The Jeep and a big bucket of cookie dough ice cream

Hey everyone! it's been a good week!

Tuesday we had specialized training and got to ride in the transfer spaceship (big fancy 12 passenger van). It was lots of fun. and at specialized training we learned a lot about the new Easter initiative and the talk "We're doing a great work and cannot come down."  It was really good, and we had a lot of fun doing team building activities. We also started teaching Jim, who's an awesome investigator who's living in a member's home. it was a really powerful lesson and we had a lot of fun getting to know him too.

Wednesday,  we had a really good lesson with Jim and he basically told us a bunch of stories from his

childhood. He apparently was like the sandlot kids -- times 10! It was fun! I also got pulled over for having a bike rack on our car! it was funny, but the officer was really nice once he saw we were missionaries and didn't give us a ticket. We also had a really good lesson with a lady in the ward who's been struggling with coming back to church and then she found a copy of "Our Search for Happiness" in Wal-mart or something and the book just spoke to her soul. it was truly a miracle! Her daughter is actually considering taking the lessons now too, because we didn't push anything on her while we were there.

Thursday was a long day. We got to road trip to the doctors in Liberty Lake and had Carl's jr and almost stopped for Slurpees, but we missed the turn. it was a lot of fun though and we listened to some good talks as well. We had correlation meeting after that and then played basketball with the Elder's Quorum.

Friday we had a lot of fun doing service at the food bank and they gave us a huge thing of Umpequa ice cream -- it's super tasty! Cookie dough! We also had one of the Young men in the ward come out with us and had several good lessons.

Saturday we had a baptism for a girl in the ward, then we met a few people with Bro. Marugi, who's super nice, awesome guy! And then we did service for Sis Warren, helping her move some stuff into a storage unit and such out in the boonies. We also met with her son and daughter, who aren't members and just made a good impression. NO one out here likes to be pushed.

Sunday we had Stake Conference and set up for exchanges with the Ione elders -- it's going to be fun and miracle filled! We also had a couple nice visits and have some service projects coming up this week that are going to be fun!

It was a solid week and i'm excited for the prospects of meeting the ward next week in church!

Love ya!

Elder Griffin

Spiders, a Jeep and life in the boondocks

Bryce has spent almost a week in his new area -- Colville, Wash. -- and he said it is sooo different from Spokane. The pic posted in last week's blog is, in fact, his apartment (actually a duplex) and he said it is huge compared to his last place, though they have spider problems.

Bryce and his new companion were double-transferred in to replace a couple of sister missionaries and Bryce is the new District Leader in Colville. His district includes six Elders and a lot of miles.

He said there is no snow right now up in Northeastern Washington, but it does rain a lot. We (Andy and Shelly) are glad to have our boy out of the inner city, but Bryce did say he enjoyed his time there and will miss some dear friends he made.

Here's a couple of other excerpts from his letter:

"It's been an interesting week adjusting to the new area! My companion is Elder Buckley and we're full time car and we drive a jeep compass (it's sweet!). Elder buckley's from Lindon, Utah, and he's super fun!
We had a really good visit with my new bishop and his family and they're excited to have Elders in the ward. It's going to be a lot of fun!
Thursday we had a funny experience -- we had been planning on the new DL training being on Thursday and then we called the ZL's about it and looked in the Spokane Word (mission newsletter) and both said it was supposed to be on Friday. Then we got a call about 9:15 Thursday asking if we were coming to the meeting which started at 9, sooo we drove for the full 2 hours went to the meeting for 2 hrs and then another 4 hours of driving from getting lost finding the gas station and everything. it was super funny! We were so exhausted by the time we finally got home! it was a really pretty drive though and the Jeep is way fun to drive!
Friday was weekly planning and just slow going with learning the area, it was tough. but we met some ntersting people and got to try one of the local restaurants. it was pretty good. and we finally got the spiders under control in our basement study room.
Saturday was a good day -- we walked most of the day, which was a nice change of pace, and we met a few people who were fairly receptive to the gospel who we're starting to teach. We also got to check out the church a little bit and get to know some of our boonies a little bit better.
Sunday we got to meet the ward a little bit and get to know some of the brethren better. We even met one of our investigators, which we didn't know about! We also had dinner at our WML house and he lives WAAAYyy out in the boonies. It was quite the drive in the rain -- learned a little bit more about hydroplaning and such -- it was fun! We arrived safe and sound though. I did accountings for the first time and it was pretty simple and fun.

Bryce did send his love and some good pix:

Elders Griffin and Larsen with Doc.

The new comp.

Bishop Olsen from Spokane gave Bryce a ride to Colville.

The new digs.

Elders Griffin and Buckley.

It's a pretty big place.

Roomy.

The basement study -- minus the spiders.

The open road in Northeastern Washington.

Transfer! Headed to Canada -- well almost!

FIRST TRANSFER!

