Tuesday we started our week with a mission call and some elders helped us all learn how we can be more effective through our Facebook efforts! It was super awesome and we have been working a lot through Facebook which I never thought would be our prime finding tool on my mission but at this point, it is!
Through Facebook, we friended Corina who is super cute and has loved us sharin messages with her throughout the week, and we also friended Pedro who we started sharing the gospel with as well! We friend (a lot) more people but the ones that actually accept us, read our message and reply (and are interested) are very few compared to the amount of people we friend haha but it's just like knocking doors! The amount of interested people we find compared to the amount of doors we knocked was very few as well haha.
Tuesday we also got to do our favorite thing ever hahahah Dora from the nursing home drove over here and brought us the stuff to do the huge calendars that we do for the nursing home every month! It's like their activity calendar haha and it takes at least 2 hours to finish them, so that his how we spent our Tuesday evening (she was supposed to bring them in the afternoon so we could have the evening to call people but she brought them in the evening and needed them done the next morning so we didn't have much of a choice haha) We listened to the Joseph Smith Papers Podcasts while we did the calendars and that was so awesome! Those podcasts were super cool to listen to right before conference!
(I also made fudge that night and mmmhmmm it was gooooooood)
Wednesday was April Fools and the only thing we could really do was a joke on other missionaries so we called Adams Hill (Hermana Chamberlain (my STL companion) and Hermana Harston) and told them my comp, Hermana Persia, was being sent back to her home country in Argentina... but then my comp told them the truth haha it was my comps idea, not mine... but yeah we got the Hermanas good haha. Also, I can't believe it's already April?! What in the world?!
I received my favorite package ever on Wednesday which was an 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon! Ever since studying more about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, I have been so fond of the way the old book of mormons were and so I got one and it came and it is the coolest thing I'll ever own haha
We called the Sanchez family that night and they were doing work in their lawn and as of right now, the only service we can do is outside service so we asked if they needed help and they said sure so we ran (literally ran, but it's only like a few blocks haha) to their place and helped them in their yard for a bit!
Thursday we got up and first thing is we made the video that we posted on Facebook last week! I was studying in my study journal about the restoration and I really wanted to share it with everyone and invite everyone to General Conference and that idea came to my mind to do the video, so we did it! It took us about an hour to make that two minute video (because of how many times I messed up haha) and I still messed up in the one I posted , but I didn't even realize I messed up until I got to the church to post it... so if you've noticed my mistake, just know it was an accident and I promise I do know the basic doctrine of the church hahah
That evening we had a movie night as a mission! Obviously we can't get together as a mission but right at 8 pm we all pressed play on our phones and watched the Restoration movie and it was awesome! We had a messenger chat open with comments and insights coming during the movie and it was super awesome! I love that movie so much and it was amazing to see it right before all of the general conference talks about the Restoration!
Friday was super awesome! We called Veronica and talked with her about how they are all doing and talked about her kids (her two oldest daughters are not members and haven't been taught in a while) so we decided we would reach out to them and apparently neither of them liked that hahah we didn't get a response from either of them, but Veronica texted us saying they were upset so that was sad :( We will still keep praying for them that their hearts will be softened and they can all become a forever family sooner than later! While we were talking with Veronica, we brought up her next child that will be 8 in May (Charlie) and she turns 8 on May 28th, and we were able to put her on date for May 31st! It is so sweet and while we had one of our last lessons in person with them a few weeks ago, before Luke and Bernadine were baptized, we mentioned how Luke could baptize his little sister Charlie and the whole family was in tears it was so cute!
That night we friended Amanda, and oh. my. goodness. she is AMAZING and a pure miracle. We are still having a hard time believing she is real hahah. I will tell y'all more about her!
Saturday we watched General Conference all day and that was definitely one of my most favorite conferences and one of my most favorite days on my mission! I (just like everyone else) found it so cool that two youth spoke in it! I also love love love the new symbol! One of my favorite things I heard that day was when we were reminded how "the Lord loves effort!" and I just loved that. It goes directly into what we are doing with our lives at this point and especially as missionaries! Yes, we are stuck inside our apartments and yes, it is different missionary work than we ever thought we would be doing, but whether we are putting in effort walking 10 miles a day, or putting in effort by calling and texting people all day to share the gospel, it is still effort!! I loved that and it really helped us know that as long as we are doing all we can, given the circumstances, then the Lord is proud of us, and we have seen that as well through Amanda!
