Feb. 24, 2014 Hold up the prophets arms!

Feb. 24, 2014

Feliz Cumpleanos: My wonderful grandma Bebe, Chad, Bava, Gentry!!

Happy Anniversary! Thanks Mom and Dad for being the best parents ever! I love you!

Hola mi familia!
It's been a great week, thank you for the package! I loved it! So did Hna Michael! I seriously have the best familia ever in the history of ever! Thank you all soooo much!

I am DYING at all of these videos of Jared singing! Just dying! I LOVE IT! I wanna be there! But I am praying for you in spirit Jared! I am SO So proud of you!! And... I LOVE the Phantom of the Opera.... Oh my goodness everyone needs to see that video, and the reverse videos... YES! I am doing those with you when I come home!

Well to sum up, it's been a blazing 43 degrees here! I literally didn't want to wear a coat, and Hna Michael whose from California... she didn't wear a coat. And now the weather is back to 12 and below! It's great! And last night our investigator who was on date, went to jail last night, it's been a great week.

Lunes- Well, this day we had that birthday party, and it was like a "Frozen" theme and it was cute, we helped out and she has tons of little Mexican friends and now they all know who we are! We also ate with the Familia Gomez, they are the best family, they joined a year ago and the dad used to be a heavy alcoholic and really mean and yesterday he just got the priesthood and he is the sweetest man ever, and Hna Gomez is just the best! Oh and the dinner was great! Mexican food... You just can't beat it!

Martes-  I got letters from mom and dad! I loved them SOO much! Thank you! This day, we tried tons of less-actives and that's always good, no one answered, we got dropped by one of our investigators Rosario, then we tried visiting more referrals and less-actives and formers.

Miercoles- We had a district meeting, and the district LOVED the cookies, then we had lunch with a member, it was rather a weird lesson, but she bought pizza and we ate it in her car.... It was, well weird. We went finding again, and tried to go find less- actives and referrals, then we had a meeting with the branch president and those are always good, talking about missionary work, and the elders are going to have their wedding this Saturday! And we are in charge of the decorations, and I am teaching them how to dance, this week, it'll be fun! Then the wife is getting baptized! We are so happy!

Jueves- We had studies and we had a clean check (which by the way I haven't told you, our apartment used to be an elders apt, it's horrible, kinda makes me feel like we are in a third world county a little bit, kinda awesome!) well, then we had weekly planning, and we tried some more less-actives referrals and, well the missionary stuff!

Viernes- We went to a DARE graduation, and that was great, then we did studies, and then we got a call saying we had to stay inside our apartment (because our window is broken, before I got here, and our beds are in the living room because it's too cold) because a man was coming to fix it, but we  had to stay inside until he came, it was HORRIBLE, we did area book, but I HATE staying inside, and the worst part is, the man didn't even come, it was the worst day ever, both of us hate staying inside the apartment.

Sabado- well, to make up for the bad day, we did studies as usual and then we went to Marengo (another one of our tiny towns we work in) and decided to knock doors! We knocked these apartments and we got 7 PNI's! That was more than we had gotten ALL transfer! It was awesome! It was a Good working day! The whole time we were knocking I was thinking, man,I just love knocking doors.... Haha but really I do!

Domingo- Barbara and Aaron AND ARIK came to church! It was a great day! Church was wonderful, after church we went to Marengo to try the  PNI we found the day before, we taught the whole restoration (the mom was WAY into it and totally felt the spirit) we asked them if they would read the Book of Mormon to see if this message we shared was true, she was like, "no", we were like..... "Uhhhhhh haha (in our minds of course). Then our investigator who was supposed to be baptized told us he was going to jail. But no worries family.... He is bringing his Book of Mormon with him! And hopefully he gets out today, I have been praying for Him to have a humbling experience because the humble people are the teachable people. That was basically Domingo!

Stuff I learned this week- well, this week for my Sunday bible story I read the story of Moses. It's in Exodus 17 (I think... I literally just opened my Bible, and this is the story that was on the page) and it's about Moses and God tells him to go to war and every time Moses held up his staff  his side of the war would win, but every time he let down his staff his side would loose.  It says his arms got tired and so he had his brother and another person hold up his arms for him. I love this story because at first they bring a rock for him to sit on. To me this story could mean a lot of things, but right now on the mission I like to think of it as our prophet leading and guiding the war for the sons and daughters of God, and under him is our Rock and foundation Jesus Christ and holding up his arms is us. We are helping him, as we hold up his arms in this battle for all of the souls of the children of God. I think that is just sooo cool! We are all in the battle! Whether we are down with Joshua fighting the battle! Or whether we are the one literally holding up the prophets arms. Or we are the ones getting killed... I don't want to be on that side of the battle. Either way we are all in the battle, and the enemy is real, and I am seeing it right now with our investigators, but the people who fight for Jesus Christ will win!

