01/23/23 Singing dude, dead bird, floor pizza, ya know, the usual

Ok! Its p day!! I survived a full week once again and ive somehow arrived (this coming week) to the halfway mark of my mission. My mind is kinda blown actually, it feels like such a large amount of time, and also like nothing... anyways!  

Monday the Elders were LAME and didn't wanna go do the hike that we had been looking forward to ALL week but it's ok, me and hna Sorenson had a girls day!!!! We went and got her hair cut (the lady messed it up pretty bad but its okay, we had hermana Pierce rescue it and now she looks really cute!!), and then we went and pizza in this fancy cafe with live music and glass bottled coke. We were definitely enjoying ourselves!! And I also made oatmeal cookie fudgy bars in the morning... my moms favorite!! In the evening it was nice and chill, we answered and sent a bunch of texts and calls, and spent some time on the road by the river although there we didn't find anyone new. 

Tuesday was kind of a crazy day. We had a lesson with this lady from a different sector... the elders from that sector asked us to go over and visit her. She was SO talkative!!! And she took us out to her backyard where there were, I kid you not, thousands of grapes growing on vines. She said most of them aren't ready yet, and then we went back inside and she gave us purple grapes, even though the thousands of grapes were green  

In the evening we got invited to a little boys birthday party! We came early and helped them decorate, and then we had the opportunity to talk to a bunch of random people that we didn't know about who we are and why we're in South America and all that good stuff... it was honestly... kinda awkward!! But in the end we got to give a mini lesson on prayer to like 30 people! And we invited them all to pray and strengthen their relationships with God. If even one of them does that then it was worth it!! 

And I almost forgot!! We added to our random adventures in chile by going to the orthodontist to fix a bracket that had fallen out from hermana Sorensons permanent retainer!! It was surprisingly quick and inexpensive. 

Wednesday was kind of a rough day but we had a lesson that evening with these two girls who were teenagers, and it was really cool to be able to talk to them about God. I think the kids these days don't get nearly enough of Him in their lives!! So we has a tiny little lesson and they both gave us their number and were excited to continue learning, but then two days later they blocked us  I guess that's just life

Thursday we had a fire lesson with Claudia, and she accepted a baptismal date in March!!!!!! It was really good because then we were able to talk about what she needs to do to get baptized, which includes quitting smoking and drinking wine, and she committed to try and do it on her own first, and then if she's not succeeding to make a plan with us! If anybody wants to pray for Claudia, I will not be mad  

Thursday was kinda sad because we had 4 lessons planned and confirmed and 3/4 fell through, but the one that didn't was so good it almost made up for the 12 hours of finding. 

AND I almost forgot!!! In the morning on thursday we woke up to find a dead bird on our little balcony  i was very brave and picked it up with a plastic bag (it was warm), and then i wanted to give it to the elders but hermana Sorenson kindly suggested that we dont do that haha.  

Friday we did an ataque (where all the missionaries from the district come and work in one sector) in our sector... it wasn't very fruitful though  the only ones who found anyone to teach were me and my comp! Well, some elders found a guy who we texted and he answered and said he's too busy... but in a lot more words. 

In the evening we went to teach Irma and she accepted a baptismal date in February!!!!! She really just needs to get more comfortable with the doctrine, but she's honestly ready. Hopefully she'll stick to it!! After the lesson, hermana Pierce told us she wanted to visit a friend that she had met the last time we were visiting Irma, in the apartment next door! So we went and knocked and amazingly, she accepted us into her house and we taught her a little about prayer. Her name is Carmen, and I love her so much. 

Saturday 

In the morning we went out knocking doors of inactive members, and while we were waiting for this one family to answer the door, this dude with a guitar walks up, and he's singing... in really bad English! And then he serenaded us for like 4 minutes, and then started explaining to us how he only sings in English, and how he believes that Satan exists only in music and only when you repeat something three times, so then he sang the moves like jagger to... prove his point? I guess?? 

Three hours later we were sitting in a plaza, texting and calling people, and the dude found us again, and started singing another song, and then this dude from across the plaza told him to shut up, so obviously he did the only logical thing and started singing twice as loud. We tried to share a scripture with him but he ran away singing before we could. Love that guy. 

Later in the afternoon we had a lesson that we were soooo excited about... and then when we were standing outside their door, they called to cancel on us. So we picked ourselves up and went to knock doors. But then out of nowhere I was like, let's call Carmen! And so we invited ourselves over haha. And we had an almost 2 hour long lesson about the restoration, but also about 100 other things she had questions about. I really think that she can feel the spirit when she's with us cuz she did NOT want us to leave. Something interesting is she has epilepsy, and with that she has like 20 little tiny seizures every day. But she's still out there living her best life! And as I said, I love her!!! 

Sunday was a really good day. There wasnt anything too crazy, we had church and lunch with the Pierces and then we worked SO hard in the afternoon!! Just finding all day, and we came home feeling so satisfied and so tired... and so we made pizza and ate it sitting on the floor in the kitchen! 

Today we went on this really cool hike and we're super tired!!! We ended up wading through the water (a little below our knees) in part of it and exploring some caves!! 

Something me and Sori were talking about is how beautiful the earth is, and how it's literally impossible that it wasn't created by a being greater than us!! 

"The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." Alma 30:44

Love you all!!

xo-hna griffin