A Missionaries Promise - January 29, 2018

Hello cute friends and family!

This week has literally blown by. I feel like I was just writing last weeks email. Its the last week in the transfer so that's pretty crazy. I will find out next Monday if I will be staying in Highland Village or transferring somewhere else. I will let y'all know;)

Tuesday I spent in Denton on exchanges. It was a really good exchange. One of the sisters was sick so we went on a mini exchange. We had the opportunity to attend a YSA activity for lunch. We had taco Tuesday. It was really fun and really good tacos. I actually met someone who graduated from Davis. He used to teach seminary at Davis and he knows Brother Brown (fav seminary teacher) He sent a text to him telling him I said hi. It was a really good opportunity. The exchange ended and we carried on with a regular day.

I don't have a lot to write about this week so this will be a quick email. Only a few things that were exciting happened this week.

Saturday was supposed to be a normal day. We had planned a youth activity to play chair soccer. The activity started, everything was going well until Sister Burns tried to kick the ball and missed. Instead of hitting the ball she hit a metal folding chair. Immediately following a giant hematoma formed on the top of her foot. Our day turned into anything but normal. I loaded her into the back of our car and off to urgent care we went. We waited at urgent care for at least 3 hours before the doctor could see us. Luckily it isn't broken just extremely swollen. She isn't supposed to walk on it for long amounts of time so we spend all day in our apartment. She has to have it elevated for most of the day so she stays and sleeps and I am confined to the apartment. So far I have cleaned the apartment 3 times in the last 2 days. Watched the District (training videos) 3 times (all 6 videos are about 45 minutes each). Its been the most boring week ever.

On a spiritual note, we had the most amazing dinner appointment yesterday. A little background on the Smith family. Brother Smith is absolutely crazy. Its awesome, we get along great. Anyway, we had an amazing dinner filled with jokes, sarcasm, and laughter. Afterwards Brother smith showed us how to scat. Yes I said scat. It was hilarious. I will send videos. After he taught us, we sat down to share a message. As we shared our message the spirit was definitely present. My entire chest was burning. As we extended a commitment to pray as a family to find a family they could help, the father of the family expressed some concern. He didn't want to commit to something he might not be able to finish within the next two weeks. He wanted a timeline to motivate him but he was uncertain if he could accept this challenge. 

I was feeling impressed to tell him something. I was really unsure about saying what I did, but the spirit kept pushing me to say it. I finally let out what I needed to say. I promised him as a representative of Christ that if he had faith that he could do it the Lord would provide. 

Immediately after he turned to me and looked me straight in the eyes and said "I know that you are right. Ill do it". I felt a wave of relief rush over me. It was fantastic. He proceeded to tell us looking me in the eyes that this is exactly where I needed to be. That I made the right decision, coming on a mission. He said that he knew he was filled with the spirit. Sometimes the Lord reminds me that I can continue even when I don't want to. He did that through a member. I am grateful that he was in tune with the spirit and helped me.

The lord loves each of his children. He wants all of us to be happy. He wants us to endure, in fact he endures with us. How grateful I am to have him.

Sorry for the short letter but I hope y'all have a great week. Love you!!!
Sister Gray:)


Pictures:
Odin got into the fireplace and my heart melted. Love this dog.
District meeting
Old family friends:)
Brother smith teaching me to scat.

Odin (Sister Gray considers him a best friend)

2nd District 

Debbie and Todd Hansen and Sister Gray
(See note below)

Brother Smith teaching Sister Gray to Scat

**Note** Todd and Debbie Hansen are old family friends of Sister Gray's mom.  Todd's mom recently passed away and Sister Gray's mom went to the funeral.  It has been about 8 years since she saw the Hansen last.  After visiting for a minute Debbie exclaims your Sister Gray's mom, we just fed her last week.  Turns out Todd and Debbie are living for a short time with Debbie's brother Brother Needs, that Sister Gray talked about last week.  Once again Heavenly Father has made sure that Sister Gray will be taken care of.  You just can't plan this stuff.

Near Miss.......January 22, 2018

Hello!

I cant believe another week has gone by. I feel like I am still stuck in last week. Time flies when you are on a mission. This week has been a fairly good week. We have been running around like crazy. Its been great.

