Week 10 in Texas... May 27, 2019 (CONCUSSION)

Howdy friends and family!! First of all I just want everybody to know that I am doing great and I don't think I am any more dumb from this "small" concussion, but who really knows with me haha! Thanks again to everybody who sent me pictures of their families and just to all of you who continue to email me! It truly helps me every single week!

This past week started out great with Threads of Love like always! We even had one of the senior couples in our mission come with us this time and it was so fun! That night was when I also got my concussion, I believe it was Tuesday haha. Sister Schellenberg and I are honestly like best friends (and I am SO SCARED she is leaving this next transfer) but we were having a little too much fun wrestling (or something) and I went to jump on her while she was sitting on the couch, and I whacked the back of my head on the wall and so yeah, I had a concussion this whole past week which has been kind of annoying while trying to continue doing the work (and ALWAYS being on exchanges) but I am almost all the way done with the headaches so all is good!

We had an amazing district council last week, so good that we treated ourselves (us sisters) and we went to a little cafe called Leon Valley Cafe and it was literally amazingness! It even had creme brulee, I was crying tears of joy and happiness!

We had english class again this past week and on top of our two AMAZING regulars Xiomara and Hoffmara, a new man showed up this week and he is from Persia! Not going to lie it has been super hard and difficult to teach him english because we don't know his language, but we are helping him through google translate and it was manageable! Then after english class we were able to have an awesome lesson with Xiomara and Hoffmara and teach them the Restoration! They were in awe and we truly think we are going to invite Xiomara to be baptized this week, so we are stoked!! The work is truly going amazing here!!

We had TWO exchanges this past week and are literally going on another one TONIGHT. This is a whole different type of missionary work when you're literally with your companion for barely half of the week haha! The first exchange I went to Parkwood with Sister Cutler, and we had the most amazing first lesson with this lady named Paula! Her best friend has been working on her for a year to get her to just meet with missionaries, so it was such a big deal! We talked a lot about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement! We watched a video with her about the suffering of our Savior the night before his crucifixion, and she was amazed. Sister Cutler and I didn't know we had a lesson with her until an hour before, so we didn't plan for it and so it was just a lesson guided by the spirit and it was absolutely amazing. I know I say that a lot but I always mean it!

Between our two exchanges we had 6 hours of zone conference in which I was back with Sis. Schellenberg and that was great haha it was our last zone conference with the Polley's so that was weird and so sad. They are truly the most amazing mission presidents, but we are all so excited about the new ones coming in a month!

We had another exchange in which was in my area so I lead out again! We did a lot of contacting people who we needed to be in contact with, and then also had an amazing street contact before our lesson with Joel! This street contact was in spanish so it really put me to the test because as you all probably know, Sister Cutler doesn't speak spanish haha but the contact was amazing and we gave him a Libro De Mormon and he was excited! Then we had another amazing lesson with Joel about the 10 commandments and it was so so so fun! The member we brought with us was amazing and she brought him an Ensign that had all of the conference talks in it and he was so excited to read the talks! He is still progressing and still praying about his baptism but we definitely think he will be baptized soon!

We had three people come to church yesterday as well! We had Kilber, Xiomara and Hoffmara! Hoffmara is a teenager so we were able to go into young womens with her, and it's kind of rare because in our spanish branch all of the kids speak english so they do the youth hours in english, but Hoffmara doesn't speak english so Sister Schellenberg got to translate for her and it was amazing haha but we were so glad those three were able to come! We had a lesson with Kilber after church but didn't teach a lot, mostly just listened which is great because sometimes that is all people need!

After our churches we had a lesson with Will and at first he seemed a little distant and not willing to learn much more but as soon as we continued talking and listening and helping him realize that as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we don't hold ourselves above other people of other faiths, but we respect and love them the same as we would members of our own faith! We also confirmed that we don't believe the Book of Mormon to be better than the Bible, but that they rather work together and compliment each other! After that we had a really good lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our key principles! Then after the lesson with Will we were trying to contact a couple more people in the neighborhood, and we had so many street contacts because EVERYBODY here in Texas is so kind and just always willing to talk!

