Letter #27

Sorry everyone! His letter didn't come through until about one in the morning today! So we're glad we got one this week. (=

Mom,

Mission life is just great!! We had a hard week this week, but I sincerely think that the Lord is going to bless us for our labors this next week!

I contacted 36 people this week, and not one person let me in! But its ok. Better luck this week.

So here are a couple things that have happened this week.

1. Elder Bryant and Elder Montalban only have 6 months left. yep.... they only have that much time left... so elder bryant burnt some of his pants!!! woo. i think i put a picture of him with them. it was a fun night. but elder bryant and i decided that we are going to celebrate with some sushi. but were waiting until i have 6 months on the mish (which is only is a week or so)... crazy!!

2. all of our lessons fell through. we had 32 legit lessons this week that we could have had! ..... but we didnt have them.... because they all fell through. we would pass by the people, and for some reason, NOONE liked us this week and said that they were busy, or that they didnt have time for us. but it doesnt matter to me. MORE TIME TO CONTACT!!! woo! which led to more rejections.... but i dont care, the more i get rejected, the more i am like Christ. he got rejected by his own people... so when if i get home, and you guys start rejecting me, i wont care, because im more like Christ :)

3. an inactive came to church! One miracle that happened this week is that one of the REALLY inactives came to church this week. it was amazing!! Dont ever give up on the inactive members. really, they just need a reminder of why the got baptized. 

4. I got whipped. One night, when i was talking to Elder Larson on the phone outside, I was really startled when elder B and elder M came running out at me, and started smacking me.... im not really sure why they did it, but im going to get them back somehow.... anyone have any ideas??

5. I had a great dream. one night i dreamed that i was playing soccer for arsenal once again. and i did a bicycle kick! and i woke up and my feet were in the air against the wall and my head was hanging off the side of the bed..... scary, but soooo real. dreams really do come true!!

6. painted a school. this week, our zone went and did service for the governor. we painted a school and met him and hung out with him and such. it was really fun!

7. got an assignment. the zone leaders gave me an assignment to call every district every other night and ask them who they have coming to church, what they are doing about them, and such. so basically, i have the whole zone mad at me because i keep bugging them about everything! but i dont care, whatever to get them thinking about the big picture right? :)

8. had a great dinner. the inactive member who came to church, invited us over for dinner that night and we talked with her family and her nonmember niece and sister.... so yeah, we will be teaching her here pretty soon. :)

9. I owned the argentines in soccer this week. every thursday we have a soccer night and we play with the neighborhood kids. i OWNED them. my team never got sent off the field. i probably had 30 goals and i made 6 kids fall.... good times. i didnt realize how good i was doing until some of the kids started calling me messi.... boo yeah.

10. i have 90 percent for my fasting!! Booyeah, a step down from last week, but still, 90 percent. :)

Everything is good here, just a little harder. "but that that dont kill me, will only make me stronger."

Les amo, espero que tengan un buena semana. Aguante Argentina! por favor, orar para que yo tenga muchas lecciones esta semana! :)

Un Abrazo muy grande!

Elder Gray

Pictures

Elder Montalban slapping me in my face with my tie.... (like usual)

Me being myself with elder Marchant in the background

huge trees that got blown over from one of the storms we had.... Me and elder montalban were right there two minutes before it happened getting soaked.

Elder Montalban and his faces

Elder Bryant and his points

My companionship, and elder bryant

Letter #26

Hola Familia, y los otros Choros que estan mirando a mi carta semanal.

Whats up.

first of all, like usual, i love you all. thanks for all your prayers and support from home!

second of all.... the top ten weekly things

1. 91% I am at 91% of the stuff that im trying to give up!!! it was a really good week, and i think the lord knows of my work trying to leave this stuff behind. so he blessed us with a couple more people that we are going to pass by and teach! love it :)

2. Talk. I gave a talk about the Commandments in Sacrament yesterday. The best part about it, is taht it rained that morning, so NOONE came to church. there were probably 15 people in the sacrament meeting. so giving a talk wasnt to bad, it reminded me of some of my lessons in my old area with the huge families that they have.

3. My Blister. OOOOOO my blister.... I had a HUGE blood blister on my foot this week, so basically the whole week, i was walking like a we-tawd trying to avoid walking on my foot. So my ankle hurts now... but whatev, its the life of a missionary.

