This week went by so fast. It was a little bit discouraging, but we had some success. First off we are teaching a guy named Genot. He is 29 years old and is a total stud. Elder Rigby found him when he was teaching another guy. As he was teaching a few of the guys friends walked in, Genot was one of them. The ygave him there number and didn't think to much about it. The day that I arrived in Madagascar Genot called Elder Rigby and wanted to know more. He is a very smart guy and can speak english very well. This is very helpful to me. Any way, we teach him and he is eating up what we are saying. During the second lesson we are talking about the plan of salvation. He loves the plan of salvation and has tons of great questions. So towards the end of the lesson I get the impression to share Moroni 10: 4. I had him read the scripture than asked him what it meant. He said that we could ask god about the truth. I then bore my testimony to him about how I know that that is true. As I am bearing my testimony I start crying! it was so spiriual. Genot had his head down and you could tell he was feeling the spirit. Before that he wasn't sure about our church, but after I finished he told us that if he was going to join this church that he would need time to think about it. we told him that he can have as long as he wants. The best part is that we know he is doing what we commit him to do. You can just tell. So that was the end of that lesson. We taught him again a few days later about the plan of salvation again. He had so many questions that we ditched our planned lesson and followed the spirit. Towards the end of the lesson again I felt like I should ask him what he has felt when we teach him. He then related the story of how he felt like he should call us and learn more. He said he is not sure why, but he is starting to see why. I didn't say anything after that but according to Elder Rigby that question led him to committing to baptism! I have been here for just under 2 weeks and already have a baptism lined up! I love that man! He has this desire to know what the truth is. His baptism is on October 4th. We are going to work with him a lot until that day.
So that was the successful part of the week. After that everything seemed to just die down. We have on average 5 lessons lined up every day, but after that day we only get to teach 1 of them. 2 if we are lucky. A question for Justin and Devin, how many lessons did you teach each day? What was a high number of lessons? If we had all of our lessons go through we would have had 36 lessons this week. I know that we still had a lot of success, but at the same time I get bummed out about how many lessons get cancelled. I wish that all of them would follow through. We do have days like that, and they are great.
I wish I could show you the area that I am in, but I forgot to bring my camera with me. I can't remember if I already told you or not, but we have to go to places that have internet connection to write home. Oh I need to tell you about Mamabe. Directly translated that means big momma. And boy is she big. She is the best though. She is a member that takes in homeless kids and raises them. She has kids of her own I believe, but her husband has passed away. Any way, she is crazy and talks insanely fast. Even my companion has trouble understanding her. We are currently teaching one of the boys that she has taken in. His name is Domenge. He is 20 I think. He is way cool. He is set to be baptized on the 13 of this month. Elder Rigby has been teaching him for a while. We have a guy in our ward named Madisa, the a at the end is silent, that helps us teach him. Madisa is also the ward mission leader. He is awesome. He is going to go on a mission to cape town but due to the Ebola virus he is not sure when he is going to leave. The church is going to let him know when he can go.
Speaking of viruses and other medical needs. I am pretty sure that I already have a worm. I have been told that every missionary gets some and when you go home we get meds that clean us out. Supposedly the longest worm that has been "cleaned out" was 9 inches. It is nothing to worry about though. The mission nurse said that they have never had a problem come up due to the worms. I already have what bishop Hawkes calls the Hershey Squirts. I spend a good 20 minutes on the toilet each day, and yes I have come very close to pooping my pants.
Another fun thing that happened this week was that we weren't sure if we were going to have power or water this week. That goes for all of Madagascar. Apparently the president's house did not have power for a few days, so he threw 9 people from the only power and water supplier company in Madagascar in jail. To protest the company said that they were going to turn off all of the power and water in Madagascar. So President Adams had all of the missionaries stock up on food and water. We had a little bit of food storage already, but now we are ready if it does happen. They were supposed to meet today to figure it out. We will find out if it is going to happen or not by tomorrow. I don't think that it will happen. The initial threat was that they were going to do it on sunday, but thankfully that didn't happen.
