Semana Santa

Hey family! 3/28/16

So, I feel like not much has happened since writing on Wednesday. So Wednesday, we went to the temple and it was fantastic, like usual.


The next day, we had intercambios with the hermanas from Guadalajara. I was with Hermana Iregui and Hermana Ledo. I was actually in the same ward with Hermana Iregui when she came into the mission so it was cool to be together again. Hermana Ledo is brand new. She's adorable!
Actually, she too is waiting for a visa. She will be going to Pocatello Idaho. It was an interesting intercambio because it was Semana Santa and of course no one wanted to meet, but then there was also a hugeeeee parade so it made it impossible to get around town and also, there were giant crowds of people. But, we had a good day.

After two weeks, I finally met our menos activo, A. He's the best! We had a really great lesson and we set goals with him and all, and as we went to leave, they had day number two of the parade which was even bigger, believe it or not. So, we gawked a little and took some pictures then left haha. Catholic Easter parades don't really make sense to me, but it was fun nonetheless.

Bueno. Sorry my letter is short and kind of lame this week... But I feel like I just wrote you all. Have a great week!

Birthday fun for companion

4/23/2016Hola Familia!

So, today is my pday. Now, temple day is your pday, so today is my pday after the temple, but next week it'll be Monday again.

Anyway, it's been a great week! So, where to start? Well, we started the new Easter initiative, I'm assuming you've all seen it, and thus we received the new pass along cards! We were in charge of separating them all and getting them to our zone, so we took advantage of having tons of cards and took some pictures haha.

Then, we had intercambios with the Hermanas from Azuqueca. They are in a trio, so that was interesting doing intercambios, have to say that was a first, but it was soooo fun! Well, anyway, I was with Hermana Butler and Hermana Keller. Hermana Butler 
Hermana Butler
is from Scotland, but lives here in Spain and is actually just waiting for her visa to go to her actually mission in Provo, Utah. Hermana Keller was trained by Hermana Spencer and oh man, she is just the sweetest! She reminded me so much of Hermana Spencer, so I of course loved being with her! They are two really fantastic missionaries! I loved their energy and excitement to do absolutely anything. Love them!
Hermana Keller
Then, we had Zone Conference with President and Hermana Pack this week. It was fantastic! The mission seems to be struggling a lot with finding right now, so that's all we talked about. I thought at first it'd be repetitive and such because it's something we talk about so often, but I loved it! I left so uplifted and hoping to find, and actually, we applied what they taught and we were able to find some new investigators!

So, one of our new investigators is T , we actually found him working in our area book. He is from Equatorial Guinea. He's pretty cool. We taught  the restoration again, which he'd heard before, but we were able to answer questions he'd had and as we did, he really understood and had a desire to read the Book of Mormon! We're gonna meet again this week. Super excited!

Also, Monday was my companion's birthday! She turned 21 and it was super fun. We had district meeting and the elders surprised her when we walked in by shooting off 4 confetti canons haha and tons of balloons. Then we had lunch together to celebrate. Then, the Schwartz, the senior couple, made carrot cake for her and in classic Spanish/Catholic style, we lit a prayer candle... Then, we went to the Gurreas and it was a blast! We played a few games to celebrate... I'll send a video. It's a gem.


So, life here in Alcalá is fantastic! I'm super happy! I'm so glad I'm with Hermana Turina, she's just the sweetest and funniest. Things are good. And I'm thrilled to be able to constantly testify of Christ, especially so close to Easter. Such a blessing. I hope you have a great week!

Hermana Griffin

HAPPY PIE DAY!

HAPPY PIE DAY!

Hi family!  3/14/2016

Alright, so. Basically I love Alcalá. It's basically the exact of Barrio 4 which was a bit shocking at first. But listen, this is the best and also kind of the worst part. We have more members that want to help us than we have people to teach... But we're working on that! The members are so sweet and literally I meet a new member on the street every day. There are tons and they're everywhere. Our ward mission leader is fantastic and turns out, I actually met him on my intercambio here my 2 weeks in the mission. Funny, huh?

Anyway, the ward plays soccer every week on Saturday mornings and so I played soccer this week... Oddly enjoyed it. The best part is there were about 30 people (not including missionaries) there and only about 10 of them were members, the rest were friends that everyone brought!
So excited to get to work here.
my new companion Hermana Turina!
So, the worst part of transfers is I still never know where I am or who anyone is. That'll be fun this Tuesday when I do my first intercambio here. We'll see how that goes. But, I now know most of the people we teach and so that's exciting.
My favorite person we teach is V. She is a 17 year old girl and her mom is the only member of their family. Well apparently, one day a random kid came up to her and told her that when she dies Satan is going to eat her like spaghetti because she hasn't been baptized.
Basically the funniest thing I've ever heard, but it really freaked her out and now she is meeting with us. She is wonderful. Comes to all the activities and church meetings, and always fulfills her commitments and she always has tons of really good questions. I love this girl! She just wants to make sure she doesn't have doubts before being baptized, but so far so good!

