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!!!