Hello all!
This week has been great! Seems like it always is, so sorry if that gets a little old hearing that. It seems like this week hasn't been terribly eventful, so we will see what I can come up with to tell you about...
First off, this past week has been tough physically for me,for whatever reason. Seems like I started off last week with a couple of not full nights of sleep, so that knocked me down for the next couple of days. I feel like I have recovered now, but sometimes those administrating duties can get in the way of getting to bed on time. And lack of sleep just seems to hit you doubly time out here. But whatever the trial may be, it helps you to learn and grow. So hopefully now when I am going through grad school, trying to support a family and all of that, running on a far less than full tank will be a little easier! Haha - I won't think too much into that now.
So on Saturday, I was on an exchange with Elder Meek. We came out together and will go home together, so it was cool being with somebody at the same point as I am. He is still pumped for the rest of the mission, so that helped me to get pumped. I learned a couple of good things from him. First off, we were walking around just talking, and out of curiosity, I asked him what he did to get through harder days. He took me back by what he said- he said that when a general authority came and visited the mission last year, he said that if we are doing everything right, we won't have bad days. At first that put me off and I was thinking that wasn't true because trials come whether we are doing good or not. As I thought on it, though, if we were perfect like God, we wouldn't have bad days indeed! Even if bad things happened, we could handle them perfectly, and know that things will be okay. When we have a bad day, it is just a reminder that we are human and not perfect, so we should look for those ways to improve. I am trying to better apply that principle now. The other learning opportunity happened as we were at our dinner appointment. It was with a part member family- the kids are all baptized, but the mom and dad aren't married, so they can't get baptized now. We told the story of the rich young man as found in Luke 18:18-23,27 and talked about how we need to give things up to follow Christ, even if we don't want to. We were hoping to focus it in on the mom to encourage her to keep trying to get married to her "marido" that doesn't want to get married to her. A different need came out, however, as we talked. The son, Christian, didn't see the point of seminary. After doing a little digging, it turns out that he just doesn't like missing out on sleep, and at that point I was on the same page with him, feeling lack of sleep. As we talked it out, we were filled with the spirit, and I learned something big- those are the best lessons. We talked about how when we go to seminary we make a short term sacrifice of sleep in order to get something more long term, like a good knowledge of the scriptures and how to study them. When we choose to give up those long term things, for short term pleasures, like sleep, we put ourselves in a position to be regretful. On the other hand, as I thought about it, the sleep that I lost to go to seminary is not affecting me where I am now, but what I learned in seminary has blessed and will continue to bless my life. I don't regret losing that sleep, but I would have regretted not having what I did gain from seminary. The gospel is often times about giving up what we want now for what will help us in the future. We need to keep in mind when we act whether we are sacrificing the long term objective or short term objective. We should always shoot for the stars! Elder Meek is great and I enjoyed being with him.
Yesterday I went on an exchange with Elder Christensen. He is a new missionary, came out two weeks ago, and we live with him. He is from Fort Collins, CO, which is north of Denver. He is great! He is a little bit older, so I just tried to feed off of his knowledge. We talked a lot about how the mission isn't just for the mission, how the things we are learning out here are for real life too. If we work on something to get it down just to be a better missionary, then that will only be of value to us, to those around us and to The Lord for the short time we are in the field. For a train ride up in to the top part of our area (everything fell through so we hit up some less active look-ups in the most inconvenient to get to part of our area- I love less active look ups. We found out a lot of good stuff, so it was productive too!). We talked to a couple of people, but spent a good chunk of time talking to one another about family. It helped me to better plan on how I want to interact with my family, based on experiences with my fellow district members and zone members. Leading is an interesting thing because you have to lead a group of individuals. You have to fulfill the needs of the group as a whole, and at the same time help out those individuals. Two things I plan to do is spend time with the family as a whole and spend time with each member individually. Love is often spelled t-i-m-e, and as we spend time on and with those that we love, we can demonstrate that love. Family home evening is great because not because you learn and apply profound doctrine, but because you spend time together, which increases trust within a relationship. I hope to take other times, even spontaneous times to spend with the entire family. At the same time, I hope to start from the get go with little one on one outings that let me know how each individual is doing, kind of like an exchange out here on the mission. You have a good time with them, you get to know them and you offer up your help how you can. I love that. And notes of appreciation to other missionaries help not only them, but almost more so me. I hope to keep that up. I plan to write a nice letter to me, five years down the road, talking about that, how to be a good member missionary and so on, because I feel like I have learned a lot that I won't be able to apply right off the bat. But yeah it was a good exchange, I love Elder Christensen and am looking forward to more time with him! I also realized that there isn't a single person that I have gotten to know on a deeper level that I haven't just thought was awesome. That is why Christ loves us so much because He knows us! If we have a hard time with anybody, we should do what we can to get to know them.
It was a good week! Lots of other good things happened. We had a dinner at the Johnson's house. He is from Jamaica, she is from Costa Rica and they are one of my favorite families. They make super good food- the best macaroni and cheese around! Her mom was there- she is not a member and does not speak English, so I talked with Elder Kia and decided to translate the lesson for her rather than participate in the lesson. It was sweet- she really enjoyed it and the spirit was there strong and my Spanish is still there.
I can't think of any other things that happened at this point, but the mission is still great! We are going to the beach today on the east half of the Bronx in just a little bit- that will be interesting.
Anyways, I appreciate the support and love from back home! Keep praying for me, I need all the support I can get! Have a great week!
-Elder Griffiths
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