Goodbye Elder Thomas

4.4.16

Transfers are this week, and I found out that elder Thomas is

leaving:( It will be super sad to see him go, we had tones of fun

together and got along like we were best friends. The new missionary I

am getting is elder Meyers. He has been out a month longer then me and

was called to this mission as a Spanish speaking missionary. It will

be nice to have a companion who speaks Spanish, there are a lot of

Hispanics in our area! I will send a picture next week of him. It is

pretty crazy that I only have 3 transfers left!! After this transfer I

will probably leave this ward and have 3 months in my last area:) I am

determined to make the most out of every moment. Finish strong baby!!!

   I am having a hard time remembering what we did this week:) I will

try to remember some highlights though. The first one was General

Conference. It was so amazing!!! What a blessing it is to have

prophets and apostles to guide us through the storms of life and to

keep us from falling into the wickedness of the world. I loved all of

the talks and felt the spirit during every session:) I love this

church! My favorite session was priesthood session. There were so many

powerful/bold talks. It think the men of this church really needed to

here their words. I really learned the importance of the priesthood

and how much power we really hold in our hands. We have to do all we

can to be worthy to use the priesthood to bless those around us. What

a sacred responsibility we have. It was also good to hear our prophet

speak, he is looking pretty frail, but he is still able to testify

boldly of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can't wait to go back and read

all of the awesome talks.

This week we also had a good visit with Claudia, she is the sweet old

lady that lives in a care center. During our meeting she brought up

the concern that she has a hard time comprehending the bible when she

reads it. We decided that we are going to go over weekly with her and

read a chapter out of the bible with her. We are then going to watch

the corresponding bible video if there is one to bring the story to

life. I love those videos, there are so good:) Also this weekend we

made little conference invitations and gave them to people in between

sessions. Elder Thomas is good with technology and the flyer looked

pretty good. We ended up meeting a pretty cool guy named Caesar. We

taught him a little bit about the Restoration and shared a Book of

Mormon with him. We are going to follow up with him this week.

        Well I think that's all my brain is going to let me remember, but I

love you all and hope you had an awesome conference weekend!

Love,

Elder Griffin

Bible Deliveries, Yard Work & Miracles

3.28.16

This week was full of blessings. We stayed very busy and had some

beautiful lessons. The first great news was that we were able to

finally contact most of the referrals we received. The church put out

an add for a free bible a while ago and for the past two transfers we

received 30 plus referrals. We have been using tones of miles and time

to try and contact them and it has been quite an adventure! Finally

this week we were able to get in contact with a bunch of them and

finally get them their bibles. We are down to only 6 referrals! We

have meet lots of amazing people, that we hope to continue to meet

with again.The church has also developed a new way of filtering

referrals that are received from Mormon.org, so the referrals we will

now be receiving will be more solid. Thank goodness:)

        This week I was able to have a really good exchange with a missionary

from one of my old zones. We started the exchange out by going to do

service for a lady who has multiple scoliosis. She is confined to a

wheel chair and her husband has a bad back and can't do much. A member

in our ward has been helping them for years and invited us to come do

some yard work. They had a bunch of tree branches and limbs in their

back yard that we were able to help clean up. We would put them in

piles and then tie rope around them to keep them together. We were

also able to get to know the husband and learn a little bit about him.

He was a really nice guy. When we were done, the member told us that

the husband had really come along way and this was the first time he

had really gotten along with missionaries. He isn't too big into

religion, but we are hoping to meet with them more frequently and

start teaching them/building a better relationship with them. I always

appreciated members who reach out to those in need in their community.

It is one of the easiest ways to share the gospel and to build

friendships with other faiths. The next morning we had a cool

experience while trying to contact more referrals. We had an

appointment with this one referral, but when we got their his girl

friend was the only one home. I decided to show her the new Easter

video. As she was watching the video she started to cry. After it was

over she told us that the night before she had a pretty rough

experience, where she could have gone to jail, but God had intervened

and stopped her from doing something she would have regretted. She was

very grateful for the video and told us she really needed it. We

testified to her about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and also shared a

Book of Mormon with her. She also agreed to meet with us again. It was

a pretty neat experience. It is pretty amazing how God puts people in

our path that need help and we get to be instruments in his hand to

help those people.

