February Pictures

The Harlem Chapel

View from the balcony after the big snow a couple weeks ago.

With Eric - he goes out with as all the time and he's a "
boss"!

UN General Assembly Room

Elder Griffiths -- calling the UN General Assembly to Order from the pulpit!

UN Security Council Room view 1

UN Security Council room view 2

Flautas, Comida de Los Cielos

Buenas Tardes!

Not a lot has been going on lately... Don't know what the deal is- maybe things are just getting routine-ish.

Last week after writing you, we went to the temple and that was great!  I love the Manhattan Temple- it's beautiful all around.  And the temple is just great all in all.  Afterwards we went shopping at Century 21 (sweet clothing shop- like Marshall's but 20x better).  I got a new tie and some presents that I'll be sending home soon.  Hopefully...

Can't remember much from Thursday.

Friday was a good though- we went to a our first appointment with a guy that we knocked into and committed him to baptism!  He's ready to change his life and we're excited to continue to share our message with him to help him do such.  We also had some good experiences with an "Area Proselyte Focus"  where everybody in our zone went knocking for a set of English missionaries in the Zone.  We talked to some people and taught the ten points of "How to Begin Teaching" (in chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel) to a lady and it was good.  She almost committed to baptism too.  We're being kind of bold in inviting people right away because that's really what it's all about- baptism, and using that as a step be able to fully access the Atonement.  That night we taught English Class and it was great!  I love teaching English class and I really love our students.

Saturday was great- got to teach English Class again and then we got to go eat at one of my favorite member's houses.  We had flautas- probably my favorite food I've had.  If you ever get the opportunity to have flautas, take it because they're the best!  Nothing terribly exciting happened after that.

Sundays are pretty draining- lots of time spent at the church and that's about it.  We had a couple of appointments after and that was about it.

Monday we had interviews and those were good.  It was the first time getting to do that since coming from the mission home.  President Morgan is great and he gave some good advice.  Afterwards we had a couple good appointments.

Tuesday we had service- working at an old folks home where everybody speaks Spanish, had a couple appointments and then English Class.  That was about it.

Today we did our normal preparation day chores, then we went to the United Nations!  Kind of crazy, but yeah there's a member in our ward that works there so he gave us a good inside tour of the place.  I'll send some pictures.  It was really inspiring though seeing where the world comes together to try to make sure things aren't crazy.  I would love to have a career that allows me to interact with people from all over the world.

Random note- there's an Alex Bermudez who works with the Young Men in our ward that served in Grayson and Collins Hill- he remembers eating at the Gregerson's and a lot of the other Grayson Ward people and so he says "Hey!"  It was good reminicing over good ol' Georgia.

So that was my week!  We've got transfers in a week, so we'll see what goes down!  Things are going well (and we've got a good Mexican dinner tonight, so even better!), and I'm looking forward to the upcoming week.  Thanks for all the support back home- I hope you have a great upcoming week!

-Elder Griffiths

Busquen el Bien

Hello!

We've got only two weeks left in the cycle- crazy!  Time has been flying and soon enough we'll be in the next cycle and things will be warming up and so on.

This past week was pretty uneventful.  We started teaching a couple of people last night and we're excited to see how that goes.  Knocking doors we've been offering to give a blessing on their home and help them rather than saying we have a message or we want to talk about Jesus Christ or whatever we used to say.  We've gotten a lot better reactions from that, or at the very least, we don't get rejected too hard too often anymore- people are a little more polite.

Here's a fun little cultural tidbit from the city- riding the subway is always an adventure.  A lot of times you get people announcing to your whole car that they're in need of money for reason a, b, or c (you can sort out the people who are really in need based on whether or not they accept a granola bar).  Other times you see skinny Chinese guys walking from car to car with a handful of plastic CD protectors- bootleg DVDs.  Everybody understands what they're doing so if you want their services, you have to get their attention as they briskly walk by.  You get a lot of people selling candy, more so in the Bronx it seems.  Then you've got mini performances, from singing to playing weird plastic saxophones to drums and so on.  Those all keep things exciting.

This week I've been learning a lot about having a good attitude.  We should always strive to make the best of the circumstances we're given.  The Lord doesn't give us anything we can't handle and doesn't give us anything that's not for our benefit.  We should always be looking for the good in everything around us and always be studying out how to better ourselves.  Taking things with an attitude of gratitude is the best things that we can do.  Doctrine and Covenants 78:19 really puts things into perspective and has helped me to have better thoughts and stuff.  So yep, hope that's uplifting!

