Once again it's time for another weekly email.
We experienced a miracle in our zone this past week. One of the companionships serving here found 6 new investigators and set 6 new baptismal dates! 5 of those people are a part of the same family. We got a phone call a couple of nights ago from Elder Heath. He said that he'd just had one of the best experiences of his mission. Apparently, he and his companion had met a man on the street and spoke with him for about 45 minutes. This man told them that recently he and his wife had come to the conclusion that they had a hole in their lives (sound familiar my fellow PMG study-ers?) and that it was because they weren't attending a church. The missionaries were able to set a return appointment to meet with the whole family. They taught them about the Book of Mormon and invited Kelly Roberts, the father in the family, to offer a kneeling prayer at the end of the lesson to ask if it was true. Elder Heath said that during the prayer, Kelly told Heavenly Father that he felt "that the Mormon religion is the way to go." The Spirit was there and everyone felt it. Elder Heath said it was very powerful. Following the prayer, the missionaries committed the family members to be baptized on December 11th and each one of them said yes! This all took place in the first teaching appointment. How awesome is that?! I admit, I'm a little jealous of the missionaries being able to have such a sweet experience, but in a good way. I'm thrilled that this has happened right in our own zone. The family made it to church yesterday and things are going well!
We had a miracle in our ward as well. For the past couple of months we have been planning a finding activity that would involve the entire ward. Until just now, this has been a never-ending source of headaches and stress as we've tried to push and pull our ward members to step up and do something beneficial. We presented the idea of having a sort of cultural night to our Ward Mission Leader back in August or September. He basically laughed at us and told us it would never work in our ward. (Great support, huh?) To make a long story short, the person who took our idea and made it happen was the Bishop's wife. She loved it, and if it wasn't for her, there would have been no way this would have ever taken place. So, on Saturday night we had what we called the Pacific Rim Festival. Our ward has a good representation from island countries and Asian countries, so that was our theme. We had all kinds of different foods and Polynesian, Hmong, and Japanese entertainment. Our bishop even did a karate presentation and broke a bunch of boards. It was SWEET! Bishop is a stud. Following the food and entertainment we had a chapel tour. Each of the leaders in the ward shared briefly about their organization and how it helps us come closer to Christ. We ended the chapel tour in the chapel where you could really feel the Spirit. Out of the 300+ people who came for the food and entertainment only about 60 of them stayed for the chapel tour. I wasn't happy with our members for ditching out on us. Thankfully though there were a few who have a better sense of what is right and wrong and decided to stay. We also had a decent number of non-members and less-actives who came to the event and stayed for the tour. The miracle is that it actually happened and that the ward leaders worked together to make it happen. Even if we had no non-members show up, the fact that there was teamwork involved and that it took place is a miracle in this ward. If my ward can do something like this, any ward can. We have had great feedback on the activity and I really feel that it boosted morale amongst the members. For those that invited their friends and were able to do some missionary work, they are being blessed tremendously. We just might begin teaching some of those friends here shortly as well. We shall see.
I think that is it for this week. We are going to have Thanksgiving with some recent converts in our ward this week. It should be a party. Hope everybody has a good week! Be mighty!
Love you!
Elder J. Hammer
Friday, November 26, 2010
Amazing Week
Well, what can I say? This week was awesome. Probably one of the best I've had so far in the mission. I guess I'll start by wishing everybody a happy Thanksgiving this week, that way I don't forget to do it later. haha. Alrighty then; so last week I told you about Peter. He is one of many parts of why this week was so great. We met with him last Sunday, and taught him the Restoration. That was when he told us he'd need to think about getting baptized. Well, we met with him again on Wednesday, and it was a great lesson again. We had given him 3 Nephi 11 to read about baptism, and he told us that after he had read the chapter, he felt that it was something he needs to do, so he prayed and felt the same way! We told him that was the Holy Ghost confirming that these things are true to him. We also set a date for his baptism on the 12th of December. We then taught him the Plan of Salvation and he loved that. He told us that he had no idea about where we came from or what happens after life, so he fully accepts the Plan of Salvation now. He committed to come to church with us on sunday too, which he did. He had a great time there too. I sat with him during Sacrament meeting, and he was asking me questions about things. It was a really good meeting too. The speakers were great. We took him to the Gospel Principles class for the second hour. The lesson there was on the Gathering of the House of Israel. I'm not sure if he got too much out of it, but that's ok. haha. Then we took him to Priesthood. He had chosen to go to the adult sunday school class, but we wanted him to go with the YM for Priesthood. It was a great lesson there too. I feel like church was just perfect for him. haha. They talked about the duties of teachers in the priesthood, and then they said that they were going to go fulfill their duties, and visit the YM who weren't there. So, Peter went with them! I can't say that I would do the same if it was my first time ever at church. But, he had a good time, and said that he will definitely be back next week. He also told us that Harry Potter 7 is amazing too :)
Next up would be a man named Jose Monteiro. He is a member referral, who is also the son of one of our members in the ward. I was a bit nervous about getting a referral from this particular family because we just found out that the last referral they gave us is dead now... But that's a different story. Jose is great. He is in his thirties (at least I'm assuming he is - he has a 17 year old son) and he is looking for more in his life. He is divorced, and his kids live in Florida. He wants to be a better father to them, and he says that he's seen the blessings that have come to his mom and sister, who are the members in our ward. He is staying with a few of the other members in our ward, rather than with his mom, and that's where we taught him. We went over the Restoration and he had no problems with it. He said he'd be at church, and he also accepted a baptismal date for December 12! He had a good time at church too. In Elder's quorum when he introduced himself, he said "Hi I'm Jose, and hopefully I'll join and be here for a long time"!!! Wow, that was cool, everybody in priesthood liked that too.
You might remember me talking about Leandro a while back. Well, we talked to him again, and he wants to continue learning. He is in some pretty deep depression right now, and oddly enough, the cause of his depression is that he has tried and failed twice at being baptized. He is sincerely interested, but his commitment level is pretty low. We met with him last friday and he basically told us that he wants to try again. We taught him the Restoration again, and talked alot about faith, and shared with him from Alma 36 about not focusing on the past, but focusing on right now. He seemed like our discussion helped, and he said that he'd be at church, and he also accepted a baptismal date for the 12th! Too bad he actually didn't come to church. That was a bummer. He was so sincere when we were talking to him, but I guess we'll see what happened. At least he texted us and told us that he wasn't in Boston, but would call us when he gets back... Hopefully that is soon. But, I think as long as he is willing to put in the effort that is needed, he will be able to make it this time. He just needs to realize that himself.
