Emergency!!!!

Hey all! I have titled this thing as emergency because I have emergency changes and to tell the truth I'm not so pumped about that. I love my zone and my district but there are always changes in our lives but it is whatever, I guess. I don't really care as long as I'm a missionary. I'm happy! Did you know that I have only 8 more months in the Lord's service?

Well, this week has been great. We had another baptism which was awesome and now the members look like they want to help us more, yes!!! Everything is going the way we need it to. I'm just a little ticked because with the changes, though it is an experience to grow, I probably won't be able to go to the temple and it probably means I don't get a gym which sticks. It really helps de-stress. Oh well.

So today, as a zone, we watched Monsters Univeristy together. It was hiarious and then the Stae President gave us hamburgers! But that movie is very funny. It is better than the first one, at least in my opinion. It made me a little baggie for the college life. But then I realized my life is better because I'm a missionary!!! 

I wish I had more to write and I wish I could send my pictures but for some darn reason the computer won't recognize my camera. I will try again later. Keep being awesome. Thanks and bye!

Con amor,

Elder Grant

An Incredible Week

Just thought I'd tell you all that this has been an incredible week and P-day made it even better! And, no way! Hermana Ostler is in our mission. That is soooo cool!

So first off this week we had a baptism of a lady who is super smart and it is great because she is from a partial family. The only weird thing is her husband is super old. She is 19 and he is 36 which seems really gross... I think they eloped or something...YUCK! But it is all good. The baptism was great. At first our Bishop wasn't happy, sometimes that happens. But in the end he was super happy and our Zone completed its goal. It looks like we are still going to keep doing great. We will probably be able to go to the Temple or if we are really lucky then we will be able to go to The Waters of Mormon!!! President would have to come with us. He played volleyball with us today which was sick!

Today P-day rocked. We played a ton of sports and ate hot dogs with the Mission President and it was super bomb!!! My legs are super dead. Today I went to the gym with Elder Uasike, from Tonga. He is huge!!! He is a beast - like super strong. He destroyed me with legs. But it is all good. 

I am loving the mission right now. Even though my companion is not always the most obedient in the world, he is a good guy. I learned a really good lesson this week. I learned I just need to accept the differences of people and love them for who they are. My companion is awesome. People just love him because he is so funny. He really is a good companion.

Looks like my time is up. I love you all. Keep on keeping on and all should work out. That's what I learned from the Liahona this week.

Con amor,

Elder Grant

This Week Has Been Pretty Bomb

So this week has been pretty bomb. We got a bunch of new investigators, first of all and that was great. Second of all, the members are so much more excited to work with us, after Conference. I mean we kinda received a machete from God on both sides of the work - the members and the missionaries. We just need to step it up. And here in Bario Oriente (the Ward) that's what we have done! This week we had six lessons accompanied by members!!! Wahoo! I'm so excited. It's time to change this Ward from a great one to an excellent one. 

Third of all, WE HAVE A BAPTISM OF A FAMILY THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it looks like I won't have changes and so I'm really excited for that because this family is pretty cool. Our Zone just had 18 baptisms!

Today was a pretty fun P-Day. We got permission to do some pretty cool stuff including leaving the zone. We went to some place called Xulik!!! It is a toy museum and also we got to go paintballing. It has been pretty freaking epic! It was so fun and a great stress reliever. Basically I am just happy and I'm hungry. I haven't eaten yet but I'm happy! 

We are working hard. I kind of want to train again especially because a Tongan is coming in and I would love to train him. Oh ya, back to paint balling. It was 25 Quetz and it literally lasted five minutes and then we were done. But then we went to the museum and it was so cool. There were a bunch of Star Wars things and comic book things. Also I got to hug Jessica Alba from Fantastic 4. I sent a picture so you all can see it. Then we took pictures with a Superman cape and it was dope. I was totally nerding it out.

All suited up for paintballing

Super-Collin

Awe yes! Jessica Alba

Who knew The Hulk lives in Guatemala

No fighting!!!

And the evil Star Wars cast lives in Guatemala, too.

It is crazy that time goes bye so quickly. It seems like yesterday I was some really mad kid in the MTC that was trying to learn Spanish and now English is hard. Hahaha Christmas package? Maybe a new pair of pants and some socks. But Idaho spuds would definitely be appreciated and an MP3 player with headphones. I can't sleep well right now. It's been hard. Also candy and I'm good on everything else. Well, maybe some pics of friends and family would be really nice. Yes, that would be cool. Tell Kenna she can't go to the U of U. She has to go to Hawaii with me. That would be sick!!!

 

How are all of you? Good? I sure hope so. It's time to go but I love you all.

Con amor,

Elder Grant

Conference Was Incredible

Hey everyone. How are you all doing? I hope just well. So sorry about last week when I didn't get to email you all. It was because the internet died. Well, actually all the power went out in the whole city. haha So, I couldn't finish. 

So, how did you all like Conference? I thought it was incredible and a little different. I loved messages about finding balance in your life and the talk from Elder Holland about depression. I sometimes get really down on myself on the mission and even though he didn't really talk about that, the Spirit spoke to me and told me that I don't have it that bad and that God gives us challenges to make us stronger which has helped me a lot because this change has not been an easy one. It's not that the work here is hard but I realized that as a team both parts need to pull. I like the example they used about a yoke. If we don't work together then we fail. But if we do work we can have incredile things happen. 

I talked to my comp about that but I don't know what to do with him. We aren't finding a whole lot ofpeople  together and we need the help of the members. The General Authorities even talked about that. But, my comp says he doesn't need their help. He's mad because he's companion b, after a year and a half of being companion a. He is ticked at me. Other than that, all is well.

Yesterday we found a family that has an incredible story and we are hoping it is real and they aren't some freaky people. They got married a while ago and then they got kicked out of their house and now they are here. They seem interested. Supposedly the husband is a Mormon but we'll see.

Well, I guess I don't have too much to write this week. It's been very uneventful because it has been full of meetings and interviews. The District is doing well. I'm kind of bummed because changes are coming up and Elder Harumi, a missionary from Pocatello, is leaving. He's cool.

Thanks for all your support and keep praying for us to find new investigators. Byes!!!

Con amor,

Elder Grant

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