Week 27: Rock Concert or Church?

Helllooooo Modesto!!

(Movie quote... Willing to give the people who know it major props)

Good afternoon/morning (depending on where you are in the world while reading this letter from T Ham)! Our week was a very fun, weird, loud, eventful, busy, and spiritual all around.

Tuesday: Meeting day, as usual. District meeting in the morning, correlation and ward counsel. We dropped Elder Layton off at the bus station that day because he had to go to Màlaga again for his residency, so Elder Hamblin came with us and stayed with us that night and the next morning. After our meetings, we had a lesson with our investigators Angel and Myra, the Ecuadorian family. :) Angel said he’s going to be way upset if I don't visit him after my mission. He always says the motto in Ecuador is "sin camisa, sin zapatos, y un grande sombrero!" Which means no shirt, no shoes, and a big sombrero! He gets so turnt when we talk about me coming to visit after the mission. I absolutely love it. We read 2 Ne 4 with him and I told him how much I love verse 20 because my Dad showed it to me and it just is such a helpful scripture. :)

Wednesday morning we met with Enofre and his house. It's really not easy to feel the spirit there. It's a mad house every time we go. They have a dog that's like Scooby Doo but black and it's not a healthy dog haha. We watched the Restoration movie with him and it was cool because any time we talk about something new, he has a ton of questions. For medio dia, we were invited to go meet some members at a Chinese restaurant and eat with them! It was the first time I've had decent Chinese food in the past 6 months.  Oh my heck I miss Panda, PF Changs and Wok Lin! You guys have no idea. Then that night we met with Danny and just answered a bunch of questions he had about certain scriptures we gave him to read last time. He's such a stud, but I think we are going to have to push his baptism date back a week or two just so we can get all the lessons with him. We will probably have to do the same with Enofre's, but I have faith that both of them can be baptized!!

Thursday - we did our weekly planning session, and then for medio dia we went to the Nuñez families house to eat. She made us some spaghetti and we talked to them about the temple and how much of a blessing it is in our lives. They were way jealous when all of us told them that we have a temple that's literally like a 5 minute drive from our houses. Then that night we had English class but none of the people came except Francisco who is Enofre's little brother that is a member but less active. He came to our English class and we played charades with the cards mom sent me. Oh my heck! It was so funny to see this kid act out some of the cards. They were in English, so he would pick them up, and some of them he could understand but he doesn't know any English at all other than hello and my name is... (chicka chicka slim shady). It was a good time.

Friday - we had another lesson with Enofre at his house. When we got there, they were playing a game my Dad and I used to play and it was our FAVORITE GAME IN THE WORLD!!! Metal Gear Solid on the original PlayStation! "Huh? What was the noise?” It was in English and everything. Oh man! Seeing it brought back so many memories and made me so happy. We had a lesson with him and his friend that ditched us after we played basketball with them last week. After that, we were on our way up to Antonio and Rozio’s house. To get there, you have to walk up a huge steep hill, and there was a lady carrying groceries up the hill and we stopped to ask her if she needed help and she said yes so we carried her bags all the way up the hill for her and told her about who we were and everything and she told us she believed in God. We tried to get a return cita with her, but she was really weird and wouldn't tell us which house was hers, so we kinda got the vibe she didn't want it. But we told her if she ever needs her bags carried again she can call us. After, we wet to Antonio and Rozio’s house and had a lesson with them. This is where the first part of the loud comes in. The people next door were like redoing the tile in the house, so the entire time we were trying to talk to them, there was THE LOUDEST DRILLING NOISE going on!!! It was so loud! We were trying to read the scriptures with them and we were literally screaming while reading the scriptures. Then the second I get done saying/yelling the prayer, the drilling stops. Satan was determined to ruin this lesson.

