any of you who have little kids, pay attention to them, and look for something that you can learn from them. I promise you it is there :) After wards we gave them all little pass along cards and they all came running up to us and wanted us to sign it. I felt like a celebrity :)

Well Sunday was Church. And you will never believe it! The Carpio Family showed up to Church!! They even brought a little friend :) She was American- and they all said that she looked like she could be my little sister. ha Reminded me of you little Courtney! Sunday was great! I just love Sundays, and am extremely Thankful that we have the opportunity to go to church and to partake of the sacrament to renew our baptismal covenants.

The Lord loves each and every one of his children, and that is why he has created the plan of Happiness. So that we would each have a way to return to live with our father in Heaven. We are blessed with the opportunity to choose between good and evil. Just like our parents hope that their children will choose the best, so  does our heavenly father want nothing but the best for us, and so he has given us each tools to help us choose wisely. etc- families, a living prophet and the scriptures. I am so grateful for the scriptures and that we all have the chance to read of them and apply the teachings of them in our daily life. I love this gospel! I love this work! For it truly is the work of the lord!

Love you all,
Hermana Gray

"Agency used righteously allows light to dispel the darkness and enables us to live with joy and happiness." Robert D. Hales 

Sometimes you just have to Laugh :)

Date: January 30, 2012
Area: Long Island
Companion


Querida Familia,

Once again the weeks be a flying! But its like they say, "Time fly's when you are having fun! Maybe I am having a little bit too much fun :) So where to begin. Welp I drove to Queens for the first time, that was fun :) Mom you should be proud! ha Driving in the City is NOT easy! Don't you worry I am still alive and running! So on Monday night- Tuesday night we had exchanges. This is why I drove to Queens. I dropped off my companion Hermana Hughes and had the opportunity to work with Hermana Tanielu! She is Samoan and lived in Hawaii!! Apparently we went to BYU Hawaii at the same time and did not even know it! Ha But it was super cool because it was like a Hawaiian reminiscing! I Just LOVE Hawaii and everything about it! We even had some li-hing powder that we put on some candy! haha oh the little simple joys! *Made me really miss my Li-hing Sour Hawaiian belt candy! * haha

Anyways so on our exchanges we were able to teach Eder, he is a New Investigator. We were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation. I absolutely LOVE teaching the plan of salvation because it is something that most people do not know about, and when they find out about their potential and what their purpose really is in this life, there is always a little light bulb that goes off in their face. When we were talking about the three kingdoms Eder got excited and told us that he wanted to go to the Celestial Kingdom. It was a really good lesson, and I was able to learn a lot from Hermana Tanielu. I love exchanges because we get to take bits and pieces and learn different ways of teaching. That is also something that I love about life and the mission in general. We are ALWAYS learning and progressing. That is apart of this life- we are put here to learn and grow and to constantly make changes and to work every day to become the people that our Heavenly Father wants us to be.

We had another exchange type thing with the Elders- meaning that they came with us teaching. Which as well is always a good experience. So we went to this lady across the street that we had talked to the day before. (P.s. they are Peruvians) We were able to teach Cecilia and her daughter Jocelyn the Restoration. The spirit was there and we were able to testify of the plain and simple truths of the restoration. We talked about the Book of Mormon and the mother was more than happy! She said that she is going to start reading out of the Book of Mormon and has a sincere desire to learn. It is such an amazing feeling when you meet someone who has a real desire to learn and grow and to learn.

After that appointment we were able to go to the Carpio Family! I LOVE THEM!!! Alfredo ( The father- which is probably the coolest man I have ever met!) Let us right in and this time his ENTIRE family was there together! We were able to teach them the plan of Salvation. Alfredo said, " You told us that we need to find out el camino, the path that our Heavenly Father wants us to be on, so we are reading as a family everyday out of the Book of Mormon." Moments like these are ones where I have to restrain myself from shouting for joy :) Seriously one of the coolest feelings. Alfredo also told us that he wants to make it to the celestial Kingdom with his family and so they are doing the things that we have asked them. They are so welcoming and told us to come over whenever we can. We are working hard with them, and seeing them progress.

As my companion said, "Anyone who says that Sunday is a day of rest, obviously has not been on a mission" haha ok so every Sunday feels like running a Marathon! But its all worth it! So Sunday as always we were calling everyone and their dog to remind them about Church. To our disappointment no one was going to be able to go to church. So on our prayer before we left, I prayed that Heavenly Father that he would send us some sort of surprise, because to our knowledge no one was going to be able to make it. We went on our day and I thought nothing of it. We then got to sacrament and I was up at the stand playing the piano for the ward. During one of the songs THREE girls walked in. I had to do a double take. Two of them were 2 investigators that we had taught in the past and one was a new face. After the song I quietly sat down and then the three girls came and sat next to me. Yesica a former investigator then leaned over to me and said, " I kept my promise." So that was one of my miracles for the week. Yesica, Magdalena and Betty stayed all three hours. They really enjoyed it, Yesica even said some really good comments in Young Women's.

