Elder Grilliot Cinco de Mayo
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 flight. I sat next to Elder Fielding, (I didn´t know at that time but he is now one of my companions, we are in a trio). Man I can´t even talk about this experience to do it justice. I was sitting in the salt lake city airport thinking about my life and I felt the words from Christ "Oh ye oh little faith" but not in a condecending way or scolding. I could feel that Christ had the biggest smile, and He laughed as He said it, Because He knew what I was getting myself into, and the amount of joy we would share. "It is I" "Be not afraid" and I just recieved extra confirmation that as a missionary I have nothing to fear. God has worked miracles and moved mountains to get me onto my mission. And now He can really do his work.
Mexico City
When we arrived in Mexico city, we were all pretty much in awe. I had a lot of energy because I had been sitting still on a cramped plane for like 8 hours (it felt like) and I was bouncing around and me and like 8 other missionaries just kind of shuffle through customs and find this guy from the CCM (Mexico city MTC) and he´s like, "yo we´re missing a sister missionary" and we´re like, "we don´t know where she is". Still to this day I don´t know if they found her.
But the bus!! on the bus ride from the airport to the CCM we got to see Mexico City and let me say this is an amazing place. I think that it may be the ancient city of Zarahemla man. God smiles on this place. I felt a lot of love for the city and for the people as we drove through, I hope I can feel that same way about Torreón. Mexican archetecture is so colorful and creative. and the traffic is rediculous. Their parks are beautiful and works of art. And the houses are built up the mountains. like little shacks. They just keep building and building and the mountain is too steep but they keep going. Like seriously there are parts of the city that must be build on inclines steeper than 45 degrees.
First impressions of th CCM
It reminds me of the complex that Ghandi build in the 1980´s movie. it´s like a chill chill complex with a quaint little neighbor hood of homes and classrooms. It´s a nice place. We eat well. The showers don´t have consistant water tempature and sometimes it will randomly be scloding hot and then return to a regular tempature Without warning haha. I accidentally brought my phone into the CCM and I´m not supposed to have it. So the second day I threw it over the wall. I hope some mexican niño found it and looks at the pictures on it.
DL experience
I was called as the District leader. I was really nervous about it. But afterwards our branch president (an amazing man) had an interview with me and assured me that he didn´t know anything about me except that God had made the call. When we closed with a prayer the spirit was very strong and he said the words "God knows that you have been preparing for a very long time" and I just wept. Great feels.
The First week
Was way more stressful than any other week. We were trying so hard to learn so much Spanish.
Let me say that the keyboards are in spanish and so its difficult to spell. plus i´m typing pretty fast. Every word has red underlines because spell correct doess´nt know english hahaha
Elder Fielding
Is one of My companions. I´m in a Trio with him and Elder Spunaugle. Wonderful Human Beings. Elder Feilding came to the CCM with zero Spanish experience and He holds such high standards for himself. He was so frustrated and discouraged that he couldn´t say words and he couldn´t read or understand when our teachers talked to us. (our teachers teach us the MTC material in spanish, but they all speak pretty decent english). Elder Feilding has grown more that any other missionary in our district so far. He was unbelievably discouraged these first few weeks. He is doing much better now and me and E. Spunaugle have been able to help him a lot. Elder Spun is half latino and he knows a lot of spanish. Blessings! But it´s been a journey man. Going through really difficult things makes you a lot closer to eachother. I remember one day in particular Elder Feilding was so so discouraged and My heart just went out to Him and I said this super sincere prayer like "God! We need you!" and we went into our mock lesson and Elder Feilding bore this super simple testimoy in spanish. I think he just asked the investigator to read a scripture. And the spirit of God came upon Elder Fielding and when we Got out He was like "Guys, I know that I´m going to be fine. The spirit was so strong and I just know that I´m where I´m supposed to be" something like that. Anyway. I have the best comps. We have all given eachother blessing by like day four, because we all really needed it.
K I gotta answer other emails. There are more stories to Tell but I´ll try to get to them next time. This will uploaded to the blog.
Peace out mis amigos.
-Elder Grilliot
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