14 September

Well howdy howdy….
I gotta get right into this because i have a lot to do with not much time… and that it was a good week so lets go!
So this week was a week filled with meetings…. like a lot of meetings… we didnd´t have much time in our sector this week, but despite all of the time that was taken due to multi -zones, leadership meetings from the mission, and meeting in the stake, we taught more this week then we have all change.
So i bet you all remember Juan… he is still doing well but still doesn´t feel ready to be baptised… but last this week we talked with his grandson who is very interested. We were with him teaching his mom when he just came out and said, “mom i am thinking about being baptised, and just want to see one more sign to do it” So when he said that, we kind of pulled an alma (see Alma 32:5-6 for the joke haha). But yeah, he has come to church a bunch of times and is super ready… we invited him to be baptised this Saturday… so we are going to go by everyday so that he gets his little sign…..
So this is just a fun little thing… we have been struggling with ward activities… so we decided to take action…. There is a workout program called insanity… and we have been doing it in the mornings… we heard of another ward that did an insanity night with the ward and it turned out very well…. so we dicided to do it as well…. and it had a great turn out! We played with the pride of everybody… when we invited them to the activity, we told t hem that they wouldn´t be able to do it… and the young people, being young people, took it very personally and they came with a desire to beat me and my companion…. but they didn´t… the program was 37 minutes…. i was the last man standing… the rest were done after 15-20 minutes when they started begging for mercy… i won´t lie, it felt kinda good to see them suffer.
And the closer this week was probably the biggest miracle of my mission…. Yanina was endowed!!!!! You all probably remember that she was going to be endowed like 2 months ago, but because of lack of organization from the ward and stake… she wasn´t going to be able to go to the temple until the 26… three days too late…. But on Friday we had a leadership meeting with all of the zone leaders… where the zone leaders from her stake, told me that the very next day, she was going to the temple…. so i immediatly talked with Pres Larson and the Assistents. It was a little scary because at first the AP´s where saying that president is a lot stricter with that rule now… but i talked with him anyway… And he said that because i am ending the mission, he had no problem if i went…. so yeah… saturday was the best day ever!!! i was able to go to the temple and go through with my convert so that she could be endowed…. i can´t explain that feeling… it was awesome…. it is something that i cannot and will never forget…. it was a really awesome boost for the last part of the mish. She was so happy there and it was amazing to see that she understands the gospel, that it is a process and that she put her goal in sight, and got it done! and i am so glad that i could go, it was an answer to a lot of my prayers…..

So we will now do the trunky buisness… i don´t know if you have been informed of my flight plans… so on wednesday the 23rd i leave lima at 1:10am (peruvian time) on the Delta Air lines DL 150 to georgia. Then from there i get on the Delta Air lines DL 1802 to Utah and i should arrive at 12:52 PM (peruvian time)…. that is all for the trunky buisness….

