The monster returns

Well this has been an interesting Thanksgiving weekend for my companion and I. We were planning on buying a Chicken to be able to celebrate the holiday a little bit, and maybe do some mashed potatoes or something. On Wednesday, however, we ended up feeling a little sick after our lunch appointment. On Thursday, we both woke up with pretty bad stomach aches, and head pains. We both got hit with some kind of bug, and so the monster (the Diarriah) returned. We both had pretty bad diarriah and headaches and everything from Wednesday until Sunday. It just so happened that Thursday (Thanksgiving) was the day we felt the worst. We ended up having to change our dinner plans a tad bit, and ended up eating rice with some eggs...... not the best Thanksgiving dinner ever.

On Thursday while sitting there eating bland rice with eggs, I really started thinking about Thanksgiving. I realized that I was in another country, away from the family, and eating quite frankly the worst thanksgiving dinner I had eaten. Regardless of all of that, I realized that this thanksgiving I have more to be thankful for than any other thanksgiving I have passed. The holidays really aren't all about all the food, or about presents, or about the turkeys, the christmas trees, the ornaments and all that..... It's about really reflecting on our lives, and the life of Christ. My whole life, I have always been more focused on the food, the presents, and all that with the holidays, and I guess it really took me being in the most humble circumstances to really come to realize the blessings that I have in my life. It helped me really see just how blessed I really am to have the gospel in my life.

 

This week was a pretty tough one due to the sicknesses of my companion and I, and also the fact that it was one of the hottest weeks we've had in the year so far.   Tyler and Kiplin sent me a letter with a talk attached named "but if not." I realized that one of the problems I have had in my mission is the pure unconditional trust in the lord. With supposedly increasing my faith a little, and working harder, I thought I had faith that no matter what, we would see miracles. When that didn't happen, quite frankly it discouraged my faith, and shook my hope of seeing miracles. My problem I have had, is that I didn't have the unconditional trust. I told the Lord I would work as hard as I could, and trust that he would give us miracles. All along what I should have said, is that I would work as hard as I could, and trust that he would give us miracles, BUT IF NOT, then I will keep working as hard as I can, and trust in him. The mission really has helped me in so many ways to be able to really understand the faith and trust. Before the mission, I always viewed it as simply believing somehthing that you can't see. Little did I know that is just the "milk" of the doctrine. Faith and trust is really to just throw my own will out the window, and conform my wants, my wishes, and desires to be those of the Lord. The trials that I pass every hour, every day and week and month of the mission serves for my growth and understanding. I am so thankful for my trials. I know that without the trials I have had in my mission, I would not be who I am now. I also know the Lord still has so much more to teach me as a missionary, and I am excited to learn it all.

 

This week we didn't have any investigators come to church, we only had about 25 members there. We are starting to see a lot of potential baptisms that are coming from our work with the members now...... maybe we will start seeing the miracles now, but if not..... well you already know. We have been working really hard to gain the confidence of the members, due to the fact that there have been a long line of disobedient missionaries that have been here, and so we have been having to build everything up from zero.

 

We have changes this Wednesday, and I'm not sure if we will be changed or not, but I do have the surety that if I leave here, than I have at least done everything I can to leave this little branch of the world better off than when I found it. We have had a really hard time changing the traditions of the members here due to the past missionaries, and have even had some members that get offended by us. We are really making an effort to be 100 percent obedient, and we have gotten to a point now where they are starting to understand a little better.

 

Well that's about all that is new this week..... we are feeling better with the stomachs now, although they still aren't up to 100 percent yet. I love you guys, and hope all is well back home. Thank you all for everything and my prayers are always with you. Love ya all tons!!!!

 

Elder Ryan Griffin

Following the Spirit

Well this week has been a week of, well a week of work. Missionary work really is one of the most exhauting, but most rewarding. This week has been a mix between the two.

On Tuesday I did divisions with another companionship in the district, it went pretty well, there were some things they were struggling with, and so I talked to them about that, but the divisions were helpful I think. During the divisions my throat started hurting a little bit.

