Elder Joshua Griffin: Ah! I Love My Mission!

Hey, apa khabar keluarga dan kawan saya?

So, this week has been AWESOME! Ah! I love my mission! But it's sad because time is going by so fast! In six weeks.....1/4 done with my mission.....Apa hal? Semua masa di sini sangat aneh dan itu sangat sangat cepat....saya tidak faham, tetapi saya selalu kerja, supaya saya jangan risau; secepat itu selalu okay, saya baik. Okay, enough Malay for now. So, upon weighing myself this week, I made a terrifying discovery.... I've gained 15 lbs since I left home haha but now I just look normal, not super skinny anymore! I look decently fed, but I'm not fat. It's kinda weird, but I think some of it's muscle too, I work out everyday and add 10 lbs to my weights every couple of weeks. Well, this week, we've been visiting a lot of less actives. We had 9 less-active lessons, and they were all really good. It's kind of concerning though....for a lot of them, we re-teach the Restoration, and they sounded like they didn't know much about the Great Apostasy or even Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon.... And it rained a lot. Like everyday, which is pretty awesome! 

Well, I got your card! Thank you so much! I love hearing from you guys, and I read it like all the time! I miss all of you, but it's good for me to. I really like hearing from all of you! It's the best! 

Not many adventures this week, sadly enough. Like I said a lot of less-active stuff.  It's sad if our message doesn't even go into their hearts and they just are superficially converted, because when things get hard or when they get offended they leave and become less active. That's why we have over 100 less-actives and only 50 people at church. But church was good this week! We got 71 people to come! That's what less-active lessons do, but it's all because of the Lord, I know that.

So, we renovated our apartment. We got a new washing machine (so now our clothes won't be drenched), a new fridge, and a new vacuum! We're so blessed here! We don't have a dryer and our place is really run-down, but we cleaned it all and now it's all spick-and-span, so it looks great! 

Fun fact: The Singapore Mission used to be a lot cooler. Not only Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore were in the mission. It included Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal! 

So, last thing, we visited a less-active. He was there with some of his friends, and we invited them to learn as we taught, like we do a lot. We taught the Restoration. The Spirit was SO STRONG, it was amazing! It was just a spiritual H-Bomb! Me and my comp were on a Spiritual High, it was great! 

Okay, time to answer some questions.

As for the teaching, Mom... I'm still training (last week this week!), and so we don't even leave till about 1:30. Then we either ride bikes for 45 minutes or 25 minutes, depending on if we're going to Donggongon or to Beverly Hills. Nosoob and Kobusak are about 30 minutes, so we teach a lot, but not as much as I want to teach. On P-days, we party! We went bowling last p-day, and I was publicly humiliated..... The new missionary, Elder Putnam, is great! He's so good! He's really funny, and he initiated the cleaning of the apartment which resulted in our new appliances. 

Zack, I really want to see the Crucible, good luck! That reminds me of Don't Drink the Water and Antigone...good times-lah!

KK....I'll probably be here for another six weeks if I'm training. Other than that, I don't know if I'll stay. We've had two changes already, and Elder Schuetz is still my comp. for now. Nothing too interesting for food, unfortunately, but we did have blessed french toast! It was sedap! Food from home that I'm craving....nothing, really. I'm all good.

Well, I'm out of time, but all is well! I wanted to send a letter but I didn't pay enough, so I'm sending it today. It's dated like February 12th, so it's off. Well, I gotta go! Love you all! Bye!

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

Elder Tyson Griffin: A Valiente in Varela!

Good morning Utahhh!

