Muy buena semana!

June 12, 2013

Pretty good week!  Fairly eventful week!  Kind of a wet week too, but the work goes on!

To start out- the game was great!  In all honesty though, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the game- I just socialized the whole time.  [Former Elder] Neils Topham (my trainer) showed up (his mom works for Jet Blue so he travels for free) so I had a good time chatting with him!  I also got to talk to a bunch of people who were shipped up state that I hadn't seen for months, so that was sweet!  The other missionaries in the mission are so great and there's so much to learn from them.  Seriously- we've got over 200 missionaries about 20 years old each, so that's about 4000 years of life experience- about 2/3 of the time people have been living life on Earth, right?  Haha but anyways, I think it's always good to take advantage of social situations, get to know people and try to learn as much as you can from them.  Anyways, that was great!  Even greater was just living about six blocks away so that we didn't have to have a crazy routine.

The rain this week was sweet!  We dropped by a farewell of a guy who is leaving to go serve a mission in Brazil on Friday and came back and almost got blown away- it was sweet!  I'm figuring out how to work the umbrella so that it doesn't get totally destroyed.  Saturday I went an exchange with Elder Picoli from Brazil- he's great!  He serves in the English ward and so being able to testify and preach in English is always a good confidence boost- haha.  Sunday was pretty good- I had a realization of how great the ward is!  There are so many good and loving people and I was just able to especially feel their love that Sunday so that was a great blessing.  Monday was district meeting and then we had a couple of appointments after that.  I then went on an exchange with Elder Critchfield starting Monday night.  We had a pretty good day together- Yankee Stadium is in his area, though, and the Ireland national soccer team was facing the Spain national soccer team in Yankee stadium, so we spent some time people watching as we waited for a member to go to a lesson.  I felt like I was in Harry Potter seeing national the fans from two different national teams coming together- it was great!  Today we're going down to Manhattan- going to China Town, the World Trade Center Memorial, Financial District and Battery Park, and then to Grand Central- should be sweet!  The camera is charged up and ready to go.

This week has been great!  I feel truly happy.  I know that happiness comes as we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Maybe things aren't always easy going, but living the gospel was never meant to be convenient.  The highs are high out here and I'm so grateful to be a part of the work.  Thanks for all of the prayers and support- I hope you have a wonderful week!

-Elder Griffiths

Béisbol alguien?

Hello!

One sixth of the way through the cycle- getting there!  Haha sooner than we know it it'll be over because that's just how things work out here.  But yeah we've got to get to Yankee Stadium soon for the game, so I won't be able to write a ton, so forgive me!

This was pretty good!  We've been blessed to see progress with the people with which we're working.  Missionaries found Yohanna a little over a year ago- she's been going on and off with the missionaries since.  We've had a couple of good lessons with her in the past few weeks to the point where she has a baptismal date now.  She came to church last Sunday for the first time and although she's going through some hard times, she is noticing the blessings that are coming from living the gospel.  We're excited to keep going forward with her, and come July 13th she should be ready to enter into the waters of baptism and work on be well on her way to sanctification as she applies the gospel of Jesus Christ in her life.  We've seen some other great progress with others too- Ilka and Keni who are preparing for baptism in September and then Juana, the sister of a recent convert that we started teaching about a week and a half ago.  Things are going great!

I'm learning a lot about gratitude.  When we have an attitude of gratitude, things just go well.  I've noticed that I'm happier when I'm focusing on the things that Heavenly Father has given me.  Those things aren't too hard to find so just look for them!  I'm grateful for the success that the Lord has blessed us with, for the opportunity to serve a mission, for the trials that help me to grow and for many other things!  Count your many blessings!

Thanks for everything!  Sorry this is a little shorter- hopefully next week will be better.  I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Pictures!

Zone activity- played wiffle ball and soccer at the park in front of Yankee Stadium 

(where we sometimes go to work out in the mornings)

Caught outside without an umbrella...

Beethoven dog with a mohawk thing walking down Broadway

Elder Stevens and Elder Orellana!  I lived with them my first three cycles.  

