Hello Again

Well, I can't believe that Halloween is this week. October has gone by so ridiculously fast. I'm excited though, cause that means that winter will be here soon and then it will be snowing too, which I am way excited for. I can't wait for the winter.

So anyways, this week was pretty good. E. Rith got transferred clear out to the middle of nowhere in Western Mass. That's pretty funny. Guess who my companion is? E. Winslow again. haha. I'm pretty excited about that. It's pretty funny cause E. Winslow started his mission in Lowell for 7 months, came to Lynn for 9 months, went back to Lowell for 1 transfer, and now he's back in Lynn. haha. He'll probably only be here for one transfer too, cause E. Rith's replacement is coming from Cambodia at the end of this transfer, and I will most likely be training him here. But, that's not for sure, just what we think will happen. We'll see what happens though. That's still a couple months away.

This last week has been a pretty good one. We were able to teach Mike again, and he was at church yesterday too, which is awesome. He still wants to be baptized on the 7th, but I'm thinking we may have to push that back a little bit, just so he can be more comfortable at church. But, if he's ready by then, that's when we'll do it. We taught Bryan a few more times too. He is still working on being able to recognize the Spirit. He is still progressing very well, and keeping all of his commitments. We are shooting for the 7th with him as well. We went to teach him last night, which was a good lesson. We taught him a few of the commandments, and he committed to follow them. After we taught him, Sis. Sen came out of her room with 2 shopping bags from Macy's, which she handed to both me and E. Winslow. She told us that they were our early Christmas presents. We each got a new pair of Bostonian shoes (which are SO comfortable!) and 4 pairs of dress socks. It was so cool. I love Sis. Sen.

We also went on splits with the ward yesterday after church, which is the first time that's happened since I got here. We are working with the ward to visit all of the inactive Priesthood holders in our ward and get them back to church. I went out with a man named Matt Allen, who is one of the coolest guys ever. We had a list of about 7 names that we were supposed to try and contact. We only met one of them, but he knew exactly why we were there, and let us in to talk to him. He poured us both a glass of whole milk (which I decided is really good, by the way) and we proceeded to teach him about the restoration, with an emphasis on the Atonement and repentance. I asked him to tell us the Joseph Smith story. He told us the whole thing, without missing a beat. It was pretty powerful the way he told it. I definitely felt the Spirit. While he was telling us the story, he started talking about why he isn't going to church. It was pretty awesome how he just opened up to us and told us his concerns. He is 60 years old, and he feels like there is no place for him in our ward because it is basically young dental students with their families. There are only 4 High Priests, so I can definitely see where he's coming from. But it was a great visit, and we were able to let him know that we wanted to see him at church again. He is probably going to take a while to get him back, but Matt said that he'd fellowship him and help him out in any way possible. It was a really cool experience.

So that's all the stories for this week that I can think of right now. Just a few more things I thought you'd like to know: I am no longer the youngest Cambodian Elder. E. Winegar got here about 3 weeks ago, and I have forgotten to tell you about that. He is a way cool guy. He's from California, where he went to UC Berkeley for some crazy Biochemist major, or something super smart like that. haha. He's pretty funny. I like him a lot. His Cambodian is pretty good too, so that's good news.

I have also been thinking about what I want for Christmas. the only things I can think of right now would be some CD's. The ones I want are by a guy named Alex Azevedo, I think. I can't remember exactly what his name is. But he has 3 CD's that I know of that are just symphonic arrangements of hymns. I think the CD's are green, black, and red, if that helps you find them at all. They are really good CD's. The other thing I have decided I want, and that would probably be the easiest for everyone would be to just send me money, and I can buy things that I need/want. I'd say about $200 from everyone in the family should be enough :) But really, I think that would be the easiest thing to do, that way you don't have to worry about getting the right size and spending more money shipping stuff to me. But, if you don't want to do that, what I am thinking I need/want right now would be: lots of Grandma's jerky, sweat pants, a hoodie or two, some jeans, some more ties, a couple Boston hats, a football, and maybe a new watch.....I was also wondering if you could send me my Kevin Garnett shoes that are in one of my boxes. That'd be cool.
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Well, I think that's it for this week. I am still waiting for some letters/pictures/gifts from your vacation. Well, cool beans. Hope you all have a great week. Love you all!

Love,

Elder Hammer