Hula Hula - March 5, 2018

Hello hello Hello! Happy March! 

It's crazy that another month has passed WAY too fast. February was a good month. Filled with lots of change and growth. All for the better. 

To start off I want to share a really cool experience that happened two weeks ago. Friday night we were standing out in the rain knocking on our dinner appointments door. We knocked and waited, knocked and waited. Finally we called. The sister answered said she had forgotten and was in Dallas. She didn't know why she confirmed the appointment the night before because she knew she wasn't going to make it. 

We told her it was ok and we went to another families home to find a dinner. We went to the Highfills (our go to stop) and helped her make dinner. In the middle of dinner we received a phone call. It was a less active sister who I had called earlier in the day. We talked for 35 minutes about her life. She confided in me that she was sad and she missed the light of the gospel. Near the end of our phone call we set up an appointment and she told me that she didn't want to call us back but she did it anyway. She also said that the only time she could have talked was between 5 and 6. We are always in dinner from 5 to 6. It was a miracle. The appointment went well and we have a new friend. 

Wednesday we were out walking around following up on less active  people that Bishop asked us to visit when we felt prompted to go visit a former investigator. She opened the door and welcomes us with bug arms. We were able go visit with her and she said she would like to learn more about our church. It was a good visit. I'm thankful for the spirit in missionary work and the opportunity we have to follow prompting. 

Friday and Saturday were spent giving service. We helped a referral move into the area, and we helped prepare for a ward luau party. It was such a fun experience. We started to cut fruit at 1 and didn't finish until 4:30. We cut 6 watermelons, 30 pineapples, 12 mangoes, 6 cartons of strawberries, 10 kiwis, and much more. The next day at1 we started all over again. We made sooo many fruit kabobs! It was crazy! My nails were stained pink from all of the juice. We also made a huge fruit tree with 3 fruit monkeys. They were so cute. I was in charge of making the watermelon tiki men. I had so much fun. The party was a great success and we had lots of investigators come. We had Hulu dancers and yes, we made bishop dance. Overall it was a great night.

Sunday's are always kind of hard as a missionary. You start church at 8 and you finish at 4:30. You are sitting down all day and you have lots of information to take in. Plus you hear the same lessons over and over again. But it's worth it. Sunday night we had dinner with a family with 5 kids. After we ate, a nerd bullet hit me in the back of the head. It was all over after that. I'm talking full blown fern war. The youngest, Carson, who is 5 had a bow and arrow Nerf gun with huge arrows and his favorite thing to do was to hit me. So there was a lot of fun. It made us feel at home and it made us feel like teenagers all over again. It was much needed. 

Well my friends. I know it's a short letter but it's 70 degrees outside and I want to take a nap haha.
Have a great week. Remember how much I love and appreciate all of you. I am inspired by the love each of you have for the Lord. I will talk to y'all later!:)

Love,
Sister Gray


Pictures:
The last picture is when Carson hit me in the stomach and ran away as soon as it happened. Little turkey😐💙

Let the Nerf war begin

Sister Gray plays to win

Carson shoot and runs! ! ! 

Sister Gray and Sister Booth

Ward Luau and all the fruit the Sisters Cut

Ward Luau Party

Elder Uceda - Feb. 26, 2018

Hi hi cute friends!

It's crazy how fast this week has passed by. I still feel like it's Monday of last week. My head has kind of been spinning this week and I think it is starting to get to me. Overall this has been a good week. It has been a week of learning and a week of growth.

Monday we spent doing our normal P day activities. It was fun though because all of the youth had school off so we went and hung out with some of them. They started to trust us and they are starting to realize that we are still immature teenagers just like them. It makes for a good time and good friendships. We spent Monday night at the Smith home doing a family book of Mormon read. I absolutely love coming over to their house to learn with them. They struggle as a family to read the scriptures but they are trying and I am confident that the Lord recognizes that.

We had really good conversations and we are excited to meet with them tonight to see their progress.

Tuesday a miracle happened. A true miracle. Last week, sister Booth broke her permanent retainer. Not only broke it....but ripped it out of her mouth. This has brought our companionship some discouragement. She has shared with me some of the trials her family is going through right now. With different medical bills she didn't know if she would be able to replace her retainer due to the fact that it is not covered by missionary medical. Many prayers were said to know what to do and who to talk to. We learned from a member in the trophy club ward that Brother Jolley was an orthodontist. We have only met him once. We sent him a text explaining the situation and he insisted we came over at that very second. He then replaced not only her bottom retainer (the one that was broken) but provided her with a brand new one and fixed an old filling. All at no cost. We simply walked in, and walked out. Nothing else was said. Many prayers were answered through that. Some of which Brother Jolley will never know. It is a testimony to me that God is aware of us. That he uses other people to help us and provide for us. He truly wants what's best for us. I am grateful that I have had opportunities to help grow and strengthen that testimony. We spent the rest of Tuesday following up on people in the area book and trying to meet as many people as we can.

