Falling into temptation

Well another week has come and flown by again. We have been working all the fat off that I have gained in the mission so far. ;) The week has been interesting, difficult, and full of blessings of the Lord. On Monday we both got our hair cut. It was pretty much just a hack job…. People here don’t know how to cut hair very well. The lady did terrible with both of our hair. It was incredibly uneven when we got home. I decided to take matters into my own hands, and fix it up. I used the mirror, and pretty much cut all my own hair. It actually turned out to fix it pretty well. I evened it out, and now it doesn’t look so bad. I figured out that my companion knows Chad Hugie. He went to the same school as him, and they had some classes together…. It’s a small world after all. The Copa America (American Cup) of soccer has been going on this week. Paraguay tied with Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador. Then Paraguay had to play Brazil again to move on, and won in a shoot out. They now have to play Venezuela again, and then they play the winner of Uruguay and Peru for the finals. In church this week we had 12 people in total. We had two investigators that came. They are a family, and they are…. Well let’s just say they are missing a couple of screws. We gave them a hymn book to start out the class, and I had to teach the first class. Every time that I would say a page number for the scriptures, the man, José would look for it in the hymn book. Also he stood up in front after one of the classes and started saying something in Guarani. Then with the sacrament, my companion was passing it, and the woman, Estela took like 5 pieces of the bread. Well anyway, we’ll see what happens there with them. This week our appointments were dropping like flies, and we ended up having to knock doors a lot. Seeing as our area is so small, and I’ve almost already talked to everyone, it was a hard week. We ended up finding a lot of investigators though, 26 in total. 7 of which were families. We are working as hard as we can, but unfortunately we aren’t seeing a whole lot of progress in our investigators. I know that we just have to keep working, and trust that God knows what he’s doing with everything. Sometimes it’s hard to have that trust, seeing as we want to have immediate success. However, I know that we also have to have a test of our faith every once in a while so that we can progress and learn. José and Liliana had a marriage problem. They went to a party, and Liliana drank a little bit. We aren’t exactly sure what all happened, but they ended up separating. José left and went to his mother’s house. We found out what happened, and went to talk to him. They haven’t gone to church the last 4 Sundays now, and so they have let Satan take control of their lives. We explained to José that they need that help so that they don’t face problems like that, and that God was giving them a trial to help them remember him. We told him he needed to pray and ask God what to do to solve the problem, and then do it. That same day, he went back and now they are back together. Now we just need them to actually go to church. Anyway, we have changes next week, so we’ll see what all happens with the area, and what the will of the lord is for the people here. All I can do is pray and hope that it doesn’t close, and if it does, accept that it is the will of the Lord. I love you guys tons, and hope all is going well for you. I’ll talk to you next week. Love ya, Elder Ryan Griffin

Closing Acahay?

Well this week has been a battle in a lot of senses. We have had a lot of trials here, but we are pushing through, and doing everything that we can. On Sunday it rained a little bit during church. We got there at 8, and nobody was there. We waited till 9:30 before the hermana Machuca got there with her grandson. After that we waited until 10:30 and nobody else came. We did the sacrament meeting with just 4 of us. I got be be the presiding authority.... fun fun. Anyway we did the sacrament, and my comp and I gave talks, and then we left at like 10:15. We are worried about the branch because the majority of the problem, is that nobody wants to come now that the storehouse is closed. It is really sad to see that there were so many that were just coming for the storehouse, instead of coming for the correct reasons. We had passed by two of the members houses, and they weren't there, so we know that they weren't just worried about going out in the rain. After church we went to a bunch of their houses and dropped the cane a little bit. We basically talked to all of them about why they were baptized, and the covenant that tehy made with god. We told them they can keep going to church for the food, but that is all they will gain, and will lose the eternal life if that’s the case. All of them that we visited said they will be coming next week, but they told us that last week as well. We had interviews on Wednesday, and I talked to the President about a lot of the problems we are having in our area. From what it sounds like, with the things that are going on he may be closing the area pretty soon. Unfortunately it makes it very inefficient to try and do missionary work when the members don’t even come to church. We will have to see what happens, but we don’t think it will go very well since we only had 4 people in church this Sunday. The interview was really good though, and I learned a lot like always from talking to the President. He told us to just keep working hard here, and do what we can. A lot of our investigators have fallen, or just not been progressing. We had one of our better investigators blow up on us on Saturday. He accused us of being spies, and told us that the US is paying us to be here. He may have been a little drunk, but pretty much let us know that he doesn’t want to be baptized. A bunch of our other investigators have just been impossible to find, or whatever else. We do have one family that is progressing a lot. It is a family of 7, 4 of which are older than 8. The parents read the part in 3 Nephi that we left for them, and had some really good questions about the baptism. They seem to have a sicere desire to be baptized, and we are working hard with them. Jose and Liliana know them, and were supposed to go by to pick them up for church.... but they didn’t even come. Kind of frustrating that we aren’t having any kind of help from the members. Anyway we are still working as hard as we can, it kind of hard to keep positive with everythign that is going on, but we are doing all that we can. I love you guys tons, and hope everyone is alright. I’ll talk to you next week. Elder Ryan Griffin