Update on other people we are teaching: Abimael didn't come to church this past week and we also weren't able to have a visit with him because he cancelled :( But we have a visit with him tonight so we are really hoping everything goes well! We heard back from our mission president and he said it will take a couple months probably, so that's a bummer, but the most important thing is just showing him how important it is to live the gospel no matter what you're going through and to continue in faith! The sisters had a lesson with Charlie this past week while on exchanges and I heard it went good, so that's exciting!

That was last week haha it was quite crazy but still so much fun! I am convinced that I don't want to be not busy, because although it is stressful and sometimes we feel like we can't do it all, somehow we get it all done! This week will also be quite busy haha we have another exchange happening tonight right after our lesson with Abimael, and I am going to Parkwood with Sister Cutler! So it will be fun! Then this Friday both of our companions (because they are the sister training leaders) have a training meeting for the whole day, so Sister Cutler and I will be covering BOTH (which means FOUR areas because both of our companionships are double covering) so that will be quite fun haha.

Thank you so much for all of the love and support!

MUCHO AMOR,
Hermana Griffin

My cute comp!

Zone Conference!

Sleepover before Zone Conference.

She got burned today while playing frisbee golf!

Week 9 in Texas! May 20, 2019

Hello family and friends! First of all, I want to apologize to everyone who emailed me this week and I didn't email much back!! We went to the Mercado today, which is just like a Mexican market type place, and that took up most of our day!!
This past week was quite weird honestly, but it will be kind of an overview because again, I don't have a ton of time :(
Update on Abimael: We had a couple lessons with him this past week, and his heart has been getting softer again! He is still offended and doesn't quite understand why it has to go this way, but he still came to church and has been reading the BOM and still wants us to visit and teach him, so we know he will be baptized still, just not as soon as we thought!
We had another amazing lesson with Joel, and I mean it was AMAZING! He is so interested and SO READY! We asked him to be baptized, and offered the date of July 13th (because he works sometimes on Sundays and he needs to come to church a few times before he can be baptized) and we invited him to pray about that being the date for him to be baptized! At the end we asked him to say the final prayer, and encouraged that now would be a good time to ask Heavenly Father if July 13th is when he should be baptized, and WOW I really believe that was one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard. It was at LEAST 4 minutes long. We are so extremely excited for him!
Xiomara is one that has been coming to English class, and she came to church again this past week! She is so cute and we have been able to help her fellowship into the branch with some really amazing members, so we are extremely excited for that as well!
We had exchanges this past week, and it was just exchanges between the two companionships in our apartment, but it was pretty crazy haha I was with Sister Tanner though, and she is so cute! She is from Herriman Utah, and we actually know quite a few of the same people! We went to lunch at this amazing mediterranean place and it was just so delicious!
May 18th (Saturday) was quite a weird day.. By 10 am, Sister Schellenberg and I had kind of "let down" three members already.. There was an activity that we should have been to, but we forgot about it and had scheduled two visits for that morning, and invited one of the members that asked us to come to the activity if she would come to the visit with us. We felt pretty bad :( Then we were late to our ministering visit (which Eduardo didn't answer his door) so that wasn't fun, and then our really good referral we received this week, contacted on Friday and he seemed super interested and we set up a lesson for Saturday, and then he didn't answer as well. Then we forgot to tell our Elders Quorum President that the baptism wouldn't be happening, so yeah, all by 10 am haha it was kind of a rough day all around. We were already a little bummed because the baptism wasn't going to happen, but all is going well as of now, so no worries!
I got one of the most amazing gifts this past week! We came home Friday night, and Sister Cutlers mom had sent all of us sisters in the apartment these books that had ALL of the conference talks from this past general conference in a book with WIDE MARGINS that we can write notes in!! Wow I literally cried!! It was just so perfect! This isn't at all saying I don't appreciate or love the other gifts because I DO, but it was just so amazing and her mom does stuff like that all the time haha we believe that our apartment receives more packages a week than our whole complex does in a month! (maybe not that extreme, but we do receive a ton!!)
Last thing I wanted to add was from this past week from the Come Follow Me. It had a really interesting question that it started with, so I wanted to ask all of you who read my weeklies if you would email me your answer once you figure it out?? The question is, "If you had the opportunity to ask the Savior one question, what would it be?"
That is pretty much all I have for this week! Thank you so much to all of you who have emailed me and tell me about your life and send me pictures!! I especially love the pictures! I love you all, thank you so much! Until next week :)
Hermana Griffin

Sister Schellenberg's "friend" sent us ties to give Abi and other people we are teaching!

