Adios Papa...

Hello all!

Transfers came, and so I'm currently writing from...  ...Harlem still.  Same ward, same area, but Elder Topham left to go upstate.  He went back to his area up in the Yorktown ward (I've seen pictures and it looks beautiful up there.  I hope I end up going upstate at some point.  That's kind of the opposite attitude a lot of people have...) for his last cycle, and I'm excited for him because it sounded like his upstate area was great and it seems like he'll have some great opportunities to get to tie up some loose ends and finish the work that the Lord wants him to do up there.  I'm glad I got to serve with him and even though things weren't always smooth sailing, I still love him and was sad to see him go.  I think we'll be lifetime friends though, so I'll be looking forward to keeping in touch with him!

So with him gone, I obviously have a new companion.  His name is Elder Loera, he was recently serving in the Bronx, but has been all over.  He came out with Elder Topham, but since he was raised speaking Spanish he only spent three weeks in the MTC and thus has only two cycles left.  He seems really humble and willing to work hard, so I'm pumped to work with him!  He's also a native speaker, so my Spanish will probably improve this cycle.  So that's that!

This past week was pretty good.  We had a "mini mission" with a  guy in our ward with a mission call.  He came over and spend the night and lived the missionary life from Wednesday night to Saturday afternoon, so sharing that experience with him was cool.  During that time, we had some pretty good lessons, including one with the family we are currently teaching.  They're making lots of progress and it's great seeing their lives being blessed as they return to gospel.  We also set a baptismal date with another one of our investigators!  She's a little iffy about baptism, so it was a great miracle that she agreed to a date.  Now we're going to do our part prepare her and let the Spirit do the rest.  Other than that, things have been kind of slow with transfers.  Elder Topham had a lot of stuff he needed to pack up, so that took awhile (and was stressing me out too, so I'm pretty emotionally exhausted right now I guess).  A lot of stuff switched around at transfers, so it was really sad to see people go.  We had Sister Aguirre (mi paisana- she's originally from Mexico but recently lived in Peachtree City) Elder Bowker, and Elder Topham leave from our district and then some other switch ups of some of my mission friends.  It felt like leaving BYU all over again to an extent, but I guess I'll probably get used to transfers after a few more.  So yep, that's about it.  I'm looking forward to good upcoming cycle!  Next cycle we have forty missionaries coming in, so I'm going to be trying to prepare to train, just in case.  I guess we'll see...

We've been eating a lot of food lately.  We had three dinners Monday, two lunches and a big dinner Saturday.  Luckily, Elder Loera is game to go running and work out at the gym, otherwise I'd be slightly concerned about gaining a little weight.  I've been doing good thus far otherwise, but doing solid exercise (as opposed to jumping jacks) should just make sure I'm good to go.

I think that's about it.  Thanks for all the support- I hope everybody is doing well!

-Elder Griffiths

El Gozo del Evangelio

Buenas Tardes!

Already done with five weeks in the cycle- crazy, crazy...  Next week is transfers, so everybody is getting a little antsy.  I feel like things are going to switch up for me- from what predictions have been made by other missionaries and what I've felt it sounds like I might stay and Elder Topham will go back to one of his old areas or something for his last cycle, and I might train.  But I'm really trying hard not to anticipate anything so that when things don't go how I think they're going to go, it doesn't throw me off or anything.  But I know that President Morgan is inspired, so whatever happens is going to be the will of the Lord.

