Hola Familia!
They have peanut butter here, because I bought some this week. It is however fairly expensive, a normal sized container was 17 mil Guaraní, or about 3 dollars. It's not that much, but in comparison to the other foods and stuff here, it is pretty expensive.
Well once again it has been a good week. We had a baptismal date for this week, but it ended up falling through... The investigator's name is Jorge, and he is about 19 or 20. On Friday we went to his house to go over the baptismal interview questions, and when we showed up, he told us that he isn't ready. We talked to him, and come to find out that he doesn't know if he believes in Jesus Christ, and a bunch of other things. We are still working with him this week to try and get him prepared (for real this time) for baptism.
We have continued teaching Miguel and Paula. Miguel again this week had a relapse, and drank.... but the good news is that they went to church with their three kids. We gave Miguel a blessing that he can be able to overcome his problem with drinking, and taught them the blessings that their family can receive if he will do all that he can to leave it behind.
We also taught Francisco again. He had told us that he was going to come to church, but come Sunday, he wasn't there. We went to his house after church to see why he wasn't there. It turned out that his wife (a less-active member) had a really bad fever, and so he couldn't come. He had prepared everything to go with us, his shirt, shoes, pants, tie and all, but wants to go to church as a family, and didn't want to leave his wife there being sick. We asked if she would like a blessing, which of course she accepted. Before we did it, we taught her about the important things in a blessing that is the faith of the person receiving the blessing and the will of the Lord. We told her that we know that if she has faith that she will be healed, that the Lord will help her.
We are also teaching an investigator named Juan Carlos. He always receives us very well, and loves when we teach him and everything. This week, we committed him to go to church (we also did last week, and he said he would next week). This week, once again he replied, the next week I will go. We talked to him and asked what it is that impedes him from going to church, he told us that he doesn't feel prepared enough to go to church.... to which we replied that church is for the people who need healing, the people who need help, not for the people that are perfect. Regardless of this, he was relentless that he didn't want to go this week. We know there is some underlying objection, and we are still trying to figure out what it is.
We also taught a woman named Christina. Her son is a member, and the Elder's quorum president in our ward. My companion and the elder before me had been teaching her, and had supposedly taught her all the lessons already. We talked to her, and found out she hadn't been reading the Book of Mormon. We taught her the restoration, and the Book of Mormon, and during the whole thing she was asking us really good questions (which is unusual here). In the end we committed her to read the Book of Mormon, and attend church this coming week.
The interview with President Callan was really good. We talked about a successful missionary, and what it means to be successful. We talked about how baptisms are not necessarily the thing that we should use to judge our success. There is a chapter in Preach My Gospel, which talks about the things that if we are doing as missionaries, we can know that we are successful.
After the interview, we went to McDonalds... yes there is a McDonalds here, also a Burger King and Pizza Hut. I think that is the only restaurants that are from the US. The McDonalds here is about 5 times better than in the United States. For a meal of fries, a hamburger and a drink, it was 20 Guaraní, which is pretty pricey in comparison with the other food here. As missionaries however, if we show them our receipt, we get a free ice cream... pretty cool huh?
Also this week I bought a Book of Mormon in Guarani, but I can't say I have tried reading it quite yet. I also ordered two more nametags, one in Guaraní, and another one that is in Spanish, but is magnetic.
Well that's all for this week, once again we have seen the Lord's hand in our work, and know that he is guiding us in the things that we do every day. I know that as we do the things that the Lord asks of us, that he will bless us and direct us in all our paths.
I love you all, and hope you have a great week. Also tell Grandma that I´m sorry I haven't written yet, it costs 9 mil Guaraní to send a letter to the US, and so I would rather not send a whole lot of letters.
-Elder Ryan Griffin
Elder Ryan Griffin's Mission Blog
18 October, 2010
12 October, 2010
HIs Dream was an answer but.....
Ok, sorry, i thought that we weren´t going to be able to email today, but it turns out that i was wrong. Well first things first, I cannot read or reply to emails from anyone but immediate family and grandparents. The only way that I can read the letters from Aleni and Tyler and Kip or any others is if you send them to me via dearelder. Our mission president asked us to only use the email for immediate family, and if we get emails from others, not to read them.
