Great Week!!

Oi minha querida familia!!

So this past week was really wonderful! Was able to see so many miracles and just realize what missionary work really is about! So first things first. I know your all wondering who my new companion is. Well guess what! I am in a trio! And working with Sister Daniele and Sister Negreiros! I don´t know how long we will be in a trio because its just till the American sister arrives so yeah any day we could have a switch of companions but its super fun serving with these sisters! Oh and there is a huge possibility that I won´t be training because there is a other brazilian sister that is ready to train and she´s been with her companion for about three transfers. So yeah I will probably be comps with sister Alemeda and sister Vicente will be the mom to Sister Americana! haha I sent home a picture with sister Vicente and sister Alemeda So yeah if your wondering who they are check out the photo. But yeah any who! so about this week.

So I got some wonderful letters and three packages this week! Such a huge surprise! really didn´t expect to get much this week but thanks so much mom, dad and family, the argyles, and brother patterson. Gotta love Halloween! oh Happy Halloween! By the way they don´t do much here for this holiday. my comps say that people celebrate it a little like the young single adults have a dance this week or a party thing. Also people dress up in all black. So yeah people do celebrate it a little but not like the states. Kinda sad but oh well! next yeah I´ll get the chance to dress up! haha oh thanks for the load of candy! My comps and I have been eating candy like crazy! Its pretty funny also how much they love the recesses! Sister Daniele loves peanut butter! Expecially with chocolate! She tried recesses for the first time this week and said `que delicia!` which means pretty much that it was super good! haha so yeah you can never go wrong with sending recesses peanut butter cups! And wow you all read my mind! you sent dried mangoes and pumpkin bread mix!! I am going to make pumpkin muffins for our Noite familiar tonight (FHE) with our investigator Roberto and his family. Oh by the way this past week was a week full of success! We invited people for baptism like crazy! ok so not like crazy but we now have four people preparing for baptism for 26th of november. Roberto is the husband to an in active member of the ward. They have four so kids and two of the daughters as active in the church. Ana Lucia the mom isn´t active because well she is a hard core smoker and has a hard time getting up in the morning. SO we are workin with her also to quit smoking and go back to church. So yeah tonight we will eat pumpkin muffins and watch the joseph smith movie and teach the about the restoration of the church. This family really is so funny. they are always making jokes and we laugh a bunch with them! so yeah tonight should be a fun one!

So back to the package. I got my battery! Was super excited but there is a i think a problem with my camera. Its still doing the same thing and tells me I need a new battery. I can look at photos but can´t take any new ones. But that doesn´t last that long like after 5 or so min. my camera shuts off. So yeah I don´t know what will be easier. I could send the camera home and have you guys look at it and maybe get it fixed because here in brazil canon cameras aren´t very common. Or I could buy a new camera... I don´t really like this idea but tell me what you guys think. But in the mean time i will keep using my pin drive and borrowing sister Daniele and Sister Negreiros cameras!

So you want to know something sad? Remeber Ivone? Gislane´s mom and the grandma to carol, Andry, and Brayan? We baptized them in when I was serving in Agronomia. Well I got a letter from Sister Modesto this past week telling me that Ivone passed away... yup its pretty sad! but I knew it was coming any day. She was pretty sick and couldn´t use her arms or hands and was getting to the point where she couldn't walk at all. So yeah really I am happy that she is finally relieved and her family isn´t so stressed about her any more. I will send a letter to Gislanie this week I think so I can see how their family is doing. but yeah its kinda weird hearing that one of the people you baptized died. But how grateful I am to have been there to help her realize that God really does love us and has a plan for all of us. That his church has been restored through a modern day prophet and that our families can be happy and sealed for time and all eternity. Ivone really was such an elect person! oh how I will miss her! Now I´ve got to get out there and serve and help other families realize the truth.

So this week was really full of so much success our number improved so much! I really hate numbers but I´ve learned these past couple of weeks how really the numbers reflect your success and help you know where you need to improve. I also realized that this past transfer I really was a slacker! I feel a little gultly for wasting a transfer of my mission! ok so I didn´t waste a transfer because everything happens for a reason. but this week working with sister Daniele and Negreiros I´ve realized what I need to do better and really what a mission is about. Its about inviting other to come unto christ by being baptized. Also more than ever how precious this time as a missionary is. I have what? like 7 1/2 months left? super crazy. I am now worried I won´t get all that I´ve been called to do done! but for now I am trying to take in everything that I´m learning daily and praying daily that I will be able to apply everything thats working now with my next companions and areas. This week really was a great one and I really am grateful to be a missionary and a part of this great work! I know i say this a lot but its true! after times of trials come times of blessings! haha

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Love you all and have a FELIZ HALLOWEEN! Don´t eat too much candy! and take pictures for me!!

Eu te amo!!

-Sister Gregory

Pics from Brazil!!

Life with 4 sister missionaries!

Oi todo mundo!
So thanks so much for all the e-mails!! So really quick I´ll try to sum up this week! so first things first. So yeah the language really is coming along. You want to know why? so this past tuesday we had a meeting with some senior missionaries. They came to our Zone/district meeting to talk about some gardening plan. Don´t really know how to explain it but yeah they only spoke english and spanish. So they spoke half in spanish and the other half in english. Well I was sitting with of course all the sister missionaries. And when they would speak english and the elder translating for them wouldn´t translate everything I would translate for the other sisters. Well the meeting went on and I actually was able to translate english to portuguese! haha well I was a little confused (haha whats new) about one of the things they started to talk about so I had to ask it in english. haha so I started to attempt to speak english but guess what? the only words I would think of were portuguese! how embarassing!! I couldn´t get the english out! And what english that did come out was pretty broken english. LIke for example ``you want done in 3 day`` haha oh goodness how embarassing! Everyone started laughing because Sister Daniele said ``she has forgotten english!`` well she sure was right! haha my brain is so mixed up! haha I can understand, write and read english well but speaking that just another story! haha lets just say I better find some great friends at home that speak portuguese! haha oh gotta love the gift of tongues. maybe I should start practicing english?
haha well you want to know something else that is pretty funny? So in our apartment we have four sisters right? well we have two sets of bunk beds all of us sleep in the same room but study in separate rooms with our comps. Well today I found out how weird we all are. sister Negreiros and sister Dos Anjos snore and I mean big time. like they have their own snoring chorus nightly. One night I apparently joined in on this chorus. Then you have sister Daniele who uses ear plugs. then you have me. One night a transfer I snore and apparently for a good 10 min last night I started to talk in my sleep. sister Dos Anjos said I yelled a bit and well she couldn´t understand one word. yup. and she doesn´t think I even spoke english. haha bah I think my brain is pretty confused with the languages. haha then you have sister Negreiros who randomly started turning on the lights and waking up everyone at about 5 in the morning but I was alseep through all of this. And well lets just say she doesn´t remember one min of this. yup we are all offically going nuts...
ok so enough about the randomness and just funny moments! So this past week we had divisions with the sisters in the south part of the mission! I was with Sister vicente. She is from sao Paulo. it was super fun serving with her. We talked about pretty much our entire lives together and didn´t stop talking for the entire division. She is so funny. I pretty much asked one question and then she got talking about everything. well we witnessed quite a few miracles. We got in doors that I´ve been trying to get into all transfer long. we saw a frog on the side of the road. We got a reference from a member that I´ve been trying to get all transfer long and then we ended the night with buying doce de pelotas! pretty much this is a dessert thing that pelotas is known for. Well it was just a little switch to things!
well I´d love to write more but I´ve gotta run...
but you all have a wonderful week!
eu te amo!
-Sister Gregory

Loving the mission life!

