09/05/22 Amor Amor Amor

Buenos dias!! 

Buckle your seatbelts my friends this week was crazyyyy

Haha I feel like I say every week is crazy but like... it was crazy crazy this week 

- Monday and Tuesday it was just the two of us in the apartment so I literally didn't speak any English for like 48 hours straight!! My Spanish is literally improving more than ever before!! We did a TON of cleaning and decorated for the new hermanas!! We found some Christmas lights downstairs so I definitely was distracted with that for a little while!!! 

-Wednesday morning I made cookies also to welcome the new hermanas, and at like noon we went to the bus station to pick them up!! They're both from Utah, one of them is brand new and doesn't speak much Spanish, and the other was mtc comps with my trainer, so I've heard a lot about her! They arrived and got unpacked and then at like 3 or 4 we got a call that said surprise! You're all going to antofa today... your bus leaves at 7 and you have to be at the station by 6:30. So we had to cancel all of our lessons for that day and pack a bag super fast. I brought cookies to the bus station so I'm already on good terms with all the new elders lol. Three hours later we were in antofa and it's soooo humid there, and it was also soooo cold that night hahaha. I got to talk to my trainer because she's in antofa now and we stayed in her apartment. 

-Thursday we had a conference with Elder Costa (an area 70 I think?) and his wife, and it was good! The entire South half of the mission was there so I got to meet some cool people. That night we had our bus ride back to calama and then did some calls in the evening, but basically didn't have any working time. 

-Friday my comp got kinda sick, and by that I mean she was sick. She had a fever and was shaking and so we spent 45 minutes in the street knocking doors before she was like yeahhh I need to go home. 

-Saturday she felt better and so we spent a lot of time outside. Our sector us HUGE, and we have a million people we're teaching so it's kinda the opposite of my previous sector. We also had completos but they were disappointing... we got them to go and it was clear they had been sitting for like at least over 45 minutes when we got them, and then we still had to walk home before eating them. 

-Sunday we had church... some things about my new ward: they don't like us very much... I don't know why but I'm determined to change it. We only had lunch with members one day this week, and our budget isn't built for that. Also, we have church at 3 in a building that's over an hour walk away because our building is being remodeled or something. Literally no one plays piano, so it's all me, and we have less than 30 members there at any given time. But it was pretty bad, they were making fun of my comps accent and being wildly disrespectful to her... and then one of them went on a rant about why all the prophets are gringos and kept like staring at me. It was suuuuper uncomfortable. Luckily for us we had to leave early from adult Sunday school so I could play piano for the primary. 

I also heard that when we had some changes a few weeks back (presidente said we're not allowed to have lunches for more than one hour), the hermanas sent a message to the ward group chat like "hey! Just so you all know, we're not allowed to have lunches more than one hour now, we appreciate all that you do but we have to leave after one hour because of a new rule from our president," an inactive member said something like "the lunches are always an hour or less, the only reason they go over is because the hermanas talk too much" that's like as exact of a quote and translation as I can get. When I heard about that I was shocked. And like, everyone else in the group chat was agreeing putting emojis and stuff. After like 12 hours the bishop sent a message about respecting the missionaries and stuff, and one person agreed with him but outside of that, nada. I don't know what to do but it is my goal while I'm here to serve these members and love them, and maybe maybe see some change in the way they treat us. But we'll see. 

Today were pretty busy, I'm not really sure what we're busy with, but yeah. 

Spiritual thought of this week. So, I used to play piano pretty well, really complicated and difficult stuff... and then I graduated high school and spent two years without a piano convenient and I kinda stopped playing altogether. Like to the point where hymns are really difficult to play now, que verguenza. But the thing is, when you use your talents to serve others in the Lords kingdom, he magnifies your talents and helps you to do all you have the potential to do. And that's how I successfully played in sacrament meeting this week, and will continue to play in sacrament every week, by the power of God. It's the same thing with my Spanish... my Spanish isn't perfect but it's perfectly functional, most of the time. Not because I'm smart or because Spanish is easy (it's not!!) but because I have the power of God on my side!! 

That's all! Hope everything is good with everyone!! 

xo-hna Griffin