Week 31

It's definitely been an interesting week. I've never been antied once while I've been out, but this week we had 3 different people try to anti us! The first lady we met was the worst, her name was Donna and she was very strong in her faith and belief of God, so we thought that we'd be able to connect that to our message of bringing greater light and understanding. But nope! She told us that she has a Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and studies it along with 'other books' so she can know how to help 'ex-mormons'. When we heard that we were so sad! I can't believe that there are people out there who dedicate their lives to proving someone else wrong. That doesn't seem very Christ-like to me. Oh! and while we were there she said that she wouldn't consider us Christians, but we could come to her house on Sunday and she could help us find the truth. HA, no thanks.

The other man that we met was a preacher for a Four-Square church. A very popular Christian church here that teaches a lot of Anti-Mormon. He called us Anti-Christ's because we were teaching false doctrine. He actually went a got a pamphlet and started talking to us about that, we got out of there pretty quickly. 

Thinking about these experiences makes me so sad, but it's a testimony to me that this church is so true. If not, why would Satan be throwing so much garbage around in order to prove it to be wrong? We also went on exchanges this week, we had told our Sister Training Leaders what happened and while I was in Federal Way with Sister Young we had a great experience. We had lunch and were talking about what had happened and the testimonies we had. We started to sing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer". I can't even begin to describe the spirit that was there, the spirit testifies of truth and I was overwhelmed with how true this is. There is no doubting that.

The thing that I've thought about most throughout this week is my testimony of the Book of Mormon. It is literally the keystone of our religion. Whether or not Joseph Smith was called as a prophet. Whether or not this is Christ's restored church. Whether or not we have a prophet on earth who receives divine guidance from Heavenly Father to help us. It all rests on the validity of the Book of Mormon. And I know that the Book of Mormon is scripture. I've read it, pondered it's teachings, and prayed about it. John 14:26-27 says that the Holy Spirit is sent in His name. It testifies of truth! I know this is true! Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson said in her conference talk that if all these things are true then we have "the greatest message of hope and help that the world has ever know" -April 2016 conference.

Sorry this email is so long, I encourage each of you to remember Pres. Uchtdorf's teaching "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." Gain an additional witness that you can fall back on when ever temptation or doubts come your way. Helaman 5:12 - Build your foundation on Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

​(excuse my hair in the last two...it was pretty messy..)
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Sister Hammond 

Week 30

God is blessing us so much  We met someone at a mission devotional last week, her name is Autumn and she is hilarious. We had our first lesson with her on Friday and she made us scones that were to die for. She's actually talking to one of the RM's who served in this ward and they've been on a couple of dates. He pestered her to start meeting with us so she took that step and had us come over :) and she's also a part member family so we are going to be trying to work with her dad as well, her mom is just starting to come back to church. She came to church on Sunday and loved it! She also told us how she had decided to walk away from a conversation at work that she's never walked away from before and as she did that she had a huge smile on her face (this was after our first lesson) THE SPIRIT REALLY DOES CHANGE ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR.

Our area is literally on fire. We are having so much fun going around and working with less active and part member families. We are helping two 8 year old kids get baptized in June, their family is less active but coming back to church.

Yesterday was probably the best day of the week. We were out knocking on doors and it literally just starts to POUR DOWN RAIN! It went from sunny to rainy in 2.5 seconds (or something like that) So what do we do? Start dancing in it, that's what! (in a totally appropriate sister missionary kind of way) ♪♫♪ Even though people weren't very interested in talking with us we were having the time of our lives going from door to door and getting soaked. I felt like a little kid again. Then, the very last door that we knock on was this guy named Eli. We started talking to him about families and we go to read a scripture from the Book of Mormon and he's like, "oh, I've got two of those. I read it with my Bible sometimes. I just think it's good to have a wider perspective of what other religions believe." We stood there with our mouths open for a second and then we jumped on it, set up a return appointment, and we'll be seeing him tonight. PRAY FOR ELI AND HIS FAMILY :D

I have such a strong testimony that the Lord will bless us based on our efforts. The more we seek to lose ourselves in His work the more He will rain His blessings upon us, literally.

I love you all!!

