Mis Viajes a Upstate

Hello!

Already to May- crazy!  The flowers are starting to bloom and things are getting pretty (well for the sparse little bit brush that you find here in the city).  Short sleeves shirts are coming out more frequently and life is good!  Until it gets sweltering hot I guess.  Haha

Anyways, after having only left New York City once in the past six months, I actually had the opportunity to leave it twice in the past week!  Thursday we got to ride the Metro North train up to New Rochelle (just barely outside of the city and still very Bronx-ish where we were) for a meeting for the trainers and new missionaries.  Afterwards, we still had to do weekly planning, so that pretty much killed the rest of our day, but it was a great and insightful training, so definitely worth it!  Friday was a kind of rough day- we had three different people just kind of drop bombs on us and kind of tell us that things had changed and they didn't want to keep going forward much.  It was tough, but somehow the Lord blessed me to have a good attitude and so I was actually very happy after all of that.  It's hard to describe, but I know that as we're grateful for what the Lord has given us, we see that our blessings are so much more joyous than any sort of trial or hardship.  Saturday- leaving the city part II!  We actually left the city big time- rode the Metro North up to Scarsdale where we rode up with missionaries working in Westchester county up to Camp Lehi in Poughkipsy, up in the Northern most stake in our mission.  It reminded me a lot of the beautiful rolling hills of North Georgia covered in trees.  We went up there to do service- clear up some brush and prepare the camp for the summer.  It was fun, good to hang out with other missionaries and do service, and good to see something else other than the city.  I love the city, but seeing trees and stuff was so great!  Afterwards we had a couple of lessons that fell through, but it was still a great day!  Sunday was good- church followed by a couple of lessons.  Monday- district meeting followed by some good lessons.  Yesterday- kind of a weird day- I can't even describe how, but yeah we just had a few lessons that we're fine and dandy.  We did start working with a referral from a members last night- went over talked to them for a little while and gave them blessings.  We've been talking a lot recently about a talk that President Uchtdorf gave in the April 2011 conference about living up to our privileges and living up to the privileges of having the priesthood available to us by giving and receiving more blessings.  I love priesthood blessings so I'm always game to receive more, and it makes sense- we should take advantage of that power to help us have more patience, more charity, rid ourselves of negative thoughts and such.

One thing that President has been stressing ever since I got here is that we as missionaries teach true doctrine.  He pointed out the fact that a lot of times missionaries come in and are disappointed that they aren't teaching as much as they would have liked.  He explained, however, that we're always teaching and show we should take advantage of that!  We should always set a good example, always speak of goodly things and always realize that our words and actions are always influincing somebody.  As we choose to be more like Christ all the time, we help others to be more like Christ whether we know it or not.  So be an example!  Stick true to the principles that are true live them and teach them to others by simply being good.

Thanks for the support!  I look forward to calling home soon- I'll let you know more about the details with that next week.  But yep, have a good week!

-Elder Griffiths

Hello all!

Today we had the great opportunity to go through the temple- I love the temple!  Not many other places on the Earth that can get you feeling like the temple does.  It's just a good source of tranquility centered in the middle of a bustling city of eight million!  Now we're writing emails home in one of the Apple stores that's pretty close to the temple- one of those cool glass box deals.  So yep!

Anywhoo, this week was pretty good!  Elder Martinez is quite the character.  He speaks English pretty well, but not quite fluently so that's been kind of a challenge trying to develop a good relationship with the semi-language barrier.  But he's a funny guy with a good testimony, so we're just going forward with the work in the South Bronx!  Instead of talking about each day, I think there were just a couple good experiences that I'll share.  First of all, we had a good lesson with an investigator named Yohanna that I only saw once last cycle (people can be kind of flaky here...).  We really just tried to understand her more, ask her questions about her expectations with us and then use the principles of the Gospel to resolve her concerns.  We were able to help her understand how the gospel will help her and now she's excited to have us meet with her more often and wants to come to church for sure this Sunday!  I know as we take the time to listen to people and really strive to care about them, the Savior leads us to be able to offer our testimonies and words of comfort to help others move forward.  Another experience was with Grace who has been working with missionaries since like November or something.  She's had a lot of health problems and emotional problems that have impeded her from progressing as would be preferred, but after some bold promises of healing and other things, she came to church for the third time and she loved it!  Things went well and now she has a testimony of not only Jesus Christ and The Book of Mormon, but of the church as well, so that was sweet!  She now wants to get baptized "pronto" so May 4th is the goal!  I know that as we're patient when things don't seem to be going well, when we're not getting the answers we're wanting, that God blesses us for our faithfulness.  She now gets to enjoy the eternal blessings that come from baptism and the companionship of the Holy Ghost and it's exciting!  I've loved working with her and am looking forward to seeing yet even more blessings come into her life!

