Lost canes and a little cleaning up can save souls!

It really is crazy how fast time flies out here! These 3 months have gone by so quickly and it has been fun to look back and evaluate everything that has happened. I have grown so much and am very excited to see what awaits in these next transfers. This morning I got a call and was informed that I will be staying in the same area, but will be getting a new companion. His name is elder Walker. Elder Partridge told me that he is a really cool guy, and he is my same height:) It will be fun to see what his personality is like.

This week has been a great week. For the last week of my training I got to be senior companion for the week. It was really hard and super stressful, but it did show me that I can run this area now. It has been so fun to be able to know where everything and everyone in my area is.

Here are some of the highlights of the week: we got to go and eat dinner at the Binklies new house! It was so cool to see them in a home happy and safe. We have still been teaching Junior, and will be going over to teach him the other half of the commandments lesson this Tuesday. He is still doing very good, and I believe his new baptism date is December 6th:) Also this week it rained super hard and we got to go out and bike in it! We were soaked, but loved every moment of it:) While we were contacting this week we were in this neighborhood and we spotted this cane laying against a lamppost. We decided that we should see if we could find the owner so they could have their cane. The house it was in front was vacant and so elder Partridge said we should try the one across the street. We went over there and this really nice lady opened the door and started talking to us. She was very open and kind and told us all about her family. We then shared a scripture with her and then invited her to come to the family history center because she wanted help. It was so cool that we were able to find a wonderful lady that we can share the gospel with and all because we found a cane on the side of the road. It goes to show that the Lord always provides a way for his children who are ready to receive this gospel. We were also able to see dear sweet Claudia. When we stopped by to see how she was doing she was out smoking a cigarette:( But she only smoked half of it because she saw that we were there, so that was good. We took her into her room and started talking with her. She was not doing very well and was pretty down. We shared a message from the scriptures with her, but she was still super sad. I then had the thought that we should help her organize her little room. She got a big smile on her face and said that she would love to do that. We then helped her for the next 30 minutes to organize her room. When we were done she was happier then I have seen her in a long time:) I am so grateful for the guidance of the spirit. This week me and elder Peterson went to check on a wonderful family named the Bensons. We were going to see how there 9 year old baptismal arrangements were coming. I was really nervous, and didn't know how to go about bringing baptism up. I decided to start with a short message. After the message the spirit was there and it was easier to bring up baptism. I was so glad that they were open to talk about their daughter baptism. 

We also have gotten a lot of awesome referrals lately that have lots of great potential! I am super excited to start meeting with all of them:) Well I am out of time, but I hope you all have a good week and enjoy the beautiful fall season!

Love,

Elder Griffin

What every mother longs to hear...see the highlighted section:)

This week has been a good one, the weather has actually gotten cold enough that I thought about putting on my sweater:) Hopefully this time it will actually stay cold! This morning one of the members in our ward took us to Whataburger (a famous burger place) because this is probably elder Partridges last week! We got these really good burgers, they were huge! It was a fun surprise.

Early this week I went on exchange with a brand new missionary named elder Price. The exchange was in my area, which is always a good growing experience. While on exchange we went and visited Claudia. Just recently one of her daughters had a surgery to remove some cancer and the surgery went really well! She was very relieved and told us that God truly is watching out for her. Later in our meeting with her she said that she would like a blessing, because her back has really been hurting and she wanted help to quite smoking. It was an amazing blessing and the spirit was so strong! I love that God allows us to be his hands here on earth, and through us he blesses his children. It is such an honor to be his servant. Following the blessing we talked a lot about the scripture in Mathew that talks about taking the Saviors yoke upon us, and how we can put our load into his cart and let him pull with us. It is such a powerful scripture and it reminded me of how much we really need Jesus Christ! Following the meeting with Claudia we were heading to the church to meet with the Binklies, and we decided to contact this man on the street. We starting talking to him and testified to him of the Book of Mormon. After we had testified, he asked us a question that really got me thinking. He said "What is truth and how do you know it is truth" We told him that all truth comes from God and that the way we know that it is from God is through the spirit. It was an interesting conversation, and hopefully he will in the future take the missionary lessons. He also said he had a Book of Mormon, hopefully know he will read it! After that we went and taught the Binklies. We got to teach them the ten commandments, the word of wisdom and tithing. It has been so fun to teach Junior, he is a great listener and always has good questions. Also this week the Binklies moved in to their home! We were so excited for them, they are having us over for dinner this week:) It was a great exchange and I learned a lot.

Also this week for Halloween our ward had a Trunk or treat. Me and elder Partridge were in charge of these Halloween games for the kids. It was kind of crazy, but fun at the same time:) Also this family named the Geurs came, which was really great, because we have been trying to get them to come to church forever! Hopefully this will be a good first step and help them realize that they have a wonderful ward family that want them to come back. That same day a really nice member took us to this really good BBQ place! His name is Sam Cripe, and he is a convert of 1 year:) He is a really nice man and always goes on exchanges with us. 

