OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW!

Family!!

Can I just say that I am sooo grateful to be a missionary at this exciting time!!! Look at how the Lord is hastening His work! We are all in this together! - that was not meant to be a reference to High School musical. BUT, I am just so humbled!! The broadcast yesterday was AMAZING! I love all of these exciting changes and improvements :) ha funny you were looking for me- I was looking for Hermana Coffey! and no I carry a purse so no big backpack

Out with the Old and in the the New

haha. I am sooo glad that Grandma is doing well. Tell her I love her!! Have a safe trip to Texas!! That's a long drive so be careful. Awww good memories of family road trips :) I am soo glad we went on all those family adventures together. They truly are treasured memories. I can't believe you guys are all moved out!! It does make me kind of sad. We had sooo many great memories there. But really all I care about is going back to all of you- wherever you might be :) Man sounds like it was a tough job! Sorry I couldn't help! I have been praying for you all and I hope that everything continues to work out with the move.

 

So this is the Ellsworth's last week :( I am going to miss them soooo much!!! They have been such wonderful leaders and they worked so hard. We had a big temple excursion this week with them and a third of the mission. It was sooo good!!! I love going to the temple :) So since the Ellsworth's are leaving that means that the new mission President gets here this week!! President Jenkins! I am super excited to meet him and his wife :) 

PRES. AND SIS. JENKINS

So a cool little thing that happened this week at the visitors center. Well first of all we got this AWESOME exhibit called "Love thy Neighbor". It's a HUGE walk through thing with all of these different movies that show the humanitarian efforts done by the church. I am soo grateful for this exhibit as it reminds me that one great way to help others feel the love of the Savior is by serving them. Go out of your way to do something for others- whether is be something big or small. I know that we cam accomplish much good as we change our way of thinking. We need to observe and then serve. Don't wait for the sign up sheet to go around. Be actively engaged in a good cause! Look for those opportunities and do it without being asked. Yesterday Sister Pickett and I were working on doing that and we saw this girl outside picking weeds. The yard was in pretty bad shape so we just went over and joined her. She was so grateful and it made us feel so good to do something to help her- and then of course we offered to teach her the restored gospel and she graciously declined, but that's ok! She is going to come to the Visitors Center though to check out the new exhibit :) But I hope you see from even this little scenario that it doesn't matter what the outcome might be. Invite and serve everyone. Truly love your neighbor.

But anyways, back to the cool thing that happened at the vc. These 3 ladies came in and I took them on a tour of the exhibit. They then told me that they had all served here 4-5 years ago!!!!! CRAZY!! They are all like married and grown up now- weird. But, what I loved seeing was that they all still kept in touch and were still close :) I love that because the vc group of missionaries seriously becomes your family. I am soo grateful for all of the sweet sisters Heavenly Father has allowed me to serve with- and of course the awesome senior couples too!

So these past few weeks have really been a big trial of faith for finding people to teach. But as we kept the faith and did everything we could to strengthen the members, reach out to others, and talk to everyone, Heavenly Father blessed us this past week with soo many miracles!!! We found 5 people who have been prepared by The Lord to accept the restored gospel :) Tender mercies! It is just so amazing to see that through trials and struggles we grow closer to the Lord. I know that my trust in the Lord and in His timing has grown tremendously over the course of my mission. There is absolutely NO NEED to stress and worry. If you are living your life the way that you should and doing good things, then you can have the hope that through the Savior Jesus Christ EVERYTHING will work out. EVERYTHING will be made right. Satan tries sooo hard to get us discouraged, distracted, and confused, BUT if we remain focused on our goal then there is nothing that can stop us from accomplishing what we know we have the potential to do. What an amazing promise!! So this week I was studying a lot about faith. Mostly in Alma 32 and in other places. But what I have been thinking about a lot in relation of faith and reaching our full potential is motivation. Motives. What motivates me to do these things? I was thinking about it and came to the conclusion that the 2 main things that motivate people in this life are either faith or fear. How funny since they are complete opposites and cannot exist together. But I found myself thinking am I doing this because I am afraid of consequences, or am I not doing this because I am afraid of what might happen? Or on the other hand am I doing this because I have faith in the Lord's work, etc. I know that as we change our outlook from one motivated by fear to one motivated by faith we will see miracles. One last interesting experience. Sister Pickett and I were teaching this sweet lady named Maggie and her concern was that she didn't know everything. For some reason she was under the impression that she had to know EVERYTHING before she could get baptized. We immediately told her that was absolutely NOT necessary and explained to her what the qualifications for baptism are. We read with her in Mosiah 18:8-10. You could just see her face light up as she came to a realization that even though she did not know everything, she did know enough. She knew enough to have a sure faith in Christ and to keep His commandments. At our next lesson with Maggie she told us that she wanted to be baptized. I am so grateful for the truthfulness of this message. I am so grateful that someone as simple as myself who has no great knowledge of the gospel has been called to teach! I know that the Lord's hand is in this work. Sister Ellsworth shared a line from her daughters email home (she is serving at the vc in Kirtland!). She said that at the end of this life we will look at all that has been accomplished and then we will all say look at what the Lord has done. :)

Welp gotta run!!!

I love you family!! I can't believe this is the last week of June! I still keep thinking it's May! CRAZY

You are all in my prayers!

Love,

Sister Hamstead

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

ps- I got to go on exchanges this last week with Hermana Schwartz! Go Georgia!