We had been asked to deliver a Spanish book of Mormon to a sister in our ward. It just happened to be the sister that I talked with last Saturday about her trials. What was supposed to be a 15 minute drop off, turned out to be a 2 hour long conversation. Something that this particular sister really needed. We bore frequent testimony that God knew her and that he knew what she was going through. We all sat and talked about the miracles that we see from God and how prayer can answer any question we have. It was a great meeting that was inspired by the spirit.

I will skip to Thursday. Thursday we had the opportunity to be trained by Elder Uceda. It was absolutely fantastic. He talked about prayer and the importance of personal prayer. I definitely learned a lot. I am grateful for that experience.

Friday I was absolutely and completely sick. I had the worst migraine I have ever had. It was terrible. I literally couldn't move. It was great. So basically I was in bed all of Friday morning until we went out to contact. It was kind of boring.

Overall this week has been amazing. I hope y'all have a great week and I will talk to you soon.

Love,

Sister Gray

Elder Uceda and Sister Gray's Zone

Sister Booth and Gray and paper dresses ? 

Cute and cold Sister missionaries 

365 Days - Feb. 19, 2018

Hello cute family and friends!

I can't believe another week has gone by. I owe y'all a good email this week so I have been working hard on what to tell y'all. First things first. I LOVE MY MISSION. I LOVE being a missionary, I love the people I work with, I love Texas, I love everything. 

This week has been absolutely amazing. 

As I have told you before, me and my companion white washed into this area. It's a little haunting when you white wash into two massive wards. Not knowing where you are, who you are with, or where the work stands, was slightly discouraging. BUT, with the amazing companionship of the holy ghost I have felt peace and comfort through every step. I have learned so much in these past five months. I truly have become more converted to the Lord and personally that has been one of the main focuses of my mission. I have confidence that the Lord has assigned me to serve here in Fort Worth. Specifically in the Roanoke and Trophy Club ward. I have faith that the Lord hears and answers prayers. I know this to be true, due to the multiple prayers that have been answered. Even the small and simple prayers that you say just to make you feel better, those prayers are heard and they are answered. Let me be straight with you... missions are HARD. Having a companion that doesn't want to work SUCKS. Working in a dead area with no support from the ward SUCKS. BUT. I know that I was called to serve in Highland village for a reason. I was provided those challenges so I could grow. Due to the trials that I have had in these past five months, I have had to give everything to the Lord. Alma 23:7-8 talks about laying down "weapons of rebellion". Now, we know that in this scripture it is talking about the people Ammon and his brother have converted. As they were converted, they gave up the things that were holding back the powers of heaven. The only way to unleash the powers of heaven and to truly feel of God's love was to lay down their weapons of rebellion. I have come to the realization that I must lay down my weapons. I must give the Lord my all. I must do all that he asks me to do, and I must become the missionary he has destined me to be. I'm sad that it took me five months to figure this out, but, I am just glad that I figured it out. 

This week has been a crazy busy week. Filled with lots of running around, hand shaking, introductions, and new friendships. We have the opportunity to be in two wards that want to do missionary work. They want to share the gospel. They want to become Christ-like missionaries. We have the privilege of helping them do so. As we help with this process, we too are becoming more Christ like. 

Monday was a crazy busy day last week. We are still sort of lost wherever we go but with the handy dandy use of technology we can sometimes find our way. We spent Monday getting haircuts, doing laundry, visiting our zone, and getting COMPLETELY lost. Overall it wasn't terrible. We have a wonderful family that lets us do laundry at their home. As we found out about this, we had never met this family. We had only communicated through text. As we pulled up the address we were on our way. With laundry bags in hand we knocked on the door and a lady answered. She looked rather confused (which should have been our first clue) she asked if we were there to do laundry. We looked at each other and cautiously said "yes?" . She opened the door and let us in. As we were standing in the doorway she chuckled and said "you know, the missionaries usually do their laundry at my ex husbands house. They have never done it here before:. Now we are completely embarrassed. We apologized for the mix up and she just laughed. She told us the new address and the gate code (everything in trophy club is gated). As we walked back to the car, me and Sister Booth were bright red. We closed the car doors and bursted out laughing. The best thing about this story? She was totally letting us in to do our laundry!! She had no idea!! Haha, that just shows how amazing these wards are. We finally made it to the right house, and learned the rules of the house. This is what Sister Highfill said to us as soon as we set foot in her house "we have one rule here. If you break it? You can't come over anymore. You must eat at least two snacks while waiting for laundry. It's a requirement. And you must stay for at least an hour and tell me about your week and your families. Other than that, you are free to do anything." So basically we have a mansion to hang out in on Mondays. It has a gorgeous grand piano, a full movie theater (yes we totally watched the restoration in it), and a dog named Bucky that takes naps with you (my new cuddle buddy). It's amazing how generous the people here are. 

