Dec. 29, 2014 Galapagos y Baptism

Dec. 29, 2014 Galapagos y Baptism!

Well, I have noo time at all!!  I just want to tell the whole world HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE BRO JARED MAN!!! He's such a stud and I love him to death!! Really, even though he is smaller than me I will always look up to him as my brother!!  He's amazing and happy birthday Jared!!!

THIS WEEK was amazing to talk to my wonderful family!!! We re soo blessed that we have our health and you guys are doing soo amazing over there!!  This week we had the great opportunity to have another baptism!!

We went to church and he said I want to get baptized!  I was like yeah lets do it!!! haah so he got an interview, I ran and got my baptismal clothes and we baptized him!! He is probably Thu cutest old man a person has ever seen!! He's soo amazing!! I love him so much!!
 I love you guys soo much and I hope you have had an amazing week!! It really was soo fun to see you all!! After I talked to you guys on Thursday I've been pretty good, just keeping busy and not  thinking about home that much! haha but I'm good and healthy and I love you guys sooo much!!!! Have an amazing week!! And HAPPY 2015!! The gospel is true!! This week was awesome teaching the people here en the galapagos!
Love Elder Hammond

Dec, 22, 2014 Galapagos

Dec. 22, 2014 Galapagos

I can't even believe that I have 6 months on the mission! To be quite honest I don't feel very good right now! I ate something bad for lunch ayer and was throwing up all last night. Yeah it wasn't that fun! It was at  3 in the morning! What is hard about missionary work is I have to be able to function... I have to be able to work and walk and teach!   It's hard because you don't want to work when your sick! You just want to lay in bed and have your mother at your side all day! But nope, you wake up at 630 and you exercise and get to work!! haha so that's what we did! Bring it on!! Well I don't have any time to write!!  We went to a place where the biggest Tortuga's in the whole world are today!  We just got on! SO sorry!! But I just want everybody to know that this work is of the Lord!

Monday! Super weird, we met a family that was on their  vacation and they said, elders!  I was like elders that sounds soo weird!  It was a family from Pennsylvania, it's fun to see members from all over the world!!

I really don't remember what happened Tuesday and Wednesday!!

 Thursday- We had our baptism!!!! ESO!!! The lady that's pregnant! We couldn't do it in the beach because she was pregnant! So en the pilla! That's okay!! I love this work soo much!! And I love the Galapagos!! I don't have to  feed families or worry about dogs!!  Or worry about getting robbed!! The 1st time in all of my mission when I've worked around with my camera in my pocket! It's amazing!!  But the baptism was amazing!

We had a  fun activity in the ward!!  We won the race of potato sacks!  It was fun! Then Sunday wasn't the best day! I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting, how about that!!  I was like well I'm going to give this in English  and all the congregation laughed!  I gave an 8 minute talk on the importance of the members in the obra  misionall!  You know at home when everyone says thanks for your talk it was great! Nobody does that here! They were like yeah cool! Got sick from lunch, we had an okay lunch I don't know why I got sick but it was really weird I could barely walk and that night we had the opportunity to give a blessing to a guy that sees devils and bad things happen to him!  I gave it, and then I said I got to go! I just threw all my lunch up! I didn't cry!  So that's good!!  Today I feel better!!

 

Today we went to the place where the biggest Tortuga's are in the WHOLE WORLD THEY ARE SOO BIG!! l'll send the photos!  Afterwards, the taxi wouldn't stop! We walked 13 miles!!!!!! Because the taxi driver wouldn't stop! So, it took about 3 and a half hours to get here! I'm super tired!!

I really cannot wait to talk to all of you guys on Christmas!!  I love you soo much!  This church is true!! Seriously, I love love LOVE being a missionary!! The mission is the best thing ever!!  I really want to extend if I can!! Ecuador is amazing and the people even more!! I just LOVE LOVE LOVE these people here! Even though we get rejected and they don't accept  the message! I just get so happy because this is the true church and I love the Lord and I love being his missionary! I love teaching his people here! Nothing brings more happiness and joy to this world than teaching the restored gospel!!! 
Love Elder Hammond

Dec. 15, 2014 This week in The Galapagos!

Dec. 15, 2014

This week in The Galapagos!

