Adventures in Rio Blanco

Wow, what to say about this week, I have been exhausted the whole time. Here is the story. So Monday, it was a normal pday spending time just missioning it up playing ultimate frisbee. Then I realized I need to go to Rio blanco on divisions and I was like, "Alright. Sounds cool." So I packed my suitcase because it is a long trip and I would be staying until Thursday. Then I left at 7:00 pm on the bus. I got there at 9:00 because, ya know, it is only a two hours away on a dirt road surrounded by CLIFFS. The buses are all driven by some crazy Guatemalans and I swear are all gonna snap in half because they are rusty and are driven like they are drive in a rally race. I just kept beating my head off the window and some drunk lady fell on me. Some of her beer fell on my sweater.  I smelled like a drunk preaching white boy. That's a nice image as a representative of Christ. Finally I got done with that journey and made it to Rio blanco or White River in ingles, ya know.

I fell asleep and woke up at 6:00 to do a little exercise and decide, "Man, it is cold as crap!" I decide to wait my turn in the pathetically heated shower and read The miracle of Forgiveness. Everything is a sin but the ending is nice because we can repent. :) but that book is super good. President Kimball was a fireball! Then I showered and studied. Then we went to district meeting. Of to work then. We climbed some monster hills. They are super huge. I felt like I was climbing Table Rock, up the face or something, again! The next morning I got up to go running with Elder Green but my butt cheeks hurt too much so I was like, "uh... I'm not running." That day we walked two hours to a little town. Well, actually, it is a small city called Cabican. We walked two hours to get there and my tush was screaming for mercy but at least it is firm now. #flawlessfigure

That day was sick because we had a lesson with a less active and then with two investigators and we walked two hours down one mountain and up another to get back to Rio Blanco. We put a baptismal fecha and got two other guys super close to it as well.

One of the coolest parts of the day had to have been the personal and comp study we had.

Personal Study Insight: I wanted to find a better way to invite people to be baptized. I read Acts 2 because Peter baptized 3000 people which is otro pedo! As I read I found out one of the ways to show that the gift of tongues isn't just some stupid fake talking thing but really it is the ability to speak another language. The apostles started speaking in Hebrew and the Jews say, "Man, they are drunk. (That is funny because the drunks here have pretty good English.) then Peter explains that they are filled with the Spirit. Then he teaches them all about Christ and the plan of Salvation. He includes the resurrection of Christ and then the Jews, who were non-believers, ask what they should do. Petr tells them to get baptized and repent. It is because they felt the Spirit and the power of the Christ. Many people think that it may be because of the way we teach and only teaching a few things should make them convinced. But no! The investigators need to understand it all. It is the same for us.if we want to repent we need to understand really what the gospel is and our epentence will be more heartfelt and full.

Comp Study Insight: The kid I was with wanted to know how to tell an investigator that The Book of Mormon is the most correct book on earth because there is a guy that believes it but likes the Bible first and only. I showed him a scripture in 2 Chronicles 29. It mentions obvious books that don't appear in the Bible and BOOM!!! The guy now wants to go to church. That was pretty cool! 

I am feeling much better. I only have a runny nose now. I just had a nasty cold. I'm used to the cold now. Funny thing is that it has been very foggy lately. In fact, last night, just for fun, we opened the window and the room filled with mist. Good times! Cold but fun. Glad you have been getting rain but I promise that it is nothing like here. I will never ever see rain like this again.Well, love you guys a ton. My life is awesome!

Con amor,

Elder Grant

Happy Easter All

Well, this has not been the most productive week in history. It was Holy Week, which in my opinion may be the most apostate thing I've ever seen. It seems to be just a bunch of crazy people carrying weird giant float things of weird looking Jesuses. And being in a super Catholic area, no one was home. They we're either all at the beach or in the cathedral. Man, those cathedrals have some heavy incense. As we walked by my eyes were burning! It has been an interesting week.

We always left to work and we got the house super clean because this place was disgusting when I got here. Now it is nice and shiny. It doesn't smell like B.O. anymore. We burned like 50 pounds of old nasty clothes. That made the nasty smell go away. Then we uh,... Well we played a lot of Monopoly at night. The zone did have three baptisms this week. Today I am going to a placed called Rio Blanco to do a baptism interview. I will have to stay there until Thursday so that will be fun...ish. I hear it is super cold up there. I guess I will tell you about that next week. I have also heard that the fleas up there are terrible and they are bad here. I am always covered in bites and I'm always itchy. It is all worth it. It's all for a good experience.

My body has hurt a ton with the cold temperatures. I took a pill called diclefanaco and now my hips and knees and all that junk doesn't hurt anymore. It is the best thing that has happened to my health in the mission.

