Week 19: End of 2015

Dear people who love me enough to read my letters weekly! ❤️❤️❤️

First off, I just want you all to know you're amazing and I hope your Christmas was amazing :) and I love you all.

Another week down. Wow! What a week as well. I can't believe it’s already Monday and I can't believe Christmas has come and gone. I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW FREAKING AWESOME IT WAS TO SEE THE FACES OF THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE BACK HOME!!!! 

My week was regularly different, if that makes sense. Tuesday Elder Rex and I took the gnarliest adventure to get my Christmas presents. We waited in our apartment during media day because DHL said they were going to come and deliver my packages. I called them in the morning and they said they'd be at our house around 2 or 3 and they said they'd call before they came. So we waited and once 2 rolled around, they never called. We waited, and waited. And waited......................................and continued to wait. Finally I called them and was like, “Alright dudes! Where’s my package?" They said they had called earlier but we didn't answer. I said "Well what number did you call?" They said "2...4...6.. Niner..5, 6, 7, 8.." It was hard to hear them though, they were trailing off. (most people won't get this... It's from Tommy Boy) but anyway, after that, we went to the church to look for where the DHL place was, and luckily it was pretty close to our piso. So, we started walking! We walked down the main road, but then when we got to the place where we needed to be, it was a dead end. We turned around and started heading back up towards our piso to take another road and go the long way. There was literally nothing. It was so scary. We live on the edge of the earth. There's nothing by us. Sooo after walking for a good 10 minutes, we found our way to some train tracks. So we crossed the tracks and started walking down this dirt road. The whole place was surrounded by a barbed wire fence. After another 10 minutes trying to exploit a weakness in the fence, I looked to my left and saw an 8 inch gap between the fence and wire. We wiggled our through the gap and luckily, the DHL place was right there! :) It was a great way to do some companionship bonding! :) Thank you to everyone for my packages. It was so fun to open them and see all the surprises inside.

Wednesday we woke up at 4:25 AM to catch a bus to Murcia for our Christmas conference! It was so awesome. We got there after a four and a half hour bus ride. That wasn't awesome. We started off with a talent sho.. I debated on whether or not I wanted to tickle the ivories and sing for everyone, but I felt like everyone would be better off not hearing a dying cow!  After that we did a flash mob in the center of Murcia where there were a ton of people. I was singing, and one of the APs comes up to me and tells me to come with him. I got so nervous cuz I knew he wanted me to go talk to people with him. We went and started talking to this lady, and then he just walked away and left me alone! It was so weird. But, I got the ladies number and she seemed interested so I passed it to the missionaries in Murcia. It was a good experience for me. We’ll see what happens with her. When we were starting to eat, I was in line and one of the guys who was serving us the food looked at my name tag and said.. Jamón (Hammond), I served with a Jamón. I started getting a little excited and said when? Here? What was his name? It turns out it was dad!!! He was so excited and so was I. Apparently they went on splits with each other for a day in Granada and he remembered my dad having a girlfriend. I was like, “Dude, that's my mom!" It was awesome!

Thursday we set up a bunch of Christmas decorations in our piso, and then later that night we went over to la familia Corrados. When we get there, the daughter Sofia and her boyfriend/fiancé Hyrum did a little slide show PowerPoint thing and we read Luke Chapter 2. It was really cool and the spirit was so strong. All four of us elders were there, and we sang a bunch of Christmas hymns. We ate and had all sorts of Spanish dulces. Christmas tradition here is to celebrate right at 12 o'clock. That's when they open presents. They gave all of us ties! Mine is red and blue. I personally think it's the best looking one of the four of them. :)

Christmas morning... What a great Christmas!  We had a district breakfast around 9 in the morning. We all thought it would be fun to do a white elephant gift exchange so I bought a little Furby pillow. (Those ugly little furry animal pet things) And I got a pineapple cutter! It doesn't work very well but it's the thought that counts right? On the bright side, the pineapple we bought to use it on was SO GOOD!  After that, we came back to our piso and we opened all our presents!!! It was weird not to be doing that with my family. But it’ll be oh so sweet when I can again! :) After that, we came to the church and played basketball for a little bit and then it was THE BEST PART OF THE DAY!!!  Ahh my family is beautiful! FaceTime is a true homie, that's for sure. It was so good talking to everyone and seeing everyone again. Saying goodbye obviously wasn't easy at all but it sure as heck was easier than saying goodbye the last time I said bye to them though! :) Ahh man I just can't get over how gorgeous everyone is back home! (We were able to talk with Tanner for a while and then he said a prayer for us for our Christmas dinner in Spanish.  It was the highlight of the day for sure!) .

