Hey family!
Wow what an amazing week this has been and i don't even know where to begin all i can say is that the Lord is watching out for Elder Caballero and I am so grateful to be here. Well first off mom i just barely got the package thank you so much! I love all of it and i'm only getting letters that are normal letters the dear elders haven't come since before labor day ha so ya but thanks so much for the glasses i like them and i know i'm gonna be wearing them more! But ya we left the library last week with the intent of going to a dinner at a mexican ladies house and yes she stiffed us! haha so we rode our bikes all the way out there and got nothign but thats alright we got to talk to other people.
So this week i have been introduced to maryland rain! it rained for like 3 days straight and you can't not get soaked out here thats for sure! Elder caballero and i decided to walk one day and i was soaked from head to toe! ha that was a pretty sweet experience that i wont forget but ya it's been raining so bad here but yesterday and today have been hot and muggy just like it is supposed to be and i like that! haha
So we talked about going to the temple this weeked with Alan our investigator for a latin cultural thing! and yes we went! holy cow that temple is so sweet i didn't think that it was gonna be that cool and all of the sudden your driving on the freeway and you come over a hill and BOOM the temple looks like it's just floating on the trees it is so sweet!Haha the temple is funny we will ask people if they have seen the temple and they are like no we ha ven't and then we say have you seen the big building off of 495 and then they say oh yeah that thing that looks like disneyland haha i thought that was kinda funny!
So alan is a stud! we have taught him and everytime we teach him and leave him with a chapter he has got it all studies out and has lots of questions. He is like the Golden investigator! So we were driving in the car of a member who is 18 and preparing for a mission and we started to talk about the chapter 2 ne 31 and he was like i need to be baptized and repent and he wanted to know why they kept talking about Baptizing a LAMB ha but it was such a great question and it's so great to have someone actually read and be so interested so it was nice to talk to him about the chapter. So we went to the temple and got there and they had all kinds of different countries there and all these different kinds of dances and they just were really cool to see so many different countries come to the temple and do that it was so sweet! During the presentation alan leaned over to me and was like "Man everywhere i go with you and anytime i'm with you guys everyone is happy and the people around us are always happy" and i just said well alan thats the church! We really had a great night and after we went around the temple visitor center and he looked at the pictures of the temple and was asking about the baptismal font and why there were cows under it, but man i just loved his questions! Because he is so interested and so into the gospel!And as we were driving home he started talking to us and started to tell us that he hasn't really had friends and that for the first time in his life that we (elder cabe and i) have came into his life and are truly his friends and he feels that we are true and loyal and all this. And the church stuff matters don't get me wrong but to have him tell me something like that meant all the world to me becuase i know thats what is most important is that these people feel this way! Man i just wanted to cry cause this kid comes from nothign and works for his mom and little brother and he's fine with that because he has got his head in such the right place!So we had a great night and this weekend was stake conference and he said he would come so smooth sailing!
Well sunday mornign came around there alan was 15 minutes away from his house at church, they had a meeting at 9 for all people who have been new to the church or baptized or endowed and they all shared there testimonies of their conversion stories, and that was the best for ALAN! because some of these people are really really different but you just see the joy that the gospel brings and that's what he needs to know!So then it was stake conference and wow waht a agreat meeting that was! President Belliston spoke and gave one of those kind of jeffrey r holland savior talks that had me in tears! My mission pres. is a powerful man! His testiomony could have shook the room! He talked about that lonely road of the savior and because of that we don't have to go alone and ya he had me in tears! haha i'm such a boob but man it was just powerful! and i could feel the spirit so strong and alan could too!There is just somethign about being out here on a mission and feeling that love of the savior and feeling the joy and peace that we can get from him and i love it! My testimony is strenghthened everyday with the savior and just the love he has and his hand is apart of everything we do!But after stake conference we were able to go and teach alan the third lesson the gospel of jesus Christ!
This lesson was one of the most powerful lessons i have ever been apart of and elder caballero and i were just filled! But it was the perfect lesson cause we wanted to give him a baptismal invitation, and thats exactly what we did! We got to the part about baptism and i just flat out said "alan you know the bom is true and joseph smith is a prophet of god, the next step is baptism, will you be baptised september 26th?" and he said yes! Were having a baptism in two weeks! I am so excited you have no idea! He is such a stud and he is gonna be such a great member and wow the lord had blessed us so much to put alan in our path and he has been prepared! We have been so blessed to have him in our lives. One part in the lesson that i want to share is he told us that his family meant everything to him. And i told him that i know that he is going to be a great example by being baptised to his family. and he has a little brother thats 13 the same difference between me and nick and as we talked i started to talk about the example that he is goign to be to his little brother, and yeah i started crying in the lesson because i just know how much nick means to me and the example that he has been in my life. i love you bro thanks for the opportunity to be able to talk about you like that! you really are the best example! But ya just an emotional sunday but the greatest happiness i have recieved since i have been here was to feel the spirit that day and to have him commit to be baptized in 2 weeks! some people wait so long for that and i just am so happy and know that the lord has done all this not me, but that he has prepared alan so we can bring him the truth!The hand of the lord is in everything that we do and i feel so blessed to be here ahh you have no idea how amazing it is out here in maryland, ha i'm falling in lvoe with the people and the area.