That's how I am doing! Wonderful! Woodstock, Harvard (home of Milkday), and Marengo are doing great! I am excited for this Wedding! I am excited to talk to our investigator, I know The Lord humbles people at a time when they need most humbling. Well I love you all! I miss you all! Wish you were here doing this work with me! It's the best work ever! I love you!

Love love love!
La Hermana Hammond

This is cute Alex! I want to bring him home!!

He is adorable!

This is from the Restaurant Lesley's. Really good food!

These are the AMAZING cookies that Lisa made!!! They are edible!!

 The colored one is Illinois with Chicago dotted!

 The Golden plates!

 Sant Biblia y El Libro De Mormon

 My district LOVED these cookies!!

 Hermana Michael being funny with the framed cookie!

 These are cookies  for President & Sister Woodbury, Lisa framed them & put them in a photo box!!

Lisa is a Catholic from California. We had fun making the cookie order. 

 

 

Feb. 17, 2014 Through His hands we are made whole!

Feb.17, 2014
Hola mi familia.

 I hope you all had a wonderful valentines day! I missed you all! Especially I missed moms sugar cookie sucker thingys! But I got some pretty awesome cookies here, I'll show you pictures but they are pretty awesome! Well, shall I start with Lunes?

Lunes- well, it was Pday, good day we did our usual Pday things and that's always good.
 We started our process of making tons of sugar cookies for la Rama to hand out to each family. And so we did, the cookies were so cute! And we also saw our investigator Arik and taught him and he is one really awesome investigator who is really ready, he told us he was nervous about his baptism for the 22 of February but with The Lord we knew he could do it. He also told us, (before we went in to teach him) that he had stopped drinking coffee for 5 days! And we were like, man, you're the coolest person ever!

Martes- we made and delivered cookies to a lot of people, we made them for almost everyone in the Rama, and we delivered them. We saw so many miracles because we got into SO many of the less-actives homes, so many people let us in because we were giving them food, so it was really cool. Honestly delivering cookies out here took forever, so it lasted us like all day, but it was worth it because so many people opened up to us.

Miercoles- Because we only had finished half of the people we needed to deliver cookies to, this day was another cookie delivering day. I felt like it was Christmas, only not delivering tree bread, delivering cookies. But, it was good, this day we actually got in with 2 anti Mormons/ former investigators, so really it was a huge miracle, these familias let us right in and we talked for a few minutes and said a prayer with them and their family and left. I have realized that lots of times, you just start out small with these people who are so anti Christ. Even if it's just giving cookies and saying a prayer, it's amazing how peoples hearts can change, even just a little bit.

Jueves-
This day was more delivering and seeing people. Which was good because we saw lots of people again. Which that was really good so that people could get to know us. We just kept seeing people, and trying to get more appts, more new investigators, ya know, missionary stuff:) then we did weekly planning, and yep that's basically it!

Viernes-
Well this day we had a Zone meeting and so that was good. It was officially El Dia de San Valentin! Yay! But the meeting was good, they asked me to sing a solo, like 5 minutes before so that was kinda scary, but I sang " I know that my redeemer lives", it's scary singing in front of white people, I just love singing in front of Mexicans! They don't judge me jaja. But it was a good day. We learned lot, and as always we were called to repentance, which man, repentance is just the best! Because there's always room to change and grow, and become better! (And also this day I was driving and got the car stuck, bien hecho Herm Hammond)

Sabado-
We did studies and Facebook and then we went out to deliver the final round of cookies here, and we went to a familias house, who are English because the dad is our 2nd counselor and they were really stressed because their daughter was getting baptized the next day and she was getting ready for a birthday party so we asked if we could help because she was cleaning  like crazy and she was really grateful, so we helped clean and so service, and actually we are going to the birthday party today! ( today, Monday because all her little friends are Hispanic and their moms are coming over) yay! The only party I get to go to is an 8 year olds birthday party, wow I am just livin it up here in Woodstock! The party is a Frozen party, which man, I need to see this movie or something, everyone is like obsessed with it down here! Well, anyways, so we helped do some service, and then delivered the final batch of cookies and then we had an eating appt. with la Hna Alcantar. She's the sweetest, and one of the most faithful members in our little branch. She's so sweet:)

