Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree. . . . Dec. 11, 2017

Hello!


Merry Christmas! I can't believe that the holidays are here. To be honest it's been kinda hard being here on a mission during the holidays. But luckily the Lord looks out for us during these hard times.

This week we had our first baptism. Jesse was baptized! We were able to give the talks and to be there to help guide him through the process. It was truly incredible.

The highlight of our week this week happened last night. We spent all Sunday visiting families, talking about Christ, visiting new investigators and running around like crazy. We were driving home and we felt absolutely drained. Our hearts were hurting. We felt really homesick, we were just ready to be done. We came home to see a 6 foot Christmas tree filled with Christmas lights and a present. We pulled in with tears in our eyes and felt completely loved. We put our tree up in our room and opened the present. It was filled with different ornaments including basketball ornaments for Sister Gorley and tootsies rolls for me (at stake conference they announced that we love tootsie rolls). It totally lifted our spirits and we felt complete love. I am so grateful to be serving in a church where the people love you and will help you when you are in need.

I'm sorry my letters have been so short lately but there just isn't enough time on Mondays. I will start a big email today and hopefully by next Monday it will be good and long. Have a great week everyone!:)

Love,

Sister Gray


PICTURES:
Our Christmas tree

Jesse
When you hit the point on your mission where you stop doing your hair and makeup.
2 minutes in a rain storm

Oh Christmas Tree

Sister Gorley, Jesse, Sister Gray 

Sister Gorley and Sister Gray
Cuties with or without make-up ! 

Rain Rain go away! ! 

Breath, Eat and Sleep Missionary Work - Dec. 4, 2017

Hello cute friends and family! This week has been such a good week! I dont have much time today to write (We are being kicked out of our apartment again so we are on the run). So I will share a quick story that is super embarrassing but totally reflects what I do every single day.

SO when I first put in my mission papers, literally everyone told me "wow you are going to be so tired! All you do is work, work, work!" I know that I was going to work while being on a mission and I knew I was going to be tired. I did not know just how tired I would be. This week was absolutely exhausting. We didn't get back to the apartment every night until 9:30 and barely made it to bed by 10:30. Due to the lack of sleep we were receiving (both of us) we were literally walking zombies.
One night we were laying in bed talking about a lesson we would be giving the following day about faith. It was 10:50 and we were still planning (we were in bed, no rules broken) we finally finished and drifted off to sleep. 

I woke up the next morning feeling like I was still completely exhausted, almost as if I hadn't gone to bed. Sister gorley woke up with a huge smile on her face and asked "do you remember getting up last night?" Slightly confused, I responded with a firm head shake no. She burst out laughing. This is what she told me "you woke up around 3:45, sat up on the side of the bed and began teaching a full-blown lesson on faith. Including extending commitments. After you finished your full 20 minute lesson, you climbed into bed and fell asleep." She then told me the complete lesson that I had taught, and with a few modifications.... It was a good lesson plan! We used it to teach Amber and she loved it! Sometimes sleep walking is good! 

So yeah! That was my funny missionary story for the week. Everyone here is putting up Christmas decorations and they go all out. Almost every house has something Texan, it's hilarious.
I hope all of you are taking the invitation to light the world. It's such an amazing opportunity and it brings such an amazing spirit into your life. Please do it. Have a great week everyone, I love you all. 

Love,
Sister Gray


PICTURES:
Stake conference with the wall family:`)
Texas Christmas decorations
My cute comp and I off to the ward Christmas party
Christmas party

Sister Gray's second Family the Wall's.
They were our backyard neighbors and now live in the Stake
Sister Gray is serving in.  AWESOME ! ! 

Christmas Texas Style

2 Cute Sister Missionaries Sister Gorley and Sister Gray 

Photo Op of Sister Gray 

Turkey dinner #1,2,3,4......Nov. 27, 2017

Howdy howdy!

I can not believe that it's almost December! Thats so crazy! This week has gone by crazy fast. On Monday we actually had to move out of our apartment completely. We live with THE MOST amazing family. They are the Peterson's and they have 10 kids. Anyway, for thanksgiving all of the kids were coming home (except for their missionary). They had a total of 16 people living in their house! It was crazy full! So they needed our apartment for more room. But yeah, we were totally homeless for thanksgiving. We ended up moving in with the flower mound sisters for the week. It was so much fun! It was fun to talk and laugh with them at the end of each day. 

