Nov 17 Hamilton in Hamilton

So this week was one of the best weeks of my mission! While it was the best I definitely had struggles as well!!! :) The beginning of my week was fantastic full of lessons and all sorts of good stuff then on Wednesday I got to go on exchanges to Hamilton (yes its a town) and I was with Sister Wood and Sister McCormies and it was the best time of my life!!! They are probably the coolest sisters ever and we just had loads of fun!! The first day all the appointments fell through and I told them Heavenly Father was just teaching us a little bit of patience and endurance, but the day was still a lot of fun. In the mission right now member missionary work is being stressed a lot and so that night we worked with a lot members and just got in their homes and got to know them and shared a lesson with them, and it was a lot of fun! Then Thursday we had a lot of great appointments and we had a meeting and that was amazing and it was just a really good day. Well the mindset for exchanges is that we are supposed to show the sisters that miracles can happen and to have faith in their areas.... well I praying for miracles! The theme of the exchange was members and missionaries (imagine that) well then Friday during weekly planning we texted a couple of the members and with in 30 mins we had 3 people say they would come out with us at different times during the following week, one of which was a member they had been trying to get for a while now and she finally said she would..... MIRACLES! Then later that day we went and visted a less active family and shared a message with them and then at the end asked if they would come to church this week and they said.... YES!!!! for the first time in over 3 1/2 months that they had even said yes.... Well yes's dont mean a whole lot out here cause everyone backs out of everything well on sunday the sisters called me and that family CAME TO CHURCH!!!! So we did see miracles and it was such a blessing.... and not only did we see a lot of success we had a ton of fun in the process we had a snowball fight and we went and got hot chocolate and we placed a book of Mormon. I just want you all to know the church is true! I wouldnt be out here if it wasnt!! Lately we have had an investigator ask us a lot about our living prophet and thinks that we dont need one... well over exchanges Heavenly Father softened him and when we met with him again he told us that all his reservations had been cleared and that he thinks Mormonism is for him... He still wants to do a lot more research (he is just that way) but he is now praying for a baptismal date... we are hoping December 6th before transfers!! But anyway the reason I did not email yesterday is because we had the chance to meet with Elder Kacher of the Quorum of the Seventy and that was so incredible it was an amazing training and I simply loved it all!! He said that we are made to be weak and simple... Why? Because then we can be humble and depend on the atonement... Learn how to turn to the Savior! That was my favorite thing he said! There was so much more though but at the end during testimony meeting an elder that has only been out 2 weeks said "We are not here to fail, but we are not supposed to perfect, and we wont be! But He will make up the rest. Our investigators aren't here to fail either, you have the sacred opportunity to help them succeed. We think our lives are hard.... they aren't when you think of what the Savior went through. He wouldnt have gone through that if we weren't worth it. You are worth it, they are worth it, everyone is worth it. You are here to SUCCEED!" Elder Bench! Now go and succeed because you were not sent here to fail! and remember "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get, what you've always got."- Elder Bednar 

I love you all! and I know this church is true with all my heart. I know we indeed have a living prophet and he is necessary! I love this gospel it blesses my life everyday. I have a huge testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, its teachings are priceless! We have been blessed to live in such glorious days and we have the tools to help our brothers and sisters around us make it back to their Father in Heaven. Heavenly Father loves all of us and he wants us home with Him. So keep trying and when you fall, get back up dust yourself off and use the atonement "You dont need to be your own savior" -Sister Wood. Christ atoned for us, not just for our sins but for our sorrows, our pains, everything you go through he has felt.... find refuge in the arms of your Savior! I love you all have an amazing week and remember to always pray Heavenly Father wants to hear from his children!

Love Sister Hamilton

Oops update on those we have been teaching:

Sarrita is doing amazing still coming to church most the time and progressing really well she is praying about a baptism date

Adam also is doing amazing and praying about a baptismal date YAY!

