Week 20: No tsunami news is good tsunami news

Hey Everyone!

How is your side the world? I guess Japan isn't doing too great and from what I've heard we are all gonna get radiated? That wouldn't be very fun ...

Speaking of which, on Friday we were on splits when the ZL called us and we had to drop everything run to town and get supplies and then run back to our apartment and stay in the rest of the night.  Some Elders from Solana (about 30 mins away) also stayed with us.

We were supposedly on earthquake and tsunami warning. It was kind of intense ...  but then nothing happened. Not even a drop of rain fell or anything. So that's good. I think we are only about 1 mile from the Cagayan River, so if something real crazy happened we might have been in trouble. Our landlords left for higher ground right when this was happening. So that was comforting -- haha.

We had two Community Service Projects (CSP) this week in our area. We helped this guy in our ward dig a big pipeline so they can get good water (kind of, still city water, which still probably should be filtered) to his house and his neighbor's house. It was pretty cool and we were blessed with some pretty nice weather Tuesday.  The pipeline was 3 feet deep, a foot wide and 150 meters long.  It took most of that afternoon.

I definitely think the Lord prepared a way for this to be done because on Monday it was blazing hot and hadn't rained for weeks and the ground where we were going to dig was rock solid. Then it rained Monday night and cooled everything down and softened the ground so it was possible. I think that is tender mercy of the Lord because it would have been a lot lot harder if it had been hot and the ground still hard.

It was kind of a hard week for work as we had 2 CSPs and that day of lockdown. Plus almost all day Saturday we were at the other ward's baptisms (Elder Weaver interviewed all the candidates, so we had to go to all of them).

And then on Sunday we just kept getting punted like crazy. It should've been a great day, but we were only able to pull down 3 lessons.

AJ's pic of the Cagayan River

Saturday, like 5 mins before one of the baptisms they asked me to speak. President Carlos and the A.P.'s were there too, so that was kind of nerve-wracking.  Then that night we were about to go to bed early at 10, when the bishop texted and needed us to speak in church the next day. So we had to come up with talks instead. Oh well. It was alright. I talked about becoming a member-missionary and what things everyone could do -- yeah, I know,  referral advertising,  haha.

We got inpected on Wednesday. Our house was pretty clean (they told us an exact time and day a week before).  But we only got Terrestrial grade because our floor was kind of dirty. Oh well. We still got Snickers bars. Yea!

1. How hot is it now?

Depends on the day. Afternoons are pretty miserable but when the sun is down (at 6) it is pretty pleasant. It should really be heating up soon. Some days we feel it full fury, but some days it's pleasant.

2. Mom wants to know what happened that you took 50 bucks out of the bank. I told her it was for shoes, right?

Yeah, but I havent been able to find any yet though.  I bought some other stuff like a smaller bag and a real spatula, because we didn't have one.  Bro. Pete is going to Manila in a few weeks to look for some for me. I might need to get a bit more out depending on what he finds and how much they cost.

3. Tsunami news. Did it affect you at all? Not really -- See above.

4. Investigator updates -- Next week we will be baptizing 10-year old Leizel (she passed the interview Saturday). Our other investigators have had some problems so we had to reset some dates. We had four investigators at church Sunday , which is our best ever. They are all young people though (10, 14, 14 and 16).  It's hard we have lots of adult investigators but they just haven't been progressing. We are just trying to make sure they have good support and stuff so they don't go inactive. That's the hard part about child baptisms.  We honestly are trying to avoid teaching kids but in 2 of the families, the parents have gone to work or just plain disappeared to far off places.  But the kids still keep commitments and want to be baptized. I guess if they are the ones prepared then that's what we need to do. We just make sure they have good support, friends, hopefully family members in the church and help them gain strong testimoneys.

5. You look skinny in the photos. Are you eating good?

Yeah, it's all good!

6. Anyone here you want us to contact for you?

Not that I can think of now. Did Dee or Dustin ever get married -- haha?

And what is Taylor's email?

7. Who else is writing to you? Do you have time to answer them all?

This week I got letters from Marcus and Jonny (cousins).  That was awesome to hear from them. Also tell Marcus I got the tie right before I left the MTC and I also sent him a letter right before I left.  But I am not sure if the address was correct.

8. Have you been able to see the blog? Are you allowed? If so, go to http://elderajgriffin.blogspot.com/

Um, I dont know if I am allowed, but I just did. It looks pretty sweet. Good work.

9. You are about 16 percent done with your mission. Has it gone fast for you?

Yes and no. For sure it has been fast but then again I can't hardly remember life before the mission anymore. I love it though. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

Alright next week -- Ulit!

Love ya all!

Dont get radiated!

A.J. Griffin