Elder Griffin: Lots of Hard Work This Week

HELLO! Nama berita dek? Ou?

This was a good week, despite the hard work! So I'm just going to jump in....

So, last Monday, we went to a Crocodile Farm for our P-Day activity. We took along three live chickens and threw them all into the crocodile pit so see which one could live the longest. Gus and Spencer died pretty quickly, but Julie survived! She ran away from all of the crocodiles and managed to hide under a stone ledge, but she'll die soon enough. I have pictures and videos! Also, we played with a sun-bear. It's the same species that Baloo is on "The Jungle Book". We fed him some milk and then wrestled with him, and that was a lot of fun. His name was Eddy.

Later that night, we went and taught Brother E and his family. He's a less-active. We just got to know him and talked a bit. We played a game called "Hai, Su, Kah" which they totally LOVED!!!! They were laughing so hard that I thought that they would pinsam (faint)! It was really funny and it was good. We're meeting them again tonight, and we're instituting a group FHE so the other members in the area can become active again.

Tuesday, we met with B and F. They are really good. We wanted to invite them to the FHE gathering, but they were unable to come due to work. We are also meeting with them tomorrow night again. They are really neat. They work a lot, so it's hard for them to go to Church, so we have been helping B to try to overcome that obstacle. 

We also helped two of the Sisters, Sister Anderson and Sister Rigby and clearing our their portion of the Branch Directory. We went to a place called Senadin. That wasn't good. We didn't find anybody really, we just biked around in the hot sun for 5 hours. Later that night, we met with President Atos. He is the Branch Mission Leader. He's super good and he is totally on board with Elder Trudo and I. His cousin's son-in-law was on MH370. They still haven't found it. We are pretty up-to-date, but there's no news as of yet. We also met with President Langgie, the Branch President. He is President Atos' son, and he is ready to help!

So, our plan is to clean out the Branch List. All of the people who have disappeared or who have converted to Islam we put into MLS (ask Tyson about that, he knows). So, the Muslims/ex-LDS ones stay on a seperate list in Singapore, so that when it's not illegal to teach Muslims, then they can go back to Church. The rest are send to Salt Lake to be found by the experts. So, by cleaning about the Branch List, we will know who to focus on. That will strengthen relationships with the members, it will get home/visiting teaching up-and--going, and eventually, we will not have to go contacting and we will teach only referrals.

Door contacting is a way to find people, but it is rarely effective. I've baptized about 13 people on my mission. Only one was a door contact. Everyone else was a referral. So, please, although many of you live in Happy Valley, befriend non-members, and introduce them to the missionaries! 

I also have Missionary Tags in the following languages. Chinese, English, Bahasa Melayu, and soon enough, Tamil. I took pictures, I'll try to send those! 

There was District Conference the past few days. Elder Larry Y. Wilson from the Asia Area Presidency came. I was up on the stand translating for the whole thing into Malay for the Saturday adult session. That was a little difficult, but I was able to do it. It's just hard to translate some certain things. American idioms don't translate well into Malay....

President and Sister Mains were also there. We had our periodical interviews. That was good. 

Well, that's all for this week! I have literally 6 months left! I come home September 25, so I'll be home before you know it! 

Dengan Sayang,

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

holding the goat

Holding the bear

name tags in Malay, Iban, English, and Mandarin Chinese

Cute little Iban kids in their kampung

Elder Griffin: Don't Underestimate the Power of Prayer

Jadi....(prounced "jah-dee") this week has been pretty good! Not too much happened unfortunately, but here we go anyway! 

So, in case all of you haven't heard, there is a plane that just disappeared. MH370 for Malaysia Airlines (which is slightly disconcerting, because that's the Airline that the missionaries use for Zone Conferences and transfers), is gone. It just disappeared. Apparently the FBI and a lot of Agencies around the world have been searching for it in the South China Sea, but were unable to find any debris or evidence of a crash. Authorities think that it was hijacked. The plane switched its course and passed over Malaysia, so now they are searching the Indian Ocean. They also have satellites searching for it. That affected our plans later in the week, but you'll see that later.

