Hermana Cassie Joan Gray: Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Hola familia!
It has been so great to read your letters and learn what you all have been doing for the New year! So crazy to think it is already 2014!!! so crazy, and it is even weirder to think that I won't see any of you at all this year. . so sad but true! But so exciting and joyous at the same time! =)

Well well well. . . . I have to admit that I think the way I describe my Spanish struggles EVERYONE thinks I am really struggling with Spanish. haha. I only received I think 5 letters this week about Spanish and then a couple of emails about it too. haha. =) And thanks to Katie Hoggan, a Spanish for dummies book which I laughed really hard when I got! =) But Really Spanish is coming along great! Just slower than I would like it to! I just want to be fluent RIGHT NOW but I know that it takes time so I am okay with that. It is just a bummer sometimes! =) Really though Spanish is coming great, I use it everyday so hopefully it will improve a lot with time! =)
This week was really fun! Definitely different bringing in the New year in the mission field. . =)

For our last day of 2013 we went out and taught people the gospel! =) haha. Usual missionary response! But true. We had the chance to visit with Arelis who is one of my FAVORITE people in this world. haha. She is this lady who just like adopts you in. And ilda her mom is awesome, she totally reminds me of Grandma Gray a little bit so it cracks me up when we go over there. =) But Arelis is so great, she is a devote catholic and her pastor says the only thing wrong with the Mormons is the book of Mormon (LAME! NOT TRUE! The bom is so incredible) But yeah. She was like but I promised you girls that I would read it so I will. We ended up reading the first chapter and introduction with her so that was great. She is really funny too because she doesn't understand why the priesthood can only be held by boys. She was telling Hermana nord she was like I belive if you put your hands on my head and blessed me to be healed you could do it. It was just an interesting lesson. She is really a funny lady though and is always so welcoming to us! =) She loves the hermanas!

For New years eve we went to the Richie's home. Just a member in the ward. They were super nice. They made us a bunch of different like fingery foods and we played games. We played signs and do you love your neighbor, and just bigger group games. And then we also may have watched some studio C with them! haha. It was fun! =)

We wanted to rebel that night and wake up at 11:30 and make brownies (a lady in the ward gave us personal pan brownies for Christmas!) and we were going to have brownies and ice cream and bring in the new year but NONE of the alarms in our apartment went off. haha. So apparently Heavenly Father was like "oh no you won't" but really there is probably a reason as missioanries we are supposed to obey the rules even on holidays! =) It was great though. We had fun and had taken some pictures the night before the new year! =)

The first day of the new year was TOUGH! We had NO SUCCESS number wise anyways. . it was kind of rough. But in reality we had an INCREDIBLE week! We taught 15 lessons! Which Hermana Nord said is the most she has ever taught in one week on her mission. But we had lots of success even with a whole day of zeros. Which is a rough way to start the new year. But we did have some success, just not number wise. Estaban came to English class!

We do English class every Wednesday, we teach them English. It is funny reminds me of my first days in the CCM. =) But it was neat, he came! It was only our second time ever seeing him too. But he is now super awesome and is a progressing investigator we have!

We also celebrated the new year by heading to Sweet Frog! =) It's a frozen yogurt place. Oh yeah, you better believe it, definitely had me some coconut frozen yogurt! It was delicious! =)

Oh man, I am looking at my journal to see what to write you and can I just say I am hilarious. And the first of the year was rough and interesting. Anyways. . . the second.

