HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hey Everyone,

Christmas down here as you would imagine is different. They had a lot of fireworks and it was like the 4th of July, so I am wondering how big of a celebration it will be for New Years haha. Thank you everyone for writing me. I love having emails and seeing what is going on and also I love pictures so send more of those, even just random ones! 

This Sunday was a little disappointing because we had invited 33 people to church and they had all promised to come but we only had 4 there. One of the investigators there though was a little boy who is only like 12 and he walked 20 minutes just to come to church! His name is Bryan and he is a stud! Also some of you asked about Elder Nix. He was probably my best friend I had out here. But it's okay, things will get better and I will just have to work harder to find his people too.

Thank you everyone for the gifts and all the fun stuff that was sent. I have almost eaten all the candy already. Some I am saving for a day when I feel like I need it! I am sorry it is so expensive to send boxes down here. Mom and Bree you both should talk and maybe send the packages together to save some money...I think it would save some but I don't know. Christmas was good! We got to call home, then we went and ate at some members houses. One house is a member named Geronimo and they fed us tamales. I am sending pictures of those. Then as soon as we got done there, we went and ate at the Stake President's house, President Perdido. They fed us soup with chicken and I, being the lucky guy I am, got the chicken foot. YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT...THE FOOT! ha It was an interesting experience.

Also a little annoying this week was we had set up 8 baptisms and the people needed to come to church because they have to come for 3 weeks before they can be baptized. Not a single one came so it kind of bugged and ruined the day. We didn't really have that great of a Sunday because of that, but we are starting over and trying to get people to come to church so they can be baptized. They said my area is hard because no one wants to come to church and now I know what they mean. But I will just have to work even harder to get them to come.

Yesterday marked my 2-month mark in the mission. It is kinda weird to think I have been gone that long. I still remember the day I left and all that. I feel like it was just yesterday. Now I know what they mean when they say time flies. I still feel like I am never going to be able to learn Spanish though, but I will just have to work harder and keep my head up. Oh yeah, and you all better be praying for me!

We have been eating at President Perdido's house a lot lately, and it is really good, so we haven't been having to eat only ramen haha. Also I found out it is good to make a PB&J on tortillas, just so you all know. Also I tried star fruit the other day. It was amazing! I loved it. Also I ate a yellow lime...no it was not a lemon. The yellow lime is really sweet and delicious, I actually loved it.

Another cool thing was we had a zone P-day together where all the zone got together and we played soccer and watched "The Testaments". It was so great! Also yesterday I got to give Elder Diaz a blessing of comfort and it was so cool to feel the Spirit as I gave it.

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful examples they have been in my life and for all the things that have been done for me. I honestly could not have made it out here without you all!

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Hummel

PS: the pictures are of the house, Christmas tree, the area in front of the house, how I clean my garments, the road we walk down to go to other towns and hitchhike on, a drawn out map of our towns in our area, our desk, my foot, the jammies Bree sent me, tamales, our shower and just a cool picture I saw haha. Love you all!

"Home Away From Home"

We assume this is a pic of the back of his house

Christmas Decorations!

These five pictures are all of the area around his house

And this is his washing machine!

This must be the "spin cycle"!

And this is the "clothes dryer"!
(Judging from this photo, we're a bit concerned about his washing technique!)

The long road they walk on to get to other towns.
They have found hitchhiking gets them there faster!

A drawn out map of his area.  As you can see, it is a long
walk to get anywhere!
(No wonder he has lost 20 lbs!)

Desk and study area

A result of all the walking . . . a blister, within a blister, within a blister!

Christmas jammies from Bree! Ninja Turtles . . . YES!

Tamales 

Where he takes his nice "cold" showers!

Christmas gift he received from a member

"The Armor of God"

CHRISTMAS DAY!

