Careful - I'll throw you into the donkey!!

October 10th, 2016

Tuesday - we had a district meeting again, it was good. We had a taller (workshop) in the district meeting about effect contacts with the restoration, and it was awesome. We had the people doing the contacts close their eyes and all the other people made a whole bunch of noise to distract them, it was soo funny. Then we had our personal chef cook for us again, they bought us burgers and then we had some guiso too. Then we had a noche de hogar with a less active family and we milked alfa jores with them, and then played signs and every time we go over the littlest girl always wants to play! 

Wednesday - We had interviews with the president, so president stopped doing conferences so we can have more time in our area, but we had our interview at 1 and the only busses to go down are at 9 and 1, then to go back to Vergara are at 1 and 4, so we lost a lot of time just on the schedule. We did divisions with the elders in plaza, had our interviews, then I got my package from the primary, haha it was funny to see all their cards, I might try to write back some of them. Then we had another free day, where all of our appointments fell through and we only walked around trying to find people to contact, that we haven't already contacted

Thursday - not a lot happened today either, but haha my comp was making fun of me for tripping on a rock or something, and he was walking right beside a muddy ditch, and I tried to say cuidado te lanzo al barro (careful I’ll throw you into the mud) but I said cuidado te lanzo al burro (careful I’ll throw you into the donkey) haha!! So now we say that to each other. We went to Alisa, the rich lady that gives us lunch, because it was raining super hard. We were there talking for hour, then they asked if we wanted some soup, we said yea cuz we were hungry then they started making the soup. So we talked a little bit more, then she left for Zumba or something, so we talked with the husband, whose thinking about visiting Texas pretty soon. Then he left to go pick up Alisa from Zumba and we ate our soup. He forgot to put salt it and it wasn't the greatest, but then she came back, put salt in it and it was amazing. Then they gave us asado to take home, and Pepsi haha they’re awesome.

Friday - we had a lesson in the morning with Irio, the 81 year old who always say he’s 81 at every sentence, We talked about attending church, and he said he could probably come next week, he also gave us a reference, his friend that’s in a wheelchair. We passed by him but he didn't seem to interested but he said we could come back, maybe just to get rid of us. Not much else happened. Oh… we went to Jesus and taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ, I think he’s gonna become the new counsellor pretty soon.

Saturday- we played futbol in the morning, I’m getting a lot better. But I forgot to put sunscreen on because it was cold, and I got burnt a little bit. Then we went to go grab lunch at Edith’s house, and it wasn't ready yet. So we played soccer with her 8 year old grandson, and we kicked the ball near their dog and he bit into it and started shaking it like crazy. We just left it by him and when we tried to grab it he freaked out, it’s like he did it just to mock us, popped our ball, then didn’t even play with it after that. I was pretty choked and then we had another free day.

Sunday - haha so my comp was supposed to do the lesson today in Sunday School and forgot and tried handing it off to me again. Some people from the stake came and gave a class on self sufficiency, so I didn’t have to teach. They talked about single parents and how you can make a decent living, and people who are married too, which our branch needs because there isn't much work in Vergara. Then we cooked up our Asado and it was good. 

Monday - we came down to 33 for p-day and we are going to stay the night here and do divisions with the plaza. Oh also were gonna go play basketball and volleyball at the church too today.

This week was pretty hard, not many people accepted us. It kinda felt a little slow too, but it’s ok, I’m actually starting to enjoy it here. I will definitely like another area where there is a lot of work to be done. Other than that I’m good!! 

Looove,

Elder Grigor

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 

Neither do men light a candle, and put in under a bushel, 

but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are 

in the house. Let your light so shine before men, 

that they may see your good works, and

 glorify your Father which is in heaven." 

Matthew 5:14-16 

  

Milking Alfajores

Conference was so great!!!

October 3rd,2016

Tuesday - Had district meeting, again, haha we've used about half of our money on bus tickets these 2 weeks, and the other half on food so we don't die, mostly just rice and beans because it's cheap. But we had a super rich less active give us lunch on Tuesday, I think every Tuesday now, but she wasn't there, so she had her maid cook for us. It was like having our own personal chef. But then we went to Morena's house, and learned how to make amazing empanadas, so we made about 20 and they were huge, like the size of my hand, and I ate about 7, I was sooo full after that, it was awful, but then we just contacted all day.

