Week 4 in Moroleon. August 28, 2017

Hey everyone! well this week was pretty cool since we had our zone conference and interviews with the president. Monday was normal, played pool for an hour haha, my companion and i are getting pretty good! a member cut our hair, that was a mistake... then just made a few visits that night. Got up early tuesday morning to make it to the zone conference. It was so nice not having to stress at all that day haha. for the food or for time, nope i was a happy camper that day just able to sit back and relax! the zone conference took a decent amount of time as well, from 9 to 330, in part of it they made me do a wall sit while about 8 other Elders did a circle sit, sitting on each others legs. that activity was supposed to show that working as a team and in unity is more effective than by ourselves. i almost lasted longer than all the other elders haha, but after about 3 or 4 minutes my legs finally gave out. so that was funny. also i got to see 2 of the young men that i used to visit when i was in this ward. they both told me that they are getting ready to go on missions so i was very happy to hear that. Wednesday we had to get up early again for our interviews with the president. The president talked more in my interview than i did haha, that just how he is though. in our 20 minute talk i think i got off less than 100 words. but thats ok. Wednesday was also quite the adventure because our bishop asked us to go with him to a house of prayer that is in the wards area. well we went with him to a teeny tiny town that was about an hour away from moroleon. we went to close the house of prayer since no one had used it in 6 months. by some miracle we were able to fit 42 chairs, a table, lots of brooms and mops and books, and small pulpit all in the bishops minivan haha. and then we took it all back to moroleon! to show that he was grateful for our help the bishop took us out to eat dinner that night(pictures to come). thursday was chill, just planning for the week and getting everything ready for the activity on friday. Friday night we put the movie of joseph smith on in the church. it was supposed to start at 6, but since we run on mormom mexican standard time, we didnt start till 645. i was hoping for more people to show up but we had about 40 people show up, along with a few new investigators, so that was sweet! saturday was a day we could actually work and visit people all day without interrumptions, so that was great. sunday after church we had a barbecue with the bishops family a family of recent converts. we cooked a whole lot of steak and sausage, needless to say i was a happy Elder haha. that night we had quite the interesting lesson with one of our new investigators. wednesday night a girl came up and talked to me and asked who i was and what im doing here. well i explained to her that were missionaries and preach of christ and she said she wanted us to visit her one day. her name is karen and she is 18, thankfully we were able to have the lesson sunday night with her in a members house who helped us out ATON, but she basically said that she came up and talked to me because she thought i was cute.... i guess my haircut didnt turn out too bad after all haha. so yeah that was interesting but we will see how that goes this week. Today we came to morelia with the zone leaders and went bowling and also played pool. i won the first game of bowling but i had a drastic injury the second game... thumb cramp, almost won though! im loving the mission! this week should be filled with lots of good work i hope, our "golden investigator" jesus went off the deep end.... he had told us he was tired of his old life of drinking and drugs, but apparently not because this whole last week we havent seen him and his family told us that he was doing those things again... oh well back to finding more people that want to be baptized! i hope you all have a great week! may God be with you! Love Elder Griffin

2 Baptisms!!! August 21, 2017

Hey everyone! so this week was awesome because for the first time in a long time we finally baptized, and we had two baptisms this week! but ill get to that in a minute. Last monday was pretty chill because like always we had a family home evening with one of our investigators (veronica) and a great family here. we just helped veronica with a few last questions and then everything was set for her baptism! tuesday we went to morelia again for district meeting, its funny how im teaching the same things i taught when i was a district leader a year ago, the mission just goes in circles about the things we teach haha. after that the zone leaders came out to our area to interview our investigators. Ana Karen was interviewed tuesday night, and she passed with flying colors! the elder that did her interview later told us "i want investigators like that!" haha! then early wednesday morning at 8am was veronicas interview, and she passed with flying colors as well. After that the zone leaders left and my companion and i spent most of the day cleaning the baptismal font and filling it up with hot water and preparing everything for the baptism. On wednesday was Veronicas baptism, and i had the privilege to baptize her! she has a really interesting story actually, one day she just decided to walk, and walk, and walk, until finally she showed up at the church! she said she had never heard of the church nor knew it existed, but she has been coming to church for little over a month i think and she loves it! so we were lucky enough to just get here, teach her and she was more than willing to be baptized. she is about 40 years old and has a 15 year old daughter that hasnt been too interested in the church yet, but were gonna try and work more with her. Thursday was interesting, we taught another investigator that is close to being baptized, Jesus, and i think ive said it before but we always leave his house just happy to be missionaries haha. then we went and visited a family here where the parents are active but the son is an ex missionary and inactive. we had a member with us that the family knew really well so he helped us out alot in that lesson because we really needed it. the son basically started saying a bunch of apostasy and doesnt believe in god anymore, and that was just the tip of the iceberg of everything he said haha, so that was interesting. but Thursday ended with a family home evening with Ana Karen and the relief society president. Im really trying my best to lose weight here, but the relief society president just does not let me haha, she makes cakes for a living so everytime we go over to her house, cake, every family home evening, cake, every time we eat with her, cake, even at the baptisms this week she brought cake haha! Have i mentioned this ward is awesome? friday morning we went to another area in the stake thats about an hour and a half away to help the missionaries there in their work. my companion and i were lucky enough to do a few visits with the bishop of that ward! the coolest part was that he took us to visit a member that owns a bakery, and we ate so much bread and cake and food it was insane haha. she even gave us huge loafs of bread to take with us and eat later. we still have bread in the house we havent eaten haha. then friday night we had Ana Karens baptism! she is also a "golden investigator" she had been coming to the institute classes by herself, so we just asked her if she would like us to teach her more and she said sure! she understands everything that we teach her perfectly! she is about 24 and has a little 4 year old boy, her aunt is a member as well and she has been helping her alot during these last few weeks. the coolest thing about her is that when we were gonna end a lesson with her last sunday, we asked if she had any questions and she just said "why didn't i find this church before?" so were pretty happy with her baptism as well. Saturday was a normal day, the first of the whole week haha. yesterday both Veronica and Ana Karen were confirmed members of the church and it was awesome to see how they could feel the spirit after that special moment. This week we were supposed to baptize jesus but he didn't show up to church, hopefully next week he will. also this week the bishop is gonna take us out to dinner as well as our ward mission leader! tomorrow we have the zone conference and i dont have to stress at all about it haha, wednesday interviews with the president, and im so happy to not have to stress about that either haha. friday we have  a ward activity we are really hoping will bring alot of people to the church and have  agood time. im loving the work and were working hard! yes i know that i dont have "alot" of time left but it still feels like alot to me. Thank you all for all of your love and support! have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