Okay so this week was a little more tranquilo por suerte. Although, there is never a week in the offices where something doesn't come up haha. I love it. So! Drumroll please...... I'm leaving Malvin! We have changes this week, and for my last 6 weeks I will be training a new elder! Woooo!!! Haha I'm sooo excited, this is how I wanted to end my mission. Aaand, (this is crazy).. I'm going back to Varela! Where I was before I came here as assistant- we are whitewashing it (for the second time) starting on Wednesday. It'll be sweet though, cause I already know all the... 10 or so members haha, and the streets and everything. And I'm going back to my beloved zone of 33. I can´t wait! The new assistant is coming to take my place tomorrow night. Crazy how time flies right? As if it were a dream. I cannot believe what is happening, every day goes faster and faster. Will it be like this for the rest of my life or just until I get home?! It's super weird, cause all the elders I started in the MTC with are going home this week. So the other elders in my group and I are now "valientes" or the next 6 week group to go home in the mission. Anyway- I´m super excited! Training a new elder my last few weeks will help me keep focused and working hard until the end so I'm grateful for that. 

     

Anyway this week went well, we had Enrique in church on Sunday! He's getting baptized on March 10th, it's too bad that I won't be able to be here to see it, but I'm proud of him. He's changed so much as we've been teaching him and as he's been keeping his commitments, he smiles and laughs and is just cleaner physically and spiritually as he's been repenting these last few weeks. He quit smoking like a trooper, so I'm proud of him! We had a couple of conferences this last week too, that went really well. I've known for a couple months already what was going to happen with me for changes, so it's been good for me to really enjoy these last few weeks as assistant and take advantage of every second. This morning in my personal study I took some time and wrote down all the "life lessons" that I've learned in these three changes here with President. I've learned so many skills and administration techniques that I never would have learned without this opportunity that will be suuper valuable for the rest of my life in callings and my career and stuff, so it's been an amazing experience and I'm super grateful for it. It'll be weird going back to being a normal missionary without a car, working all day long in the sun without air conditioning  and zero food from members, but it's okay! That's what I've wanted from the beginning and those are the circumstances that make me grow most, and make me most grateful for my family and home and stuff, so perfect timing:) I'm soo excited to come home and see everyone and just live happy like I have been for these two past years here in Uruguay, but these next 6 weeks still own my heart here, so I'm going to give it all I can and finish well! Thanks everyone for the support and love, It makes it so much easier!

PS: picture of our bday cake in the offices with the Whitakers.

Elder Griffin

Elder Joshua Griffin: A Good and Bad Week

Selamat Petang! Apa khabar?

Waddu, this week has been emotionally hard for all of the missionaries here in Kota Kinabalu. You'll find out why in a moment. Wow, but other than that, this week has been great. So I hope that you heard about transfers; so because I'm still a trainee, I'm staying in KK. Elder Glad, one of the Elders that lives with us, moved to Miri for his new area. Miri is in Sarawak, not Sabah. So he moved, and his replacement, Elder Putnam, moved in. Elder Putnam is 1/2 Japanese, and he's pretty much a stud! He's got a great personality, and he is really funny.

So, if you don't know, these past few weeks the people here in KK have been celebrating Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, there aren't very many Chinese people that I know of here, and there wasn't as much celebrating as I honestly thought that there would be. It was fun to get "Gong Xi Fa Cai" though, the money in the little red envelopes. Speaking of envelopes, I'm sending a letter (or seven) home today, so I hope you get it soon. And I don't know what the thing is (apa hal?), but I haven't received your letter yet. I'm hoping to get it soon though, it usually takes a few weeks, I think.

So, I went on splits this week with one of the natives, Elder Tadius. We taught a 13-year-old boy and the boy, Rico, was baptized on Saturday. For a moment in the lesson, I couldn't understand what they were speaking, and I thought that they were speaking Malay, so I was kind of thinking to myself,What's going on, why can't I understand them? As it turns out, they weren't speaking Malay, they were speaking a tribal language called Dusun. So, here in Sabah there's a lot of different tribes. Iban, Dusun, Katazan, Malayu--there's a lot.

So, just some miscellaneous stuff--I pronounced a blessing in Malay to an old woman in a hospital. It was a neat experience, but I didn't really know if what I was saying made sense....I hope that will come with time. And the Branch had a Valentine's Party, but of course, the missionaries couldn't dance. 