Tuesday we spent most of the day continuing to help Sister Aleman move. She has been super stressed out so us being there is really helping. She finally just looks at us and asks "I don't even know what to pack and what to not pack. Just do whatever you think is best". We cleared out an entire shed and dumped it. Being the short missionary... I had to climb into the top of the shed and clean it out. I pulled out 6, I repeat, 6 dead lizards. It was not my favorite part of the day. We had fun though. It is cool to see how simple acts of service make a big difference to some people. As a reward sister Aleman gave me a present. She had found an old ukulele in the attic and she wanted me to have it. After a good clean up and tune its in good working condition. I am excited to learn how to play it more and continue that skill. We spent the rest of the night running around to different appointments. 

We had the opportunity to watch the announcement from President Nelson. I am thankful for living day prophets and the guidance we receive them.

Wednesday was one of the best days. We had the opportunity to eat with a really cute family. They have a return missionary who served in Peru. We were all laughing because he is 6 foot 8. The parents had me stand next to him to compare the size difference. After dinner, Sister Needs laughed really hard. She said "Hold on, I have to go get something!" she was laughing super hard as she walked back into the room with one of her sons shoes. He wears a size 16. I am a size *8 and a half. She had me stand next to it and oh boy was It funny. she took pictures and sent it to literally everyone in her family. We had a blast. Afterwards we had an amazing lesson on the good Samaritan. The spirit was so strong as brother needs shared his testimony about the story. He related the good Samaritan to the plan of salvation and the need for the priesthood. it was incredible. It was hard to not cry but we were all overcome with the feelings of the spirit. 

After our dinner appointment, we had the opportunity to help with mutual. The ward had set up a mini MTC. They each received a name tag, a companion, and were sent to different training sections. We taught the financial station. Teaching the youth on how to budget your mission money and how to spend wisely. Something that I am still not good at. One of the youth asked how often we eat and we proudly said that we don't eat out very often. In the previous week we went out once with a member (Which you will hear about later). They then asked the elders how many times they had eaten out. They very proudly responded with at least 5 meals. Differences between elders and sisters, right there. We were able to bare testimony to everyone at the end of the conference on the blessings of missionary work. it was a great activity.

Thursday around 8:30 our water pipes broke. Sister Peterson sent us a text saying that we might need to live somewhere else for the next few days. We started looking around and started to get really concerned when a nearby neighbor (Who isn't a member) came over and patched it up for us. As a thank you, sister Peterson offered to help us make them a pie the next day. We spent all morning with her making a homemade blueberry pie. She fed us lunch and we were on our way. 

We were finishing up our studies in the apartment next door when we received an alarming text. Sister Peterson was having a gall bladder attack and couldn't move. She needed help with her two year old son. We raced over to help. We helped to situate her in bed and gave her apple juice mixed with apple cider vinegar. As we waited for the attack to stop she asked us to help Joseph (her son) get into the crib. Normally Joseph wont have anything to do with us. But, for some reason he came right over to me and held my hand as we searched for his blanket and binky. At one point he kept getting distracted so I ended up picking him up (I know I know, against the rules but just hang on) I found his blanket, wrapped him up, and laid him in his bed. He instantly fell asleep. Sister Petersons attack stopped and she apologized for me having to hold her child. I told her that there was absolutely NO REASON to apologize haha. I miss holding children. No worries though, I repented from holding him and all is well. The only sad thing is, now every time Joseph sees me... he begs me to hold him It breaks my heart. Now I know why they ask us to not hold children.

Saturday was sooooo crazy! our zone had 2 baptisms that day and it was filled with craziness. We were able to meet our investigator Karlie at the first baptism. The young man being baptized was a close friend of hers and she was glad to see him make this choice. She could see the happiness it brought him. The baptism was a little rocky if Im being honest. The building we were at didn't have the best font. The water was lime green and freezing. the water heater broke so there was no warm water. When he walked into the font he was giggling because it was so cold. It wasn't the ideal baptism to have an investigator but she felt the spirit and was happy to be there. We are meeting again with her soon to talk more about the importance of baptism. 

