That awkward encounter at the gas station...

Hello family!

So yes, I feel like as a missionary I am constantly running into random people who do weird things in this world. Especially this week considering we were trying to apply the tactic of talking to everyone! We wanted to get 100 IO's but fell a little short of our goal... bummer! But we did see some wonderful miracles!

But to the gas station... I am out filling the car and my companions are out there learning how to do it so that they know.. they get back in the car while I finish the rest of it. Anyways this Hispanic guy happens to be at the pump across from us so he says hello, I say hello back and then ask him if he speaks Spanish. He then proceeds to come across the little curb thing inbetween the pumps, continues to talk to me, takes my hand and as we are shaking hands pulls me in to kiss me on the cheek. I was a little taken a back but just at this point whatever. So I continue talking to him, realize it is someone we have met before and I continue to invite him to watch the HeLives video on Mormon.org. He was super nice. Anyways at this point when my companions are watching from the car they were like 'if he did anything more we were going to get out of the car and save you!' so he proceeds to rub my back a little do that weird grab your arm thing. haha. So our greenie gets out of the car and comes over and he then shakes her hand and kisses her on the cheek. Hermana Earl just decided to stay on the opposite side of the car to be safe from kisses. haha. (although she did make eye contact with the other guy at the other pump who proceeded to give her a weird look and she just made that 'I don't understand what's happening either' shrug). It was hilarious. Our poor greenie was a little mortified though. =) What can I say... welcomed her to the field real good!

This week was a little chaotic with conference and transfers, but it was really good. I received so much guidance and lots of inspiration which will be wonderful to help me through this last transfer!

Tuesday all of our appointments ended up falling through so literally we walked Manteo all day and just talked to people outside. It was good. We ended up finding a less active member! We knocked Franck's door and were trying to find him but then this less active opens the door. He proceeds to talk to us, tells us he was baptized in Peru when he was about ten but fell away due to gospel things he didn't understand (like proxy baptisms, pologamy, etc). We then took the time to clear those things up with him and he was like 'wow, this all makes sense!' We got his information and are planning on meeting up again with him this week to help him with other questions he has.

We also found a really great potential investigator. His name is Antonio. He was outside mowing his lawn and yes, definitely stopped him and talked to him. He was really grateful. He said he was going to come to church on Sunday, and we even explained general conference to him. We are going to see why he didn't come to church yesterday and also teach him this week sometime. :)

Wednesday we picked up our Greenie!

Hermana Earl and I rode with a member to Portsmouth to go to the Trainer's meeting. As we were a little early (45 minutes... haha. the member thought it wa a different building!). We were waiting when all the greenies showed up and considering only two 'sisters' came in it was really easy to figure out that Hermana Limb was ours (she was the only Spanish missionary that came in!). It was fun!

She is from Idaho. She is 19 and is just super sweet and enthusiastic about the work. She is embracing Spanish for all it's worth.

It makes me a little sad that I will only be here for half of her training but I know that Hermana Earl will finish her training well. It will be interesting being in a trio and training. haha. But it is working fine.

We did take her to teach a lesson her first night. We visited with Jasmine and taught the restoration to her in it's fullness. It was INCREDIBLE! Jasmine was feeling the spirit so strong. . things were just clicking in her head. I was impressed. Then Hermana Limb even extended the baptismal question! TWICE! She said she didn't know the first time then we talked more about baptism and what it entails then she re-extended it! Although Jasmine didn't say yes, we have her praying about the idea. She was nervous to tell her parents, especially her mom because tey are all very catholic. But we told her it would be the best decision she ever makes.

The highlight of the week was of course General Conference!

We had the chance to listen to a PROPHET of god... yes, mind blown!

It was truly incredible. 

It broke my heart a little to hear those people yell 'oppose' during the second session. But it just made me truly realize that we have to be truly converted to the gospel of Christ. Christ established the church through prophets and apostles. We have a living day prophet and apostles. They speak the words of God the Father and Jesus Christ, why would we oppose them? It is only if our hearts are hardened against the guidance and counsel they are giving us.

I know that the words and talks shared this last conference were inspired. I hope yall take the time to study them out in your hearts and minds. Read them... re read them. I know you will receive answers to prayers... I DID!

