Dec. 30, 2013 Midway We are God's Army!

Dec. 30, 2013

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS JARED MI HERMANO!

I hope your birthday was the best!  HURRAH! Feliz Cumpleanos!

Also to :Kristin, Brett, Danielle & michael! 

Well it has been a great/crazy/fun/hard/everything in between WEEK!

Thank you for ALL of the packages and everything you sent me! I loved everything! I have already given out tons of the candy to the cute Mexicans in my ward. They love it:) So thank you, I really do have the best family ever! I loved talking to you, and honestly I didn't love talking to you! jaja, sorry! But it was wonderful to see all of your beautiful faces, but it was hard because it made me miss all of you!

Miercoles (I'll start there) - Christmas dinner with La Familia Gamez, was really nice, and kinda interesting, she made us mole, it was SO gross, I almost threw up.. its like Chicken in this gross sauce stuff. yeah, gross, (I told myself, while eating the mole)..well, Merry Christmas to me! Then we went caroling to tons of less actives and actives and investigators. They LOVED it! We went with the four sets of missionaries in our ward and oh my goodness the people just died, all of them! I loved seeing there faces!

Jueves- We went to La Familia Granados, and it was SO fun! I love their family! While we were eating (really good food today) Hno Granados and Hna Granados told us the story of the birth of their two CUTE twin girls (the ones you have a picture of) and my favorite part was, (I have to tell you this because its hilarious) Hna Granados said the hardest part of giving birth is you cant eat, (totally Mexican right) and so IN LABOR, her Hushband tried to sneak in tacos for her to eat, but the doctors caught him trying to feed his wife tacos, and then she went into labor, bajaja I DIED LAUGHING! So that was jueves!

Viernes- Well, this day was interesting. we had NOTHING to day, because this week almost ALL people are out doing Holiday stuff and they didn't want us over or to come in at ALL, so as a last resort, it ALWAYS comes to knocking. We ended up knocking for 5 hours that day, from 2:40-7:40. Every 30 minutes I had to tell myself OUT LOUD, that I was a champion. "I'm a champion, or, I am so awesome." Because no one else was gonna say it... jaja.Well played A LOT of Spanish walking games.. made up by Hermana Hammond. So after 4 hours of tracting, (here is a good story) we were about to try this one house and it was one you ALWAYS have to be careful because there was a face around the WHOLE house, (meaning usually dog), and so we looked at the scene and there wasn't a dog so we open the gate and walk like.... 35 ish steps, (a long way) and I see it...... a huge dog just glaring at us, invisible and blending in with the house, and it starts to stand up, and do this REALLY freaky pounce thing. And it was a German Shepherd, SCARY BIG HUGE TEETH, so (me being stupid) spin on my heels, and just start running bahaha, so naturally I hear it starting to chase after us. yep, we were running from a really freaky dog, I thought my life was over! then, me being really nice and awesome, let my companion go first, and out the gate, and it is literally on my heels, when I get to the gate and slap it shut. My heart was beating SO fast, it was the SCARIEST thing of my life! People here in Chicago have dogs to bite people like MISSIONARIES!.. I was SOOO blessed it didn't bite us! That was Viernes! SO SCARY!.. oh and then we had a really good lesson with Angeles after! Haha

Sabado- So one of Hno Jones Less actives in her last ward invited us to go through the temple with them. So we went to the temple:) It was really nice, the only thing is, (because we have to get Presidents permission) he said temple time=p day time. So after I write you, that's my p day! The temple really was incredible though:)

Domingo- We HAD AN AWESOME lesson with Ricardo y Carmen, I need you MY FAMILY RIGHT NOW TO MEET THEM! They need to be fellowshipped! I just think about it ALL the time! And of course Church, is my favorite:)

Well, to finish up this letter, this week I have been fascinated with the principle of God working through weak things so men can see His power. And one day in personal study I was like I am going to read 5 minutes in the bible and I turn and opened to the story, in Deuteronomy. Of army of Gideon, it is about this army and they are going to fight and the Lord tells the leader and He wants a smaller army, (and you need to read it as a family, dad knows where it is) and finally as the last test, The Lord tells the leader of the army to take his army and whoever drank their water a certain way would be Gods army, and the army gets down to 300 people! That's it! Fighting against thousands of people, but they were how many the Lord wanted! They were Gods army! But the coolest part is that honestly out here, we are SO few. The members are SO few in Chicago, the missionaries out the world well we are SO few! But the important thing is that we are Gods army! And maybe we don't have the greatest numbers, but God can show his power by working through us! IF we were a huge big army, then people would just see us, that we have big numbers so of course we would win, but because we are so few God can show his power by working through us! Anyway, don't know if that makes sense! But there are a million other examples!

