Letter #71 Feliz Ano Nuevo! D&C 4:2,5

Hola Familia,

How is everyone doing? I am doing just amazing here in Alta Gracia. This week we had a very special event that I have been waiting for for about a month now.... We had another baptism! :D Sofía ended up being baptized. It was a really cool baptism. I ended up playing the piano for the prelude music and postlude music. Its been a long time since I have played piano in a big crowd before. The other elders in Crucero had a baptism as well so it was cool to see how many members came out to support them. We also had 2 investigators there which was really cool.

I wish I had my photos so that i could send you some... :P

I also got a random call from the bishop this Sunday morning at 8:30.... "Elder?".... "YEah?".... "How are you doing?".... "Very good bishop, how bout you?".... "excellent thanks, hey, can you give a talk at church today?"........................

So yeah, I gave a talk in church yesterday about how we are all "Hijos de Dios" and how we need to put the things we learn into practice.

This year has been an awesome year. I have learned so much and I hope that i can be able to put the things I have learned into practice. I am also trying to put DC4;2,5 into practice. I want to stop doing some of the little things that impede me from serving God with ALL of my heart soul mind and strength. Because if not, I will be found with "culpa" in the last day.

I hope that each and every single one of us can make a couple of goals for the next year. A goal that will challenge us. And make it a spiritual goal. One goal that I have is to invite atleast 6 people to listen to our special message every day. I know that will help us especially as a companionship to find, teach, and baptize. For every 1000 people we talk to, 1 will get baptized. Sot he more I talk, the more baptisms I will se in my mission.

I also plan on being more loving. I al ready just amazing at loving everyone ( :-) ), but I want to be better. I want to show the love I have for other people.

So let this year be a year of change. A year of bettering. A year of love. A year of God in every moment.

I love you all and hope you start the new year with the determination to be the best person that God wants you to be.

Elder Gray

Letter #70 Merry Christmas! :D Feliz navidad!

Hello family,

This is going to be pretty short because im going to be calling you later today. So yeah, this is basically what happened this week.

1. president visited us.

The president´s family lives here in Argentina so we had a nice visit from the president and he decided to come a a lesson with us. we ended up going to Sofía to visit her and her family. IT WAS AMAZING! President really knows how to teach.... it really suprised me how much knowledge he has about HOW to teach. All of the knowledge he told the family i already knew, but he explained it in such a simple way that everyone there learned something new. President dropped a lot of cain on the mom of Sofía because she doesnt support her daughter much in this important decision.... but hey.. she ended up coming to church this week.

2. Sofía´s dad loves me

I went personally to go visit the dad of sofia to see who he really is. HES WAY COOL! we first started out talking about sofia and how he didn´t want her to meet with us or anything.... so then i just talked about his life... his relationship with the mom.... with the grandma... and just talked with him aout his life... just was a friend. Then at the end of the conversation he said that its a good thing that she is meeting with us and that he only didn´t want her to get baptized... so yeah... I sucked up a ton!! :D

3. Sofía made her decision.

Sofía is SOOOO getting baptized this week... Sí o Sí. She told us at chruch that she wants to be baptized way bad. and so we told ther that she has to talk to her dad to see if she can have permission.

4. Sofía´s dad made his decision.

So... that day. they went to the river to spend time with her dad. She told me that she asked him about the baptizm and such... So I called her to ask her about how it went adn what the dad ended up saying.... He said yes!!!! So during the time that i was talking to her on the phone, I was doing a little victory dance as well. :D

We have a baptism... we´ll have a white christmas :D

5. Navidad en Argentina.

SO that everyone knows... christmas in argentina is basically a mix between te 4th of july and world war 3.... THERE ARE SO MANY FIREWORKS! its pretty intense. It seemed like to me that the peopel here really didn´t want SAnta to land due to the amount of fireworks they were lighting off.... but there were a lot of cool ones that i had never seen.

I really can´t wait to talkt o you all!! be safe! have fun! share the gospel with everyone!

Elder Gray

Letter #69 Felices Fiestas

Hola familia y amigos. Como están?

Esta semana fue una semana muy buena. Sofía asistió otra vez a la iglesia. Ella tiene mucho ánimo para bautizarse ahora, y ahora tiene mucho apoyo de la abuela y la mamá. No hemos recibido mucha oposición del padre tampoco la otra abuela. Entonces, vamos por el 29!!! :D woohoo.

What up? It looks like you all had a great time in the snow without me. I really do miss the white christmas... here in Argentina it gets hotter every day and we wake up earlier every day due to the heat in the pensión. but its ok.

One thing that didn´t go so good for us this week was taht Elder Conidaris broke our fan.... haha He was busy putting up these stars on the ceiling that he got from his family and he ended up putting his hand through the fan and it broke the fan.... nothing happened to his hand though so its ok.

Sofía is doing really good. She told us in one of the lessons that she is ready to be baptized and that she isn´t going to take no for an answer from her dad. soooo.... she´s legit. haha

This week we have planned to talk more about baptism and help her put a date for the 29th to be baptized. Keep her in all your prayers!