On Thursday, we had a zone conference with President Callan. It was a really good conference, like all, and I feel like I learned a lot from president about some more things we can try, to see more success in our area. On the same day, later in the day, we had a lesson with a woman named Lina, and her son-in-law. They are a pretty poor family, we have been teaching Lina for a couple of weeks now, and she has attended church once so far. They have a ton of chickens running all over, a couple of dogs, and even a pet monkey in a cage, that has temper tantrums sometimes. On Thursday, we went there to have a lesson with them, and I felt like we should teach lesson 1. She had been taught by other messionaries before, so I thought to myself that it wasn't necesary. Then I felt the impression to teach lesson 1 again, so I conceded, and we started up lesson 1. We got really deep into some of the doctrine, and it was really spiritual, we went over prophets, and it helped a lot for them to understand the importance of the true church, instead of just whatever church talks about God. With the life of Jesus, and the apostacy, I think it really hit their needs, and their doubts they were having. Then we got to the restauration. I said the first vision, and then after it took a while for something to come, so it was just silent for a moment. Then finally the words started coming out, and I bore my testimony and felt the spirit guiding it stronger than at any other time. The spirit just completely took over the lesson, and it really just hit home to their needs. Lina said she was feeling the spirit really strongly, and committed to read and pray that night. It was one of the most spiritually edifying lessons I have been a part of. It is amazing to me how beautifully the words and scriptures, and testimony go together when they are guided by the spirit. The spirit really is a perfect teacher, obviously that's why we have to teach by it. It also is really cool seeing how it hits right at their doubts and concerns as investigators when the spirit is the one teaching.

 

The next day we went back, and she had prayed and read, and knows that it is true. Unfortunately she couldn't attend church due to her daughter having a baby on Sunday.

 

On one of the days of the week I don't remember which, a man with a machete, and a plastic grocery bag came up to us. We got kind of nervous, seeing as he had a machete, and he told us that he had been working all day, and that the lady didn't pay him, and that he had nothing to eat. He seemed really sincere, and we felt bad for him (and he had a machete) and so we gave him a 10 mil guarani (2-3 dollars). He took it and we walked off..... close call.

 

We have been finishing the thank you letters to the members this week, we have already written them all, now we are just trying to get them in their houses without them noticing. A lot of them have thanked us for the letters. I think it is helping them have a better relationship with us, so if nothing else it makes them feel good about themselves. It makes us feel pretty good to be serving them as well.

On Saturday we did a service with Emmanuel, one of the members, we cemented in some rocks in front of his house for a walk-way. It didn't turn out all that well, but we aren't exactly experienced with rock laying, it's tricky stuff.

On Sunday, we had a stake conference with Elder Foster from the 70. President Callan, and the temple president were also their, and it was a pretty good conference, their weren't as many people their as we would have liked, but it wasn't too bad of a turn out. They talked a lot about the importance of families, and it was really spiritual. I feel like I learned a lot from it. There was a youth choir that sang in it, and it was pretty bad, and off tune, but other than that the conference was pretty good.

This week we started a "game" to help us do better with the contacts. We came up with certain ways of contacting related with a certain sport (for example: volleyball; first elder does the warm up of the contact(bump), the other one does the contact part(set), and then the first one bears their testimony(spike)). Every time right before we do the contact, we say a certain sport, and then follow the contact (yes, we are that bored). One of the days, I said volleyball, and started the contact, then my companion found out his information, and then I bore my testimony. At the end he gave us both little candies..... best contact ever! Believe it or not, it has actually helped us to have more variety in our contacts, and helps us follow the spirit more on them. We also play golf(if someone passes, without contacting them, on your side, you get a point) all day. We sometimes have to come up with things like that to help us focus more on doing it.

 

Also on Sunday, I lost my voice due to something in my throat. In the morning I couldn't say anything, and later in the day, I could say a little bit. My companion had to guide everything during the day, so that was pretty funny. It was actually awkward in some situations, because he would just sit their waiting, and since I could hardly say anything, I had to do the same..... lets just say we had a lot of awkward silences. It was fun sounding like a 14 year old boy again though with my voice.

 

Right now we are having a pretty big rain storm.... it's cooling things down a bit. The heat has started climbing up there this week though. It's nice when it rains, because it helps with that.

Changes are coming up this next Sunday, in about 10 days. There are a 18 more elders that go home.

Love you guys tons, and hope that everything is going well with you. Hope to hear from you next week......

