Feb 2 Amazing week!

So this week was amazing, my patience was tried as we had 9 appointments one day and 5 of them cancelled!! I have been able to have a lot more patience than I did last week lol!! And by having that patience, I have seen miracles! The Tates, a family who hasn't been to church since the wife was baptized and confirmed in October FINALLY came to church this week YAY!!! Also, the Bowdens and the Bryants came to church, both of which have been inactive for a ton of years!!! yay!! And the Moores came to church again!!! We also had 2 investigators at church, so we might be able to keep Makenzie's baptismal date after all, I am praying!!! We haven't had investigators attend church since I got to Carthage!!! So I was way super pumped!! The Tyners said they would take the lessons again which makes me so excited!!  If they were the only ones I helped baptize, I would be satisfied with my mission! lol Also Doug is praying about a baptismal date, we had a super spiritual lesson with him it was awesome!! Yeah just goodness and even though we had another super long service project, we were still able to teach a lot of lessons this week!!! It has truly been amazing and it has been so fun to grow with sister Johnson as we both become better missionaries! Also funny experience, we had the Jehovah witnesses knock on our door during personal study.  We traded them pamphlets a "is satan real?" for  restoration of the gospel, I think ours wins!! haha We have had a wonderful week and I just love being a missionary!!! The gospel is so true and so exciting and we are so blessed to have it in our lives!!! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!! 
Love, SIster Hamilton Eternally in the Lords service

Just FYI Prayer works!! I just want you to know that while I thought my mission was the most sacred calling of my life, being a mother is the most sacred and I finally understand why I needed to serve a mission now.  I wasn't prepared to be a good mother and the gospel needed to be a higher priority to me before I began to raise a family!! So while I thought it was to help me like girls and be more tolerant of them or whatever else I thought my mission was for, Heavenly Father knew I needed to serve so I could be a better mother and I am so grateful I chose to follow my prompting to serve even though I didn't understand why and I didn't really want to. It has taken 5 months to get the answer to my prayer as to why I needed to serve, I now understand!!! :) I love you all!! and I love this gospel!! talk to you next week!!!

Love sister Hamilton

Jan 26 First week training

This week was amazing full of lots of frustrations and absolutely nothing going right! :) So for district meeting this up coming week we were asked to take a Christlike attribute quiz thing and the portion we scored the lowest on to pray for that and then study it.... DONT PRAY FOR PATIENCE!!!! But seriously I prayed for patience this week and LITERALLY everything went wrong!! Including our brand new car breaking down....yeah so every appointment fell through, no one came to church, our service project lasted all day so we didn't get to teach, our preparation day was taken up by fixing the car it was just a whole lot of craziness.  I felt so bad for my companion because this was like the most abnormal week of missionary work I've ever had haha!! However, I am as happy as can be literally one of the greatest weeks of my mission!!! So my new Trainee I know you are all dying to know about her, is 5' 9" and she is from green River UT and so small town... super small town! She loves sports and the outdoors and hates to shop!! She is like one of my best friends and I am pretty sure we knew each other in the pre-existence because she looks SOOO familiar but I have no idea why!! She kind of ish in a weird way looks like me and we never stop laughing!!! (I have lucked out when it comes to companions) We absolutely love each other and are already praying we get to stay together next transfer! She hit me in the face with a paper plate cause I wasn't listening to her while I was talking to someone else (it was pretty hilarious). She is amazing and hardly needs any training because she pretty much came pre-trained!! She also had to help me teach gospel principles her 3rd day out, poor girl but she did amazing!!! We are loving Carthage and we are expecting miracles to start happening!!! No crazy snow storms this week!!! and yeah just a lot of goodness! I have seen the spirit working so strongly through our companionship this week. I realized that the only way I was going to have the ability to be good at training her would be to put all my Trust in the Lord and rely on His abilities to train and not my own. As I have done this, we have honestly been able to see the spirit direct us to scriptures we can't even remember reading and to people that truly need us!! The Lord is aware of each of us and knows exactly what we need way before we do!! When we pray for something he answers our prayers!!! I know this gospel is true and I have seen the happiness that it brings to people's lives and I would want nothing more that to see everyone experience this happiness!!! I love my mission especially the hard days because those are the funnest days... I to get to watch Heavenly Father mold me into the person that I can become only with His help!!! I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!!! 

