Hi Mom!

  How are you doing? I'm glad Aunt Diane's surgery went well. Give my love to the Gealta family. Tell Aunt Ann thanks for me.  It sounds like Stake Conference was great! I can't believe they made Mary speak in the adult session of Stake Conference. That's funny about what the mission president said about Dave. He really is loved by all! Thank you for the package! I love the black cardigan! It's really cute! Thank you so much for the pictures! Everyone is getting so big! How did leading the music go?

  This week has been great! We went down to Manchester for the new missionary and trainers meeting. It was wonderful! It was President Stoker's first one. He is such an inspired man. He shared with all of us some of his first journal entries when he first was out on is mission years ago. He seemed just as nervous as any new missionary is. He told us that he wanted to share it so the new missionaries didn't feel like they were the only ones that were feeling overwhelmed. Every missionary feels overwhelmed for the first little while. I feel like I learn so much when I go to meetings with President Stoker. Sister Stoker also showed us some ideas for object lessons. She is wonderful too! It was a wonderful meeting!

  We taught Etem, who is from Sudan, this week. He is starting to understand the wonderful message the gospel is. He told us that he is telling his friends about meeting with us. He is already being a missionary and it's awesome! Every time we invite him to church he always says no. We asked him if he wanted to tour the church building on Thursday and he said yes. The church building is about  4 miles from our apartment. He doesn't have a car so he rides his bike every where. We asked if we could find him a ride to the church building and he said that he doesn't like going places with people he doesn't know. We told him we would walk with him to the church building. We met him at the park that is about a mile from our place and then we walked to the church. It was a great walk. Sister Beus didn't have very good walking shoes on so her heels were bleeding by the time we got to the church. I felt so bad for her. Etem loved the church tour though. He said that he wants to come to church next week. It was wonderful! Joanna, our other investigator, is loving the gospel. She is telling her friend about what we are teaching her. She feels like what we are teaching her is true because she said it seems so familiar to what she has thought all along. She is awesome!! Joanna has a great desire to know the truth! We taught her about the Kingdoms of Glory and the Spirit World and she loved it! 

  I spoke yesterday is Sacrament. I was asked to speak on missionary work...are you surprised? The Portland ward is focusing so much on missionary work right now. I love it! When I move I won't be too far from where we are living now. I'll be about 8 miles away from where we are now. We will be living in a town called Scarborough. This week has been great! I love the members here! They are so great! 

  This week I have continued studying faith in Jesus Christ. It is the foundation of everything. If we have faith in Jesus Christ then we are trusting in what He has in store for us. When I think of someone with great faith I often think of Abinadi in Mosiah 13:3-4. He knew that God would allow him to deliver the message of the Gospel. I love how bold he was with them! He showed so much faith that it showed in his face. Do we all have that much faith? I hope I do! What a blessing our faith is. Alma tells us that we just have to exercise a particle of faith. That's not much at all. It will grow if we nurture it. Our faith can carry through anything. Moroni 7:33. God loves us so much! He is aware of everything we need! I know that Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer and that He knows us perfectly! We are so blessed!! I love you! Have a great week!

    Love,

      Sister Griffin

P.S. I gave you the zip code wrong. Our zip code is 04102 

Hi Mom!!!

  How are you?? Your week sounded busy...that's good. Amy's pictures are cute!!! I love her wedding dress! I still can't believe she is getting married. What temple are they getting married in? Who are Amy's bride's maids? Tell Aunt Diane that she is in my thoughts and prayers. I hope the surgery will help her feel better. Tell Happy Late Birthday to Sam for me. I remembered last week but I forgot to put it in my e-mail. Sorry Sam! If you could send me my black and white flowered skirt in the package that would be great! Can you also send me my Eclipse CD in my CD case? Thank you!!! I got a letter from someone in the village but they didn't sign it. I think it is from Ron Clarke but I'm not sure. The apartment number is 44. Is that where he lives? 

