Elder Todd Grilliot's Mission Blog

what is up? so much happened this week
temple trip k we went to the temple this week but i want to start the story a little before that, there is too much to say. First we got a call from a family in the ward this week, friday, they said that they had some problems and we went over and they told us about how they had gotten into a really bad fight with their neighbors over the garbage and it was really ugly, they asked for blessings because they were all beat up a bit, they hadn´t started the fight. they asked for blessings and we gave them blessings and then they drove us home and it started pouring rain, like alot, it never rains here, and when i got out of the car my scriptures fell in a puddle and got wet and all of my flashcards fell out of my pocket into the water and i gathered everything together and i was pretty upset, but we needed to go go go to get ready for the temple, and so i ran to get everything together and my clothes that i had laid out to dry outside were soaking w…

This was a good week. one of the better weeks of my mission i would say.
highlights We had intercambios with the district leader on friday, I went with Elder Higgins to his area and i learned a ton man. that guys is a rockstar, Also i felt great after being with him for a day. Something small that i learned from him, just by example, is that my prayers are way more sincere and meaningful if i give them like a thesis statment, like "dear heavenly father, we are here in the house of hermana wood to enjoy a great meal and bless her home with the spirit" and then after that the rest of the prayer is way more sincere and thoughtful. I also got to eat hamburgers with the assistants this saturday, we had an investigator that we were trying to bring to see a baptism but in the end she couldn´t make it, we were bummed but we ended the day with the assistants because their area is right next to ours, and it was way chill and a good time.

Richard The guy with one leg, there are a lot o…

Hey what is up people. i´m gonna write a fat email and you´re all gonna read it.
something cute We eat with members every day except for monday, and then on mondays we sometimes have members ask if we will eat with them. The members here are amazing, I feel like they really treat me too well, i´m a red cheeked foreigner who can´t understand them very well and they treat me like a prince. Like really I don´t think i have ever set foot in the church building without someone offering me food haha, I really feel the words of the lord when he told his disciples not to take thought for purse or script or food. I feel supported by the hand of the lord in mexico, and His hand is the members right now. So we were eating with a member and afterwards I was showing some of her little kids the stuff in my backpack, and I have a little pocket sized Book of Mormon in English, and I´m not sure why, but the kids dig it. They are fascinated by it. They are all like "wow! can you read that? what do…

Hey guys i gotta a lot of junk to say and i´m gonna do it all in under 30 minutes so i can respond to people. vamanos!
Richard yeah so i said i would talk about this guy. "Richard" is our investigator that we baptized last week. His real name is fetching mexican as heck this guy is a boss. I think it was my very first day in the field that i met, him and i didn´t realize that he was an investigator and my comp didn´t tell me anything. haha So we are walking down a Street talking with people and doing missionary type stuff and then i see this guy sitting outside, on his porch, he sells chips and ice cream and stuff, and this guy is Reading a book, and i´m like wow hey neat, and then my comp goes and shakes his hand and we sit down with him and i realize that he´s Reading the Book of Mormon, and i´m like oh what, and my comp is like, "so how is the Reading going?" and he´s like, "yeah i´m in 2nd Nephi" and my comp is like "so do you have a testimony t…

that makes 12 weeks in total i´m pretty sure. 
Templo! Me and my companion are going to have the opportunity to go to the temple next month!!! A family that he baptized are going to be seal in the monterrey temple august 4th! and we get to go and participate in the ordinance, i´m super grateful for that. I can feel that it is really a tender mercy. They told me that in this mission i pretty much would never get to go to the temple. because it´s pretty far away. a lot of the members are really hoping that they will announce a Torreón temple sometime soon, that would be really cool. but i´m just stoked to get to go. 
Mexico Mexicans really are an elect people, spiritual truths are clearer in this country. It is easy to see, for example, how key the family is to our happiness, Mexicans are very family centered, and it makes them happier.  And I don´t know if it´s because i´m white, but when people talk politics they always talk about trump. I know a lot more about how mexicans feel about …

Oh my gosh.. I just now realized that tomorrow is the 4th of July! wow! haha, it doesn´t mean anything here in mexico, and the "cuatro de julio" doesn´t sound the same to me. Only just now when i wrote the title i realized that it was july. haha wow. have a great america day everybody. I´ll celebrate with a PBnJ sammich
Crossfit Today and last week we did crossfit with some other missionaries. The bishop has a crossfit gym and he is really generous and lets us use it on our p days, the work outs that he gives us are super brutal. hahaha it´s a good time. it feels good for my body.
Sleepy This week i think the sleepies really hit me. I get 8 hours of sleep every night, or more. but i´m still tired alot.
Spicy stuff I can eat spicy foods, a lot of mexicans are not used to a gringo who can do the spicy. It´s the key to winning the hearts and souls of the members. Eat chilies. haha
Español I´m learning more and more all the time. The biggest hurdle right now is understanding people…

k there is so much i have to say and i know i´m not going to get to it all. I apologize for typos, i´m going to try to type fast.
Tamales I had my first tamales from mexico and they are the best. seriously one of my favorite foods, they tell me that christmas is tamale season so watch out haha. food here is awesome it is true. haha but really it´s incredible and super fresh, i always feel healthy and full, like eating a baked potato, it´s just gosh dang wholesome. Still, sometimes i just want a big fat messy burger or a pizza. oh also i eat a lot of sugar in mexico, like i think it´s because i am a missionary and members buy us a lot of sweets. oh hey there is an ice cream place that is freakinhg legit, food is cheap here in mexico, like eating out is cheap, groceries are about the same, but we can buy a FAT ice cream cone, like almost as wide as my head, for 15 pesos, which is like 80 cents. frreaking legit my man.
The Ward The first sacrament meeting that i went to in mexico. we show…

