April 11, 2016

Family and friends!!! I love you all so much and miss you a lot. I love being a missionary and this past week has been pretty awesome and a lot of things has happened. My testimony has strengthened so much and my confidence with the language and teaching is growing every day. 

This past tuesday we went to a members house for lunch like we do everyday. We went to a members house about an hour away by walking. But it was legit because we were walking along the beach for about 40 minutes of that time. Im so blessed to have the beach so close to me. Its beautiful and I cant wait for two more years when I can go swimming in it. But the members that we ate at on Tuesday are so awesome. This was the second time we ate at their house. They all speak pretty good English so thatts good for me. The son speaks the best English. When he speaks he barely has any accent. His name is Artur and hes about to go on a mission to Utah!! Hes going to the Orem Utah mission and that covers Pleasant Grove. Hes so cool and really friendly. I dont know his last name so youll have to just look for a Brazilian missionary. Ill find out his last name this week then Ill let you know. I told him that I give him permission to eat at our house whenever he wants so be prepared for that, haha. He leaves to the Provo MTC in June and will be there for only two weeks cause hes already fluent. 

This week was really good for my Portuguese. I am able to contribute a lot now in lessons and can definately feel the spirit more when i teach. Having more knowledge of the language makes it so much mor easy to pay attention to the promptings of the Spirit. This week we marked 6 dates for baptism but only 2 or 3 of them are really strong. One of them is named Adré. He´s 17 and is really legit. He can play the saxaphone and clarinet and a little piano. He came with us to church yesterday and he liked it a lot. His date for baptism is this Sunday the 17 so it would be a great birthday present to have a baptism the day before my birthday. Elder Souza´s birthday is on the 17th so it will be a double birthday miracle when André is baptized. The other date marked that is pretty storng is Ritiani (hi-chi-awni) yeah Portuguese can be weird sometimes... But she is absolutely amazing. She´s 26 and is super interested. She had a bunch of questions for us and was really excited to go to church with us. She had to work yesterday so shell come this next Sunday. Prayer is definately real and its really helping our investigators progress.

This friday I had my first interview with President Young other than the one when i arrived. It was awesome. He talked a lot about Repentance and how its super inportant to teach repentance so investigators can stay strong in the church after baptism. President Young is amazing and so helpful with anything I need. 

On Saturday we had a zone conference and our zone is about 30 missionaries all in Vila Velha. It was awesome. We talked about many ways to increase baptisms in our respective areas and learned many things. I love my zone. It was cool cause we had a little missionary family reunion. The missionary that trains you is called your father. So it was me, my father, my grandpa, and my great grandpa all in our zone. 4 generations of missionaries. I have a picture so hopefully itll work again this week. 

Its kinda funny sometimes in my Journal I mispell words like crazy cause my mind is in portuguese form and many times my sentences barely make any sense. Im super excited to continue to forget English.

Everyday Im feeling moree and more confortable as a missionary and with everything that comes with that. I love learning new things and having little victories every day. There are always little moments in the day where I miss my famly and miss things that im used to but I find that whenever I work hard I can forget those feelings and focus more on the positive. I have grown to love the gospel more and more in these past few weeks in the field and have learned a lot about how to talk with the people of Brazil. I am so grateful to be a missionary and a representative of Jesus Christ in Brazil. I love you all so much and I know this Church is absolutely true and Im so blessed to be able to bring the joy the come from the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Brazil. Avante para a Vitória!!!

April 5, 2016

Family!!! Second week in the field was amazing and really hard but really amazing! Many things have happened and Ive grown so much in the past little while. Not being fluent in Portuguese yet is probably my biggest weakness but Ive learned to accept my weaknesses and just focus on the victories every day. I have grown so much in my ability to speak. I sometimes cant speak right in English when I speak to the american sister in my district. I always speak in the patterns of portuguese, in englsih. And I appologize now just in case some of my English doesnt make sense in my emails... I can add so much to lessons now. We teach about 30 lessons per week. I love being able to help people grow and increase their faith in Christ. ​We teach the restoration the most to people on the street. There are so many people on the streets all the time its kinda crazy. I love sharing the first vision in Portuguese. I usually share that part of the Restoration with people and then expound on it after. I love teaching so much.

