Hello Mom!!

   How are you?? I did get the package on Thursday. Thank you so much!!! The cookies weren't broken at all. I love the shirt you sent me. It is a beautiful color! My companion liked the sugar cookies too. Thanks for the candy too. I love the CD! The songs are wonderful! Thank you for the pictures of Amy's wedding! She looked so beautiful! I keep forgetting to tell you that I did hear from Dolly. I got it at the beginning of October. She is so sweet! One of the African members is moving out to Utah. She is going to be living in Salt Lake and she wants to come visit you. I gave her your phone number--home and cell numbers. Her number is 207-420-7923. She is flying out today but I'm not sure when she will call you. She wanted me to tell you that crazy Liliane is coming! She speaks English really well. She got baptized last January. She is amazing!! You are going to love her!! I'll send you a picture of her. I've sent pictures to you with her in them. It is starting to get cool here. It has been in the 50s during the day. That's so exciting about Amy and Heather. I had no idea!! Thanks for telling me that.

  This week has been great!! We met with a less active that wants to come back to church. She has been really busy because her dad isn't doing well and she is the one that helps him out. I think I've told you about her before. We were finally able to meet with her. She is so sweet! She knows that the Gospel back in her life is exactly what she needs. We talked with her about the Atonement and how Christ is always there to succor us because He has been through everything we could ever feel. I love being able to testify of how the Savior is always there. I know that He is always there. He is the only one that completely understands what we are feeling. We taught another less active this week. We showed her the Restoration DVD and we read 2 Nephi 3 with her. She didn't realize that it was revelation about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We then shared Ezekiel 37:15-17 and told her that it was talking about the Book of Mormon. She didn't realize that the Bible had scriptures in it about the Book of Mormon. She told us that we answered her questions that she had been thinking about for a while. She never asked us the questions out loud. It was a huge reminder that the Holy Ghost is the true teacher. I don't know all of the needs of those I am teaching but Heavenly Father does and He is going to use the Spirit to guide my words so their needs are met. It was amazing!!  I know that this is the Lord's work and He is going to make sure that it gets done. 

  We now have a French speaking Elder in our ward. The Africans are so excited!! He really helped out in our English class too. We have a few people that are coming to English class that don't speak any English at all and he helped them a lot. Our ward is going to start doing a French Gospel Principles class next week. It is going to be so helpful for all of the recent converts and investigators that speak English. Our ward had a Halloween activity on Saturday. They did a costume parade and they had all of us, missionaries, judge it. Each child got an award. It was kind of hard to come up with awards for all of them. There were some cute costumes. They also went trick-or-treating in the church. Is the ward back home doing a trunk-or-treat? 

  This week I have been thinking about more fully doing the Lord's will. A sister that spoke in the ward kind of made me start thinking about it. She mentioned that we must KNOW the Savior in order to emulate Him. We can't just know about Him but we must know Him on a personal level in order to become like Him. I love that!! How can you become like someone if you don't know them? I think of the scripture Luke 22:32- "When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren." I have to be converted before I can help others become converted. I need to more willingly give my will to the Lord. I have also been thinking about light and I was studying President Uchtdorf's talk from the April General Conference. I love how he said, "But even though we may feel lost in the midst of our current circumstances, God promises the hope of His light--He promises to illuminate the way before us and show us the way out of darkness." God will always be there for us no matter what. We are never alone. Life isn't always easy but I know that the Lord gives us these moments in our lives to make us grow. Again in President Uchtdorf's talk he says, "He does not wish to break your spirit. On the contrary, He desires that you rise up and become the person you were designed to be." The Lord will help me make things that could be stumbling blocks into stepping stones. He loves us so much!! Have a great week!! I love you!!! Have a great Halloween! 

   Love,

     Sister Griffin

 

 Picture 1-Liliane and me. She just barely did her hair like this. It is crazy!!

 Picture 2-Liliane and me again. That is what her hair normally looks like. Enjoy the pictures!!

Hi Mom!!

   How are you doing? You said you were a ball of nerves...how come? It sounds like you had fun with the Barnes down in Salt Lake. Is Tricia back to work now?? Or is she still laid off? Which temple are you going to this week? I can't believe Megan will be 12 tomorrow. I'm sure she is so excited for Young Womens. How is the family doing? 

