Birthday week... & news about Lori...

Hey y'all! This week has definitely been a rollercoaster for sure. I've had some high highs and really low lows.. Regarding the highs, I had my first/only birthday I will have on my mission and it was pretty good! I'll talk about it more later haha, but the low lows.. Yesterday I received a text from Sister Belt, my last companion, and she informed me that Lori, one of my recent converts from my past area, passed away the morning of my birthday.. That has been a shock and definitely not something I thought I would have to be told on my mission, so that kind of shook my whole week a little bit. Other than that, it was a pretty good week!

We spent a lot of this past week biking (until my tire went flat) and we got chased by dogs A LOT hahaha it's so scary!!! The mother of someone we are teaching told us to get a squirt bottle and squirt them when they come chase us on our bikes haha and it has worked pretty well so far! We also had some pretty fun incidents regarding bikes and crashing hahah.. I am laughing so hard just writing this.. so my companion has a bike that is wayyyyy too tall for her, and so she has a hard time getting on it.. Well we were going to leave somebodys house and she tries to get on and start riding away, when she literally just like started tipping over and she just like tipped and then started laughing hahah it was sooo funny, but she is totally good haha. Then LESS THAN 5 minutes later we were riding to another contact, and I went to tell her to turn left into a parking lot but I told her a little late, so instead of going straight or pressing on her breaks, she like half turns into the parking lot and then like "gave up" in a sense that she just ran straight into the curb and almost tipped again... hahah good times, I laughed so hard that day!!
We were also able to meet with our branch mission leader and go through the whole branch list of members and make a list of who all the part member families are, and it was awesome! I know that has been something that I have seen a lot of success working with (since all 4 baptisms in my last area were part member families) so we have been really excited to make that list and start visiting those families! It is crazy how different every area is, and I was shocked when I got here and they didn't have a part member family list haha.

We were able to drive to Eagle Pass this last week for district council and it was so fun! My compañera and I were able to give a training (in spanish) on one of the safeguards for using technology as well as tie it into the Christ - like attribute of Charity and Love and it was a great training! We were 5 minutes from Mexico and so obviously we took some pictures and it was fun!
For one of our workouts this past morning, President Russo pulled out his wrestling mats and my comp and I wrestled!! It was so fun hahah and obviously I won ;) hahah but we both walked away with some sweet bruises so it was great!!!

The Russo's also left this past week on Thursday morning and it was sad to say goodbye to them :( They are so awesome and so much fun to spend time with, and even more awesome for letting missionaries live in their house while they are living in Utah haha they are just the best couple ever! I had still been feeling pains in my lungs and so right before he left, I asked President Russo to give me a priesthood blessing and it was so amazing! I have pretty much just forgotten to ask for them since that was my first one on my mission, but I am going to ask for them more because it surely helped!

We visited with Chito this past week and it was a pretty good visit! We talked more about his desires in meeting with us as missionaries, and I asked him where he is at in the gospel and he brought up that he wants to be baptized soon! It was so awesome, so we invited him to pray and think about when he wants to be baptized, and we are so excited for him! He promised (hasn't happened yet) that he would buy or make me a tres leches cake for my birthday but he was out of town over the weekend so we will see if he holds his word hahah but we are so excited for him!! He is such a funny guy and really loves to joke around, and he was the one that didn't come out of his room (he's 27) the first time we visited with them, so this time we went to the gas station and I bought him a snickers, and then when we got there we told him to eat it so he can be himself and stay and visit with us instead of hiding in his room, haha he enjoyed the sarcasm so he stayed and we had a great visit!!

We had a crazy weather storm hit this past week, and we were out doing regular missionary work when it literally looked like we were driving into a black hole so we turned around and went home haha but we still used our time wisely and we made this awesome member missionary work poster that we are going to put in our church as an effort to try and get members more involved in doing missionary work (it is in the hispanic culture to just be lazy, and that doesn't work with missionary work!!) so we still used our time wisely and we are happy we didn't die in the crazy storm!
The night that the storm happened, before it came in full swing, we stopped by a few potential people that we can start teaching, and we were able to meet someone named Sylvia and Gina, and they are both interested in being taught! Sylvia was a cool miracle because our Area Book told us that she was someone we were teaching when we hadn't had a first lesson with her at all in the past, but we took it as a sign to go by her and so we did and now we are going to start teaching her! Miracles are amazing :)

Friday was my birthday and it was pretty awesome! I received wayyy too much stuff from you all haha but thank you to everyone who thought of me and sent me an email or card or package, I love you all and am so grateful for how spoiled I am with all of my amazing friends and family!
Someone that we do service for every week took us out to dinner at a steak restaurant for my birthday and it was so good! We did service with her that afternoon and my companion mentioned it was my birthday, so she took us out and it was so fun!