This week has been good, as I said before we got to go to the temple today. It is beautiful inside, but is a little bit smaller than most I have seen. We went through a session of endowments, in Spanish of course. I understood the whole thing, it's amazing how fast you can learn a language if you just trust in the lord. Less than 4 months ago when we watched it in Spanish in the Oquirrh Mountain temple, I didn't understand a thing, and now all of the sudden I can understand and speak it. My companion speaks very little English, and so pretty much all the time except language study we speak all Spanish. There are still times that I get stuck on words, but overall I feel pretty confident about the language. I know that the gift of tongues, and all the gifts of the spirit are real, and that if we earnestly seek them, the Lord will help us with the things that we need. Guarani, however, I still haven't quite picked up.... It's a lot harder than Spanish though. We went to the distribution center after, and I was surprised to find how cheap garments are here. The cost 1 mil Guaraní, which is about 20 cents..... a lot cheaper than in the US. I think I'll be buying some when i am coming back home.
This last Saturday we had a baptism of a 9 year old, who's family had gone inactive, and are now all active after he got baptized. We have a lot of different investigators here that we are working with. We also have members that we work with a lot more here than in my other area. We still don't have a ward mission leader, but we are going to talk to our bishop about giving somebody that calling, because I feel like it will help the ward a lot. One of the members that helps us a lot, went on a mission, here in Paraguay, but when he was on the mission it was Paraguay and Uruguay combined, and only had about 130 missionaries, and that was in 1988-90. In just 20 years now Paraguay alone has two missions, each with about 200 missionaries. It's amazing to see how much the church is growing.
This week we met with a lot of different investigators. We met with one couple named Miguel and Paula. Paula has a testimony and wants to be baptized, but only wants to do it if her husband does. The problem is that her husband likes to drink sometimes, so we talked to them about the importance of the Word of Wisdom, and committed them to keep it, and attend church this coming Sunday. We taught another investigator whose wife is a member, and he was born and raised catholic. He has a problem believing in the Book of Mormon, because he believes that the Bible contains the complete word of God. We talked to him about how there are many churches based off of the bible, but that people interpret it differently, and asked him how can we know which way to translate the bible. We talked to him about how the Book of Mormon helps us to know clearly the way of Jesus Christ, and the way that he wants us to live. He said that he has prayed about the book of Mormon, and he had quite the interesting answer. He said that he had a dream about his father, who is dead. He said his father never accepted any of the missionaries, but that in the dream, his father was holding a Book of Mormon. We told him that this was an answer from God, but he said he wants a clearer answer. We told him to pray again, and we will be meeting with him again later this week. We met with another man, named Juan Carlos, We taught him last week, and we came back this week, he said he felt good about the Book of Mormon, but that he wants to go to church before he gets baptized (which of course we love to hear). We have one investigator who has a date this week to be baptized, and we are teaching him every day this week to make sure everything goes good.
Also in this ward, the teachers are a TON better. The priesthood teacher is the member that went on his mission here, and is a very impressive teacher. Our ward here is great, and I am really looking forward to getting to know the members, and work with them to find new people here. This past week we had 48 people in Sacrament meeting, which is apparently low for our ward.
This Friday, my companion and I get to go to the office to have interviews with the Mission President. I am excited to be able to talk to him, and receive some of the insight that i can from him.
Well I love you guys, and I will talk to you next Monday. T
Cuidense, y tengan un buena semana.
Elder Ryan Griffin
This week has been good, as I said before we got to go to the temple today. It is beautiful inside, but is a little bit smaller than most I have seen. We went through a session of endowments, in Spanish of course. I understood the whole thing, it's amazing how fast you can learn a language if you just trust in the lord. Less than 4 months ago when we watched it in Spanish in the Oquirrh Mountain temple, I didn't understand a thing, and now all of the sudden I can understand and speak it. My companion speaks very little English, and so pretty much all the time except language study we speak all Spanish. There are still times that I get stuck on words, but overall I feel pretty confident about the language. I know that the gift of tongues, and all the gifts of the spirit are real, and that if we earnestly seek them, the Lord will help us with the things that we need. Guarani, however, I still haven't quite picked up.... It's a lot harder than Spanish though. We went to the distribution center after, and I was surprised to find how cheap garments are here. The cost 1 mil Guaraní, which is about 20 cents..... a lot cheaper than in the US. I think I'll be buying some when i am coming back home.
This last Saturday we had a baptism of a 9 year old, who's family had gone inactive, and are now all active after he got baptized. We have a lot of different investigators here that we are working with. We also have members that we work with a lot more here than in my other area. We still don't have a ward mission leader, but we are going to talk to our bishop about giving somebody that calling, because I feel like it will help the ward a lot. One of the members that helps us a lot, went on a mission, here in Paraguay, but when he was on the mission it was Paraguay and Uruguay combined, and only had about 130 missionaries, and that was in 1988-90. In just 20 years now Paraguay alone has two missions, each with about 200 missionaries. It's amazing to see how much the church is growing.
