🎵I'm coming home🎵- February 18, 2019

Hey y'all!

I can't believe we are at the final email. I could go into all of the boring things we did This week or... I could tell y'all how grateful I am for the Gospel. That seems like the better option:)
I am so grateful for the mission I have had. It has been the best decision I have ever made. I have learned so much and I truly have grown. 

Something that I have learned on my mission is the importance of the Gospel. I have never felt so much peace in my life. The gospel brings true peace, true happiness. I am so thankful for that. I know that the church untrue. That the Gospel has been restored. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be here today. I wouldn't have left my family for so long if this gospel wasn't true. 

The church is true. The gospel has been restored. God lives, so does our savior Jesus Christ. 

Fun facts about my mission
1162 days since I have seen my brother (due to both of our missions)
525 days as a missionary
75 emails home
6 wards
4 areas
3 phone calls home
1 truly converted missionary

I love each of you. I am thankful for everything I have done and everything that you have don't for me. Stay safe. 

See y'all Thursday. 

Sister Gray, signing off :)


P.s. I will be giving my homecoming this Sunday at 10:30 the address is 900 south main street, Kaysville Ut. Please come so I can see y'alls cute faces.
Much love ❤

Learned how to make sushi:) we also ate raw fish and I almost died.
My Valentine's date was a dog. Yes, he kissed me goodnight. It was gross.
My funeral

Sushi

Valentines glow sticks

Valentines Date

Sister Gray's Funeral 

Sister Gray's Funeral 

The best of times - February 11, 2019

Hello!!!!!!

I hope y'all had a wonderful week this week! Our week has been interesting, that's for sure. We have had lots of ups and many a downs haha. Overall it was still a great week. We spent most of this week sick actually. At first, I was sick, and then sister Larsen got sick, and then I got food poisoning, and Sister Larsen was still sick. So, that being said... it's been a week. 

Monday we had a great day! S. Larsen actually set off the fire alarm at the church. She was messing with the little switch and she accidentally knocked it off the wall. It was probably one of the best moments ever. Watching her scramble to put it back on was hilarious. Then I just had to play it out and tell her that the fire department was going to come and freaked her out. It was hilarious.
We met an amazing lesson with a girl named Amy this week. She is fantastic. She is searching for peace and happiness in her life and she said that when she talked with us that she felt closer to accomplishing that. She cried as we left and said that she couldn't wait to see us, and learn from us. She told us that she already knows our message is true. 

Wednesday night we were judges at a mutual activity and it was hilarious! We had so much fun being around the youth, afterwards when we were cleaning up a priest passed me a basketball and yelled to shoot it. That led to a game of three on three with kids from the ward. At the end of the game the bishopric was on the corner watching. We were scared that they were going to be mad but the bishop walked up to us. Grabbed the basketball from my hand and shot it. He said thanks for building relationships and being people around his kids. It was pretty great. We are playing again with them this Wednesday and one of the priests is bringing his non-member friend to play. 

On Thursday I got food poisoning. I ate a hamburger that wasn't fully cooked and it destroyed me haha. We had a lesson with Jose and it was a very cool lesson. We had Christine there with us. It was cool to see her teach and testify of the things that she knows to be true. We taught the restoration and as we sat and taught he just stood there and shook his head in agreement. He said at the end that he felt God was proud of him for meeting with us. 

Sunday was our regular church schedule. We were in church from 9 until 2 this week. Not too bad. We had lots of meetings and there were some amazing meetings this week. I learned a lot. We spent the night helping make and deliver cookies to the new move ins in the ward. It was a fun night. We were able to work with the young women and it was fun to gain their trust. At the end of the night one of the beehives said to another "I have never met sister missionaries that I have actually liked!" That was a good comment to hear. 

We spent a good amount of time tracting this week. We found a couple of new people to teach and had a good time. I actually don't mind tracting too much. If you ever want a day to pass by quickly... go tracting. 

Well y'all. I hope you have a fantastic week and that you stay safe. Stay warm. Texas took a turn for the cold and went from 70 degrees to 31 over night. I hope you all are happy!:) 

Love,
Sister Gray


In honor of my mom's Facebook post
Cool member in our ward

Awww Release date milk 

Sister Larsen, really cool member of the ward,
and Sister Gray 

CATch Up Week LOL - February 4, 2019

Hello my sweet family and friends!