Other than that this week was good. We played soccer against one of the wards here and beat them 2-1. Apparently we have beat them for the past 3 matches. It is one of the big things to do on P-day. President Adams asks about it every week. We had 18 missionaries there today. It is the real deal. We have a ref and the ward members have jerseys. We just go in what ever we are wearing. The best part is that we play on a dirt field and behind one goal is a main road, where we hit a couple of cars today. Behind the other is a poop river. When I say poop I mean poop. People go to the bathroom there all the time. One of the Elders here told me that one day when he was playing the ball went into the river, so they wiped it off in the grass that grows on the edges of the field than continued to play. When it was kicked into play this Elder headed it and got poop on his head and all down his side. He said that it smelled awful. Thankfully I did not touch the ball right after it went into the river today.
Another cool thing that happened this week was that we had a locust infestation. The people here love when it happens because locusts are a delicasy. The cloud of them was huge. There were kids running around every where smacking them out of the air with tree branches and putting them into water bottles. Elder Coleman and his companion ate at a members house after it happened and they had locusts. The members gave them a bunch to bring back to the office. So I ate one today. It tasted kind of like Grandpa Spencers venison Jerkey. They were pretty good.
I also saw my first Didi poach. I have know clue how to spell that, but that is when they circumsize the little boy. I didn't see it happen thankfully, but we were teaching a lesson and when we were getting to know them the mom got all excited and said that the little boy, he was her nephew that she was watching, just had it done and proudly showed us. I felt so sorry for the kid. It is that time of year to do them, so I should be seeing more of them. A lot of missionaries have been to the actual ceremony because it is very rude if you decline an invitation. So we shall see if I go to one or not. You can tell when it happens because all of the boys that it happens to are wearing bath robes. Most of the members do not do this tradition.
The members here are way cool. I get a long with them very well and they love the missionaries. One member gave us the names of 9 less-active members to go and teach. The only problem is finding where they live. There are no addresses here so we have to ask the members if they know where they live and have them show us. It is very frustrating. Well I hope you enjoy the long email this week. It was a fun week. Love you.
Elder Hammer
Saturday, November 22, 2014
MADAGASCAR!
This place is nuts! I cannot believe that I am here. I love it so much. The thing that surprised me the most was the driving. There are no rules on the road, People can go how fast they want, drive anywhere they want, and do anything they want. In the middle of that people walk in the middle of the road. In America we are used to having a couple of feet in between cars, not here. If you are lucky you get a couple of inches.
Any way the people are super nice, they love us vahaza's. That is the word for white foreigner. The little kids especially love us. The food is pretty good. I have had tons of rice. We aren't supposed to eat street food due to it sitting there for days. The meat is hanging in the open with who knows what on it. Also it smells really bad here. I can't tell if it is from people going to the bathroom wherever they want. My nose is slowly getting used to it.
The language is insane. I can't understand anything that people say. I thought that I would do alright, but this is insane. My companion Elder Rigby has helped me a lot. He tells me what people say and will randomly hand the lesson over to me when we teach. That is definitely hard. After I finish he has always told me that he is very impressed by what I say. He has told me that in some of the lessons where the investigator was not understanding that what I said completely turned the lesson around and the investigator started to understand. I just go by the spirit. I have to because I can't understand anything.
Also today is my p-day as you could have guessed. We went to a zoo and bribed the guards to let us in the cages with the lemurs. It was awesome. They are so soft. The guards put honey on us and let the lemurs lick it off. At one point I had one on my head. I don't know if i can get the video home or not. I will try. As for teaching we teach 3 or 4 lessons a day. The work is going well. haven't scheduled any baptisms, but Elder Rigby already had some scheduled for september 6th. If you have any more questions let me know. love you.
Elder Hammer
I completely forgot to tell you where I am. I am in a place called Ambohipo. Itsa is in Tana. We are in a ward. My companion is from Logan, UT. He is way cool. we get along very well. The housing here is very nice. I don't think I have taken a picture of it, but I will. We have electricity so an electric razor would be nice. As for mail, it takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months to get home or to get it here. If you do send anything put pictures of Jesus on the box and on the seams where you open it. They like to open mail here and if there are pictures of jesus on the box they are less likely to open it. Also just send it to the mission home. They will get it to me from there. Sending the extra pages to my journal right now might be a good idea. Our ward is one of the strongest in Madagascar. We get about 150-200 people each week. I think that is about it for now. Love you.
Elder Hammer
P.S. Put a lot of pictures of jesus on the box. If you can find jesus stickers that would work better.
