Week 10: Miracles, Travel and an Evil Bed!

Hello :)

Well another week has come and gone. Again. Time is going by so fast!! Our week was filled with travel and miracles!!

On Tuesday, we took our weekly trip to Sevilla for our district meeting. Usually we don't have time to go eat with the other Elders in our district but this time we did. We went to this Bolivian food restaurant and I got this HUGE plate of potatoes and tomatoes and onions and peppers and steak and hot dog. You name it! I know most of you are like “Whatever! Tanner would never eat that stuff”! You used to be right! I ate all of it. I just thought of it as some carne asada fries from Betos! 

That night we got a call from the hermanas in our district and they said they had two people that needed to be interviewed for their baptism..(My companion is the district leader). So on Thursday, we went back to Sevilla and did the interviews. We got their super early and we had some time to kill so we went to the Plaza de España! It was freaking huge and so cool! It's where one of the 9000 Star Wars was filmed. I saw Luke Skywalker and so I told him that I was his father. He didn't believe me.  Anyways, after that we went to the church and I just played basketball the whole time while he did the interviews for 3 hours. The ward in Sevilla has 400 people in it. We have 30 here in Córdoba. Maybe. That night we stayed with the other Elders in our district. Worst nights rest I've ever gotten. I slept on their couch that had a metal rod that new exactly where my back was and wherever I went, it followed. 

On Friday night we had a lesson with the Romanian family and of course she fed us! We said we had another cita soon but she made us call the guy and change the time so we could eat with them! She was legit angry that we weren't going to eat with them haha! She always laughs at me and thinks I'm super funny and she says she's gonna miss me when I leave. :)   They are so nice!  Dad- Juan, Mom- Palistine, 15 year old daughter- Venecia, 9 year old son- Jesus, 8 year old son- Jobi. They have a nanny who's name is Rosario too. Mom, I'll be sure to tell Palistine that you’re so grateful for her feeding and taking care of me. She'll love to hear that. She always asks "if we came to America one day would your mom invite us for dinner?" And I'm like yeah and she always is like "what if we saw you one day and you invited us to dinner and your mom said no?” Haha I'm like my mom wouldn't say no and they just ask "well what if?” 

Later that night after we ate with them we went to our next lesson with a new investigator named Jose Javier. He's a 45+ ish guy from Ecuador. He has 3 kids and no job and he told us that he wanted a change in his life. He called the right people ;) We started the lesson and we just got to know him. Then we started talking about the Book of Mormon and we asked him if he had seen the love of God in his life. He said yes and he told us a story about when he was with his friends and they were all super drunk and the cops came and he hid all the illegal stuff and he said a prayer in his mind and said "God, help me. Don't let the police bust me”!  I was a little confused and thought that maybe I heard something wrong or just got some Spanish words mixed up. Nope. I was right!  Still confused but that's alright :). We kept talking about the Book of Mormon and I showed him the little drawing that dad's companion drew for him on his mission and told him that these were the 3 steps for him to find out if this book and the gospel were true. We gave him 2 Nephi: 32 to read and he said he would do it. He has such a strong testimony and he said that he wants to strengthen it even more and know all about our church! The Spirit was so strong during the entire lesson. At the end, we asked if WHEN he knew if these things are true if he would be baptized and he said yes without any hesitation!! I got the chills throughout my entire body! It was the coolest thing ever :)!

Sunday we were supposed to have Jose Javier and the Romanian family come to church with us, but Jose Javier had to take care of his kids and one of the sons was sick so the Romanians didn't come either!! We usually get about 30-35 people in church every week so that's good!

Today we got on a 6:30 AM train to go to Sevilla because we had interviews with President Andersen. Mine went good! He thinks it’s super cool how dad and I served in the same mission and he said it would be so cool if I met people he knew. I couldn't agree more!! Hopefully my next area is somewhere you served. The interviews took forever so we were late and missed our train home so we had to wait for the next one to come. So we didn't really get much of a P-Day except we went and shopped and played a little bit of basketball with Jesus and Jobi! (Romanian kids).

