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 :)
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