Elder Stevens is home and Elder Orellana moved to my zone this cycle

My apartment last cycle- good guys!  Elder Jensen, Elder Richards, Elder Longmore, me

Found this when i walked into our pad- two of the best temples!

breaking out the Manhattan map is always good

Upper westside- good stuff!

Elder Martinez and I at Time Square today!  

He had been waiting for this day for five weeks... haha

Birthday party for Elder Richards and Sister Skinner (she's in our district) at la familia Tifa

Elder Richards in the car behind us on the Subway

Me Quedo!

Buenas Tardes!

Another week passed.  Next week we'll be going to the Yankees game- that's going to be sweet!  Look for us on TV because the whole mission is allowed to go and we are probably going to be sitting all together, so that certainly would be of interest for the cameras.

Anyways, transfers came, and...  Still here in the Bronx!  With Elder Martinez!  I'm going to get to finish training him.  Elder Richards, one of my roommates went up to Danbury, CT, so Elder Jensen got a new companion strait from the MTC.  I'm super old compared to the other Elders in the district, so that's going to be interesting.  But this cycle is going to be great- we've got some good things going on with the people that we're working on.  We went into a lesson last Saturday intending to possibly drop somebody, but we came out with a baptismal date and three firm appointments a week, so it's interesting to see how the Lord sometimes guides us like that!  We also had a family of less actives that hadn't come to the church in years come!  They want to go to the temple and the boy who is twelve wants to get baptized, so we're going to get them going to church stably before we work with him.  The referrals from the Bishop are progressing well too, so this cycle is going to be sweet!  I know that the Lord has been blessing us with this success as we've really been trying to be obedient and be diligent.  Our will is really the only thing that we have that the Lord cannot take away, so when we give that to Him, He blesses us greatly in exchange.

This cycle I'm really going to work on further giving myself to the Lord.  I know that as we drop our pride, pretty much all of our problems go away.  We can always be more humble, and I believe that until we're perfect, there's always more that we're hanging on that we can give up to the Lord.  I also know that the people around us are children of God with great potential.  We can always learn from those around us, and so I'm working on being able to see, focus on and then learn from the good of those around me.  I know that as we do that, we demonstrate a desire to learn and we also are given the opportunity to lift up those around us.  Even just in my apartment, between the four of us, we've got almost eighty years of life experience from which we can all benefit.  If we can put our pride aside, our worries about the way others perceive us, and we just seek to glorify God in all things, we are sanctified, purified and are able to come closer to Christ.  God is so great and I'm humbled knowing that He loves me enough to bless me with others to help me.  I'm looking forward to a great cycle, filled with lots of learning, and I'll be sure to share little tidbits of the great things I'm learning with you guys!

I hope you have a great week coming up!  Thanks for everything!

-Elder Griffiths

La Santificacion... Mediante un Verano de Calor

Hello, hello!

Another week down, once more left in this cycle!  And things are heating up!  We had to take an extra long lunch to be able to put in the A/C units in the windows.  They're held up from the outside with cans of beans- hopefully that works out...  Haha but yep, it's hot and sticky and just barely getting started, so it should be a fun summer!

Check out lds.org!  The first picture that comes up is from our mission!  The black Elder is Elder Lartey, my current zone leader with whom I went on an exchange a couple weeks ago, the other is Elder Hutchins- Assistant who has a Braves hat, and Ryan, President Morgan's son.  Cool stuff!  In other news, there was a giant Despicable Me little yellow minion blimp flying around Yankee Stadium a couple nights ago- made me remember how much I love that movie.  And then today we made a trip down to Time Square/Midtown area.  We ate lunch in the first Steak and Shake, checked out the Toys R Us, and then went to THE Macy's (it's massive!).  Being able to do such things is great, but I'm almost kind of glad we have a limit because not only is it stressful (we woke up at 5:45 to get our cleaning down and stuff), but it's kind of overwhelming how worldly this place is.  Haha but it's all good.