Ponderize for the week: Proverbs 3:5-6 and it talks about having trust in the Lord :)

Time is going by so fast and I'm enjoying my time here in Córdoba! I’m so grateful for you guys and I love you all so much :) Thanks for all your love and support and I hope you have a great week and a great Halloween!!

Love,
Elder Hammond :)

Today we played basketball with Jesus and Jobi! 

Tanner's companion had a mishap with a metal clothesline during a PDay activity last week.  He's ok! 

Star Wars was filmed here!

Food, food and more food to come home with us from Palestine!  We love her!

The Plaza de Espana!

Week 9: A Week of Food and Laughs!

Hello friends, family and everyone reading this email!

Feels like 20 minutes ago I was typing my last letter to send home! Hopefully at home time is cruisin' on by as well :) I hope everyone had a fan-freakin-tastic week in the 801 or whatever area code you are in :)

My week was very food felt.. We have been teaching this Romanian family for the last couple weeks and this week they fed us on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday! They just keep telling us to come by for our lessons and then right as we are about to leave they tell us to come eat! Haha it's great! On Thursday the Mom called us and told us to stop by her house for a quick minute to help her with something. So we did, and she literally just gave us a sack full of food hahaha. There were ribs, mashed potatoes and some really good chicken and gravy stuff!! We didn't even help her with anything she just said that so we would come faster hahaha. So Thursday we ate quite a bit of food.

On Tuesdays, we have to go to Sevilla for district meetings. We also did intercombios! I was with Elder Van Luuewen. He's been out for a year longer than me. He played wide receiver at Timpview, so we obviously had something to talk about. Also before our missions we followed each other on Twitter and Instagram so we knew of each other! He scored a touchdown against us my Junior year(he made sure to remind me of that).  He's cool and a really good missionary! He LOVES to talk  and he won't let people talk crap on our church. This lady was saying how she knows all about us and that our church basically is the worst so Elder Van Luuewen let her know how he felt. We gave a blessing to an older lady who wasn't feeling very good so I anointed the oil for the first time in Spanish!  In every lesson we taught, (members and non members) people didn't believe me when I told them I had only been out for 2 months because my Spanish was so good! It was a good confidence booster for me :)

Wednesday I had to travel back to Córdoba alone! I listened to an older guy from Barcelona tell me his entire life story. I sat and listened cuz he didn't give me an opportunity to talk. The only words I said were Yes and 18. Then when I got here, I found out the Elder who was with my comp missed his train so we had to sit and wait for the next one for like 3 hours! Then he left and we went to a cita we had scheduled with the only investigator who has a baptism date and he wasn't there. Again. We've taught one lesson with him and it was the first week. His date is the last week of October so hopefully he's prepared and will meet with us more. 

On Thursday, we came home for medio dia to eat and stuff, and there was this fly that was being so annoying and would like fly into the room and then back out. I swear it knew how to make us get mad so finally we waited for it to come into the room and we closed the doors to trap it. We both got our weapons (he had a pillow and I had a giant cushion) and we started trying to kill it. It legit took us about 15 minutes just to kill it. Then we went back to eating our food. THEN THE FLY COMES BACK ALIVE SOMEHOW. Oh man! Let’s just say things started getting pretty heated at this point hahaha. So we got our weapons again and we trapped it between our door and the curtain. I was getting ready to take a blind swing when Elder Shields just jabs at it with his hand.  He was sitting on the recliner chair and he put too much weight on the back of it and while he was falling he tried to catch himself, but totally wiffed trying to grab the window and his face smashed into the door  hahahaha! It was one of the funniest things ever. We killed the fly though, so that's all that matters. We only wasted 45 minutes (attached pictures of him after falling on the chair).