Lisa and mom (susan) they have been UBER busy and we have been gone so we havent met with them in a while so no progress really

Kim - the amazing one well yeah we kept trying to see her and she txted and said she didnt want us to see her anymore... :( no bueno 

Angie also said she didnt want to meet with us so that was a bummer :/ she just needs more time is all 

and I think that is all LOVE and MISS you ALL!!!!!!

All the Sisters from exchanges this week

Utica my hometown, Mitchell family we love them, snow in Hamilton, Me on exchanges with Sisters from Hamilton, they are the BEST!

Nov 3 Transfers week

So this week was just simply...incredible!!! I love missionary work! You can have the hardest week ever and at the end of the week you just look back and you honestly can't remember the bad things! So to start off,  Monday we taught Lisa and Susan they are so amazing! At the end of their lesson Lisa prayed and she asked if this is what she should be doing. After the prayer she just lit up with a huge smile and said "I got goosebumps when I asked! I know this is what I am supposed to be doing. I am going to keep you girls coming over" it was such a neat experience and I just love her and her mother so dearly her mom (susan) cant read or write and forgets everything but she sleeps with her book of mormon because it makes her sleep better at night! How neat is that? 

So later that night we stopped by this family that us mortals thought had no potential. They haven't been a priority for the missionaries but Heavenly Father corrected us, don't you worry ;) When Demitry opened the door we apologized for coming over unannounced and he said no no I texted you 3 times (to the wrong number) and asked you to come over tonight. That was amazing to see Heavenly Father chastise us for thinking we knew better. 

Then Brother Williams... well we met with him on Tuesday and he was super sad because his boyfriend had broken up with him, so that was actually an answer to our prayer! However, later in the week his mom decided that he couldn't meet with us anymore! That was super sad and hopefully that turns out differently soon!  

We also had a referral from headquarters and his name was Adam Brooks. He requested a book of mormon and we took it too him. As we were talking with him, we asked why he wanted one and he said that his professor studies mormon politics and had written 2 books on Mitt Romney that he was reading and they were interesting and also there was a south park episode on how living the mormon standards makes people happy or something like that.  Well needless to say he told us he would have it read in a week and then he would like to start meeting with us.... ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! Well 2 hours later he texted us with questions from 1 Nephi 13 SERIOUSLY? and they were legit questions too. We are so stoked for him and way excited to tell you more next week!! I cant wait! 

Also we went and raked leaves this week and jumped in them and it was SOOO fun! We did cartwheels and front flips and all sorts of good stuff!! So yeah New york is pretty legit I would say!!! :) Then when we stopped by a less actives home the little girl that thought we were models was there and her friend was like hey are those girls the  super models you was talking bout? And the girl was like yup thats them! It was so funny that we ran into them again and they are still calling us super models. That it is fun! 

We do service at a nursing home every Tuesday and Saturday and on Saturday this week there was this music thing that we did with the old people and we ended up doing the chicken dance and a bunch of different dances and it was WAY fun lol. Then later we went to a different head quarter referral and she looked out her window and said oh its the church people (she had requested a bible but naturally we brought a book of mormon as well). Anyway, she opens the door and just hugs us... no introductions or anything just a massive hug and then the first thing she says is "I Love Mitt Romney" and she said her son told her to get a bible and she was just like I'm gonna get my bible from Romney's people haha. It was so funny but she told us we could come back so that was exciting!! 

Well those are the highlights of my week! I can't believe it's already November. I have been gone 2 months... Im gonna blink and this mission is going to be over, it is so sad!!  I just want you all to remember that you need to take time each day to just smell the roses!! Life is way too short to constantly be stressed and as a missionary we are constantly stressed, so President Wirthlin constantly stresses the importance of just remembering to have fun! So "It may not always be perfect, but it will be what you need" Love Life we are not here just to endure but to find joy!!! Men are that they might have joy!! I love you all and miss you something fierce!! Stay strong!

