“Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) "What great happiness this knowledge should bring to us. He lived for us and He died for us. He paid the price for our sins. May we emulate His example. May we show our great gratitude to Him by accepting His sacrifice and living lives that will qualify us to return and one day live with Him." President Thomas S. Monson




I can´t believe that the time is flying so fast. I just want to do as much as I can before I go. Yesterday, our investigator said that it would be better that he be baptized when he is 18.  He loves the church but his father does not. That seems to be the theme here in Paraguay. The people here want to hold on the their traditions more then God.

       2 Nephi 33
 2 But behold, there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are written and esteem them as things of naught.

 3 But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.
 4 And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.
    I am keeping busy with the Arnolds. We are finding a lot of less active members. I feel that we are going to be very successful this last change. I don´t know what is going to happen this change, only that we are going to have 2 more missionaries in our branch. How exciting is that? I don´t know what is going to happen but I do know that is is going to be great.
   Sorry this letter is short. I was looking for a talk on lds.org but could not find it. Oh and it is alright about the money. I understand. I just hope that all is well and you are all happy like I am.
   Today we have to move apartments. We are moving one floor up in the same building. We also need to help the other missionaries move. ( they also are going to have two missionaries in their area.
    


I love you all. Hope you all enjoy your week.


I know that in the end, and the good will be triumph because Jesus Christ has overcome the world.

   I am really happy that Dad will be doing a fireside for the stake. I would really like someone to film that for me. I know that one of my fellow siblings will be able to film. I know Dad will do a great job in talking in the fireside. I also will be doing a fireside here in Caaguazu. We will be talking about home teaching and visiting teaching. We thought of some things we can do to help illistrate the need for faithful members and we will be showing it through sketches. (good examples and bad examples) -So that they laugh a little and so that they may feel the spirit.
    It is already the 7th of January, it is so crazy how fast time goes by. I am surprised on the mercy and love of God. He let me be part of His Work and Glory. I have a lot of things to do here still. I can´t give up on the last stretch and I won´t. I just hope I can still do alot of good here in the beautiful place. I love the people here and I hope that they know that too. Every fast Sunday I tell them that.
    I am glad to here. I have learned a lot and I know have a potencial that would not be possible to reach if I did not serve here. I am really happy for all my experiences. I actually am now writing,(on p days), all of what I have learned in the mission. My struggles and greatest experiences that have passed during the best two years. I think you will really enjoy reading it. I just need to be diligent in writing all.


     I hope all is well, and if not... it can be and will be. We know who we are and we know where we stand in the sight of God. He put us where we are at right now.
              I know that God lives and that Jesus Christ is His Holy Son. This is the true church of God because He has made it known unto me. God loves all His children and is pleased with His obedient children.
                                     I love you all
                                                    Elder Grisham.

How beautiful it is to be here. I feel as if I am walking amongest a battlefield and that I am a medic. Here to bring relieve, so that others may continue in the fight for rightousness. I feel that the bullets of unkind words pass me by. Grenades of tentation have no effect. And the tanks unrightousness will never stop the work of the Almighty God.I will find those who have lost their way. I will bring those who have been wounded by the sting of sin, to the only Being that truly can heal them. Even though it is not easy I continue. I love how God has has provided for me, places where we are safe from these dangers. I love how I can be sheltered every Sunday and that I am healed by the sheer grace of God as I take the Sacrament. I know that it is not easy to being here as a representative of the True living Church of God. But who ever said it was easy. Even for the very Son the the living God, It was not easy. The greatest things we can ever recieve is by doing the hardest things that life has to offer sometimes.
          I still have work to do. My time is not up. I still have to bring the everlasting gospel to those who have been hurt by sin. By which there is no other thing that will truly help us. I know that no other thing can give us so much joy in our lives. I have tasted so many times here. I truly love what God has commisioned us, His missionaries, to do.  I give all my thanks to our Heavenly Father. He truly does love us. All of us.

   I am glad to hear about the fireside going well. I will be having mine this next Wednesday. I will be writing the script today. I guess I´ll tell you what it is about. We plan on having a fireside on hometeaching. We will be doing three sketches in front of the branch. The first sketch will be of a person that always makes excuses and never visits their families. The second one is about home teachers that go visit their families but they don´t want to do it. And the last one is will be a perfect example of a visit. I thought that they need to see the importance of helping others to remain with Christ. I feel that it will be very productive. I am excited to teach this next Wednesday. I also get to teach tomorrow in our district meeting about "consacration". I am happy to do so. It will be really cool, I hope.


Well we have changes again. (I have two left) ¡NDE! ¿mba´e che ajapó? (Dang! What am I to do?)
                                                    
Every so often I feel gratitud towards God for what I have become and how He has changed me. I know that nothing was in vain... especially my time here. I am full of thanks from the bottom of my heart. I still am surprised a lot of time by the love God really does have for us. I also learned that it all depends on our choices. We are free agents and we can choose happiness or misery. I am happy because I do the things that bring forth happiness. If I wasn´t I would not be. I have seen the face of true joy and it is only on those on the path of rightousness.




I recieved the package. Thank you for sending it. I also got two letters for Joan May and Faith. I kind of feel bad that I can´t really send a letter back. I just don´t have the time or I really would send a letter to them. Could you please send my regards to them? Thank you.