Also, just yesterday, we met a man named Nicholas. He has apparently met with the missionaries before. He invited us in and we started teaching him about the Restoration as well. He is a very religious man, and is really interested in our church. The only problem is when we got into his house, I had a Book of Mormon in my hand, and he's like "That book right there is my only problem. If it wasn't for that book, I would have been a Mormon 15 years ago." Ummm, yeah that's a problem. haha. He doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon, or Joseph Smith, and it completely blew his mind when I showed him a picture of President Monson and told him that he is the Prophet on the earth today. That was the most animated reaction to that I've ever had. He was honestly speechless, and basically ended the lesson after that happened. But, he said he would be more serious about it this time, and he committed to read from the Book of Mormon, and we set up a return appointment for next Wednesday, which is when we are meeting with both Peter and Jose again too. Oh, and we extended a baptismal date to him, but he didn't accept it yet.
Well, that was 4 things that really made this week amazing. You might think that's everything I've got, but I have one more thing. On Saturday, we got to go to the temple to watch one of the families in our ward get sealed. It's been just over a year since the wife got baptized, and they have been working ever since then to get to the temple. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever done. I was so excited when they invited us to go with them. I've never seen a live sealing before, so that was cool to see. Another cool part about it was that the sealer is in our ward too. There were about 25 people there, all from our ward, and it was easily one of the most powerful spiritual experiences I've ever had. It was amazing. Especially cause they have a 4 year old daughter, who is one of the coolest little girls I've ever met. It was actually her birthday. Cool present, huh? But it was a very special experience and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to be part of it.
So I think this email is long enough now, so I'll wrap it up. Mom, yes I would like a conference ensign. We get one to share, but having my own would be nice. Question: In the back of the ensign, it has some comments from families about things they do to keep conference with them, One of them under FHE suggestions says Vern and Jennifer from Utah. I thought that was cool, if its who I'm thinking it is. Alrighty then, I'd best be going now. Hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. GO BYU!!!!!!!! If BYU beats utah, and tcu goes to a BCS game, would BYU go to the Vegas bowl again? just wondering. bye
Next up would be a man named Jose Monteiro. He is a member referral, who is also the son of one of our members in the ward. I was a bit nervous about getting a referral from this particular family because we just found out that the last referral they gave us is dead now... But that's a different story. Jose is great. He is in his thirties (at least I'm assuming he is - he has a 17 year old son) and he is looking for more in his life. He is divorced, and his kids live in Florida. He wants to be a better father to them, and he says that he's seen the blessings that have come to his mom and sister, who are the members in our ward. He is staying with a few of the other members in our ward, rather than with his mom, and that's where we taught him. We went over the Restoration and he had no problems with it. He said he'd be at church, and he also accepted a baptismal date for December 12! He had a good time at church too. In Elder's quorum when he introduced himself, he said "Hi I'm Jose, and hopefully I'll join and be here for a long time"!!! Wow, that was cool, everybody in priesthood liked that too.
You might remember me talking about Leandro a while back. Well, we talked to him again, and he wants to continue learning. He is in some pretty deep depression right now, and oddly enough, the cause of his depression is that he has tried and failed twice at being baptized. He is sincerely interested, but his commitment level is pretty low. We met with him last friday and he basically told us that he wants to try again. We taught him the Restoration again, and talked alot about faith, and shared with him from Alma 36 about not focusing on the past, but focusing on right now. He seemed like our discussion helped, and he said that he'd be at church, and he also accepted a baptismal date for the 12th! Too bad he actually didn't come to church. That was a bummer. He was so sincere when we were talking to him, but I guess we'll see what happened. At least he texted us and told us that he wasn't in Boston, but would call us when he gets back... Hopefully that is soon. But, I think as long as he is willing to put in the effort that is needed, he will be able to make it this time. He just needs to realize that himself.
Also, just yesterday, we met a man named Nicholas. He has apparently met with the missionaries before. He invited us in and we started teaching him about the Restoration as well. He is a very religious man, and is really interested in our church. The only problem is when we got into his house, I had a Book of Mormon in my hand, and he's like "That book right there is my only problem. If it wasn't for that book, I would have been a Mormon 15 years ago." Ummm, yeah that's a problem. haha. He doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon, or Joseph Smith, and it completely blew his mind when I showed him a picture of President Monson and told him that he is the Prophet on the earth today. That was the most animated reaction to that I've ever had. He was honestly speechless, and basically ended the lesson after that happened. But, he said he would be more serious about it this time, and he committed to read from the Book of Mormon, and we set up a return appointment for next Wednesday, which is when we are meeting with both Peter and Jose again too. Oh, and we extended a baptismal date to him, but he didn't accept it yet.
Well, that was 4 things that really made this week amazing. You might think that's everything I've got, but I have one more thing. On Saturday, we got to go to the temple to watch one of the families in our ward get sealed. It's been just over a year since the wife got baptized, and they have been working ever since then to get to the temple. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever done. I was so excited when they invited us to go with them. I've never seen a live sealing before, so that was cool to see. Another cool part about it was that the sealer is in our ward too. There were about 25 people there, all from our ward, and it was easily one of the most powerful spiritual experiences I've ever had. It was amazing. Especially cause they have a 4 year old daughter, who is one of the coolest little girls I've ever met. It was actually her birthday. Cool present, huh? But it was a very special experience and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to be part of it.
So I think this email is long enough now, so I'll wrap it up. Mom, yes I would like a conference ensign. We get one to share, but having my own would be nice. Question: In the back of the ensign, it has some comments from families about things they do to keep conference with them, One of them under FHE suggestions says Vern and Jennifer from Utah. I thought that was cool, if its who I'm thinking it is. Alrighty then, I'd best be going now. Hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. GO BYU!!!!!!!! If BYU beats utah, and tcu goes to a BCS game, would BYU go to the Vegas bowl again? just wondering. bye
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Half Mission Tour
Sorry about not getting an email off to you yesterday, our P-Day was moved to today because of Half Mission Conference. It was incredible! Elder Malm from the Seventy came (he spoke in GC in October). There was so much that we talked about and my brain was basically fried by the end of the day. Elder and Sister Malm are wonderful people. Their testiomonies are powerful. Sister Malm spoke about how we may never really know the outcome of the things we are doing now as missionaries. She is the kind of person that you just instantly love. You could really tell that she is humble and has a sincere concern for the welfare of the people that are around her.
Elder Malm is an incredible teacher. He is also a really funny guy. He kept cracking jokes about him being a Swede, and he'd joke around with the Elders and Sisters that commented on different things. I learned so much. He started the meeting by telling us that in his associations with Elder Bednar, he has heard Elder Bednar say that one of the desires he has for us as members of the church is to stop referring to our meetings as meetings. They are instead revelatory experiences where we have the opportunity to be taught by the teacher, the Spirit. Throughout our conference, Elder Malm frequently would remind us that we were there to be taught by the Holy Ghost, and he would ask us to share the promptings and impressions we were receiving. On a side note - I find it interesting that the exact same people are the ones who comment on just about everything whenever we get together in a group setting. Anyways, I had many thoughts come to my mind, and I could feel the Spirit communicating to me in regards to the specific circumstances I am in.
