Week 37 Lift Others

Hey everyone! This week has been a pretty good week, so let's get started.

Monday

was p-day!!! So we went bowling with a member in Mill Creek who is famous in the mission. His name is Todd Aggard, I didn't take any pictures this time, but a good amount of the time was spend bowling anyway. Todd is a member and loves missionaries. He's known a lot of them like Elder Goodman for almost the span of their missions. I just met him two weeks ago, and he's way cool. Todd paid for 3 games, breakfast, and shoes for the games, all for the price of $9.30. The breakfast was good. They do a good job, and we had loads of fun. Todd treated us well. After, we went back home and changed and rode our bikes to the stake center to email where we stayed for the rest of the p-day. Around 6, we had the dinner with the whole zone at the Porterfields. They made for us pulled pork sandwiches, which were really good. After the dinner, I got some stuff that some of the South Whidbey members made for me that I didn't get before I left. Elder Addington brought them to me. I can't remember if I said this, but South Whidbey is leaving the Everett Zone and is becoming its own stake with the rest of the island. It's sad to see it go, but that's important that it happens. So after the dinner, the Spanish elders took us back to the stake center to get our bikes so we could ride home, and let me tell you, it was not easy to get the quilt home with the matching pillow case on the bike! Lots of things to carry for a bike trip. Once home, we got ready and went to the Scolics to have FHE with them. Then we came home and went to bed.

Pillowcase and quilt from South Whidbey members

Tuesday

We woke up and prepped for the day. After planing the day, we then went and had Mormon.org time. Then after, when we were heading home, Elder Goodman got a nail stuck in his tire. It was not fun. So he had to get one at Fred Meyer (Smiths in Utah) on the way home and walk his bike home. Once there, we had lunch and comp study while Elder Goodman got his tire fixed. After he got it fixed, it was off to Applebees for dinner with one of our investigators named Pattie. She's an older, sweet lady, and she loves learning about our church. We had dinner with her. Then we went and had a church tour with her so she could see the inside and see what it looked like because she always wondered what it looked like. After, we then went back home and grabbed some things before we went over to the Templins to talk to them for a little bit. The children are baptized, but the mom is not, so we want to try to pick her up as an investigator as well. We talked to her for the rest of the night and then came home and went to bed.

Wednesday

we had district meeting, and it was great! We talked about having faith in missionary work and how to find people to teach. We also role played how to do a church tour. After, we went home for lunch and then rode over to Mill Creek's apartment to do a small exchange for a couple of hours because Elder Erickson was still sick from last Friday. After, me and Elder Traijo went and visited some people. We then came back and exchanged back with each other. Then from there we went to dinner and had it with the Redds, a nice young family. We had a good time with them, and did you know sparkling ice has green tea extract in it? So its against the word of wisdom. I found out on Wednesday because they were about to serve it to us when Elder Goodman told them about it. Once they found out, they put them all back into the garage to be put away. They didn't know either and had been drinking it for the past few days, so remember, everyone, look at the ingredient before drinking something that looks safe to drink. After dinner, we went and tracked a small street, and then went to Brother Nebeker's to have our correlation meeting. Afterward, we played a game with them called Nertz. I bet everyone knows what that is. I played it for the first time Wednesday. It is lots of fun! My orchestra teacher and one of my friends both love that game so much. They would just explain how much fun it is. I miss those two. A good friend that I met in orchestra, and an amazing teacher. I hope they both are doing well. After that, we came home and went to bed.

Thursday

We cleaned and rearranged the apartment around. Then we went and saw some people. After, we went to Sport Clips, and I got a hair cut before our linner was over. Then we went to the food bank and helped there. We came home and did some street contacting. Then we went to bed.

Friday

We weekly planned like always. Then we went and visited people and had dinner. Not a big eventful day.

Saturday

I went on an exchange with the Seattle Hill elders. Elder Stewart and I had a good time together. However, Seattle Hill is called Seattle Hill for a reason! It's all just one big hill and lots of peddling! It killed my whole body. But for the day, we did the regular things, studied, ate meals, and then went to their area. They live 5 miles out of area and they're on bikes, so it was a pretty hard day of biking. We went and visited a lot of people, did some service for a nonmember, and had dinner with a cool family named the Rigbys. So it was a good day. Elder Stewart is an awesome elder!

Elder Stewart

Sunday

We had church, and a returned missionary spoke to us. She was serving in Thailand and has a powerful testimony, but that's what a mission does for you, builds your testimony. For some people, if treated the wrong way, can lose a testimony, and I hope I never am one of those people. But I know if I put my trust in God, He will help me through any trial I go through. After church, we came home and had lunch, did our personal study, then comp study, then we planned the rest of the day. After, we rode to dinner where Elder Goodman found out he broke his axle on his bike, so we have to go in and get it fixed today. We went to dinner, and then we came home to park the bikes and walk around for 2 hours. Then we came back and accounted.

Well that's it for this week, but here is my spiritual message:

I've been studying a lot, mostly about faith and the understanding of it, how prophets are perfect examples of what faith really is. And as cool as that probably sounds, that's not what I'm going to share. Ill share it  more next week. Like I talked about earlier, we had a returned missionary talk to us at church yesterday, and she brought up Alma chapter 36, verse 27 which states,"And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from the bonds, and from death, yea and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me." I can believe that this is a testimony of a prophet and a witness of God, of someone named Alma, who had gone through the hardest time, yes even a harder life than many people in the Book of Mormon, and he still put his trust in God, and because he did, Alma received his blessings. In this chapter, he is talking to his son Helaman, and we have probably read this chapter many times, but when I read this chapter yesterday, a lot of things caught my eye, like verse 24 "Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God and be filled with the Holy Ghost." That scripture states what I as a missionary want to do as well. I want to bless others and help everyone I can, and because I put my trust in God, He will always deliver me from my trials. I will be able to help many people taste of that joy, and to wrap it up, I do this all because what is said in verse 22, which is the same thing I want "Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; YEA, AND MY SOUL DID LONG TO BE THERE." This return missionary has a phrase, and it is "I don't want any of my own space when I get to heaven. I want to be squished in and squeezed in with all of you, so much there is no room to hold us." My soul longs to be with those angles and with all of you in heaven praising God forever, and it is my prayer that we can have that same desire for our own brothers and sisters that may be wandering lonely paths of sorrow and sadness. Please help lift them, that's all the Father wants. I pray and testify of these things, and I do so in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Elder Hammond