Griffins Corazon: Noteworthy November

Break The Fast

We are just like a bunch of college kids on Fast Sundays..... well maybe just a little bit older and wiser too. But like the college wards back home, on Fast Sundays we get together and have our meal as a big group. Since our apartment is one of the very few in the whole building that can accomodate us all, we are becoming the place to bring your assigned dish and eat. We love it being able to have them all here. It reminds us of home and all the family gathering and Dave's house and many conversations filling the air along with the aroma of good food.

Concurso de Calcetinas

What do you call the only guy to remember to wear his socks for the contest?

THE WINNER!

Keaton gets baptized

Because this handsome grandson turned eight.... (October 30) He got baptized. Due to the distance, we had to attend via Google Hangouts. We were able to be there thru technology. Sure do miss him and are so very proud of him. He is awefully good looking too.

Lights Out!

Got word that the our little area of the hood would have the electricity shut off for repairs. It would go off after 8:00 am. So what do you do when you work on the 11th floor.... you go early to use the elevator before it is shut down. Our church offices have a large generator for our floors so we could still work.

When the Pratts arrived, we felt it our duty to take them to LaOnda for tacos Al Pastor.

After a movie at the mall.

Monterrey!

We had the wonderful opportunity to attend the first ever, Women's Conference, in Monterrey, Mexico. The women in the states have BYU Women's Conferences to go to and the Time Out for Women events. The women here in Mexico have never been given that opportunity until now. It was held on the weekend of November 15, (Sunday) and all day November 16 (Monday). The 16th is actually a national holiday, so they were all off from work. It was slightly different from the Friday - Saturday ones that I have attended, but it worked out well. We flew to Monterrey on Saturday morning which gave us time to go the the temple.

Outside the Monterrey Mexico Temple with Michelle and Gilbert Sandberg. This is their third assignment. Prior to serving here they served as the Guatamala City Temple President and Matron. She is from the colonies and they now serve as assistant Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency and she translates all the mission paper applications for the mission department.

After being at the temple, we met up with Andrea Bradley Ahedo. She was on the conference committee for publication. She is a professional photographer that was born in the states but has lived and Monterrey for the last 6 years. We took her and her new husband out to dinner, they suggested El Gran Pastor. Very famous restaurant there for serving the best local dish.... baby goat.

We attended the oldest ward there in Monterrey for Sunday meetings.

They were hoping for 3000 sisters to register and attend. The committee did such a fabulous job they had close to 4000 that registered and wanted to attend.

Thousands Attend Mexico’s First-Ever LDS Women’s Conference

John helping get photos of the women arriving.

Waiting for Sister Linda K. Burton to arrive.

John working the conference. Recording the talks so he
could translate them for articles.

Sister Linda K. Burton, General President Relief Society

Monterrey Mexico Women´s Conference Nov. 15, 2015

Opening Talk

I have longed to be with you for many months and in one day I have fallen deeply in love with my sisters. Thank you for coming today. We have been well fed already. We have been taught wonderful truths from inspired leaders and so I feel grateful and better for being here today. Now I have brought a couple of my friends with me and am hoping it will work. I brought a video of two friends and am hoping it will work. Can we try and roll that video right now? Cross your fingers!

(Video of Sisters Wixom and Oscarson)

“Queridas amigas y hermanas en México, las amamos! … Deseamos que sepan de nuestra cariño… Las amamos!”

Aren´t they cute. You probably recognized that was Sister Rosemary Wixom of the Primary and Sister Bonnie Oscarson the Young Women General President. They are two of my very dearest friends. Sometimes we joke that we don´t have any other friends, because that is all we have right now.

Let’s think about light again tonight.

Before I go on. I must acknowledge all the work that has gone into this conference and express my love for Elder Pieper and his wife Lisa.

When I was a little girl in Primary, we did needlework to hang on the walls of our home. And the saying was this: “I will bring the light of the gospel into my home.” Is anyone here as old as me and did that? Nope, I´m the oldest one. But as I was sitting here tonight, I was thinking about those words. And I was wondering about this theme. Why is it so important to fill our homes with light? And we have been told, because we live in a wicked world. We have been given much counsel tonight about how we can fill our homes with light.

I was thinking about that and remembered a scripture that is very near and dear to my heart. It is found in the Book of Ether in the Book of Mormon. You´ll remember that this is the story about the brother of Jared and they were going to cross the ocean and the Lord told them to build barges to float on the water, but there were three problems. After the barges were built, the prophet, the brother of Jared, had called on the Lord and told him these three problems. There was no air. What happens if we have no air? We can´t breathe. No air, no life. Second problem. There was no way to steer the boat. Third problem. No light.

Now you will remember that the Lord helped the brother of Jared. I am going to back up a minute. I have read this scripture many times before and you have probably discovered this before me, but this was new to me this time. I was thinking about those three problems; No life, no way, no way to steer, and no light. And something in my head, I think it was the Holy Ghost said, “Think about that Sister Burton.” Who is the LIFE? Who is the WAY? And who is the LIGHT? The Savior. He is the way. He is the life. He is the light. So He knows the way. So He told the brother of Jared, don´t worry about steering the boat, I will steer it for you. I´ll even help you with air--with life. Drill a hole in the top and a hole in the bottom. Open it up when you need air and close it up when water comes in. Now if you were the brother of Jared, you´d be thinking, now what about light? And I am sure he was expecting the Lord to explain, this is what I will do about light. But He didn´t. He said, you can´t do this and you can´t do that. So what do you think we should do brother of Jared?

