April 23 2012

Oi minha family! 

Oh so this week was really intresting!  We will start off what happened Tuesday after lunch we were walking in the street and talking well I was talking because my companion has like no social skills out side of teaching lessons!  But this old lady turned the corner in front of us (she was walking) and she ripped the biggest fart that I have ever heard! Hahahaha the more funny part is that she was laughing after hahahahah! Oh my it was so funny we were trying so hard not to laugh because we are representives of Christ! But as we passed and turned the corner everything came lose hahahaha! I almost peed my pants laughing! After this we were working with this family for like a month now and had a baptismal date and all that well we were talking with him asking if he has prayed about the Book of Mormon and how he feels and he says to us that he wants to stay in his church! So we started teaching the first lesson again with him and all that and I did the first vision which I got it memorized! Ya baby!  After we were talking and I asked him do you believe that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus and he yes I do believe, my next question was will you follow Christ example and be baptized! hahahaha he said no, I was like what? You believe in Joseph Smith you love our church and you know that the Book of Mormon is true so why not! He said “ I want to stay in my little church” with this like jerky grin which I wanted to smack! Well after all that we finally got him to commit to a date! ONE thing I was not happy about was that we didn’t have baptism this week but I am pretty sure that we are going to have one next week! So we will see! But oh another funny thing! When you have been in an area as long as I have you get to know people that you don’t teach but your friends with them! Like I have a gang of bikers here, I have another gang of rock and rollers! A gang of skaters and bmxers! Hahaha well we were walking the street one night and this car stops and the dude was come here so we went over and it was one of the rock and rollers and he was dude (he only knows me not the other elder! hahaha) we are performing tonight well all night you totally can come if you want! I was like where just to be kind! He was like at the bar that is pretty close to your guy’s house! I was like really that is awesome! He was like ya dude! He was high! But I said to him maybe some other time I got people I need to talk to about Christ! He said I respect you, that you sacrifice your time to help others! I was like thanks and he was like if you get time dude stop by! I was alright we will see what happens! He drives off and says I love the Elders with the rock and roll hand sign! hahahaha what was sad we didn’t go! Hahaha I was totally fine with that! I also made a division with one of the elders from Lapa Elder Finato! It was so nice to kick it with him for one day because he knows how to play the ukulele! He was helping me I can almost play I’m yours by Jason mraz! Yah baby!!! But it was funny we were walking the streets and he was like dude I want that I was alright! He bought a DVD player! Hahaha it has games and basically everything! I was like alright but after this we got to go to work! And he was like deal! After that we taught 8 lessons hahaha we totally killed it! We stayed up all night just talking and having a good time it was so much fun i didn’t want Elder Smith to return!  But all good divisions end some time right! But it was awesome! This week was pretty good! Well so I haven’t written that sister back in a little bit and I got letters today and she wrote me a letter basically like chewing me out because I have written her in like 2 weeks! Hahaha I feel a little bad, not much just a little! But what sucks is that I have to write her in Portuguese and it takes forever for me to write in Portuguese! That is about it for this week! I was really surprised to see how much dad wrote me this week! Whoop, whoop is he starting to be a man of some words or what! Hahah love you dad thanks for the quote I like that one! Besides all of this I am doing good! And mom no I have not washed my sheets but now that I have the other pair I will! Hey mom are you trying to get me robbed out here that back pack is cool but basically every Brazilian will notice it! :( So now you can prayer for my safety! I will try and to put the one tube with the little pump thing inside so it looks more like a normal back pack! Thanks for the package I really loved it! I gave the little foot powder away to my Zone leader he has been hurting between you know where for 2 weeks, I was like ouch and he told me dude it is like purple there and I was like do you have any gold bond or anything he was like no I was like well this is for feet but I bet it will work so I gave it to him so we will see how he turns out poor guy! Hahahaha WELL this week was pretty good! I love you guys so much!