Some of the talks I especially enjoyed this last conference were those of Brent H. Nielson (prodigal son),Jeffrey R.  Holland, D. Todd Christofferson, David A. Bednar, Boyd. K. Packer, and Henry B. Eyring. . .

Just to name a few!

I love yall!

Hope you have an excellent week!

As always,

Hermana Gray

elder Terril

Our zone leaders...haha

me with the Elders, who are also from Lehi.  Whoot Whoot... go district

Pic of Cassie

Ice Cream and Grape Cider...not a bad day!

Family and Friends,

I think Ice Cream and Grape Cider is a wonderful way to celebrate the news that I received! Mom I told you, you would kick cancer in the butt!

President Baker called me and relayed all the information and believe me the stress that I didn't even realize was happening just went away! It as a RELIEF! When he called we happened to be praying... literally I just had started the prayer and you hear the *buzz *buzz..... Hermana Earl.... 'president baker'. I just stop praying and am like 'ANSWER IT!'.... poor heavenly father... I am not the greatest. :)

But we answer it he tells me all the wonderful news! Mom I never thought I would cheer that you just had cancer in your lung either... weird concept to think about but true. =)

We headed up to our investigators home and talked to her... she was doing homework and was super busy because of school and sports so we just talked to her for a little bit. She did add me as a facebook friend. (glad to know I am still popular!?). ;) She was really excited to see us. She has been reading in the book of Mormon! She is the best. Her name is Jasmine and she is 17. This week we are going to take her to have dinner at a member's home. =)

After her visit though we did go and get ice cream! I bought us some samoa ice cream and then a sugar free ice cream for Sister McDonald so that we could all celebrate the good news! The sisters showed up with this grape cider stuff from a less active member. Overall it was a great way to celebrate. We even called the elders in our district to celebrate with us over the phone and the zone leaders. haha. Let's just say there are a lot of people over here praying for you mama!

This week we also had two really wonderful lessons with the Balladares family! They are so wonderful. We talked all about the temple and family history work. They are so nice. They are working hard to go to the temple with a name. =) Brother Balladares also told us of his experience baptizing his father (in the temple). It was NEAT! He also told us how he met Henry B. Eyring... anyways... those lessons were just incredible!

We also had a really great district meeting! Elder Marinos (our district leader) is going home next week so we brought stuff to 'celebrate' or just really an excuse to have a little bit of a party. haha. We had a really uplifting meeting, the spirit was definitely present. We just discussed all the things happening in our areas and asked how we could better help our investigators. It was neat. The Zone Leaders were also there and they are hilarious. We have Elder Terrill and Elder Sommer who are serious when they need to be but at the same time are just super funny. Then they are training Elder Jensen right now. Anyways we were talking about how a person they talked to asked if he could have a stack of Mormon.org cards to pass around, then they saw him giving some out. So we were saying how 'they should just follow him around and count all those cards as an IO (invite other)' mind you we are totally kidding and Elder Sommer and Terril both know that.... Then you hear Elder Jensen, 'well that wouldn't count as an IO.'

Then Elder Sommer just grins really wide and pats him on the back and says 'they are just kidding elder'.  Made me laugh so hard. He was so concerned about it. Super hilarious.

We visited Jackie earlier this week and we had a really wonderful lesson with her. We talked about the importance of prayer and just really communicated with her how much her Heavenly Father loves her and wants to hear from her. She was cooking and talking to us but she would just stop and ask the most sincere questions. Then listen then keep cooking. It was a really great lesson with her. She said the sweetest prayer at the end and said 'heavenly father, I am going to try really hard this week to say my prayers everyday. I am so sorry I haven't said them lately.'

She was ADORABLE! I wish sometimes that I could take the spirit that is in those lessons and just let you get a little taste of why missionary work is so incredible! Being a missionary is the best because you can always feel the spirit and help others to recognize it. Even on those really hard days they aren't all that bad. The spirit and our Heavenly Father are constantly with us missionaries and it is fun to have others realize that and crave that spirit that we have. It is a very humbling experience.