Exchanges

Love Sister Hamilton

Cartwheels in the leaves

playing in the fall leaves

Oct 27 Life of a Model

Me, Sister Barley, Sister Gass

Me in beautiful NY

Me being crazy with the glasses 

      

Well Familia and Friends,

How are you all? I am doing fantastic.... better than fantastic!!! I love everything about my mission and serving! There are trials and miracles and by the time the miracles are over you dont even know you had trials, its pretty much the greatest thing ever! So to start off we FINALLY were able to get into the home of a family we've been trying to tract out forever ago, and they are SO ready, it was a miracle it really was! So we talked with the mom (Lisa) and grandma for a bit and they said we could come back. We were stoked, so we walk out and sister Barley says "We'll see ya later" to the 12 year old son Raymond and he in reply says "Yeah we'll see ya in the magazines" then this black girl (his friend) says "wait ya'll are models?" hahahahahha Sister barley states "No we are missionaries" and the girls says "Well y'all are dun gorgeous" It was one of the funniest moments ever. We laughed super hard!!! It's a pretty great life as a missionary and a pretty interesting one as well haha!! We will be teaching Lisa again tonight and she is very interested and we are super excited about that! 

We have been THOROUGHLY going through our area book and by then end of this transfer it is our goal to contact every person in our area book ,its gonna take awhile but I am stoked about it! So this leads me to transfers, they will be this wednesday and.... I WILL BE STAYING IN NEW HARTFORD WITH SISTER BARLEY!!! YAY I am so excited and so relieved lol! I am just getting to know the people here and love them and I am not ready to leave yet so I will be here for another 6 weeks. I CANT believe it is already transfers, time has FLOWN by!! I have come to realize that the more consecrated you are the less you think about time. I call this my concept of time.... Because we are out here fully devoted to the Lord it is easy for us to lose track of time and then suddenly an entire transfer is gone and you are wondering where the time went I love it!! 

Something else major this week was return and report which is just with the people I came out to the field with, it is a special training for us and it was SOOO fun to see all my MTC buddies again they are so awesome.  I missed them all so much!! So I wanted to share some quotes I got from that training.... "Feel your life with so much food that there is no room for evil to be there" -Elder Empey

Make working hard a habit!

"Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard" -Kevin Durant

"If you tempt temptation then you will probably succumb to it" -President Wirthlin 

"What measures your success as a missionary is how you raise your family" -President Wirthlin

I loved the training it was truly inspirational!! Everything about serving a mission is amazing. It teaches me things I would never learn anywhere else! 

One thing I have been working really hard on is love.... I watched the Because of Him video and it made me want to be more like Christ... I am literally His representative, I wear His name everyday, I act in His name everyday, I am supposed to be as He was.... I want to be the type of person the people run to, and fall into my arms without knowing me and know that they will be loved. That is something I feel like I am struggling with is showing my love to people that I really care about and like. President Wirthlin says "if nothing else on your mission, become converted yourself". President is all about finding the one and converting the one even if that one is you! I want others to know I care I want to love as Christ loved and I want to act as if Christ was sitting in the passenger seat of my car at all times! Well, I think that is all for the week many miracles everyday!! I love you all thank you for your support and encouragement!

Remember "I told you it would be okay, I told you it would be alright" -Holland

Love Sister Hamilton

Oct 20 Miracles Really Do Happen

So wow this week was incredible!! So to begin, on Monday night we taught a girl named Serrita. She is 21 and dating a guy in our ward and she is stoked about the gospel and probably the happiest most bubbly person I have ever met. We committed her to baptism and she is praying about a date she is seriously the greatest though and she has already been to church .(Thats where we met her way to go Chris) and she loved it so yay!!! And yeah pretty much she is just top notch!!! 

