Loving life and missionary work ;)

Date: July 17, 2012

Area: Brooklyn

Companions - Sister Delong, Sister Cahill

Querida Familia,

HAPPY 13th birthday Courty Shorty :) You are a teenager! Stop growing up haha I love you!
This was another WONDERFUL busy week! Full of changes and fun! Alrighty...so the last Monday night we were able to go and look up an investigator and while knocking on the door Jeffrey who we were looking for came walking up the stairs and then told us that he had actually been wanting to talk with us. It was really neat to see as we followed the spirit what things he needed to hear.
We had President Interviews this week. I felt like it was a PPI :)

President Calderwood is simply incredible and I am loving learning from him. I know that he truly was called by our Heavenly Father by a Living Day Prophet. It was really neat to be able to talk with him about some of my goals that I have as a missionary and to be able to have him give me advice so that I can become the missionary that my Father in Heaven wants me to be. I know that he has been called here to the New York New York South mission at this time for a reason. I know that we are going to see GREAT and Marvelous things come to pass. He truly is amazing! ~ Dad he reminds me of you.

Wednesday night we were able to go to a Family Home Evening. The familia Bonilla invited 2 non members over to their house and we were able to teach them the Restoration of the Gospel. It was so helpful to have them in a members home and to hear both Hermana And Hermano Bonilla bear witness and simply yet powerful testimony of the Restoration and of the Book of Mormon. It is the IDEAL situation when a member invites a friend over and then invites the missionary's over. They then are able to have a instant friend and support when the missionary leaves. I invite you ALL who are reading this to invite a friend over to your home and then invite the missionary’s to teach or have a Family Home Evening :) I promise you that you will feel the spirit of missionary work and that you will be happier! TRUST ME :) Missionary work makes you happy! Why do you suppose that all of the missionary's are ALWAYS SO HAPPY? :)

On Thursday we were able to go and have exchanges. Hermana Delong stayed with me and Sister Faiva (who is Samoan and Hawaiian). We were looking up a bunch of people knocking doors the whole time. Then when our last appointment fell through we went to go and look up this Lady named Lucia who I had talked to in the streets like 3 weeks ago. So we went to go and look her up and she was there. She let us in and we were able to teach Her and her son named Luis (age 13)and her daughter named Jazmin (age 9). We were able to teach them the restoration. It was a powerful lesson and it was really neat to see how the spirit worked on each of them individually and how their hearts were softened. We asked Jazmin if she wanted to know if its true and she shouted OF COURSE :) Lucia was thrilled when she found out that church was in Spanish and full of hispanics :) I am SO excited to be able to teach them.

Friday we had a member have his farewell party! His name is Jeffrey and he is going to Salt lake :) I am so excited for him and his family. It feels like it was yesterday I had my farewell party. Saturday night there was a wedding! There is a member who was baptized in this ward here 10 years ago from Peru. She is the only member in her family and so she FLEW out here from Peru to get married in the church because her fiance now husband is not a member and she wanted to set a good example for him. It was such a neat experience to be able to see her still strong. She is going to feed us this week :)


We taught Maria Jose again, and it was such a wonderful lesson. We were able to talk a little bit more about the Plan of Salvation. She is so amazing and strong. She just recently moved here and the first thing that she did was she went and found the missionary's. That's us :) Sunday was great except for the fact that they took Hermana Cahill from us. A sister missionary went home so Hermana Cahill went to flushing with my old companion, Hermana Allen. So now it is JUST the two of us!

Yesterday we had MEGA ZONE CONFERENCE! It was amazing! we talked about the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ and implementing it more in our teachings. President Calderwood is SO inspired and I loved the workshops that the Assistants gave, Elder Hall and Cabanilla. They talked about the Book of Mormon and how it really does answer the questions to our souls. Last night we went looking up people and we were tired.....and just about to go home when we decided to knock ONE MORE DOOR. To our surprize an ENTIRE family of 7 let us in. We taught them all. IT was a different lesson than normal, however we were able to implement the gospel of Christ and the questions of the souls . He had a question about infant baptism so we turned straight to Moroni 8 and talked about how infants have no Need to be baptized and that they are alive in Christ. It was really neat and they invited us back.

I know that this gospel is true! I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much that he gave us familys and prophets and this beautiful gospel. He loves us so much he gave us other scripture. Another testament The Book of Mormon, and through it we can come closer to our Heavenly father than ANY other book. This is the true church!





