WEEK 10: September 2, 2019

Selfie with President Nelson

Another week down!

This week went by extremely fast!  Highlights from this week:  We took a long bus to Videirra again to watch the president’s devotional for the missionaries!  This was super cool and felt super helpful and was a nice break from the usual walking and work!  Hung out with my friends from the district, who convinced me to buy a Ukulele, so i'll start learning how to play that!  Other than that, this week we had 5 people commit to a date for baptism!!  Super exciting and felt like exactly what i needed to give me a boost that our work is going somewhere!  This week we also built a house with our ward, which was quite different than how a house is build in the states haha.  It was a nice mix from our usual work, but i’ve never been so tired because we worked on the house from 6-2:00, then continued our usual day teaching afterwards!  Still just hanging in here!  Teaching lots of new people everyday, and trying to get this language down!  Thanks to everyone who emailed me this week!  Also sorry this email is short!

-Elder Hammond

He was told that Ukuleles are allowed in his mission, but not guitars.

Highlights from our conversation:

• A young mother in their ward (23 years old) died this week in the hospital.  They thought it was TB, but then they were told it was Lupus?  Anyway, it was really sad.  She left behind a 3 year old daughter.  He and his companion had gone last week to the hospital to give her a blessing. Sometimes it’s just someone’s time to go.  Sad.

• He didn’t want to ruin his missionary shoes while building the house this week, so he bought some other shoes.  Unfortunately, he could only find soccer shoes.  So now he’s the proud owner of indoor soccer shoes.
• After the special devotional President Nelson gave, the district all went out to eat at a buffet, which is about all they have there.  It was about $3 for all you could eat.
• He says there is a lot of smoke in his town from all the fires burning in Brazil.  We’re all glad he’s not any closer to them.
• He made Brazilian Stroganoff this week.  It's a rice and chicken dish with a tomato cream sauce and crispy potatoes on top.

• He bought a chimarron (mate) cup this week and tried to make his own herb tea, but said it was disgusting.
• They walk so much that the hair on the inside of his calves has completely rubbed off.
• He bore his testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday in Portuguese and he said it went "OK".