CHANGE

Last picture of me and P

July 29, 2013

The capu where the buses leave from

Soooooo the big news this change is obviously the change of companions....but NONE of you saw this coming. So Elder P and I get to change meeting and they call that Elder P will be serving in Tehuacan with Elder B. So then they go sit down and im with all the other Elders standing and waiting to be called. So they start calling my whole zone....but im still waiting. Then finally Im literally the LAST one standing up (which should never happen because you need 2 Elders to make a companionship) and President Reeves says okay and Elder Hamm will be Senior Companion with Elder T....who is not here...maybe you can go pick him up in Tehuacan........ Im sorry what? -__-   Soo im confused already and then come to find out my companion wasnt notified until 12 oclock day of, that he had changes. So then i have to go to the Secretary and borrow money so i can pay the 120 pesos for a bus ride to Tehuacan. So at least Elder P and I got to spend a few more hours together on a bus haha but then i get to Tehuacan and meet my new comp.....*drum roll*.....Elder T. And then the zone leaders tell us its too late to go back home cause we would get home at around 10 or 10:30. So i get to stay the night at Elder T's house in Tehuacan with nothing but the stuff i brought to changes....aka my scriptures, PMG and a hymn book. Then our DL calls us and tells us we are having district meeting at 10 oclock -___- sooo we wake up at 6 to get to the big bus depot, hop the 7:20 bus back to our area, take a taxi from the bus depot home and get home at 9:30 just in time to do nothingg before District meeting! haha so it was a pretty ridiculous story! But it all ended well. 

So to answer my dad's questions, obviously Elder T is my new companion, he is from Utah (shockerrr) and his spanish is pretty good! We are actually from the same generation...but yet im senior companion so its a little bit weird but hey, all calls are revelation sooooo YOMO (you only mission once).  Here most people eat...eggs for breakfast i think. They have cereal and stuff too but they have these things called Tortas. Which is this type of cheap bread...kinda like French bread, and they put beans, eggs, ham, mayonaise and chillies on it....they are MONEY haha but yah. And I would have to say that the number one thing that they do here in the church that seems most different from how we do it in the US.....would be that sometimes....(a lot of the time) there isn't a piano player in the congregation...so we sing acapella....BAD acapella haha but yah its pretty ridiculous some days.

Sooo news this week. We got to baptize the daughter of the family we baptized a few weeks ago because she justttt turned 8! And we have also been teaching the 8 year old daughter of a less active family who was baptized the same day and her dad was able to do the ordinance!! It was awesome and I will send pictures! Besides that nothing tooo incredible happened. We got to eat tocos pastor (pretty much my favorite thing in mexico) with a family we are teaching right now. And they are sooo cool it was almost like hanging out with my friends! They are less active but the wife isn't a member and she is really interested!!! 

Sooo spiritual thought this week is short and sweet cause im running out of timeee! Buttt I was just thinking this week about how rough some peoples lives are. I am amazed at the trials some people are called to go through in this life. I just want to say that if you are currently in one of these trials, God has prepared this for you in your life. In Gods eyes, there ARE NO ACCIDENTS. He knows you better than you will ever know yourself and he knows what you need. For those of you who arent going through trials right now. Know that bad things happen to good people. Now that isnt meant to scare you but more to prepare you for when life's troubles come. God knows us, he loves us, and he will never do anything, unless it is for our good and our growing. So put your trust in Him, and no matter what happens, you will be ready.

HEY GUYS!! I hope you are all having a great time and doing great things! Know i love you and pray for you every night!

Love,

Elder Josh Hamm

All Good Things Must Come To An End

July 22, 2013

So this is me on the swingset that Elder P and I found!

First things first, ALL good things must come to an END :( With that being said, the changes are in and Elder P.

Elder P's drivers license - you should
find someway to put this on the blog. haha

 is leaving Loma Bella. An Elder in our district with 11 months will be the new district leader, which means my new comp will be Senior Comp, nada mas (nothing more). So thats pretty sad, and i had prepared an obituary to put in but to sum things up, Elder P. has been the best comp a guy could ask for, obedienct, fun, kind, and a hard worker. He will most profoundly be remembered by his drivers license with the photo of him before the mission. #Thuglife #Immamissthatguy

Sooo to start off, I will answer a few legitimate questions that my parents had... First off, YES we get mosquito bites. This place has more mosquitos than i have ever seen in one place, and thats not a joke. Im talking about like big black masses huddled in corners all made up of mosquitos. Soooo we dont open our doors and we have gotten VERY good at killing them. I think i commited mosquito genecide in my kitchen the other night. Kill Count: 34 And thats a lot considering its one by one with my hands haha Also we dont really have to run from dogs, in some pueblos they do but here if the dogs start coming at you, you have a backpack which you use as a shield and they usually get scared, but one of these days they are gonna keep coming and im gonna have to break some poor dogs ribcage....oh well. 