Love Sister Hamilton

.....From the artic!!!! jk

Jan 19 Transfer Calls

Well folks we got transfer calls this week and it looks like.... Sister Fiefia is leaving!!! She is going to Glenville and re-opening an area that has been closed for 1 transfer and she is training!! I am so excited for her, but we are pretty sad she is leaving!! Also as far as I go.... I will be taking over the Carthage area and...... Training!! I will be staying a sister training leader and oh yeah did I mention that I will be getting a brand new subaru (I am pretty excited about that) but overall I am very nervous and a little bit stressed!! I am super excited though I get to go pick up my little newbie on wednesday FOP (fresh off the plane) I have no idea who she is so I will give you all the good details next week!! I just have to remember to trust in the Lord and he will give me the strength that I need! As far as this week goes... It was an amazing week!! WE FINALLY SET A BAPTISMAL DATE!!! Yay!!! it is for a 12 year old girl and we are planning for February 28th so hopefully that ends up working out!!! Her little brother who is 9 will probably be getting baptized as well!!! We also met this awesome young couple I was backing sister Fiefia up (standing behind the car so she doesn't hit anything its a required thing) and this guy yelled hello sister! I casually said Hello back and then I realized what had just happened... people don't do that in New York .... They don't know who "sisters" are so I walked over and started talking to him and he and his wife got married 1 year ago and they have a 6 week old baby! He has been inactive for 8 years and she has been inactive for about 2! They are seriously amazing though I love them! and... THEY CAME TO CHURCH!!! such a miracle!! also this SUPER less active family that we have been visiting faithfully the entire time I have been here randomly (very randomly) showed up to church!!! MY JAW DROPPED .... not an exaggeration!!! So we saw so many miracles this week!! I was also able to train at our Zone Training Meeting on the power of the spirit in conversion and that was way sweet! Naturally as always I was super nervous but it went really well!! Then after that meeting we had our interviews with President and he asked me if I would train so since wednesday I have been super stressed and freaking out but I am finally starting to calm down a little but I just honestly don't feel like I know how to be a missionary yet! but we will see!! also this week we had lunch with a couple of our investigators their names are the Tyners they are like eternal investigators that we just picked up!! They have been seeing missionaries off and on for like 9 or so years and He has read the entire book of mormon 2 times and really there shouldn't be anything holding him back he just always says I was born a methodist I have lived a methodist and I will die a methodist... hahaha little does he know!!! they are very prepared though and in my opinion super ready now so hopefully we will be able to see some progress with them!!  I love them so much though they are in the mid to later 70's!!! but yeah I think that was about how my week went!!! lots of fun!! Lots of miracles!! and non stop spiritual experiences!! It truly doesn't get better than this!! :) I love you all!! Stay strong!! and remember that Heavenly Father always has His hand stretched out towards you.... its your choice whether or not you grab on and let Him help and guide you!!!

Keep the Faith!!

Love Sister Hamilton :)

