Letter #75 The Brother of Jared

 

 

Hello Family and friends,

This week was pretty awesome. We are really excited to start having a lot of baptisms in February. This week we had 2 people come to church . One was Luis, who assisted the other week and the other was the bishops daughter.... haha So yeah. We have about 8 or 9 peopel that have been to church and so we´ll be getting a lot of people in the water here soon. 

I also had a suprise visit on sunday. The Schollaert Family from Rio Ceballos came to Alta Gracia to come and visit me. They are legit!! They said that they came randomly to Alta Gracia for a vacation... but i sure dont believe them. The whole family is so much more grown up.

This week we had a lot of trials and a lot of miracles. It reminded me of the Brother of Jared who had to find a way to light the ships and so he found the way and then asked God for help.

This week, we needed help. But we decided that we would find the way for the help to come, and then ask for the miracle. We did see the hand of God in our lives this week. We asked that we could see baptisms in February and it is for sure goign to happen. The way we decided we are going to do it is through the members, and losing ourselves in the work. So we knelt down and asked God for a miracle to happen and we went out to work. ALL of the the members wanted to help us out this week. ALL of them had references, and ALL of our lessons were a member present. It was truly a miracle. ALL of our investigators now has a friend that is a member and who they can rely on.

I challenge all of you to ask God for a miracle. Find the way for it to happen, work through it all with your faith, and then kneel down and ask him for it.

I thought it was cool to see that in the scriptures, all of the people kneeled to ask God for something.

Enos kneeled for a remission of his sins.

Joseph kneeled to find out the truth.

Christ kneeled to pay for our sins.

We can kneel to ask for an answer, to receive a miracle, to give thanks, etc.

Kneel, and the miracles will come.

I hope that all of you are doing great!! Only 222 days to go!

Lots of love,

Elder Gray

Letter #74 Ether 12:12

Woo.... we had a lot of cool miracles this week.

And I dont know if i told you all, but the stake president came to our ward and gave us a big shpeal about the goals that we have to put and he kinda dropped cain on us for not completing with them all as a ward.... but after a couple of minutes of dropping cain, he turned to us elders and was like, "you elders had a goal of 20 baptisms... and you ended up with.... 21.... nicely done". Man, i felt proud to be a missionary.

But yeah, now as a ward we have a huge mission push. We have to get 26 baptisms this year. Which would mean about 2 each month. which means... a lot more help from the members. Im really pumped to see the changes in the members.

We have permission from the bishop to go to different houses to tell people to step it up... so its kinda fun :D

We ended up having 2 peopl in church this week. Rosa and Mariela couln´t go because they were on vacation... but we had Luis Miguel, and the bishops daughter in church.

So luis miguel was a really cool person we found knocking doors. He opened up.... walked out in his boxers.... and was like, hey dudes. after a couple of minutes talking to him about his job, his band, etc.... we told him we were going to talk to him about God and Christ. He agreed and he ended up loving church. This saturday we have a meeting with him and one of the members that he made friends with is goin to come with us.

This week we should be have 5 baptisms..... por ahí.... 4 from us... and 1 from crucero.... So we are really PUMPED! boo yeah.

The other cool thing that is happening this week is that i think wea re goin to have interviews.... so im going to ask president about the whole school thing to see what he says. Maybe i could come home 3 weeks early instead of a whole 6..... but hey, we´ll see what he says.

I really know that we can all have a grand miracle in our lives. But as ether 12:12 says... it requires faith!! and what is faith? faith is work!!

If we want to be temple worthy, we start working right now...

if we want 26 baptisms.... we start working right now...

if we want our friends to be baptized... we start working right now...

if we want a miracle.... we work right now!

I love you all and i hope you´re all ok

Talk to you next week! pray for Rosa, Mariela, Facundo, Jeremias, and Alicia!

Elder Gray

Letter #73 "Éstos son los que recibieron el testimonio de Jesús" -D&C 76:51

So I was thinking the other day during one of my studies.... "How can I have more success with the people I teach?" And for some reason, I have no idea why, I decided to read about the celestial kingdom. So I started reading in verse 51 and I ended in verse 70.... But in verse 53 it hit me.... Am I being the celestial type of missionary? or am I being the terrestrial type of missionary that is described in verse 79.....

