08/29/22 CAMBIOS/TRANSFERS--TAKE YOUR BEST GUESS

 Helloooooo

Hermana Griffin and Hermana Tommy
right before transfers

Guess what happened with CAMBIOS!!! 

You probably guessed wrong- I certainly did!! I'm.... STAYING in CALAMA...... but in the other hermana sector.... with Hermana PEREZ!!!!! WOOOOO IM SO EXCITED!!! 

My original expectations were one of two things- 1) I stay in my sector and get a new compy, or 2) I go to somewhere far away (because everywhere is far away from here- the next closest city is 3 hours away!!) 

What this means: probably, I'll be in Calama until like right before or right after Christmas. But also anything could happen. But I didn't think this would happen!!! Here's the thing, I've been living with Hermana Perez for like a month and a half now and we're like BFFs, have been since like the day she got here. I LOVE her. She's from Urugay and doesn't speak any English, so my Spanish is going to be significantly better by the end of this cambio I imagine (and my English significantly worse lol). We've made a ton of jokes about how maybe I'll go to Rio Loa, and Hermana Perez predicted it would happen, but I thought there was NO WAY! But here we are and I'm so so so excited!! She's super clean, very obedient, and literally one of the funniest people I've ever talked to. In other news, they're whitewashing my sector and putting in an Hermana I heard is super cool, who will be training a brand new missionary who we know absolutely nothing about!! 

So, this week: 

-Monday AGAIN, the Testigos de Jehova were in the house of our amigo. The more I learn about that religion the more confused I am... if anyone feels like emailing me and explaining it a little better, feel free...

-Tuesday we got completos!! 

-Wednesday we had arepas and our last counsels of the cambio. It was good, we learned about the attributes of Christ and I also made banana bread, which everyone loved and wished I had made more hahaha. That night we had a fhe with a family we're super close with, and had completos again wooo! The sad thing is I didn't think I was getting transferred and the wife went out of town, so I might not ever get to see her again

-Thursday we had a lot of success with phone calls and like no success with street contacting and door knocking. The people were BRUTAL that day. 

-Friday we had a tooonnn more success with phone calls and Facebook, and we also had 3 really good lessons- all the restoration! It was just a spiritually fuerte day. We also had lunch with this really cool family and we had TACOS, which were sooo good. But definitely not actual tacos. 

-Saturday was crazy because we had lunch with this family who always has my least favorite food... and they live as far from the chapel as possible and they never pick us up in spite of having a perfectly functioning car and 3 adults who can drive, and only one of them works (they're also very wealthy)... so we always have to try and catch a bus or a taxi, but there like aren't any on Saturdays, so we were literally trying to find one for over a half hour and they were mad because we were 20 minutes late. But on the way back we had to find one again... but we didn't have enough money for a taxi so we had to find a bus... which took forever. BUT the bus driver didn't charge us because he likes missionaries! I don't know if he's a member or not but that was definitely a miracle! So that took way too long and we had to help with this primary activity so we were 45 minutes late because of the bus situation. And then after the primary activity they gave us literally the nastiest pizza ever. It had these giant purple olives, salami, hot dog pieces and tomatoes instead of tomato sauce, along with the chilean version of american cheese. Yeah. Anyways. 

-Sunday was really sad because we had to say goodbye to all of our favorite members and it was super busy because there were a lot of them to say goodbye to. In the evening we had a family home evening as a zone and signed each other's "bye bye books" which was also sad, I love my zone right now!! And half of them are leaving ahh!! In other news, they made us 3 who are leaving speak in church on Sunday which was scary because I just had to get up there and talk-No time to prepare. But I think it went well? The family home evening with the zone was super spiritual, everyone shared what they learned and it turned into this beautiful testimony meeting like at the end of girls camp. 

-Today, Monday, we dropped off Hermana Tommy at 9 this morning at the bus station, and it was really sad-- she's my mission mom!!!! She's going to Antofagasta, so I'll still see her when we have our tri-zone conference this transfer, but that's a long time away!! The new hermanas won't get here until Wednesday night-I'm hoping I will have time to bake cookies or something for them!!! I'm excited to have someone newer than me around, that didn't happen last transfer!! Besides that we are dropping off Hermana Smith as well, she's going to a different part of Antofa, and then it'll just be me and my comp! I don't know what else we'll do today, probably talk to families and clean a bunch. 

-Spiritual thought from this week: 

I've been continuing to read all of President Nelson's talks, and I'm currently in 1991, so that's fun, but what I thought was so fascinating was that President Nelson has been adamant about the name of the church since long before he was prophet. I sense it was probably a pet peeve of his haha. In 1990 he wrote a talk called And Thus Shall My Church Be Called, which is all about why the name is so important. Although I'm not perfect I have been trying to move away from using Mormon, even when joking, and I've been working on speaking more sacredly of sacred things. He said a Saint is not someone revered as special or anything as it's often interpreted, but someone who believes and who holds sacred things reverently. I think a lot of that is a maturity thing sometimes, so sometimes my youthfulness gets to me, but I have been working on it