Also this week we have been biking so much! It makes me super tired, but I love it:) We have been trying to contact a lot of referrals that we have received. There are a lot of good potential investigators that I think are definitely ready to hear the gospel. This one day we were biking to see some referrals, and we saw this homeless man with a flat tire sitting in this yard. We went over and started to talk to him. We helped him fix his tire the best that we could and then we starting discussing the Book of Mormon. He was a really nice guy and said that he loved us for teaching about Jesus. We left him with a Book of Mormon and invited him to church. When we left he have us a hug and said we were like brothers to him:) Being able to help people is one of the greatest things in the world!

One funny story that happened this week. I had gotten a flat tire, and had patched it up and put it back onto the frame. I then proceeded to fill it with air. As I was filling it up I noticed a large bulge in the frame, and then all of the sudden the tube exploded shooting slim and scaring the life out of me! My left ear was ringing for close to an hour, I have learned to be more patient when fixing a flat tire now:)

Well transfers are coming up this week and I am pretty nervous to see what happens. The only thing that gives me reassurance is that all things are in God's hands, and that the companion I get will be the one that I need. I t will be interesting to see what happens. I love you all and hope you had a great Halloween!

Love,

Elder Griffin

P.S. I'll try to get some picture this next week, I'm sorry I haven't been very good at sending pictures! 

Frustrations and flat tires...but still finding the good!

This week has been kind of a trying week, but I have grown so much and know that the Lord is watching out for me.

This Tuesday I had the chance to go on exchange with Elder Nanney. Elder Nanney came out the same time I did, and is kind of struggling with being a missionary. He doesn't have any social skills and he has a hard time teaching lessons, but he is full of love and is very obedient. This exchange I got to go to his area. When we got to his apartment our first appointment was with a family called the Moyas. They do have a car in their area, but we decided to take the bikes to save on their miles. Well we got about half we to their house and elder Nanney's tire got a flat, so we had to walk all the way back to their apartment to see if we could fix it.:) Once we got back to the apartment we decided that we would fix the tire later and take the car. It was the first time I had driven a car in 3 months! It was fun to have a break from my bike. The lesson with the Moyas went great. The boyfriend is a member, but his girlfriend is not. We taught them about tithing, prayer and scripture study. It went wonderful and they both shared awesome testimonies about the power of prayer in their lives. Following that lesson we drove back to the apartment and walked to a man's house named Pedro. Pedro wasn't home, but we did get some good contacting practice on the way back. After Pedro we had dinner with the Carl family. They had breakfast for dinner, and it was super good! I was starving and it was wonderful to have a home cooked meal. Following dinner we taught a boy who is 9 the plan of salvation. After dinner we came home and went to see a potential investigator i their area named Quazi. He was the coolest guy! He was super passionate about being kind to everyone. He told us that we all just need to have love for each other and not judge. When we left he gave us a hug and said to come back Monday. It was good to see someone who is being prepared to receive the gospel. One funny thing about elder Nanney is that he loves telling jokes! He told this pretty funny one about this dancing cookie that made me laugh pretty hard. The following morning I fixed elder Nanney's flat tire and we headed off to go see a potential investigator. We had not gone 200 yards when his tire went flat again! At first I thought the patch I had put on his bike had not worked, but when I looked at his tire, he had a nail sticking out of his tire!:) That poor bike tube was just not having a very good week. My favorite part of this exchange was that I got to be the senior companion. It was kind of hard at times, but I liked how it pushed me and allowed me to gain good leadership experience.

This week we also had a hard time with the Binklies. Originally we had Junior's baptismal date set for the first of November, but bishop said he needed to see them at church more and moved their date to December 6th. The thing is the Binklies have come to church the past two weeks, and the only reason they hadn't been coming was because Brother Binkley had to work to be able to feed the family. He doesn't have a job and has to do odd jobs when available. Well when we meet with the Binklies this Thursday we told them the situation. After we finished speaking, brother Binkley got up and left with his kids without saying a word. We were very shocked and very worried that we had said something wrong. That night and the following day were pretty rough, because we didn't know what to do or say. A lot of prayers were said for the Binklies. Well  this Saturday he called us and said that he was sorry he walked out, and that he was just frustrated with the Bishop (they have had other problems before) and didn't want to say or do anything out of anger that he would regret so that is why he left. He also said that he will meet with the bishop this Wednesday, and that he wants to continue to have Junior take the missionary lessons! The power of prayer is real and I was so grateful that everything worked out.  Also the Binklies found a house! This is awesome news, because they have been living in a hotel room that has two beds for the 6 of them living there. They will be moving in this Friday:) The Binklies are such an amazing family, and I am so glad everything is working out for them!

This Saturday and Sunday we had the chance to go to Stake Conference. It was awesome and the whole thing was centered on missionary work and temple work. Our stake President has really caught the fire of missionary work. Also at this Stake Conference this 16 year old girl shared her conversion story and said something that I really liked. She said "We are Heavenly Father's everything". I loved this quote, and It made me realize just how much God loves us, and that he really does want us to be happy while we are here on earth. It also made me so grateful to know that everything is in His hands, and that if we are living righteously he will provide us with the strength we need, through Jesus Christ, to help us keep going on the path to eternal life. Our mission President also spoke, and talked about how it really isn't that hard to invite people to church. He had some missionaries go up and role play asking someone to church. He then had everyone in the audience role play the same thing with the person sitting next to them! It was fun to see people realize how easy it really is.