This week we met with a lot of different investigators. We met with one couple named Miguel and Paula. Paula has a testimony and wants to be baptized, but only wants to do it if her husband does. The problem is that her husband likes to drink sometimes, so we talked to them about the importance of the Word of Wisdom, and committed them to keep it, and attend church this coming Sunday. We taught another investigator whose wife is a member, and he was born and raised catholic. He has a problem believing in the Book of Mormon, because he believes that the Bible contains the complete word of God. We talked to him about how there are many churches based off of the bible, but that people interpret it differently, and asked him how can we know which way to translate the bible. We talked to him about how the Book of Mormon helps us to know clearly the way of Jesus Christ, and the way that he wants us to live. He said that he has prayed about the book of Mormon, and he had quite the interesting answer. He said that he had a dream about his father, who is dead. He said his father never accepted any of the missionaries, but that in the dream, his father was holding a Book of Mormon. We told him that this was an answer from God, but he said he wants a clearer answer. We told him to pray again, and we will be meeting with him again later this week. We met with another man, named Juan Carlos, We taught him last week, and we came back this week, he said he felt good about the Book of Mormon, but that he wants to go to church before he gets baptized (which of course we love to hear). We have one investigator who has a date this week to be baptized, and we are teaching him every day this week to make sure everything goes good.
Also in this ward, the teachers are a TON better. The priesthood teacher is the member that went on his mission here, and is a very impressive teacher. Our ward here is great, and I am really looking forward to getting to know the members, and work with them to find new people here. This past week we had 48 people in Sacrament meeting, which is apparently low for our ward.
This Friday, my companion and I get to go to the office to have interviews with the Mission President. I am excited to be able to talk to him, and receive some of the insight that i can from him.
Well I love you guys, and I will talk to you next Monday. T
Cuidense, y tengan un buena semana.
Elder Ryan Griffin
07 October, 2010
Transfer Week
Well first of all, I want to apologize, i forgot that this week was going to be transfers, meaning that we have p-day on Thursday instead of Monday. I will warn you in advance right now, that I’m not going to be emailing this next week because we are going to the temple, and cannot email because it takes us the whole entire day. Also I could not send an email, because we can't do that, we can only email on p-day, so in the future, i won't be able to do that, because we can only do it Thursday after changes.
Well this has been quite the interesting week for me for sure. I have been really trying to think and pray to figure out the things that I need to do differently. I feel like i have been working as hard as I can, and yet haven't felt like I’ve been doing anything. I was praying that I could be able to receive the answer that I needed during conference, and be able to do the things necessary to have better success. Our mission president usually does it that we can only go to the Sunday Morning, and Priesthood session without an investigator. He however changed it so that we could go to every session. Here in Paraguay, most of the members only go to the Sunday Morning session.... which I feel needs to change. Anyway we listened to the whole thing in Spanish, but i didn't really have to hard of a time understanding it. The first two sessions were really good, and i felt like I learned so much, and the priesthood session, as always, was amazing, and I saw a couple friends in the missionary choir that they had singing there. After Saturday though, i still didn't really feel like a had a clear answer yet as to what i need to be doing differently. Sunday morning came around, and during that session my answer came quite clearly..... It was during the talk of President Henry B. Eyring. He talked about the importance of trusting the Lord. I feel like I have had faith in the lord and that he can help me, but the thing i have been lacking all this time... is trust.... trusting that he WILL help me if I am completely obedient, and have the trust in him. I determined that day that from now on during my mission, no matter what happens, I will trust the lord, and trust that whatever is happening or whatever I go through, is for the best. I felt like my answer came so clear, and although i learned many other things from conference that was definitely the biggest lesson I learned.
Anyway we finished conference, and then something happened on Monday morning. My companion called the zone leaders to see if they had gotten the information for the changes, and they had. And apparently the Lord decided he wanted to test me on my commitment of trust, because the zone leaders told us there was something weird with our companionship. Later that day I found out i would be leaving my area Wednesday morning, going to an area in Asuncion. I woke up at 2 that morning after packing until 12 the night before.... yes I only had two hours of sleep. We arrived in Asuncion at 5, and waited in the terminal until 8 for all the rest of the people to arrive. My new companion, is another native, from Panama. He has been on the mission..... 1 transfer more than me. My area now is in an area called Villa Elisa, and my ward is El Alto. I am now actually in a ward, rather than a branch. Our ward has about 60 to 70 people that attend, and it is an actual chapel.... a nice one. Our apartment has 4 elders, 2 who are in our zone, but not in our district. The apartments in Asuncion all have new mattresses, rather than the old ones that we had everywhere else. Also we have two baptisms for this Saturday, and 2 others that have a date. We have a lunch appointment every day, and some dinner appointments. My companion is a lot harder of a worker than my trainer was. With my trainer we would always waste a lot of time just working inefficiently, but here I feel like it is a lot better.
