"We said another prayer, this one a prayer of gratitude"

May 25, 2009

Hey Everyone,
This last week was pretty sweet. Mary got baptized yesterday. We were worrying that she wouldn't just because things weren't going through like we planned. But one of our great zoned leaders, Elder Lameroux, did her baptismal interview and resolved a lot of concerns she had. She wanted me to baptize her so I did. Everything went well. Her friend, who is a woman minister, came to watch. She was very nice. She took a bunch of pictures. Actually, I'm pretty sure that she took a picture of everyone in attendance at least once or twice each. We gave her a Book of Mormon because she is curious to know more about the church. It has been awesome getting people baptized and following in Jesus' footsteps. Mary has got some good friends in the ward. She is going on a Relief Society camp out with the sister in the ward pretty soon here.
On Saturday, we were driving on the highway and we saw a truck stuck on the side of the road. We decided to stop and help. Apparently they hydro-planed and they had to swerve off the road to avoid hitting the cars in front of them. They were stuck in some mud and grass. We were pushing for a long time and slowly inching towards more solid ground. After almost an hour we decided to gather around and pray. It only took another ten minutes after that. When the truck was out, we said another prayer, this one a prayer of gratitude. The dad of the two teenage sons, (the teens were driving) tried to pay us, but we didn't accept his money. He gave us his card and wants us to stay in contact with him. He is a minister, but I'm sure he'll listen when we send the missionaries in his area to him. As you've probably already seen, I included some pics from that experience. We got pretty muddy.
This week was pretty fun. Time is going by faster now that I am used to all the missionary stuff. One of the scriptures I memorized this week is Helaman 5:12. I know that by following this scripture and having Christ as our foundation, we will never fall. We might slip or stumble sometimes, but Christ will always be there to out-do the devil. But only if we allow him, Thanks for the quotes Dad. I can tell that you put a lot of consideration into picking the best ones for me. Thank you everyone for sharing your gospel experiences with me. I'm glad we can all be in this together. Stay close to the Lord.
Much Love,
Elder Christopher Gray

Baptism

This is Ellen, our new convert. My first baptism.

"She said she knew we were sent by God"

Hey everyone,
Good job at state and region track.  Sounds like you guys did awesome. 
That sounds like an awesome track meet.  Good job Ashley.  You too
Erik.  I'm glad you are continually improving.  You will make it to
state next year if you are willing to do what it takes.  You are both
looking nice and skinny. The members are fattening us all up so I am
definitely not gettingskinnier :)  My belly button is slowly becoming an
inny instead of an outty (or whatever it was before).  I just thought
you would like to know that ;)  Tell Shaye and Aubrey and everyone
else congratulations. 

Thanks for all the info about track and everything.  I really enjoy it.

So next week I wont be able to send an email because I think the library
will be closed.  So unless we find somewhere else to email, I will just
send a letter.

This last week we were supposed to baptize Mary.  But it turns out she
forgot about it. She wanted to invite a bunch of friends.  So she is
gonna be baptized this coming Sunday instead.  She is a funny lady.  We
love going over there and helping with her garden.

Yesterday we met an awesome woman named Sophia.  She recognized the
spirit and told us so.  She said she knew we were sent by God.  We are
gonna visit her again today.  I'll tell you more about her in the next
letter.  She is gonna be awesome.

We had Zone Conference on Friday.  Elder Richardson from the 70 came and
talked.  He answered questions and gave a real good talk.  He talked
about seeking for spiritual gifts and a bunch of other things.  It
really motivated me to do my best.  President Cutler just talked for a
couple minutes.  He shared a really good story about coping with
disappointment.

One thing I have been learning a lot lately is how important it is to
set good goals.  You can acheive so much more with goals.  They need to
be specific, measurable, atainable, and time-efficient.

Thanks for the thoughts, inspiration, and stories.  Keep strong in the
faith.  I love you all.

Love,
Elder Gray

Mother's Day

Monday May 11, 2009
Hey Everyone,
Sorry this letter is gonna be kinda short because I don't have much to say. You heard it all yesterday on the phone. I just wanted to let yall know that I love you. You know, I've heard that some missionaries lose focus for a couple days after they call their parents. But for me, it's doing just the opposite. It made me want to work harder and that's what I'm gonna do. I want to look back at my mission and be proud of it. Se que nuestro Iglesia is es la verdadero iglesia. Recordad, Dios nos bendicira quando nosotros tienne fe en El. Stay close to the Lord.

Mormon 9:21

Love,
Elder Gray

Greetings and Salutations from the great country of Texas

Hey Everyone,
This week has been awesome. We baptized Ellen on Saturday, and we have another lady that is committed to be baptized a week from Friday. We a had a pretty safe week. Only a couple of interesting people ;)

So on Saturday, we baptized Ellen. It was really awesome. The spirit was really strong there. She was so easy to teach too. She accepted most of the things pretty easily. The only thing that she had to change about her lifestyle was drinking an occasional cup of coffee. She was prepared by the Lord, a lot. I got to baptize her. There was a little confusion because I got nervous but once I started the prayer it all went well. When we went down in the water she panicked a little and twisted just a bit. I still got her up though:) I'm glad I didn't drop her. That would have been horrible. We had a nice simple meeting and a couple people from the ward attended. On Sunday, Elder Kleinman did the confirmation.

The other lady we have committed is named Mary. She is in her fifties or sixties but she is a very healthy person so she looks younger. She is a very soft-spoken, sweet person. She is kinda eccentric in her own way, but that's OK :) She likes to garden a lot and she gave me and my companion a big pot with some plants in it yesterday. We put it on our little porch thing by our side door. We are going to have a little problem with finding a good time to baptize her because she insists on being home in the evenings (she goes to bed at 7). We'll figure something out.

The ward here is pretty good. All the people are fun and awesome. We need to find a way to get them more missionary minded though. Any suggestions?

A bunch of the high school kids in our ward get this week off school. One of the teachers got the swine flu so they have the school on lockdown al week. But besides that I haven't heard much at all about the flu.

So how are things back home? I have a hard time not bragging about all you guys' awesome accomplishments. That is awesome about Ashley and Erik's accomplishments. I love hearing every little detail. You two are awesome (you too, Justin). Erik, you beat my freshman PR by a second. I could never get faster than a 1:03 that year. Good job! So to answer your question Erik, with the 400, I come out of the blocks as fast as I can and maintain an almost full out sprint (about 95%, I believe), then on the backstretch I maintain that speed and stride it out (don't slow down at all). Then when I hit the next curve (200 mark), I start picking it up. At this point you start realizing that you're tired but you just got to ignore it. When there's about 150 left I'm still picking it up. You want to hit it full force with about 150-120 left. You wanna come around that last turn with full speeed. Lay it all on the line from there out. A lot of times races are won and lost in that last 100. Pick and ending point a couple feet past the finish line so you don't slow down a step too early. This is about how I did it most of the time. But remember, everyone runs different so do what works for you. Hope that helped some. Also remember to work hard during the season and in the off season, too. Read 1 Corinthians 9:24 and you can apply that to anything, especially track.

And answering your other question: With scripture reading you just have to make time to do it.
I know its hard and I slacke a lot in the past. But you just have to make time for it. Maybe read them for 15 minutes when you first get home instead of when your tired at night. Also, try to make your reading more interesting. Mark scriptures, write down cool things, etc.

Congratulations with your class officer elections. You two will do great.

That is awesome about Corry Brown going on a mission. Where is he going?

Have the best darn week and stay close to the Lord.

Love,
Elder Gray