11/07/22 THE MEAT HAD HAIR and I got serenaded and ANTOFAAAA

 This week was a whole different kind of interesting...

$15300 pecos pizza

Monday was halloween, and honestly it's almost the same here as it is back home. Except it's actually less dangerous here on halloween because there's a ton of people outside until super late. We had this cool miracle where this guy who was pretty darnos conentious over the phone, was one of the nicest people ever in person. I don't know what the deal was with that, but he told us he's going to pray about and read the book of mormon, so we'll see if that turns out! We have to pass him to elders though because he lives just BARELY outside of our sector :( 

Tuesday we had intercambios and it was sooo fun!!! Hna Sorenson and I get along really well, and she has less time in the mission than me so it's really a game of following the spirit and doing our best and letting the Lord make up the rest. We taught a really good lesson in the morning that went like an hour long... and the rest of the day was pretty much just us trying to find people and things falling through. We also had pizza for lunch  that night we traveled to Antofa for zone conference and I stayed up wayyyy too late catching up with hna Tommy! She loves her sector and her comp and is doing great. 

Wednesday we had zone conference and it was really beautiful. I normally feel drained more than anything after zone conference, but this time I really felt spiritually edified. We did some practices and the elders we practiced with were really focused with growth mindsets and everything... at some point we were practicing putting someone on date, and I told them their names were Patricio and Marleny, because those are some of our friends that we wanna put on date soon... and they asked us a ton of questions to help it feel more real. It was actually really helpful to think it through in that way!! At the end of the conference they had all the missionaries in their last transfer bare their last testimony, and it was soooo spiritual. I think everyone was crying

Hermana Griffin and Hermana Sorenson
enjoying pizza

That night, after the conference we went to take hna Pérez to the doctor for her arm, and as a result of the doctors office here being the slowest place on earth, we weren't able to go back to Calama with the rest of the zone. A little before that, hna Wu (Presidents wife) asked if anyone else had any health problems, and I said, (mostly jokingly, but honestly theyve been hurting me!!) I have blisters! And then my comp said, oooh yeah, she's got gigantic, huge painful blisters, the worst I've ever seen!!!! And I was like, hey they're not that bad! And then hna Wu decided when we go to the doctor we're also gonna check out hna griffins blisters. But she needed to get permission from the mission doctor first. So yeah, we went to the doctor Wednesday night at like 6pm and there were 2 elders who needed things done, and my comp and I, and the Elder who was driving us around, and hna Wu. So all of us went inside and they told me and the Elder who was driving that we had to wait outside. So we sat outside on this concrete ledge for literally 4 hours, and it was so awkward....I hated being without a comp!!!! And in the very beginning, I could still see her, because the doors were open, but then this crazy homeless dude started SINGING VERY LOUDLY RIGHT NEXT TO ME,  so they CLOSED THE DOORS AND I COULDNT SEE MY COMP AND THE ELDER WAS ON THE PHONE AND I WAS ALL ALONE and this homeless man was singing his heart out and asking for money and I didn't even have the phone with me to pretend I was doing something (maybe that was goos so he couldnt rob me haha) and yeah it was uncomfortable. (I found out later that hna Wu and Pérez could both see me from the window and were laughing at me) 

So all these hours later, and FINALLY, hna Pérez and the other elders are ready to go, and she told while she was in there, they just twisted her arm in every direction, gave her a prescription for some pain pills, and told her they don't know and she has to come back tomorrow to see a different flavor of doctor.

Thursday we were still in antofa, and hna Wu was like, ok while we're here, hna Griffin, lets have them look at your blisters. And I was like uhhh ok, so we waited an hour to get in, I went back and they took my blood pressure (???) and my temperature... And then told me a doctor would be by in a couple minutes. An HOUR AND A HALF LATER, a doctor comes by, looks at my blisters and is like, "you should probably get different shoes" and then she's like, I'll go get the receipt! She was in the room for less than 45 seconds. And then disappears for over an hour!!!! Literally I wrote everything up til now in that tiny little room waiting for the doctor. 

After that Hna Wu took us to try and find better shoes... gotta listen to the doctors prescription, right?? Well we didn't find shoes for me... but we did find shoes for hna Pérez!! Fast forward several hours of waiting and doing calls, and we got on our bus (we were on premium so it was reeeeal fancy, personal movie screens, seats that were spaced out so you could lay all the way down, remote controls for the movie screens, cup holders, the whole works!! It was very fancy... and then, hna Pérez left her brand new shoes on the bus! We had walked home half asleep, and when we got home we were telling the other hermanas about all our adventures in Antofa, and then she realized she didn't have her shoes. She was anxious for the rest of the night and tried calling the bus people but they didn't answer (because it was like midnight). But right before we left these elders from antofa gave us these cards with their number on it to give to people on the bus or in the bus station... and hna Pérez had just put them in the bag with her shoes and forgotten the cards existed. But the next we got a text from those elders asking if we had left something in the bus, and that the bus would be there until 11am to get them back. So we got her shoes back!!! 

