The BAPTISM!!!

August 15th, 2017 

Tuesday - Not  whole lot happened today... we had a lot of plans but basically everything fell through, but we did have a quick lesson with the Venezuelan we found a couple weeks ago. We talked a little more about the Book of Mormon, we also had correlation with your blind ward mission leader, which is always interesting. His wife is blind too, and has an iPhone 7, she always asks us to show her how to use it, she can see it when its about 6 inches from her face. 

Wednesday - Today was a lot better, we had a lesson with a girl named Flavia, who is really cool. We watched the restoration video with her, and I think she’s going to be baptized, she really liked the video, and haha before she used go to the Evangelist church?? not sure what is in english Iglesia Evangelica. She gets pretty pumped up when she starts to read, its funny to hear. It sounds good, kinda like a story reading putting tons of emphasis on everything. We met with a guy named Alfredo, we talked to him last week, but we just chatted a little and set up a lesson with him for Sunday, but he’s a cool dude, with 2 kids. So we are planing on watching the restoration movie with them.

Thursday - well today had me worried, so Gerardo (the guy that is getting baptized on Saturday) wasn't there yesterday because his mom was a little sick. So we stopped by today and he wasn't there either. 4 years ago he was going to be baptized but he just went missing like 3 days before and they could never find him. So we had a little bit of fear that that would happen, so we called him like crazy and he didn’t answer. So we freaked out a little, but we found him finally and he just didn't have any data left to receive calls. (phew) 

Friday - well I went out to Aeroparque again with Elder Ashman because Gerardo needed his interview done. So we rode the bikes out to an area, passing the highway, haha man were my legs dead! I worked out legs at the gym the day before, BAD IDEA!! I could barely keep up on some parts. But we had a good day, visiting some people, found a cool less active that wants to go back to church, and he’s from Durazno. We talked about that a bit. But Gerardo passed his interview, so he’s getting baptized tomorrow!!!!

Saturday - so we went to the church in Aeroparque to fill the font for a ward baptism, and it was full from the last one. So we started draining it but it was taking forever, so we grabbed buckets and started grabbing it and dumping it in the toilet, it took soo long, and my back was a little sore afterwards. Plus I’m pretty sure we got more water on the floor than in the toilets, it kept hitting the sides and soaking my pants!! and the floor. Haha, but we finally got it filling, then we went to our ward to fill up the font for the baptism. It was really good. Gerardo gave his testimony at the end, and it was good, saying how it was a big change and he’s finally ready! Then his little girl (she’s 10) wants to get baptized too, so he’s gonna baptize her on the 2nd of September.  It'll be really good for them!

Sunday - Gerardo was confirmed today, but sadly Richard didn’t come today, we don't know what happened there, but Gerardo always came before just for sacrament, and this time they came for the 3 hours, and his daughter Ana said: “Dad! can we come every time at 9:30??? and him laughing: “haha yep, that’s the plan! Haha she’s really funny. Then in the night we taught Alfredo and his kids, they are really cool. His son doesn’t really believe in God, but that’s easy to change. Then his daughter is really open, they are 18 and 15, then the only thing with him is that he smokes. I think he downed like 5 in 20 minutes, basically just sucked it dry. But we invited them to a devotional tomorrow with Lindsey Stirling, and they said yea! So we’re going to go to that tomorrow with them.

Monday - well pretty normal day, we had a dope asado with Gerardo, it was supposed to be for lunch, but he had it right before the devotional, so we smelt like smoke and meat! perfect combination right? But yea we went with them, and it was really good. We got there late because he arrived home late from school. She just talked about why God is important in her life, and played a couple songs (incredible by the way) But they really enjoyed it, mostly when she played, but I think that they could progress a lot in the church. They have a baptismal date for October, so we’ll see how that goes. Also it was changes, and me and my comp are staying here together!!!

Well it was a good week, met Lindsey Stirling and had a baptism, couldn't ask for more!!!

Elder Grigor 

The baptism 

A family we teach 

El Asado (I don't know what I was doing in this picture!) 