On Friday we had 2 lessons in the morning and then during medio dia we baked a cake for the Romanian family since they had fed us so much haha :) and then when we went to give them the cake we made, they fed us again! Saturday was a rainy day.. We were on our way home from a cita in the afternoon and here in Spain there's not like actual sidewalks.. There's a bike path and then really slick concrete.. I don't know how to explain it other than when it’s raining, it's super wet.. By now you can probably guess what's going to happen next haha. I was sick of getting everything wet.. So I book it across the street over to the other side so obviously Elder Shields has to follow, right? Well he does but when I go to stop after taking shelter under a balcony, he tries to stop and COMPLETELY slips on his back and I promise he wasn't down for more than 2 seconds.  He eats it, I start laughing so hard and next thing I know he's up and running ahead of me!! It was like on the Ridiculousness where the people run off the pain hahaha! Oh man! I was laughing that whole day just thinking about the noise he made when he realized "Oh crap I'm going down..” And then the noise he made when he hit the ground and slid for another 3 feet. I was laughing so freaking hard. I'm so glad he's my companion haha! I love him.

Sorry for my extremely long email.. But it was an eventful, quick week! I'm so grateful I'm here in Spain and I'm so grateful for all of you at home! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Love

Elder Hammond

This is Elder Shields after attempting to kill the fly and smashing his face on the window. ;)

This is me and the guy who had no idea where the door was.  The one that reminds me of Drake and Josh.
USA!! USA!!! (See last week's email for more details!)

And this is me with my package I received in the mail today.
Thank you Mom and all those who helped with my awesome Super Hero package!

  

Week 8: A Better Week in Cordoba!

This week was a little bit better than last week! We didn't get bailed on as much as we did last week but obviously there were still some flakes. 

Highlight of the Week:
On Tuesday, we had our first meeting with our branch mission leader. It was hard to focus because we had the meeting in his house and there's this old guy who's crazy that they take care of. He reminds me of the old grandpa in the show Drake and Josh that still thinks he's in the war and uses his slipper as a Walky-Talky and just yells USA hahahahaha only few people will understand how truly crazy he is! Anyways, he kept just staring at me and about 20 minutes Into our meeting, he was sick of sitting there and waiting so he started to get up and leave. He put his coat on and his hat (took him a solid 5 minutes to get up off the couch and put everything on) and tried saying bye to us. Heberson (Mission leader) told him to sit back down and wait and that we would be done soon. After saying a few words that I understood that I probably shouldn't have, he took off his coat and his hat and sat back down. During the meeting, he told us about a few more people that we hadn't met yet that we should set up meetings with. About 10 minutes later, the old guy was done waiting again. So, he got up off the couch, eventually, and put on his coat and hat and said bye to us. He said thanks for being more handsome than the last elders that he met haha. In the house we were in, it's got about 4 rooms, a kitchen and the door to leave the house. The door to leave the house is in absolute plain sight. I'm laughing so hard right now just thinking about it again. He checked the 3 bedroom doors and the bathroom door, 7 times. He started getting so fed up with looking in the same doors so after he would look in them, he would close them. So I'm sitting there thinking all right, he's got this figured out now. He checked, and closed all the doors and then went back to the first door that he checked and closed and checked it again hahahahah. I was doing everything in my power to not laugh out loud. The meeting was over by this point and we were praying and he comes in the room and screams "DONDE ESTA LA SALIDA"! Hahahaha! Oh my gosh I just about died. It was the funniest thing ever. He's such a funny guy and he says he wants to take lessons from us so we will probably go talk to him this week. I'll send you guys a picture with him :)! That was the highlight of my week for sure.

On Thursday we had a lesson with a member named Maria Carmen and she fed us sardines and this chicken stuff! You know me, I do not like fish but obviously I couldn't say no to free food haha so I had a couple...  They weren't my favorite haha but the chicken was good. 

We had to go to Sevilla on Friday for a zone meeting. We didn't have any time to like go hang out or see anything but from what I saw it looked really pretty! That night we had 2 lessons. One was with a recent convert named Michelle. Towards the end of the lesson the Spirit was so strong and it was seriously one of the coolest feelings ever. She was in tears and she was telling us how she wanted to get her older brother and her dad baptized or at least come to church. Hopefully next time we go over there they will be there so we can teach them too! After that, we went to this part-member families house. The dad isn't a member but he knows all about the church and the mom and her 2 kids are members. The mom reminds me of Mom and Bay haha.. Always looking out for others and putting others before themselves :) and she's a pretty good cook.

