Week 31: Service = BLE(ating citas)SSINGS

Dear Fams,

Another week down... Good heck I'm starting to run out of things to say to start my weekly letters!! This week was another good one. Not a whole lot to write about, due to most of the weekend helping a ward member move. But I'm sure I'll find a way to write a long email haha! 😁

Tuesday: Meeting day, with a twist. Instead of doing district meeting in the morning, we worked the morning, and then had district meeting, correlation and ward council all from 5-9. Long, but good. We had an eating cita during medio dia, but I legit cannot remember who it was with. I'm sure the food was good, but I have no idea who we ate with. Oops.

Wednesday: Sooooo much food! 😫 I learned how to make tortilla de patata!!!! We ate with a member, and she taught me how to make it. It's so good. For those of you that want, I'll make it for you when I get home.  😏 After eating with them, we went and tried to pass by a couple people and then that night we had another cita with the Peñas. I love them so much. The mom is sooo funny and she loves me because she thinks I'm so good at volleyball 😎. All I'm saying is I might take up volleyball when I get home.They fed us again and Elder Berry and I were about to explode. We felt like horrible because of all the food we ate! It was healthy food too, so we didn't know why we felt like we did!

Thursday: That morning, like I said earlier, we helped a member move to a new piso. We got there around 10:30 and helped til about 2:30. After, we went and had a meeting with a member named Ana with the other elders. She's from Ecuador, so claro she fed us rice and chicken. It was way good tho, so no complaints from me. That night, we had a noche de hogar with our whole ward. It was awesome!! We were in charge of it, and it turned out so good! Even though none of our investigators came, it was still so fun. We played this game where we had everyone write something that they wanted someone else to do in front of everyone, but then we read the scripture “Do unto your neighbor as you would do”… so whatever they wrote, they had to do themselves. It was funny, but definitely could have been funnier. Most of them were like "share a scripture" or “jump”. After we got done, they suggested that they all choose something for the four elders to do, so they made us rap hahaha. I dropped it like it was hot yo...The CHEESE RAP that me and my boy Cole Capp made up when we were about 8 years old never came in so clutch hahahahaha! They didn't even understand it and they loved it! It was good fun.  :) Then they made me do 25 clap push-ups. That was hard. My comp tried to do one and the first one he tried to do, he totally smacked his face on the ground! Wow! All 40 people were laughing so hard!! (See video below).

Friday: Another day of helping Pablo move. We had a cita with the Alvarez family.  After that, we went back to Pablo's and helped him move from 4-9:30.

Saturday: Soccer. Not a ton of people came, so I was on the court the whole day.We played until about 1:30 then we were planning on going to Silvia's, but she called and told us to come over later that night. So instead, we just went to our piso and ate there. At like 4 we went to Enofre's house to invite him to play volleyball with the ward again like we did last week. We had a lesson with him and Rafa and then we went out and played. It was another really fun time with the ward here. They're all so fun and enthusiastic about everything. I sure as heck am going to miss them when (or if) I ever leave Almería haha. We’re approaching 4 months here. That's so weird. Anyway, that night we went Silvia's and ate with her and her son Edison. Her other son, Byron (the rapper) saw the video of me spitting my cheese rap and asked if he could feature me for his newest song, I told him for sure. We should be recording sometime next month. 😏

Sunday: Easter!!! It was such a good sabbath day. After church, we had interviews with President. They went well. He told me to tell everyone hello, so hello from President Anderson. I like interviews with him, because we just talk. He's a really nice guy and he knows a lot. He loves the fact that Pops and I served in the same mission and same area here in Almería. He says he hopes I serve somewhere else that he served. I'm hoping Málaga. That night we had a lesson with Emme! I love them so much. I've come to know her, Lina and Joseba so well and have gotten so close with them. She is the one who let us wear those shirts that one night when it was raining.

As for today... Well this morning my comp locked himself in his bathroom! So while I was eating breakfast, I heard an "Elder…. Can you come help me....?" So I went and handed him a knife under the door and he spent the next hour trying to fidget with the lock and it was making the most annoying sounds ever so I told him to watch out and I laid on my back In front of the door and kicked it in and the lock thing like shot off. Oops! This was the second time I've had to get someone out of that bathroom because Elder Rex locked himself in like my second week here.