Wow.... The spirit dropped a HUGE CAIN on me...

So to start out this week.... I would invite all of you to be heirs of the celestial kingdom and not the terrestrial. Be who God knows we can be.

This week was amazing! We had a ton of success as a district. In total, as a goal we have 20 lessons each week for each companionship. There are 3 companionships in my district so as a district we should have 60 lessons a week.... This week we ended up with 98....

This district is awesome! And this week we´re going to put our focus more on having 100 lessons with a member present in the lesson.

Here in Alta Gracia we had a lot of success. The Tejeda family is progressing really well. Rosa, Mariela, and Facundo ended up coming to church this Sunday! It was awesome to see Rosa, who is 65, walking up a huge hill to get to church, using her cain. She is a stud. And im pretty sure she loves me. She always cries when she sees me walking up to the house. She also calls me  "grace". haha

So we are full ahead with our baptism of the Tejeda family. they should be getting baptized not this week, but the next one.

Crucero also is having a baptism this next week.

Santa Rosa baptized 2 people the first week of January so our district will end up being a district of "Zion"! :D 

Zion is where all the companionships baptize. As a Mission, we have the goal to be Zion for a month, where every single companioship baptizes.

We also are working a lot more with the members. We have Felipe who is starting to come with us every day for an hour or two. And also Hermano Rapossi is coming with us every other day.

Needless to say, everyone here in Alta Gracia is pumped.... We´ve received a lot of great references from the members of people that they have been preparing for a long time. So hopefully we´ll be having more new people in church next week!! :D

We spent 4 hours cleaning the pension today.... (thats definitely a record for me). IT IS SUPER CLEAN! :D

WEll.... thats about it for this week. I hope you all have a great week!

Be safe and keep up the scripture study :D

Con muchísimo amor,

Elder Gray

"Por lo tanto, cuán grande es la importancia de dar a conocer estas cosas a los habitantes de la tierra, para que sepan que ninguna carne puede morar en la presencia de Dios, sino por medio de los méritos, y misericordia, y gracia del Santo Mesías, quien da su vida, según la carne, y la vuelve a tomar por el poder del Espíritu, para efectuar la resurrección de los muertos, siendo el primero que ha de resucitar." -2 Nefi 2:8

Letter #72

Whats up!!

First of all, sorry it took so long to write you all. I only have a few minutes to write because I´m supposed to be working right now. But president said I could take some time to write.

I couldn´t write monday because this transfer they called me to be a district leader and i had to go to Córdoba to a new leader meeting.... So yeah, im a new district leader.... (revelation?? I dont think so...) haha.

I also got a new companion, Elder Ramirez. And he is legit! He has got 4 months in the mission and he´s a Chileno. He has the most faith that I have ever seen in a missionary. Its really inspiring to me. And with this faith that he has, we have found A LOT OF FAMILIES.

one family is the familia Tejeda. Its a grandma, a mom, and her three kids. Rosa is the grandma and she is the sweetest! She is basically in love with me and with the Book of Mormon. She wont stop reading it. Mariela is the mom, and she is legit. She loves her kids so much that she works allllll day. But then she also takes the time to receive us. The kids are Agustín(16), Jeremias(9), and Facundo(8). They are really cool. We went to visit the family yesterday witht he YOung mens presidnet and he invited all of them to come play futbol and to come to the activites and to church... So the whole family is coming to church this week.

Theya re also getting baptized the 26th. :D Pray for them please!

WE also found Milagros and Vanina. They are two daughters of an inactive member. We have been taeaching milagros for the last couple of weeks but she hasn´t progressed that much because she doesn´t go to church. Then during one lesson her sister vanina walked in and sat down with us and so we started teaching her. WE ended up asking her to get baptized and she accepted. So now the two of them have the goal of the 2nd of february to get baptized. And they knw that they have to go to church so that they can complete the goal.

That really is the most of all tha thas happened this week! I hope you are all well!

Elder Gray

ps. I got a package! Thanks for the ties and the rubiks cube :D

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