OI familia e meu Amigos!! Como vai sua semana e da vida de voces?!! So thanks for the wonderful e-mails mom dad and Jeremy! oh send a thanks to Diane Hunter for me for the sweet e-mail she sent. So I think I lost her address could you ask her for her address. Sorry I seriously think I´ll stop asking for things. But thanks so much for Khyrstynes address and the battery!! bah you have no Idea how much that will help out!!
ok so as for my life here in Brazil. I´m not so sure I´ll have the time to reply to your e-mails because of the time contrants but no worries soon enough I will e-mail you guys personally and maybe write you a letter! bah life is just always on a run! serously this past transfer has flown by! and guess what also? I hit my halfway mark Wednesday... not so sure I like that idea. Just a little stressful you know! haha only becuase I have 9 months to get portuguese down and really finish up my work here in Brazil. Don´t want to go home forgetting anything! haha ok enough with the trunkyness. Bah 9 months can you believe it? ok so news about this next transfer! so guess what!! I´m sticking around here in Fragata! you have no idea how excited I am! But the down side... I won´t be companions with Sister Daniele... Super super sad... But even better! So to explain things more clearly the ward I´m in has a set of sisters and Elders. SO with the changes now guess what? THe elders are getting switched for sisters! can you believe that? To be honest sister Daniele and I are pretty sad about this. Elder Nascimento and Wood are super cool and both of them are getting transfered. SO yeah sister Daniele is sticking around also so that will be nice to have her around. She is going to train a new sister from the Bahia and well is a huge mystery who my new comp will be. Everyone is saying that I will be a senior comp this transfer... yup I have dinosaurs in my stomach and a trillion things in my head. So yeah it should be interesting! oh us four sisters will be in the same apartment. haha this really will be a fun transfer... hehe I´ll keep you posted! oh and also our District Leader is getting tranfered to Agronomia!! He will be comps with the Zone leader there. Cool huh? He will totally baptize Lisandra and Gilmar! SO yeah thats about it with the changes here! I have a bit of mixed feelings but you know what the lords hands are definately in all of this and I will keep smiling and just living the mission up! oh last thing about tranfers I´ll be working in the area of Elders... so yeah it will be kinda like opening a new area. I told them they need to write everything down about their area if they want their investigators baptized. haha oh gotta love transfers.
So now that I´ve takin a year to explain transfers I will talk about something else! haha so Jorge is getting baptized this week! he was going to get baptized tomorrow but with tranfers it wont happen because I´ll be hanging out with one of the members of the relief society all day waiting for sister Daniele and the new two sisters to arrive which will be about 8pm when they come back. SO yeah most likely will be Wednesday! SO yeah we are pretty excited about it all! I´ll send pictures next week of the baptism for sure! so this past week we met a super amazing lady. Leila. She is about 70 something and is getting baptized! She is definately an elect. We ran into her the other day when we knocked on the door of another investigator in the same apartment building. our investigator ended up not being home so we talked to Leila and asked if she would like to hear our message right then. She said yes and invited us to come in her home. we taught her the first lesson and was pretty much the most spiritual lesson I´ve taught for sure. She paid attention to practially every word and when it came down to when we invited her to follow the example of Jesus christ and be baptized by proper priesthood authority she reply with the coolest amazing answer. ``How do I prepare for this?`` I about freaked out with happiness when she said this. We explained everything how we would teach her more and she would feel ready on September 24. so yeah she will definatly get baptized. oh she came to church yesterday how cool is that?! well my time is running out but do know that I love you all and think of you all often! Congrats Bryson and Mickelle with the baby girl!! Love the name Lilly ann! Sorry if i spelled it wrong...
Well Boa Semana!!
Eu te Amo!
-SIster Gregory

Fun times in Brazil

So I hope you all love the pictures I sent to ya! I´ll try to send pictures home more often so you know that I´m not just messing around here in Brazil!
SO first of before I forget. Mom could you e-mail me the lion house recipe for rolls, cinnamon rolls, and orange rolls? I´m pretty sure I have the recipe for cinnamon rolls and orangle rolls in my recipe book. Oh also a great recipe for pancakes? thanks so much! I keep telling Sister Daniele about cinnamon rolls and so now I´ve really got to make them and let her try them! oh also if you feel up to it I´ve been cravind dried mangos from costco... Just when you feel up to it and it doesn´t cost a fortune send some my way... sorry i ask for so much...
ok onto the mission life! SO guess what! Dara was baptized this past friday! can you believe it? Everyone thought she would never have permission to get baptised and after an amazing spiritual lesson with Dara, her mom, the young womens president, and some young women from the ward her mom was super open minded and said... YES!! bah you have no idea how excited we were. everyone was in tears. Bah it was truely a miracle. Sister Daniele along with our district have been fasting every sunday for miracles and for our investigators to progress and to just find the elect here in pelotas and guess what? the lord is truely answering our prayers daily. Bah it blows my mind daily! I serously just laugh like crazy when we find a golden investigator or experience another experience where the lord's hand is truely in our lives. man we are definantley blessed here in fragata. i thought Agronomia was the best area but nope. its here in fragata! haha no really I´ve learned that obedience is really the key to all the blesssings we´ve recieved this transfer. SIster Daniele and I have a goal to be exactly obedient and boy have we been blessed. i really truely blows my mind. Just this week alone we found two families. two super golden families. one is getting baptized sep 3 and the other is getting baptized sep. 8. bah I just love being a missionary and how the Lord really truely answers every prayer. so about the language question yall asked. So my language is improving a lot but I still get fustrated. but hey my testimony of why I´m here in brazil and why I´m learning a new language grew ten folds this week. this past friday I was a bit frustrated with the language and really just wasn´t loving the freezing cold breeze and the rain and well everyone telling me that i don´t talk or how they don´t understand one word coming out of my mouth. Well I caught myself in all this sadness and said a prayer and just asked for things could turn around so I could make it to the baptizm that night with a smile on my face. Well guess what? soon after this prayer of mine we taught Henrrique and his parents. They are such an amazing family! so Henrrique is 13 and just loves the church and all the activities. one of his friends intruduced us to this family. well when we were teachign them a thought came into my head that I never thought about. Well i have but it wasn´t as clearly as this time was. THe thought was `I am here in brazil learning portuguese so this family. can hear about the gospel.so they can be sealed for time and all eternity in the house of the lord. so they can have happiness in this life and the life to come` bah this has never hit me so hard on the mission but I couldn´t be more happy to be a missionary learning portuguese! I feel so blessed to be able to continue my mission here in brazil. the language will come soon!
well good luck with school! ANd kristina goodluck with moving out! you´ll love the social life there in provo! just don´t get married anytime soon ok? Love ya!! Mckenna have a blast this year in school ok and really if you're lonely just send me a e-mail!
HAPPY ANIVERSARY MOM and DAD!! Love you all!
have a wonderful amazing week!
love ya´ll
sister gregory

Great Area & New Comp, Tornado in Brazil - well almost!!