Saturday we had a day that was just full of service! We started the day with service at one of our members ranch, and we helped him pick up a bunch of old wood and throw it out of the stalls, and it was pretty fun! He kept giving me crap about the weight I was lifting, and he really was testing me on my knowledge about hay, hahhah I really don't know much, so at one point I just asked him "can I give you my dad's number? He will answer all of your questions" hahah it was funny. I love being able to do service at a ranch, it reminds me of doing chores at my best friends house growing up... good old times haha.
That afternoon we went to the nursing home and we helped them get ready for the trick or treating they were going to do ( it is weird here in Carrizo because the mayor chooses the weekend before Halloween every year and makes it the official day for trick or treating) and we spent like 2 1/2 hours making little bags of popcorn for them to use for trick or treating.. it was a long time to stand putting popcorn in bags haha but service is always good, right? ;)

This weekend we were also able to have district conference, which is just like stake conference but instead of a bunch of wards, it's a bunch of branches, and we were able to stream it over Skype and watch it all the way down here in Carrizo Springs!  We got to see our branch president give a great talk, as well as we got to see our mission president, President Tveten, and his wife, Sister Tveten, give wonderful talks! President Tveten is such a powerful speaker and such an inspired man, we love him!
Yesterday we took the day and went to Big Wells on the way to Cotulla, which is an hour away from Carrizo, and did some contacting! We don't get to go to Cotulla much since we don't have many miles given to us and our area is absolutely huge, but we made sure to get to Cotulla while we could!
On our way to Cotulla, we received the text from Sister Belt, so we called the sisters and then I called the sisters covering Lori's ward to confirm, and nobody was able to confirm whether it was 100% true or not for most of the night so it was rough waiting for the confirmation, but then last night Sister Belt sent me the confirmation text she received from Lori's sister, which I will add to the end of this.. She passed away the morning of my birthday, so it will definitely be a day I won't ever forget. Obviously I am sad and heartbroken that Lori is gone, but it makes me that much more grateful that we were able to help her in her time she was here in Texas, and that she could come back to the church and change and be who she wanted to be before she passed away and now I am sure she is loving her time with her parents and continually preparing to meet her Savior. I love Lori and it is still so hard for me to believe she is gone, but I also know how much she has struggled and I know she is in a better place right now. If you all could, would you please keep her family in your prayers?

Spiritual Thought: again I am so sorry I haven't been doing these super regularly hahah but this week I have been reading the Ricciardi Letter which is about missionary work and it is sooo inspiring!! I invite everyone to read it, because we are all missionaries in one way or another, so please take the time and read it, it has been so amazing!

I want to wish my awesome cousin Colby, my cute cousin Paityn, and my wonderful aunt Calee a happy birthday this upcoming week! I love you all so much and hope you have the best birthday ever!

Have the best week!
Hermana Griffin

Our Church is super tiny!

Bike riding!  I didn't crash, no worries!

My comp and I by Mexico...

I rule the world....haha!

My comp is so nice!

Good morning for Basketball!

McDonalds after basketball, why not?

We love the Russos!

President Russo is from Argentina, so he wasnt too bad (we also had good chats about soccer which I loved!!!

Game night!

Our awesome member missionary poster!

It's good to not be a teenager anymore!

Birthday Celebration!

Thanks mom for the best sweatshirt!

The text from Lori's Sister.....

Transfer week... Carizzo Springs!!

Hey y'all! This week has been absolutely crazy but sooo much fun!! We had transfers and I went from the very top of the mission being 95% white people, and went to the very bottom of the mission being 95% hispanic people, and I love it!! It is such a crazy area though, I am so excited to tell you all about it!! It was sad saying goodbye to my cute trainee Sister Belt, but I am also loving my new companion and her name is Hermana Allyson Abadia Pazos, and she is the cutest little hispanic girl ever!!! A little info on my new area: So the town we live in is called Carrizo Springs, but we also cover a bunch of other towns called Crystal City, Cotulla, Big Wells, Encinal and Asherton, so our area is huge haha. We are about 30 min from the border, and it's crazy cause there is a border patrol station here in town, which kinds sketches me out a little bit haha. Even though we are so close to the border though, EVERYONE here speaks english, because everyone is like 2nd or 3rd generation americans. The craziest thing for me was that our church is actually in english, and we have like one family that only speaks spanish, and we translate for them so that's cool.