Love Elder Gray

April 16 2012

Hey minha family

Tudo bem? como voces estao? Eu tenho esperanca que voces estao bem! Well this week was really just about work we worked a lot this week! So about the 2nd and 3rd baptism well they were between the first and the 4th! hahhaa they were to youth that were cousins of people in the ward and they wanted to learn more and we baptized them! This week we found a guy named William I made contact with him and he told me he doesn’t believe in God or Jesus Christ because they took his family away from him! I was like nope not true, and do you want to know where they are at? He was like yes; I was like perfect where do you live so that we can talk another day! Well we passed by did the 2 lesson for him plan of salvation probably one of the coolest lessons we have taught we had this guy crying and he was feeling the spirit and all that stuff so we will pass by again this week! And mark a baptism interview with him! Oh we have been teaching one family and they seem to be really progressing probably we will baptize them in this week or next week! But it’s a family of 6 so that is way cool! Besides that nothing really else happened this week just work and all that good stuff!! Other elders in our district had baptisms and so we had to help them because my companion is the district leader so he does the baptismal interviews and all that fun stuff! But when he is doing that I am just talking with the other elders having fun hahah! Ah so the 4th baptism Emerson well he brought his family to church and his son wants to be baptized so he Emerson will baptize him so that is awesome!! OH so we had 11 people in sacrament meeting this week so that was awesome! My goal is to have 19 investigators with us for one sacrament meeting! Hahaha that will be a little hard but is possible!  For me I am holding up alright just need a little bit more patience, because my companion is not very patient with me learning the language! Like some words are hard to say and I try and try and he just gets fed up so that is not cool maybe I learning how to be humble right now! Well I am getting a good tan down here well for a missionary I am almost Mexican looking, or a really light Tongan looking! well besides all that stuff my stuff is holding up good! My pants are fine my shirts I think are white for the most part! My shoes are doing fine I wear one for like 4 days and switch to the other pair for like 4 days and all that good stuff! Ya what have we been doing on pday that makes me busy well one pday we played soccer forever which was cool but I was sore the week after!  Other pday we played American football (flag football) we used socks in our shorts for flags! Hahahaha! Then been playing soccer the other pdays and kickin it with other elders!  That is why I have been busy! :) OH dad please you think that Easton will be stronger than me when I get home I think not! I could not work out my whole mission and come back and still be stronger than him! But yes I have been working out some days is harder to work out then others! so ya! But like I wake up say prayer put my bed away use the restroom then after I do 100 push ups and 200 sit ups! Come on dad you know I got to be looking semi descent for the ladies when I come back! hahahhahahhaha! That is awesome that you guys bought a camera so we can skype I can’t wait to see you guys! I love mother’s day! I wonder if I get to email the day after??? That would be really cool! Well that is about it for Brazil! Eu amo voces muito! Take care and have a great week! Love you guys!

Amo, Elder Jay Colton Gray!!

April 9 2012

Ola minha familia!!

So this week was really good we had another baptism! It was with this 30 year old man he is a big dude! He is awesome I know that he will stay in the church! We are working on his mom to get baptized since he lives with his mom!!! This week was good not going to lie, it was really hot but it was really good! It is a little weird it has not rained here in like 4 weeks I am not use to that!! ahhh! Oh we had Easter this past Sunday and they celebrate the same way we do just more parties and drugs! Hahahaha Brazilians are so funny! They have these huge chocolate eggs that they sale here and some of the members bought the missionaries some so that was really nice of them! I can’t believe that I have seen four baptisms in like 4 months out in the field so that is cool! Me and my companion are doing great getting use to each other and all that good stuff we decided to buy our food different he buys for himself and I for myself! It is a little bit better that way I think! I would send pictures home but I forgot my camera!!! That is good to hear that is everything is going good on your side of things I think dad really likes the new TV! Hahahahaha! Besides this my Portuguese is getting a little bit better and all that so that is really good! Ah and I am starting to get really excited for mothers day! Hahahah did you guys buy a camera so i can Skype you guys on mothers day?? If not you really need to buy one because I want to see you guys through the computer screen hahahah! Not many new things this week! One cool thing we were walking this street and all these men starting whistling and saying come here and usually when this happens you keep walking well I looked behind and they were come here we want to hear a word about God! Perfect well it was all these men at a fruit stand that they own they had some beer in them but that is alright no biggie I will still talk to you! Well we were teaching and they were like are you hungry and we were like no not really because we just ate lunch well they start bring out a ton of juice for us and all this fruit to eat! We taught them got there addresses and will probably pass by them some other day! That was cool! Oh another thing we were walking the street last night and there was these two girls that weren’t dressed the best and my companion needed more contacts so I said to him hey go make contact with the skanks just joking around and he said to me they are not skanks and I was like why are they standing on the corner then??? He thought that was so funny he literally could not stop laughing! Hhahahahahahahhahhahahahahahha it was pretty funny! Oh I keep getting letters from one sister that I met in the CTM I will probably respond just to have someone to write through out my mission! But other then this everything is going good here I really can’t wait for mother’s day to talk to you guys it is in like 6 more week’s right? Hahah I love you guys and pray for you guys always! Take care have a good week!!