OI Familia!!
OI tudo bem? como foi sua semana e coises la Utah? ok so you all asked about my new area and comp and well just questions about what happened this past week. So here I go! I´ll explain everything! So guess what! I´m in the Zone Pelotas. Its a pretty big city here in Rio Grande de Sul. And i am currently serving in Fragata North. And you know whats even cooler? I´m opening the area for sisters with Sister Daniele! Cool huh? Crazy and alot of pressure but so far this week has been great! I was super sad about leaving Agronomia but you know what? I just might like this new area just as much or better than Agronomia. So a little bit about my companion! She is from Manus. SO way northern brazil. When people think of brazil ( dirt roads, trees, Amazon river, etc.) Manus is where all of this is! haha but yeah she says she doesn´t live in a tree or anything like that but her house is above the water. Google Manus, Brazil and you´ll get a better picture.But yeah she is super cool! Super happy and just ready to work like crazy! her and I have the same amount of time in the mission. So yeah just about 8 months. Crazy huh? if I went straight to the Sao Paulo MTC I would have totally seen her. But yeah she is a super great missionary and reminds me a lot of Sister Bee so yeah I´m thinking this transfer will be a great one! She is also helping alot with the language. One of her goals in life is to learn english so I am learning how to teach english! With sister Modesto we didn´t have the time for language study because here in the mission your first two transfers in the mission are training so you have two hours for comp study which leaves no time for language. So yeah we now have time for language! haha ok any who Sister Daniele is amazing and we are already witnessing miracles daily together. Really blows me away! So yeah about my area. Sister Daniele & I are opening the area of Fragata North for sisters. There hasn´t been sisters in this area for quite awhile. So yeah its kinda cool to think about but quite the work trying to find new people. The Elders that were here before us left a few great investigators for us but between study, making 15 contacts each day, hour or two lunches and going back to the apartment before the sun goes down is a little tricky. Soon enough we´ll get this schedule down! oh you want to know something quite interesting or should I say disgusting? So since the area was for elders before we came we now have the elders' apartment. SO that only means one thing. Our apartment looked like a tornado hit it! And I am not kidding when I say a tornado hit it! It was disguting! When the Elders helped us with our luggage and brought us to our apartment to show us everything I was in shock. I couldn´t say anything. For about the first 10 min I thought it was a joke! There was garbage everywhere! The bathroom was horrible. clothes everywhere and well everything was scattered everywhere! haha man it was a mess! the only thing clean was the dishes. One of the elders living there would clean the dishes each day but thats about it! haha but I guess what can you expect with four 19 year old elders living in one apartment? SO yeah we spent the night cleaning so we could go to bed and then in the morning study. We didn´t get to bed till about 2 in morning. Yeah I know we broke a rule but there was no way I was going to bed in a tornado. haha SO yeah now things are just lovely in our apartment! We spent any time we could the first three days here cleaning. I´ll have to send a video sister Daniele made on her camera to you guys next week. haha oh man it was gross! but like I said things are just lovely now! SO yeah the ward here is amazing! The members help a lot with the mission work and the bishop is such a great help as well! I really am going to like this area! oh also we share the ward with elders also. So in this ward we have me and my comp and elder Nacimento and Elder Wood. Elder Nacimento is from the Bahia or something like that. When people think of brazilians of super laid back and just want to sleep and chill at the beach your thinking of the Bahia. Everyone here makes Bahia jokes left and right with Elder Nacimento. But he is a really get missionary. He is currently training Elder Wood from Brigham Utah or something like that. This is Elder Wood's second transfer here in brazil and speaks really great portuguese! So yeah this week we really witnessed some great miracles here in Fragata. I am really loving this area. We´ve been trying to contact the people that the elders in the past made contacts on the street. IN our Area book we have a lot of people that need to be visited so yeah we´ve been doing that this week and found so many great people! Just yesterday we met Mayara. She is 19 years old and was being taught by the missionaries awhile back but the missonaries stopped teaching her for some reason. Well when we were teaching the first lesson to her randomly her younger brother Pablo walked over to us. Sister Daniele and I thought he would just say hi and leave but nope he stayed for th entire lesson. It was pretty cool because the second he entered and stopped to listen to the lesson the spirit was pretty strong. It was like we were meant to teach Mayara so we could teach pablo. He is super cool. he is 18 years old and seems really interested! the elders have a baptism this friday that Pablo said he would go to and along with church on sunday! cool huh? SO yeah things are turing around! I have a pretty great feeling that here in Fragata the sisters will show the Elders how its done! haha but no really daily we are finding such prepared people here for the gospel. It is such an amazing thing to witness! I know with out a doubt that I am in the right place!
Well thats about it for my e-mail. Thanks so much for all your e-mails! loved them all!
ok so I took my violin to get fixed and well I´m not really sure people here know much about the violin. I got my bridge put back in place but the post inside my violin is still rolling around inside the violin. The person here said that he has never seen anything like this before but he is pretty positive that it should be alright. my pegs are super stiff and the same person said that is was no problem but if I want I could pay for him to put some fine toners on for all the strings. and well my bow he said was perfectly fine. yup I´m just a little worried. Mom could you ask around about my violin again? I try to explain in my broken portuguese about what you told me but everyone just looks at me funny and says that my bow and everything is just fine. So yeah just ask if how my violin is right now will effect my violin and the sound if I don´t get it fixed. Sorry to keep bothering you with the violin but thanks so so much!
next week I´ll try better with sharing more mission experieces I promise! Love you all! Boa Semana!
-Sister Gregory!

Warmer Weather & Birthday!

WEll hello everyone!!
So guess what it my birthday and guess where I am? oh you guessed it right! I´m in Brazil and guess what´s even better? its getting warm here! I didn´t have to wear my coat today! I really think the weather here is more Bi-Polar than Utah. Its so crazy!! I was thinking about a week or so ago that my birthday would be the coldest I´ve ever had to have on my birthday but nope! Its warm, the sun is out and I´m loving being a missionary!! So for my birthday today so far Sister Modesto surprised me by making some yummy brownies, got some balloons! I love balloons!, a happy birthday sign, earrings, and hello kitty stickers! haha she is so funny! but yeah my birthday has really been pretty great so far. Its been nice that its p-day and all. Get to relax a bit and write letters, finally do my hair. For lunch we made a really yummy lasagna caserole thing. Super good. I´ll send the recipe to ya someday. And then tonight we are going to finish up our contacts and watch the legacy with some members! And thanks so much daddy! I´ll take you up on the offer of buying dinner! Tonight we´ll have pizza, brownies, ice cream and soda! Feel free to do the same back at home and picture me at the table or something and I´ll do the same with ya´ll and it will be like we celebrated my birthday together!! haha but yeah thanks so so much for all the Birthday wishes everyone! I´ll try my best to reply to your letters today or next week! love you all! OH sister swenson called me today to wish me happy birthday and guess what! I got another package! Thanks to who ever it is from!
ok so about this week. So to be honest things are a little on the rough side this week. The weather was pretty cold and for the past two sundays none of our investigators came to church. But the sun finally came up saturday evening and we had a follow up appointment with one of our new investigators fatima. So sad story. We had planned to meet with her friday evening but when we stopped by her house her son said that she wasn´t home. SIster Modesto thought she was in the house but didn´t want to meet with us anymore. IT didn´t make sense because the first time we met with her things really went really well! She wanted us to come back that week and she said she´d make us some tea and banana cake. Sounds gross but its actually pretty good! Well anyways we found out saturday night that she thought we were coming by friday afternoon and not the night. And we found out that both her and her son Alexandre read the restoration pamphlet, prayed about it, and got an answer! They want to learn more! They are so getting a baptism invite this week! haha man its crazy how at times things are pretty tough but things change and the well the sun actually does come up! So amazing!
Well I´ve kinda lost my train of thought... oh glad Ya´ll had fun reading my umbrella story! haha it was pretty fun writing about it. And no I havn´t bought a new one yet. I´ll probably buy one next p-day when we go to the city. oh before I forget. Mom I think my violin is getting a little affected by the humidity here. My bow is looking a little strange... What did sister shippin say or someone say would happen to my violin and bow in the humidity? I´m just a little nervous about my violin getting destroyed here.
Well I better run but thank you all for the amazing birthday wishes! love you all! oh I almost forgot. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICCA ON THIS PAST SATURDAY!! I hope it was the best 18th birthday you´ve ever had! Love ya nick!!
Well love you all! Ate logo!! EU TE AMO!!
-sister Gregory

