Hermana Cassie Joan Gray: Feliz dia de presidentes!

My wonderful family and friends,

How are all of you doing? It sounds from the emails that you are all having a wonderful time and party without me (or in the case of my siblings, with my picture on the road trip!! Whoot whoot! Two places at once, I think yes. . ;) )!

This past week wassuper incredible and totally sucky all at the same time. Basically we got a huge whipping of humble pie! haha. which is great as a missionary and I am glad we made the mistake early on but at least it was early in my mission and I know never to do it again!! haha. ;)

Satan really tries your investigators once they commit to something so wonderful!!

Esteban is really doing so wonderful. This is also where we got some humble pie thrown in our face. . ;)

We went through the baptismal questions with him and both felt he was ready. Cause hello. . he is just awesome. So we of course have to rush around on valentines day doing all sorts of crazy things because your baptism interview has to be a week before so we had to do it the Friday night (valentines day). Of course EVERYONE has plans. . hello who doesn't celebrate love? So we are like who can we get. Then I was like who is single and young and has a car that would give him a ride. . MATT! Perfect. So we get him a ride and Matt gets lost. We drive to find them (wasting precious miles. . .:( ) and then we get to the church he has his interview and basically Elder Bradshaw said logically he thinks it would have been fine to baptize him this week but that he just wasn't feeling it spiritually. He basically said that he understood that the church is wonderful and all these things and it helps you fix your problems and what not but he didn't understand the significance of the restoration and stuff.

So Sunday night we had an excellent lesson with him at the Garcia's home where we repassed the Resto and seriously he had NO RECOLLECTION of it. haha. minus the Joseph Smith part (and we think that was mostly because he had watched the movie). So we were like WOW! Hello humble pie thrown in the face. We definitely felt so bad that we hadn't prepared him the best we could have. But we have reset his date for March 8 and are working towards that. =)

Our cute little family (jesus, Miriam and Natasha) are also having a little sad times right now. Natasha is doing wonderful!! So far in the BOM, she is in like chapter 13 of nephi all by herself! =) And seriously the family is doing so stinking well! They are amazing. They were telling us how they are going to read for an hour as a family EVERY DAY! I was like, man my family didn't even do that and we grew up in the church. And that is what we do as MISSIONARIES. They are the greatest though so stinking cute! We pulled up for our appointment and you could see them check out the window and then they all were sitting on the coach waiting for us to be taught. ;) They are cute. We also did a fun family home evening with them for valentines! I don't know if it was in my last email or not, probably not. But we did it all on serving Christ this valentines, how service is how we can show love. Then we made cupcakes with them and decorated them. They are so cute! The only problem they are having is that they are having troubles getting married. We are hoping for a miracle. It is so sad because they are working so hard to get married and just are having legal troubles. =(

Satan, all the people who want to be baptized have a bazillion trials in front of them and those who don't have like no forseeable problems in their lives. haha. Funny how he works right? But we all know who wins!!! BRING IT SATAN! ;)

Angel is really struggling this week. . he relapsed and it was super sad. Saturday he was up for the weekend and we went to breakfast at Golden corral with them. It was so fun. Then we were going to go there for pizza dinner and before there we went and taught a family in their area! It was super great lesson. . but then we get a text from the other hermanas and they are like "be prepared. . angel relapsed and is super sad". It was the saddest lesson I have EVER been to. It seriously was so hard, but it was bound to happen. We just tried to explain to him that each and every day we have to make the decision to change and become better. It was a hard lesson but in the end it was really good. And we all ate pizza? How do you not end a lesson on a good note with pizza? ;) haha. But it was super sad and he is starting again to conquer the addiction! =)

We had a really neat experience this week. We have been trying to visit Nancy, a less active, for the last two weeks. We had a super incredible lesson and now she's been avoiding us. haha. always seems to happen. But we were there and he husband (also a member, he doesn't want to come to church because he doesn't want to quit drinking alcohol). But Servando let us in and he let us share a message with him, in the middle of a futbol game! WHAT!!MIRACLE! He hasn't accepted the missionaries giving a message in over THREE YEARS! So crazy, truly the Lord has an interesting way of getting to the hearts of people. It was really well and it took us by surprise.

This day we also had the neat experience of having the spirit influence our lesson. We were both reading in PMG for the Hernandez family (recent converts) and we were focusing on the attributes of Christ. During companionship study we both had chosen the SAME ATTRIBUTE, SCRIPTURE, and QUOTE to share with them. And when we gave our lesson Hna. Hernandez seriously was almost in tears the whole time and the spirit was so strong! The spirit really does inspire the lessons, we have no idea what we are doing, ;) It is all the spirit!

We didn't have a snow day this past week but we had a "snow night" and it wasn't too official. Basically it started snowing like CRAZY (okay for VA crazy) and we were eating dinner in the apartment and basically we called the elders and were like do we go to our lesson? Or are we going to get called in in like two minutes? haha. And they were like well the Zone leaders haven't gotten anything yet but we suggest staying in. then the Zone leaders texted us and were like we strongly advise everyone stays in even though we haven't heard from president. So we decided because it wasn't officially called we would stay in and make the cookies we had planned to make on Valentines to deliver to everyone. So that is what we did. Had a cookie making party. haha. I made some oreos and Hermana nord made some chocolate chip. And we ended up taking them around to investigators and less actives with a scripture on them about love and we read the scripture with them and talked about the love of Christ. It was really fun. =)

I reached 100 days in the MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously when I started my mission that day seemed SO FAR away. haha. But I am there. It is seriously CRAZY! I am past 100 days! Hermana Nord painted my nails all cute for it. haha. And valentines too. But it was a fun companionship inventory. =)

Valentines wasn't too bad. It progressively went down hill though. haha. We did have a "parking lot party" as the sisters while we waited for the priesthood to get to the church so we could go inside (who knew that was a rule? Not I. haha. But it is just so all you Utahan's know). So we all jammed out to some music because the mission rule changed for music! WAHOO! We can now listen to basically anything churchy. It is pretty sweet. =) We bought some music at the Christian store to celebrate. =)

Yesterday was pretty fun. We went to the McCoy's for dinner and went early to play games. We played Pictionary and Taboo (dad's favorite)! Our branch is kind of unique because the branch refuses to feed just one set of missionaries so we all eat together basically every dinner. haha. So it was all the hermanas (2 sets) the elders and then the zone leaders came too. And the Mueller family and Garcia family were there too. So we basically had a party yesterday night. ;) It was fun. =)

Funny moment of the week: or at least we think we are hilarious. The practical jokes continue:

So above mine and Hermana Nord's desks there is a HUGE picture of Christ and it is really annoying (not the picture although it is an odd choice. haha) because it rattles against the wall. And we always are touching it to stop it. Anyways we decided during weekly planning to move it to Hermana Johnson's "corner" haha. She about had a heart attack when she walked in. We were laughing so hard. Don't worry it has stayed in the corner! It is NOT coming back! haha. =)

Well, that is basically it for the week. Not too much happened. ;) and lots happened all at the same time! I am excited because a package apparently arrived for me today! The other hermana's got it at the house for me! =) =) WAHOO! I love mail!

Well, have a good week family! Love you all!

Hermana Gray

"It is simply there. It is there for you when you are sad or happy, discouraged or hopeful. God's love is there for you whether of not you feel you deserve love." -Thomas S. Monson

Have a wonderful week and remember I love you and so does Heavenly Father! Always continue adding to your mansion in Heaven! =)