I forgot to tell you about the buses here. I need to take a picture, but depending on the size of the bus they cram up to 20-30 people on one bus. They aren't even a real bus. It is more like a downsized version of a 15 seater van. It is ridiculous. You will get people sitting on you if the bus is to full. You can also hop in the back door as they are moving and hang on out the back. Then the guy in charge of the monety will ask you for your money in which you can give it to him or pass it up if he is not close enough. We take buses everyday. It is a lot of fun. I am praying that I don't ever have to drive here. A bunch of missionaries learned how to drive stick here. If you can drive here you can drive any where. Another thing that I was told is that it is extremely rare to serve your mission here without pooping your pants at least once. There is an elder that has been here for 7 weeks now and has already pooped his. The food here destroys your bowels. I already have "diarhea". Its not quite at that point, but it is getting there. The elders that have been here for a while told us to not be afraid to ask to use the bathroom during a lesson.
Elder Hammer
Any way the people are super nice, they love us vahaza's. That is the word for white foreigner. The little kids especially love us. The food is pretty good. I have had tons of rice. We aren't supposed to eat street food due to it sitting there for days. The meat is hanging in the open with who knows what on it. Also it smells really bad here. I can't tell if it is from people going to the bathroom wherever they want. My nose is slowly getting used to it.
The language is insane. I can't understand anything that people say. I thought that I would do alright, but this is insane. My companion Elder Rigby has helped me a lot. He tells me what people say and will randomly hand the lesson over to me when we teach. That is definitely hard. After I finish he has always told me that he is very impressed by what I say. He has told me that in some of the lessons where the investigator was not understanding that what I said completely turned the lesson around and the investigator started to understand. I just go by the spirit. I have to because I can't understand anything.
Also today is my p-day as you could have guessed. We went to a zoo and bribed the guards to let us in the cages with the lemurs. It was awesome. They are so soft. The guards put honey on us and let the lemurs lick it off. At one point I had one on my head. I don't know if i can get the video home or not. I will try. As for teaching we teach 3 or 4 lessons a day. The work is going well. haven't scheduled any baptisms, but Elder Rigby already had some scheduled for september 6th. If you have any more questions let me know. love you.
Elder Hammer
I completely forgot to tell you where I am. I am in a place called Ambohipo. Itsa is in Tana. We are in a ward. My companion is from Logan, UT. He is way cool. we get along very well. The housing here is very nice. I don't think I have taken a picture of it, but I will. We have electricity so an electric razor would be nice. As for mail, it takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months to get home or to get it here. If you do send anything put pictures of Jesus on the box and on the seams where you open it. They like to open mail here and if there are pictures of jesus on the box they are less likely to open it. Also just send it to the mission home. They will get it to me from there. Sending the extra pages to my journal right now might be a good idea. Our ward is one of the strongest in Madagascar. We get about 150-200 people each week. I think that is about it for now. Love you.
Elder Hammer
P.S. Put a lot of pictures of jesus on the box. If you can find jesus stickers that would work better.
I forgot to tell you about the buses here. I need to take a picture, but depending on the size of the bus they cram up to 20-30 people on one bus. They aren't even a real bus. It is more like a downsized version of a 15 seater van. It is ridiculous. You will get people sitting on you if the bus is to full. You can also hop in the back door as they are moving and hang on out the back. Then the guy in charge of the monety will ask you for your money in which you can give it to him or pass it up if he is not close enough. We take buses everyday. It is a lot of fun. I am praying that I don't ever have to drive here. A bunch of missionaries learned how to drive stick here. If you can drive here you can drive any where. Another thing that I was told is that it is extremely rare to serve your mission here without pooping your pants at least once. There is an elder that has been here for 7 weeks now and has already pooped his. The food here destroys your bowels. I already have "diarhea". Its not quite at that point, but it is getting there. The elders that have been here for a while told us to not be afraid to ask to use the bathroom during a lesson.
Elder Hammer
Safe Arrival of Elder Hammer
Dear Hammer Family,
We want you to know that Elder Hammer and all of the missionaries from the Provo MTC arrived in Madagascar safely yesterday afternoon. They are all doing well. They had a good night sleep and are ready for training, to meet their new companions today, and go to their new areas where they will be serving.
Elder Hammer will be serving in Ambohipo in Antananarivo and his trainer will be Elder Rigby.
Elder Hammer is going to be a great missionary! We are excited that he is here to serve the wonderful people of Madagascar.
Sister Cloward
Madagascar Antananarivo Mission Secretary
We want you to know that Elder Hammer and all of the missionaries from the Provo MTC arrived in Madagascar safely yesterday afternoon. They are all doing well. They had a good night sleep and are ready for training, to meet their new companions today, and go to their new areas where they will be serving.
