Tuesday, December 17, 2013

No time for a letter...

December 11, 2013

We had a zone activity today and it left me with not a lot of time to write. All is well though! Having a good time and great things are happening! I'll have more time next week for sure. Hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you next week!


 (This is why I was too busy to write)

Some Christmas fun!

Fall Pictures from New York

December 4, 2013

Abril's Baptism!

Claudia's Baptism!

Our district at the West Point Military Academy

A view of the Hudson River from West Point

A cool tree in Highland Falls

Thanksgiving Dinner!

A view from above at West Point

Pretty scenery on our way to church

Elder Griffiths with Cadet John Colton from John's Creek Georgia

Fancy Thanksgiving decorations :-)

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Un Feliz Diciembre

Hello All!
Happy December!  Things are great here!  A little chilly, but that just means we get more hot chocolate out of pity.  Especially when we're on bikes.  I'll just give you a little rundown from this past week...

Wednesday- We drove down to Highland Falls to visit a less active family down there- they've made a ton of progress and are super excited about the Gospel- it's great to see God guiding people to the truth like that.  Things took a lot longer than we had anticipated there, so that was it for the night.

Thursday- we normally do weekly planning Thursday so that's what we did for the first chunk of the day after which we took off to have Thanksgiving dinner at an active member's house down in Monroe, towards the southern part of our area.  It was a great dinner!  They had family over from all around, and actually they had a cousin that lives in Norcross, GA (they're all originally from Ecuador).  Anyways, some of the relatives were super good cooks, so we were treated with a delightful meal.  We went to another member's house after that who ended up feeding us as well- another good meal.  That family is Mexican and so I got to eat jalapenos with my mashed potatoes- not too shabby!  Haha it was a good day all in all.

Friday- I had to go to a meeting down in Scarsdale- it was good- we talked a lot about how things are going with the iPads, they had some announcements and things, and good training on being good leaders and stuff.  I think I got out of it that we should always strive to be an answer to someone's prayers as we listen to the Holy Ghost, as we love those around us and as we teach true doctrine in what we say and do.  I know that we can make the difference for somebody else as we do those things consistently.  After that, we had a couple good lessons with some less active members and went home for the night!

Saturday- We decided to take a break from the iPads and just get out and look people up and talk to people on the streets and stuff, so that's what we did!  We had some good success in finding a new investigator and setting up some other good stuff.  It was just nice taking that break from the iPads- they can be a little draining.  At night, we went to Paul's house and had a good dinner and a good time there.

Sunday- Church!  It was great- it always fills me up seeing all the people there that I love.  We had a good turn out.  Afterwards we went to a late Thanksgiving dinner with a member to which they brought some friends that we started teaching- they seemed to appreciate the message and we got a return appointment for the coming week.  Afterwards, we went around looking for people- we had another lesson with an investigator and then wrapped up the night, riding our bikes home and having the zone leaders come up behind us in their car, taking pictures and videos of us.

Monday- Zone meeting followed by an exchange with the West Point branch missionaries- I went there and it was great!  The members over there are solid and supportive, and it's fun going to be in the English program for a day.  I liked that and had a good time.

Tuesday- We unsplit in the middle of the day and cranked out some lessons.  We went knocking as a district (not all together- just in the same neighborhood) and then we had a good night of more lessons.  Nothing too crazy happened, but things are going well!

Today- We're just having a relaxed day- Elder Wagner is in the choir for a mission devotional we have this week, so he actually had to go to a rehearsal there, so I'm with Elder Picoli whose companion is doing the same.  We're just emailing, then maybe playing some basketball or something.  We'll see.  And then we have a good night planned for tonight!

Things are well!  Thanks for the love and support!  I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

El Agradecimiento

Hello all,

Happy Thanksgiving! Time is flying, as always, and Christmas will be
here in no time.

Things are going well! We had a great week.  We've been having some
good experiences together- seeing The Lord guide us to where He needs
us to be. One instance in particular occurred on Thursday- it was our
turn to be on the bikes. We were riding around without a ton of
success- things haven't been working out as we had planned out. We
were contemplating what to do when I realized that had to go to the
bathroom pretty badly. For whatever reason the Alvarez family came to
mind, so we set off on the two minute bike ride to get there. Upon
arrival we found Javier, a less active who we had planned to see that
day, along with the rest of the family. It turns out that the dad of
the family had recently been admitted to a nursing home because he's
going downhill after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The mom was
feeling pretty down after that and so we were able to share a lesson
about living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which helped Javier and
Hermana Alvarez a lot. We also got some good hot chocolate and sweet
bread after not having a dinner and I was able to use the bathroom!
The Lord worked in a mysterious way that night and just killed four
birds with one stone. I love seeing that and I testify that this
really is His work!

And with Thanksgiving coming up, I've been thinking about gratitude a
lot. One of the lessons that God has been teaching me on the mission
is gratitude- I was not at all good about expressing gratitude and
being grateful before the mission. Now I've come to realize that the
times when I am happiest is when I'm focusing on what I've been
blessed with and expressing gratitude to those around me. Doctrine and
Covenants 78:19 says "And he who receiveth all things with
thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth
shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more." So be
grateful! If you're ever down, write a list of twenty things that you
love about life and then thank God and anybody else involved in that
list and then see how you feel. I can promise that you'll feel better
almost immediately. Don't save your gratitude for tomorrow and leave
it for the next year's turkey day. Develop an attitude of gratitude
and live will always be good.

So yep, happy thanksgiving! Hope you have a good one tomorrow and a
good week to come!

-Elder Griffiths

Sent from my iPad

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

La tecnologĂ­a es genial!

Hello all!

I am writing this letter in the car on my iPad. How cool is that? I can't remember if I said it or not but we were going to get iPads and now we have them! We got them and were trained on them last Friday. It's all part of hastening the work- I'm super excited to see where this technology takes us. Basically we now have our planners on here which sets out what we're going to do each day and stuff. It also has our area books, which contain the records of all that we teach to the people with whom we work. It's nice and offers a lot of things that are going to help us to help others come closer to Christ in an even more effective and efficient way. Tracie Watson, a head hancho big whig guy in the missionary department came and trained us on the iPads and he told us that revelation is based on information, and so now with this much information more accessible in a nice organized manner, we should be able to move forward with that much more guidance from the Lord too. We also use the iPads for Facebook, to use the scriptures and pamphlets in lessons, to have access to pretty much anything the church has ever put out to study (manuals, magazines, etc.), to skype for lessons, to stay on top everything and other things I'm sure. It's great! Now I'm probably going to want an iPad mini when I get home. We'll see!

