Pictures from this past week.. just a few...May 29, 2017

Week 3 in La Floresta!!!

So this week me and my companion have had so many fun and interesting experiences. we know our area pretty well by now, when you open an area you learn it really fast, but there are still new things we learn each day! monday was pretty cool because we had divisions for just a few hours with a few elders that had traveled from there area far away, and rather then go back that day they stayed the night with us. anyways during those divisions all of my plans had fallen through and i didnt know what to do. I felt the impression(most likely the spirit) tell me to go visit a member. This was an active member, in the high council and i thought why would i visit him? but we went and right as we got there he said "Elders i have someone that wants to listen to you!" i couldnt believe what i had just heard haha. that member then took us to visit his friend that wanted to know more and we could really help him to have hope for a better future since he was really going through alot of hardships. that was one great experience. On Tuesday and Wednesday we also had divisions with a different companionship of Elders and those went pretty good despise the fact that almost all of our plans fell through haha. Its pretty sad that ive gotten use to having all my plans fall through, but now i know how to react when that happens, and rather than stress about it i just learn to enjoy it! and that day as we were walking in the street some random guy yelled at us and so we went and talked to him, found out that he was a member and a really really funny one too! that guy made us laugh so much in 5 minutes my cheeks were hurting haha. also for the first time in about 19 months i saw an actual 450 dirt bike, that brought back loooooooots of memories. On Wednesday we actually had alot of success and found two different members that went and did visits with us and we were able to have some good lessons with them, little by little the members are working with us more here so thats a good improvement. Thursday and Friday were normal days, we were able to actually work without any interviews or meetings or anything like that, those days are real treasures haha. Saturday we spent most the day getting ready for the zone conference that we will be having tomorrow. This zone really needs alot of help so me and my companion have been planning alot for it and we really hope that it turns out well. And yesterday was cool because we got to watch meet the mormons while we were eating lunch with a member, thats something i hadnt seen since the mtc i think. That was my week! this week will be really busy, conferences, interviews, baptismal interviews, maybe divisions, oh i love everything we get to do haha! Also this week it rained two days, and that has helped alot with the heat here but its still getting hotter and hotter haha. I hope you all have a great week and that all of you can feel the love of God in your lives! being on the mission im blessed to feel it every day and be able to help others feel it. I wish you all a great week! Love Elder Griffin

Pictures from Week 2 in La Floresta.. just late posting them.

Week 2 in La Floresta!

So this week was pretty sweet actually, we got to travel lots and we also got to do divisions this week and work a little in our area, so yeah it was a good week! i like a saying they have here in mexico that goes "obispo por arriba, pura salida, obisop por abajo puro trabajo" which means a bishop and above is pure traveling, and a bishop and below is pure work. Sometimes i feel like we are traveling way too much haha, but that comes with the calling. On Monday we traveled to Guadalajara and stayed the night there with the secretaries to go to leadership council the next day. Leadership council is always one of the most stressful and tiring days of the mission, considering we sit around all day just talking haha. We were able to receive some training and also set some goals, we really hope to be able to start baptizing more people in this mission since that's been a struggle for a long time. its gonna require lots of work but the lord requires everything of us! It was cool though this time because now all the gringos that got to the mission with me are zone leaders, so of course we all took a picture together haha, sort of a "started from the bottom now were here" kinda thing haha. And of course as is tradition we got a dairy queen after. Traveled home and get there Tuesday night. Wednesday we had the district meetings and we also were able to do divisions with some of the elders here in the zone. It was nice because the Elder that i was with new our area a little bit, so he took me to meet a few people we had never visited. Really nice to be able to split up in our area and get more work done since we hadn't worked for a few days. Thursdays here are awesome because as we get halfway through the week the stress starts to build up, but we go to the church to play soccer with the young men there and that was a blast on Thursday, both me and my companion just felt alot more relaxed after. Friday we had to travel an hour and a half to another area in our zone to do a baptismal interview, and we were lucky enough to catch a bus that left right as we got to the bus center and we barely got home on time. Saturday was a pretty normal day, just spent the morning as well planning out the zone conference with the sister trainer leaders here. Since we don't have zone meetings anymore we have to make sure that the zone conferences are alot more spiritual and powerful and that everyone learns lot. And then yesterday was a pretty normal day! they are putting new tile floor in the church so its gonna be pretty interesting these next few weeks to see if we get moved to another church or not. Today was way way fun as we had our zone activity. Basically just played soccer all day, a little basketball as well and had a really really fun time there with all the missionaries. Me and my companion Elder Rojas are getting along really well, we are laughing alot and working hard and we get along super great, haven't had any arguments yet and we always find the ways to laugh and relax for a bit. we are learning our area alot better, its alot easier to know where were at and where to go since we don't get lost as much anymore haha. The members here also help out alot which is great, not as much as in tarimbaro but alot more than they did in tapatio haha. Everything is going good on the mission! for anyone that wants to know my hand is also healing up great so no worries there. This week is going to be awesome since we don't have to go anywhere, we just get to be in our area all week! I hope you all have a great week and thanks again for all your love and prayers! Love Elder Griffin

MY TRIP TO THE HOSPITAL AND MY RETURN HOME!!!