Jan 13 LAKE EFFECT

So if I was home and was able to go skiing, the lake effect snow storms would be the bomb!! No joke we are talking 4 ft of snow in one night or day and it is fluffy!! However, I get the wonderful opportunity of tracting in it instead because we aren't allowed to drive the car in those storms. We get to walk  and then I get the most amazing feeling cause when we come in for lunch and I take off my coat and hat etc I feel like I just got done skiing, literally, snow/ice on my face and bright red cheeks with snow stuck in my hair and then I warm up with some hot chocolate!! I seriously love it though, we made good use of our tracting and we shoveled a lot of drive ways... Yes I was so sore, I thought I was going to die but at least the people who's drive ways that we shoveled weren't sore!!! I love being a missionary and wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world!! This week was amazing and full of so many miracles as are all the weeks!! Time is flying by, every time I blink another week has come and gone!! I am super grateful this week for the power and influence of the gift of the Holy Ghost!! We went into a less actives home this week and when we walked into her living room there was a murder mystery show on and I literally felt the spirit leave me and it was not a fun feeling! My heart was seriously aching (like legit pain) so I just said a loving prayer to Heavenly Father that he would let the spirit come back to me and then I asked the lady to turn off the show.  I felt the spirit come back!! I realized how easy it is to become desensitized in this the world! Well that is pretty much the gist of my week not a whole lot of exciting things just a lot of amazing lessons and watching peoples lives change. There isn't better feeling in the world!!! I love you all and hope you have a superb week and remember to live worthily of the spirits presence, it makes a world of a difference!!!! 

Love Sister Hamilton!!!!

Moroni 7 :33

Jan 5 Snow....and freezing weather!

What a wonderful week I have been blessed with!!!! I got to spend Tuesday-Friday morning up in Gouverneur, New York and it was such a wonderful week filled with lots of snow! The weather here is SUPER DUPER bipolar haha it is now freezing cold and with the wind it is no bueno!!!  I was able to go to Ogdensburg for a district meeting and I literally was able to see Canada it was 1 mile away!! Crazy right haha!! The exchange was wonderful, full of lots of miracles. And then.... well the driver was girl from California who has never ever driven in snow and her companion does not have a drivers license and I don't have a TIWI card so I wasn't able to drive.... well, needless to say we ended up getting in a car accident (no big deal I promise!! So you can just breath mom)! Anyway, we just ran into a wire guardrail and it ripped off the front bumper and smashed part of my side of the car but I didn't even get whiplash and the airbags didn't even go off, so literally no problemo haha!! We just slid a little and she over corrected and yeah no worries, I am perfectly fine and we got 3 potentials from it so yay!! We had to go back to Gouverneur (we were on our way to Carthage) in the cop car hahaha, never thought that would happen on my mission. lol Then super early the next morning the senior couple came and picked us up so me and sister Fiefia could go to MLC meeting. The rest of the week was awesome with SO many miracles and the Lord truly is protecting us!!! Today we had a nerf gun war for our district activity IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!! We had a member let us borrow her nerf guns and we went to the church and set up tables and chairs and played capture the flag and sudden death and it was just the coolest thing ever haha!! But yeah that was my week ,super amazing and full of so many miracles and so many blessings. It is probably one of the greater weeks of my mission!! (Mom, seriously I am ok i promise just breath lol) I love you all, I hope you have a wonderful week!!! Remember that it is never too late to make changes and become a better version of yourself!!! I am striving to do that everyday!! I love ya!!!
Love Sister Hamilton :)

Dec 29 Hello Family & Friends

So this week was an amazing one filled with the wonderful spirit of Christ and an awesome time talking to my family!! It is incredible how much you can appreciate a phone call home to your family when you don't get to talk to them very often!! Serving a mission has been the greatest gift and privilege of my life especially this Christmas season! It was amazing to see the spirit of Christ radiate as we were able to go out and teach on Christmas!!! We had an incredible week and were able to teach a lot of people and it is so fun to watch them progress in the gospel, even if the progression is very very small, it is still amazing! This week we had a guy read 1 verse out of the Book of Mormon and I was so happy I thought I was going to cry... but seriously watching people come closer to Christ is one of the greatest feelings in the world!! I also just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate the Priesthood on the earth today... This whole gospel is only possible because of the priesthood! I have been able to witness some of the most touching priesthood blessings and I know they were truly inspired from God! It is incredible the power that the priesthood has!! I am so grateful to be able to share Christ's message with the world even when the doors get slammed in our face at least I know they saw my name tag and maybe years from now they will be curious and look into it! Everyday we live is such a blessing whether as a missionary or not! One of my favorite quotes is "the trick to life is to enjoy each day not wait for better ones ahead!" I am beginning to realize how quickly my mission is going by and I am learning that even on the hard days it is so important to find enjoyment in the day and live in that day and not wait for a better day ahead because even though this day is hard I will never get to live it again... especially as a missionary!! I love you all so much and I am so grateful for your support and prayers!! You all have a wonderful week and remember how much Heavenly Father loves you!!!! :)

Eternally in the Lord's service!

