I < 3 BX

Hello Everybody!

This past week was awesome! Being back here in he Bronx is awesome! I am in a little bit of a different part- I'm in the central northern part- but it is still the Bronx and I really love it. There are so many people to talk to, there are lots of crazy people, and lots of Dominicans. It will take a concentrated effort to forget Spanish because there are so many Spanish speakers around. At the same time, I am being exposed to a lot of Africans- that is new. I have met people from the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Congo and probably some other places. They actually speak French in many of those places and so Elder Davidson and I are going to try to pick up some French- we'll see how that goes! And Elder Davidson is great! He is a solid missionary with a lot of great experience and really good relationships with the ward members. He is from American Fork, Utah and we will actually go home together. He is awesome and I am looking forward to a sweet cycle!

I don't think I have ever been happier! And that is even with all the physical hardships of adjusting and leaving and getting used to things, so good things are coming. I am adjusting to walking everywhere again, and getting used to everything else that comes with the life style here. I can't wait to see how I am feeling when I am into the groove of things and when I am comfortable with all the other missionaries and ward members. Speaking English to them does make it easier to develop relationship (although some of those Jamaican and African accents can be a little tough to understand).

So a couple of cool things. First off, the recent convert in our area Doreatha, got introduced to the church in what ward? The Lawrenceville ward! Dorian is indeed her daughter and she says that she is going to be going and visiting her in May, so maybe we can work it out so that you guys can make some ribs the day she leaves so that I can get them fresh- haha. Anyways, we visit her a couple times a week, so I am looking forward to bonding over Lawrenceville. Cool to see those connections. Another sweet thing- being here in the same zone that I was in before, there are some people with which I have a great relationship, and that might come in handy. For example, last night we went over to Liliana's house, a member in concourse, with the sisters that cover her. She went through a rough patch in the past little while since I had been there, got offended and completely stopped going to church. She stopped meeting with the missionaries too. I messaged her on Facebook to see if we could come, and she said for sure! So we went and they were there and we had a good time, but a good bold lesson letting them know that the sisters would be helping her and her family get back to church in time. She set up a return appointment with the sister, exchanged Facebook names/contact info and started off what should be a great relationship. I am grateful to be able to be an instrument in that way and I look forward to having other possible opportunities to do the same. The Bronx is great!

I love being here and am looking to go out with a bang! I am excited to give you a good report next week. Thanks for keeping me updated! Have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

P.S. Went to the temple today- it was sweet! Time flies when you go to the temple. But that's okay!

Happy Endings. And Yes, This is English

Good morning!

Transfers have come indeed! It was bitter sweet to get a call Saturday night saying that I would be moving. It was inevitable- I knew I was going sooner or later. But I am super excited with where I am going. I am going... Back to the Bronx! Same zone- Kingsbridge! I am actually going to be serving in the English ward there, in the English program (I already ordered my English tags). I am excited to experience the full-on culture of the English program and be able to preach the gospel in my native language. I have been on a few exchanges in the English program and I have always enjoyed it, so this will be good. I won't forget my Spanish, however, because in the zone I am going to, two of the three districts are Spanish speaking, assigned to the two Spanish speaking wards out of the three in the zone, and so that makes for about eighteen Spanish speaking missionaries out of the twenty eight missionaries there, not to mention the high population of Spanish speakers that live in the Bronx. I feel like I am going to get the best of both worlds. And we all meet in the same building, which means I will get to see all of my favorite people from my last area in the Concourse ward practically every Sunday. My area covers the central north part of the Bronx, so it will be interesting to see the different dynamics here. I have actually been on two or three exchanges in that area and so I already know a couple people.  President Morgan said I am likely to finish there- that is weird to hear. Anyways, I am nothing but excited about going there!

These past few days have been tough- packing is dumb and saying goodbye to people is dumb. I normally wouldn't suggest going to out of your way to say goodbye as a missionary, but I have felt that I am going to maintain a lot of these relationships that I have made after the mission, so I've taken a little bit of time to stop by and say "see ya" to some members. Feeling their love has been great.  As I have tried to love these people, Heavenly Father has graciously used me as an instrument in His hands to help these people out, and for that I have receive a ton of love back. That has filled me up with joy and I am so grateful for that. At the same time, I really haven't been too sad, surprisingly. I know that this isn't the end of my relationship with these people, and I feel like I will have the opportunity to see them again, at the very least on the other side. I love this area and the people here. I am excited to hear about things here in the future because I know that great things are to come for the people here in Zionburgh!

So yep, I'll be let you know how things start out back in Kingsbridge.

Today will be a crazy day full to traveling and unpacking and all that hooplah (transitions aren't the most fun :T), but I am looking forward to hitting the ground running. I know that anytime we have transfers and changes come about, it is revelation at play. I know that Heavenly Father has work specifically for me to do down in the Bronx and I am excited. I know He lives and directs His work, and I am so grateful for that.

Thanks for the support and love! I hope you have a great upcoming week!

-Elder Griffiths

Gaviotas y Tavos

Hello All!