  Zone Conference was amazing!!! President Stoker is a wonderful! We talked about our new mission vision and how we want the mission to be in the next 12 months. We are trying to focus on getting to know that members more and building relationships with them. We want to help the members have significant missionary experiences. The best way to find people to teach is through the members. I love Zone Conference!! President Stoker also mentioned some of the mission policies that changed a little bit. The music one stayed the same. Sister Stoker showed us some object lessons that we can use in our lessons. She had a lot of great ideas! They are both very inspired people. President Hawkes (a counselor in the mission presidency) spoke too. He talked about the power of bearing strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. He talked about a missionary that bore testimony in their house one time. That testimony made his son want to go on a mission. He talked about how we have no idea how our testimony will affect other people. I need to try and bear stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon because it is the convincing evidence that God calls prophets again on the the earth. It can help us draw closer to our Heavenly Father. I know that it is the Word of God. 

  We got two investigators this week. Etem is from Sudan and he has been in America for about 13 years. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. He didn't really know very much about Jesus Christ but he loved learning about it. He believed in reincarnation. We had a member, Sister Good-Simpson, at the lesson with him and she told him just what she was thinking. It was kind of like he was talking to his mother. He listened to her as if she was his mom. It was perfect. She committed him to read the Book of Mormon and he said he would do it if he had time. She said, "No, that is not a commitment. You expect things from Jesus so you need to be willing to give something to Him." He said, "You're right. I'll read the Book of Mormon." It was awesome!!!  He called us today and said that he read the Book of Mormon and it made him feel really good. I love being a missionary. The other investigator we taught this week was Joanna. She has gone to a lot of churches. She feels like God is leading her to a certain path but she hasn't found the path yet. Her kids really want to pick a church and go to it. They are tired of switching. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation because the Elders taught her the Restoration. We talked for quite a while about the pre-earth life. She said that she felt like there was always something before we came to earth but she never wanted to talk to anyone about it. She thought everyone would think she was crazy for thinking about that. She loved learning about it. We are meeting with her this week. I can't wait to teach her more. 

  I got a letter from Kyong this week. She wishes that I could be there for her baptism. She said that a missionary couple that taught her 5 or 6 years ago is coming to her baptism. I'm so excited for her!!! We do have a car. It is a brand new Ford Fusion. We don't have to share it with the Elders. The two sets of Elders share a car and we get our own car. Sometimes I wished we didn't have a car because it is hard to find people in a car. We will move into our new apartment September 9. It is a really nice place and we can see the ocean from our bedroom window. It is beautiful! This week has been wonderful!!! I've been studying about faith in Jesus Christ and how important it is. What is faith? How do we obtain faith?? Faith is the foundation on which we can build upon. Faith is trusting in Jesus Christ with our whole heart. Faith can grow into a tree of knowledge (Alma 32:41-42). I love how if we continue to nourish our faith that it will continue to grow. We are so blessed to have the Gospel. I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ because of a humble prayer. Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to become clean and one day dwell with our Father in Heaven. I love you!!! Have a great week!! You are in my thoughts and prayers!! Enjoy Stake Conference!

  Love,

    Sister Griffin

Hi Mom!

  How are you? It sounds like you had a busy week. I'm sure you will enjoy your conference party. What other games have you played at your game nights? Do you play yahtzee? I didn't know Briana Barfuss was getting married. That's crazy!! That is so cool about Michaela Wilson greeting Ashley at the curb at the MTC. How did family home evening go? Did you send that package that you were talking about sending? I'm going to get a new blazer because the one I have is too big. I can't believe that Mary Broadbent gets home in about a week. That is crazy!!

  This week has been great!!! We don't have any investigators yet but we might have a couple by the end of this week. We talked to a guy yesterday that is from Sudan. We talked to him about the Plan of Salvation for a little while. He called us this morning and we are going to meet with him on Wednesday. There are so many refugees here from Africa. They all speak French and so we are hoping to start teaching an English Class for them. They are such amazing people. They are all so happy!!! We met with a less active woman this week and the lesson we taught her was amazing!!! The Spirit was definitely the one that was guiding the lesson. We had planned in the morning to share some scriptures with her about hope and the Atonement. Everything she talked about led us to the next part of the lesson. It was wonderful!! She said that it was the comfort that she needed. I love being a missionary!!! I am here to help people come to Christ and I am seeing this more and more every day. I love it!! We went on exchanges this week. Sister Caffall came to Portland to spend the day with me. It was great!! She is a great missionary. I always feel like I learn so much when we go in exchanges. It was wonderful to be with a missionary that had been out for over a year. I'm glad to have my companion back though.

