King Benjamin

This week went by really quick. We ended up not having a baptism because of some problems that we couldnt end up (evitando?). Sorry, dont know how to say that in english. But this week we are going to keep working so that the barriers can get out of our way to the waters of baptism.

We had 4 people in church. 2 new people, the grandkids of an hermana that loves the missionaries. She invited us over for the Día del Amigo and we met the grandkids... I remembered about an activity taht they were doing for the Jóvenes in the church at 5 that afternoon and i invited them. They ended up goign to church and loving it! Hopefully we can talk to their parents a little better and start teaching the family.

Juan and Dalma didn´t end up coming this week, so they will be getting baptized next week....

Melania went to church in Córdoba capital.

Christian came to chruch again and hopefully we can find him during the week so that he can get taught!!! :D He´s super cool! Way humble.

Wow.... I can´t believe it is ending. These have been the best two years of my entire life. I have learned so many things in these last couple of weeks. There are so many things that I want to say but I cant find the words to express them. I just want to say the same thing that King Benjamin has said in te times of old when he said,
14 And even I, myself, have alabored with mine own bhands that I might serve you, and that ye should not be claden with taxes, and that there should nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne—and of all these things which I have spoken, ye yourselves are witnesses this day.

15 Yet, my brethren, I have not done these things that I might aboast, neither do I tell these things that thereby I might accuse you; but I tell you these things that ye may know that I can answer a clear bconscience before God this day.

16 Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the service of God.

17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn awisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the bservice of your cfellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

I am so greatful for hte opportunity that I have had to serve God with all of my heart for teh last two years. I know that this is not the end of my service.... To quote King Benjamin again,

21 I say unto you that if ye should aserve him who has created you from the beginning, and is bpreserving you from day to day, by lending you cbreath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own dwill, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your ewhole souls yet ye would be funprofitable servants.

22 And behold, all that he arequires of you is to bkeep his commandments; and he has cpromised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth dvary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do ekeep his fcommandments he doth bless you and prosper you.



23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

24 And secondly, he doth arequire that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bbless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?



I am eternally endebtted to him. I always will be.


I just wanted to take 2 minutes to write you my testimony for the last time in my mission. I know God lives. He loves us so much that his whole purpose is our eternal life and immortality. He is completely consumed in the work of salvation. Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. Without him, the Plan of Salvation would not take effect(affect?) in our lives and we would be eternally lost. Really I know that this time in the mission is our greatest opportunity that we have to participate in the great plan our God and help participate in the lives of others so that they too can be redeemed by Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost, and Persevering to the End. LOSE YOURSELF IN THE WORK! Once we get completely consumed in the will of the father, that is when we feel the sanctity and the power of having the Trinity work on our side. I know God will always win.
TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THE GOOD NEWS!!

I love you all and I´ll be seeing you in a week!

Lots of eternal love,

Elder Gray

The good news. . . and the bad news. . .

Wow... I finally know what date ill be coming home.

The good news: My return date is the 31st of July!

The bad news: My return date is teh 31st of July! Im goign to miss this place.

Love you all and see you in 2 weeks.

Elder Gray

WOW. . . "I have less weeks on my mission then you have years".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! :D I love you!

This week went pretty good. We had a lot of people in church. Im just sad that I wont be able to see the last part of their progress... Becuase all of the new people end up getting baptized in 3 weeks.... but i only have 2 left... How crazy is that!?!?!?

But yeah, we had 10 people in church. It was awesome!! And the mission president came to give a talk with his family. He is super legit. He talked about using all of the different way to invite others to come unto Christ. He is a way good sweet talker :D

This week we should be baptizing 3 people... Melania, Juan, and Dalma.

Melania has gone to church for the last month and she is doing awesome!"! She went to the church dance the other day and Im pretty sure she found a boyfriend.... a recent convert in our area. hahah But we just have to get her moved out of her house this week and she can be baptized! :D

Juan and Dalma are doing way good. Juan has gone to church for the last couple of months and hes gone to church before. The only thing that makes it so he cant get baptized is that he smoke and drinks on the weekends with his friends. He came to churhc drunk this week. But we are working with him. He knows he needs to stop and we are taking him to a couple of classes with the bishop so that he can stop for forever. Dalma is his wife and she is legit! She took her kids to a couple of activities that htey had this week and so she just needs to go to church one more week.

