04/03/23 General conference in Spanish and HOSPICIELO

 Buenos días!! It's as marlee always said, I send the email first thing in the morning or at the end of the night and there's no in between haha. Today's a morning day 

There are three things in Alto Hospicio that basically describe the whole City.... we've got dogs, dirt, and traffic. It was a little bit of a shock to the system to go from the greenest, most beautiful part of the mission to the dirtiest ugliest part, but that's where we should try not to judge a book by its cover! Because the people here are golden. 

Something I've noticed is that the members here are amazing! They are really involved in the work and really willing to sacrifice and make time to help us. 

The thing about Hospicio is that... there's not a lot to do here. Like I said, dirt, dogs, traffic. So, in order to entertain myself I've been baking and cooking, like all the time. I made brownies three times, peanut butter ball healthy snacks, fruit smoothies, grilled cheese, raspberry lemon coconut muffins, raspberry jello cake and basically I'm just having a good time feeding everyone around me  and they're also enjoying it as far as I can tell 

On Wednesday night I went to this one family's house and we got to know a recent convert and he's so cool! He got baptized in December by the senior missionaries here, and has just been called as the ward secretary. I think talking to people with new testimonies is one of my favorite things about the mission, because they're just so precious and simple most of the time, and it amazes me that missionaries were able to find/be put in the path of people with such golden hearts. 

Funny story: on Wednesday we were supposed to have district council, and I love to make food to bring for the elders. Normally the entire zone is there, so with that in mind I made a giant pan of 30 brownies. We arrive to the church, and they tell us, no hermanas your district council is going to be a different day this week... but I left the brownies for them, and the 12 of them that were there ate ALL of them  (when we had our council I made muffins instead because I used the last of my cocoa powder making those brownies) 

Something I love about Alto Hospicio is that we have lunch with different members, in person, every day. Back in the days of Vallenar (rip) we had lunch delivered to us in the church building, and the rice from the place where they always got us food was SO dry. Like I was done with rive, never wanted to eat it again. But here Hospicio, all the rice I've had so far has been flavorful, not dry rice!! My taste in rice has been restored!  

One day we had been walking ALL day, and we needed to use the bathroom (there are no public bathrooms here), so we went to this one member family's house, and they had a piano and a ukulele, and we got talking about music and next thing I know I was playing songs for them, and then their son got home and started playing pop songs, and they don't speak English, so they're trying to sing bohemian rhapsody but like, phonetically. Which was entertaining but then they asked me to sing it, because I speak English. So I sang it normally, and the husband made a joke about how I was being shy... and so the next moment found me BELTING bohemian rhapsody at the top of my lungs, like full Freddy mercury style  

This week I also got to meet Martina. Something I've learned about myself is that I get along really well with youth. I know how to relate to them, I know how to make them laugh. Martina is 13, and I love her. We went over so I could get to know her and she and I related over Billie Eilish music and she gave me this rose that she made out of ribbon. She has the same problem as Maitte... she wants to get baptized but her mom won't let her. I'm going to need more prayers and good vibes to convince her mom. I never did figure out how to do that with Maittes parents  

This weekend (as I imagine you all know) was general conference!! And honestly... general conference as a missionary in my first week in a new sector was super stressful  I also ended up watching the whole thing completely in Spanish, which like, I speak Spanish, I understand Spanish, but 10 hours of trying to understand the spirit and the messages and what I'm supposed to learn from the messages, was exhausting... and I had to pay attention to the amigos, meet one thousand people, try and make a thousand good first impressions... complicated la cuestión. I wish I could've watched it in English haha, but a really cool miracle we saw was with this girl from a medio active family, she's 18 years old, and we went to their house to watch the Saturday evening session (and I made brownies), and before the session we talked about how she wants to go on a mission but she didn't feel like she had received an answer on whether or not she should serve... and anyone who listened to the opening prayer of the Saturday evening session knows what happened lol!! (The entire prayer was like "please bless all the youth who are unsure about missions to understand that they're needed in this work and they should serve a mission" etc.) 

Something else cool is that I've received emails from several of my loved ones from vallenar already  and also a random person who I did not give my email to (I imagine hna sorenson did hahaha) who I was okay with leaving behind  but xd nomas 

This conference, the music really had an effect on me. Saturday afternoon the BYU (?) choir sang abide with me tis eventide, and the part where the women split into parts gave me chills. I was crying  

I also LOVE love loooved Sunday morning This Is The Christ. I've always loved that song!! And Sunday afternoon I Stand All Amazed. I really miss music in the states. Hymns in English hit different  

In this sector we're struggling with filtration because several transfers ago some missionaries found a TON of people of varying levels of quality... so we're filtering like CRAZY, trying to figure out who's actually interested. When I got here there were over 100 people in our areabook who were green, which means they're progressing... but if 100 people were progressing now, we'd have several baptisms every week, which we don't, so obviously, they're not all progressing. My game is to get to know them the best I can and be able to tell which ones are actually interested instead of just existing in the areabook. It's really hard to focus attention on 100 people who live in all parts of the sector, so yeah, that's most of the work this week  

Tell me how you all liked the conference!! 

Love you all!! 

xo-hna griffin 

Fotos: 

-a giant sword at a members house 

-other members who gave the other hermanas these cups to drink out of hahahaha 

- our first completos as comps 

-we rode home in the back of the senior couples truck hahahah, it's covered and very safe, don't worry!