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


Friday, July 19, 2013

Newburgh es dulce!

Hello!
This week was a great week!  Newburgh is sweet!  I feel like it's a weird combination of the Bronx and Cache Valley in a North Georgia setting, if you can even imagine that.  I thought I was coming upstate to a calm place, but come to find out the actual city of Newburgh is the only place in the mission where sisters aren't allowed!  That's probably not something I should send home, but after surviving Harlem and South Bronx, I'm feeling a-okay.  The work is definitely different, but I'm getting used to it.  Being the only missionaries in the branch is almost overwhelming because there is so much that we can do and so many people that we can visit.  People working all the time kind of hinders our ability to work with so many people, but as we get to know more people, we'll find out who we can visit in the afternoons and such.

Anyways, I'll tell you a little about each day:

Wednesday- On the way home from transfers (that long adventure), we had a Wendy's.  Elder Lewis got food poisoning from the so that knocked him out for the night.  We got some groceries, but he was throwing up on the way home, so we didn't visit anybody.  I took some time to settle in.

Thursday- Elder Lewis was still not feeling so hot, so we stayed in.  I unpacked everything (which took like two weeks in my last area), organized everything and just did some good reading.  I checked out the area book and tried to get to know people through the area book.  We did a little weekly planning when he was feeling better, but other than that, we didn't do much.

Friday- We took it easy for the first part of the day, finished weekly planning, then we went out to Newburgh (we cover a massive area- half of Orange County, and even then the other half isn't covered by Spanish missionaries, so we might venture over there every once in a while.  Anyways, Newburgh is where most people with whom we work are in Newburgh, so that's where we spent most of our time).  We mostly tried to drop by a bunch of people's homes but we only got in with a couple people.  We then went and visited Paul, a guy from the English ward.  He's great!  A little crazy, but super likable.  We go over to his place every once and awhile because he likes the missionaries and is just a great, serving guy.

Saturday-  We tried dropping by a couple people's houses and we got a couple of lessons in.  We then went to a graduation party for a member of our ward and then a birthday party of the child of a less active.  The party was great because it brought together like forty less actives/people in part member families, all part of the same extended family, so we're going to work with them a lot.  It was also great because it was a Mexican party (una pachanga), so they had great food and a pinata!  So yep, Saturday was great because I met a ton of people.

Sunday- We have church at 11:00, which is perfect.  Church went well- we had a family show up that are not members.  They were referred and brought to us by a lawyer who is from New Jersey and working with them.  We're going to go see them tonight!  After church, we had tithing, after which we went and visited a couple of members.

Monday- Our branch president invited us over for breakfast, so we went to that before studies.  We had district meeting, and then after already having planned things out, we were told not to go into Newburgh because there were some protests or something going on dealing with the Treyvon Martin court case, and two white guys going into that probably wouldn't turn out well.  All of our plans and back up plans were in Newburgh, so instead we went out and bought a couple maps and things to make a map of our area with people with whom we work.  I think since working at Domino's I've liked working with maps, so in my other areas, we've always used a map to plan and figure out what to do.  We worked on that and then we tried stopping by some people, but to no avail.  We ended up going over to Paul's house again, so that was good.
Tuesday- After studies, we went and did some yard work for a lady in our branch.  We then came back and took it easy for a bit because I was feeling some symptoms of heat exhaustion.  We went on splits with the guys in the Galo family, a good family who has a son that'll be heading out to BYU soon, so I went and taught a couple people with the son while Elder Lewis went with the dad and the other son.  That was sweet because in two hours we got four lessons with members.

Today has been good.  We're about to go play basketball in Middletown with other people from our zone.  It's like a thirty minute drive, but it'll be fun seeing other people.  Later tonight we've got some lessons to teach, and that's about it.

I'm loving this area and Elder Lewis is great!  This cycle is going to fly by and then I'm probably going to get shipped away just because I'm loving it here.  But if that's the case, I'll be grateful for what time I did get to spend here!

Thanks for the support- I hope everyone is doing well!  I hope you guys have a great week!

~Elder Griffiths

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Pictures from the top!

A view from the top... of our apartment building

Celebrating the 4th!

One of the great firework shows we saw from the top of our building.  The Empire State Building was a great show in and of itself!

Mi familia Dominicana!  Great family from my area in the Bronx.

3/4 of our district.  We found sweet ties for only $2 each!

Rafael and Hna Nunez - the member that found him.  Mis Abuelitos Dominicanos!

This is so crazy!  A car parked outside our building.  Not just from Georgia, not just from Gwinnett County, but from Richards Middle School!!  In the Bronx!!!

Apartment picture right before transfers.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Me Voy a...