I am so grateful for the hour that I have to email today! Some time ago, a dying Elder told me that as you approach the end of your mission you begin to have more time and that preparation days become longer and more fruitful. Boy, did he tell me wrong. I feel like the past three Mondays have been so hectic that I haven't had a chance to do anything but buy a few groceries, write President Whitney, and tell my mom that I am alive and breathing. Last week we had approximately 32 minutes to email everyone that we needed to. That being said, if I didn't respond to you.... I will try to shoot you an email today. I really appreciate all of the love and support that each of you have shown me since I have been on my mission. I dont think I would have made it this far without each of you. Shout out to those who actually read these emails and who make it to the end. Y'all are the best. 

To start this email out, I felt like I should share with you a little more info on our week last week. My dear companion, Sister Larsen, shared with me her email last week. Well, part of it. She said I could send it to y'all because it is pretty stinkin hilarious.

"Once upon a time our car broke down and Sister Gray and I had to push it uphill and we rocked it cause we are super buff. Anyways, during this whole fiasco we saw THE CAT! This cat is the cat who got out during the great flood (aka when our washer flooded three apartments) and we have felt so guilty and we have prayed so much for this cat! Then the cat ran right by us to a little empty lot of land with other strays. I took off after it (forget companions right? Jk she came running once she realized). It eventually got away from us and long story short- we jump a fairly large fence with nails sticking out of it in dresses and we didn't even get seriously injured! Go us! So yeah, scratched hands and our dignity out on the line for a cat we never caught..."

So yeah, that is a fun story from last week. I thought it was funny so I felt the need to share. UPDATE. We knocked on the cat owners door and they looked at us through the window, saw the name tags, and locked the door without opening it. Man, do I love Texas haha. That seems to be a common theme around here. 

We have had a pretty good week. I spent a day in Euless on exchange. It was fun to be companions with Sister Keller again and to hang out and talk about our missions. Neither of us can comprehend the fact that this time is almost over. On Wednesday, the young women in the C2 ward asked me to come and be the pianist at their "New Beginnings" night. It was fun to spend the evening with them. Little fun fact, due to the fact that Sister Larsen is a convert, she never had the chance to go to young women's. She had never even heard of the Personal Progress Program. One day about a month ago I wore my Young Women Medallion and she asked me about it. I had to the chance to tell her about it. She got really excited and said that she wanted to do it for herself. With the program ending January 2020 and the fact that she will still be a missionary at that point, we enlisted help from good ol President Whitney. He gave her full permission to work on it at the end of each day. We talked to the Young Women presidents in both wards, she got a book, she got a necklace, and she is ready to roll. It has been fun to help her along the way. Fun times when your cute companion learns something new about the church:)

We met some new amigos this week. We received a referral for a man name Jose. He is pretty awesome. He wants to change his life around so he ordered a free Bible. We went to his house and we taught him how our lives can be changed and blessed through Jesus Christ. It was a pretty amazing appointment. At the end, he said "I want my kids to learn from you, my wife, my whole family to feel what I feel". It was a great thing to hear. 

After his lesson we went to have our lesson with Christine. She had made us some dinner and we were telling her about the great lesson we just had. She was super excited for us and she asked if she could be our "member present". She is so excited to come and be a missionary with us next week. I love my calling and the people I get to teach. 

Well y'all. I hope that you found this letter somewhat funny and somewhat spiritual. I really do love being a missionary and I love where I am at. I love being a trainer. It has pushed me to be better and it has been really hard but I wouldn't change it for anything.
I love this church. I love the Lord. I love each of you. 

Talk to you soon!

Love Y'all!!!!

Sister Gray 

Ok so a member gave us this brownie and told us to enjoy haha. It was so funny and fantastic. Gotta love Texas

Sister Gray, Larsen, Candland, and Sister Keller

Sister Gray 

Sister Larsen and Sister Gray 

Pot Brownie - Seriously ?

To Those That Listen - January 28, 2019

Hey y'all!