I just LOVE MY MISSION soo much!! Maybe that or it's just the place I am in!! The Galapagos really are soo beautiful and I love it here so much! Okay so I am here on an island that's called Canta Cruz!  It's super awesome! The people here are cool!  There's like 2 parts to the island - a high part and a low part! The high part is seriously like the jungle! The low part is like a port and that's where we live!  It's great!  Really, I could just spend all day on the higher part because seriously it's like Jurassic Park!  It's amazing and I love it!! I love Ecuador! It's so fun!  We are waking up at like 5:45 in the morning to go running everyday! It's soo fun not really but it's good because I'm getting fat, super fat! So it's good for me!  I hope it helps because I'm always so tired!!

Lunes! Was great we had an amazing noche de hogar with a lot of members here and it was super fun to share our testimonies! What was even better was that it was in the high part and soo super green!  It's just like a dream! Super dark and the people are so humble and they want to learn more and we teach them and I love it soo much!! We shared our testimonies about Christ and his birth and importance why he came here!

Martes! We had the great opportunity to teach our family that are going to be baptized soon! Well at least I hope!  We also had the great opportunity to give 3 priesthood blessings! It was the fist time I've given a priesthood blessing on a home! It was different, but I loved doing it! Then after that I gave 2 blessings of comfort to 2 widows! They have such hard lives, but that's why I love the gospel, we can reach them and teach them how to have BETTER amazing lives!! I love it!!

Jueves we had the great opportunity to do service for a family!  Let me tell you, it was service! We had to move lava rocks like half a block away and it took us like 2 to 3 hours to do!  I was okay with it because we were sweating like hogs in the Galapagos and it was in the high part so it was super beautiful!!  After that, this family wanted us to gather their chickens and oh my gosh!! They are sooo fast!!!!!  There were like 20 of them! No wonder why the old people lived longer, they chased and gathered chickens! They hurt too, just saying!!

 Something I loved this week was, we were teaching a family about the restoration of the gospel and about Jose Smith!  We watched the movie!  It is SOO POWERFUL!! It was just awesome and powerful! After I bore a strong testimony about His divine work that the prophet had to do here on the earth!  The great life that Jose lived! It was soo cool and everybody felt the spirit super strong!

I love this week and all that it did for the lost and sick!

 Today lunes!! WE WENT TO SEE THE HUGE TURTLES!!! THEY ARE HUMONGOUS!!! THEY ARE COOL! I love you all!!  Can't write more! Thanks for all of your prayers for me!! Have an amazing week!! 
Another week closer to Christmas!!
Love, Elder Hammond

Dec. 8, 2014 Galapagos! Wow!!!

Dec. 8, 2014 WOW!!! GALAPAGOS!!!

What a week this has been for me holy smokes!!! I really can't even remember what happened!!  I'm going to try and remember what happened!!! 

Lunes! lunes in the noche I got a call saying that I had cambios! Meaning I had to leave! Terrible because I spent all my money on a Christmas tree and all this food and everything!  I had to be in Guayaquil at 7! I had to leave Machala at 3!!  It was 10! haha So, I packed and got about 45 minutes of sleep!!  Got to the terminal and found out that I was going THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS!!!!! AHHH!!!!!!!!!! What the heck!! The Galapagos Islands!! How crazy is that!! I was like oh my gosh I'm soo excited but I'm EXHAUSTED!! haha

Martes! I was an assistant to the president today!!  Super cool! We heard that we were going to be able to go and do a session in the Temple!!  That was the most important part of my entire week! Forget Galapagos and everything I WAS GOING TO THE TEMPLE!! I haven't been in forever!!! I just love love LOVE the temple!! It is the house of God here upon the world!! I love the temple soo much!! There's just an amazing spirit in the room and everything!! I just love the temple! It was cool to hear everything in Spanish!  Super different and everything but super cool! 

 Like I said, I was an assistant to the president because they were going to send us off on miercoles! and wow.... I really don't want to be the assistant! It's a tough job!! Holy smokes!  But it was good! I worked with soo many missionaries and bore testimony and everything, it was cool!!

