June 16, 2014 A society of possible Gods and Goddesses

June 16, 2014  A society of possible Gods and Goddesses
Feliz Cumpleanos: Greg Williams

Mi familia hermosa,

Wow, I can't believe my brother leaves on his mission this week! This
very week! Oh how excited am I?! So excited! I am so proud of you! You
will love the CCM, I wish I could go back with you right now! It
really is heaven on earth. EVERYONE out here still talks about the
CCM, it's the best. I am so excited for you! Find Hno Castellanos.
Take a picture with him and send it to your sister. Thanks. He's the best.

Well, this week was a good one!

Lunes- we did service at the library doing Story time in Spanish! It's
so fun! I am seriously considering being a librarian now. The kids
were so cute, and for once Hispanics actually came to us!... Maybe not
for the gospel, but they still came to us! We are praying that just
one will maybe see our light and feel the spirit and come into our
church. It was so fun! We are becoming friends with the librarians,
they love us and we love them!

Martes- it was a crazy day! We always call Martes the, "a ver" day.
Which in English means, we'll see. Basically meaning that we plan and
do our best and sometimes The Lord just takes us where He needs us.
Today we went to Hebron to see Gabriela, and it went good. It's really
hard because she lives far away, and she is still skeptical of us, so we
are just trying to love her and be her friend, and teach her about the
Book of Mormon, she's really sweet! But please pray for her! She needs
this gospel. Then, we went to la familia Cooper! Okay, English
sounding, I know, but the dad is American and speaks Spanish, and they
are in our branch, the wife... Totally Mexican. They are a very
interesting family. Very stand-off-ish. But the cookies we had given
them made an affect (that we were finally able to witness) because SHE
INVITED US OVER FOR LUNCH! She hasn't had missionaries over for lunch
in years because of some really bad drama that happened in our branch,
and she LET US COME OVER! She told us that she just loved the cookies
we gave her, and not only once, but twice we gave her cookies. Anyway,
it was interesting going to her home, because I was nervous I would
offend her, but we didn't! We made sure to compliment her food a
lot;)... She told us the ENTIRE story of our sweet branch. It's had
it's problems, a lot of problems, and I am so grateful to be here
working with such humble people! I love this branch, I really do. I
wish you were all here to witness the things I have, to learn the
things I have, and meet the people I have, I love this branch. Each
and every person has just made such an imprint on my heart that will
never go away. I thought I went out on a mission to bless others, but
honestly my whole mission- The Lord is just blessing me with meeting
these wonderful incredible people. I thought I went on my mission to,
"pay The Lord" and go share what I have, but totally learned otherwise
and honestly I feel I am in even more debt to The Lord, because he 
just keeps blessing me. I don't know if I am helping anybody, but I
know that these people are surely blessing me.

Miercoles-- well, we had a lesson with cute little Arlene and it went
well. I love the faith of children. Her home and life hasn't been
easy, but I know she feels close to her Heavenly Father because she
told us, "I pray every single night, even when I can smell the smoke
from the cigarettes that my brother smokes." My heart sort of stung at
this comment. She knows that when she prays she will get help, that is
faith! She will receive comfort, even in the midst of her hard family
life. I love it! What faith is this? One day I want to have the faith
like Arlene, she's amazing! Then we had the Book of Mormon class,
and....... Well no one showed. But it's okay, next class people will
be there!

Jueves-- well actually we were sooo busy this day! But busy is good!
We had Hna Alcantar at our usual China Buffet, haha. I love Hna
Alcantar, she is an incredible lady. Then later that day we had a
lesson with Barbara and Aaron. We also have two incredible ward
mission leaders. The wife is from Mexico, (but she looks very very
white) and the Hermano spoke a Spanish speaking mission and they came
with us to the lesson. It went really well. It's just so hard because
they stopped coming to church. For a lot of reasons, and it's so hard
to see people who have SO much faith and to not put it to action. I
love the "Hispanic Faith". They all have this incredible amount of it,
but then they don't put it to action, it's really hard. But we just
keep going and keep teaching them! Siga adelante!

Viernes- we had Zone Conference. It was awesome! I love Zone
conference. We learned about the prophet Joseph Smith! I keep
forgetting that I really am only 5 hours away from Nauvoo. (I wish I
could go so bad) it was a really good conference, I love being around
missionaries. It's the best!

Sabado- We had our weekly planning this day and we taught a girl we
found riding bikes. Her name is Ana. She is AWESOME! She really is in
need of friends, and I was thinking, missionaries are the best kinds
of friends to make;).. But really. She also invites us to the movies,
and to a road trip, haha so we kinda had to explain what our purpose
is as missionaries. But still she is awesome! I am excited to teach
her more!

Domingo- after church we went to la Familia Bertrand again. I have
never met in my whole life, such an offended familia. Man, it's really
rough because we try to share a message but they are not respective,
and then we heard more gossip, more bad stuff, and well more gossip.
But, they really are an awesome family. They are SO funny, and they
fed us! They love that we came over. It's gonna take some time, but
the more we go over and the more we pray for them to have a change of
heart, or at least for them to have their hearts softened they will
come back.

Well that was my week! I have been thinking about this quote ALL week,
(what can I say, I am on a C.S. Lewis streak), “It is a serious thing
to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses..." Wow how
powerful! Whenever I have had a hard time and didn't want to get a
long with people I have thought of this quote. One day that person
could become a god, that is what our ultimate goal is! If we all
treated each other with this in mind think of how much nicer people
would be, how much drama would be ended, and the increase of love that
would happen. Wow! Incredible!

Well, my brother! You are amazing! Remember, when life gets hard for
whatever reason, I have one piece of advice for you, ask yourself,
"what can I do more." If companions get hard, ask yourself, "What more
can I do to serve him." (Cause guess what, he's not gonna change, only
you can.) :) When investigators aren't keeping commitments, ask
yourself, "what can I do more to better my teaching." When your
frustrated with Spanish ask yourself, "what can I do more to receive
the gift of tongues." And when members are frustrated, ask yourself,
"okay can I eat more food?" Haha ;) es broma. I love you my brother!
Everyone is so proud of you! Especially your Heavenly Father, so go
make Him proud. I love you!

Quote for the week, "It is a serious thing to live in a society of
possible gods and goddesses."

All of me loves all of you all!
Hermana Hammond