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... : )