march 15th

Hello, hello
Well spring was here for a few days, we were going without jackets sun was shining for a good 3 days, then the rain came and it's been raining since thursday but i love Maryland haha It's been a good week in Columbia and we have had some really cool experiences this past week. Thanks for the letters and packages, aunt mitzie thanks for the birthday cake and grandma hafen thanks for the great letters and i loved the article to just smile!!! It was  a really good reminder and to be thankful for the ride! There really is power in just a simple smile and being positive in life.

Well to start out, i don't think this week could have been any more eventful in the sight of knocking on doors. If there were doors that i probably shouldn't have knocked on....well we did haha We knocked on one door of an african american man who was pretty nice and let us in after we gave him a pass along card of jesus christ. We were thinking sweet he let us in....ha not so good he tried to prove us wrong and tell us that Jesus CHrist was black and that we are teaching false doctrine...we got out of there quick haha We also knocked into some hispanics who were really nice great people let us in we were thinking oh man sweet 3 people this should be sweet....crazy missionaries from the pentecostals haha didn't go to swell and yeah we were out of there quick. Then we had the lovely experience of knocking on another door of an african american who also yelled at us because we think christ is white because that's the picture we use on th pass along card haha man this week really was sweet those were jsut some funny experiences(journal entries).

I went on exchanges with one of the english elders in our district and we had a way cool experience. THey got this media referral from a lady from IRAN name armagahn. She let us in and it was so sweet. The past week she was in Salt Lake at a business conference and had heard the salt lake was a holy city and that she needed to find the temple. Well she went there 3 different times before she had the guts to talk to the sister missionaries and was fascinated by the religion. She said she could feel it when she was at the temple. She was fascinated that the people there were happy and she said that she even asked the lady at the airport why are you people so happy ha she really struggled with the concept of only men get to be prophets becuase she's muslim and they don't believe that god has a gender so we tried to explain that to her and we taught her the entire plan of salvation drawing it out and i know she felt the spirit that day it was really a sweet experience to be apart of. That night we had dinner with some members in there ward and i said i was from ST. george and the lady got all excited and her dad came over. Her dad is ken (kenny) bowler and her grandpa was the mayor of st george and i guess he was a singer. I told her that my grandma would have all this genology to me by next week ha but it was kind of a cool connection. Dad ken bowler and bruce hurst started the DIXIE CELEBRITY CLASSIC golf tournamnet and i was telling him how much i love that tourney. But it was a really cool exchange and a fun experience.

Jesus Vasquez didn't come to church yesterday for an unknown reason but he's doign pretty good. The doubts are starting to come in and satan is working on him just as he does with all of our investigators that are close to baptism but its just the usual. THe big thing that we are finding is that his wife isn't into listening to us and he's wondering how he can do this by himself and without her and so we are going to try and go the temple this next weekend with him and his family. THere is a spirit there that they can't not feel. We are praying and praying that he'll get his answers and that he'll know that this is for him.

ELder is doing well we went to his house this last week and he was walking out right when we got there and he was like oh well im going to 7 11 to get a drink and so i was like well can we go with you and so we hoped in his truck and went to 7 11 and he even bought our drinks!!! We sat in his truck and talked about repentance for about an hour to try and help him over come his addiction with smoking. OUr ward mission leader used to smoke so we are going to bring him with us to teach him this next week which we are excited about.

We have a 19 year old less active named MARTIN who is from uruguay and weighs about 3 bills, but he's a good kid and hasnt' been to church in like 4 years. We always visit him and try to ge thim to church but he's always got some kind of excuse. But we went to his house this past week and usually he's a downer but he was stoked on life and was liek you guys are right when you read and pray and do whats right life is good(he got a job) and then he was like i wanna come to church tomoorrow. WE found him a ride and he was there with us! It was hard not having any investigattors at church...really hard but seeing him come to church after 4 years of not coming was so sweet!!!

All is well in Maryland though we are busting it trying to find the elects out here and i know that we'll find them we just got to have the faith to do it. I know that the lord loves us all and i love you all as well. THanks for your prayers and your love. have a great week.
Con AMOR
Elder Hammer