Semana 21!!! Fajardo

The last email of 2018.  What a great year 2018 was, I have a feeling 2019 will be just as good!!  

Happy New Year!!!

2019?!?! how is that even possible?! I hope everyone had a Feliz navidad!!! I sure did! I was able to call home for an hour and talk to all my family!! It was an awesome expirence and I love them sooooo much! My sister alyssa also got married and I was there as a cardboard cutout!!! 

So CHRISTMAS MIRACLES!! so we had dinner with the bishop and his wife with the elders too and then us 4 (us and the elders) went caroling and we sang to a couple houses!! then felt like we should sing to this specific house and so we did and a cute young couple came out and listened! Then they invited us in and we talked and they were actually getting married the next day! They got married back in october but they really wanted to get married in december, so they invited us! We shared the Book of mormon and left a copy with them, and the next day we went to their wedding! It was a really beautiful ceremony and we were able to meet alot of new people!!! So I didnt get to see my sisters wedding but I was able to go to Jose and Abigails!! We are hoping to be able to start teaching them! 

Also Leyda, one of the girls we are teaching made us the best breakfast ever and we taught her the plan of salvation and how we know we can be with our famlies together and she really liked it! We asked her to pray about our message so she can know for herself if its true and she agreed to do so!!! We are hoping to invite her to church this week!

Also my dear edna! the lady from new york that we have been teaching and that came to church last week! We taught her this week and invited her to be baptised and she said that she wants to pray about it and get an answer, so we have a lesson with her tomorrow and we are praying that she recieves her answer and has this desire to come unto christ!! 

I could go on and on about the miracles that I have seen but we would be here all day!!! I just want to say that I love you all and that you for everything!! 2018 went by too fast and 2019 is going to be a great year and we are all going to see miracles if we keep an eye out! LOVE YOU ALL!

Skyping with Courtney

Christmas morning

Christmas presents

Food

Semana 20!!! Fajardo - Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve,

Aye BENDITO!!! FELIZ NAVIDAD A TODOS!!!

WOW!! this week was full of miracles!!! So Noelia, the lady that lives on top of a cliff out in the boonies!! We went to a lesson and asked her if she had prayed about wether she should get baptized or not in our church by someone holding authority (Priesthood) from God, and she said that YES she had been praying but she hadn't received an answer yet, which is great! she is praying!! we ended up talking alot about faith and she agreed to keep praying and working towards a date of January 19th to be baptised!!! So Noelia is on date and that was a huge blessing this week! I know that with faith and through prayer she will come to understand the importance of baptism!!! 

Also another christmas miracle! We invited EVERYONE to our christmas service for church and on saturday we had a lesson with a cute senora from new york and gave her fuzzy socks for christmas and invited her to church, and sunday at church she came!! It was a beautiful meeting remebering what this time of the year is really all about!! She loved it and we hope she continues to come!!

We had the cutest ward christmas party and it was super fun!! we also had a christmas party with all the missionaries in PR and it was super fun to remember the reason why were here and to get excited to work for the new year!!! 

Christmas time is a beautiful time of the year to be a missionary, helping people come unto Christ!! I am so grateful for the sacrifices that Christ and made so that we can all have the opprotunity to live with him, God and our famlies again after this life!! 

Thank you for all the support and for everything everyone has done for me! Have a merry christmas and happy new year!! 2019 will be a great year!!!!!!

Love you all

Hermana Gray

Study time

ward Christmas party

Semana 19!!! Fajardo

Good Morning,

WOW first week as a trainer!!!! So on tuesday I got my trainee and her name is Hermana Doxey and she is from Idaho! she doesnt know any spanish but is ready to work!  So weve just been getting back into the groove over here in Fajardo! We have had alot of miracles, honestly so many. I know that the Lords hand is in every aspect of our work!! I dont have alot of time, I wish i did so i could tell you all the miracles! but i will attatch photos! Have a great week everyone and do something this week to make someone happy!

Love you All

Hermana Gray

1. Leaving my Trio Hermana's

2. My Greenie

3. New Companionship

4. Pizza Thursday's

5. Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Leaving my Trio Hermana's

My Greenie

New Companionship

Pizza Thursday

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree

Semana 18!!! Trio Rio and Fajardo

Good Morning -

Well last week of the transfer! I am super excited for the next one but also super sad because Hermana Rodriguez has now served 18 months and will be going HOME! bittersweet!! So this week was so fun and just flew bye! We had a little going away party with the Rio Grande branch at hermanamiento and they bought her a cake!!! we also  eld her funeral at district meeting haha! 

We also this week as a mission from thursday to friday fasted for miracles! and let me tell you there were so many!

1. we had an addresswith no name, and the street was correct but the house number was competely wrong, it was 4a-4 and the houses on the street were numbered like 11438! but we were persistant and ended up finding the lady we were looking for! evven though we had the wrong address and didnt have a name!

2. we were contacting in a neighborhood, and the first house we got to a lady answered the door and pleaded us to come in! and we did! we sang a song and shared a message and left, then went back last night and she told us that we have something about us and that she knows what we were telling her was true! 

3. theres too many to count hahah!

CRAZIEST CHANGE YET!!

So I just finished my 2nd transfer in the field (puerto rico) , which means that I am out of training! So we got transfer calls last night and President Smart, the mission president called us and told me that i have been called to be a trainer.... a TRAINER.... I was like uhhhh WHAT! i dont even know spanish yet.... so i will be in FaJARDO training a new missionary! pray for me!!

 -hermana rodriguez's funeral

 -hermana cordova, rodriguez and me with hna r's cake - I LOVE my companions

Hermana Rodriquez's funeral!!!

Hermana Rodriquez's cake - I love my companions

Semana 17!!! Rio and Fajardo

WOW! SO MANY MIRACLES THIS WEEK!

So on tuesday, we went to a lesson with one of the people we are teaching in Rio Grande, and he wasnt very nice, he had some pretty mean things to say about everything we believe en la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias... so we left that appointment feeling pretty bad, but then later had an appointment with a lady named Marima, she has 2 kids and her (spouse?) has 2 also, and we taught her the 2nd lesson, the plan of salvation, and told her about how famlies can be forever together! and we extended a baptismal date and... SHE lit up and SAID YES!!!!!! so we are super excited to keep teaching her and hopefully teach her family also.  That was a tender mercy after a hard lesson.

Then on Wednesday we had MLC, which is the mission leadership council, which is for the zone leaders and sister training leaders only, but since I am in a trio with the STLs I got to go! we went to this land that the churchowns in agua buenas which overlooks all of san juan and has a super pretty view!!! we learned so much about how we can be better missionaries and help the work here in Puerto rico!!! so that was really awesome, i would elaborate but i dont have much time!!

Then on Saturday december 1st we had the worldwide day of service for the iluminaelmundo or light the world project/campaign that the church puts on every sunday, and our district spent the whole day paining members home and it was so fun to get out and SERVE!!!!!! They were all so grateful and it was really awesome to see how small simple acts of service can change people lives!

 Then this morning our district went on a hike in the national rain forest el yunque!!! and it was SO pretty! you could see the end of the island on all sides from the view point! its crazy how small this island really is! I love this island and these people and I love serving these people! 

Thanks for all your support,

Love Courtney

STL Training

Pday Hike

The stinky dog that followed us the whole 4 miles - named her Nelli!!!

Ate the whole steak

Taking a break from the work 

Service project