Wednesday - Haha we didn't have a lot to do today, but we still somehow got 2 new investigators. 1 is the boyfriend of a less active member, and another the husband of a less active member, so we are working with these 2 families to try and get them to come to church with their families and spouses. Nothing else happened that day, just that we went exploring a little because nothing was happening with contacts lessons. We found a little beach and river thing, with a bunch of cool hiking trails I think. Other than that not much else happened.

Thursday - in the morning we helped Jesus do his family history, he's a member now, but he was a less active about 6 weeks ago. We reactivated him and are helping him do his family history to go to the temple, he had just a strong feeling that he needed to start his family history. We started with only his moms history, he had a sheet of paper I think up to his mom, and we found records up to his great grandma. We started him with a brand new family history account, and he left with about 20 people on his family tree now.

Friday - haha ok so today we were walking in the street and a drunk girl and guy walked up to us, and the girl said woah! hey a ver muestre me un poco de tu cuerpo (hey show me a little bit of your body) and  es cierto que mormones no pueden tener el amor ( hey mormons aren't allowed to (make love) right? and I said "no we can, but after we're married" then she said ahh que necesito hacer para ser tu esposa (what do i need to do to be your wife) and I was just kinda laughing the whole time, then the dude was talking to my comp and said "woah! look at the size of his shoes! I would love to have shoes like that to have something else big... man I would sell my soul to the devil to have that".  Haha I was laughing for a while after that.

Saturday - alright on a holier note, conference!!!!! Today was sweet we went to the plaza house, dropped our stuff off and watched conference. But the tv wasn't working for the gringos so we watched it in the tiny secretaries office, all 6 of us, But is was good, except sometimes people would be playing music super loud outside and we couldn't hear, but I loved it. Then we went to grido in between sessions (an ice cream shop down here) and after all the sessions we went home, and I made 4 pizzas for everyone because there were 6 people in the house again, haha for some reason it's always a big party when we go down there, 

Sunday - Well we all woke up, I made another 2 pizzas for everyone, which was just making the dough and putting cheese on it, because we're poor. Everyone was starving that day because there was no food in the house. But then we watched conference again!! It was awesome to see it in English this time, and to see all of it, since last time we were stuck in the house because I forgot the keys in the lock in the front door. Then we took a bus at 8:40 to Vergará....


Monday - well in the morning we played soccer in our backyard for 2 hours, then we came to ciber!!!

Well this week was good, still slow but better than the other weeks!

Love,
Elder Grigor

These Empanadas were so good!!!! 

Elder Grigor "just posing" 

"The river we found" 

Elder Grigor being his goofy self!!! 

The trail leading up to the river. Maybe he was praying for food!!!!

An answer to my prayers

September 26th, 2016 

Tuesday - we went down to 33 for district meeting, it’s a nice hour nap, or reading the scriptures. Then we just did contacts all day because no one was home, we still only managed to get about 10 because there’s no one ever in the streets. Then we had a noche de hogar with a viejita (little old lady) name maria. 

Wednesday - was a normal day. Then we went to a recent converts house to teach her, but there wasn’t a guy home so we couldn’t go inside. So we played soccer with her 8 year old grandson, it was me and him vs my comp, and we won!!!! Then we got a call from the Wankiers the senior couple in the mission. They said they were coming to check our house in 45 minutes and they had my packages. So we ran home and cleaned the house nice and good. They were actually impressed with how clean it was, then I got my PACKAGES!!!!!!! Woohoo!!  Sooo much candy and goodies, and food. That was an answer to my prayers because we were running out of food, because we have had to go down to 33 so much, so yea that was sweet. 

Thursday - we had divisions with our president and the first counsellor juan pablo (juan po) who are 27 and 22, juan is actually preparing to go on a mission. So me and president walked around all of Vergara looking for less actives to go teach but no one was home. Or if we found someone we just stood outside talking for 20 minutes because they didn’t want to talk about anything religious. HAHA then we were walking back to the chapel and these 2 girls walked by and as soon as they passed they both kinda looked at me and giggled and president said.. “aay estas un jugador” which means “you are a player”, and I didn’t know what he was talking about and I said “de mujeres?” (of women) and he just laughed and said no. So I’m assuming the mission, I’m a player of the mission.