Saturday - Soccer day with members and investigators! We had to play on the big court cuz something was going on at the church. When we got there, there were already some kids playing on the court but they were younger so the older guys that we play with went and said if we beat you guys, we get the court, if not, we'll share it with you hahaha. So we played them and we beat them, so we got the court :).  That night, we were supposed to meet one of our investigators (Juan) at his church which is called the church of Philadelphia. Weirdest and loudest thing of my life. I legit didn't even know if we were in the right church or if we were at a freaking rock concert. IT WAS SO WEIRD. The other elders came with us to so they got to witness it with us. We had a blast and some of the things their pastor said were pretty good haha. OH - did I mention Juan didn't even show up? So yeah, we went to his church. Without him. We didn't know what was going on. Very cool experience though that's for sure. :)

Sunday - Normal Sunday. Antonio and his kids came for the first time since I've been here which was really cool. He blessed the sacrament and everything it was awesome. Antonio is the dude who we had the lesson with on Friday when we were literally screaming. He hasn’t been able to come due to his new baby boy. He's been way sick and I think just kinda lazy and what not, but it was just really good to have him there. :)

Today - we played basketball at the church and tonight we have to catch a bus to Màlaga because we have trizone meeting tomorrow. :) So I'm on a 5 hour bus ride tonight and tomorrow too! YIPEE!!!!

Well homies... thanks for all you do. Thanks for being my friends and wanting to keep up to date on my weeks here in good old Spain. We currently have about 2 more weeks of this transfer and then there will probably be some changes here in Almería, so I'll keep you up to date on that. HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND I’LL TALK TO YOU ALL LATER!!

Peace.

Love,
Elder Ham

Elder Layton and I in a cita with Danny while he helps some customers ;)

Elder Varela from Maple Mountain.  He’s “borderline grotesque” as Dad would say.  (Translation: that’s a good thing) We are at our zone conference in Malaga.  Another place where my Dad served his mission.

On an adventure with Adventure Time!

Ballin' with Enofre (left) and Rafa (right)

Week 26: Cave Climbin'

Dearest beloveds,

Howdy all! I hope everyone had a fantastic day of love yesterday. Also, I hope you know how much I love all of you guys! My week was pretty good if I remember correctly. :)

Let's see, on Tuesday, we didn't have district meeting due to Zone meeting on Friday. Nothing worth reporting happened that night. We made a list of a ton of old investigators that we wanted to pass by, and we stopped by 15 different houses and got return citas with about 4. That night consisted of correlation and ward counsel meetings at the church.

Wednesday was a pretty busy day. That morning we went to Huercal which is the pueblo that it is in our area and looked for more investigators. We contacted literally 47 people and were successful with 9. Successful meaning they gave us their address and phone number, so hopefully something good comes of that! We had an eating cita with the Soleres family and they fed us some really good chili. Not as good as that one ladies, but almost. ;) Then that night, we had a noche de hogar at our ward mission leaders house and gave a lesson about the Word of Wisdom. Daniel was there, and it was really good for him to see all the love and support he has from the ward members here. It was a really helpful lesson for him to listen to, and for all the members that were there to help. :) My comp and I left there and walked about 30 minutes up to the church and had a solid English lesson with Urban Cowboy. (The older one with whiter hair) When we got done with it, he gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek and told me he loved me like a son. It was great. I was so confused.

Thursday was mom and dad’s anniversary, so shout out to them for starting a pretty cool family.  Also, that night we were going to see if Enofre was home, and when we did we saw him playing basketball with of his friends, so we went over and made them a deal that if we beat them in a game of 2v2, they had to come with us to the church and have a lesson. So we played them and won and right when we won, his friend booked it home! Ii couldn't help but laugh cuz it was literally no hesitation right when I made the last shot he just took off running. So Enofre came to the church with us and he said that either way he was gonna come with us. He loves learning about the church and seriously has so many questions and it's awesome. We read 2 Nephi 31 with him talking about baptism and at the end of it we committed him to be baptized on the 5th of March!! It was sick! He kept telling me that he doesn't think he will be ready, but he said he trusted me to help him be ready. :) It takes him a while to warm up to new missionaries, so my comp is still trying to get him to like him. That night, we slept over at the other elder’s piso because we had to catch a bus to Granada the next morning and our piso is wayyyy too far from the bus station.

