Hello All!
Another week gone by already? Time is flying pretty fast I guess. I feel like there's still a weird time warp similar to the MTC though- I guess that's just mission life. Anywhoo...
Thanksgiving was good- we had real Tacos and Dominican food- no gravy, mashed potatoes, etc. but that's okay. We haven't had anything too weird yet(though one of our good friends in the ward from Guerrero, Mexico talked about eating Iguana- I want to try some but they really only sell it in Guerrero and Puerto Rico), but three weeks in is really nothing, so I'm sure I'll have some good stuff to report. The Spanish people do feed us well, but the past few days have been a little different so our meals haven't been consistent in the least, but other than that, food has been good.
One of the wives of the members of the Bishopric (Sister Richards) said she knew somebody from Suwanee, so that's the connection. I've been making other connections too, like a Sister in our district is from Peachtree City. I can't think of any other ones right now but it's pretty cool making those connections!
Here are some other random thoughts- my apartment mates tell me I do have a southern accent that comes out at times. I guess that's a pleasant surprise since growing up with parents from Utah in an area where there aren't too many southern accents wouldn't give good reason for me to have one. My companion and I are Italian magnets- he's been trying to learn Italian for a good part of his mission and we've had a bunch of experiences running into people who speak Italian. First off there's a sister that we see a lot that we're good friends with that is from Italy. Then we've just met people on the train, in the street and all the likes who speak Italian. This past Sunday, two Italian women randomly showed up to our church building so my companion helped them out and they enjoyed the services and are going to go home and check the church out, so that was good! And then we go to this pizzeria in our area that this Italian guy runs and we're planning on teaming up with Sister Malarizzi (the one from Italy) to teach him. And he gives us discounts and dang good pizza so that's sweet! Maybe I should have you send my my Italian stuff that I got over the summer so that I can participate too. Or maybe I should just stick to Spanish... Haha
This week was pretty good. Saturday we went and did service on Far Rockaway in Brooklyn, so that was cool. There was a lot of flooding in that area so we pretty much spent the day cleaning out a guy's basement. He was very grateful for our service and it was good making friends. We also had a big run in with a lot of Indians (Asian Indians) because there are a lot of them that are a part of some disaster relief group. I really enjoyed doing service and there's a chance that we might go do it again Saturday- we'll see! Sunday we spent about nine hours at the church for various meetings and just trying to get information about our area- Elder Topham has only been here for one cycle before this one, so we're still trying to get our feet on the ground as far as getting to know our members and stuff good. Monday we did an event at the temple where we handed out a bunch of DVDs, pamphlets, copies of The Book of Mormon, and free hot chocolate because they were lighting the tree there at the Lincoln Center. That was a lot of fun being there because that part of town is a lot more like what people usually think of when they think of New York City. We sang carols as a group and had a good time talking to people. Me and my companion got to sing with a Mariachi Band that we made friends with - "Feliz Navidad" one of my favorite Christmas songs so that was sweet! Nothing too terribly exciting happened yesterday. Today we went to the Temple and that was good. I miss going to the temple regularly, so it was good going back and just being there.
I've been learning a lot in my studies and I think one of the things that's helped me out the most is going into my studies with a question. When I do that, I'm able to get a lot more out of my studies and apply the scriptures to my life and circumstances like it says in 1 Nephi 19:23. As we apply the scriptures to our lives, we love the scriptures more and want to apply them more and then we get more out of them and it's just a good cycle. So study your scriptures! Go to them with specific questions and with the faith that those questions will be answered and you'll get a ton out of your studies.
That's all I can think of for now. It's good hearing from home- hope all is well!
-Elder Griffiths
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