Domingo-
We had a rather hard day. Our wonderful familia Colons didn't come to church. So we texted them but no anwser. Then, we had an impression to check Facebook because Arik is ALWAYS on facebook. We saw that this family had broken the Word of Wisdom over Valentines day. We Facebooked messaged Arik and he told us he had "a sip of tequila" and that he was hungover and so was Aaron. Both Hermana Michael and I's heart broke. We then had an impression to go to their home right after sacrament meeting. We did. Before going into the house I said one of the most powerful prayers I have ever said in my life. I asked God, "te pedimos por el don de lengus, arrita!!" -translation- We ask for the gift of tongues, right now" I thought to myself, "you can't ask the Lord for something like that... what did I just say??" Then we entered the house. After a while both Arik and Aaron came down, and right from the start the Spirit spoke through Hermana Michael and I. I have never had such an intense lesson in my mission. We both testified that we all aren't perfect, that we all make mistakes but that they have a Savior who can help them out of this. Hermana Michael and I came out of that lesson and we didn't even remember what we had said. I know I was speaking way past my ability, and I know Hermana Michael was too. Sadly, because of poor decisions we had to move the Baptism date. I know that the Lord knew this would happen, and I also know that now this family can have a very strong testimony of the importance of the Word of Wisdom. While they were speaking to us they told us how sad and mad they felt at themselves. Wow, although it was a hard day, it was a wonderful day. We glory in tribulations, because it makes people humble! The humble people are the teachable people! Well, that was Sunday.

Hermana Michael! We are doing wonderful! We LOVED the cookies. And a little bit, we thought they were hilarious. We are learning Spanish together and we are trying our very best to help this Branch stay alive, we got A LOT of work to do!

Well stuff that I learned:
It was interesting because every Sunday I decide to read a story from the Bible (on a mission you never read from the bible, everything is from the Book of Mormon) but I want to get more familiar with the stories from the bible so I read a story every Sunday:) This Sunday I read the story of Job. I didn't know why, but I realize now that I needed to read it this week. Man, Job went through some of the hardest things, but one of my favorite verses that I read from it was Job 5:18 which says "For He maketh sore, and bindeth up: He woundeth and His Hands make whole." It reminds me of one of the talks by D Todd Christofferson about the Current Bush and it says, "How could you do this to me? How could you cut me down?" And the master says (something like) "Look little current bush, I know what I want you to be." In life I know the Lord needs to "make us sore" so that we can realize its through Him that we are "bound up." He needs to "wound us" so his hands can "make us whole". He does all of this because he knows "what he wants US to be". I love you my family! Thank you for everything!

Thank you for your prayers and for your love and for well, EVERYTHING:) I love and miss you all SO very very much! Ustedes son la MAJOR!

Gracias por todo mi familia!

Con MUCHO amor

La Hermana Hammond

 

COOL NEWS!

The elders are having a wedding for there investigators! We are incharge of DECORATING!!! I AM SOOO EXCITED for this family! They are getting married and then the next week they are getting baptized! Super cool huh!!!!

Feb.10, 2014 Feliz dia de San Valentin

Feb. 10, 2014
Feliz dia de San Valentin!! Happy Valentines day!
 Make sugar cookies for me & then eat them!!
Hola mi familia!

Lunes- Well, this day was Pday and then we went and knocked on some peoples doors. Funny story really fast- we knocked on this one mans door, and well, long story short he gave us a picture of Christ, (which is taped in my journal now) and held our hands (in a cirlce thing) and said a prayer, and then lifted up his shirt to show us his heart moniter, and hairy belly. Oh how I love being a missionary:) jaja

Martes- Well, today we went to Wisconsin, wahoo and visited the Familia Camachos. They are a great family! We ate some soup that had all kinds of FUN things in it! Including octopus, and stuff that I just didn't ask about. (I also ate the bone of the shrimp because I didn't want to make them feel bad, because that's how they were eating it..... hope thats out of my system by now) Then Hno Camacho was like, (well I just love Mexican blunttness) You hermanas have gained weight, here, I go and burn p90x for you. And so he did, He's the best:)

Miercoles- Well, this day was a great day at night we had to drive down to the city (Chicago) because we had a Womens conference and because we live so far away we had to stay with some other Hermanas in the city. And guess who it was??......... Hermana Buys!...... I wont say anything more about that;) But it was fun Hermana Michael and I had fun, driving to the city.

