Al Campo!

It snowed pretty good yesterday!  (Oct. 25) This is my district
and some from our neighboring district

Elder Deboin and I- he joined the force with
Sister Griffiths in Denver South this week.

Our district with the native district
(minus Elder Lopez- he had already left for Denver).

Buenas Dias!

Things are a little different today- doing laundry in the morning, which is nice because there's pretty much nobody here.

Anyways, all is well!  I'm just getting ready to ship out- yesterday we had our thirteen hour in field orientation.  It wasn't bad, pretty entertaining and definitely informative, but I wasn't sad when it finished.  I got a lot of packing done yesterday, and I feel like after finishing laundry, I'll be good to go.  I sent a package to my mission home full of some stuff that I neither need now nor would be affected too much if the package didn't get there.  It cost only about $6 to send about thirteen pounds worth of stuff.  I'm getting a package ready to send home to with some stuff I don't need and some Spanish study materials that you can use to learn Spanish if you ever do that.  I'm excited to leave, but I have enjoyed my stay here at the MTC- I've learned a ton!  I'm not ready for the field, but that's where the Spirit comes in to give me that little extra boost as I realize I'm not adequate on my own.  I'll be going to a humbled people, so that'll be interesting to see how that plays into the work.  I wouldn't be surprised if I spend the first week or so just serving.  But yup I'm excited and getting ready to leave!

Thanks for the pie!  It took me by surprise, especially because it came in such a massive box.  I shared it with my district and one of my teachers.  Otherwise, Halloween wasn't anything particularly special.  We were new missionary hosts again, and we got a couple trick or treaters in the residence (which is super smart because there's so much junk food here), but yeah otherwise, it was just a normal day.

I found a Portuguese vocab/grammar book in the free box, and because it's fairly similar to Spanish, I'm going to have one of our neighbors that is going to Cape Verde speaking Portuguese teach me some basics with pronounciation and then I might try to pick up a little practical Portuguese in the field.  Vamos a ver...

Thanks for the heads up on people going out to serve!  I enjoy hearing where everybody's is going.  The work of the Lord is going forth for sure!

This week I did some study on the Atonement, and I've learned to look at it in two different ways.  First off as an expression of Christ's great love for all of us, and as a means of increasing our appreciation for Him.  Second off as a very useful means of improving ourselves and helping us through the hard times.  Christ has already paid for a whole slew of things (see Alma 7:11-13), and since the price has already been paid, He wants us to use it.  We can receive comfort, strength, council and so much more because Christ was willing to take the time and go through the effort of getting to know us personally.  And the fact that He was willing to experience my pains and afflictions and everything in my life rather than just have such revealed to Him, I know that He loves me that much more.  Jesus Christ is my Savior and the Savior of everybody in the world, and I can't wait to go into the world to share this message.

Tuesday is the day!  I have no idea what's going down after that, but I'm sure it'll be good, and I'll be sure to keep you posted  as best as I can!

-Elder Griffiths