Christmas Week :)

Hello Everyone! :D

 

I have had the most marvellous christmas in the world! I had the greatest opportunity to skyp my family:) the member we were at, had just got a Xbox 1 for christmas. So I was able to skype in his room on his big screen tv. It was most defiantly my favourite part of christmas time, Family. It was different not being home for christmas. We have our traditions, and family get togethers, but the ward here in Stockport treated us like kings. We were able to go to 3 different members home on christmas day. They all fed us proper nice food. I would say I probably gained like half a stone.

So on Christmas Eve, we were having a meeting, and an unexpected visitor showed up. It was Santa with all of our christmas presents. I must have been on the good list, because I got lots of chocolate and a some parcels from home:) It was great. I waited until Christmas night to open them.

 

Then day after christmas, is called Boxing day here. It is like the UK's version of Black Friday. So we went to anothers members home and played Fifa in the morning, which I am rubbish at. Then went and watched a few films like Brave, Despicable me 1 and 2, and Monsters University. I laughed so hard.

 

On Saturday, I had reindeer for tea. My companion's parents sent him reindeer meat for christmas so we had it. It tasted like moose. It wasn't too bad. But that wasn't the weirdest thing I had all week. A member gave us some fruit cake, and told us to eat it with cheddar cheese!? I was skeptical, but gave it a try. It didn't make the fruitcake taste any better,

 

Yesterday at church we heard from a misssionary that is going to serve in Albania. He was the bishops cousin. He went to school at BYUI for 2 semesters. So if anyone know a Jakob Simon?? It was pretty crazy. The family also had some family over from Boise! So I talked with them and they live 5 minutes from the Boise Temple:) it was great to get to talk to my fellow Idahoians. Sounds like things are going pretty great over there. Yesterday we were in charge of sharing time, and teaching a primary class. It was defianltly a learing experience.

I hope you all had a great christmas and will have a happy new years.

 

Love you all

 

Love Elder Hammond

Christmas Week

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying this time of year. It is a great time to serve one another and really grow strong relationships with your Heavenly Father. This past week I have seen many miracles happen. The first one is a family. A set of Elders met this family about a week ago. They came to church and are going to be baptized on the 28th! This is truly a christmas miracle. It is a mother and her 3 boys. After they get baptized, they are hoping to teach the father and the oldest daughter. When we were at their house, they let us hold their 6 week old chihuahua's! They were so cute and adorable. They were just so little :)

My friend Bew back in Wrexham is also going to be baptised on the 28th of December! Alot of christmas miracles happening.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sing a duet with my companion in sacrament meeting. the bishopric had asked us the week before to do it. So we willingly accpeted. Knowing I am not very well musically talented, we practised everyday. It was just a short primary song called Shepards Carol. The first time through we sang it together. The second time it was in a round. And there was no piano to cover up our voices. So it was quite the sight. No one left the meeting, so it wasn't too bad ;) It was a growing experience for me. There is a scripture that talks about whom the Lord calls, he qualifies. So I had faith that he would bless me by my obedience. and we saw that. We had 3 our our friends we are working with come to church. 2 of them are some of the members son and his wife. they live in Japan but they have taken the discussions before. They really are a nice couple.

Then Sunday night we went to a Stake choir concert. It was WOW! I was so impressed by the talent of the stake. There was this 9 year boy that played the piano better than anyone I have ever seen. It was amazing. Then there were lots of songs performed by the choir and congregation. You could really feel the spirit there.

One of the most spiritual moments I felt this week was at sacrament meeting. After we had just got done singing. The next song the primary children sang how could the father show the world. I felt my Saviors love so strong. I knew then the Lord was watching over me. I could feel the Saviors love. To some it might have been just another sacrament meeting, but to me it was pure love of Christ. Let us all reflect upon what we can do this week to better remember our Savior and Redeemer who is Christ. I pray that you all may have a safe and Happy Christmas.

Love Elder Hammond

December :)

Moi everyone,

 

So my companion taught me a little bit of Finnish, Mu toveri on paras, my companion is the best ;). He is great I really enjoy serving with him. He is really funny.

