I'll start by updating you on Esmerelda, since a lot of people have asked me about her! We REALLY appreciate all of your prayers for her, and they are working!! We had a lesson with her last Monday, and she was probably the happiest that I have ever seen her! She spent the weekend with her family, but she also had been watching a ton more videos about our church (good ones from the church website) and she loves them! She said that she noticed that something has been trying to make her not be happy and she recognized it was Satan! We were also able to talk about her progression with the Word of Wisdom, and she finally gained enough desire to quit her habits that we were able to set goals! This has been the first time we have brought it up and she has actually had the motivation to start quitting, which is a MIRACLE!! We have been in contact throughout the week and she is progressing better in the word of wisdom! We have a lesson with her tonight and will talk more about the Law of Chastity, so please pray some more so that can go well also!
We had our first after-baptism lesson with Veronica, and it was so cute! We gave her a new quad of scriptures and the little picture/note book that we made her to remember her baptism, and she started crying! She said we apparently just love to make her cry haha. It was a good visit and she even told us how "it felt like she had a backpack on her whole life, and now it's gone" and this is important because it will come into play in a second. A little bit after we visited with Veronica, two of her kids got home from school, Luke(15 years old) and Bernadine(11 years old). We started chatting with them both about how they felt at their moms baptism and what their thoughts were, and Bernadines words were "it was awesome to see my mom get baptized, and it makes me want to do it even more" and Luke said "watching her, I knew she felt something. It was like a load was taken off of her back, kind of like she had a backpack that was holding her down, and when she came up, it was gone" and as those words came out of his mouth, Veronica almost passed out hahah they hadn't talked one bit about the baptism, and they said the exact same thing and it was crazy. Well, we talked about their desires in the church and they both want to follow their mom and be baptized, so we put them on date for March 29th!! We taught them both the whole Restoration and it was super awesome, we are seriously so excited!!!
Later that night Veronica texted us and asked us to come back by, and they gave us a huge plate of brisket hahah we LOVE that family so stinkin much. They're the best.
On Wednesday we had district council and then on the way back from Eagle Pass to Carrizo, we have to go through border patrol, and this was rough... hahah on the drive home, I realized we would have to go through it and I had a bad feeling my comp didn't have her passport (it was also my fault because I totally forgot to inform her we had to go through border patrol) and we got there and they asked "are you both us citizens?" and we said "no" and they asked if we had her passport and we said no and so they asked us to pull to the side and they would look up her name. WELL. Her name is SUPER long, and at first they couldn't find her name when they looked her up in the system, and we sat there for a good 30 min thinking the whole time she would get deported... hahah they finally found her name though in the system and we were good to go. We got straight home and she put her passport in her bag.
We had Mission Leadership Council this past week, and it was super fun! We drove up to San Antonio on Thursday night and got some rolled ice cream which I haven't had since I was home (and it was gooooooood) and spent the night with other sisters, and it was awesome haha we had a story night which consisted of my companion telling the other sisters her scary stories of terrorists she had met that come to Temple Square... super crazy stuff haha.. I also got to see my little sisters in the mission and it was so cute!! The first time the Schellenbergitas have been together ;) hahaha Well we learned a lot of amazing stuff at MLC and had a really cool training about teaching online, either through facebook messenger or like a facetime, and it was perfect for what happened this weekend for us! I'll get to it soon ;)
One of the best parts about MLC was we arrived in our Nissan Rogue, and we left with a Toyota Tacoma! SO. NICE. and I am SO. HAPPY. to have this truck!!