One thing that i have noticed about maryland is that the roads are rediculous ha no organization whatsoever! Thank goodness for Brigham young in utah! you all have no idea how lucky we are. i'm becoming quite the navigator though.haha one other thing i have figured out about this area is that every house is so dark. they don't have central lighting here for some reason it's really strange haha just the little things that are so different are so funny to me and ya it's just funny to see the difference between here and utah haha because there's alot!
But i'm running out of time and i just wanted to thank you all for the emails and thanks for the story about president holland jace i loved that! we listened to a talk from him today and wow just a powerful powerful man!Thanks nick for the email and i am so happy to get your new address. Thanks for all the updates and GO IRISH haha bell i am glad to hear that your prom went well and kissless! nice work! Thank you all so much for everything and for the prayers and for the love i love you all so much, and thanks for my pen pals too! i am so happy here and we have lots to do but i love you all so much and the lord is with me! Have a great week and kow that i am loving every minute here and i love this place. the church is true and we have lots of work to do for our baptism this week so i'll keep you all posted. I love you all and the church is true enough said!
Les amo mucho!
Elder Hammer
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
{hola fam}
Hey family! Wow another has gone by! And i though the time at the MTC went by fast wow these last two weeks have flown by and i can't beleive the places i've been the people i've seen and the opportunities i have had wow! I can't believe what a mission really is. You can't prepare yourself at the the MTC for this experience haha it is just so different but it is the greatest, most humbling work that i have ever done. I loved opening up your emails this week thank you all so much. I really am so blessed to have such great people in my life who constantly write me and who are continually filling me in on their lives and i just love it, so thank you all very much. First and formost i have an announcement haha P DAYS ARE NOW ON MONDAYS AFTER TODAY. so this next monday the 14th i will be back emailing you again. President Belliston wanted to change it because he has seen some declines in the days of monday and tuesday after sunday when for our whole lives sunday has been the end of the week and he just wants us to start the week on monday for p day and the rest of the week working hard so ya thats something you might like to know haha but that is a permanent swith and will be like that forever.
So this week i was spoiled with packages and letters thank you all so much. Mom the tie hanger was a must i was gonna get one of those and you read my mind and now i've got one and all my ties hanging on there (color coordinated of course) haha I know nick has that same appreciation of color coordinating ties haha but thanks so much mom for the treats and the letters and notes. And thanks to everyone who sent me stuff. i have no need to ever feel hungry or loved cause you all take care of that for me so much and i appreciate them all so much so thank you thank you.
So i've had my first glimpse of east coast weather this week ha It's been raining and cloudy for most of the week and it doesn't look like it's gonna be changing ha but wow if you all wanna try something fun, get on a bike and ride from st. george to about......cedar city haha in the rain. Ha it's great knocking on doors when your soaking wet, people actuallly let us in ha. I don't think it's cause they want to listen to us though but more of that they feel bad for us. But ya the weather here is crazy haha but i love it cause when we are out on bikes we get to see and meet so many people and thats the best part because most people will at least listen to us. But ya i am a little akward on a bike. ha 6'5'' people just were not made to be riding bikes. Ha my seat is as high as it can go and it kinda looks like a circus when i'm on there but hey i manage alright and it's fun. haha You all know i'm just joking around because i love biking and everything about it!
This week we had one of our investigators names Elso come to church again! which was sweet because it's in english and that pushes alot of people away but he has came for the last two weeks and we put the wood to him and he committed to be baptized! We need to set up a date with him and he's got a lot of work to do but i have so much faith in this guy, and obviously he does too because he wouldn't be coming to church if he didn't ha but ya i'm excited about him. And then we have another investigator named Marta who was a media referal and we have been over there a couple times and were able to commit her to baptism. But then we went over there last night to talk with her more and set up a date and she gave us the cold shoulder and said she didn't want to change from catholic and that she just believes that all about christ is good and that we are true but so is catholic. for the first time i was like slapped in the face i couldn't believe this lady was saying this but i think that her family is influencing her not to join and so were gonna have to keep working on her because i know she has felt the spirit and knows it's true so were gonna keep working on her and hopefully we can get her to feeling the truth again.
