We started our week by doing our weekly service which we just love! There are the best ladies that work there! We have Elders coming and doing service with us every week too, and last week they put us to a project of painting one of their new (old) buildings that they are going to start using! It was fun to paint and just be able to be around other missionaries again because like I said, I love it!! We have zone conference this week and I look forward to them so much because I get to be around so many other amazing people and missionaries! Tuesday night one of our visits cancelled on us, and so we went to a couple parks around us and did some chalking! We wrote uplifting messages and scriptures! We just wanted to plant seeds in everybody that walked by, and I hope we did! It was super fun, but also so hot and we were sweating so bad!! We had to have a refresher, so we went to Sonic and got a nice cherry limeade and then went and had a great visit with the Walsh family! Their kids are SO COOL! They do magic for a living and they were showing us all these different card tricks, and then they juggled fire and did the other cool juggling in the video! We then had a really good lesson with them about gratitude, and Sister Walsh has been diagnosed with lifetime cancer, but it was still so amazing and inspiring to see how happy and grateful she is for the blessings she has, and how she focuses on the blessings and not the trials. I think we can all do better at that, no matter what part of life we are in.
We had an amazing dinner on Wednesday with two of the ladies from our service that we went to the Liberty Hill festival with last week! They took us to Smokey Mo's which is a barbecue place and we had some really delicious briscuit! It was so amazing to be at dinner with the two ladies and their husbands, because they are all nonmembers! Our conversations were so cool and they kept asking so many questions, that we pretty much went over all the lessons that we teach as missionaries haha. That night we stopped by Phil and Tates house because I got a prompting that we should since they hadn't replied to us in over a week which is super unusual because they always reply soon even if they can't meet. But we went by, and as soon as we got to their house we just got the worst feeling that something wasn't good. We then went back to the car and said a prayer and just hoped everything was ok with the two. We did end up hearing from them a couple of days later which helped us stress not nearly as much! They have been going through some family stuff which has been hard, but we were able to set up a visit with them this week so we hope all that goes well!
We had a killer day on Thursday! It was full of visits which was amazing! We usually only have two or three visits a day once we do studies and all the other missionary stuff, but we had four on Thursday! We were able to go by Bryson and help them plan his baptism coming up next weekend! Then we had an amazing dinner with some great members and their nonmember friends and shared a message with them! Then we went by a less active family in our ward and were able to help them, and then we were able to go by Phil and Tate and do a short lesson about the Book of Mormon and just remind them about the peace it will bring into their lives at this time of hardship.
Thursday night was a rough one for me though. We got out of our dinner appointment and looked at our phone and saw that we had a missed call from another area in our mission, the area that my MTC companion Hermana Carlson was serving in. As soon as I saw that I knew it wasn't good. We called them back, and Hermana Carlson told me she was going home :( She has been fighing a disease the whole time being here in Texas, and it was smartest for her to go home and get healthy again. She is so amazing and it definitely broke my heart to think that I wouldn't be able to see her or be able to go home with her, but I just want what's best for her! So that news kind of shook me the rest of the weekend. I just hope and pray every day that she will get better!
Friday was quite the day too haha it was Makells 16th birthday so I was pretty sad I wasn't able to be home and be with her, but I knew she had a great day and I am sure she was spoiled for sure haha. It was also kind of rough because I knew Hermana Carlson was going home, but the good thing is that we were able to have some great visits! We have still been meeting with Hannah, a self referral, and she has the BEST questions! Every single visit we go over and have a lesson planned, but never get to it because she has always done so much reading and researching and has so many questions that we spend so much time answering them! But she is so cute and so sweet, our main focus is going to be to bring the Spirit and just help her feel the things we are saying and the truth of them! After our lesson with Hannah we went to stop by Lori but she wasn't home which was a bummer because both my companion and I really had to use the bathroom! It turned out to be a blessing though because we went tracting in the neighborhood and the first person that answered their door (second house we knocked) let us in! She said she wasn't interested in a message but it was actually super funny because in the most convincing and desperate voice I could use, I said, " Ok but is there any way we could use your bathroom?" and she was SO NICE! She let us in, and gave us both an ice cold water and gatorade! It was perfect though because while I was waiting for my companion I was able to talk to the nice lady and she asked some good questions about our church and we had a good talk! So we are thinking of using the bathroom trick more often haha!
We received a really cool referral this weekend! They are a family of a mom, a 14 year old daughter and a 3 month old daughter! So we stopped by and it was perfect because she was power washing her driveway, but looked like she was struggling so as a nice ice breaker, I offered to help her! She was very appreciative and talked to my companion while I finished her driveway! Then she invited us inside and we had such an amazing visit with her! We gave her a Book of Mormon, and talked about our church services. It was perfect because she told us she doesn't like how loud other churches are, so I think this will be a great experience for her for sure! She wasn't able to come yesterday but we hope to have her this next week!
Yesterday was such a cool experience at church because David, our recent convert, was able to bless the sacrament for the first time! It has been so cool for my companion to see his whole process! He was super happy though and it is just so amazing to see how the gospel changes peoples lives! I love it so much and love being able to hear about it from so many people!! We went to one of our recent converts of about 3 years last night and just heard her whole story too! I love how much love we receive as missionaries too and it is just so amazing to realize that even though it definitely is 100% the gospel that is changing their lives, we as missionaries are the ones introducing it to them so it is so cool! I love it so much!
Today we are going bowling with the other sisters so that will be super fun! We have zone conference and service and district council planned this week as well as some amazing visits, so prayers for the people we are teaching would be greatly appreciated!
Haley also gets married this week! So my good ol friend Haley Haynie is now going to be Haley Broadbent haha but congratulations Hay and I hope everything goes well for you! I wish I could be there but I will celebrate with you in a little over a year!! This week is also my Grandma Sue's birthday, so I hope everybody can wish her a happy birthday and let her know how much she is loved!!
Thank you all so much for everything! I am so very spoiled with love and so grateful for all of you! I hope everybody has the best week ever!
Con amor,
Hermana Griffin :)
Park Chalk!
I'm so proud of this one!
They are so amazing!
So scary Haha she tried to get me to try
but luckily we have a rule as missionaries that we can't play with fire!
One of our members made us these amazing Eclairs!
Our Water and Gatorade!
Hermana Carlson made it home safely! I miss her already :(
I got a letter from Liz at Threads of Love!!
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