So CRAZY stuff happened on the second. haha. We were teaching Fransico who is one of our really interested investigators. He just struggles with the idea of authority because he believe his baptism was good. And we are just struggling to explain that een though your baptism was sincere it didn't have the right wuthority. Anyways. . he is currently praying to receive an answer if it is good to be baptized again by someone possessing authority of God. But we teach him the plan of salvation the end. And we have a super great lesson, walk outside. . we are in the sketchy neighborhood mind you. It is like 9 at night walking to our car. . oh yeah, you better believe it our car is NOT THERE!! haha. We were DYING! Yeah totally thought it was stolen. So of course we are freaking out we call Elder Simmons and are like our car is not here. He has us call the police, then we call the hermanas who live with us to come and pick us up. And we are just like oh man. . .this is bad. So then we have to go be awkward and ask to stay with Fransico until the hermanas arrive. The hermanas get there and are like they told us we have to wait for the ZL's to get here. So it is like 9:30 at night and we are chilling in a parking spot waiting for the ZL's to get here. It was just interesting. We are freaking out cause ALL our bags are in the car because his granddaughter likes to play with them so we don't have ANYTHING! Just our Spanish scriptures. and pamphlets. Yeah, our car got towed!! Although we wouldn't have been surprised if it had gotten stolen. I have learned my lesson though. We will always take our bags in no matter how annoying the children are! ;) But yeah, definitely some heart jumping excitement. Got my blood flowing good for a good half hour. =)

We had a really great lesson with Estaban this week! I think it is hilarious cause we teach in the stair well! Hopefully this week we can get a member present so we can actually go in the apartment. haha. But we talked about the restoration and he had watched the video we left with him the first time we met. It was really good. We could just see so many ways the Lord has prepared him. Although he is a devote Catholic in his church but he did say he would be willing to come to our church one sunday. It was great because he came to English class on the Wednesday and it's at the church so we had the chance to show him the building sort of. And he really is into art, he is good at drawing so he was looking really intensely at some of the artwork of the temples. So that was cool! But he seems like he is golden! We just have to take the time and make sure we are teaching by the spirit and hopefully he can see the truthfulness of our message as he reads the BOM.

Oh and yeah, Estaban lives in the same apartment complex as Fransico. . Estaban is so nice though and is like a girl should never walk alone to the car here so he always walks us to our car. And then of course he was telling us the week before he saw someone get mugged like right outside the apartments and they had to be taken to the hospital. . yeah definitely helping me want to stay and teach at these apartments. haha. =) But we are safe and have spiritual protection too! We just need to remember to be careful in that area! =) No worries mama dear! ;)

Yesterday was my first Fast sunday in the field! It was SO great! I actually understood basically all the testimonies minus like two but they spoke REALLY fast! So I was okay with that. But it was neat to see how much I understood and how much is actually sticking! =) We had dinner yesterday with the Castillo family and it was SO SO good! =) DELICIOUS!! We also celebrated Elder Jone's birthday with some ice cream cake! It was fun! =) Elder Jones is our DL, he leaves this next transfer.

This week I received so much LOVE from everyone! Thanks to all! I received a package from Chrissy and the New Year's package you sent me mama dearest! =)

I LOVED all the letters! All the kiddos drawings are on the wall and yours too coll! haha. I was laughing really hard. And the hermanas thought you were hilarious to put the "any sisters I need to write let me know". . good times! But I laugh all the time about that! =) You aren't that bad of an artist if I must say. haha. But I LOVED the letters! Made my day! I also got letters from Tj's family this week and Katie Hoggan sent me pictures and a Spanish for dummies book. haha.

I can't wait to get a new niece this week!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! Cute little baby girl! =) I don't know if it is like some secret honor that I know the name or not so I don't want to ruin the name surprise if it is!! But I LOVE the name Tj and Meg! =) She is going to be so adorable! Can't wait to see some pictures of her! And mom have so much fun with the other kiddos too! You are the greatest! I also can't imagine dad taking on the sunbeams by himself.. haha. that'll be hilarious! I wish I could be a fly on the wall during that! ;)

Okay some questions I got this week from all of you all! =) And please ask questions if you have any because it makes thinking of things to talk about besides investigators easier! and I know I had tons of questions when I would write Collin but I can';t remember what they are now! haha.

