Hey family and friends!
May 1, 2013
I live in a section of Cien Fuegos called La Gloria. Umm.
For P-day this morning, we went over to the church and played catch and pepper
with our investigators and then went shopping for groceries, cleaned, and did
laundry!
Dad thanks for sending the great news about Kyler getting
his call! That’s so, so cool that he’s
coming here to this mission. He’ll love
it. And the people here will love
him. It made me cry when you told me! Haha. Will
you get me his email?
This week has been so, so cool. I have worked so hard
with my new comp and we are having a ton of fun in our area. In this last
transfer, I was glad that I was given a District to work with. I can finish my
mission working more closely with fewer companionships and will now have more
time to proselyte in my own area without spending so much time in the leadership
role, traveling, and holding and being at meetings. Don’t get me wrong, I loved
being a Zone Leader for over half of my mission, but this is cool on a District
level. I guess each calling has it
plusses and minuses. But the Lord puts
us where He needs us to be to help others and grow ourselves. My District is awesome. In our district we have 6 elders and 2
sisters. It covers Cien Fuegos, La Libertad,
and La Union. So it’s pretty big but we
only have two chapels. Cien Fuegos is a
place that has lots of thief’s, drugs, dealers, and some kind of off-of-the
wall people. But, everywhere I’ve been
the ”bad” people protect the Mormon missionaries! haha so I’m not too worried, and
it’s about exactly the same as my first area in El Ejido.
My comp is from San Pedro de Marcoris, Dominican Republic
(that’s down on the south east part of the island). He is pumped to serve here. Almost all of the Dominicans that serve here
knew of or wanted to serve in Santiago, because as all missionaries say it’s
the best mission in the world! haha
On Friday I did a baptismal interview for the other
elders in Cien Fuegos and the lady knew so so much and has felt that the gospel
is true. But she didn’t show up on Saturday
for her baptism! haha That’s a first for me and even though I didn’t teach her, that was still weird. We talked with her to find out what the issue
was. She was called into work!!! How
crappy! Haha. She’s still coming to
church and everything and has a new baptismal date. So it’s all good.
My comp and I are going to have a baptism this Saturday,
it is a kid that is 15 years old and knows so much about the gospel. He wants to get baptized first in his family
because his Mom and Dad aren’t ready yet, but when that time comes they’ll all
be together in the gospel. Oh, his name’s
Danny.
Each missionary has his own style of working. Each has the same goal in mind. But as I have been here with Elder Santana,
we work a little differently than he was used to. We study and do situational discussions and
training, and walk fast and teach a lot.
I guess they didn’t do that before so much. He gets back to the house everyday beat and
tired! ha
I can really see the influence of the spirit in my
mission. It seems like there’s a reason for
being at every house that we contact. When
we arrive we meet people that need the gospel in their lives and want to hear our
message. Our area is Huge and we don’t
have the chance to meet all the people.
But as we follow the Spirit, I know that we are meeting those whom we
should be meeting. I love that feeling. The Lord is hastening His work and I’m glad I’m
on His team and in a place where I can help.
The gospel is something that I have come to love and appreciate
so much in my life. I understand why I’m here, and have learned what I need to
do to be able to return to live with God again. I cannot tell you how cool that
would be, to be in front of the Savior and as it says in Alma 5 he will tell me
to come thy works have been works of righteousness. The gospel and the mission have saved and
changed my life and I would invite everyone who reads this to let it do the
same to you!
LOVE YOU !!!!
--
ELDER MATT GRINER
Mission Santiago RD
2011-2013
P.S. I got my flight plans for my return home. I’ll be leaving this little piece of paradise
on July 18th at 8:10 a.m. eastern time arriving in Miami at 10:25
a.m. then leaving Miami (after a layover) at 12:00 noon arriving in Los Angeles,
CA at 3:40 pacific time, a layover until 5:05 pacific and then arriving in SLC
at 7:50 p.m. mountain time and then home to Provo at o'dark:30 p.m.
Note from the Dad.
We are thinking of taking Front Runner and Trax to pick
him up. That way we can all spend some
time with him. It takes about 1:45
minutes to do the public transportation thing each way. This is just a consideration now.
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