Jueves- We had the Sisters conference all day which was good, I got to see Hermana Hatch and Hermana Pearson and Hermana Felt and well everyone! we learned self-defense. Which, that was interesting. I loved seeing everyone:) We also learned about home-sickness, and there was a lot of crying and I thought, (girls will be girls) Just kidding! I miss you my family I promise:) and we learned about the Atonement it was nice. Well, then the rest of our night consisted of driving home. But it was still a great day!

Viernes- Well, this day we had district meeting and that was great. Our tiny little district is awesome! I love them all:) Then we went to a less actives home, and I wrote about it to my President and I am just going to forward you the letter I wrote to him.

President!
Thank you so much for telling me! I loved that lady, she had us over for dinner at her house. It was wonderful. It has been a great week. We had quite the miracle let me tell you about it:)
We visited a lady in our ward her name was Hermana Monje. She is really sick right now, and so we thought, "well we will be protected and not get sick." So we went, and she has had such a hard life president. Her daughter is in a gang, and had a child in jail. Her other daughter was kidnapped by that gang and was gone for 6 years, and her other son was deported out of the country. This woman is truly an example for me. We went over and she was on the couch, and she told us that she had no money to go to the doctor, but has been sick for three weeks. So we just started cleaning her very very humble home. I have never seen such a humble home. They literally have nothing. The food was everywhere on the table, and smells and the sight of old peaches, peanut butter, to old apples, raw meat, top ramon and everything in between were there in her kitchen. Hermana Michael and I rolled up our sleeves called the Elders (for a Priesthood blessing because she wanted one) and started cleaning her kitchen. My heart hurt as I saw what her grandchildren ate, and how dirty everything was. We cleaned the kitchen and the living room, and then the Elders came in and gave her a blessing. Tears were in my eyes as love grew for this woman. To my mind came the scripture in Alma 7:11 and we shared that with her and we promised that the Savior knew all that she was going through.
As I left this humble home, with a sweet wonderful Mexican woman, my heart hurt for her, but then I realized how wonderful and incredible it is that we have a Savior, who knows exactly what we go through. I am grateful for my Savior, I know He's my Brother, Rock, Foundation, Healer, and I know He's the Christ.
My companion is wonderful! Thank you for sending me to her, I have learned so much. Thanks for all you do President! Have a great week!
Hermana Hammond

So.... to add more to the story, I just want to say, it was incredibly hard to clean her entire home, because I thought I was going to throw up, (This is from you mom, we are germ freaks). But I knew that cleaning her house and serving her, meant I was serving God. That's the most important thing to me. She needed it, and her life has been incredibly hard. My heart breaks everytime I think about this woman. While I was doing her dishes two thoughts would enter my mind, one thought-wow, I am going to get deathly ill from all of these germs, and thought 2- God will protect me and my companion. (Hermana Monje used to have bedbugs, like a week ago) I had a couple of moments when I wanted to throw up, and then I had many many many more moments where I thought, If I could I would be here in this home everyday. This day was truly humbling for me.

Sabado- Well, this day was a good day. We had a lesson with Arik who is on date! He is doing oh so very very well! We had a member present and it was really powerful. The member Hno Jimenez after a lesson to this family (this was my favorite part of the lesson) was like, en realidad, pues, Somos Hermanos. estamos aqui para usted mi hermano. AH SO COOL! "In reality, we are brothers...." The church is true! I love this!

Domingo- Church went really great. I lead the music every meeting, and its wonderful. Then we had to finish weekly planning! What a joy.

Hermana Michael- She is great, we have our differences, but I am grateful for a companion who works hard and who speaks Spanish with me.

I have learned my family, oh so much. I am grateful for my Savior who knows what we all go through. There have been many hard times on my mission, and then I think, "Salvation is NOT a cheap experience" -Elder Holland

If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be life changing. That's why missions are the best. I love you my family!

Con amor MUCHO AMOR

La Hermana Hammond

I Work in Harvard Home of Milk day!

 Me & my adorable companera La hermana Michael

Feb.3, 2014 Woodstock Los heroes no nacen, sino que se hacen!

Mi familia!