Love, Elder Jay Colton Gray

Elder Morris, Elder Gray, & Elder Black

Elder Gray & Elder Morris

April 2 2012

Well hello my beautiful family!

Well let’s start off with what happened this week!  So Monday and Tuesday of this last week we just went and visited people to say good bye for Elder L Oliviera! It was really good and people were crying to see him leave! Well then Wednesday came and I would receive my new companion Named Elder R. Smith! Well it was hard to see Elder Oliviera leave not going to lie because it felt like we were just starting to work together and finally starting to really get down and work and make miracles here! It was weird I got home sick when he left I started really thinking about home a lot more and wanting to come back! Well I meet elder R Smith at this bus terminal with a member and well it was weird! HE IS A RED HEAD! You know red hair is my favorite! He is from Black Foot Idaho he is a little bit taller than me he wears glass is a little chubby around the center! But he is good I guess he is really strict! As I was trying to get to know him I was asking him all these questions trying to be a good host you know! Well he didn’t ask anything about me anything at all! So that was really weird and all! He is here to work that is what is good! He has been on his mission for 10 months so he has some time in the mission field! He is a band nerd! He plays the trombone I think that is how you spell it! And likes to listen to band music my favorite! hahahaha well some things that I have noticed that he does a little bit weird is that he looks at my stuff! That makes me a little bit worried so I have been really keeping tabs on what stuff looks like when I am not there! Um so one more thing he ate my food Thursday! I got in the shower and he took my last two eggs and pieces of bread and he ate them! I was pretty frustrated about that! Another thing he doesn’t like how I teach, he wants me to teach like him and his style is totally not my style of teaching but I will learn his style and put my style in with it I guess! like today we were practicing and he was basically having me say word for word what he says about the pre mortal life and ya it is good what he says but it is just not me so that is making it a little hard! But we worked really hard I destroyed him in contacts and the personal goals so that is good! I will just have to learn to love him right and his red hair! I wonder if I have been cursed to be stuck with people with red hair I don’t know we will have to see!! I watched general conference with all the American missionaries in a different room in our zone! It was really good it was fast! I really liked the priesthood session and the Sunday session so the times for us was 1 to 3 5 to 7 and then priesthood was 9 to 11 at night and we had to wake up the next morning at 6:30 so that was a little bit tough! But was really good! Well that is good to hear that all of you guys are doing well! I am doing fine just pray for me that I can have more patients with my companion and that I will be able to carry on! That is about it for Brazil nothing is really new here!" Did Elder Jackson pass by the house yet or no? He has stuff for you guys! Love you guys I can’t wait to talk to you guys on mother’s day! Take care love you guys!

 I hope that all is well there! Thanks for everything please pray for me maybe visit the temple and put my name in the box that would really help I think! For other people that want letters back from me tell them sorry I have been really busy these past couple p days and not have had to write! Love you guys take care!