 

I love Stockport! We are working with a family that recently got baptised. The mother in March, and the Father in November right before I came in. They are amazing. Chris has the aaronic priesthood and yesterday blessed the sacrament. He is a proper Chav. For those that doen't know what a chav is, it stands for council housing and violence. Pretty much a 20 year old. But I have seen a change in them. Yesterday we went over there for tea and he was preparing for family home evening! It was great. We will be at their home for part of christmas day.

 

I was able to read the first presidency christmas devotional. Wow that is so great. I really enjoyed when the sister talked about the young boy in cub scouts. How she saw a change in him. And he was anxious to know what happens next. What happens next is, we get to meet Jesus Christ after this life :) how great is that. We know that families are forever.

 

We had our Christmas training this past week at the mission home. It was marvelous. We had a proper christmas feast form Sister Preston. It was well nice. Then we watched Ephraim's rescue. Which is a story of the pioneers. Some where from England, others where from America. It is there story and I was deeply moved by their motivation to make it to Zion. We should all have the same desire. Constantly whatever the Lord asks we will do just like Ephraim Hanks did. Then we all got christmas card from the first presidency! I was so happy to know that a prophet of the Lord wrote to me! Wow how lucky am I to be a missionary.

 

I love you all! I hope you all travel safe and have a wonderful christmas! Remember the spirit of christmas should be our spirit of Christ :)

 

Love Elder Hammond

It's Christmas Time!

Hello everyone! :)

For those that don't know, I have been transfered to Stockport. So I am back in England. And am loving it. I am just outside of Manchester! So it is an area with lots of people and lots of different cultures. My companion is called Elder Maljanen and he is from Finland. So I am now serving with someone that has a completely different background than me. Me and Elder Kunzler had pretty much the same background.

 

I was able to see 2 baptizm these past few weeks. I was very blessed to see one of my good friends Rikesh get baptized. He was the boy we were working with in Liverpool that his dad wouldn't let him get baptized. He is now one of the newest members of the Liverpool ward. And it was a great experience to see him enter the waters for baptizm :) I was overly excited to see him get baptized. Then this past Saturday, we had a baptsim here ins Stockport. It was a 10 year old boy. He was the only one in his family that hadn't been baptized yet. His name is Ferdi :)

 

After his baptsim, his dad invited us over for lunch. He is from Angolia in Africa. They speak Portuguese. So it was interesting not knowing what they were saying at all :) they fixed us some typical Africa food, like foo foo, and some chicken. I don't really know what part I ate? I think the whole chicken was in the pot. Maybe a foot or something like that. OH which reminds me. Before I left Wrexham, one of the recently baptized, as of Saturday. members made us this soup. Afterward she told us it  was cowtail soup. And it was actually quite nice :)

 

It snowed for the first time here last week. It snowed for like 5 minutes. Then was melted like 5 minutes later. Everything shuts down when it snows. People don't drive anywhere they just panic. and it was like no snow at all. ONe of the members told me they get lot and lots of snow. So I was expecting like 8 feet of snow... It's like 6 inches of snow a year! I laughed. People aren't that use to snow out here.

 

It's still hard to believe Beau is home! That doesn't seem possible. I was very excited to hear about his homecoming talk and how he bore his testimony in Hawaiin. I didn't even know Hawaiian was a language!!

 

Oh one more thing I would like to share. I went to and Evangelical church last Sunday. The lady told us if we went to her church, she would come to ours. It was defiantly an experience I won't forget.

 

I look forward to this Christmas season! and I invite all of you to take president Ballards commitment to heart. And invite at least one person to come closer to Jesus Christ before Christmas this year! I know you will see miracles from it :) Have a safe and happy holidays, I love you all

 

Love Elder Hammond

 

Dear Everybody,

 

So my companion has an interesting sleeping pattern, he likes to wrestle in his sleep. haha me and him wrestled last week while he was asleep and he still beat me! Yeah it was so crazy I was laughing so hard. I was on exchanges with an Elder from Pacen Utah, Elder Pace. We went to this Portaguese ladies home. We met her and said we would come back when we got a book of mormon in portaguese. So we went back with a member. We taught her and her husband jason about the restoration of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. And the end of the lesson we invited them to baptism and they acceptted :) so we will be teaching them this week.

