Week 44: Like Padre, Like Hijo

Whatssuuuppp Fams :)

We don't have a whole lot of time to write today. So this email might be a little bit shorter than usual. Knowing me of course I'm sure I'll manage to make sure it's long hahah. I do try and keep it entertaining tho. Hopefully I do a good job. :) Here's my week!

So on Tuesday we spent pretty much the entire day at the church. We started off with district meeting and then after that we went and ate with the Parreños. They are the family with the 2 (of 4) little kids who I made that video with a while ago where the kid has the tie and they speak perfect English haha. They're always a good time. They have 4 kids and all under the age of 7. Sound familiar Jas and Ash?? 😉 The 3rd kid, well his name is Victor. Believe me when I say that this kid lives up to the name Victor. Good heck he is such a pain in the arse. The kid will do anything in his power to make his mom wanna kill him hahahaha. My old comp always just used to call him "the little fetcher". When I told Elder Llavina that, he wondered why until we ate with them last week :) It was fun and a good time. That night we met with Carlos to help him with his English and we actually talked a lot about prophets and our beliefs! He had never showed interest before but we met in the church for the first time on Tuesday and I guess seeing all the pictures intrigued him and so he asked all about Joseph Smith and one thing let to another and so we technically picked up a new investigator!

Wednesday - Morning we went over to Carolina’s house and helped her with her English as well. After that we went on over to the Garcia’s house to eat like always. 😋 Pretty sure we ate like this meatloaf type of thing and it was pretty good. Have I mentioned how much love all South American people have for rice? If I haven’t, Southern Americans love freakin rice. That night we had English class and freakin our only student, Arthur didn't come so we helped the hermanas and we played bingo so that was fun. :)

Thursday - We had our weekly planning session which was good and then after that we went over to the OTHER Parreños! It's the Parreño Sr. We were at the Parreño Jr. on Tuesday. This one and his wife got home about a year ago from being the mission president in Argentina! They're awesome and have some cool stories to tell always. The wife’s dad isn't a member, but he was there and he was cracking jokes left and right about how many girlfriends he has haha. He's like 84 years old and says the only thing he agrees on with the church is polygamy. 😂 It was funny to hear him talking about everything. Later that night we met with Magi again! We went over the the Palomino’s house and she was there with Eduardo. They also brought some weird dude named Edwin. This guy is a creepy dude. I was tempted to get a picture of how scary he looked but like I was too scared. But still a beautiful son of our Heavenly Father. ❤️😬 We had an awesome lesson with Magi about the Plan of Salvation and the happiness that it brings us. She really likes e concept of the Atonement. We got talking about that and she was so happy to know that our Savior suffered for all of her problems already and that through that, she can be completely forgiven of her past. She's still progressing towards her baptismal day, even though she hasn't been able to come to church these past two weeks. She's still excited about it and so are we!

Friday - on Friday I received a lovely package from my lovely family :) It was full of treats and most importantly A FOOTBALL 😍😍😍 and actual AMERICAN FOOTBALL! Oh I wanted to jump for joy and sing and dance but that woulda just made the whole situation awkward so I decided to just play it off with a "oh heck yeah the fam (mom) hooked it up”! I hope this will help me stay crisp upon my return. :) Ummm, well yeah then after that I don't really remember what happened so I’m kinda just typing to see if I remember what we did. Nope nothing. Maybe later on I'll remember. :)

Saturday was freakin HOT and awesome. :) There was a giant party with the church with the whole stake of Elche! There was so many people there haha it was so awesome! I was talking to some people and this dude comes up to me and turns me and around and says "ELDER JAMÓN JR!” I was like pulled a Brian Regan and was like "HEEYYY... BUCKAROO!” Hahaha I recognized this dude’s face but didn't know from where. Later it hit me that it was the dude who I met in Murcia who did splits with my dad, or Elder Jamón Sr. 25 years ago! Haha I guess he's in my stake and so we got talking and literally talked for literally 45 minutes about how awesomely spectacular and studly my dad was as a missionary. Still is as a father 😏 hahaha I kid you not when I say I heard this guy say "un tío BUUUEENNISSIMO!" Which basically means just the best dude ever to breathe on earth. I'm always down to talk about how awesome my dad is 😜😜😜. The whole purpose of the party was to raise money for some of the kids to go to EFY and I'm pretty sure a lot of money was raised so that's always good. :)

On Sunday, we enjoyed our Sabbath Day as we attended church. I must say, I'm on a streak of not missing church on Sundays. Pretty sure I've hit somewhere around like 46 Sundays in a row. Go me 💯 hopefully it stays like that when I get home. 😳😬😂 We ate with a member who's family is total Anti-mormon even tho her daughter is on a mission in Madrid haha. We asked the man upstairs to soften her husband’s heart cuz he is a total meanie head 🙄 We ate paella and it was really good. :) Later that night we tried to pass by a couple people but didn't have any luck.

