25 a Day!

dear family,

 

How are you?

Yes I want to stay at the airport and wait for Alex! Sounds like fun to me!

 

This week has been such a wonderful week!

 

We met with Keith multiple times this week and he is doing as amazing as usual! He loves this gospel so much and he's so ready for baptism. He not only started reading in the Book of Mormon but he's also tackling D&C, JSH, and The Pearl of Great Price. He told us he just can't seem to put them down. His love and enthusiasm for this gospel is inspiring. Not only that but he is such a great missionary too! Everytime someone asks him why he's so happy he tells them it's because of the Mormons. He always says "if you want to be happy I have two people I'd like to introduce to you." He came to church again and fits right in. Most the members don't even realize he's an investigator until we tell them over dinner. They all think he just moved into the ward. He's still planning to be baptized on the 26th!

 

We met with Rosa this week! FINALLY! It feels like it's been forever since we've seen her! We watched the "Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration" video and she really enjoyed it. She had no idea what the early church members went through. She still is hesistant to come to church but we'll just keep inviting her.

 

Kaylee is doing great! She's going to hopefully start going to seminary next year if she gets the OK from her mom. I think it will be so good for her!

 

We had two exchanges this week and they went really well! I love working with all these amazing sister missionaries! I've had so many opportunities this week to teach and share my testimony and I'm so grateful for that.

Gosh I just have so much I could share that I don't even know what to say.

 

We had interviews with President Mortensen and he's truly is amazing! I'm so excited for the short time I have to spend with him. In each of out individual interviews he committed us to invite at least 25 people every day. Sister Quist and I have had to get really creative in order to accomplish that. For us on average we are able to invite maybe 5 people a day. Now that it's hot no one is outside and when we tract typically for every 25 houses you might have 1 or 2 people that answer the door. We don't have any parks in our area or huge shopping centers so that just leaves us with the neighborhoods. Well I knew the 25 would be hard but I also know from President Pingree that nothing is too hard for the Lord. That is something he instilled in us. So we knew if that was the standard that the Lord would help us accomplish it. Like I said we've had to get really creative. We talk to Everyone we see on the streets and in the neighborhoods just like before but we've had to do more things to get that 25. For example we've started going into some of the stores like Payless and the Dollar Store and we'll just stand in an isle and when someone comes looking for something we'll strike up a conversation with them and then invite them. It's actually worked pretty well and we haven't been kicked out of any of the stores yet :) We also look for more opportunities while we're at the gas station and places like that. It's been really fun to challenge ourselves to do things a little differently.

 

I don't know if you've heard about the Stay family or not but they are an LDS family that was murdered last week here in Houston. All 6 family members were killed except their daughter Cassidy. They are not in my area but are close by. It has been a very devastating thing for those members and for the missionaries that served in their ward so I just wanted to ask you to keep Cassidy, the ward, and Sister Lambright and her companion in your prayers.

 

How grateful I am for this gospel and that we know that there is life after this and that we can be with our families forever. It is wonderful to know that even when tragedy hits we can still have hope and it's all because of our loving Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. We need to share this hope with the world. We just can't keep it to ourselves. The world is in desperate need of this hope.

 

Sorry to end on such a sad note but know that things are going well here! I'm still in denial that i'm coming home soon. In fact I think i'll just stay here if that's ok...

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

 

The Kingdom of God or nothing!

 

Love, Sister Gregson