we didn't know! 8/8/2011

I testify that my Savior Jesus Chirst and that he live, he calls the pridefull to humility the poor to richness and the broken hearts to be healed in His name! The power of God is so strong, He works in the most humbless ways to bring His fellow man to come unto Him!! These past 2 weeks with my comp have been the best 2 weeks of the best 2 years!!! The truth is, the mission and the kind of fun that i thought it would be! I am dead tired i cant sleep i dont eat there is no time, the things of this world are not necessities, there are starving people, peopel without a roof without clothes and with nothing but the hope of a better world and We are the ones that bring the light of Christ into their lives. My comp and i have been declaring repentance to the people here in Patio Bonito. Wow and what a difference! I am understanding the power and understanding what is a broken heart and a contrite spirit!! We have stepped it up a knotch in the book here in Patio Bonito (Thats knotch one -Starsky and Hutch) haha! We are workin super hardcore here!! We have 15 peopel with baptismal dates, that not including the 7 couples that we hope to get married by the end of September!! We have almost 20 investigators in the chapel every Sunday!! Workin hard!1 We had a baptism and marriage finally here this weekend!! Jefferson Moreno know is wearing a ring on his finger and the spirit is on his shoulders!! YES!! Ive been out for 10 months now with 20 baptisms and we will have 2 more this weekend and hopefully 2 more the next week and we are shooting for another 11 by the end of spetember and it depends if we can get everyone married by the end of september we will have another 14 baptisms!!! Workin hardcore!! WE have planned for the 17 of September a night of rings as i like to call it! We are gettin everythin arrranged to have a huge wedding ceremony for 7 couples to get married this day!! people here are super poor and they have a boat load of legal problems that wont let them get married because of messed up documentation and all but we got a Lawyer of the mission helping us getting people divorced so they can get married, seperation of goods from old marriages changing birthdates and all of documents to help everyone get married and a lawyer is goin to come to the church this day and they are all goin to get married and with all the people gettin married we get a huge discount and we have some help from some of the resources here from the Church!!! But tis a headache with all of this paper work doing alot of errands looking for papers and all!! But we are doing it!! I dont sleep very well because there is so much on my mind. This week we put 7 more baptismal dates with a family!! they are beast we have been teachin them for about 2 months now and always preesnt us to there neighbors so we teach 2 families in one lesson and both families accepted the baptismal dates!!! but of course that means 2 more marriages but we will get them to the chapel in time haha!!
Yesterday was a day of awesomeness!! Wow!!! We have this investigators Pedro, We put a baptismal date with him the 1st lesson about 1 1/2 weeks ago, and hes is beast, the 2nd lesson he came to me and told me, Elder Hammer I have good news to tell you! Iwas like tell me me homie. He said i am going to get married! I was like YAH!! Hip hip hurray!! I asked him what made him make this decision we only had one lesson with you about the Book of Mormon he told me he read the Chapter we told him which was 3 Nephi 11 and he said i felt like it would be the right thing to do. I am ready to put my life in order!! I almost cried for joy and then we had another appointment with him yesterday and i did cry for joy!! we had no idea but he is actually homeless right now!!!! He lives in the streets with friends or with family!! He is gettin back together with his Grislfriend and said it would be best if they were married he needs compromisos in is life and reason to change and when he read and prayed he recieved his Answer about this book and he felt the need to change, this is the power of the Book of Mormon! it changes lives!! WE are here to change lives and that what i am tryiong to do with all of my heart!! My comp is a beast!! He helps out alot!! I love this little guy! Hes teachin me how to break dance haha! and he has a testimony and works good with me!! WE are changin the lives of the poeple here in PAtio Bonito, I ask him everynight what can we do better and what are the needs of the investigators and we get talking and we cant sleep cuyz theres som many of them haha! and then he tells me the everytime we go to an appointment he gets more excited to be a missionary! we love what we do and we do our best doing it. But shoot i dont sleep!! Im always thinkin of the freakin stress in the mission field, We had families that live in poor conditions that make get there house taken aways from them, people gettin robbed, families that physically beat each other, people get killed here like every week. Its ridiculous!! Some how we always find us when there spouse just got killed the week our two ago. but we try to comfort the in these times!! THere are miracles goin down here in Patio Bonito! I am glad that i will be here for more time!! I have almost 6 months here and i will be her more time! My comp is here for a little bit nad then is going to Argentina for his mission his waitin for his Visa. But i am enjoyin the time i got with him!! Hes a cool kid!! Hes a good worker!!!
I know that my Savior lives i have seen the weary become strong, the broken hearts been healed, Evil spirits cast out, Addictions broken, Hate turn to love!! Is this not the evidence of the hands of God in our lives!! God works in all places with anyone that is willin to let Him enter!! I am not who i was, i dont want to be who i am but anxious to be who the Lord needs me to be!! I am learnin! Learnin what it love, how to love, and most importantly learnin to listen, Listen to people, investigators, but most importantly to the spirit i am learnin to recognize the super soft impressions of the spirit!! The come super soft in spanish but they are comin haha!! I think i have a barrier between languages and the spirit!! haha!
All is well, doing the Lord work, dont need anythin, the Lord Provides!! But that doesnt mean that Birthday Presents will be rejected haha!! JK! Just hook me up with my other par of shoes at home and some candy and a foot massager and back massager haha!!
Love ya all!! We are doing for the Children!! You are the Champions!
Heres the pics of the baptism this weekend and the wedding and all.I love the pic of us at the wedding haha! My chest look super awkward! haha! I dont know how to take pics. haha! I am so big and all that i always pose awkward haha! 
Love ya all!
Elder Hammer