As for today we went to a park and played football (real football) and hung out with our district and a couple members :)

Well folks, there ya have it :) it was a pretty good week all around. I'll be sure to keep you all updated, like I always do ;) I hope you all have a great week and you'll be hearing from me on the 4th! Enjoy this weeks festivities.. Without me.. 😩 LOVE YOU ALL :)

Love,
T Ham :)

My package!  Football and treats!

Our District 

Matching Pants

Week 43: Investigators, Investigators 🚯

Hey Fellers :)

Well, it's been quite the week. I don't even know what I mean when I say that, but it was :) to be honest this weekend was hard .. But I mean other than that it was pretty good. Here's how it went down.

Tuesday - Tuesday morning we went to the church and had district meeting. It was a pretty good meeting and as a district, last week we focused on finding new investigators. Which is what Elder Llavina and I did. This week and next week, we are focusing on teaching them all, and getting all the ones with the most potential, progressing. That night we had correlation and after that, we went and played soccer :) it was fun because not a lot of people came, there was only 12 of us so everyone got to play the entire time. One of the dudes on my team didn't feel like running so he played goalie the whole time which meant I had to use my feet more than I like to haha... I will admit tho, I'm no Messi, but i am pretty close to like David Beckham. Which is good because his family is way life goals. If you're interested in starting an indoor soccer league when I get home, hit me up cuz I’m starting a team. :)

Wednesday - Um... Oh! Magi. So rewind a couple days to Sunday. Magi is friends with the Palomino family who are our good friends as well. Magi came to church with the Palominos. We taught Magi about the Book of Mormon after sacrament meeting. Magi liked it. We set something up with Magi for Wednesday. Wednesday came, and we met with Magi. Do you guys remember Julio? The dude we met with a couple weeks ago? Well, Magi is Julio’s wife. Magi is more open than Julio, but they both have a lot of potential and desire to follow God. Magi liked the Restoration a lot. Magi cried during our lesson when we told her about the First Vision. Magi now has a baptismal date for July 16th :) then after we had that lesson, we went to English classes.

Thursday - more Magi :) That morning we had our weekly planning session. About half way thru, Aaron called us and asked if we wanted to come eat with him and his family. I told you guys this already but I'm pretty sure you all might have forgotten... Aaron is the one who’s coming to Utah in August. He and his wife both speak perfect English and have two freakin adorable little kids who I love and they love me as well. Their names are Triana who is 7 and I will probably be hooking up with Reece when they get older :) the other kid’s name is ADRIAN hahahaha. Oh my gosh this kid is literally the greatest. He's two years old and from what I've heard about myself as a kid, he reminds me exactly of myself but he speaks little kid Spanish and I spoke little kid English. The more time I spend around him, the more I want a little kid exactly like him. Anyway, they're living with Aaron’s parents and brother who is my best friend, Jacob. We ate with them after we planned and it was a fun time :) that night we had correlation with Fernando Caballero who is Aaron's dad and also our ward mission leader. He was way proud of how many new investigators we had from last week (9) (I'm way proud of us too) (you guys should be proud of us too) (:)) so that went really well.. THEN we went next door to the Palomino’s house and had another way good lesson with Magi,
Julio, there son Eduardo and grandson (I think, could be son.. We don't really know) Bryan! Good family. We talked about the Restoration a little bit more and then showed them the little restoration video and once again the spirit filled the room. :)

