Commentary from Dalton's Mom: So I realized, that I am about TWO months behind!! Life has been hectic! We finished up the Messiah, which I help play piano for, last night and Ed and I are helping to plan a Youth Conference Trek for next summer, and kids are swimming and going EVERYWHERE!!! Life is not slowing down.... at all!! Yep, about two months behind! Luckily his letters are short! He is being transferred! My heart goes out to the good, kind people of Berwick! Thank you for taking care of my son!! May the Lord bless you all for your kindness towards him! Most recent letter at the top! Enjoy!
Hey y'all,
This week. Oh man I'm trying to remember what happened. I don't have my journal to back me up for this one this week
I'm soo lazy... anyway
This week stared out with exchanges from the zone leaders. Elder Auginaga came here to good ol' Berwick. We had a lesson with Lukas. The guy requested to have the lesson be on baptism and the God Head. We have another lesson today where he requested it to be on Temples. You can't find a more golden investigator. Not even in "The District" movies will you find a more golden investigator. That same day we got in contact with two new referrals. One who seams super solid, and one who we were able to set up another time with; this time with a lesson. We shall see how things go. The other lady seamed interested, but we shall see what happens.
Wednesday night we had a meeting with the bishop where we talked, and talked, and talked, and talked, and talked... It was good though. We got in contact with Ruthy again, and she cooked us dinner. It was delicious to say the least. We then started on the Book of Mormon. We didn't even finish the introduction. She likes to talk about a LOT of things! We came by again the next day we we still haven't even hit 1 Nephi, and we spent two hours at her house!! Later that night the sisters asked us to come caroling with them. We went to one of their investigators home's and sang Angels We Have Heard on High, and something that sounded like Silent Night! That night the transfer boards came out. I'm heading off to Knox PA!!! It's north of Pittsburgh. I leave Eagles' territory and go into Steelers' Country. I leave Thursday morning.
Sunday I got to play a song for sacrament meeting, say the opening prayer, and give a farewell testimony. Our meal calendar is suddenly very full.
Saying Goodbye to Berwick is not going to be all that fun, but change is good. I'm excited to go to Knox and turn an other page in this grand adventure of mine
Love you guys!!
-Elder Griffin
On Dec 4, 2017
Hey y'allThis week has flown by... what the heck it's December, and we still don't have a drop of snow on the ground!!To start things off this week we had a dinner with Tyrell, our landlord. We cooked up a roast beef and some "spetly" noodles(not sure on the spelling there) he home made the noodles himself. It was all good until we found that the gravy was on the extremely salty side. That was a fun adventure. We still had an awesome night.
Elder Furniss is still sick. He will be good one day, and look close to death the next day... It's been great. Really been able to sit down and study things. Especially the atonement. Such a beautiful subject to study. We had a zone Conference where we talked about agency and the atonement. It was really good.
Saturday was fun. Berwick has what they call the Christmas Boulevard. They light up all of these Christmas decorations, and go all out. All the local business open up little booths and sell things. Me and Elder Furniss walked the entire thing. We handed out the "Light the World" cards and it was great!Christmas time is here and I am very excited to spend my first Christmas as a missionary.Love you guys-Elder Griffin
On Nov 27, 2017
Hey everyone. This week was crazy. I never thought I could eat soo much turkey. We have officially kicked off the Christmas season with #Lighttheworld. You probably have seen it. I would encourage everyone to try it. Just for 25 days just to see it change your life. This week has been pretty slow. We had one lesson with Bobby... yeah we are dropping his baptism date, and we are not sure if he will ever be baptized in this life. Me and my companion have come to the conclusion that Berwick is evil. There is just a dark presence over everything. The work is great, but where there is light there is darkness. We blessed our apartment again, and got rid of some weird looking amulets that were lying around the place. It's all good now.Sorry there isn't much this weekLove you guys-Elder Griffin
On Nov 13, 2017
Howdy y'all,Wow this week has been a turn of events. I do have to say that I will need to brush up on the ol' español though. We found Oscar. His wife is a convert to the church, but she speaks very little little English. Her husband, Oscar, I want to say is interested, but I'm not sure if he is interested in lessons, or if he is interested in just having us come over and talk to them. If that is the case we might as well talk about the gospel. That night we had a dinner with the Alanize family. I can now say that I do not like Mexican corn. The stuff that you see in "Nacho Libre," yeah, it smelt like stinky feet! I tried but I couldn't eat it all. We showed them the Music of the Gospel video. They liked it.
After that Thursday rolled around. Thursday was transfer day. So we drove down to Pen State University, and I dropped off my companion and he climbed into a truck that was heading off to Wntersville, Ohio. I stayed in state college waiting for my new companion Elder Ferniss. While waiting me and two other Elders, that I came out with, went to help the college plant 40,000 tulips. We wandered around campus until we found a Panda Express. The bitter wind ripped through every layer we had on. It didn't help that it was raining ever so slightly. After we got to the garden we started planting. Luckily we only had to do about 8,000. We got to talk to some off the college kids that were helping us. It was so weird to talk to kids that were my age that were already going to college.
