HI EVERYONE!

Hey everyone,

Things down here are very hot just like usual. We have had a good week for the most part as a companionship. This week we contacted 612, which is the highest we have had, so we felt really good about that. Other than that this week has been pretty boring here in La Noria. Since this week was boring there may not be a lot to tell so this email may be short. 

We had 0 investigators in church this week which was hard on both me and Elder Diaz. Elder Diaz actually started to cry because he has been out 1 year and that has never happened to him. It just shows how hard of an area La Noria really is! Also to show how hard it is, we were looking at recent converts for the total zone and our area only has had 7 in the last year and everywhere else has had 20-40, so our area seems to be one of the hardest in the zone.

Since we haven't had any luck with our investigators, we have been working a lot with Inactive and we are actually seeing results. Last week we had 2 inactive people at church when they hadn't been for awhile so that makes me feel good, like we are helping. Also we talked to a guy named Ceraco who hasn't wanted anything to do with the church and he said he would like to start listening to lessons again and start going to church again. It is such a great blessing in the mission. Also, there is a young man named Otto who was baptized and was good for a bit then stopped coming to church and became inactive, but we have been teaching him and he has been doing great, listening, and keeping commitments. It is so awesome!

Also I want to tell about another area called La Nueva and the miracle there. They are in a district by the way. Well they had a baptism interview which Elder Diaz did and at the end found out she wasn't married to the guy she was going to have the baby with and was living with. So Elder Diaz said the baptism can't happen. Then Elder Cox and Marte started thinking and realized if they get married she can be baptized. So they called up the man and said she can be baptized but we need your help and the man said how. They said, we need you to get married and he just said okay, lets do it! So they planned it all for the next week and he moved into a different house and they were able to baptize her and get it all worked out and they get married this week! ITS A MIRACLE FOR THEM!

Also, we have been fasting every week to try and get people to keep commitments and to fast, so remember to keep us in your prayers and I love you all and thanks for your examples!

Love,

Elder Hummel

The pictures are: in my EA LAVALAVA, before and after hair cut,  a yellow lime, some food (and yes I cooked that rice myself!), an awesome stereo that looks like a car.

Love you all and thank you for everything!

Tay in his lavalava

In need of a haircut!

After his haircut

A yellow lime

Rice dinner he made himself

A new car stereo

ANOTHER WEEK BITES THE DUST!

Hey everyone,

How are things going in the Land of the Free? Things are going good down here but we still don't have any luck with investigators coming to church. Last week we had 1 so that was depressing. I have gotten use to it though, so we will have to work harder every day. I have a goal by the end of the month I want to have 10 coming every week. We had Divisions this week I was with Elder Cox but I will tell more about that later. 

Do you guys remember about the 12 year old boy I told you guys about named Brian, who is "pilas", that is like cool just so you know. He is great! We visited with him and he said he wants to be baptized but his parents do not like the church (even though the mom is a member), and it is frustrating. All I think about is Dad, because I imagine it would have been the same if Dad was younger when he found the church. He didn't even come to church on Sunday because his family wouldn't let him, so that makes things hard.

For the new year I started thinking a lot about goals and what can help me. So one of my goals is every change...every 6 weeks...I am going to read the Book of Mormon just so everyone knows. If you all want to do it with me that would be fantastic. You read the intro with the testimony of the 3 and 8 one day, then Joseph Smith and explanation of Book of Mormon another day, then it is 6 chapters a day. So that will be hard and a lot of reading but I think it will help me out so much! I have been challenging people to read the Book of Mormon and I haven't read the whole thing through in so long that I figured I better so that is how I will do it. Also, I am going to try to be more organized with my contacts and everything so I am way excited! We have been doing great contacting. Sunday we contacted 168 people and I got 85 so I was pretty happy that day.

We have been working hard talking with members trying to get new investigators and that has been hard because everyone says they don't have anyone we can talk to. I challenge every person who reads this to give the missionaries one person -- a friend, family member, someone -- because it helps a lot and is a huge blessing. I promise, as a servant of God, that you will receive so many blessings and feel happy for bringing someone to Christ.

My Spanish is slowly getting better. I gave a lesson on my own the other day at a Family Night and it seemed to go pretty well so I hope that means I am improving. Also I have been talking a lot more in lessons so I feel like I am really improving. I know it is hard and will keep getting hard but I know if I pray and ask for help I will receive it and many more blessings. I know you get tested and tried before you receive your blessings so I will keep working and waiting for those blessings. 

So people told me when I came to my area that it was a hard area and they were right! I was looking at records of recent converts over the past like year. We only have 8 of them and of those 8 only 3-4 come to church. We will have to work on that and get more baptisms. Please pray for me, I need all the help I can get.

We got to go on divisions this week. I was with Elder Cox. He and I stayed in La Noria, so it was cool to be the one who had to run the area and decide when and where we went. It was great to talk to him because he knows how difficult it is to learn the language and all. He has only been out 6 months and he is awesome! He is from Pleasant Grove, Utah, so we had a connection there, too. I am glad I got to do it and learn from others.

Also Sunday was fast Sunday and that is the hardest day of the month because we start fasting at 12 noon on Saturday and walk all day with no food or water, so I struggled. I mean I love food and water haha! Also I got up and bore my testimony in Spanish so that was such a cool experience and people seemed surprised I did it with how little Spanish I know!

I love you all and I want to thank you for all the prayers, emails, and blessings you have sent my way and I am sending them home too so I hope you all feel my love and know I am thinking of you!

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Hummel

P.S. The pics this week. We have some of the house; a pizza place that was delicious; one of me; one of me with Elder Diaz and Elder Hunt, because Elder Hunt trained Elder Diaz and Elder Diaz is training me so that is cool; also there are pictures of me and Elder Cox.

Bring on the Pizza!

Yummm! It looks like he has investigated the best pizza shop around!

One happy Elder!

  

Elder Cox (from Pleasant Grove, Utah) and Elder Hummel

Elder Cox, Tay's companion for a day

"Home Sweet Home"

Their beds look tiny! How does he fit in this bed?!
Glad to see them using their mosquito nets though!

Kitchen and study area

Bathroom

Elder Hunt, Elder Hummel and Elder Diaz

His six-week Book of Mormon reading schedule