Pioneer Day

July 22, 2013 

All the Sisters in our Zone

Hello Family and Friends,

Thanks everyone for the mail.  I promise I am working on writing back to all of you... it just takes time. :)

Well it's been another great week! Mostly routine but the happy kind of routine. We had an FHE on monday which was fun and then we had a service project where we started to pull weeds but then turns out they just needed to be trimmed so we switched to that but there were only two.... machetes.... so mostly the elders just took turns while we raked or.... played with their bunny and hamsters. haha.  Anyway, it was nice and the investigator seemed grateful so hopefully it helped. :)

Random facts...

People here love menthol. (Okay, now I can't remember if I've already told you this) Anyway, so many candies here have menthol. A sister offered us mints in church the other day and I popped it in my mouth and then it was like Oh no. Immediate cough drop taste that was so overwhelming my eyes almost started watering. They have mentos here with menthol and just lots of candies.  You have to read the labels.  Plus, you know the vic's vapor rub stuff well that have different brands here but they love to use it for headaches, coughs, runny noses. They just smear it everywhere.  It always reminds me of when mom put it on my feet when I was really sick over Christmas break. And of Nanie for some reason. Anyway, just a fun cultural insight.

Also people don't have lawn mowers here.  So for big grassy areas they use machete type blades to cut the grass.  For small areas they use scissors. Yep, women sit and cut the grass with scissors (more like the clippers we use for cutting bushes in the states but with scissor handles and normal scissor size).  The area is huge but big enough that when I see them I am thinking... no way would I do that. haha.

So of course it being pioneer day here's a thought (sorry bammer you will hear this twice.) So one day this week I was so sleepy and exhausted, so was Sister R. One of those times when you are so sleepy you just want to lay down in the street and take a nap.  Then suddenly I thought about the pioneers. And how they were so tired and so cold that they just wanted to lay down and sleep in the snow but if they did they would freeze to death. I thought of how hard it must have been to not just give in, to just lay down and call it quits but they kept moving with a perfect brightness of hope that a better life awaited them. Then I thought of the story of the little girl who was walking in the snow when a rescue wagon came by. Now I'm not gonna get this all right but it was something like this... they said she could ride in the wagon but they kept going so she had to run after it and she was yelling for it to stop so she could get in but it just kept going.... and just when she was about to give up they scooped her up in a blanket and sat her in the wagon. Only later did she learn and understand-- they had to make her run so the blood would get pumping in her body so she wouldn't freeze to death while riding in the wagon.  It gave me the strength to go on happily as I thought of that little girl and all the pioneers pushing on even when they must have been soo tired.  And then I though of how that is how life is. Sometimes things seem so hard, or unfair, or we don't understand why they are the way they are.  BUT Heavenly Father knows and He sees the bigger picture. We just have to keep running and when we don't know if we can run anymore, He will always be there to help us.  When we look back on our life we will see that the hard parts, the running, was to make us stronger, to strengthen our faith so that we would become stronger and better prepared for the future. Trials are our chance to become.  So as you are running through the hard part of life don't forget, there is ALWAYS a purpose and if we endure it well we will be blessed.  There are blessings waiting for us that we simply cannot comprehend but I do understand that they are worth ANY sacrifice we have to make to attain them.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying all the luxuries we have. I am so happy to be here and thank you for your love and support that helps keep me going.

Love you,

Sister Hamm

I threw my tag on my desk one morning before I went to shower and saw Sister Hamm and the Book of Mormon and the Conference Liahona and it was like....cool :)  I'm a missionary.