I am emailing on Tuesday because yesterday was a holliday in Vila Velha and most of the shops were closed so we couldnt use computors. But yesterday was amazing cause it was P-Day and we were able to hike up to this Catholic building on which you can see all of Vila Velha and all of Vitória. It was the most beautiful thing Ive ever seen. I took a lot of photos so hopefully I can figure out how to send them. The ocean is gorgeous. My house is about a 15 minute walk from the ocean. We dont get to see it everyday becasue my area of proselyting is more inland in the poorer area where there are more houses. The houses here are so humbling. Not many people have a lot of things that I take for granted. Im proud to be an american! haha 

This past week I saw something pretty weird. There was this car down the road a ways and it has like a huge pipe thing on the back and it was blowing smoke all over the place. I had no idea what it was so I asked my companion and he said it was poison... I believed him for about 2 days when I asked him againg and he said it was probably just stuff to kill mosquitos. It was definately a weird thing to see.

This weekend was conference and it was amazing! I couldnt understand it 100 percent but I understood enough to feel the undeniable spirit that the apostles have. I loved Elder Hollands talk at the end. He is such a powerful speaker, I love him so much. I felt his love for Jesus Christ and when we listen to him we just know that he knows without a doubt that this church is true. After conference was over a guy in our ward came over to me and said that they were showing it in English down stairs... I was kinda bummed but I couldnt do anything about it. Ill be able to read it all when the Leahona arrives.

My testimony grows every single day. I love the time I have to study the scriptures in the morning. I know they´re true. I have a testimony of prayer. Everytime I pray I feel the powerful love that Christ has for me. I notice in lessons that things come to remembrance of what I studied earlier and I know thats because of prayer. I have felt the gift of loungues substantially this past week. Even though I´m not fluent yet, I know without a doubt that I am being blessed to learn this language to bless the live of those in Brazil. I know that through Christ anything is possible and as Elder Holland said on Sunday, He is always there by our side ready to lift us up and bare our burdens with us.

I know this church is true. I love you all so much! Please keep praying for me and all the missionaries. Until next week.

Love,

Elder Griffin

March 28, 2016

Letters:

Avenida João Baptista Parra, 633Salas 1501/1502, Edf. Ensenada Office
Praia do Suá, 29052-123 Vitoria - ES
- ES
Brazil

Packages:

Avenida João Baptista Parra, 633
Salas 1501/1502
Edf. Enseada Office, Praia do Suá
29052-123 Vitória - ESBrazil

March 28, 2016

Hello family!!! I love you all so much! It seems like a year since ive emailed you all. A lot has happened and a lot has changed in my life and its just sooooo crazy i dont even know where to start. Ill start with the flight. It  was so legit because we were able to walk out on the runway to walk on the plane. I took somepictures so hopefully ill be able to fugure out how to send them. The plane was semi small. The flight was an hour and a hald long and I just talked to Sister Jube and Sister Woodard the whole time about our district. I love them and miss them so much! We then went to the mission presidents home which is right on the beach! Oh how much I love the beach! haha His home is on the top floor and has a huge window looking at the ocean. I couldnt stop staring at it. But it kinda sucks that Ill havve to wait 2 years to go swimming in the ocean. We went through some orientation stuff and tehen met our companions. Elder Souza from Recife. Hes pretty legit. Hes a convert from 14​ and has a strong testimony. Hes been on his mission for 4 and a half months and Im the first Elder that he has trained. He told me that he didnt want to train anyone, especially an american so that made me fell good. haha But he is a good example to me most of the time. I´m serving in Tapoã in Vila Velha. Our house is super tiny and kinda falling apart but i cant complain. Were living with another companianship, Elder Gabriel and Elder Farreira, both Brazilian. None of them speak that good of english so its kinda frustrating when i want to say something but cant cause no one will understand me.

When i left the ctm i was really confident with my Portuguese but when I got to the field it´s a whole nother story. Everyone says that i speak amazingly for only being out a few days and i agree with them but I want to be fluent already. I beat myself up cause I cant understand everything but i just need to realize that its only my first week and i cant expect that much yet.

I can definately see improvement everyday. the first day I couldnt understand basically anything from myy companion. He has a pretty strong accent which is kinda like a lysp but today I can understand almost everything. Also yesterday at church a whole lot of people complimented me oon my language skills and when I ltold themi was only out for a few days they were pretty impressed.

I love my area. Its a very humble area with houses that are stacked on each other and verry close together. the roads are only wide enough for one car. This place is definately a whole new world. Seeing everything here makes me realize just how blessed I am to live in the United States and have all the things I have.

The weather here is amazing! The same everyday, Super hot and humid. I didnt put  on sunscreen the first day and was burnt as red as a tomatoe... It was pretty embarrassing. I sweat like crazy everyday and its awesome. I go through clothes really fast.

there is so much on my mind I cant even think of what to say. But I love you all so much and I miss you all. This week sure has been a test but Ive grown so much from it.

