WELCOME HOME ELDER GRIFFIN! Monday October 23, 2017

Guadalajara Temple

Last Day in the mission...

Leaving the mission home and heading to the Airport.

WELCOME HOME ELDER GRIFFIN!!!!!

We are so thankful for the service that Elder Griffin has given to the people in Mexico, and especially for his decision to serve an honorable LDS Mission!  He has Returned with Honor!

My last week!!!

MY LAST WEEK!!!

Well what else can i say? this is going to be my last week in the mission field... pretty crazy to think about it honestly, i cant believe how fast these 2 years have gone by. i remember when i was in my training i would pray for the days to go by faster, wow am i kicking myself in the butt for saying that now haha, because my prayers are just for the days to never end. not a whole lot to mention this last week. the best part of all our last week was that thursday we went and visited our investigator mariana, shes 15 and is golden honestly, but we never thought we would baptize her because her parents have said no over and over again. by some miracle we got her mom to sign the baptismal cedula on thursday! you can best believe my companion and i were dang excited! the first thing we did was get home and shout for joy(because she lives a block away from us). and the second thing was put the baptismal record in a VERY safe place haha. since that day we have constantly been praying(and fasting) that her mom doesnt change her mind haha. so that is going to be awesome, i will end my mission with a bang and as they say, come home with a wet tie haha. on friday i also had my final interview with President Assante, he basically just told me to get home and get married haha, im pretty sure thats what every mission president says. this next week is going to be pretty interesting to say the least. visiting people today, tomorrow we will get the baptism ready, and all day wednesday we will stress about the baptism but then we will enjoy it haha, thursday we will plan and ill pack, friday i have to be in the offices, saturday we go to the temple and to the buffet, and sunday we will have the last supper. i will be getting home monday and i dont think anyone needs to be reminded about that haha. i look forward to seeing you all in just one week!

now as far as my testimony goes; the mission has without a doubt been the best two years of my life, i thought i was happy before the mission, but ive found true happiness by growing closer to my Heavenly Father. I know that He lives. I know that He loves us and that He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to come to this world to teach, heal, guide, show us the way to a perfect life, and more important that anything he paid the price for our sins. i know that they are there for us whenever we need them. i know that when we TRULY repent, we can be forgiven of all of our sins (D&C58:42-23). I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that it was translated by a prophet of God named Joseph Smith, who also restored the church of Christ in its fullness. i know that the ONLY way to truly be happy in this life and to find joy in the next one, is through obedience to Gods commandments. I will forever be grateful for this opportunity i have had to serve my Heavenly Father with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. i invite anyone that is thinking about serving to not think twice and just do it, i promise you wont regret it. I have found the pearl of great price, and it does not matter how much it costs, i will do whatever is necessary to keep it in my life. i love my Saviour, and He loves me. should anyone ever feel alone, our Father is only a prayers distance away. These things and many more i have learned over the past 20 years of my life, but they have been set in stone in my mind, and my heart over the past two years, and i know without a doubt that they are true. i say these things and i testify of the truth of these words, in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

The Crazy day at the Mall!!!

Hey everyone! so this week was pretty normal haha, honestly not a whole lot of crazy exciting things have been going on, just normal missionary work, i like that thoughbecause i think ive gotten a little tired of all the craziness after 2 years haha. we had divisions this week with another companionship, i got to be with a missionary from virginia, he talked the whole time about hockey haha, it was fun though. this week we have been trying reaaaaaaally hard to work with the 2 investigators that we have.one of them is still just waiting forher moms permission to be baptized, we reaaaaaaallly hopeshe gives it this week, and the other one has a tough choice to make, be baptized now, or wait for her husband to comehome in december just so he can see it, hes not a member or anything. weve noticed she is way too comfortable in the gospel now that we visit her alot, which means she isnt progressing and doesntwant to. so this week we are throwing a hail mary and not gonna visit her all week just so she realizes how much she does need the gospel in her life, hopefully that will make her realize she needsto be baptized too. another coolthing that happened this week is we finally got to teach a guy thatwe have been wanting to talk to since i got here, we finally sat him down and after having more of an hour question and answer session rather than a lesson, at the end he said "i like mormon doctrine more, it makes more sense!" my companion and i were pretty happy haha. then saturday was really fun since we got invited to eat breakfast at an investigators house and for the first time in a long time we actually had a legit breakfast that filled me up! thats this week in brief. today i think we might have played too hard haha. a member told us he was going to take us to the richest mall in all of guadalajara.well he took us there, fed us at outback steakhouse, and brought us home, but crapwas that a long ways away haha, the mall was awesome and the food was great, but pday ends at 630 and wejust barely got back at 830.... whooops haha....anyways this week will be fun, divisiones again, final interviewon friday, and my last sunday in this ward. i love you all and miss you tons! two weeks and ill be home so dont miss me too much! have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

OH, and a shoutout to the best mom in the world who is going to have her birthday this Friday! i love you Mom! i hope you have a wonderful day and that you can know howmuch i love and miss you! early friday morning i will be having my final interview with president so it should be an emotional day for the both of us. Thank you so much Mom for everything you have done, 2 more weeks and youll see your little boy again! i love you!!

My last general conference in my mission!!!

Hey everyone! so yeah i can feel the clock really clicking down on me now, of course i dont need to tell anyone how much time i have left since you all remind me each week anyways haha.  This last week wasnt too eventful as far as the life of a zone leader goes, monday night we had a little scare though. we played soccer for about a half hour in a grassy field with some investigators, and after my companion started turning red and puffing up from an allergical reaction. so we took him to 2 hospitals that were closed, until we went to a pharmacy and they injected him with something there haha. that day was fun since we got home at about 1030 at night and had both the president and his wife sending ALOT of texts to us to stay updated. tuesday was fun, district meeting then divisions with another companionship here. i was in the other area since i still dont know our area too well (with so many streets and buses here, its really easy to get lost if you dont know your area). so divisions were pretty fun. Wednesday we ended them and then just worked in our area, we have also dedicated alot of time this week to try and find a new house, since ours has alot of cocroaches and is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere haha. Thursday was what i would call a "lazy day" thanks to our bishop. first off we spent the whole morning doing weekly planning, went to lunch and came back to have our studies. the bishop had told us earlier that he wanted to do visits with us on thursday, so we called him and he said he would be there at 5. well 5 rollled around and of course he hadnt gotten there, and knowing how impuntual mexicans are we waited. 530... he wasnt answering his phone and we decided to wait because if he did end up showing up, well lets just say the members are kinda sensitive about that haha. finally at 6 we left to work. so didnt do alot that day but at least we did learn to make EXTRA sure whenever we have appointments with people. Friday was awesome since we finally had our first coorelation meeting with our ward mission leader. we were able to talk about all of our investigators, and he gave us lots of good tips for what to do with them, and also assigned members to help them. that night we also visited a family of recent converts who fed us A TON! it was great haha, and i slept like a baby. Saturday was awesome. before the mission you would have had to had a buffet in the church if you wanted me to be there the whole day, but now i love it! we were there with 4 other elders, and after the second session we all went to a taco buffet close by to pig out again haha. and of course sunday we listened more to general conference. I loved everything i heard! the general message i got was, 1 get off your phone! 2 get up and help someone. 3 read the book of mormon! thankfully i dont have a problem with any of these being a missionary, but i will have to work very hard to apply them after the mission. i hope you could all enjoy conference as well! thank you all for your love and prayers! they truly mean the world to me, i hope you all have a great week! Love Elder Griffin