Sister Hamilton

Dec 22 Celebrating the spirit of Christmas

What a wonderful time of the year I have been blessed to serve in! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to share the gospel of Christ during this holiday season! I have had the most wonderful week of my mission!! True miracles have come from my decision to give all of my heart and mind to the work and not just all of my might and strength! This week we were able to teach 42 lessons which is 12 more then I have ever taught before and we were able to pick up 3 new investigators! When Elder Kacher came to the mission he talked on changing out mindsets ("usually" you don't have a lot of baptisms/investigators in this mission) He challenged us to have 10 progressing investigators our jaws all dropped, literally. Because the norm is like 2 maybe and in Carthage we had 0 so yeah!!! But we have set goals and given our all to the work and the Lord has blessed us with our righteous desires, at this point I think we have 5 progressing and we actually have 10 investigators now! And I have to consistently turn to Alma 26:12 where I am reminded that I can not boast of my own strength because everything that happened this week was the Lord's doing! He does answer our prayers and he does bless us for our efforts!! The investigators that we have are Belise and Martin they are a family from Africa and they are amazing and very prepared. It is super exciting working with them we also have Darryl and Sarah and their kids (we are mostly teaching the kids) but they are an adorable black family (the mom is white) but they are so fun and they are so excited every time we come over! This week we also picked up an amazing family from Germany (she is an amazing cook) but they are so nice and I just love them to death! We also have Marylou a sweet old lady who thinks that we are perfect and she is amazing also. Doug is a nice guy and he is doing amazing and progressing very well! We have Donna a sweet lady who is slightly anti religion but we are making progress so we are stoked and the Dolan and Ward families and they are just amazing and I love them so much!! We have been extremely blessed and with the Christmas season here everyone is so kind and loving and I am just beginning to realize how incredible it is that I get to share this amazing spirit with people all day everyday all year long! Time is flying by but I am loving every second of it! The Lord is mindful of each of us and knows how he can best help us.  His hand is out stretched towards us but he can't force us to ask for His guidance!! I have also been trying very diligently to finish the Book of Mormon before Christmas because I figure that is one of the best gifts I can give Christ this year and I just want you all to know that the Book of Mormon is true! It is our instruction manual to this life, it was saved for our day so that we can learn and grow from it! I know that we can come closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ by reading it and that if we want Him to talk to us, we read! I love the Book of Mormon and I am so grateful for the lessons I learn from it and the examples of those who gave their lives to follow Christ! I love you all so much and I pray at this time of year especially that you will be able to give yourself more to Christ but that you will continue to give to him by keeping the spirit of Christ with you throughout the year! I love you all and have a Merry Christmas!!! You are all amazing and I am so grateful for you support! 

Moroni 7:33

Dec 15 What a wonderful week!