At this time, Elder Trudo and I (we're working really well together by the way; he reminds me of a wise sage), are working on clearing out the Branch Directory completely, so we're gearing up for "Minggu Neraka". It is not going to be fun, and I'm not looking forward to it, but it's something that must be done. The Branch(es) here in Miri are destroyed, and because the missionaries basically run the Branches, its our job to get it up and running again. That's not to say the Branch/District Presidency doesn't help. They do, but sometimes it's almost ineffective..... So we're going to visit every single member and find every single house. We have one lesson-with-a-member-present planned. That's it. So wish us luck!

As for the investigators:

Brother D: We dropped him basically. He wasn't keeping his commitments, so after a very bold and eyebrow singeing lesson with him, we are giving him one last chance. His choice is simple. We told him, "You need to either choose God and your family, or alcohol and cigarettes." He still hasn't made a decision, and we're not going to visit with him for some time.

 E and M: Still in Brunei.

D, P, and M: We met with D and M. He actually was in the hospital. He has an ulcer, so we gave him a Priesthood Blessing, pronounced by Elder Trudo. According to the blessing, he will be completely healed and he was also blessed with a desire to become a man who holds and exercises the Priesthood. We committed them to baptism, but they said that they weren't ready yet. So we're just hoping that all goes well. They returned to Kampung, again, but they will be back for a doctor's appointment, and we set up a return appointment at that time.

A and L: We also taught them a little bit. They have been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon! Finally! They are in 1 Nephi 11, all by themselves, which is unheard of for an Iban! They didn't come to Church, but Elder Trudo and I are still working with them on that.

So, on Saturday we had a "Talent Show". It turned into more of a Devotional in memory of the MH370 plane. We found out that President Atos' cousin's son-in-law (what...?) was on the flight, so we stopped the dances, like the Poco-poco, and just sang songs. I translated for Elder and Sister Riser into Malay. It's hard to say "sins of omission and sins of commission". Same with "the master plan is the Master's plan." That doesn't really work in Malay. It was really weird. And not that beneficial to anybody, I feel like. It was originally supposed to help with missionary work, then it turned into a talent night, and then it turned into a devotional.

So, yeah. Although it wasn't the best week in the world, it was still good.

Spirit Stride and Testimony Tidbit: One of the faults that we as humans have is to underestimate the power of prayer. At the end of every prayer, we monotonously say "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." But what does that really mean? To me, it has taken on a new meaning. As we pray, we set our hearts to do what we ask for. We prepare to set to work. We are praying in the name of God's Only Begotten Son, and so what we ask for we will receive, as long as it is in line with Heavenly Father's will. We could almost take the "amen" off at the end and finish our prayer with Jesus' name. As we pray in his name, we consecrate and dedicate our efforts. As long as we act in faith, and in accordance with God's will, "all things are possible." 

Example: If we say in a prayer, "Please help me to have clean thoughts", but then we do nothing to change it, why do we even pray for it? We're praying in Jesus' name, which means that we'll have heaven-sent assistance, seen and unseen. But we also need to try. I know that prayer is powerful. Jesus prayed often, and so should we.

Well, that's all for this week. I love you all and I hope that all is going well with you! CTR and keep the commandments! Pilih yang benar!

Dengan sayang kuat,

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

Elder Griffin: Becoming More Fluent-lah!

Hey! Selamat pagi, tengah hari, atau malam, depending on where you are! 

This week has been pretty good. Really humbling for me, but we all need that every now and then. I'm been humbling myself a bit, but Heavenly Father has been helping me to become humble as well.... So my spirits have been up and down this week--a roller coaster ride, but overall I'd say that it's been pretty good! Just a nice growing experience.

Mom, it's super legit that The Amazing Race was filmed in Malaysia. I swear my mission is the most legit adventure ever! So now you know what kampungs really look like, right? Do you know if they were in Sarawak at all or if they went really far inland? I'm on the coast. We're actually going to have a P-Day activity and the beach today!

So, here's my Spirit Stride: We were teaching a less-active and her son, M. E, M's dad, had to go back to work in Brunei, but they're super prepared. Anyways, as we were teaching, we were obviously teaching in Malay. And I'm not sure what happened, but I didn't even comprehend that I was speaking in Malay until we had been there for about half of the lesson. It was the weirdest experience, but I understood literally every single word that she said, even if I'd never heard it before. It's crazy! I think I'm becoming more fluent-lah! haha!