We caught our bus at 7:30 in the morning and made our trip to Granada. I SAW ELDER SHIELDS FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE DECEMBER!!! It was so awesome! He walked in to the church and we saw each other and ran and hugged. It was hilarious! Not as powerful as when Elder Beckstrom and I saw each other, but pretty close. During zone meeting, a couple of elders gave a workshop on how we can plan better for nightly planning, and it was really helpful and it's been cool to see the difference a couple of tweaks can make in such small things. While waiting for our bus back home, these two American looking dudes walked past us so Elder Layton and I asked if they were from the states and they say they were so we talked to them for a while. They were coming from Granada to Almería so we talked the whole way home. One of the dudes and I started talking about how much we love Drake and how he's literally the greatest ever. He kept asking me if I had heard the new stuff that he has come out with and he wasn't understanding I couldn't listen to it. But they both had so many questions and they kept saying how nice all of us were and thanking us for the help. We gave them our number so that if they ever wanted to talk more they could call us. :) Later that night we met up with some investigators named Emilio, Sergio and Ramon at the church and played basketball with them for a little while. It was fun.

Saturday morning, we couldn't play soccer because there was an activity going on at the church that was like a fundraiser. There were a lot of people that showed up! It was kind of like a BBQ, I say kind of because of the fact that Spain does BBQs a lot different than us at home. We played basketball again with a lot of the members. Our ward mission leader, Franci, is a baller! He's 35 and has 2 kids and they're just the coolest family. He played basketball with us and was making some of us look silly! It was a really fun experience and it was cool to be with all the members that were there! We had a lesson that day with Angel, one of our investigators and we focused on the Book of Mormon. We read the whole introduction with him and when we finished you could kinda tell his outlook on the whole book changed. :) That night, the other elders called us and asked if we wanted to meet them at Emme's house. We didn't have any set appointments that night, so we went with them. When we got there, there was a huge party going on for Lina's birthday party! All their family and friends were there, including Angel and his wife and kids! They were like man you guys can't get enough of us can you?! Haha Angel is seriously one of the nicest dudes I've ever met in my life. He says he's gonna make sure I come to Ecuador and visit him one day.

Sunday was just your regular Sunday. We went to church, had our classes and tried setting up citas for the week (actually had more success than usual) after church, Franci told us that there was food for us that someone made in the kitchen. We have no idea who it was or anything, but it was really good spaghetti! That night, we did our numbers at the church and then tried passing by a couple of our investigators but no one was home. We found a couple of futures though which was good. :)

Today we found a cave and there were little steps in the wall to it so me, Elder Layton and Hamblin climbed about 40 feet up to the top of it. it was so fun! :)

Being in a companionship that is so young has taught me a lot of things these past two weeks. My Spanish has improved a ton and it’s been really cool to see that. :) Something I forgot to mention was this week we passed by Danny's tea shop and he said that if it comes down to choosing the church or his girlfriend, he's going to choose her. It kinda hurt all of us, especially Elder Layton and I cuz we've been with him since the beginning. He's been having a rough time with business at his shop, and he has to close down at the end of the month if things don't get better. We try to pass by and have daily contact with him. He loves what we have to say and loves learning about it, but he said Iris, (his girlfriend) has been in his life longer than the church so if he has to choose, it's her. Hopefully she can come to her senses and start accepting it too. He said she's allergic to religion.

Well folks, thanks for all you do for me and my family. I'm so glad to be out here on a mission and helping others come into Christ. It’s been so much fun and time is going by so fast. I'm grateful for all of you and I hope you all have a great week!! :)

Love,
Elder Hammond

Zone Conference

Lina's Birthday Party!

