Road Kill

This week was really hard but full of miracles i would say. So lets start at the beginning.

Mon- was a good pday. i cut elder deckers hair and then we packed up to go to the mission home becasue we had sister conference tuesday. we picked up the trio of sisters that is closest to us and were driving. comp was driving and was out of it casue she wasnt doing very well but she wouldnt let me drive. so it was about 930 or so and toatally dark. we were ona two lane highway behind a semi and it was going really slow so we were going to pass it. the coast was clear so she went in the other lane to pass and when we were about halfway past the semi a car came out of nowhere and we were literally head on. i know im a drama queen and i exagerate alot but i am not exagerating at all when i say that i I saw my life flash befor my eyes. i thought of all of the things that i value most in life and it was like a saw a time line of my life go in front of my eyes. I was praying that my family would be watched over since i would be gone now, and then i heard a voice as clear as if  someone was right in my ear telling me that my time wasnt over yet and that i still had lots of work to do. and then all of the sudden it was as if god literally picked up our car and moved it and we were back on the right side of the road and we were all still alive. This was a miracle because there was no way that we should have come out of that alive. I am so grateful now for everyday that i wake up and i get another day to live.

Tue- was sister conference and it was good. We currently have 32 sister and hermanas in the mission and in july it is going to go up to 62 in the mission. so i am most likely going to be training this transfer and if not then defiantely the next. But sad news, Marcus dropped us :( We think that he is gay so he didnt like the fact that the elders wouldnt be teaching him anymore and he really doesnt like sister erickson. so he dropped us. I am really sad :(

Wed- We had a 4 hour companionship inventory and i just layed everything out on the table. It feels good to have everything off my chest and she is going to work on some things. Things are better now but still working on some stuff, but tons better. I should have done that along time ago. haha one of the things that she said bugs her about me is that i dont talk enough. so that night we were with the ward for this teacher appreciation thingy where the kids in the ward invite there teachers and they have  a program and a dinner. so we were waiting on tables and so just to prove comp wrong that i can talk when i actually get the chance i talked to a teacher who is catholic and teaches riligion at a catholic private school for like 2 hours. i bore my testimony and just talked about what i like about our church and asked him what he liked about his. It was a really interesting conversation but I was proud of myself that i did something hard and Proved to my comp that I can talk when she actually gives me the chance. 

Thu- Was the weirdest day ever. We met with the pentacostal lady i told you about awhile back casue she called and wanted to meet. So we went to her house and she was all like" i dont believe in coincidences so i prayed to god and he told me that the reason why yall knocked on my door was so that i could show you the truth." we listened to her politely and then when itwas our turn to talk she just was being rude and wouldnt listento anything. so we fianlly left. Then during our hour of power every single house that we knocked on and someone answered the people bashed on us and were super rude. one lady was like " im already saved and I dont have to go around knocking on doors to earn my way into heaven" I was like uhhhhhhh im knocking on doors to try and earn your way into heaven. She was rude. But whateves. Im over it.

Fri-Travis Dropped us.... :( But we decided not to let him. so we showed up at his house and talked and resolved his issues which were dumb. he was all like " the bible says that no man has seen god so i dont believe JS saw god." but then we were like have you ever read the bible. it says in so many places that prophets saw god. And moses talked to god face to face. " Those were all visions, they didnt actually see him in color and in the flesh." What about moses? "well i am going to have to look that up cause i never heard that before." Well so you believe in visions and people seeing god in visions? "Yeah" well JS had a vision. we call it the first vision. "Well why didtnt you say that before? yall are the worst teachers ever and you keep hiding things from me" we told you from the very get go that we are not perfect teachers and to ask question. " well I dont know if i believe the book of mormon. " then i said can you honestly look me in the eyes and tell me that you have been reading the book or mormon and praying to know thats its true, or have you been reading it just to find stuff that can contradict it in the bible? He was pretty stumped by that and just said " i pray all the time" But we worked things out and he siad we can come back even tho we got in a sass fight. haha
District meeting was interesting as usual. I was teling the elders monday that our DL picks on me so on friday when they saw that i was right they were just laughing their heads off all during the meeting. We went to go check on some less-actives in the ward that noone knows who they are and one of them had been dead for a year, and the other one moved and a muslim family lives there. It was interesting. hahah we had dinner with the ward RS pres and she just whined to us the whole time about how everyone expects too much from her and blah blah blah. then she gives us this list of pelple and is like will you go find out who these people are? we divided up the ward list and everyone in the pres got a list but i cant go to random ppls houses, i have a baby for heavens sake, what if its realy dirty. i have a baby i cant do it. So you guys can find out and just let me know. I was like oh gosh you are messed, but we will do the best we can. And she just wanted to gossip with us about everyone in the ward. Not a good experience.

