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! :)
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
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 HamiltonNov 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!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
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
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! |
| 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!
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Monday, November 3, 2014
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!
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