We had a wonderful visit with Elder Hummel on Christmas Day!  We are so grateful for the technology we have today that allowed us to be able to Skype with him.  We put him on our TV so all of us could see him as we talked.  For the family members that weren't able to be here we used Facetime on our phones so they could be included.  It worked out great!  He sounded so happy and he looked so good!  He's still worried about his Spanish, but says he's working hard on it. The Spanish speakers in our family say he's doing amazing with the language.  He's looking thinner -- has already lost about 20 pounds in the two weeks he's been in the field!  The only problem was just how fast that 40 minutes went, but we will gladly take what we can get!  Best Christmas present ever!

"WE WALK AND WALK AND WALK...FAST!"

Hey everyone!

How are things going on the home front? Things here have been busy as normal haha but what can I expect when i am hastening the work? I have had a little but of a difficult time this week. First our baptism didn't work out so that sucked and I have been just thinking about home a lot, but I know this is where I am suppose to be. Also we had invited and confirmed 21 people coming to church Sunday and we had a total of 1 so that really sucked, but it's okay. 

So our area is pretty big in my mind. We were in a town called Champas and had to walk back to La Noria...I found out it takes an hour and a half walking straight, non-stop, to get there and it was hot like normal...now i see why they say this is the area where people lose the most weight because it is hot and you walk all day every day. Also I have become an expert at hitchhiking, so that is fun. We just get the car to pull over, climb in and contact the person while we drive so it is an interesting thing. I was a little sketched out the first time but it worked out great. Also I did not know I was physically able to move as fast as I am and still be technically walking! So it is pretty impressive.

Yesterday I had splits and went out with an Elder Hunt from Georgia. It was awesome to have an American companion for a bit. I didn't realize how much I missed white people haha. The lessons were great. We met this guy who looks and acted like Mr. Miyagi. Everyone calls him Hermano Maestro. He is so nice and cool. Also I have started eating things I didn't think I would. The other day I pulled a star fruit off a tree and started eating it, it was so good! Also I have been eating oranges and green melons, they were just so good. 

Another thing that was hard this week for me is my good friend in the mission, Elder Nix, had to go home and won't be coming back out, so that really put a damper on my day but I am going to stay in contact with him and hang out when I get home. He is from Fruita, Colorado so I am not too far away from him. Also we haven't had a lot of luck with our investigators keeping commitments and that gets annoying, but I know things will work out. Me and my companion are working great together and so that is always good, haha. He is a great guy!

The food here has been pretty good so far. We have eaten a lot of pupusus and we also have had a lot of Top Ramen. We get up early, work out, get ready, eat quesidilla or Top Ramen, then we study and go out and walk all day, stopping to buy chips and stuff, then walk some more and when we get back to the house at 9 or 9:30 we eat some more Top Ramen and then we go to sleep. It is a great day, haha! Also, I eat a lot of peanut butter just with my finger, plain peanut butter. Things have been good and fun. We have had tamales 1 time and we will have some more on Christmas Eve. Also pupusus are tortillas stuffed with cheese basically. 

I am so excited to open the presents I have on Christmas! It is going to be so fun and great. I have been so tempted to open them early but I know you all would shoot me for that! Also I loved all the cards and everything I got, they made me so happy and made my day that much better! Christmas will be hard without everyone but I know in 2 years it will be a great experience to be home, maybe even only talking spanish to throw everyone off! But all in all the mission is going good.

Another cool experience I had is we were out contacting and I went to a little store to buy water and they sell water in bags and I bought two, then I went to pay and the guy said "no, it is free for missionaries."  Also I had a drunk guy buy me a soda yesterday which was great haha. I also had to say the opening prayer and the bread sacrament prayer in church, both in spanish, so that was an interesting experience, but I loved it at the same time.

Thank you everyone for writing me and for everything you do for me. I really wouldn't be able to be out here if it wasn't for each and everyone of you guys.

Love,

Elder Hummel

Thank you all for everything and hope all is going well at home and excited to write you!

"I'M SWEATING BUT IT IS AWESOME!"

Hello everyone!

