Dec. 19, 2015 Guayaquil

Dec. 19, 2015 Guayaquil

This week has been so amazing!  I am loving the mission more than you can even know! Right now we're in a place called Piñas! It's a place almost in the center of our mission. It's just a ton of mountains! We've come to see how all of the missionaries are and everything!  This week has been great! We had the great opportunity to have training meeting for new missionaries that come to the mission.  To see the fire they all have coming from the MTC! They are a little funny when they come but it gives us more desire to work!!

Just wanted to tell everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! The next time I'll talk to my family will be on Christmas!  I am SOO EXCITED For that!! To talk to my amazing wonderful and supportive family on Christmas!!  I love this work!! I love it with all of my heart! I know that as we are obedient and trusting in the lord he will bless us with more blessings that we can even imagine!! Obedience brings blessings but obedience with exactness brings MIRACLES!!  We are seeing them every single day!! I know Christ LIVES!!! He is OUR SAVIOR!! He was sent to save us and redeem us! I am learning and more than grateful to PREACH and defend His Faith for these last 18 months!! I will keep doing it!! I love you soo much!!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Elder Hammond

Dec. 12, 2015 Guayaquil

Dec. 12, 2015 Guayaquil

This week has been insane!!  I can't even believe how fast it has gone by and how many things we are doing!  I'm absolutely loving it!!  This week we have had the grand privilege to be and do stuff with the choir.  We are pretty much in charge of it! This week we took a WHOLE tour around the WHOLE mission presenting in front of every Stake that we have in the mission! I had the opportunity to be a narrator along with my companion, President, and the presiding Stake President.  For example, if we were singing in Dads stake, Dad would be the narrator! Kinda fun!! So we just BARELY got back from Cuenca.  We had that show last night!  We are all tired!  It is an amazing thing!! I love it!!   This week will be even more amazing!! We have soo many things to do and to plan for! Missionaries ending and coming to the mission,  the choir and so many other things! I LOVE IT!! 

A special moment this week was when I was in Loja! When I was there, there was a guy that was called David and his Mom would never give him permission to get baptized.  He would literally beg his mom balling his eyes out to be baptized! When I was there we worked our brains off to be able and gain the moms trust making food from the states and just EVERYTHING!  Then I had changes! A few weeks later when we had training mtgs. I saw the zone leaders that were in loja and they told me he got baptized!! So..When the choir was done in loja David CAME, he came up to me and gave me the biggest hug just crying and crying saying that we got baptized! By the end we were both crying of joy! He is defnitely a different man and THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!! I love you family and I love this church!! 

Love, Elder Hammond

The picture is a family I baptized in Naranjal!! Super fun to see them active in the church still!!

Dec. 5, 2015 A note to dad

Dec. 5, 2015

We went to a place called Santa Rosa, it's 4 hours from Guayaquil. We went to go work with some missionaries and split into divisions. We went on a bus and it looked like everyone was kind of down. We thought everyone needs a little lift, so I asked my companion, “hey bro, have you ever sang in a bus before, because we sing all the time in buses!?” So I asked the missionary by me, “Do you have your hymn book?” and he’s like, “yeah.” I was like, “ok good!  Follow me!” I went to the front of the bus and asked the bus driver to turn off the music, and this gringo missionary and I asked them (the people on the bus..) what was their favorite christmas hymn, and so we sang Angels We Have Heard on High! It was very neat! Then we went and the bus driver asked OTRA? Which means another? We sang another and then we invited the entire bus to be baptized and go to church, it was a really special experience for the new missionary;  but I have and do those types of things every day! If I don’t sing on a bus I preach and invite to the people on the buses that have 40 maybe 50 on them. Some people don’t listen, but most do. I really hope we can change lives! I’m just trying like it says in the scriptures INVITE ALL!! So that’s what we’re doing! I am giving my all to the Lord!

Elder Hammond

Dec. 5, 2015 Guayaquil

Dec. 5,   2015 Guayaquil

Well, this week has been AMAZING!! It has gone by fast soooo fast it's crazy!! It's been really fun and really busy!! We had to plan and organize so that the missionaries could go and do sessions in the temple! We have about 200 missionaries and some missionaries live more than 12 hours away (which is loja!) We did that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday! WE DID IT! It went soo well! Everyone in the whole mission was able to do a session and enter the temple even us!! WHAT A BLESSING it is to go to the temple and feel the spirit I LOVE IT!! Also what we're doing is called the Coro Navideño! We have done 3 shows here in Guayaquil! You can see more on the face book page, we have Mission Ecuador Guayaquil Sur 2013-2016! We are narrators and we get to present all of that this next week outside of Guayaquil, so this week is going to BE NUTS!! SUPER PACKED!! We also have new people coming soon and it's been amazing!


I want to share a cool story!!! On Wednesday we went and got people for the temple and 2 missionaries came up to me and said that they talked to my cousin Michelle here in the terminal! I thought that was so COOL!! So we got everyone loaded to sleep at the temple and we had 40 missionaries that we were in charge of!!
As I walk in the front entrance I hear JJJJJAAAAACCCCCOOOBBBBBB!!!!!!! I was like WHATT?!?! I looked over scared!!! Sure enough it was my beautiful cousin MICHELLE!!!! I had noo idea how to react!!! like noo idea. I couldn't even believe that I saw her!! let alone in the temple!!! I shook her hand and it was soo weird!! We started talking in Spanish and it was cool we took a picture and we both had to go do our own things!! I was like oh my gosh!!  My cousin!!!!!!!! POR FIN!!! I saw her!! I was like oh my gosh what do I do... like I didn't know!  It was amazing!! Wow, such a highlight in my mission! She is SOO GORGEOUS!!!! It's amazing! Anyways that's my week!!! love you all soo much!!
Love Elder Hammond