WEEK 17: October 21, 2019

District leaders coming to get Elder Hammond and Merino for Zone Conference

Well this week was a lot of traveling around this state!  WE had a zone conference on Tuesday in Lages, which was awesome!  Refreshing to talk to the president and all the other American missionaries who share a lot of the same difficulties i have had!  The next days we did a division for the day, i switched companions for an American, and went to the city of Curitibanos for a day!  It was super cool too see the major difference of people and the work there versus here in Vacaria. 

I returned to Vacaria on Wednesday (ate a large bowl of Açaí) then we did a service project with this single mother in our ward who needed some help moving some heavy furniture and doing some cleaning.  (that’s what the picture is of)

Crazy woman, "I am going to go to a bar and find a man..."

The black women in the picture has some mental problems and ís absolutely hilarious! she loves to say that she is 18 years old and that she is going to the bar to find a man, walks out the front door, waits 30 seconds and then returns and sits on the couch. 

Andrew Garfield

Andrew Hammond as Elder Hammond on exchanges with the District leader

Other highlights this week, had 3 people ask to take a picture with me in Lages (the city) because apparently I'm slightly similar looking to Andrew Garfield from spider-man.

I got authorization to use my Chacos for proselytizing -> pretty strong tan line on my feet haha, and I spoke in church about how faith can lead to miracles in our life.  Hanging in here in the humid heat and hot rain!  Til next week.

-Elder Hammond

Mom Questions:
Who have you taught this week?
didn't really teach anyone old this week, just making a lot of street contacts and teaching first lessons.

What ever happened to the old lady with the broken Samsung phone?
soooo we returned and they were very drunk again, so we taught a quick lesson, invited them to church, and decided not to return.

Did you get to teach Stefani again?  Is she still wanting to be baptized?
She has a testimony of the gospel but isn’t ready to live all the commandments yet.  We’ll keep teaching her and hopefully she will get there.

Have you ever tried offering to bless people’s homes like you did in Cacador?
yeah that’s exactly what we do, people just don’t want it here!

How was Zone Conference and exchanges with the Zone leader?!
super fun!  and it wasn’t the zone leader it was the district leader

From our conversation:

• Turns out his bed bugs are actually fleas!  I am not sure what is worse, but the mission president was certain from the bites all over Elder Hammond’s arms that that is what he is dealing with.  He gave him some solid advice on getting rid of them.  He loves his mission president!
• Their little branch there is really struggling.  With 350 members on the rolls there, only 15 or so show up each week.  Even the branch president’s family doesn’t come often!

Wildlife picture of the week

The fire station...

...with an inspirational painting.

Chef Andrew's p-day creation: tacos (apparently it's very hard finding tortillas in southern Brazil.)