sat-We had lunch with the conners. they are a returning less-active couple. she served a mission and he is a convert but he is more into the church then she is. They took us to a mexican restaurant and we had a good lesson on the atonement with them. Then i went on Hoarding; burried alive and helped our recent convert clean out her bedroom. It was sooo gross! her and her husband and their daughter are all really big and over weight so its hard for them to do stuff so she sat on the bed while we went thru everything. There was just piles and piles of stuff everywhere. There was a whole garbage bag full of dirty stained underwear that we had to go thru cause she wanted to see if there was any good ones she could use. There were clothes from years ago just everywhere. I decided to clean out the closet and that was a mess. There was a 4 inch thick layer of dust everywhere and it looked like cotton candy it was so thick. I organized the closet so they could actuallly use it now. we only got thru half the room and were were there from 1-6. They have cats and they poo and pee everywhere and they never vacuume anything. I want to just clean the whole house but we cant do everything for her. It was funny tho too. we found all of these clothes and she wanted to try them on to see if they still fit. so i was helping her get this shirt off of her head that was stuck and im sitting there pulling on it and it wasnt coming off. then she was trying on this denim dress and when she decided that it didnt fit she was pulling it off and she pulled off her shirt with it. she just looked down at her naked belly all confused and was like " well i used to have a shirt on. . . " hahah it was soooo funny i almost peed my pants. But i love her! she is the best. and we are trying to get our way in so we can teach her husband and thier daughter. Then they took us to dinner and that was good. then we had another dinner appt with Crystal, the Barbie. She is so sweet and always wants us to come over on the weekends. so we had two dinners and we just talked to her for awhile about missionary work casue she wants to come out with us sometime.

sun- was pretty good. These twin girls in the ward had their farewell, they are both going to brazil. they talked about the atonement and one of them read the poem that we usually read when we talk about the atonement. so now we cant use it anymore. haha. but they did good. Then after church we had dinner with a family in the ward and he told us his conversion story and it reminded me alot of garett, it was pretty cool. he is an awesome guy. They are the same family that we helped paint a couple weeks ago casue they are moving. The husband hates sister missionaries but he really liked me. he was like" i usually dont like sister missionaries but you are different. I like you. Your approved to be in my house now. " haha It was funny. Then we went to check on some less actives but noone was home anywehre so then we decided to stop by a families house that we have been trying to get in for weeks. The elders were teaching the dad but he wants his family to be involved so luckily they were home so we taught a L1 that we were not even prepared or expecting to teach and we dont even know how we got thru it. the Lord was really guiding us and it was a really good lesson and was alomost half and half with the teaching but I got to teach alot so i was happy. They all felt the spirit and mostly believed what we were teaching so it was amazing and they want us to come back and the daughter invited us to her graduation. haha it was funny. but they were really sad when they asked us what we were doing for easter and we told them that we are away from our families and everything that goes along with missionary work. But they are really awesome so we have 4 new investigators now! So pray for the Varner Family! Oh and The dad is the best, i love him so much. him and his son walked us out to our car when we were leaving casue it was dark and he hugged me like 6 times and then the son hugged me. so i have now hugged 3 men on my mission. Whoops! But if you saw the dad and how friendly he is and how sweet you couldnt turn him down either.