We were up in Brooklyn Park the other day knocking some houses and were able to find this lady name veronica and she had a couple kids and she is really interested and her sister lives down the street and is married to a less active member. We are so excited to go after these people because they are such great people and elder caballero had the opportunity to talk with the guy and we think he's gonna get coming back to church and ya i'm just really gaining a testimony that the lord really puts people in our way for a reason and there is constant opportunities to serve. Like yesterday we went to a place that we haven't been to in a long time and we talked with 3 new guys and got return appointments with all 3 of them and it just amazes me that we are able to find so many new people. I know thats not us though thats for sure it's the lord, we don't have many baptismal dates but we have a lot of new people that we are gettign started on and that is really exciting for sure!
So this week i got my first experience with the LATINO COMIDA (food). haha we went over to one of our iffy investigators and are trying to teach them but they can't read adn so that makes it difficult but were workign with them, but we walk in there and she chatters off this thing and i don't know what she says but elder caballero just looks over at me and says "i hope your hungry" haha and now my mind started to imagine what we were gonna eat ha. So we sit up at the table and there's three torillas on my plate and they are stuffed with this "stuff" ha and i din't want to know what i was eating i just said please bless this food not to kill me haha and i dug in and wow it was so good! They had this hot sauce that was HOT but i'm starting to like that stuff but i ate and ate and we were stuffed. In the middle was like this bean cheesy meaty stuff and it was pretty good so i din't ask any questions and i guess they are called "POPUSO" OR POPUSA i don't know but they were really good and come to find out after, the stuff inside was beans and cheese and pig skin grinded up in a food processor haha i didn't care though they were dang good and i'm still living and i'm here today so i'm alright and i'd eat them again for sure haha. Tonight we are going over to a less actice members family named the chavez and she is making us dinner so i'll have a story to report on monday haha. No but we are being fed so good and we took over a new area and that ward feeds us two or three times a week and we are having good food, so don't you worry mom.
So this week we were at a lesson and Elder caballero pulled out a picture of his family in his scriptures and started to talk about his family and i was like i need to do that. So i put one in there of us and 3 times this past week i have pulled it out and shown them my family as we teach about eternal families and the importance of families. I love pulling that thing out because they are all just excited to see the fam and everyone says i look like you pops! Every person has said that i thought that was kinda funny but ya so i have the pictures of our fam and your being shown to Maryland. haha
So this week at church we got a note in sacrament meeting and there was this kid sitting up in front the was hispanic by himself and we had never seen him before. So we went up there after church and talked to him. Come to find out that he has wants to investigate the church and he just showed up and wanted to see what it was like. (It doesn't get any easier than that wow) So we set up an appt with him and we taught him two days ago. Wow this kid is a stud he's 19 and lives with his mom and brother and is supporting them and paying for everything, and he siad that his mom has taken care of him his whole life and that it was time for him to step up and take care of his mother who he loves so much. Wow i never realized how blessed i am and to hear someone say that hit me. These people sacrifice so much out here and i just dont' think we will ever realize how good our life is. We are so blessed. But back to the lesson he totally was feeling the spirit and we taught him the first lesson and this week at the D.C. Temple they are having a culutral hispanic night on sat and sunday so we invited him to that and he siad he would. I'm so excited because we don't get to go to the temple here more than like once a year unless we take investigators and we can go, so we are going to the temple with him on sat night with his mom and brother, adn we committed him to be baptised and he said that he would be baptized on the 26th of sep! I am so excited to teach him more and to keep him progressing but i feel liek he is so solid and i hope that he keeps feeling the spirit because he is an amazing kid and could be a big bonus in helping us get a spanish branch started! I'll keep you posted on that for sure! But ya i'm so excited about him and others that we have too.
Well thats about it for this week and i hope you all have enjoyed your week and thank you all so much for all you do and for the great people that you are i dunno what it is but there just is a whole new appreciation in my life for the people that are with me and have influenced me! Thanks for the letters and all my pen pals for writing me and keeping me all updated. i love them. I am loving it here in good ol glen burnie, maryland. we really are so blessed and have so much to do and i hope that all goes well this week with marta and elso and alan and all our new ones as well. Thank you all so much and i love you all tons. Have a great week and i just love this gospel and we are all so blessed to have a savior and his sacrifice for us. It's the leas ti can do to be here for him! Have a great week everyone and i love you all!
Con mucho amor,
Elder hammer
So this week i was spoiled with packages and letters thank you all so much. Mom the tie hanger was a must i was gonna get one of those and you read my mind and now i've got one and all my ties hanging on there (color coordinated of course) haha I know nick has that same appreciation of color coordinating ties haha but thanks so much mom for the treats and the letters and notes. And thanks to everyone who sent me stuff. i have no need to ever feel hungry or loved cause you all take care of that for me so much and i appreciate them all so much so thank you thank you.