I spoke in Sacrament meeting! I was originally supposed to speak next sunday, but they needed me and sister McDonald to speak yesterday. It went decently considering I only had about a nights notice. Everyone said that I did really well though. I spoke on Charity and the love of God and Christ. It was a neat experience.

I love yall so much! I can't believe my time here is dwindling down. . .

I can't wait to see yall soon and feel of your presence. But for now I'll stick with being a missionary!

Remember you are in my prayers,

I love you

Hermana Gray

p.s. I GO TO THE TEMPLE WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! whoot shoot!

Sister Brakey is a sweetheart!  This showed up on my desk on Tuesday.

This is us celebrating!  After President Baker called me with the news about mom!  Yes, definitely went and got ice cream, and the sister had just gotten back from a members home who had given them like a sparkling grape juice type thing.  :)  Don't worry mama...I made a toast and everything! ;)

Guess what's open?

The case of the missing Nutella

I thought I would be interesting and start my email off in some clever way.. I pondered about it all weekend.. No joke I discussed this with my companion. Then we thought this title was the perfect one. :) But considering the news I got yesterday this doesn't even have any significance to anything important. This was my 'big worry all week'.... and now definitely it is nothing in comparison. =)

But this is how my crazy mind works so here you go:

This past week I have been wondering who in the world has been eating my Nutella because CLEARLY I bought it about three weeks ago and I've been thinking who in the world is eating it along with me?!?! It would slowly be going down and I haven't eaten it in the past week and a half. So I open the lid and literally I can see the bottom! Yes... the BOTTOM of the nutella jar... I had like an inch left in it and now it was GONE! Lame right!?! Anyways... getting to the point nobody claimed it and I was super bugged that someone was just eating my Nutella and not asking. And the funny thing is, is I really didn't care. It was the fact they weren't asking me then all of a sudden it is GONE and they wouldn't' think I notice? haha.

I have my suspicions but I guess we won't find out until we watch the video clips up in Heaven. But all week I was kind of bugged about this. I'd randomly be talking to Hermana Earl about it and we would discuss it. She can verify that it really isn't me eating all that Nutella! She was like, unless you are sleep walking and eating Nutella you don't eat nearly enough to finish it off that quick. haha. So this story is a 'to be continued' story in my life. =)

This week was great mission wise! We had a lot of miracles occur.

We found a new investigator, we were out contacting a former investigator... at least trying to.... and we were in this trailer park. Anyways there was a Hispanic outside gutting a fish and so yeah why not. I approach him. We talked for a good 30 minutes. His name is Manuel. He is from Guatemala and is really nice. He's lived here for about 11 years well only in Manteo for 3 weeks but United states for 11 years. He has taken discussions before and he said he was interested in learning again. =) Whoot whoot! He commited to read from the book of Mormon. It was a good quick lesson we had with him and he seems like a great guy. We do think he might have a drinking problem... haha. We may have gotten a few phone calls from him that were really weird. Guess we will find out. :)

This week we went on exchanges and it was pretty good.

I had the boring side of the exchange. haha. I was the one who tracted and made phone calls to formers, etc. We came across a few interesting people. There was a man outside sitting with no shirt on who was this old guy. It was pretty hilarious. We had a good conversation with him though. He was clearly NOT interested in the gospel but we talked to him about life and what not. He was nice. He does family history work though and that is how he found out about our church.

Okay, now looking back my week really wasn't all that magical. haha. Just boring missionary life. We didn't even really have that much excitement. It wasn't all that bad of a week though. Really calm.

We did get 19 Invite Others on the exchange which was a HUGE jump for us. We have been working hard on that. Our goal as a mission is to get 100 a week.

Family... it was great to talk to you yesterday!

Shocker.... yes.... totally unexpected.... yes! But man is Heavenly Father watching out for our family. He is one who is all seeing and is in control. He is at the head of our lives. This trial is unexpected that's for sure. I can't believe it still. But know I love you all so much.

Mom you are a champion. You are a miracle woman, always have been, always will be. You will kick cancer in the butt! I have no doubt about that.

As you know I talked to the mission president yesterday... a few times actually.