So this week made its way up the list of one of the craziest weeks in my mission. Monday was awesome as we went to the barranca again and hiked all the way down and up the grand canyon thing haha. Tuesday we had planned on having a zone meeting but they changed the rules in the mission and there are no more zone meetings, so we canceled that last minute and had our normal district meetings. We also got to go do a service project that day and help a lady paint her house, we painted an entire room in about 45 minutes, i thought that was pretty fast and it looked good at the end too haha. Wednesday was when it got real interesting. So this is a long and sad but also funny story. A few years ago for those of you who dont know i shot myself in the hand with a bb gun(yes i know it was dumb). anyways the bb stayed in my hand since we never took it out. And throughout all these years it has never bugged or bothered me either. well a few weeks ago that bb really started acting like it wanted to come out. So Wednesday we got up at 530 am to be at the hospital by 7 like the doctor told us. The hospital we went to seemed more like a hotel than a hospital. it was pure fashion and no function. We got there at 7 like we were supposed to but waited a half hour for the secretary to show up and register us. took us to our "suite" after where we waited another half hour. The nurse got there and told me to change into the uncomfortable bath robe kinda thing they have you wear when your in the hospital. Then the lady tortured me for about 15 minutes trying to find a vein and put an IV in my arm. She couldn't do it so she had to call another nurse to help her and finally after three tries they put the dang needle in a vein and left it there(mom you need to help these ladies out alot). then we waited about an hour wondering when my surgery was supposed to be(because it was appointed for 730). the doctor came into my room at 10 and said "we were waiting for you and waiting and just thinking, wow he hasn't showed up yet, till someone told me that my patient had been here since 7" that was a little frustrating haha. An hour later they took me to the surgery room, cleaned up my hand real good, numbed my hand so i couldn't feel a thing and gave me medicine that made me one happy Missionary haha. The actual surgery only took 10 minutes. The doctor said he cut open my hand and it was easy to take the bb out. He said the skin around it had turned black as well so he cut that skin out as well. Stitched me up and i was done. Well i was hoping to leave that same day but for some dumb reason they made us wait until the next day(they said the insurance wont pay unless we stay 24 hours...) so we were able to get our ward mission leader to bring us our food and we just sat in the hospital all day. Thursday morning as well it was  a big hassle to leave the hospital but finally they let us out around 11 am. we just came home and showered and got ready for the day since we took nothing to the hospital because we weren't planning on being there a full day. all we had time to do on Thursday was eat lunch with the members, go take out money and pay the rent, have our correlation meeting with the ward mission leader and then go to another area to do a baptismal interview. Friday as well we only had time to have our weekly planning, go to lunch, have one lesson and then we went to the church to play soccer since we finally were able to plan an activity with the ward. Well that didn't happen because only 2 young men showed up.... That was a big bummer for us. We stayed and played with them though a bit and afterwards shot hoops with one of the members of the ward that showed up. Saturday morning The mission president called me and said "Elder Griffin the lord trusts you because he has called you to serve in Zamora with Elder Rojas and you two will be opening an area". That was a really big shock haha. Saturday and Sunday i spent saying goodbye to people and getting my bags packed and today i got transferred! Im now back where i started my mission in the Zamora zone! but now as a zone leader! neither me nor my companion know the area so this week should be quite interesting finding our way around haha. In this zone is also my trainer Elder Richart, that should be fun being his zone leader haha, and also my cousin Elder Ashford! so quite the week with a whole lot of things that happened. Ill be sure to update you all next week on my new area and my new companion! Thanks for your love and prayers and i hope you all have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

What a week!

Hey everyone! I know i say this alot, and I'm sure that i will say it again but this week was crazy! First off we had divisions with the assistants on Tuesday and Wednesday. we got lost trying to get to their area, so finally just took a taxi to make it there on time haha. It was fun being with them as they are both good friends of mine, honestly made me jealous of their area because the members helped us make alot of visits, its a really tiny compact area, and the people there are actually nice and willing to listen haha. We ended divisions Wednesday afternoon and were able to make a few visits in our area, then our good friend Elder Sanchez had some "official secretary business" he had to do close to our area, so he ended up staying the night that night. so as tradition requires we bought tacos, and as our stomachs required afterwards we bought pizza haha. Thursday was fun, didn't work at all since we spent the whole day in weekly planning, studies, had our meeting with the ward mission leader and then we had to go to another area to do a baptismal interview.  Friday was a pretty normal day actually, Saturday as well. Finally we could get some work in our area.  Sunday we had the ward council meeting and we FINALLY got an activity planned out! we are going to start playing soccer each week so less active members and investigators can come and play and enjoy things for a bit. That was a huge success honestly. Then after church we made a few visits and that was our week. this week was really hard honestly to work alot in our area, and when we were in our area we didn't have alot of success because we have slowly been leaving investigators that aren't progressing and now we don't have alot of work here and its really hard to find new investigators here. But we are going to keep working hard! Fun story, the elders that live closest to us that our in our zone got robbed yesterday while they were outside the house working in their area, so we had to make a million phonecalls to all the members trying to find someone who would help us out, we just ended up leaving the house open since the robbers broke the lock, and they slept with us yesterday, all this happened at about 10 at night. today we had lots of fun though. We went back to the big grand canyon thingy called the Barranca and went all the way down the bottom again and all the way back up. This time i still had to carry another person up haha, it wasn't the same person as last time, oh no even better it was his really old and pretty fat and crazy dad. The people here are crazy sometimes haha. but they took us out to eat lunch after so it was ok. i think a cold shower is calling my name before me and my companion go proselyte haha. Well i hope you all have a great week! Love Elder Griffin