One of my favorite parts of the MTC has been the opportunity to get to know all of the amazing elders and sisters in my zone. They are all great missionaries and we have awesome personalities. I have never felt the spirit, laughed so hard and taught so powerfully then with the missionaries in my zone. Every night before we go to bed we have this elder (Elder Parkinson) tell us a story. He is literally the most interesting man I have ever meet! He knows anything about everything and can make me laugh until I cry. I have another elder (Elder Hassinger) who has only been a convert for 1 year and is now serving a mission! My companion and I have grown closer each day. We have such a great connection when we teach. He also has a very powerful testimony that touches our investigators. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to meet all of these amazing people and will miss my companion dearly! He leaves a day earlier then me, this Monday. He leaves at 8:30 and flies to Texas, then he goes to London and finally to South Africa! I think he told me that the total time he will be flying is 26 hours!
In my first letter I mentioned we would be teaching an investigator named Frank. We have now had the chance to teach him for a week and my experience with him has been amazing. The first time we taught him my companion and I were super nervous. We didn't have that much teaching experience and we didn't know much about Frank. When we got to his room we knocked on the door and he let us in. Then after introducing himself we dove straight into the restoration and blew through the whole lesson in about ten minutes. We left him feeling confused and it left us feeling frustrated and a little disappointed. The next time we visited him, we were determined to do a better job. This time as we entered his room we took the time to understand who he was and what he needed to help him get closer to Christ. We learned that he was a die hard Catholic and had a great love for following Christ and serving others. After we took the time to get to know him we decided that he need to hear about the Atonement of Christ and that we should talk to him about baptism. As we taught him about the atonement and baptism he started to become curious and wanted to know more. Towards the end of the lesson we talked about following Christ and being baptized the way he was. We then asked him if he would follow Christ and be baptized by the proper authority of God by immersion. He didn't except. He said that he had already been baptized as a baby and he didn't think he needed to do it again. We decided to leave him with a Book of Mormon and had him read 2 Nephi chapter 31, that talks about the doctrine of Christ. We also asked him to pray to God and ask if he needed to be baptized again. He said he would:) We were so happy that this time we had been able to be lead by the spirit to know what to teach him. As we continued to go and teach Frank he continued to understand more about Heavenly Fathers plan and how he needed to be baptized, but he still didn't feel like he was getting an answer to his prayers. After teaching him four times, we felt like we had hit a wall. Frank wasn't getting an answer to any of his questions, and we felt like he hadn't felt the spirit testify to him that he needed to get baptized and that the Book of Mormon was true. We prayed and prayed to know what to do and finally during one of our classes we found the answer. We decided we needed to read the Book of Mormon together. We had an amazing experience that lesson. As we read from the Book of Mormon, something clicked. He finally softened his heart and started to realize why he needed to be baptized again. Also while Frank was reading the Book of Mormon with us, he received personal revelation from God. We were so excited to see Frank finally started to feel the spirit testifying to him! I can't wait to teach him again.
This Wednesday we got to see all of the new missionaries come into the MTC! It was so fun to see them, and know that I was in that exact same spot a week ago. It brought back a flood of memories and it made me realize how far I have already come. My companion and I also had the chance to welcome all of the new elders and sisters in our zone. We got to give them a tour of the MTC and let them know all of the tips that we have learned. They are a great group, full of energy and a willingness to serve! Well I am out of time, but I want you all to know that I love you and have appreciated all of the letters and packages!!!! It's such a blessing to know that I have so many loved ones supporting me!:)
Love,
Elder Griffin
P.S. Here are some pictures!! My companion is the big guy with the swoopy hair:)
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