100 days

Well this week was so weird. but it was good. I hit my 100th day away from home on Thursday and 80 days out in the field. almost three months out in the field. crazy stuff! it doesn't feel like it has been that long but it feels like a million years since i have seen you guys! i miss you so much!

Mon- we had a good p-day  we did the usual then we went to Leslees house and they fed us po-boys and we had a good talk with her husband who is not a member and he said the only think that prevents him from being a Mormon is that he believes in reincarnation and Mormons dont. so that was weird. then after that we went to outback with the elders to have a farewell dinner before hooker and erickson left. that was really fun. i am going to miss the 4 of us being together. we had lots of fun.

Tue- brother burnthorn, our WML came and got us at 6, we loaded up and went to get the elders then we were on the road to kingwood by 6:30. it is a 21/2 hour drive and we had to be there by 9, because me and elder decker had a training meeting. that was for an hour and then all the babies walked in. I was telling erickson that i was going to be punished and that my baby was going to be someone that i knew from one of the places that i had lived before and it was going to be someone that i didn't get along with. well guess who was one of the babies that walked in? ANNA DAINES. I was so scared and i was like oh my gosh i was right, this is going to be the worst thing ever and i was freeking out. so then we all went into transfer meeting and all the babies stood up and introduced themselves and all that and then when Anna stood up she said hermana Dianes and i had a huge sigh of relief. haha it was scary.Then i got put with sister Barton and it was all good. the ride home was interesting. Elder deckers baby is really funny. he was talking to me cause my baby was totally silent. so we were talking and i was asking him where he was from and he was telling me and then he was like its actually part of the colorado springs mission. and i was like oh really. my special friend is going there on his mission. and he was like your special friend? you mean your significant other? then he siad wait what is his name? and i said Elder Bolles, then he was all shocked and was lik I know him! I talked to him at the MTC outside the bathroom, we were talking and he asked me where i was going and i told him, then he was all like "My girls in Texas! Tell her that i said Hi!" haha it was pretty funny. he said it to me in a perfect garett voice. it was so funny. So he told me taht he forgot my name and who he was supposed to say hi to, but hten it was me. Brother Burnthorn like to joke with ppl so he was telling Elder Gilbert all sorts of crazy stuff and for some reason elder Gilbert thinks thought that louisiana was the country so he was alll like "do the members give us fresh milk?" hahaha so funny. i like him already. he is a good kid. So we got home and got all situated and sister Barton unpacked and i took her to the store so she could get food. 

wed- we went tracting  ALL DAY LONG! it was so frustrating and we talked to so many ppl and only one person said we could come back and she didnt even want to talk about the church, just missions cause she was a missionary in africa for 45 years for some baptist church. then we had an appt with a potential but she wasnt answering the door so taht was anoying. then we did more tracting

thur-we met with travis and it was a really good lesson. he has read alot of the book of mormon. he read MSH 15 and was really hung up cause it talks about how christ is the father and the son, so he thought that we were lying to him about believeing in  the trinity. I was led by the spirit exactly what to say. it was AMAZING! i dont even know where the words or the thoughts came from. but his JW was there again so that was annoying but he wants to keep reading and learning more. we had a dinner with members set up and a lesson for our hour of power but then cancled so we had HOP by ourselves. we wer driving around trying to find a street that we felt good about knocking and we were talking about how we wished we ahd more chances to do service. well right then we noticed this girl in her car that was stopped in the middle of the road. it was dead and noone was helping her and hse was crying and scared and all the cars were just honking at her and driving past. so we stopped and got out in the pouring raina nd hekped her. i had to help her but her car in Neutral cause she didnt know how and then we pushed her in the rain out of the road and onto somones driveway cause if we left it on the side of the road it would get hit. then she couldnt get ahold of anyone so we went and asked the ppl if she could leave her car there. it was interesting experiece but we were both so worried about helping her that we didnt say anything about the church. stupid. but it was good taht we could help her. then we found a guy on his porch during HOP that talked to us for a hwile and he siad that he would want to come to church so taht was good. but everyone else just told us that we were crazy for being out in the rain and that we shouls go inside. but one man told us we were like jesus cause even if it was raining jesus would be out spreading the word too. so taht was nice. 

fri-district mtg was interesting. our whole district is basically new. ther are three of us that are the same plus the welches and then we have 5 new ppl. we got another set of missionaries in the ward so our ward had 3 sets now. we had a lesson with rose, then we had 2 potential appts but they both fell thru and we even had crystal come out with us. so that was frustrating. then we went and checked on some LA and made appts to meet with them, and then some told us they wer not interested in the church anymore. The ward has us go check on LA that noone knows who they are. 