Anywhoo, this week was pretty good.  We went on a split with a couple of ward members on Thursday night and that was different being without another missionary for a couple hours.  Friday we had a great leadership conference for the Manhattan missionaries (I think there's about fifty to sixty of us on the island) and it was super inspiring!  We've got a new set of what we call "Standards of Excellence" that give us the number of lessons and such we should be having every week.  We also talked a lot about how we really need to step things up with the new missionaries coming.  The work of the Lord is really going forward!  I really thing we're going to see some drastic things happen in the next year or two alone.  After that we had some appointments, then English class, then one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Hulme (Zone Leaders work in the North part of our ward), came to Harlem East for an overnight exchange.  We had some good appointments on Saturday and I just enjoyed being with Elder Hulme- he's funny and just a good person to talk to.  He's going to be majoring in Chemical Engineering at BYU too, so I'm looking forward to being able to keep up our friendship after the mission.  Saturday night the sisters had a baptism and then we switched back.  Sunday was good- went to church and then pretty much just came back and I split with our roommates to be with one of them that wasn't feeling so good.  We talked and enjoyed one another and I was able to make some phone calls and set up some appointments (speaking Spanish on the phone is rough, but I'm able to hold my own nowadays, thanks to God of course!), and baked some brownies for district meeting the next day.  We went into Monday with five lessons scheduled for after district meeting, but two of them didn't work out.  They were good though and we had a member at each one.  One the greatest things I've seen thus far in the mission is the progress of a less active family we've been working with.  I do believe I talked about the miracle of finding them like six or seven weeks back or something.  Anyways, they're making great progress!  The whole family came to church Sunday, we've had some great lessons with them and their thirteen year old boy said that now he wants to serve a mission!  Seeing them progress and return to the joy they once knew is super satisfying and helps me to push on through the rough times.  I also have had a chance to use math on the mission, helping one of our investigators to prepare for the GED and then helping another with some prep for her Calculus exam coming up, so it's cool to see how the Lord has utilized such specific blessings during my service.  Yesterday we had planned to travel down to 14th street to translate for a recent convert at the LDS Employment center, but that fell through, so we we're able to go put some English class fliers in some deli's and other stores and we had a good appointment with an inactive who has a nonmember husband.  They said they were both going to come to church Sunday!  Afterwards, we had English class and then came home.  Today we're planning on playing volleyball with our zone so that'll be cool.  And starting tonight, we're taking one of guys in our ward with a mission call (to New Jersey- crazy...) on a mini-mission where he'll be with us until Saturday (including sleeping over and stuff), so that's exciting.  Things are going forward!

So yep, hope all is well at home!  Thanks once again for all your support!

-Elder Griffiths

Por las Cosas Pequenas

Hello All!

I guess while everybody is talking about weather, I'll put in my little bit. It's been fairly warm here in the city (I've just been going out in my suit coat, no over coat) for three days out of the past week and that's been good. Yesterday, though, it got back to being cold and today it's cold and wet and not pleasant. The wind and moisture make it kind-of-cold to not pleasant at all.

Anyways, things are going well here! Things are definitely picking up and this last week was solid. I'm going to send you a chunk of my letter to President about how things are going...

We did very well in having lessons with members and we feel like we're making good progress! Since last week we've had some good meetings with the Young Men's President, Counselor in the Bishopric over missionary work and Bishop Gamez that have given us plenty of work to do and have started the ball rolling to really strengthen this area and make it flourish. We're going to be working on the ward mission plan, the role of ward missionaries in that plan, setting up better correspondence between all of the ward auxiliaries and many more exciting things. We've presented ourselves as happy helpers in whatever the ward wants us to do and we're planning on following through and being the help that they needed. We feel like we're getting more and more support of the members as we take them out and work with them and things are looking great! I just can see the Lord hastening His work and it's a great honor to be a part of it. I can't wait to continue to move forward in the work and see everything play out!

So like I said, things are going well! There are definitely still frustrations here and there, but over all we're seeing great progress. Last Wednesday after the temple and writing home, we had dinner at the Young Men's presidents house and we just talked about the work, particularly in regards to the Young Men. He's a solid guy going to Colombia Law school and we've been working with him a good bit lately. We ate barbecue (served his mission in North Carolina) and that was sweet! Thursday we did weekly planning, passed out some English flyers and then went and had some solid appointments with some members and less actives. We ate Sancoche at a less active's house. It's a Dominican left over stew that's pretty good but sometimes has chicken or cow feet in it and stuff like that. Friday we went and did stuff in the Sister's area (West side- we worked down pretty close to Times Square where there are a just a bunch of big, nice buildings), then went to English class. Saturday we went to a lunch appointment in the Sister's area where we ate Saviche (Ecuadorean dish that consists of sea food with onions. I hate it, and ate as little as possible), then we went to a couple of great appointments. Sunday we had one investigator at church, but we had a couple of less actives that were there. Afterwards, we went on a goose chase to get some money to a member who was going out to Ecuador for a funeral then we got to an appointment late and that was it because we have church at 1:00. Monday we had district meeting and then afterwards we finished our studies, passed out some English class flyers, went to the hospital to give a blessing, then went to one of the bishopric members house for dinner and had a great talk with him. And ate great, non-Hispanic food, not that Hispanic food is bad, but it was good going back to some home cooked gringo food. Yesterday we went and did some service at an old folks home on the west side where everybody speaks Spanish, then went and did some street contacting as a Zone in our area (I'm getting better about going up to random people in the streets and just talking to them about the church- I used to have a really hard time doing such.) After that we tried looking up a less active, then we went to an appointment and got juked, so then we just went with the young men's president (who was with us) to one of the less active families that we've been working with and just had a good visit with them. That was about it for the night. And here we are today. We were going to go downtown and just walk around but things aren't looking like they're going to work out, but that's okay because it's not nice outside and I'm enjoying just sort of chilling today and not being to pressed with time. So yeah like I said, things are going well! We're working together and getting stuff done and starting to see the fruits of our labors and things are just going to keep picking up! We haven't had any baptisms yet, but we've done a good bit to just strengthen the ward and we're looking forward to chugging a lot and keeping it up! One thing we've taught and I've seen play out is the idea that "by small and simple things are great things brought to past" (Alma 37:6-7) because it's true. The road to eternal life is made up of small steps taken one at a time. As we spend a little bit of time reading scriptures everyday, praying everyday, going to church every week, these little things add up and take us to great places. It's been really cool seeing that play out and I challenge anybody reading this to give that principle some good thought.

