Me Encanta Ver la Blancura del Templo, No la de la Nieve

Good afternoon all!

Snow snow snow. I think it snowed four or five times this last week, starting with a doozy on Thursday. It dropped about ten inches or snow, one inch of ice, and then another ten inches of snow. Then it dropped more snow in the next couple of days. Today we had some freezing rain. So yeah there is about two feet of snow on the ground, at its thinnest. There are snow banks that are three or four feet tall in sidewalks, and then in parking lots, they are huge- I saw one at least ten feet tall. So lots of snow, and it seems like it'll be about June by the time it melts. So that's the weather!

Good news, though, is that the work is going forward! We had the opportunity to go to the temple on Saturday for baptisms for the dead.
Abril, who got baptized back in November, came and had a great experience. We had a good experience too, it was fun being in the city again, but the peace from being there in the temple was even better.

We drove to and from there in the snow- it's about an hour and a half from Newburgh- but we traveled safely. We made sure that Abril knew how special the temple is, so hopefully she'll keep her eyes on the prize. We have a baptism his week! Yolanda, who we have been working with since about September, emailed us last week and said that her parents had given her the go to be baptized. We asked her when and she said ASAP! So we set things up and planned to teach her everything before then and she is good to go. Things are so much easier when the investigators are self motivated- reading because they want to and feel good, praying and willing to obey the commandments because of their faith and trust in God. Yolanda is golden. Whenever you have somebody that wants to be baptized ASAP, you should do all you can to get them there ASAP. So yep, she is ready to go for this weekend.

We're excited! Other things are great! The Sierra family, who we've been working with for as long as I've been here, is going strong, well on their way to full activation. They all came to church on Sunday.

Between the two companionships we had about twenty less actives and investigators at church. Back when they changed the time to 9:00 for church two years ago, they were doing well if they had about forty people at church. Nowadays we have about seventy on an average Sunday.
God is being gracious and blessing us to see great growth here in Newburgh. We are still pushing for sisters, so we'll see what happens!

Cool story- a couple weeks ago, we were going to go look up some people in an apartment complex. We were praying in the car and we finished to see a couple of people standing outside our car. We got out and they explained that they were members and wanted to know more about where the church was and what time it started. We gave them the information and then asked for their information. We went over there once and then again this past Sunday and they are awesome! George moves here about a month ago from Guatamala to live with his cousin Lucia who is a member who moved here fifteen years ago and never found the church. George works Sundays now and can't go to church, but we're going to work with them to help them get back to the blessings of full activity. I know God made our paths cross.

We had the opportunity to go to the temple again today. There is such peace there. I know that temple worship helps us to stay strong in the faith because it is a taste of heaven, helps us to take a break from our worldly cares and see that eternal perspective. Eternal perspective helps us to take a step back from things that might seem like a big deal. It helps those things to shrink down to almost nothing and helps us to move forward with a clear mind and hope for what is to come. A change of perspective is sometimes all we need to handle things better. So when you're going through a problem, try looking at things with a different point of view- that will help.

Also, ministering. That is helping us to move us forward as a district. We are all working on getting in the habit of checking up on each other and lifting each other up as needed. We are taking the time that God has given us to serve Him and consecrating it to help His children out. As we consecrate our resources to God's purposes we work towards having Zion here on earth. I've seen that already. It's great!
So look for ways to minister to others.

That's about it. Things are great here! I am having a great time and I have been blessed to see God's hand I'm the everyday. Things are good and I think we're even leaving the snow behind for the year. We are always moving forward here. So yep, thanks for all the love and support! Hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

P.S

. You can thank traffic in the city for a longer email :T

Quidditch in New York?   No, just "broom hockey", though it looks like their may be at least one mop!

Weird!  No explanation for this one...

Pictures of winter...

Sorry about the sideways pictures -- they're saved vertically on the computer but blogspot insists on loading them sideways and doesn't seem to have a way to rotate them.  I'll keep looking...

