More rain, more muddy shoes

5.26.15

So due to the Library being closed we weren't able to email until today. This last week was pretty rainy and I came home with muddy shoes and pants almost every day:) It has been quite the adventures, but we have learned to just love it and laugh about it.

   This Thursday we had our personal interviews with President Ames. My interview was awesome! We had a really good discussion about the difference between Godly and worldly sorrow. He gave me two of examples. The first was what Satan says. He tells us that we are trying to reach perfection and it is impossible so we should just give up. He tells us that we aren't good enough no matter how hard we try. Then he told me what the Savior says. He tells us that he loves us, then he tells us that we are doing a good job. He also loving tells us what we can improve on and then gives us encouragement. It was such a good discussion and it really opened my eyes. All the devil wants to do is tear us down, while Jesus Christ wants to lift us up and make us into the kind of people he knows each of us can be. It isn't an easy thing to do, but with His help it is always possible. What a blessing it is to have such an amazing mission President. Also during interviews we had this really good training given by one of our zone leaders named elder Worthen. He gave a training on getting to the root of peoples concerns when it comes to baptism. He listed a step by step process of doing so, and then had us practice. The first time I tried to find out the concern I totally blew it:) I thought his concern was that he didn't believe in organized religion, but it was actually that he didn't think God answered prayers. I tried it again later on exchange with him, and it went a lot better. It was a great training and it helped me out atone!

  This week I also had a good exchange with our zone leaders. Elder Worthen came to our area with me. We had a lot of fun and were able to talk to quite a few people. One of the people we talked to was this 15 year old boy named  Jordan. After teaching him a brief lesson on the Restoration he said "This is awesome!" It was so cool to see him getting so excited:) The only down fall is that his father is a Pastor and isn't interested in hearing a messages, but hearts can always be changed. We were also able to teach Bob Frost while on exchange. Elder Worthen was pretty bold with Bob, and it lead to a pretty open conversation. Bob still really struggling with being haunted and weighed down by his childhood torturing. He said he will never be able to forgive his step-father until he tells him sorry. It is so sad to see this almost 70 year old man in so much pain and frustration. Next time we go over we are going to share with him Mathew 11:28-29. It takes about taking the Savior's yoke upon us and letting him pull with us. He needs the Atonement of Jesus Christ in his life, it is the only way that he will truly find relief and peace. Please pray that the lesson will go well! Also on the exchange I learned from elder Worthen how to better contacted people while tracking. I learned a lot of new ways to contact, and to make sure to just be real and have natural conversation with people. Elder Worthen is a great example to me, and has been an awesome leader.

    Also this week with elder Morhmann we have found some pretty cool people we are going to start teaching. The first one is the wife of a less-active man. He is a convert himself, but has not been coming to church for a while. We stopped by his house and had a good conversation with him. He said he really wants to start coming back to church and said that he wants us to start teaching his wife who is not a member. We are excited to start teaching them. We also had a wonderful visit with a less-active lady named Carla and her soon to be husband Grady who is also not a member. They are a younger couple and were really fun to talk to. Carla is a cake designer and showed us some cakes that she had decorated, they were really cool! She even let us try some samples of here cakes:) Grady agreed to start up the missionary lessons again. He told us that he really liked the message of the Restoration and he really related with Joseph Smith and his experience. He is going to be really fun to teach, because he is really humble and open minded. This area is really coming to life, and it is so fun to see God's hand in this work. He is giving us so many teaching opportunities! The ward is also very supportive and we have member exchanges every week Tuesday through Thursday and then on Sunday with a youth. A good missionary ward is such a blessing.

    I hope everyone one has a good last week of school! God is real, and I know he is in our lives more then we even realize. I challenge all of you to take the time to sit back and look for his hand.

Love,

Elder Griffin  

Harvest Ridge was GOLDEN!

5.18.15 

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  

Getting creative with the finding

5.11.15

This week was full of missionary adventures, and teaching opportunities.

