Howdy. I don't have a lot to talk about since I just talked to all of you 3 days ago. It snowed basically all day Sunday and Monday. We ended up with about 14 inches. It was pretty awesome. I'd call it a blizzard, just because the wind was going about 40 miles an hour along with the dumping snow. It was really cool to watch until we couldn't see out the windows. We weren't allowed to drive our cars from after church on Sunday until Tuesday. That was pretty lame. We didn't do much on Sunday, and then Monday was spent shoveling mostly all day. I felt bad cause I didn't help cause I was sick. I guess it decided to get worse before it got better. I feel alright today, still congested and sore throat, but that's better than it was. But the piles of snow on the sides of the road are huge! I'm really surprised also, because I haven't seen any wrecks. I don't understand that, cause the roads are still a mess, but whatever. I think it'll be really messy in a few days cause the forecast is in the high 40's low 50's for the next couple of days. That won't be pretty. haha.
So besides that, I don't really have much to say. We should be baptizing Aaron this saturday, Dad can tell you about him if you didn't hear his story. I'm pretty excited for that. And really the only other announcement is that my birthday is coming up, so people can start thinking about stuff they'd like to send me... A few suggestions I've thought of: money, more cd's, a few more ties, some thick warm socks, and maybe a sweater or two that I could wear with my suits. Oh yeah, and maybe a new watch.... haha.
Well, I hope that all of you have a wonderful week. Happy New Years! Make some good resolutions. One of the things we're doing as a mission is as we read the Book of Mormon over the next 6 months, we are going to highlight every name, reference to, or words of the Savior. Just a suggestion I wanted to share with you. Cool beans. Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Hello again everybody! How was Saturday getting Justin home? Hope it was exciting. It feels weird now that I'm the lone Hammer missionary. Oh well. So guess what? It still hasn't snowed. I am pretty bummed about that. It was supposed to yesterday, but it didn't, and it's supposed to today and tomorrow, but it hasn't yet today. It looks like it might, but we'll have to wait and see.
Well, this week was pretty good. We did a lot of finding since we don't have any solid investigators anymore. Peter has missed his last 2 appointments, so we don't know what's going on with him. But, we are hoping to meet with him still sometime this upcoming week. We had some good success while tracting this week. We picked up 2 new investigators. One of them is from some country I've never heard of and she speaks Ginka, whatever that is. She also speaks Arabic and English, so if they don't have a Ginka-ese Book of Mormon, we're just going to give her an Arabic one. She let us in after we knocked on her door and we taught her the first lesson. She said that she was baptized into the Catholic church in March, so she doesn't see the need to be baptized again, but we'll work with her on that. The other guy is named Milton. He invited us in lastnight so we could get out of the cold. He said that he's seen missionaries before and has invited them in and given them drinks and stuff, but apparently they've never taught him anything. We taught him a very quick lesson 1 cause we had to get to our dinner appointment, but he was so interested in everything! He accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and we set up a return appointment, and he said that his wife and son would be there next time, and he even said he'd be at church after the holidays! He was awesome. I can't wait to start working with him.
Yesterday was pretty awesome at church too. It was our special Christmas program, and it was awesome. There were a bunch of musical numbers and good spiritual thoughts. My two favorites were this couple who are both amazingly talented at their instruments (violin and piano) He goes to Berkeley and is working in Film Scoring, which is awesome. They played O little town of Bethlehem and it was great. The other one of my favorites was a piano solo of The first Noel. It was awesome too. There were a lot of people at church yesterday too. A bunch of less actives, and the biggest group was the Alta High School basketball team. That was pretty random. There was this big ole' charter bus that pulled up in our parking lot and a bunch of teenagers started getting out of it. I talked to their coaches and a few of them and they were really cool guys. They said that they flew out here from Utah for some tournament, and wanted to come to church. I thought that was pretty awesome. Needless to say, church was really good yesterday.
So, Christmas is this week. Weird. Thanks to everyone who has sent me stuff. I guess that would only be the family, and Rob & Wendi. I was happy to see my package from them. It was pretty funny too. a few weeks ago, we had grabbed this huge bag of random Christmas decorations from a different apartment and we all hung up the stockings that were in there. I chose one and put it up on the wall, and when I opened Rob & Wendi's package, I thought it was pretty cool that they sent me a stocking. I went to hang it up on the wall with our other ones and realized that it was the exact same stocking as the random one I had chosen from the bag! haha. So now I have 2 of the same one. That was pretty funny. And by the way, thanks very much to whoever chose that CD that Mom sent! It is seriously one of the best CD's ever. Did you listen to it anywhere before you bought it, or hear about it, or just randomly pick that one? Cause it's definetly one of my favorite CDs. I love it. It's awesome.
You all know that I get to call home on Christmas too. I still am not 100% sure when I will call, but I'm shooting for around 7:00pm here, so 5:00 there. We have a zone activity in the morning until the afternoon, and then we are eating dinner around 4, so I figured that the evening would probably be easiest. Last time I called, we were told that we had up to 2 hours, but this time, President has decided that too many missionaries assumed that if they could talk for 2, they might as well talk for 4. So, we are sticking with the white handbook, which means 30-40 minutes. It would be nice if you all have something picked out that you want to tell me, and what you want to hear me say in Cambodian, since I'm assuming you'll want me to do that. I can't promise that I'll be able to say it, but I'll try. And no offense to the rest of you, but I'll probably want to talk to Justin the longest.
Well, I don't have too much else to say, so I guess I'll go now. Have a great week, and I will talk to you on Saturday! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. I heard BYU destroyed UTEP. That's good news. I also heard that Austin Collie tore it up yesterday. Glad to hear he's still doing well in the NFL.
