Week 71 Missionary Training, a New Investigator, and a New Ward Mission Leader

Hello everyone. It's been another wonderful week here in Washington, and I'm having the time of my life. I forgot to tell you all, last week I hit 16 months of being out!! 8 months left of the mission. I can't tell you how fast that has gone. It's just crazy! I'll be honest with you. In my mind, nothing has clicked yet. I still have the mind set of Justin, just barely going through his second year of collage. I know he's married. It feels like Tyler is still a sophomore in high school, same with Kaela Brough still being in high school and Amiee Poll, and it still feels like, Eric is the little kid who was always so cute!! Haha jk jk. I still feel like nothing has changed. I have no clue why that hasn't clicked in my mind yet. Also the fact that I have 5 transfers left. That's crazy, and yet I still feel like that's so far away. Well, when I get home, things will start picking up in my mind. I hope everyone had a good week because here is mine:

Monday

We started the day by going to the church and emailing. We did that for at least 4 hours. Kinda sad. I think it's only because there's not many computers, and we were taking the Sholtes elders everywhere that day. Everyone needed to use the computers. So, after emailing, we then went to Walmart and did some shopping. After, we drove down to the 51st building and played basketball. I wish we could play something else every p-day, or do something else, but sadly Arlington doesn't have anything that fun to do, and no one is interested in figuring out something else to do. So I just follow my comps with this one. That's fine, I've done this for 3 transfers before, won't hurt to do some more. While we played basketball, Elder Hunter was kicking a soccer ball around, and he accidentally broke one of the lights. Kinda crazy! But the light was kinda broken anyway, so it's fine. After, we drove to Sholtes apartment and dropped them off. Then we took the drive back to Lakewood to go get changed and see people. Later that night, we had dinner, and we had a lesson with the Lauson family. They have a son that they want to help him understand the gospel more, so they asked us to come over and teach him the discussions. We taught Max the restoration. It went pretty well. After the lesson, we went home and ended the night.

Tuesday

While Elder Hunter did progressing, Elder Graff and I worked together on what we wanted to teach in our lessons with Ann and Jovan. After, we went to those two lessons. With Ann we talked about praying, and reading the scriptures daily, as well as following the prophet. For Jovan, we went over the Book of Mormon. Both lessons went well, and Jovan is starting to see and understand who we are and how we can help him. So that's important. After our lessons, we went home and had lunch, did some comp. study, and went into 12 weeks. Then we went and tried to have a lesson with Kayla Duff, a new investigator, but she canceled on us. So instead, we went home and planned out our lesson with Sister Schweigert. With her, we talked about conversion, and how that's important to her. we also helped set some Goals for her to get back to the temple, and to church. We also set some study goals with her as well. After our lesson with her, we went out and saw some more people. Then, we had dinner with the Sudweeks and a small lesson after. We just read 2 Nephi 31 with them. After, we went and had a meeting with Bishop, and that ended our day.

Wednesday

We had a lesson with Melissa in the morning. We taught her about praying, reading the scriptures daily, and obedience. After, we then went home, got changed, and went to district meeting. Elder Hunter instructed on why its important we let the mission change us and the difference between behavior modification and repentance. That stuck out to me a lot. Then we went to Costco and had lunch. After, we went back home, got changed, and picked up Blake Clapp, a priest, to take around with us to go see people. So we went to go see people, but nothing too big happen. Most of the people weren't home. After, we then took Blake home and had a conversation with the Clapps for a little bit. Then we went to the church to help set up lights and tables and chairs for the Christmas party later that night. After helping with that, we went home and did some comp study and some 12 weeks. Then we went to the party and had a good time there. At the end of the night, the zone leaders came to the church to do an exchange. I ended the night with Elder Smith in the Armar apartment. Just like old times, but with Elder Smith. 

Thursday

We started the day by doing comp. study. Then we had lunch. After, we went to go drop off some Light the World cards to the hermanas. Then we went and saw people from all over the zone. That took up almost the whole day, and no one was really home or interested. Armar is a very hard ward to work in. Later that evening, we had dinner back at the apartment. I watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas during it. Always a good show. After, I got packed, and then we went to see some people in the Stillaguamish ward area. That made me really happy to step foot back into my old stomping grounds. I'll admit, seeing the people from Stillaguamish is amazing, but going back to my old area, that got me way happy! From there, we then went to institute, and Brother Hammond talked about the refiner's fire. After, we exchanged back and ended the night by updating the teaching records.

Friday

We had new missionary training for Elder Graff. It went well. They had lots of instructions surrounding our purpose, and they also set up some role plays with real people for us to teach. We picked up and dropped off the Cavallaro elders. It was so fun to have them with us. On the way home, Elder Hunter, and Elder Graff dared them to do a Chinese fire drill on the freeway at the stoplight before we got to their neighborhood. They did it, and Elder Dusenberry tripped on the road because it was wet. Elder Fort, his companion, got confused on which way to go so he got stuck with him when he fell. It was so funny, we all were dying when they got back in the car. If you don't know what a Chinese fire drill is, you can probably look it up. After we dropped them off, we drove back to Lakewood to have dinner. Then we went and had a lesson with Patrick. We just read from where he was at in the Book of Mormon. Then we came home, did comp study and 12 weeks before the night was over, and that was it for Friday.

Saturday

We started the morning by doing some service for Brother Lauson. He wanted somethings to be moved around in his storage unit so we helped him with that. Then we went home and got changed before we went to have our lesson with Jovan, but that fell through. So, we went and had our meeting with Brother Allen. Then we had lunch with the Lausons and another lesson with Max. After our lesson, we went home and did 12 weeks. Then we went and saw some more people. Later that night, we had dinner. Then we did some weekly planning before the night was over.

