Semana 7!!! Puerto Rico - Fajardo

HELLO WORLD!!! I made it to Puerto Rico!! and holy cow I LOVE IT!! 

So I left the DR on tuesday and traveled to PR! It was a super short flight and to be honest I slept the whole time, but I doubt anyones surprised by that! so then when we got off the plane and got all our luggage we got out of the terminal and met the smarts! The puerto rico mission president and his wife! theyre so amazing and I barely know them but I love them already!! so we went to their house and had orientation! then we headed to the nearby chapel to go meet out trainers! so when we got there we met our trainers and mine is Hermana Cordova! she served her 1st 10 months in LA cause of the hurricane! she just came over to PR 4 weeks ago! so were both kinda new! so we are serving in an area on the tippy south east corner of PR called Fajardo! so there is one set of sisters in our area and one set of elders! so we got to our apartment and we live in a cute apartment right across the street from the church! and we have alot on our plates! We teach a book of mormon class on Tuesday night and are in charge of sports night on Friday and we just help out a lot to keep the members active! Its super fun and I love it! So we have taught alot of awesome people this week and I just feel so blessed to be here! The members are amazing!!

SO! the spanish.... well I can understand quite a bit... but speaking is hard cause I havent gotten a hold of the way they phrase their sentances! so I honestly just listen alot.. (I know thats a shocker right??) but no seriously I listen ALOT... like people think im a quiet person its kinda weird! so anyway I know itll come with time!! Its just hard cause I wanna talk to EVERYONE BUT I CANT!! 

ALSO!! there are SO MANY IGUANAS HERE!! and its so sad cause roadkill here isnt like roadkill in AZ... its usually iguanas which is so sad! I think theyre the coolest thing ever! Ill try to send a pic! so yeah thats life here! just serving and teaching and trying to comprehend spanish! its super fun I love it!

xoxox your fav boricua Hermana Gray!! 

Puerto Rico Missionaries with President and Mrs. Smart

Semana 6!!! Dominican Republic MTC

SO WOW! I leave for puerto rico in like 8 hours!! I am so excited to get out into the field and to serve the people pf puerto rico!!

so I only have like 5 minutes so im just going to send a couple pics and hopefully Ill be able to email when I get to Puerto Rico! so in my first pic,

Hermana espinose (the dominican) isnt our companioon, just our roomate cause shes in a different district and is only here for 3 weeks, so she doesnt have a comp cause there are no other latinos,so were kinda comps but kinda not so when we were at the store for the last time we got her a bunch of stuff then I was like lets get her something for her hair cause she always compliments our hair stuff, so we saw a orange bow headband thing and were like LETS GET IT, but then the prompting came to me, get matching ones, so we did and when we gave her all the stuff we just put it on her bed, and she was so happy, and when she was looking at all the stuff we put on our matching headbands and she looks over and screamed and was jumping up and down and was SO happy! I cried.. It was so cute! she got to match with the americans and she was so happy! 

I got to go into the field with the dominican republic west mission on friday and ill send some pictures it was amazing!! 

Also our district sang come thou fount and oh mi padre mixed together on sunday and I felt the spirit so strong that I was bawling the entire time hahah! the spirit hits you hard and holy cow I love this church and gospel!!! I am sad to leave the DR and my district but I know Im needed in Puerto Rico!  I gotta go but I love you all! thanks for all your support and love!

sorry for jumping around so much theres just so much to tell!

Love Hermana Gray

Matching headbands

Our Amazing Scripture covers with our Country flags

Children of the Dominican Republic

Streets of the DR

Semana 5!!! Dominican Republic MTC

OKAY wow only 1 more week in the CCM and in the Dominican Republic! TIME FLIES!!!!! I cannot wait to get to puerto rico and start serving! So this week was basically the same as the last ones except that on friday we were able to go on exchanges with people serving int he santodomingo West mission! So I went out into the field on friday and wow how humbling that was!!!! 

So I got my companion, and she spoke basically NO english so holy cow I was scared.  So we started walking to her area where she was serving and in order to get there we had to take a cab thingy they call them carros (they fit 8 people in a 5 person car and youre literally sitting on the person next to you) hahah!!!  and there driving sucks here and we got rammed into by a ford truck ahhahahahhah and they just hit and drive off here! no insurance! crazy! dont worry it wasnt bad and were all okay! thats normal here! just interesting! so we get to her area and get out of the car and holy cow... I cant even describe it, there were so many people and so many allies and soooo many houses.. theyre so small and they dont have doors or windows and their lucky if they had a nice roof.... there were chickens roaming everywhere and little kids running up to me and tryiong to play with my hair!! such a humbling expirence.  Well anyway we had an appointment so we went to teach this girl named anne! she has the cutest baby and she lived in one of these sad houses, and right off the bat when the lesson started the spirit was SO strong! and I could see her face light up and it just made me so happy!

