Hard work pays off! Baptism of the Lica Juarez family! January 30, 2017

Hey everybody! i hope everyone is doing great! I'm just down here in mexico enjoying my vacation haha. Jk this is the hardest ive ever worked on a vacation! Well this last week was awesome! we worked really hard with our investigators, Laura and Antonio so that they could be baptized! we were visiting them almost every day and having awesome lessons with them. so let me tell you a little bit more about them. Laura is a single mom about 40 years old. She has two sons, Antonio who is 8 years old and Fernando who is 6( don't remember if i said this before but oh well). It has been amazing to see the change in Laura's life and to see just the light in her eyes from living the gospel. She wanted something better for her sons and she found the church and has loved it. Her boys are so awesome as well, they're the funniest little dudes who are way smart as well! they pay lots of attention in Sunday school and always tell us what they learn and its so awesome to see them growing as well! Laura told us that she was a little nervous throughout all the week and we just told her that its normal and everything will be ok. the baptism was really special as well! they just looked like a beautiful family that was making the first step towards eternal blessings! We sang a special hymn as well during the baptismal program that Laura later told us helped her feel at peace and calm. The only worry she had beforehand was if their was going to be hot water haha, and we told her that their would be, sadly we lied though haha. Who knows how but we filled the font with hot water and it got real cold real quick. Laura put the example for her son and was baptized first and i had the privilege to baptize her. As she came up she was just smiling as much as could be and you could tell she was feeling the spirit at 100%. Antonio was really funny because he was kinda freaking out about the cold water and his mom just told him to hurry up and get it over with haha, it almost looked like we were forcing the poor kid, it was pretty funny though! They are so great though that on Sunday we had asked a member to pass for them a half hour before the services, and when he passed by he called us and said they weren't home. Well we called her and she didn't answer her phone so we started freaking out a bit, but at that moment they showed up at the church! they got their a half hour early and by themselves!( in case you didn't know thats a miracle in itself). They looked so happy to be their and again just like the cutest family! I had the privilege as well to confirm Antonio a member of the church and my companion confirmed Laura. The best part of all was to see and hear about their determination to be baptized! When we visited them last night Laura told us that Antonio had woken up a little sick and he said that if he couldn't make it to the baptism, just to bring a little water and throw it on his head hahahhahhaha!! but she said no and that he was going to be baptized! Im so happy to see these children of god make one more step to be able to receive eternal blessings, and I'm really happy to see that hard work does pay off! Anyways other things that happened this week, We had a worldwide training where they announced alot of changes in the missionary lives! our missionary daily schedule is going to change(more details to come on that in future weeks) and where as we used to have 9 key indicators that we reported on each week we know just have 4! The first presidency of the church really wants to hasten the work of salvation and they have made that very clear! so we should see big changes in the mission over the next month and especially over the next few months. After the training we did divisions with Elder Luna and Elder Anderson to help them meet the goals of 20 new investigators in a week, well we found 10 that day haha. They were really grateful for that help and it was awesome for us as well to see that miracle! Thursday we did a special fast as a zone asking for a miracle. I don't know if i said this or not but we had the goal in this zone that if each ward baptized in January the stake president would take us to the temple! and their was still one ward that hadn't, so we asked for a miracle by doing the special fast! after much stress and many calls to see what was going on in that ward, the end result was that they wouldn't be having any baptisms. They have an investigator who could've been baptized, but wanted her son to do the ordinance and he lives too far away to have made it there... so more than likely we will put the same goal for February, i just hope im still here to be able to go! Saturday we did divisions with Elder Menchu and Elder Fullmer! again to help them meet the goal of 20 new investigators. The whole zone met that goal so today the stake president will be taking us all out to eat at a V.I.P. Restaurant, the best part... ITS A BUFFET! I'm pumped to put it simply haha. That was this week! on Wednesday of this next week a general authority is going to come and give us training which should be sweet! Saturday we go to Guadalajara to have a special counsel with him as well. Im loving the mission! Im seeing so many miracles and Im having so many great experiences here i just love every moment! I hope each and every one of you can always see the hand of god in your lives! its always there, its just a matter of whether or not we look for it! Love you all have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

Divisions with Elder Luna and Elder Anderson! I love buggin them since they cant do anything about it since i'm a ZL haha!! and we made a map of our area im really proud about! and the baptism!

 We celebrated our Baptism, with what else, besides Pizza and Coke!

 just cuz i know you like seeing my smiling face haha! and cuz im gonna get my hair cut in like 10 minutes.

