This week was awesome! I taught more lessons this week then any
other week on my mission. This area is so full of amazing, and humble people
who actually listen. We also set a good amount of return appointments! There is
this cool saying that our zone has been applying lately. It's called TWE-TAP.
It stands for Talk With Everyone-They Are Prepared. I have such a testimony of
talking with everyone you see. I have meet some amazing people, that I would
have never meet if I would have just passed right by them. At times it can be
hard and uncomfortable to talk to everyone you see and sometimes we do let
people pass by us, but the important thing is we set goals that will stretch us
and then we rely on God to help us reach those goals. This Friday elder
Mohrmann had a cool experience with this. During our nightly planning session
we decided that we were going to teach 4 lessons that day. The next morning
after studies we got on our knees, told God our goal and asked him to give us
the courage and confidence to get 4 lessons. We then went to this street called
Harvest Ridge and started tracting. This street was a miracle street! We ended
up teaching 4 lessons and giving out 5 Book of Mormons:) We also ended up
setting up two return appointments. It was so amazing to see God consecrating
our plans and giving us his power to teach all of these people. It was such a
great experience and it gave me a whole new perspective on how much potential
this area actually has. There was a comment made this week that really got me
thinking, I am not sure who said it, but they were talking about how the area we
are in is a piece of God's vineyard that He has entrusted us with. We are
responsible to watch over His children in our given areas. It was such a
powerful comment, and it has really helped me realize how great and important
this responsibility really is that elder Mohrmann and I have been given.
This week I was also able to go on two more
wonderful exchanges. The first one was with elder Ray. He is super cool and is
a really hard working, but still knows how to have fun missionary. This was the
first time I have had to led our area alone, so I was a little anxious going in
to it. I decided to go and try some potentials near the top of our area. We
visited those people, but didn't have too much success. Following that we just
started contacting and talking with everyone, and ended up talking to this cool
guy from Africa, who is a truck driver. We also meet a really nice lady named
Lily who told us that she would love for her family to hear our message:) It
was a lot of fun, and it was such a joy to meet such kind and open people. The
one thing I learned from elder Ray was that if you ever don't know what to say
or draw a blank always refer back to the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon
truly is one of the most powerful tool we have in converting others. The second
exchange was with my zone leader elder Coats. He is such a loving guy and is
super good at being diligent in sharing the gospel. Our exchange we meet this
really nice lady name Ocea. She is a minister as well as a religious counselor.
It was cool to hear about how she is making a difference in the world, by using
God and his love to help struggling people. During the visit with her she told
us she loves visiting churches, and so we gave her our number and the church
address. That night she sent us like 6 texts, telling us how nice we were and
that her home is open for us any time we would like. She also said she was
looking forward to learning more about our religion and expanding her knowledge
of Jesus Christ. It was pretty incredible to see a complete stranger open up
like that and show us so much kindness and support. We are hoping to meet with
her this week.
I also had my first district meeting this
week. I was pretty nervous at first, because I didn't really know what to
expect. We started out by singing a song, and it didn't go so great:) There are
no sister missionaries in my district, and all of us couldn't hit a note to
save our lives! It was pretty funny, and it was hard to keep a straight face;)
Luckily after the closing prayer, we were all able to quite down. I gave a
short training on the importance of commitments and then we did a role play. (
this is where we practice a missionary teaching skill) Following that two
elders gave an awesome training on following up. One of the elders shared a
personal experience from when he was playing soccer and how he learned the
importance of following up. After that I gave a training on crying repentance.
It was a super fun training to give. Even though at times I was a bit shaky,
God answered my prayers and it ended up turning out pretty good. It helps that
I have such amazing missionaries in my district! After the meeting one of the
zone leaders did an evaluation with me. It helped a lot, because it helped me
see what I did well on and also what I can change/improve for the next district
meeting.
I hope everyone is doing well and getting
excited for school to end! I can't believe how fast the school year went. I
know this church is true, and I want to testify of the importance of scripture
reading, if there is ever a time that you feel down or discouraged look to the
scriptures and the calming feeling of the spirit will enter your heart. Have a
great week!
Love,
Elder
Griffin
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