Oct. 29, 2013 We talked on the phone!!

We got to talk to her on the phone on Monday.(Oct.28) They asked Sis. Pratt (The Wife of the Pres. of the MTC) if they could call & she said yes!  It was AWESOME!!

We got to say hi and Jared gave his part from the primary program. Brittany said in a great accent (I might add)  " Excelente! Que Maravillosa!!"  We all got to say Hello! And when she said hi to her Dad she got a little teary eyed!! (I could tell by her voice) It was great, we got to tell her that we love her and are praying for her!!  And then we had to hang up! It was just a couple of minutes!! Hope she can feel the love & support!
 She then called Jacob & Haylee  who were at the High School in the truck hoping she could call them as well!! It was just a couple of minutes, but WOW, how we loved it!!

              I received a text today.(I guess it's from Pres. Woodbury's cell?) Oct. 29, 2013   It said "I am here! I love you! This photo was attached:

I Don't know where she is serving or who she is with. So I guess we wait until next week when she can write us!!

 

I think these are the new missionaries that arrived with Brittany. My friend Laurene sent it to me.

Last note & Pics from Mexico Oct. 26, 2013

Oct. 26, 2013

Family! This is the last email from the CCM!! AHHHHH Okay, so first of all I have loved every minute, and I am emailing today because Sunday the lab is closed, but I love you so much!
 EXCITING NEWS is I get to CALL YOU IN THE AIRPORT! Ahh, I know I will just cry because I want to talk sooo bad. We went to Hermana Pratt's office and asked for sure, SO BE WAITING FOR A PHONE CALL. Elder Jones is awesome and says hi! (that was Elder Jones ps).... and, Oh my goodness the CCM is the best! I don't have a lot of time, but I am sooo excited to call you! AHHHH I cannot get over it! Here are some pictures, and MOM I just got your email! Are you still on???
Love you all!!!!
Hermana Hammond

Hermana Buys, Hammond, Pearson y Hatch

We love each other!!

Our Elders!!!! Yes there are 5!

                                           

Love this one!!!

                                                 

The District with El Maestro!!

                                     

This teacher is one of the most inspiring person she knows!!

We love Magnum bars!!

                                       

This Teacher changed Brittany's life!! She is so grateful for him!!

 Having Fun!!

         

Study!!!

 

Elders send her pictures. This is funny!

                       Hermana Pearson killed this Mexican spider!!! You go girl!!

                                                  Yay for cousins!!!!

CCM!!!!

5th letter from Mexico Oct. 24, 2013

Oct. 24, 2013  1:04

Mi Familia,

Oh my goodness, I love you all soo mucho! Okay, there is a lot to say in sooo little time! Muchas gracias por your support, prayers and everything! You are all the best family in the world! I miss carving pumpkins eating chile, and doing all of that fun stuff!... here, well for Halloween we were thinking about switching our name tags.. ha ha JK, but that would be funny!

 Well, I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS MY LAST P DAY IN THE CCM.. ah it almost makes me cry. I love it here so much. It is so funny because the safest I have ever felt, but I am definitely in the most dangerous city I have ever been in.. I don't want to scare anybody, but I hear multiple gun shots everyday, but I have NEVER felt safer! I LOVE IT!

Just barely I got back from the temple, oh my goodness I love the temple! Presidente Delaunty told us this story (our 1st counselor in our branch presidency), it happened 2 weeks ago, and to sum it up, one of the temple workers was going home from his shift in the temple, and there were some robbers out, right as he was getting into his car, the robbers came and tried to take his car, he threw the keys in the bushes of the temple, and then they shot him, right in the hip, and right there happened to be where his wallet was, and the bullet stopped right in front of his temple recommend, the bullet didn't go passed it! .. he was pretty bruised but he is okay and living! Wow. the church is true right??!! Anyways, I love the temple!

 Spiritual Experiences:

There are SOOOO many, but first is this week has been such a great week, but a hard week. Because literally in four dias I go to CHICAGO, and I have been kinda nervous because I don´t know the language as good as I would like to. We watched this talk by Brad Wilcox, (you should look it up).. its called His Grace is Sufficient, He spoke at women's conference. It's one of the best talks I have ever heard. Something he said that popped out to me, was "We must have the strength to do all He asks, be a source of strength",  And I was kinda down, but I said a prayer because... well out here, that's the only thing I can do, and I grabbed my bible and turned to a page, and it was in Philippians 4:13 and its the simplest verse, but I have decided that it is going to be a theme for my mission, the scripture says, "I can do all things through Christ which strentheneth me." Powerful scripture right? Anyways that was pretty cool.