Well that was pretty much my week! Thanks for all the prayers coming my way! Its becasue of all of you that i am still alive and doing well! I know that God lives and that he watches over his missionaries. I know this church is true and i love being able to share the message of the restoration with anyone and everyone who will listen to me. I have felt the spirit testify to me so strongly that this is where i need to be, In lake Charles Louisiana and that i have a work to do here.  i know that jesus Christ is my savior and that he loves me and knows every single emotion that we ever experience.  I am so glad that it is easter and we get to refelect even more on his atonement and the love that he has for us and the love that God has for us by giving us his only son. I am so blessed and even tho its hard to be away, I just think of all of the families that i get to help be together forever and it makes it worth it to be away from you guys for this short time. I hope you know that i pray for you guys non stop and I am so glad that the lord is watching over you while I am away. I love you guys soooooo much and i miss you to pieces! hope you have a good week. Love sister Hamilton

Hey Guys!

Note: This is from February 4th
Thanks for all of the emails! I loved them and I miss you guys so much. I cant believe I have almost been gone for a whole month. it feels a lot longer then that. I have been thinking about you guys alot latetly, more then usual and I hope eveything is ok and all is going well. You guys need to tell me everything so i still feel like i am a part of your lives while I'm so far away. 

I am 41/2 hours away from the mission home and in Louisiana. Its called lake Charles. I was really excited when I found out that i was going to Louisiana  Sunday was really hard for me because of the time difference i was at church the same time as you guys. I couldn't stop crying and I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting thinking about you guys sitting at church in Utah. I keep replaying our conversation on Monday over and over in my head and wishing that it could have been longer. I cant wait till mothers day when I get to see you guys on skype. I am glad that porter got a turtle and named in after me although i don't think that i ever bit you, you should have named it after mom cause she bites us all the time. I cleaned the bathroom in the apartment today and I thought of Paityn the whole time and i hope you are having fun cleaning the bathroom at home. I bet it is nice and clean all the time now that I'm gone. I wish that i could have been there when bum got ordained! You will have to send me some pictures of him in his cute little suit! I miss my cute little bummy bum. 

I am glad that you are doing missionary month. That was always my farovite and it is NOTHING like being on a real mission but it is still fun and makes you think about those things. I dont really know what you could do to make it more like a real mission. you would have to take everyone away from their families for a month and that would be an experience. haha But you will have to keep me updated on how it goes. I am in the area that Sister Cheney left from and I am with her old companion. My bike is really nice i like it. i haven't had the chance to ride it yet because we have a car too that we usually drive. But we have to use a lot of miles this month to get to some far away meetings so we will probably start riding tomorrow. The weather has been really nice. not too hot yet. I got a water bottle with my bike so i use that and drink alot every day so dont worry. And i sleep with my diffuser right by my bed everynight. I have been having relaly bad stress headaches a lot and I had to get another blessing because my head was hurting so bad. i am hoping that it will get better the longer i am hear and the less stressed that i get. I am losing weight because I cant eat I am so homesick. The only thing i have ate is trail mix and mini oranges. I am praying really really hard that I will be ok and i can do this hard thing. I am still waiting to see how my efforts will help people. We have been tracting a lot and most everyone is catholic or baptist and they don't want to talk to us. We have left pamphlets with a couple of people but no one has called us back. My campanion had a coulple of investigatiors but they all canceled on us this week so we have just been teaching lessons to less active members. I feel like i am living in the movie princess and the frog because I am in louisiana and close to the coast and all the Bayous.  There is this cute little old lady Sister Fruge (Froo-shay) And she is the white version of mama Odie. She has no teeth and has the exact same body type and says alot of the same words. she calls us baby and suga and honey and she has a little dog instead of a snake and she loves him except for when he goes "tee-tee" on her carpet in her room then she lockes him out. She is really sweet. My companion doesnt let me teach. She does all the talking and I sit there like an idiot. If i try and say something she willl cut me off or just talk over me. I talked to her about it and she said that i dont know enough so she has to keep training me before i can help teach. and who knows how long that will be. So for now i just sit there while she teaches and look like i dont know anything. Its really frustrating.She is 23 and she thinks that I am a baby and should have waited longer before i came out. Its all just part of a mission tho and im worlking through it. It is mardi gras right now so that is pretty cool that I can say i was in Louisiana during Mardi Gras. I will have to send Mardi somthing official and mardi Gras for her birthday. Keep sending letters. I haven't got any in a whole week and I feel so lonely. My address is 1531 Country Club Drive #911 Lake Charles LA, 70605. One of the elders in lake charles we figured out that we were in symphony together so that was fun. I am going to cut their hair today and my comps. And yes her name is Sister Erickson and She is from Provo. There is really nothing else to tell you. nothing really has happened. Just go tracting all day long and somtimes teach a less active lesson but noting too exciting. Hopefully something will happen soon. I love you all so much and I miss you to pieces! I hope everything is going well and i sent you a letter and I wll write another one today with some spiritual stuff in it since this is all just fluff. I promise im a missionary. haha write me soon! I love you all sooooooooooooooooooooooo Much!   Sister Hamilton Ps the pictures are all from the MTC with my MTC comp sister conder. we found and elder that looked like russell and Elder wood thought my diffuser top looked like a yamaca. Elder woods birthday was while we were there so we bought hims stuff and wrapped it in toilet paprer. The two guys one of them poly were my district leaders in the MTC. me and my comp both had bears so we took pictures of them. There is a picture of my bunk in the MTC and then A picture of us on the bus going to the airport monday morning with elder whimpey in the background. Ok nevermind i still cant get my camera to work. maybe i will just have to send it home and you can send it back. Love you!