There was Semana Santa this past week, but unfortunately we didn't get there or I would have taken pictures for you guys if it makes you feel any better. On a more spiritual note - with Easter being yesterday, and the first one while on the mish, it made me really be able to focus on why we celebrate it. Even though it's the Resurrection of Christ, it made me really appreciate the Atonement even more than I did before. Knowing that Jesus suffered for every single one of our sins, sicknesses, and pains, makes me so grateful that whatever happens, He's right there along side me every step of the way. He knows what I'm feeling, because He already suffered through it. He died for all of us, and in my opinion, me giving back these two years to be a representative of Him and for Him doesn't even come close to what He did for me personally. All in all, Jesus was and still is a pretty good dude and I love putting His name on my chest every day. :)

I love you all, I hope you enjoyed your Easter yesterday, and I hope that you enjoy your Conference Sunday this Sunday! Have a great week and you'll be in my prayers! :)

Love,
Elder Hammond

Never stop being a missionary... I met this dude named David from London in the bus station bathroom. He went by himself into the desert for 10 days to "find his inner self". He said he didn't find it, but he found something!

Week 30: Happy Easter ;)

Sup fam :)

What a week it's been... Once again it went by so freaking fast. I can't believe how fast time is going!! March is already almost over and I have no idea how. Almería is treating us well and giving us a run for our money like always. We don't have very many people to teach, and every time we try and talk to people in the streets, they want nothing to do with anything. But anyways, here's the week of T Ham. :)

Tuesday: We didn't have district meeting due to our district leader STILL being sick. He'd been sick since Wednesday but finally he’s doing better. His companions first week consisted of literally just sitting in their piso and finding how to entertain himself.  😂 We had ward council and correlation that night.

Wednesday: For medio dia, we had an eating cita with some members named Jose Miguel and his wife Janeth at their house. They made like this chicken noodle soup and told us they only make this on cold days. I have no idea why they made it that day, cuz literally that whole morning while working I was sweating cuz of how hot it was here.  😂That night Elder Hamblin had to go to Málaga for a meeting with all the district leaders, so Elder Ohlund was the 3rd to our
companionship. He went to American Fork High School and is a transfer (6 weeks) behind me in the mission. We went to English classes that night and talked to them a little bit about why Easter is so special and why we celebrate it. Sofia came again which made us really happy. She told us that she loves coming to the English classes cuz she always just feels better. She said "I always leave here feeling so much better than I did before I came and I think it's because you guys are just so nice and good people, plus I get to improve my English skills and learn more about Jesus Christ!" She's golden! But the only problem is that she lives forever away from us. We are trying to meet with her more than just Wednesday nights, but haven't had any luck yet.

Thursday: We had a very successful day on Thursday. We started off by trying to pass by an old investigator’s house. His name is Ramon and he took the lessons about 4 years ago. We had a lesson with him and we talked about why we are here, what we want him go get out of it and more about the Book of Mormon. After that, we went and had a lesson with Juan! His wife was watching tv and he didn't want her to have to turn it off, so we had our lesson outside on a bench. We talked about the Atonement, and we once again tried to invite him to be baptized. Every time we do this, he says “Hombre, I am baptized” and then we say yes, but not with the authority and the power to act in God’s name. And then he replies with a "why doesn't my church have the authority?" So we tell him how the gospel was restored by the prophet Joseph Smith and God restored the priesthood through him so that this church could be restored again as well. I kid you not, we have gone in this circle with him 5 different times before this one, and he never understood it. He never understood why his church doesn’t have the authority and why he needs to be baptized in this church, but FINALLY this time he understood that his pastor of his church doesn’t have the priesthood!!!! We invited him to be baptized and he accepted the invitation for the 16th of April!!! This man’s goal is to be saved and to live in the Celestial Kingdom. All he wasn't to do is be a good man and live with Heavenly Father again. We promised him that if he gets baptized with this authority that we have, and receives the Holy Ghost, he will be able to do that. :) It was a long lesson but in the end, it payed off. 