Alrighty now I'm actually on the computer typing.  This week was pretty good.  We're adjusting to changes all around- switching up companions, respliting the area, using iPads, and just hunkering down for a shorter cycle (five weeks so that transfers is not on Christmas).  It's going to fly because next week is Thanksgiving, the next week is our mission Christmas Devotional, and then the next week is when we find out where we're going, and then that's it.  Should be good though!  We're just going to be focusing on getting both areas up and running independently again, making sure that both areas have a good, consistent teaching pool.  We have seen a ton of progress here in Newburgh.  As a branch we've had a convert baptism every month since September, our weekly sacrament attendance has increased from mid 50s to upper 70s since just this summer, and I've seen the members all become a little more missionary minded.  I think everybody is realizing that the Lord is indeed hastening His work, and they're doing their part to move things forward in this neck of the woods.

A couple sweet things from this past week- Abril got baptized!  We had a lesson with her a week ago, and she bore a powerful testimony, which gave evidence of her true conversion.  The services went great and she came out clean so that was awesome!  I think I was tagged in some pictures from the baptism on facebook, so check out my facebook profile for such.  Saturday we were looking for a referral (turns out the address didn't exist) when we saw somebody who was bringing some groceries in.  We jumped on it and helped them to take what they had and then the father of the household came out and started talking to us.  He talked a lot and we just sort of listened, occasionally chiming in.  Eventually we were able to bring up the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we placed a copy of The Book of Mormon with him.  He accepted it and a return visit Saturday so that was great!  When we are willing to do good for others, God always blesses us.  It was just a great week all in all.

Things are starting to get even more chilly (which makes bike riding fun).  Last night we actually went to Dunkin Doughnuts (there are tons of those out here) where a less active works and she hooked us up with some good hot chocolate.  But yeah things are going great!  Elder Wagner is great - full of faith and willing to work, so we're just going to have a great rest of the cycle together!
Thanks for the support and love!  I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you next week!

-Elder Griffiths

Actuar... con Amor

November 13, 2013

Hello all!
I am limited on time- transfers always take up a good chunk of time- so I'll try to be brief.  Anyways, I am still here in Newburgh!  My new companion is Elder Wagner from Reno, Nevada and he's great!  He's been out for a few months and is coming from the Bronx, but a different ward in the Bronx than the one in which I served.  I'm looking forward to a good cycle or two with him!

This week was great!  I can't think of a lot that happened this week to be honest.  But it was a great week!  We had a good last hoorah as a trio, going around teaching people and we've seen great results!  The average attendance has gone up from about mid 50's to now being lower 70's!  We just need to get some more priesthood holders going!  We've got a baptism this weekend- Abril!  She's awesome- she's a fourteen year old who's family doesn't come to church too much but she and her older sister have been coming pretty much every Sunday lately.  She's got a great testimony and is really looking forward to the blessings that come from making covenants with God!

One of the bigger things that I feel like Heavenly Father has wanted to teach me on the mission is about acting with love.  A lot of times we're in a position where we can and even should tell somebody to do something, but it doesn't always work just to tell somebody what to do.  When we're in such a position we should be motivated by our love for others, for their well being and the well being of those around us.  When we act with love, we're able to say the words that motivate people, we're willing to give of ourselves and our resources to help others.  I've seen that a lot as a missionary- working with members, investigators and even other missionaries.  So yeah help others with love!  It's great!

Thanks for the love and support!  I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you next week!

-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

El Punto al Oeste

Hello Family!

Exactly one year ago (pretty much to the hour too), I touched down at the White Plains Airport here in New York. That's crazy to think about. Just don't blink because time is going faster every single day...

Anyways, things are great here in Newburgh! It's getting a little chilly, the bright leaves are fading away and thanks to day light savings, it's getting dark around 5:00/5:30. We're still in the trio, Elder Nelson, Elder Warner and myself, and it is great! I'm not going to lie, being in a trio in the MTC wasn't super easy for me, but out here it's been going great! I feel like we balance each other out pretty well, so that's been awesome.

This past week I've spent a good bit of time at West Point, and I love it there! I went on a split with Elder Berube there in the West Point brance on Friday and then with his companion Elder Holzer on Monday. On top of that, we had a tour of West Point on Wednesday and then there was a stake youth activity, a mini-Zone Conference that we went to Saturday (where I was made companions with Kevin, a West Point cadet from John's Creek- go Georgia!). Anyways, we aren't allowed to knock doors or contact people on base, so we just have to drive straight to planned appointments, so that's what we did. The branch members there are great- they come from all over and are very supportive of the Work. So yeah it was an enjoyable experience getting over there and interacting with the great people there at West Point!

Last Wednesday we had a miracle night- all four of the lessons we had planned along with the split we had planned cancelled (no worries, that's not the miracle!). We tried dropping by a couple of people and then at about 8:45, before heading home, Elder Warner felt like we should pray to see if God had anything else in mind for us before heading home. After praying, we felt as though we should drop by a less active with whom we have had very little contact. Upon knocking on the door, we were invited in to a room full of people- turns out it was this less active's birthday! We wished her a happy birthday, ate the cake that was offered to us (politely turned down the offer of coffee), and then shared a message about the importance of prayer as a family. They were all touched and expressed their appreciation. Thanks to Elder Warner being inspired and the merciful guidance of God, we were able to have that great contact.

Thursday, Halloween, we had to be in by 6:00 at the latest, so we went out and tried to do stuff during the day. We had lunch with Paul for his birthday, spent some good time working on facebook, then had a lesson with an investigators. Afterwards, we chugged through some planning then played some games with our Zone Leaders that live in the same complex as us.

The rest of the week went great! We've been having some really great lessons with people. It'll be hard for sure to leave Newburgh because the people here are so great! Hopefully I'll be here for at least another month or two. We'll see what God has planned!

Thanks for all the love and support! Hope you have a great week this week!

-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

La Tecnologia ya viene

Hello everybody!

Life is good here in the hood!  Things have been going well- we're staying as busy as ever with the trio life (we had twenty seven lessons last week, and that was after a lot of people juked us- things are looking to be about the same for this week!).  Tomorrow, for Halloween, we have to be inside by 6:00 at the very latest, so I guess that'll be a good break.  Transfers are in two weeks so hopefully we'll be able to get somebody else in here to keep all this momentum going forward!  And I'm hoping this situation means that I'm staying, because I would love to stay here for as long as I can.  At this point at least.

Anyways, Wednesday we had some good lessons in the evening- we were surprisingly on time for everything (that just doesn't seem to happen on the mission in the Spanish program) and so it was one of the smoothest nights of missionary work in my life.

Thursday was sweet too- we spent a ton of time weekly planning (like until 6:00 pretty much), but then we went out and did a split with President Romero (branch president) and both sets (Elder Nelson and I, then Elder Warner and President Romero) were able to knock into dinner appointments by dropping by members houses, and so we had four lessons in about three hours and we only put 8.2 miles on the car (we've been around 40-50 usually- not good...), so that was another sweet day!