It is interesting how the lord works. He works in ways that we do not comprehend. I had been praying for the Carpio's and other people to come to church and none of them came. However the lord sent me a miracle and answered my prayer in a way that I had not even thought of. Sometimes we want things and we want them done our way. However we need to stop and think and end our prayers, with "Thy will be done". We need to make sure that our will is in line with the Lords will. There have been so many times in our lives when we think that we know best. However we need to set out pride aside and trust 100% in the Lord. Especially when it comes to missionary work. Who knows these people better than our Father in Heaven. Heavenly Father knows what is best for us! Sometimes we can only see what is 10ft in front of us, Heavenly Father can see the WHOLE picture, so we just need to put our trust in him, and know that whatever happens, is for our benefit. *Proverbs 3:5-6*

So the last bit...Sunday afternoon I had the attend an English baptism... Funny Note- The other day I jumped out of the car to go and fearless aka talk to this guy. I started blabbering off in Spanish and then he spoke English back to me. I then replied YOU'RE ENGLISH?!? haha oh got to love the mission,, my companion sure gets a laugh out of me! Anyways So the English elders had a baptism and a little 10 year old girl gave one of the sweetest more simple talks I have ever heard. One by one she held up pictures. She first showed a picturef of our Savior Jesus Christ, and talked about how he died for us and that we can repent. Then she held up a picture of Baptism and said, " that baptism is the first step that we need to take to make it back to live with our Heavenly Father". Then she showed a picture of the temple and talked about how we need to go there to make sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father. One by one she laid these pictures on the ground and had us one one end and a picture of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ on the other end. In between she placed all the steps necessary to make it back to our Heavenly Father. Without those sacred ordinances of baptism and other covenants that we make in the temple we CAN NOT make it back to Father in Heaven which is where we want to be.

I know that this church is true. Like my good friend said, " It is so TRUE its not even funny!" I know that if anyone who earnestly seeks out, reads the Book of Mormon and prays and asks with real intent if the Book of Mormon is true, then they can come to know of a truthfulness of this gospel. Try it! Make sure that you are an example where ever you go. People are watching us,especially as members of this church. Share your testimony, give a pass a long card to someone. Be that light!

Be the change that you want to see in the world!
And make a difference!

I love you all thank you again for your love and support! It really means the world to me!

Love Hermana Gray

"Jesus Christ is our perfect example of one who always stood tall. He is the one who personifies integrity, strength, and courage. " Bishop H. David Burton  

SNOW!!!! (what is that white stuff on the ground?) haha

Date: January 23, 2012

Area: Long Island

Companion - Sister Lewis

Querida Familia!

Guess what!?!!? It SNOWED like for reals :) There was white stuff on the ground and everything!!! haha It's coooooold but I Love it! Alrighty so this week....was wonderful! Full of miracles, laughter, lessons, love, testimony bearing and so much more! Man a lot has happened this week and I wish I could just share it all but lets see what I can remember :)

So Monday we had a Family Home evening with the Familia Mendoza's along with Justo ( a recent Convert) la Familia Majano and Obispo Duran and his family. We were able to read 1st Nephi 8 and we all acted out Lehi's Dream! It was actually really funny! Everyone got into it and it was a lot of fun! It really puts life into perspective. There are people who partake of the fruit (The gospel) and love it and want to share it with others. And then on the other hand there are those who partake of this fruit/ the gospel and then they just depart or fall away from it. And then there are those who never want to partake ( or accept) this gospel. And that part as a missionary is the part that breaks my heart the most. Is to see people that have this chance, this opportunity to partake of the greatest gift that they can receive is this gospel, where by through it they can gain the greatest gift of all gifts of God = Eternal Life! Doctrine and Covenants 14:7. I invite all of you to try, to taste this fruit or the gospel- the teachings of our Savior Jesus Christ! To read the Book of Mormon, no matter how many times you have read it! I promise you that you will feel an increase of love that our Savior and our Father in Heaven has for us! I know that when you read the Book of Mormon daily you will also have an increased strength to resist temptation. Just like my dad always taught me....If you are praying daily, and reading out of the Book of Mormon Daily and going to Church EVERY Sunday you will never fall :) Its part of Heavenly Fathers plan to help us, he has given us all of the tools necessary to make it back to him. We just have to choose whether or not we are going to grab firmly to the Iron Rod! It's our choice!