What a great week!  Seems like I have just had some profound experiences, or at least had some experiences that have made me feel profound.  On an un-profound note, though, I love to drive to the church and see two things- first, on a lake that has been frozen since December, sometimes there are seagulls that just stand out there.  I don't know why but I think it is super funny just to see them out there standing on the frozen lake doing nothing.  Second, there is a tree that hangs over the road, and for about the past month, there have been about five to ten turkeys sitting up in it.  They're just big brown blobs chilling, about thirty feet up there or so.  I got some pictures of them, and so at some point or another you will see them.  Anyways...

The work is going great!  We've got a good teaching pool that keeps us busy. We don't have any super solid progressing investigators, but there are some with potential.  Less active work is where it is at, though.  We had eleven less actives at church, and we had forty one at church from our entire district- we heard once that the mission reported eighty less actives at church in one week, so we have been blessed with a great deal of success here in this half of Orange County.  Our branch has a convert baptism this weekend and then the Newburgh English Ward has a convert baptism too- an ASL guy.  I get to interview him, so we'll see just how good my ASL is now... Actually Elder Davenport, the ASL missionary, will be translating for me.  But yep, great things are happening!  We'll see in just a couple of days if it has been going well enough to get another set of missionaries here in the branch!

So I think I have three experiences I want to share.  First off, rather than an experience, I want to share a story from an Ensign article that has touched me pretty good.  It illustrates consecration at it's finest.  So here it is...

"We also learned a beautiful lesson about consecration from one of the assistants to the president in our mission. A decision had been made that one of our missionaries needed to be sent home early from his mission. He had been disobedient on several occasions despite counseling, contracts, and repeated warnings. The airplane ticket had been purchased, and the appropriate approvals were obtained from the South America South Area Presidency and the Missionary Department to send this missionary home.

"When the assistants brought the missionary in for his final interview, he protested loudly and tearfully that he did not want to go home. He promised to improve and said he would sign yet another contract. In desperation, President Oveson called the two assistants and Sister Oveson into his office and asked the elder to wait outside while the possible courses of action were discussed. Sister Oveson, somewhat out of patience with the situation, believed that sending him home was the only reasonable thing to do. “If he is allowed to stay,” she maintained, “the other missionaries might think that obedience is not important.”
"One of the assistants said, “I have to agree with Hermana Oveson. I don’t think we really have a choice.”
"When President Oveson asked the other assistant for his opinion, the assistant said, “I see much good in this elder. President, if you will let me go back out into the field, I will take him for my companion for the rest of my mission. I will take responsibility for him and help him to become a loving and obedient missionary.”

We all had tears in our eyes by the time this elder finished his remarks. We could not believe that anyone could be so loving and caring, especially a 20-year-old missionary. The decision was made to do as he requested. He found it exceedingly difficult at first, but slowly his junior companion learned a great deal from him and became a trustworthy missionary. When the senior companion went home, his companion stayed to finish his mission, becoming in time a senior companion and a trainer before he was honorably released. The follow-up to this true experience is that this once-wayward elder has since married and been sealed in the temple. He and his wife now have a son. They are active in the Church and are helping to build the kingdom. What a difference a consecrated, Christlike person made in the life of this missionary and his future family!"
-Elder Oveson (here's a link to that talk- check it out! https://www.lds.org/ensign/2005/09/personal-consecration?lang=eng )

Maybe I am better able to relate to that story being a missionary, but I like to think about Christ being looking down at me and saying something similar, that He would be willing to come down from His high position and suffer through tough times to be able to help me out. Because of His suffering, patience and consecrated life, I am blessed with the hope of eternal life, as is everybody else.  I know that as we try to give up our wills in pursuit of doing what God wants, not only will we be blessed, but those around us will as well.

Second, I had an opportunity to minister and it taught me a lot.  A district member approached me and wanted to talk to me.  I took advantage of a car ride down to Highland Falls to do a district APF.  He told me that some serious things were going on at home, things that he feared to the point that he almost didn't go on a mission.  I didn't know what to say to Him but God knew what He needed to hear, and so He directed our conversation.  I was filled with love for this Elder and learned a lot about how it feels to be Christ, ministering to somebody in a deeper way than normal.  I know that God gives us opportunities like that to help us to be more like Christ.  I am grateful for that and I hope to always be able to minister to others.

Third, last night we went out with the Galo's (they're pretty much like my family out here) to visit some people.  Our first appointment fell through and then after that we called like five or six people (back up and primary plans for pretty much the whole day) and not one of them even answered.  Sister Galo then threw out a name of a less active that I had never met (which there aren't too many of those here nowadays) and she gave her a call and she said "Come on over!"  We went and had a great experience!  They lit up as we talked about the power of the atonement in helping them with their problems.  They loved that and she, Gloria, is planning on coming to church this Sunday.  Seeing God work like that is the best!  The fact that we had a full night planned out but then shot down everything in five minutes was awesome because then we just went to where we needed to be, to somebody that really needed us.  We're going to be moving forward with Gloria and Agustin.