So yep things are going well!  I had some humbling experiences this week that have helped me to be able to better have an eternal perspective.  Getting caught up in the day to day things and stressing out when things aren't going as well as they could be going is pretty easy and natural.  Sometimes it can be a pavilion, though, and make us lose sight of the things that matter.  When we really come to know who we are and where we're going- children of God with a divine inheritance- we can develop the hope to keep going through life even when things aren't perfect.  Which is all the time, right?  But yeah it's like being in a race, knowing you're going to win it all, but wanting to quit because you have a rough stumble.  I know that as we develop an eternal perspective, we'll better do the things today that will get us to that hopeful tomorrow.

Thanks for the support back home!  I love hearing about all the mission calls and how everybody is going!  Keep on going strong and have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Di A Luz...

Rafael!  Baptized at the Ripe Age of 77!

Hello!

Starting a new transfer- crazy!  But yep, as you were notified I will in fact be training this cycle!  I'll be training Elder Martinez and I'm excited!  He is from Puerto Rico, born and raised.  I'm a little nervous having this responsibility and getting used to a new companion is always a little different, but I know that the Lord will guide us to do what we need to do.

This week went by well!  We don't have a ton of time to write, but things went well this past week.  Friday I went to the trainers meeting and they pretty much just said to always seek to have the spirit, before everything else in your companionship, love your companion and always teach true doctrine.  Saturday was the baptism!  It all went well!  Rafael was super excited to get baptized!  I'll try to send a picture.  Sunday went well, but I was a little sick, so we stayed in after church and just got relaxed and got things ready for Elder Martinez.  Monday we had a zone potluck and then some lessons afterwards.  Tuesday Elder Longmore spent a little time packing and then we taught some more lessons.  Nothing too exciting!  But here we are on Wednesday.  We're going to do the essentials- go shopping, get stuff set up and then go to work!  He seems to be pretty excited about getting work, so hopefully we'll use that fire to pump up this area even more.

My mind is running blank right now- lots of stuff going on, but I'll try to make next week's letter great to make up for this week!  Thanks for everything!

-Elder Griffiths

Finalmente... Las Mangas Cortas!

Hello!

Time is still flying.  I hit my seven month mark last week, and although I've still got a little while left, I feel like it's just going to wiz by.  We'll see though!  Transfers are in a week, so we'll see how that mixes things up.

Things are getting beautiful!  Well the city still is the city with some trees and stuff, but the weather has been great this week!  Things were chilly and then all of a sudden Monday was nice so we all broke out our short sleeved shirts and it has been glorious.  I feel like the weather will be nice for a couple weeks and then it'll just get hot.  And hotter.  But we'll enjoy it while it lasts!  Another fun thing going on- Yankees games started last week.  We get on the Subway where Yankees Stadium is (we also run over to a field right across from the stadium to run and work out and stuff- pretty cool!) and so I think at least twice now as we've been heading up to our chapel, we've been bombarded by tons and tons of Yankee fans getting off going to the game.  There's one game in June that's on a Wednesday before 6:00, so I'm hoping we can go hit that up- we'll see!  Oh and last week we went to the Bronx Zoo.  It was pretty cool I guess.

