We finally had a lesson with Alvaro!!!

August 29th, 2016

Tuesday - We had a district meeting in 33, so I got a nice hour on a pretty comfy bus, they only have greyhounds out here. Then I had a 1 hour nap on the way back too. Then we went to the hospital after that, to check on my head. I have to do that everyday, sometimes it takes 5 minutes, another times it took 1 hour. Then we did some contacting, which here is knocking doors because no one answers, and then we had a noche de hogar with a recent convert, we learned how to make meatballs.

Wednesday - We had English class in the morning with a guy named Juan who always seems drunk but I guess he might just be like that, because he never smells like it and says he hasn't had a drink for 2 months. Then we went back to the hospital waited for a bit, then just had a pretty normal day. We did service for Morena, an older lady in our ward, we basically took her for a walk, and bought some things for her house then carried them home... it took 3 hours. We had an appointment after we helped Morena and they showed up 1 hour late, at the same time as us. At first I was a little mad that the "service" was taking so long with Morena, but God always has a plan. We help her and still met with the family. It was good, we cheered her up a lot. She reminds me of grandma, she always has treats. The less active family that we taught after that said they would come to church so it all worked out. 

Thursday - This was the day that I thought I was going to get my stitches out, but apparently I was supposed to take the bandage off at home after working, so it still wasn’t ready, and then had another day of teaching.

Friday - We waited for Juan in the morning for English class, but he didn't show up, then we went to the hospital after lunch, which has been noodles, some sauce and chorizo for the past 2 weeks since we never have any money in Vergara. They still didn’t take the stitches out. We finally had a lesson with Alvaro!!!!! It was awesome. We went in and read the talk in the July Liahona about science and our search for the truth, and he prayed at the end, and we scheduled another lesson for Tuesday!

Saturday - So this day was weird. We had some lessons, but one lesson we went by the house and the kid said “yea, our mom will be here shortly”. So we waited with them just talking, then 1 hour later the mom came. So we started talking with her and then she just left to the back room and didn’t come back for 20 minutes. We didn’t want to waste anymore time there and left. By then it was dark out and nothing happens here when its dark, everyone goes inside and drinks mate. We tried some people but no one was home.

Sunday - So we went by a couple people in the morning, reminding them about church like always, but it rained today so not many people came to church (here when it rains or it’s bad weather people don’t like to come to church) then I gave a talk in church about John 15:16. Then we had correlation afterwards and the president always talks for forever after church so we were at the church all day

Monday - worked out in the morning, then came to do cyber, but tonight we have another noche de hogar with Morena.

It was a good week, things are starting to pick up a little more, and hopefully it will be nicer next Sunday, so we can get more people coming to church!! 

Love

Elder Grigor

At a recent converts house, their son put those on us

A picture to match Ty on his mission 

Getting stitched up 

This is what I was doing when I cut my head

Family Home Evening making meatballs at a members home 

This is what my head looks like now after I got my stitches out 

** Picture warning -Not for the faint of heart

August 22nd,2016

Tuesday - had an Intercambio with Elder Lockhart in 33. He’s from California and is sooo funny, haha!! the whole day we were contacting. We went to one house and this lady was just starring out of the door, and we clapped and she moved her eyes over to us and just started mumbling. We tried talking to her but she didn't do anything except mumble, so we thought she was putting a curse on us or something (not really, we were joking about that). Then we just walked away, it was so funny and weird, haha and the next day they went back to that house and there was a dead cat outside, weird.

Wednesday - umm I can’t really remember what we did. Oh we found an awesome biscocho place for 2 pesos each biscocho, which is cheap, like 5 cents. So we bought some then went to Alvaros house, he is awesome. He was just leaving for work as we came up. He said it would only be 30 minutes so we waited there, then an hour later we left. We found a cool switch set for a train, I have a video but it’s pretty long.

Thursday - we went out with the branch president and we were at this ladies house for 2 hours teaching, but it was basically the president that talked for 2 hours.I hit my head on a workout thing in the park, it’s basically like an elliptical but I was on it backwards and tried to lean horizontal, I slipped and one of the legs hit my face, it didn't hurt too bad, I felt my head and felt inside my head and thought “well, this sucks, it’s only 7 and we still have 2 hours.” But we went to the doctor and they fixed me up, I just don’t want a scar there.

Friday -I bought some meds for my head. I have to go into the doctor each day to switch my gauze on my head until Thursday. That’s when they’re taking the stitches out. But again we tried Alvaro and he was just leaving to go to work. Not too much else happened. I think we taught some less actives, but not a lot of people like the church here. They make dumb decisions and blame the church on it. But that’s life

Saturday - I honestly have no idea what we did that day. Oh I know we taught a guy named Nelsen, he gave us a ride home from the lesson which was cool. Oh and somehow the stake president knows about what happened to me, he called up the zone leaders about me. 

