Week 74

Antiques ♥

"Surely, in the work of the Lord, it is what we do after we think we have done enough that really counts with him, for that's when the blessings flow."

With 7 weeks left of my mission I've been contemplating a lot on what I've learned, how I've changed, and what I can do to bring about lasting change after I'm home. I love this quote because it's important to not give up when we think we've done enough or given our all. It really is in the extra mile that we run that the Lord can truly bless us. President Eyring has a quote called The Fellowship of the Unashamed. In it he says something along the lines of "I will give till I drop, work till He stops me, and when He comes for His own He will have no problem recognizing me. My banner will be clear." 

This week we were able to find a couple of new people to begin teaching. They are always miracle finds because our God is a God of miracles. His miracles never cease, as long as we continue to exercise our faith. We've adopted the habit of knocking on the doors in the areas where we are at, and this is how God is able to lead us to the prepared. First, Christina is a woman that we met on Saturday after the less active women we went to go see wasn't home. Christina lives two doors down from her. She initially said she wasn't religious, but we were able to talk about her family and tie it into the gospel and the role that God plays as our loving Heavenly Father. We share Joseph Smith's experience with her and introduced the Book of Mormon. When we asked her if we could come back she immediately said yes. Second, Polly Patterson. She moved in about a month ago and her neighbor actually sent us over to her house as a referral. She said that she has been looking for a church and that she has Mormon family members. She's super open to us coming by again and is interested in reading the Book of Mormon. 

I have a strong testimony of the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace. This Easter we are able to celebrate the fact that He not only died for us, but he also lives for us. On Friday the church's Easter initiative will be released. It's going to be featured on Mormon.org

Love you all!

Sister Hammond ♥

ps - happy Conference week!!

a less active in the ysa who's been coming to our ward. He's so sweet!
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antique shopping with the other sisters today!

Week 73

honestly, writing emails is hard sometimes, here's some pictures updates on how mission life is going :)

exchanges with Sister Tippets and Sister Taylor. Both really hard working missionaries ♥

Leo's baptism day!!! he was so excited and made the funniest comments the whole time. ♥

Alma 37 is counsel from Alma to his son Helaman and it has really hit me a lot recently with how much God really does help us.

40 And it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day.

I do know that is is by our faith that God can and will direct us. He loves us and wants us to live with Him again. The only way to find happiness that will last is as we turn to Him and offer our heart to Him. He will bless us with continued guidance and help that will get us through each and every day.

I love you all.

Sister Hammond ♥

Week 72

"Now I know what it's like when other kids get baptized!"

Hey there!

Little Leo Grimmer was baptized on Saturday ♥ He's so precious. He has minor autism so his parents wanted him to wait to be baptized. When he got in the font he started swimming in the water and said, "now everyone gets to see me be baptized!" We adore him. Leo also invited a friend that he goes to school with, so he was there with his mom. The family had a big table of little goodies afterwards and we were able to talk with some of the people there. Baptisms are such special experiences. It's amazing to see the love that God has for us and just knowing that this is desire for all of His children. One scripture that has really stood out to me these last couple of weeks is Psalms 147:3-5

3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

 4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

 5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

I know that God knows each of us by name, but not only that, He has also outlined the perfect Plan of Happiness. As we are obedient to His will, He will give us solace and will truly bind up our wounds. He is great, and infinite, and powerful. "With God nothing shall be impossible" Luke 1:37.

I'll send more pictures next week, we left our cameras at home.

♥ Sister Hammond ♥

Week 71

"Insta Choir"

I feel like every week just gets more and more great. We had an absolutely amazing MLC this week. We had two people from the missionary department come and train us on planning and helping people to truly repent. I love the spirit that comes and witnesses to our hearts that these things are true. In the scriptures we read that the fruits of the spirit are, "love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance..." (Galatians 5:22-23). The path that God has outlined for us is faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, being baptized by Priesthood authority, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring faithfully to the end. The greatest way to walk along this path is by simply doing the primary things: Praying daily, studying the scriptures, and attending church so we can partake of the sacrament. I'm so grateful to know that my purpose is to teach this to the people here. It's so beautifully simple yet so complex that we will never fully understand all of the mysteries of God.

At our meeting with our Bishop this week in ward council we were talking about the ward choir. They've recently just been inviting all of the women or all of the men to come up and share a song. Bishop said it was his very own insta choir. AND THEN during fast and testimony meeting a man got up and bore his testimony. During his testimony he started to SING a song that he's been preparing for his niece's homecoming. It was absolutely beautiful to hear, but the look on Bishop's face when he said he was going to be singing was priceless.

The work is going great here. We are seeing so many miracles. Thank you for your prayers♥

Sister Hammond ♥

Zone conference (notice our matching bird shirts?)

some of our favorite members (our district leader said that we represent Jesus Christ and He didn't have favorites, so neither should we. Jokingly of course. I think. Either way, I love these two!!) Also, the member standing above me bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting of coming out with us! It was so inspiring ♥