6 lbs 6 oz and a worker! 8/1/2011

Yes!! My father in Heaven has answered my prayers and has given me a companion that actually works and gets down to some do some business!! YES!!! I must say that it was a good challenge birthin him but he finally came out and is a lovely brown baby! Elder Oquendo from Cartahana, hes colombian! He works super good with me!! We have been having killer lessons these past 3 days!! On Saturday missionaries from the MTC came! It was super stressful!! Out area first of all is very heavy!! The things we deal with is very heavy, rape, drug addiction, spouse abuse, neglegance of family, poverty, the depresses the gothic the witch craft, A Witch a witch!! Burn her! (said in the monty python accent!!) But we had to do division this whole day and my comp only had 1 day in the area, so i went and showed him where the houses were and him and the MTC elders taught the lessons and he didnt even complain or nothing he just did it!! He works!! Hes a break dancer so he is gonna teach me how to do a back flip, im almost there!! I land on my kneesSo we had some good experiences this week!! WE casted out devils from a house!!! It was a super spiritual experience!! We went to this appointment with a family, it was the first appointment with them, they said that they had deamons living in their house, we were like well we can get rid of them, so we blessed the house, there was a huge notable difference once we casted the devils out in the prayer, we all noticed the difference. So we put a baptismal date with the family for the begginning of September. they have 4 kids and 2 parents, the parents have to stop their drug addiction first and they can get baptized but they will overcome their addictions i have seen this happen many times in the mission, drug addicts and when they come unto Christ they change their habits!!!! Its a miracle!!