Church was wonderful yesterday. Our recent convert come to church for her talk so they said, well we'll have the new missionaries come up and introduce themselves. And so I went first and as I walked up, I made eye contact with the bishop and he said, if you're ready, go for it. So I gave a 5 minute impromptu talk! It was fun. After, bishop thanked me for being a good sport.
Missionaries after FHE !
So I'm loving it here. Just a some fun facts. There are tons of cranes... Cranes make creepy dinosaur-like noises. The makeup of this city is 80% spaniard, 10% Romanians/Bulgarians, 5% Latinos, 3% Asian, 2% American/miscellaneous.

Well, I love you all tons! Have a good week!
Hermana Griffin

TRASLADOS

Hey family! 03/07/2016
So, following normal Hermana Griffin traditions, after my second transfer in Barrio 4, I'm being transferred. I have such mixed feelings! I'm leaving Hermana Charlesworth and she'll be training!
She's gonna be amazing! I'm just sad I won't be with her.


 But, I'm going to what I assume will be my last area, Alcalá de Henares, to be a sister training leader again with Hermana Turina. I'm excited about being with her again. She was with me and Hermana Judd in the CCM as our comp and now we're together again for her last transfer.

So, this week. We met with R! She is a dear. She knew I'd probably miss A, then we helped her take him for a walk because it was a beautiful day, and then she had us over for lunch! It was a blast. I just love her. I'm gonna miss her and A so much, but I know Hermana Charlesworth will take good care of them.

We also met with L. He's progressing super well! He came to church last week and this week and is reading and praying. He was sad when he found out I'd be leaving, but I don't think it'll effect his progress at all. I'm really proud of him.

I had an intercambio with Hermana Ross, after all this time! It was fun being with her and seeing what an awesome missionary she is first hand. We've both come a long way since Alcobendas. It was so nice to just chill with her later that night and catch up.






On the other hand, we ate chicken foot soup at a members house... Was not grateful for that experience. You have to pick it up with your hands, it's like you're holding a baby hand and then you break off each toe and eat off... The skin, because let's be honest, there really is no meat there.

Saying goodbye to everyone was hard, but really just the hardest was saying goodbye to
 K and her family. After having been with them through everything. But, I have high hopes for them. I have given them my all and it's their turn to act. I have faith they will and that they will be able to see true ,oracles in their lives and in their family.

I learned so much in this last 5 weeks with Hermana Charlesworth and I just want to share a little with you. First, the Lord leads and guides his servants. I realized that had President Pack not felt inspired to put us together, I never would've gotten to know Hermana Charlesworth, who has easily become one of my dearest friends. And I also saw it so many times when working with her, the Lord guiding us to a person or helping us know what to say or teach. The Lord never leaves us alone! Especially when we are dedicated to his work. Second, iré y haré. I will go and do. This was literally her motto I think, she was just constantly saying it. I feel like I've developed that attitude (she's still way better than me at it) but I feel like as we develop a desire and have the will and humility to do the Lords work and fulfill his commandments, we are blessed. He always prepares a way for us to do it! And we're just happier! I haven't felt as happy in my mission as I did with her as I kept this in mind, and I want to take that with me. There's actually a lot more, but Hermana Charlesworth will probably be reading this too... And I don't want it to get weird. But anyway, the point is, I've learned so much in the last 5 weeks and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I was blessed with the learn and grow!

I love you lots and am glad you're all doing well. Have a fantastic week!
Hermana Griffin

Happy Leap Day!

Hi family! 2/29/2016      Happy Leap Day...

 I told my comp that we should leap everywhere today, but she wasn't sold on the idea. 

Anyway, here's what's been going on here.

We went to the temple! Me and my comp had a really special moment there together. First, we were doing the work for someone who had been waiting 5 years between her baptism and endowment. I felt so lucky to do it, I could just imagine how grateful and happy they must've been! Then, we went into the celestial room and we just chatted. We talked about our area and really felt like we received some guidance for some of our investigators. And then we just sat there together. I felt like I've known my companion for forever and I just know we were friends
before this life. I love that girl so much! After the temple, we had our district meeting and at the end, we did a flan suck... Which did not go well. Almost puked and laughed it back up. But it was funny.


Found a hippo on the side of a school, so that was awesome  and of course had to take a picture of it! 

Also, they finally started the new chapel in Alcobendas and I was blessed to go! I saw my converts there, so cute. C and K and D. They're all so happy. Love them. Anyway, so cool to be there and see everyone and be a part of it all. So here is a picture of us with the golden shovels.