Rubix Cube Gold

August 7th, 2017 

Tuesday - so in the night we visited a member and taught his mother who is catholic, so I used my Rubix cube to explain the restoration.  I use each layer, first is the prophet, second apostles, and third the authority (which only God can give) and it works pretty well. She really liked the way we did it, then afterwards we explained how the Book of Mormon is the way to find out the church has that authority.

Wednesday - So we went out to another area about 1 hour from us, we did an intercambio out there to help out the Elders. They’re getting a little depressed, so we went out to show them that the area is really good, so I used my Rubix cube in some contacts we did. Haha, the people were about to reject us, so I asked if I could do a demonstration with my Rubix cube, then we explained the whole restoration to them and gave them a Book of Mormon. It works really well to distract them for a bit, just to get the message across, and usually they always want to learn more after we share the message. But yea we found 2 new people who are investigating the church now, so we helped them out a bit.

Thursday - so in the morning I had to go take out my Uruguayan identification, because for the past year and a half I've been illegal in this country. haha I'm glad Trump isn’t the president here. But yea I’ll have a Uruguayan id card now. Then we just chilled with a bunch of missionaries until everyone finished, hahaha it was super funny watching the people try to figure out all the information they needed because my passport is in english and french, and they didn't think I spoke Spanish. Then they couldn't say Saskatoon, Saskatchewan  which I understand because I can barely say it. Then the rest of the day I was super tired so I wasn't in the mood to do much, but we taught Gerardo about tithing and he seems cool with it, so he’ll be getting baptized on the 12th.

Friday - had intercambios with Aeroparque, they both came out here and I went with Elder Ashman. He’s super funny. We talked about Canada a lot, and we also have 4 new people to teach with my Rubix cube! haha that things a magician!!  But its my comps birthday tomorrow so we threw him a birthday party in the night. I bought him a Rubix cube 2 weeks ago because I bought one, and he really wanted one and always took mine and started playing with it. So now we both have our own, we also bought him a cake and pizza. He was pretty happy.

Saturday - official day of my companions birth, I took him to McDonald’s for lunch since we didn't have lunch, then we had a decent day, a lot of plans canceled on us, which was pretty lame because it was my comps bday, but we still had a couple lessons. Then an old lady we are teaching made us pizza and cake, and gave us like 3 to take home!! 

Sunday - well Gerardo and his daughter came to church, and haha the whole time in testimony meeting, she kept saying: “come on dad, let’s go up!! come on!!!” and him:  “no no no, not yet!!”  haha for the entire hour, haha and they aren't baptized yet. But afterwards she said that she wants to be baptized too, so we’ll have another one in a couple of weeks. But Richard didn't come because his wife was having some medical problems which is understandable. Today we only had 1 lesson, and it was with the old lady. We dropped her because she never came to church, she just wanted us to pass by and give us food, (which quite frankly I was fine with) but haha it’s better for her, we’ll go back and then she’ll start coming (I hope)

Monday - not much happened, I have no money now cuz I spent it all on my comps bday, I have like 15 dollars for the next week, so I’m down to like a dollar a day! woooo

But yea that’s my life. I learned how to present the lessons in a better way! It works fairly well, so I’m gonna use that for the next 6 months, (oh yea I can solve it in 50 seconds now)

Peace out

Love Elder Grigor

"Would you like some pasta with that sauce?" 

Driving to a service project 

Milking 16 alfajores all at the same time 

Chilling on the roof working on the Rubix Cube 

Chilling with Elder Ashman 

Les amo a todos!!!