Saturday was fun... As usual, we played soccer in the morning… I know I say this every week, but guys... I'm starting to get pretty freakin good! My foot eye coordination isn't nearly as good as hand eye, but it's getting there!  After that, we went to a Silvia’s house for an eating cita. OH MY GOODNESS, she made these things that were like fried potatoes, with meat and rice and I don't even know but it was freakishly good. She made this salsa that was amazing. I don’t even know how to put it into words people.... Just delicious! :)

On Sunday we went to church and then after we went to our bishop's house (the bishop remembers my dad by the way)  and his wife and another lady in our ward made us some chicken and fries and potatoes. It was pretty good. The members like to feed us which I have no problems with...it's such a huge blessing to have so many members who are willing to open their homes to us and feed us. After dinner we had a great lesson with the families who were there. They are great familias. I told them basically my whole life story and so did Elder Rex. Then randomly, their daughter who's 28 and a returned missionary who is also inactive now, asked a question. She asked "Who do you think suffered more during the Atonement, Jesus or Heavenly Father?” It made me think a lot, and I honestly don't know.  Jesus suffered for literally every single sin, pain and sorrow. For all of our physical pains as well as our emotional. And at the same time God goes through everything with us, so did they go through the same? I’m not a parent yet, so I don't really know what it's like to see your own child go through something difficult. But I can Imagine it's not easy at all! I don't know, just kinda a random thing I thought I would share with you all. Just remember that God gave his only son to us so that we could be clean, happy and with our families to for eternity. My dad asked me what the most difficult part of being a missionary in Spain is and for me, it's two things: the language, which is actually getting easier by the day AND all the rejection. I'm not used to so much rejection and I refuse to accept it. I find myself getting discouraged at times with the lack of bautismos but I know the Lord will bless us if we keep at it. This was a crazy busy week with Christmas so I hope things will settle down and we can find more people to teach!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!  I'll be home soon, don't worry ;) have a great week, and know I love you all!!!

Talk to you guys in 2016!!!! :):):):)

Love,
Elder Hammond :)

Opening our Christmas packages from home and decorating our piso!

The reason for the package adventure

In the middle of nowhere on the package adventure

Hammond with jamón :) Everyone calls me that here.

My Christmas stocking and Utes tie

Christmas Eve Dinner and my awesome tie from the members and investigators!

La Familia Corrados on Christmas Eve

Brother/Previously Elder Cabrero that served with my dad.  He served us lunch for our mission Christmas meeting.
Small world!

Almeria District at lunch on PDay. Elder Layton next to me, Elder Harvey, Hermana Herrera, Hermana Smith and my companion Elder Rex is taking the selfie. 

Week 18: Merry Christmas

Dear Loved Ones,

MERRY FREAKIN CHRISTMAS!!!! I can't even believe it's already the week of Christmas. I hope everyone had an excellent week and has a wonderful and safe upcoming week! :)

SO, let's see. My week: Tuesday is our meeting day. We had our district meeting, then after that we went and got tapas! Tapa restaurants are basically just a bunch of appetizer plates. You pay for the drink, and an appetizer is included with it. :) I had a hamburger and a steak for really cheap! I got this drink that was seriously one of the most sour things I've ever tasted. It was so good though! It was probably the best drink I've had since I've been here, and I've tried all sorts of things. It's called Mosto. Quality stuff my friends. After all that we went home and then after medio dia we went to the church and had correlation and after that we had a meeting with all the leaders of our ward.