So the start of this last week was packed full of running around with our heads cut off trying to say goodbye to everyone!! We said goodbye to Bridget, who was someone we were teaching and one of my favorite people ever! Then we also went walking with Gomathi again that evening and talked to her more about getting prepared for her baptism! She seemed really excited and as far as I know, she is planning on being baptized this weekend so that is so awesome! Of course I am sad I won't make it or be able to see her baptism, but I am just so happy for her and the decision she has made to follow our Savior Jesus Christ!
We also ate dinner with my aunt and uncle for the last time and celebrated mine and my trainees birthdays (early) and it was so fun! My uncle also gave me some really nice mouthwash and a new toothbrush, so pretty much he is the coolest, thanks Kev!

I went to my last high fitness class this last week as well and that was super sad :( I seriously love all the ladies that I had met going there, and of course I am going to miss the 2 days a week of getting an actual good workout in!
Then after the high fitness we got ready and we had lunch with Patricia, one of our great friends from service at HCCM, and then we went and said goodbye to Lori, to Sister Brady (our Texas mom) and to the Gomez family, and wow does that family just have my heart!! Saying goodbye to them was by far one of the hardest ones I had to do.
That evening we also said goodbye to Gomathi and she also had her baptism interview and even with the language barrier, she passed! I am so super excited for her and all of the blessings her and her family will receive from making this decision :) After her baptism interview we went to our last San Gabriel coordination and it was cool because we had our ward missionaries there and we were able to set everything up for the sisters that were going to start covering the ward! San Gabriel was seriously one of the best wards ever!

Last week we also went to our ward mission leaders house after a visit we had and he has a cool Plan of Salvation wall that his daughter painted before her mission, so we took pictures by that and also other artwork she had done! I also said more goodbyes that day to Sister Lowe who is like the best missionary mom ever, and then said goodbye to Brenda who is one of our good friends that lives in the same apartment complex that we did! It sure was crazy Mon-Wed saying goodbyes to everyone I could get to! It just makes me that much more excited to come back and visit them, and grateful that I live in Utah and Texas isn't too far that I can't come back and visit all my people :)

Transfer day was CRAZY!!! We woke up at the regular time and I finished packing everything and then we drove down to the chapel where we all meet and waited for the van to get there that would be taking us to San Antonio.. I came to find out that I was also the only sister that would be riding in the transfer van with a bunch of elders, so that was fun haha. I spent so much of my day in a car though haha cause we drove 1 hour from our apartment to the church we met at, and then 2 hours from Austin to San Antonio, and then 2 more hours to Carrizo Springs from San Antonio! I only had to drive 3 of the 5 hours so it wasn't as bad haha. It was so fun to get to San Antonio because I got to see Sister Tanner and Sister Chamberlain! I lived with Sister Tanner my 2nd transfer in the mission (back in the glory days of being in Balcones branch) and then Sister Chamberlain is my little sister and she is the cutest girl ever!!
We arrived in Carrizo Springs (after what felt like years) and wow. IT. IS. SMALL. haha like the size of Newton, for all of you who know where I live ;) We got to our house and oh my goodness it is the cutest house ever!! So our housing situation--- we actually have our own house to ourselves (except for this week) haha so we live in a members home, and they actually moved to Utah in August to help take care of their grandchild for the next 2 years, so they are just letting the missionaries live in their home and take care of it! It's awesome because before when they lived at home, the missionaries used to live in their shed (since missionaries can't live with someone of the opposite gender) and wow. the shed is quite a shed, haha. Anyways, we arrived at the house and we unpacked me a little bit and then we did weekly planning and planned for all of the people we are currently teaching, and everyone else we want to try and help and start teaching!  Then we ate dinner at home and apparently we rarely have dinner with members, just because there aren't many here and most of our members live an hour away haha. After dinner we stopped by and met Kathy (a recent convert) and Chito, her boyfriend and someone we are teaching! Chito was super shy and didn't come out of his room though haha apparently he doesn't like when missionaries change, but I hope he at least gives me a chance to talk to him haha.
That evening was the scariest thing ever!! So up to this point, I was told that we lived in our house alone, right?? haha well we are pulling up to the house and before we pull into the driveway, we see a car and my comp doesn't recognize it, so we pull down the road a little bit and we call President Russo (the house owner) and asked him if he knew who's car it would be, and he told us, "oh it's a friend's of mine, he will be coming by in the morning to pick it up" and then we asked him, " ok so nobody should be in the house right?" and he replied, "nooo, nobody should be in there" so we for sure thought we were good haha. WELL. We open the front door and I thought I was going to have a heart attack because the Russos jumped out from behind the couch and scared us soooo bad!! It was terrible haha but yeah, they surprised us and are visiting home for a week, and they leave again on Thursday! They are seriously the funniest people ever, I love them so much.

