his words never cease

Yesterday i had the best experience ever! President assigned me to go to Villa Sonia ward (My first area) to help the missionaries there do a lesson in the 3rd hour and I had to go and help them teach!! I was thrilled!!! As I walked in to that building the 1st person i saw sitting on the 1st bench was my dear Yolanda!! The 1st lady I baptized almost 2 years ago!! She looked at me at came wobbling over and shouted !!MI PADRINO!!!JAJA!! )Godfather) She is the cutest old lady ever she is like 80 something and the cutest old lady in the world i love her so much! I felt so blessed to have been able to have taught her! Then later on i see all of my friends Duvan, Katherine, Luis, Gloria the whole crew!! I was so grateful to have been able to have my last sunday in Colombia in the same ward where i started the mission!! I got to say hi and bye to my loved ones there!! What a great feelin it is to go see the fruits nearly 2 years later!! I feel so blessed for the experiences i have had here!

Truth be told it still hasnt hit me that i am going home to rest! It feels like its just gonna be another transfer! I am ready for this transfer though!! I am super stoked to go to my new area to serve the Lord in California!! I am thrilled to teach in my native language. I can not wait to testify to my friends and family!! The Word of God never ceases and neither does his obra!! I cannot wait to continue working in the Work of my savior!! I still have the need to contact people!! I feel empty if i have not testified to someone, or if i am walking i still feel the need to talk to the people in the street!! Its as if it is just another transfer!! The Lord has blessed me with so many experiences In these past 2 years!!

This past week we traveled with presidente for like 20 some hours. We were in his car this week!! And presidente told me to keep him awake with some of my missionary experiences! I love to talk about the miracles and the blessings that i have received in these past 2 years! Testifying even to presidente motivated me even more to keep pushing on in this work!! There are so many people ready for the gospel back home, its just that i didnt know how to recognize the promptings of the holy ghost!!

I was able to say good bye to my dear friends of ours Pres. Pico y la familia Piraquive!! I was able to comfort el Hermano Piraquive!! Pops no estoy si sabia pero su companero murio el mes pasado del cancer. lo siento, pero fue una hermosa experiencia para me a hablar con el y su hija y compartir un rato con ellos!! Es una familia hermosa! I know that this work is not over and i know that i am not done sharing it!! I am so glad to hear that my family is participating in this work too! WE cannot hold it back!!

Today is pday and we had a soccer tournament! It was a blast but my legs are killing me right now! I aint too good but I just love to run around!! But i got tired and sat down for a while, i felt the need to go talk to some dude watching us all play soccer! I walked over and just started talking to him! Turns out he just lost his wife after 35 years of marriage and was passing through some difficult times! I know that the lord guided me to him! I was sweating and gross from playing soccer but i was glad that i could share my testimonio of the Resurrected christ! And what a strong spirit was felt talking to him. It doesnt matter if we are in a park sweaty and gross, the Lord will be with us on His errands!! I have had many experiences here in Colombia expereinces of a life time that only happen in movies, but the most unforgettables memories of these 2 years will be the feeling of being a Servant of God.The Simply spirit that testifies of the truthfullnes of this work, wether it be in a little hut, in a tin shack or in a cement masion, its that spiritula confirmation that that testifies of our Savior Jesus Christ is what is un forgettable and eternal!! I am excited to keep sharing it!! This last week is filled with lessons, training missionaries interviews, and will finish these 2 years doing what i came to do! Bringin souls to Chrsit through Baptism!

I cannot wait to just come home and be with my family. I can not wait to receive the blessings for serving the Lord for these 2 years and receive these blessing with my family!! It gonna be great!! MAy we always strive to serve our Lord and Savior always!! I love you all a ton!! I cant wait to see you all on Friday at 2. Love Elder Hammer

the testifying continues 9/22/2012

I will never be tired of feelin the guidance of the spirit!1 I absolutely love it!! This week was definitely an awesome one!! I am trying to get everything super organized in the offices and efficient and all of the good stuff, but trying to really seal a testimony upon the hearts that i teach. The only way to be an effective missionary is letting the people know that you are a true servant of God. The only way that the people will know that you are His servant is through the confirmation that one recieves from the Holy Ghost!! The Holy Ghost will only come after a divine and pure testimony coming from the mouth of the servant bearing testimony of our Savior!! There are so many poeple crying for to be feel a pure testimony, looking for servants of God, looking for answers and many times they do not recognize servants of God because we are hiding behind wall of fears, or shyness, or lack of courage or knowledge, but when all the people really need is the moving power of a pure testimony. I have seen how many times i have taught in the mission looking to explain the gospel in the place of testifying of it! There is a big difference!! I am now fully comitted to testify, we will let the spirit do the explaining in the hearts of the people!

 I am very excited to be leaving Colombia doing what i came to do. The night before i leave Colombia Martha will be getting baptized!! We had such a powerful lesson this past week with her that she accepted the baptismal date. She is the mother of Janeth, a convert of mine in Bochica that i was teaching before i left the first time!! The Lord had a purpose in me returning to Bochica. I know that the Lords knows where we need to be and when! It will be a wonderful way to finish my time here in Colombia! right now we have some brothern from the missionary department. They came and did splits with us on Friday night it was pretty fun, i am learning alot. It bums me out that they are doing all of this stuff at the end of the mission but i am glad that i get to participate with them and i am learning a ton! I am trying to keep a good high energy level and really leave everythin here in Colombia!! So i stay busy. This week i dont get pday, nor next week either. I have had my last pday i believe in the mission! I have meetings all day with the missionary department from Salt Lake, then i teach tonight! tomorrow we have a leadership training for the whole mission tomorrow! My replacement comes tonight. Wednesday i have meetings with president and we plan the multi zone conferences and then Thursday we travel to Neiva, I go to Ibague on Friday, i come back monday, tuesday multi zone conference in Bogota and then Wednesday exit interview with President and then Thursday go on the plane!! AHHH!! There is no more time left!!! So i got to take advantage of every minute!! I am soo bummed, yesterday we met an awesome family in our area and we put a baptism date and all with them in the first lesson! they are excellent!! but i will not be here for the baptism! But it was an honor to have taught them! I am enjoying every last second in the mission! I want to give an acceptable offering to the Lord!

Love ya all a ton! I am super grateful to be an uncle!! I cant wait to meet Warner and Evy!! Warner looks like an awesome litttle baby!! Hes got some awesome eyeballs!! I cant wait to see those little ones soon! congrats Ken and Jerry!! love ya alls alot Elder Hammer

my schedule 9/17/2012

Well I must say that I have been a bit bummed lately being in the office! It takes up all of my time. I never get to teach. We just always teach taxi drivers. I miss being in peoples houses teaching and being with people! It really wears me down. I want to finish the mission being a powerful teacher, but all i have been doing is administrative stuff!! But I came on the mission to Serve the Lord in whatever way he wants me to serve him! So my next 2 1/2 weeks are the following. Tuesday and wednesday, doing my normal office stuff and errands, on thursday - Saturday we have training from some people from the missionary depratment from SLC coming to be with us and i get to take care of them. Then on monday i have meetings with them, tuesday a ZL and DL training, then next thursday Multi zone conference in Bogota, Friday Multi zone conference in Ibague. I am in Ibague for the weekend, then go to Neiva monday afternoon, Tuesday mornin Conference in Neiva, Then travel back to Bogota for my exit interview with President on Wednesday and thursday i am flying in the plane to come home to give the family a big hug on Friday at 2:30! WOOOO!!

I was so depressed to see this calendar, no time at all!! time is flying by so freaking fast!! I am super scared!! I was so pumped last week to go home!! Then seeing what lays ahead of me i am like ahh, noo, i should extend, there aint enough time to do everything!! AHHH!!! But i love my companion! Elder Paes de Farias is from Brazil, he is teaching me alittle portuguese! Its fun. I teach a little english to him!! We get along just great! We have similar humor! WE have been head over heels here. We have right now like 35 missionaries training right now, with other missionaries with some other necessities, so i have been trying to help them all out, trying to give my best my last few days here! I have killed 8 of my 12 companions. I know how it is to kill, i dont want to be a burden to my comp!! A missionary til the end!! Its been fun with him! He is an excellent companion!! I feel like he really is a companion, we work together well! I am glad that he is gonna be my last comp! So these last 2 weeks i am just organizing all of the stuff in the mission, gotta leave it better than how i found it! So all is well here!

Loving life, trying to do my best to be a faithful servant and to testify to the maximum everyday! I cant wait to see my new best friend!! I am getting stoked to meet that baby warner!! only like 2-3 more days right!! WOO!!! I cant wait to see the photos!! good luck sister hen!! Love ya all Elder Hammer

workin in the office 9/10/2012

Well the idea of coming back to the office i have to admit wasnt one of the things on my want list, but the lord knows what he is doing i guess. Still I am working on adapting back to the office life!! I was loving the whole 30+ lessons a week thing and not do a lot less than that haha!! But i try to find the spirit in administration haha!! But this week i had some killer spiritual experience!! As AP in the cold lands i get work a lot closer with the missionaries here! I work with various zones. I do alot more training my voice i feel has more to say in the things of the mission and i feel like i can help in a different way living closer to President! But i teach more to Elders than i do to investigators, and this week with my companion Elder Paes de Farias we had a killer spiritual experience with a missionary. Basically the Elder was being a poopster. So we went to visit him and see how the area was and all. I have learned that you can never show anyone when you are mad, gettting mad does no good. I was really frusturated at this Elder. He wasnt doing anything he should be doing and had no desire to change or help out his companion or nothin! So we went and my comp and i just whipped out the Scriptures and we just taught about the power of conversion. We didnt even mention really what was going on, we just wanted him to understand his point in his conversion process and make him analyze how he was doing in his testimony. We then talked about what was going on, why we had to go visit them and all that stuff. He didnt want to recognize that something had to change. We then talked about baptism and what it means to be a witness of Christ! It was as if we were talking to a wall, we didnt get mad with him, we tried to love him, we left him with his comp with a few goals to complete and stuff like that. The next day they called us, and they were doing a bit better, with some problems then the day after they called us and the Elders companion had a huge change. We went and bought some homeless guy some food, was greeting all of the people, had a huge change in him!! I was so happy and thrilled to see that even us a missionaries can change and repent missionaries are not exempt from repentance!! IT was a great experience for my new companion and I.