Well mama dearest. We get $150 for the month. And we can spend it basically however we want but we are supposed to follow the guidelines in the white bible. We are supposed to buy food, shampoo, toiletries, stuff like that with it. Personal stuff (like printing pictures, I think like stamps and stuff we are supposed to buy with out personal money) And it is like a role over card so what I don't spend in a month I can have for the next month also. Right now I am pretty rich cause I came at the end of the month and so they gave me like 50 bucks for my last two weeks then I got refunded my 40 for the baggage at the airport on the card. So I am rolling in the dough. ;) Okay not really but it feels like I am as a missionary. haha. And No we don't pay rent or anything. And actually we didn't have to pay to get out car out either. We thought we would cause in the mission handbook it sounds like we would have to but we didn't so that was nice cause it was like $140 to get it out I think. =) We are definitely blessed. I am so glad the car wasn't stolen though. . .that would have been a LOT worse!

And Kam asked about after 5:00.

So basically our day goes something like this:

6:30 get up and pray exercise for 30 minutes

7:00 get ready for the day

8:00 personal study

9:00 comp study

10:00 language study

11:00 additional study (12 week program) which is a booklet for new missionaries and their trainers where we practice giving the lessons and stuff and role play and what not.

12:00 lunch

1:00 we start visiting

5 or 6 we take an hour dinner if we eat with a member it tends to be like an hour and a half with travel time and what not and Spanish people are very into feeding you and get offended if you don't stay long so president has approved staying for an hour and fifteen. And then depending on the member and where they live it can take about an hour and forty five minutes with travel time.

then by 9 you are supposed to be in your apartments unless you are in a lesson then 9:30/

9 you plan for the next day

and 10:30 you are in bed.

But basically during the holidays he didn't want us proselyting on the holidays after 5:00. For safety reasons so we could go to members homes and that was about it which we had people want us to go to their house so that is what we did. But if not we would have had to just go to our apartment.

But normally we can't proselyte on new people's homes after dark. Like we can't knock doors for safety reasons once it is dark. But we basically visit all the Less actives and investigators that we have appointments with but then if we run out of people to visit we will have to go home and do additional studies. But normally we can find at least one person to talk to a night for a good 40 minutes. So normally we are teaching a lesson during the night time. =)

I am trying to think of something else to share with you. haha. I am reading right now in 3 Nephi! It is super awesome! I am loving it. I love when Christ is on the earth. . such an incredible moment! =) I especially loved in chapter 17 when it talks about how Christ wept when he was blessing the children! So great. Just shows how much he really cares for use. I love that though. and just chapter 19 all about prayer. I really liked 3 Nephi 19:25 when it says that "his countenance did smile upon them, and the light of his countencance did shine upon them." So neat! I just love the smile upon them. I just LOVED it made me happy on the inside! =)

Oh yeah, totally forgot to mention this but I thought it was super cool! I totally got a RANDOM letter from someone I had never met before! He just happened upon my blog and was reading it and thought it was really neat so he wrote me a letter! He is LDS and his parents apparently live close to here and he was looking up some stuff about the stake and my blog appeared. But cool! I love getting mail so that was neat! =)

Well, I don't have much else to say! Except I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! I love you and miss you! It is really great though and I am loving the mission. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it's great, but mostly it's wonderful! I am usually just my happy self normally so it tends to be great! I tend to realize when I am focusing on me those are the tough days so really I just need to have more charity towards others and focus on the work! Although sometimes it's hard! haha. =) But really it is so WONDERFUL and INCREDIBLE in the field! I can't wait to see the difference I can make in the lives of others! =)

I LOVE YOU, be safe and have fun!

Love,

Hermana Gray

Feel free to write me! ;) I LOVE every letter! It makes my day to go to the mailbox (online and the actual) and have mail! Love you family! and friends too! =)

Oh yeah, whoever asked about the weather, it is so undecisive! haha.

It was no joke 25 degrees the other day than yesterday it was 65!!!! haha. Who knows! But it is so weird to NOT have snow, I miss it which is weird! haha. But it is definitely a different situation with the weather. :) Anyways my randomness for you! =)