I love you all!!

Hermana Gray

“You may sometimes be tempted to say, ‘Will my influence make any difference? I am just one. Will my service affect the work that dramatically?’ I testify to you that it will. You will never be able to measure your influence for good." —President Thomas S. Monson

Loving the Work! Happiness!

Date: July 9, 2012

Area: Brooklyn

Companions - Sister Delong, Sister Cahill

Querido Familia,

This was another wonderful week :) I can not believe that we are in JULY already....where is the year going? I remember celebrating new years in Brentwood! Well Familia I hope that you all had a wonderful week :) Well I know that you just heard from me so there is not much to report on....Wednesday night we were able to go and eat at the Familia Jimenez ( they are Dominican which makes them ten times cooler) Hermanas son named Jeffrey is getting ready do go on his mission in about a week so we were able to talk to him about the mission and Preach My Gospel. He is so excited! It is so neat to be to be able to see the fruits of missionary work. It all started by a missionary talking to her and then it lead to her and her family being baptized. Now her son is going to go and serve a mission for the lord, for 2 years. I love the quote from President Monson....Someone onced asked "How do you get all of these young people to go on missions? To which he replied..."We just ask them." Serving a mission for my savior has been BY FAR the MOST rewarding thing that I have ever done. Really I feel SO honored and blessed to be able to be serving a mission for this short time. It was really neat to be able to talk to him about his mission. He is SO excited! I remember when I first got my call and I wanted to tell the WHOLE World :) I could not WAIT to get out to teach the humble souls of NY. I am so happy to hear that Megynn Caffall is on a mission. Megynn you are going to have the time of you life I love you! :)

This Saturday we were able to go and meet Maria Jose and her family. Maria Jose just moved here from Ecuador and she is a recent Convert. She is the ONLY member in her family. We were able to go and teach her mom. It was a wonderful lesson and the spirit was so strong. I love the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants that talks about if the spirit is there, that both the learner and the teacher are both edified. The Spirit is EVERYTHING. With the spirit there miracles happen. The spirit is the one who brings the message to their hearts. It was so neat to be able to see the fruits once again of missionary work. Maria Jose loves the gospel of Jesus Christ and you can really see how she truly has been converted. You can see as President Calderwood says, "That the doctrine of Christ has truly sunk deep into their hearts." We are truly converted when the doctrine of Christ sinks deep into our hearts. He also told us to not go home until we are TRULY Converted! I love this, because that is what we ourselves as missionary's need to convert ourselves. Sister Nelson would always say often your greatest convert will be yourself! I feel that I have changed a TON on my mission through our savior Jesus Christ. I know that it is only through our savior Jesus Christ that we can change. I am so thankful that our Savior Jesus Christ died for us and made it possible to make changes in our lives to become more and more like him. I am thankful that he can forgive us through the atonement Jesus Christ. I am FAR from perfect, however I know that I can be made perfect through our savior. He loves us. He wants nothing more than for us to return to live with him again. That is why he has been so merciful to give us this PLAN. The plan of Salvation. It is the PERFECT plan. It just makes sense. I love the plan and am so thankful for it. I can not express my gratitude for my savior. I love him.

Well we are off. But I just want you to all know that I know that I know that My Savior Lives. I know that he loves us . I know that the Book of Mormon is truly the Word of God and that when we read from it everyday we will be safe. The Book of Mormon has helped Me SO much in my life and I know that we can turn to our Father in Heaven for guidance and that he can answer us. I know that he hears and answers our prayers. Prayer is real. He is waiting, to hear from us. I love this gospel more than anything! This is the lords work.

I love you!!

Keep being amazing! Always remember how special you are in the sight of the lord :) Never ever forget that!

Love
Hermana Gray

“Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments,” he encourages. “There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us. My beloved brothers and sisters, fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith.” ~ President Monson

Happy Independence Day!

Date: July 4, 2012

Area: Brooklyn

Companions - Sister Delong, Sister Cahill

Dearest Familia,

I hope that you all had a WONDERFUL 4th of July! Ours has been wonderful :) We started out by going to Nathans Famous Hot Dog eating Contest :) It was HUGE, and there were a MILLION people there. The winner ate like 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes. I hope that you all enjoyed the traditional ward party. It is crazy to me how time flys, especially on the mission. I remember last year on the forth of July I was in Jamaica with Hermana Alvarado and we watched the fireworks from the roof :) Alrighty Lets get down to business.


