April 7, 2014
Feliz Cumpleanos: My beautiful cousin Lori, My Amazing Uncle Den!
Feliz Cumpleanos: My beautiful cousin Lori, My Amazing Uncle Den!
Mi querida familia
Well, wasn't conference the best thing on the planet! Conference is
seriously like Christmas... But really. It was awesome!
This week, was another interesting one. I am going to sum up
Miercoles-Domingo because these days we didn't have a car. (And still
don't have a car..) Our area is so big that it's almost impossible to
get work done and not have a car. We went with the English sisters and
got rides from them, (I will say we got a little taste of the English
program... We got to go to a five star restaurant... I wanted my
tortillas) we also did lots of service, and this week we had general
conference! So, I am going to share a story that happened to us this
week.
On Sunday we decided to go knocking because it was actually warm
outside. Entonces, we went knocking in our own apartment complex. Our
apartment complex is huge, like a mile long fitting all the building.
Ours is at the very end, because it's the cheapest of the buildings,
and has the strong scent of marijuana and drugs when we walk in every
single day. Home sweet home. That's beside the point, we walked to
the middleish of our apartment complex and just started knocking.
After rejection and some PNI's we found this man from El Salvador. Se
llama Ernesto. He just barely got here from El Salvador. And I want to
say that El Salvadorians are the fastest Latino speakers. They speak
so fast. When he started speaking to us I could barely understand him,
but he was AWESOME! We taught the restoration in 10 min and then asked
him to read and pray about el Libro de Mormon. He accepted. Oh, also
because we didn't have another woman with us we taught him in the hall
of his apartment. Awesome. Then we asked him to pray, and he did. It
was the most sincere interesting and dramatic prayer we both had ever
heard. I felt as though I was in a Spanish/black person Born-Again
Christian sermon. Let me tell ya, he prayed for Hermana Michael and I,
our pets, our moms and dads, our brothers and our sisters, our
safety.... That he was grateful for JeSUS de NAZARET (I capitalize
because he emphasized/yelled these parts in the halls) He prayed
saying he was, grateful for FE. (When he yelled that one we both
jumped). Ah, one day I'll reenact it, it was awesome. Well, I'll just
say that we got one new interesting investigator!
Well, other than that, we had a zone meeting on Miercoles and we
taught a section of it, that went good, and of course General
Conference!
I learned so much this week. I felt the cry of repentance from our
prophets and apostles this conference, about how we can do better,
love more, and defend our religion!
As in preparation for conference I read a bible story in Daniel about
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. In this story we learn of three
really courageous young men who defended their God and were thrown
into a scalding hot fiery furnace. The three young men quickly and
confidently respond to the king saying, "If it be so [if you cast us
into the furnace], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from
the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand."
"But if not, ... we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden
image which thou hast set up." That is a statement of true faith.
Something I have learned on my mission and want to highlight in this
story is the part where they say, "But if not.." This simple phrase is
faith. I have learned that it's not enough to just have faith that God
can deliver us from persecution, loneliness, sickness, depression, and
sadness. But, it is faith to say, I know our God is able to deliver
us, but if not, we will trust in him and have faith in Jesus Christ
and doing ALL we can to follow Him. Are we willing to stand up to what
we know to be true no matter the consequence? Are we willing to say,
but if not... I will trust in The Lord? Are we willing to stand for
Jesus Christ, if or if not, God delivers us from the fiery furnace? My
prayer is that we will say yes, without a moments hesitation.
On Saturday the theme of conference for me was defending our
religion. I loved Jeffery R. Hollands and many others talks about
defending this religion. Elder Holland said something like,"Defend
your beliefs with compassion and curtesy, BUT DEFEND THEM." May we be
as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego and defend our beliefs with faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that as we put forth our faith and
defend for what's right we will be blessed. Whether we are like
Shadrach, Meshach, and Aneb-nego who were delivered miraculously , or,
if we are like Abinadi who died courageously, it matters only if we
are faithful and true to Jesus Christ our Savior.
Also family I hope your going to take the challenge of M. Russell
Ballard (who's talk was AWESOME) and read Preach my Gospel. I read it
everyday as a missionary and I know it's inspired. It really is more
scripture for us to follow. I challenge you to start from the
beginning and read a little bit each day. I know it is also the word
of God that we have, written by prophets in these days.