Exchange with Sister Tanner!

We can't get enough of our cute roommates, we even have to facetime them!  Haha!

We go out when we don't have dinner!

Our new haircuts... hehe!  (ok, a crazy style)

Where I got my new TSAM (Texas San Antonio Mission) ring!

Mercado!

My cutie companion!

Awesome Roommates!

Our cute chauffeur for the day!

We ran into the Lee family from North Logan, and they totally knew my family 

and I went to highschool with their son Derek!

Sister Schellenberg's friend Collette from before I got here!  She took us to lunch today!

My new TSAM ring!  :)

Got the CUTEST package from my best friend Coopet Kunz! :)

Hardships... Week 8 in Texas May 13, 2019

Hello family and friends!! Everything here in Texas is going alright! Not as well as everything was last week, but I will explain more of that later. I am doing okay, super emotionally drained so if anybody has any encouraging words, I sure would appreciate them and love them more than anything at this time. I will get better, it's just so recent so it will take time for us to kind of get over it!
Another thing I would like everybody who reads these to do is to send me what love language you all think I would be! The sisters in our apartment were talking one night about love languages, and nobody could pick which one I was because they said I was all of them, so if you all could send me what love language you think I am, and a little explanation why, I would love that and it would help us come to a conclusion!
We saw a lot of miracles this past week! We went on exchanges again like always, and I was in charge of leading out our area again! We had a good day, nothing went wrong this time haha and we had dinner with a guy named Efren who has been giving us SO MANY gifts, which isn't really allowed on a mission, but at the restaurant they were taking pictures and selling them and he bought some for us!! I attached the picture as well haha. I was quite nervous because we had a visit with one of our investigators in our spanish branch that night, and my companion didn't speak spanish sooo.... But it was so amazing!! I was able to teach the whole lesson, and we had a member with us as well but I didn't have to use her very much for spanish or anything! She would occasionally translate for my companion, but wow can I just say that the Gift of Tongues is so real! I walked out of that lesson so thankful and surprised by how much I knew that I didn't think I knew!
I also got quite sick this last week with one of the stomach viruses that have been going around, so one morning during the personal time that we have before we start our studies, I went back to bed and while I was sleeping, my cute trainer embroidered a little thing for me of the title of my favorite song! It made me so happy, and she is seriously just the best!! She also scratches my back when I am reporting all of our lessons at night, so I'd say its a fair trade haha. I am so blessed!
We had a few of our investigators be able to make it to church yesterday! We had one from our english ward named Will, he is so awesome! We also had a great miracle and a man named Javi walked into church! He has already been reading the book of mormon from one of his coworkers, so we are very excited for that! We had two people in our spanish branch also come to church, who we just started teaching and we met them because they have been coming to our english class! We also had some hard times dropping a couple of our people we thought were really solid, like Caitlin and Josh. Caitlin isn't interested anymore and Josh is going through some stuff with his family, so that was hard..
Mothers Day was really so good because I got to talk to my family, but it was actually the hardest day I have had yet on my mission.. This part is going to be very long, so I don't blame if nobody reads it all haha. I'm pretty much just going to walk you all through the ROLLERCOASTER day we had yesterday, full of high highs and the lowest of lows! We began the day with waffles, celebrating Happy "Future" Mothers Day for us sisters in the apartment! Then we went to our english ward at 9 am, where we had Will come to church and Javi walk into church. We had to leave our english ward after sacrament because Abimael's baptism interview was scheduled for 10:30 am. We got there and he told us he wouldn't be able to come until 11:30, which was super stressful because he was getting interviewed by our mission president so it was kind of embarrassing but we also felt bad because he had to change his whole schedule.. But the cool thing about that part is that from 10:30 to 11:30 we were able to have companionship study with our mission president! That doesn't happen very often, so it was a very cool experience! Then Abimael showed up, and did his interview while we went to sacrament which was at 12, and we had our two spanish people come to church! After sacrament, our mission presidents wife was waiting for the interview to conclude, so we got to sit with her and wait as well, and that was really cool because we got to talk to her in an environment that she could just talk like a normal person and not be super formal haha but she is such an amazing woman! We asked her some advice for being a mother and missionary stuff, and she was just awesome! We get new mission president the end of June, so we brought that up but it wasn't very smart because she started crying, and you could tell she has loved her time serving here. The interview then concluded, and this is where our whole world turned around. Our mission president told us he can't sign the baptism form because he needs to get approval from the first presidency for him to be baptized. We don't know the full extent of it, and we don't want people jumping to conclusions but he has been falsely accused of stuff, but it still has to be approved. After our mission president left, Abimael began to tell us how offended he felt and how he doesn't feel it's right for a man to tell him he can't be baptized or not, because he truly wants to change his life. He then also told us he was done coming to church, he doesn't want to be baptized and he didn't want religion in his life anymore. It was truly the most heartbreaking thing I have experienced on my mission. Sister Schallenberg and I both started to cry in that moment, and we really just expressed to him how that's not how we want him to feel, and it is just the process of the church. More than anything, we asked and pretty much begged him not to forget how he has felt while taking the lessons, and reading the book of mormon. He was very disappointed, and it was so hard. We then left and had to go tell all of the members that we had asked to do stuff for his baptism, that it would no longer be happening this Saturday, and maybe not at all.. We were literally tore apart. We didn't really know what to do so we walked into the bathroom and just hugged each other because we literally couldn't do anything else. Then after a little bit we left and drove home, and got ready to call our families. That was something that was definitely needed after that long day. We later received a couple texts from Abimael saying that he was sorry he made us cry, and that he will still be coming to church and reading the book of mormon, he was just angry and offended. We realized that Heavenly Father allowed us to cry in that moment to show Abi how much we cared, and how much we are in this with him. The rest of yesterday was quite a blur, but that whole incident has just taken everything out of us to be completely honest. We haven't heard back from our mission president yet, and we will continue waiting, but almost positively, the baptism won't be happening this weekend. We will still continue meeting with him and the most important thing is him, and I know that, it's just a little devastating to think our goal for May 18th won't be happening and he won't end up being our miracle baptism as well. I am still doing well though, and will still continue working as hard as I can. I know that was kind of sad and depressing, but I just want you all to know that i am doing okay and I know this is something we can all get through, together. Other than that, it was a great Mothers Day and I really hope all of you had a wonderful Mothers Day as well!
I just want to tell a few people Happy Birthday this week!! To my amazing uncle Bick Lesser, and my awesome aunt Kaylee Bowcutt! Also to one of the kindest men I know, Drue Kunz, and last but not least one of my favorite little girls, Emmee Bair! I love you all and hope you have the best birthday!
Thanks again to everybody who reads these, you are all amazing! I love you all and look forward to seeing what everybody says!!
Have a wonderful week!
Hermana Griffin