Friday - I don’t remember what we did this day. I’m assuming we just walked around trying to find people to talk to in this barren town. But I think we did actually find someone that day who said we could come back and talk. So that’s a plus!

Saturday - we played soccer in the morning with a less active kid and juan po, and I realized I suck. So me and my comp practiced a lot after we played. And I’m a lot better, but he told me I’m really good at defence and passing. I just need to work on my attacking. But not too much else happened today, oh we made smore’s that night. First we just burned all of the boxes in the house, then our garbage, then when that ran out we used the oven top. Haha it’s actually really hard to use the burners on the oven because all the heat concentrates in one spot. I burnt a lot, I’m ashamed of myself, haha!! 

Sunday - we went around in the morning reminding people about church, we actually had ward conference today and 39 people came!!!! We usually get 19, but I think it was because about 20 people from 33 came. Haha but my comp was supposed to teach the lesson and forgot. So I prepared it 10 minutes before and everyone from the stake presidency was thanking me for my awesome lesson, haha!  Then we were walking out and right after church Hermana Morena went to the almecen at the corner and bought a cake for some reason. Then asked us to pick it up and bring it to her house. So we did that, and she gave us a bowl of soup! Dinner for once in my time in Vergara! including in our home, because we don’t have much money. Oh also we got a reference from a less actives members daughter who lives in 33 but came up for branch conference. She said her friend is sad and needs some helps, so could be a nice opportunity. The thing is, it’s the missionaries from before that went over and she never let them in, but who knows!

Monday - me and my comp went and bought some stuff, then just sat in the house and talked for a while then came to do ciber, but he was trunky because he just hit 1 year, but then thought “but I still have 1 whole year left 😱”. I helped him forget about that. Things got really slow around here and I was starting to feel bad, because we’ve been trying and nothing has been happening. But thinks are slowly starting to pick up again, so best thing to do is blame the city your in and not yourself. Haha, no I’m kidding! The best thing to do is try, if you do maybe the work wont move forward, but you will. 

LOOOVE

ELDER GRIGOR

Elder Grigor hurt his foot playing soccer. P-days are rough on him! 

"Because he loves you, He will place you upon His shoulders, rejoicing. And when He brings you home , He will say to one and all " Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost" - 

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

" I got my PACKAGES!!!!! Thanks mom & dad,  and the Curtis Family!!!! 

Reading letters from home. One of his favourite things (besides food!!!) 

An answer to prayers - food!!!! 

The bare streets of Vergara- except for the dogs!! 

Walking through the streets of Vergara 

Finding beauty in a sunset

Making s'mores in our fireplace 

......and then resorting to the stovetop when we ran out of things to burn!!! 

All we can do is to just keep going strong

September 19th, 2016

Tuesday - ok today was our real p-day, so we went to 33 and played volleyball with all the other missionaries, then played soccer a bit too. Then an elder who’s leaving asked me and andersen to go and buy him some random things from Uruguay because he is going home tomorrow. So we just went around looking for random things to buy. Also I got a bunch of random things from Paskett too, because he’s leaving, then that night we had 6 missionaries in the plaza house again.

Wednesday - Transfers; so my comp and the other 2 missionaries from the area plaza left, so it was me and 2 others left in the house. We couldn’t find where the keys were, and thought the other missionaries that were coming to that house, (because they white washed plaza). But they didn’t show up until 10:30 at night, so we just chilled in the house waiting for them basically all day. Then we picked up our companions. My comp didn’t want to travel more up to Vergara from 33, so we stayed another night in the plaza house, this time with 7 missionaries.... and only 5 mattresses, it was nice to finally go home.

Thursday - HAHA ok so we left to go to the pharmacy quick which was right around the corner from the house, and when we came back there was a car parked outside. So my comp didn’t notice that there was a person in it, with the window rolled down, and he turned and farted right in the dudes face, then I told him what he just did, and we died laughing when we got inside. Then we finally got home, and I showered which I hadn’t done for 3 days, then we went out with president silva visiting less actives, (because that’s all we do here) and my comp got to know some of them. Oh also we had a nice big lunch with Morena like always! Yea not much else happened.

