Teaching English class with Elder Frakes

   Thanks for all of the birthday wishes, from family and friends. I love you guys. To be honest it's hard to believe that I'm 21 years old, but I'm excited to know that I am finally old enough to drink. My birthday was on a fast Sunday, so I didn't really do anything too outrageous, but the day before my B-day, I started my fast at a fancy restaront called Cafe Hut. I ate a nice juicy hamburger and a banana smoothy.

   The companion that I have right now is a cool guy named Elder Frakes. We get along well, but the problem is that we are only a month from apart from each other on mission. It gets pretty tempting to talk about home with him from time to time. Just gotta keep on pushing though.

   My comp and I have been teaching an English class for the last month or so. We have a few students that come every week and are making some very nice progress. We intended it to help us find more investigators, but so far only like 2 have come since it started, but It's a nice experience for myself. Perhaps eventually it will pick up steam.

   We found a nice family this week. They are from the central part of Uganda (near Kampala) and live in Gulu for work. They are very humble and nice. The man is like 50 yrs old and his wife is like 27 but they get along really well. Very nice couple. and very smart as well. Hope that things go well for them.

   Love you guys, have a great week!

-Elder Grilliot

CHANGES: Not as Much Driving to Kampala

   We had MLC (mission leaders council) this week, but up in Gulu they did it a bit differently. The mission president wants to reduce on the number of times that we have to drive down to Kampala so rather than drive down to Kampala we did a live video broadcast strait into the mission home. Gulu, Lira, Mbale, Ethiopia, and Rwanda all Skyped into MLC. From now on that's how they are going to do it (except 4 times a year we will do it all together). It was alright doing it from the computer (from the church in Gulu branch) but I kinda miss being able to meet up with the other missionaries around the mission. Anyway I'm sure that it will save my parents some worry knowing that I'm not driving down to Kampala as much.

   I was watching these videos about the history of the church in West Africa, there are some super cool stories about the early pioneers in Ghana and Nigeria. There was this guy in Ghana that once he found the church he ran around bringing in like 30 new converts to the church per month. I guess that's why Ghana has 3 missions now, and a temple.

   Been hard at work this week. I got sick during this week though. A Fever and some diarrhea. Didn't know what I was sick with so we just called it butt aids. Monday through Thursday I worked super hard, Friday was weekly planning and MLC so we didn't get anything done, and Saturday and Sunday I was sick. I'm doing much better now though. I hope that I don't get sick anymore on my mission.

   Met some cool new investigators this week. Some nice families and stuff. I hope that things go well with them.

   Love you guys have a great week.

Fruitful Harvest in Gulu

As my mission sums up, I am trying to make each week better than the last. I am trying to work my butt off and save the time for relaxing on the plane ride home. This week has been alright. We had a baptism on Sunday, and it was a pretty nice baptism. The service was nice and the spirit was there. It was the brother to a recent convert of mine. He and his brother are super elect people, and they both want to serve missions (one is 20, the other is 22). I am pretty happy with the fruit that I have been having here in Gulu. About half of my baptisms on mission have been in this branch. I also really adore the members here.

   It's a weird thing, concluding your mission. I keep on wanting to think about home, but then when I think about home it puts me in a daze. Mentally I have to kick myself every time I start daydreaming about home, because I don't want to trunk myself out.

   Love you guys, hope you have an incredible week.

-Elder Grilliot

Me and a member named George brawling it out

Built a House

   Sorry no adventures this week. except I accidentally cut my thumb while cutting tomatoes this week. That was about the extent of my adventures this week. Don't know what else to tell you about. We did some service projects this week though. One of them was weeding (which is a lot easier to do than in the US because the ground is super soft here), and in the other we helped build someones home. To help build the home we used bricks and mud and just built the home. just like that. The mud was used as cement (their mud is super strong) and the bricks were used as bricks. (ha) Then they put plaster over everything after the mud dried so that it would endure the elements. Apparently a house like the one I helped build can last up to 40 years. The end!

   With 6 missionaries in Gulu branch my proselyting is a bit smaller than it was before, but I suppose that it works to my benefit because my area was massive before. The way that we split the boundaries of the areas most of the people that I have baptized in the last 6 months that I've been in Gulu are now in a different set of missionaries proselyting area, but that's alright with me, I now get a chance to build up the church in a different side of Gulu.

   This week has been fair, We've started teaching some cool new people. There's this one guy were teaching who we are helping to get off of cigarettes. He's making some really nice progress right now, and he gave us a referral to a family who are actually married properly!

   Things are going well in the missionary work. Love you guys.

-Elder Grilliot

   Attached is a picture of what we call a goondy bird. The bag on it's neck can stretch to be about 3 ft long and is full of acid. The goondy bird eats anything it finds, including and especially garbage.