Help with overcoming problems

Hola mi querido familia, Well this Has been good. Elder King and I are working together really well. We are working hard, and doing all that we can herein the branch. It is nice having a companion who is younger because it helps me have to be more obedient, and search for things that we can do better. We are getting along really well. He went to Utah State also, and also doesn’t like BYU. ;) No but we are getting along really well, we haven’t had any arguments or anything, and we are teaching really well together. We had just over 40 lessons in the week, and we found 21 new investigators. We are working hard to help the people progress, but unnfortunately the most important indicators (with bap. Date, in the reunion, and progressing) were all zero this week. Nobody came to church again of our investigators, and we aren’t really sure why. Usually it is a case of not explaining well enough for the investigators the importance of going to church, so we are trying to study on that, and see how we can explain it better for them so that they come to church. We found a family of 7 this week, 4 of the which could be baptized. We taught them the entire first lesson, and it was a fantastic lesson. They both had really good questions, and we left them with a Book of Mormon to read and pray about our message. We are going to visit them again on Tuesday and see how it went. A lot of the investigators that we have been teaching more time seem to be progressing, but for some reason aren’t coming to church, part of which might have to do with the cold that it is doing in the mornings. We only had 10 members in total that came to the church counting us, so it was another small group. Roberto, our recent convert came, and bore his testimony. It was awesome being able to hear one of my converts bear their testimony and hear how much he has progressed. The bishops storehouse here in Paraguay closed down recently and is going to be closed for 3 months. Unfortunately we believe that is the main source of the problems we are having with the members right now, because a lot of them were just coming for that. There was a rumor that the branch president was recieving money that he was supposed to give to the members, but that he was keeping it for himself..... we had to kill that fire in the week. Also another rumor was going around that we(the missionaries) had walked in on a member while she was dressing and that we saw her naked.... Which never happened. We are getting kind of frustrated with the members because instead of progressing, now they are getting even worse (spreading false rumors about the missionaries and the President). We are working on helping them, but the problem is that they lie to us when we talk to them, making it so that we can’t help them with their problems. There is one member that we visit that lives next to a downs syndrome guy named Juan Carlos. Every time that we go to visit the family, Juan Carlos comes over to listen. He can’t speak, and I don’t know if he understands, but I know that he can feel the spirit. It is really cool to see a special person like that who can feel the spirit, and follow it. We had a lesson with some drunk guys this week. They were in the process of drinking as we explained to them the Word of Wisdom. One of them started asking questions and recording us on his phone. Another was so drunk that he fell out of his chair. One of them however actually wanted to say the prayer at the end, and started crying as he asked his heavenly father to help him overcome his problem with drinking. He then wanted to give us a hug before we left. I don’t know if we will ever see him again, because he lives in a different part, but I hope that he really can change his life off of what we taught him. It’s been pretty cold in most of these days, and we have been making some hot chocolate every day when we get home to warm ourselves up a little bit. It’s really sad seeing the poverty of the people here now when it is cold, because the only source of heat they have is making a fire. Well I love you guys tons. Happy fourth of July. Have a great day, and shoot some fireworks off for me. Thanks for everything you do! Chau Elder Ryan Griffin

