La tecnología es genial!

Hello all!

I am writing this letter in the car on my iPad. How cool is that? I can't remember if I said it or not but we were going to get iPads and now we have them! We got them and were trained on them last Friday. It's all part of hastening the work- I'm super excited to see where this technology takes us. Basically we now have our planners on here which sets out what we're going to do each day and stuff. It also has our area books, which contain the records of all that we teach to the people with whom we work. It's nice and offers a lot of things that are going to help us to help others come closer to Christ in an even more effective and efficient way. Tracie Watson, a head hancho big whig guy in the missionary department came and trained us on the iPads and he told us that revelation is based on information, and so now with this much information more accessible in a nice organized manner, we should be able to move forward with that much more guidance from the Lord too. We also use the iPads for Facebook, to use the scriptures and pamphlets in lessons, to have access to pretty much anything the church has ever put out to study (manuals, magazines, etc.), to skype for lessons, to stay on top everything and other things I'm sure. It's great! Now I'm probably going to want an iPad mini when I get home. We'll see!

Alrighty now I'm actually on the computer typing.  This week was pretty good.  We're adjusting to changes all around- switching up companions, respliting the area, using iPads, and just hunkering down for a shorter cycle (five weeks so that transfers is not on Christmas).  It's going to fly because next week is Thanksgiving, the next week is our mission Christmas Devotional, and then the next week is when we find out where we're going, and then that's it.  Should be good though!  We're just going to be focusing on getting both areas up and running independently again, making sure that both areas have a good, consistent teaching pool.  We have seen a ton of progress here in Newburgh.  As a branch we've had a convert baptism every month since September, our weekly sacrament attendance has increased from mid 50s to upper 70s since just this summer, and I've seen the members all become a little more missionary minded.  I think everybody is realizing that the Lord is indeed hastening His work, and they're doing their part to move things forward in this neck of the woods.

A couple sweet things from this past week- Abril got baptized!  We had a lesson with her a week ago, and she bore a powerful testimony, which gave evidence of her true conversion.  The services went great and she came out clean so that was awesome!  I think I was tagged in some pictures from the baptism on facebook, so check out my facebook profile for such.  Saturday we were looking for a referral (turns out the address didn't exist) when we saw somebody who was bringing some groceries in.  We jumped on it and helped them to take what they had and then the father of the household came out and started talking to us.  He talked a lot and we just sort of listened, occasionally chiming in.  Eventually we were able to bring up the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we placed a copy of The Book of Mormon with him.  He accepted it and a return visit Saturday so that was great!  When we are willing to do good for others, God always blesses us.  It was just a great week all in all.

Things are starting to get even more chilly (which makes bike riding fun).  Last night we actually went to Dunkin Doughnuts (there are tons of those out here) where a less active works and she hooked us up with some good hot chocolate.  But yeah things are going great!  Elder Wagner is great - full of faith and willing to work, so we're just going to have a great rest of the cycle together!

Thanks for the support and love!  I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you next week!

-Elder Griffiths