Los amo,
-Elder Griffin

7 September

Well hello hello everybody!!
I`m so grateful for you`re letters!
This week has been a great week, we saw a lot of really cool little miracles that have really helped us be excited to work.
First off with Juan, he is doing very well. We have had a couple of lessons with him and he came to church yesterday for like the 5th time. He really seems happy in the church and he says that he hopes to be part of the church someday. The problem that we have with him is he feels like he needs to wait a long time to be sure and to have a stronger testimony. We tried really hard to help him realize that it really isn´t his knowledge level but rather his desire that counts, we read acts 8 with him where steven baptises the eunic after a 20 minute discussion. But even with all of that, he feels like he needs more time. I think what he needs more than anything is to pray and ask God when he should be baptised. I feel like he likes the church and feels like it`s a good thing, but he hasn`t had the spiritual expirience that gives him that desire, and makes him recognize the answer or “sign” that he wants. So i think we are giong to try and teach him and help him pray.
We also had an amazing expirience with Jesus, the investigator haha. His back story is kinda long but here we go. Years ago he and his family lived in the jungle of peru. But then his parents got divorced and his dad moved to lima and his mom, his brother brian, and Jesus, stayed in the jungle. While the were in the jungle, the all got baptised as Jehovas Witnesses. Meanwhile in Lima, their dad got remarried and had like 4 more kids and then the all got baptised in the LDS church. Years later, Brian and Jesus moved to Lima. They have now been here for years obviously with a lot of contact with the church from their family and from the missionaries that have constantly passed by, but they never had the desire to be baptised and ofter became contentious with the Elders. But little by little, Jesus has been forming a testimony of the LDS church, he goes to church all the time, he participates in all the youth activities. We have been working with them a lot, and this last week we had a lesson with Jesus, and we were talking about baptism and the holy ghost, and he then told us that he wants to be baptised!! I think that was one of the biggest miracles that i have seen this week and maybe on the mission… i almost jumped out of my chair and hugged him… and i would have had he accepted a baptismal date… the problem is is that when he moved to lima, his mom had him promise that he would stay faithful to the other church… and now he feels really bad that he want to change his faith because he feels like he is failing his mother…. He is now looking to try and find the way to talk to her without letting her down or making her upset. We are praying very hard for Jesus… if he wanted to he could be baptised tomorrow, he has come to church so many times and has recieved the lessons hundreds of times… he just has to pass this last mountain….
So now a funny story. We had gone to meet with a family of recient converts and reactivateds…. it happened to be at the time that peru was playing the states…. when we walked in it was 1 and 1…. as soon as i got in, they all started telling me “we are going to beat you… you are going to lose” and all sorts of stuff. And i am not kidding, i looked over at the TV (only for one second) just in time to see the USA put in the second goal… they all got really quite…. We then had a nice lesson about the 13 articles of faith and it was very lovely…. after the lesson, i told them to check the score, one of them came and said that we had tied… so i left a little depressed… it wasn´t until i got to church that the young men informed me that we won!!! So i was made fun of and then lied too…. but it was all in good fun, and i am very excited to go and see them again to give them a hard time….

DAD- so taysom hill is out again?? This kid is accident prone!!! But how does BYU look this year? I feel like i am staying focused… but day by day it gets a little harder… but i feel like i am doing a good job at fending it off, sometimes it just gets hard because all of the missionaries always bring it up and there are just a lot of reminders… but i am still working and i know that i gotta finish strong so whatever haha.
MOM- I would agree about the signs… When elder Bednar came, he mentioned that very thing… he also said that the Lord only sends signs and Angels when people are very bad people…. look at Alma and Paul… the were some of the worst people ever, God was going to kill them if they didn´t repent, so if we need a sign or angel… we are not in a good situation…. we just gotta help him get over that haha…. It sounds like it was a very beautiful funeral service, i hope they are doing better….
ERIC- Tengo una pregunta, cuanto es el sueldo con Botts?

Los amo un montón
-Elder Griffin

31 August

Well hello hello!
Glad to hear that everything is going good back home!
Well i think we´ll get right into it then… firt off, the conference that we had with Elder Bednar. Holy cow… it was awesome!! i really love the conferences that go down in the mission. When general authorities come, the hardly ever come with just a talk to give, but they always have very interactive conferences. The conference lasted like 3 hours, i think he had an idea of where he wanted it to go, but at the same time, it was very guided by what we said. I think one of the reasons he did it was to demonstrate how we should teach, because all though he had a couple of moments where he talked for a while, we did most of the talking, and he just guided the conversation. It was very spiritually lifting. He talked a lot about conversion and how we need to help the people become truly converted to the gospel and not to the missionarys. He said that what we need to focus on is help the peole learn how to get their own answers, how to live independantly in the gospel… it was really awesome because he talked a lot about personal conversion to, how we need to apply all the things that we learn in the mission in our live after the mission so that we remain truly converted and how important it is that we are also truly converted to the gospel. All i can really say is that it was amazing!!!
On thursday, we did a service project with the Elders that share a ward with us. It was a very different expirience then we had expected. Wednesday night, the Elder called us and said “We just need a little help real quick to fix her roof a little bit” So we said yeah we´ll help… but the job turned out to be way bigger then we planned. When we got there, the sister said “alright, take the roof off!” and we were like huh? So we spent the next hour taking the roof off of her house… then she said “ok, i´m gonna call the architect now….” so she went and called some crazy old dude, who i am sure never study architecture because he just gave us really obvious orders and made things more difficult then they needed to be…. but we worked for like 3 more hours and wee replaced the roof and it is all good now haha….
So Juan is progressing really well, he has gone to church 4 week in a row! An the lesson that we have with him are really great! he accepts everything and already has a testimony that the book iof mormon is true. His prayers are really great as well, the other day he actually said “please Father, i want to enter the church as soon as possible, please let me know when it is my time”. So he has a real desire to be baptised, the problem is, is that he wants to wait until God says it´s time, and he doesn´t feel comfortable asking God about his time, he just wants God to sent him a sign when it is the time… but other then that he is really progressing.
So all that work with Evelin has just taken a huge turn for the worst… i may rant and be very upset for the next few moments. We went to go look for her and Teresa on tuesday, and as we talked with teresa, she told us that evelin moved out and moved in with her boyfriend, and abonded her daughter and has started drinking like crazy… even worse, she now lives out of our sector so we can´t go visit to try and help her… so now we just wait for her to be humbled…. 😤
so yeah.. back to the happy…. for pday we went back to the mall on the beach and rented bikes again and went to the Christ statue again… i don´t care how many times i do it, it will always be awesome!!!