One year left

Hola familia, Well in response to your email, Elder King is from the island part right next to the campus, and he went to Logan High. I just purchased more garments in the temple when we were there, so I'm good on those. Also, yes I got some more shoes, they´re not fantastic, but they will work for now. My shirts are all still good, besides the fact that they aren't exactly white now, but other than that they are good. Well this has been a nice cold week here in Paraguay. Yesterday was quite cold, I didn't think I would need the thermals that you sent me, but I actually have been having to use them. It may not appear so cold looking at the temperature, but it is so humid here in Paraguay that the temperature that you feel is a lot colder than what it says. They also have to insulation in the houses, so we have to bundle up good to not freeze at night. We had a kind of crazy week this week. After we went to the temple, we started the week off really well. Then on Saturday and Sunday, we aren't quite sure what happened. We are working as hard as we can, but the past two days we ended up walking a lot. We got rejected almost by every single appointment that we had set, and even the houses we were knocking on weren't accepting us. We still ended up with 33 lessons on the week, and still found 15 new investigators, the problem is that the most important indicators, Attendance to the church, and progressing were both zero. We had 6 with fecha on Saturday, but on Sunday morning it was freezing cold when we woke up. We got to the chapel first, and only the president and Hna Cañete(and her 2 daughters) and Hna Dora came. We only had 7 people in church, including Elder King and I. I know these people here are poor, and that it is a sacrifice for them to come to church when it is cold, but only 5 out of more than 40 members actually came..... We were a little bit frustrated. Also a bunch of investigators said they were going to come, but also didn't show up to church. We can't really blame them since the members didn't even come. We went to the house of one of the members on Sunday after church, and she just started complaining about the cold, and then started critizising rich people saying that they never have to make sacrifices or anything. She started saying that we have too much money and that we never have to sacrifice anything. Then she started talking bad about our mission president and his wife saying that they have never had to make a sacrifice in their life. Saying that they are wallowing in their riches while everyone here is suffering. Well needless to say, I didn't like someone talking about my mission president like that, so we shared some scriptures with them. First I shared with them Jacob 2:18 that says that we shouldn't seek the riches, but the kingdom of God, telling her that it doesn't matter how much money we have, the commandments still apply to us. Then we shared one from thesalonians that says that Jesus Christ will come like a robber in the night, and asked them if Christ had come today, would you have been ready to meet him. UNfortunately they just have hardened their hearts here, and they justify not going to church as that they are poor. They say that God will understand their circumstances..... We are just facing a lot of problems with the branch, the majority of them don't want to change, and it is a constant fight to try and help them. We are going to keep doing everything that we can to save the branch, but we can't make anybody change by force. Unfortunately they have their agency, adn they don't use it in the correct way. I'm worried that they are going to pull us out of here again if things don't start changing in the branch. Well I love you guys tons, and I'll talk to you next week. Thank you for all you do. Elder Ryan Griffin

Senior Companion

Hola familia, Well we had changes. Like I told you elder Watson went as a zone leader, and I got a new companion. I'm now senior companion, my companion has 3 months less in the mission than I do. I think I was the last one in my group to become senior comp. my comps name is elder King. He is from Logan Utah. So far he has been a really good companion. We are getting along really well. It's wierd being senior comp now, becuase I have to direct everything now. We had a good week though for the most part last week. We taught 47 lessons, and found 15 new investigators. Unfortunately we didn't have anybody come to church, and hardly even had the members come. We only had 15 members in total that actually came to church. Sorry I couldn't write yesterday, we ended up having P-day today, so that we could go to the temple. We ended up going to the temple finally today, which was awesome. It was really cool going through this time now that I understand the Gospel more. It all took on a whole new meaning for me. It was also really cool being able to watch it in Spanish, and actually be able to understand it all this time. It was also nice to be able to think about the mission and everything, since I am at the point of 1 year now. It really made me think a lot about the mission, and what I want to complete for the last year of my mission. We taught a lesson to a guy in English this week. He has a house in Chicago, but he also lives here in Acahay. We taught him in English, which was really weird. I couln't teach very well, becuase I don't think in English very well now. It weird how much English I have already lost. I had to translate a lot of things into Spanish from English...... I never thought I would get to that point. It was a really interesting lesson, because he actually wasn't as ignorant as most people here, so he actually has some really interesting questions for us. We had a good lesson, and we are going to try and teach him again. Our branch is having some problems. The members, a lot of them, aren't progressing. They are just sinning, and don't really care. There are a lot that get help from the church, and then they go and sell the stuff that they got from them. We are trying to help the people realize that they can't keep living like that, but we definitely haven't seen a whole lot of change so far. A lot of our investigators aren't really progressing, so we have had to look for a lot of new people in this week. We found a lot of really good people that are going to progress. I still have to get a lot better at teaching though, because now that I'm senior comp, I can't really rely on my companion so much. I just always have so many more thing that I have to imporve as a missionary. It's a good and bad thing I guess. My old comp, Elder Gutierrez is now my zone leader in zone 6. I told him we have to do divisions some time, so that we can teach together again, but I don't know if they can actually do it or not. Well that's about all I can remember from this week. I'll talk to you next monday. Love you all tons. Oh, and happy fathers day!!!! two days ago anyway. -Elder Ryan Griffin