Saturday night the family we were eating with decided that they wanted to go out. So we all piled into a small white bug. Not a lot of room but hey, it was a dang cute car. As we were driving some guy ran a red light and nearly killed us (I'm sure my mom is freaking out right now about reading this but hey, I'm alive to tell the tale). And when I say "nearly" I mean I could have poked the passengers eye with my finger, that's how close they were to us. Sister Bush screamed. She didn't even see the car when she screamed. She screamed because she said that her steering wheel decided to turn. She wasn't the one to turn to car. We were truly protected by the lord. It was really funny when the guy who ran the red light walked into the restaurant with his head down. He wouldn't look at us. It was hilarious. But yeah, kinda almost died this week.

Sundays are really crazy now. We start our day off at PEC at 8, we leave that meeting and go straight to correlation meeting at 9. We finish around 10:15. we have just enough time to go to the bathroom before we have to greet people at the doors at 10:30. Church starts at 11. We usually end up talking to people until 2:30. We have lunch until 3. Due to appointment in the evening we had to do studies until 4. We had a few contact attempts to do in the far part of area. As soon as we walked outside BOOM. Downpour. We said a prayer and started driving. It is kind of scary driving in Texas rain storms, you cant see anything. We made it safely to the area and had successful contacts. We went straight to dinner with the Penningtons. 

After our meeting with them we had a family home evening with a less active family. While we were talking with them we were able to get to know them better. Sister Johnson asked about our lives previous to the mission and what made us come on missions. As I was telling her about where I was from she cut me off and asked "oh please tell me you had a rebellious stage. People from Utah have the best rebellious stages". I kind of laughed and had to think about it. Anyway, one thing led to another and she asked if we had ever done anything crazy with our hair in our rebellious stage. Sister Burns laughed and showed pictures from when she dyed her hair purple. I stated that I have never had crazy colored hair. Sister Johnson literally pulled me off of the couch and took me into the bathroom. She then proceeded to dye my hair blue and red. No worries though, it wasn't permanent. Just weird. But that is Sister Johnson. I will send pictures, it looks cool.

This week has been a really good week. We have been busy. We have been very effective. I am thankful for the things that I am learning in this area. My testimony has been built and my faith has been tried. Luckily I have the Savior to rely on during the hard times. I know he will never leave any of his children comfortless.

I hope y'all have a great week this week. Stay warm, and stay safe. I am thankful for all of the love and support I receive from each of you. Love yall!:)

Love,
Sister Gray


PICTURES:
Making me feel really short
My new hair
Small foot, big foot
Our pie
It actually snowed in texas.... kind of.

Nothing like a flood sign to make you feel short

My new hair

Big Foot Little Foot

Sister Needs comparing shoe sizes

Sisters homemade pie

It does snow in Texas. . . .Kinda

HOLY! 4 months down!

These last few months have been some of the best months of my life. They have also been some of the worst. Lots of faith building trails!:)

We had the amazing experience of taking someone to the temple. It was her first time back in several years. As we sat in the temple you could see the happiness and the joy that she felt as being in the Lords house. We were truly happy to experience that with her. The whole experience was great... except for the fact that we almost died on the way home. The freeways here are SO CRAZY. Everyone drives at like 90 miles an hour and everyone texts and drives. It is terrifying. Worth it. Sister Burns was really sick afterwards so she came home and went straight to bed. I made her some soup to see if that would help. Its funny because at home I loved to cook. It was fun, easy, and it tasted pretty good. But as a missionary, you dont have a lot of food to mess around with so you make what you can with what you have. We made chicken noodle soup with potatoes, broccoli, noodles, and some carrots. It turned out pretty good and we have had it for left overs the past couple of days. Honestly though that today was the best out of the week. We accomplished a lot.

Later in the week we were able to meet with a less active family. We had a family home evening that lasted for 2 and a half hours! They talked our ears off. It was a really good interactions though. At the very end of the lesson the Dad of the family turned to his son who had been talking the whole time and said "You have been talking all night, talk to God boy, Pray!". I was dying. I had tears streaming down my face.

Last night we had an unusual experience. As we pulled into our driveway we saw this cute little dog in our path. No collar, no clue whose dog it was. We talked with the Petersons to ask where it came from and they had no idea. They were going to call around the following morning to see if they could find who it belonged to. She asked if we could keep him with us for the night. We accepted. We called her Ginger and she slept over. She was well trained and well behaved. She loved to cuddle with us and was an awesome companion. We were sad to see her go but it was fun to have a pet for less than 12 hours!