Anyway, here's the cool story of the week. So we are leaving English class and it's late. My comp gets this strong impression to talk to

this lady, but I didn't hear her say she was going. So I look back, and she's on a different street, so I run to catch up and I stayed on the other side of the street because of traffic. So I'm waiting. She
starts talking to this lady and says, I just felt like I needed to talk to you. Are you ok? And she started to cry and explained her horrible day. Well, while I was waited on he other side of the street, up walks a guy named H and asks if we are Mormons and explains that he recognized us because his grandma used to meet with missionaries when he was little. Well I talked to him and he said he wants answers from God because he doesn't know what to do with his life. So we met and had an awesome lesson with him. We taught him about prayer and he Holy Ghost. Well, he wanted to know if he should go back to his country or stay here. So we taught him what to do and
he called us yesterday and said he received an answer that he should stay. So cool. We're so excited for him! He really likes the Book of Mormon so far too!

Anyway, I love you all. I hope you have a great week!

Hermana Griffin

old friends meet again

Hi beautiful family! 2/15/16 This was from last week , sorry mix up in dates!

Things are good here. Slower week because we were sick and were gross and mucusy and no one really wanted to talk to us. But we're good now, almost 100% healthy. But anyway, on a plus side, this is a funny story from this week and an accurate illustration of the love my comp has for me. So, we are sick, blowing our noses like every 5 minutes, but we were close to a menos activo's house in an area that we almost never go to and so we decided to pass by. Well, the wife was sick and the husband just got home from school and was taking care of the kids, so we decided to do their dishes for them. So, we're almost done, and my nose is running so much, so i tell my comp to stop drying and go into my coat pocket and get a Kleenex for me. So she goes, can't find my packet of tissues, so instead grabs my gross wet tissue that I'd been using and runs in and tries to wipe my nose for me. And she almost did, until I made awkward eye contact with the member and he was judging hardcore... So that was awkward and super funny and then my comp peed her pants when we walked out because it was so funny. So good times here together. Anyway, so I love her and she loves me. We're oddly alike and teach so well together.

Also, everyone here is crazy. Every new member or menos activo we meet has some crazy story and the stories are just getting weirder or weirder. So, that's kind of freaking us out a bit.... We're not really sure how to tell what is true and what isn't and who to trust. But we're working on it. Little victories. We are planning two ward activities, first a relief society activity in 2 weeks to teach the hermanas how to make chocolate chip cookies and then in a month to have an empanada cook-off! We're gonna make a trophy with a golden empanada on top. They bishopric okay-ed it, now we just need an official date.

Today we went to the Titanic Exhibit 

and it was so cool! Also, the other cool part was going with my old comps and S and A! And after we went for arepas. So fun! I love them all so much! S said they are still planning on coming to the US in August or September to be sealed. They are just waiting to find out their
vacation dates and they will plan everything more. I feel so blessed
to have such strong and amazing converts. Love them!

   
Well I love you lots. I hope you have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Griffin

building relationships

Hi family! 2/22/16

This week was good. Where to start?

So we completely cleaned out the carpeta de area. We called or passed by every single one of them and reorganized it all. It's nice and clean now. Anyway, got that all taken care of, which feels nice.

We had almost all of our menos activos in church yesterday which felt great! Also, we had someone who we had contacted come to church. We've never taught her before or anything, but she agreed to coming to church and loved it and said she'd be there next week. She asked if
she could help volunteer to clean the church because she'd like to serve. She's so sweet. Her name is M. She's going through a lot of trials right now so hopefully her efforts to put the Lord first
will help her in the long run. Also, the ward really went out of the way to welcome her which is soooo unusual for them! But I'm glad they did. We're really building our relationships with them and obviously seeing the fruits of that. Also, they are having us lead an activity on how to make chocolate chip cookies. Everyone loves us because we bake with them and help heir families set spiritual family goals. What more could you want?

Also, we have an investigator named L. that we met at soccer with the ward. He is a 17 year old Venezuelan and really seems to have a desire to learn. At first I was concerned he was more interested in my companion than the gospel, but the more we meet, the more I can tell that he's really interested in what we share. He's awesome, we just need to get him to church.

E dropped off the face of the world, so no baptism. But we ran into him today on the metro, so hopefully we can reestablish contact with him.

We are working with the American family still. 


We went out with J and the kids today for pday. All of our pday plans fell through, but we still had fun walking around with them and the elders. Their daughter is crazy! She has sooooo much energy.

Well, my comp is wonderful. I love her. We have a fun time together. Weird things happen with us all the time and we're both just weird, so it's good.

Well, I'm positive I'm forgetting something important, but ya know. I'll tell you all next week. Also, almost all of my friends go home either this transfer or next. So sad!

I love you lots. Have a great week!
Hermana Griffin