Elder Tyler Grigor : Merry Christmas

December 23rd, 2013

OK I’m not going to write a ton because I have lots of people to write and we will talk on thursday too but I am going to write a little. And we are thinking that around 2 pm in the afternoon (our time) we will try and Skype you guys. I’m not sure exactly how to do it but I wrote down all the information and it should be pretty easy.

So this week was another pretty long one! I thought it was going to be pretty normal but I guess I was wrong. Everything was going normal until Wednesday night, we had been in Atocha all day and everything was going great. The train was “supposed” to show up at 9:30 pm to go back to Uyuni, so we were waiting in the train station for about half an hour when someone walked in and said it want going to show up until 2:00 am in the morning. They lied and we actually left at about 3:00 am which was awesome. So during that whole time I slept on the cold train station floor waiting for the train to show up. I think that’s what helped me get so sick. So Thursday morning we got home at about 5:00 am in the morning. So far the travelling isn’t my best friend, it’s tough getting used to all of the things we do differently. And the annoying thing is that the buses and trains are not reliable at all and really just leave whenever and wherever they want. But after that I was pretty good for most of the day. Friday however was a completely different story. I woke up just feeling awful, it was like a mixture of stomach flu and fever and a whole bunch of things that I don’t really want to describe. It was just awful. I was in bed all day Friday and Saturday basically. Then Saturday my companion went out with the branch president to Atocha while I stayed in Uyuni with the other elders to rest a bit more. Then we left last night at 2:00 am in the morning to come to Tupiza for a zone meeting. We arrived at 2:00 pm in the afternoon. The train ride was going good and we were supposed to show up at around 9:00 am this morning but when we were about 20 minutes away on the train we were stopped by people blocking the tracks. There was a huge amount of people blocking the tracks for some reason, I have no idea why they were doing that. We thought they would figure it out pretty quick but they didn’t do anything, so for an hour we waited on the train and did nothing until we decided to go find a car or something to take us the rest of the way. We found a big van and we were waiting with a bunch of other people and they kind of all rushed in and they was no room for us so we waited for a little bit longer and finally a little bus came like 2 hours later so we got in that. Just as we were leaving we heard the train whistle and it left at the same time, now we were stuck in a small bus that was going to take 3 times as long to get to where we needed to go. But we finally arrived and we are alive which is all that counts. Now we pretty much only have time to use the internet then we have to go to the zone meeting. That whole blockade kind of ruined my p day but oh well, the only part about p-day that I really care about is just writing home to you guys. But here the internet really sucks and I haven’t even gotten in yet so I am writing in Microsoft word, hopefully I will be able to get in before my time gets up so I can send it to you guys. I think its progressing a little, the internet here is even worse than it is in Uyuni. I just miss technology. It’s something that I never really thought about before. Being here really makes me appreciate all the little things we have at home that I took for granted, and just little things like carpet. I’ll be happy to come home and feel carpet again.

One cool experience from this week, when I was coming to Uyuni an elder that had served here before gave me a reference of a family that he was teaching. But when the holidays ended they went off to school and work and kind of got lost. Well since it’s the holidays again we went to try and find them. It took about 2 weeks but we were finally able to get a hold of them and we found out that one of their sisters is already a member and the rest of them are really open to the gospel. One guy named Kevin was supposed to get baptized like 3 times but something always came up where he had to go back to school early or something and could never do it and well now is the perfect time. Just that whole experience meeting them and their family really showed me once again how mysterious the Lord works. First be being able to talk to that missionary and at this time of year and just everything. It all worked out perfectly and I’m really noticing how the lord is helping us hasten the work. It’s something awesome.

Well thats my short letter, I’m going to try and send pictures also, I wont be able to say it before so MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! I cant wait to talk to you guys. I’m so excited I can’t hardly wait.

Love you lots and I will talk to you soon!!!!

Elder Grigor