David and Goliath

Joseph Smith translating the Plates when he had HARDLY an education

Moses who wasn't a good spokeman, but yet one of the GREATEST prophets!

Anyway, that is my shpill:) I love you my family, I gotta go get back to work! But I love you and I miss you! Your the BEST support team EVER! I love you!

Con MUCHO amor

Hermana Hammond

                                             This is at the German Festival

                                             Apparently this is a famous tree!!

                                         I took this for Brooke & Brielle

                                                Greetings from Chicago!!!!

 

Dec. 25, 2013 A Pic of Skype

We got to skype Brittany!!!!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She is awesome & amazing!!!! We got 40 wonderful minutes!!!
We are so proud of her!!!  This MADE our Christmas so special!!! She has such a great spirit & light!
Oh how we love her!!!

Dec. 23, 2013 Midway Ah isn't Navidad the best!

Dec. 23, 2013 Happy Birthday to : G-pa Hammond, Shawn, Mckenzie & Melanie Mi Querida Familia,

 

Okay.... SO I AM SOOOOOOO GIDDY TO CALL YOU TOMORROW, I just cant hold it inside anymore:) I love the pictures you all sent me! and I got ALL of the packages mom:) everybody was really jealous, because they all know I have the best family in the world. Oh and Pres and Sis Woodbury were SO grateful to you! they LOVEd the stockings, and I saw them TOO, I was like... "yep, I definitely have THE best mom EVA!" These are Sis woodburys words, "WOW, your mother is SO kind, no one else sent us anything! I love these! We really needed some in the house!" Ah, I was like... yep that was MY MAMA! Okay yep, today I gotta hurry and write because we are going to the down town today to look at all of the lights, and decorations! YAHOO! (oh ps, I haven't opened all of the boxes... just the one for the 13 days of Christmas.. super fun:)) So I am excited!

So, to sum up a really good week in not very much time.... BAHHH I love teaching about the Savior at Christmas time!

What we have been teaching people is this (lesson plan)

The people in Jerusalem were SO excited and waited for the birth of the Savior, but a lot of people don't realize that people here in America were SO excited to. We tell them the EPIC story of the nefitas in a life and death situation and then we read 3 Nefi 5-20 ish!... And its SO fun! Because people don't realize that people here were SO excited about Jesus's birth here in America! And the Book of Mormon is the bomb, we use it ALL we can, because once they get that testimony... of El Libro de Mormon, they are solid!

Prophets ALL the way from Adam were testifying of Christs birth! Isn't the gospel awesome?

Well, that has been our lesson plan and we share a Mormon Message with them called Que le daremos? I don't know what it is in English but its President Monson and SO many people have LOVED it!

Okay, as far as investigators go.... RICARDO AND CARMEN ARE DOING AMAZING! I want you all to be here RIGHT NOW, to meet them! Oh my gosh, because I just think.. (Hna Hammonds thought process)

"okay mom could TOTALLY get Carmen fellow shipped, and they will be best friends because Carmen is SO awesome and I love her and she loves me! And then we can all go to church together.

Dad- get Ricardo excited about the church and FELLOWSHIP HIM and he is awesome so they can be best friends 

Jacob, Haylee, Brielle , Brooke- Fellowship Brian (which is really hard because hes 13 years old and is starting to fall off the deep end here, and is SO quiet and needs cool friends... I wish you guys were HERE SO BAD TO HELP ME....)

Jared- help me teach the lesson:)"

Last night we taught Plan de Salvation.... Ricardo and Carmen LOVED IT AND ATE IT UP..... it was SO fun to see their faces when we talked about the Spirit world (and how there a second chance) and the temple! Then Carmen expressed that she wants her son Brian to be a missionary one day, and her hope that her family will all be there in the Celestial kingdom together, and then I died!... well of HAPPINESS.. okay, yep I am obsessed with this family! AHHHHHHHH... (sorry that's me being all giddy for them!) 

