Howdy yall

Hey,
How is everyone?  I am doing really great this week.   The area is 
getting more and more productive as we keep working hard.  It has been 
fairly warm lately except this morning we walked outside and it was 
about 50 degrees instead of 60-70.  I’m sure you guys would love for it 
to get up to 50 right now but for me, its cold.

Yesterday we passed a list around the ward to see when people could 
generally come out and help us teach.  We got a pretty good response.  
We have about 18 names on that list right now and it will continue to 
grow as we ask more people about their schedules.  When we passed it 
around to the YW I think they forgot that it was just for the adult 
leaders.  A couple of the girls signed up.  It was funny and great that 
they were willing to help but we can’t really bring young women with us.  
We had a good laugh about that.

In our last District Meeting we talked about doubling our faith and 
being bold.  Some of the ways we came up with to double faith are:  Read 
and Listen to God’s words, base our faith on correct doctrine, repent 
continually, have a positive attitude, pray with fervor, and a couple of 
other things.  We also practiced some door approaches.  We were supposed 
to be super overbearing in our role plays.  It was funny but it really 
helped me realize how bold I could be without being overbearing.  The 
last couple of days I have been trying harder to be bold and it has 
worked well.  One lady we talked to last night had a couple of 
misunderstandings about our church but we were bold and persistent.  
When we left she made a comment about how we really were more Christian 
than she originally thought.

 We got to help vaccinate sheep and goats again on Saturday.  It was 
just an oral vaccination so there weren’t any needles involved.  Thank 
goodness!  It was a lot of fun especially since this time I got to 
wrestle em and shove the syringe in their mouths.  There was one that I 
did that was just a little heavier than me.  Lauren, the lady that owns 
the animals, calls that one and two others “the linebackers.”  He 
struggled a bit and I ended up getting pulled to the other end of the 
pen a time or two.  But eventually I muscled his head up and gave him 
his vaccination.  The rest weren’t quite as strong as him so it wasn’t 
too bad.

That is way awesome that there some more convert baptisms going on in 
the ward.  Good job and keep up the good work and remember how great of 
a tool Preach My Gospel is.  Thanks for that scripture in DC 18:10, 
15-16.  That is a really great scripture.  Ashley you had a question 
about being busy and stuff.  Remember when things get difficult, get 
down on your knees and pray.  I have a big testimony on the power of 
prayer.  Sometimes we get so busy and it gets stressful.  I also have a 
big testimony in planning.  When I plan out all the things I need to do, 
I am a lot less worried because I know that everything will get done.  
Then in your prayers let your Heavenly Father know all the things that 
you need help with and always express gratitude.  In the end, keep doing 
the basic things that we are all taught to do (scriptures, tithing, 
prayer, etc…).  I promise that if you do these things that it will help 
a lot.  I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants whats best 
for us.  I hope you all have a great week.  Keep up the good work and 
keep the faith.

Love,
Elder Gray