DAD- It´s like you said, a little bit of anticipation and anxiety is unavoidable. It still seems very unreal that i am nearing the end. But i am still working hard and doing all that i can so, i don´t think i am trunky…. And you must let me know about peru and the usa, this will be a big game for me here in peru, everybody always says that peru would beat the states, now we have the chance to see….
MOM- Whatevery you do Mom, you must beat fremont… failure is not an option…. That is crazy that Spencer is leaving… are jordan and spencer going to be able to see eachother in the MTC? Which day is Christian´s and Paul´s event? ANDY- The pahntom of the opera thing sounds pretty sweet! And when are you going to Nauvoo? that sounds really awesome!

Los amo un monton
-Elder Griffin

24 August

Well hello hello!
Glad to hear from everybody this week!
Last week was alright there were some major ups, and some major downs, but it ended perfectly so it doesn´t even matter haha!
So on tuesday i recieved my new companion! his name is Elder Pedrera. He is also from Ecuador, but the other side haha! he has one change less then i do. We get along pretty well, we laugh a lot and are working so, couldn´t really ask for more right?
as far as the working days went… they were really slow, we didn´t get into a whole lot of houses this week, and with a small sector i felt like we spent a lot of time just going in circles…ddd but we were able to have some good expiriences. For example, we recieved a reference fromt he other elders in the ward, i guess they had been teaching them for a few weeks and they live in our sector, but the barely based us the reference. But it was really cool because we went to his house just to talk with him and meet him, but when he saw us, he opened the door right up and said come on in! So we were able ot have a pretty good lesson with him and he even went to churhc yesterday with his son and his grandson. His dname is Juan, his son is Juan Carlos, and his grandson is marcelo.dd It is a little bit of a miracle because they already have two attendances, so with some help from God, they could be baptised very soon, which would be a great miracle!!!
I guess i´ll get into the best part of the week, obviously by the photo you can see that T eresa got baptised this week…. it was just awesome, she went through so much opposition. As you know she got super sick and was really suffering, but we saw a miracle and she got better. But then we went ot her house on tuesday she starte dsaying that she didn´td feel ready because the sickness had taken a lot out of her and that she hadn´t been able to put mubh time in to her preparation. But a fter a good lesson with her she said “well, i´d like to baptised on Saturday at 9 in the morning!” So that rocked… so fastforward till saturday, we got everything ready and all set up, we then went to pick up Teresa and she looked so happy! but as we were walking to the church, she said that her old pastor had come to her house the night before and had tried to talk her our of getting baptised because she had already been baptised… so we chatted and then she said “To the Water!” she is really awesome and she has a lot of faith and a big desire to serve God. And it was awesoem to see that even after so many trials, she still just wanted to do what was pleasing to God, she is very happy now and it is awesome to see!d

