Ya Se Fue La Nieve

Hello all!

I survived the storm- it really wasn't that bad.  I think a lot of it hit in the middle of the night (or at least after 10:30).  I mean I guess it was snowing/sleeting all day Friday, but we were definitely still able to walk around and get stuff done, but we woke up to a bunch of snow on the ground.  Snow here on the sidewalks and the streets gets nasty very quickly.  We chugged along and just did what we were supposed to do on Saturday and Sunday and then it was kind of rainy and warmer on Monday, so a lot of it melted away.  Now there's really only the piles that are banked up on the side of the roads, so it's not too bad.  It was just a pain trying to walk around and stuff.  So yep, I guess that was the gist of how the snow storm went down for me.

Not too much happened since Friday.  The one thing I can think of is that we had some more training about the stuff that we were taught last Wednesday from the Zone Leaders and it's super exciting.  We were the first mission to receive that training and so they're just going to see how it goes here and then maybe do training and have the things we do become the norm everywhere.  The general idea of the training is just a shift of how we teach.  We're going to be covering specific things that aren't necessarily a part of the lessons as given in Preach My Gospel for the first four visits.  They're short, powerful and they really set the investigator/less active up with a solid foundation of what to do as we move forward with the lessons.  It's basically just more centered on the Atonement and what we need to do to be able access the atonement.  It's pretty bold, but it sifts through the people quicker rather that making people "eternigators."  We also are starting out our contacting with saying that we're a representative of Jesus Christ and we want to bless the lives of others as Christ did.  We offer to say a prayer at their home or do something of that sort to help them, then we give the first lesson (which is basically just saying all of the points of "How to Begin Teaching" in Preach My Gospel), and then commit them to baptism.  It's pretty crazy, but so far what we've done has worked pretty well.  I know it's what we need right now and I'm excited to see the fruits of it!

Things are going along here in New York.  At the end of this week we'll be halfway through the cycle- crazy!  But yep, the church is true and the Lord is hastening His work!  Hope all is well at home!

-Elder Griffiths