 

Love,

Elder Griffin

Thank you members!

Well this week we had the baptism of Liz Paola Portillo. We had the baptismal service on Saturday, and it was incredibly spiritual. She bore her testimony after the baptism, and the spirit was really strong there. Then her uncle (who we reactivated about 2 months ago) got up and shared his testimony for the first time in 3 years. It was incredibly spiritual as well. Most of the people present in the service were teared up at least a little bit. Yesterday she was confirmed a member of the church, and is going strong now.

On Sunday it rained pretty much all the day. It's still raining as of right now as well. We didn't have any investigators in the meeting unfortunately due to the rain and some other problems we had during the week. This week we have been working a lot with the members. We are trying to build up their confidence in us, and get to know them a little better. We decided to write them some thank-you letters and hide them in their houses, to help them know we love them. We have done it with 5 of the families so far, and they all thanked us for the letters. We are hoping that will help to have better relashionships with them. We are working really hard to try and help them get excited to do the missionary work, and as of right now we aren't seeing any immediate results, but I know in the long-run it is going to help out a lot.

We also went looking for some of the less active members in our area this week..... that was fun. One of the ladies we found just started yelling at us right when we got to the door, and was yelling for probably 5 minutes straight about different stuff, we left empty handed their. Another one told us that they weren't part of this church anymore and asked us to take them off the list. Well needless to say, we didn't have the greatest reception as of yet, but we are going to keep looking and see what happens.

I did divisions with one of the companionships this week, and that was really good. It's kind of weird having to be the example for other missionaries, because then I'm always worried if I am doing everything right or not. It was a good teaching/learning experience though.

We were talking to Christian, the one I baptized when I got here to this area. He told us that he is planning on serving a mission when he turns 19. He also said that he is in 2nd nephi 15 in the Book of Mormon. He is progressing really well, and is a strong convert. 
Well other than that, we did a deep cleaning of the house this morning, and that's about the gist of this week. Oh, also we have a zone conference on Thursday, that should be really good.

Love you guys tons, and hope all is well.

Elder Ryan Griffin

Pushing past exhaustion

Hola querida familia,

 

Well this week has gone pretty well. On tuesday I did divisions with one of the companionships in the area. I went to Libertad with Elder Bowers, and Elder Rodgers stayed in our area with a brand new elder. I got to do the interviews with the Quiñones family. They are 4 in total, the parents, a daughter of 13, and a son of 8. The first interview was with the father, and was really spiritual. I felt the spirit so strongly the entire time, and so that was really cool. We had a really good conversation about some gospel themes, and then finished it up. Then I interviewed the son, and that was just a quick interview. Then the daughter was really nervous, but I just lightened up the situation, and then it was really spiritual as well. Then the mom was really nervous as well, but her interview turned out really well also. I love doing the interviews, because I feel so much love towards these people who I only talk to for like 30 minutes, and feel the spirit so strongly throughout.

 

Also in the interchanges, we went to the house of an evangelical guy that knows a bunch of stuff about the church, and basically just likes to argue. Elder Bowers told him that I had more time and experience, and that I could answer all of his questions. So then he started his attacks right off the bat. It basically turned into a bible bash, because that's what he wanted, and so I gave in. Every time I would prove him wrong on a point, he would just change subjects. Finally I just put away the Bible, and bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon. He then proceeded to throw out all this supposed "scientifical evidence" that the Book of Mormon was false. I simply told him, well quite honestly I couldn't care less if all the scientifical evidence in the world proves that the Book of Mormon is false, because I have an undeniable spiritual witness that it is true, and there is no way I could ever deny that. Well needless to say, he changes subjects again and started attacking the church.  I just told him that the contention is of the devil, and that we weren't there to argue. He kept on going, so I shook his hand, and we left him there yelling things at us.

On Thursday, we did divisions with the Zone Leaders to do our interview for Paola (14). I went with Elder Merrill in Kary Rory and my companion stayed here again. She passed the interview and was all good. Unfortunately nature was not on our side this week. The day before, she started having her.... feminine problems.... Well needless to say we had to postpone the baptism for this coming Saturday.