Then on Tuesday nothing too exciting happened but we got the door slammed a couple times and just really wasn't a successful day so then wednesday we weren't having the best day again and I said to Sister Barley I know that we aren't supposed to get discouraged but doing missionary work does not make that easy and then.... Heavenly Father sent a miracle our way. Sister Barley wasn't feeling good (sick) but she also felt "trapped".  I suggested that maybe we should just go home and get medicine and she was like but that's more miles and then we both decided we needed to go get medicine. Well after grabbing the medicine, I walked out and was talking to our neighbor Mark as Sis Barley played in the leaves for a couple minutes. Then our neighbor Kim, who we had never met walked out, she asked us about being missionaries and what we believed etc. Then she said she had something to help Sis Barley in the apartment so we went up and she told us how for years she has felt like she has been missing something in her life. She has ran in some huge races and bought a dog etc to try and figure out what she was missing she told us she didn't like her religion (catholics) cause she thought they were hypocrites and then she talked about how happy we were and how much fun we had and she said "I want what you have" and yeah holy cow this never happens moment!! So we taught her the restoration and she is scheduled to be baptized Dec. 6. I am so excited, it was  such a blessing!! She is so amazing and SOOOO prepared Heavenly Father is amazing in the way he works through us!! So yeah that was way way exciting then we went on exchanges this week and that was super fun! 

Saturday we went to a funeral for the grand daughter of a lady in our ward she died at 15 with cancer, they thought she had beat it but it came back all over and a year after celebrating her cancer free party we were at her funeral. Sister Barley had to sing for it, it was super sad then we had stake conference which was AWESOME.  So many amazing quotes which I just happened to leave at the apartment sorry. At stake conference we had a lady bring  her sister who needs us and so she came to stake conference. Her name is Angie and she is awesome so miracle #3.  I couldn't ask for more, so even though there were hard times this week I can't even remember them, so I hope you are all having an excellent week and remember that the Lord smiles upon each of us differently!!! Stay strong!! I love you!

Love Sister Hamilton



My quilt I made from High School t-shirts.

Just me again in Utica and a sunset in NY

 

Oct 13 Fear Not

Well this week was my first exchange and it was awesome. One of the girls has one transfer left and the other girl has only been out one transfer, it was amazing that over such a short time as 3 days that they were able to open up so much to me and that I was able to help them in their teaching just a little bit. Hopefully, I will be better at helping with teaching in the future. It is rough for me right now because I am still learning the restored teaching method and I'm not very good at it! But I will improve, I have faith lol!!! So yeah that was pretty much the sum of my exchange. I was in Cooperstown and yes the Baseball hall of fame is there but I was not there on a P-day so I was not able to go, but wow Cooperstown is amazing!!!  It's so beautiful and there is so much potential there!!! Something I wanted to tell you about is the quirks of NY, so they leave the stuff they don't want on their lawn in front of their houses and people just come and pick it up. The other day there was a pink toilet and sink haha so funny!!! Next there are stores and dentist offices and all sorts of stuff in old houses, so its not like the normal business buildings of the west, it is super weird. Also most people do not have you take off your shoes in their home and if they do they have slippers for you to wear because of the cold floors. Finally, unique to Utica is Chicken Riggis, It is a super good pasta dish but we get it fed to us all the time!! and also Utica greens but I haven't had those yet so yeah, that's new york for ya. Oh yeah and there are funny colored houses all over like BRIGHT orange with purple and all sorts of stuff super weird lol!!! 