It has been so much fun getting to know all of the members here in Midwood, they are incredible! We had a dinner appointment at the Montoyas. Dad I thought you would be proud :) I ate a Completo ( Chilean hot dog). So we were able to meet with the Quispe Family and we read with them the story of King Lamoni and his conversion story. We talked about desires and what we were willing to give up to meet or achieve that which we ultimately desire. We also were able to talk about the importance of the sacrament. I am eternally grateful that we have the opportunity and blessing to attend church every Sunday. I am thankful that I am able to start over the week new and feel clean again. I just love teaching and testifying more than anything. I love teaching and bearing testimony because I find that my testimony grows and my ability to teach also increases. I remember as a little girl learning that your testimony grows every time that you bear it and so I naturally would try to bear my testimony as much as I could. I am MORE than grateful to be on a mission and for the opportunity that I have to bear my testimony with every person that I talk to. I love love talking to people on the train and bearing simple testimony that God is Real and that he loves us. He hears and answers our prayers and that he he just WAITING to bless us.


SATURDAY!!! We were able to meet our New Mission President. President Calderwood. He is from Virginia! We met with the ENTIRE mission on Saturday and we were able to meet President Calderwoods ENTIRE family! They are the sweetest family. It was really fun to get to know him and his wife. President Calderwood is INCREDIBLE! I am MORE than excited to learn from him. Dad he reminds me a lot of you. One thing that he said that I loved was the fact that our love grows....it multiples. It is like a Parent when they have their second child, their love does not split in half, however their love grows. I have seen that time and time again ( well I am not a parent) However, with every new investigator that I teach I am able to instantly love. Something that I have really learned on a mission is how to love. How to love someone completely different from you. To love someone with a different back ground and different styles of doing things. Another example is all of my companions. I truly love each and every missionary that I have had to serve with. I have found that my love or my capacity to love has grown! I love people!!!


Well this week has been nothing but fun :) We were able to meet with Oscar again, we had to reset his baptism date but he is still good. He is so excited! There are people all around us who are waiting to hear the gospel and to accept it. We also were finally able to meet with Eli. She is a sweet humble lady who really likes reading from the Book of Mormon. I have seen the power of the Book of Mormon manifest in the lives of the people I teach and also in my own life. I recently just finished the Book of Mormon again and am going to start it over again :) I have truly seen my faith grow as I have read and truly studied From the Book of Mormon I have also grown closer to my savior Jesus Christ. I invite any of you reading this to read from the Book of Mormon, even if it is just one verse. I promise you that you will grow closer to your Savior and that your faith in Jesus Christ will grow.


I love my MISSION! I love my investigators, the members, EVERYTHING :) I am Happy! :) I hope that you are too!


Love you muchisismo!


Hermana Gray


When hard trials come, the faith to endure them well will be there, built as you may now notice but may have not at the time that you acted on the pure love of Christ, serving and forgiving others as the Savior would have done. You built a foundation of faith from loving as the Savior loved and serving for Him. Your faith in Him led to acts of charity that will bring you hope. ~ President Henry B. Erying

Welp folks...I am going to BROOKLYN :)

Date: June 18, 2012
Area: Flushing Queens - Transferring to Brooklyn
Companion - Sister Allen


Dear Family,

I hope that you all enjoyed fathers day and Dad I hope that the family made it special for you! I love you dad with all my heart and am ETERNALLY grateful for all of the eternal truths that you have taught me and the love that you have for the work of the lord and sharing your testimony. You have truly been an incredible example to me and all of us children. So THANK you :) I love you muchisisisismo!!!

This past week has been amazing as always. Many different miracles have happened and prayers answered....not in the way that we expected but they were answered. I love love this gospel so so much and am so thankful for the principles that it teaches us to live by. Ok so we were able to teach Manuel Lopez about about faith and watched the movie, Finding faith in christ. I thought before the mission that I really understood faith. Believing in something that you can not see. However on my mission I have come to realize that, that is JUST the beggining of faith. Faith is SO much more than that. To simply HAVE faith is NOT enough, however we should ultimately have faith in Jesus Christ. He is the one that makes everything possible. ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is possible through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the one that helps us get through our days. HE is the one who loves unconditionally. It is Us the ones who sometimes fall away, however his arms are ALWAYS stretched out still. He is just waiting to convert us in time of need. He is waiting for us to REPENT and make those changes neccesary so that we can becoem closer to our father in Heaven and one day make it back to live with him in his prescense. I am so grateful and words can not fully express how I feel about my savior Jesus Christ. However this is a HUGE reason why I am out here on my mission. I LOVE MY SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.

