April 15, 2013

Hey Guys,

So we didn´t have any baptisms this week. We had a lesson with los chicos on Tuesday and it was pretty obvious they weren´t completely ready and the aunt has a boyfriend that tells them strange things about the church. So we talked to the bishop and he is having the primary president try and talk to the mom. Maybe she will be more receptive to a member. Other exciting news is that Hugo and Marina a couple we have been teaching for 5 weeks finally came to church. And he told us that his daughter in law has stolen his BOM many times to read it so we are going to start working with her. He has told us many times that he loves the peace we bring to his house. He will have to overcome many obstacles to be baptized (Smoking 30 cigarettes a day, drinking, pride) but I know he can be baptized. But he knows we are representatives of Jesus Christ, The day we showed up at his door step he said we brought the spirit so strong that it calmed the storm that was going to explode there that night. The man Eduardo we have been helping looks like he just wanted money and wasn´t really that interested in the church. We got him a job and enough food to get by then he disappeared and stopped coming to church. Really sad hopefully one day he repents and shows up at church.

This week we have also had more success with contacts almost everyone we found we found knocking doors. Not my favorite way to work but when other things aren´t working you got to do it. This week I have also given out a lot of English test for the Latinos that are learning English. It is a program of 25 lessons with a test after each one. Well since I am really the only gringos in the zone willing to help, it puts a lot of weight on my shoulders. I am helping 4 Latinos with there English plus my kid(companion). One Elder dies in 11 days and needs to take the real test, so I have been cramming a lot with him. This week I have given 5 or 6 test, each one lasting between 15-30 minutes depending on how prepared they are. I gave 2 this morning while everyone was playing soccer. It was kind of a bummer but I played for a bit.

I am almost positive this is my last week in Mercedes. I can´t believe it has almost been 4 months since I got here. I love this ward a lot. It will be sad to leave. 

Oh yea also this week the Stake President dropped the cain on us. I the best cain drop I have ever received. I have never seen someone drop the cain so hard with the spirit. We were in the Bishops office writing an English study list for an Elder while we waited for ward council to start when he walked in. He started asking questions about the family, the mish ect. Then he turns to me and asks me. And Elder Wray How many families do you want to baptize this month? I was a little taken back and took the question to be how many families will you baptize this month. I thought about our investigators and then said 1. When it came out of my mouth I knew I was in for it. Haha he then said oh Elder what little faith. Then asked Elder Perez. Seeing my mistake my comp said 2. He then taught us a quick lesson super spiritual about sacrifice to make our desires realities and how God will help us. He also chastised us for our lack of faith all in front of the Bishop but he did so well with the spirit I couldn´t help but just smile. Anyway that night Elder Perez and I had a good long talk on what we were going to give up to reach our goals. I won't tell you what we are giving up for the moment but it is hard and I hope I have the faith and patience to see it through the end of the week.  

Love, Elder Wray

April 8, 2013

Hey Guys,

This week was alright. Well really it could have been better. We don´t have many investigators right now and the one we have we struggled to find this week. I had hopes for conference, we were waiting for 7 people that I thought were really committed but at that last moment they didn´t come. I was a little frustrated we will see what happened this week. We possibly have 3 baptisms this weekend, Enzo(10), Romina(9), and Maycol(8). They have come to church 6-7 times in a row by themselves and we have tried for 7 weeks to find the mother but she just is not that interested. Today we are going with the Bishop and his wife to talk with the mom to see if she is willing to support her kids. We will see what happens, her kids want to be baptized but without the mom I don´t know. 

Conference was good, it was a little frustrating. The whole first session the bishop, a couple other missionaries and I tried to fix the connection because every 10 seconds it would cut out. It was kind of funny because he had to get on the roof so I helped him up so he could look at the giant dish while talking to tech support then he yells oh crap hey Elder Wray get a broom or a big stick. I thought he was going to prop something up. But when he got down he looked terrified and told me it was to kill a big spider. Haha, I just laughed! In the end when almost all hope was up and we were trying to jerry rig the projector to a lap top the signal came in and we saw the guy give the closing pray and that was it. Haha, poor bishop looked so tired. The next session we had to watch English in the family history center on the Internet. It gave me a head ache. The Internet was kind of slow we would hear one sentence then a pause then the next. I was just about to go and watch it in Spanish but it wasn´t the same. I still havent´seen all the Saturday morning session. But did they sure hound the obra misional it was great! I can´t believe how many missionaries there are. The work is being hurried. 

