New President and HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALLIE!

Hello everyone!

What a wonderful week! Here are a few highlights-

Thursday night I went to La Banda for splits! It was great! I love it there! I worked with Hermana McCrae. She is great. She was talking to me and encouraging me about my Spanish. She said something that touched my heart. She said God is blessing me with the gift of tongues. From day one I have been able to say what I want to with no problem. She said that is because there is no time to waste. He needs me right now right here to preach the word of God. It made me realize how blessed I really am right now. I know Spanish and that truly is a miracle. I need to take advantage of this wonderful gift that He has given me and use it to change lives. THERE IS NO TIME TO WASTE! 

I got back Friday night and we had a ward council... the first one in YEARS. We were running late and took a taxi. I started talking to the driver and asking him the usual questions. I felt the impression to ask him if he believed in God. He said honestly, "no. My mom died a few years ago and I don't feel like there is a purpose in life." This response just about broke my heart. It was a very special experience to sit there and tell him where his mom is. To tell him he would see her again. To tell him he IS a child of God and has so much potential. I definitely shed some tears. I thought I would be tougher with crying but I can't help it. I have been thinking a lot about my ancestors. Those in our family who have passed on to the other side of the veil. 

Sunday was a very special day for us. We taught a lesson in the morning and then got to church. Calling and calling and calling investigators. Oscar said he was on his way but was all the way in La Banda. We had lost hope when we were waiting outside and saw Valeria walk up. She doesn't have permission to come to church... she snuck out!! She's incredible. She wants to serve a mission and is preparing herself spiritually to go to the temple... and she hasn't even been baptized! Then sacrament meeting was about to start and I was satisfied. Then I hear Hermana C say Oscar's here... I looked and there he was!! We had a very long talk with him last night after lots of study and sincere prayer about his situation. We decided to work on his testimony and ask him when he wants to get baptized. He has finals for 2 weeks and picked the 12th. We prayed and truly feels this is what Heavenly Father wants. Please pray for him; that satan won't temp him and he will be able to resist the power satan has on him already. So then we are sitting in sacrament meeting is about to start and a member out in the hall motions us to come here. Mercedes shows up!! I don't think you know her yet... she is Oscar's girlfriend. She is progressing and wants to be baptized too! HOW GREAT IS THAT!!! I couldn't help but sing the first hymn crying because I was so happy. Wow... lots of tears this week. It was an incredible day.

Update on Juan- he finished The Book of Mormon! He has a baptism date of the 19th! Please pray for him. He has a smoking problem but we know he can do this!

One more thing. We were teaching the mom of a member this week. She is VERY Catholic. We were teaching the restoration. She usually just agrees with us and then just blabbers on about random stuff. Well she did... I was getting sick of her not feeling the spirit how she should. I cut her off and said, that's all great Hermana but what we are trying to say is that the catholics don't have the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She looked at me like I was crazy, her daughter had the biggest smile and I began to teach her for like the 100th time that we have the fullness of the gospel in our day. Right now. In Cabildo. She was like, really?? LIGHTBULB!!! Haha that was pretty neat. She told us she would pray to receive an answer from God.

We are getting a new President today!!! What! I am very excited and I know I will get very close to him and his wife.

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALLIE!! 14 years old!!! Love you!

Okay I think that is about all. I am absolutely loving every day of my life right now. We are seeing miracles happening and lives changing. I can't believe Heavenly Father trusts me enough to teach His precious children of Cabildo. I will forever be grateful for this experience. I have said it before but it is truly priceless and timeless.

Until next week,

Hermana Hammond

Happy Birthday Callie Bell!

I LOVE MY COMP!!!

This darling little boy was just standing outside... praying I guess...
hahahaha seriously the CUTEST thing!!!

Los niños...

Hola everyone!

This week was great. Oscar still hasn't been baptized. Seriously we are learning so much from him. He is suffering a lot and Satan just has so much control over him. We are continuing to visit him and he really is progressing. Just not on baptism days... 