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY!!!

Hey everyone! Well this week was alot different then most of the weeks in my mission, because i was actually able to work! Tuesday we just had our district meetings like normal and then the rest of the week was just normal and we were able to work! everyday we tried talking to people and we tried finding new investigators, we didn't find as many as last week but thats ok. we also spent almost all day Saturday with Elder Smith and his companion Elder Cruz. We went there and did divisions with them so that we could help them meet the goal of twenty new investigators. That day we were able to find 9! and they ended up getting the 20 new investigators before the end of the day yesterday, so they were really happy about that though! it was pretty funny though because after we ended divisions me and my companion were exhausted from knocking on doors and walking all day long, it was worth it though. In our area we were able to have lots of good lessons though and we really focused this last week on preparing an investigator that is going to be baptized on Friday! Her name is Laura, she has two sons, Antonio who is 8 years old and Fernando who is 6. Me and Elder Bocanegra found her while we were visiting a family of less active members, and since then she has listened to us and she loves the messages and loves the church and the way she feels. She is so excited to be baptized and it is so great to see her enthusiasm! we spent alot of time this last week visiting her and preparing her, and we are going to do the same this week so that all will go well with her baptism! were really happy about her progress and were so excited to see another person enter the waters of baptism! The only interesting things that happened this week was that a companionship of sister missionaries had special transfers because they couldn't get along, and that sure was a fun problem i had on my hands (sarcasm included). All day yesterday from about 8 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon we were in the church in a seminar for bishops and ward mission leaders. There they talked alot about what are the responsibilities of a ward mission leader and what they can do to help us and all that fun stuff. We were also able to train them for an hour on how we can have more divisions with the members and why and the benefits from it. So that was a really long training haha, just goes to show that i cannot have an office job. Besides that this week was great and we worked hard and im really tired but i love the mission! i hope each and every one of you can have spiritual experiences in your lives like the ones im having because there is no better feeling than to feel the love of our heavenly father. I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for all your love and prayers! Love Elder Griffin

