Hi Everyone!! so this week definetely wasnt as hectic or fast paced as last week, thats why im calling it rest week haha. Monday was a pretty normal day and so was tuesday, we had a few lessons and taught a few people, monday night we really wanted to do a pre-celebration for getting the 50 lessons but we didnt have any money so we decided not to. Well the lord just showed us more of his tender mercies, because one person we visited monday night gave us cake and another gave us tacos and some dang tasty coconut flavored water! we were just like this is too good to be true haha! then tuesday was a normal day as well as far as the work goes. Wednesday was a rollercoaster of emotions!! Wednesday was interviews with the president, and the zone leaders(us) are in charge of planning them. so we had a schedule and everything and told everyone when to show up and how long to take and yeah. We got to the church at 830 to start cleaning up a bit and the first interview started at 10. each person only has 15 minutes, but im pretty sure no one got the memo. The first 6 people took about a half hour each, some 40 minutes! so me and my companion were really stressed at this point because we were way behind and the president changed the interview order and everything was just a big mess. Eventually it came time to get lunch for the president and a senior companionship that came with him. Just my luck that kfc decided to not deliver that day. So me and my companion had to go get the food for them! have you ever tried riding in a comvi with  a drink in each hand? its pretty tough let me tell ya! and by the time we got to the church with everything my hands were freezing cold from holding the drinks haha. Thankfully we got it all there and everyone was happy and interviews continued. Towards the end it ended up being a huge pile up basically of missionaries because everyone got there for their appointment on time but since we were behind they had to wait. again stressful. During the interviews we also have the responsibility to check agendas and their area books to give them advice and make sure theyre using them good and things like that, more stress! finally it came down to the last two people, me and my companion. I went in at about 620 and at 7 we had a meeting scheduled with the stake president and the mission president. i set the record that day for the shortest interview with less that 15 minutes haha. it was great though talking to him, he told me that he really needed me and my leadership and it was pretty cool talking to him. also when i shared my scripture i had been thinking about for the week he looked it up in his scriptures and wrote my name down above the verse in his scriptures! it was a pretty cool feeling i had. then my companion had his interview and it was 7 o clock haha. The meeting we had after with the stake president and mission president was awesome! The mission president basically just said how much he loves this area and that this is the model area of the mission and he loved what we were doing and wished that the other areas could be like this! we also talked about a few needs and things we were going to implement and change but it was just such a cool meeting! me and my companion left that meeting literally jumping with joy!(ok  i might have been the only one jumping but still). and so we decided to celebrate missionary style, pizza and coke haha. Thursday was chill, we planned our next coming week and went to eat giant tortas again then traveled to guadalajara. We didnt end up getting to the assistents house till 935 because the traffic was so bad there!! Divisions with the assistents was also really cool. I got to be with my good buddy Elder Gonzalez again so that was a fun time, we did some service by helping a lady basically rearrange her store haha. Then we ate in easily the fanciest house i have ever seen on my mission. it was like a regular utah home, but to me it seemed like a mansion because of all the other houses ive been in! then we had some good lessons and called it a day! saturday we traveled home and had a few lessons in the afternoon. Sunday was way cool since it was the primary program! the kids were so cute, and the primary teacher asked us for our help, so when they sang called to serve, on the second verse we started singing as well and we walked from the back of the sacrement room to the front. it was pretty cool and alot of people told us afterward that we pretty much woke them up with our "booming" voices haha. Then we spent the whole day there helping with the missionary preparation class and the family home evening activity for the ward. So yeah that was this week! today we took a tour of morelia and "accidently" had to go through a big catholic church or "great abominables" as we call them. so yeah that was this week! we didnt have near as many lessons due to the fact that we had hardly any time to work in our area, but im happy and healthy and loving life!! oh mom youll love this story, i signed my visa thursday night but it didnt pass, and i signed 5 different times just to be sure that it would! so i signed again before i left guadalajara saturday morning, and if it doesnt pass this time ill have to go back to guadalajara and go to the visa place in person. my bad handwriting finally came back to bite me in the butt. Well i love you all and i hope you all have a great week! Happy halloween! Love Elder Griffin

