Wow 5 months already!

This is my family on the mish. third from the left is elder GS hes my grandpa and the Elder inbetween me and him is my trainer who GS trained and the rest are people who GS trained and their kids or people they trained. hah its kinda cool to think about

Did you have a special Christmas tie you wore today?  umm I bought a few ties the other day cause we needed a red and green tie for the mission christmas confrence so the red one is pretty sick and the green one is a zip up tie so thats cool. haha

What is the sacrament meeting before Christmas like?  Dead. we had 20 people show up -__- and my comp had to give a talk cause there was no one there.

How was your mission Christmas gathering?  Awesome. literally so cool to see the whole mission, people from the MTC, old companions, other missionaries. man it was awesome!

these are my boys from the CTM. Original crew (minus G -RIP)

 

What have you most enjoyed about Christmas on your mission? I really like getting away from all he traditions, like we have about 20,000 traditions for christmas in our house, so its actually really good to just get away from it all and focus on the real meaning of christmas. Serving others and trying to bring people to the knownledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ is aweosme and there is a special feeling here during christmas. Its nice.

So yeah this week was good pretty normal, working hard handing out cards with the christmas video ``Ele e o Presente.´´ The mission is really pushing for the missionaries to use these cards with the link to this video on them. The video is really powerful and really special, so if you havent seen it you should definitely watch that video.

The confrence with all the missionaries in my mission was CRAZY! It was crazy awesome. This was pretty much our christmas cause there was food, friends, and the mission president and his wife gave us all a few little gifts. As for Christmas day itself, it will be work as usual with a little special twist.

Elder W!!! hes from my stake in virginia! small mission world

but yeah nothing really new to talk about sorry. next week will hopefully be a bigger email. LOVE YOU GUYS!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS

Elder Hamm

WOOHOO BATISMO

The sister who we baptized and her daughter

So for my dads Q´s

I also got a bag of this fruit from a member which
is DANK but I forget the name of it

Do they have candy canes there? 

They have sugar cane, does that count? you can buy a stalk for 2 reals or a cup of the juice for the same price. its sweet they stick this stalk of sugar cane into this little moter that squishes it and the juice comes out into a bowl. Its like the color of your shoes after you mow the lawn, a kinda foggie green. I like it, its really sweet. You can also just chew on the stalk and spit out the wood after you suck all the sugar out of it.

What is your morning routine? I wake up at 6:30 every. single. day. Say a prayer with everyone in our house, (this is mainly a rule made by the president to make sure everyone is up and awake) then say a personal prayer, excersize for 30 minutes (and try not to sleep inbetween my pushups) then shower and eat till 8. Thats when personal study starts, then at 9 I normally make popcorn to eat during companion study, and at 10 I start language study for 30 mintutes and at 10:30 we´re out the door...... in theory. 

Do you recite D&C 4 every day? What about reciting anything else? No I dont read that every day, but I do have verces 3 and 4 memorized which we recite at all of our meetings, we also memorize our purpose as missonaries to recite in our meetings.
This week we went on splits with our zone leaders! I was with Elder S.L. who has 2 weeks left on his mission. (splits are where we switch companions for a day) I learned so much from him its crazy. Theres a huge difference between missionaries with a few months and a missionary about to go home. 

One of the main differences is, the missionary about to go home doesnt really put up with a lot of crap from an investigator. Haha this one guy we contacted was saying how his pastor doesnt like him to read pamphlets or hand outs from other religions. So S.L. says ``what, does your pastor not like Jesus?´´ Then after a little bit he's like, ``looks you guys are nice and all but obedience is pretty important right? so i cant accept your book.´´ S.L. responds ``ohhh no thats fine we understand, senhor lost his agency when he joined this church created by man. Thats fine´´ It was all I could do to not bust out laughing. 

Members

I also learned how to trade things, this week I traded 3 pamphlets for 3 boxes of cigarettes! Haha this is my favorite thing to do now. I have the pamphlet of the Word of Wisdom and go up to someone I see smoking and start talking about smoking and his health and if he has a desire to stop smoking, if he saids yes I talk about Joseph Smith and the Word Of Wisdom and the power of god. Then I say,
``This pamphlet talks a little bit more about our message, and its a present for you, but I do want to ask something of you, a kind of trade. I will give you this pamphlet if you give me the rest of your cigarettes. You dont want them and lets call this your first step to improve your health and show God you really want to change. hell help you if you really show you want to change.´´

Haha and normally they give me their cigarettes which I throw away at the end of the night.

