Elder Tyler Grigor : Have a great week, I know I will.

First I will respond to the questions and luckily the Internet is working a lot better than it was last week. I guess it is normally pretty good but last week it sucked for some reason. The other elders say its better than Cochabamba. Maybe because there are so many tourists here. Anyways now I will respond.

I am doing good.I am really tired and later you will find out why. But it was a great week here in my pueblos. Yes we live in a hotel called le ciel, which is in French. I think that means the sky or heaven or something like that. Yes we have a washing machine and its awesome, not the same as at home but its awesome for here; I don't have to wash clothes by hand anymore. But it rains here a lot so its hard to hang our clothes up to dry so we just hang them in the apartment sometimes. We have a pensionista still at least when we are here in Uyuni, when we are in Siete Suyos and Atocha we usually eat in the house of members who are super great and always give us food. If not we just go to a restaurant to buy food. There are lots of streets named after dates but I have no idea what they mean. The picture from last week was taken in Atocha. The roads are really bumpy and uncomfortable; it takes about 2 hours to get to Atocha by bus. Yes, I’m staying warm, sometimes its a little cold here but I just put a jacket on and I’m all good. No we don’t have maids, it’s like our own little room separate almost and we just take care of it ourselves, and we only pay 750 bolivianos a month which is a little over 100 dollars. I will take a picture and send it to you guys next week. We haven’t gone to the salt flats yet, we can but its kind of expensive and the elders have already gone and don’t really want to go so I might have to wait a little bit. I think we are going to go as a zone soon too so we'll see. I don’t know if we will be able to talk on Christmas because in Atocha they don’t’ really have anything so it might just have to be the next day when I can use Skype to talk to you guys. I’m going to try to figure out if we can go to Atocha on the Thursday but because of the train schedule and the buses Wednesday is the only day but I’ll figure that out. Would it be fine if I called you guys on the 26th? Oh and the train is actually pretty nice, we go first class and they give us a little cake and a juice box, its awesome. I actually slept pretty well on the train. And yes still send everything to the mission office. I know that I got my package, its in the office and they said they are going to send it to me before Christmas, now I just hope it gets here safely. I didn’t get to watch the Christmas devotional. I think that’s all the questions that you guys had if there is more just ask me.

Now about my week. Last P-day we just stayed and played soccer for like 3 hours, which was what started my long week. The next day I was really sore and tired but I made it through. Wednesday we woke up at 5:00am to make the bus at 6:00am to Atocha, we worked all day then got the train at about 10:00pm to come back to Uyuni. We made it back to the apartment and got to sleep around 1. The train is awesome, if I’m not wrong that is the first time I’ve traveled in a train like that, it was actually pretty nice and we went in first class so that was cool. I slept decently on the train but I was still really tired when I got back. Then we worked all day Thursday then had to take a bus ride to Sucre to go to the Christmas zone conference. We showed up at 5:30pm then waited an hour for the rest of the zone to show up then went to the elder’s house to shower and get ready. It was a great time and we played games and had a push up contest, I didn’t do it but my companion did 100 push ups, and the president did 84, I thought that was quite impressive, it was awesome seeing some of my friends again and saying goodbye to a couple that are going home. It was a really fun day. Then we took a bus ride at 9:00pm to go back to Uyuni and arrived at 4:00am in the morning. They put on the new wolverine movie too, good thing I was really tired so I just went to sleep right away. But it was a rough night that’s for sure. After we got back I went and took a 1hour nap then we took the bus to Atocha at 6am and worked there all day, then we decided to fast with a family in need. I think that night is when I have been the most tired and weak in my entire life, but I kept going! Then we finally got the hotel and I got to sleep. I was kept up during the night because somehow a mouse got in to the garbage can and couldn’t get out so it was making a lot of noise and it was really annoying. But I was half asleep and had no idea what it was and was too tired to get up and see what it was. On top of that I woke up sick, awesome I know. That was also a rough night but I made it through and prepared everything for the sacrament meetings on Sunday. We did one meeting in Atocha and another in Siete Suyos, so everything that I did last week I had to do double this week. But like I said last week it was totally worth it to see the gratitude of the members. After all that, we took another bus back to Uyuni; where we taught a little more and finally got to bed. That was my whole week. My tiring week!

Although this week was one of the most tiring of my entire mission I wouldn’t trade it for anything, the experiences that we had and things we were able to accomplish outweigh anything else. Thanks to the help of the lord I was rejuvenated in the few hours of sleep I had to be able to continue on in the work of salvation. When I was most tired is when we had some of our best experiences. On Saturday when I was probably the most tired in my entire life we were trying to find some families who we had appointments with and they were all falling through. I was getting kind of discouraged and all I wanted to do was just go home and take a nap, but we pushed through. When we were walking away from a house a girl called our names. We went over and talked to her and she was a member, she had been baptized in Tupiza and when she moved to Atocha had no idea that the church was here. It was funny because just a few minutes before I told my companion we have to keep going because there are people here prepared to hear the gospel and families who are members and don’t know that the missionaries and the church is here. And just as we were walking down the street we found one of those people and I know there are more. That’s what drives me to keep going, the knowledge that people are waiting and ready for the gospel but just don’t know how or where to find it. And we are some of the only ones that have the answer. I love being here in this area. This week I have learned and grown so much and I’m so grateful. I love the mission and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

This was my week. I hope I answered your questions and that you understood me more or less. I loves your letters and the pictures, thanks for everything. I love you guys so much and hope you have a great week. I know I will.

Elder Grigor