Miercoles!! I CAME to the GALAPAGOS!!!! WOW CRAZY!!! The Galapagos it really is like Jurassic Park!! haha I'm not even kidding its like people live here!! It's super sweet!! I love it soo much! The people and members here are awesome! The work here though is a little tough because everyone works in the airport or on Sundays!! OR!! they are tourists! Which is actually something really funny!! Has everybody heard of this movie Meet the Mormons?  Tourists are taking pictures of us because of this movie so like random people take pictures of us! It's funny!! ha ha but I love it!! Tourists are hilarious! They always smell like sunscreen!  You can always tell whose a tourist by their sunscreen smell!!  It's awesome!! But really wow... were teaching families here!  It's super different! I had to teach a family who spoke English and I couldn't even speak! My English is terrible! haha It was funny!! Really I'm going to miss Machala! I already do! The work here is a lot harder than  Machala but that doesn't stop me! I love this work soo much! I have a new companion his name is Elder Flamenco! He is from El Salvador! He is awesome! We have such a good time! We laugh and we make jokes and we beat box to the members and everything! 

  I love you guys so much! I miss you and I hope you guys had such a good week!  This fast Sunday I fasted for 30 hours, how about that!!  I was starving but that's okay because after we went to this family and oh my gosh!!! We saw Teri in the devo!! We only got to watch 5 minutes of it because the Internet is super bad!!! But I was like that's my aunt!!!!! haha super super cool!! Well, I'm here in the islands!!  I love it tons!! We're working super hard, and being obedient and I know the lord will bless us!!  I'll try and send some pics but this computer isn't letting me and its super slow... I love you my family and your always in my prayers!!! Chow from the Galapagos!!!! The land of the turtles!!

Elder Hammond                                   Guayaquil Temple

                                                   Galapagos Airport

                                           This is the jungle! We are teaching a family 2 minutes from here!

Dec. 1, 2014 Machala

Dec. 1, 2014 Machala

To tell you guys the truth I don't even remember what happened this week!  I seriously am just working my absolute tail off here in Machala!  I love it!! Gosh this week sooo many CRAZY, scary and awesome spiritual experiences happened!! I am learning soo much as a missionary that's going to make me a better person when I come back!!  What happened this week, okay I'll try to remember!!

Lunes I still had the trio!  Un poco dificil! Pero esta bien! (A little difficult but it's ok!)  We had the trio!  Then nothing much happened that day!!

Martes! I GOT ALL 4 OF MY  PACKAGES!!!!  I was like screaming my head off!! All of my zone said  "open that up right now and give it all to me" I said, " in your dreams buttercup!!)  They were all jealous that I have the greatest Mom in this whole entire world!! so eat it!! but not really I'm going to eat it all!! haha it was funny!! This day I got my new companion!! He is from Sandy UT!!  How cool! but he doesn't know Teri or Denny!! He went to Brighton!  His name is Elder Lignell!  He's cool he has about 14 months in the mission! He's very humble and awesome! We get along just great!  With every companion you are going to learn something new! I love that God chooses and picks for us exactly who we need to be with!!  Were going to work hard and be exactly obedient and the Lord will give us success!! 

MIercoles! Today we talked with all of our investigators, we have 11 right now! So we have a pretty good program!! We are teaching sooo many people!!  Aww its great!! I love teaching it's one of my favorite parts in the mission!!

 
Also!!! Martes and Miercoles I got woken up to cockroaches running over my feet, how cool is that!! haha I love it!!  And my 3 spider bites are cool! haha but yeah its Ecuador! Martes and Miercoles only woke up like 3 or 4 times during the night. You can hear them and everything when they try running up your mosquito net!  yeah it's just amazing! You wake up and you toss them off your bed and go back to bed!!

Jueves! We always work in the coco but today was special. We went to a house!!  Today in general was special! g absolutely terrible, but just something that changed my life! I am just grateful for amazing parents!! Really these parents are soo mean.... for the first time in my life I saw somebody get whipped.. it was very very sad! I was about 2 seconds from just balling it was this little 12 year old kid! Who was running away! I don't know what happened but his dad had this whip and I've seen them before, but it was the saddest thing I've ever seen! It made me realize the whipping of Jesus Christ .... and his sacrifice for every one of us!  We are soo blessed to have an amazing brother and example and he is our Savior and I will praise his name forever!! Wow we are soo blessed to be born as members of the church! I love love it!!! 

