Monday, March 31, 2014

2 letters are better than one!

Hello everyone! Sorry for missing last week. So you get both letters this week.
Thanks for reading! No pictures though :(
Cheryl

March 25

Hola Familia
Esta semana estuvo muy bien. 
Hi everyone I am doing great and am glad to hear that all is well with you guys too. Like I said last week I am writing you on tuesday because we had a conference with president Kahnlein yesterday. It was such a great conference. I love it when we have conferences. They really are so edifying. It was so great to hear from the president about what the general athorities are saying about the missionary work. Like we all know (or maybe just me because I am thinking about this all the time) the general athorities are talking a lot about the missionary work and how we really need to start doing a lot more missionary work. We talked a lot about what we need to do as missionaries to accelerate the work. It really is such an awesome time to be a missionary. I am a member of an army that never has been as big as it is now. I Love what I am doing and really looking forward to work more and sirve harder here in chile. The work and investigators are progressing a little. In our area the work isnt moving very fast right now but we are do what we can to see some progress. The work is hard but it definately is posible in every part of the world. We talked a lot about the acceleration of the work and how that means that we need to be ready and help others be ready for the second coming because we really are in the last days. It is such a blessing to have this inside look at the missionary work right now. You all know that I love everything behind the scenes whether it be in movies, tv, disney, or anything that is good. I have a great opportunity to be a part of this. But dont forget that you all do too. Ryan and megan have been telling me a lot the they have been looking for opportunities to serve and invite others to come to christ. It is all of our responibility. I can promise you that in general conference they are going to talk about that so I invite you all to start doing it now so that you can feel so much better about yourself in two weeks when the prophet says that we need to do more. 
I love what I am doing. I have learned something really important about the mission and life. Well ok I have leard a lot of things really important but something specifically is that in order to teach or invite someone to do something you must have a testimony and act in that testimony. We talk a lot about the development personally that we have to do as missionaries and people and the importance of this with helping others. We are in a mission, or we could also say in life, to change. We have to change that is part of repentance and coming closer to christ if we arent changing for the better we arent staying in place we are changing for the worst. That is why we always need to work to be better missionaries and people. The wife of the president said that for us the mission is the university of life. I have learned so many things and I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to serve others. I have found that we need to develop ourselves in our mission but we can only do that through serving others. So do service and invite everyone to come unto christ. Sorry this is more like a talk but I think that the most important thing that you can get out of these letters is that I am ok and happy, and that you can learn something from what I am doing. I love something that an apostle said. You dont have these experiences for yourself, write them down. haha Sorry I just keep going. But Know that I love you all so much. I am glad that all is well. 
Les amo muchísimo
Elder Hamilton

March 31
Hola Familia
I hope that your week went well for everyone. 
This week went by so fast for me. I think it was because I had pday on tuesday last week and then the other part of the week went by so fast. It was a good week. We are happy because we found some new people to teach so we will see what happens with them. The first two days we were just contacting people the whole day because no one was in their house when we passed by. So we talked to a lot of people those days. We were then blessed to find new investigators so it was really great. In the conference we had our president told us that Elder Ballard does 20 contacts everyday and that needs to be our standard too so we are trying to do that. We were really happy because Patricia, Orlando´s mom (We baptized orlando like 5 weeks ago), is progressing a little more. This week she prayed in front of us which has always been really hard for her to do. Also she said something really awesome about the book of mormon. We have been working with her and inviting her to read the book for some time. She would always blame it on her daughters that she couldnt read but she started reading in the nights when they are asleep and she said that she can feel a difference. She said that when she reads she gets a feeling of peace and traquility. It is so amazing that we can really receive this power when we read the book of mormon. 
As a mission we just finished reading the book of mormon and I have learned so much from the book of mormon. I know that really I a power in the book of mormon. We really can come closer to god through the book of mormon. I can tell the difference in my day from days that I read and days that I dont. We can learn so much from the book of mormon. I have realized that it really was written for our time. I really loved moroni 8 that talks about faith repentance, baptism, el espiritu santo, and the atonement. Those are the 5 things that we have been focusing on during these three months while we were reading the book of mormon. I never realized how many times it talks about these things and the importance of these steps that we make in this life. Also I loved moroni 10 because he really was talking to us in our day. I know that really the whole book is talking to us but really this last chapter wasn´t read by anyone else back then it was just for us. I love the book of mormon and I am excited to start from the beginning tomorrow as a mission. This time we are focusing on the names of christ, when christ talks, satan, Obedience and prayers. 
I hope that you all have a great week. Use everyday to get ready for conference. I love conference. I have realized that if we can prepare ourselves for conference we can get a lot more out of it. So write down questions, pray, and I know you will find your answers. I love you all so much. I cant believe I have already been here for 9 months. I love what I am doing when I am serving the lord. 
Les Amo

Elder Hamilton