Sooo other exciting news....hmmm well....hmmm....well nothing really happened this week actually! We taught a few lessons, asked for references from some members, and had a few family home evenings with some people. Although, i did get to eat at Little Ceasars this week cause a member gave us money for food. Andddd we got to eat at a members restaurant where they make BOMB hotdogs and hamburgers. They come with a TONNN on them haha like a hot dog with ketchup, mustard, pineapple, carrots, chilies, tomatoes, onions, and cheese. Its soooo good haha Elder Parrish and I were also looking for a reference out in the very corner of our area and we never found them....but we did stumble upon a sick park wtih a teeter totter and some sketchy swings with a cool view! We may or may not have spent about 30 minutes playing on the teeter totter trying to ballance out our weight so it was exactly even haha And then on Saturday night we went ot the bishops house and helped make and eat tamales. They were habanero tamales and they were really good! Butttt im just not a huge tamale guy. haha but thats about it I think! Nothing too terribly exciting.

Sooo spiritual thought this week comes partially from my Father. This week he was talking about the story of David and how one little decision that David made when he looked out and saw Bathsheba (not even gonna try and spell that) caused a huge domino effect that eventually led him having a righteous man murdered. I liked that a lot and i was thinking about that a lot this week already. We have a family in our ward who is going through a tough time right now and we have been trying to visit them as much as we can. The parents seperated a few days ago and I was thinking back on why it all happened when just a few months ago, they were active and even helping us teach an investigating family. Im sure they didnt wake up one day and say "wow, i really want to seperate." But slowly over time the decisions that they made wore away at them and now they are so far away from where they used to be. To add to this, in Jacob 5 we read about the master and the vineyard. I have always loved verse 41: "And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more for my vineyard?" Sometimes in life, we do all we can, and things still dont turn out the way we plan. Sometimes, we try our best, and through our blood, sweat, and tears, we still end up short and things dont work out. But just as the master of the vineyard, some things are just out of our hands. After all we do, there is still free agency and that will always have the final say. So if you are a parent with struggling children or just a person with a problem, know that sometimes, all we have is not enough, and it can hurt enough to weep. But in the face of uncertainty, know that when life takes an unexpected turn, God is driving.

Cantaloupe Jello

Cantaloupe Juice!!!  Dad Im trying to work on
 getting the recipie but so far its all,
 well a handful of, sprinkle of, dash of haha

Thanks for all the love fam! Know i pray for you guys all the time! Hope things are going well, glad to hear you are all happy and healthy!! Stay safe!

Love,

Elder Hamm

The Things I Do To Open A Door (smh)

 July 15, 2013

So a lotttt happened this week actually! And just like any good round of Kharma would have it, today i have less time than ever because i have to go pick up some retainers at the orthodontist in time to get back and have a family night with a member and some investigators! But i will do my best to sum up!

           So we got to have 2 family home evenings this week with 3 different families! It was super fun and they went really well. We got a bunch of less active members to get more excited about the gospel again and we also got 3 new investigators from a family we had with us! So that was really fun and its an easy way to introduce people to the gospel! They have fun with the games and if you tie it into a spiritual lesson they are always willing to hear. So thats a suggestion for any of you trying to share the gospel with your friends.

           So cool story this week was that Elder P. and I got on a bus to go home last night and a man got on the bus and started to talk. This happens a lot here in Mexico, cause people come on and rap or sing or are clowns ect. trying to get money. So this guy had a pretty common story about how he had to pay for his childs medical bills, so i was getting out a few pesos. All the sudden, the thought entered my mind to give him a pass along card. I though that might be kindof insulting or something so i kindof brushed it off and then it came back to me again. So i got out my bag and got out a pass along card and some money. Then the man was walking by and Parrish saw the pass along card and said "ummm okay." and we handed the man the pass along card with our phone number and some money. So not until late late that night did Elder P. bring it up. He said that as the man was talking he felt like he should give him a pass along card, but then he brushed it off because he would have to get into his bag and it was too late anyways, and then he looked over and i had a pass along card out and he was like "ummm okay." He said he didnt wanna expalin it all right there on the bus but that was clearly the spirit talking because neither he, nor i, had ever had that impression before. It was a really cool experience and one that i hope has a follow up story.