My Spanish is getting a lot better, I sometimes think in Spanish, and other times think in English now, so for the most part I can talk pretty well. I have just been reading the Book of Mormon aloud every day for language study, and it has been helping me to be able to hear how to better pronounce the words, and learn more words.
The food here is pretty much the same as my other area. Every time the people feed us, it is usually one of three things. It's something that is called guiso. The three parts of it is they either serve rice with some little bits of meat, or pasta with the same, or beans with the same. It's quite the variety of food, i know. The other things that we get sometimes is tortillas (the kind here), Sopa de Paraguaya (which sometimes is really good, other times not so much), and Sopa so´o (with meat inside). With every meal they serve either mandioca, or bread, and sometimes both. They usually just give us water with the meal, but every once in a while they give us these drinks that they make here. They take either a fruit or a vegetable, and put in some water and sugar, blend it up, and serve it. I have had it with carrots, grass, pineapple, and orange. The first two may sound gross to you, and you would be right. The other two were pretty good though.
Anyway, i feel like with my new companion things will go a lot better than they did in my last area. I know now that i have to have trust in the Lord, and do all that I can to carry out this work. I love you guys, and I will talk to you again in another week and a half....
Que le vaya bien,
Elder Ryan Griffin
Well this has been quite the interesting week for me for sure. I have been really trying to think and pray to figure out the things that I need to do differently. I feel like i have been working as hard as I can, and yet haven't felt like I’ve been doing anything. I was praying that I could be able to receive the answer that I needed during conference, and be able to do the things necessary to have better success. Our mission president usually does it that we can only go to the Sunday Morning, and Priesthood session without an investigator. He however changed it so that we could go to every session. Here in Paraguay, most of the members only go to the Sunday Morning session.... which I feel needs to change. Anyway we listened to the whole thing in Spanish, but i didn't really have to hard of a time understanding it. The first two sessions were really good, and i felt like I learned so much, and the priesthood session, as always, was amazing, and I saw a couple friends in the missionary choir that they had singing there. After Saturday though, i still didn't really feel like a had a clear answer yet as to what i need to be doing differently. Sunday morning came around, and during that session my answer came quite clearly..... It was during the talk of President Henry B. Eyring. He talked about the importance of trusting the Lord. I feel like I have had faith in the lord and that he can help me, but the thing i have been lacking all this time... is trust.... trusting that he WILL help me if I am completely obedient, and have the trust in him. I determined that day that from now on during my mission, no matter what happens, I will trust the lord, and trust that whatever is happening or whatever I go through, is for the best. I felt like my answer came so clear, and although i learned many other things from conference that was definitely the biggest lesson I learned.
Anyway we finished conference, and then something happened on Monday morning. My companion called the zone leaders to see if they had gotten the information for the changes, and they had. And apparently the Lord decided he wanted to test me on my commitment of trust, because the zone leaders told us there was something weird with our companionship. Later that day I found out i would be leaving my area Wednesday morning, going to an area in Asuncion. I woke up at 2 that morning after packing until 12 the night before.... yes I only had two hours of sleep. We arrived in Asuncion at 5, and waited in the terminal until 8 for all the rest of the people to arrive. My new companion, is another native, from Panama. He has been on the mission..... 1 transfer more than me. My area now is in an area called Villa Elisa, and my ward is El Alto. I am now actually in a ward, rather than a branch. Our ward has about 60 to 70 people that attend, and it is an actual chapel.... a nice one. Our apartment has 4 elders, 2 who are in our zone, but not in our district. The apartments in Asuncion all have new mattresses, rather than the old ones that we had everywhere else. Also we have two baptisms for this Saturday, and 2 others that have a date. We have a lunch appointment every day, and some dinner appointments. My companion is a lot harder of a worker than my trainer was. With my trainer we would always waste a lot of time just working inefficiently, but here I feel like it is a lot better.
My Spanish is getting a lot better, I sometimes think in Spanish, and other times think in English now, so for the most part I can talk pretty well. I have just been reading the Book of Mormon aloud every day for language study, and it has been helping me to be able to hear how to better pronounce the words, and learn more words.