sat- i was not feeling good and i had a fever but my baby was anxious so i just pushed thru it and when we were sitting there doing training we got a call from a random number and the lady on the other end was all like " Oh good i thought i lost your number its been so long" me " oh yeah well this is us" her" are yall allowed to come visit me or not anymore?" me" no we could come visit you if you want" her "oh good. well when can you come?" me" whenever you want us to" her "ok come today at noon. and I have all this stuff that i am going to fix us for lunch and then we can talk" me" ok. . . . . well can i get your address, i dont know how to get to your house, i am new to the area." so then she gave us her address and we still had no idea who it was but we went anyway and so we got to her apartment and turns out that she is a former investigator from 2009. she told us her life story and she basically implied that she wants to start investigating the church again. But it was kinda scary cause there was this creepy guy that kept looking in the window and then she told us that she is bipolar and taht she just got out of the 10th tower. aka mental hospital. and that she has a loaded gun in the house. so it was creepy but we felt good about her when we left and so we are going to start teaching her again. after we left sister Barton was all like " when we were eating i was thinking that she probably poisoned us." haha but we are still alive so she must not have. then wer rode our bikes all day long. because we are getting sick of tracting with no success so our ZL told ust aht biking brings miracles so we decided to bike. we found one guy that we talked to and he was pretty interested and wanted to come to church but he wouldnt take a BOM but he gave us his number so we are going to see if we can start teaching him. then Sister Bartons bike ws not working so i decided taht we should say a prayer so that we didnt have to walk our bikes all the way back to our appt and then this guy popped out of nowhere and had tools to fix it. that was a miracle and our prayer was answered. he was in a hurry tho and didnt want to talk with us. then we went to the nursing home to visit a LA and he told us that we were the answer to his prayer and that he wanted to come to church the next day. so taht was good. then we biked more and we had an appt that fell thru like all the rest of them have this week. and the stake pres and his wife even came with us and the guy wasnt home. so then we biked more and we talked to lots of ppl but noone was interested in learning m ore so that was sad.

sun- after our meeting we went to the nursing home to get gail and push him to church in his wheel chair. he is a big guy so i worked up a sweat pushing him to church. but we were glad that he came. we had lunch with a family in the ward. the wife is from Ukraine and the husband is from here and they met in New Orleans at a singles ward there cause she was working on a cruise line and was going to church during one of her off times. they are pretty awesome.then we had a lesson with susan and the morris's that was good. susan is awesome and has the strongest testimony she just needs to help her family now! then we had a lesson with Kizza but she cancled on us.

I am having an interesting time being a trainer and it is really weird. but sister Barton is awesome and we get along good. We are going to turn lake Charles around and get so many gators! we are going to ride our bikes like nobody's business. so that will be good cause i am staring to gain weight. haha too much good food down here. But keep praying for me! i know that god answers prayers. Everyday we pray to see a miracle and we always do. even if its not the miracle that we want to see its still a miracle. I am so glad that i am a missionary right now. It is the hardest thing i have ever done but it is so rewarding! I cant even explain the feeling that comes from serving the lord. I miss yall so much and I hope yall have a good week and keep doin work with lacrosse. I have the best family ever and I cant even tell you how much i love and care for each one of you! Yall are the best. Love you soooo much! have a great week! love you!

I'm Having a Baby!

This week was a mess. but it turned out to be pretty ok. The Lord is looking out for me I can tell. Sometimes I dont know how i survive, i Know its only because of all the prayers That are coming my way from all Yall. I am trying to be better at not complaining so i am not complaining i am just telling you what happened this week. haha

Mon- I cut elder H hair and then we went mini golfing. it was really fun and the elders are such nerds. I love them and i am going to miss them. We were supposed to meet with K our LA we have been working with but when we got over there she said she forgot so she told us to come back the next day. Which happens all the time.