So we had a killer week this week! We could be baptizin like crazy if people would just get married!! But no they dont want to get married!! AHH!! I get so frusturated! One person wants to they other no, then when they come to the same conclusion to get married they find out they have some legal issues that wont let them get married and ahh!!!! That socts a boat load of money which no body has here!! But this Saturday we have a marriage!!!!!I am super stoked!!Jefferson Moreno will be getting married on Saturday!! WOOO!! then on Sunday at 7 in the Mornin we will be in the stake center and be puttin him in the water!! Wooo! My first marriage of the mission!! We hope to have a few more very soon!! But we have great church attendance this week of a whopping 18 Investigators in the chapel!!!!! YES!! But there were a lot of them that werent there!! we have lot of investigators coming to church but not gettin married!! We put 5 baptismal dates this week with 10 investigators progressin 14 with baptismal dates! It is bomb! I love it when my converts pass me the sacrament i converts here that are in the presidencies of their quoroms and all! Every week Miguel passes me the sacrament and winks at me when he passes it to me!! ITs hardcore!! Then yesterday one of the Moms of some of our converts came to church for once!! We have baptized the 7 kids!! ITs beast! The mom came yesterday finally!!! I love it whne our investigators present their friends to us. it means that we are workling effectively here!! There bring friends to church too!!! I love it when that happens!! Sometimes i feel like a super star here haha!! I know everyone it seems like!! My last 2 comps didnt like it that i was always talkin to people but it pays off, we are now teachin some dudes in a hotdog truck our security gaurds in our complex and everyone in everyplace!! haha!! I have found out a way to test if i contact people good. I got to some people selling some food on the street and tlak to them, usually if i do a good job they give me food haha!! Maybe i take advantage of my missionary powers to get gain, but at times we get hungry in the field haha!! But i am gald to have my new comp he works and is cool!! I played more with Elder Lopez but i have felt the guiding power of the Spirit here in these past 2 days than i have with my other comps!!! We will put some down together but i am sad that this will be a short companionship, he leaves at the end of this month for Argentina, hes here until his Visa comes to leave the country! but i will take the help i can get here! We will have less lessons in the week for a while because we cant do divisions until he learns the area but we will put some feelings into the hearts of the people!! I love the work and we are doing it for sure!! we will hopefully have 8 baptisms this month!! But way to get me all homesick with all going on with the fam! Hen good luck in Virginia, after the mision i will be joinin you soon i think in Virginia, My Gringo homies here and i have decided we are gonna make a town in Virginia with all of our Gringo missionaires here in Colombia!1 We are all super cool friends! Last night we had a sleep over in my apartment!! some elders in my Zone came over and we all partied for a while last night with the good times rollin by!! Talkin about the states and all the weird thing the Colombians do! haha Today we a re going to watch entangled for pday and try to play some bball, but Latinos dont shoot hoops! haha!! Heres some pics of the baptism we had about 2 or 3 weeks ago i never sent the pics!! Miguel, Ruben, y Juan!! We call Juan Joseph smith!! haha! He looks like a kid Joesph haha!! They are all cool kids! Miguel is the kid under the arm of Elder Lopez, hes super cool and Ruben is another story!! Look at his baptismal suit! I brought the wrong baptismal outfit that was obviously too small but ruben wanted to wear it still haha!! So i let him use my socks so it wouldnt look too bad as high waters haha!The mission comes to life when you go through a state of repentance and an understanding of what you do as missionaries!! I have learned you must release the frusturations to receive the revelation!! ITs crazy how we can connect to the spirit and know the will of the Father!! I dont pray for the Lord to Change His will but to put my Will in line with His!!!

Love ya all! Keep it real in Cali and in Virginia!!

I got letters today from Sis. V from Januarary and Tyler Howell also from Januarary and also my beloved Parker Family from Januarary haha!! I guess it takes 6 months for cards to get here! haha!
WE do it for the Children!
Se Cuidan mis Amigos
Elder Hammer

It's a boy! 7/25/2011

Yes its true! IM PREGNANT! WOO!! Last night I got the call from the Doctor (LZ) and told me that i am expecting a boy and he is due this Thursday! I have to be in the hospital (Mission office) at 9 in the morning to deliver (pick up) my baby (new missionary!! Im gonna be a DAD! (trainer)!! haha Check out my Baby photos!! haha!! I am super stoked to train!! I got Elder Oagden! At first I thought he said oakden i was like sweet!! But hes from Colombia which will be freakin sweet!! I am super stoked to work with a fresh one for once!! I am getting super stressed working with a dead man! My comp is totally off! I have had to sit him down a whole bunch of times and tell him to shape up!! HEs does nothing of value only damage to the Lords work!! He plays in the lessons and is a freaking little girl, when i tell him that there is something that we need to work on or something to fix he gets made at me and tells me i cant change who i am, then i have preach repentance and change to my comp!! Comp are supposed to help and support each other!! he does nothing!! For the past 5 months with both my comp i have been feelin super overloaded! Because they do nothing or make it hard to teach!! Yesterday my comp over exaggerated a point in the Bible and told the guy it wasnt correct and it was a disaster!! WE believe in the bible to be the word of god as far as it is translated correctly but not that we dont believe in the Bible so our friend was like then how do you know what parts are true and whats parts arent i wouldnt take advice from a book of lies i only what help from the God of Truth. Then he got frusturated because the investigator wasnt understanding him!! so it took me like a half hour to clear up the whole mess. But it will be so awesome to train!!! Some one with new energy and advice and to help me!! I hope that i will be able to go to bed at 10 30 for once!! Because of being DL (which i love) I check up on my district take dats and all that good stuff and i dont finish til about 10 with that and then to plan, my comp doesnt nothin to plan. he says why do we plan if when we get there they have anotherr question about somethin we didnt plan for!!! Ahh!! so i basically just tell him the schedule for the next day, and he refuse to fill out the area book!! AHHH!! But a fresh one will be nice to train!! YES I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven!!!