The food here is pretty much the same as my other area. Every time the people feed us, it is usually one of three things. It's something that is called guiso. The three parts of it is they either serve rice with some little bits of meat, or pasta with the same, or beans with the same. It's quite the variety of food, i know. The other things that we get sometimes is tortillas (the kind here), Sopa de Paraguaya (which sometimes is really good, other times not so much), and Sopa so´o (with meat inside). With every meal they serve either mandioca, or bread, and sometimes both. They usually just give us water with the meal, but every once in a while they give us these drinks that they make here. They take either a fruit or a vegetable, and put in some water and sugar, blend it up, and serve it. I have had it with carrots, grass, pineapple, and orange. The first two may sound gross to you, and you would be right. The other two were pretty good though.
Anyway, i feel like with my new companion things will go a lot better than they did in my last area. I know now that i have to have trust in the Lord, and do all that I can to carry out this work. I love you guys, and I will talk to you again in another week and a half....
Que le vaya bien,
Elder Ryan Griffin
29 September, 2010
It is about the people
Thank you for the support and the help, it definitely helped me feel a lot better. I've been realizing that I need to stop focusing on myself so much, and start focusing on the people. I have wanted people to come to church and be baptized so that I could have a baptism, and I need to be out here to help the people instead. If I go throughout my mission without a single baptism, but can help many people, and have done all I can do, then I have no reason to be disappointed. I have really been figuring out that I need to develop more patience this week. I just came out here expecting to start baptizing right away, forgetting that I wouldn't learn anything if there weren't some hard times here and there. I have also been relying too much on my own knowledge and strength rather than relying on the Lord. But as I have come to figure out this week ¨As to me and my strength, I am nothing¨ there are a lot of things that i still have to learn, but i feel like i am always learning so much every day here.
This week we got a new plaque on our church building. We were walking by as the people were trying to put it up, and so we got to help them put it up there. Now we have a marble one instead of some kind of metal thing that it was before. On Tuesday we ate some empanadas, and then went back to our apartment, and m companion threw up, we still went out for the rest of the day though. On Wednesday we had the opportunity to do some service. There was a sister in Rama 2 (we are Rama 3) that needed help with planting some mandioca. Unfortunately the house was about 7 miles from our house, so we got to walk all the way there, and hour and a half later we finally got there and started helping. We cut down the other plants with a machete because it has the seeds in it. We then got to carry them to another spot to be planted, but the seeds make it so the plant cuts up your arms, so that was fun. Finally we cut up the pieces of the plant and planted them. After that she fed us some food. Then my companions sickness got worse, and he had no energy, so we went back a little early in the day. The next day, he was feeling really sick again, and so we had to stay in for most of that day. On Friday we had our only full normal day without anything else and taught and found a lot of people. We were walking and a drunk guy called us over, we went, and he invited us in, and we taught his family, and set up an appointment to return. On Saturday, we had another service, in our Rama, cleaning the school by our house. We did that for about 3 hours and then finally got to go out and teach. We had a baptism on Saturday as well, an 8 year old. Her mother jsut hadn´t done anything to get her baptized yet, and so we set everything up, and got to clean out and fill up the font, and then i got to give a talk for the baptism, and then my companion baptized her. On Sunday, once again we didn´t have any investigators show up for church, I went with a member to go and try to get people, but nobody was there. After church we were walking by a tree, that had a bees nest in it, and apparently we walked too close, because the bees attacked us, and we both got stung in the neck.
It rained a ton this week as well, which is really fun for us, because it makes all the roads really hard to walk on, especially when it´s dark. Both me and my companion stepped in a couple puddles during the week, and my companion slipped and fell and got mud all over his pants and shirt. We finally got our shower fixed, so no more having to take only cold showers, which has been really nice. That´s about all for this week, the work is still hard here, but I know that i need to just have the patience. Thanks again for the help and for your guys’ support. The address is a little bit different than the one that was in my papers, but this one is faster for mailing me stuff.
