I love Canada

Dear Family, 

Wednesday - Went to tres cruces and met my new comp, (who I already knew) and we went to our new house, which I don't like, it's basically a cave, the lights in the front room don't work, it's always cold, and I go last to shower and Solano uses all the hot water. So yea it's awesome. But then me and solano went around getting to know some of the members and got to know each other a little better and yea that's basically it.

Thursday - I started running out of money since I had to buy a pillow becuase they never gave me one when I got here. so I'm cutting into my emergency funds, but we just went around contacting, found a couple good future investigaotrs and got 1 new investigator. He's 17 and has a 2 month old kid with his 16 year old girlfriend. So yea..

Friday - we had a zone meeting and got to know everyone, and Nielsen is in my zone!! He's the new secretary in the offices, probably because his leg is messed up and he can't walk too much. Then I got my package from home!!! I love the shirt and the poncho. I already ripped it, and it got a little burnt when I went too close to the heater. Everyone was jealous of my candy, and that I got 2 packages already. Oh and me and Solano wore our touques out from home, he has one that says Peru on it. But also we walked a ton today. Our area is pretty big and all dirt roads, and we walk back and forth across the area alot for appointments. For some reason it gets super foggy here at night and sometimes you can barely see anything so me and solano when we were walking back to our house on the highway we starting walking like monkeys just to mess with people. Then we went to an investigators house of 10 years now, and during our lesson their roof was dripping on my head, haha kinda hard to focus with that, I had to keep wiping my hair and I tried moving too but it just followed me. Plus his house smells like dog poo, that also made it pretty hard. 

Saturday - we walked a lot again. Theres this huge field in-between the town we live in and a pueblito where some members live. So we cross that all the time and sometimes get pretty dirty. Then we met this family, I think they're investigators and we were just getting to know them. They said they play volleyball at the church on Saturdays, and the dad coaches. I said that I love volleyball and they said I could come help coach. It might be good because we have a future investigaotrs that plays there too. Then coming back we visited some members and he said to not walk through the field at night because it's dangerous. So he took us on a long walk to a road that connected to the highway. We walked about 1 hour out of the way instead of 10 minutes through the field, it wasn't fun.

Sunday - we were all introduced to the ward; except for Child's, he's the only one that stayed in the ward. We had a non member come to the church with his cousin I think, and he asked for a Book of Mormon. We gave him one and I think we're meeting with him this week. We went to Hermano Lopez's home - the member we visit across the field. We walked around with him for 2 hours getting to know the pueblito called bella vista (the town across the field) then we went to that old investigators house. I gave him a blessing because I think he has the flu, and he gave us a package of waffers each. 

Monday - woke up and ate, cleaned the house and now I'm emailing in a mall because I think it's the only one that is in our zone, 

I got really homesick this week, but I'm good now.

Love 

Elder Grigor 

***sooooo... I forgot my camera in the shuttle that took me to my new house. umm don't know if I'll ever get that back, so right now I'm just using the pics on my companions camera.

"Me and my new house mates" 

"My new poncho!! Happy Canada Day" 

"This is the landlords cat that chills with us sometimes" 

I'm getting transferred!!!

June 21st, 2016

Dear Family, 

Ok Tuesday-we had a zone intercambio so instead of just the people in your district you go with anyone in the zone (except sisters) and I came back to Santa Lucia with Elder Stewart, my zone leader, so first we had lunch with a member who I had never been to before, so we got lost for a while then we found it, and they have a suuuuper fat dog, like a 70 pound lab. I didn’t get a picture though, then we just did some visits, Elder Stewart is super cool and works super hard, he’s got about 4 months left.

Wednesday-we went back to Alspiedras and I bought 3.5kg of cereal for the next 2 weeks for about $12. I think I got myself a pretty good deal. Then we basically hung out with the ward mission leader all day because we had lunch with him, which usually goes long, then we visited some less actives and went back for a noche de hogar (family home evening) with the ward mission leader and Pierce took pictures with them because we knew he was leaving.

