Hello Mom!

  How are you?? I just wanted to let you know that I WILL be able to skype for Christmas for an hour. I just found out this week and I thought you would be very happy about that. I did get the recipes. Thank you for sending them! We have two places to go for Thanksgiving. It should be great! It sounds like you had fun at the Ewings. What are you doing for Thanksgiving? I hope someone is going to help you make all the goodies. If you make caramels for Thanksgiving or Christmas I would love to get some! I've only told all my companions about how wonderful your caramels are! 

  This week has been good! We had planned to teach a less active and she ended up being really sick. She had a treatment for her cancer and she wasn't feeling the greatest. She forgot to call us and we showed up. She was glad to have us there. We were able to help her by doing her dishes. She is preparing to go back to the temple so we showed her the video "Between Heaven and Earth." She loved it! She really wants to go back to the temple to feel the peace there. I love being able to teach people about the wonderful blessings of the temple. When people find out that we can't go to the temple while we are on our missions they talk about how sad it is. I miss the temple a little but I have the wonderful opportunity to help people know how they can make it to the temple. It is such a blessing to be a missionary. I love it!!!!!! 

  Our English class went well. We gave them sentences that were written in French so they could translate them into English. They loved it! We are also working one-on-one with one of the recent converts, Aziza. We are helping her learn English. We labeled everything in her house this week so she can practice saying things in English. Her husband liked that we were doing that. Her English is getting better. I love being able to help people. 

  It snowed this week!! It wasn't a lot but it snowed! I was so excited. My companion wasn't as excited! It has been really cold here. It was in the 20s yesterday and the wind has been blowing like crazy! We had a meal with a family this week that is awesome! They both went to Utah State and they are so excited to help us in anyway they can. They are trying so hard to help us with one of the less actives we are working with. We could not do this work without the members of our ward they are wonderful!! 

  Thanksgiving is this week...what are you grateful for??? I am grateful for being able to serve a mission, the Atonement, a wonderful family and friends, a great companion, happiness, the Plan of Salvation, The Restoration, Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ! We are so blessed to be part of the true gospel. I have been studying gratitude and I was thinking one of the ways we can show Heavenly Father that we are grateful is to use our talents and abilities to build His Kingdom. We are to live with an attitude of gratitude. It is something that I am striving to do everyday. I have been thinking of things that I am grateful for and I am trying to tell Heavenly Father that I am grateful for them. I am also trying to show Him that I am grateful! I have so much to be grateful for. Thanks Mom for teaching me how important it is to be selfless and for being an example of what a woman of God is. I love you Mom!!! I'm so grateful for you! Have a great Thanksgiving!! 

    Love,

      Sister Griffin

Hi Mom!

  How are you?? Did you get my letter about the recipes?? Can you send them to me this week? If you didn't get my letter, I asked for you to send the Rocky Road Brownie recipe and your Banana Cream Pie recipe. There is a girl in the ward that wants to make all of our favorite things for Thanksgiving. I'm glad your cough is getting better. My cough is getting better too. I didn't really have a cold with it. I got Marilyn's package...and no I haven't opened it. I want to but I will try and wait until Christmas.

  Yesterday was the primary program. That is one of my favorite Sundays!! The Primary kids are so cute!! We have just over 20 kids in the primary. They did such a great job. The Relief Society President, Sister Earnshaw, invited one of her friends that is not a member. We had tracted into her friend a couple of months ago. When I saw her I greeted her by her name and she was so surprised I remembered who she was. Sister Earnshaw talked to us after Sacrament and said that her friend, Pat, asked if she had told us she was coming and Sister Earnshaw told her no. Pat was so amazed that we remembered her name. I had a huge confirmation that remembering names is so important. People feel so much more valued when people remember their names. It was awesome! The music was wonderful!! I was thinking as they were singing "A Child's Prayer" how wonderful it is that we can go to our Heavenly Father in prayer. I love how it says. "Father, in prayer I'm coming now to thee." Our prayers should be a conversation with our Heavenly Father. I am really trying on making my prayers more meaningful and more of a conversation. 

