February 24, 2020. Veronica's baptism and New Companion!!

Hello everyone!! We had such an amazing week, seriously like a dream come true with everything that has happened!! We had someone that we have been teaching the whole time I have been here in Carrizo finally follow the example of Jesus Christ and become a member, and it was seriously so amazing!! It has been awesome to have people progressing and just makes missionary work that much more enjoyable :) I LOVE being a missionary and helping people that I would have never met without coming on my mission.

Last Monday we had kind of an interesting start to our week with our visit with Esmerelda. We got there and kind of immediately felt that something was off. Apparently after we set the goal with her about becoming a member on the 22nd, she has thought a lot and said it feels too soon to change everything. We talked with her a lot and the lesson felt like a roller coaster because we would be moving up and up and up and helping her feel better and then she would say "but what if" and then we would go down again, and it was kind of funny because Hermana Gomez was pretty much fuming out of her ears and I could feel the tension which wasn't good to have in the lesson, but by the end of the visit, we had Esmerelda feeling a little bit better and she committed to continue reading in the Book of Mormon and continue trying. We shared an example of someone who was learning about the church and was confused why they hadn't received an answer if it was true or not and someone asked them, "if you were to find out it was true, would you be willing to change what you need to?" and the person said no. When we shared this with Esmerelda, she was like "I think that's it. I don't want to have to change all of these things and change the person I am" so that is pretty much where we are at with her.. We weren't able to visit with her the second time this week because she was out of town, so we hope we can have a good visit with her tonight because we don't want to lose her.

Tuesday we received a text from Veronica that she didn't know about all of this anymore so we immediately drove to her house and were able to talk with her in person, and nothing too bad had happened she was just having fear if it was the right decision to make or not and we shared that fear is not from God and that is one of my favorite quotes, and it helped her a lot. She was so excited by the end of that visit, and we actually went back again that night and we watched the Restoration movie with her and her family (most of her 9 kids were there) and it was amazing! The spirit was so strong and their kids loved it. Afterwards we asked Veronica and her husband what stood out to them and they talked about how they never realized how much Joseph Smith went through and our pioneers, and it helped them understand just how important this gospel really is!
We also visited with Sister Morales (Veronicas mother in law) and Sister Gutierrez (Veronicas aunt) who are both less active that we are working on bringing back to church, and we told them both about Veronicas baptism and they both really wanted to come which was a HUGE miracle because I have actually never even been able to contact Sister Morales before because she has never opened the door to us until that day! We have weekly visits with them and we have high hopes that they will come back to church soon!

Wednesday we started on a great note and we had Veronicas baptism interview in which she passed with flying colors! The elders from Eagle Pass came down and while one of them was interviewing, the other two (they were in a trio for a few days) played against me in ping pong and I beat them both haha it was pretty funny.
That night we had the branch family game night and we had a pretty good turn out! We had some of our members bring their nonmember friends and relatives and it was awesome! We were sad because we couldn't stay long and talk with them, we had to leave and we drove to San Antonio that night to be ready for transfers the next day. We listened to a talk called "What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church?" by Tad R. Callister and it was so amazing! I just want to watch it with everyone we are teaching but it is quite long haha.

Thursday we woke up bright and early and drove to the church and had transfers! I received my new companion, and her name is Hermana Persia Gomez Merele (yes she has 3 last names) and she is from ARGENTINA and she is the SWEETEST! She was serving her mission at Temple Square in Utah, and she had been serving there for about 11 months. As missionaries in Temple Square, they get the opportunity to go into a proselyting mission for 2 transfers (3 months) and she was sent to Carrizo! I am super duper excited for this transfer with her, and super excited for my spanish to grow a ton! I wasn't smart before because I didn't take advantage of when I was companions with my dear Hermana Abadia Pazos and we like never spoke spanish(it's ok because we got super close in english haha) so I feel that this is a second chance for me and a huge blessing to receive another spanish speaker that I can hopefully become fluent by the end of this transfer!
After we met and got all of her stuff in our car, we drove all the way back to our area (which is a 2 hour drive) and then went out on some visits! That night we visited the Sanchez family who have been returning to church, and we are teaching their 8 year old who is turning 9 next week who we will also be baptizing right after she turns 9, and her name is Toni, and anyways when we went over to let our new sister get to know them, the little girls were having a super rough night.. So the Sanchez fam have two daughters and they also have one niece that is staying with them for a while, and apparently their niece and daughters don't get along very well.. We had a lesson planned out but when we got there, we totally didn't go with our plan, but instead sat down with the girls and helped them talk it through (they are 9, 7, and 6 haha) but by the end, they all agreed to work on 3 goals, which were 1- not yelling at each other and 2- not calling each other names and 3- to have patience. Then throughout the next couple of days we were texting Sister Sanchez and she said the girls have been doing better. We went over last night and taught Toni the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we asked her how they are doing with their goals and the girls were like "good! We made friends this past week" and it was a good step haha.