One thing in particular that really stuck out to me was when we discussed the importance of positive thinking. (I find it funny that there are business executives throughout the world who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars training their employees on topics almost exactly similar to many of the ones we discuss in our conferences) Elder Malm asked us a rhetorical question: "We are taught in the scriptures that all things that are good come from our Heavenly Father. Whose errand are we on then if we entertain negative thoughts towards others, or participate in speaking and acting negatively to those we serve?" I've been thinking a lot about that. I can definitely improve in this area.
Overall, yesterday was an experience that I won't forget. It's tradition in our mission that at the end of lunch the missionaries sing our mission song to the relief society sisters that provided our meal. With this being a Half Mission Conference, half of the missionaries in the mission were there - about 100. Sister Pendleton has been asking me to play the mission song at our meetings for the past year or so, and I really love doing it. This time was pretty neat being able to accompany so many missionaries. The piano was sliding away from me a little bit during the song on the hardwood floor in the cultural hall, though. I'll play the mission song for you when I get home. I've got my own arrangement of it that I sometimes play that has a keychange in it. I didn't dare throw that in yesterday in fear that the missionaries wouldn't be able to follow it and it would just sound bad. : )
My bike is going to be coming to Provo this week. There is a member in my ward that has volunteered to take it back there with his family when they leave on Wednesday (haleluja!). He's going to drop it off at his relative's home somewhere in Provo and then I'll get you their phone number so you can coordinate a time to pick it up. Thanks for being so kind to do that for me! Ha! ; ) This is going to save me about a 100 bucks. Also, I was wondering if Brother Henrie ever dropped off my box that I sent with him back in September. I remember you mentioned that he had tried to contact you, but I never heard if you actually got my stuff. Let me know please. There wasn't much, just a box and my overcoat I think.
That's about it for this week. Things are going well. The weather jumped back up to the mid to upper 70's recently and it was even in the mid 80's a couple days ago. The rains still haven't started. I'm not complaining about it either! We picked up a new investigator last week as well. It's about time.
Thanks for everything. Mom, you said that I only had like 80 dollars in my account? Is that all the money I have left over total? And, I did get the pics with the letters last week. Looks like you had a bunch of fun! I hope everyone has a good week! Be Mighty!
Love,
Elder Justin Hammer
PS. Go Jazz! Milsap is a beast! Also, tomorrow is month 23, just in case you'd forgotten... : )
Elder Malm is an incredible teacher. He is also a really funny guy. He kept cracking jokes about him being a Swede, and he'd joke around with the Elders and Sisters that commented on different things. I learned so much. He started the meeting by telling us that in his associations with Elder Bednar, he has heard Elder Bednar say that one of the desires he has for us as members of the church is to stop referring to our meetings as meetings. They are instead revelatory experiences where we have the opportunity to be taught by the teacher, the Spirit. Throughout our conference, Elder Malm frequently would remind us that we were there to be taught by the Holy Ghost, and he would ask us to share the promptings and impressions we were receiving. On a side note - I find it interesting that the exact same people are the ones who comment on just about everything whenever we get together in a group setting. Anyways, I had many thoughts come to my mind, and I could feel the Spirit communicating to me in regards to the specific circumstances I am in.
One thing in particular that really stuck out to me was when we discussed the importance of positive thinking. (I find it funny that there are business executives throughout the world who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars training their employees on topics almost exactly similar to many of the ones we discuss in our conferences) Elder Malm asked us a rhetorical question: "We are taught in the scriptures that all things that are good come from our Heavenly Father. Whose errand are we on then if we entertain negative thoughts towards others, or participate in speaking and acting negatively to those we serve?" I've been thinking a lot about that. I can definitely improve in this area.
Overall, yesterday was an experience that I won't forget. It's tradition in our mission that at the end of lunch the missionaries sing our mission song to the relief society sisters that provided our meal. With this being a Half Mission Conference, half of the missionaries in the mission were there - about 100. Sister Pendleton has been asking me to play the mission song at our meetings for the past year or so, and I really love doing it. This time was pretty neat being able to accompany so many missionaries. The piano was sliding away from me a little bit during the song on the hardwood floor in the cultural hall, though. I'll play the mission song for you when I get home. I've got my own arrangement of it that I sometimes play that has a keychange in it. I didn't dare throw that in yesterday in fear that the missionaries wouldn't be able to follow it and it would just sound bad. : )
My bike is going to be coming to Provo this week. There is a member in my ward that has volunteered to take it back there with his family when they leave on Wednesday (haleluja!). He's going to drop it off at his relative's home somewhere in Provo and then I'll get you their phone number so you can coordinate a time to pick it up. Thanks for being so kind to do that for me! Ha! ; ) This is going to save me about a 100 bucks. Also, I was wondering if Brother Henrie ever dropped off my box that I sent with him back in September. I remember you mentioned that he had tried to contact you, but I never heard if you actually got my stuff. Let me know please. There wasn't much, just a box and my overcoat I think.
That's about it for this week. Things are going well. The weather jumped back up to the mid to upper 70's recently and it was even in the mid 80's a couple days ago. The rains still haven't started. I'm not complaining about it either! We picked up a new investigator last week as well. It's about time.
Thanks for everything. Mom, you said that I only had like 80 dollars in my account? Is that all the money I have left over total? And, I did get the pics with the letters last week. Looks like you had a bunch of fun! I hope everyone has a good week! Be Mighty!
Love,
Elder Justin Hammer
PS. Go Jazz! Milsap is a beast! Also, tomorrow is month 23, just in case you'd forgotten... : )
Still No Snow
Hi everybody! How are you? I'm doing pretty well myself. This week was pretty cool. I have to agree with the most recent email from E. Gluch and say that the weeks are becoming blurs and it's tough to remember everything that goes on. It never ceases to amaze me how time can keep going faster and faster every week, but it definitely seems like it does.
Well, first things first. Yesterday was Bryan's confirmation. It went very well. I got to stand in the circle with him, which was very cool. His mom, who was at church for the first time in years last week, was there again. Hopefully she was able to feel a special spirit and want to come back every week. I really feel that Bryan is going to be a big help with getting his family back to church. Sacrament meeting was so good yesterday too, because it was also the Primary Program. Bryan's mom had bought him a new suit last week for his baptism, and yesterday, his two little brothers were in new suits as well. That was pretty cool. THe program was awesome. It had all of the typical shy kids, loud scream-in-the-mic kids, and the one kid that is like 4 and knows all of the Articles of Faith, and basically gave a 5 minute talk about faith. That was pretty funny. He was also the one that sang the loudest. It was a great meeting. The last song they sang was such a cool song. I don't know what it's called, and I don't think I've ever heard it before, but it was amazing. The Spirit was so strong. Made me kinda miss being in primary. haha.