So what else.....Ok we had zone conference on Tuesday! Again I can not believe that it was already time for another zone conference...these days are flying! Anyways we talked mostly about our Purpose for 2012! Which includes 3rd Nephi 5:13 along with a bunch of other things. Mostly we focused on the healing power of the atonement! We talked about how we can and should apply the atonement daily in our lives, so that we can therefore help and teach others about the atonement. I know that you all are probably getting tired of me saying this, but its all about CHANGE! We need to constantly be making changes, focusing on how we can become a better disciple of our Savior Jesus Christ. A better mother, a better father, a better brother, sister, teacher, missionary....etc! The list can go on and on. I just love my Savior more than anything and am SO thankful that he gives us chance after chance to repent and become better. It is never too late, our savior is just waiting with open arms all we have to do is reach up there and grab his hand.

Welp....So we were also able to contact some peeps that we have been trying to this week. One of them was Eder. He is a humble guy in his 20's who just recently moved here to Brentwood. We took the Majanos over there to a lesson and were able to teach him the restoration and he loved it. He is preparing for baptism and is happy and very surprised that we care enough to teach him. Lets see....Oh ok another cool story.... So my companion and I were walking out of the backyard of an investigators house that we had just talked to. When a car pulled up to their drive way next door. ( you have to know this is the third time that this same car has driven up at the same time)

I felt an impression...I had to go and talk to these people. So my companion and I went to go and talk to this family getting out of their car. So I walked over there and the lady sneakily went into her house. I was left with the dad and his two sons. So I talked to him and he said that he did not really have time to talk, because he was getting ready to go to work. He then told us that we could go and talk to his wife. So we went in their back yard to go and knock on her door. We did, then no answer. We tried again, still no answer. So then a little disappointed we went and knocked the other two doors in the back to the other house. Nada! So about to give up I walked around the corner and numbed into the dad again. We explained to him that we knocked and she didn't answer. So then he told us to go back with him and apparently she was in the back room and couldn't hear us. So she invited us to sit down and we did. We talked to her and explained to her who we were and what we did. We taught her a short lesson. She paused and then said," Did Martha send you?" We then asked her who Martha was. Apparently one of her friends goes to a church and told her that she would send two people to come and teach her. We then replied no but told her that Heavenly Father has a big plan for her and that it's not casualidad ( I don't know how to say that in english anymore) anyways it was not by chance that we came) She then told us that she was waiting for us, and she recognized that we were the Lords Servants. She was more than grateful for our visit.

Remember that AWESOME referral the Carpio Family?!! Well we were able to meet with them again with Hermano Lee. Alfredo is the dad and he is seriously the COOLEST guy ever! We were able to have a wonderful lesson with them, we taught the restoration and they loved it! We invited them to be baptized and they all accepted. They are so ready and have been prepared by other missionary's in the past. I am so thankful for faithful, diligent missionary's who have planted seeds in the past so that now their hearts can be prepared and are ready to accept the gospel now. Just like Hermana Creason said, sometimes as missionarys when we do not see the results that WE as humans, natural man want to see, we feel as if we have failed. But that is NOT true. Just like in Preach my gospel it says, "No effort is wasted". We are always planting seeds, and even though we do not see results immediately. All of you that are not full time missionary's I invite you to talk to your friends about the gospel, invite a non member over for a family home evening! Member work is the BEST!

Its that time, I hope that something that I said has inspired someone, somewhere out there to be a little bit better than you were yesterday. To be more diligent in whatever it might be. Maybe in your prayers, maybe in scripture study, whatever it may be, we all have room to change and improve. I am thankful for my opportunity that I have on the mission to look at my weaknesses and see how I can make them stronger. I am thankful for a loving savior, who wants nothing more than to help us return to live with him. May we treat everyone as a child of God, because that is what we are. May we speak kindly of one another. May we always stand up for what we believe, and help spread this message of hope, of peace, of joy and love! We have a great work to do!

I love you Family! Thank you for all of your love and support! You are the BEST!!!

Con Mucho Amor,
Hermana Gray

“May we ever be courageous and prepared to stand for what we believe, and if we must stand alone in the process, may we do so courageously, strengthened by the knowledge that in reality we are never alone when we stand with our Father in Heaven,” President Thomas S. Monson said during the priesthood session of the October 2011 general conference.

I have to confess I am in love with Peruvians!!  :)

Date: January 18, 2012
Area: Long Island
Companion - Sister Lewis


Querida Familia!