My investigators are pretty legit! Ghani just finished learning about the Plan of Salvation, and he really liked that! He's on date for baptism March 17th, and our other investigator, Lazarus, is on date for March 2nd! Brandon and Franco's lessons keep on falling through, or we can't get members. When members can't come, that's bad, because my Malay and Elder Schuetz's Malay isn't the best yet. So they missed their baptismal date, but we're trying to get them on another date soon. They seem kind of resistant. I think their mindset is, "Well, dad wants me to join his church, so I guess I'll listen to the white guys, if I have to." But I hope that's not the case. But they'll get better, i know that they will!

So, here's the sad news. One of the member's in our ward, well his wife had twins. His name is Garry, and we're really good friends with him. Well, one of his daughters, Evy, passed away on Thursday night. She was just under two months old. She was having breathing problems in the middle of the night, so they took her to a hospital. Their Kampung was about thirty minutes away from the hospital, and the baby girl died shortly after they got to the hospital. So, we went to her funeral. Funerals here are different, of course,.Here, they place the body in a big, glass, refrigerator-type box, so you can go and see the body, but you can't touch it. She was really small, because, like me, the twins were preemies. They were born about the same time I was, and weighed just over a kilo. (2.2 lbs). So, it was really sad.

The poor mom can't really accept the reality yet, and Garry is really sad, but he's grateful that he knows that she got a straight shot to the Celestial Kingdom. His parents also want to start learning about the Gospel. This whole tragedy made them want to shape up and get their act together. So, we went to the funeral, and dropped handfuls of dirt on her casket, and then we left.

Well, apart from that, the week was really good. Okay, time to answer some Q's, okay-lah?

As for the packages, I can get them about once a month, because the ZL's go to Singapore for Zone Conference, but I really feel bad about you all sending packages because it's so expensive, so I only want you to do it for very special occasions, like for my birthday and Christmas. I'm not sure what else..... I'm not sure when I got into Singapore again, but I think the next time, it will be to get trainees and trainers and stuff. I'll let you know ASAP. 

So, yeah.... I hope everybody's doing alright! I want to hear from all of you!

Well, that's all for this week, folks!

Selamat Petang, dan selalu ikut Kristus, dan saya harap kamu pastikan untuk selalu berus gigi kamu!

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

A fire close to Josh's apartment

Elder Griffin with an investigator

Elder Tyson Griffin: Non-stop Missionary Work!

Esta semana me ha matado!

So remember that one week when I said that Ive never been more tired in my entire life? Well I'm happy to say that I am a lot more tired now than I was then. Sheesh this week has been crazy! Last night I just couldn't believe that today was Saturday haha, I refused it like a little child. Time is flying. We had 3 zone conferences this week. The first one we went up to 33 (my old area) which was awesome! We had a joint conference with Melo (my other old zone) So it was good to see everyone. We got up at 3 in the morning here in Montevideo and I drove us all up in the truck haha. I felt like I was getting up early to go fishing or something. We also took the Pugmires with us. (the ones from Fairview that I love!) it was super fun. After the conference we got back here to Montevideo late at night and went straight to bed. The next morning we had another conference here in our church with 2 zones, and then yesterday we got up at 5 to drive out to the last conference about 3 hours away. So we are exhausted. I feel so bad... yesterday we were in a lesson at about 7:30 at night, and the lights were low in the dudes house and I was struggling so bad to stay awake, especially after driving so much I was just fatigued haha. Anyway, I kept dozing off when my comp was teaching and then I'd snap out of it before I really fell asleep. It was bad. Needless to say, these last two nights I've slept as if I were on sleeping pills. But I had a good birthday! I actually had forgotten about it until my comp wished me a happy bday later on haha. I opened my package last night, and I'm making my cake today just because this last week we had zero time. By the way thanks for the package, family!! I get so fat with the cake. But it's the last one I'm eating here haha. And I love the little cut outs of the kids, they made us all laugh and I took pictures of them, but my camera´s battery is dead, so I'll have to send those pics next week. 