Im pretty sure Melania will be baptized this week. . . We need to work a bit mroe with Juan and Dalma.

Im super excited to see you all.... Its so weird how fast time flies here in Argentina.. I felt like it was yesterday that I was writing you last week but hey... now i only have 14ish days left.... Maybe ill make a countdown calender.... if my comp lets me. He doesnt like thinking about going home. hahahah :D I love him so much.

Well... I dont know what else to say this week... I hop eyou are all doing fantastic!! Keep up the reading :D

Lots of Love,

Elder Gray

Concilio,Nuevo Presidente, Return Date, Marriage

This week was pretty cool. A lot of random ZL stuff happened and a couple of cool things happeed in our area.

This week we got a random call on thursday saying tht fridy morning we had to go to cordoba to go meet the new presidnet and receive a capacitation from the assistants. It was way super cool. Ill add some photos here with this message.

President Alliaud is way cool! IHe was a lawyer in Buenos Aires and he and Elder Salas just switched callings. So PResident Alliaud just came ot the mission with a ton of excitement and a lot of "pilas" to star the mission work.

Here are a couple of things i liked about what he said.

1. He congratulated us on baptizing 190... then he said, " I have the vision of 400... and thats if we dont have faith...." WOW!!! im hoping we can see the transition.

2. He talked a lot about changes and arrepentiiento.

3. he also talked about hte veil and how it was rent when Christ died.... Super "deep doctrine". It was spiritually intense.

4. He is super funny! every two minutes he was throwing in a nice joke and hving a ton of help from his family. The kids are hilarious. He has a 1 year old nameed felipe and he is a hoot.. he ran around waving to all of the elders and the sisters and started hitting one of the elders with a broom.

But seriously it was really cool to be face to face with the president of the missiona nd see what are his focuses while he is here. I hope i can learn a lot from him in these last couple of weeks that i am here.

I also talked to him about my release date... He said he would talk tot the secretary to see what he can do because my comp, elder Edmondson, also goes home this transfer aso they would have to blank the ZL area... I shoulod be getting my answer here in this week. They robbed our phone so hopeuflly they can contact me somehow. WE bought a phone and a chip so that people can call us but every time that someone calls us they waste a ton of credit.... but im sure its worthwhile :D

We also had a cool opportunity to help marry a family. We didnt get to go to the wedding becuase we were in Cordoba with the presidnet and such but Dalma and Juan got married and they will be getting baptized the 20th... we held a party for them that night and a lot of their faimily went and so we got a lot of referrals to start visiting.

But yeah! im excite dor this week because we have a baptism! The bakery girl is getting baptised!! Melania is so cool. we jsut ahve to hlep her move out of her house and then it will all be good and clear. :D

Love you all! be safe!

Elder Gray

Bye Bye Presidente Salas, Hello Presidente Alluiad!

Yeah... We have a new president. I dont know him yet but im really excited to see who he is and what kind of focus he puts witht eh missionaries. This week was really hard for me. But it was seriously the best week of my mission.

I feel like i´ve been saying that a lot now... but hey! its the truth!! I know that all the missionaries really feel that way :D

This week we had our farewell with President salas. It is probably the last time I will ever see him before I head back to the States. Right now I know he is in Uruguay with his new calling as a 70. I think he´s organizing another stake. Im glad we all got to say our goodbyes and give him one last big hug. I sure will miss him

I also have to just say that I broke a big rule on the mission... I hugged a sister missionary..... But its ok, i had permission from president :D All of us missionaries hugged hermana Salas and said our goodbyes to her.

Man oh man, I sure am goign to miss them. Their testimonies were soooo intense!! I realy know that this work is directed by Christ himself. He is the head of this church and we will always win.... We just have to decide if we´re going to work for the winning team or not.

This week here in the zone we did a couple of intercambios. I had the chance to work with the assitants and i learned a bit from them. I also wroked with some of the elders in our area and some other areas. Im way excited to see the vision that the elders can have as they put their faith inn the Lord.

This week we also baptized!! Maria got baptized by her older brother Ivan. It was way cool because we gained a lot of trust form the bishop. He wants us to baptize the rest of the family so yeah... we´ll be working with that :D he also drove us to some friends house so now we are going to be teaching his friends.