We have been able to teach primary the past couple of weeks. They called one teacher to teach a class of 12 five year old. 12! With no assistant to help her. So we have been helping out while she has been single teaching. Yesterday the lesson was "follow Jesus Christ by choosing the Right!" to start the lesson off, the teacher played a game. follow the leader. Easy enough right? She calls the first little girl to the front of the class and invites her to do something. The little girl comes up, thinks about what to do and BAM slides down into the splits. Without doubt, hesitation or anything she was just down. The best part about it? watching 9 others kids try to do it!!! Oh my goodness the three of us were crying. Sister Johnson had to excuse herself to go to the bathroom. It was so funny we still crack up about it sometimes.

Seriously through being a missionary is awesome. You learn so much. You learn to follow the promptings of the spirit and learn to act upon the promptings we feel. Saturday night (I apologize for the random order of nights Im trying to finish my email really fast haha, my bad) We were driving around our area following up with contact attempts and all. Anyway, we were driving to our last contact attempt when I randomly started driving somewhere else. The next thing I know, I am on a different street in front of a less Actives house. I dont even remember driving there but then all the sudden I just stopped the car and there I was. We have tried to get in contact the past couple of months with no success. But, as we knocked this week they finally opened the door. They invited us in and we were able to set up another appointment, It was such a blessing from the lord. I am so thankful for the spirit and the guidance it provides me.


Anyway, I know my emails have been lame the past couple of weeks but this work is amazing. I am thankful for the opportunity to be a missionary serving at this time. I am thankful for all that everyone has done to support me. Have a great week!

Love Y'all!
Sister Gray


PICTURES!


Temple day
A balloon picture station we helped create at youth conference
Ginger snuck onto my bed while sleeping
How sister Burns woke me up from a nap in the middle of a migraine (silly string is never a good thing)
Tired little ginger :`)

Temple Day 

Sister Gray and Sister Burns
at a Young Women's activity

Sister Gray and Ginger taking a nap

It is NEVER a good idea to wake Sister Gray
up from a nap with Silly String

Tired Little Ginger (Spoiled Little Ginger)

Celestial lizards - January 8, 2018

Hello!
One week down into the new year, and boy did it go by fast. This week was not the most exciting week. We spent basically all day every day out tracting. The weather this week has been a little better than weeks before but not by much. Today has been the only day that we can go out without a coat on. 

To start this week off we had the amazing opportunity to go to the temple. We woke up bright and early in order to attend the first session at 7. Being in the temple was something that I have really needed over the past couple of weeks and I am thankful that the temple is so close to me and my mission (its technically not in the Fort Worth Mission but that is ok).

We spent the morning there and crashed in the car on the way back. Sister Pennington drove us and she gladly let me sleep in her car for the hour drive back to the apartment. We spent the rest of Tuesday in Denton meeting with our sister training leaders and getting to know some sisters within our mission. It was a very fun time, but it left no room to write emails, or do any of the usual P day activities.

Wednesday was a usual Wednesday where we begin tracting at 11 and finish at 4:45. At first it seemed really intimidating to be out and about knocking on doors for so long but when you are working on finding new investigators the time seems to pass by quick. We had some success as we were out and about and by the end of this week we have found 6 new investigators, and placed several different Book of Mormons. Tracting is hard, but on a good week it is successful.

Thursday we had our zone conference. It was a great meeting filled with lots of training from president. We spent literally all day there. From 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. we were learning about things we can do to better fulfill our missionary purpose. Overall it was a good day.

Friday nothing really exciting happened so we are just gonna skip it haha:)

Saturday, we spent at a Less Actives home helping her pack. We have been meeting with this member for several weeks encouraging her to come back to church. Throughout the several weeks she would usually turn us down and change the subject but at some point something changed. We have worked with her and she has officially decided she is ready to go back to the temple. She asked us if we would attend with her. We feel truly blessed that she wants to include us as during this special moment. As we were with her on Friday she was sharing with us her viewpoint on several different spiritual subjects. At some point during the discussion, we hear a cat start to meow REALLY loud. 