People say that it can even eat human babies. They are everywhere in Uganda, they are more it's national bird that the crane is for it's sheer population. They are extremely ugly birds. Just though that you would be interested.

5 Referrals!!

   This last week Elder Frakes (My companion) and myself spent about the whole week doing transfers. The senior couple of Gulu is no longer around so the mission is depending on the zone leaders to help with transfers. We took one missionary down to Kampala (from there he was taken to Busia), and we brought up 3 missionaries to Gulu. We went down on Wednesday, Thursday we helped the AP's transfer some missionaries to Jinja and around Kampala. And Thursday we took our missionaries to Gulu. Two of the Elder's that we got were missionaries that were previously serving in West Africa but were taken back to their home country to finish their mission, because of the Ebola stuff that's going on. One is named Elder Dramadri, and the other is named Elder Ajalu (I think I spelled that right). One has served about a year on mission the other has been out for 3 months.

   Even though we were only able to be in our area for like 2 or 3 days last week, we have some nice people that we are teaching. One of our recent converts in our area gave us 5 referrals yesterday, so I'm excited to see how it all works out.

   Everything is going well out here, and I'm loving the people. Love you guys, talk to you next week.

-Elder Grilliot

Sad Goodbye and Staying in Gulu

Expounding doctrine to the wild pygmy people.

My district that I'm in plus some loyal members, in front of the church.

A lot of stuff has happened this last week. In Gulu we have a pair of Senior Couples that are here to train the leaders, and support the branches. The last two weeks the husband was having some really bad back problems, so last week when I went down to Kampala we took him with us so that he could get some x-rays. But a few days after he reached Kampala the problems with his back escalated and he and his wife had to end their mission and go back so that he could get back surgery. When we returned back to Gulu we helped the wife pack everything up and run her last few errands. We drove her halfway down to Kampala (to Merchisine falls national park) where there were some people who work in the mission office waiting to take her the other half of the way. It was pretty sad to see them go.

   Today we got transfer news, and for myself this was a big transfer news. I really want to finish my mission here in Gulu, but where ever I go this transfer will determine where I spend the remainder of my mission most likely. I get the transfer news, and it turns out that I'm staying, but they are adding 2 more missionaries in Gulu (that makes 10 in total) and I'm going to be in a companionship with my Zone Leader Companion. On top of that, we (my comp and I) get to live in the empty Senior couple's home! It is an incredibly nice home; it was furnished and preserved for senior couples. Gulu branch has 6 missionaries in it now, so that will be a nice adjustment. The two new missionaries coming into Gulu are Elders who were serving in Sierra Leone but have been taken out because of the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa (The Have taken out every missionary serving in Sierra Leone and Liberia). They both are going to finish their mission from Uganda, and they are both Ugandans by birth and nationality.

   I'm excited for what this next transfer will bring. It should be good.

Love you guys, have a great week

-Elder Grilliot

   Haha, ya I don't care about the smart water anymore mom. I just really miss your cooking! But please don't worry yourself about the ebola thing mom. West Africa is hundreds of miles away, And you never meet west Africans in Uganda, Let alone Gulu. Don't worry yourself, West Africa is like on a different Continent from East Africa. I can assure you that I won't freak out about moths anymore either.

  Love you mom. Don't worry I will return safe

   Ya the 9th of November is fine for the homecoming.  When I went to Kampala the other week I found that I will be coming home on the 31st of October (While you'll be eating your Halloween treat, I'll be sitting in an Airplane seat). Don't have much more info than that.

   Really I don't need anything for my birthday. Maybe some cash in my personal fund would be nice, but other than that I don't need anything.

   Love you mom!

-Elder Grilliot

Trip to Kampala

Had another successful trip down to Kampala and back. It's one heck of a ride. It's nice to be in Kampala every now and then, but I'm glad that I don't have to take that road very often. On the way down we saw some nice monkeys. I gave them an empty bottle of Fanta, and I saw tears of appreciation stream from their faces. It was the most touching thing I've seen on my whole mission. Kinda makes the whole 2 years worth it.

   I really don't know what else to write about but I want you to all know that I love you and miss you and I'm working hard.

-Elder Grilliot

The shoes are holding up... but I don't intend on wearing them when I get home.

   My camera is doing splendid. I'm afraid that I might not be taking enough pictures, and you'll be a bit disappointed in me when I get home.

   Isaac and Jeniffer have been fighting this last week, and it's been kind of a deterrent for getting them married. But if they split up maybe that's an answer to our prayers, because if they separate then they will be living the law of Chastity, and get baptized (they don't have kids yet so it wouldn't cause that big of a problem).

   Mom, your going to be a grandmother. What did you think when you found out. When I found out I was going to be an uncle I thought "IT"S ABOUT TIME!"

   Love you mom

-Elder Grilliot