05/22/23 I'm the inspiration (it's a joke, but it's also not a joke 😊😊😊)

 Hiiiiii

I literally have no idea what happened this week 

Random puntos: 

☆p day we went to a bunch of second hand stores, which here are called American clothes stores because they're clothes from the states and super cheap. We didn't buy anything haha 

☆p day we took a bunch of pictures while the sun was setting on this pier thing 

☆area book is digital... and this week it died for like half a day, and we couldn't do anything. It stopped working when we synchronized it, and my comp asked our hermana leader to open our area book on her phone, but to do that they have to synchronize, and when they synchronized it broke theirs as well... and then she asked the zone leader to try entering into ours from their phone, but they didn't answer away and we had lunch with the elders and one of them is our district leader so she asked him to enter our area book, and as they started the synchronization, we received a message from the zone leader saying that hna Cabrera broke their area book, but it was already too late and she broke the district leaders area book as well. Or in other words 4 area books in like 10 minutes  we had to work for like 5 hours without area book, which was interesting. Luckily we remembered most of what we had planned, and what we didn't remember we knocked doors 

☆I went to the dentist and the dentist was like, wow you really like sweets huh? And I was like ehhhh hehh, because she had like tools and stuff in my mouth. I need to eat less sweets  but I love them also hate when the dentist makes conversation while their tools and hands and stuff are in your mouth... overall awkward 

☆we teach a lot of older people here, and they're all convinced that we won't be able to change them. They're right, we can't change them, but we also believe in the changing power of the holy ghost and in a God of miracles. We've already seen a great difference in an originally very close minded abuelo who now is progressing towards baptism. 

☆I found someone I taught a long time ago and I'm going to start teaching her again! She always lived here in antofa, and I found her during the Christmas conference, but she never progressed a lot before, but I've been in contact with her and she still lives here!! And I'm gonna teach her. And she's gonna get baptized and be able to live with all her family forever and ever  

☆we taught this family who have a tiny poodle who was super quiet and clean and the softest little dog I've ever petted. It was super precious, and the mom of the family is so cool. She's visited a bunch of religion and wants to find the truth. That's important because it means she'll actually pray and read and go to church, which are exactly the things that will help her understand the gospel and feel of its truth. Her daughter just turned 8, and the dad is relatively closed off, and very catholic, but I have a lot of faith that he can also progress :) 

☆at some point we took a wrong turn and missed where we were supposed to go, and our lesson fell through, so we trying to go back to where we were, and ended up running into our friend Claudia! She's struggled with a ton of things, but that day she was pure smiles and it was sooo good too see her feeling happy. We talked to her for like a half hour in the street and then on Sunday she came to church and afterwards she said she LOVED it and wants to go again the next week!!! 

☆we bought the most expensive lemon pie ever (it was $4 and personal sized)... and also the most delicious lemon pie I've ever had. I cant even describe to you the way the textures fit together. And the sweetness of the cream on top matched with the tartness of the lemon filling... it was amazing you guys. But way too expensive. But I will be going back  because it was so good  

☆we had a really good, really long conversation with an inactive guy from our ward, and he had a lot of opinions about the way people treat each other in this ward (it's a really wealthy ward with some parts that are a lot less wealthy and those with money can be condescending or rude to those who don't have much, or just really clueless). The ward is also kind of cliquish, and this hermano had a lot of thoughts and opinions... but after talking to him for a good while, we were able to understand each other better, and he committed to come back to church. We had a similar conversation with another family who is active. The problem is with the leadership... but also, the church is true whether or not the bishop lives in a giant house. The church is true whether or not the people are nice. And if we want to SEE a change, we need to BE the change. Easier said than done, but im also gonna talk to my mission president about what more I can do to help them  

☆I bought tacos, they were good. 

☆something I'm learning is that God answers our prayers. Something I've struggled with, for like most of my life, is comparing myself with others. And that always results in me feeling inferior or superior, usually inferior  but during this time as a missionary I'm learning to pray for help to not compare myself with others. And the thing is, it's working! I've decided that I am a really good missionary. I am doing greater things than I ever have before. I'm overcoming obstacles that I've never faced before, and honestly I'm my own inspiration  but seriously, I used to think the fact that I've never been an hermana leader or anything meant that my mission president doesn't trust me, or that I wasn't doing well enough, but honestly my mission president doesn't really know me... he's really busy  and I'm doing more than well enough! I'm gathering Israel! I'm dedicating my time, attention, talents, abilities, and life to the Lord, and he's blessing me and my family for my sacrifice. So yeah, I guess I am an inspiration  to all those girls who feel better for never having been a leader or for never having trained or something, they can think, well it's okay, because hermana Griffin was a GREAT missionary and she never did any of those things either (haha) 

Anyways. 

I've loved praying, pondering, studying, and learning here in the mission. I plan to use these 5 months that I have left to their fullest capacity to accomplish the will of the Lord. Thank you all for your prayers and your support and your love and your letters and for believing in me :) I believe in you too. 

Love you all so much!! 

xo- hna griffin 

Fotos: 

My tooth 

It was the most uncomfortable freaking x ray of my whole life. They made me wear a bunch of weird clothes to protect me from radiation, and then they put this giant chunk of metal in my mouth, which hurt a lot, and then she's like, hold still. And then three seconds later I was done. 

A meeting about missionary work 

The place where I bought the tacos but we had to sit in front of a beer fridge hahahaha it's OK we're both 21  

Antofagasta es muy bonita-sunsets, beaches, etc. 

I live with 3 Chileans and I'm loving life that way, theyre so cute and fun hehe 

Más fotos 

Vanity shots  

The tongue one is for you mom 

And the one where I'm doing a silly pose is for me 

Also our district which contains 4 gringos from Utah and Arizona, a guy from Uruguay, a guy from Brazil and my comp from chile