Serving in San Antonio Texas: 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 :)