March 12, 2013

Hey Guys,

This week went pretty well. We have struggled the last few weeks to have lessons with member, but this week I have higher hopes. We are teaching the grandma(Ester) of a recent convert, and she is doing well she accepted fecha (date) for the 23rd. She just needs to be taught a couple more things and she should be ready. She has already told us she has felt that she needs to get baptized and that these things are true. Also yesterday we found a really good family who has been humbled by recent problems and is looking to God for help. It is a family of four but the mother was baptized in Rivera 5 years ago. We had a lesson with the whole family. We are also teaching a couple of young kids. They are 10(Enzo), 9(Romina), and 8(Maycol), they walk to the bishops house a couple blocks away and then he drives them to church also a sister(Fernanda) and a cousin(Belen) go to church with them but they are 7, and 6. We found them through a recent convert but it appears the mother doesn´t want much to do with the church. She hides from us. We are still trying but I don´t really know what to do. Any ideas? 

The Guy from Salt Lake comes Thursday he will spend the whole day with us. Not to excited but they told Elder Perez that he is only there to evaluate him no one else. But I am still there right next to him and I am training him so I don´t know. We will see. I also am in the process of looking for a house for the hnas(sisters) that will be getting here in 6 weeks. I was kind of hoping to be DL again this change but it didn´t happen. I enjoyed it and there are a lot of nights spent thinking about how I could teach certain principles of the work or how I could better animate them. But it is alright, it's someone else turn. Not much else to report.

 

Oh yea there is one Sunday night I had an interesting phone call. The Sunday before changes the only reason President calls someone is to call them to be Zone Leader. Well Sunday at 9 on the way home the phone rang it was a number from Deo. I was kind of like that is kind of weird. I answered and it was President. Elder Perez said my face got kind of white. Anyway he asked who he was talking to and I said Elder Wray to which he responded Oh, Oh shoot. I was trying to call Elder Millan( Elder Millan was called as ZL).  But we talked for a few minute. He told me about his exit interview with Elder Garcia. Elder Garcia went home last Friday to see his brother before he left on his own mission (His bro was inactive when Elder Garcia was my comp). Anyway President told me all Elder Garcia did was give me praise saying I had been his favorite comp and had helped him so much in his mission and that I had been a blessing in his life. It was super nice to hear. Last week I got a similar letter from Elder Navarro, telling me that I had become his best friend and he learned so much from me living my mission through the good and the bad. He has tried to follow my example. He goes home on Thursday. He is going to BYU I think but either way he will be in Utah in the end of August. Although I might not have tons of baptisms I am glad I have had such a strong impact on my comps.

 

In other news I got your package thanks. I have to write a couple letters. Anyways I have to go, Thanks for everything.

Love you,

Elder Wray    

March 4, 2013

Hey Guys,

This week has not been very good and I feel really bad, I know we could have done much better. Our lack of success is in part due to the short amount of time we spent weekly planning last week. With all the stress of the baptism on top of the extended study time we take because Elder Perez is a greeny and me being a little unwise it wasn´t finished. Elder Perez seems alright though I don´t think he is desanimado. We talked about why our week was going so bad on Friday. I asked what he thinks we were doing wrong. He kind of just drooped his head and said I don´t know. I think it is because we were not talking to enough people maybe we were a little scared. Anyway we are fixing that by talking to more people and by Sunday it was already showing a little result.

This week will be better. And on a higher note, Sunday Elba, who was baptized last week, asked us to help her with her tithing. She paid her Tithing and a generous Fast Offering, she is so great! That makes me really happy. This is the last week of the change already. This change is so short. Not much else to tell. Not very many interesting stories this week. Zone Conference was really good. I saw Elder De Hoyos, he is doing really well finishing training his kid. It is weird how good of friends I have become with people from my group. We see each other maybe once every 9 weeks but every time it is like a family reunion. Those 9 weeks in the CCM really make you tight. On the bus back from Paysandu I talked with an Elder Brown. He also is going to be a pilot. His dad is also a corporate pilot, Flying Gulf steams. But he is going to USU after the mission. He is pretty cool we have a lot in common. He has a lot more flying experience then I do but he never got his license. His family had a plane but they sold it when he left. 

All for now.

Love you

Elder Wray

Feburary 25, 2013

Hey Guys,

This week has been a little stressful. Elba the baptism we had almost didn´t get baptized. We taught Tithing and Fasting and for the first time in my mission someone told me they were willing to pay tithing but fast offerings no. I went home that day a little worried for lunch and the whole time all I could think about was fasting so we started a fast at about 2:30pm. The next day we brought and ex Bishop with us because ours was out of town, we had a great lesson and finished our fast at 7:30pm. The longest fast of my life but also one of the most meaningful. Every time I felt hungry or thirsty all I would thinking about was Elba. It was a cool experience. Thankfully everything went well and we had a great baptism. 

As for other parts of our work this week we were lacking. But we have 4 possibles for this month, we just need to keep finding.  Elder Perez is dong well, sometimes I still feel like he is a little weird but he is a good guy. He is one of those people that is to nice that it gets annoying. Always asking to help but is willing to suffer through anything so there isn't a problem for anyone. Or he will be first to a door then half way through before say "oh sorry then tries to let you pass first". There are a lot of other way he does that but it isn´t something I should let bug me it is just sometimes annoys me. In other news our lessons are become more spiritual which is a goal I have had for the last month or so. Sometimes I think as a missionary you get stuck in a groove of teaching the same principle and don´t relay on the spirit as much, but training has helped me out a lot on that and one of our investigator accepted fecha(date) for the first time in 1 month after a really spiritual lesson. So things are going well, but President called me the other day, I thought he was going to say "Elder Wray for Zone Conference we are going to do Divisions" but it was something worse. He said "Elder Wray the 11 of March someone from Salt Lake City is coming down to see how we are doing and they are going to spend a day with you and your kid(companion). What a blessing!", haha! not really something I want to worry about but what ever. We will see how it goes. Also today the Crawfords called me and told me to start looking for a house for a companionship of sisters that are going to be put in my ward. I will have to talk to President tomorrow during Zone Conference to get more info. But I have worked a lot for the Crawfords in my mission.

I don't know if I ever told you but I have been learning piano during Pdays and after District meeting for the last few weeks. I am picking it up pretty quick for someone that can only practice like 40 minutes a week. I can almost play with 2 hands but I can play anything from the two hymn books one handed. Also today an Elder brought music to a coldplay song not sure if it was trucho to try to play but it was fun. Something I will have to look into when I get home. Anyway that's about it. Got to go chao.

Love you

Elder Wray

Foto uno Elba López

Foto dos all the trainers and oros