Elder Ryan Griffin
2881 del maestro c/ caballero
barrio herrera
Asuncion
Paraguay
This week we got a new plaque on our church building. We were walking by as the people were trying to put it up, and so we got to help them put it up there. Now we have a marble one instead of some kind of metal thing that it was before. On Tuesday we ate some empanadas, and then went back to our apartment, and m companion threw up, we still went out for the rest of the day though. On Wednesday we had the opportunity to do some service. There was a sister in Rama 2 (we are Rama 3) that needed help with planting some mandioca. Unfortunately the house was about 7 miles from our house, so we got to walk all the way there, and hour and a half later we finally got there and started helping. We cut down the other plants with a machete because it has the seeds in it. We then got to carry them to another spot to be planted, but the seeds make it so the plant cuts up your arms, so that was fun. Finally we cut up the pieces of the plant and planted them. After that she fed us some food. Then my companions sickness got worse, and he had no energy, so we went back a little early in the day. The next day, he was feeling really sick again, and so we had to stay in for most of that day. On Friday we had our only full normal day without anything else and taught and found a lot of people. We were walking and a drunk guy called us over, we went, and he invited us in, and we taught his family, and set up an appointment to return. On Saturday, we had another service, in our Rama, cleaning the school by our house. We did that for about 3 hours and then finally got to go out and teach. We had a baptism on Saturday as well, an 8 year old. Her mother jsut hadn´t done anything to get her baptized yet, and so we set everything up, and got to clean out and fill up the font, and then i got to give a talk for the baptism, and then my companion baptized her. On Sunday, once again we didn´t have any investigators show up for church, I went with a member to go and try to get people, but nobody was there. After church we were walking by a tree, that had a bees nest in it, and apparently we walked too close, because the bees attacked us, and we both got stung in the neck.
It rained a ton this week as well, which is really fun for us, because it makes all the roads really hard to walk on, especially when it´s dark. Both me and my companion stepped in a couple puddles during the week, and my companion slipped and fell and got mud all over his pants and shirt. We finally got our shower fixed, so no more having to take only cold showers, which has been really nice. That´s about all for this week, the work is still hard here, but I know that i need to just have the patience. Thanks again for the help and for your guys’ support. The address is a little bit different than the one that was in my papers, but this one is faster for mailing me stuff.
Elder Ryan Griffin
2881 del maestro c/ caballero
barrio herrera
Asuncion
Paraguay
22 September, 2010
Commitment Problems
Well this has been an interesting week for sure. We have been teaching an investigator that I told you about earlier. Her name is Nilsa Benites. She has a strong testimony about the church, and loves having us come over to teach her more. We committed her to come to church however, and she didn´t come. Her 9 year old son did though. We went and talked to her, and she wanted to come, but that she couldn´t that day, and probably can't next week. We taught her that the only way to strengthen her testimony, is by showing her faith by sacrificing other things to come to church, and that we want her to do everything she can to come this next week, since the next week after that is general Conference.
We have another investigator, who is the son of a member. Her other son is already a member, and her 8 year old daughter wants to be baptized. Her son is like 20, and has had three baptismal interviews, and then backed out at the last second. We haven´t been able to talk to him since that, because he is only available on Saturday, and Sunday.
We have a lot of other people as well that we are teaching right now, we usually get about 5 lessons or so a day. Some days are really hard, because a lot of our appointments fall through, and then we have to try and find other new people to teach. Usually the people we find, act like they are interested, and then tell us there house is ¨over there¨ Which usually gives away that they aren´t interested.
It´s been hard going 4 weeks now and not having a single person that we have helped thus far. I feel like we have the potential to be baptizing so many more people than we are, but it´s just not happening. I have been trying to figure out the things that i´m doing wrong, and fix them, using the scriptures, preach my gospel, and the Liahona. I feel like it´s hard to keep faith that the people will come to church, or that they will keep their commitments, because they usually don´t..... but I think that is more our fault than theirs. I´m still trying to do everything i can to be able to serve the lord to the best of my ability, but some days I just want to sit in the apartment because i get so exhausted. I know the lord is just testing my patience, and that i need to keep my faith strong though.
Today, me and all the group that came with me got to go to Asuncion for P-day.... we had to go back to sign our documents... again. for some reason they changed the system right after we left, so we had to take a trip back there to go sign stuff. I´m 3 hours out of Asuncion, so i got to wake up at 2:45, and get on a bus to go there. I had to stand for two of the 3 hours because it was so crowded, and we have to pay for the travel up to 50 mil Guarani. We got there, signed the stuff, and then 4 hours later, finally got back on a bus to come back. Now, I’m here emailing with about 2 hours of actual P-day this week.
Well, i love you all tons, thanks for the letters, and no Dear elder is not faster, because we only get mail on Mondays anyway. Email is better for you guys, unless you want me responding a week after you send the letters. Anyway, thanks again for the support, and keep the people here in your prayers. Thanks a ton!
Elder Ryan Griffin
We have another investigator, who is the son of a member. Her other son is already a member, and her 8 year old daughter wants to be baptized. Her son is like 20, and has had three baptismal interviews, and then backed out at the last second. We haven´t been able to talk to him since that, because he is only available on Saturday, and Sunday.
We have a lot of other people as well that we are teaching right now, we usually get about 5 lessons or so a day. Some days are really hard, because a lot of our appointments fall through, and then we have to try and find other new people to teach. Usually the people we find, act like they are interested, and then tell us there house is ¨over there¨ Which usually gives away that they aren´t interested.
