Monday, December 23, 2019

And that's a WRAP!!!


I have so many emotions going through my head right now!! Joy, PEACE, love, gratitude, ALL OF THE ABOVE!! Truly my heart hurts and I have no words to explain how I feel. But I will try. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve a mission and serve my savior. I have been changed in so many ways and can see how the Lords hand was in every step of my mission. He has become my Friend and I know I can turn to Him for anything. I am so sad it’s over but so excited and enthusiastic for the future. 

The people here in Puerto Rico have my heart and I am forever changed because of them. They have taught me how to truly love, to forgive and forget, and to look at things from the bright side. I have met some of my best friends here on this island and can’t even fathom the fact that I will soon be leaving them all behind. 

I want to thank you all for your support, letters and encouraging words! You truly have helped me serve my mission to the fullness of my capabilities. I have become who I am today because of my mission and all your support and I will never forget all of you who have helped and encouraged me every week!! 

This week was bittersweet because we have seen a lot of progress!! 

Iqui is so ready to be baptized he’s almost done with the book of Mosiah!!! and he can’t wait to enter into the waters of baptism and follow his Savior!

Ana! (we found her the other week) we taught lesson one and she just sat there and LISTENED!! She understood it all and it was so cool to see how the Lord has prepared her to meet us at THIS SPECIFIC TIME!! She ended the lesson with the most powerful and sweet prayer i’ve ever heard and I just KNOW we found her when God needed us to!!

ALSO hermana erickson and I gave our Argentinean companions their first american christmas!! it was so fun to be able to set it all up and make a cute christmas tree and see how happy they were with the presents we got them!! It’s so fun to serve and see how happy they get! (I got a glimpse of what it’s going to be like to be a parent and it was so fun!!) jajaja 

well. this is it. here are some pictures of me saying goodbye to my people here down in puerto rico and i’ll see you guys soon. thanks for everything puerto rico, you changed my life. I never knew I would have such a hard time saying goodbye. 

 for the last time, hermana gray:)


Merry Christmas in Puerto Rico

Teaching

Hermana Gray and Erickson

Investigators 

Tis the Season

Last Companionship

Teaching


All the Hermana's in last apartment











Monday, December 16, 2019

Semana 72!!!

Wow another week!! This week was a great one! 

Iqui is learning more and more and is getting super excited for his baptism! He has such a sincere strong testimony he really is an example to us all!! We have been working hard to help the people here progress! 

We found this guy named Ricky who works at a pizza place! He’s 24 and just recently got out of jail. He was there for 5 years and wants to change his life! We shared the book of Mormon with him and he LOVED the fact that God really does talk to us and that he loves ALL his children! We invited him to be baptized and he happily accepted and couldn’t  wipe the smile off his face!! Its so cool to be able to see the change in people:) 

We are also teaching a family! The Mercados! The Dad is a member but the wife and son aren’t! They have a lot of faith they just need to come to church!  Christmas time really is full of miracles! 

We have started to carol to people while contacting and its so fun to see their faces light up when we sing!! (We are NOT very good but we bring the christmas spirit!) :) 

Well thats about it! I really do love this work and the opportunity i have to be a part of it!! It sure isn’t easy but it is SO worth it! LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!! 

Ohhhhh and also pablo from ponce came to church and surprised me with cake!! I turned around and saw him and cried:) hahahha it was a cool tender mercy!












Monday, December 9, 2019

Semana 71!!!

Hello friends!!! This week was a great one! Full of walking and trying to find new people to teach!!! Margarita got baptised and it makes me SO happy!! for those of you who don't remember she is the one who had SO MANY questions!!! She is doing great and is such an example of faith!!! WE also had a mission conference this week and I was able to see all my old comps!!
    We only have 30ish minutes to write so I don't have a lot of time but I want to share something with you guys,  God loves us so very much, we really are his CHILDREN!!!! He wants us to talk to him and to tell him our feelings, happiness and complaints.  He wants to bless us and he knows what we need, BUT we have to humble ourselves and ask him so that we can become more christlike and so he can bless us!!! If one day we wake up and feel farther away from Him, think about it.. who moved? YOU DID!!! He will never distance himself from us, we are the ones who put up the walls and distance ourselves from him! He loves us and wants to bless us, but we need to draw closer to him!!! So I invite you all to pray to him and to express your concerns and your feelings and ask for the blessings and miracles that you need and he WILL help you!!! He will also use you to bless other people's lives, he really does!!! I have witnessed that so much on my mission and I love seeing how everything really does workout in the end and that God really does live his children!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!! have a great week!!!
MARGARITAA!!!

My 3 babies

MTC Companions

Me and my companion

Puerto Rico Hermana's

Monday, December 2, 2019

Semana 70!!!

This week was a good week!! Full of giving thanks and holidays down here in PR!! Not a lot happened this week because no one was home!! everyone was gone celebrating with their family! Seriously no. one. was. home. But we made the best out of it!!! 

On monday we had a cool miracle, we went to visit this 16 year old girl named Nionellys who we had met a couple weeks early, she let us in and we taught her about the Book of Mormon and the entire time she had the biggest smile on her face, she said, "I always wondered why God only spoke to the people in israel in the olden days', but now i know he speaks to us NOW!" and when we told her the book was hers she just about cried and said "Really? I don't have to pay you?" and of course we told her that it was free! We read the introduction with her and she had so many questions and honestly just had the BIGGEST desire to LEARN!!! it was amazing!!! We are praying she will continue to progress!!!

We also had zone conference with a special guest, Brother Corbet and we talked a lot about faith and how when God makes a promise, its already basically completed because he ALWAYS completes his promises!! And we learned about how we need to have more faith to be able to view His promises as already completed because they are!! It was really eye opening! 

We left zone conference and went to our car just to see that we had a Flat Tire... the elders put on the spare and we spent the next 3 hours at pep boys! but we got a cool picture so it was worth it!!
That's about it!! I hope you all had a great thanksgiving and ate lots of pavo!!! 

-Hermanita Gray






Tire shop