Umbrellas in trees & miracles

Well hello everyone!!
SO how was your week? From the lovely e-mails I received it sounds like everyone is doing wonderfully!! thanks always for the love and support you all give!! Mom i finally got the second package! Oh my goodness you went above and beyond. THank you so so so much! And yes I did ask for more things. Sorry about that... really if its going to cost a bunch don´t worry about it. And the pictures of christ are small pictures like 3x5 or something like that of christ. you can just put them will a letter or something in a small envelope so you don´t have to worry about spending so much. but thanks so so so much! Glad you all are have a lovely 4th of July weekend! Sure wish I could see some fire works... oh well there is always next year!
ok so about my week! Things have improved alot. we are still struggling with finding good solid investigators to contribute to the mission goal for this month of 100 baptisms but hey things could change soon right?! our numbers did go up this week and we found 9 new investigators! woot woot!
So funny story. This week like every other week it rained a bunch so one day sister modesto and I were running late and we decided to bring our big umbrellas. haha oh how they are so big. I feel pretty funny using them but hey they keep us dry. well we were walking pretty fast on this busy road and guess what! This lovely tree with thorns decided that it didn´t want to get wet anymore and grabbed my umbrella. haha oh goodness. my umbrella was pretty stuck. so I yelled for sister Modesto to stop walking but because of all the cars and the rain she could hear me. Also I guess I don´t talk very loud when I speak portguese so that didn´t help either. So here I am with this tree attacking me as I try to save my umbrella in the pouring rain with my companion getting further and further away. I finally yank my umbrella free and ran after sister Modesto yelling after her. I felt pretty funny running with a broken umbrella yelling in the rain. I think I got some lovely looks. haha well I finally caught up to sister modesto and told her the story as we both laughed like crazy. haha oh gotta love brazil!!
So I haven´t given you an update on the language lately! SO I think its actually coming along. The other day I had to call sister swenson about some scripture covers since I don´t have any and it was so weird speaking in english! I had the hardest time and kept going back to portuguese. So I guess this is a sign that I´m learning the language. People keep telling me though that I need to talk more but its not like I´m the biggest chatter box on the planet so maybe just maybe one day I´ll learn how to talk more. But yeah I really do love the portuguese language. Sometimes sister modesto will ask me to say a word in portuguese or read a word in english and I forget the word or pronounce it the way you would in portuguese. oh goodness my brain is getting so confused! And then there is those days were I will be teaching and out now where I will say a english word! haha english, portuguese, gotta love languages!!
SO this past week we had a wonderfully family home evening with the vargas family! we taught about eternal families and the temple. it was probally the most spiritally lesson we´ve had with this family. towards the end everyone was about in tears! So cool. And guess what! Lisandra and Gilmar agreed to quit smoking, get married and baptized this month! SO cool and definately a miracle! We are going to head over to there house tonight to check up on things because the other day we didn´t get the greatest of news of gilmar leaving. But hey I really am feeling like things will work out for them. THey are such a specail family and so that only means that satan will be working so hard on them. so keep them in your prayers!!
SO also guess what! sister missionaries will be stayiny in my area for a lot longer!! SO that means after this transfer I could end up staying here! but all keep ya posted when transfers come around in 4 weeks. Crazy time is sure flying by.
Well thanks for all the b-day wishes. I´ll let you know what I end up doing next week. We are thinking of going into the city and hangin out there for a few hours and then that night eating some pizza with some of our investigators and members. so that should be some great fun!
Well love you all!! EU TE AMO!! Boa Semana!!
-Sister Gregory

Hello everyone!!
SO like usually time is rushed on p-day and we got to the internet place a little late. so if this e-mail is short you know why!
So things are really getting cold here! ANd it makes it even better with the humidity and lovely hard wind in your face! Today I feel like I´m ready to go play in the snow! gotta love it! Who knew you could about freeze in Brazil?! I sure didn´t!
Hmmm what else? Since all our really progress investigators got baptized last week yesterday I have to sadly report we had no investigators in sacrament meeting. First time here in brazil! But hey I guess thats bound to happen right? No worries we have faith things will progress. We are still working with Lisandra and Gilmar (the parents of the vargas family) to get married. Cross your fingers and pray that its this month. And guess what! Nina (i think I mentioned her in a past e-mail.) isn´t the girlfriend to Paulo. Aparently they just live in the same house? haha I really don´t know! I sure something new will come up this week. So yeah we are kinda at a road block right now with investigators. They all pretty much need to be married or a good push in the font. haha so yeah we are going to keep working hard with them. Today we set some goals for finding more investigators. the goal for the mission is for each companionship to baptize one family so we´re going to do all that we can. I´m kinda excited because for the first time this week we are going to go tracting! haha ok so we won´t be knocking doors but will be clapping our hands off! haha just fyi they don´t knock on doors here they clap or yell a person´s name. interesting huh? so yeah I´ll have to let you know how that goes! SO yeah this week will be a week of finding and working really hard with our investigators!
So working with the Zone Leaders isn´t all that bad. They help out alot. SO since they are working in the same ward as us we had a meeting with the bishop this week. We needed to meet so we could split the area and have more things figured out. And guess what! We got assigned to the area where we have the majority of our investigators and recent converts! Such great news. It is a different side of town with all the dirt roads and the people don´t have that much but sister modesto and I were pretty happy to stay in this area. And guess what else I found out this week. So the reason why we have another set of missionaries in the same ward is because they are trying to make the church bigger here. They (church leaders and mission president) think in about a year or so the ward will split and soon down the road they will have a new stake. Crazy huh!? so they want more missionaries here to strengthen the members and find more people that will help strengthen the wards. so like we are suppose to find future strong leaders in the church! Its really exciting yet a little intimidating! Alot of pressure! But hey we have faith! ANd also everyday for lunch the elders eat with us. every family that has the missionaries over has not 2 but four missionaris over. I guess us sister weren´t eating enough. hahah everyone say ``eat more sister, eat more!` haha gotta love members!
Well thats it for the week. Not to much happening.
Love you all! Eu te amo!!
-Sister Gregory

Pictures from Brazil!

Sooo guess what everyone! I have officially finished my first transfer here in Brazil!! So crazy. Time is for sure flying by! So guess what! I am staying companions with sister Mosdesto! And we are staying in Agronomia!! yay!! I´m so excited because well she is the greatest and this transfer we have been blessed with a lot of success. Just in one transfer we had the opportunity to baptize 8 people! Our area though will be split between us and the Zone Leaders though. and after this transfer I think it will be only Elders. super sad. our Apartment is big enough for four missionaries and well there is just isn~´t enough sisters in the mission. I´m kinda nervous because all our investigators are in the same area! But it will be for the best because well lets just say that not every part of our area is the safest... but no worries mom! And well we are also nervous because the Zone Leaders will be working with us! bah! Crazy! I guess our area is one of the top areas in the mission? No say. but yeah things are progressing tremendously and I´m absolutely loving the mission life!

So guess what else! yesterday five of our investigators got baptized!! 5! all were the family of Ivoni. Her grandchildren Andrey, Braian, and Carol and then there mom Gislanie! Can you believe it! one big family!! Ivoni was suppose to get baptized on saturday but because her health isn~t the greatest she couldn´t because the water in the font was pretty much as cold as it could get. So at the last min as we were stressing like crazy boiliing water on the stove in the church we decided to move the baptizim for sunday (yesteday) along with the entire family! And we moved the baptizm to a different chaple that had some type of heater for the water. Such a huge blessing really. It was crazy how everything went down. We were pretty upset that ivoni couldn´t get baptized saturday but the Lord knows all and he had a better plan for this family. So after talking with our district leader and then the Zone Leaders things worked out for the baptism yesterday!! oh my it was such an amazing baptism! the spirit was so strong. So it was a little stressful for everyone because Ivoni can´t use her hands. She has no movement in her arms and hands. so it was a little tricky trying to baptize her. and she can´t be wet and cold to long or else she could get really sick and possibly die. yeah dramatic I know. Everyone was sweating bullets. literally. We the entire family got baptized and then it was ivoni´s turn. Odar the ward mission leader baptized the entire family and when he baptized Ivoni everyone could tell he was nervous becuase not only was he baptizing her and had to be gentle but he had to plug her nose as well for her! bah! Well things worked out beautiful and man the spirit was so poweful! and then guess what else happened! Our bishop approved for the entire family to recieve the gift of the holy ghost right after. that never happens. everyone was in tears and yes the spirit was pretty powerful. the Zone Leaders had to open the church for us and do some last interviews with the family (another stressful part!) but they told us that this baptizm was probally the most spiritual amazing baptizm they had ever seen. Man this family is so amazing! Its crazy how there are many times in our life that what we have planned out doesn´t work out and we feel that everything is lost and well just will turn out horrible. but after this weekend I know even more how much the Lord really is in control and how greatful I am for that! I love being a missionary!