On sunday we had 2 people in church. Noelia, the girl who is living with the Cabezas family and this girl named melania that is our neighbor baker... she always gives me free criollos :D (little bread things)

Melania should be getting baptized pretty soon but we have to help her find an apartment because she lives with her boyfriend.... but they have nothing going on and she has wanted to move out like a year ago... so we´ll be working withthe bishop on that!

This week should be pretty good. We have planned to go on divisions with a bunch of members to start teaching their friends and such. The Obra Misional is also planning to reshow the transmission of the first presidency and the apostles taht talked about the mission work and how it needs to change. not many members could see it so the bishop announced that EVERYONE has to see it next week. Im pretty pumped :D Im going to have a list that everyone can put down their friends and family members that we can visit and the times that they can take us around.

Something that I was reflecting on the other day. I rembmer when I was younger I would also see videos of house the missionaries would walk about trying to find people (the best two years)... and then other videos two years ago that showed missionaries taking members to lessons... (preach my gospel videos).... and now the big difference in the work is that the members are taking th emissionaries around.... I LOVE IT!!

Well this week should be pretty good. I hope everyone is ok. and I cant wait to see you all this coming month.

Be safe! Baptize!!

Elder Gray

A New Vision for the Work of Salvation:

Oh man... I swear I keep on saying that this is the best week I've had in the entire mission.... but really, it has been the best week in my entire mission. Dad was right when he said it is stressing to be a zone leader... There are so many new things that pass through a ZL´s head that I never even thought about. But wow... I´ve been ZL for a week now. I'm sure Ill learn quickly. But really, I have loved this week.

Thank you for the package!!! Beef jerky is awesome!! Elder Gonzalez has never tried it and he loves/hates it. He loves the flavor, and hates how spicy it is.... hahaha but he´s a wimp so its ok :D. Elder Edmondson is soooo legit. I can see why he´s been ZL for 6 months now... He is such a great leader. He is always organized with his agenda and he always tries to have an impact with the time that he has. I think we make a great team!! He is the brains... and I'm the mouth :D I don't want to say I'm a sweet talker.... but hey, We have an asado this weekend :D yeah yeah!!

Really we are trying to have a big impact with the new vision that the prophet has put out... the last year and a half in my mission I have been preaching that I was not called to "find", but I was called to "preach the gospel". So I'm glad that this stake has the same vision as the prophet. all of the members are trying to find a family that we can teach.

Us as ZL´s, our responsibility is to give this vision to all of the stake. We want each organization to find, and baptize a family.... and to help them let the elders just teach. There was an awesome talk that I loved by elder Perry in 2009 during conference.... "Viewed in this light, member missionaries—both you and I—are the shepherds, and the full-time missionaries, like the search and rescue team, are trying to do something almost impossible for them to do alone. Certainly the full-time missionaries will continue to do the best they can, but wouldn't it be better if you and I stepped up to do a job that is rightfully ours and for which we are better suited since we know personally those who are lost and need to be rescued?"

I'm glad that we have our backs backed up with the words of the prophets. I really am so excited to start his new wave of missionary work. I can promise that it is going to continue even when I get home. Man I am so pumped!!!!

This week in the zone we had one baptism.... Which is not that great. This week we should be having 7 or so.... which would give us 17 as a zone.... our goal is 20. We are going to be working a ton this week to make sure that everything goes through so that the other people we are working with can receive their beginning steps to salvation as well.

I invite all of you to visit the new website to see how you can participate in sharing the gospel.

http://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/a-new-vision?cid=HPL1P01W01031&lang=eng

there is the website. Watch the videos, make cards, share a book of mormon... share a FHE.... do anything!!

I just want all of you to know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. He is our Savior and our redeemer. There is not any other "way" through which salvation comes... only through the redeeming blood of Christ. The book of mormon is true. READ IT! LOVE IT! SHARE IT! the book of mormon combined with the spirit is the strongest weapon that we have as missionaries to share the gospel... prophets exist! Believe in their words. trust their words. have faith in everything that they say.

Acaso, no es esto la iglesia verdadera??

This week we have a baptism. We have been working a bit with a girl named Maria Diaz... she is so cool!!! it was her birthday on saturday and we took her over a cake that we made her. We also activated her brother so that he can baptize her. Hes going to be a future missionary.