  

I kind of have a lot to talk about since I haven't written in 2 weeks! WOW it feels like a long time. Things are going great in the field. My companion is named Elder Diaz from Ecuador and he is the District leader as well. My zone is called Tiquisate and my area is called La Noria. It is in the coast area and it is hot and humid. Everyone says it is where you lose the most weight at so I am going to be looking slim soon...maybe. Before we went out to the area I served with an Elder Roney in another area for a couple of hours and oh boy it was tough, my legs and body was so sore. I also met an elder from St. George named Elder Thompson. He looks way familiar but not sure if I know him.

My area is hot and most houses are little cinder block or cement houses with dirt floors and stuff so it is a big change also. It is humid and I sweat and sweat and sweat but it is awesome. I have a video and stuff of my apartment I am going to try to send so you can see what it looks like. Cross your fingers it works. Also there are a lot of stray dogs (Even one named Keiser, thought someone could tell Zac haha). They usually keep to themselves though so it is fine. The church in the area is a little building that is maybe 13 feet by 20 feet with a 7x7 office inside for the bishop. It is really small!

The first week was weird but I am doing great now. I have a list of numbers of people I contacted and I am quite proud of it. Here it is: day 1, 23 people and 6 families; day 2, 25 people and 5 families; day 3, 50 people and 10 families; day 4, 12 people 5 families and Monday 12 people and 5 families. It is awesome. I am picking up the language but it still takes a lot of time. A contact is when you either knock on a door or walk up to someone on the street and start talking to them. I am hoping I can send all the photos and I will have to try to explain them.

We have 1 lady who already agreed to a baptism date for the 21st so let's hope that works cause that would be amazing. We would have one the first month I was out. The other night we were out in an area we hadn't been before and there was a complete power outage and we were lost. We started walking and we were able to find the area by our house. When we got there we decided to try to contact someone in the dark and we ended up teaching these 2 girls the entire first lesson. It was such a blessing, I know the Lord helped us.

Another fun thing is I blessed the bread in church and only had to repeat it 1 time so I was extremely happy and proud of myself! Also, I got my first mission blister and it hurts. It is right in the middle of my foot by where my toes connect and every time I step I feel it. My trainer said that every blister is a baptism though so I guess by the end of the mission my feet will be nothing but blisters haha, I hope. Also I tried a drink called atol which is basically a runny oatmeal thing. It wasn't bad though. Also they have really good fresh bread here. At church there were a whopping 49 people which was good but I hope it gets more people.

I am extremely excited to get to SKYPE home this next week. I will skype on the 25th and it will be at 12 I believe and thats 12 my time and we don't have daylight savings time so it is an hour different. They sent an email and said you have to have a skype account so maybe someone could help mom and dad figure it out. I miss you all and love you so much! Now I will try to figure out the photos and send them haha! Wish me luck! Love you all and hope you have an awesome week! 

Love,

Elder Hummel

I am going to have to lower the camera resolution so I can send more at once hehe. Also I would say send letters to the mission home cause I never received an address for here. My mom has that address so ask her for it.

Here are the first photos, I will send more in other emails.

Elder Hummel at the MTC

View of the LDS Temple from the MTC

Arriving in Guatemala -- view of some of the volcanoes

"HE IS THE GIFT"

We didn't receive a group email from Elder Hummel today.  He did let us know that all was well and that he was at the mission home preparing to go to his first area/assignment.  He said he would continue to email on Tuesdays from now on. We just can't wait until next Tuesday to hear where he ended up and how his first week in the mission field has been!

Until then we want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.  Enjoy this video -- it is a great Christmas message for all of us and one to share with friends and family.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
The Hummels

St. George Temple

LAST WEEK IN THE CCM!