Thanks for all the support!  I hope that everything is continuing to go well at home!

-Elder Griffiths

Ya Se Fue La Nieve

Hello all!

I survived the storm- it really wasn't that bad.  I think a lot of it hit in the middle of the night (or at least after 10:30).  I mean I guess it was snowing/sleeting all day Friday, but we were definitely still able to walk around and get stuff done, but we woke up to a bunch of snow on the ground.  Snow here on the sidewalks and the streets gets nasty very quickly.  We chugged along and just did what we were supposed to do on Saturday and Sunday and then it was kind of rainy and warmer on Monday, so a lot of it melted away.  Now there's really only the piles that are banked up on the side of the roads, so it's not too bad.  It was just a pain trying to walk around and stuff.  So yep, I guess that was the gist of how the snow storm went down for me.

Not too much happened since Friday.  The one thing I can think of is that we had some more training about the stuff that we were taught last Wednesday from the Zone Leaders and it's super exciting.  We were the first mission to receive that training and so they're just going to see how it goes here and then maybe do training and have the things we do become the norm everywhere.  The general idea of the training is just a shift of how we teach.  We're going to be covering specific things that aren't necessarily a part of the lessons as given in Preach My Gospel for the first four visits.  They're short, powerful and they really set the investigator/less active up with a solid foundation of what to do as we move forward with the lessons.  It's basically just more centered on the Atonement and what we need to do to be able access the atonement.  It's pretty bold, but it sifts through the people quicker rather that making people "eternigators."  We also are starting out our contacting with saying that we're a representative of Jesus Christ and we want to bless the lives of others as Christ did.  We offer to say a prayer at their home or do something of that sort to help them, then we give the first lesson (which is basically just saying all of the points of "How to Begin Teaching" in Preach My Gospel), and then commit them to baptism.  It's pretty crazy, but so far what we've done has worked pretty well.  I know it's what we need right now and I'm excited to see the fruits of it!

Things are going along here in New York.  At the end of this week we'll be halfway through the cycle- crazy!  But yep, the church is true and the Lord is hastening His work!  Hope all is well at home!

-Elder Griffiths

El Llegar A Ser Mexicano

Buenas Noches!

I don't have a lot of time to write tonight, but I'm a little scatter brained right now, so that's probably an okay thing.  There's been a lot that's happened in the past week and a half, but nothing that I can think of in particular.  Elder Loera and I are just loading up on appointments and going to work!  And the training we had Wednseday was pretty sweet!  It was from Tracie Watson, the guy who had a large part in putting Preach My Gospel together, and he essentially taught about how the focus of the way we teach as missionaries is going to be more about talking about the repentance process and about how to go about evaluating lessons in a better manner.  We were one of three missions in the world that got that training early (just testing it out on us), and we were two of the ten zones in our mission that got to take part of that, so it was definitely a privilege.  Things are going pretty well!

Fun fact- I really am getting to be a big fan of spicy things.  I think Jalapeno peppers are great and I just bought a bottle of some hot sauce called Valentina that I absolutely love.  We've been fed a lot lately, and though we've been running in the mornings, I think I'm putting on a little weight- just like three to five pounds.  I think I'm going to work on not taking second servings from people, but when food tastes so good, it's hard to say no...  I love serving in little Mexico.

One thing that was brought to my attention again this morning during my personal study was the fact that God doesn't give us challenges that we can't first of all, overcome, and second of all, that aren't for our betterment.  As we move forward with hope in all of God's promises and with faith that God is able to do anything as we trust in Him, and as we're motivated by charity for our fellow man, things will be made better.  Problems will work out as we seek to be obedient to the scriptures, the modern day prophets and the Spirit.  I know that's true and I love testifying of that to the people we teach.

I hope all is well at home and abroad!  Hopefully I survive the blizzard to write another letter next week...  Haha have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Preparation Day Cancelled

So we had some special training come up, so they've moved our preparation day to Friday.  We're not sure what exactly is going on, but it sounds like it's a big deal, so I'll let you know how it goes on Friday!  Have a good next couple of days!

-Elder Griffiths