So yeah, all of our investigators are doing well. D went to the hospital but when we went to see how his family was doing, some of his relatives said that he returned to Kampung.... Hmmm.... Well, we're going to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he got sick or hurt at Kampung? Everybody else is doing well and progressing.

We taught a very good lesson to Brother D. We made a promise with him and gave him a promise rock. So here's the concept: We told him if he prayed, read the scriptures daily, and attended Church, his desire for his addiction would end. Potong. Tiada lagi. So, we gave him a rock that he puts in his pocket to remind him to do that. And before he falls asleep, he puts it on his back to remember if he did. When he does, he's allowed to take off the rock. It's not too big, just a stone about the half the size of an iPhone. 

We went to the beach and contacted some people flying sport kites. They allowed us to try. That was really cool! I'll send pics. We also played with some legit Iban kids, so I'll send some more pics if possible, and then we also got a new bike for Elder Trudo, because he's been using Elder Christensen's old bike.

Also, I wish that I would've played Lacrosse in High School. Elder Trudo did, and we found these lacrosse sticks in our apartment, so we just throw around a tennis ball with them just for fun before we plan at night for like 10-15 minutes, after the day is done. It's so fun! Dang!

Anywho, that's about all that happened this week. Here's by Testimony Tidbit.

Testimony Tidbit: Faith is essential in this life. Without faith, nothing can happen. It is faith that gives us hope and allows us to progress and become better. This week I was pondering a lot about how I'll provide financially for my family when I get home and after I get married and all of that stuff. I just realized that with faith and hard work, everything will work out the way that it's supposed to. "Faith without works is dead". That is a true statement. As long as we believe and work hard, do our best, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will make up the difference. I've seen it time and time again on my mission, and I know that they are aware of us.

I love you all! CTR! PLEASE!

Dengan sayang yang ikhlas,

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

Elder Griffin: God Knows His Children

Email from March 3

Well, let me just say that this has been one of the most successful weeks of my mission! It was truly a week of miracles! It was amazing! It helps me to see that as  missionaries we are truly called of God to preach his Gospel, and he will work miracles to bring about his purposes.

So, right before I begin, I would just like to say to Dad, 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

It's great to hear that everything went swimmingly with Caden's baptism, I wish that I was there! And I'm sorry that I couldn't send a talk, I just didn't get your e-mail in time!

So, Elder Trudo: he's a really legit guy. He has a really spontaneous personality, but he knows when to work and when to have fun. He spent 7 months in KL so his Malay isn't the best, but he is a great teacher and he teaches very simply. Ibans need simple teaching. If we use too many words, they just don't understand. The standard of learning and living here is so kurang (less). A lot of people are illiterate, which I can't even imagine.

Spirit Stride (for the next 5 paragraphs): So, we went to go visit M and her daughter, N. They live in Kampung Krokop. Unfortunately, they weren't home (as usual). So, we were turning back to go home when we meet a man named E. As it turns out, he is the not-yet-baptised husband of a member who lives in Kampung Krokop. He invited us to go and teach him. 

So, we ended up learning that he is kuat minum (a strong drinker) and a heavy smoker. He smokes about 40 batangs (sticks) or 2 packs every day! We shared a scripture with him, his son M, and his really beautiful daughter K. He started crying when he said that he wanted to become a better father, and he asked us when he could be baptized the soonest. He REALLY wants to be baptized!

He wanted us to teach him the next night. We gave him a priesthood blessing and he was really grateful for that. He always walks us out of the Kampung to make sure that we are safe. He also hugs us too. The Ibans are really touchy people. 

We also visited him the next night, at his request. We learned that he lessened his smoking to 10 batangs, and he didn't drink very much! It's really hard for him to stop. because even when he tells his friends that he's stopping, they just think that he is being prideful and that he's "too good" for them. 

He was going to come to Church but then he had to go to Brunei for work, but we are REALLY excited to meet with him again! We found a member who was willing to give him a ride to Church too!

