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!
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