 Then later on this week when we were in a taxi we contacted the taxi driver and it was the most spiritual taxi ride in the world. We ended up talking about baptism with the driver and we put a baptismal date with him for the end of November. We passed the reference to the missionaries that live near him and they are now teaching him and his family haha!! What a prepared man he is! I love seeing the way the Lord prepares His children!! We met someone who was truly prepared by the Lords hand to receive the gospel!!

Sunday i had to go help with some stuff in Patio Bonito.They have made a division in the ward boundries so i got to go to help with that and i got to go to sacrament meeting and see all of the converts there and see all of my homies and i was seriously on the edge of crying!! i love those people soooo much there!! THe faith of that ward is so great. I love this great work!!! I love being in the mission field!! There are eternal bonds for me there!! It was so great to see the converts there, 2 of the families thati baptized are gonna get sealed in the temple in November the other fmaily in like may!! AHHH! How cool is that!! I just love those people with all of my heart!! So it was a stressful week. It was full of joy and sorrow, what i hate about my assignment is when something goes wrong with a missionary ,i have to take them to the airport and do all of the hurtful work. It is sad to see an Elder go home before his time is due. It really causes a pain in my heart. It hurts even more when i have to pick him up at 2:30 in the mornin haha!! What a terrible time to go home haha!! But I am glad that we also have missionaries whom are really giving it there all and being the best servant they can be!! I love my comp. he is an inspiration to me, I love the work and I love God! all is well here!! Cant wait to see you all soon!! Hen Good luck with the baby coming soon!! Cant wait!!! FRanky Happy B-day you are now legal!! Hip Hip hurray!! Elder Hammer

Life is Full of Surprised 9/3/2012

Well I have been changed BACK TO THE OFFICES AGAIN!!!!!!!!AHHHHH!!!! Well I am going back to Bochica be Assistant in the office again!! It was a very unexpected transfer that i am still trying to accept but i will go and give it my all in the offices again! If the lord needs me behind a desk, then thats where i will be! It has been hard to say good bye to ibague! I leave today at 3 so i said good bye to a few of the people here but i have to go to Bogota to receive the new missionaries that come in tomorrow and i will stay there as my area once again in the offices!! It wil be fun but it is nothing like being in the field!! I was in the office for 6 months. Here as AP in the hot lands is perfect cuz i get to travel i get help the missionaries, be Presidents little helper, do the transfers and all of the fun stuff and i have been training so that keeps me going and we have had SOOOO MANY MIRACLES here in this area!! It has really become my home and its the areas i have been in for the least time less that 3 months!!!! AHHH!!

We have been able to activate more than 15 people in these past 3 months, 2 baptisms and we have 5 baptisms planned for the end of the month!! I wanted to finish my last week in the mission with a noche blanca but i wont be here for it!! but it is all for the Glory of God. I have work to do in Bogota even though i am devastated to leave I know that the Lord has a need for me in Bogota! There is a family that I know i should have baptized while i was there but, we didnt get them wet. I know that God is giving me another chance to help this family! Elder Huckbody have beed dedicating ourselves to much fasting this past month! looking for people to teach that are really prepared for baptism.

So this thursday we have a 1/2hr  before a lesson started and we decided to just stop and say hi to a less active sister that we had to drop last transfer, just wanted to say hi and nothing more, invite her to church. I knew we wouldnt have time teach her or anything, so we went said hi and left. We started heading back up the hill to the appointment with Sebastain when a senora on the street asked where is the church around here. We told her where it was and we started talking to her. she met the missionaries before in Texas a few years ago, they knocked on her door, but she never really listened to them. She was carrying her groceries and we offered to help her carry her bags to her house and she lived far like 45 min walkin, so offered to help her carry her bags, as we were walking she was so interested, so alive, with such a desire to know!! She was super awesome!! She is gonna study in UC davis next year in California. She is a dentist that graduated in a college in Texas, speaks perfect english. She came back to Colombia to take care of her dad who just had open heart surgery. In the time walking her to her house with her groceries, we basically talk the whole restoration and the plan of salvation and some of the commandments! haha! It was awesome!! We invited her to come to church which was so glad to. But we couldnt teach her that night cuz we had an appointment to go to! So we called her Sunday morning to confirm that she could come but her brother answered the phone and said she wasnt home!! We were like well this week but next when can come then. When the sacrament started Sara walks in and sits started talking notes in fast and testimony meetings1! She loved it. She went to gospel principles, taking notes the whole time, relief society did the same! She had a long child hood friend who is a member of the branch her, she has afriend in the chapel. We passed by yesterday afternoon, she told us that she needs to get baptized because she feels like she has ancestors that are waiting for her to there baptismal work in the temple and the branch is going in october to the temple and she wants to do their baptismal work!! I was stunned i was like how do you know this stuff!! That is awesome! We started the lesson off with the importance of baptism and why and how God will be guiding her in this life and that she will recieve an answer to her prays, since that moment the spirit was guiding that lesson, it was probably one of the most spiritual lessons i have had in the mission!

This past transfer we have met people so prepared for this gospel. Its like god has just sent us to them to fill up the baptismal font! I am devastated that i will not be here to witness there baptism but Elder Huckbody and his new comp will do great! The Lord has need of me in a nother place now, i will go bust my buns this last month in Bogota, even though we will be in the office a boat load, we will be baptizing someone this month! I know the Lord has someone prepared for me in Bogota. I love this work!! I strive everyday to be worthy that the Lord can trust me with His children to teach and guide them back to Him! the more dedicated i am the more God can trust me with more of His children to teach and he is the one that will prepare them and will guide us to meet! I feel like i am coming to know more of Gods nature and how to know how he is guiding his Work! It really is a great work and a wonder! I love ya all a ton!! But i got to go now to Bogota! I gotta put on a sweater again!! AHHH! I was gettin a bit tanner here in tierra caliente, but i will come back all nice and white for ya all!! haha Love Elder Hammer

the miracles never cease 8/27/2012

Well this week we had the conference with Elder Christofferson. That was a really fun time that we got the whole mission together and we had a great time in the temple for a night with all of the missionaries from tierra caliente!! But oh boy i get so stressed when there are activities!! I am greatful for the trust that President has with me because i amf gettin a bit overwhelmed at times with training, and A.P and all of the responsabilities that come with it. but i wouldnt want to have it anyother way. I want to give an acceptable service to the Lord in the mission field!!! Cual sera su ofrenda hoy? i have that as my quote on my wall to keep my focus. I aint here just paying time, i am here giving an offering to the Lord! I want it to be an accptable offering to the Lord. I feel like this is the time that i need to shine the most as a missionary, prove to the Lord that these 2 years in His service have not been in vain. I dont want to be the Emerson Hammer from before but i am really a missionary, not just because of a nametag, but because it is in my blood! I am by nature a missionary! I have seen the Lords hand so many times in this past week. When i just forget myself and just go to work!! I can see how not just me is affected but those who i teach, whith those whom i work with, to my companion! I love this work!!

Well this week we are workin really hard with activating and bringing to sheep to the fold and this week i was so moved at church this past week by who we had there! We had 7 investigators at church with 17 less active families that we started to visit! Sebastian is the Cousin of Jennifer whom we are teaching and i gave him a tie this week. He came to church in a white shirt tie and slacks!! he is doing so great!! He has a baptismal date for the 22 of September!! Also Anna Maria came to church!! We had an awesome lesson with her this week! She is a 14 year old girl who has the sweetest spirit ever! She pays super great attention to us really wants to know, loves going to YW classes!! The perfect investigator! We taught her the restoration this week and we talked about how Joseph Smith was just like her, he wanted to know the truth, and how she, like him, prayed to know the truth about how to find the truth!! It was such a spiritual lesson! She is soooo prepared!! She and 4 others have baptismal dates for the 22 of September!! I am hoping to finish the mission with 5 more baptismes!! So we are working our tails off to make it happen!!

 Saturday the Lord just gave us the biggest blessin EVER!! I always call and remind all of the people that we have taught in the week to make sure that they can come to church and that they all have a way to get there and we assign members to pass by to pick them up too! so i was tryin to call a guy and some how i called the wrong number in my phonebook thinkin it was freddy Pinto, but i really called some guy named Javier Pinto! So i said, hey there is Hermano Pinto there, he said yes, JAvier Pinto. E. H-Hello Javier, Elder Hammer here how are ya Javier- Oh ELder I was just thinkin about you guys, it has been i while since i havent been to church. I would love to go back to church E.H UMMMM.. yes of course well we are here to help you. JAvier- Excellent i have been wanting to come back to church just i cant do it alone. Can you visit me this week? I have my 15 year old son who has been telling me that i need to go back to church i have been inactive for almost 10 years and my son keeps reminding me that he needs to be baptized. E.H- Well we can help you with the brother!! HAHAHA!! That was the craziest phone call i have ever had, i dont really know who i talked to but how the mysteries of God work!! How God helps us find His lost sheep come home. He told me how he has been praying to come back in contact with the church again and out of no where i just called him by accident, but whoo!! cI felt the spirit through a phone call!! haha! I never that that would happen!! I am ready to fill these next 5 weeks with my best work and the very last of me!! The Lord deserves the best so thats what i will give Him!! Love Elder Hammer

August 20, 2012

Well as time goes by the stress comes on even more!! AHH!! only like 6 1/2 more weeks in the field and the work just keeps on coming!! It is a camels work workin and dying and training and trying to do the AP work all at the same time!! AHH! We are putting in practice a thing called Plan Perry so i meet with the District and branch presidents alot in Tierra caliente to make sure the program is workin alot! What i have been trying to do here is make the wards and branches are self sufficient! There is an over dependence on missionaries in these areas so we are helpin the districts learn how to train members to do their home and visiting teaching or how members can teach classes and all of that basic stuff! So we are doing alot of member trainnig right now! I try to be the best example for my companion but i must admit, that the lord is working on making me a patient person i believe haha! I try to help my companion with the spanish and with learnin the lessons but in a timely manner. I try to do all of my AP work but not to interfere with proslyting time or study or anything which is so hard to do when the missionary life is soo structured! But hopefully i am becoming a more patient man! I have learned the great value of time. Time flies by. It seems that at times there isnt time enough to even breath haha!