Anyways, the weather is nice and the work of the Lord is going forward!  Thursday and Friday were good days with some good lessons.  I don't think anything out of the ordinary happened.  Saturday and Sunday we had conference and that was great!  I loved the speakers and I just felt uplifted listening to the servants of God.  We taught a couple of lessons in between each of the sessions, so that was good.  Even with General Conference, we tied our record high for number of lessons for our area.  This week we're trying to get yet even more lessons, and making them effective too.  Monday we had a long zone meeting to which President Morgan showed up.  It was really good- talked about planning and learned a lot of good insight about that.  Better planning has helped Elder Longmore and me to really make the most out of the time God has blessed us with.  After the training we had a couple of lessons, but nothing too exciting.  Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder Richards, my District Leader who lives in the same apartment (we just pick up and switch our mattresses with the bedding and all when we do intra-apartmental exchanges).  It was great!  We were pretty much just going from lesson to lesson, being guided by the Lord to specific people to teach them the specific lessons they needed to hear. We dropped by one less active that Elder Longmore and I had been trying to get in with for a little while, and he was there and let us teach a little lesson.  He started talking and the scripture that I had felt he needed to hear went perfectly with a situation he was telling us about that had happened two days before so it was great seeing the hands of the Lord in that!  A funny thing about that visit, though, was that he has a pitbull named Olive and she just gets excited when people come over, so I think I can kind of say that I got attacked by a pitbull.  I like Olive though- she's a lot fun!  Anyways, yeah the exchange went well, I learned a lot and best part was that our investigator, Rafael, had his baptismal interview and so he's on to get baptized on Saturday!  We're excited about that, and now we're just making sure he's good to go.  Hopefully next week I'll have the opportunity to send some pictures from that.  That pretty much brings us to today.  We were going to go down and check some stuff out in Midtown (Elder Jenson, Elder Richards' Trainee hasn't been down there yet), but Elder Richards woke up with some back pain, so I'm chilling with him and Elder Longmore and Elder Jenson are going down into the city.  It's nice just having a break and now having to worry about getting back in time and stuff like that.  But yep things are going well!

I think one of my favorite things about serving this mission has been being blessed to see God's hand in the work.  As missionaries, we spend a lot of time planning, but things often times don't go according to plan.  Our plan at least.  When that happens it can be frustrating, and even depressing trying to figure out how to handle things when everything falls through.  When we look to the Lord, however, and are able to say that we gave our best efforts, he leads us to do the things that He intended us to do in the first place.  Sometimes it's not until the end of a long , frustrating day that we as missionaries can see that we happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right message, and that's how it was supposed to be.  God is involved in each and everyone of our lives and as we really look for His influence and His blessings, and then give Him the glory for such, we're so much better off!  So look for the good, even if it seems like it's a small little coincidence that made things a little nice, thank God for it and you will feel more of His love in your life.  I know He loves each one of us and is cheering us on and we keep pressing forward.

Thanks once again for all the support!  I'm looking forward to sending off a report of where I am and who I'm with next week because things could be switched up!  I'm excited to see what God's plan is for me for the next six weeks- transfers are always exciting!  But I wish you the best of luck with the upcoming week!

-Elder Griffiths

Pascua El Amor de Dios

Buenas Tardes!

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

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

Touring Lower Manhattan

Beautiful NYC!

(Elder Griffiths didn't identify this picture)

9/11 Memorial

Buildings down by Battery Park

Elder Longmore and Me - this was actually taken by the temple president of the Guayquil Equador Temple
- they were on a break while it was being cleaned or something.

Elote!  Like in Nacho Libre!

Freedom Tower construction in the background.

Freedom Tower - it will be a
sweet building when it's done!

Little Italy
(Empire State Building in background)

Statue of Liberty

Sweet building!  (Don't know if it has a name)

With Mama Daisi and Papa Nelson -
great members in Harlem!

With Victor - another
great member in Harlem!

My zone in Harlem.

Cut my own hair - how'd I do?

Lleno del Espiritu... y Comida

Hello!

This week went by super fast.  Elder Longmore was just saying this morning how it seems like it was only yesterday that we were down in South Manhattan, and that's the truth.  We've been working hard and packing our schedule, so things have just been smooth sailing I guess.

Anyways, last preparation day was great!  We just spent a little time before and after the World Trade Center Memorial (which was great!  It was breath taking- two giant fountains the size of the two buildings- and you could tell it was hallowed ground), exploring down in South Manhattan.  We went to Battery Park where you can see the Statue of Liberty, walked up Broadway to China Town on Canal street and did some exploring there in China Town (lots of weird stuff there) and then grabbed some Canolli in Little Italy (borders China Town on the North).  I love that part of Manhattan- the architecture is amazing and everything is just breath taking.  Going back as a not-missionary will be interesting for sure.  That night we had an appointment and then a couple other that fell through, so we ended up dropping by a couple people's places to say hey.

