Hi

Well, hello again. This last week has gone by unusually fast. It's pretty amazing how weird the time goes when you are serving a mission. I know I say that all the time, but it's so true. Anyhow, the week went by super fast, but unforunately wasn't very productive. We only taught 3 lessons to investigators because we only have 2 investigators. We did do a lot of tracting, but nothing too out of the ordinary happened so no cool stories from that. Achille had to work yesterday so he couldn't make it to church, but we are planning on teaching him about the importance of coming to church and keeping the sabbath day holy when we meet with him this week. He told us last time we met with him that he didn't need to work on sundays so hopefully he can get that changed from his schedule. I am still way excited to see him start to progress in the gospel. I definitely see him getting baptized.

I guess I do have a pretty funny story from sacrament meeting yesterday. Sacrament meeting here is always a surprise. haha. I love our ward. Anyway, this lady named Joyce gave a talk yesterday and her topic was "how obedience to God's commandments blesses our lives" She gave a great intro, and I was expecting a really good talk. However, after her intro, she proceeded to talk about the law of chastity. She did a really great job explaining (in detail) what the law of chastity is, what we can and can't do, and some personal experiences of hers. It was pretty awkward. I'm glad she was only up there for about 7 minutes. haha. And I am pretty sure that most of the ward felt the same way I did.

Something else that happened yesterday that was really cool was that one of our recent converts, who was baptized in January, passed the sacrament for the first time. His name is Steve, and he is a really funny guy. I am not sure that I could describe him very well through email, so maybe I will send a picture sometime when I get around to sending the pictures that have been sitting on my desk for 3 weeks. We have been trying to get him to buy a white shirt (he usually wears jeans and a sweater) basically since I got here. He finally bought some last week, and we gave him a tie, and he was able to pass the sacrament. It was great. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time, even though I could tell he was very nervous. I guess the best way to describe him is a 50 year old Greek/Bostonian teddy bear. haha.

Also yesterday, we went to the Zone Leaders (who we live with) baptism of a girl named Lohelani. She's like 11 or 12 and was so excited to get baptized. We met her because my comp had to do the interview. She's awesome. She looks like she's super quiet, but once she knows you, she's not quiet. haha. The service itself was in spanish, because the Zone Leaders work in the Lynn spanish branch. I didn't understand anything, but I sang the hymns in spanish. That was fun. I'm pretty sure I will come home knowing spanish as well, cause most of our members don't live in Lynn, so we have lots of dinner appointments here with the ZL's, and we associate a lot with spanish people. haha. As for the baptism, she had her older brother do it, and she had to re-do it 3 times! The first time, her foot came up, the second, it was one of her hands (don't know how that happened), then the third time was perfect. It was a great service. Hopefully we'll be having one of our own sometime soon with Achille!

After the baptism, we went to one of the spanish members' homes for dinner. This member is one of the "famous" ones that loves the missionaries, and feeds us whenever we want. His name is Jimmy, and he lives with his sister, and another family member and her kids. Shirley is one of those kids, and she is the one that called lastnight. I don't remember how we got talking about it, but I told her it would be funny if she called, so she did. As mom could probably tell, she was a bit nervous and didn't know what to say, but it was funny. After she hung up, she was telling me all these things she wanted to ask you, but she was nervous and forgot it all. haha. She's a funny girl. And she reminds me a lot of our cousin Taylor (sorry if I spelled that wrong).

As of last Wednesday, I can say that I taught a lesson in Cambodian, but I'm not counting it, cause it was more just talking to her (her name is Om Russ) than teaching her. Even though I did teach her about how the gospel can bless her life. We were over at her house for like an hour and twenty minutes, and talked about the gospel for maybe five of those minutes. But, she helped us with words we didn't know and grammar, and stuff. And she fed us too. It was good. I'm glad that even though we don't have cambodian investigators right now, I am still learning the language a lot! I don't know how many times I've said this, but learning a new language is so cool! I like it a lot. Especially because nobody else knows it. haha.

Also last Friday, we were eating at the Sen's and they had their TV on for like 10 minutes, and I saw that LeBron is going to the Heat. That's cool. They are going to be good now. I had to laugh when I saw the riots in Cleveland with people burning their LeBron jerseys and crying and stuff. haha. That's so ridiculous. And, congrats to Spain for winning the world cup. Now they finally have one. And now that that's over, I will probably not hear anything about sports until the NFL starts up. Apparently, people aren't too huge into college football out here so I probably won't hear anything about that. But that's ok.

Speaking of football, that's so awesome that Kurtis is started! Good luck. Don't get too beat up. haha. And, happy birthday a week late. Cool beans.

Alrighty, well, that's about all I can think of to email about right now. I think I might spend like $50-60 sometime soon off my card, cause I need some new shorts and my shoes (tennis shoes, not dress shoes) are getting pretty worn out too. Well, sweet. Hope you all have a wonderful week. Keep reading the scriptures and all that great stuff! Love you all! I'm off to the Science Museum! Woot. Ok, bye!

Love,

Elder Hammer