3 baptismal dates!

2.22.16

This week we set 3 baptismal dates!! One is with Ralph for the 17 of

March, and the other two are Junior and Emily Binkley for the 19 of

March:) We are praying that they will all make it to their dates. We

have been teaching both of them twice a week, so they should be ready

by that time:)

The ward has been super helpful with Ralph. We went over to Ralph's

house and made a list of all of things he needs to get fixed in his

house. We then got it to the bishop and he assembled a dream team of

ward members who will be able to help Ralph fix up his house. They are

going to be staring work on his house next couple of weeks.

Teaching Junior and Emily again has been lots of fun. They are really

smart kids, and retain a lot of the doctrine we teach them.

We also had an awesome double exchange this week. I went with an

awesome member named brother Ayala. We went and saw this returning

member, sister Ramos. She has been through a lot, but really has a

goal to go and do temple work for her family members that have passed

away. She hasn't came to church in a while, so we decided to teach her

about the importance of the sacrament. The lesson went really well,

and we also ended up talking about the importance of keeping the

Sabbath day holy. She gets really bad migraines, and it makes it hard

for her to come to church. We gave her a priesthood blessing and

promised her that if she came to church that God would help her with

her headaches. The next day she went to the temple to do a tour with a

bunch of other investigators/recent converts from our ward. Then she

came to church the next day!! We're are hoping to help her get family

names and go do their work next month:)

Also this week received an really solid member referral from a member

in Arizona, who has a friend that wanted to know more about the

church. We went over and taught him Saturday morning. He is the

coolest guy and has the nicest family. He is super in tune with the

spirit and is a sincere seeker of truth. We briefly went over the

Restoration with him and extended the invitation to read and pray

about the Book of Mormon. He told us he would read it thoroughly and

pray about it. We will be going back to teach him this Saturday.

Please keep him in you prayers, his name is Charles.

This week we are hoping to work with all of the part-member families

in our ward. We have 80+ in our ward! It should be a good week. Our

bishop also gave us another list of 10+ families for us to visit. We

are staying pretty busy, but I am loving it.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Griffin

Helping Ralph & cracked i-pads & dropped tvs

2.15.16

Today is the start of another transfer, and we learned that I will be

staying with elder Thomas for one more transfer! I haven't stayed with

a companion for more then 2 transfer for a while, so it will be a nice

change.

  This week we learned quite a bit of sad news. Two of our

investigators, Larry and Lisa, are moving in a couple of weeks. Which

means that we they will probably get baptized in the new ward they are

moving to. We were pretty bummed, but they both fell like it is the

right thing to do. We are going to help make sure that the bishop and

missionaries in their new ward gets contacted, so that they are

prepared to receive Larry and Lisa. Hopefully they adjust well to

their new ward:)

  This week I also had another crazy things happen. We had just got

done teaching a recent convert, and we headed to the church to do some

last minute planning. As we got out of the car, I realized that I

didn't have my I Pad. I remembered putting it on the side of the truck

bed, but couldn't remember if I ever put it in the car. We drove back

to the neighborhood where we had taught the recent convert and found

it in the road. I picked it up. The case had a couple tears, but

nothing to bad. Then I opened the case and the screen was all cracked.

Elder Thomas looked at the back of it in the light and could see a

light tire mark. It had either fallen under our tire, or another car

had run it over:( It was pretty crazy, but luckily I was able to get a

loaner for the time being!

  This week we we had our zone council. I was pretty anxious going

into is, because I really wanted to make it a spiritual, unifying

expire nice for our zone. We got to the church and started setting up.

As we were setting up, we had grabbed a TV from the library to show a

video. We got the tv into the room and plugged it in. We realized that

we needed a different tv. I went to move the old tv, but for some

reason didn't remember to unplug it:) It starting fall off the stand

it was on. Luckily I was able to grab it with one hand, barley

stopping it from hitting the ground! Everyone was dying laughing, I

was just glad that I was able to stop it from hitting the ground! It

was a small tender mercy for sure. The rest of the zone council went

really well. Elder Thomas started out by giving a training on how to

simply teach our investigators the doctrine of the Godhead. It was a

great training and it generated a beautiful discussion. The nature of

God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost is one of the most important

things we teach and testify of as missionaries. Without a knowledge of

the nature and purpose of the Godhead, their would be no purpose of

use to come to earth, no need for a restoration and no way for us to

have happiness now, and happiness after death. What a blessing it is

to know that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are real and very

involved in our life's. Following his training, I was able to give a

training on how to resolve concerns of our investigators. We then took

what we learned and practiced teaching the Godhead to our companions.

it was awesome! We have an amazing zone:) The whole purpose of our

zone council was to help us becoming more persuasive teachers, so that

we can bring more people unto Christ. President Ames really wants us

to sharpen our teaching skills, because we were given a very powerful

blessing from elder Christoffernson when he came to our mission (He

came 2 months ago, I don't know if I told you about his visit. I can

never remember what I write in my journal and what I email you guys:))

This was part of the blessings he left us "That in our teaching we can

be more persuasive, more powerful and that your testimony will be

accompanied by the Holy Ghost, as well as your teaching, that our

teaching will reach people more than ever before. They have the right

to choose how they will respond [to our teaching and testimony] but

your witness can be strong enough that they cannot disbelieve it,

whatever they chose to do about it" What a powerful blessing! It was

super neat. I am so grateful that zone council went so well.