Things are great!  We'll see if I can get another cycle here- shock calls come Saturday.  I feel like it could go either way at this point, surprisingly. I'm loving things and have a good time.  Thanks for all of the support and love- hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Consagración: el segundo golpe

Aloha!

I guess I say that because I just went on an exchange with Elder Reid Monday- he is from Hawai'i. That was a lot of fun- he has a good fun spirit so it makes for a enjoyable time. Anyways this past week was awesome. Lots of great things happened.

Friday was great- zone conference. Seems like the last few zone conferences/zone meetings, etc. have all been about the iPads, Facebook and online proselyting but this one was just a good spiritual slap. We talked about consecration and got repumped about it. I know that was good for me. I think being up here with the same companion has led me to get into some of the same routines and I have been a little stagnant in some senses. Nothing too bad, but is was a good kick to get me going again. We immediately saw the results of consecrating out all to the Lord's service as Saturday was one of the best days. We had our first lesson at 10:30 am and we were busy the whole day. We picked up five new investigators, had a couple that went inactive about five or six months ago because they got offended call us and tell us that they had read a scripture that made them want to come to church again, got a referral for, a lesson done on Facebook chat, had the nonmember husband of one our members show up at the restaurant at which we were eating and buy our food, and a great dinner at Paul's after doing service with him. Sunday was great too- the inactives mentioned  above were there at church as well as another inactive family that hasn't come to church in years that we have been working with since July. Sunday always fills me up- seeing all the members that I love so much and feeling their love for me and then adding the Savior's love on to that is awesome! Afterwards we took the sacrament to some people that couldn't go to church. Had a couple visits with other people and them ended the night. We ended the week with forty seven lessons as an apartment (or as the missionaries in our branch). Last year a good week was about seventeen so once again the work keeps going forward. We are just trying to set things up to where we get sisters in that cover outside the city of Newburgh and then us elders cover the city. We feel like we could do well with that, but we'll see what president says. The work just keeps going forward!

Today we had a zone activity where we went up to Monticello (the boondocks basically) and just made a fire, roasted marshmallows, hot dogs and ice fished. We actually set up the fire on the lake so that was unique. Anyway, didn't leave me with much time to write, but maybe next week will be better. Hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

February 26 Pictures!A

LOTS of SNOW!!!

Another great visit to the Manhattan Temple

Youth trip to Manhattan for baptisms!

Yolanda's baptism!

Buenos Acontecimientos

February 26, 2014

Hello all!

This past week has been great! Lots of good things going on. I'll just hit some of the highlights.

Friday I was on an exchange with Elder Davenport. He is the ASL Elder in our district that is teaching us how to sign. We didn't have any ASL lessons, but we still signed to each other a little bit. Anyways, we were at the church and they were setting up for a stake valentine's day activity. Some people didn't show up to help, so we jumped in to help. Some stuff fell through allowing us to stay a little longer and help. I know that Heavenly Father put us there to help out because we were needed. We were invited to come back to the activity and get some food if we wanted to. Our dinner fell through, so that worked out perfectly- we had some good food there at the activity! And there were a bunch of deaf people there, and so I got approval for a sign name from them (you have tog et approval from them to make sure it is something that isn't ridiculous I guess). So now others can refer to me without finger spelling- good stuff.

Saturday was sweet- we were at the church for like nine hours, setting up for the baptism, cleaning, and doing other little things here and there. While cleaning, I actually ran into a sister from my MTC district, Hermana Eberle! Her boyfriend lives in Poughkeepsie and she was over there, and so she came and helped out. We had a good time chatting and took a picture. That was a good tender mercy. Anyways the baptism was awesome! She got there like forty five minutes late, but it still happened, so that is the important thing.

Tuesday, our dinner fell through so we went to a pizza joint in New Windsor that we go to from time to time. The owners are Salvatore and Lina, from Sicily, Italy. Salvatore wasn't there, but Lina was.  Recently I started up again studying Italian as I exercise and so I talked with Lina in Italian. I was able to understand decently well and talk back- nothing too in-depth, but still it was cool! I feel like I would love a career where I get to interact and talk to people that come from different cultures, especially if it requires me to learn another language. I think I'm going to continue to work on ASL and Italian and them maybe sit in on some classes at BYU to pick them up more. We'll see! But yeah that was a cool experience that helped me to learn more about myself.

We had a good night last night. We planned to go out with George- cool story with him- about a month ago, we had parked in an apartment complex to go do a look-up. We were saying a prayer and we looked up to find a man and a women outside our car. He introduced himself as George and the woman as Lucy. They are from Guatemala. George moved here recently and didn't know where the church was, so we gave him the info and got his information. It was cool to see how God out us in His path and how we found one another. So yeah he was going to go out with us but then the person we were going to juked us, so we went back and taught George and Lucy. It was a good lesson!

So yeah things are great! It was a good week. Tomorrow we have zone conference. Things are looking good! Thanks for the love and support!  Hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths