Elder Jacob Todd Hammond: August 18, 2014 Santa Monica

Aug. 18, 2014 2nd Month

Happy birthday to my absolutely beautiful Grandma Hammond and my wonderful Aunt Teri!!

We had my first baptism! It was flat out awesome! The spirit was soo strong! He is a big guy so he had to do it 2 times but it was awesome! I loved it!
I love how the people sing here! It's just awesome and so funny! They don't really know the tune so they just sing the words and it's soo awesome because it's soo wrong and I love it! and I sing so loud and so does everybody else! haha it's so awesome!

I totally learned the beginning of Avatar in Spanish! haha super super sweet! Fuego Aire Agua Tierre! haha

I was a little sick on Tuesday and Wed.I am not for sure why.. but, it wasn't fun that's for sure! haha I'm better now, thanks to the Lord! Seriously! I could be sick for anything out here just breathing the air! haha so I'm grateful!

New accomplishment! I can totally flip a pancake! yeah!! don't mess with me! haha I can flip a pancake without a spatula!! haha I love it!!

This week we worked hard in the hot sun of Ecuador! I say hi to literally everyone here! The best and funniest thing was... I was walking down the street and this guy saw us coming and he crossed the street so he didn't have to say hi to us!! haha I want the people to know me by the guy who ALWAYS had a book of Mormon in his hand and he had a smile on his face and said hi to me! Everybody should say that! So I am going to do it!

A guy we taught was totally interested until we taught him about the Book of Mormon and then he left! We were like ...what??

Sunday.. in the morning we like gather Israel for church. All the less activos, all the people and cry unto the people that church is at 10:30 and still they don't come, but 6 people came today YES!! haha but after church we had almuerzo with a lady and she made food for us that we couldn't eat.. haha so we ate plain rice. It was soo sad because I was starving!! It looked so good, strawberries and aww yeah we couldn't eat it! haha

I didn't realize how much I missed music until some people across the way started listening to burn... and dynamite.. and One Direction. Then, I was like ohhh OKAY you crossed the line!! It was like I'm studying the book of Mormon! haha
Spanish is super super tough! It's the hardest part! It's very hard, but I am just trying so hard to understand and do my best! haha I love it!

Something I learned this week..

Agency is huge.. we can't make people come to church, to listen and it just makes me realize how much the Lord gets maybe frustrated when we know what is right and we don't make the right decision.--- also I learned in a scripture in Alma 59.9 It's so much easier to keep a member in the church active than to let fall into the hands of the world or the lamanites! haha

My week was amazing and good but hard! I love it here! I love the hard things that come and I just say Bring it ON!!

Love

Elder Hammond

At the baptism of Fernando Nath