Cave Crawling

Cave

Week 25: New comp, new challenges, new miracles :)

Hello loved ones :)

May I first start off by saying how much I love all of you and how grateful I am for everyone one of you :) HUGE shoutout to all the people who took some extra time to wish me a happy birthday. You guys are the best!! Well, this week was a very good week. It went by fast just like every other week but it wasn't normal. Might be confusing but it'll make sense when you're done reading. :)

So, Tuesday was meeting day... JUST KIDDING IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!!! It was actually kind of both haha. We had district meeting during the day. After that, the other elders came over to our piso for medio dia and while we were there, the hermanas called them and were like " Where are you?" Elder Layton was like, “What do you mean?" Turns out Elder Layton’s new companion was at the bus station and NOBODY TOLD US!!!! If the hermanas wouldn’t have been walking by and happened to see him he would have been stranded there all night!  Hahahahahaha! We were laughing so hard because it was so awkward and literally we had no idea whatsoever. So we went and picked up Elder Hamblin and then that night one of the hermanas' investigators that is from Ghana, Abraham, invited us over to his house to celebrate my birthday and eat FUFU!!! Not sure if you guys remember what that is, but it's the thing I had with our old investigator Lucky when I was in Córdoba when my trainer Elder Shields (who by the way is in my new zone so i get to see him this Friday!!)  started choking on the cow meat and had to reach down his throat to save his own life. It's the giant ball of dough that everyone eats from and you dip it in this soup. Honestly the whole process is extremely nasty, but the taste is so good.  Abraham made it and it was amazing! It wasn't too sour and the chicken was actually cooked and edible. When we first got there, he was still making it, but when everyone showed up he told Layton, Rex and Barbosa to come help him.  He turned off the lights and brought in a cake for me!!! I was so surprised and he just started singing happy birthday to me so everyone joined in. It was cool and way nice of him! :) Then when we were about to leave, he brought me a little present and it was a siiiiick pair of sunglasses!!! Abraham is a homie that's for sure. Hopefully he keeps progressing and is baptized before I leave. He's so cool.

Wednesday was a sad day... I had to say bye bye to Elder Rex :(. He taught me a lot of things and helped me a lot with the language. He’s now in Dos Hermanas which is by Sevilla and is finishing training I think. He said he's doing good so that's good to hear. After we dropped him and Elder Harvey off at the bus station, we came back and let Elder Hamblin unpack. Just an FYI, yes it is confusing for us and other people to have a Hamblin and a Hammond! Around 3:30, we went and got my new comp Elder Berry!! He's from Draper Utah, went to Alta High and literally lives like 2 minutes away from my cousins but doesn't know them so that was weird. We know a lot of the same people which is fun to talk about. He's a good missionary and he’s only 6 weeks ahead of me in the mission so we are really young. It’ll be fun to see what we can learn from each other and I feel like after we are done being companions my Spanish will have improved so much!!! That night we let him unpack and then we went to English class. :)

On Thursday, we had our weekly planning session which went really well and didn't take as long as I thought it would, then at 4 we met the other elders at Danny's tea shop! We had a lesson with him about The Plan of Salvation, and at the end we committed him to baptism!!! He has a smoking problem but wants to stop so obviously the Word of Wisdom might be a challenge, but with Heavenly Father’s help, it’s definitely possible, :) His date to get baptized is the 27th of February so hopefully that goes through, if not, hopefully before I leave Almería! That night, we went to a couple of members' houses and introduced Elder Berry and then we stopped by Emme's house and let them meet both of the noobs. :)

Friday: Lots of walking! We have a pueblo called Huercal that is really big, but the only way to get around is by car, Vespa, or feet. Obviously you know which one we had to choose. We visited some members there and then tried to go to a couple who is less active but they weren't home. There were a couple of old investigators who live there too that we passed by but only had success with one of them. We went to a girl’s house named Monica. Her son (I think) named Gabriel answered the door and said he remembered who we were but it was like early July when he talked to the missionaries last. We talked to him for about 20 minutes on his front "porch" so to call it, about the Book or Mormon and we taught him how to pray. He said he wanted to know more, so we set up a return visit this Wednesday with him! After that, we walked up a giant hill so we could get home. :| It was fun though so don't worry. That night, we had a noche de hogar with some less actives who invited us over. They're an interesting family for sure, the dad’s name is Antonio and his wife is Rocio. They got baptized about a year or so ago and kinda went AWOLl on us after that. We taught a really good lesson about faith with them and talked about the power that prayer has in our lives and how in any circumstance at any time we can pray and He will always be there for us.