Sunday

We had ward council in the morning. Then we went through church. Both Orion and Gabriella were at church yesterday, so that was great. As well, Brother Allen was released as our ward mission leader. Our new one I can't spell his name right, nor ever remember it, but that will come with time. During church, we had a lesson with Orion about the law of chastity, He had some struggles with it, and they're starting to show, so we had to tell him to stop and had a come to Jesus talk with him. He's a good kid by how he understands things, so he understood it well and told us he was going to change, but it would be a hard road. That's understandable. It's never easy. After church, we went home and had lunch. Then we went to Carols Creek and saw some people before we saw the Pauls. We read 3 Nephi 11 to try to help them get back into the scriptures. After, we then had a lesson with Sholon. We discussed the Light the World initiative with her and got her to start to do that. After, we went and had dinner. Then we came home, planned the rest of the night, and went out to find one new investigator, and we kinda did. His name is Tristan. We knocked on his door in the villas and gave him a pamphlet, talked about God, who He is, and how we can get closer to Him, as well as praying to Him. He seemed interested, so we were glad to finally get someone to teach. Later that night, we did weekly planning and comp study, along with personal study, and that all ended the night.

Well, that's my week for you. I had a pretty good one. I will see you all on our Face Time call in a week for Christmas. Until then, this is Elder Hammond signing off wishing those I don't see a Merry Christmas!!

Elder Hammond

Week 70 New Missionaries, New Companion

Hello everyone. I have lots to tell you about this week, but not much about success. No worries about that. Let's get to it.

Monday

We had p-day! We started by working out, and doing some shopping, then from there we went and did some emailing. After a long time emailing, we went to the 51st building and played some basketball and trash ball for a little bit. We had a good time with the zone. After, we went home and got changed to start seeing people during the night. We went to go see Jovan, an investigator, but he wasn't there. So we went to Target to pick up Elder Milner's medication. After, we went and had dinner. From there we then had a lesson with Sholon. She had just gotten surgery on her mouth, so she wasn't able to speak that well. So we did all the talking. We taught the 10 commandments. After, we went down to Sholtes and exchanged with them. I went there with Elder Call. After we exchanged, we ended the night.

Tuesday

We had to walk for the first part of the day because Elder Hatch had the keys in Lakewood and forgot to leave them behind. So to wait for him to bring them to us, we went and saw the ward missionary in their area, but he wasn't there so we just waited for Elder Hatch to get there with the keys. That was a long morning. After, we had lunch, then comp study, and then we hopped on our bikes to go to the library. We had mormon.org time there. Then we went to the food bank and did some service for them. After, we went to subway and had dinner. From there, we went and saw some people, and then came home and did 12 weeks together. That ended the night.

Wednesday

We exchanged back before we had to go to transfers. Then we went down to transfers. Elder Hunter and I then went and met all the new missionaries. We introduced ourselves and they did as well. Then we went over some training, had lunch, and then President assigned us to our new missionaries, and I am pleased to tell you that my Son is Elder Graff. He's a trial missionary, meaning he'll only be here for 2 transfers. He's from Lacey, Washington. He's really cool. After we got assigned, we then went home to have a lesson with a girl named Kayla Duff, but she wasn't home, so we went and saw some people around her. We later got a text from her to reschedule for the next day. Then we went to the Villas and had a lesson with Nikie Decker, a less active handicap woman. We read where she was at in the scriptures. After, we then had dinner. Then we went and saw more people before we went to bishop's to have a meeting with him. That ended the night.

Thursday

Thursday was a mess. We had to exchange with Stillaguamish because Elders Lelo and Hunter had to go to MLC together. So me, Elder Graff, and Elder Presess all were together going to see people. However, I wasn't sure when we were exchanging back, and I thought district meeting was at 1:30, miscommunication from elder Hunter. The actual plan was to meet them at the 51st building by 12:30 and exchange back, but that didn't happen because I didn't know about it. While we were out seeing people, we found out there was a nail in the car's passenger tire. So we had to take it into Les Schwab and wait for Elder Hunter to get back. Once he was back, we went to Les Schwab and waited for at least 3 hours for them to fix our tire. Elder Hunter moved district meeting to 7:30 the next evening. Because we had to wait we were late to our lesson, which made us late to our dinner. So we went to both of those things. After, we went home and had comp study and twelve weeks, and that ended the night.

Changing the flat tire

Friday

We went and helped at the food bank for a little bit. Then we went home and had lunch, did some comp study, and then went to go see some people. We had our lesson with Kayla Duff, which went pretty well. We taught the restoration, and she liked it, although she was kinda quiet. We told her about the YSA ward, and we will probably be passing her off to the zone leaders. After our lesson with her, we had a lesson with Orion and Gabriela later that night. We talked about the 10 commandments but only got through 4 of them because of the amount of comments that were said, and Orion had to get to work. After the lesson, we went home and did some weekly planning. Then we went to dinner at the High Priest group Christmas party. After, we drove down to the 51st building to have district meeting. After, we went home and ended the night.

Saturday

We started the day with doing service for the same lady we helped paint before. Today, we painted the other wall in her garage. After, we went home, got changed and had lunch. Then we went into comp study, and 12 weeks. From there, we went to go see a potential named Kelly, but he wasn't home, so we went and saw some other people around him instead.  Then we came home, got changed into our suits, and went to the nativity festival the church put on in our stake. I'm so glad I got to see it again! They had the missionaries help out at a video room. It was pretty fun though to see the whole festival. After, we then went and had dinner and had a lesson with Patrick, or at least tried to. He wasn't there again, so we went to Brother Allen's and had our meeting with him. That ended the night.