Friday: I don't remember much about Friday, except for we were walking that night to a lesson, and some guy stopped us and asked if we were American and we said yes and he said but do you speak Spanish and we said yes and he said good, then let's sit and talk! Haha so we sat down on a bench and he said "tell me what you want me to hear" so we told him who we are, why we are here and about the happiness our message can bring him. At first, he thought we were Amish, so we couldn't drive cars hahaha then when we told him we were Mormons, he said “Ahhhh... so how many mothers do you have?" I always laugh when I hear this question, without fail, every time. Then I explained that I only have 1 mom and will only have 1 wife. He kinda reminded me of Robin Williams, the way he would kinda just blurt out his words. His name was Julio, and we told him that we wanted to pass by his house and talk more about it a different day, but he said that we will see him in the streets again and then we will talk.... Hopefully we do. That night, we played basketball with Enofre and Rafa. They're still so bad at basketball.

Saturday: This was one of the funnest days here in Almería! We played soccer in the morning and it was good cuz we didn't have a ton of people but we had like the perfect amount of people to play for most of the time. When there is 4 Americans on the same team… I'm pretty sure you can imagine how the game turns out. It's so bad. Our first game it was us 4 elders, and the only member that plays with us named Charly. Elder Hamblin, Charly, and I are decent, Charly more than us. But it's always a good time. After getting demolished in the first game, I got recruited to a different team to one where no other Americans were and they stayed together. I felt bad, but we all know I don't like to lose no matter what I'm playing.  :) After that, we went to Silvia's to eat, and then we came back to the church and there was a BBQ with the ward that night!! We played basketball, soccer, and volleyball. There was a ton of people and when we played volleyball it was fun!! It was the first time playing volleyball since the MTC. It was so much fun. Our ward is so nice and they are starting to work with us more and more every week!!

Yesterday we went to church and that night we had a lesson with Enofre about keeping the commandments. We'll have to reexplain them, like we do everything else because he doesn't understand what "keeping the commandments" means haha. He thinks it's like a checklist of things he's done, I don't even know. Have I mentioned he told us he wants to eat the Book of Mormon?

As for today, it was raining, so we went and hung out at the church. We went shopping and then we went and got our hair cut and tonight we have an eating cita with Emme!

Well ladies and gents, another week has come and gone here in Almería and on the mish. Sorry this letter doesn't consist of very much spiritual stuff, but sometimes you just have weeks like that. But I want you all to know how much I love this gospel and how I know for a fact it is the only way to true happiness and the only way back to our father in heaven, :) HAVE A GREAT WEEK I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!

Love,
Elder T Ham

Throwback photo that I didn't send last week.  Last day with Elder Layton.  He went out in style. :) 

Week 29: #Pray4Enofre

Hey loved ones :)

Another week gone, how? Idk. Of all the weeks on my mission so far, this one was easily the one that went by the fastest... I wonder why..? 😏 jk I know. Anyways, here's my week! :)

Tuesday - Sad day. We had district meeting that morning, and later that day we went and helped Danny pack up a few more things in his tea shop. While we were there, we learned a new method of contacting people in the streets! We pulled out 3 masks that he has and we stood by the window and just tried to scare people. It was a really good time! 😂 We scared the crap out of this like 24 year old girl and her boyfriend. Then when we took the masks off, we told her we were missionaries and got her number so we are going to try and see if anything comes out of that! That night we had correlation and ward council and then after those we had a family home evening at Silvia's house! That night I stayed up late and helped Elder Layton pack cuz he left the next day.

Wednesday - Like I said, Layton left for his new area. He's driving, which I'm jealous of but at the same time, I would hate to be him. We dropped him off at the train station in the morning and then later that day we went back and picked up Elder Hamblin’s new comp, Elder Ohlund. He's from American Fork, I don't really know him very well yet, but he seems like a nice kid. That night, we had English class. I'm pretty sure last week I told you guys about the girl named Sofia that came? We had a solid lesson with them/her about hope and showed them the video called "The Hope of Gods Light” which is the video I talked about in my farewell talk about the guy that my parents went to high school with. Seriously, that video can change lives. I've gained such a testimony on the word and meaning of hope on my mission, it's incredible. I love hope so much. We were talking a little bit about the video and one of the guys was like "I'm atheist, but ever since I started hearing about what you guys as Mormons believe and now seeing this video, I'm starting to think differently.” He was talking and he said he was atheist cuz he hears all these people from different religions that say "our way is the correct way” and that it's the only way. He said "but who knows the truth? No one” and I told him that God knows the truth, and in order for him to find out, all he had to do was ask. He told me he was going to do it this week and report back to me if he got an answer. It was a really cool experience!