Anyways, this week was great!  I went on two exchanges being with both of my roommates in their area (one of them is District Leader).  And they're both great!  I learned a lot and had an enjoyable experience.  Also this week, we had stake conference too.  Westchester Stake is such an interesting stake because you've got the poorest zip code in the nation down in the South Bronx, but then all the ritzy areas up in Scarsdale, White Plains and so on.  But it was a great, inspiring conference.

Other than that, not a ton has happened.  I've just been learning a lot, repenting, recommitting myself and then being blessed by an increase of the Holy Ghost.  Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and really realizing that you're doing that is so great.  That's really how we're going to become perfected in the long run, as we learn how to perfectly apply the Gospel in our lives.  Also, the word Sanctification has come up a lot in my studies.  The scripture Helaman 3:35 really hit a chord in me and I've been pondering it a lot. I've learned that as we fast and pray, we humble ourselves more and more. The idea that we can always be more humble has made me think a lot and helped me to do an inventory of myself. As we do that and increase our faith, we realize that we really need to turn our hearts over to God- to submit ourselves to him, and by doing that, we're sanctified or purified. According to Moroni 10:33, as we're sanctified, there aren't any powers on earth that can control us and that's such a nice thought! I know that as we give ourselves to God- everything- we can overcome the negative influences of the adversary and become more effective tools in the hands of God.  How cool is that?  The process of being humbles isn't always pleasant, and there's always opposition to any good things that we do, but the end result is worth the struggle. So keep on moving along!

Thanks for all the support!  I hope that you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Otra semana bien ...

Hello!

This week was another just a-okay week!  Nothing too exciting went down, I don't think.  We got together as a district a lot for various things, so we didn't do as much area specific work, but the week still flew and I know that Heavenly Father is guiding us.

I think I'm finally getting to the point where I can see some of the progress I've made.  In that I'm realizing that God does put us exactly where we need to be with the exact people with whom we need to be to give us the opportunities to grow closer to Him.  That's not just a mission thing- throughout life we're led to live in certain places, work with certain people, go to school to school with certain people, etc.  I know that's true and I know that as we accept that, we'll not only be worked into being more fine tuned instruments in the hands of the Lord, but the Lord will use us as instruments in His hands to help fine tune others as well.  Ammon and His brothers were really justified in glorying the Lord- I think I've been recently blessed with a taste of the joy they had, and it's great!  I hope to always try to be who the Lord would have me be and I would admonish the rest to do the same!  Where you are doesn't matter so much as to where you're going, so if there are any corrections that you need to make, do it!  And if not, keep going forward!

Thanks for all the support back home!  I hope you have a great upcoming week!

-Elder Griffiths

Aplicando La Doctrina de Cristo

Hello!

Halfway through the cycle already, eh?  Well May brought some nice showers for us today.  Walking to pick up some pictures with Elder Richards at CVS, I got soaked.  I didn't think it was going to be raining too bad but it got pretty bad while we were inside.  But yeah the weather is nice right now, so hopefully it doesn't get terribly hot too soon...

This past week wasn't terribly exciting.  We taught some lessons, but the people we're working with are either new or not progressing.  Tuesday was great, though!  It was kind of a double whammy of out pouring of the Spirit of the Lord.  I was on an exchange with Elder Lartey, one of the Zone Leaders and at the same time we had a Zone Conference.  Between talking to Elder Lartey throughout the day and taking everything in at the Zone Conference, I was spiritually exhausted (but teaching and doing everything in English was nice for a change).  One thing that President Morgan is emphasizing is the Doctrine of Christ, or essentially applying the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our lives.  As missionaries, we essentially are inviting and helping people to apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their lives as they develop faith in Christ, repent and change of their old ways to live in harmony of the teachings of Christ, are baptized and cleansed, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to help them to keep going forward and then help them to develop habits to always follow Christ until they're accepted into His kingdom.  As we teach that, we really need to be living that too.  We need to be studying, praying and going to church to receive revelation to increase our faith to the point that we want to change.  We then repent of the things we're doing wrong according to this greater light we've received.  We then recommit ourselves to following Christ as we renew our covenants with the Sacrament each week.  That's followed by the sanctification by the Holy Ghost, which leads us to more faith and light on how we can change, and the cycle keeps going.  Enduring to the end consists of constantly striving to make this cycle an active part of your life.  I believe a lot of times we kind of do it automatically, but as we take the time to consciously recognize it, we can even better apply it and gain a vision of how much the gospel really means to us.  President Morgan has encouraged us to better apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our lives so that we can teach with more conviction.  I know that as I've better understood it, I've been that much more grateful and happy and in a disposition to share it with others.  So check it out!  Read 2 Nephi 31 or 3 Nephi 27.  Learn, live, become!

