We started our week off by going to one of the little towns called Asherton, and we were able to visit quite a few people, one of them being Esmeralda! We almost got killed by her dogs but we made it! She is someone that has met with missionaries in the past and so we wanted to see if she still had any interest, and it was such a good visit with her! She has gone through a lot of hard things lately, and we pretty much just had a big testimony meeting and testified of the plan of salvation, and how this gospel can bless her life. We then gave her one of the cool Book of Mormons we have been making with the questions in the front and tabs to where they can find the answers, and she really appreciated that! She said she is way more likely to read that one than just the whole book like they asked her last time haha so it was a really good visit! We are going to have weekly visits with her every Monday night, so we are excited for sure to go over tonight!
While we were in Asherton we also stopped by our awesome members who live there and we talked with Brother Tollett, and he talked to us about how he has been in quite a spiritual low place, and we really just told him we are here for him and we are also going to do weekly visits with them, as well as helping them on the ranch every week for service, which I will talk a little more about later :) We invited him to watch The Savior Understands Me video, and then I also gave him my dads number because he has questions about growing hay that I could not answer hahahh so that was fun!
This last Wednesday was quite the busy day! We woke up at 5 am to be ready to leave at 5:45 and head to San Antonio for zone conference! I always love zone conference so much because it is so inspiring and I always learn so much about how I can become better. It was also the best being at zone conference because I got to see my favorite person ever (my trainer) and also some of the other missionaries that I haven't seen in so long since I've been up in Austin! They also sang to all of the people who have had birthdays since last zone conference so that was pretty embarrassing haha. Also, I love the push our mission president has been giving us to use the Book of Mormon in every visit, and it truly is so important because the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, and so we have to use it to help people in their conversion and relationship with Jesus Christ!
After zone conferences we had our interviews (since Carrizo is two hours away, it's hard for president to make it all the way down here for just our interviews) but my interview was super! President is always so uplifting and helpful with everything! We talked a lot about the work we are doing in the area and how we can continue helping the people we are teaching, so it was awesome!
We also had a funny experience this week after zone conference because our member (keep in mind she is inactive) was driving us home from zone conference and swore pretty loudly for no reason haha and not just any word but the f word hahah we were laughing quite hard and she was too and just kept apologizing hahaha good times.
We got back to Carrizo that night at 7 pm, which is right when our family game night for the branch started, so we were definitely on a tight schedule haha. We had a good game night though and a pretty good turnout! We played ping pong and carved some pumpkins, and it was a good time! We are really hoping we can have a better turnout for the next one though!
I'm sure you are all wondering what we did on Halloween, and the answer: nothing. haha we did our studies that morning, did some service at a nursing home (wrote her calendar on big calendars on the wall, which took 2 1/2 hours), then we went by a few people right before dinner, and then we were told to be home by 6 so we went home and did weekly planning the rest of the night! Even though I rarely did much for Halloween, this year I did the least for sure haha.
Friday was a really rollercoaster day as well haha, we have been teaching Chito, and his girlfriend Kathy is a member of a little under two years, and on Friday we got the news that they broke up... long story short, they are still together haha they just act like little kids sometimes ;) I'll talk more about Chito in a minute!
We had a lesson with Carolina, and it was so awesome! We talked about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and why it is so important, and we think that she grasped on to quite a few things! It almost felt like we were in a role play at the end because she looked at us and asked, "How do you know it's true?" and we then and there testified of the power of prayer, and the power of the Holy Ghost and that she TOO can know the truthfulness of what we shared, and she said she would pray! She didn't come to church this week, but we also understand things come up haha but we have a lesson with her this week too so we are super hopeful and excited for that!
That evening we received a call from one of our members, and he said that he is bringing someone to church with him on Sunday, and we got so excited! He brought Martha, and Martha has met with missionaries a few months ago but didn't feel that it was right at the time, but just recently she had told Brother Allen that she doesn't think her current church is the right one and wants to start coming to ours, and we are so excited! Member missionary work is so real and so important!
Speaking of member missionary work, every morning / night during my person time this past week I have kept working on the member missionary poster that we are going to put up in our church building this week (we are also both talking in church on Sunday about member missionary work) and so we are excited to see how the members react to the poster and the missionary ideas!
