Monday
Me and Elder Addington had our last p-day together. We went and emailed, and after we went with our investigator, Johan, and went up to Fort Casey!! It is a really cool place! There was a lot of dark tunnels and some cool guns to see. It is a state park so it was all free. Johan is super intelligent though. He was able to tell us everything about the fort...when it was made, did people die there, did they shoot down big ships from there, what the rooms were used for, etc. It was way fun. We got some good pics, found Whidbey Island rocks, and got to see the first Whidbey Island rock, on the shore, right next to the fort.
After having a fun day and acting like kids at the park, we went back to Johan's, I took a pic with him, and then we went back to the church for Elder Addington to look at his mom's email for collage stuff. After, we went to the Hymas's and said goodbye to them. Then to bishop's and said goodbye to him and his family. I got a cool souvenir from him. It's a tiny plaque, and it's got the mission scripture on it and my plaque scripture from home. After saying goodbye to him, we went home and headed for bed.
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| Elder Hammond & Johan |
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| With the Hyma Family |
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| Saying goodbye to the bishop |
Tuesday
Tuesday was transfer day, so I went and said goodbye to Jake before I left. He is the one in the beard in the picture with me. He looks smaller because he's in a wheelchair. He is a fun guy, crazy red neck, and I had a blast with him. I hope the new elder likes him. He can be pretty crazy some times.
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| Jake and Elder Hammond |
After that, we went home and packed up my stuff into Brother Miller's car and drove to transfers. Once there the assistant, Elder Polter pulled me aside and told me president wanted to see me for a couple of minutes. For a moment I was scared, and I'm pretty sure if you were in my shoes, you would be too, but Elder Polter told me not to worry. I was not in trouble. Wrong!!! When I got to President Whilding's office, he told me to come in and sit down. So I did, and then he told me something that broke my heart because I didn't even know there was a problem. He said that things were not working out well in the South Widbey Island ward and with Elder Addington, and that is why I was transferring. President then told me he was sad with what happened. Mostly he was disappointed in me. So was I. I realized the reason why was because I was just not caring about missionary work. Elder Addington had to sleep all the time, so the work wouldn't get done, so it made me less motivated to do the things I used to do like helping others all the time, being a good, loving, and caring missionary, and having the spirit with me everyday to motivate me. The more I would try to make sure I was doing things like how Elder Addington wanted me to, the more and more I got stressed, the more and more I got bored, and the more and more I started not caring. So with those things, I got sloppy with my work, and it was not great. But now I've learned, and now I'm doing a whole lot better. I really think that the transfer was great for both sides of what happened. I am getting back to work and starting to care again, and the ward now has 2 Elders that they really will come to love even more. After my interview with President, I found my new companion Elder Goodman, and we drove off to our area, which is almost a hop, skip, and a jump from the mission office. Once we got to the apartment, I unpacked, and we went off to do some work. I used Elder Dayton's bike (his old companion's) for a few days until I could run up to the bike shop and get me a new bike. That night, we went to mutual and helped them with their night. What they did is they had to make a Book of Mormon story out of brownies, frosting, and lots of candy and sprinkles. It worked out really well, and the missionaries (us) got to be the judges. They all did a really good job, and we guessed each one. After mutual we went home and got ready for bed.
Wednesday
We had District Meeting, and Elder Goodman gave an instruction on the plan of salvation. It went really well. We talked about it and how it blesses us. Then we role played how to teach it to an investigator, and each of us came up to the front and did it while everyone watched us. After, they would tell us how we did. After district meeting we then went home and had lunch. Then we had our comp study, and then we went up the street to the bike shop to buy me a bike!! It was pretty cool to see all the bikes there, and I am really happy with the one I got. It's doing really well, and I haven't got in a wreck yet, but I have gotten close. After that, we went and visited some people and had dinner at a burger place in the Seattle Hill area. There are Hammonds in our ward, and it was pretty cool to have dinner with them. We got to learn some things about them, but we didn't find out if we are related. We decided to find out next time we had dinner with them. Then we had correlation meeting with our ward mission leader. After doing so, we came home and went to bed.
