October 30 The email You've All Been Waiting For

Elder Meade (newest Companion)

 My Old Zone in Nazas, 

Love these Guys!!

Elder Grilliot, october 30th. 2017

oh woow tomorrow is halloween.

I just realized. Here in mexico they celebrate two holidays around this time of year. the first is halloween, but it´s not as big as american halloween, the stores give out candy to the kids but nothing else. 

the day of the daed is coming

the other holiday that i think is a lot bigger is the day of the dead. On the day of the dead all the people in mexico pay respect to their dead. They go visit the graves and build them a little shrine to pay their respects, they do things that they remember the dead person liked, they cook their favorite foods, and things like that. 

Something really cool about this holiday, we have a cemetary in our area, it´s a huge cemetary, it´s probably nicer than most that i have seen in the u.s. and everybody goes to the cemetary on the day of the dead. So i´m excited to see and experience this part of mexican culture. it´s on the 2nd of november. 

lorenzo

so we met this spanyard. he is so cool haha. he is super smart and spent 6 months in the u.s. so he likes to practice english with us. (side note, i completed 6 months in the mission last week i think.) He knows a ton of words, he is very educated, he is an engineer. He saw us in the street and waved us down. He is so excited to see us and is a happy happy dude. He told us a lot of cool stuff about spain, he has never been there but he is super proud to be spanish, he tells us that mexico is not his country and that he likes america better and that he thinks that trump should build that wall haha. His dad fought in the spanish civil war and was a sniper, and he showed us some rifles and photos of his family. He wants us to help him restore his faith in God. He had been having doubts and it made him feel a little sick with himself, he is a really wonderful man. We brought him to church and there was a talk about living an honorable life, it was a really good talk, and he has told us a lot how much honesty and honor mean to him and meant to his father. He was super excited about the talk. In the second hour we had a class for the new members we talked about the existence of God and he shared a few miracles that he has seen in his life and he told me after the class that initially, he had felt like he was at about 40% with his faith, but after that class he was about 85%. that is really cool. He is super good with people and laughs really loud all the time. He bought us a carrot cake, like a whole cake, and we have known him for less than a week.

suzy... Christofer

Suzy is the mom of an investigator that we are teaching, Christofer. Christofer and his family are progressing really well, he went to jail for a day and then decided to change his life, and when he saw the missionaries he asked them to come visit them. Him and his family pray every night together, and they are seeing really wonderful blessings come into their lives, they have given up drinking and smoking, their 6 year old son loves to pray, and the mom, who has always had a bit of a temper, is finding it much easier to forgive people.

suzy... Margret

Any way, we were contacting and a lady, Magret, let us into her home because her husband recently died and she was looking for comfort. She told us that from meeting with us she understood much better what had happened with her husband, in the beggining she was kind of angry with god and really hurt, but after talking about it, she feels alot more peace. she is like 60 or 70 years old.

Suzy!

Anyway, when we met margret, suzy was working in the kitchen and we invited her to listen to us. Through talking with her, we realized that she was the mom of Christofer. She has had a really hard time with her family, Christoper hardly talks to her anymore and there are worse problems with her other children. She cried as she told us that in that very morning, she had plead with God to restore her family. She recieved us as an answer to that prayer. 

When we invited her to baptism. I felt the spirit as strong very very strongly. It was like a fire. Her son was in the room listening to us, I didn´t even realize he was there, afterward he asked us if he could come to church. We told him he could haha. 

Working with members

This week i think i am begining to understand what it means to work with members. We worked a lot with the elders quorum president this week and he is wonderful. Not only is working with members a lot more effective, it´s also way more enjoyable, easier, more powerful, we learn more, and create meaningful realationships.

Yeeeeeeaaa 

Oh hey elder meade is definately my favorite comp that i´ve ever had, he is such a strength and a support to me. I feel like a better missionary with him, and i also feel like i can really be myself. There is a lot of trust and understanding, it´s rad.

a quick thought

In revelations 12 it mentions an interesting name for the adversary, It calls him "The Accuser" and that his tactic in the war in heaven was "to accuse" he loves to tell men that they are doing worse than they actually are, he loves to point out faults and destroy the faith and confidence that we have in ourselves. In the next verse it says that we overcame the accuser by the word of our testimony and the blood of christ. No man is perfect. We have many flaws and weaknesses. But the plan of Christ is to raise us up, he will tell us of our eternal worth and the many wonderful qualities that each of us posess. We may doubt ourselves, but we will not doubt him. 

A wonderful way that we can follow the savior´s example is by pointing out the good in other people. I once heard someone say, "every single person is worth the atonement of jesus christ, and we should help them remember that." Tell people when you notice something that they do especially well, when they treat someone with kindness, or when you learned something from their stellar example.

With love

Elder Grilliot