Worst Week Ever?..........(remove question mark)

August 26, 2013

Soooo dont wanna put a downer on this blog, but in the name of being honest, this was probably the worst week of my mission so far. We had the food appointment fall through 3 times this week, we taught like 8 lessons total, got chewed out by members twice, missed the bishop's birthday and offended his wife. Needless to say it wasnt great. But thats just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. But i decided I AM THE BUCKET ON TOP OF THE WATER PLAYGROUND. Meaning that one bucket that just has water pour into it all day till it just tips.....one of these days im gonna tip people.  But because it was a bummer week there isnt really much to talk about. Sooo lets see if i can rescue this thing with a spiritual thought.

Sooo this week the spiritual thought comes from the very dificult week which i had. So like i said, my companion and I got chewed out two different times from the members for dumb reasons. Sooo long story short, a member started going in on me and my companion for not helping clean up chairs after an activity. I explained to him that we were talking to investigators and less actives like the bishop had asked us, and he said that we were bad examples of members, missionaries, and that we should be ashamed of ourselves. SIDE NOTE - Elder P and I had a few situations like this and he always kept a cool head and said something in a relaxed tone, very respectfully before i could get an angry word in. - END SIDE NOTE Sooo Elder P wasnt here this time, so i let this man know he was in the wrong. To be specific, i told him something along the lines of we have a calling from a prophet and it isnt to clean up after him and that if he has a problem with that he can take it up with the bishop. Then he got more angry and said we were gonna leave it like that then and stormed inside his house. I got home just angry out of my mind....like seriously maybe the most angry ive been on the mission. And then a funny thing happened. I sat down at my desk and started looking at the pictures of Christ on my wall. The second i did it i regreted it too haha cause i could feel it starting to work in me. I thought about Christ and how he was in this same place when he was on the Earth. But he not only didnt get mad.....he forgave them....and THEN he prayed to the father to forgive them. I wanted to be sooo mad soo bad. But i just couldnt. And so as much as it sucked, i went back to this mans door and asked him for his forgiveness and appologized for losing my temper and told him we were going to be more aware of when we needed to help people. We both agreed in the end to be friends. And ya know what? I felt better. I didnt think it was possible to feel that good asking someone for forgiveness. But as hard as it was, i know that it would have ruined my day if not my week if i had let it. So if you are angry with someone right now in your life, i know how good that feels. I know how much you want to just hold those feelings of hatred inside and let them brood....but i promise you there is a better way. As hard as it is to imagine, you will feel better if you just let it go. So go to this person...and ask this person who offended YOU, if THEY wil forgive you for holding this grudge. And then enjoy the liberating feeling of forgiveness.

Hey guys! Love you all a ton! Talk to you next week!

Love, Elder Hamm

Another Week Down

August 12, 2013

Soooo Big news this week is that we had our 6 Month celebration. I decided that a tie alone wouldnt burn well enough so i soaked mine in rubbing alcohol and then torched it....only Elder Allred kindaaa forgot to tell me that he had also put fireworks in it haha sooo that was exciting and deafening but we burned ties, had little ceasars pizza and it all ended up being a great time.

I FOUND HONEY SUCKLE!! haha it took me 5 minutes cause i
 could smell it but couldnt find it....but then i did! haha and
 it was delicious

          Hmmm this week?....well....it was a fairly normal week for me. We walked around... A LOT. Watched a lot of our appointments fall through, walked some more, taught a few lessons here and there, and watched some more appointments fall through. Our house almost got flooded because the drain system here is terrible and when it rains all the pipes back up and flood places....good thing we got everything off the floor and channeled the water into the bathroom adn down the drain. So take THAT Mexico! But it all went well. Other than that, we had a family in our ward who is WAYY less active come to church after like 15 years!! It was awesome, and its always nice to see that hard work pay off. We got three new investigators who seem to really want to know more about the gospel and so hopefully that will go wel. Umm we woke up one day and went to an appointment at 8 in the morning....and the mom forgot to tell us that the son had canceled 3 days earlier...joy. And then we couldnt go home just to come back for another appointment at 10 so instead we sat at a gas station and studied while eating nachos with cheese that has been sitting in the machine for WHO KNOWS how long haha but we arent sick yet so yay. But thats pretty much it! Nothing too terribly exciting this week haha sorry

