Hi Mom!

  How are you doing? It sounds like you had a wonderful week! The women's meeting was amazing!!!! I'll talk about it later in my e-mail. As far as things you could send...I'm in need of two undershirts. The ones that I get from Downeast seem to be the best. They are called Wonder tees. I could use a black one and a white one. I was going to try and find some here but if you could send them to me that would help a ton. If you can't don't worry about it. I took ibuprofen because my heel was bothering me but it is fine now. 

  This week has been amazing!!! We are talking to people about Easter. We are asking people why they feel it is important to celebrate it. We were doing that on the coldest and windiest day of the week. We started talking to people about Easter and two people came out and talked to us at two different houses even though it was really cold. We ended up teaching them about the Restoration and they both wanted copies of the Book of Mormon. It was really awesome!!! 

  On Friday our ward had a dinner and variety show and also a dessert and service auction for the Young men and Young Women. It was awesome! We have a family in the ward that has made a band. They performed! They were so good. They are the Call Family and so they have named their band Calling Out. Sister Tarawhiti and I helped the Elders do something for the variety show. The first picture I sent you is it. We each took a section of the drawing and colored it in with markers to make a portrait of Joseph Smith. Elder Chavez is a really good artist and so he drew it with pencil and then we darkened it with markers. They ended up auctioning it off. It sold for 35 dollars. We were really surprised. There were so many desserts!!!

  On Saturday, the Elders had a baptism. Lauren and James Healy got baptized. They are such a sweet couple. Lauren has already asked us if she can come teaching with us. Right after she got baptized we gave her towel and then she looked at us and said, "I'm a new woman!" She was so excited to get baptized. She told us that she was even more excited to receive the Holy Ghost. She bore her testimony yesterday in church and she bore her testimony on fasting. It was so powerful! She is a great example to everyone in our ward! Her husband is awesome too! 

  The Women's meeting was amazing!! I noticed how much all of the people who spoke focused on keeping our covenants and how we need to focus on our similarities not our differences. When President Eyring was talking about his mom and how she helped him make and keep his covenants I couldn't help but think how you have helped me make and keep my covenants. Thanks Mom for all that you have done for me! You are a wonderful example!! I loved how Sister Burton talked about us all being true disciples of Christ! Let us all boldly declare that we are disciples of Christ! I love you so much!!! Enjoy Conference!! I would love to hear your insights on the talks next week!!

  Love,

    Sister Griffin

Picture 1-the picture of Joseph Smith that we did for the ward variety show

Picture 2- Sister Tarawhiti, Maddie, and me at the Bishop's house. We did a lesson with the Title of Liberty with the Bishop and his family and Maddie decided to wear their title of liberty.

Picture 3- Me, Sister Tarawhiti, Sister Brown and Sister Aeschbacher. I thought about sending you a funny face one but I didn't think you would enjoy it as much!

Hi Mom!!!
 . You are wonderful! Sorry I didn't answer about the skirt. I would love you to send that to me. How are you doing? I will definitely keep the Hunsakers and the Larsons in my prayers. I can't believe you were able to wear sandals to church. It is trying to warm up here. 

 This week has been good. One of our investigators, Ann, called us and asked if we could meet with her this week. We tried to set something up with her at the beginning of the week but she said that she was too busy this week. It was a pleasant surprise to be able to teach her. Her husband has been really sick and she has been taking care of him. We weren't able to meet with Kathey this week. She came to church yesterday though. We are hoping to meet with her this week. 

 I went on exchange this week with one of my sister training leaders. She is amazing. The other Sister Training Leader came to Methuen with Sister Tarawhiti. I was with Sister Aeschbacher. She is great at testifying powerfully. I was able to have a conversation with her that was completely led by the Spirit. We have some amazing Sisters that are serving here!!! We taught two of their investigators and the minute we walked into their home you could feel the Spirit. They are loving learning about the gospel. We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of them said that I sound like a preacher that he likes on T.V. I couldn't tell if it was a compliment, then he started talking about how simple he taught and how much he liked watching him. It was kind of weird. 

  We do get invited to people's houses for dinner quite often. Not every night but often enough. We ate at the Alllen's this week. That was a lot of fun! Sister Allen told me again how much she appreciated you going to her grandpa's viewing. Thanks again for going to that. My companion is from Lehi. 

   This week I was studying Nephi's last words. He exhorts all of us to come unto Christ. Nephi reminds us that Christ is always calling for us in 2 Nephi 26: 25. I think it is amazing that Nephi prophesied of the coming of Christ, His death, and resurrection. All of the prophets truly testify of Christ and His divine role.  How do we come unto Christ in our daily actions? How do we follow Christ daily? Heavenly Father has given us the tools to come unto Christ. Have a great week!! I love you so much!!! 

  Love,

    Sister Griffin

Hey Mom! 