Thanks for all the support from back home! I hope everything is going well!

-Elder Griffiths

Es Bueno Para Ser Inspirado Por Dios

Good Evening!

Things are rolling along here in Harlem.  We're officially halfway through the cycle, and as always, time is flying.  It'll only be a matter of time before I'm getting shipped off or switch up companions or something like that.

Anyways, as far as the work goes, this last week was a lot better.  We had two investigators passed on to us from the English program- a fifteen year old guy and his mom.  He speaks English perfectly, but the mom doesn't so we've got them now.  His name is Juan and he's got a baptism date of January 26th, and we're going to issue the same date to her tonight.  They're great- they both love the church and have great faith, so we're looking forward to moving onward with them!  We also had one of our other investigators that we kind of dropped, Aura, came for the second time in the past couple of weeks and stayed for the full three hours so we're looking forward to working with her too!  And our key indicators- the numbers we set goals for and report such as lessons with members, investigators with baptismal dates, etc- changed and are more focused on working with members with other members, less active, and investigators rather than just with investigators.  We've been working a lot with members and less actives already, so the new indicators justify our work and make us realize that we've been doing what the Lord wants us to do- it's great!  We've also had just little things here and there that have come up that show that we're doing what the Lord wants us to do.  For everybody, as we just go forward relying on God- praying, reading the scriptures, going to church, doing the things to show that we're seeking for revelation, we'll be blessed with that direction.  I'm trying to learn about revelation right now because it's so essential for everything!  So yup, things are going well.

So another "famous" Mormon in our ward- the girl on the cover of the New Era of the February issue.  I think.  She's in our area and we love going over to her family's house- they're a rowdy  fun bunch!  But yeah there seems to be a lot of people in our mission that are in mormon.org videos and stuff like that, so it's always cool making those connections.

Anyways, hope all is going well with you guys!  Thanks for all your support- hope everybody has a great week!

-Elder Griffiths

December Pictures!

BIG building!

Elder Noguira and Me

Grand Central Station -- pretty grand!

Junior's Cheesecake - good stuff!!!

Massive Mormon.org add

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Times Square - a little closer

Times Square

Elder Topham and Elder Griffiths in front of
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Mis Experiencias Caras...

Hello!

Another week gone by- crazy crazy.  This week, however, has been really slow.  We live with two other Elders who work in the Manhattan 2nd Ward (Upper East Side), and so one of them got sick, and Elder Topham was a little sick too during a good part of this week.  On top of that, it snowed pretty good Saturday, and we were to be inside at 6:00 on New Years Eve, so we just didn't go out a ton, so I feel like I haven't really had too many good spiritual experiences this past week.  I was able to get some good organizing done, so that was good, but it definitely doesn't feel as satisfying as teaching and seeing others progress.  I'm really excited to move forward from the holiday season and just get into the routine of regular life, teaching and finding and so on.

In the meantime, though, I had some great temporal experiences, I guess you could say.  After writing you, we went and saw the tree at the Rockefeller Center then walked around Time Square a little and then went to Grand Central Station to take the train home (the green line that runs through our area conveniently goes through Grand Central).  Being there in that part of the city really did exceed my expectations.  I guess I'm used to hearing people talk up certain things and places, but seeing that part of the city was grand!  It was breath taking and just really big and bright and just a lot to take in.  So yeah I can't wait to be able to come back as a normal person and be able to experience it in a different way.  And in Grand Central, we stopped by and picked up a cheesecake from Juniors and it was incredible.  It's supposed to be the best cheesecake in New York and yeah it was great!