Hope everyone has a fun Halloween weekend, and eats lots of treats!

Love,

Elder Griffin    

Busy in Texas

This week started off with a great P-day full of lots of basketball playing. Basketball is always a good way to relax a little bit and relive some stress:) We have a lot of awesome elders in our district, and always have good times together. 

This Tuesday night we went and saw Jerome with a member named brother Merrill. The visit went ok, until brother Merrill started teaching Jerome about the beliefs of Christ's church. He started off by mentioning our Heavenly Mother, which caught Jerome off guard. Then he explained the first three lessons from PMG in an hour! It was kind of like giving a new born a steak before he has the teeth to chew it:) The whole time brother Merrill was talking he didn't give us a chance to check for understanding. When brother Merrill was done, poor Jerome said his head was spinning and that he would have to sit down and think about all that was said. luckily at the end I was able to tell him that the most important thing he should do and focus on is to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know it's true. We left feeling kind frustrated and worried that Jerome would not want to see us again. We were able to see him yesterday and he let us in and let us sit down and talk to him. It was quite the relief:) I have a good feeling that Jerome sooner or later will realize that this is the true church and that baptism by proper authority is critical to  make it back to God. I love how he is always open to new ideas and beliefs. 

We still have not been able to get in touch with Rachel and Erica. We called Rachael quite a few time times this week, but she didn't ever have a time that was good to come by and see her. Hopefully this week she will be able to call us and tell us her schedule. Erica is still dealing with her daughter who is really struggling. She is very stressed and worried and prayers for her are much needed. Hopefully we will be able to get in contact with her as well. 

This week we had the amazing privilege of having a member of the 70 come and visit our mission! his name was Elder Cardon. We had a big conference Friday. It was really good. Talked a lot about the gathering of Israel in the last days and bore a wonderful testimony of God and our Savior. He also taught us that we need to be having the father of the home give a kneeling prayer during the first lesson of teaching a family. He did a role play during the conference and showed us how we to go about doing it. It was a very bold approach, but very powerful and effective. His wife also gave a talk on loving your companions. It was a great reminder and I could feel her love for all of us as she talked. Also prier to Elder Cardon's visit, he had asked each of us to read chapter 4 of PMG and prepare a 3 minute talk. Then during the conference he had people share there experiences of preparing the talk. It was cool to see so many sisters and elders have spiritual experiences while preparing their talks. Elder Cardon was inspired to have us prepare those talks. It was such a cool opportunity to have a general authority in our mission.

After the conference we exchanged with the Hurst elders. I had the opportunity to go with Elder Stewart. The first thing we did was go to dinner at a burger place, it was really yummy and filling. That night we went and visited this less-active family named the Tongas. They were really nice and just had a baby 3 days ago! He was so cute. We taught a brief lesson on the plan of salvation. Brother Tonga then gave a wonderful testimony about Jesus and his atonement. Following that we were trying to find this apartments, but ended up in these other apartments that we didn't know existed. While we were lost and trying to figure out where we were, we asked a guy who was walking his dog for directions. We started talking to this man and found out his dad was from Utah and knew about Mormons. We then gave him a card with the Savior appearing to the Americas and asked if we could come and see him again. He said we could. He was a really nice man, and I am grateful God put him in our path. The following morning we had the chance to go and visit a referral we had received for an older lady named Nancy. She was really nice and shared this cool story of when her husband had come and visited her from the spirit world when she was in a car wreck. We left her with a Book of Mormon. Following that we got the chance to go to the baptism of this really nice 9 year old boy named Logan. It was a wonderful service and Logan was super excited! One funny thing that happened was elder Nanny (the one who baptized Logan) forgot to bring a towel and had to use paper towels to dry off:) Also while we were walking to the church to exchange back, we meet this really interesting man named Rusty. He had ever chapter 3 verse 16 in the bible memorized! He also had the whole 119th chapter of Psalms memorized which contains 176 versus. It took like 15 minutes to tell us, it was pretty amazing. He believed that the bible was the only word of God and that the Book of Mormon was made up. Also said that some day we would burn in Hell with Joseph Smith and we would look up at him in Heaven and say "why didn't we listen to Rusty!" We tried to explain where the Book of Mormon came from, but he wouldn't listen. Hopefully some day he will come to the fullness of the truth!;) 

Two more awesome things that happened this week. The first one was that Sunni Webster got her temple recommend! We have been trying to get her one for a while now, and finally she went and got one. The second cool that happened was, we were at the church picking up some food and we ran into brother Binkley. Brother Binkley has had a pretty rough life. He used to be in a gang and is covered in all kind of tattoos. He has a pretty cool conversion story, but any way we ran into him and started telling us his testimony. It was so powerful! He told us that even if he fell off the straight and narrow path, that he would never in his life deny that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It was so cool to see how the gospel has changed his life. It showed me the power of the Atonement!

Hope every one has a good week in school and work! Make sure that you are always looking for ways to share the gospel and to lift up those who need your help!

Love,

Elder Griffin