Tue-We had president interviews and he was asking me all about my experience over the last two transfers and he told me that A mission is not supposed to be miserable but he said that he knew from the moment he met me that i have a good heart and that the lord wanted me to have this experience for a reason. He also asked me if i had got a lot of pressure to be training which i hadnt so he told me that he wouldnt have me train because he wanted me to be able to have a normal companionship first. but as we kept talking he just said sister hamilton, you amaze me. I cant believe your positive attitude and how you are choosing to come out of this. What would you think if I had you train this next transfer? I said well I guess if the lord wants me too he will provide a way and help me be able to do it. And then he told me he might put me with a companion that has been out for 6 weeks and finished half of her training. but to not worry and he said that i got to stay in lake charles so i was relly happy about that! Then we had our lesson with the G's and that went really well. Bro G isnt ready for the gospel but atleast he is hearing the lessons and feeling the spirit. Then we had dinner with the S's which was good. they are a really nice older couple in the ward. She teaches seminary at her house in the morning for all the kids who live in Moss bluff. Then we had a meeting with K but she cancled again.

wed- We had lunch with P who is a Maw-Maw hipster. she is so funny! I love her. She doesnt go to church because she works in the temple every week so that is her church. . . we still havent quite figured out how she gets a temple recommend but everyone says that she marches to the beat of her own drum. that is probably why she is a hipster. When we were at lunch i placed a BOM with our waiter and P thought he was cute so she was talking to him a whole lot. And she drew him a rose on the receipt. hahah I love her! Then we met with mama F, she was sad that we hadnt been over in a long time but we had a good lesson with her, then we met with D and she was Mad that we hadnt been over in a long time so she just talked about how she was mad the whole time. haha She is cute. Then we went and found a LA guy that was baptized when he was 13 and hasnt been to church since. he doesnt consider himself a mormon but we had a good talk with him and he told us all about his job and he is a really christ like guy. super nice. I placed a BOM with him as well and told him to read it and to come to church sometime. he said he would definately check it out. Then we met with L and her kids. I love L. she is so sweet. Her husband came home while we were there and wanted to make us dinner so we had dinner with them. She watched conference! She said that was the first time she has watched In over 3 years! We are making progress with her. she just needs love. she is so lonely and doesnt know anyone and her husband works all day.

thur- we met with T and he put us in a trap! when we got to his house he had this JW there and he just wanted to slam us and talk about all this stupid stuff in the bible. he was all hung up on that we believe that Jehovah in the Old testement is talking about christ instead of God. it was so annoying. But sis B who was with us just slammed the old guy and was like we didnt come here to argue with you so you need to be quite and listen to the lesson that the sisters have prepared. yeah go sister B! She is so quite and hardly ever says anything so that was surprising. haha then after that we were doing weekly planning. then we went to dinner and we were supposed to do the Hour of power but she didnt want to do it cause we had a fight and we weren't speaking to each other. so we didn't do it. then we had S new member lesson again with the M's and that was good. S is so funny. i love her. 

fri- . So we just went thru DM and then went to lunch then we went home. I got a package from Garett that i had been expecting so i went in the room and opened it. She knew it was coming too and that garetts missionary pictures were in it and she wanted to see them.  " Can I look at the Pictures of Garett?" Then the Zone leaders came to blitz our area and so we gave them some ppl we wanted them to go see and then we went to moss bluff cause we had a reaferral from HQ that we needed to contact. So we went up there and found her but she was busy so we set up a time to come back the next day. then we went LA hunting. we left alot of notes but noone was home or they didnt want to answer. Then we met back up with the ZL and they made appts with most of the ppl we told them to contact and they found a couple other ppl as well. 

sat- we met with L in the morning and C came with us. she is so funny. i dont think he took her seriously but it was good that we got her to come out with us. I planned the lesson for L and i prayed alot about it and felt really guided by the spirit to read the testimony of JS pamphlet with him and then commit him to be baptized. Erickson was skeptical but we did it and when we got to L house he was like i have been reading this pamplet, and guess what it was? THE JS TESTIMONY PAMPHLET!!!  i was like wow the spirit was right. so we talked about it and it was amazing. it resolved his concerns about angels and JS getting the gold plated from an angel cause he read about all the whitnessed of the plates. so that was good. then we invited him to be baptized and he said no. . . but i wouldnt take it so i made this anology about perscriptions andhow he couldnt get his meds if the perscription wasnt signed by a DR and if some random person signed it, im sure they had good intentions and wanted him to get his meds but when he took it to the pharmacy he wouldnt be able to get them. I related it to baptism. he had been baptized twice in different churches. His baptisms are like a perscrition signed by some random person, they had good intentions and he felt the spitit but when he goes to heaven (the pharmacy) and the l lord looks at the signiture(baptism) it wont be an authorized signature so in the end he wont be able to get the meds that he needs ( eternal life) he sat there for a minute and was like. that was a good analogy. i get it. So what do i have to do to prepare to be baptized? AHHHHHHHHH  I was so happy. so we commited him to prepare to be baptized. then we went with s to the FH library so she can start working on getting names for the temple. then we had an appt that the Zl set up for us but the person wasnt home so we went to this restaurant that we have wanted to go to forever and we had fried Boudain balls, and pistolettes. soooo good! and we contacted two ppl in the restaurant. so that was good. then we went to MB and met with our referral. she is so awesome. Golden to the core. But we have to pass her offf cause MB is getting its own set of Missionaries. We had dinner with a family and they didnt talk to us the whole time. . . awkward. then we met with a LA lady who is really depressed and wants her name taken off the records of the church. but she talked and didnt take a breath for 2 hours. it was so sad. she is so lonly. but she has the cutest fattest oswald i have ever seen! I wanted her so bad. I almost kidnapped her. She is so nice and doesnt pee. and she is really well trained. but if i took her the old lady would die. its her baby. but it was good to visit with her and just be there for her to talk to. so many ppl are LA in this ward because they dont have anyone who cares about them. that is what the ward thinks we are for but we cant spend all our time with LA. even tho i would be fine with that. haha