Sunday

We had ward council in the morning. After, we had church. We only had one hour of church because the rest of the building was being used for the nativity, so we couldn't have our other classes. That was fine with me. Elder Hunter and I both talked in sacrament meeting though. I talked about Luke 4: 18-19 and how we as members of the church do the 20% of missionary work that help the missionaries do the 80%. Some of the tools I used were the scriptures and Light the World to help everyone understand how they can start. Even though I felt like I was throwing down on a ward of members that are already so great at being member missionaries, I felt the message applied to them in another way. I hope it did. After church, we then went home and planned out the rest of the day. Then we went to have lunch with the Hammonds in the ward, and it turns out we are related to them. But not through my dad's side, but my mom's side. Brother Travis Hammond and I are 10th cousins twice removed, and we found this out through relative finder. The Footes on my mom's side of the family are the parents of the kids who are ancestors to us. You can find that out on Relative Finder if you're a Hammond, and see how that works. If you go, you can look up the group Hammond fam and join the group. The password is the last name. See if you're related to me! After lunch, we then went and saw some people before we went back to the church to watch some of the concerts at the nativity festival. Then we went home, did some weekly planning, and then went back for the rest of the night. We had Melissa show up to the festival, and she said she really liked it. After, we then went home and did 12 weeks for the rest of the night before accounting.

Well, that's my week for you fam! I hope you all had a great one, and I'll see you soon!

Elder Hammond

At the Nativity Festival

Week 69 Training a New Missionary

Hello everyone! I'm excited to tell you about this week, but as well some bad news. Elder Milner will be leaving us on Wednesday. They are now doing transfers here on Wednesdays, so that's something new. Other then that, Elder Hunter and I will be training an new missionary so that will be fun! Anyway, here is the week for you:

Monday

We did some shopping, and emailing in the morning. After, we played basketball with the Comano Island elders who came all this way to play with us. That took up the rest of the p-day. So after all of that, we went and had dinner with the Shipplys. They also had us do some service for them after. We had to move some cabinets from the Croford's home to their home. After, the Crofords took us to get shakes at Five Guys. Those were a good treat to end with. After, we went home and ended the night.

Tuesday

We had interviews with President Wilding in the morning. That was great to talk to him. I always look forward to that. After, we had a lesson with Ann, a recent convert in the ward. We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by reading 2 Nephi 31. Good lesson there. After, we then went home and had lunch. Then we went and tried to see Jovan, but he wasn't fully awake yet and had just gotten up from a nap. So we rescheduled for today at 5. After, we then went and saw some more people around the Crofords. Nothing interesting happened there. After, we had dinner, and then we went and tried to see the Sudweeks, but they canceled on us. So we went home and did our personal studies, and that ended the night.

Wednesday

We had district meeting at the stake center. Elder Hunter instructed on #light the world and how we can use it to do missionary work. It was great. After, we took pics with sister Hoch because it was her last district meeting before she goes back home to the good old WJ (West Jordan). According to my calculations, however, she is already home and is probably  at Cafe Rio. Anyway, we took lots of pics and then had lunch as a zone since we were all together. After, we then went home, planned the rest of the day out, and then we went and saw some people close to home. Then we went and had a lesson with Melissa. We talked about obedience and the ten commandments. She seemed to understand that well. After, we went and saw a man named Brother Hoggi, a less active that wanted us to find his record number so he can start using family search and ancestry for free. After talking with him and getting to know him, we invited him back to church, and he said he would come, and he did. After that we then went to dinner. Then we went home and ended the night.

The "Death" of Sister Hoch

My District

Thursday

We started by going and seeing some people close to home. After, we had lunch and comp study. Then from there, we went to go have a lesson with a potential investigator, but he wasn't home so we went and saw some people around him. Nothing interesting there. After, we ran to dinner. Then later that night, we walked to a lesson with the Perkins family because we had no more miles left to use for the day, but they forgot that we were meeting, and they had family over. They canceled on us, so we walked all the way back to the house and ended the night. That night the zone leaders called us and told Elder Hunter and I that we were going to train a new missionary next transfer. So we had a meeting we had to go to the next day. I'm so excited about that!

Friday 

We went to the food bank and did service for an hour. Then we ran back to the stake center and dropped Elder Milner off with the zone leaders while we went to our meeting. We then made a stop at the missionary mansion in Lake Stevens to pick up Elder Dusenbary who came with us to the training. Once we got to the mission office, we then had lunch with the missionaries that were there for leadership training for district leaders and zone leaders. Then we went into our training. The meeting was great. They talked about how we can be effective trainers and do everything we can to help the new missionary feel ready to teach. After the training, we drove Elder Dusenbary back to his apartment. And then we drove back home. It was a long drive back because we got stuck in traffic, and it took a while for the Lundin Park elders to come back from a lesson they had. After we got back to Arlington, we picked up Elder Milner and went straight to dinner. Then from there, we went home and saw some people in the apartments close by us. Then we went home and ended the night.

Saturday

We had to be witnesses at a baptism for our ward, so we went to that. It was a youth baptism. After, we then went and saw a family named the Navertails. They are a semi active family who we're trying to get the ward to fellowship. They really love us and want us to come over whenever, which is cool. I played with their daughter while the other elders talked with Sister Navertail, kind of to give her a break from the kids. Then we went home and had lunch and comp study. Then we went to try to see Patrick at Target in our area because he said he would meet us there, but he wasn't there. So we went back home. While we were waiting for Patrick, we got a text from Sister Navertail saying she wanted us to come back and help her with a door she was switching around. So we went back and helped her with her door. Then we went home, did some weekly planning, and then we went over to Patrick's apartment and met with him. He told us he came back and was going to try to live with Jolinda one more time, try to give her one more chance. He said he was going to get a restraining order on her as well. I just don't know any more. Patrick is running his own circus life. Remember kids, this is why we don't break the law of chastity. After, we then went to the elders quorum party and had a great time there. Brother Cox showed us his cars he's working on. They're really cool. We took some pics inside one of them. After, we went home and ended the night.