Well this week was amazing!!! There was a pretty intense snow storm and president made us park the car. We decided to continually be diligent in our missionary work so we went tracting in the snow storm (while I was sick) haha great idea I know. We saw miracles because of it... we found 3 new investigators that day Sarah, Darryl, and Soncerae, yay we are so stoked!!! That was a way exciting cold day (and the new coat worked miracles thank you mom and dad). We had Zone Conference and they talked about the importance of our calling and how we are simply instruments in the Lord's hands and we are here to "create beautiful music" and that all the instruments in an orchestra are necessary and that they are NOT the same so that we needed to stop comparing ourselves and start realizing that we all have something to offer and that we need to give ourselves to the Lord to do as He pleases. We also learned about the ladder of faith the 1st rung is I can't do this ,there is no point in trying! 2nd Rung I might be able to do this I might as well give it a try 3rd rung I can do this if I work really really hard and give it everything 4th I can do this with the Lord's help and 5th The Lord can do this and I can be His instrument in doing it! Now I have strictly been the middle rung thus far on my mission and I am striving to reach the 5th rung and completely trust my Father in Heaven! I realized that I am expecting too much of myself all at once and so my companion gave me a talk to read titled "Learning to love yourself" by Louise Brown i think! and I am super prideful, so I had to humble myself a little and realized that maybe I did need to learn to love myself more.... well I read the talk and it was just what I needed.  I realized I have tried way too hard my entire life to get approval from others and that I demanded success from myself before I learned how to do something, hence the reason I hate softball etc because I demanded myself to be amazing at it without ever playing it. And that by doing this I have literally set myself up for failure and I have unrealistic expectations set for myself! So I need to learn that is ok to fail (First attempt in learning) and its ok not to be perfect!! I have learned that God's love is not academic. We learn and grow at our own speed and in our own way. I have slowly come to realize what this means and I encourage you all to read that talk!! We also found another 2 investigators this week Donna and Martin and we have had many super spiritual experiences. I am just learning how blessed we are in this work!!! Anyway, I love you all I am sorry this is such a short email!! I will tell you more next week when I have a bit more time!! I miss you all and Love you a lot have a wonderful Christmas!!! :) 

Love Sister Hamilton! :)

Dec 8 Transfers...Staying in Carthage

So good news, transfer calls came and I am staying in Carthage!!! YAY no more moving around for this girl!! Also I am staying a Sister Training Leader which I am super happy about, because I dont know how to be a missionary without being an STL haha!  I am super stoked, I am only over 2 areas now instead of 4 though which is kind of relieving!!! So this week I spent a total of only 2 days in Carthage haha! So monday was P-day and that was good just wrote a ton of stinking letters and relaxed!! Then Tuesday we had district meeting and learned the importance of asking inspired questions and effective questions that get people searching analyzing their feelings. We had a district activity where we went and helped decorate Christmas Trees.  I went on Exchanges to Watertown and was there all day tuesday and wednesday and it was way fun although I froze my butt off.... makes me so grateful for my area and the fact that we have a car!!!! haha Thursday we worked for a little over half of the day and then the Potsdam Zone leaders came and picked us up to go to Utica for MLC and they have a truck (not just a little stupid truck but a nice Chevy Silverado) well that made me so happy to FINALLY be in a truck again!!! We hung out at the mission home for a couple hours until we had to go to bed then we woke up in the morning on Friday, went to MLC (missionary leadership council) and that lasted all day. We drove back to Carthage but after so many miles we can't use the vehicles here so they sell the cars and get new ones. We are always driving like brand new cars (its gonna ruin me for real life) but the truck which was like a 2013 maybe, was "out of miles" and so we got to drive a new 2015 Silverado home that only had 58 miles on it... I almost cried, I was so happy!!! Then Saturday we worked real hard and got transfer calls and yeah nothing is changing here for me and sister Fiefia!! If you haven't watched "He is the gift" on Mormon.org then do it!! SO good!!! Well I miss you all so much I hope you have a wonderful week and that you remember the true meaning of Christmas because the first gift was the Savior!!! and He gave so much for us!! remember to give back!! I love you!!!

Love sister Hamilton

Dec 1 Loving Life

So this week there isn't a whole lot to report!! pretty much all our snow is gone,... craziness and sister FieFia and I are like best friends we never stop laughing and we are just having a ton of fun sharing God's light with the world!! The people here are amazing and Thanksgiving was fantastic!!! As far as Adam goes he will no longer be getting baptized... sad day and he isn't really meeting with the sisters a whole lot either but I have faith he will change his mind again so yeah no baptism on the 5th! We have been mostly working with Less-actives and we had 4 come to church his week yay!!! We should be meeting with our investigators more this week with Thanksgiving being over but we will see!!! We just have to keep working hard and being obedient! Thank you for all your support and encouragement!! Sorry this email is so short I love you!!! :)

Sister Hamilton

check out He is the gift on mormon.org lol

Discover the gift

Embrace the gift

#sharethegift!

