February 12, 2018

Hey mommy and the fam,

Hows is everything going back at home?  I cvant believe that my birthday is coming up soon, 19!!!  Ok cool ill ask about the package you guys sent.  Ok sounds good.  Possible like somew different food especially for at nightys cause we dont eat dinner usually, only when families invite us over so it totally just depends.  but some food for at night would be cool like mac and cheese or something simple, top roman haha.  I dont remember the song but it was a hymn in spanish haha but that was a really funny video.  Thats  awesome your starting track right now.  Hows kaitlyn doing ?  Can she tell the difference from workingout and not workingout lol.    I almost have 6 months in the misson which is really crazy.  I read the letter and i was just laughing, especially the end talking about how Olivia wrote and Brett told her what to write haha.

This week we had a baptism for one kid named Edthwin Salguero.  His family is members and he was the only one that wasewnt baptised in the fam.  But the story of this family is actually pretty cool so, the family was baptized about 5 years ago but they were inactive for about 2 years.  The father Edwin Salguero is our mission leader for the area of Guajitos and was just called to the calling about 2 weeks ago.  He had to be interviewed by the bishop to be able to baptize his son.  The family has been reactivated and has been coming to churc h for a solid 2 months.  Im truly blessed to know this family and to be apart of not only this special baptism but reactivating this amazing family.  Always remeber that your actions speak louder than your words, never be afraid to stand up for what you know is right.  Always look to help those in need and always be an example for the people around you, even if you dont know them.  Yesrtday we invited one of our families that we are teaching to church and they all came yesterday which was really cool.  Cristina and Minor have 4 kids and are expecting another in May.  Last night we had a lesson with them and talked about church and they told us that they felt this peace when they were in the sacrament meeting and they want to continue feeling this way.  We explained to them why we go to church, so that we can have the spirit with us this next week at work or school or wherever we going during taht next week.  Minor has had some problems with drinnking in his past but I can tell that he hasent had a drink for awhile and I can actually see the difference in him when hes drinking and when he isnt.  That is the awesome thing about the mission, we arent only here to baptize, we are here to change lives throught the Atonement of Jesus Christ and to give people hope through teh Plan of Salvation.  This life is only a small part of this big plan taht God has for us,  this life is hard and we all will have difficult times in this life, but we have hope because we know that after this life we can live with our families and our Heavenly Father and Our Savior again.  This is what needs to be our mentality, to endure to the end of this life on earth and reach exaltation in this next life.  Im so happy to be here serving a mission for Our Savior Jesus Christ, My Family, and all of My good friends that have been apart of my life and have helped me grow to this point of my life.  Love you all so much and thank you for your prayers and for your examples.  You all have a good week and be safe.

Elder Gray