Thursday
We started the day with our normal studies and planning. Then after, we went and visited people, but we didn't have any luck with doors opening, so we went back home and did our comp study and had our lunch/dinner before we headed to the food bank. Then we rode our bikes to the food bank. We work there every Thursday for 4 hours. It's stationed at a community church in Thomas Lake. It's a nice little food bank, and they really do a good job with it. We, as the missionaries, help people run the food out to their car, and we load it up for them. It's lots of fun!! I always love serving at the food bank. After we went and visited the Alines, some members in the ward. Then we went home.
Friday
So we weekly planned for most of the day, but I was able to get my Alpha Smart from the mission office. To go with that note, even though I live close by it, in order for me to get packages from the mission office on days like today, I have to get permission from the assistants because even though its close, the office is in the other zone next to us, and we have to get permission for that. That's really not fun, plus I'm on a bike now so if I were to get it, it would be really hard to peddle with it. So just let me know when you're sending packages, and I can make judgments on if I want to go get it with permission or just wait until zone conference to get it. But back to the day...we went to a park to weekly plan, but before that we went to go see if the Mill Creek elders wanted to come with us, but instead found them already planning with president. It was a really awkward experience figuring that out because Elder Goodman, instead of knocking on the door, barged in still on his bike, and I was right behind him. I can honestly say that president was pretty shocked with what happened. So we planned without them, saw some swans...they almost attacked us. It was fun! Elder Goodman was having some allergy problems, so we went home so he could take a nap. We had to make our own dinner. After that, we finished our weekly planning and did our comp study as well. Then we went and did some street contacting. After that, we came home and went to bed.
Saturday
We got ready for the day and then rode our bikes to the stake center for general conference. After the first session, we went and got lunch at Wendys, and it was great because my old district was there so I got to talk with them again. After lunch, we went back to the stake center and watched the afternoon session of conference. I thought it was weird to not have Thomas S. Monson at the afternoon session, but the church later came out and said he was saving his energy for the priesthood session and the Sunday sessions. After the afternoon session, we biked home to get picked up by members so they could take us to a meeting with a potential before the priesthood session. We couldn't find the address to the house so we decided to head to the stake center anyways. After the priesthood session, we went to Red Robin and had an amazing dinner. It was all eaten, and I almost had a food coma when we got home ;). After, we studied and then went to bed.
Sunday
We got ready for the day, packed a lunch, and biked up to the stake center for general conference. We watched the first session, and it went really well. Then after we had lunch, we watched the world report which was really cool. If you don't know what that is, look it up. It's pretty cool what it talks about. After, President Whilding walked in to the stake center with his family and watched the second general conference with us. It's really weird the amount of times I've seen President this week, more then normal. Anyway, after the last session, we rode home and had personal and comp study. Then we rode to bishop's house for dinner and time to talk. Then we booked it home for accounting.
Well, that's how my week went. Nothing too bad, but as fun as it is working here, BIKE KILLS YOU!! Every night I'm so tired because of how much riding we do every day. So please add to your prayers for me to have added strength to get to where I need to. My knees can be in a lot of pain sometimes, but I'm getting through it because the Lord wants me here to learn something and to do His work, and I'm going to do what I can to make it count. My spiritual thought to you this week is to watch the #PrinceOfPeace video on mormon.org! It the Easter initiative for this year. Just like #lighttheworld, #PrinceOfPeace is for a more holier purpose. My thought is my testimony of His grace of the atonement which he did preform for us. I know that He did this for us because He loves each and every one of us. I know He lives because He has blessed me with his love and his spirit. I know that when we need Him, if we just turn to Him, or as Elder Choi said, "look up to Him," He will bless us continually and we will feel His love and peace immensely. I bear testimony as a witness of Him that He is the Savior, Jesus Christ, that His mission was more then just for us, and I invite you all to find out what the real meaning of His mission was. I know these things are true, and I say these things in the name of our king of kings, the lords of lords, even the prince of peace, Jesus Christ, amen.
Elder Hammond
A disciple of Jesus Christ
In the Washington Everett Mission
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