Thursday- was pretty normal we went to the book store thing and talked with the lady there, and a drunk dude came in speaking english to us a little, then spoke english to the lady at the front and starting laughing, then we all started laughing. But then everything else was pretty normal.

(I mixed up the day here,I wrote the Friday as Thursday so at the start it may sound weird because I tried explaining the papeleria thing)

Friday-we went to the papeleria which is like a book store?? I’m really not sure. It’s like Staples but owned by normal people. We talked with her for a while and we’re actually becoming pretty good friends. We gave her the first lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was really excited and told us that she wanted us to come over to her house to hang out more, and to play playstation. Although it was tempting, we said we could come over, but no playstation. She's super funny.

Saturday- was just a normal day. We didn't have too much but we taught Gonzalo about temples and the importance of them and what happens in there. It was good because his member wife was saying that she wants to go do baptisms for family members there but can’t cuz they aren’t married so that’ll be a good push for them so they could get baptized really soon depending on the marriage date.

Sunday- We had stake conference today and it was super late at 4. So we took a bus at about 2 to get there early so we could do some choir thing in front of the doors while people walked in. On the bus we talked to a drunk guy for about half an hour. He was pretty hard to understand but he was drunk and I can barely understand when other people talk to me. When we got there we did the singing thing, and Elder Eduardo a member of the 70 spoke, then we took a bus home that the church rented.

Monday- today was crazy. So we had lunch with Wilson, the first counsellor who's in the wheelchair, and he’s is awesome. He always gives us guiso which is just vegetable soup with some meat. Pierce got pics with him, then we went to Washington a less active member and Pierce got a call half way through saying that he was white wash training in Santa Lucia. Then President cook realized that it was Pierce and said, oh your going to Parque de plata as a district leader, and we still don’t know about your companion yet. So then I started to get pictures with everyone after that, because we knew I was leaving but we just didn't know where. So then we just had some normal visits, I didn’t get a picture with Wilson but the one in the Liahona will do. Then we got home, and I’m going to the zone este (east) so east Montevideo in somewhere called aeroparque (aeropark) ITS RIGHT NEXT TO THE AIRPORT SO I WILL HEAR PLANES GOING BY ALL THE TIME, (whoops didn’t mean for caps but whatever) yea crazy!!! and I’m companions with Elder Solano, he has 2 changes left and he’s in my zone right now. So I’m leaving white wash to go whitewash another area, so hopefully Nancy and Gonzalo will stay good. I can say that I helped to bring about a change in them.  Well maybe not Nancy, the Furtado family did that, but we did find her. 

Tuesday- this morning we started packing and I got everything in my bag except for my cereal. I can stuff that in my backpack because I have barely any money left and there’s still lots of it.  After this were gonna go to Maria Esperanza and say goodbye to all them. I think they are throwing us a goodbye party or something. 

Pretty crazy week, next week will probably be a pretty short email because we’re white washing. That’s when we both go there and don’t know anything about the area, but I’m excited and I have a Peruvian to help improve my Spanish.

les quiero

Elder Grigor

My extra large bag of cereal!!! 

This furniture store was super comfy!!! 

             This lady on our wall looks like Hailey, I never noticed that until now.

  We made a huge asado thing, ooohhhh I forgot about that! We used all of our               dried wood and made a a big fire thing for Pierces 1 year. 

We had to use a nasty old shirt in our backyard to get the fire going!!

 

"My desk compared to Pierce's haha" 

(Elder Grigor's desk in the one on the right side)

I said: Your desk is so clean!!!! What happened to you???? hahaha

  Then he told me: haha I don't know??? I hate having messes

** good to see he's learning some good habits :) 

Rosanna and Emanuel are recent converts here.  

The Furtado family who visit Nancy with us. 

Their son is super cool too, we always mess with him.

Another family in our ward, the Layes family. 

They are super cool too. 

I hope they will still be there when I come back 

Washington and his wife 

The lady who owns the papleria 

I have been out for almost 4 months !!!!