Something I drew in my Agenda.  It's from the scripture
in 3 Nephi 10:6!

           So the spiritual thought from this week is longgg haha and it comes from  interchanges with the zone leaders. This week we had interchanges and I stayed in our area with Elder E. (who is going home in a week) and everything went really well......until we got back to our house at 9:30. So we get to the house and OF COURSE I cant find the keys -__- Im just gonna prep this by saying that i promise you this NEVER happens. So we have a spare key that we strategically hid so i climb the neighbors fence to get up onto our roof, walk over the top and hop down into the little patio space we have at the back. So here's a REALLY great idea for any of you who want to hide a key. If you want some place really secure, whats more secure than a house right?! So we thought it would be clever to tape a key on the wall right inside the window of our bathroom. Please refrain from the angry emails, i realize we arent the brightest crayons in the box, but what can i say, It seemed like a good idea at the time. So of course we alwayssss leave the window a little open but the Mexican food had done terrible things to our bathroom this particular morning so we had opened and then closed the window. Joy. So I find this little nugget of good news and instantly begin to pray aloud that we will be able to enter the house. Then i climb (in a very dejected manner) over the house to tell Elder E. So Im like no, i refuse to let this happen. So i start trying to do some things with our front door and i got nothing. Then i feel around and our garage door can also slide open, like the whole thing. So im trying to reach around the door through a reallly small crack to grab the lever, and i can feel the thing but i cant pull it up. So i remove my shoe lace and my belt and tie them together but it isnt long enough. So i take off my other shoe lace and tie it to the other shoe lace and then tie it to the belt. Then i take the shoe lace and tie it to a hole in the lever (who knows how, it took like 10 minutes) and then loop it up through the top window of the garage and pull. BOOM theres a give and a sound and we try to slide the door but it doesnt open. So now im thoroughly angry and Im not gonna lie, i started to doubt whether God will answer my prayer. I tell Elder E that if this LAST thing doesnt work we are leaving to go sleep at the house of the other elders. So I untie my shoelace (15 min) and try to loop it through a bigger hole in the lever but i cant quite reach and my hands are now bruised and bleeding from pushing them so hard through this little crack. I finally stand up and in frustration and desperation walk over to the sliding part of the door and with all the anger and strength i had threw the door to the side and it budged....then more, then more and finally we passed through. Turns out the sound and give that i felt with my belt shoe lace set up really worked, but our door is so dangggg rusty it wouldnt budge. Sooooo moral of the story....number one, dont doubt the Lord. If he can move mountains, make the Earth, make man, visit man, and everything, howwww could he not do something so simple that you need in your life like open a door. Moral number two, the Lord is going to make you WORK for it, sometimes so hard that you are bruised and bleeding trying to get through this trial. But guess what? Thats life, and we grow from that and God knows what we need when we need it. I  know that on this particular night, God heard my cry and he came to help me. All things are possible to those who believe and have faith.

Hey fam! Thanks for all the letters! I think i got one from EVERYONE today! That was really nice. Thanks for everything. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Josh Hamm

NEW ADDRESS

Just in case anyone is writing Elder Hamm, his new mission address is: 

Elder Joshua Hamm

Puebla Mexico South Mission

31 Poniente 109 int. 201

Colonia Chula Vista

Puebla, Puebla Mexico 72420

God Bless The Americans in Mexico

American Burger!

July 8, 2013

Elders at American Burger

Soooo I´m sure the big question this week is whatttt was the 4th of July like in Mexico!!! And let me just tell you!!! Normal. If i had to choose one word to sum up the entire experience of my 4th of July it would be as such: Normal. And not in the sense that it was a normal 4th of July, no im talking about good old Vanilla, plain old white, and working the 8 to 5...well 6:30 to 9, but the point is it was justtt another day man. Butttt in my zone, or at least the close areas, there are 5 out of 6 Elders who are American, so we were like okay, whether we are in Mexico or not...we are doing somethingggggg. So we worked all day and then that night we went to a place called, i kid you not, American Burger that an investigator of one of the other wards owns. So we all went there and had hamburgers for 5 pesos a piece when they are usually 50. They were SOOOO good and we all sang the Star Spangled Banner and took pictures with the flag. So no fireworks, no homemade ice cream, no family, no parades, no parties, and no patriotic music, but hey cant complain. Just cause im in Mexico doesnt mean im not AMERICAN! Soooo God Bless America.