Friday we had our first weekly planning session together and it was actually quite challenging, only because we didn't have much time and we had a ton to plan for, and my comp didn't know anyone or much about doing work in a proselyting area (which isn't at all her fault) but I just had to do everything and there just wasn't enough time haha but we did all of the most important stuff first and everything else will get done eventually :)
That afternoon we went to Veronicas and were planning on going over any thing else she had questions about, but literally like 2 seconds after we walked in the door, Veronica was like "my parents have been asking me a lot of questions the past couple of days and I haven't known how to answer them so can you?" and we turned around and her parents were on the couch haha so we sat down for an hour with her parents and covered so many topics, it was crazy! The first question her dad asked us was about women in the priesthood, because he had known it was one of Veronicas worries. Then they asked if we have any other scripture than the Bible and we explained the Book of Mormon and they both accepted one! We talked a lot about missionary work as well, and faith in Jesus Christ and baptism. We also talked about how we have a prophet on the earth today. They asked us if we have any extra commandments other than the 10 commandments (which was an interesting topic also because we talked about how we don't worship anyone other than God and they said they have always been confused about that as well in their church) and we taught the word of wisdom and law of chastity as well. At the end of the lesson we turned to Veronica and mentioned how we want her to start thinking about when she can go to the temple and at first she was like "as soon as possible" haha then we saw her parents were confused on what exactly a temple was, so we showed them pictures and my comp talked a little about them since she was serving at Temple Square, and they were amazed and it was seriously the coolest lesson haha on their teaching records it says we taught them 40% of the principles, so that was cool haha. They also came to church!!! We invited them to Veronicas baptism, and even though they didn't make it on time for her baptism they came for sacrament service and that was super awesome!
We also went by one of our less active members Rosie and had a good visit with her. Then went back by Sister Morales and she said she was hoping she could come to the baptism but she didn't end up making it either :(
On the way home we stopped by Jackies house, and sadly Jackie wasn't there, but we had a seriously awesome lesson with her mom! We followed up with how she was feeling about Jackie being baptized and she said they have still been talking about it and she will support whatever her daughter decides to do. We somehow got on the topic of the plan of salvation and she talked about her parents passing away, and I looked at her and asked her what her beliefs were about what happens after death, and she thought for a second and then said, "I'm not too sure. I think we will see our families again because I don't know why God wouldn't let us see them again" and we shared a little of our beliefs and gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet which she committed to reading! We invited her and Jackie to Veronicas baptism to come and see what it is like, and she said she would try her best to come, but they sadly didn't make it :(

Saturday we went to Cotulla and had another great lesson with Erica! We taught her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she loved it! She is still struggling with problems at home but has been reading and praying which is good! She also said she would come to church, but didn't :(

Even though a TON of people that said they would come didn't, we still had a GREAT turnout at church! We had 9 nonmembers come, and 5 of them were present for Veronicas baptism which was super awesome :) Veronica had 4 of her kids at church, and then her parents came to church, and we also had Brother Nieto and then Michael, which is one of our members nephews, and then Toni came as well :) I don't think we have had 9 people at church the whole time I have been here in Carrizo, so it was a nice refreshing feeling :)

Best part of the whole week was VERONICA was BAPTIZED!! We woke up Sunday morning, got ready real quick and then went to the church! We started filling the font, set up everything including chairs and the piano and the programs and made sure everything was good to go, and then they showed up (a little late but still ok) and we got her changed and took a few pictures, and then had her baptism service! It was so super special. She was baptized by Brother Chavez who was the same Brother that gave her that priesthood blessing a couple weeks ago. Brother Chavez said the prayer nice and slow (which was nice for us, since my comp and I got to witness it :) ) and it was also awesome because a lot of times, we do these ordinances really fast, and sometimes too fast and it was awesome on his part to take his time and let her feel it. After she came back up out of the water, she looked at her husband and her kids that were kneeling in front of the glass, and as she looked at them she started crying, and it was the most spiritual and precious thing I have ever witnessed. Veronica has the sweetest heart, and one of her goals is to be sealed to her family. We gave her a picture of the San Antonio temple last week as well, and every time we have talked about her being sealed she has cried, so her looking at her family and crying was such a tender moment (im crying just writing about it)
After she was done changing we asked her to give a short testimony and she did and it was super cute :) Then she got confirmed in sacrament meeting, and ah it was so amazing! Brother Chavez gave her a beautiful framed picture of Christ, and we are going to be giving her a scripture quad this week, and are super excited :) We hope to go to the temple SO SOON with her!!