Friday we had a zone conference in Ossining (about an hour south and just barely on the other side of the Hudson).  It was a very good, uplifting meeting and we were also instructed on and authorized to use Facebook and other things to proselyte online!  We can have blogs, email, do facebook, use skype and some other things.  All of it, of course is meant to help us fulfill our role the help others come closer to Christ, so we can't just chat with friends, but if there are friends back home that come to us with questions or wanting to learn, we can talk to them.  I'm working on cleaning up my facebook to make it missionary-like, so hopefully I'll have that up and running soon.  I'm probably also going to start a blog out here, but I might do it in Spanish, we'll see.  And yeah we're getting iPads and iPhones in a couple weeks, so that'll be sweet!  I'm looking forward to letting you know how that goes.  That night we went to Paul's house and he gave us some great Italian food!  That was about it.

Saturday, after being encouraged by President Morgan to spend more time on our bikes, we did such and went out on our bikes for the day.  We got some good lessons in and some good exercise after doing some faecbook.

Sunday we had Stake Conference!  It was good and there were a lot of good inspired speakers. We spent some time on facebook and then got out and had some lessons.

Monday we had district meeting in Highland Falls in the apartment of the Senior Couple in our district, the Hohosh's.  That was fun and afterwards, we went on an exchange- Elder Kerr came with Elder Nelson and I, so that was fun.  We stopped by a less active in Highland Falls as she was heading out the door.  She has had some discouraging times recently and so we were giving her some uplifting words when she just said "I love listening to you guys," after which she sat down and we shared a lesson.  That was cool seeing her faith and desire to hear the gospel.

Tuesday was good- we cranked out some good lessons.  I also got to talk to my buddy, Salvatore, who runs a pizza shop by the Sister's apartment.  My Italian is kind of coming along- I'm hoping to place an Italian Il Libro di Mormon the next time I see him.

Today- we're going on a tour of Westpoint!  It's kind of chilly, but it should be fun! 

Things are going well!  Things are still beautiful, although it is a little chilly.  The winter is coming soon, but things are still great!  I love the mission and I'm looking for another great week!  Thanks for the support and I hope you have a great week too!

-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Finally a few pictures...

The Newburgh District

Baptism of Sebastian and Josh

View from the Westpoint Missionaries' apartment.  Nice!

Watermelon bus on Broadway in Newburgh.  Bus???

La Buena Vida del Trio

Buenas Tardes!

Things are great here in Orange County!  The trees are as beautiful as ever and I am loving the weather.  I'm just trying to soak it in because I'm going to be missing out on a good eastern fall for the next few years after this.

Being in a trio hasn't been too bad at all.  I feel like we've got a good dynamic as a companionships and we haven't run into any problems at all.  Being in a trio is nice because then we only need one priesthood holder to come with us to do a split, so we've been trying to get those going consistently.  Doing such is getting the branch more involved and is probably just going to lead to some great success!

We actually had a baptism last weekend!  It was from the other guys, so I was kind of brought into that baptism.  Her name is Claudia and Elder Lewis and I actually started a connection with her less active grandma, Reyna.  We had been working with Reyna and she had come back to church when the other missionaries came in.  We passed Reyna off to them and then in a little bit of time they started working with Claudia, and she decided to be baptized.  Reyna is now fully participating in church and Claudia is as well.  I had the honor of confirming her in church on Sunday so that was sweet (I also gave a talk, blessed the sacrament, gave the lesson in Priesthood and it seems like I did some other things too- I've had plenty of opportunities to serve out here- haha it's been great).  So yeah things went well with that, and we're figuring out how to balance the work of both areas for the time being.  Some people are falling through the cracks and we haven't had a lot of free time to find and get other people going, but we certainly have been busy.

Things are going well and the work is certainly going forward!  I hope everyone is doing well at home!


-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Un Tiempo de Cambios

Hey Everybody!

Fall most certainly is here!  The leaves are beautiful and I'm so grateful to be serving here.  I love the weather and the general atmosphere- it's so great.  I'll try to get a couple of pictures that sent off sometime soon to show what's been going on...

Anyways, this week has been interesting!  My companion actually had to go home to attend to some family matter back at home, so I got slapped on with Elder Warner and Elder Nelson who came in to take over the other half of the area when it was split.  We're back down to just one companionship covering it all, but at least with a trio, all it takes is one member to go out with us for us to be able to do a split, so we're working on having that down to help things keep running smoothly.  We should have both areas back up and running at the very least at the next transfers.  We'll see what happens in the meantime!

Anyways, crazy stuff has been going on all over this week!  Thursday we had to drive all the way down to Scarsdale again to finish getting our car fixed.  We then went again on Monday so that my companion could talk to President.  I've been to the office four times in the last six weeks or so, having never been there before.  The office elders delivered some stuff to our apartment on Friday and commented on how they had been seeing us a lot.  Elder Lee's (on of the office elders) face was great when we walked into the office on Monday.  Haha so that's definitely been interesting.  Another tricky thing- Friday-Saturday.  We had an exchange with the Zone Leaders on Friday, ending Saturday morning.  Friday night we realized that the Zone Leaders had to do a baptismal interview for Elder Nelson and Elder Warner, but they had agreed to come with Elder Holbrook and I to an appointment where we needed them at the same time.  After a crazy group planning session with the six of us, we somehow decided to have one of the zone leaders go with each of the companionships for the entire day.  It was a little crazy and hard to explain, but it was a lot of fun and we were able to get a lot done on both sides.  Sunday was fun too!  We hung out at the church and helped our branch president, President Romero, fill out the quarterly report.  President Romero is a funny guy, so I had a good time joking around with him and the branch clerk, Brother Milton.  After serving here in Newburgh, I'm actually pretty familiar with MLS.  I probably shouldn't be- not sure if they should be involving missionaries in such things, but oh well- haha.  Tuesday we spent the morning/early afternoon reaaranging the apartment.  We ended up taking out bunk beds and putting them together so that the top bunk is actually between two lower beds instead of just one.  Things have been pretty good!  Things are going well and as enjoyable as ever.  We're just adjusting to the trio life, but we're finding out lots of advantages to being a trio, so it's good!

Thanks for all the love and support back home!  You guys are great and I hope you have a good week!

-Elder Griffiths

Dios Abre las Puertas

October 9, 2013

Hello all!

