Hard but fulfilling :)

4.1.15 

   This last week was a very hard, but fulfilling week. We saw so many miracles happen and were able to teach wonderful lessons. The first lesson we had was with Dan. This time when we went over we made sure to establish our purpose with him. We then taught him the Plan of Salvation. Half way through the lesson, he told us that he really wasn't interested in converting. At first I was a little bummed, but then I remembered that the spirit can touch and testify to anyone. We kept teaching the lesson and towards the end he really opened up to us and told us even more about how Christ had saved his marriage and had really helped his family through the rough times. It was incredible to see someone open up to two complete strangers, but it really showed me that he trusted us. At the end of the lesson we bore testimony to him and really encouraged him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He agreed to accept the commitment. As he was saying bye to us, I could really tell that he was thinking hard about what he had said, and I hope and pray that the spirit was touching his heart. Dan is so ready to accept the truth, and I can see how he has been prepared his whole life to accept this message. We have another meeting with him this Friday, so we are excited to meet with him again. This week we also had a great lesson with Yohanna. We went into the lesson prepared to answer several questions she had, but as the lesson went on it wasn't really clicking with her. Finally I decided to just bare testimony of the truthfulness of our message and told her that this is God's church on the earth and that she too could know it to be true. We then went into a lesson on the doctrine of Christ( faith, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost) During the discussion one of our members named sister Wade asked Yohanna what she thought about baptism. She said she felt good about it, but was very nervous to go to her parents with the question. I thought she had already talked to her parents, but I guess not. She told us that they aren't very religious and she didn't know how her parents would react to the idea of her getting baptized. We promised her that God answers prayers and that she could go to Him with her concern. We also told her that we would all be praying for her. We found out the next day that she had gone to her parents and told them she was meeting with the missionaries! It was so cool to see her faith in action:) Unfortunately her parents didn't really react too positively, so for now she has stopped formally meeting with us. It is a little sad, but I know that God has a plan for her and that eventually she will get baptized whether in Germany or in the US. This week we were also able to have a great lesson with Pablo. Going into the lesson I was pretty anxious, because this was the lesson we were going to invite him to be baptized. Well we start teaching the lesson and so far it is going great. We then got to the part where we were going to extend the invitation to be baptized, but both of us froze and for some reason didn't have the courage. Luckily for us the member we had brought along asked Pablo how he felt about getting baptized. I am so grateful for solid members! This helped break the nervousness and I was able to honestly bare testimony that he was ready to be baptized. As I was telling him he was ready, I felt this overwhelming feeling of love for Pablo come over me, and It gave me a glimpse of how much Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father love him. Pablo told us that the only thing that was keeping him from being baptized was that he drinks coffee and tea. We had a good discussion on why God would ask us to do something like not drink coffee and tea. We left him with the commitment to go to Heavenly Father and ask him if baptism was the path he wanted to take as well as taking his concern about drinking coffee and tea to the Lord. Tomorrow we will be meeting with him again and will be committing him to a baptismal date:) 

      What a blessing it has been to teach all of these wonderful people, I can't wait to see them all continue to progress on the journey back to our Heavenly Father. Hope y'all have a good Easter/conference week!

Love,

Elder Griffin       

Tiny Turtles and Service

3.23.15

This week was a wonderful week mixed with great service opportunities and awesome lessons!

     The first opportunity was at a former investigators house named Kerry Smith. We helped her dig this huge ditch in front of her house! It took a long time, but it was tones of fun and very satisfying when it was done:) Also while we were digging the hole, I looked down and saw lots of movement in the ground. As I looked closer i noticed that it was 8 baby turtles!! It was the craziest thing of my life. there was a pound near by, but it was still so surprising to dig up a nest of baby turtles:) They were so cute and tiny! They also had these super cool designs on their bellies. This week we also continued the new member lessons with Denisse who was baptized in February. The lesson was on the Plan of Salvation and it went really well. Denisse had a lot of really good questions and a wonderful discussion broke out. She is a great young women and has such a pure heart.