Fast forward to Thursday. Probably my favorite holiday, turkey day! Now before I tell you what all went down thursday y'all have to understand that Texans are very hospitable and they love missionaries. They do not accept no as an answer. We started the day off with homemade pancakes and buttermilk syrup with the flower mound sisters (they were so excited to surprise us, it was adorable). 

We raced off to a morning 5K that a family in the ward created called the turkey trot. As we pulled into the parking lot what we thought was going to be a small amount of people (like the previous year) turned out to be basically a ward fun run. 90 percent of the ward was in attendance. People were very excited to see us out and about and they got a kick out of us walking a 5k in boots and dresses. We were walking with our ward mission leaders wife and their son Dallin. Overall it was a great activity. We were awarded medals of participation and given congratulatory bananas. 

Immediately following the fun run, we had a breakfast appointment with another family who made homemade cinnamon rolls as large as our face. They were delicious. 

 Following that appointment we tried to squeeze in some studying (with little success) before racing to our first dinner appointment (starting at noon) we arrived at the Peterson's just in time to help make homemade rolls. 

We ate with the Petersons and went straight to our second dinner appointment. We met with both the Snyder family and the Deitrich family for another full turkey dinner. At this point of the day it's not even 3 and we were more stuffed then most of the turkeys we ate. After those families we raced over to bishops house for another meal and dessert. At this point we have stopped eating and just looked at our food with pain in our eyes. Luckily bishop noticed this pain and put our dinners in to go bags for later. After visiting and sharing a message we were off to our next appointment. Dinner with the Penningtons. 

 Brother Pennington is our ward mission leader and absolutely loves missionary work. We have grown so close with his family and they are always looking out for us. We spent an hour or so at their house playing with the kids, helping cook dinner, and resting from the amount of food we had previously partaken. After that dinner we were off to a dessert appointment with 2 more families. 

At this point we aren't even grabbing plates but were still being fed (Texans like to dish plates for you). To end the night off we were invited to a less active house for a full blown Mexican fiesta. There was singing, dancing, lots of Mexican food, and birthday cake (no clue whose birthday it was) we spent the whole night pretending that we understood Spanish. It was so fun to experience a different atmosphere. As we pulled into the driveway at 9:30 we were so exhausted that we climbed into bed and were fast asleep by 9:35.

Overall the thanksgiving holiday was a lot of fun! Both Sister Gorley and I have never eaten so much food. We feel 10 pounds heavier, but we were so excited to meet with the families in the ward.
I hope y'all had a great week this week. I love you all!:)
-Sister Gray


PICTURES:
Cinnamon rolls
Post fun run
What we see every day
Post fun run with Dallin
The "super sisters and the proud Penningtons"

Cinnamon Rolls

Post Fun Run Medals

This is what Sister Gray sees everyday !

Dallin, Sister Gray and Sister Gorley

Penningtons and Sisters Gray and Gorley

Wonderful Week - Nov. 20, 2017

Hello!

What a wonderful week! It's crazy to think that Thanksgiving is on Thursday! It truly doesnt feel like the holiday season here in highland village. The weather is basically the same everyday (warm with a light breeze), there is no snow, we haven't had time to think about the holidays because it has been CRAZY busy (enormous blessing). The only thing that has really changed in the past couple of weeks is that it gets dark REALLY early. I'm talking 5 p.m. pitch black. It's super fun because we aren't supposed go be knocking doors in the dark (it gets super sketchy at night, lots of big scary people think they need to talk to us) so we do member lessons, family home evening, mission prep classes, and such to fill the time. Overall we have seen the blessings we receive when we work diligently and not waste time. It's exhausting, but worth it. 

I apologize for last week's letter! We had transfers so we decided to have a big zone P-day to send off our transferring missionaries. Little did we know that no one would be leaving. Anyway, it was a great celebration. We went bowling, had a pickle-ball tournament (thanks to an amazing family in the Lantana ward), basketball games, hatchet throwing (btw sister Gray is strangely good at this so watch out), homemade peach cobbler, and a jam session provided by sister Gray and Elder Hutchison who both can't play the ukulele but managed to play a song. All together it was an amazing Monday but resulted in no emailing time. 

Wednesday both me and Sister Gorley were put out of our comfort zones as we helped the young women's presidency set up for their young women's in excellence program. There were flowers, tablecloths, lanterns, candles, fancy clothes, and lights that all needed to be set up. What initially was supposed to take an hour to set up took us over two hours. Overall it was a good experience and it increased my knowledge on how to overdress a table. 