After church we had a great visit with Sister Garza who has a lot of body pain and can't come to church, but the past few times we have gone over, we have gone to read the Book of Mormon to her and every time she has cried while we have been there. She is so sweet and also gives us stuff all of the time! She made a real good bread and cheese thing, but my companion is allergic to gluten and it was made with flour (which my comp can't eat) and it was funny because Sister Garza was like (in spanish) "just a little bit won't hurt you! Remember that when we bless the food and ask that it helps our bodies, it won't hurt us" and it was pretty funny haha I just hurriedly snagged a piece off of hers so it looked like she tried it and my comp was like "mm so good" and it was a funny memory haha
We also got to watch the face to face with the Chavez family and it was awesome! The new youth program is amazing!
We ended our night with the Sanchez family and taught Toni the Gospel of Jesus Christ and talked more about her baptism program, and it was awesome :) we are super excited!!

We also received our Stewardships, or we found out which sisters we cover as Sister Training Leaders, and it is super awesome as well because my Sister Training Leader Companion is Hermana Chamberlain, and she is actually my little sister in the mission which means that my trainer also trained her, and I am so excited to work with her! We were talking a lot last night trying to figure out exchanges and it's going to be a super fun transfer :) We cover the Del Rio sisters and 10th ward sisters (my fav Abadia Pazos) and I am super excited to help these sisters (or try to since they're all so amazing and don't really need help) and get to know them even better!

Thank you all for your love and prayers! You're all so amazing and I am so grateful for all of you! Even though I am super excited for the day I get to see you all again, I also want this time to slow down because it's going way too fast!!

Have the best week ever!
Love Hermana Griffin :)

When we went to Veronica's Daughters Basketball game.

We heart attacked Veronica's door.

Chito and Kathy's doggo.

Cleaning the font! :)

Such good food!

Font all ready to go!

One of the best families ever!

Veronica's Baptism!

Best day!

My New Comp!

A gift for Veronica.

Sister Abadia Pazos with almost all of Veronica's family!

February 17, 2020 Miracle in Carrizo?? WEIRD.

Hello everyone!! This week / past couple weeks have been absolutely incredible and after what feels like FOREVER, the work here in Carrizo is moving forward and the people are progressing!!! We also found out transfer news last night, and I will be staying in Carrizo Springs for the next transfer!! My companion, Hermana Gomez is leaving and going up to Austin, and I will be receiving a sister that is coming from Temple Square and I am so super excited! I don't know her name yet but I will meet her on Thursday and I look forward to it! I will still be a Sister Training Leader, which is super crazy, but also super fun :)

Monday evening we had a FABULOUS lesson with Esmerelda! We have been teaching her ever since Hermana Abadia Pazos was here and have been helping her a ton, and we KNOW she is so prepared, haha she just thinks about the gospel more than she feels it, so we are working on that... BUT we were able to put her on date for baptism!! We have brought it up to her for months and she has always been kind of hesitant, but this time we brought it up as a goal, because in general as people, if we aren't working towards something or have a goal of something we want to accomplish, then we are essentially doing a bunch of stuff with no purpose! We explained that to her and she set a goal to become a member on March 22nd! It was amazing and she said the closing prayer and even asked for help to make it for her goal! We have quite a few things to continue helping her with, but we have super high hopes for her :)

Tuesday we started our day with interviews with President Tveten, and it was amazing :) He traveled all the way down here to Carrizo, but it was worth it for us :) We were able to tell him all about the amazing work that is going on here, and he was super happy to hear that people are finally progressing!
We had a lesson that afternoon with Veronica, and we reviewed the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with her, and taught her the Word of Wisdom as well, which we were a little nervous that she would have troubles with but after talking about it, she was like "that makes sense" and said she is willing to follow it and doesn't have any holdbacks, so we are EXCITED! She is solid for being baptized on the 23rd, which is THIS SUNDAY and I am so excited to see someone enter the waters of baptism, it has been a hot second for this area! We also gave her a little fake rose from the dollar tree and a chocolate bar, and she started crying!! She is so sweet and just has my whole heart. We had more amazing interactions with her this week which I will get to soon :)
That evening we had a lesson with Jackie, and we brought up baptism again and she really wants to be baptized but she is the one that her parents won't let her because she is too young right now(she is 16), but we are really close with her parents(who aren't members) so that has been a bonus! When I first got into this area, Jackie was on date for baptism but her parents wouldn't let her then, and said "maybe in 6 months" so this last week when we went over, I brought up how I have almost been here for 5 months, and asked if they would let us set a goal with Jackie (and brought up again how if we aren't working towards something with Jackie, all of this is for nothing) and her mom agreed!! She allowed us to set a goal with Jackie for the 15th of March, and we are seriously more than happy for her!! We know Jackie is so ready, and we hope her mom continues to have a softened heart!