This Saturday was a ward activity, and okay, our ward put on the most hilarious play EVER, like full on legit play with back drops and everything, and it was hilarious (Ricardo and Carmen came), it was also spiritual I wish you could have been there, because the musical numbers were my favorite part, I videoed some of it, and I will send you the SD card, because ... oh my goodness it was the best Mexican thing you'd ever see. Then they had food (of course) and IT WAS AWESOME.

Well, this letter is SUPER random but, yeah sorrynotsorrry:) I guess I am just excited to talk to you all! This week we also went to the temple, and that was beautiful:) I loved it. On my mission I have learned many many things, but one thing I have learned is that Satan's power is real and its scary, but because we have Christ we can beat anything and anyone!

Have I mentioned that I love Mexicans?.. One day, I wanna be one;).. haha, they are just the best. Yes, es verdad. Sorry this is short!

I love you mi familia! CANT WAIT to talk to you on NAVIDAD! YOUR ALL THE BEST!

Hna Hammond

 

 

You know you are mexican when you put it up with green tape!! Hna Hammond & Hna Jones

Dec. 16, 2013 Midway "we must remember that the vessel is in the hands of the divine potter."

Dec.16, 2013

Hola Mi Querida Familia!

Esta Semana-Jaja! Those are all my words!!!

Estoy bromiando! (I am joking) jejeje

Mi Querida familia!

This week has been insane! It has been really really hard, but I have learned SO much. First of all I am GLAD you got my package! That made my WHOLE day! Well, how about we start off with my companion

Hermana Jones- She is a really hard worker, I am really grateful for that. We work, and that's how I like it. She is 23 and from Utah. She is very.. interesting. To say the least.

My week

Lunes- After I wrote to you all we went back to (its called 26th street) to a Mexican mall. And it was hilarious, there was just random random food, and clothes and a lot of Catholic stuff. The coolest thing was in the middle of this mall (it was like an indoor swap market) there was this station of tons of birds, rats, snakes (what's with Mexicans and snakes? jaja) and of course TARANTULAS, like 6 of them. It was awesome. I will send pictures. Then with Hna Felt we went to La familia Tremillo, and they fed us some WICKED good Mexican food. I love the food here, but then we shared a message and that was good.

 Martes- Well, this day, ah was horrible. On the morning of transfers we were about to pack Hna Felts stuff out of the car, when accidentally I locked us out of our house. Good thing I had the keys to the car, but literally EVERYTHING was in the house, like phone, scriptures, bag, wallet, EVERYTHING, so we drove to the other Hermanas apartment and it took forever, but LONG story short, we just had to wait at the other Hermanas for 6 hours! It was the WORST thing ever. We literally couldn't do anything except do studies FOREVER) and clean the other hermanas apartment, I felt SO bad, for leaving the house keys in. (We were taking out the garbage and I shut the door). Yeah, so because we were 7 hours late for transfers, it was a great start of the day! jaja, not! It was the worst thing ever. But then I got to meet Hna Jones! That night we had a leccion con Hno Ortiz. He is an awesome man! Who NEEDS to go to church! But he fed us some awesome food too. And that was martes.

 Miercoles- We had district meeting and that was good, then we had a leccion with Consuelo and she told us right out that we need to drop her. That was hard, and then we had to knock and do lots of studies, and stuff. Then we had ua leccion con Margarita! It was good, she is a sweet lady! I love going to her house because she ALWAYS compliments us.. even though shes blind:) Ah, I love these PEOPLE!

 Jueves- We called this day... an adventure. We did weekly planning, which always is fun. Then we did all of studies and knocked doors for an hour. Then walking home we met this woman and we talked to her, then some man came up to us and he was, well a little crazy (don't worry the whole time my hand was on the pepper spray) then he lifted up his shirt to show us some scars he got. After 30 minutes of trying to get outta there we did:) YAY to prayer!

 Viernes- We, had a day full of rejection. Every house, every person, was so mean. But that meant BLESSINGS were coming right? jaja, Well at night we had a leccion with Maria and Edgar! We are hoping and routing for them! They just don't like to keep commitments, so it might have to be another drop:(

 Sabado- This day, wow, we accidentally kept the lights on all night in the car. So it definitely died, my fault again. and we knew we had a cita at 12, and so at 10:30 we started walking because our Zone Leaders didn't answer the phone to rescue us. So we just start trekking.... bahaha, this part makes me laugh out loud. Because leave it up to me for directions, we just trek for 30 minutes in the blizzard snow. And finally our Zone leaders call and say they are on their way, and so we have to trek back. (this whole time I didn't know we were trekking in the opposite way of the cita)... bahaha, well then we trekked back and got the car started, and got stuck in the snow and so our poor Zone leaders... yeah. Well to say the least we only were 5 minutes late to our cita! jaja, we don't know how that happened! Angeles! SHE is a Sweet heart! She made us Tinga... ITS SOOO GOOD. And (the person that shes living with).. is a member! SO YAY she will get baptized! Then as a Zone we went CAROLING! for three hours to less actives! It was SO fun!