Friday - just another normal day, my comp is super funny. I didn’t think that I would like my latino comps more than my american comps, but I do. I don’t know why but I just have more fun and don’t get as annoyed, and we work harder too. But yea just a normal day, but I bought a cake and some alfajores for my comp because it’s his birthday on Saturday

Saturday- my comps bday, haha I surprised him with the cake and he thought that I left alone and bought it, I was glad he didn’t see it last night because I thought he did for sure. But then we had a zone meeting, and a ton of new things are changing in the mission, like verifying, we don’t verify every night now, only Sunday night, and we do weekly planning on Sunday night too. So we don’t get the night off basically anymore. But yea then we went to some members and had little parties, it was good.

Sunday - we were at the church all day like always.We did some contacts in the morning. haha we asked one guy if he talked to the missionaries before and he interrupted us saying yes yes, yes, yes, so I asked to clarify “so you’ve talked with the missionaries before, and he stopped, then said “look I’m watching tv right now”, and left. Haha then another lady who told us we can come back and visit, saw us and ran inside, and had her little kid stand in the door with a broomstick saying we couldn’t enter and that she wasn’t home. Haha people do the weirdest things here just for no reason. I don’t get it, but oh well all we can do is just keep going strong!

This week was good and fast, basically had 3 days of p-day at the start of the week. My new comp is awesome, haha we joke around so much, it’s sweet

Love

Elder Grigor

My new set up 

My new companion 

Ty! 

My companions birthday cake 

YUMMY!! 

Lunch with Morena 

Elder Grigor and his new companion 

Just chilling in Uruguay 

We ate our beavertails in sadness :(

Tuesday - so we planned a noche de hogar with Alvaro for today, he even put it in his phone to remind him any everything. So we bought like 400 pesos worth of stuff for beavertails to make. We went to his house at like 6 and when we got there about 10 seconds later music turned on, and we were clapping and no one came out, so we would wait in between songs to clap so he could hear us cuz the music was loud, it didn’t happen. Oh also it was raining and haha one time the music stopped unexpectedly and I threw my umbrella to the side to get a loud clap, and it landed in some dog poop in the grass, and no one came, so we went back home and ate our beavertails in our sadness.

Wednesday - had a district meeting today and since Elder Pasket (district leader) is leaving so we slept for 30 minutes haha, but today was good. My shoes are starting to get holes in them, and my insoles have huge holes in them. I need new ones, they are starting to make holes in my socks, a couple have holes but I just flipped them upside down and wear them like that. We helped clean the old house of some elders because they moved. We didn't do anything today, we just chilled and talked until our bus came, then had a noche de hogar with a super old lady in our branch. She barely hears us when we talk so she just always says yea to most of our questions or really anything we say.

Thursday - well it’s been raiging and been pretty cold here this week. Today we were walking with our umbrellas straight in front of us because there’s so much wind here, and nothing stops the wind here, it’s just flat open fields all around so you just get destroyed. But we mostly just walked around trying to find people to talk to. There aren’t that many people in the streets especially when it rains, and even if there is someone they don’t want to talk to you.

Friday - we got rejected by everyone, pretty sure it cleared up that day though, so it was pretty sunny, but we had nothing, just walked around talking to a lot to people. 

Saturday - ok haha so we found an old investigator, he’s 81, and every time he starts a sentence he says, “alright so I’m 81.. and I went to the market the other day!” haha and just says random things behind that. Also it finally happened (not to me), but my comp couldn’t make it to the bathroom in time, haha he was running to the bathroom, didn’t see toilet paper, came back and grabbed his planner, then it was too late... haha, but it was just a usual day

Sunday -  we stayed in this morning to make a big breakfast, then went out at lunch, but we were in the church all day as usual, attending church, then correlation and waiting for everyone to leave.