Well i gotta go Los amo!!
-Elder Griffin

17 August

Well hello hello!
Glad to hear from everybody this week!
Last week was alright there were some major ups, and some major downs, but it ended perfectly so it doesn´t even matter haha!
So on tuesday i recieved my new companion! his name is Elder Pedrera. He is also from Ecuador, but the other side haha! he has one change less then i do. We get along pretty well, we laugh a lot and are working so, couldn´t really ask for more right?
as far as the working days went… they were really slow, we didn´t get into a whole lot of houses this week, and with a small sector i felt like we spent a lot of time just going in circles…ddd but we were able to have some good expiriences. For example, we recieved a reference fromt he other elders in the ward, i guess they had been teaching them for a few weeks and they live in our sector, but the barely based us the reference. But it was really cool because we went to his house just to talk with him and meet him, but when he saw us, he opened the door right up and said come on in! So we were able ot have a pretty good lesson with him and he even went to churhc yesterday with his son and his grandson. His dname is Juan, his son is Juan Carlos, and his grandson is marcelo.dd It is a little bit of a miracle because they already have two attendances, so with some help from God, they could be baptised very soon, which would be a great miracle!!!
I guess i´ll get into the best part of the week, obviously by the photo you can see that T eresa got baptised this week…. it was just awesome, she went through so much opposition. As you know she got super sick and was really suffering, but we saw a miracle and she got better. But then we went ot her house on tuesday she starte dsaying that she didn´td feel ready because the sickness had taken a lot out of her and that she hadn´t been able to put mubh time in to her preparation. But a fter a good lesson with her she said “well, i´d like to baptised on Saturday at 9 in the morning!” So that rocked… so fastforward till saturday, we got everything ready and all set up, we then went to pick up Teresa and she looked so happy! but as we were walking to the church, she said that her old pastor had come to her house the night before and had tried to talk her our of getting baptised because she had already been baptised… so we chatted and then she said “To the Water!” she is really awesome and she has a lot of faith and a big desire to serve God. And it was awesoem to see that even after so many trials, she still just wanted to do what was pleasing to God, she is very happy now and it is awesome to see!d

Well i gotta go Los amo!!
-Elder Griffin

10 August

Hello everybody…..
Well this week has been… not as planned…..
Obviously we wer3e planning on having a baptism this week for Teresa but… well let´s start from the begining…. On thursday we were with her, and she has been very sick, but we were trying to have faith so that we could seea miracle, but on thursday she was feeling good so i tlooked like it was all going to turn out. So thursday we found out that she was going to need an interview from somebody with higher authority then a missonary. So we called to get it set up and the secretary told us that one of the misson presidency was in our zone in another sector, and that if we could get her over there, that he could do the interview in half an hour. So we took Teresa and she passed!! it was awesome and a very beautiful miracle. So we went back to her house on Friday to visit her again. But she looked terrible, and she told us that in the morning she had gone to the doctor and that the docter had told her that she has pneumonia… so that really stinks. But we continued with faith even in that saying “look, we know that you are sick, but have faith, and let´s keep working for your goal and everything will be just fine” So we gave her a blessing and left and prayed like crazy. On saturday we kept going with the plan and went and got the font ready and everything good to go and then we went to see Teresa and well… she hadn´t gotten better at all… so she didn´t get baptised on saturday…. so we said ok… we will do it tomorrow. so it was the same show, we got everything ready on Sunday and went to go pick her up and she was still sick and still didn´t get baptised…. so we are going to have to wait till this weekend to see how it goes… she said that she will be baptised this saturday… but man i hate satan!
This week has also been full of other trials that have taken up our time. We are at the end of the transfer, so we have transfer meeting tomorrow. But my companion is ending his mission so we had to do a lot of those end of mission things. We had to go to the office for his english test, and then the next day we had to go for his exit interview. And yesterday and today are sector visiting days s yeah… it´s a little slow here in our sector just because of all the things that he has to do have taken up a lot time… but hey, it´s something we all gotta go through… so …. yeah.
But apart from all the gloom, there is still light in our tunnel here. We actually have been seeing a miracle start to come out of no where with a family. We have been starting to work with a part member family, maria and xenone. And they have a daughter who is 9 years old that is not a member, the partents are inactive. The cool thing is, is that even though we have had very little contact with them, they are starting to get back into the groove a little bit, and i think it is because of the daughter. The daughter is actually dragging her parents to church, all three of them have already been to church 2 times and are following a really great track to get back into the gospel here really soon, it has been avery nice tender mercy from the Lord!