I have to be super quick this week. To be honest, I wasnt going to write a group but I had a quick rebuke of a promise made to a family member that I would write a group every week of my mission. I am on the last 4 emails and I am not about to quit.

This week we had some cool experiences. Funny how God works. While sitting in church yesterday I was sitting in the back seat of Relief Society. I was minding my own business, sitting by those we had brought to church. I took a look around the room and noticed a particular lady. I haven't had too much interaction with her. She has had some health issues which have prevented her from coming to church. As I sat and looked at her I felt an impression to get up from my cozy little seat in the back and walk all the way to the front of the room and sit with her. I hesitated and contemplated the awkwardness I was about to confront. As soon as I mustered up the courage to move, the relief society president calmly stood up and took the seat that I was prompted to sit in. I sat there sheepishly in my seat, which was no longer cozy. I felt a STRONG rebuke. The phrase that came to mind was "If you aren't willing to listen, someone else will.". I sat in the back with tears in my eyes. I proceeded to watch this amazing president counsel this sister. She put her arm around her, whispered some words to her, and smiled. I was amazed at the simple act she had courageously done.

After the meeting I was prompted to speak with the RS president. I told her how much I admired her and how thankful I was she listened to the spirit when I failed to do so. She started crying and we sat there with tears in our eyes as she proceeded to tell me that the sweet sister we both were prompted to sit by had a small seizure in the middle of the meeting.

I thanked her again for following the spirit.

We have the opportunity to be instruments in the hand of the Lord. Do EVERYTHING you can to follow the promptings He is asking you to do . It will all work out. If you wont listen, God will assign different servants who will. He needs to accomplish His purpose.

God is good y'all. Don't forget.

Have a great week. Love y'all!

Sister Gray

Sister Larson and Sister Gray 

Yummy Treats

ONE MONTH TILL HOME HOMIES - Jan 21, 2019

HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!!

Wow oh wow, this week was FANTASTIC. Oh my gosh, where to start. I dont have too much time to email this week due to the fact that we played soccer with our district for 3 plus hours today. Ah man, Im telling ya. I have the best district in the world. 

We started the week off pretty rocky to be honest.... We came home from P day last week and everything in our apartment had been moved. If you remember, we flooded our apartment last week. We left our house as the maintenance guys were still moving the broken washer. We came home and they had moved everything out of the bedroom and put it in the living room. It was a party. We ended up sleeping in our living room for about 6 days. 

On Tuesday we spent the first 3 hours doing studies at a members house while we did laundry. All of our stuff got wet again after we left. So we had to rewash all of it. We had service at the bishops store house and it was..... interesting. The elders squealed that I go home in 4 weeks and every single one of the workers asked me if I was going to go home and get married super fast. It was super uncomfy. We taught Susan this week and IT WAS SO COOL. She hasn't been keeping any of our commitments lately so we had a good talk. We both felt very prompted to be VERY blunt with her and tell her what our purpose is. After doing so she changed. She is in Utah right now and is going to church there while she is away. 

We had zone conference this week and it was a really good meeting. I learned a lot about perspective and attitude. My favorite quote was... "There is no such things as a "dead" area simply "dead" missionaries." President Whitney knows how to throw some shade. It was a really good meeting. I gave my departing testimony and it was a very weird experience. 

SUNNY WAS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!!! YAY!!! It was such a magical day oh my gosh. The next day he was confirmed and I was so excited. Not only did he receive the gift of the hold ghost, Bishop, his son, PASSED THE SACRAMENT. AHHHHHH I love being a missionary. The Chibuzor family has come so far and I love them so much. 

Y'all. Being a missionary is the best. I am thankful for my badge and the things I am learning. This church is true. As is the book of Mormon. I am so thankful for the Lord and the things He has provided. 

I hope y'all have a great week. Be safe, do good, remember God loves you:)


LOVE Y'ALL!
Sister Gray


We were tired of the usual study place so we found a lake and did our studies on a dock. Trying to be adventurous.
Trying to make everyone and everything a missionary.
This is us dying because we were over stressed that our apartment is a complete mess.
SUNNY AND HIS BAPTISM
it's actually been FREEZING in Texas so this is me dying without a coat on (sorry mom).

Yeah for Missionary work

Everyone or thing a missionary

Being Stressed ? or taking a nap ?

Sunny's Baptism

Freezing Sister Gray 

Walking on Water - Jan. 14, 2019

Hey y'all!

The weeks are flying by here in Carrollton. We have had a pretty decent week this week. We have spent most of the week focusing on finding. We had a huge teaching pool after a few weeks of me being here, we have actually baptized almost everyone in our pool. Super incredible but we are having a rough time filling those newly opened spots haha. We have been doing lots of finding haha. My favorite form of finding is definitely referrals. This area helps us so much with referrals. Its amazing. We have found quite a few people just by asking members "who can we go and visit this week?".

SOOOOO MUCH HAS HAPPENED THIS WEEK WITH THE CHIBUZOR FAMILY. Oh my goodness.....Sunny is getting baptized this Saturday! It was going to happen last Saturday but we decided to move it back a week so more people in the ward could attend. We are pretty excited. Yesterday Bishop received the priesthood! It was such an amazing day at church. Sitting in the room watching them ordain bishop to be a deacon was such an amazing experience. He will be attending the temple this Wednesday with the youth. It has been a great week for them.

We had a fun morning this morning. We had gotten everything we needed to do done early this morning. We had finished cleaning, and was on our last load of laundry. We decided to put the last load of clothes into the washer and head out to go shopping. We were gone for about 45 minutes. We returned to the complex and as we were walking up the stairs (We live on the 3rd floor) we noticed that there was some water coming down the wall in one of the hallways. I immediately had my stomach flip. We run into our apartment run into our bedroom to find a huge mess. Our washer had broken while we were out and was dumping water onto the floor. We walked in and the carpet had a good 2 inches of water on it. We turned off the machine and ran to the office. We have THE BEST maintenance guy ever. He speaks little to no English but is the cutest old Mexican guy I have ever met. He jumped our car a couple of weeks ago and ever since then whenever we see him we wave vigorously and now we are best friends. We are constantly giving him cookies and such when we see him because we love him so much. He came into our apartment and laughed and helped us clean everything up. Everything is still a complete mess and its super overwhelming but there isn't much we can do about it. We might not have a washer and dryer anymore haha. And I am pretty sure that our neighbors beneath us hate us because we flooded their homes ahah. Ah man, this is great.

I hope y'all have a great week this week. We unfortunately didn't take any pictures this week:(

Love Y'all,

Sister Gray

p.s. we are officially in the 30's! YIKES! I will see all soon!

The Breaking Point - Jan. 7, 2019

Happy first week of January!

I hope everyone is having a happy new year. This week has been kinda slow for us. With the new year, everyone was either drunk and sleeping, or not home because they were out partying with their friends. It was fun to be here for the holidays. We tried really hard to stay up for the new year but we ended up falling asleep at like 11:15 and we woke up at 11:50 and put on our hats and watched the time change on our phone and went to bed. It was pretty lame actually haha. Holidays on the mission are super lame. 

We met with Susan this week and it was really fun to teach her. She is really interested in learning an changing right now. It is really cool to teach people that are prepared to move forward. We had a wonderful conversation about the great apostasy and it's affects. I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the things that I know from it. God is good y'all. 

We also taught a lady named lashawnda this week. She has had a really rocky past and she is at a point in her life where all she wants to do is come closer to God. I love to see people at this point, the breaking point. Where they simply hit bottom and they are humble enough to listen. Just like what it says, in the scriptures:) 

This will be a really short email (sorry mom and dad) we only have a few minutes to email today. We have had lots of things to do today so we really don't have a lot of time.
I love y'all and I'm excited to have these next 6 weeks to be a missionary. 

Love y'all 

Sister Gray 

We went biking this week
We def drank ranch flavored soda the other day. The things you find in texas...
A Nigerian dinner
Christmas gift from the ward
So... I got my trunky packet this week. That was great.

Biker Girls

Bikes and Books of Mormon

Ranch Dressing Soda

 

Nigerian Dinner

Christmas gift from the Ward

Trunky Papers