Friday - Friday was a stupid day. 😒 My companion has been having problems with his...body... And so the mission nurse called us that day and said we had to go to Cartagena for a doctor’s appointment that night at 8. SO we started our journey at 3 and caught a train to Murcia. From Murcia, we found our way from the train station to the bus station and caught a bus from Murcia at 4:45 and arrived in Cartagena at 5:45. We didn't have anything to do, so we went and sat at Burger King and waited for some missionaries with a car to come get us. I don't think I mentioned this, but a week ago, Elder Rex who was in my district got emergency transferred (I don't know why) to Cartagena. So when we got to Burger King we called him and he and his companion came and hung out with us for a while. Eventually the missionaries with the car came and got us. THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE WAS IN A
PRIVATE COUNTRY CLUB AND IT WAS SO AMERICAN AND THERE WAS A GOLF COURSE! I WAS SO TRUNKY. Not to mention the doctor himself was American. Grew up in Ogden and went to Weber State haha, freakin
hilarious dude. So after my comp got his...body...checked out, they drove us back to the bus station and we caught a train at 10 PM back to Murcia. We were greeted by my homie Elder Goates and his companion and we stayed the night with them and another good friend of mine Elder Stephens. :) There were 6 missionaries in a piso aaaaanndd well, not of lot of sleeping was done 😬 which was stupid of us cuz we had to catch a train that morning and be back in Elche by 9:30 so we could help a member in our ward with something.

Saturday - Remember like a month ago when I told you me and Lowry helped a member put up a dresser thing? Well, the same member had us take it down and throw it away. We worked that morning then came home and took a much needed Mediodia nap :) then we had a lesson with our Nigerian friend Daniel. .:) The dude is straight up golden. He's got a lot of potential as well and is progressing towards the font. :) We talked to him about the Restoration and bore our testimonies about how he can come to know that all these things are true by praying and asking God, just like Joseph Smith did. I've come to appreciate the First Vision a lot more since being out on my mission. I didn't even know what it was until I was asked by the bishopric when I was like 15 years old to give a talk on it. Honestly, even after that I still didn't know what it was or how important it was. Now I have a pretty strong testimony for it :)

Sunday - Yesterday, our investigator Jose came to church with us! It was cool cuz like all the ward members were way friendly with him and tried to help him feel comfortable. Gotta love Mormons :) and then that night we went to a fireside at the JAS Center and Elder Obando (70's) talked with us :) but guess who sat by me? Adrian and Triana :) I was basically babysitting them but freakin heck it made me miss siblings, all my cousins and other little kids I used to play with hahaha. After that we had a lesson with Jose about the Restoration as well and once again, it was a good lesson. :)

Today, some member who is from a pueblo here called Crevillente, took me and Llavina to lunch for some reason so that was cool :) then we just hung out at the JAS Center and now here we are. :)

So yep there's my week for y'all... As you can see, it was quite the week. And no, I still don't know what that means :) OKAY I LOVE YOU ALL AND HOPE YOU KNOW THAT. OH and giant SHOUTOUT to all the PADRES
(dads) out there but especially my dad ad also the other dads in my life who have helped make me who I am today. You know who you are and how you've impacted my life. 😏 I love you Pops and hope your Father’s Day was the best! :) HAVE A GREAT WEEK ALL.

Much Love.
Preachin',
Elder T Ham

In Murcia

Our dinner date

Week 42: As the Temperature Gets Hotter, So Does the Work

What the heck is up my loved ones,

Well... It's been quite the week for us over here in the city of Elche. We saw a ton of miracles and it was amazing to see what can happen when we as a companionship try a little bit harder to be a little bit better. Here's a quick(ish) summary for you guys :)

It all started on Tuesday when we were at the Caballeros house for medio dia. They are the family who is like my second family here in Elche :) Jacob and Aaron are the ones who took us out on P Day last week and also today. Aaron is Jacob’s older brother and right now, he's getting ready to move to Utah. His wife, Rocio, lived there and grew up in the West Valley area for about 7 or 8 years of her life. Both of them speak English and are wanting to make the trip to Utah to give their 2 kids a better experience. They’re living with his parents right now and he is going to leave around the end of August to get to Utah and Rocio and the kids are gonna come later.  :) We ate  with them and then later we had our weekly correlation meeting with Fernando, the dad who is our ward mission leader. After that, we changed clothes and went and played soccer with everyone. Me, Jacob, Aaron and Llavina were all on the same team and similar to last week, didn't come off the court until we were on a 10 game winning streak. I promise Jacob and I are unstoppable.

