Happy Fourth of July!

Hello dearest family and friends,

This week was pretty great! It was a little weird because we didn't have that much of an opportunity to do too much missionary work. Which was a bummer. We had fun though and that is what counts! =)

Tuesday was good. We had a lesson with a man named Alberto. He is super nice and is always telling us the neatest things and his testimony is just so strong. We went over the baptismal interview questions just to kind of see where he is at. He receives the lessons both here and in New Jersey since he works as a bus driver. He just has such a wonderful testimony of the gospel. It is kind of a bummer though since we have to give him back to the elders due to some boundary changes in our area. Bummer having to give up our progressing investigator. haha. Lame. But we will find a new one and get over it. :) Tuesday was also deep clean so we attacked our apartment pretty good. It is kind of a ghetto apartment so it was pretty gross to clean. But it looks a lot better than before. It really just needs a new paint job to help it out to be honest. . maybe I can convince them to let us buy paint. haha. I am such a pro painter and all. They would be impressed by my skills. ;) This night we also had dinner at a members home. It was kind of weird because it was American food. . HAMBURGERS! What in the world. I was confused. But it was actually really delicious, and it was kind of crazy because their grill caught on fire at one point. It was insane!

Wednesday we had the chance to visit a recent convert in our area. Had a short lesson with her and then we tried to visit some formers all day. The most exciting moment was this lady was getting her mail from the community mail boxes and she gets stung by a wasp. . so I see her doing this crazy dance thing trying to get her mail. So I killed the bee for her. =) She was making me laugh. I helped a lady get her mail though so I felt accomplished that day. ;)

Thursday we did weekly planning, which if you don't know what that is we take three hours and plan for our investigators for the whole week. Think about them etc. it is nice but also gets a little boring week after week. We try to make it fun though. and of course we went for ice cream for comp inventory so that made it worth it right there. =)

We also visited with Angie! She is a lady who was taking the lessons than moved to Texas but now is back and so we are teaching her again. She wants to be baptized next month but in Texas so that is a bummer. Since only the missionaries here have taught her. But we understand. All her family who are members live in Texas so she wants them to be there. She is super nice though! We are teaching her tonight. She only has like 5 lessons left before she can be baptized. So she is really progressing and she is just firm in her testimony. She is on fire! =)

The Fourth of July was really fun! Although it was a bummer. The night before we were on Hurricane warning, and a storm hit at about 2 in the morning.

A part of our mission was evacuated in North Carolina. They apparently were on strong hurricane watch and were evacuated from their areas. So we are lucky we were still here but  it made it so our plans, going to the activities at Mt. Trashmoore all were pushed back to Saturday. . so than we couldn't go! LAME! But we tried to make it fun. Holidays on a mission just aren't the same. haha. But it was good.

We had zone meeting that day and after we went to Chilis since it's a holiday and all. Got to live a little. ;) So we had lunch and then we decided to try to go to downtown Norfolk and see a museum or something but they were all closed for the fourth so that was a bust. So since we were downtown for mileage sakes we were like we have to do something! So we decided to go to a cemetery. .. =) Yes we are weird! It was actually super fun! We found some neat headstones and it was interesting since it was so old a lot of the headstones had broken and stuff. There is some neat history there. I liked it a lot.

We then came back and decided to go to the dollar store and we bought mugs and sharpies and colored them. haha. We needed something to do. Everything was closed! And here they aren't allowed to shoot fireworks. So there weren't very many in the sky that night.

Friday was really great though. We had interviews with President Baker. And then while our companion was being interviewed you would do a role play with sister baker. It was pretty hilarious. It was on the adjusting to missionary life handbook and awkward companion situations. I just laughed. I told her all about my Dr. Pepper addiction though. ;) Told her I have to have my Dr. Pepper in the fridge. Makes me feel better. ;) Still an addict. =)

That day we went and visited this less active named Jorge. He was hilarious. He was SO excited to have us in his home. Telling us all about his conversion and how he just loved when the elders would come visit. Although he wants us to teach his mom. So that was neat.

That night we had permission to stay out until 10:30 if we had a member with us to go to the fireworks. So we went with this nice lady from our branch and her kiddos. Went to Mt. Trashmoore which is the highest "mountain" in this part of VA. haha. a whole 75 ft above sea level. Yep. . that's a mountain for you! But the firework show was INCREDIBLE! Probably the best I have ever seen!

The sky was so clear! They didn't have anything blocking the view. It would reflect off the pond. It was just a great firework show! I was really impressed. =)

Sunday was good. We had an investigator at church. She enjoyed it. We also went to this family named the Jacobs for dinner. It was acutally pretty good. The best lasagna I have had on my mission. still not as good as mom's, no worries there. But it was good. It was really healthy though. She is a health nut and so everything we ate was like gluten free and really health conscious. She made a really good juice though and I helped a little so I can probably make it when I get home. This pineapple lemon juice. It was delicious.

Well, That was really about all of my week. Not too exciting. But it was fun! I hope you all had a wonderful fourth of July! =) you all sound so happy and look like you are having a blast this summer!

Love you all,

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Hermana Gray