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

I'm Old

Dearest famila! well to start off i just have to tell you a little story. last night as i was getting ready for bed i was looking in the mirror at my regrowth and planning a time when i can color my hair and I FOUND A WHITE HAIR GROWING OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!! :,'( I started crying. it was really sad. i am too young to have white hair. i pulled it out and taped it in my journal.but it was pretty. so i guess i am going to have white hair. i must really be an indian. sweet. but anyway yeah that was interesting. but enough of that.

So this week was kinda poopy. i had the flu friday night and saturday. it was yucky. i was throwing up all night friday and then saturday i didnt eat anything all day so i was fine but i still didnt feel very well. but we had lots to do on saturday so i just dealt with it. but saturdaywas our ward halloween party and it was crazy. we had one of our new investigators D come. she is a funny black lady with no teeth and a grey fro. but she is so sweet and cracks me up. so she came and she was just having a good time eating food.; well she would get up and leave and then come back and later we found out that during those times she was going around asking the members for money!!!  ahhhh. not good. but it was kinda funny. then she told the member that took her home that she didnt have any lightbulbs in her house that someone stole them so we had to take her a lightbulb. but when we got there with the lightbulb she had every light in the house on and was watching tv. she is crazy. so we are going to try and teach her and she if she is actually interested in learing about the gospel or if she just wants stuff. so that should be fun. but she lives in a really bad part of town and our members told us not to go back there. but that is our whole area. hahah we found D on tuesday when i was on exchanges with HMNA arcila. we were driving down her street trying to contact a referral and she was out in the middle of the road cause a huge 18 wheeler had tore down the power lines to her house and he just drove away. so she asked us to go chase him down and get his licence # so she could call the police. so we did and then when we went back to give it to her we taught her and she was interested. But now we are wondering how interesed she really is. haha

S and L basically dropped us on wednesday. but we are not going to let them get off that easy. they are just scared of change and they are comfortable where they are. story of my life with missionary work. everyone is comfortable where they are (so they think) and they dont want to change. even when they feel the spirit. its so hard cause we can only do so much and the rest is up to them.

A member asked me the other night at dinner what has been the hardest part of my mission. a million thoughts ran thru my mind, Leaving my famly, having to get up early every morning, having a tight schedule, having to be with someone 24/7, and so on. but the thing that stood out the most to me and that i thought really has been the hardest is watching my investigators feel the spirit, or taste of the fruit and then for some reason or another they reject it, or get scared and turn away. that has been the hardest thing for me on my mission. it is like 1nephi 8;28. they taste of the fruit but they are ashames becausae of what others are saying. and so they fall away. it breaks my heart to see that. i want everyone to be able to enjoy the blessing of the gospel!

We had a breakthru lesson with J yesterday. we talked about the spirit, the priesthood, prayer and how he feels about what we ahve taught. he said taht he believes and feels that everything is true and when we talked about baptism he said he is comfortable wehre he is ( imagine that!) but we talked about ahuthority and it finally clicked with him then he said that if only he would have known about the mormon church earlier he might have got baptized but he is just too sick now. but we talked about the lord providing a way and he is going to get a blessing and he told us that is like an iceberg and we are chipping away at him. haha so he knows that he needs to get baptized. he just likes to be stubborn.

P had a bed bug infestation so we didnt get to meet with her this last week but she calls us everyday and wants to pray with us over the phone. so we might have bed bugs now. yikes. but we aired out our mattresses and cleaned really good today so hopefully we wont get them. i was paranoid all night long that we had bedbugs! ahha if we do that will be just another story to add to the collection!

The YSA is having a big halloween party so we decided to take around fliers to all the LA members and try and get them to come out. then we gave alot of the members fliers and challenged them to give them to their non member friends and try and get ppl to come to the party so hopefully that goes well!!

Well i love yall so much! i am glad that you are having fun in florida. im not even jealous one bit. i wouldnt want to be anywhere else then right here in beaumont Texas sharing the Gospel with crazy people in the Ghetto! I love this work so much and i am so happy! Have a good week! love yall!

It'a Fall!.... Maybe

Well this week it has been like 65 almost everyday and it is so amazing! i finally got to pull my cardigans out of my suitcase and wear them! haha it has been super nice but everyone says it wont last long and it will get warm again soon. but im counting my blessings for now!

So this week was pretty awesome! we were able to get 6 member present lessons! we are working really hard trying to get our investigators to progress, we have alot but they dont all seem to be progresssing very well which is always a challenge. all we can do it invite and share what we know and it is up to them to act on the message we have to share. But we have a couple that are progressing really well.

P is amazing! we taught her twice this last week. we went on wednesday and had a good Book of mormon lesson and she had already started reading the intro and she really liked it. then she asked us to come back the next day so we went back and she had already read the first three chapters in 1nephi! then she wanted to come to church but she got stuck in orange with some family and wasnt able to make it but we WILL get her to come this week!