Nov 24 New Hartford...or Carthage? Carthage

What a week this has been, it started out with the mission tour and ended with me being transferred to Carthage :) So this week we were supposed to go on our exchanges to Carthage and Watertown and then one of the sisters in Carthage got sick so we ended up not going. The way things happened was very frustrating so I was slightly upset with some of the sisters (I know I need to repent). But anyway, we did work in New Hartford and Adam AGREED to be baptized on December 6th he finally decided he had no more reservations and that we was ready!!!! YAY!!! so stoked!!! :) Me and Sister Barley were finally going to get a baptism together and see the fruits of our labors (which doesnt always happen). We got in the car to call the Carthage Sisters to set up when we would be doing the rescheduled exchange and Sister Mayer my companion from the MTC got on the phone and was crying and wanted to go home and was sick of a lot of things. She wasn't getting along with her companion and we sat and talked to her for about an hour and then we had to go to other appointments and told her to stay strong and we would call her back later tonight. An hour or so later president called us and told us not to call them back and that he would call us and let us know what was going on and how we could help. That night we were planning the next day out and it was about 9:30 well we got a call from president (remember dad how you told if my Mission president ever asked me to do a special assignment to just tell him no.... well this was one of those times haha). President got on the phone and said can I speak to Sister Hamilton alone and so I got on the phone and he said "Sister Hamilton I need sister Mayer to come to New Hartford and work with Sister Barley and see if we can get her to want to stay out on her mission and I have a favor to ask of you... Will you go to Carthage and be companions with Sister FieFia?" and I said of course I will president and I got off the phone and cried like a little girl, my heart was here and I had no warning or prep time so I packed up my things that night laid in bed staring at the ceiling forever and then fell asleep at 1:30 in the morning.... and I woke up the next day said goodbye to the Deerings cried some more and then went to the church and did a few things and then headed back to our apartment and waited for President to show up. When he got there he gave me a blessing and off we went.... I didnt get to say goodbye to any of the Elders.... none of the members.... none of our investigators.... It was just a hole in my heart which still kind of hurts but thats ok, At least I know I gave them my all and that I let them have a piece of my heart... and so we got to Carthage and I unpacked in about an hour hurried and ate a quick dinner and then off we went to work. Carthage has had some pretty disobedient sisters in the past little while and sister FieFia has been trying to clean it up and so I am stoked to help her but she has only been here for 3 weeks and i have been here for like 3 days now so its pretty much like we are whitewashing again. Sister FieFia is incredible, super powerful missionary and way obedient!! She is a Polynesian and we get a long better than Sister Barley and I did! I am fully being myself again and we are working super hard all day long!! A little about Carthage... we do get the Lake effect so we can get like 3 feet of snow in one night which we did but today it is super warm and is melting but we are not as bad as Buffalo so no worries there. Carthage is a military town and Fort Drum is here and so about 95% of our ward is Military and people are constantly moving in and out and the ward is full of super young couples and I have completely fallen in love with the ward and the area!! We met a super awesome families, the Carr family, and the parents are sweet the dad is an orthopedic surgeon in the military and their house is...to die for... so nice and they are so fun they used to be really investigating but got a major overload and so they havent really let missionaries in for a while but they let us in and we got to know them pretty well and they are letting us come back yay!!! and I am just so stoked about them!!! and then we are starting to teach Belize she is from Africa and she is legit!! Going onto the Military base is kind of like being in another world haha! I love it!! we have A TON of less-actives and that is where we spend most of our time... I love where I am and I love my companion and I am so happy and so grateful for this incredible experience and Sister Mayer is doing amazing and as of now no longer wants to go home! :) yay!! also I will be going to Utica on December 5th for MLC (a meeting) and so the Utica sisters are going to try and get Adam to switch his baptism to the 5th so that I can be there :) Miracles really do happen and Heavenly Father is always watching out for us!! I am grateful for change and the opportunity I have to learn and grow and to become better :) I hope you are all doing better and remember the "God is easily pleased, but hard to satisfy." Neil A Maxwell

Heavenly Father is pleased with all that you are all doing but we have to continually strive to be better! :) I love and miss you all so much!  have an amazing week and remember how much He loves you!