Nothing much happened Thursday or Friday- just a couple appointments/member look ups and English class.  Saturday we went to English Class, came back and then it started snowing pretty good, and with Elder Topham being sick, we stayed inside for a bit.  Elder Stevens (Apartment mate) wasn't feeling good either,  so Elder Orellena (Other apartment mate that got here the same time I did) went out and did some street contacting with some sisters in the singles ward during which we had an encounter with the famous spitting lady of the Upper East Side (you could probably find something about her if you searched her on google).  After that we went to their dinner appointment.  It was crazy.  We met the members up at a French Restaurant and I got a $42 steak- probably one of the best meals I've had in my life.  That's just a taste of what happens when you work with the members in the Upper East Side.  But yeah it was a good experience getting to know some new people in English and stuff.  Sunday wasn't too exciting- church and then dinner at a  member's house.  Monday we did studies, went to district meeting and then I stayed at our apartment with Elder Stevens as Elder Topham and Elder Orellana went out.  I did some organizing, and then Elder Stevens woke up hungry, and so after some phone calls, he had a member order us all nice burgers and fries and cheesecake from a restaurant for dinner since we were supposed to be in by 6:00, so that was great.  Another taste of the Upper Eastside life.  Yesterday we did studies, went to a members house for lunch, walk across town (weren't many buses running) to an appointment with a less active, then went to a member appointment, then to English class.  Now here we are today.  We're planning on doing some shopping and then going back to clean up a little and write some letters and stuff, so that'll be good.

So that's about it!  This week should be good as we jump back into things.  We're also going down to the Rockaways this Saturday as a mission to do some more service, so that will be great!  And I think we'll be meeting up with missionaries from the South mission, so hopefully I'll see some of my friends that are serving there.  Thanks for all the support back home- hope you all have a Happy New Year!

-Elder Griffiths

p.s.  Oh and here's a video of a great member in our ward- Mama Daysi!  We found this today.  They are super supportive of the missionaries and have us over often.  We went there on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve- she's great!  And our building and some of the members in our ward are in the video so it was exciting seeing all of that.  So check it out...

http://bcove.me/p1vkh2c3

Feliz Navidad!

Hello All!

Merry Christmas to everybody- hope it was good!  I always am a little bummed after Christmas because the anticipation and lead up to Christmas and all the good that comes with that just suddenly ends.  But as with everything else that passes, it's always best to move forward, keeping in mind the lessons that you've learned to make later experiences in life better.

With the holidays, things have been kind of slow.  Focusing on specific individuals has been hard and so we've just been doing a lot of preparing gifts for people in English class, preparing and executing APFs (area proselyting focus- activities we do with our zone where we come together and either set up a table on the street, go tracting in a specific area or something along the lines of that), and lots of other little things here and there.  Getting past New Years will be great because then we'll be able to get back into the swing of things (which is something I really feel like I haven't experienced since I got here right after the hurricane, followed by Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas).

I can only think of a few particularly exciting things that happened this past week.  First off, we had our mission wide Christmas party so it was cool seeing everybody all together in one room.  That might be the last time I see that, especially after all the new missionaries come in.  Also we went caroling a couple of times and that was really great!  I love caroling and was glad I had the opportunity to do it here on the mission.  It snowed as we were doing it on Christmas eve so that was really nice and it felt pretty iconic (White Christmas in New York City- good stuff).  It's snowing again now just as we're about to head down town, so that'll be sweet seeing everything with Christmas decorations still up all in the snow.

We had a great experience with an investigator too.  Her name is Aura and she called us earlier last week after we had scheduled an appointment with her and told us that she really didn't have any intentions of getting baptized into our church.  We hadn't been over to her apartment in a while anyways, so we had kind of already dropped her, so we weren't terribly shocked.  We went to the appointment with a member that's good friends with her, and the Spirit was really strong and we just were able to be lead to say some good stuff that really touched her heart.  The next day was Sunday and she came to church and brought her kids and stayed the full three hours!  It really was a miracle and we're looking forward to following up with her and seeing where the Spirit takes us next time.  She has been taught the all the lessons already.  Twice.  So we're going to be doing some good thinking tomorrow in weekly planning.  

