I Have a New Kid

Well all is well this week and I haven't been in any crazy buses for a week. It was a great adventure, however. My old companion went to his mission in Gutierrez Tuxtla Mexico and I have a new kid, as in I am training again. Training is an adventure. It sometimes makes me laugh a lot. His Name is Elder Herrera and he is from Honduras. He uses a lot of hand signs and is too scared to talk in lessons. He is a sweet kid and he came out for the right reasons so the Lord will bless him.

I am building relationships with the members. I have told them that I am willing to help them with whatever they may need. I am glad to help. This seems to make things better. We found a very positive lady last night. Woot!!! We are going to work with the Bishop in a lesson. Lessons with members are the bomb! Especially the Bishop because he is super pilas!

I went on splits with the AP Elder Flores. He's pretty cool and I know his biggest secret. He speaks English and nobody knows that except me! It was great.

So I was just now thinking of Kreggic. He has made a decision that I am not sure I would have been able to make. I can't say that I am a very humble person and to make a decision like that requires a lot of humbling. I'm proud of him and in the end, even though the first will be a rough patch, that kid is going to become someone incredible. That is the beautiful thing about repentance. It always makes you better. And sure if you fall hard you have to work your tail off to get back up but then you are a whole heck of a lot stronger. That's what I love so much of this wonderful Gospel. You can always repent. I think of Peter. He denied Christ three times. But through repentance he became a man whose faith was so incredibly strong that when he passed, people flocked to him just in the hope that his shadow would touch him. How incredible is that. Just a rare little spiritual content from your missionary son there.

Today we played futbol and I totally owned straight up! I like that game a lot now. I used to hate it but man it is super fun. I even scored on my companion. Hahahaha

Well, I love you. Have a wonderful week. Oh yeah, I'm happy and healthy.

Con amor,
Elder Grant

The pictures are of Elder Herrera and Me, some incredible street art made with sand, and the stars I totally made. That all got destroyed like 20 minutes after because the parade walked right through it. Weird, right? I don't understand all this crazy Guatemala-ness!

The Adventures of Elder Collin Grant

Welcome to the Adventures of Elder Grant. Freak ... where to start. Well this week started off normal, like any other week. I had a nice P-Day; ate some delicious food; and then went into the house. We left to work and got rejected then went home to sleep. This is when all went crazy. So, I got a text from the zone leaders that was like, "Hey Dude! You need to go be in the house of the zone leaders in San Marcos like right now. Your "kid" (training companion) has to be in Guatemala in the morning. You have to leave at 2:30 in the freaking a.m.!" So, we packed up or at least my companion did and we left, into the cold night, making our way to San Marcos. We arrived in our wonderfully chilly destination.We knocked on the zonies' door and they came and asked, "Why are you two here?" Turns out our zonies had told these zonies nothing. It wasn't too long until I found out we had to go to the Capitol, without clothes and all that junk.

So, we get to the bus terminal and there are no buses there. Why? Turns out my zone leaders told us to leave because they wanted to sleep in. (Not funny) The bus was in my area. So, we waited for a bus in the middle of the night, freezing to death. Then just for funzies I decided to get really sick and I puked all over the place. Ya, that was cool! Finally the bus came and I felt like I was going to die. But on the bright side, supposedly, I was going to come back that night so I wasn't too worried about the whole clothes situation. But, I was wrong.

We started making our way to Xela and the bus decided to flip because the moron driver was going super fast down a pass way worse than the Jackson Pass. How do I know that the bus was flipping? Oh not much, just that I woke up in the air with everyone screaming and I see the road outside my side window coming at my face super fast. But, luckily God was like, "No! Collin won't die today!" and touched the bus and put it all normal. I was super mad at the bus driver and demanded my money back. We got on a different bus that didn't charge us. WOOT!!!!

We made it into the Capitol finally and I saw my buddy Elder See from the CCM. We talked, laughed, I puked, and had an all around good time. So anyways, my kid was there for Visa stuff. Then I got really sick. I started blacking out and puking lots. They called in the Church doc, for all of Central America, to check me out. Basically what he told me is, "YOU CANNOT LEAVE TODAY OR YOU WILL DIE!" Pretty cool right? So I stayed the night in the Capitol. Ya know, garments that have been on you since Monday don't smell too hot when it is Wednesday. We asked the Church Office what we were supposed to do. (At this moment I have Elder Segard as a companion because our kids were going to be in the Capitol until Friday.) We asked them here, "Where do we go?" and they said, "I DUNNO, stinking dummies." So, Segard and I were like, "I need garments because I smell like death and I cannot go to the hottest part of our mission without any." They pointed to us where the Office of Mission North is. (Don't you love how his Spanish is affecting his English.)

