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

HAPPY NEW YEAR ! - Dec. 31, 2018

Hey Y'all! It was so fun seeing most of y'all last week. It was amazing. I really do miss everyone so so much. The rest of this week has been really good. There isn't too much to report on but that is okay:)

There were huge storms this week in Carrollton. We were actually in a tornado watch for a couple of hours. We basically had to be in a building until the warning was lifted. So, not that exciting ha ha. It was really fun to see all of the rain and wind though. I am still firm on the fact that Texas has the best rain storms ever. 

I went on exchange this week with Sister Keller. It is always fun to be with your old companions.She is probably one of my favorites. We had an awesome day and we were able to do some major finding. We found this lady named Susan. We knocked on her door and she was nervous about who we were. She let us in anyway once she noticed that we weren't dangerous or anything ha ha. We sat and talked to her about her beliefs and her background. Her dad actually lives in Utah and so she has seen a few buildings when she goes to visit. We taught her parts of the first lesson but we mostly just answered her questions. It was really cool. She said that she is excited to meet with us and learn more about Jesus Christ. 

We taught a man named Sunny this week as well. His family are all members and he wants to follow their example of being baptized. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ this week and it went really well. He actually sat and took note while we were talking. The spirit is so strong when we teach him. He has such a great love of God and Jesus Christ. My testimony is always grown after we teach him. He is on date to be baptized on the 12th of January. We are really proud of him. 

HOLLY WAS BAPTIZED THIS WEEK! It was such an amazing service. We had a combined baptism with another girl in the ward. We helped her family come back to church and we taught her all of the lessons. I know that bringing people to the fold is very important and I love doing that, I also know that bring those sheep that have wandered back is just as important. It was so fun and spiritual to work with these two young girls as they come to understand what God wants for them. What a wonderful day that was. 

The Church is true. I know it is. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it blesses individuals and families. I know that the Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for the invitation that President Nelson issued concerning the Book of Mormon has really changed my life. Every page testifies and mentions Jesus Christ. I love it. If you haven't done his challenge I invite you to reconsider and start now. Look for the references to the Savior and mark them. I love looking back and seeing everything. Please do it. 

I love y'all:)


Sister Gray

We sang to old people on Christmas
Momma Gray gave ties to all the Elders so they sent this for you mom haha
We gave mustaches to the Chibuzor for Christmas

Singing Group

Elders with their Christmas Ties

Mustaches all around

Best District ever

The Broken Font - Dec. 24, 2018

Hey Y'all!

HAPPY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I cant believe that the holidays are here. I feel like I have said that before but.... truth stands I guess. I have to admit I have left out some pretty awesome things that have happened over the past few weeks. So lets jump in!

We have gone to the temple two times in the past two weeks. We went with Ryan to the temple on the 11th and it was great!!! I love being a missionary. In fact, as we sat in the baptistery we just kind of felt good. Ryan had asked me a question and that led to a very spiritual conversation. I came to the answer that it is moments like that, that make it okay to leave your family for 18 months. Its moments like this, that make it okay to get up every day at 6:30. Its moments like this, that help me recognize the impact of my calling. As we sat and I told her these things we just sat and cried together. What a powerful experience.

The following Tuesday we had the chance to attend the temple with Joy! It was so cool to be able to be there so close together. As we were all changing in the changing rooms Joy came up to me and said that she felt really really good. I told her that the feeling she was feeling was the spirit and she looked at me and laughed. She simply said duh and gave me a hug. What a sassy human haha.

On Saturday the Chibuzors were baptized!!!! YAY!!!! ah man, it was such a cool experience. Wanna know why? Because everything that possibly could have gone wrong... did. We had exchanges on Friday so there was no one in our area for that day. We had to do all of the last minute planning around 8 p.m. that night. It was pretty stressful. We had to find rides for them because they don't have a car. The person we had all lined up to take them called us Friday night at 10 saying that their car had a flat tire and that they didn't know when it would be fixed. So, we had that to deal with. We show up Saturday morning and start to fill the font. Fast forward an hour and a half and there is maybe 3 feet of water in the font. It would not hold too much and it simply wouldn't fill up. So, throughout the entire service the font was still filling up. There wasn't much we could do about it so we just left it alone and carried on our way. When it came to the baptism part of the service we opened the door and there was just enough water to baptize. As all three of them went into the water my heart was simply just filled with joy. There is no other way to put it rather than joy. Pure happiness. When we were in the bathroom helping them change and getting their wet clothes Anita simply said, "I feel very light. I feel like I can do anything right now." Explaining to her what that feeling is was one of the best moments in my mission. I cant even explain to y'all how blessed I feel to be serving in the Carrollton wards.

They were confirmed the next day and it was a wonderful sacrament meeting. The music was fantastic, and the spirit was so strong. After church Anita asked if we would come to her house for lunch. She fed us some pretty awesome Nigerian food. We had this stuff that resembled fou fou (Cheston you are a freaking champ my dude) and a stew. I am not sure what the stew is called because she was talking really fast but it had chicken bones, dried fish, and another type of meat that I was unable to identify. It was hotter than anything I have ever consumed. We all sat on the floor huddled around the pot filled with stew and a plate filled with fou fou. We all sat and ate using our hands, not the most sanitary thing in the world but hey, I survived. It was so comforting to be apart of their family culture and seeing someone who has near to nothing and still has the desire to share what little they had. It was amazing.

I am so excited for Christmas and the chance to see y'all. I love being a missionary and I am grateful for my calling. The Church is true. Christ lives. God loves us. I am sure of it.

See Y'all soon.

LOVE Y'ALL!

Sister Gray

Chibuzor's Baptism

Eric, Christine, Sister Larson and Sister Gray 

Happy Birthday Sister Larson 

Fou Fou and Nigerian Stew

Two very cute Missionaries

Another week goes by...- December 17, 2018

So I am officially over emailing haha. So my apologies for not writing too much. To be honest, all of the days are blowing by so fast that it simply seems like they are all merging together. unfortunately today I did not plan accordingly so.... I only have a few moments to write.

Our zone got together today and we have been playing basketball all day. It has been really really fun. We have a great zone this transfer and we are all really good friends.

We had our mission Christmas conference this past week. It was fun to be together with a lot of our mission friends. Its also slightly bittersweet due to the fact that over time you don't have the opportunity to meet everyone so there are a lot of strangers. It was still really fun, the conference was actually held in one of my last areas so it was fun to drive around and see where I had once served. 

We watched a movie for the conference called Christmas for a dollar. It was adorable and we were all really happy with Presidents choice of movie. I would highly recommend watching it. We also made gingerbread houses! This year me and Sister Larsen decided to tag team it and make a temple! It was really fun! We had a giant talent show and it was fun to see the different talents in the mission.
We also watched the departing missionaries give their departing testimonies. It was cool to see my trainer stand up and bare her testimony. 

Things are going great with the Chibuzor family. They will be baptized this Saturday. I look forward to it. 

I sure do love y'all. I am excited for Christmas and the chance to see y'all. 

Be safe. 

Love,
Sister Gray 

Please note p. Whitney photo bombing our pictures
My mom, and my baby
Some fun Christmas photos in ugly sweaters

Mission Christmas Party Gingerbread houses

Tag team effort

Sister Larsen and Sister Gray with their "Temple"
and Pres. Whitney Photo Bomb

Sister Gorely - Sister Gray's trainer

Sister Larsen (granddaughter) Sister Gray (mom)
Sister Gorley (Grandma)

Christmas Fun

2 Cute missionaires in "ugly" Christmas Sweaters

Cross-eyed Sister Gray 

Yeah it's almost Christmas !

What a Week? - December 10, 2018

Hey y'all!

I hope y'all had a great week this week. We had a great week here in Carrollton. It sure has been a busy one. We had lessons every single night this week. It was awesome! I love being able to stay busy. We are teaching Ryan her new member lessons and they are going great. We are going to the temple this week on Tuesday with her to do baptisms for the dead. I am super super excited. I actually haven't done baptisms for the dead since I was home. I have gone to the temple a few times but I haven't had the chance to do baptisms. I am really excited. 

We are also teaching Joy her new member lessons. Teaching Joy can be really interesting sometimes. She has two kiddos that are crazy and love the missionaries. They jump all over us while we are teaching. It's really fun though, she is making us Nigerian food tonight and I am making her banana bread and we are doing a swap. Pray for me, Nigerians like things spicy. It should be a lot of fun. We are going to the temple with Joy next week. Again, I can not wait. 

This Wednesday Sister Whitney decided she wanted to come spend some time with me before I go home (only makes me slightly trunky when the Mission President's Wife decides to bring up going home, what do you do haha). We went to district council, we went to lunch, and we went to a service project. It was really fun to be with her and to talk with her. She doesn't get to go out with too many sisters because of her crazy schedule but she wanted to come out with me so that made me feel special haha. 

On Friday we had our ward Christmas party for the Carrollton 2nd ward. It was a huge success! We had lots of people there and it was a great missionary opportunity. I absolutely love the Christmas season as a missionary. It has its ups and downs like any other season but ultimately I love this time of year. People are usually Christ-centered and that makes it easier for us to talk to them. 

Saturday was an amazing day. President Willy, the stake President in the Carrollton stake called us and invited us over to his house for an early lunch. He had called everyone in the district and invited them. He catered Hard 8 (which is a Texas known barbecue place) and we had a few important guests there. Elder David Harris of the seventy joined us. We all gathered around the table and ate wonderful food and had great conversation. After eating, we were trained by both President Willy and Elder Harris. I was spiritually re-boosted. It was amazing. That same night we had stake conference, the adult session. The rules for attending the adult session of stake conference are simple. You have to bring someone you are teaching. That's It! So! We brought Christine and she LOVED It! We learned so much and the spirit was strong. 

Sunday again was the busiest day for us. We had to find rides for 8 people to come to church. With much trial we were able to find everyone a ride. It was funny sitting in our row of people with a family of six, a family of 3, Christine, and a little boy who decided he wanted to sit by me. It was quite the site. Afterwards elder Harris requested to shake the hands of those we had brought. What a wonderful meeting that was. 

Afterwards we had a lesson with the Chibuzor family. We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ which lead into a discussion on baptism! They had a date for the 24th of November but it had to be moved back. Ultimately that was a good thing and we are glad that it happened. We had a frank discussion with them on the importance of baptism and they want to move forward. They even picked their own date. They will be baptized on the 22nd of this month. I am so excited. They are amazing people with great faith. 

Well y'all. I am so grateful to be here, so grateful to be a missionary. I love doing what I do and feeling what I feel. I am sad that my weeks are becoming short but I am glad that I am here doing what I need to. I hope each of y'all are participating in the light the world challenge. It's a marvelous program. 

I sure do love y'all! 

Love,
Sister Gray


Things from the nativity
Ryan when she got her recommend
Our Christmas tree

Nativity Sets at the Stake Event

Another display at the event

Our Christmas Tree

Ryan got her recommend