Muy buena semana!

June 12, 2013

Pretty good week!  Fairly eventful week!  Kind of a wet week too, but the work goes on!

To start out- the game was great!  In all honesty though, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the game- I just socialized the whole time.  [Former Elder] Neils Topham (my trainer) showed up (his mom works for Jet Blue so he travels for free) so I had a good time chatting with him!  I also got to talk to a bunch of people who were shipped up state that I hadn't seen for months, so that was sweet!  The other missionaries in the mission are so great and there's so much to learn from them.  Seriously- we've got over 200 missionaries about 20 years old each, so that's about 4000 years of life experience- about 2/3 of the time people have been living life on Earth, right?  Haha but anyways, I think it's always good to take advantage of social situations, get to know people and try to learn as much as you can from them.  Anyways, that was great!  Even greater was just living about six blocks away so that we didn't have to have a crazy routine.

The rain this week was sweet!  We dropped by a farewell of a guy who is leaving to go serve a mission in Brazil on Friday and came back and almost got blown away- it was sweet!  I'm figuring out how to work the umbrella so that it doesn't get totally destroyed.  Saturday I went an exchange with Elder Picoli from Brazil- he's great!  He serves in the English ward and so being able to testify and preach in English is always a good confidence boost- haha.  Sunday was pretty good- I had a realization of how great the ward is!  There are so many good and loving people and I was just able to especially feel their love that Sunday so that was a great blessing.  Monday was district meeting and then we had a couple of appointments after that.  I then went on an exchange with Elder Critchfield starting Monday night.  We had a pretty good day together- Yankee Stadium is in his area, though, and the Ireland national soccer team was facing the Spain national soccer team in Yankee stadium, so we spent some time people watching as we waited for a member to go to a lesson.  I felt like I was in Harry Potter seeing national the fans from two different national teams coming together- it was great!  Today we're going down to Manhattan- going to China Town, the World Trade Center Memorial, Financial District and Battery Park, and then to Grand Central- should be sweet!  The camera is charged up and ready to go.

This week has been great!  I feel truly happy.  I know that happiness comes as we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Maybe things aren't always easy going, but living the gospel was never meant to be convenient.  The highs are high out here and I'm so grateful to be a part of the work.  Thanks for all of the prayers and support- I hope you have a wonderful week!

-Elder Griffiths

Béisbol alguien?

Hello!

One sixth of the way through the cycle- getting there!  Haha sooner than we know it it'll be over because that's just how things work out here.  But yeah we've got to get to Yankee Stadium soon for the game, so I won't be able to write a ton, so forgive me!

This was pretty good!  We've been blessed to see progress with the people with which we're working.  Missionaries found Yohanna a little over a year ago- she's been going on and off with the missionaries since.  We've had a couple of good lessons with her in the past few weeks to the point where she has a baptismal date now.  She came to church last Sunday for the first time and although she's going through some hard times, she is noticing the blessings that are coming from living the gospel.  We're excited to keep going forward with her, and come July 13th she should be ready to enter into the waters of baptism and work on be well on her way to sanctification as she applies the gospel of Jesus Christ in her life.  We've seen some other great progress with others too- Ilka and Keni who are preparing for baptism in September and then Juana, the sister of a recent convert that we started teaching about a week and a half ago.  Things are going great!

I'm learning a lot about gratitude.  When we have an attitude of gratitude, things just go well.  I've noticed that I'm happier when I'm focusing on the things that Heavenly Father has given me.  Those things aren't too hard to find so just look for them!  I'm grateful for the success that the Lord has blessed us with, for the opportunity to serve a mission, for the trials that help me to grow and for many other things!  Count your many blessings!

Thanks for everything!  Sorry this is a little shorter- hopefully next week will be better.  I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths