This is what I am supposed to be doing

Hola Todos,

This week was pretty normal. Tuesday I’m not really sure what we did, the days are starting to blur together, I’m gonna have to start bringing my journal to these so I can remember. Oh, we got put on red alert that day for a tornado, so we had to stay inside most of the day. We could only be out if we had something or somewhere to be. So we called all of our appointments and no one was available so we couldn’t go outside. Wednesday we had a lot of lessons and one of our investigators came up to us in the street and poured out his heart of how he wanted to be baptized and go to church. So we went by the next day and he said he wasn’t sure if he would go to church. My comp said people do that all the time, tell you how they feel then they don’t do anything afterwards. Thursday was a normal day but we saw a Mexican stand off between three dogs, all looking back and forth at each other then we walked over and they all looked at us, looked back at each other and took off, it was soo weird but pretty funny, Friday we had an interview conference with our mission president. We were taught a bunch of lessons and had interviews with the president about how things are going and got fed lunch, which was rice and rotisserie chicken. It was good to have something from home for once. We are supposed to have another conference thing with the president this Friday too. Then it was a less active members birthday so we went over there and had pizza, which here is just cold bread and sauce and he gave us a whole one for the next day. So Saturday we cooked it up at the church after buying some cheese in the Fereria, which is just little markets that open up every Saturday. We watched Prince of Egypt at the church, ate pizza and drank tap water because we were super thirsty, so hopefully that doesn’t come back to bite me. On Sunday I was introduced in church by giving a talk, so I talked about Alma the Younger and how even the worst people can change and realize the truth behind our church. We went to Elder Anderson’s house Sunday because today is p-day and we have a district meeting tomorrow, so instead of making 2 trips for p-day and the meeting we decided to save money and came down last night. I am having a really fun time down here, I miss home a lot but I wouldn’t go back until my call is up. It finally hit me that this is what I’m supposed to be doing and I had a super calm feeling. And now when I think of home it’s only good  memories that I can share, and I can’t wait to make more throughout my mission and when I come home. Time is going so fast here and I feel like I have only been out for maybe a couple weeks, which is good. I just wish it would stop raining here. 

I love all of you and can’t wait to talk to your faces in two weeks!!!

Elder Grigor 

"A pretty big spider that we saw" 

"So much studying, I always feel like my head is going to explode"

"This ice cream was amazing. It was only 73 pesos,which is like $2.30 US" 

Looks so good!!! 

It has been raining like crazy here

Hola todo,

This week was crazy. So it has been raining like crazy here, over the week it'll rain crazy hard for 20 minutes then let up but it'll rain almost all day, every day.There’s one family that we teach and there houses are a pretty far walk from the city, and them and their cousins all live together. There are four houses, three together then a big ditch thing, it’s like a hill but inverted, I don't know how to say that. But on the other side is another house and it is now completely cut off from the others because this small valley thing flooded, so now they need to take a boat to get to the other houses. I believe I have a picture of it. 

On Monday it was pretty normal, just p-day, taught some lessons I cant really remember what happened. Then Tuesday we had a district meeting then intercambios (exchanges) afterwards and I went with Elder Ruis, I don’t know if I took a picture or not but it was cool to see all the other investigators he had. Then Wednesday we changed back and we had lunch at the second counsellors house which was awesome. He’s the second counsellor and he is in a wheelchair. Some people from the Liahona were there taking pictures of him and us having lunch. So in like a year I think I’ll be in a Liahona!!!! I’m gonna be in a magazine! I hope they don’t cover my head up with a bar code. Oh and before that we were waiting for a bus to go out to his house because it’s in a pueblito (small town thing) and the second counsellor for the stake saw us and gave us a ride! Then I’m not too sure what happened on Thursday. It’s just been raining like crazy here. So we are going to members and less actives houses, but not many of our investigators are letting us in because it’s a bad time or something else. Most of our investigators are not progressing and nobody talks to us in the streets right now because they just want to get out of the rain and don’t care about anything else. Friday and Saturday were pretty much the same, I cant remember too much other than the river is crazy high now. On Sunday they still didn’t introduce me so I don’t know when they will do that, I cant understand most of whats said, but I can pretty much always understand gospel terms because that’s all we did in the MTC.

Today we had a zone activity, we played soccer for a bit, ate, then played circle of death with a volleyball; everyone just volleys until someone messes up then they go in the middle and we get to hit it at them until we hit them. Then we played gringos vs latinos in soccer and we were killing them 4-1, then they caught up and we lost 6-5 but that’s the closest they have ever come. 

This is a long one so I’ll wrap it up, yo amo esta mision, finalmente me dio cuenta yo debo estar aqui! Tambien am otodos de ustedes, 

Love,

Elder Grigor

Just a little clip showing how much it's been raining 

The rain keeps coming

Elder Grigor smiling even though he is soaking wet 

Two thumbs up! 

Being goofy in the rain 

Elder Grigor with his companion 

A typical meal in Uruguay. Justin does NOT eat vegetables. So this is a big deal for him!!! 

My Spanish is getting better

Hola!

So this week went by really fast, like it felt like I just wrote you guys. But it was a good week! Monday we went to "noche de hogar" (family home evening) at the ward mission leaders house and had some "tortas fritas", which is just like a scone thing, or a beavertail just without the toppings, so just the dough fried in fat. And now I really want some beaver tails. Then Tuesday was pretty funny. We were teaching a lesson at Maria's house, where all the kids hang out. We heard this weird noise, it went on for about thirty seconds. We were all looking around trying to see what it was and then we all see this cat sneezing, and the sneezes were within 1/4 of a second of each other for like 30 seconds. Haha it  was pretty funny. 