Saturday morning we played soccer at the big court again ;). It really is fun to watch non-soccer playing Americans play soccer. Elder Layton and I are athletic, and literally there are short little chubby 12 year olds that just make us look like fools. Not to mention the 60 year old dude named Luis that plays like he's about 16. When we got done, we went to Sylvia's house and ate there with her two sons. The rapper just dropped a hot new single that he's hoping will "blow up" so we will see how that goes. That night we had very little success. We found a couple of future investigators, but that was about it. We walked a ton again. A really funny thing did happen though. It was like 9:15 at night and we were down trying to find an old investigator’s house. On our way, I found a balloon in the street that was still completely full of air, so naturally I picked it up and put it in my backpack. When we got to her house, we rang her door and this guy pokes his head out their window above us and asks who we are so I'm like “Hey! Does Florina live here?" And he just closes the window. But luckily Florina did hear us so she poked her head out a different window and was like, "I'm Florina!" so we're like oh sweet we are the missionaries, do you remember us? And she's like yeah yeah come in. So we go in after she unlocks the door and we aren't entirely sure what floor and which door it is so we give it our best shot. We hear the lady’s voice inside and we're like alright sweet we got this. So we knock, and no one comes but we can hear them inside, so we knock again, nobody comes. One more knock, and nothing. So we're like ehh it's getting late we can come back a different day. As we are walking down the stairs, my comp is in front of me and all of a sudden BOOM!!!!!!! A freaking bomb explodes and scares the living crap out of my comp and he takes off faster than lightening out the door down the road and across the street!!! Turns out it was just the balloon in my bag!!! ;) Hahahahahaha! Oh my heck! It was the funniest thing I've seen since Elder Shields slipped and fell In the rain back in October!!! It scared me a little but I felt it so I knew it was the balloon, but my comp just heard a huge pop!! Hahaha ahhh!!!  Man it was funny! :)

Sunday and today were pretty chill days. Last night we taught a lesson to one of our investigators named Enofre. He's a gypsy who doesn’t have a lot going for him in life. He comes from a poor family, his mom, dad, and brother are all less active members that were baptized in 2013. We weren't planning on the lesson going as well as it did, but it went really well and we got on the topic of baptism. We didn't commit him, but he said it was something he had thought about before. He said he isn't ready yet and he wanted our help to prepare him, so we told him that's exactly why we are here. :) His mom was there too and she was really proud of him and you could tell she felt the spirit a ton. Made me think of how cool it'll be to see my mom be proud of me again instead of just reading it! <3 However, my mom, unlike her, knows that Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ are different people. She thinks we worship Joseph Smith and Jesus so that was an interesting conversation. We got her set straight now though so don't worry.

One of the many things I've learned so far on my mission is that God really does answer prayers. At times, it takes a long time, but other times it happens in a heartbeat. It's so weird to me how weird these answers to our prayers can come, and also how unexpected the outcome to our questions can be. Personally, this past week I got an answer on something really personal to me and it was literally the complete opposite answer of what I thought it would be. Being patient when we ask for help is important as well. It can be frustrating at times, but when we trust in the Lord, He's going to help us and everything will turn out how it's supposed to. He works in extremely mysterious ways, and I doubt I'll ever understand how, but I know He works if we do our part. :)

This email is really long.. I'm really sorry, but It was a good week. Once again, thank you all for the love, prayers, support and birthday wishes :) I love you all and hope your week is fantastic!!

Love,

Elder Hammond

My birthday cake my family sent me.  Elder Rex made it for me.

My birthday party after eating FUFU at Abraham's house.

Week 24: Bus Moon and Other Spain Adventures

Deer Peeps,

Hey all! This week has been another good one. Got some new news this past Saturday that I'm excited for and also a little sad about.

Tuesday: Meeting day. We had district meeting like always. Elder Rex is our district leader, and he gave me the topic of "writing in your journal" cuz he said of all the missionaries he's been with, I'm the best at doing it hahaha. So I gave a 10 minute workshop on that. :) After, we went to the chicken place like we always do! It's called Pollo Asado and it's just a full chicken with fries. It's so good. That night we had correlation and ward counsel like always. There was one of our recent converts there that we haven't seen in like 6 weeks cuz he never answers our calls. He invited us to come over to his house so we are going over tonight!

