Singin' the Peanut Butter Blues

Elder Griffiths preparing to participate in the baptism of a married couple

My companion and I have a set routine we follow pretty much every day. We wake up at 6:00 a.m., which is a half hour earlier than other missionaries in the world. We do this because our mission president wants us to get a good workout in the morning. So we wake up, and ride our bikes to the gym which is 1.6 miles from our home. Then we work out for about 45-50 minutes by lifting weights (we definitely don't do cardio since we ride bikes all day in 95-degree weather) and we ride our bikes back home.

We eat breakfast (typically scrambled eggs or cereal) and then shower and prepare for the day. At exactly 8:00 a.m. we are supposed to begin personal study. We are encouraged to spend 40 minutes studying Preach My Gospel and 20 minutes studying the Book of Mormon. At 9:00 a.m. we conclude our personal study and begin companionship study, where we talk about what's happening during the day, plan lessons, talk about what we studied, and read out of our rule book. At 10:00 a.m. we plan for the next day and set up appointments and plan our travel route. 

At 10:30 a.m. new missionaries (me) have to do an hour of what's called "12-week," which is basically another hour of studying and watching training videos. After 12-week ends at 11:30 a.m., we eat lunch (typically peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because we aren't professional chefs) for half an hour and then we leave the apartment and start proselyting.

Typically my companion and I teach 4-5 lessons per day and then we come home at 9:30 p.m. We unwind and relax, write in our journals, eat a snack, and then at 10:30 p.m. we go to bed. Oh, and throw dinner somewhere in there too, because we're supposed to have dinner before 6 p.m. but we're usually too busy to actually eat it. We'll sometimes come home at 9:30 and say, "Oh yeah, we didn't have dinner” – and we'll end up eating at around 9:45 p.m. Quite honestly, you start to get sick of peanut butter and jelly.

Looking for a Miracle?

A suntanned Elder Griffiths eating dinner with members

The people we're teaching are all amazing. While each of them has their own individual struggles, both spiritual and physical, they all seem to endure through them with firm faith in Christ. All of these people have very unique personalities. Some are hard-headed but softhearted, some are very talkative, and others are unbelievably strong in their faith. Each of these people has a strong testimony of at least one principle of the gospel. For example, a lady we're teaching has the strongest faith in Christ I've ever seen. Miracles follow her everywhere in her life because of it.

The hand of the Lord is everywhere. If we are humble enough to recognize His hand in our lives, suddenly our day is full of miracles. Miracles are constantly happening in our lives, we just need to open our eyes to see them.

If You Think You're Too Far Gone, You're Not

Elder Griffiths and Elder Hicken at District Training

I'm learning A LOT about how much God loves His children. So many people here think they're too far gone because they've smoked all their lives, or drank, or they don't think that God would want them back after all they've done. He does.

As a missionary I get the special experience of seeing people as He sees them. I see them as family. God is our father. So many people forget that, don't know it, or don't understand it. A father does not just abandon his children. He anxiously pursues every route that will bring his children happiness and bring them back to him. If you think you're too far gone, you're not.