I got only a little bit left here in Colombia but i want to give it all! When we teach I really try to emphasize the great importance of everything and how it all leads us to know our Savior. It seems that God has become a God on Paper, just a written God. People might know verses or maybe even the story of Christ yet they really dont know him, really people just know the surface.

WE are workin on a less active family and we talked about our baptismal covenants. I love how in Mosiah 18 it talks about how Alma was preaching repentance and faith and afterward invited everyone to be baptize and asked them what would impide them to take upon themselves the name of Christ and be a witness of him! This scripture just came to life for us! we talked about how we can be witnesses of Christ! Really to be a witness means that you can experimented you have seen or heard or felt something! We are witnesses of Christ not because of what we read but for our own experiences I know what it feels like to have Christ take my load. I know what it feels like to feel is relief because he has relieved me. I know the power of His mighty hands for they have held me, I KNOW the power of the ATONEMENT because i have felt HIS FORGIVENESS! To be a witness of Christ is to know Him to understand and know how to use HIS ATONEMENT! Alot of times we feel like just keepin the commandments is suffecient enough to considerd a christian but have we really witnessed the Power of God can we testify of Him becasue we witness His power! I love the power of the Scriptures for the understanding they give to me! I would have no problem just sitting and reading the scriptures all day long! They are filled with sincerity, with true testimonies not only writen down on paper but sealed upon the hearts of those bearing Testimony of our God! I am very proud to be counted among the few soldiers of Gods army to day actively serving! At the ending point of the mission i am understanding the great part of the atonement. I have figured that these next 6 weeks will probably the hardest of the mission, but i will finish my time here in Colombia serving with my all.

I cant wait to see you all! With all of the work we have going on here in Colombia in the Lords work, the Lord has made more sensitive to feel his guidance to feel His love to be His Servant! THe Truth is worth fighting for, even til the end! I cant wait to come home and hug you all! I am stoked! I am thrilled! I am overjoyed to go back home! Love ya alla ton Elder Hammer

getting work done

Well it seems to me that my death will not be an easy one after all!! Well this week i had to go to Neiva with President to do some missionary training and help him with a meeting with our good old friend Pres. Pico and organize out new missionary plan, Plan Perry, with the people in tierra caliente. So i left Thursday and got back Sunday morning. I am super wasted. But it was a great trip. I love being with President. He has that inspiring fire that keeps me going and he loves workin me to death. Its pretty funny cuz he usually forgets all of the little logistical things so i always got to pop up with a quick fix to the little things haha!! Its fun. I am glad that we have a lot of trust between us so he just gives me like a quick sec to do my thing and we can get things rolling again! Its always fun and an adventure with president! haha!! But i left my companion in Ibague to work with another missionary for a couple of days. Its not good that a new missionary does all of the errands and all that i have to do. I dont want him to get out of the teaching routine or anything. It's best if he stays in a teaching routine and a constant plan of contact and teaching. I try to limit my Ap stuff to the shortest time possible but still be an effective Ap. It's a challenge at times haha! But i got a bit ticked when i got back. I left my comp with the ZL and they arent waking up on time or studying like they should and the assignment i gave them they didnt really do it to the level that they should have!! So that got me a bit frustrated but we are getting the mission rollin! We are doing some great work here!

 Our atheist guy is great!!! We were talking about the creation this week with him and he loved it about Adam and Eve and the creation and we actually read the Pearl of Great Price alot with him. It's an awesome book about the creation! Really Atheists just want answers and for lack of not knowing the truth they still feel the effects of the apostasy and try to make there own answers from the lack of knowledge from the lack of the plenitud del evangelio. So we teach in a little like salon in our Apartment complex and we teach the security gaurds and our atheist friend loved our talks this past week and invited more friends to listen to us! So we have christians and atheists there that we teach. It is the coolest experiences ever!! We make sure that we are not fighting our contectious ir nothing just we speak pure doctrine!! Its funny with my comp! I am working really hard with him in his spanish he got 2 weeeks in the mission field and well we are in the fight!! He has a hard time with numbers and colors and common phrases but i try to get him to do a bit more that just a testimony at the end of lessons! But when he jumps into the lesson with these guys its hilarious! He brings up a topic from like 20 minutes ago haha!! Poor guy i remember those days haha!! But the athesist guy wants to come to church so he promised to come this coming sunday withus YAAA!!!! Its gonna be awesome! I am stoked! An athesist at church haha!! But my comp and i were fasting last week to find some new investigators and this week we got 16 new investigaros that are killerly awesome like people who will progress who listen to us and they are great!! The lord is truely answerin our prayers and we are working with the Lord in His work!1 I am loving it!! Well all is well here in Colombia. Love ya all a ton! Elder Hammer

atheist or not here we come 7/30/2012

Well this was a week of joy, of triumph and sadness!!! Starting the week off we went to Bogota to prepare the meeting for training the new missionaries and receive the new missionaries and all but when we get there the way we planned was changed completely and nobody told us anything so we had to change our training. We were gonna do all the work that we had done in the training that we were gonna do. Well it was in vain and we had to wing it last minute!! AHH Thats what gets me so stressed in the mission when we have to wing things. I am the AP in the hot lands so i coordinated everything for all of the missionaries in the hotlands to go stay in an area in bogota, how to go to the chapel, how the training was gonna be and everything, but in bogota everythin changed and it was like i was a chicken with my head cut off!! AHH!! It gets me stressed!! President is new and his new Aps in bogota are new. I'm not mad but they are just learning and ahh it was a lot of strings we had to connect at last minute!! But it was great, its part of the culture here!! haha!! Change everything last minute and pray that it works out haha!! Then president did a change in the transfers and he changed my comp, who i was gonna train and then changed his mind back to before haha!! It was hialrious!! Stuff like that gets me stressed!! But the day finally came to an end. Bogota forgot about the finacial stuff so i was with Elder Steed workin our tails off trying to orgainze all fo the payments for transport and food and stay for all of the missionaries haha!! But we got that all settled out! But i was grateful to get home on Wednesday night with my child Elder Huckbody from Wisconsin!! haha!! He is gonna be fun!! We are enjoying our time together!! I love the train it is the best, but it is hard training and being AP. We run around alot organizing trainings, meetings, and multi zone conferences solving problems and all and trying to give you good a good experience in the mission field. Well its a bit stressful but its been fun. He keeps me on my toes!! Right now we gringos come not knowing spanish so we have fun studying in the bus and walking an all we have fun!!

Elder Pesado left yesterday, i am sad to see him go! He was a great companion. I learned alot from him. He was the best comp that i have killed!! But before he left we had a baptism saturday night!! Jenifer Pinto got baptized!! YA!! She is woooow!! Super hardcore great testimony I love teachin her. We are now teaching her parents and her brother and we are activating three of her brothers right now!! It is super!! WE have such grerat times with them!!

Well yesterday we were coming home and in the lobby to our apartment complex the guards were having some fight with some dude who was athiest. We are good friends with the guards of our complex so they called us over to talk to the dude so we were like tight! I went over just talked to the dude normally and just conversed nothin more. Then he started telling us that he once was catholic and that he was then lutheran and has been with all the churchs and made the conclusion that all churches are liars and that god doesnt exist! I just kept talking to him and read in 2 nefi 2 about how there is opisicion in all things and that yes there is a God. I love tlaking to athesist because it is straight up testimony time!! I love it! And this guy knows the scriptures so we could cite scriptures and he knew what i was talkin about and all! I loved it!! so we had to get going and before i could even ask he was like hey come to my house i like your sermon haha! I was like well thanks. and so we have and discussion today with the gaurds of our apartment complex and the athesist dude today!! haha! It was such a spiritaul experience!! I loved it!! How the lord can use his servants!! I can really feel his guiding hand in my life as we do our best to serve him adn we sacrifice as missionaries we come t omeet the people God wants us to meet!! IT was a great week in the work of the Lord i am more excited now that ever to be a missionary, i have seen the miracles i have felt His love and guidance and its a love that never runs out it the Holy Ghost that motivates us to keep going!! With my new comp Elder huckbody i am ready to go!! He may not speak much spanish but he speaks from his heart and is an exceellent comp!! I am glad that he will be my last comp. It will be challenge training right now, of course it will but with sacrifce brings forth the blessing of Heaven. I know that cuz i have lived and experimented it for myself!! I love this gospel and being a servant of the most high God. Elder Hammer

training again! 7/23/2012

Well I dont know how it happened but I am going to be having another baby boy!!! YAA!! I AM GONNA TRAIN AGAIN!!! YES!!!!! I am super stoked. I have become the mission assassin! I have sent 6 of my 9 companions home!! I am tired of having companions at the end of the mission when they are all tired and dont have the guts to work til the last day of the mission!! I am stoked to have the opportunity to have a companion that is new and fresh. I am also training a GRINGO!!! HAHAHA!! Oh what a relief it will be in some aspects. This means that I gotta be the one talking all the time. Gringos need about 3 months to be able to get into the flow of things, butt i am excited to have a new companion who is fresh from the MTC! I am ready to work! My comp will be Elder Huckbody!! Oh ya!!! Super gringo!! Im diggin it!!