sun- church was good. we had a really good lesson in RS. then after church Erickson packed and then we had dinner with a family, the cofs. then we went to see the con. I love the con they are so awesome. But sister Cons might have Congestive heart failure. its really sad. her dad, brother, sister, grandma, all died from it so hopefully they can get things figured out and get her the help she needs. They are returning LA but they havent been to church in over a month. we had a really good lesson with them about experiencing a might change of heart. Then we went home and pres called and talked to me and told me that i am training. He told me that the lord wants me to train and and i have a good heart and he knows that i will be able to do this even tho i just barely finished getting trained. He told me to take the bad experience i had and help others not have to go thru that. Elder decker is having a baby too and Hooker and Erickson are getting transfered. I am so happy that i get to stay in lake charles! . I feel like Nephi. the lord is asking me to do something hard and my older Brother (E) is mocking and telling me that i cant do it. but i know that the lord will provide a way and that he trusts me so i can do this. it will be hard but we will both be learning together and we will be equals. I am excited for the new adventure that i have ahead of me and I am so grateful for all of the prayers. they are helping me so much! I love you alll soooooooo much! I hope all is well. Love yall! Love sister hamilton

Almost over!

Well this week was sooooo long i don't know why but it was!

mon- for our zone p-day everyone came to out area and we went to this nature trail that is full of alligators. it was pretty cool and it was super funny cause all the elders were bragging  about how they were going to wrestle some gators. but the very first one we saw was a teeny baby and they wouldn't even touch it. so it was pretty entertaining to watch them trying to catch it. i saw probably 18+ gators. it was sweet. Then we went on exchanges and i stayed in lake chuck and led the area and sister Niua came with me. she came out a transfer after me so i told her we would have fun cause it was the blind leading the blind. but i got a taste of what a COMPANIONSHIP feels like. we were equal with everything and it was so nice. i also got a taste of what training would be like. i could totally do it if i get to stay in lake chuck. but we will see. We visited a LA we have been working with and she just went on and on about how she doesn't like sis E but that she really likes me. she said she can tell that i am a normal person and that i have flaws and I'm not afraid to make mistakes. so i guess that was a complement. hahah i defineataly make a lot of mistakes.

Tue- was a busy day and me and sister Niua totally rocked LC. i dont think anyone knew what to do with us. We went to the ghetto to contact a referral and she was baptist and just requested a visit cause she was lonely and wanted someone to come and visit her. so that was interesting. then we met with a LA and talked about comference cause she didnt know what it was. while we were with her she was telling us about a supposed LA that she found and she just so happened to be walking by so we talked to her but i think she was a little mental. she was talking about her pastor and how she had church on saturday and all the missionaries in Cali were dating each other so she was wondering why we wernt dating anyone cause we are both so pretty and she was just going on and on so we decided that she was never a member of our church. i told her we would love to visit with her but she said we couldnt come over cuase her kids cuss and she dosent want us to hear that . so i gave her our number and told her to call us and we could meet somewhere not at her house. Well then we left do go LA hunting and she called like 20 minutes later and wanted a ride. .. . yeah. then we had a lesson with the Guillory's and it was a good lesson. Sister Niua doesnt teach much cause she is in a trio but we divided the lesson in half so we were both teaching and she really brought the spirit! it was amaZing. we were all in tears except the husband. but it was good. i shared some really personal stuff about my life and i just felt the spirtit really strong. Then we had dinner with a couple and their baby. it was really fun. they are really funny and she leads the music in sacrament mtg. then we left and drove to Orange TX so that we could exchange back.