It is crazy how much I have realized the power of inspiration!! We pray about topics for our sisters to study before we go on exchanges and it is always EXACTLY what they need at the time. Sister Barley and I had to teach at Zone Training this week!!!! (yeah I have been getting out of my comfort zone one giant leap at a time) So we were praying about how to teach on the Book of Mormon and I felt like we needed to touch on the sacredness of it and how it was the keystone and sister barley felt like we needed to touch on humbling ourselves enough to trust using it in lessons and that it was the keystone. The first quote that was read at ZTM was about humbling ourselves and trusting the Sacredness of the book of Mormon (TOTALLY THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER) Wow inspiration is just the best and we HAVE to trust it!! If it is good it is from God, trust it!!!! Second I was feeling very over whelmed because I was asked to share a spiritual thought and play the piano for DLC which I do not like playing the piano in front of people, and then I was asked to train at Zone Training Meeting,and then the bishop called as asked if I could give a talk on Sunday and on top of that it was the first week of Exchanges. So I asked sister barley what more they could ask me to do this week and that I was overwhelmed and she told me that maybe Heavenly Father was just trying to teach me to give my ALL to him, which I thought I had been doing.... but after thinking about it there was a lot that I was holding back, in a sense I was not contributing to teaching a lot because I was scared and a lot of other things. So I just let it go!! I let go of all the fear of everything that was holding me back and I prayed harder than ever before and I just let Him take control. I said I will give my all and I will let you make me the best instrument that you can.... and He did!! I have not become anything amazing but I was not nervous to train our ENTIRE zone and I wasn't scared to give my talk, and I wasn't scared for exchanges either.  I learned that it is amazing what the Lord can do for us when we trust him completely and Fear Not for He is ALWAYS with us!!! It was a very spiritual experience and there are still times I have fear but in those moments I pray for the strength to give my ALL. So that was the majority of my week I hope you are all doing amazing and that you let Heavenly Father guide your lives because he truly knows what is best for you!! Stay Strong!! 

Love Sister Hamilton

Orchard in Copperstown and Sister Barley and I in giraffe onsies.  Ha Ha enough said. 

 



Sister's that I went on exchanges with.

Lake in Coppertown






Tree outside of my apartment.


Closet thing is the entrance to the underground railroad.  I get to go on it today.

Oct 6 Conference yay!

Hello!! family and friends I love you all so much so this is gonna be pretty short cause not a lot happened this week EXCEPT conference!!! Oh my gosh i love conference it is like christmas in the mission field way way way amazing one of my favorite talks was by Jorg Klebingat he just laid it down I loved it! Super powerful also the Elder Kache that spoke is coming to my mission next month so that is pretty exciting I would say!!! Lots of fun stuff!! Conference is just the greatest!!! and Elder Bednars talk wow that was powerful!! I just wanted every person in the world to listen!! so So SO good!!! So as far as things this week, those 2 black guys that called us sista sista decided that because they were always together they were considered bro-innaries I laughed soooo hard. so we had to explain to them that they were not bro-innaries lol and So one of the amazing things that happened this week was one of the elders in my area was talking about make up etc and said that when god created us that he looked at us and said this is my greatest creation why then do we try and cover up what God made so perfectly. (if you want to read more of that look on my facebook) but it really touched me I actually went without any make up yesterday! but think about it God made us perfect how neat!!! always remember that!!! He has a special role and plan for every single one of us!!! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be out here serving it has seriously brought me so many blessings already and I have learned so much!! I encourage you all to pray sincerely and develop a relationship with Heavenly Father he will be your greatest strength in this life! everything we have we owe to Him. Its finally starting to get chilly here and oh boy when it gets chilly it gets chilly for sure!! Haha new york is amazing though I love it and the work is amazing the young guy we have a baptismal date set for is actually homosexual so we will be pushing his date farther back but hopefully he will still come through I have faith in him!! We had Missionary Leadership Council this week and that was super long but fun and exciting to be in on all the major decision making stuff of the mission! and we are starting to pick up the teaching pace a little more as we get more familiar with things so that is awesome!! and yeah we are having a district activity of mini golfing today so im excited for that but really that was all for the week nothing to major or exciting!!!! 

Remember to find refuge in the arms of Christ!

Stay strong and know I love and miss you all!!!