  I ate salmon this week. Can you believe it??!! It wasn't horrible but I wouldn't ask for it again. I really haven't eaten fish very much, which I'm totally ok with. We have zone conference this week. This will be our first Zone Conference with President Stoker. It should be great! Sorry my thoughts are kind of scattered today. I found out this week that Kyong wants to get baptized August 28. I'm so excited for her. I won't be able to go to it but I am so happy that she is making the decision to "become a Mormon" as she says it. I am just happy that she is taking the steps to help her get closer to going to the temple. She wants to be sealed to her husband so bad. I have been studying a lot about prophets this week. Why do we have prophets? It is so important for us to heed the prophet because what he says will make our faith in Christ become unshaken. Jacob 4:4,6. I have had a lot of people ask me how we know when a man is a prophet. We can only know by asking God if he is a prophet and also by living his counsel. We are so blessed to have a prophet on the earth. God loves us so much!! Have a great week!! I love you!!

   Love,

     Sister Griffin

Hi Mom!!!

   How are you??? That's awesome about Glen Olpin being the Bishop. He will do a wonderful job!!! Did you get anything at the antique store that you went to? When is Aunt Diane going to have her surgery? I can't believe that they changed the temple video. I'm sure it will take some getting used to but I'm sure it is wonderful nonetheless. What did Sister Wilcox e-mail you? I'm sure I'll find someone in this ward just like Sister Wilcox. The members of all the wards are amazing!!! They all love having sister missionaries in the wards, especially the sisters in the ward. 

  I'm now serving in Portland, Maine. It is about 20 miles south of Brunswick/Topsham. We are right on the coast. This ward has 4 sets of missionaries in it....WOW!!! There are 2 sets of Elders, one Senior couple(The Campbells)...love them, and my companion and I. It's amazing!!! My companion is brand new from the MTC. Her name is Sister Beus and she is from Highland, Utah. She turned 20 in the MTC. She is awesome!! She is very excited to be out on a mission. Right now our living situation is temporary. The ward didn't find a place for us to live so they moved the Elders into one apartment and we are staying in one of the apartments the Elders had. They are hoping to have us in our own place by September.

                                                                                                                   Portland, Maine 04101. 

 . Just have people send stuff through the mission home address. They will forward my mail to me. They are trying to get us a place to stay right on the beach. It is so pretty here. Portland is a bigger city than my other areas. We are going to be in the suburbs of Portland. 

  We haven't found anyone to teach yet. We are trying to get to know the ward members more and also trying to contact some less actives. We are working hard trying to find investigators. One of the members from my first area has moved down here to Portland so when we got to church I knew there would be a familiar face. It was great to see the Ashton family again. We have a lot of refugees from Africa in our ward and that are investigating the church. They don't speak very much English. My companion and I are wanting to start an English class for them. They speak French and Swahili. They have been through a lot. They love hearing the gospel and they know right away that it is true. Sister Campbell(the senior missionary) said they can't baptize them soon enough. They all want to be baptized right away. They are such special people!! Lilian is one of them and she has been baptized for 7 or 8 months. She is so funny! She told us that it doesn't matter what people think of her because she knows that God loves her. She has a great attitude about life. She asked us about who we were going to visit this week and we told her that we were going to visit some less active people. She couldn't grasp the concept why people would ever stop going to church after being baptized. She is a wonderful example to everyone!! The ward is so focused on missionary work. They had a combined meeting yesterday to brainstorm ideas for the Ward Mission Plan. It was wonderful!! 

  This week has been great!! Coming to a new area is always an adventure. I'm sure I will love this area just as I have my other ones. This week I have been thinking about how much Heavenly Father loves us. We are His children. He wants us to be happy so He has given us every opportunity to be happy in this life. He has given us His Son so we can become like Him. 3 Nephi 27:13-15. God wants to bless us and wants to help us. We can't make it through life without Heavenly Father's help. He has provided a way for us to inherit everything He has. 2 Nephi 9:18. What do you think of when you hear the word inherit? We are children of God and because of that we have limitless potential to become just as He is. Life will have challenges but we have them so we can become the people that Heavenly Father needs us to be. Have a great week!!! I love you and miss you!!!

   Love,

     Sister Griffin