WEEK 39 (9 MONTHS!!): March 11, 2019 "não vou esquecer... espera... talvez eu vou."

Translations: "I will not forget ... wait ... maybe I will"

Living in Butia eating butia (a really yummy fruit)

OIIII!! 

Gente. This week there was a HUGE motorcycle festival here in Butiá so this whole city was overwhelmed with bikers. It was slightly scary but also slightly cool. But unfortunately when you are a blonde American walking around with biker gangs in Brazil, you get a lot of weird looks so I had to be super careful and only got followed twice and yelled at a few times. So WE ARE GOOD!!! 

But the good news is that this branch is ready to GROW!!!! Our branch president had like a "mighty change of heart" this week and we had a billion meetings about how he could help us, the missionaries, fulfill our purpose and help the branch grow. I am so happy to have Presidente Alisson as our president because he really did just decide to help us with everything and that makes everything so much easier!!! He is awesome. 

I don't know if I told you guys last week about Leda. But I will tell you again. Leda is a super special woman. She has a special needs daughter named Juliana. They are super sweet and we got to focus on Christ with them because we felt like they needed to understand that Christ can help us with our difficulties. When we read Alma 7:11-12 she started tearing up and said that she couldn't believe that someone would suffer everything so that they could help her. It was incredibly spiritual and definitely one of the highlights of my week. 

I am also directing a choir here now with all the women and youth in the branch so that is AMAZING!! I love music so that is just wonderful. We are singing the EFY medley in Portuguese again. But that song is so powerful that I just love it every time I get to sing it or play it on the piano. 

Anyways. I think those are the highlights of my week. It was a kinda a normal week but also I am finding real happiness here on the mission. To have every single day to focus on Christ and the gospel is really a HUGE blessing. If you are thinking about serving a mission, here is your answer: Do it. It will change your life and you will never regret it. 

This week I wanna challenge y'all to read Jacob 5 and really concentrate on the symbolism. This week I got to read it and I learned a ton about how to take care of other people on the mission and in life. I drew a ton of trees in my Book of Mormon, but what helped me is that every time it read, "the servant of the lord" I wrote in my name. And that helped me apply that chapter really into my life and into my mission.

I love you all!!! 

Com amor,

SISTER HAMMOND

Mom questions:

What was a highlight of your week?

I got to help out Sister Rodrigues. It was a hard week for us work wise because we practically couldn't work 4 days this week but I got to help her get to the hospital and I felt like I was doing something that Jesus Cristo would really do. Heal the sick. So I felt good about that. 

How is your health?

Great! I am not having any problems. And I have an appointment to see an eye doctor in a few weeks. So yay! 

What was a hard thing this week?

I think it was just the numbers. They were super low and that got us down. But I always remind myself that I don't want my mission to be made up of numbers. 

When did you see the hand of the Lord in your life this week?

There was a super dangerous motorcycle festival this week and at one point we had a man following us and yelling terrible things. We managed to get away without any problem and we went home super fast. So that was scary but the Lord protected us.