Mi familia increíble
Feliz Cumpleanos: Beautiful Marlee and Elder Brandon!!
Dad! Happy Father's Day! And to my grandpas Green and Hammond! Oh
how I love each one of you so so dearly!
MOM JUMPING INTO THE POOL! Wow miracle in and of itself! Your amazing mom!
Well it's been a good week like always, Hermana Woolf and I are
exhausted! Hey... That is the mission though, it's awesome!
Lunes-- Hermana Monge wanted to do a Noche de Hogar, (family home
evening) and so we went over this day. When we got there she wasn't
feeling too good so we did her dishes and showed a Mormon message and
read some scriptures, of course she cooked for us as well. Then she
asked a surprising thing, she asks us to give her a massage.... Not
just any massage a foot massage. She has diabetes and so her feet are
always swollen and are just in pain, so when she asked of course we
said yes. Right as she got on the couch for us to start massaging I
was kind of reluctant to give this woman a foot massage. Right when I
started the massage the image came to my head of the Savior washing
his disciples feet. I then told myself, "Hermana Hammond you can massage
these feet that touch raw meat all day, Hermana Hammond you can
massage these feet that are so incredibly hairy, Hermana Hammond you
can massage these feet that have dead skin flaking off of them.." Then
I was so grateful to massage her feet because I realized how much I
love this lady, she has had such a hard life, and a simple foot
massage to make her feel better was hands down worth it.
Martes-- Well it was a big bike riding day, which I loved! We did some
finding in Harvard and then we had a cita with the Familia Camacho.
They live in Wisconsin, so when we go there they have to pick us up at
the boarder of Illinois and take us to their house. Well, confession,
last month we went over miles (we get a certain amount of miles each
month and we went over.., even with bikes, this area, is just huge...)
so we decided that we really needed to save miles and ride our bikes
ALL the way to the boarder of IL, baahaha... I don't know how many
miles but man it was a killer, because it was all up hill, and our
bikes aren't the greatest, but I personally loved it! I was so
grateful for exercise. Tambien, it's really beautiful out here. It's
sooo green now and we are just surrounded by farms, quite a difference
from -17 and snow but I love it. Our cita with the Camachos went well.
They are one of our strongest members on the branch, they just had
their son return home from a mission. He's one of the only
missionaries that's ever gone out of this branch ever! He's thinking
about going to BYU-I, and I told him, "If you go, my parents will feed
you!!..:)" sorry not sorry parents!
Miercoles-- we had district meeting and then we went to a members
house in Crystal Lake. (The elders in our branch cover Crystal Lake
and McHenry and we cover the rest of the branch) but this woman lives
alone, Hermana Barrios. She is the sweetest lady ever, I just adore
her. She has a hard life, her husband abused her and finally she
separated from him but now has to work a lot to pay the rent. She is a
less active because sometimes (lots of times) she has to work on
Sundays. Work I swear is the devils tool! It is the worst! I will say
that Hispanics are some of the hardest working people I know. They can
work, and they know how to work, they just don't know when to stop!
Like DON'T WORK ON SUNDAYS PEOPLE! It kills me, but I guess putting
food on the table is important or something... Haha. I also know, that
if you put church first, God first, he will help you find a job and
pay for everything. It is really hard to say that to the people here,
because it is incredibly hard for them to find a job in the first
place, but I know that if they were to put God first everything would
work, everything will work out! ..(sorry random rant of Hermana
Hammond)
We also had the Book of Mormon class! The elders taught and it went
good. More than one person showed up... Six people were there! Wahoo!
Miracles happen!
Jueves- I wrote nothing in my journal, but I know we did some planning
and finding, o algo así... No me acuerdo muy bien, pero estuvo un buen
día creo. Perdoname por favor:)
Viernes- we had a great day! It was quite busy actually. We had a
lesson with Gabriela! She isn't quite progressing but we are working
with her. It's hard because she's lives clear up in Hebron and only
has one day free that we can come see her, so pray for her! She is 20
years old with 2 kids, and NEEDS the gospel! Pray for Gabriela! Then
we went straight to a cita with Hermana Alcantar, she is one of our
other faithful members in the Rama. She is the only one that comes out
of her family, and is having big family issues right now and so she
can't take us into her house, but she LOVES taking us to this Chinese
buffet. It's so funny because my tummy doesn't really like Chinese
food anymore. Dad-- we are gonna have to ease my stomach into eating
Thai food slowly;) then we went straight to Hermana Monges home
BECAUSE IT WAS HER BIRTHDAY! Happy birthday Hermana Monge! For her
birthday we couldn't stay long, but we did her dishes and again she
asked for a foot massage...conquered that fear Monday so it was fine,
so totally fine;).. And then we had to leave. We left to go to
Woodstock to see Kelvin and Joshuel..porque.. Because they are going
(have already gone) to Puerto Rico for the WHOLE summer, because their
grandma lives there. It was sad to say goodbye to them, but we will
still be seeing Barbara and Aaron because they are here. It was a good
day. Lleno de mucho trabajo.
Sabado-- I can say that Hermana Woolf and I worked HARD HARD this day.
We rode bikes all day in Marengo trying to find people. Marengo has
kind of a lot of hills and we went to ALL of the potentials and
formers and everyone in the area book from Marengo. No one said yes to
us. But I realized and learned a profound truth this day. While we
were exercising our bodies I realized that God was helping us remember
that we obviously needed to exercise our faith. He was testing us
physically so we could remember, work on, and better our faith in Him.
We may have not found anybody, but if anything we were showing The
Lord that we are willing to work hard and we were willing to exercise
our faith in Him. We came home pretty exhausted, and I love coming
home exhausted because it means we worked hard!-- which is honestly
everyday.
Domingo-- we went a less- active hunting! We found a less- active La
familia Bertrand, they live in Harvard and are from Honduras. We try
to avoid people's story about why they are less-active because it
always includes some gossip from the branch, and there is sooo much
gossip in this branch, well sadly we just couldn't avoid it and they
told us their story-- which most people end up doing. We always just
testify that Jesus Christ's church is perfect, and sometimes people
are not, but if you love Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father you'll go to
church. Then we have to show an increase of love, or they will get
offended. I love already the Bertrand's! They are awesome! The Hermana
and Hermano are hilarious. We asked them if they were reading the Book
of Mormon and the Hermano was like, "no." And we asked and invited
them to read for 5 minutes and the Hermano was straight up like, "no,"
and we were like.... Okay.... We got some work to do... But they are
awesome:)... And they fed us cake...not like we needed it, but it's
fine.
Well this week has been a good one! We worked really hard, we found,
we taught, and we testified! The best things ever! ..and gave two foot
massages... I love it! Never thought I'd do that on my mission. One
quote that I found this week that's really helped me is this one by
C.S. Lewis (who is seriously my hero!),
"Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and
so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not
come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures
are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch
there, I want to have the whole tree down. … Hand over the whole
natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the
ones you think wicked--the whole outfit. I will give you a new self
instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become
yours.”
This quote really hit me this week, because not only as
missionaries but as members of the church we need to be willing to
sacrifice EVERYTHING to have an eye single to the glory of god. We
need to be willing to put our whole selves into the work of Salvation!
"Christ says, Give me all..." That's what I am trying to do on my
mission, give Christ all. I hope we are willing to do the same. I hope
one day I can say, Christ killed my natural-self, my natural man, all
of it!
I love you family! Jacob! I love you brother! A week and a little bit
more! Then you'll be out here with me! I'm so proud of you! I love
you!
Well for another week to give Christ all!
All of me loves all of you all
Con mucho amor
Hermana Hammond
Biking in Marengo! Super pretty
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