Otra semana completa - parte 2

June 25 - Part 2

alrighty, back for just a bit so i'll try to wrap the week up...

Saturday- temple!  Our ward did a youth temple trip but we pushed to get the recent converts to go too, so us missionaries got to go and help out.  Rafael doesn't like the train, so we took buses there- took awhile, but it was a nice ride and we got to talk to some people on the way to and from the temple.  The temple so great!  I love it a ton, and getting to see the baptistery of the Manhattan temple was a great experience.  Rafael enjoyed it and the youth did too.  Between taking the bus and then it just taking awhile at the temple, we pretty much spent the whole day there. We had one lesson afterwards and then ate some dinner before going home.

Sunday- church, studies, broadcast!  That was about it.  But the broadcast was great!  The work was going forward and it's such a blessing being a part of it.

Monday- district meeting followed by an exchange with Elder Price, another elder in the district.  We had a pretty packed and productive day- five lessons all with members there, so that was sweet!  Elder Price is a great guy and I learned a lot about just choosing to be happy, realizing that all will be well so we shouldn't spare a moment being down or sad, but we should make the best of our time as we put off bad and negative feelings.

Tuesday- we "unsplit" but Elder Martinez was feeling horrible.  Sick as a dog.  I made some phone calls and sent some texts and rescheduled or canceled the appointments that we had set.  He laid in bed for most of the day, and I just caught up on a bunch of stuff I had wanted to do- polished up the Area Book, wrote some member info in my planner, caught up my journal, did some cleaning, did my laundry, did some organizing, etc.  I loved it!  I've been waiting for a day like that since mid-November...  Haha but yeah it felt good catching up on some stuff.

Today- Elder Martinez was feeling better.  We studied, cleaned, shopped, emailed and then head to the church for a zone activity.  We watched Seventeen Miracles and it was great!  I love getting together with the zone and other missionaries- it's great!

So that's pretty much the week!  Things are going well- I'm feeling super blessed and I'm loving the mission more and more everyday.  I know that the work that me and the other seventy thousand missionaries are doing is the work of God and I'm so grateful to be a part of it.  Thanks for the support and love- don't forget to share your testimony sometime this week!  Have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Otra semana completa!

June 25, 2013

Buenas Tardes!

This week has been pretty good.  Pretty crazy I'd say.  I'll fill you in on the details...

Wednesday- we went through the Museum of Natural History- that was sweet!  Kind of.  Well we found the good stuff that we all enjoyed about twenty minutes before we had to leave.  We then took a nice walk through Central Park (which is super pretty- I love it.  Looks a heck of a lot better than it did back in November-February) to catch a 4 train up to Yankee Stadium (kind of went out of our way just to see Central Park).  We went to some lessons and they were good!

Thursday- weekly planning.  We had one appointment and then we went and picked up Brian, a youth, and Rafael to go have an interview at the church for a temple trip.  The bus ride was long- usually we take the train which is a lot more direct and you don't have to deal with traffic.  Afterwards we celebrated Elder Wilkins' (roommate) birthday with the district at the church.  We got Domino's hand made pan pizza- good stuff.  I'm working on some missionary work for Domino's too- converted people to good pizza :I  Haha

Friday- Interviews!  Only my second one after being in the mission home.  President Morgan is super knowledgeable and smart and having that bit of time to ask him whatever is sweet!  I loved that.  The rest of the night, we went to a couple of appointments and they were good.

My computer is about to kick me off- the library is pretty busy because school just got out for the summer, so i'm going to try to keep going, but no guarantees that I'll get a lot more off.  So if this is it, hope you have a great upcoming week!  We're almost in July- crazy!

-Elder Griffiths

Misericordia y El Espiritu Santo

June 19, 2013

Hello all!

This week was great!  I've got a bunch of things that happened that I thought were sweet, but I doubt I'll have time to get them all in here, so I'll just be sure to have my journal up to snuff so that people can at least enjoy these experiences a few years down the road.

Wednesday- good stuff!  Manhattan went well- we got to see everything we set out to see, and I was able to take pictures, so I'll try to shoot some pictures off when I can.

