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