We also did service this past week with Brother and Sister Tollett at their ranch, and wow, it needs so. much. work! He recently bought it from his father, but it was pretty much a dump lot haha. We helped him this past week by picking up tires and throwing them onto the back of his truck, and moving them to a different location on his ranch haha but there are seriously so many tires everywhere it's crazy!! It's nice to do some service in nature though instead of doing it in an office like all the other service we do haha, and I especially loved looking all over their ranch (about 80 acres) and they have soooo much stuff that just doesn't work and is just sitting there (ex. 20 old cars that aren't being used) and so we had a fun time exploring that! We didn't have time or miles to drive back home to get ready, so we had already packed our proselyting clothes in a bag and so we went to a gas station and literally changed in the bathroom, ate subway and then drove an hour to Cotulla which is another small town we cover. We contacted quite a few people and had someone tell someone else (right in front of us) that they can have 5 wives.. we explained that we don't practice polygamy haha and then we laughed about the experience later.. so many weird things happen out here, but I love it!
We got home that evening and had our weekly zone call, and our zone leader asked me to do the prayer and in the prayer we pray for all of the people in the areas in our zone that need extra blessings, oh yeah and I had to do it in spanish hahhah but it was all good, I am still alive so that's all that matters! I don't know how much better my spanish has got since I've been down by the border, which is weird right? but everyone speaks english here haha but my companion and I have made a goal to talk more in spanish because I need to learn more!
Yesterday we had quite a good day! We had church, and we had three people come that aren't members! One of which was Jackie, who is still wanting to be baptized but her mother still hasn't given permission yet :( and we also had Brother Tollett bring his half-brother Benito, and then Martha came with Brother Allen! It was a wonderful church service and Jackie even got up to bear her testimony, even though she isn't a member haha it was awesome though!
Last night we stopped by A LOT of people, and one of them we had a visit with a part member family, and the wife was super drunk.. so that was super interesting haha but we were able to set up some service with her as well as she accepted for us to come and share uplifting messages every so often, and it was a pretty good visit for her being totally out of it haha. She even did mention when she saw us at the door that she said to her husband, "God sent them." and it was pretty cool to hear her say that!
Last night we talked with Chito and asked him if he is still serious about the gospel (whether or not him and Kathy stay together) and he said yes and that he has prayed about baptism like we asked him to, and we were able to put him on date for the end of this month, the 24th! We are so super excited for him, especially because he has been being taught for so many years, and he is finally ready!
Today we are headed to Eagle Pass to play zone sports with all of the elders in our zone (since we are the only sisters) so it will be quite fun! I will get to play some actual soccer since some of the elders are from Mexico haha so I'm excited! But since we are going to Eagle Pass I won't have a ton of time to email everyone, so I apologize in advance if I don't reply with a super big email but I promise I will reply!
This week is going to be a super good week! I HIT 9 MONTHS TOMORROW and it is so stinkin crazy to think that I am halfway done with my mission! I don't like the thought haha I want to be doing this work forever! We also have exchanges tomorrow so I will be up in San Antonio in the Adams Hill area and I am excited to be with Hermana Towery, she was a sister in my MTC district so it will be a good day celebrating 9 months together!
This past week I was studying the talk from the priesthood session of general conference in April 2019 by President Eyring, and he was talking about sustaining our leaders in the church, and one of the paragraphs he mentioned how before our interviews (with whomever) we should study and ponder the questions and know our answers before we go in. He related it to the time when we will meet our Savior, and I really loved when he said, "Try to remember and frame the answers you will give when the Lord interviews you, knowing that someday He will." That sentence hit me quite hard this past week and caused me to do a lot of self reflection.
I was able to see my amazing trainer this past week at zone conference as well, and she knew I had been having a hard time with the passing of Lori (its just not something you'd think you'd have to go through on your mission, loving and caring for someone so deeply, not knowing your goodbye leaving the area would be your goodbye for this life on earth..) and she gave me a letter and in the letter, she also said something that hit me at the core. She said, "Missionary work is a today thing, not a tomorrow thing." And it's SO TRUE. After zone conference, I just realized I could be doing so much better, and I re committed myself to giving my all TODAY, and not procrastinating anything anymore. Family and friends, I love missionary work. It truly is the greatest thing ever.
Happy birthday to my amazing uncle Cory on Saturday (9th) thanks for always being so much fun and I hope you have the best birthday ever!
I love you all so much and am so grateful for each and every one of you! Have a wonderful week!
Hermana Griffin :)
Gomathi got baptized!
Our Healthy Food!
Lori and her sister when they were young!
Zone Conference activities
My Favorite person EVER! My trainer, Sister Schellenberg!
My Little Sister!
The calendar that took us 2 1/2 hours to write at service!
Our weekly planning calendar.
Everywhere we have to cover, haha!
My Comp makes me laugh!
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