Well this week was a busy one. We were in Girardot Monday til Tuesday and we were in Bogota til friday got back to Ibague friday night. We leave again today for bogota in like 1 1/2 to go help with the new missionaries!! Its gonna be awesome!1 I love President Lozano!! Hes a funny guy!! I like how he is new and has that spark for the gospel. He still has his colombian culture and acts like a colombian which i love!! haha!! He was actually born in Ibague where are now serving so his sister is in our branch. She's pretty cool!!! But he is learnin alot and is open to new ideas. Like me training! I aint sure how this is gonna work out. I am still AP here in Tierra caliente, so i still do all of my AP stuff and on top of that i am gonna be training! I always love a good challenge!! The lord really does love to push us to our limits!! I am realizing how the mission is fastly coming to an end and i am excited to keep working strong. I'm gonna have to muster up the strength to train but i am grateful to have the energy of a new missionary helping me along!!

We are not in our area much of the time but the lord has blessed us with some golden investigators!! Wow! They are great! We are teaching a family of 4 who came to church this past week!! They loved it!! We had Jennifer and Natalia come too! IT was a great week in the chapel! Jennifer is from a family of 8 kids! 5 of them have been baptized but all of them are now inactive!! She has the fear that when she gets baptized she will go inactive afterwards!! We had an awesome lesson with her last week and her brother shared his testimony of the church and how bad he felt for his example and how he know the only path is through the church of Christ. Then this past week we had 3 of the brothers and their families in church with us and Jennifer felt great and she wants to get baptized this Saturday!! WOOOO!! We will see what we can do, she wants to get baptized before my comp goes home!! We need to teach her about tithing and she will be good for the water!! She has been doing awesome!! About 3 weeks ago we taught her about the Word of Wisdom and she hasnt drank a cup of coffee since!! It is great to see how you can see the faith of the people grow! I love it!! Natalia has been doing great she has been to church 5 weeks in a row now! She is doing awesome!!! she had a baptismal date for this weekend but we are gonna have to wait a couple more weeks for her to be a bit stronger i nthe word of wisdom she has gone 3 weeks with out drinkin alcohol!! She is doin awesome!! We just want to strengthen her faith a bit more before she gets baptized, so hopefully in another 2 weeks she will be getttin wet!! Life is going great!!

It seems like everyone is countin down my time in the mission haha!! I only got 10 weeks left, yes that is true, time is flying by!! But i am workin strong til the last day. It's weird in 3 weeks, my group will be the oldest in the mission ahh!! Love and miss ya all a ton Elder Hammer

busy little mission 7/16/2012

Well with the new president in town we have been workin our little booties off over here!! Wow, what a lot of work!! Its pretty funny working with President cuz he is just like a greeny missionary, fresh in the field a bit innocent in some areas and other areas is fresh with great ideas!! But this past week we were in girardot, neiva, ibague and passing through the other little peublos helping president get to know the local leaders and missionaries in Tierra caliente!! It was pretty fun but a lot of traveling and getting to know president!! President Lozano is very different from President Casablanca, so we were getting a bit adapted to his styel to be able to caprutre his vision of the mission and being able to put it into practice!! I am loving it!! I really feel like i am of great importance to President!! The hard thing is that they are having some problems in Bogota right now in the office and the A.Ps in bogota are really new up there they got there like 1 week before president Lozano got there so they are just learnin the stuff i nthe office so they always call and here in Ibague i dont have an office to help them with the administration part, but we are settling things out!!

We are in Girardot right now tommorow we go to Bogota to help with a multi zone conference there and then we get to help Pres. with making transfers decision. I get to help him the board of changes and show him the programs and all that stuff and then we go back to ibague and then we will go back to bogota next week again to help recieve the 22 new missionaries get into their areas!! So we have alot going on!! The A.P work is going just great right now but i am gettin concerned about our area!! We are only there like 2-3 days in the week so its hard to help the investigators progress at the rate that they should!! But we have 3 people that are ready for baptism they just lack some of the lessons, which is our fault that we cant teach them in a convenient pace!! But we are doing our best!!

We found this killer family this week! I am super stoked!! Its a family of 4 that like in a little pueblo right outside of Ibague!! Its called rincon de las Americas, The corner of the americas, its super cool!! Anyways they are a reference family that we meet teach a f.h.e at an investigators house and we met the 15 year old daughter and she loved the FHE and invited us to meet her family so this week we went and did a FHE at her house with some members that live by her and it was awesome. We met her mom and sister and they invited us back to meet the dad this week!! So we are stoked to teach them. It's a little 15 year old girl but so sweet and spiritualy and polite and well mannered and what an awesome family she has!! I am excited to teach them!! Jennifer is a girl that we are teachin and we are also activating her family. THE FAMILY CAME TO CHURCH sunday!! It was great!! Jennifer has the fear of being baptized but then going inactive just like her family did! She has 5 brothers that are baptized but are now inactive and she doesnt want to do that! She is so sincere so we are helping her recieve a strong testimony of the book of mormon. We are teaching her the PLan of Salvation using the BOM. This lesson is awesome to teach when the people start to understand it they get sooo happy and excited and motivated! The plan of redemption is the BOMB!! Eliana came to church this past week , we meet her my first day in the area contacting and for the past month we have been working on getting her to come to church but its been a workin progress and yesterday she came with her little son!! YESS!!! WE are seeing thr fruits a bit now!! THe Lord blesses us with excellent investigators. He know we aint in the area much but when we are here we work our tails off and we focus on the people!! I love my area!! I love being a missionary! Iam greatful to be in colombia. I am proud to be an American!! I am so grateful for my heritage and for my roots!! I love the Savior and His work! Elder Hammer

new mission president 7/9/2012

Well we got our new Mission President! President Lozano and he is an awesome man! I am very excited to work with him. He has a great vision of what our potential as a mission can be and how we can do it! We are working alot together which i like! This week we are trveling with him to show him the Hotlands so tommorow we are in Girardot, then at night time we go to Neiva to interview Pitalito and Florencia and we come back to Ibage on Thursday to have a conference! So we have been with him since Saturday planning and in meetings and stuff! He came out to teach with us this weekend and it i great to have someone new and fresh with new energy!! It was good teaching with the President!! IT was pretty funny cuz we took him to a lesson on Saturday and on Sunday he talked in our branch and the branch was all excited to meet him as if he was a superstar and then she felt like all honored that THE PRESIDENT was in her house and was all like bragging to all of the other youth that the president was in her house and all haha!! We died laughing!!

President really trust us what i love!! He doesnt really know all of the rules or administration or nothing so we talk alot we get to help make decisions with him so its fun!! I like it!! When he was with us he asked me if the mission manual has rules about drinkin pop haha! I was like no, drink it if you want to haha!! so we have a lot to teach him but I am glad that he is willing to learn! This week we werent in our area alot only 2 days really for all of the work with pres. and intercambios but it was a very spiritual week! We are being blessed so much!

 I have learned alot in this time in the mission! I have seen the difference in the way i teach and act and testify. Its completely differnt! I am learning hwo to adapt the lessons to the people alot better!! I wish we could have mroe time with the people to teach them, there is so much to teach. I am learning the power and value of everyword we use!! WE dont get much time really to teach for a long time to the people a lesson in 45 min. or less. And the Colombian poeple LOVE TO TALK!! I bet you could put a dumby in front of some of our investigators adn they would keep tlaking and not know the difference haha!! But when we teach it has to be short, prcise and powerful! THe imoprtance of Clarity and power ar key in missionary work! WE have had some killer lesson where there have been a strong presence of the lord spirit there!! Where we have the enviroment to be able to testfy og the Truthfullnes of GOd and of his blessings of his plan! I have learned the great importance of the Plan of Salvation! It changes lives!

WE have 2 baptism planned for this month and we will have anoth 4 in August!! We are workin on growing our area and have been working hard to get refences from members!! But yesterday while my comp and i were out walkin a person on a motorcycle started following us!! I was like o man not another robbery, so we were just getting ready run. A motorcycle with 2 people on it means danger, its the easiest way to rob you! then they started yelling at us and all and then we realized they wanted to just talk to us. And they took of their helments and it was Angela haha!! She was an lady that i contacted in Roma in Bogota! haha like almost a year ago I was teaching her and she went on vacation and while she was on vacation her family moved but we didnt know where and we just met up yesterday here in Ibague! haha She lives in the apartment complex in front of ours haha!! What a great joy i felt!! We talked for a while and she is anxious to listen and go to church with us and everythin!! She was so cool!! I remember very well contacting her. We were waking in the street and me and Elder Suruguay were going to an appointment and we lacked people to contact for the day and she was on the 3rd floor of the house hanging clothes on the line and i just yelled to contact her i just testified in a simple way about the eternal family and she came down and listened to us and it was like a 40 min contact at the door!! She was so interested and we strted teaching her and her family!! I am stoked to teach her again!! What an answer to our prayers!! Sweet mercy of God!!