On Saturday, we had 4 lessons! We were stoked about it cuz we had about that many last week! I'm definitely becoming a pro at teaching the first lesson haha.. We usually teach the members that so that I can practice and everyone needs a reminder of the basics :) 

Sunday was our first day going to church! We met all the members and we got a better map of where more investigators are so I'm assuming this week will be pretty busy! We had to introduce ourselves in front of everyone haha. It was Fast Sunday here and now I'm really regretting not taking all the chances I had to share my testimony in English! 

Today for P-Day the weather sucked again but we went to the mall and went and looked at some cool Roman bridges. We got a basketball at the mall and played basketball :) it was fun!

After conference last week, Bailee suggested that we should do what Elder Durant said and pick a scripture at the beginning of each week and ponderize it. So we started doing that last Monday! We are just going to pick a scripture each week and read it and try and memorize it! She picked last weeks so I'm gonna pick this weeks! I think is such a good idea and it's a good way to get more familiar with the scriptures!! I picked John 8:12:  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. I suggest everyone reading this tries it :)


Shoutout to the Utes for pulling off another win this week and staying strong in the Top 5!!! 

I love you all :) Have a terrific week!! Thank you for all your love and support!

Love,
Elder Hammond

Cordoba Espana

P-Day today

Rainy weather but still a beautiful and historic City.

Week 7: First Week in Cordoba and First General Conference!

Hola from Córdoba!

Week one has come and gone now that I'm out in the real world! Leaving the MTC was really hard because of leaving the people I’d met there.  Mostly Jake and Brady. The goodbye was put off until literally the last second. It was so hard and we cried but seeing Brady’s big smile out the window as we drove away helped me and Beckstrom a lot. I was lucky that I had Beckstrom too so that helped me.  Can’t wait to see Braids again.  That last night was the best when we were together.  But, I was so ready to get out of that place and get to the mission field!

The first couple days in Cordoba were slow and weird because there were 2 elders who were getting transferred the next day but now that they're gone and it's just me and my companion things are going a lot smoother! Elder Shields is from Washington and he went to USU for a year last year before he came! He's 21 next month. He was born in 1994... he's so much older than me. We are the only two missionaries in all of Cordoba!

Wednesday night we tried to find this lady named Josefa who is a recent convert and was baptized in January but we didn't have any luck. After that we tried looking for this guy named Lucky who is from Nigeria.  Once again no luck. We did end up talking to this guy named Antonio who seemed cool and pretty interested. We gave him our number and a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. On Thursday we taught our first lesson to an investigator named Aide. She's a 40 year old lady. We went to the park where we were supposed to meet her and we couldn't find her so we left after waiting for over 30 minutes and then once we left she called and asked if we could come back so we went back and taught her all about baptism, repentance, faith, gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring until the end. She's super interested but she is going to be hard to get baptized because, along with everyone else in Spain, she's Catholic! Later that night we got a call from Josefa and she wanted us to come to her house again so we did. We were there for about an hour and she literally talked for an hour and a half. Old crazy people like her loooove to talk. She's like 76 and has a dog so she says she gets lonely. We had her watch a video and we talked about conference this weekend and invited her to watch it. We also have another investigator named Marcos who is set to be baptized on the 24th of this month. We are going to make sure that happens and we are gonna get as many lessons as possible!

About 95% of the time we are out proselyting. We go to people's addresses and they're either not home or they gave the other missionaries the wrong address. On Friday morning we spent about 3 hours walking around looking for houses. On the bus that day we talked to this guy from Kenya and he wants to meet with us soon so we are going to call him sometime this week! Saturday we got our first lesson at a member’s house! We talked to them about conference and we invited them to have 2 questions on their mind while they watch conference. They fed us too so that's always a good thing!