My Cute Companion!

HONCHOS last week!

I was sick one morning, so while I was sleeping she embroidered the title of my mission song for me! Everybody listen to it if they can! ♡

She's the best!

Dinner on exchanges with one of our members.. kind of weird situation haha

After our last lesson we had with Abimael. He is the man in the middle.

Us Celebrating "Future" Happy Mother's Day!

Some cute pictures we took!

Week 7 in Texas...

Hello everybody!! Thanks again for coming to my blog and reading all about my adventures here in Texas!! I sure hope it's worth it for everybody!!!

So last week I mentioned a little bit about how I would be staying in the same area with my same companion for this transfer, which is technically true, but it just feels like absolutely everything has changed now haha. My first transfer, we were covering 9th ward (we still are) and then covering the south part of our Balcones branch, while some Elders covered the whole area of the branch north of the city of San Antonio, so they covered a lot haha. Well, the Elders both got transferred out of the Balcones branch, and we were thinking we would be receiving another pair of missionaries, but nope! So everything has literally changed for us haha. The elders left, and they were teaching a ton of people, so that literally just got dumped on us! We are now covering all of the Balcones branch, and then also have 9th ward as well! It's actually quite difficult but we are trying to handle it the best way that we can! Just working a lot more with members that live closer to people the Elders were teaching! The difficult part about this is that as missionaries, yes we do have a car, but we are also limited on miles. Balcones branch is so big, that to get to the town where the Elders used to live and where a lot of the people they are teaching are, takes us about 50 minutes on a good day. That's almost 1/3 of our prime proselyting time haha but it's all good, we always have really good conversations on our car rides! Anyways, we thought transfers would be nice but now it's just a whole lot more stressful haha.