This week i also got robbed.... hahah We were walking to a family that was recently baptized and we stopped in front of their door when two guys came up to us with a knife and started yelling at us to give us our bags and stuff.. I was just like dude.... I don't have anything, do you want a little jesus card??? a book of mormon?? a pamphlet?? we can pass by your house and teach your family.

So yeah. They didn't take anything.

This week we should be having a lot more members helping us in the work. we are hoping to have 30 lessons with member which would be an all time record for me. But I know God is a God of miracles and that the only way we can have miracles in our lives is through our faith.

Start sharing with everyone!!! don't be afraid to share what you know is true!!! DC 6:32-33

BAPTIZE THEM ALL!! :D

I hope you have a great week. Keep up the great work!!

Elder Gray


D&C 6:32-33

32 Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name, as touching one thing, behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you.
33 Fear not to do good , my sons, for whatsoever ye sow , that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward .

Activity, Baptism, Unexpected Text Message

First of All............. HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!! :D

Wow... this week was super aweseom!! we had a ton of miracles happen this week in our Barrio of La Rioja. We ended up having a pretty good activity with another branch. They did a couple of skits, had a canasta, and played some music. We also watched the Joseph Smith movie. The flia Rodriguez went and they got to know a couple of people. Lets just say that they have a tond of friends now :D

The flia rodriguez gt baptized!!! and so did ivana so it was a wicked sweet week. There were a couple of other baptisms as well so we did a huge combination  of all of the baptisms. In total there were 13 people in white i think. It was defnintely one of the best baptisms i have had. There were a couple of investigtors there as well. Raquel invited her friend maribel, and then randomly the oldest sister showed up to support them as well. So yeah!! it was way good.

We also ended up having transfers this week.... Ill tell you the story,.... I got the call at about 10:40 that night from the zone leaders... they were like, "ok ok.... Elder Hill is going to his house!!!" well yeah, I knew that.. haha then said asked me, "did you get the other news??" i said, "what other news?" they answered, "you´re goign to be zone leader in The Sierras Zone!!!" ..... So yeah, here i am in a new area called Villa Allende. It is in the Sierras stake.... really close to unquillo and rio ceballos so i feel right at home.

this area is going to be great.... a huge difference between how many people go to church... in La rioja, 45.... here in Villa Allende, 160..... so yeah, im pumped to have tsome members :D

I also had a nother suprise when i got here. Elder Goates said bye to me!!

So yeah, thtss about all that happened this week.. Hpefulyy you got all of my photos!

Love you all, be safe!

Elder Gray :D

1 John 4:16,18

Wow... Another week has flown by.... And its my companions last week!!! So crazy... I feel like it is still 3 months ago when I first got here and when I first met Elder Hill, but now he is leaving me in a short week.

Hes a great missionary. I sure will miss him.

This week we had a lot of success. We ended up teaching a ton to the Rodriguez family. They are sooooo cool. We are trying to get the dad to open up a bit more to us. He told us why he doesnt like churches and its because of tithing... he doesnt think that God needs tithing... but after we could explain a little bit to him about Abraham and how they had tithing back then, he opened up to us a little bit more asking about Joseph Smith and stuff.... He understood really well about profets and hes goign to read the book of mormon to ask if its true. He also gave us permission to baptize his daughters so we should have 3-4 baptisms from the Rodriguez family this week. The girls are super excited!!

This week Ivana Rios is finally getting baptized... she has been out of town the last couple of days so we havent been able to find her that much. but we finally found her and she said that she has had a change of heart and wants Elder Hill to baptize her as the last baptism of his mission.... SICK!!!! He was way pumped to hear about that.

So yeah, this week we should have transfers. hopefully i can stay here another transfer to end the mission and that they dont send me to a random different area... that wouldnt be cool... haha but hey, whereever the Lord needs me im cool with it.

I sent a couple of pictures.... hopefully you all got them. Its of last week when we went to see elder Cook and then when I saw elder Michalek and a couple of pictures of the FHE that we did with a couple of members.

