Coral's baptism and waaayyy too many mashed potatoes

The Elders with Billy and the ward mission leader

Hi Everyone!

This week has been CRAZY!

First things first, I am not getting transferred, so we'll be here for at least another six weeks, thank goodness!

Tuesday was pretty eventful, we taught Billy, our new miracle investigator, he injured his leg really bad and it was tough watching him suffer, but he has been doing, literally everything we asked him to to prepare for baptism. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he quit chew that night, Taught Law of Chastity, he dumped his girlfriend cause she wouldn't support him in his righteous desires, Just everything falling into place for him. It was amazing! He has such strong faith!

That afternoon we went to KFC for lunch and had wayyy too much food and so we decided we were going to take the mashed potatoes and give them to a homeless person. As we were leaving, one of the employees went into the bathroom right before Elder Larsen and locked the door and then 20 mins later came out and Elder Larsen said it reeked of marijuana, FUNNY! But back to the taters, We rode a bus downtown to go to Billy's and saw these homeless people who I had met in the past, but they were yelling at each other, so we decided to give them to another guy. We saw him standing there playing his guitar in the rain and Elder Larsen went up and gave them to him and the guy started singing about Elder Larsen and mashed potatoes. It was HILARIOUS! Downtown is so ridiculously wacky! I love it! 

Elder Maguet (the new AP) and Elder Griffin

That night, we went on exchanges with the zone leaders and Elder Maguet and I got a call at about 10:10 at night from the mission president. They were on the phone for 20 mins and then he came out of the other room and was like "Hey! I'm AP! I leave in the morning! So we stayed up all night packing and at about 3 a.m. we got to bed and the next morning we put all his stuff in the car and headed over to Spokane 2nd again and I stayed in a trio and he went off with the APs. It was ridiculous!

Wednesday in a trio was so much fun! We went downtown and talked to over 30 people in 3 hours! It was crazy! We even saw a cross dresser with a beard. We had Burger King and all sorts of other wacky stuff! It was so much fun! 

That night we had Coral's baptismal interview and during it, this random Meth-head walked into the church and was looking for a place to sleep, It was super weird! We also helped the Cuevas family move a couch down three flights of stairs and into Sis Cuevas's mom's house. It was lots of work!

Thursday we hung out in Felony Flats for a while and met some really interesting people and saw Billy that evening, We gave him a blessing for his leg and it was an interesting experience.

Friday we went to a Spanish posada (Christmas dinner) and then helped with clean up. It was way fun! We also did some Christmas caroling and had a zone meeting.

Elder Griffin, Coral Bergerson & Elder Larson

Saturday was Coral's baptism! Everything worked perfectly and it was such a spiritual experience baptizing her! We also had basketball that morning and Billy came and played!!! It was a huge miracle!!! He couldn't even walk two days earlier! The Priesthood is real! SO POWERFUL! Billy's faith is so huge! He gave us ties as a present later that day and it was just so cool spending time with him! I love Billy so much!

That night we did Zumba and it was tons of awkward fun! Also we went to a civil wedding for an ex'd member and it was a really interesting situation, but it was.. nice! Way interesting though!

Sunday Coral was confirmed and church was way way way chaotic afterwards. But the ward is doing so great and Billy is doing really well! That night we got transfers and everyone is staying except sis Taylor, who is going home now. It was way weird talking to someone, literally at the end of their mission. But she's going on to life!

Overall just a crazy week! There's even more that happened that I can't even fit it all in! 

Hope you all have an awesome week! 

Love ya!

Elder Bryce Griffin

Puff balls, donuts and broken oven glass

Hey Everyone!

This week has been a strange one. On Monday we went to a hospital in the area to give someone a blessing and we would have gotten lost if bishop hadn't come with us. Sacred Heart is super huge and we had no way to find where the guy was had bishop not been there. We also bought new beanies which are super cool! Nice big puff ball on top! And we saw Faustin's family and helped teach a little English to them. Faustin has been super busy lately, but he still likes us, so it's all good.

Tuesday we went downtown with the new christmas.mormon.org cards and shared He IS THE GIFT with as many people as we could. It was lots of fun. We also went to the senior center and helped with proof reading again and also got to do some dusting, wooooo. 

Wednesday we gave Coral a blessing and moved her baptismal date because of the church Christmas devotional on the 7th. now she's going to be baptized on the 13th. We also went to a rich part of our area and got food from some members. It was really good.

Thursday was an interesting Thanksgiving. We  went to the Deangelos for breakfast and played

games and had fun, Then we went to the Cuevas's for Apples to Apples and it was really good spending time with both of their families -- like home away from home. Then for Thanksgiving dinner, we went to the Ross's and had an interesting dinner. We were the only ones under the age of 70 and they didn't have much of anything to say to us, so it was very fun. And we finished our evening up at the Tibbets and played Monopoly.

Friday we had  dinner at the Deangelos and we went to the Cuevas's to help Sis Cuevas with some things around the store. It was really good and then we were able to make a few visits with Brother Deangelo's help.

Saturday was a doozy. I woke up and was just not happy. So we went to the church and helped clean the building and then Bro Robison decided to take us out for donuts! Instant Happy! And they were

super good. Just like Daddy likes. Then we went and helped a family in the ward move and unfortunately it was my first failure in moving. We were moving the oven and it tipped a little and bumped the wall and the door exploded -- glass EVERYWHERE! It was really sad, but looking back, it's a tiny bit funny. It might be too soon though.

Sunday we had PEC and it was a really good one. I feel like we are earning a lot of respect from the ward and I was able to make the PEC laugh a little.Then during church, we had a lot of our less active members come and the talks in Sacrament were perfect. I felt super uplifted afterwards. Then, during Sunday school, we had a few really interesting incidents with someone insulting government leaders and calling them the ANTI-Christ. That was fun. Glad we didn't have any investigators there!

Monday was specialized training and it was a really good one. NO Ipad's, but we did get Ice cream and clothes that were donated to the missionaries. I got a nice warm beanie that is conservative enough for proselyting. I'm really excited about that.

So overall it was a really interesting week. The talks on Sunday focused on gratitude, which is something I've been struggling with lately. It was a nice reminder for me to start working on that and becoming a better me through being grateful. I'm excited for this week and really grateful for the privilege I have to labor in the Lord's vineyard.

Love to all,

Elder Bryce Griffin

One of the sweaters Grandma sent was a little too small!

Big red Spokane wagon

Four Elders and the Deangelos.