  We also had a little cottage meeting with President Hawkes last night. President Hawkes is in the mission presidency. The senior couple set it up with him and he asked all of the missionaries to be there. The meeting was for all of the African converts and investigators. He talked about the Book of Mormon and how it is another testament of Jesus Christ and that it answers the questions of the soul. He asked them if they had any questions of the soul. He had me, Elder Pruett, and Elder Campbell(senior missionary) answer one of the questions that someone in the group had asked. I answered Where are we going? with Alma 40:11-12. I love the Book of Mormon!! It definitely answers the questions of the soul. President Hawkes taught mostly in French. I kind of got the jist of what he was teaching when he was speaking French. I'm surprised how many words I recognize...it would definitely help if I remembered a lot more. The Spirit was so strong!! 

  This week we got to help a sister in the ward clean out her apartment. She is a little bit of a hoarder. She needed it cleaned out very fast. Sister Campbell, Sister Beus, and I worked for just a couple of hours the one day. We got it cleaned out. Then the next day we went back to organize some of the things that Sister Campbell let her keep. Sister Campbell is good at getting rid of junk. It was a lot of fun! The sister that we helped in the ward announced to all of the Gospel Principles class that we cleaned her apartment and she invited everyone to come over to her place now. I think she is happy to have it cleaned out. English class went well this week. Our numbers keep increasing. I worked a lot with the beginners. They are all so eager to learn English. It is exciting to be able to help them. 

  I started studying voices. I was thinking about one of the talks that was given at zone conference and so I decided to study voices. I was reading in Deuteronomy 5:23-24 and 1 Kings 19:12. It talks about the voice of the Lord being heard after the fire and after the storms. I was thinking that the fire could symbolize our trials or the cleansing events in our lives. We don't always know why something is happening until after the trial or the purification process is over. After a trial is usually when we can hear the voice of the Lord more easily. We can be more spiritually in tune so we will be more apt to hear it. I hope that makes sense. There are so many voices in the world that are competing for us to listen to. I am working on recognizing and acting on the one true voice that can bring me the most happiness. God has given us a wonderful gift that if we are worthy of it we can have it with us constantly! We are so blessed!! I love you so much!!!! Have a great week!! You are in my thoughts and prayers!

   Love,

     Sister Griffin

Hi Mom!!!

  How are you?? It sounds like things are going well. I'm sorry your cough came back. I came down with a cough this week too! That's awesome about Amy giving the lesson for Family Home Evening. I'm still having a hard time remembering that she is married. Zone Conference is just a meeting so no one got transferred. I don't know if I can wait until Christmas to open up that package. I'll try my best. I didn't find out if I can skype at Christmas, sorry. Do you want me to send the wax pumpkin back to you?

  This week was awesome!! I wasn't able to go to English class this week because I was on exchange but my companion said that it went great! We have been having new people coming. It is great! Zone Conference was awesome! Elder S. Gifford Nielsen of the Seventy was there. His wife spoke to us too. We were also able to go to a special stake council on Sunday night. It was a meeting for all of the stake, ward, and branch leaders. Elder Nielsen invited all of the full-time missionaries to attend. It was awesome! He shared a part of Elder Perry's closing remarks at the Mission President's seminar. Elder Perry compared the hastening of the work to important events like the First Vision. I hadn't really thought about it being that big. 

  There were so many good things that we talked about at Zone Conference. Sister Stoker mentioned to us how we need to be like Ammon and just show love for people. President Stoker talked about prayer and the importance of it. He told us to disconnect our tongues from our minds and connect it to our hearts. Our prayers should be a conversation with the Lord not just a routine thing. It was wonderful and it was something that I needed to hear. Sister Nielsen gave a wonderful talk. She talked about how other people can see and know our potential and we have to do all we can to reach our full potential. She mentioned how we always have the choice to be happy even in hard times because we have the gospel. Elder Nielsen talked about how important it is to connect with people we come in contact with. I have seen how important it is for us to do that. I need to work harder at connecting with the ward members especially. When people feel like we care and want to get to know them then they will be more likely to listen to the gospel. He used Ammon as an example of one that connected with the people he taught. Ammon did so much more than just teach people he connected with them and he made sure they were firm in their testimonies of the gospel. We talked about Alma 27 and he asked us to study it and apply some of the things that Ammon did. Elder Nielsen also talked about how we, as missionaries, are a prophetic priority. He told us that the Prophet thinks about us and prays for us constantly. He said most of the meetings they have are focus on the missionaries and the youth. President Hawkes, a member of the mission presidency spoke and he talked about all of the different voices that we hear in today's world. He said something that I have been thinking about ever since. He said, "The voice of the Spirit always comes with hope." Isn't that amazing??!! It is so true! The voice of the Spirit doesn't tear us down but it always builds us up. Elder Nielsen said many times, "The Lord did not put you here to fail." I know that is so true. God wouldn't have us do anything if He was sure that we could be successful! He mentioned to us that this is our time with the Savior and we cannot waste a minute of it. I hope I am using every minute in the way the Lord needs me to. This is definitely my time to grow closer to my Savior and a time where I can be here to do what He would do if He were here. I hope I am living up to my potential. We are all here to progress and not to flat line. 