August 1, 2017 

Monday - pretty normal p-day, we mostly just slept and watched movies in the house because there wasn't anything to do, but in the night we taught Richard, it was a good lesson and he had some really good questions that he was asking (we taught the plan of salvation)

Tuesday - we had intercambios today, I went out to Aeroparque with my old companion Elder Merino!!! haha it was really good, we ate in the house of the Andion family (all of them remembered me!! and congratulated me on my Spanish) but that lunch was sooo good. It was basically a four course meal, chorizos and pizza to start, then went to a nice Asado (barbecue) then we had a nice little cake to finish off. Then we rode the bike to another part of the area, which was crazy because we rode on the side of the highway to get there, then we rode around and visited people with a member that we knew. Haha then coming back it started to rain which we didn't think about (you can imagine how going back to the house on the highway was). haha then we just talked about Durazno and all the old times together.

Wednesday - I’m not sure what happened today actually, I think we had a lot of lessons fall through and we walked around a ton, and joked around, haha I’m loving my companion, I’m hoping we’ll stay together another change. But we did visit some less active people today, trying to help them out with their situations, one guy, which is really sad, he’s in a wheel chair and in the last 3 weeks people have robbed him 7 times. But he doesn’t even have a nice house, they come and rob whatever they find, cups, plates, his extra wheelchair, so yea he never leaves his house.

Thursday - well we pulled another intercambio with another area today. I left again, luckily it was pretty close, but yea they needed some help out there, so they sent me in! But it was really good, we were just looking for old investigators all day, trying to find some more people for them to teach, we found a couple good people, then in the night Walker gave me a dope Canada Star Wars shirt! (so I need to get him something in return!) Then we made some red lobster scones and ate kangaroo jerky that he was saving for our intercambio! He’s really cool and loves star wars!

Friday - great day, we had 2 really good lessons with Federico and Richard, our 2 investigators with basically the same situation, who will both be baptized in a little bit of time. We had another lesson with Gerardo, he’s getting baptized on the 12th, which is coming up quick, and we just have to teach him a couple more things then he’s good, but yea we were just teaching today, basically with all the investigators that are going to be baptized.

Saturday - well we thought it was going to be a great day today, but it wasn't so great, all the lessons fell through, so we visited recent converts, trying to find something to do instead of walk around all day.

Sunday - not a bad day, we talked to a man who said to his family in another ward that he wants to talk to with us, so we went over and we’re gonna teach him, but church was good, Richard and Gerardo came, sadly no one else, but we’ll change that next week. Then it was pretty rainy today (kinda like the whole week) so we didn't get too much done

Monday - we went to a district meeting, then had interviews with the president, then we went back and waited to meet the mission president to go to a lesson with him. So we started talking to a dude and ended up teaching him, and asked his name. Javier Federer, the cousin of Roddick Federer the tennis player, haha who would've known! Then we had a really good lesson with president there, we went to Federico and Augustina and taught about temples and chastity, and Federico gave Augustina a nice backhand. He said that that was the thing that has hit him the hardest. He just didn't understand it, (basically just said he didn’t want to marry her) so she started bawling (which helped because he realized what he just said)) then after asking them some questions I asked if he thought marriage would be good for them in their lives, and he finally said yes. So hopefully within a couple weeks he pops the question!!! Then we visited a couple more people!

So yea it was a good and bad week, we had a lot of progress with our strong investigators, and and a little harder time with the not so strong ones, but that’ll all get fixed later!

Love you all

Les amo a todos!!!

Elder Grigor

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

July 24th, 2017 

* It was pretty awesome to hear from Elder Grigor on my birthday. His birthday was also on his p-day this year, it was the best thing to be able to email him on his actual birthday !!! 

🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂😱🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🍰🎂🎂🎂🎂

Mom, you’re turning 50 now!!! that’s crazy why it feels like just 20 years ago that you were 30. But haha hope you have a good day today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

hope you have a good day!!!!!!

Tuesday - in the morning we had a activity with the ward, since it’s Feriado (don’t know what that is in english) a holiday I guess, but anyways we played soccer all morning, my team lost most of the time. I was the only one who actually did stuff, but the activity was mostly meant for the young men, that they bring their friends then we try to teach them. Only one kid brought his friend, but he’s super cool, were gonna try to talk to him later. Then they made us hamburgers, (I ate like 5) haha then we went to the most dangerous area in our mission called Belloni, to do an exchange with the assistants. It was pretty good, I went with Elder Hunt, he was in Durazno before and we talked a lot about that. But yea that area is super crazy, everyone just chills outside smoking weed and staring at us, but that didn’t fase me! Then I met the coolest recent convert named Michael, he was baptized about 5 months ago and loves the gospel! He goes out with the missionaries all the time. 