COME UNTO CHRIST and once you have...REMAIN WITH CHRIST and I promise you that you will... BE WITH CHRIST IN THE KINGDOM OF OUR HEAVENLY FATHER.
-Elder Cory N. Grisham

    The middle of the month and it is going by fast. I am really happy to still have time to bless the lives the the people here. I was thinking today about how much all the people in people who sacrificed something in their lives so that I would be able to be here in this moment.

    If you remember what I wrote last time I mentioned that I am writing about all my mission. I know that it will be a really good thing for all of you. Especially Mom and Dad. You will get to feel what I was going through all my time. I feel that I could not really express all I wanted until now, I do not know why. I think it is because I now see the bigger picture and I can now write what I have seen and heard. Today I will continue with my mission journal. I will try to finish writing about the MTC. Thanks to God I remember a lot of things that pasted while I was there. I hope I finish the journal before I get home.

  Just the other day I thought of an experience that we had. (Papá, mamá y yo). Y la forma en que momento exacto de mi padre le dijo a su experiencia, el vídeo y el sonido era perfecto. Y estando un video nerd, me quedé impresionado por la calidad de video y sonido. Eso es sólo con conexión a internet de alta velocidad, que se puede lograr. Dudo que un pequeño cibercafé en el Paraguay tienen internet de alta velocidad. Créeme, lo sé. Creo que la experiencia que se compartió fue para mi benefit también. Me recordó a una parte de mi bendición patriarcal, la última parte.

    I don´t know why the computer that I am using keeps translating while I write... So if it is in spanish, you should just use the google translator.
       
                          I love you all. I hope you enjoy your week. And my God watch and protect you in all your tasks this week.

p.s. I will recieve my package next week.

p.p.s. I will give my fireside the 30th... And yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. It was awesome.

p.p.p.s. I have no idea what day I will be coming home. You can sent the flight itinerary to me if you want. Just whenever you want it´s fine.

    First of all. I will be writing another letter Monday with when exactly we will be talking with skype. (If I were there, I would find a way to put skype on Dads new flat screen. ...Maybe with Spencers Xbox and kenect. (If you still have it) I am pretty sure it has Skype on it. So that it would be better to hear and see each other. But the computer is just fine.) Also, the time difference is 4 hours. Youre 4 hour behind Paraguays time. I will be calling the 24th of December. I will call in the morning at 10:00 am which is 2:00 pm here in Paraguay. And I will be calling the same one I called before. But I also will open my email (just in case we have problems.)

    Well... I am in probably my last area in Paraguay. It is called Caaguazu. It is an awesome area. It is a place that has a lot of countyside. The people are very poor and alot are going to know the restored gospel. It is a wonderful place full of potencial. And I am here as part of the plan that President Agazzani has for Coronel Oviedo and Caaguazu .He wants a stake here. It has never been good enough to become a stake. And he wants it to be a stake before the end of Febrero.

    I am now with my 15th companion in the mission. His name is Elder Jason Patterson, he is from Utah. We are going to work hard here. He is the District leader here for Caaguazu. There are 4 branches and 8 missionaries here. I am quite happy to be here, it has been an answer to a prayer.

    I am writing a lot in my study Journal. I have a big notebook and I love it. I now love writing. It is becoming a joy. I have been good in not writing about things that do not have to do with the work here. I will have plenty of time afterwards to write.

    I cannot believe how fast the time is going by. I still have a lot of work to do. I am really happy with what God expects of me right now. I will raise to the ocasion and help all I can.
    I have not recived my package. I am sure that it will arrive next year, in January. But I am totally fine with that. I would not even mind if you sent a package. I just want to help people, that is all I want now. But I am always grateful for a package. Thank you Mom.
      I am really glad to here about thye progress that Dad is making. I still have not seen photos "hint, hint". Also I need to see the vehicle that Kari bought.
                 The time is about up. But I hope you all know that I loove all of you. And wouñd love to see more photo "more hints"

Jolene´s Birthday!!! I was really happy because the 8th we had the best baptism of my mission. We were working hard with an investigator named Gladys. When we first arrived here, there was only one progressing investigator left by the sister missionaries in our area. And after working with her and her family, she finally got baptized. She was prepared by God´s hand. The baptism was actullay simple. Even though we had some problems, for example we were going to have a member buy cake but he for got. So... we had to find someone to cook it last minute. (btw it was awesome).  We had investigators and less active members there. The spirit was so strong that the investigators were crying. Gladys bore her testimony and some others did too. I then got up and bore my testimony. I had the thought pop into my head to talk about my experience when I was baptized. But before I could finish the first sentence, I began to cry. The spirit was just so sweet as I bore my experience and testimony. I felt like the very angels of God were gathering all around us and just for a moment we were being borne up and comforted from the world. It actually reminds me when an angel that appeared unto Christ to bring comfort when He Atoned for all mankind. It truly was a great experience. And that is not all...
    Sunday She was comfirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I had the privilage giving her the confirmation. The words just came into my mind and I felt the truth. By way of the same sweet peaceful feeling of the Spirit of God. And when the blessing was done with and she had recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost. She stood up and turned around to thank all the participated with tears in her eyes.
   I know that God will bless her and her family. And that she will help her family come unto Christ and follow her example. I am truly happy.

    Well, Today was kind not very fun. We had to travel again to Asunción (6 hour bus ride), so that my companion could sign some immigration papers.  We are actually still in Asunción right now. We are waiting for our bus that is going to leave in 30 mins.
     I love you all. I hope all is well. I will tell you about changes next week. (yea it´s changes again)
¡Chau! les quiero