 On thursday I was in the Chapel working on an activity with the zone and this guy comes around the corner and says oh my gosh ELDER HAMMER and he gave me this big hug. I was like oh my friend who are you. I never have met this dude in my life and he was hugging the heck out of me haha!! and he told me that he was a friend of Pops that he would go out with dad on splits and that Dad worked alot with him and that he went to the baptism at like 2 in mornin with Dad and Pres Pico! haha! It was fun talking to him! Then on Saturday i went to a meeting with Pres. Lozano and as i turned the corner PRes. Pico jumps out and just gives me the biggest hug in the world haha!! He is a great guy! I love PRes. Pico haha! He is hilarious!! I tihnk at times he forgets i am a missionary cuz he starts joking with with me and he treats me like a life long friends which i love! I am glad that i have the same friends as Pops!! Good kids haha!! So all is well here in Ibague! Lovin every second of the mission! I am workin alot on trying to receive more personal revelation through scripture study and more strict obedience and listening more! I need to be better at that!! But i am loving the work of the Lord. Love ya all a ton Elder Hammer

7/2/2012

Well dear family of mine!! All is well here in the mission workin hard in the work of the Lord!! It was a fun and hard week!! We have a lot of stuff goin on right now. The new mission president just got here on saturday! he seems great!! i am stoked to have him here we are gonna be able to get a lot of work done with him!! It was pretty funny we called him on saturday to say hi and all to him and he was super concerned. in tolima its like the states that we are in there is a big volcano and he called us to tell us to be on red alert the volcano might explode! we were like oh ya, the thing is that the volcano is like always on high alert but he was seriously concerned. i was glad for his phone call and his concern for us!! So we made a kit for all of the missionaries in tolima and a spot to meet if something happened we made plans and all! IT was pretty fun to see some of the missionaries reactions to this plan!! We made it sound like it was gonna be like some mt. saint helens or somethin haha!! one elder put together and 72hr kit and all prepared agua and everything haha!! he was a good boyscout!! But i am glad to have president lozano here! We have a meeting with him this weekend to go over some stuff here in tierra caliente and all so i am excited to meet with him and discuss things of the mission. He is fresh in the field, excited and ready to go and willing to learn. He is a great leader!! Right now I am in a little town called pitalito. We do exchanges like 8 hours from ibague so it was a long bus ride, but boy was it beautiful!! Thats what i love about being AP is being able to travel and see the scenery!! I really miss taking drives in the mountains but here we take drives through deserts or jungles!! its cool!!

Pitalito is like the hippy town of Colombia. Everyone smokes and is really relaxed. Its more of a tourist place for hippies, just weed and greenery! haha!! Small town but its super fun!! Sending some pics of my area in ibague. its a small city and on the outsides its all farm and a little jungle i nthe mountains and fields, so when we go out of the town its really cool. It's a town of like 600.000 people its a lot different from bogota the people theclimate the weather i love it its a great place!! i loved bogota but i am glad that the lord took me out of there haha!! it was fun last week being with my main man Pres. Pico - dad's old comp!! He is a cool guy. I wish i could hang out with him as a regular person not as a missionary. He invited us over for dinner and we were talking and we had to be home at 930 as always but i wished we could have stayed longer. He had some great stories. We enjoyed it alot meeting his whole family and all! i loved it!! i showed some of the mission pics. The adventures of HAMMER and PICO!! What stories he had to share!! Time sure has changed thing Pops haha!! He showed us his mission manual and ya, our manual is a lot bigger! haha!! But what a great friend he is! We call each other every now and then. He really is a big fan of dad!! I mean why not!! Dad would be the tightest comp in the world!! He told me about there adventures and all!! I know dad a lot better now haha!!

 We are working really well in our area! tHe thing is that we are only there for like 3 days so we dont have much time but we try to make the most of it! we are meeting some fantastic people!! WOW!! We but a baptismal date with a girl named jennifer and wow she is super awesome! Some one how is really looking for repentance and looking for God!! it is fabulous!! so we are progressing with her, we are reactivating her brother and we met here, her brother invited us to go swimmin andplay tennins with some nuns next pday haha!! WE took him up on the tennis but after the mission iwould love to go swimmin with some nuns haha!! He kept trying to convince to go swimmin but we were lioke we cant, haha! it will be fun next pday! then yesterday as we were leaving the chapel a sister asked us if we bless her car, we were like you can say a blesing for your car and she was like no, i want you to bless it with oil and everything. i was liek what are you talking about lady. IT was a brand new car and she wanted us to give it like a baby blessing but for a car or something, we explained to her about how she could just say a prayer a priesthood blessin wouldnt be necesaary. THe funnny thing here in Colombia is, is that it doesnt matter if you have 1 month or 25 years in the church they still ask us weird questions. on saturday there wasa sister coming from girardot a town like 2 hours from ibague and she called me and asked us to help her unload the moving truck. I was like what time she was like oh i am just about to enter ibague in like 1/2 hour!! hahah! I was like what in the world! she didnt tell anyone she just comes and when she's about to get there calls the missionaries hhaha!! Well we couldnt help her cuz we teach all afternoon so we got the Elders Quorum in line and it was great to see the priesthood in action to save the day hhaa!! it was hilarious. 1/2 hr notice for doing a move shes already in the truck on her way comin haha! i love the culture!! its just about wingin it everyday! Planning doesnt exist, rules are suggestions haha laws are just written on paper but never enforced haha! it hilarious!! This week we were in holidyas of san PEDRO the town was in a mess!! It was pretty funny to see the drunks and all!!!! alot of parades and a marches and a ton of drinking!! But all is well in the mission1 i am really loving it!! i have less than 100 days now, WOW!!! Super scared, but i dont feel off or anything, tired, og course i am, willing to work you bet!! So ia made some goals and all ofthings i want to achieve before i finish the mission! So I amexcited to kick it up another knotch, knotch 1 haha!! i love ya all and miss ya ton!!! Love Elder Hammer

6/25/2012

Well this week we were super blessed in our work efforts in Ibague! Being Ap in Tierra calient is the bomb!! I love it a lot but we loose a lot of time traveling! We travel every week to do exchanges with zone leaders in other areas. So we leave sunday night or monday morin depending where we are going to there are bus rides from 3-9 hours we go on! So we travel good and far! We get back usually Wednesday to our area! We are really in out areas on like 3 full days of the week. Becasue of our lack of time in the area we try to make the most of it! This week was really hard doing that because we had a conference in Ibague we were saying good bye to president casablanca! He goes home on Saturday he kept inviting us to eat with him we had breakfast twice with him this week! haha! It was bomb!! Elder Petka went home and Elder Acuna also they both finished their missions so they stayed at our house this week! Elder Acuna was my comp in Bogota and he came down with president for the conference and stayed til sunday with us! But we got some killer references! We got this girl named sara!! WOW!! Super great we taught her the first time on Saturday and came to church Sunday!! Shes adventista!! I dont know if that means shes advent in english dont remember too well haha! But they keep the sabbath on Saturday but she was super cool and came to church the 3 hours loved the classes had questions! IT is always better when investigators have questions! It means they think and its actually somethin important to them! Then last week a less active guy came to church and told him we would like to visit him! His family are members but his parents and his sisters arent and woopdie doo, his sister is super interested in the gospel she wants to go to church is ready for the gospel had questions like nothin else but like the good ones! IT was a great lesson! She came to church yesterday and loved it!! So we are slowly growing our teachin pool! And the people we are teaching all of the mare the best! I love them to death!! We should have 4 baptisms in July and one this weekend! YEAH!! I am stoked!!  In tierrra caliente the people are way different than those in Bogota! The land here is fertile the people more receptive and just awesome! So i am enjoying it alot!!

But yeah there are 4 AP's in the mission! One companionship in Bogota and 1 companionship in tierra caliente! I am having a great time with Elder Pesado! We are enjoyin our time together, a bit sad that ends up i am gonna be the one who kills him and him not me. He is going to go home in August to be able to study!! AHH!! So he might be going home in the beginning of August if he goes home in November he has to wait until like may to study thats how the studyin works in argentina!! AHH! But we will make the most out of our time together!! Weekly Wonders!!

Right now i am in a place called neiva! Its a cool little pueblo kind of thing and President pico lives here on of dads old comps! So I called him up and tonight i am gonna go and eat dinner with them and all! Ill takes some pics tonight and hook ya all up next week! I am stoked! He called me last night and we talked for a while! I talk to him every now and then doing stuff for president and all but it will be fun to go and chat with him tonight! I am stoked! So meetin some of pops old peeps from his glory days haha!

Well next week i will complete 21 months in the mission!! WOW!! As of today i have 101 days left in the mission! HOLY SHcnick! In two days i will be on the double digit count down woooo! Time is going by way to fast! Gotta bust my buns for these next 3 months now! Gotta start dropping back in the water! I love being AP but it really kills that baptisms! Thats what i dont like I came here to baptize but I really came here to serve the Lord and if this what he has called me to do too, than i can do them both!!! Doing both is fun but i am going on 6 months as doing this work and am drained! Today for pday we woke up played soccer with the zone and then my comp and i went back to the apartment and we slept for over 4 hours haha!! WE are wiped dead!! Love pdays!! Hey love ya all a ton! I loved every ones letters this week! Seems like all are enjoying their lives and more important coming closer to christ i love it!! Love Elder Hammer

Hot Lands 6/19/2012

Well, I am now in the hot lands finally and wow is it a nice hot place!! I love it! Well I got in my area Saturday afternoon! It's super cool! What happened is that I left friday but I couldnt make it all the way to my area so i stopped in a place called Girardot. I stayed the night with my BEST FRIEND ever Elder Fuqua here! haha!! Mycomp from the MTC. He is awesome. So i spent the night there and then i went the rest of the way to Ibague in the morning!! It is a beautiful ride!! Its basically a jungle ride! Its tight! You just go through the forest the whole time!! So green, there are waterfalls along the roadside and all it was a beautiful ride!! My area is like a big small town! It is awesome its a district there, not yet a stake! but it is great!!!! We did some good work when I got there! My comps are awesome! I am with Elder Pesado. He has been like my dream companion! YES!! We have the same teaching style and i love that kid!! He is from Aargentina!! Great missionary!! We have always wanted to be comp since he came to be my ZL when I was in Patio Bonito! I go home in October and he goes in November! But he is the bomb!! We are also with Elder Petka!! Oh my gosh, he makes me laugh so hard!! He's from Arizona! Love that kid to death! So Elder Petka goes home next week so we are in a trio for just a week!! But right now i am actually in Girardot again! I am still AP but in the hot lands! But we have to travel alot more and more farther. So we came here to Girardot again yesterday. So sorry that's why I didnt write yesterday! But we got here yesterday and it was a holiday yesterday so we asked president to change pday to Tuesday cuz on holidays it's better for teaching people cuz they are at home!