 

One of our investigators John has been doing really well. He missed church yesterday because something happened. So we stopped by and talked to him for awhile. At the end of talking, without us even mentioning anything, he asked how do I get baptized? We were like wow John that is so great that you have a desire to be baptized! We will help him through his hard time and eventually into baptism :)

 

We were able to teach our recent convert Shuet Yee this week. Her hand is healing quite nicely. We taught her in Asda cafe, which is like Walmart. Then at the end said a prayer in front of everyone. It just goes to show, we can make anywhere a holy place. And can pray anywhere.

 

I was looking at my family history this week, and saw a picture of my great great grandfather Milton Hammond! That was so great to see. Also saw on the church website that there was a massive tsumani in the Phillipienes :( that is scary.

 

On Saturday we were teaching this lesson on what we believe to a family, we have been serving them alot. We went over the Article of Faith and exactly what we believe. We explained how you must be baptized by somone holding the priesthood. And that the child must be accountable. The daughter asked if she could be baptized and the mother told her no. She asked again and her grandma told her to stop being silly. It broke my heart. Me and my companion testified of the importance of the gosple. And I started to testify of eternal families and started to tear up a bit, and the little girl started making fun of me. Yeah a 19 year old boy getting made fun of for crying by a 8 year old girl :). I pray the mothers heart will be softened. and that someday the childeren will be able to be baptized.

 

This is my last P day before the transfer, so there will be no email next week, maybe Wednseday if I stay, Thursday if I leave!

 

l Love you all,

 

Love Elder Hammond

 

This is my district and me and Elder Kunzler with our hats on :)

Dear Everyone,

 

So this past week was Guy Fawks night. It is a celebration of a man that tried to blow up parliment and was stopped or somthing like that. Anyway we went with a member and watched the fireworks. It was quite nice to see them. It reminded me of the 4th of July! Which was 4 months ago,... I can't believe its been 4 months.

 

I was on exchanges with an Elder from Holiday Utah. His name is Elder Manning. He is the one that was 3rd in the nation for wrestling and played highland rugby. Found out his dad is cousin's with Peyton and Eli Manning!! So that was quite a shock!

Our newly baptized member Shuet Yee had to get surgery this week. Her finger was all messed up. So we have been praying for her alot.

 

Friday night we were at Naomi and Bue's they are so great. We taught them the Restoration and they were asking questions like were do people get the authority or priesthood. So explained about prophets and how Joseph Smith restored the priesthood to the earth.And at the end of the lesson Bue said the closing prayer and the spirit was so strong! they are progressing really well.

 

Our dated investigator Terrence is great. We met with him yesterday. He is struggling a little with the word of wisdom, so we gave him a priesthood blessing. I was the spokesman. I am so happy I have the priesthood and that I can bless peoples lifes with it. I am proud I am a worthily representative of Jesus Christ that I get to bear his name and be his missionary.  I hope you all have a great rememberance day! God Bless :)

 

Love Elder Hammond

 

A week of Halloween!

Dear Everyone,

 

I had a very happy Halloween! It was quite a celebration out here. They light off fireworks and you see alot of crazy people dressed up. But thankfully I had the opportunity to help with the ward halloween activity. We had lots of nonmembers there. and they were able to a comfortable way to be in the church. We had lots of candy. And we thought it would be useful to putmormon.org cards on all of the candy and our names and numbers. So that they could bet a hold of us to teach them more.

 

This week we taught a lady and her son. Their names are Naomi and Bue. They are so great. she recently lost her brother, so her heart is really soft. She wants to know where he is at. So we explained the spirit world, and the members where able to bear powerful testimony of the atonement and that they would see him again. Naomi and Bue are so great. It was raining, so they gave us a ride back home :)

 

Last Wednesday we went to our recent convert Shuet Yee's for lunch. She fixed us Lamb chops. I have never had lamb before, but that wasn't the strangest thing I had all day. Later that night we went to a members home. She is from Nigeria and her husband from Whales. She fixed us some african food. we had ox tail soup. And yes it was actual Ox tail. but boy was it delicious. I absolutely love african food :) and foo foo. It is hard to describe what it is, but it is so good.