So I also got your letters about Disneyworld. Sounds like that was pretty fun, huh? That's cool. I am glad to hear that you all had a great time and want to go back, but I am in very strong opposition for the idea of going next Thanksgiving. That is definitely a bad idea. I don't think you could stand to go there twice without me. I think you would have more fun if you waited til like St. Patricks day or something, that way I could come along. But anyway, I'm happy you had fun. Good to hear that Coby's nursing skills are paying off too ;)
Now that Bryan is a member and everything, we are short on investigators. We met with Mike yesterday after church, but that was uneventful, except that we dropped him. That stinks. He had a pack of cigarettes on his table when we walked in, and he tried covering them up, and then told us that he had had some company over, and the cigarettes weren't his. yeah... But, we had to drop him cause he said he is an unbeliever, and won't find a way to get to church by himself rather than making us set up a ride for him every week. He needs to be independent. So we dropped him, but we also picked up a new investigator lastnight as well. His name is Peter and he is a pretty cool guy. He is a senior in High School, and his best friend of like 15 years named Brittany, is a Mormon, and apparently just moved to Lindon, UT. That's cool. But, he told us that he is curious to find out what she believes in. We talked to him on the phone about a week and a half ago, and he said that he was super busy, but that he could call us back this weekend. He actually did call us back, so that was the first of many good signs. We took one of our members with us to the lesson and taught him about the restoration. It was a really good lesson. I feel like Peter understood all of it, and was very willing to accept the commitments we extended to him. He said he needed some time to think about baptism, so he didn't accept a date yet, but I feel that he will very soon. I'm excited to work with him and help him to progress in the Gospel.
And, that's about all's I got for this week. The weather again decided to go back up near 60 last week, but today is colder and looks like we might get some rain. Probably not snow yet, but it'll be here soon enough. Mom, in answer to your questions about the girls on facebook, Danielle is Bro. Buckley's daughter. She's 12 and is pretty cool. I bet she was pretty weirded out that it was you, not me. I'll have to ask her about it. And Liz is another of our member's daughters. She is currently on break from BYU-Idaho, and is staying with her mom out here. She's pretty cool too. I didn't even know she had added me on there, but I guess she did.
I was also very happy to hear that BYU crushed CSU. But I think I was even more happy to hear that Utah got beat up again. haha. That's so great. Good stuff. By the way, if you're wondering how I know all this stuff, it's from members in our ward. I don't know if I've told you about our ward or not, but it is mostly made up of BYU grads that are going to Tufts University for Dental School. I'd say about 60% of our ward falls into that category. They keep us updated on those types of things.
Alrighty then. I think we're headed to play some ball today, so I'd best be going now. Always good to hear from you. Kurtis, I still haven't heard from you about how your season ended up or about your perspective of Disneyworld. Same to you Kasey. I'd like to hear from you both again sometime before I come home. That would be nice. haha. Ok. Hope you all have a wonderful week. Love you all!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Well, first things first. Yesterday was Bryan's confirmation. It went very well. I got to stand in the circle with him, which was very cool. His mom, who was at church for the first time in years last week, was there again. Hopefully she was able to feel a special spirit and want to come back every week. I really feel that Bryan is going to be a big help with getting his family back to church. Sacrament meeting was so good yesterday too, because it was also the Primary Program. Bryan's mom had bought him a new suit last week for his baptism, and yesterday, his two little brothers were in new suits as well. That was pretty cool. THe program was awesome. It had all of the typical shy kids, loud scream-in-the-mic kids, and the one kid that is like 4 and knows all of the Articles of Faith, and basically gave a 5 minute talk about faith. That was pretty funny. He was also the one that sang the loudest. It was a great meeting. The last song they sang was such a cool song. I don't know what it's called, and I don't think I've ever heard it before, but it was amazing. The Spirit was so strong. Made me kinda miss being in primary. haha.
So I also got your letters about Disneyworld. Sounds like that was pretty fun, huh? That's cool. I am glad to hear that you all had a great time and want to go back, but I am in very strong opposition for the idea of going next Thanksgiving. That is definitely a bad idea. I don't think you could stand to go there twice without me. I think you would have more fun if you waited til like St. Patricks day or something, that way I could come along. But anyway, I'm happy you had fun. Good to hear that Coby's nursing skills are paying off too ;)
Now that Bryan is a member and everything, we are short on investigators. We met with Mike yesterday after church, but that was uneventful, except that we dropped him. That stinks. He had a pack of cigarettes on his table when we walked in, and he tried covering them up, and then told us that he had had some company over, and the cigarettes weren't his. yeah... But, we had to drop him cause he said he is an unbeliever, and won't find a way to get to church by himself rather than making us set up a ride for him every week. He needs to be independent. So we dropped him, but we also picked up a new investigator lastnight as well. His name is Peter and he is a pretty cool guy. He is a senior in High School, and his best friend of like 15 years named Brittany, is a Mormon, and apparently just moved to Lindon, UT. That's cool. But, he told us that he is curious to find out what she believes in. We talked to him on the phone about a week and a half ago, and he said that he was super busy, but that he could call us back this weekend. He actually did call us back, so that was the first of many good signs. We took one of our members with us to the lesson and taught him about the restoration. It was a really good lesson. I feel like Peter understood all of it, and was very willing to accept the commitments we extended to him. He said he needed some time to think about baptism, so he didn't accept a date yet, but I feel that he will very soon. I'm excited to work with him and help him to progress in the Gospel.
And, that's about all's I got for this week. The weather again decided to go back up near 60 last week, but today is colder and looks like we might get some rain. Probably not snow yet, but it'll be here soon enough. Mom, in answer to your questions about the girls on facebook, Danielle is Bro. Buckley's daughter. She's 12 and is pretty cool. I bet she was pretty weirded out that it was you, not me. I'll have to ask her about it. And Liz is another of our member's daughters. She is currently on break from BYU-Idaho, and is staying with her mom out here. She's pretty cool too. I didn't even know she had added me on there, but I guess she did.
I was also very happy to hear that BYU crushed CSU. But I think I was even more happy to hear that Utah got beat up again. haha. That's so great. Good stuff. By the way, if you're wondering how I know all this stuff, it's from members in our ward. I don't know if I've told you about our ward or not, but it is mostly made up of BYU grads that are going to Tufts University for Dental School. I'd say about 60% of our ward falls into that category. They keep us updated on those types of things.
Alrighty then. I think we're headed to play some ball today, so I'd best be going now. Always good to hear from you. Kurtis, I still haven't heard from you about how your season ended up or about your perspective of Disneyworld. Same to you Kasey. I'd like to hear from you both again sometime before I come home. That would be nice. haha. Ok. Hope you all have a wonderful week. Love you all!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Monday, November 8, 2010
It's finally getting cold!