On Sunday we had 4 investigators in the meeting, which was really good. We also started picking up our lessons with members, and some of the other indicators. We have been working so hard for so many weeks now, and we are praying that it will be paying off now. We have people with bap. dates for the next three weeks, so if we keep it up, we can actually start baptizing every week. We are praying with everything that we can accomplish that. We are already about half way through this change, so in 3 weeks there's a good chance that we will have a change. I don't know if I will go or if my companion will go.

 

The elders that had the family that was baptized also got robbed on sunday night. They were walking along, and apparently some random guy just came up to them with a machete, and robbed them. They just threw the cell phone, and ran, so they didn't get hurt or anything..... but now they are phone-less.

 

We are really working with the members now to get them more excited for missionary work and get them more involved. We have a plan of 10 families who we are working with to get a reference every month from them. If we can do it well, we should start seeing a lot more success in our area. We are thinking of more and more things that we can do bettter so that we can see more and more success as missionaries. It sure doesn't come easily though.

After 8 full weeks of hard work, and mental exhaution, we are now finally seeing the fruits of our work starting to appear. I feel really good about our efforts with these weeks, I think I have suffered more frustration and exhaution in these 8 weeks than I thought I could possibly bear. It is amazing to see how well the Lord knows us personally and gives us such trials as to help us push ourselves to the very limit of our strength so that we can become that much stronger. Our personal progression is like a muscle, it needs that maximum resistence to be able to reach it's potential. If we don't reach that top resistance, than God knows we can never reach our true potential. I remember that when I started lifting a little in college with Michael, I was even more skinny and quite frankly weak. I would get to a point with the lifts (bench press or others) in which my body would tell me to stop. My natural response was always to try and put the weights back. Michael, knowing the need for more resistence to stimulate the growth, would always push it back, and tell me to do one more. I would do the one more, and at that point I was always passed my usual point of exhaustion. Then once again I would attempt to put the weights back, adn once again Michael would tell me to push out one more. at that point I would usually say, I can't do one more, I'm already passed the point of exhaustion. But he wouldn't let me put it back. Whenever I would go and do that very last one, even after the exhaustion, I could never get the weights all the way back up by myself, but he would let me sit there and struggle a little bit with it before reaching out and lifting the rest. I've come to realize how similar that experience is in the real life. I think god understands this need for stimulation of growth. He pushes us to that very last limit, and even lets us sit there and struggles sometimes to try and get it back up. He also always reaches out eventually to lift the rest. I now am understanding the great need for trials in our life. I have been praying a lot to my father in heaven that I can reach my true potencial as a missionary, and well I guess he knew the only way I could start getting there was a trial to the very limits of my strength.

 

I am so greatful for my father in heaven, and the great blessings and the great trials that he gives me. I know that he always knows what's best for me, and the best thing I can do is trust in him, and keep going.

 

Love you,

 

Elder Ryan Griffin

Well this week has been another tough one, but we have seen many blessings as well. I guess just about every week in the mission is tough, but I think a big part that wears on me a lot is training and being District Leader at the same time. We have one person that is going to be baptized this week, which is awesome! Her name is Paola, she is 14 years old, and is the grand-daughter of a member in the ward. She is progressing really well, and is reading and praying. She already has had her answer that it is the true church and everything. The baptism will be on Saturday.

 

I am really excited that we finally have a baptism, and I know we still need to keep up our efforts because we really want, and quite frankly need to be seeing more like one baptism a week, instead of 1 in a change or so. We are still thinking of more and more things that we can do better in our daily work so that we can see more success as a companionship. I feel like we are working really hard and doing everything we can, but there is still something lacking to really start seeing more miracles. Our problem right now is that the only one that attended church this week was Paola, so after her baptism, we are starting back at almost zero. We are just going to keep on putting forth the effort and working our hardest to see that success.

 

This week we were teaching a man, who is a little bit strange. I wanted to use an example for explaining the prophets, and the need for having one. I asked him, "so can you see God?" I was expecting an automatic no, but instead he replied yes. I asked him, "OK, well yeah we all talk with God through prayers, but I am talking about God himself, have you ever seen face to face?" Again he replied, yes. Then my companion started smiling and tried to do the nose itch to cover it up, which then caused me to smile. He asked us what we were laughing about, and so I told him, well we didn't expect you to tell us that you had seen God. He then told us that he really hadn't SEEN god, but that he always imagines him when he prays. ;)

 

Today we had a district activity, we played some basketball and soccer, which was really fun. We also bought some watermelons, and we cut the tops off, ate the fruit part, and then used them to carve some Paraguayan Pumpkins. It isn't quite as good as the good old fashioned American pumpkin, but it worked pretty well, and it was fun to kind of be able to do something for Halloween. It was really nice as well to be able to play a little bit of soccer since I haven't played for like 10 months now.

