Todavia Estoy Viviendo- Que un Milagro!

Hello all!

I survived!  One week in Harlem that is- there aren't too many of us gringos here, but that's okay.  I like the people here- it definitely never gets boring.  I probably have been taking in the equivalent of a pack a day of second hand smoke.  We knock doors in the projects (all public housing looks the same, and as missionaries we can't get kicked out so it works), and while many of the humble parts of Harlem are in our area, we also have the Upper Eastside, the richest zip code in the US in our area, so it's in interesting mix.  I think I've figured out the street system and I'm used to getting around on public transportation.  All the subways are up and running- we mostly take the 6 though, and I think it was the 1 on the West side that had problems from the storm.  The storm didn't seem to do anything where we are as far as damage or even power outages go.  I don't think I have any other general things to say, so I'll go ahead and answer your questions and then go in to what we've been doing on a day to day basis.  As long as I don't run out of time...

Sunday evenings are fine writing to me.  We use the computers in the church building- it's an interesting building.  It has all the same amenities as other buildings, just spread out over five smaller floors.  Welcome to the church in New York I guess.  There are four of us Elders in the apartment- the other two are English speaking in the Upper Eastside Ward.  Another interesting thing- we have three sets of missionaries in the ward, and I think there are a lot more missionaries like that in all the wards here in general, probably just to keep up with the population density, so that's interesting.  We have to go to a laundry mat to clean our clothes.  Elder Topham just said to carry a five or ten dollar bill to give to people if they try to rob me- they're not going to wait or ask if I have anything else after I give them that money.  Yeah I'm not sure if I'm going to get boots or not- we'll see as time goes on, but I'm sure we'll figure something out if I decide I do need them.

I think that's everything.  So anyways, this past week:

Wednesday we had a good conversation with a man who started out by saying "Mitt Lost" to us (lots of Obama supporters here in Harlem so that has happened more than one time) so we had a good conversation with him about our stance on Blacks and the priesthood and how things have worked out, and then we left him with our card.  Later we went to Costco to get some food.  In the Manhattan Costco they were selling Gucci purses and jewelry for like $30,000 and $100,000.  Manhattan is an interesting place.  Afterwards, we trudged through the falling snow like reindeer with our food in what Elder Topham calls a "bronx cart"- kind of looks like a short, deep shopping cart, something that you probably only see in New York.

Thursday is our weekly planning and that was kind of rough.  Just took a little longer with me being new I guess.  Afterwards, we visited our ward mission leader's wife in the hospital after she had a baby.  Then we went knocking doors in the projects near the hospital where we found like three or four potential investigators in only three floors.  Then we went home.

Friday we went and did service at a food pantry (it's a weekly thing- do it Tuesday and Friday), passed out fliers in the street for our English class, taught English class then went to a ward party where a lot of the nonmember English class students went.  That was good.

Saturday we had English Class and we had a guy come up to us and say "This morning you read Matthew, you ready Acts and I'm your Savior" something weird like that and then walked off.  That was right after Elder Topham had warned me about interesting people being around there.  So yeah never a dull moment here.

There were a lot of other cool experiences, but I'm out of time so I'll wrap things up.  We haven't taught a lot of lessons- Elder Topham explained that we're kind of in a slump, more focusing on finding than teaching, but the lessons we've had have been pretty good.  I'll try to tell you the specifics next week.  And the Spanish is coming along.  It's hard to measure my progress, but Elder Topham and I have been trying to speak mostly in Spanish.  My problem right now is understanding people- there are a lot of different accents that I'm just not used to.  But it'll come with time.  Things have been tough, but I know it'll work out as I try to do my best.

Sorry if this hasn't been the best letter home- I've got a ton I'd love to say and not much time to say it.  Anyways, hope all is well!  Remember that it's hard to understand why things happen the way they do, or why the Lord has us do what we do at times, but it's all for His wise purpose and everything will be good in the end!

-Elder Griffiths