WEEK 84: February 1, 2021 (more than 19 months)

 

Elder Hammond, Elder Hill and Elder Bickel

This week was really crazy!!  I got two new companions, one is a trainee and the other is just out of training (still pretty green haha).  One is from Orem, Utah and the other is from Idaho falls!!  They are cool.  The greeny, Elder Bickel, is super energetic and it's crazy seeing him go go go haha.  The other elder, Elder Hill, is super cool.  He is super into hunting and fishing.  We get along well.  He taught me how to rope a cow the other day.  It was pretty rad haha.  Never thought I'd learn how to do that. 

We did tons of service this week!  We served at the food bank and we volunteered at the animal shelter.  I love serving at the animal shelter ‘cause it gets us out of the house and walking around.

One big highlight of this week was that a little girl we were teaching was finally baptized.  Her family is less-active and we are working a lot with them to get them back to church. And this was a step in the right direction.  My companions both gave talks at the baptism and I gave a prayer!  It was a sweet small service. 

Other news... Friday night, we were playing basketball in our carpet church gym, and I went up for a layup, and sprained my ankle pretty bad!  I'm in a boot for a while and not able to spend a ton of time walking around for now.  But things are slowly getting better.  I'm just hoping I won't need surgery. 

Other than that, my studies this week were super focused on staying strong through trials. And through reading more on the story of Nephi and the story of Joseph Smith, I really realize that through trials and hard times, we are refined the way God needs us to be.

Thanks for reading!

Elder Hammond

From Mom:

• He knows what it feels like to go through trials and hard times.  Missions are hard!  I am grateful that he is finding ways to be refined in the ways God needs him to be. He is determined and I am so proud of him!
• Here is a picture of disc golfing with the less-active member who really enjoys that.