Fun note- So on Tuesday night I recieved an unexpected phone call from President Nelson. I was asked if I would train another new missionary. Sure thing :) I am excited and extremely humbled to be able to train another missionary. I have learned SO much from Hermana Allen and I know that I am going to be able to learn SO much from the other sister missionary. She is from Las Vegas I cant wait to meet her tomorrow! All of these experiences are helping shape me into the missionary that the lord wants me to be.

Ok so Thursday we were able to go to the temple with Alexandra Ayala and Manuel Lopez both recent converts. We were able to go with the flushing branch. I never thought that you could grow to love someone so much in such a short amount of time, however I have truly come to LOVE all of the members in the flushing branch. They are SO incredibly humble and just want to serve the lord. It was really neat to be able to go to to the temple and to do baptisms for the dead for the first time with Manuel and Alexandra. It is so neat to be able to see recent converts participating in the great work of the lord.

We had a fathers day BBQ on Friday night which was a HUGE success. There were quite a few people there who were not members whom the ward members invited. Hermana Allen and I sat at a table with these people. There was this one lady named Jackie who kept asking about our beliefs and said that she was going to come to church next Sunday. She was able to see the standards of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She started talking about baptism and we explained to her that we believe in the age of accountability in having one when at the appropiate age ( age 8 and older) be able to choose whether or not they wanted to be baptized. She really liked that, and told us that is the reason that she never baptized her children as a baby. She was excited when we began talking about baptism and is really excited to learn more.

It was strange saying goodbye to everyone yesterday. Like I have said earlier I have truly grown to LOVE all of the people here in Flushing. It is weird on the mission its almost harder for me to say goodbye to the people that I teach then it was to say goodbye to my family back home. You just get so attached to all of these people and you also desire more than ANYTHING their salvation and you just want to truly helpe them through the atonement and the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ.

I know that My redeemer lives. I know that our Savior Jesus Christ performed the atonement so that ALL of us if we obey can make it back to live in the prescense of our Father in Heaven and his son Jesus Christ with our FAMILYS. I know that baptism if the GATE way by which we enter to make it to Eternal Life. I know that Joseph Smith was called as a the prophet of the restoration. I know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. I know that this is his WORK!

I lOVE being a missionary!

I love my family!

I love this gospel!

Love,
Hermana GRAY

HAppy birthday Jocelyn, Amanda Walker and Lindsay Olsen! I love you!

 

 

Be Happy!! and live the commandments! Mosiah 2:41

Date: June 11, 2012

Area: Flushing, Queens

Companion - Sister Allen

Querida Familia,

This week has been wonderful! Time passes WAY fast! I know that you are probably sick of me saying that....but it does...I can not believe that a YEAR ago I landed here in the blessed land of NY! It has been by FAR the BEST year of my life :) And I have had some pretty good years. haha Anyone who is thinking about going on a mission.....do not THINK anymore! Just GO AND DO! (1 Nephi 3:7) You won't regret it!

Ok so Monday as you can see we went to the METS game :) It was pretty fun! It was really neat to be able to see old companions and hang out with other missionarys that I have served with. The mission is simply THE BEST! Monday night we were able to meet with Tito and Maria. We were able to teach tito the first half of the plan of Salvation. I am and will be forever grateful for my savior and the atonement. I am thankful that time and time again he forgives me. I know that I am not perfect....in fact FAR from it. However I know that through my savior Jesus Christ I can become the person and the daughter that he wants me to be. If it was not for the sacrifice the infinite atonement the plan would not work. However I am thankful that our Heavenly Father loved us enough to send his only begotten son, to die for us and pay the price of sin, so that we might have a way to make it back to him. I am and have been learning SO much from my mission, and I have a LOT still TO learn. I am just thankful for the opportunity that he gives me to be here for this time to serve him.

