Hard Week

Dearest Family,

Well this week was pretty tough. Basically all of our investigators dropped us :( I decided that because i was being so puffed up with pride cause i showed the ZL's whats up that now i am being punished and put in my place. But yeah it was really hard. Tracting is not working. noone is ever home. we knock doors for hours and maybe three people will answer. We are working really hard trying to help the members do missionary work and help us find people to teach but that isnt really working either. Richie is the only investigator that we still have. and he is doing alright. he is still just scared about getting baptized. James is not doing well. His countenance is dark now, and he is not the same person. his daughter is living with him and she is really baptist and told him that he doesnt need to be baptized because God has a plan for us and it doesnt matter if you are baptist mormon catholic or anything it doesnt change your fate. So taht was really hard for me to hear. and he told us that we are just wasting our time cause he is not going to change and he loves us too much to have us waste our time. so we dont really know what we are going to do to help him anymore. 

At least on the bright side i am getting really good at contacting! hahah that is all we do is just try and contact people all day everyday and we havent been finding very much and we havent been teaching very much. But i have faith that things will change and get better. We are trying to think of new ways to do things. we are going to just ride our bikes around everywhere and try and find people and then we are going to go store contacting when its bad weather. I want to have a sign that says free hair cuts and then they have to listen to a message if they want one but i dont know how well that would go over. haha 

Our neighbors broke into our car friday night. I was so scared because all my hair cutting stuff was out of the bag and flung everywhere and i was so sure that they stole it. but everything was still there. the only damage we had was they smoked inside so it smells like smoke. but nothing was stolen. That same night they woke me up cause they were outside screaming at each other. it was a crazy night. Oh the adventures that we have in the ghetto. its so fun! hahah

Well keep praying for Richie that he will get baptized and pray that we can find new investigators! I hope that yall have a happy thanksgiving and you take the time everyday, not just thursday to pray and thank heavenly father for those things that you are grateful for! i love you!

What? its Wednesday

Heeellloooooo!

Well its wednesday and its been crazy week already!

Monday the librarys were all closed and then yesterday was transfer meeting so we were basically in kingwood all day. so i am just now finding the time to email! so dont worry. im not dead or anything.

So i now have a new companion, Sister S. she came out a transfer after me and she is really awesome. i am excited to get to work with her and to do some serious work! Tonight we are teaching FHE in the branch and we are talking about missionary work (obviously) but we are doing what is called the willing and brief. you ask random people that you talk to and even your frineds if they would be WILLING to listen to a BRIEF message about. . . . whatever you think they need or would be interested in. it works really well and that is how we got R. alot of people are not interested or even want to listen but they may be willing. so if you use willing they are more likely to say yes. so its pretty much awesome and it works so well!

Well R has a baptism date! he is going to be baptized on december 7th. he is really nervous because he said that his family will disown him if he gets baptized. but he believes everything we are teaching him and he really loves the gospel. so we just need to pray for his family that their hearts will be softened. but we had the most amazing lesson with him. we wathced the restoration video with him and then after we talked about it and i invited him to be baptized and he accepted but then we talked about his family and how he was scared but we had our recent convert Nick there who his family disowned him when he got baptized so he was able to talk to him and really help him. the spirit was so strong! it was amazing. so we are just praying that he will have the courage and strength to go thru with his baptism.

J is doing so awesome. we havnt set a date with him yet. the spirit just keeps telling us the time isnt right yet. but he is super open to everything and he tells us that he believes that everything we are teaching him is true. His daughter is in town so we taught her too and that was really good. I love J so much. he is so sweet.

the primary program was on sunday and Marily was in it, but her mom didnt come. not even to watch her in the program :( it was really really sad. so we dont know if they are actually going to progress or not. we might have to have a make it or break it lesson.

Sister A, our most amazing less active lady we work with has her non member nephew, J, living with her. so we talked to him the other night whenwe went over and we are going to get him involved inthe YSA. he went and played soccer with them last night and the boys said that he loved it and wants to go again. so now we just need him to come to church! he is all tatted up and he has had a rough life but he is changing things around and wants to get in a new group of people so it will be so awesome for him to get involved with the boys. there are some really awesome guys in the branch so i am happy.

Elder C our DL went home yesterday. it was sad. he was a great DL. he is so funny. after the ZL's were being rude to us he was alll mad and kept telling us that we were better then him cause we were over it and he wasnt. haha but he is sweet and he was all worried and wanted to know if he had ever done anything to hurt us or make us upset. he is a big guy and when he stood up yesterday on the stand to go and bear his testimony his belt broke and everyone saw it. so he goes. dont buy belts from walmart. haha But our district is awesome. we were all supposed to teach 20 lessons last week wich is the mission standard and so we were all on board and then we were the only ones who actually ended up teaching 20 lessons. we sure showed the ZL's who is purpose driven. but we had a good time monday. sister clegg wanted to throw flour in all of their faces since she was leaving and she cant eat gluten. so that was pretty funny. we got elder chaves really good. but i love my district. the spanish elders are OBSESSED with us. they call us everyday and want to go to luch or do something. crazy guys. but we all do work and work hard so that is good.