I am learining so much here about the Power of God!! He is all knowing!! I want to be so obedient here I want to teach and share this message, i am a terrible teacher but i can help the people understand!! I am tring to strengthen my strengths and trying to make my weakness become my strengths but oh boy thats hard!!! I read DyC alot!!! Doctine and covenants 1 verses 20- 30 alot it talks about why we have weaknesses!! ITs to understand the power of God!! That there is hope in a better world like it says in Ether 12 4, I am in love with the scriptures, but i have a hard time putting emotions into thoughts into words into spanish but were going! I love it when we are in a lesson and someone hasa question and im like i have scripture for that!! Its so beasty!! I love it! Ive always loved the scriptures but i feel like i ma just starting to unlock the powers of them!! The Book of Mormon was a sealed book but oh boy now its startin to open!!
We deal alot with peoples problems!!! holy dogs!! THey have a boat load of problems here! And its not just little gossip problems they are some heavy stuff and they look to Christ and they go to us!! We are teachin a boat load of people but we deal with alot of people that arent married and are living together but dont love each other! AHHH!! We have so many of these circumstances!! My testimony of the commandments has strengthen a ton!!! if they would just keep the law of chastity how there world would be different!! The people are super poor and dont do nothin here so they all come to me and ask me what they can do to play and make up games. Its pretty funny i make up dumb games that they love!!! Yes I have played quite as a mouse haha!! Its hilarious to play with them It Callado como un raton in spanish haha!! I play it with my homies and we run around there house i aint as dramatic as it was with my seniors haha!!! But shoot why poeple just dont keep the commandments. But the family is definately under attack here!! Love is so misunderstood. Love is not in breaking the commanments, but they do not understand that here. THen the society makes them feel worthlesss wihen someone does obey the laws here, laws are more of a suggestion then a law, if someone is getting beat here to police do not interefer until the person is dead, its not a crime here i think of attempted murder only muder but thats just based off of knowledge of experience. It's ridiculous!!

But learining a ton and lovin it!! WE definately have struggles aas servants of the Lord but i love my District and me converts here!!! I almost cry ever Sunday in Church, I have 4 converts here that have the priesthood here that pass and bless the sacrament. I love seeing this change in them, Yesterday my homie Miguel passed me the sacrament and he always gives me the little wink when he passes me it!! I love it its so bomb!!
This week i was a bit down for like 3 days. Sometimes i feel like i put some much in with little results, people that arent progressing but the lord answered my prayers to make me feel like i had a purpose here. Thursdays Me Homie Marta talked to me and bore me here testimony. We are teaching family that has been investigating the church for 10 years almost and we are working xuper hard, they are poor and cant afford much. THe husband has to get divorced and she needs to get a new birth certificate make up because her documents all have different birthdates. Its a difficult task, they go to church and all but cant get bpatized until they get married but have a boad load of legal papers they have to get cleared up before they can get married, so the missionaries kind of gave up on them saying that they were loosing time with them, this is the famil i gave them the eternal pig, A little piggy bank, they are leaning the power of Diezmo, they pay 10 percent to the pig until they get baptized and this money they are going to used it to deal with all of there legal things to get married!! The hermana came and told me, elder hammer you know what, this pig you gave us gives me more desires to read the scripture to follow the commandments and we are know paying 20 percent to the pig!! I felt so good afterwords!! YEs
Well heres also some pics of Guadalupe that we hike last week! It was fun walking with Elder ruth. This is a chapel dedicated to the Virgen Guadalupe it cool theres a huge statue of this virgen that over looks Bogota its coo, youwalk through the jungle a bit Saw some cool bugs.

Elder Hammer
We Do it for the Children my champions!!