Friday we went and did service at the nursing home, and we help when they play bingo there! What we do is help some of the people with their bingo cards, or sometimes we have to call out the cards, and all of the words are in spanish and we have to scream them cause everyone there is so deaf hahah but it was pretty fun and it is going to help me a ton with my spanish vocab!
The past weekend was just jam packed with meeting people in the branch and people we are teaching! We also took our bikes everywhere we went and have rode a ton because our miles are shot, like we have barely any left since we had to drive to San Antonio for transfers haha.
We went by a family that is active, and it was super funny cause we rode up on our bikes (keep in mind it was dark out... sketchy I know) and their dogs started going crazy and barking a ton, so out walks one of the members from our branch with a GUN and some ammo and it was so scary hahah but we got a good laugh from it!
We also got chased by sooo many dogs while riding our bikes haha it was super scary.
We also had a wonderful lesson with someone we are teaching named Vanessa, and she actually works for the border patrol which is sweet! Our lesson was so awesome though and she even talked about how good she feels when we come and visit with her, and we gave her one of the special BOM's we have been using (we highlight and bookmark verses in the book that correspond with questions people have) and invited her to read some of the questions and then read the verses and she said she would, she was so excited to have the specialized BOM, it was so cute!
We also received SUPER SAD news.. so when I heard I was coming to Carrizo Springs, I got so super excited cause my TRAINER used to be the Sister Training Leader over our area, so at first I was so pumped because that meant there was a chance I could go on an exchange and go back to my area in Balcones!! BUT we found out on Saturday that President Tveten changed it and now they don't cover us anymore and wow I was SO sad :( I was so looking forward to going back and seeing Xiomara and Hoffmara!! I guess it will have to wait until next year after my mission haha.

Church is CRAZY. So super weird and different than it was in my last area haha we got to church early because WE set up for church and WE clean the church. It is also a super tiny church, I will have to take a pic next week of the chapel cause there isn't even a podium or bench's or anything haha it's sooo small. We also have to go to the church early and kill SCORPIONS. yes. hahah it is so crazy. We also only have about 30 people (if that) at church every week, so there is A LOT of work to be done in this area and I am so super excited!

This week we have "District Conference" which is just like Stake Conference, but the areas by the border aren't big enough to be a Stake, so it will be cool! We also have district council with the other elders serving in Eagle Pass and Del Rio, so it will be fun!

Last but not least I want to wish my awesome family members a happy birthday this week!! My aunt Allyson (the one I got to visit with all the time in my last area) has a birthday tomorrow (22nd) and my Grandpa Bowcutt has a birthday on the 23rd, so happy birthday to you both! I love you so much and hope you have the best day ever!

This area is definitely going to be an adventure for sure, but wow I am so super excited! Thank you all for your love and prayers, I am so grateful for all of the support I have! You're all the best, and I love you!
Have the best week!
Hermana Griffin :)

Thanks Uncle Kevin for the new products!

Packing is literally the worst!

 

I love my High Fitness Moms.. last high fitness!

 

Miss Patricia...

 


Lori....

 

Our Texas Mom... Wendy Brady.

 

 

My Cute Friend Alicia, she wouldn't let me go!  I love the Gomez family with all my Heart!

Saying Goodbye to Gomathi and her baptism interview!

Our District!

An early birthday celebration for me and my trainee at my families house!

Plan of Salvation wall!

CTR / HLJ

Sister Lowe, my other Texas mom!

Brenda!

 

My Cute Trainee!

One of my bff's, Sister Evans!

 

This is the Shed the missionaries used to live in, it was literally the room, and that's it!

 

The Russo's!

Specializing BOM to give to people!

Our church is so TINY!

A very windy ride!

We eat good... Leftovers!