As for A, he was at the beach somewhere so he couldn't come to Church either. He sounded really sincere when I talked to him, and he promised us that he would come next week. He has also been reading and praying on his own, which was great!

Sadly enough, on Saturday, we had a lot planned but Elder Trudo got sick with food poisoning, but he's better now.

So, the next miracle! We had just left Kampung Pasir (on Friday) and we decided to go and visit a potential investigator named S. We showed up, and we could tell that he wasn't really as interested as we had hoped. So his mom, M, came out and started to talk to us. We introduced the Book of Mormon to her and she invited us in. When we went inside, we met her husband, D, and his younger brother, P.  We taught the Restoration.

P loved it! He really wants to meet with us, but he is busy with work a lot! But as we taught the Spirit really softened all of their hearts, and I could see them changing. D said that he would sembahyang (worship) with us but he wouldn't join our Church. Elder Trudo and I are determined to change his mind! M also has a great interest in the book of Mormon as well! 

Then, on the same day, we went to go visit the member who was going to give E a ride to Church and we started teaching him! His name is N. He's getting married soon, so Elder Trudo taught him about Eternal Families. He lives in Permai, in our zone but not in our area, but he is prepared. 

So, here, I'll put in my testimony tidbit: God knows His children. He knows who is ready for the Gospel. Don't be afraid to share it. Follow the Spirit and don't be overbearing. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are willing to forgive and They are willing to help us in any way as long as we follow Them and do our best. They will put miracles in our paths if we let them. And other thing: celebrate the small miracles. Look for the "silver lining", and you will realize that God's hand is always in your life, even if you think that it may not be there, or if it isn't visible. We can be so narrow-minded, but keep an eternal perspective and know that the outcome will always be beyond our wildest hopes and dreams.

I love you all! STUDY to the scriptures, PRAY, and PARTICIPATE in Church! 

Dengan sayang,

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

Teaching in a kampung with Elder Christiensen

Elder Griffin: Eight Awesome Baptisms!!!

Hey, keluarga-ku, what's up? So this week has been a whirlwind of dropped appointments and stress but it all worked out in the end. So, we did have 8 baptisms, and they were all really good! I ended up baptizing Strylgyeon (like Stril-jin; also called Shane, or John), Koggila and Parthiban. Elder Steadman baptized Sarneeya, Saswiny, Surendran, Santi, and Lingeshwarran.

So, that was all awesome, and then I gave Surendran the Gift of the Holy Ghost and then other people in the Branch gave it to the others. So it was an awesome experience, and the whole mission heard about it, from Singapore to Sandakan on the very east coast of Sabah, East Malaysia. It was awesome! Thank the Lord (and not in a swearing way, literally, thank Him,) for his goodness and helping his children come to him, because we were just the ones that were visiting. The Holy Ghost the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ helping, of course. 

Anywho, I had finally had my first dream in Malay. I was talking to Mom, but I can't remember what we were saying, I just know that it was in Malay. Also, I learned that people who read the Bible miss so much stuff in the first few pages, where it references the Godhead multiple times, and spiritual creations, and tons of other stuff. I really want some sticky chicken burrito things right now, and also, I did make that cucumber/vinegar stuff, so that was good! 

We visited Esther and Manjit again, and they taught Priscilla with us, and promised to bring her to church, but then all three of them didn't show up, so we are going to visit them tonight and ask "Apa hal?" Oh, well....

So yeah, then we ate spicy sausage again, but I didn't take a picture this time. So, that's all that happened this week. We were just busy prepping for the baptism, calling people, making the program, cleaning and filling up the font, so yeah, that's it for the lack of details. Here are the pictures, and I will include one from a few weeks ago, when we had Zone Conference. 

Sayang-ku,

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

Elder Griffin: A Nail Biter

This week has been a rush of hard work and just a nail-biter. We've been working really hard to 

get all 8 (that's right, EIGHT) ready for baptism on Saturday, and Satan isn't going to let them just

 slide in and out of the waters of baptism. But, we're working hard and they're all going strong. 