  This week started out with an awesome zone council. Our zone leaders are super on top of things and did a great job. We talked a lot about working with ward councils, because missionary work is much more successful when members are working with us. Some of the best investigators come from the ward, whether they be close friends, or even part member families. With the companionship of the ward, missionary work flourishes! We also talked a lot about how we can help improve our ward councils.

      Also this week I was able to go on two amazing exchanges. The first one was with one of my zone leaders, elder Worthen. One of the first things we did was go and teach Shirley and George. They were the humblest, most kind people I have ever meet. Their hearts were totally ready to hear the gospel. We read 3 Nephi 11 with them. This is the chapter that tells of Jesus Christ's visit to the Americas. Also in this chapter it talks about baptism and the correct way to perform the ordinance. After reading this elder Worthen asked them if they would be baptized the way Christ wanted them to be baptized and without hesitation they both said yes:) Following that lesson we went and taught a recent convert named Frank. He is super cool, and is truly tasting of the goodness of the gospel. We talked about his next step after baptism, which is attending the temple. He also told us that he is preparing to receiving the priesthood, and has been reading/studying about the topic. He is going to be a great member of the church. I also had the opportunity to go back to Southlake to attend the baptism of Walter Gamen:) It was so fun to see my old ward again, and the baptismal program went great! I am excited for Walter and his family to get sealed together in a year, they are an amazing family. The next day we decided to try a new contacting idea. We bought our lunch at Sonic, and then ate our lunch in a grocery store parking lot. While we were eating we would contacting the people getting out of their cars and also the people returning carts. We ended up passing out around 4 or 5 Book of Mormons, it was awesome! That same day we went knocking doors and found two people who were interested in having us come back and share more of our message. It was a great exchange, and we had tones of fun.

    The second exchange was with an elder in my district named elder Fitzgerald. He goes home in less then a month. He is a super solid missionary and knows how to work hard. The first thing we did on exchange was service for a lady in a trailer park. When we got to here home she was not home, so elder Fitzgerald gave her a call and she told us we could start without her. She told us that she wanted us to plant these bean plants in some small plots of dirt she had. Well we got to work and started planting the beans. About 30 minutes in it started raining. At first it was just a sprinkle, but then it started really coming down! We were soaked in minutes and ground became super muddy, but that didn't stop us, we kept on planting those beans:) The people that drove by during our planting of the beans gave us some pretty strange looks:) When we finished planting we were covered in mud, but lucky for us there was a small stream that had formed in the middle of the road that we were able to use to wash the mud off of our pants. It was a lot of fun, and will be a memory I remember for a long time. Following the service adventure, we went and taught two families in his ward lessons on missionary work and helped them come up with a plan to do missionary work as a family. One of the families was 110% on board, and were going to give one of their friends a Book of Mormon, and then have the missionaries go visit them. Gotta love solid members!! That night we taught one of their investigators named Haley. She is 10 years old, and comes from a pretty rough family. She came to one of her friends baptisms and after decided she wanted to get baptized too! She is the sweetest girl, and has a very good heart. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. The lesson went great and she listened very intently. She is getting baptized on May 30th:) I am so grateful to be able to serve around so many amazing missionaries.

   This Sunday we also had a good experience with a family in our ward, the Goodriches. They have a son  named Taylor who is got his mission call to Ohio and leaves next month. He is pretty nervous and unsettled about his mission, so we decided to share with them a message about why we do missionary work and what motivates us to do it. The lesson went great, and the spirit was so strong. It was so fun to help Taylor get excited about serving a mission, and help him understand that it truly is the best 2 years! 

     Well I love you all and hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day:) 

Love,

Elder Griffin

P.S. Mom this is the picture of the beautiful sky I was talking about. The second picture is of a huge Texas longhorn that is in a field right next to our apartment, elder Fitzgerald named him Jesse:)

Kronk, Frozen and Why aren't they more interested?