Hey, Hey, Hey

Well I am going to NASA on Monday for a zone P-day and then I am doing exchanges on tuesday, and then i have new missionary training on Wednesday so i had to email today so you would hear from me before thursday. haha but none of you have emailed me back so i don't have anything to respond to. But i did get your package on Tuesday night. Thanks guys! Your the best! But you are trying to fatten me up or something. I have to be careful and not eat only candy all the time. haha But I love all my valentines and they are hanging up on my wall. And i am glad that porter included Lucious. I thought he was dead cause no one ever said anything about him. So i am glad that he is alive and well. I miss my little Lucious.
 But i am glad that you all had fun in Cali without me. was the weather good? Did you guys go to the beach or anything while you were there or just watch some serious laxin from kaci? And kaci I am super confused who died? Mardi hasn't written me for awhile so i have no idea what is going on. you should write me all the deets cause i don't know whats going on. hahah I had the weirdest dream about the death of whoever. I will have to write you about it. hahahah anyway I am glad you are all alive and well and thanks for the pic of Gary and telling me where he is going. I guess he forgot about me cause I told him to email me when he found out and he didn't  But don't worry dad, i am not emailing him back. Anyway. I had a dream Tuesday night that he went to the same misison as Cole and Cole was his trainer. it was pretty funny. But nope he is going to the same mission as Quin Ashton. 
Well I guess i should tell you about my week now. So Wednesday we had zone conference in Orange Texas and it was really good. The mission pres, his wife, the AP's, and the mission Dr and his wife all came and they taught us stuff. I guess missionaries have been getting hit and killed while riding their bikes so we talked about bike safety for awhile. and then we talked alot about numbers and such. Every companionship is supposed to be getting 1 baptism every month so that the whole mission will have 50 baptisms every month. So we are trying our best but our area is pretty rough. But I had Gumbo for the first time at zone conference. it was pretty good. nothing too special tho. I didnt really love it but it was interesting. then I had Gumbo again on Thursday with a family in the ward. So now im just full of Gumbo. Wednesday night we had dinner with the stake RS pres. she is really nice. she was super busy so she just took us to chick-fil-a but we had a good chat. we were talking at dinner the pres told us that she has two kids who are less-active and her youngest son says that he is gay, but he doesn't practice it or do anything about it. But I could tell how hard it was for her to tell us that and how much pain she has in her heart for her two kids that are less-active. I know that is has nothing to do with the parents and everyone had there agency and can do what they choose. I said some stuff to her and she was like "Well there are six kids in my family an none of them are less-active, 
On thursday we met with T again. It was AMAZING! He is so cool. he is this big black guy who has earrings and wears alot of jewelry and he was telling us about how people judge him because of the way that he looks but if they took the time to get to know him and see his heart they would see that he is a man of God just looking for the truth. He had so many good questions for us and he is really really interested. He likes to have proof of everything but everything we told him so far he agrees with, except tithing, because in the new testament it got rid of paying one tenth and says give as you prosper. so he was kinda worried when we told him that we believe in paying one tenth. But I am excited to keep teaching him, and I just got right in there when we were teaching and I didnt let my comp. talk over me because i had so much to say and so i was happy about that. He said he is going to start reading the book of Mormon cause he is looking for the truth and we told him he would find it in that book. so hopefully we will keep that commitment also on Thursday for our hour of power we were walking along this busy road and there werent that many houses but we went to this one little house and there was this old man that came out and talked to us and the whole time he just kept looking us up and down and commenting on how pretty and young we were. it was really creepy but he didnt want to talk religion because he is Catholic, not practicing but born and raised that way and he isnt going to change. but we could talk about other things if we wanted. So yeah we left. but he was a genuine Cajun, it was funny. there are not that many real Cajuns left in Louisiana but we found one. 