He gave me great advice, he counseled me. It was very touching to talk to him over the phone. As he broke the news to me he started by saying he doesn't understand why we go through some trials that we do here on this earth, but he got a calm feeling while talking to dad on the phone. He said that dad was a strong man. He said that yall seemed to be in good spirits when he talked to you.

After the Skype call, which I was very grateful for! It was nice to see mom as her normal self... I had the worst images coming to mind, hello, 'cancer' doesn't bring the best images... haha. So I was a little panicked. But it was good to see you looking like your healthy self. =)

But afterwards president baker read to me from Doctrine and Covenants section 81. He told me that I was here for a purpose that we are to continue proclaiming the gospel. He told me yall would be blessed as I continue to serve.

My studies today were a little scattered. I wanted to share something significant with you, but I wasn't running into anything outstanding. I said a prayer and as I did I came across a general conference talk from last Aprils general conference. . .

it is titled "fear not; god is with thee" by Jean A. Stevens

As I read, I came across the 'story' in her talk and of course it was about a family facing a cancer battle. haha. Heavenly Father is a funny one. ;)

Their story ends sadly but ours won't! I did like a section though that I wanted to share with you... it says, "The next two months were filled with blessings too numerous to recount. Arn and Venita's faith and trust in the Lord were growing, as evidence in Venita's words, "I was carried. I learned that you can feel peace in the midst of turmoil. I knew the Lord was watching over us. If you trust int eh Lord, truly you can overcome any of life's challenges." One of their daughters added: We watched out parents and saw their example. We saw their faith and how they handled it. I would never have asked for this trial, but I would never give it away. We were surrounded with God's love."

I know that we are facing this trial for a reason. We all know mom is one tough cookie. This woman hasn't been sick for as long as I can remember... and she gets thrown with this! But we all know she is a fighter. And she has the biggest support system in the world! :)

We are facign this for a reason though. I wouldn't ask for this trial any day of the week but I will gladly fight it with all of you. We are faced with this trila to learn and grow together. I know Heavenly Father is watching over us. He is preparing us to grow in ways we cannot imagine.

I am grateful to all of you for continuously caring for my mom. To those ward members who are reaching out to our family, to those praying, bringing meals, sharing kind words of encouragement. I am eternally grateful for you.

Family, know I am being taken care of here. I am in an excellent place with wonderful ward members who are looking out for me. I have a great mission president who wanted to deliver the news in person but was too far away. He cares for each missionary and their families. Sister Baker is also watching out for me. The Maher family is here for me and they are helping, they so willingly took me in last night on such short notice. There are those little angels that God puts in your way that you didn't even know you had until the trials come.

I love you all! I hope you have a great week. Keep me updated.... I would appreciate the quickest updates (aka through the mission president), I love you all. Know I am praying for you.

Hermana Gray

LOVE YOU MAMA!

p.s. for those of you wondering which section.. it is 58 today! =) See you before I know it.

long story short, the pens are Flo and Evo. (Flo is mine, the pink one)  Sister Brakey gave them to us as a gift and we ended up using them as our 'investigators' to practice our lessons on.  haha.

Sister Bowen, our sister training leader leaves this transfer.

One crazy and hectic week!

Hello family!

Wow, this week I don't even know where to start?!?

It has just been jam packed all week of different things and at one point I felt like I was a chicken running around with my head cut off! It was insane.

I truly enjoyed it though.

First of all,

We had such a wonderful time this week preparing Eduardo and Fernando to go to the temple. Sadly the devil is at work all the time.... Eduardo's phone broke and it ended up losing all the information he had on his dad. :( So he just went without a family name. Fernando had the opportunity to do baptisms for his brother though. :)

They both were just glowing with the spirit on sunday! I could see the happiness that they felt there. They were full of peace and love. Fernando was telling us of his experience of how that felt to do baptisms. He said he could just feel people thanking him and hugging him. It was so special to hear their remarks and to feel the spirit radiate off of them. :)

Fernando also drew me the picture of Christ knocking on the door without a handle. So I have an original drawing from Fernando. :) I'll show it to you when I get home. It is really neat in a weird art sort of way. I can't explain it.

This week we also had the chance to go to a baptism in Elizabeth City.