We also had the primary program this Sunday. The best part was that they told us that we have really good voices and asked us to sing with them to help them sing louder and all. So of course we did so, and it was really pretty funny, because we were just towering over all of them. Also right before the meeting started, they asked us to do a special number of singing. We had 5 minutes to hurry and practice singing "I love to see the Temple," and then we sang it at the end. It was pretty good.

 

Well other than that, we are at a point in our area, that everything could start going really well, and second now once God is ready we shoudl be seeing some pretty big miracles. I guess it's all literally in the hands of God now, all we can do is keep working and trying to do better every time. I definitely need to keep learning to pray with more faith, I think that will be something that will help.

 

Well, love you guys tons, and I hope you have a very happy Halloween. Until next week....

 

Elder Griffin

Tough week

Well sure enough, this was another tough week. I guess I have faced so much rejection and trials that we have just kind of lost our enthusiasm for the work. I have been thinking a lot of how one can maintain the enthusiasm during trials and hard times, because especially here where it is so hot, sometimes it is hard enough even to be outside, yet alone happy and enthusiastic. I feel like this week we worked as hard as we could physically, but mentally I have just been kind of distracted this week, and haven't really been as focused as I would like on the investigators and other people.

I guess I have really been being tried on my patience, in this last change and this last week. I expected that if we increased our faith, and worked even harder, that we would be able to see miracles. Honestly we stepped up the quality and quantity of our work, and yet I am having a harder time in the mission right now than I think I have had in any other area. I have been pretty impatient with the Lord.... and even kind of gotten to the point of frustration in this week. We have been finding and teaching great people, but something is always happening that causes us not to be able to keep teaching them. It has been really hard for me, because with the other stuff of being DL, and having a new companion that I have to train, I frankly feel alone a lot of the time. I feel like I am just out here having to do everything by myself, and I guess that right there has been the problem. I can't do it by myself. I think among all the other things that I am lacking right now, a big part would be more trust in God. I am in a situation that I can't handle with my own strength and efforts, and so I have to turn more to the Lord.

We do have one investigator that is progressing really well, and went to church for the second time this sunday, and is going to be baptized the 5th of November. I am so thankful that God has blessed us with at least one investigator that is progressing, but I can't help but feel we can be doing a lot better than that.

We also had changes this week, my companion and I both stayed. The other three companionships in the district all had changes. Now our district is really young. In Ettiene there are Elder Tilleman (2 changes) and Elder Grisham (3 changes), In Libertad 1.1 Elder Enriquez (1 change), and Elder Lamb (3 changes), in Libertad 1.2, Elder Bowers (5 changes), and Elder Coggins (0 changes/new), and then us in Las Residentas, Elder Rodgers (now 1 change), and I (now with 10 changes). Well basically all besides Elder Bowers, I have the same amount of changes as the rest of my district..... combined. I fell old in the mission now, even though I only have 1 year and 4 months now. It is crazy, because now the mission is really young, all the past 4 changes, there have been about half the mission changed out. Now I am in the older 1/4 of the mission.

Well that's about all for this week, Love you guys tons, and hope that all is well.

eLdEr GriFFin

Sunday is the best day

Hola familia, ¿Cómo están?

This week was really good.

On Tuesday, a sister that cooks for us, cooked us cow tongue (at my request) to try for lunch. Yes I can now say I have eaten the tongue of a cow..... It actually wasn't all that bad, it tasted like just about any other meat that comes from a cow, the only difference is that it is the tongue. I think it was weird eating it still just because of the thought that I was eating a tongue, and the texture was a bit weird, but overall, something I think I could handle eating more.