DAD- I think it will do good just because it is the three guys that made the show what it was in the first place, we now will just hve to decide which of the two we like better haha…
MOM- Sounds like you have a pretty fun week beeing grandma! And what is Randy up to these days?
ANDY- That great that you got to meet Emmet!
ERIC- FELIZ CUMPLE AÑOS!!!! Ya eres viejo amigo!!!! and about botts, it would be great to work there….

Los amo!!!
-Elder Griffin

3 August

Hello everybody!!!
Wow, it´s so awesome to see the family grow, thank you for all of the pictures of Emmett!
This week was alright, like last week we had some tgood things happen and some things that were a little disappointing….
First off with Teresa and Evelin. Teresa is doing great, she is really progressing. She has done everything that she needs to to be baptised. We had a number of really great lesson with them both and the spirit has been a lot stronger in the lessons. With Evalin we had been working really hard and we had figured out a way for her to be baptised with gher mom and the same date, but it all depended on if she went to church yesterday or not. We talked with them on saturday night and she promised us that she was going to go. But again, when we went sunday morning to pick them up, she wasn´t there, again… so that was really disappointing. so now our battle plan is to baptise Teresa this week, make Evelin have a strong desire to follow her mother, so yeah… we will just have to see how that goes…..
We also had a lesson with the rojas family this week. It was a really great lesson. The mom wasn´t their but we talked with the father and the kids. WE decided to just take it slow and invite the spirit and just let it go from there. And it was great, we read lehi´s dream with them and talked about what we need to do reach the fruit. The spirit was really strong and i really feel like they now understand what they need to do, especially with the book of mormon, we focused a lot on the book of mormon and i think they are a lot more excited to read and pray, so i think we have finally got to the point of descion, and i have a feeling that it will turn out great!
So we have been working really closely with a part member family. The 2 older children are Jehovas witnesses, and when we talk with them, them tend to be a little contentious, but the other day, we had a really great lesson with one of the JW named Jesus (that is a little ironic right). He finally opened up with us. He taslked al ot about how he felt and he broke down in front of us, he talked about how he felt like he wasn´t right with God, so it was a really great oppurtunity to explain and help him learn how he could come closer to God. He even went to chruch yesterday, so that was pretty great.
We also had a really great lesson yesterday with Beatriz. She is an investigator that we had lost contact with her for a long time, but we finally got to talk with her yesterday and the spirit was super strong. We talked about the atonement and how it can heal us and help us to move on even in the hardewst of times, it was super spiritual. It really helped me as well to focus on the importance of the atonement.
I think a big thing this week is that we have been focusing a lot on the spirit, and trying really hard to have the spirit really strong in the lessons, and i feel like we are starting to have way more spiritual expiriences. So even though it has been a rough few weeks, because we are focusing on the spirit, and having more spiritual expiriences, i am loving the mission!!!!

I don´t have enough time to answer your emails today… i am sorry.

