Feed My Sheep and coconut flan

Hey everybody!

This week has been very interesting. I pretty much was out of the area aaalll week on exchanges. It was a lot of fun though.

Tuesday night to Wednesday we had tons of Velveeta (thanks Mom!) and I was in Cheney second for exchanges. It was a lot of fun and Wednesday we drove out to Sprague, a small town outside of Cheney. it was very ... interesting... Everyone out there is a crappy car collector, on disability and a variety of other interesting things. It was pretty interesting and  I found out that proselyting is different in the boonies than in the Flats. It was a lot of fun and it was cool to be in a car for a day.

Thursday we helped the King family

move all day. Their new house is really nice and we're really excited for them. Bro King should be quitting smoking now too! It was pretty awesome, They bought us Pizza Rita and chocolate milk. It was great! That evening i had a really good lesson with one of our La families. We talked about tithing, which is the last step to prepare them for the temple. it's really exciting! They should be going soon! Thursday night we went on exchanges with the Spanish Elders and it was super ridiculous! I got to go Spanish speaking!

Friday Elder Ledbetter and I basically made jokes about "feed my sheep" and put reminders everywhere! It's pretty cool! Elder Aguilar was super surprised when he got back to his apartment! That evening we stopped by the Dowells because we hadn't been able to visit them this week and dropped off some coconut Flan (coconut custard) and a talk. It was funny because Sis Dowell has been having some problems with the neighbors and so when we knocked it scared her but when we finally got her to answer the door she was so relieved and excited about getting the Flan that she forgot about the whole scaring her thing. Oh and I started getting sick that night.

Saturday was a bit of a mess because we weren't able to have the baptism. Dominick had the Flu and so he couldn't come. So most of the rest of the day was spent calling people about it being cancelled. I was sick as well so it made it really tough to work. We also helped the Kings move some stuff and put together an armoire.

Sunday I got a little bit better, But Faustin got confused about 7th day adv. stuff again. it was not good. Pretty much one of the most spiritually draining lessons I'd had in a long time. i think he's doing better, but we'll see.  it's really frustrating because we'd been showing him gen con talks all week and he was loving it and talking about how true it was and then we showed up and he'd gotten anti'd or something. it was rough. But it will work out. We are also starting to teach a guy named Khaled from Sudan, he watched gen con talks in arabic and he started talking about how he's going to quit smoking and different things because he watched a talk on the Word of Wisdom, His faith has increased so much in so little time. it's amazing!

Hope you all have a great week!

Love ya!
Elder Bryce Griffin

Elder Johnson enjoying velveeta cheese from mom and dad!

Snow, yarn and Pizza Rita

Hey everyone!

It's been a crazy and awesome week! 

Tuesday was pretty unusual, a lot of our plans failed and so we ended up going to the community center and working on family history stuff. It was way interesting and I learned a little bit how to use Familysearch.org. We had the car that day and so we went out to Spokane Falls Community College and had lunch with Billy, it was really good to see him again!

We had a huge miracle later that evening -- we went to see an investigator who lives not too far from us and she answered and was like, "Yeah, I'm not really interested in coming to church anymore," and we asked if she'd seen the Restoration movie we gave her yet and she said "No, wanna watch it right now?" and the movie just softened her heart! It was awesome!

Wednesday was really off. We had interviews that day and were really excited, but unfortunately the interviews before us went waaayyy too long and we ended up not getting out of interviews til 6 (our interviews were supposed to be over at 4:30). So we ended up only getting to a couple of appts. But we had a super funny lesson with Dominic, (our baptism this coming weekend). Dominic was tying Elder Larsen up with yarn while we asked him the baptismal interview questions -- to learn where he was at. It was so ridiculous because we'd been struggling to get him to focus, but while he was distracted tying Larsen up, he was able to think and answer the questions right. It was awesome!

Thursday we did pizza before weekly planning and we got THE FIVE POUND PIZZA at Pizza Rita! It was so tasty! Pizza Rita is my favorite! We went on splits that evening and got tons done! It was great!

Friday we had another unusual experience with a different ex'd member -- pretty much always weird stuff happens when we run into ex'd members. We also taught Faustin using LDS.org! It was awesome! We watched talks by the Prophet and Elder Bednar and he loved it! He has been progressing so well! He loves the church so much! His testimony of the prophet is so strong!

Saturday we got soaked because of rain and snow and it was just icky! But we had a lot of fun and saw miracles teaching Faustin and Dominic.

Sunday was awesome! We had been teaching Faustin about families and temples the whole week and then all of the talks during sacrament meeting were completely geared towards that. The spirit was so strong and I just loved every second of it!

Monday was really busy and we talked to lots of contentious people downtown. but we also talked to some good people and had tons of fun! It was a great day!

Love you all!
Have a good week!

Elder Bryce Griffin

Elder Maguet and Elder Griffin

Elder Larson and Dominic Tibbets

For English, press one!

Hey Everyone! 

Bryce and his pop last July.

This week has been filled with lots of learning experiences!

Last Monday we went to REI (outdoor and clothing store) to see if I could find a good winter coat. Unfortunately, sales there mean that a $1,000 coat is only $500. And on top of that, there wasn't anything that I really liked, so needless to say, I don't like rich people clothes!