Wednesday - well the assistants had to go with the president so they took us home early, so we had time to go to the gym, there’s one right beside the house, and it’s like 20 dollars a month, so we went all this week, and man I am dead!! But today was really good we had a couple lessons, I cant really remember what happened though today.

Thursday - so we started playing a little game with another area, seeing how many new investigators we got everyday, so it turned into a competition and it’s working really well. We found soo many new people this week. Today we found 2 people, a mother and her 11 year old daughter, who talked to some really cold missionaries before and we came and got to know her, made her laugh, you know just being normal and she was really cool. We’re gonna keep going by there to teach them, then we had a family home evening with a family (we had one last week and the son wasn't there, and wanted to do another one, but this time he wasn't there either) but it was really good, they made us pizza, which here in Uruguay is bread and sauce, no cheese, or meat, for that you have to ask extra, haha!!  Also we talked to a homeless guy and taught him a lessons in the street. He’s a really good man but he had some difficulties with his job then his parents kicked him out of the house they bought for him, and are renting. But he’s awesome, I think he could get baptized and we can help him out and get his life back around.

Friday - today was good, we had a sweet lesson with Federico, we watched the restoration video with him, and he’s still not sure, he’s waiting for his answer to come whether its true or not, and he’s still struggling with his belief in God. He said it has to be true, if this matter has been going on for this long and it has a story since the start of the world it has to be true, and if it isn't I don’t know why I am here. But all he needs to know is that confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true. Then we had a good lesson with a reference named Richard, from the bishop, so we went over and met him, so his girlfriend (because he is still married to another girl, (but is getting divorced the 8th)) is a member and she has been preparing him for about a year, haha he told us that he already has a testimony about the Book of Mormon, he believes it’s true, he prays every morning and night, they watched general conference and he said the idea is to take the lessons from you guys, get baptized, then go to the temple and get sealed for eternity. haha me and my comp looked at each other like, HALLELUJAH!! HALLELUJAH!! So we invited them to church this Sunday.  

Saturday - So today was awesome as well, we did a service with Gerardo and he said ok so for baptism I gotta drop coffee, alcohol is easy to drop, the women, haha he had already heard the missionaries before!!!  We have a baptismal date for the 12th hopefully he’ll get there. Then we talked to a Venezuelan a while ago and went by the house today, and her cousin opened the door and said she’s not here, but if you want I’ll listen to you guys. Haha talked with her for a bit, then she asked so what religion are you guys from, we said well they call us mormons, she said mormons?? what’s that, actually wait a minute I’m gonna go write that down because I’ve never heard of that before. Haha so I guess in Venezuela they don't hear about us a lot, haha!  But we taught her the restoration and then at the end Marta (the cousin) came and we talked a bit with her and they told us there are 5 of them, 2 girls and 3 guys, that live in that house, so were gonna go back and teach the rest of them. But they were super nice, and really liked the message we brought

Sunday - so Richard came to church!! That was awesome, and also Federico’s girlfriend came as well, she’s also a member. Then Gerardo came as well with his daughter, which was sweet. Then in the night we taught the lady that lost her dogs and we found them, she was really cool too and we put a baptismal date for the 19th with her. She was pretty excited, haha she thought the church was exclusive, like a kinda of club. When we told her she could go whenever she was really excited. (also I did legs yesterday in the gym and I was DEAD today

But yea this week was really rewarding. We had a lot of new investigators and a lot of the people we found will be getting baptized! Haha some of them came from hard work ,and others just fell from out of the blue! Its pretty nice in this area, I’m really liking it

Love, 

Elder Grigor

Elder Grigor loves food!!! - eating a massive alfajor 

Elder Grigor and Michael 

The retractable roof!!!