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It was pretty great for us. We got to have a live devotional by David A. Bednar. It was a broadcast devotional but still way cool. You all should look up his cell phone talk because that is what it was. He passed out a bunch of cell phones at the Provo MTC and they could text in questions and we got to email in questions. It was so cool to see him answer things on the spot. It truly showed how much knowledge he has and how much the Spirit is with him. Our Thanksgiving is pretty great we got to have a big dinner with turkey, stuffing, potatos, and everything else really. They said they understand how hard it is and they hope this helps. How was everyone else's Thanksgiving and Black Friday? I hope it was great! Anyone buy anything fun?

There is a thing down here called demonstration day that isn't very safe for nortes so we couldn't go to the big market which kinda sucks but they did take us all to Wendy's and the CCM bought everyone's food. It came out to be 1500 quetcales and the conversion rate is 1Q for ever 7.50 dollars so you can do the math. It was delicious and fun though. Then we decorated the CCM for Christmas, so it wasn't that bad of day.

We got good news about Elder Galvan, they said he can stay he just won't be able to run or play sports for the next 2 years which will be hard but it will be worth it for him. Also Elder Fua has had some knee problems in the past and had a hard time with them recently so I got to give him a blessing. It was so cool. The Spirit was so strong in the room at the time.

  

On Sunday all the nortes sang Nearer My God to Thee in church. It was so cool to sing because none of us are that good alone but all together we sounded great. It was kind of a celebration for us because it has officially been 1 month for us on Saturday. We all had hard times but it is well worth it. Also I am not sure how email will work next week because we leave the CCM on Tuesday and that is when we write so I have no idea what will happen to emailing. So if you don't get an email from me that is why! On the bright side, when we leave I do get my camera and cd player back so I will be happy about that! Speaking of music, on the Mac at home is The Work sound CD. Tyler knows what it is. If I could get that burned to a CD that would be awesome and I want the David Archuleta song at the end of Meet the Mormons.

I am glad to hear people are getting my letters. I am always worried that they won't make it but it is a relief to hear they are. How is everyone doing with their reading? I hope you all are doing it. I heard a promise by Gordon B. Hinckley about if you read the scriptures in the language you are learning, by the end you will know 80 percent of the language. So I have started doing that, and lots of prayer and work, but I am learning more and more about it and picking it up. Also, an amazing thing is just the answers you can find in your scriptures when you search and pray and ask. I don't think I have ever marked my scriptures more than this in my life and that includes in seminary.

A cool thing we got to do this week is go out street contacting and me and my companion did the best in the whole district. We handed out 5 Libro De Mormons, 1 pamphlet and we got 5 peoples names and numbers. Also we got 2 references of people who would like to hear the gospel. As a whole district we got 13 names and numbers so we had over half.

I am so sorry and sad to hear about JT. I know it must be hard on their family. He was a great friend and I know he is doing God's work in heaven. I had not heard anything about it until I got on my email today so it came as a surprise and hit me hard, but I know through prayer and reading the scriptures it will all be okay. Thank you all for writing me!

I love you all so much and I am sorry the letter is so short this week. There should be more to write about the next time I write. I am missing you all but I know that I am doing the Lords work and will receive blessings as well as all of you! Thank you all for everything you do and for emailing me and writing me. Love you all!

Love,

Elder Hummel

Taylor and JT McKean
"Until we meet again, my friend"

Zach Carney, Taylor, JT and MJ Wall

SURPRISE! WRITING A DAY EARLY THIS WEEK!

Hey everyone,

How is everything going on the homeward bound? Everyone reading the scriptures? What has been going on in life? I have had a few cool experiences and some hard ones too.

To start of the week we lost our first investigator. She told us that she prayed and decided the Mormon church wasn't for her anymore, so we sat there and talked to her for like 15 minutes and left her with our testimony and then we had to leave. Even though it was just our teacher it is still hard to say goodbye to an investigator who we have worked so hard on and put so many hours into teaching and who we felt was going along great. Also Saturday we lost our second investigator. It sucked as well, especially because we had already set a baptism date and he was going to church and praying. It seemed like everything was going right then he remembered what his mom said right before she died. She said never switch religions. He was the hardest to see go because of how much progress he made. Once we got back to class though, our teacher threw us a curveball and said we are still going to teach him but it is now going to be like 2 years later and we have to use the notes that another companionship has taken. So it makes it hard because we know how much progress we have done and what we have done, but we have to start from where they are.