Well I gotta run. HOpefully you can somewhat read my thoughts!!

Love you all!!

-Sister Gregory!

I´m going to attach a photo or two let me know if you get them!! the first is of the baptism yesterday and the other is of the vargas family!!

Tudo Bem? Com esta sua semana?! Well things here in Brazil are like always just wonderful! We have alot of people working towards baptism which is wonderful! We have currently 10 investigators that are working toward baptism and will all be baptized within the next two months. So yeah things are staying busy here in Agronomia! ok so about my week! things were really great! oh by the way I´m feeling loads better! I´m just taking extra caution with the food I eat and just not letting my eyes get bigger than my stomach. Thanks grandpa tyler for teaching me what that saying ment! I remember when I was little and grandpa would make the famous tyler pancakes and I would always take more than I could really eat! Bah just got to apply it to my life now so I don´t spend another night in the bathroom! haha so yesterday was so great! We invited Nina and Paulo to work towards baptism together. They are older well I think they are in their late 30´s no say but yeah it was pretty cool experience. Nina is hillarious. Probably one of the oddest ladies I´ve met but I absolutely love her. They have dogs all over the place and she talks super fast. So its tough understanding her but I get the the idea more or less of what she´s saying. so yeah anywho we invited them to work towards baptism together since we had to push Nina´s date back. And it worked out perfectly because up until a week ago or so we didn´t know about Paulo. Or at least I didn´t know about him. So yeah to make my long story short Paulo and Nina will be getting married and baptized by July 30th! I couldn´t be more excited for them! Then we have Ivone´s family! I mentioned them in my last letter I think? But yeah they are getting baptized June 18th! So yeah with just their family we have four baptizms! Ivone is 61 yrs old and her three grandchildren Andre, Brian, and carol will be getting baptized with her! they are such an amazing family! It was funny because the other day I was looking through my lovely planner where I write down all my contacts. So as a mission we are asked to make 10 contacts a day as we walk to and from places. Well the first week I barely remember much and really had no idea what in the world everyone was saying! SO yeah anywho I was looking at all my contacts and trying to make sense of my scribbles and guess what! I talked to Gislanie! She is the mother of Andre, Brian, and carol! Crazy huh? I guess this family was super ready and because I couldn´t quite understand and remember everything. The Lord helped me out with this one by making them a referal from a ward member. Crazy how the Lord works out at times huh? I felt pretty relieved to know that with the language barier I´m not limiting anyone from gaining salvation! haha oh goodness someday, someday I just know I´ll get this language down! oh one more baptism!! So on the 18th of june we have 5 baptisma lined up. Four from the family of Ivone (by the way Gislanie is taking the lessons also. She´s just super busy so we have yet to invite her to be baptized. so though I promise!!) and Tamaires!! She is the cousin to Gregory, Gabriel and Joao. I swear they have more family everytime we meet with them! but yeah she told us she wanted to be baptized and so we were like um.. duh you can be baptized! haha so yeah she´s super excited! she was literally dancing the night we invited her to be baptized. ok I think I´ve typed the work baptism like 50 times! But its true brazil is a baptizing mission! Its so neat seeing these people make all these amazing changes!!

Well time is running out so I better run! oh tomorrow we have another special training! I´m pretty excited becuase you get to see so many missioaries at these things and hear from president swenson! He´s been pretty sick by the way so keep him in your prayers.... SO yeah tomorrow should be interesting! But so can´t wait!
Well I love you all! Thanks kailee and khyrstyne for your letters! i mail once a week at the district meetings so it was great being able to get my first letters here in brazil this last week! thanks so much! Also tell Ben (Gardner) Happy Birthday! I hope he had the bestest 5th Birthday ever! Wow its crazy he´s 5 now! man!
Well love you all! Have a wondeful week!
-Sister Gregory

Baptisms, Violin & Brazilian BBQ!

Olha minha Familia e Amigos!

Tudo bem? Como voces sua semana?! Obrigada por muito cartas e amor! Eu amo p-day!! haha ok I´ll stop with the lovely Portuguese!

So this week was wonderful! There was a day or two that dragged but no worries life here in Brazil is just lovely! So....guess what! The Baptizims happened yesterday!! I was a little worried since in Alabama they never worked out but they happened and all three brothers are baptized!! ahhh! So the baptism service was really good! President swenson and his wife came so it was great having them there. they spoke in sacrament meeting and from what I understood they gave some really great talks. so the baptism service was really great but like always things here in brazil are just a little different than I expect. Everything here in brazil is rush and loud but hey its the brazilian way so I better get use to it! I did play my violin for the service and according to everyone it was bonita! hahe beautiful. SO yeah it was great being able to play twice this past week. But yeah after the baptism, Joao (I found out later that day) was so excited. He was running around super excited saying I´m baptized! I´m a member of the church! haha he´s a funny little boy. So yeah after the baptism we went to the stake presidents house or some president´s house for some good brazilian BBQ! oh it was so good! I got some good pictures so someday when I figure out how to send pictures out you´ll get to see them! haha but yeah lunch was great! Then last night was probably the highlight of my week. We had family home evening with the Vargas family over at the ward mission leader´s house. the vargas family is the family of the three boys that got baptized yesterday. We watched the movie the testaments. It went really well and after guess what! we commited the parents or I guess mostly the dad to be baptized on July 30!! whoot whoo! the parents aren´t married just like every other couple here in brazil so they have to get married before they get baptized so it should be interesting! but yeah the parents are super excted and oh I just love the vargas family! they are officially my Brazilian family! The dad Giamar really liked church and the baptizimal service. He said that every thing yesterday was really good for him. And Lisandra the mom wants everything really bad just the not married part and the fact that they smoke like every half hour is getting in the way. But who says thats going to impossible? I don´t! I´m super excited for this family! just in case you didn´t know that already!

hmmmm what else happend this week? oh we had Zone conference! it was a little different since everything was in portuguese! haha oh well I guess I better get use to it. But it was a really great meeting and playing the violin was like always wonderful! Its pretty interesting everytime I play I feel like I do horrible. I really feel like i do but then after everyone tells me things like you made me cry blah blah blah. haha so either they are tone deaf or the being set apart as a missionary changes things haha! but yeah I´m glad I can even play the violin and share it with everyone here in brazil!

hmmmm so the language is coming along just wonderfully. I understand more and more and well the talking part isn´t the greatest but I've decided to just have fun with it and laugh. like for example last night we were doing contacts and i talked with a family. I said, hi how are you? I´m a missionary. whats your name? I told them I had a message about God and families because family are central to God´s plan. Can we return to your house another day? haha they just looked at me with blank stares. I laughed and said Intengi? they said nope! So i repented it again and they understood it the second time I laughed and said Obrigada!! haha we all laughed and I had to ask for their names like a billion times. names here in brazil are so different! i never remember names or numbers! hah a oh well i guess thats my goal for this next week!

well thanks for everything ya´ll! oh bryson! FELIZ ANNIVERSARIO NO DOMINGO!! happy birthday on Sunday! I hope its just wonderful!!

Have a wonderful week everyone!!
love you all!! EU AMO VOCES MUITO!!
-Sister Gregory

Brazil, spiders & grass drinks

Oi Tudo bem minha familia and amigos?

SO this past week has been pretty amazing yet different! Oh so I totally thought I wouldn´t be able to e-mail today! because the place where we e-mail was closed for some random reason. I was a bit worried! but we got things figured out and found another place! woot whoo e-mail!

So I read through your e-mails really quick and if I have time i´ll reply but it sounds like everything is going grand at home! And as for me in brazil things are grand as well. I am happy to report I´m understanding more portuguese everyday! I´m still loving brazil but not so much this interesting keyboard. the letters are off and the keys are sticking! haha so if this letter is a bit strange now ya know! ok so about this week! so we have our first baptisms this coming Sunday! yay! Gregory, Gabriel and Joao. They are brothers and super excited for this sunday. I´m super excited as well! They are so ready and just can´t wait! It was pretty cool because gregory and gabriel both had ear peircings and this past week sister modesto ask for them to hand them over. they were a bit hesitant but they did. Gabriel for the first couple days kept asking for them back but I think now he´s ok. And gregory is super cool. He dosen´t want them anymore! I was talking ok not talking but listening to him and sister modesto talk and man he´s totally going on a mission in a few years! Its gotta be the name. Only true gregorys know whats right! haha but yeah I´m super excited as you can tell and I´ll keep you up dated this next week with how it all goes. oh gregory is 15, gabriel 13, and joao is 11. They have a younger brother but he´s like 3 or something and their parents don´t want to join but are really excited for their sons. but little do they know they´ll be members someday I just know it!

hmm... what else. The food here is amazing! I´ll decided i´ve got to cut down on the food I eat at lunch or I just might gain a load of pounds here in brazil! haha oh man. The other day we made lasagna with the ward mission leaders wife. oh it was so good! I´ll have to send the recipe to yall soon or something. they have that grass drink a lot here. I decided I better force myself to like it or I might have to turn down alot of people! so I have to say I like it just a bit more!

oh man gotta run! and there is a huge spider that just landed behind my computer and I freaking out just a little... yup i hate spiders. oh before I forget and get eaten by the spider. tomorrow the mission is having a special meeting! and I get to play my lovely violin! I´ll let you know how it goes!

well I don´t know where the spider went so I´m going to run before it pops out of no were.

well I love you all so so so MUCH!!

-sister gregory

May 9, 2011 - First week in Brazil

Olha!!

so like usually i´m running out of time. sorry but you know what it was so great talking to ya´ll last night! its crazy to think that i won´t call home till December!! crazy! I´ve been pretty spoiled being able to talk to yall a bunch lately! oh well here comes the real mission life!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JEREMY AND DREW!! I hope your birthdays are amazing!

SO i really am loving Brazil. Its crazy to think I´m finally here! I sometimes have to remind myself that I´m here by looking around me at the bright colors, dirt roads and cold water. oh and that fact that no one really speaks english! but i´m loving it all! everyone is so loving and i know i say this a lot but I have the best companion. Its crazy how much you can learn and understand by using hand signals and very limited portuguese! I know i´ll get the language down some day so in the mean time i´m trying to take everything in, smile, laugh and just enjoy brazil! the food is amazing. oh i forgot tell you that yesterday I tried this drink call Mata or something like that. everyone loves it here. its like a bunch of herbs in really hot water and they drink it in a cool looking metal cup and straw. it cool looking. but I´d have to say its pretty disgusting! haha it tastes like grass haha but maybe I´ll grow to love it? Everyone asked if I liked it. i laughed and said its interesting. haha they laughed and said that the next time I would like it more. so we´ll see!

well sorry about the short letter. gotta run!

But I love you all!!

-Sister Gregory

Going to Brazil!

Hello Family and Friends!!

ok so I guess my mission president broke the news to you already! I got my visa! You know whats funny you know more than I know! haha I knew my visa was coming but president didn't say it was for sure because it didn't come in the mail yet. So I guess I'm leaving Wednesday?! oh man I am nervous. I really am. President called me Friday night after an amazing day here in Huntsville and I was absolutely shocked. I really didn't think it was coming this soon! Oh man. You know what's funny? I thought I would be super thrilled to leave really I did! But I was sad. Ok don't worry I am really happy my visa came but there are so many wonderful people I have come to love so much here in Huntsville! I love being a missionary and I love Alabama! Man I'm going to miss Alabama! I almost started crying on the phone! haha ok I'll stop. But I do know one thing that is for sure. And that is I've been so blessed! I really think my purpose was fulfilled here in Alabama just hours before my mission president called. Friday was really a day full of miracles. We met all of our goals and even did better than the goals we set for ourself. And we met with the most amazing family! They are the Dixons. They seriously have become my second family here in Bama and i just love them! The reason why I say it was day of miracles is because only the daughter Brittney has been pretty active in the church for the past while but... we committed the mom and grandma to come to church on sunday and guess what!! they came! I was so excited! It was better than being able to see a baptism here. It was the coolest thing because when we had dinner with them Friday night the spirit was so strong. Everything that was said was lead by the spirit. Its one moment I'll never forget! Oh man I really am going to miss them! But I can leave Alabama a happy missonary and knowing that my Alabama family is coming back to church and loves it! haha We are having dinner with them on Tuesday night and I really just don't wanna say goodbye but hey thats how life goes right! But yeah that same day we met so many amazing people! There are so many people here in Huntsville! Sister Bee and I have had full days of follow ups and teaching for probably everyday the past week. We have been blessed tremendously! oh goodness I love being a missonary and now I get to learn how to do this in portuguese? haha cross your fingers and pray real hard for me ok! haha ok I'm getting more excited don't cha worry! And I get to talk to yall on wednesday! yay! k mom I'll call your phone. So it sounds like Easter was amazing for ya'll! And Matt Murdoch got his mission call! oh my goodness Argentina! tell him congrats for me ok! thats so cool! when does he leave? Mickelle congrats on the having a girl! Thats just so exciting! Keep me updated with all that goodness!

So I have to tell you about a couple people we met yesterday! It really was a day full of Easter miracles! So first off as a mission the past few days we have been studying the last moments of Christ's life and the resurection. Its been really interesting to see how much its applied to life as a missionary. And even more cool to see how much I really am a instrument in the Lords hand. For example thursday night we studied the last supper and the sacrament. Then Friday day we studied the atonement and guess what we talked to the Dixon's that night about coming back to church and the importance of the sacrament. Then Saturday we studied about Christs time in the Spirit world. And guess what! We taught a lesson to a lady that had recently lost her daughter and we were able to tell her where her daughter is right now and just help her find that peace again. Then Sunday yesterday we studied the resurrection and met a met a man that didn't feel his Savior Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father loved him. He had lost a leg and was about to lose is other one. He was confined to his wheelchair and probably hadn't left his house for awhile. As we got talking to him we found out that he recently had tried to commit suicide. Yup super overwhelming. But the love I felt for him and just the love I felt that his Heavenly Father had for him was pretty amazing. So far as a missionary I had never felt the way I felt talking to that old man. It was saddness but a sense of urgency because that man was seriously in darkness. He said he has demons in his life. And we got talking to him and he felt that Jesus had answered and heard his prayer. My eyes filled with more and more tears as I talked to this man. It made me understand even more what our Savior did for us. I'm so grateful he really did die for us. He atoned for every single thing we have felt or gone through. He knows us personally and I am so grateful for that also because I certainly don't understand what that man has experienced and felt but I know that our Savior Jesus Christ does and I am so grateful for that! I am grateful that i am a missionary and was able to talk to Charles yesterday and bring some light into his life. He can't see very good because his vision is really bad so tomorrow sister bee and I are going back to read the Book of mormon with him. He really liked that idea. Oh goodness life is it just great isn't it! Well not 100% of the time thats for sure but I love that we aren't alone in this life. That we can turn to our Savior and Heavenly Father for that extra strength and make it through anything that comes our way!