After that we changed back into prossoliting clothing, and walked all the way back to the college branch house. Then we drove to the Whitehall church building and waited for our new companions. Elder Ferniss arrived and the two off us took of back to Berwick. This will probably be his last stop on his mission. He only has four months left. Friday was Elder Ferniss' first day in the area. It was mainly introducing him to those we met that day. We had a dinner with the Johnston family, and a short lesson with the James family.
Saturday we did nothing... not a single thing. I felt like the most lazy human on the face of the earth. Elder Ferniss has the flu, and the nurse told him to stay home. She almost didn't give him the okay to go to Stake Conference, but Sunday we drove up with the Dick's to the Williamsport stake center and had stake Conference. All of the missionaries were asked to sing Hark all ye nations. It was great!! Afterwards we came back and had lunch with the the same family. French fries, and corn-dogs. Sister Dick made frysause!!I was extremely happy with that. Then we came back and stayed in the apartment as my companion got sicker, and sicker. One would think that it is great to sit back and relax. I am hear to tell you that as a missionary that is not the case
Anyway...Take care everybody!!I love you guys!!-Elder Griffin
On Nov 6, 2017
Howdy y'all,This week we'll start things off with district meeting. We had our district meeting with the Zone Leaders. Then afterwards we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. It was an awesome day. We started out with a lesson with Bobby. We talked to him about fasting. Turns out that the way that things are going he might move to one of the sisters area before he gets baptised. We challenged him to fast with us this fast Sunday to get over his smoking addition. We then went to the church to have a meeting to talk about a lot of the inactive Melchezidic Preisthood holders in the ward, and what we could do to bring them back. It fell through... so me and Elder Wilson talked about what we were going to do now that we had some free time and a family popped into my head. We ran to the car and I said, I don't know if this is revelation, but I'm running with it, and it worked. We couldn't stay because there wasn't another man around in the house but we were able to see how they were doing, and we said a prayer with them right before we left. It was fantastic!!
We then tried another person that we have a very hard time trying to get in contact with. She was home. We shared a scripture with her on her front porch, and invited her to church. We gave her the address and the time that church started at. After he we went around town trying some people. No one worked, but as we knocked on this one lady's door we could hear someone coughing up a storm. So we went around the corner and we met Stan. He was out smoking a cigarette. We asked him if he was okay and he said that he was fine and that he was only a little sick. As we talked to him we asked if he was Christian and he said no, I'm Catholic...we left him a card and said that if he ever needed anything to give us a call. He seemed very moved by that. We left, and came back to the apartment and sent off a few text to people just to see how they were doing and to give them a scripture to read.
The next morning we switched back and the drive to the little gas station looked like I was driving through Logan caynonThursday we had another dinner with the Quicks, and then it was back to the tattoo shop. We ended our night there. Friday was weekly planning. You want a very long, and very uneventful thing to do, weekly planning as a missionary... I'll say no more. After we where liberated from weekly planning we went to Ruth's house. She didn't answer, so we went to the street of houses behind hers, and we found Oscar. He was the guy that stopped us the one time about a month ago and asked for the address to the church. His wife was a member, and they moved in from New York, and she hardly speaks a word of English. Better brush up on the ol' Espanol
Saturday we had our lesson with her. We just kind of let her know that things where going to be okay. We had basket ball in the early morning as well. We then had dinner with another member family. He had a big salt eater fish tank in it. There was a big clam in the tank. It was very cool. We then ran off to the church to get the transfer boards. My comp is out of here, and I get Elder Firness! We shall see how he does. We make the switch on Thursday.Sunday was church which was good. Then latter on in the night we went to see the James family. We had a member and his wife come with us. Dallas pulled out all of his guns and showed us them. He had some really cool guns. He showed us his bruise from pheasant hunting. He said that he shot over a hundred and fifty rounds. He is such a cool man. Then we came back to the apartment and we got an email from the zone leaders telling us that they where cutting our allotted miles by 150... so this will be fun...Anywhos.... take care everybodyI love you guys-Elder Griffin.
On Oct 23, 2017
Exchanges with the Lewisburg Elders!! I got the chance to lead out the area with and elder who is greener than me. Elder Hutchings from Utah. Super great Elder. Got to show him some of our techniques and how we try different things. We were able to stop and see Randy. He was just leaving but when he heard that we had come to see him he stopped what he was doing and came and talked with us. We had a really good and simple discussion on everything that is of God is good. Afterwards We were able to see Ruthy. We showed her the video The Music of the Gospel. She absolutely loved it. We then went finding for a few hours, and then came to the church to pick up some baptismal clothing because they didn't have any that were the right size for their investigator.
