Week 46 - June 17th, 2019 (Dingras, Philippines)

Dear friends and family,

Had a service project this last Wednesday-
cleaned up at a school and they
gave us all a certificate

It was so good seeing all the Griffitts clan (minus a few) this past Father's Day- everyone is looking great and a bit more grown from the last time I saw them. Special shout out to my example in pretty much all my life plans as well as the source of much comedy and many laughs in my life- my dad- it's so great to be able to talk to you every week and get a good laugh from your weekly reports. 

As for my weekly report, all is proceeding routinely here in Dingras. We had a great service project this last Wednesday in Barong, for their Independence Day. We cleaned up at one of the schools in the area with a bunch of other churches who had also joined, and they gave us a certificate afterwards. It was a lot of fun, it's always a great change of pace when we get to get down to some manual labor. We have been having on-off rain and sun here, so you never know if you'll need an umbrella or not, but we usually take on to be safe. The work is going great, we had one new person come to church this last Sunday, from right here in centro, so we are excited- we just met her a few days before. And we are enjoying finding, meeting people who want to change and find the happiness that we all are looking for in this life.

Had some thoughts this week about grace and growth in life. Some people I've met have this idea that grace is what saves us after we believe. And it's true, grace, or the power that come from Christ's Atonement, is truly the only thing that we have a hope for, the only thing that can save. But we error at times in thinking that it comes only from an idle faith in this power- this is a gift offered to be used. I like to think of it as the parable Christ gave about talents- though replace the 'talents' with books. A master gave one servant 5 books, another 3, and another 1. The first two read their books, gained their knowledge, and so the master gave unto them more books. The last, though he only had one, set aside his book and did not read it, so the master took it away. But not at any loss to the servant, he already had decided he had no use for it. So what was the master's purpose in giving him more books? So it is with the grace of Christ- we have to be willing to learn and change, and then He happily heaps upon us grace upon grace, mercy upon mercy. Let us all learn how we can learn to apply His grace through the Gospel He gave- through faith, repentance, and making covenants with Him through baptism. I'll talk to you all next week, I love you all. See ya later!

Love,
Elder Griffitts