Turns out, one of them did have an abortion, but she was able to get that cleared up with the

 Mission President. Another person had a homosexual relationship, so now he needs to talk to

 President Mains also. But it'll be cleared up. They're all caught up now, and so they will be getting

 their record sheets as members filled out at a lesson tonight, prepped on Thursday, Saturday is

 the baptism and Sunday is the confirmation! It'll be hebat! I'll send lots of pics.

And, about Transfers! I'm staying!!! I hoped to get a trainee, but apa boleh buat? It was either

 move me and I get a trainee, and Ipoh is hard because Elder Steadman doesn't know the area

 too well, and then also.... 

I AM GOING TO BE DISTRICT LEADER!!!!! So, that means I have one other person in my

 district. Elder Steadman. But that's just because Ipoh is such a small place. So, yeah, I get to 

stay for the baptisms! And then the Lord can take me wherever he wants to. 

So, yesterday was a good day at church! 11 investigators came (75 people overall, which is 

awesome considering that it was Father's Day!) By the way,

HAPPY FREAKIN' FATHER'S DAY!!!!!

So, pretty much, we were happy. Dad, what did you get for Father's Day? Speaking of gifts, I'm 

going to try to send a package very soon, and Lauren, I sent you something special, you'll get it

 in a week or so. I will seriously try to send a package, so we'll see! 

W: He's a Chinese kid who only speaks Cantonese, so we need translators at every

 lesson. He's progressed a lot though, he's reading and praying every night, and this week, his 

family came to Church! It was a miracle, because his dad is a less-active who hasn't come to

 church for a very long time! It was so good!

So last night we taught M, another investigator. She didn't come to church for some reason,

 but I think that it was legit. Her husband, R, is a less-active, and last night, he said that he

 would prepare himself to baptize her on August 3rd, so he's coming back! YES! 

Then we got a new family who we are going to see on Wednesday. D (another Indian 

woman) her husband, and her children. They are Hindi I think but they accepted a return 

appointment even on the door contact so I think that it will all be good. We were able to get more 

work done because we're finally back on bikes and we're not relying on members for rides

 anymore.

S is good, but she has trouble accepting new doctrine. She used to go to the Pentecost

 church until they kinda rejected her family, so she studies by herself and she has read the Bible 

like 5 times through. I also am reading the Old Testament, and in the first three chapters of 

Genesis, I saw these things: Sealing and Marriage, creating of spiritual things before physical 

things, PROOF of the Godhead like 4 times (because God is perfect, and he isn't insane, 

so he wouldn't talk to himself), Priesthood responsibility, Patriarchal order, and like a ton of

 other things. The Bible is awesome, so you should try to read the Quad (as a family or

 individually) before I get home. You have about 15 1/2 months, so try it out!

Well, nothing too much other than that.

Love you all,

Selamat harian,

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

Elder Griffin: Going Good!

Hey, it's me again! 

So I found out something interesting today. Even though I am in an English speaking area, I "campur" (mix) Malay and English a lot, so I've actually started to forget some English words. It's turning more into broken English, so that'll be fun! It's been an okay week here.

We did move into our new apartment, and it isn't as "cincai" (ghetto) as our other apartment. The AirCons actually work-lah! And we don't have cicaks (little lizards) running everywhere. The branch helped us out a ton, and we spent a lot of time cleaning and basically just prepping for the move. It was really good. Our old apartment was lived in for 7 years, so it's good to have a new one. Sadly enough, our washing machine is broken and I have like 1 pair of clothes left. Hand scrubbing, yay!  

Elder Steadman's doing very well and his shoulder is healing very very fast. On Monday last week he couldn't even do a 90 degree angle, but now he can do about 160-170 degree angle, so he's getting better bit by bit. By the way, Zone Conference is on Wednesday, so we're flying into Singapore again. But he'll have a check-up there to see if everything is going okay and if his bone is healing properly. 

Today we visited Cameron Highlands, a place high up in mountains. It felt a LOT like Park City in the summertime, but it was really cool, I'll send you some of the pics of that! But then, after this week, I'll just be busy honing my badminton skills. Badminton is pretty much the national sport of Malaysia. So, yeah....

Here's what happened this past week-lah!