Okay our new bishop is DE 10!!! (It's a phrase here... like saying he's a 10) He seriously is incredible. There were 62 people at church on Sunday. My first week there were 25... MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING! We have a goal to have 100 before Hermana Creason goes home at the beginning of September. It is so happening. We are now rolling and working together. We finally feel like we can be missionaries and teach new people instead of trying to pick up the pieces with less actives. It is so cool to watch the work take off.

Wednesday Elder Blackner (district leader) challenged us to a competition... whoever had 20 contacts first wins and whoever is the last to get 20 contacts has to bring a treat to the next district meeting. A contact would just be talking to someone on the street or wherever, leaving a passalong card, and inviting to church or something like that. Well we had 20 before lunch... it was awesome! Then he texted us and said... no you need to have 20 each missionary... so we got 20 more. He was kidding but we ended the day with 45 contacts, the elders had 20 and the other elders had 9... Needless to say I am excited for district meeting. Haha. 

So this week Hermana C got sick. Friday she couldn't go out and work. She slept most of the morning and then we called the zone leaders to see if there was someone from the Stake who could go out with me while she stayed with a member. And there was! Hermana Elsa (yeah.. frozen... I love her) came to Cabildo! We went and dropped Hermana C off at mama Sivetti's house and we went and worked! It was a great experience for me! I knew where everyone lived and sort of started the lessons. It was different but I loved it! Hermana Elsa was great! She gave awesome input and we had some very spiritual lessons! It was really cool. 

Yesterday we had a family night with a family in the ward. They are less actives but the awesome thing is they always bring their nonmember friends! Every time we go over there we have a new investigator! One of them his name is Juan... funny story. We taught him earlier this week... he was super interested in The Book of Mormon and faith. We left him a Book of Mormon and told him to read the introduction and Alma 32... well we went back and he had read the intro UP TO Alma 32!!! What the heck... it had been 5 days!!! He said he would stay up until 5:30 reading some nights! So he is definitely on track to baptism. Then at the noche de hogar we watched Finding Faith in Christ. There were kids everywhere!!! Climbing all over me and when we tried to leave I had 3 kids hanging on my back and my arms. It reminded me of all my cousins! They were crazy but adorable!!! 

Okay I am out of time... speaking of time.. it's going by way too quickly. But I am loving every minute! Thinking and praying about everyone! Thank you for all you do in return!

Lots of love and hugs!

Hermana Hammond

gave myself a facial... it rocked.

The Silvetti's took our measurements and wrote them on the wall...
we really are their daughters :)

TRANSFERS!!

Hello family!

 

Transfers were this week!!! What??? Hermana Creason and I are staying here! Elder Blackner played a joke on us though... he said Hna C was going to get transferred, leaving at 1:30 am and that I was training... not funny. But yay!!! Hermana Creason hasn't had a companion longer than 1 transfer so I am the longest!! 

I am SO EXCITED for the things that are happening here. Our bishop is INCREDIBLE and ahhh I just love it here. I will give a brief summary of my week but this letter will be short. 

So we found Oscar! He is suffering a lot. I don't know if I said this already but last time he was almost baptized his dad passed away that morning. That was 4 months ago. He wants to be baptized so bad but Satan is really working on him. We taught him a very spiritual lesson and he feels a lot better now. We are planning on his baptism being this weekend so I hope it works out. Please pray for him that he will have the strength to resist the temptations of Satan. 

As far as investigators go we are just trying to find new people. We are working a lot through the less actives here. 

OH YEAH! The World Cup! So haha we knew Argentina would be playing and the game started at 7 so we just moved our studies to the night. We could hear fireworks and people in the other apartments watching the game so we had a pretty good feel who won. ARGENTINA!!!!!!!! We definitely have some A-town pride!

Alright that is all for this week.

I love you all and can't thank you enough for your thoughts and prayers. This truly is the Lord's work and I am so incredibly blessed to be a part of it. 

Have a fantastic week everyone!

Love,
Hermana Hammond

Dog on the roof...just a day in the life. 

The best zone ever: Zona Santiago del Estero

A Typical Sam Picture

With Elder Slighting.  I forgot to add in my letter I spoke at the zone training this week and in sacrament meeting yesterday... nothing like testing my Spanish than that! Haha!

What garbage?

The familia Silvetti! This family is the best!

They love River. It is a team down here so we bought jerseys and had them sign it. They FREAKED OUT! AHH I love them!

The view from the Bishop's apartment.... it's incredible.

Argentina Pride

Craziest greatest week EVER!!!

Family and friends, 

I don't even now where to begin... I have to take this week day by day.

Monday- 

Okay so every Monday we have a lesson with Carlos and Mirium. We're pretty sure they're dating but that doesn't matter. Long story short they are 2 professors and know a ton of stuff about the bible and tons of religions. And here we are 19 and 21 year old girls teaching the doctrine of Christ. It's pretty cool. Last Monday he brought up a lot of questions about when life actually starts and it really wasn't relevant but whatever. Then he talked about the commandments and asked if when I'm a mom and a guy walks into my house and is about to kill my kids and I had a kitchen knife in my hand would I kill him? I said absolutely. He wasn't happy with that answer because it would be breaking a commandment. I tried explaining it more but he wasn't satisfied. I told him I change my answer... I would cut his arms off. He raised his finger to contradict me and opened his mouth. He thought about it for a second and then let out a sigh of defeat. GOT HIM! Haha, he was actually really touched by my answer. He then explained that he has never felt such peace talking about religion than he has with us. And he said he has talked to about everyone. They said they would come to church yesterday but didn't. 

Tuesday- 

Okay. So Tuesday night.... really need to make a long story short but we found cockroaches living in our wall... we went to sleep terrified. 

Wednesday-

We woke up to 67 dead HUGE cockroaches in our apartment. We called an exterminator and he came to spray poison stuff... he came to check out the apartment and he walked in and said "yeah it smells like cockroaches". That was comforting. He said he could fumigate it later that afternoon. The problem is that we couldn't sleep in our apartment. So we had to go sleep in La Banda. He came and did his thing and then we went down on the first floor... he used a crowbar to open a box in the floor where all the plumbing is. We were watching from outside. The lights are on a timer and at the moment he opened the box, the lights went out. All we could see was the floor moving. Oh you guys it was so gross. Then he closed the box after sweeping cockroaches back in and then came outside. He had 4 on his back and 1 crawled in his shirt!!! We paid him and he left... what the heck!?!?!?! We left too but felt bad about it so we went back to clean it up. (See photos.)

So we had to leave our apartment. At that point we hadn't had any lessons and we still had to travel to La Banda (where Sam is p.s.). We decided to go to a less active family because their kids aren't baptized. IT. WAS. THE. WORST: They were totally disrespectful and smoking and ugh it was awful. I was so angry with them. AND I got like 20 mosquito bites... so we left feeling discouraged and tired. We got to La Banda and slept on old mattresses and really were disappointed in our day. 

Thursday-

We went back to our apartment and only found like 25 cockroaches! Not as bad as we thought! We cleaned, studied and planned. That night we had a lesson with Valeria. She said her mom still hasn´t given her permission. We are working on it.

Friday-

So today we found the greatest investigator on the planet. She is a referral from the elders. It is absolutely incredible to listen to people pour out their lives and concerns just so openly. I felt very honored to listen to her and then to help her by teaching the gospel. Ahh I am so happy. Her name is Belinda. 

Friday night we had a ward activity. We taught about the family and we had milinessa sandwiches. So fun. So yummy.

Saturday-

Oh my Saturday... Okay! So in the morning we went to buy a few things for the baptism and also we needed to pay our rent.  We went back to the apartment after to study and make banana bread for the baptism. We were just about to start studies when we get a text from Oscar. He said he's not coming. We drop everything and run to his house. He's not there. We feel the prompting to call Valentina and see if she got her paper signed saying she can be baptized. She didn't. So now we have NO ONE! We went to Valentina's house and she and her brother went to her mom's house. We went to find Oscar but couldn't. Gosh this story is too long. The short version, we couldn't find Oscar and are going to try again tonight. But VALENTINA GOT BAPTIZED!!! Oh it was so beautiful! I gave one of the talks and her mom was there! She isn't a member but told us she wants us to come over this week! It was incredible! 