 Domingo- I was kinda feeling down, this day because well, it was kind of a tough week. So then I read a talk "like a broken vessel." by Elder Holland, my favorite quote from it was, "Though we feel as though we are a broken vessel (which I kind of was feeling that way), as the Psalmist says, 'we must remember that vessel is in the hands of the divine potter." This really strengthened me, because this was a hard week, getting used to a new companion, getting lost, stuck, and locked out. I just remembered that all of us feel at times a little sad, but we are molded and shaped into what we need to become. Which I have realized this life is simply time to learn how to be a God, or a Goddess, and so humbling experiences are necessary for growth for ALL of us! That day 7 of our investigators came to church:) and 1 less active. It was truly a miracle. Ricardo Carmen and their family (including her sister and son) plus Angeles and her son. Wow! It was a miracle:)

 Well my family, I love you! I don't really know too much about Skype, yet or anything. But I love you! Merry Christmas! It's coming soon! Feliz Navidad! What a cooler time to share the gospel! I love you mucho mucho muchisimo! (the lights here are awesome, everyone DECKS out for Christmas)

Con amor

Hna Hammond

                                                The Mexican Mall with Hna Felt

These are all of the birds!! there were TONS of them! (and me wearing the big mama!) (my coat)

                                                           Ya ya !!

                                                   Look close up at all of these!!

                                                                Scary!!!!

 

Dec. 9, 2013 Midway (South Chicago) How great is my calling!

Dec. 9, 2013  How great is my calling!!

Dear Familia,

I can't even describe this week. Oh my goodness, it has been a week full of hardship, full of miracles and full of.... unexpectiveness? ja ja. That's not a word... But let me first just say, Yo amo ser una misionera. WOW, I love working with less actives, I love working with investigators, I love working with members and I love this gospel! Okay, now here was my week.

 Lunes- Pday!  Miracle day! After I wrote to you all we went thrift store shopping! I got THE coolest sweater for 3 dollars, I will take a picture and show you all. Then after p-day we went to visit this member family. La familia tremillo. They have a son who just got divorced, named Armando. We spoke with him, (the first time we talked to them he was VERY drunk) But this time we spoke about the atonement and ah, I just love him so much! He has SUCH a desire to change, and this sunday HE CAME TO CHURCH for the first time in 34 years! Ah, the coolest thing was that missionaries have been working with him for YEARS, but finally in his time of need we came into his life and I am SO grateful I have the opportunity to see his faith in the gospel grow! I get to be the instrument in Gods hands for him! HOW GREAT IS MY CALLING! It was SO cool, Hna Tremillo fed us, holy cow SO good. Mexican food is SO good, and SO fattening. Ah, we are meeting with Armando today:) at 6, and yep I'll be fed even more, ja ja.

 Martes- It was, rejection day. One reason we knock doors so much is because our district has a goal of everyone knocking for at least one hour a day, and we count the minutes from when we start knocking the first door, and every door in between we literally run literally, (half to keep warm and half because we want blessings so we work urgently). But today we had some tough rejections, so we caroled to ourselves:)

 

 Then we met with Hno Ortiz, he is less active. He joined the church 4 years ago, and IS AWESOME. But we just can't get him to church because of some personal reasons, but HE LOVES US, and feeds us A TON. Hna Velez comes with us too, and we shared a message, ate and it was the best because he asked us on Viernes to come help him put up his Christmas Tree and eat dinner! He is coming SO far! YAY FOR WORKING WITH LESS ACTIVES! Really it is one of my favorites, because they are the source for referrals and they love us and we love them:)

 Miercoles- We had a training meeting and I got to see HNA PEARSON! Happy day!