The hardest working week ever.. October 24, 2016

Hey everyone!! so this week me and my companion have easily worked harder than i have ever before worked on my mission. and let me tell you why. on tuesday we had a zone meeting which i felt went really awesome honestly. we had a cool activity making "churches" out of plastic cups, focusing on christlike attributes, and lots of cool things we talked about to pump up the missionaries and to help them have the desires to work hard. although just my luck, nothing goes as planned haha. the same day there was a funeral in the same church where we had our meeting, in the same room actually, just the little dividers that they have in churches to seperate us. so we had to be extra reverent during the meeting and we had to try and keep the peace. to help animate the missionaries more we invited the stake president to come and talk at the zone meeting and explain the goals that the stake has. at the end of explaining these goals he made two promises, any companionship that has 50 or more lessons in a week, will get to go to sirloin stockade for free!( sirloin stockade is a buffet that i do believe i described my love for a few emails ago). so that was amazing and the other is that if each companionship has a baptism in november, the stake president will take the whole zone out to eat at a very fancy V.I.P. restaurant, the same restaurant they take the general authorities to when they come to visit here. So after announcing that the entire zone was way pumped to hear the rewards. Side story: after the zone meeting all the missionaries were asked to sing at the funeral, it was kinda cool but also kinda weird since lots of people were sad, i felt like we sung good though. Anyways me and my companion decided that we should be the example for the whole zone and get those 50 lessons. My feet havent hurt so much since my training, nor have i ever had shin splints again since my training, and remember how i said we only used the "missionary pace" when we were late to appointments? well this week we basically used it 99% of the time. Me and my companion did divisions with members every day so we could have more lessons and we visited so many people and we had so many crazy things happen and so many plans fall and so many miracles happen, this week truly killed me mentally and physically. A member told me that during his mission he had never been more tired in his entire life, i thought i was tired during my training, but now i really know what he meant. Getting out of bed is the hardest thing to do every morning, but we do it because we know that if we dont then we wont be worthy of the blessings of the lords. at the end of the week though we were able to meet the goal of 50 lessons though! me and my companion are very happy about this, and we will now be able to rest a little bit haha. Mainly because this week we have interviews with the president, and since were zone leaders we have to be in the church all day to organize them and help things go smoothly, and friday we will be in guadalajara to renew my visa and have divisions with the assistents. Im so happy down here! im suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper tired but i couldnt be loving life more! this are is so awesome, the members here actually come up to US and ask US when they can help US! its a miracle because in none of my other areas has that happened! not to mention i have a great companion! me and Elder Bocanegra get along great, we mess around and joke around alot but we also get work done! also i love morelia! last week on monday we went to a HUGE mall and i literally felt like i was in the united states haha. everything about it just reminded me of the good ole' USA. so that was pretty cool. and today we went and ate at the same taco and torta place that me and Elder Herrmann and Elder Smith came to about 3 months ago! and man that is good food haha. oh i almost forgot to say, i confirmed someone yesterday! i have baptized 3 people while on my mission but yesterday i had the opportunity to confirm a convert that the sister missionaries here had been teaching. that was a really cool experience as well. Well as you can all tell im working hard and loving life haha! also i would like to give a happy birthday wish to my best friend ever, Kylee! hope you have a great day sis! Well I love you all and i hope you all have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

Zone Meeting...   "Pumping up the Missionaries"   "building churches"

 Sunday afternoon exhaustion....

 Phone call, after phone call, appointments....

 New Hair cut!!!

 New Ties... what more could an Elder ask for???

 New members...

 Teaching at the Zone Meeting...

 Lunch today,  October 24, 2016...  4 happy Elders!!!

Wow being a zone leader is different!!

Hey everyone! so i dont have alot of time again this week so i just want to say im sorry if i dont get to write you all before i get off! this week has been so awesome and so different and so cool i love it! first off we didn't work Monday since my companion was sick but Tuesday we started getting to work and this is a great area! weve just been working so hard to try and find new investigators this week because its funny, ive always complained about having one of the worst areas in the mission and now the lord has blessed me with literally the model area of the mission! everyone looks at us like, wow we should be doing what there doing. Its so great here because all the members want to help us! we had the stake conference here on saturday and sunday and after all the sessions we had people asking us when can we go visit with you guys? i was in shock! so the ward here is really strong and all the people wanna help us its just kindof a bummer because we dont have investigators haha.... i dont know why but my companion said that when his last companion left the area so did all the investigators because apparently they all said they didn't want to hear more and they just left us... but its ok! were gonna keep looking for new ones and i know the lord will definitely help us out. Anyways fun stories about this week... well first off we walk alot more here than i did in my last area. as you know my last area was just a little town that we could walk from one corner to the other in about 20 minutes, and here we usually walk 20 minutes to each lesson! so its definitely a little different, but its ok ill get used to it. Speaking of walking, we share the ward here with sister missionaries as well and sometimes we eat together with the members. one day they didn't know where the food appointment was since it was in our area, and we told them to meet us at a certain place at 1230 because the lunch appointment was at one. well they showed up right at 1 haha, and when we told them that the food was a half hour away they didn't believe us and they just started walking fast, even started jogging for a bit! well me and my companion just kinda looked at each other and laughed and then we kicked into "missionary pace" usually this pace is only used for when your late to appointments, and when we hit that speed(walking of course) the sisters had to jog behind us! it was just really funny because they jogged behind us for a full half hour and we all got to lunch really sweaty. Also this area is awesome because its not hot! its honestly really cool here, lots of people here say its hot and i just kinda laugh and think you dont know heat. also this area has sagebrush! so since i hadn't smelt that for 11 months, when i smelt it walking down the street the other day i got so happy and my companion thought i was so weird but i didn't care because man had i missed that smell! speaking of my companion he is so cool! hes a really funny guy and really easy to get along with and hes obedient as well(better be for being a zone leader haha) and so i think this transfer should really fly by with the pace we have! the stake has goals that each companionship reaches 20 or more lessons with a member present each week, 20 or more lessons with less actives, and 10 other lessons. thats 50 lessons a week! so i am very excited to see the pace of the work pick up here as i start to know the area better and we start doing divisions as well. Well thats it for this week! i love you all and hope you have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

 PROTEIN....

