WEEK 20: October 29, 2018 "Call me "white chick" one more time I dare you"

OLA GENTE!!!!

I want everyone to know that I started typing this email in Portuguese and like 4 sentences in I realized that this email is for Americans.... so that was an awkward time haha. 

So this week was full of miracles! i think I mentioned that we had a family of Venezuelans move into our ward this week. It is really sad. It is a mother and 3 sons. But they left one more son there in Venezuela. They were telling us stories of everything happening there and I started crying. They need a lot of prayers. But the church helped them move here to Brazil because the Mom is a member of 2 months. The problem is that they don’t speak Portuguese. So it is very hard for me to teach them. We are giving them classes of Portuguese to help them. but also the sons aren’t baptized. They are about 20 years old. One of them is a major scorpion but we try to ignore him. We are teaching them to the best of our ability and the whole ward is helping them by donating clothes and beds and everything they need!! It is really a miracle that they showed up here. 

We also are teaching another family that was a reference from a member. The moms name is Kelly and she is very sweet. Whenever we visit her she makes us juice and gives us little crackers. 

My district is AMAZING!!! Sister Ressurreição and I have been struggling a lot here and Elder Brada (our district leader) knew that. So he organized all of the district to come to our area once a week to make contacts and knock on doors and help us out. So that was yesterday! Every Sunday at 3pm we have the whole district here in Cassino!!! Yesterday was awesome! We made a bunch of contacts and we are letting all the members of the ward who are preparing for missions come help us. So I got to teach Vinicius (a member) how to make contacts and it was awesome! But I also am arguing a lot with the elders in my district (the district and zone leaders) about ice cream. They all think that ice cream is better here than in the United States and that is NOT TRUE! Guys appreciate your ice cream because the ice cream here is ice without any flavor. 

That about sums up my week y'all!!! I love you and I miss you!!! Appreciate the fall because it is dang hot here. But we are drinking chimarrão regardless. 

My challenge for y’all is to read Joseph Smith History 1. The restoration is very powerful and very important. The spirit that you feel when you study about the restoration is very special. I want every single one of you to gain a testimony of Joseph Smith and the restoration of the church. I didn’t really gain that testimony until I arrived here on the mission. But now I know that Joseph Smith really did see God and Jesus Cristo. He really did have the power to translate the Book of Mormon. I know that the Restoration of the church was inspired by God. Completely. 

That is my challenge and update! I love you all!!! Keep working hard!!! As my comp would say, "FICA FIRME!!!!!!"

i have to go. My time is up! I love you guys to death and I am praying a lot for each of you! I am grateful for your support and love everyday and every moment!!!!

Com muito amor,

Sister Hammond

Do you still have no hot water in your apartment?

We have lukewarm water in the apartment. This week we had a scare when all the water turned off completely for a couple hours. We thought we were going to be without water for days... but the water came back after a little while. but it was scary! Our building has a small storage of water that we can use. So this time everyone in the building ran outside to get water from this storage so now we have like a bunch of pots and bottles filled with rando water sitting in the house. 

Have you found anyone to teach?  How do you spend most of your day?

We have started to find people to teach! Right now we are spending a lot of time with the members in the area working out the logistics of the area and visiting references. But honestly it is really hard because we spend a lot of time on the bus to get there and don’t have a lot of time to actually work so that is super frustrating. (It takes us about 25 minutes if the bus is on time. But that is rare. We usually wait about an hour.) But I am doing my best here and I have faith that the Lord will bless me for that.