Oh remind me to tell you about this amazing investigator that we just commited to be baptized this morning named Rita on the phone on wednesday ok! I wish I had more time to tell you but on the phone will be even better!

Well I sure do love you all! Crazy to think in a few days I'll be in Brazil attempting to speak Portuguese! haha

oh thanks for the Easter Package mom and Kelley! they both just absoluetly made my day! and Kailee, Naomi, and Tiffany and Alyssa thanks so much for the letters! I'll write you soon! Probabaly on the plane! haha

ok gotta run but I love you all so so so much! have a blessed week!

EU AMO VOCE!

-Sister Gregory

Oi como vai minha familia e amigos?!!

So another great week! and yes my butt is sore. Sorry for the load of information!! haha we bike like mile after mile everyday. So its bound to happen right? we look so cute with matching helmets and bikes with our skirts blowing in the wind! haha it sure is a great workout! oh and I totally have a sun line from my watch. I'd say tan line but I'm not sure how long this will stick around!

ok now on a more serious note! So this week has been pretty great! We met a guy named Gary. he is a really cool guy! if your familiar with Sponge bob well his pet snail will explain Gary really well. He is a really great though. He doesn't say much but he's golden! We met him on like tuesday. Followed up with him on Friday and he came to church and I think loved it yesterday!! so amazing!! We are meeting with him this week and commit him to baptisim.

Then ok so a sad thing. Karry is another golden investigator we have. She is a mother of twins and asked to be baptized before we met with her! All of her friends are mormon and so pretty much she knows everything but just has us missionaries holding her back because we have to teach her everything before she can be baptized! Sounds so cool right? well we found out yesterday that her husband would divorce her if she got baptized.. yup super sad. So pretty much we haven't seen her since last thursday. So please keep her in your thoughts!

ok so I slacked on the e-mailing today.. I gotta run but please know I love you all!

Have the best Easter ever!! and know that the gospel is so amazing! I love sharing my testimony daily it really is the cure for unhappiness in your life. And if you want to see an unhappy missionary just make it rain and lightening all day so the missionaries can't go out. haha it was a depressing day! we couldn't work because it was so bad outside! But hey we got some good planning in! Gotta love alabama and tornado season!

Well I love you all!! Have the greatest week of your life!!

Eu amo voces muito!!

-Sister Gregory

Gotta love alabama!

OI Familia and Minha Amigos!

So first off, Thanks for the great letter sister Gajdos! It was great hearing from you! It definantely made my day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA!! Sorry I missed it last week... but I hope it was AMAZING! And MICKELLE HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON SATURDAY!! I hope its amazing! also hope the pregnancy is going great!

ok so about my week! It really was the greatest week ever. I can actually say that missionary work is fun! Not that it wasn't before but this past week things just went really well! I love serving with Sister Bee. She is such a hard worker but her love for the people, mission, etc is contageous so I really just enjoyed this week. The people we are teaching are so cool to! and I'd have to say that tracting this week was really successful and enjoyable! I really feel so blessed and am loving Huntsville! Also Obedience is so important! I'm coming to love being obedient! you get blessed so much!

So we are teaching a lady by the name of Elizabeth. She is so cool! She doesn't believe in God. She's very scientific so the questions she asks are so hard to even comprehend! We met her on hmmm.. I don't remember what day but she asked a question that sister bee and I have been thinking about all week long. She asked why do we need God? When people have faith its been proven that when you have faith in something a chemical reaction occures in the brain blah blah blah. Yup she lost me at that explanation but it got me thinking. Why do we need God? Well obviously I know why I need God. I know that without God and know that I am a daughter of God would give my life no purpose. I would just live in the moment and just be plan confused. But it was a great question so we told Elizabeth that we would pray about and it give it some more thought. Sister Bee brought up a good point today when it comes to that question. She said something like. The more spiritual knowledege we have the more scientific knowledge there is. True religion and science will never be at odds. So yeah that made alot of sense to me! We are still learning and trying to come up with the best way to help Elizabeth so I'll let you know how our lesson goes this week! gotta love it! We also have been running into alot of people that don't believe in God. Its super sad. But its all for a reason!

Hmm.. SO yesterday we had lunch with the cutes old couple ever! Sister and Brother Thomas. Brother Thomas is a member and his wife is a member of Church of Christ. They have been married for about 2 years or so. and guess how old they are!! 84 and 94! They are so cool! Sister Thomas talked our heads off about story after story. We ate pot roast and cooked cabbage! haha yum? then for dessert had jello, ice cream and muffins haha it made me laugh! oh they were the coolest people ever. Its amazing the people you meet here in alabama!

Everyday I meet someone with a great story or is just a very unique interested person! Like for example we are teaching a guy named Herold. He's 56. But when he introduces himself it Hi I'm Herold and this is Jasmine my dog. He loves his dog to death! He loves meeting with the missinarie also. He slowly progressing but is progressing! He loves the word of wisdom and wants to know why we need it and suchl. Why is it important to be careful what comes into our bodies. He really just doesn't want to give up using pot and drinking coffee. It just makes me laugh!

Gotta love alabama!

Well I'd love to tell more stories but gotta run! Thanks for all the support! I love you so so so much!

EU AMO VOCES! MUITO!!
-Sister Gregory

BAHHHH Sister Kemp got her Visa!! oh my goodness so exciting! So I feel like I'm the lone one left in Alabama! Sister Haslam and Scheewe left today for Brazil! so so so excited for them. Can't say I feel quite ready to leave yet but I feel like my time is coming so I'm a wee bit nervous! And a couple of the elders in my MTC district left also! oh my goodness I will get to Brazil!

So this week has been full of changes! But what week isn't! So I had a wonderful time in Oak Mountain on exchanges! I love sister Wegener! She is from Sandy Utah and we were instantly best friends! It was sad we only had like 24 hours together.. but I know we'll be friends after the mission and write till then. She's going to brazil also! she's serving in the Porto Alegre North mission. So maybe just maybe when I get my visa her and her companion will to! Lets pray for that ok! Her companion is going to the north mission as well. But yeah Iearned so much from the exchanged. It crazy how one thing can change your perspective. I learned how important the little things are in a mission. I learned how important it is to forget yourself. Always always lift up your companion and the people around you and how obedience to even the small things is so important. oh the list could go on! I sometimes wish I could just open my brain and put a fash drive into it to learn all the things I want! But i keep telling myself it will come. take it one step at a time! oh also include the lord daily. Prayer is key. so important! So yeah I really think I'm on the verge of getting a hang of this mission thing! Still so much to learn!

But I know the lord is in charge. It just blows my mind! So on Thursday morning I got a call from President. and he wanted to talk to me! And guess what I got transfered! to Huntsville! I don't know why I was so excited but I just freaked out! I guess the time for change was needed or something. And the best part out of it was I'm now in a apartment with four sisters and all of us are going to brazil or from brazil! bahhhh Can you believe it! you have no idea how excited I am! I am going to learn portuguese!! haha my new companion is sister Bee she is from Arizona and going to Joao Peso. She's been out for about a month longer than me so it should be exciting! The other two sisters are sister Bruno. She is from Sao Paulo. She is a Temple Square missionary and leaves in a week and half! So I've got to get in all the questions I have with her. and trust me I am! I'm going to get this language down! and the last sister is Sister Jones. She is from Lehi Ut and goign to Salvador! So yeah lets see how much my portuguese improves! President told me to learn as much portugese I can now. Talk portugues all of the time so lets pray I can do it! I feel like the Lord is telling me to really learn portuguese now becuase I will be in Brazil before I know it! ahh its kinda freaking me out! I love alabama! really really I do. But yes I was thinking about it and I could have gotten my visa this week but there is still a reason why I'm here. I was able to learn so much from Sister Moseng! Man I'm going to miss that girl! Really I am! She was the greatest and we had a blast together. Please visit her on the square when she comes back ok! She'll be back in Ut on the 25th of May so in a transfer. but yes please say hello to sister moseng! She was so amazing to me and I just loved the time we had together. I really do miss and will continue to miss her. oh goodness I hate goodbyes!