Wednesday we had a busy day! We started the morning with a call with all of the sisters in our mission, and our mission president and his wife, and we had to listen to it on our drive to Eagle Pass because right after that we had district council! It was a great call though and we got to hear most of it, haha. We had our last district council with Elder Flores, because he is headed back home to Mexico this week and it was super sad! Elder Flores was one of my zone leaders when I was brand new in my mission, and he was my zone leader these past three transfers and he is seriously such a STELLAR missionary, it was sad to say goodbye! He is also super good at soccer and challenged me when I get home, so we will see how that goes haha.
After district council we had exchanges with the sisters in Del Rio, and I got to have Hermana Flores come to Carrizo Springs with me, and it was awesome! She is an amazing missionary as well! She was also Hermana Abadia Pazos' MTC companion, and so it was fun to talk about how amazing she is, and I also got to see some cute pics of their MTC time when we did device audits and it was awesome! With Hermana Flores, we were able to visit the Johnson family, and talk about temples and the daughter is friends with Jackie and we want to take them both to the temple together after Jackie is baptized, which would be so sweet! Then we visited  the Sanchez family and Toni, their 9 year old girl, is planning on being baptized on the 8th of March and we are super pumped for her too :) Then that night when Hermana Flores and I returned home, we got to talking and got to know each other better and had some real deep heart to hearts, and it was super awesome (even though the trial itself sucked) to be able to have gone through some of the stuff she is going through right now, and just be able to talk with her and listen to her, and hopefully help her and I think that is just the best part about being a Sister Training Leader is to have the ability to help these other sisters with anything they are in need of :)

Thursday we exchanged back and I got Hermana Gomez back, and we had another great lesson with Esmerelda, and we watched the Restoration movie with her which was super awesome and powerful! After we spent a few minutes answering her questions, and she brought up the question of "how does the priesthood keep it's importance if so many people in the world can hold it, even eleven year olds? That seems too easy for me if they just hand it out like that" and we weren't exactly sure how to answer that, so we called President Russo after (he knows the answer to everything haha) and explained it essentially as, "The church doesn't need that many priesthood holders. BUT we believe that every family should have the opportunity to have the priesthood in their home" and that was an awesome way to explain it! So we are going back over tonight and will hopefully be able to help her some more :)

Friday was Valentines Day and we spent a ton of time that day heart attacking houses of our members, and we also heart attacked Veronicas house and she was so happy! We had another great lesson with her and we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost, and when we were talking about it she started crying and said "I want that. That would be nice." I felt prompted to tell her about the vision we have for her family too, which is to one day to see her and her family in the temple, in all white, being sealed for time and all eternity and we all felt the Spirit and she was crying and it was just a tender moment for sure! She is super ready for her baptism this week :)

Saturday we went to Veronicas daughters basketball game and it meant so much to her that we would come and support her family, and that family seriously just has my heart! I am so super excited for that family and their potential in this gospel!
We went to Cotulla and had another lesson with Erica, and we brought one of her highschool friends who is an active member of our church, and she literally taught almost the whole lesson haha! Erica has been going through a lot with her family but she was even the one to recognize that every time she has come closer to God, Satan tries so hard to throw stuff in her path and we are happy she is recognizing it! She is reading the Book of Mormon which is awesome as well!

Yesterday we had Jackie come to church, as well as the Johnson family (they are technically active now which is AWESOME) and we had Kathy (Chito's girlfriend) come to church as well which was another miracle!! Then we visited with the Johnson family after and their daughter, Samantha, mentioned how she might want to go on a mission!! It was the cutest thing, she is loving church (she is 17) and reading her scriptures all the time, and is hopefully going to bring some friends to our branch game night this week as well!!

This week is going to be crazy as usual! We are driving back up to San Antonio for transfers, and in the midst of that we have to plan for the baptism and clean the church and have her interview, and all that good stuff haha it will be exciting!

ONE request for everyone! If you could PLEASE keep the people that are progressing towards baptism in your prayers that they can continue to have the strength and courage to stay strong, we would appreciate it a ton!! Please pray for Veronica (february 23rd)
Toni (march 8th)
Jackie (march 15th)
Esmerelda (march 22nd)
Chito (march 29th)
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

I have been slacking at wishing people happy birthday so I am going to catch up!! Happy (late) Birthday to all of these wonderful family and friends of mine!! Marcia (7th) Trudy (9th) Kennadee (12th) Allison Schellenberg (my trainer) (14th)
Happy Birthday this week to my younger cousins, Boston Griffin (17th) Emma and Madi (20th) & my big Brother Kaden (20th) who is the most amazing example to me, and one of my best friends Sara (22nd) who I have grown so close to and am so grateful for her outpouring of love and support! I love you all and hope you had/have the most amazing birthdays!!

I love you all tons and am so thankful always for your love and support! Have the most wonderful week and know I am sending my love all the way from Carrizo Springs, Texas!

Much love, Hermana Griffin :)

Our District.

Such awesome Elders.

Hermana Flores...

Pt. 2

A Flag we have signed at the Chavez Home.

I have  the best Family!

Our gift for Veronica!