How's everyone doing? Good. So this week was pretty good again. I'll start with yesterday at church. It was a good meeting, jsut as good as a testimony meeting can be in our ward. Bryan was there in his new suit that his mom bought for him. We sat with him through the first hour, and I think he enjoyed it. We let him go to his 2nd and 3rd hour classes and met up with him after church for his baptism. I could tell that even though he said he wasn't excited, he was. We got him changed into his white, and took a few pictures. The baptismal service was awesome. We asked one of the Young Men who was baptized last november to give a talk, and he sounded like a missionary. It was an awesome talk. Then Bryan's little brother, who was also baptized last year, gave a talk about the Holy Ghost, which was about 45 seconds long. haha. Bryan wanted Bishop to do the baptism, so that was cool. I guess the water was a little too hot, though. That is what they both said when they went in the water. haha. But, it was so cool to see him get baptized. He's so cool. The only bad thing is that only part of his family was there. His parents are inactive, so it was great that his mom was there, but his dad wasn't, and neither were his grandpa, or aunt and cousin. But, it was cool nontheless.
Mike, unfortunately, was not at church this week. He gave us a call Saturday night and told us to cancel his ride to church. He said that he has been trying to make himself believe everything, but it's just not working. I don't understand what's happening to him, cause he was doing so awesome. He had gone 23 days without a cigarette, then he had one, and then went another 4 days without one, and now he's just giving up on us. He was really upset when we told him he had to wait a week to get baptized after he had smoked again, and I don't think he understood why that needed to happen. He kept saying that it didn't make sense to him cause in the Bible, John the Baptist baptized everybody that lived, and they didn't have to repent before they were baptized, so he didn't see why he had to. I have a feeling that he is just upset about waiting, and that he will calm down and change his mind in a few weeks, but that might be worse, cause we'll make him wait even longer so he can prepare better. We are meeting with him tomorrow, so we'll see what's up with him.
We are also meeting with Nick and Midge tomorrow night, with our Mission President so we can discuss options for her situation and how we can get her baptized. I'm pretty excited for that so we can get something figured out with them, and so we can see President in action. haha. It's going to be pretty awesome. If you forgot who they are, she is a quadreplegic, and he is her best friend. We are almost done teaching them, so we just wanted to invite our President so we can figure something out with her.
So another pretty awesome thing that we did this week was Zone Conference. The conference itself was awesome. All of the Zone Leaders gave trainings on different topics, and they were all so good. I learned so much about each topic, I feel like I have a lot more I could be doing to be a better missionary. It was such a good day. Cool story - at lunch during the conference, we were going down the tables getting our food (which was like thanksgiving dinner - so good!) and I guess it was some of the local Relief Society members that provided the meal for us, but one of them asked me if I had a brother in the California Roseville Mission. I was pretty surprised and said yes. She said that her name was Sis. Dowling, and that her son was my brother's companion. What?! That was a mind-blower. Definitely wasn't expecting that. Pretty cool though, eh? She told me that she had heard that I had played a mean joke on my family....haha. I guess I'm getting pretty famous for that, huh? That's pretty funny. But yeah, Zone Conference was the best one yet. We got some good insights and had lots of goals that we set from that.
I heard that Utah got spanked pretty hard last week. HAHA. that's good news for sure. I also heard that BYU had a pretty good game too. Also good news. Has college basketball started yet? Just wondering.
Well, I think it's finally starting to change to fall/winter. It's been pretty cold since last week when it was in the 70's. Now we're lucky if we get above 50. But, I'm enjoying it. The only bad thing is with Daylight Savings ending yesterday, it now gets dark about 4:00. That's pretty tough to work in. We just have to make all of our appointments for when it's dark that way we can still do some finding when there's light out. It hasn't snowed yet, but I think we'll see some of that pretty soon. It's been raining for about 2 days, so I wouldn't be surprised if we get some this week. That'll be cool.
Cool, well I think that's it for this week. Mom, yes I actually need my Garnett shoes. The tennis shoes I took with me are getting pretty thrashed, and now I don't have any shoes to play basketball or other sports in on pdays. I would appreciate those greatly. I haven't received your letter from last week either. We haven't been home today, so I don't know if it came today or not. But, it'll come somtime hopefully. I was also wondering if you could send me a tub of Stephen's Citrus Wassail. I've looked in lots of stores out here, and can't seem to find any of that stuff. The closest thing I've found is apple cider, but that just isn't the same.
Alrighty then, I'd best be going now. I didn't get any mail last week, which was super lame, so I really hope I get some this week... Well, we'll hear from you soon. Hope you all have a great week. Love you all!!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Mike, unfortunately, was not at church this week. He gave us a call Saturday night and told us to cancel his ride to church. He said that he has been trying to make himself believe everything, but it's just not working. I don't understand what's happening to him, cause he was doing so awesome. He had gone 23 days without a cigarette, then he had one, and then went another 4 days without one, and now he's just giving up on us. He was really upset when we told him he had to wait a week to get baptized after he had smoked again, and I don't think he understood why that needed to happen. He kept saying that it didn't make sense to him cause in the Bible, John the Baptist baptized everybody that lived, and they didn't have to repent before they were baptized, so he didn't see why he had to. I have a feeling that he is just upset about waiting, and that he will calm down and change his mind in a few weeks, but that might be worse, cause we'll make him wait even longer so he can prepare better. We are meeting with him tomorrow, so we'll see what's up with him.
We are also meeting with Nick and Midge tomorrow night, with our Mission President so we can discuss options for her situation and how we can get her baptized. I'm pretty excited for that so we can get something figured out with them, and so we can see President in action. haha. It's going to be pretty awesome. If you forgot who they are, she is a quadreplegic, and he is her best friend. We are almost done teaching them, so we just wanted to invite our President so we can figure something out with her.
So another pretty awesome thing that we did this week was Zone Conference. The conference itself was awesome. All of the Zone Leaders gave trainings on different topics, and they were all so good. I learned so much about each topic, I feel like I have a lot more I could be doing to be a better missionary. It was such a good day. Cool story - at lunch during the conference, we were going down the tables getting our food (which was like thanksgiving dinner - so good!) and I guess it was some of the local Relief Society members that provided the meal for us, but one of them asked me if I had a brother in the California Roseville Mission. I was pretty surprised and said yes. She said that her name was Sis. Dowling, and that her son was my brother's companion. What?! That was a mind-blower. Definitely wasn't expecting that. Pretty cool though, eh? She told me that she had heard that I had played a mean joke on my family....haha. I guess I'm getting pretty famous for that, huh? That's pretty funny. But yeah, Zone Conference was the best one yet. We got some good insights and had lots of goals that we set from that.
I heard that Utah got spanked pretty hard last week. HAHA. that's good news for sure. I also heard that BYU had a pretty good game too. Also good news. Has college basketball started yet? Just wondering.
Well, I think it's finally starting to change to fall/winter. It's been pretty cold since last week when it was in the 70's. Now we're lucky if we get above 50. But, I'm enjoying it. The only bad thing is with Daylight Savings ending yesterday, it now gets dark about 4:00. That's pretty tough to work in. We just have to make all of our appointments for when it's dark that way we can still do some finding when there's light out. It hasn't snowed yet, but I think we'll see some of that pretty soon. It's been raining for about 2 days, so I wouldn't be surprised if we get some this week. That'll be cool.
