Come What May, and Love It

Me and Elder Scott with matching ties at the interviews

   OOOOOOOOKKKKIIIIEEEEE DOOOKIE CAMPERS! Well this week was pretty good. We got to have interviews with our president (The first ones with President Stellmon), got to make some bread (something ive wanted to do my whole mission), ANDDDDD we were able to ALMOST put a baptismal date. But more on all that in a moment. First, my dads questions!

       Alright, well my Dads questions are really good this week. Not that they arent good every week, but you know, there are better goods and worse goods haha but anyways here we go. 1) 2) When i think of Moms cooking and miss it....im always thinking of something different - calzones, teriaki chicken, chicken pot pie, shephards pie, fast sunday roast and potatoes and carrots and gravy and homemade rolls, and....yah its just always different. BUTTT the most recent was when i was working in a panaderia (more on that to come) and I thought of my Moms homemade soft pretzels....and almost died. But i kept it together. 5 more months! haha 3) NORMALLY, the Mexico city temple is where everyone goes, and its about 2 to 3 hours. However, the temple in DF is closed so they go to Veracruz which is about 4 hours away from here. But thats lucky there are people in the south who live veryyy far from the temple. They rent buses as a ward and go once a month. ANDD 4) Something you see in a Mexican house that you dont see in a house in America would be no floor....like just dirt, and a special flat metal panish thing that they heat up tortillas on.

Making bread at the Panderia!!  It was so awesome!

       Alright, well this week was pretty exciting. Like I said we had our first interviews with the new president, President Stellmon, and they went really well. Well, mine at least haha I felt like i kinda got to know him like i havent been able to so far and the bonds are being strengthened. Andddd i got to see Elder S. We got matching ties and took pictures. Yah, be jealous. Then as i mentioned I was finally able to make PAN (bread)!!!! It was so great. Elder N knows some guys who have a hugeee bakery and we went on Saturday to help them! It reminded me of my days working at Scottos haha but it was great. I got to make donuts, conchas, cuernos, filled cuernos, empanadas, and more! It was sooo sick haha and we are going to go again next Saturday too! Andd then to finish it off our investigators were able to get their ACTA that they need to get married so they will be getting married this week and then hopefully also baptized!! YAY! so hopefully that all goes down this week. So all in all, it was pretty great.

       So for my spiritual thought this week comes from a talk we studied during the interviews that im sure you have all heard. Its called "Come What May, and Love It." by Joseph B. Wirthlin. It is one of the all-time greatest talks. Seriously its great. Buttt it talks about how we can take adversity and make it into a blessing in our lives, one which when taken correctly can help us to progress spiritually. In one part of the talk Elder Wirthlin says: "Sometimes the very moments that seem to overcome us with suffering are those that will ultimately suffer us to overcome." My Mom also once told me that i should learn to love change, because its a part of life and the sooner i learn to love it, the happier i will be. I think we can also apply this council in every aspect of our lives. Tribulations come, they are hard, they are trying, and they are sometimes lasting, but they are an inevitable part of a perfect plan that our Heavenly Father has for us, and he has promised us blessings when we endure well. The talk also says: "...every tear [of sadness] today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude." I know that we all experience trials in our life, but instead of looking at them with fear, let us take them with trust. Trust that our loving Father in heaven knows what we need and he knows how to help us grow. It is all part of his plan and he will compensate us for all loses that we incur along our journey back to him.

Love,

Elder Josh Hamm