Tonight we have a lesson with Enrique, one of our super stud humble investigators that has a  baptismal date for march (if we could get him to church!). That's the struggle here- the whole world will want to get baptized until you tell them they need to go to church to be able to do it haha. We're doing well though, I know he'll come tomorrow. So this is the last week of the change... then I've only got 1 left. 6 weeks. What? Makes my stomach hurt ha. My plane lands on Friday April 12 just so you know. The flight plans will be sent to you in a couple weeks:) so weird talking about this. Anyway this next week will be just as crazy getting ready for changes and everything, but I love it. Doing nonstop mission work is so addicting haha. Thanks to everyone for writing me and the bday wishes and everything! I love my life. Love you all!

Elder Joshua Griffin: An Amazing Week!

Hey, how are you all? I don't believe it! This week went by so fast! 

So this has been a really good week! It was amazing, actually! So, first things first--don't worry about me. I'm fine and I found out how to stop my bike on time, and I will be getting it fixed soon. So I haven't had any near-misses or anything this week, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm being pretty obedient.....so don't worry about anything, Mom. It's all good and I know that the Lord has been blessing me! You'll hear about some of those blessings in a moment....

Okay, so, this week, I've really had a lot of good opportunities to exercise the Melchizedek Priesthood. I gave four different blessings, and all of them were for healing. Jamiah came back for church this week, so I participated in blessing her son, Oscar, because he was sick, and he was doing a lot better the next day. I also participated in blessing a man named Lexson. He had a growth on his neck and when they took it off, the people at the hospital said that he was all good, but he started having problems again, so he requested a blessing from us. Elder Schuetz, Elder Glad, and I all blessed him. Also, Elder Parker, one of the KK ZL's has been having gastro-intestinal problems, so they flew him in to Singapore to get something called an Endoscopy. I gave him a blessing also, and I blessed another little boy, Evan. He's one of the boys in the pictures that I sent.

Speaking of the pictures, I've been minimizing them in Paint because it literally takes five minutes if I want to send a big picture for it to upload on the computer. So I'll enlarge them about by 30%, so I hope that's big enough. 

So, me and Elder Schuetz are going to give blessings to some other people. We got a new investigator name Astrolita, who wants us to bless her husband. He's in the hospital too, and she is an old, old woman. She was talking to us, and she was saying, "Help me, Elders, I don't know why I'm here. I don't have a purpose, please help me." So we prayed with her and we've been praying for her husband and we're going to give him a blessing, but we're not exactly sure what his problem is yet--we haven't been able to meet with him yet. 

So, with my other investigators, it's all been REALLY good! Brandon and Franco are still progressing. I took a picture of them, which I'll send, and we taught the word of wisdom, but only half because we didn't have enough time to finish it. So Brandon and Franco both smoke, about 20 cigarettes a day. But we prayed for them and when we met again Brandon said he didn't smoke at all and that Franco only smoked one. And he stopped drinking even before we talked about alcohol in the next lesson! They are so cool!

Lazarus--he's been REALLY busy with Chinese New Year, which is actually this week. It's HUGE here, but not as big as it is in China! So I'll take some pictures because it's just a huge party here! It's so cool! There are these hanging red lanterns everywhere and they do this thing like in Tangled, where they launch a billion floating lanterns in to the sky, so I'll take pictures of that too! So, yeah, Lazarus doesn't have time, but we'll be teaching him really soon again.

Eryetah is still in Singapore, but her brother had his surgery and all is well.

Oboi....not good. We're thinking about dropping him because he's just not showing up to our lessons and he's not coming to church. It's sad, but we might drop him if he keeps on flaking on the lessons....