Cool, well I think that's it for this week. Mom, yes I actually need my Garnett shoes. The tennis shoes I took with me are getting pretty thrashed, and now I don't have any shoes to play basketball or other sports in on pdays. I would appreciate those greatly. I haven't received your letter from last week either. We haven't been home today, so I don't know if it came today or not. But, it'll come somtime hopefully. I was also wondering if you could send me a tub of Stephen's Citrus Wassail. I've looked in lots of stores out here, and can't seem to find any of that stuff. The closest thing I've found is apple cider, but that just isn't the same.
Alrighty then, I'd best be going now. I didn't get any mail last week, which was super lame, so I really hope I get some this week... Well, we'll hear from you soon. Hope you all have a great week. Love you all!!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Transfer Number 17
Transfers came in today and here's the news. I will be staying in good ole' Olivehurst for the remainder of my mission. Elder Dowling is being transferred to Auburn and I will be training a new Zone Leader, Elder Osborne. I have served around E. Osborne in the past and he's a pretty decent guy. I'm a little bummed to not have E. Dowling as my companion any more, but oh well, that's the way it is. We have a ton of stuff coming up in the next 6 weeks so we are going to be super busy. Hopefully E. Osborne can keep up because he's going to have to know the ropes for when he takes the area at the end of the transfer. He'll do fine, I am sure.
So, to answer your questions, Mom: As of right now, I haven't received your letter from this past week. The mail hasn't come yet today, so maybe it will be there when I go back to our house to check. I will be shipping my bike home now that I know I will be staying in this area and won't be using it. I don't think the mission helps with that, but I'll check. If they don't, I have no idea how much it is going to cost, but I'm guessing it's going to be pretty expensive. How much money to I have available in my account? (I see my emails frequently throughout the week, so you can reply when you get a chance)
I did get my shoulder looked at once recently, I think it might have been two weeks ago. They put me on some sort of pill that I have to take daily, (I'm not sure if it's an anti-inflammatory, a steroid, or what), and I have an MRI scheduled for tomorrow at 4:30. On Thursday, I will be meeting with Dr. Vogel who is an orthopedic specialist to review the x-ray that I had recently and the MRI that I will be having. Hopefully he'll be able to tell me what's wrong and I'll probably know what needs to be done to fix it. I'll let you know how all of that goes in my email next week.
Alright, now for the past week. We had a pretty good week actually. We met or exceeded all of the goals we set except for the number of new investigators we wanted to find. We have a few people that we are teaching right now, all of which I feel are so close to being ready for baptism. One of our investigators just hasn't quite caught on to everything yet, but she's coming along. Basically the rest of our teaching pool consists of people who could get baptized tomorrow except that they have legal issues to handle first. For some reason, throughout our zone, it seems like the majority of the investigators being taught by the missionaries are on probation. Church policy is that those on probation can't get baptized until they are off, or unless they come to church and are basically active in every way for a period of a few months, at which time they can petition the First Presidency for approval to be baptized. It's hard sometimes to work with that, especially if someone is really excited about getting baptized soon, but it's all about repentance. Restitution is required for true repentance, that includes making everything right with the government. We'll keep working with these people and provide support as they continue to progress.
We experienced a bit of a miracle the other day. We had just come back from grabbing some food for lunch to continue weekly planning at our church building. Before we went inside we wanted to check the institute building next door for some info we could give to our investigator, Lindsey. Well, we rarely park on that side of the church, and it didn't even cross our minds that the institute would be closed. So, as we were walking back to the church to go inside, a man pulled into the parking lot. He got out of his car and told us he was just there to smoke a cigarette. We started talking to him and found out that he's actually been wanting to learn more about God and church, but he just doesn't know where to start. He's been in and out of prison more times than he can count, and he's tired of it. He knows that his way of doing things is failing and he's ready to try something different. He said, "where do I start? Who do I talk to?" Well...he came to the right place! We of course offered him help and testified to him of how our message could help him and his family (his significant other was in the car attentively listening to everything we were saying). They both accepted to have the missionaries in there area come and teach them. He took a Book of Mormon and said he would start from the beginning. The fact that we were exactly where we needed to be just when he randomly decided to pull into a church parking lot to have a smoke break is testimony in itself that the Lord is leading this work. Hopefully he recognizes the Spirit enough to act on it and bring his life into harmony with the Gospel.
Well this email is pretty long already, so I'll wrap things up. I just remembered that like 3 or 4 weeks ago my flight itinerary came in the mail. I think you have probably already received a copy of it, but just in case, here are my flight plans. I'll be flying out of Sac at 6:20am and arriving in SLC at 9:04 on December 18th.
Okay, I hope everything is going well. I love you all! Be mighty!
love,
Elder Justin Hammer
PS: Devin, what did you think about meeting Elder Dowling's mom at your zone conference or whatever it was recently? Kinda crazy eh?
So, to answer your questions, Mom: As of right now, I haven't received your letter from this past week. The mail hasn't come yet today, so maybe it will be there when I go back to our house to check. I will be shipping my bike home now that I know I will be staying in this area and won't be using it. I don't think the mission helps with that, but I'll check. If they don't, I have no idea how much it is going to cost, but I'm guessing it's going to be pretty expensive. How much money to I have available in my account? (I see my emails frequently throughout the week, so you can reply when you get a chance)
I did get my shoulder looked at once recently, I think it might have been two weeks ago. They put me on some sort of pill that I have to take daily, (I'm not sure if it's an anti-inflammatory, a steroid, or what), and I have an MRI scheduled for tomorrow at 4:30. On Thursday, I will be meeting with Dr. Vogel who is an orthopedic specialist to review the x-ray that I had recently and the MRI that I will be having. Hopefully he'll be able to tell me what's wrong and I'll probably know what needs to be done to fix it. I'll let you know how all of that goes in my email next week.
Alright, now for the past week. We had a pretty good week actually. We met or exceeded all of the goals we set except for the number of new investigators we wanted to find. We have a few people that we are teaching right now, all of which I feel are so close to being ready for baptism. One of our investigators just hasn't quite caught on to everything yet, but she's coming along. Basically the rest of our teaching pool consists of people who could get baptized tomorrow except that they have legal issues to handle first. For some reason, throughout our zone, it seems like the majority of the investigators being taught by the missionaries are on probation. Church policy is that those on probation can't get baptized until they are off, or unless they come to church and are basically active in every way for a period of a few months, at which time they can petition the First Presidency for approval to be baptized. It's hard sometimes to work with that, especially if someone is really excited about getting baptized soon, but it's all about repentance. Restitution is required for true repentance, that includes making everything right with the government. We'll keep working with these people and provide support as they continue to progress.