Sister Hamilton

Sep 29 I Love NY

So for this week it was a little bit of a crazy week but I absolutely love it here. New York is truly beautiful and there are so many opportunities to share the gospel!! there are like no members here and if they are members they are not active at all So we share the ward with 2 other sets of missionaries and our area alone is about a 30 mile radius of city no joke and the ward is super tiny its like completely opposite of the west! totally different ball game out here but I love it!! There are a ton of black people and oh my gosh I love them they are just the best and have the strongest personalities ever! This week we had zone conference and that was simply incredible we learned about the power of teaching online discussions so that was exciting and then we learned about faith and the importance of never letting our faith waiver!! also he talked about we are like a bouncy ball when we fall we need to bounce back up and usually a bouncy ball will bounce higher up the harder it is thrown down and how important it is to look up and how we have to look up in order to catch the ball etc it was awesome other things that happened this week were we got a baptismal date set for tyler williams on Oct 25 so we will see how that goes! also we met some amazing potentials but we have a rule that they have to be taught 2 times before they are an investigator so yeah but we met this black lady named barbara and she was onry and we asked her what was wrong and she said she was waiting for her maintanence guy and she was in a hurry and so we asked what was wrong and she explained a flipped multi breaker so I went in and flipped the breaker and she was so happy she started freaking out and gave us a rootbeer and asked us to come back and see her and that she loved us it was awesome at how quickly her day could be turned around at just the simplest act of kindness also you all need to watch the new mormon message about the mom that doesnt get anything done (mom when you feel like you didnt get anything done in the day just remember how many lives you blessed that day and you didnt even know it) and then we met a few less actives in the nursing home and they are just the sweetest ladies ever and then we met 2 black kids and they pretty much asked us on dates but we said we couldnt because we were missionaries but that they said that they would come to church and let us talk to them about Christ anyway so that was a rather fun moment! this mission is always throwing curve balls at you but they asked us what our street names were like what our government names were and we were just laughing super super hard lol!!! we told them we go by sister haha so they put us in their phone as sista sista lol!!! anyway so that was a funny moment in my studies this week I read 1 john 4:7-9 and it talks about how God is love and I realized literally everything revolves around love our relationships the gospel everything revolves around love and the importance of us loving everyone we come in contact with and that there are 2 types of love 1) I love someone because... 2) I love someone despite.... it is important for us to love others despite their imperfections!!! So yeah all in all that is about the gist of my week hopefully we will get a little more organized and be able to pick up the work a little better here so yeah! anyway I love you all!!! have an amazing week 

Sister Hamilton

Utica New York Week 1, Sep 22

Well hello mi familia!!!

