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