Week of Miracles

Stephen was so excited this week. One sister in his Spanish Branch called it the "Week of Miracles". Here are some excerpts from Stephens email:


This week was AWESOME! On Thursday we committed a sister to baptism. For the 17 of October! That's right, and she was baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday during sacrament meeting. Her son, daughter-in-law and grand daughter were baptized about 4 months ago and she has been living with them for the past 4 months. She is from Columbia and she came here and was going to stay for 1 month, but she stayed for 4. She has been Catholic for sixty something years, so its taken her a while to get baptized. But she is great, and she kind of reminds me of Momita. Her family went to the sacred grove just this last week and she had a wonderful experience and she said she received her answer. We are going to the Temple with them to do baptisms for the dead on Saturday. I can't wait. Oh and the dad is getting the Melchizedek Priesthood on Sunday. We are starting to teach there niece, too, she go's back to Columbia on the 14 of Nov. so hopefully she will be baptized before then.

The same day as the baptism two members of our ward were Sealed in the Temple. They were baptized a year a go and the missionaries that baptized them got to go to the sealing. Also 3 other members went to the temple to receive there Endowments that day. One of those members has Terminal cancer and she has been a member for 15 years and never gone to the temple. she has been inactive, but we have helped her to become active again and she has changed SO much. And now she is prepared to enter into the kingdom of her Father. It's hard to see her so sick, but she is still happy

We tracked out two new families. One of them, when we came to the door just opened the door and said, " hey guys, do you want to come in?" that doesn't happen very often, btw. I think we found two golden families, I'm very excited about them.

This week was so good, the last two weeks were kind of slow and we had a lot of random stuff that we normally wouldn't have that we had to deal with. so it was good to get a week like this to re-motivate myself to be better and get excited again.

I love you, keep being awesome and I'll talk to you soon. Man, it's crazy how time goes by in the mission field. I can't believe I'm already finishing my 1st transfer. I'm learning a lot but i have a WHOLE lot more to learn. My Spanish got a lot better this week, at least I understood people a lot better this week. Anyway, I love you and I will talk to you soon.

Love, Stephen

Elder Stephen Kenneth Griener
New York, NY South Mission
85-69 60th Dr
Elmhurst, Queens, NY 11373

Conference Weekend Email

I had a pretty busy week getting ready for conference.
We had made a lot of little fliers we were giving out and
trying to get people to come.  We had 4 investigators who
came to conference on Saturday and 2 of them came on
Sunday as well. I think it was really good for them to hear
the prophet and the apostles and gain testimonies of their
device callings.

We watched it at the chapel. I watch in English, my
investigators and ward members were in the relief
society room watching in Spanish.  I'm sure that
dad is excited about the Concepcion Temple. There is an
elder form Hualpen and he was excited as well. Elder
Reyes. He came here the same day as me. In
fact we were travel companions on the plane.

Everything is going well.  They are trying to figure out
a different housing arrangement for us.  We have three
bunk-beds all lined up next to each other in our room.
Its kinda like a sleep over every night. The only problem
is when we have companionship study in the mornings.
Its nearly impossible because there has to be 2
companionships in the same room trying to talk to
each other and its hard. We might me moving in to the
apartments that Jared and Sarah lived in. Atlantic Point.
that would be awesome, it's way nicer than the place
we're living in now. We'll see. The problem is that we are
locked in our contract with the apartment until next august.
and we can't get out of it. But something is going to change
this week, we're just not sure who is moving or where.
I'll let you guys know.

We have our zone activity in Riverhead this afternoon.
We'll drive over there after we finish up with our laundry
and email. We're going to play basketball and have a...
How do you spell barbique?...uhh. yeah, that will be fun.

General Conference was awesome and im excited to change
and work harder and it was great! but i was so tired afterwords.
This next week should be really good, we have a lot of lessons
planned and we have plans to commit a few people to be baptized
, they are ready and I have faith that they will except.

My companion and I are getting along really well.   He's
really cool and he has been teaching me how to plan effectively
and he's a great teacher. He uses a lot of examples in his
lessons and i really like it.

Thank you for sending my coat and everything, it hasn't
snowed yet, but it's starting to get colder. yesterday was
kind of hot though.  In a week or two it will be plenty
cold. at least that's what I've been told.

The little movie in between conference sessions about
John Rowe Moyle made me think of home.  But not too
much, but it was probably the most homesick i have felt.
But it wasn't really homesickness, just made me think about home.

I am really enjoying it here, I'm still struggling to know
what the heck some people are saying when they talk
to me in Spanish, but I'm understanding more and more
and i can speak a lot more Spanish. I just don't know
what to say to someone when i have know idea what
they just asked me. ha ha.

Being here makes me realize how blessed you guys
are to be living in Alpine. In a small branch where
there aren't very many members it's hard to have all
of the callings and everything that make it run so
smoothly. It puts a lot of weight on the missionaries
to get things done, we're working with the branch
president to get the members started again on
there home teaching and visiting teaching.  Its
hard but we're working on it.

Everything is going well and I'm having a great time. 
Once we get our apartment situation figured out
and everything i think it will be a little easier,
but it's not so bad.

Tell everyone that i said hi and that I'm having a
great time. And i want to hear from them.  I got a
letter from Adam Grant this week, that was cool. He
sounds like he is loving Australia but its the same
as the U.S. but people talk differently, that's about
it.  And they do a lot of Tracting.

I plan to write quite a few letters today, but we'll
see. I might not have too much time.

Thanks for all of your love and support,
I'll talk to you soon. Keep being awesome
and reading the Book of Mormon
together and all the other stuff I'm trying to
get people out here to do.

Love,
Stephen