Good evening!  Sorry for not writing last week.  Dumb New York City library computers sometimes just like to kick us off after forty five minutes when we're anticipating an hour or so...

Anyways, last week wasn't too exciting.  Elder Martinez wasn't feeling too well, so we took it easy.  We still had some lessons, but we spent some time inside too.  Although I'd rather be out working, I made well of the time by sewing on some buttons that needed to be sewed on, doing some cleaning, reading The Book of Mormon, making planner covers for other missionaries and so on, so it was good to get stuff done.

This past week was great!  Fourth of July- that was probably the best Fourth of July I've seen!  We had to be in at 8:00, but then if we had access to it, we could get up on our roof until 10:00, so we came in at 8:00, planned, cook up some bratwursts and made some milkshakes, then went up on to our roof.  Not sure if we were allowed to, but we had checked earlier in the week if there were alarms on the roof access and there weren't so we did!  Our building isn't terribly tall, but we could see the firework shows going on south of Manhattan, way over on Long Island, up in Westchester County and a few other firework shows here and there.  I'll try to send some pictures of it all.  We had some good lessons last week too, but nothing comes immediately to mind that's worth mentioning.

Anyways, transfers have come and gone and I've moved!  I am way upstate (well way as far as this mission goes) in Newburgh, New York!  I'm in one of three Spanish companionships in the entire zone (we four companionships in my last district alone)- we cover the entire branch alone and we are the ward clerk.  We have a car (with A/C :D) with 1200 miles for the month because our area is massive.  The physical layout reminds me a lot of North Georgia- Appalachian Mountains covered with trees and greenery- it's beautiful!  We're right by the Hudson River, and that just adds to the beauty.  West Point Military Academy is in the area we cover, so that's going to be sweet!  Especially since I met an Elder in the MTC who went to West Point gave me some names of friends with which to work.  I can see God's hand in this transfer in that I might get the opportunity to work with those people to one extent or another.  We'll see!  I'm with Elder Lewis- he's from Cedar City, Utah and has been out for about three months.  He's great and I'm super excited to work with him!  We had a great experience getting here- from the upstate transfer meeting in Ossining, a usually hour drive took us three because I had to drive and there was a not very well marked detour.  We had to stop at Wendy's to check out and make our own detour using the GPS, so it was just an adventure.  We had some good time to get to know each other, though, so that was great!  And we saw some beautiful scenery.  I love it so much up here!  I love the area, the people sound great and I love my companion so far!  Should be a great cycle!

I'm a little scatter brained right now, so I can't think of much more to add.  The mission just keeps getting better and better and I don't think I've ever been happier.  Thanks for all the support back home- you're great!  I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

June Pictures!

Rafael at the Manhattan Temple!

Southern parts of Manhattan

Familiar street names?

WTC Memorial

Freedom Tower - wrapping things up!

The financial district

Chinese restaurant in Chinatown - lunch with the roomies!

Natural Museum of History

Hangin' with Teddy

Mammoth!

Happy Birthday Elder Wilkins!

BIG whale!

Monday, July 1, 2013

Otra semana completa - parte 2

June 25 - Part 2

alrighty, back for just a bit so i'll try to wrap the week up...

Saturday- temple!  Our ward did a youth temple trip but we pushed to get the recent converts to go too, so us missionaries got to go and help out.  Rafael doesn't like the train, so we took buses there- took awhile, but it was a nice ride and we got to talk to some people on the way to and from the temple.  The temple so great!  I love it a ton, and getting to see the baptistery of the Manhattan temple was a great experience.  Rafael enjoyed it and the youth did too.  Between taking the bus and then it just taking awhile at the temple, we pretty much spent the whole day there. We had one lesson afterwards and then ate some dinner before going home.

Sunday- church, studies, broadcast!  That was about it.  But the broadcast was great!  The work was going forward and it's such a blessing being a part of it.

Monday- district meeting followed by an exchange with Elder Price, another elder in the district.  We had a pretty packed and productive day- five lessons all with members there, so that was sweet!  Elder Price is a great guy and I learned a lot about just choosing to be happy, realizing that all will be well so we shouldn't spare a moment being down or sad, but we should make the best of our time as we put off bad and negative feelings.

Tuesday- we "unsplit" but Elder Martinez was feeling horrible.  Sick as a dog.  I made some phone calls and sent some texts and rescheduled or canceled the appointments that we had set.  He laid in bed for most of the day, and I just caught up on a bunch of stuff I had wanted to do- polished up the Area Book, wrote some member info in my planner, caught up my journal, did some cleaning, did my laundry, did some organizing, etc.  I loved it!  I've been waiting for a day like that since mid-November...  Haha but yeah it felt good catching up on some stuff.

