Sep. 8, 2014 Be yourself! :)

Sep. 8, 2014 Be yourself :)
Feliz Cumpleanos: Natalie, Kristin W., Mom! And Happy Anniversary G-ma & G-pa Wow 58 years!!
 FAMIIA!

MOMOMOM_--- HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I love you so much mom. You are the best mom in the whole world. Literally and I miss you so much. I want you to come out here to Chicago and go on a mission just for a while and be my companion, I am gonna ask Pres. Totally gonna do that. Be watching for a call momma. ;)

We had a great week!
Tuesday- We had exchanges! I went down with Hermana Clanton! It's a
funny story because we knew each other from BYU-I before the mission.
Kinda crazy. But she has such a fun area! We rode bikes ALL day. We
were doing some finding, and it was so fun! I think we rode for like 7
hours, but it was great. We also helped this cute lady from their ward
named Luisa, and she is learning how to write! It was the cutest
thing. I have taken so many things for granted in my life, one of
those being how to read, and how to write. Many people don't know how,
they come from places that they never went to school, and it was so
fun to start to teach this woman how to start to write.-- she also
sang us some Virgin Mary songs- yes, she is a member if you were
wondering-- just forgot that we don't believe in the virgin-- love
her. It was a great exchange. We worked hard!

Miercoles- We worked so hard. We got up and taught Rosa Males. She's
the cutest Ecuadorian lady you've ever met.  She is probably one of
the poorest people I have ever met as well. She LOVES animals. She has
this chicken that was sick and she just holds it like a baby, and
feeds it, and I don't even want to know how many diseases it has. She
sells bracelets and that is her only income. It is so humbling going
to her home, it's a basement, and only half of a basement. She has to
share it with another man who she doesn't really know because that's
the only way she can pay for the rent. -- right now the man is in
Ecuador- don't worry different bedrooms. But it really is so humbling
going over there to teach her.

Jueves- We had lunch with one of my favorite members, Hna Milagros. I
seriously love her to pieces. She reminds me of my family. I want her
to come to our family reunions. I just love her. We ate a lot of food.
Here most of our members are Puerto Rican. We don't eat tortillas, we
eat TONS of rice and tons of PAN. Gaining weight? You can only bet on
it. We also have a meeting every Thursday called MCM. We have THE BEST
ward mission leader! He is so fired up about the missionary work, it's
AWESOME. Never in my mission have I had MCM like I do here, it
seriously is the best. All of us missionaries in this ward go and talk
about investigators and man, it's awesome. Working with the ward
really is key in missionary work. For my whole mission that's what our
mission president has stressed and stressed and it's true! The members
HAVE to help us because they are the ones that stay with the
investigators. It's awesome.

Viernes- It was a very busy awesome day. We went to the mission office
for a training for the new Sister Training Leaders. It was really
good, but the best part was after. President gave us all blessings. We
don't get set apart for this calling, We just get blessings. It's a
really special thing to get a priesthood blessing from your Mission
President. I have been worrying about a few things, like knowing how
to help the Hermanas and trying my best to be a good example, but
president just told me that I needed to just be myself, and be
enthusiastic about the work and that's all I had to do. Here were his
words, "Don't worry very simply be YOURSELF." It was very reassuring,
because it's easy to get worried about working hard enough, but in the
end the most important thing, is be obedient and be yourself!

Sabado- I went on an exchange with Hermana Michael! It was great! I
don't really have time to say much more! It was fun going back with an
old companion!

Domingo- love church. We saw lots of Milagros!

Well-- here honestly I am doing great! My companion is AWESOME. She is a hard worker and so fun! I really learn a lot from her. She's from  California and is part Japanese and 1/8 Puerto Rican... she's awesome. Love her. 

Well familia- sorry my emails are lame, just literally we have no time. But I love you all!

All of me loves all of you all,

Hermana Hammond

                                                     Hna Izu & I at the Chicago Bean

                                                 

                                                     

                                                      Eating a Chicago Dog!!!

                                                         Trainees from the Avatar university

                                                       The Chicago bean!