The next day we saw a lady on a moto get hit by a car, well we heard it, then walked by it. They weren't going very fast, but she got pretty banged up. There were a lot of people there to help her out and an ambulance. 

We had another district meeting on Wednesday and I understood almost everything that the Americans were saying in Spanish. I just can't understand the latinos, but I'm getting better. 

 

On Saturday not much happened, I can't really remember it too much, just that we walked a lot. On Sunday I was supposed to get introduced to the ward but they didn't do it, and it was also Fast Sunday. Today we went to the river and messed around for a bit, did some hiking. The rain here made the river super wide now, so there's only a little bit of beach now. I'll try to send pictures. 

Well everything is good here, food is great but I wish there was more meat, meat here is expensive suprisingly even though there's more cows here than people. But it's mostly noodles, or rice meals. I'm sure after a while that will get old. In the MTC we got sooo much meat, but here meat is more expensive than in Argentina.  

We have lunch with the members because they eat dinner here at like 9pm, so we do breakfast and dinner on our own. This week we have a lunch everyday, but next week I don't think we have any, so we will have to see if anyone will have us over. 

Thanks for sharing about Erik's experience about whether to accept a scholarship at school or serve a mission. It just shows how the Lord knows what we want and what comes from faith.

I'm starting to get used to everything now, except writing home for only an hour. I can never fit everything in.

Thanks for all the pictures this week. I loved them. Haha Adelaide is so funny. Hey dad- we all need to wear our onesies when I get home.

Anyways that was my week, it's been fun here teaching but our investigators are not really progressing too much, I hope that changes. 

Love, 

Elder Grigor

Elder Grigor taking a selfie :) 

We call this horse Bruno Mars 

It rained so much! 

I am in Uruguay !!!

Hey everyone,

So I left the MTC last week and a lot of the feelings I had when I left home came back. I felt like I wanted to go home and not be here. This week I have been pretty home sick though. 

I went out my first day with Elder Brumble my godfather - they are the people you tract with on your first day. He’s the short one I have a pic with. We taught a man whose right side of his body didn't work. He was so spiritual it was awesome, he started crying when we gave him an easter hand out card with Jesus on it. The next day I met my new companion Elder Pierce. He’s awesome!

I am in a place called Santa Lucia. It’s a pretty nice town, very small but the people are awesome, they all say hi to you before we do. We started teaching people and there are 2 inactive people that left the church for different reasons.  One is a returned missionary who left because someone wasn't going to show up for prayer in church, and the bishop asked her, then the person came and said she didn't need to do it anymore and now she is inactive. Another man is super strong in all his beliefs in the church, still wears garments and everything, but left because the ward isn't doing anything to help others in the community. He got in some fights with the presidents here and now he doesn’t attend anymore. Oh and we taught him and we stayed there for 3 hours because he wouldn't let us leave, we tried to leave but he would say oh just one more second then talk for 30 minutes. 

We have a couple investigators that we taught. One is a 15 year old girl with a smoking addiction. Her friends were actually there when we taught her, and they started asking us if we had girlfriends and or wanted one. Another is an older lady who has her house open to lots of kids, I don’t know if they are related or anything but their awesome. We have another investigator another who’s about to set a marriage date so then they will be baptized after that. We have a family of investigators and they had a couple lessons with the missionaries maybe 2 months ago but we’re teaching them now. We also have another guy; he was in a bad car accident and all his friends died and I think he’s inactive but we’re teaching him. It’s funny a lot of these people would never let missionaries into their houses, but now their inviting us in. Elder Pierce calls it “oro magic”.  Basically when all the new americans teach, they don’t speak in complete sentences so when the investigator thinks about what they are saying it just hits them. 

I forgot the keys to our house in the lock on Saturday night after conference; which was all in Spanish so I didn't get anything out of it. We heard knocking and our doorbell at 5:00 in the morning and left it because we thought it was just some kids. But then we noticed the key was gone, so all day Sunday we were stuck in our house doing nothing because we couldn't lock our house to leave. This morning at 5:00 am again we heard knocking and our door ringing. So we got up and answered it and it was the guy who took it, but he said he found it in the street somewhere and somehow knew it was our key. He was asking for money for finding it so we gave him 30 pesos Uruguayan which is like a dollar, but we got our key back! 

Oh also the person that just went home that lived in our house left his dvd player, but it doesn’t work, so I bought one with my birthday money because it also plays music since Ty’s speaker doesn’t work. Now we can watch the district videos from it, which we need to watch to train. Anyways, I need to go now but that was my week and a half!

Love you 

Elder Grigor 

"I got bleach on my shoe, but I fixed it!" 

I am sure these will look a lot more worn out by the end of his 2 years in them! 

Elder Grigor spent his 19th birthday in the MTC in Buenos Aries, Argentina. 

Elder Grigor at the MTC with his roommates and companion 

Elder Grigor with his district in the MTC 

Driving down the highway in Montevideo, Uruguay 

Elder Grigor & Elder Brumble 

Elder Grigor's closet 

Elder Grigor's apartment in Santa Lucia 

 

Now I know why they take shower sandals with them. 

Humble beginnings for Elder Grigor

Cool shot 

Rocking the onesie that he got for his birthday from this siblings before he left 

All his years of making quesadilla's and tacos at home has paid off! 

I am sure Elder Grigor is in heaven with this meal. 

A future fixer upper for Jake, Isaiah and Justin to work on :). 

They would just need to get it home from Uruguay!