    Well due to Holidays....our preparation day was switched around that
is why I am writing today :) Where is time going? Someone must have thrown
the clock out the window...because time is "Flying"! Anyways I guess that
there is nothing that we can do about that except, live it up! Alright So
Monday....Monday we had a wonderful Family Home Evening with the Montenegro
family along with a bunch of other family's! We talked about the atonement
in our lives and how we can use and need to use the atonement in our own
lives. That is what it is all about. It's about CHANGE! Are we better today
than we were yesterday? Are we repenting and making changes daily? That is
why we are here on this life to learn, make changes and constantly improve
and to be the person that our Heavenly Father wants us to be. To ultimately
reach our potential....we have so much potential it is just up to us if we
are going to reach it or not.
    
We went looking up people the other day and we went to go and look up
a little girl named Areli. We got in and began talking to her, she is 13
and told her that there were other sisters who would come and visit them.We
were able to talk to her and she said that she wanted to know more about
Jesus Christ and she enjoys coming to church so we are going to continue
working with her. She is great!
    
Oh ok so I totally forgot...ok so about 2 weeks ago we received this
AWESOME referral from a Member in New Jersey. So we finally were able to
get in contact with them. The mom and dad were not there, however we were
able to meet with the 3 girls. They are the ages of 24,13 and 9. They are
from Peru and are the most darling girls ever! They let us right in. They
gave us some cool drink thing from Peru, it was some sort of natural juice
it was yummy. Anyways we were able to talk to them about what we do as
missionary's and how we were there to help them. We read with them a
scripture and set up a return appointment. They said that we could come
over whenever we wanted. We then promised them that we would bring them
each their own copy of the Book of Mormon. They were all super excited! I
talked to Stephany on the phone the 24 year old during the week and she
told me that little Alexandra the 9 year old was wanting us to hurry and
bring her copy of the Book of Mormon. They are absolutely adorable! not to
mention they are Peruvian! ( Secretly I want to be Peruvian! )
      
We were walking down the street talking to everyone in
sight...(which right now with this cold....well there are not too many
people walking outside....because its FREEZING! ) However there was this
one man and we stopped him and began talking to him. We invited him to
church and he said that he really wanted to know more. We made another
appointment with him and gave him the restoration pamphlet. We went back
another day with Hermana Majano and he was excited to learn more. We were
able to talk to him a little bit, however his friend took over the entire
lesson and we just ended up listening to him talk the whole time. Eder
apologized for his friend and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and
set up another time. We went back and he said that he had read the pages
that we left for him, and he said that it was really interesting.
       
 I absolutely LOVE the power of the Book of Mormon. When one really
takes the time to sit down and read the Book of Mormon, automatically there
is a spirit that comes and a sense of peace that comes right along with the
Book of Mormon. More often that not I have found on my mission that there
are many people who have negative things to say about the Book of Mormon.
My first response is always, "Well have you read it?" And 120% of the time
the answer is NO! We can not love that which we do not know. It's just like
that little girl in General Conference said from Canada, " If you have not
read the Book of Mormon, then you have not researched my church, because I
have read every single page of the Book of Mormon and I know that it is
true." I have done the same and I know with out a doubt that the Book of
Mormon is true. This book can change our lives if we read it and apply its
teachings. This is HIS work and it will be done His way! It will not stop
until he says its done.
        
Heavenly Father loves us and he wants NOTHING but the best for us.
That is why he sent his only begotten son, to come to earth and atone and
suffer pains and afflictions of every kind in the garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus Christ suffered so that through him we can be saved if we choose to
repent! If we choose to make changes. If we choose to use the tools that
our Loving Heavenly father has provided us with. One of which is the Book
of Mormon. We also have family's, God has placed each and every one of us
here on this earth in family's so that we might be able to learn and grow.
He has given us the gospel, which really is the

"Good news", and it is our job as members of his ONE and only TRUE church
to go and Spread it! We all have faults, we all fall short, but that is why
there is the atonement of our savior Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father loves us
all the SAME, because he is PERFECT! He is omnipotent and has a love for
each and everyone of us that is uncomprehending. If you are falling short
in anyway I invite you to come unto Jesus Christ with all purpose of heart
and Repent, make those changes necessary so that one day you can live with
your father in Heaven who loves you SO much! He does! Never forget that!
Its never to late to make changes and follow the perfect example that our
Savior Jesus Christ has set.

I love you all! I love being a missionary! There is nothing greater than
serving others and helping build God's Kingdom!

Remember its not about* you!* It's all about others! So go and out Serve!

Con mucho Amor,
Hermana Gray

*God’s love fills the immensity of space; therefore, there is no shortage
of love in the universe, only in our willingness to do what is needed to
feel it. To do this, Jesus explained we must “love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, … soul, … strength, and … mind; and thy neighbour as
thyself” (Luke 10:27 <http://lds.org/scriptures/nt/luke/10.27?lang=eng#26>).
*