Friday we ran around all day with our heads spinning. We were in lessons back to back. I don't think we have ever been more busy. Earlier in the week we tracted into a cute young mom who let us into her home. We were having our first discussion and she had lots of questions. One thing you need to know about Texas, Specifically in the Lewisville area. There is SOO much anti. When we first started the lesson things were going great. The spirit was strong, she was crying, I was crying, Sister Gorley was choked up (she is a rock, shows no emotion. It's hilarious) all was well until we brought up Joseph Smith. As soon as we said his name she whipped out a book larger than a phonebook that was filled with false ideas about Joseph Smith. The rest of the lesson was spent bearing testimony that the only way for her to know if Joseph Smith was true was to pray for herself. She promised she would and then she offered the most sincere prayer I have ever heard. I was touched by her. She made us treats to take with us and gave us a handmade card. She showed so much love for us it was incredible to see. 

After her lesson we had 6 other lessons we needed to go to. All were great lessons filled with promising investigators. The highlight of our day was meeting with Jesse. I'm not sure if I have talked about Jesse before but, Jesse is turning 9 in December and his mom is a less active member and his dad wants nothing to do with the church. Jesse decided he wanted to come to church so we have been teaching him the lessons. We had our last lesson with him on Friday and he told us that he has met with the bishop and is getting baptized in December. We aren't sure if it will be a convert baptism but we don't really care. Jesse is our baptism. We have been able to watch his testimony grow and seen him grow as a person. We are so excited for him.

Saturday night we received a phone call from our bishop begging us to speak on Sunday. Obviously we said yes and began preparing. We both were given the topic "becoming a disciple of Christ". Many of you already know this but I HATE speaking in church. It's literally the worst activity. Anyway, as I stood to talk, my hands were shaking, I was hardly Breathing and I knew that this was going to end bad. I stood at the pulpit and couldn't speak. As I looked around the congregation I saw a familiar face with a comforting smile. I saw Joseph Peterson, the youngest Peterson child who is only 2. He stood on his dad's lap, with the biggest grin, waving to me. I see Joseph every single day (We live with the Petersons in a small apartment next to their home) everyday he will smile, wave, and give me a high five. It's something I look forward to each day. But, on Sunday as I stood at the pulpit, frozen, I saw his face and I saw his excitement that his friend, was standing at the stand about to give a talk. That smile and that wave gave me enough courage that I was able to give one of the best talks I have ever given. 

I am really excited for Thanksgiving this week. Not because of the turkey, not because of the pie, but for the opportunity I have to be thankful to others. We have so many families that want to feed the missionaries that we will be starting "dinner" at 1 and ending it at 8 (pray that we don't explode). With 6 families to be visited in that time frame. Each are willing to bring us into their family traditions, letting us meet their families and truly making it feel like home. I have a challenge for y'all. As you enter into this thanksgiving week, go invite someone. Not everyone has the opportunity to have a home cooked meal each day. Not everyone has family they can spend time with. Invite. Them. In. No one should be alone for the holidays. As you do this you will see how blessed you are and you can experience the true feeling of being thankful. Let me know if any of you accomplish this challenge, I would love to hear your experience. 

I truly love all of you and I hope that you have a great thanksgiving. 

Love,
Sister Gray


PICTURES:
The treats that Missy gave us
A sister breakfast party in Denton
Our Malibu on Malibu drive
Sister Gorley surprised me with A pomegranate:')

Yummy treats from Missy 

Sisters in Denton for Breakfast

Drivin' a  Malibu on Malibu Drive

Surprise Pomegranate 

Short Letter :( - Nov. 13, 2017

Hello cute friends and family!!

I hope y'all had an amazing week. This week has been sooooooo interesting. I don't even know where to begin! So I guess I will just start!

It's transfer week!! Woohoo! Transfer week doesn't really mean anything at this point in my mission because I am still a greenie and still learning how to live and such. Anyway, I am staying here in highland until December.

We have had lots of fun this Week!

This email will be short but, we are having such success with Amber! She came to church for the first time this week, and she loved it! She said at the end of relief society "my back isn't used to these hard chairs..... I'll get used to it." We are really excited for her.

I will talk more next week I promise! Love y'all!

-Sister Gray

PICTURES:)

Odin the dog, Daryl the duck.... We share pets with the Petersons:)
Members have SOOO many pets that they let us play with, it's the best!