Wednesday was a really good day. That morning, we had a lesson set with a girl named Melissa who we contacted in the street a couple weeks ago. We didn't know anything about her but when we got there, she was way interested and so we talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Her friend Reina was there as well so we picked up 2 new investigators in 30 minutes 💯!  After, we made our way down to the Garcia’s house to eat. The famous dish here is called Arroz con costra, which means rice with crust hahah. It sounds weird but it's freakin delicious. We shared a scripture with them then headed home for the rest of our medio dia.

Thursday we had another English/Gospel lesson with Carolina. We taught her some English and then we talked about the Book of Mormon. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... That book is so true. But I'll get back to that later :). That night, some members, the Palominos, set up a noche de hogar for us because they had some friends that are interested in the gospel :). Remember last week our new investigator Julio? It was supposed to be with him, his wife and 2 kids. BUT, they way bailed on us :( so we just taught the only non-member in the Palomino family, Persil. Presila was a member, but a while ago she had her name taken out of the church and now is reinvestigating the church with us. She is progressing towards a baptism date and we are excited for her :)!

Friday waaaassss Zone meeting! We made the trip to Alicante and we had our meeting from 11-2:30 and then we went and ate at Dominos as a zone. The Dominos in Spain is, well... Horrible to be brutally honest with you. At least in my opinion haha. Most missionaries die for it, like my old companion... I'm not a huge fan tho. I had a couple slices and then felt sick to my stomach so I stopped eating haha. Our district ditched us, so me and the Llav man (my compy) had to wait in the train station for 2 hours til the next train left haha. It was fun. We kept ourselves entertained by playing eye spy!!! Such an underrated game oh my heavens. We got home, went to English class and then me and my boy Fran, took on Bako and Sega in a game of foosball and MURKED them. Fran is an RM who's 25 and is the other ward’s bishop’s son. He comes and plays soccer and he's a Dallas Cowboys fan so we are best friends too. Everyone says my specialty is being automatically loved by the people I meet. To be honest with you, and in the most humble way of putting this, the longer I've been out, the more I do feel like that is a strength I have developed on the mission. I think it comes from my sense of humor that the old man (and beautiful mom 😇) gave me 😝!

Saturday was the bomb diggity. That morning, we met with a guy named Daniel who speaks English and is from Nigeria. He's the first Nigerian I've ever taught who actually UNDERSTANDS WHAT WE ARE TEACHING HIM. Let me just throw this out there, teaching in English is the biggest blessing you could ever have as a missionary 😩 except it was really awkward cuuuuz I said the opening prayer, well, tried to say the opening prayer in English. I FORGOT HOW TO PRAY. I've said 48297394550938 million prayers in Spanish and literally I don't know how to have a prayer flow when I say it in English! It was so bad guys. If you have any tips, send them my way. Because it was bad. Way bad. But other than my horrible opening prayer, the lesson was solid. We were talking about how if we do the things God commands us to do while we are here on the earth, we will be able to live with him again. While doing this I got a strong prompting to invite him to be baptized and he accepted and is working towards being baptized on July 16th! (Way early bday S|O to the sister) him and his wife just had a baby so he couldn't come to church with us yesterday but he wants to come next week! :) Later that night, we met with another new investigator named Jose! Haha we had never met him before and only talked on the phone a couple times. When we got to his house, we got right to it and he came straight outta the gate and told us he was gay.  He's a cool guy and just wants to know what God wants him to do. I had no idea what to say back to him, but luckily my comp had been In this situation before and he just told him that all of us are children of God and that he loves us more than we know and wants us to be happy. Jose was way interested in the restoration so we told him we'd chat about that next time.

Yesterday we were in sacrament meeting and it was fast and testimony meeting and sooo many amazing testimonies were born on the podium. I was sitting there listening to all these people speak Spanish and testify of the power that the Book of Mormon has and it hit me how truly blessed I am to be serving here at this time in my life as a servant of the Lord. Not only that but also how much of a blessing it is to have this gospel in our lives. Knowing that our families can be together forever, knowing that when I get sealed to my BEST FRIEND in the temple, I will be able to be with her, my kids, my parents, my brothers and sister and every single other member of my family for time and all eternity. There's not greater feeling or knowledge than that.