Friday night we had a lesson with Patricio and Marleny... they're basically ready for baptism except they're not married. So we went over with plans to talk about the law of chastity and invite them to start working towards baptism... however, this past Sunday during church, we went to primary because I play piano for the primary, and while we were in there they were talking about tithing, the gathering of Israel, fasting, the word of wisdom and temple recommends, so they had a bunch of questions about all of that, naturally.  So instead we talked about all of those things and we're gonna try and invite them to prepare to be baptized this week. But it was a really good lesson!! They came to stake conference this weekend and we texted them saying thanks for coming with us, and they responded, we go because we like it!! Which is so cool honestly. It's also really cool to see their spiritual growth-like to be able to witness it happen! Cuz I've been with them since the beginning!! 

Hermana Perez Gomez and Hermana Griffin

Saturday we had lunch with my favorite family in this ward and we made pizzas!! Except it was so weird the way they made pizzas. They only had sliced cheese, so we put sauce, and then ground beef... and then slices of ham just like laid across that, and then the slices of cheese laid on top of all that... and then tomatoes that had been peeled and sliced as if you were gonna eat it on a burger, and then a tooooonnn of oregano. Tasted pretty good, but it was definitely not normal pizza!! In the evening we went to the saturday session of stake conference and Patricio and Marleny were there with their two little boys, and the 2 year old, Augustin fell down and hit his head and was crying super loud... and then after like 30 seconds, was fine and went back to playing... the thing is, that happens at like every activity they have come with. Augustin always falls and hits his head, cries for 30 seconds, me and my comp are thinking like, oh noooo, they're never gonna come back to church again... and then he's fine and goes back to playing!! 

Yesterday we had stake conference and it was really good! They talked a lot about the importance of members in missionary work, and it's TRUE!! We can't do this without them!! The closing song was Carry On, which we had just sang at zone conference on Wednesday with 40 missionaries, so I was actually looking forward to it, but then when the song started, it was the saddest version of that song I've ever heard!!!! It was like us missionaries were the only ones singing, and the guy playing piano was playing 20 bpm and we were all so disappointed. Every single one of us missionaries afterwards said we had the thought to stand up to sing, but nobody did it. I wish I had. The version in spanish is called "a vencer" which means Overcome or Win... and Hna Wu afterwards (because they were there too!!) said they sounded like they didn't even want to overcome! That maybe, if they have the time, they'll TRY to overcome. But anyways. 

President and Sister Wu,
Hermana Griffin and Perez

Later we lunch with this family (YADE!!) that I started teaching in my other ward, and this the same people that served us chicken foot. I've been to her house a ton of times, and normally the food is soooo good, but chicken foot day was not a good day. So they had invited presidente and hna Wu over and decided to invite US over too... and they served us soup with COW STOMACH AND COW HOOF... IT HAD HAIR, I REPEAT IT HAD HAAAIIIRRRRR. It was horrifying. And like presidente and hna Wu were there, so we had to eat it. I felt like throwing up!!! But it was good to see my girls again!! 

We also had our interviews with President that afternoon and he invited me to take advantage of these next two weeks (until the end of the transfer) to learn how to lead the sector... which... scary!! But we're pretty sure hna Pérez is outta here at the end of this transfer... and we're pretty sure I'm not, so I'll be 7 1/2 months in Calama if we're right!! At this point I've embraced it. I love Calama I honestly would be alright with serving half my mission here! Which honestly it looks like I'm going to!!! I keep making jokes that my next sector will be Central Norte B which is a sector here in Calama that has 2 sets of elders, but the members told us they really bad want hermanas, and honestly I would be down to open central Norte for hermanas!! Another thing that was super cool, was that hna Wu told some people that having missionaries in the ward is a privilege and they need to take care of the missionaries they have better. Which was a little direct, but honestly what they needed... the people here don't love helping the missionaries sometimes. 

Dinner including
Cow hoof and stomach
with hair

Yade Family

I invite you all to take care of the missionaries near you!! Help them, work with them, find people to invite to live the gospel, because it really is the only source of true joy, and so why shouldn't we share it?? 

I love you all!! 

xo-hna griffin 

Couldn't resist zooming in to 
capture the look...finding hairy
meat in her bowl with her mission 
president close by.