Friday we were able to go out and cut up a bunch of wood for the Quicks. There is soo much wood that still needs to be cut. They pulled out their trail cam and viewed their photos of the deer passing through. There was a big 10 point passing through that area. They brought out their cross bow and showed us it. It was really cool. Afterwards Sister Almoney cooked us some ham, and mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn. Very filling.Afterwards we had weekly planning then we went to go see Marissa and she told us that she found her book of Mormon with all of the pages folded in. You could tell there was someone trying to stop her.
Our neighbor's car got smashed by a drunk driver. We wake up in the morning and we look across the street to where his car was parked and it was smashed up. Turned out this guy hit our neighbor's wife's car, and some one else's car. We got to talk to him for a long while. Found out that he is a prison guard and he told us a ton of stories, and what goes on inside of a prison. Never make it a dream goal. It's a horrible place.
Our ward had a spaghetti dinner night and one of the members on the ward offered to back us in the auction they had for desserts. So I found a plate of cookies that I wanted and we went with that, well when they started to auction it off the member's wife started to bid on that same plate of cookies, then his son did as well. It ended up being twenty dollars for a plate of home make m and m cookies. I felt so bad.Well that's it for this week. Y'all take care now-Elder Griffin
On Oct 16, 2017Hey y'allIt's official we have Facebook. However part of that includes I'm not allowed to message people back at home via messenger. Do not be afraid though to comment on a post that I make. I would encourage everyone to comment, like and share my posts because they will contain light and truth and someone your friends with will need to read that post. They are encouraging us to use Facebook to its full potential and I'll need all of your guys help. If you desire to talk directly to me shoot me an email, and I'll respond on a Monday. That's the way the mission rules are. However do not despair. If you desire to talk to me via messenger you may do so in 21 months, Thanks!!
We've been spending a lot of time with Tyrell. Wednesday night we were over and he turned on some Tim Hawkins for us to listen to. I was laughing so hard I was almost crying. Tender mercies y'all.We were able to have a dinner with Ruthy!! Such a great cook. She was so happy to have us over. After dinner we sat her down and read from the book of Mormon. We started with the introduction, we didn't make it past that. We spent a good deal of the time connecting everything she read about. She is native American and I wanted to scream to her "Ruth this is the story of your people" but I didn't.We had another lesson with Marissa that same night, and we ended up just talking about the nature of God. Supper great lesson.
Saturday was a slower day. We were able to go out and see the James family. We had brother Smith from the ward come with us, and he helped out with our lesson a ton. We spent the rest of the day put finding, part of which we went to the church to grab some Wi-Fi so we could Facebook. That sounds horrible but that's what we did. Mostly we were trying to friend people in the ward. It was really weird, but cool in the same breath.Sunday church was great, we came back and had our studies and went to the church to do some more online prosolatizing. It's so crazy how much easier it is to use that, and people are more willing to listen to you. We came back and helped out Tyrell some more then we sat down and talked about how members are excommunicated from the church.Other than that it's been a slower week.Love you guys-Elder Griffin
On Oct 9,
Hey y'all!!To start the week off we made a fire!! Brother Almoney had us over and we were picking up what he had chopped off with the chain saw, and he poured gasoline on it and the thing was hotter than the burning bush that Moses saw... wait a second...
We got to talk to our friend Rim the pastor. After the thing we sat down and talked about how this life is the time to change yourself and and it's not easy in the spirit world. He also told us of the decision that he had to make to stop letting walking come and take the food. He had people abusing the system and so he had to stop it. He didn't want to, but it was something the spirit was telling hi he needed to do. He said that we all go through times like that, and he compared it to us being on a mission and getting a promoting that we need to go home and not serve a mission anymore. That made me think long and hard about that. If I got the prompting that I needed to end my mission and go home could I do that. Would I have the faith to do it and go home. That was something to think about. After that we went to a members house and helped them out moving things around in their basement. Most of these houses were build in the 1700's and the 1800's. They are cool, and sometimes creepy. There was this house that was right next to where we lived that was condemned and today they tore it apart. They took a big tractor and just started ripping it apart. Anyway we get to this members house and suddenly all of these cops show up less than two blocks away and start tapping off the area, and what not. They brought in the big van with the LED lights on the side. At first we thought it was a failed drug bust. We helped out the never and on the way back to our car we ran into a group of people who told us that someone had been shot, and they were life-flighted out of there. We could see one of the open doors of the car, and the window had blood stains on it. We then recognized that it was the same car that had the booming speakers earlier that morning. Crazy to think about that kind of stuff going on here, but here we are. I'm alive with no bullet holes!!
Wednesday was district meeting. There seams to be this massive push to get people to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We also got area book 2.0
We had Caitlyn's baptism this week!! she asked me to do the baptizing. Very small, not a ton of people showed up. She's going to be strong in the gospel. It's neat to see how her and her husband have both changed.We got Facebook this week!! We have a training on how to use it, but for now we were instructed to modify our accounts according to the standards the church had put out. Things are going to change forever, and missionary work will never bee the same.I love you guys- Elder Griffin
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