I also saw a kid got bit by a dog... eww..... it was terrible!!!

Viernes! Today was awesome! We were in a lesson with Katherine one of our investigators!  She doesn't feel ready to be baptized! I said mira...(look) do you think I was ready to serve a mission!? Other country! Other language! Other food! Other people! It was awesome! I loved it! She was like "wow it's the truth, I can be baptized!!" ESO!!! Elder Hammond!

Domingo! Well, it was SUPER SUPER COOL!!! A person from the setenta (seventy) came and spoke to all of us!!! His name is ELDER Waddell! He spoke Spanish!! AND I UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING HE SAID!!!! AHHH!!!!!!! EVERY SINGLE WORD!!!! It gave me new strength that I could handle new things and finally be able to speak from my heart! 

I love you all soo much! I am soo glad that everybody had an amazing week of thanksgiving! I am sad I wasn't with you guys! I love you all soo much!! I really do love my mission so much!  I love my family and I can't wait to talk to all of you guys!!!
Love 

Elder Hammond                     At the puerto!

                                          My new comp Elder Lignell

                                          Love the Stockings with my name on it Mom!!!

                                          Thanksgiving in a box!!!!

Nov. 24, 2014 Machala

Nov. 24, 2014 Machala
Whoa what a week here!  This week was super fast and super awesome!  This week probably was one of the fastest in the mission!  Thanks for all of your emails this week!! I'll just start out.

Lunes!

Seriously writing the family is by far the fastest hour of the week! It's the best but the worst because I just want to talk to you all and see how everybody is doing!!  but it's okay!!

Martes!

 Worked in the coco with my comp Elder Narro! He's awesome!! We found 2 new investigators!  We were just walking and decided to go and say hi to a another family in this ward! The guy said we should leave because last  night he almost got killed! Well he got robbed but this time with a pistol to his head! Whoa... like the coco is super dangerous, but it's soo cool because here live the most humble and receptive people! I love it!!

Miercoles!

Okay today I don't even remember what happened... I worked my absolute tail off!!  like whoa...we worked with the zone leaders in our zone and in another zone! We literally talked to about 60 people and gave out soo many pamphlets! We worked so hard and found 8 new investigators in another sector in our zone! I was with elder Moran one of our Elders and Elder Narro with the other! We worked our tails off!  Elder Narro got heat exhaustion!  I gave him a blessing, I felt so bad for him!

Jueves! We had the best and greatest opportunity to be interviewed by our Mission president and after had our 4 investigators to be interviewed for baptism this Saturday!! woot woot 4!! Baby that's how we roll!  They are super cool! We had a great lesson with 2 of them, 2 girls! They were listening to "Everything I do I do it for you!" WHAT!! So I started singing and they all wanted me to sing titanic! what a joke but they were all laughing it was funny!! haha

Viernes!  Ive gotten into the habit of ironing my shirts! So that's cool!   Something sad was that one of our inv. got drunk last night and spent all of his money on beer and so we couldn't have a pizza night with him! 

Sabado!  The zone leaders wanted to work again with us because we can work hard we started working but... got a weird call that Elder Narro had cambios and that he needed to be at the terminal in 30 minutes! shoot! and so Elder Narro left..... shoot! So right now I am waiting to have my companion because we're in a trio right now which is cool but its hard to reach everyone! I love it! 

Stats report: I have sung 298 hymns up to this point in my mission kinda cool!

I have 3 spider bites on my legs super cool!

We had 4 baptisms this last sabado! Super super cool! I had the great opportunity to baptize one of them! They are awesome! I LOVE BAPTISMS!!   I'm sorry I had a super cool spiritual thought that I was going to share with you all but I can't remember what it was! As a missionary we always have spiritual experiences! I'll just choose which one to pick next week! I will tell you guys a great experience! I love you guys so much! 

Elder Hammond

Nov. 17, 2014 5th Month in the Mission

Nov. 17, 2014    5th Month in the Mission

This will be my 5th month anniversary!!! Woohoo!! Go me!! ha ha It was awesome this week!!!  I got the PACKAGES FROM MY MOM!! THANKS TO ALL WHO  SUPPORTED ME IN THIS!! So I have a list of people to thank!