Sunday

We had church, but no ward council. So we went through the service. After, we had correlation meeting. Then we went home and planned out the day before we went to try and have a lesson with the Pauls. They weren't home, so we went and saw some other people around them. After, we went back home and had a little bit of comp study before we went to the church to take pics with Sister Hoch, one last time before she went home. After, we went to dinner with the Mays and watched the Christmas broadcast. Then we went home to get picked up by the Hays for our family home evening with them. After, we came home and did some weekly planning before we ended the night with accounting.

Well that's it for me. I'll let you know how things are going with my new missionary next week. Until then, I will talk to you all soon. Bye!!

 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Elder Hammond

Week 68 Thanksgiving Week

Hello everyone. This week has been an amazing week, full of fun, but not really a lot of success. So let's get to it.

Monday:

We didn't really have a p-day because that was on Thursday, for Thanksgiving. But we did get to go shopping and emailing, so that was great. After doing all of that, we then came home and got changed to go do some service for a less active member. We raked some leaves for her. I've got some pics below to show that. After, we came home and had some lunch and did comp study. Then we went and saw some people before dinner. We really didn't meet anyone cool. We had dinner, and then we went and helped the ward deliver Thanksgiving baskets to ward members that needed them. After, we went home and did some area book work and that ended our night.

Tuesday:

We started the day with seeing some people in the lodge apartments by our house. After, we went home and had lunch and comp study. Then we went to go see Jovan, a new investigator from last week, but he wasn't home so we had to just move on. We went and saw some people. Nothing interesting. Then we went to dinner and went and met with Bishop. And that ended the night.

Wednesday:

We had district meeting, and Elder Hunter instructed on the importance of keeping the area book up to date and how to inform members properly about lessons you are teaching. After, we came home, had lunch, and then had comp study. After, we got changed and went to go paint at one of our member's houses. She had a wall that needed to get painted, so we did that. After painting it for an hour and a half, we went home and got changed to go to a lesson with Melissa. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. She really liked it. After, we went and saw some more people, had dinner somewhere in there, and then we went back the member's home to finish painting. That took the rest of the night.

Thursday:

Thanksgiving was great! We started the day by playing football at the high school with some ward members. It was really fun. Then we ran down to the 51st building, and all the zone, including Comano Island came. We had a breakfast and a varity show. It was pretty great! We had a lot of fun talents and skits shown. We also had some roast battles too. After having that much fun, we then went to the Seattle outlets and went and looked at all the shops there. After, we went back home, had a late lunch, and then went to the church to email a little before we went to Thanksgiving dinner. We had it with the Lausens. They had a big meal with turkey, mashed potatoes, everything, and to top it off, they had pie too. It was great. After, we went back home and did some weekly planning. Then we played some card games for the rest of the night.

Friday:

We did some service at the food bank. Then we exchanged with Sholtes and went back home to have lunch. Then we went into comp study. Oh, Elder Hatch was with us. After, we then went to a lesson with Orion. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was okay, and the reason why is because we brought a priest with us, and the fellowshipper was already there. So there were 5 people including us, and we got distracted a lot, and I barely spoke because Elder Milner taught the whole lesson. The family was there too. So lots of people. After, we came home, planned and had dinner, and then we went and saw some people close by before we had personal study. Studies ended the day. We also had some fun on our exchange that night. We had always wondered what was in the attic of the house, so we climbed up there and saw that there was nothing. So we took the bike that someone left in the house and stuck it up there because we didn't have anywhere to put it really. That was really fun.

(Note from mom...It's amazing our kids come home in one piece!)

Saturday

We started the day with seeing some people in the lodge, but no one really opened the door. So we went to our lesson with an investigator that's in the Firetrail Ward. The sisters want us to teach him by request of the mom? Wife? I have no clue. So since he knew Elder Lelo from a year ago, we exchanged with Stillaguamish for the lesson and Elder Lelo and I taught this investigator. He's cool. His name is Jeff, and Elder Lelo taught him when he was in Firetrail. We taught the restoration. After, we then went back to Sholtes and exchanged back. Before we left, we had lunch with them at Magic Dragon. Then we went home, did comp study, and went to the church to do some weekly planning. After, we had dinner, and then went to the Villas to go see some people. Weird story, we went to go see the Ramers, some recent converts in the ward that haven't been to church in a while. While we were there, we found out that Patrick's girlfriend is there with her daughter. We talked with all of them for a little bit and found out that Patrick called the cops on Jolanda, his girlfriend, because she ran away with his kid. Reason why I said "his kid" is because he has custody of the kid. But it is their kid because they had her together. Anyway, after a while of talking, Patrick showed up, took the kid out of Brother Ramer's hands and walked out the door with the child. After much astonishment from all of us, we walked with Jolanda back to her apartment to see where he went, and we found out that he wasn't there. So with nothing to do, we left and drove off to Brother Allen's for our meeting. While on the way there, Patrick called us and apologized for us being a part of that. He told us he was going down south to live with his nephew for a while, so that's a change, which is a change we kind of want because now he can repent and be baptized. Our meeting with Brother Allen took the rest of the night.

Sunday:

We had ward council and church. They both went well. After, we came home and had lunch. Then we went to have our lesson with the Pauls and Sholon. We taught the Pauls about the widow's mite, and how we need to give our all in this church for our Heavenly Father. For Sholon, we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ by reading 2 Nephi 31 with her. After, we went home and did personal study. Then we went to dinner, and then quickly went back home to get picked up by Brother Allen to go to the Come See for Yourself fireside in Lake Stevens with Sholon. It went really well, and she liked it a lot. After, we came back home and did our accounting with the zone leaders.