The member stops for a moment and screams "Did you catch me a lizard? Did you kill it?" she proceeded to stand up and find the loud cat. She laughed and brought back a GIANT lizard that her cat had caught for her. she looked at it for a couple of seconds and determined that it wasn't hurt and took it outside to release the poor dude. As she came back in she said "at least I will have lots of little lizard and bird friends in the afterlife. I've saved their lives too many times". She has had a really hard life and isnt close to her family so she looks to little things to fill that void. She has officially put me into her family (My comp is still earning her way in). She and I have become really close over the past 2 months. She moves in a couple of weeks to be closer to her mom and to grow that relationship. Im excited to see their friendship grow.

Sunday we had the opportunity of teaching the 5 year old about choosing the right. There is a special place in Heaven for all of the Lords primary teachers. They are super heroes. It was a good experience and I definitely learned a lot.


Anyway, thats all that really happened this week. Not too much but hey! I still have 14 months for new stories right? I hope y'all have a great week this week!

Love,

Sister Gray



District Meeting

Name Tags

Sister Burns won Sister Gray a frog at Walmart

Sister Gray and Sister Burns

A Year of Light - January 2, 2018

Happy New year! Officially 2018.

This week has been filled with adventures, lame parties, and amazing experiences. To start off I am going to be very blunt. This has been the hardest/lamest week ever. It has been very hard to stay positive with all of the trials and hard aches that have happened this week. There has been lots of disappointments, lots of sorrow, and there was a lot to learn.

Christmas day was an amazing experience. I have heard a lot of people say "Christmas as a missionary is truly the best". I have to agree with that. The day started out with the opening of Christmas gifts. We gathered together as a companionship and took turns opening presents. Most of the ward members here knew that transfers were coming and how hard of a transition it was going to be so they spoiled us with gifts. After our present adventures, we spent the morning with the petersons opening gifts, playing with new toys, and overall just having a fun time. We spent the rest of the afternoon with the Penningtons. They were in need of new family pictures and asked me if I would take them for them. It was freezing outside and the wind was crazy. After the whole thing we got maybe 2 pictures with everyone smiling, eyes opened, with no hair in their mouths. It was a miracle haha. As always, talking with the family was great. It was interesting that just last Christmas I was sitting at home talking with Cooper who was only half way through his mission. It felt weird to be on the other side of the computer screen.

Due to Christmas being on Monday, Tuesday was our p day last week (and this week). It was nice to relax after the holidays and stay inside during the freezing cold weather. We spent the day with our zone playing basketball. Most of you already know that I am pretty terrible at basketball and extremely clumsy. During the middle of a game of knockout I shot the ball, hit the rim, and it went flying. Trying to save myself from "getting out" I ran after my ball and tripped on the gym floor. I slid into the wall/door of the gym and gained a pretty righteous bruise on my wrist. At first it didn't look bad.... but then as the days passed it almost looks like I was abused haha. Sister Bergeron (mission nurse) called after seeing a photo asking a series of questions to see if it was seriously injured. Near the end of the conversation she merely just laughed at me and told me to stop playing basketball. Little does she know that I won that game of knockout 👊👍.

Wednesday was spent finding. All day. This week has been the coldest week as well. It has been misting, freezing, and humid, all at the same time. The only nice thing about finding out in the cold is the fact that people will listen to you. After being shut down from our door approach we were walking back to our car and the same lady came out and yelled to us to come back. She made it very clear that she didn't want to talk about Christ but then proceeded to hand us hand warmers and told us to stay warm. That is the definition of a Texas Christian.

Thursday was... interesting. Basically it was a giant trial. One bad thing happened after another. Something that I learned this week is that every trial we receive we can learn from. We have been really struggling this week as we have been finding investigators but as we continue to work hard and diligently we are being rewarded. It has helped me to become a better person and a better missionary. I am learning to be grateful for my trials and I am loving the experiences I am having. Even if they are difficult. I am learning to find joy in the little things.

This week has been hard, long, cold, and frustrating. But I know that I am supposed to be working hard in this part of my life. I know that I am doing everything I can to be an effective missionary and I know that God realizes that. Heavenly father is there, he loves each of us. He wants us to be happy, he wants us to succeed.