 We were also finally able to have a sit down lesson with Ralph! It

can be super hard to keep him focused, he loves to go on random

tangents. Saturday morning we went to the church and picked up a food

order for Ralph. We boxed up all the food and brought it to him. He

was super grateful. We then were able to teach him the power of

prayer. He made a lot of good comments and we were able to share unite

a few scriptures with him. We extended an invitation to have him pray

every morning and night. He accepted. It has been really hard to set a

baptismal date with him, because his house needs a lot of work and his

priorities are fixing his house. In PEC Sunday morning our bishop

decided that we are going to make Ralph's house a ward service

project. Bishop want's a list made of all of the things that need to

be done and then he is going to reach out to the ward and find someone

to fix each thing. It was awesome to see the ward get so involved with

someone who isn't even baptized! He even made the comment that they

aren't doing it because he might be baptized. It was so awesome! I

love this ward.

        Well I hope you all had a great Valentines Day, and showed someone a

little extra love:)

Elder Griffin

Here is my cracked i Pad

Tamika at a super old Cafe and Ralph's fixer upper

2.8.16

This week was very busy and we were able to accomplish/be a part of a

lot of good things.

  The first thing that we were able to participate in was 3 district

meetings. We usually only go to our own district meeting, but we were

invited to go to the other ones. It was a really good way to help

unify us with the members of our zone. In the first one we went to we

had an awesome discussion on Charity and how we need to teach people

though the eyes of the Savior. It was just what elder Thomas and I

needed to hear. We are teaching a lot of people who have tones of

temporal needs, and it can be hard for them to prioritize their lives.

They seem to always put the gospel and the commitment invitations we

leave them last. The charity lesson helped me to have more patience

and see things more from their view point. The next district meeting

we talked about the importance of planning and the importance of

having unity in your companionship. The last district meeting that we

went to was all in Spanish! One of the more seasoned missionaries

translated for us, it was pretty interesting:)

        This week we were also able to have a really good lesson with a lady

name Tamika. She was a referral from this really awesome member,

sister Thornton. We taught her at this super old Cafe. She is a really

cool lady, and was super open with us. She was simply at a point in

her life where she felt like she was not very close with God. We had a

really good discussion about the nature of God, as well as the power

of prayer. We were also able to teach the Restoration to her and

committed her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We are going

to be setting up another lesson with her this week!

        We were able to see Ralph as well this week. We went and did service

for an hour, helping him fix up his house. He bought this plaster/clay

material that we smeared all over his wall. Then you let it dry and

paint over it. It gives the wall a pretty cool texture. It was pretty

fun, but my hoodie and jeans got covered in the plaster stuff:) We are

hoping to get Ralph baptized by the end of this month. He comes to

church every week, and the ward has been super good at fellowshipping

him. He also got his car back from the shop this last week, which

should help him get done all things he needs to do.

        I love the Savior and testify that he is real! Have a great week and

don't have too much fun skiing without me:)

Elder Griffin

Keys locked in car, Aleena's getting baptized & Lisa and Larry's Wedding

2.1.16

This morning has been a little crazy. We had to find a laundry mat,

because our dryer is destroying our clothes:) We finally found one,

but I accidentally looked the keys in the car. We had to wait for our

office elders to bring us the spare. Luckily it didn't take too long

and we were able to start our laundry! Due to this we are pretty

rushed on time, but I will share a couple of highlights from the week.

The fist highlight was an exchange I went on with elder Arygle. He

goes home at the end of this transfer. One of my first exchanges on my

mission was with elder Arygle, so it was really fun to be his

companion for a day. He is a really cool guy and a great missionary.

On exchange we were able to teach this 11 year old girl named Aleena.

She is an amazing little girl, and she has a really strong spirit

about her. I know for a fact that Heavenly Father has a lot of great

things in store for her. She is getting baptized on February 13th. We

were also able to have a lot of good conversations, and he was able to

give me a lot of good council.

We were also able to attend Lisa and Larry's Wedding. Our bishop

preformed it in his office. It was very short, but was a beautiful

experience. We then went to their home and had cake and this yummy ice

cream beverage. We are hoping to set baptismal dates with Lisa and

Larry pretty soon. The only hold back is that they work the night

shifts, and Lisa works on Sunday. We are going to have an open

conversation with them and try to help them see what they need to

accomplish in order to be prepared for baptism.

   Well I have to run, but I love you all and hope you have a

successful, and happy week!

Love,

Elder Griffin