June 13th, 2016 

Dear Family, 

I wrote you already on Tuesday and not really anything happened then, and next week p-day is Tuesday because it’s changes next week. Also on Friday I have been gone for 4 months already!! Thats crazy, it doesn't feel like that long. 

Wednesday I honestly can’t really remember what we have been doing anymore, we probably just got rejected like usual

Thursday we had another lesson with Nancy, and we taught her the 3rd lesson, The Doctrine of Jesus Christ and invited her to be baptized on July 9th. She said yes and that she had no doubt this is what she wanted. We got pretty excited about that, but something bad happened a little later and I’ll get to that.

Friday was just another normal mission day, we didn’t find any new investigators but we just went around to less actives because we had Gonzalo on Saturday

Saturday. We still visited a lot of less actives, because almost every door in Santa Lucia has been knocked, it’s just the pueblitos (small towns) that we haven't gone to yet. But then Gonzalo cancelled on us and said to go by tomorrow to give his wife a blessing for her operation on Tuesday.

So Sunday we were hoping Nancy would come, but apparently from what it sounded like, she had a stroke but I don’t really know. But the left side of her face she couldn't move, and apparently in our first lesson she said she’s had problems with her health. And the member that visits her with us said she probably doesn’t have very long. So hopefully she will get better. Then we visited some less actives, and we went to a old folks home and did the sacrament for a lady there who can’t come to the church, we basically had a mini sacrament meeting there.

This morning we came down to Las Piedras for p-day and we will stay the night for the zone breakfast thingy tomorrow, then we have intercambios and then i will be back home, probably on Wednesday or something like that. 

Pretty normal yet crazy week, and I only have on more week with Elder Pierce, then by the end of next change I’ll already be out for 6 months. Time is flying here, I really hope it doesn’t slow down too much later on. 

I could just think it’s going fast and it’s really just a little bit faster than what I’m used to, anyways love you talk to you guys next week!

Elder Grigor

* no pictures this week!! Too busy with missionary work 

The work is progressing

June 7th, 2016 

Dear Family, 

Tuesday- so I started to run out of giro. I think I officially ran out of money on today, so we had district meetings then came back and went to an old investigators house but they weren’t home so we were walking home and found this cool abandoned house, I got a picture but not much else happened that day. 

Wednesday- giro came gladly and we because we needed to catch a bus to ituzaingo, a little town for our lunch, well we missed the bus that goes there and only one comes around ever 2 hours so we started walking/jogging and then Wilson came ripping down the highway after we got about 2 kilometers in his car. Which is weird because he’s our 2nd counselor in the ward and is paralyzed from the waist down. But he had a tricked out car with almost like motorbike handles as the steering wheel, pretty cool. Then we got bored that night and found a cool park and made some funny videos

Thursday started off slow but got sooo much better. So we had nothing to do all day and only had our ward mission leader with a noche de hogar, which we were looking forward too. But we got a call from these people in our ward about an investigator who wanted to talk with us and the only time to do it was that night at 7. So we were thinking and decided to cancel our noche de hogar(family home evening). We went over and she’s about 50 and lives alone, but she told us there was something different about the furtados (the family we were visiting with) they just had something bright about them. So we began the lesson and said we would read the folletos (pamphlet’s) together one paragraph then switch. Well she read all of it then after basically explained it perfectly back to us saying, oh so it’s like this. And she never talked to missionaries before just because they were missionaries, but now she says I wish I would’ve. It was great!! 

Friday... so this dude came to our door selling this little cart of wood, saying viste!!!! bien seco!!! which means “you see very dry!”, so we bought it thinking we could have a fire or something, about 3 dollars each, so he starts taking it into our house and we helped, well it was not dry wood. It felt like a rotten log that he just pulled out of the river. Come to think of it he probably diid, so now we just have this wood in our house, hopefully it’ll dry out enough to light it.

Saturday was a normal day, just taught a bunch of lessons, can’t really remember what happened.

