Serving in San Antonio Texas

Hello family and friends! I hope everyone had an amazing week! Mine was full of many hellos and a few goodbyes! This past week we got taken out of Leander, and put into the new ward San Gabriel, and also into Parkside! So we now triple cover those two plus Liberty Hill and it has been quite the adventure figuring everything out!

Last Monday evening we had our last lesson (and dinner) with David and Judy! We passed them off to the elders, and we really hope they will continue to help Judy with her word of wisdom addiction!
We also had a "pass off lesson" with the elders, and Phil and Tate! We just explained that they now cover the ward and will now be teaching them. It was an amazing lesson, and although Phil knows a ton and Tate is starting from the basics, I think it will be really good for Phil to go over the basic beliefs before he starts getting into deep doctrine again! Phil told us that he knows the church is true, there are just a few things he is still working on and one of them is the word of wisdom! It's such a kicker!We really hope the elders will be able to connect with them and help them more!
We gave the elders 60% of the people we had been teaching, since they all lived in Leander, and the elders gave us nobody new to teach in Parkside, so that has been quite the bummer! We are starting off a clean slate though, and all three of the bishops are going to be pushing missionary work really hard so we are super excited to be working with all of them!!

Tuesday was a day full of figuring out our areas! As I kind of mentioned before, we switched wards with the elders, so they took Leander and we took Parkside, and so when that happens, we write notes for the missionaries that will now be covering that ward! The notes include like people we are teaching, members we have been meeting with and then important information about people in the ward they should be in contact with... We were teaching a lot of people in that ward, so our notes were FIVE pages long!! We gave them so much information.. hahah and the best part is they didn't give us anything.. not even one name of a helpful member, so we literally have been figuring it all out ourselves! We know a few members in Parkside from the high fitness class we have been going to (it has come in handy with missionary work many times!) and so we met with Sister Brady, and she was the old relief society president so she was super helpful and that was awesome!

Wednesday we had quite an amazing district council! We talked about the kinds of questions we should be asking people we teach, and it was amazing! It is super important to ask the right questions to help them learn about the gospel and really grasp everything we are talking to them about!
That afternoon we had a lesson with Lori, and she is doing amazing!! She has finally set a goal for the word of wisdom, and it is to quit by September 1st!! That means she could be baptized maybe some time in September and we are so extremely excited for her! It has been quite the journey for her, but we sure hope that this will be good!!

Thursday night through Friday night we had exchanges and it was quite fun! I went to downtown Austin with Sister Bell, and we had a full day! We did service for a few hours at the food bank, and there were many other missionaries there too so it was cool! Then that evening we had a lesson with one of the people they were teaching named Tom, and he has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon! We went into the lesson planning to teach something, but we got there and he pretty much had a lesson plan of his own! He had studied all the scriptures to do with hope, and we had a whole lesson on hope and it was so amazing! He will definitely become a member some day, and hopefully soon :)

Saturday morning we had stake breakfast with all the missionaries serving in the stake, and with our stake president! We talked about the boundary changes and how figuring it all out has been, and then we talked about his focus and his vision for missionary work and we are super excited! They are going to have a special push for all of the members to get to know their neighbors and become friends with them, and that is truly so important! From statistics we have seen, people are so much more likely to join the church and stay active if they are invited and fellowshipped by a member, than if the missionaries find them. It is just facts! So we are stoked for the upcoming months in this stake!
After the stake breakfast we had quite the companionship inventory... We don't necessarily "fight" there has just been tension all the time, and it has seemed (from my side, which I found out Saturday was kind of true) is that there is some struggle of like "power." I am not sure how to explain it, but it has just been a struggle with both of us being the "senior companion." But we were able to talk about it all on Saturday and everything has been good since then! It has only been 2 days, but I have faith it can continue to be good as long as we continue to work on it!
That night we had one of the best dinners! It wasn't the food that was the best (it was little pizzas made with coconut flour) but the family was awesome! It was like we had our own free health class haha. This family is so awesome but like super extreme health, like their kids (they have 4 ranging from 10 to like 6 months) never eat sugar!! It was crazy haha I left feeling like I can never eat sugar again, but then I ate a laffy taffy an hour later so I am back to normal, no worries ;)

Yesterday was quite the day! We went to all three wards, and met a lot of new faces! Out of all 3 wards, we only know who is the ward mission leader in one of them so it has been quite the journey with finding out who to contact and talk to about how the work is going with people we are teaching!
Last night we went to the building dedication of the new building that all 3 of our wards meet in now, and it was so special! At the end, everybody in the chapel stood up and sang hymn number 2, The Spirit of God, and wow the Spirit was SO STRONG.

Today we have our usual chores!! This afternoon we are also going to a workout class that a less active member is doing for a lot of us sister missionaries, so we are excited for that!
Tonight we also have two visits with members in the new San Gabriel ward (we already know the members but the ward is new) so we are excited for that!

I just want to wish all of my family members that have birthdays this week a happy birthday! My uncle Rob has his today, my uncle Kevin tomorrow, my little cousin Blair on the 14th, and my little cousins Jordan and Lexi on the 16th! I hope you all have the best birthdays ever and get so spoiled!! ;)

I also hope that all of you have enjoyed reading in the Book of Mormon! I love hearing from all of you about your thoughts and impressions you have received as you read! I know that as you all continue to read and strengthen your relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ, everything in your life will go more smooth and you will be happier than you ever thought was possible!

I love you all and I hope you have the best week! Thank you all for everything, I appreciate it more than you could ever know!

Much love, Hermana Griffin