EMERSON'S PDAYS HAVE NOW CHANGED TO FRIDAY

Bring in the people we will put them in the water!! X

This was a huge week of a little of a lot!! We put down my homies in the water, Ruben Morales, Miguel Angel, y Juan Morales!! It was a fun day, two brothers and a our neighbor, all are jovens. It was a super good baptism. Ruben is super funny. He's 15 and a crack up! He reminds me a lot of Franky so we always have a good time. But I made an error in the size of baptismal clothes and Ruben had some good high water overalls haha!! He was happy to wear it and loved showing off how he was too tall for the outfit but he went down in the water in all manners. I forgot my camera cord but next week I will send the pics of the baptisms and the 4th of July party pics.

I cooked some good burgers for the 4th. We have this sassy sister in the ward. She is freaking hilarious but she always has to be in charge of the things. So they make burgers differently here. I was making the burger and she was all up in my grill and all, she was like Elder Hammer they are all done and told me that first goes the lettuce and the ketchup on top of the lettuce. I was like what ever you want to do doesnt matter what order as long as its on the burger hermana haha! Hermana Orjuela she's a crack up!! One of the brothers opened the grill and 9 hambugers fell off the grill. I was like dude why would you open up the hatch when there are burgers on the grill. So he felt bad and went bought some more meat haha!! But the best part is that in the middle of cooking the burgers the Hermana Orjuela picked up the meat that fell on the ground and put it on the grill when i wasnt looking. When I was flippin the burger I realized it had the grass and all the dirt on the burger. I was like Hermana what did you do, then she ridiculed me for being Gringo and how we waste good food. It was hilarious. I love Hermana ORjuela, so I threw the burgers away when she wasnt looking and when I wasnt looking she took the burgers out of the trash and served them to people haha!! But so far no one is sick so maybe she was right haha!! Freakin Colombia!!

I am lovin the people here. We are workin our freakin tails off. When I say we I mean me. My comp has no problem telling people that he is trunky and he wants to go home!! I have 2 more weeks with him! I have no problem with him when we are being friends but as far as comps go its hard to do the work. It's like I just carry around another body with me. This week we got some good depressing stories and saw some miracles and we got some work to do. We have people looking for Jesus here its true. In poverty the only way to go is up, up to Christ. We have one guy who got separated from his wife after 16 years of being together but because he wasnt making enough money she left him and she took the kids, and she tells him straight up tht she doesnt love him and all that bad stuff so he is super down. But we met him Saturday in the street and he has been praying for miracles in his life, but it is super hard to cheer this guy up. We are working hard with him visiting him. I try to call him everyday to give him and uplifting message by phone and all but only Christ can heal his heart.

 I have fallen in love with the scripture in Matthew 28 5-6. It talks about the resurrection of Christ and how Mary and Martha are looking for Christ in the tomb but he wasnt there and the angel appears to them and say he is not here for he has risen. I love tellin people this that Jesus lives. The dead cant do anything. They cant work because they are dead, but Christ lives, he had his body and he still works!! There is this hope!! Its so hard to put a message so powerful that I feel into words even harder to put it in Spanish!! But I love this scripture!! We have another lady that got seperated from her husband after 18 years of being together and he was cheatin on her and all that nonsense but they are now separated and all now and its killin her. But we got the Branch to help her with some food and all until she can find work and sustain her and her 3 kids! But it's hard to comfort these people but I am glad that they are lookin for God in these moments! We are seeing miracles in the lives of these people!! Meeting alot of people but I am super tired!! We are workin on getttin 7 couples married we have one definite for sure 6 of August!! So I am stoked he will be going down the 13 of August. If all goes well we will have 8 people going in the waters this day but we need to get one more family married before they can go in the water. She wants to get married but he not so much. Yesterday they had a fight so we will see some miracles in these peoples lives! She is super ready she has a strong testimony of the Church but him not so much and is very hesitant to get married its super hard a marriage works with 2 not one and 2 working in 2 different ways!!! She is receiving personal revelations and isn't smoking, drinking or drinking tea any more!! She is in a state of repentance!! Her 2 kids we will also baptize, her sister in Law and her daughter we want to baptize her husband too and the grandpa but the guys are being stingy!