Tuesday we went to Corbin Stake Center and were telemarketers for them (calling on referral cards). It was way weird, and I don't really like it much. but it was fun meeting with the  office ladies and teaching them a little about the gospel. We also had a car that day and so we were able to visit a part of our area that isn't very accessible. It was strange. The neighborhood we went to was actually fairly well off and the houses were all way nice!

Wednesday we were telemarketers again and it got easier to do that. We also  visited members of our ward that remind me of Grandma and Grandpa Griffin! It was fun! They even had those Costco cookies that Grandma buys every year! We also had KFC for lunch again. It was a way bad idea. Way too much grease! It was funny! Never Again!

Thursday was super off. We had to ride the bus a ton that day and saw lots of interesting things, including a screaming match outside a store in Felony Flats. We  also got hot dogs from a hot dog stand outside the Spokane Courthouse. They were way too expensive for their quality, but we were kinda panicked trying to find lunch and so we just went with it.

Friday we had zone training and I received a lot of much needed revelation about how to improve myself as a missionary and it's been really helpful! I'm doing a lot better because of it!

Also, Sis. Deangelo sewed pockets onto my coat that evening and it's been so nice to have! They are perfect!

A funny experience we had was, we went to Faustin's and helped with some stuff for his son's school and he asked for help with something with customer service and so he called and then it said "For English press one" and they all just started laughing and then saying "For English press one!" It was so random and hilarious! I had no idea what was going on! It was super funny!

Saturday was an awesome day! We played basketball in the morning and we got Dominic there! It was super fun! And later that day we found some people who are refugees from Kenya who we are teaching now! It was crazy! They fed us some African food, which was interesting. Basically beef, peppers, green peppers, black pepper and oil. It was spicy but good!

Afterwards we went to the Bossleys for dinner and they made what I dare say is the best dinner I've had on my mission! Bisquits with gravy and eggs and bacon and it was so tasty! Their kids are so adorable and happy too! They are one of my favorite people I've found on my mission! They're working towards the temple and I'm so excited for them!

Sunday was an odd day. We taught the guys from Africa and they were all interested, but not at the same time. It was very interesting. They're super funny though, they are kinda scary looking, But if you say hi, they have these HUGE toothy grins! It's super funny! We also did some service for one of the families who've been struggling lately. It was a lot of help to them and they're improving.That evening we had dinner at the Purcells, It was way delicious and we were able to get a lot more done that evening thanks to Bro Purcell volunteering to come out with us.

That's about my week this week!

Love you all!

Have a good week!

Elder Griffin

Cowboys and Congo Chicken -- and a car!

Hey everyone!

This week has been an interesting one!

Tuesday we helped someone move out of the Wolfe Apts (they're super sketchy) and it was way fun,

but the person who we were moving took us to lunch at Sonic after and she chewed out the drive through lady and it was really sad and kinda scary. Also, Elder Larsen ripped his pants and had to wear some Dallas Cowboys sweats (he's a Steelers fan) all the way home on the bus. it was super funny!

Wednesday we watched "How to Train Your Dragon 2" for New Year's eve and had the 5 pound pizza from Pizza Rita! It was way awesome! Also, Faustin invited us to a party the next day, which made for an interesting story!

Thursday was a no-proselyting day, so we went to Faustin's and taught him at 12 and then at 1 we were supposed to go to the party thing. It was interesting because Mormon Standard Time is about 15 minutes late. Apparently Congolese ST is about 3 hours late, so the party that was supposed to start at 1 ended up us getting picked up about 1:45 and the actual party didn't start til 4! It was super funny!

Congo Chicken (?)

And then, at the party, they had tons of really good Congolese food! Unfortunately Elder Larsen couldn't eat most of it because it had nuts in it. Also, super interesting and smart thing about the Congolese: At their parties, they put the kids in a separate room until after the parents have all eaten. It was awesome! And the other way cool thing that happened, besides cultural dancing and such, was they gave a big speech and then had me bless the food. They had such high respect for us as missionaries, it was almost too much! They even made us eat first as their guests! (which was not exactly what we wanted since we couldn't tell what the food was or how to eat it).

Friday we did service at Corbin Senior Center with all the missionaries, and all the elderly people loved it! It was awesome! That afternoon, we got a call from a guy down at the Wolfe who needed us to come give him a blessing and was telling us about satanic dreams and it was super weird. 

We also got an exciting call from Elder Fisher! We found out that we are now part-time Car!!! We get a car for two days of the week and so now we can get a lot more done in our area! It's amazing!

But that night we gave the car to the missionaries we're sharing with and then missed our bus and had to hang out at the bus plaza way late. It was super scary!There was lots of high people and even a lady that could grow more facial hair than Elder Larsen! It was super sketchy!

Saturday was the funeral for Brother Marx. He lived to be 100 yrs old, It was a really good service.

We also had an activity at the Deangelos on Saturday and had several of the young men from the ward come and fellowship one of our investigators. It was really good, and at the end we watched the Restoration video and had a really spiritual lesson.

That evening we rode the bus down to Billy's and on the bus we were the only ones there and the bus driver talked to us the whole time. It was a really good lesson!

Sunday was weird because of 9 a.m. church. We ended up giving Billy a blessing because he hurt his back really bad and couldn't make it to church. It was tough to see how much he was struggling, but I shared a scripture in 3 Nephi 22:7-8 that really helped him feel much better.

It was a really good week and I'm excited for how the work is going!

Love you all!

Elder Griffin

Faustin and the Elders

More posing with pizza!