Sunday - We went out in the morning and tried to invite Alvaro to church. He had to work from 2-5pm in another town, so we asked if we could pass by at like 7 and he said yea. Only 10 people came to church, it was kinda cold that morning. I taught the class for Sunday School, and i really liked it. I love teaching the gospel, and I would love it sooo much more if it was in English or if I  spoke more Spanish. We went by to visit Alvaro again, and he got a phone call to work as we walked up. There’s always opposition, but all we can do is keep trying. It’ll happen eventually, and I know when it does something will change in him. He’s atheist and has never prayed before, but he’s willing to change if somethings changes in him. He read the Book of Mormon before and liked reading it for the stories. So all we need is for him to pray, well all we need is for him to be home really. 

Monday - we bought some bischochos in the morning, made lunch and now I’m writing. We have family home evening with Morena again tonight.

Life is good. My head kinds hurts a little but it'll heal. Haha we actually met a new less active nurse from it, so maybe it wasn't all for bad. But I learned never to do that again, but yea it was just another slow week. I really would like to get a lesson with Alvaro sometime, but it’ll happen eventually. Sleeping kinda sucks, I put a blanket behind my pillow and sleep kinda sitting up so I don’t roll and rip out my stitches. Only another 4 days before they come out. I don’t know what it is but the streets just just don’t smell great here. I don’t love it!!! 

Love, 

Elder Grigor

This is what I was using when I hurt my head 

Elder Grigor's head injury 

All stitched up 

Our wonderful Elder Grigor 

And 1 more injury :( 

We started off slow, but finished strong!

August 15th, 2016

Tuesday - we went to the church to accompany our branch president in an interview because he doesn’t like to be in the building alone with females. So we just sat outside for an hour waiting. Then at night we went to have that asado thing with the friend of the president, I’m not sure if he wants anything to do with the church but he was a cool dude, made some good chorizos and rice!  and he had the Olympics on... I wasn’t watching... but it was tennis, a Uruguayan and a Brazillian. 

Wednesday - We had english class in the morning with an eternal investigator, of 4 years I think. We taught him, then basically had a lesson with him afterwards, and made a plan for him to stop smoking. Then we just had a normal day walked a lot because no one talks to us.

Thursday - had a massive lunch with Hermana Morena, she has this pizza pan about 20" wide and 4" tall and filled it with pasta with meat and potatoes and stuff on top, I ate about 3/4 of it, and wasn’t too full, but pretty full. Then we went out with our president, and visited some less actives, one lady didn't really know anything about the gospel and didn't believe in resurrection, that Jesus was resurrected, and thought baptisms for the dead were crazy. I don’t know how she got baptized, because she didn't even know that we believed those things and she was talking about other religions.

Friday - not a lot happened, we walked around a lot, and had a decent lesson with a less active, we read alma 36:3,27,28 about being lifted up in afflictions, and he said he would come to church! Also Ty's wedding day!!! It finally happened! I didn’t think about it really at all, until the lesson, I was showing him pictures of the fam, and I said “and this is my brother and my... sister in law, they got married about 4 minutes ago”. Haha yea it was a good day.

Saturday - Probably the best day here, so we had a full day set up, then all of our plans fell through, so we got really open. We decided to try a new way of contacting people, basically we do a survey, to peak their interest, and we found 2 less actives that want us to come over, then 2 normal people, 1 a 17 year old kid who said we could come over, and an atheist that talked with the missionaries awhile ago and read the Book of Mormon a lot because he liked it haha. We knocked on his house because he has a multi axis chair in his yard, and we asked if we could use it sometime and he said yea. Then we contacted him, gave him a Book of Mormon because he lost the other one, and he said yea I’ll read it if anything changes, or if something clicks I’ll change my life. 

Sunday - normal attendance at church, none of the new people we visited came, or the less actives that we visited, but we had 18 people there, and I gave a talk in sacrament about the Brother of Jared and repentance. I thought it was pretty good, I don’t know if my Spanish was very good though.

Monday - went exploring again this morning, ate then went to write, not much happened

This week was good, started off slow but finished strong, we didn’t see much success and we were kinda getting down, but then we went to work and everything starting falling into place. Time is going pretty quick, I have already been here 2 weeks , I’m just hoping something will come from Alvaro, he’s a really good dude and super prepared.

Les quiero mucho 

Elder Grigor

Hermana Morena

Attempting to ride a cow 

Cheese Biscocho

Misión Vida 

My first day on the job as a bus driver!! 

Mission selfie!

I found my camera on the bus

Monday August 8th, 2016 

Wednesday - we had changes, so I went to Tres Cruces at 10, and the driver looked familiar so I asked, “hey didn’t you drive last time and if so did you see a camera..... (The zone leaders told me that they asked him before and he said no) and he said yep... here you go and gave me my camera back. I really wish I would’ve waited to buy the other camera, but my friend here wants to buy it so I think I’ll sell it to him. Then we were in Tres Cruces (mall/bus place) until 2:30 so I just walked around talking with Neilsen until I left. Then I had a 5 hour bus ride to 33, I met Andersen, ate a burger, then took another hour bus to Vergara. Yea, it’s a tiny little city with fields all around it.