Week 2 in Moroleon! August 14, 2017

Hey everyone! so my second week in Moroleon has been quite the rollercoaster, from intense hurricanes to almost having a baptism out of the blue and also taking the wrong bus and getting lost, its been quite interesting haha. Last Monday was great because we got to have a family home evening with some investigators and a family from the ward. the members here are awesome because we are always doing tons of family home evenings and the members really try to fellowship our investigators! the family home evening on Monday was extra awesome because the son of the member family is an ex missionary, and he taught the whole lesson haha, that sure felt different, and they gave us hot dogs after so that was a plus! On Tuesday after the district meetings the first counselor in the stake presidency talked to the whole zone and he just fired us up to baptize here! and also told us how important it is to be obedient. i especially liked that part because us as leaders in the mission are always talking about obedience but the missionaries usually never listen to us, but when a member says it, its so much better haha. also i dont know if i have mentioned this before, but when you open area most of the miracles happen when you are completely lost haha, because on Tuesday we were just walking in who knows what part of our town, and a lady yelled at us across from the street "elders your not even gonna say hi?" well that lady is a member haha, and we put an appointment to come back and visit them on Thursday(remember this story). Wednesday was great for two reasons, first is that for lunch the members gave us tacos al pastor(my favorite food down here) and second because we had another family home evening that night with the bishop! after the family home evening got over they gave us hot chocolate and cake! but the family home evening got over pretty late and we had to bookie out of the bishops house, the good thing is that we live just a block from his house haha, so the bishop has been a huge help to us lately in getting to know moroleon and everything else we need! Thursday is when the hurricane hit, well i shouldn't say the hurrican hit here, but it hit another place in mexico and that made it a huge messy and really windy rain storm. we had an appointment with an investigator at 2 but didn't show up till 3 since we were so lost and it didn't help that we had to wait for a member so he could take us since the rain wasn't gonna let us walk in the streets(im not exaggerating, the rain wasn't coming from above, it was coming right at you haha). that was awesome though since the investigator fed us lunch(food is always great down here). now heres the part about the baptism out of the blue. remember the lady that yelled at us on Tuesday? yeah well we found out that the lady who yelled at us is 17 years old and active in the church, but her 12 year old sister isn't a member, so after talking to her for a bit we asked her when she wanted to be baptized, and she said Saturday haha. the member that was with us got really wide eyed(hes not use to people saying yes to being baptized either haha). sadly that baptism fell through because weve had some problems with the parents there, the mom isnt a member, and the dad is inactive and pretty much hates the church, but were gonna see what we can do! Friday we were still having to deal with the hurricane, but it would come and go, so we just would walk to our appointments when it stopped raining, and when it started we would wait in a corner store or a mechanic shop or someones garage, whatever would protect us haha. Saturday was awesome as well because we visited our star investigator Jesus. i dont know if i told you this but we found him just calling old investigators we had registered in the phone and he said that we had called "at the perfect time" every time we leave his house after teaching him, just makes me and my companion both think that its for people like him why we are in the mission. he has had alot of problems and addictions in his life, but he is leaving it all behind and wants to follow god know and give himself to god, so hes our favorite. And Sunday i got quite the surprise, because one of my favorite families from my old area in morelia showed up to our church! so it was great to talk to them, they all commented on how skinny ive gotten haha. and Sunday was a packed day with appointment after appointment teaching investigators. we got home last night tired as dogs but happy as could be! today we played pool for 2 hours since theres not a whole lot to do here haha, i think im gonna get pretty good before i go home! thats a good thing too because i need the practice as rusty as i am. Well i hope you all have a great week and i just want you all to know that God loves each and every one of you! Hes just a prayer away if you ever need to talk to him. the work here is going great and this week if all goes well we will be having 2 baptisms!! i love this area and i love this work! Thanks for all that you do everyone for your love and support! have a great one! Love Elder Griffin

