Another week full of work! April 24, 2017

Hey everybody! well thankfully this week was alot better than last week, although it was still considered vacations it wasn't as bad as the week before, because most people had returned home so we could get back to business. On Tuesday i had a really cool experience in one of the district meetings we had. We listened to the talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland where he talks about how Jesus asked Peter 3 times if he loved him, and when he said yes he said "THEN FEED MY SHEEP". ive always really liked that talk, kinda like a spiritual boost you could say. It reminded me that all that we do as missionaries in sharing this great message, we do it for love. Love for our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. So it just made me think, Do i love him? well after that we got to work thats for sure. I was able to do divisions that day as well with Elder Anaya, he had just barely been in San Jeronimito, my old area! so we spent alot of time talking about everything that had changed in the 6 months id been gone and all the crazy stories we have from there and the even crazier people, it was fun to be able to remember old areas, even old stories i had tried to forget haha. This week me and my companion have also been sharing with alot of people the new Easter video that the church made, prince of peace. I love watching it every time because it always helps me to feel his love and the peace he gives each one of us when we follow him, and we have been trying alot this week to teach everyone the importance of following Jesus Christ and the blessings we can receive. This week we also found a new family of less actives that i had never visited before. We were able to have a very cool lesson with them and talk alot about the importance of the atonement and the blessing we have to be able to repent, it just made me even more grateful for the sacrifice that Jesus made for each one of us! and to show us that they were grateful for our visit, they fed us dinner, and man was that good haha. I love tacos down here and thats exactly what they gave us! me and my companion slept good that night! We also have seen alot of progress in one of our investigators, Antonio. This week he officially stopped smoking! he had been working on that for the last 6 weeks that we had been visiting him, and he finally stopped! we are so proud of him and its so great to always see these amazing changes that people can make in their lives when they trust in the Lord and have the desire to do better! Sunday was the best day of all because even though Sunday is usually one of the days that we don't make alot of visits, this day we made 7! not a whole lot compared to how many i had in a day in Aeropuerto, but its the most ive had here since ive gotten here so i was pretty happy! That was our week! full of work and work and more work. Were going to have divisions with the assistents this week so that should be fun to be with Elder Jambati and Elder Ojeda, two good friends of mine in the mission. I love you all and i hope you all know that God and Jesus Christ loves each and every one of you! thank you for all your love and support! have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

Tourist area of the town... out visiting.

 New investigator???

 They say missionaries are alot like ANGELS!

 Waiting, waiting, waiting.....

WHERE DID EVERYONE GO!!!

Hey everybody! well this week was a little bit harder than most others honestly. This last week in mexico is basically the biggest vacations they have all year long. its called semana santa(holy week) because they remember Jesus Christ and all that but really everyone just takes vacations haha. So this week we were walking alot more and we were in the sun alot more and we didn't have as many lessons as we normally do, we just found ourselves wondering at times where everyone disappeared to haha. it was a little tough at times wondering why we didn't have more success and why it was so hard, but it helped me understand a little bit more all that our savior went through, i cant imagine how hard it was for him to teach the gospel to people who spit on him, cursed him, and all sorts of bad treatments, walking alot more than us and giving his life for us. Its a very special time to be able to remember the atonement, we should always remember and be thankful every day for that great sacrifice. On the bright side this week we had our zone conference with the 4 stakes that are here in Guadalajara! there were alot of missionaries in one building haha. It was also great because President and Sister Assante told us alot more about their lives and where they came from and what they like, we found out that President Assante used to be a cowboy, i think that means we should get along pretty good haha. so we spent the whole day there in training's and learning things we can improve on. It was also really great this week to be able to visit with one of our progressing investigators who had been drinking and smoking all his life since he was 13 years old. he said since we started visiting him he hasn't touched a drop of alcohol, and he has been trying really hard to quit smoking, he has been quitting little by little and this week he set the goal to leave it behind 100%! its amazing to see the changes that people can make when they want to, and then when they ask for gods help. Today we also applied the "work harder play harder" motto, as we spent 2 hours playing basketball and soccer with some other elders, went "shopping"(when i say shopping i mean we bought ties haha) then went and ate at buffalo wild wings for the first time in over 18 months, and also found krispy kreme doughnuts and enjoyed those haha! this week is still vacations week so itll probably be another week of hard work, but i know that for our hard work we can help bless the lives of others. I know that this church is true, i know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that anyone who has faith in him can become more like him! I hope you all have a great week! love you all! Love Elder Griffin

Fun fun week! April 10, 2017, first week with President Assante!

