Elder Tyler Grigor : Lesson from the broken bow

Hello parents,

Well, where do I start. I had a pretty good week, a few ups and downs but overall it was pretty good. Where do I start... Well New Year’s this year was probably the first year that I slept through New Years. Here they have some weird traditions. They all go to sleep pretty early so they can wake up at 11 to eat dinner, then they go out into the streets and dance all night. They also believe if you wear a certain color of underwear you will get a certain thing in the next year ( for example red is love and yellow is luck etc.) So we were seeing lots of underwear in the street the few days before New Year’s. I luckily didn't hear any of the partying and I just slept the whole night, I guess my companion heard it and woke up and was watching all the dancing and partying going on. It was funny, everyone asked us " how did you spend New Year’s" and I always responded sleeping. Lots of people thought I was joking. It was a good New Year’s.

It was nice to work a little bit longer here in Uyuni this week and kind of going back to a normal schedule. We had a great week, mostly working with less active members. One family I’m super excited about is Raul and Jasmine. He is a less active member and his family are all non members, we've been working with them since I got here and the mom and little girl want to get baptized. The only problem is that they aren’t married yet. We are working on that with them so they can get married and get baptized. One of my biggest wishes is to see them be baptized before I leave this area, I really hope that everything will work out. They are such a great family.

We had a great week here and an interesting weekend in Atocha. We went out on Saturday and had a pretty successful day and I thought lots were going to come to church. Well only 6 came in Atocha. That was kind of disappointing, but we had a great meeting and it was great being with the members from Atocha. After we went up to Siete Suyos but no one was there. We arrived at the house where we always have the meeting but no one was there. Apparently they called us not to come up because everyone was leaving on vacation but we never got the call. We had no meeting place and no members and didst really know what to do. Honestly I was quite discouraged and kind of frustrated. Then I thought of the story of Nephi breaking his bow. Laman and Lemuel murmured and were just angry and probably wondering, why me? why now? But Nephi took it as an opportunity to learn and was probably thinking: how can I learn from this experience? how can I help those around me? I tried to have the mindset of Nephi trying to think how can I learn and grow from this experience and who can I help. What is it that the Lord wants me to learn? When I started thinking like this and focusing on the needs of others those feeling of discouragement and frustration left. With that new mindset we were able to go and find a few investigators that are difficult to find with out limited time in Siete Suyos. We were able to have two great lessons and and I left quite satisfied. But the Lord wasn’t done, and I think he wanted to test what I had learned. We arrived at Atocha to find out that our bus had left an hour earlier without informing us and we had no way back to Uyuni. The lady told us that we could wait out on the outskirts to wait for a passing car or maybe a bus and try to find a way home. I thought to myself, " what do I need to learn and how can I use this to help someone else? " So we went to wait for a passing car and after about 15 minutes it started to rain. Just as I was getting discouraged again a bus came around the corner that was supposed to pass by at 2:00pm but for some reason came through later due to the weather. We were able to get on that bus and had a ride back to Uyuni. During the ride we also had the opportunity to talk to a man from Argentina heading up to Peru. We were able to talk a little about the gospel and give him a pamphlet of the restoration. I know the Lord provided the means for us to contact that man in that moment. I know he delayed the other bus so we would have a ride home and have the opportunity to share the gospel. I know the Lord works in mysterious ways and many times we may not understand but it is always for the best. I’m so grateful to be here on my mission growing closer to my Saviour everyday.

I learned a lot this week and I look forward to learning even more this week. This week should be a good one. Today we are going to the salt flats for the first time so I will make sure to take tons of pictures for you guys. Also the Dakar Car Rally is coming through this Sunday and Monday so that should be pretty fun. Also transfers are this Sunday. I’m pretty sure I’ll still be here and with my companion but I’ll let you know. I love you guys and hope you have a great week.

Elder Grigor