Icicles outside our window

Elder Critchfield with one of our good finds

Explosiones!

Hello!

Hope all is going well with the snow storm and stuff. Maybe this will be read a couple days after I send it due to power outages, we'll see.

We got to do some good shoveling with the snow we got last week- that is pretty much all we did last Wednesday. I'm not sure if I would want to live here after realizing that shoveling driveways and stuff is kind of a pain. Haha but with that comes icicles. We've been having a good time with icicles. They are fun to knock down and throw around and so on- good stress relief. We are always on the look out for a good icicle. We have seen some well over six feet tall. The missionary life is exciting! Haha

Cool experience- Saturday we were having bad luck with everybody -- nobody was home. We got to the point where we went through our plans, back up plans and everybody that had come to mind. It was evident that we were needed somewhere else, we just didn't know where. So what do you do when God knows something that you don't? You pray! So we did and then Elder Wagner got the impression that we should call Paul from the English ward. We did and immediately knew why he had come to mind- he had just gotten out of his nephew's funeral and said it was horrible.
He didn't take his death very well and so he was in need of comfort, so a God sent us his way. We had a good time with him and a good lesson with him. I know that God used us as instruments to help him out and show Paul the love that He has for him. That was a good experience.

The work is going forward here in Newburgh. I am so glad I'm still here. At this point I might just push to stay here for the long haul, the rest of the mission. Haha we'll see. Anyways, we're anticipating like six baptisms this transfer cycle. I just had one if our investigators email me telling me she wants to get baptized, ASAP, so we're going to set that up for the 22nd. Should be good! The other guys' area is blowing up. They had ten investigators at church Sunday.  We're pushing to get a set of sisters to come in and cover everything except for the city of Newburgh, and then we Elders would split the city of Newburgh. We'll see what is going on in five weeks! We talked with President Romero and he can feel the work moving forward. We're all getting excited and happy to see the way things are going. Be looking out for the second coming, it's on it's way!

To keep things going forward, we are working together to support and help one another in the great work. We are trying to make it a habit to just talk to one another when we see each other, really ask how one another is doing and then uplift and encourage one another. As we share experiences and testimony with one another, we build each other up. That builds unity and builds other people up too. We all are benefited as we minister to one another. So that is he hat we're working on and that's going to keep things blowing up. Gotta love it!

Things are great! Hope things are okay back home and the ice isn't getting you down. Have a great week and I'll "talk" to you next week!

-Elder Griffiths

Seis

Hello!

Transfers have come. Actually, they haven't due to the snow storm- we're going to have them tomorrow. I am writing this in our apartment today and hopefully we'll get over to Panera Bread or something to send it off. Anyway, we have transfers tomorrow, and with that I'll be going...

Back to the apartment! Looks like I'm going to be putting in a little over eight months here in Newburgh, at the very least. Elder Wagner and I are staying together, which makes him the companion that I have had for the longest time. That will be good though- he is a good missionary so we will continue to do great things. I am excited- I love the branch as much as ever. These people are my family and I look forward to continuing to serve them.

Last Wednesday was good. Nothing too terribly exciting- normal p-day and then a lesson with an investigator, and a dinner with a great member, Norma. She is from El Salvador and lives by herself, so all four of us go over there.

Thursday we had a good day as well. We had normal studies and then started into weekly planning. To take a break from that, we went to a good authentic Mexican restaurant where an investigator, almost-wife-of-active-member, named Maria works. We had good food and then it was on the house. We feel bad about not paying so we try not to go too often.  That night we tried to have a skype lesson that didn't work out, then had a dinner appointment at the Paneque's house- they are a great family!  Mom is from Ecuador and the dad is not a member and is from Cuba . It is an interesting combination but they are great! Afterwards we had a decent online event in Spanish. At the same time, I chatted with a guy that lives in Indiana that we met at a member's house and had a lesson with him- we are going to try skyping him sometime. The online proselyting opens up some opportunities that we otherwise wouldn't have.