I get to stay in Acahay

Hola Familia, Well this was a good week, with some ups and downs. We baptized two of the four people; the other family is on hold for now. I got my package, thank you tons. Roberto and Brigida- They got baptized on Saturday. It was nice and cold in the water, but not too bad. I baptized Roberto and my companion baptized Brigida. My comp had to baptize her twice because she didn’t go all the way under the first time he did it. They also got confirmed on Sunday, and are now on the journey. Nestor and Mercedes- During the interview, I was in another area, but apparently he decided that he doesn’t know if he wants to marry her yet, so now we need to keep working with them to see what we can do there. I went to Asunción with one of the Zone Leaders, and there I got to take my package back, everything was in good shape, they didn’t throw it in water or anything this time. Thank you for sending that…. I forgot how good beef jerky and those peanuts are because they have nothing like it here. Well the changes are coming up this Wednesday, and we´ll know by tonight what is going to happen for sure. I already know that I am going to stay in Acahay, and my comp is going. Last night at like 930 the president called and talked with my companion. He is going as a zone leader, but we don’t know where or anything. That means I know I am going to stay here in this area, so now it will just be a matter of who I’m going to be with. We had a good week overall. We taught a lot of lessons, but the only problem is that we didn’t end the week with a baptismal date. We had one investigator come to church, but we just have to be able to talk to a couple of the investigators a little bit more to see what’s going on with them. We have a lot of potential still in the area, now I just have to take control of the area since my comp is leaving. Also I got some more music with a pen drive that I bought, so don’t worry about sending more music, I think I have enough now. I would still like if you could send me more pictures of the family, but you could do that by a letter or something like that. Thanks for everything. I am always praying for you. Thank you for your love and support. Elder Ryan Griffin

The Lord's blessings

Hola Familia, Well this has been a good week. This coming week is the last week of the change. So that you know, now we have p-day the Monday before the changes instead of the Thursday, so I will be writing you in a week, not in 10 days. We had 4 people that came to church this week again. The 4 that came all have a baptismal date for this Saturday. There are still a couple things that they have to do first, but we should have a baptism of 2 families this Saturday. We are really excited and literally seeing miracles here. These are the people we are currently teaching: Nestor and Mercedes: They were the ones I told you about that he was having problems with drinking. One day we talked with him at a member’s house. He told us that he wasn’t going to be able to attend church for like 5 Sundays at least due to his work. We were kind of frustrated because he has a date, and it was going to fall. We were kind of overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. We decided to teach him the W.O.W, and the Sabbath Day. We started with the latter, and he got kind of defensive at first. At that point I felt like the rest of the lesson was literally taught by the spirit through me. I asked him if he believed that God could do miracles. He said yes. I asked him if he believes that God can do miracles in our day and age. Again he said yes. I then testified to him that God can do miracles, and not only that, but that he can do them in the life of Nestor, that if he is willing to obey the commandments, God WILL bless him. I then read 1 Nephi 3:7, and pointed out that Nephi didn’t just say I will go and try… but that he said I Will go and DO. We testified that we have to have that trust in the Lord that he will help us keep his commandments. It was probably one of the most spiritual lessons I have had yet. Now he has completely stopped drinking, and he went to church on Sunday. We saw a change so big in him after that lesson. I really know that the Lord spoke to him through us. That he taught him exactly what he needed to know. I feel so blessed to have been the tool through which God blessed the life of someone. They are going to be married on Friday, and Baptized on Saturday. I now know that he has been converted, he shared his testimony with us, and he said he now knows this is the true church, and is willing to do whatever it is that the Lord tells him. Roberto and Brigida: Well Roberto is doing really well, and will be a great help to the branch here. Brigida however, was having some reason that she didn’t want to get baptized. She was being kind of weird, and we didn’t know what was going on. We decided to split them up, and talk to them separate. Apparently she has just felt left out because I talked to Roberto, and my companion to her, and she opened up and decided that she also will be baptized if it’s not too cold on Saturday. Santo and Graciela: They didn’t come to church this Sunday because Santo did something to his leg in his work. He hit it with something a couple days ago, and on Saturday he did it again. He was bed ridden, and so he couldn’t come to church, but told us he will do everything he can to come next week. We gave him a blessing of the sick, and told them we will be passing by to see how they are doing. They will be getting baptized soon as well, just a matter of time at this point. So as you can see the Lord has blessed us lots in the work here. We are finding new people to baptize, and we are finding lots of families. All the families I baptize before June 23, I can enter into the temple with them when they get sealed as a family. If I baptize any families in between June 23 and July 23, I can extend my mission a month to be able to go with them as well. We are seeing some improvement in the branch here, and as we are finding more men, we are seeing it as that we are baptizing the future bishop of the ward here. I love you all, and I am so thankful for you and all you do. I am so thankful after seeing how many fathers here are drunks, and cheat on their wives, that I have a father that has been a great example to me. I will forever be thankful for all that you have taught me, and the examples that you have been for me. Love you tons! Elder Griffin