Monday, November 26, 2012

Hello my Family,
    I would like to say that I am content right now. It´s just good to be here. I don`t even of Paraguay as a strange place. It is a home to me. It is normal and all that is around me seems normal. A huge difference from when I first got here. An when I did, I was actually thinking, How am I going to adapt myself here in this strange country?
How am I going to be able to speak the language? Well, only with Gods help I was able to do so.... That is actually how I learned to trust in God more. I now see how Heavenly Father was actually helping me with all the things I wanted to make better, change, and put away. I now understand the nature of God. I love how He has helped me and all of you. Better yet I love how I can see how He helps his children.
"...For those who wait upon the Lord shall not be ashamed." I never could have known these things if I was not here. I would have never
gotten to love the scriptures as much as I do now.             -
Before the mission  I hardly ever read them. I knew the scriptures ( the stories and stuff) but not enough to be able to explain them. I didn´t know how to study of search inside them. I only read them because I liked reading them. Now it is different, I have a purpose to what I am studying. I search the things that I need and what others need. I think that it would be good if all of us do that. It would be wonderful if we were always looking for answers in the scriptures as members. "For I know that the Lord never gives commandments unto the children of men, save He shall prepare the way". The scriptures have the answers to all that we must do.
I am doing great. I love you all and thank you Mom for getting the card for me.
  Your always in my prayers.

Elder Cory N. Grisham

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

I just thought I would send the email to you first, Kari.


   I love this part of the mission. I recieved so much experience and love for the work. I understand the people and I am able to communicate with them. It is such a privilege to be here in this time. I am happy to serve here. I will use the rest of my time becoming the best I can become.

   I heard a really cool talk from President Eyring when he was visiting BYU. He talked about how his father always fulfilled his duty.  His father, near the end of his life, had a bone cancer that made it hard to do anything. He felt such a great pain that, regardless of  what he was doing... sitting, standing, or kneeling. The father of President Eyring also was very active in the church. He always fulfilled his callings and assignments. Even if he had to bare such great of pain to complete it.
   His ward had the assigned to take care of an farm. And He was assigned to weed a couple rows of the onions. I inmagine that the task would be for those that could bare the heat of the sun and quite a bit of labor. The members were astonished at the determination as this same afflicted man was working to fulfill his duty. The pain became so great that he started crawling. With much amazement, he completed the task. And not only did he show that he would go and do what what commanded of him, he even was happy to do it. One of the members said, as he finished, that the weeds he pulled had been sprayed by a chemical and would have died in a couple days anyways. Now, he was not sure if that was true or not but, instead of becoming angry with his sacrifice that was "wasted". He just thought it was the funniest thing. He died soon after. He was a man who loved God and always served others and enjoyed life................. I think we can all learn a lesson from this and it really does apply with us.
I hope all is well. I know that sometimes we may not want to do are duty, but what else can make us so happy? I for one, know that there is nothing in this world or out of it that can give us true joy.

"Do your duty your best and the Lord will do the rest"
                    "Faith means to trust in God more then one´s self"
                                     "Show love for God by showing love to others"       
   os quiero
      Elder Cory N. Grisham   
The flower is a fruit called m´burucuyá and when you eat it (the fruit) it makes you sleepy.

Hello,
   I just barely recieved the "trunky papers", or rather the 6 months left mark. I am surprised that the time is passing so fast.
My companion also recieved his papers. He has the same time as I do.
   Yesterday I gave a talk on the influence of the Holy Ghost in our daily lives. It went kinda well. I certainly have learned a lot of the how much I now rely on the spirit. I would be  I just didn´t have time to prepare it really good. But I felt the spirit and some people cried, and that is what counts, right?
  I recieved your email on time Mom. Thank you for sending one. Oh... and last week I was in Asunción and I didn´t
 have a lot of time to write. Everything went well there.

    I literally cannot think of other things now. I just have my mind set in the work. Even if I wanted to right a poem or a song, or whatever... I just would´t recieve ideas. I would go blank. It is actually really weird but I am truly grateful.

OTHERS THINGS THAT HAS HAPPENED...
I learn the rubix cube
I am translating my patriarchal blessing into spanish.
I understand a lot of portugues
I understand a quite a bit of italian
I still loving the mission. It is still shaping me and molding me into a true disciple of Christ

    I love you all. I hope this week is especially great and full of awesomeness.

p.s. I need my debit card for emergencies. It would be really good to have with me. Plus I need to buy some things, for example a flashdrive to preserve my photos. I don´t want to lose my photos.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

   First things first... How is Dad? I was kinda surprised that I didn´t recieve a letter from Mom this week, but that´s okay. That just means that I get a long letter next week right? Oh, Oh will be recieving a package next week too. And also changes are coming up again on the 31th of October.
   And speaking of Halloween, What are you all going to do? I would hope you take pictures and send them. That would be great. Especially of my niece and nephew. I will try to send some more pictures next week.
                    Mom, I need you to send me my debit card. If it has already expired, can you please get me a new one. (you can just email the pin number to me.) Thank you, Mom!
     Well, this past Saturday Elder Bednar came to our mission. It was really awesome. I learned a lot about how I personally need to gain my our revelation. Also the people I am teaching, They too need to find their own revelation to be able to have true conversion and testimony. He also talked of how we (in the church) are treating people like objects and not free agents. We play the game of, ´Guess what is in my head´. I now understand that the commitments the the investigators are the only way they can ´find the truth for themselves. We cannot always give the answers to them because they will become dependent on us and will become as objects and not agents. They must choose to come unto Christ.
     One of the things that caught me off guard was that Elder Bednar said he can´t give us the solutions to the problems that we have in the mission. But rather we need to find revelation for ourselves so that we may be free agents.
    
     I will be recieving my trunky papers soon. maybe next week. And it will be officially 6 months until I am at home. But I am not trunky right now. On the contrary, I never had such a strong desire to do the work as I have right now. I am kinda sad that today is Monday because we don´t have a lot of time to workm but oh well. It´s all good in the hood.
    
Thank you Spencer for your letters and you too Kari and Jackie and Jolene and Mom and Uncle Noel and all of the rest of you guys. => If I haven´t written a response it is because I am just so busy I really do not have the time, especially recently. If I could I would. (Also I don´t have extra money to send hand written letters.)

  I LOVE YOU ALL AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR WEEK   ( ;
 I remember a mormon message that said "I hope you know I had a hard time". It is from a talk from Elder Cook. I remember how he was saying that every person person has problems, difficulties, afflictions, etc. I think of the people that go through life feeling that they are being dragged in life instead of walking it. I also think of those who have these feelings and do not know how to be healed from them. I then remember what Elder Bednar said in his talk. Something along the lines of "There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first." I know That whatever is passing in our lives is for our experinces.
           I love you all and hope that you help others know their importance as children of God. The way you can be healed is to help others be healed the Atonement of the perfect Son of God. Our Savior and Redeemer, even Jesus Christ.