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
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