I wish I could say all of the amazing things I am learning here, I am sooo excited to teach! I cannot express it in words. I have learned so much about myself, and about my future family! (PS.. my children will be bilingual).. and the other thing is... I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES, I cannot tell you my excitement and LOVE for the Book of Mormon each day. Each day in class we share scriptures and everyday I have to share the ones I have, because I think they are just sooo freakin awesome! GHAHHHHH... this church is true.

Funny Experiences:

Okay, I truly know that my stress reliever is laughter. I laugh... everything is so funny here, except spiritual moments. Hna Hatch and I drink probably 2 gallons of water everyday, and go to the bathroom every half hour. Hna Pearson is hilarious, she makes us laugh so hard!!

Not so fun Experiences:

Well, my companion got really sick this week, both the throw up and a really bad cold, so every night I have been doing my Oil of Oregano and EmergenC, and Gargling with Salt.

Random:

It's TRUE I See Braden ... AKA Elder Harris EVERYDAY! I LOVE IT! I love him! It's sooo fun having a cousin here! He is the stuff!

 My teacher came up to me, and was like.. Hna Hammond, when I see you, I think, dat right dere (in his accent) is the light of Christ, it runs in your veins Hermana."... It almost made me cry because earlier that day I had read in the scriptures D y C 50:24 about having light and oh my goodness, it was the nicest thing ever. Not only did he say that, but an older Lady who is called here, on assignment came up to me and said almost the same thing.

Family I have to go! But I love you! The MTC, is the best thing ever! It's literally like Hogwarts, only with spiritual stuff, yep, pretty much the coolest thing ever in the world. AHHH THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!

Con amor,

Hna Brittany Haven Hammond

This is also a quote from that AWESOME TALK on Grace, that has also been my theme

"Grace is not the finishing touch, but the finishers touch." When we are trying our best, He helps us every step of the way!

This is what she eats for lunch everyday!! She loves it! Sometimes the food is interesting, but most of it is DE BEST!

The BEST district ever!! She LOVES them! Elder Welkers, Jones, Ballard, Cooper, Martin, and Branch Pres. & wife.

On the bus on the way to the Temple!

                                 

 This is today at the Temple. AAAHH such an amazing day!

Hermana Hatch y Pearson are my family!

She loves being a missionary!

Thanks Aunt Teri for the scarf!!

These are her best friends!!

 She said "JA JA " ;)

                                         

Hermana Pearson & Elder Jones

                                                  

It's raining really hard!!!

In the casa after they got home for the day!

4th letter from Mexico Oct. 17, 2013

Thursday Oct. 17, 2013   7:55 a.m.

Incredible week!

Well, my family can I first just say THANK YOU and I HAVE THE BEST FAMILY EVER?!! Seriously, I do, thank you for the package, Braden gave it to me, I loved EVERYTHING! I shared all of the candy with my district, and they are so jealous of my awesome family, and I loved all of the cards and notes from everyone, Ty Ty, and Kaylee, and Camee, and Cort, Sarah Denny, Teri (and the cute scarf I wore yesterday!!), and McKay, ah thank you all so much! And of course from my incredible family! AHhhh, I cant get over how much that all meant to me! Thank you! Wow, there is so much to say!

Spiritual Experiences

There are incredible experiences EVERYDAY here, every hour, first is, this Sunday. On each Sunday we never know if we are going to be giving a talk that day, and so everyone in the Branch had to prepare a talk, and this Sunday, 5 people in our district spoke... including me, and it wouldn't be hard, but your entire talk has to be all in Spanish because well, the whole sacrament meeting is in Spanish.

Hna Hatch spoke, Hna Pearson, Elder Martin, Elder Jones, Elder Welker and me, and they are all in my district. They are all awesome, and all of our talks were so amazing because I just think about where we all started, and now, we are all giving talks in sacrament meeting. but its not over, this Sunday happened to be the Sunday that President Pratt, (the president of the CCM).. and all of his counselors came to our meeting, yep... scary much?.. but awesome! We all felt the spirit, and after they all came up to me and they were like, Hna Hammond, su español es excelente! ... wow, almost cried. so cool. Oh, my talk was on temples and family history, and Brooke, I TALKED ABOUT YOU IN MY TALK how your my ejemplo of doing this obra grande!! 

