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