That's about all I can think about right now.  Thanks for all of the support once again!  You guys are great!  And Happy New Year!

-Elder Griffiths

Los Cambios Vino y...

Buenas Tardes!

Thanks for letters and stuff, it's always good to hear about what all is going on even if there really isn't a ton going on.

Preparation Day might just be my least favorite day because they always stress me out and I feel like I accomplish absolutely nothing that I need to accomplish.  Today we had transfers, so now I'm serving in... the exact same place, good ol' Harlem East/El Barrio (Little Mexico- one of the best places in Manhattan.  Legitimate Mexican everything).  Elder Topham and I are still together too and we're looking forward to a great cycle together!  We had some switch ups in zone though, so that'll be good to get to know more people and learn lots from them.  Being in the city, especially in Manhattan, our Zone is pretty compact and so we work together a lot as a zone, and even more so as a district, so that's great!  But yep, transfer times are exciting, I've decided, especially since they are so inspired.  I know I'm where Heavenly Father wants me to be with the people with whom He wants me to be and now I'm just hoping to do what He wants me to do and be who He wants me to be.

I don't have a lot of time to write, but things are going well.  I'm figuring out my role in the work and how to accomplish the things that have been asked of me.  I think often times human nature leads us to take the easy route, avoid pressure and tension and so on, even if that's exactly where we need to head.  When such thoughts have come to me, I think back on 1 Nephi 3:7 and how the Lord has made all that He has asked of us possible.  I've seen the Lord testing me in all sorts of ways that don't even seem fair, but I'm still determined to do His work in the manner that He has prescribed.  A lot of time it's not as straightforward to follow the rules and do what He wants, but I know that as we have faith in His power to work miracles, have hope in the promised blessings that come from obedience, have charity that drives us to work for others, and we go and do, all will work out in the timing of the Lord.  I've been studying and learning a lot about patience because waiting for those blessing can be tough.  Luckily we're all on the Lord's time and He knows best, so I encourage everybody just to just keep trying, just keep doing what you know to be right and you will be led down the exact road that you need.

So things are working out.  Missionary work isn't by any means always easy, but it's enjoyable.

And sorry to anybody who wrote me- I plan on writing everybody back, I just haven't had a lot of time.  I think in the next couple of weeks, I should find some good time to write back to you- thanks for the patience in the meantime!  I appreciate your support and everything!

Merry Christmas to all!

-Elder Griffiths

More Pictures...

Abrid Vuestras Bocas

Hello everybody! I don't have a lot of time to write (we're at a multizone Christmas party in North Manhattan and so I haven't been able to concentrate very well as I've read and replied to emails and stuff. I also take a good chunk of time to write to President Morgan, so that doesn't help either...), but I guess I can't think of a lot to say, so that works. Things have been going well! Elder Topham and I have been going forward under the direction of the Bishop, so we haven't been finding and teaching in the typical missionary sense. Most of our focus has been on stopping by less active members and trying to get them to come back to church and we've seen some miracles already! President Morgan really wants us working with the Bishop because he's the one who is best able to direct the work in our area. We're also just trying to build up member support, and it's going well so far! We're getting to know our ward and getting their backing, and we're getting little tastes of the fruits of our labors already. We can already see a bunch of potentially really solid investigators, so we're excited about that! One of the problems I've been having is that I hesitate and get scared and don't talk try to talk to people. I guess I fear rejection. And when you're crammed in trains, buses, elevators and walking on the streets with tons of people everyday, having such a fear leads to a lot of missed opportunities. So yeah I'm getting better at just starting to talk to people and inviting them to action. I'm not very good right now, but whenever I do just forget myself and go for it, I feel good afterwards for at least trying to spread the word of the Lord. A good saying that I've tried to use to motivate myself is "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." That's so true for everybody, though. I feel like at times we all have a friend that we love with whom we could share the gospel, but we don't because of our fear of rejection. If we just invite them to hear our message, testify that it's something that has changed our lives and testify that it could change their lives for the better, then the worst that they can do is say no. Looking for little opportunities to testify about simple or grand things can be good too. And one of the most important things to do is to invite out of love and a sincere desire to better their lives. It's something I'm working on and something I'd invite everybody else to work on too! So yep, things are going well. Transfers are in a week. I felt pretty sure that things were going to remain the same with us, but no I'm not so sure, but I guess I'll let you know next week! Thanks for the emails and the support from home- hope all continues to be well! -Elder Griffiths