One year down...

Hello Family and Friends!!!

Once again it is already time to email all of you..... WEIRD! Time does fly.

This week made me think A LOT of my mission... haha. I am still just amazed that I got on a plane a year ago... :)

What in the world is a mission?!? haha. I believe the church is true even if just for the fact that young adults around the world sacrifice 18 months to two years of their lives to bring others unto Christ. Just saying... what crazy parents let them do that? ;)

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

Live really is just wonderful.

This week I had a blast. It FLEW by yet again. . I feel like I am going to blink and all of a sudden be home. haha.

This week surprisingly was deep clean, although looking at our house now I don't know if you could tell it was. . . we ran out of garbage bags so we have just been setting a pile of garbage. It is just bad. But Tuesday was mostly spent cleaning. Our house looked dang good if I do say so. I had the chore of deep cleaning our oven... which is fixed now! Whoot whoot!

Basically missionaries have only been living here for about 8 months now and so I go to clean this oven... NEVER had been deep cleaned! DISGUSTING! It had about a quarter inch layer of think black gunk on the bottom. Let me just say that I got the 'dirtiest job' award for deep clean. :) Although now our oven looks sparkling new... :)

Eduardo and Fernando are just the greatest investigators! They are both so INCREDIBLE!!! They both are planning on getting baptized on November 29th! :)

We are so happy for them! We had a couple of really excellent lessons with them.

Bishop and his wife came with us to a lesson and we talked about the importance of prayer, and scripture study and it was just so powerful. The spirit was strong. The both bore powerful testimonies. Fernando was so stinking adorable too, we asked him to say the closing prayer, then he says...'I have to say something first, you always bring these older folks with you to lessons... (at this point we are thinking... oh crap he is going to ask us to not bring members!!) but then he gave the most sincere compliment to the members of our ward. I don't even know how to express the feelings he expressed in English. haha. They were just too deep to explain. It was so sincere though. He thanked them for their testimonies and just their good spirits. It was so nice!

They also led us into our next lesson which is definitely Heavenly Father working. They brought up the question of if we drink coffee and tea or not because there is this song in Spanish from a Guatemalan singer that talks about a bunch of different religions and this just so happens to be part of the song. haha. The neat thing was we had already planned on that being our next lesson... what a great lead in to the Word of Wisdom! :)

We had a completely different lesson on the WOW. I felt really inspired during studies that we needed to talk about a picture of the temple and then during the lesson draw on it and talk about it again. (I wouldn't suggest this in all circumstances but I felt super strongly about it... and it just broke my heart to draw on the temple. :( ) But Heavenly Father knows best!

They both were so devastated and they were just describing their feelings towards it. Fernando shared a story of someone drawing on his country's flag. It was intense. But they both committed to live it. :) And we talked to him on Sunday and he had already reduced his coffee intake to ONE a day!!! :) whoot whoot! That was a huge miracle and blessing! The lord knows how to help each and every one of us! They are both so prepared. Heavenly Father knows each of us so personally. :)

We met with our investigator Telma. She is doing great, she is super cute. Only has been in the US for about a month now. She is so great though. We taught her about the book of Mormon and shared our testimonies with her. We also are teaching her English.

English Class... sorry moo, not anything funny this week! It was just English class. :) They always are just funny but there wasn't anything that hilarious this week.

We did get to order some Spencer Yachts hoodies though! Whoot whoot! :) Our mission leader is so wonderful! We all got some matching green ones. I can't wait for them to get in. :)

This week I also learned that I am technologically in TROUBLE!! haha. I was trying to pull up a conference talk at a less actives house.... it was just bad. First off we tried it on the TV which we finally get there and tehn the updates werent' compatible. Then she gave me her I-pad.... it was just a bad get together. :) I am going to be behind in the times though. :) Technologically incapable here. :) Seriously.. the phone we have is a slide phone that we don't have enough data memory that we have to individually delete texts... haha. Ahhhhh!!!

My YEAR MARK was here!!! And in honor of that we went to Surf N' Spoon... DELICIOUS! We always enjoy some fro-yo! I can't believe I have been out a year though. I have decided to start re-reading my journal from the CCM. It is pretty darn hilarious. I am such a blonde... :) here is a flashback to my first day in the mission....

Plane Ride:

I really have to go to the bathroom on the plane. But I have that awkward... "I don't want to use this restroom on the plane.. (horror memories from my first flight, aka Disneyland and not knowing where the bathroom was...) anyways. . I didn't want to use the restroom so I was holding it.. Then decided I couldn't. And had to face my fears. Get all the way to the bathroom and start to try to go in. Can't figure out the door for the life of me.... then the flight attendant looks at me and says 'PUSH'... yes, right in front of my face are four bright big red letters "PUSH". :) Yes, welcome to my life.  haha.

We had zone meeting this week. Our mission focus for the month is on conversion. It was a good meeting, long but good.

We went to Panera afterwards which is like an East coast zuppa type thing (not as good but decent). We had fun though.

Saturday was ROUGH. .. we had walk and talk for three hours.... or in our case 'walk' for three hours. WE have hit a cold front here. It has been FREEZING the last little bit. We have been in the 40-50 (I know utha is colder but for here it is cold!). And it is humid which makes it all the more cold. But point of the story is that literally everyone was inside where we were walking besides us. ....

but literally with three minutes left we met Tim. So if Tim happens to call the sisters then it will all have been worth it! :)

We did eat at G-deli though which was DELICIOUS! I love that place. Family.... we will eat there when we come back to visit. :) Caitlyn came with us and she is just a hoot. (bishops daughter). We went and taught a lesson then she joined us for dinner. I love talking to her. She is so fun!

Sunday was good. We had a FHE at Brother Kelly's home. We watched Ephraim's Rescue and had brownies. It was so fun! The sister's had a few investigators there so it made it worth it.

Overall my week was pretty great! Just the normal missionary life... sorry it probably seems super boring! haha. But all is well. :)

I love you all so much! I miss you lots too! Can't believe it has been a year. . wow! I am also super excited to talk to you all on Christmas! :) haha. I don't know why the stretch from Christmas to mother's day goes so quick... but mother's day to Christmas is forever. :) That extra month makes a huge difference! haha.

Well,

Love you!

Hope you all have a great week!

Have fun visiting baby Alisa! Give her a kiss for me! :)

Love you,

Hermana Gray

Deep Clean...