Friday- normal studies and then a district language study (sign language is coming along pretty well). We had a lesson with the Erazo's, the family where we skyped from on Christmas. Hermano Erazo then took us to a less active member, the Sierra's, for a good lesson. Afterwards he took us to Aldi's and got a bucket of ice cream for us.  hen we had a sweet lesson with another less active Felipe, his wife Maria and daughter Gabi. President Romero and his family came with us and that was awesome! We have been working with just him since July, and he has never come to church, but with the Romero's there, they a seemed closer than ever to coming. We will see in the future what comes... Afterwards we had a good lesson with another less active family, Raul and Magdalena. It was a good lesson, but they aren't progressing as much as would be preferred. And that was a day.

Saturday- day full of Peruvian food! After going to Joe's baptism ( guy I interviewed) we went to the Ydrogo's, the Peruvian family returning to activity that lives down in Highland Falls. She fed us some good chicken- I got the recipe and will be trying to make it sometime this cycle. We had a good lesson, and then went off and did some online proselyting after getting juked. Then we went with the Elder's Quorum president, Blinio who is also Peruvian, to a Peruvian restaurant in Newburgh. Good stuff. Causa, papa a la huancaina, purple olives, fried yuca, arroz chaufa, etc. Good stuff! I am so grateful to have such a diverse cultural experience here. We had a lesson with him and then left to visit a completely inactive family, the Trejo's. We had a good lesson and then went off to Michael's farewell. We thought it was at the church, which is why we tried stopping by the Trejo's, but it was actually at Michael's house. Good thing we got that mixed up so that we could go to the Trejo's. The farewell was good- good seeing everyone there. Then shock calls came in and shockingly enough, I'm staying. Elder Nelson, who I have lived with for the past almost six months, is going down to Concourse and so Elder Critchfield is getting a new missionary to the mission that served in Pocatello waiting for a visa, then Argentina for a little while before getting sick.  He went home and got reassigned to our mission. How lucky for him!

Sunday- church was great! It filled me up. Then afterwards, we went with president Romero to visit an inactive Puerto Rican family, the Tantao's. They are doing alright. Had a good but long lesson, after which we went to the Romero's house to have fhe with the Perez family and the Galo's- good time! Then we went back to the Galo's and did correlation with Michael (he was our mission leader until he left today).

Monday- went to zone meeting in Middletown in the snow. Good meeting- got good training on spiritual gifts- how to get them and use them.  Afterwards, we cautiously drove home upon which we were grounded.  President Romero picked us up to go shovel the driveways of the people that need help with that. He is a great example of selfless service, going out and helping others even though he might be tired from working all day and stuff. That was draining, so after we went to the Romero's and he made us good piña colada then we went and crashed.

Tuesday- normal studies then Paul's for lunch- had some good burgers and fries. The whole district was there, all ten of us. Going over there is always a hoot! We had our online event over there, and so maybe it was good that not a lot of people participated because we were a little distracted. Afterwards, I gave another baptismal interview to a cadet at West Point in a library at West Point. That was a good spiritual experience. And I still love West Point. Go army- beat Navy! We were told to wash our car, so we did that next, then dropped by to see Mery and Carlos, reactivated members that are on track to go inactive again. We set up an appointment to go back. Then we went to Norma's again- she fed us some good chicken! She is awesome. We when stopped by the Galo's to say goodbye to Michael. Went home and called it a night.

Today we woke up with a ton of snow. No transfer meeting today- it'll be tomorrow. The missionaries coming into the mission and the ones going home are getting to their places, but everyone else is staying put until tomorrow. Interesting day for sure. And it is still snowing at 2:30 (started at about midnight last night). So we're probably just going to go out with president Romero again to shovel driveways. I think snow is getting a little old. Haha, but it is all still good.

Things are good! I guess it was a good opportunity to get a nice email out to you. I am looking forward to another good six weeks here in good ol' Newburgh! Thanks for the love and support!

-Elder Griffiths