After finishing laundry we met with our zone to play basketball and volley ball. We were so excited to be there to play sports when we walked in and realized that we are the only sisters in our zone. Our zone has 4 sets of elders and 1 set of sisters. It makes for an awkward district meeting. Anyway, it was fun to play sports with them and beat them at volleyball. 

Tuesday was spent in a district meeting. We have 4 people in our district. The zone leaders and us. So basically we get to give trainings every week because there are so few of us. I was given the assignment of teaching about finding and it was good. Later on, I found out the reason I was asked to give a training on that was because the zone leaders had to give a training to our zone the next Friday during a zone conference. We spent the rest of the day following up on less actives, new move ins, and potential investigators. We had dinner and we went to our correlation meeting. Brother Arostegui is our ward mission leader and he is fantastic. We had a great meeting filled with lots of inspiration and laughter. He served his mission in California and he says that he hated correlation meetings because they were always too serious. So, he always cracks dad jokes throughout the meeting. The best part is, he is from Uruguay and has a thick accent. So usually we just end up pity laughing at his joke because we don't understand him and then he catches on and we really start laughing then. He is a good guy. 

Wednesday we visited with lots of new members and less active. It's incredible to see that people will actually let you in when you say "We are new in the area, we just came today hi " it also helps if it's raining really hard and Sister grays hands are blue. They pity let you in. BUT, they let you in:) Wednesday night, we met with a family who was recently baptized into the ward. The smith family. Oh my goodness do I love them. They are hilarious, fun, pure Texan people. We stopped by to visit with them and introduce ourselves. Everyone in the family was baptized except for the mom. We are working with her and she is progressing towards a baptismal date. We are proud of her and her progress. We laughed all night as we talked about their conversion story, how brother and sister smith met, and other random facts that brother smith would tell us. It was a great night. 

Thursday was a great day. We met with another recent convert. She is 71 and she is the cutest lady. She is five feet tall and has an attitude. She gave up smoking after 40 years to join the church. She started her new member lessons and wanted us to be there. She sits in between us so if we misbehave she will whack us. Literally. She is awesome:) she also refuses to call us sister Booth and sister Gray. Its weird to hear someone call me by my first name after not using it. Im not sure if i like it. The highlight of our day was helping in a mutual activity. The activity they were having was battle of the sexes. Sister Booth was in charge of keeping score, and I was in charge of running the game on the laptop. First of all, I haven't used a computer in 5 months. Second, I am seriously bad at technology. The kids got a kick of me stressing out over what to do. Overall it was a great activity and the youth really trusted us. Our main focus this transfer is to gain the trust of the members, especially the youth. We are slowly accomplishing that goal. The small things are what makes it happens. Asking kids how their day was, what sport the play, telling them they look cute. Things like that. They will always open up and talk with you. Plus, a good way to gain the trust of the priests.... beat them in a game of lightning while wearing a pencil skirt. They think it's hilarious and they want to be around you more.

Friday was zone conference. We spent all day in trainings with President. It was a great zone conference and I learned a lot. At the end of zone conference something CRAZY happened. They gave us smart phones! What!! Yep, that's right the Texas fort worth mission has smart phones now. It's sooooo weird having it! I feel slightly apostate when I use it. It's such a great tool though. I know that after my mission I will have better technology habits because I am learning great habits here:) so we spent all day Friday learning how to use a smart phone. Something that I have noticed is, President Whitney won't train us on how to use our technology. He expects us to follow the spirit and to use it wisely. To figure it out and work as a companionship to make a plan on how to better use our technology. It has done wonders. 