Well first off, Wednesday night we helped out at young women's and did their activity. Hermana Earl taught how to do a facial and we gave them all facials. It was really fun! They all are so hilarious. I laughed really hard. They made me a little jealous too because two of them are playing softball right now and had come from practice. Reminded me of  my softball years. Made me really want to throw a softball too. haha. Please someone throw with me when I get home. That is a side note. :)

But afterwards sister Bruce came with us to a lesson and it was just incredible. We visited Eladio and he had read 7 chapters from the last time we had visited him. Whoot whoot! Then we talked about questions he had from the book of Mormon and from there we talked about the gospel of jesus Christ. We talked about the step of baptism and he was more then willing to be baptized. We chose out the date of April 10th to work towards ( I tried shooting for the 11 or 12 to have a good reason to celebrate extra hard those days. ;) ) but we settled on that date. I think he was a little unsure of that but he agreed to pray about it. Then we invited him to attend the baptism two days later in E. City of the Zone leaders and he said he wanted to go. So then we had to figured out a ride in basically one day of who could drive us to E. City. :)

the Balladare's ended up driving us and it was really good. We had the chance to talk all about life and things and gospel things nad they were just going on and on. It was really great!

the spirit was very strong at the baptism and our investigator was telling the elders (Elder Terrill happened to be one who found him orginially) all about HIS baptismal date on April 10th. elder Terrill was like I will be there. :)

It was a really wonderful experience.

This week we also found a new/former investigator! Julisia, who Hermana Johnson and I were visiting is the wife of Felix. Anyways we went and knocked and she was cooking dinner but let us in and we shared about the plan of salvation a little bit and she was more then willing to have us back in her home and teach her and her family more. :) She has three little boys, adorable boys! 10,8, and 3. Hopefully we can have them all start progressing together. :)

Overall this week was really really good! Crazy, but good. :)

We are just working our little bottoms off here in Nags Head. Spring is just around the corner!

We took a moment yesterday when we were waiting for our ride to our lesson to look at the stars and just ponder. It was so spectacular. I LOVE the stars.

It is incredible to know that there is a superior being who created all of this just for our enjoyment! I love that spring is around the corner, I love this time of year. It makes me feel so wonderful to have the sun just shining down and brightness.

Everyone is happier in the warm! :)

I love yall so much! I can't believe my time here is just dwindling away so quickly! Yall are so wonderful. I am so grateful for the support you have given and are giving me. I know you are blessed as am I for the sacrifices you are making.

Know we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, a Savior and Redeemer who so willingly gave his life for us. Don't forget who you are, where you came from, and where you are going.

This church is true, the gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth again, I am grateful I have the opportunity to share it with those around me each day. This time as a missionary is so cherished.

I love you,

Hermana Gray

Thoughts of President Baker for this week: "Don't worry about being successful, we are going to be successful--there is no doubt about it. The Lord has sent us to earth at the time of harvest. He does not expect us to fail. He has called no one to this work to fail. He expects us to succeed."

I thought he was pretty genius. :)

That awkward moment when you get hit on at the library...;)

Hola familia! and all those who are fortunate enough to read this email! :)

Life as a missionary is just as wonderful as ever. This week we have seen SO MANY miracles... even with two snow days.... yes TWO!

It is crazy to think that two snow days could produce so many miracles but it is true!

We were trying our hardest to talk to everyone that we are teaching and worked really hard with the members to receive the help and transportation we needed.

We had a crazy snow storm hit last Tuesday. Everyone went into complete panic. It was hilarious to see everyone all concerned. It was just one of those normal snows before a good storm in Utah. anyways. Tuesday morning, lightly snowing.. by mid afternoon a good amount, sticking to the streets. We got about three calls from different ward members and things. The sisters were all panicked too and were scared to go out and drive.

Hermana Earl and I finish studies go get in the car and start driving. haha. We even crossed the bridge to go over into Manteo. It was a little bad on the roads but nothing like a good storm in Utah would have produced. just normal snowy roads. We were in teaching a less active member when the call/text came in that we were now 'all cars grounded' so we drove home and started our 'snow day'.

