Waiting on the Lord

This last week I had an awesome opportunity to grow my testimony of prayer and to understand a little bit more, the love that my Savior has for me. As I said last week, I was having trouble learning to love the people in my new area. I prayed and prayed begging for more love for them and God responded. I had the opportunity to learn this lesson in the same way that I have learned a majority of my lessons on my mission. I got sick. I got a bacteria in my throat and for two days I wasn't even able to talk. (Mom - Before you start worrying, I'm already better. I already went to the hospital and I'm already taking antibiotics. :) ). During this time, the members here really reached out to me. These members that I barely knew, brought me soups and porridge (Surprsingly, porridge is actually pretty good!) and stayed in contact with us to know how I was doing. They offered to drive me to the hospital (Which is pretty far, normally we take the bus) without us even asking. My prayer was answered, I love these people! 

I also had the opportunity to learn a little something about the love of God. I know he loves us, this is something obvious to all of us. I understand now that God lets "bad" things happen to us to help us grow. I easily could have complained any of the numerous times that I've gotten sick on the mission. But I know that God loves me and only wants the best for me and every time that the sickness (or any other trial) passes, I'm stronger because of it. Sometimes the things that seem to be your burdens are actually your blessings. I love my God and for this short opportunity that I have to serve Him 100%. "Whenever The Lord asks us to give something up He always has something better to replace it with. Waiting upon or trusting in The Lord is often not easy but always worth it as He shows us things about ourselves we never knew existed" (Papa).

Read Waiting on the Lord by Elder Robert D. Hales: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/waiting-upon-the-lord-thy-will-be-done?lang=eng

Love

- Elder Hamstead

April 27 - I am 100% convinced!

This last week was pretty cool! When I arrived in Esperança, we started to teach a woman named Silvia (Pic). Both of her children are already baptized. Lara (Pic) was baptized about 3 years ago and has a great testimony. Caiu was baptized at the same time and is now serving in Curitiba (BR) as an Assistant. Unfortunately Silvia and her husband never were able to gain their own testimonies and were never baptized. The first time that I talked to Silvia, I knew that she was ready. We taught her the Restoration and she got super into it. When we finished, she ran over to her maid and told her that she had just heard the most interesting story and asked for us to go to the maids house to teach her!! I am 100% convinced that there isn't anyone in the world that can deny the truth of the Restoration when taught by worthy priesthood holders. We made a date for the 26th of April she accepted. As we got closer to the date, she decided that she would only be baptized by her son who gets home next month. She didn't want to put off her baptism though. So we got into contact with her sons mission Pres and got permission for Silvia to go to Curitiba to be baptized by her son. She arrived on Friday night and was baptized by her son on Saturday! I'm pretty sure that it was the best surprise that her son has ever received in his entire life! Just goes to show that the Lord really does reward his worthy servants! Love you guys so much!! If you guys ever have any questions or doubts, feel free to send them my way!! :)

Love,
Elder Hamstead

An entirely new mission!

Dear Family,

It was so good to see your faces yesterday!! 7 more months until the next time!! It sounds like a lot of time, but I know it'll fly by. So as you guys already know, I was transferred and I'm serving in an area called Jardim Castelão. Until now, I always served far from the city (called the interior). It really feels like I'm in an entirely new mission. Everything is different haha. The people, the way we work, even our vocabulary has to change! So ya, I'm adjusting right now. I love it here, but I really miss and love the people and my areas in the interior. But that's ok. I know that I'll see them all again. I'm not exactly sure why, but its hard for me to feel the same love for the people here that I felt for the people in the interior. I'm trying to push myself more, to serve the people more so that I can gain this love really quickly. The principle is really simple, the more you serve someone the more you love them. It's the same with God. The more you serve Him, the more love you will have for Him. The more love you have for Him, the more desire you will have to serve him more and obey him more. I know that this is really true. I've seen it in my own life and in the lives of many others. If you don't have this same knowledge, I challenge you to put the promises of God to test. Follow him 100% for just one week. I promise that you'll really see the difference and your testimony will grow exponentially, just like mine did. :)

With Elder Christofferson....guess where I am?



https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/10/the-great-plan-of-happiness?lang=eng