Sister Gray's Mission: February 2019

🎵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

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