    

        Soooo then the next big thing that happened this week was on Friday. Elder P and I were trying to catch a bus or combie over to the other side of our area.  So when we get to the bus stop there is commotion. Like people are FREEKING out and all we can see is like 20 dudes between the ages of 17 to 27 and we are like Gang fight. Butttt luckily and unluckily that wasnt the case. We then saw that there were rocks all across the middle of the road and then a few feet later there was a bus parked across all the lanes.....then we noticed there was nobodyyy on the bridge where the road led, and then we saw the other side was the same. And throughout the day we discovered the same kind of setup all over town. Apparently these guys were all from the public transportation and they were trying to manifest against the "metro bus" which is a proposed bill that the metro buses would be put into place and take the place of public transportation but would work more efficiently (supposedly) but it would put a TONNN of people out of work and so they blocked roads all over the city! Including the major major highway called the periferico. It was insane. It was kinda post appocolypse the way there were sooo many people all over walking in the middle of the street and cars all parked and abandoned in the middle of the roads even on the realllyyy big interstate! So that was cool, but it meant we had to walk alllll the way to the other side of our area and back...which wasnt cool haha but it was only for a day so we are good.

             Spiritual thought for this week comes from a lesson we taught. We are currently teaching an athiest who is very open to learning more about the gospel and about god and everything which is good. So we are teaching him but we have found that teaching someone who doesnt believe in God is very hard and you have to explain things even more basicly than when you are teaching someone who doesnt know the gospel. So we were talking to him about the Restoration and about Joseph Smith and we showed him the video of the Restoration. So after the video we were talking about it and he asked "Wait, so all Joseph Smith did was have faith, prayed sincerely, and then God and Christ appeared to him?" Now we had kinda expected a question like that but we were worried how to respond since he sounded very VERY skeptical. But before we could answer he followed up with "Man, I want to have faith like that." We were both obviously shocked and then agreed with him. But it got me thinking, was that really all it takes....I mean yes Joseph Smith had attended several churches looking for the truth, searched the scriptures, pondered, and had a sincere question with real intent, but the main point of the first vision is he had incredible faith. He actually believed that if he were to ask of God that he would recieve an answer. And then he recieved one of the most magnificent experiences in recorded history. I have a testimony that this kind of faith exists and can be achieved. Sometimes it seems hopeless when we are so imperfect but in all hoesty, God knows that, but he chooses to love us anyway. So have the faith you need, and have the knowledge that you arent perfect....and you dont have to be. And then ask in faith for what you need from God and he will bless you in your life. We can all have our own Joseph Smith experiences if we only trust in the Lord to give us an answer.

Hey fammmmm!! Love you all so much as always. Thanks for sending your love every week!....oh wait def havent heard from Jake or Nate...thanks ty. Tell everyone im doing great and the work is good! Good luck with all the new missionaries in your wards, help them please! haha its hard enough with the members but alone its impossible! Love you all! 

Love,

Elder Hamm

My new notebook :)

For parents

The sky was super happy on one side....and super mad on the other! haha

July 1, 2013 

If you haven't seen Tyler Haws mormon message, you gotta watch it haha its cool, although there needs to be a part 2!!! To answer some questions:  ummm no missionary in the entire country of Mexico has a bike. It was a new rule put into place like 4 months before i got here. The assistants are the only ones who have a car and they don't even use it that much. I have found  chips here for 50 cents for a bag that would cost 1.50 in the US but what's better is there is shave ice....like GOOD shave ice. Like more slush puppies that are EVERYWHERE and they are 5 pesos....so like 30 cents for a biggg cup!! I dont get them often cause money here can be tight with all the traveling but we just got 300 extra pesos which will help so i dont have to spend your money on pasta at the end of the month, haha, but we played bball today with elders for 3 hours cause there was a good turnout so i treated myself to a lime slush puppie for 5 pesos after.