But yeah, back to the blister. I popped it yesterday!!! woo. It reminded me of that youtube video tiff showed me that one time of some guy popping a huge zit on his back that kept pussing for like 30 minutes.... and it was all gooey and chunky and stuff.... good times. (now you all have a nice image in your head :) youre welcome)

4. My watch. I bought a watch from elder Bryant!! guess how much it cost me...... youre all wrong. i got it for free :) boo yeah. "patrick star, you are one smart shopper". Its actually really legit, its all white and i love it. maybe ill send a picture of it home right now.

5. My ipod. I am probably goiung to buy an ipod from elder bryant too.... (in case you havent already sent me mine)..... so yeah, let me know. beacuse he has taylor swifts christmas album on it, and it is REALLLY tempting to buy.

6. T-swift. Like i said, i found out that his ipod had taylor swift on it... so its been a really good taylor swift christmas this last week :)

7. Maxi. We had another lesson with MAxi, and hes oging to give up on drinking!! woo!! but then he asked us a lot of deeper questions... that i wont go into with you all. but yeah, hes going to buenos aires for his vacations for two weeks so we wont be able to talk to him for a while. hopefully he keeps it all clean!

8. Jose. he also, gave up on drinking!! and we found out for sure his age, 78..... he is the most in shape dude i ahve met and hes 4 times as old as me! i love this man. but he is taking his vacations at his daughters house so we wont be able to teach him for a week or so.... keep Jose and Maxi in your prayers!!

9. Got rained on. "I look like i just got rained on."-Julian Smith. If you havent heard of this quote, go to youtube and search Julian Smith, expensive haircut, and the watch the video. That will explain everything.

But yeah. We sleep outside because one of our fans is broken..... Pucha! So yeah, we were sleeping outside when we woke up in the middle of the night because we were getting wet.... but me, in my still sleeping mode (mom knows what im talking about), didnt realize that it was raining. So yeah, i wake up, look around, realize that the other elders are running inside screaming like little girls, and elder montalban is screaming and saying something in spanish, and then i go back to sleep. then i wake up in probably half a minute and realize that i am getting rained on. i grab my mattress, run inside with the others, and then we continue to sleep inside.

10. Got rained on. Yeah, like the one before, i got rained on. But this time I was sleeping INSIDE!!! I woke up, felt wet, looked down to see if i peed my pants, confirmed that i didnt, then felt water drip on my head.... yeah, our roof is leaking ....so i got rained on outside, and inside in the same night. Welcome to Argentina :)

11. OH, and i started to read the scriptures out loud again.... I think this will help a lot with my accent and with my speaking abilities, and its also good to go throught the book of mormon again :)

I hope you are all counting your many blessings! Remember when you have a bad day, turn to christ, because he literally SUFFERED everything that we haves suffered/are suffering.

love you all, be safe, read the scrips, search for ways to better your life!

Mosiah 28:3
 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not ^abear that any human ^bsoul should ^cperish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure ^dendless torment did cause them to quake and ^etremble.

Letter #25

Hello fam and friendzzzz,

how are you all doing? this week has been a lot better! we found a lot of people that we are going to start teaching! and it was all in one day. definitely a blessing from the lord. So a LOT of things happened this week.

1. Flia Rojo. The Red family moved! So us elders went and helped them move into their new... living quarters... yeah. it was pretty fun. we got there at about 1030, and didnt get home until 530. it was a longggggg day witha  lottttt of stuff.

2. Maxi. We found Maxi!!! So in Area Jardin, there is barrio Jardin, Barrio Chino (which really means china town), and lots of others. But there is another place called Bouwer, which is 30 minutes away from all the others.... (its kinda like our ward, how most of it is in jordan willows, then there is us) So we went out there for an entire afternoon just to find people. The first door we came to was a woman named Marta. After her we knocked a few more houses, left some Restauration pamphlets, then decided to head down a road that was pure mud (definitely being guided by the spirit). So at the end of the road is a house, we knocked it, and Maxi comes from behind the house and asks us if we want some water......  HECK YEAH WE DO!!!..... so we get invited inside, then we talk about his life and how he wants to have a family, he was evangelist, hasnt been to church in a while, wants to change churches.... badabing badaboom, we are teaching him. then we get to talking about baptism, and he says he was never baptized in the evangelitst church, but was baptized at the age of 7 in the catholice church..... "how"..... "they put water on my head"...."do you think it would be good to be baptized the way christ was?"...."I was just thinking that 5 seconds ago and yes".... badabing badaboom, he will get baptized in a month or so. we didnt put a date because he didnt want one at the moment. it was a legit contact.

