Six months down!!! I can't believe I have already been out for six months! Time flies! 

This past week I did a lot of reflecting on what I've learned in the last six months and how I can improve. I realized that I can't measure my success as a missionary by the outward results or else I will get discouraged. And discouragement weakens effectiveness. 

I've been reading and pondering a lot about one section in Preach My Gospel called "A Successful Missionary". One part of it says "Your success as a missionary is measured primarily by your commitment to find, teach, baptize, and confirm people and to help them become faithful members of the Church who enjoy the presence of the Holy Ghost. When you have done your very best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in yourself. You can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when you feel the Spirit working through you." My goal for the next 18 months is to measure my success in this way. I don't want to be disappointed in myself. And I know that if this is what I base my success off of and I work as hard as I can, then I won't be disappointed. 

I think a lot of missionaries when they face challenges early on wonder sometimes if they made the right decision to serve a mission. I'll be honest, early on in my mission, I thought that. I looked back. But what I would say to potential missionaries is to never look back once you get on that plane. 

My football coaches told me a story one time about some conquistadors I think it was. These conquistadors were going to conquer some land in South America. Once these warriors arrived on the shore, they set fire to their boats. Why? So that they had no option to return. They would rather die than return. So anyone who is pursuing any goal, don't quit! 

I heard about the passing of Kobe Bryant on Sunday. Kobe is one of my life's biggest icons. Growing up, I always wanted to be like Kobe. I would watch highlights of him all day long! My grandpa and I have been Lakers fans since day one, and I'd go to his house almost every Friday or Saturday night to watch the Lakers play. I always wanted Kobe's signature shoes each basketball season. Kobe has a different mindset. He has the Mamba Mentality! When the Celtics beat him in the Finals in 08, you knew it wasn't happening again. Sure enough he came back the next year and dethroned the Celtics. I have a plaque in my room at home of Kobe. It has a quote of his on it that says, "Heroes come and go, but legends last forever." You'll always be a legend in my book Kobe! Rest in Peace. 

I love you all! I know that this gospel is true! Death is not the end. Jesus Christ broke the bands of death so that we can live again. His example provides us the best course for happiness in this life as well. I love being able to share this message. I invite all of you to seriously consider how the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has impacted your life or how it can. I know that you will see the blessings that come from it. 

Also, I will be transferred to the Helston Ward this week. I'll be serving as a Plymouth Zone Leader with my boy, Elder Fellows. Elder Fellows came out on his mission the same time as me, and he's from Pocatello, Idaho. We've stayed in contact with each other even before we came on our missions, so it is so cool that we're serving together. I'm so excited!

Pics:

1. Elder Kozma and I ate out to celebrate the end of our transfer together!

2. Elder Konan and I on exchanges!

3. Newquay!

4. Frankie and Benny's was good!

5. Newquay at night!

6. A drawing of mine back when I was a young kid.

Hello everyone! 

Well... this past week started out with a bang... literally! On Tuesday morning I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and afterwards I started to feel a bit dizzy. The next thing I knew I was passed out on the bathroom floor. I just remember waking up with a big headache and a bloody elbow. I've never blacked out before, but it was crazy to experience it! I have no clue why it happened though. When I went back into the bedroom, Elder Kozma was like "what was that loud banging noise?" And I was like "uhhh..." 

Anyways, on Tuesday we had the "mission games", which was basically like the Olympics for our mission. It was kind of like Russet Olympics. We just played a bunch of games against each other and had a lot of fun! Our mission president just wanted to do something fun with us to help us all build relationships and have some fun. My district was called "The Cornwall Destroying Angels". And President Hughes chose to be on our team! It was awesome! I found out how competitive he is! It was so cool to see him in a more relaxed and casual environment. I also found out that his favorite singer is Billy Joel and that he is a Conner McGregor fan. 