The Lord wants us to be spiritually self-reliant. He made the brother of Jared work and come up with a solution himself. The work he did, he molded out of stone. He got the stones and asked the Lord to touch them. It took effort on his part. When he had the faith to go do something, the Lord blessed it. He touched those 16 stones and they provided enough light for the whole journey.

When we went on our mission, we had a sacred experience. Many, but the first one was this; I had tried to read the Book of Mormon again, before leaving on our mission, but I didn´t quite finish it. I got caught up in all the preparations for our mission, so the first day of my mission, I opened up the Book of Mormon to the place where I had left off. Guess where I was in the Book of Mormon? The Book of Ether, chapter 6. As I read those words, I was deeply touched. You´ll remember that the stones were already in the barges. The people had prepared all the things they could; food, clothing, all they needed and put them in the barges. Then they had to have the faith to get in the barge and trust that that light would be enough to carry them in the depths of the ocean. As we started our mission, I really felt like we were in the depths of the ocean. It was the great unknown and we didn´t know what was going to happen. So as I read the words in this chapter, I felt Heavenly Father was saying, “Sister Burton, this is for you.” In the fourth verse, in English it says, the people of the brother of Jared, “commend[ed] themselves unto the Lord”. Then verse 5: And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.

I am hoping that that says in Spanish the same it says in English, that the Lord blew the barges toward the promised land. I was thinking, the Lord keeps His promises. He told the brother of Jared that He would steer them and He did. He is blowing them toward the promised land. It wasn´t just a little “safe” journey. Listen to what happens in verse 6: And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.

I was worried at the beginning of our mission about those mountain waves. I think those are similar to the opposition that we live in today. We are told that the light continued to shine throughout that frightening journey. The barges were filled with light and the people had the faith to trust the Lord. Because they had done their part, the Lord could then keep His promises.

That is a great lesson to all of us. We need to do our part and then let the Lord lead. Let Him be the light. We have to have it inside of us. My favorite part of this whole chapter is in verse 12. It tells how the people were so grateful for this journey they were on. They humbled themselves before the Lord. They shed tears of joy, because they realized the many mercies of the Lord for them, as they headed in that journey and he will do that same thing for us.

I just want to close with a little personal testimony. Many of you are feeling like you have mountain waves crashing over you right now. I had a sister who had mountain waves crash on her. She was going through a painful divorce with four little children that she was responsible for, ages 2-12. Fortunately she had others who were filled with light that could help her while she went through her dark time. They were her Relief Society sisters. They were the light to lead her to Jesus Christ. They helped remind her that when she would fill her life with the Spirit of the Lord, then He would help guide her. And He did.

It is many years later now, she has served as a Relief Society President now for several years. She is currently serving as a Stake Relief Society President. It is so interesting to me that she is now the light for others. Many come to her and ask for her help as they are experiencing the things that she experienced many years ago. She is now telling them what others helped her to know, that the Savior is the source of light for all of us. His atonement will make all things that seem unfair right. It may not be in this life, but if we are faithful, He will bless us, He will wipe away all tears from our eyes, and we will be grateful He is our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He Lives. I love Him. I love our Father I Heaven. He knows us. He loves us. Because He sent His Son, we know He loves us. If you doubt the love of our Savior Jesus Christ, read the Book of Mormon. It is filled with love letters from our Heavenly Father. It will fill us with light and we can use that light to bless our families and bless our communities.

I love you dear sisters. I pray for you that this will be a marvelous conference. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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Sister Montoya and Sister Sandberg taking notes of the talks.

The lobby of the Holiday Inn we stayed at.

The covered walkway connecting the hotel to the convention center

It was overcast and raining up all three days, up until we were leaving
for the airport. Monterrey is known for it's mountains. Finally got
a peek at one of them as we were hoping into our cab to go.

Welcoming new missionaries

In November we got two new couples into the offices. The Carlsons are from Sandy, Utah by way of California. He is a retired engineer from Lawrence Livermore National lab in Californa. (Can't tell ya what he did or he would have to kill you). They will be replacing the Montoyas as the Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency and she will be doing same as Sister Montoya, not sure exactly, but she talked with mission presidents alot.

Sister Carlson is also the sister to Hermana Muñoz. They grew up in Veracruz. Elder Carlson served his mission there and baptized their family.

We also welcome the Pratts. They are from Flower Mound, Texas. They will be working in legal and replace the Rices that are from Albequeque, NM.

Elder Pieper spoke to our group as a Thanksgiving tradition. He speaks and his wife brings pie for the dessert.

Thanksgiving

Sister Whitehead finishing up the gravy.

The mission home has a very large kitchen.

President Whitehead carving up the turkeys.

He used to be the head hauncho at Dixie College in food services.
We let him do it, he knows what he is doing.

My assignment was the punch for the dinner.
The office elders were the royal testers to see
if it was going to be okay.

I used a version of the Howard's
famous almond punch..... I think they liked it.

on the left is Elder Pratt and Sister Pratt from Texas.
on the right is Bonnie and Craid Anderson from Utah

clear the table of the meal..... time for the desserts!

It was Elder Muñoz's and Elder Steven's birthday.

They have dishpan hands girls..... they are ready to meet the
one of their dreams now. (they didn't really know what that
meant. I assured them it was an attractive quality)