5.4.15

This week has flown by! Lots of new faces, new responsibilities and a new area! It has been quite the adventure getting used to everything, but I have a good feeling about Woodland Springs:)

   The area is pretty small, which means we do a lot of walking. One of the great things about walking is that you get a better chance to talk to everyone. On a bike it can be kind of awkward to talk to people:) This area is going to be perfect for me, because it is in what we call "finding mode" Which means that there are not very many investigators and so a lot of contacting needs to happen. This will help me get better at talking to everyone I see, It will be hard at times, but I am excited to meet lots of amazing people. My new companion is named elder Mohrmann. He has been out 3 months. He has a great desire to be obedient and hard working missionary. He also loves to joke around and have fun. He is also good at voice impressions and can do a spot on Kronk impression from the movie "Emperors New Grove":) I also like that he is bold in his teachings and is not afraid to give a commitment. My new ward is also awesome! I have only meet a few members, but they are all extremely nice and humble people. The ward is also smaller, which will make it easier to get to know everyone:) I haven't meet the bishop yet, but from what I heard he is a pretty cool guy.

     My first dinner in Woodland Springs was awesome! We went over to a members house called the Pease. They are younger and have two cute little kids under the age of 7. The ward had just had a talent show, and the Pease had sang the Frozen song called "Love is an open door". Well they found out that I am a huge Frozen fan and so they sang the song for me right in their living room! It was so cool! They were literally spot on, it sounded exactly like the movie. I couldn't stop smiling the whole night:) Elder Morhmann also shared a really good lesson on the power of the Priesthood and showed a really powerful video called "Sanctify yourselves".    

This last week we also did a lot of street contacting. We did are best to talk to everyone we saw. One of my favorite contacts was with a really cool guy named Chris. He was out handing out flyers for a lawn care business and had stopped to take a break in the park. We went up and started talking to him. He told us all about the business and how his day had been. As he was talking about the business I was thinking to myself "this sounds pretty good, why aren't more people interested?" and then I started thinking about what we do as missionaries and I could ask my self the same question. If people would just listen to what we have to offer, they would see how incredible our message really is. They would see that we aren't trying to make a quota, or convert people to our church, but rather share with them real truth, that will bring them to a new understanding of who Christ is and what He really has done for them. We shared a Book of Mormon with Chris and he seemed pretty open to the idea of reading it. He has a really good heart, and some day when missionaries knock on his door in Fort Worth (that is where he lives) I hope that he will let them in and allow them to start preparing him to become part of the kingdom of God here on the earth. We also had a really nice lesson/visit with one of our investigators named Bob Frost. He is the nicest, most sincere man I have ever meet. He made me feel very welcome and you can't help but smile when your around him. He has been meeting with missionaries for two years now. He only has one thing holding him back from getting baptized and that is his fear of water. As a child he was harshly abused by his step-father, and one of the ways he abused him had to do with water. The stories he told us were horrible and made my heart go out to this man. He told us that he is haunted pretty regularly by his childhood memories and has struggled with it for 60 years! Since he has been taught all of the lessons, we have been reading with him from the Book of Mormon, because he has a hard time doing it one his own. While we read, he brings up questions and concerns that lead to good gospel conversation. I have a strong feeling that if he truly understands the Atonement of Jesus Christ that he will be able to over come his fear of water and will be able to lift this burden that has been with him for way to long. He really want him to understand that Jesus Christ has felt the exact pain and hurt that he has felt. I know that if he can come to this understanding that he will be baptized. We are going to focus more on the Atonement the next time we visit him.

 This week will be a wonderful week and it will be fun to see what other amazing people/ members I will meet. I love you all and hope you are enjoying the beautiful spring weather:)

Love,

Elder Griffin

P.S. This is a picture of two of my favorite families in Southlake. The first one is Sister Harris and her son Jason. Sister Harris reminds me so much of you mom and Jason could seriously be one of my best friends! The second family is the Sheehans. They are so cool and are always making me laugh. There son came home from his mission on medical release and we grew to love him instantly.