This week has been great as it has flown by!  I think I'll just stop talking about how fast time is going because it probably gets pretty annoying.  Anywho, yeah it was a good week.  Wednesday was not too shabby, nor was Thursday.  Friday we had a bunch of stuff planned, set appointments and everything from 11:30 and on, but then things just didn't go as we planned (though they did go how God planned).  Nevertheless Paul came in to the rescue and offered us dinner at his house.  He's a third generation Italian so he makes some really good red sauce (says that Italians call it gravy) and I got the recipe for it!  So that was a treat- he's great and will put anybody in a good mood.  Saturday and Sunday were great- good ol' conference!  We watched all but the last session at the church- we watched the last session at Paul's house.  I loved conference and got a lot out of it, especially as I tried to prepare myself for it with specific questions in mind.  Monday was a pretty good day- there was a tornado watch for the first part of the day, so that slowed us down, but afterwards we had some pretty cool experiences (I'll share one in a second).  Tuesday was good- we had a nice bike ride from the church to Newburgh.  We've done it twice now and it takes about half an hour, but the weather is perfect for such.  And it's just beautiful outside with the trees changing and stuff, so I'm not going to complain about that.  So it was a good week!  Today we're going on a hike, the same one we did on my birthday, so that will be fun.  And then after that, back to work!

Anyways, Monday we had a cool experience.  I wrote to President Morgan about it, so I'll just share what I shared with him...

People have been pretty inconsistent with us lately- scheduling appointments and then not being able to meet with us- but Elder Holbrook and I have faith that such only happens so that we get to where Heavenly Father needs us. We had a cool experience Monday. An appointment fell through, as did the back up, so when listened to and followed the Spirit as He directed us. After a little while we ended up at a less active family's apartment. They live on the second floor and the door to the stairs is normally locked, but we had a strong impression to just confidently open the door and go on up. We did that and the door opened with ease! We knocked on the door of this family's house and they gladly let us in. We found out that their phones hadn't been working and for that reason they hadn't responded to our texts or calls. We had an impromptu family home evening with them wherein we learned that they had been fighting amongst each other and having a hard time. By the end of the night they were cheerful and we could feel love once again present in their home. They were grateful and so were we. I know that Heavenly Father guided us there and through that experience we gained their confidence, helped them out, regained contact with a family with great potential (one of the members of the family told us to stand outside and yell her name when we want to come over and she would come let us in), and we saw God's hand in our lives. I'm grateful for the experience and all the experiences that I've been blessed with in this service as a missionary. I know that it is His work.

Cool stuff just keeps coming.  Sometimes here in the mission field, just as in normal life, life can seem kind of dreary and lackluster in the moment, but when you take a step back and look at things as a whole you can really see how God is guiding us and see His hand at work in our lives.  That's one of my favorite things about being out here- having been able to have my vision of such improved and better seeing God's hand in everything.  I know he loves us all and is giving us our life experience, the end ultimately being our happiness.  So keep chugging on and look for the good- it's there!

Thanks for everything- I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Los Transferencias Vinieron y Voy a...

Quedarme aqui.

Hello!

For those of you non-Spanish speakers, I am staying put here in Newburgh!  With Elder Holbrook too!  I'm excited because I love this area and Elder Holbrook is great too!  Our apartment (which are the missionaries in our branch) stayed the same, so we're just going to keep on trucking.  I don't have a ton of time, so I'll just share a couple brief things...

Primo, il mio italiano e molto bene!  Not really, but I've had some experiences that have been sort of Heavenly Father giving me the go ahead to keep learning it.  Yesterday we met a guy from Italy, just talking to him on the street.  I spoke a little Italian to him, but he didn't seem too interested.  Later we went to the Hernandez's house, a member that feeds us every Tuesday, and the daughter took Italian in high school as does her friend who we taught a lesson to, so we were speaking a little Italian last night.  And then today we stopped by a Pizza place in Elder Topham's old area on the way back from transfers and I talked to the owner in a little Italian.  I don't have much down, but maybe by the end of the mission, I'll be able to hold a simple conversation.  We'll see!
We had a cool experience Saturday night.  We were driving to the people that we had planned to see, but things weren't lining up to work out well.  We felt like we should head down to Highland Falls (West Point area) to visit a less active, so we did.  That less active was not there, though, so we went to another less active who lives down the street.  We found the family home, but the mom was super sick, so we gave her a blessing.  She told us that she had been praying all day, and then we suddenly appeared.  I'm grateful to have been an answer to a prayer, and I love to see God guiding us in His work.  Learning how we personally hear the Spirit is so important and so handy and it's something that I'm learning.

Things are going well!  This cycle is going to be great!  And I look forward to shooting you off a good report next week!

-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Seguir Adelante

Hello Everybody!

This week was great!  It flew by like nobody's business, but it was still great!  The temple was awesome and being in the city again was good (although seeing the people down there made me glad that I'm up here- they're hard to approach and talk to...).

Yesterday we had a mission conference- Elder Bruce Carlson came and it was good.  We had to wake up at 5:00 to get down to Scarsdale on time (and we have to do something similar tomorrow to get a repair done to our car- be to Scarsdale by 8:00.  We're just going to do weekly planning in the office as we wait- maybe we'll be able to get some good insight from President Morgan...), so we were a little tired through the conference, but we still got a lot out of it.  He continued to reinforce the idea of consecration and how we need to continue to work towards it.  One thing that he said that I've definitely seen is that it doesn't matter where we are but where we're going.  A sinner going forward is in a way better position that a saint moving backwards.  Consecration is a hard thing- giving our all to God, but it's something to work towards.  As we live the gospel, we're not at all paying our way into heaven- the price has already been paid.  We're just preparing ourselves for what's to come.  He gave a good analogy- if you take piano lessons, chances are your parents have already paid for them, but you've got to take the time to practice and use what they've given you.  You can use those lessons to help you accomplish great things, like going to Carnagie Hall and playing there, or you can let it go to waste.  Either way it's been paid, you just personally decide what to do with that which you have been given.  We need to prepare ourselves by living to the fulness of the gospel, being obedient and having faith to repent and become more like Christ.  I know this gospel is true and that as we give ourselves to God, He makes a whole lot more out of us than we could otherwise become.

Things are going great!  The area is really getting pumped up and we can totally see that the Lord is hastening His work.  Just a month and a half ago there were only two Spanish missionaries here in Orange County, but next week, with transfers, we've got good reason to believe that there will be another set to go work over in the Middletown Ward because of the efforts of the other Spanish guys in our branch.  It's super cool to see that- we're a part of one of the biggest things to happen in the history of the world- the hastening of the work of the Lord.  I hope to continue to help you see how things really are moving forward!  Things are great!

Thanks for all the support!  Next week is transfers, so we'll see what goes down.  Until then, though, I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Una Semana de Milagros

Buon Giorno! (note frome Mom - Italian, not Spanish)

This past week was great!  And September is already over pretty much, which is crazy.  Training calls come in a week and then shock calls in a week and a half.  You hit a year and time just starts flying...

Anyway, this week was sweet!  Things are really picking up now as far as splitting the area goes.  Yesterday we were blessed to have five lessons, which is about half the lessons we have been getting in the past couple of weeks.  Elder Holbrook and I agree that the Spirit is leading us in ways that we haven't seen before on the mission.  In celebration of that, I'm just going to share some way cool stories that came from that.