 

 I learned a lot! Then we had a rough lesson with Consuelo, she REFUSED to pray, because she only likes her recited catholic prayers, oh have I mentioned everyone here and their dog is catholic, yeah. So that was so very very hard, so then we started knocking doors, and we came to this door and I had a really big impression, KNOCK THIS DOOR, so we did por que no:) and the ladies name was Maria (we found 5 Marias this day, because everyone and their dog is named Maria as well ja ja) but she let us in. We got to know her, and she was the sweetest lady. We taught her the Restoration and after Jose Smith we asked what she felt and she started to cry, and then I almost started to cry and she was like, "yes, this is it, this is what I am looking for, I feel paz, y gozo.." and we were said this is the spirit telling you this is true. It was the coolest lesson ever. After I invited her to be baptized and she said YES, and we said we will be holding a baptism on Jan 4th, will you be baptized on that date? And she said Yes. She described that she didn't think she was ready and we said,  oh no don't worry we will help you EVERY STEP OF THE WAY... ah, well so then it was awesome, because we have someone ON DATE! WHAT! Hot lucky am I to be the one led to her! And to see this womens faith grow! We are hopefully seeing her tonight! AH SO cool!

 Then Nelson, (our less active we found) Came to an activity at the church! WHAT DAY OF MIRACLES! that was awesome! what a good day it was.

 Jueves- Well, this day was planning day, and both of us were SO tired. it was awesome, we took some pictures that show, after four hours of weekly planning.. ha ha. This day was full of studies and knocking as well, kind of a hard rejection day, but after the rejection days ALWAYS come miracle days! So its worth it!

 This night we got a phone call at 11 at night and both of us were SO confused because, we were asleep and it was President. And he called Hermana Felt to be SISTER TRAINING LEADER! ... which is SO sad, because I LOVE her and she's leaving me. He also said (I wrote his exact words in my journal), "We had choosen You Hna Felt, 6 weeks ago with the strongest new missionary, because your missionary is going take over the area." ... These were exactly my thoughts, "Does president know I am directionally challenged."...Bajajaja well, so yeah, I am getting a new companion Hna Jones, I am worried and scared to take over an entire area, and I can't speak Spanish fluently. Yeah, either of us couldn't sleep very well that night.

 Viernes- This day we got to go to Hno Ortiz and help him put up his Christmas tree with Hna Velez and we shared a message about the healing power of the atonement. He fed us some AWESOME food.... uh.... I am so glad I am getting fat... yep... ja ja. This day I went on exchanges with some other Hnas because Hna Felt had a "sister trainer leader meeting" and we SADLY had to cancel our cena apt with the lady with 14 snakes, hopefully we are going to her house soon! Hna Felt and I were so tired this day, but then again, I am SO tired every day. Literally, I cant explain it, I am so happy, but I am SO tired, ja ja.

 Sabado- Good day, we had a lesson with a new investigator Angeles. She is really nice and fed us some Awesome mole (Mexican dish) and she is very catholic so we need something to soften her heart. She also LOVES me for some reason, she was like, wow you just look like a child, how do you survive here, and why are you here. She also asked my favorite question for an investigator to ask, which is "How did you get your testimony, how do you know." and I got to testify and say all that I know and love it's true, and that if I didn't know it I couldn't survive out here, and she said "why" and I got to testify even more! Ah best thing ever! Knocking today was freezing! PS, it is SO cold here when we knock doors we look like bandits I have a picture, don't you worry:)

 Domingo- AH THE best day ever! We had Armando come to church and another less active family! MIRACLE! Wow, so cool, then we knocked doors and apts fell through, but we really did try! Also had an AMAZING lesson with Ricardo and Carmen! We brought a member and her son to be friends with their son and it was the coolest thing, the members son BORE AN AMAZING TESTIMONY! Only 13 years old! He was like, "hey, at school I get judged, bossed around and hurt, but I know the Book of Mormon is true!.." he went on and it was AWESOME and Brian (Carmen and Ricardos son) is SO shy it took him 25 minutes for him to come sit down to listen to us. At the end of the lesson we (committed them to read, pray, and go to church) we were saying goodbye to the members son, (this is my favorite part) took Brians shoulder and said "hey I wanna see you at church" ... Brian just kept looking down, but ITS okay! I know on paper it doesn't sound as cool as it is! But IT'S AWESOME!