For another great week in Woodstock!
All of me loves all of you all!
Con amor,
Hermana Hammond
Well, wasn't conference the best thing on the planet! Conference is
seriously like Christmas... But really. It was awesome!
This week, was another interesting one. I am going to sum up
Miercoles-Domingo because these days we didn't have a car. (And still
don't have a car..) Our area is so big that it's almost impossible to
get work done and not have a car. We went with the English sisters and
got rides from them, (I will say we got a little taste of the English
program... We got to go to a five star restaurant... I wanted my
tortillas) we also did lots of service, and this week we had general
conference! So, I am going to share a story that happened to us this
week.
On Sunday we decided to go knocking because it was actually warm
outside. Entonces, we went knocking in our own apartment complex. Our
apartment complex is huge, like a mile long fitting all the building.
Ours is at the very end, because it's the cheapest of the buildings,
and has the strong scent of marijuana and drugs when we walk in every
single day. Home sweet home. That's beside the point, we walked to
the middleish of our apartment complex and just started knocking.
After rejection and some PNI's we found this man from El Salvador. Se
llama Ernesto. He just barely got here from El Salvador. And I want to
say that El Salvadorians are the fastest Latino speakers. They speak
so fast. When he started speaking to us I could barely understand him,
but he was AWESOME! We taught the restoration in 10 min and then asked
him to read and pray about el Libro de Mormon. He accepted. Oh, also
because we didn't have another woman with us we taught him in the hall
of his apartment. Awesome. Then we asked him to pray, and he did. It
was the most sincere interesting and dramatic prayer we both had ever
heard. I felt as though I was in a Spanish/black person Born-Again
Christian sermon. Let me tell ya, he prayed for Hermana Michael and I,
our pets, our moms and dads, our brothers and our sisters, our
safety.... That he was grateful for JeSUS de NAZARET (I capitalize
because he emphasized/yelled these parts in the halls) He prayed
saying he was, grateful for FE. (When he yelled that one we both
jumped). Ah, one day I'll reenact it, it was awesome. Well, I'll just
say that we got one new interesting investigator!
Well, other than that, we had a zone meeting on Miercoles and we
taught a section of it, that went good, and of course General
Conference!
I learned so much this week. I felt the cry of repentance from our
prophets and apostles this conference, about how we can do better,
love more, and defend our religion!
As in preparation for conference I read a bible story in Daniel about
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. In this story we learn of three
really courageous young men who defended their God and were thrown
into a scalding hot fiery furnace. The three young men quickly and
confidently respond to the king saying, "If it be so [if you cast us
into the furnace], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from
the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand."
"But if not, ... we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden
image which thou hast set up." That is a statement of true faith.
Something I have learned on my mission and want to highlight in this
story is the part where they say, "But if not.." This simple phrase is
faith. I have learned that it's not enough to just have faith that God
can deliver us from persecution, loneliness, sickness, depression, and
sadness. But, it is faith to say, I know our God is able to deliver
us, but if not, we will trust in him and have faith in Jesus Christ
and doing ALL we can to follow Him. Are we willing to stand up to what
we know to be true no matter the consequence? Are we willing to say,
but if not... I will trust in The Lord? Are we willing to stand for
Jesus Christ, if or if not, God delivers us from the fiery furnace? My
prayer is that we will say yes, without a moments hesitation.
On Saturday the theme of conference for me was defending our
religion. I loved Jeffery R. Hollands and many others talks about
defending this religion. Elder Holland said something like,"Defend
your beliefs with compassion and curtesy, BUT DEFEND THEM." May we be
as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego and defend our beliefs with faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that as we put forth our faith and
defend for what's right we will be blessed. Whether we are like
Shadrach, Meshach, and Aneb-nego who were delivered miraculously , or,
if we are like Abinadi who died courageously, it matters only if we
are faithful and true to Jesus Christ our Savior.
Also family I hope your going to take the challenge of M. Russell
Ballard (who's talk was AWESOME) and read Preach my Gospel. I read it
everyday as a missionary and I know it's inspired. It really is more
scripture for us to follow. I challenge you to start from the
beginning and read a little bit each day. I know it is also the word
of God that we have, written by prophets in these days.
For another great week in Woodstock!
All of me loves all of you all!
Con amor,
Hermana Hammond
We Love The Gospel!!!
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