Feliz Cumpleanos: Hayley, Korynn, Elaine, McKay!!

Los heroes no nacen, sino que se hacen

Well, its been a great week here in Woodstock and Harvard Home of Milkday. Let me start off  well, with the beginning. Maybe I should start on like jueves and go out of order to confuse you all. But, then I think.. betta not. (Jacob will probably get that)

 

Oh and Jacob- this week THIS LINE has been stuck in my head, all week, ready? "Sire, it is time." baajaa

Martes- in my journal it says that, "well its been quite the day, we did studies, facebook, and then had to come home to do lots of area book, because, pres told us we had to stay inside from the bitter, freezing cold. I hate staying inside, yep" Oh, and this day I also wrote you. ha, sorry I dont really remember lots about this day. But we did have a lesson with Arik and put him on date!! For Feb. 22! And he loves us and hes awesome, I am excited! He really is the coolest guy ever, and this one actually likes me, unlike his best friend, but we are working on it:)

Miercoles- Well, we had district meeting today and our district is TINY there are only 8 of us, 2 sets of Elders and 1 set of sisters and then us Hermanas. Thats it! I love them though! Our district leader is from Mexico, so he obviously speaks perfect Spanish and English. That was good, also this day, we had dinner with a member La Familia Garcias! They are so sweet. I have realized that the mission is just one big awkward moment, soo you gotta LIVE IT UP! So I just go in their and I just tell them that I really do truly love them and I am here to serve them (even though I dont know them, but really do love them), and they don't say anything, or they say, "okay" sometimes, and its great:) haha livin up the awkward! We love it!

Jueves- well, this day was, as you all know the famous Weekly planning. We did our weekly planning and we went out to find our many lost menos activos, which we have 50 familias plus to find. Thats our goal is to find ALL of our menos activos, and A LOT of our former investigators! Its great!

Viernes- Well, this day we did our studies and then in the afternoon we switched for Exchanges! It was really fun! I got to be with Hermana Felt and thats always great! I LOVE their area because its TOTALLY the city and, well one day I will be in the city we got TONS of potentials and got some singing time in there too! Man, it was really just SO fun. I learned a lot. Then we had a eating cita with a family from Puerto Rico, I have never had so many gross potatoes in my life, man, I do miss those Idaho potatoes! Everytime someone asks where I am from, I say, de Idaho, la tierra de papas! and they love it:)

Sabado- Well, (dad you'll love this) We had a competition (because right now there are three training leaders and no time for showers) who could take the fastest showers, so we go, and I WON! With a 2 min and 32 Sec shower. Thought dad would like that:) Then we drove back because exchanges were over, to our baptism! It was beautiful:) I got to teach Arlene around 5 times, not too much but she was SO cute:) the baptism was SO nice and all of us Hermanas sang. It went really good President was there too. I was SO happy:) Arlene was SO cute:)

Domingo- Arlene got the Spirit:) Aw:) it was SO nice. Then EVERY fast sunday EVERYONE brings like a ton of YUMMY Mexican food. Its like the best thing EVER, oh my goodness. Then we had to stay there to set up for New Beginnings and that was nice and really it was a great day:)

Hermana Michael- We are great:) I know we will be friends for life and I am SO grateful for her, we really try and work hard and we really get along! She loves her trainer, so its hard when we are at members homes' because she just talks about her trainer, but I am really trying hard not to complain and I am REALLY just grateful:) We really do get along and we laugh a lot and thats REALLY important on the mission!

The Area- We are starting to make it come alive! We are really trying and we really are working hard. It doesn't matter where you serve but HOW! Theres a lot of people waiting for us to find, but I know we will find them!

Los heroes no nacen, sino que se hacen. This is a Spanish theme that I have picked up, in Ingles its "those heroes aren't born, but there made." I have realized that nobody is born a hero, but The Lord sculpts, molds and makes you into a hero and champion! I have learned that in order to be molded and made, it kinda hurts, because nobody wants to get torn down, but in the end, es vale la pena. (its worth the pain) It's worth it to be a hero and champion.

I love you my family!

Los heroes no nacen, sino que se nacen!

Con MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO amor!

La Hermana Hammond (de la tierra da papas)

 

Arlene and Hermana Hammond at her baptism!

Hermana Michael,?, Arlene, Hermana Russon Y Hermana Hammond

 We helped them decorate for New Beginnings. They deck out!! Can you find me?

I held a RAT!!