Servants of the Lord- February 10, 2020

Happy Monday family and friends! This week was absolutely fabulous and crazy here in Texas, but so much fun as well! Hitting 1 year this past week was crazy, I honestly can't believe how fast time has flown! I can't seem to ever write a short email haha so have fun! I love you all!

We had an amazing lesson with Alicia and helped her understand more about why there was a need for The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and she understood it well for the most part! We are still a little bummed cause she hasn't been able to make it to church yet, but we have high hopes for her!

We met someone named Judy this past week in Crystal, and I am adding this because we laughed about it for a good 10 minutes after we met her, it was awesome. We knocked her door and she answered it kind of laughing (like she was high) and her first line was "Hey, is this important because we were just about to smoke" hahah and we were like "yes this is important" so we introduced ourselves and once we said missionaries her whole character changed and she got a little more serious haha but she still didn't let us share a message cause she also said they were about to go get her kids... hahah it was so funny just everything that happened in those 3 minutes.

There were MIRACLES this past week as well (like always) but especially with Veronica! She is someone that Hna. Abadia Pazos started teaching when she was here, she is the wife of a member who hasn't been active but we have been teaching and visiting her for as long as I've been here.. ANYWAYS we went over Tuesday because we have been worried about her (sometimes she doesn't like to reply to people) and she told us of some stuff that has been going on and how she was headed to the doctor and might need surgery and she was just super uneasy and nervous the whole time.. Then she asked us what we had come prepared for her that day and we shared the video The Savior Understands Me (my fav) and she just loved it. She loved it so much that she agreed to setting a goal of when she wants to be baptized!! We were able to talk with her and we put her on date for February 23rd!! It is super soon haha but we are super excited for her and really hope to see miracles! We could tell how uneasy she was so we also asked one of our members, Brother Chavez, to come and give her a priesthood blessing and he did, and it was SO. POWERFUL. Veronicas parents aren't members, and so before the blessing Brother Chavez gave a little (like 10 min haha) speech about what a blessing is and why it was important, and then the spirit was so strong during the blessing and he told her everything would be ok and after the blessing, her mother and father both were crying and they thanked us all a ton and it was just such a beautiful experience, I loved it. Another blessing is that everything did go great for her, she came home a couple days after going to the doctor as well and is getting better, and she said she is "praying like never before" and so we are super hopeful for her, please keep her in your prayers!

I hit 1 year last Wednesday and it was a crazy day haha we woke up and got ready and did our morning routine and then my mom sent me a cute banner thing so I took a pic w it and then we left! We drove to Eagle Pass and had our district council and we gave a training on the new focus we have been doing in this area regarding working with less active members, and also working on helping everyones relationship with Jesus Christ. The training went great and our district was excited to try and see what would help them in their areas! After district council we drove to Uvalde and exchanged with the Hermanas from Adams Hill! I came back to my area with Hermana Harston and we had a great night! We even got into the home of a member who hasn't come in years, and got to show a video to her kids and she said they would come to church (they didn't) but we are still visiting and working with them!
That night I received a call from some of my favorite Hermanas ever (Hermana Abadia Pazos & Hermana Thayne) and they sung "happy birthday" to me hahah it was the cutest thing and I love those hermanas so much!

We had a great day Thursday which literally consisted of our studies, doing device audits, we drove to San Antonio (which was kind of funny because she kept falling asleep on me (which isn't allowed) but to be fair it is a long drive haha) and we got to San Antonio, exchanged back to our regular companionships, went and ate at Chuys, and then finished our night with weekly planning since that would be the only time we would be able to cause we are running around like crazy!

My head almost exploded on Friday though haha because we had our Mission Leadership Council, which is just like another zone conference but we are focused more on how we can help our mission become better and help the missionaries improve, and it was so super amazing! We were priveledged to have two brethren from the Missionary Department in Salt Lake City come and give us some trainings, and the Spirit was so strong and we literally had 7 pages of notes to send out to the hermanas we cover haha. We also had a call with our Hermanas on Saturday morning and explained the key points of what they want us to focus on, and I loved it cause I got to see all of the hermanas faces (because sometimes it feels like we are 1,000,000 miles away from everyone) and getting to talk to my favorite hermana(s) was great too! One of my favorite things we talked about in MLC was how we are representatives of Jesus Christ and it gave me the extra boost I have been needing to continue going, and continue bettering myself and trying to become like Our Savior Jesus Christ. I LOVED Mission Leadership Council!