 

We are working with this boy name Terrence. He is 23 and has been really taking on board our message. He was taught awhile ago, but faced really bad peer pressure so dropped the missionaries. But now he is starting to get back into it. We were teaching about the restoration and he had a testimony that this was God's church on the earth. So we invited him to baptism and he will be preparing for his baptism on the 30th of November :)

 

More great news! We were at a meeting with other missionaries last night and their investigators. We saw Rikesh, the boy me and Elder Kunzler were teaching in Liverpool. He was the one that his dad wouldn't let him be baptized. Saturday his dad said he could be baptized!! I was so shocked. I gave him a big hug :) Rikesh will be baptized on the 16th of November :) I am so excited for him! He will be a great member of the church.

 

Thank you all so much for all the love and support I have :) I love you all

 

Love Elder Hammond

October! Month of Miracles!

Dear Everyone,

So I have been challenged to have 10 gosple conversations a day. I got it from my mission president in a zone meeting, from our stake president in stake conference, and in a district meeting from my district leader Elder Kunzler. We have been promised to have a baptism each month as we do this. And I have seen a huge difference in our efforts.

Our recent convert Shuet Yee is doing really well. She is embracing the gosple like we want. She has really gotten involved in the ward and is preparing to do to the temple next month! I am so excited for her to be able to be there when her husband is baptized! and also her mom and dad :)

We have been teaching this lady named Anne. She lost her mother a couple of weeks ago. We were teaching her before she lost her mother, but now her heart is really softened to the message. She has 2 kids that seem really interested as well. I can't wait to see how much she will continue to progress. She called us right after she found out her mother died. She said we were the only ones that could bring her comfort and peace. We told her to talk to heavely father. He act in his name, he is the one that is really bringing her comfort.

Last Wednesday we had a zone conference and we had to take an egg across the gym on a spoon. and we had to avoid obsticles like temptations in life. Then if we got to the  end, we got to dunk our egg! Which was like baptism! once we did this, it got harder this time we had to toss our egg into the water, it didn't work the egg was allover the gym floor. So this reminded me of some times back at home when eggs were involved...

We had a flash flood this week. We were on our way to the bus, had just got on when the heavens opened and it started to down pour. I thought The Lord was truly looking after me. He let me get on the bus before it started to down pour :)

I have seen so many miracles this week from our 10 gospel converstations! We have 5 new investigators :) this is the most I have had all of my mission. I know the Lord is hastening his work here!

Love you all

Love Elder Hammond

Hello everyone!

What a wonderful week I have had. We had the opportunity this week to have stake conference. Saturday night session was one of the best most spiritual meetings I have ever been in. We had all of the speakers talk about members and missionaries working together to hasten the work of salvation. There were full time missionaries that spoke, young kids, adults, the stake president, ward mission leaders. All in all it was a great meeting and really got me excited for the work that is going to happen in the chester England Stake.

Sunday session of stake conference was held at a university in Wrexham. Which was crazy to have a stake conference in some where besides stake center. After ward we met a boy named Joseph Smith! Yep that's right we met a boy that is named Joseph Smith! He is a nonmember, but one of the less actives in our ward brought him to stake conference. We hoepfully will be working with him. It's crazy for it to be the 21 of October and not have the leaves changed or any snow... cross my fingers.

The weather here is actually quite nice for this time of the year. I have felt the influence of prays this week. I have had to rely on the Lord more and more. I know that I can't do the Lord's work without him. and the holy ghost. Pray everyone is doing well back in America!!

Love you

Love Elder Keegan Hammond

3rd Transfer! My first baptism :)

Hello everyone!

So I have some exciting news, I am entering into my 3rd transfer, so I will be serving in... Wrexham! and my companion will be Elder Kunzler! This will be our third transter together. I have never heard of a companionship staying together for 3 transfers, but we are :)

Last week we had a zone meeting. One of the missionaries was beat boxing Praise to the Man! Wow it was amazing but also kinda crazy how if you put a good song and make it up beat, it doesn't really invite the spirit.

I was on exchanges this week. I asked my companion Elder Pace what he wanted for lunch, he said he didn't know. So we turned to this cook book we have called missionary meals for 2. We learned how to make hot dogs... I was laughing so hard. Who doesn't know how to make hot dogs? haha what's next a recipe on how to make a bowl of cereal.