Saturday we met with SOOO many people from the ward. We met with both bishops, relief society President, young woman's President, and ward mission leader. We were bouncing around everywhere taking notes, asking for focus families, anything. We are so busy it's amazing! Lots of people to go see:) we were able to attend the adult session of stake conference with our recent convert Natalie. Elder Brent Nelson was in attendance and he came over to shake our hand and introduce ourselves. He loves missionaries and he loves recent converts. It was a very cool experience for Natalie. The meeting was wonderful and just what our recent converts needed to hear. We have been working towards the temple with lots of them and the Dallas temple President was there and he gave a fantastic talk on the importance of the temple. It was an answer to our prayers. As we were exiting the building, I saw a woman walking with her head down. The spirit whispered to me, "she has nice hair, doesn't she?" I smiled and told her just that. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and gave me a warm embrace. We sat together and cried. She told me how hard her day had been and how she felt as if she was the ugliest person in the world. She felt like she couldn't bear the burdens that were laid heavy on her shoulders. We shared of our love for her and her Heavenly fathers love. We gave her one last hug and told her that we would meet with her soon. As we were driving home my heart was pounding. I feel as if for the first time, I have seen someone the way that Christ sees someone. I never EVER want to lost that feeling. 

Sunday morning we had a meeting with Bishop Hames. He told us that he wanted to give us bishops blessing. We had no idea what that was but we agreed and we showed up. He explained that a bishops blessing is a priesthood blessing given to the missionaries serving in the area, given by the bishop who holds all of the keys for that ward. It is to combine the missionaries efforts and the wards efforts into one to bring more of God's children to the message of the gospel. Cool right? As we sat in his office receiving these blessings, the spirit was strongly present. I know without a doubt that I am called to serve in this ward at this time. I know that there is someone here who needs me. I don't know who it is, but I will find them. So to all those missionaries who are reading this email (if you have even read this far, I know it is long) I strongly encourage you to go to the presiding bishop and ask for a bishops blessing to help further the work with his help. I promise you it will make a difference and you will feel mode connected to the ward. 

Alright. I know this has been long but I owed my parents a good email so there it is. Don't expect a super long one next week:) to end this email I want to share some good news that I just found out. Due to transfers and the craziness that happens there. The group that I came out with will be coming home 1/2 a transfer early (that's how the dates work out). So I will be flying home February 21st 2019. Which means on Wednesday I will only have one year left of my mission. I am sad, excited, and confused all at the same time. I absolutely love being a missionary and I love the calling in which I hold. I will dedicate the next year of my life to my savior Jesus Christ and do all that I can do help bring his children closer to him. I love you all and I can't wait to hear how your week went:)

Love,
Sister Gray:)

Sister Booth and Sister Gray 

Last time seeing Emily in the Highland Village area

ROANOKE AND TROPHY CLUB:):):) - Feb. 12, 2018

Hello friends and family!!!

I have to start this letter with an apology. I have been absolutely terrible at writing these past three weeks. If I am being completely honest, nothing happened the last three weeks haha. Nothing happened until transfers came. I found out last Monday that I would be leaving highland village to serve in Roanoke and Trophy Club. I was sad to say goodbye to the people in highland village. But I am excited and grateful to be serving here in Roanoke.

Monday and Tuesday were spent saying goodbye to families in the ward. It was interesting. I thought it would be hard to leave but it's nice to know that I will see them again. Many have asked if I am going back. I know the answer.

Wednesday was absolutely crazy. After finishing up final packing touches we went to transfers. I spent about 2 hours waiting for my new companion. Her name is sister booth. She is from west Jordan and she is absolutely fantastic. I have never laughed so hard with anyone. She is awesome. The first day was spent going over area book, calling investigators, recent converts, and making appointments with everyone. It was crazy. It was awesome. While we were planning, we received three phone calls concerning referrals. Three different referrals in 10 minutes. It was crazy! I have never seen that before. We have solid appointments with all of them tomorrow. Pray that all will go well:)

Basically all that we have done this week is clean, sort through people, and try to learn the names of 900 new members. It's been a challenge but it's been a good challenge.

Sunday we had the opportunity of speaking in both of our wards. Little did we know that it was going to rain in 28 degree weather right before church. Everything was completely iced over. Church had to be cancelled for safety. Luckily our later ward didn't cancel and we were able to attend all of the meetings and give our talks. It went well. We are being welcomed here. We spent all day at church. Literally 8 in the morning until 4 at night. We came home and went straight to our dinner appointment. We had dinner, and then we went to a meeting with our ward mission leader. It was a relaxed meeting to get to know him and his family. He is from Uruguay and has a sick accent. We absolutely love him.

Well, I'm sorry this week wasn't a great letter but we have been running since 6 this morning. I will talk to y'all later. Love you!!!

Love,

Sister Gray

Sister Gray saying goodbye to Dallin

Sister Gray and Sister Burns on transfer day 

Sister Gray and Sister Booth 

Goofy Sister Gray and Sister Booth :) 

View from Roanoke apartment 

Sister Gray and puppy 

Transfers - Feb. 5, 2018

Hey yall!

I am being transferred! I will be covering two wards in trophy club and Roanoke. I can't write this week but I will talk more next week. Love yall!:)

Sister gray:)

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