We had emergency changes in the zone this week. We lost Elder Nelson, the Canadian, and then we got Elder aha saker. That kid is a beast! He is so tall and he's just a great missionary. I'm super happy with the zone. The only problem is my comp and his baggy-ness. I am fighting against getting baggy. I want to finish like a champ. Harrison isn't doing as well. He doesn't want to go to church but we had an old guy go to church and that was cool! He is crazy but funny!

Love you all very much!

Con amor,

Elder Grant

Yay for pictures! 

I'm Cold

My greatest success this week was taking four people to church and a family. My biggest challenge this eek was finding people to teach - still not that fond of the missionaries. My favorite person this week is definitely Jesus but after him it would be my homie Harrison who is an investigator. He really wants to change his life and his spirit is incredible. Every lesson with him has been amazing! The spirit is always super strong and the teaching of my comp and me is really good. I'm direct and he's really good at the whole explaining deal. It works out really well. This coming week I am looking forward to taking more people to church so they can be baptized!

This week has been a good week. I remember while I was here before I didn't really like it at all. But, I've learned how much the mission can help us mature. So instead of saying, "Man, I have such a crappy zone," I can say, "I have a lot of work to do here." Really we have done quite a bit. We had four people and a family in church this week. That is incredible and they are all eye ally positive. 

I will tell you about Harrison. He is super cool. He has been looking for a way to get out of his problems, of which he has many. He went to General Conference and it touched his heart! It was so cool. The lessons we have had with him are just full of the spirit. He is changing a ton, too.

This week we also had a family that came out of nowhere and was a miracle. We were praying and the family came out during the prayer, sat down, and wanted to listen to us. It was so rad! Now they went to church and want to go back! 

This week we have a ton of lessons with the members. I love Preach My Gospel. It is definitely one of the greatest books ever written - like ever in the history of the Church. If all members read that book and applied the principles in it, we wouldn't have any of the crazy problems that we often run into.

Well, now this week is La Semena Santa, the holy week which means all the Catholics go kinda crazy... 

I am happy here in my area. The members are great!!! And even though my comp is super baggy, we teach really well together. Also, he is best friends with Elder Quiroz. It has been awesome. My comp just got his airplane ticket so he is gonna be even baggies. haha   Our zone made jerseys with our first names on them just to be funny and it was funny. We wore them to play soccer today and we totally owned it. The other team, the San Marcos zone, even had more players than us. I got to hang out with my son and awesome comp, Elder Saunders, again. It was fun but once again I am fried - like always up here in the mountains. 

Some of the zone Elders

My comp and I wearing the our zone soccer shirts

This is entitled "I AM COLD!"

Well, later! Same time, same place, next week!

Con amor,

Elder Grant

What's Up in Guate

Business first. I am down with taking any classes to boost my GPA. My goal is to transfer to BYU by next year! The pines sounds fine but you must get in contact with Blake J. We already have a deal to room together. He will be at BYUI in a couple weeks. Also, I want an exercise class, spinning maybe or military fitness again. I've got to get in shape for the ladies. I mean I can't progress until I'm hitched. But, I still have time for that. 

No pictures because I forgot my adaptor but I have written it down in my agenda for next week. 

Now, a big ol' saludos from the mountains of San Pedro! Ya boyz, I'm back! Now I'm with only Elders. I left the Relief Society and have landed in the Elders Quorum. I am bummed because I left all the Hermanas and they were fun. I miss them. I am definitely not used to Elders. Elders are a lot more crazy. I am still a ZL. My companion is a crazy Quatemalan kid, Elder Galvez. He already has 24 months now. He extended and he is so baggy! It's all cool, though. 

My health is good except I can't keep anything in me for much time. I am freezing up here. My feet are frozen. I had forgotten how cold it is. No worries. I can survive for three months. I have a gym now and permission too. WOOT!! Shout out to President. BOOM!!!

Conference was super sick right?!?!?! I loved it plus I got it in English. We had five investigators there which is sick for the mountains. The stake president is doing much better than before. We should have a baptism this month.

I'm pretty bummed The Big Bad Mackattack Bontempo (Hermana Bontempo) has left. Darn the dengue! But, she will finally get healthy. I gave her one of my ugliest ties to remember me by. It is a duck tie.

My companion speaks perfect English so we have a rule - in the streets it is all Spanish and in the house all English. We play Monopoly Deal every night which usually ends up as a bunch of cards thrown on the floor. The food I get here is sweet plus the members are rad! Some of the members still remember me and so we are always getting invited to eat. The most fun is the soccer game every Thursday night. I used to play and just go nuts so some remember that. Funny! But now I'm not as crazy. 

That's it.

Con amor,

Elder Grant