We also had the opportunity to teach Tito the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that we have as God's children to Obey the commandments that he gives us. I know that every commandment is given to us for OUR benefit. They are designed to make us happy! I know that we have a modern day prophet who leads and guides this church. I know that we have the scriptures to help us, The Bible and the Book of Mormon are the word of God. How blessed are we to have them. I am thankful that I have been taught by incredible loving parents to read and study from the Book of Mormon Daily. I feel so blessed.

We have been doing a lot of "finding" this past week and have had the privilege of finding some really cool people. The other day we went to go and look up some people. They were not home so we went to our next plan. When we were walking we saw this lady sitting on her porch so we asked her if she had a couple of minutes. We ended up teaching her the Restoration. She loved it. We invited her to be baptized and then she told us that she had been baptized as a baby catholic. We then showed her the scripture in Moroni 8

11 And their little achildren need no repentance, neither baptism. Behold, baptism is unto repentance to the fulfilling the commandments unto the bremission of sins.
12 But little achildren are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world; if not so, God is a partial God, and also a changeable God, and a brespecter to persons; for how many little children have died without baptism!

We explained to her that we are to be baptized by someone who holds the priesthood authority from God, and at the age of accountability which the lord has told us is at age 8 and above. She then told us that, that made sense and that she would pray about it. She was MORE than excited to read the Book of Mormon. She asked us if she had to pay and when we told her that it was free her eyes LIT up! We were able to help her little son age 8 gave the closing prayer. I absolutely love it when children pray, especially for the first time. It is so humbling and I love the fact that we have the opportunity to pray to our Father in Heaven and ask him for help or answers to questions. Heavenly Father loves us and is just Waiting to help us, however a LOT of the blessings that Heavenly Father has prepared for us are conditional upon our asking. I love this gospel!

Sunday was another wonderful day! We were able to go to the Carpintero's house for dinner. They are amaizing! THey are the BEST! (not to mention they are mexican so they cook the BEST food) :) The rest of the night we were looking up people. We came across this lady and began to talk to her. She immediately told us that her father is a member and would ALWAYS take her to church. She said." I love the Mormon thing"! haha I am so excited to be able to teach her this next week. She had the CUTEST kids little kids.

I love this gospel for it is the thing that TRULY brings us JOY! If we want to be Happy OBEY the commandments :) Its as simple as that. Its like this we need CPR - Church, Prayer and Reading! We need to do what the lord asks of us and we will ALWAYS be happy :) I love MY mission! and am ETERNALLY grateful that I have the opportunity to be here in NY serving my savior for a year and a half. I would NOT rather be doing ANYTHING else! This is HIS work and it wont stop until he says its done!

I love you all! thank you for your love and support!

Les Quiero Mucho!

Hermana Gray



"The attributes by which we shall be judged one day are all spiritual. These include love, virtue, integrity, compassion, and service to others. Your spirit, coupled with and housed in your body, is able to develop and manifest these attributes in ways that are vital to your eternal progression. Spiritual progress is attained through the steps of faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end, including the endowment and sealing ordinances of the holy temple."

—Elder Russell M. Nelson,

June?!!? Where is the time going?

Date: June 4, 2012
Area: Flushing, Queens
Companion - Sister Allen


Querida Familia,

Another week has come and gone. I feel like I JUST got here and now in three days it will have been an ENTIRE year since I first set foot here in the blessed land of New York! It is wonderful! I love it here! I am and will forever be Eternally Grateful for the choice I made to serve a mission, to serve my savior Jesus Christ for a year and a half. The time is short, I wish I had more time. This last week has been absolutely marvelous! Lets see.....

Wednesday- We were able to teach English Class. We had two students this time. They started asking questions about Where we came from? Where are we going? and what our purpose was on this earth. Hermana Allen and I had the privilage of teaching the Plan of Salvation. I absolutely LOVE teaching the plan of Salvation. It has got to be my favorite, the reason being because it really does answer ALL of those questions. It also lets us know why we are here, and what we need to do in order to make it back to live with our Heavenly Father. One of my Favorite Scriptures answers this question. In the Book of Mormon ALma 34:32 "For behold, this alife is the time for men to bprepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of cthis life is the day for men to perform their dlabors.". How blessed we are to know why we are here. I know that Heavenly Father has a purpose for each and every one of his children. I know that he loves us and that he wants NOTHING more than for us to return to live with him. I am so thankful for the gospel- the teachings of our savior Jesus Christ in my life and the knowledge that I have to know that he died for me. This knowledge makes me want to be better! To be the type of person that my Heavenly Father would have me be. I am thankful for my savior and am so thankful for the love that he shows me and that I am able to repent every day. I am also humbled to be here on the mission and to be able to put into practice the things that I learn, and am thankful for the lord and his forgiveness.