The ward is getting more excited to start doing its own missionary work. we left with a couple of members to go do dsome home teaching and to start wroking around some differente parts of the ward. It was super fun. I had a blast. We also got permission to have a FHE in the church. I think were goign to watch a movie as a ward and share some stories and such... then on saturday the quorum is going to have an activity and they invited us to come as well... im pumped!!

Today we have an asado with one of our converts so that will be pretty sweet!!! :D

wellp. I dont have much more to say other than I know that LOVE is the most important thing we can have in this life and in the life to come. Love is what makes us move. If we didnt have love, life wouldnt have purpose. Pure love casts out all fear!!!

I hope you are all great!! be safe and take luck.

Nos vemos muy pronto

Elder Gray

Elder Cook

SORRY THESE ARE LATE! BEEN A BUSY LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS! ENJOY!

This week was super awesome!!

We had the chance to see a living apostle here in Cordoba. He ended up coming on Friday and the whole mission was there to greet him.

I was actually really excited to see all of my mission friends that i havent seen sinc ethe beginning of my mission but after all the ruckess of taking pictures, greeting, etc. We all sat down and started to study. The best part of my entire mission until now was watching 170 missionaries stand uup in reverence as one of the 12 special witnesses of Christ walked in escorting his wife alongside....... Lets just say that I know the church is true.

He talked about a lot of things. He talked about faith, committments, helping others have faith, Helping others know that baptism is the right thing to do. etc.

I also got to shake his hand :D

His wife also talked, she spoke about the hymns and how the missionaries are good singers... then she made us stand up and sing for the next 10 minutes...

We also got to hear the last testimony of our mission president, president Salas... I sure am goin to miss him....

This week in church we has the flia rodriguez come to church again!! Raquel also sent us a cool text during the week saying that she praye dand she knows that the churh is true. She is even sharing mormon messages on facebook with her friends and today she invited a couple of friends over for a FHE. She is super legit!!

The ward is looking a lot better. they finally got home teaching all organized. I have a comp named Hno Romero... he is a future elder and hes wayyyyy humble. and way legit. such a strong testimony for being a recent convert. we ahve 2 familes that we have to visit.

This week we should be having a baptism if we can find Ivana... she went on vacation and she should be back already. so we will have to see if she can be baptized. :D

Then next week we should have 3 or 4 baptisms from the rodriguez family. hopefully they all can make it!!

I really love the mission and i cant believe its coming to a close... hopefully I can make the best of these last couple of weeks!! I know I will.

Be safe everyone and dont forget to write me!! ;D

Keep your prayers goign for the investigators!!

Lots of Love,

Elder Gray

Elina, Melina, Flia Rodriguez, President Salas, and another talk. . .

So yeah, as you all can see from the title of the letter, im goign to be talking about a couple of different things.

This week Eliana and Melina were baptized and confirmed!! Legit!!! And Eliana is already goign to have a calling in the ward because she has an interview with the bishop on tuesday. :D

I had the opportunity to baptize Eliana and it was awesome!! She is probably one of my favorite people right now. She ended up reading to 2 nephi and she came to us telling us that she wanted to be baptized. it was such a cool conversion story. And Melina was baptized by Elder Hill.

The other area that is by us, La Quebrada, also baptized a cool kide named Miguel. He came to church and then said he wanted to be baptized right after... so yeah, he was definitely chosen.

We also found this legit family called the Rodriguez family.... There are... i think 9 people in the family and 3 of them came to church yesterday! :D On tuesday morning we were walking to pass by an inactive family. We were walking and I swear I heard someone say, "Hey look! the Mormons passed by! Dont talk to them" and Me, being my usual proud self said to myself, "Im going to go talk to them just to rub it in their face." So i ended up turning around and goign to knock on the door.... The door opened and it was Raquel. We presented our selves and I said, "Hi, we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known commonly as the mormons... do you know us?" she said that she had never heard of us... but she told us to come by after lunch and that her and all of her sisters would be willing to listen to us. So we passed by.

The first lesson was awesome!! we talked about why we are here on the earth and what we need to do to go back to the presence of God. We invited them to be baptized and they accepted :D. The next day we went back and talked more about baptism. thursday, we got to know the dad and he is super legit! He invited us back again.

so in all of the family there is: Jose 45, Raquel 23, Soledad 21, Melisa 17, Mariana 15, Rebeca 13, Valentine 7, and the twins 5..... We invited them all to church and Raquel, Melisa, and Mariana ended up coming.