Well, this week was pretty good. We did a lot of finding since we don't have any solid investigators anymore. Peter has missed his last 2 appointments, so we don't know what's going on with him. But, we are hoping to meet with him still sometime this upcoming week. We had some good success while tracting this week. We picked up 2 new investigators. One of them is from some country I've never heard of and she speaks Ginka, whatever that is. She also speaks Arabic and English, so if they don't have a Ginka-ese Book of Mormon, we're just going to give her an Arabic one. She let us in after we knocked on her door and we taught her the first lesson. She said that she was baptized into the Catholic church in March, so she doesn't see the need to be baptized again, but we'll work with her on that. The other guy is named Milton. He invited us in lastnight so we could get out of the cold. He said that he's seen missionaries before and has invited them in and given them drinks and stuff, but apparently they've never taught him anything. We taught him a very quick lesson 1 cause we had to get to our dinner appointment, but he was so interested in everything! He accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and we set up a return appointment, and he said that his wife and son would be there next time, and he even said he'd be at church after the holidays! He was awesome. I can't wait to start working with him.
Yesterday was pretty awesome at church too. It was our special Christmas program, and it was awesome. There were a bunch of musical numbers and good spiritual thoughts. My two favorites were this couple who are both amazingly talented at their instruments (violin and piano) He goes to Berkeley and is working in Film Scoring, which is awesome. They played O little town of Bethlehem and it was great. The other one of my favorites was a piano solo of The first Noel. It was awesome too. There were a lot of people at church yesterday too. A bunch of less actives, and the biggest group was the Alta High School basketball team. That was pretty random. There was this big ole' charter bus that pulled up in our parking lot and a bunch of teenagers started getting out of it. I talked to their coaches and a few of them and they were really cool guys. They said that they flew out here from Utah for some tournament, and wanted to come to church. I thought that was pretty awesome. Needless to say, church was really good yesterday.
So, Christmas is this week. Weird. Thanks to everyone who has sent me stuff. I guess that would only be the family, and Rob & Wendi. I was happy to see my package from them. It was pretty funny too. a few weeks ago, we had grabbed this huge bag of random Christmas decorations from a different apartment and we all hung up the stockings that were in there. I chose one and put it up on the wall, and when I opened Rob & Wendi's package, I thought it was pretty cool that they sent me a stocking. I went to hang it up on the wall with our other ones and realized that it was the exact same stocking as the random one I had chosen from the bag! haha. So now I have 2 of the same one. That was pretty funny. And by the way, thanks very much to whoever chose that CD that Mom sent! It is seriously one of the best CD's ever. Did you listen to it anywhere before you bought it, or hear about it, or just randomly pick that one? Cause it's definetly one of my favorite CDs. I love it. It's awesome.
You all know that I get to call home on Christmas too. I still am not 100% sure when I will call, but I'm shooting for around 7:00pm here, so 5:00 there. We have a zone activity in the morning until the afternoon, and then we are eating dinner around 4, so I figured that the evening would probably be easiest. Last time I called, we were told that we had up to 2 hours, but this time, President has decided that too many missionaries assumed that if they could talk for 2, they might as well talk for 4. So, we are sticking with the white handbook, which means 30-40 minutes. It would be nice if you all have something picked out that you want to tell me, and what you want to hear me say in Cambodian, since I'm assuming you'll want me to do that. I can't promise that I'll be able to say it, but I'll try. And no offense to the rest of you, but I'll probably want to talk to Justin the longest.
Well, I don't have too much else to say, so I guess I'll go now. Have a great week, and I will talk to you on Saturday! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. I heard BYU destroyed UTEP. That's good news. I also heard that Austin Collie tore it up yesterday. Glad to hear he's still doing well in the NFL.
Monday, December 13, 2010
.....
I'll be home for Christmas;
You can count on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree.
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love-light gleams.
I'll be home for Christmas;
If only in my dreams.
I'll see ya'll on Sat.
love
Elder Hammer
You can count on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree.
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love-light gleams.
I'll be home for Christmas;
If only in my dreams.
I'll see ya'll on Sat.
love
Elder Hammer
It's still NOT beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Ugh. I wish it would snow already. We did get like 2 or 3 inches of rain yesterday, but it was in the mid 50's so there was no chance of snow there. It was a pretty intense storm though. Very windy. The waves at the ocean were pretty big. It was really cool to see them crash against the wall and blow up onto the road. I enjoyed it for the few minutes we saw it.
Well, I guess I'll start with the bad news this week. And no, it's not as bad as when I "broke" my leg. It's worse, actually. Neither Peter or Jose have baptismal dates anymore. This week was pretty rough for the both of them. I'll start with Peter. We've been meeting with him for a while now, and he's been progressing very well. He's kept all his appointments, and has read everything we've asked him to. He was scheduled to be baptized yesterday, but if you remember last weeks email, I mentioned his mother. Yeah, she wouldn't sign the baptismal record, so we can't baptize him yet. Very sad. There's a miniscule chance that she might be thinking about signing it, but she probably won't which means that we'll have to wait until March when he turns 18. Good news is that's not too far away, but we'd rather do it now. Oh well, he's still planning on coming to church and meeting with us so I'm not too worried about it.
Jose's a bit of a different story. He had mentioned to us that he used to drink a lot, but right now his only concern was with smoking. Well, apparently he checked himself into the hospital to try and get some help getting into a program that would help him stop drinking. We didn't know about it until he missed an appointment and we called to see where he was. The people he's staying with said that he was in the hospital and weren't sure when he'd be coming back. If he gets in the program, he'd be there for 28 days, so that's a long time without us meeting him. But, we are pretty sure that for whatever reasons, he didn't make it into the program, but he's still not back, so we aren't sure what's going on with him, I think he's in Dorchester, which is where he's originally from, which is not good news cause that's what he was trying to get away from. But, we still have ways to contact him, we just haven't been able to yet. He still wants to learn, it's just a matter of us finding out where he's staying so we can teach him. So that's the sad news on this week. We were so excited for both of them, but now we are just down to 0 investigators (not counting Peter) and are trying to find some more.