So, Yoges got married to his wife Sarojeni. You'll see some pictures of that also. It was really cool. He had a reception the night before at the church and then his legit wedding at some hall somewhere performed by an Indian guy. There was a lot of LOUD Indian music, and we found out that our investigators were some of the dancers in the wedding procession. It was playing music and they were all dancing and we ate curry and rice (the usual) but it was all very good. The only down side is that it was all in Tamil. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!!! I still have no idea how you packed all that stuff in there, and the cookies are still amazing! It's the best ever! And I've been so music deprived that I've gone through most of the CDs already. It's terbes! (the highest degree of best).

Well, that's our week. I got some pants from Sister Chris, actually my size that she bought just because. Gucci, I think. And members here must be loaded for the most part, because they spend so much money on us, it's insane!

Here are the pics! 

Love you all a ton!

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

Malaysia''s National flower

Elder Griffin: The Lord is Blessing Us!

Sorry, I'm a little later this week. We went to Kellie's Castle (supposedly haunted), and we visited a lot of Chinese temples in the limestone caves, so you'll see the pictures of that-lah.

 

Okay, so this week.....

Really good, still; the Lord seems to bless us at every turn and I can't explain why, but we love it! Elder Steadman returned to Ipoh, and he has a nice six or seven inch scar from his surgery, I can also send a picture of that also. It was really long and it's awesome! We taught a lot of lessons this week, and it's so packed! The hard part is finding transport. Due to his shoulder, we can't use our bikes, which is our number one way of transport here in Ipoh. They don't have an organized bus system so we need to hitch rides from members or ask all of our investigators to meet us at the Church, which a lot of them don't really mind. So, here's the telah kejadian's of minggu lalu.

 

J: Went through the baptismal questions with him. He actually has a sincere desire to be baptized. I think he changed his name due to the possessions so now he's a "different" person. Maybe it makes it harder from them to happen....? Anywho--he really wants to be baptized, so we went through all of the baptismal questions with him and he seems to be doing well. He might be baptized June 22 with the others, although he want's to be baptized ASAP.

 

X: Moved back to China just for a two-week school holiday. When he returns, his mom will come also, so that's two more baptisms verysoon! Puji Tuhan (betul-betul)!

 

We had Zone Meeting on Penang Island, so we took a two hour bus ride (me, Elder Wayment, and Elder Steadman), and then we took a ferry over to the island. It was good--it talked a LOT about less-actives, so we've started squeezing some in with all of our lessons. Elder Wayment is in KL now, so we left him in Penang with the ZL's and returned back to Ipoh the same day. It was really good, and then we taught Esther and Manjit, some recent converts! They are so faithful and strong! 

 

WKt: A 12 year old who only knows Cantonese, so we need translators when we teach him. His parents are less-actives and the mom wants to go to church, but their grandma wants them to worship their ancestors. It's a pain because the dad doesn't really care. He just seems really lazy and way too passive to me, but we'll keep working on him.

 

And L and P commited to baptism on June 22nd with their family! Next up is the 10 commandments and then we will teach the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom and stuff! We go to see the twice a week, it's so good! 

 

M and R: R is a less-active and his wife, M, is an investigator. We've been trying so hard for them to come to church and we were about to have a drop lesson next time we met, but then they came! They even brought their nakal. And he was reverent! I think that they really liked it. K and all of her friends attended also, and so did another less-active family! It was so good to see all of the there! Me and Elder Steadman were way happy! 

 

Futsal equals fun/awesome.

 

Yeah, so just a lot of lessons and stuff. We're really, really busy, which is the best, of course! We are also moving out of our apartment on Friday, so I'll send you pics of the new place. It's supposedly pretty nice, I really hope that everything will go well this week. 

 

So, here are the pics!

 

These are just some of them, but they are so cool!

 

There was a wine cellar basement in Kellie's Castle with bats in it. They were flying all over! There was a hidden underground tunnel that led to a Hindu Temple.

 

Love you all!

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

 

Elder Griffin: This Week Has Been Really Busy!

Hey-lah! What's up?

