In Elder Graybill's personal letter to me he expressed that the pain has not lessened and the new medications don't seem to be working.  He also told me that his Mission President is a family doctor.  How he forgot to let us know that, I'll never know.  But he also said he is trying to choose to be positive through the pain and let things play out as they are supposed to.  Here is his message for this week.   -Meagan

Hey friends! So here is the update. I am in La Libertad which is across town from Villa Javier. My new companion is Elder Braiden from Colorado. He is super cool and my district is amazing. But My zone leader along with Elder Braiden are going home in 2 weeks so I will have my 3rd companion in 3 months. I do not know much about my area yet but I do know we have a baptism this Saturday and a Baptism next Saturday. Elder Rivero and I ended strong together. We worked super hard with the members and less active members this week. We challenged a lady  who has not been to church in almost 7 months to attend church this week and she accepted. We have an investigator Juan Pablo who just needs to accept a date for baptism. He attends every week and has a testimony. He literally is the perfect investigator. I am very sad to have left that area and the members. But hopefully this new area can help me with my health issues because the medicine is not.

Weird things of Colombia. This week, i kid you not I saw a guy walking a cow through the Park. A FULL GROWN MAMA COW

 Sorry for the short letter this week but not much has happened with all my health problems. Mucho amor mis amigos. Ciao

Today marks 2 months since I entered the CCM. It is crazy to think how fast time has flown by. This was another hard week for me both mentally and physically. I spent almost every day in the offices trying to figure out what is wrong with me. I have been dealing with some extreme pain for the last 2 months and I received an ultrasound on Friday and believe we found the problem. So tomorrow we will find out if I need to return home for surgery or not but from the sounds of it I will. It has been hard for me to focus on the work when all I can think about is what will happen to me. But the highlights from this week are, I had my first MultiZona conference. And it was super cool. Presidente and his wife gave some training, we had lunch, and we took some cool pictures. Then to top off this week, my companion got really sick and it was raining pretty hard this weekend, so we decided to stay in and I was bored out of my mind. 

Weird things of Colombia this week, well the reason it is taking so long to find out what is wrong with me is the fact that the Hospital was closed today and on Halloween, and it is weird that a Hospital is closed at all when they have patients in a lot of pain..... Next, I had some guy start screaming at me saying it is dumb that us Mormones can drink Coca Cola but not coffee. And then I had some guy start yelling at me on the bus and he looked like some cowboy. He kept going back to his friend, Colombian David Bowie and giving hi fives to him and laughing. I was really confused. But Elder Rivero and I met with a less active this week, and recommitted him to the Book of Mormon. He said we would try and read and pray about it every day. It was super cool that we got him re interested because he has hated the church for a long time. I find out tomorrow what happens to me but until next time mis amigos! Ciao!

the tall guy is my friend from Brazil Elder Massareli

The group of 4 is my district

The group of 3 is me, my trainer and his trainer (son, dad, grandpa)}

and the big group is my zone!

As most of you may know Garrett is going through some tough times with his health. He is doing his best to endure, but it has become quite taxing on his mind and spirit. After reaching out to the mission home we received this message from President Baquerizo. It gave us some comfort knowing he is being cared for. We pray that it will all get figured out soon. 

Dear Brother and Sister Graybill:

Thank you very much for sending your son to our mission, he is a great missionary, he adjusting ok to the missionary life.

He had an appointment with the doctor of the mission yesterday, today he had some tests to be done, tomorrow he will have an appointment with the doctor again to know what to do.

We will keep you inform.

Thanks

Presidente Baquerizo

Hey guys! This week went by super fast. I would like to share the super strange things about Colombia and my area quickly. First, people drive with no care for others or their own personal safety. Like the other day in a taxi, our driver was swerving in and out of traffic with no care.. Next, There was this guy today that got on our bus, and started playing the harp. Casually playing the harp..... So in my area Villa Javier, there are a ton of hills. My areas nickname is the Hills. And I do not mean like tortellini drive in front of the Shumans house,I mean like it feels as if I am climbing Kings Peak again. It is terrible and nice at the same time. Everyone here falls through on citas, or appointments with us. Even the members who say they have lunch for us. So a lot of the time I eat like 10 rolls everyday.. Which is not the most healthy thing to do. The bread here is sooooo good. But this week in missionary work was super hard and depressing. We got into 2 new homes and one of them was super interested. She has been taking the first lesson now for almost 5 years. And everytime she has told the missionaries that she is not interseted. She says she has the Bible and that is all that is needed to make it to our Father in Heaven again. Well, that changed with our lesson. I told her to ask all the questions that she wanted because we wanted her to understand more. Well, for the first time ever, she said we could come back and, I promised her as she read the Book of Mormon, she would feel the desire to follow Christ and be baptized. And then I asked her to prepare herself to be baptized on the 25th of Novemberand she accepted!! I felt the Spirit so strong in that meeting it was awesome. I hope all of you are doing great! Talk to ya next week.