We also got to go to the temple again this last week. With the new missionary curriculum, we only have Zone Conferences every 3 months, but for our Christmas present from Pres. and Sis. Evans, we all got to go to the temple with them and our zone. It was so nice to be in there again. I know I got to go like a month ago for a sealing, but I haven't been there for endowments for a while and it was great. After our session, they had lunch provided for us downstairs. It was all decorated Christmassy and looked really nice, and the food, as temple food always is, was great! Then we went to the chapel right next to the temple for a zone testimony meeting. It was such a great meeting. I felt the presence of the Spirit very strongly. I loved it. And we also all got our presents from home. Thanks for that. I wasn't sure if I should open it or not, so I did a little bit and just felt inside to see if it was wrapped or not. So I ended up opening it and putting the wrapped stuff under our tree. Our tree is pretty great too. It says on the box that it's 6'0'', but in that case, I'm 6'7''. haha. It was pretty skimpy looking when we got it out of the box, but with the lights and ornaments, it doesn't look too bad.
Well, I'm about out of stuff to say again, but I thought I'd tell you about this crazy guy we met on the street the other day. We just approached him as we do with anyone on the street and offered him a card for the Joy to the World DVD. He told us that he knows everything there is to know about the birth of Jesus. He seemed like he wanted to bash, but as soon as he started talking more, we realized that he was just a very crazy man. He started talking about how he goes to church, and then told us that we need to ask people the questions that they want to answer, and he asked us a bunch of questions that didn't make any sense. He went from talking about church and religion to telling us that he'd been taken by aliens and saw all of their weapons that are going to destroy us someday. He also informed us that we could all be shot by someone walking down the street (don't worry, there was no danger. I still don't know exactly what he was talking about though) He was just a crazy, crazy man. He gave us his address, though, but we don't have plans of stopping back, but if we do, I'm sure I'll have more to tell you about him. It was a very funny experience. haha.
Ok, a couple more random things. Mom, I am almost positive I gave my mouthpiece back to Mr. Summers, but if you could get all of my mouthpieces and send me a picture of them, I can tell you what one it is if I do still have it. Also, I was wondering if I could get the recipe for the breakfast you make for Christmas morning. We are doing a Zone activity on Christmas and I thought it'd be cool if I made that for us. Or attempted to, at least. haha. Thanks.
Alrighty, then I guess the last thing to say is good luck to Justin. I can't believe it's already time for you to go. I'll be looking forward to hearing about family reactions and feelings. Okey dokey then. Bye. Hope you all have a great week! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Well, I guess I'll start with the bad news this week. And no, it's not as bad as when I "broke" my leg. It's worse, actually. Neither Peter or Jose have baptismal dates anymore. This week was pretty rough for the both of them. I'll start with Peter. We've been meeting with him for a while now, and he's been progressing very well. He's kept all his appointments, and has read everything we've asked him to. He was scheduled to be baptized yesterday, but if you remember last weeks email, I mentioned his mother. Yeah, she wouldn't sign the baptismal record, so we can't baptize him yet. Very sad. There's a miniscule chance that she might be thinking about signing it, but she probably won't which means that we'll have to wait until March when he turns 18. Good news is that's not too far away, but we'd rather do it now. Oh well, he's still planning on coming to church and meeting with us so I'm not too worried about it.
Jose's a bit of a different story. He had mentioned to us that he used to drink a lot, but right now his only concern was with smoking. Well, apparently he checked himself into the hospital to try and get some help getting into a program that would help him stop drinking. We didn't know about it until he missed an appointment and we called to see where he was. The people he's staying with said that he was in the hospital and weren't sure when he'd be coming back. If he gets in the program, he'd be there for 28 days, so that's a long time without us meeting him. But, we are pretty sure that for whatever reasons, he didn't make it into the program, but he's still not back, so we aren't sure what's going on with him, I think he's in Dorchester, which is where he's originally from, which is not good news cause that's what he was trying to get away from. But, we still have ways to contact him, we just haven't been able to yet. He still wants to learn, it's just a matter of us finding out where he's staying so we can teach him. So that's the sad news on this week. We were so excited for both of them, but now we are just down to 0 investigators (not counting Peter) and are trying to find some more.
We also got to go to the temple again this last week. With the new missionary curriculum, we only have Zone Conferences every 3 months, but for our Christmas present from Pres. and Sis. Evans, we all got to go to the temple with them and our zone. It was so nice to be in there again. I know I got to go like a month ago for a sealing, but I haven't been there for endowments for a while and it was great. After our session, they had lunch provided for us downstairs. It was all decorated Christmassy and looked really nice, and the food, as temple food always is, was great! Then we went to the chapel right next to the temple for a zone testimony meeting. It was such a great meeting. I felt the presence of the Spirit very strongly. I loved it. And we also all got our presents from home. Thanks for that. I wasn't sure if I should open it or not, so I did a little bit and just felt inside to see if it was wrapped or not. So I ended up opening it and putting the wrapped stuff under our tree. Our tree is pretty great too. It says on the box that it's 6'0'', but in that case, I'm 6'7''. haha. It was pretty skimpy looking when we got it out of the box, but with the lights and ornaments, it doesn't look too bad.
Well, I'm about out of stuff to say again, but I thought I'd tell you about this crazy guy we met on the street the other day. We just approached him as we do with anyone on the street and offered him a card for the Joy to the World DVD. He told us that he knows everything there is to know about the birth of Jesus. He seemed like he wanted to bash, but as soon as he started talking more, we realized that he was just a very crazy man. He started talking about how he goes to church, and then told us that we need to ask people the questions that they want to answer, and he asked us a bunch of questions that didn't make any sense. He went from talking about church and religion to telling us that he'd been taken by aliens and saw all of their weapons that are going to destroy us someday. He also informed us that we could all be shot by someone walking down the street (don't worry, there was no danger. I still don't know exactly what he was talking about though) He was just a crazy, crazy man. He gave us his address, though, but we don't have plans of stopping back, but if we do, I'm sure I'll have more to tell you about him. It was a very funny experience. haha.