They had a great time!! Mariana was asking my comp afterwards more about baptism and how we actually do it. They also got to know a lot of members and we planned 2 FHEs with them this week. So hopeuflly all goes well :D

We had our interviews with President Salas.... He has already been set apart as a 70 and he will be acting as a 70 in june.... im sure going to miss him. But he told us that we have a Mission Conference with all of hte mission this friday!!! :D Way legit! Elder Cook is going to be coming as well to give us some capacitation.

The bishop, sunday in the morning, called us and asked if i could give  a talk in sacrament meeting.... the third time in 2 months that ive had to do it... but I love doing it!! :D Hopefully when I get home ill still love it... im sure its a lot different in english than it is in spanish. but yeah, I talked about Pure love, Friendshipping, and Peter.... haha great combo.

Today we are going to go shopping so that my comp can buy some stuff for his family.

Ivana went to church as well but she is going out of town this weekend so she wont be able to be baptized. But we will have to see if we can baptize her before she leaves on vacation.

That is basically all that has happened this week! I love you all and I hope you are all doing well!

Be safe, read, pray, and go to church!

Elder Gray

1 Corithians 12:12-22

Hey everyone, how are you all doing??

This week for me has been awesome!! Eliana and Melina are getting baptized!!! por FINN!!

So yeah, they ended up coming to church and Eliana brought her boyfriend so that we can start teaching him. He is super cool! his sister is a member and she is inactive because a LOT of stuff has happened in her life and so she dropped the church to get her life in order. But she has the strong desire to come back. So now we have 3 ways of helping Cristian get baptized. 1. His sister 2. his girlfriend 3. NANCY!!

Nancy is legit. she keeps on dominatingthe people with her testimony and everyone she has given us as a reference has been baptized... now we just have to work on getting everyone in that barrio baptized and then that barrio will become a new branch!! LEGIT!

The only bad news that we had this week is that Ivana cant get baptized because she did end up coming to church... she fought with her mom and so she didnt feel like goign... we ended up heading to her house rigth before sacrament meeting to help give her some animo so that she would go to church.... at the end she finally said that she would get baptized next week..... so we will see.

But we ended up finding a couple of cool people this week as well. A LOT OF DADS.... yeah yeah... so yeah, it was really cool to start finding the dads of the families that we have been teaching. hopefully we can follow the example of Nephi and cut the head of the family off (baptize the dad) and then the rest of the family will follow them.

but well have to see.... todo esta en juego.

Wow... seriously it is hard to write in english... its starting to freak me out. but hey, when i get back ill be writing and talking a ton so its all good.

This week the other missionaries in my district baptized so we should be a district of SION! i hope our excitement for the work can spread to the other missionaries and allllll of us can start baptizing.

So yeah, that is all that happened this week.

just a lot of finding, teaching, and baptizing.

love you all!!

Elder Gray

Happy Mom's Day!

Wow.... It was great talking witht he fam... after 20 months of being here... i sure do understand the importance of familyand spending time with them. That is probably the biggest thing that i miss.... being able to just sit downa nd talk to my family for an hour. I MISS YOU GUYS!!

its weird to think that i only have 4 months left in the mission... maybe less if i can come home a couple weeks early to start school. thats like 15 weeks!! wowowowo.

well on sunday we had a lot of good news!! and a bit of bad news....

The good news is that we had 6 people at church!! the bad news is that the 2 most important peopel that we had, did not go to church.... :P

Eliana ana Melina didnt end up going to church and they didnt have a good excuse for why they didnt go.... i was really upset... So now we have to make them get baptized at a different time and they have to wait a whole other week so that they can receive the remission of their sins taht they are looking for. I just wish that peopel would understand the importance of everything that we teach... we really hold the same power and authority that john the baptist had... that is the same authority that helps give peopel the remission of their sins... the same authority that permits people to enter into the kingdom of god (john 3:5) with their first steps (2 nephi 31).

