Service and singing for Connie

4.11.16

This week has been one of the busiest weeks of my mission. Our zone has changed a lot this transfer, and we have a lot of new missionaries, which is really exciting. It has been hard to leave elder Thomas, because we got along super well, but I am going to do my best to learn what God needs me to learn from elder Meyers. He is from St. George, Utah and was originally called to this mission as a Spanish speaking missionary. This is his first English area, so he will have to readjust to the English culture:)He has been out for 21 months, and is a pretty solid missionary. Both of us have a little pride, so it will be a good opportunity for me to learn to be more humble! So far he has mentioned a lot of good ideas to help us find and teach more people.  I have a feeling like a lot is going to get accomplished this transfer! He has a strong testimony and is very obedient, two qualities that I really admire.

   This week we had an awesome zone council. There was a really good spirit present and we were able to council about a lot of important things, especially how we are going to reach our goals as a zone!  We have a lot of very capable missionaries in our zones, and I am gratful to be able to work with them.

       We also had an amazing Ammon like service experience as a zone this Friday. We took part in a community service project called CPR. This organization picks a number of houses in the metroplex that need fixing up and sends groups of volunteers to go and help fix up the house. Our whole zone got assigned to a house in Watagua. Our team captain was an amazing man named Jack. When we first arrived at the home, I was kind of worried that we would be able to find enough work for everyone to do, but as we got working everyone found a job. The home owner was a older single lady named Connie. She was a very sweet lady, who we all grew to love. We painted, put in stone and did yard work. It was a great bonding experience for our zone. At the end of it Connie, the homeowner, came out with her bible and read us a scripture about service that she had read at her mothers funeral. She got all teared up as she told us how grateful she was for what we did for her. It was a very touching experience. Jack also told us that we were the best group he had ever worked with. He was such a cool guy, who really understands what it means to be a dispel of Jesus Christ. We are hoping to get the missionaries back in touch with him this October when they do this service project again, so that the missionaries can be with him again! As we were leaving, one of the missionaries suggested that we sing a hymn for her. We sang "Becausee I have been given much", she was very touched. It was a beautiful experience, and it taught me the power of serving like the Savior would. Some of our sister missionaries got her informaiton down. I really hope she listens to the lessons, she really is such a sweet lady! Also from this service experience, we got more service opportunities. During our lunch break a lady pulled up into Connies drive way and asked if we could help her with her house as well. We took down her number. Connie also told us that a couple of her neighbors could really use some service as well. God poured down his blessings on us during this service project. My goals is to try and find more service like this project, so we can continue to have these kinds of experiences!

   I love you all and am grateful every day for the amazing examples you are to me! I commit you all to go back and start reading all of the amazing conference talks that were given this transfer. I watched elder Hollands this morning and it was amazing! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Griffin