A few additional tidbits of information.
- Tanner mentioned in a letter that there was a missionary on the plane with him that put two 35 lb. dumbbells in his carry-on bag. They were all cracking up and had to help him lug the bag through all the airports and lift it in the overhead bin. Ironically, his Mom works across from one of my clients’ offices and we met and took a photo. Even more ironic is that this Elder (Elder Hildebrandt) is now Tanner’s MTC companion. At least we know he will be working out for the next six weeks!
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| Elder Hildebrandt's Mom, Jodi. |
Some additional information Tanner sent in a handwritten letter he mailed to us. It was written on 8/20/15:
- I miss you guys so much! I haven’t been able to sleep and in the morning I feel super homesick but then once I see everyone else and study my scriptures and read all the letters that I have opened, I feel much better. Thank you for the letters.
- I am a Zone Leader for Zone 1! The first day we got here we had to get interviewed by President Lovell and his wife. He asked me and my companion (Elder Hildbrandt from American Fork) if we would be Zone Leaders. Elder Hildebrandt is way funny and nice and we get along very well.
- The food isn’t great but my stomach hasn’t failed me yet!
- We had our first activity time yesterday and we went to the place called The PIt. It’s like soccer court outside where all the locals play pick-up games and everyone stops and watches them. It has graffiti all over it. It’s way cool and its funny to watch all of us try and play soccer.
- Today we became citizens of Spain. I was the first one and it was our first time using real world Spanish haha but I made it out alive.
- Our schedule is, wake up at 6:30, study and plan and breakfast from 7-8, class from 8-9 to about 10:30 or 11:00. Then we do something like meetings or like a fireside. Then we have lunch from 12-1. We have another class and then physical activity from about 4-5. Dinner is usually at 5:30 and then we have another meeting then our last classes are till about 9:30. Finally bedtime with a little bit of personal study.
- These first few days have been pretty long, but they’re starting to go by a lot quicker.
- The language is coming along pretty good and it’s way fun with all of my district.
- The flight was MISERABLE! I was so glad to see Elder Smith when he got to London. We hugged for a long time! I get to see him often and we have long talks whenever we can. So glad he is here with me.
EMAIL SENT THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2015 @ 4:00 A.M.
Hello family, friends, loved ones and all others who this is being sent to! Let me start off by saying that the spanish keyboards are a little bit different and the enter button doesnt work haha so I apologize for that. The first week has been good and hard! We have classes all day and only an hour for physical activity. Saturdays are the best because we get to go proselyting in the park that is here. I was with a kid from highland named Elder Romney. We did the best we could to communicate with our broken spanish. We talked to this couple from Santiago and told them about El Libro De Mormon. They were interested so we let them keep it. We also gave them a Joseph Smithpamphlet and then they asked us where the temple was so we tried to give them the address but we didn’t really know if it was right or not haha. Other than that experience, it was mostly us saying Hola and them saying Adios. I didn’t think I would take getting rejected as hard as I did. It was weird because I wasn’t used to it. If people felt how we felt when they would take our message, this whole mission thing wouldn’t be so hard! The homesickness comes and goes. Sunday was the worst. I miss taking the sacrament from L HAM and trying to get him to laugh haha. My companion is Elder Hildebrandt. We get along pretty well. Everyone here is basically from Utah haha. We have been teaching an "investigator" named Sarah. We keep trying to teach her the first lesson, but everytime we go off on something else she has questions on. Its so hard to communicate with her and understand what she is saying. The language is coming along pretty good. I can understand mostly everything people ask me but other times (like in the park) I just say "No se" or tell them that I have only been in Spain for 4 days. Or I just bare my testimony to them. Those are the times when the spirit is there the most. Now that I got to email home and see everyones love and support it has really helped me. I am so greatful for such wonderful people back home. I miss and love everyone. Feel free to send mail through DearElder.com. Thank you all for everything!
You´ll hear from me in a week :)
Love, Elder Hammond