Today- Elder Martinez was feeling better.  We studied, cleaned, shopped, emailed and then head to the church for a zone activity.  We watched Seventeen Miracles and it was great!  I love getting together with the zone and other missionaries- it's great!

So that's pretty much the week!  Things are going well- I'm feeling super blessed and I'm loving the mission more and more everyday.  I know that the work that me and the other seventy thousand missionaries are doing is the work of God and I'm so grateful to be a part of it.  Thanks for the support and love- don't forget to share your testimony sometime this week!  Have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Otra semana completa!

June 25, 2013

Buenas Tardes!

This week has been pretty good.  Pretty crazy I'd say.  I'll fill you in on the details...

Wednesday- we went through the Museum of Natural History- that was sweet!  Kind of.  Well we found the good stuff that we all enjoyed about twenty minutes before we had to leave.  We then took a nice walk through Central Park (which is super pretty- I love it.  Looks a heck of a lot better than it did back in November-February) to catch a 4 train up to Yankee Stadium (kind of went out of our way just to see Central Park).  We went to some lessons and they were good!

Thursday- weekly planning.  We had one appointment and then we went and picked up Brian, a youth, and Rafael to go have an interview at the church for a temple trip.  The bus ride was long- usually we take the train which is a lot more direct and you don't have to deal with traffic.  Afterwards we celebrated Elder Wilkins' (roommate) birthday with the district at the church.  We got Domino's hand made pan pizza- good stuff.  I'm working on some missionary work for Domino's too- converted people to good pizza :I  Haha

Friday- Interviews!  Only my second one after being in the mission home.  President Morgan is super knowledgeable and smart and having that bit of time to ask him whatever is sweet!  I loved that.  The rest of the night, we went to a couple of appointments and they were good.

My computer is about to kick me off- the library is pretty busy because school just got out for the summer, so i'm going to try to keep going, but no guarantees that I'll get a lot more off.  So if this is it, hope you have a great upcoming week!  We're almost in July- crazy!

-Elder Griffiths

Misericordia y El Espiritu Santo

June 19, 2013

Hello all!

This week was great!  I've got a bunch of things that happened that I thought were sweet, but I doubt I'll have time to get them all in here, so I'll just be sure to have my journal up to snuff so that people can at least enjoy these experiences a few years down the road.

Wednesday- good stuff!  Manhattan went well- we got to see everything we set out to see, and I was able to take pictures, so I'll try to shoot some pictures off when I can.

Thursday- Elder Martinez wasn't feeling well, so we stayed in and took it easy, then I went out with one of our roommates for a couple of appointments in the evening.  It was good- I feel like I got some stuff done, so I was grateful for that.

Friday- Our plans fell through, our backup plans fell through, and everything else after that kind of fell through so we went knocking for the first time in awhile.  I don't like knocking because it's not super effective for the effort put into it.  I like it, but I feel like doing other stuff is better.  Doing it Friday, however, was great!  We didn't have much success, but I could feel the Lord's support as we tried to keep pushing on even when things weren't working out.  Our desire to work and our efforts to follow the Spirit, even in the little things, let us have some great experiences after that.  We helped a taxi driver who destroyed his tire trying to flip a u-turn and he came away really touched by that service.  We then had a sweet lesson with one of my favorite members who's going through a tough time.  I love being able to see the Gospel be able to lift people up- it's the best!  And then that was about it for the night.

Saturday- we have correlation on Saturdays, and then not a lot happened after that.  We went to lessons and stuff, but nothing too terribly exciting.

Sunday- church was good!  And then God showed us how good His timing is when we tried stopping by a less active that we haven't seen in weeks to find that he had literally come home to walk his dog and then go back out.  We chatted with him and have a return appointment with him tonight!

Monday- district meeting is always great!  We had some good lessons afterwards, and then we got to see one of our great investigators- her name is Ilka and she's just progressing very well.  She's reading, praying, going to church, receiving revelation and she is able to recognize that she's receiving that revelation.  She's great and the Lord had blessed us with good success with her.

Tuesday- Elder Martinez gave some haircuts to other missionaries, so we kind of hung around.  I got a CD in the mail "From a friend" and it was this sweet CD that I've been wanting for a little while, so thank you friend!  That was a great tender mercy.  Later we followed up and had a first lesson with somebody we knocked into and we committed them to baptism!  It's going to be great working with them!  Then we had a good dinner as a district at a members house.

Today we're going down to the city.  It'll be great!

The computer is about to kick me off so I have to go!  Thanks for everything and have a good week!

-Elder Griffiths