Friday we drove down to Scarsdale to get our car checked out- it's had a cracked bumper and plastic hanging down from the bottom since I've been there, so that was a nice hour and a half drive.  Scarsdale is beautiful though- good contrast from Newburgh haha.  After that I went on an exchange with Elder Nelson- he came into the mission as I left Harlem- he and his trainer took one half of the area I had when I was there.  He's one of the ones that split this area too, so we just worked with people that I had worked with last cycle.  Anyways, we came out of our last appointment and had to wait for the other guys to come pick us up (their day with the car).  There was a lady who was sitting on the other side of the stairs that we came out of (it was a duplex).  She looked a little down, so we asked how she was doing.  She said that she was okay.  We started talking- she was from Mexico, so we talked a little about food and all that stuff- that always makes them happy, talking about their culture.  Eventually we talked about her family and how important that they were for her.  We then felt prompted to say some pretty specific words of comfort and we read a good, God sent scripture to her.  She started crying and expressed that we were talking for God and that we had said exactly what she needed.  I hadn't felt like such an instrument in God's hands before- we both felt the Spirit very strong.  We left her with The Book of Mormon and as we drove off, we saw her reading it.  She's pretty busy, but we're going to try to work out a good time to meet with her.  We just opened our mouths and God filled them with what we needed to say.

Sunday night, we had some things planned out after dinner.  We left the apartment after dropping the other Elders off, and we just felt as though what we had planned wasn't right.  We left the apartment just following where the Spirit was telling us to go, taking a left here, right there, etc.  We found ourselves in Washingtonville where we tried looking a couple people up.  We still felt as though we were needed elsewhere.  We started heading over to Vails Gate where we felt as though we should visit a person whose address from the directory did not work.  Elder Holbrook was blessed with some inspiration to use something called "Tell Me" (call in information thing- we use it know what the weather is going to be like) to find where they lived.  That worked and so we went off!  We walked in a hurry up to their apartment door and knocked.  A whole family answered, we sat down and just started testifying of how God had sent us there.  They told us that they went to a different church, but that they recognized that God has sent us there too and they are willing to listen.  We shared a short message and set up a time to return tonight.  I'm excited to see where things go with that!

Last night, we were coming out of a less actives house when the name of another less active came to mind.  It was 8:55 so usually visiting somebody would be a little unconventional.  We decided to go with it though, and we called him and he said come on up for a few minutes.  We had found out that he had gotten in a car crash and was going into court the next day and so we were able to share a message with him that built his faith.  It was great and I know that God guided us right to him.

Things are going well!  I'm grateful to have a part in this great work and I know that his is the work of the Lord.  Thank you for all your support in such- hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Hello all!

Good week!  Seems like it wasn't terribly eventful, but I bet as I get more into, I'll remember some of the better details of such.  I guess I'll break it down day by day.

Wednesday-  Went with Elder Warner and Elder Nelson (other Spanish Elders with whom we share a car) to a dinner appointment with an investigator.  It ran long, so we only had time to bike over to one of the members that lives in our area to ask if she could come with us to a lesson the next day, and then we biked home.

Thursday- Weekly Planning.  We got in with Julia and had a short and sweet lesson with her and the member we stopped by on Wednesday- Hermana Landaburu.  The members always save the day- Hermana Landaburu was able to build Julia's faith and help her to find out some answers to some of her questions.  Afterwards we went around to some people that we thought would be home, but people have just been flaky in this area so far.  We knocked into a guy who talked to us for a little while.  He gave us cookies and took The Book of Mormon, so that was good.
Friday- Exchange!  Well first we went to la familia Tantao.  They're Puerto Rican (Boricuas) and she feeds a lot, so we got hit hard with rice and some beef stew and tostones (fried plantains- good stuff!).  Afterwards we went down to Highland Falls so that we could switch up for an exchange.  I went with Elder Wangsgard (who is from Logan area- Mendon I think...) in the West Point area.  That area covers Highland Falls, Fort Montgomery and of course West Point Military Acadamy.  It's a cool area and we had a good split!  Having a good old American Dinner again was nice.  But I do love the Spanish food I get.

Saturday-  Baptism!  The other guys had a baptism for Josh.  I got to perform the baptism, but they finished up teaching him and stuff (so we're still looking to get one this month- keep praying for us!).  It was a good service and he said some good inspiring things that only a kid could say.  Later we went to our progressing less active's house Mery and Carlos!  They're great and they want to go to the temple, so going there is always uplifting.

Sunday-  We had a good day at church after which we went to a couple appointments.  We felt an impression to go drop by the house of somebody who is on the ward list that we haven't met yet.  We dropped by and found that that person had moved, but the person's mom who isn't a member had a sister who passed away so we were able to help her find comfort from The Book of Mormon.  that was a miracle and we hope to get back over there soon!

Monday- We had zone meeting in Middletown after which we went and tried doing service for a less active.  She wasn't there so we came back after talking to a couple of people that were around.  We tried visiting Julia with Hna again, but she was busy so we taught Hna instead.  Later we dropped by another member's house and had a great lesson with them.

Tuesday- Lots of service!  We went and did service for an active member, the only Domincan in the ward, Marino.  Then we went and helped the less active prepare and paint some stuff.  That took up a ton of time, but it was still good.  Afterwards we had dinner at la familia Hernandez and then went to Mery and Carlos's house.  We had good lessons with both of them and then came home tired.

Today- We've got a zone activity planned- that'll be fun!  That's about it out of the ordinary.

Things are going well!  I'm still loving the mission and looking forward to another great week! 

Thanks for everything and have a good week!
-Elder Griffiths

Pictures from Newburgh

The Newburgh District

Elder Lewis and Me

After a day of biking in Newburgh

Ice Caves!

Deep in the ice caves -- totally dark without a camera flash!

Good ol' Appalachian Trail!  I've hiked it in Georgia, the Carolinas, and now New York!

Hudson River Valley

Hudson River

On the trail...

A view from the top

On top of the world!

Our district at the top of the trail

With Elder Lewis and Paul

Elder Lewis and Elder Griffiths - transfer day

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

La Consecracion

September 4, 2013

Hello All!

Thanks for the good updates and the support and everything!  Tomorrow is my hump day, and that's crazy.  It's really weird because in one sense it seems like I've been out for awhile now, but on the other hand, I've still got a good chunk left.  I've heard time is going to fly, so I'm just going to do my best to give my best!