July 17, 2017 

Tuesday - well, it started raining today, it’s been pretty rainy here lately. But we had a couple lessons today, 1 was with 2 less active that just at the same time started reactivating. We saw them both together and thought we would get a 2 for 1, so we went and talked to them both, and they are awesome. Both of them want to come back to church and said it hurt not being there. Then we went to a lady named Adrianna, she’s like 50 maybe but looks a lot older because she smokes. So we’re helping her to quit smoking to make it to her baptismal date. But haha she’s super funny every time we go over she orders some snack from the super market and makes us eat it, which is awesome but I dont know how she has so much money just to throw away, but I’m not complaining, free food is free food!

Wednesday - in the morning we went to an investigators house to do service, basically we just help him cut metal and measure it, he’s an iron worker, which is fairly popular here because the people always buy metal fences for their houses and stuff. But he’s cool, suuper immature though, he had a friend come over and I almost repremanded them for some of the stuff they were saying. Sometimes I would just look at them, then they would stop talking. haha then after that we tried teaching the husband of a old member, but that is an impossible task. The wife wants all the attention and doesn’t think that her husband will be interested in what we want to teach him, and then she says just let him believe what he wants to believe, then keeps talking. I try sometimes to talk over her but she just talks louder.. haha the reason her husband doesn’t progress is her basically. After that we went and yelled at an old dude (he’s 3/4 deaf) but we invited him to church, he’s gone 3 times before, once at 6 at night, 1 in the afternoon an 12:30 in the afternoon, (AND CHURCH HERE ENDS AT 12:30) haha so we’re hoping he’ll come at 9:30 this time!

Thursday - so in the morning we had to go buy food for the multi zone conference tomorrow, we went to Subway and bought 2 subs for everyone, hahah the guy we bought from wasn’t to happy, hahaha we went up and said: ok we need a big order for tomorrow, and he asked how much! and we said 108!! haha his smile dropped and he picked up his phone and said yea we need help, the mormons made an order for 108. haha then we bought some drinks and alfajores, then basically everything fell through today, right now were trying to go by some less active families and see if they have family members that aren't baptized. But we had a lesson with an old investigator who can’t come to church because he works Sunday, and his work partner is mormon and already asked for Sunday off, but we’re gonna get him converted first then get him to change jobs! 

Friday - well we had a really god zone conference, and an amazing lunch if I do say so myself, I need to thank whoever made that. But I learned a lot in this zone conference, then after that we had a sweeeeet lesson with Federico, he’s dating a less active member and he’s probably our best investigator, in his prayer he basically thanked for being on the path he is right now, basically confirming what we have taught, which is awesome because he didn't really believe in God when they first taught him. 

Saturday - we did another service project with Gerardo and he said he’s gonna come to church tomorrow!!! which is awesome, I’m glad that we had some success out of our service projects, but other than that nothing! Except a lady we helped take some groceries home told us that she dosent think Joseph Smith existed, and that the mormons just made him up, hahah we kinda started laughing and thinking how could he not have existed, where did the mormons come from then, where did Utah come from? haha funny she actually knew quite a bit about us, but yea thats a first for that one.

Sunday - Fathers day!!! ( In Uruguay ) Happy Fathers Day Dad!!!!! Today we thought it was gonna be a sweet day, we had some sweet futures set up for the day, then it just went horrible. Well Gerardo came to church which was awesome, and we picked up a less active we visited, he’s 19 and has 1 leg, he’s a stud though but he wants to come back to church. But then the rest of the day no one was home or wanted to accept us because it was Fathers Day, then the heavens open up and it started raining hard. I thought I was gonna drown because the streets here fill up like a bath tub. It’s awful, you get home and you feel like you just walked through a pool. 

Monday - well we went to Portone’s then played pool with Elder Merino and Ashman

but yea not a bad week, its definitely different here, the work and the people but I’ll get used to it!

Love you all! 

Elder Grigor

The retractable roof!!! 

