Chili's with the President/ more investigators

How is everybody??? Are you in the spirit of CHRISTMAS yet? This week was a really good week. We have found new people to teach, and Rommel (our date) is repenting and really changing his life. I am very excited for him. I love this work and as it gets closer and closer to Christmas, like always there are many mixed feelings. I am EXCITED to hear your voices, SAD because I only have 6 months left of this incredible work, GREATFUL for the birth, life and atoning sacrifice of our lord and Redeemer, JESUS CHRIST, and I am ENTHUSIASTIC to share this great message and light.

THE 24 I will call your phone (which one??) and than the 25 you can call me or I can call you, LET ME KNOW IN WHAT YOU FEEL IS BEST.

I LOVE YOU AND WISH YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.

FELIZ NAVIDAD, FELIZ NAVIDAD, FELIZ NAVIDAD, PROSPERO AÑO DE FELICIDAD. I want to wish you a merry Christmas, I want to wish you a merry Christmas, I want to wish you a merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart. RRRREMIX I WANT SOME BABYBACK, BABYBACK, BABYBACK, GIVE ME MY BABYBACK, BABYBACK, BABYBACK, BABYBACK, CHILIS BABY BACK RIBS...It´s a CUT.

TODAY WE ARE GOING TO EAT AT CHILIS (I KNOW IT IS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE) (you know how MUCH I LOVE CHILIS) with the MISSION PRESIDENT.
LUV YOU,
~Elder Griffin

Looking forward to new investigators

Mom, Dad, and everybody else.
This week was a really good week. The members are helping us out a ton in every aspect of the work. My companion is really cool and we are learning a lot together. We were able to take out our first baptismal date this last Saturday.
We were going to one of our lessons when I saw a man walking down the hill, I felt that we needed to talk to him but was a little hesitant, so I just said Hi. He said, ''Hi elders'' I have found that there are A LOT of people that know who we are that just say Elder but when we talk to them they don´t have any interest in listening to us, but I felt different this time. So we talked to him and he said that in this time of his life he had been going through a lot of problems. His mom about died. He recently divorced his wife etc. I asked him if we could teach him in his house, so we climbed a steep hill and taught him a little about the book of Mormon. Then we set a baptismal date with him. Sunday he was ready to go to church but he also invited his son and they both showed up to church. We had 6 investigators that went to church.

I had the opportunity to go the TEMPLE today and I bought the NEW SPANISH BIBLE. I think that it was cheap 82 soles, about 35 bucks. I really am excited to progress in this area and have a lot of success.

I really love you guys and hope that Life is good.

Answers to your questions:
Peru doesn’t have traditions for Christmas. Now, I will tell you what is cool, on Christmas day they make HUGE DOLLS and they burn them in the street. I will take pictures if I can. On New Year’s they shoot off about 5,000,000 fireworks in the entire valley. You feel that you are WW2

ILOVE YOU!
~Elder Griffin

Shopping, meeting Sis. Rich

Mom, Dad, and everybody else.

Buenos Dias, This week was a week full of joyful experiences. You are probably wondering why I took out a little bit of money from the bank. It is because I bought more, what´s the word, things from Iquitos, shirts, jewelry, paintings, and framed a picture for one of the families that I baptized (AREVALO TORREZ).

Traveling to Lima was interesting. On the plane from Iquitos to Lima I sat next to one of the players of C.N.I or better said the (Professional soccer team in Iquitos)
I am very excited to be here in Lima. I love my area and my companion. You guys are grandparents with THREE grandkids now. My companion is ELDER PEREZ he is from Guatemala. My area, well it is interesting they (the leaders) say that there are 200,000 residences in our area, and that it is half of the stake. Well, when we arrived our room was clean and that was the good news, the bad news is that when I opened up our AREA FOLDER there were not ANY investigators. So I said to my companion, the word "obstacle" means a way that we can progress and grow. We have the goal of 7 baptisms in December. We will need your prayers.

I am very excited. I watched the devotional with no other than LANDON RICH. He is on vacation with his mom. I got to meet her as well. THAT WAS REALLY COOL!!! But I really missed my mom, seeing a WHITE returned missionary with his mom.

I am very excited for this Christmas. I really liked what the Prophet and his counselors said, that we don´t need to spend SO MUCH time thinking about the presents and gifts, but we need to find the time and focus in what is important, CHRIST and his birth. I am so grateful to be a missionary and to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with everybody. I know that this Church is true. I know that God sent his only begotten son to the earth to die for us so that we might live. I have thought a lot about the little things that I miss, shoveling snow with Dad, baking the coconut bread with mom, making the caramels, playing my keyboard. But I know that I am where I need to be, and I will serve with all my heart, might, mind, and soul.

My area is called LA NARANJAL. It is about 35 minutes away from Tahuantinsuyo. We don´t have a church building for our ward, that is a little hard. We have to travel. 30 minutes to go to church
I love you.
CHAU,
Cuidense. TE AMO,
-ELDER GRIFFIN

Back to Lima

Thursday Elder Pino of the 70 came to Iquitos and talked about our calling as missionaries. I love when we get the general authorities to come and teach us. They really help us to reevaluate where we are and what we can do better. I am ready to try some new things and keep putting into practice the other principles that we know work. It was really cool.

I am going back to Lima Zona (las palmeras)and I will be training AGAIN. I don’t know if the Mission President is just trying to see how patient I can be before my head explodes. jk.

I can say that I am leaving my area better than I found it. There are 3 very excited investigators that will be baptized in December. I am sad that I have to leave them, and will not be able to see them progress even further.

I am not really THAT EXCITED to go to Lima and train, but I know that there is a reason and I need to work hard and look for what I can do to help, we will see how it goes. I know that I will miss Iquitos and the people that I have learned to love here. I love the jungle and the humility of the people.

At least it will now be easier to receive packages for Christmas.
I really want snack foods(Sun flower seeds, hot cheetos, sour skittles.. teriyaki sauce and barbeque sauce. also HOT SAUCE, Beef jerky more Deodorant and that’s about it. I only have 7 months left there isn’t really any point of having a lot of stuff around. I know it sounds funny but I will just have to leave anything else you send that isn’t consumable. (we already sent a package for Christmas with these things so at least we were in line with what he wanted)

I love you and hope that everything is going good.
~ELDER GRIFFIN