Gani, a new investigator! I love him! He is SO cool! We taught him the Restoration and he had a ton of questions that were the same as Joseph Smith! And he love learning! He said he wanted to be baptized even before we committed him or mentioned it, so his date is March 17th. He came to Church yesterday, and it was really good to see him there! He already recognizes when he's feeling the Spirit!

Speaking of the Spirit, it has been SO STRONG ALL WEEK LONG!!!! AAAAAHHHHHH I love it! I just feel it all the time--when someone says "Constant companion," it's the truth-lah! And I can tell it's helping everything, because my language skills are improving every day! I love my mission! And I'm sad though, because I noticed that yesterday was February 10, which means my mission 1/6 of the way finished! Mengapa?!?! (Dramatic WHY?)

Well, as you know, I hope, Elder Schuetz and I are doing a reactivation effort. We have about 100-120 less-actives and inactives in our branch, so we are going to tear up KK! It's awesome!

By the way,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TY!!!!!!!!!!

So, yes, all is well here. We do meet some weird people, like this one guy, whose name was Jim. We met him and he said, "Do you know what the Slammer is? I spent nine months in the Slammer," and all the while he's playing with my comp's tie, but he was a nice guy. It was just a little sketch. 

So, sorry about all of that, I'm about to answer your questions, Mom. By the way, in the packages, don't send any of the little hard candies anymore. Sorry haha but it's so humid here that they melt together and then ants find them and eat them, so....yeah.... haha

Transfers are actually today. They are every 6 weeks, but since I'm just a trainee, I stay here.  Singapore, we go there every 3 months for Zone Conference.   American food and treats don't really exist here. They're all rip offs. The food is still really really good! I am being fed by members a lot. I love you all and I have to go, and I don't have time to send pics today, but I'll try!

Sayang kamu!

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

Elder Tyson Griffin: A Week Full of Awesomeness

Alright!

This week was full of awesomeness. We have been traveling a lot with president this week all over the mission doing zone conferences with all the missionaries. They have been super good! On Tuesday we had the monthly zone leader council here in Montevideo and it was good to see how everyone is doing in their zones. Then on Thursday we had a zone conference with two zones Norte and Maroñas which went super well. Yesterday we went a little further out and had another conference, and my comp Elder Looney and I took the advantage of being out and took the truck further up to a state called Florida ad did divisions with the zone leaders up there last night and stayed the night up there. It was super fun, we all took our mattresses out and slept on the deck of their house, and Florida is clear out in the fields, so there were tons of stars and it was super fun haha.. good times. We got up early this morning and drove back to Montevideo to be back here for our sacred pday:) There are 11 zones in total in the mission- next week we have three more zone conferences with the interior zones that are far away like Melo and 33 and Rocha and stuff (where Ive spent the majority of my  mission) So it'll be a fun little road trip. Its so amazing to see President Armstrong teach all the missionaries. I'm learning so much from him and from his ability to lead such a huge mission- I'm so grateful for this opportunity to observe and learn from him. I feel a lot more able to fulfill with other church callings after being here as an assistant with him, just from being able to work with. Huge blessing! 

So tomorrow is Sunday and we have to get our investigators to church so bad. We are teaching a handful of investigators that are progressing at different rates, some faster than others, but its so amazing how the attendance to church really shows you if they are really interested in the gospel or not. We have a couple discussions tonight, one with one investigator that called Enrique, he is such a good man, really poor and humble, but really sincere and smart as well. We invited a member to come with us tonight that we really feel will be able to help Enrique out, so we are excited for that lesson. I'm sure grateful for all the prayers that are offered for the missionaries all over the world.. cause we sure need it! Its sometimes not as easy as it seems to help people recognize the truth in the gospel. Sometimes its really discouraging to see people that we've grown to love so much choose not to get baptize and turn down such important blessings... but I guess that's what makes us work even harder to find the next person that will listen! I love the mission. If it were easy I wouldn't learn anything haha. 