Ok, a couple more random things. Mom, I am almost positive I gave my mouthpiece back to Mr. Summers, but if you could get all of my mouthpieces and send me a picture of them, I can tell you what one it is if I do still have it. Also, I was wondering if I could get the recipe for the breakfast you make for Christmas morning. We are doing a Zone activity on Christmas and I thought it'd be cool if I made that for us. Or attempted to, at least. haha. Thanks.
Alrighty, then I guess the last thing to say is good luck to Justin. I can't believe it's already time for you to go. I'll be looking forward to hearing about family reactions and feelings. Okey dokey then. Bye. Hope you all have a great week! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Monday, December 6, 2010
STILL No Snow!
Hello again. Wow, I still can't believe it's December! It's so weird to think that I'm already almost halfway done. I think it's even weirder, though, to think that Justin will be home in less than 2 weeks. That just blows my mind! Pretty cool that he'll be able to watch BYU in their bowl game, even though it's not too much of an exciting game to watch. And yes, I can't wait to hear how badly Boise destroys utah. And I'm assuming that Auburn and Oregon are in the National Championship, so where did TCU end up? Just curious. But yeah, it's so weird to think of how fast time flies. I was happy that Pres. Monson agrees with me too :) That was a pretty good devotional lastnight, huh? I enjoyed it so much. We were planning on watching it at one of our roommates' member's homes, but then we realized that it would be in spanish, so we just went to the chapel and hooked everything up for ourselves to watch it there. It was just me and E. Winslow. I especially liked Pres. Eyring's talk. I am so priveleged to be able to have seen exactly what he was talking about when he told the story about his granddaughters on missions. I love so much to be able to see the Atonement work in people's lives and see how much they can turn themselves around and start to apply the teachings of Jesus Christ in their own life.
I got to witness that very clearly yesterday. Jose was at church again (unfortunately Peter was on some school trip so he couldn't make it) and it was obviously testimony meeting. Things can go somewhat interestingly in our ward on fast Sunday, and yesterday was one of them. It wasn't too bad, but one of our members got up and did some Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Mohammed Ali impersonations...very awkward. Other than that, it was a good meeting though. In Priesthood, the guy teaching the lesson decided that we would just extend the testimony meeting from sacrament meeting to priesthood. It was great. Everyone was sharing their testimonies, and I was feeling the Spirit, and it was awesome. Then Jose stood up and bore his testimony about how he has attended so many different churches throughout his life, and he knows that this is the right one because of how he feels when he comes. He also told us that he knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is true, and he can't wait to get baptized. He sounded like he'd been a member for like 15 years already. He also told us that he is so happy that he found our church because his life was pretty messed up. He'd been involved with drugs, alcohol, and was seriously contemplating suicide, but that's right when he decided to change his life and get away from the people he's been hanging around with, and then he moved out here to Lynn. He hadn't told us any of that since we'd been teaching him but it really testified to me the power of the Atonement. He is trying so hard to do the right things. He is still struggling and tells us it's hard, but he is really trying. I love the opportunity Heavenly Father has given me to be able to experience all of the great things that happen as missionaries. We had to push Jose's date to the 19th due to WoW issues, but I really think he'll be able to do it then. Peter is still good for this next Sunday as long as he gets his mom to sign the baptismal record, which apparently might be an issue. Oh well, things will work out with him too.
So besides the update with Jose and Peter, there's not much else to say for this week. We haven't found any new investigators that are solid yet, but I'm sure they will come along soon. Oh, one thing that I've started doing that is pretty cool is every night when I write in my journal, I think of one miracle that happened that day. It's a great way to really recognize the hand of the Lord in our daily life. I would encourage everyone to if not write it down, think about one miracle that happens in every day of your life. It's pretty amazing to see how much of an influence He really is in every single day.
Well, like my subject says, there still hasn't been any snow. Except for this morning, there was a tiny bit blowing around, but I have no idea where it came from cause there was only like 2 dinky little clouds in the sky and they weren't anywhere near our house. I was pretty confused about that. haha. Hopefully we'll be getting some soon though. I really am looking forward to the snow. Other than that, the weather has just been COLD. They say it's in the mid 30's, but with the wind, I'd say it stays in the teens basically all day. Thank goodness for cars and people to teach! haha.
By the way, I'm expecting lots of mail sometime soon cause I haven't gotten anything since Grandma's package 2 weeks ago. Just saying... Okay then, I guess I'm off. I think we're decorating our house today. We're going to get a tree and some decorations and stuff. Pretty cool. haha. Well, have a great week! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. Could you by chance get me Sis. LeBaron's address (Brendan's Mom) Thanks.
I got to witness that very clearly yesterday. Jose was at church again (unfortunately Peter was on some school trip so he couldn't make it) and it was obviously testimony meeting. Things can go somewhat interestingly in our ward on fast Sunday, and yesterday was one of them. It wasn't too bad, but one of our members got up and did some Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Mohammed Ali impersonations...very awkward. Other than that, it was a good meeting though. In Priesthood, the guy teaching the lesson decided that we would just extend the testimony meeting from sacrament meeting to priesthood. It was great. Everyone was sharing their testimonies, and I was feeling the Spirit, and it was awesome. Then Jose stood up and bore his testimony about how he has attended so many different churches throughout his life, and he knows that this is the right one because of how he feels when he comes. He also told us that he knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is true, and he can't wait to get baptized. He sounded like he'd been a member for like 15 years already. He also told us that he is so happy that he found our church because his life was pretty messed up. He'd been involved with drugs, alcohol, and was seriously contemplating suicide, but that's right when he decided to change his life and get away from the people he's been hanging around with, and then he moved out here to Lynn. He hadn't told us any of that since we'd been teaching him but it really testified to me the power of the Atonement. He is trying so hard to do the right things. He is still struggling and tells us it's hard, but he is really trying. I love the opportunity Heavenly Father has given me to be able to experience all of the great things that happen as missionaries. We had to push Jose's date to the 19th due to WoW issues, but I really think he'll be able to do it then. Peter is still good for this next Sunday as long as he gets his mom to sign the baptismal record, which apparently might be an issue. Oh well, things will work out with him too.