 Elder Bocanegra and Elder Griffin

Apartment in Tarimbaro

 Happy Birthday Flowers...

Monday October 10, 2016....I'M A ZONE LEADER!

THAT'S RIGHT I'M A ZONE LEADER AND I'M SUPER PUMPED ABOUT THAT!!! i'm in the stake of aeropuerto in the ward of tarimbaro and ive been talking to alot of people and apparently this is the best area in all of the mission or at least one of the best!!! the stake has put the goal to have 20 lessons with a member present each week as well as 20 lessons with less actives and 10 other lessons! i do not think i will be busy here! also my new companion is Elder Bocanegra! Hes a really cool dude and i know well get along just fine and were gonna work really hard together! Actually its funny, the area i am in now is the same area i came to 3 months ago for the district leader meeting! just my luck i finally get what i want right?!?! so yes im super pumped. Now let me tell you about this week!! monday, normal. Tuesday i left my house at 8 am and i left from zihua with another elder at 930 am and we didnt get to the mission offices until 9 at night!! i had hardly eaten nor drinken anything all day, so when i got there i was lucky enough to find a really gool guy named Elder Zurita who is my new buddy and me and him went to buy some tacos at 1045 at night in basketball shorts, regular t-shirts, and shower sandals haha. i have never felt so cool up to that point in my life haha. Wednesday we had the leadership counsel. we started at 9 and they fed us breakfast before, we had a little break at 1 and they fed us lunch then. We started up again and ended by 4 pm. so it was really cool and powerful and just awesome to be a part of it! During the break as well the president asked me if i would accept the calling to be a zone leader and i said yes and so i basically knew from that point forward i was gonna be a zone leader. afterwards i went to a buffet place called sirloin stockade. THAT PLACE IS THE BOMB!!! I literally have never felt so full in my entire life, and for sure have never felt that full on the mission, it was awesome haha. Then me and the same Elder who came with me from zihua took a bus back with me. we left at 930 at night and got to zihua at 630 am. needless to say that following day was very long, VERY long. But its ok because i pushed through and we worked hard and had fun those last few days and all was well! Saturday night i got the transfer calls confirming where i was going for transfers. Heres the best part about my week though, just how absolutely crazy my traveling was. At 8 am on sunday we left the house with all my bags to take them to the church so we wouldnt have to come back for them later, then at 6 pm we left san jeronimito to go to zihua so i could take a bus to lazaro. At this point i had assumed i would be traveling monday morning and sleeping the night in lazaro sunday night. But anyways at 740 we left zihua, got to lazaro at 9 and waited outside the bus terminal until 930 when some guy drove by in his truck asking us if we wanted a ride and were like um no thanks, well that guy ended up having two missionaries with him who helped us figure things out better haha. this is when i got the shocker that i was going to be traveling AT 1 IN THE MORNING, oh but wait it gets better, guess who i ended up traveling with at 1 in the morning? A SISTER!! so my companion for about 6 hours was a girl, that was weird and very interesting to say the least haha. Her name is Sister Powley. We actually talked alot though and shes really cool so it was chill traveling with her. We got to morelia at 5 am and guys, ITS COLD HERE!! i love it haha!! so yeah im going off of about 2 hours of sleep right now but i feel on top of the world! i cant wait to tell you all about my new area and more about my new companion and things like that!! oh but the most important thing of all  before i end this email is that i have a very special announcement to make. Its someones birthday this week! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! thanks so much for all that you did for me growing up and all that you do for me now! you really have been an angel in my life that i am so grateful to have and to call my mom! i hope your birthday is wonderful and just know i will be sending lots of hugs and kisses! Well thats it for this week folks. Love you all! Love Elder Griffin

  Elder Jambati my first district leader, Elder Toledo my second district leader, and Elder Zurita, hes a cool dude I just met but he took me out to eat tacos at 1045 at night in guadalajara in just shorts a tshirt and our shower sandals haha

                                           saying goodbye to a bunch of familys on sunday!

                                              last pic with me and the boys from zihua!  

                               this picture with the sister is really funny for alot of reasons. the main one is                                               because for approximately 6 hours she was my companion!

                                      i saw Elder Emery while waiting in the morelia central!!

                Leadership Council in Guadalajara...  Elder Griffin,  Zone Leader in Morelia