This week has gone by pretty quicky. Some awesome stuff is happeninging here in good ol nazas. Gomez palaciooo
My comp got sick yeah he got the throat sicks. He is a gosh dang chanmpion though and we kept working, but i could tell that it´s been a rough week for him. On thuuurrsday? we went downtown and got some medicine. The doctor lady was really friendly! my comp baught some shots, like needles and stuff. And we found a member who was willing to do the deed haha, she is a retired nurse so she knows her stuff, but it´s still a little weird to get a shot in someone´s living room. Mexico my man. 
Meetings This week we had twooo big fat meetings. One with our president on tuesday, he said goodbye to everyone and taught about inspired questions and the conversion process. And on wednesday as a zone. But get this, I have no idea how this happened, but literally our zone meeting lasted seven hours. It was fun and cool and i learned a lot, but i don´t know how it took so much time haha. Aft…

really short second week in the field. I´m going to make this faster because I have a lot of emails that I haven´t had a chance to read yet. today I´m just going to read and respond if that's chill
This has been a tough week in truth. It´s difficult to communicate my feelings with my companion effectively, but he is very patient. I´ve also seen great blessings and tender mercies this week, trials always teach us about our savior.
People here think that my red cheeks are because of the sun, they are always asking me about my sunburn haha
We gave a lot of blessings this week. In every blessing I´m a little confused because I don´t know what the blessing is for. One blessing in particular I had no idea why we were giving it,it was for a wealthy strong body building type of dude who seems like he has his life pretty well put together. and I´m the one giving the blessing and in honesty, I don´t understand why he asked for a blessing. And in the blessing I keep talking about his work an…

completing my first week in the field. It´s been a wild time. many many stories. I don´t think i´ll have time.
How we work We walk around the streets of gomez talking to people. People in mexico are ridiculously friendly. Like they love to make friends and love to let you into their homes to talk about God. Like seriously. Mexicans are very easy to trust and love because they trust and love easily. It´s very nice. The Members are very good at missionary work and it seems like we get referrals more than half the time we ask for them. My companion is also amazing with people. He is really good at teaching very clearly and just all around an amazing missionary.  Oh also Street tacos are against the rules to eat, so I am not going to try one. lol
There are Dogs Everywhere.
Elder Christoferson We had an apostle in torreón this week. Elder D. Todd Christopherson. I think it´s funny that my companion just calls him, "the apostle" in a very reverent tone. He spoke to us twice, on sat…

Holy cow mi amigos. This has been wild.
The Last week in the CCM We had three general authorities teach us in one week. Elder Renlund on tuesday, Tad R Callister on Wednesday, and Bishop Davies on Sunday. My favorite speaker was Bishop Davies because he was kind of a loose cannon and I really enjoyed his spirit. haha he was really excited to teach us.
That beautiful parrot really quick. A parrot flew into our class room this week at the ccm. I saw it happen. I am a witness. It was the cutest dang parrot. like nobody can understand. It was really derpy and it kept waddling around and flying into things and falling over. It waddled on my shoe and it waddled on Elder Curran´s scriptures while he was studying. freaking cute. You better believe we wrapped that beautiful parrot in a blanket and threw him out the window.
I accidentally gave away my english hymnal it was a present from my brother. Scott, I´m sorry about this. We were at the airport with my generation all ready to get going to o…

May 29th, 2017
Hey guys. I made it to the field. This is just an email to say that I made it. This is my mission President and his wife. My next pday will be on next Monday. I have a feeling next email will be too big to fit in one email. love you guys.
Elder Grilliot

This is the last week at the CCM for us. Next week I´ll be in Mexico. It feels good to be moving. fI really feel like I will learn spanish two or three times faster in the field. But I love the comfort of the CCM and our teachers are the best. I will really miss this group. It definately feels like I have known these guys for longer than six weeks.

Tad R. Callister Elder Callister is going to speak to us tonight. Elder Renlund spoke last night via broadcast from provo. But I´m really excited to hear from Elder Callister tonight. He is a boss.
My Arm This week I woke up and my arm was asleep in a really good way. My fingers were tingling for like an hour. I woke up the next day and it still felt funny. lol
Singing This is another wierd thought but i´m pretty sure that ever since i´ve been set apárt i´ve been better at singing. like sometimes i´m just singing and im like "wow i usually don´t sing that well"
The Field is coming This is our last week. some of us in our district have…

These are the boys of our generation. And most of our district. Elder Bowlby on the Far Left. hahaha 
Love these guys




Photos that my comp sent me. Elder Fielding is blond on the right. And the Shorter one is Elder Spunaugle.







