april 12th

Hola!!!!!!!!

Come estan? Well it's been a good week in Maryland and the weather is great! We just got done playing some ultimate frisbee as a zone and it's been hot weather and it's been great. I'm remembering what it feels like to sweat and get sunburned, it's great. Thanks for the letters and packages this week everyone, Grandma and Grandpa Hammer i got your birthday card last monday right after i got done emailing, Thank you so much for that nice card and for the 20$ i really appreciate it! I hope Bell and Jess had some great birthdays and i hear the masters was a classic ha i was dying out here when people would start talking about it but there will be more when i get home. This past saturday there was a huge soccer game against Barcelona and Madrid where pretty much the latino world just shut down haha we were invited in many times by trying to teach a lesson when there is a soccer game going on never is a good idea ha. But it's been a really good week though and we are seeing the blessings coming.

This past week we had a really great zone conference and i loved it. As always president belliston is just the man and always just lays it down on us (in a good way) and you leave there all fired up it's the best. They had one of their kids move out here because he's working at John's Hopkins and they just had a baby that's not doing too good and has been in the ICU for like 25 days. Sister Belliston talked about something i really loved. She had a box of crayons and said what's your favorite color and talked about how her favorite color is yellow and she has a grandson who is 3 that has the same favortie color and he wont let anyone else have that same one so when she's with him hers is green or as he says it gween ha but she talked about how in life we don't always get dealt our favorite color and sometimes there isn't much we can do about it. She talked about her grandchild and the pain that he has went through and then also talked about her child who died at 5 to Leukimia. As i sat there and listened i think that was my favorite part of the conference was her talk about not always getting the things we want or gettting Dealt our favorite color but that we have got to find a new one sometimes and go on. It was a great zone conference though and our district had a really good week this past week so i know that's always something good that gets everyone fired up.

We had Karla Monroy at church yesterday which was so sweet and it was branch conference. It was a really good meeting and one of the high councilman spoke spanish on his mission and gave a talk about the work of missionary and it was powerful and gave some good stories from his mission and from his dad as well and Karla was just blown away by it and was saying to me after "he spoke with something that not many people speak with" so that was a really cool experience for her to have. She's doing good and we have a great member fellowshipping her and were probably going to go to the temple with her this weekend with that member and have the Sister Missionaries throw it down on her about eternal marriage and see if that sparks something. She knows it's true and knows all of it just she isn't married. Ha marriage has been quite the problem for us lately. This past week we had a lesson with Elder Duarte and basically just threw down the hammer (no pun intended) on baptism and that's why we are here in this earth to follow the example of Jesus Christ and we set a date with him for May 15th and he said yes, then he said well i've got a long ways to go though and we were like ya but it's all ok we'll help you get prepared and it was something else. He went on to tell us that he's been married to a lady for 7 years and has a 6 year old son and they are in Guatamala and he hasn't seen them for 4 or 5 years and now he's with another woman. It always suprises me that we don't usually have to teach about the law of chastity but that usually they bring it up because they know how important that is. So that is going to be a big stumbling block for him to try and figure out but if he's the elect and ready and really wants this in his life then he'll do what he needs to do to be baptized. The great marriage problem is something else, especially here cause so many many leave there families and wives and children to come work and most of the time don't go back, so we'll just keep praying for the miracles to happen and see where we can go with Elder.

This past week we got a call at about 9 45 and it was from Melvin Carranza and he called me in kind of a panic and could not figure out what the INDEX was in the Book of Mormon ha he finished it and turned the page and saw more and just couldn't finure out what it was supposed to be ha so we did some explaining and got all that taken care of. Then as i was sitting there in the car i invited him to open up the Book of Mormon and read moroni 10 3-5 with us and he did it, and then we invited him to pray after we hung up. So obviously i was way happy he had read the whole Book of Mormon and the next day we were going to visit him but i had exchanges so it was just ELder Pauda up there. When we met back up ELder Pauda came up to me with a big smile and said MAY 1ST and i didn't really understand what and Elder Pauda put him on date to be baptized for may 1st! I wasn't there so i dont' know how it went exactly but elder pauda told me that he said alright so now that you know that the book of mormon is true what is your next step and Melvin said i need to be baptized. It's so exciting to hear that and we are excited to put two people on date this past week and to really see the Lord blessing us. We've been working hard and not always seeing the fruits of the labor but it's really paying off and the Lord is watching out for us. We have a lot of work to do with the both of them to get them ready but we know we can help them but more than anything they have a lot of work to do so we'll keep praying and see what happens but it's been a great week!

Well that's about it for this week. I hope all of you are having a blast in life and enjoying it all. I really am seeing just how great this experience called life is especially as a missionary for these past 9 months. We are a blessed people to have what we have in life and the gospel is the ONLY thing that can bring happiness and make change. I was talking to our 2nd counselor in the branch presidency and he was talking about his sons eagle project and how he wanted him to help the community and he told me " ya the project may be good but it wont change much, the only thing that will change people or environment or circumstances is the Gospel" and that is so true. I love you all and i wish the best of luck to all of you in school, work, internships, and just life. I love you all thanks for your love and support our here i really am grateful for the people that the lord has blessed me to be around in my life!!!!
Adios
Elder Hammer