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 

Slow but good. Life in Uruguay

hey everyone

So this week was pretty slow, but still good.

Tuesday we had district meetings in the morning and went back home at 2ish. But after that we found a sheet of paper of future investigators, some people who give their address and name, which they do just to be nice here. We found a bunch of phone numbers with some of them and we needed to check our emails for something from the zone leaders so we went to the church and called about 17 numbers, most were fakes, but we found one lady that kinda sounded interested so we might visit her later.

Wednesday we did a lot of proselyting pretty much all day because we didn't have anything to do. We got a couple of futures, and we talked to this crazy guy, (well he talked to us) for about an hour about basically capitalism, and how 12 year olds here shouldn’t have cell phones. haha and he like  threw up in his mouth while he was talking to us then swallowed it back down and kept going, it was pretty funny.

Thursday not much happened, we did some proselyting and went to Maria Esperanza’s house, and basically just sat there for a while waiting for Lucas because he said he was going to come.

Friday we had lunch with Washington who gave us a lot of food afterwards. It was good food, it’s called gizo, but that fed us for 3 days. After we walked outside of the town for about 40 minutes, and found a random house with a huge driveway. We walked up to it  and talked to the woman there and she said she is ¨catholic¨, which everyone says but they never do anything at their church. I gave her a pamphlet and forgot to write my number on it, so if anything is going to happen there we will have to walk all the way out there again just to see.

Saturday we had a good lesson with Gonzalo, the guy who needs to be married still. I thought that we should read Lehi’s vision with him, and either he was crying at the end or he had sparkles on his eye from his kids, but that’s about it.

Sunday we got a call from Maria Esperanza asking us what time we were coming over, which he didn’t know about but we went over at 6. She made us hot chocolate and bought a bunch of wafers too, so we basically just chilled there for a while then went home. Then we made calzones which were amazing, idk why but they tasted soo good.

Then today we had a zone activity at our church, so we just played soccer all morning, then we made calzones again and now I’m here writing home. 

That was my week, hope ya like it. 

Elder Grigor

                                  "The river got destroyed in the flood" 

                                         "deep fried alfajores"

                                         "the sweet shirt I made" 

                                "We made Calzones! They were so good!!!" 

                                 "Just thought you might want to see my face!" 

This week was awesome!!!

So this week was awesome! 

Tuesday was p-day, every last p-day of the change is Tuesday so that the Elders can say bye to people on p-day after they find out they're leaving. So we chilled in Las Piedras with Elders Anderson and Montiel. So we just went looking at some stores and ate ice cream, I ate a half kilo.

Wednesday was changes for everyone and so we got some new people in our zone. We found out that day that we had a multi mission conference on Thursday so we got prepared for that. Our investigators that really wanted to get baptized are in a tough situation. She is still married to another man but left him 17 years ago, and he won’t divorce her just so that she can legally marry the other man. So they can’t get baptized until they either somehow get enough money to hire a lawyer then 6 months later get a divorce, then get married or buy different houses which I don’t think will happen so we might have to drop them.

Thursday we left at 5:00 in the morning to catch a bus there, and I met some of Pierce’s old companions. They are awesome, I was laughing the whole ride there and back. And at the conference we met the new area authorities, and I saw some of the people I was in the MTC with. I also met Elder Nielsen, the one from Calgary Sister Stasiak’s nephew. He is huge, like 6’4, 230 probably. He’s in the West Stake in the ward by the temple I think. 

Friday we both slept past our alarms and woke up at 8, I was really tired and I’m getting a little sick so I liked the extra sleep. Then we got a call at 9:00 wondering if we were close to the zone conference we were having that no one told us about, so we missed that. But we went out and found an old investigators of 10 years, who is in a wheelchair and that’s the main reason we think for him not getting baptized.

Saturday was Pierce’s birthday so I bought him a cake, which is really good but really rich and bought him a matte cup. So then we went to the Enchanted Forest after a sweet lunch at a members house. While we were inside, we were talking to some elders on the phone about how we’re gonna see a werewolf, then a dog out of nowhere comes sprinting after us, so we took off and looked back and he was gone. The other elder’s didn’t believe us. Then we had a party at a less active ladies house hopefully she might start coming to church now, and Lucas the boy there is pretty interested in the church, so something could happen there.

Then Sunday nothing really happened because everyone we tried to go to had company over because it was Mother’s Day, so we explored the old castle thing it was pretty cool. Then we came down to Las Pierdras Sunday night again for p-day. That’s pretty much it.

Love you guys, 

Elder Grigor

Elder Grigor hanging out at the playground on p-day 

They found an enchanted forest 

Lunch at a member's home 

Celebrating Elder Pierce's Birthday 

We found an abandoned castle 

I got to talk to my family!

Hola,

So Monday last week was p-day and not much happened that day we just got home really late because we missed our busses

Tuesday was just a normal day, I’m not too sure what we did that day. 