Noah DellaSilva!

Rushes!

The Stucki fam. Thank you sooo much for the 10 dollars!! Thank you!

Secret Santa

Drake
Sharon Duque

Bryn

Holly Lyons

Brooke I loved your drawing!!! haha

Lizzy Woodruff

Brielle! Thanks for the Repunzel sun!
Bro. Duque

Amalia Palmer.. dont know you but thanks!

Brooke!! That's super cool about that book your doing!

Dad! Thanks for the insight on 2 Nefi!

Jared!  There's not a word for stuff.. sorry!

Haylee, E.S. is hard but its soo cool!!!
 

This week was really good but really hard too! The Spanish got to me again! I know that the lord will help me in doing all things like it says in nefi 17:50!! I love that scripture so much! It's soo powerful! This week was cool!
 

Lunes!  After we emailed we were walking in our sector. It is very dangerous! We got robbed by 3 guys... they only took our pamphlets because that's all we had!  I learned my lesson in Guayaquil to not have anything!  Also I got my hair cut! I love it so much!  The hair dresser was very weird! She kept saying "wow, I want your hair! Your hair, how did your parents do it!"  Super cool?!
 

Martes! It was a regular day teaching and preaching! But we saw 2 guys get robbed right in front of us!  There was a huge fight, there was blood and yeah not fun!   We said a really quick prayer and just ran away to our apartment!
 

Miercoles! We were working and all of a sudden we saw huge black smoke and it turned out to be 2 houses in the coco went up in flames how sad! So guess what? We are teaching the family whose house burnt down about the plan of salvation! It's awesome! They are super humble right now!   We had some good concha! Mom can trasnlate it's like shell! haha I love you so much!!
 

Jueves! Was a little tough for me! The spanish kind of got to me.. but that's okay! Through the week I can understand pretty much all of it and have a conversation with practically anybody! Also got robbed again,  but nothing happened. This time they wanted to buy cola, how pathetic! If your going to beg for something beg for your kids' food not coca cola!
 

Viernes! Elder Narro got sick because he has absolutely terrible hygiene! And soo I taught him Noelle Hammond 101: Germ class!  We always wash our hands before we eat and after we go to the bathroom! He blows his nose in his hands and its great! But it's been better, he's learning!  We saw a wreck with a motorcrycle it was soo sad! And scary but they are okay thank goodness!! 

Sabado!! I GOT THE PACKAGES!!!!! This day, well, all this week we worked dang hard as usual and I was exhausted!!

 This week was awesome and I love serving His people here in Los Esteros aqui in Ecuador!  I love my Savior! Something that was powerful is that we're teaching an investigator and I thought to bring up nefi 3: 7 and after he said that's exactly what I need!!  I was like the lord is always always aware of us!! I love this work and couldn't be more proud to serve Him! I love this church and I love you all soo very much! Thank you for all your support! It means the world to me!
Elder Hammond

 

Nov. 10, 2014 Machala Hey! This huge week!

Nov. 10. 2014 Machala Hey This huge week!

Wow, this week was a very very big week for me!!  A lot of experiences! A lot of growing for me!!  I LOVE it!!  Well this week!

I'll start off in 

Martes:  We heard that we would have a capacitacion con El President! I was soo excited to finally hear from our President!   He is powerful and I learn from him how we need to improve as missionaries!  There were a ton of missionaries!  I learned so much from him! You can definitely feel his love for us and I love that!! I really  learned so much about obedience!  How important it is for us to learn HOW to be obedient in our missions!!  We can see the fruits of our efforts here segun nuestro obedencia! If we are obedient our kids and our grand kids will be blessed because of our efforts!! I loved it and it made me want to do so much better and more obedient like the 2000 stripling warriors!!

Miercoles!

 In the Coco we heard that 2 people got shot and killed yesterday and they had the funeral there... funerals are very very different here...  that will tell you how dangerous the coco is!  I have another picture of the coco!  The truth is I found out that the coco is the POOREST part in our mission! I just want everybody to know how blessed we are as Americans and as people of the church! We do not realize it until we see the horrors of Satan attacking the family and the lives of others! I am seeing everyday kids starving.. moms beating their kids and kids begging us for money to buy rice or a banana in the store! It just kills me! They're are people well women that are Moms at 15 or 16 years of age!  They take showers in their backyard by taking 2 buckets of water and scooping the water out of the bucket! Wow, it's soo different! A story of the coco was this Sunday we had lunch with a very very humble family and they gave us our food and they were watching us eat and she said that we should hurry so the others could eat.. they only had 4 plates.. and those 4 plates were for us! So I downed my food as fast as I could so the others could eat!  Wow!

Thursday I gave my first blessing, well because I always do the 1st part of the blessing with the oil but not the second part! It was really bad... so bad... my Spanish was terrible and not even I knew what I said but it was for Elder Narro because we are sick... we both have diarrhea... yeah it's AWESOME!! BRING IT ON!!  I love it! 

A miracle this week was that we had another baptism!!  I had the opportunity to baptize her too!  She wanted me to baptize her!! I just LOVE baptisms!! They are just the best ever!! Wow, this email is the longest I've ever written!! ahah but gosh I just want to tell everything about here!!

Something really that I am learning is something Dad wrote me and that is that the only hope for the world is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the only thing pure enough to save us from sin and from the evils of the world!  We see this truth  at a younger age than ever before! I am so grateful! I am so blessed to have grown up in the gospel to be born like Nephi of goodly parents!!  I love my parents!!  Thanks so much for all your support! I love you soo much!!

Love this week from 
Elder Jacob Hammond            

                                          This is Dayanas Baptism! She is so smart!

A bathroom in the cocos

                                                  The Cocos

I made empanadas! So good!

                                             I always find spiders in my shoes!

Nov. 3, 2014 Machala

Nov. 3, 2014 Machala

WOWOW!!  I HAVE THE COOLEST FAMILY IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!!! If you guys were not in the news I will  be surprised!!! Your costumes!!! WOW!!! Every family should be amazed because wow!!! HOW AMAZING!!!!! I LOVE LOVE IT!!!!! ha ha how fun!!!! I HAVE THE BEST FAMILY EVER!!!!!

 Here in the wonderful land of Ecuador!!....   Mom I got your letter with all the questions! I'll answer all of them!!

Do the girls kiss cheeks? Yes, everyone does! Guys and girls!  It's hard sometimes because girls want to kiss our cheeks and we have to dodge!

Have I played the piano? Yes, twice and the same songs I don't remember anything!

How do I get mail? So you send them to the office and the liders de zona get them and bring them to us! It is the same with the package!

How many elder's in my apartment? There are 4!

Microwave or toaster? We don't have either! haha

Do you have a Mamita?? Who washes the clothes? We do this time but usually there is a person in the ward that washes our clothes!

Close to the beach? Yes, and I have seen the beach but haha yeah can't go!

What do we have for almuerzo? There is a different family every day usually..

Do I like bananas? haha... I LOVE BANANAS!!! They are delicious!!!  I love them fried and everything!! haha 

Have I seen the Riggins? Yes, I have seen them twice!

 Mom, I don't need a jump rope and what do you mean by  weight set?

 This week in Machala!...  Martes was the birthday of Elder Narro so, I made breakfast for him and made his bed, paid for ice cream and everything.  It was his day so I made it as good as I could!

Miercoles! We worked our tails off!  It was a good day, we gave a blessing to a man that looked like he had leprosy but it's not!  I love giving blessings!

Viernes! I am soo glad everybody is having such a fun Halloween!  It was just a normal day here. We didn't do anything because we couldn't! It was a little sad but ehh I love doing the lords work!! Also!!! I GOT LETTERS!!! THANKS SOO MUCH FAMILY!!!! I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

One story that was cool in this week!  We were in an area called the coco and teaching a family  (the coco is a very dangerous place).. I was lucky to send you those pictures! We were teaching and a group of guys are coming and this investigator said... you guys need to leave right now!  So we took off running and so did they and we started running faster, but what happened-- a dog  started attacking these robbers and so we got away! That was cool!  This week has been better, seeing all this hard stuff but I am trusting in the lord and I love love love serving Him! He is my everything!  2 years is not enough to serve my Master and my King! I love my family thanks for all you do!!

Love Elder Hammond                This is the place!

                                              cake in the face!!!

Oct. 27, 2014 Transferred to Machala

Oct. 27, 2014 Transferred to Machala

This week I had cambios!  Which means I got transferred! So, chow Santa Monica and chow my baptism! That's okay! Thanks everybody for your letter! I loved them so much! I love you guys!

This week has been very humbling for me!  I have a new companion, Elder Narro! He is from Peru! He is great! Funny!  He loves the people, and its great!   I live here in Machal!  When I came here with all my bags and everything I stepped into the door and I saw a cockroach run into the other room! There are spiders everywhere in my house and  yeah bed bugs in our beds!  So mom, thanks for your other sheet I am using it! Because bed bugs are amazing!  I love it!

Like I said I've been very humbled! I am here, it's like Guayaquil but a lot more poor so in my sector we have a place that is very very poor, they live in wood shacks that are about as big as our kitchen! They have wooden floors and their doors are wood ! We work there like all day... I'll give you the pics..! Really its Africa!  It's all black people. The dogs are as scary as heck! I had to kick a dog in the ribs because he was about to bite me!  It's tough!  It's really really hard for my heart! It's not hard mentally or physically! Just emotionally.... in the United States we are soo blessed its ridiculous! Here I see kids that ribs are showing and they don't know when they will have their next meal!  They don't have Dads and it's really lucky if they do! There are kids that have whip marks all over their arms and especially on their backs because people here rarely wear clothes...but... I had my first cry here in my mission ... their was a family and all their kids had bruises and everything! They said they don't have any food and that their dad  drinks and smokes and when he comes home he beats his kids and it is very very hard to see and teach!  We are so lucky to have running water and to have showers.. and just clean dishes and dishes in general!

But we had a baptism!! It was amazing!! I LOVED IT SOO MUCH!!!! I had the great opportunity to baptize her! Se llama Nicole! (Her name is Nicole!) She's awesome!  I love it!!

Then we had the great opportunity to give 2 more priesthood blessings!  I love love LOVE using the power of the Priesthood it's just a reminder to me every time we us it!

Really I am soo stoked to work and serve the people here in Machala! I love my family soo much you guys are all amazing! I am praying for all of you!!!

Elder Hammond

                                              My new comp Elder Narro from Peru!

                                                          I got to baptize Nicole!!

Oct. 20, 2014 Santa Monica

Oct. 20, 2014 Santa Monica

Well this week was a little sad! but that's okay!  

Alex... is not getting baptized and it's really really sad! We went to his house over and over again and just couldn't find him it was really sad! He has had all of the lessons and went to church and everything 4 times.
Also this week, Daniel my convert has been drinking and it's really really hard on him. He hasn't come to church in 2 weeks! So please pray for him!

This week in church there wasn't a teacher so we had to teach for an hour on obedience!

But,  we have been teaching a family! They are awesome!  We have been teaching them for about a month.  They remind me of the Jacobs family! They have so much respect for the family and others! It's so great! One of the most powerful things that happened this week is with Johnny, a 10 year old! Bore his testimony without being a member!

It was the most powerful thing ever! And that's why I love the mission! I love the mission because, yes its tough, but there are always things that are amazing and fun!

This week I made this burrito for breakfast and boy Mom and Dad you guys would be soo proud of me!! haha It was sooo good!!! It had potatoes and eggs and ham and aww it was delicious!

Also this week we had the opportunity to give another blessing! I love love love the power of the priesthood! It's always a reminder to me of this great gospel that we have!  I am running out of oil! I love it!

The Spanish is coming! It's tough, but it's coming! 

I love my mission! Sorry I couldn't write much but really not much happened this week!  I hope that we have a baptism of Johnny this Saturday!  I love you guys all soo very much and thanks for all your support I love you!!!

I love this country and I love the people!

Elder Hammond

                                          These kids remind me of Jared! They are so awesome!!

The eggs I made!

                                                                         My zone!!

This is the family that reminds me of the Jacobs! Johnny and Carlos and their cousin which is the member crouching and their Mom which isn't married but loves listening to us!