Elder Gray's Mission

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Monday, November 3, 2014

Hihi Everybody,

Well... I had already started a letter that was just about
finished... and then we lost power. Which meant bye bye letter. *sigh*

Long story short, this week started off really slow and then
picked up towards the end. Most of our time as a threesome was spent
trying to help Elder Rakotomanana get to know his sector as much as
possible before his trainee showed up. Tuesday we had to make the very
long journey to the mission office for all sorts of stuff. I needed to
renew my visa, Elder Lukonga needed to give a blood sample for his
residence card.

It was really cool because all at the same time there were
missionaries that were going home and missionaries that had just
started. It was really fun to be able to say goodbye to Elders
Hawkins, Kunz, and Seidl. After everything was all said and done we
brought Elder Joseph home. It's been a lot of fun so far.

The rest of the week was spent doing follow ups on the visa,
blood sample, and meetings. We weren't able to get much done.

However, Saturday rolled around and some investigators that
we've been working with for the past month or so were able to be
baptized. I tried to attach pictures. The older man is named Andrey
and the lady is his daughter Consulate. It was the highlight of the
week. It's always super cool to see the change in people when they
accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and commit to trying their very best
to keep his commandments.

I love you all tons and tons! Have the best of weeks!

-Elder Gray

Monday, November 3, 2014 (Pictures)

Consulate

Elder Joseph and Elder Gray

Elder Lukonga. (I love how the baptismal fonts are outside.)

Papa Andrey, Consulate, Elder Gray and Elder Lukonga

Monday October 27, 2014

Hey Everybody,

This week started off a little slower than the last couple of weeks. We had appointment after appointment fall through hour after hour and day after day. Having your plans go up into smoke and wandering around trying to find people to teach is no fun under the sun. Speaking of sun, things have gotten HOT. We've entered into what these people referre to as the "Hot" season. To me it's the "hotter that already hot" season.

However, despite the setbacks, some of our investigators are moving along nicely. We've managed to set baptismal dates for this Saturday, but we've still got a couple of hiccups to work out. We'll see how things go.

Saturday afternoon we got a very unexpected call from the Assistants just before heading off into the sector asking us if we were ready for Elder Rakotomanana. The awkward silence followed by the question "You guys didn't get the memo?" To make a story short, we're a threesome for the moment and Elder Rakotomanana is going to be training a new missionary. We've been told his name is Elder Joseph, but that could change. I'm not excited to have to share our really nice and clean apartment with new missionaries, but we'll get over it.

The internet is super super super slow right now, so I wasn't able to get any photos loaded up. Hopefully next week.

Love you!

-Elder Gray

Monday, October 20, 2014

Hi! Hi!

Hey Everybody!

Sorry about last week. We got here and I was able to read through a couple of emails and get a reply off to my Dad just before the connection took a really long nap. Our efforts to bring it back to life were vain.

Things are chugging along nicely here in Calavi. My companion and I are still all by ourselves and it's fantastic. I would describe Elder Lukonga as an African version of Weiyi... but black and not Asian. It's been really really nice to be able to goof off and joke around with somebody that has the same sense of humor. It also means that we spent half of our time at the apartment laughing.

However, despite the tons of fun that we have we can still call ourselves efficient missionaries; even with the massively monstrous double-sector that we have to take care of. Having two sectors means there is always something to do and somebody to teach.

This last Saturday was a bonus. We put together a mini service project and showed up armed with shovels, rakes, and other gardening tools and performed a total makeover to one of our investigators yard. He's a really nice old man who relies a lot on his family. When we started he tried his best to convince us to stop, but we won him over. All of the work was made worthwhile when we saw him bright and early Sunday morning for church.

Have an awesome week!

-Elder Gray

Pictures 10/20/2014. . . . Soccer and Bugs

Soccer Dudes!

Oh Yeah!

Serious Soccer Dudes

The Latest method of catching gross bugs

After receiving the pictures of the bugs, this is the conversation that took place between Elder Gray and his Dad. . . .

DAD:

Dem are BIG bugs. I would not be happy with critters of that size free range roaming the bedroom while trying to sleep at night.
Suspect the buggers are big enough that they are not very quiet as they forage around the flat.

Shuddering and shivering going with your old Dad – even if you stepped on them they would make a mess requiring hazmat cleanup on isle one.

Ick!

Dad

Reply from Elder Gray:

If you're unfortunate enough to wake up in the middle of the night and you turn off the fans so there is no noise... you can hear them.
Hundreds of them. What's scary is after we tape them to the walls...
bigger ones come and eat them. We find nothing but wings/legs.

Stepping on them makes a loud POP sound. Like popping a plastic bag.
It's kind of cool.

Dad’s Reply to Elder Gray:

Ok - now this is some info that Mom needs to post on your blog.

Icky, icky, icky!

Dad

Just another thing to put on the list of cool things that you can do with duct tape....