Elder Hammer will be serving in Ambohipo in Antananarivo and his trainer will be Elder Rigby.
Elder Hammer is going to be a great missionary! We are excited that he is here to serve the wonderful people of Madagascar.
Sister Cloward
Madagascar Antananarivo Mission Secretary
UPDATES
OK, I apologize for not updating this blog. Kurtis is doing great and is loving life in Madagascar. I will try to be more diligent in updating every week. Life just got in the way the past few months. Here goes!
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Flight Plans and Fire Alarms
This week was a great week. We got our flight plans on Friday. We fly from salt lake to Dallas, Dallas to London, London to Johannesburg, Johannesburg to Madagascar. We have 33 hours of total flight time and just about 60 hours of total travel time. We have a 9 hour layover in London. That is the longest one. The longest flight is from Dallas to London, 15 hours! I am not looking forward to it, but I have set a goal to reread the book of Mormon during the travel time. I am just about done with the book of Mormon already. I restarted when I got here and I am in 3rd Nephi. It has been great.
We still have not heard from an apostle. I am not too disappointed due to the fact that the devotionals have been amazing. We have one left before we leave on Monday. We fly out at 1:30 pm, but we leave the MTC at 8:30 am. I may be calling home from the airport. I am not positive so be home if you can around 12:00.
Now for the fun part of the week. You may have wondered what was with the subject line when I said fire alarms. Don't worry nothing bad happened. We were playing basketball in the gym. Elder Koplin air balled a three and I went to save it from going out of bounds. In the process I ran into the padded wall and just happened to elbow the fire alarm. I looked at the alarm and there was a light that turned on. I instantly started praying that I did not set it off. Sure enough a few seconds later the intercom came on and said that there was a fire and that we needed to evacuate the building. As we were walking out I explained what had happened to one of the MTC workers and they said that it would be alright. At this point we were out side when I felt something running down my arm. I reached over to see what it was and my hand came back covered in blood. I was so full of adrenaline that I had not realized the big gash on my elbow. We got back into the gym a few minutes later, and I got my elbow cleaned up. One of the workers said that there was a big piece of skin left on the fire alarm, and that there was blood on the floor. It had been dripping off my fingers without me realizing. Don't worry about me, I haven't even noticed anything wrong with my arm other than it hurts to lean on it. That was my big moment this week in the MTC.
Another really cool thing was that last night Elder Reich and I got to be in charge of a meeting with all the new zone members. We had 31 new members come in this week. We were the only district for a day due to all the other districts leaving on Monday. That meeting was a blast and we got to know all of the new Members. We got 8 Sisters and 23 Elders. It has been a lot of fun being the Zone leaders. We have gotten to know the other districts really well.
We said goodbye to one of our teachers yesterday. That was really weird. He is going to be gone until after we leave. We still have our other 2 teachers though. Again the week has been about the same other than the fire alarm incident. Next time I email I will be in Madagascar. Don't forget to be home around 12 in the afternoon on Monday. I love you.
Elder Hammer
We still have not heard from an apostle. I am not too disappointed due to the fact that the devotionals have been amazing. We have one left before we leave on Monday. We fly out at 1:30 pm, but we leave the MTC at 8:30 am. I may be calling home from the airport. I am not positive so be home if you can around 12:00.
Now for the fun part of the week. You may have wondered what was with the subject line when I said fire alarms. Don't worry nothing bad happened. We were playing basketball in the gym. Elder Koplin air balled a three and I went to save it from going out of bounds. In the process I ran into the padded wall and just happened to elbow the fire alarm. I looked at the alarm and there was a light that turned on. I instantly started praying that I did not set it off. Sure enough a few seconds later the intercom came on and said that there was a fire and that we needed to evacuate the building. As we were walking out I explained what had happened to one of the MTC workers and they said that it would be alright. At this point we were out side when I felt something running down my arm. I reached over to see what it was and my hand came back covered in blood. I was so full of adrenaline that I had not realized the big gash on my elbow. We got back into the gym a few minutes later, and I got my elbow cleaned up. One of the workers said that there was a big piece of skin left on the fire alarm, and that there was blood on the floor. It had been dripping off my fingers without me realizing. Don't worry about me, I haven't even noticed anything wrong with my arm other than it hurts to lean on it. That was my big moment this week in the MTC.