Saturday I had the opportunity to witness one of my investigators enter into the Lord's kingdom. Shuet Yee was baptized by one of the ward members. It was a sacrifice not having one of us missionaries baptised her, but we know that she will now always have that connection with the member. At the baptism, the members were so great. We had lots of refreshments for after it, and she was so excited. She said she felt so clean and pure. It was marvelous to see the whole conversion process. To go from not really knowing if their was a God, to her knowing he was there and listened to her prayers.

Then the next day at church, we had lessons on how the members can help us missionaries. It was really exciting to see the enthusiam of the ward. I think the baptism really won over the ward and now they will trust us missionaries to teach their friends.

Then sunday night we went to what is called a mission home fireside, it happens once a month, and its where all the recent converts to the church go. We were able to hear from 8 or 9 people about their conversion story. It was really funny this 17 year old girl was saying how the missionaries found her, and at first she just thought they were hot. Then at the end said she wanted to go on a mission to Utah to see all these hot boys! All the missionaries were laughing so hard. She was a little off on what missionaries do.

I would have to say this has been one of the best couple weeks! With conference and see one of my friends get baptised! :) I hope all is well back at home. and that you all are facing lifes challenges with an eternal perspective.

I love you all,

Love Elder Hammond

Got a new name tag in welsh

Miracles!

Wednesday we met with our investigator Shut Yee. She took us to Gregg's, a dinner, we were sitting outside walking with her, and we notice these two ladies that kept looking at us. We knew they were listening, so when they got up to leave they asked if we were Jehovah Witnesses. We said no we are representaves from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or the Mormon church. They said they had heard of it, but didn't know much about it. They were born again christians. We explained how there are 23,000 different christian denominations and that they all had the Bible but only one church had the Book of Mormon. And that it testified that God loves all of his children not just a select few. And explained where the Book of Mormon came from. Then one of them mentioned her uncle was Catholic. Our investigator Shut Yee, said she was Catholic but was converting to Mormonism. What more sign did we need, we invited her to be baptized and she said yes of course. Then we told her October 12th, she said Elder Kunzler birthday. She is such a great lady and I am happy to be teaching her about Jesus Christ's restored church. She is such a great lady.

The Lord really does answer to us as we ask in faith. We prayed and fasted and the Lord blessed us with this opportunity.

So British candy is much better than American, and this one is my favorite its called a bueno bar!

I love you all!

Love Elder Hammond

A happy Missionary is a busy missionary

Hello everyone,

This past week has been one of the fastes weeks on the mission! I literally swear I was just here in the library writing you all. Things go so fast! It's hard to belive I have been out in the mission field for 2 months already. It doesn't feel like 2 months at all.

Last Thursday we had a multi zone conference with our Mission president, President Preston. In this meeting, he taught us that we must have 300 gospel conversations a month to get 1 baptism. That is only 10 gospel converstations a day! That isn't alot. Since we go from 10 in the morning till 9 at night. 11 hours to have at least 10 gospel conversations. Later on in the conference, we had a training from some of the Zone leaders. They related the gospel to football. And I was excited! They talked about us using our daily planner like a play book. And how we must draw up our plays and then execute them with exactness. But as in a game, be willing to change to what the defense is doing. We must be urgent in what we are doing, and if we do, we will score a touchdown. Then we had a traing from some of the sister training leaders. They taught about extending commitments and how it realates to basketball. If we practice really hard, we will get that dunk. But how exciting is it if no one sees us dunk? Its not so we must get others involved.

So Friday we went to one of our investigators home, he said he was on facebook one day during the week and saw one of his friends liked mormon.org. And that he watched a few videos and was excited to hear about our life and how our beliefs had helped us. So I would challenge you all to get on your facebooks and like mormon.org, because you never know which one of your friends might be affected by this :)

We were going through our area book and went to this boys house, he had met with missionaries 6 years ago. He was 8 at the time and still remembers having them over. He was really interested and we are going to see him and his mom this week. Miracle after miracle.

