09/18/23 Transferred again! I'll be dying in Iquique

September 19, 2023

Hiii

I officially have served in every city in the mission except for one!

Here's my classic list of things that have happened in the past *cough cough* two weeks

-cambios----> I got transferred again!! I'm in a city called Iquique in the sector Playa Brava!! It's a beach side city and we live in an apartment that's literally on the beach, in fact we have a private beach buuuut it's all hills and mountains in the actual sector, so I'll be going home super in shape I actually showed up on Thursday and on Sunday we had a baptism so I guess missionary work is good here!!

These first few days we've had to climb and then go back down two or three times a day!! It's about 35 min of just climbing uphill. I'm a little bit exhausted hehe

-18 sep --> so 18 de septiembre is Chilean independence day and they go craaazzyy! We had a stake activity that we went to here in Iquique and it was awesome!! And a little bit socially exhausting because I had to meet a million people but it was fun!! And they had this game where you have to throw rings around bottles of soda... and nobody could do it... but I could!!! I won a bag of chocolates , also today for P day we had a BBQ with some cool members and all the elders in the zone and loud music and it was great!! Everything was closed so we couldn't buy groceries... but I guess I'll just make it work with the bag of flour I have hahaha

-feria---> on Thursday hna Newlon and I explored a flea market thing and it was huuuuge!! There were a lot of kinds of food and clothes and toys and random other things and it covered like a half mile of streets

-mis niños!! ---> there's a cute family of 6 kids who I've just loved so much!! They promised to read the book of mormon every day and they all made me goodbye cards I'm gonna miss them

-heart attacking---> we heart attacked a few members' houses and solved all of our unity problems! I didn't realize something like that would make such a difference!! It apparently really touched their hearts

-waffles---> we bought waffles!!!! That's all

-cumpleaños hna Newlon---> we celebrated hna Newlons birthday and it was awesome!! We ate cake like 4 times!! Incluso one time with our friends who are gonna get baptized in a week or two!! Hna Newlon made a cheesecake which was sooo delicious, I don't even know how she did it!

-desayuno de soc soc---> we had a relief society breakfast which was awesome! Although the RS president kinda made us her waitresses, it was kinda awkward, but it's fine we're here to serve!

-got "talked to" by the elders---> the short version is that the elders felt the need to humble me, and instead kinda ruined the relationship. It was super inappropriate, and I ended up talking to the hermana líderes de la misión about it... pero bueno, we all got transferred two days later so it doesn't matter, but it was just a 45 min phone call of them telling me all the reasons I wasn't doing my job well enough. I think we just have different ways of leading, and I feel like I really tried to make it work, and we had even asked advice from them about one of our amigos, but that has to have been the hardest part of that sector! The elders! Here in this new sector I'm sharing a ward with a Chilean elder who I met two transfers ago in Copiapo, and he's training his comp who's from Argentina! They're both a very nice balance of hard working and chill.

I was really sad to leave copiapo (and hna Newlon) and I was really struggling with this new sector, but I had my interview with Presidente Wu and I felt a lot better. He told me that if I had stayed in copiapo it would be very easy and joyful, but that here in Iquique I would be able to condense and apply everything I've learned and help the hermanas around me. And that I would learn more as well. And more than anything else, that the Lord needs me here in Iquique and I need to figure out exactly what the Lord wants me to learn. So I'm gonna hang in there for 4 weeks and then I'll be on my way home fue todo muy rápido!!

Something I want to work on this transfer is becoming more like Christ and knowing Him more! I want to do that by reading in PMG about Christ-like attributes and trying to study something about Him every day if I can. But sobre todo quiero compartir mi testimonio de Él todos los días, por el resto de mi misión!!