Happy New Year

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year

Well this week was pretty great, it was hard to work because of all of the holidays and the fact that lots of our investigators went on vacation but it was pretty fun. I loved talking to you guys on Christmas. I’m really happy that that was the last time I have to do that. I wish that I could have said goodbye to you guys properly but I don’t really know what happened I guess the internet just cut out.

On Christmas after internet we went to lunch and then went back to talk to my comps family because they were supposed to be on after lunch but they never showed up so we have to wait and he is going to talk to them this week on New Year’s Day. At least that’s the plan. We also went to the plaza and sang and it was working at first, lots of people came and were listening. We had a couple of missionaries contacting the ones who came up and looked interested and shared a Christmas message but then a mime came and took all of our fans L so we went to another little plaza and it worked out a lot better. People clapped after we finished a song and asked us to sing in English and when my comp was contacting they even asked him when the concert would be. They thought we were just warming up. I guess you could say we sang like angels. It was pretty awesome, most of the missionaries from the two zones were supposed to come but there were only like 10 of us but it was still really fun.

A cool experience that happened this week the day after Christmas. We were knocking on doors for a long time because none of our investigators were home or had time.  We tried to contact and well it wasn’t really working out too well. There were lots of people who just shut the door on us or said that no one was home or said they would come right down and then never did. Right when we were pretty discouraged and didn’t really want to keep knocking we decided to knock on one more door before going to an appointment. The dad answered the door and was super interested in our message about the prophets and the Book of Mormon and the restoration. Then he told us that it was really weird that we found him because he is hardly ever home. He is a taxi driver and only came to drop off his kids and give them something to eat. He was going to leave again but he was really grateful that he stayed home. Like I have experienced many times the Lord always blesses us after our struggles. We now have a new family that we are teaching and someone who is really interested in learning the gospel.

Another crazy thing that happened, the sisters called us Saturday night at 10 saying that they needed to leave their house at that moment because the owner of the house where they live left and they were left alone with a guy. So the next day we had no idea where they would go because they had been looking for house for a long time and hadn’t found anything yet. Being nice I decided that they would go to our house and we would go stay at another elders house close by who have extra beds for a couple of days while they look for a new place. But the thing is now they want to stay in our house and want us to go find a new place. I hope they are joking, we just got into that new house and we don’t want to leave. Plus it is super far away from the sister’s area. Hopefully they find a new place soon. So this week might be little crazy with moving things around and finding a new house.

Well, this was my week more or less, hope you guys had a great one, love the pictures, looks like you’re having lots of fun. Can’t wait to see you guys again. 

Love you

Elder Grigor

Elder Grigor sitting under his flag with family pictures. LOVE IT! 

Christmas in Sucre, Bolivia 

Handing out Christmas gifts 

P-day fun

Love my companion

December 22nd, 2014 

Family,

So I don’t have much time to write today, there were lots of things that I had to do for the zone. I was trying to translate a talk in Spanish and after about half an hour of playing around with it and translating everything I erased it by accident and lost it all. I still have the original that I printed out but lost the rest. So I just wasted like a ton of time so that was lame. I will figure it out later though.

Anyways, we had a great week this week. Elder Callahua is super awesome and we are getting along great here. I’m really hoping that I stay with him until the end of my mission, after like a week we’ve already became great friends. We just spend the whole day laughing and making jokes and having a good time. It doesn’t even matter if we have appointments fall through because that means we can just keep talking and having fun. I was kind of bummed at first about the transfer but I know that it was exactly what I needed. We are being obedient and finding new people and everything is going great.

Sorry this is so short but I will talk to you guys on Thursday. I’m so excited to be able to see you guys again. Talk to you soon!!

Elder Grigor 

Elder Grigor in Sucre 

That is one tired missionary! 

You just have to take a nap wherever you need to! 

Love that he captured so many pictures of Elder Grigor sleeping

Transfers came and I am staying in Sucre.

Hey Family,

So we had the transfer call last night. We were waiting for the transfer and my pensionista from Colcapirhua called me and told me that the elder who was there was coming to be my new companion. I was kind of sad because I wanted to hear it from the assistants but she told me. My new companion is going to be Elder Callahua ( Kai-ya-wa) is how you would say it in English. He is from Peru and will probably “kill me”. That’s what they say to the companion that sends you home. I think we will be together for at least 3 months and then I will be done. I think he has just over a year in the mission, I’m not exactly sure but I’ve heard he is a great worker. I don’t really know him that well but I’ve only heard good things so I am excited about that. He was here in Sucre in the area right next to where we are so he is basically just coming back to where he was like 4 months ago which is good because he will know everything about Sucre and will be able to visit some families and converts here in Sucre. I’m excited, I kind of thought that I was going to leaving and that my comp would be staying but I guess this is what the Lord wants and I am ok with it. It will be fun to spend Christmas here in Sucre.

We had a good last week together here is Sucre. I have really learned to love my companion and I will really miss him a lot. He’s a great guy and I have seen a big change in him since the first time I met him at the beginning of this year.  I think we finished off pretty strong. Although we aren’t seeing lots of success with investigators and baptisms we have seen the increased help of the members in the ward and I think they have grown to trust us. We are also having more success with the less active members here in the ward. With two different families we were able to do service and help them; with one on P-day we went out with the dad and son to play outdoor racquetball and created a stronger friendship with both of them. I think through these small things it brought them to church this week.  Both of the families came this Sunday and were blessed by the Lord. I felt really happy when both of the families walked in and felt that what we are doing here has been worth it and that we have been helping the ward. Sometimes it’s easy to think that we haven’t really done much because there are no baptisms, and I was kind of thinking that for a while but I have realized that it’s not all about that. I am really happy with the ward and for the opportunity that I have to stay here in Sucre and work with these amazing people.

