Our testimony can reach their hearts

To answer some questions, 

Dad, no I never received any training on how to be a district leader, I just asked my zone leaders and studied the mission handbook and Preach My Gospel to kind of get an idea and I just kind of copied the district leader that I had before. We have leadership meetings every 3 months, for the zone leaders it’s every month. But it was just kind of a surprise but I’m ok with it. I like being a district leader. 

Mom, I don’t know if I will do anything significant for my one year. Maybe I will burn something but I’m not sure yet. They have a new, new temple video? I haven’t even seen the one that came out like 6 months ago. The next time I go to the temple... I have no idea. When I’m in Cochabamba and when the rest of the missionaries go. That could be like 6 months. 

Well now I’ll start about my week. It was pretty awesome. We went to Tupiza Monday and Tuesday for a zone meeting. We spent monday there for p-day and because we had a long trip they said we could just rest and have the whole day as p-day so that’s what we did. Then the next day we had our zone meeting and we left at like 6 at night. The zone leaders didn’t have anything for us to do so we just kind of had another p-day. I wanted to go on splits or something but they just gave us the day off. 

In Uyuni it was a fun week with Elder C., it was my last week with him. So what happened is the zone leaders called me on Wednesday and told me that one of the elders in Uyuni would be my new companion and that they would be sending a gringo to be with the other elder. So my new companion is Elder R. He had only been a week and a half with his other companion then they gave him to me haha. He is from Chile and is almost finishing his mission. He has about 20 months in the mission, so I think I will be with him this transfer and the next and then he will show someone else the area before he goes home. Or I could just be here for 5 transfers again, that would be tough. He is from the south of Chile. I think he said Patagonia, I don’t know him that well, Elder C. only left like an hour ago to his mission in Venezuela. Where is Uncle Jorge from? Anyways I’m sure it will be really good, I’m looking forward to learning a lot and kind of getting trained again, it should be awesome. 

Well a cool experience from this week... There are always so many but I think I will share what happened yesterday. So we had a great sacrament meeting in Atocha and then we started the journey home. It’s about a 3 hour bus ride. I was quite tired so I went to the empty seats in the back with my companion. He took up two seat and I took up two seats, it was awesome. So I reclined the seat back and started reading the Liahona from January. About 15 minutes in we stopped at a small town to pick up some people. One man came on with his family and came to the back and asked if we could talk and asked to sit with me. I thought awesome, I have 2 hours to talk to him about the gospel. Little did I know he didn’t sit by me to learn, but rather to argue. He started off about the Book of Mormon and how our church is made my man and run by politicians and I just listened for about 20 minutes. I just really tried to understand his point of view and what he thought of us. Elder Holland said once that as we listen to what they are saying we will be able to find some truth in what they are saying and then testify of those things. So that’s what I tried to do. I just listened and testified to the things that were true and tried not to cause any type of conflict. By the end he had a ton of questions and he wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. We had run out of pamphlets and copies of the Book of Mormon in Atocha so I gave him the Liahona that I was reading. It was really a cool experience. I think many times when people attack us we just want to defend and fight back and start bible bashing. But I’ve learned that if we just listen and are kind like Jesus would be, we have a much more effective experience. Contention is never the answer, when we are kind and humble is when our testimony can reach their hearts. 

I love being out here and learning new things everyday. I’m excited for the challenges that are to come and overcome. I know this church is true, I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and changes lives. I love this gospel. I love you guys, thank you for everything. 

Elder Grigor

Elder Grigor with the first member that was baptized in Bolivia. 

Elder Richard G. Scott confirmed him a member when he came to 

open up the mission when President Dyer (the mission president) 

was a missionary in Bolivia. President Dyer was one of the first

 missionaries in Bolivia and helped build the first chapel. 

Elder Grigor with his buddies in Tupiza

Goodbye party for Elder C. - it is a tradition to put their face in the cake. 

The aftermath from the food fight at the pensionista's home.  

Elder Grigor covered in egg and flour

Elder Grigor with his typical two thumbs up!

 They look like they had a great time.  

Elder Grigor's new companion is on the far left. His companion that 

 is leaving to go to his mission in Venezuela is beside Elder Grigor.