July 21, 2014 I hit my 10 month mark... wahooo time SLOW DOWN

July 21, 2014 I hit my 10 month mark... wahooo time SLOW DOWN

Familia!

So I am kinda freaking out a little bit, REXBURG FLOODING!?!? Oh my
goodness, like the second coming is coming or something like that, or The
Lord is just telling you all to repent...;) jota kaw... (Say in
Spanish alphabet...haha I am so funny...) (If you don't get it, refer
to end of this email, answers on the bottom.)

AND REMIX LOOKED AWESOME! I wish I could have been there to watch you all! I could tell you all just rocked the stage! NEXT YEAR I will be there, and be your biggest fan! 

Well, this week was great! Just kind of a normal missionary week I
guess you could say. The time is just going so fast! Last week I was
going to write you all, "Hey I hit my 9th month mark..." Then this
week happened and I already hit 10 month mark... Time is so raro on
the mission. This week went reallllly fast!

Lunes- We ate with the Gomez family, we ate Mole. That was good. I
think my tummy is FINALLY kinda getting used to mole. It's still
gross, but I can get it down and eat a lot and still get more, that's a
pretty good accomplishment. We talked about them going to the temple,
again, and they are just SO prepared. I seriously want you all to meet
them. They take such good care of us, sometimes we are riding our
bikes and Hno Gomez will see us and honk his horn, will wave, and will
pull over and yell, "YA COMIERON?" (have you already eaten?).... Haha,
and we say, "SI HERMANO!"... And he will yell, "CUANDO?" (When?) And
we say, "Como hace 2 horas!" (About 2 hours ago....) haha then invites
us to eat because 2 hours is too long, and we have to say, "Hermano we
are sorry! We have a cita! Pero you are the best!".... Happened a few
times, Hermana Gomez also... Has done it before... Yeah, they are so
awesome.
   The reason they love missionaries so much, is because they love the
gospel and the missionaries were lead by the spirit to bring this
happiness to them! The Lord was watching out for this family and still
is! He watches out for all of his children, and knows the best way to
make them happy is to come closer to Him and His son. I love this
quote from Elder Ballard because it helps me go day by day as I see
people reject what we have, or when they embrace it, he says, "...even
more destructive than any armed conflict is the war raging between
good and evil--between the Savior with His army of light and Satan
with his evil minions of darkness--for the very souls of the children
of God." We are fighting on the Saviors side, His army of light. Does
this not make your body shutter at that fact that we are on The Lord
side? Fighting for the SOULS of the children of God? I love it!


    Anyway, we also did service at the library, and that was so good!
We still do story time and we know all of the librarians and workers
and the little Hispanic kids that come in just melt my heart. We are
planting seeds! I know it!

Martes- well, we had lunch with Hna Monge and she was having a really
hard day. One minute that house can be nice and the next it can be
scary. We arrived at a time when there was lots of screaming that
happened and it just broke Hna Woolf and I's hearts. After eating we
went over to Noelia, who is our new investigator, (who we found last
week and she had told us she was waiting for us.,,) our lesson was
awesome with her. She is SO sweet! My favorite part of the restoration
is bringing up Jose Smith. I thought before my mission I would get
tired of sharing the first vision, but in fact it's my favorite part
to share! I love sharing what I KNOW to people who haven't even heard
of it. Testifying of Joseph Smith is such a powerful experience,
because not only can the spirit testify to them, but it also touches
our hearts and deepens our conversion. It is basically the best.

Miercoles- we met with Hna Calix. She is a less-active, and she is the
relief society 2nd counselor.... Yeah, that's our branch for ya.... It
has lots of problems, BUT it's getting SO much better than what it used
to be. She was telling us this, "Hermana, I know I am supposed to go
to church, and that my son is drinking and that my husband doesn't
want to come, and that my daughter is less-active... And I just don't
want to go, I know Hermanas that I am missing blessings from not
coming to church... I know it...." And we were like,..... "Umm, yep
Hermana you are missing blessings, WE NEED YOU, and the BRANCH NEEDS YOU.... Most of all, it's a commandment to come, and your losing your eternal life by breaking commandments...!"... Okay we didn't say it
quite like that, but I wanted to.

 I just wanna take people's agency away and say.... Sorry not sorry, come to church.... Haha. We shared a
Mormon message called Valor, I think in English it's called Courage,
and it's the one of Esther, and it's really powerful. She loved it and
we always testify of the Savior, and how much He wants her to come
back. It was so cute what she told us as we were leaving her home, she
said, "Hermanas I am going to put on my vestido de Valor y venir a la
Iglesia." (Put my dress, or suit, of courage and go to church....)

     After we had the Book of Mormon class, and we had four people
there. The Gomez and the Garcias. So awesome, four people isn't bad!
We talked about 1 Nefi 19. And every one  of us learn in the Book of
Mormon class. I love it. I can already see HUGE progress with the
Gomez fam, they could hardly read the Book of Mormon before, and NOW they
can read, understand, and add in scriptures to help out our lessons,
with personal experiences... Yeah.... It's incredible.

Jueves-- we had an AWESOME zone conference. I always learn so much,
and I always feel so ready to do better after them. We had to go over
the stuff that's been happening in Utah about the women and the
priesthood. Honestly it's makes me sad because what really is
happening is that these women DONT KNOW WHO THEY ARE, OR DONT KNOW
THEIR POTENTIAL. That's what it makes me think of.

We talked about it a lot; how we need men to have it now, and how honestly the priesthood
is all about serving, and how God doesn't want it that way and stuff,
but what I see is that they don't realize that one day they could
become LIKE God. They don't know who they are, so what are we out here
sharing? ... That God is our Heavenly Father and He loves us, and
wants us to become like Him.

Well, after we had interviews and that was really good. President had a lot of good advice for me, "Hermana
Hammond, I am counting on you..." It really hit me powerfully because
sometimes I feel that I'm not doing too much out here, but at least I
can show president that I love The Lord by working my hardest. If
president is counting on me, then I know that The Lord is counting on
me, so I will do my best!

Viernes-- we did our weekly planning, and that was good! We also had
our usual yum Friday China Buffet with Hna Alcantar. Sadly China
Buffet is closing down because (let's be honest, it's pretty gross..)
it doesn't have enough costumers. So it was our last time at China
Buffet... I just love that we go with Hna Alcantar, that's why I love
it so much!

Sabado-  We had a good day, but I didn't write anything in my journal,
but it was probably a good day.

Domingo- we stopped by like 7 people, but no one was home, or they were
busy. But we set up a lot of citas with people, so this next week we
are so busy. Being busy is so awesome! We also have 8 eating citas
this week, which means... Being in members homes! Horrah! Meaning
ultimately that we are building the branch, I love it.

Well family, I am so grateful everyone is okay from the flood. That is
so scary! Rexburg is like the driest place, so flooding is pretty
crazy! I bet the farmers were happy!

And sorry I have no more time because we are going to the Cooper
family right now. Love you all!

All of me loves all of you all.
Hermana Hammond

Ps answer is jk