Thursday we had weekly planning after studies.  We knocked that out, but Elder Longmore wasn't feeling too good, so we took the day off until PEC that night.  I just did some area book work, made some phone calls and did a little cleaning and organizing, so it was good to have some time to just knock that stuff out.  Friday we had some lessons and then our district APF where we all got together and went knocking in the Sister's area (we have three companionships of Elders and one of Sisters in our district and in the ward in which we work.  The sisters were a trio up until the other night, so we had nine missionaries plus a Senior couple- pretty crazy).  Saturday we had our correlation meeting and some more appointments.  I don't believe anything too crazy happened.  Same with Sunday- just had some lessons with investigators and a less active family.  We had had a lot of food by the end of the night so we came home ready to blow up.  Monday was district meeting followed by some appointments.  It started snowing in the afternoon, fairly lightly, but we came out of our dinner appointment with a lot of snow on the ground, so we had troop through that for the rest of the night.  I slipped at one point, but luckily landed in the snow that was everywhere, so it was okay.  Tuesday is our one day where there is nothing inherently planned (meetings or whatever), so it's a day that we either really have to fill up or it ends up being boring/frustrating.  Luckily we prepared well and so we taught five and half lessons (half as teaching a random guy on the street about the restoration).  It was another day where we came home stuffed- we were fed three meals (including lunch) and ended up drinking like three glasses of soda (I hate soda- I will never voluntarily drink it for the rest of my life...).  Hopefully that's just a sign of member support, but I'm grateful for all of the food that we're given.  Today we're going to play volleyball at the church for our zone activity.  Should be fun!

This week I've been really working on being able to hear and act on the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  One thing that I've come to realize is that in order to receive promptings, we often times have to ask for them through a prayer of faith.  That's something that isn't always easy to remember, but I know as we make a conscious effort to remember Jesus Christ and try to be guided through a prayer in our hearts, that the promise made in the Sacrament prayers will be fulfilled- as we remember Him we'll have His Spirit to be with Him.  Last week on one night we had time to visit one more person, but we weren't sure who.  We both were looking for guidance in that and I just felt as though we should try dropping by a less active family that we hadn't before.  I suggested that and Elder Longmore suggested a specific family, and so we followed that, went, they let us in and we had a pretty good lesson!  I know those ideas came from the Spirit as we sought from them.

Thanks for all the support!  I hope you have a good week to come!

-Elder Griffiths

Oposicion y Exito

Buenas Tardes!

 

One week in the Bronx and I'm still alive!  The first night I was there a guy rolled down his window at an intersection and said "Be careful, there's a guy back there with a machete." and I just was thinking to myself "Welcome to the Bronx..."  Haha but it's been good, I haven't felt threatened at any point.  Elder Topham survived the same area and we're pretty similar sizes, so I should be good to go.  The Bronx is definitely a lot different than Manhattan.  People are in a lot more of a rush and on the go in Manhattan, buildings are a lot tighter and closer together, the streets have a different layout and the people are a little different.  I love Manhattan for the physical layout and things you can do, but as far as the people go, I really am loving the Bronx!  I've had more success trying to talk to people on the bus and train here, people seem to be a little more friendly and I've just been able to connect with ward members here a little better.  So the Bronx is great!  But I think I said in my last email that my new area is only one train stop away from the station that we used near our apartment in Harlem, so I can still see buildings from my last area.  There's even a place where we can see the apartment building in which I stayed back in Harlem, so that's kind of crazy.

 

Today we got to go back to my old area to go to a doctor for Elder Longmore (more of the Upper East Side part of things where we did very little work) so it's been good!  We're planning on going down to the World Trade Center site for a tour and just check out some stuff in South Manhattan, so we're pretty excited!  Hopefully we don't get lost down there...

 

Like I said, things are going great!  I don't have a lot of time to write so I'm just going to include a little of what I wrote to President Morgan...

 

Things are going so well! I'm getting settled and adjusted to the new area, new companion and everything, but we're moving forward. I've been told many times since I got here that Elder Longmore and me have a hard area. That's been kind of discouraging, but I think the Lord prepared me for such comments as I've recently been looking more for the positive in everything. With that, Elder Longmore and I have determined to forget that mindset (of having a hard area), set our eyes on the Standards of Excellence and get to work. As I said there has been a lot of opposition in us trying to work, but to me it's only a testimony of what I felt coming into this cycle- as we work and try to be the best that we can be, we're going to see some great things. Yesterday was an example of that. We finished our studies and went out to work. We were guided by the Lord to share the messages that were meant to share, see the people we were meant to see and just do the things that we were meant to do. By the end of the day we had taught five lessons (half of what is usually taught in this area in a week), extended a baptismal date (during the first lesson with a new investigator), received and contacted a referral, and met all of our goals that we had set the night before. We came home very satisfied and happy, looking forward to the upcoming days rather than not being sure of what to do. We've got another eight or nine appointments scheduled for the rest of the week, and I'm sure we'll be able to make even more in the next couple of days. We're also trying to get better at talking to people on buses, trains, elevators and the like to make sure we're living to the fullest of our calling. I know that the Lord is blessing us and that without Him such great things wouldn't be happening. We're excited to continue to dedicate all of our time to the Lord, live according to His guidelines and improve ourselves everyday. This is going to be a great cycle!