Odin and Daryl and of course Sister Gray !

Sister Gray and a kitty 

Ice Cream - Thanks Chuck
(Sister Gray's friend from the Villas)

Planting Seeds - Nov. 6, 2017

Happy turkey days!!

I hope y'all had a great October. I hear its getting chilly in Utah? That's funny to hear because yesterday it was 90 degrees! 

This week in Fort Worth SOOO many miracles happened! 

Tuesday was sort of lame. You don't get to do much for holidays when you are on your mission. We spent the day tracting looking for new investigators with little success. Most of the day it rained so knocking doors was a little frustrating. Both me and Sister Gorley were frustrated and were ready to give up and go to the church for studies when we turned the corner and found..... a pecan tree! 

Who knew Texas had so many nut trees? We both laughed and picked more pecans and decided that we could knock a few more doors. As we did so we were able to share more messages and set up 3 appointments. 

 We had dinner with some members and headed home. We aren't allowed out on Halloween night (for safety reasons) so we spent the night watching more training videos and shelling pecans. 

We truly are the coolest missionaries in the area.

Wednesday we were assigned as leaders in a mutual activity. It was a photo scavenger hunt. Me and Sister Gorley were in charge of a group of beehives and deacons. The goal of the competition was to be the first team to take pictures doing all of the assigned activities. Some of the activities were things such as talk to bishop and share a message with him (missionary advantage), 6 person pyramid, act out a scene from the book of Mormon, etc. At first my group was less than excited to be there, or to have the missionaries lead them. But, as we all know, Sister Gray is rather competitive and was not willing to give up. 

It took a couple of minutes but soon everyone was having fun and participating. Sister Gray and Gorleys green beans (team name we were given) were the ultimate winners.

Thursday was spent doing service and meeting families. We helped a less active family build a retaining wall to prevent further flooding in the house. It was time well spent.

Friday we had the opportunity of meeting with a 76 year old lady to teach her the restoration. The lesson went great, the spirit was present, she committed to baptism. We walked out of her house with smiles on our faces and great hope for this sweet old lady who was ready to hear our message. 

I would like to share something that she shared that touched my heart. She told us that several years ago (10 or more) some young Elders knocked on her door. They shared a quick message, gave her a Book of Mormon, and asked if they could meet with her again. She stated very politely that she wanted nothing to do with the Mormons. No one had knocked on her door until we did. It was at this point of the story she started to tear up. She said "I don't know why you are here, I don't know why I said to come back, I guess I'm just ready to listen now. I'm ready to learn more. I still think about those elders". Irene wasn't ready to learn 10 years ago. Yet because those elders talked to her, shared their testimonies, when she was ready she knew it to be true. 

Seeds of faith were planted 10 years ago. I have the privilege to grow that seed. We are excited to see her grow and to enter into the waters of baptism. 

Saturday. Boy oh boy was Saturday a fun day. We spent the morning tracting and then went to a members house to help paint their house. It was really fun actually. We loved talking with Sister Snyder and talking about our missions and our families. We were painting the entry way to her house which is really tall and has these weird little cut outs in the wall for decorations (I assume?) Anyway, I was up on the ladder (super high I might add) painting the trim when all of the sudden the ladder starts to tip. Not knowing what to do I jumped onto the little cut out edge and tried not to die. 

Sister Snyder was in the other room and didn't see anything happen but when she came out she was laughing and giving me praise for climbing onto the cut out. So that is the story about how I almost died because of a stupid ladder. I think Sister Snyder sent pictures to Mama Gray and I am assuming she can attach them to this email. 

Overall this week was really good. Missions are awesome and I love being a missionary!:) I hope y'all have a great week and I will talk to you soon!:)

- Sister Gray

pictures:
1 and 2 are photos we took when we were bored today
3 what we look like every movie night

Sister Gray - AKA Favorite Sister Missionary 

Sister Gray and the Book of Mormon Challenge

What Sister Gray and Gorley do on Movie Night

Should Missionaries be allowed to be that high?  

Service with a Smile !

Pecans and Pictures - Oct. 30, 2017

Hello friends and family!:) what a wonderful week Texas has had!!!