We experienced a bit of a miracle the other day. We had just come back from grabbing some food for lunch to continue weekly planning at our church building. Before we went inside we wanted to check the institute building next door for some info we could give to our investigator, Lindsey. Well, we rarely park on that side of the church, and it didn't even cross our minds that the institute would be closed. So, as we were walking back to the church to go inside, a man pulled into the parking lot. He got out of his car and told us he was just there to smoke a cigarette. We started talking to him and found out that he's actually been wanting to learn more about God and church, but he just doesn't know where to start. He's been in and out of prison more times than he can count, and he's tired of it. He knows that his way of doing things is failing and he's ready to try something different. He said, "where do I start? Who do I talk to?" Well...he came to the right place! We of course offered him help and testified to him of how our message could help him and his family (his significant other was in the car attentively listening to everything we were saying). They both accepted to have the missionaries in there area come and teach them. He took a Book of Mormon and said he would start from the beginning. The fact that we were exactly where we needed to be just when he randomly decided to pull into a church parking lot to have a smoke break is testimony in itself that the Lord is leading this work. Hopefully he recognizes the Spirit enough to act on it and bring his life into harmony with the Gospel.
Well this email is pretty long already, so I'll wrap things up. I just remembered that like 3 or 4 weeks ago my flight itinerary came in the mail. I think you have probably already received a copy of it, but just in case, here are my flight plans. I'll be flying out of Sac at 6:20am and arriving in SLC at 9:04 on December 18th.
Okay, I hope everything is going well. I love you all! Be mighty!
love,
Elder Justin Hammer
PS: Devin, what did you think about meeting Elder Dowling's mom at your zone conference or whatever it was recently? Kinda crazy eh?
Monday, November 1, 2010
Happy Halloween!
Boo! Alright, now it's time for Thanksgiving! Halloween was good here. That's pretty crazy that you didn't put makeup on anyone this year, Mom. That seems like something that just has to happen. I put some on 2 of the kids that live by us. haha. They wanted to have their faces white, so I did that for them, and then as soon as I was done with both of them, they decided that they didn't want it anymore, so they washed it all off. haha. Then they had their mom paint something else instead. We took a couple pictures with them all in their costumes before they all went trick or treating too. When they got home, they gave me all of their Reese's! That was pretty awesome.
So besides Halloween, this week was pretty uneventful. kindof. We also had Stake Conference yesterday, which was awesome. Bishop McMullen from the Presiding Bishopric was there, and he told us that if we left the conference and something in our life didn't change from it, we should be ashamed! wow. He's pretty cool. It was such a great stake conference. We had both of our investigators there too. Bad news is that one of them, Mike, slept through the whole thing. ugh. I tried several times to wake him up, but he just kep dozing off. Speaking of investigators, we have interviews scheduled this Friday for both Mike and Bryan, and as long as they both pass, they will both be getting baptized next Sunday! I'm pretty excited for that. Mike is now going on 20 days not smoking. Wow. We had an appointment with Mike this last week on Wednesday, with which, we were in a pretty bad situation. We get 900 miles a month on our car. We were at 890 on Wednesday, and Mike lives in East Boston, which is approximately 11 miles from our house. So, rather than going over on our miles, we decided to walk there. It took us about 3 and a half hours which includes time talking to people and handing out passalongs. It was a pretty miserable walk though, cause for some unknown reason, the weather decided to go back up to the 70's with extremely high humidity. Plus, I was wearing my rain coat because it had been raining all morning, but stopped while we were walking. Let's just say my clothes were basically wet when we got to his house. haha. So, total, we walked about 17 miles that day, cause rather than walking home, we walked to a member's house and he gave us dinner, and a ride home. And this is also after we had walked about 12 miles on Tuesday for the same reason, except we had to go to Revere, not East Boston. So we walked a lot this week. My legs were pretty dang sore. haha. But, we talked to lots of people on the streets and have a bunch of new potential investigators.
Well, I think that's about it for this week. Thanks to Justin and Brittnie for the packages. I got them both the same day, so the other 3 Elders in the apartment were jealous of my awesome mail. Those ties are awesome, by the way Justin. I've been complimented on all of them that I've worn so far. And Brittnie, I can't put in words how much I love those delicious oreo thingys. Thanks. And I guess that I should say thanks to Mason for his picture that he sent me a while ago that I never thanked him for. Thanks buddy! And the last thing I can think of right now is that the name of that dude I told you about last week who's cd's I want - his name is Lex de Azevedo, not whatever I said last week. Thanks for everything! Love you all! Hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. GO TCU!!!
So besides Halloween, this week was pretty uneventful. kindof. We also had Stake Conference yesterday, which was awesome. Bishop McMullen from the Presiding Bishopric was there, and he told us that if we left the conference and something in our life didn't change from it, we should be ashamed! wow. He's pretty cool. It was such a great stake conference. We had both of our investigators there too. Bad news is that one of them, Mike, slept through the whole thing. ugh. I tried several times to wake him up, but he just kep dozing off. Speaking of investigators, we have interviews scheduled this Friday for both Mike and Bryan, and as long as they both pass, they will both be getting baptized next Sunday! I'm pretty excited for that. Mike is now going on 20 days not smoking. Wow. We had an appointment with Mike this last week on Wednesday, with which, we were in a pretty bad situation. We get 900 miles a month on our car. We were at 890 on Wednesday, and Mike lives in East Boston, which is approximately 11 miles from our house. So, rather than going over on our miles, we decided to walk there. It took us about 3 and a half hours which includes time talking to people and handing out passalongs. It was a pretty miserable walk though, cause for some unknown reason, the weather decided to go back up to the 70's with extremely high humidity. Plus, I was wearing my rain coat because it had been raining all morning, but stopped while we were walking. Let's just say my clothes were basically wet when we got to his house. haha. So, total, we walked about 17 miles that day, cause rather than walking home, we walked to a member's house and he gave us dinner, and a ride home. And this is also after we had walked about 12 miles on Tuesday for the same reason, except we had to go to Revere, not East Boston. So we walked a lot this week. My legs were pretty dang sore. haha. But, we talked to lots of people on the streets and have a bunch of new potential investigators.
Well, I think that's about it for this week. Thanks to Justin and Brittnie for the packages. I got them both the same day, so the other 3 Elders in the apartment were jealous of my awesome mail. Those ties are awesome, by the way Justin. I've been complimented on all of them that I've worn so far. And Brittnie, I can't put in words how much I love those delicious oreo thingys. Thanks. And I guess that I should say thanks to Mason for his picture that he sent me a while ago that I never thanked him for. Thanks buddy! And the last thing I can think of right now is that the name of that dude I told you about last week who's cd's I want - his name is Lex de Azevedo, not whatever I said last week. Thanks for everything! Love you all! Hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. GO TCU!!!
November???