It´s been hard going 4 weeks now and not having a single person that we have helped thus far. I feel like we have the potential to be baptizing so many more people than we are, but it´s just not happening. I have been trying to figure out the things that i´m doing wrong, and fix them, using the scriptures, preach my gospel, and the Liahona. I feel like it´s hard to keep faith that the people will come to church, or that they will keep their commitments, because they usually don´t..... but I think that is more our fault than theirs. I´m still trying to do everything i can to be able to serve the lord to the best of my ability, but some days I just want to sit in the apartment because i get so exhausted. I know the lord is just testing my patience, and that i need to keep my faith strong though.
Today, me and all the group that came with me got to go to Asuncion for P-day.... we had to go back to sign our documents... again. for some reason they changed the system right after we left, so we had to take a trip back there to go sign stuff. I´m 3 hours out of Asuncion, so i got to wake up at 2:45, and get on a bus to go there. I had to stand for two of the 3 hours because it was so crowded, and we have to pay for the travel up to 50 mil Guarani. We got there, signed the stuff, and then 4 hours later, finally got back on a bus to come back. Now, I’m here emailing with about 2 hours of actual P-day this week.
Well, i love you all tons, thanks for the letters, and no Dear elder is not faster, because we only get mail on Mondays anyway. Email is better for you guys, unless you want me responding a week after you send the letters. Anyway, thanks again for the support, and keep the people here in your prayers. Thanks a ton!
Elder Ryan Griffin
14 September, 2010
Teaching, Culture and the Food
Well it has been a good week again. The work here is definitely hard, and I still can´t say everything i want to say in Spanish yet, but i am getting a lot closer to being there. The Spanish is coming along really fast, but it´s hard when they talk in Guarani, because i don´t understand anything they say when they start speaking in that.
TEACHING
We have a couple of progressing investigators that we have been teaching this week.
One is Nilsa Benites, her husband left her, she had 6 children, two of which are over 8 years old. We have taught her about 5 times or so now, and she loves meeting with us. This last visit, on Saturday, she said that she feels really good when we teach her, and when she reads the Book of Mormon, but she still is confused about whether it is the true church or not. we invited her to come to church, and testified that if she puts forth the real effort to gain a testimony, that the lord will answer her prayers.
Another investigator is Mariella, who is the girlfriend of a less-active member. The less-active member however has a wife in Argentina whom he has to divorce. Then we can be able to baptize her, so we are still working and praying to know what to do with that.
Another one is Lida, who had a baptismal date for Saturday, but we couldn´t keep it. She also is living with her boyfriend, who is a member, and she wants to be baptized. They have to either be married, or seperate for her to be baptized however. We taught them the Law of Chastity on Wednesday, and asked that they pray for help on what to do. We still haven´t heard how it went yet.
Another one is Lilliana, who is the girlfriend of the grandson of Hermana Ursulina, who is a member. Her daughter also is a member. We have been teaching Lilliana about 2 or 3 times a week, and she is receptive to the teachings, but we can´t seem to get her to go to church.
This week we committed 6 people to go to church, and then come Sunday.... we didn´t have one investigator show up. For some reason the people here say they will do things, but it´s hard to get them to actually do the things. We need to do a better job at letting them know the importance of going to church, and that they need to use their agency to do that.
Lucy, the woman that we were guided to the second day i was here, we still haven´t had a chance to teach again. Every time we go by there she goes in the house, or something else, and doesn´t want to listen to us again.
CULTURE
There is a game called Piki that the people play here. It is very similar to volleyball, but you can´t use your hands. They only use their heads, chest, feet, and thigh to hit the ball. The people here are really good at keeping a rally going.
Instead of waving here, people give the thumbs up. This is pretty much the same as waving would be in America, as to say hi.
Everybody here rides motorcycles. It is pretty much their family car here. We have seen up to 4 people all on the same motorcycle at a time, all holding groceries. They have kids that are really young that always drive them too, I think the youngest I have seen so far is about 8 years old. We unfortunately live on a corner, of a highway here. There are constantly motorcycles driving by, and loud music blasting, which makes it difficult to sleep
There are little corner stores, called dispensas. They sell food and other stuff that can also be found at the supermarket. We helped our Branch Presidents wife set one up at their house, and helped them paint it as well. Every dispensa also sells drinks in these glass bottles; they are one Guaraní, which is about 20 cents. You return the bottle, and that is why it is so cheap, but it´s quite nice when it´s a hot day outside.