We had some lessons with a few of our new friends this week. It was really good to get to know them better and help strengthen their faith. On Saturday we had a zone blitz, which is where our whole zone does street contacting together. We went to Exeter and just mobbed the place. It was really cool! I got to learn a lot from other missionaries and talk to a lot of people. One of my favorite parts about that day was before we went street contacting.  The assistants showed us one of my favorite motivational videos. It was the classic Eric Thomas video that talks about how, "you'll be successful when you want to be successful as bad as you want to breathe." If you haven't seen it, I would recommend you to watch it! It's awesome! 

I hope everyone is doing great! Keep going and keep having faith! The Lord can help you get through anything! He has a plan for all of us! Love you all!

Elder Wray

Hello everyone! 

This last week was probably the best week I've had on my mission so far! It was so good! I felt like we really lost ourselves in the service of others.  Just about everything we did felt extra worthwhile. 

We met this middle-aged man who said he was baptized into our church when he was a teenager. But he's going through some tough times right now and struggling with addictions. He's living in a homeless shelter right now, and we went to visit him there. We could tell that he just needed someone to talk to and give him hope. He was pretty emotional. It felt really good to be there for him though. 

The zone leaders came to have exchanges with us this week. One of my new zone leaders is Elder Fellows who is from Pocatello, Idaho. We came into the mission at the same time, so we know each other fairly well. It was fun to talk to him about football and other Idaho things. He is a legend! 

On Thursday we did some service for a family in our ward. They just moved into a new house recently. So we dug out a bunch of fence posts for them. Honestly, it was a lot of fun! I didn't think I would ever say that I enjoyed having a shovel in my hand after working at Mathews Plumbing for three summers, but I did enjoy it! It started pouring rain, and Elder Kozma and I just kept digging.  At this point in my mission, I couldn't care less about getting soaking wet. But Sister Clark told us we should go inside. 

Later that day we had district council. Before we left we were running a bit late because of a teaching appointment that went longer then we had planned. So before we left the flat to catch the train to Redruth for district council, we prayed that we would make it on time. We were walking as fast as we could to the train station, which is about a 15-20 minute walk from our flat, and a member of our bishopric, Brother Dean, drove by and he could tell that we were running late for something by the way we were walking. So he picked us up and drove us to the train station. I thought it was a small miracle and answer to our prayer. 

We had a lesson with a young single Mom on Saturday. We didn't think she was going to show up because we had texted her a few times to remind her of the lesson, but she never responded. But she was there in the park waiting for us when we showed up! I was pleasantly surprised! It turns out that her daughter broke her phone, so that's why she never responded. But it was nice meeting with her! She said she's been wanting to learn more about God. So hopefully we can continue to teach her more! 

It was a great week! I hope you all are doing well! I'd love to hear from you all!

Elder Wray

Hey everyone! 

It's been another great week here in the county of Cornwall! The weeks are really flying by! This past week we met with a returning member, Costin, and his family. He's from Romania, and he's awesome! He's like a brother to me! He told us that his daughter will need to be baptized soon, and he wants to do it which is really awesome. He also wants us to teach her the lessons, so that will be good. 

There is also another boy in our ward who is going to be baptized soon. He and his family live on the Isles of Scilly, but they are still part of our ward. They just do their meetings separately. But we will be able to video call him to teach him the lessons as well. 

Other than that, Elder Kozma and I have just been strolling the streets and talking to people about the Master. Elder Kozma and I saw a video today about a Christian man who is talking to people in Australia about the bush fires and how atheists are praying to God to help them. The people in the video were saying that it is just kind of a natural instinct. My trainer, Elder Cribbs, once told me, "you won't find an atheist on a sinking ship." And I agree with that! When a situation is out our own control, we look for a higher power to help us out. That's why basically all of the addiction recovery programs are "faith-based". Prayer really is powerful though. It is simple, but powerful. It has really helped me out on my mission. I would just invite you all to prayer during times of trouble and also when things are going good. I promise that you will feel peace and receive answers in their own due time. 

Love you all!

Elder Wray