Another week down, almost through the cycle. We get training calls in
about a week and calls telling us where we're going a week from Saturday. How
fast this cycle has gone by is just ridiculous, but we're still just being
diligent, obedient, planning well and shooting for the stars so it's good!
A couple of cool side notes: first off, last week we found six new
investigators. Two came from talking to somebody in an elevator for about a
minute and the other four came from talking to someone in a hardware store where
one of our investigators works. We invited all of them to be baptized in the
first lesson and they all agreed (we're really working on setting up
expectations from the get go so that's what we've got to do). The point of that
is that we should look for opportunities to share the Gospel with others
whenever wherever. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and if you're to
scared to talk to people because of a fear of rejection, check this scripture
out that Elder Longmore found this morning- Acts 5:41- good stuff! Second off,
last Saturday or something, Elder Longmore and I were walking and a rock came flying
by our faces. We don't know where it came from, but we both felt like Samuel
the Lamanite. Third off, we see lots of different license plates on the cars
here, and I've seen a fair share of them from Georgia. On the way home
yesterday, though, we saw one from Gwinnett County so that was exciting.
This week had some downs but a few big ups. We've had a couple of days
where all of our plans have fallen through, back up plans have fallen through
and we're just left with not a lot to do. Yesterday was kind of like that, and
instead of getting down about how things were going, we decided to seek for
inspiration and look back at the experiences we did have to see how God led us
to where He needed us. We were led to our investigator who works in a hardware
store whose son just so happened to be there too. This is the second time his
son has been there, the first time being the last time we went there. He lives
with his mom who won't let him read The Book of Mormon, and he really wants to
do what God wants him to do so we were just able to have a really solid and
inspired lesson with him that will hopefully help him to move forward. After
that, we dropped by another one of our investigators, and when we arrived she
told us that she had "thought" us there because she had been thinking about her
experience at church and she was having some negative feelings. We were able to
resolve her concerns and help her to overcome those negative thoughts from the
adversary. A few other cool things happened here or there, but I know that the
Lord is guiding His work and can guide us as we seek to submit to His
will.
Two big highlights, thought, were a specific lesson we had and church on
Sunday. Saturday we had planned a lesson with a less active with whom we had
never met because he had always juked us. We showed up at the scheduled time,
and he wasn't there, but then he came walking up as we were talking on the
phone. We went up to his apartment and started talking and he just broke down.
He hasn't been doing the best of things recently and now he's without work and
money and a lot of things. He expressed his hopelessness and how he had failed.
Elder Longmore and I were both on the same page as we taught him and testified
of the reality of the Atonement and how he did have hope through Jesus Christ,
and that as repented and fully accepted the gospel, he would be able to feel the
same joy and cleanliness he did on the day of his baptism. He accepted our
invitation to come to church and talk to the bishop. That experience really
brought things back into perspective and helped me to realize why I was there-
to help these people be able to fully utilize the Atonement, all that Christ did
for us, to be able to be happy in this life and receive a fullness of glory in
the life to come. I was blessed to feel a bit of God's love for this man, and
now I'm excited to move forward as he continues to grow his faith in Christ and
become whole once again. Sunday was great because he showed up for church,
another less active member showed up for church, an investigator who always
comes came again and then an investigator that we've been working with since
before Elder Longmore came, who has a big fear of leaving, came to church finally!
It felt great and there was a special Easter spirit about the meeting.
Everybody enjoyed it and the rest of that day was just a good, uplifting day
where Heavenly Father blessed us with a glimpse of what our labors had done. I
know that God loves each and every one of us, and that we all have hope in
Christ. I know that He was resurrected and that He lives today.
Things are going well! Things aren't great every single moment, but
looking back, we had a great week. I think it's important to not get caught up
in the moment, but to look at the big picture and try to see the eternal
perspective. As I've done so, I've been blessed to see my progress and move
forward even when it seems like my efforts are fruitless.
Thank you for all the support back home! I hope that you all have a good
week to come! And I hope you're enjoying good weather and not walking around in
the breezy sub 40s like we are here in the Big Apple -___-
-Elder Griffiths
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