It would’ve been nice to have been there, but I’m needed here.

Monday July 25th, 

I forgot my planner at the house so I’m just gonna give a big summary of the things I can remember. 

So we went by tons of people this week. 1 guy his name is Homberto and he’s less active, but we have been reactivating him. He still hasn't come to church yet, he says he wants to. We even gave him clothes to come so he wouldn't feel uncomfortable, and shoes, but he didn't come because he said the shoes were a little too big.

Another thing - we are teaching a member his name is Edison and we’re baptizing him this Saturday because he’s 9 and still hasn't been baptized. So we’re just about done teaching him and we are baptizing another 8 year old. He’s the son of an investigator that comes to church every week and wants to get baptized, but isn't married yet. Her boyfriend says the start of next year when they finish building the new house, but I doubt it will happen. Pretty much every problem that people have with getting baptized is they aren't married and their spouses don't want to. We started teaching him last Friday and he’s getting baptized this Saturday. 

Another thing I heard that Nancy got baptized, our investigator that we found and taught from from Santa Lucia. Woohoo! It would've been nice to have been there, but I'm needed here. 

Then we had something bad happen. We were contacting all morning and we were fasting as a district for the work in our areas. Before lunch we went to the church to break our fast because it was close. Someone left a door open and some guys got in and sprayed the fire extinguishers everywhere. Some rooms there were completely yellow with the dust. So we spent 3 hours from 2-5 on Saturday cleaning the sacrament room and a little of the hallway. Then a bunch of members came to help with it. 

So I’m doing good. Everything is pretty normal here. We had a little of rain here and there, the house is super cold, oh and I got a little sick but it was going around to everyone.

Oh also today we had to clean the house for inspections which happens on every house by the senior missionaries. So me and Childs went for a nice little run this morning to the church to grab cleaning supplies, lost the phone, but talked to some dude if he had seen it and he gave it to us. Haha but it was good to go for a run again. I miss running ,I need to do it more but no one ever wants to go with me, but yea that’s about it

Love

Elder Grigor

Some members, the littlest one we are going to baptize this Saturday 

Last p-day, the Ravioletta 

Our landlord keeps giving us more Nesquick 

Canadian Pacific and my Canadian Shirt 

All the mess from the vandals. Sad to see something happen like this

Trying to help people come to church

Monday July 18, 2016

Tuesday - We had a Intercambio of our zone, so I was told I was leaving my area, so I packed all my stuff and got ready to go, and I went toooo.... AEROPARQUE A and they live in our house, so I packed all my stuff for nothing, but yea it was pretty good. Elder Sosa was supposed to leave his area but only has 1 month in the mission so I kind of took over. I also lost 500 pesos that day, which is about 20 dollars, I think it fell out of my pocket.

Wednesday - we walked to villa del tato which is about a 30 to 40 minute walk, and we found a golfball on the way over so we were passing it around, then I missed a catch and got hit in the head, not too hard though. Then a family was like screaming at us while having a party, “heeeyy little rich things are invited” so we went over and contacted them and have an appointment this week I think. Haha pretty funny that that came out of that situation. 

Thursday - made a lot of appointments, passed by people and they weren't home, except for one couple. We planned a noche de hogar ( family home evening) with them and we’re gonna make beaver tails. They found a recipe online so I’m excited for that, and her daughter - it’s weird how much she looks like Jessica, 

Friday - can't really remember but not a lot happened

Saturday - played volleyball at the church it was pretty fun, I crushed a hit at one guy though, he didn’t let that go. But then we had a lesson with Karen, and I brought the dvd player so we could watch the restoration, but I forgot the charger and it died, so we talked about the sabbath day and it was really good. Then we tried to go by a less active who we’ve been working with to give him clothes to come to church, just some old ones we found at the house, and he wasn't home but we ran into him on the way home and he said he’d come.

Sunday - so neither Karen or Homberto came because it was raining and the group that walks from their town didn't come, so maybe next week. Then we had a good lesson with a new investigator and she said she missed church this week and would come next week. Then we had a fun noche de hogar to finish off the night.

Monday - we had a Raviooletta at the church, basically the members just made a bunch of ravioles,  played games and then ate, then I started this email.

Everything is good here. I got on late so I probably won’t have too much time today, but oh well.

Love

Elder Grigor

All of our plans fell through - but we will keep trying

Monday July 11, 2016

Monday- so we crossed the field and I slipped again, and then we had a noche de hogar with the Cuenca Vilches, it was pretty sweet and then we taught them how to milk alfajores

Tuesday- was awful. So in the morning we decided to go to Villa del Tato, which is a small village away from our town, about 7 Kilometers round trip. We left at 10:30 so we basically just walked to a bunch of Almacens to find Alfajores. Then on the way home we walked past 3 gated communities called La Tahona, and they are suuuuuuper nice even for back home. Then they also have a huge golf course there, and we found EL ALMACEN.  We looked at the map which is pretty far zoomed out and usually almacens are just tiny little stores, and on the map it showed EL ALMACEN, so we went there and it’s awesome. They have a chiropractor, sushi, a huge meat place, definitely going back there. Then we went to lunch and all day it wasn't really raining, but it was just mist all day. So we went to lunch had a huge lunch I had 5 milanesa sandwiches, a plate of rice a couple pieces of pizza and 3 bowls of desert. Then we walked around and all our appointments fell through, it was miserable, but then we had another noche de hogar and we made that sweet pan de carne thing.