los amo un montón
-Elder Griffin

27 July 2015

Well hello hello all you new parents, uncles, and grandparents!!!
Well obviously it is great to hearfrom yall this week! i can´t tell you how excited i am for the family now that we will soon have a new member!! This week has been a pretty good week. As usual there were some let downs and there have been some great expiriences as well!!
So we will start with the Rojas family. We were finally able to get in contact with them this week. It was not a bad lesson but it wasn´t exactly what we were waiting for either…. When we went over they were very receptive as usual. We were kinda waiting that they would have had a crazy spiritual expirience and that they would be ready to keep going. But i guess in these last few weeks, they have had contact with the World Missionary Movement. The fathers whole family is from that church and he attended their church for about a year but never felt good about being baptised. But in these last 2 weeks, the preacher found him and went to the hospital to pray for the health of the little girl. So that is kindof giving him those old feelings that he had when he was attending. So we spent this visit just trying to get the confidence back. We really focused on the need to act and on the need for them to show excersize their faith so that they can progress. They said they were going to read and pray to know. So now we just gotta make sure that they do it haha.
We also had a couple of good lessons with Teresa and Evalin. They are still progressing very well. they are still super excited to follow, but there are just some things that are keeping evalin back. Teresa is ready, we are not worried about her at all. But this weekend, there was some huge conflict with teresa´s other daughter, which kept the whole house up untill 4 in the morning on sunday. Teresa did a really good job of fighting through the weariness and getting to church… sadly evalin didn´t… so Teresa is still going to be baptised on the 8th, but evalin is going to have to wait a few more weeks…. I really am not worried about her getting baptised, it is just a question of when… the spirit is always there and they recognize it, so we just gotta get Evalin more set….
We also had interview with Presient Larson this week and it was really awesome. At the begining he said, “these interviews are going to be long because i want to get to know you” So the interview were very long but it was very awesome because you could tell that he really cares about you, and we got to know president on a more personal level.
So here is a funny/horrible story for the week. When we get home on Friday night, we saw a huge party tent outside of our house (technically they house that is directly in front of us) so that was a bad sign from the start…. But when we went to bed, nothing had happened so we were a little confused…. Then, after we had been a sleep for a while, at 12am we heard a ton of fireworks and a big brass band playing happy birthday…. Then they stopped and some guy gave a speach, so we thought that it was all ending…. but just so youi know how much we could hear, we heard every word that he said. And then he said “alright, now we are going to listen to the band play and dance until 6 in the morining” and they did… and it sucked…. now if i could hear the guy talking, imagine how loud the brass band was…. we didn´t sleep that night…. but it´s all good haha… now it´s just a good laugh….

GRAMPS- That´s good that real is doing better. What color are you going to paint the new siding?
GRAMMY- It freaks me out that derek and brandon are both back already… but it sounds like you had a good weekend. and yes i got the package. Today we are just going to sleep all day and clean… and shane and zach didn´t waste any time now didn´t they?
UNCLE ANDY- so ant man turned out good? i have always questioned that
NEW MOTHER AND FATHER- I am so happy for you!!! congradulations!!!! don´t forget to send me the name and his picture!!!

Los amo un monton
-Elder Griffin

20 July

Hey Everybody!!!

      Glad To hear that everybody is doing good!  Things here are going alright as well!

      I think it would be a lie to say that this last week was what i was expecting or that it was an easy week for us… but even though it was different then what we were hoping for, we still saw some good thing.

      First off, the temple trip got moved back a week, the Bishop couldn´t make it to the interview night so Yanina didn´t get her recomened, I´m now just waiting for the call to know which day we will be going this week… so that was a little bit of a bummer… but oh well!

      This week with the investigators it has been alright, we were not able to see the Rojas family this week. the little girl got out of the hospital on tuesday, but the father had to make up a lot of work last week… so needless to say they didn´t go to church either this week….  but we have a lesson with them tonight, so a lot depends on what happenes tonight, i think i am going to be praying very hard that we see a miracle with them tonight….

      Teresa is progressing greatly.  We have had a lot of good lessons with her this week.  She went to church yesterday and then at night she went to a baptism that some other elders had in the chapel.  After the Baptism she said that she was excited for her baptism so that was pretty awesome!!!  She is going to be a great member.  She has a sister that is less active, and before she went to church on sunday, she went and invited her sister to go to.  but her sister said that she didn´t want to… well Teresa didn´t like that answer and then burned her sayint “with all of the blessings that you have had in this last week, how canyou not go and thank God, if you don´t go, it will be on your concious and you will feel bad” Teresa then left a little angry and went church… 10 after teresa had gotten to church, her sister showed up too!  it was really funny haha.

      Sadly Evelin has had some problems this week.  She is way excited to stop drinking and doing all of those bad things… but on thursday night, she had a relapse with alcohal…. so we went on saturday to talk with her, and we decided that she needed more support in that moment.  So we talked with her and got her excited to go to church on sunday and everything was perfect, everything was ready…. but… saturday night she went to her boyfriends house and “stayed the night” (chastity is the biggest problem here) so she didn´t go to church on sunday because she was at her boyfriends house…. it is a little frustrating because she is making a lot of progress with the word of wisdom.  In spite of the fact the she relapsed, that was the first time she had gone dfrinking in like two weeks, so she is doing really good there.  But now she is just trading for a sin that is even stronger… so that is our battle… we are going to have to be a little more direct… even though we already to chastity… very directly…. i guess it didn´t quite sink in haha….