Hey everyone! i hope you are all doing great and enjoying life wherever you are at. This last week sure was pretty eventful for me and my companion! On Monday we had our zone activity which was lots of fun but pretty tiring since i wrestled against another elder in our zone that also wrestled before, and man was i sore the next day haha. Tuesday and Wednesday we had divisions with some of the elders here in the zone to help train them and also see how they are working in their area. Thursday was a normal day, but the fun started on Friday! We had leadership council but this time it was REALLY different, first off because we started without a president... and just the assistants trained us for a bit on things they want us to train our zones. It wasn't until after the lunch break and we were all sitting down quietly anxiously waiting that our new president and his wife showed up. when they entered the room i felt the spirit so strongly from them and just brought peace to my heart, peace that i needed and im sure everyone needed because we were all anxious to see how the new president is. President Assante is actually alot like President Egginton, he has a very big heart and is very loving, very spiritual, and very emotional. When they got there they started telling us all about their life and a little bit about how it was that they were called on such short notice to be our president! It was really cool to meet them and talk to them and hug the new president! after that we just finished with the normal things in leadership council and spent the night getting materials for the zone and everything else we needed for the missionaries here. Saturday morning we got up bright and early again to go right back to the mission offices and have our interviews with President Assante the next day. We were the first zone to be interviewed by him, and my companion was the first person to be interviewed by him, and i was the second haha. That was also a very spiritual experience, he asked me about my life and my family and what i liked to do, we also talked about the zone the missionaries, but i could really feel his love for me and for each one of us. Interviews with the president always reminds me that i could never be a secretary, because i got stressed just from sitting around for a few hours, i cant imagine doing it all day and doing it day after day after day. It was really cool though because we got to talk alot to President Assante during his lunch break, because just me my companion and him were in the kitchen in the offices eating together and he told us all about how they got called and set apart with just a 3 week notice and how fast paced everything was, also they aren't going to end their mission until June of 2020, 3 years and 3 months!( a normal call is for 3 years, but with 7 months of preparation). his wife also told me alot of the same things that they were trying to pack everything and it was crazy for those 3 weeks, really cool to be able to talk to them. President Assante is a convert, he was baptized at age 17 and served a mission as well, and is from Argentina but has lived in the united states for a long time. And his wife is from Oregon! they are great! Saturday night we also had a meeting with the stake president here and that was great to be able to know what is it that he wants us to do here and what we should be focusing on. We were able to make a long list of things we need to do and im excited to get at it! Then sunday was great like always. visited alot of members and were able to be in our area for a day which was very nice. BUT since my motto is work hard play harder, today we went bowling with 2 other elders here and ate McDonalds haha. So the mission is going great for me! im loving it and there are so many miracles that we are seeing in our area, i love being able to feel the spirit in alot of our lessons and see peoples lives change. Well that's it for this week! Thanks again for all your love and prayers!
Love Elder Griffin

First week with Elder Ulloa!

Hey everyone! well this week was a pretty great one, but wow have i mentioned that being a zone leader is a little stressful?( if i sound like a broken record its because its the truth haha). This week was awesome but we had alot of things we had to do because of the transfers! All day Monday we were checking to make sure everyone arrived on time and got to their areas on time and everything was good there. On Tuesday i learned the truth behind "you get what you ask for", because i had been asking alot to have sister trainer leaders in this zone to help us out with all the sister missionaries, well with my good luck i got a trio of sister trainer leaders, and since their house only had 2 beds we had to scramble on Tuesday to find a bed for them! luckily we have a few great members here who helped us out with the transport and we got the materials they needed and that was another problem solved. Wednesday we had the district meeting and afterwards we met with the district leaders and talked to them about our vision for the zone this transfer and what we need to do and what we want them to do and planned out our efforts with them. Thursday was a little tough because of weekly planning, anyone that has been on a mission knows that weekly planning is a nightmare, it was even worse this day because the whole mission is basically in pause until the new president gets here, its hard to make plans because we don't really know whats gonna happen with the new mission president, but on Friday we have a leadership council with President Egginton and President Assante, our new mission President! so hopefully that day we will have alot of questions answered. Also on Friday more fun things we had to do was change 2 companionships of missionaries to a new house. We had a few members planned to help us, we thought one was gonna bring a truck but when he showed up with just a little car we were like, "uh oh". thankfully we only had to move suitcases and the stuff the missionaries had so it wasn't too bad. That just took alot of time moving them from one house, then getting the other companionship and moving them to another. BUT the lord always blesses us, and Saturday and Sunday were great blessings! I absolutely loved general conference, i could learn so many great things and i felt the spirit truly testify to me of the truth of everything that those inspired leaders were saying. I know that the Prophet is called of God and that his words are wise words that im going to try and apply them to my life! I was able to watch it in English since we did divisions with another american, and to celebrate a good day Saturday night we bought Dominos pizza haha. Sunday was also a great day to hear more from the General Conference. I am so grateful that we were able to listen directly from Gods Prophet and Apostles! Today we had a fun zone activity, played soccer, I'm getting pretty good at it now actually haha, and ate lots of pizza! this week we get to meet the new president, and on Saturday we have our interviews, whether with the new president or the one who is here right now i don't know, but either way it should be great! i love you all so much and i hope you can all feel the love that God has for each one of you! I hope you all have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

Elder Griffin said he found "a sweet ride" at one of the members home... it reminded him of his "sweet ride" at home.

 He was way excited to find Twinkies, Sardines and Ritz crackers... ewe!

 P-day... PIZZA!!!!