Sunday-

Valentina got confirmed and we have a bishop!!! Finally!! He is a young man that just moved into the ward with his wife. No kids yet. He is perfect!! Oh there is so many good things happening here it is absolutely incredible to be a part of. 

Ahh my time is up. I love you all so much! 

Hermana Hammond

What was in our apartment.

Giant grasshopper thing.

What was in the plumbing? Ew!

Ward Party

Valentina's baptism!

Valentina's confirmation!

I LOVE MY COMPANION!!!

Add caption

¡Hola! ¡Adios!

Wow, so I have a lot of random stuff to say... Haha so good luck trying to follow!

First of all I am talking in my sleep.. there is a crazy family that lives above us and never sleeps... last Tuesday Hermana Creason asked me if I knew I talked in my sleep... I said I usually have no idea what goes on while I'm sleeping. She said in the middle of the night she could hear footsteps above us that woke her up. She said I moved a little bit and then said, "Somebody's clogging." I have no recollection of that. Hahaha.... anyway. 

Good news! Our district leader said my plan is to stay here for 6 months!!!!!!! He told me in district meeting and I got so excited! I had been praying for that! I love Cabildo and I want to do a lot of work here. Nothing is for sure (obviously) but that is what the plan is! Whoop whoop!

 

Next item of business, THE BACKSTREET BOYS ARE BACK TOGETHER!?!?!?! WHAT?? Haha we were in a lesson with Oscar and he had one of their music videos on. He told us they were back together and we about fainted. As a result of that we had all of their songs in our heads. All. Week. Speaking of Oscar, he's getting baptized this Saturday! Yay! 

And speaking of baptisms Valentina is getting baptized too! I don't think I've said anything about her yet... She is 11 and is so darling! Her brother is a less active but she wants to be baptized so bad! She had her mom drive her to church Sunday! SHE'S 11! Ugh I love her. 

We have been so blessed this week. The ward is starting to work together! We have been hearing of people going and visiting less active members and doing missionary work. That hasn't happened here in YEARS! There actually used to be 2 wards here and Cabildo was the strongest area. Now it's the weakest but we are seeing the biggest change! That's why I want to stay here. I love the people. 4 different people now have said I look like a "muñequita" which means little doll. Sweetest people!! Here is some other random stuff.

We are helping a boy in our ward with his mission papers! It is a lot harder all in paper and not online. Count your blessings. 

We didn't have light for like 3 hours... all is well now. We are learning to be adults and pay the bills. 

Haha, another thing here... when you are walking by someone and say "Hola" they say "Adios" hahaha I'm like what? You have to say hello before you say goodbye! It's so funny and never gets old.

 

Cool/weird experience, when we are teaching and go over 40 minutes I get super sick. The spirit leaves so fast because I know we shouldn't be there anymore. The hardest thing for us is to get a chatter box Argentine to stop talking. After about 40 minutes my stomach hurts, I get very anxious, and my heart starts pounding really fast. I told Hermana Creason this and she says it's because the spirit leaves me. I hate it. I am working on taking more control and really the goal is to have 20 minute lessons. I'll report back on that next week.

 

I want to end with a spiritual thought. I was reading Helaman 5 this week and want to share my thoughts with you. It says the word "remember" about 14 times in the first 14 verses but what is cool is that in Spanish it says something a little different. When it says "remember" and is talking about the words of someone it says "agree". I love that! Instead of just remembering what we are taught we need to agree. I've reflected a lot on the sweet priceless memories we had as a family before I left. I very often have the testimonies of that night playing in my head. It is a great thing for me to recite and I can feel our family growing closer and stronger. I love you all so much! I can't say thank you enough for your prayers. This work is remarkable and irreplaceable. 

Until next week, 

Hermana Hammond

Valentina :)

We ate empanadas the size of our heads!
So yummy but I started to feel like I was an empanada...

This is our lovely garbage basket... gotta love A-town.