Thursday - Pretty funny experience happened hahaha! So both of the other Elders got way sick this past week, and have been sick since Thursday, so they needed us to cover for them at a lesson they had. It was with a lady, who is literally the only non-member in her family. She's Catholic, her daughter served a mission, her sister is a member, her mom, dad, brothers, all members. She is really open though which is helpful for us and good. Her mom has Alzheimer's, so when we were trying to talk to her, she was saying the most bizarre things ever. We were in this small room with her, her mom and her daughter. Her mom wouldn't stop talking to I gave her a picture to look at and told her to look, after about 3 seconds of silence, while we were talking to Isabel (the investigator) her mom starts wacking my companion and screaming "SEÑORA YO QUIERO COMPRAR ESO" or "MAAM I WANT TO BUY THIS" hahaha I lost it!! It was so funny! Oh my heck. It got to the point where my laughter spread to everyone else in the room except the grandma, so the daughter had to take her out of the room. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she had a ton of questions about the Spirit World and what happens after this life which was good. :)

Friday - Good day. We had a good lesson with Enofre about the 5 things we need to do in order to live with God again. (Faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and endure to the end) and it went decently well! Of course a couple questions popped up that we were just like bro, think about it. This time it was "why can't dogs and other animals be baptized" hahaha ahh man. But on the bright side, we did set another date with him to be baptized for the 2nd of April. Hoping this one goes through! #Pray4Enofre lol :) That night we played basketball with him, his brother Francisco, and his friend Rafa. (the kid who ran away that one time).

Saturday - Played soccer, and then we went to Silvia's again and she fed us. We met a family who are less actives that we have been trying to meet with for the past 7 weeks. So that was good!! They came to church for the first time since I've been here, so that's cool . We stopped by the other Elder's piso that night to see if they were still alive. Elder Hamblin was doing pretty bad, so I gave him a blessing. Elder Ohlund is better, but not by much. They asked us if we could get them butter so that they could make us something so we went and bought them butter and Ohlund made us No Bake cookies. They were honestly way good! That day we also met with a new investigator named Luis. He's from Ecuador, and he reminds me a lot of my old investigator from Córdoba, Jorge! All people from Ecuador are seriously so nice it's unreal. I wish Spaniards were as nice :( but we taught him a little bit about just why we are here and what we want to share with him and he told us he's interested so we could come back a different day! Good guy :)

Sunday - We had a lesson with Enofre and his family in their house.  Wow. Literally IMPOSSIBLE TO GET ANYTHING DONE IN THERE!!!!! They say the weirdest stuff, and their freakin' Scooby Doo dog just licks my companion the whole time and it's just all around not a good idea to go inside. We are always like “Hey Enofre, wanna come to the church and talk for a little bit?" Some days he's like yeah but others, like yesterday, he was like oh well just come in. So we go In hahaha. We also met with Jesus Del Pino and his family. They're good people. We had a lesson with Antonio and his wife about temples and how they need to go to be sealed with their family. He's a ward missionary, but a less active as well. So our ward mission leader, Franci told us to get in his grill and get him to come to church haha. But the lesson was a good one and they really do want to go to the temple so hopefully they can soon. :)

Monday - As for today... Well, there really isn't much to do here in Almería, so we went to the mall, did some shopping and then came back to the church to play basketball.

Well peoples, thanks for what you guys all do. I'm so grateful for you all and I want you all to know I'm doing so good and I'm very happy right now. Things are going very similar to how I would like them to be and that's always a good thing! :) I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!!

Love,
T Ham

The masks at Danny's Tea Shop

Almeria view of the coast and the city

Week 28: Awkward Misunderstandings

Dear Dearests,

HELLO! Again! How's it goin? Sure hope it's goin good! :) Well, transfers are this Wednesday, which means we got calls on Saturday… Some changes are being made here in Almería. 😶 Here's my week though. :)

Tuesday - Not a meeting day! Well, sort of a meeting day but not really a meeting day. Honestly there is nothing to report about for Tuesday. We had a lesson with a less active member named Andy, he's a stud. He is from the Dominican Republic and plays basketball every once in a while with us. We didn't know him until like a week ago but he's a stud. We haven’t gotten him to church quite yet, hopefully soon. I told him if he comes we will play hang man together. 😂 Then we had ward council.