 I am soo excited to go to Chicago to share with families that their families can be together FOREVER, and that they can be clean through their incredible loving Savior, and that the Book of Mormon is true! This is the greatest message that could ever be taught, ever! Ah, I am soo excited!

  Another spiritual experience, is... this week, I became sick, I don't know where I got it from, whether it was from food, or a virus. But, it was the worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life. So, on the 14th at 9:10 at night I asked to go home, and I was on the verge of tears, and my companion and I got locked out of our house, so for 20 min while class was still going my sweet companion sang to me sitting on the incredibly dirty floor at the door step of our casa, then finally someone in our casa let us in at 9:40, and 5 minutes later my whole district (whom I love) came to my door and asked me if I wanted a blessing. On the verge of throwing up I of course said yes, we grabbed a chair and did it right outside.

 Elder Martin did the first part, and Elder Jones gave me the blessing, with all 5 Elders in my district standing in a circle around me. He blessed me to sleep well, and that my Heavenly Father loves me, and He is grateful that I am serving his mission, to his children. There a special spirit when getting blessed by the Lords appointed servants, the missionaries. I hurried and shook their hands after the blessing, and while choking up (both tears and vomit) I said, "I have the best district ever." and ran inside to throw up, that night I slept the best I have ever slept here in the CCM, and woke up threw up once more, and was better, literally all better. The Priesthood power is real, and I can testify of it. Ah, so many cool things happened this week!

Funny Experiences

Well, I biff it everyday. Like trip everyday, and I also ran into a pole and yep, its great. Also everything is funny, I laugh so much here! (when not studying the gospel)... also we laugh all the time at this incredibly perfect place. Let me describe it, here there is perfect weather, and its perfectly beautiful. We go to the tienda and with our money that is literally given to us we go buy candy and Magnum bars, there is a gym and running around is perfect. Here no one steals and all of the workers are so nice and friendly.

 Next, we go to get our food, that is sooo good, and already made for us. Then we go and teach investigators that listen to us and are always progressing. With a huge fence lining the area we are totally protected, its literally paradise! Learning Spanish, and learning about the gospel!... If all of my family were here, I'd say lets live here forever! Its perfect!

 ( oh and our awesome maestro gives us authentic Churros and they are THE BEST!)... the least is to say, this place is perfect.... and I am really excited to go to Chicago! Ha ha, I love it here. I wish you could all see this perfect beautiful place.

Also some cool stuff, is.... Elder Cooper in my district taught us how to play Rugby! (except we can't touch each other, so he teaches us girls how to play.. ha ha so fun) he plays and its soooo much fun! He also works Hna Hatch and I out, like we almost throw up everyday, its awesome! Also once or twice a week, all of us Hermanas go and play tennis, (there is every kind of court, field, every thing here) and its sooo fun!

 I love being a missionary! It really the best thing ever! Ah I love it sooo much! Thanks for being the best family ever! I cannot wait to get into the field! Even though my Spanish is terrible, and learning Imperfect, Preterit, Infinitives is all super hard, the spirit here is the best ever. When I get down, which happens, I sing... I AM DEFYING GRAVITY!  Mama I think of you. (maybe I should sing church songs, but you can only sing so many church songs all day).. so I sing wicked, and tell myself I am defying gravity!!!

 This was an entry, straight from my journal a couple days ago when it was a rather hard day of Spanish learning but these words ended up being in my journal and I thought I would share them with you, "I am here because I have a powerful message to share. The most important, best, precious message to share. No message is greater, no word is greater than the one I am giving now, and the best part is... is we all can share it."

I love you my family! I love you all so much!.. I love you SOOO MUCH!

Con Amor,

Hna Brittany Hammond



These Pics are from Elder Welkers

 Cool  color effect!!

Hermanas Hammond y Buys

Some Elders from her District

In front of the CCM 

Hermana Pearson (She Loves her!)

               

This is her District

This is where she walks everyday to get to class, comedor and everything!

On the computer for TALL, a Spanish thing. Being funny!

I had to do a double take!! 

We drink soo much water here! We go to the bathroom every hour!

This is her favorite painting here at the CCM. It's Teancum killing Amalikiah!

Learning how to play rugby!

RUGBY!