Hey everyone, Bryce has been transferred out of Spokompton! He has been on his mission for seven and a half months and finally got transferred. His new area is Colville, Washington. It is a small town (less than 5,000 people) in the northeastern part of the state. about 30 miles from the Canadian border (here's a link to it on Bing maps).

We went on Google Street and got right to his apartment, took a "drive" around Colville and even went to the Colville Stake Center.

With transfers and all, he didn't have much time to write. Here's an excerpt from his short letter:

"Wednesday we had a kinda bad day and so we finished it up by stopping for a pizza on the way home and it was SOOO GOOD! Funny story though, I asked Faustin if he could give me a haircut and he said "I no give you haircut. I never cut white man hair. If I cut your hair I make you skinhead and people say 'Who give you haircut? It very bad' and You say 'Faustin' and that is bad." It was hilarious!Thursday we got to visit with Sister Dowell and Doc had his first homecourt. It was really good and he learned a lot about family history.Friday we had dinner with Doc and talked about his baptism. We found out he had coffee and so he had to push the date back til the 21st. i might not get to go.Saturday we Had an awesome lesson with Faustin and resolved a lot of his concerns and it was awesome. Also, I attempted the 5 lb challenge at Pizza Rita and failed, it was disappointing, but I still got the t-shirt. It was fun! Doc even came to support me!Sunday i found out about transfers -- I'm going to Colville, WA and i leave tomorrow to sweep in and get to work! Elder Buckley is my new companion. I haven't heard much about him yet, but he sounds like a nice guy. I'm excited for the new challenge and it's going to be great!

My new address is 179 S Walnut Colville WA 

So there you have it. We are happy that Bryce is out of the scary part of the mission, though we know he learned a lot and will miss the many friends he made.

Here are some screenshots from our Google Street tour.

We think this is his apartment -- it's what came up under his new address.

Colville Stake Center, though with only 5,000 residents in town,
the people must come from all over the county.

 The town is just off of Lake Roosevelt and it has a Wal-mart, Taco Time and even a Zip's Drive-in -- but no more Pizza Rita for Brycie-Boo!

Here are a couple of other Colville pix -- seems like a picturesque small-town -- though it does have some harsh winter weather. Hopefully that's mostly done with!

View from Colville Mountain

Lake Roosevelt is nearby.

Uh, yeah, it does get cold in Colville.

PB pie and the wrong Walnut Street

Hello from Spokane!

Hey everybody!

It's been quite an odd week!

Monday I got to eat a PB Cream Pie courtesy of Aunt Laura and Sis Deangelo!

I also found out the Mitmas are moving back into the ward!!! It's both good and bad, but it is. I'm excited to see them, though!

Tuesday Elder Larsen started getting sick, but we had to help someone move in, It was a really good

easy move and they bought us Pizza Rita after! MY FAVORITE!!! Elder Larsen had to take a nap that afternoon and that was interesting.

Wednesday we had an interesting day as well, Elder Larsen was still sick, so he had to sleep a ton more, but we had an awesome lunch appt with Billy and afterwards President Mullen picked us up and we went to see the Cornwells (Faustin had to cancel), but we had a really good lesson and President Mullen gave Elder Larsen a blessing, which helped so much!

Also, we got the clearance to teach Khaled, a Muslim (for now) from Sudan and he's been progressing really well!

Thursday  we had to go on splits for an appt because Elder Larsen was still super sick, and so Elder Ledbetter and I went to teach Doc. He's such an awesome guy and his heart is so prepared to receive the gospel! We've known him since I've been here, he's the guy that runs the computer lab we email at! And he's progressing so well!

Friday we had zone training and I received a lot of needed inspiration to help me manage my stress as well as improving the work in our area! We also had an awesome lesson with Doc! We gave him a  church tour and the spirit was so strong!

That evening we spent running around getting jumpsuits for the baptism and all sorts of chaos -- NEVER DOING A BAPTISM AT ANOTHER STAKE CENTER AGAIN! It was so ridiculously complicated, but luckily it worked out.

Saturday, we helped someone move, and it was super funny! She said she was moving from Mallon to Walnut (like 4 blocks away), but she failed to mention that it was the Walnut out in the Valley! It was not good! And Bro Deangelo was actually in a hurry! It was an interesting experience, but Bro Deangelo is so amazing, He didn't even let it bother him!

That evening we had Dominick's baptism! It was perfect! And Bro Tibbets had to have help because his arm has some problems, so Elder Larsen and him baptized Dominick! 2-man baptism! Woo! It was such a good baptism!

Sunday was the Confirmation and just a really good day at church. We also had Egyptian food for dinner and just had a lot of fun!

It's been a really great week and things are going great!

Thanks for your prayers!

Love ya'll!

Elder Griffin

The Tibbets Family

Dominic's baptism
The Tibbets Family

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