Hmmmm....what can I say this week that would interest everybody who reads these emails? How about, I'm starting to feel sick, I have no confidence in the majority of our ward members, our WML hates us and is causing an endless supply of stress because of countless ridiculous reasons that I really have no time to list off, transfers can't come soon enough, and I'm going to be getting an MRI done for my shoulder this week sometime. On second thought, maybe that would be too negative and I would give everyone the impression that I am miserable right now (which is totally not true, by the way) and that I'm really struggling with everything (also, not true at all). Yeah, I think that might be a bad idea to say all those things. How about I take a different approach?
First off, we have a new investigator. Her name is Lindsey and she is progressing very well. I personally feel that her fellowshipper, Aunt Barber, is holding her back from getting baptized. Sis. Barber has made Lindsey think that she needs to know everything before she commits to a specific date and time for when she would get baptized. Well, knowledge is wonderful and everyone knows that you definitely can't be saved in ignorance. However, there is this amazing thing called a spiritual confirmation that tells you something is true and that everything the missionaries are teaching is true as well. You can know that getting baptized is the right thing to do and that setting a date provides spiritual power to fight off the temptations Satan is going to send your way telling you to procrastinate the day of your repentance. Plus, we would never allow someone to be baptized if they weren't prepared according to the specifications we have been given for those entering the waters. Our plan of attack: teach her the remaining lessons this week and tell her that she knows everything she needs to in order to be baptized. As long as she keeps the commitments and knows that what we are teaching is true, she is ready. And I know she is ready. (Check out Acts 2 for an example of the qualifications someone needs for baptism)
I believe I told you about the Jenkins family recently in one of my emails. They are doing well. Brother Jenkins is living the Word of Wisdom and his family members are awesome. We have been seeing them more frequently lately to keep encouraging them and provide any support that we can. Their names were brought up in PEC yesterday, but the track record for how effectively our ward gets things done would predict that nothing is going to happen to help them out. We are probably going to have to ask our Bishop directly to see if he could meet with them so that the proper steps are taken to help them get to the Temple. The only problem with that is our WML will probably complain about us going behind his back and skipping through the chain of authority in order to do anything (hopefully you can feel my sarcasm).
There are many good things that are coming up in the near future that I am looking forward to. The first would be transfers which take place next Tuesday (November 9th). This Friday we will be having a Zone Leader Council meeting up in Gridley that I am excited for. The time that I have to spend with President Pendleton is one of my favorite uses of time on my mission. On November 15th, we will be having Half-Mission Conference with Elder Per G. Malm. I am super stoked for that. Last year, Elder Paul V. Johnson came and it was incredible. I am sure that this year will be just as good. Then it will be Thanksgiving, and then Santa Run will be happening in the first part of December. Finally, the end will be here... I am expecting the next month and a half to be the fastest of my mission and I don't know if that is a good thing. Come what may and love it, right?
It always feels like there are things that I forget to say every time I email. I'll probably remember something later today and then I'll forget it all again completely next week. Mom, to answer your question: yes the weather has cooled down. We've had a little bit of rain in the past couple weeks, but the rain season really hasn't started quite yet. It's been in the 70's lately (with basically no humidity, Devin. Hah!) I'm sure more rain is coming soon though. I am so grateful I am in a car area. I'm looking forward to the letters from the family this week. Nobody has told me anything about the Disneyworld trip other than that you were eating at Winnie the Pooh's when you heard Devin was joking around about his busted leg. And, Kasey has/had a date soon/recently? I haven't heard from her for a while... Finally, Brittnie, I got your package and your letter. The Elders in our house wanted to write to you and ask for more of those chocolate-oreo-awesome-ball things. I will be writing to you soon. Thanks for the package.
Once again, I hope everything is well at home (and around the world for those reading this elsewhere). You are all in my prayers. Be mighty!
Love,
Elder Justin Hammer
First off, we have a new investigator. Her name is Lindsey and she is progressing very well. I personally feel that her fellowshipper, Aunt Barber, is holding her back from getting baptized. Sis. Barber has made Lindsey think that she needs to know everything before she commits to a specific date and time for when she would get baptized. Well, knowledge is wonderful and everyone knows that you definitely can't be saved in ignorance. However, there is this amazing thing called a spiritual confirmation that tells you something is true and that everything the missionaries are teaching is true as well. You can know that getting baptized is the right thing to do and that setting a date provides spiritual power to fight off the temptations Satan is going to send your way telling you to procrastinate the day of your repentance. Plus, we would never allow someone to be baptized if they weren't prepared according to the specifications we have been given for those entering the waters. Our plan of attack: teach her the remaining lessons this week and tell her that she knows everything she needs to in order to be baptized. As long as she keeps the commitments and knows that what we are teaching is true, she is ready. And I know she is ready. (Check out Acts 2 for an example of the qualifications someone needs for baptism)
I believe I told you about the Jenkins family recently in one of my emails. They are doing well. Brother Jenkins is living the Word of Wisdom and his family members are awesome. We have been seeing them more frequently lately to keep encouraging them and provide any support that we can. Their names were brought up in PEC yesterday, but the track record for how effectively our ward gets things done would predict that nothing is going to happen to help them out. We are probably going to have to ask our Bishop directly to see if he could meet with them so that the proper steps are taken to help them get to the Temple. The only problem with that is our WML will probably complain about us going behind his back and skipping through the chain of authority in order to do anything (hopefully you can feel my sarcasm).
There are many good things that are coming up in the near future that I am looking forward to. The first would be transfers which take place next Tuesday (November 9th). This Friday we will be having a Zone Leader Council meeting up in Gridley that I am excited for. The time that I have to spend with President Pendleton is one of my favorite uses of time on my mission. On November 15th, we will be having Half-Mission Conference with Elder Per G. Malm. I am super stoked for that. Last year, Elder Paul V. Johnson came and it was incredible. I am sure that this year will be just as good. Then it will be Thanksgiving, and then Santa Run will be happening in the first part of December. Finally, the end will be here... I am expecting the next month and a half to be the fastest of my mission and I don't know if that is a good thing. Come what may and love it, right?
It always feels like there are things that I forget to say every time I email. I'll probably remember something later today and then I'll forget it all again completely next week. Mom, to answer your question: yes the weather has cooled down. We've had a little bit of rain in the past couple weeks, but the rain season really hasn't started quite yet. It's been in the 70's lately (with basically no humidity, Devin. Hah!) I'm sure more rain is coming soon though. I am so grateful I am in a car area. I'm looking forward to the letters from the family this week. Nobody has told me anything about the Disneyworld trip other than that you were eating at Winnie the Pooh's when you heard Devin was joking around about his busted leg. And, Kasey has/had a date soon/recently? I haven't heard from her for a while... Finally, Brittnie, I got your package and your letter. The Elders in our house wanted to write to you and ask for more of those chocolate-oreo-awesome-ball things. I will be writing to you soon. Thanks for the package.
Once again, I hope everything is well at home (and around the world for those reading this elsewhere). You are all in my prayers. Be mighty!
Love,
Elder Justin Hammer
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