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

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

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

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