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

Still in Alabama!

Hello everyone and Family!!
So how is everyone!? Busy with work? School? How's baby Jane doing? OH I did see that Bentley is here! How exciting!! Yay!! Well I hope you had an amazing birthday Kelley!! And Bronson you have a wonderful one this weekend ok!!

Well like I said this week has been full of changes!! Its been such a great week! ok so first off I'll get to the big news. Sister Moseng and I have been transfer about 10 min away to North Port!! The ward there shares the same church building as the Tuscaloosa ward so really its not that far away. The reason for this change is this past week 6 missionaries got their visas and left for Brazil! Missionaries really do end up in Brazil someday!! but yeah they left for Brazil this week so they needed to put missionaries where they were at in Mississippi. So two elders in my district Elder Gibson and Arnow left North Port and headed to Mississippi this past Saturday! And only like a couple hours after they left did sister Moseng and I get the call that we were heading over to North Port! So yeah we have a lot to figure out but couldn't be more excited for this change. We'll no longer be sharing an apartment with the other sisters so language study will be interesting. I'll have to figure out a really good study plan so I don't forget everything!! that would be bad! but we'll probably every now and then do exchanges so I can get some good language study in with them! Cross your fingers I don't lose my Portuguese! But yeah the apartment isn't too bad and I can't wait to get North Port figured out! The ward seems pretty great! We went there for the first time yesterday. I love it because there is a lot of Spanish speaking people in this ward so I get to over hear some Spanish and guess what! I understand a bit of it! Of course I can't speak Spanish but... I can listen and somewhat understand it! Yay go me! I'm hoping that this can in some way help me with Portuguese. But yes the people are so great and I again can't wait to get to know more of the members. Oh I totally know someone in the ward here! Her name is Jane Ann Fossen. Her maiden name was Patch. She's from alpine and graduated a year ahead of me. So it’s great to see a familiar face. It’s crazy how small the world really is! So yeah I found that exciting. Oh and along with sister Moseng and I in the ward there is another set of missionaries that are Spanish speaking in the ward also which makes perfect sense because well there is a lot of Spanish speaking members. The two Spanish Elders are my district leader and his companion. Elder Linnenman and Haws. They both leave to go home soon! It’s so crazy! Missionaries really do go home someday! craziness! But yeah that’s pretty much the North Port business! Oh so pretty much today we'll be moving to a new apartment! and de-stinkafiing it from the elders! haha oh that should be fun!

Birmingham was so great! we where there for pretty much all the day on tuesday and wednesday. oh I learned so much and it was fun meeting so many more missionaries! I'm sure you saw all the lovely pictures of the conferences and that goodness. President loves to take pictures!! But because of time I will share with you the highlights of the two days. First: When I was at the Sisters conference one of the thing president talked about was the story of David and Goliath. He pretty much explained to us that we need to run towards our enemies and confront them! To take our five stones and personality or what we have to offer and go for it! The Lord will provide the rest. It was pretty comforting to me because I have tended to doubt myself a bit and really wonder if I'm cut out for this mission thing. But as he explained the Story of David and Goliath that way, it helped a lot and made me realize to just be me. Try my best each day and look at the new things I’ve learn or things I need to improve on and go from there; to forget myself and get to work! I can to it all with the lord on my side. Man I could go on forever. And sorry if it’s hard to follow all my thoughts! I really have learned so much as I've been now out in Alabama for what a month now? Crazy!! But yeah it is so crazy how much you can learn in that short amount of time! It’s been tough at times and will continue to be that way but I am so grateful for the experiences I've had to learn more about who I am as a person and what I can offer as a missionary. I know that Lord is in control of all and all I need to do is to make my will in line with HIs. To not doubt myself and to really press forward with that strong faith I have. Learn to love the work and the people. Be positive and smile always! haha like a said I can go on forever but thanks so much everyone for your prayers, thoughts and just your wonderful examples!! I love you all and I will continue to what I'm doing!!

Well I best be going! Eu amo Voces!!

-sister Gregory

Jessica with her zone at the Birmingham, Alabama Temple

There's Jessica with the other sister missionaries in the Birmingham, Alabama mission

Jessica at missionary conference - Birmingham, Alabama