So i've had my first glimpse of east coast weather this week ha It's been raining and cloudy for most of the week and it doesn't look like it's gonna be changing ha but wow if you all wanna try something fun, get on a bike and ride from st. george to about......cedar city haha in the rain. Ha it's great knocking on doors when your soaking wet, people actuallly let us in ha. I don't think it's cause they want to listen to us though but more of that they feel bad for us. But ya the weather here is crazy haha but i love it cause when we are out on bikes we get to see and meet so many people and thats the best part because most people will at least listen to us. But ya i am a little akward on a bike. ha 6'5'' people just were not made to be riding bikes. Ha my seat is as high as it can go and it kinda looks like a circus when i'm on there but hey i manage alright and it's fun. haha You all know i'm just joking around because i love biking and everything about it!
This week we had one of our investigators names Elso come to church again! which was sweet because it's in english and that pushes alot of people away but he has came for the last two weeks and we put the wood to him and he committed to be baptized! We need to set up a date with him and he's got a lot of work to do but i have so much faith in this guy, and obviously he does too because he wouldn't be coming to church if he didn't ha but ya i'm excited about him. And then we have another investigator named Marta who was a media referal and we have been over there a couple times and were able to commit her to baptism. But then we went over there last night to talk with her more and set up a date and she gave us the cold shoulder and said she didn't want to change from catholic and that she just believes that all about christ is good and that we are true but so is catholic. for the first time i was like slapped in the face i couldn't believe this lady was saying this but i think that her family is influencing her not to join and so were gonna have to keep working on her because i know she has felt the spirit and knows it's true so were gonna keep working on her and hopefully we can get her to feeling the truth again.
We were up in Brooklyn Park the other day knocking some houses and were able to find this lady name veronica and she had a couple kids and she is really interested and her sister lives down the street and is married to a less active member. We are so excited to go after these people because they are such great people and elder caballero had the opportunity to talk with the guy and we think he's gonna get coming back to church and ya i'm just really gaining a testimony that the lord really puts people in our way for a reason and there is constant opportunities to serve. Like yesterday we went to a place that we haven't been to in a long time and we talked with 3 new guys and got return appointments with all 3 of them and it just amazes me that we are able to find so many new people. I know thats not us though thats for sure it's the lord, we don't have many baptismal dates but we have a lot of new people that we are gettign started on and that is really exciting for sure!
So this week i got my first experience with the LATINO COMIDA (food). haha we went over to one of our iffy investigators and are trying to teach them but they can't read adn so that makes it difficult but were workign with them, but we walk in there and she chatters off this thing and i don't know what she says but elder caballero just looks over at me and says "i hope your hungry" haha and now my mind started to imagine what we were gonna eat ha. So we sit up at the table and there's three torillas on my plate and they are stuffed with this "stuff" ha and i din't want to know what i was eating i just said please bless this food not to kill me haha and i dug in and wow it was so good! They had this hot sauce that was HOT but i'm starting to like that stuff but i ate and ate and we were stuffed. In the middle was like this bean cheesy meaty stuff and it was pretty good so i din't ask any questions and i guess they are called "POPUSO" OR POPUSA i don't know but they were really good and come to find out after, the stuff inside was beans and cheese and pig skin grinded up in a food processor haha i didn't care though they were dang good and i'm still living and i'm here today so i'm alright and i'd eat them again for sure haha. Tonight we are going over to a less actice members family named the chavez and she is making us dinner so i'll have a story to report on monday haha. No but we are being fed so good and we took over a new area and that ward feeds us two or three times a week and we are having good food, so don't you worry mom.
So this week we were at a lesson and Elder caballero pulled out a picture of his family in his scriptures and started to talk about his family and i was like i need to do that. So i put one in there of us and 3 times this past week i have pulled it out and shown them my family as we teach about eternal families and the importance of families. I love pulling that thing out because they are all just excited to see the fam and everyone says i look like you pops! Every person has said that i thought that was kinda funny but ya so i have the pictures of our fam and your being shown to Maryland. haha
So this week at church we got a note in sacrament meeting and there was this kid sitting up in front the was hispanic by himself and we had never seen him before. So we went up there after church and talked to him. Come to find out that he has wants to investigate the church and he just showed up and wanted to see what it was like. (It doesn't get any easier than that wow) So we set up an appt with him and we taught him two days ago. Wow this kid is a stud he's 19 and lives with his mom and brother and is supporting them and paying for everything, and he siad that his mom has taken care of him his whole life and that it was time for him to step up and take care of his mother who he loves so much. Wow i never realized how blessed i am and to hear someone say that hit me. These people sacrifice so much out here and i just dont' think we will ever realize how good our life is. We are so blessed. But back to the lesson he totally was feeling the spirit and we taught him the first lesson and this week at the D.C. Temple they are having a culutral hispanic night on sat and sunday so we invited him to that and he siad he would. I'm so excited because we don't get to go to the temple here more than like once a year unless we take investigators and we can go, so we are going to the temple with him on sat night with his mom and brother, adn we committed him to be baptised and he said that he would be baptized on the 26th of sep! I am so excited to teach him more and to keep him progressing but i feel liek he is so solid and i hope that he keeps feeling the spirit because he is an amazing kid and could be a big bonus in helping us get a spanish branch started! I'll keep you posted on that for sure! But ya i'm so excited about him and others that we have too.
Well thats about it for this week and i hope you all have enjoyed your week and thank you all so much for all you do and for the great people that you are i dunno what it is but there just is a whole new appreciation in my life for the people that are with me and have influenced me! Thanks for the letters and all my pen pals for writing me and keeping me all updated. i love them. I am loving it here in good ol glen burnie, maryland. we really are so blessed and have so much to do and i hope that all goes well this week with marta and elso and alan and all our new ones as well. Thank you all so much and i love you all tons. Have a great week and i just love this gospel and we are all so blessed to have a savior and his sacrifice for us. It's the leas ti can do to be here for him! Have a great week everyone and i love you all!
Con mucho amor,
Elder hammer
Sunday, September 6, 2009
tour de maryland
Hey Family!
Well i can't believe that one week has already gone by and here i am again emailing my first full week of the mission haha wow what a week! All i have to say is that i haven't slept this good in my entire life! i come home at night and colapse in bed and it's the best feeling in the entire world! Ha wow when i talk titled this email tour de maryland is because i feel like we have been all around the state...yep on bike haha i'll be like lance armstrong when i get back you just watch! haha Ok well thank you so much for the emails i loved reading those and being able to open up my emails and see some emails from ya wow that was fun. i can't decide if you should email or write just becuase we only get an hour so maybe do some shorter emails and write dear elders because that will be easier i think but i'll let you know as time goes on. Well this week i got a couple letters from you mom and one from grandma hafen and a couple from my other pen pals. Thank you so so much i loved reading them and love the happiness to hear from all of you. Thank you i think the best is to just send stuff to my apartment because i think the mission home is a little slow on sending them to us so ya. But thank you all for those they have been so great. Thank you grandma fro that wonderful story in your letter what a inspirtaion that was thank you thank you!
Well now to the good stuff, my week! Ha well after we left last week we went shopping and got some stuff and i got unpacked and had to hurry and get to an appt. Sorry for not writing letters last week to you all and my pen pals but i didn't have any time i'm sorry but there will be some goign out in the mail today so be watching for them! So we get ready to go out and teach a lady named marta and were on bikes and i have no idea wehre i'm going ha i'm just following my companion and my eyes are wide open haha Welcome to the east coast! Wow there is some things out here that are just hilarious. But wow that first day was an eye opening experience i tell ya but i love it it's really great out here. So we are riding our bikes and i'm riding and i hear this clink, clink, clink...yep my pedal off my bike fell off! haha it was funny and we couldn't get it fixed and we were luckily clost to home and just walked it back(Don't worry mom my bike is fine i got it fixed and it's perfect now it just needed a screw don't worry)so we missed our apptment and i was like dang thats not how i want to start off ha but we got right back out there and started looking for people. We ran into a hispanic on the road and we started right then and there teaching him and i couldn't understand a lick! but i got to pipe in quite a bit and do some teaching. It was a lot of fun to get to talk and now that i have been around so many hispanics, my ears are starting to get trained on how to pick words up and i'm understanding better and better everyday. The lord is blessing me that's for sure. But ya it was nice to get that first spanish contact but we haven't seen or heard from him since. The latin culture is different and in a week i can already tell that i love these people. That night we went knocking and it's really difficult for me and my companion just because we are spanish and want to talk to just spanish cause there is english elders but when we go knocking we have to be prepared to do either or haha so that kind of makes it interesting. But that night we were able to knock on a door and his name was Jeremiah and he was pretty anti at the beginning and then as we started talking to him about the book of mormon and what we bleieve in he started to really warm up to the idea of us. I could tell that the spirit was working on him a little bit and we gave him a book of mormon and it was sweet and were gonna go back this week and check up on him. So that first night was pretty fun and yes i slept like a rock ha i have no problem getting sleep that is for sure! So the next day we were up and at em again and on our bikes again and it was hot! haha i was leaking pops absolutely leaking! I loved it though my companion just said follow me and i did and we were off to referals homes and riding the light rail (ha that's a sweet experience!) and ya the tour de maryland had officially begun. I've never been more tired in my life at the end of that night being on a bike and my bottom getting used to that Bike seat ha thats an experience in and of itself haha but that day we had been everywhere and we had a dinner aptment and we were late and we were just booking it there and we were about a half hour late and we