The A family is breaking my heart. THey finally let us in there house and it is worse then outside. it is so bad. our memeber that was with us offered to give them some spare mattresses because they were sleeping on the floor on piles of blankets. it was so sad. and there house is just discusting. i feel like i am in a third world country when i go over there. but Mari loves the church and she wants to get baptized so bad! but we arent going to baptize a 9 year old with no support from her family. the same member when to get them for church and they were all still asleep but mari wanted to come so bad that she hurry and got up and they had to dig dirty clothes out of the corner for her to wear. But she came but her mom wouldnt come.

J is so sick he cant get off the couch. he is going to see a specialist tomorrow and hopefully they will be able to help him. he tells us all the time that he wants to come to church he is just too sick. but he is the sweetest old man ever. i love him.

R is our new investigator in the YSA branch. we had a super awesome lesson with him on thursday and he was so oped to everything! it was amazing. he took everything so well. we were talking about recognizing and feeling the spirit and he siad that he has never felt the spirit and it kinda took my by surprise because he siad he was raised catholic and goes to church every sunday with his fmaily. so then he asked me if that was unusual that he has never felt the spirit and i told him that i am sure that he as he just didnt recognize it, that made him happy cause he wants to feel the spirit. so it was a really awesome lesson and he asked to meet with us again.

As we go around and have dinner with members we give them a list of alll our investigators and we talk about them and tell the members about them and ask the members to pray for them by name. it gets the members excited and they love feeling needed. it has worked really well and it really brings the spirit into the homes when you ask them to do something so personal for people that they have never met.

I have been counting my blessing this week! i feel so blessed to be where i am and with the people that i am with. I love the people in Beaumont and i am so glad that i am here. When i first got put here i was super grumpy and i didnt want to stay, but healvenly father knew that i needed to be here and that there are lessons for me to learn here. I was also reminded of how blessed i am to be a missionary as i watched a boy in the YSA branch who has been a member for a year open his misison call. he was in tears and it made me cry because i thought about how lucky i am to be out here serving and getting to share the gospel. it is a precious gift and i feel blessed to have been found worthy to share this wonderful message with the people in Texas. And yes, i love Texas now. I love it with all my heart and i will never ever again say that i hate Texas. And there is nothing wrong with staying state side to serve. People everywhere need to hear the Gospel. I am so blessed! Every night i just pour out my heart in gratitude for the many blessings that i have.

I hope yall are doing good! i miss you bunches and bunches but i cant believe how fast time is going by. it is really sad. before i know it i will be home. Please pray for our investigators! they need the help and strength that only Heaven can give them.

I love you all soooooooo much! have a great week!

Love sister hamilton

Miracles All Around

Well this week was Pretty darn good! Lots of miracles all around. it never ceases to amaze me. I wish yall could be here with me and seeing everything cause its so hard for me to explain especially in an email. but i always try my best.

But today is sister C Bday! yay! we are twins. she is so funny. she gets really tired at night and so i tell her to tell me a story when she is like half asleep and i always end up peeing my pants cause she says that most random funny stuff. and she is OBSESSED with honking the horn. she doesnt like to drive so i always do but she will always reach aross me and honk the horn. so on saturday we were sitting at a stop sign looking at this creepy dog when all the suddenthis horn honks and freaks me out, it was sister clegg she reached across me and honked and it freaked the dog out too and so the dog pooped. we had some good laughs for days about that one. But yeah i have been laughing alot this week, or at least trying cause when i laugh then i am more positive and happy and i can have more joy in my work! Our neighbor is a drug dealer so there is always stuff going on next door. its so crazy. and they blast there music all night long. haha its soooooo funny the things that happen to you. it is seriously an adventure and i love every minute of it! its so fun to look back and rememver all the crazy stuff that happens to you! but sister cleggs parents sent us pepper spray for our birthdays so we are safe!

So we have ALOT of gators now. like i have no idea how we got them all. its just because we are blessed and we have faith and we trust in the lord that he will provide a way and help us find those who are prepared for the gospel! not all of them are super progressing but we sill have alot that we are teaching and working really hard on helping them to progress, but all we can do is invite and it is up to them if they want to put action into it or not. But James is not really doing so well anymore. he is so sick and stubborn. he fell the other day and sliced open his head. poor little guy. he is just a skeleton with skin onit. but i stiilll love him and i pray that one day he will accept the gospel.

S and L are doing AMAZING!!!!!  we taught them last night and we were planning on doing a BOok of mormon lesson but they just started asking us all these questions about the plan of salvation so we were like well we will just teach you that. so we did and the spirit was sooooo strong! it was incredible. They both were very into the lesson and had lots of questions that we were able to answer and they are both really pleased with the church and what we have taught them so far. We sang I am a child of God to them and they were both in tears. I loved it. THen we committed them to come to church! it may not seem like alot but htat is a big step for thme. sandy tells us everytime that she has a church that she is happy with but i know that she is just telling herself that because she is scared cause she feels the spirit and knows that what we are teaching is true. so that is good. we will get her. i specifically fasted for them yesterday because i feel so connected to them and i know that they will get baptized if i put forth the faith and do all i can to help bring the spirit.

We got a really solid new investigator this last week. she was a referral from a less active man in the ward. her name is P and she said that she has seen the difference that the church has made in her friends life and she wants that for her too. so we had a really good lesson with her saturday and she begged us to come back! it was a great lesson.

