Fort for warmth

Well this has been a pretty difficult week. Things just aren't quite going the way I would like them to seeing as I am going to be leaving this area in a little bit. I'm doing everything I can to find people, and teach them and get them to church and everything, but it's just not happening. I keep thinking the Lord is going to lighten up the burden at some point, but it looks like I still have a lot of things I need to work on to become better. The Lord is really testing me to see if I can endure until the end at this point, it would definitely be easier if I were baptizing and teaching a lot. It takes a lot more diligence and patience to keep working till the end when things just aren't going the way that I want them to. I have been surprised with the fact that I have been able to keep working as long as I have with little to no fruits (as far as baptisms go). The Lord has really been trying to teach me some of the most important lessons during my mission. I just hope that I have been able to learn all of the lessons that He wants me to.

This week has gotten super cold. Our house has absolutely no insulation whatsoever. In fact it has these bricks in the kitchen that have a design in them, and it has holes, letting all the cold air in during the night. Our room is too big, so it doesn't retain the heat at all, so a couple of nights we were freezing, with two blankets and all, we were still super cold. Even moving at all in the bed, would cause us to wake up, and get cold again. It was a couple of miserable nights, with little sleep. The humidity really makes it feel a lot colder than it really is. It gets down to like 40 degrees is all, but it feels a lot colder than that due to the humidity. In mid week, we decided we needed to do something to keep warmer at night. We can't use the stove things we have, because it could be dangerous, so just joking to my companion, I told him we could build a fort. Well, that little joke quickly turned into reality. We literally took our bed frames, and some blankets, and built a little fort in our room, it traps all the heat a lot better, so we've been sleeping nice and cozy the past couple of days. It's kind of weird sleeping in a fort, but hey, ya gotta do what's necessary to stay warm, right?

We both had to give talks this week in church, and the stake presidency was there. I gave a talk about purifying our internal vessel. It went really well. I feel a lot more comfortable giving talks now, at least in Spanish, and here in a small branch with 50 people. The mission has really helped me to be able to turn fears and weaknesses into, well not really strong points, but definitely less weak points. "I give unto men weaknesses so that they are humble. If they humble themselves before me, I will make that there weak points become strong points unto them." Alright, I know it better in Spanish, but it's something like that. Ether 12:6

In our district meeting we talked about having more people with bap. date, and in the meeting. This week compared to last week, we basically doubled both of those as a district. The district is doing really well, just things here in our area aren't picking up like they need to. I have given my best effort, and I will keep doing it until the end, but I seek only to do the will of the Lord. I know that some day, the seeds I have sown, will be ready for the harvest. I'm really glad that the district is doing well though. When I got here, there wasn't a lot of baptisms here, but now they are doing a lot better.

Well, that's about the story of this week. I love you guys tons, and hope all is well. Have a great week! Love ya

Elder Ryan Griffin