07/11/22 Shiiii again: Milagros and a little bit of misery

Holaaaa 

This week was a lot of things... but mostly busy! 

Monday and Tuesday were missionary work as normal, except the other hermanas had a leadership conference in antofa so we had the apartment to ourselves all day and I made my *first* batch of brownies (they turned out ok) for the week, and I also tried to make eclairs but they absolutely did not work at all... oh well! 

-Wednesday we got completos :) 

we also had district council and I bought a hoodie because I didn't bring one, que vergüenza. And in the evening we went to this little old lady's house and had bread and muffins and tea, she's a real sweetheart! 

-Thursday i made my *second* batch of brownies for hna smith's one year mark woooo... andwe had a bunch of stuff fall through but we went over the baptismal interview with Billy and he bore his testimony and it was so powerful!!! He seemed so ready to get baptized and the gospel was really working miracles in his life-he was feeling more peace, he was able to quit smoking, he was feeling better about himself and closer to God, and it was so powerful to see it working in his life.... but, more on this in a minute. 

-Friday we had exchanges and it was a lot of fun!!! During lunch I made my *third* batch of brownies for the week and they turned out the besssttt...for exchanges, we wore matching duck socks and had a lesson with Yade, who had previously said she was moving to Perú this month... but it changed and she's not moving until the end of the year!!!! Woooo! We can keep talking to and teaching her!!! And she's been reading the book of mormon!!! We had a lesson fall through but that turned out to be okay because Elder Tinoco called us and said we're in charge of teaching gospel principles so we planned our lesson about the creation and also did some street contacting. For gospel principles, only one dude showed up besides us 4 missionaries, and he's kinda weird... for example he always uses sister missionaries' first names (I'm not telling him what my first name is because I'm not comfortable with that) and when he's texting us he only ever addresses one missionary (he's a recent convert and with other missionaries he did the same where he'd only talk talk one of the missionaries over text, by first name), and he's always texting us the rose emoji and he's just kinda weird. But anyways. During the class we were talking about all of God's creations, and what is God's greatest creation and he went off on some tangent about men being the greatest creation because he created Adam first or something. I don't know but if I could have understood all of it I would have been low key offended. Or high key offended, I'm really not sure how extensive he was with it, I heard it from my comp later because Spanish be like that sometimes....but the part that I did understand, was when we asked what creation we are the most grateful for... and he went off about how he was grateful for women... but in kind of a really creepy way. He said it would suck if he had to just look at faces like our elders all the time and the female body is a miracle or something. I don't know, but it was super creepy! Good times. And then the elders said my brownies are better than papajohns which is one heck of a compliment here hahaha. Anyways. After the class, we were texting our friend Billy and he said he wanted to talk to us about... yikes. So we were like okay we can call you when we get home at like 10, but he was busy until 10:30 which is after prosciliting hours, but it seemed important and I wanted to do it with my comp anyways, so we ended intercambios and my comp and I called him... aaaand he said one of the baptismal interview questions was offensive to him (the one that asks if you have ever committed a homosexual sin) because his neice is gay... and we had a lengthy conversation trying to explain that it's not that we don't love those people, and it's not that we believe they're bad people or anything, but that the family is central to God's plan... it was really hard to have the conversation, and we were really gentle about it and really careful and kind... but he told us he doesn't want anything to do with the church and even denied his testimony from the previous night. We were feeling pretty discouraged after that, but we went to bed and prayed a lot. 

-Saturday we had to do some canceling of baptism plans which was pretty awkward, but we survived. There was a ward activity that we weren't sure if we were gonna go to but decided to go, and it's a good thing we did, because the only people who came were us, the elders, and the family of the sister who planned it.... it was really sad because she put so much effort into it, with decorations, treats, cute games, and more but nada persona was there :'( except us missionaries. But it was still really fun! I also started feeling sick in the morning...and it only got worse 

-Sunday was a typical Sunday, I was feeling pretty sick but not sick enough to stay home from stuff, so I put on a mask and sucked it up. After church we had lunch with an hermano and the Elders, and he told us how he was kinda sad this week because his wife and daughter are in Perú so he just works and then comes home to an empty house, so he was really happy to have the missionaries over and have someone to cook for. And he cooked us this stuff called Porrotos de Chilenos or something like that. And it was soooo good. He reminds me of my dad a lot, in that he makes a lot of jokes and is kinda funny in that way, and this stuff reminded me of my dad's cooking- it had beans and sausage and noodles, and it was spicy, and this was like the first meal I finished before anyone else. He said he'll make it for me again for sure before I get transferred out. I think it was my favorite thing I've had here After that we had a chill night and I went to bed a little early because I wanted to feel better... I don't :|

Ahhh I almost forgot!!! Yesterday we had a call with the classic BISMAR that I mentioned a few days ago and he's interested in learning about the gospel and we're gonna teach him!! Hes so weird but in a wholesome way and is the one who always says "shiiii" and we just love him and really want him to be golden haha. He also has a 9 year old nephew who was on the call and is soooo smart, so we might have two people to teach 

Today! We have plans to get empanadas and go shopping and watch a movie, so overall pretty chill. I'm looking forward to it and hoping I will feel less sick as the day goes on. And tomorrow we're going to antofa so I super hope I'll feel better by then. 

That's all I got! Please pray for Billy and Bismar if you have the time. I love you all!! 

xoxox hna griffin