     Also this week we where able to finish racking an older man named Billy's leaves. Lots of the leaves were wet and soggy, so it was quite the adventure racking them up:) When we were finished he was so grateful! We are hoping to teach him the Plan of Salvation soon, because he recently lost his wife. We were also to have another great lesson with Pablo. His heart continues to be softened. We taught him the first half of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he accepted all of it and had very few concerns:) After the lesson at there house we always kneel down and say the closing prayer, and Pablo will pick someone to say it. Well this time we all knelled down and he said the prayer! This is the first time I have heard him say the prayer out loud! It was awesome to hear his sincere but humble prayer. Also this Sunday Pablo stayed for all three hours of church! He is progressing so well and God is preparing him each day to enter the waters of baptism. This week we also had the second lesson with Yohanna (the German exchange student) We had the lesson in the Wades home and all of them gave great comments and testimonies:) There was a really good spirit in the room. It can be hard at times to teach her due to the language barrier, but the Holy Ghost speaks all languages and can touch all of God's children. We have two lessons scheduled with her this week, so I am excited to see how they will go! The good thing is that her parents back in Germany said they would support whatever decision she decides to make.

       God truly has blessed elder Phipps and I this week and for that I am extremely thankful. I am also so thankful to be serving in Southlake, with great people to teach and an amazing ward to back us up! I love you all and hope you are enjoying the beautiful spring weather:)

Love,

Elder Griffin

P.S. here is a picture of one of the turtles, as well as me kissing a huge jug of Chick-Fil-A lemonade

Pablo, Brian & Yohanna

3.16.15                        

It is finally warming up here in Texas! The snow was fun, but I am glad to finally see some sunshine. This week we were able to meet with Pablo, and had a wonderful lesson on Judgement/ the 3 kingdoms of glory. Every time we have lessons at Pablo's house the spirit is so strong, and I know that Heavenly Father is really working on his heart. It has been so fun to see the change that is occurring in him over a 2 month period. He is over coming all of his concerns and I believe he is very close to being baptized. Also this Sunday he came to all 3 hours of church!! This is huge, because he always goes home after Sacrament meeting. I really hope he continues to have a good experience at church. So far, the members have been great! Also this week we had a very interesting discussion with a man named Brian. Brian is really big into reading and figuring out the signs of the times. He studies stars and looks at these crazy things called bible codes. After our meeting with him I had a pretty big headache:) I showed us some pretty crazy stuff! According to him after March 20th the end of the world is supposed to start:) We were able to set up a time to come by and actually teach him our message. I really hope that he will see the truth and happiness in our message. He is all about being prepared, so if we show him that   This week we also had a chance to teach a German exchange student that is living with one of the members in our ward. Her name is Yohanna. One of the young men gave her a Book of Mormon and in a matter of days she read half way through Mosiah! Well we taught her the Restoration, which was pretty hard due to the fact that she didn't feel comfortable answering any of the questions we asked her and there was a slight language barrier. I am not sure how much of the message she understood, but I know the spirit was present and I hope she was able to feel it's peace and power. We will be teaching her the Plan of Salvation next, which I think will be a little bit easier to understand. Also the member she is staying with have her a German book of Mormon, which should be a big help:)  

Well I have to go, but I love you all and hope you have a wonderful St Patrick's day!!

Love,

Elder Griffin

 Here is a picture of me holding an Arabic Book of Mormon:)

Snow in Texas!

3.2.15

 Since I emailed Thursday and I am very short on time, I will have to be brief today, but I did want to share a cool experience we had this Sunday. About a month ago elder Brown and I were trackting in this neighborhood and he got a prompting to go down this side street. We went down it and it lead to this other street. We started knocking doors on that street. The second door we knocked this man answered that was really nice, but said he was busy at the moment. After we got of his porch elder Brown said that was the house the spirit wanted us to knock on. Well I decided that we were going to go back to that house yesterday. When we started walking up to the house a younger lady opened it and told us to come and get dry under her porch, her name was Alyssa. We started talking to her and we found out that she was a less-active member and that she loved missionaries! She didn't have her records transferred to our stake, so we didn't even know she existed. She told us that her parents lived in Louisville and that they were very active. She was extremely nice and said that we were welcome to come back anytime. It was a small, but amazing miracle. I hope that we can help her get back on the straight and narrow and allow her to see how happy the gospel can make you! 

