This week has been great. Filled with tons of bike riding and
missionary work!:) Conference was absolutely amazing! Those men and women
defiantly had revelation from God. What a blessing it is that we have a living
prophet on this earth today!
First off I want to tell you a sad update on Tracy the lady we
meet my first week. Last week we got a call from her early in the morning. She
told us that she was leaving on vacation and would not be back until December:(
We will for sure pick things back up when she gets back, we are just hopping
that she doesn't forget the things we have taught her or fall into the
temptations of the devil. We have been teaching this lady named Rachel that I
believe I mentioned in last weeks email. She is awesome! She originally wanted
us to come over to help her husband who is going through a hard time due to the
death of his mother. She wanted us to help her help him come closer to Jesus
Christ. But know she is becoming interested in learning for herself if our
message is true. We went over this past week and taught her the Restoration.
During the lesson she asked atone of questions which I loved, because they were
sincere and her intent in asking them was to get answers not to bash. We
brought with us a ward missionary named Brother Payne. He is this 70 year old
man that knows so much about the gospel! He has been a huge help. He is also a
convert from the baptist church, so he understands what Rachel is going
through. After the lesson, Rachel was really honest with us and said that her
only concern was that she didn't want to commit to our church unless this truly
was the true church of Jesus Christ. She was kind of worried it was just
another church to try. We reassured her that by reading the Book of Mormon and
asking God through prayer if these things are true that God will answer her. We
then left her with lots of church reading material, so she could really
understand about our church. She is so open and honest with us and is really
searching for the truth. I pray that as she ponders and searches the Book of
Mormon that she will get a testimony of its truthfulness! She also has this
cute little 4 year old daughter that I got to read stories with for a little
bit. I can't wait to teach this Tuesday and see if she got an answer to here
prayers:) This week we got to do some service at the Talbot's home. They had
this tree in their backyard that they wanted us to chop down so it wouldn't
have a chance to fall on their house. It wasn't that big of a tree, but boy was
it a stubborn old thing!:) It took a lot of time, patience and sweet but we
eventually got it cut down!! It probably didn't help that the ax was duller
then a a kitchen butter knife:) We lift with quiet a few blisters, but also
with a great feeling of satisfaction. We also got to visit with Jerome again
this week. He is such a loving and caring man, but it's very hard to teach him
because he rarely stops talking. You have to be ready when he takes a breath to
hurry and get in what you need to say:) He is pretty set in his ways, but I
think with a little softening of the heart from the Lord that he will
eventually realize the truth of our message. We also had the chance to see
Claudia again this week. We came into her care center right when she was about
to smoke:( She has wanted the sacrament for the longest time but can't have it
unless she quite smoking. After she was done smoking we sat down with her and
she asked us how we can determine if a thought is coming from God or Satan. We
told her that only good thoughts can come from God, and that our Heavenly
Father will never tell us to do something that will harm our bodies. She told
us that she said a prayer asking God if she could smoke that day and that she
had received an answer that she could. Also at the same time she was about to
smoke we showed up. We had a good discussion and I think it helped her realize
that the answer she got that said she could smoke was from Satan. This week we
are going to teach go over the blessing of keeping the Word of Wisdom, it
should be a great lesson! This Friday we went to the Library and made lots of
flyers, then we rode our bikes all over the place and gave them to our
investigators and less-actives. It was a long bike ride, but it felt good to
work hard. On the way home we stopped by brother Davis's house and got some
water. While there he had a scale in his kitchen so I thought I would see what
the mission had done to my weight. After stepping on the scale I was surprised
to learn that I have gained a little over 10 pounds only only a few short
months! I'll have to watch what I eat a little better:)
Saturday we went and watched conference at the church with all
of the other missionaries. It was great! My favorite talks were the one by the
general primary president on the Sacrament. I loved how she talked about making
the Sacrament a more sacred experience. I also loved President Monson's talk
about the German battle ship and how we need to keep our rudders steered in the
right direction. It was a powerful talk! Also this Sunday we went to see this
couple from the Congo who speak French. Our previous visit we had left the
husband with a French copy of the Book of Mormon, and he was pretty excited.
When we came back yesterday we brought a ward member named Boviek who speaks 12
languages, including French!! He is a great guy and is also a convert. This
time when we knock on the door the wife was the only one their. We went in and
we talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. After that she told us her
testimony of her church and about this Prophet guy named Brnamn who they believe
is a prophet of God. I had never heard of him before and we left very confused
and frustrated. She was a really nice lady though, and I think she will be very
accepting of the message of the restoration.
Well my time is up, but thank you so much for all of your love
and prayers!
Love,
Elder Griffin
P.S. Mom, could you please tell Mark and Jessica thank you for
the wonderful package they sent:) Also could you send me a CD with the song
"more" on it by Kennith Cope? I love you so much and thank you for
always being happy and cheerful:)
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