Conference was great. We went to the church to watch it, just the two of us in the whole church! We watched 10 hours of conference total.  I can’t believe we now have two apostles in our ward!  I really liked in President Uchtdorf’s talk during priesthood session, he said: “Be not afraid.. Choose to believe.” It's true! If we put all our trust in the Lord, he will take care of us and everything will turn out the right way :) Gosh I miss you guys so much and I love you all! I think it was Saturday afternoon during conference, Holland was talking about how the only love that comes close to the love that Christ has for us is a mother’s love for her child. In my life, I know for a fact that that is true and I just wanted to say thank you Mom for never giving up on me and for never not helping me with stuff I needed help with. I wouldn't be here without you. I wouldn't have graduated high school without you. ;) And I know we both know I wouldn't have gotten my Eagle without you hahaha :) So thank you for being the best mother a boy like me could ask for. Only 2 more little me's to go! :) I'll help you out with what I can though once I get home.

Our typical schedule is: Wake up at 7:30, work out (pull ups, push ups, anything I can think of using the one dumbbell we have.  Two times a week we do P90X ab ripper hahaha. I hate that thing. Then we shower and get ready. We have personal study til 10 and then comp study til 11:30 then we go proselyte until 2 and have siesta-eat and do language study and just hang out in the piso until like 5 or 5:30 then we usually have a couple of lessons and then we do lessons and proselyte until 10:15 or 10:45, in bed and asleep at 11:30.:)  We have those animated scripture movies that we used to watch all the time here on like a USB so we watch those all the time and I love it! :) (Yes, they are in Spanish haha).

We walk. A lot. We have bus passes but we still have to walk to get to and from people's houses and to bus stops and everything. I've learned to appreciate everything more though. Like everyone back home. I miss you guys so much. When you're on a mission you gain a love stronger than anything for your family and obviously for me, my girlfriend haha. You gain a love for your Savior as well. I want to be able to let other people feel this love and I know the gospel can do that. It just sucks because the people don't know that. If they gave it a chance they would be SO MUCH HAPPIER!! I'm always staying strong though.

My cooking skills are ok.  We’ve made eggs, rice, chicken, cereal, hamburgers, tacos, there's this stuff called Kebab and they're super good they're cheap too like 1.50 so we get those sometimes. :) Wash is good. Easy. Nothing special but we don't have a dryer so we just have to hang them up to dry on a little rack we have here. 

In our piso we each have a bedroom but I don’t sleep in mine.  The beds here are too risky for me and I hang off the end. So I sleep on the couch.  And yes, mom, I will wash the sheets every week :) I'm pretty sure I had bed bugs in the MTC but I used the bug spray and all the bites went away :).

We are hoping to get to know more of the members here.  So far none of them have invited us to come over. The only one we have met is branch mission leader so we were at their house on Saturday and they fed us us this good soup.

I attached pictures of the Cathedral from a couple nights ago! We went back to the Cathedral today but the weather sucked today. It was all rainy and Shields didn't bring his own money and it was like 20 Euros to get in so we walked around the outside for a little then came back and went to lunch and stuff! We are going to try and go back a little more prepared than we were this week.  

That's all I got for this week! I will talk to you guys soon I love you all so much!  I love you all have a great week!

Elder Hammond

Last Day at the MTC!  We were going crazy to get out in the real world of missionary life!  

Saying goodbye to Elder Wahlster.  

I'll miss our Sunday Selfies!  See the little note on Brady's notepad in his pocket from Tanner.  ;(

Keeping with the Watson tradition of Sunday Selfies from the bathroom at the CCM. 

Last temple session with this "this guy right here!"  

Out and about with my new companion, Elder Shields, from Washington. 

Our piso.  "Mom, I'm doing my wash and washing my sheets!"

Kitchen:  I think Tanner's kitchen is nicer than ours at home.  Pretty lucky!

Kitchen

Living room and Tanner's sleeping quarters.  

Most important room in the house!  He never mentioned a bidet, but this sure looks like one.  Garet said that was the best part of Spain was the use of a bidet after a long day of missionary work! 

Tanner's bedroom that he doesn't really sleep in apparently.

Pictures of the Cathedral at night.

Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba.

Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba.

At the park.  That's all I can say! ;)

No caption needed.  No idea where this is or what is doing, but he sure is goofy!