03/20/23 Oscar and Yrma got baptized!!

 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 really beautiful. 

When we left, he walked us out and told us how he's so grateful that we found him so that he can experience peace, and how God placed us in his path at exactly the right moment. He told us also that he would never forget us (and a lot of people here can't say our names so they just call us hermanas or misioneras, but he actually says hermana griffin and hermana Sorenson). 

As we walked to our next lesson, hermana Sorenson and I both felt that it was so humbling to be a part of this work, especially when something like that happens. We're a couple of 20 yr olds, wandering around Chile, but we're actually able to change people's lives and help people to find peace. 

That same evening we went to Yrmas baptismal interview, which she passed, and then we bought a pizza with the Elders (they were with us to do the interview) and one of the elders gave like half the pizza away to homeless people. 

Wednesday we had intercambios, but this time with the hermanas from antofa. In the beginning I was really struggling with the girl I was with. She was just coming off as a little bit condescending in her tone when talking about anything I needed to improve. It was actually exhausting. But by the end of the day we came to understand one another better, and I realize her tone just comes from how she's really used to talking to children, like she worked for years in an elementary school, in kindergarten, and then she went to college in order to get a degree in elementary education. It made a lot more sense after that, and we were able to find a middle ground. That is to say, it wasnt her intention in the first place. Which taught me that sometimes we shouldn't assume the worse from our initial perspective of somebody. 

But anyways, another random thing about this week is that hna Sorenson and I have been trying to get motivated to do exercise in the mornings, and since we live so close to the church and have our own keys, we've started playing ping pong at 7am in the church building! It's actually been a fun way to exercise (well move around at least)!! 

Something I have loved this week was an idea I stole and transformed!! A few transfers ago an elder named Elder Koshar started a book of mormon group chat where those who didn't read in any given day had to do push ups and those who read for a few weeks in a row got some kind of reward... well when he left that kind of fell apart, but now, 3 months later, I remembered that whole project, and decided to try it again. He had done it with just the youth in the branch, but I changed it to be for the whole branch, and anyone who doesn't read the book of mormon on any given day has to do 10 push-ups and send a video of it, or a 5 second silly dance and send a video of it. And anyone who could read for 2 weeks straight would receive brownies!! Homemade and hand delivered during church. And here's the thing... its WORKING!!! We have 10 people who said they'd like to join, and all of them are reading every day!!! People who were almost never reading before from what I understand. And the group chat is growing as well!! We have had 2-3 people tell us how they want to join in the challenge! I'm definitely going to be doing this in every ward or branch for the rest of my mission!! And I get extra brownie points because we had a meeting with the branch president several weeks ago and he told us that that was one of the things he wanted us to push with the members, is to help them to read the book of mormon every day!! Im excited to go make tons of brownies this weekend for everyone who read all week this week and next! 

Something else that happened this week was.... we planned and put on a baptism for oscar and yrma!!! Oh my gosh I didn't realize a baptism was so much work and stress!! Especially when at any moment Oscar could tell us he smoked and we'd have to call the whole thing off!!  But he made it and they got baptized and it was perfect!! After a hundred thousand things ALMOST going wrong, it ended up going perfectly. There were so many tiny miracles... for example, we didn't have a baptismal dress for Yrma to wear, but someone from the ward was able to get someone who's apparently an inactive member to MAKE a baptism dress, in LESS than 24 hours... and she did it in less than 12. And it fit Yrma perfectly. And they didn't even take a single measurement. That still blows my mind. 

The only other thing I have on my list of crazy/interesting things from this week is that transfers are coming this weekend. And I only have 5 transfers left. It's so weird to me how time works as a missionary. One lesson can feel like it takes 10 years, or one meal maybe, depending on what we're eating. And yet a transfer feels like it's 2 minutes long. Like, what??? Didn't this transfer JUST start???

The part that's getting me right now is that I'm probably leaving Vallenar next week. And I don't want to. Not even a little bit. I feel like ive found such a wonderful place in the hearts of these members and I've been able to build such a good relationship with them and with the amigos. 

I love this cute little town with my whole heart, and I've loved getting to know all the cracks in the sidewalks and the places where crazy people hang out and the best and worst pizza places and the cheapest almacens and restaurants. I love the 10 different Chinese stores in centro and the 5 different types of pharmacies and fast fashion stores here. I've loved watching the construction on pratt take 4 months to get to where it is, and it's still going, and I've loved almost never climbing any hills. I've loved spending like a half hour a day or more in the plaza in centro talking to whoever stumbles into our path and convincing them to give me their phone number and only succeeding sometimes. I've loved crossing the river and deciding which bridge is the best bridge (it's the white bridge), and I've loved watching the riverside zumba class on Mondays Wednesdays and Thursdays, even though I'm sad I can't join in. I've loved trying all the bakeries and all the ice cream places and all the candy shops and all the different types of random food being sold on the street. 

So yeah, I'm gonna miss this place. But also there's a chance I won't even go! That's one of the worst parts about being a missionary if you ask me. Never knowing about if change is coming until it's already upon us. Never knowing it's gonna be the last time you probably ever talk to someone, for the rest of your life, until it already was. Never knowing you've walked a street for the last time until you already have. But that's just the life we live I guess. And then we go home to figure out real life and try and apply what we've learned. And maybe that applies to real life too. We don't know if change is coming until it's already happening, and we never know when we might never see someone again. 

Can you tell I'm writing this relatively late at night? I seem to be waxing poetic (does that phrase even make sense in english???) and I really should go to sleep. I'll finish out with a little spiritual thought tomorrow. 

Good morning I'm back, here's my spiritual thought: 

Last night we were talking about leadership and what makes a good leader, and we were saying how a good leader is a servant, and more specifically someone who serves one by one, and caters to the individual needs of those within their charge. We talked about how Jesus listened to His disciples and His people and catered His teachings to their understanding, to their situations, and to their needs. As missionaries we do have to change what and how we teach a lot of times. I'm not sure why but we've taught the plan of salvation like 8 times in the last week and a half, and every single lesson has been completely different. When we taught it to Maitte we taught it a little deeper, when we taught it to Andres we answered a hundred questions while doing so, when we taught it to Carlos we did it on a white board, when we taught it to the other Carlos we talked about how it answers the three questions most people have (where did we come from, why are we here, where are we going after death). And I guess that's one of those missionary things we do that's supposed to help us become like Him. Serve to the needs of those in your care. 

Love you all so much!! 

xo-hna griffin 

Pictures: 

-baptism things

-pizza

-intercambios 

-me cleaning the font looking like a babe  with my CALF LENGTH garments peeking out a little bit, sorry bout that one  (the story here is, I ordered NORMAL garments, they took 2 months to arrive.... and the elder in the office ordered them wrong... and all of my old normal garments are in shreds, and so I have no choice but to use my calf length garments. They're actually kind of growing on me, besides the whole not being able to use shorter dresses for the rest of my mission thing ) 

-we almost met ALL of our goals this week, we just didn't put more people on date