Wednesday we had a cita in a pueblo just outside of Almería with the Soleres family! They're members and so nice. They have a daughter who's probably 23ish and is married and they have a cute little daughter. They fed us this weird bean meat vegetable soup stuff. It was weird, but good! Don't ask for more details, cuz I have no idea what I was eating. Our mission president has asked that we show the "Life without a Savior" video to as many people as possible before Christmas. So every night this week when we would plan for the next day.  We would set goals of people to contact in the street and how many people we wanted to show the video to each day. We've started trying to kill two birds with one stone and show the video to the people we contact every day and it's been working out really well! We've gotten more future investigators and people want to know more because of the video.  

Wednesday night we had our English class. The guys that come every week are starting to get really good at English. It's cool to see them progress!

Thursday morning we had our weekly planning session. We need more investigators so we are going to be contacting a TON this week! It’ll be hard because of Christmas and we have to go to Murcia on Wednesday for a Christmas conference. Half of the mission is going to be there, so I'm excited to see a ton of people again! That night, the zone leaders came from Granada and we did splits with them. Elder Black went with the other elders, and Elder Weenig came with Elder Rex and me. Being in a trio companionship would be a weird experience. It was weird teaching with three of us, but it was a good time. He gave us a lot of helpful tips and things we could do to help us find more people and everything, so that was helpful!

Friday morning we taught four lessons in like an hour and a half! We were moving from house to house and the lessons were so short, but sweet! We picked up three new investigators and while we were on our way back to meet the other elders so that the zone leaders could go back home, we contacted and got 4 of 5 future investigators! Street contacting is so fun for some reason. When Elder Rex and I do it, we make games out of it. We would tell each other a word to use and have to use it during our conversation. It was pretty fun! After our lessons we went and dropped off the ZL's so they could go back to Granada. That night we had an activity at the the church with the young men to play basketball! It was nice for once to be able to be good and mess around with the people like they do to me when we play soccer! I got to know a bunch of the people in the ward, it was a good time. :)

Saturday morning we played soccer like we do every Saturday. I’m getting pretty good guys. I might think about taking up an indoor soccer league if nothing goes my way when I get home. Just kidding! I still suck so bad. It’s coming slowly but surely.  That night, there was a ward Christmas party. When we got there, I saw this guy that looked American. I went up and asked him where he was from and he said he went to East High School. He served here and left about 10 months ago. His last area was here in Almería so he came back to visit. His name is Sam Curtis, and after talking for a while, we realized we were somehow related between my dad’s cousin or something. It was so cool! He told me all about his mission, gave me a few tips and gave us all a little bit of advice. It was really cool when we figured out we knew a lot of the same people.

I flipped open to a random page during personal study this week and it was Mosiah 7:33: But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in Him, and serve Him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, He will, according to His own will and pleasure, deliver you out bondage.  I've learned how important it is to turn to the Lord. I'm sure I’ve said this before, but being out here and being able to have success would be absolutely impossible without Heavenly Father. Life itself would be impossible. There's nothing I can do here without Him. I love being able to tell people here that God loves them and wants to hear them pray and ask for his help. I love telling them that He sent his only son to die for them personally, so that we could become clean from our mistakes and sins in life and that we can return to live with Him again. 

I hope everyone has an excellent and safe Christmas. Eat lots of food for me and open all the presents that Santa brings me just in case he forgets I'm here in Spain!  I LOVE YOU ALL! MERRY CHRISTMAS YA FILTHY ANIMALS!!!!

Love,
Elder Tanner Brady Hammond :)

Our District at the Ward Christmas party!

Sam and me. He's my 4th(ish) cousin somehow!  

Today at "The Wok" with a couple of members and a bunch of investigators! The family and the girl holding the orange are the investigators. The girls that look like twins are members.  

This was my lunch.  Fish, shrimp, squid and crawdads.  Not the "Wok Lin" of Bountiful, that's for sure!

Week 17: I Can't Think Of A Subject So This Is My Subject :)

Hello loved ones :)

Wow, what a week! I can't believe it's already Monday again and I’m sending this home! I feel like I say that every week. But it's just weird how fast times going by!! Here's my week! :) 

Tuesday, I was still in Córdoba and it was filled with a lot of goodbyes. We went and had our last lesson/meal with Sheyla and her family. We finally got her husband (non-member) Aldo to join us for the lesson. He doesn't come to church with them, but he knows all about it and how things work around this neck of the woods. :) After that I finished up my packing and got ready to head out the next morning!

