No I haven't felt any earthquakes!!!

so first off i know that this last week mexico has experienced many earthquakes and natural disasters, but here in guadalajara we havent felt a thing! so no worries all is well here! anyways this last week was pretty fun honestly, our zone conference and interviews werent too stressful so that was good. this week we have been trying to find a new house since ours is far away from the church, the members, and pretty much everything haha. tuesday we spent a decent amount of time trying to find a new house, we had actually found one but sadly someone else rented it before we could even get the papers started... and we visited a few investigators then got home that night and finished planning for the zone conference the next day! Wednesday was CRAZY!! we got up super early to be able to get to the church on time. ive always said that having 4 zones in one church is a bad idea, but no one really believes me haha. we started the conference at 930, even though it was supposed to start at 9 but our president is excatly the most puntual guy haha. and we had planned to end at 2, but because my luck is the worst in the world, we didnt get over till 6.... the conference went pretty good, President went WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY over his planned time in his training, and that threw things off from the beginning. when we seperated to have different workshops, the other zone leaders decided to do what they want and kinda ruined everything, but i saved the day by telling them to take some missionaries and do practices with them while we finished up. i also had to share my testimony again in front of everyone, it wasnt as hard as it was in leadership council so that was good, just short and sweet. afterwards we took pictures with everyone since its the only time we see each other. then we went to the offices because president wanted to start interviewing people that day from our zone. we left the offices abou 730 and got home right at 9. thursday same story, we got up super early, got to the offices at 9 and started our interviews. they werent too stressful like they usually are, but they did go over time so we had to stay at the offices more time than we thought. i was last to have my interview, the assistents had told me that this would be my last interview since the president was gonna be extra busy this transfer and wasnt gonna have time to do final interviews, but right as i walked into his office he said "today wont be your last interview so dont worry". that was a HUGE relief. We left there at about 3 and went to work that day. Friday and saturday was the same story, just working and trying to help our investigators that we have and trying to find new ones as well. Sunday church was better than last week, alot more people showed up thankfully. in the gospel principles class there were 3 young women that had shown up out of the blue. they said they came to study the church as a high school assignment, so rather than having the gospel principles class we spent the time answering all their questions, it was really cool honestly, mainly because after talking to them for a minute i realized the questions they were asking no longer were because of their school assignment, but because they were interested in our message! so that was really cool. Today we had what i would call a success of a pday! a member here took us to a big nice mall here, where every store has outlet prices, so i bought a new suit and a few under armour shirts since they were real cheap haha. then the member took us out to lunch! he took us to the restaurant cuarto de kilo, the same one where i ate on my  birthday this week, and again i ate 2 hamburgers and got my picture put up on the wall. the funniest part is that i ate the hamburgers and was still hungry after.... your stomach turns into a black hole as a missionary haha. that was my week! im really excited for general conference and i hope you all are too! i hope you all have a great week and that listening to the conference this weekend you can recieve answers to your prayers! i love you all! Love Elder Griffin

first week in bosque! September 18, 2017

Hey everyone! well my first week in my new area has been quite the rollercoaster haha. our first day here after i had gotten settled in and we had written home, we set out to work and visit our investigators that we have. well just my luck we ended up not having alot of luck that night and just walked around for 3 hours before coming home haha. tuesday was a little bit better. we just spent the morning doing zone leader stuff (sending reports, asking for materials, printing LOTS of papers, etc.) then we had lunch and ate a typical food here of guadalajara "carne en su jugo" (meat in its juice). that was something i hadnt eaten since i was back in tapatio, so that was pretty awesome to get to eat it again since it tastes amazing. That day i got to know alot more of the investigators, and this week me and my companion have been making lots of changes haha, dropping old investigators and focusing on the ones that actually progress. tuesday i also met mariana, shes a young girl whos 15 years old, she has a strong desire to be baptized but her mom wont let her, we have been working alot with her and set a baptismal date for october 7th, and her mom said that if she sees a change in her daughter, she will let her be baptized(a change for the better). wednesday we had the district meetings. and that is when i came to realize that this zone needs ALOT  of help, looking at the dats of the zone as well shows me one of two things, either the missionaries arent working here, or dont know how to work. so we have to help them with that. my area is quite interesting, because there are some parts that are really nice and fancy areas with huge malls and just a rich person place, and then other parts of my area that remind me more of san jeronimito, dirt roads and really poor houses. Thursday we basically just spent the whole day planning, updating our area book, and studying and getting ready for the leadership council, we were able to visit mariana again thursday night though. A cool thing that did happen that day, while we were coming home from our lunch appointment we stopped to buy some food, and i was carrying a book of mormon in my hand, well the guy that was there asked about it and asked who we were and we were able to teach him all about the book of mormon and we gave him that and a pamphlet of the restoration! he seemed super interested, the only problem is that we can only see him one time a week, so hopefully when we see him again this week he will have read alot and want to be baptized haha. Friday was leadership council, and oh what a day that was! to get to the offices we had to take a bus, 2 subways, then another bus. that was the first time in my life i had ever taken a subway, yeah i prefer the country haha. It was great seeing lots of old friends like always. The leadership council was basically just to train all the newbies, (since more than half the zone leaders are new), so i felt pretty relaxed there haha. when all the zone leaders were talking about things they had done last transfer to help their zone, the zone leaders of aeropuerto(where my last area was) talked about the big bang they did and how we had 14 new investigator and that that area was now going to have 9 baptisms, and when president asked where that area was they said moroleon, and i just kinda started to cry and everyone saw me and laughed, afterwards the president commended me in front of everyone for the great work i had done. his wife also said before we had even started "thanks for coming back we couldn't do it without you". finally i had to share my "last testimony" in front of everyone, my heart was pounding, my hands were sweating, and i got butterflies in my stomach like i haven't felt since i wrestled, its weird to think that i don't have alot of time left, thats why im going to give it my all! anyways after the meeting ended we took picutres and said goodbyes like always. as is tradition we went for a dairy queen haha. that night we were supposed to be home by 7 for september 15th, since the people get crazy here that day, but from 7 to 9 we were in a taxi to come home. saturday was normal. and sunday was sad haha, when we started sacrament meeting there were only about 15 people there... and this is a ward... so yeah we have lots of work here. well my time is up but i love you all! have a great week! Love Elder Griffin

