Some photos taken by Tim's Mission President the day he arrived...
 

You can view these photos and others on his Mission Presidents blog by clicking here!

Woo!! Ok so first off this week has been nuts... I am in a great place called San Jorge, and we are actually working with our branch to become a Ward soon! the problem is there are alot of problems with church attendance... back in the day there were a bunch of missionaries who would baptize little children and not their families so they could have better numbers so the rama has been suffering because of it... But my companion has been here working hard on strengthening this area! I will probably be here for 4.5-6 months so i will be working on that as well! The country is so green... humid so i am sweating 100% of the time, but... its hot! I can hand the sweat and all that but the heat is bad... Also, the people here like to throw their trash everywhere... If i could change 1 thing that would be it. The people are super friendly and welcoming, the food is AMAZING!!! but... the trash brings down the beauty of the area... But that is the only problem! the heat i will get used too plus the rainy season is about to start, so i wont have to deal with the heat that much. Just... wet... everywhere... Well there are chickens everywhere in this area as well... And i am going to get in VERY good shape here. TONS of hills!! we are in the mountainside pretty much so tons of hills and walking for Elder DeGriselles... Well me and my companion are actually getting along really really well! his name is Elder Porter, and he is from Ogden Utah. Great guy and he has been pushing me hard! well not much time but i do know i can do so much good here... I am glad to be here! Que la vaya bien!! (something they say here. may it go well with you pretty much...) Elder DeGriselles

Hola familia!! This is my last weekly email in the MTC!!! WOO!!! Man this week has been s o short! We have been working alot on our spanish but i still dont know if i am ready... I know when i get out there i will get it pretty quickly (or i hope) Well this week has been alot of preparing for our leaving, like last gym last this last that... We hosted a new batche of elders and one was from sweden! spoke great english and was alot of fun to talk to! The other was from orem and is heading off to oregon spanish speaking! Well we had a "baptism interview" for our fake investigator because he was ready, and man i am proud of us! we are able to talk mor e or less in spanish! Also Elder Goddards mom sent 18 bottles of the Henry Weinhards root beer. we are dining like kings tonight! Its been a tough week for all of us... Realizing we wont see half our district for 2 years at least... they are great guys, and would have loved to have an oppurtunity to serve with them as companions... BUT i got news! I am no lon ger traveling on my own! They switched the rest of the missionaries going to my area to my flight! OH i also had in field oriantation and met some other elders and a sister going to San Pedro Sula! I am so glad i am not them but still kind of envious of them... theyare going to the guatamala mtc first then going to honduras BUT they have not learned a single word in spanish here... Not a single one! they are learning the "fundamentals" and how to teach but NO spanish here. they are a new pilot program, so they want to see how it works for them and see if it can work...That would be aw esome but VERY frightening at the same time... But they are fully immersed without the problem of having to teach to REAL investigators. OH and i volunteered my companion to play piano in sacrament meeting :D he isnt happy with me bu t hey... it was funny XD well... I wont have anymore time i am sorry, but i will be writing soon about how FREAKING AWESOME THE STARS ARE DOWN THERE!!!!! And yes. there will be lizards!

Con mucho amor,

Elder DeGriselles

So everybody! It is official! I am leaving at 3 AM on the 16th of February (I assume he means April)! That means that the last letters that i will recieve here will be Friday the 13th! (wow thats weird) Its weird not having a calander around always on a phone... ANYWAY i love you all and the full detail will be later because i dont have ANY time!!

Hola!

So this email will be shorter because i need to save some of my 30 minutes so i can write later today if i get my travel plans! IM LEAVING THE CONUTRY IN LESS THEN TEN DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!! Man i am excited! I cant believe they want to throw me into another country already. We have been working hard and trying to speak spanish but we just forget sometimes and we know its going to be worse when we get to Honduras and NOBODY speaks english... yay... BUT it will be good because then i absolutly WILL know spanish! Also thank you all so much for watching the MTC sing! It was seriously such an amazing experience to be there, and be seriously less than 100 feet from the prophet of God! I seriously can't explain the spirit there... Woo! Ok so this week me and companion are seriously working so well together its kind of a bummer we wont be working more together in two weeks... RIGHT when we got the hang of each other and our teaching styles we have to leave. Well we still dont know if i am leaving with my district (which would be smart...) or by myself (which isnt smart...) but which ever i go i know it would be alright no matter what :) Well I have actually been collecting as bunch of free ties for my friend Shiloh's project of an ugly tie skirt so thats been fun!

Well family... I really do love you all, este tiempo en la CCM fue muy rapido y yo no se como, pero extrañare esta lugar. (i think thats place) Pero mi meastra fue en su mision en honduras, y ella dijo no es mal y yo se que lo sera un gran experiencia para mi. Yo tengo mucho animo por esta tiempo que puedo dar a la gente de Honduras y el Señor!

Con mucho amor,

Su Elder DeGriselles

Where's Waldo

In lieu of Tim's performance during General Conference and the mix up of the dates (he preformed on the Saturday afternoon session not the Sunday afternoon session), I have been able to pull down the musical segments from http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2012/04?lang=eng You can also download them as well. We have gone through and recorded the time stamp for each appearance of Tim. Now how can you spot him easier in the big crowd? By this simple method.

I don't have privileges to post things to Tim's Facebook page so if someone who does can place these video's to his mission group page and the helpful hints in finding him, I'm sure he would be grateful that you did so.

Here are the time stamps for each of the songs:

Glory to God on High - 1:54
Lead, Kindly Light - 3:37
Praise to the Man - :27, :52, 3:50

Now, you may be able to spot him at other times these are just the ones that are the clearest.

Hola!

Esta semana fue muy bueno y muchas cosas pasaron!! Ok so I LIED!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SINGING THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON CONFERENCE!!!! SATURDAY AFTERNOON!!! 2 oclock mountain standard time on saturday! I hope all that were planning to watch can still watch this time as well, and if not it is on LDS .org AFTER it airs at 2 so its all good do not worry :) so some amazing stuff has happened this week, but i cant remember all of it... ME and elder Goddard are growing closer and closer as always and just learning how to teach together SO well!! I have two great teachers that have been helping me alot in my time here and they have been huge blessings! I wont be able to write too much because I had practice this morning that delayed my P- Day activieties by an hour and a half and got clogged doing laundry and so forth...

Practice has been amazing! we have been having to be getting up and extra half hour earlier which is tough for me already! But it has been worth it to prepare (as the choir director says in his very deep manly bass voice) These great wonderful praises of Zion! We are singing some pieces that have honestly touched me EVERY time we practice...

The weather has been great out here and the trees are blooming and they are gorgeous! It is getting a bit warmer and every time i ever think of complaining i think of how the week we get to Honduras will be the 2nd hottest week of the year... Yay... No easing into the heat... Just hit us with the worst! My English is getting awful... I can barely think of some words in english like true, or please, gospel, sin, love... Its so weird... oh! and endure! I keep thinking of Perserve... Endur is perserverar... Well I am doing fine and i am loving these last 2 weeks i have here and i cant belive how fast this past week has been while still not even remembering the last time i wrote on a computer... Its weird... It flys by but its is seeming like eternity at the same time! Also, Andrej Pulver. Send me a dang letter so i can get your dang address!!!!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Timothy Todd Donald DeGriselles