Things are going well!  The mission is super humbling.  I've felt lower than dirt about four times in the past three weeks.  But with all the downs, come ups that make the downs look like nothing, so it's all worth it!  I know what I'm doing is what the Lord wants me to do and if anybody reading this is unsure about missionary service- do it!  You won't regret it.

I hope you all have a great week!  And happy Mothers Day coming up!  That should be good!

-Elder Griffiths

Mis Viajes a Upstate

Hello!

Already to May- crazy!  The flowers are starting to bloom and things are getting pretty (well for the sparse little bit brush that you find here in the city).  Short sleeves shirts are coming out more frequently and life is good!  Until it gets sweltering hot I guess.  Haha

Anyways, after having only left New York City once in the past six months, I actually had the opportunity to leave it twice in the past week!  Thursday we got to ride the Metro North train up to New Rochelle (just barely outside of the city and still very Bronx-ish where we were) for a meeting for the trainers and new missionaries.  Afterwards, we still had to do weekly planning, so that pretty much killed the rest of our day, but it was a great and insightful training, so definitely worth it!  Friday was a kind of rough day- we had three different people just kind of drop bombs on us and kind of tell us that things had changed and they didn't want to keep going forward much.  It was tough, but somehow the Lord blessed me to have a good attitude and so I was actually very happy after all of that.  It's hard to describe, but I know that as we're grateful for what the Lord has given us, we see that our blessings are so much more joyous than any sort of trial or hardship.  Saturday- leaving the city part II!  We actually left the city big time- rode the Metro North up to Scarsdale where we rode up with missionaries working in Westchester county up to Camp Lehi in Poughkipsy, up in the Northern most stake in our mission.  It reminded me a lot of the beautiful rolling hills of North Georgia covered in trees.  We went up there to do service- clear up some brush and prepare the camp for the summer.  It was fun, good to hang out with other missionaries and do service, and good to see something else other than the city.  I love the city, but seeing trees and stuff was so great!  Afterwards we had a couple of lessons that fell through, but it was still a great day!  Sunday was good- church followed by a couple of lessons.  Monday- district meeting followed by some good lessons.  Yesterday- kind of a weird day- I can't even describe how, but yeah we just had a few lessons that we're fine and dandy.  We did start working with a referral from a members last night- went over talked to them for a little while and gave them blessings.  We've been talking a lot recently about a talk that President Uchtdorf gave in the April 2011 conference about living up to our privileges and living up to the privileges of having the priesthood available to us by giving and receiving more blessings.  I love priesthood blessings so I'm always game to receive more, and it makes sense- we should take advantage of that power to help us have more patience, more charity, rid ourselves of negative thoughts and such.

One thing that President has been stressing ever since I got here is that we as missionaries teach true doctrine.  He pointed out the fact that a lot of times missionaries come in and are disappointed that they aren't teaching as much as they would have liked.  He explained, however, that we're always teaching and show we should take advantage of that!  We should always set a good example, always speak of goodly things and always realize that our words and actions are always influincing somebody.  As we choose to be more like Christ all the time, we help others to be more like Christ whether we know it or not.  So be an example!  Stick true to the principles that are true live them and teach them to others by simply being good.

Thanks for the support!  I look forward to calling home soon- I'll let you know more about the details with that next week.  But yep, have a good week!

