No storehouse, no activity

Well I forgot last week, so better late than never, Happy brithday Dad! I hope you had a fantastic birthday. Well this week has been good. Our baptismal date that we had for the end of this week fell. They faced some problems that we are trying to help them overcome. I don't think I have ever seen an investigator that hasn't had some kind of problem that comes up, so it is just something normal at this point. We had about 10 or so people that were supposed to come to church this last Sunday. Only 2 of them ended up coming. We have one family that has a baptismal date for the 18 of June, and another for the 11 of June. We are working hard with a lot of the families that we have found, and trying to strengthen the branch here. Last week we figured out that a lot of the members had left church when they figured out that the president wasn't going to come, because they had only come to church for the storehouse. I felt disappointed to know that we had people coming just for that. Also there are a lot of people in the branch that are living in sin, and not changing. Needless to say, my companion and I did our job of calling the people to repentance on Sunday. I talked about the importance of the Sacrament, and that we need to be coming to church for the right reasons, instead of mocking the sacrifice of our savior. Then my companion talked out of Alma 5, about repentance. Anyway, we dropped the cane on the people a little bit, but for the most part the people said they had learned a lot from our talks, which is what we wanted. We had a zone conference on Friday in Asunción. I learned a ton from the conference, and feel like there are still a lot of things that I need to start doing better. We listened to a talk that Jeffrey R. Holland had given in the MTC that was very direct, and made me think a lot. It's amazing that the better I become, and more I know, the more I realize that I need to better. I really have seen such a giant change in myself in the time I have in the mission. The harder I work, the more god blesses me. It is literally impossible to repay God for everything he does. I am so grateful to be in the mission in a period of so much learning in my life. It makes me want to work as hard as possible to at least do the best I can to repay the Savior for all he has done for me. We are having good success here, and are seeing the hand of the lord in the work. There are things we are trying to do better so that we can start seeing more success. I know that there is a lot more success that we could be seeing in our area, if we do all of our part. Today I have 11 months in the mission. I can't believe how fast it's all passing by. Well, maybe not as much for you guys, but for me it has al flown by. I can't belive that I almost have a year in the mission, I still feel like I just started the mission a couple weeks ago. Well I hope everything goes well in this week. I Love you guys, and am so thankful to have such great parents. Hasta Luego. Jajatapota, Elder Ryan Griffin