Well, that's it for this week. I just want you all to know I am grateful for all of you, my family, my friends, and anyone else that is reading this. I'm grateful for my chance to serve the Lord and to bring others closer to Christ. I love this work because I've seen the atonement work in so many peoples lives, and it changes them. I am grateful for everything I've done and my parents have done to get me out here. I'm grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who is my best friend... and I will try to do everything for Him to be the best He wants me to be for Him and my brothers and sisters on this earth. My challenge to you all this month is to not only be grateful for things you have, but be grateful for the things you can do for others. This next month we are going to light the world with the Love and healing power of Jesus Christ. Please don't waste this great opportunity to be an amazing person in someone's life. I know we all have the ability to do so. So this Christmas, please don't sit on the couch and say, whoa is me. Get up and be a part of the great gathering of light that is going on this next month. I promise you if you do so, the Lord will open your eyes, and you will see and feel the atonement work in your life. I know that to be true. Lastly, I know that this church is true. I know, that Jesus Christ lives, that we are one of his family, whom He was born for, so He could suffer and die for all of us. I hope you can find that understanding in your life, and I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Hammond

Week 67 Still Working Hard in Lakewood

Hello everyone. It's been another nice week here in Lakewood. Let's get to it.

Monday:

We started the day with emailing. Then we went shopping for food, and I went and returned the fabric that I bought from Joann's because there was too much. So that was good. Then after we went to the mall so that Elder Hunter could buy some protein because we work out every morning except Saturday and Sunday. I've decided that I'm going to start six months 'til sexy early.... but it's more like 9 months 'til sexy.... so ya, good place to start. ;) So ya ladies, if you're reading this, I'll be available when I get home... but you'll have to wait 6 years before I can get married because I'm already convinced that's when it's going to happen. Haha! It just means a lot of patience is coming your way. ;) Haha, jk jk. I'll get married the first or the second, which means the first chance I ask someone, or the second chance I get one, haha jk jk again. Anyway, after that, we went to the 51^st building and played football with half the zone. We played two hand touch. Then it started to down pour, so we went inside and played trash ball. You basically put two trash cans on each side of the court and those are the goals, and you can play with whatever ball you want to. You just have to get it in the can without the goalie blocking you. So that was fun. After, we then came together and had some cookies. Then we went home and got showered and then went to dinner. We had a ward event the ward mission program put on for our investigators to meet more members, and we only had one investigator come, but we had a lot of good members there. That ended our night.

Tuesday

We had a lesson with Ann. We taught about the plan of salvation. It went okay. We had a member that took somethings a little off topic, but that's okay. It kinda all related. Jake Jakins, he's a great old man. Then after we went home and Elder Hunter did progressing, and we also had lunch. After we had comp study. Then we went and saw some people before we had a lesson with Sister Schweigert. It worked out pretty well. We talked about the son of perdition and how that applies to all of us. She liked it. Then we went and had dinner, and later that night we had a lesson with the Sudweeks. It was a great lesson. For the first part, we taught the part of the plan of salvation, and the other half of the lesson was us hearing Chelsie, the mom, go on and on about how they can't be baptized until they know if these things are true, and that we can't push this on them yet because they're not ready. We were only asking if they came to know if these things are true, would they be baptized. So, that's fine. It happens. They told us to wait until they feel they are ready to set a goal. So then after, we had a meeting with Bishop to tell him how our last week went, and then we went home for the night.

Wednesday

we had a district meeting and elder Hunter instructed on having faith in our teaching and teaching our investigators how to have faith, but as well how that all applies for the need of a savior. After we had lunch, did planning, and comp study. Then we went and tried to see some people. We had a lesson later that day with melissa, one of our investigators, and we talked about the book of mormon, and what it is. She really enjoyed it and told us she would read it insted of watching tv during work. She works nights at the hotel so she really doesn't have much to do at night. After our lesson we had dinner and then we went and saw people for the rest of the night.

Thursday

We did some service for Jack Jakins. He had a grape vine that got sick and died, so we had to go cut it down for him. That took longer then we thought. It was wraped around a pole so we did lots of cutting. After, we then had lunch with Jack. He made us some crepes, and they were pretty good. After, we went back to the house, got changed, and had comp study. Then we drove around town and saw some people before our lesson with the Millers. Our lesson with the Millers went pretty well. We shared the video the music of the gospel and talked about how that relates to going to the temple as often. It was great. After, we had dinner and then finished the night with seeing people for the rest of the day.

Friday

We went to the food bank and helped there. They had lots of people there this week. After, we had lunch and then went to a lesson with an new investigator named Jovan. He's in his twenties and was learning from the missionaries before, so we taught him the restoration and picked him up as a new investigator. After, we came home and did some weekly planning before our lesson with Orion. In our lesson, we talked about the plan of salvation. We had the Mathis's granddaughter there as well, so we're teaching her too now because that's what they wanted us to do. She's 9, and the members almost have full custody of her. So that will be great. After the lesson, we came home and weekly planned some more, had personal study, and comp study, and then we went to dinner. After we came home and Elder Hunter got packed for the exchange that night.

Saturday

We exchanged with the zone leaders, and Elder Babcock came with us. We had a very weird day. In the morning, we went to go see Jan, an investigator the last missionaries had been working with for a long time. She just has been sick recently, so we went to go check up on her, and she got really mad at us. She said she felt like she was being pushed into all of this and that she didn't want to do it anymore. Which was really sad because she seemed really solid. So we walked away from that. Then we went and saw some more people around town. After we came home, had lunch, did comp study, and then went to a funeral down in Marysville for Gabriela and Orion because Gabriela's father passed away. So to support our investigators, we went and watched it all happen. After, we came home, got changed, and went to dinner with Sholon, our recent convert. After, we ran to try and have a lesson with a new investigator, but he was not home, so we walked around and street contacted for a little bit before we exchanged back. After we exchanged back, we went to Brother Allen's to meet with him, and that ended the night.