Thursday - getting to know Vergara a little better. We went around to contact some doors, either the people here hide from us or just walked past to look at us without opening their door to talk to us. So I’m guessing the church has been pretty well known here, and most of the people don’t want to talk to missionaries anymore.

Friday - a less active called us on the phone and she sounded really weird on the phone and really rushed. So we went over and she was sick in bed. We talked about a blessing for the sick because she didn't know what it was, then we gave her a blessing, then asked if there was anything we can do, like service wise. She said yea, you can buy me some fruit and water. So we called the branch president and he gave us money. We went and bought the food then took it back to her, and that was about half our day.

Saturday - met a less active named Yamila, and talked with her about how the Lord wants us to act on our own faith, it was really good. Then we had nothing to do at night, and in the Pueblitos here, everyone goes home at 8, everything closes down, and most people don’t answer their doors for anyone. So we went to a member who’s about 80 and played uno with her, she’s super funny, kind of reminds me of Ashley, just older, because she’s always joking around and making fun of us.

Sunday - big old 13 people including us and the 2 little kids came to church, but Yamila came!!, and I called Solano and asked about Aeroparque because we worked hard with the less actives and members the past week and 93 people came to church, instead of the usual 60!! But today was good, I bore my testimony and basically gave a talk because I spoke for 15 minutes trying to take up some time. Then we had correlation and I had an idea that we should have a class with the members to teach them how to bring back less actives. So we will be doing that sometime soon, because Vergara used to be a ward, but now only 13 come, so hopefully I can change that.

Monday - went to the forest, l lost my plaque when I was on the bridge, so I need to get another one of those, I’ve lost 3 now, 2 in the storms and 1 here now. 

But yea that’s it, I’m having fun, and time is going by so quick now, this week felt like 2 days. 

love you all 

Elder Grigor

I froze Elder Child's money :) 

Found my old camera on the bus! 

This is how we "milk alfajores" 

My new place 

Our Kitchen 

Where we study 

Elder Grigor wearing his hat from Canada 

Just chilling in Uruguay 

Leaving my mark on the train bridge 

My new companion Elder Anderson 

I'm getting transferred to Vergara

August 2, 2016 

Monday - we left early to teach Juan and Edison, the 2 kids that got baptized on Saturday, apparently a cyclone came through, so it was raining like crazy and it was super windy. 

Tuesday - we went go to do the zone t-shirts which took forever because none of our ideas were working. Then that night it was also raining pretty hard. Not much else happened  

Wednesday - haha so we went by an investigator and started talking and asked her if there is anything we can do for her, and she said jokingly, well I have to make this cake, and we said oh we can do that, so she looked a little surprised and said OK!! here you cook and I’ll go do my laundry, haha so we made a pretty decent cake and she did her laundry, then we ate it afterwards, it was great.

Thursday - can’t really remember too much, oh no I do,  we had a huge war with those little cain plant things, while going through the field, Childs got hit in the arm and started bleeding, I got some funny videos but they won’t send because they are too big,I’m not sure how I will send my best man speech video thing.

Friday - we went to figure things out with the church and the baptismal font because there was no hot water, so a bishop from another ward came and figured it out. Then we cleaned the chapel more.

Saturday!!!! - we had our baptisms today. Well, they were that night, it was at 8:00pm because the ward had a temple trip. But we were at the church all day cleaning the font, then waiting there while it filled up, it was super slow, it took about 6 hours and it wasn’t even that high. But then we had the baptism, I baptized Juan first, and at the end people were saying I didn’t do it right because his foot came out of the water. The witnesses said that it was good, and someone said I said another “y” then there was supposed to be, but I knew I said it right. But yea, my first baptism felt great, then after I just felt like I messed, but I got over it.

Sunday - I thought I was gonna confirm Juan, I was excited and nervous, but the bishop did both of them. Other than that, we just went by some members and less actives.

Monday - we had a choque de fuerza in Malvin, then had a choripan, which is hot dogs but with chorizo’s. Then we found out that my comp is training, so I’m leaving and I’m a mother now!!! (because your trainer is your father and the old comp is the mom) But yea then we figured out I’m leaving. So we went and bought 2 packs of 16 cookies to play alfajores that we are going to milk and eat today, 8 each. But then in the night we figured out I’m going to Vergara, which is a very well known pueblito, and well known for being the worst area in the mission. There are about 15 members and we get 3-4 lunches a month. So I’ll be using a lot of money probably. And starving for a while, but I think the president brings food out to those pueblitos every now and then. But yea so I’m going to my 3rd area and I’m a little excited but also not, because I love my food

Well yea, I had a pretty good week, I’m sad to be leaving. I really liked this house, and my comp, we got along really well. Talk to you soon. 

Love, 

Elder Grigor

The things we throw at each other in the fields 

I was super cold one morning 

We love McDonald's 

My first baptism 

Saying goodbye to families in Aeroparque 

Cool sign 

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