May 3rd

Hola a todos!!!!!

Well big news for this week....This week is transfers and i thought for sure that i was staying but i got the call and i am leaving this area. I was pretty bummed at first because i love this area so much and wanted to stay and i for surely did not see this coming. But then i got a call from President Belliston a few minutes ago asking me to be a Zone Leader! Ya i was for surely not expecting that one. I don't ever know what to expect and i always remember what nick told me before the mission about right when you get comfortable the lord is going to throw a curve ball at you, but i'm grateful for this opportunity to serve and this new opportunity that I have. So no more columbia branch. That's going to be hard i have gotten close to a lot of members who have been changing their lives around so this wont be an easy leave but i know the area is in good hands with Elder Pauda, he's a stud and he'll keep it going for sure.

This week has been a crazy week it started out nice and warm and then it got so hot and humid on saturday!!!! It got up to like 85 or 90 this weekend and it feels like you walk outside and your just wet ha it's crazy. It was pooring raining this morning and we walked outside and i started sweating because it was still so hot but ya MARYLAND IS BACK!

This past week we had one of the coolest experiences. This area has been a tough one and it seems that we have been working and working and not seeing a whole lot of success and it's been a trial of the faith for sure. We have been through lots of different investigators and hoping to find one that is truly sincere that is ready. Tuesday morning elder pauda and i were doing companionship study and we got a text message that was a media referral. Usually media referrals just want a free dvd and not much to do with the church so we called the guy "selvin hernandez" as soon as we got it. He not only answered but we set up an appointment for that day! We went there and come to find out he had talked to the missionaries in arizona and has only been in america for like a month. He was planning on staying in arizona, but now with that new law that was signed he came here (it's like a flock of geese!!! the hispanics are going north and there coming here from arizona) He listened to the first lesson and we invited him to be baptized and he was a little caught off guard but he said he would read and pray. We went back on saturday and he had already read to 1 nephi 20 from the beginning! It's unreal the mind this guy has he told us the whole story of nephi and his family and all of that it was pretty amazing. He really struggles with prophets and joseph smith. We have tried to tell him that we don't worship him but he still doesnt' understand but these things can worked out over time ha but man it was such an answer to our prayers to have someone be lead to us or we be lead to them. This has been one of the coolest experiences that we've had with a media referral on my mission. I am really excited for him and hope that elder pauda and his new comp will be able to keep that going with hima nd get him baptized.

Also this past week we got to finally get in touch with Melvin Carranza, he was flying under the radar for about a week wiht no contact ha but he's still doing good. We taught him on saturday and threw down on keeping the sabath day holy. At the end we committed him to live it and he got this look on his face like something was wrong. Well basically every sunday at every field in maryland there is soccer tournaments!!!! and everyone goes and he got invited to play for a team and said he had to go. So we said to him well it's your choic and he knew that he needed to be at church. Haha actually our branch has a team that plays on Saturdays so we told him about that but he played soccer on sunday instead of church so that was a bummer but we'll stay on him though.

Well with this upcoming sunday being mother's day i have to give a shout out to the most amazing mother in the world. I know for sure i wouldn't be where i am today if it wasn't for you mom!!! I am so grateful for you and your example to me and your example of what love is. Your endless packages and letters and your support have been so amazing and i just wanted to say thank you so much for everything mom!!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and i'll be excited to talk to all of you guys on sunday!!!!!! HOpefully by then i'll be an uncle haha i love you all so much and am so grateful for all you do for me. ALl my love
Elder Hammer