The second thing that happened this week was I had to teach a lesson on the Book of Mormon to the whole class. I originally wanted to teach out of the D&C, but I got shot down. So I decided to do a scripture in Alma. It turned out all right. For those of you who want to know the scripture it was the one that says if I could be an angel with a trumpet or something like that. I can't remember the chapter exactly, sorry. That made me think though, if you all were going to teach a lesson for 30 minutes out of the Book of Mormon using one chapter what would it be and why?

Many of you are wondering why I wrote this week and it is because the older elders are leaving tomorrow and we won't have time to be on the computer because we are all going to a big market tomorrow. So we won't even be in the MTC to be able to write. Also we get to go to Wendy's tomorrow so i am pretty darn excited about that. It is kind of hard seeing the older guys go because we have become such good friends and they are just leaving but things change, it will be okay. One cool thing we do when they go to leave is we all sing God Be With You Till We Meet Again to all the older guys the night before. It is such an amazing experience and the Spirit is so strong.

At the market they are going to have awesome scripture cases for pretty cheap. I bought one and it is Bronco colors, so if anyone wants one tell me what kind of scriptures you have and what color and I will try to find it the best I can. I still need people's addresses though so I can send letters and stuff!

Lately I have been missing you guys and someone showed me a scripture. It is D&C 100, it is so cool. I think all of you should read it and let me know what you think. Another cool one to read is D&C 18 and everywhere it says "twelve" replace with missionary and it is way cool to read. I know even though things get hard I will always be comforted and helped and I know this is where i am suppose to be.

I have been writing stuff in my journal and letters and stuff and I keep throwing in Spanish words so it is really weird especially when it is to one of you guys that I am writing. I am writing a lot. I am almost through my 2nd pen which is weird because I never write a lot. Sunday we had some devotionals and I took 10 pages of notes between those, church class and my personal study notes. It is weird to take so many notes, but it is cool to be able to look back at them when I need inspiration or anything.

Now for something i am not so proud of. I lost my temper the other day with a Latino and stormed of and was mad until I went to bed that night and I prayed for comfort, forgiveness, and peace of heart and I got my answer. I know even though things get hard sometimes if you trust in the lord you will be helped. I hummed Primary songs to fall asleep and I felt so much better the next day so it was a relief.

I sent a couple letters out and I was just wondering if anyone has gotten them or not. I know it probably will take until Wednesday but I was not sure so I figured I would ask.

Another cool thing happened Sunday. The 4 Samoans who are here all sang an awesome song. The Spirit was so strong. People were crying and it was just amazing. I don't know what else i could say other than WOW!

So I am wondering how your reading is going and if you guys are reading and praying every day and night. I know it is hard sometimes but you are so blessed if you do and remember to pray before and after your studies. I know sometimes you may not want to but that is Satan getting to you. I know if you do it you will be blessed.

Me and some of the other guys did the Ultimate High Five from How I Met Your Mother. It was awesome and our hands hurt for a good 20 minutes but it was worth it. If you have no idea what I am talking about ask Tyler or Erica and they can tell you!

I love you all so much and thank you for everything you do for me! HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND BLACK FRIDAY TO ALL OF YOU! I wish I could be there to celebrate with you but I will be able to in 2 years so it will be okay, just eat a lot of ham and stuffing for me! Also enjoy your shopping adventures!

One last thought, I was looking through my scriptures and I found a note, it says "What do you want to be remembered for when you are finished". I think we could all use that in everything we do so just remember that and be happy and hard working!

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Hummel

P.S. We found out Thursday we get a big Thanksgiving feast for all of us and we get to watch "Meet the Mormons" so we are all pretty excited. I love you all and miss you all!

Taylor's branch at the MTC.

Tay's branch and other branches