Its super hard that we have so many people that we have to do divisions every night so im not with my comp in then night he has lost a lot of the fire I am drained in every way! He knows the scriptures like no other. He's got a scripture for every question its insane. I learn alot from him in that aspect. I'm learning alot how to use the scriptures but the other day we had a lesson with this dude who is a scriptorian. You would think that he wrote the Bible he knows it so good! We were in the Plan of Salvation and my comp and this guy got into a Bible Bashing party. I don't like that at all! The truth is that my Spanish isn't strong enough to battle or stop a battle either so I was sitting there thinking what to do, and I got a coughin attack and the spirit blessed me in the midst of the coughin attack to look for a scripture so I went into Genesis 3 22 and found this scripture about how Adam and Eve had to Fall do become like God! And with just this one scripture it changed the lesson! Now we got him on our page but I hate bible bashing. It makes a whole mess to clean up!! I like to teach by feeling and not too much by knowledge. The truth is that I dont have much knowledge I just have a testimony. I am a terrible teacher but I try to make up for my lack of teaching skills with a testimony and an example! I love teaching with the examples and all because thats my personality so I have made a tube that I carry in my bag to carry all of the toys that I bring to teach, and my comp plays with them in the lessons im teaching an next thing you know hes playing with the bouncy balls or with my bottle of repentance or the cell phone of Moses (Telephone cans) haha! But we are doing it!! Marrying some people putting them in the water changing lives!! We had a killer plannin session with the missionary leader of the branch yesterday so I am stoked to do the work there.

We are doing movie nights in the house chapel and craft days with CR MA and members we are trying to work more with the members and all because we need to do divisions every night but when the members back out on us to go out with us it kills the night!! We loose like 3 lessons! AHH! But working hard feeling the Fire of the Lord and Fire of Stress!!! But we are going!!! Giving strength to the weak, hope to the hopeless , love to the Lonely!!! THe Work goes on, Blessing the fold of God here in Patio Bonito I am still here in Patio and super stoked. We got people to put in the water I would be fine staying here the whole mission!! We got work to do amongst the poor, and here they are poor!!!
Elder Hammer

Happy 4th Ya'll

WOOOOO!! A Good ol American style BBQ in Colombia!! Today is a holiday in Colombia too! But nobody knows why so i told them all that its because ita independence day in America. They were all like ok good! So today I am throwing a Good ol BBQ for them all today!! I went and bought some beef and hamburgers and I assigned some of my converts to bring marshmellows and all to make some S mores!!!! YAA LONG LIVE AMERICA!! I have been planning this day for about a week and i invited all the Gringos in my Zone to come and all! It will be fun! A convert is loaning me his BBQ thing and some people are bringing the POP! A couple people called me today and wished me a happy 4th!! I have the patriotism of my Mother i guess! haha! Not exactly but I try! A convert made me an American paper flag so this morning i did the pledge of alligance and the national anthem in our apartment. My comp didnt want to participate, he likes to laugh at me its all good though!