Sooo good news! WE HAD A BAPTISM THIS WEEK!!! She is honestly just an angel. She pretty much asked to be baptised too haha. So I got to perform the ordanace in all white and I think I was as nervous as she was... It was definitely an expierence I will not forget. Her name is T.M.F.L. I'll send the pics too

So next monday I have to go to Juiz De Fora again for a confrence of all the missionaries in our mission. Im not really sure this plan was thought out too well. Haha, we have 120+ missionaries in this mission and we all know someone so everyone will want to converse with everyone else and it will be so hard to get anything done but im excited. But im not sure how christmas will work so ill try and call you or email you this next week to set up our skype of phone call.

but I love you guys! miss you all lots and lots!!

Elder Hamm

Santa also speaks Portuguese!!!

Brazil countryside after the rain

DAds questions first, What principal of the gospel do you enjoy teaching most?

the plan of salvation hands down. it is about questions everyone has and our gospel answers! What principal of the gospel seems to be most difficult for investigators? 
You know here in brazil it is rare to see a cute 17-18 year old girl without a child. its really sad but thats the truth, i know a girl here who is 32 and she is already a grandmother. its sad so i would have to say the law of chastity.   No one really has a problem with joseph smith because we have the Book of Mormon, which is the word of God, so if they feel the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith must have been a prophet called of God. 

What is your favorite beverage in Brazil? oh this one is easy, Guaraná!!! but the real question is what brand. the main brand that they have in every state of brazil is Antartica. that is the most well known but every state kinda has their own brand. my favorite here in northern rio is It. It, Guaraná. its just good. we have it with almost every meal. And, as all of you know last week was fast sunday, and going 24 hours without water and food doing the work of a missionary, literally makes you play catchup with your health for the next few days. so on saturday i bought 3 liters of Guaraná Antartica and my comp bought 3 liters of coke. we make a quick stop at home before lunch today... haha

This week we had a zone confrence in Juiz De Fora again and interviews with O presidente!!! hes literally the best ever. at times he can crack down on a group of missionaries but when you talk with him one on one, you can just tell this man was called of God.

So we took a survey the other day on the computer about all the rules and we were suppose to put a 1-5 on how well we actually follow them. my comp took the survey first and and was obviously trying to influence my numbers since after every question he was like, oh we do that mostlyyy... like... im wit' you 24 a day who you trynna kid? haha so i decided to be brutaly honest with my responses.

so when i got to my interview with the prez he pulled up his tablet and looked at my numbers... to be honest it wasnt pretty. we have a slight problem with a lot of rules that are easily fixable, we just have to have a desire to fix them. so after going over every question i didnt put a 5 for (which was probably 3/4ths) he hands me a paper and i circle the ones i need to work on and he ends with, youre young, youre learning right? that what the mission is for, to better yourself and if you have a 5 or even a 4 for all of these, you would be a perfect missionary so thank you for your honesty. 

MAN it felt good to just tell the truth! it wasnt easy when he asks, what do you mean you have more than 1 hour for lunch? well sometimes lunch isnt ready and we talk for a while. You use more than 1 hour and 15 minutes for internet? yes sometimes we email for a little longer. but at the end it was good to just get it all out. 

my comp on the other hand was pretty, well, lets call it unexcited after the interview he had with the prez after me. this is why its always just better to tell the truth and if youre ashamed of the truth, change who you are so you can be proud of the truth.

well we might actually have a batism next week! were definitely seeing miricales in our area because of the hard work we've been doing. we have been working our butts off to teach lessons, contact people, help people progress, were leading the zone right now with lessons and contacts. its pretty sweet but at the end of the day its like all we can do to just make some rice for dinner and then pass out in our beds.

So I can pretty much understand everything and talk with out thinking but if you ask some random question using like strange vocab, i wont understand. the other day we visited a member at work and he was trying to tell me how to print a newspaper and im like, yeah i dont know any of these word, i must have skipped over the printing press part of my vocab booklet. sorry brah.

Capybara

You guys arent going to believe this butttt SANTA ALSO SPEAKS PORTUGUESE!!! I know what you're thinking, ``I thought santa clause only spoke english and broken German´´ but no. I saw him on a float this week and I tried to shout out to him in english but I dont think he heard me... but I heard him speaking Portuguese! Man that guy really is something ya know? 