So besides the update with Jose and Peter, there's not much else to say for this week. We haven't found any new investigators that are solid yet, but I'm sure they will come along soon. Oh, one thing that I've started doing that is pretty cool is every night when I write in my journal, I think of one miracle that happened that day. It's a great way to really recognize the hand of the Lord in our daily life. I would encourage everyone to if not write it down, think about one miracle that happens in every day of your life. It's pretty amazing to see how much of an influence He really is in every single day.
Well, like my subject says, there still hasn't been any snow. Except for this morning, there was a tiny bit blowing around, but I have no idea where it came from cause there was only like 2 dinky little clouds in the sky and they weren't anywhere near our house. I was pretty confused about that. haha. Hopefully we'll be getting some soon though. I really am looking forward to the snow. Other than that, the weather has just been COLD. They say it's in the mid 30's, but with the wind, I'd say it stays in the teens basically all day. Thank goodness for cars and people to teach! haha.
By the way, I'm expecting lots of mail sometime soon cause I haven't gotten anything since Grandma's package 2 weeks ago. Just saying... Okay then, I guess I'm off. I think we're decorating our house today. We're going to get a tree and some decorations and stuff. Pretty cool. haha. Well, have a great week! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Hammer
P.S. Could you by chance get me Sis. LeBaron's address (Brendan's Mom) Thanks.
Pineapple Pizza and Goosebumps
Week 4 of transfer number 17 is over. Week 5 begins today. This past week has been pretty eventful. I'll start with the not-so-important information.
Down the street from us is the only pizza joint in town. They have an eating challenge there known as the "Alaskan Pizza Challenge." (Why Alaska is involved in this I have no idea) Well, my companion and I and the two Hmong missionaries decided to attempt the challenge on Saturday. The goal is to eat a two foot diameter pizza with one topping of your choice, between the two of you, in 45 minutes. As some of you know, previous to my mission I wasn't a big fan of pineapple pizza. Since I've been out I've realized that beggars can't be choosers and I've been able to develop a liking for it. All that changed with this challenge. Elder Osborn and I ordered our pizza choosing pineapple as our topping thinking that it would be easier to digest than pepperoni or some other substance. When they placed the coffee-table sized pizza in front of us we were still optimistic about our chances for completing it. The timer was set and we began. After the 4th piece I started to slow down a bit, but I was still keeping pace. Piece 5 went down a little slower and I started to realize again how pineapple is really not a good ingredient for pizza. Piece 6 tasted like sweetened cardboard and Piece 7 might as well have been made out of it. By this time we both realized that there was no way we were going to be able to force ourselves to down the entire thing. I basically gave up then. The time was quickly running down and I still had 4 pieces to eat. The smell of the pizza was nauseating by now and I determined that unless I wanted to embarrassingly ralf a partially digested pizza onto the floor, I'd better stop. Needless to say, we were bested by the challenge and I never want to eat another piece of pineapple pizza again. It wasn't the amount of pizza that got to us - I could've eaten more, it was the taste. Horrible.
Alright, now for some more spiritual information.
There are miracles happening in our zone this Christmas season. Our zone has a goal of reaching 94 baptisms during 2010. Two months ago that looked like it was only going to be a dream. Lately however, things have changed and we are now hoping to surpass that and reach the century mark. Our missionaries have stepped things up and I am way excited with the way things are happening. We will be having a baptism this Sunday. Kathy Black will be baptized then. She is still doing great. We will be finishing everything up this week and getting her baptismal interview taken care of. (I almost cried with joy when she answered no to every part of question number 4 of the interview questions!) We have also been teaching another part member family named the Foulks. They are so awesome! Zach has been a member for about 10 years and his wife, Trish, has been coming to church with him consistently for the past year. She just recently opened up to having us over right after they had their first baby. We have been teaching her, and yesterday she asked us what needs to happen to get baptized. We reviewed the baptismal interview questions with her and she answered all of them perfectly. When we asked her the last question, "When you are baptized you covenant with God that you are willing to take upon yourself the name of Christ and keep His commandments throughout your life. Are you ready to make this covenant and strive to be faithful to it?" she answered yes. Zach started crying, Trish started crying, and I was just grinning from ear to ear. Trish is ready to be baptized and she has realized that she is ready. There are a couple things that need to happen before we can schedule a date, but that's all going to be worked out. The steps are being made to get them to the Temple and be sealed as a family. I couldn't be happier for them.
Last night while I was watching the Christmas devotional I really felt the Spirit. I love our leaders. President Monson is such a wonderful man and I felt the Spirit witness to me again that he really is the prophet. The music from Motab and the Orchestra brought tears to my eyes (also, dang! who's that super skinny guy playing trumpet in there! wow!). One day I hope to be able to participate in something like that. The goosebumps on my skin reminded me of why I love music. I can feel the Spirit so much through it.
Mom, I've started going to therapy for my shoulder. From the way my shoulder is, it looks like I did dislocate my shoulder back at the beginning of my mission and I tore my labrum. My therapy is focusing on strengthening my rotator-cuff to compensate for the looseness in the joint. I'm not currently a surgery candidate although it is a possibility that I'll need it in the future. I haven't experienced any pain from the therapy and my shoulder is feeling better than it has in a long time. My therapist is pleased with how things are going.