We had a great weekend in Cotulla, and saw how we are truly the Lords Servants and how we are here to (try to) do what He would if He were here. First we had a visit with the Jimenez family, and they are a family who moved from Eagle Pass for work, but the wife doesn't enjoy Cotulla (it's super small) and so they are always back and forth between Eagle Pass and Cotulla so they don't come to church much, but we visited them on Saturday and they committed to coming to church and we also got them to set reminders on their phones to read the Book of Mormon every single day with the Come Follow Me manual, and wow we just love the Jimenez family so much and hope we can help get them active!!
I'm not sure how many of you remember Liliana, but she was someone we found about a month ago and I gave her my special Book of Mormon which had a picture of my family in it, and she told us "I want this." Well, last week when the Hermanas went by, she told them that she knows she said she needed God in her life, but it was too crazy at that time so last week we dropped her and stopped teaching her. Well we are also teaching someone else who lives in her apartment complex, so when we went to that person on Saturday, she was sitting outside and we were just gonna say hi and ask how she was doing and then go to the other apartment, but as soon as we said hi and asked how she was, she started bawling.. We walked to her and she was sitting on her door step, and we both just crouched down, each of us took one of her hands, and we listened.. and wow.. she has been through way too much recently.. I can't say a lot, of what has happened other than her boyfriend was terrible, and she gave her mother custody of her daughter.. She isn't in a great place right now and is struggling super bad. We walked down the street and got a hamburger with her, and then sat in her apartment and talked with her. I felt inspired to bring up the poem called Footprints, and as soon as I mentioned it she grinned, amidst her tears, and pointed to the table next to us which had a book titled Footprints, which had the poem in the front as well. We were able to testify of Jesus Christ and His Atonement He did for us, and she committed to praying and reading every single day. We are praying for her a lot, and hope she can stay strong and do what's right regarding the next decisions in her life.
That night we PARTIED and we went to a quincenera for one of our youth in our branch, and we were able to be like cafeteria ladies and serve the people their food and it was so fun! We got to see a lot of the branch there, as well as a few people we are teaching who are friends with Annaliese, and we ate some good food and had too many treats haha but wow, she looked so beautiful and it was so much fun! It was my first one, and it was amazing!

Yesterday we had a pretty successful day regarding people coming to church! It is kind of funny because we noticed that when we are able to get all of the less active families to come to church, none of our active families come (the whole family that were a part of the quincenera, haha they were apparently "too tired") but we were able to have the Jimenez family come, the Sanchez family, as well as Jackie, and Chito and Kathy came (with 10 min left of church haha) but it's ok cause we got to have a lesson with them afterwards and we are hopefull we will continue to be able to help him! We figured out where he is at and we are going to do more baby steps with him, but he promised to start reading and him and Kathy even put reminders on their phones as well!

Last night we had some amazing visits! We visited a lot of members we want to help come back to church, and we started our night visiting members with the Sanchez family and we taught their 8 year old girl who we are teaching to help her be baptized, and we taught her about the Holy Ghost and we set up a maze in her front yard and blindfolded her and I was "the Holy Ghost" and everyone else there was trying to make it so she would trip over things, but she listened to my voice and made it through all of it without even touching anything!! We were able to talk more with her parents as well, and she turns 9 on March 4th, so as of now, she is on date for March 1st!! We are excited for her as well and really hope she starts to read (she has been slacking a lot) but we told her this is her decision and if she really wants it she will do it, and she said she would haha so we are super excited for them!
We stopped by another family, and last week she was the one that said they would come to church but when they didn't we wanted to go see how they were doing, and we were able to play a game with the kids which was a matching game about Jesus Christ and His life, and the kids were so cute and they know so much about Jesus for being younger than 8! We hope we can keep visiting them and they will come back soon! We ended the night going by the Flores family and they have all been recovering from a sickness, but THEY asked US how church was and one of them said they wanted to go but they were all sick and then we brought up transfers and how they are next week, and I told them "If I get transferred, I don't want to leave until I see the Flores family come to church" and they said they will come this week! We hope and pray for miracles!!

This week will be as exciting as all the others haha tomorrow we have interviews with President Tveten and he is driving down here to Carrizo so that will be nice haha and then we also have our last exchange of this transfer this week with the Hermanas in Del Rio and Hermana Flores will be coming to Carrizo for a day!
We also find our transfer news this next Sunday, agh time is going WAY too fast, it is so crazy that another transfer has come and gone!!

I love you all and I hope everything is going great in your lives! If you ever need anything (that I can help with while being down here basically in Mexico haha) please let me know!!

Have a wonderful week!!
Con amor,
Hermana Griffin :)

EXCHANGES/HOMELESS/ONE YEAR, February 3, 2020

Well hello family and friends!! This week was seriously the most stressful and crazy, yet FUN week of my mission and I am SO EXCITED to be able to tell you all about it!! I know my emails are usually quite lengthy but this one will be especially long, if you read this whole thing I will be very impressed!! Keep in mind that ALL of the people I am going to mention in this email are NOT in my area haha because I didn't get home until Saturday night.. ERA UNA SEMANA LOCA!!

We started our crazy week by driving up to San Antonio and we were able to go to the Mercado and the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio and it was so fun! We were able to buy lots of cute things and take some cute pictures, and it was a super fun day! It was awesome because we don't have much to do down here in our little town of Carrizo, so it was awesome to have a day in the city and have some fun! We met someone named Ernest who came up to us and we were able to get a referral for the 10th ward sisters so that was such a blessing!

