Wednesday, June 4, 2014

J'ai Parlé France dans le Autobus

May 27, 2014

Hello!

Another good week! We had a baptism- Garren. He was excited to be baptized- it took a little to get him under. The water went down a good bit after we had filled it, he is a big guy and he is afraid of water. But Elder Kia was able to get him under finally. It was a good service, and a man named Steve Jackson was baptized too. We were walking home with our roommates from the church one night and some guy said "Hey Mormons!" We stopped and talked to Steve who turned out to be somebody who was meeting with the missionaries in Toledo, Ohio and had been taught everything. Our roommates, Elder Schneider and Elder Johanson, took in teaching them, and they got him baptized in a week and a half pretty much. It was one of those sweet miracle baptisms! So the work is good!

So here are the cool French experiences for this week! One of my plans, and kind of a goal within itself, was to hand out two French copies of The Book of Mormon this month. This past week I had the opportunity to do that- we were coming home from a dinner appointment with a member that speaks French from Togo. On the train, a couple of guys hopped on and started speaking French themselves, so I spoke a little French and a little more English and gave them Le Livre de Mormon with our number in it. Unfortunately they hopped off before I could grab their contact information, but they seemed touched. It is cool being able to see how goals make us better instruments in God's hands. On Saturday, I had another experience, where we were heading to a dinner appointment, and Elder Kia started talking to a lady from France. I then talked to her almost the whole ride there, throwing out what I could about Joseph Smith in French, and filling in the gaps in English. After she got off, I talked to a lady that had approached us before getting on the bus who was a member from the Olmstead ward, so I spoke in Spanish. I found out that she found the church in Italy, so I started speaking Italian to her and I hung in there pretty well! God has blessed me with the gift of tongues and as I have sought to use it to help others come closer to Christ, it has grown. I was able to speak four languages on a single bus ride- that's pretty cool and it is great evidence that God is involved in this work because I couldn't do it without Him. Those things get me pumped!

This week, I have also been grateful for the opportunity to minister to others. It seems like when I am down, the best way to get up is to lift someone else up. When others are going through a hard time, I think just taking time to listen to them, but not push them to talk, let them talk to you. Trying to relate to them, helps too, and then just following the Spirit for words of comfort. Looking for opportunities to serve in little ways are good too. I love that about being a leader, being able to be more involved in ministering to others. It is great!

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers! You are awesome and I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

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