I am excited to be a missionary for the whole year of 2018. I am excited to start this journey and give my all as I continue through my mission. Most missionaries call this year, the year of
Have a great week everyone. I love y all!
Love,
Sister Gray


PICTURES
Temple day
Freezing little Smurf (someone said we looked like smurfs)
Me jumping into the new year
My slightly broken wrist part 1
My slightly broken wrist part 2
Fav kiddos

Dallas Temple

Temple Day

Jumping into 2018

Maybe broken wrist day 1

Day 2



Favorite kids !

HoHoHo - Dec. 26, 2017

Merry christmas everyone!

I cant believe how fast these past three months have been! Its absolutely crazy! I have learned so much and there is no where else I would rather be then here.

Not much has happened this week. We spent most of this week attending Christmas festivities with the members and meeting their non-member families. It was a great experience that had a great output... for the missionaries we referred them to.

That's ok though, we planted quite a few seeds.

We spent most of Christmas helping out with the family we live with. They invited us over for Christmas morning and it almost felt like home. I spent the rest of the afternoon taking family pictures for a couple family members. It was really cool to be apart of their families as we did this.

I have a new found love for photography. We spent the rest of Christmas day with the Snyder family. They have truly welcomed us into their home. We helped prepare, cook, and clean up dinner.

Afterwards we played games and charades. Overall it was a Christmas well spent.

I hope everyone has a great week this week and a happy New year!

Love,
Sister Gray


Pictures:
Christmas eve with the Curtis family
Me trying to overcome my fear of horses
Me and my new companion sister Burns
Post Christmas package opening

Curtis Family

Sister Gray overcoming her fear of horses

Sister Burns and Sister Gray

Christmas Morning

The Christmas Cheerleaders - Dec. 18, 2017

Hello friends and family!

 This week has been rather hectic. With transfers this week it has been filled with excitement, anxiety, and denial. Sister Gorley will be leaving to serve in Mansfield. We are both really excited for her but, we do not want her to leave. She has been the best companion. We have SOOO much fun serving together. We have had the opportunity to grow as missionaries. We are convinced that we will serve again near the end of our missions. We are looking forward to that day. I will be staying here in highland village to lead out the area. I am nervous and excited all at the same time. My new companion is sister Burns. I will meet her on Wednesday, and we will be together for atleast the next 7 weeks (yay for long transfers). It will definitely be a new adventure.

To start things off, on Tuesday we had our big zone conference. It was incredible to see so many missionaries in one place. We were all crammed into a small church gym filled with big smiles all anxious to see what the day would unfold. We started the conference with a 5 minute training that consisted of President telling us he loved us, and that he didn't want to give a training for Christmas. It was truly the best gift we could have received. We then watched a movie as a zone. It was called the errand of angels. It was a great movie all about missionary work (go figure). As it showed scenes from to a young sister missionary serving in Germany, we couldn't help but laugh as we related her trials, mistakes, and misfortunes, to the ones we have all experienced.

After the movie we participated in sister Whiteys favorite family Christmas tradition, which so happens to be my favorite family tradition. Gingerbread houses:) we gathered around small tables and talked as we worked on our houses. Sadly, I am no architect, and my gingerbread house turned into a homeless shelter (2 years in a row this is happened, it's a talent I have acquired). As President surveyed the houses he stopped at our table, looked me straight in the eyes and just laughed. That was a good time haha.

 My favorite part of the whole conference was our talent show. Each zone was required to provide two talents. Something y'all need to know about the Lewisville zone..... We have zero talents. None that are interesting to other people at least. We spent weeks and weeks trying to come up with a talent. Sister Chisholm is an incredible singer and wrote an amazing song about the savior to perform but we needed one more talent. I kid you not, the DAY before the talent show, our zone leaders marched in to P day with smirks on their faces and a bright idea. The only thing they could come up with was cheerleading. We spent all day Monday practicing our "talent show".

With the Elders excited and the sisters upset, we were ready for the next day. We showed up to the conference only to be compiled into a small classroom to finalize our plans. Little did we know, the Elders spent WAYY too much time thinking about this. We went on stage, we performed, sister Whittney laughed so hard she cried. No one dared to look at President Whittney. We found out later that he thought it was interesting and unique. Over all it was a great conference. My favorite part of each zone conference is the amazing testimonies that are shared from the departing missionaries. You can feel the love they have for their mission, you can tell that they gave it their all.

Wednesday we were invited to attend seminary with the sophomores. We had the opportunity to bear our testimonies about mission work and the hand of Lord. We were able to share how we came to know that we needed to serve a mission. It was a cool experience to ponder and think about what made me have the desire to serve a mission. So I thought it might be cool to share that with all of you:)

 Growing up as a little girl I always knew I would be a missionary. I wanted to wear a tag, and I wanted to go and serve someone each and every day. I wanted to make a difference in the world. But as I grew older, life got hard, my faith was tried, and I had no desire to serve a mission. I barely had a desire to go to church. The only reason I did so, was because I have very head strong, persistent parents who made me go. At the time I was not thankful for this. In fact, it caused many issues with the relationships we had. Yet they were determined to keep me active, and for that I will forever be grateful. My desire to serve a mission came when I saw and heard my brothers serve their missions.

As I heard about their trials and their hardships, I kept wondering "Why? Why would you stay out?" I decided that I needed to take my questions to the Lord. I decided to pray for guidance and help. As I asked for help, peace, and direction I was given the distinct answer to prepare to serve a mission. It was then confirmed through a blessing. I knew that my father needed me to serve. I gained my desire when I was in the MTC (sadly it took me a little while to find my desire) while staying at the MTC I was given confirmation that this is where I am supposed to be at this time in my life. It was a lesson in faith, that's for sure. Now I know without a doubt in my mind that this is where I a, supposed to be. Serving a mission, in Texas, surrounded by the people who love me. What a wonderful feeling it is.
Friday we had a mini exchange. Due to interviews with President we started the exchange at 10 and ended at 4. I had a small taste of what it's like to lead out an area. It wasn't too bad, we had lots of fun visiting with the several different members. We spent most of the day providing service for a less active member. It was a good exchange. It was fun to see the hidden confidence I had in myself. It's interesting because I feel like I always doubt myself but I have come to realize that when I doubt myself, I am doubting the Lord. Which is not good. Always have faith in the Lord and he will deliver, I am starting to see that first hand. We spent the rest of friday night at a house party singing Christmas carols with investigators. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday we put together a youth activity with the elders in our zone. We all gathered together and played chair soccer. It was a huge success! We had multiple youth bring non-members friends and we were able to gain new investigators. Including a former investigator that we have been trying to contact for the last month. It was a lot of fun. We also met with one of the best families in the ward.

We had dinner with them and their kids surprised us with homemade hats and scarves. It was such an incredible gift. It was even more meaningful because all day Saturday it rained. And it rained hard! We decided as a zone to go Christmas caroling to our less active members. We spent 2 hours out in The pouring rain. By the end of the night we wre soaked. All the way through all of our cpats, hates, scarves, dresses, suits, everything. We were drenched. It was such a fun experience to see the joyful look on people's faces as we sang in the pouring rain with smiles on our faces.

Overall this week has been good. It's been hard to be away from home during the holidays and away from cooper coming home from his mission but this is where I need to be. There is someone here in highland village who needs to be taught. I am determined to teach them. Have a great Christmas week and I will see a lot of you on Monday! Love y'all!

Love,
Sister Gray


PICTURES
Me and Odin in the shirt that a member made for us. We have a zone phrase "absofruitly" and a companion phrase "sí se puede"


Our cute companion shirts


The sweet family that made us Christmas gifts:)


Welcome home coop:) proud to have served with you for a little under 3 months.


Truly the best companion and trainer I could have ever asked for.


My way of preventing sister Gorley from leaving... I stayed in there for a solid 30 minutes.


My first zone


Gingerbread homes


Me, my mom, and my grandma

Sister Gray and Odin



Sister Gorley and Sister Gray with cute companion Shirts

Family that made them hats and scarves

Welcome Home Elder Gray !



Best Companion and trainer ever ! ! ! Sister Gorley

Sister Gray's attempt at stopping Sister Gorley
from transferring

 

My 1st Zone



Gingerbread Houses at the Christmas Party



Sister Gray's Grandma and Mom and herself