We had a miracle occur on Wednesday. We were stopping in to visit Jackie. Our investigator. We have been having trouble getting into contact with her due to busyness and just life. I'm at the point where I'm like "Hermana earl... we have to drop her. We have been trying and you can only try for so long.". . . so I offer the prayer before we go in and am just like "heavenly father, this is our last time knocking her door and if you need us to visit her than let us know. . if not we are dropping her." 

Knock the door, she answers, lets us in. The lesson we had was really wonderful. we basically did a CCE and just talked to her and let her know our standards and things. Then towards the end of the lesson we asked if she had any questions and she was like yes, what do you do for baptism, etc. BAM! We explained baptism and invited her to attend a baptism happening this week in E. City. She said she was going to try to come. So now we are coordinating that. :)

We also had a really good lesson that night with Eduardo and Fernando. First off we helped the Hactmans clean the church and they picked up Eduardo and Fernando to help too. So we helped clean the building. They brought us sloppy joes for dinner, then we had a lesson. We talked about the temple and family history! They committed to attend the temple This Saturday!!! We are working with them to get family names. Eduardo is hoping to do his dad and Fernando wants to do his brother. :) That is the most exciting thing to see is your converts enter the temple! They are SO EXCITED!!!!! =) Hopefully I can get them to send yall pictures or something. :)

Thursday was perfectly fine weather here. But the whole mission was grounded due to snow. So we asked bishop if there was any service we could do and so we cleaned the church library!  We basically de-junked the library and are cleaning it. Still in process but it is looking really good. :)

We had a member come pick us up and take us to visit Elaudio. We had a good lesson with him. We felt we should teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And as we talked about faith and repentance a lot of questions he had were brought to the surface. He asked about true repentance, etc. We also learned he doesn't know a whole lot of Christ at all. He didn't even know about the bible really. We ended up reading and talking about the 10 commandments and the importance of them. Overall it was a scattered but great lesson. He was very active in participating.

The rest of the week was just the usual attempt to see people until Sunday of course! Church always tends to mix things up.

Fernando had to work this Sunday :( but Eduardo came. and also Frank a member from Peru.

Anyways fast and testimony right. So I tell Eduardo jokingly a little that he should bear his testimony. And he gives me that 'yes, i'm doing it look. Then says that I have to translate it.  Oh man... intimidating!  

He passes the sacrament for the first time. HILARIOUS! he was so nervous the whole time. But he did great. Come and sits next to me and is like I'm ready. I was like whoa... hold your horses the bishopric member needs to finish theirs. So then we head on up. I translated it really well if I do say so! That's right. ;) Bam. pat on the back. There were a few members in tears. haha.

Then I took the opportunity to bare my testimony because I don't do it often enough. ;) Okay, at least not in sacrament meeting. Then as I am walking down Frank from Peru looks at me and gives me that 'will you translate for me?'... yes. So then I have to walk back up and translate again. So basically I was the hit of sacrament meeting. ;) Okay not really but three testimonies in a row... I think that is a record. haha. =)

Life is good here on the East coast... literally as far as you can get! ;)

I learned a lot this week. I've been reading from our search for happiness and this part really stuck out to me today:

"Through the years I have watched countless missionaries come and go, I have seen extraordinary things happen in their lives and the lives of their families as a result. The work they are called to do is hard and sometimes discouraging. But because they have the assurance that they are on God's errand, they are able to valiantly serve Him. I often suggest to those who want to know if the Church is true that they spend a few hours working with our missionaries. It doesn't take long to learn that no one can do all of the things a missionary does every day without knowing beyond any question that what they are doing is right and true."

I thought that was neat. I am so grateful for all the blessings that I have seen in my life and also in the life of my family as I have served this mission. I hope that those of you who are struggling with your testimony or doubting that you have one to go out with the missionaries in your area. They will show you what kind of work I am currently doing for our Savior. I can testify that missionary work is what moves the gospel forward. It wouldn't happen without the testimony of the Holy Ghost to those we teach. They are looking for that special something that each of us have. All we have to do is open our mouths and share it.

I hope you all have an excellent week this week. I look forward to all the letters and emails to come.

With all my love,

Hermana Gray