Popo has been freeking out, but thats not any type of big news haha

         Soo spiritual thought for this week comes from my dad kinda. A long time ago....well i guess it was only 7 months ago, though it seems like 7 years...was telling me about the temple. This week we were teaching a recently reactivated family about temples and how they should really be the goal for them since now they are attending church again. It was really powerful but I shared with them (in roughly translated spanish) what my dad shared with me before i went to the temple. He said "ya know, I just dont understand the mindset of the people who are active members of the church and never make it to the temple. Thats like training for a marathon for 18 years and then you are running the race, and righttttttt before the finish line, you just sit down.....you have trained your whole life through YM and YW programs, Seminary, Sunday School, Sacrament, Quorums and Classes, Home Teaching, and more to enter the temple and now you are so close. Not going into the temple at this point when you are worthy and ready just doesnt make sense to me." They were both in tears and committed to setting a date to go to the temple in the near future and be sealed as a family for time and all eternity. The temple is the most important place you will ever go in your lifetime. If you are worthy and at that point, please, please, go to the temple and let God pour out his blessings upon you.

Thanks for the pictures of you guys with the signs! That was so awesome. I love you guys and i hope everything is going well for you guys and that youre having an awesome time on vacation!

Love,

Elder Josh Hamms

ROOTBEERRR!!! Found it at a store here called Waldos....MONEY

These OLLLDDDD Volkswagon hippie vans are madd popular here,
and props to them cause they still run!

The ONE TRUE CHURCH

August 19, 2013

Some sick pictures I took in a field

Yeah did that line myself....imma beast

First off, this week my Dads questions were about my new companion. Well my new(ish) companion is Edler Taylor. He is 24 from Orem, Utah. He has the same time as me on the mission (6 months) and he comes form a family of 10 kids!! ANDDD he is the youngest! haha crazy. But he has been a member his whole life along with all his brothers and sisters and his parents. He knows a tonn about cars and not a ton about swag. I know a ton about swag and almost nothing about cars, so we decided we would teach eachother and after the mission if i ever have car problems i know where im going haha On pday we ALWAYS play soccer. WE found a really nice turf field and the zone leader we have is leaving in one change to go home and he looveess soccer so we play for him and happen to enjoy it a ton ourselves. This week, we are playing with our zone, the zone Cholula, the assistants, Secretary De La Rosa, and we are told a special guest....i really hope its not Elder Martinez from the area presidency who gave us a training this week haha dang.
 

My BOYYYY with the shave cart! haha  We are really good friends.

My other friend next to the shave ice stand

            Sooooooo this week has been pretty full although still fairly uneventful! haha We taught a few lessons here and there, taught 2 new investigators and it went really well but i will share more about that in the spiritual thought, had district meeting, got planced by my district leader for getting to the house late ONE time out of this whole change -_____- smf. We got to get some free shave ice from the shave ice people i made friends with haha and had a big zone capaciation (zone training) with the area president Elder Martinez and his wife! It was really interesting and when the pictures come out on Sister Reeves blog or the email letter, you will be able to see the activities we did! It was really good though. And then we had an idea to go hand out pamplets with my district on Saturday at a park, got to the park, and within 2 minutes the sky opened up and DUMPED on us. Im not even kidding, like Satan was like straight up WHAT ACTIVITY?! It was some of the hardest rain we have had. And the wind was sooo strong too. We got soaked.....needless to say it wasnt the most sucessful activity we have ever had haha but we contacted the security gaurds so it wasnt a total waste! haha

         So spiritual thought for this week is about the one true church......if you arent with me yet, thats ours. Soo we had our first lesson with two brothers on Tuesday and they are both new investigators. We were teaching them about the book of mormon so we were reading the introduction and the one brother asked why God confounded all the languages in the story with the Tower of Babel. So we told him about how the city and the people were SOOO wicked that God confounded their languages so that they couldnt communicate with eachother and thus couldnt commit all the wicked acts that they had been commiting. Then the brother was like "Wowww, i have asked soo many churches and so many people about that and none of them have given me a straight and plausable answer like that. They all just either say that its cause God just wanted to, or beause there needed to be more languages in the world. But you guys actually have an answer and it all makes sense." It was a really big Ah-ha moment for him and it was awesome to see what real truth can bring to those who are seeking it! But then it got me thinking about how lucky i am to be a missionary for the ONE TRUE CHURCH. Can you imagine trying to be a missionary for another church and having to weave your way through questions and dodge the loop holes that are in your doctrine? You dont have the holy ghost to help testify to their hearts, and you have things in your doctrine that are contridictary to historical records and/or scriptures in the bible! So the parallel i pulled form this was that we have the true church AND we have the spirit...so why are we not sharing the gospel more? What do we have to fear? We are spreading truth without fault, inviting people to live a better life, and feeling the spirit more powerfully in our own lives all along the way! So my challenge for you is to spread the gospel. Dont be afraid to open your mouth and share this wonderful gift you have been given.