Well, this sparked a little gear in my head and I was like, "Hey! Whoa! My best bro, Ky Trupp is there right now. I'll go there." And we went and, yes, I saw my best friend, as you have seen by the pictures. (check out the previous post) [This is a little segment from Elder Trupp's letter home: "We also had a special guest come to the office this week as a surprise. Not many of you know him but the ones who do know that a certain Elder Collin Grant is one of my best friends ever. So it was good to see him. I think that helped me a lot, as well, to see a familiar face from home even if he smelled bad cuz he hadn't showered for a few days in travel from Retalulehu to the capital. But it was good to talk about mission stories with him even though we're still on our missions haha.] This was an awesome, once in a mission experience. And now I have no companion and I will be training again this Wednesday because my kid went to his real mission. And, I am the zone leader for this week.

That's my story. Hope ya'll enjoyed it!

Con amor,
Elder Grant

A Sweet Reunion

This is Robin. I am sure that Ky and Ky's mom wouldn't mind me sharing these pictures on the blog. (Collin will definitely want them.) But, somehow and somewhere, these two best friends, Elder Collin Grant and Elder Ky Trupp were able to get together in Guatemala. After Collin got his call to Retalhuleu Guatemala, Ky received his call to Guatemala City North. They were so excited to be in the same country. But there was a whole mission, Quetz, separating the two. Ky left about six weeks after Collin and their hope was that they would see each other at the CCM. But, it didn't work out. Collin left a day or two before Ky arrived. He was able to leave a little message behind for him, however. I don't know who was more sad about that, the Elders, Collin's sisters, or their moms.

Today, I received a text from Ky's mom letting me know that the Elders had been together. Ky's P-Day is Saturday and so he sent the letter and pictures today. Here are the pictures that were sent. I can't imagine what a joyful reunion it was. I wish I had been there to see. Just thinking about it makes me all weepy. I can't wait to hear about it from Collin on Monday.

A Better Week

This week has been a ton better! We have worked hard with little success. But the members now know that we work. We will just keep plugging along. I am super tired today. Another Elder and I have been doing squats at the gym and it is taking it out of me.

My area is super tiny. Supposedly there are lots of people but I haven't found them yet. There is a lot of commercial crap here. It is pretty modern, I guess. There are a lot of old old cars here and when I get back to the States, my mind will be blown. That is in awhile and doesn't really matter to me right now. I am not sure what people do for a living here. In our ward there are 150 people. We only have about 79 attend on a regular basis. I am not getting eaten by bugs except fleas and I am slowly, but surely, killing them.

I am pretty happy right now because my "kid" is super cool even though we are complete opposites, we go to the gym each morning that helps with the stress, which the is a ton of right now. But it's alright and we will keep working hard. We are planting seeds and might not see the results. It would be kind of nice, however. I think the Lord is teaching me that times can be rough but you can't give up. You just have to keep working and working and working.

On Saturday we went to the Bishop's house to talk to him about members. He is a super good guy and always wants to help us. He works like a dog. We planned a lesson with him for Tuesday. Then he offered us food but we said like "Hey dude! We are fasting!" And he was super surprised because we were fasting last week, too. We have been praying, as a zone, for some baptisms and are sacrificing all that we can to help realize that goal. He was super impressed that we would do that. At Ward Council we talked about twins that may be a good prospect. We are going to use the ward to help with them. They said they were willing to help. I am much happier about that.

My spelling is going down the drain but my Spanish is coming up and getting better and better. Sometimes I think in Spanish which gets me all sorts of confused. That is the report.

I love you all tons!

Elder Grant

Discouraging Week

This week has been pretty discouraging. In one day we had 43 contacts and got rejected on every single one. I have also learned that the members here are a bit "different". I have decided to call this week "The Week of Apostasy and Rejection." I have learned a ton. I learned that the members won't help us so we are going to need to step up even more. That helps me become a better missionary. Part of the reason we have had trouble this week is that the Stake President has told the members not to work with us. He would like them to wait like four months to talk to us. That has totally killed what little motivation we had here in the ward. I love P-Day because it gives you a chance to relax and regroup for the week. And, we may have found a somewhat positive newbie. That is good.

This week a drunk guy gave me food which was really nice. Ummm ... I only threw up a lot yesterday. Not sure why but I'm good now.

I'm excited for Jessie. That is an awesome mission but this mission totally kicks butt more. Missionary work is growing and we are excited about the new mission in Coban. That is really cool news.

My new house is super bomb. It has a toilet on the roof which makes me laugh! I froze a few nights ago because it rained. That was terrible!

I'm glad all is going well for all of you. Keep kicking butt and being awesome. Keep up with the goals, Mom. They will help so much, especially the study!!! Don't be lame members. HELP THE MISSIONARIES!!! I love you all!!!

Con amor,
Elder Grant