   I am not being transferred!! I'm staying in my area!!!!! Yay!!! I'm so excited! Sister Beus is also staying with me. I forgot to tell you that the Raineys got sealed. They were the family that was in my first area that always asked about you. They were sealed at the end of September. She sent me some pictures of them after. I am so happy for them. This week at English Class, we had one more person ask us about the church and what we believe. Her name is Yvette. She was wondering about us being called Sister. She thought we were nuns. I hope I can talk to her more about the church this week. She said that she would go on mormon.org. She was also asking about what scriptures we study. Hopefully we can meet with her some time and answer all of her questions. 

   Yesterday Sister Beus and I were able to teach sharing time in Primary. We talked to the primary kids about how they can be missionaries now. All of them are so excited to share the gospel with their friends. Some of them want to invite their friends to the Halloween Activity and also to the Primary program. The Primary here has about 20 kids in it. They are all so cute. I loved being able to help with Primary. 

   I was in Yarmouth on Tuesday for an exchange and we had an amazing lesson with one of their investigators. We talked with him about the doctrine of Christ and what it is. He voiced some concerns before we read 2 Nephi 31. By the time the chapter was done we were able to address his concerns. It was amazing!! The Spirit was definitely there and touching his heart!! I love seeing people change. The Spirit is the real teacher! I love it! 

  This week I have been studying about the Stripling Warriors and the qualities they had. What made them so courageous? What made them so sure they didn't doubt? Alma 57:26-27 sums up their amazing faith. They fed their faith and their doubts starved to death! We must continually feed our faith. The Lord will take care of us! I was also thinking how they had been taught by their mothers and that's one reason they knew they could rely on the Lord with unshaken faith. I'm grateful for the things that you have taught me Mom!!! You have helped me be the missionary that the Lord needs me to be. Thank you for teaching me so much!! I wish I could name everything you have taught me. Thanks for helping me feed my faith! As we obey with exactness as these young warriors did we will see those miracles that God is placing in our paths!! The Lord loves us much!! What a wonderful blessing the Gospel is!!! I love you!!! Have a great week!!!

   Love, 

     Sister Griffin

Picture 1- Our District decided to take pictures at the Portland Headlight! It is a beautiful lighthouse!!! From left to right: Me, Sister Beus, Elder O'Connor, Elder Chisholm, Elder Davis, and Elder Stephenson.

Picture 2-They let us go up into the lighthouse. This is Sister Beus and I standing outside of the light! It was a wonderful view to be at the top of the Lighthouse!!

Picture 3-This is a window that is about half way up the lighthouse. I just love the view. I hope you enjoy the pictures! 

Hi Mom!!

  How are you doing? I'm so glad Amy's wedding dinner and wedding went well. I can't believe that she is married. Mary sent me some pictures of it. Amy looked beautiful!!! The cake looked really nice too! Thanks for giving me Amy's new address. I would love to see more pictures! That's awesome about Mary letting that elder use her phone. I'm sure him and his family appreciated that. 

  So to start off I have to tell you that I met someone from Paul and Nadia's ward. This couple said they were visiting from the Macon Georgia ward and so I decided to ask them if they knew Paul Griffin and they said absolutely. Their names are the Hawthorns. Brother Hawthorn serves with Paul in the Elder's quorum presidency. He had a lot of nice things to say about Paul and his family. Sister Hawthorn wrote my name down so she would remember to tell Paul that they met one of his cousins. It was awesome!! The world is such a small place! English class is going great! We have about 15 people that come every week. We did more conversation stuff with them this week. They loved it! Joseph comes every week and this week he started asking us questions about the church. He started talking to me and he asked, "What makes your church different from other churches?" I started to tell him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. I told him that the Elders could come teach him more and he immediately said, "I want to come to your church." I was so excited. I wanted to teach him more but I couldn't. The place where we are teaching English is a non-profit organization and if we preach the gospel there then they could lose their non-profit status. They are letting us use this space for free so we are doing all that we can to respect their rules. Joseph did come to church! I think he really enjoyed it. He even made a comment in Gospel Principles. I hope he decides to keep meeting with the Elders. 