Sunday I hit 14 months in my mission and I still can hardly believe I have been a missionary for 14 months of my life!!
We heard President Nelson share with us the Restoration Proclamation and I. LOVE. IT!!! I want to memorize it which I know is a lot but it's one of my many goals I have set hahah
OK. AMANDA!!! (this is long so if you want to read about a miracle, read it but if not you can skip it)
She is a literal miracle. So we have been doing finding through Facebook, and we went into an online garage sale group for a town we cover, and we click on profiles and see where they live and if they are in our area, then we friend them. So we friended Amanda, and after she accepted our request we sent her a message saying something like "Thank you for accepting our request! We are missionaries for our church, would you mind if we asked you a question?" and then we've been asking people one of the questions of the soul : what do you think the purpose of this life is, so we asked her that and I am going to share some of the conversations we have had with her over the weekend! When she answered the purpose of this life she basically said to live it to the fullest and treat others how we want to be treated and we said we agreed and said generally we also believe it is a time to prepare to meet God and asked if she agreed and she said yes that is true. We later asked what she would classify her religion as and she said Christian, she grew up catholic but didn't like it but likes us and another church haha then she goes to tell us she want's to be a "mormon" but her fiance doesn't want to. She kept telling us she would try to persuade and convince him hahah we told her he didn't have to be a member for her to become one and she was super surprised and excited! She told us he told her she would have to go on missions, but asked how that would work because she has a son at home, so we explained how missions are optional haha. This was Friday, so we asked if she had heard of General Conference and she said she hadn't and then asked how she could go about watching it so we shared it with her, and SHE. WATCHED. ALL. OF. IT.
Yesterday we messaged her and she said she "really loved how President Nelson talked about Moses and effort and how God loves effort. I also love how they clarified what to repent means, to ask for forgiveness and change your ways. I also love the emphasis on family time in the little break commercials :) " isn't she amazing?! Ok then she messaged us and said she needed advice because her fiance keeps disagreeing with it and she really wants to become a part of this religion and she shared how she wants "a mormon husband" (we need to fix that, we know haha) then she told us she follows the word of wisdom and has been praying that he will make this decision with her! Then she was like "he can't understand that this church is the most loving, Jesus-like, good role modeling, kindest, church there is. and family oriented" haha we were dying while receiving her messages, like how is this possible?!? She was definitely touched by the spirit this weekend and listened INTENTLY to general conference. I am still in awe! More of our conversation last night had to do with how her fiance doesn't believe in Joseph Smith and also doesn't like how we can't play full court basketball (I laughed at that one because I hadn't heard it before) but then we talked more about what stood out to her from conference and she said "i did also hear when they said we need to prepare ourselves to enter Heaven, which is what u stated when u first reached out to me, and it definitely makes sense. we need to be good people, i'm sure god does not want bad people in heaven. it's common sense i never saw before i thought we could sin our whole lives and god will still accept us. that is not true. we need to be truly good for a higher chance of him accepting us" she could be a missionary!!! After that we asked her about her thoughts of preparing for baptism and she said "I'm in!!!" then shared in about a year or so she will be ready. we shared how Satan will make sure it doesn't happen if she waits that long, then she said maybe a few months and then she shared how she is afraid her fiance will leave her because she will need to follow the law of chastity to be a member and they won't get married for 4 more years because she is a single parent and is using that to her advantage so they wouldn't be getting married anytime soon.. we were thinking of how to respond to that, and she sends another message saying "I asked him if he would leave me if i became a member and he said he doesn't know. i do not care if he leaves me. i feel this is right an dif he leaves me for doing the right thing, then so be it. I love God and Jesus before him" i dropped my phone. AMAZING. To end the conversation, we put her on date for APRIL 26th and are so pumped for her.
Happy late birthdays to my cousins Tyson (1st) and Mandee (2nd) and Drake (5th) and happy birthday this week to my aunts Tonya (9th) and Lisa (11th) I hope you had / have the best birthdays ever!!
Thanks again to all of you for your love and support and kind messages and all you do for me! These past 14 months wouldn't have been the same without you all!
Love Hermana Griffin
P.s. we got the news last night that we have to wear masks when we go grocery shopping so its gettin real here in Texas.
Our view for General Conference.
My new Book of Mormons.
Our setup for General Conference.
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