The weather here is always changing. One day it is burning hot, and humid, and the next it is freezing cold, still humid. Our shower only puts out water of the temperature it is at, which in the mornings is usually nice and cold. It takes some getting used to, having to take a cold shower, but it´s not so bad anymore.
FOOD
The food here is interesting for sure. They eat way different here than we do in America. Here are some of the things I have tried
Cafe soja- soy coffee is what it´s translated out to, but it is actually not bad for you like coffee, it tastes about like what coffee smells like, so it´s kind of weird, but not too bad. It is just milk, with the powder put in.
Tortillas- Definitely not your typical tortilla here. It is small enough to fit in the hand, but it is really good. It has eggs, flower, water, and lettuce.
Halls- Yes, the people here do in fact eat cough drops as a candy, quite strange i must say.
Milk- comes in a pouch rather than a carton, which makes it hard to use, but it tastes good
Well that´s all for today, love you guys, and I’ll talk to you again next week
Elder Ryan Griffin
TEACHING
We have a couple of progressing investigators that we have been teaching this week.
One is Nilsa Benites, her husband left her, she had 6 children, two of which are over 8 years old. We have taught her about 5 times or so now, and she loves meeting with us. This last visit, on Saturday, she said that she feels really good when we teach her, and when she reads the Book of Mormon, but she still is confused about whether it is the true church or not. we invited her to come to church, and testified that if she puts forth the real effort to gain a testimony, that the lord will answer her prayers.
Another investigator is Mariella, who is the girlfriend of a less-active member. The less-active member however has a wife in Argentina whom he has to divorce. Then we can be able to baptize her, so we are still working and praying to know what to do with that.
Another one is Lida, who had a baptismal date for Saturday, but we couldn´t keep it. She also is living with her boyfriend, who is a member, and she wants to be baptized. They have to either be married, or seperate for her to be baptized however. We taught them the Law of Chastity on Wednesday, and asked that they pray for help on what to do. We still haven´t heard how it went yet.
Another one is Lilliana, who is the girlfriend of the grandson of Hermana Ursulina, who is a member. Her daughter also is a member. We have been teaching Lilliana about 2 or 3 times a week, and she is receptive to the teachings, but we can´t seem to get her to go to church.
This week we committed 6 people to go to church, and then come Sunday.... we didn´t have one investigator show up. For some reason the people here say they will do things, but it´s hard to get them to actually do the things. We need to do a better job at letting them know the importance of going to church, and that they need to use their agency to do that.
Lucy, the woman that we were guided to the second day i was here, we still haven´t had a chance to teach again. Every time we go by there she goes in the house, or something else, and doesn´t want to listen to us again.
CULTURE
There is a game called Piki that the people play here. It is very similar to volleyball, but you can´t use your hands. They only use their heads, chest, feet, and thigh to hit the ball. The people here are really good at keeping a rally going.
Instead of waving here, people give the thumbs up. This is pretty much the same as waving would be in America, as to say hi.
Everybody here rides motorcycles. It is pretty much their family car here. We have seen up to 4 people all on the same motorcycle at a time, all holding groceries. They have kids that are really young that always drive them too, I think the youngest I have seen so far is about 8 years old. We unfortunately live on a corner, of a highway here. There are constantly motorcycles driving by, and loud music blasting, which makes it difficult to sleep
There are little corner stores, called dispensas. They sell food and other stuff that can also be found at the supermarket. We helped our Branch Presidents wife set one up at their house, and helped them paint it as well. Every dispensa also sells drinks in these glass bottles; they are one Guaraní, which is about 20 cents. You return the bottle, and that is why it is so cheap, but it´s quite nice when it´s a hot day outside.
The weather here is always changing. One day it is burning hot, and humid, and the next it is freezing cold, still humid. Our shower only puts out water of the temperature it is at, which in the mornings is usually nice and cold. It takes some getting used to, having to take a cold shower, but it´s not so bad anymore.
FOOD
The food here is interesting for sure. They eat way different here than we do in America. Here are some of the things I have tried
Cafe soja- soy coffee is what it´s translated out to, but it is actually not bad for you like coffee, it tastes about like what coffee smells like, so it´s kind of weird, but not too bad. It is just milk, with the powder put in.
Tortillas- Definitely not your typical tortilla here. It is small enough to fit in the hand, but it is really good. It has eggs, flower, water, and lettuce.
Halls- Yes, the people here do in fact eat cough drops as a candy, quite strange i must say.
Milk- comes in a pouch rather than a carton, which makes it hard to use, but it tastes good
Well that´s all for today, love you guys, and I’ll talk to you again next week
Elder Ryan Griffin
01 September, 2010
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