Sunday we were hoping Nancy would come, the awesome investigator, but she didn’t. Surprisingly Gonzalo did, and he was sitting in the classes with us and we talked about eternal families in Sunday School and after he made us take a picture of his family in front of the church, so maybe he will get married soon.

Monday was our multizone activity, so we stayed the night at Oblisco with Elder Vanderlinden and Elder Montiel on sunday then went to Norte. We messed around in the gym for a while playing basketball and soccer. And guess what, Nielsen is in Norte!! and he’s in the ward up by the temple in Calgary. We played basketball for a while then went back to their house to eat. And Nielsen made costa vida pulled pork and we put that in quesadillas, it was sooo good. Also while those were cooking me and pierce visited one of his converts. A 14 year old who still loves the church which is rare. Then we thought we would go to Ciber, but the only train that went to Santa Lucia was at 4 when we were going to do Ciber. We forgot we had a lesson with Nancy that night, so we got on it, then waited in Progreso for about 1 hour for a bus to Santa Lucia, got back at around 6:30, went to Ciber to print something off for the zone leaders then had another good lesson with Nancy.

Tuesday we had a zone conference today at Las Piedras and then just went to some recent converts and talked about the Book of Mosiah and how it was written because it’s pretty confusing.

yea all in all a good week except for the Ciber part and emailing, but we still did that today so its all goood!!! 

Love

Elder Grigor

Cool House in Uruguay 

The river after all the rain. 

It was about 10 feet lower before all the rain. 

Sone activity with the missionaries 

Our wet pile of wood!!! 

My pillow case smudged all over my pillow :( 

Playing at the park 

I sang in church

May 30th, 2016

Hola

So Tuesday was district meetings and I had an Intercambio with Elder Ruiz again in San Jose. So we went up there, got some food and just did a bunch of contacting. Then went to an investigators house and they gave us dinner at about 8:50 and I had 3 plates of this pasta stuff with meatballs. Then at about 9:20 we realized what time it was and took a taxi to the other side of town which only took 5 minutes and it cost 120 pesos which is a lot for us.

Wednesday: I can’t really remember what we did I think we had conselio with our d.o.m which we just meet with him once a week, and we sang count your blessings and he said: wow that sounded really good, let’s sing it Sunday, so we said sure, not thinking we would actually do it, we did...

Thursday was a multi zone conference, so we took a bus to Canelones and then took a shuttle up to the zone above us in Florida. On the way up we had to stop on the road because a bunch of cows were crossing the road, then we got there and listened to Hermana Cook and President Cook talk for a while, had sloppy joes for lunch (I had 4) then ice cream and cake afterwards. Then did a bunch of practices and got home at about 9 

Friday, just a normal day- proselyting and not really doing anything else, but that night we got a call from someone in our ward telling us about a girl that we should visit so we might do that this week.

Saturday was an open chapel in Las Piedras, so we went down there and it’s basically just a tour of the church for members and non members. They had food and stuff too, but the Elders went out trying to find people and tell them about it. And while we were out Pierce really had to go to the bathroom, and we asked a bunch of stores and they all said no, go to the casino, so we finally did, and they asked us to take our name tags off to go through, haha so now I can say I’ve been to a casino in Uruguay

Sunday we sang in church, just us and our d.o.m (ward mission leader), it wasn’t too bad, then we bore our testimonies afterwards. We went to Maria Esperanza’s house and she gave us some cookies, and that’s about it, we didn’t do much that day.

Today we just went to the church and made hot dogs and played soccer pretty much all day. Not too fun but we have a multizone activity next week so we thought we could stay in our own zone for a p-day. 

Thats about it, not too much but hopefully this new lady can turn into a new investigator, which would make us have 2 investigators!! whoop whoop

Love,

Elder Grigor

Intercambio with Elder Ruiz 

Sunset Pictures in Uruguay with Elder Grigor 

President & Sister Cook with Elder Grigor 

Goofing around on the bus 

We got this from a lady in our ward. 

It's 40 pesos in some paper which is about$1.30