Wednesday was a crazyyyyy day!! We woke up and I got ready to go, my bus left at 8:30. It was kinda scary being alone in a place you’ve never been before and doing something you've never done! The bus took about 2 and a half hours to get to Granada. When I got there I walked into the station expecting to see a bunch of missionaries, but there were none. I went and walked around looking for people, but after about 2 minutes gave up. Eventually a girl named Hermana Estes came up to me and we waited for our buses together. After waiting for about 30 minutes, I headed to Almería! That was another two and a half hour bus ride. There was this lady behind me that was snoring uncontrollably. Holy shnikes. When we would hit a bump and she would stop for a good 4 seconds then right back at it again. I was livid! But I finally got here. When I arrived, the other Elders weren't there so I had to wait for about 20 minutes until they finally showed up. 

It's so weird getting to a new area. You get so used to knowing everything about a place, then you get to a new one and you know absolutely nothing..it's so weird. Anyway, we got to our piso and IT WAS A DISASTER. The first thing we did was clean it. Now it smells and looks like a brand new house! :) WE HAVE A DISHWASHER! It's so helpful and saves so much time. #blessed! After that we taught our weekly English class. There are four people that show up regularly, 3 of them are basically fluent, and one of them is just barely starting to learn. Elder Layton and I taught the ones who are fluent while Elders Rex and Harvey taught the one who doesn't know anything. We talked about highways and freeways and how bad people are at driving here in Spain. :) They kept trying to say “truck" but we couldn't understand them and we were like, “Yeah that's a bad word! Don't say that!”  and then they drew a picture of a truck so we both started laughing. It was pretty funny.

Thursday we had our planning session. Let's just say that we are going to be contacting a lot of people this week and the upcoming weeks. We need more investigators! We are going to set contacting goals every night for the next day. :) That night there was a wedding for one of the members here in Almería! I'm pretty sure it was the first wedding I've been to since I was probably 7 or 8? Spanish weddings are so much different than ours. A lot the members came and so it was nice to meet most of them. :)

On Friday, we tried to contacting people in the morning, but nobody wanted anything to do with us.  :( Apparently of all 3 areas in Almería,  Elder Rex and I have the hardest. There's a guy here that's in our area who has literally been investigating the church for the past 20-25 years. He comes to church every Sunday and is actively engaged in the classes, but he just won't get baptized! Nobody knows why. Maybe we'll be the ones to connect with him.  I told him about my dad serving here, and he said his wife might remember, so when we went and talked to her she kept saying it sounds familiar and when I showed her a picture she said he looked familiar. The picture was of our family pics, but now that I have pics of him on the mish, maybe she'll remember him!! 

The funniest part of this week was that night. Friday nights we sleep over with the other Elders in our piso because we play soccer every Saturday morning with a bunch of investigators right next to it. Elder Harvey fell asleep super fast, so we all decided we would set an alarm for 1:30 in the morning and act like it was time to go play soccer. So we all set our clocks forward so that when the alarm went off, the clock said 8:30. When the alarm went of we all were like hmm... Is this really worth it? And we all looked at each other and kinda grinned. We got up and told Harvey get up we're gonna be late. It was 1:30 in the morning and Elder Rex poured himself a bowl of cereal and started reading a book while Elder Harvey was getting out of bed. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. We were all trying so hard not to laugh. So Elder Harvey gets up and starts getting ready, so we decided we were just gonna go along with it until he realized it was the middle of the night. We got ready to go, got out the door and on our way down. Elder Rex had his camera and was filming the whole thing and Harvey kept asking why he was filming and why we were all laughing but he was too tired to realize what the heck was going on. When we got to the floor level and started walking outside, it was pitch black! We were all wondering how long it was gonna take for him to realize it so we get outside and literally after two minutes he looks up at the sky and says "What the heck is going on right now?” Hahahahahahaha! Ohhhhh my gosh! All 3 of us just lost it. It was so hard to hold in our laughs the whole time so when he said that we fell to the ground laughing. It was so funny.

