Hermana Katie Griffin

 Soooooo im going to alto hospicio. Which is a lovely, wealthy town in the middle of the most tropical part of our mission and there are no street dogs there... except its the opposite of everything i just wrote.  An ugly, poor town in the middle of the driest desert in the mission, and its full of street dogs. But ive heard the work there is wonderful. By the time you all read this i imagine I'll already be there. More on this in a second.  Last P day we went to huasco which was actually so fun!! We're the only hermanas in the zone so it's always a little weird hanging out with zone... we joke about how we're barely a part of the group because the elders see us as if we're a different creature or something, and it's amplified here where the nearest other hermanas are like 2 hours away.  But that day we were able to have a little time and space where we didn't have to hang out with them, and then afterwards we played volleyball!  While we were there we saw s...

  Holiiiis como estamos?  Here's some things that happened this week:  On Monday we went on a huge hike to Jilguero, and it was a ton of fun. Then when we were in the canyon we cooked churipan and had a testimony meeting. Except for like half of it we were in the sun, and it was super far away with lots of hills. We had great attitudes about it in that moment but we came home and felt completely dead. Like, laying down on the floor unable to get dressed to go work dead. But we eventually got to work and we got a lot done.  On Tuesday we went over to teach our friend Andres, and he seemed a little different from normal. A little more serious. After a little bit of small talk, hermana Sorenson asked him if he was okay... and that's when he told us his mom had passed away that morning. He had delayed his travels in order to still be able to talk to us and to still have a lesson with us.  We talked about the plan of salvation and a lot about the love of God. It was ...

 Buenos días mis amiguitos, esta semana fue medio difícil en algunas maneras! Pero sigo adelante todavía!  Some things that happened this week:  Tuesday night we came home after a long day of rejection, and i have this habit of, the moment i walk in the door, I wash my hands. So I went to go do that, and nada. The toilet, shower, kitchen sink, washer, nothing works.... so we call the front desk of our apartment complex and the dude is like, ok? What do you want me to do about that? After some convincing on my part, he helped me figure out who to call, and after like 45 minutes of people trying to tell us how to fix our water, we realize.... there's a pipe missing. So we bring the dude from the apartment complex over to the closet thing where he can see the pipe, only he's not listening to us, and he's got this attitude of, silly gringas, they don't know how to turn the valve thingy.... so he turns it with all his strength, completely on.... but as I mentioned there was ...

  I, after a lot of thought, probably too much, have decided on  D&C 50:40-42  40 Behold, ye are little children and ye cannot bear all things now; ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.  41 Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me;  42 And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost. I hope it's not too long, let me know if it is  love you so much!!  If it is too long, it would kinda work to just use verse 40, but I like it better with all three. Hope you guys have a great week, love you so much!!! 

  Hello!!!!  Some random events that happened this week:  Intercambios in Copiapo!! Lots of walking. Up giant hills. I still have blisters... I love vallenar and I never wanna leave.  Our friend Oscar has been progressing a ton!! He was really struggling with cigarettes, and still is, but we had a really good lesson the other day and in the middle of the lesson i remembered that months ago, before Oscar moved to another city (and then moved back), I had asked a member of my ward in Calama who had struggled with smoking to share her testimony over a voice message. So she sent it, and i received it the same week that Oscar moved away, and never got to show it to him! But then during the middle of that lesson I remembered it existed, but didn't remember what it had said. So we played the message for him, and it talked about how he needed to make the decision to stop smoking, with lots of faith and lots of enthusiasm, but if he didn't make that first step, God wasn't goi...

Elder Fish was a zone leader for Katie while in the MTC. He went to serve in Columbia...this happened and made national news. Sent this update to Katie.   Hello everyone! I hope this message is shared over and over! This is so close to my heart and I hope it is seen. I want to talk about Maxwell and his love for Colombia. Maxwell is half Colombian and ever since he was a little child desired to come to Colombia. He has always desired to go visit, and serve a mission where his history is. He wanted to bring the gospel and share God to the people and in return he knew it was filling a call in him. He always wanted to serve a mission here. He talked about it through his teen years. He worked and saved every penny to buy his suits and cover the cost of a mission. He was very nervous applying for the mission. He was nervous he maybe called somewhere different. His heart called for Colombia and he didn't want to go anywhere else. We prayed the Lord would send him here...