Did someone say pday?

No, nobody said anything about pday!! I’ve gone almost 3 months without a pday!! Don’t get me wrong, I love the mission but a good nap wouldn’t hurt! haha! There’s rumors of pday coming back pronto, but these have been rumors for about a month now. We´ll see what happens!

Well this week we have another BAPTISM!! this Saturday Duvan Ospina will be baptized! Duvan is a 14 year old joven that is spectatular! Here's a good little story about Duvan. One day we were at his house and he had a notebook with a girl in a bikini on the cover of it. I was like Duvan, what is this me amigo, remember the Law of Chastity lesson, you don’t need this, he was like, she’s at the beach, it normal. I was like Duvan why do you like this photo, its because her face, right. He was like, oh ya sure. So I cut out clothes for this young lady on his notebook so she wouldn’t be cold at the beach and super glued it to his notebook! HAHA! So now he has a wonderful notebook with a modestly clothed lady haha! We all had a good laugh at this and he said he wouldn’t use another notebook like that again haha! I love the youth here, they’re fun!

Not this week, but next Saturday we have 2 more baptisms planned and we have 3 more planned for March 19! I believe that I will be here for these baptisms. Transfers are next Wednesday. Elder Valdivia has 6 months in this area so I’m sure I’m staying here and he’s gonna leave. The norm is to be in an area for 2-3 transfers but since Elder Valdivia was training me he stayed longer, we’ll see what happens. In March we are going to try to put another 3 more baptismal dates for the beginning of April!

This week had a good week of lessons of 33 lessons and we didn’t do too good with contacts. We had 151! So we are going to do better in our contacting! I love to contact though, it probably my favorite part of the day. It’s when I get to measure the progress of my Spanish! I can have a legit conversation with people, i'm feeling pretty confident in my Spanish these days. I’m doing good with my conjugations and verbs. It’s just the objects that I have trouble with, or when people talk about the culture here! There’s a million types of fruits and Birds and things that the people talk about! I’m like what is this, and it turns out they are talking about a parrot! I’m like, who in the world would ask me a question about parrot!! haha! The members love to ask me weird questions because I still carry my dictionary around with me and I have to scrummage through the pages and it turns out that they are asking about some type wheat! I’m probably going to be carrying my dictionary my whole mission! I have3 sets of scriptures, El Libro de Mormon. La Biblia, y la dictionario!! haha!

Yesterday we had a very heavy day! I was sitting with Duvan yesterday in sacrament meeting and another investigator Claudia. In the middle of sacrament meeting Claudia turned to me and was like Elder Hammer, When can I be baptized, what do I need to do. I was like!! Oh my gosh, let me tell you! She has some things that she needs to work out in her life, but she is going through an immense change right now. We visited her after church and she is making some huge progress. We've been teaching her ever since I’ve been here and yesterday she made a huge leap. Its amazing to see the work of the Lord and the Gospel in the peoples lives here! Its fantastic to be a missionary! Everyday I love the mission more! Especially now that I can communicate and express myself with the people here! It’s a huge difference being able to communicate with the people!

At times though, we deal with some pretty heavy stuff in the mission. There are people with some pretty interesting lives and go through some difficult times. I am so grateful for the word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. We deal a whole lot with these kind of problems. We have 7 investigators right now that are almost ready for baptism, but they aren’t married, or have addiction problems. They want to be baptized but need to overcome these obstacles. We have 2 people going through a rehab program and 2 couples waiting for their papers to sign to be wedded, but these are difficult things to deal with! But the Lord manifest His hands in all of these situations! So all is going well in Villa Sonia, working hard, and cant wait till we can take a nap! haha!

Love Elder Hammer