Sooo not much happened this week, at least not terribly news worthy but there were still a couple things that I think might be of worth to some of you.

            So i have decided that of all the things on the packing list that comes with your call, the Number one thing you should take on a mission to Mexico is.....a Pedometer. How sick would that be?? Then i could be like yah so me and P walked 200 miles this week but at least thats something cool i can put in the journal. Buttttt alas i have no pedometer so i have to guess that it was around 2000...miles. Nah, but really it was at least 80 cause its 2 miles to and from our main spot in our area....so thats already 14 miles alone and trust me we walked allll over the place. Good thing is it was all for good reason cause we were serving the lord...Bad thing is, we didnt have much success despite our marathon. Butttt thats okay cause im sure the little success that we did have is helping those less active families a ton!!

           We also got to bless a crying baby and yes, the rules of the mission say that you are not allowed to hold a baby....butttt there are loop holes to everything!! haha nah, the lady said she preferred if we hold it while we give it the blessing and that was gonna work better anyway soooo i got to hold a baby!!! YAY! Its the little victories that count haha

            I got to sing "How Great Thou Art" Spanish/English Remix at a baptism while i played guitar along with it which was fun! It was also really cool cause we didnt have English hymn books but then we realized hey, if we get the words wrong it really doesnt matter cause NOBODY is going to know what we say!! haha so we sang and it went really well...and i think we got ALMOST all the words right too!

           So the spiritual thought today is directed towards parents (boooo) i know i know, its a very exclusive group but at the moment i am empathizing with them. Thats why im adressing this spiritual thoughts to parents. Im not going to share some insight with you unfortunately or give you some amazing "ah-a moment" of enlightenment. I just wanted to let you know that your job SUCKS (excuse the French, Mom don´t take it out cause it carries a weight with it haha) I'm serious. Yes, you have rewarding moments and according to what ive heard they make it "All worth While...wink wink." But seriously you work so hard, you know better than your kids cause you have been there and when you council them they dont really listen or heed your council and you are dissapointed. BUTTTTTT, no matter how much they make you angry or dissapoint you, you will kneel down every night and pray for them in love. I just want to let you know....im justtt starting to feel that and future missionaries better buckle up cause kharma is a DOWNER. Im convinced that if you are a difficult child your whole life (like me) you will get hit with the most FRUSTRATING investigators as a missionary. Its just the cycle of bad energy moving along haha Being a missionary is kinda like parenting, and before you jump down my throat about how i dont actually have childern or know, let me explain. As a parent you teach your kids, as a missionary you teach investigators. As a parent your kids have lots of questions, and sometimes are not satisfied with the right answer, i cannot tell you how many investigators tell me they dont think something im teaching is true....The story of the translation of the Book of Mormon is not open for opinions. As a parent your children sometimes dont listen to you and often tell you they are going to clean the stairs...but never get around to doing so, as a missionary, investigators promise to come to church, read, pray, and many other seemingly simple tasks, and yet each time we return they have failed to complete with commitments. As a parent you sit with your eternal companion at night and talk about how you can help your struggling children, as a missionary I sit with my temporary companion every night and talk about how we can help our struggling investigators. As a parent you get frustrated, WHY WONT THESE PEOPLE JUST READ THE DANG BOOK!!!!....excuse me. As a parent, when all else fails you get on your knees and tell God that you are doing all you can and you need his help in this, as a missionary we pray every night for each of our investigators personally and we know that we have done all we can adn all we can hope is that the Lord will help these people know what we have taught them is true. I could go on for days but this post is already wayyyy too long haha but seriously parents, i feel for you. Thank you for all you do, thank you for not giving up on your kids, and make sure you send them on missions so that kharma can teach them whats goooooood.

Hey fam!! Love you all so much. Jake, write jacy back so i dont have to read that at the bottom of all her emails ;) and i guess write me back too haha same with nathan -__- thanks for writing me tyler. Also thanks mom and dad for being good parents, you were teaching me how to be a missionary. LOVE YOU ALL A TON! SEE YOU SOON!

Love Elder Josh Hamm

P.S. - Im totally kidding about the soon part. I have 20 months left. HA! -__-

These are called "Elotes" Its corn on the cob with mayonaise, parmesean cheese, and spicy powder like chilie powder. Sounds gross but sooo good! And only like 5 pesos!