Love

Elder Gray

March 26 2012

My wonderful family,

So let’s talk about this past week well we worked pretty hard and we found a lot of new pretty solid investigators and all that! Well yes I did buy two things on my debit card one was some food I didn’t mean to I forgot my mission card in the house so I just used my debit card and yes I bought shoes and they are sick I am going to play ball in them today so I am pretty pumped! They are purple and neon green Nikes they are pretty sick! So let’s talk about some of the investigators! Well so we have this one dude named Emerson he is tight we found him in the street with his two little girls and we have visited them and all that and his mom is cool too, they are Catholics you got to love Catholics right! I think they are brained washed! Emerson came to church with his two little girls yesterday and he really, really likes the church! We visited him later that day and the first thing that he asked is what do I need to do to be baptized so that is good! So we taught the word of wisdom and this family they have a huge problem with coffee! He was like serious coffee and we were like ya coffee he said that he drinks about like 2 litters of it a day! That is a ton of coffee! And his little 8 year old daughter says so you’re telling me that I can’t drink coffee and we were like if you want to receive all these blessings then you can’t drink coffee and we asked her do you want to receive theses blessings??? And she said yes ok then what do you need to do and she said not drink coffee! And we were like yep and he was like my little 3 year old drinks coffee too, I at this point I was thinking in my mind great we got a little  kids that are like being nursed on coffee in my mind! hahaha but they said that they were going to stop we don’t have a baptism date for the kids because the parents are separated and all that so it will be a little hard to get them baptized but we will see what we can do about that! So we had 12 investigators in church yesterday! Something really funny about yesterday was that we walked in to church and there were these to like rock and roll couple there and they were dressed in all black and I told my companion you take care of them and I will go get the other investigators and bring them this way! Well as I showed all the investigators where to go a ton of members came up to me and was like Elder we have a problem and I was like what, someone needs a blessing or something or what! They said that your investigator (the rock and roll couple) brought beer in to the church! AND I was like serious who and the rockers and I was like 1 minute first we have never talked to them we didn’t invite them here and 2 it is kind of not our problem because they were already here before we came here! Hahahahahah they said to me that I had to go take care of it hahahahaha well they sat all through sacrement with their beer next to them! They were drunk too! (oh and I had to bless the sacrament in Portuguese today that was really hard I almost died doing it) and after sacrament they got up and left and left their beer there so my companion took it and gave it to a member and was like run and put this in your car and so the member did and well even though they were drunk they remembered that they forgot their beer! So they started looking for it! They were on the ground looking they were asking members where is our beer and all that! Hahahahha well my companion said to the member that had it in his car to get it and he was going to give it back to them! Well my companion gave it back to them and they were like thank you so much for finding our beer god bless you! Hahahahaha and after they left they are awesome not! Hahira! Well that is about it for the good experiences this week! I am excited and like nervous at the same time for the transfer ya I picked up my stuff and made sure my stuff was separate from his! We will see if I will stay here or go somewhere else we will know tonight what will happen! And whets up with like everyone getting married right now I want to know who everyone is getting married to! Hahahaha well that is about it mom we will see if I will like the package you never gave me the name of the back pack to look up! So we will have to see! Um no my hair is ok but I am defiantly scared that I am going to lose my hair! So ya you could send me some of that if I start loosing it I expect you to send me stuff so that it can like regrow my hair I really don’t want to be bald! Well that is great that Gentry has finished everything! OH before I send this, so this elder is coming home on the 28th he lives in Provo he is bringing stuff home for me to give to you guys His name Is ELDER JACKSON so he will probably get in touch with you! But that is about it for this week sorry if you don’t like this letter maybe next week will be better! Love you guys a ton can’t wait to mother days!

Love, Elder Gray

March 19 2012

Hey love my family!