Thursday- Elder Martinez wasn't feeling well, so we stayed in and took it easy, then I went out with one of our roommates for a couple of appointments in the evening.  It was good- I feel like I got some stuff done, so I was grateful for that.

Friday- Our plans fell through, our backup plans fell through, and everything else after that kind of fell through so we went knocking for the first time in awhile.  I don't like knocking because it's not super effective for the effort put into it.  I like it, but I feel like doing other stuff is better.  Doing it Friday, however, was great!  We didn't have much success, but I could feel the Lord's support as we tried to keep pushing on even when things weren't working out.  Our desire to work and our efforts to follow the Spirit, even in the little things, let us have some great experiences after that.  We helped a taxi driver who destroyed his tire trying to flip a u-turn and he came away really touched by that service.  We then had a sweet lesson with one of my favorite members who's going through a tough time.  I love being able to see the Gospel be able to lift people up- it's the best!  And then that was about it for the night.

Saturday- we have correlation on Saturdays, and then not a lot happened after that.  We went to lessons and stuff, but nothing too terribly exciting.

Sunday- church was good!  And then God showed us how good His timing is when we tried stopping by a less active that we haven't seen in weeks to find that he had literally come home to walk his dog and then go back out.  We chatted with him and have a return appointment with him tonight!

Monday- district meeting is always great!  We had some good lessons afterwards, and then we got to see one of our great investigators- her name is Ilka and she's just progressing very well.  She's reading, praying, going to church, receiving revelation and she is able to recognize that she's receiving that revelation.  She's great and the Lord had blessed us with good success with her.

Tuesday- Elder Martinez gave some haircuts to other missionaries, so we kind of hung around.  I got a CD in the mail "From a friend" and it was this sweet CD that I've been wanting for a little while, so thank you friend!  That was a great tender mercy.  Later we followed up and had a first lesson with somebody we knocked into and we committed them to baptism!  It's going to be great working with them!  Then we had a good dinner as a district at a members house.

Today we're going down to the city.  It'll be great!

The computer is about to kick me off so I have to go!  Thanks for everything and have a good week!

-Elder Griffiths

Muy buena semana!

June 12, 2013

Pretty good week!  Fairly eventful week!  Kind of a wet week too, but the work goes on!

To start out- the game was great!  In all honesty though, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the game- I just socialized the whole time.  [Former Elder] Neils Topham (my trainer) showed up (his mom works for Jet Blue so he travels for free) so I had a good time chatting with him!  I also got to talk to a bunch of people who were shipped up state that I hadn't seen for months, so that was sweet!  The other missionaries in the mission are so great and there's so much to learn from them.  Seriously- we've got over 200 missionaries about 20 years old each, so that's about 4000 years of life experience- about 2/3 of the time people have been living life on Earth, right?  Haha but anyways, I think it's always good to take advantage of social situations, get to know people and try to learn as much as you can from them.  Anyways, that was great!  Even greater was just living about six blocks away so that we didn't have to have a crazy routine.

The rain this week was sweet!  We dropped by a farewell of a guy who is leaving to go serve a mission in Brazil on Friday and came back and almost got blown away- it was sweet!  I'm figuring out how to work the umbrella so that it doesn't get totally destroyed.  Saturday I went an exchange with Elder Picoli from Brazil- he's great!  He serves in the English ward and so being able to testify and preach in English is always a good confidence boost- haha.  Sunday was pretty good- I had a realization of how great the ward is!  There are so many good and loving people and I was just able to especially feel their love that Sunday so that was a great blessing.  Monday was district meeting and then we had a couple of appointments after that.  I then went on an exchange with Elder Critchfield starting Monday night.  We had a pretty good day together- Yankee Stadium is in his area, though, and the Ireland national soccer team was facing the Spain national soccer team in Yankee stadium, so we spent some time people watching as we waited for a member to go to a lesson.  I felt like I was in Harry Potter seeing national the fans from two different national teams coming together- it was great!  Today we're going down to Manhattan- going to China Town, the World Trade Center Memorial, Financial District and Battery Park, and then to Grand Central- should be sweet!  The camera is charged up and ready to go.