We took one of the members to one of our investigators home Saturday, her name is Shuetype. She has never been to church and our fellowshipper invited her to come. She hadn't ever said yes when we asked but she said yes this time. The ward members really were great and made her feel welcome. She got a ride to church, then we turned her over to a lady in the ward and when we when to get her after church, she had 4 or 5 people talking with her. And one of the members already said they would give her a ride it was a great miracle to see the ward come together and help us.

The Lord has been blessing me and Elder Kunzler so much this week. We have seen miracle after miracle. Its by obedience that miracles can happen. I know that the lord is blessing me and I can't do this work without humbly seeking the holy ghost. I love you all have a great week!

Love Elder Hammond

ps saw this in the store and had to take a picture its pretty funny.

Oh and Britrish candy is way better than american!

My Birthday Week!

Dear Everyone,

What a spendid week I have had. Last Tuesday I went to Rhyl for a zone meeting. Rhyl is right on the coast of Whales, so I was able to see the ocean on the train. What a neat experience that was. In our zone meeting we learned about the power of words. They put up words on the white board like Savior and Charity and we wrote down the words we thought of. Then they put up words like Satan and Addiction. And it was crazy the amount of difference you feel from just one word. So they challenged us to work on our words. Help people feel the spirit as we use uplifting words. At the end of the zone conference, we had a testimony meeting. Only like 7 out of the 40 or  so people had time to bear their testimonies. And I was the last one that did. I kept putting off the spirit and not doing it, but I had to bear my testimony. I had so much to thank the Lord for. I know that the pushes us to our best and one of those ways is through others. As I hear others testimonies, I wanted to share mine.

My bishop is a great man. He has 3 kids, George, which is getting ready for a mission, then robin and liberty. Robin and liberty both have severe authisum. Their mom is really the best she takes care of them and watches over them. they are the sweetest kids in the world.

We have been teaching a man named Ronnie. He was a member refurral. He has had problems with drinking and drugs all of his life. He turned 50 this week, and he said he shouldn't be living like this. He was in bad shape for 50. But he has stopped drinking, he hasn't had a drink for 2 weeks! And he is really cutting down on smoking. He hadn't had one all day when he came to church yesterday. I can feel the presence of the spirit in his life :)

So I have some famous people in my mission. Elder Walker one of my zone leaders ran the 800 for BYU. He is the fastest 800 meter runner in america under 20. He could have gone to the olympics. Elder Manning is from Highland Utah. He played for Highland rugby. Which if you have seen Forever Strong you would understand. And he is ranked #3 in the united states in wrestling! Also I met man in the park this week that wants to learn more about our believes. He is a coach for Wrexham football club. and played proffesionally in Poland for 5 years.

So I heard there is massive flooding going on in Colorado. That is not good. I hope everyone is praying for them. Oh and if you didn't know... I'm 19 now! :) no longer an 18 year old missionary.

Thank you all I love you all have a great week :)

Love Elder Hammond

Oh the blessed Green Hilly Land

Hello everyone :)

These are pictues of my friend Rikesk back in Liverpool, he will be baptized some day :) and my district

growing up in Idaho its not hard to imagine seeing your breathe at 8 at night on a early september day, but out here it really surpised me. It is very cold here. And its just beginning. But don't worry mom I have lots of jackets, coats, and hats to keep me warm :) Wrexham is alot smaller than Liverpool. I never thought I would say a 70,000 person town is small, but it is. we have 40 members in our ward. But they are the best ward. They brought investigators to church for us to teach. After our meeting, 2 ward members prepared us a lunch. They live 75 minutes away from the chapel, so they feed us at the chapel. They are super nice, and talked about serving a mission later in life. And our flat is right next to the chapel. We are in a biking area, so we get to travel all over on them.

On Thursday night, our first real night here, we ate at a members house. It is a elderly couple that have their two grandsons living with them. On of them has a pet boa constrictor, and I really hate snakes. But I held it. Yeah it was really scary and you all are probably laughing at me, but I faced my fears and held a snake.

I was reading my Patriachel blessing yesterday! Oh I love the counsil the Lord gives me. I know that he know me on a personal level. He knows what I'm going through and will go through. as long as I continue to trust in  him and know I can't do it without his help I will be great. In fact all our trials are preparing us to meet God again. I know the Lord loves each and everyone of us. as I do as well, Love you all

Love Elder Hammond

I am leaving England! :(

Well everyone I want you to know I am doing great. The reason I am writing this on Thursday is.... I left England! It was transfers this week and I got sent to WHALES!! Yes I am now writing this email to you all in Wrexham Whales. So I might pick up on some Welsh while I'm here.