I want you all to know that New York is absolutely beautiful! aThis has been a crazy few weeks!! I don't remember a whole lot from last week in the MTC and I don't have a lot of time so I am just going to tell you a little bit about this week!!! So starting on tuesday I woke up at 2:30 and was on the bus on my way to the airport at 3:30 in the morning fun right?! Wrong!!! Not fun too early!!! Anyway then while at the airport I waited a LONG 1 1/2 hours to talk to my family while only 2 elders were in front of me! I got to talk to everyone for about 5 mins which was kind of hard and sad but I was bawling the entire time so I was alright with not having forever!!! Then we flew to Detroit and then to new york and yes I ABSOLUTELY LOVE FLYING!! Anyway we got here met the mission president and his wife they are amazing and I love them then we came to Utica to the mission home and office and did some training stayed the night at the mission home and then the next morning did a little more training and then we had transfers. Of course I was the last person to be called and so I could see who my new companion was so her name is Sister Barley and I can not even express to you how amazing she is!!! Truly incredible I love her to death she would be the AP if sisters could and every person I met was like you have the best trainer ever!!!! She is from Tuscon Arizona and our personalities are very similar but different enough that we get along and she doesn't do what I do, as far as recreation but I love her!!!! Now for the exciting news.... The president decided to put me on the steepest learning curve of my life..... me and sister Barley are re-opening an area that has been closed for a while because the sisters were being disobedient here and the ward was using them for teaching relief society every week etc so the president pulled them out about 6 months ago. We are reopening the area and there were 5 area books to go through, next we are sharing the ward with the assistants (pressure...I think yes) our area is actually huge and the ward is way small.  It is split between 3 sets of missionaries. There are like no members here and the next part of this learning curve, I am a sister training leader,  so while I have no idea what i am doing I have to go on 3 day exchanges with other sisters and teach them what I don't know.... YAY!!!! lol so yeah that is fun! The first thing Sister Barley told me was "take what you learned in the MTC and let it go" in our mission we are piloting a thing called the restored teaching method and it is how we are supposed to be teaching Preach My Gospel so thats cool, I have to completely learn how to teach again and then our president has the STL going on "extended exchanges" which is where I go with a companionship for 3 days and help them learn and teach them how to better their teaching etc (yes I am a little overwhelmed) and then Sister Barley will go with a different set at the same time so we will each be going with 2 different sets of sisters! So that is fun and because we are opening a new area, we do not have ANY investigators, and we are going around trying to meet formers etc and getting to know people so I have not taught a single lesson yet :/ and I am supposed to be going and teaching others how to do what I have not even done.... yeah thats exciting!!!  I am so grateful for this opportunity and know that Heavenly Father does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called so huge humbling experience and a lot of prayers for strength. I love this work though, I really do, it is such an amazing opportunity that I have been given there is a talk called the 4th missionary by Lawrence Cambridge or something like that.... it is long but you all need to read it... it applies to everyday life as well!!!! I have a goal to give my will to Heavenly Father in these next 18 months and I plan to keep that!! There was a baptism in our ward (one of the AP's investigators) on Saturday and we went to it and there was a little girl staring at me, and for the first time in my life I felt like the best example I could be. I realized while I miss you all dearly this is the best thing I could be doing for you all and that me being out here is the greatest blessing for you right now and I am doing more for you by being out here than I could if I were there with you all!!! This is where I am supposed to be and this is what I am supposed to be doing!!!! I know this!! and I know this church is true I bare testimony of it everyday!!! I love you all. If you have any specific emails write me!! I love you and miss you!! Stay strong and never give up on the gospel!!!

Love Sister Hamilton

Oh I forgot to tell you I am opening the New Hartford area so I am actually serving in the areas that make up Utica 

 Sister Hamilton and Sister Barley eating peanut butter banana sandwiches.  Their apt had bare cupboards when they arrived.

Holding a hedgehog and the pic the Elders framed and put in their apt to welcome them there.

She's in NY Sep 16

Dear Brother and Sister Hamilton,

Your daughter has safely arrived in the New York Utica Mission.  She had a full day of training yesterday, was assigned a wonderful companion and arrived in her first area this evening.  She will e-mail you Monday, that is their preparation day.  President and Sister Wirthlin are wonderful and will take very good care of your daughter.  We look forward to her service in the New York Utica Mission.

Thank you for all your love and support.