Waddu, it was a lot of fun Skyping with all of you on Mother's day! I can't believe that Tyson's getting married already, so fast-one. Cepat-lah! So, this week has been REALLY busy. As you know, Elder Steadman broke his collarbone, so we flew to Singapore last Monday. Everything was all good. We stayed in Singapore overnight and went to the hospital to set up a time for his surgery. Elder Schuetz, my old companion is an Office Elder now, so I got to talk to him. It was all good.

I went on transfers with an Elder named Elder Wayment. He's been out for about 10 months. Steadman had his surgery and it all went well. He's coming back tomorrow. So I took an 8 hour bus ride back to Ipoh and this week has frankly been freakin' amazing! 

First off....

Cooper and Grandma Harris..... (a little late, I'll admit),

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Aiyo, I hope you have all had an amazing time together as a family! So...here's the details:

Somehow, Heavenly Father decided that we must be doing something right, and he blessed us with EIGHT new investigators in four days! All parts of families too!! Rajkumer, Maria's husband, her nephew, Nathan, Supulaxmi, Parthiban, Kitzai, and Gobi. Ah, man, Ipoh is Heaven on Earth missionary-wise. It's great, we are ALWAYS teaching, and if not, contacting and handing out Book of Mormons, which eventually turns into a new investigator.

Right now, we have 14 people on for baptismal date, and 6 (soon to be 7) are on date for June 22nd. 

So, that is what my week was like this week! I also ate the hottest food I've ever had in my entire life! I was crying, but not on purpose. I'll try to send a picture of it! 

Well, I'll send another e-mail with the pics. So, yeah. If you don't get the e-mail, you'll know that I can't send pics.

I love all of you a lot! It's great to hear from all of you, keep it up!

Selamat selama-lamanya!

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

1.The plane that we took from Ipoh to Singapore. Really Small.

2.100,000 Rupiah. That's Right.

3. A frog we caught, but didn't eat.

4. Kogilla and her friends at church!

5. A limestone hill in Ipoh.

6. The Spicy Sausage.

Elder Grffin: Ipoh is Just on Fire!

Hey guys! Sounds like it's been a really fun week back at home with Tyson's homecoming and all! Aiyo, saya hendak bahwa saya boleh datang dan dengar..... :/ Oh, well, everything here in Ipoh is just as swell as ever-lah! So, as always, here is the lowdown on this past week. Aiyo, ada banyak untuk menulis.... Okay, so as you already know, Malaysia is a Muslim country, so when I'm riding my bike everyday, I hear "Call to Prayer". If you want to hear what I hear everyday, look it up on YouTube. It sounds really cool and it's actually in a key called Harmonic Minor, which is always used for "Arabic-Aladdin" type music. Also, everything here is British style: the cars drive on the left side of the road, so that will be fun returning, and everything is spelled like "flavour, colour, neighbour" like that. And people always think that we're from England. I guess they can't tell the difference between an English accent and an American accent. Okay, so here's what happened this past week! Nikmat! (Enjoy!)

So, we were helping a Sister in the Ward, Sister L., to cut down her banana trees because her neighbors were complaining about it. So we cut them down, no pictures though, sorry. Did you know that the inside of a banana tree trunk is edible? You boil it and then you mix it with curry and spices. I eat a lot of curry here. A lot of the food here is Indian food, actually. Lot's of curry and roti and masala. So, if you ever have the opportunity to go to an Indian restaurant back in the States, you should go! 

So, we visited a potential investigator, named J., and we talked to her for about two hours answering all of her questions. She's really smart about the Bible, but we hope that she will also read and start to pray about the Book of Mormon, because she would know that it is true. "All who believe the Bible will also believe the Book of Mormon." -Chapter Heading, Moroni 8. (I think). So the day that we visited her, it turns out, was a day that we thought everything was going to fall through. It did, but it turned out for the best and I'll tell you why. So, the whole day we were pretty much "led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand what [we] should do", because all of our planned lessons fell through. So, right before we were going to teach J, an old man named Mr. T came and talked to us. He asked us to teach him about the Church, and in return, he would teach us a little bit of Chinese, so of course we said yes. 