I think that is everything for the week. I hope everything is going well back home. By the way, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Spencer for the package a few weeks ago. I appreciated it. Kasey, I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been feeling too well lately. It sounds like Thanksgiving was rather eventful. You are in my prayers and I hope things get better.
I love you all! Be Mighty!
Elder Justin Hammer
PS. It sounds to me like my parents might be getting a little anxious??? I don't know what the deal is, it's only been 2 years since I've seen you. : ) Also, will I be getting released right after I get home? That would play an important part in whether or not I'm going to be watching a football game with you... ; )
Down the street from us is the only pizza joint in town. They have an eating challenge there known as the "Alaskan Pizza Challenge." (Why Alaska is involved in this I have no idea) Well, my companion and I and the two Hmong missionaries decided to attempt the challenge on Saturday. The goal is to eat a two foot diameter pizza with one topping of your choice, between the two of you, in 45 minutes. As some of you know, previous to my mission I wasn't a big fan of pineapple pizza. Since I've been out I've realized that beggars can't be choosers and I've been able to develop a liking for it. All that changed with this challenge. Elder Osborn and I ordered our pizza choosing pineapple as our topping thinking that it would be easier to digest than pepperoni or some other substance. When they placed the coffee-table sized pizza in front of us we were still optimistic about our chances for completing it. The timer was set and we began. After the 4th piece I started to slow down a bit, but I was still keeping pace. Piece 5 went down a little slower and I started to realize again how pineapple is really not a good ingredient for pizza. Piece 6 tasted like sweetened cardboard and Piece 7 might as well have been made out of it. By this time we both realized that there was no way we were going to be able to force ourselves to down the entire thing. I basically gave up then. The time was quickly running down and I still had 4 pieces to eat. The smell of the pizza was nauseating by now and I determined that unless I wanted to embarrassingly ralf a partially digested pizza onto the floor, I'd better stop. Needless to say, we were bested by the challenge and I never want to eat another piece of pineapple pizza again. It wasn't the amount of pizza that got to us - I could've eaten more, it was the taste. Horrible.
Alright, now for some more spiritual information.
There are miracles happening in our zone this Christmas season. Our zone has a goal of reaching 94 baptisms during 2010. Two months ago that looked like it was only going to be a dream. Lately however, things have changed and we are now hoping to surpass that and reach the century mark. Our missionaries have stepped things up and I am way excited with the way things are happening. We will be having a baptism this Sunday. Kathy Black will be baptized then. She is still doing great. We will be finishing everything up this week and getting her baptismal interview taken care of. (I almost cried with joy when she answered no to every part of question number 4 of the interview questions!) We have also been teaching another part member family named the Foulks. They are so awesome! Zach has been a member for about 10 years and his wife, Trish, has been coming to church with him consistently for the past year. She just recently opened up to having us over right after they had their first baby. We have been teaching her, and yesterday she asked us what needs to happen to get baptized. We reviewed the baptismal interview questions with her and she answered all of them perfectly. When we asked her the last question, "When you are baptized you covenant with God that you are willing to take upon yourself the name of Christ and keep His commandments throughout your life. Are you ready to make this covenant and strive to be faithful to it?" she answered yes. Zach started crying, Trish started crying, and I was just grinning from ear to ear. Trish is ready to be baptized and she has realized that she is ready. There are a couple things that need to happen before we can schedule a date, but that's all going to be worked out. The steps are being made to get them to the Temple and be sealed as a family. I couldn't be happier for them.
Last night while I was watching the Christmas devotional I really felt the Spirit. I love our leaders. President Monson is such a wonderful man and I felt the Spirit witness to me again that he really is the prophet. The music from Motab and the Orchestra brought tears to my eyes (also, dang! who's that super skinny guy playing trumpet in there! wow!). One day I hope to be able to participate in something like that. The goosebumps on my skin reminded me of why I love music. I can feel the Spirit so much through it.
Mom, I've started going to therapy for my shoulder. From the way my shoulder is, it looks like I did dislocate my shoulder back at the beginning of my mission and I tore my labrum. My therapy is focusing on strengthening my rotator-cuff to compensate for the looseness in the joint. I'm not currently a surgery candidate although it is a possibility that I'll need it in the future. I haven't experienced any pain from the therapy and my shoulder is feeling better than it has in a long time. My therapist is pleased with how things are going.
I think that is everything for the week. I hope everything is going well back home. By the way, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Spencer for the package a few weeks ago. I appreciated it. Kasey, I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been feeling too well lately. It sounds like Thanksgiving was rather eventful. You are in my prayers and I hope things get better.
I love you all! Be Mighty!
Elder Justin Hammer
PS. It sounds to me like my parents might be getting a little anxious??? I don't know what the deal is, it's only been 2 years since I've seen you. : ) Also, will I be getting released right after I get home? That would play an important part in whether or not I'm going to be watching a football game with you... ; )
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Transfer Time!
Okey dokey then. Sorry I forgot to mention last week that this week's email would be late due to transfers. The news of transfers was very surprising to a lot of us. E. Winslow and myself are staying together again. We both thought for sure that he would be leaving and I would be training a new Elder from Cambodia. I guess something came up that we don't know about. We've known for about 3 months that there would be a new Elder from Cambodia coming, and we assumed that I would be training him cause all the other Cambodian Elder's have trained already. But, I guess assumptions aren't the way to go. haha. But yeah, this will be 5 transfers with E. Winslow. Crazy stuff.
Well, this week was not as eventful as the last one was, but it was still a good one. Peter and Jose are doing great. They are both very excited to be baptized and are both still shooting for December 12th as the date. I'm so excited to see both of them get baptized. It's going to be awesome. Our ward has done an amazing job at fellowshipping them too. I don't know why it is, but our ward is super great at that, and I love it! Peter has been involved with the YM a lot already, and both he and Jose have been invited to dinners with families in the ward. Peter was at our ward Turkey Bowl too and had a lot of fun. (I was the QB for my team, and I tore it up! 7 TD's and 2 ints. Pretty good game. haha) We are done with the first 3 lessons and have some of the commandments left to teach them. It's really cool to see how well both of them are progressing.