Wednesday was a pretty slow day. We had splits and I was with Elder Harvey. It was fun to be 1 on 1 with him. He taught me a ton about better ways to talk to people on the street. He's been sick for a while, but he fought through it like a champ. That night we had English class and our topic was fruits.  We had a giant conversation about whether or not the avocado is a fruit or a vegetable. It literally lasted about 30 minutes and finally we convinced the few people who thought it was a vegetable, that it’s definitely a fruit :).

Thursday was a new experience for me. Elder Rex and Elder Harvey had to go to Màlaga because they had to renew their residency since they've been out for a year. So, Elder Layton and I were companions and it was my first time being the senior comp hahaha. Elder Layton is a stud and we are basically best friends in my mission. We both play football and baseball and have so much stuff that we can relate to one another. We contacted (Well, tried. Not very many people stopped) in the morning and then that night we have a cita planned with Daniel at his tea shop. He gave me some more of the cheesecake brownie. It was still so good. We talked about the power that the Book of Mormon has in people's lives if we allow it. The spirit was so strong like it always is and with him and you can tell that he's starting to gain a testimony of it. I was thinking of a scripture to share with him but nothing was coming to mind, but during the lesson he was telling us that he wanted to be the best man he could be. For his customers,family, girlfriend, everyone. Then I remembered my ponderize scripture from a couple of weeks ago which was Moroni 7:13 "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." I love this because if we are with God, we are good. Everything that is of Him, is good. :)

Friday, we had an eating cita with Emme at her house! Whenever I say we have an eating cita with Emme, just know we had rice and chicken of some sort. I'll let you know if we ever get something else.  She had to leave to go get Lina, so she called us and told us to come to her house before she left. So Elder Layton and I went to her house and she was already gone so we called her and she was like yeah I’m outside so she gave us her keys and we went into her piso and waited for like 20 mins and then Elder Rex and Harvey showed up with the Hermanas and then about 5 mins later Emme got back so we ate. That night we had another cita with Barbosa! His cousin Armando was there too, so we taught him a lesson. He lives in a Pueblo about 30 minutes away from us, so on the bus ride home, there was this guy who was extremely drunk. When we got on, it was just Rex, me, bus driver and the drunk dude. We sat down and he came up to us and was like hey you guys from the US? And we are like yeah and he said then give me some money. He asked if we smoked and I said no and he said oh, well I do. Then we stopped at a stop and there were a couple teenagers outside and the guy perked up and started jumping on the seats and fake shooting a machine gun at them and he was laughing so hard then he fell down and pulled down his pants and started mooning the kids. Rex and I were dying it was so funny.

Saturday, soccer day. Sadly I didn't have 9 goals again, but I did score a couple times. I think it's cuz I didn't say the prayer, haha ! ;) After soccer, we went and got some food and then later we were supposed to play basketball with some recent converts of ours, but they didn't show up. We waited for a little bit and then we went home and then had a noche de hogar at Silvia's house! There were a couple of people who were friends of theirs, but of course none of them are in our area.  We talked a little bit about all of the gospel principles and how we can know that the Book of Mormon is true and we told them that it's the keystone of our religion. :)

Sunday was your regular Sunday. We had another cita with Emme, guess what we had to eat?  PIZZA. It was quite the shock to me too, don’t worry haha. We always try to share something with them before we leave, but this time it was mostly saying goodbye to Rex and Harvey. She likes getting really close with all the missionaries which is good but saying bye always is her least favorite part. She's so nice and bonds with any missionary that comes into her house. Feeds them all too so that's a plus.

Well ladies and gentlemen, that sums up my week. Thank you to the people who have already wished me a Happy Birthday.  I'll let you know how my new companion is, and how happy my birthday really was in my next letter.  I love you all and hope you all have a great week! :)

Love,
Elder Hammond

Our regulars at English class.  Avocado is a fruit!