So mom, my bday package got here WOOO! I haven't opened it yet, and yes I have been tempted- so be proud. I'm exited to open it haha. Today is my comps bday, tomorrow is another elder´s bday that lives in our house, and mine is this week, so today we are all going out with the office elders with president to a restaurant to eat lunch. It'll be sweeeet. Thanks to everyone for all the bday wishes and I hope it keeps snowing until April haha that would be sweet. Be safe in the snow and have an awesome week everyone! HASTA LUEGO.

Elder Joshua Griffin: Adventures in the Jungle

Hey, guys! Apa khabar sekarang?

Sorry that this is so late..... I got up at 4 am this morning and we took a 3 hour car ride to Gunung Kinabalu. It is MASSIVE! So, we made it there at about...10-ish? Well, we hiked around, took some pictures, but we didn't really hike the mountain. It's 14,000 feet tall, a little hard to do in one day.... you'll see. We would've had a guide take us, but that would've added up to about 150 RM, so we went on a short little 1/2 hour little hike. Afterwards, we went to a little town called Ranau. At Ranau, we went to some natural hot springs (although we couldn't get in them), walked on a hanging bridge about 200 feet about the ground (I'm sorry I don't have pictures for that...yet...) and then we hiked to a waterfall and a bat cave where we had some adventures will pulling leeches off of our legs and hands. I was unharmed, but there's more bad news that you'll read about....sort of...... :/ So, we arrived back in KK a little while ago, went and taught a lesson, and now I'm e-mailing you. It's about 7 AM in America, 9 PM here. 

Mom....HAPPY

BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meminta maaf, ya? So.... Miri.  Haha Miri is actually in Sarawak, not Brunei, so I was still in East Malaysia. It was a 55 minute flight to Miri and we left at about 5 in the morning. We arrived at the airport with a wheelchair for an older member, and the Senior Couple met us there. They drove us to their home where we ate breakfast, and then we had a bunch of meetings for the trainers and the trainees all day. I made a quick arrangement of "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul", which we played, and that was beautiful! I love that song! (The one that's played at the end of 17 Miracles is the best, tiada salah sana). So, apparently, Miri has some pretty sketch-y areas. I guess a man was fishing there and then he got eaten by a crocodile and they found his remains the next day.... I tell you, my mission is like Tarzan and Avatar and The Jungle Book, and a billion other jungly things all mixed together! I love it so much and I love the people here! AAAHHHH!!!!!!!

So.... now the bad news......here we go.

Well, I was going to go visit some less-actives and I had switched my brakes on my bike from European Style to American Style. (The sides are switched: in European, the right brake controls the front, the left brake controls the back). Well, my back brake was really weak and my comp and I rode across a road to get to the other side, (pun right there), so we hopped up onto this barrier without stopping so we wouldn't get hit, and then we pull on our brakes to stop. Well, my brakes decided to not work there, so I rode out into the road with these 40mph cars whizzing past me. I got back on the curb and I was okay, so nothing too bad there. 

Well, later that day, I was riding again, and my comp was ahead of me so I sped up to catch up with him. Apparently, a driver didn't check his blind spot and turned right when I was coming up next to him. I hit his door and then bounced off and hit his mirror, and then I hit the ground and skidded up my left elbow. But I was mostly okay. My elbow was bleeding and my bike handlebars were twisted backwards, but I fixed it and the driver asked me if I was okay, and I was. I'm just glad that he didn't run over my legs or anything. So it was  50/50--I hit a car and a car hit me! Yay.  

Well, there's been about 4 more experiences when that's almost happened, and most of those times, I had the right-of-way, and if I wanted to, I could've reached out and touched the car. No joke, they are always about 6 inches to a foot away from hitting me. But jangan risau (don't worry), ever thing's okay, and I'm fine. 

I heard Abba on the radio. Super Trooper....? Or something like that? And apa hal, why do I have not have an e-mail from Nick?!  Oh well, haha tiada masalah! P.S. Chili peppers are really hot.