Since me and my companion are both new in our area, we spent most of las week getting to know the members and finding new investigators. We found some really promissing people to teach. Wanderson (18) and Emilly (15) are siblings and they both excepted to be baptized but were hesitant on a date. They went out of town this weekend so hopefully well be able to talk to them tomorrow. Im getting better everyday at teaching. WE teach the restoration the most cause everyone is newthat we teach and the spirit is strong everytime. I always share the first vision cause I have it memorized and I can definately feel the spirit testifiying that it is true. I just hope that the investigators can feel that too. I know this church is true without a doubt and this week has definately strengthened my testimony substantually. I love you all sooo much! Até Próxima semana.

Com Amor,

Elder Griffin

March 18, 2016

Familia! I love you all like crazy! The CTM is amazing! But im definately ready to get out of here. I cannot believe that I leave the ctm in 4 days... It seems like i just left like last week. This is going to be the fastest 2 years of my life! So many spiritual things have happened while ive been here. I love the constant spirit that this place has. I didnt really have any huge experiences happen this past week to write about but all is well. I am going to miss my district like crazy. I love everyone in it. Elder Babcock and i have so much fun! Even though hes not my companion we do everything together. Im gonna miss mine and his relationship but we have already made plans to hang out and go on a trip to california together since hes from saint george itll be pretty easy. 

The weather is changing to fall down here. Its like 1 degree cooler than the summer so its a huge difference! 

I went to the Campinas temple today. Its probably the last time that ill be able to go to a temple in two years. Did everything in Portuguese again. So awesome! The spirit in the celestial room was incredible. I was thinking about how families are forever and how some family situations could be complicated but God is a merciful God and everything will work out in His hands. They have a distribution center right next to the temple and this past week they just finished a revised version of the bible with footnotes to all the Book of Mormon and everything. Its pretty cool. The President of the CTM, President Graul helped work on the project. I didnt take that many pictures this week but ill send what i got. 

Im super stoked to see the ocean pretty soon! I hope the mission home is close by. Even thought i cant go in it itll still be amazing to see. I wanted to share my testimony in Portuguese but i wanted to say first in English that Im so grateful for everyone of you who have made an impact in my life. Im deeply grateful for all of you. Keep pushing forward. 

Eu sei que a Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias é verdadeiro. Eu sei que Joseph Smith foi um profeta chamado de Deus. Ele realmente traduziu o Livro De Mórmon através o poder de Deus. Revelação pessoal é real. Todas nós podemos receber esta revelação se seguimos o exemplo de Jesus Criso por fazendo as coisas que ele perguntou que nós fazemos. Eu sou muito grato por o CTM e cada coisa que eu aprendi nesta lugar. Sou muito grato por Jesus Cristo e todas as coisas que ele fez para mim. Eu amo minha família com toda minha coração. Obrigado por todas voces. Eu amo este Evangelho e sou muito animado para compartilhar meu testemunho com as pessoas do Brasil. Sou grato por meu instrutores e meu pesquisadores. Eu sei com toda meu coração que eu estou aqui para as pessoas do Brasil. Digo estas coisas em o nome de Jesus Cristo, Amém. 

Com Amor,

Elder Griffin

PS. Keep emailing me and maybe a letter or two would hurt. I love you all. Next time I email you will be in The state of the Holy Ghost, Espírito Santo!!! Wahoo!!!