Wednesday - We were in a trio on Wednesday afternoon. Elder Hamblin left to Màlaga that day so Elder Layton was with us! We had correlation that night, it was a pretty good one. Nothing new, but we found out some more less active members that we haven't passed by yet, so we will be doing that soon. That night we had English class. It was probably the coolest English class ever. We had 3 basically - fluent people that came, 2 regulars and one of them brought a friend named Sofia. He's so funny. But yeah so we were teaching them English, then somehow, we got on the topic of if we believe in ghosts and spirits and what not, then that led to basically us teaching them the Plan of Salvation. (Which by the way, huge shout out to my boy Beau for sending me a picture of how to teach it in English 2 days before this. It was extremely helpful)! We taught them the entire lesson and Sofia was SO INTERESTED about everything!! She had so many questions and wanted to know everything. So we gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read a little bit in it. She said she would and that she would be back next Wednesday for English class. Hopefully we can have another good lesson with her!

Thursday - On Thursday, we had a lesson with Enofre, that was very… interesting. It started off bad, but then he asked us a question about where we came from and where we go after this. So obviously we taught him the Plan of Salvation as well. (Once again, shout out to my boy Beau for the paper). We started talking about everything, and then we got talking about how we can live with our Father in Heaven again and we told him the 5 things we need to do in order to do that. 1. Faith in Jesus Christ. 2. Repentance. 3. Baptism. 4. Gift of the Holy Ghost. 5. Endure to the end. We explained how we have to do steps 1-4 in order to be able to endure to the end. He kept saying "well I have faith, or else I wouldn't be here right now… I've repented, because I've sinned a lot... I'm not baptized, and I don't have the Holy Ghost, but I will endure to the end!" We again explained without doing the first 4 things, the 5th is impossible and without doing all 5, we can't live with God again. He finally started to understand how important it really is to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. We also clarified that after we are baptized, we stay on this planet. He thought we go somewhere else… Hahahahaha like I've said before, he's a strange kid. But all in all, solid lesson. :)

Friday - Zone meeting in Granada. Caught a 7:30 bus for a 2 hour ride there. The bus rides here suck way bad cuz usually the bus drivers are the worst drivers ever. But this guy was the greatest! I slept pretty much the whole time. It was awesome. It was a really long meeting. But there were a lot of useful things I took from it. I gave a short 5 minute workshop on la obedencia for my zone. As missionaries, obedience is the most important part to this work. If we aren't obedient, we aren't going to have the success we could have if we were being obedient. Something I found while preparing for this, is that obedience is an act of faith. When we are obedient to the commandments, the Lord sees this and will bless us for it. Elder Berry and I have been being so obedient, but haven't been seeing the success we would like. It's been hard on us, and we keep trying to figure out what more we need to do to see why, but I think that if we keep doing what we are doing, it will pay off eventually. That night, the other Elders and the Hermanas both did intercombios, so my comp and I rode the bus home alone and played basketball with Enofre and Rafa.

Saturday - While playing soccer, the ZL's called for TRANSFER CALLS!!! Drum roll please............ Nothing changes here with me and my comp. Boring, I know. But we are getting a new Hermana who's replacing Hermana Smith, named Hermana Portas. Also, Elder Layton is leaving… :( I was pretty sad about that not gonna lie. I’ve only known him for about 3 months and I can honestly say he'll be a lifelong friend. He’s going to a town outside of Sevilla, kinda like Córdoba! His replacement’s name is Elder Ohlund.  I've never even heard of him, all I know is that he's got about 4 or 5 months in the mission. This next transfer is 7 weeks long, so my guess is that I will be here until April 27th. If I stay longer, voy a morir. That means I'm gonna die... Hahaha. That night was nothing special. Nobody wanted to be home or have time to listen to us so we walked, as usual. Pretty fun :):):)

Sunday - your normal Sunday. Most of it was walking, then later we went with the other Elders to a couple of members' houses so that Layton could say bye... :/ 

And today.... We played basketball and went to the tapas bar (which is a restaurant, not just a bar) called Tio Toms again... Hahahaha we had talked about the tapas bar before, like the first week my comp got here, and ever since then he thought we were saying topless bar and kinda awkwardly laughed and went along like we were actually going to a topless bar 😂 So yesterday when we told him we were going to the tapas bar, Tio Toms, awkwardly, (very....VERY awkwardly) he replies... "Guys, I really don't think it's a good idea to go to there" so I'm like "Elder, it's the best place in town, I promise you'll like it. Plus, it'll be fun cuz some members are coming with us." So he says "If you guys go I'm calling President!" All 3 of us Elders were so confused at this point, cuz we didn't know he thought we were saying topless. "Why would you call President?" "Because we are missionaries and that's not appropriate for anyone to see!!!" Finally, I say "Elder Berry, please explain to me what is wrong with a group of people going with each other to eat food at a tapas bar." And he says "Wait, a tapas bar..? I thought you guys had been saying topless bar the whole transfer!" Hahahahah it was funny.