Thanksgiving was awesome too. We had our Turkey Bowl at 8:00 am, so it was FREEZING, but it was so much fun. Peter came out and played with us along with about 30 other people, lots of whom I don't know, but are friends of ward members. It was a blast. We had 2 eating appointments, and luckily they were 4 1/2 hours apart, so it wasn't too bad. The first one was actually with Jose and his mom and sister, who are in the ward. He is Liz' brother (the one you asked about on FB, Mom) Dinner there was great. There was lots of food, and we had a great time, plus it was an unplanned lesson to Jose, so it was great. Our other dinner was with the family we live above, and the other family we live behind. It was great too. They are Guatemalan, so the food was a bit on the spanish side, but it was SO good. The stuffing in the turkey had like cornbread, and TONS of bacon, and all sorts of amazing-ness. I enjoyed that thoroughly. And they had some good old pumpkin pie too. mmmmmmmm. It was a good day.
By the way Mom, I talked to Danielle about you talking to her on FB. She said she thinks you are funny like me. haha. That's about all she said, except for "I can't remember" haha. Also, thanks very much for the package, Grandma & Grandpa Spencer! It was so great to open that up and see all that jerky and pinenuts. Thanks a lot!
I think I'm out of stuff to say now. I look forward to getting letters from lots of people for Christmas..... Oh yeah, and I was pretty bummed when I heard the BYU score. ugh. oh well. Alright. We're going to hang out in Boston today, so that'll be cool. I'm excited. Hope you all have a great week! Love you all!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Well, this week was not as eventful as the last one was, but it was still a good one. Peter and Jose are doing great. They are both very excited to be baptized and are both still shooting for December 12th as the date. I'm so excited to see both of them get baptized. It's going to be awesome. Our ward has done an amazing job at fellowshipping them too. I don't know why it is, but our ward is super great at that, and I love it! Peter has been involved with the YM a lot already, and both he and Jose have been invited to dinners with families in the ward. Peter was at our ward Turkey Bowl too and had a lot of fun. (I was the QB for my team, and I tore it up! 7 TD's and 2 ints. Pretty good game. haha) We are done with the first 3 lessons and have some of the commandments left to teach them. It's really cool to see how well both of them are progressing.
Thanksgiving was awesome too. We had our Turkey Bowl at 8:00 am, so it was FREEZING, but it was so much fun. Peter came out and played with us along with about 30 other people, lots of whom I don't know, but are friends of ward members. It was a blast. We had 2 eating appointments, and luckily they were 4 1/2 hours apart, so it wasn't too bad. The first one was actually with Jose and his mom and sister, who are in the ward. He is Liz' brother (the one you asked about on FB, Mom) Dinner there was great. There was lots of food, and we had a great time, plus it was an unplanned lesson to Jose, so it was great. Our other dinner was with the family we live above, and the other family we live behind. It was great too. They are Guatemalan, so the food was a bit on the spanish side, but it was SO good. The stuffing in the turkey had like cornbread, and TONS of bacon, and all sorts of amazing-ness. I enjoyed that thoroughly. And they had some good old pumpkin pie too. mmmmmmmm. It was a good day.
By the way Mom, I talked to Danielle about you talking to her on FB. She said she thinks you are funny like me. haha. That's about all she said, except for "I can't remember" haha. Also, thanks very much for the package, Grandma & Grandpa Spencer! It was so great to open that up and see all that jerky and pinenuts. Thanks a lot!
I think I'm out of stuff to say now. I look forward to getting letters from lots of people for Christmas..... Oh yeah, and I was pretty bummed when I heard the BYU score. ugh. oh well. Alright. We're going to hang out in Boston today, so that'll be cool. I'm excited. Hope you all have a great week! Love you all!!
Love,
Elder Hammer
Thanksgiving Over Already?
Our Thanksgiving this past week was great. We ate at Shane and Dusty's house. They are recent converts who were baptized about a month before I came to this area. I don't know how much I've told you about them, so here's a quick description. First off, I love them a ton. Dusty is Shane's mom and she is so awesome! She is one of the most giving people I have ever met. She will take care of the needs of others before she takes care of her own. Shane is about 25 years old, weighs about 500 lbs, has a bunch of disorders, and is hilarious. He's pretty loud and he likes attention, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone eat so much in my life. Apparently Shane has this disorder that makes it so his body doesn't tell him when he is full and he doesn't actually need to eat as much as everyone else either. Bad combination. I think it's called Praeder-Willy (sp??) Syndrome. Needless to say, he's a big dude with a big heart. Every time we bring a new missionary over to their home he grabs them in a bear hug and picks them up off of the floor. Shane and Dusty have a friend living with them right now as well. Her name is Tammy. She has been a less-active member for a little while, but she's been coming to church with Dusty. All three of them have health challenges, and then when you throw in the other people that came to dinner, our investigators the Burtons (Debbie has been in the hospital for the past 3 weeks and her husband Walter is basically waiting to die because he has a bad heart), you get a house full of people who might be a little more appreciative of the resurrection when it happens. The food was really good and their was a lot of it. I was grateful that the Hmong missionaries went to Shane and Dusty's the day before and scrubbed the carpets - which are saturated with 9 dogs and 2 cats worth of animal stench... I could actually smell the food instead of the animals. We all had a good time and I felt gratitude at being counted a part of "the family." I am going to miss them.