So I'm way excited about huntsville! Sister bee has been telling me all about the people here and how there is so many people that are on the verge of being baptized. She feels like people are really just walking up to them ready to hear the great word! And you know what she is just so great! I can already tell we are going to get along just wonderfully! yay new lovely changes!

ok well that was my week!

I know without a doubt that this church, the restored gospel of jesus christ of latter days saints is so true! I feel so blessed to be apart of this great work! oh its just so amazing isn't it!

I know that I'm here for a reason. I figured out why I was in Tucaloosa and that was to figure out myself. Figure out who this Jessica gregory person is. And I can't wait to see what huntsville brings! Wish me luck! I wish yall the best of luck at home! I love you all so much. SO so so much!

ok well I gotta run! Love you all! Eu amo Voce!

oh could you by chance send me sister Kemps address when her family knows? she wrote me and I think I'll hold off on sending her a letter till I know her brazil address.

ok gotta go! Love you so so much!
-Sister Gregory!!

Hello!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RASHELLE! I hope its great to finally be 21! How was your birthday yesterday? did you do anything special for the big 21? I hope it was great! Love ya!!

Thanks mom for the dear elder. I got it! I'll write you back soon! and tell Diane Hunter thanks for the letter! I got it yesterday! Its great hearing from great friends back at home!

and one last things CONGRATS again mom for being done with school! Thats a huge accomplishment! yay!!

ok so now onto my week! So a few changes happened. The first and saddest is Callie is no longer getting baptized. Yeah we kinda figured something was up when she keep avoiding our calls. We also stopped by randomly at her apartment to introduce ourselves and to set up another time to meet with her. We asked how her spring break was and well she said it was great! she loved spending the time with her family and that she would be heading back home in two weeks. well we did the math in our heads and guess what was happening in two weeks? her baptisim! Well we didn't want to say much there since we would see her later on that week as a dinner with one of the ward members here. Well the weekend came and we headed over to the dinner and Callie never showed up! Something was up so after we left to go home for the night we called her and asked what was up with not showing up. She said that she got busy with school but was going to head over the brannons in a bit to talk with them. She told us if we felt up to it to head over there. Well she was suppose to call us if she decided to head over and we didn't get a call. so an hour after that conversasion we called her back and the truth came out. She said that the church was right for her at this time. But she felt it was a great thing for her in the future. Well the next day we went over to her house to answer some questions she had and to get a better understanding of what really was going on. Well we got talking and she felt a lot of pressure to get baptized but wasn't so sure she knew it to be all true. We pretty much addressed some of her other concerns and questions and then said that she just needs to take that step of faith and that she doesn't need to know everything before getting baptized. That would almost be impossible! Well I know that someday in the future she will get baptized its just going to take some time for her to realize that she really wants it and knows it. But yeah it will happen!

Our other investigator Derek is progressing really well! We had a really great lesson this past tuesday and then Saturday night he came over to a members home with us to have dinner. we gave a lesson on the doctrine of christ. It was taught very well because the spirit was so strong and sister Moseng is a really great teacher. I've learned a lot just sitting there in lessons from her. She not only teaches the person were teaching but me also! but any who we invited Derek to be baptized and he hesitated but said that when he came to know it then there would be no reason for him not to get baptized. so yeah I guess time will only tell! He came to church yesterday also! He seemed to be a little over whelmed so... I guess we'll find out how things really are going the next time we see him. but he seems to really be progressing because he really wants to know! yay!

Well thats pretty much the main parts of the week! Sorry its so short! But I am looking forward to conference this week! yay! You'll have to tell me about your favorite talks or something!! oh and we're doing exchanges this week! I'm going to Oak mountain from wed-thurs night. I'll be with a sister that was a few weeks head of me in the MTC. She's a visa waiter also. I'll keep ya posted about that next week!

Well I love you all! Thanks for the love and support!!

tchau!!
-sister gregory

Hello mom, Dad, family and everyone!

Sounds like you had a blast at the game! Go BYU and Jimmer! Thats so cool he's pretty well known! oh so cool!

Thanks so much for the letters this week!

Happy Birthday Melody! Sorry I'm late... but I hope it was a wonderful one!! Love ya

Jeremy I haven't had the chance to read your letter but I'll read it sometime today! Thanks for the updates and for the letter! Its great hearing from you! Now if i could hear from I don't know kristina? Lindsey? life just might be complete! haha I miss you guys! tell me about your lives!!

Alrighties now onto my week. The reason why you probably love hearing from me! So I'm guessing you got my pictures! Thats exciting! I bought a flash drive. I'm hoping to put more pictures on that for you and I'll send that home more so you can see more recent pictures. ok now onto my week!

So this week over all was so great! We are getting more familiar with the ward and have come to really love the North Port ward! We spent an afternoon this week calling the entire ward roster! Man it took forever!! There was like 14 pages or something! So yeah we have a lot of appointments this coming week and hope to figure out who everyone is soon!

This past week we also have had many lessons! The Elders left us a lot of people to teach and since we are the only english speaking missionaries in North Port we've been staying busy! Missionary work is great when you stay busy! It was funny because this past week we've noticed the memebers we think are active are not and the ones that we think aren't active are so active! Its been pretty interesting.... yup thats all i can say about that one!

But the most exciting thing that happend yesterday was our investigator Melvin showed up at church! It was the coolest thing! We hadn't even met him yet and he came all by himself! we talked to him afterwards and he really loved it and wants to come back again! So we'll see how this week's lesson goes! He has a wife named april that we're hoping will come next time with him also. SO yeah things are working in Alabama! We have quite the teaching pool and a baptism set up by the elders for April 2nd. So we've got a fun week or so ahead of us!

This week I went to my first trailer park! Sister moseng and I were talking one day and saying how we wanted to go tracting in a trailer park. Yeah I know wierd but you've got to experience everything you can in the south! Well the next day the spanish elders called with two referals and guess where they lived! in a trailer park! yay haha. so yeah we met one of the ladies the other day and seems pretty interested. Her son and niece are two years old so they were all over the palce so teaching her was tricky. but she was really interested in how we as mormons live. if we even like being mormons and stuff like that. IT was funny because she even asked us " do you dress like this everyday?" we laughed as said heck no! Only as missionaries do we have to dress up everyday in public. haha we had a good laugh about that one!

Well that really is the run down of this week. Sorry not so exciting but hey things are progressing and missionary work is awesome!!

Thanks so much for all the love and support! I'll get more letters out today for all ya'll!!

Love sister Gregory!!

p.s. did you see the moon a few nights ago? It was so cool! sister moseng and I saw it as we were heading home one night and chased it down to get a sweet picture! I"ll send you what we got!!

Love you all!! Eu amo voces!!

Pictures of Jessica at MTC Feb 2011!

Snowing! Got to use new umbrella! Best day!

P-Day! Writing letters & waiting for laundry to dry!

With Sister Tingling

Last picture with district - sad day!

Tree huggers! with Sister Kemp

Going to Brazil!

Entire Zone! Love them all!

All the sisters in missionary zone

With sisters Kemp, White & Brady

With Sisters Goodwin & Benett

With sisters Holmes & Taylor

Saying good-bye to Sister Kemp - such a sad day!

About to leave the MTC for good - Feb. 16th