Well folks, that's all she wrote for this week... Thanks for all you guys do for me. I sure do love you all and I promise when I'm home after my mission I will somehow express my gratitude to you for the support you have all given and shown me if I haven't already :)

Love,
Elder Hammond

The Soccer Crew:  Members and Non-Members

The view from Southern Spain

Week 28: Weird + Walking + Rain = Spain

Good Day Loved Ones,

Hello, and happy last day of February! Such a weird day that should never have been invented or made! Who thought it would be a good idea to just throw in an extra day every 4 years? I'll never understand honestly. Anyways, if you want to hear my week, continue reading because it's below. :)

Tuesday - Well, we slept over in Málaga on Monday night with the zone leaders there, Elder Varela and Elder Black. I've met Elder Varela once on my first day in the field, but haven't seen him since then. Let's just say after one night together, we are best friends now. He's a homie and such a good missionary and example! We’re planning on hanging out together when I come home. The sad thing is, is he goes home this June. I gotta wait till next year. 😉 He's a good guy. Then that day we had our Tr-izone conference! I learned a ton and got some quality stuff that I can use in my talks. ;) We left that night and came back to Almería. :)

Wednesday - we had District meeting since we couldn't on Tuesday. After that, we went to the Peña’s house for some CHILI! Way good, as usual. I got kinda sick though, haha. After that, we went to Daniel’s shop and talked to him for a while. His girlfriend is still the problem. He said she doesn't like the change we have made in him. Are ya kiddin me? WE ARE HELPING HIM BECOME A BETTER MAN! She doesn't like us at all, IDK why? Thank goodness Danny does. We went to the other Elders' piso after that during media dia and made a pretty sweet tower made out of Books of Mormon. (The correct term for this is "copies of The Book of Mormon" just so everyone knows). That night we had very little success. Actually, none, at all, haha. We just walked around trying to pass by people. THE FUNNIEST THING HAPPENED WHEN WE GOT HOME THOugh! 😂 So, it was right before bed which is 11. I was working out, but to work out, we only have a pull up bar, and 2 8 liter water jugs. My companion wasn't feeling so good, so he went to bed early and was out cold by 10:45. While I was doing strict presses, (pushing the bar straight over my head while standing), one of the jugs slid off and COMPLETELY EXPLODED!!!!! Hahahaha! We don't have any sort of clamp to prevent them from falling off and I guess I went up with one side faster than the other! The water jug burst in half and water was literally an inch high all over the floor. So, I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning up water!!

Thursday - During medio dia, we had an eating cita with the Kamús. They're the family who remembers dad’s face, but not 100% remember dad. How could anyone forget a face like that though,  I mean c'mon? So we ate with them and then after, we were walking and we passed this lady and said Hi and she was just sitting there and she said Hi and was really friendly but we just kept walking and then after like 10 more steps, my comp and I looked a each other, stopped, and went back and started taking to her. She was so nice. Her name was Maria. (cuz what lady here in Spain isn't named Maria?) She was interested, but she had some doubts about some things so we told her we could come to her house this week and teach her more. :) Then after, we had a lesson with our investigator Juan. He's going through a pretty rough time right now, so we gave him some comforting scriptures to help cheer him and and it worked. That night we had another cita with Jesus of the Pine (Jesus Del Pino). We read Alma 32 talking about a seed and faith and how we need to nourish it in order for it to grow and we related it to the Gospel and our testimonies. If we don't come to church, read the scriptures and pray, our knowledge of the truth will never come or grow. But if we do those things and obey the commandments, we will be blessed in our efforts and see progress, just like when we water a seed and give it sunlight. :)

