Griffin on a Mission: New area!

Hola from Barrio 4! 12/14/15

This week has seemed so long. Adjusting to a new area is hard! But kind of fun too. I love the people here so far. Haven't met a single person that I don't love.

So I got here at 7 pm on Monday last week, which means proselyting time had already started. So, we went as fast as we could to the piso to drop off my stuff and leave. Luckily, the airport is in our area. Anyway, so we left and went to go visit this menos activa that lives

just down the road from us named M. She is the best. I like to
think of her as my Dominican grandma anyway, we passed by and she
freaked out when she found out she was the first person I knew in the
area, she gave me a huge, minute long hug and insisted on making me
lentils. She's funny and they were delicious, so obviously I was not
opposed, especially since I hadn't eaten since 8 that morning. Anyway,
M basically is our third companion because we bring her to all of our lessons. I just love her. She wants everyone to know about the gospel and be baptized. Her coming with us all the time is definitely strengthening her and her testimony, you can tell.

Hermana Valverde is great. We've had some really awesome lessons together honestly. We seem to be really united when teaching, which is the best, and I'm sure that'll just improve with time. I am learning a lot. Mostly Spanish, but also how to make delicious Peruvian food. I'm pretty positive I'm going to gain tons of weight this transfer...

We have a really amazing investigator named B. She is Dominican and truly looking for the truth. We taught him her the restoration and she loved it. She said she was going to read the Book of Mormon and pray that night because she needs to know if it is true. She's amazing! She understood the apostasy really well too and said the restoration all just made sense to her. Can't wait to meet with her again soon!

There is also a menos activa named K. She is just the sweetest. She has three boys, 16, 10 and 2 months. She invited us for Christmas Eve, so we'll probably be there with her. She told me I remind her a ton of her little sister, which is funny because she reminds me a ton of Naomi. Anyway, she had a high risk pregnancy and now is having a hard time getting back in the routine of going to church. She has an amazing conversion story and we reminded of her of how she felt when
she joined the church and it seemed to relight that fire for her, but then, of course, her middle son had a fever and her husband was out of town, so she had to stay home with him. No worries, I know it's just a matter of time for her!

Funny story of the week, we were sitting in a lesson, talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ and all of a sudden, the doorbell rings. Someone else who lives in the piso answers the door and we think nothing of it, until someone knocks on the door and says, "um, it's for you." Our investigator says he's not expecting anyone, excuses himself, walks out and walks back in shortly after. It was the police. They were undercover and they were there to take him to the police station because of some accusations. So, our lesson obviously ended. We go to leave and M starts preaching to the undercover police officers which was basically the funniest thing ever. Long story short, the problem was all a lie and he was free to go the next morning after spending the night in the police station.

So the area of Barrio 4 is huge. I've heard from a few people that it is 1/4 of Madrid. However, the active members make up something more like a branch. I'd say we have 40-50 active people including the children which are about 2/3 of that... So I feel kind of like I'm back in Blue Water, with a huge area and not many people! But hey, the Lord needs me here.

My district is fun. It's the zone leaders, Elder Voss and Elder Priest (who was in my MTC district), the sister training leaders,

Hermana Staker and Hermana Ross (who both were in the MTC with me), me and my comp and the elders from B4, Elder Forsberg and Elder Yokum.
So district meeting is pretty interesting.

Well, that's about it for this week. I love you all! Can't wait to see your faces next week!