Hi Hi Family !

Blue team checking in with another week flown by. It’s really crazy to think that our group has been out here for nine months already. Time is flying.

My companion and I have spent the last couple of days visiting and trying to serve the members in our area. It’s always super fun to see the looks on people’s faces when they see a big white guy sweeping the parcel, grinding veggies, or drawing water from the well. We were able to help the Primary President draw up the theme for the month too.

Other than service we’ve made it a goal to read at least one chapter of the Book of Mormon with whoever we visit. Be them inactive, active, investigator, or whatever else. It’s been a super cool experience and is always awesome when we find ourselves reading two or three because one isn’t enough.

I’ve really come to love the Book of Mormon. It’s a good book. Read it.

Anyway, I hope y’all have a fantastic week!

-Elder Gray

 

Just another week

Hey Everybody,

     I don't have a whole lot of time today so this is going to be a really short letter. This week was super busy. Our apartment ended up winning the cleanest apartment contest so we got to go out to eat with the Senior Couple Semkens. It was lots of fun and it was REALLY yummy. Two chawaramas can make a man very very happy.   Friday we had our Zone Conference. I picked up quite a bit about the importance of humility and companionship study. Hopefully our companionship will be able to apply everything we learned.

    Sunday was really interesting. We finally had the opportunity to watch general conference... unfortunately the discs weren't super compatible with the DVD player that we had and we were only able to get through a couple of talks.
     

Conference summary: Everybody needs their own testimony, stop messing around and get married and raise your family in righteousness, no two people will ever have the same experiences, and the scriptures are written for us.  After conference we watched a solar eclipse.  (Be VERY jealous Sister Schiess :P) It was super awesome.

     Anyway. That's about it for the week.

     Loves!

-Elder Gray

Elders eating after Zone Conference

 

 

A few more pictures

Queen, Unice, Nancy, Yannick and Elder Gray

 

 



Nancy, Queen and Elder Ta

 

 

Ninja Warriors!

Elder Ta, Elder Maxwell, Elder Gray and Elder Ratodisomalal

Pictures from 11/04/2013

Elder Gray and Elder Christensen "Go Darts!"

 

Elder Gray and Fransica

 

Elder Gray and Unice blowing bubbles

 

Elder Gray and Yannick

 

 

And the Winner Is. . . . . . . . .

Oct 29 at 2:53 PM

Hello Deena Gray,  Elder Semken and I ate lunch with Elder Gray and his companions today.  Their Akpakpa apartment won the cleanest apartment.  Jericho apartment also won this month.  We have a hard time picking the cleanest apartment.  We had a very fun time going to Festival de Chawarmas.  We also took our Office Elder, Elder Chirstensen who your son knows from High School, they had fun talking.  We took them back to their apartment and then we gave them a ride to their area for a lesson they were giving.  So, the reason I am writing, what a great missionary!!!  He has the best personality and is always so positive.  The Akpakpa  area is much harder and they have to walk at least a mile to get to their secteur.  We were glad we could give them a ride.  We saw them on Sunday and they were so excited that they had 2 investigators come to Church.  Well, I just thought I would email you and let you know what a good missionary Elder Gray is.  Elder Gray said that you were doing well. 
Love,
Sister Semken 

 

Sister Semken and Elder Gray

 

 



The Legendary Chawarama

 

Elder Christensen

Lessons Learned

"Except in the case of his only begotten son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating for him, but he deals with it. So should we. So be patient and kind and forgiving." -Jeffrey R. Holland

As I'm sure most of you know, whoever is preparing a talk or a lesson ends up learning a whole lot more than what he hopes to be able to teach. Yesterday I was asked to share a brief message during sacrament meeting. Frantically scrambling through the random bits of notes that I jot down on my planner I stumbled across this quote that I had found weeks earlier during personal study.

I was able to throw something together for sacrament meeting, but I hope that if anybody will be able to apply these words it's me.

These last couple of weeks have been really really challenging. We made the heartbreaking decision of dropping all but one of our investigators. We have been severally struggling to find new investigators and people to teach. We find ourselves spending a lot of time with recent converts and members. We haven't been having much progress.

It's been really frustrating giving everything I've got and watching people reject, ignore, or take for granted the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I've come to love my scriptures and the examples and lessons that they share. The beginning pages of Preach my Gospel is another relief for a depressing day.

Things here are a bit rough for the moment, but they'll come around. I end up reading the words "If you want to see the rainbow, be prepared to endure the storm" which was a quote from an incredible missionary who I hope to be like one day.

I hope y'all have an awesome week.

Loves and laughs,

-Elder Gray