got there (it felt like we had just biked across the state i might add haha) and we get to this house and tortellini was waiting for us. ha i am gaining a great appreciation for food out here cause good home cooked meals are the best! The couple that had us over for dinner are two young married people that just live in a little house in maryland and are so nice. So we get talking during dinner and he says he served his mission in fiji, suva and i was like oh really thats strange and then he starts saying that he was in the kiribus islands for most of the time and i asked him if he knew mitch north. OH YEAH mitch was this guys zone leader! his name is matt larsen. i swear the world is so small and everyone knows everyone here i tell ya, but ya i thought that was really funny! So after dinner we went and visited some less active families and wow these little kids just steal my heart. These people have nothing here absolutely nothing, and these little kids come out and play with us and smile and laugh and it just gets to me how these kids can be so happy when they have nothing and its really humbling. Ha they make fun of my spanish and at the same time they help me with it too but i can tell that the little kids here are gonna be really fun and i love it. I absolutely love it here and being so out of my shell in utah. There is so much poverty here and everything is so different but it's humbling to know how much i have and how grateful i am each night when i pray to have a family and a home and food.
So the next day we headed up to Brooklyn Park ha now thats a sweet area, but one thing i ha ve figured out here is don't judge the people by the house beause some of the worst houses is where the Best People are! We ttalked that night with a lady named marleni and her husband marco and we hadn't talked to them before and we were just trying to get to know them and not just jump into a lesson and it was so great. The people in this culture are so NICE. They always invite us in and always ask us if we need a coke or orange soda ha (orange soda is turning into my new favorite) and we sat there and talked about families and the blessings that they are and the joy in our lives and if there is one thing that i ha ve learned to do it is to testify of my love of families and how grateful i am for mine. And it was really cool to listen to her haha actually TRY and listen to her, this lady talks as fast as a speeding bullet ha but she just talked about how amazing it was to see 19 year old boys dedicating their lives to this work and how amazing it is how fast we can learn and communicate in spanish, and i just looked at her and i've been getting in this habit when we talk with people and i was like ok you'd be an amazing member ha but ya it's just fun to be around this culture that is for sure.
So elder caballero and i have a huge area and we only get so many miles the car every other day so we are working the pavement on the bikes ha. We ride the light rail and buses too and it's sweet to talk to people on those and just see the different kind of people that are in this world ha. It's really weird though i have been in some fun areas and around some funny people and never not once have i felt unsafe. i remember when nick talked about his tag being his shield and i am gaining a testimony of that for sure. The lord is with us and takes good care of us! No need to worry mom i promise that i am safe and sound and loving every minute of it!So we also have another area that we just took over too cause the sisters aren't there anymore so that's just peachy haha. This sunday we went to 2 different wards and 6 hours of meetings that was fun haha
We had zone conference on monday and that was a fun experience. Our mission pres is the man. He was on one about being obedient and get to work ha he was saying i get so tired of whining out here and then he was like "so buck up and get to work" and i just love his personality. He always has a smile on his face. ALWAYS and he just has so much love ofr all of us and i am excited to spend more tiem with him but zone conference was great!
Last night we went to Golden Corral with a member from the other ward ha i never knew i liked Golden Corral that much but as grandpa hafen says when we go to buffets "they didn't make any money off of me" that was true last night. haha
So i have one last story. We knocked on this ladies door the other day and she thought we were JW'S. But she said we could come back and teach her so we went back and it was her birthday. She invited us in and gave us cake and ice cream. It was sweet and then we started to talk to her. And she told us this story about how she had heart surgery and during the surgery she was dead for about 5 minutes and she said she had seen the other side and all she wanted to know was if we believed in life after death. And i got so excited beause everythign she was saying was the Plan of salvation and wow i just got chills she said she had seen the light on the other side and her husband was there telling her that she needed to go back. So basically it was the most spiritually uplifting lesson i've had since i've been here. She talked about faith and how she's always had it and that is what has got her through. It was a testimony builder to me that we need to have faith. She had so much and had a really ruff like and the only thing i can say is i feel like she's gonna be a baptism, i just feel it so i will keep you posted on her as well!