wed- our dryer was broken and a whole bunch of stuff so we stayed in and waited for maitenience to come and fix the stuff. our sink was leaking, our ac was leaking, our light was broken so we got all that fixed but our dryer is still broken so we just waked back and forth from the elders appt to dry our stuff. boring long day. Then we had dinner with sister Trahan and then went to visit the LA we found that is from Utah. she is going to move back at the end of the month. she is moving to Fountain green Morgan area probably.

thur-i had a migrain so i was in bed most of the morining. then we met with Lee and sis E basically just yelled at him the wole time cause he isnt progressing. i feel so bad for him. he is so cute. he had a dream that he was getting robbed so he called the police and when they got there and noone was there they took him to the hospital casue they said he was old and crazy. but he passed all the tests cause he just had them the week before so he got to come home. poor little old man. i love him so much. Then we had dinner with a family in the ward and that was fun. they are awesome. but we didnt do our Hour of power again casue sis E wouldnt quit talking. it was frustrating but i couldnt do aything. then we had susans new member lessons with the MOrris's again. it was really good and susan said the funniest thing after! we were talking about praying to know and the fruits of the spirit so when we were leaving and walking to the car she was like " when yall were talking about the fruits of the spirit i was thinking about how that would be a really good brand name for the under wear that yall have to wear, you know like fruit of the loom but instead its fruit of the spirit?" hahahahahah i basically almost peed it was sooo funny! i love susan so much!

fri-we had zone mtg and our zone leaders are on this kick where they want to be the best in the mission so we are playing "capture the flag" with all the districts and whoever gets the best numbvers gets the flag and all this junk. its annoying. and we have to pass out a Book of MOrmon a day for this whole next transfer. so that will be a challenge. but we can probably do it. then our car needed new breaks so we took it to the shop and it was almost done by the time we got back from zone mtg. but we had to wait for a hwile. then we had dinner with the stk pres wife and then went back over the the LA that we saw on monday cause she wanted a blessing. so that was good. her home teacher came to give it to her and after he just taked to us forever about all this stuff cause he thinks he kows everything about the gospel. it was interesting but weird at the same time.

sat- watched conference at the church. it was amazing. i loved it. we had our LA we taught about conference come to the morining session so that was goo. then the elders made us lunch inbetween sessions. they are so cute. i am going to miss them. we had dinner with a family and then we went to another LA house to visit with her and do some service but she just wanted to talk

sun- conference and the elders had an investigator with them. he was 18 and a really cool kid. we went to the Trahans for lunch and they were showing us how they are in the Ensign in march of 2007 cause when hurricane Ike came they lost everything. there house was gone and only the cement slab was left. so they are famous. haha it was funny. then after we went to the nursing home to visit some LA and talk to ppl then we went to the varners to check up on them but they werent home. Basically all of our investigators ignore us now and it is super frustrating. but we just go by and hope that we can catch them eventually.

I am so glad that we had conference and i am so glad that we ahve a living prophet on the earth today! I love this gospel and i love being able to share it with others even tho noone will listen to us. Its hard and i get really sad sometimes. but obviously the lord trusts me or he wouldnt have sent me out here. I love you all and i miss you so  much! I hope all is well and that you guys have an awesome week! Love you! Sister Hamilton

Soooooo FUNNY!

This week we were really bad missionary but we had a lot of fun! So don't get mad that I;m a slacker. I repented and I'm  going to do better.

Monday- uneventful really

Tuesday- we did hoarding buried alive again and then we had a lesson with the guillorys and bro G got in a sass fight with me about the stupid catholic church and all of the artifacts that they have and about how they are the true church. it was so annoying and i was just like whatever dude. maybe you should pray about your church and ours and you will see that it is not the true church. it was annoying but we had a good lesson besides that. Then we had dinner with a less active lady, Rose who is kinda crazy and lives in the ghetto but she is really sweet and she gave us a bunch of edible Easter grass for Easter  it was cute. She is really nice and she has a son who is serve Add and ADHD so he is always off the wall. but they are fun to be with. she cant read so we have been trying to get her to listen to the Book of Mormon on cd