Wednesday - we went to the hospital because Elder Salas was sick with something. I’m not sure what but we went to save his companion Elder Ruiz. He had been there since Sunday without much sleep and he hadn’t bathed. We were the relief team. Then some members came over to say hi and took me for lunch because I needed a companion and Salas had lunch from the hospital. They gave me some money for lunch, and we had some money left over so I split the money I got with Elder Pierce and that paid for our bus tickets. 

Thursday was normal, we taught some lessons and figured out one of our investigators isn’t married and the "wife" was not officially divorced form her husband 17 years ago. So we don’t really know what to do there, because he really wants to get baptized. 

Friday was our last district meeting of the change, so it was a zone meeting, we did it all together and had a big party. Then me and Pierce went home and we were trying to find an old investigators house and a Swedish woman who spoke english called us over and started talking to us wondering what we do. She had a lot of questions just out of curiosity, she didn't really want anything to do with religion. But I gave her a pamphlet with our number on it if she ever had anymore questions she could call, hopefully she decides to read it too.

Saturday we had a mission activity at the church, which canelones and our zone leaders came to with their ward mission leaders, and the ward mission leaders gave talks and we had some food after.

Sunday I got to talk to my family on Mother’s day- that was sweet! The camera on the computer we got wasn’t working so we grabbed a tablet from a member and just kinda used both, switching off half way through with our families. 

On Monday in the morning I was pretty sad thinking about home and all the things that I won’t be home for, but it’s ok, it’ll all be fine! We taught diego and lujan, and are trying to figure out a way to help them. We customized a sweet shirt for me, I will send a pic next week, it’s still in progress but it’s sweet. 

Yea that’s pretty much it! It was a good week lots of teaching, and we got a bunch of referrals from members, so we might have some new investigators next week.

I love you so much mom!  I don’t know if you know how much. I don’t ever show it, but I love you so much! Happy Mother’s Day !! 

Love you, 

Elder Grigor 

Elder Grigor with his zone 

Playing Soccer in Uruguay 

My awesome lunch 

Visiting Elder Salas 

San Jose, Uruguay 

A typical lunch 

Thanks for the package!!! 

Treats from home 

Uruguay countryside 

Homemade Beavertails!

Que Pasa Wachins, 

Alrighty this week we had a lot go on. Monday we went on divisions with the zone leaders since we were staying in the oblisco house. Then we had our district meeting Tuesday, came home and put on our sweaters because it started getting cold here. The buildings aren't insulated here, it’s just concrete so it gets cold in the buildings too. I really need to get some gloves and a toque. Then we made beavertails for the first time that night. It was really quick and we put powdered sugar on them, they were pretty good. Then Wednesday we taught some lessons to our investigators, a lot weren't home, or just ignored us. Then Wednesday night we made the better version of beavertails. Thursday was more lessons and again not many were home, mostly because I think they all work until 7 at night then don’t get home until like 8. Friday was the Oro conference so we woke up at 4:30 to catch a cold bus to Montevideo. 

We got a sweet breakfast, it was a scrambled egg burger, the eggs were cut into square patty things. Then the conference started, it was a lot of role playing things, and talking about health, then we had stroganoff for lunch.  We had more of the conference, then we finished and went to tres cruces (3 crosses) a huge mall with a bus depot kinda thing attached to it. So we got a bus ticket and went and got McDonalds, which was amazing to have. But the fries weren't salted, because for some reason down here if you serve anything with salt it’s illegal. If you ask for it that’s ok, but they don’t serve it. Then we got home at 10:30 and went to bed. 

We went to go buy cereal for the week, and found an old investigator who we don't know his name, but we call him Michael jackson. He had been taught by Pierces comp before Pierce came here like 2 times. So we had been trying to find his house and almost gave up, then he found us and told us that he’s only around on weekends now and to come by on weekends and gave us his address. Pretty sweet, the Lord helped us by me craving Nesquik cereal, and we now have a new investigator. Then we had our fireplace on in our house because it’s getting pretty cold, so we heated up the house for a bit, we’ll probably do that again.  Then Sunday we had lunch with some members and they gave us a reference for their friends who they gave a Book of Mormon too. So we checked in on them and they said we can come by during the week. So we got a new investigator and a future investigator in 2 days. I’m so glad to see this happening because not much has happened in Santa Lucia for the past little while, so we’ve been working a lot with the ward to get them to find references, because street contacts don't really work here. Well yea, pretty fun week, and can’t wait to see you guys this Sunday!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Grigor

Homemade Beavertails 

Beavertails !! 

"We made them. The first attempts were not great, 

but the next ones we made were so good" 

Elder Grigor enjoying his hard work! 

McDonald's - a big treat for him in Uruguay 

Elder Grigor enjoying food at McDonald's 

Making a fire because it is getting cold there now