Funny experience.  While walking down the street there was a family that was getting in the car and they were looking at us funny, as we got closer the younger brother who was probably about 16 stuck his head out the window and I thought he was going to ask a question or something about us but just told me “hey my sister likes you” and started laughing. So did I, my companion said that we should go back and knock on their door. I’m thinking about it…. Hahaha.

Well this was week here in Sucre. There are so many more things that I would love to write you guys but the time is running out. I’m really excited to talk to you guys next week, I will be really trunky that day. I am going to try and keep it between 30 and 40 minutes though. So just be prepared. Love you guys, talk to you soon.

Elder Grigor

**Elder Grigor's memory card had a virus so no pictures this week. Hopefully we will get some pictures next week. 

The best part of the week.

December 8th, 2014 

Hello Family

Well this week was pretty great, on Tuesday morning we went off to Cochabamba for a leadership training meeting. We got there early and had some time to go to the temple which was great because I hadn’t gone in a really long time, after that we went to Rodizios and that was super awesome. We have to go there when we come back. It costs like 11 dollars, I love it. We also had some time to go and visit some families and converts in old areas. It was really great to go see all of them and catch up. The meeting was also really great, most of the day Wednesday we were there with the president, he taught us again about the atonement which is one of my favourite principles. When we came back and had our zone meeting we were given some time at the end for people to come up and bear their testimonies about the atonement and the importance it has played in their lives. That was a really special part and I think everyone felt the spirit really strong and everyone left just a little more motivated. 

Another awesome thing that happened this week was the baptism of Jessenia. I don’t think I ever told you guys about her, we found her looking for a less active member about a transfer ago. We taught an awesome lesson and we both felt she was going to accept the gospel. Then we found out that she lived in the area beside us. We gave the referral and they continued to teach her and she was baptized this last Saturday. She also invited us to her baptism and we were able to be a part of that, so that made me really happy. Especially knowing that maybe we haven’t been seeing too many results here in our area but that our work is paying off. All of this happened for a less active member and when we found out he wasn’t home so we just talked to the other people in the house and it turns out that she was ready to accept the gospel. That was probably the best part of week. 

Everything is going great here. I got the 3 packages so I’m glad that they made it here. Everything is all packed up ready for Christmas, I already took out the stuff I was allowed to open and ate most of it already haha. I really enjoyed watching the videos and seeing all of the pictures. Thanks for sending that. I’m glad that my package got there also. I was kind of worried that is wasn’t going to make it. And I won’t be able to send pictures this week because it’s not working for some reason but I will try next week. I’m really excited to talk to you guys. Just 3 short weeks. Love you guys so much, thanks for everything, have a great week!!

Elder Grigor

"We went to the 7 waterfalls today as a zone. The water is

 kind of dirty though because it rained a ton here last night"

“ corred de tal manera que lo obtengais”

Hello Family,

Well this week just went flying by, it’s weird how the time never changes but sometimes it just seems like it goes by faster but it’s really not. 

So this week we had our zone conference here, the assistants and the president came down and we had a great time with them, almost the whole day we were in that meeting. There were lots of great messages. The president talked about “sweet repentance.” Basically just how sweet it is to repent and the need we have as missionaries to teach that well to our investigators. I really enjoyed that, then the assistants talked about goal and inspiring people. Like Michael Jordan and George Albert Smith and how they had weaknesses they were able to overcome them with proper goal setting and hard work. At the end all of the missionaries who are going home this transfer (2 weeks) and the ones who are going home in January gave their last testimonies and then I got trunky because the president said we aren’t going to have another conference until February and that is when I will have to give my last testimony before going home. It’s going by fast, that day is going to get here way to fast. Until now I feel very satisfied with my work, I hope I can finish just as strong as I started. 

Well my companion and I have been working really hard lately. I am really happy with what is happening in our area right now. We are finally seeing the fruits of our labor, in these last couple of weeks we have seen many people prepared by the lord and ready to hear the gospel. But like most it’s hard to get them to church. I think that is our biggest struggle right and we are going to see what else we can do to bring investigators to church. But I really do feel like the lord is blessing, we have been praying and trying to find a family to teach and through a member we found out her son was inactive so we went to go visit. He has his wife, 3 kids, and a niece who aren’t members. We went to visit them and they received us well and were really interested in our message about the Book of Mormon. I feel the lord answered our prayers and this family is ready to receive the restored gospel. Our goal is to reactivate the Dad and have him baptize his whole family. That would be the greatest. I’m happy to be here in Sucre and I am loving the mission more than ever. The thoughts of home are slowly creeping in but I’m trying hard to fight them off, I just really want to finish strong. And like Paul says, (I only remember it in Spanish haha) “ corred de tal manera que lo obtengais.”

I love the mission, I love the people, and I love you guys. I can’t wait to talk to you. I haven’t gotten the packages yet but we are going to Cochabamba tomorrow so it should be there. I’ll let you know next week.

Love you Fam. 

Elder Grigor

Elder Grigor- 2 thumbs up! 

Love our "white giant" in Bolivia 

He bought the soccer shoes that he is wearing for $30- he got

 a great deal because no one in Bolivia has size 13 feet. 

"Sassy Selfie" - this coming from the guy who never liked taking

 pictures before his mission. We have loved getting pictures from him

 almost every week his entire mission. The only time he hasn't sent 

pictures is when he can't upload them at an internet cafe.