Hermana Cassie Joan Gray: Frigid Weather... :)

Hello Family and Friends!

It's that time of year. . . time to break out the winter coat yet again! Who thought it would get cold on the East Coast?? NOT ME!!! Okay, I did get to experience it a little last year, and honestly it doesn't get 'that' cold. But it is more a pierce you to the core kind of cold. haha. But the weather here has gone from pretty mild to absolutely frigid in all of about a week. :( I still love it here!! :)

This transfer has just seemed to FLY BY! I can't believe we are already at the time where transfer calls are coming again. Hermana Johnson and I have been talking about how this has been probably the funnest transfer of both our missions. We have just LOVED it! We have seen so many miracles and just have been having the time of our lives! I am dreading getting a call!!!! It is just a scary thing... haha. Your future on a mission is so uncertain, guess it is just preparing you for life. :)

Transfer calls are happening this week though, come Sunday we will know our fate. Hoping that because of the holiday season we will stay together. :) I would enjoy that. It would be a sad transfer to leave, right before Thanksgiving, literally the day before... haha. Then we have 2 baptisms on the 29th!

Eduardo and Fernando are still preparing for Baptism on the 29th of November. They are just so wonderful. We have been having the chance to meet with them three times a week to help them meet their dates. They are so hilarious and are always just so sincere in their desires to learn.

We have taught them so much in this past week and they are so gracious, they are accepting everything so easily. The Lord truly has been preparing them.

We has some pretty hilarious lessons this past week. . to start off the week we had a lesson on the ten commandments, the law of chastity, and keeping the sabbath day holy. It was a great lesson. So hilarious! We had a member back out on us pretty close to the lesson, which is NOT a good thing... haha. We have to have a third female so we scramble and fine a member willing to come with us. Then she gets to awkwardly sit through the law of chastity lesson. haha. Pretty great. It does help that she doesn't speak Spanish so she just listened and we'd translate things happening. :)

My favorite part is to think of this lesson like this.....

Two twenty year old girls come in and tell two men in their thirties that they need to live a virtuous life style, be morally clean, and have clean wholesome thoughts....

The church is true. That is all I have to say. :)

They are great sports though! We have taught them so much new information, law of chastity, word of wisdom, tithing, fasting, and much more. And they have accepted it with ease. They are truly prepared to receive the Gospel. :)

I have also loved to see the members fellowship these two. They are so wonderful! The members are just embracing them with open arms. It is an interesting thing to teach people in a different language then invite them to attend church in a language they don't fully understand. Then when they interact with the members it doesn't really matter, because the spirit is present and the spirit is teaching. It is SO neat! Lately that has really stuck out to me that the spirit is the reason we come to church. To refill our 'spiritual buckets' each week. It doesn't matter what language you attend sacrament meeting in the spirit will always be the same, the testifier of truth.

Church was really interesting yesterday. We first off had to translate, then by a miracle and some answers to prayers, Torin showed up and could translate the talks. haha. It was chaotic. :) Then it was interesting because you could see some things happening in the crowd... random people bursting into tears and crying... and all of a sudden it dawned on me. The mother of the ward passed away Sunday morning while everyone was at church. It was really sad news. Sister Shirley will be missed. I didn't have the chance to meet her ever, she was super sick when I arrived, but I know that she made such a difference on the ward here. Members talk about her all the time and how wonderful of a lday she is and how that she is a huge part of the reason that the church was brought to the Outer banks. We are all sad with her loss.

We had a really great lesson with a Less active member, Hermana Diaz. She is such a wonderful lady! Bishop came with us and we had the chance to share the 'prepared in a manner that never had been known' with her from general conference. It was heart-warming to see that the less active members are being more open with us. And then when bishop was there it was even better because he could invite them to the christmas dinner and things. It was great to see them reacting. We also had the chance to meet her husband for the first time, and hopefully he will take interest in learning about the gospel! :)

Brother Kelly is our new assistant ward mission leader and he is just the best! He was telling us his conversion story and he is just a hoot. :) Shout out to Brother Kelly! :)

We are still obsessed with Surf N' Spoon, and I have a new found dream of owning a store kind of like it. haha. :) I'll fill you in on the details later. :) but i am obsessed, between that and Duck Doughnuts, life is good. :)

We don't have very much other than that happening, just the normal knock some doors, talk to people. We have been teaching a few other people but nothing too significant happened in their lessons, just the normal stuff. :)

Funny story though. So one morning hermana Johnson and I are sleeping, like that sort of waking up sleep... alarm goes off at 6:25.... I hear, "Mom, do you want to sleep in until 6:30 or get up at 6:25?" I was laughing so hard, so I answer "6:30" (cause, hello I was like dead tired.... dead... haha... never been so exhausted in my life!). You could hear the pure disappointment and confusion when my voice was the answer, Hermana Johnson "oh... okay". So hilarious! Mom, just so you know we still think about you even when we are sleeping! :) And we still do it even if we are both over a year old. haha. :)

Oh and someone hit our car! Lame! We think they were backing out and their mirror hit our car, but it is all scraped up and now we have to file a report... lame! And they didn't leave a note. :'( It's not too bad... we didn't notice it right off the bat so we don't even know what parking lot we got it from. But lame! haha.

I love you all so much! I have been really enjoying this holiday season. It has been fun to work up to the holidays and now that they are here it will blow my mind how quickly they'll leave us. :) Just think... one month and I'll be talking to you! AHHHHHH!!!

I love you all. Know I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the chance I have to share it each and every day. I know the Savior is there for all of us, time of plenty or times of sadness. Communicate with your Father in Heaven, he wants to hear from you.

I love you! Have a great week! Know I love and miss you.

Love,

Hermana Gray