Sunday

We had ward council in the morning, then church. During church we had a lesson with Orion about repentance. That went really well. He seems to understand it. After, we had our ward mission meetings, and then we went home and had lunch. Then we were supposed to have lessons with Sholon and the Paul's, but they both fell through. So we just went home and had personal study and finished weekly planning. Then we had dinner. After, we went to the Sudweeks home and gave Brother Sudweeks a blessing. After, we went home and accounted the rest of the night.

Well, that's it for me, I hope everyone had a great week, and I'll see you soon. Sorry no pics this week, but maybe next week. Love ya, bye!!

Elder Hammond

Week 66 Time Flies--Half Way Through the Transfer

Hello everyone. This has been an interesting week, and the transfer is already half way done. So here it is:

Monday

We started the day with a little emailing, and then Todd Aggard took us down to Everett to go bowling, which was great! We had a fun time with him. He paid for 3 games and breakfast. After, we went to the pool table they had, and all of us got to play Todd one on one. I was really close to beating him, but I lost by accidentally hitting the 8 ball in right before my last ball. I shot the ball the wrong way off the wall, and it hit the 8 ball instead. It was really sad. It's like a big deal to beat Todd at something, and I blew it. Next time, right?! Haha, that's okay. I love Todd, and he will give me an opportunity to do it again some time on my mission. After, we then came home and did some shopping and then finished our emailing. Then we had dinner and got changed at the church for basketball and played with some members and non-members for the rest of the night. 

Bowling with Todd Aggard

Tuesday

We went and talked with a guy named Rivers in the morning. He's interesting. He doesn't believe in the Bible, but he believes in the dead sea scrolls. So ya, we gave him a Book of Mormon, and he said he would read it. So we'll see where that goes. He kinda seemed like he wanted to be "bashy," so we are kinda worried about what may happen. Anyway, after talking with a couple more people, Elder Hunter talked with the district over the phone about progressing things. Then we had lunch and comp study. Then we went back out and saw some more people. We had a lesson with Sister Schweigart, a less active in our ward, and we talked about the purpose of coming to church. She came to church this week, so that was nice. After, we had mormon.org time. Then we went to dinner. After dinner, we had a lesson with our investigator, Patrick, and we talked about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon because it wasn't happening. Now he's listening to it before he goes to bed. After our lesson, we had a meeting with Bishop, and that ended the night.

Wednesday

We had district meeting, and Elder Hunter talked about having good studies so that our investigators can understand what we teach. After, we had lunch and comp study. Then we did some service for Sister Schweigert. After, we then did some service for our investigator, Melissa, and helped her move some furniture around her home. After, we had a lesson with her on the restoration. Then we had dinner, had a lesson with the Sudweeks about the Book of Mormon, and then we went and got some beds for Patrick, our investigator, from Melissa's work. She works at a Holiday Inn Express hotel, and they are redoing all the rooms in the hotel, so they are getting rid of a lot of beds. We got some and strapped them on Brother Noe's car, a member in our ward, and drove them all the way back to Patrick's home to be put in his apartment. It was pretty funny. There's a pic of what we had to do down below. That took up the rest of the night.

Thursday

So throughout the week I was making ties for me and my comps. We picked out the fabric for the ties to make. It was pretty nice. I got them all done by Thursday by just taking 3 lunch breaks and 3 hours after nine to finish it. So we wore them to zone conference. It was really cool to have everyone there comment on how great I did on them. Now one of the zone leaders in Arlington wants me to make him the same tie. It's pretty funny. Zone conference was amazing! We had many instructions about the need for a Savior and how that applies to us and our investigators. After a long meeting of feeling the spirit dramatically (good dramatic), we went back home to get ready to go to the temple with two of our recent converts. MISSION UPDATE! Now missionaries all over the world can go and do baptisms with their recent converts if they are going for the first time to the temple. They can baptize and confirm male recent converts, but can't baptize female converts. We can only confirm them. For the sister missionaries,  they can go and watch them do all of that but can't do them because they don't have the priesthood. So we went with Debra and Sholon and watched them do baptisms and did confirmations with them. We got there later than we were supposed to be there because of traffic, but that's fine. The member that took us payed for us to have dinner in the cafeteria, and then we went in to watch them do baptisms. It was way cool and funny. Debra only got to do 2 baptisms because she gave up after the two, so sholon had to do the rest of hers. It was kinda funny! After, we went around and took pics of us and the temple. Then we went home and went to bed because it was late.

Temple trip with Debra and Sholon

 Friday

We had to exchange with Stillaguamish because Elder Hunter and Lelo had to go to the mission office for some district leader training. So we took Elder Priess with us to the food bank and did some service there. After, we came home and had lunch, and we waited for the other elders to come back. Once they got back, we exchanged back and went into comp study for the day. After, we went and had a lesson with Ann, a recent convert in the ward. We talked about the restoration and how that understanding helped her in her life. After, we went to try and have a lesson with Orion, but he had to leave right as we got there. So we went back home and started weekly planning. Then we went and had dinner. After, we went and saw some more people before we came back home and ended with personal study.

Saturday

We started the day with seeing a couple of people. We went to go see one of our investigators named Jan, and found out she's still sick, so we didn't talk about anything with her. After, we went and saw some more people. Then we had lunch and comp study. Then we went into weekly planning more. After, we had dinner and then a lesson with Patrick. We showed him two videos and talked about them. We showed the conference talk from Todd R Callister about the Book of Mormon, and the Mormon message "The Hope of God's Light." He really liked both of them. Then we had a meeting with Brother Allen, and that ended our night.

Sunday

We started with ward council and then went to church. After, we came home, had lunch, then comp study, and then we went into finishing weekly planning. After, we had a lesson with Sholon, and then we came back to the house to finish weekly planning. Then we had dinner. After we came home, we did personal study and then had family night with the Hays. We talked about the Atonement  and had a spiritual discussion. After, we came home and did our accounting with the zone leaders, and that ended the night.