But the good news is that ivana did end up goingto church so she will be getting baptized on the 25th. she is soooo cool!!  :D I love her. haha and we also had another lady come to church...

she is named carina. she was going to church for a long time back in the day and her son got baptized, but she ended up not getting baptized for some reason... im not sure. but she wanted to come back to church and start going again. so we are going to go visit her during the week to see if we can help her with her goals and such.

the same three kids that came last week came again this week. we just need to talk to their parents to see if they can get baptized. and hopefully as we talk about it, they can learn the importance of it all as well.

then the other miracle that we had was this guy named walter. we found him on friday in the streeet. he just barely moved here form salta and he wants to start his life over again. So he found us in the street, asked us where the church was and then he showed up at 6 oclock. But he left early because he thought church was over so he didnt stay for the sacrament meeting.

so overall... it was a bitter sweet week. hopefully we can have more urgency with our investigators and they can really understand the importance of everything that we teach.

I love alll the mothers out there ! you are the best!! Keep going strong!

Elder Gray

Triple!!

This week was another amazing week here in La Rioja Capital. We ended up having a LOT OF SUCCESS. As a zone, we baptized the most in all of the mission and my district baptized more than some of the other zones.... it actually kinda made me feel bad... it wasnt a good month for the mission with baptisms... its ok though! we are goign to baptized a ton this month!!

We had transfers! Elder hill and I have stayed the same. Basically all of the zone stayed the same except for some of the elders that had to go home. And one elder is training a newby.

This week we had 6 peoplein church. ELIANA AND MELINA CAME!! yeah yeah. por fin.

They were all dressed up and nice and we went to pick them up with a member. Eliana went to relief society and Melina went to primary... she started crying for a bit because there weren{t that many other girls there in primary but then halfway through a bunch of other people showed up as well. 4 kids taht we ended up inviting to churh during the week showed up and had a great time.

During the sacrament meeting, Melina was watching all of the people go up to share their testimonies and she leaned over and asked me if she could bear hers as well. So we went up together and I whispered in her ear what she had to say. She talked about baptism, her mom, and Jesus. it was so cute. She is so ready to get baptized on the 18th!! Her mom Eliana also is getting super prepared!

Aimogasta (other area in my district) also had a lot of people in church. They ended up having 3 new people in church. They almost had a baptism as well and they should be baptizing her this week ASAP.

Elder hill and i also had a cool little milagro that happened. We were walking in the street one day and just chatting amongst ourselves when all of a sudden some random lady comes running up yelling at us, " Elders Elders Elders! I have something I need to tell you!". It was a lady taht we had talked to a week ago. We talked about baptism, the church, and my comp gave her a PLan of Salvation folleto. She told us taht she took it... went home... and put it away...  then one day, she woke up, was feeling way bad because apparently her son that was a month old died from a collapse of his lungs. she was feeling way bad about that when she remembered that she had talked to us.... she went, and took out the folleto... and the first thing she opened up to was the Spirit World. she started reading and started crying as she read abou the peace that there is when a person dies. Then she asked us for another folleto and she promised us she is goign to go to church and any time we want to go by, she will be there for us.

So were goign to pass by this next week.... :D

well. we ended up killing in the Logros this week!! we were working a full!!

ended up with 19 lessons with member, 25 news, 16 other lessons, 12 references, and weboth talked to a ton of people.

I really hope that you can all see the little miracles taht happen each day! I lov eyou all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Gray

Matthew 18:22 Seventy times Seven

Thiss week was pretty good. the first half of it was spent out of my area.... sunday night i received a call just before church started that was from the zone leaders... they asked me if my comp and i could go to chilecito with them to help them out a little bit. and we had to leave just after sacrament meeting (we have church at night). so yeah, we spent monday through wednesday in chilecito helping out the other elders.

 I had a blast!

we went to this place called teh river of two colors... it was pretty cool. there is a orange and a blue river. the orange one comes froma  gold mine and so that is why the river is orange.... the blue one is just blue... id ont know if it comes from a special place.

but after we got back to la rioja we had a LOT of work to do. all of the people we ended up having in chruch had not been visited by anyone so we ended up spending a lot of time with them. all of them said that they were going to go to church!

we also stopped by this famliy that we found my first week here calle dthe herrera family. and we finally got to talk tot he mom again!!! it was a way spiritual lesson. we taught why there are so many reliigions nowadays and we taught her the restoration and at the end of the lesson, just after we shared th e joseph smith storya nd the firt vision she stopped and asked me. "how do you know that all of this is true?"... no one has ever stopped, pondered, and then asked me that question in the first visit after the first vision... usualyy it takes them a bit to understand the importance of all of it and then they ask that. she is chosen!!! we told her she needs to pray and then we asked her if she would get baptized and she said yeah!

but.... no one showed up at church... bummer... we´ll just have to start leaving them with stronger compromisos.

this week we have transfers!!! im kinda scraed to see what is going to happen....

sorry, the owner here is closing down the store and so i have to go1!!