   We also had one more cool experience that happened Sunday. On the same street that Alyssa lives on, elder Phipps got this distinct impression that said "elder, go knock on that door". The crazy thing was that he said it sounded like it was me telling him that, but I didn't say a word. Well we unfortunately kept riding, but after a while we decided that the impression was too strong  to ignore and we went back. Elder Phipps said it was one of two houses, so we knocked on the first one and no one answered. We knocked on the second one and this nice lady named Lisa answered the door. As we started a conversation with her, she told us that she had grown up going to the LDS church with her Step grandmother, and that at one point she had even stood up for Joseph Smith when he was getting bashed at a church she attended! We asked her if we could come back and share a message and she agreed:) Elder Phipps and I have a really good feeling about her. I am very excited to share the Restoration with her. I truly learned the importance of following the promptings of the spirit. Every day God is placing people in our lives that are ready to receive the gospel, and all we have to do is be ready to head the promptings of the spirit the moment they come. 

     Well I have to run, but I love you all so much and pray you are all keeping safe and warm this winter season! God is real, he answers prayers and he is always watching over us and protecting is.

Love,

Elder Griffin

this is a picture of me in the crazy Texas snow storm!:)      

I love sharing the message of the Restoration

We started off the week with a really awesome lesson with a guy named Dan. Dan is a really cool guy that elder Phipps and elder Cherry found on exchange. He is super nice and is what I call an honest seeker of truth. When they first contacted Dan they left him with a Book of Mormon and set a return appointment. Well this Tuesday we went to his house and were able to share lesson 1 with him. Before the lesson he talked about how for 7 years he had been in contact with multiple LDS people, which lead him to wanting to really know what we believe. The power of being a good example is so real! The lesson was a really solid lesson and Dan was asking tones of questions! I love when investigators ask questions, it means that they really have a desire to know what is right. I absolutely love sharing the message of the Restoration. It is an incredible message that is so pure and true. I never get tired of telling the story of Joseph Smith and explaining how much happiness the Book of Mormon can bring. Also at the begging of the lesson Dan shared how Jesus Christ had helped keep him and his wife together. It was really neat to hear his experience. At the end of the lesson he told us that he will read and pray about the Book of Mormon! We also scheduled another appointment a week from this Tuesday. I think he is really going to like the Plan of Salvation.

    Also this Saturday elder Phipps and I had a really cool experience with a couple named Russ and Ann. They have been taught by a lot of missionaries, but have never been baptized. Well for for about 3 months now we have been meeting with them, but progression was really not being made. Last week we called them to set up another appointment, and during the phone call Ann told us that she felt bad that we were coming over, because she said she doesn't want to be a Mormon. Well I told her that we at least wanted to come over one more time. At first I was kind of anxious and a tad bit nervous, but on the bike ride there I felt a calming peace come over me. The meeting with them went much better then I could have ever imagined. It was really cool, because right off the back Ann just opened up and told us what was holding her back from getting baptized. Her big concern was that she didn't think Joseph Smith was a prophet. I told her off my experience of getting a testimony of Joseph Smith. The spirit was so strong, and I knew that both Russ and Ann could feel it. We were both also able to testify of the truthfulness of the gospel and promised her that if she sincerely asked God if Joseph Smith was a prophet that he would answer her. In closing we told them that we loved them very much and if they ever had anymore questions or wanted to learn more we would always be there for them. I left feeling very good about the meeting, and knew that the meeting had been guided by the spirit. As we got to the end of the street, elder Phipps stopped and said he needed to take a minute to think about how the lesson went. He then went on to tell me that he had been prompted to share a scripture with them, but had been to afraid to share it. He started to get a feeling that he needed to go back. He really didn't want to go back,because they were getting ready for bed and he felt like it would be super awkward. He said a prayer, and he continued to get the same feeling. He asked me what I felt and I said I felt good about going home. He then asked me to pray and ask Heavenly Father the same question. I felt confident in my answer, but I decided to do it any way. As I finished my prayer, I started to get a unsettling feeling. I stood there for a while and thought about what we should do. I finally decided I would support whatever elder Phipps decided. Well he decided to go back. As we got closer to the house, we saw that most of the lights were now off. Elder Phipps decided to still knock on the door. They answered and were actually very nice about it. They invited us in and elder Phipps shared the scripture where Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, and Jesus says that knowledge came to him from God. (through the Holy Ghost) It was the perfect scripture to share and it was exactly what they needed to hear! Ann committed a second time to pray and ask God her questions, but this time when she said it she had more conviction in her voice. It was an amazing experience I will never forget and I learned the power of following the promptings of the spirit.

   Well I am off to play some basketball, but I know this is the true Church and that if we have faith in Jesus Christ we can over come and stand strong through anything.

Love,

Elder Griffin