Tuesday is when the week went INSANE! We had zone conference which is amazing as always, and after zone conference we met up with 10th ward (my bff Abadia Pazos) and I went to her area with her and it was the most amazing exchange ever! We went by a lesson she had scheduled and we met him at Starbucks but he hadn't read from the Book of Mormon yet and we had another lesson to get to so we rescheduled our lesson so that was ok! We went to another lesson they had scheduled and ended up going to the wrong address, but we found someone new for the sisters to start teaching! Then we went to some potentials and literally nobody was home and it was kind of crazy haha but I found out that there is such thing as an "exchange curse" which is that every time you go on an exchange with your leader, everything cancells and that is exactly what happened with this one, and Hermana Abadia Pazos wasn't super happy about it but it was an awesome learning experience :) There was even a lesson we went to that night that she was 100% sure he wouldn't cancel, but it did and she was super sad haha so all 4 of the lessons she had scheduled for us that night cancelled, but we decided to go by Ernest, who we met the night before and he wasn't home but we taught him a lesson over the phone and the sisters have a return apt so that was another new person for them! Then we ate dinner at Wingstop (a classic for us, since we went to Wingstop in Eagle Pass a couple times) and I said a silent prayer and just asked for Heavenly Fathers help to let us see a small miracle with all of these lessons falling through, and we did! We stopped by a potential and it was crazy because we asked for a Mercedes but a different Mercedes came to the door than we were expecting, and we introduced who we are and what we do and she totally accepted a Book of Mormon and invited us back and her whole family is huge! We found 2 more new people for the sisters to start teaching, so in total that night we found 4 and it was a huge success in my eyes!
It was kind of scary being like the "leader" in the sense that I'm not used to being the Sister Training Leader, but I learned something huge this week which is that we need to focus more on the little miracles that happen and just not try to control things that we can't. My cute Hermana Abadia Pazos was super sad that all 4 of our lessons fell through and in turn it made her think the exchange wasn't a good one, but I love being a leader and just having the opportunity to help other sisters see the bigger picture, it's been a super fun week helping other sisters :)

We got back to her apt that night and just talked for FOREVER and I didn't even get to write in my journal that night which NEVER happens haha but it was SO GOOD to catch up w her and I even got to torture her again and do her eyebrows cause she asked me to haha I think I'm changing my profession from a nurse to a cosmetologist cause I'm good at doing eyebrows now ;) haha jk

Wednesday we had to exchange back and it was super sad saying goodbye to my bff again :( but it makes me just that much more grateful for the forever best friends I have gained on my mission and I know she is one of them!! She even cried when she said goodbye to me again haha "la bebe" is what I called her ;) Then Sister Carter and I had a few hours to kill between our next exchange with the other sisters so we had dinner and then we went and visited a member in their ward and took them the new Come Follow Me book, and then got some frozen yogurt on the way to my baby area, Balcones!

I was in Balcones with Hermana Groll for about 36 hours.. yes... super crazy stuff happened.. haha alright so I'll try and say this all so it makes sense. So I arrived in their area Wednesday night and we just went to their apartment and talked and got ready for bed and all that fun stuff. Thursday we woke up and did personal study and companionship study, then had lunch and then one of my favorite things from this week (other than spending a day w Hna Abadia Pazos) was that I GOT TO SEE MY RECENT CONVERT XIOMARA and wow that was such a joy and truly makes missionary work so worth it to see recent converts so involved in the gospel and so happy! We called her that morning and she said she wouldn't be home that night which was super sad but then cute Hermana Groll asked her if she was home at that moment so we just went right on over, and wow it was just so amazing! We visited for a few minutes and she even showed me that she had her christmas card right by her picture from her baptism, cute huh?? aww i just love her so much! sadly i couldn't see Hoffmara, her daughter, because she was in school but I'm still grateful I could see Xiomara :)
After our visit with Xiomara we went and did service at a food pantry and then after that we went to the church and did device audits and had dinner and changed for our lessons we would have that evening.. well, we texted the other sisters to confirm what time and where we would be meeting (because we had confusion with 10th ward sisters and we didn't want that again) and then the sisters called us.. THEY GOT IN A CAR CRASH! So, we found out HOURS after it happened, and what happened is they went to make  a U turn ( it was a one lane road going both ways with a median in the middle with a break ) and the sister had her blinker on that she was turning left, but swung right to make the turn (idk how much she swung right tho) and the car behind them thought they were turning into the apartment complex on the right so they tried to pass them on the left, and then bam, the sisters got t boned :( the sister driving has a concussion and a sprained back but the other sister is fine, just a little sore :( anyways, so we get this call that they got in this crash and we started kind of freaking out! We were supposed to exchange back that night, but our mission president wanted to visit the sisters so we changed our time to exchange back to the morning on Friday, so I got 2 nights w Hermana Groll and it was a blast cause she also told me my fortune haha it was fun! For our exchange though, our lesson fell through ( exchange curse ) and we were planning on exchanging that night so we didn't have much else planned, but then we went to a potential that the sisters wanted to contact, and we ended up finding out a different family lived there, and we actually started teaching them, so on that exchange we also found FOUR people for them to start teaching which was awesome!!