Like I said, every Saturday we play soccer. I hope by playing it often I'll finally be able to get semi-decent at it. I had a couple goals but I'm nothing compared to Messi... not yet anyway. There were about 30 people there so we just divided up into teams and would rotate in and out. After soccer, there's a member named Silvia who invites all four of us over to eat every Saturday. So we went to her house and had lunch with her, her son and her friend who is also a member. She’s from Ecuador, so obviously we had rice. ;) The lunch was really good and we were so hungry so we ate so much. We shared the video “A Life Without a Savior" that I told you guys about last week or the week before. When we show it to someone, the Spirit Is so strong. It’s really helpful, especially during the month with Christmas just right around the corner ☃(can't find Christmas tree emoji :/) Anyway after that, we went back home showered and what not, got ready, then had another eating cita with an investigator named Emme. She's so nice, she has a daughter who's 18 and a son who is 12. Her daughter isn’t very interested, but she listens anyway. She's been an investigator for about a month now, but she won't get baptized. She knows the Book of Mormon is true, but I don't think she wants the responsibility of "this whole Mormon thing”. I told her that “this whole Mormon thing" might not be easy all the time, but it's so worth it. I told her it's just like a mission. It has it's ups and downs, and it's not easy. But in the end of it all, it's so worth it to be able to see your family and friends again and the fact that we have the opportunity to be with them for eternity and how her being baptized and accepting this gospel can do nothing but bless her life.

It really is crazy to see how much this gospel can change people’s lives for the better. Something I've learned these past 4 months is how God works in the weirdest, most mysterious ways (just like people fall in love... that's a song by Ed Sheeran for those of you that are confused) but He works. I wish I knew how, but I feel like I can only learn to trust. I'll never know everything, He's the only one that will. He knows what’s good for us, and He knows how to help us through rough times. He knows when people truly want to change their lives. He sees how much effort they're putting in to really know if the Book of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. He needs to see them want an answer before he gives them the answer. They have to trust him that they'll receive one as well. When we put our trust in the Lord and do our part, He takes care of the rest and makes us happy.

Thank you all for reading this far.. Maybe one day my emails won't be extremely long!  I love you and miss you all. Thank you for everything you've done and continue to do for me!! Have a great week!!

Love,
Elder Hammond :)

Elder Layton and I at the wedding. :) 

These are my new homies!  Elder Rex is my companion (in the back) and Elder Layton is in our area also. This was the day I got to Almeria.

Saying goodbye to Aldo, Sheyla, Deigo and Valeria! 

Time lapse of us playing basketball this morning. :) I’m in the light blue shirt.

Week 16: Next Stop! Almeria!

Hello all!

Almería here I come!!!! Can't believe I'm already moving on to my second area.. That's crazy! Córdoba has been a blast with Elder Shields. He's taught me so much. The best part is my new companion is Elder Rex and him and Elder Shields are good friends! I've talked to Elder Rex before and he's so cool! I'm excited to see what's in store :) I leave Wednesday morning!

Here's my week in a not so small nut shell. (Sorry)

Since it's the first of the month, we didn't have to go to Sevilla for district meeting on Tuesday morning cuz we had Zone Conference on Friday which was so awesome mostly because I got to see one of my best friends Elder Beckstrom!!!! :) So instead, we had our weekly meeting with our branch mission leader Hermano Heberson. He had to get Amarillo (Drake and Josh grandpa) to his house, so we did it in his car! It was awkward. It was so worth it though cuz while we were talking about our investigators and the less actives and whatnot, I was in the back seat and had a wonderful conversation with Amarillo! It was my job to keep him in the car, and that wasn't easy. He kept trying to get out of the car and go to his house! I told him to tell me a story of when he was younger and he said, "Tio I still am young!" (he's 83). He ended up telling me a story of when he was young and these kids were messing with him and so he had to beat the "tar" out of them. Hahaha! Ah man, it was a phenomenal story! :)

Wednesday night we taught an English lesson to a guy named Juan. We have been teaching him for a couple of weeks now. He's the only one that comes to our classes so we just teach him whatever he wants. He told us to draw the states and that he wanted to learn all 50 of them. When we got to the east coast, since all the states are so small up towards New York, my comp said that we had to use a magnifying glass but on the board he spelled it 'magnifine' glass. Juan was like,
"Shouldn't it be magnifying?"  I started laughing so hard and told Juan that he needed to teach Shields English instead. ;) He has really good Spanish so it's easy to have a conversation with him and teach him. He's lived in Córdoba for like 40-50 years now and he doesn’t talk like the other Andalusians. THANK GOODNESS! They're SO hard to understand cuz they just slur all their words together. It doesn’t help when all of them have cigarettes in their mouth either.  We try and teach him about the gospel after our English class, but he doesn't always have time. He said he was reading a little bit of the Book of Mormon and he was interested in it so we will see where that goes. :)