Love Sister Hamilton

Nov 10 Charity. . . . Don't pray for it!

Well this week was wonderful! So to start off I was talking to some sisters and they told me about the parable of the Loaves and the Fishes and how Christ asked them to give all that they had... and it was not enough... at all but then he blessed it and made it more than enough! That is how our missions are and our lives in general if we give all that we have and are to Him... it wont be enough but he will bless it and make it more than enough. So when you are feeling down and like your all isnt enough... remember he will bless you and make it enough! I just loved this and thought maybe you would like to hear it! So next this week has been fantastic we had 2 investigators come to church, Sarrita and Adam! Sarrita is doing so amazing and knows she needs to get baptized but she is holding off a bit because she wants to make sure she is doing this for her and not for chris (her boyfriend) so hopefully she prays and realizes that this is what she needs to do! but she is just amazing reading the book of mormon everyday and enjoying everything we teach her and it all "makes sense".... so logically she should just get baptized lol!! Then Adam he is already through Helaman!!! crazy I know and he believes the book of Mormon is true and he believes in Joseph Smith but he has some serious disagreements about the churches stance on homosexuality so we have tried discussing that with him a little bit but he gets argumentative so we are just teaching the other lessons and hopefully Heavenly Father will soften his heart, but he came to church and really enjoyed it and said he is coming next week so that is way excited and he has so much potential... there is just a minor bump that we will flatten in time, no worries! and those are the really exciting things happening! Other than that thursday was probably one of the most amazing days of my mission because of all the realizations I had. It was district meeting and we were asked to study Charity and Love in preach my gospel so I started off by doing that and then I went to the dictionary and I have come to realize that charity and love are not the same thing that is why they are always BOTH mentioned in the scriptures. Love=loyal concern and affection, Charity=understanding! Charity is the pure love of Christ. In preach my gospel it talks about how to have charity you have to understand that person's point of view. No wonder Christ has Charity and it is the Pure love, because he literally felt everything we feel, He knows EXACTLY what we think and feel, he has a pure understanding of our point of view!! So to have charity for someone is not just unconditional love but to put yourself in their place and understand their point of view! I dont know I just thought that it was super neat and I realized I have a lot of work to do in order to develop charity! also that we have to sanctify ourselves or become pure in order to love purely.... just something to think about then later that day I realized that I have had a lot of walls built up around my heart and for a really long time and I apologize to you all for not letting you have all my heart. I am going to try to more fully give my heart to those around me so that they can love me fully. I also learned a neat thing about companionship study that it is not just to create unity but we have to help us receive revelation. There have been many times where the only way I was able to develop fully the revelation I was receiving was by talking to Sister Barley and discussing things together. Heavenly Father created us to help each other.... thats why you get married and thats why you have a companion on the mission and thats why you have a family etc... we all need help in our lives! and lately I have been reading a talk and it talks about whether we know who we want to become? are we progressing towards light or towards darkness? If we dont know who we want to become and a plan of how to become that, then we will not progress towards the light... just food for thought :) So when I first got out here I was scared to pray for charity because then you know a trial is coming but I know it is something that I need to develop so I finally prayed for it and..... Yes there are challenges what a blessing it is that Heavenly Father trusts me to develop this attribute (it will be a lifelong process) but I need to take advantage of this opportunity to become more like my Savior. In a testimony this week at MLC someone shared that "Our imperections are a gift and we should use those imperfections to come closer to God." what a neat perspective..... Well I love you all!! Stay strong. and Remember I love you all so much!!  :) 

Love Sister Hamilton

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.