wed- we met with Lee the cute little old man. he almost died the night before casue he was having a heart attack but he took the time to write us a note and leave it on the door. it was so shaky you could barely read it but it said " LDS Mormons. i didn't forget about our meeting. i will be home @ 11. i will be on my way back from the ER." He is so cute! he didn't want us to think that he forgot. what a little cutie! Then we did a bunch of random stuff and we had dinner with a less active sis Harper and her family and that was good. then we went to meet with the less active that we found Leslee, and she gave us cracklins. The grossest thing that everyone loves down here. It is fried pig skin and fat that is supposed to taste like bacon. its so gross! I basically barfed but i ate a piece to be nice cause she got them just for us cause last time we were there her husband asked us if we had ever had them adn we said no. she is so lonely i feel so bad for her. but she is super nice and she came to church yesterday!

Thurday- Travis cancelled on us, kinda. he just wouldn't get out of bed when we went over for our appointment. so that was rude. sis Beveridge even came with us. so then we went to help Susan again with her hoarding. we finished cleaning out her bedroom so you can get to the master bathroom now and everything is out of it so it can be used! there were probably about 15-20 huge dead roaches in the bathroom when we finally got to it. way gross. but it was good to get it finished. after we were done they took us to this restaurant called McFarlans. which is an Irish pub. you have to be 18 or older to go in and it was sooo cool! The food was amazing! The waiters wear kilts and bagpipe music plays. its so funny! They have this chair called the butt chair. i will have to send you a picture. actually send you my camera since i cant get pictures off. but it was soooo funny. I love the Lauderdales! they are so awesome and i want the dad and daughter to let us teach them so that they can all go to the temple and be sealed! we are working on building a relationship so we can teach them. Then we had our hour of power and placed my fist BOM! It was funny. we were tracking on the same street as a missionary from another church and he tried to sell us these books so i was talking to him and i was like well we want to give you this book for free so i gave him a BOM and and article of faith card. It was good. haha Then we met with Susan again and a couple in the ward for her new member lessons. because she is a hoarder she doesn't want people in her house so we went to the couples house and it was good. we had a good lesson with all of them.

Friday- district meeting was good. my DL winked at me and was being super awkward. I'm creeped out now. we checked up on a less active and then we took some clothes that we got from Susan's to the women's shelter and that was good. Then we went to dinner at a members home and the dad was sitting there picking his feet the whole time we were giving the lesson! so gross and he wasn't even paying attention! so nasty. then we had an appointment with the sassy black less active lady but when we went she was eating so she wouldn't let us in. so then we went home and went for a bike ride to scope out some areas.

sat- we went all the way down to the coast in Cameron which is part of our area for a craw fish boil! It was soooo fun! craw fish boils are crazy! they boil like 50+ pounds of craw fish and you just get a bunch on a cardboard tray and just sit there and crack them open and peel them and then eat them. it was lots of fun! i even sucked out the heads like real Cajuns! haha it was good. i love craw fish. then we went to the beach and i found a huge dead fish that i named Terrance and a hermit crab that i named Oswald and the beach looks like an Apocalypse from the hurricane so that was kinda creepy but it was fun. i took lots of pictures and videos of me catching Terrance. then elder Decker rode a donkey and got bucked off. it was sooo funny! i love that kid. he cracks me up. then we came home and had dinner with bro Boise the old guy that i am going to adopt and then we had dinner with crystal. she is so funny but i love her. it was a good day and we had lots of fun. I got your package and that was a good surprise!

sun- during third hour the 4 of us went and sat in primary so all the adults could meet together for 5th Sunday. it was soo bad. all the kids are out of control and we cant touch them or anything since we are missionaries so that was hard cause they were out of control . then we had our Easter lunch in the gym and that was fun. lots of good southern bbq. yummy. then the elders came over and we colored eggs on the porch while it was pouring rain. it was lots of fun. and i got them Easter presents. they don't have chocolate bunnies down here, they have chocolate crosses, so i got them one. I take care of them while they are away from their mommy's. it was a good Easter.

I am so thankful for the atonement. the Easter message we were sharing this last week was a Mormon message by Elder Holland. yall should watch it. I love how he talks about the savior and how he walked totally and completely alone so that we wouldn't have to. i know that the savior is always with me. i have been so lonely being away from home and i have felt his presence with me so that i am not alone. I am so grateful for you guys! i have the most amazing family! I am grateful that we are sealed together forever. I am so grateful for this gospel. i learn to appreciate it more and more everyday. I miss you guys sooo much and i hope you had a happy Easter! Love yall!

Love sister Hamilton

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