A Baptism!

Mom, your pics made me baggy -not really. I am doing well and we just had a baptism! We are pumped. I will tell you about it in a bit. Can you send me a copy of my mission call? I would really like to scan it and put it in my predicad mi evangelio, and in my scriptures.

Ok, we did have a baptism with a kid who is super smart. He is 11 but he understands the restoration so well. He asked to be baptized and we complied with his request. It was great! It was a good little baptismal service and he came and got confirmed which was so great! We were really excited. We are especially excited because now the members have seen that we want to work so we are pumped about that too. Cool!!!

Also this week we went on a really fun Ward activity. We went to a river to swim but, of course, being missionaries, we couldn't do anything but we did take some cool pics. Then we ate some delicious food after. 

I had the opportunity to go to a super spiritual meeting with President Ruiz. We talked a lot how we need to have trust in those that we lead. And it's true. It's just the same as what Christ did. He constantly showed everyone his love. And obviously he was a great leader. He led a group of 12 of the greatest men to ever what this earth. Basically I was just mind blown after the whole meeting. 

Well, it looks like my time is up. Bye and love you all!!! Peace!!!!!!

Con amor,

Elder Grant

Here in Mazate

Yay! We (South Fremont) won Homecoming! I'm pretty happy.

This week has been spent getting to know a lot more members and it's been really helpful. Well without the members we would get super lost. Our area is super huge! We spent a lot of our focus on finding families and it has been tough. But I have learned that in the mission you must rely on just enduring. If we give up right now we don't find that family that God is going to put in our way tomorrow. We always keep on working.

I love it here in Mazate. The people are great! My Ward Has about 200 people - kind of like home. My area is pretty sweet in some ways. We have Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, and Burger King. We also have some really good ice cream. It is the most urban-like place in my mission but it is still pretty rural. I guess it is really cool to see all the stuff that they have here. 

We have been teaching an investigator that the previous Elders were teaching. It looks like she wants to be baptized. We are just looking for a lot of support from the members. It seems that a couple hers ago, there were some missionaries who were really stupid and kind of killed the trust for the missionaries, that's one of the most important elements as a missionary. You need the trust of the members so you can work effectively with them. For example, this week we had a member who wanted to go visit with us. We let him, of course. But what happened is, he didn't trust us, and so he didn't let us talk and instead of helping the investigator, he highly confused him. It's kind of funny. The nice thing is that we gained more of his trust. And Mom, I am the DL. And, If you could pray for a family that we are teaching right now. They are very open to letting us teach them but they aren't acting on the commitments. Thanks ya'll!

I have talked to the President with some concerns and all will be good. Well, I hope! Unfortunately I can't post pictures because there are no ports. Well I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Grant

Rockin' and a Rollin' in Mazatenango, Guatemala

Well if you hadn't taken note, there have been a few earthquakes lately on my side of the country and most of them have been pretty fun. Oh ya! Anyway, before I tell you my earthquake story I have had changes.

The changes have been like HUGE changes. Like I am in a whole new area. Unfortunately, I had to love my wonderful area in Retalhuleu to go to Mazatenango but the cool thing is that I now know what those names mean. Reu mean city in holes and Mazatenango means place of deer but there are no deer here because they are dead. I got moved here and this city is freaking huge. Like it even has a Taco Bell and a Subway so I'm pretty pumped. I am opening an area again with my new companion Elder Pichardo. He is from Nicaragua and he is a super good teacher. He's got like 18 months in the mission and we get along really well. The only deal is he isn't really obedient but the people love him. This place is really cool.

Now I will tell you the story of the second time I shook the crap out of Guatemala. So I was in Missionary Correlation with our mission leader in our ward of 170 people - WHAT! We were just chillin', talking all spiritual and stuff, then BOOM, all of a sudden the ground was going up and down and up and down. Then a member just yelled, "Run!" So we booked it through the church, like kind of tripping because of the quake. This quake was super long and lasted like 25 seconds! So we kept running. Then we made it outside and just like threw ourselves on the ground. After that and two smaller quakes passed, we went into the back of the church grounds and prayed that all would be well and all was well! Thanks God for that because it was nuts!!!

Then yesterday, my comp and I were contacting and we got kind of bored ya know. Then we realized we weren't funny enough and just not happy enough. So in the end what we did was slap each other and then kept on working and it was super awesome. In the end of the day we found a really cool family that wants to learn more and the coolest was that it was just the difference in attitude! Yay! Well, anyways, Bye! love you all. No wait. This family that we found is way cool as in like they have asked so many time why there are so many churches and we explained and they were so interested. Yay!!!!

Con amor,

Elder Grant

Another Adventurous P-Day and a Miracle Week

Hey ya'll. How are you doing? I hope everything is going well. I am doing just fine. Today I went and saw one of the coolest ruins ever. Basically they are the only Mayan Ruins I have ever been to and they are the only ones in my mission. At the site there is a bunch of old things like jewelry and Mayan and Olmec stuff. On the Book of Mormon side, Jaredites, Lamanites, and Nephite's. it was so sick to see all these things and who knows, maybe I walked where some prophet walked. In reality it was one of the coolest P-Days of my entire life. Like it blew my mind. Plus we had tons of fun jumping off of an old pyramid and stuff like that. I also wore my rubber chicken tie. It is one of the best ties that exists in this world and it cost me only a dollar! Also, we saw monkeys! For me it was a really good P-Day just because changes are coming up in two days. I don't know if I am going to be staying in Reu. I hope so. I love it here. The only thing I can't stand is the freaking heat! 

Elder Saunders must be very strong! Poor guy.

Jumping off the pyramid thing at the ruins

Notice the rubber chicken tie. Only worn on P-Days!

But by golly, we really enjoyed ourselves thorugholly. This just in, I don't know how to spell that word anymore. This is bad. Anyways, as we went through these ruins we learned a lot about them - the Mayan and other Olmecs. The Olmecs are a civilization that has been around way before the Mayans. And just like the Jaredites, their history says they came from a large tower in another land. That was super cool. We also saw an old highway tht supposedly goes from Mexico to Panama. That's how incredible old Central American Indians are. It is so cool! 

This week has truly been a week of miracles. In fact, it has been great! We found three families and two of them are quite positive. We also had four investigators in our little branch. They were a tenth of the attendance. Basically, I have had a great week. Things are going great kwhich probably means I'm headed out of my area because I'm a preparer. I have always left an area better than when I arrived. That is my goal.l

Well, I'm done. Bye!!!

Con amor,

Elder Grant