This week has truly been amazing and I feel blessed that I am here. To start the week off.... We have a baptism!!!! Yayyyyy!!!! Our area was closed for 2 years due to the fact that there was no progress. 3 months ago it was reopened, and on Tuesday we committed someone to baptism. Her name is Amber and she truly is incredible. She has a testimony of the book of Mormon, she is willing to give up her tea and coffee (y'all don't understand how huge that is) and she knows that Heavenly Father loves her. It has been amazing to stand next to her as she grows each and every day. We have the opportunity to meet with Amber every single day and each day she shares how HAPPY the scriptures make her. Fingers crossed that this progress continues!

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to teach a training in our district meeting. It was an amazing experience that was also the most terrifying thing I have done yet. The greenie missionary teaching missionaries who have all been out over a year. Overall the lesson went as planned and I know for a fact that I wasn't the one teaching. I have noticed that to be an effective missionary all you have to do is open your mouth. As soon as you do, the spirit will take over and you simply become a mouth piece. 

 Me and Sister Gorley have a rule that every Wednesday we are allowed to be tourists for 30 minutes. After district meeting we go to a "Texan hotspot". Last time we went to Bahama bucks which is the world's best Snow cones. Hands down. This time we went to Raising canes, a small restaurant that only sells chicken. When we were ordering the employee working there started asking us questions about what missions are. We had the opportunity to share a message and talk about missionaries and our purpose. We are meeting with her this Wednesday to discuss more. I never thought I would talk to someone about Christ over a basket over chicken fingers. 

Friday was probably one of the most challenging and rewarding days I have had so far. When I received my call to Texas the one thing I was most excited for was the fact that I wouldn't be cold. WRONG. Friday it rained and it was absolutely freezing. I don't think I have ever been more cold. 

We were out tracting all afternoon and it rained the whole time. I felt as if we weren't accomplishing anything because we were both miserable. Once we realized we were both in sour moods we decided to do something to brighten our spirits. On the very edge of our area there is a street that has like 25 pecan trees. We haven't had the chance to tract that street yet so we decided that is where we needed to go. 

We spent the whole morning knocking doors and picking pecans. Afterwards we had a huge bag of pecans ready to be shelled. Once we were laughing and in good moods the work really started to pick up we gave away 8 books of Mormon, and gained 4 new investigators. We were blessed. Later that night we rewarded ourselves with warm apple cider/ hot chocolate. We spent the rest of the night having a missionary movie night. We watched several of the district episodes (all training videos) and shelling pecans. Quite an eventful night. 

Saturday was spent doing service at the flower mound. If you are wondering what the flower mound is.... it's a big mound. Full of dirt and pokey grass. It's pretty exciting. We picked up trash, pulled "woodies" (small trees) from the ground, and planted new seeds. It was pretty fun and we were able to meet some amazing people. Afterwards we headed to the neighborhood trailer park to help clean out a families trailer. We went straight from that to a ward chili cook off. It was one of the best ward activities I have ever been to. There was sooooo much food! You haven't had good chili and cornbread until you have had good chili and cornbread in Texas. 

The best part about the whole night was that the church was filled with potential investigators! Most of the families invited their neighbors or school teachers to come and have some chili. It was a great chance to meet new people. 

Sunday was probably the best day of the week. Sunday morning we were setting up chairs and hymn books as we waited for people to arrive. I felt a tap on my shoulder to find some very familiar faces. Jon and Yvonne Wall had come to see me. I nearly passed out when I saw them. I was overcome with emotion and was welcomed in a big hug from Yvonne. It was by far the best "mom-hug" I have had. 

We were both crying and I felt comfort and peace. Heavenly father looks out for you. All the time. I had been praying to feel comfort as I continue throughout my mission and in small simple ways I have always found comfort. 

Whether it be seeing old neighbors, or receiving a package with some pajamas in it (thanks aunt Amy:')) or receiving a letter with a picture of your best friend (thanks Walter and Joan:')) Heavenly Father won't leave us alone. 

There is a song we listen to everyday and this is my favorite line in it.
"He knows each of his children, he is never too far. He is there beside you, with a love so bright, and he can see all the ways you let your faith shine."

If you ever feel alone, remember you're not. You have a loving heavenly father who is there beside you. Never forget it.

Have a great week and I will talk to all y'all next week!!

-Sister Gray

PICTURES:)
Friday night movie treat
Literally the only tree that has changed colors
Holy ghost Halloween sign
Me and Walter:')
The pecan shelling place

Hot Choc and Hot Apple Cider 

Fall in Texas

Happy Halloween !

Sister Gray and her Best Friend Walter. 
Walter is 102 and a favorite resident of the
Villas Assisted Living Facility

Pecans and Pictures