We started our week last week in Asherton, as usual and it was awesome! We visited Olga and her daughters and they were super busy (as everyone usually is) but we offered to help her oldest daughter with her homework again and it was awesome because Hermana Gomez was a teacher & wants to be a teacher when she gets home, so she was able to help Angelica and I got to chat with Olga for a bit and all of them are still reading their Book of Mormon and still watching the videos which is awesome!!
We also stopped by Esmerelda and had a lesson with her about missionary work and doing service and she still loves everything about our church so we are still waiting for the desire to come to her and still helping her along!
Tuesday we started our morning with a zone call with all of the missionaries in our zone (our zone consists of Carrizo Springs, Eagle Pass and Del Rio, so the border areas) and our mission president and our district president have been counseling on how we can grow this area into a stake and make the branches into wards, and so they have changed our focus as missionaries down here from being on "nonmembers" and now we are focusing on less active and inactive members, so it has been a crazy week trying to figure everything out, but it has been super good as well!
We had our missionary coordination that after noon and it went alright haha we were talking about all of the people we have been working with and our new plans to visit all of the members not attending church and we definitely have a huge list, and my companion had a moment where she went quiet so after I asked if she was ok and she was feeling super overwhelmed, kind of like she was feeling in her first area right before she went home for a bit so I was nervous for a little bit but then we visited one of our awesome members and came out of the visit and my companion said she was over it, and has been stellar ever since!
We visited the Morales family, and we have been working and praying so hard that we can help them receive the gospel, and we were finally able to sit down with the mother who isn't a member, and her whole hold up has been women and the priesthood and we have been wanting to help her with that for so long but it is always crazy at their house with 8 kids, but we finally got a moment and were able to testify of the priesthood and how when we as women hold callings, we are acting under the priesthood and she finally said it all makes sense and that she is ok with it, and she has no other hold backs and so my comp invited her to be baptized and she said she would pray about it! They have been going through a lot as well, her 1 year old granddaughter was diagnosed with RSV right AFTER we invited her to be baptized so we still hope and pray she can stay strong through it all!
We had our first amazing lesson with Xavier and his son Caden, and we were able to bring one of the couples from our branch with us and we explained more of the Book of Mormon and Caden is only 9 but he was all for it and wanted a Book of Mormon for himself! He even told his dad he wanted to come to church, so we hope they come this week!
Wednesday we had our district council that we had to call in for because of miles (and time) but calling in was a pain so we will have to drive there from now on haha.
That night we had our branch game night and we had so many snacks and lots of pizza and played a lot of ping pong and basketball! It was awesome because our branch president, President Gonzalez isn't too bad at ping pong and he was trying to play his nephew but he wasn't the best so I went and grabbed the paddle and President didn't think I would be too good (cause I'm a Sister?) and I totally beat him... haha we certainly gained his respect which was awesome, but the best part was that he acknowledged that I beat him OVER THE PULPIT when he was overviewing the game night yesterday at church haha it was pretty funny.
Thursday we did our weekly planning and this one was even more killer because we planned for the nonmembers as well as members and we have a ton of work to do! We headed to Asherton after our weekly planning but like nobody there was available, and right before we were headed home we passed a trailer that looked pretty nice and I felt inspired we should go knock it and we found a 19 year old named Victoria and she totally let us in and we shared the Book of Mormon with her and we are headed back tonight!
Since Asherton was pretty dead, we came back to Carrizo and visited with Kathy and Chito and Kathy still isn't ready for marriage and she went a little deeper and explained why and we don't blame her, but it's still frusterating because she doesn't want to get married but she also won't live in her house in Crystal so she isn't helping us at all with Chito living the law of chastity, so we are really trying to come up with some ways to help them and it's a good thing my companion has some good ideas because I'm all out of them.
We also visited a family that is less active, the Sanchez family, and they had just gotten home from getting dinner and so they told us to join them so we had some good Golden Chick with them, and then we played the sacrifice game and oh. my. goodness. I wish we would have videod that! Brother Sanchez also had his older brother and nephew over, and it was soooo funny! The sacrifice game is pretty much a game where we have to choose what to "sacrifice" from this moment until we die, and it starts with worldly things such as sports and Tv and phones and friends, and then goes to spiritual things such as scriptures and church buildings and family and then the Atonement comes out, and the whole point of the game is for them to choose to keep the Atonement over everything else, because because of the Atonement, we can have all of these things forever, and it was just so funny to see everybodys reactions when "music" or "friends" or "phones" would have to be sacrificed to keep more important things such as prayer or family or temples. It's a super fun game and it got them thinking for sure! Well the Sanchez family are awesome they just haven't been coming to church and so we asked them what we could do to help them and Sister Sanchez said they don't come because it's her day off and her rest day to do everything, so we told her we would be coming Friday morning to help her clean her house so she doesn't have an excuse not to come to church, haha and IT WORKED. Friday morning we went over there at 10 and left at 11:30, and we DEEP cleaned her 8 year old daughters room, as well as her 6 year old daughters room, and swept and mopped her living room and helped tidy up the kitchen, and then right before we left she said she would come to church so we were pumped! Brother Sanchez also gave us these cute little aloe succulents and they are just so cute!
