Hello everyone! 

Wow! What a week! This might be a long email so just be aware... Anyways we had Zone Conference this past week which was great! President Hughes is so amazing! One thing that he told us that I think we can all benefit from is how important hugs are. He kind of when off on a tangent about how when we hug someone it releases dopamine into our brains and just makes us a lot happier. They actually did a study with two babies where one was hugged everyday and the other one wasn't, and the baby that wasn't hugged everyday actually ended up dying. And when I first got to the mission field, I remember thinking to myself "why do the Elders hug each other so much?" But now I know that it is essential to my well-being. So just make sure to hug your loved ones! 

On Thursday we had a pretty spiritual experience. So during personal study Elder Cribbs and I both studied the section in Preach My Gospel about understanding and recognizing the spiritual promptings. But neither of us knew that we studied that section until we talked about it afterwards. And then when we were planning out our day, we decided that we would go to a town called Bossington to do some tracting later in the day. And then after our planning session we said a prayer to make sure everything felt right. And Elder Cribbs said that the town Washford immediately popped into his mind at the end of the prayer. So he said that we should go tracting in Washford instead of Bossington. So we changed our plans a little bit. Anyways, later that night we went tracting in Washford like we had planned, and we knocked on many doors. And it was just constant rejection after rejection. But right before we were about to leave we knocked on this one house. This man answered and said he would be willing to listen to what we had to say. We asked him if he was very religious, and he said no. But he said he believes there might be something, and he likes to think that his deceased loved ones are in a good place. Then we asked him if he had ever prayed before, and he said not until recently. He told us that we had incredible timing to knock on his door because he just found out earlier that morning that he was free from cancer. He said this past year has been so hard for him because he's been battling cancer, and so many of his family members have passed away. So him and his wife had been praying like crazy. I don't know how interested he is, but he wants us to teach him more. So we are going to his house later tonight.

Elder Cribbs and I have noticed that whenever we have a super spiritual experience, the next couple of days are just super hard. And that's how it was for me the next couple of days. I was so homesick and depressed. And I was just angry for some reason even though I had no reason to be. There were so many times when I just wanted to quit and throw in the towel. And I kept praying to God to receive an answer that this is really what I'm supposed to be doing. And on Saturday night I had an interesting dream... I had a dream that I quit my basketball team during the middle of the season. And in my dream I remember seeing the disappointment in Coach Foster, Coach Stewart, and Coach Wilson. And my teammates were also so disappointed that I quit and betrayed them. And when I woke up I didn't really think anything of it. But I just thought it was weird and sad that I would quit my basketball team. Because I knew I would never do that (even though it might have been tempting considering how bad our team was this past year). But I wondered if that could have been an answer to my prayer. But I was still bitter for some reason, and as the scriptures would say I "hardened my heart". But last night I was thinking more about that dream and how it could have been an answer to my prayer. God knows how important sports were and are to me. He knows that I would never quit. So I think in a way God was showing me that he is my coach along with Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. And the fellow missionaries are my teammates. And he doesn't want me to quit on them. So that was pretty interesting I thought.

Also just remember that you know someone loves you by how much they sacrifice for you. We know God loves us because he sacrificed his son for us. Let's try to sacrifice a little bit for the savior, for our family, for the world.

Love you all! Cheers!

Elder Wray