-Elder Griffiths

Hello all!

Today we had the great opportunity to go through the temple- I love the temple!  Not many other places on the Earth that can get you feeling like the temple does.  It's just a good source of tranquility centered in the middle of a bustling city of eight million!  Now we're writing emails home in one of the Apple stores that's pretty close to the temple- one of those cool glass box deals.  So yep!

Anywhoo, this week was pretty good!  Elder Martinez is quite the character.  He speaks English pretty well, but not quite fluently so that's been kind of a challenge trying to develop a good relationship with the semi-language barrier.  But he's a funny guy with a good testimony, so we're just going forward with the work in the South Bronx!  Instead of talking about each day, I think there were just a couple good experiences that I'll share.  First of all, we had a good lesson with an investigator named Yohanna that I only saw once last cycle (people can be kind of flaky here...).  We really just tried to understand her more, ask her questions about her expectations with us and then use the principles of the Gospel to resolve her concerns.  We were able to help her understand how the gospel will help her and now she's excited to have us meet with her more often and wants to come to church for sure this Sunday!  I know as we take the time to listen to people and really strive to care about them, the Savior leads us to be able to offer our testimonies and words of comfort to help others move forward.  Another experience was with Grace who has been working with missionaries since like November or something.  She's had a lot of health problems and emotional problems that have impeded her from progressing as would be preferred, but after some bold promises of healing and other things, she came to church for the third time and she loved it!  Things went well and now she has a testimony of not only Jesus Christ and The Book of Mormon, but of the church as well, so that was sweet!  She now wants to get baptized "pronto" so May 4th is the goal!  I know that as we're patient when things don't seem to be going well, when we're not getting the answers we're wanting, that God blesses us for our faithfulness.  She now gets to enjoy the eternal blessings that come from baptism and the companionship of the Holy Ghost and it's exciting!  I've loved working with her and am looking forward to seeing yet even more blessings come into her life!

So yep things are going well!  I had some humbling experiences this week that have helped me to be able to better have an eternal perspective.  Getting caught up in the day to day things and stressing out when things aren't going as well as they could be going is pretty easy and natural.  Sometimes it can be a pavilion, though, and make us lose sight of the things that matter.  When we really come to know who we are and where we're going- children of God with a divine inheritance- we can develop the hope to keep going through life even when things aren't perfect.  Which is all the time, right?  But yeah it's like being in a race, knowing you're going to win it all, but wanting to quit because you have a rough stumble.  I know that as we develop an eternal perspective, we'll better do the things today that will get us to that hopeful tomorrow.

Thanks for the support back home!  I love hearing about all the mission calls and how everybody is going!  Keep on going strong and have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Di A Luz...

Rafael!  Baptized at the Ripe Age of 77!

Hello!

Starting a new transfer- crazy!  But yep, as you were notified I will in fact be training this cycle!  I'll be training Elder Martinez and I'm excited!  He is from Puerto Rico, born and raised.  I'm a little nervous having this responsibility and getting used to a new companion is always a little different, but I know that the Lord will guide us to do what we need to do.

This week went by well!  We don't have a ton of time to write, but things went well this past week.  Friday I went to the trainers meeting and they pretty much just said to always seek to have the spirit, before everything else in your companionship, love your companion and always teach true doctrine.  Saturday was the baptism!  It all went well!  Rafael was super excited to get baptized!  I'll try to send a picture.  Sunday went well, but I was a little sick, so we stayed in after church and just got relaxed and got things ready for Elder Martinez.  Monday we had a zone potluck and then some lessons afterwards.  Tuesday Elder Longmore spent a little time packing and then we taught some more lessons.  Nothing too exciting!  But here we are on Wednesday.  We're going to do the essentials- go shopping, get stuff set up and then go to work!  He seems to be pretty excited about getting work, so hopefully we'll use that fire to pump up this area even more.

My mind is running blank right now- lots of stuff going on, but I'll try to make next week's letter great to make up for this week!  Thanks for everything!

-Elder Griffiths