Well the library was closed yesterday so i am emailing today. Hope you didnt think i died or anything. Almost. Well its good to hear that everything is going good for everyone and i wish i could have been at the tournement with all you guys! Sounds like Kaci did good. That is so exciting that Garett is opening his call, I think that he is going to go to Florida. And did mardi get the stuff that I sent? Garett should have brought it over. but maybe you guys were still gone. And Send everything to my lake Charles address becasue I only get the stuff that is sent to the mission home once a month. And Lyndsi wrote me when i was in the MTC and I wrote her back. Maybe we will become friends again. It is weird talking to her agian but its good. Tell Kim Happy Birthday for me on Thursday! I sent her a card but it probably wont get there for awhile.
I loved your emails, expecially talking about bum and his friends. thats so funny. you will have to talke a picture of that and send it to me. I cant believe that paitny has grown that much already! I havent been gone for that long! haha And im glad porter likes imagine dragons so im not the only one. Kaci will just have to learn to like them. haha And andrew thanks for the advice and incouragement.
I will definately learn lots from this experience and hopefully be able to incorporate it into my life. I am trying to work harder and harder everyday and i can really feel the lord blessing and strengthening me everyday. I have really been thinking about the sign hanging in my room about when life gets to hard to kneel and pray. I spend so much time on my knees now. Pleading with the lord to soften the hearts of the people we are trying to teach, and to help me to have the spirit with me so that i will be able to speak with the spirit and touch their hearts and help them know that the gospel is what they have been missing in their lives.
Something really sad happened. They took the Elders out of our area and moved them to Sulphur which is 30 min away. so we now took over some of their area so our area is even bigger! We have been trying to make the switch over and take over teaching some of the investigatiors that they were teaching. they only had one progressing investigatior and we took him which is sad for them cause they were working so hard. so please pray for marcus that he will keep progressing and will get baptized!
Also I keep forgettting to mention that every thursday night we do this thing called the hour of power. we go to a members house and teach a lesson about faith and miracles. then we ask them to pray for us that we will find someone to teach. then we go out and knock doors for an hour from 6-7 and hope that we can find a family to teach. So it would be 5 your time. so please pray for us that we will be albe to find a family or someone to teach. it is amazing the miracles that come from it. we have not been successful yet but lots of other missionary in the mission have.
this last thursday, valentines day we actually got a door slammed inour face. yay my first one! The elders clapped for me when i told them that. We had them over to our porch cause i made them cookies for valentines day. haha and also another old lady told us we were breaking the law by going door to door. so i got a door slammed in my face, and an old lady going to call the cops all in one night. Happy valentines day to me! lots of love. hahah but no i really did have a good valentines day. I wrote you about it so you will have to wait till you get my letter and you can see what i did. haha
So I had to teach in district meeting on friday and it was pretty good. I think it was good for my companion to see that i actually know how to teach and i know what im talking about. my district leader asked her about our teaching and she kinda just avoided the question. so i think that she knows she needs to let me help, she just isnt ready yet. so i just keep praying for her while she is teaching and hope that everything goes well. She has been really sick the last couple days and i have been taking care of her. I rub oils on her feet and on her neck and make her put breath on her chest casue she is really congested. then I fill up her hot watter bottle and put her to bed. Its funny how my view of her has changed from a bully to someone who just needs to be loved and taken care of. I think it is my fault that i didnt take the time to get to know her before i judged her and made my opinions. it is still hard and sometimes i just want to punch her but I am gaining more love and charity for her everyday. I told her my whole Cole story because she was asking about something i dont remember but once i told her that she opened up and told me a story about this boy that she loved, just like I loved Cole and we were able to relaly connect and become closer becasue we had had somewhat of the same experience. it was a good bonding moment and She is starting to see that I am a human being instead of her Greenie.
I am so gratful that the lord hears and answers my prayers concerning her! There is no way we can ever be unified and teach if we are not friends and get along. so I know that the lord is preparing us little by little to be better teachers. We met with a man today named Travis who is from the Elders area and he was telling us about how he has been searching for the truth ever since he was younget becasue he doesnt agree with what he was taught growing up baptist. we have high hopes for Travis and we are praying already that he will know that what we will teach him is the truth that he is looking for! I think it is funny how much i am changing and relaly realizing what is important in life. Last night i just started randomly crying and my comp was like whats wrong? well i was crying becasue i was thinking about all the times that i yelled and the kids when i would be babysitting and i didnt have patience with them. So guys im sorry that i wasnt patiente with you and i hope you will forgive me for all the times that i yelled and was so rude when i was babysitting! I really regret that now and I can see how I needed to change that in my life. I love being away from you guys but hate it at the same time. I cant even tell you guys how much more i appreciate you and love you becasue i am not able to be with you. i realize now all the things that i took for granted and I know i will not be like i was when i come back.
Last night we had dinner with a fmily in the ward. they fed us Crawfish Bisque. it was REALLY good. Their oldest son reminded me so much of bum it was scary. He even had cute little dimples and smiled the same way. and he was talking about all this stuff that made me think of bum so much. haha But I am so grateful for you guys and all the love and prayers that you send my way! i pray for you guys too and I hope that all is well.
We had stake conference on sunday and it was a broadcast from salt lake. It was really good. Pres. Eyering was talking about prayer and how "A prayer at the moment of crisis may be too late, thats why we need to pray always" This really hit me becasue i realized that i need to do that more. I pray really really hard for investigatiors who are not working or are going to drop us or dont call us back. but i need to be praying hard for them always becuase when they decide to drop us it may be too late. And then Elder Scott was talking about marriage and familys and how satan is attacking marriage so much he said "When you travel, take a picture of your wife and display it to remind you of your deep love for her" so dad you better start taking a picture of mom everywhere you go! haha one last thing. I was reading my scriptures the other night when my comp. was stressing out and looking and the area book and how many people had dropped us that week. I came across Ecclesiastes 4:1,6. There is a time for everything and this is obviously just our time that we are losing instead of getting and being cast off instead of keeping. but i know that everything we are doing is for a reason and God is in control.
My district leader is an amazing guy and he was telling me the other night that God wont love me any less if i come home with 50 baptisims or 0. and that I will come home with one convert, Me, and that God will be pleased with that. it is something that i need to reamember because it is hard to not be successful when you see al lthe other missionarys around us being so successful. but I just need to improve my faith that God is in control and will provide a way. Love you all so much! Your the greatest!
Love sister Hamilton