Friday morning comes around and we drive all the way to Adams Hill and exchange back with the sisters.. Keep in mind that I was supposed to be back in my regular area in Carrizo Springs on Friday morning, but Adams Hill didn't have a car now because of the crash so I was now spending the day in Adams Hill area.. haha this is why part of my subject is titled HOMELESS because I stayed in 4 different beds last week which was funny haha but I went to Adams Hill area and we did service at the food bank which was AWESOME because guess who I got to see again?!?!? mi chula hermana Abadia Pazos :) it was super fun haha and also I was able to get my jacket that I forgot in their car (which was a blessing because the night I was in Balcones I didn't have a jacket and that was terrible) but I had a great time at the food bank and a great time seeing other missionaries :)
After service at the food bank we took their car to Caliber Collision to get an estimate done, and then we (I) had to drive that beat up car all night haha we took it to dinner and then luckily for us, after dinner the relief society president picked us up, and we went and helped investigators move into their house!! They are an older couple moving from California that have been learning about the church and they are awesome!! We spent all day Friday doing service though which was pretty fun!

Saturday, we had no idea what our schedule would look like because we were essentially waiting for the truck that the sisters will have until their car gets fixed and so Saturday was a huge office missionary work day haha. We did our studies, we called the district and zone leaders of the hermanas we went on exchanged with and reported the exchanges, we figured out the rest of our exchanges and some other things we had to do for our stewardship (it's hard not having your Sister Training Leader companion be your actual companion because you can never really talk about all of it) so it was nice to have that day to figure it all out haha. The Assistants brought the truck finally and then we were able to drive to Dilley ( an hour away) and I got to see my normal companion, Hermana Gomez, for the first time in what seemed like forever haha but
THE SISTERS DID AMAZING WORK IN OUR AREA THE WHOLE WEEK!! I got in our usual car and we started driving home (another hour of driving) and she began telling me all that had happened that week! She said they had found TEN people to start teaching, and she was just pumped!
When I was with Hermana Abadia Pazos she showed me this awesome thing called the Ricciardi (idk if i spelled that right) Letter, and I encouraged Hermana Gomez to read it and when I was back with her she was telling me she read it and even did a few things like when someone answered their door, she saw a picture of their son on the wall in the military and she said she just walked in and started talking to them about their son haha anyways, it sounded like the sisters had a good week in our area even though Hermana Gomez was expecting me back on Friday morning, she survived until Saturday evening so that was good!
I finally got back home after a long and crazy week and was able to sleep in my own bed and I slept like a baby haha which is kind of funny because all of the mission beds are the same...

I was happy I made it back to my area by church on Sunday though haha we had a good service and had three less actives come to church so slowly but surely we are helping people come back! It was funny too because after our sacrament service ended, our branch president asked us if we could teach sunday school haha TWO MINUTES before it started, but we managed to do it alright ;)

Last night was a lot of visiting people to see how they are doing and it was good to be able to see MY people again haha it is going to be a super sad day when I have to leave my people here in Carrizo Springs :(

I HIT ONE YEAR IN MY MISSION ON WEDNESDAY WHICH IS LITERALLY MIND BLOWING TO ME.
I have loved this experience more than anything in my life though, and I am so grateful for all that I have learned and how I have changed and grown on my mission. It is literally my favorite work to be a part of and I will always cherish this time of my life.

I was reading a talk this past week titled The Immediate Goodness of God by Elder McKay and this sentence stuck out to me. It says, "I promise that as you turn to Him with real intent and full purpose of heart, He will deliver you from everything that threatens to deminish or destroy your life or joy."
I absolutely love this quote and I know the importance of turning to Him with everything we have in us. I love this gospel and our Savior Jesus Christ, and I love being a missionary!!

If you made it to the end, wow I am impressed haha
I love you all so much!
Have a wonderful week!
Love Hermana Griffin :)

Curry on Monday!

Found Home!

Fun at the Mercado!

My new rings!

Downtown San Antonio!

Great drinks!

Riverwalk...

My cute Companion!

Riverwalk....

Zone Conference.

Wingstop with Abadia Pazos.  :)

Our Matching PJ's!  :)

Our cute polaroids!

Seriously like my best friend!

Lots of pics!

Matching rings!

Our classic tradition haha

Raising canes is so good!

Frozen yogurt!

Xiomara!

More curry!

Hermana Groll!

Playing baseball with the Chavez Family!

Elders helping with the spare tire!

I love my family!

Such a fun time!