Officially the most stressful week of my life, January 16, 2017

Hi everyone! wow this last week has too many stories to tell. Just a little warning, this email is gonna be a big one! well to start off Monday night we were doing visits and we had just left a house at 845 pm and we were planning on making our way home, but the bishop called us and said that he NEEDED us to go to a family home evening with him, i thought there were going to be investigators or something real special, so i said sure although i told him we had to be home at 930 and he said he would get us home by that time. Well guess what? we didn't get home by that time haha, and since were zone leaders we have to tell the assistants when everyone is home, and since we weren't home on time he called us! i was just like yeah i know im in trouble. So that was a fun way to start off the week! Then on Tuesday we had our zone meeting! first off i knew this thing was going to go south real quick since the sisters had planned most of it. And then the Sister trainer leaders( basically the assistants for the sisters here) had their part and they start talking about faith and all that fun stuff. they said that we should sacrifice something as a zone and when they started making the list i knew right where this was going. They ended up saying that we should sacrifice some of our writing time on Mondays and time of our pday to do more visits. Now this is a very touchy subject for alot of missionaries since they like their pday. Long story short they basically forced the entire mission to sacrifice their pday. That was awesome(not) because there were a whole lot of mad missionaries and the spirit was no longer in that meeting. i ended up talking to the assistants about that problem actually. Thankfully our stake president came about an hour later to our meeting and saved the day! He pumped up all the missionaries to go out and work hard and find new investigators. He set the goal that we could find 20 new investigators in a week and also that we could talk to 120 people in a week! these are really big numbers in our mission! He said that each companionship that met those goals, hes gonna take us to a V.I.P. restaurant! the one where they take all the general authorities and all the important people who come here haha. Then he put the goal that if the zone got 18 baptisms this month, he would take us all to the temple!(this DOES NOT happen in our mission) so its gonna be so awesome if we meet that goal! Needless to say, the missionaries were pumped by the time the zone meeting got over. That same day i was able to do divisions with my good buddy Elder Smith! i hadn't seen him in a long time, and now that hes here in my zone we took advantage of the opportunity and did divisions! as is mandatory, we bought coke and pizza and told stories until bedtime after we got home haha. Thursday and Friday we had the interviews with President Egginton. He caught me by surprise because while we were waiting for more people to show up to be interviewed he just told me to come into his office! honestly i wasn't prepared because usually we go last haha, it was great though. Our mission president is the coolest guy every. After everyone had finished their interviews on Friday, me and my companion talked to the president along with the sister trainer leaders. He talked alot about the little problem we had in the zone meeting before, that was fun (not). But we talked out the problem and we got the situation figured out. Whats funny is that the mission department of the church is going to change the mission schedule(this is classified information our president gave us). The mission department is going to make our pdays even longer, since they found out that its one of the most stressful days of the week for us! so its kinda funny that the sisters wanted to take away time from our pday, when that goes completely against what the mission department thinks haha. After we ended our meeting President Egginton asked me and my companion what we were going to do in the night, and i just said "do a few visits, why what can we help you with?" and thats when he said he wanted to do visits with us! So he went back to his hotel and we went to lunch and planned on meeting up later. I was so nervous for these visits that while we were knocking on doors, i knocked on the door of a church without even realizing it! I felt pretty dumb after haha. But as we started our visits with the president, the spirit made all my worries go away! We had such awesome lessons and it was honestly great to be able to spend time with our President. Also it was great being driven around in his REALLY nice van haha. Anyways now its time for the really cool part about this week. Me and my companion decided we were going to meet the goals of finding 20 new investigators and talking to 120 people this week. We wanted to put a good example for the zone and we went to work! we have been talking to as many people as possible this week, we have literally knocked on  every door of some streets, and we had very little success throughout the week.  a few people here and there accepted us, and by the time Sunday came around we still needed to fin 8 new investigators. With the hopes to find them we left home early that day to go knock on more doors. After an hour no one accepted us, so we just went to an appointment we had at 1030. We planned on visiting a member of the church and teaching his family who aren't members. As we went in we started the lesson with just 2 people there, then a few more came, then a few more, and before i knew it i was seeing a miracle, 8 people were sitting down listening to us. When i realized this i was filled with joy. we ended the message and set a time to return, and as me and my companion left the house we were jumping with joy!(not kidding here) we couldn't believe what had just happened! as we started walking to the church the song came into my mind that says "i saw god today". I really had just witnessed a miracle. it was a great mercy of god that we were able to teach that family, and it was by his grace that we were able to meet our goal. That day we were able to sit at church happy and content( something we were sure we weren't going to be able to do). I know that God knows us and loves us and hears our prayers, he helps us if we have faith in him, and after we have given everything he helps us with the things we cant do. I am so grateful to be on this mission and to be able to have these experiences! but the week doesn't end there, last night at about 1020pm, the sister trainer leaders called us and said "yeah were sorry, we realized that what we did really did cause a big problem in the zone. you guys were right, were sorry about that". i couldn't believe the first miracle i saw that morning, but 2 in one day? haha I told you i had a stressful week! But i love everything that I'm doing and i love this gospel, I'm so grateful for the opportunity i have to help other come unto Christ. I know this church is true and i know if we do what god asks he will bless us with blessings untold! i love you all and i hope you all have a great week!
Love Elder Griffin

Couple weeks ago.. Elder Bocanegro saying goodbye

 Bishopric...

 Bishop and Stake President...

This weeks Pictures--- January 10, 2017 Zone Meeting

 Divisions with Elder Smith.

 Can you see the beard growth.... 24 hours!

 My shoes are worn out!  I needed new ones... so I bought some new boots!

 They are 10 times nicer than the ones I bought in LaPiedad... those lasted 1 month. these should last 10 months, or hopefully through the end of my mission???  Hopefully!!!!

The weeks are flying by!!!! January 9, 2017

Hey everyone! wow how this week flew by! its so crazy to think that a week has already past! the days here in the mission are just going by too fast. On monday after we ended writing, my companion didn't even take the time to unpack his bags, we just went right to work! On Tuesday we had to go to Guadalajara for leadership council again and we were there  all day wednesday. Can I just say that these councils are suuuuuuuuper long and I truly believe that most of the people there just talk because they like to hear their own voice. Its pretty stressful having to be there honestly haha. but I survived another one and then we came home and got here late wednesday night thanks to alot of traffic. People down here are rioting and robbing and vandalizing and shutting down freeways because their mad that the gas price jumped up. So right now everything is pretty tense, here in morelia everything is still relaxed but everything in Guadalajara was pretty scary. Then thursday we worked hard and friday and saturday haha. My companion is a really hard worker! A little more about Elder Ruiz, Hes from the state of Mexico, he has 19 months in the mission and he told me he wants to work as hard as he can during his last few months in the mission! We have been talking to as many people as we can in the streets and in the buses and everywhere! we are really trying hard to find new investigators! Its pretty different from the way I worked with Elder Bocanegra, we tried to help out alot more with the less actives but Elder Ruiz really wants to baptize, both ways are good methods, and were only going to stop visiting the less actives that aren't progressing so that we can have more time to teach investigators. Yesterday the Stake president asked all the missionaries to sing a special hymn in a stake leadership meeting, and he also gave us a half hour to train the members on how they can help us better and what they can do so that we can all be more effective in the missionary work. Today we had a really fun zone activity! we played volleyball, capture the flag, and soccer of course haha. Then we all ate pizze and drank alot of coke! Im really excited for this next transfer! we already have so many good plans and activities were going to do i know that this transfer is going to fly by!! its gonna be february and im still gonna be thinking were in 2016 haha. Im loving the mission and everything is going great down here! I hope you all are able to feel the spirit in your lives each day, because its one of the best feelings ever to feel the spirit in our lives. Thank you all for your love and prayers. oh P.S.  planning out zone meeting and activities are hard enough, then they tell us we have to plan them out with the sisters!!! that was tough haha!! I guess its just preparing me for marriage haha! Have a great week I love you all! Love Elder Griffin