 How are you doing? It sounds like you had a busy week. You had a meeting for new Sunday School Curriculum???? What is changing with Sunday School? That's awesome that Sister Miller wrote you. Her name is Chelsea.

 This week has been a good one. You talked about the Honeymoon stage for companions...Sister Tarawhiti and I have been ourselves from the beginning. We feel like we have known each other for a long time. It is great! There wasn't any walking on egg shells for us. 
  We met with Kathey a few times this week. She is doing pretty good. We took her up to the Joseph Smith Memorial in Vermont on Saturday. We were hoping it would have been a spiritual "ah-ha" moment for her but it wasn't as powerful as we had hoped. She liked it but she just didn't seem very interested in it. It was amazing to be able to go where the prophet Joseph Smith was born. I will try to send pictures. We watched the Restoration that is narrated by Lucy Mack. It was amazing!!! She talks about going through the refiner's fire. After the movie we talked to Kathey about how we all go through rough times and how those times are making us grow and learn. Christ is the Refiner and He knows when we are the people that He needs us to be. He knows that we are done or finished when He can see His image in us. I took a lot more pictures then I am going to send but I'm hoping the pictures will work. 

  We met with a less active family this week, the Cathcarts. Sister Cathcart wants to come back to church but she really wants her husband to come back too. We were able to talk with her husband before we left. He started talking about the spiritual experiences he had when he was active in the church. It is amazing the Spirit that comes into the lessons when people start talking about their past experiences with the Spirit. Brother and Sister Cathcart helped the missionaries a lot when they were active. They still have a lot of fire in them. We are hoping to help them feel that fire again. 

  As I was pondering at the Joseph Smith Memorial I could feel the Spirit so strong. It was reaffirming my testimony of the truthfulness of the Restoration. The Spirit there is so strong. It is definitely scared ground! There is a wonderful talk that I have been studying this week. It was given by Elder Tad R. Callister at the CES Devotional in January of this year. It is about the Blueprint of Christ's church and how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the same church. It is powerful. Everything that was in Christ's church is in this church today and he backs it up with scriptures! It is a powerful talk. If you get the chance you should read it. I know that this is Christ's church on the earth today and that we have a living prophet today! I love you!!! Have a great week!!!!!

  Love,

    Sister Griffin

Picture 1- Sister Tarawhiti, Kathey, Me, and Sibel(the member that took us up)

Picture 2-The monument! Isn't it beautiful???!!!!!

Picture 3-Sister Tarawhiti and me. This statue is the accurate height and weight of Joseph Smith. 

Hi Mom,

  How are you? Sister Allen is back in Utah. She really appreciated you coming to the viewing. She loved being able to meet you and Lauren. How was your dinner at Eagle Mountain? I hope it was fun! That is awesome about Larry Hansen going on a mission! They are going to love it! 

 My new companion is amazing!!! Her name is Sister Tarawhiti (Tearafeetie). She was born in Hawaii, raised in New Zealand for about 10 years and lived in Utah for the last 9 or so years. Her dad is Maori and from New Zealand. We get along so good. She was serving up at the Joseph Smith Memorial as a visitors' center sister. We think a lot alike and we laugh all the time. Her testimony is amazing!! I have already learned so much from her. When she bears her testimony and asks questions when we are teaching you can feel the Spirit so strong! I love it!!! We have already had so much fun together! I have seen how powerful a unified companionship is. It is amazing to be able to teach with Sister Tarawhiti. Her love of the gospel is just powerful!!!!

  Kathey is amazing!! She always has so many questions. She is struggling with recognizing the Spirit answering her prayers. Her best friend, Sister Gretter, keeps telling her to write down all of the little blessings that she keeps receiving. She has noticed that she is changing and becoming a kinder person. Kathey has a lot more faith than she realizes. She is expecting answers to come in big ways but it seems like her answers are coming in small ways. She just needs to understand that is how the Spirit works sometimes. She wants to go to the birthplace of Joseph Smith in Vermont. We are hoping to go some time soon. Sister Tarawhiti said that the Spirit is so strong there so I can't wait to get her there. 

  We were studying the Atonement the other day. We talked about how we can help others feel of the power of the Atonement for the little things in life, like frustration. We talked about how if Christ suffered for the big things that we go through surely He suffered for the little things. Christ was the greatest example of love. John 15:13-15. Christ loves us so much that He laid down His life for us! We are priceless. I know that the Savior knows us and is there for us all the time! The gospel is true and can help anyone no matter what is going in their lives. 

    So I have another favor to ask...Sister Bursell was talking the other day about how she is feeling about her oldest leaving the house for college. Since you have experienced children leaving the house I thought maybe you could write her a letter telling her how you dealt with that and how you got through it. If you don't want to you don't have to. I just thought it might be nice. Her address is 51 Bear Hill Road Windham, NH 03087. I love you so much!!! 

  Love,

   Sister Griffin