Love,

Josh

Popcorn!! All the flavors at Walmart

Another sick picture

The last sick picture

ONE FOURTH OF THE WAY THERE!!!

August 5, 2013

The view was sick!

So first things first. Unfortunately both my Mother AND Father told me in their emails that it was their anniversary....Im gonna have to take that as a sign that they figured I forgot, but c'mon, Im your son!!!......and have that homemade calender hanging on my wall with all the important events on it. So one way or another I was going to get around to remembering haha Sooo on that note: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I dont know how to say that in spanish otherwise.....it would be in spanish and you would all be very impressed. Butttt thats just too far out of my little league right now so maybe next year? We´ll skip all the lovey dovey mushy wushy stuff but if you think your parents are the best in the world....then youre wrong. And I say that with a fair deal of confidence so come see me. They are the best parents a kid could ask for which is good cause as everyone knows you dont actually get to choose, soooooo, yah thanks for everything. Love you guys.

              Soooo second things second (such a bad phrase). Tomorrow I will hit exactly 6 months on the mission which most people say is a fourth of the way there....well let me just tell you...its been a longgg ride haha but yet here we are and now I only have to do this 3 more times! Soo its a small step....but in the right direction! So theres something to celebrate and you best believe you will see pictures of ties burning in next weeks email! 

A little lizard we found while cutting grass

               Okay so now on to the questions that my dad has asked me thisss week. For starters, yes, they eat popcorn here and they have some of the most dope looking flavors! (for those of you who have been around the block a few more times, dope means cool) Im talking about jalapeño, chili, carmel, cream, nacho cheese, cheddar, and more and they all just come in little 3 peso bags that you can buy!....only problem is we dont have a microwave -__- when the mission was picking out which 2 kitchen items to give the missionaries they had settled on stove, and there was talk of a microwave, but then that one dude that kevin invited in the corner was like "and a blender!! A blender would just be a hugggeeee help!" So they went with what is arguably the most Un-versitle kitchen applience next to the quisenart. (not even gonna try and spell that). Soo yes theres popcorn, but we dont eat it. Shave ice yes, and you better believe I made friends with the people who sell it FAST. So now we get free shave ice every once in a while. And on top of that its really good homemade shaveice too called nieve. MONEY. The weather...is pretty mild. Not really too hott or too cold....unless you are walking around all day haha....oh wait.....thats my life -__-. Its a little warm sometimes yes, but not bad. So thats it for questions, and looking back it was a LOT more sarcastic than intended haha I apologize.

papa johns pizza yummm!

            So this week was pretty uneventful. Got sworn at a lot so that was fun. Cut grass by hand for service with the Zone Leaders....we used machetes so that was actually dope (refer to previous paragraph.) But I got to go on interchanges with Elder Allred and it was his birthday so we had papa johns pizza which was soooo good, then we ended up playing a very intense version of the what-if game...which is worse when youre sitting in a dark house in the middle of mexico. Needless to say, we slept with the light on...well he wanted to but we ended up chosing primary songs which as everyone knows is eqally effective at scaring the ghosts away. It is a proven fact that ghosts are scared of primary hymns.

PUPPYYY

           Soo spiritual though this week comes from the experience of one of our investigators....but more importantly from her nephew. We have had a woman who is known as an "eternal investigator" and we had a reallllyyyy spiritual lesson with her and her recently baptized nephew. But the nephew bore his testimony about baptism and said that when you are baptized you go down into that water and the lords hand reaches in and pulls you out...and then he never lets go again. He talked about how he was having a hard time quitting smoking before he was baptized and now he cant sleep sometimes because of the cravings and so he gets up, walks down to the store, buys cigarettes to smoke but he ends up breaking them in half because he  knows that no matter how hard it is to quit, letting the lord down would be worse. I know that the Lord is with us always. He will never leave us alone and he will never let go of our hand.

Love you guys! Hope you are having fun!

Love,

Elder Josh Hamm

Most confusing road sign award goes to....this sign