 Well this has been my week. I am nervous for my new companion, I am nervous to take over this area, but how lucky am I to be called here! To work with all of these amazing people! How lucky am I to be the instrument in Gods hands! I feel SO blessed. I have found that we have to work for our miracles here, whether that's a day full of rejection or to just keep moving forward. We have to work! There isn't enough time out here already! Well mi familia! I love you! I miss you! I really wish you were here sitting in on all of these lessons and with all of these people, because I love them SO much! Ah, well transfers are this Tuesday, AH Manana! CRAZY! I love you all, here we go for another adventure!

Hna Hammond

 

Mom,

I am scared, because I just hear (from Hna Felt).. that Hna Jones isn't so lifely, and I thought Hna Felt wasn't lifely.... so I am scared, because I GO insane when I don't laugh and have fun! But I am SO grateful she is a hard worker:) its hard because every day is a day of hardship, miracles, work your brains out, and FULL of choice, but every day I know that by poco a poco I am building Gods kingdom, and that's good with me! I just sing! (My mission pres said "Your goal Hna Hammond is to get Hna Jones to sing, ya know what, youre goal is to get this WHOLE mission singing") haha well that's what gets me through! and a lot a lot a lot of prayer!

Oh to answer your question, I drive ALL of the time, it is SO scary, people here are crazy, lets just say I am now a very good driver:) its because all of the these Mexicans come right from Mexico and think driving is the same here.. well nope they are wrong:) and the Christmas call, I have no idea- I will find out & let you know! Thanks Mom, you are the best!

                                  Making lunch on thanksgiving in our apartment

                        Thanksgiving Dinner! These are the people I work with

                                                 Chicago Illinois Temple

                                         Helping Hno Ortiz put his tree up

                                           Hna Felt y Hna Hammond

                   Hna Velez y Hno Ortiz Cooking for us while we decorate the tree

                                     This is how we knock doors!! We are Bandits!

                                           The cute twins in our ward

                           The coat she gave me while wating for the one Mom sent

                                 I saw Hna Pearson, I just love her soo much!!

                                                        We are so tired!!

                                         Look Mom I'm cooking lunch!

 

Dec. 2, 2013 10:31 Midway South Chicago. Acting on a twig of Faith allows God to grow it" -Elder Eyring

Dec. 2, 2013

"Acting on a twig of faith allows God to grow it" -Elder Eyring

Mi Familia,

Wow, que semana. I missed you guys LIKE CRAZY. How fun you were all together in Utah! That's sooo fun! I missed you all. I had quite the week, and literally gained 10 pounds, (yes I weighed myself).. Its quite scary, but this is the life of a missionary si? Let me tell you about my week.

Lunes- It was P-day! We went to a place called Little Village. It is quite the place, we were the only white people for miles literally. It really is like you step into Mexico it was CRAZY!.. If you are there at night (which we weren't) you get killed by the gangs The Satan's Disciples, or the Latin Kings, they are Hispanic gangs, total rivals don't ask me how I know that. The graffiti of theirs is pretty awesome I must say:) ja ja! 

 After we got home we had a lesson with Maria and Edgar- they LOVE us. But they don't like keeping commitments. So its really hard because we might have to drop them, BUT I DON'T WANT TO DROP THEM! It's crazy how sad you get when people don't read the scriptures and when they don't pray and especialmente when they don't come to sacrament meeting. Well it really was a great lesson, and my Spanish is coming:) Poco a poco:) everyone here speaks Spanish so that really is a huge blessing.

Martes- This day was a day of miracles. It is the coolest thing how the Lord works. Well we had done all of our studies and we went to the library and for 4 weeks EVERYDAY we had been talking to the security guard. We even ended up giving him a Book of Mormon, but he DID NOT want the missionaries coming over, but he LOVES talking with us and so this day we were telling him to have a Happy Thanksgiving with his cats, because he just got a divorce. Everyday we give him chapters in the Book of Mormon to read) and asked him about that, and then he was like, ya know could you maybe have some missionaries come over and teach me more about this? (he knows we live out of his area) We were SOO excited, he gave us his information. We left happy from the library:)

The next day when we went back to the library he wasn't there, they had  moved him to another location. MIRACLE we got his information THE DAY before he left! I know coolest thing ever! 

 We taught Margarita (the blind lady) Her family is AWESOME! Her son texted us later and said, "ya know, thanks for comin guys, your the best." AH! We were soo happy about that!

