First Week in Arizona: Aug 22, 2016

This is the note he wrote us when he got there. He had just a few hours of sleep when he wrote this and you can tell a little :) I made it to Phoenix. First of all, I wanted to talk about the plane. Both awesome and terrifying, every time the plane moved in a funny way I thought it was over. It was beautiful too. The ground from a plane looks just like Google Earth. Who knew? Clouds also look super cool from a plane. Like ripped up cotton. I met my mission president and he's really cool. They just fed us sandwiches. I'll try and tell you who my companion is. I don't get transferred out to my area until tomorrow, so I don't know even where I'm going yet. And everyone was right, it feels exactly like opening an oven. Just one difference: you have to keep your face in the oven until you can run inside. I'm super tired still. I'm going to do what my district calls Elder Gray prayers. Back when I didn't sleep well and I just fell asleep we joked that I just prayed a lot. Kind of funny. I'm actually really worried and anxious about not seeing my friends from the district. The ones going to Salt Lake City South I already had to say goodbye to. Oh, and saguaros are everywhere. It's strange to see a different landscape and thinking that I'll be seeing it always for two years. I'll leave you with a spiritual thought and my testimony. A good way to define “obedience” is “trust in the Lord”. Because with the knowledge or testimony that God loves us, then if we trust him by keeping his Commandments and obeying Christ’s word we are showing trust in Him. And here's why if we know He loves us then why wouldn't we trust that obedience or trusting him is a way for him to bless us. He loves us so being obedient can only bless us “for He is bound” if we follow him. And that's what obedience is. It leads to happiness, protection from sin, and deepening conversion in the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ
Love, Elder Gray.

This is from his email today: Just to answer a few questions: No it is not hot, yes it is awesome, and my companion is the coolest. And the funny thing is I don't actually live around saguaros since I'm in Cottonwood. My first day in the actual field started with me waking up and getting ready to meet my companion for the first time. When I first met him the first thing he did was give me a big hug that lifted me off my feet. His name is Elder Townsend. He's super cool. He was a beekeeper in Florida and a great missionary. He's taught me a lot already. The cool thing is that he actually did something called flip trained. He just finished his first three months which is our training period and now right after he starts training me. My area is a few cities around Cottonwood, a super cool area. I've loved it here. It's not as hot as Phoenix, and it's actually rained quite a bit. People tell me that I got really lucky with the weather so far because it can get to almost really warm temperatures here, but I'm going to skip all of that. My home is pretty cool too. The power went out the first day while I was writing in my journal. So far the best thing I ate is this sandwich thing called a Torta. It's got carne asada and refried beans to start out, some tasty sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese. It was so good. The coolest thing though is the people, they are so amazing. The members all are so nice, we actually have dinner appointments most every night. And even the nonmembers are all so cool. This area is the perfect example of a white field being ready to harvest. I already have put my first person on date to be baptized. And we have two people being baptized this Saturday. And it really is about being baptized, but that isn't the end goal. That is the beginning of our end goal. We want our investigators to be baptized and after that we continue to help them to the real end goal which is Eternal Life living with our Heavenly Father again. So as a missionary I just can't be about getting statistics high. The goal is to work hard enough so that my efforts bring the most people that I can, with the help and strength of Jesus Christ, bring the most people unto Christ as is possible at this moment. Because people need our Savior.