I am having a blast being out of the offices! Being AP in the hotlands is a lot better! We are more like regular missionaries! I like it a lot more! There are no more offices! We just do intercambios, and prepare capacitations and every now and again an errand for president! A lot less stressful! And with my comps, why would i not be happy as heck! Wow! I live with the best men alive! So today for pday we are gonna play paintball in the jungle!! i am stoked! then we are gonna play some tejo! Tejo is basically a game that drunk people play, but we will be drinking juice instead dont worry! It's like horse shoes kind of but you get a bit rock and throw it into basically a mud pit and in the mud they have like hiddens mines and you want to explode all of the mines with the rock you threw at it! haha! I ll take pics to show you all today! It's funny when the drunks play it cuz some times they hit people with the rock haha!! Good ol drunk dudes!

 This week in Ibague is a folklore festival! YEA!! SO that means parades and a lot of drunk dudes! Its also dia de San Pedro! So that means double drinkin!! WE shall see how it goes! I am excited to see it! There is a bull fightin pit in my area now, we might go see a bull fight soon! Theres alot these next two weeks! THe festival lasts for like 21 days, so its basically a 2 week drinking party here haha!! We have some killer investigators in our area!! I am stoked to work in ibague!! THis week we have multi zone conference here in Ibague so that will be fun! I am stoked!! Well all is well here! I am loving it!! Happy fathers day all of you Father, sorry i forgot last week! They dont really celebrate Fathers day here! So that's why it kind of slipped my mind! But I love ya all a ton Elder Hammer

we are old 6/11/2012

Holy schnickers family! Tookies is out of elementary school. Franky done with high school! Jay going on 3 years as a wedded woman, Hen with 2 kids almost!! WOO!! Mom and Dad are our parents!! This is great!! Woo time flies by super fast!! I love ya all a ton!!

Well this week I am goin to the hot lands!! WOO!! I go on friday i believe! It wil be great!! tomorrow the new missionaries come in from the MTC, so i get to do some training and all with them. Then wednesdays are transfers for the other missionaries. On Thursday we are going to the temple with the mission and Friday I am traveling to Ibague!! Its like a big pueblo like 5-6 hours out of bogotà on Bus! ITs gonna be great!! I am excited! I have been super stressed lately in the offices here! It will be a good way to die! haha! But I might come back for a few days to bogotà next month to receive the new mission president! I am still AP though, just for the other half of the mission and i dont have to go to the offices!! YEA!!! I get more time dedicated to teaching! It had been a great area here in Bochica!! It would have been great to have had more time in the area here but i had to fullfill my other assignment!! But all is well!

I have some awesome friends here ! I feel like I have progressed so much in my 5 months here in Bochica! I have had to learned a lot of stuff in this time. The other day I was super out of it in the morning i was beat dead, tired and was just out of it! I have been having some problems with my comp lately! He is fun and all but when it comes to workin, we cant work good together. He has some blood pressure sickness and he gets super lazy from it! I couldnt really depend on him, and he cant do what I need him to do, I have been super stressed this past 6 weeks with him because of this i had to do a lot of the stuff while he was sick. We had to do a lot of division while he would stay in the house with another sick missionary or a member of the ward would stay with him and i would go out with another member to teach or I would do exchanges by myself while he was at home or he would wake up late or stuff like that and then when he can work he is super slow! I was gettin super stressed with all of this! With the AP life in this mission it is a fast pace life! We dont sleep much. We do alot for president right now that he is leaving. We have had a lot of issues lately in the mission! Stuff i never thought i would deal with in the mission and all. But i felt alone doin it all! So yesterday I was in Church and i have been focusing alot more on my prayers and i have been waitin for weeks to receive help from God about what i could do to deal with it all! Then yesterday I just got this awesome feeling that i have so many friends that I never even thought that i had! I went directly to the book of Mormon and started reading in Alma about Captain Moroni and Pahoràn and how Moroni was super mad at Pahoràn cuz he didnt send him backup troops when he needed them and it made me think about how I was demanding stuff from my comp with something he didnt have or couldnt do! I realized the importance of the Book of Mormon a lot more yesterday! The Book of Mormon is like a time capsule! My friends from thousands of years ago wrote me these letters! I cant explain it but the Book Of Mormon has come alive now!! Its great!! I love that Book! Yesterday was a great day! I love seeing the small a simple miracles in the mission!

Life is great! I love it! This week while my comp was sick. I wanted to make a colombian food called Arequipe and so my cmop said that you put condensed milk in the can and you just out it on the stove! I was like ar you sure, he was like yeah, that it put the can on the stove and then turn on the stove and the can cooks and turns all the stuff inside by itself! I believed him for some reason! needless to say the can blue up and we panted the kitchen with condensed milk haha! freaking Elder Acuna! Well dear family! I love ya all a ton!

we baptized her! 6/4/2012

So yesterday we had the best thing ever!! I feel so good to have been able to have baptized Janet Gonzalez! She is probably the strongest convert that I have had in the mission yet!! Holy shnicks! It was definitely the most powerful baptism that I have been to. Janet was super prepared for her baptism! Probably over prepared!! She was a Jehovahs witness gone mormon yea!! It was crazy!! I wanted to have a JW as a convert but she was so prepared! The first time she went to church she presented herself to everyone in the ward everyone knew her so fast!! For her baptism all of the organizations got her a little gift, like hymn book or church magazines and all! IT was great!! Janet brought some of her JW friends to her baptism too! Her family she was great!! The heater in the baptismal font doesnt work, so the water was ice cold oh my gosh it was the coldest water but it didnt matter to us!! Janeth was just so happy! She had the biggest smile on her face!! She was seriously jumping for joy literally haha!! She told me because she cant hold missionaries she just jumps while she shakes our hands haha! She is great! She enrolled herself in mission prep. haha! she is stoked she wants to be a missionary! After her baptism she gave her testimony of coming into the truth and how great it is to hear a converts testimony. so pure and sincere. They dont have a patterenized testimony, one really felt from the heart! IT was so cool!! She's a 21 year old lady from Santa Marta. She's into fashion and all, shes done some modeling, but she is like a little girl, still she is great!! What a great convert she will be!! She is really set in a firm foundation!!

We had a good stressful week this week! I am gonna be in Bogota til the 15th I believe and then i am going to Ibague tod ie haha!! I will be home 4 months from tommorrow! WOOW!! I got 4 months to work my booty off!! I am excited to go to ibague. My comp is great, Elder Pesado, i am stoke! Elder Acuna is cool and all but stress me out alot!! But all is well! He's a great friend but stress me out when it comes to gettin to work! But i love him!! Right now we are doing some hardcore work with the mission! Alot of changes tryin to prep for the new mission president! But all is well! I am happy being busy and workin hard! I love P'days! They are the best. I wake up do my normal routine and then by 930 I take a good huge nap! I love nappin! I dont sleep in the week but pdays i love to just sleep! Today we went to monserrate the catholic church on the hill again! It was fun! We took some cool model pics and all! IT wa a beatiful day in bogota today! I love the way that the church is moving forward!! IT is amazing!! I love the church website, the new message and videos about the savior! It is great!! I am loving the mormon messages! We teach alot using the mormon mesages they are so great! I love them, They are such great boosters. How great it is to have this technology! I love ya all a ton! I am loving serving the Lord!! I am learning so many things that i couldnt learn in anyother place, or any othe time!! Love Elder Hammer

the week of assistance 5/28/2012

Well this week was a super busy stressful week. I am grateful that it is pday! We worked alot this week with little bit of sleep. Well last week I went to Girardot with President!! It was the best trip ever!! We got to stay in a hotel, eat with president, and president loves to eat good food! I loved it, we got back thursday afternoon and then we had a turkey dinner with president and his wife! We had thanksgiving in MAY!! haha!! I loved it! Then on Wednesday we had to go to Fusa. Their area was havin a lot of problems there so we had to go and interview the Elders and do some work with them and i felt more like a Cop than an AP. At times we have to do some weird things. Its sad to see when a missionary has a struggling testimony and see how it affects alot of people!! But we spent all day Wednesday doing that, then on Thursday i was in Kennedy, then Friday I was in Tunjuelito!! There was an Elder that got sick on Wednesday and then we went to the hospital and President took care of that, but the hospital kicked the Elder out of the hospital at 3 in the mornin, so he calls us terrified as heck cuz he only has 3 months in the field as a gringo! haha! So i went and picked him up at 3 in the morning! but I had to be up at 5:30 to travel again the next day!! Then we sent him back to his area in the hotlands and then he called me on saturday saying he still was sick so he came back to bogota, he got lost on the bus ride, had to go find him haha!! It was easy to spot out a tall blonde hair blue eyed gringo with all of the short colombians haha! So i spent all day Saturday taking him to get tests done. oh ya and ever since Thursday my comp was sick he has a high blood pressure disease and he was knock out haha! SO I had to do all this basically hauling my dying comp haha!! But he is a good sport! So i got back late Saturday night, then yesterday we had problems with an Elder he was beating up his comp. so he came in from the hotlands and he is with us right now! He is an interesting Elder, he was with us last week for the same problem haha!! We dont know what to do with him haha!! We like to mess with him though haha!