Also they talk super duper fast here... like me hahaha... but in SPANISH so I wasnt able to understand much, but I actually picked up on alot and I was able to feel the holy ghost even though I didnt understand everything! and I was able to bear my testimony in the small amount of spanish I know.. such a cool expirence!

so that was my week and one super funny expirence was when we were teaching a person interested in the church in the CCM, I was teaching her how to pray...

 so I say (in spanish) "Fold your arms, bow your head, and close your eyes" and in spanish the word for eyes in ojos! but for some reason i said hijos..... WHICH MEANS KIDS... So I taught her to fold her arms, bow her head and close her kids... im an amazing missionary!! hahah!! and also sorry for all the hahahah's because thats the only way I can express myself on this email hahahahh...

Love Courtney

DR Temple

Hermana Olsen and Hermana Gray

Dominican Republic Temple 

Semana 4!!! Dominican Republic MTC

OKAY IF YOU NEVER READ MY EMAILS IM BEGGING YOU TO READ THIS ONE!!!!

This has hands down been the best weekend of my life!!!!

So to start off I got a new latina roomate! and shes from the DR and speaks alot of spanish so im getting alot of practice which is nice!!! I only have 2 more weeks in the CCM before I head out to puerto rico and i am SO EXCITED!!!! 

One things she asked me the other day was super cute!!! she asked "where are you from?" "arizona!!" "hmm does everyone in arizona speak super fast???" hahahah so true I talk so fast they even niotice it here!!

SO I GOT TO MEET THE PROPHET ON SATURDAY!!! okay lets start from the top.  So saturday morning at 7 am we had to be on the buses to head out to the stake center down the road.  So it was about a 10 minute drive (I thought I was going to die, theyre insane here!!) and we got to the stake center.  Which was way smaller than any church building id ever seen ha! so we went inside and sat down and waited for the President Nelson to come. We were told that he wanted to take pictures with each mission and the CCM and then meet each of us individually! so when the prophet got to the building, we all lined up and took a picture with him! theres only about 60 missionaries at the CCM with me so it was a fairly small group! and I dont have the picture, but Im super close to the prophet!!! so when I get it ill send it! 

 after we took the picture we all lines up to shake his hand and I walked up to him and he looked at me and I got to talk to him!! then I got to shake elder renlunds hand and elder alanso and elder gonzales!!! theyre all in the quorum of the 12 or 70!!! so it was super cool to meet them face to face!!

then the meeting started and It was so amazing!!! the prophet gave us alot of advice and talked about the mission and learning languages!! it was super awesome! he talked to us about how amazing it is that this day and age was propohecied about in 1st nephi 15 vs 18, 600 YEARS before. christ. and how amazing it is that we get to participate in the gathering of isreal!! he talked about so much that I cant put it into words so Im just going to share some key quotes with you!!! 

"elevate your thoughts"

"SERVCE SERVE SERVE"

"lead with your faith not your doubts"

"some of you might be worried about your famlies but I can guarentee that the lord is takin g better care of your family than you could."

Theres so so much more that I cant include cause Im so short on time but I did like this one~! i dont remember who said it

"jesus can turn a MESS into a MESSAGE, your TRIALS into TRIUMPHS and he will take your TEST and turn it into your TESTIMONY!!!" ahhhh I love this gospel so much and I am so grateful for everyone and what they went through to restore it!!!!! Have a good week I love you all!!!

1. my latino roomate hermana espinosa

and i cant attach more.. cause that file is too large so ill send more next week! love you all!

Pictures

1. My latino roommate hermana espinosa

2. Hermana Vasquez, Hermana Olsen and Me
3. Hermana Olsen and Me exploring the DR
4. The DR MTC with President Nelson

Hermana Espinosa

recess with Hermana Vasquez, Hermana Olsen and Me

Me and Hermana Olsen exploring on PDAY

President Nelson with the Dominican Republic MTC - Courtney in on the first row :)

I got this text from a mother of one of Courtney's friends Hermana Clegg - Courtney sighting! I just screen shotted these, don't you LOVE that they are the CHATTY Girls... LOL! The CCM is such a fun place.

You have to read the caption that is above the pictures in this message lol!!