This week has been great!  I feel truly happy.  I know that happiness comes as we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Maybe things aren't always easy going, but living the gospel was never meant to be convenient.  The highs are high out here and I'm so grateful to be a part of the work.  Thanks for all of the prayers and support- I hope you have a wonderful week!

-Elder Griffiths

Béisbol alguien?

Hello!

One sixth of the way through the cycle- getting there!  Haha sooner than we know it it'll be over because that's just how things work out here.  But yeah we've got to get to Yankee Stadium soon for the game, so I won't be able to write a ton, so forgive me!

This was pretty good!  We've been blessed to see progress with the people with which we're working.  Missionaries found Yohanna a little over a year ago- she's been going on and off with the missionaries since.  We've had a couple of good lessons with her in the past few weeks to the point where she has a baptismal date now.  She came to church last Sunday for the first time and although she's going through some hard times, she is noticing the blessings that are coming from living the gospel.  We're excited to keep going forward with her, and come July 13th she should be ready to enter into the waters of baptism and work on be well on her way to sanctification as she applies the gospel of Jesus Christ in her life.  We've seen some other great progress with others too- Ilka and Keni who are preparing for baptism in September and then Juana, the sister of a recent convert that we started teaching about a week and a half ago.  Things are going great!

I'm learning a lot about gratitude.  When we have an attitude of gratitude, things just go well.  I've noticed that I'm happier when I'm focusing on the things that Heavenly Father has given me.  Those things aren't too hard to find so just look for them!  I'm grateful for the success that the Lord has blessed us with, for the opportunity to serve a mission, for the trials that help me to grow and for many other things!  Count your many blessings!

Thanks for everything!  Sorry this is a little shorter- hopefully next week will be better.  I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

Pictures!

Zone activity- played wiffle ball and soccer at the park in front of Yankee Stadium 

(where we sometimes go to work out in the mornings)

Caught outside without an umbrella...

Beethoven dog with a mohawk thing walking down Broadway

Elder Stevens and Elder Orellana!  I lived with them my first three cycles.  

Elder Stevens is home and Elder Orellana moved to my zone this cycle

My apartment last cycle- good guys!  Elder Jensen, Elder Richards, Elder Longmore, me

Found this when i walked into our pad- two of the best temples!

breaking out the Manhattan map is always good

Upper westside- good stuff!

Elder Martinez and I at Time Square today!  

He had been waiting for this day for five weeks... haha

Birthday party for Elder Richards and Sister Skinner (she's in our district) at la familia Tifa

Elder Richards in the car behind us on the Subway

Me Quedo!

Buenas Tardes!

Another week passed.  Next week we'll be going to the Yankees game- that's going to be sweet!  Look for us on TV because the whole mission is allowed to go and we are probably going to be sitting all together, so that certainly would be of interest for the cameras.

Anyways, transfers came, and...  Still here in the Bronx!  With Elder Martinez!  I'm going to get to finish training him.  Elder Richards, one of my roommates went up to Danbury, CT, so Elder Jensen got a new companion strait from the MTC.  I'm super old compared to the other Elders in the district, so that's going to be interesting.  But this cycle is going to be great- we've got some good things going on with the people that we're working on.  We went into a lesson last Saturday intending to possibly drop somebody, but we came out with a baptismal date and three firm appointments a week, so it's interesting to see how the Lord sometimes guides us like that!  We also had a family of less actives that hadn't come to the church in years come!  They want to go to the temple and the boy who is twelve wants to get baptized, so we're going to get them going to church stably before we work with him.  The referrals from the Bishop are progressing well too, so this cycle is going to be sweet!  I know that the Lord has been blessing us with this success as we've really been trying to be obedient and be diligent.  Our will is really the only thing that we have that the Lord cannot take away, so when we give that to Him, He blesses us greatly in exchange.

This cycle I'm really going to work on further giving myself to the Lord.  I know that as we drop our pride, pretty much all of our problems go away.  We can always be more humble, and I believe that until we're perfect, there's always more that we're hanging on that we can give up to the Lord.  I also know that the people around us are children of God with great potential.  We can always learn from those around us, and so I'm working on being able to see, focus on and then learn from the good of those around me.  I know that as we do that, we demonstrate a desire to learn and we also are given the opportunity to lift up those around us.  Even just in my apartment, between the four of us, we've got almost eighty years of life experience from which we can all benefit.  If we can put our pride aside, our worries about the way others perceive us, and we just seek to glorify God in all things, we are sanctified, purified and are able to come closer to Christ.  God is so great and I'm humbled knowing that He loves me enough to bless me with others to help me.  I'm looking forward to a great cycle, filled with lots of learning, and I'll be sure to share little tidbits of the great things I'm learning with you guys!