 Well there are possiblities that this week i am going to TIERRA CALIENTE!!!! I just might leave Bogotà! What in the world! I dont really want to go. I think though i can stay here until the next transfer. I just want to welcome the new Mission President and then i will go to Ibague! so thats the plan as of now!! I think President will let us do that. I want to be the one that kills Elder Acuna!! I deserve to kill him!! Than my next comp will kill me!! AHH!! I will still be AP but in the hotlands!! Its different type of work! But it will be fun! Elder Pesado is the best he will be my next comp!! He is argentinen!! I am stoked!! He was in my second zone while i was in Patio Bonito! This Elder is a Boss!!! YES!!! We are gonna baptize the world down there!! WOO!! So this week was one of those weeks where we only were able to teach taxi drivers and the people next to us when we were traveling!! but the next letter will have baptism pictures!! Janet, the Jehovahs witness lady is getting baptized on SUNDAY!! YEAH!! She is super cool! She invited some of here JW friends to her baptism and all of her neighbors and everything, she was so prepared, it was alike it was almost too easy to teach her. She rejected the missionaries before, but this time she was ready to recieve us!! How great it was!! Well family, love ya tons and miss ya alot. Love Elder Hammer

Thanks Mom

hey mother dear!! I love this snapfish thing haha!!! truth be told I dont know what is snapfish, i think i need to install a program it says and i cant do that on the programs here! I could see like 4 pics nothing more!! If you could send them in like a different folder or just the normal that would be AWESOME!! but i dont know how to work this snapfish thingy haha!! Right now I am in the hotel cafè and I am doing my office work in the hotel haha!! Its an awesome little hotel, really its a big hotel! Its hard being a missionary in a hotel haha! Therels the pool, all of the families just chilling around the hotel and all. There's the tennis courts the pool tables ping pong all of the fun stuff and all. We dont have much time to just be in the hotel but it was a temptation to turn on the TV last night and sit and watch some discovery channel or something, but we didnt haha!! But it was fun. We did our studying today on the balcony of the hotel that overlooks Girardot it was fun. Its more of like a Honey moon type of Hotel. My comp was buggyin me the whole time like, freak, why do i have to be with you here and not my wife haha! Great ol Elder Acuna i love him to death!!

 I have realized how much I love my dear mom this past few days! Working with other missionaries i am in charge of helping the missionaries that are struggling and all in the mission and i always ask how there families are going and there relationship with their parents and all. I am so glad for you and Pops! Parents like you are hard to find these days! I find myself dreamin more of coming home too. I aint off or trunky but that home is callin me. I cant wait to just give ya all a great big hug!! I really miss you sing the goodnight song and my baby song and all. I would love it if you could send me a CD of you singing those songs!! THat would be perfect!!!I really miss you singing to me. Elder Steed is basically my twin. He lives on the 1st floor and he says that his mom would always sing the cougar shout song, so at times we sing it together just to remember our moms haha!! We are grown up mamas boys. haha I have actually become a clean freak. I will have to send a pic some time of the posters i made in our house!! It says if you dont wash your dishes, than you will find them in your bed haha!!! so if the Elders in the house dont wash there dishes, then i put them in there bed as a kindly reminder to wash them! haha!! I got sick of washing everyones dishes! I HATE IT!! I LOVE A CLEAN HOUSE!! I now realize how hard it would be to be a stay at home mom! There is a lot to do to maintain a house! We live in like a legit house here and its 2 stories 3 baths, 3 rooms a huge salon and a dining room and a courtyard! SO it s a lot to maintain and living with 4 guys, it doesnt stay clean. Constantly doing laundry, washing the hosue ,sweeping, dishes and all of that stuff! But i cant stand a dirty house! Theres and Edler from Peru that lives in the house. I am always on his case, i feel like his mom. He always leaves his dishes out, the pans all oily and never cleans his bathroom he does nothin!! AHH! We now have gringo bathroom where Elder Steed and I keep it nice clean always! I am glad my mother not only keeped the house clean, but taught me and instilled in me the desire to clean it! I aint the most organized Elder but i am actually gettin pretty organized! So basically what i am trying to say with all of this stuff is that I LOVE MY MOTHER!!! LOVE YA A WHOLE BUNCH!! and i can wait to come home and have like 3 months to clean the house and do weird projects with ya haha!! Love ya mother dear,
 your missionary son,
 Elder Hammer

family 7/14/2012

Dear family of mine! It was great talking to you all! I love my family so much!! I am so grateful for all of you! My heroes are you guys, my family rocks!! I love Colombia, I love the mission, but this past year and 1/2 has helped me put alot of stuff into sharper perspective and i am excited to put my new perspective into plan after the mission. But as of now, i am loving the mission life!!

Wednesday morning I am going to Villavicencio, you should check it out on google maps or something, its a cool little town and then next week we got multizone conference so more time to do training. The thing about the mission is that we do a lot of training every week we train. It is a good reminder about how in our everyday lives we also need training on how to fight off the adversary and also to build our relationship with God. In the mission alot of people think that the only thing that we need to do is just not do harm to any one, but how wrong of a thought is that. Our purpose is to become like God, not because he casted off evil, but because he created good, that is what we are to do here. Create a place where we can feel the presence of God - create God's kingdom here on Earth! Its not just to not fall into temptation but so much more, to let the Light of Christ on earth shine. Understanding the gospel I feel as enabled me to be able to love deeper, understand and know me better, get to know God more and Have a greater respect for the Family and my Family in particular!! Love ya all tons, Elder Hammer

Call at 6 7/7/2012

Alright dear family of mine, i will be calling 6 my time. I ain't too sure about what time that would be back home, but if you need to i can change it. Like between 5 and 6 i will be callin. If you cant, email me tommorow while im in the office so i can arrange it with my comp.

Well this week was super stresful!! AHH!! I was dying of stress. There were tranfers and I was without a companion so the whole week I was at the airport the terminal traveling doing it all!! We had problems with the new elders coming in. There were 18 new missionaries that came in!! AHHH! So it was a lot of work and with little basically no sleep. Like i would get home super late and then have to get thing ready for the next day and wouldnt sleep until like 1 or 2 then would have to wake up like at 5 to go drop someone off at the airport or pick someone up. Then on Thursday I had to go to a little pueblo outside of Bogota called Fusa. We opened some new areas so i had to go down there to get all of the new Elders all situated down there but it was fun. It is a beautiful little town. I loved the trip. It's a pueblo high up in the mountains so part of the road you are in the clouds and then when you go down the otherside you see into the valley and see the little pueblo, it was super fun! But i was super stressed this week, but we got everyone situated and all!

I am glad and I now have my companion!! FINALLY!! I was like 2 1/2 weeks with out a comp!! It was terrible! I really need a companion!! the Lord knows why a companion is necessary!! I also have a child!! there was an unexpected new elder that came to the mission. he is now my adopted child! o he has been with me ince wednesday and he had helped e with some of my stres and helped me alot!! But he leaves tommorow for Bolivia to serve his mission there he was just with s waiting for his visa!! So y comp and i are his adopted parents we say that he is our child and he calls us his parents haha!! We are going to take fmaily pictures today! haha!! But i want to tell about the BEST EXPERIENCE EVER!! on sunday i gotta tell you all bot my new friend Jorge!!! WOWOW!! Its an awesome story about our amazing investigator!! Well Love ya all a ton and ttyl!! Talk to yall sunday! Love Elder Hammer

I'm so lonely 4/30/2102

Well I have been without a comp for over a week. Ive just been all over the place. So I just told the zone leaders last week that I would be doing some surprise interchanges. So I would just pop up in areas throughout the day, helping some of the areas out abit. I went to help an area to help them get a bit more pumped up for the work and all, they had nothing planned that day!! I was like elders why are we not planning, why are there no investigatores. So I told them if there are no investigators lets go get some. SO 7 HOURS KNOCKING ON DOORS!! AHH!!!I never had done so much contactin in one day! But I wanted to show the missionaries how to work. There is a new missionary there with his trainer. It was Elder McEntires first time contacting in the mission. He has 6 weeks in the mission field. So I trained him a bit and they were like, wow contactin really can be fun. I really like to talk to the people contacting. I dont just give them a card or be mechanical. I like to try to get into their house and teach them. So in that time we gave out 5 book of mormons and we were able to get into 3 houses in those 7 hours! We worked our tails off. The other day i was in a taxi and i was talking to the taxi driver and he doesnt really care if there is a God or not. He doesnt really look to the future just to the present what happens happens. So I didnt get mad at him. I let him talk. We actually had a great conversation. At the end I ended up giving him a pamphlet of the restoration haha!! When i left the taxi he told me hey thanks for not judging, usually people get all mad at me and try to condemn me for not being Christian, but you never told me I would go to hell or nothing like that. I felt good to talk to you!! I stayed for a little and kept talking to the taxi driver even after i got out of the taxi and we just alked about being a true disciple of Christ!! It was great!!

SO we are teaching a Jehovas Witness right now. She is super prepared. She even came to church yesterday and she loved it!! I presented her to a sister in the ward the same age as her, and they became instant friends!! Then our investigator, Janet, went and introduced herself to everyone. She was all over the chapel saying hi to everyone getting to know them she loved the church!! It was great!! And the end of the day like the whole chapel knew her and they were giving her magazines of the liahona, proclamation to the world and everything, she was this is so great! She loved it!! So we have an appointment with her in like an hour and we are gonna put a baptismal date with her! She is progressing so well!! She even went to a baptism on Saturday with us.

The sister missionaries in our ward had a baptism! It was hilarious!! This guy is great that got baptized. So the guy invited his dad to the baptism, so after Carlos gave his testimony the dad asked if he could share some thoughts, he is not from our faith but a great man. SO he gets up there and just started yelling out in a prayer as if he was like some black baptist preacher haha!! And throwing his arms in the air. and all. I tried to keep reverent. I looked at the stake president to see if he wanted me to intervene but he told me to let him finish so we got a big ol sermon at the baptism!! I was worried cuz i was like ahh we had investigators at the baptisms, we dont want to scare them away. But we stay strong with our investigators thank goodness.