Well this week was super duper hard yet rewarding! My comp is very ready to go home! I caught him calling home 2 times this week. I'm like dude your almost done hold in there 25 days left tell you're home! You can make it! So I fasted friday for spiritual experiences, that I could be guided in these tough times. I learned that you need to release the frustrations to receive the revelations. I gave the Lord all of my load! Yes another bathroom crying bearing my soul out to my creator in the middle of the night!! I dont nkow why but the God answers prayers when I am crying in the middle of the night in the bathroom!! It works!! Oh my Gosh does the God answers prayers and oh boy is he a mysterious man at times! SO we still are without lights in our house chapel here! Our chapel is not the most beautiful thing in the World but it is a meeting place, and without lights its even a bit more interesting to bring investigatores to church. But this week was super excellent! We had 19 investigators at CHURCH!!! That is the most that i have ever had at church! The church was super filled! The chapel is like a 3 story storage place! and in the back of the chapel there are stairs. So we had people sitting on the stairs sunday!!! It was super beast!! It was a fast and testimony meeting! The spirit was so strong in this small house with no lights! We then went to Gospel Principles class and we had a lesson on the sacrament! We talked about the convenants we make with God through baptism and we rememeber our coventants through the sacrament! In the middle of the lesson 2 of our investigators told us that they would like to get baptized. There was such a strong spirit in Church Sunday!! So we put 5 baptismal dates with investigators!! This indeed was a miracle! One of the people that said that they wanted to be baptized we have been teaching her for about a month! and when we started teaching her she told us she has been baptized 4 times. She doesnt want to get rushed into another baptism and all so we respected her and didnt push too hard to rush her into the waters of Baptism but told her that when she felt the spirit tell her to get baptized to tell us! We knew it would be soon enough! So ya she told us yesterday and also she felt the spirit super strong in the lesson this week that she brought her sister in law to church and he sister in law felt the spirit super strong in church so we are going to baptize her and her daughter and all of this family which are 5 13 of August!! and we need to talk to Patricia's husband to put him in the water too! He wasn't home last night but he is super ready!! But its another couple we have to get married!! but we will keep fasting!! WE will be fasting also this Wednesday!! I would love to fast every day if i could keep having these experiences!!! We brought another family of 3 to church this week! He is a minister of another church! We taught him about the good Book of Mormon and about prophets and all so he told us he would come to church this week! He came to church and he felt the spirit super strong then invited us over for lunch yesterday! We talked about the church and how he felt in church!! They all loved it!!! But then he asked me Elder Hammer i am super confused!! I thought God wanted me to be a minister, not a Mormon! What am I suposed to do! I prayed and received an answer to be a minister in the other church but I feel so much peace in the Mormon Church. So we talked about proper authority and how to receive revelation and how God prepares us in different ways to accept and do His will!! So he is going to pray and get an answer and we will be talking about a baptismal date this thursday with him!!!!! I am super stoked!! this guy is super beast!! He asked us even though I am not a baptized memeber can i still attend your church until I receive my answer!!! OF COURSE!!! So he will be attending this week and everything. He's not like a preacher but he was studying to be a preacher of a protestant church and was in the ministry group so he would vist people and help the pastor and all. He will be a strong soldier in Gods Army once he gets his answer and gets into the waters of Baptism!!! This sunday we will be getting transfers and all! I sure do not want to to leave!! I dont think i will!! I hope for a transfer or 2 more here! Then I would like to get out of the City and teach a little pueblo but we will see what the Lord desires of me!

So we have a boat load of investigators. We have 15 with baptismal dates all before 13 of August so we will be working super hard this month and fasting a ton and putting people in the water!! And we are going to try to put 3 more baptismal dates with people this week! And we are working super hard to get people married!! Freak why people just dont follow the LAw of Chastity!!!! but we do a lot of calling people to repentance!! THats what i love to do as a missionary! Is to tell people that repentance i will bring hope to the hopeless!! This weekend was a weekend of Good Revelations!! I am still working on getting revelations in the lessons, i try to focus alot in the lessons but at times my comp will distract me and i loose the focus he still loves playing with the toys i bring to lessons! I love teaching in a fun enviroment! but at times my comp plays with things when i am giving testimony!!! But i am growing alot!! I have the desires of repentance in my heart!! Repentance is such a good thing yet super hard!!! Its like shoot i wish i knew that earlier im 9 months into the mission and im like if i knew that earlier i could have possilbly helped this person or something. But working hard!! We will put three more in the water this weekend!! I am stoked!! Ruben and Juan Morales and Miguel Diaz i will be baptizing Juan and Miguel!! They are all under 18 teenagers but super cool!! Bringing in the priesthood!! Life is Good! I am grateful to my Lord and Redeemer for the trials that he has been giving me and continues to give me! THeres a qoute by Pres. Rooselvelt that i like a lot its Dont pray to God to make your life easier but to make you stronger! I feel stronger than i was yesterday!! When we feel the spirit with have the courage and desires to repent and bring in the Lost sheep into the Fold!! A trus conversion begins with I feel!! the Lord has blessed me with weaknesses to become stronger!! I dont want to be who i was!! I dont wnat to be who I am but I want to become like my Savior! But Like Christ had too! I too have to learn obedience to find the Will of Him my God!!!

I love you all!! Keep up the Good work kiddos!! We will bring the World His Truth!! I hope that in 15 months i will not be who i was and who i am but will be more like my loving perfect Savior Jesus Christ!!!

DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN!!! FOR THE CHAMPIONS!!!
Love Elder Hammer

who turned out the lights 6/27/11

We went to our church meetings yesterday to a wonderful surprise of no physical lights!! Only the spiritual lights of the gospel. In this wonderful world of Colombia people do what ever they can and whatever they want. Ya someone stole the electrical box so we were with out lights yesterday in our chapel house haha! It was pretty funny but the spirit was still there. The good ol Colombian experiences! They steal everything. This week was filled enough with interesting things. Colombia had a big Soccer Tournament this past week and they was some celebrating and some oposicion in the champion haha! We put 2 more baptimal dates this week with 2 more kids. I am stoked to put some more in the water!! We will have three more baptisms in 2 more weeks or possibly 5! I hope for 5 but we will see how they are progressing!! It gets so frusturating when people do not keep their commitments!! AHH! But I am learning alot how to improve my pacience!!

Seems like a few of who have been getting some of my friends adding you as friends on Facebook! I talk alot about how killer my family is so some of them have been telling me they they have been adding my family as friends on Facebook! I get a good chuckle out of this haha!! We have excellent youth in this ward! we have good times they go out with us alot to teach, so we have good times together.
We had a good baptismal service this week For Alejandra Idarraga! She is a fun chick! He mom wa baptized about 30 years ago but denies that she is amember but her mom came to her baptism her family she invited some friends and her Mom came to churhc the 1st time in 7 years she said!! Hopefully she will get active again! We had the 1st baptism in The Branch of Tintal in almost a year so that was a good thing to do!

I am learning a ton in these experiences! I love being District leader it really fun! tommorow i will be going on exchanges in Kennedy! So that will be fun! Elder Delgado is the LZ so i will be with him! Hes a fun big dude! Hes about to finish the mission soon but he is working hard and isnt trunky!! Thats the best thing ever!! In this companionshio we have fun when we are in the street and all, but when we get in the lessons at times my comp is off the wall!! He is learning how to do the bird call like Dad does in hi s hands, so at times he starts doing that in the lessons! Or he pulls out my games that i bring to teach with! He loves my playdough, everyone calls me his dad! Im like yes i know!!! haha!!

I played an interesting game of Baseball today with the young men! They dont know how to play anything here but soccer!! ahah! I was busting up the whole time! It was the worst game of Baseball i have played. I had to explain to them all the rules like a million times!! THe Young men planned the activity and invited us but it was hilarious to watch all the Colombians running around. We had no mits a wooden bat and one left handed catchers mit but no one is a lefty haha!! so it was super painful to catch the stinkin ball. We played in an empty field, it was basically an old dump or something haha! THe ball kept rolling into poop and we had to keep washing it! they have laws here i think but no one follows them, it isnt unusual to see some on drop the pants and take a dump in the street here, this place must be there favorite place to go in Patio Bonito haha!

Today was some holiday of some sort they have holidays but no one knows why, so the night before the holidays the people go get drunk and have all of there parties they night before last night we fell asleep to a rap battle going on infront of our apartment complex! I didnt understand any of the word but it sounded terrible! haha!

This week i had a super cool experiences in a lesson. We have been teaching this family since ive been here and the people just doing want to get married they have no reason to not get married. We baptized the 2 kids about 2 months ago. Anyways in the end of the lesson the brother told me Elder Hammer thank you for this wonderful experience!! YES!! Those words were the most perfect words that a missionary can here!! He felt the Spirit!! YES!! Thank you for this wonderful experience! I love hearing this words! These people go through a lot of trials but so many of the trials can be avoided just by following the commadments. For some reason people just dont want to follow these simple commandments!! I visited a family this week they after 15 years of been together they seperated because the guy was with other women. Their kids are members of the church but the parents no, the gospel brings so many blessings but the people dont heed to the gauidance of the Lord! Pride is a huge problem in the World! If we could just be a humble people how much joy we would have in this world!
We have 2 more weeks in this transfer i really want to stay here train! THat would be the Dream!! I would love that but we will see what the Lord has in mind!

Last week we went an amusement park! It was so freakin bom!! I loved it!! Its good to get a little bit of rest here and there! THe rides were very simple nothing to extravagant but they were fun! THe most simplest rides are always the funnest i got a good friend in this Zone Elder Brett hes from Misouri. Hes super cool we rode this one ride like 8 times it just goes in sircles and you ahve to fight gravity. Anyways he was squishing me the whole time its was painful fun! We brought an investigator with us. he will be baptized 9 of July! Miquel! Hes a cool kid!! Well this was most of what happend this week! Love and miss ya all tons!!
Elder Hammer