Hello family!
Ok mom to answer your questions I don't know if the packages have gotten here yet but I'll let you know! And I'll try my best not to open them until Christmas but I can't promise anything :)
Also I'm not sure exactly what time we'll be calling you on Christmas but we will be able to skype! We're going to a members home for breakfast and then we'll all be skyping our families afterward so it will probably be late morning early afternoon sometime! I'll let you know when I know more!
Life in Bryan is great!! I can't believe this transfer is coming to a close! I am really worried that I'm out of Bryan this time around. I hope that I can at least stay one more transfer (of course I say that every transfer) and I really hope I can stay with both Sister Davis and Sister Funk. We all love each other so much and we work so well together.
This week has been one full of miracles!
We had our ward Christmas party and we had many of the less-actives come that haven't stepped into a church building in years!! It was so good to see them there. The ward really reached out to them and made them feel welcome and loved. I hope they felt the spirit when they walked back into the church. It's where they belong.
We made some good progress with Mary. It's been so long since we've seen her but we were able to meet with her this week and we had a really good discussion about the importance of coming to church. She still wants to be baptized and her goal is her original date of January 11th. Again the biggest difficulty will be overcoming her anxiety. We talked to her about trying to do a church tour again and she said she felt comfortable with it so I'm praying it will ease her anxiety.
Unfortunately Shelby's Aunt hasn't given permission yet. Every time Shelby tries to bring it up her aunt says "we'll talk about it later." So no baptism for Shelby this week but like I've said before I'm not worried because someday even if it's after she's 18 I know Shelby will get baptized. She's felt the spirit and she knows this church is true. I think it may be the only truly stable thing in her life. She's recognized the comfort and peace that come with this gospel.
Our new investigator is Katy! She goes to medical school with some of the younger couples in our ward and one day she walked up to them and said "Why are Mormons so darn (she said something other than darn but it felt wrong tying the real word out so you get the idea) happy all the time?" Anyways she watched a session of conference with them and she's even come to church a couple times. We got to know her pretty well because we helped set up some stuff for the ward Christmas party and she was there helping too. Well last night we had our first discussion with her at the members home and it was really neat. She has a Catholic background and she is truly and sincerely looking into the church. She has a lot of questions and in my opinion those are the best kind of investigators because you know they truly want to know what this gospel is all about. We're planning to teach her the next discussion this week. Unfortunately she is moving to Austin at the end of December, but, fortunately she is already planning on going to a ward there in Austin and looking up the missionaries!! There are truly people out there who are prepared.
We started doing service at a school for adults that a member of our ward is over. It's for adults who are learning English and working to get their GED. It's been really neat because it allows us to work with people in a way other than knocking on doors when they don't really want to talk to us. We have the opportunity to serve them and as they get to know us they ask us questions about the church. We're excited about this opportunity and I know there is someone there that needs this gospel.
In other great news Abby went to the temple for the first time on Saturday! It was also the first time Sister Weaver (her mother) had been since she was 15 year old! They took 40 family names!! Abby got baptized for her grandmother. I am so happy for them! I love them so much and to see how happy they were in church yesterday was priceless.
It was pretty neat because I've gotten really close with the youth here, especially the Young Women. The other night we were at the church building and one of the Young Women got her first temple recommend and she was so happy that she had tears in her eyes as she walked out of the Bishops office and hugged her mother. It was a good reminder to me of how precious a temple recommend really is. There are many things we members of the church take for granted but to see how much joy was in this young woman's face when she realized she was worthy to go to the temple for the first time was a truly incredible experience.
We've also been in a lot of broken homes this week and it breaks my heart to see how Satan has ruined so many families. There are broken families everywhere you turn out here. We were visiting a members home this week and her husband is a drug addict. He spends all their money on drugs and every month they are struggling to get by. We were able to have a prayer with them before we left their home and her young 8 year old son offered the prayer. In that prayer he said "Please help my daddy to stop doing drugs." It made me so sad for this young boy. At 8 years old her should not have to pray for something like that.
Since I've been in Bryan I see homes like this everywhere. Every single one of the youth I've taught have struggles just like this. Abby's biological father struggles with drugs, Shelby is separated from her parents because of their drug addiction, Jaelynn's mother was in jail because of her drug abuse, and Tony's family is spilt apart because of some poor choices his father made. It is normal out here to hear about these family situations. This world needs the gospel now more than ever. I'm so grateful for the gospel and the comfort and peace it brings. Even though these youth have had these struggles they can find the love, hope, and stability within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
How grateful I am to have the truth and to have the great opportunity to share it with others.
I hope all is well at home!
Love you all!
The Kingdom of God or nothing!
Love Sister Gregson
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