I am glad that the Lord has blessed me with a bunch of good companions

Hey,
Thanks for pics. It looks like you all had a lot of fun camping. This week has been pretty fun. My new companion is named Elder Finlayson. He plays waterpolo for Stanford so he is smart and athletic. He is from a little city called Alamo just right outside of Oakland, California. His Spanish is awesome. He is a really hard worker and a very obedient missionary. Each of my companions has been awesome in different aspects. I am glad that the Lord has blessed me with a bunch of good companions.

This week we had an awesome baptism. William was the name of the person getting baptized. I have seen him come so far along the path. It's been awesome. It was my first time being in charge of a baptism. It was stressful but everything worked out in the end.

Elder Finlayson likes to do a lot of tracting/knocking, so we have been doing a lot of that lately. However, we got some updated lists from the ward and are going to do some more 'less active' work. And Elder Smith liked to do more less active work with a little bit of knocking. So each of my companions has had a little different style but it all works out in the end.

That is awesome that you are teaching some investigators in the ward right now. Keep up the good work. But remember to find some good fellow shippers. Most of the people that don't have many friends in the ward stop coming after awhile. Also as a side note, I heard somewhere that wards that focus primarily on missionary work always have more success in every aspect of the ward.

This next little bit is more for non-family people that are reading my letters. I just wanted you all to know that I am gonna stop writing letters to everyone except for the family. I know some missionaries who have done this and it really helped them to focus and have an awesome mission. It will help me to focus on what I am out here to do. In Matthew, I don't remember the exact verse, the Lord told the disciples that if they forsake things for the work of the Lord then they will be blessed many times over in the eternities.

I love each one of you and I enjoy each and every letter. I look forward to the "cool" package from you mom. Stay close to the Lord.

Love,
Elder Gray