Letters from the field

Adam sent us a lovely letter. I thought I would post it here since most of my family reads my blog regularly. . . I think. I was very touched by it. Here it is:

Dear Family:

I think that you might enjoy getting a handwritten letter every once in a while. So I will try to keep it up while I am here. This week went by really fast. I can't believe that on Wednesday I will have already been here 3 weeks. I am really impatient with learning Chinese. At times I want to know everything and speak perfectly. However, once in a while I take time to ponder and realize that I have learned so much within these last 3 weeks.

The spirit is felt so strong here. There have been three times where it has really made an impact on me. The first time was the second day when we as new missionaries were watching a movie called "The District". All of a sudden I got this strong feeling of how much I wanted the young men in the ward to be here with me and experience the things I have. I really wanted the entire ward to be here with me. And just had this overwhelming desire to have the people I love to be able to experience the same thing I had.

The second time was after a Tuesday fireside. We had a district devotional. Our Branch President's wife was with us and she shared some of the stories about her husband. She told us that 5 days before this devotional he had almost died. He was having a cat scan when his heart stopped from an allergic reaction to the dye that they put in his veins. Only 5 days later he was back interviewing each one of us. I grew to love my Branch President that day because I thought he was kind of scary at first.

The third time is when one of my teachers shared his testimony. He told us how blessed we were to be on missions and how the Christmas he had on his mission was the best one he had ever had. He started to cry during his testimony and I could feel his love for missionary work and for us. His timing was perfect for me because I had a hard time at the TRC with an investigator that you probably read about in my email.

Well, I want you to know I love you guys and I am trying to make you proud every day.
Love,
Elder Hammer