We were walking going to look up people, when we began talking to this girl. It was really neat to see how she recognized that we were servants of the Lord and she congratulated us on our hard work. We were able to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she was MORE than grateful :)

SUPER FUNNY NOTE- Ok so the other day the Elders gave us a refferall. There was this guy that came up to the Elders and asked if they were the Mormons. He said that he had studied with everyone else except for us, and he said that we were next. So we went to go and look up this referral. We knocked and he peeked his head out and asked us if we were the Jehovah Witnesses, to which we replied no. Then he quickly asked if we were the mormons and we said YES! He smiled and said COME on in. (Now you have to understand this man looked like CAPTAIN HOOK! He even talked like him and had looooooong curly hair) Ok so we went inside and quickly found out that he spoke more english. So we asked him if we could come back in like 40 minutes.... He said, " are you going to prepare?" haha something like that :) So we called the English ELders and then came back with them. When we knocked on the door the second time and he answered saying "HI YAAA" and stood there in a NINJA pose :) So we left him in the hands of the blessed elders and we went on our merry way :) They said that they had a VERY interesting lesson with him :)

We were able to teach both Alexandra and Juliana the importance of prayer and DAILY scripture study. I have SUCH a testimony of the power of prayer. It is REAL it works! If you aren't praying I invite you to pray. There is nothing more satisfying that getting down on your knees and offering a sincere heartfelt prayer to your father above. My testimony of prayer grows more and more every day in the mission. As I am able to see the hand of the lord in my life. I know that Heavenly Father Loves each and every one of his children and that he wants us to succeed. That is why he has so lovingly given us the Book of Mormon. How blessed are we? There are people that died for the Bookf of Mormon, and I think to myself sometimes am I taking FULL advantage of the Book of Mormon? Am I reading and searching through its pages to see what I can learn from it? He has given us the FULL ness of the gospel. I know that the fullness of the gospel has been restored through a Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that we have a LIVING modern day prophet today! Do we listen and heed to his counsel? He has given us Temples! The closest place on earth to Heaven! Are we attending the temple as often as we should? There are so many things that I need to do better, and I am SO thankful for the atonement and the opportunity that we have to go to church EVERY Sunday to partake of the sacrament and to renew our covenants which we have made.

This is HIS WORK!
This is the TRUE Church!
I love being a missionary! There is nothing greater :)

I love you all
Muchisimo amor,
Hermana Gray

(p.s. Ill get pictures next week! We are heading to the METS GAME :)

As you seek to live the gospel and doctrine of Christ, the Holy Ghost will guide you and your family. ~ Elder M. Russel Ballard.


Miracle- I found out that this girl that I talked to the other day when I was on exchanges- I talked to her and got her information and then I set up an appointment for the other sisters to teach her because I was on exchanges and not serving in that area.....anyways I recieved a text the other day saying that the girl that I talked to is getting baptized the JUNE 17th!! You never know what seeds you plant :) Talk to everyone! THe lord is preparing the hearts of many :)

 

 

 

 

Come what MAY and LOVE it!!!

Date: May 21, 2012

Area: Flushing, Queens

Companion - Sister Allen

Dearest Familia,

Where oh where has the time gone!?! I have now been out an entire year.... :( the time keeps going faster and faster and my window is closing....I need to make the BEST of the time that I have here! Enjoy your mission...It goes by faster than you think! So let us begin...
Monday Monday - Was a wonderful day! I love being able to show families out here how to do Family Home Evenings. I am so thankful that growing up Mother and Father you always made sure that we had family home Evening. That was truly a time that I cherished growing up. So anyways we were able to have a family home evening with Guadalupe, Guillermo and Michelle. We read 1 Nephi 8 and acted out Lehi's Dream. It is really nice to sit and think about this chapter in the Book of Mormon and put it into perspective as well as the gospel. There are those that make it to the tree and partake of the fruit (being the gospel), however they are ashamed. There are others who do not make it because they are made fun of along the way. Lastly there are those who make it all the way to the end. If we endure to the end and live the gospel of Jesus Christ- that is when we can make it to the celestial Kingdom. Its Worth it! (Vale la Pena). One of my favorite quotes is, " I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it." This is my favorite verse:

"But, to be short in writing, behold, he saw other multitudes pressing forward; and they came and caught hold of the end of the arod of iron; and they did press their way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree." (1 Nephi 8:30)

Sorry my thoughts are scattered, I was talking with my father, and I am So thankful that we have commandments. The commandments are to help us and guide us, so that we can make it back to live with him. They are guidelines to make us Happy! Here is a secret- If you want to be happy OBEY and LIVE the commandments of the gospel of Jesus Christ. :) Don't tell anyone I told you that :) haha No but really its true. The people that are miserable in life and the ones that are not obeying the commandments. So its our choice....Do we want to be happy or miserable? Its all up to us!

Funny Note- So on Monday we were running back and forth to appointment and we had not eaten dinner...so we decided to run quickly to this chinese restaurant. We went inside and began franktically searching the menu. I then asked this nice old looking guy next to me what his favorite thing on the menu was. He then proceeded to tell me a lot of things to try. He then asked what we were doing here and we told him that we were missionarys. He then told us that he was From Israel and a Jew. We then said, "Oh the Covenant People." With that being said he grinned. He asked us if we got paid for what we do. We replied no and actually on the contrary. That we paid to be here. He then was more interested and asked what we did. So went on to explain a little bit about what we do as missionarys. He then said,"You girls are so dedicated to what you do, and I know that it is for a good cause, for that I am going to buy your dinner." So this Jewish Man bought us our dinner. It was very nice of him.

We were able to have a breakfast with the Elders as we talked to a member who recently got married and so she wants us to start teaching her now Husband named Tito :) so we are excited to be able to teach him! Friday we were able to teach the Ayala Girls. We talked about missionary work. We even did a practice about sharing the gospel with their friends. They loved it and were laughing pretending to be someone on the bus After that we went to the church to go to an activity that the Young womens and relief society were having. We all ended up going to Taco Bell- which I thought was SO funny and Ironic :) A bunch of hispanics at Taco bell lol We really enjoyed being there and talking about what activity we are going to be doing for Fathers Day.

Saturday was great! We did a lot of look ups and contacting people in the street. Sunday was wonderful! It always is. It was really nice to be able to go to church. I really enjoy playing the piano for the ward! (Yes I did just say that! Thank you Mother and Father for being so dilligent in making sure that I practiced as a little kid :) ) Anyways the girls came and it was good! There were some really good talks that I thoroughly enjoyed. We were in charge of little Julian making sure that his father could go to priesthoood. After church Hermana Allen and I went straight to work! We went and hit the pavement! We went and knocked doors! It was great! Long story short we REALLY had to use the bathroom ha and we were knocking this door when the next door neighbors (these 2 white guys) told us that the family that we were looking for had just moved. We then asked them if we could use their restroom to which they said yes. So we ended up going to use their restroom and then we were able to teach them the first half of the Restoration. It was really weird teaching it all in english :) ha but I loved it! It is really humbling being able to see someone ikneel down and pray for the first time. Afterwards we asked him how he felt and he shouted, " I FEEL GOOD". He actually worked on the set "The Book of Mormon" play on Broadway. We then told him that he could have his OWN copy of the Book of Mormon and find out what it isreally about :) He liked that idea and thanked us for the visit.

Missionary work is great! I love it! There is NOTHING like it! If you are thinking about a mission DO IT! If you haven't thought about it...-THINK ABOUT It! And then GO! ITs the best thing that I have EVER done in my life. I have come closer to my Savior Jesus Christ by doing his work and serving his children. I love my family so much! So Family if you are reading this- LES QUIERO MUCHISISISISIMO! :) I love you lots! I have the best parents and I am so so thankful that you have raised me the way that you did. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It is another Testamant of Jesus Christ and I promise you that if you read from it everyday you will feel of his love and come to know more about your Savior Jesus Christ than by reading any other book. I love you all!

Thank you everyone for your love and support! It means everything to me :)

Love.
Hermana Gray

"Our lives of service and sacrifice are the most appropriate expressions of our commitment to serve the Master and our fellowmen."~ Dallin H.Oaks