Well fam everything is great in maryland it's beautiful here the trees are enormous and the east coast is great. I have so much to learn and so much to do but this is a happy time. I love my companion and i love the people that we are teaching. Mom and Dad congrats on 28 years i'm sorry i forgot that but I'M So happy for you! Thanks for being great examples to me and i love you both so much. Bell congrats on getting asked to Homecoming. If he touches you i'll kill him plain and simple haha I'm healthy and i'm happy and this work is amazing. I am doing great mom don't worry. We've got the lord on our side and we have no need to fear! I love you all so much and i pray for all of you and hope that you can feel the love of me and the lord in your lives everyday because i can feel yours everyday! Thank you all so much and i can't wait to tell you the new adventures of this week! Take care and thanks for all the letters and packages fam and pen pals your the best and i love you all!
Nos vemos,
Elder Hammer
Well i can't believe that one week has already gone by and here i am again emailing my first full week of the mission haha wow what a week! All i have to say is that i haven't slept this good in my entire life! i come home at night and colapse in bed and it's the best feeling in the entire world! Ha wow when i talk titled this email tour de maryland is because i feel like we have been all around the state...yep on bike haha i'll be like lance armstrong when i get back you just watch! haha Ok well thank you so much for the emails i loved reading those and being able to open up my emails and see some emails from ya wow that was fun. i can't decide if you should email or write just becuase we only get an hour so maybe do some shorter emails and write dear elders because that will be easier i think but i'll let you know as time goes on. Well this week i got a couple letters from you mom and one from grandma hafen and a couple from my other pen pals. Thank you so so much i loved reading them and love the happiness to hear from all of you. Thank you i think the best is to just send stuff to my apartment because i think the mission home is a little slow on sending them to us so ya. But thank you all for those they have been so great. Thank you grandma fro that wonderful story in your letter what a inspirtaion that was thank you thank you!
Well now to the good stuff, my week! Ha well after we left last week we went shopping and got some stuff and i got unpacked and had to hurry and get to an appt. Sorry for not writing letters last week to you all and my pen pals but i didn't have any time i'm sorry but there will be some goign out in the mail today so be watching for them! So we get ready to go out and teach a lady named marta and were on bikes and i have no idea wehre i'm going ha i'm just following my companion and my eyes are wide open haha Welcome to the east coast! Wow there is some things out here that are just hilarious. But wow that first day was an eye opening experience i tell ya but i love it it's really great out here. So we are riding our bikes and i'm riding and i hear this clink, clink, clink...yep my pedal off my bike fell off! haha it was funny and we couldn't get it fixed and we were luckily clost to home and just walked it back(Don't worry mom my bike is fine i got it fixed and it's perfect now it just needed a screw don't worry)so we missed our apptment and i was like dang thats not how i want to start off ha but we got right back out there and started looking for people. We ran into a hispanic on the road and we started right then and there teaching him and i couldn't understand a lick! but i got to pipe in quite a bit and do some teaching. It was a lot of fun to get to talk and now that i have been around so many hispanics, my ears are starting to get trained on how to pick words up and i'm understanding better and better everyday. The lord is blessing me that's for sure. But ya it was nice to get that first spanish contact but we haven't seen or heard from him since. The latin culture is different and in a week i can already tell that i love these people. That night we went knocking and it's really difficult for me and my companion just because we are spanish and want to talk to just spanish cause there is english elders but when we go knocking we have to be prepared to do either or haha so that kind of makes it interesting. But that night we were able to knock on a door and his name was Jeremiah and he was pretty anti at the beginning and then as we started talking to him about the book of mormon and what we bleieve in he started to really warm up to the idea of us. I could tell that the spirit was working on him a little bit and we gave him a book of mormon and it was sweet and were gonna go back this week and check up on him. So that first night was pretty fun and yes i slept like a rock ha i have no problem getting sleep that is for sure! So the next day we were up and at em again and on our bikes again and it was hot! haha i was leaking pops absolutely leaking! I loved it though my companion just said follow me and i did and we were off to referals homes and riding the light rail (ha that's a sweet experience!) and ya the tour de maryland had officially begun. I've never been more tired in my life at the end of that night being on a bike and my bottom getting used to that Bike seat ha thats an experience in and of itself haha but that day we had been everywhere and we had a dinner aptment and we were late and we were just booking it there and we were about a half hour late and we got there (it felt like we had just biked across the state i might add haha) and we get to this house and tortellini was waiting for us. ha i am gaining a great appreciation for food out here cause good home cooked meals are the best! The couple that had us over for dinner are two young married people that just live in a little house in maryland and are so nice. So we get talking during dinner and he says he served his mission in fiji, suva and i was like oh really thats strange and then he starts saying that he was in the kiribus islands for most of the time and i asked him if he knew mitch north. OH YEAH mitch was this guys zone leader! his name is matt larsen. i swear the world is so small and everyone knows everyone here i tell ya, but ya i thought that was really funny! So after dinner we went and visited some less active families and wow these little kids just steal my heart. These people have nothing here absolutely nothing, and these little kids come out and play with us and smile and laugh and it just gets to me how these kids can be so happy when they have nothing and its really humbling. Ha they make fun of my spanish and at the same time they help me with it too but i can tell that the little kids here are gonna be really fun and i love it. I absolutely love it here and being so out of my shell in utah. There is so much poverty here and everything is so different but it's humbling to know how much i have and how grateful i am each night when i pray to have a family and a home and food.
