And God said let it rain, and it was so!!!

Alright so this week was pretty sweet for being the first week of the transfer. Mainly because for the first time in a long time we didnt have too many special assignments that took us out of our area, i say not too many because of course we still had a few haha, but ill get to that in a minute. so this week it finally started raining and so that has made things cool down alot which is really nice. The not so nice part is that it can be a perfectly clear sky and in 30 minutes its raining and blowing hard than you have ever seen and after another 30 minutes its a clear sky haha. anyways monday was a pretty good day just got everyone in their areas and worked a bit and that was our day. On tuesday we had the district meeting and the zone got to know each other a bit more so that was good like always. then more work that day and visiting people. in our area we are still finding new members alot that we still have never met, most of the time less actives but sometime active members as well haha. Wednesday we went to visit a future investigator that we had talked to awhile back and when we went to talk to her this time she just frankly said "let me be honest, i dont like your religion" it may sound weird but it was really nice honestly just to have someone tell us straight up that they dont want anything. because most the time people just say "another day" or " im busy but if your here another day we can talk" and a million excuses like that that honestly just waste our time, so it was nice that someone didnt waste anymore of it and just told us up front how things were. Also that day after we ate lunch with one of the members we helped them cut the grass in their lawn, with a machete haha, it reminded me of my time in san jeronimito where i became a professional with a machete haha. Thursday was weekly planning, then lunch with the members and we had a really cool lesson that day with an investigator named alfonso. he told us about how he really wants to change and leave his old life behind of drinking and smoking, and he wants to solve the problems he has with his wife. its awesome to see how the gospel works in peoples lifes and how they want to change as they learn more about Jesus Christ. Friday was quite the adventure! we went to another area here in zamora to bless the house of the sister missionaries since they had just barely changed homes. and since we cant enter their house alone their ward mission leader went with us. Remember how i said the rain comes from nowhere? yeah thats what happened to us this day haha. we got there and it started getting a little windier as we arrived at their house, but we got there and blessed it and left without any problems. afterwards the brother that was with us asked if we could bless his house as well, he said he lived "ten minutes" away, so we decided that it must be close by and we started walking. well before we even got halfway there the rain started pouring hard. the worst part was that he lived on top of a mountain and all the roads were dirt, which had turned into mud by the time we got there, so we got to his house soaking wet and with muddy shoes haha, oh how i love my luck! as we left his house though the rain lightened up and we made it home ok. Saturday was normal, work and visits and all that jazz haha. Sunday always seems like the slowest day and i think its because ward council makes our heads explode. Both me and my companion are more suprised each day by some of the members here that sometimes just dont have a single clue, and we just have to ask ourselves why and have LOTS of patience. But thankfully ward council is only an hour that we have to be there haha. after that we went and ate some  of the best tacos al pastor i have ever eaten here with a member and then went and visited a few more families. Today we had our zone activity and played lots of soccer, a little basketball and capture the flag as well that i hadnt played for a few months! so yeah the mission is going good! Our area is progressing little by little and we are also seeing alot of progress in the zone which is great! i hope you all have a great week! thanks for all your love and prayers and support! Love Elder Griffin