Lately, as a mission, we've been making strides to become consecrated missionaries.  Basically, we're all striving to give all our time and efforts, holding nothing back, but being willing to put everything on the altar of sacrifice in our service to God.  With that, President Morgan has promised us that we'll have the opportunity as companionship to bring somebody to the waters of baptism in the month of September as we strive to become consecrated.  We need all the prayers and support we can get back home, so please pray for us!  Elder Holbrook and I don't have anybody on their way yet, but we have faith in that promise as we do our part.  We've seen great things as we've tried to be obedient, work hard, talk to everyone (which is  sometimes scary in Newburgh.  But don't worry too much- we're staying safe!), and act the part we play.  For example, last Saturday night, we had an hour gap where things didn't go according to plan, leaving us with some free time.  We decided to pick a name off the ward list.  Elder Holbrook, following the Spirit, chose somebody from Highland Falls (West Point pretty much), which takes some time and miles to get there, and so we normally go when we have a solid appointment instead of risking the waste of resources.  We made some arrangements and then headed out, having confidence that the Spirit was going to lead us to somebody. We found both of the less actives that live there and had uplifting conversations both of which led to the promise of a return appointment.  We know that came as the Spirit called us to go there and because of that, we were able to bless those people.  I know that we're going to have similar experiences as we go forward doing what we're supposed to be doing.

The work is great here in Newburgh!  We've got a baptism from the other set of missionaries in our branch this Saturday, so we're excited about that.  I love this area and the people here, and things are going great!

Thanks for the love and support coming from back home.  I look forward to giving a great report next week!  Have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Y Andamos Por Bicicleta

August 28, 2013

Hello!

We had a great week this week!  Splitting the area has been a little different.  We pretty much just started working a set of four and have gradually started going off on our own to do stuff, so planning and stuff took a little more time and was a little more complicated than usually.  But we've done all but maybe one pass off to the other guys, so they've got things up and running now.  They are working in the north part of our area- we split the City of Newburgh in half, and so they get that and the other cities in the north.  We cover the South, more sketchy part of town along with Highland Falls (Westpoint), New Windsor, Harriman and the other things down there.  We're trying to pump things up in our area because Elder Lewis and I had a lot more going on in the North rather that in the South, but we're already seeing good things, so we're excited for the rest of the cycle!

We have four bikes and a car, so last Saturday, Elder Holbrook and I decided to take the bikes into town.  That sure was an experience- you realize how many hills there really are when you're legs are the means of getting you around.  I really enjoyed the experience, though, between the exercise, but more so the exposure we had.  We saw and had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people as we walked and biked around.  We're really focusing on trying to talk to everybody.  I'm not great at that, so we've been starting off just by offering people pass along cards with Christ on them and then going from there and that actually has been effective.  Because of our willingness to put our fear and laziness in that aspect on the altar of sacrifice, we've been blessed with great experiences.  On Saturday, we walked by a less active's apartment to find her with her neighbor outside talking.  We talked to them, and later returned and had a good lesson with the neighbor.  Having that lesson then led us to find another less active that we hadn't seen in a while and an investigator that we hadn't seen in awhile either.  We then were able to set up appointments with them.  Another great experience we had is that we were trying to do a less active look up when we started talking to a man on his porch.  Turns out he had met with missionaries about thirteen years ago, had already read The Book of Mormon twice and had a baptismal interview but things fell through.  We then invited him to meet with the missionaries again and so the English Elders are going to start meeting with him.  We've had some other good experiences too.  I know that when we as missionaries open our mouths, God directs us through the Holy Ghost.  There is no such thing as a coincidence- just God's doings.

Things are going splendidly well!  Today we're just going to do a little shopping, and then chill, so I'm excited about that.  Thanks for all the support back home- hope you have a good week!

-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Newburgh District   hmmm........

Somos Cuatro

Good evening!

Feels bad saying that (emailing this late), but when you get back to your area after 4:00, still have to eat lunch/dinner, and have got to do some grocery shopping, you're not left with much time.  We'll hit to it tomorrow for sure though.

Here's the status update though!  I'm still here in Newburgh, but now I am with Elder Holbrook!  He's from Syracuse, UT and we served in the same zone in the Bronx.  He's been out since about January, so he's got some good time under his belt.  They have indeed split the area, so now there are four missionaries in the branch.  We have four bikes and a car that we'll share and we live with the other missionaries- Elder Warner, we came out at the same time, and Elder Nelson, who was just down in Harlem.  We're probably going to be working somewhat as a foursome for the next few days until we've got everything completely handed off.  I'm excited about that- we're going to be good and unified!  They just all have a lot of unpacking to do and whatnot.

This past week flew by for sure.  I can't even remember what all happened, but we spent some time saying goodbye to people during the past couple of days.  That time between "shock calls" and transfers can be kind of frustrating with everybody wanting to do so much for us, but at least we eat well.  Otherwise we did the normal- teaching, teaching, teaching.

There are two experiences that were really great that we had- first was Saturday.  Everything was falling through.  Nobody was home at all.  It was just rough because we had a bunch of stuff planned out.  Such made me reflect on why we plan.  Sometimes, on days like those it seems like it's worthless to plan- we should just not even take the time.  But two things with that- one, that's prideful on our part, wanting things to go the way that we want, only worrying about our desires, and two, God often times already has things worked out and things fall through because he needs us somewhere else.  We plan to give God something to work with, to show that we care and to try to make good use of His time and resources.  That's not just a missionary thing, though.  Often times life doesn't go according to plan and so going with the flow is a tempting thing.  I think it's best, however, to have a game plan, but be flexible and able to roll with the punches.  We're always going to be led to what's best for as as we seek to what's right, so we just need to have faith that when we come to an unexpected bend in the road, only the best waits on the other side.  I know that's so true!

Second- we had a lesson with a less active who is living with an investigator.  They haven't been to church in awhile, and we were concerned with that.  Just before I got here, the less active was told she couldn't take the sacrament, so we felt like she took offense at that and didn't come because of such.  We planned, then, to talk about the importance of not partaking the sacrament, but how we should still come to church (3 Nephi 18:28-33 is good talking about that).  We got into the lesson and I did not want to talk about that- I felt like it would be uncomfortable and I was afraid they wouldn't take it well.  The Spirit reassured me by that burning in my chest that that was what we needed to talk about.  I still was a little hesitant, but then God reprimanded me during the prayer, asking me if I was more scared of man than of Him.  I thought hard about that and then a switch went off in my mind.  The prayer ended and then we started teaching.  At first they seemed really ify about what we were telling them and it was kind of awkward, but as we had confidence in the message that we brought and testified to them boldly but lovingly, the Spirit led us to having a very powerful lesson.  We expressed of how we are messengers of the truth and sometimes it hurts to hear the truth, but we only do that to help them, not for our satisfaction nor because we're told to but because we want the best for them.  They really felt something and the lesson ended very well.  They said they would try really hard to come back to church, so we'll see!  I know that we are messengers of the truth and that as we fear God, have confidence in the message we bring and share it with others with love, we can really impact somebody else.  This work is so real!