We also had interviews with President on Friday it was alright but my comp was worried because my interview was 15 min instead of the usual 5. We were discussing area boundary's for the hnas(sisters) that are coming. He also called me Thursday night at 9:25 as we were literally running home through down town. Just called to tell me we were having comp study together Friday morning. It went alright I think.

Not much new accept Elder Perez broke my name tag in half in his rage because I was to good a futbol. Haha it was an accident but was a bummer. I have to by a new one now.

 

We had a pretty crazy Saturday besides conference I wont go into much detail accept a crazy women sat next to my comp asked him to read the Book of Mormon then threw a condom at him. All while we were in the chapel. Then I received some really gross texts from someone. The women here are crazy. 

Anyway that's about it. Got to go.  Love you!

Elder Wray 

April 1, 2013

Hey Guys,

This week was good. We had a baptism which is great! Ester was baptized. She was really happy and really prepared. Not many members went to her baptism I guess do to la semana santa(Easter it is a whole week here) It was Easter up there right? But it was a really good service maybe one of the best of my mission. Her daughter was able to attended. She happens to be an inactive member. She was baptized when she was 14 and stopped going when she was about 16 she thinks. She is now 45. She cried all during the service and said we could pass by her house this week to talk. She is the only member in her family. We also have a NdH tonight with a granddaughter. We have gained the trust of the Bishop I think. He said he is working on a reference for us. I hope so because we are a little short on investigators at the moment but we will find more. This week should be really interesting. We have interviews and conference. Should be really good but short on time work wise. We will see what happens. I am getting tired and a little trunky. I think it is all this stuff about school and the fact that Elder Brown just talks about flying all of the time. Elder Perez is doing well, sometimes he bugs me. I don´t think I have had so many arguments about how Spanish should be spoken with a Latio. He thinks because he is from Argentina he knows how it goes. But in every Latin country the Spanish changes a bit. More then half the time I win the argument. I guess 18 months in the mission with almost only Latio comps paid off. Jaja(Haha). Just kidding!! But other then that things are going well.

 

I will talk to President on Friday about coming home but I heard he is going to tell me just wait till the new President gets here in July. But we will see. Elder Larson and Pyeatt said they are looking at coming home the 18/19th but I don´t know. In other news President has given us 1 hour to write the family and newly added Friends. Kind of cool but not super exciting. Never had a problem with that. 

I have also become kind of famous for my brownies in the ward. And I have to admit they are pretty good. They use 3/4 cup of butter and 1 cup of a extra dark chocolate melted over the stove. I just finished a batch for the NdH tonight. I also was invited to make pancakes for breakfast in the house of the 1 counselor while my comp cut grass jaja(Haha). It was the first time he had eaten them since his mission. He served in 89-91. We also found two dead rats for a widow in the ward hna Dora. They died in her house and she couldn´t find them. Her house smelled super bad poor women. She is the same women who had the broken lamp. Anyway I have to go. 

Love you

Elder Wray 

Pic one Rat

Pic two out side the bishops house

Pic three Ester and the bishop

March 25, 2013

Hey Guys,

Things are going good. We had more lessons this week. We are being obedient and working hard we just need to come up with better ideas to find people. The Bishop tried giving us some advice yesterday, we will see how it goes. He kind of told us if you have been doing something for along time and it isn´t working why are you still doing it. We will see if we can try to introduce new ways to find. We visited him yesterday to see how we could help the ward and see what goals and plans they had. It was a good visit. He is by far the best Bishop I have had in my mission. We kind of made a plan of how we can help the ward progress. It pretty much involves training priesthood holders. There are only 3 priesthood holders with any experience in the ward the Bishop, his first councilor( who was the branch president a while back) there isn´t a second councilor and another member who was Bishop two Bishop's back. Everyone else is a recent convert or has been inactive for a while or for a long time and is just coming back. So the Bishop wants us to help take some of the newer members and returning priesthood holder out on visits with menos activios so they can get a feel for things. It is kind of like training home teachers I guess. We will see what happens.