Here's what happened when we visited him: First off, he was hilarious, I don't know why! He was like, "Oh, please, do sit. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?" And he was way formal. Then he taught us how to count to 6 in Chinese (which I already knew), and then he goes off telling us his whole life story. How he retired in 1988, and like all of these other things. Meanwhile, some odd woman is singing her lungs out, in Opera-style, and Elder Snyder in I have our sweat-rags in front of our faces, trying as hard as we can not to laugh. It was so funny! Well, we taught him about Prophets, and we're going to meet with him again and teach him about the Restoration. The morning before, I praying that we would find someone who sincerely wanted to learn, and Mr. T found us! 

So, we were busy doing a lot of service all this week. Helping fix the church computers, the banana tree, cleaning the church......lots of stuff. Anywho--we went and visited a woman who was sick with food poisoning in the Hospital, and we gave her a blessing. She got released the next day, but then her kidneys started to fail, so she was readmitted into the ICU. We visited her family--her sister thought that I was 26, for some reason, not 19. That was really funny! And here is where it gets awesome.

So, Brother C (he visited J with us), follows us sometimes. He followed us yesterday. Well, Y, who was baptized, is already doing missionary work in his own family! We managed to teach his sister, along with another family that wanted to learn! So, in reality, we are teaching three families. Y's family (his parents and brothers and sisters), his sister's family (she has kids and a husband), and then this other family. Last night we taught all in Malay, about Jesus Christ. It's good to speak Malay again! But then, afterwards, they told us that they prefer English, because they don't really understand the Malay terminology for the Gospel. So now we will teach them in English. So, that's 5 new investigators. Including Mr. Ting, that's 6 obtained this week! Ipoh is just on fire! 

I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about General Conference. One of the members flaked and so I had to fill the gap. Fun, right? But, no, the talk was all good, and the Spirit was really strong, so it was really awesome! 

I bought a bike. A new one. So, I don't have any money....I wish I would've known that I was going to buy one last week, I would have asked you to send some, but I'm doing okay. The bike was RM1250, so like $400, but it's a really good bike....just if it gets stolen, then I'm in a lot of trouble. So I pulled $200 out of my emergency fund, so I could finish paying for the bike and maybe buy some food to last me for the next month and a half, because I took all of the money out of my support to pay for it. The bike was originally like RM1300 or RM1400, but the man was nice and gave me a discount. It also has a 5 year warranty, but if it gets stolen, I can't replace it. It was either buy a new bike or repair the old bike and pay like RM300 and leave it here when I left, so I just bought a new bike. The old bike's brakes wouldn't work, and I wanted to live, so I bought the new bike recently. I would've waited month or two but.....yeah.

As for N, we haven't contacted his family yet. But we need to. So we will visit them soon, I hope. And with Indonesia, I traveled alone. It was District Conference in Ipoh, so my comp wasn't alone. But I was kind of scared, I didn't know what I was doing or where I was, I just did the best I could and tried to make it in and out of both countries. So, with my passport, it was either I had to leave West Malaysia and Sabah, or get deported back to the US. And I wanted to stay here, so I flew to Medan and...yeah, the rest is history. Elder Schuetz tried to get into Sarawak, but he got deported back to KK with airport security 24/7 and everything, so now he's an office Elder in Singapore. 

Well, that's all I have for now. My computer won't allow me to send any pictures, I don't know why, but I'll try again next week! I love you all! Bye! 

Dengan ikhlas,

Elder Joshua H. Griffin

Elder Griffin's Homecoming: Tyson's Home!!!

Well, Elder Griffin is finally home, 

and it's so awesome to have him back!

 I have lots of pictures to post, so I guess I'll get started!

One day left for Ty, 18 months for Josh!

One day to go!!

American Airlines Dallas to SLC has arrived!!!

The cousins came to welcome Elder Griffin:)

The missionaries Tyson flew home with from Montevideo

Unpacking...

Munching on the yummy alfajores Ty brough back from Uruguay

Headed out to hear Tyson speak about his mission in church

Visiting with the missionaries he served with in Uruguay

Zack and his friends at the luncheon

These missionaries from Uruguay love each other!

Cute little Paige is one of Tyson's cousins.  They all prayed for him all during his mission.

Welcome home from Uruguay, Elder Griffin!
We love you!!!