2 words...Retractable roof !!!

July 10, 2017 

Tuesday - Well we didn't do much, just said goodbye to people, a couple cried but that’s just because I'm soooo awesome. But other than that I can’t remember what happened.

Wednesday - well I set the alarm for 5:30 because I had a bus at 6:30 and woke up at 5:15 and said, "I can get 15 more minutes!" then I woke up at 6:30. So I got changed quick and called a taxi and snagged a bus at 7, luckily I got there in time and I went to my new house!! Which is the coolest house in the mission, why??? 2 words... retractable roof haha. My first day in the mission I went out with Elder Brumble and he took me around the area and we went into the house and I said, if I’m ever zone leader I want to come here. and well... here I am! But we went out and visited a guy named Ariel that’s getting baptized this Saturday, he’s super cool, 77 years old and super funny, I love him! We also visited a lady who is progressing a decent amount, but the only thing is that she smokes, but not even a lot like 5 a day, which we can get her to drop in a week. Oh also we went to a guy named Federico, he’s a great man, his girlfriend is a member but went inactive about 6 months ago when she moved from the north of Uruguay to live with him, but well fix that soon. He prayed after our lesson if this is the path that he needs to take, so were gonna work with him. 

Thursday - so first full day here in the area, but we did planning in the morning because we have consejo, the big leader meeting where we talk about the goals and everything. We visited a couple investigators here and there. We visited Adriana and Ariel, and also a guy named Barco, (his last name). He was one of the first missionaries in Spain and served with President Hinkleys son, but he is paralyzed on the right side of his body. My first day here we visited him about 15 months ago. haha he is a great guy, he goes to church in a taxi every Sunday. Then we also visited a less active named Jose who got mad at the Elders Quorum president. 

Friday - yea... so it’s rained about everyday since I got here, and I forgot my umbrella in the van when we came here, so I’ve been without that, and I forgot my jacket in Durazno... so I’ve been getting soaked lately. But today we had consejo, it was really cool to see, and I figured out where my ring is!!!! One of my old companions took it... apparently he thought I gave it to him, so I asked for it back but he still didn't give me it. But one day I’ll get it. We talked about the goals for the mission, so this last change as a mission we baptized 90 people!!!!! which is awesome! when I came here we were baptizing about 25 a change. haha my last zone (Durazno) baptized 22, which is the highest any zone has had in a long time!! It’s amazing to see. Then president shared a really cool thought with us in Matthew 15. Then I did 3 interviews in Areoparque and stayed the night there.  So I visited some old families, I should’ve taken some pics but I didn’t. It was sweet to see them again! and they still remember me!

Saturday - so we had a ward activity today which was really good. There were a bunch of stations with food and drinks, and you have fake money and have to buy them. In order to get more money you have to give the missionaries a reference (to teach them) or recite a scripture, so everyone recited scriptures until they ran out and then gave us references, so we got about 10 that we’re gonna try to visit! Then we had Ariels baptism right after, then visited people and invited them to ward conference.

Sunday - Jose came to church today!!!!! Someone visited him last night and helped him out, than another less active came to church and a recent convert who stopped going came also, it was really nice to see. But no investigators came to church today, but we’ll fix that next week, also Ariel got confirmed and they gave him the priesthood too. Then after that we visited some investigators and less actives in the ward. The ward is awesome, a bunch of young families, returned missionaries who are all studying, then the other half are over 70, I don’t know if we have any in the 40-50 range. So we’re gonna try to work a lot with those returned missionaries and get them sharing the gospel again!!

Monday - well we had a zone activity today and went over the new goals that we want to set as a zone, and also!! the other missionary that came with me brought my umbrella!!!!! I was soo happy to see that. 

but yea this area is definitely different, the people seem a little harder, but then they are also some friendly people, its 1 side or the other, not in the middle. So it helps a little bit, filters out the people that really don’t want anything. Also I don’t have pictures because I put the wrong SD card in my camera. but anyways that’s it.

Love you guys!!!

Elder Grigor