Sister Miskin

New York Utica Mission Office

MTC Week 1 Sep 9, 2014

 Hello everybody,

 The MTC is truly an amazing place there is no place like it I believe the spirit is so strong always!!! So to begin, I know the big question is my companion?! I love her, we have our differences that's for sure but she is an amazing young lady her name is sister Mayer and she is 22 she is a convert of 2 years and she lived a pretty worldly life in Las Vegas. I love her though she struggles cause she doesn't feel like she knows the gospel as well as everyone else but her testimony is way strong. Of course the first lesson Heavenly Father would teach me is patience right?! Of course lol anyway she got lapband surgery and went from a size 48 to 18  and lost 225 lbs. crazy yeah so for our meals she takes like 45-60 mins to eat and we are usually only given 30 so we are ALWAYS late to classes which is extremely hard for me because I hate being late!!!! But she has a doctors note so its all good I guess.,... patience is definitely something I am trying to work on though also there are only 2 other girls in my district and room and they are AMAZING I absolutely love them one is from Alaska and we get along amazing also my district and zone are awesome we are all super close the elders are all amazing but there are like 2 in the whole zone older than 18 I feel like they are such babies they look so young haha!!! So to what I am doing here.... um the first day was a blur i hardly remember anything they throw you right into the discussions and everything way fast and it is VERY overwhelming at first!!! um the next couple days were WAY LONG they drug on forever I think it was just hard getting used to being awake that long and sitting in class for that long we literally sit in class for 4 hours at a time!! I have learned soooo much  being here though it is crazy and I learned that with companions you have to learn to talk out your differences and FAST because they literally never ever ever leave your side!! As far as homesickness goes I don't really have time to be homesick but every morning when I wake up i get a little homesick and then i get to district study in the morning and get into the schedule and forget all about my other life but I definitely miss you all!!  I have absolutely 0 down time so no time to write letters. When it is p-day I will work on that more for sure I love you all always remember that. Madi i heard you liked your flower- good thats what I was hoping sorry it made you cry (kinda) ;) so Sunday's here are probably the most amazing thing and after the first couple days time starts to fly so Sunday we had fast and testimony meeting then we went to something called mission conference which was literally just as amazing as general conference I loved it then we had devotional and the guy was amazing and taught us a lot about to better reach our investigators THEN we had film and we watched a talk by elder bednar called the Character of Christ (don't bother looking it up it is only available in the mtc although i think that is dumb and that everyone should be allowed to read or hear it) it is probably the most amazing talk I have ever heard in my entire life it literally changed my life forever!!! The character of Christ means to turn out when we would turn in!!! He talks about how in Christ's hardest times he helped others instead of himself while he was on the cross he first asked to have his mother taken care of and to bless his enemies for they knew not what they had done! he told a story about a mother who had lost her daughter and in the moment she found out her daughter was dead (from a car accident with 2 other girls) that she told elder bednar that they needed to notify the other mothers that their daughters were on the way to the hospital and then the day of her daughters funeral (she was a relief society president) she had a lady call and was mad because she was way sick and hadn't had a meal brought so right before her daughters funeral she cooked a meal and dropped it off on the way to the funeral! That is the character of Christ. we need to turn out to others when we normally would turn in to ourselves so that is my life long goal to eventually achieve the character of Christ which I know will be the hardest thing I have ever done and will take the longest!! Also do not expect an email next week I fly out Tuesday morning and am leaving the MTC at 3:30 so no pday for me:( also mom and dad I have more info on that i will email you separately!! I want you all to know that I know this church is true I believe it with all my heart!!! I am almost out of time so I will talk to you all at a later date but wow the spirit is there I have felt it in the lessons I have been teaching always remember to pray the greatest thing we can develop is a strong relationship with heavenly father much love
> Sister Hamilton

Austin Atkinson found the talk, here's the link:  http://www2.byui.edu/presentations/transcripts/religionsymposium/2003_01_25_Bednar.htm

 MTC companion Sister Mayer



MTC District

MTC Sept 5, 2014

Hey our branch president gave us a little bit of time today to email our families and let them know I made it safe and sound and that all is well!!!! I love you all with all my heart and I definitely miss you all I have very little time at all during the day to think about missing you but in the morning when I am getting ready is the worst it is very hard for me for some reason but I am surviving and loving it here I can sort of tell now exactly how hard the actual mission will be and I am a little nervous but very excited I love my companion she is amazing and my roommates are equally amazing!!!! My p-day is tuesday YAY!!! so I will talk to you then!!! Thank you for the letters I loved them!!! Tannon if you wrote me one I cant find it so which suit case did you hide it in??? I miss you all a lot and I truly cant wait to get pictures and emails soon I love you talk to you more on p-day dont worry about me I am fine and doing the Lord's work you guys stay strong and no regrets!!!! I love you

Love Sister Hamilton

Mission Call :)

June 5, 2014
 
Dear Sister Hamilton:
You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the New York Utica Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months. You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, September 3, 2014. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the English language. I am so excited to be able to share my testimony and the gospel with the amazing people of New York!! I love you all and I will see you 18 :)