 So President got back on Sunday night. It was nice to have him back and all. We had transfers this week so i am busy with all them. We have 16 new missionaries that come in tommorrow we got a lot of transfers and i am with out a companion until Wednesday. But I will get it all dont dont worry. My comp Elder Acuna comes in on Wednesday!1 It is super tight he is 26 years old a bug teddy bear and speaks perfect english. I am going to kill him too, he goes home in June. and then my next companion will kill me ahh!!! But all is well here!! Workin hard in the lords work!! We are gonna work on getting 5 baptisms thius next transfer.!! WE have been working hard, It will be great, its been over a year since the assitantsin Tierra fria have baptized!! So we are gonna step it up!! We dont take a full pday, we do the nessasary thing and then we go an work!! Got an appointment soon with janet and we will be gettin her baptiszed soon hopefully! But in 2 weeks i can call home, how does like 6 sound like for everyone on mothers day!! You will get to meet my new comp Elder Acuna he speaks perfect english He is the bomb!!! Love ya all tons! Elder Hammer

Hunting men 4/23/2012

So this week Elder Steed and i had an assignment to go to the U.S.A Embassy so we went to get presidents passport updated and do some other stuff down there. So while we were going there we contacted the taxi driver, he was super tight, a fun guy. We basically taught him the reswtoration and all in the ride and when we got out we asked him for his dats so we could pass by another day we was like my name is bruce willis but you can call me Bru. I died laughing! He looked just like Bruce willis! haha!! When we got into the embassy it was so cool. We were on American land just for a second kind of haha! They had the american flag going on, Mom dont worry I made Elder steed d othe pledge of alliagnce with me haha!!! And while we were waitin our turn we got talking to thep people there, they were all so cool. It was weird to contact in english, but it was fun. So we met this like hippie guy there it was tight! He the best his name is GRegory hes 65 years old lives alone and is in a PANIC ATTACK!! haha!!He told us that people were trying to hunt him! So first of all he is in the embassy in velcro sandals and sweat and a white collared shirt tucked into his pants but not ironed and just looks like a great guy! I loved him!!But he told us this whole story of how he is living in Meijing and he doesnt speak nothin of spanish and hes been here for almost 6 months!! I felt bad for him, but he is panicking cuz he thinks that everyone wants to kill him or put him in jail! He said he once heard somone asked him if he hunts. I think he heard wrong and asked if he is married (Cazar y casar) they sound a like but mean different things haha!! So he was asking us if we knew about the game where colombians hunt gringos and try to put us in jail he was warning us! He was cussing like everyother word haha!!! I was like wow this guy is from the states i forgot about those words haha!! But we helped him out a bit and he stayed talking to him for like 45 min while he explained everythin, he wouldnt let us go haha!! So we had to come back at 3 in the afternoon that day to pick up the passports and all. So when we went Elder steed was like how cool it would be if we saw gregory again! He wasnt there, we picked u pthe passports and left and as we left. gues who we saw, we saw Gregory haha!! He was so stoked to see us! So we talked to him for like another 30 min. haha! And kept warning us. we gave him a contact card and told us that we should hook up while he was in Bogota!! haha!! Then we got back into another taxi and guess who it was, BRUCE WILLIS again!! haha!! The same taxi driver from the morninÇ!! WE all busted up laughin haha!! So we then taught him the plan of salvation in the taxi!! haha! The same taxi twice in the same day!! What a grat day it was!!

Well I killed Elder Perez this weekend! He died sad. I dont like to send missionaries home! it aint fun! Elder Perez is a poet guy so he was super dramatic to leave. But i really enjoyed being his comp. He is the best comp that i have had!! Farewell my good friend Elder Perez, but he left on a good note!! On Saturday we FINALLY HAD A BAPTISM!!! We went 3 months dry without getting people wet!! So Laura Alvarez got baptized at 10 on saturday and after the baptism i dropped Elder Perez off at the airport and off he went! I dont have a companion right now! Nobody loves me!! But it is hard being the only assitant!! AHHH!!! I have 2 cell phones that ring like 50 times a minute! Everyone always calls me! I feel famous but exhausted!! President goes to Peru this week. so i gotta hold down the fort til he gets back! But i am making the most of it!! I got alot of member s to come out with me this week! So we will get the ward working in missionary work!! We gettin this ward moving now!! WE got a lot of nex investigators! The families that i told you about last weeek are awesome!! We had lunch with John last week and this week!! He loves the message we share! He is stoked to read the book of mormon!! YES! THe other family we have anotrher appointment tonight!!! I am stoked to talk to them agina! They really want to know!!

Right now i got another appointment to got teach a lady who is goin through some rough times! so gonna teach her about faith right now! Excellent!! Wow! I feel like i am growing so much in this last few weeks!! I am scared for these next 6 months!! I dont know what to do!! I want to stay in them mission. I might extend!! I am thinkin about it, but we shall see! I love this work!! I have felt the spirit so much in these last few weeks! I have been really trying to focus on teaching in a way to let the people really know the savior, not just His chirch, but develop a realcion with God. I feel closer to Him as i do this and I am opening my mouth more and more!! We arent in the area much so i am learning how to manage time better and really learn between making good and better and best decisiones. i like to teach, but had to except the fact that i also gotta help the other missionaries out so i try to be more personal with the missionaries and get to know them better!! All is well dear friends! I love ya all a ton! Love Elder Hammer P.S When is mothers day. The 1st or second sunday

The mission is getting even better

Ok i love being an assitant i must say. Its got a lot of responsibilities and alot of worries and junk that i dont like to do. I aint a fan of going to the office and being out of my area, i like teaching i am here to be a master teacher, but mainly a servant of God, in this position i have the duty and privildge to help other missionaries. It's really funny to help them, cuz the problems they got are always pride issues. Pride is so evil!! I dont want to be a proudful person!! Eww, gross pride!! So President was out traveling this week in Tierra Caliente with my comp so i had another comp. Elder Espinola for this week with me. He was my replacement in Patio Bonito! He was with me here this week. I felt bad for him, he was just with me while i had a super busy week being the only functioning assistant this week! The assitants from Tierra caliente were with President and my comp was with them and i had to manage the office this week. Had to go to the embassy and do some visa errands for Pres. had to go to some missionaries areas to fix some problems. Interview 2 zones this week! haha! Its was pretty fun to interview. I did them because there are some missionaries that are just hilarious and cant solve problems in there companionships!! AHH! One companionship was hilarious!! haha!! They have problems cuz one of them likes to kick and hit the other one. He is super aggressive and the other one doesnt like to work so he is always watchin tv and they get home like at 700 at night haha!! I was like dudes what are you doing!! Why are you here Elders! I cant believe the problems that Elders have, for being lazy and prideful to accept how to be better!! haha!! So i interviewed them, we came up with what i call a babysitter plan. So we also talked with the ZL there and they now call them everyday at 400 to seee how they are doing, how many contacts they have and lessons and all!! It was a funny interview. I aint always the most serious person, especially when it comes to Boas like these Elders, SO the elder was like my comp always hits me like this (and hit me on the shoulder) and i started freaking out and was like Elder wow, there is no need to be agressive, Elder Please do not hit, we are to to talk this out in a calm way, please do not punch me, remmember our bodies are temples!! haha. I was just messin with the guys, haha!! I am really starting to understand what it means by forget yourself!! Theres a quote that i like that says that when you loose yourself you have more of yourself to find. The more that we serve and give of oursleves and forget our own needs but look after the needs of others, we are so much more happy, there are less problems!! JUST LOOSE YOURSELF IN THE WORK OF GOD!!! Its great!!

So i have a capacitaion this week with these 2 zones about developing Christ like Attributes!! While preparing the training the thought came to mind, what characteristics do i have that are like the SAvior, in what way does my conduct reflect Christ!! The was the basis of my training i had with them. Hopefully it will help a bit, this week i am going to kenndey for 2 days to do some exchanges with elders and i have another zone trianing to talk about how to echar afuera el Natural man.( Throw out the natural man) I am excited! Were are gonna get these Elders to feel the fire of God!! The Spirit of God like a fire is burnin baby!!

Really the best part about being assistant is to see the miracles of God!! Oh my Gosh there are so many more smally huge miracles!! IT is great! I feel like i have been recieving so much mroe revaltioin for the mission, my area, my life in general!! Its great, I have to sleep with a notebad by my bed, because it seems that God always wants to talk at night for some reason. But i dont mind at all!

So last night all of our appointments failed!! 4 in a row!! So like a month ago we got met a less active member that we never were able to contact she lives like 2 blocks from our house. It was 730 and we decided to see if we could find her house so we went searchin and we got lazy and knocked on a door to see if they knew where she lived. IN colombia the addresees are by number so we were lookin for Kr 27 number 1·27We knocked on Kr 27 Number 1a-27 We knew we were close we just didnt want to look at the end of the street to see what way to go. It was a 5 story apartment complex and i just talked on one of the speaker phone door bell things. And i was talkin to the lady through the phone phone thingy in front of the house and she was like let me see if there is a Carolina that lives here. she was like no, but i will come out side. She she came out, and her brother and her Mom! We were like we dont want to bug you but we are just lookin for a house!! And then we got to talking about the gosple, and then the Jorge(The brother) was like i will come out with to find it!! He got his umbrella!! IT was poorin rain, we ar in winter right now!! ITs like flooding here! And we came out with us to find thi s house we walked to whole block when it was really like 3 houses to the left when we took a huge loop to the right haha!! While i was talking to him he asked me, can you help me, sometimes i feel like something is missing but i dont know what it is, its like a whole inside of me and ineed to fill it with somethin. I almost fainted of joy!! We taught him a bit about the restoration and how the gosple heales the wounded soul!! He was like WOW!! i felt like that hole just got smaller!! So we are now teachin him and his family we have another appointment tonight!! THE MISSION ROCKS!! I love it how, God blesses us with a miracle, he know when give our day he blesses us with miracles!! It was 730 on Sunday, we have to be in the house at 8 on Sundays, but because we were not satisfied with goin home early, we wanted to Work, God led us to this family!! How great it is! God blesses us when we give our all!! Today we have a lunch appointment with a guy we met this week contactin and he invited us to lunch!! We knocked on his door and was like how about ya all come on over for lunch on Monday and we will talk more!! STOKED.

Being assistant is was more tiring but it pays off!! I believe that ya i will die in the mission as AP. Its usually a death til do you part thing, but maybe the new Pres will change his mind, he come in July. So i will be AP at least tip august with him, but then Ijust have one more transfer. but we will see.! What ever the lord has in mind! Life is well and great! Love the mission and I love my God! Elder Hammer