Today, we spent the day with Aaron and Jacob again and we made our way back to Alicante and hit up THE NIKE FACTORY 😍😍😍 then we went to a sick castle that was there. Pictures attached 😊

I'm coming to realize how much of a blessing it is to have the opportunity to serve and how I want to make the most out of my time left :).  It was a really good week, and as the temperature gets hotter and hotter, so does the work here. We are seeing the work of the Lord grow every day as well as the number on the temperature app haha. I'll keep ya updated on all the people in Elche and you guys keep me updated on your lives at home ❤️

Much love.

Workin' While Sweatin',
Elder Hammond 💯

All the photos are of the castle we went to in Alicante

Elder Llavina (right), Jacob and Aaron. 

Week 41: I Bought Vanilla Body Wash & Now I Smell Yummy :)

Dearest fellow family mates,

Well, like we always say, another week down! This week seemed to have gone by slower than usual, but when transfers happen, they usually are slower. It was a good week all in all! If you remember, I got a new companion! He's the 2nd companion I've had from Utah, and the 2nd companion that graduated from Alta!. He's way funny and cool and we have a lot of the same interests. Our work ethic is the same and we can tell our time together is going to be enjoyable.

Soooo, on Monday it was about 10 o'clock and we were in a city with some members so that Elder Lowry could say bye to them and our phone rings so I answer it. The lady says hey I have someone who wants to talk to you, so I say okay... "Hey Elder Hammond? It's Elder Llavina, I'm here outside of our piso. I think..?" Hahahaha I was like what the heck. Transfers happen on Wednesdays, never on Monday. So I'm like "oh hey dude... Yeah well uh, we're at a members house right now so I guess just hang out there til we are done?" Hahaha then he was like "okay that sounds good ill see you soon!" His old companion was going to train a new missionary, so he had to come early, but the freaking zone leaders forgot to tell us and so he showed up to Elche all alone and didn't know anything when finally a member walked by and let him use her phone to call us. The member, Aaron, is way nice and told us that we could go pick him up, come back and eat together then that he would take us back home after. So that's what we did haha. We picked him and all his luggage up, threw it in the car then went back home, ate and then later Aaron drove us all 3 back home. It was an interesting experience for sure 😂

On Tuesday we had our last district meeting. I had 2 comps in it so that was cool. Later that day we had a cita with a guy who we teach/talk in English. He's fluent and we just like to help him practice. I may or may not have talked about him before, his name is Carlos! He's so nice hahaha and his English is amazing! He was like "I'm not used to getting something from someone and not giving them something back in return, so I bought you guys these Spain shirts!” Hahahah freakin one of the dopest golf polo shirts I've ever seen in my life. He gave me and Lowry one! We took a pic that I'll attach below.

Wednesday - I can never seem to remember what we do on Wednesday hahaha. That was the day of transfers! We spent the morning in a trio with Elder Weenig, who is one of the greatest missionaries to go down in the history of ever. He's crazy, but solid missionary lol. A really cool thing happened actually... We were passing by some people we found in our area book, and a member named Vanessa called me and was like "hey I have a friend for you guys to teach, are you guys busy right now?" I was like no hahaha so we went and had an awesome lesson with her friend named Julio! He's from Ecuador and he told us he's had family problems and none of his kids talk to him and he just wants to be a better dude. So we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and eternal families. He seems really interested so we are hoping to see some progress with him! That night we had English classes, nothing special happened there :

Thursday - We had a really good weekly planning session, I told Elder Llavina all the secrets I know about the area and we planned out how we are going to meet all of our goals as well as find more people to teach. It was a good start picking up Julio and a new investigator, so we were on a roll already! After we planned, we went over to the Garcia’s house and this time, they poisoned my companions rice!!! They put this freaking wayyyyy spicy sauce in his rice and it was absolutely nuts Hahahah it was so spicy. He started like freaking out and we were all laughing it was funny. They didn't put any drinks on the table so he just suffered. Funny stuff. That night, I played the best goalie I've played since I've been in Spain! 😩 My team stayed on the court the entire time. It was mostly because I had Jacob on my team and we stuck with the game plan were he runs down the court and I drop it like its hot 💯 bottom line is it was  a fun night. :)

Friday - We helped a member in our ward with her daughter’s birthday party that was at the church! Idk how many of you saw it, but the video of the companionship that we found? Jacqueline and Monolito? It was Jackie's birthday and she asked if we could do the angry birds part of her party :) we set up a bunch of cardboard boxes and blew up some green "pig" balloons and then we had the kids throw a soccer ball and try and pop the balloons. It was funny to hear all the little kids ask us if they could kick the ball cuz they all sucked at throwing hahaha. We did that and then later that night we went and had English classes again!