Last week in Moroleon

Hey everyone, yep thats right this was my last week in Moroleon... sadly i had transfers again. i thought for sure i would end my mission there but i guess the Lord has other plans in store. and just my luck im a zone leader, again haha. Now im back in Guadalajara in the reforma stake, my new ward is Bosque. (it means forest, but trust me its a huge city again). so yeah im a little upset about that, mainly because of how hard i had worked in Moroleon and all the fruits that were showing it. The missionaries that are there should easily baptize 10 people this transfer, its no fair haha. but oh well here i am. Anyways my last week in Moroleon was quite interesting! Monday was supposed to be an awesome day since we had 3 family home evenings planned, and every one of them fell through. but we were with the bishop and he at least fed us dinner that night haha. on tuesday we were invited to go "hunting" haha. we showed up to an investigators house and they told us they needed our help killing a giant rat that was in their house. so after about an hour of work and flipping the house upside down (literally, we left the place a mess) we found the huge thing and killed it haha! Wednesday we went to a members house at about 10am to eat breakfast with them since they invited us over, then from 11 to 3 we painted their house. and after we got done they fed us lunch as well! it was sweet haha. After lunch we had to go straight to salvatierra so i could interview the investigators that the missionaries baptized there. thursday was pretty normal, lots of planning and lots of work in the afternoon. Friday was when i got the bad news that i was gonna be transferred. at about 10pm Elder Ulloa called me, and when i saw his number i knew i was in trouble. he explained my transfers, and told me if i wanted to cry i could use my tie to wipe my tears. saturday was pretty normal, only that if our plans fell through we would go home for an hour or so, so that i could keep packing. Sunday was pretty awesome at church because alot of leaders from the stake presidency and stake high council came and said how happy and impressed they were with all the work that we have done. and i t was pretty sad having to say goodbye to everyone. the bishops family made us pancakes that night, and especiallyfor me they made a huge pancake mountain! and i after they smashed my face into it i ate it very happily haha. today we had to leave moroleon at 5am to get to the bus center on time. oh also guess what?! my new companion is an american! i can hardly believe it haha. his name is Elder Belnap, and hes from atlanta! so yeah it looks like im gonna end my mission here in Guadalajara. who knows how this transfer is gonnna be. And of course today i got to the house and the first thing i did was clean the place up so i could live comfortably, my mom will be pretty happy to hear that haha. Well thats it for this week! i will let you all know how my first week goes in this area. i hope you all have  agreat week!  Love Elder Griffin

22 Months

well pretty crazy about how 22 months ago today was what i still consider the longest day of my life haha. and i dont need to remind anyone how much time i have left(everyone tells me every week anyways). This week was pretty dang awesome. So on Monday we did divisions with the zone leaders, so i got to be back in tarimbaro! i was able to visit my family of converts there! they were really happy to see me, the sons of the family were especially suprised to see me haha, they thought they were seeing a ghost for a minute! so monday was awesome. Tuesday we had the district meeting, normal like usual. then i went to salvatierra to do divisions with the elders in my district. that was a pretty normal day, just spent ALOT of time traveling, i felt like i was back in san jeronimito again for how much time we spent on the bus. that day was pretty normal. came back to my area wednesday and just worked in my area. Thursday we spent most of the time planning and studying, thats all Thursdays are basically haha, but we were also able to plan for the activity on saturday. Friday we spent most of the day finalizing everything for the activity, and we were able to make a few visits. found a new investigator, David. This guy is so willing to follow God, he said he is willing to do whatever God tells him to, BUT THAT GOD TELLS HIM. so we talked alot about prayer and how he can recieve answers. Saturday was dooooooooooooope. ( i know a missionary shouldnt use that word but it applies here). at around 130pm we showed up to the church to prepare the church for the activity, around 145 all the missionaries started to show up, and at 2 we were supposed to have lunch, but the food still hadnt shown up haha. everyone was real worried but i know the ward here, the food showed up sure but late haha, it was awesome because the entire zone of 18 missionaries were stuffed after lunch! the relief society president even made a huge cake! so we were happy campers. we started the activity with a devotional, then the 18 missionaries took 18 members and split up and started working! throughout all of moroleon a powerful spirit was felt, we got so many new investigators and references from the activity. and a huge bonus, all the leftover food from the activity, we got to bring it home! (hence the picture of the refrigerator filled with bowls of food and lots of bread). and anyways yesterday the church was more full than i have ever seen here! 107 people showed up to church and 14 of them were investigators! im pretty happy here haha. this month we are looking at ALOT of potential baptisms. were going to do our part in teaching, and the spirit will testify, and then the people have to make the decision. Today my companion and i played ping pong this morning, (i still got it in case anyone wants to challenge me after;) haha. i know that this is the most important work that exists on this earth. Im so grateful for each day i have to be a missionary. i hope you all can feel Gods love, and if your struggling to feel it, ask him, i know he will help. I hope you all have a great week! Love Elder Griffin