  We did some service for a less active this week. It was great! She really wants to come back to church. She had some friends that told her the church wasn't true so she has a lot of questions and doubts. As we have been meeting with her she seems to realize more and more that the church really is true. She came to church this week too! She is progressing really well. She really wants to jump right back into the church. As for transfers, I have no idea. I will know by next Monday if I am getting transferred or not. I was on exchange this week with two sisters in Saco. They are in a trio there so one of the sisters came to be with Sister Beus. We taught a man that has left the church but he really wants to come back. He knows how the gospel can help his family. He also wants to be a worthy priesthood holder. His fiance has lupus and he wants to be able to help her by giving her blessings. It was a great lesson! We also taught a girl that is wanting to join the church. She has a friend that is active in the gospel. Her friend has answered a lot of her questions of the soul because of the gospel. The two sisters that I was with are amazing!! They know how to follow the Spirit and they know how to bear strong testimonies. One of them is a visa waiter and she feels like she is going to be leaving soon. She has been here for about 5 months. We are going to teach one of the members about the temple to help her get there. She is a wonderful member and she would just love the temple. She joined the church about six years ago and she had to completely turn her life around. She is wonderful! 

  This week I have been studying knowledge. Why do we need knowledge and how do we obtain knowledge? I love what it says in the Bible Dictionary, "Knowledge of divine and spiritual things is absolutely essential for one's salvation." We can only progress as fast as we are gaining knowledge. According to John 17:3, we must have a knowledge of Jesus Christ to gain eternal life. In Romans 1:28 it talks about retaining God in our knowledge. Why should we do that? We need to do that because our purpose on earth is to prepare to meet Him. If we aren't thinking about God and gaining all the knowledge we need to prepare to meet God then we really don't have a purpose in life. Knowledge is what allows us to enter the kingdom of God. Have a great week!! I love you!! Thanks for your prayers and your support!

  Love,

    Sister Griffin

Hey Mom!!!
  How are you??? I hope you enjoy San Francisco! What were some of your favorite talks from Conference? I'm so excited for Amy to get married this week. I got her invitation and it is really cute! I love it!! What temple does your presidency go to?
 Conference was amazing!!! I loved every bit of it! I had so many questions that were answered. It was wonderful! I wish I had time to talk about all of my favorite talks but I don't so I'll talk about a couple of my favorites. President Uchtdorf's was so good.I loved how he said, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." I know that if we feed our faith our doubts will starve to death. There will be no room for doubts. We have an investigator that this talk was perfect for. She won't come to church yet but this talk will help her I think realize just how amazing the Gospel and the church is. Elder Holland's talk was perfect for one of our other investigators. She struggles with major depression and she heard this talk. She loved it!!! I know that it will help her. I loved President Eyring's talk. I loved the part where he quoted George Q. Cannon about there not being one of us that God has not tried to save. That is so true. God wants all of His children to come back to Him. I need to work harder to find more of God's children and help bring them back to Him. 
  Some of the themes of Conference that I noticed were being equally yoked with the members, living the first two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:35-40), and families. I loved President Monson's talk!!!! We all face challenges and life isn't always easy. I loved the poem that he shared about good timber not growing strong without storms. That is so true!!! I know that I have grown the most during hard times. We are given trials to make us be the people that God needs us to be. During his talk I was thinking, "Who do I know that has gone through many problems and has stayed strong during those problems?" There were a lot of wonderful people that went through my mind. I want to be more like Job. He stayed very strong through all of his trials. I know that I can say with boldness, "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." Job 19:25. I know it is because of my challenges that I have grown closer to my Savior. There is always room for me to grow closer. I know that I have never felt my Savior closer than on my mission. It has definitely been a huge growth period for me! I have loved every minute of being able to forget myself and just go to work. 

  This week has been great!  I had one of the sisters from Yarmouth with me. My companion was in Yarmouth on exchange. Sister Brown was here on exchange. Sister Brown and I were in the same ward up in Logan. We didn't know each other very well in Logan but we are getting to know each other now. She is so excited to be here doing missionary work. I love going on exchanges because I feel like I learn so much from the sisters that I am serving with.  We taught English for the second time this week. It went well. The people that are coming want to practice more conversational things. We are going to do that. The people that come are so eager to learn and it is so exciting to be able to teach them how to communicate in English. I saw President Stoker this week. He counseled us on how the Shepherd knows His sheep. It is so true!! Christ knows each one of us. Do we recognize when He calls us?? It really made me think about how much I really know my Savior.

  I have studied the heart some more. I realized how important it is for us to give the Lord our whole heart. In D&C 64:22 it says, "And after that day, I, the Lord, will not hold any guilty that shall go with an open heart up to the land of Zion; for I, the Lord, require the hearts of the children of men." We cannot give Him part of our hearts. We must give him all of our desires. He will guide us in the direction that is best because He knows exactly what we need. How can we more fully give our hearts to the Lord? Have a great week!! Give Amy a hug for me this week!! I'm so happy for her!! I love you!

  Love,

    Sister Griffin