Saturday - we had a really good lesson with Nancy, Christian, Rosa and Valentina!! As of right now, they are our number one investigators..They've been reading in the Book of Mormon daily and we have been praying as well as they have that they can find the truth in it! We talked a little bit about that on Saturday and also the 5 steps to live with our Father in Heaven again. The Spirit filled the room the minute we started talking and we did the best we could to leave it there as we left. Then they invited us to go get some pizza! Freakin almost as good as DAVANZAS or Litzas 😍😍 it was an awesome night all around and I'm glad we got to spend it with them.

Yesterday, the hermanas in Crevillente had a baptism in our church so we went to that. It was also stake conference, so we watched a conference of a couple general authorities. We received some good instruction from them and it was all in all a pretty good day! We also ate with the other wards bishop. His house is so American I was sooo trunky the whole time we were there haha. The first Sunday of every month he invites all the missionaries over to his house for a big BBQ. It was fun getting to know all of our new district a little better. Every single person has a new companion, so there are a lot of changes.

And today, we went to some beach lookout point with our Elders Quorum President, Aaron and Jacob (my boi) who is his younger brother and we hung out with them most of the day!!! It was awesome and there are pictures below :) Shoutout to all the homies who graduated last Thursday... Also a quick shoutout to the homie Brock for getting his call last weekend to every Americans dream mission. Scotland/Ireland!!! You'll kill it there and I'm proud of you bro :) idk if you even get my emails but hey, here's a shoutout 😂

Thank you all for reading my emails weekly, and I hope you all know how much I love you and miss you. Before we know it well be reunited, but for now, the Lord needs me here in Spain!  I'm loving being a missionary so I will enjoy the short time that I have left!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Love,
T

PDay!!! 

The beach.

Homies

I almost died today! ;)

Ok... maybe we thought we were funny.

Spain Selfie

Old District

Spain shirts

New District

Week 40: GOODBYE CANADA :/

Que pasa familia mio :)

Well... Pretty sure I mentioned transfer calls were this week. CHANGES IN ELCHE! I'm getting another new companion hahaha. Elder Llavina! From what I've heard he's way cool. His dad is Argentinian, but he’s from Utah. That's pretty much all I know about him for now. I guess more details to come in next weeks letter! He gets in on Wednesday. My current companion is going to Málaga to be a zone leader!! I’m stoked for him and he's way ready to be a ZL. He's a great missionary and even tho our time was short, he's taught me a ton and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to work with him. We travelled a ton this weekend, but I'll get to that later :)

Tuesday - Leg day... we helped a member family move because their kitchen caught on fire a while ago. They lived on the 5th floor, which is actually the 6th. But there wasn't an elevator. 😩 Up, then down. Up, then down. Up, then down. Up... Then down. Then we would go back up and then when we got up, we'd turn around and go back down. Holy my legs felt like they wanted to fall off after hahaha. Elder Lowry’s legs literally just gave out while we were walking out. It was kinda funny.

Wednesday - We met with a new investigator that we found on the street!! Her name is Carolina. She's 20 years old and is from Columbia (like everyone else in Elche) and my comp is 100% convinced he's going to marry her hahahaha!. He said all I have to do is baptize her so they can temple. 😂 She wants to learn English, so the first hour consisted of us teaching her that then the last little while we just talked about the Book of Mormon and why we are here in Spain. She said she believes in God and everything and is looking for the truth so we told her to read the BOM and she'll find it. We were supposed to have a return cita this Wednesday but that's the day of transfers so we have to reschedule. After that, we went and taught Mercedez again. We had another pretty solid lesson on the BOM with her as well. It's so incredible how much truth that book has. I really wish I wouldn't have taken It for granted like I did before my mission. I wish I had the knowledge that I do now and would have read it like I do now. My days are always better when I read even a little bit in the mornings for personal study! I'm workin my way through Alma right now but in Spanish and it’s so weird that I understand a different language! 😳 Alma was a freakin dope missionary 💯. Then we ate with the Garcia fam como siempre!