This week has been pretty chill. everything is moving along and we are waiting to be released into the field. We´ve got about a week and a half left to go. This week especially i´ve felt like our district is getting really close. I love these dudes and it will be sad to say goodbye. We have developed a good team vibe. a brotherhood.

Greencards We went into the city last week to get our green cards. It is always cool to go outside of the walls into the city. In immigration we saw some white people who weren´t LDS. Which was kinda neat. We saw some street tacos and the other Elders are way sketched out about street tacos, like a taco vender on the street. They have heard bad stories about missionaries getting really sick because the food isn´t prepared quite right. I´mj…

Hoola amigos. It´s Elder Grilliot, It´s been almost a month in the CCM (mexico city MTC) and it feels kind of like home. but I feel kind of cooped up with all the class time and I have ups and downs of feeling more or less motivated to study Spanish all the time.

Studying Spanish WE GO HARD. But really we put a lot of effort in. Elder Fielding is my rock in this aspect haha. He is more motivated to learn Spanish than anyone else I know. He´s never taken any classes in Spanish and he has progressed so much. We try to speak Spanish as often as possible. We set weekly and daily goals and our teachers teach us the gospel in Spanish. I think about how much more comfortable i am now speaking Spanish that I was the first day. Like my Spanish is really weak and there is a lot that i cannot communicate, but like, the first day i remember being hesitant to say "gracious" to a Latino because I thought my pronunciation would be off. Now I just make mistakes like they are cheerios. Every …

Almost three weeks in the mtc. Last email i had no time. There is so much to say that I may not get through it all. Get ready boys. Here we go.

Setting Apart Becky took me to get set apart and i felt kind of nervous so I said a really lousy goodbye. Sorry becky. When I got set apart President Cook had everyone offer advice and feelings about my mission. The advice that stuck with my the most was from Bishop Barnerd, he said that as I forgot myself and focused on serving others, that I wouldn´t have to worry about my inadiquacies but that God would make the difference. I was able to Skype call my parents and sarah and renae and clark which was way rad. President cook had someone write down my blessing as it was given which was pretty amazing. I have had some of the greatest priesthood leaders. When I said goodbye to my parents over skype I felt a lot of gratitude for how much they had done for me and how solid they have been through my whole life.
The Airport It was a heck of a long fli…

Oh man what have i done there is no time.
Okay, well i´m going to be strictly obedient and this is going to be a crappy email as a result of that. There is so much to talk about that there is no way to say it all in seven minutes, but I have a detailed list and I will not forget anything.
Most important things only. Gosh these stories are too good to rush. I´m just going to leave everyone with a heck of a teaser. haha. I had revelation in the airport that has been carrying me through this week. I´m in a Tri companionship, (three elders). I love them, man. Elder F. and Elder S. I accidently brought my phone into the MTC and so I threw it over the wall. I have been assigned District leader, There was a really spiritual prayer, my branch president is a wonderful wonderful man. I love that guy. I wept like a baby. I´ve had such intense feelings of gratitude and love this week.  We have been pushing ourselves like nuts. I feel as chill as a Mexican often times though. The Latinos are so fu…

The story of getting my mission call.
I think I have a unique experience with opening my mission call and it's worth sharing. I was pretty nervous about getting a call to an area that I thought was lame. Particularly afraid of being called on a family history mission in SLC or something. (no offense to those called on family history missions) I wanted to feel really useful and go somewhere where I really felt like I could do some good. I know it is better to give your trust to God and have faith that he knows what is best for you, but it was difficult to feel that way all the time.
With these feelings in the back of my mind, I find myself on a bus from the Salt Lake City airport back to Rexburg. I had just had a heck of a night sleeping (barely) in the airport, and I knew that my call was unopened; waiting for me in Rexburg. So I'm sitting on this bus praying and reading the Book of Mormon, thinking about the call that I'm going to open in just a few hours.
When we were just …

Todd will be reporting to the Mexico City, Mexico MTC April 22, 2017!


He will be serving in the Torreón, Mexico Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Elder Todd B. Grilliot

He would love to receive letters or emails.  
todd.grilliot@myldsmail.com

Letters sent for the next 6 weeks (April 18-May 31) to the Mexico City MTC:


Mexico Torreón Mission
Mexico MTC
Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828
Gustavo A Madero
Colonia Zona Escolar
07230 Mexico City, Distrito Federal Mexico







April 17thThe story of getting my mission call.
I think I have a unique experience with opening my mission call and it's worth sharing. I was pretty nervous about getting a call to an area that I thought was lame. Particularly afraid of being called on a family history mission in SLC or something. (no offense to those called on family history missions) I wanted to feel really useful and go somewhere where I really felt like I could do some good. I know it is better to give your trust to God and have faith tha…