We had the amazing opportunity to eat with a general authority this past week for dinner! His name is Elder Villarreal, and he is in our Spanish branch so that is why we got to eat with them! They are so amazing, seriously just have the most beautiful house and the best pictures of Jesus Christ all over! We were able to have really good conversations, and Elder Villarreal did a quiz on my companion to see how well she knows me, and she got every question right so that was pretty cool! Sister Schellenberg and I are really close in my opinion, so I wasn't too surprised, but he was very thrilled that we are good enough companions to actually be friends as well! Elder Villarreal absolutely demolished one of the Elders though.. It was our last night eating with the Elders because the next day was transfers, but at the end of dinner, the elder said "Well we would love to stay and talk all night, but" and that's right where Elder Villarreal stopped him mid-sentence and pretty much just started questioning him if he really wanted to stay, and then coached him to what he should say instead of that hahah. So to all my mission friends, if you're at a members house, don't try and leave dinner by saying, "Well we would love to stay and talk but we need to head out." Instead say something like, "We appreciate you having us over and feeding us, but we would really love to go do some missionary work!" That is what I learned from this dinner, and Sister Schellenberg and I were just laughing the whole way home because of how SCARY and intimidating it was! But also such a good lesson to learn!

Friday night we were in a lesson with Abimael, and UPDATE on Abi!! He is still doing amazing and progressing rapidly towards his baptism in less than two weeks! He has been making some significant changes in his life regarding people he surrounds himself with, but he truly is happier and is finding the light of Christ in his life, and he is super excited! I am so thankful to have such a miraculous first baptism such as this one will be! After we had the lesson with Abi, we were walking to our car when literally out of nowhere, it starts to pour! So we also happened to be out of gas, so we had to stop and get gas and just to our luck the gas tank didn't print receipts, so we had to run inside and literally from the gas tank to the building, RUNNING, we got soaked! Then we had to run back out to the car after we got the receipt haha it was just craziness! That's not the best part though haha. On our way home, Sister Schellenberg asked me to play "How Great Thou Art" and wow, that was seriously amazing! It brought us both to tears because of how beautiful the earth is, and how lucky we are! The one we listened to was also a mix into another song, but it was just perfect for the way the weather was haha. We got back to the apartment and the other sisters had just got home as well, so we were all soaked, and we made a group decision to listen to that song again, all sit on the couch and watch the rain pour! It was so fun and I seriously love living with other sisters! It's especially more fun because instead of buying all the food we need and splitting the price between 2, we get to split it between 4 and it's just so nice and cheap to go grocery shopping haha!

I hit my three month mark yesterday, which is literally quite crazy to me!! To think that I am already 1/6th of the way done is just mindblowing! I am seriously so so so thankful for all of my amazing friends and family who helped me get out here on my mission, because there is truly nothing more special than being a representative of Jesus Christ. I am shown every single day how amazing this gospel is, and I am just so excited to continue helping people grow their faith in Jesus Christ and help bring people closer to their Heavenly Father.

I just want to lastly say Happy Mothers Day to my amazing mom! I truly love you mom and couldn't be doing what I am doing without you!! Happy Mothers Day this Sunday as well to all of the wonderful examples I have in my life! I could not ask for better friends, cousins, aunts and grandmas to show me how I want to mother my children one day! I sure to love you all and am extremely grateful for all that you have done for me! There is a special chapter in the scriptures that I want all my moms out there to look up and read! Really, everybody should read this chapter! It's Proverbs 31, versus 10 to 31! Another one of my favorite Mothers Day versus is Alma 56:48, because now looking back, my mother knew it all haha!

Thanks again to everyone for their emails and love and support! I appreciate everyones prayers, I am definitely witnessing the miracles coming from them! I love you all, have a great week and Happy Mothers Day!

Hermana Griffin

Lunch after District Council at Raising Canes!

Yummy!

My companion and roommates!

Rain storms in Texas...

Driving in the rain...     "click the link to see her video!"

We love Texas weather....  We got soaked!

Nightly cuddles.

My trainer is the best!

My cute trainer has her "friend" send another US sticker and she gave it to me!  

Matching journals!

Jamie...

I 💛 Texas!!

Churros at Honchos!