The miracle of the past week involves a part member family we are teaching. I'll give you the rundown. Last Sunday we met with the Blacks. Bro. Black is a member, but just recently started coming back to church after 30 years of inactivity. His wife is not a member and we have been meeting with the two of them teaching them about the Gospel. Sis. Black has told us in the past that she is interested in the church, but that she wants to take things really slow to make sure that she is doing things for the right reasons. She has said that she planned on getting baptized, but she didn't know when it would be. On Sunday we had a typical visit. They hadn't read from the Book of Mormon in a while, so we decided to read with them. We chose Mosiah 18. As we started to read, I had the thought that I needed to commit Sis. Black to be baptized. Generally I am not nervous to commit someone, but for whatever reason, I was dieing that night. I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to ask her even though there were a million rationalizations running through my mind as to why it would be better to wait. After we finished the chapter and discussed a few things, I asked Sis. Black a couple questions to judge better what her feelings were about everything. After explaining about the Spirit and telling her that sometimes the Spirit prompts us to do things we aren't comfortable doing, I said that I felt that I needed to ask her something. I gave her the commitment then and she answered with a maybe. We talked about that for a bit, and then I asked her to prepare herself to be baptized on January 1st. She was saying no before the words were out of my mouth. "That is way too soon. There is no way that I could do that." My heart sank a little bit at that and we came away from our lesson wondering what in the world we were going to do to help her realize that she is ready. Well, we didn't have to do anything.
Two days later we got a phone call from Brother Black. He said he had some good news. He told us that he would be advancing in the Aaronic Priesthood to the office of Priest in two Sundays. He also said that his wife had decided that she needed to be baptized and that he would be able to do it!!!!!!!! Holy Cow!! I couldn't believe it when I heard it! Somehow, something changed in those two days. The Spirit worked on Sis. Black and helped her come to the understanding that she was ready. We met with them the next day and scheduled her baptism for Dec. 12th. : D!! I really didn't think that I was going to see any of my current investigators get baptized before I left, but that's not going to be the case now. Sis. Black is on her way to the waters and I couldn't be happier for her!
Good things are happening every day. I'm trying so hard to do my best. I do feel that I'm starting to understand my purpose as a missionary better and I can see the things that need to be done to have success. Consequently, my flaws and imperfections have never been so glaring. The Atonement is such a wonderful blessing. I'd go crazy if I didn't know how to change.
Well, that's it for now. We'll have plenty of time to get caught up in the near future. By the way, is there any way that we could get to the temple first thing when I come home? I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it again before I come home and I would greatly appreciate some time to think before I jump back into life. Let me know what works.
Have another great week! As always, I love you all. Be Mighty!
Elder Justin Hammer
PS. I heard about the BYU Utah game... my comps a Utah fan... thankfully he's not totally crazy... Also, I heard the Jazz beat the Lakers. Sweet! And, TCU's leaving the Mtn. West? Could've seen that one coming. I wonder what Boise St. thinks of that one? Go TCU! (Where's BYU going for a bowl game??)
The miracle of the past week involves a part member family we are teaching. I'll give you the rundown. Last Sunday we met with the Blacks. Bro. Black is a member, but just recently started coming back to church after 30 years of inactivity. His wife is not a member and we have been meeting with the two of them teaching them about the Gospel. Sis. Black has told us in the past that she is interested in the church, but that she wants to take things really slow to make sure that she is doing things for the right reasons. She has said that she planned on getting baptized, but she didn't know when it would be. On Sunday we had a typical visit. They hadn't read from the Book of Mormon in a while, so we decided to read with them. We chose Mosiah 18. As we started to read, I had the thought that I needed to commit Sis. Black to be baptized. Generally I am not nervous to commit someone, but for whatever reason, I was dieing that night. I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to ask her even though there were a million rationalizations running through my mind as to why it would be better to wait. After we finished the chapter and discussed a few things, I asked Sis. Black a couple questions to judge better what her feelings were about everything. After explaining about the Spirit and telling her that sometimes the Spirit prompts us to do things we aren't comfortable doing, I said that I felt that I needed to ask her something. I gave her the commitment then and she answered with a maybe. We talked about that for a bit, and then I asked her to prepare herself to be baptized on January 1st. She was saying no before the words were out of my mouth. "That is way too soon. There is no way that I could do that." My heart sank a little bit at that and we came away from our lesson wondering what in the world we were going to do to help her realize that she is ready. Well, we didn't have to do anything.
Two days later we got a phone call from Brother Black. He said he had some good news. He told us that he would be advancing in the Aaronic Priesthood to the office of Priest in two Sundays. He also said that his wife had decided that she needed to be baptized and that he would be able to do it!!!!!!!! Holy Cow!! I couldn't believe it when I heard it! Somehow, something changed in those two days. The Spirit worked on Sis. Black and helped her come to the understanding that she was ready. We met with them the next day and scheduled her baptism for Dec. 12th. : D!! I really didn't think that I was going to see any of my current investigators get baptized before I left, but that's not going to be the case now. Sis. Black is on her way to the waters and I couldn't be happier for her!
Good things are happening every day. I'm trying so hard to do my best. I do feel that I'm starting to understand my purpose as a missionary better and I can see the things that need to be done to have success. Consequently, my flaws and imperfections have never been so glaring. The Atonement is such a wonderful blessing. I'd go crazy if I didn't know how to change.
Well, that's it for now. We'll have plenty of time to get caught up in the near future. By the way, is there any way that we could get to the temple first thing when I come home? I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it again before I come home and I would greatly appreciate some time to think before I jump back into life. Let me know what works.
Have another great week! As always, I love you all. Be Mighty!
Elder Justin Hammer
PS. I heard about the BYU Utah game... my comps a Utah fan... thankfully he's not totally crazy... Also, I heard the Jazz beat the Lakers. Sweet! And, TCU's leaving the Mtn. West? Could've seen that one coming. I wonder what Boise St. thinks of that one? Go TCU! (Where's BYU going for a bowl game??)
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