Then on friday our zone leaders called us for the second week in a row and were not satisfied with our numbers that we planned for the upcoming week. This really upset my comp. I read my scriptures and Planned lessons for the Less-actives that we visit.  So we played clue for awhile then we went to the library to do Mormon.org stuff. then we went back home and got ready to go to a picnic with the stake pres. and his wife and they were bringing a less-active from the ward. It was really fun and it was cold so i loved it! But everyone else was too cold so they packed up and left and we didn't get to give our message because they were too cold, but they said we would do it again sometime soon. Then we had a lesson with our Recent convert Susan, we were going to take the relief society pres with us and talk about visiting teaching, but the pres ditched out on us just like everyone in the ward does when it comes to coming with us to lessons. its so frustrating. So we planned a new lesson to give Susan but we were visiting when we first got there and then her husband came home and we were talking to him and then he was hungry so Susan had to go make him dinner so we left and didn't get to give our lesson for the second time that day. When we were leaving the Husband, Rod gave my companion a hug! So we were laughing and i was teasing her about hugging a man and everything was fine and dandy and the previous sadness of the day was gone. But then Our zone leaders called again to apologize or something and that got her going again so she started crying and was mad again after they hung up, so i called out district leader and he came over and gave her a blessing. I tried to help but she wouldn't talk to me so i just rubbed balance, serinity, lavender and wild orange on her feet for A LONG TIME. It was a long night. And then it was even longer because i had a nightmare and i couldn't sleep so i layed in my bed for most of the night and early morning trying to fall asleep. it was not good.
 then this morning my comp wouldn't get out of bed again. so i just did my daily study and started writing letters cause today is our kind of P-day. But any who. I have a lot of fluid in my ears and today when I woke up I had dried crusty puss in my right ear. I put Meleluca on a cotton ball and stuck it in my ear and rubbed some on the outside. Should i be doing anything else to help it? I haven't been able to hear out of it for the past couple days because it is clogged but i hope its just cause of the weather change. 
Well I don't know what else to tell you. . . . This week has gone by really fast and we are getting excited because we actually have people we are teaching! Yay! I'm really excited and i keep telling my comp that she needs to let me teach, so i get to sometimes. We only have one person in the whole ward who will ever come out with us and so we have to use her a lot because if we go to teach a single man, we have to have another adult woman with us or we can't go in their house. I feel bad cause she comes so much but she is a saint and I love her! Well I hope all is going well and that you guys are having fun up in Logan for the old version of sweet hearts that is going on. and Kaci I am sorry you didn't get to go to sweet hearts, but at least you got asked! and three times, that awesome! Your just such a foxy moma the men cant resist!  I wish i could be there with everyone but give them all my love! Miss you all so much! But the 5th of march is my transfer mark so i will have been out here for a whole transfer! One down 11 to go! haha But I am staring to really love the people and things are getting better every week, well most every week. Love you all bunches and bunches! Sister Hamilton