I am sad I left Liverpool though. We had just met a lady and man named Dave and Trish. We taught them 4 times in one week. And they were coming to church and really enjoyed us, but I am needed in another area. We have 21 new missionaries in the field now. 9 new areas in the mission were opened up. The growth is massive in the mission. We now have 220 missionaries in the England Manchester Mission. Oh exciting news though. Me and Elder Kunzler transfered together so we will be staying in Wrexham. That is a blessing. He said he had only heard of it happening once before. The Lord has special work for me and him to do here.

Monday we were at a members house in Liverpool. We were saying our goodbyes and thank you's to our friend John. His wife called and said that a little 4 year old boy was lost at the mall. They had been looking for him for 45 minutes. The police were there with search dogs and everything. She asked us to say a prayer. So all of us got on our knees and said a prayer together. Literally 30 seconds later she called and said he was found! The lord hears and answers our prayers!  I am excited to serviece in Whales. The people are great, Love you all!!

Love Elder Hammond

Faith Brings Miracles

Hello everyone,

Yes its Tuesday not Monday.. Yesterday was bank holiday so the library was closed. So I got the opportunity to go to the Preston Temple. It was truly marvelous. I got to do an endowment session. It had been almost 2 months since I had been in the temple. The longest time since I got my endowments out. It felt just like home. I know the temple is the house of the Lord. And he answers prays there.

Wednesday we went on a church history tour. We started in Liverpool where the first missionaries landed in 1837, on the Liverpool docks. Then we went to Manchester where the first person was baptized into God's kindom in England. It was great. When  we were in Liverpool, we were at a museum and I was taking a picture of the Titanic. I dropped my camera and it broke. The zoom lense came out and the camera wouldn't even turn on. I took the battery out and try and nothing worked. So I said a pray and asked god to forgive me for my clumsyness. That I would put the camera away for the rest of the day and not worry about it. So I did. That night when I was taking the camera out of my bag, the zoom lense had went in. So I tried it and it worked. I started to cry. I know the Lord hears and answers our prays. I learned a valueable lesson. I know the Lord will hear and answer your prays as well.

Our investigator Jaroslav is truly a miracle. He has read the Book of Mormon twice in Czech. So when we are teaching and he is getting translation, he repeats back what we say and was giving more when we were teaching the plan of Salvation. He truly is prepared and understands the importance of baptism.

I am very proud of myself. I only found out last week that the Royal baby was born,.... almost a month ago. Yes I know its crazy I didn't know but we truly aren't part of the world. Is there anything else that I have missed world wide?

I love you all,

Love Elder Hammond

Dear everyone!

Gas is 1.36 here!! That sounds great right... that's a liter. So its actually 5.14 a gallon is very bad but it gets worse. Convert that to American money and its 8.22 a gallon!! This week I talked to a man that was 6 foot 10! He was a giant he worked security. Really nice but didn't want to hear about the gosple bless him. I helped a man move, he is a hoarder. He has alot of really look star wars and WWII things tho. wednesday me and my companion saw a man laying on the side of the road. The ambulance was taking care of him. They handed him off to us to take him home. They said he had jesus so he should be okay. He was a drunk man that got in a bar fight the night before, but we walked him home and alot of people noticed the two boys in shirts and ties doing a good dead. The lord works miracles. tuesday morning me and my companion were studying for our investigator Jaroslav, we were thinking about inviting him to be baptized and Elder Kunzler brought up the concern he might have, I have alreday been baptized. so we studied and found a scripute saying you have to be baptized by some one from the authority from God. That night when we invited him to be baptized in a few weeks he brought up the exact concern. and boom we were prepared for it! He is scheduled to get baptized on setember 7th! Saturday was the opening game of the season for Liverpool football club. It was crazy! it rained all day but everyone was going to the game! they were all mostly drunk after the game so we stayed in our flat.

The lord will work miracles according to our faith

Love you all

Love Elder Hammond