I hope you all have a great week for the holidays. it should be a great season this year with all of the opportunities i am hearing that you are having. It also sounds like Wyatt and Graycie are loving the snow!

So i figured something out this week. I figured out who my companion reminds me of.... he reminds me of three people.... Dad.... TJ.... and Michael Scott. haha

He reminds me of dad because he ends up talking to everysingle person about the most random stuff as if he has known them for their entire life.... He reminds me of tj because of the way he is. He loves math, way smart. I think tj was the Finance dude of his mission for a little bit. My companion was the Financiero here in Córdoba for 7 months. And last but not least he reminds me of Michael Scott for the way he looks :D... yes, I have fulfilled my dreams of meeting Michael Scott.

I have sent you all some pictures of the stuff i get to see every day. A couple of pictures of the pension. a couple of pictures of the peopel i am with everyday... I have yet to take a picture with my companion... so I should probably do that...

But yeah, everything is going good here! I love you all. thank you so much for your support and your love. be safe and have a merry christmas.

Mom... I will be calling this year instead of using skype.

LOVE YOU!

Elder Gray

Letter #68 Conferencia de la Navidad

Hola chavones!

This week was wonderful. We ended up having a lot of really good lessons with investigators and with less active members. Sofía ended up saying that she wanted to go to church and she came!!!.... with our help. haha

We had a great lesson with her where we talked about the spirit that she felt when she saw the testaments. When she started talking about that feeling she got, I felt the spirit way strong and I told her that she would feel the same way at church. She was like, "ok!". so we put a goal that she would go to sleep early this saturdaya nd that she wouldwake up early to go to churhc. I called her that Saturday to confirm and she said she was just about to head to bed.... this was at 9:30ish. The next morning, whe show up to church and we waited for her during the first class. After that class we ended up going to her class and her grandma went to get her out of bed. She came into the room with her pajamas on and was like.... "hey guys, today I cant go... my dad came looking for me last night and i got back at 5 and ended up going to bed at 8..." I was a little bummed but then I just told her that she can take a really big nap after church.... She then said, ".... Can I wear jeans?" of course she can.... as long as her body is in the church building. haha She went and got dressed and ended up afterwards telling me that she really did feel good in the church and tat she wants to go again this next week....

So the next step... talking to her about baptism!! woohoo!

I hope I can start taking more pictures,.... but my camera has been acting weird and keeps eating all of the batteries. :P

We also had Christmas conference yesterday where santa came and visited us. he ended up giving me a package all the way from the US from the family. haha It was really Presidente Salas dressed up as santa with all the packages that the family sent to me. Mom, dont get mad but i opened the present.... I couldn´t wait!! but just to let you know, I´ll re wrap it and put it under our christmas tree that we got and ill reopen it for christmas. :D

I really learned a lot in the conference.... One thing in particular that I learned was how perfect the church really is.... but really. it is perfect. Starting from adam and eve, all the way to today... the church, and especially God has always worked in the same way. I really hope that we as missionaries can help our investigators understand the perfectness of the gospel.

It is really really hot right now..... I am sweating while typing on the computer... :P that is pathetic. I hope you all can go do a big snow angel for me. make sure to take pictures! I sure do miss them.

If you are thinking about sending me late christmas gifts, just send me a box..... of photos!! :D or a nice little christmas card will do. everyone keeps asking me why i dont ahve a family photo and why all my friends look like they are 12.... i think it is because those are the only photos i have. haha :D

so please please please send me more photos! :D

I really hope you all have a great week. God works miracles everyday.. keep your eye out for them!

Alex, get your papers in asap!!

With lots of love,

Elder Gray

Letter #67 LOVE

Buen día amigos.

Espero que éstos tiempos podemos recordar la importancia del amor. Todo este mundo está construido por amor. Y todo lo que pasa acá en este mundo que va para atrás, es porque no tenemos amor unos a otros.

Espero que siempre tengamos amor.

This week was pretty good. We had a lot more lessons and we had the zone leaders come visit us. This week I made a decision to start using a different type of approach to people.. The usual approach that I do is I always talk about Christ and start talking about how the church was organized in old times and how it was lost....So basically I always talked about the Restoration... This week, I was reading in pmg and I read about the importance of families... So this week, I just talked about families... Their  families, my family, their dog´s family, etc.

And it worked!! People here in Alta Gracia are really open to talking about the US and about my family. And once I start sharing about my family, they open up abou theirs.

I also talked to a guy in sign language... Soooo greatful I took a year of it. I didn´t know any gospel words so i ended up just giving hima folleto.

But yeah, this week we should be having a lot more lessons in the houses of members and in the investigators house. I have yet.... to enter into a house of an investigator, sit down, and teach them. All of our lessons are outside, or in the door step.

But we did find this realy cool family, the familia Quinteros. They are very likely that they´ll be coming to church this week.!!

I hope you are all well! :D

Be good, and serve!

elder Gray