So the next day we headed up to Brooklyn Park ha now thats a sweet area, but one thing i ha ve figured out here is don't judge the people by the house beause some of the worst houses is where the Best People are! We ttalked that night with a lady named marleni and her husband marco and we hadn't talked to them before and we were just trying to get to know them and not just jump into a lesson and it was so great. The people in this culture are so NICE. They always invite us in and always ask us if we need a coke or orange soda ha (orange soda is turning into my new favorite) and we sat there and talked about families and the blessings that they are and the joy in our lives and if there is one thing that i ha ve learned to do it is to testify of my love of families and how grateful i am for mine. And it was really cool to listen to her haha actually TRY and listen to her, this lady talks as fast as a speeding bullet ha but she just talked about how amazing it was to see 19 year old boys dedicating their lives to this work and how amazing it is how fast we can learn and communicate in spanish, and i just looked at her and i've been getting in this habit when we talk with people and i was like ok you'd be an amazing member ha but ya it's just fun to be around this culture that is for sure.
So elder caballero and i have a huge area and we only get so many miles the car every other day so we are working the pavement on the bikes ha. We ride the light rail and buses too and it's sweet to talk to people on those and just see the different kind of people that are in this world ha. It's really weird though i have been in some fun areas and around some funny people and never not once have i felt unsafe. i remember when nick talked about his tag being his shield and i am gaining a testimony of that for sure. The lord is with us and takes good care of us! No need to worry mom i promise that i am safe and sound and loving every minute of it!So we also have another area that we just took over too cause the sisters aren't there anymore so that's just peachy haha. This sunday we went to 2 different wards and 6 hours of meetings that was fun haha
We had zone conference on monday and that was a fun experience. Our mission pres is the man. He was on one about being obedient and get to work ha he was saying i get so tired of whining out here and then he was like "so buck up and get to work" and i just love his personality. He always has a smile on his face. ALWAYS and he just has so much love ofr all of us and i am excited to spend more tiem with him but zone conference was great!
Last night we went to Golden Corral with a member from the other ward ha i never knew i liked Golden Corral that much but as grandpa hafen says when we go to buffets "they didn't make any money off of me" that was true last night. haha
So i have one last story. We knocked on this ladies door the other day and she thought we were JW'S. But she said we could come back and teach her so we went back and it was her birthday. She invited us in and gave us cake and ice cream. It was sweet and then we started to talk to her. And she told us this story about how she had heart surgery and during the surgery she was dead for about 5 minutes and she said she had seen the other side and all she wanted to know was if we believed in life after death. And i got so excited beause everythign she was saying was the Plan of salvation and wow i just got chills she said she had seen the light on the other side and her husband was there telling her that she needed to go back. So basically it was the most spiritually uplifting lesson i've had since i've been here. She talked about faith and how she's always had it and that is what has got her through. It was a testimony builder to me that we need to have faith. She had so much and had a really ruff like and the only thing i can say is i feel like she's gonna be a baptism, i just feel it so i will keep you posted on her as well!
Well fam everything is great in maryland it's beautiful here the trees are enormous and the east coast is great. I have so much to learn and so much to do but this is a happy time. I love my companion and i love the people that we are teaching. Mom and Dad congrats on 28 years i'm sorry i forgot that but I'M So happy for you! Thanks for being great examples to me and i love you both so much. Bell congrats on getting asked to Homecoming. If he touches you i'll kill him plain and simple haha I'm healthy and i'm happy and this work is amazing. I am doing great mom don't worry. We've got the lord on our side and we have no need to fear! I love you all so much and i pray for all of you and hope that you can feel the love of me and the lord in your lives everyday because i can feel yours everyday! Thank you all so much and i can't wait to tell you the new adventures of this week! Take care and thanks for all the letters and packages fam and pen pals your the best and i love you all!
Nos vemos,
Elder Hammer
Thursday, September 3, 2009
a visual
the classic map picture
elder hammer & elder bowden
President & Sister Dean
Elder Hammer & Elder Archibald
Elder Hammer & Elder Bowden
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