Well that's it for this week. I hope everything is going well at home. Don't freeze to death. Love you all, and I'll see you soon.

Elder Hammond 

Week 65 Week 2 in the Promised Land, Lakewood

Hello family and friends. This week has been really busy, so let's get right to it.

Monday

We had p-day, and we went to the outlet mall in Marrysville and looked at stuff at a place called Vitamin World. It's a vitamin shop. Elder Hunter wanted to buy some protein. We did some emailing as well, and then we went to the church and played some basketball with the Stillaguamish elders, (that's so weird to say because I was one of those elders once upon a time) Sholtes elders, and the zone leaders. After we had dinner delivered to us and ate it while we emailed a little more. Then we got changed and made a mistake by leaving the keys in the family history center. It's always locked, so we closed the door and locked the keys in. So we waited for a half hour for the Firetrail sisters to unlock the room. Right as we needed help into the room, they texted us and told us that Sister Hoch needed a blessing, so we were like "sure why not. Can you open the family history center too?" So ya, that was funny. We gave her a blessing, and then we got our keys, waited for people to come to basketball, but none of the people we invited came. It was sad. So we visited people for the rest of the night.

Elder Hunter, Elder Milner, and Elder Hammond

Tuesday

We went and tried to see some people in the morning, but no one opened their doors, so we just went back home and had lunch and comp. study. After, we had 3 lessons throughout the rest of the day. We had one with a recent convert named Anne Marie, and we talked about temples and why they are important. After, we had a lesson with a woman named Sister Schweigart, and we talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon, and we showed her the talk from general conference from President Nelson. It was kinda sad. She had this sit up chair, and the whole time we were over there sharing this lesson, Elders Hunter and Milner are doing sit ups in this chair. It distracted her from the lesson, as well as she was on her phone, and the son was also being distracting, so it was kinda all over the place, but we looked back at that experience and understood that that was bad... after visiting more people though we then had a lesson with a new investigator named Melissa. We were going to teach the restoration, but Elder Milner switched it up on us while we were there, and we actually taught about the plan of salvation. The lesson went well, and we put her on date for the the 9th of December. After, we had dinner and then went to a party for Halloween, and I got to see Brother Dutson from the Stillaguamish Ward!! It was awesome! He's one of my favorite members from that ward. After, we went home for the night because it was Halloween.

Wednesday

We had district meeting, and Elder Hunter instructed on helping our investigators teach repentance to their understanding. After, we had lunch at a Mexican grill. Then we came home, had comp. study, and planned out the rest of the day. Then we went and saw some people, like recent converts and some potentials, around where we live. We had a lesson with one of our investigator's mom. She is less active in our ward. After, we then had dinner, had a lesson with the Sedweeks, and picked up Chelsea (the mom) and their son as new investigators. They seem really solid. Then we went and had a meeting with Bishop to end the night.

Thursday

We had a lot of lessons set up but almost all of them got canceled. We had a lesson with the Millers, and we shared the conference talk from Elder Uchdorf, from the priesthood session. It was great. They liked it. That morning, though, we just went around and visited a lot of people, nothing too serious. After our lesson, we had dinner and then went to see more people for the rest of the night.

Friday

We  did some service at the food bank. Then we came home and had lunch, personal study, then comp study, and then we went and had a lesson with Orion. It was great! We taught the plan of salvation and put him on date for the 2 of December, which he will make because he's super solid too. After, we came home, had dinner, and then did weekly planning for the rest of the night.

Saturday

We weekly planned in the morning, then we had lunch, did comp study, and then went and saw some people close by around our home. We didn't have any lessons, but we did meet a lot of new people, and picked up some potential investigators. We had a lesson with recent converts named the Paul's. We taught the plan of salvation. That was it for Saturday though.

Sunday

We had church in the morning, and then after we had our correlation meeting with Brother Allen. After, we came home and took a nap since it was fast Sunday, and we couldn't eat for lunch. Then we had a lesson with the Paul's, and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them. After, we went and had a lesson with Debra and Sholon, some more recent converts. We had a discussion about the restoration of the gospel. Then we had dinner with the Hammond family, and then ended the night with comp study and comp inventory.

Elders with Debra and Sholon

Well, today has been a great day. I got to see Todd Aggard, go bowling with him, and play some pool with him as well. I'll send those pics next week, but this week I've got pics of our companionship and Debra and Sholon, so I hope you enjoy them.

Elder Hammond

Week 64 Hello Lakewood Ward!

Hello everyone. Elder Hammond here talking to you from my old stomping grounds in Arlington!!!!! The Promised Land!! I love being back in my favorite zone. I have so much to do and so many familiar faces. It's been great!! Well, let me tell you about where I am and who I'm with. I am in the Lakewood Ward with Elder Hunter and Elder Milner, in a 3 pack. Lots of fun! I've known Elder Hunter my whole mission, and Elder Milner is a great missionary. We live in a house, like a house, a real house. I'm not kidding. It's awesome! 3 bedrooms, two baths, and a lot of room. Anyway, we have lots of investigators, and we picked up 3 new ones this week. This area is on fire!! We have 6 right now and a couple solid potentials, so it's great! I'll tell you about them throughout the week. So ya, here's the week.

Monday

Monday was my last actual day in Maltby. We had a good time. Elder Powers and I went shopping, and then we emailed at the church for four hours. Then we went to say goodbye to Izzy before I left. After, we came back and played tennis with the zone. We had a good time there. Then we went back home, got changed, and went with Woods Creek to Goodwill to look around and see if we could find some cool things. Then we went and had dinner with the Wards for one last time. Then we went and said goodbye to some other people around that area, but shortly after, we had to come home because we were low on miles. So I took the rest of the night to pack and get ready for transfers the next day.