Im still cutting hair like a boss and i dont miss many mondays without cutting hair. Things are going well and itis super! coldhere so that is awesome. I am happy and i am so glad taht i am here serving a mission. its the best thing in the whole world.

I hope that yall are doing well and that you are enjoying life. life is good. Know that i love you sooooo much and i pray for yall fer dayyyyys! have a good week!

Love sister hamilton

Learning

Family, i am glad that yall are doing well and that you survived your trip down south. Isnt the south awesome?! and Porter there are Lizards everywhere here too and they freak me out. i dont like them. But this week has been really good weather, and on thursday it was so rainy it flooded everywhere and cars were getting staled in the roads cause it was like driving in  a river the water was so deep. it was awesome! but now the mosquitos are out in full force with all the water left over. I might be one big mosquito bite by the time i get home! haha but i am having a great time.

I was pretty sick this week tho. i had a fever everyday last week except yesterday. I was so weak i could barely get out of bed. It was the weirdest thing. and my health was effecting the work so finally becauase i wasnt getting better i had the elders give me a blessing and now i am doing TONS better! alot of the members told me that htat is just what happends when the weather changes, because it will be super cold in the morning and then get really hot in the afternoon. and because of the humidity the cold goes into your bones and really chills you. now i just have a bad cold but its alot better then it was before!

So that having been said we didnt get much done this week. We taught a couple lessons and we found 2 new gators but i feel really bad cause we were going to kick butt this week and do work and then i was sick. but all i can do is just work even harder this week! Feeling bad about thigns doesnt accomplish anything. just got to work harder. But i had alot of time to think while i was down for the count. I was thinking about yall and the fun that you were having and how i was kinda sad that i was missing out on it, but then i was reminded of what elder bednar said at our stake conference before i left, that my absence will make more of an impact then my presence ever could. and i thought about how yall will have good memories from that trip and you will think about them and hopefully you will remember that i wasnt there and when you remembver that iwasnt there you will remember that i was serving a mission, and when you (especially Konor and Porter), think about how i was serving a mission you will remember that if i can do it you can do it, and you can do hard things and that serving a mission is the most amazing thing you could ever do with 2 years of your life and you will never regret the time that you spent in the service of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

I was having a hard day and talking about how i was worthless as a missionary and i should just go home and how i was missing out on everything and sister C said something very profound to me. She said that i will have the rest of my life to be with my family and to do worldy things, but i only have this 18 months to serve a mission and to give my whole self to the Lord. That really hit me. its so true. when i first came out i found myself wishing away my time and hoping that it would go by fast, and now that i am more then halfway done i am wishing for more time!  But all i can do is make the most of the time that i have here and to remember that i will never get this time back. this is sacred time because i am on the lords time. Serving a mission is so special and personal, I feel so privledged to be able to be out here and im so grateful for a family that supports me and encourages me to do better and to be better! My testimony of my savior has grown so much and i feel like i now have a personal relationship with him and i know that he is always with me and helping me along. 

I know that prayer works! we have so many members praying for our investigators and i know that yall are praying for our investigators and they are being blessed because of it. Last night J told us that he would get baptized! it is truly a miracle and i know that the lord softened his heart because of all yall praying for him. The spirit does wonders and works miracles on our hearts when we let it. 

We have been having a hard time with our zone leaders and last night it was really bad. i wont go into the petty details but lets just say that i was so mad after they hung up that i screamed bloody murder at the top of my lungs for about 45 seconds to let off steam. hahaha but i prayed for strength and charity to be nice to them and to support them as my leaders and this morning it was put to the test when they showed up at our door step and brought us something but told us that they werent really sorry they were just sorry enough to come over to save face. But i was able to just let it go and get over myself being a girl and i even gave them some cupcakes that i made. That may seem dumb and it kinda is but that was a big step for me. to bite my tongue, swallow my pride (because they were the ones in the wrong and they knew it they just woldnt admit it), and to forgive them and just show them christ like love. Charity is the hardest christ like attribute to master i think because there is so much that is a part of it. but that is why if you have charity you are good to go. but it is a life time process to have charity in your heart. just like conversion isnt an event it is a process. And i am so blessed to have this experience to help me in my process to becoming fully converted. yall think that you had a good time in Florida but i am really the lucky one to be here in Beaumont Texas Serving a mission! I love yall soooo soooo much! i hopeyou know that. I will be eternally grateful for the impact that each and every one of you have had on my life. yall have changed me and helped me become the person that i am and the person that i am striving to become.

have a good week!

Love sister hamilton