Just 3 transfers left! June 19,2017

Hey everyone! so starting today i only have 3 transfers left! pretty crazy to think about how fast time has flown by! even crazier to hear that a few of my friends are already home! good to know that i still have a little time left to keep working. anyways this last week was pretty different thats for sure! and we were super busy at some times, and had lots of down time during others. Monday was  a normal pday and then worked a little that night. Tuesday was the last district meeting of the transfer so there were a few missionaries that were going to end their mission that shared their testimonies, its always really cool hearing those. After the district meeting we went to our lunch appointment then we were off for Zacapu! we did another baptismal interview there, this time i did it and it was really cool because i interviewed the dad of the person who i interviewed the first time we went there! it was pretty cool to see that family changing and growing and everyone being baptized! tuesday we stayed there in Zacapu and got up early Wednesday morning to come home. While i was doing the interview my companion had the bright idea to take out a wisdom tooth that was bugging him and so all tuesday night he was suffering, and we spent all day Wednesday home so the hole in his mouth could heal up good and so it wouldn't get infected by all the dust and everything else in the streets. Thursday we just had weekly planning, went to lunch, and then we had to go to the bus center to send the missionaries to guadalajara that ended their missions, by the time we got that taken care of we just came home, changed our clothes and went and played soccer with the young men again. each time we play i suprise myself at how good im getting haha, i even show up my companion every once in a while so its really fun each week we play soccer with them! Friday was a really fun day because we got invited to a ward activity, but in a different ward haha. So pretty much right after we ended our studies in the afternoon we went there and helped them start cleaning the church and sweeping and mopping and making everything nice and pretty since that was the reason they had the activity. After that started the good part, where we pulled out 11 kilos of meat! when me and my companion saw that we were pretty happy. So we helped them cook that and ate to our fill of meat and sausage haha. i love those kind of parties here! then we started playing soccer and basketball again. It was pretty sad because since we hardly ever play basketball down here im way out of practice, and i had alot of old men show me up... not proud of that but it wont happen again since me and my companion decided to practice almost daily in the mornings haha. also ripped open my boot while playing so that was sweet, nothing super glue cant fix haha. Saturday was pretty normal, spent the day in our area visiting a few people and teaching. Taught an investigator that was a friend of a member and who had been to the church a few times. before we started teaching we were just having a casual conversation about how he has felt and what he has learned, when we asked if he had questions he just said "what do i have to do to be baptized, because i want to be baptized in your religion", believe me it was hard to not shout and jump with joy haha. we spent saturday night planning the transfers and also bought a pizza to celebrate since both me and my companion are staying here together another transfer. Sunday was normal, church and lunch then visits. Sunday night of week 6 is always as stressful as anything, trying to figure out the dats from the week and get those sent, trying to tell missionaries at what time they leave and talk to other zone leaders so that the missionaries arrive on time and no one travels alone and lots of things. its a miracle that we got to bed by 11 haha. And today it was rise and shine early to get all the missionaries going and moving and off to their new areas! this week will be normal thankfully haha. Thank you all again for your love and prayers! they mean the world to me! i hope you all have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

 Elder Griffin at the ward barbecue and cleaning the church!

 Torn shoes again.

 Pizza to celebrate planning is over!

Divisions with the family and my real return home!

Hey everyone! so this week was pretty fun honestly, lots of work and also lots of laughing and enjoying good times. on tuesday we had divisions with Elder Pop and Elder Ashford. All 4 of us had a really great time there, i was with Elder Pop and since ive known him for alot of time we joked around alot and made fun of each other a bit and pushed our buttons to see who would break first haha. we could also work alot as well and have some good lessons together. also talked about what he is going to do after his mission since next monday he will be going home... in the night we played a few games and bought pizza, so yeah it was really fun to be with them and also great to work with them. then on wednesday by the time they left we didnt have alot of time to do much before we went to lunch and then that night we made a very VERY special trip, back to La Piedad! we had to go there wednesday night to check up on the missionaries there. well let me tell you did i feel weird rolling into that town haha. seeing everything where i had been over a year ago sure brought back alot of memories, the majority of which i tried to forget haha. We got there a little early and i was able to visit one of my favorite families from that area. it was great talking to them and they were really suprised by how skinny i was and how well i spoke spanish. it was great though being there and being able to relive my ´past a bit. we stayed there that night with the missionaries who lived there and left early the next morning to come home. pretty cool experience! thursday we had weekly planning and then our prayers were answered... IT RAINED! its finally been raining a little this week so its starting to cool down just a jillionth here. hoping it rains even more so that it cools down more. Were working pretty good in our area, we have alot of people that are listening to us but very few that are coming to church, just 1 actually. were going to work with the onest we have to see if they can come to church and if not well have to go back to finding new investigators! this week we find out transfers, most likely me and my companion will stay here together another transfer but we wont know for sure until saturday! also another funny story from this week is i learned how to cut hair! one of the members from our area let us borrow a haircutting kit, so i cut my companions hair, and i think its safe to say that im a profesional hair stylist now. thats about it for this week! tomorrow we are going to do more traveling and this week we have to make sure the people that are ending their missions get to guadalajara on time so should be pretty fun this week! i hope you all have  agreat week! Love Elder Griffin