Saying goodbye to Izzy

Last dinner with the Wards

Garrett Davis and Elder Hammond

 Tuesday

We went to the senior center after I got finished packing, and we did some service there. After, we had lunch with Woods Creek and Monroe at Hot Iron for my last time. It was great. Elder Peterson paid for me. Then after, we went back home and loaded everything into the car to go to transfers, but we stopped on the way there at the Crunnuts to say goodbye to them. They told me when we come back in August to go see them. So I'll try to. After, we drove to Garrett Davis's house so he could take us to transfers. We loaded up the van and then went to transfers. We stayed there after learning we needed to wait for a long time because one of the new missionaries decided to leave on the way to the mission, so one of the trainers had to get another missionary for his comp. After President figured out what to do, we got to stay in a three pack in Lakewood. Which is nice. So we got to Arlington, had a small comp study and dinner, and then we went to meet some people in the area. We met with a family named the Sedweeks. They are a good family and ended up having the girlfriend wanting to take the discussions. The boyfriend is a less active, and they have two kids. So that will be great! We are meeting with them on Wednesday so we may have new investigators next week. After, we went and had a meeting with Bishop, and we told him about things that happened last week. Then we went around and saw some people close by home before we went to bed to end the night.

Transfer Day!

Wednesday

We had district meeting, and Elder Hunter instructed on how to teach your investigators how to listen to the spirit. That was great! I kinda learned some new things I didn't know before. After we had lunch at the Costco by our apartment with the rest of the district. It's pretty nice. Elder Hatch is in my district with me, and Sister Hoch is as well. So two people I know are in my district, and Sister Hoch and I were friends in high school. We talk about that a lot and the fun times we had together. After lunch, we went and shopped at Costco because Elder Hunter had a gift card. Then we went to Walmart to allow me and Elder Milner to shop. I got to use my gift card thanks to the package getting here at a good time. After shopping, we took time to put our food away, and then we planned out the day and had Comp study as well. Then we went and saw some people in the area close by the house. In this area, we do a lot of walking because the city area is all close by and everyone is close by. The farther you go out, the more rural it gets. So we did some walking and driving around and saw some people. We shared a scripture with a man named Timmy who is a former investigator, and he seemed really cool. He's not really going to be an investigator any time soon, but I'm not sure why. After talking with him, we went and had a ward trunk or treat. It was a great turn out and lots of people were there. After, they gave us all the hot dogs and chips, and we have a fridge now full of 70 Costco hot dogs and chips. So we're kinda loaded. Just a little. After, we went home and ended the night by going to bed.

Thursday

We saw a lot of people. One person we saw is Kevin, a former investigator that we're working with. Let me tell you, the man talks a lot, like a lot. He's a born again Christian, and he really likes talking a lot. He's not a lot of do, just a lot of talk about his God. It is sad how many people think just because Christ performed the atonement it means we can all be healed and saved in the end right? Kinda true, but I don't know why guys like him see that the atonement allows us to repent, but it doesn't allow us to do whatever we want with our own free will without consequences or without repenting when we make mistakes. I mean, this ma knows the gospel very well. He knows we are the right church, or he at least says we are, but yet he smokes all the time, plays with toy models, and doesn't come to church when we tell him to. It's kinda sad how people really turn religion and belief around. After seeing him, we came home and had lunch, then had comp study, and then ran over to have a lesson with a recent convert family named the Millers. We had a good lesson, talked about Tad R. Callister's talk about the Book of Mormon from general conference, and we also watched it. Brother Miller seemed to like it. After, we ran to have dinner with the Coopers, a new family in the ward. We had a great time there and got to know them. Then we went and visited some more people before the night was through.

Friday

We started with helping at the food bank. We go to the one in Marysville every Friday, and it's great. I've only been there once, from a year ago, so I forgot how everything worked, but luckily, the workers helped me. After, we had lunch, then personal study, comp study, and then we went and visited some people. We had a lesson with a new investigator named Orion, like the star constellation Orion, he's really cool. He's 16 but looks like he's like 20 or something, and he really wants to take the discussions and get baptized. We met him at the truck or treat and found out that he lives with some members in our ward. He goes to church with them every Sunday, and I think he is the grandson of the members, but I'm not sure. We taught him the restoration, and he really liked it. He's very nice, and we have been able to gain a great relationship with him. After the lesson, we visited some more people and ended the night with weekly planning and dinner and having a lesson with a Marshelise family that we picked up a new investigator from.

Saturday

We did a lot of work. We started the day with finishing weekly planning and getting that squared away. After, we had lunch and comp study. Then we went out and saw some people. We had no set lessons, but we went to the church after lunch to get our area book back because we forgot about it when we went to weekly plan. There was a guy at the church just walking around. He looked kinda drunk, so we just sat there just watching him in the car not sure what to do. Then Elder Milner said, "Elder Hunter, you won't go street contact that guy. You're too soft." So Elder Hunter looked at him and said, "Watch me," gets out of the car, and we have to follow, and he goes to talk to him. Turned out the guy wasn't drunk or high at all, and we picked him up as a new investigator, showed him around the church and stuff, but he never came Sunday, sadly. We will probably see him tonight for a pick up game we're doing. So ya, we had dinner later that night. Then we visited some people around home before we had a meeting with our ward mission leader. That ended the night.

Sunday

We had ward council, then church, then we went and tried to have some lessons with our recent converts and a potential that we had met the other day, but they all fell through. So we spent most of our time trying to find someone that could come with us to the CSFY devotional that night, and we did. Orion came with us, so that was great! He said he liked it a lot, and that ended the night with accounting.

Well that's it for me. I will talk to you all next week, bye!!

Elder Hammond