La Importancia de la Accion

Hello Family! Time is really flying.  We're halfway through the cycle, and it's almost not cold here.  Thinking about the fact that March is over on Sunday is a little ridiculous.  Elder Longmore and I have just been trying to work hard, so I guess that's the trick that gets time flying. This past week was the best week I've had yet as far as how many lessons we taught and stuff.  The work isn't about numbers, but it is nice being able to see the results of your hard work.  I guess there were a couple of exciting things that happened throughout the week.  Thursday we were going to get on the bus, and we were determined to talk to somebody on the bus.  Elder Longmore said that it didn't look like there were many people on the bus, and so I said, "At the very least, there's the bus driver."  So we got on and the primary president in our ward was on the bus and so when we started talking to her, the bus driver was like "Hey you speak Spanish?"  So we started talking to him and it was a really good conversation.  Sadly he lives in Connecticut and leaves home at 6:00 AM and gets back around 10:00, but he took a card so hopefully he'll look into the church.  Friday a pigeon pooped on my head (pigeons are dumb...), but luckily the daughter of our investigator that wasn't home let me in to wash it off.  We also got to watch an Ambulance catch on fire and burn, so I guess that was cool.  Saturday, among other things, we had a member baptism.  One of our most solid investigators came on his own and watched and enjoyed it.  He's great!  He's like 78, like 4'11", can't read, but he's progressing well and should be baptized on April 13th so we're stoked about him!  Sunday we had church and it was good.  Afterwards I made some cheese flautas (fried tacos pretty much) for lunch and they were good.  I took a picture and I'll try to send that soon.  It took a little while, so I probably won't do it again on the mission, but I think my cooking skills are improving so I'm excited to try some stuff out when I get home.  Monday was district meeting.  That was good, and then after we had a solid lesson with one of investigators who would be baptized, but she just can't get to church.  The lesson was very powerful and the Spirit led us to say some good stuff, and so now it's looking very likely that she'll come to church Sunday, and we set a date with her too, so we're shooting for her getting baptized on April 20th.  It was way exciting!  Tuesday Elder Longmore went on an exchange with our district leader, Elder Richards, so I was with Elder Jenson who has been in the field for three weeks.  They live with us, so we just switched their mattress and pretty much did everything else normally.  We also had zone conference that day, so that made it a little awkward, but zone conference was great and then we made the best out of the time afterwards.  I loved being with Elder Jenson- he's still just full of fire and ready to go to work, so we went to a couple lessons with the time we had left and then just tried to talk to everyone in between.  Today has been just a chill day.  We're not doing anything in particular- just did a little extra shopping than usual (went to a big shopping complex a little further south in our area), and now Elder Longmore is getting some songs on his ipod.  It's good having a day like this to just relax.  So yeah it was a good week! I think one of the things that has been brought to my attention a lot in the past week is how important action is in the mix of things.  Actions pertains to a lot of different Gospel topics.  I've been working on being more in tune and working better with the Holy Ghost, and in my studies I've noticed that you've always got to ask.  You generally can't just sit around expecting for inspiration to come to you- you've got a question in your mind and work at it.  On top of that, you've got to act on whatever revelation that you do receive when you receive it to show that you value what you've been blessed with.  Faith is another thing that requires action.  You can have passive faith and have the belief that God can do anything and really hope that He does everything for you, or you can have that belief and make sure you're doing your part.  For instance, we set goals for specific numbers of lessons that we're going to teach every night.  We can either set that goal and hope it happens, or set that goal and work hard to make and follow plans that make such happen and then be led by God to make things happen.  I've found the second option works a lot better.  You've got to work to repent.  You've got to work to stick to your covenants that you make with God.  And you've just got to work to endure to the end.  Life is full of decisions, and as we decide to act and follow the Savior rather than be passive, we'll be able to come a lot closer to him and learn and grow so much in this life. Thanks for all the love and support!  I hope everyone has a great week and a happy Easter! - Elder Griffiths