There is a crazy clown-looking man that is in our area. A couple weeks ago, he saw us and came up to us really excited to shake our hands, but he looks like something is off, and so we shook his hand and kept walking. This week we were walking in that area again, and we looked up and low and behold, the same guy was walking towards us. When he saw us, he just got a creepy smile on his face and stopped walking to wait for us to get to him. We changed our path and started walking to the right and barely avoided him, but I was slightly creeped out.

On Friday we tried another interesting part of the cow (also by my request). This time it was the stomach. They eat it here like a delicacy, and it is called "Mondongo." the lady gave us both a full plate of Mondongo stew, and well lets just say it wasn't as good as the tongue. It is a really weird texture and has the little hair like things on it (I forgot what they are called...) My companion couldn't eat it, so I told the hermana that he couldn't, so she ate his, but I was stuck with finishing my whole plate. Well, at least now I can say I have eaten the stomach, the tongue, and the foot of a cow.

One of the days we clapped a house, and an older American lady came out. We started talking to her, and turns out she is from Chicago, and is living in Paraguay (Why? I have no idea). Anyway, she is from a religion called Baha'i. It is quite different what they believe, something like that all religions are of God, but their religion is the newest religion that God has made.... Something like that. She was kind of like a hippie or something, I am not really quite sure.

This week we prepared to do a special musical number in the Sacrament Meeting (by our own choice[Never thought I would be doing that]). We prepared "Nearer my God to thee" with some changes, and some other stuff. On Sunday I gave a talk about missionary work, which was pretty good. Then a member (Roberto) who is leaving on his mission this week to Dominican Republic gave a talk as well. After that we went up and did the musical number. I started off the first two lines with a solo (with some changes in the notes), then my comp came in humming the harmony. The second verse, I sang the higher tenor part (Yeah, I didn't know I could do that either) for the first two lines, then hummed the harmony the second two lines. On the last verse we started out quiet both singing the normal part, then getting louder to the second line, then on the third line at top volume I switched to the harmony, and then we got quieter and finished off the song. Surprisingly I actually came up with most of that stuff, and turns out I don't sing as bad as I thought. Anyway, by the end of the song, we had basically the whole congregation crying..... that was a surprise. The branch president then got up to give his talk, and took a while to regain himself, and gave a fantastic talk. It was probably one of the most spiritual Sacrament meetings I have been in. It was really awesome to be an "instrument"(double meaning there) in the hands of God to bring the spirit so strongly into a meeting. On top of that, we had 4 investigators in the meeting, and they were able to feel the spirit like that. After the meeting, almost everyone came up and told us how great the song was, and how much they felt the spirit. They want us to prepare and do another song now. ;)

After the meeting, we went to the house of Roberto (the one who is leaving on the mission) and taught his girlfriend and sister (nonmembers) who were at the meeting. They said they felt the spirit really strong, and that they felt like it is true. We left them with Books of Mormon, and they live in another area, so we are going to have to pass the reference, but they are pretty much a sure baptism now. During the lesson they both were crying.

We then went to another investigator, that is the grand-daughter of a member, and she also attended the meeting. She also felt the spirit really strong, and committed to come to church again next week, and to be baptized the 5th of November. We had a really good lesson with her and the grandma, and her son.

We then were walking to go back home and study, when a woman called us over. Turns out the missionaries had taught her before, she had attended church before, but hasn't felt the need to be baptized yet. She accepted an invitation for us to come back again and teach her more.

Then walking back towards out house to study, we walked passed a family that was sitting outside their house. I was thinking we needed to go study, so I just said to myself that we didn't have time to stop and talk to them. Well, turns out the spirit thought differently. After passing them, I had an impression to stop and go back. I thought to myself, "well that will be awkward to go back, since they just saw us. We will just go back a different day." Well again the spirit gave me the impression that we needed to go back now, so I slowed down and came to a stop. My companion asked me what happened, and I told him "We need to go teach that family." We went back and talked to them in the gate, they accepted us in their house, and we taught them a great lesson. We taught just the mom and the dad, but they have 3 children (11,9, and 4 months).

Overall, we saw a lot of miracles (Especially on Sunday) in this week. It was really cool to finally see all of our work and trials paying off. I'm sure we will still have trials, and hardships, but at least it helped me realize that God is there, and knows our needs. "I feel my Saviors love, in all the world around me."

~Elder Griffin