Friday we were able to find a couple people in Crystal to start teaching, and one is named Jesse and we knocked his door right as they were about to sit down to eat but he invited us in and gave us a plate of food and a coke! It was so cute haha and he accepted a Book of Mormon and we are headed back tomorrow hopefully!
We also found Brindi and she has a cute little baby and we gave her a Book of Mormon and will be going back tomorrow as well!
We visited Jackie and her family on the way home and Jackies step dad BJ did the same cig trick that he did to me the first time I met him and it was so funny! My companion still hasn't been able to figure it out haha. Jackies mom also taught my companion how to make spanish rice, and she is super excited and so am I haha I finally have a companion that can cook!
Saturday we went to Cotulla and we found 5 new people to teach! One of them is named Yanija and we asked if we could share a message and he accepted and he is about 20 years old and we started sharing the book of mormon and he started asking us these really good and sincere questions about salvation and what happens after we die and we literally taught him the plan of salvation on his doorstep haha we got out my little wood pieces and taught it on the back of a book of mormon (because there was no other woman inside so we couldn't go in) but after we were able to answer most of his questions he was like "and where is your church at?" and it was so cool haha he said he would be interested in coming so that was awesome! We just have to find him a ride haha we are like magnets for finding people who don't have a car...
Sunday was a great day at church, we had Jackie come, and then we also had an inactive member named Zac show up, as well as the Sanchez family came and we were so stoked! We have a lot of people tell us every week they will come to church and then when they don't it's always super sad but it's almost something we expect now down here, but we were so happy they came! We really hope to help get them back active again!
We also ate ribs with them last night and it was amazing haha after church they said he was going to smoke ribs and invited us, so of course we went! We played a little matching game with the two girls and it was about Jesus's life, and the 8 year old hasn't been baptized yet but always tells us she wants to be, so we asked her parents what they thought about us coming over to teach her more and they agreed to it!
We had a second dinner with Sister Flores and she made us carne asada and told us her conversion story which was pretty sweet! She has her 10 year old daughter who is a member and comes to church with her, and she also has three other kids who aren't members and we are going to start teaching her 11 year old boy, which will be awesome!
We spent all of our time (other than our dinners) contacting inactive members and it was good and we have a couple return appointments so we are super excited!
This last week was super awesome and we played a lot of ping pong, soccer and basketball with everyone we could that was out on the streets and it's always super funny when people think we are going to be terrible at basketball and then once we make a shot they are always super surprised haha.
Next week I won't have like any time at all to email, so just a heads up that if you email me and I don't respond, I promise to reply the next week!!
Next Monday we are headed to San Antonio early in the morning and our schedule is going to be awesome! We have zone conference on the 28th (Tuesday) and then I have an exchange with 10th ward in San Antonio (with Hermana Abadia Pazos and I'm thrilled) and right after that exchange I have another exchange where I get to go to my baby area, Balcones! and I get to go with Hermana Groll who is my "littlest sister" in mission terms and I seriously can't wait because I hope to be able to see my recent converts!!!! Anyways, we are headed to San Antonio on Monday as early as we can and we are going to go get some good lunch, some food that isn't down here in Carrizo, and then go to the Mercado and then we will go to a mall and then to the riverwalk at night and see all of the lights and it will just be so much fun and so relaxing! But I will try and send a small email next week before we leave to San Antonio!
Last but not least I want to share something from what I have been studying in the Book of Mormon and this last week I was reading in Jacob 5 which is the allegory of the olive tree, and I have been reading it with the institute manual and it has the most amazing insights! I took a picture and will attach it about what the institute manual says about being among the last laborers in the vineyard and I love this analogy so much about the tree and the gospel being spread to all parts of the world and us being a vital part in helping that great work, it is just so awesome!
I hope you all know I love you and pray for you daily and hope everyone is staying happy and strong and making the best decisions that they can in their life!
Have a fantastic week!!
Con amor,
Hermana Griffin :)
Cooking last week!
Painting nails of the Morales kids!
Family Game night!
Jesse sent us home with some good tacos!
Playing soccer with little Jziah!
Our cute Succulent!
We found a new friend!
A nice cactus!
Family game night part 2.
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