All of our plans fell through on Thursday night. We were supposed to meet with Jorge, but he had work. If we got that lesson with him, he would have been on track and we could have done the interview with him before Saturday and he could have gotten baptized. But since he had work, obviously we couldn't make that happen. :( I know he will get baptized. I'm just not sure when. Hopefully this week. We’ve seriously been focusing on him more than anything and just trying to figure out what we need to do to help him and what he needs to hear. Satan works harder when things go better for us.(as people and missionaries). When he sees that we are having success, he does everything he can to do whatever he can to mess it up. Anyway, since we got bailed on by everyone, we went to an area we have never been to before and knocked about 50 doors. Some people here in Spain are mean. It's sad cuz we have to introduce ourselves NOT as Jehovah’s Witnesses! When we do that, they start to listen, and then we get talking to them and saying we are Mormons and tell them what we believe in, then they say they're Catholic. I promise I've heard “Soy Católico" more in the past 3 months than I've heard my name in my life.

Friday was my first Zone Conference! It was so cool and fun. I got to meet a ton of other missionaries and see a bunch of people from the MTC!! We are the only two people who have to take a train to Sevilla, because we are the only area that's in the Sevilla zone, that isn't in Sevilla. So when we got off our train, another train pulled up and it was the 3rd zone that was coming to the conference! I knew it was Elder Beckstrom’s zone, so when I saw missionaries I started looking for him immediately. There were so many people on the platform, and out of nowhere I just see him drop his bag and jump on me!  It was so funny! Everyone who was there just looked at us so weird while we hugged!  We got to the church and the two AP’s each gave a workshop. There's a new video on the Christmas Mormon.org website that is called something like “A life Sithout a Savior" or similar to that. We watched it and it was so good! After that, we had a guy from the Area 70's come and talk to us. His name is Elder Lhymeir (not sure how to spell it). He's from Germany, but he moved to Colorado and is a covert to the church. We talked a lot about what the difference between testimony and conversion is. I learned a lot of cool things!

The next 2 days are going to be mostly saying bye to everyone and then on Wednesday I'll be in Almería!

It's been really hard lately trying be able to meet with Jorge. We finally met with him yesterday and had a solid Chastity lesson. It’s been frustrating that we haven't been having the success that we’d like. I see all my friends saying how much success they're having and I get kinda jealous to be honest. But during the meeting on Friday, a good friend of mine said something that stuck out to me and I love it. He brought up the movie Forever Strong. When Rick starts playing for Highland and Coach Gelwix puts him at a different position than what he's used to he says, "I play wing. I score. It's what I do." And Coach Gelwix says, "Well Rick, it doesn't matter if you score. It matters if the team scores.” God’s Team is scoring quite a bit. It’s getting bigger and bigger each and every day. Wherever we are in the world, we are all on the same team. Our purpose as missionaries isn’t to baptize. Sure, that's what we want, but our purpose is to Invite others to come unto Christ. Heavenly Father is proud of all of his missionaries. I know he's proud of me, because I'm inviting others to come unto Christ. Needless to say, the little Forever Strong quote is just what I needed to hear! :)

Once again, sorry for my incredibly long email!  There's a lot of stuff I like to share with the people who care about me enough to want my emails!  I hope all of you have an incredible week! Love you all and thanks for everything you do!!! :)

Love,
Elder Hammond :)

Saying goodbye to my Ninos!

 The President of the Rama, (sad guy) me, and Teófilo! (happy guy)

The branch mission leader and his wife :)

My buddies from the MTC at Zone Conference!!!! :) 

Me and Elder Beckstrom! :) Glad to know this kid. Lifelong friends!

These are my new companions in Almeria! They sent me a video saying "Open Arms"! Can't wait to meet them all!

Sour!