So these photos are of a animal that lives in Juiz De Fora, he looks like a giant Nutmeg (our pet guinea pig) they are one ugly animal. and the other photo is of the Brazil countryside after it rains for a week. nice and green. and the last photo is probably the most important part.

Its a scripture in the Book of Mormon I came across during my person study. its in Mosiah 20:11 if you google translate exactly how it is you will read that they were fighting WITH dragons....  its funny that one little mark in pen can make this scripture mean something different. haha

love you all hope you have a great week.  

Abraço,

Elder Hamm

A mighty pirate with holes in the soles of my shoes

This is M.  He's a recent convert that my first trainer baptized and we're working on him and his whole family.  

SOOO to start of the wonderful questions from my dad,
Questions of the week – So how is your Portuguese coming – you understand most of what folks say? yes. it is nice i can finally understand, so close, to everything people say. its pretty shweet portuguese. and its nice to have a little ``wiggle room`` during our lessons where i can say what i actually feel like i need to say instead of the same ol thing over and over again cause i didnt know how to say much

 What is a typical door approach or contact?   normally, we say ``Ola, (boa noite, boa tarde, bom dia) como senhor(a) se chama? they say their name and i try and repeat it. (normally they have to say it 2-3 times but its funny for everyone) then we say nos somos Missionários da igreja de jesus christo dos santos dos ultimo dias, sou Elder Hamm e este e meu amigo, Elder Lucena, voce ja teve de oportunidade para falar com missionários?
if they say yes, O que senhor(a) achou?  if they say não, tao, a gente temos uma mensagem bem especial sobre O Evangelho de Jesus Cristo  e como O Evangelho pode abençoa as famílias, podemeos compartilhar este mensagem com você e sua família um outro dia? and boom we get that address.

Anything that you took with you that hasn’t held up at all? yes, my shoes. my good tracting shoes have a hole in the bottom of them right underneath the middle top part of my foot. but no its cool, i feel like Guybrush Threepwood, a mighty pirate with holes in the soles of my shoes, dancin across the street trying to avoid the puddles. haha im in the process of fixing them but shoes here cost like 45 reals so im thinking ill just buy some new ones. haha

Our Christmas Tree!!!

so this week was rainy again. but that couldnt dampen our spirits, cause...wait for it.... WE GOT A CHRISTMAS TREEEE!!! and its beautiful. haha ill send a picture of it. but yeah everytime weve had a tough day, we come back home to see that christmas tree and it lightens up our mood. haha 

so this sunday was kinda crazy, so im in northern rio, which is pretty much like the city right above h***.  so no one really wants to do anything. me and my comp teach like 30+ lessons a week and no one comes to church. its really sad actually. haha our ward has 30 people more or less, and only 7 males so last sunday i lead the music, offered the opening prayer, and passed the sacrament...

oh and for the music, we dont really have anyone who can play the piano so the person who leads the music has to sing the first line so people know what hymn we are singing, so i had to sing the first verse and everyone laughed at my american accent, and the fact that Elder Hamm was leading the music was just the funniest thing in the world to everyone.

ALSO! i recieved my first present from a snakie today!!! it was a polo shirt she bought me and my comp for christmas! haha so we both put it on and took a picture with her. shes actually really awesome

so this whole, tarantula situation is getting out of hand, i lost track of how many ive seen and they are all super big and super ugly and i can tell they want to hurt me. haha so my comp saids he knows how to pick them up so i think im gonna try to snag a pic with one in my hand for you all back home to show you that all fears can be conquered. haha or maybe not. i dunno. 

so ive been here for 4 months without a baptism... 4 months in brazil, without baptising is like a record. my comp said the other day that ill probably be the next prophet. when i asked why he said, cause Gordan B. Hinckley went 6 months without baptising and then after that he baptised por cu rumba. 

so yeah, we have the number to show were working our butts off, but the people here are pretty stubborn. but we made a goal this transfer and said no less than 4 baptisms! so we are working extra hard to hit that goal and my comp said he wont leave or be transferred until we get a baptism haha Elder L is a straight G

SO yeah baptism this week will be sweet and ill send you guys some pictures in another email because i cant fit them all in this one. 

But i love you guys! miss you all

Elder Hamm

This bird reminded me of the bird in Robin Hood that yelled, ``4 O´CLOCK AND ALL IS WELL´ haha the one that guarded the jail its like a vulture here and it was eating i think a dog. it was a dog used in an animal sacrafice so its head was like on the other side of the road. it get nasty out here. haha