Sister Hammond 

ps - I try to respond to all of my emails, but sometimes I don't get to them all in my time limit. If I haven't written you back in a long time it might have gotten lost. When ever you want to write me create a new email instead of responding to my group email because those are the ones that get lost the most. Thanks so much!!!

Week 29

So, if any of you can remember back to January when we went to the temple I talked about a man that we met in Pizza Hut. If you can't remember, here's a run down of the story..

We had the opportunity to go to the Seattle temple on January 19th and we were able to ride down with President Eaton. The temple was amazing as always. On our way home President asked us if any one would be interested in going to Pizza Hut and trying a cookie pizza? Obviously we said yes :) Well, there was a catch. In order for us to 'earn' our cookie pizza we had to teach the people in the restaurant. One of those people we happend to teach was a 20 something year old kid named Manase (Ma-nah-say). President was so great and even called the ysa elders so they could set up a time to meet and have an official lesson.

Well, a few weeks pass and we ask the Elders if they are still teaching him. They said they were, but that he wasn't progressing very much. But his brother Marv was progressing really great and he ended up getting baptized a few weeks later.

On Wednesday this last week we had zone conference and President Eaton came up to me and told me that Manase was getting baptized on Saturday! Almost all of the missionaries who got to help teach were there at his baptism. Wow. And his testimony was so incredible and so strong. He did a rendition of the gospel ABC's about what he's learned, and it was powerful.

This experience has been such a testimony builder to me of the importance of talking to everyone! More than one conversion came because of that day we went to the temple and happened to go to pizza hut and happened to meet this man and happened to teach him. God has a plan for His children and we are His instruments. Alma 29:9

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Sister Hammond 

Week 28

Another week full of miracles and blessings. Sister Skousen is my new companion and she is literally so great. Such a hard worker and she does her best to talk to everyone. Really cool to see :) 

Hope everyone had a great mother's day, it's my 2nd favorite holiday :) 1.because mother's are amazing and we wouldn't be able to do much without them 2.because mother's day means that missionaries get to skype their families :D It was so great to be able to call home and to talk to them. It's so crazy how quickly everyone changes though...Courtney graduates this year! I still can't believe that. And Alyssa will be a Junior and Justin's going to be in 8th grade. Where has the time gone?!

After skyping we had dinner with an incredible family. The spirit was soo strong because our conversation was all about the blessings of the temple. They are both ordinance workers and they talked about the experiences and blessings that they've seen as they've made the temple a priority in their lives. Since it was mother's day we shared Alma 56 where Helaman is recounting the story of his stripling warriors. "We do not doubt, our mother's knew it". Sister Stafford is a righteous mother who raised her children to love and appreciate the temple. That's the kind of mom that I want to be. To be able to share with my family my conviction of the living reality of the blessings of the gospel.

I don't know what I'd do without my mom, she's an incredible example to me of diligence and hardwork and unconditional love. Love you mom!

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Sister Hammond 

Week 27

Sister Frischknecht went home this week, I'm so excited that she gets to be with her family! Haha, I'll see all of you in a year :)

I'm so excited for my new companion, but it's always nerve wracking to be with someone new. We asked our zone leaders for blessings as we go into the next 6 weeks. In my blessing Heavenly Father told me that whenever I come upon discouragement, distress, or depression to study the Book of Mormon and that I'll be able to draw strength from that. It also said that through diligent study of the Book of Mormon my testimony of the Savior would become stead fast and immovable.

I love what Joseph Smith says about the Book of Mormon. He said, "The Book of Mormon [is] the most correct of any book on earth, and they keystone of our religion, and a man [will] get nearer to God by abiding by it's precepts, than by any other book." - Intro to the Book of Mormon. Isn't that an incredible promise? We can come closer to our Father in Heaven through diligently reading the Book of Mormon than by reading any other book. It truly is Another Testament of Jesus Christ. 

Sister Frischknecht is so good and using the Bible and the Book of Mormon when she teaches. They work hand in hand to help us see God's full purposes and His work. I love it!

Happy Mother's Day this week :) Love you all!

​(bottom is a less active we're working with. Sister F. gave her old clothes and she felt like a missionary in them. So we took a missionary picture :)

Sister Hammond