The A family is still struggling but we are doing our best to help them progresss. the little girl still wants to get baptized and come to church but noone else in the family does. its so sad. it breaks my heart.

We are teaching a 92 year old lady named M and she is so sweet! she always holds my hand the whole time we are over there and she tells me that i look like an indian! yes. that made my whole life! finally someone sees me for my true self! haha But we are trying to get her to come to church but she only leaves her house to go to the store and the doctor.

It was a great week! we also got a new investigator in the singles branch which is very exciting for them and they were all so happy!

THings are going good in Beaumont, i am happy that i got to stay for a transfer longer and i am so blessed to get to work with the people here. I love them so much.And we are teaching a bunch of old people andi love old people so i am happy! but i truly am grateful for all the experiences thati am going thru. easy and hard. they are all helping me so much and changing me in ways that i didnt know that i needed to be changed. but i am happy and loving life. I am truly blessed. I love you all soooooo much! i am so grateful for each one of you in my life and i pray for you on the daily! hope yall have a good week!

Love sister Hamilton

I'm not a teenager anymore

Dearest family,

First of all, thank you so much for my letters and my package! i do have to say that i bawled my eyes out reading all of the letters and sister C took some nice pictures of me wiping snot off of my face, haha i will have to send them next week. but i really do appreciate it. and I do have to say that i think it was the best birthday i have had! it was so special. and i dont know if i will be able to explain it. but being able to watch conference as a representative of Jesus Christ on your birthday is pretty awesome. We also got to teach S and L a little Book of Mormon lesson that evening and i got to testify about the truthfulness of that book. it was the best birthday ever!

I have been thinking about my life alot this week obviously and then after conference i had even more to think about. But i was so inspired and uplifted by the messages that we heard. lots of  things really stood out to me but a few of my favorites was from elder Holland when he was talking about depression and hard things we go thru and how he was talking about christ and how the cup could not pass from him and sometimes that happens to us, the cup can not pass so we need to "drink it and be strong" that really hit me. That is going to be my new motto in life. Drink it and be strong. I am going to try and do that more as i face hard times and challenges in my service and in life in general. Another thing that brought great peace to my heart was (i dont remeber who said it) but they said; "Its impossible for us to fail when we do our best when we are on the errand of the Lord." I think that was meant just for me. Alot of times i look around and i am not having as much success as those around me and i feel like a failure of a missionary, but as long as i do my best it is impossible for me to fail because i am on the errand of the Lord. I really needed to hear that. We had one of our Less active members come to conference on saturday. she cried the whole time. President Uchtdorfs talk really hit home with her. she wanted to take us out to lunch for my birthday but she couldnt stop crying and she told us that she just needed some time and she needed to go sort some things out. So i am praying that she will work hard to change those things in her life that are preventing her from coming to church and being worthy to take the sacrament. I love her so much, she has become a dear friend to me and it broke my heart to see her like that, but the words of the prophets and apostles are true and Heavenly Father knew what she needed to hear. On sunday we had one of the little girls in our family come to conference with us at a members home. She stayed home from her grandmas cause she wanted to come to church so bad! so we didnt get the whole family because they were at grandmas but she came and i hope that she felt the spirit, she told us that she knew they were talking about important stuff. she is 9 and so cute! the family just took her right in and we all played conference bingo. I felt like i was home over there. they have 7 kids and their youngest little boy who is 20 months old was all over me. I just attract little kids for some reason. haha and then i get in trouble because i am not supposed to hold them or let them sit on my lap but whenever i sit down they just come flocking! haha but it was fun to be with a family to watch conference. S and L are amazing! they are the couple that we found a couple weeks ago during our hour of power. S called on saturday morning because she was trying to read the Book of Mormon but the words were too small and she couldnt see them. so she asked if we could get her a larger print one so she can read! then she told us that L is also very interested which is very surprising to her because he has never been like this with religion so she is happy and told us to keep coming over. she also said that she has a church that she is perfectly happy with and she doesnt want to mislead us but L is super open. But i have no doubt in my mind that once they read the book of Mormon that they will both feel the spirit testify to them of the truthfulness of it and they will both get baptized. I had a dream about them, both in white and we were taking pictures infront of a picture of chirst. So i know that the Lord has plans for them. Our family is having a hard time progressing, the 9 year old is the only one that has any interest in progressing and reading from the book of mormon and coming to church. But we are still working with them. J is really sick again and told us that he just wants all this to be over with and he just wants to die. I just want him to get his answer so he will be baptized. All of our other investigators are experiencing alot of pull from the advesary. T, who was doing so well had an ex boyfriend come out of nowhere and got her to start using drugs again. It never ceases to amaze me how hard satan works to keep us from doing what the Lord wants us to do. It is so hard to not give in and to be strong and withstand temptaion, but we can do it if we put our trust and faith in the Lord.

Something else that i learned from conference is that misisonary work is easy! so yall need to get to work! I hope that you have an awesome week! i love yall soooooooooo much! thanks again for the birthday wishes!

Love sister Hamilton