06/13/22 First area: Calama

HELLO!!!!  

Zoom call with the 
family

First of all: 

I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!!!!!!!!! 

I feel like a million and one things have happened and the voice to text doesn't work soooo I'm probably gonna leave out so so much but ahhh I'm here in Calama and it is so wonderful here!!!!!!!!!! 

Ok where to start.... I had a couple very long flights and managed to sleep a lot on them... and then when I arrived in Antofagasta, the president, his wife, 2 stl's (sister leaders), and the APs. They gave me a cold waterbottle which was heaven sent, I was so dehydrated from flying haha. 

I got to have a little something to eat and talk to my parents for just a few minutes, and then I went street contacting (on my first day here whatttt) and was largely unsuccessful haha no worries. we also got completos and ice cream, and I got to know those two sisters pretty well. One of them is literally the sweetest people ever, and the other one is also really cool and just happens to be Elder Bednar's granddaughter. We had pizza for dinner and I hung out with the hermanas in their apartment for the rest of the night (I was literally soooo exhausted). When I woke up the next morning I realized I was sleeping by this huge window that had this amazing view of the ocean and beach (whattt) and it was gorgeous. 

So Wednesday. I did a little yoga with the beautiful Hna Garcia, and then we all took a micro (like a bus) to the mission office, and had our orientation. I was definitely falling asleep through a lot of it, buuuut it's fine, it was just jetlag. And then!!! They had this cute little ceremony to get our companions and sectors (our ward and area and everything), and it felt like it took forever, but I found out I was going to Calama and my comp is Hna Thompson (she's literally so cute I looovve her)!!!! 

Some things about Calama: it's about 3 hours inland from antofa, has the most extreme weather (so now it's very cold and I didn't really pack a coat because I didn't think that would be a thing), never has rain or snow, and I LOVE IT HERE :) 

So the rest of that day I got to know my comp and she taught me some things with technology, and we called some amigos (that's what investigators are called) and shared some messages with them, and then eventually we went off to Calama... on this really nice bus! like movie screens, foot rests, reclining seats nice. apparently it was a premium bus-que divertido  and then when we got into our apartment!! the two other hermanas we share with had set up a cute little once (pronounced own-say) for us, which is like little sandwiches, cookies, and herbal tea. and then we went to sleep!! 

Fridayyyy and Saturday: so typical day here is like, wake up, exercise (there's a nice little gym in our building that we use), shower and get ready, have breakfast, studyyyy- language, comp, personal, and then we usually have lunch with members- and then we hit the streets, or do Facebook contacting (I'm actually a fan of fb surprisingly, it's been soooo effective!!), and then we often have classes or lessons in the evenings, and do more street contacting a Facebook and lessons and phone calls. 

Thursday night we met our amigo Axel and he is GOLDEN!!! Hna Tommy found him fb contacting, and then we had a phone call with him and taught him a little and invited him to our gospel principles class... and he came!!! and so then we talked to him more, and invited him to someone else's baptism on Saturday... and he came!!!!! and then after the baptism we taught him a bunch of stuff and he asked where we were going and we told him, to our English connect class where we teach very basic English... and he wanted to come to that too!!! He's literally so cool! We gave him a bunch of reading materials and invited him to church... and he went to church too!!! In talking to him, it's obvious that he can feel how important and powerful the gospel is and he has this huge desire to learn more... I'm amazed by this, for real! Except one tiny problem... he's not in our ward... he lives in a different sector, so we had to send him over as a reference to the other hermanas... which is great for them!!! cuz he's awesome!!! but sad because I was enjoying trying to teach him!! 

Sunday we also got our friend Yade to come to Church!! She brought her two daughters and her esposo, and those girls are so cute!!!! I sat by them during sacrament and they were so fascinated by my little bracelet with an English inscription and my little hymn book with Jesus on the cover!!! They really bad wanted to stay for primary but their mom had to work so they all left after the first hour. 

Something I really didn't expect is how satisfying this work is... in the MTC I was genuinely worried that when I got here I wasn't going to want to do anything, but I loooovvve missionary work!!! It's so amazing to see when things click in someone's head and it's such an exciting moment whenever someone has even the tiniest bit of progression. I truly truly love it here, and the fact that I can't really understand what others are saying or how to speak perfectly has been frustrating, but seeing people progress anyways is soooo motivating. Also going to that baptism was so cool because it was a family of new converts who were all so excited to be there, and because our amigo felt the spirit and has the desire to learn more and more!!! 

Today I'm going to buy a new coat and hang out with our zone at one of the capillas, and then I really bad wanna go shopping for food, so that I can do some cooking. 

Some interesting things in no particular order: there are dogs everywhere on the streets... I started counting them, got well over 30 in like an hour and decided not to count them anymore. A lot of random things are in bags: mayo, sauces, jam, probably other stuff. I'm on the eleventh floor of my building and have a view of the city which is really pretty, especially at sunset. Also the Sunsets here are gorgeoussss! Because of all the dogs, there's little paw prints in like all of the cement. All the cars are stick, not sure why. There are no speed limits and no one wears seatbelts. We don't have a dryer so we just put all our stuff outside to dry. We get whistled or honked at, at least once a day, so that's fun. All the old ladies and even the not that old ladies call us hijitas which is like little daughters. Completos here are fuegoooo. All the missionaries say Fetch, all the time (for example, one Elder speaks 99% Spanish and he's from Venezuela, but he'll say "fetching fuego" like all the time lol). It's like 70⁰ during the day... and then when it gets dark (around 6pm), it drops sooo quick to like 30⁰ or so. If I think of more I'll put them in my notebook and send them next week!!! 

So you're all aware: I'm only allowed to talk to non-family members on email, not messenger... family members are good on messenger though wooo. 

Carter and Abby: Yall were right, this is the BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD :) 

I love you all so much!!!! 

xoxo hna griffin