Thursday - Planning... Another sweet and short one!! It's so awesome having good, powerful & short planning sessions. It's so hard to have long ones cuz as you all probably know, I cannot focus for more than like maybe 45 minutes hahaha and even that is an improvement from before I came on the mish. 😂 We have a new investigator who showed up to church a week ago named Benjamin... (Not Benji. Totally different people haha). He's from Columbia as well and there's a member named Jose Gonzalez who is his friend and Jose is awesome! He gave Benjamin a Book of Mormon and invited him to church, now he's taking the lessons from us and is so awesome! He's got a lot of potential so I’m excited for him and to see where that goes. We are going to focus on him a lot this week which will be helpful for our area! After planning - we ate with the Rivera Family, a really nice Argentinean family. They've been gone for like a month cuz they were in England, so it was my first time meeting them, but he is the branch president in Benidorm, which is a city a little bit more north east of Elche (I think...) but that was really good. Then that night we went to the church and played soccer with our amigos!!! Freakin there's a group of people that come that smoke weed there and the other members just yell at them to get out of here it's funny, but it smells like freakin the worst. I'm almost used to the smell of it by now tho. I smell it so much just walking in the streets. 😷

Friday -We went to Murcia for trizone!! It was awesome and I got to see a couple people who I hadn't seen in a while. My homie Elder Garcia!! It was the first time since the MTC!!!! We knew each other in like 5th grade hahaha and then he moved up north so we stopped hanging
out but got called to the same mission and everything. We sat by each other on the flight to London and then we're in the same district in the MTC so it was really good to see him. Also saw elder Goates who went to Olympus high school and is a cool guy. Kinda knew each other before the mission as well but not too much tho. Now we are way good friends tho :) The meeting was... well, long. Hahahaha holy crap it was ridiculous! 😩 We have these new things called the "APShes” which are like President’s Assistants, but sister missionaries. So the APShes and both the APs gave like 30 minute workshops. Good heck. So long people. Helpful. But just so freakin long. Usually they go from like 11-2 then we eat at 2:30 or 3 and are out by 4. Well on Friday it went from 11-4, we ate at 5, and left by like 7. 😂

Saturday - We had splits with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Adcock! He's a really good missionary and taught me a ton. He's from California, but his fam just moved to Alpine and he is gonna go to BYU when he gets home. Elder Lowry and I went to Alicante that morning and worked for a little in the morning. We ate black paella for lunch and it was so gross wow. Like black rice, squid, octopus, shrimp and it was black cuz of the octopus ink. It looked like I was eating a plate of gravel hahahaha. I ate a whole plate of it tho so I was proud if myself! That evening, Adcock and I had a lesson with one of their investigators named Yonka. Kinda like Willie Wonka but minus the chocolate factory. :/ He's from Cuba. Way cool guy. But we had probably the most spiritual lesson I've ever taught on my mission so far. It was incredible. It was so evident that he felt the spirit that was in the room. The thing that brings the Spirit the most is when we say the first vision. When we said it, Yonka started tearing up and it was so powerful! Towards the end of the lesson, I got a strong feeling that I should invite him to be baptized, so I asked him if that when he receives an answer to his questions about Joseph Smith if he will be baptized and he said yes!! Then we set a date with him and he will be working towards that date! Even tho it wasn't in my area, I was still way happy to have been able to be part of that lesson with Adcock! It was so awesome. :)

Sunday - Nothing much happened. There is a husband and wife in a city outside of Elche who are getting baptized next Sunday so Elder Lowry had to interview them, so we were at the church for a while he did that and then we went and he said his last goodbyes to the Garcia family. It was a really good Sunday night and there were some really good conversations that went on! 

Today... Well nothing special... Lowry said bye to the love of his life this morning 😂and I set a return cita later this week with her, and then we just kinda hung out after that! He wanted to print off some pics and we did that, went to the store and tonight will just be filled with more goodbyes. 

I'm really excited for Lowry to be going Zone Leader... He's going to be awesome! I have only been here for 5 weeks so I feel like I still don't know the area very well at all, but from what I hear about Elder Llavina, we should get along perfectly and work well together. I’m excited to see what happens and I'll be sure to let you guys know next  Monday!! Hope you all have a great week and know I love you all :)

Love,
Elder Hammond

Elders Ngatai and Garcia

Elder Goates!

The ocean 👀

Goodbye Canada. :'(