WEEK 78: December 15, 2020

 

Andrew's District

These past few weeks have been a little uneventful, but I'll try and write an interesting email!!  

The weather here has been crazy!  It'll have snow one day, and then be 70 and sunny the next day. It's been fun though.  I haven't felt winter for a long time and I can tell this winter is gonna be pretty cold on me haha.

This past week we received an awesome referral from a couple other missionaries from my mission, and it's an awesome family that we have had a few lessons with!  We are really focusing on the mom gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, because she is super invested in her other church.  It's been good working with her and her family and my companion and I are really hoping for the best! 

Other highlights, I had an idea this week to help us find some new people.  I posted an ad on Facebook marketplace for free family photo shoots for the holidays! (‘cause I got a good camera for my birthday that I used to produce ads for the mission.) Buuut the post blew up!!  I got like a hundred comments and tons of shares and a bunch of DMs.  I set up a bunch of photoshoots for these next few weeks and hopefully we can meet some people that are ready to hear our message around the holidays.  I did my first photoshoot this week, and it was fun!  The family wasn't super interested, but they seemed very appreciative of the free photos. 

                  

Other than that, we have been working with some less-active members in the area, and one of them invited us to play golf with him at the country club here in Plainview!  It was a lot of fun and he said we could come visit him and his family this week. 

One thing I've been studying a lot this past week is the story of the restoration.  Just seeing how much God did with Joseph Smith, a very imperfect man, gives me faith that God can do great things with each of us.  So I'm trying to focus more on accepting God's will and letting my mission really change me.

Love you all!

Elder Hammond

P.S. Here are a bunch of photos from the past few weeks

Helping at the tortilla factory

Rewarded with a giant pizza

Their last idea to find people

Christmas in their apartment

From our Conversation:

They're still walking dogs from the animal shelter every Wednesday and Friday.

He and his current companion are staying together another transfer in Plainview, TX.

A family in their ward, the Farnsworths, have invited them over for Christmas Eve dinner.  This is the same family that has the elders over every Sunday.  Shout out to amazing families all over the world who take care of our children while they serve missions!!!!

Andrew has an official release date: May 27.  We will see if it stays there.  It keeps moving. :)