Wednesday - we had a interview conference with our president, so we were there until 5 doing practices and listening to talks, and usually I hate practices, but after my interview with President I kinda enjoyed them. Then we had a noche de hogar with some less actives so we basically did nothing all day.

Thursday - we had a bunch of appointments fall through, but had a really good lesson with 2 investigators. We taught the restoration again and they both seem like this is something that they would like. One’s name is Roxina and the other is Karen- they’re cousins.

Friday - we had a intercambio and since my district is my house,  the hermanas and I went with Elder Childd to his area. It was fun - we basically talked english all day, and hahahahahah I threw super cold water on Elder Childs in the shower. There’s a window for the shower under shoulder height for everyone else, me it’s like under my chest. Our kitchen is like 90 degrees with the heat, so he had the window open.  I threw water on him and he was screaming soo loud, then we tried to close the window and I threw another one and hit him right in the face. The owners wife saw and started laughing super hard. Then we went out and just joked around, it was nice to talk english a full day again.

Saturday - in the morning, we brought my dvd player to Karens house and watched the restoration with her. Unfortunately Roxina couldn't come, but Karen really liked it, and said she would come to church next Sunday because this week was Father’s Day and she was super busy. Then we had basically a missionary workshop thing with the members in our ward.  One elder before us (who went home) started it, but no one showed up, so we are gonna have a 5th Sunday lesson with the members and talk about how to be missionaries at home.

Sunday - I didn’t love today. At first it wasn't bad, a young dude came to the church for the first 2 hours, and sacrament here is last, so we might go stop by his house sometime. Then we had a sweet day planned. We had nice firm plans and a noche de hogar, well allllllllll of our plans fell through, we even went by 12 more people all across our area and no one was home or were busy with company. But we found an investigator that we have been looking for for a while, turns out her house it 1 house over from the trail in the field we always cross. so we talked to her for about 10 minutes and her daughter looks a lot like Jessica, it’s weird. I’ll have to get a picture sometime.

Monday - we had a zone activity, played volleyball which was fun, then milked alfajores, and 2 guys had a contest and 1 guy ate 14, which was crazy. The other one threw up at 10, but I think I’m going to try to beat that sometime.

Anyways, this area is sweet. We have 11 new investigators in the couple weeks we’ve been here, but this week plans fell through.  But they should be better this week hopefully.

Love,

Elder Grigor

The muddy field 

My muddy pants 

The family we ate Alfajores with 

Alfajores 

Walking through the field 

My cooking towel- I stay real clean! 

The owners cat, he always runs in when we turn on the heater 

The bag of candy that the ants got to 

We are working really hard

Monday July 4th 2016 

Tuesday- I’m not really sure what we did, me and Elder Solano are working really hard here so time is flying by. We taught the 9 year old in this member family, he never got baptized yet. Basically everything he sees, of somebody else’s, he asks if you can give it to him, or buy him one, even in church, he goes to everyone, he’s pretty funny.

Wednesday- we had this amazing lunch, they call it pan de carne. Basically they just take meat and make a huge square and put cheese and ham inside, then roll it up. Anyways it was amazing and I said, as a joke, we should ask her to have a family home evening with us so we can learn how to make this and then eat it again. So Elder Childs went out to ask her and said: “hermana, this was amazing we need to get this recipe, and she said oh just come over one day and well have a family home evening and I’ll make it for you guys, then we can have desert too.” We were all freaking out, it was soo funny, so were doing that Tuesday night.

Thursday- We met the new mission president today, President Eddy. He’s really cool I think he’s from Orem, or something like that. He has a kid serving in the Dominican, an 18 year old leaving to BYU in august, a 16 who’s plays basketball, then a 15 year old a 12 year old, and a 9 year old, and all of them are living down here. I don’t know how happy I would be to move down here for three years, but that just shows their will, for the work. Then we had sloppy joes for lunch, and me and my house took 2 guaranas (really good brazillian pop) home to our apartment, they had tons left over.

Friday - today was normal. We had a full day planned, we taught a ton of lessons and found 4 new investigators.

Saturday - so today it started raining, a little on the way to lunch, which was across the field and about 1 km down a huge road, and on the way back it started raining pretty hard, we were all pretty miserable until I just started messing around. Then we were all having fun just throwing water with our umbrellas. Then on the way back, I slipped in the field and got super muddy, I have pictures but I forgot my pendrive. Then volleyball was canceled because of the rain, so we stayed in the house until 4 trying to dry our clothes off then went out to work. Then went to a Capilla Abierta in Walvin, but the Elders have to go out on those to get people to come to them, and it was still raining hard and there was nobody, so we tried for a while then gave up. When we went back, there was food at the church, it was hard not to eat because we were fasting

Sunday - we went to church, and it was Fast Sunday. 2 members gave us food to take home, and I took a little bit thinking I would get seconds and everyone would do the same. Nope, they took the rest. So I was pretty mad about that one, then I went to go eat my suckers and a colony of ants got them and tore apart the bag and ate most of my suckers, so I killed them all in my rage and ate my last 2 suckers. 

Monday - I went to sign papers today so I can stay in the country, then came to email home, and tonight we have a family home evening with some members.

This week was awesome, I really liked it. We worked hard, but also messed around a lot, and we now have 10 new investigators since we came to the area to white wash. I just need to keep working on my Spanish, but it’s sooo much better then last week. ya thats about it

Love

Elder Grigor