Friday - Pretty crappy day. During the morning, we did our weekly planning session. I'll be honest - I don’t love planning sessions. They're the worst ever. But they're necessary in order to have the success we have weekly. That day was so bad, haha. We
literally walked.... and walked.... and walked... and walked… and then it started raining. But we walked… and walked… and it rained... and rained… and we walked. I'm convinced we walked more than the freaking pioneer children as they sang. I wanted to sing, but my comp didn’t wanna sing with me :/,  but hey, we walked. Then that night we had a cita with Emme! We showed up and were completely drenched from the rain. So Emme, being the Good Samaritan she is, let us 19 year olds wear her 12 year old son’s golf polos!!! Elder Berry and Elder Hamblin didn't take the offer, but Elder Layton and I didn't want to hurt Emme's feelings, so obviously we changed into them! They were a little snug, but we pulled em off. Pictures below :)

Saturday - Guess what we did more of on Saturday??????? Walking. We played soccer in the morning, but after that our day just went straight down the toilet. We walked to an area that's close to the coast and tried finding some people there, no luck. Then we walked back up to a different area and still had no luck. Then we walked back towards where we live and couldn't find anyone so we walked back down to another area and still had zero luck. All I'm saying is that if I get home and my booty doesn't look good after all this walking… I'll be so mad. Extremely weird experience that night... We knocked on a dude’s door named Antonio Cortez. We found him in our area book that some previous missionaries entered. So we knock and we noticed all these kids were on the stairs just watching us. Finally after our third knock, this guy answered the door. HE WASNT WEARING PANTS. He had long straggly hair, a gnarly uni-brow, his house smelled so bad, he looked so high and everything was just weird. He says “Elders! Pasa, pasa!" Or "Elders, come in!” And literally the second he said that my comp just blurts out “NO" then he explained why we couldn't. He lied cuz he didn't wanna go in the house. I was kinda bummed. It would have made for a good story!  So yeah, we talked to this dude in his door, with no pants on, for a couple of minutes and then I asked if he could come to church with us the next day and he went on and on about how he was in a lot of pain and he lifted up his shirt, and he was wearing this diaper thing!!! Like I was so confused! I didn't know what to do! He's like a 26 year old man in a diaper?! Oh my heck! it was so weird! The worst part is, is he didn't come to church. :(

Sunday - Easily the most spiritual day on my mission so far. Such a good Sabbath! :) We went to church, and Enofre was there. When we walked in he was like Hey Elders!  We were like Hey Dude, you ready? And he's said no, there's too many people here. And then he left. I wish you could all know Enofre. Man that kid is a character. That night, we had a lesson with some members named Elio and Reign. Good heck the Spirit in that house is incredible. They're incredible! We talked a lot about our families and everything and then towards the end, Elio started telling us about how awesome of a service we are doing. Leaving behind our lives for 2 years, coming to a place where we don't know the language, without our families, school, sports, the things we love in life the most, all to help other people find the happiness we have in our lives. We talked about how we might not see our success now, but we are planting seeds and someday, it's going to sprout and we will see the fruits of our seed. He starting talking about how Pops serving here 25 years ago, still hasn't seen some of his fruits, but how I might be able to. He said that he (my dad) has helped this ward out tremendously. It used to be so small, but now it's one of the strongest wards in Spain. While talking about my dad, I lost it completely, haha. It was so helpful and reassuring knowing that people here know this isn't easy. Elio told us we have a light about us. He started crying when he said how strong the Spirit was the second we walked into their house. The Spirit during our "lesson” was so strong and I know for a fact I will never forget that.

Monday - Today is a holiday, so the ward had a little get together at the church today and we played games, soccer, basketball and had a BBQ :). It was fun to hang out with all the members again!

My Sunday night experience helped me so much. I know for a fact that I am where I'm supposed to be. I know I wouldn't be who I am without the people that I have in my life, without the Atonement, and without this Gospel in general. Being a missionary is a blessing I get to have in my life, but only for 2 years. It seems like a long time, but when you think about it, it's so short. God has given us talents and resources for the things that we need to do on this earth. He has a plan for every single person. Use your resources you have so that you can do whatever it is you can do, to the best ability you can do it. Sometimes we might not understand why things happen the way they do, or why they happened to us. But if we have trust in the Lord, everything is going to fall into place.

That's all I got this week guys.. Thanks for all you do and know I
love you all!

Love,

Elder Hammond

If the shirt is tight, you have to flex!

I found a baseball diamond here in Spain!  It made me so happy! #trunky

Poor kid has to let us borrow his shirts!