  I wish I could tell you everything that I learned at Zone Conference. It was definitely an answer to prayers. The Lord knows what we need and when we need it. Everything is best in the Lord's timing. He knows us best...He even knows us better than we know ourselves. I love you! You are in my thoughts and prayers!! Have a great week!

     Love,

       Sister Griffin

Here is a picture of me with President and Sister Nielsen.

The second picture is me with Sister Waite--my second companion, Sister Sowards(Sister Waite trained her), and Sister Tait(Sister Sowards trained her). Sister Sowards was calling it our generation picture. She is so funny!

Here is a picture of my pumpkin and also Sister Beus and her pumpkin.

On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 3:36 PM, Callee Griffin <callee.griffin@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Hi Mom!!

 How are you? The spiders in my package made me laugh. Your week sounds busy. That's a good thing. That's so funny about Bishop Olpin coming dressed up as a pirate. That's awesome about Sister Stephens coming to speak. She is such a wonderful person!! She is so inspired. I love hearing her speak! Mary told me that you weren't feeling well. Are you feeling better? Did you have a cold? NEXT MONDAY WE HAVE ZONE CONFERENCE SO I WON'T BE E-MAILING UNTIL TUESDAY. 

  Last Monday we carved pumpkins at Sister Lane's house. It was so much fun. I'll send you a picture of the pumpkin I carved. Halloween was good. We had to be in at 5:00. We deep cleaned our apartment and then I tried to catch up on my journal. I'm just a few days behind...ha ha! It was so weird to go inside so early. We didn't have any trick-or-treaters come by. We had candy to give them but no one came by. There aren't very many young families out by where we are living. This week has been great! We did our English class again this week. They all love coming. We have started giving them homework. Hopefully it helps them use their English more. Our ward started doing a French Gospel Principles class yesterday. We have so many people that are new to the gospel that need it in French so the stake called people to rotate teaching it. President Hawkes is in the mission presidency and he speaks French so he is going to teach the class once a month. It will be so nice to see him once a month. 

  There is a lady in our ward that has an article in the October Ensign. It is called "How can I be a successful missionary?" Sister Wilde, the lady who wrote it, is amazing!!! She is a wonderful member. She always goes above and beyond. She is a great missionary!!!! We do service at a care center and one of the resident's daughter made Sister Beus and I scarves. She wanted to make us something because she appreciated us volunteering there. I'll have to send you a picture of it. She is such a sweet lady. 

   I was down in Saco this week with two sisters. We taught one of their investigators, Eliza. One of the new sisters in Saco connects with her so well. Eliza opened up with us more than she ever has. I know that God puts us in certain areas for certain reasons. I know that each area I have been in and am in there is someone there that God needs me to specifically help. God knows the needs of each of His children. I pray that I can be an instrument in His hands. Alma 17:11. 

  This week I have been studying the attributes of Christ. I was studying each of the accounts of the Atonement in the Gospels. I love how Christ says, "Not my will, but thine be done." Christ did the Father's will with exactness! He always wanted to do the Father's will. It made me think of the things that I need to work on to give my will more fully to the Lord...and there's a lot. How can we all more fully give ourselves to the Lord? It is so important for me to give my will to the Lord. This is His work and He knows how it needs to get done. It is only through the Atonement that we can become like Christ and that is what we are all striving for. I know that Christ is the only way to eternal life! 

  Sorry this e-mail is kind of short. I can think of a ton of things to write during the week and then when I get to the computer I can't think of things to say. Have a great week!! I love you!

    Love,

      Sister Griffin