Monday - best transfer Monday ever (the Monday we don’t have p-day) so we all went to 33 at the bishops house there to have an Asado, and his house is massive. He has a rope swing made and it’s not on a tree its on steel beams, its crazy. He has a trampoline, a poo,l a zipline, it’s insane. We were there from 10-2 and we all went back to the church too  and played soccer to wait for our bus at 4. We left the church at 3:50ish to buy tickets, haha the bus was full. So we went to another company and they told us there was one at 5:40, so we bought those and apparently it was at 440 and my comp had the tickets and we didn’t think to look at the time. Haha we missed that one too, so we finally caught one at 7! My new comp is a latino, Elder Lopez. I found that out tonight, but we missed a bunch of plans since we had to say goodbye to people since we missed out buses last night. But yea it’s been a good week. I can’t believe I almost have 7 months, anyway I don’t have a ton of time to write to day. 

Love

Elder Grigor

Making Beavertails for Alvaro 

Elder Grigor is becoming an expert at making Beavertails 

Waiting in the rain for Alvaro 

Eating our Beavertails in sadness :( 

Sleeping with our district 

Chilling with our district 

"huge cheap burger, didn't taste that good though" 

"yummy snake" 

Messing around at the Bishop's House in 33 

Cooking food 

Waiting for the bus 

It was only one bad week, so we just kept our heads up :)

September 5th, 2016

Tuesday - we had a district meeting in 33, so I read for an hour on the way down, had the meeting and haha, Elder Paskett made gingerbread cookies for everyone and told me before “I’m sorry, blame your father”. I was so confused and then saw my “G” cookie was brutally mangled, apparently it was hard to make a G cookie. Then we went back to Vergara to work, and then left again at 8 to go to 33 for the temple trip. Haha, but we all stayed up partying because everyone was in 33 that night because the bus left at 5 in the morning for Montevideo, but we went to bed at 3 and woke up at 4:50.

Wednesday - drove down to the temple for 4 hours, and then had a nice conference with president, then went through the temple which was awesome!! I haven’t been through for about 5 months so it was good to go again, and I understood everything this time!! Then we went to the distribution centre and I saw a red leather Jesus the Christ in Spanish there but I didn’t have any money on me. Then we drove back at 4ish and told jokes and ate left over pizza and pop from lunch. It was pretty fun.

Thursday - We came back at about 9 and were dead all day from sitting in a shuttle bus with hard seats for 6 hours yesterday so we were pretty dead today, but it was super rainy today and we didn’t get too much done. We just contacted a lot of people in the streets, well.... the ones we could find.

Friday - we taught a man named Jesus who’s reactivating himself, I think my comp had a big impact on him last change and he quit smoking and starting reading the gospel principles book. It was super rainy and not too many people let us in. Haha one guy we went by and he always gives us excuses on why he can’t let us in. Sometimes because he’s fixing wires in his house and other times he just gives us lame excuses. Well, this time he did that and then said “there’s always somewhere else to go right??” We didn’t have anything else that day, so we just walked in the rain trying to talk to people.

Saturday - the president texted us today and said to come over for his daughters birthday party. So we went over at 4 and stayed all night haha. We were talking to a lot of people being normal people with them. Then I started playing with all the kids because his daughter turned 4. So I played around chasing them, and they were tackling me on the couch for about 2 hours.

Sunday - we went around to people reminding them about church doing contacts and stuff, then spent the whole day at the church, we cleaned it after church and then had correlation with the president.

Monday - we traveled up to Rio Branco which borders with Brasil and everything is super cheap up there. So we have been saving up for this and we came up and bought some new pants for 15 dollars, and 2 shoes for 24ish. We got really cheap stuff and we can use these for tracting and stuff.

This week was really quick. It felt like I just had the temple trip, but it was also just rainy and miserable, I didn’t have too much success this week, but it’s only one bad week, so we just kept our heads up and and joked around a lot, and talked with a lot of people too! 

That’s about it this week, love you guys!!

Love 

Elder Grigor

Elder Grigor and his companion on a "cool bridge" 

Filling up at a buffet restaurant 

Elder Grigor's plate of food 

So much food

Elder Grigor "stuffed" after 1 plate. 

From Elder Grigor : "haha, I was mad at the buffet, because I loaded up on

 all the good stuff at the front, and found out after I ate it all that the 

meats were in the back around a corner, so I missed out on all the good 

stuff, plus I only ate 1 plate 😥, I'm losing my appetite here😭"

Love this wonderful young man!!!