We were driving home that night, and Jackie had been struggling all week with doubts about being baptized or not and she kept wanting to wait a while longer, but thankfully we had extra time that we didn't think we would have that night, so we stopped by her house and had such an amazing visit with her. We sat down and I just asked her whats up, and she started to explain how she doesn't know why, but she just doesn't feel ready. She couldn't find a reason why though, and so we helped to explain that these doubts and this confusion is Satan trying to stop her from accepting this gospel and receiving all the blessings that come from it, and that helped her a bit. Jackie grew up in another religion, but so did my companion as well so it was awesome that they were able to connect on that and it helped Jackie a lot. When we left, she was 100% set on being baptized on the 15th and we are seriously so excited for her. I realized that she is basically the same age as Makell, and I think that is why I care just so much for her and want this so badly for her because I look at her as one of my little sisters. I am just thrilled she ready to accept the gospel, and her mom said she will support whatever decision she makes, so it's awesome :)
Saturday we started our day with a video call with all of the Sisters in our stewardship and we just told them about MLC and things they should know, and it was great to see and be able to talk to the sisters, especially my fav Hermana Abadia Pazos, I love being her Sister Training Leader and being able to chat with her every so often haha and then we had another long day of driving haha we went to District Conference (like Stake Conference but a lot smaller) in Del Rio, so that was quite the drive.. we left at 12:30 with our branch president and his wife, and got there right before 3 pm. There were leadership trainings, and the adult session and our mission president, President Tveten, was speaking and it was super awesome! We also got to see the Hermanas that serve in Del Rio and it was awesome! One of them is the one I was able to "inspire" (as she says) regarding when we went on the exchange last transfer, and I just followed up with her about how things were going and she felt a lot better, and that is just one of the best things to hear as a Sister Training Leader is that I am able to help other sisters out, I love it!
Sunday was full of miracles as well!! We had a pretty decent turn out at church! It was an amazing service as well because we were streamed into District Conference in Del Rio, and all of the talks were so amazing and touched every single person in our building! We had the Johnson family there, and they have been returning which is awesome, and also the Sanchez family! We had 5 nonmembers come as well! Michael which is one of our members nephews, and then Toni came, and so did Jackie (it was her birthday so we had some cake after) and so did Esmerelda, and we had this boy named Donovan walk in, and he is 19! He introduced himself as "half mormon" which we didnt understand haha so he explained it as "I believe and know everything, I just haven't been baptized yet" and we were like "hahah we can help you with that!!!" it was so cool haha SO MANY MIRACLES are happening in this little area of Carrizo and I'm lovin it. The cool thing is that the trainings we had in MLC about teaching over social media came in super handy with him, because Donovan doesn't have a working phone but has an apple watch, so we can message through that, and so we were able to have a lesson with him through messenger yesterday and it's gonna be super awesome!
Last night we also had dinner with the Johnsons and wow. It was so good. But also so. much. food. hahah it was insane. It was a super good time at dinner though and even though Brother Johnson doesn't want to come back to church, he listened to our message and he liked it too! His wife and daughter are technically active now which is super awesome, and the daughter talked more about how now she is PLANNING on serving a mission!! She mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but then at district conference, a recently returned missionary talked and some of her words were " if you have ever but thought if you should serve a mission or not, do it. you will never look back on that time and regret it, and it will bless your life forever " and that really hit her, so now she is planning on a mission and it's so super cute!! Her dad is supportive too which is a good step for that family!
After dinner last night we had a lesson with some people that we have been trying to teach for forever, and Anthony is a less active member, and then we also taught Cassandra and her sister Nadia, and it was a super cool lesson! We started talking about the plan of salvation but then Nadia had pretty much come prepared with questions she had for us, and it was super good! They were like sincere questions and it seemed like she was really impressed with our beliefs! We invited them both to the baptism we have this weekend, and they all seemed excited!
Our last lesson we had was with our little Toni, and she turns 9 on Wednesday and then gets baptized on Sunday (she really wanted to be baptized before her birthday, but we couldn't yesterday because of district conference) so she gets baptized this Sunday and we are super excited for it! She is having this big party on Saturday too which she invited us to and it was so cute.
This week is going to be a crazy busy week as well, and we are excited! I just want to again thank you all for your love and prayers, this has been one of the most amazing transfers to see this gospel actually changing their lives now and I'm loving it so much! I am kind of in denial that I hit 13 months this week, time is going too fast!
I hope you all have the best week!
Les quiero mucho!!
Con amor,
Hermana Griffin
Our introduction video!
Curry!
Rolled Ice-cream!
My little sisters (even though they are taller than me!)
Basketball for exercise!
Our new Truck!
Our delicious dinner with the Johnson family!
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