3. Marta. We walked up the first house, i tripped, fell on my face, looked up and there was a lady staring at me with her kids. so yeah, "uh, hola". then we start talking to her and she says she has no time for us because saturdays are the only day she has free to do all the stuff for her family and to spend time with her family. so we say "ok, is it ok if we come in for 5 minutes to have a prayer with your family?" "yeah, sure". bada bing bada boom... were in the house, and 50 minutes later, after a discussion, we leave. boom. love it. I love this work, all we need in 5 minutes and the spirit will testify of what were doing.

4. Jose. we have to postpone his baptismal date because he didnt come to church :P pucha! theres a longer story behind this, but, im not going to share it.

5. 76%. Im at 76% for my fasting!! i just hope i can get above 90 by the last week!

6. Asado! Were having an asado this week witht he stake president!! Boom, free food, free meat, free leftovers, free free free free. im not going hungry mom, in case you were worried.

7. Polleria. we live in a polleria, a place that sells chicken. so i have been eating discounted chicken the last week. it is delicious!!! :)

8. Pension. we were told by the pres that we need to clean our pension.... because its been being used by missionaries for about 30 years or so, and its old.

9. Chess. I beat elder Montalban in chess the other day!!! WOO!

10. Valentines Day. Happy Valentines day to all! Know that i give you all a kiss! (here in Argentina, they only kiss....)

Love you all, have a great, safe week!

Elder Gray

Letter #24

Family and friends,
 
First of all.... Im going to be an uncle again! Woo. you better name
it after your favorite person in the whole wide world!.... aka me. if
not, you can name him Steve Nash, id be ok with that.
 
Second of all, Elder Montalban heard that i played soccer my whole
life and he wants to have one of the jerseys that i wore as a
remembrance of me. So if you can send me all of my jerseys, please do!
:)
 
Third: this week. and whats been going on.
 
1. Elder Montalban has been sick! This week elder M was sick with the
flu, and then a cold. so we were stuck in the pension from tuesday
till thursday. :P
 
2. I was sick! I got sick for the weekend.... So friday till sunday
morning, elder M and i sat on our beds and talked in spanish while
playing chess and listening to music. needless to say, my spanish has
gotten alot better and his english has gotten a lot better as well.
 
3. There was a mini tornado here!! is was intense!! This last p-day,
we were walking to the church to play futbol and it started raining.
then we got to the church and started playing a little bit when the
storm really hit us. So we ran inside and waited it out. after it
calmed down a bit, we went and finished our game. the field was
flooded, but thats not going to stop 6 latins and 3 gringos from
playing futbol!! it was serioulsy one of the most fun times ive have
playing futbol yet in my life. and thats a lot of games.
 
After the game, we were walking back to our pension in the flood from
all the water. so actually we werent walking, we were kinda rafting
with the soccer ball.... we didnt break any rules dont worry! :) and
we did snap a sweet pic of us making a pyramid in the river in the
street.
 
ps, i think this is where elder M and i got sick.... but it was worth it!!
 
4. so yeah, the mini tornado hit. and Hogar 3, a little village in our
zone got destroyed... and all of the people were homeless. so this
whole week, with any spare time that we have had, we have been
building houses for them....
 
Its kinda sad. but the area president, president arnold came and
visited us! i did get to shake his hand and see that the general
authorities still come and help out a lot! It really was a big
testimony builder to see the 6" 5 president lifting up roofing on top
of the roof that we just barely built, while his wife was with the
other wifes helping them clean and cook.
 
5. I learned how to do a magic trick with a coin and so now i can
really entertain the kids here.
 
6. We have a baptism coming up with a man named Jose! He was recently
hit by a car and he broke his legs and his fingers. but just 3 weeks
later, he is wakling around the house, coming to greet us at the door,
and making us mate that we cant drink. did i mention that he is 72?
yeah, this guy is a stud. But he cant understand my spanish.....
pucha! but either way he is goign to be put into the water the 25 of
feb!
 
7.I learned a new trick with the futbol. its pretty legit...
 
8. I met the branch! they are legit. we have an rm in our ward, and
she loves to try to help us with everything. so we think we are going
to have her come visit our investigators with us this week.
 
9. We are going to contact a ton this week! So hopefully my english
wits with my spanish words, combined witht he spirit will do the
trick! :)
 
10. I received a package from Dylan! So i have been eating delicious
chocolate goodies this week. thanks Dyl! :)
 
I love you all and hope that you have a great time this week. Remember
there are three things that will keep you spiritually strong your
entire life. 1. Daily prayer 2. Daily scripture STUDY. 3. going to
church every week.
 
im going to add a number 4, ENJOY LIFE! :)
 
Elder Gray