Things have been tough at times and the adversary has really tried to rattle both Elder Longmore and myself, but we know who we are and what we're supposed to do, and so we press on!  Whenever anybody tries to do anything good, there is always going to be opposition to a degree.  Handling that opposition isn't always easy, but it pays off, if not soon, at the very least in the long run.  I know that God loves us and provides us with means to learn and grow and that everything that we experience is ultimately for our well being.  The Lord is great and I know He's always looking out for us, even if it is in a way that we don't understand.

 

Thanks for all the support and love from back home.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Griffiths

Nacido y Crecido en Harlem...

Buenas Tardes!

Today has been pretty crazy.  We had to wake up early so that I could do laundry to be able to pack to be able to make it on time to transfer meetings.  It was kind of stressful and I was ready to get gone.  Transfers were great because there were forty new missionaries.  It took a little while to get through them all, but seeing them all and the way things are going is inspiring.  The mission is just getting better.  After the meeting, I met with my new companion and then we left for...

...The Bronx!  Concourse South is the official name of our area.  It's really only one stop away from the stop that was closest to our apartment on the green line (subway), so I'm not too far away from Harlem.  It's just across the river.  I'm really excited to be here- the people seem to be a lot more humble, or at least people seem to be more tolerant or something.  I had a good number of people tell me I was the devil because I'm white back in Harlem, so I think getting away from some of those feelings will be nice.  I'm actually serving in Elder Topham's old area (the one he was in before Harlem), so that's cool (and he went home today from upstate, so be looking for a facebook add from him).

My companion's name is Elder Longmore.  He's from Draper and he came out one cycle before me.  Technically I'm follow up training him, but I don't have too much time on him, so this cycle is just going to be a great learning experience all around!  So far he's great!  We get along pretty well and I just feel like it's going to be a really good cycle filled with lots of miracles as we try to work hard.

This past week wasn't particularly exciting.  We just had lessons as normal and English Class and so on.  On Sunday, somebody from Deseret News or some sort of church news came to our sacrament meeting and Elder Loera translated for her as she interviewed a couple of people from our ward.  She took a lot of pictures of us too, so look for those in the church news and stuff!  Another cool thing- apparently there's a video on youtube going around called the Harlem Shake.  I am proud to say that I was serving in Harlem when that got big- and there was a big graffiti painting that said "The Harlem Shake" that we were going to get a picture with, but then we didn't end up having enough time.  Maybe we can get down there sometime and get a picture with it on a preparation day or something.  Another fun fact- yesterday marked my six month mark!  A quarter of the way through- crazy!

Here's a fun New York cultural thing- the dogs here in New York are somewhat of a unique breed.  A majority of them are just sickly and malnourished looking.  They're caught up their apartment all day long and then get to go on the occasional walk.  I think it's against the law to have a dog unleashed.  It's a rough life for a dog living in the city.

This week I've been blessed to see some of my seemingly fruitless efforts pay off.  A lot of times doing what's right, doing what's best comes with a lot of opposition.  I think a lot of times, the adversary amplifies that opposition by feeding us negative thoughts and trying to create a sense of hopelessness to motivate us to not do what we really should do.  I believe that God allows this to happen to test our faith, to show Him and show ourselves that we're willing to do what He wants despite any opposition.  We just always need  to stick to our standards, and do what we know is right and true.  Doing what's right often doesn't pay off now, but it definitely does in the future and that's what it's all about.  So keep chugging along!  Even when it's hard, even though often times it doesn't seem to make sense, just do what the Lord's want and He'll bless you according to His will and pleasure.

I hope everything is going well at home and elsewhere!  Hearing about what's going on with others is always good!  I appreciate all the love and support from back home and I hope that everybody has a good week to come!

-Elder Griffiths