First Week in Moroleon! August 7, 2017

Hey everyone! well this has been an excellent first week in Moroleon for my companion and I! On Monday we hardly had time to unpack since we got here, ate since we hadn't all day, wrote home and then we did divisions with the members here! i should also mention that our house was filthy when we got there, but think my mom has really gotten to me over the years because all week long we have been trying to clean it little by little and finally got it almost spotless today! (i say almost spotless because were still 20 year old boys and probably wont ever learn how to clean perfectly) anyways Monday night i was in a family home evening with the bishops family, some recent converts and a few investigators, and my companion was in another family home evening with another investigator! all week long we have been walking ALOT, but i mean OH MY GOSH ALOT! haha each day this week we have gotten home dead tired, and each morning it has been harder to get out of bed. our area looks small on the map, but the blocks here are HUGE so getting anywhere does take a little time, but we are slowly getting use to it, just getting to know our area this week sure did take its toll on us haha. We have established a great relationship with the members here as well and especially with the bishop! we are working shoulder to shoulder here in this great work and i think we will being seeing the fruits of that work very soon! Thursday we had the district meetings, that was weird since i haven't given a district meeting in almost a year haha, but its just like riding a bike. during our weekly planning my companion decided to call every single investigator we had registered in our phone to see if they would still like us to visit them, most said no or the number no longer was in use, a few people said yes. there was one person who said that he really needed our help right now and that we called at exactly the right time. his name is jesus antonio and we visited him on Saturday and he told us all about his problems that he is going through and we just shared a little message with him, but he said he was willing to do anything to change his life and he showed up to church the next day and we are going to work alot with him! We have a few other investigators that are golden as well, people that showed up to church on their own and we are getting their baptisms ready in a few weeks but i don't want to jump the gun on anything haha. Church was awesome yesterday because we had 10 investigators in sacrament meeting! thats a personal record for me in my entire mission! that pumped both my companion and i up alot to get working here! and yeah that was pretty much our week. to give you a little more info on my companion, well he has the same time as me in the mission so we just might be opening and closing this area together haha. he is from mazatlan sinaloa and so far we have gotten along pretty good this week and have worked well together! today we played pool in a place we found here in the town square(its easy to find pool tables here, but dang near impossible to find ones that don't have people drinking and smoking and with bad music). and more information about my area, they make more clothes here than i can believe haha, our own bishop even said this town is the town of piracy(i think thats how you spell it) because everything is pirated and fake down here haha, but everyone works in the clothes factory's or printing clothes or something that has to do with clothes. so its all really cheap here! oh and the food here is also great, the traditional food of moroleon is this thing called a huarache, its like a huge taco with lots of meat and tons of cheese, and then you can put salsa and whatever else you wanna throw on it. also there are tons of places to eat at nights, unlike my last area that hardly had any taco stands(and this is mexico people, there should be taco stands in every corner). so like i said we've worked really hard this week and we are enjoying every minute of it! I hope you all can have a great week as well enjoy whatever you are doing! have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

Transfers!!!

Hey everyone. well i cant really say a whole lot about last week since me and my companion didnt really do anything haha. the only thing we did besides just the normal work in our area was we went to the farthest area in our zone to do a baptismal interview. That was pretty cool because we went to a little teeny tiny town where the people spoke a different dialect haha, but it was cool to see the culture that was there and the traditional mexican life style, and the food was great too! hand made tortillas, not the machine made ones that everyone normally buys. Besides that me and my companion Elder Rojas just worked in our area normally this week and sorry to say nothing super spectacular happened haha. Only that on saturday we got some long awaited news about our transfers! And you will never guess where i am at! MOROLEON! Thats right im back in The aeropuerto stake! just an hour from morelia! this was some very unexpected news, but hey im here haha. my new companion is Elder Jimenez and he seems like a pretty cool guy so far, ive only known him for about 6 hours though haha. this area is super pretty and the bishop is awesome! he picked us up from the bus center and took us home and he was just telling us how he has lots of plans to work and he said that we have alot of baptisms coming up so thats good news! actually tonight me and my companion will be splitting up to go to a few family home evenings with some of the members and investigators here! its awesome! so yeah im excited to be here, ill probably end my mission here since i just have this transfer then one more. OH, btw, im no longer a zone leader, im just a district leader now. i was hoping to train my last two transfers since i had never done that but i guess it just wasnt in my cards to train, oh well not a whole lot i can do about it now! just am gonna get to work and do the best i can in this area and ill let you all know how it goes next monday! love you all thanks for all your love and support! have a great week! Love Elder Griffin