So yep, this is going to be a good week!  Maybe a little slower as we get things going, but as we do get things going, we're going to hopefully set the pace of the work in this branch.  I'm excited, and happy as ever so I look forward to a good report next week!  Thanks for all your support!  Hope you have a great week!

- Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

La Vida en el "Burgh Sucio"

Hello Everybody!

Times flying by!  We sang "Love at Home" this morning as an apartment and it says well that time just flies by when there's love at home, so I guess we're doing well loving.  Next week is transfers, so we'll see what happens!

I don't have a lot of time to write a lot (we're going to some ice caves as a zone), so sorry for keeping things short...

Things are going great! We had another great week filled with lots of good progress. One of the less active couples that we're working with is continuing to be a great support in fellowshipping the investigator that we received as a referral from them. They also had some concerns about church discipline but after talking about how great repentance is they accepted to talk to the branch president on Sunday and they did! Because of that, I know that they are well on their way to full activity and being a great support to the kingdom of God on the Earth, so Elder Lewis and I are excited about that. We also have another less active, Reyna, who has come to church for the last three Sundays in a row. She seems to understand the Restoration now and is also making great strides towards full activity in the church. We have a twelve year old investigator named Josh that wants to be baptized as soon as possible, so we're getting him ready for a baptism on September 7th. We really want to make sure he is getting baptized for the right reasons, so we constantly talk about what we feel about his understanding of such things. We've got a lot of other great things that are getting going and I'm just grateful to be here as an instrument in God's great work!

I'm learning tons and I've been able to see God's hand in my life and in His work more and more everyday.  I hope you guys are able to see the same!  Have a great week and I look forward to a giving a good report next week!

-Elder Griffiths

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

La Migrana No Nos Para

Hello to all!

This week was great!  The hike that we went on was great- I'll try to get some pictures off so you can see it.  Like I said, things are going great!  We're really seeing the Lord hastening His work in that we've got people that we're helping out that are just falling from the sky.  We're almost sort of overwhelmed trying to keep on top of things, but we know that God is in charge so everything will work out.  We got a call the other day about making arrangements for splitting our area, so that would be great, even though it is nice being the only missionaries in the branch.  They might make it a bike/car share area- we'll see!  Anyways, we've been pretty busy!

Wednesday-  We had a good night of lessons!  We taught one returning less active family about tithing and how it's an act of faith.  They took it well and committed to pay their tithing from here on out!  We had another couple of great lessons and those went well too!  Things didn't go as planned but we still achieved our goals.

Thursday- Weekly Planning in the morning!  Planning is such a crucial part of missionary work- you can work hard and you can work smart.  Working hard is going out everyday and coming back when you're supposed to and giving it your all.  Working smart is planning to use the Lord's time effectively- taking those opportunities to receive revelation so that you can do the Lord's work in His way.  When you put the two together, that's when things are the best!  Anyways, we took the time to do that, then went out to meet with some people.  We met with a less active/part member family for the first time and we just had a very spiritual lesson.  One of the daughters had been in a car accident and she had a broken leg.  The timing of the accident along with the timing of us being led to find them and other things that have happened were just perfect and we all realized that in that lesson.  She came to church this past Sunday after years of not going and it was great!  We had another cool experience where things had fallen through, and we hadn't really thought about dinner and so we dropped by a member's house and it just so happened that they had made two extra quesadillas for no particular reason- they acknowledged it as a miracle and so did we- why not credit things to God rather than just coincidence?  We taught the Restorationof the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a newer investigator that night and Elder Lewis and I both agreed that that was one of the best lessons we've been in- we could see her faith grow.  It was a great day with even a few other lessons in there.

Friday- Went to Paul's house for lunch- he's still great!  We had a lesson with a less active family and then had correlation.  We then went and did some service for a Young Man's eagle project in our ward after which we went to dinner with Hermana Galo or Abuelita as we call her.  After that we had a lesson with a less active we hadn't yet met and it went well.  He's had problems drinking in the past but was able to overcome them with AA and now is helping other people do the same.  His obligations there haven't allowed him to come to church, so we're going to start bringing the church (except for the sacrament, the most important part) to him until he can go back.  After that I think we tried to drop by and teach some other people, but we were not able to get in with anybody.  We did meet a lady again whose door we knocked on earlier in the week and we found out that she works with a bunch other other people in our ward, so that wasn't a coincidence.  We specifically knocked on her door and nobody else's, so God led us specifically to her- it's cool to see that!

Saturday-  We got up and went and did some cleaning at the church in the morning.  When we got back and finished studies, Elder Lewis began to have a migraine.  He had to stay home for the day so I went on a mini-exchange to cover one of the lessons that we had- everything else had fallen through, so things worked out just as they were supposed to- just another one of many confirmations to my faith that this is God's work.

Sunday- Church was great!  Probably the best turn out I've seen on the mission- a good number of investigators and less actives, with people coming back to church after years and such.  That was great blessing!  Afterwards we had a few good lessons and then came home.

Monday- We had a Zone Meeting in Middletown.  Those happen once a month, so we took the thirty minute trek over to middle town and enjoyed being with our group of missionaries.  We're talking about The Book of Mormon this month, and it's funny because recently we've been getting a lot of people questioning us about The Book of Mormon lately- why is it needed and so on.  I'm excited about moving forward and strengthening my testimony of The Book of Mormon and seeing how it can help us to live the gospel better and come closer to Christ.  We had some great lessons after that!

Tuesday-  We had to go to the church to let a guy in to fix a computer.  We stayed and chatted with him.  We then went to get our car fixed- we had been having a flat tire kind of frequently so they removed a nail from the tire.  We then went and had a lesson with Mayra- the less active with a broken leg- it was a great lesson!  Afterwards we found an investigator that Elder Lewis had only seen once at the beginning of his time here who had an accident and couldn't meet with the missionaries.  We had a great first lesson with her and her friend Hector and we have a return appointment with the two of them tomorrow!  We had a couple of other lessons for the day and things went great!

Today we were banking on doing something that fell through, so instead we decided to take our time and have a very relaxed day- not to rush anything.  So that's what we're doing!  I don't think I've ever had a p-day like this and it's nice.  I did get a hair cut from an Italian guy named Umberto- I spoke to him the little bit of Italian I know (which is indeed very little) and he liked that, so he sprayed me with some good smelling cologne, which Elder Lewis says he hasn't ever seen happen, so that was sweet!  Haha I'm hoping to pick up Italian after the mission.  We'll see!
Things are going great!  The next couple of weeks are going to fly and I'm excited to see what the Lord brings us next.  Hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you in a week!

-Elder Griffiths

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Veinte!

Hello all!

We had another great week!  Weeks out here are just always great, so hooray for mission life!  I'll just dive in and give a little bit of a scoop what happened last week...

