"Open Your Eyes" You're a Missionary: We get put down to be brought back up once again

This week in GRESHAM!

I am going to go through my week basically. sorry this one is going to be so long, but last weeks was like a paragraph. SO GET READY :)

Last p day my companion was looking at a cars rims (Hes obsessed with cars) and he walked directly into a tree even though I warned him. It was soooo funny. Good times good times

We had interviews with the mission president this week. He is such an awesome inspired man. my interview was actually really short. Asked me like two questions then it was basically done. I dont know if that was a good or a bad thing, but I guess we will have to see hahaha.

This week like last week was a bit of a frustrating one. We had two or three days where we didnt leave the apartment until 3 or 4 PM. I was soooo mad haha. But as the week went on. It was all just attitude. I am sorry for being so negative last week. Sometimes you just gotta let it all out. And I guess that was me doing that to you all last week. My bad. I learned that things amazing can still happen even if things dont go amazingly well. I have come to learn also that when you have a super stellar day planned out, chances are that you wont really have all the supers stellar things that you had planned. Most of the time a small majority of those things actually happen. But I have come to love it I guess.. Welll not really love it, but start to get used to it. IT is so sad that people are slightly interested in you coming back, and they have a desire. Then out of nowhere their desire gets absolutely crushed by someone else. They were so close. If they only realized the message that we had to share for them... It just wasnt their time yet I suppose.

Listening to the spirit and listening to those promptings is super important in missionary work. We were going to visit this potential investigator that we had, and he was solid. But his wife wanted nothing to do with us. They were in apartments and they were right next to this other door that we hadnt talked to yet. I had a feeling we should knock the door. I didnt react to the prompting though. Then we walked all the way down the steps and I heard something. I Just knew that we had to knock it so we did. I have no clue why we needed to. No one answered, no one got anything from it. I think I am just being tested to follow those ideas and promptings.

A phrase that my mission president likes to say is that "God Doesnt Do Random" And I have found examples of that in my mission so far already. We were walking to go do some tracting from out of our apartment. As we were walking there were these two little kids on the third floor yelling at us through the window. I yelled back loud so they could hear me and this lady in front of us said "why hello" Well turns out that she was giving a couch away for free, and needed a place for it. We took it :) and she is an awesome person too! She is our newest investigator! God knew that she would be there and that I would respond to those kids, and that she would think that I was talking to her. She needed the message we have for her in her life. she is dealing with lots of heartache and troubles in her life. Our message can help her out so much. Along with a whole lot of other people.

So that amazing couch became a big problem in the apartment. My companion is a district leader, so he had a meeting while we were scheduled to pick up the couch. So me and the other two elders in our apartment went and got it. MY companions plan was to put it in the "family room" which is basically our study room. Well the other guys had a different idea. and I didnt care. They took it and put it in there study room. My companion was super mad. So while they were gone he took it to our room where he had wanted it. WELL EVERYTHING HIT THE FAN AFTER THAT. They were yelling and some not nice words were spread. I found it pretty entertaining, because you know me, I am super easy going, so I had no preference at all. I had no clue a couch could become such a big problem.

When I do get frustrated and put down. I usually go straight to the Guitar. Say a prayer in my heart that it will all be okay, and just play my feelings. That is what music is for me. Feelings through sounds. SOunds weird but it is kind of true. I Just LOVE Music.

I have portuguese class every friday and a family in our ward that are portuguese speaking but, my portuguese is not really amazing. I have no clue how my VISA is doing. There is a way to check onlne but I have no clue what information you need to be able to check that out.

Someone Found my YouTube page! Isnt that just crazy??? hahaha She happens to be one of our less actives grand daughters . who is not a member. We have actually taught her like three times too. She is super interested but she doesnt live here. BUMMER. but cool that she found my youtube page. She really liked "be kind :)"

BAPTISMS two in one day. It was such a great day. It was just awesome. The first one was at 12:00For a sister named Vickie. She was so ready for this. The whole time the spirit was there super strong. it was a great experience for me. We got to teach the restoration while everyone was getting changed, and people said they just all wanted to get up there and bare their testimony the spirit was so strong. Then there was an amazing musical number. Our Zone LEader Elder YArdley has an absolutely amazing voice. I hope that I can sing like he did some day. It was beautiful.

Then we had lunch woth pir WArd Mission Leader. He is such an awesome guy. I dont know how it is in most wards, but I feel that a young WML is super crucial for ward missionary work. Without the Ward missionary work is basically nothing. Find people for the missionaries, truly pray, and seek to find who needs this message that missionaries have. Heavenly Father will put faces and names into your mind if you simply have the desire to know who. I challenge you all to bring the missionaries a referral in at least a month. And work with the investigators as well as theh missionaries with that person. The will be less likely to want to be there if they dont have a common ground. be there for lessons. Askt he missionaries if the need any help with their investigators.

The next baptism was at 4:00 IT was absolutely packed. It was as big as a sacrament meeting. The spirit was there strongly too. But there were a lot of kids there which isnt a bad thing but it worked out. I have gotten really close with this family. Megan got baptized, and I just felt happy for her. Their family makes me feel like I am with my friends or The Moores again or something. They are the best. Johnnie is a professional snowboarder, and he is super cool. He is going to maybe hook me up with some of his old Nike's. He is sponsored by them so he has a lot :) haha. We spend as much time with them as we can. They are just super good to be with. and now she is baptized!

We had a great easter. Two Confirmations on one sunday :) you could say that it was a good one. Super good one. The talks were great, just everything was haha. Then we dyed eggs. Then went to dinner. We got easter baskets the night before easter and it was awesome feeling so loved by the ward. Well this one is super long already, I will send pictures in some emails too, so get ready.

Love you all so much

Elder Hamrick