Following the Spirit

Hey,

Things are going well. I haven't received my shoe package yet but it should arrive today I'm guessing. I put a bike patch on the bottom of my shoe and it worked well for a couple days :) Then the hole just got bigger and bigger. Ha so it will be nice to get some more shoes soon. We had a really good week and found a couple of really solid investigators. They were all found when we were really focusing on trying to follow the spirit too. It was awesome. One of them is stuck at home all day and loves to read. She said that she would probably finish the Book of Mormon in a day or two. We are teaching her tomorrow and are super excited. Also, we found another guy when we went looking for a former investigator. Those people weren't home and so we went across the street and started talking to a guy in his yard. He is a very humble person and so he is willing to continue to learn. We just saw a lot of blessings this last week.

Cheyenne is still waiting for her Grandpa to be healthy enough to come down. Her baptismal interview is tomorrow. We still don't know when she will be baptized......hopefully soon. All our other old investigators have stopped progressing and so we are still focusing on finding.

Our ward has about 17 ward missionaries now. Just a week ago the bishop called seven new ones. We are excited to have a bunch of active members helping out with the work. There is going to be a big focus on bringing people back into activity in the church.

How are things going at home? Is everybody excited for the summer? Any fun plans? I am excited to talk to yall in a couple weeks. Time flies. It feels like I just talked to you all the other month. I love you all and hope that you have an awesome week.

Quote: "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice The Gift"

Love,

Elder Gray

Holy Soles

Or is it "holey" shoes? ha ha...Elder Gray is working hard in the Texas Heat. We are loving the idea that Missionary Mall's 2 year wear guarantee will send a replacement for free. Yeah!

Becoming...

Hey,

Wow those Prom pictures look great. I recognized a couple of faces but wow you all have changed a bunch. Good job on your running Ashley. I know you are working hard and its paying off. Congrats on your arrow of light and turning 11 Justin. I hope you had an awesome birthday. Good job Erik for keeping on with normal life. I don't know how I would have handled all your struggles. You are a stud. I bet you like eating solid food again :) I sent off the shoe pictures a day or two before I received your letter. I appreciate the labels and stamps though. I will definitely use them.

At this last zone conference we talked about a lot of things. We talked about becoming Preach my Gospel by studying it constantly. I made a goal to do a couple activities from it every day. Also, President Cutler gave us a lot of good advice about future families that we will have. I don't think he meant to bring it up but that's just kind of where the discussion led to. It was a super awesome and spiritual meeting.

Our area is doing well. I am getting to know the members even better now and have developed some good friendships. Elder Hawkins and I are also getting along very well. Cheyenne is just waiting for her Grandpa to get the OK from his doctor so he can fly from Utah and baptize her. Nathaniel has just kinda disappeared so hopefully we can get in contact with him soon.

I really love being on a mission. It has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I know that this is the Lord's work. Thanks for everything. Love you all.

Love,

Elder Gray

PS Thanks for all the pictures. I did a little bit of math and figured out that you could send me about 7000 pictures before my in box is full. So if you ever worry about sending too much, don't worry. You could send a movie and I'd still have plenty of room. Haha don't though ;) But I do enjoy every picture. Oh and I did receive my shirts in the mail. Thanks!

Baptisms

Hey,

This week was a lot of fun. Elder Hawkins and I got a lot of work done. Nathaniel is set to be baptized on April 25 and Cheyenne Gamble was supposed to be baptized today but she needed to push the date back. She will be baptized this month though. We are going to talk to her today and hopefully get another baptismal date set. As a mission we have been pushing to find more new investigators. In our zone, we doubled the number of new investigators from the previous week. It is really awesome to see the changes as we all push forward. The work that we do right now is a mixture between all the categories (part-member families, referals, less active members, tracting, etc...). But I would say we do a little bit more knocking than anything else. Our district leader, Elder Eaton, has been sick for the last week so we have been exchanging a lot with them lately. They only live a mile or two away from us.

I love you all and I am super grateful for your support. Have the best week ever and thank you for that Easter package. I really am enjoying it.

Con Amor,

Elder Gray

Make every day a good one!

Hey,

This week has gone by pretty quickly. We had a pretty good week. We had transfers on Thursday and my new companion is Elder Hawkins. He is an English elder. He has been out since July. He lived in Provo and went to Provo high then UVU. He played snare drum on the drum-line for Provo high. He likes electronics and even made an MP3 player out of an old NES controller. It is pretty cool. He is probably 3 inches taller than me. He is a lot of fun. I've known him for a little bit because I've served around him before.

We spent the morning with an awesome guy from the ward. He is less active because his job is always taking him out of town on Sundays. He is a salesman for Vitamix blenders. We went geo-caching. It is really fun. You all should try it out sometime.

General Conference was really awesome. I liked a lot of talks but President Uchtdorfs talks in the priesthood session and in the regular session as well as President Monson's Sunday morning talk were some of the best. I really liked learning about patience and the Lords master plan. I also liked Elder Bednar's talk. Some of the things he touched on, particularly being an agent that acts, is something that we learned from him when he came to our mission.

One thing that I would suggest for your question about the new ward missionary..... I don't think it matters too much what he is doing as long as he is able to feel like 'he' is making a difference and he is feeling the spirit as he helps others. I hope that helps. Just follow the spirit and I'm sure you will both do great.

I am happy to hear that you all are still doing great. Remember the Alamo (or at least your missionary by there). Haha but seriously if you get some time, read the story of the Alamo. That story is filled with brave men who put it all on the line. I love you all. Keep on keepin' on and make every day a good one.

Con Amor,

Elder Gray

PS If you could send 3 white church shirts that would be awesome. Wrinkle free if possible. I will send you the pics of my shoes asap.