PROTEIN.....   I'M GOING TO SURVIVE.....

                                             I've always wanted a "gold card"... and I got a good discount too!

Leadership Council Pictures.....

Elder Herrmann and Elder Griffin

(Not sure about these two????)

Sister Urieta, assistent to the sisters...  being funny...

                         Ok... Now that looks more like Elder Herrmann and Elder Griffin!  😄

        Elder Gonzalez (Good buddy) and Elder Griffin

  Elder Toledo(DL in La Piedad) and Elder Griffin...

     Zone Activity.....

Hey everyone!! i hope you all had a wonderful new years! i know mine sure was great and I'm looking forward to everything that 2017 has to bring! This week was pretty great! on Tuesday we had our district meetings and they were extra powerful since the district leaders focused alot on pumping up the missionaries and focused alot on faith! they talked alot about why we need to work hard and how and it was pretty great! also it was pretty funny since that day the whole zone got their flu shots(me included). Sister Lopez gave everyone their shots since shes a nurse, and since no one else wanted to do it i had to go first haha. The funny part was that we made fun of her after because i was the only one that bled out of all the missionaries, so we joked around saying she must have been extra mad with me. Then Tuesday we had divisions and those went really well since we had some really powerful lessons that day. Wednesday was pretty normal here and Thursday we were able to go to a baptism of a little girl here in the ward who turned 8. Reminded me alot that Lindsey is going to be baptized this week!! That baptism was so beautiful and afterwards the little girl was feeling the spirit so strongly that she was just crying and crying. Friday was normal and Saturday was awesome for two reasons. 1 is because a family gave both me and my companion new ties as a late Christmas present! that was really nice of them and really cool to receive that gift and the ties are really good looking too. and reason number 2 is because it was new years! as you can imagine it gets kinda crazy here for new years, so we had the rule to be home at 7. well we took advantage and decided to have a little new years party with some other elders! we bought coke and a whole lot of meat and got to grillin! nothing like i used to cook back home, but we made it work and it turned out ok! that night i had to sleep on the floor and i dont think ive ever slept worse in my life haha! but Sunday morning we got up and went to our house to get ready and went to church. the services were really spiritual as a few ex missionaries shared their testimonies and then my companion also shared his since he left the area! he spent about an hour taking pictures afterwards with everyone, well i should say that i took the pictures and he stood there with the people haha. then we spent Sunday saying goodbye to people and eating alot(i love it down here because whenever its transfers they love to feed us as a way of saying goodbye). This day sure has been fun!!(translation: stressful). We got up at 6 and we were at the bus center at 745. my companion left at 8 and i stayed there till about 930 making sure everyone took off and got there on time and things like that. Then when we left we went and searched all of morelia for a place to cut our hair but for some reason no place was open today. So we wasted about 2 hours doing that and then from 12 to 330 we waited at the bus center for my companion and a few other elders to get here! so yeah today was a whole lot of waiting and waiting and more waiting. Found out that a way they shine shoes down here is by lighting them on fire, ya hear that mom?;) haha anyways transfers. My companion left to uruapan(poor son of a gun was crying about it since he had already been there 6 months.) and im staying here in Tarimbaro and my new companion is Elder Ruiz! so far weve been together about 30 minutes, all the time i spent writing this email haha, so ill have to tell you more about him next week. Hope you all have a great week! Thank you for all the emails and love and prayers you send! Love Elder Griffin