So this week it was really interesting! Well we start off with that after the temple we really had a coming to Jesus meeting and got down to work! My companion is still a little girl at times and all, but hey I am trying hard to stick it out a week! I really hope I get transferred to a different area that would be awesome! Ok we found this totally wicked family this week it was totally awesome! So the story goes we meet this dad in the street he gave us his address we have been trying to pass there all this week but he has not been home and we made a division this week and I was with a young man in the ward and we passed by and he was there and he lives with his mom and his 2 little girls! I gave the first lesson! Then we left we visited them again and his mom tell us I am really catholic but I believe this book is true and I received my answer about Joseph Smith! Opa! That was awesome they are awesome! We didn’t have any investigators attend church this week so we will be calling people to repentances hahahaha! Oh so we made a lot of divisions this week and I went with the elder’s quorum president and we had to teach the 2nd lesson! Ya me that is my weak point because there is specific words you have to use in Portuguese that I really can not say! After we taught it the elders quorum president like gets after me and I told him look I am sorry that I don’t speak Portuguese and the investigators understand what I am trying to say, plus it is not all the big fancy words that you tell people to convert them its the spirit! Well he just kept going on and on and on and on and I was like alright I will sit here listen to you repeat the same thing! Then he tells me in his mission he hated two things making contacts and going on splits with members because they would do the exact same thing that I am doing to you! After he tells my companion that I was mad at him! hahahahahahah I told him that was nothing I have had football coaches in my face yelling at me about stuff so no I am not mad at you, all the things here are calm! Hahahahah well I did get the second package and yes I loved it I love pop tarts! Thank you so much Nan I loved the pillow case! And thank you for the letter I will try to get you a hand written letter some time! Ya I got Jarrett’s letter but it’s like trying to decipher like ancient Greek or something he said that he started to write in cursive and I hate cursive! Haha but I get the most part off what he says I think!!! K is the camel back pack big or small because I don’t want a huge one like the one that I took to trek and campouts is a good size! Like I like that mesh pocket on the outside that I can stick my umbrella in! And before you send it would be a good idea to water proof it! Cuz it rains! Another thing that is funny people is starting to wear winter clothes! Hahahah it feels so nice outside I love it my companion at like 8 at night is like elder its cold and I am like this is awesome I love it! Hahahaha we played a lot of soccer today with are zone and we cooked up some barbeque it was really good! I still haven’t bought shoes because I cant find any I like we will see when I buy them! Love you guys so much!


Love, Elder Gray

Baptizing Emerson

March 14 2012

Hello my beautiful family!

Let’s start off, I almost did not get the chance to write this week! Because my companion decided Monday that he was not going to do anything! So I am just grateful that I got to read and respond to your emails! Yes I went to the temple today it was awesome we had to watch the movie in Portuguese it gave me a headache which was not cool! The temple here is small but it is really,  really pretty inside! I liked it was a really good to visit a temple it has seemed like it has been forever since I visited the temple so it was good! Let’s start with the week well Tuesday and the whole week was really,  really hot I really didn’t like how hot it was! But oh well wife points! hahaha! Ah nothing really happened besides making contacts and teaching lessons! Friday we made a division and I was with this other Elder Ferria I don’t know how to spell his name! But we got to visit the dentist because he needs a root canal and I will say I was not impressed with there work that they do here the Dr. like worked on him for 5 to like 20 minutes and said alright com back Monday and give me 80 brazilin dollars! So they are like cheap here! So this week I flossed twice a day hahahahaha ya made me a little scared! We had 2 baptisms Sunday with two youth! Their uncle baptized them the boy that is 15 he is really smart I was impressed we ask some question about things about the gospel and usually people don’t know the answer but he knew everyone! And that was Sunday! SO what happened Monday well we go to eat lunch at this house that is our favorite people in this ward and we end up staying there all day because my companion does not want to leave and I was like let’s go and he was like no! So he watched movies because he would not leave. While he was doing this I was reading the book of Mormon in Portuguese and reading my dictionary and playing with the kids here! So I told the zone leaders about this and they sat down with us and my companion blames it all on me! Hahaha I was like hold on there this is not true I was reading I was studying I was not watching the films with him I told him to go and lets go! Well they said that we don’t get pday today and I was like serious well that is what you get because you guys didn’t do anything and it is a companionship punishment I was like do we at least get to write home? They said we will think about it, so I asked after we got done with the temple if we could so this what I am doing now ya me! That is about it I am excited for the transfer that is coming up the next one will only be 5 weeks long so just the month of April! So that would be good and after that one I will probably leave this area that I am in! :( I like this area I love the members here! Sorry but they shorten our time on computers to 45 mins for the total mission so I am typing as fast as I can so that is what happened this week I hope that next week goes better!

Love, Elder Jay Colton Gray!!!!!