March 11, 2016

Family!!! I love you all again. Im doing great! The CTM is still fun
and Im still working hard. Sometimes Its hard to pay attention but i
still do my best. Im really excited to get out of here... haha not
that its a bad place or anything but I just want to do some real
missionary work. I love teaching fake investigators. Every day we
teach an average of three investigators. Im getting more and more
confident with the language every day. The days are pretty repettative
and the only real different days are p-days like today. Today we were
able to go to the campinas temple again! First time since the first
p-day. Its about 2 hours away and i love it because i get to catch up
on some sleep. :) The session today was the first one in portuguese
since ive been here. I could understand like 99 percent of it because
i have done so many sessions so that was nice. I also did it all in
portuguese. I dont want to say a lot about the temple over email but
it was so amazing! Let me know if my pictures are going through. I
cant send them throught he ctm because it takes too long so im sending
them through a cookie shop across down the street. This week was
pretty eventfull as well. We said goodbye to an elder in my hall that
was a spitting image of President Obama. I got some pictures with him
so maybe you all can see how crazy close it is. I took a picture with
him and Elder Babcock with our sunglasses being his body gaurds, it
was pretty hilarious. I love the spirit here! Everyday I here the
testimonies of people in my district and it strengthens mine
substantially. So a crazy thing that me and Elder Babcock did this
week was a little insane... haha It was his idea to start off but it
was still really fun. We got one of the blankets from one of the rooms
and sat down on it and pulled each other down the hall as fast as we
could. The floors are tile so it was so much fun!! Probably not the
smartest thing to do but it was fun. I know I tell a lot of crazy
things that happen but dont worry, Im working super hard to learn the
language and a lot about the gospel. Im dedicated to this work and I
love to be a missianary so much! Another weird thing that happened
this week was yestierday in a lesson. It was a lesson for TRC which is
where we teach a member. The member was a little late to the room but
all was good. We walked in right after her and she turned on the
lights and there were literally thousands of mosquitos in the room.
The windows were left open and the room in on the bottom floor right
by the garden area so it was very prone to mosquitos. We spent a
couple minutes trying to get as many as we could out but we ended up
shutting the window with still a million in the room. It was a little
difficult to teach with the spirit because I was swatting bugs out of
my face like crazy but It was still fun. Most of you know that I hate
bugs but I didnt freak out until we got out of the lesson and the
member didnt see me... haha Such good times!!! I love you all so much
and i miss you! This past month has flown by and I have loved it. I
have learned so much more in this month than i have before in my life.
Ive matured a lot but im still my normal self as you can tell by my
awesome stories. I love this work. I love the people of Brasil! Eu amo
sendo um missionario. Eu quero batizar muitas pessoas e ensinar eles
pelo Espirito Santo. Vivindo no CTM e increivel! Estou muito animado
ir ao campo en duas mais semanas. Estou aprendendo muito cada dia. Eu
sei que esta igraja e verdadeira com toda meu coraçao. Em nome de
Jesus Cristo, Amem  Com Amor, Elder Griffin

March 4, 2016

Hola Familia!!! Eu amo voces muito!

I love you guys! I have so much to tell you guys! This past week was super amazing! I felt the spirit so strongly and many awesome things happened. First of all ill tell you about the best thing that happened this week. I was able to give my first blessing! I was sooo grateful for that experience. Sister Albrecht asked me to give her a blessing because she was sick for a few days. I was so honoured and so nervous to give the opportunity because i felt so much responsibility on my shoulders. I was so nervous that i called her by the wrong name at first but then i got corrected by her and all was well. Right when i placed my hands on her head to give her a blessing i felt calm and a rush of the spirit. It was a type of revelation that Ive never felt before. Im so blessed to  be a worthy priesthood holder. I know that it is the literal power of God on the earth. 

This past wednesday i had the amazing opportunity to go out to the metro in the middle of Sau Paulo and go proselyting. My whole district went at the same time. We each had 5 books of mormons to give out in about two hours. I was so excited I gave my first three away on the bus on our way to where we were supposed to be proselyting. Even though my vocab was extremely limited, I was able to testify by the spirit and hopefully change the lives of some people. I made a few mistakes too... I am kinda the most outgoing one of my tripanionship as previously stated so i kinda led in a lot of the discussions. I loved it though. A mistake that i made was going to talk to the homeless guys. They were obviously drunk or high on something because most of them are anyway. But these guys were seriously bad. I started to talk to them and one guy was really erratic and just yelling at people so we just left right after that. Another mistake was I let someone argue with me about the priesthood being restored for awhile. It was a taxi driver operater man. My instructor signaled us thought the fence and told us to just leave so we did. I definately learned what not to do during that situation. Proselyting was an amazing experience that really got me excited for the field! I also made me want to work harder in the CTM to learn more Portuguese and more about teaching. 

My Portuguese is really improving though. I can understand mostly everything from my instructor because ive probably gotten used to the way he speaks. But with other instructors I can understand about 75% The gift of tongues is real everybody! Prayer is real too! Use prayer everyday to come closer to God because he is waiting to help you. He know you perfectly and want the best for you all we have to do is ask. 

This past weekend I had one of the most spiritual experiences in my life thus far. It was in a dream. I cant say much about it through an email because I believe its too sacred but those I love will just have to wait a couple years to hear about it in person. ;) I wont say any details but my experience certified and confirmed that my testimony of God and Jesus Christ is real. I know they live will all of my being. I know Christ died for me. I know He loves us unconditionally and we need to take advantage of the atonement. This experience will be something that Ill be able to draw on for the rest of my life. I know without a doubt that this was from God. In the temple this morning at the beginning of the session I was confirmed of my experience and the love God has for me. I was filled with the Holy Ghost. I know it is true. 

I had two investigators commit to be baptized this week! Marcelo and Aparecido. Super exciting! I cant talk much about them but I love teaching so much! 

Keep praying for me! I love you all. 

Love 

Elder Girffin