I hope you have a great week coming up!  Thanks for everything!

-Elder Griffiths

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

Otra semana bien ...

Hello!

This week was another just a-okay week!  Nothing too exciting went down, I don't think.  We got together as a district a lot for various things, so we didn't do as much area specific work, but the week still flew and I know that Heavenly Father is guiding us.

I think I'm finally getting to the point where I can see some of the progress I've made.  In that I'm realizing that God does put us exactly where we need to be with the exact people with whom we need to be to give us the opportunities to grow closer to Him.  That's not just a mission thing- throughout life we're led to live in certain places, work with certain people, go to school to school with certain people, etc.  I know that's true and I know that as we accept that, we'll not only be worked into being more fine tuned instruments in the hands of the Lord, but the Lord will use us as instruments in His hands to help fine tune others as well.  Ammon and His brothers were really justified in glorying the Lord- I think I've been recently blessed with a taste of the joy they had, and it's great!  I hope to always try to be who the Lord would have me be and I would admonish the rest to do the same!  Where you are doesn't matter so much as to where you're going, so if there are any corrections that you need to make, do it!  And if not, keep going forward!

Thanks for all the support back home!  I hope you have a great upcoming week!

-Elder Griffiths

Aplicando La Doctrina de Cristo

Hello!

Halfway through the cycle already, eh?  Well May brought some nice showers for us today.  Walking to pick up some pictures with Elder Richards at CVS, I got soaked.  I didn't think it was going to be raining too bad but it got pretty bad while we were inside.  But yeah the weather is nice right now, so hopefully it doesn't get terribly hot too soon...

This past week wasn't terribly exciting.  We taught some lessons, but the people we're working with are either new or not progressing.  Tuesday was great, though!  It was kind of a double whammy of out pouring of the Spirit of the Lord.  I was on an exchange with Elder Lartey, one of the Zone Leaders and at the same time we had a Zone Conference.  Between talking to Elder Lartey throughout the day and taking everything in at the Zone Conference, I was spiritually exhausted (but teaching and doing everything in English was nice for a change).  One thing that President Morgan is emphasizing is the Doctrine of Christ, or essentially applying the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our lives.  As missionaries, we essentially are inviting and helping people to apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their lives as they develop faith in Christ, repent and change of their old ways to live in harmony of the teachings of Christ, are baptized and cleansed, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to help them to keep going forward and then help them to develop habits to always follow Christ until they're accepted into His kingdom.  As we teach that, we really need to be living that too.  We need to be studying, praying and going to church to receive revelation to increase our faith to the point that we want to change.  We then repent of the things we're doing wrong according to this greater light we've received.  We then recommit ourselves to following Christ as we renew our covenants with the Sacrament each week.  That's followed by the sanctification by the Holy Ghost, which leads us to more faith and light on how we can change, and the cycle keeps going.  Enduring to the end consists of constantly striving to make this cycle an active part of your life.  I believe a lot of times we kind of do it automatically, but as we take the time to consciously recognize it, we can even better apply it and gain a vision of how much the gospel really means to us.  President Morgan has encouraged us to better apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our lives so that we can teach with more conviction.  I know that as I've better understood it, I've been that much more grateful and happy and in a disposition to share it with others.  So check it out!  Read 2 Nephi 31 or 3 Nephi 27.  Learn, live, become!

Things are going well!  The mission is super humbling.  I've felt lower than dirt about four times in the past three weeks.  But with all the downs, come ups that make the downs look like nothing, so it's all worth it!  I know what I'm doing is what the Lord wants me to do and if anybody reading this is unsure about missionary service- do it!  You won't regret it.

I hope you all have a great week!  And happy Mothers Day coming up!  That should be good!

-Elder Griffiths