Zamora fire station

My package from home, some tie tacks and oil carriers for my friends...

Lunch today that made me feel really really full!

La Piedad at night...

Fire station in Zamora...

My package 

Men in Black...

Argh.. I'm so full!

Hahaha... I'm so tired and soooo full!   

The life of a Zone Leader. June 6,2017

Hey everyone! so i think im going to call this week the perfect example of the life of a zone leader. Monday was cool and all since it was our pday, the only bummer part was that we only worked in our area an hour and then had to sweep and mop the floors in the church to get it ready for the zone conference the next day. We also bought a cake and celebrated one of the sister missionaries birthday, so that was pretty fun. On tuesday the zone conference started at 9 and didnt get over till 4. It only went two hours over the time we had planned so it wasnt that bad actually, but it was a little stressful just keeping our eye on the watch and making sure everything rolled smoothly, even more stressful when the mission president tells us before hand he isnt going to talk alot, then ends up talking alot in the conference haha. After that ended the President went right into interviewing a few missionaries and we stayed there to help him with that. He was able to interview 6 missionaries so he would only have to interview 14 on wednesday. Anyways that got over at about 7, and as we were about to leave to go to our house(which is just across the street from the church) the president took us out to eat dinner! so that was pretty sweet honestly. We told them about a chinese food place so we all went and ate there. Then we had a meeting with the stake president at 8 in the church and since the stake president is also a doctor the Mission President asked him about what foods are bad and things like that, and when he told us that chinese food is the worst wow my face turned red haha. But since our President is a really cool guy he just laughed and turned to us and said " dont tell my wife" haha. Wednesday we started interviews at 9 AM and didnt get over until 5. we spent the entire day in the church checking area books and helping missionaries with their language study and checking daily planners and things like that. My interview was short and sweet, just told my president i was feeling good, told him i needed a new temple recommend so interviewed me for that, and that was it haha. Afterwards President talked to both me and my companion about all the missionaries in the zone and WOW do we have our hands full. This week we are going to be traveling back to my home town of La Piedad to check up on the missionaries there as well. lots of things we have to do now. By the time we left we only had time to get our lunch from one of the members and eat that in our house since she gave us the food to go. and that was all day Wednesday. Thursday we spent the most part of the day planning, a little bit of working and then we went and played soccer again with the young men from the ward. (just a heads up kylee im starting to get alot better so you better get ready!) on friday we had to go to an area thats about 2 hours away from here to do a baptismal interview, so that day we only had time to go eat with the members and then we had to take off and didnt get home till 930. Saturday we were finally blessed with the privelege to be able to work in our area all day without any interrumptions. But as luck would have it NO ONE and i mean NOOOOOOOO ONEEEEEEEE was home that day. even our food appointment canceled on us that day and we had to find another one. But thats ok there are always days like that. And sunday was another normal day where we could work a bit. So out of a 7 day week we only were able to work a total of 2 and a half days really. Have i ever mentioned that being a zone leader is quite interesting? and that was my week! today all of the elders in the zone went and played soccer in camecuaro. it was really cool to go back there and be able to relax and just play and have fun for a bit. This week should be fun as well, more traveling and divisions and maybe a little bit of chewing out some missionaries. I hope you all have a great week! Love Elder Griffin