That night we went knocking doors and this guy was walking into his home and we of course stop him (like we do with everyone else) and told him, Hola! somos misioneras de la Iglesia de Jesu Cristo,.. he stopped us and said, "De los Santos de los Ultimos Dias, soy miembro" He explained that he was less active and he hadn't gone to church in 30 years! We quickly made an appt with him for the next day! Coolest day ever! And we also got some horrible nasty cookies from Hna Velez, IT WAS THE CUTEST THING EVER! I love that lady SO much!

Miercoles- Today was a good day, we had district meeting, and that was good. Then We had studies, then we went and we knocked doors, and it was a day of rejection. TOTAL rejection, we had some... well not so nice words said, PERO, esta bien:) Then we went to the cita con Nelson (the less active we found) and in his words after giving him the restoration were, "you guys..... started getting teary eyed.. my family and marriage is broken." We had come at the perfect time is his life when the gospel NEEDS to be in his life. yeah, it was the coolest thing ever.

(I also got your package and letters today!) They were So good, mommy! thank you for them! And also the quote from Jacob which said, "it ain't about how hard you hit, its about how hard you get hit and keep movin forward, how much you can take and keep movin forward. That's how WINNING is DONE" thank you Jacob for that quote! I needed it today!

Jueves- Thanksgiving! We had.... weekly planning, then did some studies and such, but later in the evening we went to La Familia Gonzalez! It was soo fun! they are the sweetest family, they joined a year ago and sent a daughter off to the mission last week:) La Iglesia es VERDAD! Except they just kept feeding and feeding us, and they MADE us eat it ALL... a plate big enough for all the food you eat in a week. That's always kind of hard to eat. Well, it was kind of hard too because I missed my familia. This family invited 4 companionships to their homes, 8 missionaries! They are champions!

Viernes-Our ward put on a dinner for us this day:) oh my goodness it was the greatest thing ever:) I LOVE our ward, and here I found out that all of the ward calls me, "the happy Hermana, who loves everybody" I think because every time I talk to someone I tell them I love them, and in Sacrament in my talks and testimony I tell them I love them! And its true! And so, whenever they see me, I get a BIG kiss on the cheek and a huge hug! I LOVE it! ... I have also been kissed on the mouth, by 3 older ladies... that's always exciting:)

Sabado- I WENT ON EXCHANGES! And we got to go to the temple! It was really fun:) we went to a Spanish session:) One of our ward members was going through for the First time. I went on exchanges with the Hermana training leaders Hna Miliron. It was really good:)

ANOTHER miracle happened! I met one of DADS students! he was going through for the first time! It was awesome:) He is heading back up to Rexburg, so I made him promise he would go see you today Dad! He better! Well then Hna Miliron and I went to a Members home and I have never been fed so much, she fed me THREE chicken breasts, and wouldn't let me leave the table til I finished, she thought I went hungry, I was literally chocking down my food. Almost threw up. It really was torture. But we do it and we get miracles!

Domingo- Church is ALWAYS my favorite:) I LOVE the members oh my goodness, please come down here and meet them! You would just love them ALL! We sung Cantas Santos Angeles for choir, ah! Spanish wards are the best best best! And it was THE best! Sadly none of our investigators came to church:( It really is SO hard when people don't come to church, but esta bien. Then right after we went to a members home and they fed us, A TON and wouldn't let us leave. so now you see why I have gained 10 pounds in one week. Its great........ yeah....

Well my familia, I love you and I miss you! I have learned so much this week that if we act on a little faith God grows it. With Mike (the security guard) and Nelson (the less active we found) If we so much as act on a twig of faith, by knocking one more house, God grows it. It's incredible. Spanish is coming:) thank you for your prayers on my behalf, I feel them everyday. Sorry if I come home as big as the Mayor on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.. ja ja! I love and miss you all! Hna Felt and I are SO good! We just keep, keeping on! Even though our numbers are low, and we are planting seeds, we just keep singing! I really try to stay happy in this place, but one thing that has helped me SO much is loving the people. I love the people SO much its insane! I love you my familia! You are the best!

Its not about how hard you hit, its about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward! How much you can take and keep moving forward! That's how winning is DONE!

Hna Hammond

                                             Hermana Felt & I at A Little Village

                                       This is at our dinner appt on Sat.Black tortillas! Super Yummy, Super Fattening!...Love it!

The man is Hno Hernandez... he IS AWESOME and he is moving so we had to take a picture... the first day I got here he told me, He could see my light and spirit. Awesome man:)

This is at Thanksgiving at the Hernandez's!!