Wednesday- We took a wrong exit getting back to our house after playing some basketball and ended up on a toll freeway that didn't have an exit for sixteen miles, so we blew like forty miles and nearly an hour trying to get back home- it was pretty funny!  That night we got in one lesson with an investigator and it was a solid lesson.

Thursday- I woke up and started feeling funny during studies.  By language study, I was feeling really weak and so I just had to take a nap.  I didn't have any energy- it was like I had the flu without any of the sinus or throat problems- so we stayed in that day and did some weekly planning.

Friday- Felt better, so we took the hour car ride down to Ossining for Zone Conference- it was sweet!  We learned a ton on how to be a consecrated missionary- how to better put everything on the altar of sacrifice and just put 100% of our energy, efforts, thoughts, etc. on the work with which we are involved.  As we were coming home, I started feeling bad again and we went to one appointment, but I had a fever so we came back and I crashed at 8:00.

Saturday- I woke up feeling a little better, but Elder Lewis wasn't feeling well.  We later found out that there has been a virus going around in this area, so I'd imagine we were just victims of that.  Anyways, we decided to stay in again just to make sure we were cleared out, so we did such.  We finished weekly planning and worked on organizing things so that we can attack hard with less active look ups in the next couple of weeks.

Sunday- Church was good!  Afterwards we went out to work.  We tried stopping by a few different people's houses without finding anybody home.  We finally found a part member family that we had been looking for for awhile and we taught them a good lesson.

Monday and Tuesday- We went to work!  We just decided to get out and stay out and make the best out of every moment, trying to be consecrated missionaries.  We tried to fill up both of those days with appointments and for whatever times we didn't have appointments we put people down that we could possibly drop by and see and we had back up plans, people we were going to look up and it was great!  We ended up with nine lessons after both days and we've found lots of people we can potentially work with.  Once we get things cranking, we'll probably be able to see around thirty lessons a week easily.  People said that upstate work is a lot slower, but that's a lie- there's plenty of things to do here.  Too much, it seems- we keep on not wanting to add to our teaching pool because we've already got a lot to juggle, but we keep getting people thrust upon us.  It's a great problem to have!  So things are going great!

Today we're planning on going on a hike- the AT runs through our area, so we're going to hit up a four mile trail.  I'm excited!  Then at 6:00, we're going to jump back into things and give it our all.  The mission is great- I'm loving it!

Thanks for all the support back home- you guys are great!  I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Otra buena semana!

Hello!

Another good week down and another one on its way!  And Happy Pioneer Day!

I can't think of any general things going on, so I'll just jump right into breaking down each day...

Wednesday- Basketball in Middletown for P-day, then we had a couple sweet lessons!  We started teaching a lady named Julia and her family.  They're from Honduras (lots of Hondureans here.  I'm going to come home making Baliadas) and they have a lawyer who is a member down in New Jersey so he referred them to us and they're great!  We had a solid first lesson and we committed them to baptism!  After that we had a great lesson with Meri and her husband- less actives from Honduras and Ecuador.  We had a sweet, spirit filled lesson with them too and we committed them to come back to church.  We saw her change from the start to finish of the lesson so that was a tender mercy!

Thursday- Weekly planning.  After that we worked on the map with all of the people with whom we work, then went to a couple of lessons.  Things went well with the lessons we had.

Friday- We put in some good miles on the car.  We went and had lunch with Paul, who lives a little ways away in Washingtonville, then we got a phone call from the lawyer working with Julia and her family to come meet us at Pizza Hut because they had just went to court in Newburgh.  We went there and ate a slice of pizza each (we were already stuffed from Paul's good food) and then we went back to their house for a lesson.  After that we walked around the more sketchy parts of Newburgh trying to look of less actives- we didn't have much success, but we sure did sweat off both of our lunches.  After that we traveled to a less active family that lives down in Highland Falls, where West Point is, for a dinner appointment.  There were some nice views driving there, and they're a great family!  We're hoping to get back there this week sometime even though it is a little ways away.  After that we went back to Paul's to pick up some "Mormon Helping Hands" vests after which we did a couple look ups in Washingtonville, and then we went home.

Saturday-  We used the vests as we worked for Habitat for Humanity in the morning.  We put up insulation in what was going to be the crawl space of a house.  We then came back, showered off, did our studies and left for some lessons.  The lessons we had went well- led by the Spirit and we were able to see some progress with everybody we saw.

Sunday- We went to church and had a pretty good turn out as far as people getting there goes.  Our computer in the Clerk's office isn't working, so we didn't stay after to do tithing.  We went home, ate, studied, then had one good lessons and dropped by some other people's houses to set stuff up for the week to come.  We were able to see the Spirit guide us as we got to one of our part member family's houses right as they got there.  We then had a great lesson where they found their own needs and solutions to such needs, so that was great!

Monday-  District meeting in the morning.  After trying to drop by a member's house, we came back home and worked on the map and getting stuff organized there.  Ideally we're going to get that map up and running so that in the afternoons in the future we can go effectively use our time and miles in the car looking up less actives with whom we can work during the afternoons.  After that we had a lesson with Julia that went okay.  She was kind of tired and one of her kids was being a little crazy, so it wasn't super spiritual, but Elder Lewis has pointed out to me that every lesson is a good lesson, so it was still a good lesson!  Afterwards we had dinner at a member's house- a Mexican couple with a daughter who married a Domincan- the one Dominican in the branch.  He asked us if we had already eaten, and we said no so then he asked us what we could cook and I joking replied "cereal" so then he brought us out a box of Chex with milk, bowls and spoons and so we ate cereal.  It was pretty funny!  We tried looking up a couple of people after that before heading home.

Tuesday- After studies we went over to Paul's house for lunch.  We had a solid lesson with him!  After that we did some service in a member's yard, after which we went and had three more solid lessons.  Elder Lewis led a sweet lesson about faith with a less active family- la familia Sierra.  They committed to come back to church for the first time in awhile.  We then went to a part member family who gave us some great Honduran sandwiches, after which Elder Lewis lead another great lesson, this time based on Mosiah 3:19.  Afterwards we went and taught Reyna, an inactive who hasn't been to church in three years.  We were teaching her about the Plan of Salvation when we realized that she actually needed to be taught The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Once again the Spirit was there and we could feel her potential to change that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today we've just done the things we need to do and we're about to head over to play some basketball in Middletown.  Next week we're hoping to hitch a ride with the Hohosh's, the Senior couple that works with the West Point Branch who go down to work in the temple on Wednesdays.  We'll see what works out.
Things are going well!  Another fun fact- we have a keyboard in our apartment so I've been trying to practice playing and sight reading hymns when I have a couple minutes, so hopefully I'll be able to pick that up in a month or two.  We'll see.  Anyways, thanks for all the support!  The mission is great and I look forward to sending an email about another great week next week!

-Elder Griffiths