  This Sunday we had the chance to teach Joseph again. He is the

boyfriend of a member's daughter in our ward. The lesson before we had

committed him to pray about what we had taught him and read the Book

of Mormon as well. At the first of our lesson he told us that he had

prayed more then he had in a very long time and felt like this was the

path that he needed to take:) He had also read the first 4 chapters in

the Book of Mormon. We were super excited to hear that! We were also

able to talk more about the importance of the Book of Mormon and

answer a question he had about something he had read. We also started

teaching him the Plan of Salvation. We shared the pre earth life with

him. He told us that it was new to him and that most churches didn't

teach about anything happening before birth, but that it made since

and that he agreed with what we were teaching. He also made a pretty

cool statement that I really liked. He said that having a knowledge of

the pre earth life gave Jesus Christ's sacrifice more purpose. It was

such a simple statement, but it was so powerful. At the end of the

lesson we extend a baptismal invitation. He again told us that he

really feel like this is the path that God wants him to take. We

didn't set a date yet, but we are hoping to do it next time:) Joseph

is a miracle that God has given this area. He has also expressed to us

that he has a lot of things he has done wrong in his path that he is

not to proud of, so I am excited to teach him the doctrine of the

Atonement.

  There is one last experience that I want to share with you guys. It

was this last Saturday while we were at a really cool members house

for dinner. We had a great meal and a wonderful dinner discussion. At

the end of dinner the member turned to us and said "I don't want to

put you on the spot, but since we it's the Easter season would you

both share your testimonies of the Savior?" We both bore our

testimonies of him followed by the members testimony of the Savior.

The spirit came very quickly and we left their home with a feeling of

peace and love.I always love how quickly the spirit comes when we

speak of the Savior. It was a beautiful experience, and I am so

grateful for members who understand what this gospel is all about.

        I love you all and hope you had a wonderful Easter Week, full of

personal spiritual experiences  with the Savior!

Love

Elder Griffin

All in White!

3.21.16

This Saturday Ralph, Junior and Emily all got baptized! It was as

beautiful service and everything went great. We were a little worried

at first that not very many people would show up, but as it got closer

to starting tones of members from the ward came. I was so thankful for

their support. Elder Thomas baptized Junior, an awesome member named

Sam Cripe baptized Ralph and I got to baptized Emily. It was a

wonderful experience! I am so grateful that everything turned out

well, our prayers were answered.

  This week we were also able to have an awesome exchange with the

assistants. I was able to go to their area with elder Brown. We came

out together, so it was fun to catch up. We were able to have some

great lessons. My favorite one was with this guy named Sam. He has

been investigating the church for almost a year now, and has even had

several baptismal dates. The spirit lead our lesson with him and we

were able to find out his concern. He told us that he has doubts about

the Book of Mormon. We went over the importance of the Book of Mormon

and how to gain a witness of it. There was also a member at the lesson

who shared a powerful testimony about the power of the Book of Mormon.

He said that he suffers from major depression and takes medication to

help him overcome it. He said that there are some days where even the

medicine is not enough to make him feel better, and that the only

thing that helps him fell peace is when he reads the Book of Mormon.

It was awesome! Elder Brown also asked him if he would get baptized on

April 9th if he got a witness that the Book of Mormon is true. Jim

said that he would be baptized the next day if he got that witness. He

is such a good guy, and I have a good feeling about him getting a

witness. During the first part of the lesson the member asked Jim what

his purpose was here on earth. Jim said that it was to love and serve

those around him. He would be such a good member and God could use his

desires and talents to bless so many of his children. I was grateful

for the opportunity I had to be a part of his life.

  We had another cool experience last night. We had two lessons

planned that night, one at 7 and one at 8. We had decided to try and

stop by a less active lady we have been helping get back to church

before we went to our lesson at 7. We had our member pick us up at the

church at 6:15, we then headed to her house. We knocked on the door

and someone let us in. When we got inside a lot of her family was

there. We learned that today was the less active ladies son's birthday

who had passed away in a car accident years ago. The whole family had

just got done with a family prayer together. We were able to sit down

with her and talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and testify

about the reality of the resurrection. We also showed her the new

Easter video. Our member also made some great comments and shared a

story about a general authority that had lost a son. We were also able

to giver her a blessing. It was a pretty neat experience, and I hope

she continues to see the joy and peace the gospel can bring to her.

        Well I think that's about it, but I hope you all have a great week. I

want Duncan to know that I love him and am praying for him. Your

amazing buddy! Keep being brave, everything is going to be ok!

Love, Elder Griffin