My investigators:

Well, Eryetah went to Singapore because her brother is having surgery so she asked us to pray for him, which we did. We're trying to get the Elders or Sisters in Singapore to teach her before she comes back in March. 

Lazarus....he's awesome, we're hoping he'll get baptized soon. He has hair down to his shoulders, but that's okay. He works in a meat packaging shop and he loves going to church. I think he went in KL and in Johor Baru.

Oboi....he has been at Kampung, so we haven't taught him for a while. We are going to teach The Gospel of Jesus Christ though, very soon.

Franco and Brandon--hebat as always! I hope that all will be good when they get baptized in about a week! YES!

Chris....no comment.

So, all in all, don't worry, I'm fine. I did get a little sick, I don't know why, but I'm getting over it. Don't worry, Mom, or anybody else, the Lord is protecting me. All I do is pray when I ride my bike haha it's a good practice, too, kan?

So here are the pics! Yay!

1. This is just a tower. I bought a hat. It looks like one from the Newsies and it's legit.

2. This is Gunung Kinabalu. PS. Lauren, I bought you a POSTCARD!!!!

3. This is me and my pals in front of the mountain.

4. The leech waterfall. 'Nuf said.

5. This is the size of legit Malaysian bananas! (Wow, everything's small! The people, the rice, the bananas, the cars....and these are the same bananas Pisang Goreng are made out of).

Note from mom:  For some reason, Josh's pictures come through his email really small.  I enlarged them a little, but now the quality is awful.  If I post them how they come in the email, they're too small to see.  Hopefully I can figure it out and get better pictures on next time!

Elder Tyson Griffin: Running From Lesson to Lesson

First of all...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! WOOOO HOOO! FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS WOO!

I hope its a good one! Love you!!

This week we have had so many discussions to teach that we have been running from lesson to lesson haha- using a car! We have a lot of investigators here in Malvin and we are being really blessed right now. It sometimes is frustrating when they don't want to progress and get baptized as quick as we wish they could, but we're working all we can so I know someone will make it! We have taught so much this week, it's been good. We did a couple interchanges with some of the zone leaders this week which went well, one I did with one of the zone leaders from Melo in Castagnet, (where I was about 7 months ago). He came down to Malvin and we worked here, it was good to ask him about my converts up there and everything. They're still going strong! Woo! We have been having a lot of meetings with president lately, helping him while his wife is in Salt Lake- they are still doing treatments and don't want to send her back to Uruguay until she's healed.. so it's going to take some time. His daughter is coming back this Tuesday though so that'll be good for him to have her in the house. We have found some really cool investigators this week. We found a guy named Javier that has been a drug addict most his life, but has been sober for about a month now.. we were knocking doors and he let us right in and gave us some water and just soaked up what we taught like a sponge. It was really neat to see how the gospel of repentance caught his attention so much. We invited him to get baptized at the end of February, and he accepted! So I'm glad to be able to try and help him out a bit. He's had a very rough life, poor guy. Our ward here in Malvin loves us. They feed us way too much haha. Our bishop is so cool too.. he'll have little personal talks with our investigators after church and just get to know them and answer all their questions and stuff. This ward is so awesome! The bishop and his family are leaving in a couple weeks to go to Disney World for a week haha. I have learned so much here in this area.. I won't be surprised if president has me train for my last 6 weeks in the mission, which means that I only have like 4 weeks left here in Malvin as assistant. But it has been such a good experience! I have learned so much from president and so much about leadership and stewardship that is going to help me for the rest of my life. I love the mission! Every second counts. Thanks to everyone for being awesome and for supporting me out here. Vamos arriba Uruguay! Les quiero a todos mucho!

Ps.. the pics are 1) of us in the airport waiting for the new elders to arrive. and 2) our presentacion picture that we put on our powerpoint we show the oros haha.. Inside joke. don't judge.

Elder Griffin