DAD- I´m glad real is doing better.  We just had some shirts made for the zone and we actually picked Real´s B jersey. they came out ALMOST perfect. but they still look good..,, Where did you go riding.

MOM- Sounds like you had a busy and fun week. i had no idea that you are such a baseball pro!!!  And that is great the Paul and Christian got the priesthood, Christian is getting really close to leaving isn´t he?

ERIC- how many dirt bikes do you have now? what kind are they and what size?

Los amo un montón

.-Elder Griffin

13 July

Hey Everybody!

      It´s grezat to hear from you! and thanks so much for all of the birthday wishes.

      Ths week was a pretty good week.  It went way better then last week so that is always nice haha….

      Sadly with the Rojas family we still haven´t had anything more then phone contact.  Their daughter has been in the hospital for like 2 weeks.  The father told us that she would probably be let out of the hospital yesterday, so we gotta call today to see how they are doing and when we can go by to visit.  To be honest i am a little nervous…  All this went down at such a crucial time for them, they were right on the line of making the yes or no desision, and it makes me nervous that we haven´t had any realy solid contact witht them for like 2 weeks.  So when we do finally talk with them, it is going to have to be the most spritually uplifting lesson in the world!

      But the biggest miracle we saw this week was with Evalin.  So like i said last week, she disappeared and that made us kind of frustrated, needless to say, but i think it was tuesday that we found her, her mom, and her sister (Evelin, Teresa, and Oriana).  And we had a very straight talk with them.  We talked a lot how about it is great to have a desire to change but unless we act on it we are loosing out on all of the blessing and priviledges that God has for us.  We watched the Mormon Message about the man on the Cruz that didn´t live up to his privledges.  Anyway, since that lesson, they have made a complete 360….  We are meeting with them almost everytday of the week, and they are taking the steps to make the changes in their lives that they need.  Everytime they get tempted or have a rough time, the grab the Book of Mormon and start reading, even if is 4 in the morning.  And because of that, they are erally progressing!! on Saturday, we took Evelin to a Baptism that another group of missionaries had in the chapel and she loved it! After the baptism, she said “I want to have a baptism exactly like that!”  It was really great to hear.  And to put the cherry on top, Evelin and Teresa went to church yesterday and i think they really enjoyed it!! i am really excited to go back tomorrow to see how they are doing… it is great to see the gospel change lives like that!

      But i think that the coolest thing that has happened, went down yesterday.  I got a call in the afternoon from the elders that are in my first area.  They told me that Yanina (my first convert) will be endowed on thursday and that she wants me to be part of the group that goes with her.  The temple being so close to the mission, we can get permision to do that kind of thing, and i have permision, so on thursday i will be going to the temple to see Yanina get endowed…. i can´t wait!!!

      My birthday was very uneventful, exactly what i wanted, i really didn´t tell anybody that it was my birthday, it just didn´t seem important, also, the tradicion is that on your birthday everybody throws eggs at you… so that was also some additional encouragement to keep it on the down low….  But today we are gonig to play soccer, go somewhere nice to eat, and then go to the zoo, so it should be a pretty good celebration today”!

DAD-  That sucks about real… they where so good not so long ago… who has been carded?  And just hang in there with Woody´s… one day you´ll be running that joint!

MOM- I haven´t gotten the package yet… thinking about it. about a month ago the mission offices changed locations, Pres Borg told us that he sent a messaje to you… even if you didn´t know, the package should get here this week or the next…. Be sure to say thanks to Sister Schofield for me!!

ANDY- Sounds like you had a pretty fun week.  Who did the Giants play?

JESS AND SAM- Glad to hear from you and hope all goes well with my nephew!!!!

ERIC- Island park rocks!  Who did you go  with?

Los amo,

Elder Griffin