Another really cool thing was that last night Elder Reich and I got to be in charge of a meeting with all the new zone members. We had 31 new members come in this week. We were the only district for a day due to all the other districts leaving on Monday. That meeting was a blast and we got to know all of the new Members. We got 8 Sisters and 23 Elders. It has been a lot of fun being the Zone leaders. We have gotten to know the other districts really well.
We said goodbye to one of our teachers yesterday. That was really weird. He is going to be gone until after we leave. We still have our other 2 teachers though. Again the week has been about the same other than the fire alarm incident. Next time I email I will be in Madagascar. Don't forget to be home around 12 in the afternoon on Monday. I love you.
Elder Hammer
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Surprise!
Brother Glazier was at the missionary devotional last week. He called and said he had sent a surprise email...Kurtis saw him from a distance, came running and gave him a huge bear hug. As Brother Glazier said, "He is doing great, just great!"
Almost Done!!!
I have 11 more days before I leave! I can not wait. I had a pretty rough day last Thursday. I ended up staying in the laundry room for 3 hours due to the soap not dissolving and coming out all clumpy on my clothes. That was alright though. I have been doing great.
We had our first TRC lesson last Thursday. It was awesome. We taught a guy named Mitchell. He is a marine and is gigantic. He was shorter than me, but his biceps were the size of my head. I was terrified when I first saw him. The thing that calmed me down was when my companion pulled out his dog tags to tell him that he is in the army and to our surprise Mitchell pulled his out to. It definitely helped us stay relaxed while we taught him.
Before I forget, thank you Beatty family for the Oreo Truffles. They are delicious. I hope that Boyd starts doing well. Nothing amazing has happened this week. We have just been teaching lessons and learning more Malagasy. We still haven't had an apostle come, but the devotionals have been amazing. Tell Kadin that I am proud of him for trying football out for another year. He wont regret it. We will get our flight itinerary tomorrow, not today. I am a little bummed out about that. Yesterday I got to host the new missionaries. It was a blast. We are doing it again next week.
I don't know if I should tell mom this, but our teachers told us to expect skin fungus's. Yes that is plural. One of our teachers lost count of how many he got. they told us that diarrhea is also very common. I don't remember if I told you last week, but they also have open sewage systems so when it floods... It goes everywhere. Yay!! In other words we get to walk through it. I am sure that I will have plenty of those stories to tell while I am out there. Oh another thing, Elder Reich and I are the zone leaders. We were called on Sunday. It has been a blast getting to know all of the elders and sisters in our zone. Sadly they all leave on Monday. We will be the only district for a day. We get new people on Wednesday. I don't think that there is anything else that has happened. I did see the Glaziers as you know, I also saw Brother Melville. I am praying for you. Tiako anao!
Elder Hammer
We had our first TRC lesson last Thursday. It was awesome. We taught a guy named Mitchell. He is a marine and is gigantic. He was shorter than me, but his biceps were the size of my head. I was terrified when I first saw him. The thing that calmed me down was when my companion pulled out his dog tags to tell him that he is in the army and to our surprise Mitchell pulled his out to. It definitely helped us stay relaxed while we taught him.
Before I forget, thank you Beatty family for the Oreo Truffles. They are delicious. I hope that Boyd starts doing well. Nothing amazing has happened this week. We have just been teaching lessons and learning more Malagasy. We still haven't had an apostle come, but the devotionals have been amazing. Tell Kadin that I am proud of him for trying football out for another year. He wont regret it. We will get our flight itinerary tomorrow, not today. I am a little bummed out about that. Yesterday I got to host the new missionaries. It was a blast. We are doing it again next week.
I don't know if I should tell mom this, but our teachers told us to expect skin fungus's. Yes that is plural. One of our teachers lost count of how many he got. they told us that diarrhea is also very common. I don't remember if I told you last week, but they also have open sewage systems so when it floods... It goes everywhere. Yay!! In other words we get to walk through it. I am sure that I will have plenty of those stories to tell while I am out there. Oh another thing, Elder Reich and I are the zone leaders. We were called on Sunday. It has been a blast getting to know all of the elders and sisters in our zone. Sadly they all leave on Monday. We will be the only district for a day. We get new people on Wednesday. I don't think that there is anything else that has happened. I did see the Glaziers as you know, I also saw Brother Melville. I am praying for you. Tiako anao!
Elder Hammer
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