Love you all!!

Elder Gray

What's Up?

Wow.... This week was awesomee!! We had a lot of miracles happen here in La Rioja.

One was that we had 2 unexpected baptisms!! Sofia and Agostina got baptized!

Sofia is the daughter of a member here in La Rioja that has always listened to the missionaries and then I got there and I was just like, "hey sofia, why haven´t you ever been baptized....?" she told me her story and said basically that she never felt it. I said, "ok. pray about it and we´ll baptize you on the 20th".... so she did and she got baptized... hha

Agostina is the daughter of Sara, the recent convert that i baptized the first week i got here. we´ve been teachign her a little bit and she was going to get baptized this next week but we just asked her if she wasnted to be batpized with Sofia and she said ok! so yeah... We had two baptisms

This week we are still working with Jessica.... hopefuly she can get in the water this week....

We also had 4 new people come to church yesterday. A family of 4, with two kids that can get baptized and another daughter of a member that we have been teaching for a while. So we´ll be teaching a lot more now than we have ever in La Rioja. Which is legit!! We almost hit 40 lessons this last week. And the members are going crazy to help us. We had 19 lessons with a member present.

Today I am in a pueblo called Chilecito. I came here with thte zone leaders to help out the elders and to find some peopel that they can teach. We went to this cool river today called the river of two colors..... The river starts out orange and blue and then they connect and its super legit. Hopefully i can sne dyou a cool picture.

So yeah. This week has been really really full of blessings!! I lov eyou all and I hope you have a great week!!

Elder Gray

Belief is a precious word

This week was incredible... Just like the rest.
 
We ended up having a baptismal service! Monica finally got baptized. We had been waiting for the papers of Ricardo to come over from Catamarca and we finally got the green light from the bishop and so we ended up having a sweet baptism with about 30 people. A lot of investigators came as well. We had Agostina, Melina, and Eliana... All of them are going to be baptize din the next couple of weeks.

Agostina is doing really well. She is soooo cute! She came to the baptism and she ended up coming to church. She also told me that she wants me to baptized her! What an honor. She should be getting baptize dthe 27th. Yohana couldn't go to church for some family problems... we will have to take care of that.

Eliana and Melina couldnt come to church because they went to visit Eliana's mom. But they are way pumped! Melina is 9 and is the daughter of Eliana. Eliana is reading the book of mormon a ton! She said that if she finds out the book of mormon is true, she will get baptized instantly... so yeah... I'm going to be trusting the promise in Moroni 10.

Jessica didn't end up coming to church yesterday because she was in Catamarca with her friends visiting some other people who came to visit them.... or something like that. But she is still having a little trouble accepting that this is the ONLY true church. We told her about the importance of the Book of Mormon. She knows that book is true and she knows JS was a prophet... so now we have to find out what the real doubt is.

We ended up eating a cow head this week..... it was pretty grosss to tell you the truth... but it ended up being really seasoned so it was pretty good. I ate the tongue, the cheek, the brain, and the eyeball.... The brain was probably the most disgusting. I LOVE THE TONGUE!!! it was soooo good.

We also did some visits witht he home teachers. Tehy invited us along so that we could visit more people and that we could find some part member familys to go and visit. We ended up finding 2 or 3 people that we are going to start teaching.

I just wanted to end this letter by telling you all how much I love you. Thank your so much for all the support you have given me. I love this gospel. I believe and know that it is true. Be strong.

Remember, that anyone can make a covenant, but only the valiant with keep them!

D&C 76:79

79 These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore, they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God.
Lots of love,

Elder Gray

PS.... Happy birthday Marci!

Monica's baptism.

Photo of the other elder's baptism; her name is Angelica

"Cabeza Guateada" -it's cooked cow head. . . yummy!!

Eye of the cow... delicious