We have a baptism on Saturday of the grandma of a recent convert it will be good. She is well prepared and has the desire to share the gospel with the rest of her family. That's about it. Crazy story which kind of brought about this whole training priesthood holders thing. We had a lesson with Hugo and his Wife an older couple. We tried to take the Elders quorum president but he couldn't go so he sent his councilor(Sergio) 25. Sergio looked really excited on getting to the lesson and after we got to know each other. Out of know where he starts teaching which really isn´t bad but after about ten minutes he had tried to teach tithing, temples, the plan of salvation and who knows how much more. I tried to stop him twice by saying something like y si pero Hugo como fue su lectura del libro de mormon(and if Hugo reads the book of Mormon). Every time I tried he would say wait then start again next talking about priesthood blessing and other things. Remember this is only our second lesson with the family. To top it off every 2 or 3 minutes he would say Si usted ha sentido esto bautizáte loco(If you have felt this then get baptized fool). I was so scared to lose our investigator but I think they took it alright but we will see when we go back tomorrow. They didn´t come to church. Well that's about it. 

I am still getting the area ready for 2 sisters that are coming at the end of April. I talked to President yesterday for about a half hour. We will see how it goes. In April 18 sisters are coming. That is like the size of a whole group. Anyway I have to go. Oh and the picture is of me getting my trunky papers. Meaning it had my return date on it and asked me what airport ect. I hope I put your email right. I zoomed in and saw that I spelled English wrong in English que vergüenza jaja(embarrassed Haha). 

Love you,

Elder Wray

P.S. For my birthday I can't think of anything right now. Just chocolate chips and what ever else seems good a tie maybe. anyway got to go

March 18, 2013

Hey Guys,

We are doing pretty good here. We did a trio with David the guy from Salt Lake on Thursday. It was a little complicated that day but he was super nice. He is thirty from well Colorado but living in Provo. He also lived in Logan for a while but coudn´t stand the cold so left. I think he got what he wanted. He was here to evaluate Elder Perez because he was the last Latino to be in the MTC for 3 weeks. They are seeing how they compare. It was so complicated that day because we had zone training then we had to study, about an hour of interviews with this guy. In the end we only worked with him for two hours before he left but we had one good lesson and  another mas o menos(More or Less). We were going to have a baptism this coming weekend but do to moto(motorbike) problems she didn't come to church. I was a little frustrated at first but it will be alright she is going to be really well prepared. She was able to attended the Relief Society birthday conference with her granddaughter a recent convert and she loved it. She is going to be a good convert, she has a lot of friends in the ward. I am trying to have as many lessons as I had with Elder Camejo but it is a struggle. But Elder Perez and I feel like we are improving, and this past week we found two solid families. One stopped the other Elders in the street Monday and asked them to pass buy. He lives in our area! It is him, his wife and 2 kids. He has been out of work for 2 months and is turning to the Lord for help. By the end of the week he had to send his family to his father in-laws house because he can't support them. They will come back when he has a job we are looking like crazy. Another couple we found told us at the end of the lesson that it was the most peaceful their house has been in a long time. Two good families and we have another reference for another tonight. 

Today we are also doing a FHE with the youth of the ward since most are recent converts. We are going to teach the recipe for a happy life. scripture study, prayer, and church attendance. I am also working on an example with food. Super salty cookies and then really good brownies. Even though the cookies look good they are gross. You have to follow the recipe to be happy in life even though the other looks tasty. We will see how it works out. I also have a talk on Sunday. It should be good. I can't wait for conference also thanks for the cookies they were really tasty. Next time you should just send the chocolate chips though that's the only thing I can't buy here. That way I can make more.  I would be fine living with Spencer as well also Ben Thompson. But it is up to Spencer, I don´t really care. You can handle it. 

I also had a really cool experience yesterday. We visited a member to give him the sacrament since he has been confined to his bed for 15 years. He was hit by a drunk driver while riding his bike home from church. He was Bishop at the time I think. Anyway a simple small talk became a sermon/lecture. I was in awe as he spoke. He didn't say things "deep" but quoted a lot of Scriptures in Matt 11, Isa 55, juan 4, and 3 nephi 18 and others I didn´t know the references to, but the spirit he brought opened my mind, and I was enlightened in many ways. Bringing ideas for my talk, investigators and other personal problems. It was super cool. When he finished by bearing his testimony he had been talking for 40 minutes. We had to quickly give him the sacrament and then run home but it was super cool. One of the coolest visits of my mission. 

I have to go take a shower and finish these cookies. It doesn´t look like I will have time to nap=(.

Love you!

Elder Wray