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